Allan Ball is SO on the ball...

Allan Ball must have known something the rest of us didn't.

When Keith and David got married in the coda to the Season Finale of Six Feet Under, the time was not exactly now, but neither was it exactly a distant projection into the future: the two foster children had hardly grown, and the rest of the crew had aged hardly at all. And in this not-too-distant future, in which Keith and David stood in their super-well-tailored white tuxedos before the eyes of their friends and their families, they also stood before "God", in the guise of David's favorite, longtime reverend. The viewer was left to presume/surmise that the aging stiff was now vested by the State of California with the full legal power to perform the marriage.

The notion of legalized gay marriage in the near future, as portrayed on SFU, was something that I imagined to be a (winking) fantasy of Allan Ball. I had no idea it was a prediction of sorts. And yet today, the California legislature passed a bill that could change California's legal definition of marriage from "a civil contract between a man and a woman" to a "civil contract between two persons."

The only catch is the the Gov-uh-nay-tuh still has veto power over the bill, and statements he has made (to the effect that "gay marriage should be between a man and a woman" or something equally confused and yet entirely transparent as to his leanings) signal the likelihood that he will whip out his lasers and tasers and, well, hasta la vista baby.

But you never know. Politicians can be so unpredictable: Schartzenegger's buddy George is thinking seriously about naming Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez to replace Sandra ("Sandy Dee") Day O'Connor as a Supreme Court Justice, despite that many people suspect that A.G. Gonzalez has a bit of a soft spot for abortion: Gonzalez has expressed a respect for Roe versus Wade, stating that as far as he is concerned, it is stare decisis (which means, in current English, been there, done that, got the t-shirt). To some very conservative mouthpieces out there, this sort of attitude is a Court decision or two away from burning the Constitution in a campfire and then rewriting it in Slanglish. On toilet paper.

On the other hand, Gonzalez has also been heard defending torture as a means of dealing with political prisoners (as long as they're not American, I assume). See, Abu Graib. But then if you think of where George WB's sentiments and interests lie, it does kind of make sense that he seems to be prioritizing a strong (understatement) military stance and a heaping (understatement) portion of latitude for actions taken in wartime, over social policy.

Ah, the joys of politics. I kind of liked it better when I used to only read the comics.

YC