I chose not to reply based on your expressed wish not to discuss this episode in your post. There was no law against gay marriage there was a law restricting the interpretation of the concept of marriage as being between a man and woman.
So Saddam was a threat ehh? To whom?
The Machiavelli qoute was taken out of context. It deals with the King Loius of France maintaining his colonies in Italy. Machiavelli also said;" When the prince is obliged to shed someones blood, he should do so only when there is proper justification and manifest cause, but above all, he must abstain from taking the property of others, for men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their land."
I can't start listing polls like a shlub; they are in all the newspapers today, including Washington Post, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor etc. Just google news.
Jeez; Iraq?We are doing real well over there. The people just love us.
What really intriques me is the concept of making anything that has to do with personal behaviour illegal. Providing it does no harm; then why?? This I find truley baffling.