Grassroots Mobilization

I'm up to my old tricks again, by which I mean posting about something that comes courtesy of Andrew Sullivan (who in turn got it courtesy the Political Science Weblog): It seems that grassroots mobilization campaigns increased voter turnout by 7%. I find this encouraging, even if the study specifically found that MoveOn.org and other lefty-loons to be effective.

First, I haven't had time to read the entire article, but I would guess that they do not provide data suggesting how that extra 7% voted. Although, the article did mention that both parties exceeded their voter turnout goals. Meaning, part of that 7% may well be folks who saw MoveOn doing its thing and though "uh oh, those hippy liberal pansies are mobilizing. I'd better get out and vote too!" (Please note that "hippy liberal pansies" were their words not mine. You don't believe me; I can tell). Similarly, some may have been folks who listened to people more of like mind with me and thought "uh oh, those gun nuts are coming out in full force, I'd better go vote!"

Second, I like to see grassroots work effective; it captures democracy to my mind. We have groups educating constituents about issues, and encouraging those constituents to vote, and they do! What is most exciting, is that grassroots seems to work even in high-stakes elections, where voter turnout would be higher anyway.

Finally this is encouraging because we "the little people" can have more of an impact at the grassroots level than anywhere else. I don't have enough money to hire a lobbyist to go to Congress and persuade Representatives to vote against gun control, for example. Even by joining the NRA and paying my dues, I am only barely participating. But I can spend a weekend or two as part of a grassroots campaign talking to "Ordinary People" about the value of self protection and encourage them to vote! Sure maybe the two or three people I get to vote may not have a substantially or statistically bigger impact than my $35 NRA membership dues, but it allows me to to control the message that I am sending. I'm not sure I know or would even agree with all the things said on behalf of my membership dues, but I do know what comes out of my mouth. Besides that, it allows me to participate actively in the political process, and encourage others to do the same.

I used the example of gun rights, but really I have another cause in mind. It shows me that I can tell people "Hey not all Republicans are homophobes" and "Hey, not all gays are liberals," and maybe, just maybe, they'll listen.

The Third Thing

Traditionally there are three topics that one doesn't talk about in polite company: sex, politics, and money. I'm pretty candid about politics. A coming out blog involves sexuality, even if I am less forthright about actual sex. But I don't talk much about money (apart from public economics), and I've never brought up personal finances before. I have recently set a few financial goals, and I believe that sharing goals is the first step in achieving them.

1. Upon starting my actual job (should be a little more than a year from now, scary!) I will contribute the maximum to my 401(k). I mix my 401(k) with a U.S. market index fund and an international index fund. Since I am young, I am going to push my risk threshold and also include a growth fund.
2. Furthermore I am going to have a portion of each paycheck automatically deposited into a short term savings vehicle like a money market fund. Why?
3. Within 30 months of starting my job, I want to own my house. The automatic savings will be for my down payment.
4. Although I want to get out from under my student loans, I am not going to stress about them: just make the minimum payments, maybe more. The thing is educational debt usually has the lowest interest rate going, so while I don't want to get behind, I don't have an urgent need to pay it off ASAP.
5. Then presto chango, 30-40 years later I want to be financially secure. By this I mean able to retire and maintain my standard of living. It would be nice to be Bill Gates, but I'll be content just being comfortable. Maybe.

The good news: I am a student and my lifestyle is not exactly enviable. I consider this the "paying my dues" phase of my life. I have a tendency towards thriftiness and although every so often I engage in a little retail therapy, I live like a student. I drive a sensible car (used from my parents); I am an experienced bargain shopper; and I have no dependents other than my dog. Most importantly, I am confident that I can live within my means, and for a few years well below it.

The bad news: My student loans comprise the entirety of my credit history. Speaking of student loans, I have a lot of them. I'm actually afraid to know how much. I have never balanced a checkbook (though to my credit, I have never overdrawn!). Though I living like a student means I live fairly cheaply, it also means I rent and have no assets other than consumer goods.

I think my most ambitious goal is number 3. Thinking about it, I realized I need to improve my credit rating now. I figured the way to do that is to build a positive credit history, so I opened a Banana Republic Card (do you want to save 15% of your purchase today?). I made some purchases and am paying them off in a timely manner (which to me means before the crushing interest rate kicks in). I like Banana, so I'll probably make a few more purchases. Then in a few months, I'll trade up to an actual, can-use-everywhere card. This is scary to me. I grew up listening to Dave Ramsey in the car on the way back from school, so for years I feared credit cards, and only use debit type CheckCards. Or rather I feared how easy it is to abuse credit and create a financial nightmare. Nonetheless, it'll be tough to reach goals 3 and 5 without building a more positive credit history. I'm pretty sure that I can be disciplined enough to use my cards wisely, but they make me nervous nonetheless

Prince of India

So having just engaged in a discussion about how sad it is that we in this country care more about celebrities than actual issues, I went over to check out Perez Hilton. We all have our vices (besides I am in the midst of an US Weekly Pool Supplemental Draft--I need ideas!).

However, something of relative import showed up there: The only son of the King and Queen of India is gay, and was disowned by his family when he came out a year ago. (Please note: I linked the source article instead of Perez Hilton's post. It is more illuminating):

Homosexuality is against the law in India, and can be penalized with ten years to life in jail. Singh Gohil has become both the voice and face of those persecuted for their sexual orientation. Not only has the Prince publicly fallen from grace, but his mother has publicly disowned him, and his place as the next King of Rajpipla was in jeopardy.

* * *

Though his coming out was met with disappointment and outrage, Singh Gohil has adopted a noble cause, educating people about homosexuality and HIV/AIDS prevention.

"I came out in the newspapers openly that I'm gay and basically [because] I wanted to show to the world that even a prince can be gay," he said. "I wanted people to discuss homosexuality, which was always considered a taboo and a stigma… it's been existing in India but no one talked about it."

* * *

"There is a lack of awareness," Manvendra [Singh Gohil] explained. "The purpose of my coming out openly is for a cause, for a good cause, for the control of HIV/AIDS."

Anyway, for those of you who may have followed my politics v. policy discussion on DtB, I assure you that I consider opening minds in a homophobic culture and educating people about HIV and AIDS to be very legitimate foci of public discourse--Prince Singh Gohil's efforts have the potential for positively affecting many and hopefully those effects will outlast him, me and you.

the Fourth

Today is the most important day of all; within and without our movement.

Because to any true American, there is no more important declaration, I reproduce here the tear jerking words of Thomas Jefferson.

I do love America, and I especially love our Freedom. "Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall," still brings me chills. Regardless of what the gay orthodoxy says, Ronnie will remain in my heart as a hero. It is that freedom that will eventually give use equal rights with others.

Nothing can ever compare, but nonetheless, we have this awesome example.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

The other side of the coin

Smoking bans in bars have a cost that often get ignored by the Mommy crusaders: Smokers stop going to bars, and the entrepreneurs suffer.

Before you say " no one cares about them anyway, those filthy cancer-spewing polluters," think about this: you are going to a bar to drink a poisonous mind-altering substance, and, if you are lucky, to have the shot at contracting a sexually transmitted disease, but you still want to be free from second-hand smoke? Protect those lungs from cancer, never mind the liver and genitals!

As for the "overall results positive" section of the linked article, I don't buy it because it is speculative and vague. Furthermore, even if it turns out to be a good thing for businesses (doubtful), there is no need to use the power of government to help out the bars. I thought lefties were against corporate welfare.

Scooter Libby

I suppose I should say a few words. So here they are: hinkle finkle dinkle do.

I really don't care enough about this situation to form an opinion.

Pride and Shame

June was Pride Month for GLBT folks (July is Pride month for all Americans!), and as I mentioned before, this year marked my first attendance at Pride Events as an openly gay person. I had been to a couple pride events in years past, but in my own mind, I attended as an anthropologist ("isn't it odd how even the fat ones take of their shirts?") not a participant.

I must say, that despite my concern that the Mardi Gras atmosphere may be counterproductive (and indeed leading to my inability to settle on whether Pride in ti's current form is good for us a "community" or not), I had a darn good time. After all, I am young; I like parties. Sure I may worry what the Fundies think of the bronzed and toned boys dancing on floats in their underwear, but in the meantime, I like looking at them. And talking to them!

It was refreshing to be around so many other gay people and supporters. Even when I was behind the table at the Log Cabin Booth, the vast majority of people who came up were very respectful, and many said something like "I'm a registered Democrat, but I still admire your courage in both the gay community and the Republican party." The whole weekend I got my taste of the relief of being out of the closet. It encouraged me to continue on this path.

But then my parents visited. Right back into the closet I went, almost subconsciously. I won't say that I am a huge projector of my sexuality (my voice is an anchorman's articulate baritone, not a femme's high-pitched lisp), but I do have a few stereotypical "tells" (crossing my legs at the knee, my choice of music), which I downplay around my parents. I didn't talk about any of my non-work friends, and even implied that I hadn't made any. The entire time they visited I could feel my face wanting to scowl, which was as much to hide any expression that may seem gay as it was a response to my discomfort.

That said, I do love my parents, and honestly I think I was more annoyed at myself than at them. Everyone who has taken the plunge tells me that it is much better on the other side of the mountain. Pride gave me my first real taste of that. Now I know more that than intellectually, I have experienced the relief of not hiding part of who I am. Nonetheless, my shame about being gay to my parents doesn't seem like it is dissipating. I found myself wondering if it was possible to be out where ever I end up and not ever affirmatively telling my parents (I determined that at some point my parents would realize that a lawyer doesn't need a "roommate," and my mother, as is her head-on way, would ask me directly). I have decided that this past visit is not the kind of relationship I want with my parents. Coming out to them is now all but inevitable. I just need to summon the strength.

Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has encouraged me so far; particularly my online friends Matt, Phil, and Jason, and my in-person friends Nick, Karen, Sean, Marcia, Alan and Allison. Hopefully I'll finish what I've started here.