May 12, 2004

On Ork

On Sunday, Robin Williams asked Julia, "Are you going to buy the penis-hat?"

She replied that, no, she was not going to buy the penis hat.

Posted by richard at 05:33 PM | Comments (2)

Virginia is for Haters

Take a look at this site and consider taking part in the boycott. Andrew Sullivan has more.

Regardless of your position on gay marriage, you should recognize that the Virginia law is reprehensible.

It is not about states' rights or "defending" the social meaning of marriage or deciding how to use public funds – or any of the plausible principled (though perhaps wrong) justifications for denying marriage to homosexuals. It is about denying the freedom of contract to a group because they are despised. It is about singling out a group and saying, you over there, you can't do these things. Even if you want to. Even if you hire the lawyers to write up the contracts. Even if you find a way to come to some accomodation with a world that excludes you. We have, with the stroke of a pen, taken it all away.

It is blatantly unconstitutional, flying in the face of the 14th amendment, and will surely go down at the hands of the courts. But that will just be more ammunition for the people who blast "activist" judges – people who don't realize that the problem is not the judges doing the striking down, but the legislators who pass laws without a second's thought to their constitutionality, legislators who know they can "harmlessly" score points with constituencies by forcing the tough decisions on the court.

It's enough to make me somewhat despondent.

Julia, should we return the J. Crew stuff that you bought me last week?

Posted by richard at 05:11 PM | Comments (5)