Careful what you say in God's name

As was expected, someone is blaming the fires currently raging in California on gays protesting the marriage ban. One would think God is happy the ban passed. But there's a strange twist -- the fires are in cities and counties that strongly voted for the ban. So lets just stop that nonsense of attributing disasters to God's wrath.

Enough of bashing blacks for their role in passing the Calif. marriage ban. If blacks hadn't voted or had voted in the same percentage as the general population the ban would have still passed, though it would have been a squeaker. There are lots of other ways of slicing up the population that produces sizable groups (over 15% of the voters) who were for the ban by over 60%. Some of these are Republicans (82% yes, 29% of voters) and those who attend church weekly (82% yes, 22% of voters) and even the elderly (61% yes, 15% of the vote). So why are we dissing blacks?

The Calif. Supremes will hear whether the marriage ban is a valid constitution amendment and whether existing gay marriages are legal. They will act swiftly and hold hearings in March. That means there may not be a ruling for a year. Alas, they said the ban is to remain in effect until their ruling. Naturally, there are threats to subject any justice who votes to overturn the ban with a recall vote.

Another voice says, so what if they toss out a justice?

* The repeal of the amendment still stands, meaning the Calif. legislature must approve a replacement amendment.
* Getting that ban through this legislature will fail.
* Defeating enough state legislators to get a ban through will fail.
* Any replacement justice appointed by Arnold or a future Democratic governor won't revisit the ruling.
* The amendment push has played out. Only 3-5 of the 20 remaining states will attempt it.
* There will be no federal amendment until after the federal Supremes rule and it only takes 13 states to block that.

There is a possible downside to overturning the ban -- gays haven't been this stirred up since Stonewall and we're ready to take on the world. Reinstituting gay marriage may let the steam out of the movement. However, the simple fact of gay marriage in Calif. will probably more than make up for it.