PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tag marriage

Republican prospects in November's elections are decidedly brighter today as result of the ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court on same-sex marriage. The court ruled that same sex partners must be granted the same rights and benefits afforded opposite-sex couples under New Jersey's civil marriage statues, but deferred to the state legislature the decision on whether the same sex arrangement should be called marriage. So the court essentially said that same sex partnership walks like a duck, looks like a duck and should be granted all the rights and benefits of a duck, but concluded it didn't have the authority to call it a duck.

Two groups with widely divergent views on same-sex marriage gathered in Washington, D.C., Monday to present a surprisingly similar message: Churches, not the U.S. Congress, should settle the contentious issue.

The government council in the heavily Mormon town of Kanab, Utah, is under attack for a resolution it passed in January that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman, "ordained of God." The attack comes from more than two thousand miles away. Dan Walter, the Maryland founder of an Internet site called "What's up With Kanab?" ()() It's none of your business Dan. Sit down! Shut up! Stay. You're a good lapdog for the homosexual lobby.

The entire gay marriage debate, intensified by the California legislature's approval of a bill granting licenses for homosexual marriages and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to veto it, misses the big picture. The real question is: Why is government licensing marriages in the first place?