Illogical Court Ruling in Iowa on Gay-Marriage

Here we go...

I honestly don't get the judge's logic..

"Couples, such as plaintiffs, who are otherwise qualified to marry one another may not be denied licenses to marry or certificates of marriage or in any other way prevented from entering into a civil marriage pursuant to Iowa Code Chapter 595 by reason of the fact that both persons compromising such a couple are of the same sex."

However, I can "otherwise qualify" for anything if you remove the one requirement I don't meet.

For example, I can "otherwise quality" to vote in Iowa by being over 18, not being a felon, etc. But I'm stilled denied the right to vote in Iowa "by reason of the fact that " I don't live in Iowa. It seems to me that using this judge's logic, anyone that fails to quality for ANYTHING for only ONE reason can now be considered to qualify.

I could meet a woman tomorrow, fall in love his her and "otherwise quality" to marry her except for ONE little detail... I'm already Married. So using this logic, I would still be able to marry this person despite the fact that I fail one of the "qualification" needed to be allowed to marry. Why is the requirement to be "not already married" valid and the requirement to be "of opposite gender" not valid?

I can understand the judge or anyone disagreeing with the requirement, but nothing about it violates any "equal-protection" clause. Everyone has the SAME rules for who they can and cannot marry. No matter what you think I, no anyone else, has the absolute right to "marry a person of their choosing". The choice is limited by several things. First (in no particular order) the other person must also choose to marry me, 2nd the other person must not currently be married to someone else, 3rd the person must be old enough to get married. I see no reason why adding "the other person must be of the opposite gender" make the law "unequal". You may disagree with it, it may make you angry, but in reality it is simply just ONE MORE requirement that applies EQUALLY to everyone.

Can someone explain to me how a law that applies equally to everyone violates a "equal-protection" clause?

Iowa court rules same-sex couples can marry - CNN.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Florida Statute forbids issue-oriented polls

This is odd... now you can't ask people what they believe or want....

Statute forbids issue-oriented polls | floridatoday.com | Serving Brevard County and Florida’s Space Coast [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Turkey's New President

I think I posted something on this before. The Media makes it sound like this guy is a Taliban or something. Turkey is SO secular that religious garments are banned in Gov't building. Legally enforced secularism is no different than legally enforced religion. I'm not saying this guy is not a wolf in sheep clothing and that he may set things back at lot, just that I think they need to be "set back" a little. Turkey needs freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion.

FOXNews.com - Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul Elected President - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Judge sides with RIAA

Notice..

Leaving your door unlocked and having CD's inside may soon be "direct infringement" of copyright.
(because someone could come in, copy your CD's and leave...)

Judge sides with RIAA: file-sharing apps lead to direct infringement [This Post Continues after the jump...]

NASA to launch Luke's lightsaber

WHAT A WASTE OF TIME AND EFFORT...
I'm ashamed to even make it known....

collectSPACE - news - "NASA shuttle to launch Luke's lightsaber" [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Scientists to use make Animal/Human hybrid embryos

Scientists' plea to use new hybrid embryos | Science | The Observer

Where does this end? Once we start down this road, it will never end. There just seems that there is so much more we could be researching then making thousands of cow/human hybrid and hoping to stumble upon something that can be used in adult humans.

We have indeed lost our way.... [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith

Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith - TIME [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Coupon Hacker Faces DMCA Lawsuit

Coupon Hacker Faces DMCA Lawsuit:

"'I honestly think there are big problems when you are not allowed to delete files off of your computer,' says Stottlemire"

This is an interesting case. Does the DMCA cover "trivial" protection. Does the DMCA prevent you from merely deleting a file on your own PC? I routinely delete "cookies" off my PC, and I know that doing so prevents some websites from tracking me and maybe from making some money off me (by proving they have repeat viewers). Am I breaking any law by deleting these files? Are these cookies "copyrighted" or protected by the DMCA? The same goes for windows registry keys.

If a company's protection scheme is so trivial, I don' think it warrants this level of legal protection that takes over legal control of my PC (not allowing editing the register or deleting files)

Unless... and this is a big point with me... EVERYONE went to a simple method of "protection". If music (for example) was not actually protected from copying, and the law allowed the people that buy it a wide area of "fair use" then the protection would be "legal" more than "physical". The difference is that people would be able to make fair use copies (since there is no real protection), but if they start mass producing copies, then the law would allow them to be arrested (since there is legal protection).

Typically DRM does NOT stop the mass production pirates that profit from reselling copied movies or music. But they DO stop honest people from making personal copies for iPods or car DVD players or for Grandma (for when the kids visit).

But I digress since this guy is NOT copying something, NOT even CHANGING something, but simply DELETING something. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

University taps sewers for web access - Proves Dilbert Right

A Dilbert comic Comes True!!!


University taps sewers for web access - Internet - www.itnews.com.au [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Artificial Life Likely in 3 to 10 Years

Artificial Life Likely in 3 to 10 Years

As a Christian I really wonder if God will allow us to cross this line. It seems that our knowledge of genetics (artificial life, embryonic stem cells, cloning, etc) is getting to the point where it can be dangerous to ourselves. (as in "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing" sort of dangerous, not that we could actually be dangerous to God or something.)

I'm not predicting anything, but I do something wonder if the end times are closer than we would like to think, of if something will happen to set us back a bit (like the "tower of babel" where God intervened to stop humans from working together) [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Immigration Activist Deported to Mexico

Immigration Activist Deported to Mexico

This sounds like it should have happened a long time ago. The fact that her son is a US citizen and she isn't doesn't mean they both get to stay in the US. Children don't have a say when they live, the go with there parents. Ms Arellano can live anywhere she's legally allowed to, and take her son with her.

I don't know the situation, but if she was here illegally when her son was born, I don't think he should be a US citizen. Birthright citizenship should not be absolute. There should be exceptions for people born here when there mothers were here illegally or just temporarily.

But of course that would be using common sense which is that last thing that gets applied to the immigration debate.

Please note I'm not saying that the boy should have his citizenship stripped, just that citizenship should not be granted in future similar cases. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Frozen Smoke (Aerogel)

Sounds too good to be true..... I kept waiting for "But wait! That's not all...."

Scientists hail ‘frozen smoke’ as material that will change world - Times Online [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Did Life Begin In Space?

hummmmmmm....

ScienceDaily: Did Life Begin In Space? New Evidence From Comets [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Gay and Christian?

This is nothing new, and I don't like the tone of this article. Nicoll ridicules the author of the book he's reviewing instead of just pointing out the book's weaknesses. While this makes for more entertaining reading (if you agree with the author) it doesn't do much for people like me trying to sort all of this out.

That being said, I still tend to agree with Nicoll and I don't understand how Christians can make homosexuality acceptable. Forgivable, yes, even forgivable without repentance, but not a "blessing from God".

Gay and Christian? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Red faces at NASA over climate-change blunder

I had heard this was a Y2K error, but this makes it sound like a "adjustment factor" error.
Adjustment factors are scary to me because while its easy to say "this data needs to be adjusted" it's hard to say how much. So you basically get to add a fudge factor that can be set to anything. Depending on the overall data set, the adjustment factor could be set to yield different conclusions.

TheStar.com - sciencetech - Red faces at NASA over climate-change blunder [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Cellulosic ethanol: A fuel for the future?

This sounds great.. fuel from a current "waste" product. It just sounds like it takes a lot of energy to make the ethanol, so I don't know the net gain.. of course it takes energy to refine oil into gasoline too, so ethanol doesn't have to be perfect to be better than oil/gasoline production.

And the idea of using a waste or byproduct is great.

Cellulosic ethanol: A fuel for the future? | CNET News.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Language of NASA

FOXNews.com - Language of NASA: Breaking Down Acronyms One Letter at a Time - Blogs:

This is hilarious....

"Everyone here [at NASA] is not just smart, they're super smart. They all have four or five degrees. Their research interests include things I can't even pronounce, much less explain."

I only have two degrees (3 counting high school, but I don't think that counts) and the only thing I'm "researching" is the silly paperwork system for facility maintenance here at KSC. [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Scientists debate ethanol's benefits

Ethanol cars still burn hydrocarbons and make pollution. The main difference is that the carbon in Ethanol was taken from the atmosphere when the corn (or other plant) grew. Whereas the carbon in Oil/Gas was taken from the atmosphere millions (or thousands) of years ago.

The pollution made when ethanol or gasoline is burned will stay in the atmosphere for the same amount of time, and cause the same problems.

Scientists debate ethanol's benefits | floridatoday.com | Serving Brevard County and Florida’s Space Coast [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Rosemount going ahead with plans to force sale of land

I'm sure this is a complex issue, and this doesn't cover all the facts.
But this is an interesting case.

I firmly believe that a property owner should have absolute power to set their "asking price" for any property they own. Cities should not be able to lower that price using eminent domain unless it is to be used for something that can only be done at that location (a street widening, dam, flood control, etc..). Even then I think the city should pay 'above' market value for property if it's taking it by force. This would make the city look elsewhere (if possible) for property that is willing to be sold and also give the owner something in exchange for his involuntary lost of property.

But this case seem to be that someone bought the property knowing the city was interested, paid more than the land was worth, and now wants to make profit from the city. In this case the city's ability to "take" the land may be an important counterbalance to pure profiteering by a land owner.

Rosemount going ahead with plans to force sale of land [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Global-Warming Deniers

This is hilarious, just about everything they accuse the "Global Warming Deniers" of doing, this article does. Mainly they just present their opinion that the Science is settled and that doubters are just trying to muddy the waters and not pointing out any real weaknesses in the science.

Why should I believe this opinion piece and not the ones this piece makes fun of.

They make people, like me, that doubt the global warming hysteria out to be pure evil people that know the true but try to hide it for personal short term gain.

I'm sorry but when anyone attacks people like that it makes me mistrust what they are selling.


Global-Warming Deniers: A Well-Funded Machine - Newsweek Technology - MSNBC.com [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Earmarks - Murtha nabs $150M pork

I wonder if the new reporting requirement will actually effect anything. Just because something is an "earmark" doesn't mean it's wasted money. A lot of this does real research or provides a real service. but clearly not all of it, and clearly Congress isn't the best place to decide where this money should be spent.

On the other hand, if congress just told the DOD to spend x amount researching or building something, then the decision of where to do it would be in the hands or bureaucrats, who are not exactly above corruption themselves.

But I do find it odd that Congress is funding the operations of an office that the agency wants to shutdown. This is clearly the case of a congressman putting the interest of his district above the interest of the country and should be an impressment to the congressman. But it won't because the voters in his district expect him to bring in the jobs and money even if it doesn't consider the big picture.

TheHill.com - Murtha nabs $150M pork [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Music suit creates discord

Business & Technology | Music suit creates discord | Seattle Times Newspaper


I fail to understand the idea that some people have that they should constantly be paid for their work. Do I get paid for work produced last year? Does Honda get paid every time I drive my car? NO! so why should a song writer or performer? I honestly fail to understand this. Can someone help? [This Post Continues after the jump...]

Sen. Barack Obama Outlines Plans to Root Out Overseas Terrorists

FOXNews.com - Sen. Barack Obama Outlines Plans to Root Out Overseas Terrorists - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum:

"'If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.'" -- Barack Obama

How is this different from President Bush having intelligence about Iraqi WMD and acting when the UN wouldn't act?? [This Post Continues after the jump...]