For those of you against "gay marriage"...

...that think a popular vote is the way to determine who gets that right...

Understand that interracial marriage has only been legal, in every state of the US, since 1967. That is less than 40 years ago. It is also quite probable that, if left up to popular opinion, "The South" would have never desegregated its society. There are just some things that cannot, and should not, be decided by popular vote.

I have no horse in this race, but it seems rather silly for people to get so upset about it. Absolutely no one has made a sound case that same-gender marriage causes any harm to any person, nor how any non-consenting adults might end up being forced into one.

From Wikipedia...

In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th century, many American states passed anti-miscegenation laws, often based on interpretations of the Bible, particularly the story of Phinehas. Typically a felony, these laws prohibited the solemnization of weddings between persons of different races and prohibited the officiating of such ceremonies. Sometimes the individuals attempting to marry would not be held guilty of miscegenation itself, but felony charges of adultery or fornication would brought against them instead (Vermont was the only state to never introduce such legislation). The constitutionality of anti-miscegenation laws was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1883 case Pace v. Alabama. In 1965, Virginia trial court judge Leon Bazile sentenced to jail an interracial couple who got married in Washington, D.C., writing:

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

This decision was eventually overturned in 1967, 84 years after Pace v. Alabama, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Loving v. Virginia that

Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law.

At the time that anti-miscegenation laws were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, 16 states still had laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Those laws were not completely repealed until November 2000, when Alabama became the last state to repeal its law. According to Salon.com:

...after a statewide vote in a special election, Alabama became the last state to overturn a law that was an ugly reminder of America's past, a ban on interracial marriage. The one-time home of George Wallace and Martin Luther King Jr. had held onto the provision for 33 years after the Supreme Court declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. Yet as the election revealed -- 40 percent of Alabamans voted to keep the ban -- many people still see the necessity for a law that prohibits blacks and whites from mixing blood.

The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, also known as Hays Code, explicitly stated that the depiction of "miscegenation... is forbidden."

A Year at WDW...

You can click on the title above to go to the website.

The basic premise is that this 19 year old saved up $100k and is going to spend 6 days out of every week at WDW for a year. I love the idea and wish I had done it when I was younger myself!

Legal rights for uncredentialed photographers...

If anyone happens to see this, by chance, do you know an expert on the legal rights for photographers at sporting events? Specifically non-credentialed photographers at NHL games?

Just looking for a little help with some questions.

Paint your own house, offshore outsourcing asshole!

I was listening to NPR this morning and heard a story about a surfboard maker who has the foam core for his boards made in China. When confronted that he is a part of the problem, which forces entire industries to go entirely offshore (well, except for the US-based executive team), he makes the (probably trademarked by now) excuse "I am just following global trends."

To make matters worse, he says anybody put out of work by this sort of activity should spend their "unplanned vacation" by "painting their house" or better yet "go surfing."

How about...make your boards entirely in the United States if you are only selling them here. Don't have work done in other countries that you do not sell your service or product in. It really is not that hard, is it?