Commentary on Left Right in the Middle: A Moderate Perspective on American Government written by Sydney Spencer

A blog titled Left Right in the Middle: A Moderate Perspective on American Government written by Sydney Spencer’s hits the nail on the head when it comes to what most liberal Americans think when it comes to marriage equality.  Marriage Equality or lack thereof is a major issue all around the United States these days. The push for the states to recognize marriage between same sex couples has been a constant uphill battle.  In her blog Spencer states that, “fifteen times since 1888, the U.S. Supreme Court has held marriage to be a fundamental right of all individuals.  In these cases, the Court has reaffirmed that “freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage” is “one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause….”

She compares gay marriage to the way America once viewed marriage between blacks and whites, which completely makes sense. Almost 50 years ago Richard and Mildred Loving were banned from the State of Virginia for being married.  Richard was white.  Mildred was black.  This case was taken all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won, thus opening the way for interracial couples in the U.S. to marry legally.

It seems as though more and more states are seeing gay marriage in the same light. Just this week as reported in the Huffington Post Kentucky's Attorney General Jack Conway delivered a moving speech in which he announced that he would not defend Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage in court.  Conway stated, "I came to the inescapable conclusion that if I [defended this ban] I would be defending discrimination, that I will not do. As attorney general of Kentucky I must draw the line when it comes to discrimination. The United States Constitution is designed to protect everyone's rights -- both the majority and minority groups." It seems as though the battle for marriage equality may be on a slow winning slope. 

Ted Cruz V. Gay Marriage

Texas Republican Ted Cruz introduced a bill to the Senate Wednesday February the 12, 2014 to amend U.S. law "with regard to the definition of 'marriage' and 'spouse' for Federal purposes and to ensure respect for State regulation of marriage." The bill's authors sent out a release about the bill Thursday afternoon, saying "it will ensure the federal government gives the same deference to the 33 states that define marriage as the union between one man and one woman as it does to the 17 states that have chosen to recognize same-sex unions."  In the middle of a flood of recent court decisions striking down state gay-marriage bans, Senator Cruz and Senator Mike Lee, have introduced a bill to protect states’ rights to define marriage the way they want to. According to a press release from Cruz’s office, the bill “respects the definition of marriage held by the people of each state and protects states from the federal government’s efforts to force any other definition upon them.” This article written by Huffington Post’s Associate Politics Editor Luke Johnson clearly details the Ted Cruz’s stance on gay marriage. Senator Cruz and Mike Lee are pushing back against a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down the heart of the Defense of Marriage Act and paved the way for the federal government to provide benefits to same-sex couples who were married legally. Since then, the federal government has allowed gay married couples to file jointly on federal tax returns regardless of state residence and has permitted the surviving spouse of gay married couples to collect Social Security benefits, along with an array of other benefits that were previously only available to heterosexual marriages. In this article Johnson gives the reader the impression that Cruz's bill has next to no chance of even coming up in the Democratic-controlled Senate, let alone being signed by President Barack Obama. The same sex marriage debate is a hot topic in today’s politics and gets people very fired up. Conservative persons believe that marriage is a bond between and man and a woman, and the U.S. government should not recognize that union. Current supporters believe that gay couples deserve the same rights that married couples have. 

What counrty is this? Oh by the way, I'm your new ambassador....

An editorial published by Henri J. Barkey on February 6, 2014 in the Washington Post goes to prove to Americans that "Obama’s ambassador nominees are a disservice to diplomacy".  The editor, Henri J. Barkey is a professor of international relations at Lehigh University. He served on the State Department’s policy planning staff from 1998 to 2000. In his reporting Barkey is highly concerned about the recently nominated Norwegian ambassador and rants on about the other nominees President Obama selected.  On January 16, 2014 George Tsunis, a businessman and lawyer from Long Island, NY, was confirmed by the senate and was made the future Ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway. Barkey begins his editorial by stating, “President Obama does a disservice to Norwegians, to himself and, above all, to the people of the United States by sending such an unqualified person to represent him and us in the capital of a long-standing NATO ally.” Although Barkey may come off critical of the new ambassador without giving him a chance to prove himself, it seems as though Tsunis put his “foot in his mouth” the day his great new position began. Barkey goes on to prove his point of view with incidents that happened while Tsunis’s confirmation hearings were taking place, “He was unaware of some of the most basic facts about Norway. He admitted never having set foot in the country, and he seemed to think that Norway, a monarchy, has a president. He also had no idea which political parties constituted Norway’s governing coalition, even though, as ambassador, he would be dealing with them.”  Barkey claims that the straightforward reasoning for Obama’s nomination of this incompetent ambassador was because Tsunis was a bundled contributor of $1.3 million dollars to Obama’s reelection campaign and other Democratic efforts in 2012. I feel as though Barkey does a great job logically proving to his readers that despite his lack of knowledge or qualifications, Tsunis's generous contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party have earned him the job. Even though such a practice has happened in previous administrations, Republican and Democrat, nothing has compared to this fiasco.

Hey, What's In Your Beef!?

My family and I have always been highly aware of the types of food we eat. We try our hardest to buy organic food and eat a healthy diet. The prices of food these days are so high even when buying non-organic processed foods, the hit your wallet takes when buying organic grass-fed food is absolutely ridiculous. When I came across this article on the npr.org website headlining FDA Found Drugs Used in Food Animals to Be 'High Risk', I had to stop and read it. The article goes on to explain how The Natural Resources Defense Council or NRDC, an environmental advocacy group, acquired documents through the Freedom of Information Act showing deplorable new findings of a study the FDA conducted. The documents show that from 2001 to 2010, FDA scientists studied 30 different antibiotics that were approved decades ago, and called 18 of the drugs "high risk" because they could expose humans to antibiotic-resistant bacteria through the food supply. The NRDC says that since then, the FDA has ignored these findings. I believe this article is worth reading because we must know what we are putting in our bodies, and more so we must be aware what we are feeding are children. I find this article interesting because FDA has continued to allow dozens of antibiotics to be used in livestock feed, despite findings from its researchers that the drugs could expose humans to antibiotic-resistant bacteria through the food supply. It is disturbing to imagine what the consequences are from this ten years down the road. What are we really putting in our bodies? I feel like the hit my wallet takes for paying the extra cash for grass fed organic meat outweighs the hit my body takes from eating the alternative.

Here we go, all about me.

My name is Joel Lopez. Currently, I am going to school full time and pursuing a career in Surgical Technology. I am working towards a bachelor’s degree in nursing. I am a God fearing, America loving, gun toting, Republican. I grew up in small west Texas town called Pecos. While growing up my parents taught me to love our country and to appreciate our freedoms. They came to America from Mexico before I was born and now have their own successful mechanic shop in Pecos. I left west Texas when I met my wife. We got married, moved to Austin and had children.  We enjoy going to church, music festivals, and as a family are avid crossfitters. My wife and I homeschool our 1^st grader and enjoy that immensely. I am taking this course as a requirement towards my bachelor’s degree but I am also very interested in learning more about the workings of our government. I hope to get a better understanding of how our government works today so that I may better educate myself and my children. I look forward to learning all I can from this course and trying out this new to me blog thing.