Turtle Power!

The Supreme Court of the United States had us all on a real roller coaster ride this week.  First they massively disappointed most of us normal people when they gutted the Voting Rights Act.  They cited as their reasons the fact that times had changed, and that racism in this country is not what it was back in the 1960's.  The Court turfed rewriting the law back to Congress, the same Congress with a House so deadlocked that it cannot accomplish the simplest and most basic of their regular duties.  You know, things like the Farm Bill.  The idea that this Congress could do anything that would not leave the Voting Rights Act gutted for the foreseeable future is astonishingly naive.  Or astonishingly cynical, depending on your point of view.  As for the "changes" in society they mentioned, well, remember that we all live in a country where just this year there was a huge hue and cry from some sources because Cheerios, the beloved breakfast cereal, dared to show an ad featuring a multiracial family.  Shocking, I know.  Not the multiracial family, the idea that some people can still find a multiracial family offensive. In an atmosphere of that kind of bigotry, there is no doubt that we still need voting rights protected.

On the other hand, the Court really came through for the next civil rights battle our society faces, the battle for equality for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people.  They tossed out the Defense of Marriage Act (although they did so using the weakest possible language, but still, they did it) AND they kicked Prop 8 back to the lower courts in California, effectively restoring same sex marriage rights to our most populous state.  Good job, ladies and gents.  Except for you, Clarence Thomas.  You ought to hang your head in shame and resign your commission over the way you voted on both those issues.

Of course the overturning of DOMA caused bigoted uproars from the usual upstarts.  Michele Bachmann, that loon, was immediately on her podium ranting about how her God informs her choices, not the Courts.  And when a gay member of the PA House of Representatives, Brian Sims, attempted to address that body on the decision, he was shouted down by another member, Daryl Metcalfe, who said that it was "against God's Law" to speak about DOMA.

In other words, an idiot.

The groups disparaging this decision seem not to understand that the decision in no way affects their rights to make a decision about whom they might marry.  If their faith prohibits same sex marriage, they are more than welcome to remain in their faith and not marry within their own gender.  Their faith is not shut down.  The rest of us, who don't share their beliefs, are free to live according to ours just as they are free to live according to theirs.  Why they refuse to extend this freedom to the rest of us is a mystery I can't begin to try to understand.

And then of course, my favorite thing happened:  various conservative voices began harping yet again on how this opens the door for marriage with animals.  I don't know why they keep picking on the poor turtle, but that was one of the things I heard:  "What's next?  Will society allow marriage to a turtle next?"  Why these supposedly Godly people immediately turn to bestiality as their primary fear and objection is another thing I just can't fathom.

As John Oliver pointed out on the Daily Show, they don't raise the Animal Objection on any other issue.  Nobody is saying about Obamacare, for example, "What's next?  Are we going to offer free health care to TURTLES??"  Nobody is saying that they're afraid that we're going to start giving driver's licenses to turtles.  So what's with the bestiality in marriage crap?

If that's the best they can come up with, they really should think about getting some help.  (I understand that under Obamacare it'll be a lot easier.)

Oh, and they should probably stay away from turtles.