Waving at Google, etc.

After yet another unplanned hiatus from blogging (too crazed of a schedule), let’s see if I can get back on track. A few items going on in the news these days. Sadly, of course, the California Supreme Court decided to keep California backwards by denying marriage equality to a subset of people.

On a more positive note, Newsweek recently acknowledged that Oprah has been supporting charlatans, frauds, and, at best, highly questionable and possibly dangerous techniques. I’m sure if she thinks positively about it, the criticism will just go away, as that is her secret after all.

But in the best news (well, putting on my developer’s hat anyway), Google was just talking about the
Google Wave, an instant messaging, emailing, photo album building, document creating, bug tracking (one of the gadget extensions anyway), ad infinitum, shiny new tool with an API for developers to write applications for. The only thing it doesn’t seem to do is brew beer yet, but I’m sure somebody will be working on that. The actual launch date is still a bit out, and perhaps they did this to steal a little wind from Microsoft, which certainly isn’t a bad thing. A very cool tool tool; check it out.

Iowa impresses me

With a tip o’ the hat to PZ Myers, I just learned from Pharyngula that Iowa is allowing same-gendered marriages, that is, extending civil rights equality to all regardless of sexual orientation. Specifically, the Iowa Supreme Court has outlawed bans on same sex marriage as unconstitutional. From the source link:

“The decision strikes the language from Iowa Code section 595.2 limiting civil marriage to a man and a woman. It further directs that the remaining statutory language be interpreted and applied in a manner allowing gay and lesbian people full access to the institution of civil marriage,” the statement on the court’s Web site says.

The Iowa Supreme Court said it has the responsibility to determine if a law enacted by the legislative branch and enforced by the executive branch violates the Iowa Constitution. “The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa Constitution must be declared void, even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion,” the court said.

So, in an unexpected twist, Iowa has beaten my adopted state of California in terms of fair and progressive thinking, that protects the minority from the tyranny of the majority. Wow. Just wow. Again, I am totally embarrassed for my state. But congratulations to Iowa.

In spite of our tar pit of financial and environmental problems, California certainly has a lot going for it. Due to the smog problems, we are fighting to lead the way in reducing vehicle emissions. We helped Obama into the White House (More on that later. A mixed blessing, but still, I believe better than the alternative.). We are striving to make inroads into alternative and cleaner energies (check out that link if you are in California). We have a pretty good state university system. We are known for being a socially progressive state, at least in the more populated coastal areas of L.A. and San Francisco. But in an anti-progressive bigoted move (and under a media blitz from mainly religious institutions), California passed Proposition 8, effectively stripping away the rights of a certain segment of the population from getting married. Maybe someday California will join Iowa and put both feet in the 21st century.

Back again and what’s happening

Well, it looks like I’m back. We just had a brutal and bloody week with layoffs. Lost a lot of good people, and a lot of experience and knowledge. It was almost like breaking up a family. Somehow I survived, though not happily. Suffice to say I expected to be writing a much different post now, and to have more time to do so.

So, let’s get back up to speed on what’s happening in the world. Rush Limbaugh was blathering on irrelevantly to some Republicans somewhere. Google it if you haven’t heard about it and are interested for some reason.

It looks like California’s Proposition 8 is back in the courts. The argument appears to hinge on whether or not it is an amendment or revision of the state’s constitution.

But Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine, predicts the case will turn on whether the court believes Proposition 8 violated the state constitution by skirting the Legislature.

“If it concludes, as I believe it should, that this is a revision, then it is unconstitutional,” Chemerinsky said. “The whole point of a constitution is to limit what the majority can do.”

Rightly said Erwin Chemerinsky. This bigoted monstrosity of legislation, which unnecessarily clamps down on the rights of others which infringe upon no one else, can not be overturned soon enough. It is an embarrassment to my state.

In other news, Jindal, governor of Louisiana, signed a law allowing nonsense to be taught as science in schools. Apparently he is determined to get Louisiana back on track to head to the 12th century and beyond. To send a strong message to Jindal, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology is boycotting Louisiana. A good move, in my opinion. In response, Michael Egnor, the notorious Discovery (of new ways to substitute science with politics) Institutionalist, had some amusing things to say. I highly recommend taking a look for amusement’s sake. Let’s see, we have argumentum ad populum, blah blah blah, and finally “If you don’t stop showing us how we’re wrong, we’re going to take your funding away”. Nice. I would like to point out to Egnor that one reason science gets funding is because it actually gets results. That is already far beyond anything the Deception Discovery Institute has ever done. Well, unless you want to count the results of lost and wasted resources in endless legal battles. Besides, he should be focusing on the next battle between science and his narrowly conceived world view. The failed philosophy of dualism and the fact that the well demonstrated physical basis for the mind has made the soul obsolete. Oh wait, he’s a brain surgeon. In that case, I suggest he read up on compartmentalization, as discussed by Sam Harris in The End of Faith, or perhaps ethics.

Prop 8 yet again

I have written a bit about Prop. 8 in California here and here. As most people are no doubt aware, Prop. 8 failed in California, thus denying the rights of gay people to get married. As a result, there have been a number of protests in California. Eventually I do think Prop. 8 will be rightly overturned and people of the same gender will have the same rights as the rest of us. But, since Prop. 8 was largely funded by the Mormon Church, it seems only fair to shine a little light on them.

It is ironic that, given the early Mormon sanctioning of polygamy that they would see themselves as the champions of defining traditional marriage being only between one man and one woman. Although they did change these practices in 1890, due to government threats to seize temples, 60 years after the founding of the religion, various sects are well known to still accept the practice. Mormons are well known for their wonderful temples, but perhaps they ought to be more concerned with glass houses.

What about the religion itself? Of course, much of the history of the founding has been roughly captured in a famous documentary called South Park, an analysis of which can be found here. The founder Joseph Smith was a glass looker apparently. A con man like others who claimed to be able to find things such as hidden treasure by looking into glass or a special stone. It seems he then took this idea and embellished it by “finding” golden plates and translated them with “seer stones”. There story written thereon was a story of the Americas. From Skeptoid.com

The Mormons, formally and properly known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is the same as any other more conventional Christian church, but with the additional element of a belief that after the Resurrection, Jesus also appeared to peoples in the Americas. The story goes that a man in Jerusalem named Lehi built a boat for his family and sailed across the Atlantic to the American continent in about 600 B.C., and they became the forebears of the American Indian people of North and South America. The history of the continent was kept on gold tablets, passed from generation to generation, compiled by a warrior named Mormon and finally buried in upstate New York by his son Moroni. A golden statue of Moroni, now an angel and holding a long trumpet, stands atop most Mormon temples — all unofficially pointing toward Jackson County, Missouri, which Mormons believe is the geographic center of the continent, and where they believe Jesus will make his Second Coming.

More interesting information is at the site quoted. The story from the original tablets was lost, and of course, unable to reproduce it exactly, Smith came up with the same far fetched story from a different perspective, and of course, worded differently. That should have tipped off anyone who could rub two neurons together, but I guess he was a pretty good talker. Of course, modern science has also conclusively shown that there is no direct genetic link between the Hebrews and native Americans, so that alone pretty much discounts the reliability of any of the information Smith “gleaned” from the tablets. Hard for us to verify what the plates said though, as Angel Moroni(sic?) allegedly took them back.

So, bottom line? A powerful religious organization based on an obvious con that has not one iota of rational or scientific evidence to back it up, has, in the 21st century, worked diligently to restrict the rights of other people that don’t concern them. Human history continues as always.

Prop 8 Revisited

So, I went out for my run this morning/afternoon here in sunny California and noticed that a few neighbors had Vote Yes on Prop 8 signs. I had not realized that my own neighbors were buying into tyranny. I also noticed that they urged people to check out the Protect Marriage web site. Being the fair minded guy that I am, I did just that.

Of course, the first thing I wondered was, protect marriage from…what exactly? Two people of the same gender taking part in it? How does this protect marriage? I would think that by allowing two people who love each other and want to have a family to get married would strengthen the institution of marriage. Well, the first thing I see on the web site was a little flash slide which said, “Voting Yes on Prop. 8 means restoring traditional marriage.”. Now we’re getting somewhere. Wait a minute. I have a so-called traditional marriage. How exactly would not allowing same gendered folks from getting married restore my marriage, which, by the way, doesn’t really need restoring? Was traditional marriage somehow abolished when I wasn’t looking? Why does it need to be restored?

The next thing I saw on the web site was the Marriage Pledge. This has a series of questions starting with “Do you believe marriage should be between a man and a woman” and ends up with a pledge to support Prop. 8. Each question has a checkbox for choices to select. Of course, the checkbox options are “I do” and…wait..there’s only “I do”. They are obviously trying to make some cutesy analogy to a wedding ceremony, but what the hell is the point of checkbox choices if there is only 1 option? This is emblematic of the entire Proposition 8 movement. The removal of choices. The enforcement of bigoted tyranny by a theocratic mindset. Yes, if you look at the blog on their site, everything is church (should the IRS look into this?) and Bible College supported. Specifically by Dr. Phillip Goudeaux, Senior Pastor of Calvary Christian Center, Riverside Wesleyan Church in Sacramento, Dr. John Goetsch of West Coast Baptist College, Cornerstone Church in Fresno, First Baptist Church in Fresno, and more. They refer to churches busing people in to rallies. Make no mistake, this is a blatant attempt of religious intrusion into government.

Of course, the other point they hit several times is the same rubbish offered on the television commercials. That now our children will have to be taught about same sex marriage. I understand that this is actually not true in California, but even if it was, so what? If we ever have kids, that will not even be on the radar. If same gendered couples can get married, where is the actual harm in children being aware of that reality? I don’t know but perhaps it may actually help in removing some of the anti-gay type of language often heard in early school that may lead to bigoted attitudes later in life.