Skip to main content

Lies, Damn Lies, and Wingnut Talking Points


Last week's ruling by the California Supreme Court was notable for several reasons:


  • The scope of the ruling -- affirming full equality for gays and lesbians
  • The size of the state -- the most populous in the country
  • The reasoning -- affirming that civic marriage is a basic right for everyone; that the arguments against same-sex marriages cannot stand strict scrutiny
  • The effects beyond California -- unlike MA, there is no residency requirement

Of course, the GOP and the right-wingers are now somewhat buzzing -- but their most potent arguments have been blunted to near nothingness: with civil unions in place in Connecticut and Vermont, full marriage in Massachusetts, and several years of registered domestic partnerships in California, the "any recognition of gay relationships will destroy civilization" just won't fly.

So, they're trotting out the "judicial activistism" canard is being tossed around indiscriminately: "activist judges" "overturning the will of the people"... nonsense.

Yes, there was an initiative that created a law (this is something of a singular process in California) that declared "marriage an institution between one man and one woman".

The California Supreme Court was required to rule as to whether or not that statute violated the California state constitution. And they found that it did -- and that if you grant heterosexual couples the right to marry, you cannot deny that right to homosexual couples.

As far as the judges being "activist" -- that's a loaded term. That they are not held accountable by the people? California judges are required to be confirmed by election -- as these judges have been.

"Overturning the will of the people" -- overturning an initiative, yes... the will of the people, not so fast. The CA legislature has passed full marriage equality twice. The governor vetoed the legislation, saying that the CA Supreme Court had the final say. Well they've spoken.

Now we must see whether or not the potency of this issue will be a factor this fall -- or whether the narrow-minded will win one last battle in the culture wars.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More On Energy: Supply, Demand and the Not-so-free Market

Speculators in the market have, rightly, been targeted for thier use of the Enron-loophole to basically compete (unfairly) in a market that is mixed between highly-regulated (see integrated oil companies) and unregulated players (see commodity brokers). This imbalance of power has led to the free flow of capital to a market from sources that a decade ago largely abandoned investment in oil companies -- in favor of the speculative bubble of the dotcom boom. That lack of capital infusion -- and the capital-intensive nature of the oil & gas business -- led to the mega-mergers of 1999 - 2001. Bear in mind that even with all that merger activity among the multi-nationals, their true competition is with national oil companies -- basically branches of their nation-state governments: Pemex (Mexico), Petrobras (Brazil), Pedevesas (Venezuala), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Cinoco (China) ... you get the picture. On the one end, you have national oil companies -- either in OPEC or non-aligned ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Looking back...

It being "the thing to do" on New Years Eve, here are some of the things that came to my mind about the last decade: Houston & the Weather Tropical Storm Allison flooded Houston causing more than $5.5 B in damage and 41 deaths -- as usual, the story was overlooked by the national media because a) it was happening in Houston and b) they were manically covering the Timothy McVeigh execution countdown.  Were it not for 9/11, Allison would have been the largest disaster of 2001. Hurricane Katrina devasted the central Gulf Coast, flooding New Orleans with water and Houston with evacuees.  While the nation watched the Bush Administration fail in its duties, Mayor Bill White and the people of Houston stepped into the void -- providing shelter and a path forward for countless "new" Houstonians. Hurricane Rita taught us that our own hurricane plans were inadequate. Hurricane Gustav taught us how quickly a major storm could develop. Hurricane Ike showed how re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Just Desserts: Double Peanut Butter Bars

This recipe takes the simple peanut butter cookie and "raises the bar"... with three layers: Peanut Butter Cookie on the bottom Rich peanut butter icing in the middle Topped with a chocolate shell Delicious and decadent! For the cookie base: Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. 1 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon dark molasses 1/2 cup creamy peanut buter 1/4 cup shortening 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 egg 1 1/4 cups flour 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt Prepare peanut butter cookie dough (per normal recipe)  but do not refrigerate.  Instead, spread dough evenly on the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Bake for about 15-18 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.  For the middle layer: 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 1 tablespoon milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups powdered sugar In a small bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, milk, vanilla...
5 comments
Read more