Eideard

Is your mayor in the picture?
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Mayors of about 80 U.S. cities from New York to Los Angeles to Houston are backing a campaign to remove legal barriers to same-sex marriage nationwide.

“The more support we build in our cities and states, the stronger case we can make for extending the freedom to marry to loving couples no matter where they live,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles said…at a news briefing on the issue. Same-sex marriage is illegal under California law.

Legislators in Washington, New Jersey and Maryland are pushing measures to permit the practice, while voters in North Carolina and Minnesota will face ballot questions this year on banning it. Federal law doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, which are legal in New York, Iowa, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

“Law-abiding, tax-paying families and their children deserve the same opportunities, the same rights and the same responsibilities afforded to every other family,” said Villaraigosa, a Democrat, at the briefing in Washington, where the U.S. Conference of Mayors is meeting. He spoke in support of Freedom to Marry, a New York-based advocacy group that says bans discriminate against homosexuals and infringe on their rights…

“On average in New York City, 700 gay and lesbian couples are now getting married at the city clerk’s offices” each month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “That means every month, hundreds of more parents and children are gaining the economic stability and protections that come with being a formal family unit.”

The mayor added that the change has been an economic boon for the largest U.S. city. He has said that the new law helps companies attract top talent and draws same-sex couples as tourists, including some who intend to marry while in New York…

Efforts to make the practice legal gained momentum in 2003, when the top Massachusetts court ruled 4-3 that a ban was unconstitutional. In 2004, the city of San Francisco initiated a court battle by letting gay couples wed. Massachusetts became the first state to permit same-sex marriage in May of that year.

Like so many civil rights struggles, though religious fundamentalists form the bastion of reactionary opposition, the issue of marriage equality encourages many more people to rethink the bigotry that props up the intellectual dishonesty and fear that denies equal opportunities to all citizens of this nation.

Will they continue to send the weekly checks?
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Catholic Ireland’s stunning decision to close its embassy to the Vatican is a huge blow to the Holy See’s prestige and may be followed by other countries which feel the missions are too expensive – and useless, unproductive.

The closure brought relations between Ireland and the Vatican, once ironclad allies, to an all-time low following the row earlier this year over the Irish Church’s handling of sex abuse cases and accusations that the Vatican had encouraged secrecy…

“This is really bad for the Vatican because Ireland is the first big Catholic country to do this and because of what Catholicism means in Irish history,” said a Vatican diplomatic source who spoke on the condition of anonymity…

Over time, this will be seen as only the first of many departing a seat at the foot of the papal throne.

Dublin’s foreign ministry said the embassy was being closed because “it yields no economic return” and that relations would be continued with an ambassador in Dublin.

The source said the Vatican was “extremely irritated” by the wording equating diplomatic missions with economic return, particularly as the Vatican sees its diplomatic role as promoting human values…

Promoting human values? Only if your values are stuck into the 14th Century, your concern for your flock is cemented in 19th Century politics.

A legal battle is brewing in Georgia over whether licensed gun owners should be allowed to carry firearms to churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship.

The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, heard arguments last week on a lawsuit brought by a central Georgia church and the gun rights group GeorgiaCarry.org claiming that a state law banning firearms in places of worship violates their constitutionally protected religious freedoms.

State lawyers said it was a small price to pay to allow others to pray without fearing for their safety. The panel of judges roundly criticized the suit after hearing arguments but did not immediately make a ruling…

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the Baptist Tabernacle of Thomaston, where the Rev. Jonathan Wilkins said he wanted to have a gun for protection while working in the church office. The judges also questioned how banning firearms in a place of worship violates religious freedoms…

“I think that by continuing to arm ourselves, we’re perpetuating this cycle of violence that only ends up hurting the whole society,” said Bradley Schmeling, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta. “And faith communities in particular should have the right to say no weapons in this place.”

I laugh over the crap ideology that prompts reactionary nutballs to prate about their opponents having a “hidden agenda”.

Hypocrites all.

The Roman Catholic Church reacted harshly [predictably]… to a bill proposed by Mexico City legislators that would require all couples to sign a prenuptial agreement specifying how to handle child custody and other issues in case of divorce — and estimating how long the marriage is expected to last.

Sponsors of the bill submitted this week in the city council say the proposal aims to cut down on the lengthy, nasty divorce proceedings choking the capital district’s courts, by making potential couples decide about monetary and custody issues by mutual agreement before they get married.

But the bill also says “the duration of the marriage will be bound by the terms that the couple negotiate in the familial agreement, which shall not be less than two years…”

“People can specify terms of 99 years, or ’til death do us part,’ if they think the marriage, or their lives, are going to last that long,” Carlos Torres said.

Catholic leaders don’t see it that way…

“This is a proposal made by people who do not understand the nature of marriage,” Valdemar said. “It is not a commercial contract; it is a contract between two people for a life project, and the creation of a family.”

“This denigrates the concept of the family … and makes it more like a pact between friends,” he said…

Equal friends at that. Interested in running their own lives as they see fit – instead of leaving everything in the hands of a sectarian rulebook from the 14th Century.

“We are looking for solutions to problems that are seen every day in family courts … in which there is emotional blackmail, or the children are used as pawns,” Torres said. “This would cut down of the torturous proceedings at the time of a divorce.”

The bill is meant to solve a big problem in the city of 8.9 million people, where divorce proceedings are so costly, painful and time consuming that many people just skip them and start a new family.

The Roman Catholic church has always opposed democracy and the freedom of individuals to order their own lives. The obvious decline of their power and profits speaks volumes of how that opposition has failed.

That the proposed legislation also allows for parents to agree beforehand on what religious education – if any – their children might endure is another challenge to the church’s political power. As it should.

Gaza demonstrators carrying pictures of Erdogan, flags of Turkey and Palestine
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Turkey’s prime minister planted himself at the heart of the Arab world’s turbulent politics on Tuesday, when he declared himself a champion of the Palestinian cause during a speech at the headquarters of the League of Arab States.

“Our Palestinian brothers should declare an independent state,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced to an assembly of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo. “Now is the time to have the Palestinian flag in Gaza, and the Palestinian flag should go to the United Nations,” Erdogan said to applause from the audience.

“Let us hoist the Palestinian flag to the sky, and this should be a symbol of justice and peace in the Middle East.”

Erdogan put an end to decades of relative Turkish isolation from the Arab world. During a speech that sought to highlight shared history, values and faith, he frequently referred to Arabs as “brothers.” He also addressed the sweeping political changes that are rapidly transforming many Arab countries by repeating his endorsement of the rebel Transitional National Council in Libya, which recently captured the capital of Tripoli…

In a move that is sure to win support on the streets of many Arab cities and towns, the Turkish leader continued his diplomatic offensive against Israel. “They [Israel] should pay the price for these attacks and crimes they committed,” Erdogan said, reminding the audience of the botched May 2010 Israeli commando raid against a Turkish-led humanitarian convoy sailing to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

The Turkish government expelled Israel’s ambassador this month and suspended all bilateral military agreements after the Jewish state refused to apologize or pay compensation for eight Turks and an American who were shot dead by Israeli troops…

Egypt is the first stop on what some are calling the Turkish prime minister’s “Revolution Tour.” He is scheduled to travel next to Tunisia and Libya, two other North African countries that have seen their dictators overthrown during the Arab Spring.

I don’t know enough about Erdogan to have full confidence in his new and dynamic diplomacy. Decades ago, a part of my political heart and lived and died in Turkey’s fight for democracy. He appears to have dedicated one plank of his new career to rejection of military saviors for Turkey. That could just be self-preservation. He says he is willing and ready to be the seed to coalesce all Arabs – and freedom loving sentiment – for Palestinian justice and statehood. That may be opportunism.

Whatever his eventual harbor, Western nations who have relied on Israel and Arab puppets for so many generations have a new challenge at hand. His nation is Turkey.

Reenactment honor guard of the 173rd Regiment N.Y.S.V.

With their riders dressed in pressed shirts and denim, sleek, shiny horses clip-clopped through quiet residential streets in East Austin on Saturday, headed for the starting point of the annual Juneteenth parade.

But at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Comal Street, the serenity of a weekend morning soon gave way to an ebullient street party. There, rainbow-colored candies rained from the sky, and children rushed the street to snatch them. From the back of a convertible, a teen beauty queen in a pink gown and silver tiara waved royally. Two dozen line dancers shook their hips, and seven men slapped African drums to a pulsating beat. In his parked cruiser, a police officer rocked and swayed in his seat to the bass-heavy thump of “Billie Jean,” and some of those same early-rising horses pranced in place for the thousands lining the streets.

These were just a few of the sights, sounds and rhythms of Juneteenth in Austin.

Juneteenth commemorates the bittersweet anniversary of the day — June 19, 1865 — when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger landed at Galveston to deliver the news that the Civil War had ended and that blacks were free from slavery. The news was old. President Lincoln had delivered his Emancipation Proclamation some 2½ years earlier, but slavery continued in Texas and the South.

Commemorating the struggles of forefathers and the slaves is the cornerstone of all Juneteenth events, festive or otherwise, said many lining the parade route.

“I think it’s important that we remember our history. Therefore we can always face the future,” said Rudy Hicks of Pflugerville, who with Judy Connor and her 6-year-old granddaughter Jasmine, watched from the shade of a tent outside a family member’s home. Hicks said he has attended the parade since he was a child.

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Praying together at the Council

In sharp words, a wide range of Catholics blasted their church’s leadership…at the opening of a three-day conference in Detroit that seeks to reform what they said is an outdated and secretive club of men out of touch with reality.

“They are like the Kremlin in the last decades” of communist rule in the Soviet Union, said the Rev. Hans Kung, a priest from Switzerland, in a taped address to about 2,000 people at Cobo Hall. “This system has no future.”

Kung, a widely known theologian among Catholics, took aim at the current and previous popes, calling the late Pope John Paul II “a catastrophe” whose tenure involved covering up the sexual scandals of child abuse, which he said continues today with Pope Benedict XVI.

Kung, who could not attend in person because of health reasons, was applauded by the audience, a mostly elderly crowd disappointed at what they see as the church’s rightward turn.

But they hope this conference, led by the American Catholic Council – an umbrella group of about 30 Catholic reform organizations – can impress upon Catholic leadership to change. The conference comes at a time when many are leaving the church in the U.S. and Europe.

“We cannot go on like this, ” said Kung, whom the Vatican has ruled can no longer teach theology. “It’s a Potemkin church. You have thousands of parishes without priests anymore.”

In another keynote address, Jeanette Rodriguez, a theology professor from Seattle University, praised Latin American liberation theology – which has been criticized by the Vatican – and said the church must side with the poor and oppressed.

In a statement before the conference, the Archdiocese of Detroit slammed Rodriguez, Kung, and others, saying: “All of the invited keynote speakers have manifested dissent from Catholic teachings or support for dissenters.”

Archbishop of Detroit Allen Vigneron has asked Catholics to stay away from the conference and said priests and deacons could be defrocked if they attend a Sunday mass at Cobo. But that didn’t deter local Catholics.

Will the Pope start kicking folks out of the flock – and defrocking priests and deacons as the Archbishop threatened? Or will the Vatican listen to the swelling throng of faithful seeking freedom and modernization?

Yeah, I think I know the answer to those questions – but, you may think differently?

 
Transcription: “He who warned, uh, the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms uh by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free and we were going to be armed.”

Here’s the real deal:

Thanks, McCullough

Think about all the data — photos, videos, text messages, calendar items, apps, call log, voice mail, and e-mail — on your cell phone right now. If you’re arrested, could the police search your cell phone? And would they need a warrant?

That depends on which state you’re in.

In California, it is legal for police to search an arrestee’s cell phone without a warrant — ever since a January decision by the California Supreme Court. California civil rights advocates are pushing back. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is supporting California Assembly Bill SB 914, which would require police in that state to get a warrant before searching an arrestee’s cell phone…

Meanwhile, in Florida, an appellate court decision upheld warrantless cell phone searches, defining the phone as a kind of “container.” This case may be considered by the Florida Supreme Court.

A similar Georgia appellate court decision upheld a warrantless search of a cell phone found in an arrestee’s car (not on her person).

In contrast, the Ohio Supreme Court has barred warrantless cell phone searches…

The pattern appears to be that around the U.S., some state and local police officers are taking the initiative to search arrestees’ cell phones. In some cases this yields information relevant to the alleged crime, which has contributed to indictments and convictions.

Only then do some of these cases wind up in appellate or state supreme courts in a process that often takes years.

If you’re concerned about police or anyone else getting into your cell phone, a basic precaution is to configure your phone’s security settings to always require a passcode or pattern to access any of the phone’s data or functions.

According to Catherine Crump of the American Civil Liberties Union, “The police can ask you to unlock the phone — which many people will do — but they almost certainly cannot compel you to unlock your phone without the involvement of a judge.”

Police are supposed to protect and serve within the definitions of law and Constitution. Snooping without oversight from a court – as gutless as many judges may be – is outside the mandate of American law and order.

Yes, this isn’t the first time that fear and whimpering leads to police-state solutions. Cops have been portable gangs used to suppress unions from organizing, people from protest and dissent. But, the eventual reaction from the people of this land is rejection of Big Brother as judge and jury on the street.

The close-knit community on the Mediterranean island of Malta could be on the verge of a fundamental change that may affect the very fabric of its society. In a referendum on Saturday, the citizens of this deeply Roman Catholic country will decide whether to introduce divorce.

Malta is the only country – apart from the Philippines and the Vatican City – where divorce cannot be carried out. Instead, people must either become domiciled abroad or, if one of the parties is not Maltese, they could apply for a divorce in their own country. That divorce can be recorded in Malta.

Couples can apply for a legal separation thought the courts, or seek a Church annulment – a complex process that can take up to nine years…

According to the Labour opposition leader Joseph Muscat – who is in favour of divorce – two legal separations a day pass through the Maltese courts. On top of this, the courts regularly record foreign divorces.

With at least 95% of a population of more than 400,000 being Roman Catholic, divorce has never made it past the strong religious beliefs of the Church, politicians and the public itself. But that might be about to change. Last year Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, an MP with the Nationalists, presented a private member’s bill along with Evarist Bartolo, an MP with the opposition Labour party…

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando…thinks the current system is unjust. “Malta is the only country in the world which doesn’t have divorce but does recognise those obtained abroad. Therefore, if you have the means you can get divorced but if you don’t, then you can’t.

“This, to me, is unjust and unacceptable.”

Mr Orlando sees the referendum as more than just a vote on divorce – for him it’s a debate on the Church’s role in society and the amount of political and social influence that it carries in Malta.

“I appreciate the fact that the Church should be allowed to exercise spiritual influence, but I can’t accept a situation where the Church also wields political and administrative power,” he says.

Some parishioners say they have been told by their priests that they will be denied Holy Communion and confession if they vote for divorce, he continues.

“The local Catholic Church is going to suffer, even after the referendum.”

I hope there’s isn’t anyone out there who expected the Catholic Church to be any more willing to enter modern society – in Malta – than it is everywhere else in the real world. Individual freedom to choose, to live, is not allowed the flock by its shepherds.

UPDATE: The referendum passed. Bravo, Malta!