RedTracker

American Revolution Colonies Pass Same Sex Marriage

New York Allows Same-Sex Marriage, Becoming Largest State to Pass Law NYTimes

Four members of the Republican majority joined all Democrats but one in the Senate to support the measure after an intense and emotional campaign aimed at the ‘handful of lawmakers wrestling with a decision that divided their friends, their constituents and sometimes their own homes.’

New York joins Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia in permitting gay couples to marry without a residency requirement.

Land of the Founding Fathers

In an important footnote, five of the six states are northeastern with Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and now New York being part of the 13 colonies that formed America. Vermont was part of New York in 1791. The District of Colombia had not yet been created but was part of the founding fathers real estate.

With the exception of Iowa, the part of America closest to its original roots has led the nation in enacting same-sex marriage. In Iowa on April 3, 2009 the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that there was no important governmental interest in denying citizens marriage licenses based on their sexual orientation. Iowa was ‘forced’ into accepting same-sex marriage by the court system.

The complete list of America’s founding colonies is: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia.

The Beginning of the End for Same Sex Orientation Stage and Cinema

In the 1950s and 1960s American gays and lesbians faced a legal system stricter than those of some Warsaw Pact countries, writes Wiki. In New York’s West Village riots broke out on June 28, 1970 in an confrontation between homosexuals and New York cops that launched what has come to be known as the Gay Pride Movement.

Anne (who is not a lesbian) has sat many sunny afternoons on this Stonewall memorial bench that was the scene of much celebrating in Manhattan last evening.

Design

LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault contradicted Cathy Horyn’s Friday LVMH insider sources who suggested that Galliano might return to his own label.

“He will not be working for LVMH,” Arnault said after the Dior Homme show in Paris on Saturday. He also revealed that Galliano’s longtime assistant Bill Gaytten is taking over as the creative director of the namesake label.

Arnault added that after Galliano’s arrest and dismissal from Dior for anti-Semitic statements, “he didn’t have the simple politeness to contact me”.

A Second Change for Galliano Cathy Horyn @NYTimes

On Thursday, I ran into a number of executives who work with LVMH, and they would speak only on the condition of anonymity because of their close dealings. One individual said there had been casual discussions among LVMH executives about the feasibility of Mr. Galliano returning to his own label. Would the media and the public accept his return? This individual said he thought so. Another executive with whom I spoke had the same view. He cited the appeal of Mr. Galliano’s ultrafeminine fashion and added that in recent years the designer had lost touch with that sensibility (and indeed reality). “It became a kind of Lady Gaga show, and he’s more talented than this,” the executive said.

Such opinions may be the leading edge of what in time will be the rehabilitation of Mr. Galliano’s career. I hope he continues to get treatment. He should have a second chance.

Brainiac

Introversion & Thoughtfulness As Disease

Quiet Power

Is Shyness an Evolutionary Tactic? NYTimes

In this fascinating essay Susan Cain, author of a forthcoming book on introversion and a blog on the power of introverts explores the question of whether a sensitive, introverted person like Eleanor Roosevelt should have been medicated.

Significant research argues that ‘sitters’, the name for more introverted types who shy away from the limelight by leading quietly are better listeners and willing to listen to the ideas of others.

Before 1980, social anxiety disorder did not officially exist. It appeared in that year’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the DSM-III, the psychiatrist’s bible of mental disorders, under the name ‘social phobia.’

The personality defect was not widely known until the 1990s, when pharmaceutical companies received F.D.A. approval to treat social anxiety with S.S.R.I.’s and poured tens of millions of dollars into advertising its existence. The current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the DSM-IV, acknowledges that stage fright (and shyness in social situations) is common and not necessarily a sign of illness. But it also says that diagnosis is warranted when anxiety “interferes significantly” with work performance or if the sufferer shows “marked distress” about it.

According to this definition, the answer to our question is clear: Eleanor Roosevelt would be put on medication to make her behavior more aggressive in a modern world that doesn’t value a more reserved, thoughtful personality.

Playing Politics

Jon Huntsman: A ‘Conservative Problem-Solver’ WSJ Weekend Interview

In Uganda, a Bitter Rivalry Is Played Out on the National Stage NYTimes

Winnie Byanyima speaking during a campaign event in February for her husband, Kizza Besigye, right, an opposition leader in Uganda. He has run for president the last three elections. Todd Heisler/The New York TimesBefore the tear gas and street riots, the violent arrests and hospital visits, Yoweri Museveni and Kizza Besigye were close friends, a future president and the doctor to whom he entrusted his life. They fought together to free their country from dictatorship.

Some say they even fell for the same woman.

Sensual & Superyoung

Big Sleep

Study: Rocking hammock promotes faster, deeper sleep USA Today

Swiss researchers who set out to determine if individuals slept better in a slowly rocking hammock vs a stationary bed report positive results for hammocks. The study was conducted on 12 men with researchers monitoring electrical activity in the brain (EEG). Participants not only experienced quicker onset of stage N1 light sleep but they transitioned into deeper forms of sleep faster.