Scottish, English Borders Trip 2008

LA to Chicago –

I forgot about screaming children. Why do I always forget? Three kids, their parents not even attempting to control them. Three sets of lungs that small could not possibly create the piercing noises that shrieked through the cabin now all to often.

On our decent into Chicago, I saw now and again a jet of air streaming over the wing, like a funnel of fog. We hit some “moderate” turbulence as we passed over rain shower clouds. One realizes how fast one is going as the plane zips through the clouds, dipping and tipping as you go until suddenly you’re surrounded by gray clouds.

Chicago-

Rainy…cold…and thank god for getting off the plane, breaking up the flight certainly helped me.

Chicago to London-

Holy crap, I can play Tetris on the touch screen Wait wait, there’s a touch screen? Oh wow, I’m watching Dark Knight. I was 15 the last time I flew, Natalia and I played nertz on the floor of the airplane. This is a whole different experience.

I got chicken and Pasta. Ew airplane food. Oh wow this oatmeal brownie thing ain’t half bad. So they turn the lights off of course, and I’m left to try to sleep, its 12:30 am local time, which by the way is the Atlantic. We’re at 36000 feet, its -68F outside, and going 600 and something miles per hour (according to the Flight Path option on my touch screen). I can’t sleep of course its only 6:35 pm in LA for one the thing, the other is that it feels like someone is pushing their thumb between my eyebrows and I can’t get enough suction going in my nostrils to breathe in. For a while I pulled my Sherpa hat down over my eyes. I tired to lean on the bendable headrest attached to my seat. I thought about how if Jordan were here I’d snuggle up to him, lean all my weight and most likely I’d be able to sleep. But he’s not here.

Then I entered that weird limbo where one isn’t awake or asleep. I thought about how good this separation would be ultimately, even though I wished Jordan could come on this trip with me. A good break often leads people to realize how much they miss each other. Suddenly I wondered if I were in a comatose state, lying in some hospital bed what that would be like. I thought about past half jokes. Then I either dreamed or thought about what it would be like if Jordan were in a coma, what I would say. “Get up, I know you are in there!” I thought about how I would try to snuggle up next to him, fall asleep, only to wake up to no one, just a body breathing in and out. I almost started crying when I pulled myself out of the limbo. It was the strangest thing ever.

Hawick-

I’m at Langhurst a 1913 house on a hill, owned by my uncle Robin and Margret. It seems smaller, then even the last time I stayed here, when I was 15. It’s pretty cold. But I’m not uncomfortable by any means. We landed in bright sunshine, but the strange thing were the shadows that fell long across the ground, as if it were 5 in the afternoon, but it was only 11:30 am, welcome to high latitudes. We rented a wee four-door hatchback and I had to tell my dad to stay in one lane, and mind his yielding on the round about more then once. But otherwise we survived the 1-½ hours to get here. Other then that I examined the scenery.

It’s like Humboldt, the colors anyway. Very green grass scattered with sheep mostly, rather than the dairy cows of the north coast. Hedges of wild growth in all the autumn shades fading into winter dreary brown. There are groves of trees neatly trimmed into square quadrants, the remainders of little woods. But these trees compare not at all with giant redwood stands. I took in every road sign, wanting to take pictures of all of them because they made me giggle so much. Everywhere here has a name. However as I as telling my dad, most places in California have names, we just don’t know them. When we arrived at Langhurst house in Hawick, I was flooded with memories I looked around eagerly for Becky, their dog, but of course she died a couple years back. Uncle Robin left a post-it haphazardly written on the kitchen door, “Be back at 130 Ian, gone to something-something-something”. Both dad and I climbed back into our car and turned the heater on, staring out across the little valley where Hawick lies. All the apartments, and old houses, gray stony structures with white frames, piled practically on top of each other up the far side of the hills. I fell asleep for 20 minutes, probably the only real sleep I’d had since we left. When Robin arrived home, I asked if I could shower, he said Id have to wait till the heater warmed up some water. Oh yes, I forgot. I took a shower, and felt gloriously better instantly.

After having taken a good solid two-hour nap, Margret arrived. I had forgotten how much she was like my dad, them being siblings and all of course. I remembered how much I liked Margret, how her accent was rich and deep, and her voice high and watery.

Langholm-

I hardly slept all night, somewhere around 6 I fell asleep all the way till 11 when my dad woke me up, shouting we were late to grannies. With honey smothered toast we ran out the door. Langhom, a town of about 2000 people sits a 20 miles south of Hawick. My granny lives in an upstairs two-bedroom apartment, she’s lived there as long as I can remember. It smells the same, fusty sort of, but has a toasty sort of feeling. Maybe that’s because she keeps the “fireplace” up full blast. I say “fireplace” because it rather looks like the front grill of a car, with gas flames In fact many people have these.

My Granny has a terrible short-term memory. It’s only deteriorating faster and faster as well. She showed me a picture on the newspaper three or four times, forgot what we had for lunch, and asked what day it was all afternoon. She’s always been a very critical person, and her memory has no problems remembering old grudges and bad feelings towards people even after years. She can easily become confused, and disorientated, and hates to be taken care of or controlled. But if you keep her in the right mindset, and a positive giggly mood she’s quite hilarious. I was fixated with the Scottish accent and language. Sometimes I wish I could leave a tape recorder out so that I could catch al the interesting sayings and words.

Dad and I went on a walk called Gaskells, which goes up along the ridge, and it loops along the river and cemetery. It was misting rain down, reminding me of walking home after class.

After this-

After this, I stopped a daily journal. Mostly it was because my lap top battery died, and when we relocated to Carlisle, where my Aunt and Uncle live, my wall plug in adapter no longer worked. Why not write with pen and paper? Well I tried, but I’m so used to things pouring out of me quickly that I continuously got stuck on single thoughts. The other reason is that, well I got something in my eye. My last day in Hawick, I was washing my face, and of course got soap in my right eye. Furiously I flushed out the burning soap, but at the same time scratched or placed a minuscule particle in my eye that for the next three days bothered me. I couldn’t sleep not only because of jet lag, but because of this eye issue.

However it did allow me to take advantage of the UK NHS system. We called up this place called Cue Doc, in Carlisle and I told them my condition, swearing there was still something caught in there, and no amount of Boots Pharmacy eye drops and baths was going to get it out. I told them my name, and that my address was the one in Carlisle but that I was from America. No questions asked, the same day I had an appointment made at 12:15. We went, and my name was called within a few minutes. This brutish nurse had me lay down and then she swiped (in my opinion) jabbed my eye with a quetip. “Well I can’t see anything, but I’m giving you this prescription, you’ve probably scratched it”, she said in a thick English borders accent. It was a tube of antibiotic gel, great…cure an eye scratch (which I still claim wasn’t a scratch but a minuscule particle) with antibiotics. But all in all I was impressed with the non-emergency doctors office, and my Aunt assured me if I went straight to a regular NHS hospital I would have had to wait.

Anyways the rest of my time in Carlisle was pleasurable, it hardly rained, and was even sunny on some days. Anytime I was outside the crispy air oxygenated my eye and I felt loads better. Carlisle has a population of about 70,000 and sits just south of the England/Scotland border. Its pretty old, it began as a Roman town, called Lunguvallium, which was established to serve the forts along Hadrian’s Wall. There’s a castle, the remains of a city wall, which used to encompass the entire city, and pubs dating back to the 1500’s.

Carlisle United Football-

One of our outings was to the local football team match. Carlisle being in the second conference (so not with Manchester United but below that) had been on a severe losing streak. This of course wreaked havoc on the minds of the local fans, which lets just say mostly everyone. It’s like whether you want to care or not, you’re either suckered into caring or you’re miserable cause the people who do care talk about it all the time, so you end up dying for the team to get itself together and do well again. Anyways Carlisle had not scored a single point, let alone won a game since September. Apparently they “played too much in air, but weren’t good at executing it”, and for the first twenty minutes, it did appear that they were kicking the ball up, but no one was there to do anything about it. In my opinion they just looked like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Not that I know anything about football, but these guys were not pulling off anything that I would consider a play.

Anyways, I sat in the stands, growing anxious and nervous despite my indifference to the sport and who won or not. Surrounding my locals grumbling, “what ya doin? Ref! What a load of bollix! What ye doin”, and many other dismaying statements, that revealed how betrayed, embarrassed, disappointed, and frustrated they were with the goings on of the season. But when they scored that first goal, my god everyone, even the elderly 90-year-old men jumped up screaming as if they had just won the lottery. They ended up winning against Brighton 3-1. It was a very good game. After that first goal, the chickens, found their heads, started passing to actual players and no open spaces and executed real football plays. It was great. I myself got so into it; I was sweating despite the freezing wind. Afterwards everyone kept asking if we were coming back next week, so as to assure that the team would win again, that it must be us acting as good luck charms that secured a victory. Sadly we wouldn’t be, and now I’m back home and have been removed from the entire world of football, no longer care if they are winning or losing or what.

The Last Couple of Days-

After a Carlisle we looped back to Edinburgh to see my sister and catch our flight home. The drive was lovely actually. There was some rain, and wind but the colors and scenery seemed to be accentuated by it some how. When we had driven down to Carlisle we drove closer to the East, and the landscape was much more compacted, meaning the hills and valleys were clustered together more. But the way we drove back via a more westerly route, the landscape features were more spread apart. In no way were they vast, for I only think of American landscapes as vast, but everything seemed more open, maybe even flatter.

Edinburgh itself is ancient feeling. My sister lives in Leith, the docks area. If you’re familiar with the movie Trainspotting, that’s the place in Edinburgh they mean. However in recent years, its undergoing massive gentrification. And probably if the current economic crisis hadn’t hit, it would be well on its way to what happened to Venice. My sister owns a wee shop in the part of Leith that’s showing signs of gentrification-new apartment buildings, young hip kids going to work, and artsy fartsy galleries and shops trying not to look cool, but too cool for school just the same. She sells healthy Panini’s, coffee, juices and fine wines and beers, catering to the young hip generation that’s money is starting to push out the old drug culture that Leith is so famous for. I’m very proud of her, for all the hard work she has put into it. However in the long run, I think she feels deep down; she doesn’t want to be a shop owner for her whole life. Plus mixing her anxiety-riddled mind with the stresses of small business has caused her nights of insomnia and panic attacks. Luckily she moved out of one of the not so nice neighborhoods in Leith, to another lovely flat which she’s house sitting for a few months. And thank god, because at her old flat people were being stabbed in the halls, or shooting heroin. Not to mention the 17 polish people who lived in the two-bedroom next door, and because they weren’t allowed to smoke inside smoked in the hallway. She miraculously sold this apartment to a Spanish couple, and moved out.

Anyway, I spent the one afternoon I had in Edinburgh just hanging out in my sister’s shop. Although I wish I had had more time to site see. Not only is the city gorgeous, but also everyone in Edinburgh is beautiful. I don’t recall looking at anyone and not being curious about how they became so freaking attractive. But I had been to Edinburgh before, and after my weeks worth of wandering around all the time or sitting in my families living rooms, all I wanted to do was sit down. Not to mention I had some gnarly blisters from my docmartin’s which I never re-broke in.

The Return-

The return journey was horrendous. We got lost multiple times dropping off the rental car, for British road signs suck ass. Then on the 8 hour flight to Chicago from London, two little devils dressed in child clothes screamed and jumped up and down the entire trip. They’re parents slept, they fucking slept through most of the whole thing, and when they were not sleeping, it was loves and kisses and no attempts to tell them to shut their traps. It was beyond unacceptable. When we landed in Chicago, they could not get the cargo door open because it had “frozen shut”, so we had to catch our next flight not knowing if our bags would make it. Luckily they did.

Now I’m at home, having written the second part of this travel journal from my desk almost a week after I landed. I had forgotten how utterly devastating jet lag can be. For the first few days, all I wanted to do was sleep. I’ve not had any appetite, or will to do much of anything until yesterday (when I went to the LA Auto Show). Jordan, missed me, I could tell. The first couple days were quite blissful. But alas this is not a journal about my LA life, for I have a lot more to write about that on another date.

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Interesting links related to gay marriage...

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/328/%22traditional%22_marriage_or_a_break_with_tradition?page=entire

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibi.htm

My dear friend who studied gender at Dartmouth, read my conversation and provided me with these links. Very interesting stuff.

I have more opinions about the conversation, which I'll probably touch on at a later date.

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This is a compiled conversation sparked by Prop 8.

DG (I'm calling him) I went to high school with. I don't remember him at all, but he friended me on facebook, and thus started this converstation.

Starts last night!
I joined the group "Repeal Proposition 8".

DG commented on my joining the group:
Ain't gonna happen...just like the people spoke when they voted Obama, they have spoken on prop 8

Me:
they said women weren't gonna get the vote for nearly a hundred years...and you know what I don't even believe in marriage, but I ain't for denying rights to anyone. Personally I would just separate the whole thing from any government relation. But that is even more unlikely to happen…

Later that morning…

DG's status changed to:
“DG is amazed at how liberal californians are, I hope you like hot places guys.”

I commented on his status:
The implication that I am going to hell because of my beliefs is really offensive on principal, meaning that you wish the worst possible fate for me because we differ in opinions is really quite offensive indeed, but I don't believe in hell so whatever. And where did you grow up? California has always been very liberal...

DG:
You don't have to believe in something for it to exist, I actually respect everyone's views, but I cant truthfully say I agree with them. I was born in LA, however it seems like the more time that goes by, the less people care about morality and principles. Oh well, I'm secure in my beliefs, but it will always amaze me how some people can live comfortable without believing in anything other than "equal rights" and "change"...more like the deterioration of the human race if you ask me.

Me:
I respect that you believe those things. If we didn't have diverse opinions there would be no need for democracy. But I would never wish the worst fate I believe in, on people who believe the opposite of me, is my point. But again we're all different, I'm just offended, and I'm allowed to be. My set of morals differ from your set, but no one should... Read More be punished or hated for their beliefs. Over time things change, and the new "norm" is accepted. Without change, we would not have all the good things we have today, bad and good change come together. Its all a matter of perspective.

DG:
I think we agree to disagree, which like you said is the foundation of this country. I don't wish anything on anyone, on the contrary, I'd rather everyone understand why it's important to believe in something and to be aware of the implications your beliefs might have on your eternal life.
Sorry if I offended you by the way, but in actuality if ... what I said offended you, then my beliefs in general offend you. Things do change over time, some for the good and some for the bad, no one can know whether having Obama as president or a constitutional ban on marriage is good or bad, we all just base our positions on our beliefs, or lack thereof. Am I correct?

Me:
I have beliefs. I have many of them. And yes they do influence my vote. And of course I don't agree with your beliefs, and perhaps in this instance they offend me. But I also understand that there a lot more to people then just their beliefs, in fact there maybe some that we we do agree on.
I apologize for saying that you "wished" this on anyone. ...I guess its not even the issue in question, its that when you're disappointed in other peoples choices or beliefs you assume we're going to burn up for it, especially when like i just said these people you don't even know are comprised of so many beliefs. It just seemed a rather intense thing to state.
I think as far as what is going to happen in the future, its really hard to say. But I believe we should see commonalities rather then differences. We should not demonize other people, or dehumanize other people. We should work together to a mutually content outcome. (LOL facebook I can't write anymore, no room after this sentence is over)

DG:
I agree with you, thanks for having an intelligent discussion with me and not just arguing to argue. =D

DG.
Interesting question for you. If someone wanted the right to marry and have intercourse with their dog...or their cousin or sister...would you be amenable to them being allowed to do so? Serious question by the way.

Me:
You can't even make that association, that kind of example is going cross-species, and not cross-gender. A big benefit of gay marriage is the taxes, which would benefit Gay person A and gay person B, therefore being mutually beneficial to both parties involved. You cannot get this same situation with cross-species since, well....dogs don't pay taxes. This first argument is based purely on logic. And I am going to answer the rest via a message, lol so I don't run out of room hehe.

DG:
You can't really make the argument that the support of gay marriage is the tax breaks or benefits, because the California Family Code provides for such benefits already through domestic partnerships. That option has always been available to gay couples, the solemnization of marriage however has never been an available option. In truth, you cant take away someones fundamental rights when they never had that right to begin with, throughout the ages marriage has been defined as being between a man and a woman. I await your message to the second part of my question, haha. =)

Me:
Okay...what about de-institutionalized marriage? Meaning taking it back to the way it was, in this case a judeo-christian stand point (I'm assuming you are christian cause of your facebook, And so I'm assuming that you are basing marriage on what the bible says, "that is it should be between a man and a woman"). There were no taxes, or rights related when that was done . What about if they took it away, or if they were like you can only marry if you are buddhist or jewish. And denied you these rights because some other religion stopping you. "you can't get married if youre not jewish". What an uproar that would cause. Gay people can be anyone...i have a couple gay friends who are deeply religious, are they invalid in their beliefs? That is why separate church and state is very important. Instead of being gay, its being a certain religion. I'm also quite annoyed whenever, (including Barack Obama) states God Bless America. Well a lot of people in America mgiht not believe in that same god. Separate Church and state, not groups of human beings from equal rights.
What if a man got a sex change, then legally he's a woman and legally she can marry a woman now. If you believe that sex changes are immoral then Prop 8 is already being broken. So why not do away with marriage connected to government, and completely avoid the issue to begin with?
The other issue is if in your religion being gay, or supporting gays, damns you to hell, and in another religion its the opposite, or in the other religion is states "any other religion who does not recognize gays" means they are going to hell, then we're all going to hell, you would go to that religions hell. But if you're religion protects you from other religions beliefs and punishments, then how do gays getting married affect you in your religion? it doesnt, they have nothing to do with you. So if everyone is affected by other religions then we're all going to some one elses hell.
In many other religions and countries and cultures, it is not taboo for siblings and 1st cousins to marry. Mostly this is based on preserving power and blood lines. I personally do not support it on the basis that it adds to genetic degradation. But if you don;t believe in evolution then thats hardly the issue? What is the issue? I also do not know enough about that topic to make an informed decision. It's very rare. SO I don't have that much to say about it, maybe if there's a prop that would violate equal rights I would be more concerned about it, but if there is such a low occurance of this then its unlikely to ever be an issue, and invalid in the gay marriage one, when there are millions of gays.
The underlying issue here, maybe homophobia. How many people who voted yes on 8 are homophobic? the commercials blatantly stated that parents should be worried that they're children are going to be taught about gays in classrooms. Which may have made most parents worried that their children would turn out being gay. But wait is it that bad? is that the fundamental issue here? If someone child turned out to be gay, what would they do, deny them rights? Gays are already here and they arent going anywhere, why would learning about them in school instead of from TV or peers be that horrible? This prop is not just a step towards inequality its a step towards challenging basic human rights. Once we start separating groups of peopel like this, its a means to separating other rights between other groups of people too.
More stuff I had to add and response to doggy issue:
Im pretty sure the states exisiting marriage law doesnt say anything about relgion. so why do people care so much suddenly when its a gay issue, its only because of instilled hate, and lack of tollerance through out the ages also. marriage is just a word, no one can own a word.
Marriage is already a messed up thing. if you think gays are messing up religion, the govenments involvment has already messed it up. People are marrying all the time or getting civil unions all the time for no other reason then the benefits. My mom came to this country only because she married some guy for a green card. they didn't have sex, they have never spoken after the divorce. Like how many people are going to marry their cat for just the rights, but have absolutely no sexual attraction to it in the first place. Hell i would marry my dog if i could get tax cuts and crap. They would never pass a prop or a law or anything that stated marriage or civil unions between humans and non-humans. It would be even more abused then "marriage between man and woman". I wouldn't support that based on the fact that people might go out and buy a dog (not get it nuetered) have puppies and put further strain on the homeless dog population lol.
I have to eat... so I'll respond when i can to whatever messages you send.
PS sorry for grammar and spelling issues, im too lazy to fix them haha.

DG:
Wow...where to start. First of really I want you to know that I'm not one of those people that says everyone is damned to hell and I inherently hate everyone because they're not me or don't think like me. I'm a grounded person, I've been a paralegal for the last 4 years and in my field of work you have to be subjective and approach everything from the same angle, unbiased and neutrally. At the end of the day though, when I go home my beliefs are still the same.
I am christian, when I was in high school I didn't attend church, never read the bible. I found my calling to Jesus Christ when me and my wife ( I know I'm young, haha) of 2 years got divorced. This isn't to say that I am new to the beliefs that I have, I always have had the positions that I hold today, I just wasn't a practicing christian and hadn't properly accepted Christ. I agree with you in a lot of the things you say, in terms of me and you having different views, and even groups of people around California or ultimately the nation having different views. This makes life interesting, the pursuit of what you believe in, being grounded in your faith, your principles and overall what you believe to be important in this life.
When I view gay marriage I see it in two different aspects, which is only fair. I look at it in relation to my beliefs, and it is just plain wrong. I look at it from a legal standpoint, and again it's just plain wrong. Let me explain both sections of analysis. The christian bible says that being homosexual, incest and beastiality among other things are sins. I can't vouch for everyone and expect them to believe what I believe, which is a reasonable conclusion because there are just too many damn people right? Going back to the bible though, our country was founded upon the christian belief, that's why our legal tender says in god we trust and why we swear on god when we take an oath not to perjure ourselves in court. The bible has been around ages longer than me and you, and many societies (including anglo saxon society) based it's laws and morality upon the bible, establishing such things as "sodomy" being illegal, in essence making homosexuality illegal. Homosexuals have never had the right to marry, on the contrary it has become less and less stigmatized in our present society; however the argument that not allowing homosexuals to marry is a change in the base foundation of what societies are founded upon: morals. That's how I see it based on my religion.
From a legal standpoint, homosexual couples have always enjoyed the same benefits as heterosexual couples as the California Family Code provides for domestic partnerships, granting the benefits of a opposite sex couple. Again, in allowing homosexual marriage you change the foundation of our laws, the definition of a properly solemnized matrimony. Mind you that only two states in our country recognize gay marriage, and the majority of states have a similar constitutional ban on gay marriage. When you look at the prospect of allowing gay marriage, it begins to open up the possibility of legalized incest, beastiality and all other sorts of repugnant practices. You would be surprised how many people out there practice incest and beastiality, and once you blur the definition of marriage anything is possible.
If you actually read all of this, I congratulate you and thank you for having a conversation with me on the topic, I'm glad you initially got offended by my status, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten out some fine points for both sides of the argument. =)
By the way, I'm not sure how interested you are in the law...but here's a link to the Petition for Writ of Mandamus that was filed in the supreme court in an attempt to stay prop 8 and rule it void.
http://news.lp.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/election2008/20081105-prop8-petition.pdf

Me:
Nice job generalizing your arguments. I like how you dodged all my direct questions lol. You kind of just restated all of your arguments more eloquently, and added a few new ones (which I will address here shortly hehe).
This is where my argument about change comes in. We cannot base our present societies needs and demands on what the context was in 1787 when the constitution was adopted. They wrote it with the intent of it being allowed to change. They based the country on equal rights for all. The world is a much bigger place now, now we have to accommidate for all the new and wonderful things that we have in our world. If we all sat around and accepted the way things were back in the day, then there would be slaves, or separate water fountains still, child labor, etc...everything that has been changed, has come with the knowledge that some one was being treated unfairly and thus it needed to be judged, and changed. We cannot sit around static in our beliefs. Beliefs change.
As for the religion argument. I have a lot to say about religion and the validity of taking the bible too literally. Mostly to do with this whole 'context of the times' idea, but also a lot to do with the logic or argument. There is no way either of us can win or even move forward on any topic if we differ in our beliefs when it comes to religion. Niether of us are right or wrong. Hence the reason again it should be separated. WHen i was in jury duty for that DUI case, I was incredibly uncomfortable with all "god" references. I never say the pledge of allegiance, and I'm uncomfortable with the constitution stating relgion anywhere except that everyone has the freedom to practice whatever they want. That is where my very liberal beliefs come in. But I also liek to consider myself a practical liberal. Its not practical to waste time and money removing "god" from all the docutments and laws and rights...we've got other pressing issues. I'm still allowed to think about it though lol.
Beliefs change: for a long time I was completely anti-military, but (and even though I went to an extremely liberal pacifist university) my beliefs changed in those four years. But I knew that I had picked up an even stronger belief along the way. Which is openmindedness and tollerance. I can't walk in anoyne else shoes or tell them how to live, all I can do is work to live with them. Never shutting anyone down with their opinions. That is why I can have this conversation with you, and not just get screaming mad.

DG:
Sorry for not answering your questions, let's touch on the two that I saw in your post.
1. What if the state said you cannot get married based on religion? Well, the state isn't doing that, instead of a man and a women who are christian, we are talking about the same gender. The state cannot rightfully deny you the right to practice your religion, but it can provide laws that enforce public policy and overall social morality...such as prohibitory laws such as drug usage, possession and even prostitution, those acts aren't wrong within themselves, but the state can make laws against something to enforce the public policy and overall morals.
2. Why should the state have any say in marriage? Just like anything else that allows for benefits provided to us by the state, or the nation, the states should be allowed to regulate and control it. Every state contains an inherent police power to provide for the welfare of it's residents, this is inclusive to the solemnization, regulation and defenition of marriage.
I can't imagine being opposed to war, considering me and you enjoy our lives and freedom now only because of World War II veterans. If everything was fine and dandy, there wouldn't be war; realistically though, there are bad people out there with bad intentions...a peremptory strike always a beats a retaliatory strike...that is if you CAN retaliate, in the situation of a WMD or nuke, good luck to ya right? I'm glad you got past that phase of anti-war sentiment though, good for you.
Again, i'm glad me and you can converse intelligently on important issues, that actually makes me happy.

Me:
LoI just watched the latest south park episode about the election, pretty funny spoof on both sides.
I'm pro-using force only when its the last possible action, and with a clear and present plan to get in and out safely. Of course the government tends to always use force first. Bush failed at both those things. But whatever. now we have to focus on bringing the troops home and securing Iraq so that it doesn't tear itself apart when we do leave.
But anyways I think the argument is over lol. Meaning we've both stated all we could possibly state from either stand point. And there is no middle ground either of us has been able to agree upon lol.
We shall see what happens in the state and the world etc! and maybe at a later date open up the discussion again.
Thanks to you too for intelligent conversation. NOw wouldn't it be amazing if everyone could sit around like this and talk?
Till the next time!

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Yay for Prop 2 passing, although I already bought free-range eggs anyway. Lets get more educated about where our food comes from people! Buy local and organic!

Boo on Prop 4 and Prop 8. I can't wait to see all the statistics about teen pregnancy go up. And why oh why, other then blatant hate did people vote on prop 8? I mean really, ultimately, that's what it comes down to. What will there be homo and hetero fountains now? In my opinion marriage shouldn't even be institutionalized, it should have no relation to government what so ever. I don't even believe in marriage, but jeezes this is discrimination! I mean it took women so long to get the vote, that I know this might be a long tedious process, for people to accept that gays are humans too.

Yay for Obama. I was not caught up in the pure glee that most of my peers and family were, upon hearing the election results, because the reality is, this country is so fucked up its hard to believe it will be fixed, by anyone. But I hope Obama's inspiration and promise to unite everyone holds true, and that he'll be able to start us on the path to a brighter future.

Boo for the city trimming the trees in my mom's front yard so they look like they've been raped of their skirts. But I guess it's better then leaky water mains, California cannot afford to waste the water.

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Okay so long time no post.

1) Election:
I am not going to write about the election, in fact I'm hiding in my room, not wanting to hear a thing about it till its over. I voted at 8am and was pleased to have waited in line for 40 minutes, means voter turn out is really high, and even though Obama is a sure thing in California, the turn out might stop some of these lame ass propositions like 8 and 4 from passing. Anyway, didn't I just say I wasn't going to write about the election.

2) Books:
I gave up on the Thomas Kohnstamm book Do Travel Writers Go To Hell. Frankly it sucks. The chapters before he leaves New York for Brazil is better then when he is actually there. Seems to me the book is an excuse to write about sex and partying, from a very heavily chauvinistic perspective. The only thing I really took away from the book is that travel writing is damn hard, especially if you can't keep your dick in your pants, or say no once in a while to anything.

Yesterday I read book number two in the Sookie Stackhouse southern vampire series, Living Dead in Dallas, by Charlaine Harris. The Alan Ball HBO original series "True Blood", is based off this book series. Either way if you remember my first and second posts about book number one, you know that I was completely obsessed with it, despite its shortcomings. However the second book proved to be much darker, bloodier, serious and no less addictive (I read the whole thing in one afternoon and night). The story didn't feel as 'young adult' as book one, in fact sometimes I wonder if she went a little bit over board with the violence and sex. But I guess if vampires aren't exactly PG rated anyway. Plus I've been a little bit desensitized to the whole thing due to Ball's sex and violence in the show, including last Sundays episode, projectile blood vomiting, is all I have to say. Anyway its rather interesting to see what they've pulled and left out from the books for TV, who's characters they changed etc.

3) Movies:
"Thank You For Smoking", was pretty good. Except I think I was more pissed off at the main character then the regular audience viewer, because Jordan is exactly like the main character. Meaning winning arguments based on logic and not on heart.
"Zack and Miri Make a Porno", very funny and Predictable. I'm glad Kevin Smith hasn't lost his touch completely.

4) In other news:
There really isn't any other news. Been on the WoW wagon these days, which provides me with a lot of crap to do that doesn't exist, except in lines of code. Halloween activities included Monster Massive, which is always an experience, talk about drugs and sex and drugs and naked girls and ...raves are so...ravey. I had a successful Halloween party at my house, decorated and everything, it was quite pleasurable. I'm getting ready for Scotland next week, and working and that's about it. In fact I'm starting to wonder if I've become completely numb to anything in my life. I have no enthusiasm or lack of. I'm just there. Perhaps I will expand on this at a later post.

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