This column is the first, probably of many, brought to you by the all new Daniels laptop of doom.
Let me take this opportunity to sing the praises of Gateway. Gateway gets a bad rap from a lot of elitist computer geeks. But I have to say this laptop is my third Gateway. I bought my first one about five years ago and it’s still running strong. It’s a clunky old 450, but it’s still running strong as a web server. Luckily, Time Warner cable doesn’t see fit to block port 80 traffic which is surprising but I’m able to easily run a low traffic web server off my old Gateway.
Of course, I’m being forced to write this on Microsoft Works because I have managed to lose my FOURTH Office Disk. Somehow or other, I have managed to lose all the copies of Office I’ve ever acquired over time so until I find one of the four, I’m stuck with this stupid little word processor. Of course, I really don’t notice any difference. Both of them piss me off in their own little ways. I guess that’s because I absolutely detest any form of auto-complete which Microsoft Products have in excess.
So, this column will be brought to you by MS Works, at least until I scam my Windows Administrator for another copy of Office.
So, let’s see what to talk about.
The Superbowl Halftime show
OK, it’s been gone over way too many times on the site already, but I feel I have play devil’s advocate a bit. If for no other reason than I like the movie and desire to use the reference whenever I can.
Seriously, people it was inappropriate.
I mean, I’m not a prude far from it. I enjoy porn as much as the next guy. I dig Canadian cable and strip clubs when I’m in Montreal. I was a big fan of MTV Europe for the “OTHER†versions of videos that we don’t get here in the states but let’s be honest here. There’s a huge difference between that and this.
The Super Bowl is the single most watched television program in the country. Yearly. Nothing comes close. Granted, part of it is the spectacle. What this means, is you have fathers watching it with their sons and daughters. Some of these sons and daughters might be kinda young. The entire reason we have television ratings is to give parents some sort of idea of what they may and may not want to let their kids watch. If it’s TV-MA, maybe we might want to keep the five year old from watching. If it’s TV-14, probably the same thing.
The rating on the Super Bowl is TV-G. This means General Audience. This means, if you tune into it with little Johnny and little Suzy, you’re not supposed to have to worry about seeing things that US Society has deemed inappropriate. Now, whether or not they SHOULD be deemed inappropriate is a different argument. The short fact is that: it is. The Super Bowl is something you’re supposed to be able to watch with a family and, like it or not, naked tits is not family television. Especially not naked pierced tits.
Now, Anderson argued a couple weeks ago that by the time a kid is ten, they’ve seen a naked boob. That, I’m willing to concede. However, I’m willing to bet that a five year old hasn’t. I’ve been watching football since I was that age back when the Super Bowl was actually about, you know, football and not how many “stars†they can collect in one place for one event. Including one whose Concert Rider is publicly available.
The fact is people can sit here online and discuss how everyone should just get over it but as a parent it would have pissed me off. I don’t want to have to discuss sex and how boys and girls have different parts with my five year old. And I would hope, with all the crap and garbage that’s on television now-a-days, that at least the Superbowl and the World Series would be left as something safe to watch with a child. Unfortunately MTV, in their ever continuing attempt to destroy the world of music, ruined it.
And you know what? The Super Bowl isn’t the forum in which to push the bounds of good taste. As a 26 year old guy who was drunk and watching the game. It didn’t bother me. Thinking about a father who was suddenly stuck explaining that to a 5 year old It would have pissed me off. Show tittie in a late night TV show with an MA rating not on the Super Bowl.
Of course, the good thing about the whole thing is that Mtv will very likely never be allowed to produce another halftime show. Which maybe means we’ll get back to something with artists that don’t suck next year.
Massachusettes Lifts Ban on Gay Marriages
Probably the most hotly debated issue of the last few years should gay people be allowed to get married? Well, according to Massachusetts’s Supreme Court, yes. The court struck down the idea of “civil unions†referring to them as a form of segregation. This joins them with Vermont as being one of the only two states to allow gay marriages though the Vermont version is referred to as “civil unions.â€Â
According to gay rights activists, civil unions are an unacceptable alternative because the acceptance or rejection of them depends on State Law. They compare it to a married couple passing from New York to Pennsylvania, and then suddenly not having a legal marriage. The reason this ruling is causing an exceptional amount of controversy is because, basically, this court is saying that “civil unions†are unconstitutional and only full marriage rights provide equal protection under the law, as guaranteed in the Constitution. Civil Unions have been struck down because, basically, “separate but equal†has proved not to work.
So, the next step on this appeal will jump to the US Supreme Court, I would suppose.
The interesting part of this ruling is the backlash it is already beginning to cause in heterosexual society. For the most part, the hetero majority have taken the homosexual “assault†on majority culture in stride, but it seems to be somewhat different this time. People aren’t taking it as quietly as they usually do. In fact, the Massachusetts Legislature is already exploring an amendment to the MA Constitution that will define “marriage†as a union between a man and a woman.
If that wasn’t enough, President Bush was recently quoted as saying: “Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. If activist judges insist on redefining marriage by court order, the only alternative will be the constitutional process. We must do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.
So the question becomes: does something like this have a prayer of passing and going down in history as the 28th time the absolute law of the United States has been updated?
Up until recently, I thought it wouldn’t. I mean, from what you see and hear on the news, the common folk are behind gay marriages. In fact, from everything you read it’s only the “want to run your life, Nazi-like†Republicans that have a problem with gay marriage, right?
It’s interesting what you find out when you start to do a bit of research and pick up your own news instead of listening to what the talking heads tell you. Come to find out that 38 out of 50 states already have gay marriage bans. Only 12 states do not have Defense of Marriage Acts including Vermont and Massachusetts. Legislators in Maryland and Colorado hope to get civil union legislation pushed through this term, while California, New Jersey, and Hawaii grant various marriage-like rights to “domestic partners.†Another interesting note on most of these Defense of Marriage acts, is that most of them where passed and proposed on state ballots. Could that mean that people aren’t all happy with the Union of Marriage being torn down while they watched? Could that mean that people really AREN’T ready to accept homosexuals into their living rooms despite what the democratic members of these legislations are telling us?
For example, one quote from Kentucky Legislator Kathy Stein: “There’s no excuse why fairness cannot be passed. Other than the fact that, unfortunately, a number of my colleagues … are afraid to think about it.
Color me surprised. A democrat running on calling their opponents closed-minded and trying create a form of class-warfare. Never would have saw it coming.
But, if the people of these states are pushing this legislation themselves doesn’t that mean that the Republican members of the senate might be a bit more in touch with what their constituents want?
House Majority Leader Bill Frist first brought up the idea of a Constitutional Amendment on marriage back in June, after the Supreme Court ruled that laws banning sodomy and oral sex was a violation of the Constitution which is the correct ruling in that situation. What goes on behind closed doors in the bedroom should stay between consenting adults in the bedroom. The text of Frist’s proposed Amendment was as follows:
“Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution nor the constitution of any state under state or federal law shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.”
Of course Amending the constitution isn’t easy. It requires a 2/3s majority in both Congressional houses and then passage of 3/4s of all states’ legislatures.
3/4ths of 50 is 37.5. 38 if you round up. The same number of states that have gay marriage bans in place.
According to the Constitution the Amendment could be pushed through bypassing the Congress entirely if 2/3rds of the states propose the Amendment. For those of you not so good at math, 2/3rds is less than 3/4ths.
Which means we might be closer to seeing this Amendment than one might think. As a matter of fact, if GWB wins in 2004, I feel safe with a guarantee that we will see such an Amendment by 2008. In fact, even John Kerry has gone on record saying he doesn’t like the idea of gay marriages.
Interesting even the democrats know that running on the pro-gay marriage thing is political suicide.
It’s going to be a show to see where this goes over the rest of the year.
In Conclusion
It’s much easier writing on a laptop than it is on a regular desktop. Maybe it’s because I’m not stuck at a desk and can move around the house. Not sure.
Whatever it is, I definitely liked this a lot better than writing on the desktop.
Anything to say about this column or anything about black in general, be sure to click the link below and Email me and let me know.
