I choose to call Lyle Oberg a blithering idiot

Alberta Conservative leadership candidate Ted Morton has sponsored a private members' bill that would--among other things--allow marriage commissioners to opt out of performing same-sex marriages for religious reasons. The bill is up for third reading today. Lyle Oberg, one of the other leadership candidates, supports the bill. Why? Because "no one should have the ability to make anyone do anything against their will."

No one should have the ability to make anyone do anything against their will.

He must have misspoken, you're probably thinking. Oberg doesn't really believe that literally--that would be ridiculous. But no, he actually rephrased the sentiment and repeated it a second time: "Nobody should be able to litigate against people who choose not to do something."

Okay, well, then I think I'll just choose not to put my kid in school this fall. When tax time rolls around this April, I think I'll choose not to file, and when my next Alberta health premium comes due, I'll choose not to pay the bill. Oh, and I think I'll drive down to Brooks and break into Lyle Oberg's house. When he tells me to leave or else he'll call the police, I'll just tell him that I find it quite comfortable there and choose not to listen to him.

(You know, it's not even these people's policies that get me so much as their pure, unadulterated stupidity. Why, why are they like this? The federal Tories manage to be right-wing without being stupid, so why are there seemingly no Alberta Tories with brains in their heads? It just baffles me.)

The article goes on to talk about how the bill isn't expected to pass because there's not expected to be "enough time" to debate it. Hmm, interesting that if they know there won't be enough time, that they wouldn't find some way to allow enough time. Might there be something being cooked up that they're not giving us the details about? Hmm, there might.

And I just might have pictures to share later on today. *grin*

Update: The pseudofilibuster, in which the Alberta NDP and the Alberta Liberals jointly organized to make sure procedural matters took long enough that the bill couldn't pass, was a success. The best part was the way in which they officially introduced all the members of the public in the gallery (we had to register ahead of time, and provide brief biographies to be read aloud). There were so many people there that the introductions alone took over an hour! It's sad that the Tories outnumber even a combined Opposition to such an extent that tricks like these are necessary, but it was still an incredibly creative use of parliamentary procedure to achieve political goals, and I was quite impressed. And I'm most impressed of all by the fact that the Alberta Liberals and the Alberta NDP were willing to put aside partisan differences and join forces for long enough to do the right thing.

I wasn't allowed to take the camera into the chamber, but the best pictures I could get of the enormous lineups to get in are over here. Too fun.