Who to Believe?

According to two different stories that hit the Net just a couple of hours apart, opponents of Proposition 8 raised more money than those backing the measure, and vice versa. According to the Wall Street Journal, backers of Proposition 8, which will amend the California Constitution to remove the right of same-sex couples to marry, raised $3.7 million in the first half of the year, compared to $2.5 million for the opposition (some of which came from me). But the San Jose Mercury-News reports that opponents of Proposition 8 raised $2.6 million to the backers' raising $2.3 million. Both stories report that Prop 8 proponents raised more money out-of-state.

"A tax on stupidity"

An interesting piece by David Brooks in today's New York Times, discussing the growing wealth gap and how current systems reinforce it.

Money (literally) quotes: "The country’s moral guardians are forever looking for decadence out of Hollywood and reality TV. But the most rampant decadence today is financial decadence, the trampling of decent norms about how to use and harness money."

"A household with income under $13,000 spends, on average, $645 a year on lottery tickets, about 9 percent of all income."

You simply must...

click here, if only to read the headline. For some really sobering reading, click on the link that takes you to www.boycottmcdonalds.com, and navigate your way to the comments page. You'll see plenty of ignorance and fear -- plus the reason why Americans are so fat.

Hyperbole on Parade

As I predicted, the Christianists are attacking marriage equality by raising the specter of a country without freedom of religion.

Money quote: ""If you don't care about this campaign, don't want to get involved, you can go to jail and start a wonderful prison ministry," Garlow adds. "But if you want religious freedom, we're going to have to win this thing.""

Reaping what they've sown

The religious right (and the right in general) have been dismissive of the humanity of GLBT people, and once again we see the result of their efforts. The shooter at the church in Tennessee who last night killed two people and injured seven revealed his motive in a letter: he hated liberals and gays and chose a church that was welcoming to gay people to express his hatred.

When gay people are demonized, and when liberals are called "traitors" (as they quite often are), it's not surprising to see that some will act as they have been taught to act when confronted with "demons" and "traitors."

Rodney King had it right -- can't we all just get along?

The Sanctity of Marriage, Part 1

No active link, but if you copy this into your browser -- http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5457915 -- you can watch a "Good Morning America" piece on a couple that got married at the demolition derby.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll post other video of other weddings that don't seem quite as sacred as the right would like us to think is the case.

Quote for the Day

"We're all born naked. Everything after that is drag."

RuPaul

Talkin' About A Revolution

Orson Scott Card, a Mormon science fiction author with wide crossover appeal, has put to paper his thoughts on the same-sex marriage issue. He's agin it. So much so that he thinks it will ultimately result in the overthrow of the US Constitution. Money quote:

"What these dictator-judges do not seem to understand is that their authority extends only as far as people choose to obey them.

How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn."

Hitchens was right: religion poisons everything.

Their cup runneth over...with anger and vitriol

Here's a comment posted on OneNewsNow, a Christian "news" service (Hey, if they can put marriage in quotes...) on a story about a therapist in the Bay Area who feels under attack because most of her colleagues oppose Proposition 8.

"The homosexual community is going to cause a civil war in the streets if they continue to keep pushing us around. They better back off becuase (sic) the sleeping giant which is the heterosexual community is awakening and getting sick and tired. Once we begin to push back, the homosexual community isn't going to know what hit them."

Do what you will -- you'll never find our Weapons of Mass Fabulousness!

Super!

Pronounce that "sue-pear," since this is a French language site showing "70 amazing business cards." And they are. Some of my favorites:

The Foes

This is the sort of thinking that is out there (this being a quote from the comments section of the Napa Valley Register, asking for people's opinions on Prop 8):

"John Richards wrote on Jul 19, 2008 7:50 PM:
" Even if we accept that gays are born that way, that does not mean that homosexual activity is normal or acceptable. I believe all of us are born with some sort of handicap or 'thorn in the flesh'. How well we deal with that handicap has great bearing on what happens to us in the next life. Some people are born cripple, yet (unlike gays) they don't insist on running foot races with able-bodied runners."

No Complacency, Please

Promising new poll numbers out yesterday. According to a Field Poll, 51% of likely California voters plan to vote "no" on Proposition 8. 42% plan to vote to write discrimination into the California Constitution and 7% are undecided.

Remember, though, that on Proposition 22, the most recent vote on marriage equality in the state, polls showed the measure barely winning and it ended up taking 61% of the vote. Bigots, it is not surprising, tend to lie about their bigotry to pollsters.

More analysis here. What you'll see in that breakdown of numbers is that every age group opposes Prop 8.

Tell Your Friends

I've just returned from an organizing meeting in the "No on 8" campaign. It was wonderful to be in the presence of like-minded people (including quite a few heterosexuals) ready to stand up for equality.

110 days until the election -- if you believe in equality and don't want discrimination written into the California Constitution, you need to vote no on 8, and ask all your friends and family to do the same.

This won't be the last time I ask you this. This is very important. It's the biggest battle for civil rights since the 60s. You are going to be part of history. The question is, which side of history will you be on?

Counter Arguments Due Today, continued

I read this just now, another article regarding the attempts to remove Proposition 8 from the ballot, primarily because it represents a "revision" to the Constitution, rather than an "amendment." Not an easy read, but a convincing case.

Money quote: "If the Supreme Court permits Proposition 8 to be placed on the ballot, the Court in fact would have harmed the very institution it sought to protect. If Justice Ronald George and the California Supreme Court fail to remove Proposition 8 and we win in November, our marriage rights may, NO RATHER WILL, be put up to a simple initiative vote at every major election cycle. Whoever loses will always return. And with that threat, same gender couples will face the continual threat of invalidity, without any of the permanence the framers envisioned for the California Constitution."

Counter Arguments Due Today

Although it's been mostly under the radar, opponents of Proposition 8 filed a brief on June 20, asking the California Supreme Court to remove the initiative from the November ballot, on the grounds it is not an amendment to the Constitution, but a "revision," which requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature or a constitutional convention. Will they succeed? It's apparently a long shot, and I have mixed emotions about it. If we thought there was a backlash to the Court after their 4-3 decision creating marriage equality in California, imagine the shrieks from the right if the judges took the decision out of the hands of the people again. I'd like to hope we can defeat Prop 8 on its merits (or lack thereof), but I'd prefer not to have the stress on election night of wondering if my then 11-day old marriage will stand.

Read a bit more here.

Is He Worth It?

If you haven't already heard, big fat idiot Rush Limbaugh signed a multi-year $400 million contract to continue spewing lies and vitriol over the public airwaves. And I will defend to the death (or perhaps to the point of mild discomfort) his right to do so. I'm a pretty big fan of the First Amendment.

But the bigger question is, is he worth it? I suppose if any broadcaster is, Rush is. Why? It's not just because he delivers an average of 20 million listeners a day. It's because of who those listeners are: dittoheads. That's Rush's term for his hard core fans. The ones who say "ditto" to everything that springs from his insubstantial, OxyContin-coated lips. If you were an advertiser, wouldn't you want to reach an audience that refuses to think for itself, preferring instead to defer to the mighty voice on the radio? Wouldn't they be the kind of folks who will blindly follow all the pronouncements coming from the speaker -- including the commercials?

Compassionate Conservatism in Action

Oh the humanity!

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

The Market Works

For all the Democrats' past fuming over the reduction of CAFE standards (the requirements for car manufacturers to meet certain levels of MPG efficiency), it seems the market may be doing a better job than legislators ever could have of encouraging the production of higher mileage vehicles. And American auto makers may have shot themselves in the foot by lobbying for lower standards. GM stock is trading at less than $10 a share, a level it hasn't seen since the Eisenhower administration. (That rumbling sound you hear is my father spinning in his grave.) Meanwhile, Honda -- which happens to deliver a fleet with the best gas mileage and lowest emissions -- is the only car company showing increased sales.

If America had listened, we green-inclined folks were saying the right thing all along. Although it would have been better if we'd started working on better mileage cars and developing solar power years ago, the free market is doing a more powerful job of delivering that message.