Forgot to mention this, but if you hadn’t already heard, New Jersey’s gay marriage case was dismissed by a trial court on Wednesday. That’s not so bad, however. This case was never going to be resolved at the trial-court level. Indeed, according to this press release from Lambda Legal:

“More than anything, this ruling propels us forward to higher courts where both sides have always known it will be decided. Today’s ruling speeds the clock up toward the day lesbian and gay couples in New Jersey can seek the protections they need for their families from the state’s high court.”

We’ll see. The New Jersey Supreme Court is one of the nation’s more liberal high courts, and it was this court that ruled that James Dale should be allowed to be part of the Boy Scouts (a decision that was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, of course). Then again, the Massachusetts high court is also one of the nation’s more liberal high courts, yet it’s been procrastinating on issuing a decision in the Massachusetts gay marriage case for almost four months now.

So who knows what’ll happen. Exciting stuff, regardless.

Here’s a completely valueless op-ed by Gary Bauer in today’s Washington Post, railing against court-“imposed” gay marriage. (As if courts will force heterosexuals to marry people of the same sex.) The piece contains not a single substantive argument against gay marriage itself, nor does it explain why gay marriage is a “threat” to traditional marriage. It just makes these assumptions. Same old crap. Then again, who’d expect substantive arguments to work in a country where approximately half the electorate supports George W. Bush?

His arguments against federalizing marriage are easily refutable. He states that “in 1862 Congress passed the Morrill Act prohibiting plural marriages throughout the western territories.” Yeah, but federal territories were under the control of Congress. Territories, not states. “In order to join the Union, Utah had to write into its state constitution a prohibition against polygamous unions.” But we’re not talking about polygamy, we’re talking about letting two people who love each other solidify their ties. “Second [um… third?], in 1996, Congress passed the federal Defense of Marriage Act, whereby Congress defined marriage in federal law as the union of one man and one woman.” Yeah, and when did the Supreme Court rule this was constitutional?

Keep yourselves alert.

There seems to be a discrepancy in my media consumption.

Books I’ve read in the last two and a half months, in chronological order:

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, by Andrew Solomon

(might be missing one here)

Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. The Supreme Court, by Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, by Bernard Bailyn

The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800, by Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick

Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality, by Andrew Sullivan

On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill

Inferno, by Dante, translated by Robert Pinsky

The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles

And I’ve just started The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann.

Movies I’ve rented in the last two and a half months, in chronological order:

Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

Small Time Crooks (2000)

Liberty Heights (1999)

Waiting for Guffman (1996)

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)

Nurse Betty (2000)

Pillow Talk (1959)

That Touch of Mink (1962)

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

X-Men (2000)

Legally Blonde (2001)

American Pie 2 (2001)

Damage (1992)

New York: Episode 1: The Country and the City (1999)

Meet the Parents (2000)

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

Amelie (2001)

Two Weeks Notice (2002) (that’s bad grammar!)

Indiscreet (1958)

Erin Brockovich (2000)

Notorious (1946)

And last night I watched Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).

I’m not sure what conclusion to draw from all of this, other than lately I seem to enjoy heavy books and funny movies. But it takes longer to read a book than to watch a movie, so one would think I’d be into lighter books and heavier movies.
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