No More Excuses

The way that I was raised was, “Nobody’s better than you, and anything that you want, you set your mind to it and you go get it. Period.” I believed that it was possible, but I didn’t know if I really believed. The history of African-Americans is such that you want to be a part of America, but we’ve been rejected so much it’s hard to take the ownership and take responsibility for ourselves and this country. It was like, at that second, at that moment, all of our excuses were gone. – Will Smith on the election of Barack Obama.

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What We Learned in 2008

In case you missed it, there was an historic election on Tuesday. By 8:00 PST, we had a new president. And in the moments that followed, we learned some interesting things about our country.

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America is not racist.
I’ve been arguing this for quite some time now. I remember several years ago I was sitting in a parking lot waiting for the wife to come out of a store. I saw a well dressed black man step out of a $100,000 Mercedes. I thought to myself, in a racist country, that would not be possible. The top two of the richest entertainers in the world are black Americans. This would not be possible in a racist country. Sure there are some people who are racist... there always will be. But it is obvious now that those people do not come close to representing the whole.

America is purple.
Mark Newman, from the Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan, created some interesting maps of the country based on how we voted. What Mark did was display the country, each county by color based on how they voted. He didn’t just use red and blue, he used shades of red and blue based on percentages. Then to make the map even more accurate, he created a cartogram, which stretches and shrinks areas of the map according to the population. In the end you end up with a swirls of red and pockets blue mixed in with a lot of purple.

Pundits like to say this country is sharply divided. Some even went as far as saying that Obama is going to have to work to unify this divided nation. This country is not divided. This country is full of people who have opinions. And frankly, I do not want to live in a country where everyone feels exactly the same way.

Republicans got fired for spending, not social conservatism.
Liberals like to declare that victory for them means a defeat for social conservatism. However, if you look at the other items that were voted on in this country, social conservatism is still high in the minds of voters. Democrats won major victories over the Republicans, but at the same time three states passed gay marriage bans... one of those states being the hugely liberal state of California. Americans still believe in values. The Republicans got fired, not for having values, but rather not following their own motto of lower government spending.

George W. Bush is a better man than Bill Clinton will ever be.
After the announcement of Obama’s victory, George W. Bush extended his hand to the man who spent the last two years railing against everything Bush has stood for and done. When Bush won in 2000, Clinton only extended a finger.

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Gay Marriage

Tomorrow California decides whether there should be a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, making gay marriages illegal. One thing I find amusing is the opponent of the proposition, claiming proponents are intolerant, and then spray painting that message on the cars and homes of people who have a “Yes on 8” sign in their yard. Regardless, there is a huge difference in the feelings behind each viewpoint.

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A person who supports gay marriage claims it’s an issue of civil rights. Gay people should be allowed the same rights as straight people. Interestingly enough, gay people have the same rights. They can legally marry a person of the opposite sex as I can. There is no longer any right given to a married couple that is not offered to a domestic partner. Bottom line, gay people just do not want to be told no.

A little side note... if you follow their logic, my rights started to be violated the day I got married, because I cannot marry another person. Why, as a married person, can I not marry anyone else? That’s simply not fair. What if I really love that second person... and really love my current wife? I should have that right.

Truly the misunderstood person is the opponent of gay marriage. There is something deeply at stake for a person who believes in the one true God. You see, marriage is something that was created by God and represents His relationship with me. It is intended to be a beautiful thing, not some abomination that it has turned into. So the voter who is for Prop 8 is not out to make a gay people’s lives miserable just to spite them. He is trying to protect something that is sacred to his beliefs. Something that means more than just his own personal situation. And just like divorce, we are watching as gay marriage destroys something beautiful God created. This is as offensive and as disturbing as the man who dipped a statue of Christ in a vat of urine and called it art.

The world sees God through marriage. By asking me to say no on Prop 8, you are asking me to piss on God.

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Apple Opposes Prop 8

Daring Fireball, which might be my favorite blog (usually), responded to that headline by saying, “Good for Apple.” Why is that good for Apple? Because Gruber agrees with it? What a bunch of crap. The fact is, Apple shouldn’t be involved in whether gay people can marry any more than Gruber thinks I should be involved in whether gay people can marry. I reward John with his own “Jackass of the Week” award.

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Tough call on how to tag this article... does it go under Apple, Politics, Religion, or Et Cetera?!

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More on Prop 8

So I’m driving with Justin this evening to get some food. We pull up at a stop light, and on the corner were a half-dozen people standing on the curb with “Say No to California Proposition 8” signs. The loud one had a sign that read, “Love Not Hate... No on Prop 8.” So he’s hollering at our car telling us we need to vote no. I don’t really want to provoke the guy while we’re sitting six inches away. I wait until the light turns green and figure that’s a good opportunity to let him know my view on Prop 8. I give him a thumbs down sign. His response? “F*** you, homo!” Priceless.

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Undecided

I am really puzzled by a person who is only a couple of weeks away from the election and still claims to be undecided. The problem I have with this is simple. You have two competing ideals, you don’t know which one you are? David Sedaris of The New Yorker offered a good analogy...

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To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of s*** [my censorship, not the author’s] with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

That seems a bit harsh. I would argue that neither candidate is a pile of crap with or without shards of glass. And why downgrade crap by comparing it to something as disgusting as chicken?

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Get Over It, Foo

I really hate it when a band makes political statements. I rarely agree with a band or artist on their views, and it just changes the music for me. Foo Fighters decided to bum me out this week by complaining that John McCain’s campaign is using their music at his rallies without asking...

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This isn’t the first time the McCain campaign has used a song without making any attempt to get approval or permission from the artist. It’s frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. The saddest thing about this is that ’My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song.

First, I don’t know why virtually all popular musical acts are left-leaning. But fact is, they are. So if any Republican asked any popular artist for permission to use a song, he’s not going to get it. So what’s the campaign suppose to play during a rally?

Second, why should John McCain have to ask Foo and his Fighters for permission to play any of their songs? Last I checked, there are rules to keep you from using a song in a commercial, TV show, or movie without asking (paying). But if I’m having a party – or in this case, a rally – and I happen to like a song, screw the artist. I’m playing it.

What’s next, Foo? Am I going to have to get permission to buy your CDs? “You can’t buy our album... you’re a registered Republican.”

By the way, Rush Limbaugh uses a song by The Pretenders for the theme song to his show. And every time he starts his show, he’s paying a licensing fee to the band. And the band doesn’t like it. But that’s just too bad... because the band signed the licensing rights to the label, and the label doesn’t care about Rush’s politics. The label only cares about the money.

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Are You Sure?

Back in June, when a California court determined that gay marriage should be legal, my atheist friend harassed me... “See? We’re all still here. I thought if gay marriage happened, it would be the end of the United States. Guess not!”

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Stocks skidded this afternoon, with the Dow’s nearly 778-point drop being the worst single-day point loss ever, after the House rejected the government’s $700 billion bank bailout plan.

Are you sure about that?

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