HOW IMPORTANT IS GAY MARRIAGE?

The title of this post isn't because I'm flippant about the subject, I think that it is somewhat important. I guess that I've moved away from gay marriage and to topics that are more immediate for me, like poverty, health care, and environmentally responsible consumerism.

California ruled it's unconstitutional to deny marriage to gays and lesbians, especially since the state already recognizes civil unions and domestic-partnerships, and that makes sense when compared to constitutionality. If you recognize something as valued, stable and lawful, how can you keep it from just being the same thing and allow gays to marry.

For some it seems a consuming issue, I guess, but when I look at the faces of the people trying to get married I don't see activists, I see a lot of middle to upper-middle class mostly white people, not hippies or people who truly push social boundaries. I think what I really come away from the ruling with is that the dialog has at least been moved away from the crazy conservative place it has been in since Bush took office and before.

MCCAIN AS BIG OF AN IDIOT AS OUR CURRENT PRESIDENT

John McCain thinks that 12 years after twelve years of war we will for sure have our victory in Iraq. It will just take courage, resolve, us electing him president and a full term, but by 2013 he knows it'll happen.

I think he's making the perfect choice to tailor his rhetoric and policies after George Bush's, especially since Bush has become a mockery of a modern leader, lost almost all credibility, at least in terms of Iraq and foreign policy, among American voters, and is generally seen as only slightly above a 9th grade reading level.

Keep it up Johnny, it's exactly how we like you!

PRIVATIZING HEALTHCARE IS BULLSHIT

One of the things I hate most about the Bush administration, and about Republican political objectives in general, is this notion that our current health care problems would be fixed by further privatizing health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Why do they think the system is fucked up already? The reason why there ARE people on those social programs is because the private insurance providers are under no restriction as to whom they will or will not cover. Thus you have older adults who have Medicare to pay for most of their medical bills because most insurance companies won't cover them. You have people with severe managed health issues needing public health care options because they can't receive affordable options through private companies, and may or may not be eligible for insurance through their work.

Ultimately the problem isn't too much tax money to help people who need it and a broken public health system, it's the trillions of dollars in private health industries that refuse to work for anyone but those who are already able to pay and healthy.