Comments on: Time Running Out

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:01:42 +0000

There are going to be a lot of ticked off retirees in Florida who are going to be affected by this. They don’t get married because that would affect their retirements, but they have legal agreements covering shared property, health care decisions, etc. The wording is going to act just like the one on Ohio that screwed up the domestic abuse laws and invalidated “common law” marriage.

Every time one of these groups of whackos writes a bill to ban civil unions in addition to defining marriage they screw up the legal system. They aren’t simply bigots, they are ignorant bigots.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:34:26 +0000

i’ve always liked that one myself. it’s going to be especially fun if the marriage thing gets added to the constitution.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:18:51 +0000

That works for me, Jack, because no sane state would have a “pregnant pig” amendment in their constitution, but Florida does.

By: Jack K., the Grumpy Forester

Jack K., the Grumpy Forester — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:07:00 +0000

…Orygun has been a ballot measure factory for a few decades now, and I have developed what I call “Uncle Jack K’s Simple Rule of Thumb” to deal with ballots that have had more than 20 measures now and again: if the measure is an amendment to the State Constitution, vote no…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:20:26 +0000

Why would anyone think it was a good idea to have the electorate of Florida define anything?

I really despair over the use of ballot measures, because the people writing them can rarely create a meaningful phrase, much less a sentence, and yet they are allow to write laws and amend the constitution. Without any legislative history to guide them, courts can go wherever they feel like with these initiatives.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:39:27 +0000

There has been a lot of mischief done with deceptive ballot initiatives.

no! really?! /awful sarcasm

i was glad to see those go. unfortunately, we’ve still got the marriage ‘protection’ amendment, which will bring out the far right base in droves. ugh.