The Buck and Mike Blog

Buckley is a force of nature and I have been greatly blessed that we are sharing our lives with each other, blessed that I am married to the most ideal man I could never even have imagined. Buckley has shown me what life and love are for. Buckley, I had wanted to write a poem for you, but the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning kept filling my thoughts and I knew these words were also for you. All my love, Mike

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June 26 is my birthday, so I have been thinking about the year I was born, 1948.

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On Friday, June 16, Buckley and I flew to San Jose, California. And two days later, on June 18, we flew back home to DC.

In between, we drove to Santa Cruz to attend the graduation of my niece Skylar from UC-Santa Cruz. Skylar is adorable and very bright. She received her bachelor’s degree at the age of 19. Yes, she’s still a kid, but she’s an ambitious, goal-oriented kid, and she’s scrupulous about meeting her goals — one of which was to graduate college before she turned 20.

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According to Infoplease.com, the only state in the United States of America which allows same-sex marriage, Massachusetts, is also the state with the lowest rate of divorce in the country. (The District of Columbia ranks lower, but it isn’t a state.) Rates of divorce are more than 50% higher in Utah, Texas, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Nebraska. The rate of divorce in these states is at least double that of Massachusetts: Idaho, Florida, Colorado, Alaska, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Wyoming, Tennessee, West Virginia, with Nevada coming in with the highest rate of divorce in the U.S., nearly three times as high as Massachusetts.

According to Divorce Magazine, the rate of divorce in the U.S. expressed as a percentage is 49%. Canada, which recognizes same-sex marriage nationwide, has a divorce rate of 45%. Other countries which permit same-sex marriage include the Netherlands, with a divorce rate of 41%, and Spain, with a divorce rate of 17%.

According to a study by a British organization:

“Extra-marital affairs continue to be the main reason, in almost 27% of all cases, for UK divorces taking place in 2004, slightly down on 2003’s 29%. » Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, Buckley and I watched the DVD of the film “Everything Is Illuminated.” (I haven’t yet read the book by Jonathan Safran Foer, but William Goldman, author and screenwriter, wrote once that he considered a book and a movie to be completely separate creations that might just have the same name. The written word and film both have very different magical qualities that can’t be recreated in any other form, though a film may try to illustrate the visions presented in a book or vice versa.)

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I just read this article on The Onion, the satirical online news site calling itself “America’s Finest News Source.” This must-read article is entitled “Bill Of Rights Pared Down To A Manageable Six.”

Just in case you don’t know what the original ten are, here’s a link. And I’ll throw in a link to the National Archive’s site on the United States Constitution, for good measure.

On Monday, June 5, President Bush gave a speech urging the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment that would restrict the definition of marriage to a man and a woman, and prohibiting state governments from conferring any right or benefit that might be construed as a marital right on people who lie outside that definition of marriage. Of course, this amendment would only affect those of the same sex who wish to marry.

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I have hestitated to blog here about the Federal Marriage Amendment because my emotions on the subject have been high and I would want to present a coherent, rational post. The Federal Marriage Amendment has the sole purpose of denying equal rights to one small segment of Americans, a segment of which me and my husband are a part. » Read the rest of this entry »