Archive for the ‘The Issues’ Category

Prisons for the Mentally Ill (Part I)

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Prisons for the Mentally Ill ( Part I )

By Michael Wachter

 

According to a recent news piece on N.P.R., Florida has a new and novel proposal for treating the states mentally ill citizens who aren’t receiving their medications and are, as a consequence, committing criminal acts. Incarcerate them! Yes, the state wants to build three new prisons to house mentally ill offenders, who desperately need psychological treatment and medication to correct their behavior.
 
Incarceration is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a viable means of providing treatment to the mentally ill. On the contrary, incarceration only serves to encourage mental illness in those who have no previous history of it, and to greatly exacerbate existing mental conditions in those with psychological problems. State officials, lawmakers, and prison authorities are well aware of these facts and thus, I would assert that their motives for wanting to incarcerate the mentally ill are stated disingenuously, and with sinister ulterior motives.
 
The prison setting is in no way equipped to address and treat, in any meaningful way, persons with mental illness. For example, at Washington Correctional Institution, in Chipley, Florida (which is an institution specifically designated as a facility for treating mentally ill inmates who require medications), the mental health services staff routinely neglect, and often times ignore, the mentally ill inmates they are employed to care for! What is worse, the corrections officers consistently refuse to grant inmates access to mental health services staff, in emergency situations. Instead, corrections officials sadistically antagonize inmates who are experiencing psychological emergencies, with the deliberate intent of setting the inmate off, at which point they usually gas the inmate.
 
Often they use the situation as an excuse for use of force, and beat the inmate. This is a pervasive practice in Washington C.I.’s main unit confinement area. On a daily basis, it is not unusual to have upwards to ten gassings in confinement. Compared, statistically, to other facilities statewide, Washington C.I. has one of, if not the highest rates of using gas on inmates. It also has an alarming rate of use of force.
 
With these facts in mind, I question how these practices serve to treat what are seriously mentally ill inmates? When an inmate is expressing feelings of suicidal ideation and asks to see mental health services staff, by declaring a psychological emergency, in compliance with institutional rules and regulations, only to be told by a correctional officer (who is NOT a competent authority able to judge an inmates mental state, I might emphasize), to “Get off the door, and shut the fuck up!” Or worse, told to go ahead and “Do it, kill yourself!” the problem ceases to be the inmate. The problem is the officer.
 
Compounding the problems at Washington C.I. is an entirely ineffective and subverted mental health services staff. Anyone slightly familiar with the treatment of psychological problems is aware that a competent diagnosis and effective treatment plan of each patient’s mental health problems is required. Personalized, one-on-one therapy. Properly prescribed medications. Close observation inside of a therapeutic setting, designed to rigorously treat mental illness.
 
Few, if any of these needs and criteria are met by the prison setting, which is an absolute diametric opposition to the effective treatment of mental illness, as I’ve already established, by detailing the standards of habit and practice at Washington C.I., for correctional officers dealing with and addressing mentally ill inmates under their care, custody and control.
 
In the case of medical services staff in general, and mental health services in specific, they are working for the state prison system because they are professional failures in the competitive medical field outside of the prison setting. Put bluntly, they are working in prison because it is the only environment left that will tolerate their incompetence, and near absolute lack of professionalism. A high percentage of prison medical services employees have been fired from previous employment in major hospitals, or from assisting doctors in their private practice. Most of the physicians employed by the department of corrections are foreigners who have been sued out of practice for malpractice and overall ineptness. They are hired by the department because they are cheap, and easy to control. They are so happy to be employed that they become puppets, not doctors. This is a key point to consider, and emphasize, because medical departments in prisons, and especially at Washington C.I., become the first line of defense for officials needing to cover up abuses of inmates by officers and/or suspicious deaths.
 
In exchange for aiding and abetting in the commission of criminal activities by officers ranging from covering up and falsifying reports, including documentation of excessive use of force incidents, to outright murder, the Institutional Administrative Staff responds with the quid pro quo of allowing medical staff to provide the least amount of services to inmates, assuring the greatest profits to the medical department, a privatized entity. The corruption is virtually all pervasive and categorical.
Unfortunately, proving this is extremely difficult and would require literally the insertion of persons with a mandate to go into the prison and document and collect evidence of the activities that are occurring. The state won’t do this on its own, because the result would be indicting its own agency for these practices. Getting the federal government involved is a bureaucratic nightmare. Incidents where the Feds have become involved are so extreme that they had no choice but to become involved.
 
Thus the only practical and effective way to place a whistle blower into position in prison medical departments would be for a group of private citizens to take it upon themselves to be hired into prisons specifically for the purpose of collecting evidence and documenting incidents. Once a preponderance of evidence has been collected, give it to investigative reporters at 60 Minutes or Fox News, so they could break the story and bring down the wrath of God.
 

This has never been tried before, and it may take time for it to be explored as a practical means to expose medical negligence, malpractice and violations of state and federal laws in Florida prisons. To be continued…

 

Michael Wachter

 mwachter452002@gmail.com

Stem Cells/Bioethics

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Banning embryonic stem cell research is necessary for both ethical and practical reasons.  Ethically it is necessary because obtaining embryonic stem cells requires the destruction of the embryo, and would very likely lead to embryo farming to acquire such stem cells.  Creating life merely to destroy it to reap more stem cells is beyond the pale of acceptable ethics and arguably a direct violation of the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm.

From a practical point of view, negligible results or none at all have been obtained using embryonic stem cells.  Consequently, it is logical and ethically imperative to direct research and attention to the practices yielding positive treatment results.  Otherwise researchers begin to act with a lack of not only ethics, by which they are bound, but also a lack of sanity by Einsteinian definition.  Einstein pointed out that insanity becomes evident when one repeats over and over again the same process while desperately hoping for a different result.  Embryonic stem cell research is thus, by definition, insane.

Some facts about stem cell research are:

  •  Not one single positive result has been achieved using embryonic stem cells, unless you consider cancer a positive result, which HAS happened!
  • The use of adult stem cells has proven successful in treating 70 diseases, ranging from auto-immune to Type 2 Diabetes.
  • Embryonic stem cells are valued because they are pluri-potent, however, scientists can now take adult human cells and reprogram them from being merely multi potent, and make them pluri-potent.  These are called IPS Cells (Induced Pluripotent Cells).  They are made by taking one human multi-potent cell and simply introducing four genes into the nucleus.  The result is indistinguishable, you just don’t get the satisfaction of killing babies this way.

This makes me wonder why President Obama lifted the ban on stem cell research.  Maybe he is a big fan of cancer.

To suggest that embryonic stem cells will yield miracle results, and continuing to experiment when no valuable results have been reaped, is just a waste of time, research funds, and above all, a betrayal of the ill and the infirm.  Especially when these researchers are ignoring the fact that regular stem cells and umbilical cord T-cells are generating stunning results in treating Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Nerve and Brain Damage, amongst others.

Passing a law banning fetal/embryonic stem cell research would enforce ethical practice, as well as utilize scientists for the research of non-embryonic cells.  Medical practitioners and researchers who are working with stem cells must be encouraged to follow viable paths that result in positive medical advances.

Comments? Please post a response, or email me at mwachter452002@gmail.com

Michael Wachter

Of Obama and Black Genocide

Friday, May 1st, 2009

During the Saddleback Forum, while campaigning for the Presidency, in response to the query, “At what point does a baby get human rights?”, Barack Obama responded, “Answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.”

If I were confronted with a delicate question that I felt I were unable to answer because it exceeded my competence, I would remain neutral in regard to that question and not attempt to tinker with it, or the machinery surrounding it.  Not so Barack Obama.

From my perspective, President Obama’s response to the question was disingenuous and deceptive.  Had Obama answered the question truthfully, it seems to me that his response would have been, “I don’t care.”  Obama’s record in the senate votes show him favoring abortion 100%.

What I find truly astonishing about President Obama’s election, is the fact that approximately 98% of black voters voted for him.  In spite of the fact that his support of abortion supports a practice that disproportionately affects Blacks.  Over 1,200 Black abortions occur daily in the United States.

More to the point, black women constitute approximately 13 percent of the female population, ages 15 to 44 in the United States.  This group undergoes approximately 36 percent of all abortions performed in the U.S. each year.    * (statistics referred to available at the www.blackgenocide.org website)

Abortion has killed far more Blacks than the Ku Klux Klan ever lynched.  And this is a practice that President Obama supports absolutely!  While Obama evaded responding to the question of when a baby gains human rights, he had no problem at all promising his unwavering support for Planned Parenthood, giving them his promise to keep abortion legal and to sign the Freedom of Choice Act.  Should this act become law, it would remove existing restrictions on abortion (e.g. on partial birth abortions).  It would also seriously compromise and/or remove conscience clause provisions protecting medical personnel from participating in practices they find morally or ethically objectionable, and, in effect, impose upon every American Citizen President Obama’s opinion that abortion is a fundamental right that women are entitled to.

President Obama would do this, despite the findings of a recent poll conducted by Harris Interactive, and sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which found the following results to reflect the opinions of the citizens he represents:

  • That 72% of those surveyed strongly support/somewhat support that abortion providers inform women of potential risks to their health posed by abortion, and about alternatives to abortion.
  • That 59% of those surveyed support laws requiring giving parents the chance to be involved in their minor daughters decision to seek an abortion.
  • That 58% of those surveyed support laws that protect doctors and nurses from being forced to perform, or refer patients for, abortions against their will.
  • That 53% of those surveyed were against partial birth abortion.
  • That 47% of those surveyed were in favor of laws that prevent the use of tax payer funds for paying for abortions.

While Mark Twain once defined the three greatest lies as being the lie, the damn lie, and the statistics, there remains value nonetheless, in surveys as a barometer for measuring public opinion.  Where abortion is concerned, a majority of the public clearly does not support unrestricted access to abortion, which will be the result of the Freedom of Choice Act.

U.S.A Today on Thursday, January 22, 2009 printed a letter from Debbie Adkins of Roanoke Virginia, in which Ms. Adkins wrote, “I did not vote for a black President.  I voted for the man who I am sure can get us back to where we as Americans belong.”  While Ms. Adkins claims she did not vote for a black President, it is very obvious that 98% of black voters did.

In his inaugural speech, President Obama said that people will “Judge on what you can build, not what you can destroy.”  In the context of his speech, this observation was reference to terrorists, and terrorism.  However, I would assert it applies equally to President Obama’s position on abortion, which does not reflect the feelings of the majority of Americans he now represents, nor does it amount to a victory for the Blacks who voted for a black President, who, by his own actions, is a greater threat to his own people than White’s ever were, or ever will be.

Michael Anthony Wachter

mwachter452002@gmail.com

Adult Industry

Friday, May 1st, 2009

Here’s an excerpt from a recent Brent Bozell column (Bozell is hard-right, but some interesting content here that might work on  your new PTV site)

“….so with an eye on the opening of the latest “adult entertainment” expo in Las Vegas, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and “Girls Gone Wild” DVD king Joe Francis issued a press release calling on the 111th Congress to “provide a financial bailout for the adult entertainment industry along the lines of what is being sought by the Big Three automakers.”(In case you’re wondering, yes, this is the same Joe Francis who recently left prison after serving 11 months and posting a $1.5 million bond, convicted on tax evasion charges.)

Flynt insists it is time for Congress to restart “the sexual appetite of America,” and his product is more important than cars: “People are too depressed to be sexually active,” Flynt laments. “This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex.”

They are asking for $5 billion. They are also asking for a whole lot of publicity, too. Those sleazy CEO tongues were clearly in their cheeks, since the press release carried the headline “The $13 Billion Industry Is In No Fear Of Collapse, But Why Take Chances?”

Francis was serious – and obnoxious – enough to send letters to liberal House members like Henry Waxman (his local representative), and Barney Frank (the chairman of the Financial Services Committee). Naturally, Forbes reported “Representatives for Waxman and Frank weren’t picking up their phones.” Francis also sees hope in President-elect Obama: “I bet he’s a Girls Gone Wild fan.”

Flynt and Francis argue that their business has been hit hard by the economic downturn. They claim DVD sales and rentals have decreased by 22 percent in the past year as viewers turn to the Internet for their thrills.

But not all of that mouse-clicking turns a profit. In a new report on AdultVest, the first hedge fund for financing X-rated outcasts, the Atlantic Monthly estimated the U.S. porn industry generated roughly $12 billion in 2007 (about the same overall sales figures as the video-game industry in 2006). But online content doesn’t deliver the financial returns it used to, now that popular smut sites such as RedTube and PornHub give it away….”

Thought this was an interesting piece for you site. Thank you.
Frank Burns

Abortion Counterpoint

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Let me state for the record that I think abortion is wrong. In my life experiences, I have come to the conclusion that God will separate any couple that aborts their unborn child. I have seen this happen many times. It is my own personal opinion and theory, but I feel strong enough about it to share with others.  In spite of this, I am pro-choice. I do not believe another human being has the right to tell a woman what she can or cannot do with her body. Abortion is a lousy method of birth control. Education is the answer. Investment in sex education and providing condoms and other methods of birth control by the state governments would greatly decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies and births in  this country. We do not need to revert to the days of the coat hanger and rudimentary abortion methods that an impoverished and desperate pregnant woman would attempt in a society that oppresses and condemns. 

Persia Monir

Abortion Slowly Changing Civilization

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Abortion may seem like an odd topic for Porn The Vote to address and pursue.  However, simply because society sees the Adult Industry as morally and ethically bankrupt, does not mean it is.  The central idea behind Porn The Vote is to determine and set our own bar, as an Industry, to reach for and challenge the assumptions that negatively portray the Adult Industry.  This can be done.  Porn the vote will do it.

It seems to me that when our society legalized abortion, it began to effectively commit suicide.  As well as, arguably, murder.  History demonstrates that empires decay and fall as a result of two factors.  The first is widespread corruption.  The second is immigration.

Since the legalization of abortion, a progressive depopulation has become apparent.  Very few nations today have birth rates that would be at replaceable level.  For example, birth rates in Spain and Italy are down to 1.1 children per couple.  To halt the trend of population decline as it currently exists, every young couple in Italy would have to have 4 children in order to break even with zero population growth.  This is not going to be possible.  Adding to this vacuum, increasing immigration to Italy is occurring, and the vast majority of these immigrants are Albanian North African and Middle Eastern Muslims.

In short, while Western Civilization commits suicide in part by legalized abortion, a quiet invasion into Italy of Muslims via immigration occurs.  The end result?  Eventually Italy will become an Islamic State.  It is estimated that by 2050, France will be an Islamic Nation.  Western Civilization as we know it will, if not cease to exist, be radically restructured and diminished.

Obvious causes like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the soaring costs for fuel and the ensuing escalation in the price of basic foodstuffs play a part in America’s current predicament.  However, I would argue that our depleted population play a large part in our economic woes, and this dynamic has been completely ignored by our media and politicians.

I am not a pro-choice advocate.  Frankly, I feel abortion is wrong.  So yes, I may be biased and lack abstract objectivity.  However, I do believe that life begins at conception.  When the Roe court handed down its decision in 1973, natal technology was rudimentary compared to current technologies available.  For example we now can view 3D ultrasounds and observe fetuses touching their faces, opening their eyes, even smiling.  I can only conclude that alertness and some degree of conscious exists in fetuses.  It is during these developmental stages of the fetus in which abortions are routinely conducted. 

While abortion advocates are claiming that the termination of a fetus does not constitute murder, a conflict arises with this assertion under criminal law which currently exists.  Specifically, criminal law holds that if a person murders a pregnant woman, and her unborn child also dies, the criminal will be charged with two counts of murder.

It seems to me that a critical contradiction now exists between voluntary abortion and the homicide of a pregnant woman.  The end result for the fetus is still the same, and I would maintain that both occurrences constitute murder.

If a pregnant woman is murdered while entering an abortion clinic and the fetus she was carrying dies as well, this death becomes homicide.  How can this be?

This blog is an attempt to frame the issue of abortion in fresh terms, and different perspective.  Pro-Life advocates, which I proudly am, generally base their arguments against abortion on an Evangelical Christian base.  Rather than use religion to support the position I’ve taken, I feel rational, logic based points will invite more inclusive debate on the issue.  I believe abortion has much further consequences than society recognizes.

I look forward to seeing and reading your responses to this blog, and I invite your proposals and ideas for practical alternatives for abortion.  What would you suggest to our state and nationaly elected Representatives that could be proposed and enacted as a program or law which would make a difference?  How can we, together, Porn The Vote?

Michael  Anthony Wachter

mwachter452002@gmail.com

Response to Banning Homosexual Adoptions

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

I covered this in my Gay Marriage blog. I find Mr. Wachter’s viewpoint extremely narrow and shallow. To refuse the rights of Gay people in this world is absurd! 

Persia Monir

Banning Homosexual Adoptions In Florida

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Floridians voted decisively on November 4, 2008 to approve Amendment 2 whereby, the Florida State Constitution would be righfully commended to ban same sex marriage.  Astonishingly, while 61.9% of Floridians defended marriage from enroachment by homosexuals, a Quinnipiac University poll of 1,370 Floridians reported by U.S.A. Today on January23, 2009, showed 55% favored doing away with a state law prohibiting homosexuals from adopting.  Only 39% of those polled wanted to maintain this ban.  Related Quinnipiac poll results reported on January 23, 2009 by U.S.A Today included: 27% of Floridians said gays should be allowed to marry, 35% approved of gay civil unions, while 31% said that no recognition should be given to gay unions.

Approving of homosexuals adopting children seem to me to be incongruent with disapproving of homosexuals being permitted to marry.  Referring back to points I made in my previous Blog addressing gay marriage, I would reiterate that placing children with homosexual couples is a recipe for disaster through deviant example.  No rational person can assert that homosexual orientation is natural, or a normal result of the developmental process.  It is a given that nature abores a vaccuum.  A practical manifestation of this axiom is that homosexuals, because of the concious choices they make to engage in objectively disordered sexual acts, surrender by extension any right to procreate.  Or if, as homosexuals claim, their inherent deviance is genetic in origin, then their ability to procreate is natures assurance that fundamentaly damaged genetics will be eliminated from the genetic pool.

Moreover, Floridians have approved amending the State Constitution to assure marriage remains defined as a union between one man and one woman.  As such, homosexual couples do not enjoy any legal recognition of equivalant stature and thus, should not be permitted to adopt children.  Homosexuals cannot provide a balanced, nuclear family, which psychologists all but unanimously agree is necessary for the mental, emotional and developmental health and welfare of children.

In support of these conclusions I would point out evidence summarized by a team of social scientists headed by W. Bradfor Wilcox which issues their findings in Why Marriage Matters, Second Edition: Twenty-Six Conclusions From the Social Sciences (2005).  Among these conclusions are:

*Cohabitation is not the functional equivalent of marriage

*Marriage and a normative commitment to marriage foster high quality relationships between adults, as well as between parents and children.

*Parental divorce (or failure to marry) appears to increase children’s risk of school failure.

*Children who live with their own two married parents enjoy better physical health on average than do children in other family forms.

*Marriage is associated with reduced rates of alcohol and substance abuse for both adults and teens.

*Married people, especially married men have longer life expectencies than do otherwise similar singles.

*Boys raised in single-parent families are more likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behavior.

*Marriage appears to reduce the risk that adults will be either perpetrators or victims of crime.

*A child who is not living with his or her own two married parents is at a greater risk for child abuse.

**Statistics found in (Why Marriage Matters, Second Edition:Twenty-Six Conclusions from the Social Services [New York:Institute for American Values 2005], pp 10-11).

 

With these conclusions in mind, and numerous other studies which have reached similar conclusions, placing children with homosexual couples who are prohibited by law from marrying (or placing children with other unmarried persons in general) is entirely counter productive to the child’s health and well being.

As such, Florida should not only maintain and continue to enforce law prohibiting homosexuals from adopting children, but should expanse the current laws to ban adoption of children by any unmarried couples.  Arkansas voters voted in resounding favor, by 73.3%, for Initiative 1, on Nov. 4, 2008, which proposed precisely such a ban.  Moreover, and because such an enhancement or modification to Florida’s law would include all unmarried persons and/or couples, homosexuals could not attack the law as discriminatory as a result of sexual orientation.

(Anyone seeking further reading exploring the detrimental impact of homosexual parents on children, I would recommend the book; Out From Under:The Impact of Homosexual Parenting, by Dawn Stefanoxicz.  Annotation Press, 2007, 245 pgs., &14.95.  To order: annotationbooks.com or (877) 421-7323.)

Michael Anthony Wachter

mwachter452002@gmail.com

Gay Marriage Counterpoint

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

I believe in freedom of human beings and freedom of expression. I am a firm believer that people are born gay. I grew up with several gay children that had heterosexual siblings. I do not believe that a child raised in a homosexual environment will become homosexual. I have had several gay friends in my life. I never kept them away from my son for fear that their sexual orientation would taint his own. He was taught by me to accept people for who they are and to not judge them. 

I believe in Gay unions. As I have stated before, I believe that “marriage” ought to be between a man and a woman. As far as same sex unions raising children, the sex part is not my concern. More importantly, ones education, values and ability to raise children to be employable and marriageable is what I find critical to society and a solid foundation thereof. 

Persia Monir

Gay Marriage

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

It seems to me that “Gay Marriage” is an oxymoron.  I do not feel that homosexuals should be discriminated against or “bashed”.  However I do not feel it is in societies best interest to enshrine what is deviant behavior by biological standards with the pretense of marriage.  Homosexuals have chosen to orientate their inclinations in diametric opposition to Social Order as well as Natural Order. 

By legalizing gay marriage, Massachusetts, California, New York and other states to follow are essentially imposing, through unilateral action, the idea that gay marriage is precisely equivolent to the marriages of heterosexual couples.  It seems to me that by suggesting this, marriage as an Instituion becomes a mockery.

Mockery and ridicule of social order has long been a hallmark of the gay subculture.  On one hand gays deliberately choose to reject established gender roles.  On the other they attempt to co-opt these same roles and create a false genderous tinction.  A feminine/masculine dynamic (or vice versa) cannot exist between two men or two women.  They are what they are and no amount of role playing will change this fact.

Expanding on this example: Gender roles amongst men and women are one of societies fundamental linchpins.  Especially, and I would argue most importantly, in childhood development.  Children absorb and become impressed with what they observe in their primary caregivers, and by their social environment in general.  Consequently when a child observes a gay couple, or worse, a gay couple with a child, and questions his or her parents about it, parents must somehow respond.  The response will almost certainly have profound impact on how the child will begin to define homosexuality as well as his or her own gender role.  Sexuality becomes ambiguous for children with long term and potentially catastrophic results.

Put plainly; if children are conditioned to accept homosexuality as natural, as a valid alternative lifestyle, society will have essentially instilled children with the invitation to adopt homosexuality as their orientation and lifestyle.  Children adopted by homosexuals who are “married” will be constantly exposed to the gay subculture and will perhaps be likely to consider homosexuality as being of greater value and normality than heterosexuality.  Gay couples will almost certainly condition, deliberately or by example, their children to favor homosexuality.  The long term results here are simply disasterous.

Proponents of gay marriage, or homosexuality in general, will argue that a large percentage of Americans feel homosexuality is valid.  A New York Times Op-Ed by Charles M. Blow appeared on July 26, 2008 citing Gallup Polls on public opinions of gay marriage between May 2001 and May 2008 demonstrate an 8% increase (from 40% to 48%) of people that feel gay relationships are morally acceptable.  Nearly half.  I am reminded of something that Mark Twain said.  Twain noted that the three greatest lies are: first, the lie, second, the damn lie, and third, the statistic.  For many people a poll question regarding the morality of gay relationships is abstract and impersonal.  The issue does not really touch their lives, so it’s all good.  What I wonder is how people would respond if the question indicated personal impact.  For example, would you be pleased if your son or daughter were in a gay relationship?  Would this be morally acceptable?  Somehow I suspect the results would be radically different if such a question was polled.

The fact is that the legalization of gay marriage will have myriad impacts on society and will affect almost every citizen.  Some of the impact will be very subtle.  For example, the Saturday, August 2, 2008 New York Times carried an article in their Metro Section by Tina Kelley entitled, “New York Gay Couples Head to Massachusetts with Marriage In Mind”.  In it she notes that the New York City Comptroller’s Office estimated in June 2007 that the local economy would stand to make $142 million in the first 3 years if gay marriage were legalized.  New York State would make up to $8 million in taxes, the city an additional $7 million.  It is estimated that Massachusetts will add $111 million to its economy over the next three years, that could possibly create 330 new jobs and increase state and local revenues by at least $5.1 million.  All of this sounds great, particularly for Massachusetts.  Gov. Deval Patrick has also signed into law in Massachusetts, a measure which will now allow all married couples to receive medicaid benefits, despite the fact that federal law does not recognize same sex marriages.  Gov.  Patrick’s solution?  Medicaid money for gay couples will be paid from state funds.

Massachusetts, New York and California are unilaterally attempting to impose gay marriage as a national norm.  Massachusetts has repealed its 1913 law that made it illegal to marry couples whose marriage would not be legally recognized in the couples home state.  So a gay couple from Florida, for example can now be legally married in Massachusetts, return to Florida, and immediately begin the process to sue the State of Florida for refusing to recognize their same sex marriage.  I am almost certain this is the gay lobby’s current strategy for imposing gay marriage in states that do not recognize such unions.  The cost to state tax payers for litigating such issues will be enormous as such suit would without doubt eventually wind up in front of the United States Supreme Court.

These are only some of the issues raised by attempts to legalize same sex unions.  This is the first of an ongoing series of blogs which I intend to write about this issue, and in response to respondent’s opinions of my blog.  I look forward to reading your responses and hearing your opinions.  I am also curious as to what readers feel are workable solutions to the issue of gay marriage.  Identifying problems requires formulating a practical solution.  What do you feel and what do you suggest?

Michael Anthony Wachter

mwachter452002@gmail.com