There is a school of thought which says that if you're not really, seriously, incredibly fucking pissed off with your friends sometimes. . . that they're not really your friends.
It only seems contradictory on the surface. Lots of the Tao Te Ching is the same way. And I'd meant to pick a representative quote, but really, the whole thing is worth a look. That link has several transations; haven't looked at all of 'em myself, but figure it's hard to screw the thing up too badly.
I been wrong before, though.
From the Indianapolis Star (but an AP wire story), First lady: Gay marriage issue 'shocking':
Laura Bush said gay marriage is "a very, very shocking issue" for some people, a subject that should be debated by Americans rather than settled by a Massachusetts court or the mayor of San Francisco.
It still being Black History Month, I'm tempted to point out that we've heard the same fucking arguments regarding slavery, desegregation, extending the franchise, interracial marriage, blah de blah de blah. Atrios touched on this yesterday, and there's just not much more to add.
This is a civil rights issue, or, if you prefer, a human rights issue.
In this instance, although this is (supposedly) a democracy, the opinion of the majority as to whether or not the humans in questions should have rights is completely irrelevant.
Again, this only seems contradictory on the surface.
And you really don't want to get the linguist going about tossing around words like "defense" and "sanctity" on this one.
Because that kind of pathetically transparent manipulative bullshit really annoys the hell out of me these days.
How about "gay marriages make baby Jesus cry"? Nah, I didn't think so.
Hey, Chris has some great "biblical principles" here:
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~magd1368/weblog/blogger.htm(get to Feb 13 2004)
Also great SF wedding photos.
Cheers.
Not to mention that, you know, a court in Mass. or a Frisco mayor are Americans too.
But hey, Laura Bush, you know.
I like what our (Canada's) recently ex-premier Jean Chretien had to say when he was being pressured to let a popular, "democratic" vote decide whether same-sex marriage should be legal in Canada:
"To have a referendum to decide the fate of a minority, it's a problem. It's why we have constitutions to protect the minority, that's why we have charters of rights. If it is always the majority vote, who will defend the minorities?"
Sadly, now that Chretien's no longer in power, our new premier Paul Martin is working hard and fast to take away all the gains for same sex couples that Chretien managed to bull through.