short takes

[cellio]

I am pleased to see that the Massachusetts supreme court has ruled that same-sex marriages are legal. 'Bout time someone does. IMO, so long as states are going to assert a vested interest in marriages, they must use civil, not religious, definitions. Any religion is of course free to declare that a union is not a legal marriage for their purposes; that happens already.

Giant Microbes -- plushie toys for your favorite maladies, from the common cold to Ebola. Perfect for your Valentine's Day needs; surely this beats adopted cockroaches. Plushie link courtesy of browngirl.

Ur-ine Control, a urinal turned videogame controller, from those wackos at MIT (I say that with the utmost respect, of course). Link courtesy of the_never.

A good analysis of the current economic doings in Pittsburgh by tangerinpenguin. My favorite part: "[The mayor's] track record for recognizing when he's a part of Playa Politics only in the same sense that Frosted Choco-Bombs are part of this complete breakfast, unfortunately, bodes poorly."

I didn't watch the superbowl (not even the commercials), but apparently one of the anti-smoking ads has a real web site: Shards O Glass Freeze-Pops. As jducoeur said, this shows dedication to a nasty satire. (The ad is there, too, for those who missed it like I did.)

Today in talmud study: some not-very-satisfying, but interesting, attempts at the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people and vice-versa. I'll write it up later. (This is a reminder to myself. And I know I also owe an interview and a set of questions.)

In the last several days the amount of spam I receive seems to have decreased, from about 100 messages a day to about 50-60. I wonder who I should thank. Or is it just seasonal, with the end of the month being more popular than the beginning of the month?

Comments

[xthlcm.livejournal.com]

Yep. Go Mass!

The ruling was issued by the request of the legislature, which is drafting a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The process will take three years, and requires a referendum at the end. MA is pretty much the worst state in which to try such a referendum, since we have the highest per capita of gay households in the country.

In the meantime, the state will be forced to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. It'll be interesting to see what this does to reciprocity agreements with other states.

Pretty much the only thing that will stop this now is an amendment to the US Constitution, which Bush has pledged to push through Congress. Realistically, that that would require ratification by 2/3rds of Congress and 3/4ths of State Legislatures, a winnable battle on the part of gay rights activists. Bush is just banging his drum to shore up his conservative base.

Re:

[cellio]

In the meantime, the state will be forced to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. It'll be interesting to see what this does to reciprocity agreements with other states.

That, and what will happen to all of those legal marriages if they do manage to force through a (state) constitutional amendment in a few years. Even if Bush were to force through an amendment to the US constitution, which I agree would be a real challenge, it would take years -- so again, you have the problem of all those marriages that were legal, and are they really going to be able to nullify them after the fact?