Letter To John Carona on Gay Marriage Amendment

Here's a letter I sent to my State Senator, J0hn Carona regarding the recent passage in the State House of a bill to amend the State constitution to limit marriage.

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I am for marriage rights for all. I can't believe people are wasting time to make an amendment to the State constitution to tell people who they can and cannot marry. The State has no business meddling in such affairs, especially when said meddling will interfere with an institution which has such a stabilizing and civilizing influence as marriage.

I urge you to vote against this abominable attempt to ensconce bigotry and hatred into the very constitution of this State.

The Patriot Tax and the New Apollo Project

A $10/barrel tax on oil would bring in $70 billion/year. This money would be used to finance a Project Apollo-like program with the goal of having the US be energy independent by 2015. The cost of a gallon of gasoline would go up by about $1.15.

It would be called the Patriot Tax because clearly energy independence is a matter of national security. No, drilling in the ANWR is not a matter of national security, not yet, because all the oil there is only a drop in the bucket of what the US uses in a year.

This new "Apollo" project would of course generate millions of jobs, and would serve as an engine for scientific and technical progress, employing a vast pool of scientists and engineers which would inevitably lead the country to greater prosperity in the future.

It would also help restore a sense of community to the US, with the end result being a source of pride in national accomplishment for generations to come.

Of course, a gasoline tax is a regressive tax, since poor people generally need to drive just as much as rich people. So the second part of the Patriot Tax would be to restore Clinton Era tax rates to the high end, where all the money is, to help pay for the cost of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.

Girls On Steroids?

The idea of a 9 y/o taking steroids to get "toned" sounds insane, but I've seen the kind of households where this kind of thing can happen.

Back when I was making big money, before 2002, I used to take my daughter to Summer camp. She made friends with some of the wealthy kids there, and one of them, Taylor, would be a prime candidate for steroids, or bulimia, or whatever.

Her mom was a divorced pre-trophy wife, i.e., she was hot herself, but hubby left her for a younger hot woman. So she was wealthy, in real estate I think, and of course getting big alimony from her ex.

Mom drank like a fish, and so did grandmom. Like most alcoholics, the two of them were always asking me if I wanted a drink, didn't matter the time of day or the situation.

Mom and grandmom both were forever criticizing Taylor's looks. They'd sit there sipping on margaritas, reprimanding Taylor for being fat, telling her she needed to exercise, dissing her hair, her skin, everything physical about Taylor was wrong, according to them.

Of course, Taylor was just a regular kid. She was pretty, she was in good shape because she played soccer, she wasn't fat by any stretch, just whatever is appropriate for a pre-teen, I think she was 12 last time I saw her.

I can't believe there are still people like her mom and grandmom. How can you read or watch TV without knowing how bad that kind of behavior is for your child? The only thing I can figure is these people were completely lacking in self-awareness.

And if anybody wants to make something political out of this, no, they were not libbies, not by a long shot. They were dyed-in-the-wool Republicans, and that's a fact.