In the video below Jon Stewart makes some good points about how ridiculous and inhumane it is to be anti-gay marriage.
I was surprised to see on the cover of a recent Newsweek the bible with a rainbow bookmark and the caption, "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage," complete with a very convincing and interesting article inside titled, "Our Mutual Joy," by Lisa Miller. The online version has some shocking comments. There is a culture war going on here. "Is Gay the new Black?"
My rule of thumb: be thrilled when anyone finds love in this life. Support all marriages. Support all forms of mutual love. Conservatives try to make a good point by equating same-sex love to incest and pedifilia. "Not all forms of love are good." Yeah, but all forms of mutual love are. Just imagine two old ladies that are soul mates and want to get married.
The great American bumper sticker is also settling: If you don't believe in gay marriage, don't have one.
Ashley and I playing our roles at a local kindergarten. It was my first time as Santa.
The Dalai Lama is so cool. Just check out this short article.
Also, Paul Lonely, author of the mind-boggling Suicide Dictionary, recently added me to his website! I must be dreaming.
I visit the largest elementary school in Ehime: six classes per grade, 35 to 40 children in a class, six grades in the school, plus a special needs class. That's about 1,350 kids, perched on the side of the mountains, overlooking the city, sea, and islands beyond.It's beautiful, and freezing here in Niihama right now. The kids have to wear their regular uniforms, which means skirts and short shorts. The cold is a stupid distraction from learning, in my opinion. Either heat the schools (which they try to do, with loud, smelly kerosene heaters), or let the kids wear the warmest things they have. Japanese kids are pretty damn tough, you know. May I remind you that they clean their own schools?
Here we all are in the cold, cold gymnasium for an actually quite impressive morning assembly: the monthly poetry recital. Entire grades recite famous poems to each other. I could sometimes hear a single voice, the first child to shout out the next word, so confident, everyone else coming in half a second behind.. It looks like second grade is standing up and reciting theirs in the back left corner.
A typical choice at a vending machine. Red means hot. See the hot chocolate in the middle? It's so good. They have hot corn soup and hot lemon water, really good teas and coffees. That hot coco in the middle, though, is mine. I don't even look down at the cold stuff any more. Notice, though, that there is nearly no pop; it's mostly coffees and teas. Japan is very caffeinated.
A Christmas tree decorated with Santa Hello Kitties. Emily and I visited Osaka this weekend. We saw the forest of bright yellow ginkgo trees that line Midosuji street and witnessed first hand the monstrous Christmas cheer infesting the entire city. Modern versions of old Christmas songs blast throughout the streets...sales!! sales! sales. Christmas in Japan is weird. Man I'm excited to come home!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 comments:
i've been adoring fleet foxes as well! you are superb, as always, dreamboy. xx
Have a wonderful Christmas back home brother.
Jon Stewart needs to work a lot harder if he wants to change the way people think on this. I used to share Gov Huck's concerns (on this alone), and I don't think he said anything unreasonable.
Here's what I believe, and why I'm now in favour of gay marriage.
Being gay is either a choice (in rare cases), or it's a biological deviation. That's deviation in scientific terms, not in moralistic terms. Marriage is recognition of and protection of the biological norm by the state. Hence Jon misses the point with the polygamy swipe. However much marriage has developed (and it hasn't developed that much), it's always been between opposite sexes.
I believe that states allowing and recognizing marriages between same sex couples is a totally radical departure.
However, when you consider all the rights that states allow to married couples, and you consider how allowing them to same sex couples will result in no harm to anyone, and will result in great benefits to same sex couples and their children, then it seems cruel and perverse not to take the radical step.
The other issue is that it's nation states that recognize marriages, not religion or anything else. Same sex couples leaving a nation state that recognizes them to visit a state that doesn't recognize them will face all manner of hazards. That's an issue that really needs to be solved too. It's one that most people seem to overlook. The diplomatic approach towards say, Afghanistan, on this point will be a ticklish matter...
Jon didn't make any of these points, therefore he didn't look any more reasonable than Gov Huck.
Have a happy, Gov Huck-style White Cross Christmas y'all!
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