Comment Re:So? (Score 1) 488
The state subsidies for solar in California have ended for the major utilities.
The state subsidies for solar in California have ended for the major utilities.
Agreed.
And the Plug-in-Prius can't even drive 100% electric at freeway speeds.
The "plug-in" part really is a joke on the Prius. It's definitely not worth the extra $5k over the regular Prius.
FYI, I drive a Leaf and my husband drives a Prius.
I live in Silicon Valley and AT&T can't even deliver 128 kbps DSL at my address. No DSL service available at any speed, period.
Burger King went out of business in France a long time ago.
Looks like they are trying again, with a total of 2 (two) restaurants nationwide.
You may want to read the Windsor ruling more carefully, it does not say what you stated.
DOMA section was overturned, which means the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages of couples that were married in states or countries that allow it.
Many of the state constitutional bans on same-sex marriage weren't enacted directly by voters, but by the legislatures. The Windsor case says nothing about the voters in each state.
The Supreme Court also let stand a ruling about Prop 8, which found that a state ban on same-sex marriage in California, directly voted on by the California electorate, was unconstitutional.
The 2 rulings are not in contradiction. Both will be used to overturn many of the remaining state constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.
Did you notice the part where he apologized for doing so, and Brendan Eich did not ?
It was certainly not one activist judge that overturned Prop 22, the predecessor to Prop 8.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_California
First, there was a trial court decision .
"On March 14, 2005, Judge Kramer ruled that California statutes limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples were unconstitutional."
This decision was then overturned, in a 2-1 ruling.
"he state and organizations opposed to same-sex marriage appealed. Division Three of the First District Court of Appeal held extended oral argument on the cases on July 10, 2006, before a three-judge panel. In a 2-to-1 decision, the appellate court overturned the lower court"
Finally, there was a California Supreme Court decision, which is made of 7 judges. That ruling went 4-3 .
I count one trial court judge, one appellate court judge, and four California supreme Court judges, that were on the side of finding Prop 22 unconstitutional.
Also, do you think it was "activist judges" that overturned anti-miscegenation laws in 1967 nationwide, in a unanimous 9-0 ruling in "Loving vs Virginia" ?
I guess you want those laws back on the books, too .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia
Actually, I misread it as "erotic hardons" .
I meant that same-sex couples already had the legal right to get married in California before Prop 8, in 2008. And 18,000 of those couples had weddings.
You can italicize the word all you want, but a civil wedding ceremony is just as legally valid.
The couples never had the legal right to a "civil union", which never existed in California.
You call it judicial activism, I call it civil rights.
The donation directly contributed to stripping LGBT Californians from the right to marry, a right they already had.
It wasn't just an indication of Eich's opinion.
While Obama wasn't in favor of granting rights of same-sex couples to marry in states where they didn't have them, he also never called for taking those rights away in states that did.
That is an important distinction, in my mind.
"old status quo" ? Interesting choice of words. It just doesn't work that way. Prop 8 was unique in taking existing rights away.
If Prop 8 had tried to bring back racial segregation in marriage, instead of bringing back gender discrimination in marriage, would it be right to call him a bigot or not ?
IMO, once he donated to the hateful Prop 8 campaign to take rights away, the onus was on him to prove that he wasn't a bigot. But he refused to address anything about his past political action.
As someone who is in an interracial, same-sex marriage in California, I don't see a difference there. Bigotry is bigotry, whether it's racism or anti-gay bigotry.
Andrew Sullivan is just Andrew Sullivan.
He has changed his political tune many times.
It's hard to fit him in one box.
He has many contradictions, too.
What equal right ? The right to be Mozilla CEO ? I don't think we all have that right.
We do have right to speak up, as much as the Mozilla CEO had the right to his political contributions.
Actually same-sex couples already had legal recognition in California before Prop 8.
Prop 8 took away the right of same-sex couples to get married.
http://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/past/2008/general/title-sum/prop8-title-sum.htm
ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME–SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
After Prop 8 passed, proponents also tried to retroactively divorce existing same-sex couples.
If all else fails, lower your standards.