AisleDash

Al Franken is a comedian and actor who has recently turned into an author and politician. He's not well-known for his insights on weddings and marriage. But in his 2005 book, The Truth With Jokes, Franken gets into a discussion about marriage and politics.

Some politicians would like us to believe that homosexuality is the biggest threat to marriage. Franken disagrees. Divorce, he says, is the real threat to marriage. What a groundbreaking idea!

Franken goes on to (jokingly) propose a 3 strikes law for divorce. If elected to Congress (he's currently running for one of Minnesota's seats in the US Senate, though this campaign was not in the works at the time of the book's publication), he jokes, he would like to sponsor a bill that would outlaw marriage for people who've had three or more divorces. Many of those who condemn same-sex marriage as a threat to the institution (Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, for example), would not be legally allowed to marry again under Franken's proposed law, since they have been married three or more times. Funny how these frequent divorcers are so outspoken about protecting the sanctity of marriage.

Yes, it's a joke, but somewhat less of a laugh than the fact that anyone believes loving same-sex relationships are a real threat to their own heterosexual unions.