A solution to marriage? Just maybe.

I was reading the other day at how so many people are divided over the concept of same sex marriage. While I'm not going to go out and get a boyfriend, I have known and have been friends with a few people over the years who were drawn to partners of the same sex.

Marriage predates reliable recorded history and has been part of the church since the beginning of recorded history. This is one of the points that some have when opposing same sex marriage. They think marriage is and should only be reserved for the union between a man and a woman. Which I am fine with but many same sex couples are opposed to being merely recognized as 'civil unions'.

The daughter of the republican presidential nominee from the campaign in 2008, Meghan McCain, has been very outspoken about and trying to rally support for same sex marriage within the Republican party. However, in my opinion there are many more pressing issues than that to be more concerned about. So I submit my idea to the web via my blog for the consideration of anyone who wishes to read it.

The founding fathers very clearly wanted a nation that would take in and embrace people of all religions. But they also used religious underpinnings when founding this nation that we call the United States of America. However, since that time we have had a great movement to separate Church and State. The merits and results of which can be hotly debated on both sides as to the affect it has had on this country.

Since the nation was founded, marriages have been recognized by the church and the state. When you decide to marry your loved one, you have to go to the court house and apply for a marriage certificate, yada yada yada. But since marriage is very much a religious union between two people and we want to separate Church and State, they why don't we rename the entire institution where it applies to the State as being a Civil Union.

Let this sink in. When you go to the court house, you apply for a Civil Union Certificate. Now if you want to have your 'Civil Union' recognized by the Church, you would then plan to have a Marriage ceremony, which is where the Church recognizes and blesses your 'Civil Union' in the eyes of your Church to be a Marriage.

Another pause to let this sink in as well.

This continues with the whole thing of separation of church and state as well as opening up for the potential embrace of Same-Sex Civil Unions, because everyone is joined in Civil Union according to the State and only the Church can recognize a Union as being a Marriage.

Not only does this help with the whole same-sex marriage/civil union thing but it also protects the sancity of marriage for the church. But it does more than that. The terms divorce and annulment are many times used interchangably by the different states in the union. Some recognize the dissolution of a marriage as a divorce while others recognize it as an annulment.

However, an annulment is another church term. An annulment means that a marriage is consider null and void and it works retroactively. Meaning that the marriage never existed which, in the case of Catholics for example, allows them to be remarried. Since marriage in their eyes and in the eyes of most churches is a lifelong contract between two willing parties that is ratified by Devine sanction. Which means that a valid ceremony/contract must be performed and that both parties must enter into it willingly. If any of these conditions lack, then the marriage is not contracted, Divine sanction is not obtained, and there is, in the eyes of the church, no marriage.

Thus a divorce would be what you had to do in order to dissolve your union in the eyes of the state. Then in the case of a church santioned marriage, you would need to seek to have it annulled in the eyes of the church in order for it to no longer be a valid marriage.

So in summary, Civil Union would be what the State and Federal levels of the government would recognize along with the dissolution of such being a Divorce. The church would recognize Marriages however the church sees fit (be in allowing same-sex marriages or not) as well as a Marriage being considered null and void being called an Annulment.

This will make thing easier and it will also appease both sides of the argument about same-sex marriage/civil unions.

QED.

Rally for the Republic Speeches

Here are the speeches from Jessie Ventura and Ron Paul at the Rally for the Republic. I wanted to have them all in one place so here it goes.

First up, Jessie Ventura:

Jessie Ventura Part 1


Jessie Ventura Part 2


Jessie Ventura Part 2

---

Barry Goldwater Jr. Introducing Ron Paul

---

Now, Dr. Ron Paul:

Ron Paul Part 1


Ron Paul Part 2


Ron Paul Part 3


Ron Paul Part 4


Ron Paul Part 5



Ron Paul Part 6


Ron Paul Part 7


Ron Paul Part 8


Ron Paul Part 9

---

Ron Paul on Glenn Beck September 3, 2008

Constitution Schmonstitution

Thank you congress. Thank you very much for helping to further shred the Constitution of the United States.

If you do not know what I'm talking about then you should be ashamed of yourself. But, recently is came to light that Bush's administration had been authorizing illegal wiretaps behind the back of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) courts. These courts were put in place after Nixon and the Watergate scandal where they were illegally wiretapping the Democratic National Committee. So Bush has been going around these courts so they did not have to get court orders, in a secret court, to wiretap Americans.

The telecommunications companies went along with these blatantly illegal requests. However, the legislation passed today, July 9th, 2008 and is expected to be signed into law quickly, will provide retroactive immunity to these telecommunication companies. Effectively ending what lawsuits are pending against them and sealing any information away from public scrutiny.

The vote passed the Senate by a vote of 69-28 with Democratic majority leader Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton, among others, voting against the measure. Much to many of Obama's followers dismay, he voted in favor of the legislation after vowing on more than one occasion that he would filibuster the measure if needed. This debated sparked the formation of the group "Get FISA Right" on his social network. This is the largest user-created group in his social network by a large margin and they plan to continue exerting lots of pressure on him in the coming months.

Apparently Obama's thoughts of change does not seem to be much different than Bush's direction. I think Obama, Bush and McCain all could benefit from reading Ron Paul's 'The Revolution: A Manifesto'. Heck, if they would read it I will lend them my copy.

Is Deregulation of the Cable Industry good for the consumer?

The Cable industry has argued that government regulation will hold them back from giving the customer better services. Deregulation has been very good for the cable companies. It has let to much, MUCH higher prices. Up until 1984, local governments kept cable prices in check. But their deregulation has led to price hike after price hike (excluding 1993-1996 when the rates were briefly regulated).

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened the doors to deregulation and yet more price hikes. Since the Act was passed, cable rates have increased by 59% which is nearly three times the rate of inflation. So we have the problem of high prices, low competition and horrid customer service. While smaller operators actually improved their scores, larger companies continued to lose ground according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. In the words of Dr. Claes Fornell who heads the study, Comcast set "an all-time low for the largest cable provider in the country." She also said, "there seems to be an element of monopoly-like pricing in the cable industry."

After Congress' deregulation of the cable industry worked so well, is it not fair of them to call for the government to stay completely away from network management and any net neutrality issues? But to cable's credit, it at least provided a real alternative to DSL and also put pressure on telco companies with VoIP service.

Cable has built a broadband infrastructure that, while not cheap or particularly fast when compared to other leading countries, reaches many Americans and in most cases are capable of faster speeds than DSL (DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades which are beginning should see more significant speed gains over DSL in the next few years). All of this without government regulation.

But looking at some recent FCC oversight hearings on network management which focused on practices at Comcast. Its easy to see how important it is to have some sort of public-interest regulator looking over the shoulders of these companies. The internet has become a key resource quick to rival water, heat and electricity as a utility. So such issues are a bit more than some puny private sector dispute.

While new laws and increased regulation may not prove a necessity to keep the internet healthy in the US, it would still be a shame if Congress and regulators like the FCC were so company minded that oversight was a mere formality and enforcement was toothless. This is not a desire by some to involve government in every private sector dispute, but more of a recognition that internet access in a low-competition marketplace is a bit too important than to have total self-regulation.

Like I read, if you think of it as wolves and chicken coops. When the chickens in the chicken coop are the most innovative chickens in the world, where it is a place of near magical scope and a wide variety of egg shapes and colors are laid by the chickens. Any good farmer would at least pay someone to watch the coop with a shotgun to keep the wolves at bay.

More iPhones and a documentary

iPhone

More information has come out from AT&T about the iPhone release and plans. While I'm not going to dig into the plans for the phone itself, I just want to reiterate the pricing of the phone itself for customers.

Steve Jobs was very quick and loud to announce the 'low price' of the iPhone. Well the prices for the 8GB and 16GB iPhones will different depending on where you fit in. I will be giving the prices in 8GB/16GB format so I don't have to reiterate myself each time.

So, to get an iPhone 3G without any contract at all, you will have to pay $599/$699. For customers who are not 'upgrade eligible' you will have to pay $399/$499. Finally, for customers who are 'upgrade eligible', opening a new account or adding a line will be paying $199/$299 for the iPhone. I do not have any sources that explicitly say that iPhone users will be 'upgrade eligible' when the iPhone 3G is released, but many are touting that they will be. Only time will tell about that for certain. Typically, a customer is 'upgrade eligible' when their contract has expired. Which I would expect AT&T to be money hungry enough to do just that because Apple fanboys would still be willing to pay that premium just to have the iPhone 3G.

Don't get me wrong, the iPhone is a very nice piece of technology and it is starting to have a real impact on mobile phone industry. The multi-touch interface and web browsing capabilities were very innovative. I have qualms about the multi-touch because I have large fingers and had problems typing with the on-screen keys. Plus the lack of feedback when touching the keys or numbers was not very user friendly. LG has the Voyager, which has a touch interface with feedback whenever a touch button is activated, which is very nice.

However, the blackberry still seems to be the corporate phone of choice by many companies. Be it the features it has, the pricing of the phones or their possible avoidance of certain mobile carriers (*cough* AT&T *cough*). Holding a blackberry is very nice and I do very well using the qwerty keypad even with my large fingers.

I want to see the reviews of the iPhone 3G after 2 or 3 months of use by an impartial judge. Even then I will still probably be using my LG 8300 phone because its cheap, good, and has excellent signal.

Voting Documentary

Someone twittered a link to a video online, that originally aired on HBO, being shown at freedomdocumentaries.org called 'hacking democracy' about electronic voting. Its a long video at one hour twenty-one minutes, but something very interesting to watch. They visit a company in Huntsville, Alabama and go through the trash from Diebold (completely legal).

Olbermann on Articles of Impeachment

While I have not been too fond of Keith Olbermann since he left ESPN and joined MSNBC, I did like this segment of his show on MSNBC covering Dennis Kucinich's presentation of Articles of Impeachment on president Bush. That and Kucinich has a smokin' hot wife.

Link for those who are 'embedded video challenged'.

4 foot 9 inch, one armed Steve Novick running for Senate

He's a democrat running for Senate from Oregon. He has his own beer named 'Left Hook Lager' and has t-shirts that reads 'Hooked on Novick'. Check out one of the videos he is running for his campaign.



Link to video

A tale of two parties

Well, McCain secured the number of delegates needed to become the Republican party's presidential nominee last night. With that, Huckabee conceded and ended his bid for the nomination. Though I still have my Ron Paul stickers in my vehicle window and the yard sign is still up.

I was tuning into AM 710 today hoping to catch 'The Ultimate Sports Show' only to find out that it was yanked because of low numbers. It has been replaced by 'The Schnitt Show', which gave me a bit of a laugh due to the name. But he started saying how McCain wasn't his first, second, or third (maybe even fourth) choice on the Republican side but he stated that McCain was for lower spending, less taxes and so forth unlike Bush. Well, if you are for lowering taxes you had better lower spending. I cannot spend more than I make in a years time for more than a very short time. Else the bank will come knock on my door.

On the other side, the democrats are in the midst of a huge battle between Clinton and Obama, which is really polarizing that party. She has ended his 12 state winning spree and tighted up the gap in the delegate count. What can be said though, is Obama cannot seal the deal. He has had chance after chance and just can't put her away. Even after outspending her 2-to-1.

But here was a video Schnitt linked to from his page that has a song that his show made about Obama.


External Link Here

Since I know some of you read my posts through some sort of RSS Reader and some of those readers do not display embedded videos, I will start adding hyperlinks to the videos along with the embedded videos.

Sessions at it again?!?

The government should never give immunity to any company on US soil to get them out of being liable for something they may have done that was illegal. Thus I am against the retroactive immunity Bush is trying to get through congress. But ole Jeff Sessions (Senator AL) is trying to do something else now. You might have read my previous post about him, but for those who did not here is what Sessions said back in December.

"The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the constitution than protect our nation's security."

Sessions is now trying to give immunity to other corporations from possible penalties from copyright infringement. Follow this link to read the full article. Here is a little excerpt from the article for your convenience.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has sponsored an unusual provision at the urging of the nation’s banks granting them immunity against an active patent lawsuit, potentially saving them billions of dollars.

Adopted with little fanfare , the amendment would prevent a small Texas company called DataTreasury from collecting damages from banks for infringing on its patented method for digitally scanning, sending and archiving checks. The patents were upheld last summer by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office after they were challenged.

I'm sorry Mr. Sessions but I do believe that you are no longer representing the people from your district but instead siding with certain people within your party.

Attorney General to Congress...

The AG Micheal Mukasey was in front of the House Judiciary Committee and this is basically what he had to say:

The Justice Department will not be investigating if waterboarding is against the law.
The Justice Department will not be investigating if Bush's warrantless wiretapping was illegal.
The Justice Department will not be enforcing any contempt citations that Congress might bring against the administration officials who do not honor subpoenas for testimony.

Great! Enter the era of recourse-free government. I can just imagine the episode of South Park where the music industry person continues to say "We are above the law!" then squirts some hair gel into his hand to fix a sprig of hair on his head.

I read it here.

Down to three...

Just moments ago Mitt Romney has 'suspended' his presidential campaign. So now its McCain, Huckabee and Paul.

Iranian speedboats, primaries, and FISA....oh my!

Yeah, 'Oh my' is my reaction because if anyone has watched the video you have to have some doubt about it. The supposed Iranian voices do not have a very good accent. On top of that, it sounds like an amateur phone prank. It was on the level of calling up your neighbor across the street, while peeking through your blinds, and asking them if their refrigerator is running and then advising them that they had better go catch it. I strike it up to FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) by the pentagon trying to let us bomb Iran.

But after the pentagon and the press has reported on the initial video about 'the speedboaters threatening our warships' they are quietly saying that....maybe, just maybe the voices on the recording may not have been from the Iranian speedboats. This comes from ABC News which is linked here.

I recently saw a very good video about Frank Luntz and his polls for Fox (faux) News. He twists the questions in such a way that he can get whatever answer he wants then pick and choose what he wants to use to support whatever he wants.

On the topic of Faux News, their snubbing of Ron Paul in New Hampshire hasn't looked very good for them. The 'not enough room' argument was obviously not the case. Gretta Van Susteren actually supported the idea of having Paul at the debate (if she truely felt this way or if it was a way for them to use the 'not enough room' argument I don't know).

In the New Hampshire primaries there have been some grumblings about odd vote counts and missing votes. Mr. Kucinich has sent a letter to the New Hampshire Secretary of State asking for a recount in what he says, "unexplained disparities between hand-counted ballots and machine-counted ballots." There have been testimony from a person who worked on some of the software used on these electronic voting machines about how he was asked to make a back door way to make someone win. I am not alleging fraud but there must be checks and balances to ensure a completely fair process. I applaud Mr. Kucinich and hope that NH will conduct a recount.

Now my last bit of news I want to write about has to do with FISA and the phone companies. I have voiced my opinion about warrantless wiretaps and the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Survellance Act) courts. Then I ran across this article. It appears that telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps that have been used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because they have repeatedly failed to pay their phone bills on time. I have not heard this mentioned on television or in the main stream media but I saw this on Yahoo news after checking my email. Its funny if you ask me.

Here is a question that was not part of the re-airing of the South Carolina debates for some odd reason:


Also another link to a site with a video.

FBI Database

Well, well well. The FBI wants to build the worlds largest biometrics database in the world, named Next Generation Identification, at the cost of a cool $1 billion. This is supposed to give them more ways to identify people at home and abroad in one place. They have already started compiling data for this and expects to award a ten year contract so they can expand the amount and types of biometric info it receives.

But here is the other kicker to this story.

"At an employer's request, the FBI will also retain the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks, the paper said."

Again, I am completely apposed to this. The only instance that I am in any way in favor of something like this would be for convicted felons and even then I still have reservations. Knowing that my information could be in that database one day makes me feel that I am guilty until proven innocent.

Update: It has now made the front page of Digg linking to the Washington Post article.

Backward priorities

Well, if you have listened to any of the news stations, its pretty safe to say you heard about Jamie Lynn Spears announcing that she is pregnant at age 16. But what you probably did not hear anything much about was that congress passed a $70 Billion dollar spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. Don't you just love it.

Congress gave Bush $70 billion for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in a massive omnibus spending bill. The Consolidation Appropriations Act funds all federal departments, except for the defense department, for the fiscal year of 2008 to the sum of $516 billion. Obviously bush threatened to veto the bill if it lacked money for military operations. On Dec. 17 the omnibus bill was passed with $31 billion for military operations but no money for Iraq. The senate added $70 billion for war funding on Dec. 18 to avoid a possible veto.

In other news the fine senator from Alabama, Jeff Sessions, had the following thing to say about "civil libertarians":

"The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the constitution than protect our nation's security."

I thought these go hand in hand? Don't get me wrong, I like to have a safe and secure nation....but if we give up our civil liberties to do so, then what good is it? I like to reflect back to the writings of Benjamin Franklin for this little quote:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Senator Sessions, I think you could rethink what you said, brush up on the Constitution, and maybe read some of what the founding fathers wrote about freedom and the constitution. Oh and maybe you should study the oath you take when you take office. I don't consider myself a genius, but I'm pretty sure part of your oath is to defend and follow the constitution.

The Iowa caucus is fast approaching as well as the New Hampshire primaries. On December 16th, also know as the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, grass roots supporters raised over $6 million to go toward Dr. Paul's campaign. A staggering number for sure. But please help spread his message far and wide.

Update: I should have said that while I support defending and protecting the nation, I do not feel that we are in any immediate danger from terrorist attacks. That guy from Law and Order would have you think that just because he played a hard nosed character on television that he would be the same way in the Oval Office. Plus he wants people to think that we are living a mere breath away from another attack and possible nuclear war. Freddie, stop the war mongering, keep the peace, and eat a plate of shut the heck up!!

The only immediate danger we are facing is our obsession with what celebrities are doing every minute of their lives, uncontrolled spending by our government officials, and most politicians.

Happy Tea Party Day 2007!!

This is shaping up to be another big day for the Ron Paul campaign.

Around noon central time, donations have went over $2.5 Million for the day and $14.1 for the 4th quarter. The first big day was November 5th with about $4.2 million for the day. If the current donation rate continues, today will eclipse that total.

With a mere 18 days until the Iowa caucuses and 23 days until the New Hampshire primary every dollar counts. The word is spreading, people are listening and Dr. Paul is surging. The last poll in New Hampshire that I heard had Dr. Paul in 3rd place with 11% with the leader holding at 24%.

Those revolutionaries out there that support Ron Paul and read this blog, get out and talk to people. Help spread the message.

The 5th of November Remembered

Well, yesterday was the 5th of November which was the date in 1605 when Guy Fawkes and a group of English Roman Catholics had plotted the 'gunpowder plot' to blow up the houses of Parliment and kill king James I of England. This was to stop Protestant rule by killing the protestant aristocracy. This was also part of the plot in the movie 'V for Vendetta'.

But also, it was a rallying cry to push donations to Ron Paul's campaign. The slogan, "Remember, Remember the 5th of November". But this is not a case of trying to destroy things, but a peaceful revolution to take our country back, to bring the constitution back into the being the guiding force for our government.

Yesterday, the Ron Paul Campaign received around $4.2 Million dollars in donations in about a 24 hour period. This eclipses the amount Mitt Romney received in one day. As of the time I am writing this entry, donations to his campaign fund is nearing $7.5 Million dollars since October 1st or the 4th quarter of the year. A lofty goal of $12 Million dollars was set to help his campaign to 'be taken serious' and to politic in the early primary states.

While there is still a long way to go to the $12 million dollar mark, he has already passed his $5 Million dollar mark from the 3rd quarter of this year. There are more dates planned for mass fundraising. One is This November 11th (veterans day), another is the Ron Paul Money Bomb, and a recent one I found is Tea Party '07 to commemorate the Boston Tea Party on December 16th.

Pass the word on to your friends and family, Ron Paul is real and his ideology is sound. I thank Doug for talking about Dr. Paul and about his platform. I don't know who all he has turned onto Dr. Paul but I have started convincing people to look at him. So far I think my vote has gotten two more votes. One of my 'convertees' could possibly get three or four more votes.

This campaign will probably be a grassroots work all the way. Its not just 'a cool thing' to support him, but you must take your typing, take your words, and take your voice to the polls and vote.

I'll be there, will you?

Ron Paul moves up in New Hampsire Polls

According to two websites (Alaska Report and Free Market News Network) Ron Paul is polling in 4rd place now, passing Fred Thompson who is in 6th place in a survey of likely New Hampshire primary voters. Thompson is estimated to be in 2nd place nationally in the polls.

Those who are considering making a donation to the Ron Paul campaign, check out the website This November 5th.

Hazy, smokey day...

So, I went to take Thor outside and it was hazy and smells of smoke. But there are no fires around here. Nope, this smoke is from the fires in Georgia. I heard this morning that the smoke and haze is from at least Huntsville down to Cullman. I do not know how far west it extends beyond here.

Mom has a stomach infection when I got up here on Friday. Its starting to get better now that she is on broad spectrum antibiotics. She will have to take them for two weeks then go back for a check-up.

Heroes season finale was pretty good. I did not like how it ended really. It inferred some things but it did leave things open for a couple characters.

I saw the highlights of the second Republican candidate debate and Ron Paul was great. He is really growing a strong base in the online community and hopefully this will grow outside of the online community as he gets more exposure.