I wish to withdraw my defense

I was going to start writing this post about an hour ago. Instead I spent it crawling under the desk trying to pull the internet modem around to read the serial numbers on the back that didn't seem to match the provider's records. Yeah, my service was disrupted. It appears all better now. On to news of the week.



The Indiana Senate has approved a marriage protection amendment. This is the version the House passed a couple weeks ago that bans only same-sex marriage, not civil unions. Which means it cannot go before voters this fall. The legislature must vote on it again after the fall elections and then it might go before voters.



At the moment Nevada has a marriage protection amendment but also civil unions. As has been happening around the country, several same-sex couples sued for the right to marry. They named defendants as the governor, attorney general, and a few county clerks. The case is now before the 9th Circuit Court.

A few weeks ago the 9th Circuit said they will be applying intermediate scrutiny to all cases involving gay people. That means there had better be a pretty compelling reason for discrimination and it had better be designed to cause the least damage as possible.

On hearing that the governor and AG said, well golly, the reasoning in our defense won't pass muster. We had better pull out. The county clerks did the same.

That left defense in the hands of the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage. Tiny problem -- last summer the Supremes refused to rule on the Calif. marriage case where the sole defendants were a similar group. Which means the Supremes won't take this case on appeal.

The 9th Circuit (which handled the Calif. case) has granted permission for the various parties to withdraw from the Nevada case. So it won't take them long to rule.



A federal district judge in Kentucky has ruled that the state must recognize same-sex marriages celebrated elsewhere. He did not rule that Kentucky must provide same-sex marriages because he was not asked that question -- all of the couples in the suit are already married.

The judge, John Heyburn, was recommended by KY Senator Mitch McConnell and appointed by Bush I. As part of his ruling he noted many in his state see marriage as instituted by God. But a faith-based limitation does not make it constitutional. He noted that beliefs, no matter how sincerely held, cannot justify denying constitutional rights. He also tackled the issue that his opinion should not trump the voters. The voters also approved the 14th Amendment and its equal protection clause. This law and that amendment are in conflict. It is up to a judge to sort it out. This situation didn't happen suddenly. Judges have overturned several practices we now see as abhorrent. And this marriage battle started 47 years ago with Loving v. Virginia, the interracial marriage case.



My friend and debate partner gave me a VCR machine that he wasn't using. I used it yesterday to record the pair's skating while I was at the Ruth Ellis Center. After watching the last few teams live I was able to play back the few I had missed.



Bah! I have the Olympics on in the next room, waiting for the Men's figure skating to come on. I've checked a few times to see what sport is up. Half the time I got a message on the TV that the connection has been interrupted. So I called my internet provider again. They think the decryption box is bad. I can either wait until Tuesday (and miss the rest of the Men's skating and part of the dancing) or go to their local "store" for a swap.



It seems the latest thing in Fundie states is to propose laws that permit businesses to refuse services that are related to a civil union, domestic partnership, or same-sex marriage. They want a bakery, for example, to be able to turn down making a cake for a gay couple. Yes, this is legalizing discrimination. There is one such bill in Tennessee with more in other states.



A bigoted restaurant owner bragged about how he would refuse service to non-whites, disabled, the unemployed, and (of course) gays. The internet doesn't like a bigot and the swarm descended on his Facebook page and Yelp ratings page. Some gave him high ratings praising his place as a top gay bar. Others gave him low ratings. Might he sue for defamation? Who ya gonna sue?



Let's see if I can see figure skating through the NBC websites… Well, maybe not. I found a video of the Men's short program -- all 4 hours with no way to see just the top skaters. The image seemed to hesitate every few seconds. There was a timer saying I had to sign in after 30 minutes and they would verify some kind of eligibility. And the video had no controls -- no way to pause or fast forward. I didn't think I wanted to be up until 2 am. watching all 30 skaters. And, of course, since NBC has rights, all other news and TV outlets can't let me see what happened, they can only tell me about it -- the favored Russian withdrew due to injury, the favored American fell, a Japanese guy is on top.