Silliness, useful things, well duh

[azurelunatic]

Silliness: Things I am not allowed to do at Hogwarts, with links to addenda. (Old, but still good.)

Useful: ASL Browser -- see assorted words demonstrated in Quicktime video rather than try to puzzle out from a static image. (I think I'm probably going to wind up using signed words along with my spoken conversations when I know the signs (which I mostly don't) just because language is fun.)

Duh: Heterosexual men plan wedding for tax reasons -- a few years ago, I would have happily married my not-actually-related-to-me roommate Sis for tax and custody reasons, and while I'm not heterosexual, she is. So this does not surprise me. The marriage of convenience is an old tradition and a traditional plot device. (Hello, slashers! Now you, too, can use this for real-world-based fiction!)

Comments

"marriage"

[p-o-u-n-c-e-r.livejournal.com]

The use (surely it's not 'correct' to call it the ABuse) of legal marriage in pursuit of non-romantic, non-sexual, non-procreative, and in general non-marriage-related privileges was predictable and predicted. Jurisdictions that decided to go forward anyhow presumably considered this matter to be a non-problem.

Also entirely predictable is that, as more people avail themselves of whatever privileges have been established for marriage, pressure will mount to reduce or re-assign those privileges. This might be a good development. For instance, a lot of the presumptions of "marriage" are based on the notion -- no longer valid -- that the default sequence is, as the nursery rhyme has it, "Love, marriage, baby carriage". Backlash counter-revolutionary pressure may mount to have a recognized and sanctioned condition of "parent/co-parent" legally formalized and distinct from marriage. And such "parent's license" might justifiably be harder to earn. Perhaps states would impose more blood testing for disease AND substance abuse AND general health, maybe? -- than current "marriage" licenses, where the "blood test" trend has run the other direction.

Interesting times.

Re: "marriage"

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

They've successfully moved the tax "benefits" of marriage away from the marriage part here in USA. You get quite the tax bonuses from kidlets, though, but the tax rates are exactly the same for two people filing singly separately, two people filing jointly, or two people filing married but separate. It's pretty cool.

Re: "marriage"

[azurelunatic]

Oh, they have? Whee!