No DOMA, flash of light

Yesterday I was very happy that the Supreme Court ruled against the Defense of Marriage Act from a federal level, making the concept of equal marital rights being offered to all gay individuals one step closer to reality.  This doesn’t green light gay marriage nationwide however.  Our wonderfully hated governor already made a point of reiterating that Florida’s 2008 legislation defining marriage as being only between a man and a woman will continue to be in effect, regardless of the Supreme Court ruling.

On Facebook I mentioned my support for the ruling and how I hoped someday the discrimination against gays will look similar to other things in US history like allowing women to vote and abolishing slavery.  My point was throughout history, civilization has evolved.  Many things that people would not lift an eyebrow about 100 years ago seem beyond comprehension today.  Evolution is a good thing.

To me, allowing gay people the same marital rights/benefits as everyone else seems like a total no brainer.  Who exactly does it harm if two people of the same gender decide to marry each other?  I have yet to hear any logical argument against it that makes any sense.  The only argument that is thrown against gay marriage is based on religion, normally that the bible explicitly is against marriage being anything but a man/woman union.

My personal opinions on religion aside, I would instead like to point out the inconsistency of using the bible as the foundation of this belief.  If the you are going to say that what is in the bible is what should be the law of the land in 2013, then I think it is reasonable that ALL things in the bible should be followed as well.

Take a look at these 13 things that are also directives out of the bible, I am pretty certain that anyone reading this has broken many of these tenants, many times.  My point is selectively using the bible as justification for a stance where convenient is hypocritical.  You can’t have your cake and eat it too. More scary bible directives can be found here.

Last night my neighbor called me to ask if I was having phone problems.  Evidently there were a number of lightning hits in our neighborhood yesterday and they lost their phone and a number of other electronic items were messed up.  I was worried my house which is teeming with electronic items would sustain heavy losses.

Unlike my neighbor, I no longer have a hard line phone connected to my house, a common pathway for lightning to get into your place.  As far as I can tell, all of my stuff was unscathed besides having to set the time on a couple digital clocks.

Both my neighbor and I escaped the bad storm much better than a construction worker that was working on a house on our very same street.  He was struck by lightning while getting down from a scaffolding.  It took him out.

Having someone die in such close proximity to the house from the lightning that is so common place in Florida was a bit of a wake up call.  I have had many sessions of working around the house outdoors when storms were on top of me.  In a weird way I always have thought that going down in a flash of white light would not be all that bad of a way to go.