Today is the first full day of legalized gay-marriage in California, and I have already reach the point of saturation with all of the news about it. The situation is very sad to me. Not only did the state of California circumvent the will of the California electorate, they have now sanctioned the legal union of same-sex-couples as "marriages".

To me, gay couples who think that they can "marry" someone of the same sex is kind of silly. Marriage is the combination of two things that compliment each other. You don't marry chocolate with chocolate, you marry chocolate with peanut butter, or chocolate with cookie dough. I think of marriage like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If all you've got is two jars of peanut-butter, you don't have a PBJ. You've got something else.

To me, all the courts did was redefine what "is is". I think we've gotten so vain as a society, that we are willing to fool ourselves just to feel good in the moment. Any two people can enter into a contract, but to me, only a man and a woman can enter into a marriage, a relationship of complimentary strengths and capabilities.

You would think that we, as a society, would have more respect for God's order. The power the God has put in our hands to create life is a huge responsibility, and marriage is ultimately the framework designed to protect and nurture children. To twist its intention and turn it into a political agenda or some sort of Godless contractual agreement is, to me, extremely haughty and without fear of God.

Of course, I have sometimes acted without fear of God in my life. All of us have sinned. But when you institutionalize something like this, the societal shift will cause repercussions that we can't even imagine yet. To me this is a grave concern.

Labels: Politics

All of this talk of taxing the eeeeevil oil companies for their ill gotten gain made me wonder how much money they are actually making. So I looked up the "Estimated Gasoline Price Breakdown" on the State of California's website, and was shocked!

I found out that the eeeeevil oil companies are actually GROSSING LESS money than the government is profiting!!

Here's the breakdown:

Branded
	June 2, 2008
Distribution Costs, Marketing Costs and Profits (Oil Co)	$0.01
Crude Oil Cost (Pure cost)	$3.04
Refinery Cost and Profits(Oil Co)	$0.51
State Underground Storage Tank Fee (Government cost)	$0.01
State and Local Sales Tax(Government)	$0.31
State Excise Tax(Government)	$0.18
Federal Excise Tax(Government)	$0.18
Retail prices(total)	$4.24

So if you add up the Oil Company potential profits, the MOST they could profit on a gallon of gas is $0.62 per gallon. Of course, they have to truck the gas to their stations, hire drivers, hire station attendants, own trucks, pay rent, etc. etc., so their profit is likely just a fraction.

The government, on the other hand, makes $0.67 per gallon, and all they have to do is collect the money.

So who is gouging Americans? The Federal, State, and Local government are killing us! About $12.00 of your gas tank is pure tax.

Think about that before you think about hating the eeeeeevil oil companies.

Labels: Economics, Politics

With gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon, Senate Democrats want the government to grab some of the billions of dollars in profits being taken in by the major oil companies.

Senators were to vote Tuesday on whether to consider a windfall profits tax against the five largest U.S. oil companies and rescind $17 billion in tax breaks the companies expect to enjoy over the next decade.

"The oil companies need to know that there is a limit on how much profit they can take in this economy," said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, warning that if energy prices are not reined in "we're going to find ourselves in a deep recession." - H. JOSEF HEBERT, MyWay News

The Senator is either foolish or is simply using this opportunity to advance his liberal agenda. His groups of Senators are pushing to "punish" the oil companies for making a mere 7% profit by increasing taxes on them?

Anybody who understands economics knows that a tax on oil companies is, in effect, a tax on consumers. The oil companies ARE going to make money. Corporations EXIST to MAKE MONEY. So if the government is going to impose higher taxes on the oil companies, those same oil companies have no choice but to pass on their higher costs to you and I as we fill up at the gas pump, buy Airline tickets, and buy milk at the grocery store.

Higher taxes on a commodity producers cannot, will not, never will cause the cost of their commodity to fall. Clearly, this is just a ploy by Durbin and the US Government to try to grab billions of dollars on a short term scheme that will, in the end, punish the least fortunate Americans.

What I don't understand is why we are waiting on more minute to slash taxes on oil companies on investments and profits they make on domestic oil sold to American markets. We should encourage American oil companies to pump American oil, mine American shale, and sell it into the American market.

Exxon, Shell, and their ilk are making a lot of money, yes. But they aren't making obscene profits. Seven percent profits are not excessive. They are not to blame. Instead, OPEC, Venezuela and their ilk are to blame with their subdued production. Make no mistake, the Saudis and the other Islamic oil countries are doing whatever they can to take down the West economically.

Americans have to give up their hate of American oil companies. They aren't the criminal here. The American government combined with hostile oil producers like OPEC are to blame in my book.

Labels: Economics, Politics

William F. Buckley Jr., seen in March 1976. Initially a journalist, he founded the conservative journal National Review in 1955 to air his political views. In 1973, Buckley was a delegate to the U.N. General Assembly.

Labels: Politics

The last several months have been a time of personal growth and change for me. I have been digging myself out of a hole of pessimism for a while now. I have lived as a pessimist for a long time. Part of that is the fact that I a nerd who likes politics, and that arena is full of liars and injustice. I found that spending so much time focusing on the ills of our government and the political world was really taking its toll on my mental attitude.

As we head into an election season, I am going to be challenged to not get emotionally invested in what is happening, and just learn about the candidates I can support and vote for them. Maybe it will be easier this election, because I am not in favor of any of the candidates. It basically is going to come down to voting against Hillary, and I have to just live with that reality.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27/NASB

I'm going to try to stay emotionally divested from politics, and try to redirect my time, my passions, my emotions to things that are far more worthy: my marriage, my community, and trying to somehow break out of my comfort zone and really fight for God's kind of justice. I realized that I was more passionate about being a conservative that being a Christian sometimes. This is a normal pattern of American Evangelicalism, though. But I don't want to be part of the "radical Christian right", I want to be a "radical Christian".

But I'm not a radical. Not yet. But what if I were? How do I change? How do I get there?

Labels: Christian Life, Politics, Social Justice