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 Send to email | Simple answer to stupid questions: Cothran and Beckwith edition in Culture Wars |  By Thoughts
el 26-Feb-2011 | Martin Cothran, friend to bigotry of all kinds, wonders "Has the Obama admininstration [sic] endorsed Big Love?"
No.
He is reacting to the Obama administration's decision not to defend section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, and to Francis Beckwith's erroneous comments on that decision.
Before delving into the argument, a few basic facts. DOMA was passed in 1996, and polygamy was illegal without section 3 of DOMA. Striking down DOMA's section 3 will not change the status of polygamy laws, because marriage laws have generally been a state matter, not a federal matter, and because anti-polygamy laws had been part of federal law since 1882 and are not being challenged. DOMA was unusual in that it imposed a federal standard on marriages, rather than letting states determine their own marriage laws. Striking down DOMA would not change a state's right to set it's marriage laws one way or another, including restrictions on plural marriage. (Bizarrely, Beckwith claims that striking down DOMA ? a federal law limiting state decisions to recognize same-sex marriage ? would mean "bypassing the state law-making bodies that the Constitution empowers to deal with such issues." This is 180º from the truth.)
Furthermore, the particulars of the policy announced was in response to two court cases, court cases specifically having to do with same sex marriages in states where such marriages may be legally performed, but where such legal and valid marriages are not recognized by the federal government because of DOMA's section 3. Indeed, the first sentence of Attorney General Holder's letter announcing the policy makes clear that the administration is has decided not to defend DOMA "as applied to same-sex couples who are legally married under state law, [because it] violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment." The administration concluded that legal distinctions based on sexuality, as with legal distinctions based on race or gender, deserved heightened scrutiny by the courts. Therefore, AG Holder explains in the 3rd paragraph: "the President and I have concluded that classifications based on sexual orientation warrant heightened scrutiny and that, as applied to same-sex couples legally married under state law, Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional."
Why do I emphasize "as applied to same-sex couples" in both of quotations above? Because Beckwith's argument, which Cothran unthinkingly regurgitates, is premised on the notion that the administration determined: "the entirety of sec. 3 violates the 5th amendment and thus does not withstand heightened scrutiny."
But no!
They determined that section 3 as applied to same-sex couples violates the 5th amendment. They restricted the scope of their evaluation of the law's constitutionality to the issue of sexuality and to the gender composition of couples. To conclude that they accidentally opened the door to plural marriage despite having specified that the decision only applies to same-sex couples defies logic.
Cothran, a professional logic teacher, nonetheless insists that his trivially false claims are "logical implications" of the letter. Neither he nor Beckwith links to or quotes from the letter, and neither seems to have actually examined the document. Read the comments on this post...
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 | Thoughts From Kansas |  Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Simple answer to stupid questions: Cothran and Beckwith edition | | Martin Cothran, friend to bigotry of all kinds, wonders "Has the Obama admininstration [sic] endorsed Big Love?"
No.
He is reacting to the Obama administration's decision not to defend section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, and to Francis Beckwith's erroneous comments on that decision.
Before delving into the argument, a few basic facts. DOMA was passed in 1996, an [..] Read complete article | | Published 26-Feb-2011 by Thoughts in Culture Wars
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Simple answers to stupid questions | | Disco. Inst. blogger and staff member for the Kentucky affiliate of Focus on the Family wonders:
Are gay rights groups turning into hate groups?No.
This has been your simple answer to another stupid question.
Cothran's argument is actually much stupider than it might seem:
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... [..] Read complete article | | Published 12-Nov-2008 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Simple questions for stupid questioners | | Disco. president Bruce Chapman wonders:
It is not clear why the number of academic freedom cases seem to be increasing. Is it because the iron hand of ideological conformity is squeezing professors more tightly? Or is it because more subjects of attack are fighting back in court?Or is it because he's making numbers up from thin air? Might it be not clear that the [..] Read complete article | | Published 27-Jul-2010 by Thoughts in Creationism
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Simple answers to stupid, offensive, intolerable questions | ![Click here to read Sony Launching 3D Games This June - Sony Launching 3D Games This June [3D]](http://cache-04.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/04/160x120_thumb160x_ken2.jpg) Disco. DJ Bruce Chapman wonders Does Obamacare Provide for Euthanasia?
No.
This is the simple answer to that stupid, offensive, and intolerable question.
Here's Chapman's claim in all its glory:
Our Sr. Fellow Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute Center for Human Rights and Bioethics is asking the question that Bill Donahue of the Catholic League [..] Read complete article | | Published 01-Aug-2009 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Simple answers to stupid, point-missing questions | | Sam Harris has a brand new blog, and already has managed to lard it with roughly what you'd expect: tendentiousness, insistence that religious is wrong because it won't change (and that religions which do change are illegitimate for doing so), and the usual pro-repression politics.
Referring to Florida's Pastor Jones, who finally burnt a Quran after spending the last year thre [..] Read complete article | | Published 02-Apr-2011 by Thoughts in Culture Wars
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Stupid answers to stupid questions | ![Click here to read What Do PlayStation 3 Owners Want Most From Sony? - What Do PlayStation 3 Owners Want Most From Sony? [Sony]](http://cache-01.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/03/160x120_ps3_headset.jpg) Martin Cothran, who never met a logical error he didn't like, has a question about the inauguration:
If this isn't a Christian nation, then why are presidents (including this one) sworn in using a Bible, rather than, say, the Koran or Bagavad-Gita?For the same reason it wasn't a White nation just because the first 43 presidents were all white, and neither is it a [..] Read complete article | | Published 21-Jan-2009 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics
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| Nerdblog | Blogger | Provides news about hardware, software, notebooks, laptops, PCs, Mac, PDAs
Nerdblog.Net |
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Kotaku`s The Gamers Guide | Blogger | XBOX 360 Gamers Weblog
Gossip, news and leaks for obsessive gamers Kotaku As if you don't waste enough of your time in a gamer's haze, here's Kotaku: a gamer's guide that goes beyond the press release. Gossip, cheats, criticism, design, nostalgia, pred |
| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Simple Answers To Stupider Questions | | As part of our multi-part colloquy regarding whether Martin Cothran is, in fact, a gigantic bigot for wanting to take away marriages from 18,000 gay people married in California, the Disco. Inst. blogger wonders:
Isn't the whole debate about whether they are marriages in the first place?No.
As they say:
PROP 8: ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME [..] Read complete article | | Published 13-Nov-2008 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
| Simple answers to insulting questions | | My friend Chris Mooney wonders about critical reviews of Sizzle:
Could it be that, for some of these hypercritical bloggers, Randy Olson's documentarian character in Sizzle is really their reflection in the mirror? After all, the character is basically a caricature of someone who repeatedly demands facts, facts, facts, and can't relate to non-scientists, have a good l [..] Read complete article | | Published 21-Jul-2008 by Thoughts in Policy and Politics
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| Thoughts From Kansas | Blogger | Weblog of a University of Kansas ecology and evolutionary biology student, fighting for progressive politics, evolution, and endangered species.
Thoughts from Kansas You will notice that it lacks definiteness; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks coherence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and wabbly; that it wanders around; that |
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