October 19, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

The sanctity of marriage

A Las Vegas chapel that performs Elvis-themed weddings is refusing to marry gays because it would destroy the sanctity of marriage.

I am not making this up.

Apparently, the Christian owner of the theme chapel says that this “violates God’s law” and therefore she will not allow gay marriages.

While other chapels are busily advertising that Vegas welcomes the extra business gay marriages will bring to the state, this particular place refuses on religious grounds — which would be a valid objection if they were a religious organization.

You see, a church can refuse to perform marriages for anyone. You don’t have a right to be married by a church. If the church doesn’t want to perform gay marriages (or interracial marriages or marriages between different religions or anything else that they think violates their beliefs) there’s nothing you can do about it.

But a Vegas Elvis chapel is a business. They do not have the power to discriminate.

Remember that bakery that refused to make wedding cakes for gay couples and ultimately ended up closing down? Yeah, it’s like that. Business owners can’t tell gays they don’t have the right to sit at their lunch counter no matter how much their religion tells them it’s OK to discriminate.

So the Elvis weddings will either obey the law or close down — or maybe, like the bakers, be forced out of business through lawsuits. The owner — a hard-headed woman — will be all shook up. There will be crying in the chapel, but in the end, we will all sing Viva Las Vegas!

Editorial cartoon: GOP election strategy

October 17, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Arizona and Wyoming join the 21st Century

The good news is that soon there won’t be any states left for me to write “X joins the 21st Century” posts any more.

This map was done today, and became old just 10 minutes ago when Wyoming also joined us.

Editorial cartoon: Party pooper

October 14, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

If only we had a Surgeon General!

Why isn’t the Surgeon General doing something about this whole ebola mess? Fox News wants to know!

Oh, right — the Republicans have been refusing to confirm Obama’s nominee for half a year or so now, because he had the nerve to say that maybe we should have background checks for guns and then we might not have as many people dying from gunshot wounds.

How dare he! Why would we want someone as Surgeon General who wants to protect people from dying?

Why, do you realize how radical such a view is? It’s a view only shared by the vast majority of Americans and the majority of NRA members, and which mirrors positions taken by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Emergency Physicians.

As we all know from our basic government classes, the Surgeon General has supreme power over our country, and can write laws to take away everyone’s guns and enforce these laws with his leagues of stethoscope-wearing minions.

So Republicans (who also cut the budget for the Center for Disease Control) are now whining that the government they keep trying to kill is unable to do anything, because we should always be mad at a corpse for not accomplishing anything.

Editorial cartoon: Gang signs!

October 13, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

On Columbus Day

Columbus was no worse than any other person of his time. That doesn’t mean we should celebrate him … but neither does it mean we should treat him like he was the devil incarnate.

Whenever we judge those in the past, we should look at them in relationship to their times. Those who were ahead of their time deserve much more respect than those who may have done great things in their time but did nothing to advance humanity in any way.

We must realize that taking over the natives and controlling them was how things were done. Europe held vast parts of Africa, India, and the east under their control, where the “sun never set” on their empire. Parts of Africa held other parts of Africa. Even American Indian cultures fought with each other for land and resources.

Columbus was a product of his time. It’s not like he said, “Let’s exploit this new place I found and subjugate the natives,” and then everyone said, “That’s a terrible, evil idea!” No, they all said, “Hey, great! Just like we did to the natives in the Congo. More stuff for us!”

Slavery was a part of the history of the world for thousands of years before Columbus. He didn’t invent it. The ancient Greeks, with their democracy and philosophy, thought that enslaving those conquered in wars of expansion was perfectly fine.

We can’t hold everyone to today’s standards. Jefferson and Washington, who proudly grace Mount Rushmore, had slaves. Lincoln would never have agreed to give women the right to vote. Do you think Teddy Roosevelt would have supported gay marriage?

Society advances. There were people who disagreed with Jefferson and Washington about slavery (notably Franklin and Adams). There were people in Lincoln’s time who even advocated for woman’s suffrage. There are always people ahead of the majority, pushing to make the world a better place.

Maybe in the future we will have provided some rights to dolphins and whales. I certainly wouldn’t want someone 500 years from now calling us all evil and terrible for treating them so poorly.

Columbus is important not because he “discovered” a place where people already existed and had been visited by Europeans long before him. He is important because his “discovery” was a big turning point in the history of the world, for better or worse.

So when you judge Columbus, keep these thoughts in mind. I agree that we should rename the date so that it is not seen as a celebration of him. Let’s treat it as a day of contemplation, like Veteran’s Day is supposed to be, where we learn from our mistakes.

(Note: Much of today’s post is from last year’s Columbus Day post.)

Editorial cartoon: Late as usual

October 12, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Alaska joins the 21st Century

A federal judge just ruled that Alaska’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, making it what, the 34th state to now have marriage equality?

“Alaska’s same-sex marriage laws are a prime example of how ‘the varying treatment of different groups or persons is so unrelated to the achievement of any combination of legitimate purposes that we can only conclude that the legislature’s actions were irrational,’” the judge wrote. “Refusing the rights and responsibilities afforded by legal marriage sends the public a government-sponsored message that same-sex couples and their familial relationships do not warrant the status, benefits, and dignity given to couples of the opposite sex.”

Alaska can now appeal to the 9th circuit court. You know that court. They’re the ones who just struck down the gay marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada. Good luck with that one.