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I think I’ve stated before that with Facebook available, I don’t have as much of a need to post random links here. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t post a status or link to Facebook more than once a day, which keeps my social networking addiction in check. But there are some days when there is just too much good stuff to share and comment on, thus you all get an old school set of bullets.

• There is apparently an upside to the Somali pirates, fishermen in Kenya are doing much better now that illegal commercial fishing trawlers aren’t around.
• My favorite local DC band, Exit Clov, is coming out with their first LP Memento Mori.
• Pictures from a Star Wars burlesque show, you will not find a more sexy hive of scum and villainy.
• I know none of you are going to read this, but here is some interesting insight into how and why the jurors who recently decided a patent infringement case against Microsoft made their decisions.
• As for the recent Mark McGuire revelations, oh wait, I don’t care.

The bench trial (i.e. no jury, only before a judge) regarding Prop 8 has started in the Northern District of California before Judge Vaughn Walker.  On the thought of same-sex marriage, here is what an interesting thought which has been kicking around my head for a while (and forgive me if I’ve posted this here before). What happens when someone starts a SSM church (or synagogue, or mosque, or temple)? This hypothetical church is completely identical to a Protestant church across the street, EXCEPT that it includes gay marriage as one of its sacraments, as one of the CORE TENANTS of their interpretation of the Christian faith. What then? The Freedom of Religion and Establishment Clauses in the First Amendment suggest to me that the SSM marriages would have to be recognized. As I understand it, a judge is not allowed to evaluate the merits or truth of one’s belief, only the sincerity. So the courts could not strike it down, and any State legislation to oppose the church from performing SSM would be unconstitutional. There has to be something I’m missing from my understanding of U.S. Constitutional Law, because it can’t be that simple to legalize SSM… unless IT IS that simple and this is simply a matter where no one has done this yet.