Proposition 8 - Is this what we really want?

The California Superior court judges were right. Calling same-sex partnerships something different from hetero partnerships is discriminatory. I think the term Marriage though, does have an established meaning, to too many people, to be changed to include same-sex relationships.
Having said that, perhaps it’s time the government just got out of the marriage business altogether. Let’s remove the term marriage from our constitution and legislation, and replace it with ‘Civil Domestic Partnership’ for everybody. Let marriage be a private institution between people and their faith. All people have the right to be treated equally by the government, regardless of sexual orientation. But no one has the right, either, to legislate change to what has been an accepted understanding of the definition of marriage. This is not an issue of segregation or discrimination. This is about historical meaning and progressive change.

Example: I want to start a new game league. The game will be played on a grid-iron field. Players, six per team, will use long sticks to hit a round ball into a 10’ high goal basket in the center of the field. We will call this game ‘Baseball’.
The game does not meet what we accept as the current definition of baseball, and there is nothing wrong with my creating this sport. I am not entitled, however, to call my game ‘Baseball’ just because I want to be treated the same as other players. We both play a sport, we deserve be respected as athletes equally, but It’s not right of me to hijack the definition of Baseball. Both are sports, and both are played by athletes. Both same-sex, and heterosexual committal relationships are partnerships, entered into by people.

This is not about hate or discrimination. This is not about validation, acceptance, or even tolerance. This is about getting government out of our lives. Separation of church and state applies here more than anywhere. The government should not care, nor be knowledgeable of our internal relationship structure. The fact that two people have conjoined is all that is pertinent. Let all couples have equal rights, protections, and liabilities too, under the eyes of the law.
Let marriage mean whatever it means to those who chose to marry, in the eyes of their faith, or family, or peers, but not their government.

Am I alone on this?

Go “Green”, Glow Green! - Lights Out San Francisco

Tonight as I write this, some residents of San Francisco and Los Angeles are shutting off their lights for an hour to raise awareness for the need to conserve power. I don’t know what they actually hope to accomplish by this, other than wreaking havoc on the states power grid by sending an unexpected surge to the switching stations that are probably running on ‘auto-pilot’ for another typical Saturday evening’s load.

Everyone has jumped on the ‘green’ bandwagon; you see it on TV, you are bombarded with consumer products in the stores and home centers claiming to be ‘green’, and even our politicians are trying to earn votes from you for their ‘green’ efforts. The reality of all of this is mere hype. No one is actually doing much to really decrease their carbon footprint or make a significant or necessary impact on our environment.

There are two areas where we can truly help ourselves and our heirs; Power generation and waste management. Over three quarters (yes 3/4ths ) of our electricity is produced by fossil fuels. Coal makes up for half of the power generated and natural gas and petroleum make up the other 25%. Less than a quarter of our power is produced by nuclear fission, yet nukes are still the most ‘green’ of all power generators. Check these figures at: http://www.eia.doe.gov/fuelelectric.html

To really make a dent in our environmental impact, we need to proruce less trash, and get off the fossil fuels. We need to build more nuclear power plants and give up the pipe dream that solar is going to save the world. If we covered all of the developed farm land in the United States with solar arrays, we would still not produce enough power to satisfy the nations basic electricity needs. And besides, we would all starve while we sit in the dark at night.

“But I don’t want a Nuke in my back yard”, “I don’t want my kids to grow three heads!” “Where will we dump all of the toxic waste that will last a million years?”. Ok folks, the reality of nuclear power is not the stuff of Hollywood. The plants are safer than ever. We really learned our lessons at Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl was a disaster of cheap and lazy government combined with apathetic communist workers. You stand a better chance of being radiated by your microwave oven than a power plant. The amount of actual waste produced by a nuclear plant is nominal as well. The fueling rods last upward of twenty years before depletion, and take up little physical space. The overprotective containment systems consume more of the space than the fuel itself. Though we wouldn’t do it for logistical reasons, we could store 1000 years worth of the fuel, from all of the plants of a nationwide exclusively nuke system, in the space of one abandon Air Force base in Nevada. The aliens there won’t mind either, they already glow green.

Turning off the lights for an hour, switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, and setting the A/C thermostat to 78, will make a small difference in your electric bill, but will do little to help the overall global impact being made. For example, the power consumed by one internet server for an hour (including climate control), exceeds that of the average ‘wasteful’ home for a month.

We're staying on the 'air', deal with it.

Collegiate Illiterates - SDSU Aztec Football

I caught a snippet of the local TV news this morning. The topic was a recommendation by one of the San Diego State University professors to eliminating the school's football team, in favor of cost savings. The interviewer stuck the microphone in front of a couple of students to get their comments.

None of the 'students' interviewed were articulate enough to formulate a contiguous thought, and most couldn't even formulate complete sentences. There was prolific use of 'like', 'um' and 'and what not' as fillers. This was accompanied by comments such as 'that would be a bummer'.

I don't want to dive into the issue of the football team, however it seems to me that they (the student body) need to focus more on their academics rather than their athletics. Dude, like, use the sports time for some, ya know, like, English refreshers man!

Perhaps these deficiencies in language are a result of improper prep work in high schools, and not an indicator of the collegiate systems? Well, they do represent the results of entrance requirements but, I think the root of the evil goes all the way back to the home, the parents, the pre-schools (or lack there of), and the entire educational system. Let's face up to it folks, the world is broken, and we need to act quickly to fix it. How are we to expect the upcoming generation to defend our culture and language against the attack of radical Islam, if they don't even know what it is? I think we need to stop focusing of global warming, worrying about what kind of world we are leaving our children, and start looking at whether our children will be worthy of the world we leave.

Bigger Fence, Bigger Gates (Illegal Immigration)

Here's the deal,

Lock down the borders. East Germany kept people from escaping into west Berlin for some fifty years. We have the technologies to stop the flood of illegal immigrants into this country.

I am NOT against immigration, I am the child of an immigrant. I am, however, against ILLEGAL immigrants. We have laws. Respect them, and I will respect you.

I know someone is going to call me a racist for this post. Get real! this isn't about race or supremacy. It's about protecting my country from the onslaught of resource sucking parasites, and being able to prevent the 'terrorists' and contraband from crossing in along with the sea of migrants.

So, I know you will bitch that if we lock down the borders, we will starve the country of needed low-cost labor. Yes, I agree we need the labor, but I want them to cross legally. Our current system does not allow enough through , so make it easier.

Place many crossing stations along this new 'wall' and allow as many as needed to cross for work purposes. Take their picture, scan their fingerprints, and issue them a tamper resistant photo ID card. Then let them sign an agreement that they will only enter the country for work purposes, and that if they are caught committing crime, they will be deported with prejudice against re-entry. The agreement would stipulate that they can work for whatever wage an employer is willing to pay (do away with minimum wage laws...more on that later), and they will not pay taxes or contribute to social security. Their wages will be theirs to take back home or spend here. We don't really need to care what they do with it. The employer will be required to pay workman's compensation insurance for every dollar earned, but with no minimum pay, and no payroll tax, it would still be more economical for the employer.

Do away with the ridiculous 'birth right' to citizenship. The only way any immigrant can become naturalized is by applying for, and following our current procedure. NO grace periods or 'grandfathering'. If you entered this country illegally under the current system, you need to leave and re-apply for admission like the rest. No credits earned. NO AMNESTY

I don't want to pay for your health care, or your children's education. I don't want to here about your relatives and their struggles back home. they can come here and work, but if they can't work, they stay in their own country. We will be exporting enough monies under this new system that their government should be able to handle their problems there.

This isn't about saving the world from it's strifes, this is about saving OUR country for the imminent demise it will face with the uncontrolled bleeding we now suffer.