Opinion: In today’s pages: Beijing’s games, Bangkok’s Hello Kitty shame
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Former California Assembly member Jackie Goldberg argues that her same-sex union law was never meant to be an excuse to ban same-sex marriage:
My goal was simply to help families that had, for too long, gone without legal protections. But from its conception, I knew this was a flawed exercise. When the Legislature passed the bill in 2003, I told reporters that this ‘separate and unequal’ system was the best we could achieve and that I would have proposed allowing same-sex couples to marry if I’d thought that would pass. I never imagined that domestic partnerships might somehow be used as an excuse not to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Jeremy Rifkin explains how global warming allowed Russia’s land grab in the Arctic, and why it could get worse. Barry H. Gottlieb doesn’t see anything wrong with punishment-by-shaming, like a Bangkok police squad’s plan to make misbehaving cops wear Hello Kitty armbands. And columnist Patt Morrison practices her film criticism on a six-hour must-see movie -- traffic school instructional tapes.
The editorial board remarks on Barry Bonds’ 756th home run and what it says about the changing game of baseball. The board wants to use the Olympics to leverage reform in China, and comments on a court’s ruling on congressional privilege.
Letter writers note Angel Stadium’s rat problem. L.A.’s Carol Vogelman suggests: ‘All Angel Stadium needs to do is import a handful of cats....’