As I’ve said repeatedly: how individuals wish to peaceably associate and live their lives should not be subject to majority opinion nor permission from “superiors.” Why should anyone need permission from politicians or the public at large or any third party to peacefully pursue their happiness?
Also: How those who support government dictation of who can and cannot marry don’t see the potential for this to backfire is astounding to me.
Without getting all slippery-slope on you, it’s not hard to imagine how the extremely simplistic text of the anti-gay marriage amendment which passed in North Carolina yesterday could have unforeseen ramifications (see here, here, and here, for instance).
It’s also not hard to imagine that the more authority we give government in defining marriage — whether in anti- or pro-gay marriage measures — the more it may wish to define our other most personal relationships and dealings. If we need a license to get married, mightn’t we also need a license to have a child? To get divorced? To decide where we want to live? To pick a career? All of these are decisions of similar, though of course not identical, importance. (In fact, it honestly surprises me that in a country where you can’t decide to ingest something if the government says “no” or to marry someone if a law objects, we are still allowed to have children at will. No pot, but you can make a whole new person if you want!)
All that to say, as L.A. Liberty put it: Get government out of marriage.
What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What’s the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood?
The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.
Two of the largest rival gangs in El Salvador have recently called a truce, leading to its first murder-free day for years. Much of the violence is blamed on Mexican drug cartels that use the country as a transit point
A Mara 18 gang member attends a press conference of his leaders at a prison in Quezaltepeque. Imprisoned gang leaders announced in a press conference on Wednesday that they have declared Salvadorian schools as peace zonesPhotograph: Luis Romero/AP
Editor of the website Spiked, marxist, libertarian and atheist. He talks about the age of political correctness we live in (esp. within universities) and how it’s changed the way our generation thinks and speaks to one another. One of the very few intellectually honest journalists going around.
Be happy for no reason, like a child. If you are happy for a reason, you’re in trouble, because that reason can be taken from you.
God, but life is loneliness, despite all the opiates, despite the shrill tinsel gaiety of “parties” with no pupose, despite the false grinning faces we all wear. And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter - they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long.
First heard this when I was 16. Six years later, I’ll have to agree with one of the youtube comments that it’s still probably the heaviest 4 minutes and 50 seconds ever recorded.
