Gay Marriage is Contagious

On Nov 4th 2012 The U.S made history passing same sex marriage votes in three states altogether. In 2012 Same Sex Marriage was legal in 9 states and the District of Columbia (DC). 2012 was the year with the most legal same sex marriages votes passing in the U.S.


In 2010
Only 5 states and DC allowed same sex marriage in the U.S
and 10 countries allowed same sex marriage in the World

In 2013
12 states and the DC allow same sex marriage in the U.S
and 14 countries allow same sex marriage in the world


Most of the new countries and some of the new states occurred in the past few months. If Prop 8 is overturned we can add one more american state to the list, and in the next 2 years same sex marriage will be voted on by another dozen something states, which all look poise to pass same sex marriage. Including Ohio the swing state which will hold a vote overturning it's constitutional ban on same sex marriage.

But most importantly 3 out of the 4 new countries all occurred in the past couple months. The developed world and even the developing world is jumping on the ban wagon. Same Sex marriage is legal in most Brazilian States, Finland will soon have a vote that will easily pass, and even religious countries like Israel will have a vote in 2 years to legalize same sex marriage (And multiple major parties are in support of it)

In short this decade will be the great leap in Gay rights throughout the world, and we will most likely see in 2020 a most developed countries in the world legalize same sex marriage.

Survival of Israel is Dependent on Palestine

Firstly, I would like to thank my co-blogger, Vanillaman for having reposted the Avaaz video. This will help us bring our message of hope to the world. I will now proceed to criticize a few parts of vanillaman's post.

In his post, he mentions that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are actually legal. Maybe they are. Yet, it's irrelevant whether they're legal or not. That can be argued à la Monty Python and that would be extremely pointless. The real question is: what is the point of the settlements? Vanillaman's answer: defense of Israel. But, these settlements have existed ever since Israel took over the West Bank in 1967. These settlements have done nothing but enrage Palestinians and rightly so until they turned hostile. If the settlement's weren't there, maybe there would be more chance for peace.

These settlements are counterproductive and could make Israel lose an ally.

One more argument for an independent Palestine

My last argument for an independent Palestine is the survival of Israel itself. In a short amount of time, the number of Palestinians living under Israeli control (Gaza, West Bank and Israel) will be greater than the number of Jews living in Israel. There will be a choice to make. Maclean's magazine explains it better than me, so I will quote my favourite parts here as it is a long article.

Their country will either be Jewish, but not democratic — in other words, a Jewish minority will control a land mostly inhabited by Palestinians — or Israel will be democratic, but not Jewish, because Arabs will form the majority in what will become a bi-national state.

[...] Still, the consequences of Israel's victory — namely the settlement of occupied territories — have frustrated prospects for peace in the decades since. And now, with Israel perhaps irreversibly entangled in the West Bank, these same fruits of victory threaten Israel's future as well.

[...] Matar is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state and believes Israel must annex the West Bank and Gaza. When she is asked how Israel could continue to exist as a Jewish state if Muslim Arabs were the majority, she looks genuinely surprised by the question. "I'm not going to give them voting rights," she says.

[...] Our road home skirts the Israeli security barrier. It has been credited with dramatically decreasing the number of terrorist attacks inside Israel, though Palestinians decry it as a land grab because much of it runs inside the West Bank, essentially attaching territory captured in 1967 to the rest of Israel. Mohamed doesn't think the wall has much to do with security because, he says, he's able to cross it at will.

[...] Most Israelis favour a two-state solution.Israel's diverse political landscape, which results in perpetually fragile governing coalitions, makes it difficult for politicians to move this agenda ahead, even when there is a genuine will.

Read more at Maclean's. 

Palestine is the Best Bet for Peace

An independent state for Palestine is the best way to create peace in the Middle East. Since the creation of Israel in 1948, violence has never stopped, fueled by hatred on both sides. Then in 1967, Israel took over the remaining Palestinian land and subsequently started building settlements to take up the land and resources, squeezing the inhabitants into small pockets. Obviously, when foreigners take over one's land, one isn't too happy about it.

And neither are the Palestinians. That's why they fight against Israel. Because they are living in bad conditions and have no sovereignty. Having their own state will solve that problem. By removing the settlements, there will be no more reason to fight. Hamas will lose its importance as they would receive a victory far greater than any other achieved by violence. And the rebuilding would begin.

Using a UN General Assembly resolution to make an end run around potential negotiations and create a Palestinian state is not a new idea, of course. It’s exactly what was done in 1947, under strikingly similar circumstances, and the resulting Palestinian state became known as Israel. That experience taught us a lot about the hazards of statehood by declaration from above – and about its occasional necessity.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

No-Fly Over Libya

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously on a motion to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. They have also authorized countries to do anything they can to protect civilians in Libya from attacks by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's army. This could clear the airspace for strikes on Gadhafi's tanks and ground troops.

Dropping bombs on this dictator's troops and armor would be a good way to help end his reign of terror without getting directly involved in the war. We should not not put lives in danger to fight with the rebels, but we must help them while maintaining safety and help them transition to a fair, democratic government.

The UN Security Council has voted on a resolution that would not only impose a no-fly zone but authorize member states to take all necessary measures to protect civilians from attacks by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces. 

The vote late Thursday was 10 to zero in favour of the measure with five abstentions, including Russia and China.

Read more at CBC.

Related articles

• U.S. hints at Libya air strikes as Gadhafi pounds rebels (cnn.com)
• UN council votes for no-fly zone over Libya (thestar.com)

Secret Toxins

For years, the Quebec government has not revealed what is in one of the most toxic dump sites in Canada, the Mercier lagoons. Yet, there are people living right next to these toxins and government after government has not found it necessary to inform the people living there. I would like to see Jean Charest sleep in a garbage can for twenty years. There have been two studies done on what is in those lagoons and they have used any excuse to be exempt from a Quebec law that says that the population must know what is in those lagoons. This information must be made public. It is our right to know.

Twenty years is a very long time for the Quebec government to deny the residents near the Mercier lagoons information about what exactly lurks in those dumpsites, known to be one of the most toxic in Canada.

Read more at the Montreal Gazette.

Seven Billion People

By the end of 2011, it is expected that the world population will exceed seven billion. With more people in the world, we must plan. The world's problems will grow larger if we do nothing. We must ensure access to clean drinking water and make sure we do not waste, as our fresh water reserves are just going to decline. Probably most important of all, we must invest in cleaner, greener energy. Seven billion people are going to need more energy than ever before and peak oil looms. The tar sands are a symbol of our desperation to find oil. This non-conventional way of exploiting oil shows how far we have to go to get our oil. We must shift the economy to use alternative energy that will not peak and at the same time, does not pollute as much.

The Free Speech Shield

Pearl Eliadis exposes the right's argument of free speech. There should be some exceptions to free speech, such as hate speech or defamation. It's obvious why defamation is not legal: because it's not fair to people when false claims are made against them. Hate speech too. It incites violence against certain groups. Speech like this should not be tolerated and that's why we have the courts: to remove the  "rights shield" for hate speech and defamation. And it's not censoring: these are fair limitations on free speech. As long as you don't accuse someone without any basis and with false information or promote violence against a certain group, you're free. That's fine with me.

This does not make the Superior Court of Justice a "censor." What it does is to remove the "rights-shield" from defamatory speech, thus protecting Vigna's rights and, for that matter, the rights of anyone similarly situated. The point, to borrow a phrase, is that people's reputations and rights should not become roadkill on the path to free speech.

Read more at the Ottawa Citizen.