Election Season!

Ah yes....the first Tuesday of November, fresh off of Halloween fever and excessive levels of sugar slowly leaving my Greek-god-like-other-than-my-well-fed-abs body....

Election Season!

I, like many others, am pretty excited to see what's going to happen in tomorrow's election. I LOVE debating, and feel like if I'm moderately knowledgeable on a subject, I'll always win, but I generally avoid hardcore backing of any specific politician. I don't consider myself particularly knowledgeable in the specifics of candidate's policies nor could I recite any political nuances of presidents' passed, so I avoid participating in heated presidential debates.

I do however think I know more about politics than probably 60% of Americans, who generally seem to be disappointingly uninformed.

I'm definitely a more liberal minded individual, so it's probably no surprise that I'm enthusiastically voting for Obama/Biden. I've watched all of the debates, and watched various coverage of both candidates, and definitely think Barack has a specific plan of attack to make this country better.

But, whenever people find out I grew up in Alaska, they reflexively think I must love Sarah Palin.

Ding Dong! Your Wrong!

She annoys the living hell out of me. Not only can I not stand her colloquial mid-western vernacular, but her policies suck, she comes off as insincere and uninformed for someone in her position, and very phony.

McCain used to be ok, but when he won the Republican nomination, his policies became much more conservative. Not to mention, his selection of Palin as his running mate is a MAJOR knock on his judgement, he's too old which puts her dangerously close to the hot seat, and his brother is a complete idiot.

People: "Oh you're from Alaska? What do you think of Palin?"

I actually haven't lived in Alaska for eight years, which by my incredibly rough calculations was about the time Palin was probably in the running for the "Miss Wasilla, Alaska Pageant."

Though I guess since the majority of Alaskan population is conservative, it's a fair assumption that I could be so as well.

The one policy of Obama's that comes to mind though, that thoroughly annoys me, is his proposition to make the United States' official languages English AND Spanish.

Ridiculous.

Listen, I'm all for legal immigration and such, but if you immigrate to a country for a better life, I don't think it's too much to ask for you to ASSIMILATE and learn the dad-gum language rather than us having to spend money to make two Damn signs for every instruction.

Quick Segue. How annoying is it when you call customer service, go to a Chinese or Indian restaurant, or go to WALMART, and the customer service rep/waiter/whoever, speaks completely broken English at BEST! You can't hire people whose JOB it is to communicate with people, who can't speak the local language. Look, I studied French for four years, but you would be a complete IDIOT to hire me to handle returns (which, in themselves somehow always seem complicated, and a line of say, four people takes forty minutes to get through)at the Walmart equivalent in Paris.

Back to your scheduled programming:

The language issue, in the grand scheme of things is pretty small though, plus I have Congress and the Senate to hopefully shoot down such a silly proposition.

And speaking of Propositions, there's a few interesting California ones, but none so polarly divided as "Proposition 8." Without looking up the exact wording, the gist of Prop 8 is a proposition to make gay marriage in California ILLEGAL thereby overriding the recently passed measure legalizing it.

With this issue in particular, I can wipe the floor with anybody debating the validity of a "yes" vote. Allow me to shoot down some key points of "yes" proponents:

1. Marriage between people of the same sex is not "natural."

Not natural to whom? Your definition of natural stems from conservative religious beliefs. "The Bible says Marriage is between a MAN and a WOMAN" Luckily, our constitution is bound by a "separation of church and state." Any mention of the big G.O.D. or religion is invalid. I this case, the word marriage is referencing the LEGAL aspect as opposed to the biblical. As is such, it should be redefined legally for our gay friends.

2. Gay marriage makes a mockery out of the sacred union of a man and woman.

Well if marriage was so damn sacred, then why are why 50% marriages ending in divorce? In Utopia, sure, marriage would be sacred and we'd all find our soul mates and live happily ever after, but who in there right mind can claim that a Vegas quicky between a man and woman in a chapel two blocks away from a whore-house with an Elvis preacher is any more sacred than the "mockery" of same-sex marriage?

3. Kids will learn about Gay Marriage in school!

Guess what. Kids learn about a lot of things in school. Murder, rape, what to do if you see a creeper playing the roll of "Touchy McToucherson." Kids SHOULD be informed about the different behaviors of society in general. Just because we learn that things like serial killers exist in the world, doesn't mean we'll become one.

That in itself is an unfair comparison, because there's nothing wrong with homosexuality anyways (as opposed to murder, rape, etc.) But, kids SHOULD learn about the world they live in: the good, bad, common, and rare.

4. What's next? Allowing marriage to animals?

My God what a terrible argument. I mean, look at what happened when we allowed Blacks and Women to vote! Animals are logically the next in line, right?

I think I've made my point. What burns me up though, is when I see kids holding up signs in support of Prop 8. They don't know any better, but their parents are hammering home their personal creed and perpetuating the same cycle of bigotry that plagued people of color not too long ago.

It is nice living in California, where a lot of people are open minded and share my views. Luckily a proposition like this will likely fail, and the civil rights movement will continue in the right direction.

Happy Voting!