Oh, so I'm nagging for decrying natives in South East Asia risking their lives to steal nests from high cave walls. Only to get gouged by Chinese merchants who pay them pittances compared to what they sell the little cups of swift spittle for as a luxury and tonic food.

I don't doubt that the poor birds suffer from having their roosts and nesting being taken time and time again. Surely they'd understand if they knew that people just wanted to eat it to make their skin soft, live longer, boost their immune response or better yet their libido.

No, I'm not casting aspersions on traditional medicine, just bad business practice.

***

Then she talked about a house I made clear I did not like. Yes, I don't like the geometric waste of drywall that remind me of how truly the 90's could have been lived. But on top of that even Dad is a bit anxious to see the structure more clearly. Things don't seem to be meshing well.

Even if he forks out that impressive downpayment and she takes care of the mortgage payments, who the hell is paying for the contractors and work on the basement.

There is nothing straightforward about any of the houses they have shown me or of the ones I have gone to see. They insist on utilizing the space in strange angles, half walls or in sharply turning featureless cooridors. The balance between the concept and arrangement ought to be tempered by the actuality of things like plumbing and electrical logistics.

Going halfway with either shows, and I will not happily go along with something just because she insists it's the best of the bunch for the price. Like it's a pile of worse for wear produce. Worse yet, despite my powers of imagination it lacks that feeling or even potential of it.

I said none of that to her. I get that she's been searching for houses night after night and that I'm not exactly available to help out. She was busy not understanding for a good ten minutes that I didn't want to talk to her. It's also my room, no matter how many people invade it, and I have a right to not to be civil to people who do not reciprocate that basic standard of communication.

***

Speaking of rights, I came home last night expecting the election result from the States to be in. Woke up this morning already slightly pissed and knowing that No on Question 1 in Maine probably failed. Considering the brief neurality of those ads and the harsh fear-mongering of their opponents, I can see how people were swayed.

That does nothing to avert the issue that people could be swayed by misinformation about impressionable children having homosexuality and same-sex marriage forced down their throats. One of the spots literally showed two Venus symbols under "Gay Marriage" with checkmarks beside the words "hugging" and "kissing," behind a teacher proven to work for a religious school which would be free to set their own cirriculum as a private institution. It's insane to think that that two consenting adults, regardless of gender, entering a civil marriage would mean the degradation or end of anyone else's equally valid relationship. People do that on their own, daily, by the choices they make; free will that we all have. That includes the choice to enter or leave these formalized relationships at any time should you want to.

It's a hard pill to swallow that popular vote, and not a sense of responsibility or fairness, can overrule everything hard-won or not. While our legal and governing systems are different, it worries me that it sets dangerous precedent along with Proposition 8. If they can get away with it a skip south from the border, they'll find a way anywhere.

Keith