A Layman's Views on Gay Marriage

I have been reading comments around the internet regarding the SCOTUS Gay Marriage ruling since it was announced. Some comments come from friends of mine, and some don't. Some comments imply that this is a struggle for the civil rights of the LBGT community by claiming gay marriage is protected by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Some comments imply that this is an attack on religious liberties, also protected by the US Constitution in the 1st Amendment. Of course there are some comments that are obviously driven completely by emotions and have no logical or common sense foundation. Whichever side you agree with in this debate, your opinion does not make you racist, bigoted, evil or any other derogatory term that can be applied to your beliefs. Racism and bigotry are either taught or they are learned responses to life experiences. For example, an African American child isn't born in fear of a Confederate flag. The child is either taught to fear it and hate it, or the emotions are created in response to experiences the child has throughout his or her life. The flag itself is no more racist than the white sheet is before it is turned into a KKK uniform. The only way an object can be racist is if it is used in such a way as to promote racism. So, if we can put all racism, bigotry and hate aside, here are my views on homosexuality and gay marriage.

The last straw for me has been the news and comments surrounding the event in Kentucky where a county clerk, Kim Davis, made a decision not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples by claiming it to be against her religious beliefs. The comments have been numerous both in her favor and furiously against her actions and against her personally. Kim Davis has been arrested; however, she was not jailed because her refusal to issue gay marriage licenses was against the law. She was arrested because a Judge ordered her to issue marriage licenses and she refused. She was jailed for contempt. Let's be perfectly clear here: There is NO law, Federal or otherwise, that says a county clerk must issue marriage licenses to gay couples requesting them. Everything related to gay marriage hinges solely on an opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States. Let's discuss the decision made by SCOTUS.

I think most people who agree with the SCOTUS opinion on gay marriage also think an individual's religious liberty should NOT be considered when making decisions regarding gay marriage. They are most likely the same people who applaud Kim Davis being arrested. Unfortunately, they all seem to be missing the glaring and most simple point of all of this. This is not whether homosexuality is right or wrong. This also isn't about whether Christianity and its beliefs are right or wrong. This is fundamentally about the rule of law--the "law of the land"--the intent of the Bill of Rights, which is to limit the powers of the federal government over the people of the United States. Ours is a country with a Republican style of government. We are a representative government where the people should have the final say in the laws governing this country through it's representatives in Congress. In today's society, it seems as though we are governed solely in regards to the SCOTUS interpretation of how the 14th Amendment can be applied to any case before it. How is it that so few realize how disastrous this is for the future of our country? How can it be considered acceptable that a few men and women, so obviously guided by their own political views, emotions and public opinion, are now supplanting the elected officials voted into office?

In the simplest terms, if a "right" is not provided for by the first nine amendments to the Constitution, then the power to determine such rights should be up to "the States respectively, or to the people". Amendments that followed the first ten amendments were used to clarify the Articles of the Constitution. At least this was the case until introduction of the 14th Amendment. This Amendment was written, passed and ratified by the States to ensure that slaves freed by the 13th Amendment were offered the same rights as any other citizen of the United States. This one Amendment is the foundation for the divisiveness that exists between all diverse people in this great country. The intent of this Amendment has been perverted by SCOTUS over and over as they contradict themselves through their mis-interpretation of it. It is the fault of the drafters of this Amendment by not making it as absolutely specific as they possibly could while preserving the future rights of all people and the States respectively. As such, this single Amendment to the Constitution, whether intentional or not, has given the Supreme Court ultimate and overriding power over every citizen of this country while at the same time abridging freedoms provided by the Bill of Rights.

There is no language within the 14th amendment discussing homosexuality or the right to practice it; no language defining marriage or providing it as a right offered to every citizen in the US; no language specifically defining the naturalization of immigrants or their children (naturalization is specifically provided as an enumerated power to Congress in Section 8 of Article 1); no language providing for a right to privacy; no language providing for abortion rights; rather, it is a vaguely written amendment allowing for total power by the judicial branch of government where laws are created by the majority opinion of 9 activist judges rather than a two-thirds majority of Congress as is actually the written law of the land--The United States Constitution.

So, if you truly set aside your emotional ties to the debate, any feelings driven by racism, bigotry or hate or any feelings driven by religious beliefs. If you follow the rule of law as found in the US Constitution, it should be clear that any decisions related to the legality of homosexual marriage should be decided by the people of the United States via the only way all citizens can truly be heard--the ballot box.

Making External Storage Usable

As most of us early adopters of technology have realized, our devices have gotten smaller and more portable. While it is much easier to move around with these smaller devices, we ultimately must become accustomed to smaller file storage availability. I wonder how many people are delaying the adoption of thinner, lighter devices in an effort to retain the large amounts of storage available in the two inch thick ten pound clunkers that they lug around every day? Well, I think I have a convenient and dependable solution. 

In my case, I have both moved away from the large and heavy laptops as well as deserted the Windows operating system for Mac OS. I now use an Apple MacBook Pro 15" with the Retina display. It was actually a difficult decision between the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and the MacBook Pro. After all features were considered, the deciding factor that sent me down the left sidewalk to the Apple store instead of the Microsoft store to my right was the few extra inches of screen size (I also didn't need a touch screen).

So, I get my new MacBook Pro home and begin the transition process. Everything was great... that is, until I began my foray into the Mac OS application testing process. Slowly, but surely, my 250Gb SSD began to lose its free space. I could see that I needed to make a decision. I was either moving everything to the cloud or to external storage or both. I decided to start with external storage.

My largest storage consumer is my music library. I quickly moved my iTunes directory to the external drive. Additionally, as my son expands his venture into the DJ and music production hobbies, what was originally a large library of MP3 files is now organized next to an equally large library of .WAV files, music stems and sound packs that work with Ableton Live and Serato DJ. I have found that this is ultimately a great solution. And since I've implemented the solution, I've also discovered a few tips to make the solution even more convenient.

First of all, I chose the Toshiba Canvio Slim II Terabyte drive. It is a very low-profile external USB 3.0 hard drive that is actually very quick and responsive to file requests. The only negative experience was the fact that I had to remember to remove it from the special pocket in my laptop bag and plug it in before attempting to play music in iTunes. That became a bit irritating. My fix for this involves three items:

1. A plastic cover for the MacBook Pro. This cover is a two-piece DOW polycarbonate material that provides great protection to the aluminum surface of the MacBook. The case is the iPearl mCover, and can be found on Amazon.
2. Velcro! A strip of Velcro on the external drive and a strip of Velcro on the back of the MacBook Pro iPearl cover is all you need to keep the Toshiba Canvio firmly and securely in place.
3. Finally, you need a USB 3.0 cable that is not 3' to 6' long with a standard connector. While the USB cable that comes with the hard drive will work just fine, it can actually get caught on a laptop sleeve or laptop bag during the packing and unpacking of your device. The more it gets caught on something, the less secure the USB cable is in the USB port. I found that a 90 degree down angle USB 3.0 cable, at a length of 1', works great for this purpose.

Now, I have a long-term solution for the smaller SSD drives that come standard in the lighter and smaller computing devices popular today. Until cloud storage becomes as easily accessible as an $80 Terabyte external drive, I am perfectly happy with my configuration. Hopefully, this will help someone else that may be in a similar situation.

Here are a few pictures of my solution:

Does Anyone Have Manners Anymore?

Okay. I've put up with this for long enough. No longer will I witness this level of rude behavior and not call out the culprit. Here's what I'm venting about. You're walking into a place of business. There is someone walking in just before you. Why doesn't the person in front of you glance back to make sure they are not letting the door close in someone else's face? Here's another one that is just as bad. You're leaving a place of business, and someone else is walking in. As you leave, you notice the other person and proceed to hold the door open for them to walk in. Is your decency and politeness returned? Absolutely not! A "Thank you" would be the ideal response, but, at the very least, a simple gesture of appreciation would be acceptable. From this point forward, I will voice my displeasure in such rude behavior.