Update: Since its release on Tuesday, Apple has raised the price on this by $1, but the contents haven't changed. I don't know why.

iTunes Originals - Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies Release Date: January 24, 2006 Total Songs: 27 Genre: Rock Price: $11.99$12.99 Copyright 2006 Desperation Records/WBR

Of course, I had to have this as soon as it came out. I haven't had much time to listen to it, but I burned it to CD (two of them - it's nine minutes too long to fit on one 700MB CD, grrr) and have been listening to it while I ran errands. Last night, I got to the new iTunes Original version of Be My Yoko Ono, a song I'm rather tired of hearing, but it's usually fun to hear a new recording of it. The lyrics include this passage:

I know that when I say this
I may be stepping on pins and needles.
But I don't like all these people
Slagging her for breaking up the Beatles.
(don't blame it on Yoki!)

However, in the iTunes Original version, after Steve Page sings "breaking up the Beatles" and before "don't blame it on Yoki," at about 2:08 in the song, Ed Robertson chimes in "like Jobs and Woz just went their [separate ways]." Steve sings over Ed after "just went," so I can't quite make out the very end of it, but Ed clearly says "like Jobs and Woz."

Adding lyrics to Be My Yoko Ono about the two founders of Apple separating, when one of them is the powerful and rumored to be temperamental CEO, during a recording session for Apple. That's why I love these guys. Highly recommended for all BNL fans and I'm barely a third into it.

Video report from KWTV News (owned by local state concern Griffin Broadcasting, an arm of the syrup-makers, and affiliated with the Oklahoman) on Sam Beaumont, the gay man who shared and worked a ranch with his partner, Earl Meadows, for 25 years. When Earl died, he left everything to Sam. Meadows's blood relatives sued to have the will thrown out because it lacked the signature of a witness, required under Oklahoma law.

They won - they took all the land and evicted Sam from his home of a quarter-century. Now they're suing Sam for $13,000 in estate taxes on the 401K and life insurance policies that Earl left him. Sam was named as the beneficiary, so Earl's relatives couldn't get to those funds, but now that they've taken the rest of the estate from Sam they want Sam to pay their share of the taxes on what they took.

You may have read about this story, but this is video, so it's by nature a bit more compelling, to hear Sam's rancher drawl and see that he's just like any other man who spent his life working the land. Two things, however, are worth calling out.

1. Although the events in this story happened quite some time ago (Earl died in 2000), none of the Oklahoma media paid one lick of attention to it until the Indianapolis Star picked it up. From there, it went to lots of gay blogs and magazines, and showed up in People this week. Even KWTV's intro to the story is quite clear that they would never have reported this story of incredibly gross discrimination had the national media not picked it up and forced their hand.
2. It should go without saying, but doesn't, that if Sam and Earl had been allowed to marry or even become domestic partners, Sam would have automatically received Earl's property upon his death as the surviving spouse. This same kind of death without a valid will happens tens of thousands of times in Oklahoma every year, and as long as the couple is straight and could get married, the surviving spouse has no fear that relatives of the dead partner will come in and take everything away from him (or her). Wills are not always easy to get right, and there's no question a huge number of people who think they have valid wills right now do not. If you're gay, though, you can't get married, and even the dead man's explicit and unquestionably clear wishes are put aside in favor of blood relatives and their greed and hate for who he was.

When conservatives or "moderates" tell you that gay marriage is a "special right," or that it's not necessary, remember Sam and Earl. This shit happens every day, and in places like this, the media really hates to tell you about it.