The state of Texas is wasting a lot of tax payer money contesting two divorces that Texas courts granted recently: both were to gay couples. The state says that in order to protect the traditional definition of marriage, it has to protect the traditional definition of divorce as well. (Of course by that he means that it has to be one man and one woman divorcing, not the actual way in which the divorce occurred.)

These legal problems are wonderful for gay marriage because it’s going to “force the hand” of the US Supreme Court, just as the myriad laws regarding marriage between blacks and whites “forced” them to take the Loving v Virginia case and overturn miscegenation laws across the country. As couples who were married in Massachusetts, Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut and Washington, DC (as well as those who were married in California before Prop 8 whose marriages are still valid under California law) fan out across the country, particularly into states where gay marriage is banned, all sorts of legal issues are going to come up: filing married tax returns, custody disputes when a marriage doesn’t work out, divorce and property settlement, inheritance when a spouse dies, etc. And all these legal wranglings are going to cost states and taxpayers millions of dollars to figure out. And, as is the case in Texas, some courts might rule one way while courts in another area of the state rule another way. So even within each state things are going to be confused. And that will be what “forces” the US Supreme Court to intervene and to make sure that the equal protection under the law and the full faith and credit clause are followed.

Well, at least not officially. We have no official state religion: that’s prohibited by the US Constitution. But there can be no doubt that Christianity has enjoyed at least two centuries of privileges that no other faith has been granted. Now, as more and more of those privileges are being overthrown or taken away, the radical religious right is screaming,  “Persecution!” You hear it from the radical right wing all the time: Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, Coulter, Gallagher, Gingrich, O’Reilly and Palin, just to name a few.

Palin’s latest declaration that America is a Christian nation came the day after a Wisconsin judge correctly ruled that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional. Palin then went on to intentionally perpetuate the incorrect belief that President Obama said this was no longer a Christian nation during a speech in 2006, which just shows how irresponsible she can be while speaking.

There can be no doubt that the Pilgrims left England to found a religious colony on the shores of America. And that religious colony was a Christian colony. And that Christian colony soon made it a crime punishable by death to be a Shaker, which was another brand of Christianity.

So the founding fathers, by the time they decided to form a new nation, had a great reason for making this a totally secular nation. There’s no denying that each founding father had their own brand of faith. Some, like Jefferson, were deists, who believed in a supreme being but did not believe in the triune godhead of Christianity. Others, like Washington, were Christian, but recognized the importance of building a wall of separation between church and state.  It is disingenuous for those who argue that this was meant to be a Christian nation to take quotes from the founding fathers regarding their personal beliefs and claim it describes their beliefs about religion and government. Of course, that’s no different than taking Bible verses out of context to prove that their particular brand of prejudice is justified by the Bible.

Everyone remembers the Y2K fiasco, where Christian churches all over the country were advising there members to prepare for the Judgement Day by buying water and stocking up on non-perishable food items and, of course, ammunition for their guns. My ex-husband’s soon-to-be-second-ex-wife’s church even had a picnic where they taught kids how to shoot guns! (My sons were forced to go to that church against my better judgment. Of course, that day you couldn’t have pried them away with a stick. What 6 or 9 year old boy doesn’t want to shoot a real gun?) But as it turned out, all those precautions were unnecessary as Y2K came in without much of a bang.

Just recently, the movie “2012″ came out on DVD. This cinematic effort purports to tell the artistically enhanced story behind the mysterious reason that the Mayan calendar ends in December, 2012. Of course, there are cataclysmic volcano eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and lord knows what else due to the massive solar storm generated by the alignment of all the planets in the solar system that will occur on Dec. 21, 2012. Only problem is that there will be no planetary alignment on Dec. 21, 2012.

And now ABC News has gotten into the fray with their article asking if the earthquakes and tsunamis and hurricanes and volcanoes we’ve seen lately are signs of the Apocalypse. While articles of this kind are sure to draw the fundamentalists who believe in the prophecy of Revelation (which, if you read it carefully, was supposed to happen within the lifespan of those who were alive when Jesus walked the earth) and other doomsday dramatists, it is, IMHO, an example of irresponsible journalism for ratings. There is enough fear being spread by the radical religious right that’s going to fan the flames of fear for Bible believers. But for a news organization to seemingly support the assertion that the Apocalypse is near beyond bad judgment.

I completely realize that the article explains that there are no more earthquakes than normal. I completely realize that by the end of the article, you may very well realize the absurdity of the claims made by some, like Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson and others with respect to these natural disasters. But unfortunately, I also realize that that average attention span for an American adult is about ten seconds and that many read only the headlines of stories and the first couple lines before moving on. And nothing in the first “screen view” (ie, that part of the story you can read without scrolling down) indicates that the story will demonstrate that the assertions of the end times is a bit overrated.

I must say, I’m sorely disappointed in ABC for running this story.

A write-in candidate for the Missouri senate seat is making use of FCC regulations in order to air his white-supremacist views. The candidate, whose name I won’t mention so he can’t google himself, is now being investigated to determine if he is in fact a bona fide candidate for the federal office for which he is running. The state attorney general, the Missouri Broadcasters Association and a radio chain in Kansas City which has had to air the ads are all asking the FCC to determine the legitimacy of  the candidacy.

While I despise the man’s message, I support his right to speak his message and, if he is a legitimate candidate, to gain access to free air time. For one thing, it will alert those clueless yet non-discriminating voters who go into the voting booth and pick names based on how they sound that this is not a candidate they want to vote for. Second, it shows that our constitutional republic (America is NOT a democracy) is working because a.) the little guy gets the same amount of free air time as the big guys and b.) he is free to put his message out there, no matter how repugnant it is.

At least this guy is blatant about his prejudice, as opposed to the Republicans and the Tea Partiers who hide their prejudice behind policy and legislation. If nothing else, you have to admire the man for standing up what he believes in, even if what he believes isn’t worth a plugged nickel.

Once again, we see the uselessness of peer reviewed investigations into alleged wrongdoings. As has often been stated, it’s like putting the fox in charge of the hen house when we allow groups to police themselves. Witness the Boy Scouts and the Catholic church. Police departments have an often well-deserved reputation for protecting their own. And so do doctors/hospitals.

A Delaware pediatrician, Earl Bradley, was recently indicted on 471 counts related to child sexual abuse over a period of 11 years! The outrageous thing is that 2 years before he started his private practice, he was investigated by a local Delaware hospital for inappropriate touching of young female patients. Of course, the hospital found no wrong-doing.

It blows my mind that this kind of abuse has been going on for years and not one parent suspected anything! I’m hoping the parents didn’t know the signs to look for. I’m hoping the parents didn’t ignore their children if they spoke out. Kudos to the parents of the two year old who taught their young daughter about inappropriate touching and believed her when she spoke up (although I’m not sure why they didn’t take action almost a month earlier when she first reported the inappropriate touching to her father. But I only can go on the facts I have and I don’t have enough of them to determine what caused the delay.)

At least in Delaware, if convicted, this man will go away for the rest of his life without the possibility of parole. At least the kids can know they’re going to be safe from him.

Theodore Sypnier is 100 years old. And he’s a child molestor. And he’s been returned to jail for another two years because he refuses to attend mandated sex offender classes. My question is why in the hell was this guy out to begin with?

His first conviction was in 1987, which means that the man was 77 years old! And yet he was only given a sentence of three years probation! Why? Someone who is convicted at age 77 of molesting a child, unless he has some mental limitations like Parkinson’s or Alzheimers, you can pretty well bet the man’s been molesting for years! Why was he given only probation?

Seven years later, he was convicted of sexually abusing a minor and received a sentence of one year in prison. One year?!?!?! This man destroys the life of a minor (although it can be rebuilt) and he gets one year?!?!

After his second conviction, police and prosecutors were inundated with reports of abuse from his own daughters and other family members as well as people in the neighborhood. And yet none of those reports resulted in any convictions? Why? Why didn’t the DA file additional charges against this man?

And then, in 2000, he was again convicted of not just of child sexual abuse, but of raping and sodomizing two young girls. At age 90! And yet by the 2008 he was again released from prison! Why? Three times they had this man in custody and three times they let him off with what amounts to a slap on the wrist. Even his own daughter knew it wasn’t going to be safe to let him back out, especially since he still refused to accept responsibility for his actions and refused to seek treatment!

I don’t know what the laws are in New York, but if the sentences he received for what he was convicted of are less than the absolute maximum, the judge should be sent to jail with him.

A man in Phoenix slipped in the bathroom of the business he ran, knocked his head on the floor and woke up in the hospital. The only memory he had of the last 46 years was the moment of the fall: slipping and hitting his head. He doesn’t remember his wife of 26 years, he doesn’t remember his kids, he doesn’t even remember what he likes and doesn’t like to eat! Concepts like marriage and Halloween were foreign to him. Historical events are all erased from his memory as well: names of past presidents, notable figures, actors, etc.

Doctors have since determined that the cause of the amnesia is lack of blood flow to certain areas of his brain. In the 16 months since his accident, he has not recovered one single memory. Doctors have determined that he is highly unlikely to ever recover any memories from before the accident. His wife shows him pictures of their lives together, of their children, of places they went and things they enjoyed. But he has no emotional attachment to any of it. For him to look at a picture of his own child is like one of us looking at the picture of the smiling kids that comes in every picture frame. We say, “Oh, how cute!” then toss the picture in the trash if we even acknowledge that it was there!

So how do you rebuild a life after an event like that? Is being married to someone who has no memory of you or the love you shared like being married to a stranger? Can such a marriage survive? How do the kids relate to their father? How do the grandkids relate to their grandfather? How does one go about getting a job when one doesn’t even remember what one is good at? Does one get to the point where they say, “Forget about trying to remember the past. I’m going to concentrate on the present and future”? And if so, what does that do to one’s marriage or previous relationships?

I think that in some ways, it could be very exciting because in addition to not remembering what your strengths were, you also don’t remember your weaknesses or your fears. The whole world is like a blank slate on which you can write your name. But I also think there would be a lot of guilt because you cannot remember someone who is supposed to be the love of your life! The pain that your loved ones go through on a daily basis knowing that you don’t remember them could eat at the soul if you let it. I think it would take a lot of trust as well. Trust that those who are telling you “this is what you liked before” or “this is what you did before” are telling you the truth. There may be no way to verify what they’re saying.

All I know is that it’s something I’m content to ask about and cast conjectures about. I certainly do not wish to experience it.

There is an interesting story in Los Angeles about a guy who supposedly spread a white powder on this then-girlfriend’s pregnant skin which, she claims, induced a miscarriage. The powder has been identified as containing misoprostol, a drug that causes the uterus to contract. Ironically, it is a drug that is used to stop hemorrhaging after child birth as well as to induce labor. Apparently, the guy stuck his hand into a bag while being sexually intimate with the woman. Hours later, according to the woman, she miscarried. She had been 13 weeks pregnant. The guy was arrested, charged with murder and had bail set at $2 million. Some reports say that charges have not officially be filed yet pending further investigation.

And here is a great example of why I think fetal rights laws need to be overturned yesterday. Experts who deal with the drug can’t decide if it would be even possible to induce an abortion in the alleged manner described. And even if it were possible, there is no way to know if the dosage given was large enough to induce an abortion. Nor does it appear that there is any way to determine the dosage allegedly given. But more importantly, the fetus was not viable. Now, according to the new law in Utah, he’d be guilty, but most fetal rights laws require that the fetus be viable.

There will be those who say that the fetus would have been viable in another 8 weeks. But there’s no way to guarantee that the fetus would have survived another 8 weeks in utero. The woman might have miscarried a week later without any alleged white powder. The bottom line is that there is no way to determine beyond a reasonable doubt that the use of the powder is what caused the woman to miscarry.

If  it turns out the man did introduce the powder onto/into the woman’s body without her consent, then the most he should be charged with is assault on her in my humble opinion.

But only a step. And a small one at that. At least now I can stop pretending to be my wife’s mother when we have to take her to the emergency room. (I’m 16 years older than her, although I think she has more grey hair than I do. ) Now there’s only about 1137 more rights that we need to get back…. (Well, at least for those of us who want to marry.)

Hey, why not? Jerry Falwell did it after 9/11 and he remained popular and rich. Pat Robertson did it with the hurricanes and tornadoes in Florida and God knows he’s still popular and VERY very rich. (Estimated worth $200 million to $1 billion.) Why not the Vatican as well?

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state for the Vatican, which puts him just below the Pope in authority, has said that the latest sex scandal to rock the Catholic church is not the fault of celibacy but is the fault of homosexuality. According to Cardinal Bertone, there is no link between celibacy and pedophilia but there is a link that he was just made aware of between homosexuality and pedophilia.

Well, let it be known that there IS no reputable study linking pedophilia with homosexuality. There may not even be a study linking celibacy to homosexuality. Neither is the problem! The problem is two fold: first, pedophilia and second, the Catholic church’s attempts to cover up and refuse to accept responsibility for allowing pedophiles access to children.

Unlike “normal” adults who are attracted to certain physical, intellectual  or spiritual characteristics about someone, such as gender, red hair, green eyes, etc., pedophiles are attracted by one physical aspect: age. To a pedophile, gender is not really relevant because as long as the age is in the correct “range” that is all that matters. Let me give you an example. A pedophile is attracted to 8-9 year olds. If you put an 8 year old boy in the room and a 13 year old girl in the room, regardless of the orientation of the pedophile, the first choice of victim would be the 8 year old boy.

Simply because a male pedophile (and in this case, we know they are male pedophiles because we’re talking about Catholic priests and bishops) molests another male does NOT make the pedophile gay! Being gay has nothing to do with who you have sex with but with which gender you are able to fall in love with. Make no mistakes, pedophilia is not about love. It’s about power and control, as is all sexual assault/rape/abuse. Yes, there are gay pedophiles. There are gay rapists, gay murderers, gay thieves, gay arsonists, and any other kind of gay criminal you can think of. There are also gay priests because, according to the Catholic teaching, being gay is a sign from God that one is to lead a celibate life because God has a special calling for you. So if you’re celibate and Catholic, and you’re supposed to remain that way for the rest of your life, it’s only natural to be drawn the priesthood or convent. But just because a gay priest molests a young boy does not make the priest a gay pedophile.

I have lost all respect for the Vatican. I have lost all respect for the office of the Pope.  They are sorely out of touch with reality and are intent only on protecting their vast financial empire and what is left of their already badly tarnished reputation.