I'm not out of touch, you're out of touch!

And while we are on the subject, this is downright funny:

"We are going to be revealing areas where the AARP is out of touch with a large number of their members, including the issue of marriage," Charlie Jarvis, the [chief executive of USA Next], said in a statement. "We will engage AARP with an aggressive campaign to educate the people about where they really stand on the issues and how out of touch they are with the large majority of their own members."

.....

Nancy Thompson, a spokeswoman for AARP, said it had not taken a position on same-sex marriage. In Ohio, the organization opposed an amendment to the state's Constitution that banned such marriages, but only because the second clause blocked legal recognition of any union, potentially including unmarried heterosexuals, that approximated marriage rights, Kathy Taft-Keller, state AARP director said. Voters approved amendment.

David M. Smith , vice president of policy for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, said, "These groups think that the debate on any issue can be dismissed by bringing up gay marriage. We're probably going to see the cancellation of the N.H.L. hockey season blamed on gay marriage next."

BTW, what Ohio effectively did was to outlaw "common law" marriages. Texas allows them, on the perfectly common sense grounds that, should you lose your marriage license, you don't have to go through the hassle of seeking it out from the county clerk where you got married, which may be in another state, or even lost to antiquity. Think about it this way: "common law" marriage exists where a couple represent themselves as married. How many married couples are required to prove their status was legally recognized by an authorized officer? We have to present a driver's license, but a marriage license? The parties don't even need to present the license in a Texas divorce action. So what AARP opposed, was the removal of simple common sense.

Which should make things interesting in Ohio, should anyone wish to challenge the married status of anyone else. It also raises the question of who is really out of touch with whom.

Although I still think treating the GOP and its minions like boggarts from Harry Potter, and dismissing them as "ridiculous!," is a good tactic, too.