SCOTUS Throat-Crams Florida With Gay Marriage Because Duh, That's What Happens Now

• You really have to wonder why the "traditional marriage" crybaby bigots even bother anymore, when it's so obvious that aside from the extra-ultra-conservatives who are in the teeny tiny minority, the highest court in the land does NOT want to hear their whining:  

  Over the dissents of two Justices, the Supreme Court late Friday afternoon refused to delay — beyond January 5 — a federal judge’s order that would permit same-sex couples in Florida to marry after that day.

  Neither the apparent majority of seven nor the two dissenters gave any explanation. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas simply noted that they would have granted the plea by state officials to extend the postponement beyond the early January date.

  In refusing the request by Florida officials, the Court followed the pattern that it had maintained for the past two-and-a-half months of routinely turning aside requests to put on hold lower court rulings that had struck down state bans on same-sex marriage. [...]

  Marriages are occurring now in most of the thirty-five states where state laws or court rulings allowed it, or where courts had acted to strike down state bans. When the Court took its first actions during the current Term on same-sex marriage — denial of review on October 6 of bans in five states — only nineteen states and the District of Columbia allowed such marriages.

  The Supreme Court still has not issued the ultimate Hells Yes Everyone Can Get Get-Married Now ruling, but you know it's coming. You just know it.

• President Obama wants you to know it's safe to go to the movies, and you should do that:

  In an interview with ABC News airing Wednesday, Obama said his administration is taking the breach seriously, but that moviegoers should feel safe.

  "Well, the cyberattack is very serious,” Obama said. “We're investigating it. We're taking it seriously. You know, we'll be vigilant. If we see something that we think is serious and credible, then we'll alert the public. But for now, my recommendation would be that people go to the movies."

• The plan to go to Mars issoooolast month. Now on to Venus! 

  It has been accepted for decades that Mars is the next logical place for humans to explore. Mars certainly seems to offer the most Earth-like environment of any other place in the solar system, and it’s closer to Earth than just about anyplace else, except Venus. But exploration of Venus has always been an enormous challenge: Venus’s surface is hellish, with 92 atmospheres of pressure and temperatures of nearly 500 °C.

  The surface of Venus isn’t going to work for humans, but what if we ignore the surface and stick to the clouds? Dale Arney and Chris Jones, from the Space Mission Analysis Branch of NASA’s Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at Langley Research Center, in Virginia, have been exploring that idea.

• Awww, are you going to missThe Newsroom? Our friends at Happy Nice Time People explain why no, you are not:  

  The Newsroom was Sorkin’s third attempt at a show about a live show. Yeah, this time it was clearly a red flag. More insufferably righteous (and always right) men and their plucky, idealistic, and equally self-righteous female subordinates. There was a definite train wreck quality to the whole thing, except that viewers found themselves fully capable of turning away. It limped through three seasons with the axe perpetually overhead. Tonight, it’s done. And no one will begging to see it added to Netflix.

  Self-plagiarism is typically a sign of lack of confidence in yourself to ever produce new material as good as your previous successes, but under-confidence has never seemed to be Sorkin’s problem. Instead, these days, Sorkin seems to be showing the same contempt for his audience Sam was exhibiting to the lesser speechwriter. “I am so much more fucking awesome than you that I can treat you like shit and get away with it.”

• Wingnut televangelist scamster Pat Robertson knows how babby is formed:  

  “You know, those who are homosexual will die out because they don’t reproduce,” the TV preacher opined. “You know, you have to have heterosexual sex to reproduce.”

  Now you know!

• The Metropolitan Transportation Authority declares war on manspreading:  

  It is the bane of many female subway riders. It is a scourge tracked on blogs and on Twitter.

  And it has a name almost as distasteful as the practice itself.

  It is manspreading, the lay-it-all-out sitting style that more than a few men see as their inalienable underground right.

  Now passengers who consider such inelegant male posture as infringing on their sensibilities — not to mention their share of subway space — have a new ally: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

• Mallory Ortberg, the lady genius behind The Toast AND a big fan of Yr Editrix has a thing in The New Yorker that you should definitely read because you will definitelydefinitelylike it:  Ayn Rand Reviews Children’s Movies . And that's just the headline.