8-Foot Lego Man Washes Up on Beach

Okay, sorry for the angry tone of my last post. I tend to really get up on my soapbox about issues that I am extremely morally against, and I really don't want this to be just another flamey blog-rant. So, here you go, a giant lego man.


Enjoy. Happy Halloween.

Voting Yes on Prop 8 is a Hate Crime

Driving to class, I see them everywhere. "Yes on 8!" Screams sign after endless sign, each featuring a blue male and female stick-figure surrounded by smaller stick-figures. "Protect Marriage!" Church groups scream at me as I drive by them as they protest on street corners. And every time I hear their voices and see the hateful signs, I die a little inside. When they first started to appear I would just become angry.I'd pull over on the side of the road and grimly pluck the signs out of the ground, tear them up, and throw them away. But the next day there would be five more on the same stretch of road, then ten, then twenty. These days I just feel cold. What happened to my liberal, accepting Sonoma County? What happened to going weeks without seeing a single McCain sticker, to seeing gay couples openly walking hand-in-hand down the street, unafraid because they know they can be safe here?

The fact of the matter is that voting for Prop 8 should be a hate crime. Let me say that again: VOTING YES ON PROP 8 IS A HATE CRIME. There is absolutely NO reason to vote for it unless you are just being a discriminatory, hateful, being who can't stand to have a little more love in the world. Stop listening to your Church pastor and start paying attention to people's rights. This is a matter of equal rights for all. Wake up, California, its not 1950 anymore. Times are changing, and the age of oppression is over.

This country was founded on the ideals of freedom, and that includes freedom from discrimination, freedom from homophobia. A loving family consists of a group of people that care about each other, regardless of race, gender, religion, age, or sexual orientation. You want to protect family? You want to protect marriage? Then protect this.

And you know what? I will continue ripping down these signs whenever I see them. As far as I see it, I'm just cleaning up some rather atrocious litter. The signs for this Prop are offensive, and I see it as my duty to tear them down. I would feel the same if my neighbor posted a yard sign that said "The South Will Rise Again", or "Long Live Nazi Germany". I don't see these as being any different.

Discrimination at the Blood Bank?

I was walking from my car in the parking lot, and I saw a blood drive van. I walked in and filled out the forms, but when it came to be weighed, I was a half pound too light to qualify, since they subtract two pounds from your weight to account for clothing. I was considering going off and having a big lunch before coming back, but I was deferred for the rest of the day.

While this isn't a big deal for me- I can just make sure that next time I have a bigger breakfast- I think about how horrible it would be if I was forbidden to donate blood for something more permanent.

Currently, it is a felony for a man who has ever had sexual contact with another man since the '70's, to donate blood. This is because gay men are at a higher risk of contracting HIV. While it is a good thing that the Blood Bank wishes to ensure the safety of those who will receive blood transfusions, this policy seems a bit like discrimination.

There are plenty of fast, easy, and relatively inexpensive field tests for HIV that can be used to ensure that the donor does not have HIV. It is also possible for a gay man to be evaluated by a doctor to ensure that he does not have HIV. Yet despite these easy solutions, gay men are still exempt from giving blood.

Last year, Sonoma State University considered banning the Blood Bank from its campus because of this policy. However, the final verdict was that it was they had right idea, but the only victim of banning the Blood Bank would be innocent patients who need transfusions.

There is no doubt that something needs to be done about this policy, but sadly gay rights have not progressed much over the past few decades. Perhaps some day this policy will be reconsidered, since there would undoubtedly be more blood for those in need if it was revoked.

Modern Day Salem: The McCain Mob

In modern day society, the term "witch hunt" is almost a dirty word. To most, the term brings to mind the atrocities committed in Salem when our country was but a fledgling colony, but in reality the term goes much, much deeper than that. For out of all of the skeletons America has stashed in the closet, witch hunts are by far one of the most sinister. Perhaps this would not be so if the witch hunting had stopped at Salem in the seventeenth century, but in truth they persevered through the centuries, sometimes just in the background of things, and are unfortunately still with us today.

With-hunting has manifested itself in the form of McCarthyism during the Second Red Scare of the 1950's, and again much more recently during the Terrorism scare after 9/11. Instead of learning from our mistakes, we keep it going, and by all historic evidence it will continue to appear.

The fact is that throughout history, society has found some sort of minority or group to label as "The Other", and use this minority to hate, scapegoat, and discriminate against. And as much as I and every other rational American would like to think that this horrible practice all in the past, I see something like this:

The McCain-Palin Mob

Horrible, right? The fact is, even if John McCain and Sarah Palin didn't go right out and call Obama a terrorist commie in public, they effectively did so by egging on their crowds. Through their suggestions, McCain and Palin created a monster, and it's going to take a lot to cover up shouts of "Treason!", "Terrorist!", and of course the obligatory racial slurs.

The fact is that McCain is losing, and losing badly, and as he struggles we begin to see what kind of campaign he is really running.

As covered by this New York Times article, McCain has resorted to using tried-and-true scare tactics and outright lies. Instead of his promised "straight-talk", we get a witch hunt for communists and terrorists. Great progress, America.