ThotLog

I found it amusing. I don't necessarily feel lighter. This is likely due to losing muscle along with fat. That's one aspect of my weight loss that has really started to bother me. Then again, I'm no less active than anyone else non-obese I know, so with a normal amount of protein intake, surely I will have at worst a 'normal' amount of lean mass. My arms and legs look as good as they ever have, but without constant exercise I feel they are weakening. But since I eat very little protein lately, I've stopped doing any sort of strength training.

Die Beetches

So this beetle infestation has gotten way out of hand. I handvac about 10 of them a day, and even more than that appear on sticky traps laid around the house. I'm now out of sticky traps, but Amazon has some more on the way. I did some research into our intruders, and from what I can tell, they are black ground beetles. Supposedly harmless, but there's just too many of them running around.

What I read was that they live outdoors. Could have fooled me. I went to the store and found a big bag of stuff that said it killed ground beetles in addition to a bazillian other things, and carpeted the area around the building, especially outside our door and windows. I don't know when I should expect results. Not today. Very hopefully the pests don't embarass us at the UFC tomorrow.

UFC at Adam's

It looks like people are actually going to show for my UFC get-together, which is good because my girlfriend plans to cook a lot of delicious food. This event is going to cost us over 200 dollars. Some of the stuff we bought like towels, pillows, and TV trays are reusable at least. Still, it's only 160 to go out of town to my brother's for it. Maybe in the future we can keep it to 100 or 120. I would count leftovers as saving money, but that doesn't really apply to my current lifestyle.

Gay Marriage The Non-Issue

The entire argument about whether gay marriage should be banned or allowed is retarded. There's no debate to be had, only a series of logical steps to a definite conclusion. Let's begin.

1. The first amendment establishes separation of church and state on all conceivable levels. Religion must not be shown favor or given special treatment by the government.

2. The arguments made against gay marriage are either that:

a. People are against it.
b. It goes against religious principles.
c. Civil unions are good enough... for gays.

3. Something either IS something, or IS NOT something. In this case we must decide whether or not marriage IS religious, or IS NOT religious... and:

a. If marriage IS a religious institution, then the first amendment prohibits the government from taking any measures to respect or impede it. Obviously it's done the former already and is now attempting the latter. If it's a religious institution, then this practice is quite clearly unconstitutional.

b. If marriage is NOT a religious institution, then it CAN be a governmental one where rights are given to spouses and qualifications for tax code purposes etc. At the same time, it would be a violation of civil liberties to deny couples marriage, including the title of marriage, in order to provide equal protection under the law.

4. In either case, all three reasons for banning same sex marriage are thwarted. Civil rights are not bound by what 'people want', and if a religious institution, the churches themselves have the sole power to decide who to marry, not the government. Unless marriage were somehow declared a non-religious secular practice that confers NO benefits or change in legal status to either partner, any attempt to impede a same sex marriage is unconstitutional.

Obviously benefits are granted, AND it is a religious institution. Ideally the government should remove all law concerning marriage, but at the very least it should pretend to preserve separation of church and state by allowing individual churches alone to determine what persons shall marry.

I find it ridiculous that this is even an issue today. Am I stupidly missing something, or just the one clear-thinking individual left? I say that because even those pro gay marriage do not seem to offer the arguments above.