Thoughts in a Haystack

Ed Brayton affectionately calls Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert the dumbest man in Congress. I've always wondered about that, After all, the Republicans have a plethora of teabaggers who specialize in stupid. But now I have to concede that Ed is right.

First of all, Gohmert claimed that Justices Ginsburg and Kagan ought to be impeached” for participating in the marriage equality case after officiating at the weddings of same-sex couples. This is incredibly stupid. The very issue in the Obergerfell case was the four states' claim that they should be allowed to decide whether to allow same-sex marriages or not. Ginsburg and Kagan performed same-sex marriages in jurisdictions that had decided to allow them and where same-sex marriages would have remained legal no matter what the outcome in Obergerfell. In short, their participation in those marriages did not bear at all on the issues before the Court. If Ginsburg and Kagan were required to recuse themselves for having performed same-sex marriages that were legal under state laws, then any of the justices that had performed opposite-sex marriages would also have had to recuse themselves. Chances are, there would have been no justices left to decide the case.

But that is not evidence of Gohmert's unique stupidity. All too many of the wingnuts are incapable of thinking and have been making the same argument. No, this is where Gohmert races to the head … er … butt of the class:

We could take four heterosexual couples, married, and put them on an island where they have everything they need to sustain life. Then take four all-male couples and put them on an island with all they need to sustain life, take four couples of women, married, and put them on an island, and let’s come back in 100 to 200 years and see which one nature says is the preferred marriage.

Well, doh! If we assume “everything they need to sustain life” doesn't include modern reproductive technology, such as sperm donation and surrogacy, then, yes, the all male or all female islands couldn't reproduce. But, then again, if you put four heterosexual males or heterosexual females on islands, they couldn't reproduce either. On the other hand, if you put two homosexual male couples and two lesbian couples on the same island and came back in 100-200 years, you'd doubtless find the situation about the same as you'd find on the island that had four heterosexual couples.

Of course, homosexuals and lesbians want to reproduce and will do so if given a chance. The really stupid thing is to suppose that, if you make it impossible for them to do so, that is somehow a measure of which is the “ preferred marriage.”