That's what judges do.

• Position: Off the Map - Vaughn Walker

Just when we thought it was safe to assume the midterm election was going to revolve specifically around economic and unemployment lines, along comes U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to overturn California's Proposition 8. The one that banned same sex marriages.

Did you get that?

He overturned the ban. Loosed the bonds. Broke the chains. Raised a rainbow flag.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

And reopened a can of worms the size and smell of the Louisiana Purchase.

According to this federal judge's persuasive opinion, restricting freedoms is bad. Which puts gay marriage on the side of good. His 136-page judgment found discrimination because of religious convictions violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

And no, this will not lead to legalized bestiality any more than eating Corky's Memphis Style Baby Back Ribs leads to cannibalism.

The message is, if you don't believe people should marry someone of the same sex, then you should go right ahead and not marry someone of the same sex. That part hasn't changed. No one is going to be dragged from their beds and forced to wear starched shirts with collars or attend avant-garde theater productions in Tibetan restaurant stairwells or serve rumaki-on-a-stick at backyard barbecues.

However, if you don't believe OTHER people should be able to marry someone of the same sex, tough titty.

Doesn't matter what you or I think. And thank God for that.

For instance, I don't think people should be allowed to wear black socks with sandals. Or put ketchup on eggs. Or pick their teeth with folded matchbooks. Or drive souped up SUVs while listening to blowhard rightwing talk show hosts.

And yet there are people who do all those things. With total impunity.

But this activist judge overturned the will of a majority of the...