Liberty and Justice for All!

The California Supreme Court just struck down the gay marriage ban! Now there are two states where gay people are not treated as second class citizens.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in striking down the ban.

Absolutely right. Of course, the California GHEL plan on striking back.

A coalition of religious and social conservative groups is attempting to put a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine laws banning gay marriage in the state constitution.

I hope they fail. The tyranny of the majority should not get to treat people like second class citizens. PERIOD. If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t have one. It is really just that simple.

Because our idiot President distracted us from the people who caused 9/11 to people that had nothing to do with 9/11, Al Queda has gained back some of its pre-9/11 capabilities.

Here is a question to those people who chose Bush again in 2004. What happened to Republicans being the party that would be more likely to protect us from terrorism? It seems to me that by distracting us from the actual problem, President Bush has done NOTHING to make us any more safer from “turrists”. Are you happy with your choice now?

It is abundantly clear that the Republican middle east policy has failed. Vote for another one in the name of security and you are an idiot. Period.

When I read the article title, Judge orders La. school district to stop Bible giveaways, I just knew it had to be Tangipahoa. Of course, they do not dissapoint. It seems that they supporting the passing out of Bibles. It seems that they are wrong, yet again.

This leads me to two sets of questions.

A) Would the Tangipahoa school board allow for Hebrew Bibles to be passed out? What about the Koran? Could a muslim group pass out the Koran to students? If the school had no “religious purpose” in distributing Christian bibles, you would think they would have no problem with other religious texts being passed out. I think we all know the answer to that question and it would be a resounding “no”. Why? Because it is obvious that the Tangipahoa School Board has the intent to try and push Christianity on their students.

But the more interesting question would have to be…

B) Isn’t it sad that the board in charge of helping children of Tangipahoa Parish learn has shown that they are absolutely incapable of learning for themselves? I mean seriously, how many times do they have to attempt to promote Christianity in their public schools before they realize that YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DO IT!

Ben Nevers, a Democrat, has proposed SB 561 , a bill that opens the door wide open for teaching creationism in the classroom and destroying the scientific process. Here are the words that will cause the problem.

I’m not.

The threat of terrorist attacks has been used by this administration to justify its actions and to win their 2004 election with fear. Now that McCain is the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, is it any surprise that a new terrorist threat has been revealed?

[Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the U.S. Northern Command] did, however, repeat his assertion — which he first made in July — that he believes there are al-Qaida cells or sympathizers within the United States.

President Bush, in a speech Thursday, also said the United States remained under threat from terrorists.

Bush will continue to discuss the terrorist threats that face our country to try and scare us. McCain will use the same scare tactics to try and convince people to vote for him. However, while they try and scare us, they reveal the fact that the threat still exists despite their actions. So what I want to know is this. When will the American public stop thinking “oh no, the terrorists are going to get us if we elect a Democrat” and start thinking “wow, this Republican Administration is incapable of eliminating the terrorist threat and perhaps we need to elect a Democrat to try something different”.

Albert Einstein stated that to repeat the same thing over and over again and expect different results is the definition of insanity. Believing that Republicans can eliminate the terrorist threat after 7 years of failure is also insanity.

California Deputy Attorney General Christopher Krueger wrote in a court brief:

A day may come when the people decide to legalize same-sex marriage. But such a social change should appropriately come from the people rather than the judiciary so long as constitutional rights are protected

Hmmm, if we waited on important social change to come from the people instead of the judiciary, I wonder if we would still have separate schools. I guess this legal scholar forgets the necessity of that little ruling called “Brown v. Board of Education“. Does he feel that the Brown ruling was inappropriate? I wonder how long interracial marriages would have been outlawed had it been left to the people instead of being decided by “Loving v. Virginia“? I feel sorry for the people of California if this is the kind of legal representation they have in their DA office.

Anti-gay marriage activists also feel that:

 limiting marriage to members of the opposite sex is reasonable — not only to uphold tradition but because California voters approved a ballot initiative eight years ago bolstering the gay-marriage ban that was in place at the time. To overturn that law, they say, would abrogate the rights of all Californians.

So let me get this straight, allowing gay people to marry abrogates the rights of all Californians? That is absurd! If they don’t feel that gay people have the Constitutionally protected right to get marriage, how on Earth do they figure that Californians have a Constitutionally protected right to live in a state where gay people are discriminated against?

How about this. Maybe, just maybe, if people spent more time worrying about their own marriages instead of worrying about other people getting married, we wouldn’t have such an abysmal divorce rate! Just my humble opinion.

Now Jindal wants to give people tax breaks if they send their children to non-public schools. Isn’t that just a backdoor voucher?  

How about this. Instead of trying to help people leave public schools, let’s work to make public schools in Louisiana the best public schools in the nation.

If you want to give “tax breaks” to people, let’s give it to all people and not just to people whose children attend n0n-public schools.

When its ajar! Now… when is a voucher not a voucher? When it’s a scholarship!

Jindal’s top budget adviser, Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis, said the program would offer scholarships to students in New Orleans that they could use to “go to any school of their choice.”

This falls under the same idea as the Tangipahoa School Board’s trying to use government as an arm to promote religion.

“Is it vouchers, or is it not vouchers,” [Karen Carter] Peterson said.

“No, it’s a scholarship program,” Davis replied.

Suuuuure it is. A “scholarship program” *wink wink, nudge nudge* that allows public funds to be spent by students to go to a religious school. It will be interesting to see, when they come out, the details of this “scholarship program” and how exactly it differs from a “voucher program”.

The Jeff. Parish school board voted to finally follow federal law requiring for the redistricting of schools. This was something that was required of them and had they not taken action, it is likely that a court would have made its own redistricting plan sometime later.

A woman was shown on the news complaining that her 11th grade daughter, if moved, would have to make new friends in a new setting and it was unfair to her. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? First and foremost, in the age of the Internet, instant messaging, emailing, text messaging, and other forms of instant communication, there is no reason why she would have lost contact with her friends at her former school.

Secondly, I would hope that her daughter is going to college. When she goes to college she will likely be placed in a situation where she would have to make new friends. A 17 year old should be able to handle meeting new people and making friends. IF she had to move schools, she could just consider it practice for her college career.

Finally, what the board passed grandfathered 10th and 11th grade students in. So she really had nothing to complain about.

But let’s all be honest and realize what this is all about: Racism.

There are several parents who don’t want to change districts so their kids would then be going to school with “those people”. Just look at some of the comments made on nola.com.

“Don’t worrie now they are all going to fail the proof is in the pudding look at New Orleans it is just a matter of time before Jefferson will be all getto “

Then there is this gem, referencing the great white flight:

I see a Northshore realty boom coming.

I guess this person believes in the concept of “separate but equal”:

SEPERATE the good from the bad. That is the only way.

Actually, it seems like the poster proves why “separate but equal” doesn’t work, since he/she considers those who go to non-public schools to be better.

And of course there was this lovely post:

GOD NO, PLEASE DO NOT ENCOURAGE ANYONE ELSE TO COME TO THE NORTHSHORE- WE ARE TRYING TO KEEP THE TRASH OUT!!!!

THE NEXT THING THAT YOU KNOW- THE BLACKS WILL SCREW UP THE JEFFERSON PARISH SCHOOLS LIKE THEY DID IN NEW ORLEANS AND DEMAND TO ATTEND ST TAMMANY SCHOOLS.

The whole thing just disgusts me. It is a shame that the education some of these parents are giving their kids is that it is OK to judge someone based on their skin color alone. They teach their kids that it is OK to be ignorant racists. These people are just idiots and what is ironic is that if they move because of  this, well, their leaving will make Jefferson Parish a better place.

Here is a news flash, if you are worried about your kid going to school with black people… the problem is not the black people, the problem is you.