A proud couple of days for the USofA ...

[Smiles]

The United States Supreme Court (i.e. the Last Spike, the court-of-courts ... no appeals coming from this puppy) just the other day gave a 6-3 nod in the affirmative regarding a very important and basic part of the Affordable Care Act (AKA 'Obamacare') which had been taken to the court by a significant number of states who were of course gleefully ready and waiting to gut the Act.

And today, just an hour ago, standing in line at my bank, I looked up idly at the TV hanging on the back wall (always tuned to the news channel) and heard that same court had just ruled that full and equal gay marriage ~ throughout the country, not just individual states ~ is now fully protected by the US Constitution. Now the law of the land.

Needless to say, a very bad day for the Limbaughs, the Hannitys, the O'Reillys, the Fox News', the right wing Talk Radios, the Republican Party (for the most part), the fundamentalists, assorted dinosaurs and no-nothingists etc etc etc.

Some interesting links and a pithy quote:

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015 ... ll-50.html (http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/06/26/same-sex-marriage-now-legal-for-gay-military-couples-in-all-50.html)
http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertain ... B720150626 (http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCAKBN0P62B720150626)
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion- ... tml#page=1 (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-supreme-court-gay-marriage-scalia-roberts-kennedy-20150626-story.html#page=1)
And from the great State of Alabama: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/0 ... _2015.html (http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/06/us_supreme_court_rulings_2015.html)

To be expected:

(Today) 1:37 p.m. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says it is "profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage."
And evangelical leaders who are part of the Southern Baptist Convention, along with other churches and Christian groups, say there can be no capitulation in defending traditional marriage because "biblical authority" requires the struggle against same-sex marriage to continue.

It remains to be seen how many gay couples actually marry. The institution is dying - thankfully.

[Smiles]

It remains to be seen how many gay couples actually marry. The institution is dying - thankfully.
... a notion which has precisely nothing to do with the the court ruling.
Perhaps more appropriate in your own thread down below?

I particularly enjoyed Justice Scalia's commentary
He then went about dissecting the opinion, written by Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. Scalia found this Kennedy line тАФ тАЬthe nature of marriage is that,through its enduring bond, two persons together can find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy, and spiritualityтАЭ тАФ distasteful.

тАЬReally? Who ever thought that intimacy and spirituality [whatever that means] were freedoms? And if intimacy is, one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie. Expression, sure enough, is a freedom, but anyone in a long-lasting marriage will attest that that happy state constricts, rather than expands, what one can prudently say.тАЭ

[LoveThailand]

Some idiots inside and outside of gay community are trying to say that fighting for the right to marry for gays is a waste of time because the institution of marriage is dying, because it is archaic, because.....
As if once gays have the right to marry they will be all marched to the altar.
It is about equal rights. And while this institution is alive and well in legals systems, gays have to have the right to use it.