Kevin's Space

Mark at Chesterstreet is not very happy with me or Joe right now (well, mostly Joe, but Mark mentions me in his comments).  This post is primarily about Christine, who writes a blog, funny enough, titled TalkWisdom.  She leaves this comment at Mark's blog:

Good work, Mark.
Joe's gobbledygook and doublespeak just demonstrates how empty of truth his atheistic, self-love worldview really is.
I applaud your patience in responding to him.
I have found it to be a waste of time attempting to respond to Joe or that Katz guy. They are two peas in the same liberal-licentious-speak pod - all talk and absolutely devoid of any godly wisdom.

7/25/2008 2:52 PM

Two things here.  She calls me 'that Katz guy.'  Now I am assuming she is referring to me, although there is an Adam Kautz that occasionally writes at Joe's blog.  But if she is referring to me, she could at least get my name right--it is Kaatz.

Two--she says that "I have found it to be a waste of time attempting to respond to Joe or that Katz guy."  I can't remember her ever responding to anything I have said. I might be wrong here, but I just don't remember it.    But I do like that she puts me and Joe in the same pea-pod--what good company!

And then Mark states:

 

Mark said...

Thanks Christine - the Truth is indeed what we are called to share. The likes of Joe and Kevin would have us put in jail - all in the name of "good"; which the two morons couldn't define without any appeal to a human desire - a set of cultural standards. An absolute Right and Wrong do not exist - that's kinda what made Hitler so popular, eh?
Speak up people - and take Notice.

7/25/2008 9:08 PM

 

So I want to put the likes of Mark and Christine in jail?  I think Mark needs to get out a bit and breathe some fresh air.  In fact, I have argued for the opposite--I am happy to spread his and her views far and wide.  I doubt that prison officials would allow Mark and Christine to blog.

He calls me a moron.  That's o.k. When people can't argue intelligently, name-calling is usually what it comes down to.

And maybe when Mark breathes some fresh air, he can take a refresher course on history (or learn about it for the first time).  Hitler totally believed in the master race.  That was his absolute Right.  Mark also believes in the Absolute Right.  Hmmm...

We arrived in West Hollywood on Thursday and are having a great time.  The weather is amazing.

And more good news:  I just received an email from Equality California and they are stating that the California Attorney General has renamed the anti-gay marriage ballot issue to:

Proposition 8
ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY.
INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

Changes California Constitution to eliminate right of same-sex couples to marry. Provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.
Fiscal Impact: Over the next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact to state and local governments.

Even though this is the truth, I'm sure the out-of-state lawyers for the anti-gay marriage amendment (really a revision) will be suing to get it changed.  :)  That's o.k.  Let them sue.  Polls are showing they are on the losing side and that there little hate campaign is now in the minority view.

I went out this morning to dump the remains of the ice water on the garden and as I was standing near the butternut squash, this beautiful orange dragonfly landed.  It didn't seem to be too concerned about me, so I went inside and grabbed the camera.  It stayed long enough for me to get this picture of him (or her).  I've never seen one like it before.

Yesterday Doug and I were married.  Everything went well.  We had our license paperwork appt. at 2:30 and then the ceremony at 3:30.  Doug's parents were there, as well as our good friends Michael, Harvey, Brian and Malcolm.  We had our ceremony in the beautiful rotunda in the San Francisco City Hall.  I don't have any pictures of the ceremony itself just yet, but I should have some tomorrow.  After the ceremony we went to Harvey's place in the Castro and at 6 we had dinner reservations for the eight of us at a place called Poesia.  The food was really good.  After that we went back to Harvey's and he had this amazing cake for dessert.  We all had a great time.  We were home by around 10 pm and today we did a little preparation for tomorrow.  Tomorrow is our sort-of reception and we should have about 50 people coming over to our house to help us celebrate.  Here is a picture after the ceremony with us and the cake:

And we had some news yesterday in the paper that really made our day--51% of the state is against the anti-gay marriage amendment!  Only 41% are for it (and most of them live in Southern California--what is wrong with them there????).  So that was great news on our wedding day.

I probably won't be posting too much tomorrow...

Doug just got home a bit ago.  He bicycles to work--one hour each way.  Tonight on his way home he was hit by a car.  The car turned when Doug was right next to the car.  Doug fell off the bike and instead of stopping to help, the driver left.  Luckily Doug was not hurt, although he has a big scrape on his elbow and somehow he got a scrape on the back of his knee.  And luckily too, a woman stopped to see if he was o.k. and got a bit of the driver's license plate number.  The police were called and they came out and took statements.  I hope they catch the f***er.  I would love to see his/her ass in jail for hit and run.  I really hate the fact that Doug bicycles to work, especially after his other bike accident over two years ago which resulted in three surgeries.  But he is a big boy and very stubborn.

And some drivers are such losers. 

There has been some talk about a woman, who became a man, who then had a baby.  I'm not going to comment on that story, other to say congratulations to the new parents for their new baby girl.  Mark at Chesterstreet wrote about this in a post titled "When a man is a woman", which was copied from the nationally recognized hate group, Traditional Values Coalition (Monday, July 7).  Mark at Chesterstreet called this person a 'she-male', which is a highly offensive term.  But hey, I've known Mark to say more offensive things, so this didn't surprise me.  He also mentions in one of his comments:

Tolerance has become the "new" golden calf so to speak.

Yes, tolerance is an evil word for people like Mark.  Of course, he isn't referring to the fact that he demands his own choice of religion to be tolerated, accepted and pushed on everyone. 

But the comment below is what really surprised me.  It was left by none other than DL Foster, the ex-gay minister:

This is the most disgusting perversion of God's gender intent that we have witnessed heretofore. I grieve that it will only get worse. If people could make themeselve half animals Im sure they would.
I truly, truly feel deep sadness for this child. I pray the child will grow up and preach against the wickedness of the parents.

So this is what the good minister prays for--that a child will turn from his parents and hate them and work against them.  What a nice guy DL Foster is.  That is like me saying that I hope his 5 children will grow up and realize the truth about their father and then preach against his wickedness.  What a horrible thing to pray for, and what a horrible thing to hope for.  If that child has any problems, it is because of people like Mark and DL Foster, who will do their best to make life miserable for her.  I would not doubt that DL Foster would set up a tent outside of their house and wait for the little girl to come out alone and then attack her with his vile hatred by trying to turn her away from her parents.  Then DL Foster will turn around and claim that glbt people are not good parents and use this girl as an excuse.  It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy for the ex-gay minister.  My advice to DL Foster--he needs to pray to his god to forgive him for trying to bring strife to this family. 

For at least the last year many anti-gay groups have been stating that what is happening in Europe in terms of glbt rights will happen here.  They claim that glbt people are trampling on religious rights in Europe and that if glbt people are given the same rights here as in Europe, the religious rights of people here in the U.S. will be the same.

Well.  I wonder what these same people will say about what happened in England the other day?  A woman, a so-called Christian woman, was fired from her job when she refused to do civil partnerships for gay couples.  She claimed her religion banned her from doing it.  She was fired, but a tribunal just found that she was discriminated against.  So I guess now all the anti-gay people will stop using Europe as an example?  Probably not.

Anyway, she was discriminated against for not doing the job she was paid to do.  I bet this very same woman refuses to marry Muslims.  Or people a different skin color from her--all because of her religion.  It is funny how one person's clear discriminatory acts are religious beliefs to others. 

This news is a bit old, but reading what I read in the paper today, it is worth looking at again.  At the end of June the once-divorced, twice married John McCain gave his support to the anti-gay marriage initiative.  Here is what the anti-gay group, protectmarriage, had to say:

McCain announces support for the California Protection of Marriage initiative
6/26/2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                          CONTACT: Frank Schubert

June 26, 2008                                                  (916)448-4234

SACRAMENTO, CA – United States Senator John McCain today announced his support for the California Protection of Marriage initiative on the state’s November ballot, leaders of the ProtectMarriage.com campaign announced. In an email received by the ProtectMarriage.com campaign, Senator McCain issued the following statement:

“I support the efforts of the people of California to recognize marriage as a unique institution between a man and a woman, just as we did in my home state of Arizona. I do not believe judges should be making these decisions.”

Commenting on the endorsement of Senator McCain, ProtectMarriage.com Chairman Ron Prentice said, “We are honored to have the support of Senator McCain. As a leader in the United States Senate and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Senator McCain’s position will be an important factor to millions of Californians. Senator McCain has articulated a key feature of the initiative campaign, which is that voters and not judges should be determining this issue. Over 61% of the electorate has already voted to reaffirm marriage as between a man and a woman. Four activist judges on the California Supreme Court in San Francisco wrongly substituted their own narrow views for the opinion of over 4 million California voters. Fortunately, voters will be able to correct that mistake in November and restore the definition of marriage to our constitution. We look forward to working with Senator McCain and many other elected leaders to accomplish this. We hope that U.S Senator B arack Obama will join Senator McCain in endorsing the initiative, and would welcome his support as well.”

Since then Barack Obama has said he was against this initiative.  But what is interesting is that the newspaper today talked about John McCain and his own marriages.  John McCain, in an autobiography, stated that months had passed before getting married again.  His divorce was granted on April 2, 1980.  Want to take a guess when John McCain got his next marriage license to Wife #2, the woman he was cheating with?  On March 6, 1980.  Yes--that was nearly a month before he was actually divorced!  I'm not sure how that happened or who let him do it, or why he thought he could get a marriage license before he was even divorced from Wife #1.

So now read again what the ProtectMarriage people are saying about John McCain and his endorsement that a marriage should be between a man and a woman.  He couldn't even wait to get his license for Wife #2 before divorcing Wife #1.  And this is a man who is for family values?

You rarely hear me say those words.  But tonight Stacy Harp recognized that my marriage isn't a "marriage."  She writes:

Kevin, you need to LIGHTEN way up man. Take a chill pill, relax and unwind. It’s apparent your wedding nerves are getting to you. (Grrr)

Notice how she finally has stopped putting the word wedding in quotation marks!  So I guess I am having a real wedding and not a "wedding."  Finally, something we can agree on!  And she calls me "Kevie"--that certainly must be a term of endearment. 

Now I just have to figure out what this means:

There should be a law against two men being able to marry…..oh WAIT…there IS!

I mean, she does live in the great state of California, doesn't she?  Or maybe she moved to wherever she is a registered licensed marriage therapist...  ;)

Everyone should go and read Jeremy and www.goodasyou.org.  He puts up a hilarious post on the work of Peter LaBarbera.  And for the first time, I should really thank Peter for his work.  He lists all of the companies that have received a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign and the number of years they have held that 100% spot.  It is really amazing to look at this list.  Now I can only hope that these so-called Christian fundamentalists will boycott each and every company listed below (not to mention the companies that have a score over, let's say, 60%).  Let's see if they can do it.  Otherwise, their hard-earned money is going straight to the 'homosexual agenda'!  Here is what Jeremy posted:

(Per Pete: The number next to each corporation’s name and headquarters city indicates how many years that company has received a 100% HRC ranking)
AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah San Francisco, CA 3
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. New Albany, OH 2
Accenture Ltd. New York, NY 1
Adobe Systems Inc. San Jose, CA 2
Aetna Inc. Hartford, CT 6
Agilent Technologies Inc. Santa Clara , CA 4
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP Washington, DC 1
Alcatel-Lucent Murray Hill, NJ
Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America Minneapolis, MN 2
Allstate Corp., The Northbrook, IL 1
Alston & Bird LLP Atlanta, GA 3
American Express Co. New York, NY 4
Ameriprise Financial Inc. Minneapolis, MN 2
AMR Corp. (American Airlines) Fort Worth, TX 6
Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. St. Louis, MO 2
Aon Corp. Chicago, IL 1
Apple Inc. Cupertino, CA 6
Arnold & Porter LLP Washington, DC 2
AT&T Inc. San Antonio, TX 3

Bain & Co. Inc. Boston, MA 2
Bank of America Corp. Charlotte, NC 2
Bausch & Lomb Inc. Rochester, NY 5
Bear Stearns Companies Inc., The New York, NY 1
Best Buy Co. Inc. Richfield, MN 4
Bingham McCutchen Boston, MA 1
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. Ridgefield, CT 1
Boeing Co. Chicago, IL 2
Borders Group Inc. Ann Arbor, MI 3
Boston Consulting Group Boston, MA 1
BP America Inc. Warrenville, IL 3
Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. Watertown, MA 2
Brinker International Inc. Dallas, TX 2
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. New York, NY 2
Bryan Cave LLP St. Louis, MO 1

Capital One Financial Corp. McLean, VA 5
Cargill Inc. Wayzata, MN 4
Carlson Companies Inc. Minnetonka, MN 2
Charles Schwab Corp., The San Francisco, CA 4
Chevron Corp. San Ramon, CA 3
ChoicePoint Inc. Alpharetta, GA 4
Chrysler LLC Auburn Hills, MI 3
Chubb Corp. Warren, NJ 4
Cisco Systems Inc. San Jose, CA 4
Citigroup Inc. New York, NY 4
Clear Channel Communications Inc. San Antonio, TX 2
Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton New York, NY 1
Clorox Co. Oakland, CA 2
CMP Media LLC Manhasset, NY 3
CNA Insurance Chicago, IL 2
Coca-Cola Co., The Atlanta, GA 2
Coors Brewing Co. Denver, CO 4
Corning Inc. Corning, NY 3
Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA 1
Credit Suisse New York, NY 3
Crowell & Moring LLP Washington, DC 1
Cummins Inc. Columbus, IN 3

Dell Inc. Round Rock, TX 4
Deloitte & Touche USA LLP New York, NY 2
Deutsche Bank New York, NY 5
Dewey Ballantine LLP New York, NY 1
Dickstein Shapiro LLP Washington, DC 1
Dorsey & Whitney LLP Minneapolis, MN 2
Dow Chemical Co. Midland, MI 3
DuPont (E.I. du Pont de Nemours) Wilmington, DE 2

Eastman Kodak Co. Rochester, NY 6
Electronic Arts Inc. Redwood City, CA 1
Eli Lilly & Co. Indianapolis, IN 2
Ernst & Young LLP New York, NY 3
Estee Lauder Companies New York, NY 3
Esurance Inc. San Francisco, CA 1

Faegre & Benson Minneapolis, MN 4
Fannie Mae Washington, DC 2
Foley & Lardner Milwaukee, WI 1
Foley Hoag LLP Boston, MA 1
Ford Motor Co. Dearborn, MI 4
Freescale Semiconductor Inc. Austin, TX 3

GameStop Corp. Grapevine, TX 1
Gap Inc. San Francisco, CA 3
Genentech Inc. South San Francisco, CA 1
General Mills Inc. Minneapolis, MN 3
General Motors Corp. Detroit, MI 2
GlaxoSmithKline plc Philadelphia, PA 3
Global Hyatt Corp. Chicago, IL 3
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., The New York, NY 4
Google Inc. Mountain View, CA 2

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. Las Vegas, NV 1
Hartford Financial Services Co. Hartford, CT 1
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc. Wellesley, MA 2
Heller Ehrman LLP San Francisco, CA 2
Herman Miller Inc. Zeeland, MI 1
Hewitt Associates Lincolnshire, IL 2
Hewlett-Packard Co. Palo Alto, CA 5
Holland & Knight LLP New York, NY 1
Honeywell International Inc. Morristown, NJ 2
Hospira Inc. Lake Forest, IL 2
HSBC USA Inc. Prospect Heights, IL 1

IndyMac Bancorp Inc. Pasadena, CA 1
ING North America Insurance Corp. Atlanta, GA 2
Intel Corp. Santa Clara, CA 6
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) Armonk, NY 5
Intuit Inc. Mountain View, CA 3

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. Plano, TX 1
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. New York, NY 6
Jenner & Block LLP Chicago, IL 3
Johnson & Johnson New Brunswick, NJ 3

Kaiser Permanente Oakland, CA 3
KeyCorp Cleveland, OH 1
Keyspan Corp Brooklyn, NY 4
Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group Inc. San Francisco, CA 4
Kirkland & Ellis Chicago, IL 1
KPMG LLP New York, NY 3
Kraft Foods Inc. Northfield, IL 4
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP New York, NY 1

Latham & Watkins LLP New York, NY 1
Lehman Brothers Holdings New York, NY 5
Levi Strauss & Co. San Francisco, CA 5
Lexmark International Inc. Lexington, KY 3
Liz Claiborne Inc. New York, NY 2

Macy’s Inc. Cincinnati, OH 1
Marriott International Inc. Washington, DC 1
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. Springfield, MA 1
MasterCard Inc. Purchase, NY 1
McDermott Will & Emery LLP Chicago, IL 2
McKinsey & Co. Inc. New York, MA 2
Mellon Financial Corp. Pittsburgh, PA 3
Merck & Co. Inc. Whitehouse Station, NJ 2
Merrill Lynch & Co. New York, NY 3
MetLife Inc. New York, NY 5
Microsoft Corp. Redmond, WA 3
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo Boston, MA 1
Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams Taylorsville, NC 5
Morgan Stanley New York, NY 2
Morrison & Foerster LLP San Francisco, CA 5
Motorola Inc. Schaumburg, IL 4

National Grid USA Westborough, MA 1
Nationwide Columbus, OH 4
NCR Corp. Dayton, OH 6
New York Times Co. New York, NY 4
Newell Rubbermaid Inc. Atlanta, GA 1
Nike Inc. Beaverton, OR 6
Nixon Peabody LLP Rochester, NY 2
Nordstrom Inc. Seattle, WA 3
Northern Trust Corp. Chicago, IL 2
Northrop Grumman Corp. Los Angeles, CA 2

O’Melveny & Myers LLP Los Angeles, CA 1
Oracle Corp. Redwood Shores, CA 1
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe San Francisco, CA 2

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP Los Angeles, CA 1
PepsiCo Inc. Purchase, NY 4
Pfizer Inc. New York, NY 4
PG&E Corp. San Francisco, CA 5
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP San Francisco, CA 2
Powell Goldstein LLP Atlanta, GA 2
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP New York, NY 2
Principal Financial Group Des Moines, IA 1
Prudential Financial Inc. Newark, NJ 5

Raytheon Co. Waltham, MA 3
Recreational Equipment Inc. Kent, WA 1
Replacements Ltd. McLeansville, NC 6

S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. Racine, WI 5
Schering-Plough Corp. Kenilworth, NJ 2
Sears Holdings Corp. Hoffman Estates, IL 3
Sidley Austin LLP Chicago, IL 1
Sodexho Inc. Gaithersburg, MD 1
Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal Chicago, IL 1
Sprint Nextel Corp Reston, VA 3
Starbucks Corp. Seattle, WA 1
Starcom MediaVest Group Chicago, IL 2
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide White Plains, NY 2
State Street Corp. Boston, MA 2
Subaru of America Inc. Cherry Hill, NJ 1
Sun Microsystems Inc. Santa Clara, CA 3
SunTrust Banks Inc. Atlanta, GA 3
Supervalu Inc. Eden Prairie, MN 1

Tech Data Corp. Clearwater, FL 3
Time Warner Inc. New York, NY 1
Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. Torrance, CA 2
Travelport Inc. Parsippany, NJ 1

U.S. Bancorp Minneapolis, MN 1
UBS AG Stamford, CT 3
United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) Atlanta, GA 1
US Airways Group Inc. Tempe, AZ 3

Viacom Inc. New York, NY 3
Visa Foster City, CA 2
Volkswagen of America Inc. Auburn Hills, MI 2

Wachovia Corp. Charlotte, NC 2
Walgreens Co. Deerfield, IL 3
Walt Disney Co. Burbank, CA 2
Washington Mutual Inc. Seattle, WA 2
Waste Management Inc. Houston, TX 1
Wells Fargo & Co. San Francisco, CA 4
Whirlpool Corp. Benton Harbor, MI 4
Wyndham Worldwide Corp. Parsippany, NJ 2

Xerox Corp. Stamford, CT 6

Yahoo! Inc. Sunnyvale, CA 1

So every time they pick up their Mastercard, Visa, or their American Express they are supporting the 'homosexual agenda.'  Every time they drive their Ford, General Motors, their Toyota, Volkswagen, Subaru, their Chrysler--they are supporting the 'homosexual agenda.'  Every time they buy a Whirlpool, make a xerox, use Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Apple, an Oracle database, Sun Microsystem, Google something--the support the 'homosexual agenda.'  Whenever they use their AT&T phone service, or their Sprint Nextel, Motorola phones, they support the 'homosexual agenda.'  Every time they get on a Boeing plane, every time they watch a Time Waner show, or use a Johnson and Johnson ("A Family Company") product, or take a drug that was manufactured by Pfizer, or use a Dow chemical, or receive something from UPS, they are supporting the 'homosexual agenda.'  From this list it looks like most of what they do supports this agenda.  My advice to them?  Either give it up or stop complaining.  I can't believe there is anyone out there that doesn't support these companies.  They drink Coke and Pepsi products.  They wear Levis.  They buy gas from Chevron. 

It must be frustrating for them to know that every time they post something on the internet, they support us.  Thanks for that.  Really.  And keep posting Peter LaBarbera.  This time you actually did something useful, in more ways than one!

When I'm not building a fence, I've been making mosaics.  Each one seems to get a bit easier.  The second one I made was a swimming fish.  It took me quick a while to get the motion in the tiles and after I grouted it, I realized that the dark blue of the tile was too dark with the rest of the fish.  Oh well.  Here it is:

Then I started to experiment with some outdoor patio stones that were left by the previous owners.

I'm having fun with it.  One thing I was going to do with the stucco wall was attach mosaics to it.  That plan will have to change slightly if we don't stucco...

Well, all eight fence posts are in and I am pretty happy with them.  One was out of alignment by about 1/4 inch and the overall length was one inch longer than I thought it would be, so all in all, I'm happy.  I also put up the top rung, which the plywood is supposed to be attached to, but now after looking at it with one rung up, I am seriously considering just making it a regular fence instead of a stuccoed wall. 

Here is a picture of it:

The side yard used to look like this:

Anyway, here is what I am thinking--I'll put up the rest of the rungs on both sides and that way in the future if we decide to stucco over it, the frame will be up (minus the plywood backing).  If we leave it like that, it will be open and the sun will still be able to reach all parts of the garden.  And then I could plant some jasmine and/or other types of flowering vines along this fence.  The more and more I think about it, the more I don't want to stucco it.  I think Doug still wants to do it, but I told him that we still have the back yard to do.  We can stucco that if we want to.  After this is done I want to install two 6" by 6" posts at both entry points and create an arch.  Near the front of the house there is a bougainvillea that is creating a natural arch over that end, so I thought I would train it over the big arch and build a nice gate.  Then the fun begins--filling it full of plants.  The next project will be to transform the back yard.  Right now there is no shade and it has been blazing hot here.

I see Stacy has written about me and Joe yet again, even though a couple of months ago she said she never would.  Oh well.  Today she writes about my wedding and Joe Brummer's wedding.  She isn't very happy with it.  Oh well.  She wasn't on my guest list anyway!  :)

I find it very strange that her biggest complaint about my marriage to Doug is that we haven't planned it out for 8 months like she did with her marriage.  I remember once when a friend from college was getting married.  We went out to dinner with he and his wife after the marriage.  His wife showed us her ring and said;  "I told John that I wouldn't marry him unless I had at least a 1/2 carat diamond ring."  She was dead serious.  I know of couples who have spent months and months preparing for their wedding.  I've been in a wedding as one of the groomsman and I remember going through the paces--stand here, do this, do that.  All the while I was thinking--how is this related to the joy of getting married?  Stacy claims she spent 8 months preparing for hers.  Funny, I don't remember reading anything in the Bible about a protracted planning stage for a wedding. I don't remember reading anything in the Bible about spending lots and lots of money preparing for the wedding, or the necessity of pretty balloons and flowers.  Stacy states:

We had about 200 people come, flowers, balloons, a nice reception, church ceremony, rehearsal dinner, bridal shower, bachelor party - in other words, the whole works.

"The whole works"?  Do pretty balloons make a wedding better than another wedding?  Does the rehearsal dinner make a wedding better than another wedding?  We aren't having a bridal shower, well, because neither of us are brides and these are usually just parties for the bride-to-be to gather presents.  I'm not interested in getting presents from people.  For me that isn't what getting married is all about.

She also states that they spent only 8 months preparing.  Sorry Stacy, Doug and I have you beat on that one by a long shot--we've been together since February 1992.  I'll let her do the math.  Besides, Doug and I had a commitment ceremony in 1995.  We registered as domestic partners in Ann Arbor Michigan in 1994 and again in Berkeley, CA in 1996 and again as Registered Domestic Partners in California in 2006.  It isn't as if we just met and decided to get married.  Besides, what if that is what we decided to do?  Gosh, lots of straight couples have gotten married on a whim and their marriage is as real as Stacy's and will be as real as mine.

And she asks about the cake?  Maybe we should make it a competition and go out and order the biggest, tallest cake I can find so that when all of our friends show up on the 20th, I can boast that I have the biggest cake.  And how about if I go get the biggest, brightest balloons?  That way I can boast to all of our friends that we are the best out of all of them and no one can compete with the way we can celebrate our marriage?  I guess that would make it a real marriage for Stacy.  Maybe that is what she thinks a marriage should be, but I don't. 

Again, for Stacy it is all about show.  She spent eight months planning her wedding, not for the marriage itself, but to show off to her friends and relatives.  You can see it here in her own words:

If it was me, I would be making sure I had a HUGE party and wedding. I’d invite hundreds of people (well, actually I did do that) and make sure the whole world knew I was one million percent committed to my man.

And:

And I remember when I was all dressed in white and the music started to play and the whole congregation stood to honor me and I walked down the carpeted aisle toward my groom.

A marriage to me isn't about showing the world I am committed.  It is about showing Doug that I am committed to him.  Of course, it is important to let our friends and family celebrate our wedding with us, but it isn't about everyone else.  For me it isn't about a fancy cake.  Or pretty balloons.  It isn't about having 100s of guests. It isn't about having people 'honor' me.  It isn't a competition to see whose is bigger.  It is about my love for Doug.  That is what my upcoming marriage is all about. 

The "American" "Family" Association (otherwise known and the Don Wildmon Family Association) is trying to get a boycott of McDonalds because it supposedly supports gay and lesbian rights.  I can see how that would piss off the Don Wildmon Family Association since any rights given to gays and lesbians is a direct assault on religious freedom in this country (well, at least that is what they claim).  The Don Wildmon Family Association has tried doing boycotts before, but it was a miserable failure, at least the one against Ford.  The only reason they do this is it raises money for them.  Money, money, money, and it all goes to the Wildmon family.   I see that Don is off to the Holy Land in 2009--guess who won't be spending his own money on that junket???

Don Wildmon has set up a website called Boycottmcdonalds.com.  According to Godaddy.com, he set up this website on April 10, 2008 and registered it from Tennessee, which is interesting because the Don Wildmon Family Association is located in Tupelo, Mississippi.  I wonder why he did that?  Sounds fishy, if you ask me.  Apparently this 'boycott' has been planned for months, even though the AFA just announced in on July 1 and they sent out their announcement of it July 3.  I guess it takes time to organize hate...

Here is a typical comment from the boycott site (you can see more at Rob and Justin's blog):

• "McDonalds is no longer a family friendly restaurant in my opinion. Homosexuality is not conducive with traditional family values. Thus my family and all those that I have influence with will choose to eat at other restaurants. PLEASE CHANGE YOUR STANCE!"

I could make a joke about the stance and Senator Larry Craig, the senator who was arrested for his wide stance in the bathroom stall (at least that was his excuse, even though he plead guilty to trying to organize sex with the man in the stall next to him...), but I won't.

What is interesting about most of these comments is that they keep referring to McDonalds as being a family place to eat.  They make it sound as though gays and lesbians are not families.  Of course, that is what they wish and believe, but that isn't true.  Doug and I are a family and we'll soon be a married family.   We rarely eat at McDonalds, but I love their commercial that shows a guy sitting in his chair with his big cup of something in front of him.  He positions the cup in front of the tv and catches people in it, including a cute swimmer guy at the end.  I wonder if the AFA has seen that?  :)

And as Rob has mentioned, it wouldn't hurt to contact McDonalds here and show your support for them.  I'm certainly going to mention the AFA and how much money this hate group makes and how much of it does to the Wildmon family.  I think I'll also mentioned the failed boycott of Ford...

Right now I am in a mini rage (well, not really, but I was pretty mad earlier).  Someone stole our beautiful tomatoes that were just about ready to pick.  We've got one beefsteak tomato that was having a hard time, but the tomatoes were ripening.  I was going to pick a couple of them this weekend and I didn't get around to it.  I saw them there this morning and I went out to Home Depot to pick up some things to make the stucco fence and when I got home they were gone.  They even picked some green ones.  I think someone has been stealing the cherry tomatoes too, since the plants are full of green ones, but every time I go out to get some I only get a handful of ripe ones. 

So that makes tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, strawberries and I am certain someone is stealing the lemons and probably a squash (the other day the plant looked tipped over).  So now I am serious about that fence.  I just went out and bought a post hole digger and I am going to spend the afternoon digging eight holes for the posts.  By tomorrow those posts will be up (I hope!).

I have a hard time believing someone would actually come into the yard and steal anything.  Our neighbor has had many of her flowers stolen from her yard so we agreed to keep an eye out on each other's yard. I haven't seen anyone yet.  My only hope is that whoever stole them actually needed them.  And they should be thankful that they are organic tomatoes...

I blogged about John McTernan before.  He is the guy who believes that God is destroying the Midwest with floods and storms and California with fires because of gay marriage.  And Islam.  And a host of other things that John McTernan doesn't like.  I have to feel sorry for someone like this.  He is always focusing on the bad in life.  He must sit by his computer and wait for natural disasters to strike so he can say that he was right and that God is punishing this country.  You have to wonder if he gets around to reading any of the good stuff in the Bible?  I doubt it.  For people like him, it is all doom and gloom and he loves it. 

Here is a bit of his daily installment from yesterday:

California and God's Judgment for Homosexual Marriage

The fires that started in connection with legalizing homosexual marriage are still burning. These fires are draining the state's resources and there is going be an increase in taxes to pay for the fire fighting. About 550,000 acres have already burned with no end it sight. The wind and heat are suppose to increase next week making the fire fighting effort extremely difficult to protect cities.

The problem with this is that gay marriage became legal on June 16th at 5:01 pm, but fires were burning before this.  And what John McTernan doesn't want to acknowledge is that there are fires in California every single year in the summer.  When we are in a drought and the temperatures go up, fires start.  It is convenient for him to say that God started these fires to punish people, but these happen every year.  What about the fires last year?  Were those because God knew that California would legalize gay marriage?  How about the devastating fires over a decade ago?  Or a century ago?  Or thousands and thousands of years ago?  Or the fires in Australia about 5 years ago?  And if you live near a river, you should expect to have a flood. 

And to show he doesn't even know relatively new history on these fires, this is what he posted on July 4:

Judgment on America for Homosexual Marriage

The massive fires that started in conjunction with homosexuals marriage in California are still burning out of control and small cities are threatened with destruction.

Massive wildfires threaten two California towns 7/4/8 As you read the article, you can get the sense of how massive these fires are. Remember this is just the start of the fire season!

President's Statement on Federal Disaster Assistance for California 6/28/8 On the eve of "Gay Pride Day," the President declared most of Northern California a disaster area which enabled the state to received federal assistance. Please follow this time line: 6/4 California supreme court makes its final ruling that sodomites can marry on 6/16. On 6/20, the fires begin and on 6/28 the state is under a disaster emergency. On June 4, the entire state is placed under a drought emergency! The month of June begins with the supreme court making an Ordinance of the Amorites (see Homosexuality and God's Holiness) ends with the state under and a drought emergency and declared a federal disaster area! Can God make this any clearer? California appears to have crossed God's red line when homosexual marriage was legalized. The LORD is now moving according to His holiness and Word to turn this state into Psalm 107 and Leviticus 18
He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground; A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Psalm 107:33, 34
And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Leviticus 18:25

As I said above, these fires were burning before the 'sodomites' were allowed to marry.  I wonder if McTernan will correct his mistake or will he just keep believing that these fires started on the 20th?  I suppose he doesn't know about the serious drought that occurred in California in 1991/2?  The rivers turned into wilderness, the watersprings dry ground...

And not a single gay marriage to be found...

And let us not ignore his fear of Islam:

Europe

The following is a very long but excellent article about the future of Europe without children. The Europeans are dying off as they abort their babies and don't have children. It is very serious as Europe is on the verge of social and economic disaster. The Muslims are somewhat filling this void. It is like the Europeans destroy the children from the LORD, so they get Islamic children. The irony in this is does by seer numbers Europe will be Muslim's in about 30-40 years and all the materialism the Europeans want now will be gone under Islam. The arrogance of the feminists will disappear as they come under Islamic law and women have little rights. I think Europe will come apart before then, but this is the direction Europe is heading. They don't want the God of the Bible, then they get allah and Islam. By killing their babies, the Europeans have sown to the flesh and are now reaping Islam.

Let's hope that Mr. McTernan can stop waiting for natural disasters to strike.  Let's hope he can enjoy life and not rejoice in the suffering of other people.  It is probably too much to hope for.

I noticed at www.goodasyou.org that a manager in New York City put up the following poster:

It was taken down on Sunday. 

Pretty amazing isn't it?  It sounds like this manager, Tom Marquez, has quite the problem with gay people.  This poster reminded me first of the "No Blacks" posters, or the "No Irish Need Apply" posters.  It could have easily said:

This store does not believe in Black and White marriages.  Any black and white activity, which includes kissing, hugging, touching, or anything else that would make our customers feel uncomfortable is prohibited in the store.

Tom Marquez, Rite Aid Managment [sic]

You see, the message is the same--only the words are the same.  Would the black and white poster be allowed up?  Nope.  My guess is that Mr. Marquez is going to be in a bit of hot water over this one.

And here is what Queerty has to say:

"And, just for your reference, here are Rite Aid’s corporate numbers and the number for Mr. Marquez’s location: 212-727-3720. Do with that what you will…"

If you do call or email, the store is at Sixth Avenue at West 13th Street and the zip code is 10011.

There must be something in the air, and it isn't the joy of being able to get married.  Many of our friends are having babies.  Ginny and Amy are about to give birth to their first child.  The due date is July 17.  We went to our first baby shower a couple of weeks ago to celebrate with them.

Earlier this year our good friends Lewis and Shane traveled to the U.S. to be here when their baby was born.  His name is Jonathan and he is just beautiful!  Lewis and Shane will be coming to the U.S. again early next year for their second baby.

We also had an M.D. friend of Lewis and Shane stay with us late last year who was here in the U.S. and was getting ready to have his own baby.

Also earlier this year we went to a brunch and another set of friends just adopted a boy from Vietnam.  The discussion that occurred during this brunch was on the adoption process.

I also have another friend and his wife who just adopted a baby boy from Guatemala. 

So many friends.  So many babies.  We're ready to do it too.  I've joked with Doug since we first met that I wanted 4 or 5 kids.  That isn't going to happen, but who knows--there just might be a baby or two in our future as well.  Of course, we want to get married first.  We would hate to have children out of wedlock!  ;)

I know, it is only July 2, but I've been thinking about this and we will be busy on the 4th going to the local parade and then a bbq afterwards...

The 4th of July is a good time to think about what is happening in our country. 

People came to this country originally to escape religious persecution.  Some people still flee to this country to escape it.  However, once they got here, it was fairly common for these very same persecuted people to persecute others if they had a different belief.  The Catholics and the Anglicans are good examples of this.  They were both hated minorities in the early colonies and were often persecuted.

The persecuted becoming persecutors is no different today.  There are groups of people out there who have decided that gays and lesbians are second class citizens (or in come cases, not citizens at all but demons).  This is based on a religious belief.  People then use their religious beliefs to pass laws against gays and lesbians.  This is persecution and this is why we have a court system.  I find it interesting that those who do not like it when a judge makes a decision for gay and lesbian rights say this is a blow to democracy.  This is interesting because judges are part of the democratic process.  All you have to do is read the Constitution to see how this democratic government was put together.  The judicial branch is part of it and it was created, in part, to put a bit of restraint on the legislative and the executive branch.  Judges make sure that the laws that are passed are legal and fair.  Unfortunately for the anti-gay activists, their Prop. 22, which was passed by only 61% of the people who voted in 2000 and stated that marriage was between a man and a woman, was struck down.  They cried Foul! and called for the elimination of these judges.  They said that the will of the people had been thwarted by activist judges.  However, the will of the people, in this specific case, was ruled unconstitutional.  It doesn't matter whether 100% of the people voted for it--it was illegal, for all the reasons put forth in the court's findings. 

It won't be over in November either if the anti-gay amendment revises the Constitution.  The State Supreme Court Justice has already said that this is a civil rights issue and that sexual orientation, in the law, must be looked at in the same way that race and religion (which is definitely a choice, by the way) is looked at.  I'm hoping that the tide is turning against these anti-gay activists.  If it does, you can bet it will be back, over and over again, just like it is in Arizona.  The people voted it down and through illegal means the legislature put it back on the ballot to be voted on yet again.  If it fails, it will be back until it passes.  Ultimately this will have to be decided on at the Supreme Court level.  This is the only way to stop these yearly attacks on gays and lesbians. 

Anyway, getting back to the 4th of July.  It is a celebration of our independence from a tyrant.  It is a celebration of the fight for our freedoms.  That fight still continues today against other tyrants, especially religious tyrants. 

It didn't take the Republicans very long to say they were going to try again to change the U.S. Constitution to state that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.  Some of the sponsors of this anti-gay marriage amendment are interesting to say the least.  Senator Larry Craig is one of them.  If you remember, Larry Craig was arrested in a bathroom in an airport for trying to have sex with men.  He came out with his poor wife and said he wasn't gay.  It turns out this isn't the first time that the 'straight' senator propositioned men for sex.  (Do all straight guys do this?)

The other Republican winner of the Hypocrisy Award is Senator David Vitter.  Remember him?  He was involved with the big prostitution ring and he too dragged his poor wife up on stage.  So he was having sex with prostitutes (meaning he paid for sex). 

These are two of the sponsors for the 'marriage is only for a man and a woman.'  I notice Vitter really didn't say that it was for 'a wife' but for a woman.  Interesting.  And here are two pictures that are absolutely hilarious about these two men.  There were put up by Jesus' General:

These two pictures say it all...