Tom Hanks stated...

The truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop 8 happen. There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them.

Hanks later apologized for using the term "un-American", saying...

I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination. But everyone has a right to vote their conscience. Nothing could be more America.

I guess I'll weigh in. To the Mormon Church and it's members:

WHAT YOU DID WAS UN-AMERICAN. YOU SHOULD LOOK DEEP INSIDE YOURSELVES AND TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHY YOU ARE SO THREATENED BY GAY AMERICANS WHO JUST WANT TO STRIVE FOR EVERY DAY GOOD OLD AMERICAN HAPPINESS.

And I, unlike Tom Hanks, will not be making an apology for saying that, so don't look for one. Here are some American principles upon which this very country was founded.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. - Declaration of Independence

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. - U.S. Constitution

I'm not sure where the IRS is when you need them, but it sure seems to me that the Mormon Church has, through their political activism, entered the arena of politics. And THAT IS NOT A TAX EXEMPT STATUS. The Mormon Church should simply come clean, declare themselves a religiously driven political organization, and lose their tax exempt status. Then they can gay bash all day long with a clear conscience.

Otherwise, every single political organization should receive the same tax exempt status as that of the Mormon Church.

That being said...

I understand how the proponents of Prop. 8 feel. They are scared of reprisals. I was just reading this...

Supporters of Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage in the state in November, say they expect discrimination, harassment and intimidation to continue after a federal judge denied a request to keep private the names of donors to the initiative.

Douglas McDermott, president of McDermott Financial and Insurance in Sacramento, donated $15,000 to the Prop. 8 campaign in September. While his business hasn't been targeted, McDermott said some angry callers have left threatening messages.

"You get telephone calls, you get threats," McDermott told FOXNews.com. "Ask anyone -- If you've donated, your name is published everywhere, all over California. That's what's happening."

"They come all day and night," he said.

They fear discrimination, harassment and intimidation. It's ok. You get used to it after awhile. I would not be scared or worried. After awhile, it becomes part of your life. You adjust the best you can, and you find peace and happiness any way you can.

It's funny to me in a way. The people who worked so hard to support and ultimately pass Proposition 8 are finding that the huddled masses of the minority that was targeted by this hateful proposition are, well, angry. Think of it. Your state says that you can get married. You get married. And then this proposition yanks that away from you. Honestly, if you are a straight couple, wouldn't that piss you off?

The proponents of Proposition 8 face a formidable enemy, the gays. There are others in America like us. The Jews, the Japanese, the Blacks. It seems like America has a rich history of discrimination in the most hateful ways. Today, it is gay couples.

So, it really shouldn't come as a surprise to those who gave their money and energy to pass Proposition 8 that gay people are angry. The difference between today and the 1950's is the Internet. In yesteryear, we would get beaten, and the police would do nothing about it. In yesteryear, our places that we could congregate, usually seedy bars, were raided by those who were charged with the protection of the citizens, the police. And the citizens by and large didn't see a lot wrong with roughing up a bunch of queers.

Today, things are shifting. Today it's no longer that acceptable to discriminate. And that is the problem. The posting of the names of those who helped to pass Proposition 8 would have been a badge of pride in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and 1980's, to those who wanted to put gays in their place. Today, it is a badge of intolerance and bigotry.

Maybe there's hope for a brighter future. If you put your name to something that you believe in, like the passing of Proposition 8, you shouldn't really mind having your name posted on the Internet for all to see, if indeed, you believe in what you are supporting.

For those of you in my community who are making threats to those who supported Proposition 8, I understand your anger. But, you are wrong to threaten and intimidate those who supported this measure. Hate is a double-sided sword, and the gay community can wield that sword just as much as the other side. That's doesn't make it right, and it's not the way to win your case.

You win your case by fighting in the right way. The posting of supporters of Prop. 8 is not a bad thing. If those who supported it are steadfast in their conviction of it's passage, I don't honestly know what their problem is in publicly standing by their decision to have their name associated with it's passage. It's kind of like the folks who supported the ban on a woman's right to vote, and the ban on inter-racial marriage. And we all know how that played out.

History has not been kind to bigotry. I believe it will not be kind to Proposition 8, or it's supporters.

A few more photos from our trip to New Zealand. We loved Lake Taupo. The town was nice, that lake was beautiful, and it was really the first day that the weather was really nice. These are some of our photos.

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Sunset from our room

The Maori Carvings at Mine Bay on Lake Taupo

Sunset from our room

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Yes I know... It's Saturday, not Friday. So I'm a bit late in making this post. It seems lately that I, along with so many Americans, are all caught up in this financial crisis we are in. We are doing fine financially. But things are different in the workplace. I'm not talking about where I work per se, but rather, everywhere. We are all watching as our fellow workers are laid off from their job, and quietly (hopefully) led out the front (or in some cases, the back) door. It's very sad to see people fall victim to the uncertain times of this economy. Yet, I see it all over the place.

For those of us who are left, we have to work harder, smarter, and become more efficient. In some cases, that means that some functions of my job, or functions of my department that were once deemed as "critical functions" are not done away with because the people who did them are now gone. So, it's a time of examination, of what can be done, or can't be done. Sometimes, that's a healthy thing. Over time, companies develop ways of doing things that aren't all that efficient (costly). I suppose this is one way of getting rid of the fat.

But it's painful. For me it means being able to be flexible, listen to the concerns of others and realize that we are all in this together. It also forces me to bring a quality out in myself that is very useful; the ability to prioritize, and focus on what is and what is not "fat". And then, work with people to make it happen. The end result will work, because I'll make it work. And what's really critical for me, and my health, is to completely leave all of that behind when I leave the doors at work. My home life is just that, and has nothing to do with work.

If all of the above sounds like rhetorical nonsense, it's because I can't be more specific than that on a public blog. I'm sure you understand. We also realize that we are very lucky to have solid jobs where we don't have to wonder when the shoe is going to drop and it will be one of us being walked out the door. In this time, that is an amazing thing to have, even though the hours we spend at work are difficult.

What an amazing week. THANK GOD WE HAVE A NEW PRESIDENT! Obama really is about change. In less than a week, he has ordered the closing of Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, the end of torture, the notion that prisoners can be held indefinitely without a trial, and ALL the legal precedents of all the decisions made on the "war on terror" since 9/11/2001. Quite an amazing feat if you think about it.

I get a kick out of all the press reports about the radial racist groups threatening the life of Obama, as if this is a surprise. And security, supposedly because of this, has been heightened around Obama. I could have told them this, and I'm not a security specialist. I'm concerned that Obama doesn't seem to understand how much he is a target. So when I seem him walking down the street to greet the people, I'm alarmed. I say to myself, "Man, you just can't do that anymore." There's no real way to protect someone who does that. His life is now different. He needs to listen and give real weight to what his security force is telling him because right now, if anything happens to him, I don't even want to think about what would happen in this country.

I'm still trying to get to the rest of the photos from our trip to New Zealand, and I will. It's just that realities of work have set in and I have to deal with those first.

A couple of interesting reads this morning concerning the passage of Proposition 8 in California. For those of you who don't know, Proposition 8 overturned the California Supreme Court's decision to allow gay couples to get married. Here's an interesting article concerning Proposition 8.

Part of that article also talked about a map that lists all the people who donated money to Proposition 8. It lists their name, location, their occupation or business, and the amount of money they or their business donated to the passage of Proposition 8. It's amazing what you can do with Google maps. Here's the map.

Have a great weekend and an even better week next week. By the way, we had a great time in Boston last weekend!

Kent sent me a very interesting article this morning from Slate, on torture. A must read!

But even these three consequences do not in themselves bring a turning point. Whatever her reasons for speaking now--the fact that she chose to do so with a journalist whose name resonates around the globe and is indelibly associated with presidential criminality--itself changes the terms of the debate. Whether torture occurred and who was responsible will no longer be issues behind which senior members of the administration and their lawyers and policymakers can hide. The only real issue now is: What happens next?

The answer to that question takes you to a very different place when the act is torture, as Crawford says it is. Under the 1984 Torture Convention, its 146 state parties (including the United States) are under an obligation to "ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law." These states must take any person alleged to have committed torture (or been complicit or participated in an act of torture) who is present in their territories into custody. The convention allows no exceptions, as Sen. Pinochet discovered in 1998. The state party to the Torture Convention must then submit the case to its competent authorities for prosecution or extradition for prosecution in another country.

The former chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and general counsel for the Department of the Army has spoken. Her clear words have been picked up around the world. And that takes the prospects of accountability and criminal investigation onto another level. For the Obama administration, the door to the do-nothing option is now closed. That is why today may come to be seen as the turning point.

So, I say that we round up President George W. Bush, Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and I'm sure quite a few military personnel who took place in these activities or had knowledge of these activities, and put them on trial for war crimes.

The jury is still out on what Obama will do, if anything. He's talked about turning the page and "moving forward" and not dwelling on the past. With all due respect to Obama, our current President tore the hell out of the U.S. Constitution, not to mention ignoring the Geneva Convention. Does this mean nothing? How on earth can President Elect Obama ignore this?

We can't move forward until we deal with what was done in the past. If we do, then our Constitution and the principles that we say we stand for, mean nothing. If that be the case, we are no better than Hamas.

We have this ritual that we've done for years now. No matter what is happening throughout the week, we go to Charlies every single Friday morning for bagels, hot coffee, and orange juice. We do this because with our schedules, we sometimes don't see each other so much during the week. When we get home, I will sometimes have a glass of wine, or martini, and wander upstairs to get into something more comfortable for the evening, and catch up on news, listen to music, or see what else is new on iTunes. In other words, I chill out, usually in the company of my cats, who think I'm just wonderful. Then Kent comes home. We decide what we want for dinner, have dinner, and he usually watches more news while I go upstairs to see what's on TV.

We love each others company, but we are simply wiped out at the end of a long and stressful day. So Friday mornings at Charlie's is very important to us. Here's a couple of things we talked about this morning...

Airline Down
I was reading the details about the U.S. Airways flight that went down yesterday in the Hudson River. I heard about it yesterday on the news on my way home, but I don't know if anyone really realizes just how awful it could have been. Skyscrapers were everywhere. The pilot had no power, no engines. So basically, this passenger jet became a simple glider.

A few thoughts came to mind this morning about the accident. First, how really lucky the passengers on that jet were to have a veteran pilot at the helm who not only had years of experience under his belt as a fighter pilot, and passenger pilot, but also had experience in gliders. It was that experience that allowed him to make a decision that he had only a few seconds to make. He made the call, and it was the right one.

Another thing that came to mind is how most all of us don't even listen to those safety tips that are given at the beginning of each flight. We are supposed to listen, and take out the safety instructions and follow along. I don't do that. I know what they are going to say: "In the event of a water landing....", "To unlock your safety belt, simply pull up on the lever...", "If the aircraft should suddenly lose pressure, an oxygen mask will fall...". We've all heard it, and we've all ignored it.

But there is one thing I don't ignore. I always look for my exits. I always count the number of rows from where I'm sitting to that exit. I always take note of other exits, just in case the exit closest to me is blocked for some reason. I do this because it's possible I will not even be able to see the exit through all the smoke. These are prudent measures that everyone should perform each time they fly. So, I don't give my full attention to what they say because quite frankly, I could stand up and inform the passengers of all of this off the top of my head. But I do count the rows.

Hamas and Israel
I don't know about you, but I'm actually getting pretty pissed off at Israel. Early on, I understood why they were "defending" themselves by striking back at Hamas. But enough is enough. When you start bombing hospitals, and schools, when I start watching images of people carrying their now dead children out of the rubble of what used to be a school, well, you lose my respect. I understand that Hamas wants the existence of Israel to cease. But there is one truth that I believe in. Simply, you can't destroy evil by doing evil. How is a terrorist act any different from what Israel is doing now? I think they have gone way beyond defending themselves. Somewhere along the way, that line was crossed by Israel long ago.

Perhaps it's time for us to question if having Israel as an ally is in our best interests. At what point do they become a terrorist state?

Boston Tomorrow
We are heading to Boston tomorrow to just get away for awhile. I know it's going to be brutally cold, so we've opted to stay at Jury's Hotel in downtown Boston - a place that is not only beautiful inside, but has an awesome lounge in the basement at the bottom of the aquamarine lit waterfall staircase. In addition, we will be eating at the Stanhope Grille, which is rating very highly in the Zagat Reviews. The restaurant happens to be in Jury's, so we don't even have to go outside to that awful cold. It should be fun.

Friday was just a hellish day for me. I got through it fine, but the entire week was filled with stress of upcoming layoffs and such. I suppose that it's that way all across the nation.

Our vacation to New Zealand seems like a somewhat distant memory now. I have a dilemma it seems. I had hoped to incorporate our New Zealand photos into our yearly calendar, but with one thing happening or another, the calendar seems less and less important to me. Perhaps I will simply skip this year and do it again next year. It's not as if this were a normal year. I'm feeling stress over this, and I really don't have to. In most years, I'm wrapping up my year in photos by December. This year is different because I am faced with so many wonderful photos of New Zealand and wonderful memories.

So, I'm going to skip this year for the calendar. Next year's calendar will encompass what happens this year, along with the New Zealand trip. That way, as time permits, I'll simply post them to Flickr, and remember our vacation throughout the year. I like that idea. The older get, the more interested I am in making my life easier. I have so much control over that. I'm finding that life is better as I get older. It's more certain and more comfortable. Strange? I suppose part of that was my check up this last Monday. I was in the hospital briefly for a colonoscopy. The doctor gave me a clean bill of health, found on small growth but said it was benign. I know it's kind of weird talking about this so openly, but that's also part of growing older. I simply talk about what is on my mind more.

Being back is a good thing. The weather sucks, but that's part of life in the winter in New England. Last night, we braved the elements and went to the Hartford Symphony concert. They performed the Beethoven Second Symphony, along with other miscellaneous works that I won't bore you with. It was ok, but not spectacular. It was nice to get out, even though the trip there was driving through the snow. the performance was mediocre by my standards, but it's Hartford. The highlight of the evening was dinner as Costa Del Sol Restaurant in Hartford. It's always a delight to have dinner there.

Our next trip will be to Idaho in August, where we will visit Yellowstone National Park and rendezvous with the folks. I haven't been there since I was a small child. Before that, I'm sure we will make some trips here and there to Boston or NYC, and perhaps Maine.

Just like everyone else, I'm hanging in there during these stressful and uncertain times.

At the Huka Falls, the Waikato River which is normally 100m wide, is squeezed through a 20 metre wide gorge and over a 20m drop. Every second up to 220,000 litres of water gushes through the gorge and shoots out over 8 metres beyond to create a beautiful blue/green pool.

That's what some of the tour guides say about this beautiful and colorful falls. It's not nearly as impressive as Niagara Falls in terms of size, but the volume of water is astounding. The volume of water that passes through the channel every second would fill and Olympic size swimming pool.

Written on December 16, 2008

Rotorua is an interesting place in many respects. All the travel brochures say, you will smell Rotorua before you will ever see it. Rotorua is one of the largest active geothermal sites on the planet. As such, there is a very strong smell of sulfur in the air. In fact, when we checked into our hotel room, the room smelled musty and somewhat moldy. I was told that it comes from the sulfur, over time. The room looked to be spotless. So if Rotorua stinks so much, why is it a big place to visit for not only tourists, but New Zealanders as well? In a word, spas. They have some of the best spas in the world. This little smelly town has taken a negative and turned it into a big positive by boasting the spas and really taking advantage of the one thing that they have, all that heat that comes from being on an active geothermal area. In fact, there is a place that people go where they can dig down a few inches into the sand, and lay in the sand. The heat from the earth will basically give you a heated spa treatment right there. You have to be a bit careful where you dig and lay. If you pick the wrong spot you could end up with burns. The earth, after all, doesn't really have a thermostat to our liking.

We opted not to take a spa treatment, but rather spend our time taking the three mile hike around the most active thermal area, called Wai-O-Tapo, Thermal Wonderland. This was a land of sink holes, boiling mud, steaming pools of water emitting strong sulfur fumes, geysers, and pools of boiling crude oil with mud. Still, fascinating to see.

Here are are few of the photos from that area. The water really is the color presented. It comes from a variety of minerals from the earth. Just remember as you look at these photos, there were times where I could hardly breath due to the intense smell of sulfur in the air. It would really take your breath away. But as you can see, it had it's own kind of beauty about it. Everything has something to offer.

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The Champagne Pool

Devil's Bath

The Champagne Pool

Lake Ngakoro

Boiling mud

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And finally, the track of the three mile walk around the preserve. Not that if you are receiving this via email, the track will not work. You will have to view the entry on the website to see this work.

We are home, and finally situated. It's taken me so long to get back to blogging because there was so much piled up at work. Plus, it takes 25 hours to fly to New Zealand. So when I got back home, we were suffering with jet lag from hell. Actually, I seemed to be more effected by it than Kent. But I'm finally getting through some photos, so the next few entries are from notes I made along the way as we visited different sites. I wasn't always able to have Internet connectivity, so I just took notes off line with some blogging software.

First of all, our trip was a wonderful vacation. Actually, probably the best vacation that we've ever taken, and certainly the longest.

A few words about New Zealand. It's a beautiful country. It consists of two islands simply called the North Island, and the South Island. They are quite different in so many ways. The North Island is more developed but has so much to see. The South Island is less developed and has some truly spectacular sites to visit. So, as I finish my photos of the trip, I'll be posting some of them here, along with what I wrote on the day that we visited the site.

This is the entry of our visit of the Aranui Cave, right after we left Auckland.

Dec 11, 2008

After leaving Auckland, one of the places we stopped was the Aranui Cave. This was not an expected excursion. We spotted them on the map and decided that they sounded interesting. There were actually two sets of caves. One featured glow worms, which are actually insect larvae that stick to the ceiling of the cave. They emit a blue light created from a chemical reaction in their bodies. The purpose of this light is to attract insects for food. The tour consists of taking a boat ride through the caves to see the glowing larvae.

The other cave did not have glow worms, but rather stalactites and stalagmites. As you can imagine, with little light, photography in these caves is difficult. So some of the photos may seem a bit washed out or out of focus, but I think you get the general idea of the magnitude of this cave. We only had time for one tour before hitting the road, so we opted to take in this cave rather than the glow worm cave.

It's hard to capture images in limited light, but here are our attempts of some of the images from within Aranui Cave.

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