Michelle Cottle has an article in The New Republic on-line in which she finds hypocrisy between a Supreme Court ruling against Federal funding for religious education and Massachusetts court ruling legalizing gay marriage.

In the first case, a graduating high school student in Washington state applied for a state scholarship to attend a pastoral ministries program at Northwest College. He was denied...it went all the way up to the Supreme Court, and he lost.

Cottle concludes that these two rulings, side by side, effectively demonstrate that Americans are hypocrites, and lousy Libertarians to boot. Here's the money quote:

Much like Davey, most gay couples just want to do their own thing.

Here's the crucial distinction, Michele: Gays aren't asking for money. They just want to get married. If they were applying for public funds for champagne, wedding cake, dresses/tuxes, and so on, I'd be against that too. But they're not.

Davey, the plaintiff in the scholarship case, didn't just want "to do his own thing". He wanted to do his own thing, and have the state pay for it. Big effing difference.

There are plenty of churches that offer merit-based and need-based scholarships to students, which he was freely open to apply for, and well as private scholarships from any number of other sources. Can't afford it? Sorry, pal. Either get two jobs, or go to state college.

Northwest is a private Christian college. Tuition per year? $13,200.

Tuition for Washington State? $4,836.

Why in the hell should the state pay for this kid to go to a private religious institution that costs three times as much?

And just how Libertarian is it to want the state to pay for religious education?

Cottle's full of crap.