Reasonably Logical

Everyone, I have a birthday coming up at the end of November and I’d like to ask a favor of you. If you were otherwise considering giving me a gift, please don’t. Instead, I ask you to do two things: 1) Vote against Proposition 8 if you’re a California resident, and 2) make a donation to the No on 8 Campaign whether you are a Californian or not. The upcoming vote is likely to be a very close one and your support is much more valuable to me than any physical gift could be.

Here’s a few (of the many) reasons you should oppose Proposition 8:
- You believe in separation of church and state. Proposition 8 is a direct effort to introduce religious morality into the state constitution. Even if you don’t personally support gay marriage, the thought of having one particular religion’s idea of morality inscribed in the state constitution should scare you.
- You don’t believe a minority should be at the whim of the majority. Proposition 8 takes rights away from a minority group. If it passes, the majority of the population will be voting to directly strip rights from a minority. Given that everyone is a minority in some way (race, sex, age, occupation, etc..), do you really want to be setting that precedent?
- You believe in equal rights under the law for all. However you look at it, the CA Supreme Court has very clearly stated that denying gay people the right to marry is discrimination. Proposition 8 wouldn’t change that fact; it would simply inscribe discrimination into the state constitution.
- Finally, and most importantly, because I’m asking you to. This is an issue that is important to me personally, and I am asking for your support.

For the record, the above is not a generic form letter or anything like that. I wrote it (from scratch) because this is a cause I personally believe strongly in. I would greatly appreciate your support in opposing Proposition 8.

Yours,
Philip

I am sending an email with the text above to many of my friends and family in California and around the country. This is a cause I believe in, and I’m asking my friends and family to stand with me.

If you’re reading this, I encourage you to do the same. From what I’ve heard, this is going to come down to a very close vote. Every single person you talk to, and every single dollar you raise will make a potentially critical difference.

Update (11-20-08; Yes, after we lost.): Pam’s House Blend has a really good argument about why everyone - gay or not - should be downright scared by the Prop 8 decision. Go read it! But first, I’ll leave you with a poem to think on.
“In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”

The case that has been before the Connecticut Supreme Court on marriage equality has been decided. They’re announcing the results within the next 1/2 hour. We don’t know what they are yet, but we know it was a very close decision. If you’re a person of faith, please join me in praying for a pro-equality result. I will be.

Love Makes a Family

CT Supreme Court

UPDATE (10:40 am): The case has been released and is a pro-equality decision! Connecticut is the 3rd state to have gay marriage!

Check out the actual decision!

I ran across the news story below and felt like cheering. Apparently, the banks have - no surprise - not being doing their legal duty before evicting people from foreclosed homes. The Cook County sheriff has essentially said “enough is enough!”. Frankly, I couldn’t agree with him more.

I absolutely loved this quote from the Illinois Bankers Association:

“The reality is that by ignoring the law and his legal responsibilities, he is carrying out ‘vigilantism’ at the highest level of an elected official,” it said. “The Illinois banking industry is working hard to help troubled homeowners in many ways, but Sheriff Dart’s declaration of ‘martial law’ should not be tolerated.”

Bullshit. The sheriff is doing his job and saying that the banks must do theirs. If they haven’t met the legal requirements for eviction, he shouldn’t be evicting anyone. Period. End of story. He is in the right here; not them.

Illinois sheriff scolds banks for evictions of ‘innocent’ renters
CNN, 10-9-08

I’m currently listening to the VP debate live. Honestly, I’m somewhat surprised at how well Palin is handling herself. I was expecting this to be somewhat like watching a train wreck. Instead, she’s actually doing a fairly damn decent job. Of course, even as I type this she just dodged the question about restricted budgets and first things to cut.

For the record, I love this moderator. She’s cutting them off and forcing them to actually answer the questions!

<--- Missing sections first 1/2 hour --->

Update (9:32pm): Climate Change
Palin - “we’re allowing them to …pollute more than America would ever stand for.” - Any body else concerned by that wording
Biden - faced man-made impact face on, support for clean coal & safe nuclear, export clean coal technology

Update (9:34pm) - Carbon Caps
Palin - Seemingly ignored carbon caps question. Two word answer. (”I do.”) Support for large scale domestic drilling and energy production
Biden - Yes, strict caps.

Update (9:38pm) - Same Sex Rights
Biden - Support for equal constitution rights. Do not support same-sex marriage.
Palin - Can’t support “redefine marriage”. Emphasizing tolerance. No civil rights discussion. Dodged the equal civil rights part of questions.

Update (9:43pm) - Iraq
Palin - Plan for withdrawal, but no early withdrawal. Emphasis on surge and NATO allies (what allies?). Attack with “white flag of surrender”. Slander about voting not to fund the troops.
Biden - Shift responsibility to Iraqis and draw troops over 18 months. Defense of Obama.

Update (9:50pm) - Pakistan vs Iran
Biden - Solid comparison. Redirect issue towards Afghanistan. Build schools to compete for hearts and minds. Point about control of Iran not in the hands of nut job (whose name I can’t remember.)
Palin - Mention nut job leader of Iran and says should not have nuclear power or weapons. Attack on “meet without preconditions”.

Update (9:53pm) - Israel solution
Palin - Two state solution is the solution. Israel is our strongest ally and we will not allow a second holocausts. Enough is enough looking backwards. (After everything she’s said so far? Hah!) Divert to domestic issues.
Bidin - Both friends on Israel. Attack on elections in Gaza strip, not putting NATO troops in Lebanon. “I haven’t heard how his policy on [] will be different from George Bush’s”

Update (10:10pm) - Usage of Nuclear Weapons
Palin - Dodged main question. Went in direction of proliferation. Then went to Afghanistan. Disputed claim of general in Iraq.
Bidin - “Facts matter”. General said, surge will not work. 3 weeks in Iraq is more than 6.5 years in Afghanistan. Caught own over extension about McCain’s record, stepped back.

Update (10:05pm) - Interventionism
Biden - Dafur (no fly zone, “rally the world to act”). genocide -> does not have right to national sovereignty
Palin - Attack on Biden for reversed stance war vote. Agreement on Dafur. Also “all options are on the table” statement. (Does that worry anyone else? Isn’t that a Bushism we can avoid?)

Update (10:07) - “A heat beat away”
Bidin - Carry out Obama’s policies. Rinse repeat.
Palin - Acknowledge differences in positions. Continue policies. Rinse repeat.

<--- Questions are less straight forward and descrete. As such, I'm breaking out by issue, not question now. -->

Education (from a couple of different questions)
Palin - More focus on education, need flexibility in NCLB, profession of teaching, working with special needs
Bidin - NCLB not funded properly

VP Power
Palin - Flexibility of VP office in congress etc. (Very dangerous expansion of past policy in my opinion.)
Bidin - Cheney violated article 1 of constitution. Very dangerous. (I agree entirely.)

Own weaknesses
Palin - Did not answer at all. (Amusingly she drew attention to her own record, but refuses to let Bidin use McCian.)
Bidin - Faced question straight on.

Unfortunately, I have to stop now. My laptop battery is about to die. I may add some extra comments latter.