There are two things that have been on my mind lately that I’d like to throw out for your comments. The first is a question: What, exactly, do the people who are criticizing the Israelis, expect them to do in lieu of their current actions against Hamas?Should they simple accept that Hamas will launch 10-20 rockets per day into Israel and do nothing? And what exactly would be a “proportionate response?” Would that be to randomly fire an equal number of unguided missiles into the West Bank and let them fall where they may, regardless of the distribution of the civilian population?
My other thought is directed to all people of a more liberal persuasion: You should give the Reverend Rick Warren, and more importantly the people who follow him, a break over his speaking at the Obama inauguration.
I realize he and his followers stand for some things that you could never support. But while he is probably well to the right of you, he is a long way from the extreme end of the belief curve, and represents a moderating influence on many people.
Barack Obama only won 53% of the votes in November, which leaves a lot of Americans looking at him sideways, just waiting for a signal that he truly doesn’t care about people like them. Inviting Warren to speak was a political olive branch to a group of people whose support Obama will need if he is to solve the many problems facing our country. These problems are big beyond the imagination’s ability to grasp them, and we can’t afford a continuation of the political and social polarity that has kept us from addressing them for decades.
By definition, that means working with people with whom we may not be in complete agreement, and someone has to be the bigger person – the one who takes the first step. Isn’t that why you voted for Obama in the first place?
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I sat in a meeting today with a group that has been in the press criticizing Warren. They are doing it because the members expect it. They know what Obama will do to appease them and Obama's people know that they must complain. The gay community isn't pleased and raises hell. Not because they think it will get Warren off the stage but because the new administration will have to "give" them something.
If the goal is to run a modern state in the Gaza, then compromise can be reached. If the goal of Hamas is to destroy Israel, then there is nothing that can be done besides what is happening now.
I guess we all should look to the middle east,even though we bitch and moan in the US we attempt to solve problems without killing each other. I am not very hopeful for lasting peace, it's kinda of like retiring early.I think Obama needed someone to create a stir on ideals. He could not use rev Jackson or Al Sharpton.Maybe Warren will invoke that he would first like to thank the lord jesus christ as his personal savior/ Besides who ever the annointed one uses for reflection /prayer etc they cannot raise our taxes.I'm confused what is it exactley that the gay community wants or is owed? Is the right to get married or be accepted.I think Gays should be able to get married.Do I have alot in common.with gays? no not really.Would they(gay men) laugh at your Cadillac joke,Women might,but Not like I still do!When you are too far on either side with ideas/lifestyle/beliefs. being accepted is a life long crusade.Deal with it, Nobody owes you anything in this life.
To the gay community Warren is similar as racist is to blacks. I don't think they feel they are owed anything,even though they were avid backers of Obama. You moved to feeling "owed" something, when the guy you supported sticks his finger in your eye by elevating your enemy to this position.
I am an old fat former Marine and a southerner. Yet even a dumb Tennessee redneck like myself can realize that the gay community is the last one that does not have equal status in our society. You can be a muslim, a jew or a christian, black or white, a man or a woman and still serve in the military. You can even be a convicted felon and get a waiver to serve, but if you are a woman who gets just a little too frisky in the shower with the other ladies, you get the boot. You are not getting kicked out because of the unmarried sex. We would have kicked out most of my friends who served in Vietnam if having sex with someone would get you the boot. The service didn't care about the morality of unmarried sex, or even adultry, so it isn't the so called biblical sin that gets you thrown out. It is being gay.
I'm sure we would flattened anybody that would choose to lob missles into our territory. And rightly so. I think it's utterly logicalt that Israel would attempt to take out Hamas for doing the same. This seems to be a bit different that the other times Israel has been attacked and responded in kind. I hope so. Even though Israel has every right to respond they way they do, it doesn't seem to do any good from a strategic standpoint. I'm not sure what else they can do though. It's a puzzlement.
I think having Rick Warren deliver the invocation at the inauguration is brilliant. It demonstrates a political maturity Bush and Clinton never had and shows the country that he's willing to include (almost) everyone in his government. The gay community will get over this and if they don't they will simply marginalize themselves into political obscurity. They won't because they aren't that stupid.
I am hopeful the gay community can move past Rick Warren. I can tell you, anecdotally, it doesn't seem a big deal. And I live in the South End. I could just as well be in the Castro. However, with regard to marriage (saying gay marriage is akin to women's golf or Lady Vols . . . ) I truly cannot understand how the marriage of homosexuals 'devalues my marriage'. That is such a crock. Then 'they' (yes, d'b, they) say it's been mandated by the courts or the legislature. The public needs to vote on it. Why would the public be allowed to vote on someone's civil rights. that would be like someone telling me as a (practicing) Catholic the public would need to vote before (pick something) giving me a passport. Take the state out of the bedroom. "They" want less government, let it start there.
For the life of me I don't understand the logic of gay marriage = destruction of not gay marriage. I've been to a gay wedding and aside from costing my brother-in-law an arm and leg I certainly didn't feel like it threatened my marriage at all. It certainly threatened my sense of good taste and decorum but that's not particularly difficult or earth shattering.
I just love the fact that the highest divorce rate and instance of teen pregnancy takes place in the very areas of the country that are the most against gay marriage. Go figure.
I'm not sure why i'm not allowed to pray in school but i can pray at other government funtions. I think the division of church & state is of utmost importance. In todays world the # one cause of war is Gods Word, except in America where we kill over race & oil. Consider all the nations of the Middle East keeping church & state seperate & the death toll goes way down. Then its just individuals killing each other & the Middle East looks less like itself & more like Philadelphia.
Obama wants his presidency blessed, do it in private.
In my view every single marriage performed in this country should be a civil ceremony. Gay, straight or purple. Marriage should be a legal document, the government sanctions (ooops, wrong word) this civil union. Those who want their civil union blessed by their church would then have the option of going to their church and having an opulent (or not) ceremony/religious blessing. We all need to get out of everyone else's grill. And, yes, church and state. Separate. And equal.
My parents had one of the worst marriages on record but that didn't stop me and my siblings from getting married. Why the hell could two gays living next door ruin the institution if my parents' marriage didn't?
When a gay cousin died of AIDS in the late 80's, his mother barred the guy he lived with from coming to the hospital or the funeral. She also got into legal squabble over her son's will. Rick Warren and other right wingers think this is christian charity?
Most of us congregating on this blog are of a similar mind when it comes to equal rights for all Americans, but I support Obama’s decision to invite Warren despite his views regarding gay marriage. What Obama is saying to Warren’s congregation is that our differences will not keep us from talking and working together to solve our common problems. And if we are successful in these efforts, perhaps we can find common ground in other ways, too. Familiarity breeds trust.
Perhaps blathering pundits should shut their righteous pie-holes, open their myopic eyes and acknowledge the Gaza body count, which is now about 750 to... 9.
F.U., Charles Krauthammer.
Gay vs straight, left vs right, Mets vs. Yankees, Rick Warren vs. who... the Prada-wearing Pontiff?
More of the same Superbowl/Supermoron mentality that makes the 2012 Mayan apocalypse look like a damn fine idea.
If sexual preference is a genetic dice roll, what right has anyone to be proud -- gay or straight?
People who define themselves by their sexuality or race (inherited), religion or politics (choices) are insufferably boring and stupid. They should try to accomplish something - learn to paint a picture, knit a sweater or cook meals on skid row.
Rick Warren is the perfect choice for BHO’s consecration.
He’s a slick, sound-bite slingin’ God-broker from long line of holy hustlers. Jimmy Swaggart, Billy Sunday, Father Divine, Daddy Grace all prefaced their names with “Reverend”… and only rubes revered them.
He and Barak are Laurel and Hardy -twice as stupid and half as funny.
I'm truly puzzled about how I feel about the Gaza conflict. While on the one hand I support the right of Israel to exist and prosper in peace, I have much angst about the way the Balfour Declaration from the early part of the 20th Century essentially gave away some land that wasn't their's to give away in the first place. This has created a fundamental problem that we live with nearly 100 years later. If there's ever to be peace and justice in the Middle East, there needs to be a two state solution in my view. Another thing that bothers me which I'm not sure what to make of is that it seems the human numbers lost or traded over there are never close to being equal. For years, Israel has traded literally dozens or hundreds of arabs for handfuls of Israel soldiers being held by the bad guys. In the current engagement, IDF have taken out hundreds of Gazans in response to the bad guys killing a handful of Israelis. I guess the issue is one of proportional response. I say this understanding full well that it's not cool for Hamas to lob missiles into Israel and if I were in that position I suppose I'd be ready to use overwhelming force. The problem is the affect on world opinion - it's not helping Israel. The last thing Israel needs is another reason for Jew-haters to vent their bigotry.
I hope I am proved wrong. Being gay is a choice. There is no genetic marker like trisomy 21 as of yet. Then we will find out if its passed from the woman or the man or both. Of course if they find one they can add the number to the bottom of rainbow flag or friends of Dorothy, or the log cabin republicans. That would help further define them. One Death a tragedy a million deaths a statistic.Everyone will be WTF how did that happen when the whole Middle East is just a large bed of glass and a nice glow.Tolerance does not equal acceptence
Not sure that I agree that being gay is a choice. A first cousin of my Father was unbelievably effeminate. He lived his entire life with his mother and when I was a kid and we'd visit, Tom would sit with all the women discussing crocheting.
He wasn't this way in a 1990's San Francisco. He lived an ostracized life in the 1940's and 50's in Chattanooga. Hardly a society that embraced gay men unless in a head lock so they could beat the crap out of them. He was teased and beaten up constantly even as a grown man. It is hard for me to accept that he "chose" to be treated as an untouchable in the bible belt. He had no friends and died alone in his mother's house before he was 50. Only family went to his funeral.
Like I said,as of now it is considered a choice. Two soldiers see the same thing exposed to same circumstances one turns out with post traumatic stress one does not.It's not the man's choice but part of his nuture that made him react to the situation in his way. People are all wired different but being wired different is not the same as a genetic marker.
1. Utah
2. USC
3. Tx
4. Florida
5. Penn St
6. Boise St
7. OK
8. TCU
9. Tx Tech
10. Ohio St
I'm sorry, warrenout, to vehemently disagree. Being homosexual is not a choice. Why would someone choose to be a second-class citizen. Why would someone choose to be ostracized. It is nature, not nurture.
So if it not a choice and it is pre determined genetically, than is it a defect? like color blindness? There is no choice involved.HMM, Are there other genetic markers on this gene such as a propensity for illicit drug use, alcoholism, CAD/ASHD/GERD/MS/AIDS/Cancer or any other number of ills that plaque mankind. I have cared for gay men end stage aids in and out of hospice settingsI have always wondered.I have also cared for lesbian at end of life due to Cancer. Granted, interaction was less than 10 cases,but I never got the sense that they viewed themselves as second class or defined themself by thier sexuality. It could be by the time I interacted with them that they moved on.But again that's what I base my beliefs on, and not what I see or read. Perhaps,I am too narrow minded and uncompassionate maybe there is a job on wall street for me..
Hey, it is what it is, right? It’s not like medical professionals have the ultimate insight. They classified homosexuality as a mental disorder until just a very few years ago, and wouldn’t give it up until long after it was clear that that was not accurate. Plus I imagine that homosexuality means different things to different people – just as any other trait like left-handedness or math skills mean different things to different people.
Dennis, That is why you are the blog master. So please, help out Gaga on his final poll. If you want to talk controversial???.Utah #2??
I have sworn off all watching, and discussing, of football, both professional and amateur for at least the next eight months. I don’t know which has been more upsetting. Ohio State losing to Texas in such a crushingly demoralizing way, or the Browns hiring of Mangenius, the mini-Bill misanthrope of the pear-bodied fraternity of overrated coaches.
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