I'm not sure what to make of Bloomberg's appeal of the gay marriage decision. Hizzoner, in a single speech, mind you, said that he was personally for gay marriage, but then "
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In his remarks in Chinatown, the mayor said city lawyers had told him that the ruling "was incorrect, that the current state Constitution does not permit same-sex marriages."
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At any rate, we'll see what the Court of Appeals (New York's highest court) has to say about it.

Actually, this is not exactly the reason why I wanted to bring this New York Times article to your attention. It's the vox pops quote near the end of the article:
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But not far away, Dianna Difo, an employee at a Manhattan law firm, said a decision as important as the place of marriage in society should not be left to one judge. "Law is based on the Ten Commandments," she said. "Law comes from the Bible or from religion."
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As Jesus would say, that's a crock of horseshit. One of the things that really pisses me off about the religious right in this country is that they seem to think that the U.S. Code somehow has its origins in Leviticus. It doesn't. Read it for yourself and see.

Biblical criminal codes are very different from the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition we inherited from England. Take a random example (and I quote from the King James Version's Deuteronomy not because I'm a Christian, but because it's more fun that way):
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If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him: 2 Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain: 3 And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke; 4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley: 5 And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried: 6 And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley: 7 And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8 Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. 9 So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.
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We Yanks tend to send the sheriff or somebody over to the field to investigate. And that's because our justice system, with trial and imprisonment instead of monetary compensation and community stonings, is the invention of pagans.

Why, imagine the kind of chaos we would have if every time
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[A]ny man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, 14 And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: 15 Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate:
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…if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: 21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die…
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Sorry, my fundamentalist friends, but our laws are based on the Magna Carta. Look it up in your Funk & Wagnalls. But whatever you do, don't do it on the Sabbath, because of course,
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Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
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