Marriage is one of mankind’s longest held institutions. Traditionally western marriages have been between one man and one woman joined together in a religious ceremony for life. Things are slowly beginning to change however; today many gay and lesbian couples are demanding the right to wed their partners as well. Of course this tends to fly in the face of conventional beliefs but I believe there is a strong case to be made for legalizing and recognizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

This battle has already been long raging in the states. It may surprise some to note that same-sex marriage is currently legal in two states, Connecticut and Massachusetts. In both instances same-sex marriage was legalized through the courts based upon a judge’s interpretation of the equal protection statutes in their prospective state constitutions. Unfortunately, and this is the innate problem with each state getting to define marriage individually, the ‘gay’ marriages of Connecticut and Massachusetts are not recognized by any other states. That means if a gay coupled were to be married in one of those states but later decided to move out of that state their marriage would not be valid in their new area of residence. The federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage either so even if a gay couple are legally married in their state they could still not jointly file a federal tax return or share federal benefits.

Then you have states like California and others who have gone so far as to amend their state constitutions to ban gay marriage after similar judicial rulings. If you can’t change the judge’s ruling, change the constitution on which the judge based that decision.

The California case in particular was a crushing defeat for gay rights advocates. One of the more liberal states, it was widely seen as one of the few states where a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage could be stopped. It was not to be however. Even here the majority sided against acceptance and for discrimination. The Mormon Church was one of the strongest proponents behind proposition 8, the proposed amendment to the California constitution defining marriage between one man and one woman. This seems rather odd if you take the time to think about. Weren’t the Mormons similarly persecuted in the early days when they wished to be allowed to practice polygamy, persecuted to such an extent in fact that they were actually forced to leave the Eastern US for places such as California? Yet they would still gladly force the same fate on their gay brethren. Lesson clearly not learned.

The battles lost in the majority of US states have taught us a valuable lesson though. The battle for equal rights will not be one through the people. The majority do not support gay marriage. Thus, like during the civil rights movement it will have to be won through the courts. The Supreme Court to be more exact, for it is here we shall win the war.

 The 14th Amendment provides for equal protection for all and should therefore offer protection to same-sex couples who wish to marry. Of course the Supreme Court has yet to rule as such and don’t seem inclined to in the near future but that won’t change the inevitable.

There is also federal precedent as it relates to marriage laws in this country which happens to be the fly in the ointment for those who would argue marriage is under the sole jurisdiction of individual states and not a federal issue. In the case Lovings vs. Virginia, the Supreme Court rules that a single state could not disallow or invalidate interracial marriage because marriage equality was a fundamental right guaranteed by the 14^th Amendment whether a single states constitution agreed or not .

In closing I must say I am disappointed at the recent losses in the movement towards equal marriage rights for all but all hope is not lost. There are many more battles in this war to fight and I believe equality will prevail. Time is on our side, views about gay marriage have been steadily changing and in time our day will come.

Andorra. Australia. Austria. Bahamas. Barbados. Belgium. Canada. Cape Verde. Chile. Costa Rica. Cyprus. Czech Republic. Denmark. Dominica. Estonia. Finland. France. Germany. Hungary. Iceland. Ireland. Italy. Kiribati. Liechtenstein. Lithuania. Luxembourg. Malta. Marshall Islands. Micronesia. Nauru. Netherlands. New Zealand. Norway. Palau. Poland. Portugal. Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Lucia. San Marino. Slovakia. Slovenia. Spain. Sweden. Switzerland. Tuvalu. United Kingdom. United States. Uruguay.

No, this isn’t a geography quiz. It’s a list of countries that, according to Freedom House, scored the maximum score in the 2008 Freedom of the World report. The US and 47 other countries share this honor - which makes me think that there’s got to be a better way to differentiate the “most free” from the “free.” But that’s another topic.

I post this list because, although the US is still considered one of the most free countries, economically speaking, that’s quickly changing. In the past eight years, we’ve increased the national debt by $9 trillion (if you include the bills for the bailout), we’re spying on our own citizens in the name of “homeland security,” we’re handing out money left and right to people who can’t properly run the companies they’ve been given charge of, and we’re fighting two wars that no one can tell how we’re going to win. And this has all been with a Republican president and a generally Republican Congress!! Imagine how the Democrats are going to screw things up!!

As most of you know, I’ve switched to the Libertarian Party. But, even knowing that I’m a member of the most freedom-minded US political party isn’t making me very happy right now. That’s where the list comes in. Would a liberty-minded person be happier (and still just as free) in Australia? Canada? Germany? Micronesia? Liechtenstein? Or, even more broadly - is America past the point where it can be fixed? Have we, like the Roman Republic, gone too far down the road towards government control?

The knee-jerk response is, ‘Of course, America is worth it. We’ll get through it - we always do. We are the city on a hill.’ But I really don’t think that Americans have the same passion for liberty that we once had. Jefferson said that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” There is a very small minority of Americans today who would shed their blood for freedom - and since 1945, they’ve been told to shed their blood for someone else’s freedom! I honestly don’t think the majority of Americans care whether or not they are free - as long as American Idol comes on and they get their tax rebate check from the IRS every April.

I don’t have any answers right now. I’m disgruntled, disappointed, and frustrated. Perhaps there are those in the GOP who share similar feelings because their candidate lost. That is not the source of my frustration - although the late political season has given me opportunity to think about such things in depth. I just think I’ve lost the wide-eyed amazement about this country.

In late 2007, I was following the Marvel Comics Civil War miniseries where the superheroes were split into two factions lead by Captain America and Iron Man and fought against each other over Super Human registration act which required all super heros to register with the government and reveal their identities. In a particular issue, they focused on a period in the Roman Republic when Cesar was prepared to enter Rome with his armies and start a civil war within that period. The issue was focused on at some point in time events are set in motion that cause you to either fight, or let the government walk all over you. Basically, they are focusing on the point of no return, where no matter what happens the world is going to change.

 I bring that up because I think the Russian Invasion into Georgia is such a point of no return. I see a number of things that have changed in regards to U.S. power in the world because of this invasion.

1)Our allies have no reason to expect we will be supporting them in any effort against Tyranny.

2)Russia, China, and any other nation who wants to challenge us knows they have no reason to expect any consequences from us regardless of their actions.

 3)Russia, in particular, will continue to try to seize power, particularly the former Soviet provinces and any area that will provide them with more control over energy.

4)If we don’t wake up we will see our nation and wealth taken from us by the sword.

 I don’t see much that can be done about this situation that isnt going to get deadly on both sides. We need to stop being a nation to afraid to act for ourselves or for our allies.

I wrote this over in Craigslist a few minutes ago and I thought it was pretty good.

When I read these posts, I can’t help but be shocked at how naive people truly are. So many people are wrapped up in their own cultural perceptions that they don’t allow themselves to see reality as it is. They don’t see their place in this world, nor their true relationship to others.

It’s all about themselves. Reality has to be what they see reality is. And if something happens that they don’t like or if things don’t work out the way they expect, they don’t stop and ask themselves what was wrong with their viewpoint. Instead they whine, and moan, and complain about how life’s not fair. It’s someone elses fault their life sucks. It’s someone elses fault there is so much evil in the world. It’s someone elses fault.

Right now it seems a lot of blame is going to President Bush. The man is far from perfect, but if your life is screwed up, it’s not his fault. If some hurricane destroys your city, it’s not his fault. If some earthquake happens causing a tsunami, it’s not his fault. He is only one man, a man is a position of power, but he isn’t God. He doesnt have more power and control over your life than you do. I am sure if Senator McCain or Obama get elected, people will sit around complaining about them as well.

But no. It’s everyone else’s fault. Everyone else is wrong. The world has to go our way or else someone or something is trying to screw us over. I know truth is such a foreign concept to so many people. We live in a culture that denies the existance of truth. People don’t want to see the world as it really is because they are afraid of it. They are quite comfortable in their little world getting fat, complaining about their family, whining about how their leaders are screwing their lives. But they won’t lift a figure to do something about it.

I am not sure whether it’s more because they are lazy. Or because they are truly so self centered that the world must evolve around them. They think the world owes them something.

Well, it doesn’t. The world doesn’t owe you anything. In fact, it doesn’t even owe you a single breath after you are born. Every second you live has to be earned. You have to breath each breath. You have to work for sustanance. And yes, sometimes you have to fight and kill to defend yourself. That is the reality of this world. We live in a world governed by force. Whether violent force or just the force it takes for us to move.

Our entire society is an artificial construct. It’s a brilliant construct, but it’s still artificial. This is not our natural state of existance. Our natural state of existance is not order. It’s Chaos/Anarchy. And in our purely natural state, we would completely destroy each other. That is why we create rules, norms, order, etc. The only thing that keeps us from destroying one another is our collective effort.

And if people remain naive of this truth or refuse to accept it. Or act contrary to it, we will see society devolve faster than you can imagine and massive casualties overnight. It’s happened before. It will happen again. Learn from it, or else you are going to die because of your ignorance.

In the general election contest many think that the Iraq War will trump all other issues. In the past week or so, I believe that has changed. No doubt about it, the price of oil, the falling dollar, and inflation are going to be the main topics. My guess is if McCain comes out strongly for exploiting the resources available in the US, he’ll win. Yet, he has not shown a desire to do so.

While McCain has been saying, “We can’t drill our way out of this problem…,” the fact is we can drill ourselves from reliance upon other countries, especially regimes like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela, while developing alternative sources for quite some time. As recapped here:

…Recent polling data from Gallup show the percentage of voters blaming oil companies for skyrocketing gasoline prices has dropped from 34 percent to 20 percent over the past year. At the same time, support for more drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas has increased to 57 percent from 41 percent.

And the candidates remain blind to these shifts.

Obama continues to lambaste oil companies while congressional Democrats push for cap-and-trade. They’re missing the point, big time. The public wants more energy and more fuel to cut high prices and spur economic growth. But the costly cap-and-trade plan would produce less fuel and less growth. It would only raise gas pump prices while mounting a Gosplan-type taxing, spending, and regulating program that would be the moral equivalent of Hillarycare on nationalized medicine.

Sen. McCain has an opening here. Yet he, like Obama, would have voted for cap-and-trade, which went down to defeat in last week’s Senate vote. And while Mr. McCain favors some off-shore production and has been strong on nuclear development, he is against drilling in ANWR Alaska.

Then there’s the oil nobody is talking about. The Bakken fields beneath North Dakota, Montana, and Canada hold an estimated 400 billion barrels of oil. In comparison, Saudi Arabia’s biggest field, Gahawar, has an estimated 55 billion barrels, while ANWR has an estimated 10.4 billion barrels.

Hat tip to Mark Perry at the Carpe Diem blog site for these figures. Perry also is reporting a Bureau of Land Management study showing 279 million acres under federal management where oil and gas could potentially be extracted. But more than half of this is totally off limits. Off-shore, where another 86 billion barrels lie in wait, is also restricted. Then there’s liquefied natural gas, oil shale, and the various coal-to-liquid carbon-capture and sequestration technologies that would be priced out of the market by cap-and-trade.

The U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal, but we can’t produce. We’re still the world’s third-largest oil producer, but we could be the Saudi Arabia of oil if our companies were free to drill. Oil CEOs like Rex Tillerson of ExxonMobil and David O’Reilly of Chevron keep saying this. But politicians aren’t heeding their message…

Obviously with the price of a barrel of gas closing on $138 today, the increase price of shipping costs, production costs, are being added to everything we buy. In Europe the lorry drivers are striking, no longer able to make a profit with the costs there, for their taxes on petrol are significantly higher than in the United States. To think that type of response in the US will take $8 a gallon prices, well our patience isn’t that long. Now Senator McCain hints that he may back a windfall profits tax on the oil company, following the same plan to increase the costs to the consumer, as Senator Obama.

Truth of the matter is if there is punishment to be meted out it should be where the fault lies, which is with Congress which for the past 20 or more years has made it impossible for the oil companies to explore, much less develop our own natural resources.

The inflationary effects of the increased cost of oil has not gone unnoticed by any of us. There isn’t a product that we buy that doesn’t consume energy during production and shipping. The cost of imports will be even higher in the future, considering the cost of maritime fuel added to the cost of diesel to bring the goods from ports to stores. With the falling dollar and no action by Washington to stop it, history says we should be concerned about hyperinflation.

My hope, as pointed out by Kudlow is that the public is becoming concerned as the Gallup poll attests to. Hopefully they will make their feelings clear to their representatives and certainly in November.

Naturally, I’ve always enjoyed reading The Huffington Post because it’s a liberal-oriented website that also updates me on a lot of popular news stories. But I have to say that after this primary season, I no longer have respect for Arianna Huffington and her website.  

What should be a website catering to liberal opinion in general soon turned into a propaganda machine for—and yes I can call them this—pigs to write pro-Obama blogs (vomit) all over her website. I can honestly say that having read her website pretty much every single day of this primary, I can think of no more then 4 or 5 headlines that were “pro-Hillary”. And the few that were “pro-Hillary” were just AP reports saying that she won a particular primary.

Even when Hillary emerged victorious in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio, The Huffington Post refused to have anything to do with it. They simply turned up the crank on their propaganda machine and treated Hillary, IMO, as bad as they treat John McCain.

The sinper-fire story was re-iterated over and over and over, yet anything to do with Rev. Wright was pure taboo. Despite the fact that Hillary has gained the popular vote and attracted tons of new people to the polls, The Huffington Post has acted as if she’s done nothing besides promote racism against Obama and hurt the party.

I can say that for the first time ever, I experienced that weird conservative “hatred” all of you seem to have towards the type of people that I agree with on the issues. It’s as if the people promoting Hillary have become the conservatives of the Democratic party (keeping tradition with a second Clinton).

I’m only looking in on one specific example. The entire media in general, minus CNN and FOX, were out to make him the next president since 2004. I’m not sure what drove most of the media outlets to promote him and rally against her, but it’s really pissed me off. I would have much rather seen the media stand back and report the facts as they are instead of giving us their opinion on who they feel should be the Democratic nominee.