Brothels and space aliens; Taking marriage private

The Nightly Build...

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Dallas Tabloid

In today's installment of "I Read Dallas Blog So You Don't Have To", I bring you two stories published in our city's own trashy tabloid. The first is Tom McGregor's campaign coverage titled "BunnyRanch Brothel Owner Endorses Ron Paul." Dallas Blog seems to have missed the fact that MSNBC television personality Tucker Carlson arranged for the endorsement without the knowledge or consent of the Ron Paul campaign. Tabloids do know how to pick out the juicy parts of a manufactured non-story, don't they?

The second story is also by Tom McGregor, this time a tabloid staple about New Mexico and a tourism ad campaign featuring "hideous looking aliens" and "drooling, grotesque office workers from outer space." Yawn. Dallas Blog might be slipping. Please give us more Boy-George-chains-man-to-wall and African-immigrants-eat-monkey-meat stories, please.

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Privatize Marriage

Referring to a New York Times op-ed advocating taking marriage private, Nicole Stockdale asks "Is it feasible -- or desirable -- for states to get out of the marriage business?." Michael Landauer answers:

"The government should get out of the 'marriage' business altogether and only focus on the 'civil union' contracts that are essential tools in managing people's estates. We have blurred the seperation of church and state on marriage out of a romantic notion of tradition. Truth is, marriage is seen as a legal contract by the government and by a holy covenant by most churches. They are two separate transactions already, and we should make that more clear in the labels we use."

Hooray. I said much the same thing three months ago when an Iowa's judge's ruling in favor of gay marriage set off a mini-storm among the religious right.

"Differentiate between marriage and civil unions. The former is a religious bond. The latter a legal contract. The state shouldn't be setting the rules for religion and the church shouldn't be enforcing legal contracts. Quit mixing the two up."

Do you think anyone will listen now that the idea is being talked about in The New York Times and The Dallas Morning News?