Sorry this is so late, everyone — hope you’ve been busy managing all of the flowers and candy and the other Valentine’s Day ephemera.
This Open Thread *may* be late because DD decided to be early to his date with Frank Underwood and the House of Cards crew. Season 2 is on Netflix today and the early reviews strongly point to binge-watching. Apparently even President Obama is a fan, and tweeted a warning for No Spoilers:
Tomorrow: @HouseOfCards. No spoilers, please.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 13, 2014
This is never gonna get old — in Virginia, a Federal judge rules that same-sex couples have the right to marry.
A federal judge in Norfolk struck down as unconstitutional Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage Thursday night, saying the country has “arrived upon another moment in history when We the People becomes more inclusive, and our freedom more perfect.”
U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen issued a sweeping 41-page opinion that mentioned at length Virginia’s past in denying interracial marriage and quoted Abraham Lincoln. She struck the constitutional amendment Virginia voters approved in 2006 that both bans same-sex marriage and forbids recognition of such unions performed elsewhere.
Judge Wright Allen also joined other Federal judges in striking down Virginia’s ban in name-checking Justice Antonin Scalia in her opinion:
“In (the DOMA case), our Constitution was invoked to protect the individual rights of gay and lesbian citizens, and the propriety of such protection led to upholding state law against conflicting federal law,” Allen wrote Thursday. “The propriety of invoking such protection remains compelling when faced with the task of evaluating the constitutionality of state laws.”
She then quoted the rationale “described eloquently in a dissenting opinion authored by” Scalia:
As I have said, the real rationale of [the Windsor opinion] is that DOMA is motivated by “bare . . . desire to harm” couples in same-sex marriages. How easy it is, indeed how inevitable, to reach the same conclusion with regard to state laws denying same-sex couples marital status
Boom!
Does Joe Biden read Delaware Liberal? He’s telling a House Conference that there is no Republican Party:
“There isn’t a Republican Party. I wish there were, I wish there was a Republican Party,” Biden said. “I wish there was one person we could sit across the table from, make a deal, make a compromise and know when you got up from that table it was done.”
“All you had to do was look at the response to the State of the Union, what were there, three or four?” he added. “I’m not being facetious.”
And hey! Are there any De La Soul fans in the house? They are offering free downloads of their entire catalog today!
What interests you today?