27. februar 2004

Gay marriage ceremonies coast to coast San Francisco's gay weddings have spread to at least one other place, New Paltz in New York state, where the 26 year old mayor Jason West has started performing wedding ceremonies for gay couples as a reaction to Bush's decision to support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages. At least 20 same-sex couples are now officially husband and husband, or wife and wife (yeah, that sounds silly, I know). There are doubts about the legality of the gay weddings, to put it mildly. But this may be a sign of civil disobedience spreading, and a real nationwide civil rights movement forming. Speaking of the infamous amendment, Talking Points Memo says there is at least 34 senators on record as opposing the amednment, so it's never going to even get out of congress. No doubt Bush and Rove knew this, and merely counted on the proposal to energize the Bible-thumpers for the election while giving the democrats some tough questions to answer. In Norway, gays only aimed for a civil union (lit. "partnership") law with all the rights of marriage (except adoption), and got it. Most people simply call it a marriage. Today, there is little opposition to civil unions in the parliament (limited to the Progress Party and the Christian Democrats). 11:47:39 PM    comment []  trackback []

More pheasant hunting Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has gone pheasant hunting in dubious company a few times, and it raises a few eyebrows that in November 2001 he went hunting with University of Kansas School of Law Dean Stephen R. McAllister two weeks after the dean had appeared in the Supreme Court, defending a Kansas state law. Two weeks later, McAllister was back in front of Scalia and his collegues to defend a Kansas prison programme. And, yeah, Scalia sided with his hunting pal in both cases. Actually, the reason I had a look at the LA Times for once, is that I was testing out a universal password for newspapers that require registrations. If you are sick and tired of registering on a gazillion newspapers, try the username/password combo freethepresses. While it lasts. If the paper requires an email address for user name, freethepresses-at-example.com does the job. Yeah, I know this will not work for long. I picked this up in a Norwegian blog (the password, not Scalia shooting pheasants). 10:31:57 PM    comment []  trackback []

Oh dear, you googled me Totally useless trivia of the day: if you google for "lutefisk sex" and no men in white coats come to take you away before the search results comes up, you will find that Secular Blasphemy comes up at the very top of the result list. Sadly, this fact has not caused myriads of readers to come to my blog to learn about this exciting subject. 8:45:50 PM    comment []  trackback []

What is marriage anyway The social conservatives who argue that opposition to gay marriage preserves marriage the way it has been for centuries, haven't got a friggin clue about the convoluted history of marriage. 8:41:18 PM    comment []  trackback []

Suspect in air traffic controller murder lost entire family in crash Swiss police has arrested a man in relation to the case with the killed air traffic controller. The man, who is not yet confired as a Russian, lost his wife, son and daughter in the plane crash that was partially blamed on the air traffic controller who was murdered. The 36 year old air traffic controller has been identified by Danish media as Peter Nielsen. 3:18:44 PM    comment []  trackback []

Could Columbine killings have been averted? It has caused outrage among relatvives to the victims of the Columbine shootings that there were at least 15 contacts up to two years prior to the massacre between the authorities and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Attorney General Ken Salazar has been investigating: Salazar said his staff interviewed two former sheriff's officials just this week. He also said authorities are still trying to find a file detailing a search warrant affidavit for Harris' home after a pipe bomb was found along a bike path in 1998 — a search that never took place. "We are still looking for that file," Salazar said. Asked if he thought there was a cover-up, he said: "I do not know today." Very troubling. There tend to always be warning signs, in big neon letters, before disasters like Columbine happen. Without getting hysterical, which never helps anyway, it may be possible to pick up a few more those troubled (or fucked up) individuals before it is too late. However, I fear that instead of trying to learn lessons, a lot of people are just interested in finding somebody alive they can blame and, perhaps more importantly, sue. 8:09:18 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.03.2004; 14:44:16.