The San Francisco tweet

I'm not inclined to get worked up over the current flap over gay marriage in San Francisco; I mean, isn't there always a current flap in San Francisco? So if Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to try to add his name to the Civil Disobedience Hall of Fame, it's fine with me.

Still, the very definition of "civil disobedience" indicates that a law has been broken. Civil-rights marchers in the South, forty-odd years ago, were prepared to take the consequences of their actions. I'm not quite persuaded that Mayor Newsom is prepared to take the consequences of his.

Update, 11:05 am:
Michele had a piece this morning on the larger topic — as usual, far better than anything I have to say on the subject — and a fellow known as "A Different Bill" commented as follows:

I admit to a certain amount of bemusement by all this. Whatever I may think of gay marriage — which at the moment is actually fairly close to this, minus an imprecation or two, subject to change without notice — I really can't work up much enthusiasm for Newsom: it's not like he's exactly putting his life on the line for this cause. (A visit to Selma, Alabama might be in order.) Still, I know better than to underestimate the power of small gestures.