kelleymcdonald.net Blog

My main problem with Cal Prop 8

kmcd — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:07:04 +0000

Is that it is, without a doubt, contrary to the 1st amendment of the US Constitution. Freedom of religion. There are a fair number of recognized religions in the US that perform same sex weddings and recognize same. If there was a state constitutional amendment that prohibited this, it would be the state restricting religious freedoms. That in a nutshell should be enough of a reason not to vote for prop 8 or any other ban on same sex marriages. Sarah Palin calling for things like this prove just how anti-american she is and how anti-american the entire fundamentalist wing of the republican party has become.

What I heard of McCains’ speech made me wince

kmcd — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:23:03 +0000

Talk about living in the last century.

Obama nearly reeled me in….

kmcd — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:22:06 +0000

I was honestly moved by Obama’s acceptance speech for the Democratic Party’s nomination. Until he made mention of energy and oil dependency. My problem lies in the statement “no dependance on oil from the middle east’… this is not what we need, not by a long shot, we need no dependance on oil at all. We must stop using fossil fuels to support our economy! There is no exceptions to this, the longer we continue the worse the environmental problem becomes.

Voting for Cynthia McKinney for US President

kmcd — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:15:39 +0000

Oh, I have a number of reasons for this, one is that Obama is too establishment for my tastes, he has advisors that had a lot to do with creating the sub-prime mortgage crisis, doesn’t seem to really want to stand up to AIPAC as he should if we really want to create a climate for real peace in the middle east (we should be asking Israel to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and destroy their nuclear weapons before we ask others in the region not to pursue them, and we should have them follow existing UN resolutions).

But perhaps the best reason I have for voting for McKinney is that we desperately need the Green Party to become a major party in the USA and since it appears the only way to do that is to have McKinney get >5% of the presidential popular vote, we have to support her and vote for her. Neither the Democrats or Republicans have a solution to the pending/existing crises facing the US and the people of this planet, these parties are bought and sold to the multinational corporate interests and will not do what is necessary to solve the problems, because the solutions to these problems will impact the corporate bottom line and their corporate handlers will never let that happen.

To Whom is the Bill of Rights supposed to apply?

kmcd — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:30:13 +0000

I seem to recall that this was amended to the US Constitution to protect citizens from abuses of power by the government. Given the latest flack about Berkeley California trying to regulate the attempts by the US Government in its recruiting for an illegal and immoral war in Iraq and beyond, it seems to me that the USMC has no such protections as Freedom of Speech guaranteed to them, they are the government that needs to be restrained.

Iced Mocha Latte

kmcd — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 06:31:15 +0000

At the Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa), their idea of an Iced Mocha Latte was cold espresso on top of what appeared to be vanilla ice cream. It was the strangest thing I have had in a coffee drink, but it was good.

My overall observation of NZ: A beautiful country occupied by the most generous and gracious people I have met. Indeed, their buses even said they were sorry when they were not in service. While I was there, the PM actually attended a funeral of one woman who had died because the electricity was shut off for lack of payment and she was on a respirator at the time. It totally puts “Shrub” to shame… The people there were so nice, that when I got there and the hotel was totally booked up through the 10th, the owners were even willing to put me up in their private residence if they could not find a place for me otherwise. I ask, is there any place in the US that would do that now? People just told me it is the NZ way…. this act of generosity was just normal.

Lots of photos available

kmcd — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:31:22 +0000

They are at http://photos.yahoo.com/kelleymcd@sbcglobal.net in any number of the folders contained therein. The ones for New Zealand will be posted soon as New Zealand 2007, etc.

Sitting in the Auckland Airport

kmcd — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 03:19:41 +0000

would have wrote this in Wellington, but they do not have wifi… have about 2 hours before boarding my flight to LAX. Went to the Botanical Gardens again yesterday, this time I was not so tired that I managed to go through most of it. Lots of pretty (albeit, probably not as much as there could be) roses. Up and down hills.

Watched the All Blacks play France last night, NZ slaughted the french (rugby), it was sort of a grudge match for the French team taking the World Cup from them last year. It seemed quite a violent sport, one player looked like he got at least a few teeth knocked out if not had his jaw broken. The Wellington people were ecstatic and I heard people hooting about it until 4am.

More later.

so, i don’t have to be at starbucks

kmcd — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:24:52 +0000

just need to be in the food court next to it. Went to Picton on the South Island yesterday, it was relaxing 3 hour (not to be confused with Gilligans Island) cruise on probably the biggest boat I have ever been in. 10 floors with nice seats and wonderful views.

I was very confused though because I was expecting the Sun to be on the starboard side of the boat, but it was morning and it seemed to me we were headed north? Well, it does turn out that Picton is really north of Wellington… so my confusion was alleviated. Getting to stay in the Halswell one more night, then headed back to California. Will get to SFO before I leave Auckland.

Starbuck’s is a seriously lousy place to surf the web

kmcd — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 02:52:15 +0000

Too loud…to wierd. Anyway, I will hopefully find a better place tomorrow (only here because it is a holiday and no where else was open). About to go back to the hotel…find a nice pub to have a brew or two.