Me On the Issues...Abortion and Gay Marriage

My mom and I were having a discussion about some of the things she's been hearing from her crazy Republican friends about the election. She forwarded a couple of their emails, on the issues of Abortion and Gay Marriage, to me, and it angered the blogger in me so much that I had no choice but to spew out the following:

Abortion is a funny issue. If you're the type of person that vehemently opposes abortion then you're not very likely to be getting one. Why not let people make their own decisions on what to do and not do with themselves?

I really don't support the initiatives that require parental consent for abortions for minors. If kids thought that they could talk to their parents about that sort of thing then they probably wouldn't be needing an abortion in the first place. It's sad, but sometimes parents are even the cause of their children's problems in this regard. If safe abortions are not available for kids in these horrible between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place type of situations, who is naive enough to believe that said child will then choose to go through with the pregnancy and consider the softer options like adoption? What kind of world do these people think we live in? Rather than making an appointment with an adoption agency these girls are going to be making an appointment with a wire coat hanger. Bad news.

I've posed this argument to people several times. I always get the question, "Well, wouldn't you want to know if your minor child was getting an abortion?" My response: I wouldn't have fostered an environment that made my child think they couldn't talk to me about something that important. I can't stand the parenting approach that thinks excessive restrictions are a suitable replacement for involvement.

Gay marriage is actually another one of my favorite issues. People talk a lot about preserving the "sanctity of marriage" by keeping the institution of marriage between a man and a woman. How crass of supposedly refined and righteous people to suggest that the sanctity of marriage hinges on a penis and a vagina rather than on the enduring love and commitment between two people.

If marriage, as it's been suggested, is such a sacred institution, then we heterosexuals should be ashamed for what we've made of it. With domestic violence and divorce rates what they are then Christians the world over should be demanding that marriage be protected from us...the straight people!

I'm very happily married and the thought of sharing the institution of marriage with homosexuals doesn't threaten me or my marriage in the slightest. The only marriage whose sanctity I'm concerned with preserving is my own. Two men or two women choosing to devote their lives to one another and marry doesn't impact my marriage, or the "sanctity" of the institution at all, though it does tread on the "sensibilities" of Conservatives. What an archaic, twisted worldview to believe that the world would be worse for having more love in it.

Legalized gay marriage: three down, forty-seven states to go.

Obama's "Fight the Smears" website...

Don't believe the lies...learn the truth behind the rumors on Obama's Fight the Smears website!

Fight the Smears

Boston Globe: "How to Fight a Rumor"

I just read the most fascinating article on the Boston Globe website. In light of all the rumors circulating about both candidates this election year, the Boston Globe's Jesse Singal wrote an article about new research into the science of rumors. Check it out, it's amazing!

Boston Globe: How to Fight a Rumor

Connecticut Overturns Ban on Gay Marriage...

and it's about time! Three down, forty-seven states to go...

Don't Vote Celebrity PSA

Mahalo Gets a Make-Over and News Buzz!

Mahalo, the awesome people-powered search engine that I work for as a Remote Guide, debuted a slick new look for the site today. Not only does it look amazing, but the snazzy new look of the site has attracted the attention of some pretty high-profile publications. See what they're saying:

Washington Post: Mahalo Sets Out to Liveblog the World

L.A. Times: Mahalo Debuts News Feed

CNET: Mahalo Gets Live News Ticker

Silicon Alley Insider: Jason Calacanis Turns Mahalo Into a News Operation...

Matt Damon (Justifyably) Criticizes Sarah Palin in a Little Clip I Like to Call "Because She's Going to Have the Nuclear Codes"

Reasons Why Sarah Palin Makes My Skin Crawl...

...in no particular order

(Click on the links to be whisked away to relevant Mahalo pages...)

1. Sarah Palin Library Book Ban

As mayor of Wasillia, Alaska Sarah Palin pressured librarian Mary Ellen Baker to agree to remove books containing "objectionable material". When Baker refused to participate in censorship Palin tried to have Baker fired, but backed off due to public outcry. After being pressured by Palin to remove "objectionable" books multiple times during Palin's first term as mayor, Baker ultimately resigned her position before Palin began her second term.

I'm really passionate about this one. "Objectionable material"? What is that, and who decides? For those of us who have read Fahrenheit 451 it's clear that censorship of the written word is out of the question. If there's a book that offends you...don't read it. If you don't want your kids to read said book...don't let them. You don't go out and build a bonfire.

2. Palin Troopergate

As Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin pressured Anchorage Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan to fire her former brother-in-law state trooper Mike Wooten. While Wooten's record as a trooper is less than spotless, Palin went out of her way to try to get him fired over a nasty custody battle Wooten was having with Palin's sister Molly McCann. When Monegan refused to fire Wooten, he himself was dismissed.

Abuse of power? Well, a bipartisan committee of Alaskan legislators thought the Troopergate scandal serious enough to open an investigation into a possible ethics violation. While Sarah Palin initially agreed to cooperate fully with the investigation she is now refusing to meet with prosecutors and her husband, Todd Palin, ignored his subpoena to appear before the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee on September 19. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I'm not keen to get on board with another four or possibly eight years of corruption.


3. Sarah Palin Opposes Comprehensive Sex Education in Schools

Abstinence-only sex education is both unrealistic and dangerous. While not all teenagers are going to have sex in high school, a large number will. If Americans don't want their children to end up like Bristol Palin, pregnant at age 17, we need leaders who will lead by supporting contraceptive education to be taught alongside abstinence education.

4. Shotgun Wedding

Speaking of Bristol Palin, that brings me to another point... Bristol Palin, pregnant at 17, is being pressured to marry the baby's father Levi Johnston. Really? In 2008? Sources close to both teenagers report that neither is blissful about the upcoming nuptials. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel...if we don't vote for McCain and Palin doesn't become vice president the two may not have to get hitched.

5. Sarah Palin Has No (Foreign Policy) Experience

In a recent interview with Katie Couric Sarah Palin defended her lack of foreign policy experience by pointing out Alaska's close proximity to Russia. Really? I'm sorry, that doesn't cut it...if it did, living in Montana would make me a special emissary to Canada.

6. Sarah Palin Is Hot...Or So They Say

Recently, my 50-something-year-old uncle told me that, for the first time in his life, he's registered to vote. While I applaud his, and anyone's, participation in the elections process of our nation I was SUPREMELY disappointed to learn that he registered for the sole purpose of voting for Sarah Palin...because she's hot. Startlingly enough, I've heard this same reason from more than one person. Maybe someone should remind these people that the 2008 Election is not the Miss Alaska pageant. Come on folks, if the game of politics was about looks we would have had John Edwards as president years ago.

7. Joe Six-Pack?

Sarah Palin has used the term "Joe Six-Pack" to describe herself in an attempt to connect with middle class voters. I balk at this term because I am "Joe Six-Pack", and unlike Sarah Palin I don't have a private retirement account stocked with $164,699, another retirement account with $198,102 and combined with my husband make $215,000 a year. "Joe Six-Pack"? I think not!

8. Sarah Palin Supports Drilling For Oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge

I think the key word here is "refuge"...which it would cease to be if drilling were allowed. In reference to drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge Sarah Palin has tried to wrap the idea in a nice little package by talking about the need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. She's right about that, though she's far from the first person to say so. What she doesn't bother to mention is that it would take 10 YEARS for Americans to see even one drop of that oil. Ten years is a long time...like two and half presidential terms long.

There are several other reasons why the idea of drilling for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge steps on my toes...other than the obvious rape of a pristine portion of the country. Oil is an archaic form of energy which we should be striving to move away from completely. We could invest millions, but more likely, billions, of dollars drilling in the Artic or we could take that same amount of money and use it to focus on the clean, renewable forms of energy that are the future.

Oh, and did I mention that not even John McCain supports drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge?

9. Sarah Palin Believes That Dinosaurs and Man Roamed the Earth at the Same Time

Palin, former beauty pageant "Miss Congeniality" winner, local news sportscaster, and Alaskan politician, dares to laugh in the face of undeniable scientific proof that dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.

10. Palin Opposes a Woman's Right to Choose...Even in Cases of Rape and Incest

I am a firm supporter of a woman's right to choose. I fully and completely support legal, safe and available abortions for women who elect to have the procedure. Now, expecting the same from any Republican candidate would be far-fetched, but Sarah Palin opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest. Palin, like so many other Pro-Life supporters miss the point that being Pro-Choice doesn't make you Pro-Baby-Death. It's about freedom, personal choice and responsibility, and keeping right-wing morals away from the bodies of American women.

11. Sarah Palin Says She'll Fight to Defend the Phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance...Because it Was "Good Enough For the Founding Fathers"

For those that may not be aware, the Pledge of Allegiance was written in the late 19th century...meaning that the founding fathers had no hand in crafting the oft-recited loyalty oath. Not only that, but the phrase "Under God" wasn't added to the Pledge of Allegiance until the 1950s. Furthermore, the founding fathers were made up of agnostics, atheists and deists...who probably wouldn't have wanted the phrase "Under God" to be there in the first place.

(Thanks to Lon's blog Crushed by Inertia for bringing this enormous historical gaffe to my attention.)

Conclusion:

If elected, at 72-years-old, John McCain would be the oldest first-term president in U.S. history. The odds of his living through a first, and possibly second, presidential term are not very good...certainly nothing I'd stake my hard-earned money on. If McCain were to become president we'd be a literally a heartbeat (or lack there of) away from living under the reign of a very foolish, very inexperienced President Palin (*shudder*).