A friend of mine argued that gays are an unprotected class because the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, used by the SCOTUS to rule anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, applies only to race.

I decided to look that one up. Oops, not quite true.

• Nationality is a protected class (Hernandez v. Texas)
• Gender is protected (United States v. Virginia)
• Even illegitimate children, a socially-constructed group, are protected (Levy v. Louisiana)

Here’s why Prop 8 is in trouble if it ever goes to the Supreme Court:

Traditionally, the Court finds a state classification constitutional if it has a “rational basis” to a “legitimate state purpose.” The Court, however, has applied more stringent analysis in certain cases. It will “strictly scrutinize” a distinction when it embodies a “suspect classification.” In order for a classification to be subject to strict scrutiny, it must be shown that the state law or its administration is meant to discriminate.

HELLO, WHAT IS MORE INTENTIONALLY DISCRIMINATORY THAN PROPOSITION 8??? If Loving v. Virginia promoted White Supremacy, as was the opinion of the Court, you can bet that Proposition 8 is doing the same for heterosexual couples.

My dashingly brilliant attorney friend Hannah believes that the SCOTUS is too afraid to take on Prop 8. I think it has to happen soon, as more states legalize gay marriage and others are forced to deal with lawsuits that arise from this.

Phoenix is run-down and ugly.

Tempe is alternately skeevy and yuppified.

Mesa is a hellhole.

Scottsdale is horribly bland.

Gilbert and Chandler — mediocre.

Glendale has gone to hell.

I love Arizona… but man did we do a crap job on building the cities.

Cell phones made it okay for people to bellow private conversations at the top of their lungs in crowded public places, something once-upon-a-time considered rude.

Now, thanks to Meetup, I am discovering that standing people up — once deemed to be one of the most heinous social offenses — is now routine.

When you’re quasi-anonymous on the Internet, you think that your real-life presence or absence doesn’t make a difference. But it does. When I tell a small business owner that 27 people are showing up and only 7 actually make it and he paid extra workers to help that night, he’s getting hit. But a lot of people either don’t realize this, or don’t care. TV is on.

I used to be pretty proud of my tribe — it’s huge, and everyone marginally fits the criteria of what I wanted in members. But if I could start it all over again, I’d try to have 40 dedicated, awesome members than 200 lousy ones, and now that I’ve realized this, it’s a tough problem to fix.

I’m trying to work up a way to raise the barrier to entry without charging money, as many of my cooler members are struggling genius bohemian PhD students who shouldn’t be punished because Snot-Nosed Princess Partygirl didn’t feel like showing up five or six times.

Suggestions? I’ve already decided to kick out anyone who ditches out twice.

The *New* Mac OS X Set by Lorne Kwechansky, aka The Best Styles Collection EVER, disappeared from Adobe Exchange (though curiously, its download page remains). No matter how many times you clicked that link, that file definitely wasn’t coming back.

A number of people got really mad that the link was broken and started downrating it. The author stepped in to say that he lost the file too, sorry.

I’ve exported it from my version of CS2, so you can download it from here. May not work with CS3 or CS4, I have no way of checking. You can leave me a comment if you know the answer.

Download now [1.4MB zip]

If you’re happy now, add me to your blogroll or Twitter (@stacebass)!

Kevin Kelleher astutely makes the connection between GeoCities (RIP) and MySpace:

Like GeoCities, MySpace won quick success by making it easy for people to build a customized online presence. Like GeoCities, MySpace sold out to a bigger media company that ended up a caretaker for its long years of decay. And now MySpace is slowly becoming, like GeoCities, an abandoned amusement park on the web.

A great example of why user experience is everything. Using MySpace made me do this:

You know what was really cool about MySpace? All your friends were on there. You know what was really frustrating? You couldn’t search for them, because the search box was broken. No, I take that back — breaking it would’ve been a huge improvement.

I was trying to find my friend, Jeremy Thompson. I know his age, high school, college and hometown. I don’t know his current location. MySpace returned 500 results in no logical order. This was typical. God forbid you enclose your search query in quote marks.

Instead of making incremental usability improvements (as Facebook does), MySpace seemed to pour all of its resources into dancing for its corporate puppetmasters in the most obnoxious, ineffectual ways possible. I wonder what the marketing meetings were like. How can we possibly make the site more Pepsi? SKINS!

At least they’re not gunning for a bailout. I hope.

Recently a long-ago colleague contacted me and asked me to redesign his websites. He was (rightfully) angry that his current designer was trying to up-sell him things he didn’t need, like video.

I met with his partner, brainstormed a strategy that would best serve his customers, put together a statement of work and a cost estimate. And then — nothing.

The old colleague said I wasn’t a good-enough designer. Translation: Pardon me, I have forgotten that you are no longer 23 and willing to design websites for 300 bucks.

So, let me spell out why I am no longer The Cheap Designer:

• When I develop your website, I am not selling you a pretty skin in your wife’s favorite colors. I am selling you strategy, proper information architecture, search engine optimization and good usability. I’ve done this stuff for Fortune 500 companies and if you want to be one, you’re going to have to not hire junior freelancers.
• Bad designers know that they’re bad — that’s why they charge so little. They don’t want to be called on it. If I charge you $250 for a website, you should be very afraid, not eager to get this show on the road.
• Cheap designers have to make up for their lack of skills with large volumes of work. They have little incentive to spend a lot of time on your site. Several of them buy pre-purchased skins and slap your content into them as quickly as possible, leaving you with some okay-looking fast food. If you’re wondering why your marginally good website just doesn’t work, this may be why.
• I have a mature eye for design and will not make every website look like it’s geared toward 20-somethings buying sports drinks (unless you want me to).
• I can tell you when your content is written for the wrong audience. You’d be surprised how often this happens.
• I know the difference between lame, godawful stock photos and decently good stock photos. You don’t want the former within 50 miles of your site. They will make you look very amateurish.
• I find and kill typos. Same for code bugs. Many cheap designers believe you’re not paying them for that. Many others don’t know rudimentary spelling and grammar and couldn’t find a typo in a lineup.
• Lastly — I will examine every one of your major competitors’ sites and take note of what they’re doing. You don’t want to be years behind them, right?

Thanks for letting me vent. My new website should be up soon…