What is your state's Freedom Index?

By Paul ValoneCharlotte Gun Rights Examiner

Some say we live in a “free society.” Others say we are marching toward communism. How free are you really? In a study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, political science professors William P. Ruger and Jason Sorens decided to find out.

“Freedom In The 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom” measures a number of variables beyond the usual economic measures, including, “measures of social and personal freedoms such as peaceable citizens’ rights to educate their own children, own and carry firearms, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure.” And why did the authors decide to study personal freedom?

“In our view, individuals should be allowed to dispose of their lives, liberties, and property as they see fit, so long as they do not infringe on the rights of others.”

Ruger and Sorens do acknowledge that different people see freedom differently, and publish raw data with an invitation for readers to construct their own personal freedom rankings by going to: http://www.statepolicyindex.com/

“We would also argue that freedom … can be threatened as much by the weakness of the state as by overbearing state intervention. Individuals are less free the more they have reason to fear private assaults and depredations, and a useful government punishes private aggression vigorously. However, we focus on threats to individual liberty originating in the state. Therefore, we do not code the effectiveness of state governments in punishing rights violations. For instance, we do not include measures of the efficacy of state police and courts or of violent and property crime rates. Thus, our “freedom index” does not capture all aspects of freedom.”

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Prop. 8 protesters the same as terrorists?

 

"...there is a real, unbroken line between the jihadist savagery in Mumbai and the hedonistic, irresponsible, blindly selfish goals and tactics of our homegrown sexual jihadists."
                  - Pat Boone, December 6, 2008

Last week, a full-page New York
Times ad equated protesters for
equality with a "violent mob."

Now, Pat Boone is calling Prop. 8
opponents "sexual jihadists."

 

Country singer and right-wing pundit Pat Boone has written a column equating the movement against Prop. 8 to the terrorists who tortured and murdered hundreds in Mumbai.

I am not kidding. This is a new low in anti-gay rhetoric.

Boone and his buddies continue to stir up fear, even if they have to lie. It's exactly how they passed the California marriage ban.

We need your help to stop the radical right from painting a movement about love and dignity as violent and radical. We need your support to stay strong, smart, and nimble, to combat these growing attacks with the simple truth: all we want is equality.

Make a donation to HRC on behalf of Pat Boone. Your gift helps HRC combat these lies – and sends the message that our call for equality cannot be silenced.

We'll even send Mr. Boone a note with your first name and gift amount to let him know you've donated in his name.

It's time to say enough to the deception and false ads that defeated marriage equality in three states and banned gay couples from adopting in Arkansas; enough to the attempts to equate peaceful protest with "jihadist savagery"; enough to the lies used to block federal hate crimes laws and workplace protections.

In the face of lies like this, there's only one thing to do: Demand the Truth – and that's exactly what we will be doing in the coming year. HRC will:

• Respond quickly and forcefully to the lies and intimidation with media outreach and grassroots mobilization, as part of an ongoing "Demand the Truth" campaign;
• Organize hundreds of thousands of activists to pass the Matthew Shepard Act and combat the inevitable misleading campaign that will be waged against us;
• Work with religious leaders to encourage LGBT people to come out in their faith communities and create venues for the voices of tolerance and love;
• Continue the march for marriage equality and relationship recognition, especially in key states where new doors are opening right now, including New York, Vermont, New Mexico, New Jersey, and Iowa; and
• Work with the Obama administration to undo years of White House anti-LGBT hostility.

To really go toe to toe with the mouthpieces of bigotry like Pat Boone, we're going to need your support.

If, every time they tell another lie, run another deceptive ad or use more fear-mongering to try and win votes and recruit new members, we respond by strengthening our movement for equality, eventually they'll realize they're hurting themselves more than they're hurting us.

But it only works if we all stand up.

Join us in demanding the truth, by making a gift in Pat Boone's name today!

What's perhaps most disturbing about Boone's rhetoric – painting LGBT people as a threat to society – is that it leads to the very real hate violence directed against LGBT people every day.

We can't stop the Pat Boones of our world from speaking their ugly lies, but together we can make sure that there's a political cost associated with this kind of hateful speech.

Warmly,

Joe Solmonese
President

 

Technorati Tags: Prop 8,proposition 8,gay marriage,glbt,human rights,marriage rights,marriage

Poll: Support for gay marriage skyrocketing

Americans find civil unions for gays and lesbians more palatable than full-fledged marriage. Fifty-five percent of respondents favored legally sanctioned unions or partnerships, while only 39 percent supported marriage rights. Both figures are notably higher than in 2004, when 40 percent backed the former and 33 percent approved the later.

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Maddow Fails to Question Huckabee On His Anti-Gay Remarks

by Ali Frick, Think Progress
When contacted by ThinkProgress, Rachel Maddow explained her reasons for avoiding the subject of gay rights with Huckabee.
Since Prop. 8's passage in California, which revoked same-sex couples' right to marry, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has been a powerful outspoken advocate of the rights of gay citizens. "The amendment does not just prohibit gay rights. It takes away rights previously enjoyed," she said. She has also called the vote a "rebuke to the incumbent rights of gay couples." Watch a mashup:



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Doesn't Matter Who Your Parents are...

Cool graphic showing that it doesn't matter who your parents are, it just matters that they love you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

StumbleUpon WebToolbar - card845.JPG

Technorati Tags: graphics,gay marriage,parenting,LGBT

Gay Marriage Legalized in Nepal

The Nepalese Supreme Court on Monday delivered full judgment regarding a ground-breaking verdict it had announced last year, recognising sexual minorities, who were among the most oppressed in conservative, patriarchal Nepali society, as being born such and entitled to all the rights and remedies all other Nepali citizens enjoyed.

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Keith Olbermann's Proposition 8 Special Comment

Keith Olbermann delivers a six-minute special comment on California's Proposition 8, reminding viewers that marriage between black and white people also used to be illegal, as was marriage between slaves. "With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division ... this is what your religion tells you to do?"



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A rough night for gay Obama supporters

By Meredith Maran - I was elated over Obama's historic win. Then I got the news that Proposition 8 was passing -- banning my right to marry a woman.

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Gay marriage supporters march in California, Utah

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Thousands of protesters took to the streets Saturday to protest passage of a measure banning gay marriage in California, authorities said.

Between 8,000 and 10,000 demonstrators began marching through central San Diego at noon, according to police Sgt. Diane Wendell. The event lasted about 90 minutes and was peaceful, with no arrests.
It was the largest of several marches that followed Tuesday's passage of Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and overturning the state Supreme Court decision that legalized them in May.
About 5,000 people turned out Saturday evening for a Prop. 8 protest in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. No incidents were reported at this protest or at the candlelight vigil that took place in Laguna Beach.

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Gay Marriage Ban Looks to Have Passed in California, but Is It Legal?

"Lawyers and marriage equality proponents are calling Proposition 8 illegal, and they may have good legal ground to stand on."
Hundreds of gay people and their allies at the Music Box in Hollywood on Election Night thundered their approval when states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio were called for Barack Obama. Like so many others around the world, gay people, anxious for change, felt the pendulum of history about to make a huge sweep in a progressive direction.

Just when we thought the voters of the US were moving forward, the voters of California take a tragic step backwards. How sad, how very sad.

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Freedom To Marry - San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, a Republican Former Police Chief...

My wife and I have been married for a little over a year. We have the privelege of being the parents of my 15 y/o son that I adopted with my now ex-husband. Also, we are fortunate enough to live in The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where same sex couples can be legally wed. Marriage is a freedom and a right that shouldn't be denied to any couple that is of legal age, sound mind and who love each other...

Under breaking news at Freedom to Marry;

At an emotional press conference, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, a Republican former police chief, announced his intention to sign a resolution supporting the freedom to marry, a reversal from his prior public opposition. Mayor Sanders said his change of heart and mind was due to soul-searching and personal conversations with gay people he knows, including his lesbian daughter, showing how powerful it is to make the conversation about real people, not just legalisms or hypotheticals. He also described how he has come to understand that his prior support for civil union, rather than marriage, was inadequate and wrong. San Diego now joins the other major California cities in calling on the Governor and State Supreme Court to follow the legislature's lead in embracing marriage equality.
Read the transcript and more here, and join the Let California Ring campaign of conversations to take your stand for equality.

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Freedom To Marry

Technorati tags: equal rights, freedom to marry, marriage rights, human rights, gay rights, lesbian rights, same sex marriage, marriage