Your right to swing your fist ends at my face.
Everyone’s been sending me this article (in various forms) about Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, in the shadow of last week’s Supreme Court decision, coming out in favor of a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
“Frist said the Supreme Court’s decision last week on gay sex threatens to make the home a place where criminality is condoned.”
What a fucking tool.
As with most things on the American political landscape these days, this is both unsurprising and infuriating. The fact that I can’t get married in “the freest country in the world” makes me crazy; the fact that bigots like Frist are in the highest positions of government in this country makes me angry.
It hardly matters that a Constitutional amendment is incredibly difficult to pass. What Scalia said about “the culture war” is right; except we’re not the ones waging it.
Criminality is already condoned in homes where domestic violence, child abuse or exploitation, or, hell, cheating on taxes, already take place. Why aren’t our government representatives worrying about those things instead of who has sex with who? Marriage is a LEGAL arrangement — otherwise we wouldn’t need laws governing how its done.
Bah. I find myself getting terribly frustrated with those who feel that sex is the source of all evil in the world. My personal feeling is that there are other much larger and more important sources of evil, such as the overwhelming desire to be right and make as many people as possible say one is right, no matter the cost. Call it being power hungry, call it being greedy, call it being psychotic, it’s still the source of evil.
Bah. now I’m all irritated again.
The quote I read seemed to suggest that Frist has trouble thinking on his feet. In particular his use of the word “sacrament” in defining something he thinks the government should stick its nose into.
What I’ve never understood is how the hell expanding marriage rights hurts marriage. I can’t conceive how I would be any less married to my spouse if gay marriages were legalized, and no-one has ever been able to explain this to me. What hurts the institution of marriage far more is all the idiots abusing it right now – hello, Billy Bob? Ready for your 6th trip down the aisle?
What also amazes me is the double-talk from all the “family values” supporters. I see these same people advocating, for example, the right to “discipline” their children (ie, beat them silly) under the aegis of “family rights” and “privacy,” yet they are perfectly willing to have the government snooping in bedrooms.
And don’t let anyone tell you that this is “backlash” for Lawrence v. Texas. Congressional Republicans, with help from conservative Christian groups, has been planning this amendment literally for years — it’s just that mainstream American doesn’t need to pay attention to our battles until the last minute, when they say, “Well this is what you get for sticking it in everyone’s face and using the courts to impose your moral tyranny on people!”
Unbelievable. It’s our fault again.
> What a fucking tool.
Way to go, Adam — them’s fightin’ words!
And isn’t it considerably illogical to claim that a ruling which legalizes certain behavior (based on equal justice and privacy rights principles) is a step toward condoning criminal behavior in the home? I do believe that the court’s decision was exactly that this is not to be ruled as criminal behavior. Then again, maybe his ‘constitchency’ won’t bother to try to get the gist of the ruling, and they’ll take his word for it.
Nice timing, Dr. Frist. Taking tips from the White House, again? (cf. their anti-affirmative-action charges made on MLK day this past year.)
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I go now.