Gay Marriage Amendment in Alabama

In tomorrow's primary election, there will be an amendment on the ballot to outlaw gay marriage in Alabama (which is already outlawed here) and to allow the state to not recognize the marriage of gay couples performed in other states.

Oddly enough, I hadn't even heard about this amendment until this weekend when my mother asked me what I thought about it. I did a quick search of Poliblog and didn't find anything about it there either. So I just did a google search and found a Montgomery Advertiser article about it here. According to this article:

Alabamians will decide in the June 6 primary whether to add another layer of barriers to gays getting married or getting recognition for their marriages performed in other states.

Alabama already has a law that bans gay couples from obtaining marriage licenses, but there will be a proposed amendment on the ballot that would make the prohibition of gay marriage part of the state's constitution.

The article goes on to say:

John Giles, president of the Christian Coalition, predicted the proposed constitutional amendment will get between 80 percent and 90 percent of the vote.

Howard Bayless of Birmingham, chairman of Equality Alabama, disagreed.

"Reality is, our neighbors respect us," said Bayless. "People are trying to use fear and use other tactics for their political gain."

Bayless said he is optimistic that Giles' prediction of a landslide won't happen.

"We believe there are a lot of fair-minded people in Alabama, and come June 6 they will defeat this amendment," he said.

I will definitely vote against such an amendment but I'm afraid I don't share Bayless's optimism about Alabama voters. We couldn't even pass an amendment to take racial language out of the constitution. I find it hard to believe the majority of voters will be "fair-minded" enough to defeat this amendment. I've lived in Alabama my whole life and I must say that "fair-minded" is not the first word I would think of to describe the average Alabama voter. There are several fair-minded Alabamians out there, but not enough to make the difference I'm afraid.

This whole issue reminds me of something I read a day or two ago in a book on Comparative Politics. In the chapter on political culture it said:

But surprising as it may seem, the extent to which a given public is tolerant or intolerant of homosexuality is a stronger predictor of stable democracy than any of the items that tap overt support for democracy. (Howard Wiarda, New Directions in Comparative Politics, 151)

All the moves around the country to block gay marriage does not speak well of our political culture. As I try to explain to my homophobic eldest son, the law is not about majority rule as much as it is about protecting the minority from the majority. Democracy has to be tolerant or it doesn't work. I fear that too much of this country is heading in the wrong direction.

I guess I was right

My birthday was on Tuesday and I turned 35. I jokingly told my husband that I had finally caught up with him in age (he's 50). He asked me why I said that and I told him that 35 for a woman was the same as 50 for a man. I don't think he was convinced but today I got proof. When we checked the mail this afternoon I had a letter from AARP inviting me to join. NO JOKE!! See, I guess I was right after all.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all. On this day to remember and celebrate motherhood I'm reminded of a poem, "The Lost Children" by Randall Jarrell. I once gave a framed copy of this poem to my mother for Mother's Day. It's not a happy poem, but it is one that, in my opinion, grasps the reality of what mothers go through as their children become adults.

Apparently I'm not the only one who thought of this poem on Mother's Day. The entire text of the poem and some commentary can be found at Neo-neocon's blog, written last Mother's Day. It can also be found, with commentary at New Media Journalism @ Seton Hill University but that one was not Mother's Day inspired.

Take a minute to read the poem. It is somewhat long, but I think it is worth it. But I'll warn you, it always makes me cry.

Finally, a chance to breath

This seems like my first chance to breath, not to mention blog, in forever. I was working like crazy trying to write two papers for my IPE class (15-20 pages for the first and 6-8 pages on the second) and staying up 'til all hours of the morning working them until Monday. Then when I thought I'd have a break on Tuesday to rest and catch up on my sleep and household chores, I was called in to substitute teach on Tuesday. I ended up working everyday after that too. Sleep deprivation begins to take a toll after while. But, the good news is I'll get a paycheck the end of this month and I made A's in both my classes!!! Hooray!!!

They grow up so fast

Prom Night 2006

Middle son with his prom date

Youngest step-daughter with her prom date

Youngest step-daughter is actually a junior, but Middle son is only a freshman. They are both going to their first prom tonight. Time certainly flies.

Happy Easter!

Easter Greetings from the Whaley-Cooper family!!

Have a happy and blessed Easter.

It's not really mine but. . .

it would totally suit my middle son.

Mission Statement

To control the world's supply of paperclips using nuclear powered iPods.

What's Your Mission?

His two favorite sculpting mediums: paper clips and aluminum foil.

h/t: The Wilson Tag Team Blogfest

How do you treat your waiter?

Apparently it says alot about you to the people around you.
USA TODAY - CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character
This story caught my attention because my husband was just telling me about someone whose treatment of waiters was used to describe his general personality, which is pretty nasty. And my husband and I have often commented to each other about how someone's treatment of a waiter or waitress echoed their personality.

It's definitely something to keep in mind when you are going on job interviews at restaurants.

H/T: Rob via Jay

What kind of cook are you?

You Are an Excellent Cook

You're a top cook, but you weren't born that way. It's taken a lot of practice, a lot of experimenting, and a lot of learning. It's likely that you have what it takes to be a top chef, should you have the desire...

Are You A Good Cook?

h/t: Accidental Verbosity

Cartoon Diabolical Plan of the Day

My youngest son was watching "The Xs" and one of the bad guys, Glowface, was devising a plan to ruin the world's economy. It went like this:
1. Rid the world of non-dairy creamer.
2. Coffee will become undrinkable.
3. Workers will no longer function without coffee.
4. The world's economy will grind to a halt.

Sounds reasonable, there's probably not enough black coffee drinkers out there to keep the economy afloat on their own.

Love Monkey. . .On VH1

A little good news for Love Monkey fans, according to TV Guide VH1 will be airing all 8 episodes of the cancelled CBS series. It seems that they are not commissioning any new episodes and the actors appear to have moved onto other endeavors, but at least we'll get the chance to see the rest of the episodes that already exist. If that's the best we can get, I'll gladly take it. I thought it was a good show, but probably not really a good fit for CBS's Tuesday night line-up. CBS could have given it a chance in another time slot. I think they gave up on it too soon.

Bizarre News

MSNBC - Three men charged in 'dungeon' castration

That's a headline that will get your attention (and make most men cross their legs). The details are somewhat sketchy, but still quite bizarre.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Three men accused of running a sadomasochistic "dungeon" in rural Haywood County were in custody Friday, charged with performing illegal castrations.

Investigators from the office of Sheriff Tom Alexander said the men admitted performing at least eight surgeries on six consenting clients over the past year, including castrations and testicle replacements.
. . .
Investigators said other surgeries performed at the home included urethra rerouting and penis removal.

Yikes! And it gets even stranger

victims may have come from as far away as South America.

You would think they could find someone to do that illegally a little closer to home.

They were charged with

five counts of felonious castration without malice, five counts of felonious conspiracy to commit castration without malice and eight counts of misdemeanor performing medical acts without a license.

however,

Each of the felony charges carries a maximum sentence of three years, three months, Bonfoey said.

Just bizarre.

Funny Warning Label

My youngest son won this cute little fan for selling items in a school fundraiser. The toy was made in China, but the writing on the box was, of course, in English. I got a real kick out of one of the warnings on the box. I certainly hope it wasn't too important, because it is hardly decipherable.


If you can't read the print, it says "The body keeps away the fan leaves when using!" That's clear, right?

Obviously it just wasn't meant to be

Obviously I just wasn't meant to receive instantaneous e-mail. I have a hotmail account and I began to notice that I was receiving messages that were obviously sent hours or even days before I was receiving them. A friend suggested that I should change to a gmail account, so I did. Now recently I've been getting my gmail messages hours after they were sent. The other day, I sent a message at around 5 o'clock in the evening. I checked my account before bed and did not have a reply. I checked my mail the next morning and still did not have a reply. Around 10ish that morning I finally received a reply, but the time stamp of when it was sent was only minutes after I had sent the original message. I often notice when I log onto gmail that it's instant message feature is "temporarily unavailable" so I guess they have been experiencing some technical difficulties, but still. . .

I'm not sure if the answer is that the internet hates me, or that I just wasn't meant to communicate instantaneously through computers.

Amazing and yet not too surprising

MSNBC - And who says I want to be rescued?

Boy, 3, crawls up into pizzeria claw toy machine, doesn’t want to leave

I can certainly believe that a 3 year old would want to get into a claw toy machine and not want to leave. What amazes me is that he could fit.

He said the gap Devin squeezed through was about 7 inches by 9 inches.

And apparently there have been similar incidences in the past. Maybe it's time the manufacturers rethink their design.

On politics and sports

Over at Poliblog and OTB there is talk of how politics is being treated like a sporting event and I feel the need to chime as I have some strong opinions on both.

James says:

Aside from following the occasional link during a blogstorm here and there, I quit reading the most virulent blogs on both sides years ago. What’s the point, really? Unfortunately, most blog readers, like talk radio listeners, gravitate to those sites where the host’s views mirror their own. This actually encourages over-the-top language, villification of the other side, and shoddy reasoning. Echo chambers tend not to reward nuance.

And then adds:

Yay us! Boo them!” is not particularly helpful in framing a public policy debate.

And I couldn't agree more. I've gone to some blogs that were way far left or way far right, but I quickly determined they were not worth my time. When it is all just regurgitated rhetoric from the party line (either party) with no original thought or analysis, what is the point.

Steven makes the original comparison to sports:

The notion that politics is a sporting event, and not a serious discourse that affects the lives of actual people, contributes to such attitudes, clearly.

I have often felt the same way and made a similar comparison. My feelings about sports and my feelings about politics are actually very similar. As previously noted, I do watch sporting events on occasion, but I'm not an avid sports fan, largely because of what "sports" have become. It is a game but so much of the sportsmanship has been lost. During the recent basketball games, I think Alabama was playing UCLA, and everytime Alabama got the ball, the fans started booing or making some distracting noise. It just really annoyed me. Why can't they just watch the game and let the teams play, but that is not what "sports" is about. Politics, unfortunately is the same way.

Political affiliation, for so many individuals has become as irrational as football in Alabama. There are so many people who are Auburn fans or Alabama fans who have no real affiliation with the school, but they practically bleed either orange and blue or crimson and white. The same is true of political affiliation for many people these days (or maybe always) it seems. The new addition of "red state"/"blue state" terminology only proves to accentuate the comparison. People support a political party that has no practical benefit for them personally and actually give very little thought to all the things that the party actually stands for. Consequently, political "debate" turns into name calling and political campaigns are like sporting events with the home crowd booing the visiting team. I just can't stand to watch.

The actual games of sport, like baseball and basketball, actually interest me. "Sporting events" do not. The actual study of politics and political theory interest me. "Politics" does not. It's rather sad actually.

The agony of defeat

I know I'm a little late to be blogging on the UCLA-Gonzaga game, but this is the first chance I've had. As previously mentioned, we were out of town during the game. We had cable t.v. but no internet access.

What a heartbreaker for Gonzaga! That had to hurt to lead the ENTIRE game and lose it in the last minute. UCLA made an amazing come back when it counted the most. My sister equated it to the tortoise and the hare, but I really don't think that Gonzaga took a nap on this one. In the second half, UCLA really played aggressively and clawed their way back. You really had to feel for Adam Morrison there at the end. It was obviously a really emotional loss.

I'm back from DeSoto

We spent a couple of days at DeSoto State Park in north Alabama. It was nice and quiet. We mostly hiked and enjoyed the beauty of nature for a few days.


That's me with my boys. I made a new webshots photo album and put a few of the many pictures from the trip in it. Hopefully I'll have time to add more later.

Of course they don't listen

MSNBC - Iraqi diplomat gave U.S. prewar WMD details

The CIA had secret information from a top Iraqi official about the status of Saddam's weapons program and they didn't believe him. Of course they didn't believe him. He wasn't saying what they wanted to hear.

In this case, they paid him money for the information, so they must have thought the info he had would be useful, but then they didn't believe it once they got it. To me this provides an excellent example of why torture for information is completely useless, on top of being completely immoral. If they don't believe the information they pay for, why should they believe the information they torture out of people.

Think about it. If you are being tortured and you deside to talk, are you gonna tell the truth or are you gonna tell them what they want to hear? IF you tell them the truth and they don't believe you, they keep torturing you. What is the incentive to be honest?

The bottom line is, people have the tendency to accept as truth those things that back up what they already believed in the first place. What is the point in gathering more information if you are just going to discount it. Why not just act on your prejudices outright, if that's all you're willing to believe anyway?

Is Impeachment a Good Idea?

‘Impeach Bush’ chorus grows - Times online

With Dubya's approval rating at a record low, the talk of impeachment has begun to heat up.

THE movement to impeach President George W Bush over the war on terror began with a few tatty bumper stickers on the back of battered old Volvos and slogans such as “Bush lied, people died” on far-left websites. But as Democrat hopes rise of gaining control of Congress this autumn, dreams of impeaching Bush are no longer confined to the political fringe.

The question arises, is it a good idea to impeach President Bush or not?

Republicans are practically begging them to “bring it on” in the hope that the chatter will tar their opponents as loony leftists who care nothing for national security. “This is such a gift,” said Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio chat show host.

And the limited record seems to indicate that impeachment can have a negative impact on the opposition party

Some seasoned Democrat counsellors are warning party activists that voters are rarely interested in vengeful politics. In the 1998 mid-term elections, for example, the Republicans’ often mean-spirited efforts to impeach Clinton cost them seats that they had been expected to win.

However, when one considers the rediculous charges the Republicans were willing to use to impeach Pres. Clinton, it seems to me that what Pres. Bush has done is far more deserving.

The problem remains, however, that this is likely to be seen by many as a simple revenge tactic. I remember hearing last year, that people were only saying that Bush lied because the Republicans had said that Clinton lied. It's almost like the Republicans now have a free pass on anything they do, because of what they did to the Democrats during Clinton's terms. The article ever says:

The urge to impeach is partly payback for the Bill Clinton era when Republicans dragged the president through the mud over his dalliance with the intern Monica Lewinksy.

Anything that the Democrats try to do is just seen as petty retaliation.

Judged on it's own merits, what the Bush administration has done, misleading us into a war that we will likely never win and throwing the Constitution out the window whenever they feel like it, may be grounds for impeachment. It certainly deserves a closer look. And judged in the light of what Clinton was impeached over, it certainly merits impeachment.

However, judged in the light of all of US history, it's really just politics as usual. Is the Patriot Act or the wire taping issue any worse than Adams's Alien and Sedition Act? Is the intellegence used to mislead us into the war in Iraq that much different than the Maine incident that led us into the Spanish American War or the Gulf of Tonkin incident that got us full scale into the war in Vietnam?

Maybe those acts were impeachable too. But I don't believe the American people are ready for impeachment to become the norm of every administration. I don't believe the American system of government could survive if it did.

The Congress needs to take back its powers and stop abdicating to the Executive Branch. The executive branch has gained too much power in general, this administration is simply exploiting those powers. The checks and balances are there for a reason, USE THEM! Don't wait and use the last resort of impeachment.

In sum, does Bush deserve it? Yeah, probably so. Is it a good idea? Ultimately, probably not.