The Washington Post notes that the California Senate, in passing Ass. Bill 849, has just became the first legislative body in the country to vote to legalize gay marriage without a court order. Conspicuously absent from the article is any reference to the fact that the California Senate is also the first legislative body in the world to do so in contravention of a court order or of its own constitution. Details, details.

UPDATE Dafydd ab Hugh has more.

UPDATE x2: Am I the only one who finds it a little Ass. backwards for an Ass. Bill to get voted on in the Senate before it passes through the Ass.?

UPDATE x3: The Ass. joined in. Now it’s just a question of whether the Governator will stand up and veto the bill or whether the Wimpinator and leave it to the courts. The Captain and the other Xrlq have more.

UPDATE x4: Consider this a divorce.

While lefties get their panties in a bunch over news articles that accuse black looters of “looting” while noting that white non-looters merely “found” the items they found, some of my friends on the right are getting equally silly in the opposite direction, refusing to admit (out loud, at least) that there is any moral distinction to be drawn between people who “steal” food so they can eat and those who steal guns so they can shoot at FEMA officers, electronics so they can do God-knows-what, or anything else they steal simply because they can and not because they need to in order to survive. John Hawkins of Right Wing News is one of the worst offenders. Not being content simply to disagree, he instead resorts to pop psychology to explain away the inconvenient fact of other conservatives actually disagreeing with his self-evident viewpoint:

While I like and respect Peggy Noonan and other conservatives who’re making this argument (like Jonah Goldberg), this is completely bogus. It’s an example of conservatives taking a position they know is morally wrong just because they don’t want to be perceived as “mean.” It’s also — in almost every case — hypocritical.

For those keeping score, note that he made a similar argument when that idiot manager at a Loews theater kicked an autistic kid out of a matinee for laughing too loudly, an act for which Loews itself rightly (and promptly) apologized. I could try reverse-pop-psychology and argue that Hawkins is a liberal at heart who feels deep-seated guilt for his “heartless” conservative views, and feels the need to overcompensate by bashing any conservatives who actually do have a heart, but that would be stooping to his level so I won’t do that. Instead, I’ll simply point out a very basic distinction between stealing to survive and stealing for other reasons: one is legal, and the other isn’t. Happy?

UPDATE: A non-looting “looter” faces criminal charges for an act of heroism. Lovely.

UPDATE x2: Or maybe not.

I recently learned I was linked a few times by the National Journal Blogometer. In an August 17, 2005 entry on Cindy Sheehan’s divorce and blogger infighting, they quoted me as saying

“I’m all for quaint concepts like privacy and all that fun stuff, but then again, divorces are public records, Sheehan has made herself into a public figure, and news is news, particular when it goes to a person’s credibility.”

True, I did say that. Every word of it. I’ll leave it to the reader to judge whether the above is a fair representation of where I was going with that post. Don’t miss this sarcasm-challenged summary of my earlier post on Michael Schiavo, either.

UPDATE: Xrlq gets results! Both posts have been updated in response to this entry, and their author promised by email to watch more closely for snarkenremarken while reading this blog.

In Europe, if you have a nice car you can go from Petting to Fucking in just 40 minutes. Not recommended on buses, however, and don’t even think of trying it on a train.

It’s not too late to get your donations in, and don’t forget to log them when you do. I ended up donating to Mercy Corps, Salvation Army and the Humane Society.

For obvious reasons, both New Orleans law schools (Loyola and Tulane) are closed indefinitely. If you are a current law student at either institution, consider spending a semester or two at my alma mater, Boalt Hall. For more information call Dean of Students Victoria Ortiz at (510) 643-3057, or email her at vortiz@law.berkeley.edu.

UPDATE: Oklahoma State City U. has a very generous offer (h/t: Michelle Malkin) for all New Orleans college students.

Today’s the day. I don’t recommend any particular charity, just that you donate to a reputable one, and use your company if they’ll match some or all of it.