Waiting For The Splatter
By Mitch Berg
Minnesota gay marriage proponents think ’09 is the year:
OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest group pressing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality, says same-sex marriage will become its top priority next year. To lead that effort, the group will announce today that Amy Johnson will become its new executive director, replacing Ann DeGroot, who left a year ago.
“It feels my entire professional career and my volunteer activism led to this job,” Johnson said in an interview this week. “I think in working for marriage, we are working for full dignity and respect for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender families. And on the way to doing that, we are going to engage the hearts and minds of Minnesotans.”
Opponents of gay and lesbian marriage say they welcome OutFront’s campaign. “To John Marty and their proponents, I say bring it on,” said state Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove. “I’d love to have that discussion in the next election.” He said most Minnesotans oppose gay marriage.
What Limmer said.
The DFL’s power base in Minnesota is a coalition of
- teachers,
- union workers,
- guilt-stricken upper-middle-class white liberals,
- mainstream minority groups
- various lefty pressure groups
- entitlement-oriented special interests
- Gays.
Among that coalition, the only ones who support gay marriage are:
- Gays
- guilt-stricken white liberals
Look – there may come a time when society approves of gay marriage. Leaving aside my own personal and theological objections (which I’ve written about at great length over the years – I support civil unions, and believe “marriage” is a religious institution; if any church can morally and theologically justify it, by all means let them go to it), I don’t think this is it. When liberal hotbeds like Hawaii, Oregon and California won’t pass it, the idea is clearly not ready to come out of the oven.
In fact, while I hope the DFL leadership is dumb enough (or owes enough chits to gay groups) to spend off their political capital on gay marriage, I don’t know that Republicans are going to be that lucky this year.
But we can hope.
December 18th, 2008 at 9:02 am
The DFL may pay lip service to the LGBT, but when push comes to shove, they’ll pull an Obama.
The only reason the DFL likes the gays is that they look so fabulous when thrown under the bus.
December 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Apparently you know the mind of all teachers, and for that matter, the mind of all minority groups.
Further, your list of members of the DFL is woefully inadequate.
It also includes:
1. People who see that unbridled capitalism has failed (like in El Salvador, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, etc..)
2. People with higher levels of education
3. People with strong moral compasses (I know, you like to lie and call that ‘guilty conciences.’)
Yes, I agree that SOME minorites, like Blacks and Hispanics, TEND to oppose gay marraige more than whites, so if your intent is to appeal to blacks and hispanics on that line, I have one comment.
BRING IT ON – you will fail. They see your rabidly racist traits (not you personally, your party’s) – anti-immigration, welfare momma bitchin, yada yada. Do you wonder why 90% of blacks voted for Kerry? Oh, I know, it’s because they’re just stupid/ignorant, or whatever your excuse for the moment is…
Talk about paternalism.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:09 am
BTW, the Minnesota version of the Republican party consists of:
1. Corporate Fat Cats
2. Toadies to said Fat Cats
3. Bitter Gun Nuts
4. Overweight White Guys who blame the government (and anyone else handy) for their failure to be rich, rather than their own bitter, self-loathing lack of talent – aka Fat Cat toadie wanna-be’s.
5. Rabid closet racists
6. People who don’t know that Africa isn’t a country
7. Equally rabid, closeted self-loathing gays (Ron Ebbensteiner, Ken Mellman come to mind)
Of those, #1 have no issue with Gays – the rest… not so much.
Wow – that was fun.
Nice and civil of you Mitch – no, really.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:10 am
As an opponent of gay marriage, I would like to see it on the ballot in all fifty states.
Nothing drives social conservatives to the polls like a chance to vote against gay marriage.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:22 am
What’s the matter, Peev? Decided that it was too hard to try to write your own blog?
Oh, yeah – my list of DFL constituencies was accurate and non-pejorative. You can manage neither.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:33 am
And peevish thinks blacks vote overwhelmingly democrat is because . . . ?
It can’t be because they are not racist. There is no mainstream political party more interested in allocating rights & benefits by race then the democratic party.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Obama won California handily, yet Prop 8 (overtuning gay marriage) also passed by a wide margin because blacks and hispanics voted Obama but in favor of Prop 8. Of course, California has initiative and referendum, something that our legislature thinks we can’t be trusted with. I expect a gay marriage bill will pass the Minnesota legislature and then good luck getting it repealed. If it does get voted down or repealed, look for it to end up in front of the MN Supreme Court, and Dean Johnson isn’t the only one who knows how that will turn out.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Well, there he goes again!
1. People who see that unbridled capitalism has failed (like in El Salvador, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, etc..)
Well first off, you go apoplectic when anyone calls a democrat a Marxist, so why don’t you quit using Marxist terminology? We are not talking about “unbridled capitalism” we are talking about free open markets, a gigantic difference. NONE of those countries you listed ever tried free open markets, nor has the US in the lifetime of nearly anyone alive today.
2. People with higher levels of education
Yeah, the old “collectivists are inherently smarter” meme. good luck with that one!
3. People with strong moral compasses
What??? 3. People with strong moral compasses do not need the government to force them to do what they think is right. only leftists need that. Last time I checked, forcing someone into servitude was slavery. taking something of value from someone by force was called theft. forcing people to take actions they do not want to was called coercion. Slavery, theft & coercion are not exactly actions proving strong morals, and yet you Collectivists want the government to do all these things & more. Hypocrite!
And your rant about racists… You just proved once again that your #2 group is just wishful thinking.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:19 am
“2. People with higher levels of education”
Care to compare, Peev?
In the immortal words of Milton Berle, I’ll only pull out enough to win.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Peev,
I’ll let you in on a little secret. We DO know what’s inside the minds of the members of the teachers union, blacks, Mexicans, Chinese, Portuguese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Peruvians, Chileans, Peurto Ricans, Sharks, Jets, Capulets, Montagues, Capulets, Dagos, Guineas, Wops, and folks that shop at the local co-op.
…all thanks to the Rove-o-Matic Neuroimaging Helm-o-Tron!
What’s more, it isn’t really necessary… you Left-Leaning, America-hating, Socialist-spreading, evil-appeasing, corruption-steeped, Marxist, Communist, fascist jackasses lead with your jaw so much all we really need to do is watch you and take notes.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:42 am
2. People with higher levels of education
You have a point if you’re talking philosophy and English majors. But one can argue just how much value such a degree adds to the jobs to which those degrees qualify you — they generally require rote recitation of the phrase, “Would you like fries with that?”
Seriously, dude, college is supposed to develop you as a PERSON. If capitalism has failed you after that education, I’d argue that that college, which is supposed to promote reasoning and analytic abilities, has failed you. To make it through college and not recognize that reading obscure Bohemian poetry isn’t a way to riches, if riches is what you were after, means you were failed by your teachers.
It takes quite a bit of hubris to think the world owes you success and riches just because you’ve read some books and taken some tests. Unless those books help you produce something someone else wants, it’s been just so much mental masturbation as far as the world is concerned.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Peni has revealed his occupation on his own blog. He is in IT for a bank. He’s probably doing fine financially, but he proves on a daily basis that level of education, & level of intelligence are not mutually inclusive.
December 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
I think it would be useful to discuss the value of marriage to our culture and our country. And then maybe expand that to every culture and country.
After doing so, we can better take the measure of “gay marriage” and compare it to what we are told is its equal. :-/
December 18th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Hey Penigma, you’re doing the Clown’s work – I’m gonna have to file a grievance.
Seriously, nicely done!
December 18th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
We could also consider the value of Confirmation and First Eucharist… and expand it to include Jews, Buddists, and anyone who wants to take part.
😉
December 18th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Hey Penigma, you’re doing the Clown’s work
Damnation with faint praise.
December 18th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Hey Peevee, I’ve got a great idea.
Why don’t you go over to your bleg and uncork a real classic. Spill out the deepest, most intellectual tome your little pea brain is capable of. Doesn’t need to be more than about eighty paragraphs long…a condensed Peevee, if you will.
No one will comment, or even read it, of course. But you can say that you have banned everyone’s IP address because we’re not smart enough to understand the brilliance that is you.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
December 18th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
2. People with higher levels of education
Of course, that conflates “Schooling” with “Education”.
Schooling is a measure of how many years you’ve sat in a classroom, and how highly-ranked that classroom might be by one standard or another.
Education is a fairly nebulous concept. There are a lot of deeply ignorant Harvard grads; on the other hand, one of the best educated people I’ve ever met dropped out of tenth grade, but knows more about American and Western lit than most grad-level lit people I’ve known.
So who does better?
A Pew study last year showed that Rush Limbaugh listeners knew more about current events, more accurately, than the population at large, and on a par with NPR listeners.
A study by Don Kates and Patricia Harris in the nineties showed that gun owners were better-educated (and happier, and more advanced in their careers) than non-gun-owners. In this case, “education” translated into actual achievement and accomplishment in life, so it’s a little more meaningful than the sense in which you used it.
You have a point if you’re talking philosophy and English majors. But one can argue just how much value such a degree adds to the jobs to which those degrees qualify you — they generally require rote recitation of the phrase, “Would you like fries with that?”
Er, English major, here.
Malcolm Forbes once said that if he was hiring an MBA for a narrow, technically focused job, he’d hire one with an undergrad in Business, Marketing, or some other focused field. But if he wanted someone who could think broadly, operate not only “outside the box” but redefine “the box”, and grow with the position and the organization, he’d hire one with an English undergrad.
An English degree gets a bad rap, partly from those who go in thinking they’ll come out with a job in “English”, and partly from the relentless liberalism of most English faculties (although oddly enough it was my major advisor that catalyzed my conversion to conservatism) and their abandonment of rigorous critical thinking for ofay deconstructionism which is a temporal trend more than an indictment of the value (intellectually and personally) of the degree.
Seriously, dude, college is supposed to develop you as a PERSON. If capitalism has failed you after that education, I’d argue that that college, which is supposed to promote reasoning and analytic abilities, has failed you.
That – and the tendency in our country these days to stigmatize vocational education – is true.
December 18th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Hey Penigma, you’re doing the Clown’s work
And they say they can’t get Americans to do the menial, mind-numbing jobs!
December 18th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Peev-
You really out to stick to something you know. Not sure exactly what that is, but when you write things like this:
“1. People who see that unbridled capitalism has failed (like in El Salvador, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, etc..)”
It proves that you know nothing about economics.
December 18th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Hey Peev,
Angry Clown just insulted you!
AC, If you mean peev just dropping a absolutely asinine comment & then bailing… Check the contract, because he’s not doing your job, that’s his job. Your’s is to make dumbass one liners that you think are brilliant, but you usually come back for more… until somebody makes you realize that thinking makes your head hurt, & you “shun” them.
You have no claim to a greivence, all is normal here at SITD.
December 18th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
The Index of Economic Freedom Rankings (the US is #5) are:
#33 El Salvador
#44 Mexico
#108 Argentina
#8 Chile
So one of your four could possibly be argued as having embraced “unbridled capitalism” although whether it has failed in Chile is debatable. GDP growth in 2008 was 3.9%.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I want to address the guilt-ridden upper middle class whites: I am surrounded by them. They listen to Don Shelby and ‘CCO and they’re Good Neighbors who volunteer to the local schools and do 5K walks for breast cancer. The drive Volvos and their kids excel at school. This is reason for them to flog themselves mercilessly on behalf of others who lead lives of quiet non-white despair.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
“4. Overweight White Guys who blame the government (and anyone else handy) for their failure to be rich, rather than their own bitter, self-loathing lack of talent – aka Fat Cat toadie wanna-be’s.”
OK, kids- listen up! Today’s new word is: “projection”
as in:
unconscious transfer of feeling: the unconscious ascription of a personal thought, feeling, or impulse, especially one considered undesirable, to somebody else
http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/projection.html
I know it’s got a lot of letters, Penigma, but only has THREE syllables. Can you say, “pro-jec-tion”?
December 19th, 2008 at 4:17 am
Peni,
If brevity is the soul of wit, then you are the most profoundly witless person I have come across.
December 19th, 2008 at 8:52 am
“Projection” seems to be the wingnut meme du jour. (Seriously, do you ever think for yourselves?) It’s elitist Freud-talk for “I know you are, but what am I?”
December 19th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Oh, yeah, Clown?
Well, when you say that, one finger points at us, you have nine fingers pointing back at you. Get it?
December 19th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
“‘Projection’ seems to be the wingnut meme du jour”
Well, that’s because we do observe quite a lot of projection coming from the left. Sure, when “penigma” calls us “closet racists”, I COULD say, “I know you are but what am I” (because he/she is that juvenile). But it really is a case of projection.
To whit: In an interview of Al Franken by Joe Scarborough I caught some years ago, Franken said: “Yeah, I’m in the midwest where all you right-wingers call ‘fly-over country’!” (because it’s obviously all those “right-wingers” in…Portland, Seattle, Boston and New York that view Minnesota as “fly-over country”, riiigghhhhtt?)
“(Seriously, do you ever think for yourselves?)”
Seriously, that’s super-rich coming from the top-down DailyKos/Salon/Huffington area of the blogosphere, so NOW I guess I’ll say: “I know you don’t but what do we do?”
December 19th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
AC,
It’s a psychological term of a defensive mechanism which is on display quite regularly around here with 2 to 5 of you lefty commenters. But I bet you’ve already looked it up Wikipedia haven’t you?
Peni also uses Rationalism & Flight to deal with his issues, while you typically resort to Aggression.
That should keep you busy on the Wiki for a bit. If you want more from me, I charge $50 per hour for professional instruction.