Month: May 2008 Page 4 of 7
Today the California Supreme Court determined that California law may not prevent marriage between two people simply because they are the same sex. From the opinion:
[R]etaining the designation of marriage exclusively for opposite sex couples and providing only a separate and distinct designation for same-sex couples may well have the effect of perpetuating a more general premise – now emphatically rejected by this state – that gay individuals and same-sex couples are in some respects “second-class citizens” who may, under the law, be treated differently from, and less favorably than, heterosexual individuals or opposite-sex couples[.]”
Forward we go.
Update: Lowell, at RaisingKaine, says “Hello, Virginia?” Which can only make me laugh. Virginia’s got a long and well-earned position at the back of the pack when it comes to issues of basic human equality. And Virginia’s Democrats have little to be proud of in this area. The current Democratic governor, Tim Kaine, opposes gay marriage. VA Sen. Creigh Deeds, declared Democratic candidate for governor, opposes gay marriage. Far too many Virginia Democrats (and Virginians in general) mumble something about “folks just aren’t ready yet” and then overlook the naked bigotry of their political leaders. It may be “Forward we go” for the country as a whole, but Virginia will drag its heels the whole way there.
Jon Stewart helps illustrate what Obama will be up against this fall. This clip is about West Virginia, but the problem expands well beyond there. I don’t really think that there’s any hope of winning over people like this. Rather, the trick is to make sure the group doesn’t expand. A tall order for the Obama campaign, I think.
I’ve been thinking a lot about big numbers, lately. The 6,000 that accompanied the first reports of the cyclone in Burma was something I could sort of wrap my head around. I could picture 6,000 people. I could understand that 6,000 – coming from the military government running the place – probably meant that it was a lot more. But I wasn’t sure how many more. It seems to be rising exponentially. The Red Cross’ warning of 128,000 just surpassed my imagination.
And then the earthquake in China hit, and I first heard 10,000. We’re used to big numbers in everything from China, but it was still clearly a massive event. And as that number was rising today, I was trying to fathom it. How did it compare to the events in Burma? What would it be like if it happened here in the US?
Turns out, I was reaching for the wrong end of this. All I needed to do was understand a very small number. In this case, it was just 3. How so? Listen to this short NPR audio report from the ground in Sichuan, in which Melissa Block accompanies two parents looking for their two year old son. Don’t read, don’t look. Just listen.
That appears to be the core claim of this ridiculous piece, which is a rehash of something I’ve seen peddled on Virginia political sites before.
I can’t figure out whether the bigger threat to American society is the faux-security presumption against public photography or simply the feeble-minded sense of authority by middle management figures like Robert H. Mangiante, Assistant Director at IPC International Corporation and guardian of DC’s Union Station against unapproved pictures.
Just yesterday, I had recommended Jaipur as a “breath of fresh air” to a friend considering traveling there. Jaipur was, in fact, the highlight of a trip through India a couple of years ago. My impression of the place was one of refuge, of education, of being apart from it all. And then today I see that there was a multiple bombing of this city. This doesn’t change any of those impressions, but it does cast a sad pall over them.
So it looks like John Hagee has decided that the Catholic Church isn’t a “Great Whore” after all. Apparently all those years of preaching were just a bit of a misunderstanding on his part. Gosh, I wonder if this has anything to do with the time he’s been spending with his new BFF John McCain? One has to admit that McCain has demonstrated a pretty remarkable talent for compromising his own supposedly core principles (see, e.g., his embrace of previously rejected “agents of intolerance“, mockery of his own campaign finance reform laws, and support of torturing other human beings).
It seems like it was just yesterday I was saying that I intended to do a better job of paying attention to the (Democratic) Virginia Governor Tim Kaine’s proposed transportation bill this time around. 
Wait, it was. And yet already the usual flat earth Republicans (who control the Virginia House) have declared that they intend to – once again – just stick their fingers in their ears and yell “nyah nyah nyah, can’t hear you!”, making any serious examination of the issue near pointless.
Short of Charleton Heston bringing a burning bush into the VA GOP caucus that instructs them to actually *do* something (and even then . . . ), it looks like Virginia’s Republicans are planning to simply sit and watch NoVA’s traffic strangle itself. There’s a lesson about a goose and a golden egg here, but these Republicans aren’t exactly the forward looking sort. (For real insight into the Virginia Republican mind on this, see Waldo’s helpful translation of Attorney General Bob McDonnell’s take on the bill.)
This is one of the reasons I’m not entirely kidding when I say that Northern Virginia would be better off on its own. As a result of Virginia’s Constitution, the localities in Northern Virginia can’t do anything without the permission of the rest of the state. Despite the fact that the most economically robust region in Virginia can afford to fix its own problems, it instead exists in virtual gridlock. The Republican politicians in the House reject any transportation solution involving taxes, thus burnishing their No New Taxes Ever credentials for the voters back home (places where “traffic” involves two cars approaching a one-lane bridge, it seems). These Republicans trade addressing a fundamental public need of the citizens of Northern Virginia for their own personal political advantage. And there’s nothing Northern Virginia can do about it.
There’s no Republican plan to do anything about transportation, and there won’t be, as long as they’ve got the power to block progress. So maybe it’s not the best idea to spend too much time picking through the details of a bill that, as necessary as it is, looks to be going nowhere.
Photo: Elephants holding up traffic (admittedly not in Virginia)