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</p>
<p>of course this is true, if only to all fundamentalists, literalists and bomb throwering malcontents (excepting, as you might guess: poets, mystics, pragmatists and lovers).</p>
<p>After reading all of this, I logged onto the John Edwards site and made a contribution. As for Coulter, we all know that she’s a he. Check out that Adam’s apple… :)</p>
<p>^___ that was a joke for those now angry with me.</p>
<p>“I see Coulter as an infotainer.”
Dorothy–I beg to disagree with you on this one, though we’re all entitled to an opinion. I find Jim Carville and Mary Matalin infotaining, especially when interviewed together. More extreme, but also infotainers: Rush (blowhard) Limbaugh and Bill (sex-talker) O’Reilly. They enrage me at times, but also make me laugh with their pompous, ludicrous jabber–that you know even THEY can’t entirely believe. Coulter goes way beyond that. I don’t find her informative or entertaining. Just scary. Like that creepy religious sect from Kansas, whose members show up at military funerals carrying hateful signs about how “God hates America and faggots.” There’s something very wrong with those people, as well as with Ann Coulter.</p>
<p>well, I think most rules are not arbitrary but evolve for good reasons. Pulling the face-mask is prohibited because it is a neutralizer too easy to perform and would ruin the game. anyone can break the opponents neck by grabbing that convenient handle. whereas knocking the opponent to the ground with timed body blocks has much of the sumo about it and is difficult. </p>
<p>you point out that dirty namecalling is also a too easy method for destruction and object to this as foul play, revealing the culprit to be of low character. coulter does not consider the fate of america to be a game and therefore is willing to fight dirty.</p>
<p>And what does she accomplish?</p>
<p>“people are born how they are born
its like, well, we don’t aprove of short people”</p>
<p>Yes people are born the way they are born but they act the way they choose. You can be born with an attraction for childern or a weakness for alcohol or ill tempered but you can choose not to be mean, drunk, or Gay. The latter may seem like an unreasonable choice to you but you have to admit it is a choice. A short person cannot choose to be tall. A Black person cannot choose to be Oriental.</p>
<p>“Coulter is on the wrong side of this historical tide and conservative political operatives know this.”</p>
<p>Yeah conservatives are always on the wrong side of history - and then a Ragan or Thatcher come along.</p>
<p>BTW momfromme how many times has Gay marriage come up for a vote and how many times has it lost? Are people more tolerant? Yes and that is a good thing, but don’t mistake tolerance for approval.</p>
<p>My point is that there are trends in opinion. You can see public opinion trends, including differences in views by age group here <a href=“Less Opposition to Gay Marriage, Adoption and Military Service | Pew Research Center”>Less Opposition to Gay Marriage, Adoption and Military Service | Pew Research Center;
<p>In the 2006 election, one state (Colorado) did not pass a gay marriage ban and the % by which bans were passed was lower than in 2004. Also, there are now civil unions or equal marriage in a number of states, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. California has a registry for gay couples. New York will probably be next. When you add up the states and their populations, you are getting to significant %s of the U.S. with equal marriage or civil unions. Of course, there are areas of the country where these changes will not be adopted – this is a big country with a good deal of regional diversity. </p>
<p>I hear your point on Reagan and Thatcher, but frankly, I don’t think the comparison works. The issue of equality is quite different from the issues central to those leaders. People today are growing up with openly gay people as their neighbors, co-workers, bosses, classmates and relatives. This makes it much harder to be against equal rights.</p>
<p>By the way, during the last debate on a constitutional amendment on marriage, Sen. Santorum said that it was essential to pass it because young people were less bothered by gay marriage and if it didn’t pass that time, it would be increasingly difficult to pass it in the future. (I saw this myself on C-SPAN2.) In other words, he saw the trend that I’ve been describing.</p>
<p>by higherwhatever:</p>
<p>“Yes people are born the way they are born but they act the way they choose. You can be born with an attraction for childern or a weakness for alcohol or ill tempered but you can choose not to be mean, drunk, or Gay”</p>
<p>really, you can choose not to be gay? wow…and nice company you put gays in…shows the true colors of a poster</p>
<p>this is fun</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=171489[/url]”>http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=171489</a></p>
<p>Higherlead has a right to his opinion, CGM. I don’t agree with it (and obviously you don’t) but his position is in line with orthodox judaism and fundamentalist Christians. What he’s saying isn’t PC, but many people feel the way he does. Let him have his say.</p>
<p>“Let him have his say.”</p>
<p>Because when you argue with a fool, who wins?</p>
<p>I guess it’s easy to have one category for all those different, less to count, less to think about. Simple.</p>
<p>Sure he can say whatever he wants…as can I…his post was absurd…equating gay people with alcoholics and child molesters?</p>
<p>Yeah, let me let that go</p>
<p>“This makes it much harder to be against equal rights.”</p>
<p>Ah but one can be four square in favour of equal rights for homosexuals and still not approve of homosexuality and that is my point. However there are some people who aren’t happy just having rights but want approbation as well.</p>
<p>Who cares if someone approves or not? What matters is how they treat people and, increasingly state laws are shifting toward equal rights. That’s what the gay rights movement is seeking.</p>
<p>“really, you can choose not to be gay?”</p>
<p>You can choose not to engage in homosexual sex. An alcoholic can choose not to drink. A pedofile can choose not to have sex with children.</p>
<p>What part of that are you having difficulty understanding citygirlsmom? I can accept that you don’t have a problem with buggery or perhaps even an appreciation of its finer points but that shouldn’t keep you from grasping that homosexuality in my view is something you do not something you have an inclination do.</p>
<p>I would be happy if race- age-sexual orientation- disability- religion couldn’t be held against you or used as a reason to fire you or to deny you housing.</p>
<p>Currently, while some states have laws protecting gays against discrimination in jobs or housing, federal law does not.
I expect as we expand civil rights to include sexual orientation as well as race/religion, we will see that changed</p>
<p>if as the medical community has agreed, that alcoholism is a disease- does an alcoholic really have a choice not to drink if they haven’t been treated for their disease?
Does a diabetic have a choice not to have their pancreas out of whack?
Does someone who is manic, have a choice about their behavior?</p>
<p>I would agree that you can decide not to be sexually active, just as you can choose not to be a bigot or ignorant- but apparently some of those things are harder for some of us.
You can’t choose not to be gay however, just as you don’t make a decision about your sexual orientation if you are attracted to the opposite sex-</p>
<p>“Who cares if someone approves or not? What matters is how they treat people and, increasingly state laws are shifting toward equal rights. That’s what the gay rights movement is seeking.”</p>
<p>Well part of the answer to that is that equal rights is not a guarantee that you won’t have your feelings hurt. The law protects you against discrimination in employment and in public accomadations and a few other things. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll be selected as a role model or that people won’t mock your sexual practices.</p>