Tomorrow our neighborhood is going to celebrate my neighbor, Julien, becoming a US citizen. Born French; delighted to be American now. Big party. Some moms TPd his tree yesterday with red and blue streamers and TP. Spray painted an American flag on his grass.
Proud week to be an American.
2.
Germy Shoemangler
My cat has begun gazing longingly out the window at the dog in my neighbor’s yard.
Thanks SCOTUS!
3.
ed
Damn forefathers – getting more lieberal every day.
4.
Germy Shoemangler
Charles Pierce:
Let us pause for a moment and recognize Mary Bonauto. Bonauto, a dogged, brilliant lawyer from the Commonwealth (God save it!), won the Goodridge decision before the Supreme Judicial Court. She gave the issue of marriage equality a legal momentum that became irresistible, until it finally swept away its last legal barrier on Friday, when Bonauto won her case before the Supreme Court. The recordings and transcripts of the oral arguments in Obergefell et. al were released, and they show Bonauto completely overmatching not only opposing counsel, but also those justices clearly in opposition to her position. (Her colloquy about Plato with Justice Samuel Alito is pretty damn hilarious.) So before we spill oceans of ink about what happened on Friday morning, we should pause to applaud someone who was fighting this battle long before the country dramatically changed its mind, and who has been a winter soldier of the first rank ever since.
The real hard work – stomping out discrimination at the institutions that will inevitably refuse to recognize SSM – is just beginning. Churches and the schools and hospitals and shelters and whatnot that they run are the first obvious targets, along with bigoted non-profits (Focus on the Family, anyone?). Eliminating the tax exempt status for such places should be the first step.
Thomas’ dissent on Lawrence v. Texas (when jilted lover SWATted his boyfriend and the cops took them to jail for sodomy):
Notwithstanding this, I recognize that as a member of this Court I am not empowered to help petitioners and others similarly situated. My duty, rather, is to “decide cases ‘agreeably to the Constitution and laws of the United States.'” Id., at 530. And, just like Justice Stewart, I “can find [neither in the Bill of Rights nor any other part of the Constitution a] general right of privacy,” ibid., or as the Court terms it today, the “liberty of the person both in its spatial and more transcendent dimensions,”
Thomas’ dissent today:
Whether we define “liberty” as locomotion or freedom from governmental action more broadly, petitioners have in no way been deprived of it.
Petitioners cannot claim, under the most plausible definition of “liberty,” that they have been imprisoned or physically restrained by the States for participating in same-sex relationships.
…
Far from being incarcerated or physically re- strained, petitioners have been left alone to order their lives as they see fit.
Liberty is whatever I need it to be on a given day.
My mom and dad just called and urged me to find a husband before they pass on. Talk about booking a guilt trip….
I promised I would do my best, so if there are any takers, I’m a reasonably attractive guy in his early 60’s with a good job, a nice house in Florida, and no major health issues. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. You could do a lot worse, and you’ll make my folks happy.
10.
Punchy
Anyone have the current odds on which state decides to openly defy this SCOTUS decision? If I booked the odds, I’d put Texas at even odds, Alabama at 3:1, and Louisana at 9/2:1. I’d only put Utah at 20:1, as the Mormons are bigots but not terribly crazy shitheads.
11.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Okay. Looks like the GOP gonna party like it’s nineteen ninety…. five?
Jake Tapper @ jaketapper 2m2 minutes ago
Gov @ ScottWalker calling for amendment to US Constitution declaring marriage between one man and one woman
3 strikes laws also struck down as unconstitutional. I still hold out hope that we’ll get a favorable death penalty ruling and a favorable redistricting ruling (esp. after the surprise on housing).
@Punchy: Put me in for ole Mississip’. Roy Moore hasn’t retired yet.
14.
rk
Confederate flags coming down and finally being recognized as a symbol of racism, ACA is saved and gay marriage is legalized. All in one week! The cherry on top would be if all right wingers have a collective heart attack and die. No I’m not in a generous mood.
I’m curious at to what effect this is going to have on the recent shenanigans in North Carolina, where the Republicans overrode the Governor’s veto on the bill that said Judges and Magistrates could refuse to marry same sex couples due to “religious” reasons.
17.
Stella B
I woke my husband up to let him know he could get gay married now. He bit my head off and went back to sleep. I think my marriage is safe.
18.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
I plan to celebrate by DESTROYING HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGES EVERYWHERE!
@Germy Shoemangler: Best comment (IMO) to Pierce’s post was from Barry Friedman:
What this decision–and yesterday’s–proves is how bankrupt the GOP is. When all you have is sanctimony and hatred, when all you can sell to people is that others are coming for their freedoms and institutions, you consider the last two days the end of the Republic. People in love can now enjoy the language of love and poor people can get checked for cancer. How awful. Take back our country. From whom, from what? The GOP has a problem of the heart, not the mind.
While this is definitely the right decision, and as one who has changed his mind on this subject, I kind of find it interesting how we got to this point. Why does conformance to a useless social convention have to be the benchmark? All marriage is pretty useless, but if people want to get married then-by all means they should. But at the point I am in life-I think the institution promises more than it delivers. People should live as individuals and have sex with whoever they want. If it weren’t for the fact that no one has found a better way to raise children, I think we would have discarded the institution years ago. In a perfect world, the government wouldn’t have a goddamned thing to do with marriage and people would mind their own business. In that world, conservatives would understand that arguing that the government can’t deliver the mail, yet has a duty to sanctify and protect the family unit only serves to make them look foolish.
25.
Alex S.
So that’s why abstinence spokeswoman Bristol Palin is pregnant a second time.
You need to quick find a copy of the gay agenda marriage destruction manual.
28.
lumpkin
Am I the only person who finds the idea of drinking someone else’s tears utterly repulsive? It’s almost like drinking someone else’s spit.
29.
ThresherK
Some knob-polishing going on at On Point, NPR radio show created in Boston.
I didn’t know that George Mason had a Law School. Finding that out, I thought, “I wonder if GM Law’s media proles are as hacktacular as GM’s School of Economics?”
Predictably, yes. Did George Mason always suck like this?
I only learned about them reading a throwaway article from when their hoops team made the Final Four, and someone in their faculty likened their basketball team to their faculty: Scrappy underdogs.
Well, with the exception that the faculty guy from GM SoE likened “those other schools” (UVa?) to communists. In that lovely “I can see by your stunned reaction that I was joking” manner.
Happy tears this AM for friends and family directly affected by this wonderful ruling, I never thought this would happen until very recently.
So much hate and division the past few years – the joy that this ruling brings is like a shining light.
And it’s my 27th wedding anniversary – awesome gift!!
32.
geg6
I called my John and insisted we get gay married. We’re opposite sex, but prefer the good taste and awesome parties of gays, so gay marriage it is!
33.
D58826
Question for the legal types. This decision affects gay marriage but in 30 states a person can be fired for being gay. IF marriage is protected under the 14th amendment then doesn’t this become the/a precedent for overturning all of the other forms of discrimination in this area?
34.
Jeffro
@rk: Only thing hanging over all of this for me is the near-certainty that some right-wing loon really has snapped and is plotting the next Oklahoma City. I hope the FBI, ATF, etc have their A-team on duty this week, month, year.
Liberty is whatever I need it to be on a given day.
Just like Scalia had no trouble assuming subsidies applied to federal exchanges to justify his Obamacare dissent three years ago, and assuming the exact opposite to dissent yesterday.
I get where he’s going with respect to ISIS wanting to tear down history. Consider, though, that the neo-Confederates are going full tilt with “the secession and the Confederacy and all the symbols associated with it were not about slavery or treason or human oppression, but rather state rights.” Now, who are the ones destroying history?
Tearing down monuments to oppression isn’t destroying history. The history is out there for anyone who wants to know about it and, when required, know how to research beyond their whitewashed textbooks. The whitewashing itself is destruction of history.
@geg6: My text conversation with Ms. Redshift this morning went:
She: Woo hoo! Gay marriage for everyone!
Me: So when are we going to get gay married?
She: Right now!!!!!
39.
srv
What will Bristol Palin tell her children about the sanctity of marriage?
40.
LongHairedWeirdo
Well, if I’m going to have a mandated gay marriage, I’m going to share the misery, and force a Christian baker to make the cake, a Christian photographer to take the photos, and a Christian minister to perform the ceremony – and, of course, it will all take place under Sharia law, with guns banned from the church site, except for the guns in the hands of the jack booted thugs forcing the Christians to perform these tasks while renouncing their faith.
@ThresherK: Mason’s now the biggest school in VA, believe it or not. Lots of diversity in the student body and programs, very progressive when it comes to Dreamers, very international outlook overall. Leave out the law school and especially the Koch-supported economics department (please), and it’s a model of access & achievement for all.
You forgot, “Bristol Palin gets pregnant for the second time without benefit of a husband.” TOTALLY the gays’ fault, you guys. Also, I’m sure absent black fathers had something to do with it too. But mostly it’s because of gay marriage. Right? RIGHT?!
The cherry on top would be if all right wingers have a collective heart attack and die. No I’m not in a generous mood.
Wait another few years, and they’re going to start telling you that gay marriage legalization was totally their idea all along.
48.
Poopyman
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Ummm, men and women have been destroying other’s marriages for centuries, and since the crash & burn rate for modern marriages is around 50%, there’s a good chance a marriage will implode on its own before you get a chance to pull off your nefarious plot.
49.
ThresherK
@Jeffro: Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that the Kochs are involved in this. Curious who is behind the Law School’s retrograde stuff.
I’ll remember your advice re the rest of the U going forward.
And it’s bigger than UVa and VT? Wow.
50.
FlipYrWhig
@LongHairedWeirdo: While you’re at it, ask for a Confederate flag in fondant.
51.
the Conster
And Texas wins the fucktard award, by ordering their clerks not to issue marriage licenses. I guess Abbott’s going to sit in the courthouse door.
In that world, conservatives would understand that arguing that the government can’t deliver the mail, yet has a duty to sanctify and protect the family unit only serves to make them look foolish.
One small nit to pick: “The government can’t deliver the mail” isn’t their argument, it’s their goal.
Ummm, men and women have been destroying other’s marriages for centuries, and since the crash & burn rate for modern marriages is around 50%, there’s a good chance a marriage will implode on its own before you get a chance to pull off your nefarious plot.
In fairness, that 50% number is largely due to serial divorcees.
@ThresherK: I think UVA is around 24k; Mason just edges out VCU by 1k or so (at 33-34k total). I probably should have noted that this is for VA public institutions – Liberty has 55k+ “students”
57.
Punchy
@Litlebritdifrnt: It all comes down to next year’s SCOTUS decision on whether “religious objections” override the US Constitution. I’m guessing there’s at least 3 votes in the bag for “yes”.
58.
benw
@MomSense: great. Add “grammar” to the list of things gay marriage is destroying… :)
Confederate flags coming down and finally being recognized as a symbol of racism
Indeed – a cop in Charleston has just been fired for posting a picture of himself in Confederate flag underwear on Facebook (since the massacre last week). He is from the same department as Michael Slager, the cop who shot a man in the back last month.
And of course there is a gofundme page for this poor oppressed asshole.
60.
Riley's Enabler
@the Conster: You sure? They are issuing currently in Houston, and I hear Austin is as well.
Such a wonderful week in so many ways. Hurray!
61.
Rosalita
I knew there would be a party going on here…what a week!
I guess they haven’t gotten the memo, or did and determined they were not going to be involved in a nullification fight.
63.
ThresherK
@Cervantes: Sorry, I meant GMU, not the actual person.
Hey, if the words of a Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, or Thomas Jefferson can be warped and twisted by the right wingers of this era, what chance does George Mason IV–whom nobody was taught about in elementary school–stand?
64.
ThresherK
@Jeffro: Oh, I don’t count Liberty. I didn’t even count it when it was a mere College.
65.
Riley's Enabler
@the Conster: First one just issued in Travis County (Austin area). Paxton apparently told clerks to maybe consider “waiting on his clarifications” but some are going ahead. At least one has!
Also, Paxton, Abbott, and that wretched buttraisin Dan Patrick can all BITE ME.
66.
Elizabelle
C-Span 1 has the Pinckney memorial service, and it’s been good. Upbeat.
Previous speaker was gently mocking the shooter. “He picked the wrong church.”
Last fall I wrote a longish article for Rolling Stone arguing that Obama will, in the end, be judged pretty well by history:
Despite bitter opposition, despite having come close to self-inflicted disaster, Obama has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history. His health reform is imperfect but still a huge step forward – and it’s working better than anyone expected. Financial reform fell far short of what should have happened, but it’s much more effective than you’d think. Economic management has been half-crippled by Republican obstruction, but has nonetheless been much better than in other advanced countries. And environmental policy is starting to look like it could be a major legacy.
This was, at the time, very much at odds with the preferred pundit narrative, according to which Obama was teetering on the edge of a failed presidency, under which his decision to pursue health reform was a big mistake, etc etc. But suddenly it seems as if conventional wisdom is coming around.
Far from being incarcerated or physically re- strained, petitioners have been left alone to order their lives as they see fit.
Leaving aside his rather eccentric definition of “liberty” (apparently only “not being in jail”), Mr. Justice Thomas seems to have missed one important point: what if said petitioners “see fit” to “order their lives” by getting married?
70.
LanceThruster
“This is what I say to the most conservative person that’s so terrified of gay marriage becoming legal: Just because the state says it’s legal, it’s not like God’s gonna let them into heaven?! You can still sleep sound every night, knowing that goal line defense is up at the pearly gates going, “You’re not getting in here, f4ggot“
PS – Before anyone gets upset about his terminology, understand that he was parodying the haters who think God shares their hatred of gays.
71.
Cermet
@Punchy: And the bureaucrats and leaders who do this will pay, pay, and pay their own $$$$; no, such resistance won’t last once they realize they get personally sued and have to pay!!!
President Obama up in a few moments at the Clementa Pinckney funeral. A cousin delivering brief remarks now.
74.
Brachiator
Some callers to a local Los Angeles radio station have tried to (falsely) insist that churches will be forced to perform gay marriages.
A couple of callers have tried to insist that marriage is defined by a deity as a union between a man and woman, and want (too late) to reserve “marriage” for heterosexuals, and allow “unions” for gay people.
It is not just bigotry at play here, but a sociologist could have lots of fun watching people deal with the breaking of a taboo. These callers don’t appear to be deeply religious, but seem to be afraid that they are somehow disobeying the deity by accepting gay marriage. Very primitive.
I’m also curious to see what the world reaction to this Supreme Court decision might be. Any comment from the semi commie semi hippie Pope?
And yet it is sad, but funny, how much the “Obama is a corporatist, a centrist sellout” crowd resemble birthers, Tea Party nutjobs and other Obama haters.
My mom and dad just called and urged me to find a husband before they pass on. Talk about booking a guilt trip…
Oh, quit yer damn whining about the pressure to get married.
It’s when they start pressuring you to get pregnant that it might become an issue.
(Of course, you could tell them that you’ll be vicariously preggers via Bristol Palin. She should be up to number 4 or 5 by that time. All Immaculate, of course.)
That was basically the same message I sent to my brother-in-law this morning, but I’m pretty sure he already has a boyfriend — sorry!
79.
Elizabelle
President Obama taking stage to deliver eulogy. Speaking now.
80.
someguy
@Jeffro: Mason’s now the biggest school in VA, believe it or not.
Named for an unrepentant, degenerate slaveholder. Not surprised it’s got an outlandishly right wing law school. Seems like it’d be a good week to start campaigning for a name change. Harvey Milk University, perhaps? While you’re at it, what the fuck is up with Washington and Lee? Virgina… the most introspective of the nostalgic slave states.
81.
Snarkworth
Chat about whatever, including but not limited to how you plan to celebrate your government-mandated gay marriage.
Elizabelle
Tomorrow our neighborhood is going to celebrate my neighbor, Julien, becoming a US citizen. Born French; delighted to be American now. Big party. Some moms TPd his tree yesterday with red and blue streamers and TP. Spray painted an American flag on his grass.
Proud week to be an American.
Germy Shoemangler
My cat has begun gazing longingly out the window at the dog in my neighbor’s yard.
Thanks SCOTUS!
ed
Damn forefathers – getting more lieberal every day.
Germy Shoemangler
Charles Pierce:
the Conster
POTUS is giving a heckuva speech, of course. But, this is the best thing you’ll see today.
someguy
The real hard work – stomping out discrimination at the institutions that will inevitably refuse to recognize SSM – is just beginning. Churches and the schools and hospitals and shelters and whatnot that they run are the first obvious targets, along with bigoted non-profits (Focus on the Family, anyone?). Eliminating the tax exempt status for such places should be the first step.
FlipYrWhig
@Germy Shoemangler: Bonauto for SCOTUS!
srv
Thomas’ dissent on Lawrence v. Texas (when jilted lover SWATted his boyfriend and the cops took them to jail for sodomy):
Thomas’ dissent today:
Liberty is whatever I need it to be on a given day.
Mustang Bobby
My mom and dad just called and urged me to find a husband before they pass on. Talk about booking a guilt trip….
I promised I would do my best, so if there are any takers, I’m a reasonably attractive guy in his early 60’s with a good job, a nice house in Florida, and no major health issues. I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. You could do a lot worse, and you’ll make my folks happy.
Punchy
Anyone have the current odds on which state decides to openly defy this SCOTUS decision? If I booked the odds, I’d put Texas at even odds, Alabama at 3:1, and Louisana at 9/2:1. I’d only put Utah at 20:1, as the Mormons are bigots but not terribly crazy shitheads.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Okay. Looks like the GOP gonna party like it’s nineteen ninety…. five?
You’ve been challenged, Jebbie, whattaya got?
? Martin
3 strikes laws also struck down as unconstitutional. I still hold out hope that we’ll get a favorable death penalty ruling and a favorable redistricting ruling (esp. after the surprise on housing).
Tim F.
@Punchy: Put me in for ole Mississip’. Roy Moore hasn’t retired yet.
rk
Confederate flags coming down and finally being recognized as a symbol of racism, ACA is saved and gay marriage is legalized. All in one week! The cherry on top would be if all right wingers have a collective heart attack and die. No I’m not in a generous mood.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: THAT is funny!
Litlebritdifrnt
@Punchy:
I’m curious at to what effect this is going to have on the recent shenanigans in North Carolina, where the Republicans overrode the Governor’s veto on the bill that said Judges and Magistrates could refuse to marry same sex couples due to “religious” reasons.
Stella B
I woke my husband up to let him know he could get gay married now. He bit my head off and went back to sleep. I think my marriage is safe.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
I plan to celebrate by DESTROYING HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGES EVERYWHERE!
Um…how exactly do I do that?
Iowa Old Lady
@Stella B: Did you tell him about Mustang Bobby?
gogol's wife
@the Conster:
Love it!
MomSense
Go to twitter just to see the gif of Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi sprinkling rainbow glitter over themselves.
So much joy.
ETA Found it!
https://vine.co/v/eJuAqVHgXKd
gogol's wife
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
But how do you define man and woman, Scottie?
Felonius Monk
@Germy Shoemangler: Best comment (IMO) to Pierce’s post was from Barry Friedman:
Skippy-san
While this is definitely the right decision, and as one who has changed his mind on this subject, I kind of find it interesting how we got to this point. Why does conformance to a useless social convention have to be the benchmark? All marriage is pretty useless, but if people want to get married then-by all means they should. But at the point I am in life-I think the institution promises more than it delivers. People should live as individuals and have sex with whoever they want. If it weren’t for the fact that no one has found a better way to raise children, I think we would have discarded the institution years ago. In a perfect world, the government wouldn’t have a goddamned thing to do with marriage and people would mind their own business. In that world, conservatives would understand that arguing that the government can’t deliver the mail, yet has a duty to sanctify and protect the family unit only serves to make them look foolish.
Alex S.
So that’s why abstinence spokeswoman Bristol Palin is pregnant a second time.
WereBear
@someguy: Yes. Wingnuts fuss so much about being law-abidin’ except when they don’t want to.
MomSense
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
You need to quick find a copy of the gay agenda marriage destruction manual.
lumpkin
Am I the only person who finds the idea of drinking someone else’s tears utterly repulsive? It’s almost like drinking someone else’s spit.
ThresherK
Some knob-polishing going on at On Point, NPR radio show created in Boston.
I didn’t know that George Mason had a Law School. Finding that out, I thought, “I wonder if GM Law’s media proles are as hacktacular as GM’s School of Economics?”
Predictably, yes. Did George Mason always suck like this?
I only learned about them reading a throwaway article from when their hoops team made the Final Four, and someone in their faculty likened their basketball team to their faculty: Scrappy underdogs.
Well, with the exception that the faculty guy from GM SoE likened “those other schools” (UVa?) to communists. In that lovely “I can see by your stunned reaction that I was joking” manner.
MomSense
@MomSense:
Gandalf the rainbow!
JCT
Happy tears this AM for friends and family directly affected by this wonderful ruling, I never thought this would happen until very recently.
So much hate and division the past few years – the joy that this ruling brings is like a shining light.
And it’s my 27th wedding anniversary – awesome gift!!
geg6
I called my John and insisted we get gay married. We’re opposite sex, but prefer the good taste and awesome parties of gays, so gay marriage it is!
D58826
Question for the legal types. This decision affects gay marriage but in 30 states a person can be fired for being gay. IF marriage is protected under the 14th amendment then doesn’t this become the/a precedent for overturning all of the other forms of discrimination in this area?
Jeffro
@rk: Only thing hanging over all of this for me is the near-certainty that some right-wing loon really has snapped and is plotting the next Oklahoma City. I hope the FBI, ATF, etc have their A-team on duty this week, month, year.
Redshift
@srv:
Just like Scalia had no trouble assuming subsidies applied to federal exchanges to justify his Obamacare dissent three years ago, and assuming the exact opposite to dissent yesterday.
They don’t have principles, they have buzzwords.
carolinadave
@Tim F.: That is Alabama.
Kropadope
Tennessee Republican: If state stops honoring KKK founder, US will be like ISIS
I get where he’s going with respect to ISIS wanting to tear down history. Consider, though, that the neo-Confederates are going full tilt with “the secession and the Confederacy and all the symbols associated with it were not about slavery or treason or human oppression, but rather state rights.” Now, who are the ones destroying history?
Tearing down monuments to oppression isn’t destroying history. The history is out there for anyone who wants to know about it and, when required, know how to research beyond their whitewashed textbooks. The whitewashing itself is destruction of history.
Redshift
@geg6: My text conversation with Ms. Redshift this morning went:
She: Woo hoo! Gay marriage for everyone!
Me: So when are we going to get gay married?
She: Right now!!!!!
srv
What will Bristol Palin tell her children about the sanctity of marriage?
LongHairedWeirdo
Well, if I’m going to have a mandated gay marriage, I’m going to share the misery, and force a Christian baker to make the cake, a Christian photographer to take the photos, and a Christian minister to perform the ceremony – and, of course, it will all take place under Sharia law, with guns banned from the church site, except for the guns in the hands of the jack booted thugs forcing the Christians to perform these tasks while renouncing their faith.
raven
@Skippy-san: So don’t get married,
Jeffro
@ThresherK: Mason’s now the biggest school in VA, believe it or not. Lots of diversity in the student body and programs, very progressive when it comes to Dreamers, very international outlook overall. Leave out the law school and especially the Koch-supported economics department (please), and it’s a model of access & achievement for all.
Chris
@someguy:
True. I fully expect them to do everything they can to trip this up every step of the way the same way they have civil rights and Roe v. Wade.
raven
@Jeffro: Don’t live your life like that. Fuck it and drive on!
benw
@MomSense: You split your infinitive just like gay marriage is splitting up hetero marriages!
Southern Beale
You forgot, “Bristol Palin gets pregnant for the second time without benefit of a husband.” TOTALLY the gays’ fault, you guys. Also, I’m sure absent black fathers had something to do with it too. But mostly it’s because of gay marriage. Right? RIGHT?!
Chris
@rk:
Wait another few years, and they’re going to start telling you that gay marriage legalization was totally their idea all along.
Poopyman
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Ummm, men and women have been destroying other’s marriages for centuries, and since the crash & burn rate for modern marriages is around 50%, there’s a good chance a marriage will implode on its own before you get a chance to pull off your nefarious plot.
ThresherK
@Jeffro: Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that the Kochs are involved in this. Curious who is behind the Law School’s retrograde stuff.
I’ll remember your advice re the rest of the U going forward.
And it’s bigger than UVa and VT? Wow.
FlipYrWhig
@LongHairedWeirdo: While you’re at it, ask for a Confederate flag in fondant.
the Conster
And Texas wins the fucktard award, by ordering their clerks not to issue marriage licenses. I guess Abbott’s going to sit in the courthouse door.
Kropadope
@Skippy-san:
One small nit to pick: “The government can’t deliver the mail” isn’t their argument, it’s their goal.
Cervantes
@ThresherK:
The person? No.
The university? One or two parts of it, increasingly.
Kropadope
@Poopyman:
In fairness, that 50% number is largely due to serial divorcees.
MomSense
@benw:
I’m feeling very liberated.
Jeffro
@ThresherK: I think UVA is around 24k; Mason just edges out VCU by 1k or so (at 33-34k total). I probably should have noted that this is for VA public institutions – Liberty has 55k+ “students”
Punchy
@Litlebritdifrnt: It all comes down to next year’s SCOTUS decision on whether “religious objections” override the US Constitution. I’m guessing there’s at least 3 votes in the bag for “yes”.
benw
@MomSense: great. Add “grammar” to the list of things gay marriage is destroying… :)
Mandalay
@rk:
Indeed – a cop in Charleston has just been fired for posting a picture of himself in Confederate flag underwear on Facebook (since the massacre last week). He is from the same department as Michael Slager, the cop who shot a man in the back last month.
And of course there is a gofundme page for this poor oppressed asshole.
Riley's Enabler
@the Conster: You sure? They are issuing currently in Houston, and I hear Austin is as well.
Such a wonderful week in so many ways. Hurray!
Rosalita
I knew there would be a party going on here…what a week!
the Conster
@Riley’s Enabler:
I guess they haven’t gotten the memo, or did and determined they were not going to be involved in a nullification fight.
ThresherK
@Cervantes: Sorry, I meant GMU, not the actual person.
Hey, if the words of a Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, or Thomas Jefferson can be warped and twisted by the right wingers of this era, what chance does George Mason IV–whom nobody was taught about in elementary school–stand?
ThresherK
@Jeffro: Oh, I don’t count Liberty. I didn’t even count it when it was a mere College.
Riley's Enabler
@the Conster: First one just issued in Travis County (Austin area). Paxton apparently told clerks to maybe consider “waiting on his clarifications” but some are going ahead. At least one has!
Also, Paxton, Abbott, and that wretched buttraisin Dan Patrick can all BITE ME.
Elizabelle
C-Span 1 has the Pinckney memorial service, and it’s been good. Upbeat.
Previous speaker was gently mocking the shooter. “He picked the wrong church.”
Elizabelle
Entirety of a Paul Krugman blogpost: Legacy
He links to Dylan Matthews in Vox: Barack Obama is officially one of the most consequential presidents in American history
We already knew that here, most of us anyhow.
Elizabelle
Here’s link to Krugman’s Rolling Stone article.
In Defense of Obama
The Nobel Prize-winning economist, once one of the president’s most notable critics, on why Obama is a historic success
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/in-defense-of-obama-20141008#ixzz3eBgREKyI
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
Jay C
@srv:
Leaving aside his rather eccentric definition of “liberty” (apparently only “not being in jail”), Mr. Justice Thomas seems to have missed one important point: what if said petitioners “see fit” to “order their lives” by getting married?
LanceThruster
“This is what I say to the most conservative person that’s so terrified of gay marriage becoming legal: Just because the state says it’s legal, it’s not like God’s gonna let them into heaven?! You can still sleep sound every night, knowing that goal line defense is up at the pearly gates going, “You’re not getting in here, f4ggot“
~ Daniel Tosh
PS – Before anyone gets upset about his terminology, understand that he was parodying the haters who think God shares their hatred of gays.
Cermet
@Punchy: And the bureaucrats and leaders who do this will pay, pay, and pay their own $$$$; no, such resistance won’t last once they realize they get personally sued and have to pay!!!
gogol's wife
@Elizabelle:
What took him so long.
Elizabelle
President Obama up in a few moments at the Clementa Pinckney funeral. A cousin delivering brief remarks now.
Brachiator
Some callers to a local Los Angeles radio station have tried to (falsely) insist that churches will be forced to perform gay marriages.
A couple of callers have tried to insist that marriage is defined by a deity as a union between a man and woman, and want (too late) to reserve “marriage” for heterosexuals, and allow “unions” for gay people.
It is not just bigotry at play here, but a sociologist could have lots of fun watching people deal with the breaking of a taboo. These callers don’t appear to be deeply religious, but seem to be afraid that they are somehow disobeying the deity by accepting gay marriage. Very primitive.
I’m also curious to see what the world reaction to this Supreme Court decision might be. Any comment from the semi commie semi hippie Pope?
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
So true.
And yet it is sad, but funny, how much the “Obama is a corporatist, a centrist sellout” crowd resemble birthers, Tea Party nutjobs and other Obama haters.
SFAW
@Mustang Bobby:
Oh, quit yer damn whining about the pressure to get married.
It’s when they start pressuring you to get pregnant that it might become an issue.
(Of course, you could tell them that you’ll be vicariously preggers via Bristol Palin. She should be up to number 4 or 5 by that time. All Immaculate, of course.)
boatboy_srq
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Start with a Tupperware party. ,-)
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Mustang Bobby:
That was basically the same message I sent to my brother-in-law this morning, but I’m pretty sure he already has a boyfriend — sorry!
Elizabelle
President Obama taking stage to deliver eulogy. Speaking now.
someguy
@Jeffro: Mason’s now the biggest school in VA, believe it or not.
Named for an unrepentant, degenerate slaveholder. Not surprised it’s got an outlandishly right wing law school. Seems like it’d be a good week to start campaigning for a name change. Harvey Milk University, perhaps? While you’re at it, what the fuck is up with Washington and Lee? Virgina… the most introspective of the nostalgic slave states.
Snarkworth
Chat about whatever, including but not limited to how you plan to celebrate your government-mandated gay marriage.
I just proposed to my dog.
Skippy-san
@raven: @raven: My mother tried to tell me that 35 years ago. I wish I had listened to her. But I still think all marriage is pretty much useless.