[World Affairs] The US Veto at the UN

One of the things that always bothers me about how the United Nations is set up is of course the U.N. Security Council. Of course, I'm not questioning why we have a council but this is primarily referring to the five countries who have permanent seats on the council and therefore veto powers. No matter what everyone else votes, as long as one of the five don't like the resolution, they have the power to stop it. It may be primarily a check and balance system of sorts, but in these times it just doesn't make sense.

Recently it has been reported that the US, through its representative John Bolton have once again exercised their veto rights on a recent resolution condemning Israel for the recent attacks against Palestinian forces that demands for a complete pull-out of all Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

The US explain their vote against the resolution it because the resolution was "biased against Israel and politically motivated." Given that there were ten votes in favor with four abstains, I don't believe the resolution was that unreasonable. A US veto of course is not a surprise - they've been very strong supporters of Israel all throughout recent history given their desire to maintain a strong presence in the Middle East through a nation more stable than Iraq is these days. This is the second veto this year alone related to Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip against Palestine.

In the future, this may change with John Bolton's recess appointment becoming due at the opening of the new Democratic congress this year. They've already announced plans not to have him continue as representative next year, a change which begs the question of who will be nominated to replace him then?

The new Democratic House and Senate promise to make the next few years very, very interesting.

[Pink News] Oct 29 - Nov 4 Digest

Author's Note: Moving forward all gay-related entries will have the header "[Pink News]" in order to standardize things a bit

It's been a busy week for the gay world, in a manner of speaking. If you run a Google News search for [gay], you're going to come up with a variety of news clusters.

Given the upcoming US elections, it's inevitable for you to get articles related to the various state-specific votes about whether or not gay marriages should be banned in places like South Dakota and Virginia. In addition, we still have a few echoes left from the NJ Supreme Court decision from the other week. While putting marriage on the ballot this year is nothing new - it has been attempted before - it is a bit bothersome since this issue is clearly being used by both sides as a rallying point for supporters. Some would say any press is good press when it comes to important issues like this, but then again the atmosphere might not be perfect for this sort of thing and American homosexuals may be made to suffer should the vote not go their way.

More notable items of interest include Neil Patrick Harris coming out through People Magazine's Website in order to finally dispel all rumors about his sexuality. Personally, we here at the Guide are more than proud of Mr. Harris and his decision to come out. Now if only the rest of those celebrity closet queens out there would follow suit - we definitely have a few people in mind that we'd love to turn out queer, but then again these are probably just idle fantasies, haha.

On the darker side of the spectrum, we have the recent gay sex scandal of evangelist Ted Haggard. While he continues to deny the claims of Mike Jones, a gay massage therapist from Denver, CO who told the media that he had been prostituting himself to Haggard for the past three years in a sordid tale of sex, drugs and a very different kind of rocking and rolling, so to speak. Sure, he's denied the claims but he's also taken a leave of absence from the New Life Church and has "temporarily" resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Methinks thou doth protest too much, as the Bard would say.

And our last piece for the week is all about the recent anti-gay protests and violence in reaction to the yearly Gay Pride March that has been held in the so-called "promised land" for the past 5 years now. It appears that borderline tolerance has radically turned into outright hatred in a stunning series of protest actions and attacks from all religious denominations in the country. Whatever happened to religions representing peace and love, eh? The Pride March has united various religious groups ranging from Jewish extremists to Islamic fundamentalists, all against what Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Orthodox Rabbinical Alliance of America and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada has called the "homosexualization of the Holy Land." While the Guide more than supports free expression and everyone's right to their own views and opinions, this never justifies people to cross that line which defines the rule of law and what civilized is supposed to mean and take matters into their own hands.

These are interesting times for homosexuals and a prime opportunity as well to stand up for gay rights. It's a difficult fight, but one that is more than worth fighting for.