Call it what you will, today it offered some choice tidbits:
Economist Andrew Tobias weighs in on the California judge's ruling on gay marriage:
But what are judges to do? Conclude that a couple of 51 years should be entitled to equal protection under the law – but then rule otherwise?
It is a dilemma. Yet attitudes are changing. Soon, a majority of Americans may decide it’s just not that important to them to deny Rosie O’Donnell’s partner and their kids Social Security survivor benefits . . . or to insist that Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, a committed couple of 51 years, remain “strangers in the eyes of the law.”
What is so fragile about Senator Rick Santorum’s marriage that it is threatened by the happiness and commitment of Phyllis and Del?
Interracial marriage, so long illegal, may not be your cup of tea – but how does it threaten or weaken your own?
Justice Clarence Thomas is married to Virginia, a white woman. But if he had been married to Virginia in Virginia prior to 1967, he could have been arrested.
Meanwhile, in New Mexico the fight against DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) was unsuccessful, but some stirring statements were made by legislators. Barb at Democracy for New Mexico captured the commentary:
Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, invoked the memory of his brother Billy Griego, who died of AIDS complications in 1987.
"My brother and his partner, Jim, were a great couple," Sen. Griego said. "They involved themselves in the community, they helped the family. They went to church with the family and took Holy Communion. At family gatherings we always expected them to be there, because they were a couple.
"When Billy was dying, Jim was there to change him, to bathe him, to feed him. He died in Jim's arms. Nobody on this floor can tell me that relationship was immoral or illegal," Griego said. "I would rather have seen Billy and Jim raise 10 kids than some heterosexual couples."
Senate Majority Floor Leader Michael Sanchez said Griego's speech brought tears to his eyes.
Sen. John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe, referring to the brevity of the bill, said, "This is only four lines. Four lines of fear, four lines of hate, four lines of mistrust, four lines of dissension, four lines of segregation, four lines of telling a group of people, 'You're different than us.''
We all know this bill is designed to hurt people and nothing else," Grubesic said. "I don't want to be a party to hurting people and telling them 'You're beneath us.' "
And remember the war? The Cold War, I mean, the one we won, or so we were told when Reagan died. Apparently there's a holdout in the War on Communism (has anyone told Rumsfeld we need to order extra armor?) and as Louisiana Gov. Katherine Blanco found out, helping your state's economy selling Tabasco to Communists is un-American:
Last week, Louisiana's moderate governor Kathleen Blanco (D) scored a major coup: leading a bi-partisan delegation in a three-day visit to Cuba, Blanco convinced Cuban officials to purchase $15 million worth of agricultural products from the Bayou state. Blanco's ability to bring home the goods was widely applauded by Louisiana natives, including state Sen. Robert Barham, a farmer and Republican who joined the trade mission.
But Louisiana's success has the White House seeing red. As the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported on Sunday: "The Republican White House has called on the state GOP to condemn Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco's face-to-face meeting with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as she wound up a three-day visit to the island nation last week, and state party Chairman Roger Villere said Saturday that the group will oblige President Bush.
"'The State Department and the White House have requested that we take a position,' Villere said ... 'We are going to be against her meeting with Castro. It is an insult to our foreign policy and the president of the United States.'"
The Bush Administration's attempt to bash Blanco in her hour of triumph is sowing confusion among the Republican lawmakers who joined and praised the Cuban excursion, and it has Democrats charging the White House with making a hypocritical about-face. As Blanco's chief of staff Andy Kopplin told the paper, Jim Cason -- head of the Bush administration's American Interest Section in Cuba -- had earlier "congratulated the Blanco delegation for making the trip to capitalize on trade with the Caribbean nation."
If I might offer Gov. Blanco advice, repeat after me: "It's the economy, stupid."
And speaking of stupid:
Berlin - A German man, who persuaded doctors to give him a second penis, lost his wife after he showed her the result.
Biker Michael Gruber, 40, lost his original penis in a motorbike accident and doctors built him a second one using a mixture of skin, bone and other tissues from his own body.
The makeshift penis worked so well that he was even able to father a child with his wife Bianca, 25, and their son Etienne was born last year.
But Gruber was still not happy and asked doctors to repeat the operation and build him a better organ, to which they agreed.
However, before removing the first penis doctors said they needed to make sure the new tissue transplant was a success, and had to leave the first penis in place.
But when Gruber showed his wife his double penis, she went home, packed her bags and left.
Maybe Gov. Blanco could suggest a use for that second penis you got there, Michael.
