Dutch Dreams
An op-ed in this morning's Minneapolis Star Tribune is truly educational.
Three women, identified as "political scientists who have taught at Carleton College" (no word on where they're teaching now) collaborated on a piece about same-sex unions in Western Europe. They conclude that, since the Low Countries and Spain have legalized same sex marriage, and that other countries like France and Austria permit "civil unions", that the U.S. is out of step, and "the nature of the current debate in the United States is what is aberrant."
First, let me take a poll.
How many of you have ever said to yourself, "Gee, I sure wish I were a Western European! Dutch, that's what I'd like to be! Taxed up the wazoo and assisted suicides... yeah, baby, that's the life!"
Hands, please?
It always makes me laugh when "political scientists" trot out places like Holland and France as worthy of comparison with the U.S. Hello, ladies! In case you haven't noticed, Europe is a disaster zone! How many people died in the French heat wave? Thousands, because that marvelous government couldn't get its act together to be of any use! And what about that great employment system, huh? You can't get fired! P.S. Bill Gates just cancelled his reservation.
The reason the U.S. is not like Europe is we don't want to be. Face it, it's a nice place to visit, but live there? Did you ever try to get phone service in Italy? Or buy gasoline in France? It's to laugh.
The authors also argue that ideas like a constitutional amendment to ban SSU's "is not helpful in creating a national dialogue,"and "indeed, such top-down legislation is contrary to the spirit of American federalism."
I for one eagerly await their op-ed on Roe v. Wade. That ought to be inspiring.
Three women, identified as "political scientists who have taught at Carleton College" (no word on where they're teaching now) collaborated on a piece about same-sex unions in Western Europe. They conclude that, since the Low Countries and Spain have legalized same sex marriage, and that other countries like France and Austria permit "civil unions", that the U.S. is out of step, and "the nature of the current debate in the United States is what is aberrant."
First, let me take a poll.
How many of you have ever said to yourself, "Gee, I sure wish I were a Western European! Dutch, that's what I'd like to be! Taxed up the wazoo and assisted suicides... yeah, baby, that's the life!"
Hands, please?
It always makes me laugh when "political scientists" trot out places like Holland and France as worthy of comparison with the U.S. Hello, ladies! In case you haven't noticed, Europe is a disaster zone! How many people died in the French heat wave? Thousands, because that marvelous government couldn't get its act together to be of any use! And what about that great employment system, huh? You can't get fired! P.S. Bill Gates just cancelled his reservation.
The reason the U.S. is not like Europe is we don't want to be. Face it, it's a nice place to visit, but live there? Did you ever try to get phone service in Italy? Or buy gasoline in France? It's to laugh.
The authors also argue that ideas like a constitutional amendment to ban SSU's "is not helpful in creating a national dialogue,"and "indeed, such top-down legislation is contrary to the spirit of American federalism."
I for one eagerly await their op-ed on Roe v. Wade. That ought to be inspiring.
What color is the sky in their world?
ReplyDelete-J.
A friend of mine, European by birth - now a U.S. citizen, once said,
ReplyDelete"They should kick everyone out of Europe and then close it for maintenance and repairs. The whole place needs to be hosed off."
Like you said, a nice place to visit...
I come from a long line of people who left Europe and its nanny state mentality.
ReplyDelete-J.
Wow, I may be the only one that reads your blog and agrees to Same Sex Unions. I do not, though, agree to Same Sex Marriages. That is a privilege given by the church and the wishes and beliefs of the church (of any religon) should be respected. On the other hand SSU are performed by the state under state laws. I don't believe any religion has a right to say a government can't perform SSU. I believe in the separation of church and state. For several religions to coexist under the same government without a civil war, separation of church and state is a necessity. (I'm very interested to see how Iraq works through this problem with their new government, but that's another topic). I think a gay couple has the right to a union with the same legal protection heterosexual couples have under state laws.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kim, the state grants unions; the church marriages. Though, I have to disagree about the state's ability to grant unions to same-sex couples. If a majority of the people agree with the state granting same sex unions--then the state should grant same sex unions. If, like here in michigan, a ballot proposal preventing the state from granting same sex unions has passed the state should be compelled to not grant same sex unions. I think the people of a state should have the ability to decide what "services" their state offers. Laws are still based on morality and should reflect the majority of the people in an area.
ReplyDeleteSince services such as abortion and SSU are not granted by the constitution to the federal government they belong to the states, and rightly so. Trying to unite a country as large as the US with many differing opinions is impossible. We should allow states that wish to grant and recognize SSU the ability to do such as we shoudl allow states to refuse to recognize SSU.