If you get bored, go back and dig out the amicus brief that the state AG (who is still the same guy, and who is being remarkably silent about his old brief these days) filed ten years ago, arguing against what happened today (and arguing for the “permanent compromise” we were promised back then hahahaha) on the grounds that it was opening the door to all sorts of “alternative” practices – polygamy, polyandry, “group marriages,” and “marriage communities” (there actually *was* one of those in Putney back in the 1830s).

Funny to recall that Brigham Young and Joseph Smith were both born and raised in Vermont; Smith’s original parish church is still standing right by Exit 2 of I-89. Seems like they’re getting their revenge for getting driven out all these years back over this issue….

Actually, Sharon – one exit up I-89 from you. I think there are signs along I-89 noting that there’s something there to mark Joseph Smith’s birthplace, and I’m pretty sure that the lovely old boxy wooden church right close to the exit is his original parish (before his “revelation”).

Brigham was originally from somewhere down near the Massachusetts border; the village I think is Jacksonville, but I don’t recall the township. It’s right on Route 9 that runs between Brattleboro and Bennington…..

Yep.

And I’m not just pulling that out of my hat.

Up in Canada, they crossed this general silliness divide a few years back. Two or three years ago, there was a judicial memo circulating inside the Ontario provincial government arguing that Ontario should move to legalize polygamy – on the grounds that this sort of expansion would make Ontario “more competitive” in attracting “talented immigrants” from cultures where polygamy is the norm.

When it leaked out there was a furor and it was quietly dropped…. for now.

Mark Steyn as usual once managed to sum things up in just a column title (let alone the column): “When the Imams Settle Brokeback Mountain.”

And of course in the UK, the courts have already ruled that welfare payments have to be made available to multi-spouse spouses at the going rate for individuals.

I won’t at all be surprised if somewhere in the next 5 – 10 years some court somewhere ordered the legalization of polygamy….

What they’ll do is just run it as a “civil rights” violation meme.

Just ponder the legal remedies if someone refused to say rent an apartment to a mixed-race couple (which you’d think would be his right as a property owner, but we’ve passed that water under the bridge already).

One of the real obvious sadisms of the 1999/2000 “civil unions” (sic) legislation was that it was basically a “benefits” rule – e.g., that any employer that offered benefits to plain old traditional spouses had to also – by law – offer them to “CU partners.”

Since established churches have what you might call “secular commercial operations,” someone asked that the law be amended to allow religious organizations that would have a problem with this to be exempted – but that amendment was voted down with glee. The Catholic Church announced that it was going to ignore the “law” on this issue, and that if the state wanted to send the police to arrest the bishops, they were free to try it. For now, the kooks haven’t been able to bring themselves to send the police into churches and drag away Catholic clergy in handcuffs….

Well, there *is* a lot of reductio-ad-absurdum in this….

To the worm-eaten mind of a progressive, the state is the church. Ergo, this is required for their “church” to “bless” their whatever-it-is….

Well, you know that and I know that.

But dimwit legislators not only can pass laws saying 2+2=5 – they can also specify sanctions against anyone who says that 2+2=4….

There was another attempt to insert a provision giving leeway to churches that want no part of this, but once again the sadists defeated it with glee.

From a quick read, it looks like if some pair of nitwits ask a real church to give them a ceremony and the church refuses, the church will be in violation of state law. Then the nitwits will ask the law to punish the church. Oh, that’s when it will get really interesting….

Funny though how with everything falling apart (both literally and figuratively), the legislature has basically wasted three consecutive sessions on this garbage and “global warming.” It’s strange that during the GWB years, the lefties were always claiming that democracy was being destroyed. Democracies aren’t destroyed by robustness – they’re destroyed when they become effete and silly, like we saw today.

Maybe Polybius really did have it right….

So does that mean that you’ll be rolling up to Burlington for the annual Jefferson Day Dinner next Tuesday?

Go here:

http://www.ethanallen.org/home.html

And click on “Coming Events” in the left-hand sidebar.

Be there or be ….