Why Creigh Deeds lost
A lot of the so-called experts are theorizing why Creigh Deeds, the Democrat nominee for Virginia governor, lost to the Republican candidate Bob McDonnell on Tuesday’s off-year election. Now I’m not an expert and I don’t live in Virginia, but I’m not going to let any of that stop me from weighing in on the topic.
Creigh Deeds lost because he is Creigh Deeds.
Living in Maryland, I get to not only see lots of campaign ads for candidates here in Maryland, but I’m able to see all the ads for candidates in West Virgina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia too. I cannot begin to count how many ads I’ve seen on TV for both Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell. By election day, I was fed up with seeing both candidates for Virginia. If I was a voter in Virginia, I wouldn’t have voted for either candidate.
I would have stayed home on election day.
I’m tired of voting for candidates that I just don’t like. I’ve been forced to do this because the Democrats put awful candidates on the ballot. I told myself after having to vote for John Kerry and John Edwards in 2004 that I would never vote for someone I didn’t like ever again.
I don’t like Creigh Deeds. He’s against gay marriage. He thinks juveniles should be eligible for the death penalty. He voted to make English the official language. He’s against the public option, and he said that if he was governor of Virginia, he would consider “opting out” of any public option health insurance plan.
With Democrats like Creigh Deeds, who needs Republicans?
I think history has shown that when voters are given the choice between a Republican and a Republican Lite, more times than not, they will choose the actual Republican. If a voter is against gay marriage, pro-death penalty, thinks people should only speak English, and is against health care reform, they are probably a Republican.
Maine voters say no to gay marriage
The people of Maine voted yesterday to repeal a state law that allowed two people of the same sex to marry. This leaves Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut as the only states in the country where two people of the same sex are allowed to marry.
Though I’m a big fan of democracy, I’m not too enthused over the idea that someone’s civil rights can be striped from them by people in the ballot box. It doesn’t seem right to me. The majority should defend the rights of the minority, not take away rights. The idea that the minority in our country can be denied their basic civil rights via the voting booth seems overly perverse to me.
For all intended purposes, gay couples in this country already live as married couples. They own property together and they raise children together. They are committed to each other in every way. Why should I be allowed to marry the person I love and chose to share my life with, but gay people can’t?
It doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t seem, I don’t know, American.
What do you know, all men are not created equal
The California Supreme Court upheld the state’s gay-marriage ban today. The 6-1 decision upholds Proposition 8, the recent ballot initiative that asked California voters if the state’s constitution should be amended to ban same sex marriage.
A “yes” vote to Proposition 8 was saying “no” to same-sex marriage. A “no” vote to Proposition 8 was saying “yes” to same-sex marriage. Confusing? Sure, but that was the intention.
This court ruling makes me thankful that God made me straight and not gay. I didn’t choose my sexual orientation any more than I picked my height, my shoe size, or my skin color.
I’m straight because that’s the way I was born. It’s the way God made me.
I’m lucky. Very lucky. I get to be married to the person I love. Sheri and I are afforded all the rights and privileges bestowed to those who are married. When I came down with pneumonia last year and had to go to the emergency room, Sheri was able to be there with me right at my side. She was able to do this not because she was my official guest or some other hokey designation, but because she was my legal spouse. It was very comforting to have her with me that day.
Being married has it’s privileges.
While I feel thankful that I’m allowed to marry the person I love, I feel bad for people that are not. Life’s hard enough without the government throwing up obstacles making it needlessly harder. The fact that democracy was used to take something away from so many California couples seems especially perverse.
Joe the Plumber wont let his ‘queer’ friends anywhere near his children
Joe the unlicensed Plumber, played by Samuel Wurzelbacher, was interviewed by Christianity Today were he weighed in on all sorts of issues, including gay marriage.
At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong. People don’t understand the dictionary–it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It’s not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do–what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we’re supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they’re people, and they’re going to do their thing.
Seriously, when was the last time someone called a white person a honky?
I’m not sure I believe that Joe the Plumber has any gay friends. Not that I don’t think he meets all sorts of different people in the world of unlicensed plumbing. I just don’t see who someone who was gay would have a schmuck like this guy as a friend.
Anti-same-sex marriage scare ad
There’s a group called the National Organization for Marriage that has produced an ad that tries to scare people about the concept of “gay marriage”. It attempts to make people believe that if gay couples in committed relationships are allowed to marry, it will somehow effect others. The reality is that it doesn’t.
For all intended purposes, gay couples are already living as married people. Many of them own property together. Many of them raise children together. They only want the legal protections that married people currently enjoy.
And really, what’s the harm? Why is it of any concern to anyone? What difference does it make if the gay couple down the street that own a home together enjoy the same rights and privileges awarded to those that are married?
It’s silly.
To read a rebuttal to the statements made in the scare video, the Human Rights Campaign has the details.
Iowa Supreme Court throws out ban on gay marriage
Iowa has become the third state in the country to allow gay couples to get married. The Iowa Supreme Court yesterday unanimously struck down the state’s decade-long ban on gay marriage.
Good for Iowa. It’s ridiculous that there is still a minority group in this country that we deny basic human civil rights to. Gay people really are the last minority group where discrimination is tolerated and even accepted. It’s wrong.
I didn’t choose to be heterosexual. Gay people don’t choose to be homosexual. Why should I as a heterosexual man have the right of marrying the person I love when gay people don’t?
Not allowing gay couples to marry is truly archaic. If two gay people in a committed relationship choose to solidify their relationship by entering into marriage, why should anyone care? Really, what harm does it do?
Gay marriage, Mormons, and WordPerfect
I read an article over on the New York Times website detailing how the Mormon church was such a driving force in the movement to ban same-sex marriage in California. It’s an interesting read:
On Oct. 28, Mr. Ashton, the grandson of the former Mormon president David O. McKay, donated $1 million. Mr. Ashton, who made his fortune as co-founder of the WordPerfect Corporation, said he was following his personal beliefs and the direction of the church.
“I think it was just our realizing that we heard a number of stories about members of the church who had worked long hours and lobbied long and hard,” he said in a telephone interview from Orem, Utah.
In the end, Protect Marriage estimates, as much as half of the nearly $40 million raised on behalf of the measure was contributed by Mormons.
So Alan Ashton, a man who doesn’t live in California, who made a fortune selling word processing software — coincidentally enough, I have to think that at least some of those WordPerfect users were gay — was directed by his tax exempt church to donate a vast sum of money to an organization dedicated to denying a basic civil right to a whole group of people.
I’ve got a huge problem with that.
I have nothing against Mormons. I’ve known quite a few over the years and I’m hard pressed to think of even one Mormon who I didn’t like on a personal level. With that said, I detest the fact that they have used their church to facilitate stripping a basic civil right to so many people with no connection to them whatsoever.
Keith Olbermann on Proposition 8
I could try to sum up my feelings about Proposition 8, California’s ballot inititive to ban same-sex marriage, but I could never come close to articulating exactly how I feel about this topic. Fortunately, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann did it for me. He was able to put into words how I feel on this matter.
I feel strongly about this. I didn’t “choose” to be heterosexual. Why should I be able to marry the person that I love while gay people cannot? To me, it’s a civil rights issue. I’m not old enough to remember what things were like under Jim Crow. If I lived in a society where I could sit at the front of the bus, but a black person could not, I would feel extremely embarrassed and even ashamed.
That’s how I feel about marriage.
Steve Young supports No on Prop 8
My home state of California has a proposition on the ballot asking Californians if marriage between two gay people should be banned or not. If you vote YES on Proposition 8, it means gay marriage should be illegal. If you vote NO on Proposition 8, it means gay people should be allowed to enter into committed relationships with the person they love.
Proposition 8, if passed, will amend the state Constitution to take away a right that people currently have. Gay marriage is currently legal in California. Some people have a problem with that. The ballot measure has been heavily bankrolled by Mormons. Not only do they have a problem with a cold Pepsi on a hot day, they have a problem with gay folks getting married. Go figure.
Not all Mormons are against Prop 8. One of America’s favorite Mormons, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young has donated $37,000 to Equity California, a group that it working to defeat the ballot measure. The checks have all been signed by Steve’s wife Barb, but she has made it clear in a statement that both her and Steve are against Proposition 8.
Racist Missouri Obama billboard angers some
Outside West Plains, Missouri on U.S. 63 sits a sign so absurd and racist that it’s almost funny. At least it doesn’t follow John McCain and Sarah Palin’s latest talking points claiming that Barack Obama has terrorists for friends.
The billboard attempts to capitalize on Obama’s middle name, Hussein. It’s not like he picked that name for himself in 1992. The name was given to him by his parents when he was born. I can’t see the logic in attacking someone over their middle name. If I did, I might have something to say about John McCain’s middle name, Sidney.
And the billboard is not even factually accurate. I wish Barack Obama did favor gay marriage. Unfortunately, he does not. Instead, he favors civil unions. As far as taxes go, he is only raising taxes on the top 5% of taxpayers. He wants to give the rest of us a tax cut.
I’m not even sure that it is Obama wearing that turban. It looks more like Baba Booey from the Howard Stern show. [Link]
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