Family Values

For a while now the GOP has touted "family values" as one of their platforms.
This is why I don't think Republicans should complain about stuff like this.
The President of the United States is a person too with a wife and family. That
is why I see no problem with him taking a night off to spend with his wife. Could
it have been a less expensive date night? Yes.

Also, I really didn't complain when President Bush would take vacations
in Crawford so I want to be consistent.

If Republicans really want to show they value families, they shouldn't
be up in arms about a married couple going out in the town. Unfortunately,
we live in a country with a high divorce rate and plenty of moms and dads
are no longer together. You know what helps a marriage stay strong? Date
nights. The president has a special platform that many of us do not have:
media attention. What better way to can the president show America that
marriages matter then going out with his wife?

Wikipedia on Marriage

Hey, you know what's a good resource when you want to redefine marriage?
Wikipedia. No, seriously:

The 84-page opinion legalizing same-sex marriage in Connecticut
included scores of citations: legal precedents, friend-of-the-court
briefs — and Wikipedia.

It was a simple fact — the number of gay Congressmen — that easily
could have been passed off to a clerk or page. Instead, Justice Richard
Palmer attributed it to the free online user-generated encyclopedia.

The passing reference stood out in an inevitably controversial
decision. While Internet sources have become increasingly common
in legal opinions, legal experts said Wikipedia still comes as a surprise.

“They could have done better; I’m a little disappointed,” said Kenji
Yoshino LAW ’96, a constitutional law professor at New York University
who used to teach at Yale. “I hope we’re not devolving into the days
of a wiki-constitution quite yet.”

Connecticut Supreme Court staff are not commenting on Friday’s
decision.

A search of all federal and all state court decisions ever made revealed
that 247 have cited Wikipedia. That number could continue to grow
as the encyclopedia becomes more mainstream, although Wikipedia’s
accuracy remains controversial. “Wikipedia acknowledges that it
should not be used as a primary source for serious research,” according
to, naturally, Wikipedia.

So people can't use their religious beliefs or the Bible to cite their opposition to
same-sex marriage because that's mixing religion and state. Alright. However, the
Connecticut Supreme Court can use Wikipedia when redefining marriage? My
professors during college probably wouldn't let me cite Wikipedia on a simple
paper about the polarization of cable news viewing (I was a journalism major).
I wouldn't even try it.

I want to know what exactly they cited on Wikipedia?

Update: I did a quick search of the Connecticut ruling and this is what I found attributed
to Wikipedia:

No openly gay person ever has been appointed to a United States
Cabinet position or to any federal appeals court,41 or served in the
United States Senate, and only two currently serve in the United
States House of Representatives. See ‘‘Current Members of the
United States Congress,’’ available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_Senators.

Prop 8 Ad

There's an interesting new ad by 'No on Prop 8' out. If you are not familiar
with Prop 8, it's a proposition that will appear on the November ballot in
California that will allow voters to decide on adding a constitutional amendment
to the California constitution to keep marriage between a man and a woman.
Here's the ad:



I found the ad interesting because a) there is no mention of gay marriage b)
there's a female and a male in the ad (no gay couples). According to the video if
you say "yes" to Prop 8, you are telling people who they can and can not love.
So now marriage equals love! Good to know. I guess all those couples who live
together and have children but don't have that legal paper that says they are
legally married don't love each other.

Another interesting tidbit, if you visit NoOnProp8.com you'll find a lot of pictures
of, um, heterosexual couples:

Sanctity

There's this beautiful scene in the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun"
when a young couple deeply in love finally get approval from their
family and get married. There are many reasons why I love this scene.
I love the traditional, religious ceremony said in Italian. Absolutely
gorgeous. I also enjoy the joyful reaction of the main character, Frances
(played by Diane Lane), in the scene. You see Frances is a recent
divorcee who moved to Tuscany to make a change in her life.
She has been hurt by love. However, in this scene you can see that
she regains her faith in love and, perhaps, the institution of marriage.

I think many in American society have lost faith in the institution
of marriage. More young couples are deciding to live together and
forgo marriage. And really who can blame with them with the high
divorce rates that have been consistent for the past two decades.
Many probably come from families of divorced parents. However,
let's not lose heart and give up on marriage and families. Marriage
at its best is the uniting to two souls who make a covenant to God
to honor and love each other forever. Marriage at its worst is simply
a legal document.