Tired of the Racism In Life

I am tired of being a part of a divided country. I am tired of being a country where we cannot even agree on simplistic terms because of beliefs and past perceived sleights. I am tired of fighting about things over and over, but I will be damned if I allow my country to go back to the age where different races and the different sexes are treated differently under the law because of hatred, fear, and prejudice. 

The definition of the word Terrorism according to Merriam-Webster:

The use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal

Well, according to the definition, Dyllan Roof fits it. He killed 9 African-Americans in a church. And he allowed one person to live, allegedly so she could tell everybody what he did: killing black people because of their skin color. So we have a violent act. It was intended to frighten black people with the threat of more violence. And what was the political goal? To have the political powers segregate the races again. That is the textbook definition of terrorism.

The Keystone XL Pipeline Isn't What We Need

This post might not have a major impact to the West and East Coasts of the United States, but it does talk about the nightmare that the Republicans are trying to pass through congress and the ability to have the Keystone XL pipeline run from the Alberta Tar Pits down to the Louisiana Gulf. Now I am not above using fossil fuels to provide energy. But the pipeline has too many big promises that will not come true. It is become just another big lie that the GOP thinks they can push through.

The CEO of TransCANADA does say that the State Department report on the proposed pipeline will have about 50 permanent jobs. 50! Nothing like a major impact on the job market into the future. The state department does say that it will provide about 50,000 temporary jobs like waitresses and shopkeepers for about 2 years. Put in about 4,000 temporary construction workers into the mix. That is great for 2017 or 18 when you have 50,000 people moving away from the pipeline and the temporary camps that will be shutting up after the pipeline is done. Maybe we can find more part-time jobs for people since corporations can't seem to waste any penny of profit.

We understand here in North Dakota what cost an oil spill has on the economy and the environment. The economic impact is felt because the oil companies are fined a small amount, and the state government foots the bill if the oil company doesn't fulfill their requirement to clean the entire spill up. In fact, ask Alaskans or Floridians how easy it is to clean up oil spills and how short the time is that the oil is a minor hindrance to enjoying the environment. Here in the 2nd largest oil producing state in America, we have had oil companies flaunting their breaking of the rules. We have had radioactive socks that are supposed to be stored with Nuclear waste just thrown into dumpsters and stored en mass in abandoned buildings. We have had oil spills and leaks that the oil companies had to notice, but conveniently missed. Oil flow regulators have conveniently become broken and miss leaks on the pipelines. But I just know that wouldn't happen on the Keystone XL, would it? Oops, maybe I spoke too soon.

Alberta is known for it's gas and oil. Unfortunately, the canadian oil companies seem to know how to spill lots of crude like their American counterparts. The West Coast Native News has been compiling stats about oil spills in Alberta. And the thing is that spills are not uncommon. In October alone, Crude Oil and toxic produced water was spills in the amount of 600,000 Liters. 1 Liter is equal to .264 gallons. So what we have is approximately 158503 Gallons of toxic stuff being spilled in Alberta for 1 month. There are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil or 3774 barrels of crude or water mixed with crude that is spilled in Alberta in 1 month. Now let's ask this question. What makes us think that the companies that are spilling all of that sludge in Alberta will make the pipelines safer here in America? We know that the federal government regulation is a joke. We understand that the companies will not police itself. So the question still stands. Why do we think that the Keystone XL pipeline which is carrying oil through the heartland of the United States will not have the same problems?

Another thought came into my head. Remember when this was first proposed? Why was it that we needed to have this pipeline? Oh, I remember. It was for energy security and independence from the rest of the world. We needed this pipeline to produce crude so we can refine it and eliminate the importation of oil. Does anybody remember the arguments of the GOP back then? And why can't the GOP members of congress who have fought tooth and nail for this remember those arguments? And the reason I believe that this pipeline isn't being used for energy independence is also from the GOP. Remember when Iraq was hot and heavy with American casualties? The GOP was screaming that we needed energy independence and that government regulation had caused oil companies not to be building oil refineries for the past 20 years. And the reason that gas prices had risen so high is because of the lack of refining space. So where does this make sense outside GOP land? You have a lack of space to make the finished product, so you want to produce more raw materials. Where does the raw material go? To other countries so they can refine it and sell it back to us with a markup. That is what I call helping your donors, not solving the nations problems.

Finally, I will go back to a previous point. In all the reports of spills and leaks, there is nothing speaking about what damage the toxic substances do the environment or the wildlife. Why? I believe that it would cause major problems for the supporters of fossil fuels. It has been reported that it will take decades for the local wildlife and environment to revert back to the way it was for just a small spill. They are still finding that the oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico from the Gulfwater Horizon is affecting the wildlife. That it has caused medical problems with people and has killed the ability of people in certain industries to make a living.

This project has the potential to cause major problems for the country. Running pipeline through agricultural land can cause problems for our food. It can cause tainted food that gets into the distribution network and all of a sudden, we have a major catastrophe on our hands. And the reason that we are taking this chance? For money, nothing more, nothing less. Who says that elections don't mean anything. The people that elected the GOP into power knew what they wanted and are going to eventually get it. So if you voted for the GOP, I hope you get what you wanted. If you don't like what the GOP is doing and decided not to vote, stop your bitching. You voted with your non-action. Hope you like what you get.

We Cannot Understand That The US Constitution Is Law Here In ND

On November 4th, the voters of North Dakota are ready to vote a constitutional amendment into their state constitution that contradicts the Supreme Court and their ruling in Roe v. Wade. Here is the Amendment that will pass here.

Constitutional Measure No. 1 (Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4009, 2013 Session Laws, Ch. 519) This constitutional measure would create and enact a new section to Article I of the North Dakota Constitution stating, “The inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected.”

It seems to me that when the Supreme Court goes with a ruling, that the states should say hey this is the law of the land. We should follow it and put our efforts towards other things. But of course, we can't.

So the law here in North Dakota, (which doesn't matter because of the Supreme Court finding that there is a fundamental right for a woman to have an abortion until such time that the fetus is viable), means that the fetus that has been grown into existence two days ago has the same rights as every human walking the state.  And of course, we have over 2,000 children in Foster Care each and every year here. But we cannot figure out how to get them into homes where they will stay with grown ups that love them and set a good example for them when they get out on their own. Let's not worry about those kids, let's worry about those embryos that may or may not get to grow into children and may or may not be raised by caring parents. Because if you listen to the news around here lately, you would think that the majority of parents are only out for their own self-gratification, not to watch out for their children.

I am tired of the culture wars that spring up all the time. I am tired of the divisiveness that come with fighting over moral issues. What works for one person does not work for another. Why do you think that the language of the Constitution is so vague? It is because the framers figured out that putting strict guidelines would only alienate people, not bring them together. And this Constitutional Measure will cause more divisiveness.  But I can also tell you that I will keep fighting to have the laws of the land followed and not changed by some people that have the might of their morals and virtue to change things. Especially if they are close-minded. Here is looking at you, the North Dakota State Government.

Oh, Tell Me What You Would Do

Yesterday, I was watching the Senate C-SPAN channel and listening to the Senators argue whether or not we should pass the resolution about loaning Ukraine money. There were people like Senator McCain, Reid, and others ready to pass the resolution and others were arguing that they didn't like the IMF role in distributing money and that it might take money out of the defense budget. And while I understand both arguments, it is the ones that oppose the resolution that I want clarification from.

The ones that are fighting this, are also the ones that are screaming in the media that we need to stop the Russian aggression in Chrimea and Ukraine. That Vladimir Putin is the current Joseph Stalin and is invading countries to rebuild the Soviet Union. That we need to intervene militarily to stop Russian incursions because after Ukraine will be the Russian speaking Baltic States and then he will continue to move west into neighboring states that declared their independence from the Soviets back in the 90's. While I don't believe that this is going to happen, let's say for arguments sake that you are correct. That everything happens above. What should we do?

Religious Freedom Legislation And The Problems Ahead

Arizona missed an opportunity to become the 1st state in the union to openly discriminate against everybody who isn't a Christian and didn't follow the Bible, thanks to Jan Brewer's veto of the bill. SB 1062 would have been the first shot in the dividing of the country by religious sects. And we will get there. I am almost positive that the "Moral and Virtuous" Christians out there will figure out a state legislature and governor to roll over and get this passed in their state. Believe me, Arizona might be the one in the news, but there are other states out there that are thinking the exact same way as the people who pushed SB 1062. Although there will be nothing within the next month that will get passed, later this year, the ball starts rolling again in the states.

The Arizona debacle has stopped other states in their tracks. In Kansas, the Senate decided not to consider the bill. Of course, the House there had passed the measure. And I am sure that the Governor there would have signed it into law. I am ashamed that South Dakota had this legislation even considered. It was tabled in the Senate Judiciary Committee. In Tennessee, the sponsor had withdrawn his support of the bill there. In Ohio, the bill put forth was withdrawn. In Georgia, they had one each for the Senate and the House. The Senate bill had been withdrawn. The House bill is proceeding but it won't get through the Senate even if it does pass the House. In Indiana, lawmakers abandoned a constitutional amendment that would have protected religious schools and charities from discrimination lawsuits. Utah tabled the resolution there.

The Christmas Day Hit Job

Once upon a time, I used to pronounce UPS as "Oops!". They would knock on your door, then leave one of those delivery notices almost immediately so you wouldn't have a chance to meet them before they drove off. Or if you were (un)lucky enough, they would toss your package onto your balcony, contents be damned. Oops.

To be fair, UPS has really cleaned up its act over the past few years. You can now sign up for UPS My Choice for free and digitally give them a shipping release to leave your packages at your front door so you no longer have to visit their regional center at 8pm to pick them up. Through that service, they also send you email alerts to let you know a package is on its way. From my experience with UPS My Choice, they have never lied about when a package was going to be delivered. And this holiday season I used them a lot. They even delivered my new work computer in two business days just before Christmas -- as promised.

The same can be said about FedEx. They were a frequent visitor to my lair during the past month, and only once did I have a package delivered late. Even then, it was only one day late and it was attributed to the weather delays both companies experienced about two to three weeks ago. So you can imagine how upset I was when I read this poor excuse for journalism hit piece on both companies on MSNBC.com.

Both companies are The Grinch? They are to blame for customers not having a Christmas? Bullshit.

Common sense tells (most of) us that buying last minute gifts via the Internet is a tricky proposition. In order to receive those gifts on time, a lot has to go right. The retailer has to pack and ship the order in a timely manner. The carrier has to pick the merchandise up and deliver during said deadline. The weather also has to cooperate, which rarely happens. The buyer also has to input the correct address and payment information into their computer. Any deviation in that chain of events will cause deliveries to be late.

Maybe Tony Dokoupil and MSNBC should put the blame where it really belongs: consumers and the companies that enabled them to buy at the last minute and overstress these carriers beyond their capacities to service customers?

To read comments written by people who put so much value into the consumerism part of Christmas makes me sad. Christmas should be a time to reflect on what you're thankful for, not what you don't have. If you have a warm home, food on the table and reliable transportation, be thankful you have the basic necessities. There's a lot of people out there who rely on food banks, Section 8 housing, WIC and/or public transportation to get by, and that number is not diminishing. Nor do they care if their precious new tablet/laptop is under the tree on Christmas morning.

This was a great Christmas for me, and I'm grateful since there have been others in recent years that didn't go as well. The holiday season when I had to spend my last $120 to euthanize a beloved pet still haunts me. Then there was the one when I wasn't sure where I was going to live after January 1st, and I had to ask my father for a loan to pay rent -- a loan that I wasn't 100% sure I could pay back as promised. There was one Christmas where I was wrongfully terminated from a job three days prior, and then another one where I didn't get to spend Christmas with anyone. And I'll always remember the holiday season when my mother was in the final stages of terminal cancer and was taken by ambulance to a hospice center on New Year's Eve.

These are some of the reasons why I have no sympathy for those individuals who ordered their gifts online at the last minute and then bitch that the CEO of UPS is getting paid $9 million a year to run the company and had the audacity to let his employees have Christmas off. When you put consumerism and your selfish interests over the true meaning of Christmas, you cease being a Christian in my eyes.

Who cares if a package gets delivered a day or two after Christmas? Whatever happened to "It's the thought that counts"? Or forgiveness?

George Carlin - The American Dream

My favorite comedian of all time speaking truth about "The American Dream".

A Rant About Opposition To The Affordable Healthcare Act

Cross-posted at An Angry Dakota Democrat

Over the past 30 years, every politician that has run for the White House, had a platform for reforming healthcare so that all Americans get adequate healthcare. So when President Obama used his political capital of his first term to pass the Affordable Care Act, which could conceivably give health care protection to millions of Americans who did not or could not afford protection before, I thought it was a good idea. After all, I thought, who would balk at the idea of holding people personally responsible for obtaining health insurance so the costs of most medical procedures would not come back on the rest of the population who have insurance but continue to see rates rise. Boy was I wrong. There was stiff resistance from Day 1.

Outrageous Indeed

#Outrageous! 7th grader suspended from school for playing with an airsoft gun in his yard http://t.co/LdIkkHecWO

— NRA (@NRA) September 24, 2013

Three days ago I was very upset about the above tweet, and I still am. Why, do you ask? The above Tweet is all the proof you need to know the NRA doesn’t give a fuck about responsible gun use, even if it’s only a “toy” pellet gun.

The above picture is a Crossman Stinger P311 Airsoft pistol you can buy off Amazon for $14.97, and for a similar price at your local WalMart. It may not be the exact gun these kids were “playing with” near a school bus stop, but it’s very similar and there’s nothing about it that makes it a toy if misused.

The Stinger P311 is a pellet gun that uses air to discharge pellets or other projectiles at up to 325 FPS (feet per second), which is powerful enough to break someone’s skin and/or seriously injure them if shot in the eyes. It is designed for target practice and not for use or purchase by children under the age of sixteen.

The fact is, kids barely old enough to be teenagers, shot other kids with an Airsoft gun without a care for basic firearm safety or local firearm laws… and yet the NRA thinks it’s outrageous these kids are paying the price for their stupidity? The NRA, and their members that agree with them, are wrong.

If these punks were arrested and sent to Juvenile Hall rather than suspended from school, do you think the NRA would still be outraged?

Don’t get me wrong. Target shooting is fun when it’s done right. I love my pistol crossbow. It shoots 6 1/4” field point bolts at 165 FPS, and I only use targets designed for its use or homemade ones that will prevent any type of “pass through” through wear and tear.

Even though I cannot kill someone with my pistol crossbow, I treat it as if I can. I never load it unless it’s pointed at the ground. I never put my finger near the trigger unless the safety’s off and I’m already aimed at my target. And I’ll never aim it at a human or animal unless I’m in mortal danger and I intend to kill them.

The fact these kids were never taught basic firearms safety, local laws, or to respect what damage guns can do is what we should be outraged about.

There Are Good Things Going On Out There

In most of my blog posts, I am usually railing against things that I dislike. The current GOP, racism, stupidity, hypocrisy, and the Minnesota Vikings immediately pop into my mind. And it is easy to blog about those things that you have a distaste for. Take the government for example. The viper's nest that is congress can be described as the place that is a big sucking black hole that rips Americans of their hopes and dreams. And that is a mild description of that place. Pair that with the sports teams in D.C. and you have one big cluster.

But from that place, there are some things that have actually happened that helps Americans. The Affordable Health Care Act or Obamacare, if you prefer. There are reports of Healthcare companies actually giving rebates to their customers because of the over inflated prices that they have been charging. Healthcare companies have to pay 80% of their premiums that they get from people on actual healthcare for their clients. (I know, what a concept!) So people are actually paying less for their healthcare. The insurance companies that have been raising rates at double digit rates for the past years are now actually having to hold their rates to lower increases or in some instances at the same level or even lower them. This is causing calls of Socialism by the GOP. It is socialism to give subsidies to companies like Exxon-Mobil and BP, so until you want those to end, shut the hell up about any sort of socialism.

The American economy continues to limp along. It is expanding, unlike what it did under our last Republican President. The past 3 years, each and every month we have had private sector jobs increasing. That should show an economy that is real strong and growing by leaps and bounds. So why doesn't it? The public sector cutting jobs right and left. If the public sector (government) would have just kept the jobs that it had in 2010 and not eliminated them, the Unemployment rate would be down to around 5 to 5.5%. The economy would be plugging along at a good clip and we would be hearing that the American economy is looking strong and will get stronger. But the sequester and the cutting of public jobs has kept the economy sputtering along. I list this as a good thing because I still have in my mind the economy losing tens of thousands of jobs each and every month. That was a disaster. Right now, the GOP is choking the economy. That cannot last forever.

The evolution of what is acceptable for a "typical" American family. Gay people can now marry in 13 states and Washington D.C.  As we learn more about human physiology and biology, we are understanding that being gay isn't a choice, it is the way that we are born, whether we are hetero or homosexual. That allows more people to be eliminated from second-class status here and gets us closer in America to becoming a true society without prejudices concerning sexual orientation and the display of our affection to one another.

The discussion of how our government operates in regard to surveillance and the privacy of Americans is also a good thing. Since 9/11, we have went overboard about security. We traded some of our rights in order to feel secure. The government has went way over the line where they should have been stopped. Some of that has been from congress. Some of that has been from the Executive Branch of our government. And the people that we expect to stop those excesses the Judicial Branch, have went right along with the other two. Now since people are finding out what the government has been doing, there is push back on what the government has said is constitutional and they are scrambling to ensure that their programs will hold up to constitutional scrutiny. That is good for those of us who want government to operate out in the open as much as it possibly can.

Let's talk American energy independence. Right now, America is the leading country in Solar power. Of course, that means that the GOP is fighting to cut off any investment in it from our government. Electric car technology is advancing each and every year. More people are conserving more and looking at ways to become less dependent on their local energy companies. They are growing more of their own foods and looking at local ways to solve problems. That is a good thing.

There are other things out there. Look at how California has bounced back utilizing some of the principles that Democrats have spouted over the past decade. We finally have a few Republicans that are standing up to the Tea Party who are hypoctrites, through and through. We are pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a major upheaval and exchange of ideas going on internationally. And while that does come with bloodshed and a couple of false starts for democracy being spread, remember, America didn't start out as a Democracy and there was around 90 years of simmering resentment before our Civil War.

Not everything out there is great in America. Racism and profiling is on the rise. You have simmering resentment from each and every racial group. We have screwed up majorly on our foreign policies. What we say are values are in regards to democracy and the capitalist system is not extended to anywhere past our borders. We also will not support people who we say are our friends if we believe that we can get further ahead by backing others. There is way too much stalling and obstruction in Washington. The government doesn't respond to the citizens. It causes problems for individuals and businesses all the time. But until someone can come up with a better way to govern, we need to work within the system and take the positives that we see and try to extend the principles from them into the problems that we have.

Christianity and GOP Rhetoric: An Unholy Union of Hypocrisy About Abortion

I need to rant about this for a minute. This really isn't about the faith of Christians. This is more about the hypocrisy of the Christian sect and the GOP in particular. Over the past couple of weeks, I have seen little blue and pink flags populating yards around town. They are particularly conspicuous on church lawns. Those little flags represent fetuses that have been aborted. GOP leaders here in North Dakota are supportive of this demonstration.

Now I am not going to argue that abortion should be legal or not. And I applaud people and organizations for standing up for what they believe in. However, I will take the Christian church to task for this show of their beliefs. I understand that abortion is not correct in the Christian faith. And they have every right to say that. The one thing that I wonder though, is when they are going to take a stand against the greed that is shown in America. Where is that demonstration going to be shown to the public. When is the stand against the death penalty going to appear on the lawns of churches around the country? Where are the little flags to promote the cause of helping children, for having families adopt those kids in foster care? The banners out in front of the doors asking for fairness and equality for all God's children, not just those that have the right skin or the influence where they live. I am waiting, but I don't think that I will see any of those things. Why? Because the majority of leadership in America's Christian Churches have drank the Republican Kool-Aid and have fallen in line with the ideology.

Besides, it shouldn't matter what the Christian faith says about abortion, just like it shouldn't matter what it says about gay marriage. Here is what the 14th Amendment says about American citizenship:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

Here is where the conservative theology runs contrary to their rhetoric. According to their vision of America, we need to follow the constitution. I believe that as well, so the 14th Amendment says that when a baby is born, they become an American citizen when born on American soil. Until that baby, embryo, zygote, or whatever you want to call that thing in a woman's lower torso for 9 months is born, it does not have protection as an American citizen according to the Constitution or current American laws. And for the argument that science has changed and our knowledge of human anatomy and biology has increased dramatically since the 14th Amendment was passed, it does not matter. Just as the 2nd Amendment is ironclad according to conservatives even when science has changed the weapons and kill rates that are inflicted, so it goes towards the embryo that the woman carries. Another GOP do as I want and don't worry about what the law says topic, apparently. Instead of trying to get the constitution changed, they are trying to short-cut the law making process just like gay marriage and not follow what it says in the constitution.

In the end, the GOP is working hard as hell to get abortion outlawed in the states. They are using their allies in Christianity to help them. No matter what the GOP says, they are still using the Culture Wars to try and win elections. They know that is the only thing that they can use to win elections. Because if they try to win on the economy, reason, or jobs, pretty soon they will become an endangered species and then Christian churches will have their influence wane. We can't have that. After all, having Pat Robertson and Ted Haggert out there preaching to us that the conservative way is the right way helps keep the GOP looney and America divided about everything. Nothing like helping our enemies in the world, right GOP?

Guns, America, and Stupidity

In the latest issue of Sports Illustrated, there was an article about Frank Hall, the football assistant that limited a school shooting to 3 dead and three others injured. I became teary-eyed reading about what he did and the difficulties that he had after that day. I also was teary-eyed because of my selfishness. I had forgotten all about Chadron, Ohio. How do you forget a news story about a teenager killing three people in school?  The sad thing is that I am not alone. I would bet that 99% of Americans forgot that fateful day. Why? Because our civilization doesn't care.

This is the ending of the 10 pages devoted to this story by Gary Smith:

Two months after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, Rob Cox - the cofounder of a nonprofit formed in Newtown to help it heal - was leafing through a dozen boxes containing thousands of cards and letters that had poured in from around the world. He came upon one from Chadron, offering encouragement and details of what had happened there, and he was mortified.

He went around Newtown, asking neighbors and friends, but their responses were all exactly what his had been. Chadron? No trace in their memories of that town or school. No trace of a shooting there just 9 1/2 months before their own. No memory of a football coach saving his school from a slaughter far worse than it might have been.

Which meant the clock was already ticking in the land of amnesia. How long before Newtown, too, was gone?

In 2014, Newtown will have been forgotten my most of us. You say that isn't possible. But it is. Columbine doesn't have the same horrific visions as it did just 5 years ago. How about Oikos University? Do you remember that shooting? Did you even hear about it? I know that I didn't. I am sure that you didn't know that there have been 74 school shootings since January 1, 2000.  147 people have died in those shootings.

If you listen to the NRA, the way to lessen those numbers is to allow everybody to have weapons in schools. Never mind that the amount of deaths attributable to shootings in the United States during that same time period is approximately 375,000. The number of shootings during that time is estimated at over 2 Million. And according to our U.S. Congressman, Kevin Cramer in the House from North Dakota, the reason that we have school shootings is legalized abortion. Well, I think that his solution to the problem is just as bad as the NRA's.

The reason that I bring this all up? It is amazing that both Democrats and Republicans cannot come to some agreement to try and prevent the five shootings at school that happen on average each and every year since 2000. We have seen that Washington will not listen to the public. Some sort of gun control is needed. And don't tell me about the 2nd Amendment. The thought that all weapons should be available to anybody didn't come into the consciousness of the American Court system until a court in Georgia back in the 1830's said that the 2nd Amendment meant that a person could own any weapon that they wanted. Seems like that isn't a Founding Father declaration there.

It is time for the adults of both side of the political spectrum to come together and come to some sort of agreement on firearms. Let's see why a person needs a semi-automatic weapon besides in a theater of war. Let's agree that shotguns, pistols, and rifles are needed by people and should not be regulated. But there needs to be a conversation that is rational where the NRA, Kevin Cramer, and the No Weapon Coalition are not invited. Maybe, just maybe a civil discussion and following the public opinion on firearms will cause a small ratcheting down of the partisan rhetoric in American politcs.

My Case For Same-Sex Marriage

In 1974, the Supreme Court said in the Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur court case that the "freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause.”  If that is a fact, and it is, then marriage equality for homosexuals should already be recognized.

Arguments of the Crusaders against same-sex marriage do not stand up to scrutiny if you think about it. The tradition of marriage is a farce.  The traditional marriage supporters say that marriage has been between a man and a woman for 2,000 years. Then why did the Catholic Church argue against a white man marrying a non-white woman in the 1967 Supreme Court case of Loving vs. Virginia? In that case, the court said “The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men. Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man.”

There is the thought that a marriage is for the procreation and raising of a family. But if that is the reason why marriage is allowed, why do we as a society allow those who are unable to have children to marry? Why do we allow senior citizens to marry? They aren’t going to procreate and be able to raise a family. Also, science has become advanced enough that a woman does not need to have sex with a man to have a child. And if the goal of marriage is to raise a family, why do we allow people to get divorced if they have kids? I believe that a loving same-sex couple that is married is a better situation for children than a divorced couple. Also, how is it that people would say that a heterosexual that has been engaged in crimes against society would make for a better parent than a homosexual person that has never committed those types of atrocities against society.

The argument that angers me the most by anti-same-sex marriage crusaders is the one that the majority of people that molest children are gay people. Their conclusion is that gay people who get married and have children are more likely to molest those children. In a Pediatrics ’94 Journal article, Dr. Carole Jenny and her colleagues reviewed 352 medical charts, representing all of the sexually abused children seen in the emergency room or child abuse clinic of a Denver children's hospital during a one-year period, from July 1, 1991 to June 30, 1992. The molester was a gay or lesbian adult in fewer than 1% in which an adult molester could be identified – only 2 of the 269 cases.

Let’s examine why same-sex marriage should be allowed. Allowing same-sex marriage would stop the discrimination of people’s basic civil rights, strengthen the institution of marriage and society, and allow for what was not seen as an abomination by the Lord.

In 1989, Denmark allowed for domestic partnerships.  72% of the Danish clergy argued that it was a bad idea. A survey of the Danish clergy in 1995 found that 89% of the Danish clergy admitted that the law was a good thing. It included a reduction in suicide, sexually transmitted diseases and promiscuity and infidelity among gay people. This “experiment” shows that same-sex marriage could have the result in strengthening not just the institution of marriage, but to the society as a whole. In 2010, Denmark passed a law saying that gay and heterosexual marriages were the same in the eyes of the law.

An experiment at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm Sweden which is part of the National Academy of Sciences found in brain scans that key structures of the brain governing emotion, mood, anxiety and aggressiveness are alike in gay people of one sex and heterosexual people of the other sex. The fact that it is a physiological difference between being gay or straight means that not allowing the fundamental right to marry is purely discriminatory. It is the 21^st century form of racial discrimination.  

The biggest reason for my belief in why Gay Marriage should be legal is the Bible and the relationship that Jonathan and David had. “And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Wherefore Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son in law a second time.” (I Samuel 18:21, English Revised Version)

Saul had three children. Merab the eldest daughter, Jonathan, Saul’s son, and Michal, the youngest daughter. David was never married to Merab. The Bible says that David and Michal did marry. So that leaves a marriage between David and Jonathan that was acknowledged by Saul. That means that David, who is in the bloodline of Jesus Christ, became the King of Israel and did the Lord’s bidding had a relationship that was an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. That doesn’t make any sense in a Biblical sense because according to the Bible, the Lord would have seen David's relationship with Jonathan as an abomination and would have killed David. Israel would have lost the greatest king that it ever had and the promise of the Israelites would not have come to pass. So either God is a hypocrite in the homosexual way of life or man changed the Bible to cause the act of homosexuality to be taboo. We can't determine which one it is because we don't have the original transcripts. I tend to be on the side of human interference in the Bible because according to a Professor of Religious Studies at UNC@Chapel Hill, we have over 700 bibles written in Ancient Greece that scholars can study and no two say the same thing throughout the texts.How does that happen? Human interference.

Since freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause, gay marriage is a human right. The grand experiment of America demands that equal natural rights to be obtained by everyone, not just heterosexual couples. It doesn't matter what Christianity or any other religion says. Same-sex marriage should be the law of the land. And before everybody says that it is a states rights issue, look at the constitution. All states are supposed to recognize the licenses and contracts between people of another state. So even here in Deep Red North Dakota, we are supposed to recognize the gay marriages that are performed in Vermont, Iowa, Washington, Minnesota in August and hopefully soon in Illinois. Following the Constitution is what everybody on the right says they want. Well, let's see if that is true.

A Dying Vet's Last Letter

Crossposted At An Angry Dakota Democrat.

He is angry and has every right to be. From Truthdig:

A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney

From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

I agree with Tomas Young about the former President and Vice-President. I will mourn Tomas Young when I hear that he has died. I already mourn those brave people who died in Iraq and what I think was the personal vendetta that George W. Bush settled with that invasion of a sovereign nation.

Irony of Ironies in the Gun Control Debate

"American Sniper" author Chris Kyle shot dead in Texas

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21313208

(STORY: 3 Feb 2013 -- Iraq veteran and ex-US Navy seal Chris Kyle, known as the deadliest sniper in US history, has been shot dead on a Texas shooting range, reports say. His body was found at Rough Creek Lodge range on Saturday with that of another man. Mr. Kyle, 38, wrote the 2012 bestseller "American Sniper," about the psychology of a sniper, in which he said that he had killed more than 250 people.)

I find this story ironic (and apropos) because I'm currently in a fairly intense FB "discussion" on the topic of gun control (not your discussion, Lawrence Ross, another one). My friend's point is--guns, themselves, are not inherently evil (I agree), they have a constructive utility and they shouldn't be demonized as merely tools of destruction (I disagree). One of the ironies of this story is Mr. Kyle, the victim, made a prolific, unashamed living with a gun, justifiably killing people (a LOT of people) in
combat, and while in the act of using his gun, presumably for recreation (on a shooting range), he's murdered by a man using that same recreational "tool."

The opponents of my viewpoint will likely NOW argue that the perpetrator was a criminal--an example that more gun control is superfluous and doesn't prevent any kind of crime...or rage, or suicide, or accidents. Maybe he's right, but I'd give you 10 to 1 odds that before Chris Kyle's killer pulled the trigger and made himself a murderer, he was an otherwise law-abiding, accountable, licensed, and trained gun owner--the model of the kind of responsible owner that we paranoid "gun controlist" shouldn't be concerned about. It's the "other guy"--the criminal, that should worry us.
It's ironic (and perhaps convenient to the "right's" argument) that the people who commit these kinds of gun crimes aren't themselves criminals UNTIL they unlawfully pull the trigger! This guy became the "other guy!"

I was once told that gun control is not about the gun, it's about the "control." (Uh, yeah--isn't that the point?) It's perpetually argued that we (America) need [more] guns to protect us from the kind of people who murdered Mr. Kyle. I find it disconcertingly tragic that Chris, finding himself on a shooting range, presumably armed with his own gun, wasn't able to prove that theory right. I wonder if they'll now hire armed guards to guard shooting ranges! How ironic!

I agree with the NRA: Guns don't kill people; people kill people....with guns!

NRA

Other than the fact this little picture doesn't address the line in the Second Amendment that says "the people," meaning a plurality not the individual, this hits home pretty well.