I know it’s been a while since I posted, and I promise to start regaling you with more diving adventures soon.

But first, I need to talk about Proposition 8.

Here in California, voters can get initiatives put straight on the ballot for the public to vote on, rather than going through the normal legislative procedure.  Prop 8 was a predictable reaction to the legalization of gay marriage this past June.  It’s the shortest proposition on the ballot; it states simply that the state constitution should be amended to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

This is, put simply, horseshit.

If you know me, you already know I dream of a day when we look back and laugh that we ever thought gay marriage should be illegal in the first place.  A few decades from now, I hope we find it just as silly as old laws that prevented interracial marriage.

In April, when the state supreme court ruled that it was unconstitutional to prevent gay marriage, I couldn’t have been prouder of my state.  Friends of mine who’d already had “commitment ceremonies” and were married in all senses other than legal went out and took advantage of the new law.  Some had enormous weddings that would have been the envy of any straight couple; others just went before a judge and signed a piece of paper.

They all reported that they were surprised just how much of a difference it made to be able to say “we’re married.”  No, “domestic partnerships” or “civil unions” do NOT cut it - they’re not even “separate but equal,” since they do NOT come with an identical set of rights as marriage.

Frankly, the only reason I can see to be against gay marriage is based on religious arguments, or on some vague idea that gay marriage will somehow make straight marriage less meaningful.  Again, I call horseshit.  Gays have been getting married in California for 5 months now, and my marriage seems to be doing just fine.

But what really gets my goat is this: the prop 8 folks are PULLING AHEAD in polls.  They have an insane amount of funding pouring in for advertising, mostly from Utah-based Mormon groups.  They’re putting out commercials which are misleading at the best, and outright lies at the worst.  For instance, the “Yes on 8″ folks claim that:

If gay marriage is legal, schools will have to teach it to your children. 

FALSE.  Schools cannot teach any health/sexuality/family issues without parental consent.  There’s no curriculum requirement to discuss marriage AT ALL, at least not on a state-wide level.  Local school boards make some of these decisions.  Of course, maybe one day social studies classes will teach about the legalization of gay marriage as an example of a civil rights issue.  (My own opinion is that it would be just great if schools would teach about it, but it seems like a lot of Californians are afraid of having awkward conversations with their children on this subject).

Churches that refuse to wed gay couples will lose their tax-exempt status.

Not only FALSE, but so obviously ridiculous I’m amazed this argument is working.  Churches regularly refuse to marry people for all kinds of reasons: Mormon churches won’t wed non-Mormons, Catholic churches (usually) won’t wed non-Catholics, etc.  California state law PREVENTS the state from withdrawing tax-exempt status for these reasons.  If your church doesn’t want to wed gay couples, that’s fine - odds are, gay couples would rather find a better church anyway.

These two arguments are getting a lot of traction, and the latest polls show that prop 8 is going to pass.  Not by much, though - there’s still time to turn it around.

So please, if you live in California, vote no on 8.  And pester all your friends to do the same.

And wherever you live, consider making a donation to one of the “no on 8″ agencies.  I’ve been donating to Equality California, a pre-existing group promoting equal rights in California.  There’s also a group specific to defeating this proposition: NoOnProp8.com.  Both these sites have more news and information, and clearer arguments than I can make on why it’s important to defeat this proposition.

I’m going to be on pins and needles election night, hoping that my friends’ marriages are still intact the next morning.

Thanks for listening.

Mom sent me a couple of books by Sam Harris, and I have to say… I like what he says, and how he says it. Recommended reading for all my fellow atheists - or agnostics, or moderates/liberals of any flavor. Though if you’re of the Christian flavor your feelings might get hurt.

On my last two trips to Hawaii, I heard a new song playing on KAPA (the Hawaiian station). It immediately struck me as perfect underwater-video music: perky, choral-esque, interesting rhythms, and in some tropical language.

Problem: although I heard the song five or six separate times, the title and artist were never announced. And since it wasn’t in english, I really couldn’t even guess at a title to search around online.

Well, apparently Jeff set himself a goal to hunt down this album in time for my birthday. When we returned from the Kona Classic, he dug around online in search of a phone number for KAPA. It took a while, and several calls to the coroporate headquarters of the company that owns KAPA, before he finally managed to get someone on the line at the radio station itself. He described the song and mentioned the one word we could make out - something like “Tookie-tookie” - and the KAPA employee recognized it as “Tutuki,” by a South Pacific group called Te Vaka.

Then Jeff had to hunt down a place to buy the album. He finally tracked down a New Zealand website with Te Vaka albums for sale, and my birthday present was on its way.

This was all meant to be a surprise, but about this time he noticed that I was spending a lot of free time listening to streaming Hawaiian radio stations in the hopes of catching the song playing in real time, and looking it up. I wasn’t making much headway, but apparently Jeff had more confidence in my sleuthing skills than I did; he assumed I’d track it down before long, so he ‘fessed up that the album was already on the way.

All of this explanation is basically to say: I LOVE THIS ALBUM. I recommend it to anyone. The group has a website at www.tevaka.com with links where you can listen to songs and buy albums.

Best of all, the liner notes have lyrics - plus English translations. I’m never 100% happy with an album unless I can sing along. Mission accomplished!