The Court might pass on the Prop 8 question. 

8 or fewer votes keeps the Status Quo.

6 Roman Catholics on the bench with rather conservative outlooks on life.

Who knows? They are more apt to consider equality in the domestic marriage act because they can use concepts of equality in  a way that doesn’t specifically endorse Gay Marriage, rather eliminates inequality in rules and regulations. That reasoning would go like this  … We don’t like the idea of gays being married, but since they can be, and they can also be employed in federal and military jobs, then they need to be treated equally.

If the Supreme Court upholds equality, then the outcome will be 9 -0 in favor of Gay Marriage and putting the Defense of Marriage Act where it belongs, i.e., in the bottom of the outhouse.

I believe Clarence Thomas is the only sitting justice who has been divorced and re-married. He is the one justice who can define traditional marriages in practical American terms – such serial monogamy, the divorce loophole, simply living together, committing adultry, fucking around with one’s female staff, and the like.

None of the justices are qualified to speak about traditional marriage. They are all religious folks – 6 Roman Catholics, two Jews and a Protestant.

Religious folks have a jaundicd eye. Much as Antonin Scalia can’t understand English when he reads the constitition, none of the justices can read the bible without assuming the bible says something that it clearly does not say.

We have no record that God, the pedophile rapist, wed the teenager, Mary. We know she produced an illegitimate child, Jesus. His brothers and sister may have come from a union between Mary and Joseph, but we don’t know when, where or IF those two were married.

One gospel speaks of Mary as the wife of Joseph, but what does that mean? Study Genesis, and a man takes a woman and both leave their family, and the woman is called by the title, wife. Where is the marriage? The Rabbi or Priest? The certificate? NO WHERE. What we now call traditional marriage includes such sanctions, proclamations, vows, fees – DON’T FORGET THE EFFING FEES!

Traditional marriage in America must always allow for  TRADITIONAL DIVORCE and the possibility TRADITIONAL RE-MARRIAGE.

Traditional marraiges through the ages have most often had different rules for royalty. The Roman Catholic Chirch is a kind of royalty, with at least one married pope and one illegitimate child of a pope being elected later to the papacy. How many infants and pre-teen girls princesses were marriedto some king to secure politcal alliances, retain royal lands, and power? Henry VIII, Roman Catholic Henry, bolted the church so he could get rid of one wife and take aother, and began his own church in the process. That’s one hell of a traditional marriage stance.

And of course, arrogant as our declining nation and people are, we never consider that while we are just 320 million out of 7 billion, we are the only folks to have traditional marriages, or the right to say what constitutes a traditional marriage. We don’t teach or own history, so why would we look at other cultures? Oops. Those others cultures are US, they are in our melting pot. We have Hindus. We have Muslims. We are made up of people who have their own cultural definitions of things such as marriage. Our one common link is that we want equality under law.

Kris Kobach is not an anomaly. He is a Republican through and through. He is a younger face of a party that has seen its better days.

RIGHT DECISION FOR WRONG REASONS, Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald

Let there be no cheers for Rob Portman.

The Ohio senator is a conservative Republican and he recently did something conservative Republicans do not do. He came out for same-sex marriage. This is a man whose anti-gay bona fides were so pronounced that his 2011 selection as commencement speaker at the University of Michigan law school prompted an uproar among the graduates, many of whom signed a letter protesting his appearance as an insult to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

Yet there he was, telling CNN he’s had “a change of heart.” And what prompted this? Well, as it turns out, the senator made his U-turn because of Will.

That would be Will Portman, 21, who came out to his parents two years ago. His son, the senator said, explained to them that his sexuality “was not a choice and that that’s just part of who he is.” As a result, said Portman, “I’ve come to the conclusion that for me, personally, I think this is something that we should allow people to do, to get married, and to have the joy and stability of marriage that I’ve had for over 26 years.”

It was, make no mistake, an act of paternal love and empathy, and deserves to be celebrated on that basis. He did the only thing a good father could have done. And yet if Portman’s change of mind warms the heart, it also, paradoxically, illustrates the moral cowardice so often found at the heart of social conservatism.

Look, the senator’s son is doubtless a fine and admirable young man. But with all due respect to his son, to heck with his son. This is not about Will Portman. It’s far bigger than that.

So one can’t help but be frustrated and vexed by the senator’s inability to “get it” until “it” included his son. Will explained to him that his sexuality “was not a choice”? Lovely. But was the senator not listening when all those other gay men and lesbians tried to tell him the exact same thing?

Apparently not. Like former Vice President Dick Cheney, father of a lesbian daughter, Portman changed his view because the issue became personal. Which suggests a glaring lack of the courage and vision needed to put oneself into someone else’s shoes, imagine one’s way inside someone else’s life. These are capabilities that often seem to elude social conservatives.

Small wonder: If you allow yourself to see the world from someone else’s vantage point, there is a chance it will change your own. Can’t have that.

So instead we have this. And by extension of the “logic”: Here, we must wait on Herman Cain to adopt a Mexican child before he sees how offensive it is to suggest electrocuting Mexicans at the border. And if Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., would only have an affair with a Muslim, she might stop seeing terrorists on every street corner.

Tellingly, Portman’s change of heart elicited mainly an embarrassed silence from his ideological soul mates who, 10 years ago, would have been on him like paparazzi on a Kardashian. But then, 10 years ago, gay rights was still an open question. Ten years later, that question is closing with startling speed, as in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll that finds support for same-sex marriage at a record high. Change is coming, gathering momentum like an avalanche.

And once again, conservatives will stand rebuked by history, be left on the platform by progress. Or else, split the difference, do the right thing for the wrong reasons like Rob Portman.

No, you cannot condemn a man for loving his child.

But true compassion and leadership require the ability to look beyond the narrow confines of one’s own life, to project into someone else’s situation and to want for them what you’d want for your own. Portman’s inability to do that created hardship for an untold number of gay men and lesbians.

Each of them was also someone’s child.

Miss Dolly awakened me half an hour ago. It is now about 3:40 am. She was worried at the roosters wouldn’t be up on time to crow at the crack of dawn. Dolly is thoughtful that way. Her work now done, she is in “her” recliner, napping.

Gonzaga, a name that sounds like a Japanese Sci Fi creature, now knows something about WuShocks.

****

KANSAS CHRISTIANS ARE TAKING A SNOW DAY.

It is Palm Sunday, part of Holy week in the Christian world, and Wichita accumluated about 3 inches of snow over-night.

That is sufficient to cancel church servics across the city. After all, Jesus who was soon to get stapled to a cross would not want his followers to be in danger, or inconvenienced.

Any, anyway, Easter is a week away. The snow will be gone by then, Christians can venture to church next week to appease their lust for human sacrifice. We love to study beheadings during the French Revolution. We almost dance a jig when we can legally execute someone. Each week we huddle around the TV to see if some football player gets a broken neck, or a hockey player gets an eye plucked out, or another Dale Earnhardt gets killed in a race car.

Don’t believe me. Just listen to the folks who are out to get Punxsutawney Phil’s furry little butt.

Yesterday, The cats awakened me at 1:58 in the morning. This morning, they let me sleep until 2:52.

I should say that little Miss Dolly Dalrymple awakened me. Mister Marshmallow is fast asleep on the kitchen floor. Miss Pumpkin is sitting on the computer tower, watching my every move in case I might head to the cupboard in the kitchen and get her a treat. Dolly is powdering her nose I can hear her scratching around in the litter box.

My beautiful daughter-in-law Jennifer is having a birthday.  I hope she has a wonderful day.

On this day, I remember my father, Robert Hayden Maxwell, 1907 – 1960.

Today would be my father’s 106th birthday. He was 53 when he died 53 years ago. Dad was an OB/GYN. He delivered me. I’m not sure if I could see on that day in October of 1942, but it’s possible that he – or perhaps his operating room nurse, Lucel Cannon- was the first person I saw. They each had front row seats, so to speak, to my  first few moments outside the womb.

My brother-in-law also has a birthday today.

*****

March Madness won’t end after the basketball games are played. That’s because Congress will still be in session.

On this date, in 1972, the proposed Equal Rights Amendment was approved and sent to the states for ratification. The move to have such an amendment began in 1918. The proposed amendment ultimately failed to get the necessary 3/4^th votes. It was a natty thing to begin with, making women equal to men, among other things.

In Kansas, Wichita State University basketball coach, Gregg Marshall’s base pay is $ 900,000. The women’s coach, Jody Adams, get $ 175,000. Bruce Weber of Kansas State gets 1,500,000. Bill Self of Kansas University gets $ 3,500,000.

All of these hard working – non-playing – coaches gets various bonuses. Bill Self’s contract is potentially worth 52 million over the next ten years. He’s the 4th or 5th highest paid coach in the good old U. S. of A.

We hear of some remarkable women owners of corporations, and CEO’s of corporations who make some really big salaries. My friend at the dollar store two block away doesn’t make as much in salary. Her perks are that she has been robbed at gunpoint twice. She gets excitement, so why does she need much else, such as equal pay for equal work?

I’ve seen my friend lift boxes, fill shelves, ring up cash register sales, sweep the aisles. I have yet to see Bill Self, Gregg Marshall, Bruce Weber or even Jody Adams play basketball. I think they are all over paid, even if Jody Adams – being a woman with a fantastic team and a great record – gets shit in compensation in comparison to the men.

Oh, well! Sports are still the most important of the things that don’t really matter. And America may never respect women to the point of saying they are equal to men – even when, in many ways – they have always been superior.

Ten years ago we hads Dickie, Donnie and Dummie. This is the face of the new and improved regressive party.