Another Angle on Gay Marriage/Prop 8

The following letter appears in today's Salt Lake Tribune, in the public letters forum. I thought the author put forth an excellent point:

Not Christian nation

Public Forum Letter

Updated: 11/28/2008 04:46:21 PM MST

We have experienced a storm of letters relating to the passage of Proposition 8 in California, but one major issue has been slighted: the difference between religious and civil marriages.

The former should be determined by the particular religion that is conducting the ceremony, and rightly so. But why should any religion have anything to say about who gets married to whom in a civil ceremony completely devoid of any aspect of any religion?

The Bible is frequently quoted in the letters regarding marriage; to wit, the main object of a union is to procreate and homosexuality is an abomination. But why is the Bible the authority? We are not a Christian nation.

"God" does not appear in the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison were all deists, while Thomas Jefferson denounced the "superstitions of Christianity." Finally, the Treaty of Tripoli, which was unanimously ratified by the Senate in 1797, states: "As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion … ."

So why shouldn't gays be allowed to marry in civil ceremonies?

Kermit Heid

Salt Lake City

The Moment We'd All Been Waiting For

Best Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Ever!

Art Show: Pooing Cats

My friend and team mate is the mother of what may be one of the world's cutest damn kids. He tickles us because he speaks like a 30 year old (with an British accent). Last weekend while we were in Seattle, we missed his debut art exhibit but thank goodness reporters were on the scene to cover the story.



Kinny Blanford's "Robots, Bikes + Pooing Cats" from Salt Lake Magazine Online on Vimeo.

Happy Thanksgiving

Seattle, day 2

On Saturday, we headed to the Hurricane Cafe for breakfast with Lauren and Ian. Afterward, we made our towards Broadway to check out the shop where Lauren works, Panache.

All throughout the city, they have these charming brass dancing feet embedded in the sidewalk showing the steps to various dances. Here is a picture of Lauren doing the Mambo!


We made reservations for Saturday night at The Can Can, a cabaret dinner theater near Pike's Market. The show that evening was Aerobotron, and if you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it. The dancers were amazing! Surprisingly, the food was excellent also. We chose the 4 course fixed price menu which included pumpkin soup, spinach salad, choice of chicken, buffalo meatball, or mac & cheese. YUM! They also served creme brulee for dessert but I was too full to partake.

After the show, we went to Julia's on Broadway for the 10:30pm drag show, La Faux (I know, I stayed up that late, amazing right?). Here are a few pictures of us with Tina Turner, Tammy Wynot (ssh...she's actually a woman) and Cher.

On Sunday morning, we went out for brunch at the Cafe Presse and then Ian dropped of us off at the airport for our flight home. We had a terrific time in Seattle. Lauren is a fabulous weekend adventure planner. I'm already scouring the paper and web looking for fun things to do when she is home next month. She's set the bar pretty darn high, though.

Seattle, day 1

We arrived in Seattle mid-morning on Friday and took the bus to our hotel and got checked in (yes, public transportation, cabs are expensive. We're in a recession, people!). Another bus took us up to Seattle University to meet Lauren as she got out of class. We went to lunch at this eclectic place called Bleu Bistro. You sit in little quirky booths with curtains that can be opened or closed. The food was as equally charming. I ordered wasabi grilled cheese sandwich. I know that it sounds weird but it was very tasty.

Afterward, we went to see Lauren's house and meet her room mates (and Scoop, the dog). They all seem very nice and I know that Lauren has been pleased with the set up.

We went to Sushi Land for dinner where you pick your sushi up off a conveyor belt that moves around the restaurant. It was a bit of a challenge for me being as indecisive as I am. The plate had moved on out of reach before I could decide if I wanted it or not!
Finally, we headed to the Tractor Tavern in Ballard to see the band Goodness play. Poor Lauren was the youngest person in the bar by at least a decade. It's a bit unsettling to see all those old people enjoying my favorite band. I don't look that old, do I??

Anyhow, I took a little video clip of the show to post on here but once I reviewed it I realized that it just didn't do Goodness justice. Between the camera shake from my jumping up & down and apparently singing loudly along with the songs, the clip just sucked. So, if you are curious about them check out you tube or their myspace page.

I'll fill you in on the rest of the weekend in another post.

Home from Seattle

We just got home from a long weekend in Seattle visiting Lauren. We had a TERRIFIC time. I will have to break it up into multiple posts in order to share all the amazing experiences that we had. I've attached a photo or two of Seattle (Pike's Market) tonight but I'll post more later on.

Goodness!

Tomorrow night I'm going to see Goodness at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle. I am so excited that I can hardly stand it. Goodness broke up years ago but they've gotten back together to do a few shows since August and it just so happens that they are playing this weekend while I'm in Seattle visiting Lauren.

Here is a video of one of their songs:



Here's a link to lead singer Carrie Akre's website.

James Hunnicutt in SLC Wednesday Night

James Hunnicutt, a singer/songwriter/musician from Seattle, will be in Salt Lake Wednesday evening (November 19) playing at Burt's Tiki Lounge. James plays rockabilly, rock, & punk. He has an amazing voice and is a terrific guitar player. I had the opportunity to see him play at the Double Down Saloon in Las Vegas this past August during RollerCon. Believe me, it will be worth a venture out of the house. I'll be there and hope you will too!



This is an exciting week for me musically speaking. I'm going to see two of my favorite artists this week. More on the other show in another post!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I haven't read a book that I couldn't put down in quite a while but this murder mystery set in Sweden had me hooked.


View all my reviews.

A Screaming Deal

This month, the liquor stores have one of my favorite wines on sale. You can get a bottle of Silver Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon for $6.99. That $5 bucks off the regular price! Go get yourself a case of this stuff. You won't regret it, I promise.

New Wine Store Opens in SLC

(photo from www.sltrib.com)

Check out this article in the Salt Lake Tribune about the large, new wine store that opens in SLC today. Apparently, it is double the size of the downtown wine store and has abundant parking in the back. The address is 1602 South 300 West and according to the article, the entrance is a bit narrow and can be difficult to enter. I'm hoping to check it out today while I'm running errands. Exciting!

ADDENDUM: I went to the new wine store and I'm happy to report that it is just beautiful. Think lovely California wine store rather than the usual state run liquor outlet. There are handsome display cases all around the store. The floors and check out stands are very good looking as well. Additionally, the selection of wines is outstanding, almost a bit overwhelming. Fortunately, several sales people were wandering around the store answering questions that thirsty patrons had about wine.

Veterans Day

When I was growing up, Veterans Day was a rather abstract holiday. We didn't get the day off from school, no candy, no gifts, mostly a mention on the nightly news. The story would focus on some really old guys getting together in their uniforms.

All that has changed now. Veterans are all around us. They are much younger than us. They are friends of our families. They are coming back from war physically and mentally scarred. They come back and find assimilation into society challenging. They are forever changed by their experiences, but while they've been gone, not a lot has changed here. We still watch our idiotic reality TV shows and buy crap we don't need.

One of my friends is a film editor and she edited this documentary film that's showing on PBS this month called 'Reserved to Fight'. Check out the two minute trailer above. The show airs in Utah on Wednesday, November 12 on KUED at 9:00. Be sure to watch it.

Ryan is Chillin'

Over the Weekend

I had a very busy weekend! In addition to buying a camera, Kylee and I hosted a baby shower for Anna. You'd think that I would have taken more photos but unfortunately I didn't. Ban took a few and I'll post the ones that he took.

Also, check out this origami crane mobile that I made for the baby's nursery. Yeah, I made that! I think it turned out pretty cool.

My New Camera

Many of you who know me know the joke that if I were one of the X-Men that I would be Indeciso. I've always had a point and shoot camera and I've wanted to upgrade for quite some time now. After months of research I've FINALLY decided that I'm going to buy a Canon S5 IS . At first I had decided to get a Canon dSLR but after borrowing one for the weekend I came to the conclusion that it was just too much camera for me at this point. I know myself well enough to know that there is no way that I'd lug that big, heavy thing around with me regularly. So, the Canon S5 seemed like a good intermediate step.

I just got the camera and I'm very excited to start taking photos!

Cool CNN Website

Do you have particular election races or ballot measures that you are interested in following? I know that sometimes I don't want to listen to the news anchors go over the same results over and over again and only sporadically mention the races that are important to me. Check out this cool site from CNN that allows you customize the results that you see.

Halloween 2008

Ummm, apparently, me and the Dealers! Sassie Lass, me, Movin' Violation, Wanton Rebellion, and Lady Octane celebrating Halloween at Movin's costume party.

Collin, Smack, Phillip, Veronica, Octane, me, Sass & Movin'