What Caught My Eye Today

Catholics - Statistics about my favorite religion. Does it get any better than this? A recent Gallup polss found that American Catholics are more liberal that the general population on homosexuality, divorce and premarital sex, despite the Catholic Church's official stance on those issues. Speaking, strictly for myself--guilty as charged on all counts. 54% of Catholics say that homosexual relations are morally acceptable, compared with 45% of non-Catholics; 71% of Catholics approve of divorce, compared with 66% of non-Catholics; 67% of Catholics say that permarital sex is morally acceptable, compared with 57% of non-Catholics. I don't want to suggest that the folks at the Vatican are thrilled about this trend, but I'm guessing as long as the Sunday collections keep coming in, they'll continue to look the other way.

Vermont - Speaking of liberals, those lunatics in Vermont are totally out of control. Vermont, which invented civil unions, on Tuesday became a pioneer again as the first state to legalize gay marriage through a legislature's vote, suggesting growing popular acceptance of the idea. Four states now have same-sex marriage laws and other states soon could follow suit. Bills to allow same-sex marriage are currently before lawmakers in New Hampshire, Maine, New York and New Jersey. To date, the same-sex marriage movement's main gains have been in New England, which some attribute to Yankee liberalism and the gradual acceptance of gay relationships after Vermont's groundbreaking civil unions law took effect in 2000. Memo to the dudes who oppose gay marriage: "The writing is on the wall, my friends." And I know I've brought this up before, but what is the big deal here? I know which team I play for and I don't plan to get traded anytime in the foreseeable future--heck, I doubt they would take me. And it's not like you can catch being gay like you can a cold. Is it really so bad to let everyone abide by the same rules? I think not.

Minnesota - By the time this thing is finally decided, the guy who finally wins will have to turn around and start working on his re-election campaign. The long-running dispute over teh Minnesota Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken moved closer to resolution. A panel of three state judges agreed to count about 400 new absentee ballots. I did some checking and it appears that Franken extended his lead from 225 votes to 312. Given this overwhelming endorsement from the electorate, Franken's lawyer wasted not time in gloating. "More people voted for Al Franken and he will be declared the winner. Coleman lost fair and square." Nevermind the fact that the courts decided not to count some 4,000 additional ballots. You guys barely won. How about showing just a little humility here?

New York - The owner of the building going up at the former site of the World Trade Center said that it would drop the name Freedom Tower and instead use One World Trade Center, the name of the now-vanished north tower. The decision by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey sparked an immediate outcry. Do ya think? Critics say that in honor of the 3,000 dead, those addresses should never be used again. So why, in it's infinite wisdom, did the Port Authority choose to go back to the original name? Officials say that the Freedom Tower name cound invite terrorist attacks and scare of prospective tenants. Are you serious? I'm sure that name alone was the reason, the terrorists picked the World Trade Center to attack on September 11. Good grief.>