Q: What's wrong with letting same-sex couples legally "marry?"

There are two key reasons why the legal rights, benefits, and responsibilities of civil marriage should not be extended to same-sex couples.

The first is that homosexual relationships are not marriage. That is, they simply do not fit the minimum necessary condition for a marriage to exist--namely, the union of a man and a woman.

The second is that homosexual relationships are harmful. Not only do they not provide the same benefits to society as heterosexual marriages, but their consequences are far more negative than positive.

Either argument, standing alone, is sufficient to reject the claim that same-sex unions should be granted the legal status of marriage.

Just because there is rampant divorce, infidelity, and the like, the problem lies not with the merits of the institution of marriage or the religious underpinnings of the act of matrimony. The problem resides in the selfish nature of the American individual. Our society would change for the better overnight, if we loosened our stranglehold on "selfishness" and restrained ourselves with the firm grip of "selflessness".

Posted by: DeWaun on 2/18/2004 06:13:15 PM |

Howard Dean commented,

“If the rest of this country were like Vermont, this country would be much better off.”

Liberals claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war. They complain about his prosecution of it. One liberal recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S. history. Let's clear up one point: We didn't start the war on terror. Try to remember, it was started by terrorists BEFORE 9/11.

FDR led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.

Truman finished that war and started one in Korea, North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,333 per year.

John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year.

Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent, Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.

Worst president in history? Come on!

Posted by: DeWaun on 2/18/2004 10:29:49 AM |

a Clip from Vigilance Matters:

Civil Rights My Arse...

As gay marriage supporters become more and more desperate in their attempt to shove their morality down our throats (ahem), their arguments become more and more ridiculous. The latest battle cry is a gross misrepresentation of the constitutional principles upon which this country was founded.

A bald faced lie, because homosexuals DO NOT currently have a "civil right" to marry someone of the same sex anywhere in this country. They never have had. The marriage amendment cannot "take away" a right that was never granted in the first place.

The three major associations of Greater Boston's black clergy, exercising their considerable influence within the minority community and asserting moral authority on civil rights matters, have shaken up the debate over same-sex marriage with their insistence that the quest by gays and lesbians for marriage licenses is not a civil rights issue.

A handful of leading black clergy in Boston are prominent supporters of gay marriage, but all work in historically white denominations. They include the Rev. William G. Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association; the Rev. Peter J. Gomes, the American Baptist minister who is minister of Harvard University's Memorial Church; and Bishop Gayle E. Harris, a suffragan bishop in the Episcopal diocese of Massachusetts.

But within historically black churches, where most black Protestants worship, there appears to be a near consensus that marriage should be defined as the union of a man and a woman. Among those who have voiced their opposition are the Rev. Ray A. Hammond, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, pastor of the Azusa Christian Community, and the Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown, pastor of Union Baptist Church in Cambridge.

Bishop Gilbert A. Thompson Sr., who as pastor of New Covenant Christian Church in Mattapan heads the largest Protestant congregation in Massachusetts, said black ministers have many reasons for speaking out against gay marriage.

"I've read that [former presidential candidate] Carol Moseley Braun didn't see any difference between same-sex marriage and interracial marriage, but we believe the difference is enormous," Thompson said.

The First Presbyterian Church in Dallas is sponsoring a program for people to turn in their guns to mark the Valentine's celebration of love. The sponsors will give $50 for each gun, and would be glad if the cash was used to purchase candy or flowers for Valentine's Day.

"We are not trying to disarm Cupid of his bow and arrow, but provide another meaningful opportunity for individuals to show their affection for their families by making their homes safe this Valentine's Day," said Bruce Buchanan, a pastor at the church.

The church is aiming to buyback about 150 guns. The Valentine's Day celebration will be overseen by armed police.

clipped from the column:

In the town of Kalar, about a hundred miles northeast of Baghdad, Kurdish villagers recently reported suspicious activity to the pesh merga.

That Kurdish militia has for years been waging a bloody battle with Ansar al-Islam, the terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and supported by Saddam Hussein in Iraq. It captured a courier carrying a message that demolishes the repeated claim of Bush critics that there was never a "clear link" between Saddam and Osama bin Laden.

The terrorist courier with a CD-ROM containing a 17-page document and other messages was Hassan Ghul, who confessed he was taking to Al Qaeda the Ansar document setting forth a strategy to start an Iraqi civil war, along with a plea for reinforcements. The Kurds turned him over to Americans for further interrogation, which is proving fruitful.

"Of the liberation's three casus belli, one was to stop mass murder, bloodier than in Kosovo; we are finding horrific mass graves in Iraq. Another was informed suspicion that a clear link existed between world terror and Saddam; this terrorist plea for Qaeda reinforcements to kill Iraqi democracy is the smoking gun proving that.

The third was a reasoned judgment that Saddam had a bioweapon that could wipe out a city; in time, we are likely to find a buried suitcase containing that, too."

It's absolutely horrifying to the sane man, the patriot and lover of this country how many goals the liberal Democratic faction have vehemently clamored for, implying that if we aren't in agreement with this goal, this policy or that, we are somehow not hip, intellectual or even worse, racist???? Yeah, go figure.

It is scary but here are a few of the Communist's Goals that we have seen come forth through the mouths of the Liberal establishment of the Democratic party

• Do away with loyalty oaths.
• Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
• Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Socialism, and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in text books.
• Gain control of key positions in radio, TV & motion pictures.
• Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
• Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography, and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
• Present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as "normal, natural, and healthy."
• Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
• Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
• Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
• Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special interest groups should rise up and make a "united force" to solve economic, political, or social problems.
• Repeal the Connally Reservation so the US can not prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

In the early '60's during the days of the "former" Soviet Union, Russian Premier Nikita Kruschev pounded his shoe on the podium of the United Nations and shouted to the West, "We will bury you!" Fearing an invasion from the Reds, America proceeded to build the most awesome military machine in history. Unfortunately, we forgot to guard our political homefront from being taken over by socialist - communist - liberal activists who would gain office and destroy American law by process of gradually installing the Communist agenda within our legal system and seperate branches of government. The Communist program from the start has been one which sees their revolution of 1917 succesful only upon total domination of the world.

My Opinion: We are so smart, so arrogant, so blind to what we are doing. We are condemning truly evil people with evil philosophies— that much is good, but what is worse, is we cannot see just how morally corrupt and bankrupt "We the People" are. In his Farewell Address, President George Washington said,

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness - these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."