I don’t have time to look this up right now, but I was amazed to read this on an old post at Pam’s House Blend:

I posted on your blog but also wanted to tell you in a seperate email that as Governor I will veto any legislation banning gay marriage. The government does not belong in our bedroom and they do not have any power under the constitution to define marriage. Did you know that the only reason a marriage license was required in the first place was to keep inter-racial couples from marrying after slavery ended. Before that one was not required.

That’s from a letter from a Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in Alabama last year. I’ve always struggled to understand what role the government has in granting licenses. We take these things for granted, but why do we have these things.

The anti-miscegenation suggestion carries some weight, but then why aren’t there states without licenses (or, I should say, are there states where marriage licenses aren’t required? I know of none).

Does anyone know the history here (or have time to look it up? )

I think Mitt Romney has pretty much fallen into the “please, not him” pile for Republican candidates, along with John McCain. This is from an article yesterday in the WaPo:

“There is no work more important to America’s future than the work that is done within the four walls of the American home,” Romney said. He also criticized people who choose not to get married because they enjoy the single life.

“It seems that Europe leads Americans in this way of thinking,” Romney told the crowd of more than 5,000. “In France, for instance, I’m told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past.”

That was news to me along with, it seems, half of the liberal blogosphere. I can’t find a reference after a good bunch of googling. None of the comment threads I scanned quickly at Atrios or Daily Kos has a citation or even a hint of a source for such a claim.

I have no idea where he got this from, and I have found no indication that this is even remotely true in any sense of the word. I’ve tried other European countries, tried different contract lengths, tried a number of different keywords.

If Romney is just making stuff up, even by accident… Sorry, but we just lived through 6 years of that. I don’t think the nation can handle 4 more.

(found on Atrios and Daily Kos)

When, if ever, do you take off your wedding ring? Heidi takes her rings off to shower, but I keep it on almost all the time. I take it off now and again if I’m putting gel in my hair or lotion or something, but it seems that I should take it off when I’m doing stuff out in the yard or whatever. So, I ask all of you, when do you take your rings off?

I’ve also noticed that every new husband, including myself, can’t stop playing around with their ring. Probably because I’m not used to it, but still, it’s funny that you can pick out the new husbands by looking at who plays with their rings.