Anselm Finnan is a Must Read

Anselm Finnan (a great Irish name, nearly as venerable as O'Mad) has a blog called Burton Front. Just found it today. It is a must read. Any man who describes one of his interests as "the Irish Catholic religion" is likely to have a good blog. For those of you who don't know, the Irish Catholic religion is very similar to the Catholic religion in all respects but one. We Irish have an extra sacrament, called "Imbibing of the Guinness."

Imbibing of the Guinness is a sacrament taken not much on Sunday mornings, but very often on Saturday nights. The sacrament is reputed to have amazing healing and social properties, which unfortunately last only about six hours, whereupon there is frequently experienced a monkish withdrawl for a sobering purgatorial period of reflection and physical penance.

Anselm (not the saint) has many very good posts, but be sure to read "Cowards they Are" written this morning at 11:39 am. This post is coherent and to the point and criticizes Mr. Martin and the Grits on same-sex marriage. That tells me three things. Firstly, he is an intelligent man. Secondly, he is probably closely related to the O'Mads. Thirdly, he did not partake in an excess of the Imbibing of the Guinness last night. Don't take my word for it. Taste his scorn.

On Friday, Martin said he now considers the recognition of same-sex marriage so important that he is ready to call an election on it in order to uphold the Charter.

He accused opponents of same sex marriage,like Conservative Leader Stephen Harper,of being unwilling to defend the Charter.Martin's eleventh-hour conversion to the cause of same-sex marriage is laughable, given his own flip-flopping in the past.

In 1999, when Martin and most Liberals (then under Jean Chretien) thought it was politically expedient to pay lip service to the sanctity of marriage as "the union of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others", they voted in favour of a Reform party motion using those exact words.

It passed the Commons by an overwhelming 216-55 margin, but the Liberals went even further. Then-justice minister Anne McLellan assured Canadians that "the government has no intention of changing the definition of marriage, or of legislating same-sex marriages." [emphasis is mine.]

Nor are those lines Finnan's best. Read it to see. But before you do, consign Anne McLellan's 1999 comment to memory. It is a useful reference point to maintain when you're trying to digest statements from the Right Hounourable Himself about polygamy, like the one he made two days ago in China.

"I don't believe there's any support in the country for the recognition of polygamy in law." ... "I cannot conceive how anybody can say that and not understand just how ridiculous he must look," Martin told reporters in Beijing, adding that the laws against polygamy will not change. "As far as I'm concerned it will always be against the law." [The emphasis is mine. The lie is his.]