The gay marriage issue: a compromise

First of all, this is a hot-button issue, so I’m asking up front that everyone be civil and polite if you choose to comment.

Thanks.

Now, the way I have seen it up to now, gay marriage was a no-brainer.  Yes.  Make it so, Number One.  What’s the hold-up?  Well, now I see what the hold-up is all about.  What we need is a way to sell something to both sides that everyone can agree on and that provides a measure of freedom and respect for all sides.  I’m not going to do a bunch of stat quoting or linking to historical treatises.  I’m just going to spell out this idea and hope that many of you agree and we can run with it.

There is a way that everyone can feel like their rights and beliefs are respected.  The issue as I see it revolves around the term “marriage.” Traditionally is is a religious term.  So let religion have it!

We need to appeal to the state to get a license as it is now, right?  OK.  Let’s change the term.  It’s not a marriage license, we’ll call it a “joining license.” When you fulfill whatever requirements your state has (blood tests, etc.) then that’s it; you are legally joined by the proper filing of the document.  Taxes, survivorship, the whole legal package that comes along with the concept is yours without any further ado.

Now, if you believe in marriage as a sacrament or a ceremony of any kind, religious or not, and you want to do that...well, that would be between you and your church, synagogue, mosque or secular organization of choice.  That would be a PRIVATE ceremony that has nothing whatsoever to do with the government.  We eliminate the government entirely from the equation, thereby achieving a further measure of freedom and reducing government’s influence on our private lives.

I can’t imagine an argument against this plan that doesn’t come from bigotry.  If you can make one, please do.  If all you can say is “Gays are bad mmm-kay?” or “Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve” then please save your comments for somewhere else.

I believe that by adopting this plan, marriage is protected for those who believe it is a matter of faith and tradition.  Gay people get full legal rights equal to anyone else (not special rights, but regular, equal ones).  We would all be on the same level playing field as far as the government was concerned.

*Update* And if any state tried to pass a law banning civil unions between same sexes, it would be obvious as being bigotry, and therefore can be challenged as being unconstitutional.

Divorce would still be a legal process.  Nothing would change.  People would still wed in big elaborate ceremonies in various religious locations.  Non-religious folks could have secular ceremonies.  Every wins, everyone is treated fairly.  That’s my idea.

If you agree with me, start talking about it.  Let’s see how far up the ladder we can push this.  It took many many years to achieve most of the freedoms we take for granted in America.  I don’t expect this to catch fire overnight.  But if you like the idea, start talking.  The only way this will work is if we, the people, decide that freedom and fairness for all sides is ultimately the most important part of the issue.

Posted by JimK at 11:23 PM on November 04, 2004
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Categories: Personal,  Things To Ponder,  Politics

Get well Mrs. Edwards

Elizabeth Edwards Has Breast Cancer

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, was diagnosed with breast cancer the day her husband and Sen. John Kerry conceded the presidential race.

Spokesman David Ginsberg said Mrs. Edwards, 55, discovered a lump in her right breast while on a campaign trip last week. Her family doctor told her Friday that it appeared to be cancerous and advised her to see a specialist when she could.

...

He said the cancer was diagnosed as invasive ductal cancer. That is the most common type of breast cancer, and can spread from the milk ducts to other parts of the breast or beyond.

More tests were being done to determine how far the cancer has advanced and how to treat it, he said.

I strongly urge my fellow bloggers not to get distasteful with this.  Schadenfraude is all well and good when it comes to the election, but don’t cross the line.  That could be your wife or your mother or your daughter.

Posted by JimK at 07:56 PM on November 04, 2004
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Categories: The Blogosphere,  Politics

BLEGGING TIME!

OK, it’s been awhile, and you know I wouldn’t ask if we didn’t have to.

Our provider says that the errors are definitely RAM relatedand they would be greatly alleviated by adding another gig of RAM to the server (bringing us to two gigs).  It’s going to cost, though...since we’re leasing this, they charge a monthly fee.

So we need a few bucks.  Not a lot, $400 bucks should cover it for the remainder of our lease.  And so I humble prostrate myself before you, the goodly and kind readership, and ask that you hit the donation links over to the right.

Remember, every time you see an error message, God kills a kitten.  Won’t you please think of the kittens?*

Apologies to Fark for Grand Theft Cliche

Posted by JimK at 03:53 PM on November 04, 2004
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Categories: Technobabble (Technology)

Wann see a nut?

Democratic Underground much, Greg?

I know you don’t want to hear it. You can’t face one more hung chad. But I don’t have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it’s my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry.

Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. CNN’s exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53% to 47%. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio’s male voters 51% to 49%. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.

Exit polls.  The guy is actually claiming election results based on exit polls.  Like the numbers can be trusted.

Anyone who ever thought Greg Palast had credibility was sadly, sadly mistaken.  And can we finally put the usefulness of polls to bed now?  Polls is polls as the saying goes, which is to say polls is suck-ass wastes of time.

Posted by JimK at 01:19 PM on November 04, 2004
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Categories: The Stupidity Of Man,  Politics

Sad

Archer says hopes to settle Rosa Parks-OutKast case

Former Mayor Dennis Archer, who just finished a term as head of the nation’s largest lawyer group, says he hopes to settle two lawsuits brought by civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks over use of her name by the rap group OutKast.

U.S. District Judge George Steeh appointed Archer as guardian for the 91-year-old Parks on Oct. 15 after it was disclosed that she has dementia and other medical problems.

“If we can resolve it short of trial, we intend to do it,” Archer said.

Parks was 42 when she refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955. Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system organized by a then little-known Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Parks’ lawyers filed a lawsuit against OutKast in 1999, claiming it wrongly used her name in the title of a song. A suit filed in August seeks damages from the group’s record companies and two major booksellers.

I hope this ends with the suit being dropped and OutKast slipping Rosa a few bucks voluntarily to help out with medical costs or hatever else she needs at this stage in her life.  I thought the suit was silly when it first made news, and they should be able to mention a historical figure if they want...but it wold be a nice thing if they kicked a couple bucks to help out after the suit is dropped officially.

Best for all parties, I think.

Posted by JimK at 01:05 PM on November 04, 2004
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Categories: Entertainment,  Other

Arafat kicks the bucket?

Check this out:

REPORTS: YASSER ARAFAT IS DEAD

And the story headline:

HOSPITAL OFFICIALS: ARAFAT IS NOT DEAD

Ohpleaseletitbetrue ohpleaseohpleaseohplease.

Posted by JimK at 12:50 PM on November 04, 2004
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Categories: The Middle East

An open letter to the open letter writers of the left

Dear American Left,

I know why Bush won.  I know why you lost.  No, not just lost...were rejected.  I know exactly why, and we’ll get to that in a minute.  First, though, just let me say this: If you think that spewing hate and invective on me now is going to make your life improve in any way whatsoever, you are a bigger group of fools than anyone imagined.  If you think calling me more names is going to get you what you want in this country, you are not just acting foolish, you are delusional and maybe your hatred is more than just a little self-oriented.  The reason I say “I” here instead of “we” or “The GOP” is because I want you to understand something so basic, so fundamental that I am ashamed for you that I have to spell it out.

I am the Republican Party.

Oh, I may not be a majority of the party yet.  I am strongly in favor of gay marriage and completely against most of the pro-life points of view (for reasons that transcend the circular discussion of when life begins).  This makes me an outsider for the moment, not part of the mainstream of the GOP.

But my numbers are growing.  And my age is a factor.  You see, the old guard of the Republican party is quite literally dying, and we, the younger members, are moving up.  It won’t be long before we are a majority influence and can turn the party back toward preserving the ideals of smaller government, less interference in both business and private life.  I believe it is possible to embrace both traditional and progressive values.  I do it every day.  I believe that it is possible to hold our military up as the primary reason the federal government exists and still manage to protect the rights of two people who wish to legally share their lives, and I will work within my party to make that happen.

I am the Republican Party.  Or more appropriately, I am the future of the Republican Party.  And if you think keeping me on your side is worth anything, you might want to re-think the idea of calling me a bigot or a Nazi or spewing hatred at me.  Your ideals were soundly rejected, and if you stopped whining long enough to ask, some of us can tell you why.  Part of why you don’t know is the fact that you haven’t stopped whining in the last four years.  The steady stream of hate, lies and vitriol from the American left has hardened the American right in ways you can’t begin to imagine.  You tempered us.  You forged us in the fire of your hate, and you made us stronger than we every could have without your steady litany of bile and complaint.

I’ll give you a perfect, shining example of why you lost.  His name is Michael Moore.

Before Moore burst forth with his theories of 9/11 conspiracies, “seven minutes,” blood for oil, Taliban pipelines etc., very little actual criticism was levied at Bush beyond the misguided notion that something errant happened in Florida.  If Moore did not exist, I believe that cooler heads would have realized that a never-ending flow of recounts all proved one thing: Bush won.  Period.  And we would have moved forward.  9/11 would still have happened and we might have had a chance at keeping some of that unity we all felt, but along came Moore, and in tow came the most extreme elements of the American left.  Bolstered by the Hollywood liberal, the MoveOn/Democratic Underground lunatic, the darkest fringes of radical American liberalism were given credence simply by being a market share.  Fine...free markets are great.  Moore has a message, you provided an audience, money was exchanged.

But then you started taking those messages into the political arena as though they had validity.  And most of America looked at you like you just grew a third eye right in front of them.  And still you persisted, getting more and more hateful, telling more lies, spinning out-of-context elements and juxtaposing any and every situation in order to try to hammer home your talking points.  No matter what the discussion, you brought it back to one of Moore’s talking points.  If the topic did not fit your need, you forced it, or just ignored it altogether and ranted away.

You never stopped for a minute to consider the fact that you might be wrong.  And yet that very behavior is one of the greatest criticisms of Bush by the new radical left.  Ironic, I think.

You took this new radicalism so far that your candidate for President, a man who is guided by polls, took a look around and said “Oh, I get it.  There is energy around this new radical hate of the President.  I will base my message not only around my questionable service, but around this new radical hatred, even if most of it is baseless or contradicts what I said just six or twelve months ago.”

Make no mistake, people, two things lost you this election.  First it was your incessant need to spew vile invective at anyone who did not think like you, and secondly, like Nader in 2000, you have one man to thank, and his name is Michael Moore.

As proof of the lack of class, take a look at his site today.  As of this writing, that filthy excuse for a human being has replaced all his crowing and self-righteousness with a photo of Bush made up of the first 1000 soldiers that died in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I know, from VERY personal letters that I will be sharing with everyone soon, that at minimum, 75% of the people pictured in this photo hate Moore.  They cannot stand him and would be deeply offended and disgusted at being used in such a manner.

I see that he doesn’t care, and to be honest, I bet you don’t either.  And that’s another reason why you lost.  You ignored the voices of those who would die to protect you.

Let me say that again in a different way.  There are a few million men and women who have volunteered to give thier very lives to protect you.  Can you even grasp the enormity of that concept?  After 9/11, knowing there was going to be a military response, hundreds of thousands of people volunteered to join the military to defend you.  TO protect you.  To take whatever action they could to try to prevent your death in another terrorist attack.  They are willing to die for you, and you ignored them.  You treated them like mindless pawns.  You used them and then tried to elect a man that has betrayed them time and time again.

Do you have any idea how that must feel?

Regardless of your position on Iraq, whether it was warranted or not, they have a position, and that position is overwhelmingly in support of Bush, the idea of the war, the execution of the war and the goal to stay until the work is finished.  And you ignored them. Worse, you ridiculed them.  You called them “kids” and “children.” You painted them as bloodthirsty savages hell-bent on murder and sadism when you heard that a small number of individuals did some pretty nasty things to some prisoners.  They never forgot that, you know.

And that brings it back to the hate and bile that poured forth from the left.  The hate and bile that is still pouring out today, perhaps at an even greater rate.

I spent all night last night blogging the election...reading websites, tracking data, reading other blogs, talking about it, watching TV, etc.  This morning, while I was still awake after the long run, I was both smug with the win and giddy with relief that we avoided electing a man I have come to despise, and I threw it right in the face of some people on another website.  To that person; If you’re reading this, I apologize for my tone.  Not my content.  You still have some lessons you need to learn, and if you want to move out of the country because of this...more power to you.  I don’t believe you will.  But that doesn’t excuse the way I spoke to you, and for that I apologize.

Something that person (and the rest of you to whom this letter is addressed) is going to have to learn is that telling me I’m stupid, a racist, a bigot, or whatever else you may come up with is going to result in exactly one thing; further marginalizing you as a political power in America.  What you need is me as your ally.  Your inside man.  Someone who will fight you on a lot of issues, but will also fight for you on others.  Why?

Because I am the Republican Party.  And right now, we control the game.  If you want to play, you need to re-think this idea that throwing tantrums will get you on the field.

Talk to me.  Treat me with respect.  And you just might find yourself with the most powerful ally you can imagine: someone who shares a vision of a more free, more perfect America.

*UPDATE*

Some people seem to have missed my entire point.

Look at it not as a political issue, or a moral issue or a social issue or anything else but a practical issue.  The fact is, if the American left wants to make a difference in America in the next four years, you do not have a choice except to deal with Republican control.  That’s the fact.  Complain all you want, but that is the way it is.

Do you think namecalling is going to change it?  Will it make it easier to get your ideas heard?  Will it make it easier to get yor ideas into law?  Of course it won’t.  That’s a pretty stupid premise.  When you want something from someone, do you berate and scream at them, or do you ask?  What do we teach children, to throw tantrums, or to ask nicely?  WHat method do you prefer to be used on you, threats, tantrums and vicious personal attacks, or a request for civil conversation and a sharing of ideas with the goal of reaching an accord?

As a matter of consistency, how is it that the American left will literally march in protest over the United States not using diplomacy, and yet are physically incapable of using diplomacy to deal with the right?  Doesn’t that just scream “hypocrite?”

To address another issue; No, I’m not a spokesman for the GOP.  But someday I will be. If not the GOP, then some other form of conservative movement that will be in control.  And my memory for things like who has attacked and berated and browbeat me is long, my friend.  Very, very long.  Especially for people who attack me for things in which I do not believe without even a moment’s hesitation to hear my point of view.  I do not believe it is in my nature, nor the nature of others, to simply take abuse and reward the abuser.  That behavior is considered an illness in this country.

Yet another mistake I feel some have made in interpreting what I wrote is that I declared Moore some kind of kingmaker.  No...Moore wanted to be a kingmaker and failed because his message is too full of lies and insanity to appeal to moderate Democrats.  However, that did not stop the leadership of the party from adoptying his rhetoric of lies.  By choosing to adopt Moore’s litany of deceptions, the Democrats also galvanized the right into a stronger force than they have been in decades.  Basically, Moore promised you the moon, and what you got was a cheap card with a picture of the moon on it and a note inside that read “Yeah, I failed, but you paid me millions, so screw you.”

Oh and can we drop the “revolution” nonsense?  As a practical matter, you couldn’t possibly pull off a revolution.  We own the guns and the military.  It was brought up in the comments to this post and it’s not anywhere NEAR the first time I have seen that in the last 48 hours.  It makes me laugh every time.  It also IMMEDIATELY makes me think the writer is a Grade-A idiot for even suggesting it.

If you would be willing to revolt over one election, you’re not someone who should be taken seriously.  On any level.  But that doesn’t matter...what are you gonna revolt with?  Spitballs?  As for legal secession...go ahead and try.  No blue area of the country can sustain itself.  Too many people, not enough actual production.  Stop playing martyr, stop playing victim, stop spewing hate and calm the hell down.  Take a breath, admit that the country is much more conservative than the you wanted to admit, and let’s find ways to compromise.  That will never happen while you are busy calling me “fucking stupid” and “a goddamned redneck” and all the other vile things I keep seeing.

The harsh reality of, for the next four years, we *don’t* need a consensus.  The Republicans can, if they so chose, run the country with absolutely zero input from the parts of the left that refuse to tone it down.  Should they?  No.  Can they?  You bet your ass.  That’s a wake-up call for the American left.

Someone should answer the damned phone.

Posted by JimK at 07:27 PM on November 03, 2004
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Categories: Personal,  Things To Ponder,  Politics

Caption Contest

Here’s the photo:

Disqualified due to someone else using it on another site and it being hysterically funny:  “Hey Dick...guess what....you’re President again.”

My caption is “Yeah, when I told him to suck the balls, he was all ‘Why you gotta be such a sore winner?’ and I said ‘Suck it, Horseface!’”

Posted by JimK at 11:53 AM on November 03, 2004
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Categories: Humor,  Politics

Concession

CNN, with no link yet, is reporting that Kerry is calling or has called Bush to concede.

That’s the one thing he could have done to keep my estimation of him just above “maggot.”

Posted by JimK at 11:18 AM on November 03, 2004
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Categories: Politics

Explain something to me

After the hatred, vitriol and general unpleasanteness we’ve had to endure from the left this year, is there any reason we shouldn’t take a few days to gloat and celebrate?  Why is it up to us to take the high road after this cathartic victory?

Why isn’t it up to the losers to shut the fuck up and let us have our moment?

I have been personally attacked, insulted and brow-beaten more in the past year than when I lived with an alcoholic, drug-addicted parent.  So to all those who partcipated in such behavior, I say go fuck yourself.  You lost.  Deal with it.  We can unite as a nation tomorrow...or next week.  For now, I’m going to stick my middle finger in your face and tell you where you can put your whining.

Posted by JimK at 09:10 AM on November 03, 2004
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Categories: Personal,  Politics