Let the Dead Bury the Dead

It's no secret that I am in love with Keith Olbermann. He's handsome, he knows a lot about sports, and he feeds my fetish for men in their 40s who wear a suit and tie everyday. It's also no secret that I generally watch him with the sound off; he's just too smug, even for me. And for those of you who have heard me preach on one of a million subjects, then you know how self-righteous I can get.

Occasionally his is amazing. His defense of Arrested Development a few years ago was masterful, and his recent and passionate woodsheading of Proposition 8 is worth it as well. Listen:



I'm not a big defender of straight marriage, despite coming from parents who are still together after more than 30 years, so I have no problem with extending those legal rights to gay folks as well. I could care less who wants to get married and I feel like it doesn't affect me in any way at all. But it does, doesn't it? I may wake up someday and want to get married, for love or for legal protection, and feel more passionately about the institution than I do now.

Do I care about the rights of gay and lesbian friends of mine (or people I don't know) who want to get married? Of course. We should all be able to make the same mistakes in the eyes of the law. Marriage is not sacred in this country; it's a legal institution. I saw this video posted on both Quizlaw and the FourFour (links to the side), so there are some legal minded people, and some gay minded people, respectively, who were touched by Olbermann's latest rant. It's a very fine piece.

In other Olbermann news, I've been happy to see that he's appearing on Sunday Night Football this season and that he was a part of MSNBC's election night coverage. I watched the live feed on their site for the big night because it was a lot better than some of the other cable news feeds, and I was happy to see that Keith's smugnedd was kept in check by the rest of the team. Chris Matthews, however, could not keep the shit-eating grin off of his face. It didn't bother me, of course, because I'm a flag-burning Commie who was happy to see Obama win. Now if he would just lean a little more to the left...