sisterbean

Just one more thing to add to the great big pile o' politically inspired happiness that is coloring my day. When I went to throw a little extra money at Equality California today, to cheer them on in the next stage of the battle, I noticed that there are little celebration/gatherings that were set up in advance of the ruling. People planned on gathering, despite the ruling to either celebrate or hold each other up. (How awesome is that?)

But here is what got me choked up: San Luis Obispo is one of the handful of Californian cities that had planned one of these gatherings. This is my home town, folks! This is the town that my straight friend got beat up for being a "fag" back in the 80s. This is the town that once asked my friend if the pink triangle sticker on the back of her car was some sort of surfshop logo. This is a town that tried to ban Pride, because they thought it disgusting that a group of people who stick "hamsters in their rectums" might be given public access to a historical plaza for their disgusting reverie. (This is actually true, I wrote a response to the local paper in which I calmly explained, amongst other things that a.) both straight and gay men have this odd tendency to place objects in their rectum b.) placing animals in ones rectum had to do with animal cruelty and not ones sexuality and c.) the urban legend described a gerbil, not a hamster, because gerbils have tails, so they can be pulled out of ones ass... why doesn't the author of the original letter kindly pull whatever is in her ass out?)

Oh my goodness. I'm so proud of my little all-grow'd-up town! I'm down there, right now, in spirit! 

sisterbean

As some of you might already be aware, I adopted a new habit this past year along with a new commute. I listen to conservative talk radio on my drive home. I actually listen to this guy who is the kinder, softer new Christian conservative. The kind who reprimands his listeners if they start frothing at the mouth. For example, one of the first shows I listened in on featured a caller talking about how Satan should strike Ellen down for her sinful lesbian ways. To which the host calmed her down and reminded her that Ellen was a miraculously funny woman and that her talent was a gift from God and should be appreciated as such. However, her lesbianism was something that we all need to pray about and that hopefully God would guide her out from her sin. Blah blah blah.

I find this stuff fascinating. I also find it highly entertaining and it makes the hour fly by. It also tends to focus my frustration towards the radio and decreased the chances of my ramming another driver's apple bumper sticker as they cut across my lane in the process of cutting their hybrid into the carpool lane.

Another fantastic example of this show? The other day they were discussing the pros and cons of Florida allowing a personalized license plate which would feature a cross, a stained glass window and the phrase "I Believe" to drivers. Playing the devil's advocate, the host was pointing out that this might set a bad precedent since license plates are technically the property of the state and driver's already had the option to decorate their privately-owned vehicle with enough silver jesus fish to create a park bench-sized spoiler. This wasn't going over very well with listener's. I was fascinated because this position seemed, well, logical.

It wasn't until the host unveiled the real reason he was against the proposal that people started freaking out. Separation of church and state? Not a good enough argument. However, if Christians were allowed their "I Believe" personalized plates, there would be nothing, NOTHING, to stop the muslims from getting their OWN PLATE. Or the Satanists! Or the Jews! (Apparently, if you are not a Christian, you fall into one of those three categories.)

Why am I telling you all this? Well, after running around my office, choked with tears, telling everyone how thrilled I am with my State today. And explaining how important today's ruling to strike down the State's ban on same sex marriage as unconstitutional, I suddenly chilled with delight at the craziness that I will be listening to on the radio on today's drive home. Let the crazies start queuing their phone calls up. They can rant and rave all they want. Today, was our first victory of many. Eight years of struggling uphill. We aren't going to stop now!

slurketta

I just woke up.
I go straight to the computer, as self-employed work-at-home people do. I'm eating a Larabar. I move the mouse on the MSN page to go to hotmail and I see a tiny headline out of the corner of my eye...
and stupid evil MSN, put something like this down there instead of in huge letters at the top of the news-
and I click on the story and I am crying and choking on my mouthful of energy bar and remembering the impromptu party at Barb and Deb's house in Noe Valley the Sunday night of that magic weekend, when they had waited outside City Hall all day with all the other couples, so many like them who had already been married for years, and they had finally gotten married in the eyes of the law. And Deb's mom was there, and everyone had brought potluck food, and there was cake, and I was so, so grateful that I had come to live in California.

And today, four years later, I am so, so grateful again.

"SAN FRANCISCO - In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation's biggest state to tie the knot.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in an opinion written by Chief Justice Ron George.

Outside the courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as news spread of the decision."

weev

In December, the Fed had $775 worth of Treasury securities. That stock will soon have dwindled to $300B, give or take. The difference, about $475B, represents an investment by the central bank in risky assets of the US financial sector.

$475B is an extraordinary sum of money. It is as if the Fed borrowed more than $1500 from every man, woman, and child in the United States, and invested that money on our behalf in Wall Street banks that private financiers were afraid to touch. For bearing all this risk, if things work out well, taxpayers will earn about what they would have earned investing in safe government bonds. If things don't work out well, the scale of the losses is hard to predict. The Fed will claim to have done "due diligence" on its loans, to have valued collateral conservatively, and will point to strength of bank guarantees and the enormous diversity of collateral assets to convince us that its actions are safe and prudent. But rating agencies made the same claims about AAA CDO tranches, and turned out to have been mistaken. Correlations often tend towards one when asset values fall sharply. Central bankers struggling to manage day-to-day crises in financial markets might cut corners when trying to value complex securities. They might find it convenient to err on the side of optimism, as the ratings agencies did, albeit for very different reasons. And even if the Fed is cautious and sober-minded, are we sure that central bankers can value these assets more accurately than private investors?

“There is a great danger for the United States of America. That great danger is the Jew. Gentlemen, in which ever land the Jews have settled, they have depressed the moral level and lowered the degree of commercial honesty. They have created a State within a State, and when they are opposed, they attempt to strangle the nation financially, as in the case of Portugal and Spain.

For more than 1700 years they have lamented their sorrowful fate, namely that they were being driven out of the motherland; but gentleman, if the civilized world today should give them back Palestine as their property, they would immediately find pressing reasons for not returning there. Why? Because they are vampires and cannot live on other vampires. They cannot live among themselves. They must live among Christians and others who do not belong to their race.

If they are not excluded from the United States by the Constitution., within less than a hundred years they will stream into this country in such numbers that they will rule and destroy us, and change our form of government for which Americans have shed their blood and sacrificed life , property, and personal freedom. If the Jews are not excluded, within 200 years our children will be working in the fields to feed the Jews, while they remain in the Counting House rubbing their hands.

I warn you gentlemen, if you do not exclude the Jew forever, your children and your children’s children will curse you in your grave.

Their ideas are not those of Americans. The leopard cannot change his spots. The Jews are a danger to this land, and if they are allowed to enter, they will imperil its institutions.

They should be excluded from the Constitution!

caladri

Under these circumstances, we cannot find that retention of the 
traditional definition of marriage constitutes a compelling state interest.  
Accordingly, we conclude that to the extent the current California statutory 
provisions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, these statutes are 
unconstitutional.