Bloodless Coup

Glad to see the world's oldest democracy is behind a state that only ended official racial segregation about a decade ago. And that comment was not meant to put done South Africa - go them.

grrrr -- i wish we could all just get used to, and universally adopt, the language of civil unions. marriages invariably, and historically, have been the province of religion. call them green tomatoes if you like, governments in the modern world have never been in the business of marriage, but rather in that of civil unions. i'm glad south africa is on board. but i do wish we could banish marriage to the world of baptisms and bar mitzvahs and the like, where it properly belongs.

governments sanction civil interactions generally, and domestic unions should warrant no different treatment. indeed, the insistence on marriage terminology has cost the same-sex-union-endorsing crowd so much more than it realizes. change the terminology, change the concept, and the debate is half-won without the firing of a single shot.

I agree with you Moon.

And actually that brings up something that I always wonder about when this issue gets discussed - is teh fact that they think their church might be forced to perform gay marriages part of the reason so many Americans are opposed to them. Given how little most Americans know about the legal system and constraints on government power, that strikes me as plausible. And of course the proposition is utterly absurd.

Though if the Right insists on mixing politics and religion to the degree they want to - who knows if it will remain as absurd in the future.