Posts Tagged ‘California’
Tuesday, January 8th, 2013
In this file photo from Aug. 12, 2010, gay couple Tara Walsh, left, and Wen Minkoff embrace outside City Hall in San Francisco. The U.S. Supreme Court decided Friday, Dec. 7, 2012, to hear the appeal of a ruling that struck down Proposition 8, the state’s measure that banned same sex marriages. The highly anticipated decision by the court means same-sex marriages will not resume in California any time soon. The justices likely will not issue a ruling until spring of next year. A federal appeals court ruled in February that Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. But the court delayed implementing the order until same-sex marriage opponents proponents could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for two Supreme Court cases dealing with Gay Marriage at the end of March. The first is Hollingsworth v. Perry, this case deals with the California constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. This case will be heard on March 26th. On March 27th the Court will hear oral argument on the United States v. Windsor. This case deals with denial of marriage benefits to same-sex, legally married, individuals in states that have legal same-sex marriage. This case, in my opinion, is more interesting, and will have more constitutional issues to deal with that the Hollingsworth v. Perry case. The Hollingsworth v. Perry case can be argued by conservative members of the Supreme Court as a “states rights” issue. But the US v. Windsor case deals with a federal issue, meaning federal benefits, and this case would open the door to same-sex couples receiving death benefits and social security benefits of his or her spouse, and the federal government recognizing the rights of same-sex couples. I am interested how these cases will turn out.
Tags: California, March, Marriage, Oral argument in the United States, Perry, Same-sex marriage, Supreme Court, United States
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Saturday, July 21st, 2012
Higher education in the United States is extremely high. While most in Europe have their university tuitions subsidised by tax money, in America the cost of education seems to be rising and rising at a substantial rate. This past march thousands of protesters were in California fighting for lower tuitions, and a millionaire tax hike to pay for it. The protesters argue that a university education is a right that everyone should be able to afford. Now is that true. Is a university education a right or a privilege? I don’t believe that a university education is a right. Honestly I find that to be self-indulgent to think that. We have the right to life and liberty, but not to a university education. I feel as though this mentality is devaluing university educations, and making them worth less that they were 30 years ago. Maybe that’s unpopular to think, but I feel as though we as a society have become to indulgent and believe that we should be given too much by the government. I know this may sound strange to say, as a person with high student loan debt. I loved my university experience, but maybe if people wouldn’t constantly have given me free money I would have not left university with such a large amount of debt.
Tags: California, Colleges and Universities, Education, Education Reform, Higher Education, Organizations, Political, politics, Russell Group, United States
Posted in 2012 Election Coverage, Political, Rant | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
David Blankenhorn wrote a very interesting op-ed piece for the New York Times. For those of you who don’t know David Blankenhorn was the chief witness for the state of California’s case on Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage. He also wrote the book, The Future of Marriage, and was the founder of the New York bases, Institute for American Values. In this piece he states that his opposition of same-sex marriage stems from the fact that marriage has been defined classically as a bond between two people for the purpose of creating and raising children, and a same-sex couple could never have a child that was the biological union of the two people in that relationship. That is true in the biological sense. He then continues to state that he had hoped that his statements, and the ensuing debate would strengthen the marriages of heterosexual couples. He sees that specific point of view is flawed and that the arguments about same-sex marriage has turned into nothing but a culture war. He hopes that maybe that by accepting gay couples as a legal unit that he could attack different moral problems, such as the premarital childbirth rate, instead of this issue.
He clearly states in his article that his belief on same-sex couple haven’t changed, but that after a while you have to see what society wants and go with the flow. Is he right? A bit of both. He wants his cake and to eat it too. He’s saying, bluntly, while I don’t believe your family unit is the same as mine, I want to stop fighting about it so I can make/spend money somewhere else. I don’t know if I should applaud this man’s arrogance or not?
Tags: California, California Proposition 8, David Blankenhorn, Institute for American Values, Marriage, new york times, Political, politics, Same-sex marriage, United States
Posted in 2012 Election Coverage, Political, Rant | No Comments »
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
Yes I am enjoying reading about lawsuits lately. Here’s the newest one. A mom in California is suing Facebook because her kid racked up Facebook credit charges without her permission. In California there are laws that prevent minors from buying things online without their parent’s permission and on Facebook you cannot purchase anything if you are under 18 without your parent’s permission. This mom Glynnis Bohannon says that this isn’t enough and is filing a 5 million dollar lawsuit, that I am sure she is looking to turn into a class action lawsuit. I definitely fall under the side of parental responsibility. If your child has a Facebook account, they need a credit card to buy Facebook credit. IF the parent gives this credit card information freely to their child, whose fault is it if the child uses it. AND if the parent doesn’t check if they deleted the credit card information so the child doesn’t use it without their permission whose fault is it? I feel as though this mom is looking to blame Facebook instead of looking at herself and her child to blame for the credit card bill.
Tags: California, Child, Class action, Credit card, facebook, Glynnis Bohannon, Lawsuit, Parent, Political
Posted in Political, Rant | No Comments »
Monday, November 21st, 2011
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr
If Fred Karger won the nomination then the presidency he would have many firsts under his belt. He would be the first openly gay president, and the first Jewish president. Karger can never claim to not be about Washington or to be an outsider. Because he is the ultimate insider, as a former lobbyist and consultant with the Dolphin Group he has worked on over thirty federal and lower level elections, most notably Regan and Bush the first. Karger knows how the system runs. Karger, while a life long Republican is technically running as an Independent, because as an insider he knows that running as a Republican as an openly gay candidate could be a disaster. This has already been shown when Fox New locked him out of the California Republican Primary debate saying he didn’t have high enough poll numbers, 1%, but allowed Rick Santorum in who had fewer numbers than he did. Karger’s candidacy is seen by some as a way to highlight gay issues in America. He calls himself the anti-Romney who is a Mormon. The spat seemed to begin when Romney wouldn’t join Karger in condemning the LDS church‘s opposition to same-sex marriage and there support of the Marriage Protection Act.
Karger’s policy positions are pretty on point for what we need this day in age. Keep jobs in America, have education both inside and outside the classroom, don’t nation build and get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, defend Israel, alternative energy is a good thing, and he also believes in lowering the voting age. Now this also makes him different and makes me wonder why this guy is running or associating himself with Republicans at all: he believes in gay equality, gay marriage, a woman’s right to choose, and the legalization and taxation of pot.
This man sounds like a great Democrat but Republican, I don’t think so. I do find it funny he posted his birth certificate on his website.
Tags: Afghanistan, California, Fox New, Fred Karger, Karger, Mitt Romney, Morman, National Organization for Marriage, politics, republican, Rick Santorum, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, United States
Posted in 2012 Election Coverage, Political | No Comments »
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Ok so I am finding this rather ridiculous, the large number of sex scandal in the last six months, mostly with political figures with the notable exception of Tiger Woods. Now there is a new one, California Senator Roy Ashburn was arrested for drunk driving and then had to come out of the closet. Now those two things may not seem to go together, but what I did not add to the previous sentence was that Senator Ashburn was in a government vehicle, coming from a gay night club with a young man in the front seat. Why is it that these public officials seem to always one lie about their transgressions and two think they are going to get away with it. I am sorry but I think President Clinton showed that politicians cannot keep those sorts of things a secret from the american people without it blowing up in your face. Now it would be a scandal if Senator Ashburn had been arrested for drunk driving but him having to hide and come out of the closet like this, no it is ridiculous. Politicians should be upfront with their constituents from the get go, if they don’t get elected for that reason at least their reputations won’t be ruined. I am sure there are more scandal to come and for me to complain about, stay tuned.
Tags: Ashburn, California, Coming out, Driving under the influence, gay, gay senator, health, in the closet, politics, Roy Ashburn, senator, Tiger Woods, United States
Posted in Political, Rant | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Roy Disney, nephew of Walt Disney died today in California after a year-long battle with stomach cancer. Roy Disney was the Vice Chairman to the board of directors. Now what is sad about this death is this is the man who brought me my childhood. Roy Disney revitalized the studio in the 1980s along with Michael Isner bringing to the studio some of my favorite movies of all time including The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. I know i didn’t know this man personally but his legacy was heavy on my childhood, I remember how hard I cried when Mufasa died. He will be missed.
Tags: 79, Beauty and the Beast, Board of directors, California, cancer, Chairman, childhood, died, Disney, disney legacy, legacy, Little Mermaid, missed, politics, roy disney, sad
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Saturday, December 12th, 2009
Maybe I’m just a little pessimistic but I don’t see this health care bill being agreed on and passed by both houses for a while. None of those people in Washington seem to know what they think is best for Americans when in reality all we need is health insurance. that’s it. Don’t tell me who, what, when and where I can go or do with my body. I just need help with my yearly gyno and if I am sick and need to go to the doctor. That’s it. So please tell me why can’t these guys make up their minds.
I’m not saying that this country needs universal healthcare, what we need is affordable healthcare. It’s cheaper for a person to go to the doctor and get cough medicine then for the american tax payers to pay for bronchitis medication. Maybe insurance reform would be better, IDK but what I am saying is that we need some sort of system where people can go to the doctors for physical and preventative care without it costing an arm and a leg.
Tags: Americans, California, health, health care, health care reform, Health insurance, healthcare, House, Insurance, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, politics, President, Preventive medicine, reform, Senate, United States, Universal health care, Washington
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