Articles of war

So this title was kind of a stretch to keep the nautical theme, but not entirely. In old times the British ran their armed forces using something called the articles of war. The articles of war laid down the rules that the British were supposed to follow. This post is about the US Constitution/ Bill of rights, a set of rules that the US is supposed to follow, but sometimes strays away from.

Today was the beginning of me trying to get up earlier in the morning, it didn't work quite as well as I wanted, but I was somewhat awake and definitely was out of bed earlier so I guess its a start. MF turned on the news and was buzzing around the room getting ready for work. I kind of drifted in and out for a while, but then she said something and it got my brain working. On the news they had just gone over a story regarding a lawsuit being brought against California's proposition 8.(Proposition 8 is the prop. overturning gay marriage in California.) The story was talking about how two attorneys (representing a couple of gay couples) would be pursuing a a lawsuit against the State of California arguing that a ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

I am not sure why this wasn't thought of before. Now I know that many have issue with gay marriage, which is fine they are more than entitled to their opinion. I also know that many have religious reasons for not wanting the word marriage used (us damn Catholics) but in law that really is irrelevant. This goes back to one thing, a persons rights.

Argument 1 . No where in the US Constitution does it state that marriage is between a man and a woman. This is the argument I would choose, but I am a very literal person so this argument doesn't work for many people. There is nothing saying you cant do it therefore the Ninth amendment applies and the rights cannot be denied

Argument 2. Separation of church and state. This argument is what many people are using now to combat bans on gay marriage. I also greatly agree with this view point. I am a rather religious person think, but people get to worked up about the religious aspect of gay marriage. I am going to take a leap and say there is gay marriage has zero impact on religious marriage. Right now you either get married in a church/temple/mosque/ etc or you have a secular marriage. If gay marriage is passed that should only make a difference in secular marriage, in which case the "sanctity of religious marriage" is preserved.

I like both arguments, but really I would just like people to worry about themselves and not whether their gay neighbors are getting married. It's not the governments right to tell anyone if they can get married or not, case closed There are bigger things to worry about anyway..... the economy anyone?