The California Supreme Court voted 4-3 to overturn 
a voter-initiated law that banned same-sex marriage in the state. A constitutional amendment by ballot initiative with the exact same language has already been underway. The court did not decide that there was an inherent right to same-sex marriages, but that excluding same-sex couples from marriage when opposite sex couples enjoyed the right ran afoul of equal protection under California law. Edit: I should also add that there is an explicit right to marry under California law.
Zimbabwean officials have decided a presidential runoff election will be held 
on June 27th. According to officials, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai won a plurality of the vote, but not enough to avoid a runoff against President Robert Mugabe, who has held power since 1980.
Update 5/17: Sen. Ted Kennedy has been hospitalized after what seems to have been a stroke.
On this Friday:
Birthdays: Entertainer Wladziu Valentino Liberace 
(1919) and Author Louis "Studs" Terkel (1912).
Events: Kuwaiti women gain the right to vote. (2005)
__________________________
I'm listening to... 
I'm still certain that what motivates me
Is more rewarding than any piece of paper could be -- Dennis Lyxzén
What is up with the EPA?
Or more accurately, EPA cheif Stephen Johnson?
Today we are greeted with a new "rule" that doesn't have to pass through Congress (gee, what a surprise) that is going to change the way pollution is monitored from the most sensitive sites. Rather than track the actual pollution/timeframe as it is now (to understand and see pollution peaks & peak pollution times of day) they are going to average everything over the course of a whole year.
I know when bush43 left Texas he left a legacy as the govenor who opened his state up to the nations worst pollution controls. He didn't have any controls. All his regulations issued were "voluntary"! Guess what? Industry thanked him with big dollars to his Presidential campaign and never lifted a finger to control pollution. It wasn't until the next poor SOB govenor took over (a republican) where the charade of pollution control caught up to the state of Texas and they finally issued actual regulations.
I'd say bush43 is trying to do the same thing on a national scale.
I sure hope this one gets thrown out by the courts as well. it isn't in the countries best interests, only industries bigger profit margins.
Interesting observation
on high-stakes campaigns, senatorials votes and politics
.
Media guru David Broder is the unsuspecting exposeur
Nice to see the GOP
once again try to use queer bashing as an electoral strategy. This is probably the last election where it'll buy them anything outside of the Ozarks.
__________________________I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
So pathetic and trite
Enemy #1: The Gays
__________________________It is the economy, stupid.
Don't you know? The Gayislamofascists want your children!
And they won't stop till we imprison every single one of them in Cuba.
Unfortunately, this includes most of us. Maybe we should get our Congresscritters to make Gitmo nice before we all get first class invites to go there.
Ohio Payday Lending, RIP
See the story here
.
I would also add the inconvenience that the outlawing of this service will put on lower income Ohioans in cases when timing is crucial and the service is most useful.
Most useful = most harmful
There's a good reason paydal lenders are regarded as defacto criminals- they are. They prey on the desperate in a manner no different than a loan shark. Their "businesses" are not useful, they are not helpful. They are parasites. Good riddance (although they should be in handcuffs instead of just out looking for a new way to scam people).
__________________________I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
Tell us how you really feel.....
This is predatory lending at it's lowest, preying on those who can least afford it and claiming they are doing them a favor.
All it does is encourage people to live beyond their means stuck in a viscious cycle of borrowing at high rates.
__________________________It is the economy, stupid.
While that may be true in many cases,
I don't see where it's anyone's place to decree the legality or illegality of the service itself.
Sort of like predatory sex
Why is it anyone's place to decree the legality of illegality of rape.
Just because it's unethical, why should it be illegal.
__________________________It is the economy, stupid.
Rape is not consensual
There's one obvious reason for you.
Funny how you didn't use prostitution in your example.
But these same folks missed the unseen:
The people in North Central Ohio will need to find a new place to get money for their Heroin fix. I best get my CDs out of my car while I still can.
Usury is not good anymore.
__________________________In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
While agree that the reasons for some of the lending
are less than savory, it's my or anyone else's place to make that decision. You disagree?
The Ohio Legisislature seemed to use a cannon to kill a...
From the link that was in the link...
IMHO, allowing the 391% rate to stay for the first 2 weeks or so of the loan and then switching to a cap of 28% after that would be far more useful to all sides.
These credit lending places are still loan sharks.
__________________________In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
That's fine. And I would never use them.
I personally question the judgment of anyone who would agree to such terms. But people do keep going to them.
The real question to me is whether we should outlaw others from freely offering or acquiring the service.
There, I say no.
Moreover,
I see a real opportunity to get a cut of the action and take less profit if their getting that much on these loans. Looks like a gold mine for an agency willing to take a little less.
Then again, maybe there's a reason(s) nobody is moving in compete with lower rates. I don't know.
Channeling john Coles "Down The rabbit Hole":
Balloon Juice today talks about John McCains speech yesterday:
"Sullivan asks: “And did Bush’s Nazi silliness unwittingly stomp on McCain’s big speech today?”
To which I respond, if McCain is lucky...There is no answer. The whole speech is made up. It is all, every last word of it, pure fantasy. There was no outlining of plans, no presentation of facts that would lead you to believe all of the things he “sees” in his “vision” will come to pass- it was nothing but pure nonsense. Here is a partial list of things he sees in his “vision”:
We “win” in Iraq. No mention of what “winning” actually means.
The Taliban is “defeated.” How? Who knows?
We have a bigger Army and bigger Marine corps, and they are “better” trained and “better” equipped.
Bin Laden will be dead.
The economy will be “growing.”
New trade agreements leading to increased exports. Who are the agreements with? Who knows? What are we exporting? Who cares?
Health care will be “affordable.” How? FORCE OF WILL, BABY. Don’t you know John McCain is a veteran!
And on and on and on it goes. He might as well have also promised to cure AIDS, give everyone a PONY, and promised time travel.
And what is so amazing about it is that most of the press seems to have taken this… seriously. Why was he not laughed off the stage? Why, after eight years of an administration making their own reality, is this buffoon offering us visions and people are not throwing tomatoes at him? This is insanity, plain and simple."
Amen brother, amen.
But don't forget...
...McCain is a Very Serious and Thoughtful Foreign Policy C-in-C type while Obama is just a pitiful amateur, empty-suit who speaks in vague and mis-leading ways about US strategy.
No, really. That passes for media "analysis" these days. God help us.
Thoughts on your partial list
-You're right. We will never know what "victory" means here. That's the beauty of government "action", "victory" and "failure". The bungles of previous, ill-advised action is always a built-in excuse for more action in pursuit of "victory" and the avoidance of failure (and never a reason to reverse action). The former is never attained and the latter is always an albatross to avoid. Perfect....if you like this sort of self-sustaining nonsense.
-Ditto...see first response.
-That's because this is not a state vs. state conflict. We're bringing axes and sledge hammers to laser surgery and we're short on lasers.
-Irrelevant.
-Not really relevant. The economy does indeed always grow...just slower or faster depending on the level and nature of meddling and after-effects of previous meddling which must now run its course. Too late.
-Trade agreements do in fact do this. Always a good idea. We export plenty and it keeps going up. Personally I don't care what. It's of value or it wouldn't be exported and it also creates jobs and makes ancillary domestic activity more competitive.
-ha. define affordable. There's no magic bullet here from anyone. Universality does not automatically mean "affordable". First comment above is relevant here as well.
-just like everyone else....he's not unique.
-what's amazing is that the press takes ANYTHING, ANY OF THEM say seriously and without dispassionate skepticism and realism. See here
.
Insanity? yes. I agree.
-
I must credit John Cole. All I did was copy & paste.
It's OK....all the same...
Not mincing words
Obama's response to John McCain's allegation that Obama is soft on our enemies, speech at the NRA.
Delicious.
Running against Hillary made it more difficult for him to come on strong as her supporters are hypersensitive due to the gender 'issue'. He is free from those constraints when he responds to McCain.
I look forward to a rigorous debate between McCain and Obama. In fact, I can't wait!
__________________________It is the economy, stupid.
What people don't realize, however, is that
the United States really hasn't had the respect of the rest of the world since World War II. Frankly, no matter which of the three Candidates becomes POTUS, whether it be McCain, Obama, or H. R. Clinton, we'll all be screwed...big time.
Well, I'd like to remain optimistic
until after the election anyway.
It's a good sign that people are so exasperated with everything. It means the time is ripe for things to change.
I don't expect miracles but I look forward to a new approach to solving problems, which is more carrot and less stick.
__________________________It is the economy, stupid.
Yet, at the same time,
even this:
doesn't spark much optomism for me. Frankly, I think that all three candidates are quite poor and I don't much like or trust any of them. I think that even with an Obama Presidency, the country will be just as divided as it's always been. To paraphrase the expression "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
That's not entirely true
since ww2 there are many places where we've maintained a fair amount of respectability. Obviously the Middle East hasn't been one of them. The scary thing about Bush's terms is we saw our regard (as measured by various surveys of foreign countries) fall pretty much universally.
Exhibit A
__________________________Exhibit B
I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
G. W. Bush & Co. may have made bad situations worse,
but, truthfully, while this:
may be so, it's a known fact that the United States government has spent the past 50-some-odd years meddling in other countries' affairs when and where they had no business doing so, and, it's amazing that lots of people in the world haven't hated the United States even more. Messing around in the Middle East, which has to be one of the most, if not the most dangerous, unstable and volatile part(s) of the world, has been especially foolhardy, especially with such a poorly-trained military as ours, and leaders who really don't have a clue as to what it's all about.
Frankly, the system, which was in place from Roosevelt's time, began to worsen with President Nixon, it snowballed with Ronald Reagan, continued under Carter, Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, and made even worse by G. W. Bush, and, quite frankly, I honestly don't see a change coming, no matter who becomes president. I stand by my opinion/point of view that, no matter who becomes POTUS, everybody's going to get screwed. It's the whole way in which our system's been set up....from day one! Not to defend McCain or H. R. Clinton, anybody who thinks that an Obama Presidency will present miracles, including the dissipation of 200 years plus of racism and oppression here in the USA in one shining moment, or that Barack Obama is a knight in shining armor, is just dreaming in daylight
Ron Paul
Well a Ron Paul presidency would do wonders for foreign policy.
For some reason your average person has a hard time believing that sitting on one's hands might be the best course of action. And sometimes the best we can do simply isn't good enough.
__________________________I'm listening to...
I'm still certain that what motivates me
Is more rewarding than any piece of paper could be -- Dennis Lyxzén
Ron Paul
I've said it before:
if we had two presidents, one for foreign policy and one for domestic, I'd vote for RP to be he FP president in a heartbeat.
It's not that strict isolationism is the best course, rather it's just that we could use a good dose of it to get back to a sensible approach to the rest of the world.
isolationism = 1
interventionism = 10
we're at ~8 and we should be closer to 4. :)
His domestic policy is a non-starter, though.
__________________________I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
Meddling
No disagreement. We've done a lot of stupid short sighted crap. We've also done some real good. I'd vastly prefer the ratio of the latter to the former were better, naturally.
That said we've benefited from two big advantages that help offset our bad actions-
1) a national mystique that equates the US with freedom/democracy, and
2) an enormous media machine with which to propagandize the world subtly.
I had a French coworker and she estimated at least 70% of French TV and movies originated from the US. When you consider that France is a wealthy first world nation with a significant cinema history that's astounding. Especially since their native language is not English and the French have a bit of a stuck up attitude.
Again, I don't really disagree. In modern history I thought Clinton was one of our better presidents- but that only means things got worse slower under him. He still put us in Kosovo, maintained the Iraq sanctions, continued the stare off with Iran, blew up a Sudanese Pharmaceutical company, and on and on.
__________________________I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.
Hey, everybody:
Taking a too-brief break from dissertation revisions. What'd I miss?
I'm curious what people think about the California marriage decision. What's interesting is that all the justices seemed to think that the 2000 ban didn't meet CA standards for strict scrutiny, so the real reasons for the split decision dealt with how to handle that: 4 believed that the implications required extending marriage to same-sex couples, and 3 did not. Even more promising, the Republican justices seemed to agree that a ban was against the spirit of the CA constitution, and now the governor is coming out against the proposed November ban. If the Democratic presidential nominee can rally voters against the ban, there's a real chance it won't pass.
If I can be completely self-centered for a moment: it's hard for me to read the decision with a clear head, because it means something very specific for me: I'm getting married in a few months. Sweet! No time to plan anything, because we expect a serious possibility of its being reversed in November, but we'll be signing the documents before then. Who knows, they might still be worth something down the road. Legal documents don't burn.
In the meantime, I'll be done with all this work in the next couple days, so expect to see more of me around. Cheers!
__________________________Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Congratulations!
As a Massachusetts resident, I have seen first hand the complete breakdown of society that follows from allowing same-sex marriage... or not. Happy to see California join the club!
In general, I think I'm in agreement with what several others have written here on SC - the government probably shouldn't have any say whatsoever in marriage - they should just be in the business of civil unions, and let marriages be handled by the various churches as they see fit. But if the government is going to get involved, I don't see any good reason to deny the marriage of any two consenting adults.
__________________________We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki
Great news
The gay rights movement will suffer some setbacks but this issue will go the way of miscegenation. I know it's no consolation, but I think all of us here will see equal rights for our GLBT within our lifetime.
As far as I can tell, a simple reading of the California Constiution makes it very obvious that GLBT couples have a right to marry.
__________________________I'm listening to...
I'm still certain that what motivates me
Is more rewarding than any piece of paper could be -- Dennis Lyxzén
Hey pico...
things have been pretty quiet. A lot of the regulars have been light posting or away for periods of time due to outside issues. Plus I think the endless Dem primary has burnt a lot of us out at various points.
__________________________I came. I saw. I posted.
Veni, Vidi, Bitchy.