I'm reading two at the moment.  First, no big surprise, "The Road To Surfdom"  The Definitive Edition by you know who.  Finally getting around to reading it after how many years?  I could kick myself for taking  so long.

Second, "Naked Emperors" by Brian Sewell.  Although I find Sewell a tad  arch overall the opportunity to see the art world get it's head served on a platter is too delightful to pass up.

Your take on the issue is absolutely spot on.  One of the up sides of getting older is you get to see trends come and go, often more than once.  It wasn't so very long ago that the official gay position was adamant that there was no need to "ape" the hetrosexual community and it's need for marriage.  Now the gay community can't live unless they (or we I might inject here) are allowed to marry.  I can't help but wonder what position tomorrow brings.  The point being changing bedrock for cultural whims probably isn't a good idea.  At the risk of sounding like a broken record I think a childs right to have the advantage of having both a father and a mother trumps the rights of adults to follow their particular, and often transitory, political view.  

As a homosexual man who has been in a long term relationship with my same-sex partner but who is opposed to same-sex marriage I'm always looking for cogent arguments from others that supports my views on  marriage, marriage as it has always been understood.  I'd give Mainwaring a conditional thumbs up on this.  Reading the comments I get the impression he's left a number people scratching their heads over  a few somewhat dubious minor points but ultimately coming good in the final streatch.  At the end of the day depriving children their right to both a mother and a father in their upbringing trumps the right of an adult parent to access their political choices.  Some of the other points Mainwaring makes may sit a little uncomfortably and might have been argued somewhat more effectivly but I was glad to see the article none the less.  Any and all opposition to same-sex marriage is welcome.

Who knows how my political views might have played out if my life worked out a bit differently but things took an unexpected turn in my early 20's.  I met and fell in love with a student from overseas while at University of California and as a result I've lived most of my 62 years living abroad (still happily together thank you very much).  It's given me a perspective on the US that no amount of overseas holidays could possibly provide.  That year in year out thing really adds up, dealing with various bureaucracies, various tax systems, various political systems, various cultural aspects and on and on but perhaps most importantly living on a daily basis with foreign media and it's take on the US, away from the US media and it's take on ourselves.  It's all very sobering, and I'd like to think enlightening.  If I had to boil it down, difficult as that may be, to one clarifying point that has shaped my political view it would be the critical importance of American exceptionalism, which the right gets and the left doesn't.  Everything else kind of flows out of that.

Muy bueno!