"Family Values", indeed...

[chiburb]

Snip:

The Associated Press, using data supplied by the U.S. Census Bureau, found that the highest divorce rates are to be found in the Bible Belt. The AP report stated that "the divorce rates in these conservative states are roughly 50 percent above the national average of 4.2 per thousand people."

The 10 Southern states with some of the highest divorce rates were Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas.

By comparison nine states in the Northeast were among those with the lowest divorce rates: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

And they have been among the nation's leaders in promoting a living wage as their goal in public employment. The money they have invested in their future is known more popularly as taxes; these so-called liberal people see that money is their investment to help insure a compassionate, humane society.

Family values are much more likely to be found in the states mistakenly called out-of-the-mainstream liberal.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/10/31/walking_the_walk_on_family_values/

[Robert Oak]

1. LOL how about murder rates, child abuse rates, sponsal abuse n/t

poverty rates, bankruptcy rates, education rates...

quality of the water rates, mercury levels rates...

[chiburb]

2. LOL? What are you saying?

That those things are higher in Blue States? Or that Red's have those in huge numbers too?

I'm not getting your point.

[Union Thug]

4. I could be wrong, but he's making the point that all of the other..

things he listed are likely going to be higher in red state.

That's my take. Geez, Maybe I'm wrong! Maybe the blue states.. nah!

=)

[ObaMania]

16. .. or pornography, strip clubs, brothels..

.. adultery, thieving televangelists.. the list goes on and on!

[cmf]

3. Not surprised

These so-called "moral" voters are hypocrites.

[KitSileya]

5. I read the best quote on that today

in that satire letter to red states:

"Understandably, you resent us, so you've fabricated an imaginary measure of superiority: Christian "values." Yet you talk about values the way a pre-teen girl talks about "love" in fan letters to Ashton Kutcher."

They have no idea what values really are.

[chiburb]

12. That IS a great quote!

Any attribution?

[KitSileya]

19. Got it from this link:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/07/blue_state_to_reds/

Reach out and sneer: Dem radicals speak to the Red States

Not attributed to any author I can see.

[southern democrat]

6. Have you heard the saying?

In the north the girls say yes you may.

In the south the girls say yes you all may.

[zbdent]

7. actually, isn't it "y'all may"?

same effect . . .

[JanLip]

10. It's "ya'll" in the South...LOL

[Greylyn58]

8. As Someone Who Lives In NC

and who has suffered through a painful divorce I found the subject of the marriage amendment laughable. There is a 50% or more divorce rate in this country overall. There is nothing sacred about marriage anymore. Not when you can change your husband or wife like you change your clothes.

The jerks in Congress that have pushed the hardest to put through this stupid measure have married multiple times. Yeah...good family values there guys.

Two people who love each other and want to be able to share their lives together should be allowed to do just that and have the same legal rights in their union as is currently allowed when you marry.

Maybe instead of trying to make marriage legal only between a man and a women these crazy "Family Values" people ought to spend time looking at ways to reduce the divorce rate. Figure out why it is that the divorce rate is so high.

[ComerPerro]

20. That is precisely why I support gay marriage, actually

With divorce rates as high as they are, shouldn't people who are in love and in some cases have been together for five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years be allowed to marry? From a "scacnity of marriage" standpoint, don't we all win when two people who are in love and who have built a strong relationship over the years are allowed to marry?

[keith the dem]

9. DON'T YOU REALIZE

that all those people in the south had to get a divorce because gay people want to destroy the sanctity of marriage!!!!!

[stellanoir]

11. values. . .'scuse me. . ?

posted this early Saturday morn. . .

I know this is blatantly obvious to everyone here but I am just deeply compelled to share so please excuse.
The media keeps going on and on about how * won because of his moral values.

WTF- Where the hell is the morality in stealing votes and killing over 100,000 innocent Iraqis in a preemptive war based on bogus intelligence (aka sheer stupidity) ?

What is so impossibly hard to comprehend about
"Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not kill.. . .
Thow shalt no bare false witness. . .?"

This ruse is driving me to edge of shutting off the news for a while or I may just suffer from spontaneous human combustion.
When he ran on the slogan of compassionate conservatism four years ago, it bothered me greatly as I never thought that compassion could ever be something to which frugality could possibly apply. The man has all the compassion of a slug. "Poor people are just lazy."

But this feigned moral superiority is far more insidious.
All * cares about in all his overt mean spiritedness is self aggrandizement and enriching his cronies through a governance of fear and intimidation.

Of the seven deadly sins, he blatantly parades around overtly embodying at least four of them (pride, anger, greed, & sloth).

I do firmly believe that his hypocritical theocratic ideology is a complete and total misnomer.

We American's who are inherantly spiritual of all faiths (revering all life and helping those less fortunate than ourselves) must certainly outnumber the fundies by far. This myth of his "high moral values" must be dispelled somehow.

I sometimes wonder if this may truly be traditional Christianity's last stand of sorts, given the popularity of the Da Vinci Code and the exposure of all the pediphilia scandals in the Catholic church. I can't believe that those of blind faith aren't on the decline at least to a certain extent.

Perhaps the only way to resolve the idiotic argument of who's God is better (the cornerstone of terrorism) is through a none dogmatic all inclusive spirituality that rallies itself around the simple premise of "don't kill." Yes I am at times a deluded optimist.

I do love the image circulating of a "purple nation" and I've visualized it ever since I heard Obama's inspiring speech at the convention last summer. Yet I do wonder if it shouldn't be lavender. . .because isn't that what you get when you combine red, white, and blue?

May peace be within us all and the truth be our primary motivating force in redeeming the innumerable foibles of this once great nation.

[Rose Siding]

13. Here's a link with stats on the rest of the states

It looks like this article was sourced with this study, or one similar:

STATE-BY-STATE DIVORCE RATES:
MASSACHUSETTS LOWEST; NEVADA HIGHEST
http://www.divorcereform.org/94staterates.html

But being right, knowing you're right, having proof that you're right, just doesn't seem to be enough anymore.

Before the Iraq War, I would have said that aggressive military force doesn't solve problems; use your words; more flys with honey; death and killing are bad; there isn't enough evidence that Iraq is a threat to us.

But then afterward, when all of those things seemed even more right and there was proof that there was no threat, all we heard from our "leaders" was that everyone would do the same EVEN knowing what we know now!

We can knock ourselves out showing all sorts of PROOF that blue states do indeed have "values", but what ears that need to hear it will ever really hear it? And what makes us think that anyone can still be convinced of anything?

I will not give any single Bush voter the excuse of being stupid or of being evil monsters or of being victims of advertising. They are simply wrong. WRONG. WRONG! Saying that and knowing it and being able to prove it............oh *SIGH* it has to be done, but haven't we already tried this?

[Joe Momma]

14. please help...

i need help to draft a proposition to amend the arksansas constitution outlawing divorce except in the case of fornication (adultery). below is the text of the marriage amendment that passed here in this election. any help with the legalese would be appreciated. i need to gather 80k signatures, and i am sure i can get them. lets take action.

Chris Stewart, Executive Director
Arkansas Marriage Amendment
414 South Pulaski, Suite 3
Little Rock, AR 72201
501-975-7755
To the Honorable Charlie Daniels, Secretary of the State of Arkansas: We, the undersigned legal voters of the State of Arkansas, respectfully propose the following amendment to the Constitution of the State, to wit:
POPULAR NAME
AN AMENDMENT CONCERNING MARRIAGE
BALLOT TITLE
A PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE ARKANSAS CONSTITUTION PROVIDING
THAT MARRIAGE CONSISTS ONLY OF THE UNION OF ONE MAN AND ONE
WOMAN; THAT LEGAL STATUS FOR UNMARRIED PERSON WHICH IS
IDENTICAL OR SUBSTANTIALLY SIMILAR TO MARITAL STATUS SHALL NOT
BE VALID OR RECOGNIZED IN ARKANSAS, EXCEPT THAT THE
LEGISLATURE MAY RECOGNIZE A COMMON LAW MARRIAGE FROM
ANOTHER STATE BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN; AND THAT THE
LEGISLATURE HAS THE POWER TO DETERMINE THE CAPACITY OF
PERSONS TO MARRY, SUBJECT TO THIS AMENDMENT, AND THE LEGAL
RIGHTS, OBLIGATIONS, PRIVILEGES, AND IMMUNITIES OF MARRIAGE.
Be it enacted by the people of the State of Arkansas:
SECTION 1: Marriage
Marriage consists only of the union of one man and one woman.
SECTION 2: Martial Status
Legal status for unmarried persons which is identical or substantially similar to marital status shall not be valid or recognized in Arkansas, except that the Legislature may
recognize a common law marriage from another state between a man and a woman.
SECTION 3: Capacity, rights, obligations, privileges, and immunities.
The Legislature has the power to determine the capacity of persons to marry, subject to this amendment, and the legal rights, obligations, privileges, and immunities of marriage.
And by this, our petition, order that the same be submitted to the people of said State, to the end that the same may be adopted or rejected by the vote of legal voters of said State
at the regular general election to be held on the 2nd day of November, 2004, and each of us for himself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a legal voter of the State
of Arkansas, and my printed name, date of birth, residence, city of town of residence, and date of signing this petition are correctly written after by signature.

[moobu2]

15. My brother in law ran for Mayor of a large southern city

a few years ago and he had the backing of all the " pro-family" groups and ran on a family values platform. What was so disgusting is that I knew it was all a sham.

My first experience with this guy (who I don't speak to any longer) was when I was 14 y/o and he and my sister were dating. The only problem is my sister and he were married to different people at the time. My sister (who I don't speak to any longer either) had me lying to my then brother in law..(when she had a date with this guy, she had me tell her then husband that she was at a girlfriends house or some other lie) and I was to young and stupid to refuse...
One night my sister had a date with this guy and my then brother in law had caught on by then (but no one knew) and I told him the usual "she was at a girl friends house". Well my brother in law hid outside and when my sister came home he confronted her and he almost killed both of us.

My sister later divorced and the guy she was 2 timing with divorced his wife also and they married each other. Now, they spend much time fighting gay rights in this large city where they live (he lost the Mayors race thank God). He still has the financial backing of some big names on the religious right.

Family values is such a sham with them because he (my current brother in law) has a separate apartment from their home where he stays most of the time and only comes home to be with his wife and children occasionally and at least once a week on Sunday to go to church ( just for PR). I know for a fact he has sexual relationships (many) with other women. I'm sad to say their son has emotional problems and I know it's because his father is never home.

These people are such sleaze bags (yes including my sister) because I know of several sexual relationships she has had since she married this guy (one was with my other sisters husband WITH my other sister there (puke).

These politicians just use "family values".....it's all a fucking sham.

[chiburb]

17. Yep, ain't that the truth...

Thanks for the story!

[chiburb]

18. Yep, ain't that the truth...

Thanks for the story!