Will California's Gay Marriage Ban Force Divorce?
Proposition 8, a California initiative that defines marriage as being between one man and one woman, has passed. Because the measure amends the state constitution, it would effectively overrule the decision of the California Supreme Court that banning same-sex marriage is discriminatory.
But this leaves a convoluted side effect which will have a major impact on many Californians and others.
Thousands of same-sex couples married between the court decision in May and the vote on November 4. What will happen to those couples?
The law will either be interpreted as:
1) Those same-sex couples who are already married can stay married. But that would leave the dilemma of the state both approving same-sex marriage, and saying it's unconstitutional.
2) The marriages of those already married same-sex couples would be forcibly ended by the government. That would essentially mean the state would force married couples to divorce.
Neither one of these options is something that conservatives or liberals would fully support. The effects of the court decision and the vote cannot be ignored, and it will force this issue to stay in the public arena. Either way, this controversy is far from over.
And is also begs the question: does this mean that the state of California would define the polygamous marriages of most Biblical patriarchs as illegal?
Troy Anthony Davis is scheduled to be executed in Georgia on Tuesday, Sept. 23. He was convicted of killing a cop on the testimony of nine witnesses with no physical evidence. Davis says he's innocent, and seven of the nine witnesses have since recanted their testimony. Some said they were pushed to testify by the police; some said they believe one of the two remaining witnesses who still blames Davis actually did the killing.
"GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The Yemeni man convicted at the first Guantanamo war crimes trial will be eligible for release in less than five months after receiving a light sentence from a jury made up of 
Allowing homosexuals and bisexuals in the United States military is being examined by Congress for the first time in 15 years.
Marriage has always been the state-recognized union of one man and one woman. Or such is the assumption some would have us make, even though a look through Christian, Jewish and Muslim scripture would show otherwise.
Nance. Nance taught at the Navy's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) school in California, so is an expert on interrogation and resisting it. The technique was performed on Nance, who said, "It is an overwhelming experience that induces horror and triggers frantic survival instincts." It is like drowning, meaning a subject "will say or do anything to make it stop, rendering the information they give nearly useless."
Those who know me well know that I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to copywritten material. I believe the biblical "the workman is worthy of his hire," thought I might phrase it in the gender-neutral "the worker is worthy of es hire." I once complained to leaders of a spiritual congregation that illegally making copies of music being sold by another ministry was stealing. They responded by asking their congregation for donations to purchase music so that wouldn't be necessary, and received more money for the music ministry than they'd had before.
"For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator," wrote David Crary, AP National Writer. Keep in mind that's the percentage currently incarcerated--it doesn't count all those who are on probation or parole, or those who used to be.
Danacasso wrote this in response to the reaction to Barack Obama not wearing an American flag pin and to him being seen wearing clothing that was given to him as a gift during a visit to Kenya, his late father's homeland. (Links to those stories are at the bottom of this essay). While these incidents may have sparked this angry rant, Danacasso deals with deeper issues that go to the heart of what he feels it means to be an American--and what some people say it means.
"There is only one anti-bias law — the one against discrimination based on age — that would cover all nine 
"Bush reached his lowest approval rating in The Associated Press-Ipsos poll on Friday as only 30 percent said they like the job he is doing, including an all-time low in his support by Republicans. Congress' approval fell to just 22 percent, equaling its poorest grade in the survey. Both marks dropped by 4 percentage points since early January." That's from an article by Alan Fram, AP writer.
Did President George W. Bush, Vice President Cheney, and others including Bush's longtime adviser Karl Rove deceive a White House Press secretary into lying for them? Former Press Secretary Scott McClellan claims they did.
Once again, Texas has the highest teen birth rate of any state in the United States. Interestingly, Texas has a policy of denying contraceptives without parental consent and strongly promotes abstinence-only sex education in public schools.
After the U. S. Congress approved a bill to fund health care for children in low-income family, President George W. Bush vetoed it. It was only his fourth veto during his almost seven years in office, showing it's something he's very strongly against.
Do you want to support breast feeding? There's a bill in the United States Congress called H.R. 2236 to do just that!
U. S. President George W. Bush threatens to veto a bill that would extend funding for health care for children in low income families. The families are above the level allowed by Medicaid, but are too poor to afford private insurance. 
Karl Rove, American President George W. Bush's advisor since before Bush ran for governor of Texas in 1993, is leaving August 31.
"'Today's opinion underscores the fact that the Department of Justice is required to follow the law, and that it is bound to abide by the Constitution,' defense attorney Robert Trout, said, promising more legal challenges to 'overreaching by the government in this case.'"
Danacasso wrote this in response to a forwarded email that claimed it was a letter written by a woman and was published in an editorial column. The forward compared immigrants entering American from Mexico without legal permission to someone breaking into an American's house. It said in both cases the person entered illegally, but said because they were helping (cleaning and such), they must be allowed to stay. My own thoughts are that entering public America (which Mexican citizens can do legally--they just can't stay for years without permission) and breaking into a private residence are not all the same thing. But Danacasso brings out some excellent points that go well beyond the breakdown of an analogy. 
"The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information about Americans." This is from a 9 March 2007 article written by Lara Jakes Jordan of the Associated Press. Jordan also writes, "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left open the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly used the USA Patriot Act in pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies."
In 1892, Horner Plessy, a "colored" shoemaker, was locked up in jail for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. With a series of failed appeals, the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896 established that the principle "separate but equal" was legally valid in the United States of America.
"A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutionally vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday. 
"I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and therefore prevent war from happening...." George W. Bush (2000)
United States President George W. Bush finally admitted that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been holding people in secret prisons and using secret interrogation methods. This is supposedly a good thing, something to "keep America safe."
"Where is the fiscal responsibility of the party I joined in '68? Where is the international engagement of the party I joined — fair, free trade, individual responsibility, not building a bigger government, but building a smaller government?" Sen. Chuck Hagel (