Category Archives: gay marriage
Dead Fred
The God hates fags guy is dead.
Fred Phelps was the Pastor of Westboro Baptist church in Kansas. His followers appeared at events protesting homosexuality. I used to amuse myself watching them in the fenced off protest areas at political conventions. They held signs saying”God Hates Fags”. They were attention getting.
Phelps followers also liked to get attention by exercising their free speech rights to picket the funerals of troops killed in combat. They held signs saying, “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”
Dead Fred
Dead Fred managed to shield his own mourners from any such an indignity. There were no services to honor him.
Sochi Spy Swap
There will be no Sochi Spy Swap for Edward Snowden.
Senator Mark Warner wants to deport Justin Bieber to Canada. He could go to jail. Pussy Riot has already been there.
Pussy Rioters served Russian prison time for protesting President Putin’s human rights record. That and desecrating a church. In Bieber’s case it would be for assaulting his limo driver. Or for assaulting his jet pilot with second hand pot smoke.
No Sochi Spy Swap but Snowden Welcome
Putin says Edward Snowden is welcome to attend the Sochi Olympics. Pussy Riot, not so much.
I meant to include a shirtless Putin but ran out of room.
Odd Duck at Gay Wedding
Sometimes tolerance isn’t enough. Sometimes you have to bake a cake.
That’s what a Denver judge told the owner of a bakery who declined to make a cake for a gay wedding. The baker’s argument that same sex marriage violates his religious beliefs wasn’t good enough for the judge.
Odd Duck
A&E didn’t order Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson to bake a cake when he professed similar religious beliefs. The network suspended him indefinitely.
Jonah Goldberg notes that Duck Dynasty is a redneck reality show. Why wouldn’t Phil Robertson (even though he has a masters degree) be expected to have redneck attitudes?
“Duck Dynasty” has been a huge ratings success, receiving fawning coverage from the elite media. Much of the coverage has also been incredibly condescending, like aristocrats in Victorian London having a grand time inviting a Zulu tribesman to dinner. Everyone says, “Look at the funny rednecks,” until Robertson says something that you would absolutely expect to hear from a guy who plays a redneck on TV.
Camille Paglia calls “this is level of punitive PC, utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist”.
Which brings me back to Jonah Goldberg and his excellent book “Liberal Fascism“.
Gay Marriage Goes Viral
Supreme Court swingman, Justice Anthony Kennedy, wrote the majority opinion overturning the Defense of Marriage Act. After writing that the issue of gay marriage should be left to the states he described its opponents as bigots. Here’s Rich Lowry in Politico:
The majority held that DOMA inflicts an “injury and indignity” on gay couples so severe that it denies “an essential part of the liberty protected by the Fifth Amendment.” It is motivated by a “‘bare congressional desire to harm a politically unpopular group.’” There is, in short, nothing to be said for it or the point of view of its supporters. Period. Full stop.
Those bigots would include Bill Clinton, who signed DOMA into law (but, newly enlightened, is glad to see it go), Barack Obama (until he changed his mind “the day before yesterday”), “342 members of the House, and 85 Senators”. Actually, most members of the human race were on board with the bigots until millions changed their minds – the day before yesterday .
Guns and Abortion
The Roe v Wade decision of 1973 established a woman’s constitutional right not to bear children. The constitutional right to bear arms was ratified by 3/4 of the states in 1791.
As the president would say, the public’s views have “evolved” on social issues. People are becoming more tolerant of homosexuality in general and same sex marriage in particular. Ten states plus the District of Columbia now recognize same sex marriage.
Abortion is trickier. According to a Quinnipiac poll 63% still support the Roe v Wade decision. Yet in a USA Today Poll only 28% believe it should always be legal, 52% say sometimes legal, and 18% never legal. Eighty percent feel it should never be legal in the last trimester of pregnancy – Dr. Gossnell’s sweet spot.
Unfortunately, that last trimester is also the sweet spot for politicians like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. While scolding the gun lobby’s “willfull lies”, the president blindly supports an abortion lobby that leads to barbaric practices like Dr. Gossnell’s.
(Journalists have been shamed into providing more coverage of the case.)
