The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and we have the results for this week's Watcher's Council match up.
Be careful what you wish for..because you just might get it.
This week's winner, The Razor for Why a Supporter of Gay Marriage Isn't Happy with the Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage is an interesting commentary on the recent Supreme Court decidions on same sex marriage. Here's a slice:
I should be pleased with today’s Supreme Court rulings supporting Gay Marriage since I support gay marriage. So why am I not happy with today’s rulings?
Part of it is the fact that today’s rulings do not end the government’s involvement in marriage. I believe that marriage is a purely religious institution and a secular government has no role in it. The traditional role of government in marriage is due to two reasons. First it provides a legal basis for the treatment of property particularly in regards to inheritance. This has been stretched to include the division of property in the case of divorce, but it should be remembered that until relatively recently divorce was uncommon and in many cases all but illegal. Secondly government involvement in marriage is to insure the nurturing and growth of future citizens – children. In the past marriage provided the economic means necessary to keep children out of poverty, and even today poor children are more likely to live in single parent homes than in homes with two married people. One of the best arguments I have heard against poverty is “If you don’t want to be poor, stay married.” It is a truism I have seen firsthand, and one that I take to heart whenever the Road of Marriage becomes bumpy.
But this traditional involvement for the “sake of the children” has been corrupted by Leftists who have seen the success of other institutions like the Catholic Church in successfully inculcating its values in the young under its tutelage. All Communist and Socialist political parties have “youth wings” whereby the State or (or state-wannabees if the socialists have yet to take power) indoctrinate children in party ideology. In the United States and Europe Leftists have been successful at turning public education into youth indoctrination camps which is why children fear global warming more than car crashes even though they are more likely to die or suffer serious injury in a car wreck than the consequences of rising global temperatures. Libertarians have traditionally opposed state sponsored education, and this indoctrination is one reason why, so that chops at that leg of support for government involvement in marriage.
As for property there is nothing in existing law that couldn’t handle that separately from marriage. All that is required is that one must be of legal age to participate in a contract. If a New Zealander decides to marry his ewe, he must find a church willing to accept such an arrangement, but he won’t be able to leave his house to Bessie and the minute he touches her he will be subject to animal cruelty laws and existing laws against bestiality. But if a man decides to set up a household with his two wives from a Muslim marriage, so be it. He can enter into a property contract that specifies who gets what when the household is dissolved according to civil (not religious) law. As for spousal rights granted by marriage, we already have Power of Attorney, a contract that specifies who is responsible for someone in the event they are disabled or unconscious. If a lesbian wants her lover to decide whether to pull the plug on her in an ICU, then so be it, as long as there exists a power of attorney. The State has a traditional function as the enforcer of binding legal contracts that is separate from marriage, so removing itself from the “marriage business” will not impact that function.
So without these two supporting pillars the State has no reason to be involved in marriage. Expanding the definition of marriage to include gay people isn’t going to change that . Perhaps in the long run it will accelerate the disentangling of the State from the religious basis of marriage, but in the long run we are dead to quote Keynes.
In our non-Council category, the winner was Barry Rubin with As Slander and Hatred Mount: Where is the Rallying for Israel? submitted by Simply Jews. In it the always stimulating Professor Rubin compares the hatred and bias directed towards Israel today with a similar climate existing towards Jews in the 1930's.
OK, here are this week’s full results. Only The Noisy Room was unable to vote this week, but was not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty:
Council Winners
- *First place with 2 2/3 votes! The Razor – Why a Supporter of Gay Marriage Isn't Happy with the Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage
- Second place with 2 votes – Liberty's Spirit-We The People
- Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit-An Update On The Zimmerman Trial
- Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Simply Jews-Yes, President Morsi Is Jewish
- Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Right Planet-Strategem for Republicans: On the Issue of Issues
- Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Nice Deb-Why Do Republicans Want To Prop Up A Scandal Plagued President?
- Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – The Noisy Room- It’s “Not An Invasion,” If We Think They Belong Here
- Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Bookworm Room –Marriage's open frontiers in America
- Sixth place with 2/3 vote – The Political Commentator – Iran and the U.S. Commander-in-Competent!
- Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey –Celebrities Love Social Media ... Except When They Don't
- Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi –Sexual Assault and Harassment in the United States Navy
Non-Council Winners
- First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Barry Rubin- As Slander and Hatred Mount: Where is the Rallying for Israel? submitted by Simply Jews
- Second place *t* with 2 votes – Roger L. Simon – Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State this July 4th? submitted by Joshuapundit
- Second place *t* with 2 votes – Mark Steyn – The Simulacrum of Self-Government submitted by The Watcher
- Third place with 1 2/3 votes -Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion -Zimmerman Update — How Much Injury Is Required Before Self-Defense is Justified? submitted by The Glittering Eye
- Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes -Claire Lopez/Gatestone Institute -Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate? submitted by The Noisy Room
- Fifth place *t* with 1 vote - Victor Davis Hanson – Liberal Apartheid submitted by The Right Planet
- Fifth place *t* with 1 vote -TF Stern's Rantings – They Chose...Poorly submitted by Rhymes With Right
- Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Charlie Martin/PJ Lifestyle –Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate? submitted by Bookworm Room
- Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Michael Totten –Bluffing In Cairo submitted by The Razor
- Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Emet m'Tsiyon –Obama's Hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an enemy of the Jews And Holocaust Facilitator submitted by The Political Commentator
- Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Compass –America's terorrism Strategy Makes No Sense submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
- Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -Bruce Bawer –If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em? submitted by The Watcher
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