Green Oasis

If you have any interest in seeing that justice is done in Nevada, please contact the Commerce and Labor Committee of the Nevada State Senate about SB 283 that would extend to all committed couples the same state-level benefits and obligations enjoyed by married couples.

Simple fairness tells us that we should all be able to choose whom to spend our life with, who gets to visit us in the hospital, who are our beneficiaries. No matter what our own opinions about those partnerships, we—the recipients of the American birthright—are duty-bound to protect the liberty of all who fall within the influence of our vote.

The commitee will hold a hearing about the bill tomorrow (Friday) at 1:30 PDT, so please take a moment and contact them immediately.

Here’s a documented case of voter fraud in Kentucky using electronic voting machines. I still think we should go back to paper ballots. Electronic voting machines provide efficiency at the price of obscurity and unaccountability. Sometimes old tech is the best tech.

Is this a case of a rogue Mormon bishop? Bishop Church of the Nauvoo 3^rd Ward authorized an email via the LDS church’s official website that said in part:

As has already been seen in Massachusetts, this will empower the public schools to begin teaching this lifestyle to our young children regardless of parental requests otherwise. It will also create grounds for rewriting all social mores; the current push in Massachusetts is to recognize and legalize all transgender rights (An individual in Massachusetts can now change their drivers license to the gender they believe themselves to be, regardless of actual gender, which means that confused men and women are now legally entering one another’s bathrooms and locker rooms. What kind of a safety issue is this for our children?). Furthermore, while the bill legalizes civil unions, it will be used in the courts to show discrimination and will ultimately lead to court mandated same-sex marriages.

To help defeat this bill, please call your state representative and state senator and ask that they support traditional marriage and vote against the civil unions bill. If you are unsure who your legislators are, please see the link at the end of this email. [emphasis added]

Note the overt appeal to fear and subtle appeal to disgust. This is the typical modus operandi of the leaders of authoritarian followers. The message offers no evidence of compassion or an effort to understand his fellow human beings, something I would expect from true followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

This message also belies the idea that Mormon leaders don’t tell their followers how to vote. It also comes closer to expressing the true desires of most LDS people: no equal rights for people in same-sex relationships. I doubt that the bishop’s leaders will be publicly pleased at his actions.

One more piece of evidence that the fears and squicks of many of the LDS people stand in the way of social justice. These less than honorable gut reactions should not be allowed to masquerade as the moral high ground.

(via Dancing With Crazy)

The governor of Nevada’s current budget proposal is a textbook case of why it’s a bad idea to put people who don’t like government in charge of government. Our governor’s “no new taxes” campaign pledge currently translates into “screw public services and everyone who needs them”. He’s playing a game where he’s taxing local governments and state employees and calling it balancing the budget.

When will free market ideologues learn that business needs a well run, well funded government in order to thrive?

The LDS church has been forced to fess up to $180,000 in donations to support Proposition 8, 100 times their original disclosure. Shady business this. (via Main Street Plaza)