Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. . .

Well, smoke conditions are the worst they've been since the fire started. The city of Denver is completely covered in smoke and there is an advisory to keep all children, age 7 and under, and the elderly in doors with the AC running. I have a headache the size of Montana, trying to breathe has been easier in my recollection, and my eyes are burning. It smells like the city's been hanging in a whole-in-the-wall bar the entire night. I'm half wondering if my hair and clothes smell like a used ash tray.

Controversy surrounds Terry Barton (no relation to Trowa) and her part in starting the fire. Some say she's an idiot that needs pitied. Some say she started the fire on purpose so she could be a hero when she put it out. Me? Don't know, don't care. I can't fucking breathe today and it's not something that NyQuil seems to take care of. No matter with Terry, we're being asphyxiated and my sense of humor is wearing very thin.

The fire is once again out of control. Yesterday temperatures hit 98 and today it's expected to hit 95 - no rain till the weekend.

Wind is blowing north again, so that's why Denver is getting all the smoke. Good news for us is that the flare ups are in the south. 1000 more people were evacuated there, however =/

Things are not good =(

Falwell Goes to Hell of Own Volition. . .

Okay, TBQ has posted on this already, as have a number of others who saw this scary little article on CNN this morning: Article on Protest for Nickelodeon Show About Gay Parents

Now as far as I knew, this was the only significant thing Nickelodeon has ever done outside of getting Gilligan's Island back on the air and pointing out how Grampa Munster's first incarnation was on Car 54 Where Are You? But I guess they sponsered a few safty shows for kids and some specials on AIDS and whatnot too. I only watch the channel when I visit my parents and Mom's on a Dick Van Dyke show kick. So finding out that Nickelodeon did something to educate kids about friends or family of theirs that might have parents of the same sex - rather than just tossing slime at them and airing old Gary Coleman sitcoms - is a GOOD thing.

Now, people are protesting that a family network will be showing something that some parents might not want to expose their kids too. As though the show is exposing the kids to somethng they've never heard of before or will hear of outside the context of television. People are outraged that they will have to monitor the children's show on Nickelodeon now. Of all the nerve! Nickelodeon will now not be responsible for what peoples' kids watch! For some reason, people don't think that the programs that have been on Nickelodeon for the past two decades needed monitoring. Shows like The Facts of Life- while it's a bit dated and corny, this show talked about teen pregnancy, rape, birth control, drugs, suicide - something that most of the people protesting this special broadcast, would protest as well if they took a few minutes to check what their kids are watching. Not to say that The Facts of Life is a bad show (well, it is, but for other reasons), but it may not be suited for all ages. That doesn't mean it's not family programing. It is - and that's why when a network claims to run family programming - YOU STILL NEED TO MONITOR IT!

Go to the CNN main page - check out the quick vote. As of 11:30am MDT - 48,097 out of 69,542 who took the poll (69%) think that a show about same-sex parents should not be a part of family programming. The good news is that 31% think that it should - and that's a lot more than it used to be. Still, it's very frightening - and it also shows what John Stewart Mill talked about when he coined the term Tyranny of the Majority.

Kudos to Nickelodeon for not bucking to pressure and pulling show, kudos to Rosie O'Donnell and Linda Ellerbee for doing the show at all. Special kudos to Herb Scannell for designing these types of shows to be completely commercial free so they didn't have to worry about commercial boycotts during the half hour.

The one line in the CNN article that just completely had me rolling was by the Rev. Jerry Falwell:

Asked how he reconciled his participation in the show with a call not to air it, Falwell said, "I've often said I would preach in hell if they promised to let me out."

Guess what buddy, you're definately going to hell, but ain't no deity in the cosmos that's letting you out.