Category: life

Concerning Proposition 8 in California

Wherin I debunk homophobes

My parents forwarded me the video below, they and a great many of our family friends are Latter Day Saints (Mormons).  I couldn’t watch the video and not respond back to them (all of them sending the letter below to about 100+ people who had the video forwarded or CC’d to them.  As I get replies from them I’ll post their emails and my responses back.  If you don’t understand some of what I’m saying, don’t worry I’m just arguing church doctrine with them, but hopefully there won’t be too much of that

The terrible video:

My Response:

I’m sorry, but I couldn’t watch this and not reply to it.  The CA supreme court’s ruling was not a whim, it was a very strict reading of the California and federal constitution.  The reasoning of the California Supreme court was the same reasoning behind the Federal Supreme Court’s decision used to strike down the anti inter-racial marriage laws of the 1960’s (more info here).

As we all know “separate but equal” by its very definition is not equal. The Supreme Court decided in 1967, “These statutes also deprive the Lovings of liberty without due process of law in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”

furthermore the California constitution specifically states in Article 1 Sec. 8 (b) ” a citizen or class of citizens may not be granted privileges or immunities not granted on the same terms to all citizens…” the judges weren’t imperialists they were strictly interpreting the State’s and federal constitutions.

I will not participate in a proposition that denies equal rights under the law to a small subset of people, regardless of how I may personally feel about those people’s actions… In fact I will fight against any such proposition as any act which limits the freedoms and rights of my fellow American, limits my own.

Sincerely,

Jonathon Howard

It’s like the slowfood movement but for your head…

thoughts on cutting out excessive internet consumption

Computers can be such a time-sink. You don’t have any idea how much time you spend in front of the screen until you start documenting it…  Think a food journal but for your digital consumption.  Have I done this? No, I don’t need to, I already know it’s far too much of my time.  I’m thinking of moving all of my writing to an analog system, simply because I can’t overcome the temptation to waste my time looking up random bits of information on wikipedia or metafilter. Worse is the useless task of checking my email or RSS feeds every five to ten minutes.  These endless small chores eat away my time until I have none left to do the things I actually want to do!

I thought that working at a desk, in front of a computer for 8 to 10 hours a day would fulfill my need to use the device, but as soon as I get home I flip open the laptop and start it up to see just what has happened in the last 45 minutes.  I think I, and those like me, need to admit that we have a problem, an unhealthy obsession with the device and the vast information it serves as a portal to.  The constant hovering over my computer in the hopes of catching some small bit of information (99% of the time interesting but useless to me) is keeping me from the deep sources of knowledge, experience, culture, inspiration and wonder that fill my small bedroom.  My addiction keeps me from my friends and loved ones, worst of all, it is keeping me from myself.  I’ve come to believe that the constant search for “self” is largely driven by a small niche of our consumerist culture (the self-help one that leaves you feeling like someone else or no one at all, and the inability to take responsibility for our actions.  I believe that we can improve ourselves but that is a topic for another day though…)  Back on topic.
The Internet is a useful means, a great tool, but only one of many that we should use in our daily lives.  When it becomes an end, when it only serves to keep us enmeshed in it, it is time to step back and reevaluate what it is we are intending…

Best of all though is that the Internet (and computers) doesn’t provide with anything that can’t be obtained in a more “traditional” way.  Friends and family can be contacted with the phone, or better yet, through thoughtful written correspondence.  Research can be done at your local city, county, or university library.  Games can be played on tables and boards.  These slower approaches have been eclipsed by the convenience of the Internet, but at the same time much of the cerebral process, the thoughtfulness of them, has been bypassed as well.

Just a thought anyway… There might be more to it than that, I am going to be moving to a notebook, and not just for idea capture, for writing though. I can’t sit at a the computer without being distracted by the thought of something else going on on-line that I might be missing while I write.  This destroys flow terribly.

Goals, the Importance of Writing Them Down, and My Own

Setting goals, writing them down, sharing them, and my own!

It’s important to have goals, to set bars for yourself, why? So that you know just where it is you’re going, and how best to plan getting there. Sure, you could go through life without setting goals, writing them down, etc… But, I have a feeling unless you have a great memory and a lot of drive, those goals, dreams, and aspirations will be forgotten.  Writing your goals down is one thing, making them public is completely different. When you write a goal down it becomes something separate from yourself, it becomes real, not just in your head, sharing those goals with others is the next step in making that goal real. Making it independent of you. When a goal is something real it hangs over you more, it creates guilt, and despite what your therapist tells you, guilt is a great motivator, it can and is a good thing (especially in this instance.) Some place you can go to make your goals public? Well your own blog, your journal, a club or organization you belong to, or if you don’t have any of those go to 43things.com.

So here are my goals, set into 3 groupings, 1 year from now, 5 years…, and 10 years… This list will grow and shrink, I’m sure as my life changes, priorities rise and fall, and I go through the business of, you know, living. But here it is now, and I’m dedicated to crossing off every single one of them, so that in 10 years time I can make a new list and begin working on it. I’ve printed this list out, signed, and dated it and it now looks at me everyday, posted on my bulletin board, a not so subtle hint to be working on crossing things off of it!

My goals, To Be Done in:

  • 1 Year:

    • Start Career in politics

    • Scuba Diving License

    • Be enrolled in graduate level program

    • Be engaged

    • Submit work(s) for publication

  • 5 years:

    • Be married

    • Have graduate degree

    • Run for office

    • Be published

    • Be Debt Free

  • 10 years:

    • Have a family

    • Own a home

    • Have a retirement plan in place

    • Be a force for good in politics

    • Continue to be published

I commit myself to reaching and overreaching on these goals I’ve set for myself.

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