Plus! and Minus!

Taking a note from TV guide and several local papers, I'm going to start giving some kind of superficial and immeasurably unimportant notation to things that happen that I like and some equally superficial and unimportant, yet different, notation to things I don't like.

Call it "Plus" and "Minus" respectively, because I can't be bothered to come up with something more elaborate. If you think of something, let me know. Also, you should be congratulated for thinking of a suggestion and caring enough to send it in. Unless it's bad. Then, work harder next time, Johnson.

Plus! Soda Constructor which has been around for at least a year but which, until recently, I'd forgotten about. Neat if you can get it to work better than I can without having to resort to spelling things out that float in the air and quiver a little bit.

Plus! Canada for getting what I understand to be moderately close to passing Bill C-38, which legalizes gay marriage in Canada. I understand that people are offended by what they see as a drastic change in what has traditionally been a religious ceremony, but in that case athiests and the non-religious can be excluded. In a nation that does not have an official religion, abolishing the heterosexual requirement on civil marriage (without imposing regulations on churches, that is, if they feel like not marying gays, they don't have to) is the only sensible alternative to abolishing marriage outright.

Plus! Arlen Specter (?!) has become Pennsylvania's voice for federal funding on stem-cell debate. How on earth did that happen? My reason for lauding (in my own small little way) the man who came up with the "magic bullet theory" is that he seems to have partially recovered from his round of "completely freaking insane" to "on the right side of the stem cell debate in the opinion of a guy with a blog". I don't have time to go into the relative merits of the stem-cell topic now, and will probably post on that in the near future. Let's just say, I disagree with Bush on this one. No. Seriously.

Minus! Rick Santorum, because as Pennsylvania's other senator he's taken the opposite side on this debate, though this bash probably extends back to when he called homosexuality the equivalent of incest, child-molestation and bestiality. So, to recap, Pennsylvania's contribution to the Senate is someone who came up with the most improbable theory regarding JFK's assassination ever and a douchebag.

Minus!The Roads of Pittsburgh which, as I've long complained without much to back it up, were rated "poor" or "mediocre" this week by the Road Information Program. Interestingly, Pittsburgh did pretty well, with only 22% of roads rating poor, as compared to Kansas City, which not only has 71% of their roads in the poor category, but also has the Kansas City Royals, who suck.

Plus! The Kansas City Royals for winning today against the Yankees. It appears anything's possible, so tomorrow I'm applying to Harvard.

Plus! The Pirates have somehow been humiliating the Florida Marlins, who have been doing well this year but who I am pretty sure I hate because I don't like the color teal. If you disregard the article's title's reference to poor eighties television, you'll find that Rob Mackowiak achieved his second career grand slam 368 days after his first one and Jack Wilson, who's been struggling lately, went 4-for-4 today with a triple. Additionally, I heard the game while walking my dog, so Plus! for me for getting out of the goddamned house.

By the way, this Plus!-Minus! thing isn't going to be regular. I just couldn't think of how else to write it today.