] Virginia Harmon of Chevy Chase, Md., was born with
] Klinefelter Syndrome, where instead of the X and Y
] chromosome of males, people have an extra X chromosome.
] She was raised as a boy, but at age 14 began developing
] breasts and "began negotiating with my parents"
] to transition to a girl. At 25, she had female
] sex-assignment surgery.

] But law in Texas, where she was born, doesn't allow
] her to change her birth certificate, which still states
] that she is male-so she couldn't marry a man
] there.

This is part of an article on intersex babies which has nothing to do with this issue. This section happened to jump out at me. Here is a non gay person whose life is adversely affected by gay marriage bans. We need to remember no issue is black and white. No matter which side of this issue you are on, you need to be aware of innocent bystanders.

Gay Marriage ban hurts non gays

] The seemingly interminable questioning had already lasted
] for hours. 'I needed the toilet,' Mubanga said, 'and I
] asked the interrogator to let me go. But he just said,
] "you'll go when I say so". I told him he had five minutes
] to get me to the toilet or I was going to go on the
] floor. He left the room. Finally, I squirmed across the
] floor and did it in the corner, trying to minimise the
] mess. I suppose he was watching through a one-way mirror
] or the CCTV camera. He comes back with a mop and dips it
] in the pool of urine. Then he starts covering me with my
] own waste, like he's using a big paintbrush, working
] methodically, beginning with my feet and ankles and
] working his way up my legs. All the while he's racially
] abusing me, cussing me: "Oh, the poor little negro, the
] poor little nigger." He seemed to think it was funny.'

] Yet Mubanga, though traumatised by his ordeal, believes
] he stayed sane partly because of his growing religious
] faith, and partly because of his rapping. He has a
] provisional title for the album he'd like to record:
] Detainee . He also has a stage name - 10,007, his
] Guantanamo prisoner number. The content of his work is
] strongly political. There were times, Mubanga said, 'that
] I wanted to explode. And when I did, I tried to remember
] Allah, not to use aggression in that way. I never fought
] any of the guards, I never spat at them, or like some
] prisoners did, threw a packet of faeces. A lot of the
] time you go on to autopilot and you just have to tell
] yourself you're still here, it is happening, it is real.
] The golden rule a lot of us had is, if you don't feel
] tired, don't force yourself to sleep, stay active. That's
] why I made myself learn Arabic.

The Observer | How I entered the hellish world of Guantanamo Bay

] These take my breath away

Wow!

Tsunami - Receding waters, Kalutara Beach, Sri Lanka

] CNN will probably fold "Crossfire" into its other
] programming, perhaps as an occasional segment on the
] daytime show "Inside Politics," said Jonathan Klein, who
] was appointed in late November as chief executive of
] CNN's U.S. network.

] Klein on Wednesday told Carlson, one of the four
] "Crossfire" hosts, that CNN would not be offering him a
] new contract.

] The bow-tied wearing conservative pundit got into a
] public tussle last fall with comic Jon Stewart, who has
] been critical of cable political programs that devolve
] into shoutfests.

] "I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart
] camp," Klein told The Associated Press.

] He said all of the cable networks, including CNN, have
] overdosed on programming devoted to arguing over issues.
] Klein said he wants more substantive programming that is
] still compelling.

] "I doubt that when the president sits down with his
] advisers they scream at him to bring him up to date on
] all of the issues," he said. "I don't know why we don't
] treat the audience with the same respect."

It seems Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire got some important people thinking.

CNN Lets 'Crossfire' Host Carlson Go

] US Administration officials are preparing long-range
] plans for indefinitely imprisoning suspected terrorists
] whom they do not want to set free or turn over to courts
] in the United States or other countries, The Washington
] Post reported Sunday.
]
]
] The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency
] (CIA) have asked the White House to decide on a more
] permanent approach for potentially lifetime detentions,
] including for hundreds of people now in military and CIA
] custody who the government does not have enough evidence
] to charge in courts

Xinhua - English

Once you have recommended this link, if you do not actually donate some money, you are a jerk.

Already ahead of ya there.

Tsunami Relief

] The World Health Organization in Geneva warned on Tuesday
] that tens of thousands of people could face death from
] cholera, typhoid and other diseases.

] "The initial terror associated with the tsunamis and the
] earthquake itself may be dwarfed by the longer term
] suffering of the affected communities," said David
] Nabarro, a physician in charge of crisis operations for
] WHO. "There is certainly a chance that we could have as
] many dying from communicable diseases as from the
] tsunami."

Tsunami's Toll Surpasses 55,000

] "Southern Slavery, As It Was" removed from CCS
] curriculum.

] PRESS RELEASE (click here for printable copy)

] December 9, 2004
]
] As you may be aware, today the News and Observer
] published a rather negative article about Cary Christian
] School and our use of a small booklet supplement
] entitled, "Southern Slavery, As It Was". Within the
] article it stated, "the booklet has received criticism
] from a number of historians and that it has been pulled
] from publication because of faulty footnotes and citation
] errors."
]
] We were unaware of these findings and as a result have
] already pulled this booklet from our curriculum. Let us
] reiterate that it is always our goal in the secondary
] grades to present two sides of an argument. At no time
] has slavery ever been condoned in our curriculum. As Mr.
] Stephenson stated within the article, "Slavery is wrong,
] that's not debatable. The South was wrong about the
] slave trade."

] We apologize for this oversight and covet your prayers
] for our school.
]

CCS: News and Events

] Alright, I'm speaking as a single person here, and not as a
] married person, but let me try to take this one on anyway.
] "Marriage" is not just a legal term, it's an emotional
] *foundation* for the vast majority of adults in the world,
] that has *everything* to do with them. Their marriage is
] their center. The choice of who to marry is an enormously
] personal and powerful decision, that has ramifications through
] all parts of a person's life -- their family, their finances,
] their emotional well-being, their health, their lifetime
] goals, *everything*. Just like people wear a wedding ring
] every single day of their adult lives, they are aware of their
] marriage with nearly every breath they take. To say that
] marriage isn't important is like saying that children aren't
] important.
]
] The concept of marriage isn't just about Christianity or
] religion or conservative politics -- marriage is pretty much
] as intense a personal decision as a human being can make, and
] if many people want to defend the sanctity of that concept, I
] can't blame them.
]
] So again, I have to say that I don't think the gay marriage
] issue is just related to gay-bashing or conservative Christian
] politics -- there's a lot more at stake.

Exactly! These people feel the exact same way. Just because they are involved with someone of the same sex does not change the emotions and feelings that are involved. In fact it most likely intensifies them.

RE: The Values-Vote Myth

] The Justice Department will likely appeal a court ruling
] that declared unconstitutional a Patriot Act provision
] allowing secret and unchallengeable searches of Internet
] and telephone records

]Ashcroft, in the Netherlands to meet with European Union
]officials, said he would study the decision upon returning to
]Washington, but "it's almost a certainty it will be appealed."

]"We believe the act to be completely consistent with the United
]States Constitution," he told reporters.

]While Marrero called national security of "paramount value" and
]said the government "must be empowered to respond promptly and
]effectively" to threats, he also called personal security equal
]in importance and "especially prized in our system of justice."

Secret Search Ruling Appeal Likely