What do you think I should think?

Not too long ago, one of my friends was complaining to me about how a lot of his friends are constantly asking him what he thinks.

“What do you think of this sweater?”

“What do you think of my new boyfriend?”

“What do you think of the restraining order?”

He and I can talk about such things because he knows I often don’t care what he thinks. In fact, we disagree pretty often. Last year, he told me he was planning on moving to Paris and then maybe going for another graduate degree after that. I told him I didn’t think he’d actually do it and he told me to shut up.

The next time he called me on the phone, I said, “Ooh, are you at the airport? What’s the weather like? God, you’re up early!”

I did this for about six months and, since then, he hasn’t mentioned anything requiring a passport, much less Europe.

Passing over Easter

One of the best things about growing up in L.A. during April was being able to trade with other kids at lunch so you could have a haroset-topped matzo in one hand, a hard-boiled egg with lots of salt and pepper in the other, and a chocolate egg filled with caramel for dessert.

Taking Hip Hop Back to Africa

Critics and fans alike have long awaited K’naan’s sophomore album. He brings it with all its unpaved street cred on Troubadour, his major label debut. I never thought I’d say this, but the majors have so far been good to him.

Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain

That’s Iowa’s state motto and it seems apt in light of today’s events.

The Hawkeye State’s Supreme Court upheld a 2007 Polk County ruling which essentially said that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples violated the equal protection clause of the state constitution. When that ruling was handed down, Iowans had less than a day of legal same-sex marriage because the county appealed the decision to the highest court in the state, and the judge postponed any further marriage licenses until that court could rule on the matter. I briefly touched on this when it happened and I mentioned that only one couple, Tim McQuillan and Sean Fritz, came back with a completed marriage license within the 22-hour deadline. No major news outlets and only one blog has bothered talking to them since.

In its unanimous opinion, the court explicitly pointed at the arguments against same-sex marriage rooted in religious tradition and stated that the state government cannot have any religious views of its own. If recent bans on same-sex marriage (including California’s) are any indicator, religious conservative groups will continue to motivate action on this issue using religious dogma but will either veil that language or remove it from their final actions. We, as a country, still have little recourse for half-truths.

Republican State Senator Paul McKinley issued a statement to the Des Moines Register saying that he thinks all Iowans should have a voice on the matter, so the state’s legislature should immediately pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a bond between one man and one woman. In other words, he thinks everyone should have a voice — as long as it’s his.

You can read the Iowa Supreme Court opinion here.