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The main argument commonly used against gay marriage is the necessity to protect the “sanctity of marriage” — whatever that means.  For the most part it is an argument based on religious positions.  Since our constitution requires a separation of Church and State, it is only logical that the government should get out of the marriage business completely.

The benefits being sought by gay couples are mainly legal and economic in nature.  This amounts to a contractual agreement, freely made, between two people.  There is no valid reason for the government to stand in the way of a consensual contractual agreement.

The benefits of a “religious” marriage are based on faith and commitment.  There are already churches that will perform this ceremony for people, gay or straight.  This type of commitment does not need the sanction of government authority to take place, it just needs an agreed upon mindset between two people.

The common sense approach to this issue would have the government issue civil unions and leave the marriage aspect to the churches.  Madison, writing in Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, provides the meaning of the separation of Church and State.

“that religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.” The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men: It is unalienable also, because what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator. It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him.

This explanation, by Madison, clearly indicates that religious issues are not subjected to the approval of the majority.

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Eliot Spitzer claims to place education as a top priority on his agenda.  He claims to be a supporter of school choice.  Yet, he doesn’t stand up to the unions that have had clauses inserted into education legislation that inhibits the growth of Charter Schools.  He approves legislation that gives more money to the union-run public schools for losing students.

Now he is tiptoeing the line of endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has yet to endorse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the presidency, but he sure sounded like a supporter when he spoke in Washington this morning to the New York State United Teachers union’s annual Representative Assembly.

“What an amazing president she will be for every person in this country,” said Spitzer, according to an Associated Press account of his appearance. The governor spoke to the union immediately after Clinton addressed the group.

Hillary is admittedly opposed to school choice.  Spitzer claims he is in favor of it.  Public education is one of the biggest problems we have and one of the worst government run fiascos.  Logic dictates that Spitzer is a hypocrite.  Spitzer rewards failure at the expense of school choice.

“…Having unleashed ‘E-Crowli’ into the ether, Sheryl should zip those lips over that overbite. The only thing that might lift the malodorous aura that has clung to Crow since she came out of the toilet with these schemes is the knowledge that her well-appointed bathroom sports a bidet. Or, conversely, that she practices ‘Islamic toilet etiquette.’ The latter, at least, involves water!  But don’t hold your breath. (Or maybe you should!)”…

— Ilana Mercer

Ilana calls things as she sees them with her uniquely descriptive literary style.

 Excerpts from Baghdad Burning, Thursday, April 26.

The Great Wall of Segregation…

…Which is the wall the current Iraqi government is building (with the support and guidance of the Americans). It’s a wall that is intended to separate and isolate what is now considered the largest ‘Sunni’ area in Baghdad- let no one say the Americans are not building anything. According to plans the Iraqi puppets and Americans cooked up, it will ‘protect’ A’adhamiya, a residential/mercantile area that the current Iraqi government and their death squads couldn’t empty of Sunnis.

The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi government probably said, “Oh look- we’re just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people to get into their special area to hurt them!” And yet, it will also be difficult to get out.

I always hear the Iraqi pro-war crowd interviewed on television from foreign capitals (they can only appear on television from the safety of foreign capitals because I defy anyone to be publicly pro-war in Iraq). They refuse to believe that their religiously inclined, sectarian political parties fueled this whole Sunni/Shia conflict. They refuse to acknowledge that this situation is a direct result of the war and occupation. They go on and on about Iraq’s history and how Sunnis and Shia were always in conflict and I hate that. I hate that a handful of expats who haven’t been to the country in decades pretend to know more about it than people actually living there.

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn’t know what our neighbors were- we didn’t care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

Sadly, Riverbend and her family have decided that their only option is to leave Iraq.  They will leave behind their entire lives because of the sectarian violence caused by the U.S. occupation.  Follow the link above to read the rest of the story of a country torn apart by outside forces.  I don’t know how George Bush can sleep at night.