Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg officiated at a gay wedding. Not everyone can get a justice as officiant. One of the couple, Michael Kaiser is president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and a longtime friend if Ginsberg. The justice loves opera and frequently attends performances at the center.
There are now eight of 23 counties in New Mexico that will issue same-sex marriage licenses. I think most of them resulted from various court orders, though I'm puzzled why the courts must limit the ruling to single counties.
The GOP legislators are finally getting around to doing something to try to stop all that. Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin has noted something about their rhetoric. No appeals to God and morality. No appeals to tradition. The only thing left is separation of powers -- whoever is doing this isn't supposed to.
In the meantime county clerks from across the state have appealed one of the court decisions simply to get a state-wide ruling.
Related to that Jim Burroway, also of Box Turtle Bulletin, noticed something in an article titled The Nature of Authority by Amit Majmudar in Kenyon Review. It seems we are now turning to science as the true authority. Some religious leaders are now desperate for scientists to confirm their findings. Even if the religious leaders have to twist the science to fit. We know quite well that last part as religious leaders skew scientific findings to justify their bullying. But that only shows they value the authority of science.
Dan Savage is expanding on his It Gets Better Project with a new series of videos. This one is titled Not All Like That (not exactly catchy). It features Christian leaders saying they aren't like the Fundies who loudly proclaim their bigotry. There are some Christians who are cool with gay people, they really support us. Savage started this project because so many church people would say to him, we're not all like that. Those bigots don't speak for us. Dan would respond, don't tell me, tell the gay people and tell the bigots. Many church organizations that work for gay inclusion, including Reconciling Ministries Network (hosts of the conference I just attended), are lending their support for the cause. Finally!
The IRS has ruled that legally married gay couples, no matter where they now reside, will be treated the same as straight couples for tax purposes.
Cory Booker is mayor of Newark, New Jersey and currently running to be NJ's next senator in Congress and is the favorite. He is very much one of our friends. There is a curious wrinkle in the campaign. Booker, who is single, has been very coy about his sexual orientation. Gay? Straight? He says it doesn't matter and he's likely right. There is already a gay senator and NJ is close to having marriage equality. But the piece that might be a problem, especially if he has aspirations for something bigger (like the presidency), is that he is single. Gay? No problem. Single? Um…
Christopher Dickey in Newsweek highlights another measure of inequality. It was created and studied by Samuel Bowles and Arjun Jayadev of the Santa Fe Institute. They created the term "guard labor" and define it as those in the workforce who enforce the productivity of others without producing anything themselves, who control threats to the system. This includes police, guards, and prison staff. They add to that those who are unproductive because they incarcerated or unemployed. In 1890 guard labor was 6% of the American workforce. In 2002 it was 26%.
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