This and That: News Nibbles about Marriage Equality and Bigots, the "Boy Crisis" in American Schools, and Men Behaving Badly

John Shore asks whether every Christian opposing same-sex marriage is a bigot, and if not, how do we decide where the line lies? His answer:

Answer? The moment he or she does anything to restrict the rights of any other person based solely upon the fact that that person is gay. 

You, anti-gay Christian, have the God-given freedom and the American right to believe whatever you want, and to worship and congregate with anyone and everyone who shares your beliefs. What sane person would argue that? 

It is not beliefs which make a person a bigot. It is actions.

John Becker takes a close look at a gathering of clergy opposed to marriage equality in Michigan last week in which the state's Catholic conference and the heavily Catholic group the Thomas More Law Center were heavily involved:

The event was marked by strikingly aggressive and hostile rhetoric from many of the pastors in attendance, who disingenuously claimed that the LGBT rights movement is not a civil rights movement and slammed those -- including many prominent leaders and organizations in the African-American civil rights movement -- who disagree. 

Bryce Covert points out that the so-called "boy crisis" in American education seems to vanish as soon as boys and girls graduate and look for jobs, and females discover that the playing field tips strongly in the direction of males:

Women may not even be able to get hired into the jobs they want just because of their gender. When prospective employers only knew someone’s gender, they were twice as likely to hire a man for a job in mathematics, assuming that the women would perform worse on a test problem without even seeing the results. This is despite the fact that women perform just as well on solving a simple math equation. 

And Adam Carolla says that no he has not received any perks for being a straight white male, and he owes no one anything by way of a helping hand: Salon asks,

Comedians often look a lot like you — straight, white and male. Do you feel any obligation to help underrepresented comics climb the ladder?

Carolla replies,

You’re presuming I got lifted up the ladder. I don’t feel the need to lift anyone up. 

And so. It goes. On this day of our Lord (or C.E., if you prefer) 20 May 2008, when my several times great-uncle Dr. Wilson Richard Bachelor wrote from his study in Pauline, Arkansas, at 9 P.M.,

Beautiful May, Singing birds, lovely flowers with all the rich perfume of Spring. The Catalpa trees with their green leaves and white blossoms are verry beautiful. The Humming bird has come back to revel among the flowers. The honey bee is busy extracting nectar from the flowers. The Honeysuckle vine on the verandah has filled the rooms with its delicious odor for weeks, but I never cloy with the odor of flowers.