The gay marriage battle continues. What will be the final outcome? At this point it is hard to say, but it is important that a thorough discussion be made on the issue. To date only Vermont and New Hampshire have successfully passed gay marriage through the use of a legislative body. Judicial decisions have been responsible for gay marriage in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa.

Much has been written about the scope and the continuing problems surrounding gay marriage. Gay marriage supporters demand a “civil right” while detractors are worried about the possible slippery slope of what happens if gay marriage becomes widespread.

One argument has been that allowing gay marriage is a slippery slope that will lead to increased acceptance of pedophilia.

This causes advocates of gay marriage to cry foul and explain that there is not a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.

I agree that there is not a connection between two consenting adults and an adult taking advantage of an underage youth, but there is an aspect of marriage law that needs to be considered:

Most states allow children between the ages of 16 - 17 to marry with parental consent or if the child does not have parents with judicial consent.

So, hypothetically speaking, lets say in Iowa, a state that allows 16 and 17 year olds to marry with parental or judicial consent, a 16 year old boy’s parents consent to him marrying a 27 year old man. See Iowa State Code TITLE XV §595.2(4).

What happens now if this new couple then decides to move to someplace that does not allow gay marriage? If they moved to Utah, a place that bans gay marriage by constitutional amendment, and engaged in sexual activities the 27 year old man could be charged with (at least) unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. See Utah State Code § 76-5-401.2.

In other words, an activity that is allowed in Iowa (albeit with parental or judicial consent), would in Utah be a criminal offense that is normally associated with what most people would think of as an act of that of a pedophile or a statutory rapist.

Granted, underage marriage is not a norm in our society and is generally frowned upon by most people.

What I am pointing out is that there is a significant incongruity of Iowa’s and Utah’s laws that allows for the possibility of this scenario to happen, however unlikely.

Normally, states are required via the U.S. Constitution to give full faith and credit to the acts of other states.   For example, an opposite sex marriage from Iowa would be recognized in Utah as valid.

However, currently the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) allows a state to disregard gay marriages performed in other states.

That means that Utah could charge the 27 year old man with a crime.

But what if DOMA is successfully challenged?

What happens then?

Protesters being prevented from causing change?

What now? Do the eight days of protest signal the beginning of the long overdue end of the 30-year-old Islamic Republic of Iran, or the start of a sustained, systematic repression? Put another way, is this another Velvet Revolution or Tiananmen 2?

What’s Next In Iran? foxnews.com  Judith Miller

The whole point of bankruptcy:

The conventional wisdom about the bailouts of 2008 goes something like this. Federal regulators started off on the right foot by bailing out Bear Stearns and midwifing its sale to JPMorgan Chase. They were right to bail out AIG six months later, but botched the execution. And Lehman Brothers, the only exception to the bailout rule, showed once and for all that bankruptcy is not an adequate way to handle the collapse of a large financial institution.

Give Bankruptcy a Chance weeklystandard.com David Skeel

Remains to be seen:

Many advocates of a public health plan–either a “single-payer” plan or a “public option”–claim that a public health plan will save money compared to private health insurance because “everyone knows” that the largest government health program, Medicare, has lower administrative costs than private insurance. Some even claim that switching every private insured American to Medicare or something like it could save the nation enough money to cover all currently uninsured Americans.

Medicare Administrative Costs Are Higher, Not Lower, Than for Private Insurance heritage.org Robert A. Book

View Points
The Volokh Conspiracy - Health Insurance and the Public Plan: Where’s The Beef?

TNRtv: Former Health Insurance Insider Slams Industry - The Treatment

Mandatory health insurance | United Liberty | Free Market - Individual Liberty - Limited Government

Do men account for 80% of the recession related unemployment?

Romer and Bernstein delivered “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” on January 10. They estimated that “the total number of created jobs likely to go to women is roughly 42 percent.” Lest anyone miss the point, they added that since women had held only 20 percent of the jobs lost in the recession, the stimulus package now “skews job creation somewhat towards women.”

No Country for Burly Men: How feminist groups skewed the Obama stimulus plan towards women’s jobs. weeklystandard.com Christina Hoff Sommers

Violence is bad, but American intervention is bad too?

President Obama ratcheted up the rhetoric on Iran at his White House press conference Tuesday, expressing “outrage” at killings in Tehran’s streets after this month’s disputed presidential election.

For Obama, a careful ‘outrage’ at Iran | csmonitor.com Howard LaFranchi

View Points
Truthdig - Reports - Obama’s Iran Dilemma E.J. Dionne

Obama, Iran, North Korea and healthcare: The Swamp Mark Silva

Paul Wolfowitz - Obama Needs to Change Stance on Iran - washingtonpost.com

Time to rethink unions?

When an employee performs poorly in the workplace, normally employers let them go and find better replacements, or sometimes just reduce headcount and save costs to keep prices low. When a union gets involved, and especially when the employer is the government, the dynamic changes — dramatically. New York City’s public school system provides perhaps the most extreme example … or at least we hope so:

Hot Air » Blog Archive » New York City paying 700 teachers to not teach Ed Morrissey

Is the criticism hitting home?

Columnist Charles Krauthammer noted on FNC’s Special Report that while “there wasn’t exactly aggressiveness on the part of the press with a couple of exceptions” during the afternoon presidential press conference, “it looked as if the stupor that the press has been in for the last six months is lifting slightly.” Krauthammer quipped: “I say that as a psychiatrist who has a lot of experience in watching these things.”

Krauthammer: Press ‘Stupor’ on Obama ‘Lifting Slightly’; Hume: Reporters Were Tired of Criticism | NewsBusters.org

Should the U.S. be increasing the missile defense budget?

North Korea attempted to launch a satellite on April 6 that, while failing to be placed in orbit, delivered its payload some 2,390 miles away in the Pacific Ocean. This was followed on May 25 by an explosive nuclear weapons test. Under these circumstances, with the ballistic missile threat to the U.S. and its allies clearly growing, common sense would dictate that the Obama Administration fully fund the missile defense program.

Moving Forward on Missile Defense heritage.org Baker Spring

View Points
US Prepares Missile Defense, Continues Shipping Interdictions | Missiles & Bombs News at DefenceTalk

Sessions: Cutting Missile Defense Is ‘False Savings’ | HuntsvilleNewswire William T. Martin

The Reality Check » Blog Archive » North Korea–Missile Defense–The Perfect Opportunity Kevin Roeten

Pajamas Media » The Democrats’ Epic Fail on Missile Defense Jennifer Rubin

t r u t h o u t | Missile Defense Cuts Won’t Threaten Security, Pentagon Tells Congress

Mischaracterization:

The guy who got elected as the anti-Bush before adopting much — but not all — of Dubya’s foreign policy has to rein in Harry Smith for claiming that Bush described The One as “treacherous.”

Hot Air » Blog Archive » It’s come to this: Media scolded for absurd Bush-bashing by … Obama