Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That’s it. That’s all. If you write; or speak in public; or are religious, or not; or value the ability to express your personal political opinion on anything, no matter how popular or unpopular it might be – the First Amendment to the Constitution is pretty damned important.

Why did I put this up today? Check out 1 For All for more information.

I’m sure General (if he still remains a general today) Stanley McChrystal ;could have used that advice several months ago. Just sayin’. Welcome to the civilian world, mister.

Oh, and President Obama did the only thing he could do given the circumstances. You don’t bitch-slap your superiors in the military and expect to keep your job. No matter who your superiors might be.

As the three of you who read this know, i am not a lawyer. I love reading about the law and court cases, but other than that… So take the following comments for exactly what they’re worth.

Mr. Charles Cooper, one of the lawyers for the defendants, did an ineffective job in the closing statements, in my personal opinion. A couple of things that stood out to me, which the judge questioned him about in detail:

Cooper made the argument that marriage is both designed for procreation only and to discourage “irresponsible procreation”.

THE COURT:
to marriage to people their own.
MR. COOPER:
It does not insist –
THE COURT:
But the state doesn’t withhold the right who are unable to produce children of their own.
MR. COOPER:
That’s true, your Honor, it does not.
THE COURT:
Are you suggesting that the state should, to fulfill the purpose of marriage that you have described?
MR. COOPER:
No, sir, your Honor. It is by no means a necessary — a necessary condition or a necessary requirement to fulfilling the state’s interests in naturally potentially procreative sexual relationships.
THE COURT:
Well, then, the state must have some interest wholly apart from procreation.
MR. COOPER:
It doesn’t necessarily follow that that is true…

Therefore, as an infertile woman married to a man, we should get a divorce immediately. Mr. Cooper, I thank you and my soon-to-be-ex-husband thanks you.

On the subject of marriage, and why it should only be for opposite sex couples (Cooper’s point), I especially liked this quote from Judge Walker:

THE COURT: Parental responsibilities don’t depend upon how the child came into the world. Parental responsibilities extend to adoptive parents who had nothing to do with the creation of the child physically. They extend to in-laws and grandparents and a host of other people who are not involved in any way in the — at least directly, in the creation of this child as a human being.

Judge Walker asked a lot of questions, bringing Mr. Cooper continually back to the trial, to the witnesses, to defend his position. I was impressed enough to think at the time:
No mater what happens, at least it’ll be fair.

The judge was equally inquisitive with Mr Olson, arguing for the plaintiffs. All of the judge’s questions seemed, to me at least, to show that he was paying attention, that he took this case extremely seriously, and didn’t consider his verdict to be a foregone conclusion – no matter what his verdict/written opinion turns out to be.

There was also the sense that they were all talking to the inevitable chain of courts leading to the US Supreme Court. As of 10:30 MDT today, Judge Walker has not issued his opinion and verdict.

Cross posted to my Square State diary.

For those of you were were, um, taking a break from life with a refreshing beverage and/or other things this weekend, an Israeli Army special forces unit stormed a boat carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza yesterday, killing 10 people on board. Other than that, the facts aren’t really clear as to what happened. There’s a emergency meeting at the UN today, and we’ll see what comes of that.

Amnesty International’s interim Secretary General issued a statement today calling for an international inquiry and an end to the blockade in Gaza.