Politics and Government

As I sit here wondering who I'm going to vote for today, some thoughts cross my mind.

If people like Obama say "My religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman", then shouldn't marriage be sanctified by the church, not the state? Due to the separation of church and state, the state should ratify civil unions, and individual churches should ratify marriages, which would leave churches free to choose if they want to do gay marriages or not.

Wouldn’t that solve the problem?

Also, I think California's proposition process should be reformed by requiring that signature gatherers be unpaid, which would hopefully put an end to big companies paying for signatures to put some junk on the ballot and return it to grassroots movements.

Finally, I hate it that smokers tend to leave cigarette butts on the ground everywhere. While I don't necessarily want to outlaw smoking, I think it would be interesting if we had a law that forbade people from smoking anywhere there were cigarette butts on the ground, even if they weren't theirs. It might at least get people to pick up after themselves.

Now, off to the polls.