It's Been Awhile

Tomorrow I will, barring some strange supernatural event, I will be voted in as the president of Coalition for Diversity. In December I will be moving into the presidential position for Baylor Democrats. With literally little effort, I have taken control of the activist portion of Equality Alliance. If luck looks favorably on me, I'll be picked as a member of Texas Freedom Network's Youth Leadership Council.

Next semester I'll be taking 18 hours. Hopefully I'll also be working 20 hours a week. I should also be volunteering at Planned Parenthood each week.

All this is to explain why I will be having a mental breakdown next year. I am now accepting bets on when my mental health will collapse.

A Quick Word

on the Teabagging Parties


So, I don't know if you know this or not, but there have been demonstrations across the US protesting taxes and even more specifically Taxation Without Representation.

Apparently, some people don't understand the United States Constitution. Our system of government is a representative republic. Now, in this form of government, we elect our leaders by a majority vote. Just because you were beaten in the election doesn't mean you have no representation. It just means you are not the majority.

So, all those who support the Teabagging Parties, you have representation. You're just a sore loser. It's similar to when Al Gore lost the election to George W. Bush, and all the democrats were complaining that Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election. It's not as if Democrats had suddenly lost representation, they just didn't win the election. Oh wait, there is a difference, in that Florida was Al Gore's...

But onto simply the taxation issue. For all those who love their 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th amendment rights, among others (ladies can I interest you in the 19th amendment?) you have to acknowledge the other amendments and articles of the Constitution. Now, since the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land, the entire body of articles and amendments are required to be observed. That means a little amendment called the 16th amendment. And I quote "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."

So, all those who are against taxes but love your guns, free speech, right not to quarter soldiers, requirement of the police for a search warrant before they search your house, etc., please get over it. It's in the dang Constitution. That's what right the government has to take your money.


Also, Obama passed a bill that cut taxes on 95% of America. Seriously. You didn't care when Bush was spending us into oblivion and putting the burden on the middle-class, but now that Obama is in office, it's fascism! Quit being stupid.

Bullying

This young boy killed himself the other day. Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover. He was 11. Only 11.

He was bullied so much, called gay too many times, that he ended his own life because of it. At 11, this boy killed himself because of the verbal abuse he endured. He didn't even identify as actually gay.

This is just sick. Conservatives and Christians breed this type of hate for people that makes children go out and harass their fellow children, to the point where they take their own lives.

He was in middle school. He shouldn't even have been old enough to consider suicide.

All the people who think that being gay is a sin are the reason for this. All those who tell their children, their friends, their family, etc. that those who are gay are perverts and wrong are responsible for this. This is why I so strongly believe in gay rights, in fucking human rights. People, children, shouldn't have to endure this. Nobody should have to feel like taking their own lives because of who they are, or how other people look at them.

So anyone, and I do mean anyone, who believes that s that being gay is a sin, a perversion, or just simply wrong, fuck you. Seriously, and from the bottom of my heart, FUCK YOU.

Redefining Marriage

There has been quite the talk about gay marriage in the news. Currently, the liberals have strongholds in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, and Vermont. They're looking to take New Hampshire, Maine, New York, and New Jersey. But what about the people looking out for the family. The family will be torn apart because gays are allowed to be married. Never mind that Massachusetts, the first state to allow gay marriage, has the lowest divorce rates....


Anyways, really, we all know that the only opposition for gay marriage is religious. That's all that can be used to condemn it. The statistics are in the liberals' favor. Children are not worse off if they are raised by gay parents , homosexuality is not a mental illness, etc. That leaves just the idea of sin, which is cleverly worded into the idea that allowing gay marriage is redefining marriage. I will, for this post, ignore that marriage has consistently been redefined in American history, or that traditions besides marriage have not only been redefined but also completely removed from our lives. Instead, I will concentrate on the redefinition of marriage right in the Good Book itself: the holy bible.

If you will look way way back, into Genesis, you'll notice that Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel. This was fairly acceptable, God didn't seems to mind much. But skip ahead to the New Testament, and Paul talks about the relationship between man and woman, singular. Within the two testaments, there is a gradual decline in multiple wives and a broad condoning and even preference for single man, single woman marriages.

Now, how can we accept the idea that there should be no redefining of marriage when the place from which this definition is being taken redefined marriage itself?

Just a Few Things

First, here's a post on another blog about HPV. Get your vaccination!
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/how_anti_vaccination_hysteria_is_about_sex_
accidentally_helping_big_pharma_/

Secondly, I'm not so sure about Teach for America anymore. It's not that I don't want to do it, because I really do. The problem is that it's a 2 year commitment. I'm not sure whether or not I can defer enrollment for that long. I would definitely do it if I can, but we will see.

Thirdly, I am considering (which basically means I'm going to) starting a new blog called "BaylorWatch." Basically, it would be Baylor's policies, student body, events, etc. from the perspective of a liberal. If I do this, I will still be posting on this blog and I will try not to put more priority on one or the other (though it'll probably happen).

Fourthly, I'm going to try and keep up the output that I achieved this weekend. Maybe a post a day, a couple a day on the weekend. It'll be tough, but I'll try.

Six Gay Men Shot to Death in Iraq (CNN)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six gay men were shot dead by members of their tribe in two separate incidents in the past 10 days, an official with Iraq's Interior ministry said.

In the most recent attack, two men were killed Thursday in Sadr City area of Baghdad after they were disowned by relatives, the official said.

The shootings came after a tribal meeting was held and the members decided to go after the victims.

On March 26, four additional men were fatally shot in the same city, the official said, adding that the victims had also been disowned by their relatives.

The official declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Witnesses told CNN that a Sadr City cafe, which was a popular gathering spot for gays, was also set on fire.

Things in the News

First! I can't believe that Iowa's big news flew so far under the radar. It's absurd. California's courts overturned their ban on gay marriage and it's everywhere, Iowa's courts do the same thing, and it doesn't even get a front page mention. I saw it on Feministing! Not CNN, not Huffington Post, freaking Feministing.

Not that Feministing is a bad site, I like it a lot. I'm just saying it's a blog, not a news site.

Also in the news, after months of international pressure to do just the opposite, North Korea launched a long-range ballistics missile. The US was attempting to keep NK from doing this, and NK basically backed itself into a corner where the only thing they could do was launch their missile. Remember, NK is nuclear-armed.

South Korea is obviously on guard. Interesting tidbit, my grandmother was a North Korean refugee into South Korea. She and her family ran away from NK and were homeless and starving for months.

Apparently, NK's missile fell into the Pacific Ocean. Huffington Post had aptly put title of "FAIL"

This is scary for a couple reasons. Since Iran is acting the same way, we have to make an example of NK so that Iran doesn't think it can also get away with this thing. That might mean we have to go into a "conflict" with NK. This will might result in a draft. I can only dodge a draft for so long. Once I graduate college, which I'll probably be doing in 3 semesters, I want to go to law school, but I'm pretty sure that grad school attendees are not protected from a draft. So there I go. And women don't have to worry for at least 6 months. They will be taken into the draft, but it will take 6 months for legislation to include them.

So, war with NK and a draft? Scary to moi. Hopefully we can settle these things without military intervention.

Inspirational Fables

I didn't mean to blog so much today, but here I go again.

On Facebook, I get a lot of updates on people's statuses, pictures, and notes. Being at Baylor, I have a lot of Christian friends on my Facebook. These two things compound to give me inspirational Christian fables coming at me with some bit of regularity. There's nothing I hate more than this. Take this example:

The Fern and the Bamboo.....

One day I decided to quit.... I quit my job, my relationship, my
spirituality.. I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have
one last talk with God.

"God", I said. "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"

His answer surprised me...

"Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"

"Yes", I replied.

"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from
the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from
the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.

In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again,
nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo".

He said. "In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo
seed. But I would not quit.

In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed.
But I would not quit.

He said. "Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.
Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant.

But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had
spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave
it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a
challenge it could not handle."

He said to me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have
been struggling, you have actually been growing roots. I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you. Don't compare yourself to
others."

He said. "The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern, yet, they
both make the forest beautiful."

So, why do I hate these things so much? They're just harmless little fables that give the readers inspiration. What's wrong with that?

This is what is wrong. They don't just give the reader a certain outlook on life, but it also gives them a certain outlook on life. God doesn't create any challenge that one cannot overcome. That can only be the outlook of a citizen of an industrialized country. In this developed country, the only thing one has to worry about is heart-breaking boyfriends, whether you can go to college or not, and the occasional terrorist attack. Now, this may seem fairly distressing to some, but put it in perspective.

Go to somewhere in Africa, preferably somewhere war-torn. I'm sure it's not that hard to find a place similar to the one I've described. Now, imagine you're a 12 year-old child, your parents dead from AIDS, and you're left as the sole provider for your two younger siblings. How do you provide? How do you avoid being killed by war? How do you keep your siblings from being abducted to serve as child soldiers? Can you? Not very often.

How about the child born with AIDS? With a ticking clock of the years, months, and days they can live?

These both seem to be challenges they can't handle.

What about citizens in Burma, Kenya, or China? Killed by their own governments? Are those not challenges that cannot be handled?

Please, if you come upon one of these stories, just ignore it. They are only for someone with a relatively good life with little sympathy for those who are dying everyday, senselessly.

Symbolism

So, for the past two years, I have been participating in the Day of Silence. You remain silent for the day in observance for the silencing of gays who want their rights and their allies. This year, I decided to also do Stompfest, a step show for multicultural organizations and sororities.

If you've read a book then you should see what is coming.

They're on the same day.

So, there is the need for noise in the step show. There's a chant (which originally had three people; now that I'm not doing it, only two) and then there's some "boom, I said"s in there. So, I will not be doing any of that. I informed some people on my team that I won't be saying a single thing during our show and I got very mixed reactions.

The girls, after expressing some surprise and curiosity, pretty much accepted it. My roommate, after expressing lament that they happened to fall on the same day, accepted it as well. He knows my commitment to these things, so he wasn't about to try and change my mind.

The last two people had the best reactions though.

One, instead of appealing to me, appealed to one of the girls (one who actually isn't on the team). He tried to say that they would be missing a voice which would negatively affect us. She told him that he and the other chanter would just have to be louder. She also told me that I should just mouth the words, to give an impression that I'm chanting and booming.

The other, after expressing amazement over what I was supporting, tried to convince me that I didn't need to do it. Why do you have to do it? It's only for ten minutes, can't you break it for ten minutes? And then while I was just chilling and checking my facebook, sent me this wall post:

dude... we seriously need your voice for the stompfest. your basically one of the three pillars thats gonna hold the three part step together!!! isnt it kind of late already to say that you HAVE to do the day of silence thingy? you know you always got next year to do this kind of thing

I replied that I knew I was going to be doing this the entire year and that my principles outweighed the step show. He replied:

ay goo...w/e dude. you better tell the coaches so that they can come up with something for this. get ready to get your ass chewed for this dude....

I then told him that if the coaches were that angry they could kick me off, but since we are so close to the show, they couldn't do much more than put up with it.

Now, it's not like I think I'm doing something that is so stupendous that it will completely change everybody's opinions on gay rights. If it changes even one person then that's great. But really, it's more about observing the fact that gays don't have the right to marry. It's giving up something very small, in solidarity for people who have been restricted from having something that is so intrinsic. So, although it is something small, I'm still going to do it all day. Step show or none.


Also, I'm performing with my Day of Silence T-shirt. Double eff you!

Poetry Slam

Yesterday, I accompanied a friend to Dallas. While there, we went to the Crow Collection of Asian Art, which was fabulous, sampled the food of PF Changs, which was delicious, and attended, and judged, a slam poetry competition.

Amazing! I love it! Now, I've always loved spoken word, which is what these competitions are, but I've never seen it live. There were four rounds and five judges. They dropped the two lowest scoring poets after the second round and the next lowest scoring poet after the third round.

But enough about the rules. The poets were excellent!

The list of poets were...

Shellz (who won)
Candy
The Poet Drama
Rob J
Militant X
Namdee (I really don't know how to spell his name...)
Rock Baby
Twain

There were two "sacrificial" poets who performed at the very beginning, but unfortunately I can't remember their names. The first of the "sacrificial" poets was hilarious! His poem was about what you can write about as a poet, and it was hilarious. The next poet was the only white performer that night, and his poem was about the Confederate Flag that is allowed to hang above some states. It was very good.

After the first two rounds, MilitantX and Rob J were dropped. It was very sad, because I thought Rob J was one of the best of the first rounds and I didn't get to see more of him. MilitantX was the weakest of the poets last night...

Shellz was excellent. An amazing performer. Her first two poems were about Suicide and Cutting respectively. I can't remember her third one, and I can only grasp fragments of her fourth, but she consistently performed spectacularly.

Candy was excellent too. She had a poem about the 80s that I gave a 10 (my first ten of the night).

Twain had a really amazing performace with his poem about rap in the present. He also gave a poem about who I believe was his friend who wanted to reach out to her heroin-addicted husband. Very moving.

Namdee was kicked out at the start of the third round, but he an excellent poem about "Black."


But anyways, that was my last night. Pretty awesome.

Racist Commercial?

Everybody has seen the new Nivea for Men commercial. You haven't? Oh, well here it is.



Now, note the abundance of kids in this commercial. What race is the kid talking about mating?

Exactly.

On Marijuana Legalization

There has been a growing movement in the United States for the legalization of marijuana. There's been an even greater pool of people who support its legalization. I still somewhat waver between ideas, but here is a brief intro into the topic.

The Legalization of Marijuana Will Provide Much Needed Taxes

This is an interesting argument. While, yes, if the government were to allow the sale of marijuana and businesses grew out of that, then there would be an excellent source of taxes, one must realize that there is already an enormous black market for this product and breaking through that would be hard. Whereas the Prohibition was run by gangs and very few moonshine makers were supplying, we have multiple dealers with cartels very rarely organized enough to become legit after legalization. But there is potential.

Prohibiting a Drug Just Makes it More Popular

This is also true. Look at the Prohibition itself. But, something that few people rarely realize is that not everyone went to speakeasies and bought bootlegged liquor. It would be interesting to compare the rates of those who drank during Prohibition and the rates of those who drank after it ended. I would think that percentage-wise, the numbers would go up after Prohibition ended.

Taxes Pt. 2

Another interesting idea with taxes would be allowing drug dealers to file taxes legally. This would give incentives for dealers to put their money in banks and would then create a paper trail basically forcing the dealers to pay taxes or get involved with the IRS. Then again, dealers have been used to dealing with cash, or laundering the money, so the incentives would have to be great.

Legalizing Marijuana Will Clear Out Our Prisons

(Stats coming from Slate.com)

20% of inmates in the United States are in for drug charges. Of that 20%, most are in for distribution, not possession (there's an argument to be made for distribution charges being made for simple possession, but that is not my attempt here). A decriminalization of the possession of marijuana would not be enough to lower the prison populations significantly. Legalization may achieve this goal.


This is obviously a very brief overview of some of the arguments in favor of legalization, and now for my own view. Currently, I'm not convinced that we should decriminalize marijuana. I do, on the other hand, believe that charges should never be accompanied with jail time, instead it should simply be a misdemeanor charge with heavy fines and community service. If the fines are paid and the community service completed, I think it should be stricken from their offenders record.