New Hampshire became the latest state to allow civil unions Thursday, giving gay couples access to the rights and responsibilities of marriage.
Gov. John Lynch signed the legislation that also recognizes legal same-sex unions from other states.
“We in New Hampshire have had a long and proud tradition taking the lead in opposing discrimination,” Lynch said. “Today that tradition continues.”
With scarcely a mention in the mainstream media, President Bush has ordered up a plan for responding to a catastrophic attack.
In a new National Security Presidential Directive, Bush lays out his plans for dealing with a “catastrophic emergency.”
Under that plan, he entrusts himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the Executive Branch. And he gives himself the responsibility “for ensuring constitutional government.”
He laid this all out in a document entitled “National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51″ and “Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20.”
The White House released it on May 9.
Other than a discussion on Daily Kos led off by a posting by Leo Fender, and a pro-forma notice in a couple of mainstream newspapers, this document has gone unremarked upon.
The subject of the document is entitled “National Continuity Policy.”
It defines a “catastrophic emergency” as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function.”
This could mean another 9/11, or another Katrina, or a major earthquake in California, I imagine, since it says it would include “localized acts of nature, accidents, and technological or attack-related emergencies.”
The document emphasizes the need to ensure “the continued function of our form of government under the Constitution, including the functioning of the three separate branches of government,” it states.
But it says flat out: “The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government.”
The document waves at the need to work closely with the other two branches, saying there will be “a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government.” But this effort will be “coordinated by the President, as a matter of comity with respect to the legislative and judicial branches and with proper respect for the constitutional separation of powers.”
(link via Metafilter)
James Dobson and I finally agree on something: that Rudy Giuliani is bad for America and we won’t vote for him.
“I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008. It is an irrevocable decision,” he wrote.
“If given a Hobson’s — Dobson’s? — choice between him and Senators Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran — or if worse comes to worst, not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life. My conscience and my moral convictions will allow me to do nothing else.”
Of course, Mr. Dobson’s reasons are 180° from my own, but the effect is the same. He won’t vote for Giuliani because of the all the gays and the abortioning and whatnot, while I won’t vote for Giuliani because he’s a hard-headed, pandering autocrat in denial that Republicans are bad on national security.
eHarmony, the cutesy matchmaking service with the not-so-cutesy prohibition on gay couples, isn’t so tickled about these ads from rival Chemistry.com:
Why would eHarmony be so closed-minded? Oh, fear not, citizens. It’s not bigotry at all, you see. They’re just trying to obey the law. Founder Neil Clark Warren notes that:
…same-sex marriage is illegal in most states. “We don’t really want to participate in something that’s illegal.”
(thanks to Leon for the pointer)
The problem seems to have been fixed. Penguin-loving Finns can breathe easy.
…why has a hate-speech Touretter like Ann Coulter escaped the skinning knife? She called Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a “faggot” at the Conservative Political Action Conference; insisted on “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” that Bill Clinton’s “promiscuity” is proof of “latent homosexuality”; quipped on “Hardball Plaza” that Al Gore is a “total fag”; and wrote, in her syndicated column, that the odds of Hillary Clinton “coming out of the closet” in 2008 are “about even money.”
Obviously, racism — slavery, lynching, institutionalized discrimination — has taken a much greater toll, in this country, than homophobia. According to the most recent FBI data (2005), most hate crimes (54.7%) were racially motivated; only 14.2% were inspired by the sexual orientation of the victim.
But there’s another reason the media haven’t given Coulter a prime-time water-boarding: Her problem is our problem. As a society, we view racial epithets as Class A felonies, whereas homophobic slurs are parking violations (if that). Coulter laughed off her Edwards crack, saying, “The word I used … has nothing to do with gays. It’s a schoolyard taunt, meaning wuss.”
(Thanks to Jen for the pointer.)
If you’re one of those Communists who are using Linux, an OS made by socialist Finns, instead of a loyal American using a domestic OS, well, it turns out that some of the Bray New World entries break. Now, we’re not exactly sure why WordPress wants to customize your content based on your OS, but there you are.
We’ll look into it once we have time, which ain’t anytime soon, I’m afraid.
As if Mitt “Anchorman” Romney didn’t have enough religion issues to deal with,
When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to “Battlefield Earth,” a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.