Monday, December 6, 2010
[1830 - The US Naval Observatory is established at Washington, DC]
[1864 - William S.(Surrey) Hart, actor, born in Newburgh, New York]
[1884 - Washington Monument construction is completed]
[1886 - Joyce (Alfred) Kilmer, poet, journalist, soldier, born in New Brunswick, New Jersey]
[1887 - Lynn (Lillie Louise) Fontanne, Emmy Award-winning actress, born in Woodford, UK]
[1896 - Ira Gershwin (Israel Gershvin), lyricist, born in New York City]
[1898 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, photographer, born
in Dirschau, West Prussia (now Tczew, Poland)]
[1900 - Agnes (Robertson) Moorehead, Emmy Award-winning actress, born in Clinton, Massachusetts]
[1913 - Eleanor Holm, Swimming Hall of Famer,
Olympic Gold Medalist, born in Brooklyn]
[1921 - Otto Graham, College and Pro Football Hall of Famer, born in
Waukegan, Illinois]
[1924 - Wally (Wallace Maynard) Cox, actor,
born in Detroit, Michigan]
Un-natural Law
A fundamentalist initiative to amend the California Constitution to ban gay marriage in the State on the grounds that it violated "Natural Law" went down to defeat in a previous election. This may have been due to a statement from the spokesman for the group who thoughtfully explained that the reason Natural Law was violated was that: "The body parts don't fit together." The notion that a homophobic bigot should hold himself out as an authority on how body parts fit together in acts of gay sex was apparently so absurd as not to be lost on the electorate.
Unfortunately, that same electorate was not smart enough to resist dictating to everyone living in the State a fundamentalist definition of marriage, and now the California Constitution takes away some individual rights instead of guaranteeing them.