California Approves Gay Marriage: Not Surprising Really

Well, it's happened. Gay marriage is now pretty much official in California. But we really shouldn't be surprised with what happens in a state that voted to legalize pot. Less surprising is that the Court that declared California's "only one man, one woman," recognition of marriage unconstitutional, was in San Francisco.

Shocked I know. Go figure.

So now, according to the California Supreme Court, what the majority of the populace in the state wanted, is now officially declared unconstitutional. I say majority, (which is indisputable,) since in 2000, about 62% of the state voted in favor of a DOMA (defense of marriage act) describing a recognizable marriage as being between one man and one woman.

I guess what the masses want, the masses DON'T get. The squeaky wheel it seems, has gotten its grease. Or should I say, gotten its K-Y jelly/Astro-glide? Whichever they prefer these days.

It wasn't a total blowout though, which was the suprise to me. The descision as it turns out was 4-3 in favor. Those Justices (if you really want to call them that) in favor of were, Chief Justice Ron George and Justices Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar and Carlos Moreno. Those opposed, which I might add deserve a thank you for not just "caving-in" were, Justices Marvin Baxter, Ming Chin and Carol Corrigan.

So now will be the endless back and forth for those like me who are still archaic enough to believe in traditional marriage. As we trudge forward and try to have it engraved in the State's Constitution that marriage belongs between one man and one woman only. Odds are, we won't succeed at it. But for now, the state of California is still part of 'the land of the free.' At least, until Hillary or Obama get in office, in which case, it will become the U.S.S.A.

I suppose within a few years, we will probably be hearing how unconstitutional it will be to deny a man from marrying multiple wives? Or a woman from marrying her 9 yr old student?

I bet the LDS and NAMBLA are just creaming thier jeans now.

Heck, let's just push the envelope a bit and add a few farm animals in there. Why not? Even the Cannes film festival cheered on a shock-u-mentary about the "love" between a man and a supposedly consenting horse. By the way, the horse won.

I wonder just how much more of this "tolerance & diversity" crap we will be expected to put up with.

There's a little more available on this on YahooAP news.

Safe Deposit Box Thefts; By BIG Government

Wow! Just wow! I knew that big government always equalled BAD government. But California it appears ranks number one in thievery from it's own citizenry. It has sung a tune of about $5.1 BILLION dollars worth of "unclaimed" property that it has partaken of.

This is the kind of reporting about government people need to see from our "fair & balanced" media. Not the annoyingly repetitive, roboticly overused same 'ol song and dance line of "Bush Bad, America Bad." And not too amazingly, it comes from one of the only news outlets aside from FOX, that I still have the slightest bit of liking for. Albeit, they still all have a slant that I disfavor.

ABC News recently reported that State governments have been claiming supposedly "unclaimed" property, and depending on its type, using the revenue for its own means. At one time a couple decades ago, the time span for property to be deemed "unclaimed" was about 15 years. And at the 15 year mark, the states still had to diligently attempt to contact the owners of said property.

Over the years, that time frame has drastically shrunk from 15 years, to seven, to five, and currently holding in at three years. Supposedly, this was due to times of "budget crisis's" of one form or another. More accurately though, it was a steady stream of free money that the state wanted. It should also be mentioned that it's come to the point were California hasn't even been bothering to try and contact the rightful owners.

As found in the ABC article, California State Controller John Chiang, who inherited the situation when he came into office said, "What we've done here over the last two decades has been dead wrong. We've kept the property and not provided owners with the opportunities -- the best opportunities -- to get their property back." And now he apparently has the duty of trying to repay all those, well technically speaking, "THEFTS."

But you've got to read the article over at ABC's page. There's a whole lot more that's been looted and squandered beyond safety deposit boxes.

By the way, that $5.1 Billion payback.... does that include interest?

Rev. Wright's Tuskegee Error: Real History Says Otherwise

This was an interesting article I found on Townhall.com, regarding the misinformation about Tuskegee. The Tuskegee that Rev. Wright alluded to in his, “Based on this Tuskegee experiment ... I believe our government is capable of doing anything,” comment. That was his response to being asked if he truly believed the Government created AIDS to kill blacks.

The article was written by Jonah Goldberg and titled, "Tall Tales About Tuskegee ." And after actually digging into some history myself on this topic, it appears Wright, was WRONG. Pardon the pun. Yes, Tuskegee it turns out, was a despicable act. It denied the humanity of a group of people. It was misleading, as they were told they were being treated, but were merely being studied. I can fully comprehend why blacks have a sincere distrust towards our government because of it.

But they should dislike, hate, whatever, for the historically correct reasons. Not because of the concoctions of a racist preacher.

If you ask blacks in America today, if they believe the government did invent AIDS as a form of genocide against them, believe it or not, upwards of a third of them will say YES. As those that believe that, will also believe the inaccurate version of Tuskegee. So here's the short version of what happened way back when;

Public Health researchers back in 1932 wanted to study syphilis. Since black males seemed more prone to it than white males, they chose them for the study. Almost 400 black males who were ALREADY infected and in the tertiary-stage of the disease were selected, as they were no longer contagious. Keep in mind the year 1932, as this was PRIOR TO the advent and availability of penicillin.

So they studied these guys for about 40 years. And when standardized penicillin treatments did become available in the 40's to 50's, the researchers weren't sure it would have helped anyways. In fact, some believed it may cause the subjects of the study further harm or possibly even death trying to treat the decades long infection.

There is no doubt of, but much debate over, how much racism may have been involved. But it remains undisputed by scholars that genocide was not a factor. Nor was the desire to infect the population of blacks as a whole.

There's a lot more detail in Goldberg's article, which I recommend you read to catch up on the, "Wrong of Wright."

High Gas Prices: SO WHAT!

So, is someone holding a gun to your families head threatening to shoot if you don't drive that Cadillac Escalade? No? Perhaps your pet's have been kidnapped, never to return unless you drive that 8-cylinder Mustang GT. No again? The you don't have reason to whine. But much reason to learn about economies.

Apparently, it's a topic the major media outlets skipped in journalism school. Instead, they opted for electives like "Reality Shows 101." This being since all we hear anymore is a few seconds of how terrible gas prices are these days. The remainder of the newscast is nothing but who got the boot from Dancing with the Stars or American Idol.

Go figure.

So here is some general info to put some things into perspective for those who "missed" how prices work. And hopefully, will effectively turn the "whiny factor" off for many of them.

Grocery Stores. Many people visit them and some, remarkably enough have noticed that prices have climbed a bit over the last couple years. Namely, in areas like bread, corn, rice, sugar as well as a few other staple-foods. Much of this is directly attributed to the false sense of hope that "biofuels" will become the next best thing. Whilst all it really does is aide in the starvation factor being felt in much of the third world.

But are you aware of the fact that Grocery Stores operate on approximately a 30-35% profit margin? That amount varies of course by location, as well as the department (i.e., produce, meats/seafood, canned goods, etc.) within the store itself. It averages out to the low to mid thirty percent bracket generally. That's a fairly hefty bit of a profit there. Are we demanding that Congress now hold "hearings" about the amount of money grocery stores have been making off the American public?

No.

Now compare that, with the $11 Billion record profits that Big Oil companies made last year. Which by the way is the only other thing we get to hear on the news besides gas prices and Dancing Idols. Oh no! How dare Big Oil make a profit! That's unheard of in a functioning Capitalist Economy. Hearings about this we have heard of. Several times now in fact.

Kinda makes me wonder why anyone would even bother starting, or continuing to run a business these days if all anyone is going to do is try to cause you to make NO money at it. But these are evil Big Oil companies we're talking about. Companies that made "Record Profits." Yeah, profits they EARNED, working on only a 10-11% profit margin! Yeah, that's all they make. Especially when you consider all they have to SPEND in order to make that.

Oops, it sounds like the whiners didn't take that into account before they started howling. Must have missed that part since they were probably busy ordering their half cafe-decaf-mocha-latte-triple shot-essprese-ccinos.

Something else for the "my panties are in a bunch over fuel costs" crowd might need to know is that other countries are WILLING to pay the higher prices for the oil. India and China come to mind as large populated countries with burgeoning middle classes. People who never owned a car, can now afford them, requiring a skyrocketing need for fuel in those countries. You can thank outsourcing for that. They pay it, so can you.

Let us not forget the enviro-tards that have been denying for decades the offshore shelves and ANWAR to the evil Big Oilists. The endangered Arctic Butt-Fly colonies and Luffa migrations apparently take precedence to National needs, which isn't helping our situation any in reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

So work towards changing things like opening up new areas for drilling, or Get Over It!

Yeah, it really is that simple.

Myanmar: Is A U.N. Invasion Possible?

Is this now a realistic possibility brewing over Myanmar? Based on the possibility of undergoing an almost self-imposed Genocide under the Junta? With tens of thousands already dead, and many more deaths predicted, could we possibly see the international community demand the U.N. act through a forced incursion for humanitarian sake?

I DO believe this can become a reality, though a hard fought reality. I have little faith in anything positive emerging from the U.N. But on a disaster of this magnitude, it just may be possible.

In my previous article I mentioned some comments made by Mrs. Bush during her press conference on the situation in Myanmar. While announcing the aide made available, she had scolded the Junta for being inept. But also for failing to warn the populace of the impending storm. She had also derided them over continuing to push forward with their sham of a constitutional referendum despite the disaster that had struck.

From the way things are being played out there in Myanmar, I don't believe the two are a coincidence. It looks to me as if the failure to warn the people could have been intentional. The Junta are extremely paranoid, and suspicious of the outside world. Coupled with their fear of a nation-wide uprising, I could see why they would withhold warnings. More dead means a smaller possibility of an uprising by the populace. And with such devastation at hand, even less people available to challenge their so-called "referendum."

Sound far fetched? Let's now add to the mix, that the Junta has begun seizing the humanitarian aide that has made it into the country. Tony Branbury of the World Food Program has said that, "there's enough food sitting on the tarmac there in Myanmar to feed 95,000 people for a couple days. It's going nowhere." Furthermore, additional incoming aide is now being denied entry into the country.

The U.N. is already stated that it's outraged over the recent developments there in Myanmar. It has said that this is exactly what it had feared may happen without U.N. aide disaster teams being allowed to accompany the shipments.

All of this leads me to believe that eventually, the international community just might begin to demand that the U.N. take some form of action. By force if necessary, simply on the humanitarian basis to prevent a genocidal environment from deteriorating further.

Whilst I was scribbling out my notes at work prepping for this article, I brought this issue up with several co-workers. Mind you I work in a very liberal environment, and even professed Liberals were adamant that action be taken to secure the lives of the populace of Myanmar.

Perhaps this isn't so far-fetched a possibility after all....

Book "What Muslims Really Think": Hammer Drops On Credibility

About ten days ago, I tapped out an article about an upcoming book titled, Who Speaks for Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. Shortly there after, I added a comment regarding an article from jihadwatch.org that cast suspicions on the authors. Apparently, the mis-information runs even deeper.

The authors of the book, Dalia Mogahed and John Esposito (prior to my discovery of the Jihadwatch.org article,) were listed with high regard as to their credentials and associations. After discovery of the article on jihadwatch.org, that quickly went south.

As I mentioned in both my article, and later in my comment, I wasn't going to hold my breathe. But one could "HOPE" that the info was true that most muslims were moderate. Ever the eternal optimist am I,... I suppose.

Now, as found in a The Weekly Standard article by Robert Satloff titled, Just Like Us! Really? the authors did some serious cooking of the books regarding the percentages of "moderate" to "radical" thought lines. Originally, it was cast as only 7% of muslims favored or supported the 9/11 attacks. In actuality, that percentage as Satloff found, is a bit closer to 36% as shown in the article.

When one considers that there approximately 1.3 billion muslims in the world, 7% is no small number. Over 90 million to be more precise. But now, with this new revealed info of upwards of 36% of muslims falling into a category of favoring terroristic ideals, that puts the numbers up over 300 million. Roughly, the entire population of the United States, not including all the uncounted illegal aliens in country. That's a lot of suicide bombers when you think of it.

So, I'll continue to plod along, knowing better about the islamic community than the touchie-feelies want me to. Happily accepting the title of infidel, or islamofascist. And continuing to push for legislation that makes life miserable for those wishing Sharia upon America.

The Governments Housing Bailouts: Why Is This Even Being Considered?

I wasn't particularly thrilled with the idea of bailing out Bear-Stearns. I could partially understand it, but I don't believe it was warranted. And that was a Republican maneuver. So have politics now become a "We must one-up the other's," arena with this push for Housing Bail-outs?

Why is this even an issue eating up taxpayer's money to debate in Congress? When did it even become the governments responsibility to bail-out those who made bad financial choices? It's not an area that the government should push it's nose into. That's the beauty of free enterprise and a self adjusting market. Let the housing issue play itself out. Companies fail, new companies emerge.

The same goes for the housing industry. Home values rise, home values fall. Yes, it really is that simple.

Awww, but all those millions of people who will loose their homes. Don't you even care? Oh, You mean those millions of people who are actually ONLY 0.5% of the housing market that's in trouble? Yeah, I care. It's called TOUGH LOVE. My four words for these folks... "Too Bad, So Sad." If you only make $20k a year salary, you have absolutely NO business taking out a $900k home loan. Sucks to be you if you loose your house. Tried to make a quick buck by buying a house low, just to flip it 6 months later, and now your stuck with it?

Guess what? "Too Bad, So Sad." Sucks to be you when your now filling for bankruptcy. Odds are, the higher percentage of those losing their homes are potentially in this bracket.

Which brings me to another point. I RENT, an apartment. I PAY my monthly rent. Why in the hell should I have to cough up an extra $6,700+ a year (with no closing clause in the bill,) to bail these people, (who can't be bothered read the fine print in their own loan agreements,) out of their mistakes? That's the dollar amount that each American will be looking at in new taxes, should either of the Democrats two Bail-out plans go through.

Fortunately, the President has already stated that he will Veto any bail-out proposals. Well, looks like he can make good decisions after all. Hopefully, he will spend his last few months making equally good choices.