Bent Corner

I read an article over on the New York Times website detailing how the Mormon church was such a driving force in the movement to ban same-sex marriage in California. It’s an interesting read:

On Oct. 28, Mr. Ashton, the grandson of the former Mormon president David O. McKay, donated $1 million. Mr. Ashton, who made his fortune as co-founder of the WordPerfect Corporation, said he was following his personal beliefs and the direction of the church.

“I think it was just our realizing that we heard a number of stories about members of the church who had worked long hours and lobbied long and hard,” he said in a telephone interview from Orem, Utah.

In the end, Protect Marriage estimates, as much as half of the nearly $40 million raised on behalf of the measure was contributed by Mormons.

So Alan Ashton, a man who doesn’t live in California, who made a fortune selling word processing software — coincidentally enough, I have to think that at least some of those WordPerfect users were gay — was directed by his tax exempt church to donate a vast sum of money to an organization dedicated to denying a basic civil right to a whole group of people.

I’ve got a huge problem with that.

I have nothing against Mormons. I’ve known quite a few over the years and I’m hard pressed to think of even one Mormon who I didn’t like on a personal level. With that said, I detest the fact that they have used their church to facilitate stripping a basic civil right to so many people with no connection to them whatsoever.

I could try to sum up my feelings about Proposition 8, California’s ballot inititive to ban same-sex marriage, but I could never come close to articulating exactly how I feel about this topic.  Fortunately, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann did it for me.  He was able to put into words how I feel on this matter.

I feel strongly about this.  I didn’t “choose” to be heterosexual.  Why should I be able to marry the person that I love while gay people cannot?  To me, it’s a civil rights issue.  I’m not old enough to remember what things were like under Jim Crow.  If I lived in a society where I could sit at the front of the bus, but a black person could not, I would feel extremely embarrassed and even ashamed.

That’s how I feel about marriage.

Like many open minded Americans, I was disappointed to see 52.5 percent of California voters back Proposition 8, a ballot measure to amend the state constitution to ban marriage between anyone other then a man and a woman.

In other words, to ban gay marriage.

The Proposition 8 campaign was heavily funded by out-of-state donations from Mormons.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) sent a letter to every Mormon temple in California that was read to church members advising them to vote yes on Proposition 8.

The LDS is now facing a backlash.  One blogger is attempting to have their tax exempt status revoked.  Since the LDS has decided to take a proactive role in politics, they no longer qualify as a tax exempt religious organization.

Gay activists have organized protests at Mormon temples in California and Utah.

I think it’s more than a little ironic that California has been manipulated on the subject of marriage by Mormons.  If the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had their way, Mormons would be practicing polygamy. Marriage would not only be between a man and a woman, it would be between a man and ten women.  Middle-aged Mormon men would be allowed to marry their pre-teen nieces.

Mormons have no business defining what marriage is.

My home state of California has a proposition on the ballot asking Californians if marriage between two gay people should be banned or not.  If you vote YES on Proposition 8, it means gay marriage should be illegal.  If you vote NO on Proposition 8, it means gay people should be allowed to enter into committed relationships with the person they love.

Proposition 8, if passed, will amend the state Constitution to take away a right that people currently have. Gay marriage is currently legal in California.  Some people have a problem with that.  The ballot measure has been heavily bankrolled by Mormons.  Not only do they have a problem with a cold Pepsi on a hot day, they have a problem with gay folks getting married. Go figure.

Not all Mormons are against Prop 8. One of America’s favorite Mormons, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young has donated $37,000 to Equity California, a group that it working to defeat the ballot measure. The checks have all been signed by Steve’s wife Barb, but she has made it clear in a statement that both her and Steve are against Proposition 8.

I can’t remember if I’ve ever heard the term “hockey mom” before Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin entered the public consciousness last week. Palin refers to herself as a hockey mom quit a bit. In fact, she even mentioned it in her speech last night. She even worked it into a joke involving lipstick, a bulldog, and (I think) a transvestite.

I might have thought the joke was funny if I knew exactly what a hockey mom was. Then again, maybe I wouldn’t.

As a kid growing up in the high desert of southern California, youth hockey was something only the rich kids played. The cost of all the gear coupled with the cost of rink time made hockey the most expensive sport a kid could play. I realize that Palin is from Alaska and I am from California, but it’s not like her kid played out on the frozen tundra and she made all of his gear out of discarded elk bones.

Hockey is expensive no matter where you live.

When Sarah Palin refers to herself as a “hockey mom”, she might as well be referring to herself as a “polo mom” or a “fox hunting mom” or some other kind of mom that involves a really expensive sport that only rich kids play.

I don’t think that is her intent.

On our final night on vacation, we stayed in a hotel close to the Burbank airport. Our flight back to the Dulles airport was at 8am. That meant we had to be at at airport no later then 6am. We figured it would be a lot easier to simply stay in a hotel near the airport, preferably one with a shuttle service to the airport.

We thought we had one when we reserved a room at the Holiday Inn Burbank-Media Center. We were wrong.

We checked in at around 4pm. We decided to go up to our room and drop off our luggage and then go return the rental car. When we went back downstairs to the parking lot, we found out that we had to pay $5 when leaving the “free” parking lot. Even though it states on the website for the Holiday Inn Burbank-Media Center is free, it’s not.

We dropped off the rental car and then took the car rental shuttle to the airport. From there we rode the Holiday Inn shuttle back to the hotel. When we got back to the room, I started to notice how dumpy the room was.

Take a look at the art that was screwed down to the wall over the bed. That’s not just some kind of fancy artwork. It’s mold.

What a dump.

Even though the hotel is advertised as having a free shuttle to the airport, it doesn’t make it’s first run until 6:30am. Since we had to be at the airport no latter then 6am, we had to take a cab. Parked in front of the hotel were a few taxis. When I told the driver of the first taxi where we wanted to go, he told me he would take us if we agreed to pay a flat-fee of $20. The Burbank airport is only a three mile ride from the hotel. It’s not like I had much of a choice. Since the Holiday Inn chooses not to start the shuttle service until 6:30am, the taxi operators know that they have people over a barrel. I guess I should be glad he didn’t demand $50.

You think that when you go online and look for a hotel near the Burbank airport and the first result you get is a Holiday Inn that claims it has free parking and a free shuttle service to the airport, it will in fact have those things.

Do yourself a favor and avoid the Holiday Inn Burbank-Media Center.

Sheri and I are driving down to Dulles this morning to catch a flight out to southern California to visit my family. It’s been far too long since I’ve been home. We will be out there for a week.

We are flying on jetBlue. I’ve never flown them, but I’ve heard nice things about them. They have a TV built into the back of each seat. Not only do they show movies, they offer Direct TV along with XM satellite radio. An added plus is that they fly into Burbank Bob Hope airport and not Los Angeles International (LAX). (more…)

Not that I really know how intense 1,000 suns are, but I can imagine. I’m just getting tired of dicking with WordPress.

Yesterday I had a problem that resulted with nothing but the header image loading. I ended up fixing it be reloading WordPress 2.5. So far, so good. I would like to upgrade to the latest build of WordPress, version 2.5.1, but when I do just that, the RSS feed to my blog dies. Why? Who knows. I’ve read on the WordPress forums about other people having the same problem, but I haven’t read anything that solves the problem. It’s just another one of those WordPress “mysteries”.

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It should be no surprise to anyone at this point that it’s delegates — not votes — that decide each political party’s nominee for President.

What is a delegate?

Each state or territory is allotted a certain amount of pledged delegates. Currently there are 3,253 pledged delegates. Large states have a lot of pledged delegates. Small states have fewer delegates. How many voters does each pledged delegates represent?

That depends. Take a state like California. It has the most Democratic pledged delegates at 370. A total of 4,794,846 Democrats voted in the California Primary. That means that each California pledged delegate represents 12,959.04 California Democratic voters.

On the other end of the spectrum is Wyoming. It has a total of 12 Democratic pledged delegates. A total of 8,689 Democrats cast their votes in March for the Presidential nominee. That means that each Wyoming pledged delegate represents 724.08 Wyoming Democratic voters.

Why are the Democrats in Wyoming more important then Democrats in California?

They aren’t more important. We just have a really stupid and archaic method of choosing our President. In 2000 we elected a President that received less votes then his opponent. Now we Democrats are about to select a nominee for President that received less votes then his opponent. Why doesn’t this fact bother anyone?