2 Americans banned from UK lash out at British Cabinet minister - CNN.com

2 Americans banned from UK lash out at British Cabinet minister - CNN.com

Well I think this is awesome. We should have laws like that in our country too, it's not what a group's propaganda is, but the extremists/fundamentalists spreading nothing but hate. We really should start to outlaw that. Then again, all these years I have been in this country, I seriously cannot say that common sense is our strong suite, and just where (and how) do you draw the line between passion and hate speech?

That said, it is a bit odd that the list bans Michael Savage and Fred Phelps along with terrorists, Russian gang members, mass murders etc. And Michael Savage and ACLU is going to pursue legal action... on what grounds, I wonder.

My husband said the ban is ridiculous. My husband is American, and I am using the term loosly to mean Caucasian. Americans born and raised in this country sometimes have this way of being very self-centered. A pre-9/11 study showed that 90% Americans are not aware that there's a world outside of US (figuratively speaking, I hope). Nah, that is ridiculous, you'd say. If you are old enough to remember the advent of internet, you'd remember all the "Speak English!" shouts at the early stage of internet. Just what make these people think that we, Americans, own the internet?

Remember when Google first started moving into China for market share? People were outraged that they were going to cooperate with the Chinese government to censor their search results. What were people outraged about? Or, better yet, exactly what did they expect Google to do? Go do business in someone else's country but totally ignore their laws? I am not defending censorship or where the Chinese government stands; I am merely saying that you simply cannot go do business in someone else's country and blatantly go against their laws. Perhaps the outraged folks simply expect Google to stay out of China to make a point. Really? How much is that point worth, you think? When your millions of dollars are at stake here, you can tell me about giving up perfectly good business to make your point.

And now this. I wonder what they are going to sue for? That they violated our first amendment right? Oh, wait, that's right! They are a different country. They don't have the first amendment right. They can ban whoever their laws see fit. It's like if I have rules that you must take off your shoes when entering my house. You might find that ridiculous, but it is still my house. You can choose to come or not to come, but you can't just walk in with your shoes on and stomp all over my place. That will just be plain rude.

Same Sex Marriage

I wish I had came up with this idea, but I really can't take credit for it.

Sometimes I can almost see why people object to the idea of same sex marriage. I have never thought of homosexuality as a big deal, for starters. But I guess a couple of centuries ago the question was whether homosexuality is normal, and it's a big jump from whether it's normal to whether they should be allowed to wed. And I suppose to some, especially the older generation, they simply could not get over the unnaturalness of it. I wish people can see pass how it's unnatural, and start seeing how it's human rights.

Regardless, most people just seem to be suck on the term "marriage" as defined as between a man and a woman, AND the opposite end doesn't want anything that's equal but different (which makes sense), so this best solution, according to oh wise one (wish I remember who) is to completely separate marriage from civil union. So two individuals, regardless of gender, can obtain civil union via a government agency, thus acquiring their marital (?) status and all sorts of legal benefits; marriage, on the other hand, will remain straightly a religious ceremony, and the church/religion/pastors can define it however they want.

In the end, polls had shown that younger generations have greater tolerance towards same sex marriage. It's a matter of time before it happens, just a matter of how much longer will we have to wait till we can see that day.