Of course this is excellent news, and will likely be followed by other states in sequence.

In Canada, where I live, gay marriage was legalized in 2003 by an appeal court, and subsequently by Parliament.

What is most noticeable six years later is that it is entirely accepted by everyone. It's hard for anyone to imagine that it is considered a big deal elsewhere.

Stuart Kauffman sounds a lot like Hans Jonas, who made very similar arguments decades ago in The Gnostic Religion, and then, later, in The Imperative of Responsibility. Both books argue that nature should be taken as sacred.

In the latter book, he has an interesting discussion of "The Possible Uses of Quantum Theory for the Psychophysical Problem". He uses "psychophysical" to refer to the Cartesian mind-body dichotomy and the philosophical problems it raises.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Jonas

Pinochet pardoned himself, too.

Certainly a pardon within the local jurisdiction of the US will have no effect internationally, while the facts developed by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission might be useful in an eventual prosecution.

The Torture Convention REQUIRES all signatories to enforce its terms, especially where a local jurisdiction abstains from enforcing it for reasons of political expedience.

The analysis of the Court replicates that of the Ontario Court of Appeal, which legalized gay marriage, and held that civil unions were "separate but unequal" to marriage itself. The right to marry the person of one's choice now exists across Canada, with no discrimination allowed, whether gender or racial.

The experience here has been that it really doesn't matter to anyone but the person marrying, who his or her partner is. And groups trying to wave the bloody shirt have gotten nowhere with it. People have more important things to worry about, like housing, jobs, prices, and so forth.