Ohio Ordered to Stop Discriminating Against Gay Couple

Every now and again, God shows his face. A couple got married in a state that allows gays to marry, came back to Ohio, got discriminated against, sued the state, and won. Little Johnnie Kasich and his cronies just got bitch-slapped.

A federal judge in Ohio ordered state officials Monday to recognize the marriage of two men that was performed in Maryland on the death certificate of an Ohio resident in hospice care who the judge says “is certain to die soon.”
“The end result here and now is that the local Ohio Registrar of death certificates is hereby ORDERED not to accept for recording a death certificate for John Arthur that does not record Mr. Arthur’s status at death as ‘married’ and James Obergefell as his ‘surviving spouse,’” Judge Timothy Black wrote in granting the couple a temporary restraining order Monday.
“By treating lawful same sex marriages differently than it treats lawful opposite sex
marriages,” the judge concluded, Ohio’s 2004 constitutional amendment banning recognition of same-sex couples’ marriages and Ohio’s statute addressing the same issue “likely violate the United States Constitution.”

In this one-party Hell of a state, it is good to see the rule of law prevail over the rules of partisan politics, bigotry and willful ignorance. It doesn’t happen often, so these moments are doubly precious.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Lying Sack of S*** of The Week: John Kasich

This week’s ever-so-very-worthy recipient of the Crown 0′ Polished Turds is Ohio’s Guv, John Kasich. On Thursday of this past week, The Kasich “evolved” and said he had some gay friends, and was willing to throw them a bone in the form of civil unions. But hey, no marriage for the gayward according to The Kasich.

This lasted less than half a day . Now the story is, he’s back to his old gay-hating self. Last time Mr. Blunt and Cranky checked, evolution didn’t work in reverse. Which means, he’s lyin’ like a moldy shag rug.

A crown, then, for The Kasich: our Lying Sack of S*** of The Week.

Mr. B & C

When We Repeat our Mistakes, We Look Even Dumber

When Mr. Blunt and Cranky was but a wee lad, there were snow toys called “Snurfers” –  sort of a short surfboard with a rope handle attached to the front. Very fun, and very dangerous if used by the untrained on steep ski or sledding slopes.  One fine  Winter’s day, a perfectly average hormone-addled teenaged friend took his new Snurfer to the highest point on the highest hill in town, went essentially straight down a steep incline, lost control, and broke several limbs.

After said friend (we shall call him “Fool #1”) got carted off to the E.R.,  everyone left that Snurfer alone,  as no one else wanted to be encased in plaster after breaking their bones in the snow.  Everyone, that is, except for one amazingly stupid idiot who took the fallen kid’s Snurfer up to the same high place, took the same route down the hill, and broke his tailbone.  This resulted in Fool # 2 being humiliated for months as he carried his pillow to and from class, (to cushion his fractured kazoo as he was made to sit on the hard wooden and plastic chairs). Fool # 2 was judged far more harshly than Fool #1, because he had seen what had happened to Fool #1 and did the same dumb thing anyway. No excuse.

At that same time in America, it was unusual to see black and white couples together, much less married – such behavior was discouraged.  Reams of “evidence” were produced in support of this and other racist ideas; “evidence” that turned out to be junk science, brainless balderdash, and similar worthless dreck.  In spite of the lack of rational basis for laws against “interracial marriage”, said laws remained on the books for far too many years, and (in some parts of the country) were unofficially enforced even after their repeal, by evolutionary throwbacks and bitter old church ladies.

Humans being humans, the same sort of tripe is being used today, to oppose the rights of gay Americans to wed. Now as then, we hear silly-arsed theories presented as “facts”, junk science, homophobic horseflop and other “evidence”; all in the service of alienating from legitimate U.S. citizens their allegedly inalienable rights.

Regardless of whether the opponents of marriage equality are stupid, venal, or ignorant; whether they are acting in a thoughtful or thoughtless manner; and whatever their motivations may be, one thing unites them all: they are repeating mistakes made by similar people in the past, and are paying no attention to what happened to the fools who came before them. They can easily see what happened in the past when the same stupid thing that they are doing now was done; but they are doing the stupid thing anyway.

By refusing to learn from history, they willfully choose to be stubbornly ignorant: and by so choosing, look even dumber than their predecessors. Just like Fool #2 and his borrowed Snurfer.

Mr. B & C