Pittsburgh Trib Opinion

Monday last, conservative legal giant Ted Olson began a new trial, this one involving a federal challenge to Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage. He'll argue that state-imposed bans on same-sex marriages violate the Constitution. Some on the right see Olson's recent professional conduct as being at odds with conservative bona fides. But he doesn't see it that way and neither should we.

The Germans are so strong on their family values they want the state to enforce them. They're debating now whether shops should be shuttered on Sunday by law.

MSNBC, Aug. 31, Keith Olbermann on Robert F. McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor of Virginia: "In (McDonnell's master's thesis), he described women having jobs as detrimental to the family, called legalized use of contraception illogical, pushed to make divorce more difficult, and insisted government should favor married couples over, quote, 'cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.' Wow. When did he write this? 1875? No, 1989. Wow, 1989. Goodbye, Mr. McDonnell."

The U.S. House already has passed the Matthew Shepard Act, named for the 21-year-old man who was tortured and beaten to death in an act of anti-gay violence in Wyoming in 1998.

Pat Buchanan, in his column bemoaning a fall in religious sentiment among Americans ("Rendering unto Caesar," April 18 and PghTrib.com), writes, "as America ceases to be a Christian country, it is ceasing to be a democratic one," as evidenced by judges allowing same-sex marriage in spite of the majority of Americans opposing this development.