Equality in New York

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Michael

Equality has passed in New York:

New York lawmakers narrowly voted to legalize same-sex marriage Friday, handing activists a breakthrough victory in the state where the gay rights movement was born.

New York will become the sixth state where gay couples can wed and the biggest by far.

“We are leaders and we join other proud states that recognize our families and the battle will now go on in other states,” said Sen. Thomas Duane, a Democrat…

The New York bill cleared the Republican-controlled state Senate on a 33-29 vote. The Democrat-led Assembly, which passed a different version last week, is expected to pass the new version with stronger religious exemptions and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who campaigned on the issue last year, has promised to sign it. Same-sex couples can begin marrying begin 30 days after that.

Good.

Filed under: News, Same-sex marriage | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

Violating the constitution is costly

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Michael

Time and time again school boards (usually in the south) will vote to keep some religious relic alive. Whether it be the ability to lead students in prayer or keeping a pledge to God alive in a school oath, heavily Christian school boards are all too often attempting to weasel their particular cultural religion into the classroom. And, of course, the ACLU will come along and say, “Hey, that’s stupid. Knock it off or we’ll sue – and you know we’ll win.” And, of course, all too often the school will hold its ground with the backing of voters and parents who don’t understand the constitution. And once the ACLU sues and wins, there is a great financial burden placed upon the districts:

These costs can be considerable. In McCreary and Pulaski counties in Kentucky, someone got the bright idea to post the Commandments at the local courthouses back in 1999. The ACLU warned officials that they were going to get sued. County officials refused to listen (and all the voters said, “Amen!”). The ACLU sued, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the counties lost.

The case has dragged on, and now these counties have been handed a bill for $456,881 to pay the ACLU’s legal costs. The insurance provider doesn’t cover expenses like this, so what to do? Well, McCreary County – a poverty-stricken rural community of about 17,000 residents – has been reduced to begging. The McCreary County Record reported that the county has set up an account at a local bank for donations. Judge-Executive Doug Stephens was excited because a $100 check arrived the other day. (Only $456,781 to go!)

I know these people think it’s okay to force their religion onto others, using public money to promote whatever little god happens to be fashionable right now in human history – in fact, I’m sure they think it’s downright righteous – but they have to know they’ll lose. I mean, yes, the U.S. education system isn’t very good, and yes, it’s at its worst in the south, but I honestly doubt these people are so stupid as to believe they’ll win. No, there’s something that’s fooling them:

Meanwhile, [Board member J.B.] Buckland said he and Superintendent Terry Arbogast had consulted attorneys at the Liberty Counsel. The conservative Christian legal group will represent the school board pro bono if the district faces a legal battle.

Short of calling these people outright stupid – I do not believe that they are – this is the best answer I can muster for why they would bother picking this fight. They can only be hoping against hope that they win (if they even believe that) and have no fees to pay, but it’s just so silly. There are millions of Americans who care whether or not their money gets spent endorsing religion. (If the money was being used to endorse Islam or atheism, there would be several hundred more million who cared.) There will always be a fight to first uphold pretty basic constitutional standards and second (though I think it should be first) to make sure religion stays at bay and in the churches and synagogues. I know it’s suppose to be some great thing that Jesus basically committed suicide, but these people aren’t Jesus. There’s no need to financially crucify themselves.

Filed under: Politics and Social, Religions | Tagged: , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Tech impaired duck is an old duck

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Michael

Filed under: Humor | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

Look what happens when you ignore her

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Michael

She fades away:

Amid diminishing media interest, Sarah Palin has quit her high-profile bus tour halfway through and returned to Alaska with her family, according to RealClearPolitics.

The move puts a damper on widespread speculations that Palin’s “One Nation” bus tour, which launched on Memorial Day, was a precursor to a potential White House bid for 2012. Palin never made it to her scheduled stops in the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

RealClearPolitics, which originally broke the story about the bus tour, reported Wednesday on Palin’s “extended hiatus.” The remaining legs of her trip, according to Scott Conroy, are “in limbo” as “Palin and her family have reverted to the friendly confines of summertime Alaska.”

Jon Stewart had a recent interview on FOX Noise where his take-away point was that the media loves sensationalism. Combine that with lazy reporting and we get all this useless coverage of people like Sarah Palin. Ever since John McCain failed to vet her, her career has been about being a slightly-legitimized sort of reality show star – that legitimacy coming almost purely from the media’s unending attention.

I just hope she keeps refusing to tell reporters her schedule, or why she’s doing something, or any other detail of her itinerary. The more the quitter gets ignored, the better.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , | 10 Comments »

I don’t watch Hentai…

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Michael

…but I was thinking the same thing.

Filed under: Humor | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Medicaid patients get screwed

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Michael

And now they have no birth control to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies:

Thousands of low-income Planned Parenthood of Indiana patients were left fending for themselves Tuesday to pay for birth control, breast exams, Pap tests and other medical services while a court battle continued over a new state law that eliminated the organization’s Medicaid funding…

Nicole Robbins, a 31-year-old single mother who has been a Planned Parenthood client for six years, said she had intended to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic in Indianapolis on Tuesday to pick up a 2-month supply of birth control pills. Then, the Medicaid recipient learned that the more than $100,000 in private donations the group had raised since May 10 had dried up.

Given that we know what Planned Parenthood actually does, this law has been designed in a way that is primarily going to hurt the poor for no good reason. In fact, why wouldn’t this increase abortions? If a person can hardly afford birth control, the rate of protected individuals is going to drop. And when some of those women get pregnant, it’s often going to make more sense to scrape together the cash in order to get an abortion. Think about it. In the first situation the choice is birth control and no or little cushion money or no birth control and a little money. People will take the latter risk. In the second situation the choice is pay for a child for the next 18 years or pay for an abortion. Some women who otherwise would not be pregnant will take the second option. This increases abortion.

And I’m fine with that. Cells with potential are not humans. If that were the case, sperm and eggs would be humans – That people wish to pick an arbitrary level of potential does not a human make. But it looks like Indiana wants to interfere with science:

The Medicaid de-funding measure took effect the same day that Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the law. But other provision of the law that gives the state some of the nation’s tightest restrictions on abortions won’t take effect until July 1.

Those include a ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy unless there is a substantial threat to the woman’s life or health and a requirement that doctors ensure women seeking an abortion are told that life begins at conception.

Oh, well, if Indiana lawmakers declare something to be so, then clearly it is. This reminds me of that myth of some state legislature, perhaps Ohio, declaring that Pi equals exactly 3.14. Except this time the scientific intrusion is real.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , | 18 Comments »

New warning labels for cigarettes

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Michael

I would much rather see a phasing out of the sale of cigarettes, but this will do for now:

Rotting teeth. Diseased lungs. A corpse of a smoker. Nine new warning labels featuring graphic images that convey the dangers of smoking will be required by the Food and Drug Administration to be on U.S. cigarette packs by 2012.

Other images include a man with a tracheotomy smoking and a mother holding a baby with smoke swirling around them. The labels will include phrases like “Smoking can kill you” and “Cigarettes cause cancer.”

The labels, which the FDA released Tuesday, are a part of the most significant change to U.S. cigarette packs in 25 years. They’re aimed at curbing tobacco use, which is responsible for about 443,000 deaths in the U.S. a year.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , | 8 Comments »

Gay marriage in New York

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Michael

The process is only inching along at this point:

Old-time, backroom politics faced down hundreds of chanting protesters from each side of the highly charged gay marriage debate in New York on Monday as the issue stalled again over whether religious groups could be protected from discrimination charges under a same-sex marriage law.

And Albany’s notoriously entrenched politics won, for now.

After a three-hour conference behind closed doors, while groups from each side waited in a stifling hot hallway, Senate Republicans emerged without comment. A vote within the conference to even move the bill to the floor for final legislative approval was pushed to at least Tuesday as private negotiations continue between Republican Senate leader Dean Skelos and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who made same-sex marriage a major initiative.

This doesn’t mean too much for either side right now. Perhaps there will be language that allows religious individuals to refuse to marry gay couples, but I hope that it is very, very limited. After all, it isn’t like it’s okay for a state-employed notary to refuse marriage to a black couple, so why carve out a difference concerning gay couples? Of course, that is what they’re doing when it comes to private organizations, but they need to be equally careful there.

What I find interesting about this whole thing is the sort of arguments coming from the religious right. Of course we still have all those invalid arguments from religion. Apparently it was never explained to these people that the U.S. government is secular; it, in fact, does not endorse or condemn Christianity. But what we don’t have anymore is the argument that we must – we just MUST! – follow the will of the people. The reason why is obvious:

Support for marriage equality/same-sex marriage/gay marriage is at a new high in New York, according to today’s new Quinnipiac Poll…Voters in the survey backed legalizing marriage between same-sex couples 58-36%, “higher than ever while statistically unchanged from 56-38% April 14.”

Problem, Christians?

Filed under: News, Politics and Social, Rights, Same-sex marriage | Tagged: , , , | 7 Comments »

Happy Father’s Day

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Michael

Happy Father’s Day.

What, you got him something different?

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

Staying young

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Michael

I have often criticized older generations for not being with it. As one looks at people today, it becomes clear that adeptness with technology drops considerably with age. But that isn’t what I really mean when I talk about oldness.

Oldness to me means a rejection of what is new because it is new. It means an irrational anger at younger generations. Just take a look at the local newspaper. How many articles have we all seen that tell parents to keep their kids away from those new-fangled computers? Or what about when there is vandalism and it is assumed a few teenagers just got out of hand?

None of this is to say that there isn’t value in getting away from the computer or that teenagers aren’t often the culprits in particular types of crimes. As anyone who has spent more than a week reading FTSOS knows, I love hiking and traveling, and so I value being out of the house. And as anyone who has spent more than a week in high school knows, teenagers are no strangers to vandalism.

But there are problems with these views. Let’s start with those new-fangled computers. How many parents have encouraged their kids to go outside not because they see value in being outside, but because they don’t see value in computers and other devices? Just think about all the times your mom turned off your Nintendo even though you hadn’t saved in the past hour. How many parents would have disassembled a half-finished puzzle? There was no value in our newer technology for the generations that missed out.

And the vandalism. Yes, teenagers do often engage in it, but that does not justify assumptions. After all, don’t minorities make up a majority of our prison population? Is it okay to assume a given crime was done by a black person? So why the double standard with young people?

I bring this up because of Fred and Joanne Wilson. They are a tech-savvy couple who has done everything they can to make sure their kids are up-to-date:

The parents and kids publish a combined nine blogs. They bring a duffle bag on family trips just to carry all the cords, adapters and batteries for their electronic devices. Mr. and Ms. Wilson, both 49, write almost every day on their blogs, which cover everything from financing start-ups and music (his) to entrepreneurs, family and the key to cooking a prime rib (hers).

Jessica, 20, and Emily, 18, have two blogs each; Joshua, 15, has one, plus two Xboxes. When Josh expressed an interest in building websites, his mom hired a graduate student to tutor him in coding.

And no one in the family is fat.

While Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are both nearly 50, neither one is anything close to old. They embrace what is new. They aren’t afraid of technology, nor do they devalue it because they didn’t grow up with it. This recognition of exo-generational products is refreshing.

I just hope my generation will manage to rise to the same level of youth.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

« Previous Page — Next Page »