GAY MARRIAGE WARNING

If you think that legalizing same sex marriage will result in the courts treating gays equally with male/females marriages, you are WRONG.

A California appellate court found that a domestic partnership is NOT the same as a marriage. BUT, they said, by statute, the property part of a domestic partnership IS the same as in a marriage. Therefore, a pre domestic partnership agreement signed in anticipation of a domestic partnership will be treated as if it were a pre marital agreement signed in anticipation of a marriage. Of course, this results in the gay spouse NOT getting his share of his husband's estate.

Are you surprised? I was. I was certain that the courts in San Francisco would not be biased against gays.

The appellate court also found that a certificate of marriage is a written instrument signed by the parties. The court agreed that the pre domestic partnership agreement could be amended or terminated by an instrument in writing. THEN, they held that the marriage certificate did not change the pre domestic partnership agreement, because the property parts of marriage are, by statute, the same as the property parts of a domestic partnership.

This is akin to saying that an addendum for a lease on 5 stories of a 10 story building will be automatically included in a new lease of all 10 stories of the building, because the property parts of the contract are treated the same in real estate law.

The court pretty much ignored the argument that marriage is a contract, which is intended to give the spouse all of the rights and privileges of marriage. A marriage contract can only be changed by a premarital agreement signed IN ANTICIPATION OF MARRIAGE.

Of course, a petition for rehearing has been filed. It has less than a 1% chance of being granted.

At least you are warned. Otherwise, married gays might think that a legal marriage required a premarital agreement and would not realized their old pre domestic partnership agreement was still in effect.

The man who brought me this case told me that he had NEVER seen the gay partner get ANYTHING from his partner's estate. I guess a valid gay marriage is not going to change that.

But, oh, how low The City of Harvey Milk has fallen! SIGH!

YUCKY HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM A PROSTITUTE

I woke up to a text from an unknown prostitute, giving me a web address. This is after Verizon stopped my phone from receiving all such texts.

I felt like washing Siri's mouth out with soap.

I TOLD you all that it was easy to put "backdoors" into phones made in countries that did not share our values.

WARNING, if you click on text ads, you may add a virus to the problems your phone already has.

Currently, ATT, Verizon, and my iPhone do not "talk" to each other. For some reason, I can not use my key pad to put numbers into ATT's phone answering systems. Good thing I am not paranoid or I would think that ATT is purposely blocking Verizon iPhones from using their systems.

Did you know that Homeland Security just ordered 100,000 iPhones? Blackberry provides secure phones that can not be hacked. I guess being "cool as ICE" is more important to Homeland Security than security.

MAYAN APRIL FOOLS!

The world did not come to an end AGAIN.

There is a tradition in the US to play jokes on the first day of April.

First you tell a very plausible lie. My kids' favorite was, "I flunked my math test."

When I would say, "Oh, no!", the reply would be, "April Fools!"

This is a VERY good game as it teaches critical thinking, and checking your sources. Since it is only done on ONE day of the year, it can be somewhat overdone. I am thinking about a blog stating that The Sun published photos of David Cameron sunbathing in the nude and the photos were taken by his security force.

Remember it is a game, so do NOTHING that will really put people in danger.

And you have a riddle for Christmas. WHY did I chose that April Fools joke? Hint. There is a villa in France and a bicycle in Britain.

DOING BAD WHILE TRYING TO DO GOOD

Target's website is advertising flu shots, saying "easy peasy, no appointment necessary". The problem is that there was no one available to give a flu shot on Tuesday. A man is line said that a shot had not been available to him when he tried several days before.

It is illegal in most states to advertise something that you do not actually have available for sale.

Worse, it is a danger to public health to require people to return multiple times just to get their flu shot. I talked to Target management, the Santa Clara County DA's office, and Santa Clara County Health, all of whom blew off my concerns.

Please do not attack the Target website. Target is always very nice to wheelchair users. Feel free to tweet about this problem.

However, if I get the flu before I get a flu shot, I am going to sue Target in small claims court. I have already printed out the website page to use as evidence.

PLEASE STOP THE WORLD, I WANT OFF!

When I was a child, complaining of unfixable injustice, my dad would joke, "Why don't you just tell the world to stop so you can get off?" We would all laugh because we knew we could not stop the world, like we could stop a car.

In the last quarter of this year, young children were killed by a madman, women burned to death in a clothing factory, floods ruined lives, children were killed by a mine, an alleged war criminal was found not guilty, and a dead TV star was accused of molesting teenagers during a twenty year period.

I could not stop any of these things from happening. People who believe the world is coming to an end are really saying, "I want the world to stop so I can get off."

The world is not going to end. So we must all do the best we can to live our lives well, and to help other people as best we can.

May I suggest a New Year's resolution to do your best, every day, to make the world a better place.

An article in the defunct Whole Earth Magazine discussed a decision matrix. It was laid out on a square divided into four quadrants. The quadrants were:
   I WIN, you WIN.
   I WIN, you LOSE.
   I LOSE, you WIN.
   I LOSE, you LOSE.

The article said that too many people believe that a decision where BOTH people WIN was unacceptable because they believe they really WIN only if the other person LOST.

Ever since I read that article, I have tried to find I WIN, you WIN solutions.

It is surprising how often I can find WIN - WIN solutions.

MAYAN MATH & MYTH or THE WORLD IS NOT COMING TO AN END

Around a thousand years ago, a brilliant Mayan mathematician decided to make a calendar that went far into the future. He ended his calendar on a Mayan high holy day, which we call the winter solstice. It was an amazing job, especially considering that he had no computer.

Now a movie decided that when the calendar ended, so would the world.

Honestly, hasn't ANYONE heard of the concept of INFINITY? Infinity is that mathematical concept which points out that the biggest number you can think of can be made bigger by adding that number and the number 1. In other words, there is no limit to the number of things that you can count.

If that ancient Mayan mathematician had known how we would treat his calendar, he would be laughing. Or else he would be on a computer, making his calendar go into the 22nd century.

So far, all of the times people thought the world would end were WRONG. This time, the rumors of the imminent demise of the Earth are so wrong it is silly.

THE ONLY THING TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF.

RAISING TAXES BY DEFAULT

Republicans planned the fiscal cliff so that taxes on the middle class will be raised by default. In order to protect the rich from a tax raise, the Republicans are allowing taxes to be raised for EVERYBODY.

Republicans seem to be counting on the stupidity of the people of the US. Personally, I think they are overestimating our credulity.

As far as I can tell from reading about the so called fiscal cliff, the Republicans want to take from the poor to give to the rich. OVER THE LAST TWENTY YEARS, THE RICH HAVE BEEN GETTING MUCH RICHER AND THE POOR HAVE BEEN GETTING MUCH POORER. I guess the Republicans will not be satisfied until there is again starvation in the US. (If you think I exaggerate, you have not read the Republican plans to cut food stamps.)

ONE MORE TIME, the Republicans are using Christmas vacation as a blackmail tool. This is SO like last year that I re-read my blog on Republicans as the Grinch and/or Scrooge from December 2011.

The truth is that the Republicans want to spend money on military hardware that we no longer need in order to please the manufacturers of military hardware.

BTW, the new plan from the Republicans to cut the tax deductions on home purchase interest will totally destroy the fragile housing industry.

CEOs get HUGE raises while complaining about paying their workers. CEOs refuse to buy health insurance for workers, but insist that their health insurance lasts a lifetime, even if they get fired for cause.

Is this the kind of US that we want?

USED BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS

I am a HUGE fan of used bookstores. Usually, I keep my purchases to mystery, regency romance, and fantasy. I like to escape when I read. I prefer books with humor, insight, and action. I really enjoy the humor which comes from two different cultures or view points learning to understand each other.

But some books have lessons that we have forgotten. Here is my pick of some important books containing lessons we still have not learned.

The Peter Principle -- We need to figure out how to "demote" people who were promoted beyond their ability to cope.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus -- This is a great book for intercultural understanding. The lesson of repeating what was heard is amazing. Try it and you will see what I mean.

Cinderella Syndrome -- Sometimes women can not accept their own competence.

Silent Spring -- I am really frightened about the birds dying. I see fewer and fewer birds every year. The solutions in this book may no longer be the answer, but she asks all of the right questions.

Dr. Spock on Child Rearing -- It worked for me. Of course, I lost it by the time the kids were 5.

Our Bodies, Ourselves -- Written when most of the doctors were men.

The Emperor Wears No Clothes -- This is a book on how and why marijuana went from being a medicine to being defined as evil. You can skip the political rhetoric, which is understandable, but a little much.

The Da Vinci Code -- This book raises questions about the Catholic Church and the Gnostic texts. Of course, you missed that part, didn't you?

Remember that Christmas is not the time to give someone a book that will upset them. If you think someone NEEDS one of these books, by it for yourself and leave it sitting around conspicuously.

CONSTITUTIONAL ADVICE FOR EGYPT

I am not an Egyptian. I have not read all of the new Egyptian constitution. I will give two pieces of advice anyway.

!. VOTE. If you do not vote, you are not participating in your new democracy. When you do not vote, you give an extra vote to the people you oppose.

2. CONSTITUTIONS ARE NEVER PERFECT. Did you know that the US Constitution was ratified without the Bill of Rights, which protects freedom of religion and freedom of speech? The Bill of Rights was not passed until three years later. Many people objected to the lack of protections for civil rights in the original constitution. They passed the constitution anyway because they needed a framework for running the country and waiting until the constitution was perfect was more dangerous than insisting on a Bill of Rights before ratification.

There is a section of the original US Constitution which counts a slave as part of a person for purposes of representation in the House of Representatives. It took over 150 years for all MEN to become equal. (See the new movie Lincoln.) It took another 60 years for WOMEN to get the right to vote in the US.

I think the most important part of our constitution is that it is interpreted by the courts. It is not possible to write constitutions and laws that cover every situation. If your new constitution gives this authority to the courts, you should seriously consider passing it.

Without a constitution, your leaders can do whatever they want. Once there is a constitution, even your leaders have to obey constitutional law.

This is a decision for the people of Egypt, please make it wisely.

SILENCE AND DEATH

Since the 1970's, we have all been silent in the face of spreading lies about marijuana. I was one of the silent.

When my friend David Kessler told me that Nixon hid the results of a 1974 study showing that MARIJUANA MIGHT CURE CANCER, I laughed and said it must be an urban legend.

David told me the truth. A Spanish study in 2000 confirmed that cannabinoids found in marijuana shrunk cancer tumors in mice. The study was designed to duplicate the 1974 study.*

David also told me that the National Caner Institute was being prevented from reporting on these studies. He was right. For a while the NCI reported marijuana cancer studies on the professional side of its website, but now near silence prevails.

So far only a San Francisco newspaper, the Daily Beast and the Huffington Press have had the courage to report on marijuana as a possible cancer cure.

I ask myself, "Did my friend Margaret die because Nixon wanted to arrest hippies?" Not just Margaret died. Over seven MILLION people a year die of cancer.

The studies reported by the National Cancer Institute were compelling. Cannabinoids shrink cancer tumors with NO damage to the surrounding tissue. If any other substance did this, there would be protests in the street until huge research funding was granted.

AND WE STILL LAUGH AT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ABOUT COPERNICUS!

* DO NOT SELF MEDICATE THINKING YOU CAN CURE YOUR CANCER. Cannabinoids are promising as a cure. They are not yet confirmed as a cure.

REPUBLICANS LOSE 'MARKET SHARE'

For many years, the Republican Party has been losing what business calls "market share". This means that there are fewer and fewer people "buying" the Republican Party.

The Republican Party has responded by gerrymandering so that there are as many Republican safe districts as possible.

The Republicans have also conned us into passing laws requiring a "super majority" to raise taxes, giving them almost absolute power to block the ability of governments to pass rational tax policy. Taxes were the only item where people could be conned into replacing the "majority rules" part of the basic political philosophy of the US Constitution. Except for the Senate, of course. The Senate was conned into dropping the "you must be speaking" rule, turning the filibuster into an unconstitutional requirement for a super majority in the Senate.

All this left the Republicans with only ONE non religious issue. Taxes became THE ISSUE of the Republican Party. The Republicans have been using the threat to vote against taxes to control the majority. And you all fell for it.

Now the Republicans are AGAIN using the long con called the "fiscal cliff" . They are saying AGAIN, "we will let the country go down the tubes in order to protect the rich from paying taxes."

ONE MORE TIME FOR THE SLOW LEARNERS. Paying the average person ONE dollar, puts FIVE dollars into the economy. This makes more money available to both the rich and the poor.

Putting one dollar into the hands of a rich man may put only one dollar into the economy, especially if the rich man is a Scrooge.

THE RICH DO NOT MAKE US RICHER, PEOPLE MAKING A LIVING WAGE MAKES US ALL RICHER. IT DOES NOT HURT THE ECONOMY TO TAX THE RICH. It just gives the Republicans an issue that they can "sell" to people who do not understand macro economics.