yes I already posted about this & yes my point is too big a deal's being made of it, WHAT'S UR POINT
Continuing to read about the Kim Davis thing, which is one of the stupidest three-ring circuses I've ever seen, and I'm particularly hung up on Mike Huckabee offering to go to jail for her. Like I don't even know which part of that is the stupidest part. Is it the fact that it is the emptiest promise possible, since we do not actually live in a society where we let people send in designated hitters for jail sentences? Is it the fact that he offered this as she was leaving the jail? Is it the fact that news stories are all pulling that one quote and publishing it as though it bears a single scrap of relevance, or demonstrates even a passing connection with reality? I DON'T KNOW, GUYS, THERE IS SO MUCH STUPID MY HEAD IS SPINNING
This is seriously one of the biggest tempests in a teapot I've ever seen. One city clerk in one tiny county decided one day to make a Big Principled Stand, and when it turned out that the actual principled stand that would have made sense, aka resigning, would not kick up a giant media hullabaloo and get her national attention, she decided to take a principled stand that does not make any sense and insist that she should be allowed to get paid for her job while refusing to do her job. And then assholes on both sides got involved* and she wound up in jail for a 100% preventable and 1,000% stupid situation, and then she got out and held a fucking rally while playing "Eye of the Tiger" because she apparently thinks refusing to issue marriage licenses is the same thing as being Rocky??? and now Survivor is mad and I just cannot even with this whole deal. And now I'm talking about it too, and not for the first time, because I just do not understand how something so trivial turned into something this overwhelmingly silly.
I don't know. I guess the simplicity of the narrative appeals to people. Depending on your perspective either she's a saint and gay people are the devil or she's a devil and gay people are saints. And it's just. Like. I actually respect the fact that she is willing to stand up for her beliefs on this. I don't think she's probably a bad person. I don't think she's necessarily a big hypocrite; yes, she has three previous marriages, but she was only born-again four years ago, so within her framework, those are sins she committed before she found Jesus, and now she's living a different life. I am willing to believe that her faith is a real thing to her and that she really feels that she would be committing a terrible sin if she gave out gay marriage certificates. My two complaints about her really are these: a.) I think she's getting off on the media circus, and b.) I don't think she's very smart. She is also surrounded by people who are hungry for more media circus, and who are hungry for money (I am thinking specifically of her lawyers here). They have a vested interest in protecting her from the undramatic truth that the only thing she can do here, ethically, legally, or logically, is to quit her job.** And Republican presidential candidates can grandstand on this because of the aforementioned simplicity of the narrative: Saint Kim! Demon Gays! IT'S THE EYE OF THE TIGER, IT'S THE THRILL OF THE FIGHT
*sigh* Whatever. I keep reading the news stories about her, so clearly I've fallen victim to this just like everybody else. And it doesn't show any signs of ending anytime soon; she's going to go back to refusing to allow her deputies to issue marriage licenses, and she'll go back to jail, and presumably she will eventually get out again, and they'll play Don't Stop Believin' that time, and we'll rinse and repeat and they'll start pawing through Bon Jovi's back catalogue, all while the Kentucky legislature refuses to impeach her and put an end to this nonsense. And meanwhile everybody except six couples who are actively involved in this lawsuit*** (well, plus however many more of them decide to try to shove their way into the spotlight by seeking out their own licenses from her) will get married as they please, gay and straight alike, and the world will continue spinning and the climate will continue rising and refugees will keep fleeing Syria, but nobody in America will care. Our eyes will all be glued on the nonstop coverage of the nonsituation in Rowan County, Kentucky.
Whatever. Today is my eight-year anniversary with λ and I am heartily, heartily glad that we live in Massachusetts, where none of this nonsense applies, or has applied for eleven years. And I'm very glad that everyone in this country who is willing to get a marriage license somewhere other than Rowan County has the same rights that we do.
Take that, Mike Huckabee.
____________
*I have absolutely no use for those gay guys who traveled halfway across the country to try to get a marriage license from her in the middle of all this, and then claimed to be "devastated" by the fact that she wouldn't give them one. I understand wanting a marriage certificate from your home county, and I understand deliberately seeking a license from her in order to keep the system honest, but one of those circumstances doesn't apply here and the other was already being taken care of. Stop media-whoring, assholes.
**The only other potential logical solution I have seen from anybody was one lawyer who wanted the Kentucky legislature to pass a law that marriage licenses would be changed to read that they were issued under the authority of the state and not the authority of the clerk. But they're not meeting until January to discuss that, so we've got a long 3-4 months of silliness before that potentially comes about. I still think that her quitting her job makes more sense than passing a whole new law, but whatever, I don't care as long as everybody can get married and nobody gets to defy the law. I would be interested in hearing more about whether it actually matters in any way whether the certificate is technically issued by the state or by the clerk.
***I know they got their licenses from the deputies, but apparently there's debate over whether those licenses are valid since they were issued without her authorization while she was in jail, or something? So I guess now those people get married, but then her lawyers go after them and seek to invalidate their marriages? At which point presumably they go back to her office and start all over again? God, this is stupid.
This is seriously one of the biggest tempests in a teapot I've ever seen. One city clerk in one tiny county decided one day to make a Big Principled Stand, and when it turned out that the actual principled stand that would have made sense, aka resigning, would not kick up a giant media hullabaloo and get her national attention, she decided to take a principled stand that does not make any sense and insist that she should be allowed to get paid for her job while refusing to do her job. And then assholes on both sides got involved* and she wound up in jail for a 100% preventable and 1,000% stupid situation, and then she got out and held a fucking rally while playing "Eye of the Tiger" because she apparently thinks refusing to issue marriage licenses is the same thing as being Rocky??? and now Survivor is mad and I just cannot even with this whole deal. And now I'm talking about it too, and not for the first time, because I just do not understand how something so trivial turned into something this overwhelmingly silly.
I don't know. I guess the simplicity of the narrative appeals to people. Depending on your perspective either she's a saint and gay people are the devil or she's a devil and gay people are saints. And it's just. Like. I actually respect the fact that she is willing to stand up for her beliefs on this. I don't think she's probably a bad person. I don't think she's necessarily a big hypocrite; yes, she has three previous marriages, but she was only born-again four years ago, so within her framework, those are sins she committed before she found Jesus, and now she's living a different life. I am willing to believe that her faith is a real thing to her and that she really feels that she would be committing a terrible sin if she gave out gay marriage certificates. My two complaints about her really are these: a.) I think she's getting off on the media circus, and b.) I don't think she's very smart. She is also surrounded by people who are hungry for more media circus, and who are hungry for money (I am thinking specifically of her lawyers here). They have a vested interest in protecting her from the undramatic truth that the only thing she can do here, ethically, legally, or logically, is to quit her job.** And Republican presidential candidates can grandstand on this because of the aforementioned simplicity of the narrative: Saint Kim! Demon Gays! IT'S THE EYE OF THE TIGER, IT'S THE THRILL OF THE FIGHT
*sigh* Whatever. I keep reading the news stories about her, so clearly I've fallen victim to this just like everybody else. And it doesn't show any signs of ending anytime soon; she's going to go back to refusing to allow her deputies to issue marriage licenses, and she'll go back to jail, and presumably she will eventually get out again, and they'll play Don't Stop Believin' that time, and we'll rinse and repeat and they'll start pawing through Bon Jovi's back catalogue, all while the Kentucky legislature refuses to impeach her and put an end to this nonsense. And meanwhile everybody except six couples who are actively involved in this lawsuit*** (well, plus however many more of them decide to try to shove their way into the spotlight by seeking out their own licenses from her) will get married as they please, gay and straight alike, and the world will continue spinning and the climate will continue rising and refugees will keep fleeing Syria, but nobody in America will care. Our eyes will all be glued on the nonstop coverage of the nonsituation in Rowan County, Kentucky.
Whatever. Today is my eight-year anniversary with λ and I am heartily, heartily glad that we live in Massachusetts, where none of this nonsense applies, or has applied for eleven years. And I'm very glad that everyone in this country who is willing to get a marriage license somewhere other than Rowan County has the same rights that we do.
Take that, Mike Huckabee.
____________
*I have absolutely no use for those gay guys who traveled halfway across the country to try to get a marriage license from her in the middle of all this, and then claimed to be "devastated" by the fact that she wouldn't give them one. I understand wanting a marriage certificate from your home county, and I understand deliberately seeking a license from her in order to keep the system honest, but one of those circumstances doesn't apply here and the other was already being taken care of. Stop media-whoring, assholes.
**The only other potential logical solution I have seen from anybody was one lawyer who wanted the Kentucky legislature to pass a law that marriage licenses would be changed to read that they were issued under the authority of the state and not the authority of the clerk. But they're not meeting until January to discuss that, so we've got a long 3-4 months of silliness before that potentially comes about. I still think that her quitting her job makes more sense than passing a whole new law, but whatever, I don't care as long as everybody can get married and nobody gets to defy the law. I would be interested in hearing more about whether it actually matters in any way whether the certificate is technically issued by the state or by the clerk.
***I know they got their licenses from the deputies, but apparently there's debate over whether those licenses are valid since they were issued without her authorization while she was in jail, or something? So I guess now those people get married, but then her lawyers go after them and seek to invalidate their marriages? At which point presumably they go back to her office and start all over again? God, this is stupid.