the gravitational power of the moon

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Nov 06, 2008

 California's attorney general Jerry Brown-- that proud product of Jesuit training who, during his earlier tenure in a higher office, was aptly dubbed "Governor Moonbeam"-- has announced that he will defend Proposition 8 against legal challenges. Proposition 8 defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Brown announced that he will also defend the legal validity of 18,000 same-sex marriages that have been recognized by the State of California in the months since the state's supreme court ruled that marriage was not necessarily a union between a man and a woman.

The logic behind Proposition 8 is the logic of the natural-law tradition: that everyone everywhere has always understood what marriage means, and the state's high court erred in supposing that the institution could be arbitrarily redefined. The legal validity of those 18,000 "marriages" is based on the proposition that the court was right, and marriage could be redefined. So which side is right? Governor Moonbeam declares victory for both sides. 

Indeed it may have been lunar influence that caused the temporary suspension of natural law, producing the result that marriage is always and everywhere recognized as a union of a man and a woman, except in California between June and November 2008.