Halloween @ work: Protect the POTUS

Since half the City Hall has tomorrow off, we all celebrated Halloween today. Our entire department dressed up (except Cazi who is a party pooper Debbie Downer and thought that we shouldn't have any fun at work with people out there in America losing their jobs). Our boss was the President and the rest of us were his Secret Service, and we even had a covert operative.

Halloween is the best!

The Team:


Secret Service gets wind of an attack.


Shooter! Protect the President!!!

Wassssup!

No on Prop 8, Discussion Continues.

I am not in support of gay marriage. I am in support of a idea of a man and a woman in marriage. Many of you sent me links, videos, and discussion points. I read and watched them all, and for the most part I am in agreement with you. This fight isnt against theology or semantics, its about equality under the law.

I am not in support of any bill that undermines rights of Americans. Gay people are Americans too and deserve equal rights under the law. Because they believe differently than us is not grounds for stripping them of the freedoms we take part of. Thats the problem when people start mixing politics and religion. People has made this a Gay vs Christian problem, when in my eyes it has nothing to do with either. Dont get me wrong, I believe the same as all the Christians out there, marriage is between a man and a woman. I do not condone any part of the gay lifestyle. I am however a big believer in what a constitution does stand for, rights of every american citizen.

I personally believe homosexuality to be a sin, creating a law based on morality will not stop the sin. It wont stop America's children from learning about it. Its the PARENTS job to teach our kids our morals and hope they choose to follow the same. People already complain about too much Government in their lives.

Even if Prop 8 passes, it faces the same outcome as Prop 22, its a bad law, its against the constitution, and it will get overturned.

If my best friend told me tomorrow that he was gay, I would have two options.

1. Call him a SINNER, dismiss him as a friend, I dont agree with his decisions therefore I think less of him and that he is scum and profane and not worthy of coexistance.
2. Continue to love him as Jesus would, try and discuss and try to convince him of what I believe to be a huge sin and how thats not the way I belive Jesus intended to be.
   

Which option would Jesus choose? If the vote was tomorrow, I in good conscience would vote NO on a bill that amend the constitution to eliminate equal standing among Americans, whom the government is sworn to protect and why we have soldiers fighting for overseas.

Try and remember that this is a State law. The State of California is not interested in whether someone loves another, to a state government, its about property. The government doesnt base its opinions on faith or religion but on law. If you dont want your kids learning about Gay people, send them to a Christian school, where their cirriculum is based on faith instead of law. How about lobby your School District's Board to not include specific materials.

Part 1 on my post was a dig on the scare tactics the Yes on 8 team used. I proved several of them wrong and noone has debated me on that. I just wanted people to be aware of dirty politics that lie to you. Take this statement for example from the Yes on 8 site:

It restores the definition of marriage to what the vast majority of California voters already approved and what Californians agree should be supported, not undermined. It overturns the outrageous decision of four activist Supreme Court judges who ignored the will of the people.

To show you how funny the argument is, vast majority = 61%, 4 or 7 Supreme Court judges = 57%, compare apples to apples people! The same percentage of people who voted for the bill was the same percentage of judges who overturned the bill.

Yesterday someone anonymously commented on Part 1 of my No on Prop 8 discussions and I couldn't say it better myself

Here's a simple scenario. Let's step out of yourselves (in many cases your "identity") for a second and say Christianity WASN'T the majority religion of America.

Let's say the popular religion of the U.S. considered Christianity devious and wrong. Why? Simply because their belief system said so. No real facts or reasons to back it up, other than this religion's book said Christians are bad. So they decided to pass a law banning marriage between anyone of their religion and Christians. Or make the hiring of Christians illegal.

Wouldn't you consider that to be discrimination?

Just because your belief system says one thing, doesn't mean that it's correct. Remember when there were laws that women and blacks couldn't vote? Many people justified it because the bible considered women and slaves lesser people than men.

My whole argument is equal rights under the law, regardless of my personal beliefs.

You all can argue how marriage should be between a man and a woman until your blue in the face, the only way you can convince me differently is to convince me that gay people dont deserve equal rights under the law, like women and blacks in early America, and good luck trying to convince me of that.

My hope is that people will look past the surface and see the real meat of this Prop, America means freedom from all, regardless of religious beliefs, it is what we were founded on.

Vote No on Prop 8!

This weekend I saw a "YES on 8" sign that said "Prop 8 = Religious Freedom." Since when is limiting people freedom? I changed my yes vote to a no. I make this blog post in the effort of opening discussions with those who will vote yes on 8. Try to convince me I am wrong, who knows I might me. But also be open to what I have to say, because who knows, you might be wrong.

First off let me tell you that I am a Christian, and PERSONALLY I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and if anyone asks me, straight or gay, I would have absolutely no problem telling them that.

As a student of "Communication" at CSUSM, I have taken many classes about Political Communication and am a little more aware of the tactics people use to convince others. This election season makes me sick, so when I see signs like the one I mentioned above, it makes my stomach turn.

I think its a fair assessment that people believe what they hear from people they care about. My pastor at church gave a statement about Prop 8, saying that he would never marry a gay couple. I can respect that, nor would I have expected him to act differently. He also mentioned how the church is "Very Organized" and will pass this proposition and that everyone should vote yes on Prop 8.

If I was just some Joe-Follower I would go to the polls on November 4th and Vote Yes. But instead I chose to actually research the Prop.

www.SmartVoter.org is a website created by the League of Women Voters, they offer non bias information on all Propositions.

Here's what they had to say: (Bolding is MY emphasis)

BACKGROUND:
In March 2000, California voters passed Proposition 22 to specify in state law that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. In May 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that the statute enacted by Proposition 22 and other statutes that limit marriage to a relationship between a man and a woman violated the equal protection clause of the California Constitution. It also held that individuals of the same sex have the right to marry under the California Constitution. As a result of the ruling, marriage between individuals of the same sex is currently valid or recognized in the state.

PROPOSAL
This measure amends the California Constitution to specify that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. As a result, notwithstanding the California Supreme Court ruling of May 2008, marriage would be limited to individuals of the opposite sex, and individuals of the same sex would not have the right to marry in California.

Summary of Arguments FOR Proposition 8:

• Proposition 8 restores what 61% of voters already approved: marriage is only between a man and a woman. Four judges in San Francisco should not have overturned the people's vote. Prop. 8 fixes that mistake by reaffirming traditional marriage, but doesn't take away any rights or benefits from gay domestic partners.

Summary of Arguments AGAINST Proposition 8:

• Equality under the law is a fundamental freedom. Regardless of how we feel about marriage, singling people out to be treated differently is wrong. Prop. 8 won't affect our schools, but it will mean loving couples are treated differently under our Constitution and denied equal protection under the law

On Saturday I changed my facebook status to let people I was voting No.

I received many responses.

you will limit Christian freedom by voting no. Christians will not only have to tolerate homosexuality, but will have to condone it. Prop 8 doesn't take away any rights from homosexuals, they still have their partnership rights........but voting "no" makes it mandatory for us to condone and therefore never be able to quote the bible in any regards to God's views.

First off, the Prop changes "current" law. Voting NO leaves the State Constitution alone, a no vote doesnt enact any new rules. A tactic in Political Communication is whats commonly called "scare tactics." Scare tactics are used to scare someone into voting a certain way. Saying that voting no will make Christians have to condone gay marriage is a scare tactic. Nowhere does it say you have to condone it and change theology. Pornography is legal, yet the church doesn't condone it. Government cant tell someone to change their morals.

A reply from facebook:

no on 8 will make it the "law" that homosexual marriage is "ok" and then (and it's already happened in mass.) it will be taught in the schools as "normal" and parents cannot reject the teaching based on any judeo/Christian ethic. so the government will be telling Christians they must condone it. check it out John.

Again, no on 8 doesn't make it "law" it already is law. Equal rights in already in the constitution. Its true schools would be able to teach that the government definition is between 2 people regardless of sex of the individuals. Hilary McLean, press secretary for state schools chief Jack O'Connell said "while local school boards could add marriage classes to their curricula, there would be no statewide mandate to do so." I think the church does a great job in teaching marriage. I think if you do believe in the teachings of Jesus, that you would share that with your children. School didn't teach me about Jesus but I believe in him.

Another person brought up a point:

The other thing is that 4 judges ignored the 61% vote that Californians already decided on to say that we believe marriage should be between a man and woman. You can't just ignore what the people have already said.

The Yes on Prop 8 site says the same thing:

Because four activist judges in San Francisco wrongly overturned the people’s vote, we need to pass this measure as a constitutional amendment to RESTORE THE DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE as a man and a woman.

Judges uphold the law, and they overturned Prop 22 as it VIOLATED State Consitution, you cant suddenly call them "activists" who "wrongly" overturned the peoples vote or saying they are ignoring Californians when they are doing thier job. Also its funny how the Prop 8 site mentions the judges are from San Francisco, THEY ARE STATE SUPREME COURT JUDGES.

Another point given to me:

I also heard that churches and other religious charities could lose their exempt status for refusing to accept gay marriage. That's just wrong.

I think you have been misinformed, I don't think that is true, California is different than Massachusetts. Mike Swift from the Mercury News gathered this info:

To support its claim that churches' tax-exempt status could be at risk, the Yes on 8 campaign cited a New Jersey case where same-sex couples who wanted to have a commitment ceremony were denied use of a beach pavilion owned by a Methodist-affiliated organization. The state, saying the pavilion was not open to the public on an equal basis, revoked the tax-exempt status of the pavilion — but not the organization, nor the rest of its property.

The manager of the Yes on 8 campaign, Frank Schubert, acknowledged that constitutional protections for religious practice protect a church's tax-exempt status.

"A church would be very likely permitted to refuse to perform a gay wedding in the church with no risk to their tax exemption," Schubert said in a written statement. "But if the church rents out property to the public for use as a wedding site, they could not prohibit a gay couple from renting that property for the wedding."

So that myth is dead. Please dont believe the scare tactics.

Again let me reiterate that I do think marriage should be between a man and a woman. But im smarter to realize what that this is a bad ballot proposition, the law states equality. I dont believe the government should legislate what "we" think is moral. I also dont think its very "Christian" to force our beliefs on others using the law. Does it say anywhere in the Bible where Jesus convinced the law makers of the day to make it law anything he said? No, Jesus dicipled people, shared with people, made a role model for us to follow. The church should and is doing that for christian families. I've learned a lot about marriage from my church.

I welcome all responses to this issue, email me at jonathanhall@gmail.com or comment this blog post. Try to convince me I am wrong. One great thing I have learned from my Political Communication classes is that "dissent" is great for politics. If there is no dissent, there is no challenging of ideas and we get forced to believe what our government officials tell us, and then there is no accountability. Still want to vote yes? Try to convince me I am wrong.

Vote no on 8.

Meat is Murder

291/365, originally uploaded by surlygrrrl [ELBfoto].

Tasty, tasty murder.

mmmmmmm Murder! This shirt is awesome!

Race for Second Base

Actually the official name for the event was "Race for the Cure" but I like my name better, perhaps I'll suggest it to the Susan G. Komen foundation.



I was convinced to sign up for the "City of Temecula" team by my coworker Margie(how can I say no to her). I'm glad she did. I had a lot of fun, along with 10,000 other people. Before the event I made some jokes like "Race for Second Base", and "I love to support breasts." What was awesome was that when I got there, people actually made shirts and wore them that said that. Shirts ranged from "Breast Friends" to "Operation Hooters." One of the sponsors, The Press Enterprise, gave out pink reusable grocery bags that said "P.E. for the Cure". They should have printed some signs for the portapottys. It was amazing to see so many people show up on a Sunday morning, which suggested me to that most churches where empty. Heres a few photos of the event.

Scooter Firsts: Riding to work in the fog

Today was the first day I had the chance to ride to work in the fog. It was an experience. You know how cars have windshield wipers? Yeah my helmet doesnt. On the stretch from Murrieta to Temecula on Jefferson Road, I ran through some particular dense fog, pretty much made it super difficult for me to see. I tried wiping my helmet faceshield with my arm, that smeared it for a second or two. I tried wiping it with my glove to the same outcome. I opened the faceshield for a few feet after freezing my eyeballs. I'm interested in what solutions other bike riders have out there.

McCain's speech (Simpsons)

The Dark Buzz Knight

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Karma, it's a bitch

Karma, originally uploaded by jonathanerichall.

Last week Jenna told me a pen exploded on her at school and I laughed out loud, I even posted a video of Ernest having a pen explode on him, each time I thought of it i laughed out loud. Well, today a pen exploded on me, and to make it worse, its a sharpie which means its PERMANENT, so even after washing my hands for five minutes, its still all over me. HAHAHAHAHA Karma is a bitch.