Eideard

George P. Spencer of Lyndon Center, Vt., died in 1908 at age 83. His epitaph is inscribed on the sides of a granite monument:

“Beyond the universe there is nothing and within the universe the supernatural does not and cannot exist. Of all deceivers who have plagued mankind, none are so deeply ruinous to human happiness as those impostors who pretend to lead by a light above nature. Science has never killed or persecuted a single person for doubting or denying its teachings, and most of these teachings have been true; but religion has murdered millions for doubting or denying her dogmas, and most of these dogmas have been false.”

Rock on, George!

Thanks, Ursarodina

Dangerous band of Insurgents

In Vermont, the federal government plans to seize a farmer’s land to build a $5 million border post on a quiet country road. The community is fiercely opposed, and the Department of Homeland Security is under fire for planning expensive projects that some say isn’t needed.

The hamlet of Morses Line is just a dot on the Canadian border in the small northern Vermont town of Franklin. A quiet country road leads to the existing brick border station at the edge of a hayfield.

In about two hours on a recent afternoon, one truck and two cars go by. One was a Customs officer arriving for his shift.

“Last night was a little busier because you had bingo at the church in the neighboring town,” says Brian Rainville. The land the U.S. government wants is part of his family’s dairy farm. Rainville goes through a box full of documents and pulls out the architectural drawings for the new border post.

“So we’re looking at putting in a storm water pond, a traffic turnaround, covered parking, three designated traffic lanes, two stages of radiation detectors, a two-story building with a fitness center on the second floor. It all strikes me as a little much for Morses Line,” he says.

“I’m not quite sure how Morses Line, with a traffic rate of 2 1/2 cars an hour, is a matter of national security and utmost budgetary importance…”

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They will be watching Juan Carlos Guzmán-Betancourt very closely at his jail in Vermont.

The last time the silver-tongued Colombian conman with a taste for the high life was locked up he walked out of a British prison after persuading the authorities to let him go to the dentist on his own.

But after illegally crossing the border from Canada, the man who British police have likened to the legendary US conman Frank Abagnale, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film Catch Me If You Can, now faces the prospect of up to eight countries and the US state of Nevada asking for his extradition…

The Colombian has at least 10 identities and has been pursued in Canada, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela. He’s been convicted of larceny in Virginia and New York and credit card fraud in Florida, and deported from the US three times.

RTFA. I can never resist reading about a good con.

Excluding Congress of course.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Wedding bells are ringing for Bill Slimback and Bob Sullivan in Vermont today. The two men are among the first same-sex couples to legally marry under a new state law that took effect at 12am.

Vermont is now the fourth state in America where gay marriage is legally recognised. The other states include: Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa. Gay marriage will be legal in New Hampshire on 1 January 2010.

Same-sex marriage in the US can only be recognised at the state level due to the Defence of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996 and defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman…

Slimback, an out-of-work Teamster, said the longtime couple has been “waiting for a chance to actually solidify” their relationship. He said: “It feels wonderful. It’s a day I have been long waiting for, and a day I truly honestly thought would never come.”

Meanwhile Vermont-based Ben&Jerry’s has temporarily renamed their popular Chubby Hubby ice cream to Hubby Hubby to commemorate the new law.

Ben&Jerry’s CEO Walt Freese said: “The legalisation of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont is certainly a step in the right direction, and something worth celebrating with peace, love – and plenty of ice cream.”

Rock on, Vermont!

Sooner or later, the rest of the United States of Bigots will come along and join the land of freedom.

Daylife/AP Photo

The Vermont Legislature today overrode Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto of a bill allowing gay couples to marry, mustering one more vote than needed to preserve the measure.

Approval had been expected in the Senate, where the vote was 23 to 5. But the outcome in the House of Representatives was not clear until the final moments of a long roll call, when Rep. Jeff Young, a Democrat who voted against the bill last week, reversed his position. In the end the vote was 100 to 49, just slightly more than the required two-thirds majority of members present.

After the final tally, cheers erupted in both legislative chambers of the State House and in the hallways outside, and several lawmakers on both sides of the debate looked stunned.

“It’s a great day for equality,” said State Representative Margaret Cheney, a Democrat from Norwich. “People saw this as an equality issue, and we’re proud that Vermont has led the way without a court order to provide equal benefits.”

Reactionaries who have focused on this as a single-issue plan for a neocon resurgence are mumbling in the corner looking for someone to blame.

I’m willing to bet most Vermonters are bright enough, well-enough educated to see the virtue in supporting Republicans as well as Democrats who believe in civil rights.

Gay and lesbian couples before the Vermont Supreme Court
Daylife/AP Photo

Gov. Jim Douglas has vetoed a bill to permit same-sex couples to marry in Vermont, citing his belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman. The veto was announced shortly after the state Senate voted to concur with a same-sex marriage bill passed last week by the Vermont House.

In his veto message, Douglas said Vermont’s civil union law “has afforded the same state rights, responsibilities and benefits of marriage to same sex couples.”

“Our civil union law serves Vermont well and I would support congressional action to extend those benefits at the federal level to states that recognize same sex unions,” he said.

The House and Senate are expected to try to override the governor’s veto. The Burlington Free Press said the state Senate is expected to override the veto but it was unclear which way the House would vote.

The House voted 95-52 last week in favor of the legislation but it would take 100 votes to override a veto.

In fact, there is a move afoot for all the New England states to create a safe haven from homophobic law. Why not? New England was the core of the Underground Railway movement in Abolitionist days before the Civil War.

BTW – Vermont was the first state in this land to outlaw slavery.

Vermont’s largest city is tops among U.S. metropolitan areas by having the largest proportion of people — 92 percent — who say they are in good or great health.

It’s also among the best in exercise and among the lowest in obesity, diabetes and other measures of ill health, according to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This New England city of 40,000, on the shores of Lake Champlain, is in some ways similar to the unhealthiest city — Huntington, West Virginia. Both are out-of-the-way college towns with populations that are overwhelmingly white people of English, German or Irish ancestry.

But there the similarities end:

The cultures are significantly different, too. Bicycling, hiking, skiing and other exercises are common in Burlington. Neighborhood groups commonly focus on improving parks, working in community gardens and repairing and improving sidewalks.

And though college staples like pizza are common, healthier foods are also popular. Grass-fed beef is offered in finer restaurants, vegan options are plentiful, and the lone downtown supermarket is run by a co-op successful in selling bulk rice and other healthy choices to low-income residents.

Burlington is helped by the presence of IBM and other employers offering more generous health benefits and corporate wellness programs.

Independent left-wing politics ain’t bad either.