I'm thinking of voting for myself: I don't know what people thought they were getting when they voted Bush into office, but surely, this can't be it. $1.5B to promote heterosexual marriage! This reminds me of ads for things like milk. I put milk on my cereal and drink it with cookies. I do so because ... that's what you do with milk. Seeing Pete Sampras wear a milk mustache in an ad is hardly going to make me start abandoning coffee, juice in water for milk 24/7. I hope the Dairy Farmers got their money's worth (and for all I know, maybe they convinced non-milk drinkers to start guzzling it down).

For Bush to promote hetero marriage is first of all ridiculous for the reasons Eno and I have already gone over at length: what business the federal government has in telling me who I should or can marry is simply not apparent. Moreover, what good can it possibly do even if you assume the gov't should be in the marriage promotion business? I mean, if some of the money goes to marriage counselling programs, then fine and well, but it's not going to increase the frequency of hetero marriage (picture Larry King on billboards: "I love marriage so much, I did it 8 times (of course only to big-bosmed women!"), nor decrease homosexuals' desire to get married - in fact, it will simply put more fuel on the debate's fire. This is pandering of the highest magnitude. I'm getting more and more worried about the election. I take it all back: Bush, please stick to Iraq and nation-building. It's the only thing you're any good at.