"Marriage is not about love. It's about a love that can bear children."

[underpants]

--TODD AKIN, Republican Congressman from Missouri, calling for the House to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The measure failed

Time


http://www.house.gov/akin/

"I hope you've heard the great news, America. We are winning. Yesterday, the New York Times made an announcement. They're reducing the width of their newspaper by an inch and a half. That's an inch and a half less of state secrets revealed every day." --STEPHEN COLBERT

[tanyev]

1. Guess my husband and I better get divorced, then.

Apparently our love is worthless.


:grr:

[hobbit709]

4. I guess we'll have to do the same

:shrug: :eyes:

[TygrBright]

56. Yep, guess my one true love and I don't deserve to be married...

...since we can't procreate.

Cripes, do they GET any dumber than this obscene waste of carbon?

irritatedly,
Bright

[Mad_Dem_X]

58. I guess my marriage is worthless, too

Married almost nine years to a wonderful man; neither of us wanted children. I guess we shouldn't be married then.

I have this massive urge to put my foot up that guy's @ss.

[Blue_In_AK]

73. Another worthless marriage here.

[EST]

2. Gee--

and all this time I thought my marriage was about being as close as possible to the object of my affections. Silly me!

[ulysses]

3. .

My wife and I cannot conceive children. Is our marriage invalid?

[no_hypocrisy]

5. And Emma Goldman, the anarchist, deemed marriage to be "legal

prostitution". Maybe on that logic, marriage itself should be banned.

[tuvor]

6. Vasectomies must be outlawed, then.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. Well, he got the first half right, anyway:

Marriage ISN'T about love. Anyone who thinks it is has been brainwashed by too many romance novels and DeBeers commercials. The only reason marriage even EXISTS is because it was implemented as a means of attempting, in a patriarchal society, to ensure the paternity of offspring, and to transmit property rights through a 'legitimate' male line. Nothing at all to do with love.

[nickinSTL]

9. right....

:eyes:

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. If you have an opinion to the contrary...

feel free to share it. (But unless you happen to have some knowledge of historical sociology and a firm basis for grounding your arguments, don't expect me to buy it.)

Or are of you of the opinion that the half-arsed fuckwittery of an eye-rolling smiley constitutes a valid counterargument?

[nickinSTL]

15. sigh.

I just don't buy that marriage is simply a paternalistic means of control.

[rkc3]

24. Really? Look at the history of women's rights in marriage. nt

[nickinSTL]

25. the fact that women's rights have been trampled on

doesn't mean that marriage is the cause.

A good marriage isn't about power. The abuse of a system doesn't mean the system itself is the problem.

[rkc3]

27. I'm saying that women used to have no rights in a marriage.

Previously, when a women got married she became property and her property became her husband's property. And when he died - she was out on the streets because one of his brothers took over the homestead.

We both agree this shouldn't be about power - but you've got to look at the history of marriage to see why the idiot congressman is so wrong.

[Pacifist Patriot]

35. Yes and no. It depends upon the era of history and geographic location.

Previously, when a women got married she became property and her property became her husband's property. And when he died - she was out on the streets because one of his brothers took over the homestead.

This comment is absolutely correct...for specific times and places. Not all of history. The Graff book, in my opinion, should be required reading for anyone who is interested in discussing marriage as a social institution. Stephanie Coontz is also a great read about the development of marriage and family in a socio-historic context.

[rkc3]

53. Thanks for the follow up - I may need to find a few books for

summer reading.

R

[smtpgirl]

63. Yep, because you have those fake hair wearin'

asshats, that "Buy" their love when they go out of town.

Maybe arrest all of the johns too, and the "customers"


WE NEED A WOMAN PRESIDENT

[Deep13]

44. It is the center of a stable economic unit...

...for a time when people were governed by social conventions rather than a legal system. When life is hard, brutal and short, the family structure was essential for any sort of security. That was the real purpose of marriage. It also ensured governance by the eldest male of the clan and helped insure clearly defined blood lines. The entire fuedal society was based on this with church and secular rulers assuming roles analogous to the head male of a family.

[Pacifist Patriot]

46. Actually, the church didn't know what to do with marriage for quite awhile

It became a sacrament in the RC church rather late and quite grudgingly. (It was never a sacrament in the protestant churches.) As a consequence, the waters are rather muddy with respect to who was wed to whom in the first twelve centuries CE.

[Finder]

14. I agree with you and...

I believe that is the root of the high divorce rate in the US.

[Triana]

23. Exactly what Spider Jerusalem said! (n/t)

[Pacifist Patriot]

34. "What Is Marriage For?" by E.J. Graff

Best book I've read on the subject in a long time. Contemporary marriage does have something to do with love. It's marriage as it evolved throughout history that typically did not.

Just because the institution began as an economic transaction does not mean it carries that weight in the partnership my husband and I share and celebrate today. I'm all for letting the institution of marriage grow, evolve and become something healthy and beneficial to anyone and everyone who electively chooses it as part of their lives.

[DemExpat]

My partner and I are past child-bearing years....

invalid love?..... invalid marriage?

DemEx

[Solly Mack]

8. I'll have to tell my husband that our marriage is a sham

and loveless.... he won't like this....we both thought we had a real marriage..a real partnership. Silly us.

but he'll be happy to know that leaves a marriage based on desire...he likes feeling sexy and attractive. And I love my husband and I like making him feel good....just don't tell that idiot Akin I love my husband....he wouldn't understand love and it might scare him. I do so hate challenging the way people think...I take such great comfort in people who wrap themselves up in their own little security blankies. I keep hoping they'll suffocate. (Oh! - did I say that out loud?)

[TlalocW]

11. I'm childfree and have a vasectomy

I will know what proper love is, I guess.

It's not surprising that this comes out of Missouri. I went to college at Pittsburg State, a small college in the southeast corner of Kansas, just over the border from Missouri and would read newspapers that covered both states. I remember reading a news article about how the Missouri legislature had passed some sort of bill that involved sex in some way, but it was so poorly written with overly-flowery language that some linguists looked at it and claimed that they had passed a bill that completely outlawed sex. Some of my college profs had a good laugh at that.

TlalocW

[sarge43]

12. His statement is also a profound insult

to all the couples who want children, but for whatever reason can't bear them.

What a schmuck. :puke:

[lisamay]

70. thank you

my husband and I can't seem to have children. And it's not from lack of trying(or wanting, or $$ spent trying to remedy it) I guess I'll tell him that we have to divorce because we don't count and that our marriage is not valid...

[Bluebear]

13. So, he is proposing fertility tests before giving marriage licenses? nt

[IndyOp]

36. Paintings of Royal Weddings from 1600's often included very pregnant

brides -- they had to demonstrate their ability to breed before they would be married into the Royal family. I remember just being amazed at that in college when I took Art History.

:eyes:

[blm]

16. Pat Buchanan and his wife never had children. Bob and Elizabeth Dole never

had children. I think they committed fraud on their churches.

[underpants]

26. Excellent point

What a rube this guy is :eyes:

[smtpgirl]

64. SECOND that Excellent point

There are alot of rubes out there

[saltpoint]

17. What's the exact satistic -- 45 or 50% or so? -- of marriages bust up

in the U.S.

I doubt seriously if all of them were undertaken in love, although some surely are. I mainly doubt that any of them dissolved because two lesbians moved in down the street or two gay men live in apartment 5E upstairs.

This Congressman is unfamiliar to me, and I am eternally grateful for that.

What an idiot.

[saltpoint]

29. s-t-a-t-i-s-t-i-c

s-t-a-i-s-t-i-c

s-a-t-t-i-c-i-s

s-a-d-i-s-t-i-c

s-a-t-e-t-i-c

s-a-d-e-s-t-i-c

r-a-y s-a-d-e-c-k-i

[BlueJazz]

18. Oh Boy...if a Woman I was dating ever said that to me, ....

...that would be our last Date.
...and Yes...I do believe in Magic.

[slackmaster]

30. Same here

Run Forrest, RUN!

[Pacifist Patriot]

32. I a man I was dating ever said that to me....

that would be our last date. Ew!

[AnnieBW]

19. My Friend's Husband of 11 Years Just Left Her

A couple that my husband and I have known for a long time, and have been married for 11 years, just separated. She's got health problems, and he went looking for love on the Internet. He'd been cyber-sexing this woman in another state for a while, then they started hooking up in person. He's one of these morals-spouting asshats, too. But, of course, his morals can't get in the way of his screwing around outside of marriage, and leaving his wife who could probably go on disability. (Shades of Newt Gingrich, anyone?) BTW, the woman he's seeing is 10 years older than his current wife, and has two kids from her first marriage, which suspiciously ended about the time they started fooling around.

The reason that I'm bringing this up is that it had NOTHING to do with wanting kids (he's got a daughter from his first marriage) or homosexuality. Unless, of course, you count all of his friends in the community theater group. That's it! Exposure to thespians caused him to cheat on his wife! It's all a big thespian conspiracy! :D

People are gonna cheat on their spouses, no matter what you do. That's the biggest threat to marriage, not anything that these wingnuts spout.

[wicket]

20. I guess sterile couples are not allowed to be married?

:grr:

[LisaLynne]

21. Wow -- guess I can't get married then.

:shrug:

[KKKarl is an idiot]

22. That is stupid

The congressman has lost his head. It is like people from years gone by saying that sex is only to be had to bear children. Also if marriage is "about a love that can bear children" then what about those children that are conceived out of marriage. Many of those children have no love between their mother & father. The pregnancy just happened.

Please can we have an IQ test for people before they run for government. The results should be published & then people can decide who they want to vote for.

[lolly]

49. Years gone by?

It is like people from years gone by saying that sex is only to be had to bear children.

The only thing I would quibble with here is the "Years gone by." Anti-contraceptive nuts--who are becoming increasingly vocal and powerful, despite their obvious lunacy and their minority status--are here today, and this is exactly what they believe.

[Vickers]

28. "An avid student of the U.S. Constitution..."

:rofl:

It actually says that at his house.gov biography!

PROVE IT, ASSHOLE!!!

"Todd and Lulli have six children"

Holy shit!

http://www.house.gov/akin/congressman.html

[Pacifist Patriot]

38. Of course he's an avid student. It's taken him how many years...

to stumble through the preamble?

[Pacifist Patriot]

31. More verbal diarrhea. We're drowning in it.

Verbal diarrhea: n. shit that spews spastically from the oral cavity without first being processed by a brain.

[saltpoint]

33. That photo's of Akin? I don't see a wedding ring on that guy's finger.

[Pacifist Patriot]

37. Married 31 years with 6 kids.

Single ring ceremony?

[saltpoint]

40. Yeah. Could be.

Maybe he should spend more time keeping his own homefires burning and less time trying to deny happiness to others.

What a smarmy little puke he must be.

[gratuitous]

42. Reminds me of the Benny Hill sketch

Dad (Benny) climbs into bed, sneeringly deriding his wife "Goodnight, mother of six." She returns with "Goodnight. Father of one." The scene closes on Benny's startled face.

[Totally Committed]

39. So, women who can't conceive

and men who are impotent shouldn't be allowed to marry, either? What about men with vasetcomies? What about women with their tubes tied? They shouldn't be married either, I guess. Is that what this whackadoo is saying?

TC

[leftofthedial]

41. truth is, it's not about love at all

[yellowcanine]

43. So infertile couples do not love each other? People who adopt children

but have no "biological" (in quotes because every child gets born somehow)children do not have loving marriages? What kind of bullcrap is that? Do these people even listen to themselves?

[underpants]

45. Where DOES this leave the "snow flake babies"?

:shrug:

[yellowcanine]

51. Well their adoptive parents better have a biological child or they won't

be loved. Of course if the adoptive parents agree to have a biological child the lovin can begin then. Who knew that it was so easy to have a loving marriage? Just have kids!

[eppur_se_muova]

47. No point in remarrying later in life, then.

Widow? Widower? Tough. Deal with it. "Compassionless Conservatism (TM)" indeed.

[Canuckistanian]

48. Ha! Nice try

There is no "Todd Akin", is there? This is really one of those Onion articles, right?

You think I was born yesterday?

[underpants]

52. No, he's real

real stupid

[Canuckistanian]

59. As is often the case

Truth is stupider than parody these days where Bushbots are concerned.

[Solon]

61. Feel sorry for me, he's from my district. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

65. You're almost ashamed to admit it, aren't you?

I know how you feel. Where I used to live there was a fundie nutcase/anti-abortion/finger-waggin' holier-than-thou MP (our equivalent of Senator).

Then I heard he ran off with his secretary for a dirty weekend and divorced his wife.

They're really like cartoon characters, aren't they?

[Solon]

66. He's a racist asshole, a festering, infected hemorrhoid ridden asshole.

You should read his screeds on "Urban Life", while he doesn't outright say it, his screeds are just dripping with racism.

[sakabatou]

50. By their logic, newly married couples and couples w/o children

should divorce and never marry again. :crazy:

[OzarkDem]

54. And what after menopause?

Should we just be abandoned or forced into slavery, since we no longer serve society?

[Lindacooks]

55. He looks just as half-witted as he is.

Why is it these repukes are always so ugly? And they always look either drunk or deranged.

Guess I answered my own question.

[Skittles]

57. ugly inside makes you ugly outside

Babs Sr is a prime example

[JerseygirlCT]

60. What a thoroughly ignorant remark

I hope he hears from consituents dealing with the pain of infertility. Or gay couples who have children. Or adoptive parents.

This is SO not about reproduction, and all about human rights!

[StellaBlue]

62. Is he Catholic?

Or just aping their dogma?

[IndianaGreen]

67. Women that can no longer ovulate, cannot get married!

Looking at Akin's picture, is this a man that one would fuck? I don't think so!

[NMMNG]

68. So,

They'll be demanding fertility tests prior to giving out marriage licenses? Denying marriage licenses to couples where either/both partners don't want to have children or either/both are past childbearing age? :shrug:


Pure horsepucky, the notion of denying gays the right to marry based on marriage being about "having children".

[truthisfreedom]

69. thugs don't care about love. thugs only care about making more thug babies

[mnhtnbb]

71. My child-bearing days are over. I guess when my youngest

graduates high school we better get divorced. Somebody ought to remind this a$$hole that the highest divorce rate is in the Bible belt.

[DemsRBetterLovers]

72. BEAR CHILDREN!

THEY ARE THE NUMBER ONE THREAT! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

[Don1]

74. This is a bit personal but...

My wife had cancer and since the resulting surgery, it is impossible for us to conceive children. But since that time we chose to foster and adopt children.

Shall I be offended by the politicians statement? I guess at first I was, because he totally invalidated my 10 year marriage, our personal struggles, and our wonderful children. But then I remembered, this guy just lumped us in with the gays and other people he may deem as rabble and undesirables. Well, I am cool with that. Gays and lesbians are awesome.

Three cheers for Senator what's-his-face who just gave ammunition, solidarity, and resolve to all of us. Woohoo!

[Pushed To The Left]

75. One of the dumbest right wing statements yet

They are trying so hard and reaching do far to find a "logical" reason to justify their bigotry. Like the Flag Amendment, the Marriage Amendment is based purely on emotion rather than logic.

[beyurslf]

76. When my great grandfatyher remarried in his 70's I am pretty sure

he and his wife (also in her 70s) had no intention of making babies together. They did however stay married for 20 years or so.