I'm sorry to report that our fine governor, Bill Owens, is separating from his wife of 28 years, on a trial basis. The announcement was made with as little information as possible, and so far, the press seems inclined to respect the couple's privacy. There was some speculation on what this might do to Owens's Presidential run in 2008 (consensus - it sure don't help), but by and large the commentary was sympathetic and restrained.

And then there's Mike Litwin, or should it be Mike Nitwitlin? Evidently, this should prove to the Governor that the Dr. Laura Bill, the Defense of Marriage Act, and efforts to prevent same-sex marriage are wrong. And now the Governor knows this first-hand and should learn his lesson. I'm not putting in any words of my own. Read the article.

Aside from the shamelessness of using the Governor's separation in near-gleeful defense of his own bizarre ideas about marraige, the argument just doesn't hold up. Yes, Owens wanted to mandate couples therapy for parents who wanted to divorce. This hardly constitutes "making it everybody's business." If so, the state shouldn't be in the business of issuing marriage licenses in the first place. And I don't think anyone was talking about reading the minutes of these counseling sessions on Channel 8, the local government channel.

More problematic is Nitwitlin's connection of this to same-sex marriage. There is none. His connection is that they're both private matters, but of course, they're not. Again, marriage means something specific, and it entitles one to any number of societal benefits, public and private. To say that the definition of marriage, of what makes a couple worthy of those benefits and that social status, is somehow a private matter, is to contradict the whole notion of marriage. Not to mention oneself.