"All my firearms and my ammo stockpile is now, as a consequence, sleeping with the fishes. Just so you know. All you who are reading here. And no, I have no plans to replace them at this point. Because children," – Jeff G at Protein Wisdom. Update from a reader:
It's evident from the comments at Protein Wisdom that Jeff G was being sarcastic and disingenuous. He was implying that he "lost" his guns so that the government couldn't come and take them away. Come on.
"The time for Republicans to win the tax debate was during the 2012 election. They lost. That doesn't mean they need to give away the store, but it does mean that they'll have to make some accommodation for reality," – Phillip Klein, responding to Marc Thiessen.
"Let me take the pro-gay marriage people and the religious people — I believe that there is a connecting dot there that nobody is looking at, and that's the Constitution… The question is not whether gay people should be married or not. The question is why is the government involved in our marriage? … What we need to do, I think, as people who believe in the Constitution, is to start looking for allies who believe in the Constitution and expand our own horizon. We would have the ultimate big tent," – Glenn Beck. Watch his discussion with libertarian Penn Jillette here. Award glossary here. Update from a reader:
I just listened to Glenn Beck for 11 whole minutes … Damn you Sully!
“There is something like an emerging consensus. Quite literally, the opposition to gay marriage is dying. It’s old people,” – George F. Will.
I am worried about two things. I'm worried that we will fail, and I'm worried that we will succeed. It may be that SCOTUS will decide not to decide on the Big Issue, but will decide that California's marriages can continue and that the federal government should simply recognize the legal marriages states provide for the married couples who live in that state. To my mind, that smaller decision would be a relief. Why? Because I do not want a gay Roe vs Wade, a decision that appears to foist a premature answer on a still-not-entirely-convinced public.
And then I listen to the arguments I have long made coming back at me. And my prudence and federalism take a back-seat to the moral clarity of our cause. As human beings and citizens, as Hannah Arendt once put it,
"The right to marry whoever one wishes is an elementary human right compared to which the right to attend an integrated school, the right to sit where one pleases on a bus, the right to go into any hotel or recreation area or place of amusement, regardless of one’s skin or color or race’ are minor indeed. Even political rights, like the right to vote, and nearly all other rights enumerated in the Constitution, are secondary to the inalienable human rights to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence; and to this category the right to home and marriage unquestionably belongs."
Are we not human? Do we not need love and commitment and intimacy and family as much as any other human does? Are we citizens equal to our siblings and parents? Of course we are. And the reason to believe this would not be like Roe vs Wade is that the issue is of less moral gravity (it does not involve life and death), and, unlike abortion, where public opinion has remained pretty stable over the years and the generations, this reform has gained support very quickly and becomes more entrenched with every generation that arrives. So George Will is right.
And the arc of history may be getting shorter.
(Photo: Couples exchange vows during a mass wedding for 25 same-sex partners at Seattle First Baptist Church on December 9, 2012 in Seattle, Washington. Today is the first day that same-sex couples can legally wed in Washington state. By David Ryder/Getty Images.)
"House Republicans are prepared to get to yes. House Republicans are not prepared to get to foolish, and it is foolish to reject President Obama’s own self-described architecture of $3 in spending cuts for every dollar in new revenue," - Illinois GOP congressman Peter Roskam, an aide to Speaker John Boehner.
Remember that primary debate when they all rejected even a 10-1 deal? That's the difference an election makes. And should make.
"Personally, I know we have to raise revenue…. I would rather see the rates go up than do it the other way because it gives greater chance to reform the tax code and broaden the base in the future," – Tom Coburn.
Previous coverage of the Republican senator's pragmatism here, here and here.
"You go back in time, you've got radiocarbon dating. You got all these things, and you've got the carcasses of dinosaurs frozen in time out in the Dakotas. They're out there. So, there was a time when these giant reptiles were on the Earth, and it was before the time of the Bible. So, don't try and cover it up and make like everything was 6,000 years. That's not the Bible. … If you fight science, you are going to lose your children, and I believe in telling them the way it was," – Pat Robertson.
"Many of us are gnashing our teeth about the Hispanic vote, which was 10 percent of the 2012 electorate. However, as I note in Forbes today, 15 percent of Americans are uninsured, and countless more could lose their coverage if Obamacare continues to drive premiums skyward. When tens of millions of these Americans become dependent upon Obamacare’s subsidies, and the Republican message is solely to take those subsidies away, whom do you think these voters will support…? There are … things that conservatives can do to reform our entitlements and improve our health-care system. But we must keep those twin goals in mind, instead of fighting a fight against Obamacare merely for the sake of fighting. I fought that fight too, so I can fully relate. But I hope we can find a way to put our heads together and pick the right battles for 2016 and 2020; these are battles that we can win, which will make a difference in the lives in the Americans whose support we seek," – Avik Roy, National Review.
"It’s not at all clear to me … that a vote against the same-sex marriage initiative in Maryland has more eternal significance that our policies on genocide, world hunger, sexual trafficking, slavery, religious persecution in Islamic and Communist nations, and malaria and global AIDS. A study at the University of British Columbia found that George W. Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) saved 1.2 million lives in just its first three years. Might that have more eternal significance than knocking on doors for Todd Akin?" – Pete Wehner, Commentary.
"We can only conclude that Romney's '47 percent' comments were not a gaffe or slip of the tongue but actually represent his genuine assessment of the nature of the American people right now. A president with that worldview wouldn't keep it under wraps for a four-year term, and it is a good thing for the Republican party and the conservative movement to not have to defend a president who effectively writes off nearly half the country as lazy and selfish, and even more important, unpersuadable, unreformable, and unchangeable," – Jim Geraghty, National Review, with Andrew Sprung's mordant take attached.
The Dish 