March 11, 2008 - I was back in the office all day today, and then back at home in the evening it was perfect weather for a round of disc golf. Ellie came along with Jake and Bailey. Bailey was having leg problems and didn't want to walk the whole time, so Ellie had to keep stopping with her to rest. Bailey has this weird thing that is essentially what in humans is called a "trick knee". It goes in and out of socket all the time. When it is out of socket, she uses her other back leg to walk on and limps along. I think this causes her over-worked leg to wear out and then she has to rest. There is apparently some kind of surgery that can be done to help her, but it is probably going to be very expensive, and at this point I can't afford it. Bailey doesn't make any noise like she is in pain so I don't feel compelled to rush into getting the surgery, but it will probably have to be done sometime in the future. Ellie's mom came over, and then Mike came over. We all went to Don Pablos for dinner. Well, we wanted to go to Don Pablos, but when we got there, it was closed. Instead we had to pick something else, so we went to Carrabas. I have only been to this restaurant once before, and I couldn't remember much about it. I wasn't impressed by it tonight. Everything just seemed overly expensive for what they were making. We should have chosen Macaroni Grill instead. Todays Presidential Issue is marriage. The issue about marriage used to be whether married people deserve tax incentives for being married. That was the argument prior to the 1980's. Todays argument is whether gay people should be allowed to be married. I'm more open minded about this issue than previous generations are, but I still am not as liberal as many people. On the surface, it seems like a black and white issue, either you are pro-gay or anti-gay. I don't think it is that simple. Gays want the right to marry so that they can share the same benefits and feelings that heterosexuals do. I think we should look at exactly what those benefits and feelings are, and see if they should apply. Should gays be allowed to visit their partner in the hospital as a family member? Yes. Should gays be allowed to receive tax incentives for being in a partnership? Maybe. As I understand it, there are two reasons for giving married people tax incentives. One is because they are going to have children and need to have reduced tax burden to help pay for their family. The other is that from an administrative standpoint, married people filing jointly reduce the amount of paperwork that the government has to process every year, reducing costs. I think we need to re-evaluate whether the "prospect" of having children is something that married people should benefit from, considering the large numbers of married people that have no children, the large number of single mothers, and the large number of gay partners who adopt children. But any administrative costs the government would save by having a joint return by a gay partnership should be passed on just like it should be for married heterosexuals. On the religious side, I think it is up to each religion to decide if homosexuals can be married in their church. On the governmental side, gay marriage should be allowed, if only to extend rights and protections to gay people that married people rely on. And I don't think supporting a marriage or partnership between gay people means that I am pro-gay, I think it just shows that I recognize that this is a situation that has been around for a very long time, occurs naturally in other animals, and needs to be addressed to eliminate all of the political posturing we see today.