Friday, October 27, 2006

At the Risk of Being Called
Whine-y...; Family News...

...by Anonymous persons who can't be bothered to actually take responsibility for their words...
So here's the low-down on New Jersey...
The court ruled unanimously (7-0) that homosexual couples must be afforded the same rights as homophobic and straight couples when it comes to the benefits and responsibilities of marriage; the vote was split (4-3) on whether marriage should be the term used for these homosexual unions (3 said that yes, they should be given marriage; 4 voted to send it to the NJ legislature to come up with either a civil union arrangement or use marriage already in place). From an article:

Several Democratic lawmakers said they will push for full marriage rights. But some Republicans, the minority party in both houses of the legislature, said they will seek a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris, vowed to have the justices impeached.

"Neither the framers of New Jersey's 1947 constitution, nor the voters who ratified it, ever remotely contemplated the possibility of same-sex marriage," Merkt said.
The framers of the federal constitution never imagined home owners having semiautomatic machine guns, either. Or for that matter, an internet, mobile-to-mobile text messaging (I'm now imagining what our Constitution would have read in text-alese...), or that religious folks would ever want a state-sponsored church in power--goes to show how much times have changed, hasn't it?

The issue, though, and why NJ is such a bigger deal than Massachusetts having gay marriage, is that NJ does not have a law on the books that prevents out-of-state couples from marrying there (Massachusetts has a law from 1913 that was used to prevent interracial couples from marrying if that marriage wouldn't be recognized in their home state; the law fell out of use after the civil rights movement of the 60s, but since Mass. never took it off the books, they now use their bigot law to prevent same-sex couples form marrying there as opposed to interracial couples. What's the saying, "Scratch a homophobe, find a racist"? Something like that...) And while Mass. did say Rhode Island couples could marry there as Rhode Island didn't have a law against same-sex marriage, the majority of same-sex couples in the country simply cannot go there to get married--they actually card you to see if you are a resident of Mass or not, and thus deny you...

But since NJ does not have such a law, couples such as Rich and myself would be able to get married in NJ, then come home and sue to have our state recognize our marriage (in which case they would have to, as the fourteenth amendment of the federal constitution demands that states recognize and respect all certificates and documents from all other states in the union), and then, the federal government would have to drop DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act, which actually doesn't protect marriage against anything remotely anti-marriage, such as divorce or spousal abuse...) as, since FCSuper pointed out very recently (and Darkmind also makes a very good point about court precedence in the comments below), the federal government has no domain over marriage to begin with, it is a state's rights issue, and hence, Rich and I would have marriage equality in our country, which I served proudly in the Army in the 1990s...

See how the cookie crumbles? Life is getting better in this country for all.

In a superbly ironic twist, in the Ivory Coast, two prisoners who courted each other through a peephole between the male and female cell blocks were allowed to get married, even though they never actually saw each other until the wedding day. Why are there no laws preventing child molesters, murders, thieves, rapists, and other not-good-for-society type persons from getting married? Is it truly the issue that marriage needs protected from same-sex couples? Or that people are just hypocritical asses?
In other news, my younger brother, while on a business trip in Florida, got into a bar fight with a co-worker (this is not big news; both he and the co-worker are apparently surly individuals when drinking...) The weird thing is, since Mike punched the dude in the mouth, it cut his hand open, and he received a very nasty infection. And since Mike has the pain tolerance of a drunk elephant on methanphetamines, he didn't get the hand looked at even as it swelled up to three times its normal size. Finally, his (not girlfriend) girlfriend convinced him to get it looked at. They had to keep in the hospital for three days. They say if he had waited much longer, his hand would have died, or he himself could have died.... He is now home and recovering, but he's still a dipshit sometimes... There's no medicine for that...
Nathaniel, my youngest sisters newest edition to our family, smiled for the first time!
Olivia, my other sisters daughter, does not have the degenerative eye disease that they feared she had, so, even though she still will live with Grave's Disease, she will not go blind because of it!! Whew!
All other sibling and nieces and nephews are well. All parents are fine, I'm assuming, since I got no panicky phone calls (although it is odd that mom hasn't been by lately... she must be cleaning all the dirt dad made when adding on their new front porch...)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lots of great news here!
And good to know your brother and family are all doing great. I like your mom's comments here... she's very sweet and loving, it shows. For her sake, I wish she found the "light." :)

Darkmind said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

No, Jay, she's done cleaning of course... She was just busy watching my children while Tom and I were at a Halloween party at the old Madison St. apt. But they are home now, so expect phone calls and drop ins on the blogs to resume.
Love ya,
Ann

Jason Hughes said...

Ahh, the grandkids...

I can see how that would keep her busy! :D

Love ya sweetheart!

Anonymous said...

hello jason!! i will NEVER be done cleaning!! BUT with what i did get done looks so good and even smells clean! now this week i will be catching up on the things i left go. like i have to start dusting again in the rooms that really didn't get all the sawdust. and dad said he is going to start fixing the kitchen up a bit. now that won't be as bad since my cabinets i like its just the backsplash area and making something for my trash can to stay in the kitchen area without it showing. and i am getting a new counter top. i like to get a new sink but i think i have to do some fancy talking for that. if i look hard enough i might find one i like at the end of someones driveway. ( you know where i find all my stuff!! :) )the only thing new in my house is the sofa and chair and the refridge and now the windows and front door. well, anyway, all this to say i am back but maybe not for long since i have wire connectors to do and have a afghan to get done before Christmas and some other small things. well, this keeps me busy and out of trouble. ergo, is this "light" i am supposed to find, does it need cleaning?? :) i am going to get on the monk site to tell them about the most monkish thing dad and i did when we were cleaning up!! :) :) me holding the sweeper up to catch the sawdust while dad was making some holes in the wall so the sawdust did not go in the corner so we didn't have to move the cabinet to clean behind it. now that is very very very monkish!! :) who cares what nj! is doing who cares about the state of affairs in dc! who cares what anonymous says! its all about cleaning and listening to country music very loud and moving things around 10 different ways and looking for the right spot for my big speakers. (someone here would love to have those speakers that are alot smaller now for one of those occasions you give the people who gave you life gifts! hint hint) well, anyway, i am tired and right now have to get back at it. your brother michael was up to grab some of his tools he left here since he is working on some things at his place. i got to have a nice visit with him and gave him some chicken noodle soup. his hand is still a little puffy but getting better. darkmind i have not got to you yet but you are in my prayers. i hope you are doing better. listening to country music and cleaning does a world of good for you. :) and i like to add a big bowl of ice cream to all this cleaning up stuff!! just ask jason! :) :) remember mondays were always cleaning day!! fun fun!! :) i would let you run the sweeperfor me!! how do like this comment on your blog. makes you wonder why you wondered where i was at??!!?? you won't wonder again to soon now will you?!? :) :) i think i got you up with my busy busy important life! i could talk about the babysitting part now but that would go on and on about my days of working on the playground and watching other peoples kids while you kids were little and all that would just make everyone jealous about how great i am!! :) :) :) because you know us playground aides know everything!! :) just saw a new cobweb!! i hope no spider lives in it. i had my share of those while doing this whole project!! the only good spider is a dead spider on the bottom half of my snakeskin boots!! :) with this one i will go!! i will be in trouble now with someone out there in blog land. love you jason!!

mom said...

hello jason!! i will NEVER be done cleaning!! BUT with what i did get done looks so good and even smells clean! now this week i will be catching up on the things i left go. like i have to start dusting again in the rooms that really didn't get all the sawdust. and dad said he is going to start fixing the kitchen up a bit. now that won't be as bad since my cabinets i like its just the backsplash area and making something for my trash can to stay in the kitchen area without it showing. and i am getting a new counter top. i like to get a new sink but i think i have to do some fancy talking for that. if i look hard enough i might find one i like at the end of someones driveway. ( you know where i find all my stuff!! :) )the only thing new in my house is the sofa and chair and the refridge and now the windows and front door. well, anyway, all this to say i am back but maybe not for long since i have wire connectors to do and have a afghan to get done before Christmas and some other small things. well, this keeps me busy and out of trouble. ergo, is this "light" i am supposed to find, does it need cleaning?? :) i am going to get on the monk site to tell them about the most monkish thing dad and i did when we were cleaning up!! :) :) me holding the sweeper up to catch the sawdust while dad was making some holes in the wall so the sawdust did not go in the corner so we didn't have to move the cabinet to clean behind it. now that is very very very monkish!! :) who cares what nj! is doing who cares about the state of affairs in dc! who cares what anonymous says! its all about cleaning and listening to country music very loud and moving things around 10 different ways and looking for the right spot for my big speakers. (someone here would love to have those speakers that are alot smaller now for one of those occasions you give the people who gave you life gifts! hint hint) well, anyway, i am tired and right now have to get back at it. your brother michael was up to grab some of his tools he left here since he is working on some things at his place. i got to have a nice visit with him and gave him some chicken noodle soup. his hand is still a little puffy but getting better. darkmind i have not got to you yet but you are in my prayers. i hope you are doing better. listening to country music and cleaning does a world of good for you. :) and i like to add a big bowl of ice cream to all this cleaning up stuff!! just ask jason! :) :) remember mondays were always cleaning day!! fun fun!! :) i would let you run the sweeperfor me!! how do like this comment on your blog. makes you wonder why you wondered where i was at??!!?? you won't wonder again to soon now will you?!? :) :) i think i got you up with my busy busy important life! i could talk about the babysitting part now but that would go on and on about my days of working on the playground and watching other peoples kids while you kids were little and all that would just make everyone jealous about how great i am!! :) :) :) because you know us playground aides know everything!! :) just saw a new cobweb!! i hope no spider lives in it. i had my share of those while doing this whole project!! the only good spider is a dead spider on the bottom half of my snakeskin boots!! :) with this one i will go!! i will be in trouble now with someone out there in blog land. love you jason!!