{"id":35695,"date":"2013-04-11T08:12:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T13:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35695"},"modified":"2013-09-06T15:25:17","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T20:25:17","slug":"the-little-person-who-cried-there-is-no-wolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35695","title":{"rendered":"The Little Person Who Cried “There Is No Wolf!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCENE: \u00a0Mitch BERG is running his snowblower down his sidewalk. \u00a0Avery LIBRELLE walks by, eating a granola bar<\/em>.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Why do you hate gay people?<\/p>\n

BERG: (shuts off snow blower<\/em>): \u00a0Huh?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: (dribbling granola crumbs onto sidewalk<\/em>) Why do you oppose gay marriage? \u00a0You’re a bigot!<\/p>\n

BERG: Er, no. \u00a0As we’ve discussed over and over again, I favor civil unions on libertarian grounds.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Hah. \u00a0Two people who love each other should be able to marry.<\/p>\n

BERG: Right, but marriage isn’t about love. \u00a0Not entirely, anyway. \u00a0It’s pretty utilitarian, actually. \u00a0It’s about raising kids – and the notion of gay marriage devalues gender, which I think is a huge mistake, since gender is so hugely important in raising kids. \u00a0In our society, it’s also about taxes. \u00a0Personally,\u00a0I think government should get out of the business of granting favors through the institution of marriage, but I think gay people should be able to sign contracts with each other.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Pfft. \u00a0What are you afraid of?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Er, yeah. \u00a0On the one hand, that question is an abusive strawman. \u00a0I’m not “afraid” of the notion of same sex marriage. \u00a0But I’m definitely worried about some of the potential consequences.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0(Spit-takes, blasting granola flakes all over the place<\/em>) Huh? \u00a0What are you talking about?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0It is inevitable than once you legalize gay marriage, government will oppress any person, business or institution that disagrees with it.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Hah! \u00a0People who support marriage equality are very sensitive to diversity of opinion, you paranoid teabagger! \u00a0 And the First Amendment protects your observance of religion absolutely!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Right, just like First Amendment absolutely protects my right to hold government accountable<\/a>, or free association<\/a>, or choice for my children<\/a>, or the Second Amendment absolutely protects my right to keep and bear arms<\/a>, the Fourth absolutely protects me from unreasonable searches<\/a> and seizures<\/a>, the Fifth absolutely\u00a0grants me due process and the right to face my accuser in court<\/a>, and the Tenth guarantees the enumeration of powers<\/a> absolutely.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0What are you, a lawyer? \u00a0That’s just paranoid!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0So it’s your position that the full weight and power and budget of government\u00a0isn’t\u00a0<\/em>going to descend upon anyone who doesn’t embrace gay marriage?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0Yep. \u00a0Paranoid paranoid paranoid. \u00a0Cray cray.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0 Huh. \u00a0Good to know it’s just paranoia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Attorney General Bob Ferguson<\/a>\u00a0has filed a consumer protection lawsuit against a florist who refused to provide wedding flowers to a same-sex couple.<\/p>\n

The complaint was filed in\u00a0Benton County<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday against Barronelle Stutzman, owner of\u00a0Arlene’s Flowers and Gifts<\/a>\u00a0in Richland.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is in response to a March 1 incident where she refused service to longtime customer Robert Ingersoll. Stutzman did not return a call Tuesday night seeking comment. Ferguson had sent a letter on March 28 asking her to comply with the law, but said Stutzman’s attorneys responded Monday saying she would challenge any state action to enforce the law.<\/p>\n

Washington state voters upheld a same-sex marriage law in November, and the lawtook effect in December<\/a>. The state’s anti-discrimination laws were expanded in 2006 to include sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

Ferguson seeks a permanent injunction requiring the store to comply with the state’s consumer protection laws and seeks at least $2,000 in fines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0You’re a racist and you hate womyn!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Right, I got that. \u00a0But the point is, the precendent is there; government squats on opponents of social policy<\/a>!<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0That’s Canada!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Right. \u00a0But it’s the pattern all governments follow when they want to impose social policy.<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: \u00a0(throws granola wrapper on \u00a0BERG’s snow-covered lawn<\/em>) \u00a0Why do you dance on the graves of the children of Newtown?<\/p>\n

And SCENE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCENE: \u00a0Mitch BERG is running his snowblower down his sidewalk. \u00a0Avery LIBRELLE walks by, eating a granola bar. LIBRELLE: \u00a0Why do you hate gay people? BERG: (shuts off snow blower): \u00a0Huh? LIBRELLE: (dribbling granola crumbs onto sidewalk) Why do you oppose gay marriage? \u00a0You’re a bigot! BERG: Er, no. \u00a0As we’ve discussed over and over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,132],"tags":[236],"class_list":["post-35695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war","category-mn-legislature","tag-dramatization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35695"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38198,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35695\/revisions\/38198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}