Reason on Gay Marriage, Freedom of Drug Speech

The marriage debate has largely shifted from legal rights to social and cultural symbolism.

On one side, we have the spectacle of former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich, who is now on his third marriage and had a six-year affair while married to wife No. 2, talking about preserving "the traditional Judeo-Christian view of marriage." On the other side, the view that marriage is the union of a man and a woman is denounced as akin to hate speech.

Challenging Istook

Last fall Istook was offended by ads in Washington's Metro system in which Change the Climate said the government should "Legalize and Tax Marijuana." So he did what any intolerant, power-mad politician would do: He wrote legislation to ban the speech he did not like, not only from Metro buses, trains, and stations but from every mass transit system in the country that receives federal funds.

This astonishing equation of advocating reform with breaking the law speaks volumes about the arrogance of politicians who are so sure of themselves that they see no reason to allow debate. As the groups challenging Section 177 note, "it is Congress that broke the supreme law of the land by enacting legislation for the purpose of suppressing the expression of opinions about marijuana policy."

Istook's willingness to so blatantly violate the First Amendment plays into the hands of his opponents, who portray it as a sign of the drug warriors' intellectual bankruptcy and political desperation. "The message that marijuana prohibition has failed is so powerful," declares Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project, "that the only way the federal government can think of to combat it is by stopping us from communicating with the public."

Pro-war writer goes to Iraq, doesn't change his views el - Surprised this was in there, most libertarians do not support wars of aggression based on lies.