Tearful joy at the passing of the Maine same-sex marriage vote
Mano Singham
Just another Freethought Blogs site
As some of you may recall, I endorsed Elizabeth Warren for the US senate as soon as she announced and immediately sent her some money. Although I continued to support her, I was not confident of her chances. Although Massachusetts is a very Democratic state and that seat was the one held by Teddy Kennedy, the incumbent Republican Scott Brown had managed to pull off an upset victory in the 2010 election to fill Kennedy’s remaining term. [Read more…]
Last week, I posed the question of what might happen when people start believing their own lies. This was prompted by the fact that the Republican party and the Romney campaign and their supporters seemed to be willing to reject any information that went against what they wanted to believe. This election at least partially supplied an answer to my question and that is that you end up looking like a fool because at some point reality slaps you upside the head. [Read more…]
Given the ebullient mood of so many people after Tuesday’s election, this seems like an appropriate video. [Read more…]
The Boy Scouts organization in the US has been having a hard time recently. The release of secret ‘perversion files‘ of sexual abuse by leaders stretching back over decades has brought further shame to it. [Read more…]
It was truly gratifying to see that some truly awful characters lost their races for Congress yesterday.
Richard (‘a child of rape is a gift from god’) Mourdock lost 50-44% his race for the US senate in Indiana, as did Todd (‘women have magical bodies that automatically prevent rape pregnancies’) Akin by a whopping 55-39% margin in Missouri. These were the two Republicans who started out being favorites to win and then during the campaign propounded their weird and reprehensible views on rape. Their polls started diving and they never recovered, not only destroying the Republican party’s high hopes of getting a majority in the senate, but actually increasing the size of the Democratic caucus by two to 55. You can bet that the party will try and school future candidates on how to speak about rape but it may not help. These people are true believers in what they say, and will chafe at hiding what they feel is their god’s will. Their religious nuttery will leak out in one form or another. [Read more…]
The very first law that Barack Obama signed after he was sworn in in 2009 was the Lilly Ledbetter Act, named after the woman who sued her employer after she discovered that her male colleagues had for years been getting paid much more than her for the same work. [Read more…]
Before the election, there was much speculation about how evangelicals would feel about voting for a Mormon. Having contraception become a key issue also made predicting the religious vote hard.
But despite the Catholic church hierarchy pretty much declaring war on the Obama candidacy, exit polls show Catholics broke for Obama 50-48%, pretty much the same as the rest of the electorate. [Read more…]
There were some major advances on social issues on election night.
It looks like all three referenda in favor of same-sex marriage passed in Maryland (~53-48%), Maine (~53-47%), and Washington (~52-48%) with the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage losing in Minnesota (~51-48). After 32 straight ballot defeats, this was the first time any ballot initiative approving of same-sex marriage has passed in any state and such a clean sweep in all four states represents a huge advance for equal rights for gays. Furthermore, Tammy Baldwin was elected US senator in Wisconsin making her the first openly gay person to serve in that body. [Read more…]