Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Speaker of the Massachusetts House Tom Finneran is leaving his position and, by implication, politics forever. He's accepted the presidency of a private sector company. The subtext is his impending Federal prosecution for rigging district lines to prevent minority voters from gaining a fair share of elected representatives. In this and in his opposition to gay marriage, he is a very strange sort of Democrat. However, he did work to kill attempts to remove Chief Justice Margaret Marshall and other Justices who voted for gay marriage, and he has also acted against other favorite Mitt Romney initiatives like the Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state, so he can't be all bad. But he's hardly all good and his succssor as Speaker, an avowed liberal from the Italian North End, will come as a breath of fresh air.
Another European Country is moving to defy the Catholic Church and institute gay marriage:
Spain Church blasts gay marriage
By Robert Piggott BBC religious affairs correspondent
Spain could join other European countries in allowing same-sex unions. The Roman Catholic Church has attacked the Spanish government's plans to introduce gay marriage, comparing them to releasing a virus into society.
The government says it expects homosexual people to be able to marry as early as next year.
The legislation highlights the steep decline in the power and authority of the Church in Western Europe.
This is especially the case in Spain - which was until recently one of Europe's most devout countries.
'Counterfeit'
The bill allowing same sex marriage - expected to be passed by the Spanish cabinet this week - has prompted a harsh response from Roman Catholic bishops. Their spokesman likened gay marriages to a counterfeit currency. "It would impose on society a virus, something false, which will have negative consequences for social life," Juan Antonio Martinez Camino said.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office in April, intending to remove what he called the Church's undeniable advantages and create a secular state with streamlined divorce and relaxations in abortion law. The changes have distressed and outraged the Church, whose influence on Spaniards has declined precipitously since the death in 1975 of the dictator General Francisco Franco. His regime was closely linked to the Church. Opinion polls suggest that nearly half of Spaniards now almost never go to mass."
We had a marvelous couple of days in Ogunquit with golden fall weather, a lot of walking on the beach and around the coastline, some shopping and museum-going, great dinners, and sweet wake-up sex. The rain from the latest hurricane held off until this morning when it was time for us to return to the normal routine.
Another European Country is moving to defy the Catholic Church and institute gay marriage:
Spain Church blasts gay marriage
By Robert Piggott BBC religious affairs correspondent
Spain could join other European countries in allowing same-sex unions. The Roman Catholic Church has attacked the Spanish government's plans to introduce gay marriage, comparing them to releasing a virus into society.
The government says it expects homosexual people to be able to marry as early as next year.
The legislation highlights the steep decline in the power and authority of the Church in Western Europe.
This is especially the case in Spain - which was until recently one of Europe's most devout countries.
'Counterfeit'
The bill allowing same sex marriage - expected to be passed by the Spanish cabinet this week - has prompted a harsh response from Roman Catholic bishops. Their spokesman likened gay marriages to a counterfeit currency. "It would impose on society a virus, something false, which will have negative consequences for social life," Juan Antonio Martinez Camino said.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office in April, intending to remove what he called the Church's undeniable advantages and create a secular state with streamlined divorce and relaxations in abortion law. The changes have distressed and outraged the Church, whose influence on Spaniards has declined precipitously since the death in 1975 of the dictator General Francisco Franco. His regime was closely linked to the Church. Opinion polls suggest that nearly half of Spaniards now almost never go to mass."
We had a marvelous couple of days in Ogunquit with golden fall weather, a lot of walking on the beach and around the coastline, some shopping and museum-going, great dinners, and sweet wake-up sex. The rain from the latest hurricane held off until this morning when it was time for us to return to the normal routine.
