This Is It

This is it.  This is the moment (one of them, anyway) that I have been waiting for.  Today the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal from Utah (and several other states) asking it to restore bans on same sex marriage.  Read this article.  Though it came as a surprise to some, the gesture upholds the earlier decisions from several Circuit Courts, and tells the appealing states that the argument is dead.  Technically, if a different Circuit Court later rules in favor of a gay marriage ban, then the matter may have to be adjudicated by the Supremes, but that is not a likely event.

You see - Sean Reyes, Utah's Attorney General, is stuck now.  He can do nothing.  His hands (and the Church's hands) are completely tied. Those gays who have already married can move on with their lives, and, presumably, those gays who now want to marry can move ahead with their legal nuptials.

Just last week, Sean Reyes notified the 10th Circuit Court of his intention to appeal the Brown decision (of 12/13/2013) which decriminalized Utah's polygamists. Reyes wants the Court to preserve a law that makes it a crime for polygamists to exist.  In light of today's Supreme Court action, I think he is wasting his time.

I mean, since Lawrence v. Texas (June 26, 2003), gay people have been permitted to exist and breathe air outside of prisons.  They eat, sleep, drink, walk, work, drive, gather, and share intimacy all without being incarcerated.  Now, not only are they permitted to exist, but they can get married like heterosexuals have done for decades.  If gay people, (whom many Mormons despise) can now marry, why cannot polygamists now exist without the threat of being sent to prison for their criminal religious thoughts?

I have said this before, but I always salivate at the prospect of reading the pleadings conjured up by those who want to imprison polygamists while absolving adulterers and fornicators.  I say that because the arguments they contrive are so laughable and stupid:

1. Polygamists threaten the sanctity of holy matrimony in Utah.
2. Polygamists hijack the official legal marriage system.
3. Polygamists are adulterous and sinful.
4. Polygamists burden the welfare system.
5. Polygamists have retarded and substandard children.
6. Polygamists monopolize the pool of available single women.

Seriously, though, there is not one single argument in favor of criminalizing plural relationships that makes any sense when a state is not willing to incarcerate all of its fornicators. You can't not eat your cake and not eat it too. 

I can't close this post without also commenting on Canada.  British Columbia has decided now to move ahead with the prosecutions of Winston Blackmore and Jimmy Oler for polygamy.  Justice Bauman's decision to uphold Canada's anti-polygamy law seems equally laughable in a country that legalized gay marriages in 2005 and recently permitted prostitution nationwide.  Blackmore and Oler should assert that they pay their women, and that the wives are serving as prostitutes.  I only wish Lewis Carroll had been able to include this stuff in his Alice In Wonderland story - it would have made a lot of sense.

STUPID, STUPID, STUPID !!!

Yes, I'm channeling John Grisham.  You know I hate what liberals stand for.  I'm reminded of recent news reports of people being cited for growing vegetables in their yards.  Liberals can screw up a good thing.

I read an article last week that reported that Seattle residents will now be fined if the contents of their garbage are more than ten percent food.

I have a some questions:

1.  Don't inspectors have to have probable cause that a crime is being committed before they have a right to examine your garbage?  Has Seattle heard of the Fourth Amendment and the Supreme Court's new privacy doctrines?

2.  Will Seattle now fine the Federal Government for disposing of surplus produce, and for paying farmers not to grow food?

3.  Will garbage inspectors evaluate the percentage of food content in domestic waste by volume or weight, and what special scales will garbage collectors need to bring to each garbage pickup to correctly detect violations that surpass the 10% threshold?

4.  What special education and certifications will garbage collectors need to possess in order to meet these exacting standards for food waste analysis and testing?  Is baby poop classified as food, and will it need to be removed from the disposable diaper before being weighed?

5.  Does Seattle have enough money to defend all of the lawsuits that this will provoke?

I'm sorry, but I think I just figured out that there are some really stupid liberal politicians.