sigh

I think I'm in love.

polygamy?

Katherine Kersten is at her inflammatory best this week in the Star Tribune (and how she still has a job there is beyond me). It's the age old argument against gay marriage:

But wait. What if a person loves two people, or three or more? If "one man-one woman" is a discriminatory limitation on the choice of a life partner, on what grounds can the state logically restrict marriage to two people? The fact is, once you adopt same-sex marriage -- legally changing the standard for marriage from one-man, one-woman to a "committed relationship" -- there is no principled way to prevent its extension to polygamy or other forms of "plural marriage" or partnership.

This argument is really completely invalid. Why? Because she fails to outline the reasons that polygamy shouldn't be legal. The problem with polygamy is not that it is an assault on our traditional values, or somehow in bad taste. The problem is that it's very strongly correlated to abusive and incestuous relationships. If you just think about the power dynamic at play when one man is married to several women, this makes complete sense. This logic does not at all apply to same sex marriage. There is no evidence of negative effects of gay marriage except for vague claims that it "weakens the institution of marriage."

los geht's: turin and florence

And yes it's TURIN. Not Torino. I don't want anybody saying Torino who doesn't also say Venezia, Firenze, Roma, Wien, Genova or Genf. Now on to business. Whatever it's called, screw this city. No mass transit to speak of. Nothing even that pretty. And the mountain venues were about two hours away. Seriously now.Coca-Cola of all companies welcomes us to Turin.
Waking up after sleeping in the park. Bad idea. Woke up covered in dog-shit as detailed below. If I can't find a room, I will definitely be sleeping in the train station next time.

Things were looking up on Sunday as we went to the 4 X 10 Cross-Country ski relay. However, I forgot my camera, so I can't bring back the promised pictures. It was quite the event; the Norwegians really had a ton of fans (one of them wore a set of antlers). But it was really the Italians' day at home. Zorzi got his revenge for 2002 by increasing the lead on Angerer as the fans chanted his name alternating with ITALIA! ITALIA! ITALIA! But down by 25 seconds, Angerer was really resigned to second. He just didn't have his World Cup leading form for the Olympics.

So in cross country, the two big stars fail (Bjoergen and Angerer) while Wilhelm and Greis became heroes on the sports stage. Seriously, everybody is obsessed with the biathletes now. They are on TV ALL THE TIME. When the anchors aren't bashing the soccer team for losing 4-1 to Italy yesterday, they are slobbering on Kati Wilhelm and Michael Greis.We were absolutely thrilled to be out of Turin. Here's the Florence Duomo (Cathedral).
The tower next to the Duomo. It costs 6 euro to go to the top of each.
Me in front of the Duomo.
View from the top of the DuomoVery flattering picture on top of the Duomo.
Lunch time.
This has to be the crappiest fountain ever. I mean it literally looks like a pile of shit.
Me and Niccolo Machiavelli.
Alia and Dante.
In front of David. No, you can't take pictures of the real David. And the real David is in a gallery with a bunch of mediocre counter-reformation art. Botticelli's Birth of Venus is in Florence too. It's in a gallery with a bunch of decent Italian Renassaince art. STOP LIVING IN THE PAST!

innsbruck

Here's some pictures from the last three weeks for anybody who still reads my blog. I'll do it in chronological order, starting with the ski trip to Innsbruck. Alia and I skied four areas in four days, and shredded every single one of them.This is the town of Innsbruck. Our apartment wasn't really in town, which was probably a good thing considering going out at night plus the skiing definitely would have put me out of commission.Area 1: Patscherkofel. They basically have one run and one lift: the Olympic downhill run from 1964 and 1976, and a quad lift that goes to the top. Although we were on the same hallowed run that Franz Klammer shredded in '76 to win the gold medal, I did not come anywhere near his time. We got shredded to bits by little kids who were in ski racing schools. Jackasses.
The ghetto-ass SINGLE chairlift that runs to the top of Patscherkofel. Never seen anything like it. Nice view on top, and some cool bowls to ski though.The obligatory apres-Ski beer. In this case, Zipfer: Austria's finest.
Area two: Stubaier Gletscher (or as they advertise it, Happy Stuby). I have never seen anything like this. Just to get to the area from the parking lot, it was a fifteen minute gondola ride, and it was a sprawling, wide open area. Unbelievable.Me being happy on the Stubai.
Area 3: Axamer Lizum. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I thought this was definitely the best area we skied. It was easy to get around, the lines weren't too long, and the runs were good and well groomed. And we met some hilarious Australians: "I wish it was snowing so I could try and catch snowflakes on my tongue" Me: "But it's a nice view" Aussie: "But I don't have a camera, and you know the view's only as good as the shot you take of it.
More Axamer Lizum.
Area 4: Der Schlick. Basically, we couldn't see anything, there were a lot of crappy skiers and Alia almost got killed by a four year old. Not the best. But the student price was 18 euros, so I didn't feel ripped off.
Me in the whiteout at Schlick 2000.
This is how you kick it after skiing.
Wait... this is even better.