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I am not personally opposed to gay marriage. It seems pointless to forbid such a thing, but I do have some comments for those who are enthusiastic about it.
1. Regarding the recent California Supreme Court decision : They can't declare a part of the constitution to be unconstitutional. It is their job to interpret the constitution as it applies to certain legislation or litigation. They can't decide to ignore a part of the constitution, any more than your cable guy can decide not to install the Disney channel because he hates mice. Not their job!
2. Single people are also subject to much of the same discrimination as gays who are not allowed to marry. If gays receive no medical, pension etc. benefits then single people don't get those either. Why should a married person whether gay or not, get more benefits (really money) for the same job? If you buy a newspaper on the street do you give the guy an extra dime if he claims to be married?
3. As for such access issues as hospital visitation or health proxy. These also discriminate against single people if enforced. If a single person cannot specify a friend of either sex for such a role, then that is also discrimination. A single person might prefer to have a friend of the same religion (or non-religion) to make a health care decision in an emergency. Why should they have to be married to do so?
In short gay marriage is really a red herring from a libertarian POV. Unequal rights for married people versus single people is the real discrimination.
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Comments: Read 11 or Add Your Own.
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I need some fairly urgent house repairs done. I have been waiting this week for 4 separate builders to return my call and give a quote. How bad can the economy be, if not one of them bothers to do so? I suspect the stimulus is working. Construction workers would rather have a long term overpaid government contract than do a quick market priced job for me. The perverse thing is that I am paying via taxes for them to do useless make-work construction but I can't get them to do useful work at any price. Thanks FedGov - no wonder I love you so much.
While I am ranting I might as well start on a related topic :
In 1945 American engineers threw a bridge over the Rhine in one day despite hostile fire. In 2007 American engineers throw a 2 lane road bridge over a single line railway track in only ... 18 months. I realize that the Rhine bridge was only a temporary bridge with minimal safety requirements. However, there have been many advances in material and mechanical technology since 1945, not to mention complete absence of bullets and artillery. How can it take five hundred times longer to build a shorter bridge?
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
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So, Obama gave the British Prime Minister a set of DVDs :
- "2001: A Space Odyssey"
- "Casablanca"
- "Chinatown"
- "Citizen Kane"
- "City Lights"
- "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial"
- "It's a Wonderful Life"
- "Lawrence of Arabia"
- "On the Waterfront"
- "Psycho"
- "Raging Bull"
- "Schindler's List"
- "Singin' in the Rain"
- "Some Like It Hot"
- "Star Wars: Episode IV"
- "Sunset Boulevard"
- "The General"
- "The Godfather"
- "The Graduate"
- "The Grapes of Wrath"
- "The Searchers"
- "The Wizard of Oz"
- "To Kill a Mockingbird"
- "Vertigo"
How could they leave out V for Vendetta?
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Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
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Thursday, February 19th, 2009
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The following is my personal speculation. I don't remember coming across this idea from any other source. Luther's demon is an adaptation executer. It is a sub-routine of the human brain that runs without any conscious oversight. I will use anthropomorphic language to make my explanation easier.
The function of this demon is to detect when a long period of sex with a given mate has elapsed without any reproduction. When one has spent a long time with a lover and there is no pregnancy, the demon will attempt to reject that lover. It will 'create' negative emotions towards that lover. It will encourage the desire to search for other mates. In short, it will try to break up your relationship. The evolutionary motivation is that the current mating is infertile. Mating with a different lover may well be fertile.
This demon is not concerned with your conscious decision to delay/forego reproduction. It doesn't care.
My speculation is based on personal observation of my friends. Couples who choose to remain childless or to delay having children tend to split up after about 3 years. This is in spite of (my perception of) their great love for each other. I am not thinking of flighty people whom one would expect to split up every few years but sober mature couples. (I understand this is not scientific evidence of any kind, but every formal observation or experiment has to start with some hypothesis.)
I call this Luther's Demon because of the famous opinion of Martin Luther on the duty of women :
Work with all your might to bring forth the child. Should it mean your death, then depart happily, for you will die in a noble deed and in subservience to God.
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
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Friday, January 9th, 2009
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Friday, December 12th, 2008
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Thursday, December 4th, 2008
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Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
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Friday, October 31st, 2008
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Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
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Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
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Thursday, October 9th, 2008
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North Korea to be taken over by China?
Via NoodleFood
This is similar to my thoughts on North Korea. The countries with most to lose from turmoil in Korea are South Korea and China. America should not interfere and should withdraw all troops (on a schedule agreed with SK and China). American involvement is pointless and merely exposes America to risks and embarrassments with no possible benefit. China enjoys watching America 'negotiate' with NK the same way I enjoy watching a dog chase it's own tail.
China has far more reason to prevent NK nuclear proliferation than the US does. They also have more practical means of enforcing non-proliferation. Of course this would also mean that SK would fall into China's 'control'. This is inevitable anyway for economic reasons.
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Comments: Read 8 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
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Monday, August 11th, 2008
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selfishgene's journal
amused.