Some folks think marriage needs protection. So they want to pass a law. An amendment to the constitution. Just to define marriage. Like this is the best way to improve the quality of life in the US.

It's just not enough. 

Let's take it further...

• Require a $20,000 bond against misconduct and fiscal responsibility. Cheat? Physical abuse? More than two children? No children after five years? Forfeit to the state. 
• Pass a written test to get your marriage license, like at the DMV. Test might cover laws regarding marriage, parenting knowledge and skills, functional literacy. A successful marriage takes skills.   
• Pass a lie detector test. Do you love your fiancé? Could you love them without sex? Will you want to stay married to them when you're both old, wrinkled, and incontinent? Better now than on Jerry Springer.
• Positive References from previous lovers and at least one married person. You need them to get a job you'll have for 4-5 years, why not for life?
• Credit Check. Truth in advertising.
• Criminal Record presented to fiancé 48 hours before wedding. Truth in advertising.
• Waiting period equal to that for firearms. No impulse buying.
• Fail a pregnancy test. If you get pregnant out of wedlock, your baby gets born out of wedlock. Is this the bible belt social standard?
• Abolish divorce. Three effects: some won't marry, more will endure, and many will suffer a living purgatory, break marriage vows and ruin the institution of marriage for all time.

Frankly, we should:

1. Distinguish between civil unions (government recognition) and marriage (church recognition).
2. Make civil unions gender neutral, not dependent on marriage.
3. Fire the bill's sponsors:
   • Rep. Ronnie Shows (D-MI)
   • Rep. David Phelps (D-IL)
   • Rep. Ralph Hall (D-TX)
   • Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC)
   • Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA)
   • Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT).

She's warming up her Radio blog.

She's global: References in the UK and US, bilingual Spanish and English 

While Mizzy (as she's called) points to her resume in a recent post, it is not part of her site menu. Her two portfolios (the professional one and another for her Neopets work) are easy to navigate. I wish I was so good with a pencil.

Mizzy's little bio page reaches levels of disclosure that make me giggle. I like her taste in anime.

As we blend work and life, more of both shows up on the web and Google close. How does that make you feel about the hiring process? US firms are scared of being sued for discrimination. So they avoid learning anything not directly job related before you are hired. That's why photos are usually removed from non-entertainment resumes; they are overt about gender and age. What happens when your sexual preferences, music taste, political affiliations, or even your drugs of choice (mine's chocolate) become next door neighbors to your qualifications?

I was hired at my last job, in part, because the hiring executive could surf my blog and liked what he saw. otoh, Might weblogs keep you from getting hired? Get you screened out by HR? I'd like to talk with you about your experiences.   AIM Y! @Ryze

[aka bloggers for hire]

Summer looks good for light reading on weblogging.

The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog by Rebecca Blood. What's In Rebecca's Pocket? is her blog and its on my regular reading list. I haven't read it yet, but Handbook may wind up as a bulk purchase, giving out copies to friends and family for the holidays, and passing them around at work. At 144 pages, it is slim, hallmark of something people will read!

We've Got Blog: How Weblogs are Changing Our Culture by some editors with an intro by Rebecca Blood. Sociology, speculation, mediacrit. Should be good for a laugh. 

Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content by Biz Stone. The book's home page and Stone's blog. 

We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs
Paul Bausch, Matthew Haughey, Meg Hourihan
ISBN: 0-764-54962-6

 ¢À ¢À ¢À

Books on blogging I'd like to see:

• Finding your voice.
• Fact checking for bloggers.
• How to spell for bloggers.  
• Love me, love my blog.
   
• How to fuck up your blog: The Weblog Usability Audit. 
• The Friday Five desk calendar.
• Run before you post: A blogger's exercise plan. 
   
• Throw away your home page, it's time to blog.
• The Connected Cookbook: Bloggers share family recipes from around the world
• Who Moved My Blog?
• The Davenet Years: Collected bulletins 
   
• The Illustrated Cluetrain Manifesto by Microsoft Press
• The Illustrated Gonzo Marketing by the editors of AdWeek
• The Illustrated Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web by XPLANE
• How weblogs work by the editors of Popular Mechanics
• Cats in Blogspace: photos from the digital frontier
   
• The Nanny Weblogs
• The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Weblogging and Klogging
• Blog or You're Fired! Surviving your blog-crazy boss.