Wow, we’ve heard a great deal about this subject lately. Personally it doesn’t really matter as I do not believe in “marriage” at all for myself. The whole thing is too religious for me.

I just read this blog post
Gay Marriage: Sexual Freedom Trumps Religious Freedom
and while I agree with some of it I disagree with other aspects. Take time to read this and let’s discuss.

First of all, I do not believe that the gay marriage debate has anything to do with religious freedom, or at least it shouldn’t.  Gay marriage has to do with the pursuit of happiness and all men (people) being created equally.  If two people are born or choose to be gay then they do deserve the same rights that the government gives other people who choose to be married.  After all, in many cases isn’t marriage just about sex?  If you are Catholic then you are not supposed to have sex unless you are married so everybody gets married.  

The blog post above mentions the Catholic Charities of Boston that was closed down by the state of Massachusetts because they would not adopt to same-sex couples.  I believe that the state of Massachusetts is wrong here because government should stay out of the decisions of churches.  Separation of church and state is important to avoid bias based on religious preference.  The first amendment says clearly, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” which to me clearly puts Massachusetts in the wrong for getting involved in a churches charity.  

Churches should and are able to perform marriages at their discretion.  If a person is not Catholic for instance then the Catholic church will not marry them.  If a person has been divorced then the Seventh-Day-Adventist church will not marry them.  Of course each church is able to bend their rules as they wish.  That is what freedom of religion is all about.  So no church should ever be forced to perform a marriage.

Marriage has come to mean different things to different people.  To celebrities, it means something you do for the weekend in Vegas and then just give up.  To Catholics it is a serious “life-long” commitment between one man and one woman.”  To gays it is a right that others have which is being denied to them in many cases.  If marriage is a governmental contract recognized by the state, then it should be open to anybody.  Now, if marriage is a religious institution as many argue, then marriage should not be recognized at all by the state.  Only by the church.  Again, separation of church and state.

As for the blog above, I do completely agree with the author’s right to freedom of religion and to the enjoyment of that freedom.  I do not agree with the government denying other people’s rights so that person may enjoy the freedom of religion.  Freedom of religion comes with a price.  If you want your religion to be free of government meddling, then you need to keep your religion out of the government just as the government should keep out of your religion.

The last post had several comments that made me laugh.  Everyone talks about how taxpayers have to foot the bill as if it is the fault of the people who receive the benefit.  Once again, the blame is being placed on the wrong group.  If you do not like what your taxes go to pay, blame the Republicans and Democrats who continue to raise our taxes to pay for their pet projects.  People keep voting them into office again and again and keep complaining about taxes and who/what they have to pay for.  Vote the Libertarian Party into power and watch your taxes drop.  Of course some of your pet causes will be dropped as well which you may not be able to tolerate but if you want your pet cause so much then don’t bitch about footing the bill for any other person’s pet cause.  People want to have everything their way and not give any of themselves to help another person get what they want.  WE ARE ALL SELFISH.  Selfish isn’t all bad, it is necessary to a certain degree to ensure our survival.  I for one do not want to continue footing the bill for everybody else.  Nor do I feel that others need to foot my bill.  If we stop paying for every other person’s health, education or lifestyle, then we could all afford to pay for our own.  Okay, I know, what about the people who are really unable to help themselves?  That, in my opinion, is why churches get to be tax exempt.  So that they can use their funds to help the people who cannot help themselves.  Or, if you feel a certain person needs help then give to them or a tax-exempt charity that will help them.  Why should the taxpayer?  

So next time you feel like whining that the taxpayers are “footing the bill for illegal immigrants” or that “we have to pay for those people who don’t want to work” just remember, you chose to vote for the people who are giving away your money indiscriminately.  

I guess the base problem here is the need of the American people to have something to bitch about.  I always reply to people who are upset about something I do or say, “Thank god, now you don’t have to expend any energy looking for something to bitch about!” or  ”You should be thanking me for saving you the effort of going out and looking for something to bitch about!”  Keep voting for the two parties and you will not have to look very hard for something to bitch about.

While getting my hair cut yesterday the barber and a few of the guys started talking about how illegal immigrants are taking our jobs and then earlier today I was reading about the Ecuadorian immigrant who was killed by a group of teenagers in Long Island because he was Hispanic.  The head of an anti-illegal immigration group said that the whole story was being blown out of proportion by the media only later to apologize.  Many people hate illegal immigrants (and immigrants as a whole) because they are “taking jobs” away from Americans.  

Unemployment is soaring here and still people are hiring illegal immigrants to work for them.  Why?  6.5% of Americans are out of jobs but illegal immigrants are still able to find employment here.  Why?  The government is rushing to pass legislation to stop the hiring of illegal immigrants in every state because the problem is so enormous but I cannot get a job.  Why?

Let me tell you why…because I DO NOT WANT THE JOBS THAT THESE PEOPLE DO!  I do not want to clean sheets in a motel.  I do not want to wash dishes in a restaurant.  I do not want to dig trenches in your front yard to install a sprinkler system.  I DON’T WANT THOSE JOBS!  And neither does anybody else.  That is why illegal immigrants still keep working when we cannot.  

No illegal immigrant took my job.  It was a CEO of a Fortune 500 company that sent my job to the Philippines and my friends jobs to India.  Why aren’t people attacking these people instead of poor people from other countries who are willing to do anything to make a living, even risk their life to do a job that we wouldn’t do for any amount of money?  Why are these CEO’s who get millions of dollars a year and run their companies into the ground not being targeted by Sheriff Joe?  ”Pull over any white guy in a suit who is driving a Lexus.”  Is what he should be saying instead of “Pull over any person who looks Hispanic.”

With the current economy and unemployment and bailouts maybe, finally, these CEOs will get the attention they deserve from the American public.  Maybe people can set aside their racial bigotry and hatred to focus on the real culprits, the people who REALLY ‘took our jobs’, the Fortune 500 CEOs.  Let’s not allow them to pull the wool over our eyes by flashing pictures on the five o’clock news of illegal immigrants doing work that we wouldn’t want.  Think about where YOUR job is right now.  Who is doing it?  Is it somebody in the United States or somebody in another country?  That should be all you need to think about when blaming.  Blame the people who deserve the blame.

Lately all I hear are people angrily asserting that one candidate is much worse than the other candidate in this current election.  ”Barack Obama doesn’t have enough foreign policy knowledge.”  or  ”John McCain is out of touch.”  Yesterday, my neighbor ranted about how much he “hated” Obama and last night at work a customer stated that he “hated” McCain.  The part that is missing here for me is what “exactly” is the difference?  Democrats and Republicans have run this country for nearly a century and a half.  All the major things that the American people would like to see fixed in this country were brought to us by these two parties.  Taxation, War, Unethical Behavior, etc.

The United States did not have taxes until 1861.  Tariffs on the movement of goods was the main source of income for the government until that time.  Since the Republican Party took control in 1860 and later shared control with the Democratic Party starting in 1912, we have had a steady increase in taxation of the American people until now when it is normal for the typical taxpayer to pay 30 or 40 percent of their income directly to taxes right off the top.  Then don’t forget sales tax and property tax and inheritance tax and the list goes on and on and on and on…

Our country had three major wars before the two major parties took control.  The American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War.  Since then we have had three times as many wars.  Let’s start with the American Civil War, which could also be called the war between the Republicans and Democrats.  Then came the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the War on Terrorism and the Iraq War all brought to you by by the two major parties.  

As far as unethical behavior in our government, is there really any reason to go into the list?  It just goes on for so long.

The point here is that if you really want change, real change, then we should change our parties and go with one that will listen to the will of the people rather than to vote for the “lesser of two evils” as we are told we must.  It is time to move these power-hungry maniacs out.

Earlier today, while I was reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the ghost stories of chapter 3 hit a chord.  Robert M Pirsig discusses how science, physics and all reality that we know are ghosts in that they only exist in our minds.  (You would have to know the book to completely understand what he is saying.)  It occurred to me that the United States has been fighting ghosts for quite some time.  The ”War on Drugs” and the “War on Terrorism” could be renamed the ”War on a Lifestyle” (drugs are a lifestyle choice that should not be controlled by the government at all yet are attacked by the politicians because they need to control people) or the “War on a Tactic” (terrorism is a tactic used in war and how can one declare war on war?) all of which are like ghosts, they only exist in the mind. 

Dangerous and wrong as I feel the “War on Drugs” is, the “War on Terrorism” is even more sinister.  Billions of dollars are being spent to stop a tactic of war that is perpetuated by the war itself.  It started with the War in Afghanistan which was supposed to take down the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda.  This led into the Iraq War which was presented to the American people as having something to do with the terrorist attacks and making it somehow unpatriotic to oppose.  Seven and a half years after the terrorist attacks on our country, we still have not found Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda is stronger than ever.  Our attacks strengthen the extremists positions that we are bumbling idiots because how could we be anything else with our current track record in that part of the world?  Furthermore, the “War on Terror“ and the Iraq Conflict have turned us as a country into the schoolyard bullies of the world in the opinions of most other countries as well.  Why do we feel we have the right to dictate how other counties run their own governments? 

In October of 2001, President Bush established the Department of Homeland Security to make the American people feel safe and to take away some of our freedoms to help us feel safer.  Do you really feel safer today?  As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Anyone that is wiling to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither.”

A Real Estate Transfer Tax is a tax that is often introduced by state and/or local governments that need additional funds for whatever reason. The first push for such a tax in Arizona came in the 1990’s with Governor Jane Hull’s Fiscal 2000 Tax Study Committee. This tax would in essence be a double taxation of your Arizona Real Estate. Property taxes are already collected now as well as capital gains taxes if the property is sold for a profit within certain criteria. To tax property in yet another way would be bordering on theft in my opinion. In Arizona politics this is known as the “Home Equity Theft Act.” The Arizona Association of REALTORS® through the organization “No New Home Tax” has answered some Frequently Asked Questions regarding this tax as follows:

What is a Real Estate Transfer Tax?

The transfer tax is a state and/or local tax that is typically assessed according to the value or sales price when real estate property is transferred from one party to another. Transfer taxes in other state range from .001% to 2.2%. Typically, once the tax is initiated, the rate can continuously adjust upward to meet future legislative requirements.

Why are Transfer Taxes Bad?

• Punishes Home Owners: People who move from one house to another will be taxed twice, once from normal real estate taxes then again fro the “transfer” of ownership to someone else.
• Lower Incomes Most Impacted: Transfer taxes impose a higher tax burden on lower-income households that typically spend a larger percentage of their income on their home.
• Double Taxation: Governments already tax your property annually based on the property’s value. This new tax would unfairly cause a second tax to hit your home.
• Damages Equity: Since the tax is assessed against the total value including the amount you owe on your mortgage(s), the overall equity returned to the seller is decreased.
• Burdens the Real Estate Market: The overall higher costs will only increase the difficulty to initiate a successful sale, not to mention making it less attractive for business recruitment to the area for commercial real estate.

Transfer taxes are an unfair ploy that hurts those who can least afford it. The “No New Home Tax” initiative on the ballot suppots the prohibition of future transfer taxes in the State of Arizona. To find out more on the initiative, go to RALLINOW.COM.

How often do we here it?  “If you do not vote for one of the two parties you are wasting your vote.” 

I remember laughing at the “Simpsons” episode where the two aliens have taken over the bodies of Clinton and Dole.  When people tell them that they will vote for somebody else they retort, “Go ahead, throw your vote away!”  Of course it made perfect sense to everyone so they all voted for one of the two aliens, since it was the “only choice they had.” 

What are we thinking in this country? 

I no longer vote Republican since Bush senior started attempting to tell everyone what was a correct and what was an incorrect family.  “Family Values” was the slogan.  I remember thinking that no person can tell another person what their “Family Values” should be.  As I recall, the Republican party started out by saying that what goes on in a person’s home is the person’s business, as long as they are not hurting another person.  (basically)  Now they are all in our Kool-Aid like fascists. 

I could never vote for a Democrat as they are too socialist for me.  I don’t want the government to choose who I help with my money.  I don’t want other people deciding who to support with my taxes.

So if my choices are a fascist or a socialist I choose neither.  If more people did the same and chose neither, then we would be making progress.  Vote your conscience, not the lesser of two evils.

What a way to start off the year.  New Year’s morning I had a conversation with a friend who stated, “The Constitution was written over 200 years ago and by regular men and really may not apply to us now.”  To which I replied, “The bible was written more than a thousand years ago by regular men but you still take that literally and apply it to your every-day life.”  (Note:  Although I am not religious, many of my friends are so the bible thing does not apply to me.)  What the hell are these people thinking?  Our president once said, “The Constitution is JUST A PIECE OF PAPER.”  No wonder the average person has such little regard for the most important and valuable ”piece of paper” in our country.  Some people lead their lives by the bible, some the koran.  There are so many different religions and theologies within the religions but there is only ONE Constitution of the United States of America that we all use in our daily lives.  Why would anyone even consider that the bible or koran is more important than that?  Why would anybody put religion or theology above our country?  People need to wake up and choose to put our country first and not some mythical “god” or whatever they call it.  A “god” is something that a person must believe in yet never see or really know.  Our Constitution is there in black and white for all to see and affects our lives every day.  GET A GRIP PEOPLE!  Go ahead, you pray for me, I will think for all of us.

The last 10 days, the news has been filled with the San Francisco Bay oil spill.  58,000 gallons of oil have polluted the water and endangered wildlife.  Also, the 560,000 gallons of fuel dumped in the Black Sea in the recent storms there have caused enormous damage.  These are just the two most recent disasters involving oil/fuel in the world.  In the past there was:

2006

June 19, Calcasieu River, Louisiana:An estimated 71,000 barrels of waste oil were released from a tank at the CITGO Refinery on the Calcasieu River during a violent rain storm.

July 15, Beirut, Lebanon:The Israeli navy bombs the Jieh coast power station, and between three million and ten million gallons of oil leaks into the sea, affecting nearly 100 miles of coastline. A coastal blockade, a result of the war, greatly hampers outside clean-up efforts.

August 11th, Guimaras island, The Philippines: A tanker carrying 530,000 gallons of oil sinks off the coast of the Philippines, putting the country’s fishing and tourism industries at great risk. The ship sinks in deep water, making it virtually unrecoverable, and it continues to emit oil into the ocean as other nations are called in to assist in the massive clean-up effort.

2005

Aug.-Sept., New Orleans, Louisiana: The Coast Guard estimated that more than 7 million gallons of oil were spilled during Hurricane Katrina from various sources, including pipelines, storage tanks and industrial plants.

2004

Dec. 7, Unalaska, Aleutian Islands, Alaska:A major storm pushed the M/V Selendang Ayuup onto a rocky shore, breaking it in two. 337,000 gallons of oil were released, most of which was driven onto the shoreline of Makushin and Skan Bays.

2002

Nov. 13, Spain: Prestige suffered a damaged hull and was towed to sea and sank. Much of the 20 million gallons of oil remains underwater.

2000

Jan. 18, off Rio de Janeiro:ruptured pipeline owned by government oil company, Petrobras, spewed 343,200 gallons of heavy oil into Guanabara Bay.

Nov. 28, Mississippi River south of New Orleans:oil tanker Westchester lost power and ran aground near Port Sulphur, La., dumping 567,000 gallons of crude oil into lower Mississippi. Spill was largest in U.S. waters since Exxon Valdez disaster in March 1989.

1999

Dec. 12, French Atlantic coast:Maltese-registered tanker Erikabroke apart and sank off Britanny, spilling 3 million gallons of heavy oil into the sea.

(Ref: infoplease.com)

These are just the ones in the last decade.  It is unbelievable the damage that has been done since the beginning of the industrial revolution.  Fossil fuels are responsible for most of our pollution in the air but maybe more dangerously in the waters.  It is believed that more than 85% of the oxygen on earth is produced by marine plants.  What happens when we have killed them off?

Yes, there is a point to all of this rambling.  Most of America’s oil comes from countries that hate us and many support terrorists.  (Saudi Arabia is supposed to be our ally but what is Osama Bin Laden’s nationality?)  We give them the money they need to finance their jihads.  In other words, we are giving them their weapons.  Then, we spend billions of dollars on a war to fight them.  Wouldn’t it just be cheaper and safer to find new, cleaner ways to supply energy to our country?  Something renewable. 

This is a cause I can take action on without spoiling my fun.  I have already installed solar which supplies most of my energy needs for my home as well as some for the homes around me.  I will be adding more panels in the future to support our local energy even more.  If every home and business in the United States did the same thing we could clear out a huge amount of the fossil fuel generators that we have now.  Skeptics say that this is not so but I can see from my own experience with solar that it is possible.  There would need to be a way to store the energy for nights and times without sun but there are other cleaner alternatives already available to help subsidize the shortage we would have.  If I can supply the energy I need to support my home, why can’t everybody else?  Even if we cannot altogether do away with the use of fossil fuels immediately we can at least cut back and maybe take a chuck of money out of the pockets of our enemies.  It would be money well spent.  Without our money, how would they continue to fight?

Tonight I went to see the movie Lions for Lambsand was struck by the professor’s statement “Rome is burning” when referring to the current state our our country.  Although the movie was an obvious left-wing liberal propaganda piece it still struck a nerve for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I dislike the right-wing conservatives in this country just as much as the liberals.  The thing about this statement that hit me was that both of these groups, while blaming each-other, are equally at fault for the results.  The two parties that we are unfortunate enough to be stuck with are really the same in the end.  While we all stand around expounding very eloquently about how bad things are and whine about things getting worse all of the time, the country is falling apart because nobody wants to step up and try to fix things.  We are all in our little comfort zones and hate to be pulled out of them.  God knows I don’t want to actually get my hands dirty.  I remember years ago stating that this country was ripe for another revolution and that I just hoped that it would happen after I die so as not to disturb my fun or push me to take a stand.  “Leave it to the next generation,” has always been my opinion.  I am so comfortable with my life that I don’t want to stand up and be counted, not really.  I just want to bitch constantly about the ways in which this country is being mismanaged.  Sadly, my disease is not mine alone.  My disease is a pandemic in the United States.  (Susan Sontag forgive me for using “Illness as Metaphor” may you rest in peace.)  The vast majority of this nations people are as complacent as me.  Rome is burning while we all stand back and watch hoping that somebody will pick up a bucket, somebody besides me.  I would but there is this great party and I don’t want to miss it.  How can one have a good time when encombered by all of this responsibility?  After all, it will all work out in the end one way or the other, right?