Road Trip Advice

I'm driving from Houston, Texas to Providence, Rhode Island this week. I've done this drive a few times now. I usually drive along I-10 from Houston through to the east side of Louisiana, then take I-59 north through Atlanta. The thing is, I'm watching Hurricane Katrina, which expects to hit New Orleans Tuesday and proceed up through Mississippi. If I go my usual path, I'll be going through much of its wake, about a day later than the eye of the storm. I'm wondering how bad an idea that is. (Track Katrina here.) It's apparently a serious hurricane, because they're evacuating New Orleans. But I wouldn't be there for the worst of it. I'm just worried that the roads will be in bad condition, or that the weather will still be bad enough such that driving is non-ideal. There's an alternate possible route that I just made up. I could start north from Houston on US-59, then take I-30 and I-40 east through Little Rock, then all of Tennessee. I've never used those highways, so I don't know how nice or not-nice a drive it is. Yahoo! maps tells me that going this way will add about two and a half hours to my trip, which is not really all that much, considering the 2000 miles ahead of me. And it might be worth it to miss the possible hurricane mess. Thoughts? Anyone familiar with the highways in question, or just how bad areas with recent hurricanes are likely to be?

Quick Pointer

I missed this news story while I was travelling. Bush administration stands up for separation of church and state.

Protect families!

The California Supreme Court has ruled that homosexual partners can carry legal responsibilities as parents. Tony Perkins has this completely misleading thing to say:

The further we move from nature's own definition of family and allow the state to define "parenthood" without reference to biology, marriage, or even legal commitment, the more we invite endless meddling by the courts. And when the California Supreme Court decides that a child doesn't need both a mom and a dad, it is the children who ultimately lose.

In fact, the cases are all about legal commitment, and one of them does involve two biological mothers. And they are clearly designed to protect the children. This is clear even from reading Focus on the Family's description of the cases. Here's the NYT story. The short version is, in each case, homosexual partners promised to one another to play parenting roles, then split. And one partner wants out of the deal, on the grounds that they're not really parents. California says no, you promised to be a parent, so you incur legal responsibilities. In what twisted world are these anti-family decisions?

Protect Marriage!

The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas voters will go to the polls November 8 to vote on Constitutional amendments. By far the most interesting proposal is Proposition 2, which would ratify a new Article 32 to the "Bill of Rights" of the Texas Constitution. The Chronicle coverage accurrately states:

If Proposition 2 is approved in a Nov. 8 statewide vote, Texas will join more than a dozen states that statutorily and constitutionally ban same-sex marriage.

What the Chronicle fails to add is that, as I posted in May, Texas would also become the first state to constitutionally ban marriage outright, as it includes a provision prohibiting recognition of any legal status that is identical to marriage. Now is the time for Texans who are serious about defending marriage to get together and bring out the vote against this devastatingly anti-family amendment. Let's get James Dobson involved.

Hey, I'm back!

So I'm back in the U.S. California just now. Then briefly Houston, before heading back to Rhode Island for the school year. I had an amazing time in England. You can read all the gory details in my Buxton Blog, if you like. I even managed to pick up a troll over there! That's my second in as many months. Go me. Expect a number of rather short posts from me in the near future as I skim through things I've missed in the past month.