Another Reason to Vote Obama....

Obama GOOD!

McCain BAD!

If you care about civil rights here is another reason to "Vote for Obama":

Ultra-conservative Puritanical Religionist Republicans of Dooooom!

Civil Rights has a history, (especially under Bush politics) of suffering and being violated horribly under a Republican regime - I am talking to you Patriot Act, to which the ACLU has had to fight hard to try and fix. Who knows how many innocent people's lives have been wrecked with these horrible laws in effect. Will these people whose rights have been violated ever be compensated for their governments enforcement of these broken laws? No. They will receive a "My bad!" and then be left tot recover from having their life destroyed by an illegal law.

The next president will most likely have the chance to nominate 2 or 3 Supreme Court Judges. The McCain camp is against Gay Rights which is very strongly a civil rights issue which he is against from a puritanical and ultra-conservative (save me some votes) standpoint. This way of thinking is one of the greatest problems with the Republical Party - Conservative Christian Religionism is their hidden mantra.

McCain will appoint judges that will enforce a close-minded backwards-traditional mindset and in an attempt to crush all of cultural progress out of fear, as well as crushing our civil rights in the process.

Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters ... (Review)

I have just finished reading "Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire-- Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do". Hows that for a really long book title.

This was a very interesting read. This book gives a 2 chapter intro into Evolutionary Psychology and then it is off to explaining many of humanity's cross-cultural universal behaviors from an evolutionary psychological perspective. I think that this book is a wonderfully enlightening read. I would suggest that everyone pick it up (if you are into that sort of reading). In some cases I think that they maybe trying to hard to come up with answers, but their empirical evidence is telling.

I was previously on the 'nurture' side of the 'nature vs nurture' argument, but with the books that I have been reading such as this plus Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray (Paperback) a (sociocultural look at mating in humans and other creatures) and The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People (an evolutionary biological look at mating in humans and other creatures) I am seeing that our evolution greatly affects what and why we do things as humans today.

Marriage, Love, and Gay Marriage Reading

Here is some reading about Marriage, Love, and Gay Marriage from Biblical, Anthropological, and other perspectives:

Articles

• An Elastic Institution: American Anthropological Association (2004)
• Anthropologists debunk ‘traditional marriage’ claim : The Washington Blade (2004)
• Gay marriages fit into this adaptable institution: USA Today (2004)
• Multicultural marriage: Boston Globe? (2006)
• Scientists counter Bush view: The San Francisco Chronicle (2004)
• The Science of Love, and the Future of Women by Helen Fischer: Ted (2006 - Video/Audio)

Books

• Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray (1994)
• Divine Sex: Liberating Sex from Religious Tradition (2006)
• God is not a Homophobe: An unbiased look at Homosexuality in the Bible (2006)
• Myth of Monogamy, The (2002)

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong!

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, cosmetic surgery, hair dye and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

Coming Out...

I am going to come clean about a few things here. I think what I post here will surprise most of you that know me. =) I do not usually discuss politics or religion to anyone really, mostly due to not knowing what my beliefs are and not knowing enough. I am in the process of developing my political and religious views, and this journey has taken me to some interesting places, of which I will detail below.

Political Leanings

According to PoliticalCompass.org I am a slightly left leaning Libertarian ( I think that I am reading that correct?):

Economic Left/Right: -1.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.64

I am not exactly sure what that specifically means, but I think that it shows that I have strong Libertarian views, which I think is close to true.

Micronationalism

In the process of this journey I have joined a micronation called the Republic of Talossa which has been a very interesting experience that has caused me to think about and investigate topics and ideas that I would never have broached otherwise.

Shortly after joining I was nominated and accepted the position of Secretary of State which took me by surprise. In this position I am in charge of the electoral process and the National Register of Law which I completely recoded.

I have also joined their political party called the Union for Talossan Progress for which I have created a simple site for them and posted my modest views and ideas which will be in short form posted below.

World Government

As a part of the Micronational experience I have come upon the World Government site which blows great big HTML and usability chunks. I have taken steps to recode much of the site so that it is usable and standards compliant, but I have more to do. The great thing about this is that it is based on the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is a great thing and I very much support. Take a look at it.

Miscellaneous Views

Here come some interesting views that you may find interesting and/or shocking.

Marriage

Some basic views about the institution of marriage and civil unions:

In short Marriage should be privitized or atleast unrestricted as marriage in-an-of-itself is really a religious and/or very personal decision that the government should have exactly no say in. The government should maintain a database of contracts for those who wish to solidify or contractualize their union; of course, this would mean redoing much of the tax, divorce, insurance, and child custody and care laws. When is hell going to freeze over?

I am for gay Marriage and I support Poly marriages as well. Again this is a personal choice and the government has no place in it. Check out Fair Wisconsin to help stop the ban on same sex unions.

Time and Measurement

I believe that we should be fully metric, using the 24 hour clock and possibly an alternate decimal clock, and definitively using the International Fixed Calendar.

Religious Leanings

Exploring my religious beliefs has been interesting. I do not have very strong religious leanings as no specific religion has appealed to me and my rather liberal beliefs, as you can see from above.

I have a problem with religion in general as some religions are potentially the richest organizations in the world. There may come a point where decisions made within the church are business and not religious ones, or are financially motivated rather than faith motivated. There are stories of churches that require their congregation to tithe via automatic electronic withdrawal and require a specific percentage of your income. Ugghhh!!!

Oh, and the last reason why I am not keen on religions is that many wars have been started due to religious reasons and horrible crimes against humanity committed with fath based justification.

So, with these thoughts in mind I do not have a really great view of religions. Now, barring those issues, churches have done some wonderful things for people around the world: missionary work, building houses, and providing personal and financial support to their members and non-members amongst other wonderful things. Great community activism. Very cool!

I looked to Bahai'ism, but that did not quite fit me. Then my search turned to Unitarian Universalist. I am currently researching this religion and I think that this will be the best fit for me. I am not sure yet. We will see.

I have come to find that Thomas Jefferson was Unitarian and he has created and published the Jefferson Bible where he stripped out the supernatural and tried to boil down the teachings of Jesus into a book of morality, which is something that I have long thought would be best use for biblical teachings.

In closing

In closing I have been thinking and doing a lot of research on these topics and have come to some interesting and unexpected conclusions during this journey. I would like to thank my wonderful parents who raised me to be and conservatively open-minded and understanding.