South Africa

The South African Mail & Guardian reports that the South African Supreme Court of Appeal has just declared that same-sex marriages are to be recognized.

According to common law, marriage is the union of one man and one woman. This made it impossible for same-sex couples to be married to each other.

On Tuesday, Judge of Appeal Edwin Cameron said in his judgment that the definition of marriage should read: "Marriage is the union of two persons to the exclusion of all others for life."

I am not familiar with South African Common Law but I am familiar with out of control judges. What the Honorable Judge Cameron thinks the definition of marriage "should" be is not as relevant as what the definitions "is".

His royal highness, King Cameron thinks the law is wrong so he changed it.

At least he is more up front than the Massachusetts Supreme Court who simply redefined the word "marriage" in their decision. The law is the same, the words just have different meaning now.

We are fast becoming a nation of men not laws.

Soldier and Man at Yale

Today a 3 judge panel sided with Yale University allowing them to ban military recruiters from campus while still being able to receive federal funds.

Here we have another example of the schizophrenia of the Left. On one hand they bemoan the fact that many members of our armed forces come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, then they celebrate the banning of the ROTC and even recruiters from our nation's elite university campuses.

Why underprivileged 18 year olds joining the army, navy or air force is considered a problem isn't clear. Our all volunteer services are a wonderful place to mature, gain experience and learn self-discipline, not to mention contemplate things like duty, honor and patriotism.

In fact it seems like a good place for some of our elite university administrators.

Hallelujah

I guess they have to complain about something.

First there were the attacks on Condolezza Rice with racist cartoons. Now the word is that Bush is surrounding himself with "yes men". Since Bush has the most diverse cabinet in this nation's history the Democrats and their allies in the press are trying to find some angle that will stick.

Bush is surrounding himself with (gasp) people who support his policies and the Democrats are concerned about the lack of dissension. They want people like Colin Powell. Colin Powell who was against not only the first Gulf War, but also the ultimate war to liberate Iraq. Colin Powell, who trusted the French and insisted on going back to the U.N. one last time. Colin Powell, who's State Department fought against giving Iraqis earlier control of levers of power in post-war Iraq.

The desire of Democrats for Bush to appoint enemies to cabinet posts isn't necessarily surprising. What is surprising is the sudden acknowledgement that "diversity" includes diversity of opinion.

Of course they won't try and sell that to our universities or media editorial rooms any time soon.

Air Movie

A couple years ago, I was in the international terminal at SFO when I noticed something strange in the display cases. Most, if not all airports have exhibitions for the enjoyment of travelers. These can range from children's art to historic artifacts.

What was odd about this particular exhibit wasn't that it was on the U.S. civil rights struggle. The photos of marches and speeches would have been inspiring were it not for the numerous black and whites of lynched black men.

I couldn't help but think this is an odd choice to greet international visitors to the United States. As I continued walking, I became angry at the horrific photographs of mutilated black men hanging from trees or shot. Normally, I would be angry at the people who committed these heinous acts. But to be honest, on this occasion I was angry at whomever was responsible for allowing this exhibition.

I was reminded of this during my flight from Atlanta this past weekend. The on-flight movie was the remake of the "The Manchurian Candidate". In the original with Frank Sinatra, the enemy were Communists. With no more Communists around, the remake has the enemy as "big business" complete with "no-bid contracts", etc...very obvious.

With the huge variety of films available I would think an American airline would stay clear of ones with anti-American themes. In fact, wouldn't it be wise to show films promoting this country's values?

The Phony

I realize the election ended last week. But it took a couple of days to really enjoy and appreciate the outcome because of my overriding feelings of relief.

However, I still find myself dumbfounded that 50 million people voted for John Kerry. I marvel that so many did not see or did not care that he was portraying himself as a mainstream (most liberal voting record in the Senate), gun toting (lifetime NRA rating of 0), devout Catholic (who opposes bans on partial birth abortion and made his two children from his first marriage bastards via annulment), War hero (no explanation needed), champion of the working man (who never had a job outside of government and twice married multi-millionairesses).

My handy electronic dictionary defines "hypocrite" as "a feigning to be what one is not". In case you haven't noticed - "hypocrite" is a word solely reserved for Republicans.

My handy electronic dictionary defines another pertinent word "credibility", as simply "believable". It's not so much that Kerry supporters might have found him credible that is troubling so much as they didn't care if he was or not. I honestly don't think many on the Left care about believability, honesty or truth, so long as it serves their ultimate goals. The goal here being the defeat of George Bush.

We could talk about forged documents, fake stories about missing explosives or misleading headlines. But the most glaring example of this phenomenon is Michael Moore. Many of his facts were demonstrably false and most of his assertions were absurd, but it didn't matter. Neither did it matter to Mr. Moore's credibility that he was caught altering evidence.

Why are there no comparable Michael Moore's on the Right? I think it is because Conservatives place a value on truth that Liberals do not.

Certainly the fact that Liberal positions are based more on feelings than on reason plays some role here. Perhaps Liberals can be partly explained by the old "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" line: When a woman complains of a headache, a man will tell her to take an aspirin. She wants him to say "I'm sorry you have a headache".

In other words, Liberals want to co-miserate more than they want to persuade.

Serious Conservatives are more interested in persuation and figure anybody who is caught lying on their behalf is A. only hurting their cause, and B. not to be trusted on other issues. Obviously that is not true of the other side, as evidenced by the accolades and attention showered upon Moore. In addition, a complacent media would never let us get away with it and we know it.

Wallowing in untruths, half-truths and outright lies about your opponents does not hold the same emotional appeal.

Great Night!

I watched last night's election returns at the official San Francisco GOP event. Couple interesting observations. One when I walked in. The other when I walked out.

Anyone who has ever been to a Cancer Society, Leukemia Society or any of the myriad of fundraising parties in this town can attest that the crowds are conspicuously homogeneous . Not only is there a uniform pallor to the room, the only "diversity" apparent could be described as between Yuppies (Young Urban Professionals) and DINKS (Duel Income No Kids).

Not so last evening. There were the old and the young. There were Hispanics, Blacks, Asians and Caucasians (I hope I didn't leave anybody out). I have no idea what the DNC party looked liked (I picture the Star Wars bar scene), I'm just saying I was very pleasantly surprised.

The second thing that stuck me was the atmosphere in the room after it was clear Bush was going to win. I would describe it much more as relief than jubilation. It was as if we all just thought "Thank God".

I don't imagine a room full of democrat activists would have responded to a Kerry victory in the same calm, poised manner.

SF Billboard

Winston Churchill said we should be "magnanimous in victory". Nonetheless, I still would love to place a billboard in this town. Which do you think is better?

A - 50,000,000 Liberated. Cheer Up!

B - 4 More Years & 3 More Judges!