church & state

I heartily endorse Mungo's post yesterday that the 14th amendment is a straightforward reason to overturn Prop 8 in California and I'm totally in favor of same sex marriages.

However, the following comment appeared and got a fair amount of support in the thread:

"Why should the government ever be in the position of defining marriage? Let that be up to churches and have the government enforce the contracts."

People, that is nuts.

Say I'm an atheist. Where's my "equal protection"? Say a church allows marriages between 40 year olds and 12 year olds. Should the government "enforce the contract" or throw the church leaders in jail. Suppose a church refuses to allow divorce for any reason.

Note that "just go find another church" is not a viable solution. Not for the 12 year old. Not for the person in the abusive relationship. The simple fact of the matter is that churches can create all kinds of mischief and it's just not that easy to walk away if your family, future spouse, social network is all bound up in the church.

Sure majorities make mistakes. Pure majority rule can be tyrannical to minorities. But in my opinion, Theocracies make way more mistakes and create much more tyranny.

I simply don't see the "tyranny" of having the Government be in the marriage business in the USA, especially if it would simply respect the Constitution and provide equal protection to all its citizens.

Are you people seriously against a law denying the right to marry 12 year olds?

War on Drugs

New and deeply weird video for the War on Drugs' song "Brothers":

The War on Drugs - Brothers from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

One size fits all

In this excellent interview, Werner Herzog allows that all of his movies could have been appropriately given the same title: "Gazing Into The Abyss".

Nice work if you can get it

Over the last four years, since Daniel Ortega got back in the saddle in Nicaragua, Hugo Chavez has dropped $1.6 billion on his mini-me. If you think that sounds like chump change, remember that the entire budget of the Nicaraguan government is only around $1.5 billion per year, so it's like 25% comes from Hugo.

But it's even better than that for Daniel, because it amounts to his own private slush fund.

(check out the look on the guard's face in the background. What is going on?)

Classic moments in politics

In this video, Nixon takes action to "defend the American dollar" by closing the gold window and ending the Bretton Woods era. It is a masterpiece of doublespeak and obsfucation.

Of course, by defend the dollar he meant let it drastically depreciate against the German Mark. The speech was in August of 1971. Here's a picture:

separated at birth?

Supposedly, Fubarak's nickname is "the laughing cow". I don't quite see it but hey, here you go:

A mob of his own

As protests continue, Hosni Fubarak invests in his own shock troops by announcing a 15% pay raise for all government employees.

That should help keep them out on the streets punching Anderson Cooper!

The Wisdom of Kobe Bean Bryant

Referring to his teammate Pau Gasol:

"Even when he was in Memphis and he was the go-to guy, he was always very nice. Very white swan. I need him to be black swan."

Not sure if this is a Nassim Taleb reference or a Darren Aranofsky reference, but well done KBB!!

Thomas Friedman gives us his philosophy of life

He sums it up for you at the very end and it's well worth watching the whole thing!

He's Baa-ack

As amazing as this sounds, apparently Baby Doc is back in Haiti!

No word on what he was wearing.

Grandpa Toots

Mr. Tooty was being extra weird last night. Had to take a photo:




I didn't even know the iPhone 4 had a flash until last night!!

Evo got Evo'ed!

or, the gasolinazo that wasn't.

First big news story of the year (if you are a weirdo like me) is that Evo Morales has abruptly cancelled his cancellation of gasoline subsidies in Bolivia in the face of growing street protests.

Of course, changing policy (or even governments) via street protests was Evo's calling card before he himself became president.

Boz has good background/context.

PS. One thing I really like about Latin American Spanish is the -azo. Take a soccer goal (gol). If it's spectacular, add the azo and call it a golazo! If Serge Ibaka busts open Josh Smith's pumpkin with a vicious elbow (codo)? That, people, is a codazo!

Thank you sir, may I have another?

People, it just never ends. Now a group in California is suing Mickey D's over their happy meals. It turns out that kids like them and get mad if mom says no. So mom is suing!!

I am not making this up.

Of course mom is not "just" a mom; she's an employee of a state funded vegetable advocacy group.

I am not making that up either.

Remind me again why we need lawyers?