Month: January 2009

A Two Front War

Scott Payne opines:

… to some degree this dichotomy of the “cultural work” and the “legal work” is just false. The work of legalizing same-sex marriages happens on the legal and cultural fronts simultaneously. And so E.D. is right when he notes that there are some cultural shifts necessary before we might expect to realize a legal victory for marriage equality. But the reason I identify legal victory as “the first step” is that I think its realization marks, in some senses, the beginning of a renewed and focused push for cultural equality. It strikes me that truly uncovering and addressing some of the more buried cultural elements of discrimination against same-sex couples is next to impossible so long as opponents have a legal basis to fall back on.

I don’t see why that follows.

An argument that rests on a simple resort to the legal status quo is not a very strong one. It’s perfectly possible (and logically necessary) to craft a compelling and winning case for marriage equality in the absence of its legality in any particular state. That’s especially true once the principle has been established somewhere in America. I think the progress we’ve made in such a short space of time leads to the opposite conclusion: that this is an area which can be won culturally before it is won legally. And the victory based on persuasion and democratic voting is deeper and more legitimate than legal fiat. The gay movement should not seek to grasp pyrrhic victory from a real one.

Start working toward the next initiative in California; preserve and protect those civil marriages already in place; move to bolster civil unions elsewhere; keep engaging and explaining. And quit thetantrum. We lost the Prop 8 battle because we deserved to. Now: move on.

The Question Of International Law

Mark Kleiman asks: "Who’s going to prosecute the torture cases?" He parries Posner:

Volokh Conspirator Eric Posner says that since the other parties to the Convention Against Torture are unlikely to do anything to enforce its provisions, Holder has full discretion to decline prosecution on political or policy grounds. But a duly ratified treaty is the law of the land, and Holder is sworn to uphold the law. Could he get away with not prosecuting, in the face of enough evidence to convict? Sure. But he’d be violating his oath of office.

And unlike under the Bush administration, that is no longer actively encouraged.

Ask Snowy

Of course Tin Tin is objectively disordered. Matthew Parris:

Over time Tintin’s attitude alters from that of a Belgian chauvinist and narrow-minded young Catholic adventure-seeker to being a tolerant, almost peace-loving, teddy-bear-hugging seeker after truth. In The Blue Lotus he sympathises with the lonely Yeti, now deprived of Chang’s (enforced) company, and even refuses to call the Snowman abominable. Tintin has seen the folly of prejudice. In Hergé’s last (unfinished) story, Tintin and Alph-Art, the youth is even seen as a motorbiking peacenik, wearing a CND badge on his helmet.

And who wouldn’t fall in love with someone called Chang Chong-Cheng?

The Al-Arabiya Move, Ctd.

Larison isn’t buying it:

…giving an interview to Al-Arabiya is a conciliatory gesture designed to try to make up for the reality of U.S. policy. It is the sort of conciliatory move that Obama believes he can make because he is confident in his own “pro-Israel” bona fides, as well he might be considering the make-up of his Cabinet, staff and Middle East policy team, just as Obama’s general acceptance of national security ideology gives him the flexibility and the political cover to critique and oppose individual policy decisions.

The Mood In Israel

Totten reports:

[C]onfidence in the Israeli government and military has been restored. While a final peace with the Arabs and Palestinians is as elusive as ever, most Israelis expect a period of relative quiet now that deterrence has been established on its eastern border with the West Bank, on its northern border with Lebanon, and on its southwestern border with Gaza.