Saturday, July 29, 2006

NYTimes Op-Ed: Reasonable Doubt

Op-Ed Contributor: Reasonable Doubt: "Baruch Spinoza's life and thought have the power to illuminate the kind of events that at the moment seem so intractable and overwhelming."

An interesting piece on religious intolerance. Now some people will claim that I'm intolerant of religious people. I'll admit I feel a certain contempt for believers who have contempt for non-believers. But this is purely a defensive reaction. I have never advocated elimination of marriage rights to believers or abolishing of church groups or churches.

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Another Times article mentions how one pastor lost 1/5 of his congregation by trying to unlink Republican politics from his church.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Washington Court Upholds Ban on Gay Marriage

Washington Court Upholds Ban on Gay Marriage: "Some in the majority of the 5-to-4 decision said the state legislature was free to extend the right to marry to gay couples."

A not entirely unexpected defeat for same-sex marriage advocates. Still, it was rather a close call. The reasoning of some in the majority still is the procreation aspect. I've already mentioned in a post on the New York state case how that reasoning is terribly suspect. As the dissent mentions, the real motivation appears simply to be animus against gays and lesbians.

-- updated 7/27/2006

Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large suggests going to the legislature to get same-sex marriage accomplished. Interestingly he expresses his guilt at enjoying the benefits of marriage while excluding gays and lesbians.

Monday, July 17, 2006

NYTimes: One day in Ramadi

Link Despite the deaths and killing, the Times story holds some humor. Makes it a little easier to imagine what being in the US Army in Iraq can be like. The tactic is different -- it seems to be winning over the populace by protecting them. That is going to be a long slog. Unless the insurgents give up for some reason or we can trust the lesser armed and armored Iraqi police, I don't see an end for awhile.

A likeable Republican?

Link I suppose it isn't the kiss of death coming from me, but the words of respect coming from Hillary Clinton towards South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham might just be. In any case, here's one Republican who has some workable (and, as it happens, non-religiously grounded) ethics.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Iraqi Sunnis do about face, want Americans to stay

Link A very tenuous situation indeed. Let's hope the Sunnis are honorable. I can foresee bad things if US forces stand between Madhi and insurgents intent on civil war and not minding destruction of US forces. They may want to use American soldiers as shields, but the soldiers better be aware of possibility of a dagger in the back.

-- updated 7/18

Sectarian violence the Bush Administration and most Americans didn't anticipate going in?

CS article on Hizbullah

Link Christian Science Monitor article gives some perspective on the Hizbullah. An interesting point is that Hizbullah has been trying to capture Israeli soldiers for some time.

--updated 7/17

CS Monitor notes that the civilian casualties from Israel's attacks may be causing public opinion among Moslim states to move towards Hizbullah.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Middle-East Powder Keg

Link This is the first credible place I think for a start of a third world war. We must have learned something from the first two. I think we should try to find jobs for all those unemployed Islamic militants or potential militants. Something to keep them distracted from this stupid cycle of violence against Israel.

I think there have been books written about why Islam has become radicalized. A wikipedia entry (go to Recent History section) hints at some possible reasons. One was the development of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Here America is actually partially at fault. It gave support to the Taliban to fight the Soviets. The other is Israel's continuing flourishing despite Islamists declaring her an avowed enemy. After reading this entry, it seems to hint at possible near-future collapse in radical Islam, this could be the last gasp and this may be why they are so desperate to strike now. If they did not strike the Moslim population might become contented and happy and there would be no more need for these militias. So I guess we just need to try to make the people of these states happy so that they will shut down these militias of their own accord.

An Op-ed by Thomas Friedman describes the (obvious) problem: the moderate Moslim is an unarmed one. The radical one is the armed one. Even though moderates might outnumber the radicals, getting the moderate to police the radical one requires some doing. I think there is a tempermental disadvantage. Still, as Friedman states, it needs doing or else these fledging democracies are going to fail.

Another author suggests an overall strategy similar to what I advocate above, but not in such simple terms. That is to examine how to show Moslim states that participating in international community and the wealth of benefits involved is worthwhile. He mentions game theory and non-zero sum games (wins points with me).

Kenji Yoshino: NY Ruling Attempts to Camouflage Discrimination

Link Nicely worded rebuttal to NY appeals court ruling which states that heterosexuals need more help with parenting and that's why they need marriage. He makes an apt analogy to previous "out of the kindness of our manly hearts" defenses of discrimination against women decades ago that women were too delicate to be lawyers and should stay at home to run the household.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

More older brothers, more gayness

By now everyone has read this or heard this. Essentially a statistically significant study was conducted showing that with more older brothers the percentage likelihood of a boy being gay increased from 2% to 5%. Now 2% is pretty low. I was just thinking that with smaller families in developed countries, this means that there are less gay males being born than before in percentage and perhaps raw terms. A little sad from my single gay male numbers perspective...

Reasonable straight people might conversely say that's a good thing because being gay is admittedly more difficult for a person in today's society than being straight. But this is a poorly thought out (if also rather insensitive) response. Being gay is difficult because society makes it difficult. If society accepted being gay as "just part of the mysterious nature of the natural world", it wouldn't be difficult and in fact maybe it would be slightly celebrated. It's rare and unique and different and fun. Similar reasoning holds for wishing for a 'cure', wishing gay people were not gay -- Xmen3 plotline musings.

New York appeals court ruling cites children

Link It was disappointing to hear that the New York court ruled against same-sex marriage. Several have faulted the reasoning of the court however. The main thrust being the tenuous linkage between marriage and its requirement for children. I can point out a few flaws in those arguments (some of which I have stated before on this blog). (1) Gays can have children without being married. Straights can have children without being married. Straights (and Massachusetts gays) can be married and not have children. All these 'other' combinations are possible. If we want to help children of gays have a stable family, shouldn't we allow marriage for gays? (2) People can always disappove of how others raise children. This does not automatically allow them to seek to prevent these others from having benefits of marriage. Children and marriage are relatively distinct things. I disapprove of Christians raising their children to be homophobic bigots, but that still doesn't give me reason to prevent Christians from getting married. (I don't worry that children of Christians are permanently warped by the experience. Probably they'll be tramatized by their parents and become decent human beings because of it.) But actually gays have an excellent track record as parents. I haven't heard any horror stories about gay parents. I've definitely heard horror stories about straight parents.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Ideas & Trends: The Lonely American Just Got a Bit Lonelier

Ideas & Trends: The Lonely American Just Got a Bit Lonelier: "Americans are not only lacking in bowling partners, now they're lacking in people to tell their deepest, darkest secrets."

The article mentions that much of this lack of connection is blamed on lack of time. Everyone is so busy with their own lives and problems. I guess I would admit that this sadly is true in my case as well. DVDs, TV and Internet are pretty poor substitutes for living breathing human companionship, however, they can be easily banished when the mood strikes whereas banishing your human friends can lead to problems.

I suppose this loneliness is no so much a problem if that is the choice people are making consciously. I am reminded of the quote from Sister Wendy (a person on TV), something like: Loneliness: it needs. Solitude: it has.

The other thought is the possibility that people generally make poorer friends than in the past, sort of the "don't make friends like they used to" commentary. Without much of a real reference point, I'm not sure. Perhaps, I should ask older people about this. People have spoken about lack of civility in society in general. Is it that younger people aren't very considerate anymore? Or were they always that way? I'm sure I'm a poor examplar of the 'good friend' traits. Whenever I see an old Hollywood movie or read something from Ms. Manners, I think: I'm not so good..