Only the second state in the Greatest Democracy Ever to make it legal for Gay Men & Woman to marry. In a 4 to 3 decision, the California Supreme’s noted that while there is a civil registry, union in place, it simply is NOT ENOUGH of a guarantee. Kind of says it all, doesn’t it?

But in the justices’ recent 4-3 decision, they stated that domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage. (source - CBC News)

Now you just know that the religious right wing nuts will be out in force seeking a Constitutional Ban on same sex marriage, because after all, the Rule of Law doesn’t count in the United States, least not when it comes to pushing their own narrow religious views on the Minorities of the country.

Rather sad that, but in all honesty, how can it be anything but Marriage?

If people want to be kept safe, to have their rights guaranteed, the only safe way is to insure that it can’t be trampled on by future legislation, or that if someone does want to, they’d have to make it universal. Now we know that isn’t going to happen, which is why it really is essential to have it as Marriage.

The California Supreme Court, narrowly, saw it that way too. After all, isn’t the precept, One Law for All?

It is an interesting question. I mean where does your right of privacy end, and when does your right to not incriminate yourself also end?

At issue here is the case where an ‘alleged pedophile‘ was caught with loads of images of really young children. However, the files are protected by an encrypted password, and the issue at hand, is can this person be forced to reveal that password, or is it a violation of the USA Constitution?

Now Boucher is caught in a cyber-age quandary: The government wants him to give up the password, but doing so could violate his constitutional right against self-incrimination by revealing the contents of the files. (source)

There are a couple of interesting twists to this as well. The ‘defendent‘ claims that he does download porn, but that on occasion, the downloads include ‘child porn‘ which he doesn’t keep, but deletes. Yet he is charged with transporting illegal pornographic images of Children across international boundaries. While they have no evidence, there are files behind an encrypted access, that may contain such evidence.

So the first twist is, does he have to reveal the password, which could incriminate him?

Here is the second twist, he is a Canadian Citizen, living in New Hampshire. And why I call this a twist, is that he is a Foreign National, being given protection Under USA Laws. Now while he isn’t a terrorist, you have to ask yourself, why does someone who might be committing vile crimes against children, warrant protection under US Laws, but those Terror Suspects are PREVENTED from such equal protection?

This basically is my whole problem with US Justice. It isn’t applied equally to ALL PEOPLE, but is applied in a rather RANDOM MANNER. Surely that isn’t what was intended by the founding fathers, was it? And then too, this guy lives in New Hampshire, while those being detained in Gitmo were BROUGHT TO THE USA. It isn’t like they walked on over across the Mexican US Border, so they were UNWILLING VISITORS.

Which begs the question as to why the USA believes it has the right to detain them, without any legal council, due process or anything. Yet is willing to give such rights to a possible pedophile?

Something is a bit out of whack here.

I find it hypocritical that while the United States Military cannot be involved in domestic affairs, as was highly detailed during the whole Katrina Nightmare, that this same Military barred from such interference, can however spy on citizens and compile records on them. It smacks so much of George Orwell’s 1984 that you have wondered what part of that novel is fiction, what part reality.

It also makes you wonder just what else is lying hidden among the corridors of that odd shaped building in Washington?

In February, 2006, the DoD acknowledged in a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee that it had ‘inappropriately’ collected information on protestors but did not name any of the organizations. (see Story)

Has the system of Justice totally gone? Is it totally disintegrating before our eyes, as I mean think about what has gone on over these last few years. You have the secret prisons around the world run by the CIA, the holding of foreign nationals at Gitmo, without legal remedies, you have illegal wiretapping on all citizens, and you have the FBI using administrative warrants improperly. That is just some of the things and now the Military is building up dossiers on local citizen groups that oppose the war, or the DADT policies?

What is next?

Vice Presidents give out names of spies, and maybe it is naive of me to even wonder about all this. But I do. I mean isn’t our society, Canada and the United States, supposed to be the Good Guys? Aren’t we supposed to hold higher values, ethics, morals, than the other nations out there? I mean isn’t that why we are the targets of Terrorists, and isn’t it our Rule of Law that separates us from the tin pot dictator regimes out there like Hugo Chavez and deposed tyrant Saadam Hussein?

If so, how then can any democracy tolerate the abuses above? Surely our Rule of Law has to survive even the attack of terrorists, or else we are simply no better than those who blow up buildings and send out murder bombers. If we can’t hold ourselves to these higher standards, how can we expect to even think of winning the war on Terror? If there is no difference, are we simply not spinning our wheels, spilling blood needlessly?