“The court effectively shut the door on any legislative or judicial challenge to its historic ruling last November. By the same margin, 4-3, the majority reaffirmed its opinion that gay marriage is constitutional and anything to reverse it is unconstitutional…

That advisory opinion to the Senate, which had been contemplating the passage of a civil union bill that would fall short of recognizing gay marriage, seemingly kills any short range chance of overturning the Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling in November, which declared same sex marriages to be constitutional.

The November decision has been targeted by Catholic bishops and Gov. Mitt Romney for reversal, who responded to Wednesday’s action saying, “While we’ve heard from the court, we haven’t heard yet from the people of Massachusetts.” ” —The Boston Channel. The forces of reaction are planning a constitutional convention to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman; if the court will no longer tolerate unconstitutional practice, then change the constitution, as simple as that.

“Mr. Lebrecht’s evidence for the coming demise of classical recording could be viewed alternatively as proof that for once the free market is working. If some greedy major labels are getting the comeuppance they deserve, let them go under.

Smaller labels like Nonesuch and Naxos, which once just filled in the gaps with records of specialty repertory and adventurous artists ignored by the majors, are proving that it is possible to release important recordings at midrange prices and still pay the bills. And though the financial repercussions from the downloading of CD’s have the recording industry feeling besieged and impotent, some bold orchestras have, like many rock groups, taken matters into their own hands and released self-produced CD’s, recorded live and available on the Internet.” — New York Times

“Roger Stone, the longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative who led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount and helped make George W. Bush president in 2000, is financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al Sharpton.

Though Stone and Sharpton have tried to reduce their alliance to a curiosity, suggesting that all they do is talk occasionally, a Voice investigation has documented an extraordinary array of connections.” A surprising investigative report by the Village Voice, if it is to be believed in the face of vociferous denials from the Sharpton campaign. I wonder if Stone is still working for the Republicans in this effort, if you catch my meaning.

This New York Times editorial lauds Ariel Sharon’s surprise directive to Jewish settlers to begin preparations to leave Gaza to the Palestinians, noting that the combined population of Israel and the occupied territories approaches parity. Supporters of the two-state solution ought to be encouraged, although the plan obviously does not go far enough in several respects. First, there is no timeline for implementation. Second, the purity of Sharon’s motivations is sullied by speculation that it is timed to deflect attention from the bribery scandal brewing around him. Most importantly, it does not include the West Bank, where the controversial Wall under construction dominates the landscape and where the Jewish “settlers’ ” presence is arguably more inflammatory.

“The Pentagon canceled its so-called LifeLog project, an ambitious effort to build a database tracking a person’s entire existence.

Run by Darpa, the Defense Department’s research arm, LifeLog aimed to gather in a single place just about everything an individual says, sees or does: the phone calls made, the TV shows watched, the magazines read, the plane tickets bought, the e-mail sent and received. Out of this seemingly endless ocean of information, computer scientists would plot distinctive routes in the data, mapping relationships, memories, events and experiences…

Researchers close to the project say they’re not sure why it was dropped late last month. Darpa hasn’t provided an explanation for LifeLog’s quiet cancellation. “A change in priorities” is the only rationale agency spokeswoman Jan Walker gave to Wired News.”

Robert Kuttner: “After an excruciating delay, chickens are finally coming home to roost for George W. Bush. For over a year, critics have been pointing to the president’s systematic misrepresentations of everything from Iraq to education to budget numbers. But the charge hasn’t really stuck, until very lately. This past week, however, Bush seems to have hit a tipping point.” — Boston Globe op-ed

“Dietary supplements are unregulated, some are unsafe — and Americans can’t get enough of them.” — The New Yorker

The Plot Thickens at The New York Times Book Review: Major changes are apparently afoot and the publishing industry is watching closely. As the editorship of the book review changes, it will emphasize nonfiction over what they claim is the glut of poor novels masquerading as serious literature these days [I have been disappointed for several years in the declining coverage of serious fiction, however.] Reviews will be more contentious and varied in length, and interspersed with author interviews and coverage of the publishing industry… and more reviews of the kind of mass market books once eschewed by ‘serious’ literary critics. — Poynter Online

DRM-free, and the artists get paid: “Imagine a world where music and movies could be freely exchanged online, where artists are recompensed and the labels don’t lose a cent, and where 12-year old girls need not fear harboring an MP3 of their favorite TV show theme tune on their PC.

All that could be yours for less than the price of a subscription to Napster: for less than $6 a month. Harvard University Professor Terry Fisher has completed the first comprehensive examination of various alternative models and the one we outline here offers such tantalizing social benefits, that even the most jaded sceptic ought to pay attention. Professor Fisher belongs to the school of forensic sceptics rather than the school of wide-eyed techno-utopians, and he’s spent three years trying to make the sums add up. We think it’s worth a look, and we think you ought to take a look too. (To make his task even more difficult, Fisher’s license model also takes on the additional onerous task of compensating Hollywood, too). ” — The Register