The Babu owes Orson Scott Card. He reminds me that an author is not his books, that much as I may have loved the Ender's Game series, I don't need to like or even agree with the man's opinions. Card's earnest diatribe against same-sex marriage ducks a key issue. The institution of marriage has, in the past, been a strictly commercial relationship, barred people of the wrong caste (or colour) from marrying, been used as a conduit to a woman's property, blah blah blah: to cut it short, the exalted state of marriage that Card and others of his ilk seek to protect never really existed. It's only in the last century that men and women have been seen as equal partners within the institution; it's only since Dr Spock that child-rearing has been treated as serious business. (Via MaudNewton.)