Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Proposition to ban divorce in California

Judaism and Islam both allow for divorce so this law means Christianity would be the only religion that can really be practiced in California. 


I'm angry about this proposition because it hurts freedom of religion. If Christians don't want divorce, then don't get divorced, but keep hands off my precious American freedoms. 


This proposition is only possible because of another misguided set of laws that did pass, a long time ago -- the ones that give marriage a secular legal status and allow "civil marriage" to be performed by a judge. In a state with freedom of religion, marriage is none the state's business. That's where we went wrong, that's why Proposition 8 was ridiculous, and that's why this proposition is ridiculous. 


If the state wants to give tax advantages to people who are living together, or to people who are raising kids, that's fine -- those people don't have to be married, and they don't have to be heterosexual, and they don't have to be religious, to do what they do.


And what are abused spouses going to do?  It's hard enough to get away from an abuser WITHOUT the state getting in your way. Are abusive husbands going to get the benefit of law enforcement in tracking down their wives who run away, because separation will be a criminal matter???

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Mayor power grab in Sacramento

Sacramento's Mayor, Kevin Johnson, is pushing the city council to approve a law that would give him more power than any other Sacramento mayor had for nearly a century. Apparently, he thinks its necessary because doing things the republican way (lowercase r, not "the party") is too slow for his taste.

If he's not a good enough leader to, uh, lead the council, and if the council members aren't wise enough to have some common vision of what's really important for the city, they should all step down and let a new government take charge of Sacramento.