As we all know, the Mosque building issue near the WTC site has created quite a divisive following. It shows once again we are an intolerant society here in the good old US of A.

The Becks and Palins really get hatred stirred up. I'm going to have to tell a golfing "friend" to quit sending me disgusting e-mails with anti-Obama rhetoric. I'm sick of the whole thing.

Yes, we elected a "black" president (half black, anyway). It's probably a good thing few people knew his mother was an atheist. It's bad enough they think he's a Muslim.

Why can't we be more like Australia? Their prime minister, Julia Gillard, is not only the country's first female prime minister, but she is an out-in-the-open atheist! "I'm not going to pretend a faith I don't feel." Hurray for her.

The prime minister of Iceland (Johanna Sigurdardottir) has married her partner the first day a law legalizing same-sex marriage went into effect (June 27). They have been partners for 8 years. Thumbs up.

And in Argentina, President Cristina Fernandez (yes, another woman) signed a law that makes her country the first in Latin America to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. (The Catholic Church strongly objected.)

Back in our country, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a bill giving same-sex and unwed heterosexual couples the same protection married couples have. The state legislature voted 31-20 for passage. The power of one can be a good or bad thing.

What's in store for our country? I wish our president (as much as I like him) had the courage to stand up for freedom of worship (or not), gay rights (don't ask, don't tell), abortion, and all the other "right" things, constitutional or otherwise. We must not succomb to right-wing pressure.