Tomorrow Iowans will vote on whether to retain three justices on Iowa’s Supreme Court. What we must ask ourselves is whether, aside from the distraction of job creation, it is in our collective interest for Iowa Justices to be re-schooled, retooled, brow-beaten or intimidated into decreeing the undoing of gayness. It's my belief this is all just a big distraction from our main problems of the budget deficeit and creating jobs in this country. But some don't and so let me begin today with this idea; if this isn't foolishness and it is a legitimate way to spend our limited government recourses then they should prove it.

Let us start with a premise: If we can talk people out of gayness we should also be able to talk straight people into being gay.

I don’t think the people associated with Liberty University School of Law like me. I’m one of those evil people that dare say we should just leave gay people alone and let them live. Somewhere in the Bible it says just that. But this is a legal matter and not a religious one so let's talk about why this is a waste of voter time and shouldn't be taken serious.

This past week my office received a call from a narrow minded man shouting into the pay phone about Jesus and me being saved. So far I’m not saved, but he did manage to get up my ire enough to write some more about the gay marriage removal of Iowa’s Justices. Like with many of the blogs I write, I’m going to suggest you listen to some music while reading. Today Prince singing Fury about a woman scorned seems appropriate. So turn it on, turn up your speakers and then continue reading. (CAVEAT: Please don’t watch the women dancing together, you might be suggested into lesbianism.)

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

If instead you like country music, then try listening to Lady Antebellum’s “A Woman Scorned” or if you have a mind for the satirical, then join lawyer Steve Deasy singing about divorce lawyers.

The case that started it all: Gays vs Straights, 763 N.W.2d 862 (Iowa 2009)

Okay let’s get busy here with tawken law since I am a lawyer. One has to wonder what Bob Vander Plaats hopes to accomplish with his attempts to remove Iowa judges. It can’t really be about the gay marriage decision, because even if successful in removing Justices Ternus, Streit and Baker those appointed to replace them will have to write the same decision. It’s a legal concept called stare decisis.

“Stare decisis (Latin) a legal principle by which judges are obliged to respect the precedents established by prior decisions.”

What Vander Plaats fails to comprehend is that unless you appoint someone from Liberty University School of Law, all legal minds that have been taught in American law schools, like Drake and Iowa, and who understand constitutional law will find themselves walking down the same equal protection path that ends with a gay marriage license. If as a lawyer or judge you can read, then certainly sometime during law school a constitution was put in front of you to read and then discussed. You can’t have equal protection and expect to not end with a marriage license for gays and lesbians. It’s sort of like planting corn and expecting soy beans to sprout up.

You can't plant corn and expect soy beans at harvest time.

Let’s examine simple logic and see where liberty takes us with the reasoning of Religion vs the law. Remember the doctor that performed late-term abortions in Kansas and that was gunned down in cold blood by a man spouting he did it for God and the rest of his anti-abortion foes? I personally wrote in my blog to the powers-that-be at Liberty University School of Law and asked them to publicly condemn the murder as against the rule of law. I’m still waiting for the condemnation. Perhaps I missed the public condemnation; if so then let the Dean of Liberty School of Law add the link to the comments section of this blog. I’m all ears.

Kansas Abortion Doctor's Murderer Gets Life Prison Term, April 1, 2010, Fox News

My guess is I will hear nothing in return. It’s like the corn and soy bean analogy, plant in young minds, Bible verses genetically altered into hate crimes and pray that hate is the crop you can harvest with these young law grads. I don’t believe that the curriculum at Liberty School of Law can possible teach the correct form of equal protection law to law students and still advocate excluding gays. I believe what they are teaching has to be along the lines of this: That OUR religious beliefs are the only acceptable standard for society; that when it comes to the gays, tolerance has no place in the fabric of the American way of life and your mission is to misinterpret the law to support OUR religious beliefs.

It’s like the corn and soy bean analogy, plant in young legal minds, Bible verses genetically altered into hate crimes and pray that hate is the crop you can harvest with these young law grads.

So what does the road ahead look like to Vander Plaats and his agenda? Listen to the words of Liberty Counsel. Audio. He believes that sexual orientation can be counseled out of a person. Do Liberty students sitting in class really believe a person’s sexual orientation can be counseled in or out of them? If so then let’s try it; here is your big shot at fame and fortune. I’m going to offer myself for this counseling experiment. In the eyes of Liberty I’m a moral person because of my sexual orientation – I’m a heterosexual male. My undergraduate degree is in psychology and the main paper I wrote was about brainwashing, so I may not be as naïve as what you’ll need, and I am tolerant so be forewarned, this could be a stumbling block to my re-education. I have to believe that if you can counsel someone not to be gay then certainly you can counsel someone to be gay.  I’m offering to sit through this counseling and see if you can change me into a homosexual. Because, if you can talk homosexuality out of a human being, than surely you can talk a human being out of being a heterosexual. So here is your chance to prove your hypothesis that Liberty can make humans heterosexuals or homosexuals, whichever may be popular. I’m your guy. Here let me start practicing. “Oh I love that shade of blue! Where can I get a pair of those pumps?”

I have to believe that if you can counsel someone not to be gay then certainly you can counsel someone to be gay.

Now let me also say this to the other heterosexuals out there. If all these gay bashing homophobes are lying to us and suddenly come out of the closet, that means if they are sitting on the court then they can rule that only homosexuals can get married. Remember what is good for the goose is also good for the gander; if intolerant hold power you’d better hope you’re their flavor. You do remember Hitler don’t you?

First they came by Pastor Martin Miemoller (1892 – 1984).

They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.

What I find most offensive about the Deans comments are how he says the blogosphere has lost its decency when debating this issue. He’s a hypocrite. How do you argue that those advocating tolerance lack decency, but Liberty’s view is decent when Liberty refuses to condemn murder because the murderer served their point of view about religion and it's view of abortion? Can you really have it both ways Dean?

The Road Ahead: Understanding Same-sex Attractions and Their Consequences Conference, Recorded on Friday, February 12, 2010

To end today’s blog I have only one short video for your consideration. It is the “Being Gay” guy who like Liberty tells you how to be something other than what God made you.  Of course the gay guy commercial is a joke; but then again so is the Liberty School of Law. Maybe this guy should be teaching at Liberty. Together they can rewrite the U.S. Constitution on toilet paper.