Posts from — November 2005

H.J.R. No. 6

A JOINT RESOLUTION proposing a constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Article I, Texas Constitution, is amended by adding Section 32 to read as follows:

Sec. 32. (a) Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.
(b) This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

SECTION 2. This state recognizes that through the designation of guardians, the appointment of agents, and the use of private contracts, persons may adequately and properly appoint guardians and arrange rights relating to hospital visitation, property, and the entitlement to proceeds of life insurance policies without the existence of any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

SECTION 3. This proposed constitutional amendment shall be submitted to the voters at an election to be held November 8, 2005. The ballot shall be printed to permit voting for or against the proposition: “The constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman and prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage.”

As is the case with many laws, first terms are defined, then they are used. As “marriage” is defined as the “union of one man and one woman” the only arrangement that can be “identical … to marriage” is the “union of one man and one woman”, and “[t]his state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status” for it.

This was pointed out to the proponents, but they rejected the logic. I don’t see how a judge can reject the logic, as it is the plain meaning of the text. A judge can only go so far with the “intent” of the drafters before he/she begins “legislating from the bench”, and this was an amendment to the state constitution.

“Section 2” in this bill makes it plain that those who wrote it don’t think that “marriage” is actually required, as there are existing contractual provisions that cover all of the “rights” associated with “marriage”.

Anyone who thinks divorce lawyers won’t be all over this are as ignorant as the people who wrote it, and those who voted for it.

Jack at The People’s Republic of Seabrook arrives at the same conclusion as to the effect of this measure.

The initial report was that this was a reaction to the death of two juveniles who had reportedly fled the police and hid in an electric substation. The boys were apparently accidentally electrocuted, but I couldn’t swear to that because there has been no clear information as to what actually happened. You don’t know if the boys were fleeing a crime scene, merely being chased as suspicious, or simply wandered into the station. You don’t know for certain that they were electrocuted, although that seems to be implied.

Initial reports all talked about “Muslim immigrants”, but the French officials talk about third generation “dark” people as “immigrants” while Northern European immigrants are never labeled that way. The bulk of those involved are the children and grandchildren of immigrants. They were born in France and educated in France. Most cannot speak any language except French and are not notably religious, as evinced by the lack of reaction to fatwas issued by prominent French imams to stop the demonstrations.

I have learned that the burning of cars has increased, but it has been a feature of weekends in many of these areas for a very long time. I would have thought that someone should have taken some action about cars being burned every weekend before now, but the French reaction has been to reduce the local police presence in many of these areas.

It took several days for the story about police officers being shot by rioters to be resolved as an attack by BB guns, not Uzis. Coke bottles of gasoline and cobblestones are a good deal more dangerous to my mind.

What you have in the end are the Watts riots. French citizens of a darker shade of skin color have discovered that, stated guarantees notwithstanding, if you are not of a pale complexion, you are not likely to find stable full-time employment. Without a full-time job you have only limited access to the benefits of the society.

The conservative government of France really kept this going when the Minister of the Interior decided to call the people involved “scum” and other epithets. That minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, is a part of the problem. The grandchildren of immigrants are really annoyed by the child of immigrants telling them that they are not French. Mr. Sarkozy is the child of a Hungarian immigrant father and a Greek mother. The fact that he is now the Interior Minister while they are still stuck in ugly, concrete housing blocks is proof to many of the discrimination.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has promised new programs for development in the affected areas, the same promises that are made every decade or so in France, but nothing really changes. He also announced curfews under a law passed as an attempt to control the uprisings in Algeria in the mid-1950s. The people in the communities have noticed the connection.

The French government is right when it says the problem is that these people haven’t assimilated into French society, they haven’t. However, the root of the problem is that French society has refused to allow them to assimilate.

™ ^{[Talk Left]}

November 5^th: Andante at Collective Sigh;

November 7^th: Echidne of the Snakes;

November 8^th: Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof;

November 9^th: Outside the Tent.

Drop by to congratulate them and spike their site hits.

[Updated]

Just the facts…well, maybe a little snark…okay, an East Coast Tbogg.

Then there was the tubby televangelist, Jerry Falwell, complaining about Teletubbies, because he felt that one of the “Tubbies” might not be androgynous.

James Dobson decided that children had to be protected from the message of tolerance coming from Spongebob Squarepants, because that was diverting them from the Christian message of “Love Thy Neighbor”…or something.

Having been made to look rather foolish by that, Dobson is now calling for people to boycott American Girl dolls because the company donates money to Girls Inc..

Formerly known as Girls Clubs, Girls Inc. has been around for over 140 years supporting programs for girls. Through a leap of logic available only to Dobson, they are abortion providers or Nazis or something “bad”.

Personally, I have a hard time accepting advice about morality from someone who advocates beating dogs and children.

Jack writing at Ruminate This thinks people should buy American Girls dolls to annoy James Dobson. While that’s a good reason, the historically-themed dolls are also liked by little girls, which is another good reason.

These “odd year” elections are important, because this is when they try to sneak things through on people. While some states, like Virginia, elect their governors on odd years, in most states this election will be about initiatives and propositions that aren’t ready for the full light of day.

Remember: if you don’t vote, you can’t complain.

Update: Look, y’all are computer users, so if you can’t immediately figure out the purpose of an initiative or proposition vote against it. Good ideas usually make sense. When in doubt, vote no. Not voting is a yes vote.

At Yellow Doggerel Democratic Steve Bates makes the point: “To the extent that torture elicits information, it elicits whatever the interrogator wants to hear.”

And at No More Mister Nice Blog a different Steve draws the conclusion: “They didn’t have al-Libi tortured to get the truth out of him; they had him tortured to get him to ‘confirm’ what they already ‘knew.'”

Torture is used to make people say what you want them say. The KGB wasn’t interested in information, they wanted a “confession”. The North Koreans and North Vietnamese used the same techniques to provide grist for their propaganda mill.

Al-Libi wasn’t asked if Saddam’s government was linked to Al Qaeda, he was asked how they were linked and pressure was applied until he came up with a reasonable story.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, there are a lot of prominent figures and families in the Islamic world who have ties to the Bin Laden family. Having terror suspects questioned, with or without torture, by authorities in an Islamic country could well lead to selective editing of the names of those individuals or families. This is not the way to conduct an effective investigation.

This “pudding” is half-baked and sour.

Apparently when you have the country lead by people who wouldn’t consider inconveniencing themselves when the nation is at war by joining the military, you end up with people who can’t believe that everyone else isn’t going to give up their friends and country when tortured.

The fact that this administration continues to defend its desire to use torture, just shows that Helen Thomas isn’t the only thing they are afraid of, as terrified as they are of her.

People keep talking about a “ticking bomb scenario”. Our enemy doesn’t use ticking bombs, they use people willing to commit suicide to kill Americans. Why would any rational person assume that someone willing to wear several pounds of explosives and blow themselves up with their victims is going to be impressed by torture?

If your purpose is to coerce a confession from the innocent, then torture is the technique of choice. If you would like to compile a list of totally worthless names, then torture is very effective. If you would like to prove that you can be just as vicious and lawless as any group of thugs on the planet: accept no substitute for torture.

Torture doesn’t work. Torture violates treaties. Torture violates the Constitution. Torture violates US laws. Torture violates the moral teachings of the predominate religions of the United States. Torture is ineffective, unconstitutional, illegal, and immoral, so why is it still being discussed?

…excavations inside Megiddo prison in northern Israel have unearthed the remains of a structure that included a mosaic with inscriptions in Greek and murals of fish as well as an altar.

The significant part is that Megiddo is Hebrew for [insert sound of an ominous fanfare]: Armageddon.

No doubt Falwell et alii will be grabbing their dog-eared copies of Revelation and rushing to Israel to be the first, or last, to broadcast from the site of the Apocalypse.

[Update: CBS has an article on the find with a picture of one of the mosaics.]

While it was never “great television”, the Canadian show was an enjoyable way to spend some time on a weekend, along with the “Britcoms” on PBS.

Remember: “When all else fails, play dead.”

I think we should build it by fining individuals and businesses $1000 per head for every undocumented worker found in their employ. We can call it the “Duncan Hunter Fence Fee” and begin by sweeping San Diego county during the harvest and sweep through the northern Gulf coast in the areas hard hit by the hurricanes.

No need to detain the undocumented workers, as the real goal is money for Duncan’s magic fence, which is going to solve all of the immigration problems.