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Permalink Reply by Pope OoO (Out of Order) on May 21, 2012 at 4:14pm

In fact, I wish I had thought to include this relevant note a few minutes ago.

Blacks voted in the majority for Prop 8 in California (in addition to Romney's financial support via his church). Now, the NAACP has come out in favor of gay marriage:

In a move that some called historic, the county’s oldest African American civil rights group voted Saturday to endorse same-sex marriage.

The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People passed a resolution supporting gay marriage at a meeting of its board of directors in Miami, saying it opposed any policy or legislative initiative that “seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove the constitutional rights of LGBT citizens.”

Directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force erupted in applause at their board meeting Saturday as their phones buzzed with the news.

“Today is a historic day,” Rea Carey, executive director of the task force, said a phone interview from Seattle. “This is what leadership looks like in this country.”

The vote marks a national turning point on the issue of gay marriage. President Obama announced this month that he supports gay marriage. A Gallup Poll last year found, for the first time in the poll’s history, that a majority of Americans supported the legalization of gay marriage, 53% to 45%. This year, the poll showed 50% supported it, while 48% opposed it.

“Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law,” Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the 103-year-old NAACP said in a statement.

“The NAACP’s support for marriage equality is deeply rooted in the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution and equal protection of all people.”

...

That's how people decide, and that's how things change!

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on June 11, 2012 at 10:20am

@archaeopteryx

Actually, I've read that same paragraph, but I can't accept that it is the single most limiting factor. I haven't the time, and certainly not the inclination, to re-locate research and bring it to the board, but studies show that an abundance of available food allows for a size increase in all animals, and is the primary reason that humans are no longer limited to being 4-feet tall in heels.

The food thing is ridiculous. For example, to assert there is no limit on size as long as food is available begs the question of why is it that the taller people get the less healthy they are and the shorter their lifespans. The same is true of dogs, BTW.

So, please locate that article: I'd like to know where/how you got it wrong.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on June 11, 2012 at 10:38am

Surely you jest - Mankind is taller now than it has ever been, and it's lifespan the longest. Jesus, if he ever existed, wouldn't have been that strapping 6-foot handsome Germanic type we see in the paintings, he would have been about 5' 4" with a scraggly beard and dark, greasy hair.

What part of "I haven't the time, and certainly not the inclination, to re-locate the research and bring it to the board" did you not entirely understand? Possibly I could translate it into one-syllable words --

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Permalink Reply by Dogly on June 11, 2012 at 11:24am

The Dutch are the tallest people, have a long lifespan, and are very healthy.  Now, about dogs, you are right.  Dogs between the size of foxes and wolves are the most healthy.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on June 11, 2012 at 12:21pm

Dogly - no pun intended - you might find this interesting:

http://visual.ly/8-animal-myths-dispelled

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Permalink Reply by Dogly on June 12, 2012 at 6:29am

Thanks, for the list of animal myths.  May I call you Archy? (Since I have become familiar with your genealogy, and philosophy, I feel I know you a little.)  I knew the ones about mammals and birds, but not the length of a goldfish's memory.  I never believed it was only 3 minutes though, because I have known some goldfish.  I also knew nothing about the love lives of lobsters.  Still, that illustration of the red lobsters getting married may be an error, since they have been boiled and no amount of pheromones will ever arouse them again.  Most important of these myths is the one that says not to handle baby birds or their mother will smell us and not go back to them.  Many baby birds could have been rescued, but for this myth.  In fact birds are fearless in protecting their young, and don't have much of a sense of smell.  Thanks, again!

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on June 12, 2012 at 10:00am

Arch, Archy - what's in a name?

The fact that the female lobster sheds her entire shell to have sex, then grows a new one, really gives a different perspective on, "Take it off, Baby! Take it ALL off!" Probably had her own little lobster stripper pole and everything - lap dance, five clams - I could go on, but mercifully, won't.

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Permalink Reply by John Major on June 12, 2012 at 2:13pm

To go one would be to monopolise the thread. A little shellfish I think.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on June 12, 2012 at 8:08pm

My, we're crabby --

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Permalink Reply by Tom Holm on June 13, 2012 at 6:10pm

Well I have heard that taller people tend to get unhealthier the older they get, saw it on tv once but that has been years ago. Something about bone structure I think idk I'm not a skeletonologist so I could be wrong

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on June 13, 2012 at 7:45pm

I've read that too Tom, about people who have a rare defective gene that results in "giantism" - people who are abnormally tall - but I haven't heard it about tall people in general. Doesn't mean it's not true, could just mean I haven't heard about it.

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Permalink Reply by Unseen on June 13, 2012 at 9:52pm

Giant land mammals tend to have shorter lives. For example large dogs like Irish Wolfhounds and Great Danes don't have long lives as dogs go, on average.

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