Hey, Eli! I’ll let them know you have a new post up!

One out of two marriages fail, Dobson…

Maybe they could improve that 50% statistic if they’d let gays marry! Ah, what delicious irony that would be!

Saw this posted on another site:

“if you want to save marriage, outlaw divorces”

“if you want to save marriage, outlaw divorces”

But, but then you’d have to legalize murder of a spouse!

I don’t know what will upset him more – that he’s in Hell, or that the only gays there with him are all Republicans.

HA !!

Nice one.

God, guns, and gays. What the right and the Taliban have in common.

That was meant as snark or a joke, of course! I am not advocating or condoning any such thing.

Dobson was born in 36 making him a part of the generation that has no name- along with McCain…they are legendary for their cultural conformity. This is their last chance to have a president from their generation- which was skipped in previous elections- lots of GREATEST two BOOMERS- but none of them so far.

God, guns, and gays. What the right and the Taliban have in common.

Well, that, and hating our freedoms.

goddamned Bill of Rights….

1/2 /s

them fundies likes things in thress

If a city… say, Las Vegas, were to declare it no longer recognized all marriages, gay or straight, within the city limits, then you could go there and screw around and technically never be guilty of adultery.

Think about it, O captains of the chambers of commerce… nobody would hold conventions anywhere else.

There really better be a special place in hell for these intolerant Christians.

Actually, I think there is a place in hell for about 1/3 of all Christians. Boy will there be some surprised souls reflecting about how arrogant they were prancing around in life pretending to be saved.

And the failure rate is higher for second marriages. Somebody smart said that remarriage is proof of the triumph of hope over realism.

Wobs,

Some states in the (Lousiana is the only one I know of) have played around with the idea of creating two classes of marriage. In what they call “covenant marriage” divorce is impossible except for the classics: adultery, abuse and abandonment.

I don’t know how they’ll handle spouses who go to Reno/Las Vegas, etc. for their divorce.

“Mullah Dobson”
LOL!
that’s priceless and so is the rest of the article. ELI!!!!
perfect.
lolol

OT:

Two good topics given the number of hours in the day (not because anything is a lock ;)

- if it were remotely possible to change the dem leadership in house and senate (as I do not think their leadership is what is leading to expanding majorities). I would go for Ed Markey (house) and Russ (senate). Can include noted on R’s decisions here.

- The respecitive cabinets. Gawd no Rham Emanuals and all those tools.

On Topic:
Hope people can focus on what is in their view, why they would go out of there way to step over tons of issues that impact them to take away someone else rights I will never know.

Mr. Dobson,

I’ve been married almost 29 years now and yet I have a number of gay friends. How has my marriage survived?

The leading cause of divorce in this country is… marriage.
So why not just outlaw marriage? We’re probably the only species on the planet that practices it.

No. Many species mate for life.

And a lot of those cheat on their spouse…

Any pattern about which gender is the cheater vs. cheatee?

Fuck James Dobson.

Horserace.

yeah! what SouthernDragon said!!!!!

LOL

Thank you.

Well, I wouldn’t.

Thanks for that. Lots of fun.

There’s a Constitutional Amendment on the ballot this year in AZ that has been promoted on TV ads that says that marriage should be between one man and one woman only. It’s already state law, but apparently that’s not good enough, so now they want to make it a part of the state constitution. I got a call the other night doing a survey that was concerned with this constitutional amendment. I told them that all you have to do is stay out of other people’s business and their sex life doesn’t matter. Well, they said what if it were phrased this other way. I said it doesn’t matter how you change the wording, I still will not vote for it under any circumstances. I said that nobody has ever explained to me how two gay people down the street undermine anyone else’s marriage as long as they don’t mind any else’s business and stay out of their sex lives. This is the stupidest thing! Why they bother, I’ll never know. If there were as much interest in climate change and things that really matter, we could solve these problems. In the meanwhile, I have my doubts that those truly serious problems will get resolved due to the distractions of most people on these ridiculous issues.

Oh good grief. You get your marriage license from the govt so that in itself makes it a civil process and not one related to any religion. So does the fact that a heathen issued the marriage license make the marriage itself null and void (not that it matters for me cause I went and married an atheist)

My Lutheran Church had his swill in their lending library. Somehow those books disappeared. I am guilty as charged.*g*

It’s not very clear from the studies I’ve seen (I’m a statistician, not a biologist). Among birds, females tend to get hung with the scarlet letter, but I think that’s mostly an artifact of knowing who is laying the eggs and which male is defending the nesting area. If a hatchling hasn’t got the males markers, well … we know the female “got some strange” (as Hugh Laurie so delicately put it in a recent House episode. Tying the markers back to the specific male is difficult.

On the other, an evolutionary biologist I’ve worked with loves to shock undergrads with sayings like, “Sperm is cheap. Males spread it at any opportunity.” Pretty obviously Mom can’t get “some strange” without a cooperating male, so the boys are doing it too.

No thanks, he’s not even remotely my type.

Well they strip rights away from teh gays today and I figure teh mexicans are next, follwed by other brown folks and undesirables

Good on ya. I’ve been known to do things like that.

Then us.

Thanks.
I also am using “Namaste” in my personal relations. Thanks. JC

‘mullah’ understates his eminence I think. he is the spiritual leader of millions of (probably armed) zealots. I’d say he merits no less of a title than Grand Ayatollah Dobson.

No, swans mate for life as do some other bird and animal species. They don’t actually have the ceremony, but I’ve heard that one when of the pair dies, the other just lives alone for the rest of its natural life. They do not “remarry.”

Call to action:

Chicago Area CodePINK will join our brothers and sisters in the LGBT community in protesting the Museum of Broadcast Communications honoring James Dobson at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel, 1 W. Wacker Dr (at State Street) in Chicago.

November 8th, Saturday at 5:30pm: Protest Against Focus on the Family’s James Dobson

Oops, that comment at #40 was meant for Gerix at #19!

At risk of overstating the obvious, there is nothing inherently sacred about the institution of marriage. It is worth as much or as little as the individuals involved make of it.

On a slightly different note and not to get too far ahead of the game but if Prop 8 fails, is there anything to prevent agents of intolerance from repeatedly launching similar initiatives until they obtain the outcome they want?

Except that what the Clerk does is to issue a license that allow an appropriate party to marry the couple in question.

That can be a religious thing or you can find a judge or justice of the peace do it. What I favor is the European approach: you go to the Clerk and register the union. Then you go do whatever else it is you need to do: see a clergy-critter, get drunk, f*** in the street, whatever.

Your clergy-critter is free to make the union as indelible as his church demands (e.g., Roman Catholic), or as erasable as a #9H pencil. Pick your church and take your choice. As far as the government’s concerned, there is a well-defined route out of the union.

If you’re familiar with Hindu and Buddhist philosophy (short version – the Hindus believe we are all god playing parts in a cosmic play and Buddhists believe all things are part of one energy force [a la string theory]) it also means “I recognize that god is within you.”

Nope. Nothing at all. In fact, if memory serves Prop 8 is their third bite at the apple.

not in the good ayatollah’s world. I his reality, marriage implies ownership of the bride, I suspect, and how can the ownership society fail?

Abortion = Good

Life = Bad

Die For Obama

I’m not a person who knows the details of the Calif. State Constitution, but we already passed a bill “out lawing gay marriage” and the State Court overturned it as unconstitutional. So, that is why it’s on the ballot again.

I’m a Christian who believes the same thing.

It’s already state law, but apparently that’s not good enough

same thing here in Texas a few years back

this dfh thinks it was a relatively cheap and all too efficient means of building a base –

volunteer sign ups
e mail lists
donor lists
telephone trees
money, money, money

all without high rent operatives or an oppo group

and oh gee, what a handy little item to have on the ballot in a down year for Republics

That’s what I feared. They’ll always be able to obtain enough signatures to take another crack at it. It never ceases to amaze me that with all the ACTUAL problems in the world, people would choose to focus their energy on meddling in others’ private lives over say, feeding the hungry or providing shelter to the homeless. WWJD indeed.

True.my point being that marriage as we know it today is secular (licenses distributed by the govt) and who is to say what the religious/sexual orientation is of the person issuing said license, etc.

demi,

Did you not graduate from a California grammar school? Or have they changed the requirements? When I was in the eighth grade we had to take a state-mandated test on the California State Constitution.

That was where I learned what an unalloyed good the citizen initiative and recall were. I know better now — if I were writing a constitution that included an initiative process, I’d require a supermajority (60%+1, probably) for any initiative that didn’t come through the legislative process.

i wonder what dobson thinks of civil marriages.

Except that it isn’t entirely secular — there is that pesky (optional) religious component. I’d like to see that mandatory option of solemnizing the thing before a judge/clergy-critter taken away. The clerk (or her designee) is a notary, let her sign it as witness.

The biggest threat to marriage is divorce.
When will Dobson campaign to ban that?

Ugh, on rereading that sounds accusatory. Sorry, demi, I didn’t mean it that way.

Don’t know what Dobson thinks but IMO they are infinitely preferable to the uncivil ones.

Already being done.

I don’t think the term graduate is used for leaving grade school. But, yes, I did, and I don’t remember that far back.
What? I’m a No on 8 person, so I’m not understanding the tone of your comment.

I don’t care what he thinks about anything.
I don’t give him any authority.

I live in a community with a lot of older voters- the “yes on eight” yellow signs are everywhere. No question how the measure will do in this locale.

But you get to choose where as there was a time whenit was exclusively through the church.

My parents home country (in South America) is very catholic but marriage is only recognized if performed by a justice of the peace

New BT up

Republic politicians will never allow that, what with all the divorces in their crowd.

civil marriages

There are school districts around the country that have in years past held 8th Grade graduations although I don’t believe it is common in today’s world.

In my hometown, there were Kindergarten graduations and some of the rural elementary schools held 8th Grade graduations before sending the students off to the county high school.

Maybe it stuck with me because I had six weeks to get it all absorbed and take the test. My family moved from Hilo to Bakersfield in the middle of my 8th grade year. I was told about this test my first day in school. They made it clear that if I didn’t pass it I got to repeat the 8th grade.

The BCSD gave us all a graduation ceremony before they passed us on to the Kern High School District. I got some sort of certificate from the occasion that I’ve long since lost along with my High School diploma.

my son had a “completion ceremony” at the end of 8th.

Okay. Where I am, it’s not called graduation, it’s called culmination.

From Hilo to Bakersfield? How terrible for you.

I didn’t think so at the time, LOL. We got to bring the dogs with us, and that was the important thing. At 13, adults make adult decisions and kids cope.

The bad move was 3 1/2 years later: Bakersfield to Riverside (in the middle of my junior year of HS). I fought that one as desperately as I could, even thought about living in the underpass on “H” street.

I was stationed with a Mormon when I was in the Air Force. He explained to me, at great length, their belief that marriage in a normal Morman church was for a lifetime, whereas marriage in the Mormon Tabernacle was for lifetime and ever after. I asked him if they had any that were good for a couple of nights.

LOL.

I’ve been stationed with morons, too. Oh, Mormons. Never mind.

707!

You know what wingnuts hate?
Being reminded that Massachusetts, a blue state (that allows gay marriage) has much lower divorce rate than does Texas, for example.
link

If you are able to connect the dots, Dobson’s overall picture is the eroding of American ethical values in general, marriage just happens to be a piece of those values. He believes if we keep moving down that path, we will end up like the Romans or Greeks, who were once great civilizations.

The Romans didn’t have same-sex marriages, but they had something like the covenant marriage that the fundies think is wonderful, along with a couple of simpler versions. So clearly, the problem isn’t same-sex marriages, it’s no-way-out-but-death marriages.

if I listen closely enough, I can hear their wee heads exploding

Your not seeing the point…Gay-Marriage is just a piece of a bigger puzzle. The Romans moved to an value system that lead to their eventual demise. Part of this was being accepting of a gay lifestyle, and other immoral behaviors (not just singling our gays here). This eventually lead to a decrease in the population and put them in a position where they could no longer defend themselves effectively.

I strongly support civil liberties and equal rights, and every part of the platform of the Democratic Party. I can’t support the idea that Dobson and like minded Republicans will go to hell. I’m one of those people that truly believes in the ideas of compassion and forgiveness. I mostly feel sorry for people like Dobson. Their ignorance in this life prevents them from knowing true enlightenment, and that is a very high price that they pay.

Were I to hope for some sort of spiritual condemnation to come down upon them, then I would be treading the same path they walk. I’m not prepared to subject my spirit to such negativity. They are welcome to it.

I can appreciate your ideology of compassion and forgiveness, but where does this stop? Dobson is trying to take a stand on something that is very dear to him and see’s this as an erosion of morality (see above) and the eventual destruction of the US. If a line isn’t drawn in the sand, what else are you going to be this accepting of: Will we get to a point where child pornography is widely accepted? Will we get to a point where people can marry animals? Are we going to be accepting of mutagenic creations from combining human and animal DNA? This ‘free-for-all’ mentality is extremely dangerous for civilizations and there will eventually be no unity.

Some of you may laugh at my three examples above, but unfortunately they are already happening (to a degree anyway).

Wow! Welcome to FDL Mr Santorum!

People marry animals? Combining human and animal DNA?

Wait a minute, that second one? Wasn’t that a Rob Schneider movie?

Dobson is more likely to find that God, in her infinite wisdom, made sex irrelevant to heavenly happiness. It remains as a menu item only in hell, available only in reverse quality and quantity to those desired.

Mr. Dobson may also find, to paraphrase a Rowan Atkinson remark from long ago, that that’s where christianists go, because you see, the Jews were right. Meaning that such distinctions are useful only to perpetuate the unhappiness common to the Other Place, and that they, too, are irrelevant in a heaven that doesn’t need them. Heaven, you see, Mr. Dobson, is common to all; hell, on the other hand, is very personal indeed.

A little bit of history is a dangerous thing. Roman excess was legion, so to speak. Washington, on the other hand, may have dispensed with vomitoria and emperors who administer their own Caesarian births, but it allows its excesses to be paid for by credit card, lobbyist credits, and funds borrowed (with no repayment obligation) from taxpayers.

As with Washington, Rome’s sexual excess primarily plagued the small senatorial class. Rome’s demise had far more to do with exhaustion than with not making the right sort of babies (despite Mussolini and Hitler’s attempts to convince their compatriots to the contrary). Rome simply could no longer manage the agriculture, trade and warfare disbursed throughout its empire, from Egypt to Anatolia to Britain. It fell apart. Barbarians (though not those trained by Blackwater or on Wall Street) merely delivered the coup de grace. Mr. Bush’s wars, our exhausted infrastructure, our moribund manufacturing and corrupt financial markets, are eerie reminders of what precedes the fall of empires.

Overreaction to Rome’s sexual excesses, however, in the guise of church teachings from Augustine (a celebrated sinner) on down — refracted mightily through prudish lenses and defracted through centuries of “do as I say, not as I do” leadership — continues to plague us. Et tu, Kurt?