Re: 'Far too many religious nutjobs' indeed

So, then, one section running roughshod over the other is perfectly OK when the section doing the trampling outsizes the one getting tromped. You have heard the phrase 'tyranny of the majority', I'm sure -- did you give it any thought when you did?

Actually, come to think about it, I don't need external references to show you're not making sense -- you yourself chose the verb legitimize, which means "to make something legitimate" -- in other words, taking the word back to its Latin root, to make something legal which never was before in millennia of common law and common practice. If that's not social engineering, what is?

To be clear, it is not the idea of gay marriage in particular with which I have a problem; it's just a handy, if controversial, example of the degree of social engineering I'm talking about. Another example, possibly less controversial than the one I've been using if that helps any, would be the replacement of charity with federal largesse under the general name of "universal health care" -- but I rather prefer to use the example I have been, because it leads very naturally into the question of whether ends justify means.