Lift dat barge, Uncle.

Why in Hell do we do all the heavy lifting?

STRASBOURG, France (AP) – European leaders pledged at NATO's 60th-anniversary summit Saturday to send thousands of soldiers and police to train Afghanistan's army and secure its coming elections, but they shied far from matching America's pledge to dispatch a large number of new combat forces.

Mr. Obama, Are You Listening???

Disclaiming, I find the idea of homosexuality repulsive.*  Nevetheless, that Iowa court decision justifies itself with one simple statement that hasn't a damned thing to do with sex-- homosexual, heterosexual,  horizontal, vertical in a hammock, or intergalactic. 

The Iowa court wrote in its summary decision: "The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa constitution must be declared void even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion."

Eat more corn, just out of gratitude.

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*The same does not necessarily apply to all homosexual people.

Report from Brokeback Hog Lot

Hoo boy!  Are you guys going to be hearing a  lot about Iowa. The Heart of Bucolia Supreme Court has just made gay marriage legal. 

Hawkeye land becomes the fourth* state in the nation to legalize it. Probably making  gays even gayer, Iowa is (wrongly) perceived as the most conservative Bible-belty kingdom this side of  Alabama, and the gays believe if it can happen in the corn fields  it can happen anywhere.

See? Iowans can do something besides turn dimwits into U.S. presidents.

EDIT: Surprising absolutely everyone,  the court decision was unanimous.

*EDIT 2: Strictly speaking,  Iowa is the third -- accompanied by Connecticut and Massachusetts --  rather than fourth . The Proposition  Eight  fight technically returns California to the man/woman-only standard.

How scared should we be?

I'm not going to live-blog the President's  speech,  but I'll offer you the first quote I heard a few seconds ago. He says of the auto industry: "Our  (White House)  evaluation  is now  complete."

If that doesn't scare Hell out of you,  you and I do not share even the slightest similarity of thought processes.

I wonder what Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden will decide to evaluate next.