On marriage and Objectivism

by bryan on March 31, 2013

Sometimes people who claim to be Objectivist make it hard for me to claim to be Objectivist. Case in point: This guy claims that the mere concept of same-sex marriage is impossible; it would no longer be a marriage.

That is, of course, ridiculous.

The argument from epistemology is entirely wrong because the definition of marriage is not dependent on gender, but on role; specifically the role of a spouse as a mutual lifelong provider, lover, and supporter. Procreation is not a pre-requisite, and it certainly could never be the defining pre-requisite since many children are born out of wedlock, and many married heterosexuals never procreate. Same-sex marriage is not some new concept trying to usurp the label of marriage. There are many precedents for gay marriage, and polygamy. If somebody was trying to marry their car or their dog, well then that would be a new concept since cars and dogs are incapable of love or making decisions.

Even if this argument had merit, it doesn’t even remotely address the practical reasoning behind the legalization of same-sex marriage– namely equal protection under the law. I’m referring to the difficulty of hospital visitation, end of life decisions, and, in many cases, different tax levels. Most of these cases can be alleviated to some extent, but not always fully, and rarely without a lot of unnecessary legwork. Legalizing same-sex marriage, regardless of your opinion that it violates the concept of marriage, would be the quickest and easiest way to solve this problem for the most people.

Lastly, during the little rant about the left, there is a big collision with hypocrisy. Here it is: “The Left opposes consent and favors force.”

Yes, and sometimes the pot calls the kettle black. Marriage has no business being regulated as a legal institution. It should be an independent contract, regardless of contracting parties. Opposing the legalization of same-sex marriage, even for high-filutin’ epistemological reasons, uses force to keep consenting homosexual adults from getting married. Come on, this stuff is obvious!
But the most laughable part of this article is summed up by this quote: “When in doubt, remember this: The political Left is wrong about everything.”

Really?! You’re going to sink this low, when almost all of the Left’s arguments fail based on their own lack of merit? I thought rationality was supposed to be the hallmark of Objectivism. There’s no shortcut. You can’t proclaim to be Objectivist and brand your arguments as rational. This is as bad as half-assed Republican Objectivists (or “admirers”) like Paul Ryan, who don’t understand that rationality and religion are mutually exclusive. If you’re going to call yourself Objectivist, then at least try to be rational.

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Home Shopping Saga: Price Update 7

by bryan on November 3, 2011

Yikes! Prices are still falling

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Best Salsa Recipe EVER

August 9, 2011

Ingredients: Two large tomatoes One medium white or yellow onion One bunch of cilantro Sea Salt Crushed black pepper White Vinegar Chili powder Paprika Two cloves (not to be confused with two bunches) of Garlic (or one spoonful of minced stuff) One lemon One can of stewed tomatoes, preferably Italian recipe One medium Pablano pepper [...]

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Misquoting Jesus: Repetitive, but thorough

July 4, 2011

I just listened to “Misquoting Jesus” (from Audible). This book is ostensibly for the layman of Bible history, but it has a big, fat, midsection that should have been better distilled. However, it will give you loads of very good arguments against those annoying evangelical friends who believe that Jesus dictated it word-for-word, stamped “King [...]

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Home Shopping Saga: Update 6

June 13, 2011

Whew! Looks like prices are back to dropping like a rock.

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Home Shopping Saga: Update 5

April 19, 2011

It appears the brief pause in falling prices is over. My index property is now valued at $192,000, according to Zillow.

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Home Shopping Saga: Update 4

March 29, 2011

According to Zillow, prices are now beginning to rise on my price index property. Today’s price is $194,000– the same as it was in February, but according to Zillow, it is up $500 in the last 30 days. Well, I am surprised by that, and frankly still skeptical. We’ll see what happens.

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Free Currency Converter API in Perl

February 10, 2011

Here’s a handy little way to convert currency using the iGoogle Gadget API. It’s free… until they decide they don’t like it. Enjoy! #!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use LWP; my $browser = LWP::UserAgent->new; my @currencies = qw( KWD BHD OMR LVL GBP JOD EUR KYD CHF AUD CAD USD BND SGD NZD TND BGN TRY [...]

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Music Monday – Atomic Tom, Take Me Out

January 2, 2011

I like this song. I discovered it after seeing this video.

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Detect Disposable Email Addresses with Perl

December 1, 2010

I have the secret to detecting disposable emails! I’ll give you a hint: it uses Perl. Ok, Perl’s not really the secret ingredient– it’s the list of disposable email domains contained within my code (below). But I needed to make a tool to detect disposable email addresses, and I just happened to use Perl. If [...]

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