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Lileks is Back! and he's pissed...

(Apologies to Michele for the title: I typed "Lileks is back" and the rest came forth... must spend less time blogreading....

Anyhow, he's got a Bleat that's worth two whole days without The Bleat -- and that's saying a lot. I must quote:

This story has irritated me from the start, and it has nothing to do with Rev. Robinson’s sexual orientation. The guy left his wife and kids to go do the hokey-pokey with someone else: that’s what it’s all about, at least for me. Marriages founder for a variety of reasons, and ofttimes they’re valid reasons, sad and inescapable. But “I want to have sex with other people” is not a valid reason for depriving two little girls of a daddy who lives with them, gets up at night when they're sick, kisses them in the morning when they wake. There's a word for people who leave their children because they don't want to have sex with Mommy anymore: selfish. I'm not a praying man, but I cannot possibly imagine asking God if that would be okay. Send them another Dad, okay? Until you do I'll keep my cellphone on 24/7, I promise.

Who are you to judge? is the standard response, and I quote Captain James T. Kirk when asked the same question by Kodos the Executioner: who do I have to be? I’ll tell you this: my nightmare is losing my daughter. The idea of leaving her on purpose is inconceivable, and I don’t care if Adriana Lima drove up the driveway in a '57 BelAir convertible, tossed me the keys and asked me to drive her to Rio, it ain’t gonna happen. I made a promise when I married my wife, and I made another when we had our daughter. It's made me rather cranky on the subject of men who don't stick around. They're letting down the side. They're reverting to type. They're talking from their trousers.

That is marriage. One man, one woman, one lifetime. I don't know about this whole civil union thing, I'm leaning towards it: but marriage is what it is, and no politicizing should change it. We've done enough danger to the institution already -- no-fault divorce, the Clinton-type open marriage -- and we're already reaping the consequences. Or do you think the children growing up without a father are just as well off? Well, I've grown up without a father, and although I'm fairly well-adjusted, believe me, it's hell sometimes. Don't dare tell me that children don't need a mommy and a daddy.