Dispatches from the Culture Wars

And just to cement the absurdity and hypocrisy of the whole thing:

As Ms. Loy lay motionless on the ground, crying, Mr. Cirignano ran back behind the lectern, where moments before he had opened the afternoon rally by leading a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

I'd love to see the schedule for this event.

12:45 Recite pledge of allegiance in the name of God to a country that guarantees freedom of speech for all citizens.

12:47 Throw a woman to the ground and give her a concussion for actually practicing that freedom of speech

12:49 Praise God for giving us the strength to cause concussions in said woman.

And judging by the other comments he made, this Cirignano is a serious loony:

"Heaven will not be heaven if our children are not there with us," Mr. Cirignano told the crowd, while counter-demonstrators, most of whom remained behind same-sex marriage opponents, chanted "Shame, shame, shame, shame."

Um. Okay. If gay people are allowed to get married, then your children won't be in heaven with you. I'll take non=sequiturs for $1000, Alex.

"Four judges do not get to decide what sin is," Mr. Cirignano said, as a chant of "Let the people vote" began to drown out the counter-demonstrators, who were outnumbered about 200 to 50.

As if this had anything at all to do with sin. Judges don't care, nor should they, what is and isn't a sin when making a ruling. You, of course, are still perfectly free to call homosexuality a sin until you're blue in the face. But that has precisely nothing to do with public policy or law. Half the country believed marrying someone of another race was a sin in 1967 when Loving came down; that did not mean that the Supreme Court was deciding "what sin is."

Worst of all is how the police handled it:

Police responded by asking Ms. Loy and other counter-demonstrators to move behind the larger anti-gay marriage crowd. Ms. Loy argued that she had a right to stand wherever she wanted, but like others, agreed to move away.

Police interviewed Mr. Cirignano, but did not arrest him. Ms. Loy said she intended to file a complaint against him.

She should not have agreed to move away, nor should anyone else. And the police should almost certainly have arrested Cirignano. He didn't deny doing it, in fact he made excuses for it:

Mr. Cirignano explained that he felt Ms. Loy was getting too close to the lectern. She was in the middle of the crowd to the left of the speakers when the incident happened, about 30 feet from the microphone.

What more do you need to arrest the guy? He committed assault in front of a crowd of people and admitted it. They should have arrested him on the spot.