Why Marriage Equality is an Important Issue

My music teacher has been married for thirty years.

      Just this summer, his husband became sick.  For the last eight months, my lessons have been sporadic as my instructor has been in and out of the hospital with his husband. 

       Yesterday, the Friday of March 29^th, his husband went into surgery to have the infection removed from his leg.  My teacher apologized for having to cancel my lesson again, and I told him that I understood, he needed to be with his husband through such serious surgery. 

        To my surprise my teacher informed me that he wouldn’t be by his husband’s side, he would be in the visitor's room or even, after nine PM, waiting in the parking lot for the visitor hours to reopen the next morning.  Directly after his surgery, only family members would be allowed to visit my music teacher’s husband.

       See the problem is my music teacher’s husband is not actually his husband.  As a gay partner in a state that doesn’t recognize any forms of same-sex marriage, my music teacher doesn’t qualify as a family member, and would be forced to visit his husband only as a friend.

           Does that affect his husband’s likely hood to survive the surgery?  Probably not.  But the mental hurt that must he must feel, not being allowed to see the person he is closest to after his surgery, may have a very real effect on his recovery.  Any heterosexual couples in this situation would take it to court, many gay couples however, have come to accept the fact that they are second class citizens in the eyes of the law.

          And that is what needs to change.  It’s not about the tax benefits or divorce protections that come with the label of marriage, it’s about the label itself.  It’s the difference between living as two really close friends, and living as a single married entity. 

Support DOMA

Or the gays will procreate and come rape our women and churches.

Genetic Engineering

Genetic Engineering isn’t as complex as it sounds. 

      

Regardless of how different two species appear, their genetic composition is largely the same, which means that specific genetic traits are compatible in a variety of different hosts. Mice have been modified with the gene from a firefly to glow in the dark like a light bulb.  These mice experienced no harmful effects, because mice DNA and firefly DNA are hardly different at all.  The gene for luminescence continued to function properly, simply using a mouse as a medium instead of a lightning bug.

        

Humans share 98.5 % of our DNA with chimps, approximately 85% with zebra fish, around 36% with fruit flies, and about 15% with mustard grass.  All living organisms are closely related. 

       

Usually people don’t imagine animals being genetically altered, but in reality, research into animal modification is well underway and cows that deliver pharmaceuticals in their milk have already been developed.     

Picture of luminescent Mice: http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/2009/05/14/glowing-animals-gallery/ 

Amusing Website for Shared Genes:  http://genetics.thetech.org/online-exhibits/genes-common         

Are genetically engineered foods dangerous for your health?  No.  Genetic modification is a way of speeding up a completely natural process; unless geneticists were to purposefully engineer crops to be toxic, tweaking the structure of the plants won’t harm us.  Despite this, and because of public outcry, genetically engineered foods are forced through rigorous testing before being sold.  Genetically modified foods are actually the safest options on the market because they are screened for afflictions that slip by in traditional crops. 

      

Why then, is there so much opposition to genetic engineering?  Well, one explanation is that genetic engineering poses a very real risk to the environment.  Sometimes, crops are modified to be so resilient they spread beyond farmland and take over local ecosystems, destroying bio diversity.  As a solution, scientists have engineered modern crops to not reproduce independently so that they won’t spread beyond where they’re planted, but this has proved unpopular among farmers who are then forced to buy new seeds every year. 

         

Sometimes genetically modified foods are engineered to be resistant to a specific pesticide.  After they are planted, their fields are then doused with massive amounts of that chemical, killing off everything besides the intended crop.  This, as you can imagine, is not the most environmentally friendly use of genetic engineering.  On the bright side, in recent years scientists are moving away from that by developing crops with natural insect repellent inside of them, so that pesticides will no longer be necessary.

       

Gradually we are becoming more aware of the tools’ environmental implications, and we are engineering to avoid them.  Our world is home to seven billion people, and organic farms are not efficient enough to feed us all.  Rather than choke our fields in chemicals that are potentially harmful to ourselves and the environment, why not invest in something that has the potential to coexist with the natural elements of our world?   

Anti GE source,

“What is Genetic Engineering?”  ucsusa.org.  2003.  Union of Concerned Scientists.  Web.

February 24, 2012.    

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/science/what-is-genetic-engineering.html   

Pro GE source,

“Food:  How Altered?”  enviroment.nationalgeographic.com   Ed. Jennifer Ackerman.   2012. 

The National Geographic Society.  Web.  February 24, 2012.  

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/food-how-altered/

  

Women In Refrigerators: Part 2 of Why I Hate Feminists

A few days ago, I watched a YouTube video explaining the Women in Refrigerators phenomena.  The speaker in this video, Anita Sarkeesian, basically stated that pop culture is evil because a common occurrence in stories (this study focused on comic books), involves women being brutally murdered to set the plot for their male counterparts to avenge them.  Sarkeesian also complained that when male superheroes die, they tend to come back to life, whereas the women are never revived. 

     
Now I don’t have a problem with this study as a whole, I agree, though less common than the rescue damsel in distress cliché, the avenge mother/wife card is overused.  However, there is a very good reason for this.  Comic book authors want to deliver the best story possible, and there is nothing that develops a character like killing off his girlfriend.  Why do men come back and women stay dead?  You might ask.  This answer is even easier, in super hero comics, usually the male superhero is the main character.  You can’t kill him off and expect to keep making money.  Maybe if Women in Refrigerators had looked a little closer they might have realized that sexual equality in superheroes is pretty standard in series that don’t follow a single individual, such as X-men or The Avengers.  Of course, there’s always the question of why aren’t there more female leads in superhero comics….again the answer falls back to authors trying to deliver the best product.  It’s easier for a male cartoonists to identify with a male subject and write a good story from a male’s point of view.  Also, the comic reading demographic is largely male, and a protagonist of their same sex is general appeals to them more.  So in the end, in this particular case of sexism, I don’t believe it’s the oppressive grip of a patriarchal society that causes of super heroines to be brutally murdered, but actually the fault of females themselves.  Less females read comics, so in turn less females write comics, and as a result we have less female protagonists and more chopped up in the refrigerator. 

        
      In reality that was just a little thing that set me off, and probably wasn’t worth the rant I wrote about it.  Still, it is just one of the examples of failed feminism I would like to point out.  

Women in Refrigerators Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DInYaHVSLr8

Women in Refrigerators Website:  http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WomenInRefrigerators

A Crisis of Sexism and Why I Hate Feminists

Anyone who doesn't believe sexism is the most old world, closed minded part of our culture is kidding themselves.  Sexism makes present day racism and sexual orientation discrimination appear unimportant by contrast.  And yet, despite its omnipresence, the outcry against sexism is one of the most flawed, non-progressive battle cries I've ever heard.

      Feminists focus on the wrong things.  They rail against pornography and sports, but often excuse women who cook all day, or schools that separate young men and women.  It’s a complicated mess, as anything so ingrained in our culture becomes when you try to unravel it.  The worst part though, is the women who try to pretend like they are the victims of sexism.  Women are not blacks, or Jews, or Gays or any minority at all.  It’s 50/50. Sexism goes both ways, and both men and women are equally responsible for its existence.

The Problems with Sexism

1)      Segregation in schools.  I live firmly by the belief that, “Segregation never brought anyone anything except trouble,” Paul Harris.  Even though that quote targeted racial segregation, the same applies to sexual segregation.  I understand its practicality in certain circumstances, such as public restrooms, but separating boys and girls for something as important as their education can only lead to inequality. 

2)      Changing acceptance standards to accommodate females.  I believe true, hardcore feminists will agree with me here.  There’s no reason women can’t perform at the same level of men, unless it’s a test of physical strength in which case women should either bulk up or get out, but not ask for the weights to be lowered. 

3)      You can’t pick and choose.  If there is perfect sexual equality in the workplace and domestic life, which I hope will one day be the case, there are certain privileges women must share with men.  We are past the age of letting women off the titanic first (as if their lives are more important than ours).  We are past the age of holding the door open for them (that should be reserved for the elderly or disabled, or actually anyone if you’re a polite person).  And we are past the age of paying for women on a date.

4)      Women don’t feel more pain than men.  Yes, domestic abuse is terrible.  Slapping someone isn’t domestic abuse.  Or, if it is, than every time a woman slaps her husband for saying something inappropriate she should be locked away. 

5)      Sex, pornography, and mini skirts.  Showing skin is not a sign of sexual oppression, quite the opposite.  Throughout history, the most powerful and free willed women have come out of cultures where sex is casual.  Sexually objectifying women on the other hand, occurs in places where women are viewed as sexual inferiors (in terms of the amount of pleasure they experience).  Places where genitals are mutilated and men tend to keep women covered up so that other males aren’t distracted by ‘their’ property.  If you see a woman walking around barely clothed, you may be offended, but in terms of sexism she is taking a stand against a culture that has forced women into dresses for generations. 

6)      Don’t look down on Muslims.  Sure, Burka’s may not be the most open minded thing, but it is exactly the same way in this country.  It’s illegal for women to walk around topless isn’t it?  Why’s that?  Males can walk around without shirts on, is it just about the breasts?  Should we make really fat men wear bikinis?  What about flat-chested women, is it okay for them to be half naked?

7)      Being a mother is not the hardest job in the world.  A ditch digger has it worse.  Mothers aren’t angels, and women aren’t the only ones capable of raising children.  A devoted father can replace a mother just as easily, and women should not only allow but insist on this.  They need a break now and then, and they shouldn’t have to clean the diaper every time the baby poops.   

8)      Guys need to be accommodating.  If your wife works, you can take the dinner shift every other night, or maybe clean the bathroom, or possibly help watch the children.

9)      Sexisms starts in childhood.  The damage is done before they even learn to read or write.  As soon as the doctors stick the boy babies in the blue ward and the girl babies in the pink one, they are on the path towards sexual segregation.  Young girls become obsessed with princess movies and play with dolls.  They learn to depend on men and raise children.  Young boys look up to male remodels who are assertive and fight their way through adventure movies.  Boys play with Lincoln logs and bouncy balls, which give them a head start in problem solving and hand eye coordination.  I think parents need to be a little more observant when their children are maneuvering infancy.