The Supreme Court Has Brought About An Unexpected Texas Wedding Boom

A week ago if I saw that which you see here in the Seattle Times I would have screen capped it and added it to my list of bloggings about things I see in west coast newspapers that I would never see in a Texas newspaper.

But, starting yesterday, items like you see here, from the Dallas Morning News, are showing up in newspapers all over Texas.

Yesterday morning, June 26, 2015, 82 year old George Harris and 85 year old Jack Evans became the first same sex pair to get themselves legally hitched in Dallas County.

Meanwhile, yesterday a Fort Worth policewoman became the first to get married to her now former girlfriend in Tarrant County.

On Friday same sex couples were showing  up in large numbers at county courthouses across Texas. It is sort of amazing how a ruling by SCOTUS could have such an immediate impact.

What's next on this common sense train America seems to be on? Universal decriminalization of marijuana? Amnesty for those in prison for some marijuana crime? Actual Universal Health Care like other advanced nations have?

And what's next for Texas?

Does Texas have any sort of recall the governor type deal to be used when the people realize they have elected a clueless moron?

The 2012 Election Is Over With Marijuana Legal In Washington While Texas Gets A Lot Of Republican Judges

Well, another election fades to history.

At some point in last evening's return viewing I decided it could wait til morning for me to learn who was going to be president for the next 4 years.

Thirty years ago if a science fiction movie was about the election of 2012 and that movie envisioned the high tech future of coverage, methinks that movie's viewers would have thought all that high tech gadgetry was totally far fetched. And really cool.

But, the reality 30 years after 1982 is that the TV news people manipulate info on giant i-Pad like devices, whilst the viewers at home sit with their smart phones and tablets that do the same thing, on a smaller scale.

My old home state had a couple interesting items on the ballot. Initiative-502 had to do with legalizing recreational use of marijuana. Referendum 74 had to do with letting anyone get married who felt the need to get married. Also known as same sex marriage.

I-502 passed. R-74 is in the process of passing. I don't think it has been called yet. My guess is within a year you will be able to go to your sister's wedding to her girl friend in Washington and smoke pot while watching the ceremony.

I got a letter from my favorite aunt this morning, she being my dad's sister. Among the items in the envelope was an article my aunt snipped from the Washington Post titled "Posturing in Texas validates the world's autocratic regimes." Referencing this article, in her letter, my aunt wrote, "Only in Texas."

The article was about idiotic comments made by the Texas State Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding international election monitors, with the Texas AG threatening to have them arrested and criminally prosecuted.

I do not know what other Referendums and Initiatives were on the Washington ballot this year. Usually there are quite a few, in addition to local bond issues for various things, like a new school or a water works project like Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Billion Dollar Boondoggle that the citizens of Fort Worth have never been allowed to vote on.

There were zero state-wide Referendums or Initiatives on the Texas ballot. I don't recollect ever seeing such a thing on a Texas ballot. Are Texas citizens not allowed to collect signatures on a petition  to put an issue on the ballot?

Voting in Texas is very odd. I suspect others who have voted in other states, prior to voting in Texas, have thought the same thing.

The oddest thing, to me, is you really do not get to vote on all that many things on a Texas ballot. Like I already mentioned, no Referendums or Initiatives to vote on, no approving or disapproving of something like legalizing gambling or legalizing marijuana use or legalizing same sex marriage or any other thing or building a bridge or a football stadium or a useless pond and unneeded flood diversion channel.

In Texas you get to vote on an incredible number of judges, most of them Republicans running unopposed. Is this why Texas produces so many judicial embarrassments that amuse and appall the rest of the country?

In Texas you do not get a voter's pamphlet in the mail. In Washington you get a voter's pamphlet in the mail. In that voter's pamphlet you read the pros and cons of all the Initiatives and Referendums and other ballot issues. Plus info and statements from the candidates.

Does Texas not have voter's pamphlets because the majority of the info in it would be about Republican judges running unopposed, with no state wide votes on anything that would require providing info to the voting public?

It is all very perplexing.

The 2nd Thursday Of The 2nd Month Of 2012 In Texas Thinking About Moving To Washington Where You Can Now Marry The Girl Or Boy Of Your Dreams

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell as the sun begins to arrive on the morning of the 2nd Thursday of the 2nd month of 2012 it appears the sky is without clouds, even though my weather predictor says it will be cloudy today.

Currently, according to my computer based temperature monitoring device, it is only 4 degrees above freezing in the outer world at my location.

If I do any hill hiking today I will be wearing an appropriate level of layers of clothing, unlike yesterday's chill inducing lack of an appropriate level of layers of clothing.

Changing the subject from getting chilly to getting married.

Yesterday I was surprised to learn that my former state of residence, that being the State of Washington, has approved same sex marriage. I would expect such a thing from a liberal, progressive state like Texas, but for repressive, conservative Washington to approve such a thing? That is just really surprising to me.

I guess this news means I can now move back to Washington and marry either the girl or the boy of my dreams.

Which, apparently, is progress.

Before I make the move back to Washington I wish I could say I was going swimming this morning, but I can't.

It is too cold.

If only I was fatter, with a better developed layer of insulative adipose tissue I might be able to continue to enjoy the salubrious benefits of swimming, even when it is cold.

Ellen and Portia Getting Married in California

I mentioned yesterday that California had joined Texas in allowing same sex marriages. The Texas method is very informal. But in California you can now do the whole Big Wedding thing with a license and all the trimmings.

So, rumor has it that longtime Funny Girl Ellen DeGeneres and longtime Pretty Girl Portia de Rossi apparently became engaged during the Friday taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

As some of you know, I spent some time as a lesbian back in 2000. It was a happy time. During my time as a woman I never met anyone I wanted to get married to though, certainly no one as cute as Ellen and Portia, Portia especially. I remember when she showed up as the HOT new girl on Ally McBeal.

I wonder if these new type celebrity marriages are going to be fodder for some new reality shows? I imagine VH1 is exploring the possibilities even as I type. MTV already had a Bachelor type lesbian find a mate show called A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. Now, a fresh Shot at Love could end in marriage. On the Tila Tequila show it could end in a conventional wedding because Tila swung 2 ways. Half her possible mates were guys, half were girls.

It was a very tasteful show. Tila's been in Penthouse and hosted a show called Pants-Off Dance-Off. I did not see that one. Nor do I think I care to.

Tila Tequila was raised in Houston. That's in Texas. I don't recollect the Fort Worth Star-Telegram pointing that out over and over again. They must have been ashamed by that particular local connection.