Fort Worth man goes on hunger strike to support Utah man starving to prevent gay marriage. Or something.

.
From the Action News Team at 4UTAH in Salt Lake City !!!

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 Utah) – A Utah man is vowing to go without any food until the state stops allowing same sex marriages. He claims if Utah wants to protect traditional marriage, it has an option it’s not using, and he's fasting until it does it.

When same sex marriage became legal in Utah, people immediately reacted. Couples stormed county clerk buildings. State attorneys tried to stop it, and Trestin Meacham started fasting.

"I'm very disappointed," said Trestin Meacham, fasting to stop Utah same sex marriages.

For the past 12 days Meacham hasn't eaten anything. He's surviving solely on water and an occasional vitamin.

"You can start a blog and you can complain on social networks until you're blue in the face and nothing will happen but actions speak louder than words and I'm taking action," said Meacham.

Meacham tells Reporter Brian Carlson he's fasting to convince Utah to exercise the option of “nullification.” It's posted on Meacham's blog. According to his interpretation of states’ rights, Utah can nullify the recent federal court ruling by simply choosing not to follow it.

From the Action News Team at 4COWTOWN in Fort Worth !!!

FORT WORTH, TEXAS (ABC 4 Cowtown) – A Texas man is vowing to go without any food until Tristan Meacham of Salt Lake City dies from hunger. He claims that Texas wants to protect non-eating rights, it has a states' rights option it’s not using, and he's fasting until it does it.

When starvation for political causes became legal in Texas, people immediately reacted. Unknown political hacks and publicity-seekers burned and vandalized county food banks, just to see if they could get on the news. State attorneys tried to stop it, and The Whited Sepulchre, an obscure Texas Libertarian blogger started fasting.

"I'm very disappointed," said Mr. Sepulchre, who is now fasting to support Mr. Meacham's right to starve himself over something that really is none of Meacham's freakin' business.  "I'm doing this to protect Trestin Meacham's right to die." 

For the past 12 days Whited hasn't eaten anything. He's surviving solely on shots of Kentucky Deluxe bourbon.  He also claims that he sometimes gets thirsty enough to actually drink water. 

"You can start a blog and you can complain on social networks until you're blue in the face and nothing will happen but actions speak louder than words and I'm taking action," said The Whited One. "I really want to see Trestin Meacham starve for what should be nothing more than a lifestyle choice." 

Whited tells Reporter Brian Carlson he's fasting to convince Texas to exercise the option of “nullification.” It's posted on The Whited Sepulchre's blog. According to his interpretation of states’ rights, Texas can nullify the recent federal court ruling on force-feeding by simply choosing not to follow it.

"If Trestin Meacham wants to die to prevent gay marriage and Utah illegally tries to force-feed him, I believe that Fort Worth should become Trestin's sanctuary city, take him in, and allow him to die in the comfort and security he deserves." 

 

Gay Marriage, Start With Why, and The 100th Monkey

Something weird happened on Facebook three or four weeks ago. 
It seemed like EVERYONE came out in favor of Gay Marriage Equality. 
If you are a FB user, you probably saw icons like this one, with an "equals" sign symbolizing equality.  Apolitical, religious, non-confrontational friends (yes, I do have some) were all using it. 

The Libertarians have been there for a long, long time. 
Check this out, from the 1972 party platform:

The Democrat party finally put something about Marriage Equality in their platform this year.  The Republicans are kinda dipping their toes into the water. 
So what happend? 

This is from the I-Change website.  I think I first heard it in a Jorene Taylor-Swift sermon several years ago.  It's called "The 100th Monkey". 

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years. In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.


An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes -- the exact number is not known. Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED! By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea...Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes. Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.

I don't know if I'd go that far with it, but it seemed like gay marriage equality, after spending about 40 years in the Libertarian Party Political Wilderness, was just suddenly there. 

Here's something else that sorta ties in.  I've been reading "Start With Why", by Simon Sinek.  In addition to teaching about why leaders and businesses waste a lot of time and effort on the Who, What, Where and When (before getting to the all-important "Why"), Sinek has a great chapter on who is most likely to understand Why and change his behavior. 
Who is most likely to sleep in front of a store to get an iPhone? 
Who is going to purchase a new Bluetooth with only one new feature compared to his old one? 
Who is going to fly Southwest Airlines at his own expense, when his employer is willing to pay 100% of the ticket on a rival airline?

This chart is called the Rogers Adoption/Innovation Curve.  Please note the divisions. 
IMHO, the Libertarian Party was an innovator on the Gay Marriage Equality issue.  A lot of rank-and-file Democrats were Early Adopters. 
Joe Biden and Barack Obama finally finished "evolving, and became part of the Early Majority about 20 minutes before the tipping point. 
The Republican party will finish its hand-wringing and become part of the Late Majority sometime next year.  Hide and watch. 
The Laggards will go to their graves opposing Gay Marriage Equality. 

 Here are some other issues where I believe the Libertarian Party will soon be joined by Early Adopters. 

*Expanding School Choice
*Military Downsizing
*Eliminating Nation-Building, And Defending OUR Borders
*Reducing The Size Of Our Military
*Neutering The Federal Reserve
*Lowering Import Tariffs
*Ending Crony Capitalism
*Legalizing Marijuana
*Ending The Drug War

Think of all the reasons to stop waiting. 
Come be with us.  It's fun to be first!! 

If you ask me to perform your wedding.

....then this is what you're going to get.  Here's 45 seconds.  Yes, I am ordained through the Universal Life Church!! 



Go here to read the back-story on this bit of Libertarian Party greatness!!  I didn't have video when I wrote the first post.
 

I don't care who you are, this is funny !!

Heterosexual Marriage Is A Sin

This is starting to piss me off.  Here's the ABC News website:

A proposed amendment to North Carolina’s constitution which would make marriage between a man and woman the only legal union recognized by the state has passed a statewide vote, the Associated Press reports.

The referendum- North Carolina Amendment One- goes a step beyond outlawing same-sex marriage, which was already illegal in the state. The law decrees that “marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State”- meaning that civil unions and potentially other types of domestic partnerships will no longer be legally recognized.

Here's more:

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council- a conservative Christian organization- released a statement applauding the vote.

“We applaud North Carolina voters for joining voters in 31 other states upholding the historic and natural definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman” the statement said. “At every opportunity, the American people have demonstrated a deep appreciation for the unique benefits that marriage between a man and a woman brings to families and society. They recognize that marriage is the only kind of union that results in natural procreation and keeps a mother and father together to raise the children produced by their union.”

Yeah, I think it's best that a child have two parents.  If a child has more than one sister and one brother, it might be best to have four parents just to help keep everybody fed and clothed. 

If a child is going to Texas A&M, it might be best for the kid to have six parents:  A mother, a father, a banker, a lottery winner, Bill Gates, and an illegal immigrant getting paid under the table, just to help pay for all the A&M fees and services. 

But back to the point raised by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, which needs refuting.....  The Bible says that heterosexual marriage is not the ideal condition for Christians.  I repeat:  "He on She" marriage is not the ideal condition for Christians. 

This billboard is a lie. 

If you take the Apostle Paul seriously, and if you believe he was divinely inspired and not just blogging, heterosexual activity within the confines of heterosexual marriage falls short of perfection.  Therefore heterosexual sex is a "sin", just like gay sex, lesbian sex, rape, pedophilia, bestiality, and forcing children to watch the John Edwards sex video are all supposedly sins.  Sin is anything that falls short of the ideal, anything less than perfection. 

Paul said so.  Here's the man himself:

I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. (1 Corinthians 7:7-8)

The man has spoken.  Remaning single is the ideal.  Anything else falls short of perfection.  And elsewhere in the Bible, sin is "falling short of the glory of God".  To top it off, here's James 4:17.....

¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

What you should do, according to Paul, is to remain single.  If you know what you should do (remain single) and fail, then you have sinned. 

(Note to my friend Mike Coyne, who is seriously considering falling into sin this fall....Don't do it !!!) 

Yet fundamentalist preachers do weddings all the time.  Strange. 

There are a few other problems in the biblical view of marriage (only one of these is defended at great length at the Family Research Council website). 

See, there are multiple types of marriage authorized in the "Bible".  One of the interesting ones is detailed in Deuteronomy 22:28. 

28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

There are others.  The book of Judges, Chapter 19, has a long story about the responsibilities of concubines.  You can have a wife and a Ho, and if the Ho is a disappointment you can chop her into smaller pieces and send the dismembered whore parts all over Israel.  Look it up. 

Here's a helpful chart for every man who doesn't have the spiritual strength to remain celibate and single, and who wishes to sin by marrying a woman. 

Paul was the last "divinely inspired" person to write on this issue.  He said don't get married.  To anybody. 

I still don't understand why the Family Research Council is so opposed to gay marriage and not all the other kinds.