So let me get this straight... (going around facebook right now)....

[jillan]

So let me get this straight...Kelsey Grammar can end a 15 year marriage by phone, Larry King can be on divorce #9, Britney Spears had a 55 hour marriage, Jesse James and Tiger Woods - while married - were having sex with EVERYONE. 53% of Americans get divorced and 30-60% cheat on their spouses. yet, somehow, same-sex marriage is going to destroy the institution of marriage? really? re-post if you find this ironic

[Ohio Joe]

1. It's true

Repuglicans really believe this... they are idiots.

[tex-wyo-dem]

14. Such truth in one simple statement...

Republicans, or more appropriately, social conservatives, are idiots.

To this day I remember a broadcast by Randi Rhodes back when she was on Air America talking about how the common fallacy of conservative thought was that marriage is a religious institution, but in fact is a state institution. With this fact it stands to reason that the state can not legally discriminate against any people and, therfore, cannot legally prevent or not recogniize same-sex marriage.

The talking point that same-sex marriage will destroy the institution is just a scare tactic pushed out there by the religious right, nothing more.

[roguevalley]

15. actually, same sex marriage isn't the problem. Its unwed mommyhood

natalie portman is the vortex of EVIL!!! that is killing our very souls. Ask Rev. Huckleberry Hound. (DON'T LOOK AT BRISTOL PALIN OVER THERE!!!!!)

[lolly]

45. Yeah, but

If gay people weren't trying to get married, Natalie would have had more respect for the institution of marriage, and would have gotten married before getting knocked up.

Or something.

[Ohio Joe]

66. heh

Isn't it wicked hard to wrap your head around repuglican "logic" :D

[SharonAnn]

53. No, it's the fathers who abandon the children and their mothers

[leeroysphitz]

69. you mad

[Ghost in the Machine]

71. I've been a single father for 14.5 years...

Never seen a dime of child support either, yet every year she files taxes and claims the kids, causing us to get screwed over. The IRS doesn't seem to have a problem with it, even though it's clearly fraud as I have sole custody.

What about 'mothers' who abandon the children and their fathers? :shrug:

[louslobbs]

60. Off topic, but we love your dog.

lou

[Courtesy Flush]

67. Let's not forget race mixing! nt

:sarcasm:

[davidinalameda]

77. more than a few Democrats believe it as well

[EV_Ares]

2. Excellent point and so true, it is already destroyed and same-sex marriage had nothing to do with it

[femrap]

3. I think the state-sponsored

institution of marriage is just that.....an institution that I want nothing to do with. The state has no business in my personal life...it already has its claws in my neck.

[IDemo]

4. Things to ask someone who believes their marriage is being threatened by gays:

Ruining your marriage, are they?

1) They are breaking down the communication between you two, aren't they?

2) They aren't doing their fair share around the house, are they?

3) They spent a good chunk of change on a motorcycle instead of on a new kitchen like you'd agreed upon, right?

4) I'll bet their family hasn't said a word to you in six months, am I right?

5) They haven't been doing much for you in bed lately, have they?

I hope they have a d*#@ good lawyer, is all I can say!!11!! :grr:

[fayhunter]

59. LOL!

[buddysmellgood]

5. The thing is, once gay marriage is legal everywhere, there will be

nothing to keep me from leaving my wife and having sex with other straight men.

[Sal Minella]

6. Maybe I'm just really tired,

but I think this is deeply funny. Thanks. Am sending permalink to some friends.

Laughter is a great balm when one's emotional joints have all been sprained by Teh Stupid.

[Enthusiast]

27. I laughed too. nt

[boppers]

13. LOL, were you here for that thread?

It was epic... apparently, that was basically somebody's argument (omitting the "straight" part).

[CoffeeCat]

47. Oh I hear you...

Gay marriage is legal in Iowa (for now), and since it has been legal, I have felt compelled to leave my happy marriage
and wonderful kids--and take up with my neighbor Julie.

The minute gay marriage was legal, I immediately felt the negative force--a sinister, destructive
form of immoral gravity that wants to obliterate every heterosexual marriage, melt the core of the Earth
and give everyone deep wrinkles around the eyes.

We're playing with fire people. Gay marriage will eventually end the world.

[madinmaryland]

7. I've always felt DOMA should be directed towards the people you listed

in your post, rather than Gay Americans.

[jillan]

8. Me too! I had a phone call from a rw group in 2006 when there was a prop on the ballot about gay

marriage and I pretty much told her that I was concerned about the children of divorced couples and that they should have a ballot measure against divorce if they really cared about the sanctity of marriage. And that one of the happiest married couples I know is a gay couple.

[madinmaryland]

9. Classic!!

:thumbsup:

[PDJane]

10. I'm Canadian.

Same-sex marriage is quite legal here.

The only thing that has changed is that gay couples really do feel part of the community. That's it, that's all she wrote. Doesn't threaten anyone unless they were threatened in the first place.

Welcome to the real world.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. All of this damage is the result of people just TALKING about gay marriage!

If it becomes legal, the destruction will be ... NUCLEAR!

[lonestarnot]

12. Welcome to idiot world.

:hug:

[slay]

16. K&R

you make excellent points. :thumbsup:

[Exultant Democracy]

17. apparently that 53% of americans get divorced is pretty misleading.

Boomers divorce at that rate, but the greatest generation gen Xers annd Gen Y have very different trends when it comes to marriage. Supposedly the Gen X and Yers get married later but their divorce rate is closer to 25%.

I don't have the facts and figures in front of me right now so I may be a bit off, I just remember hearing some demographer on NPR talk about it a few months ago.

edit to add: Of course I agree with you overall point. I'll even venture that these new numbers almost bolster you point more when you dig into the fact that the the gen X and Yers are overwhelming in favor of people getting to choose the families that they want.

[bengalherder]

20. X and Y are still young...

:D

But seriously, you are right. X and Y are more accepting of people marrying who they want to the first time around...

[Exultant Democracy]

57. relative age isn't a factor since the numbers are all projections.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/19/health/19divo.html?pagewanted=print&position=

This isn't a link to the story I was thinking about but it did jog my memory. The divorce rate number spiked with the boomer's, but since then the rate of divorce has gone down overall and dramatically so for the younger generations.

60% of marriages that do end, end within the first 10 years. When they look at the 10 year rate for gen Xers, and the 5 year for gen Years they are both on track for a divorce rate closer to 25%.

[CommonSensePLZ]

25. So?

They're from a generation where divorce was seen as messy and unheard of, because man and women as they were raised are just 'supposed to be together' and they don't believe in "airing out their dirty laundry". My grandparents lived into their 70s and hated each other for at least the last 20 years of their lives, but never was the idea of divorce even mentioned.

[SOS]

46. Your grandparents remind me of an old Woody Allen joke

"My parents were married for 50 years, the last 45 out of spite".

[CommonSensePLZ]

81. Lol and that reminds me of the Lockhorns. nt

[rucognizant]

30. I did the 2000 census........

almost 100 % of the Gen xers were UNMARRIED with children ( they learned from their elders) ...............as compared to the older demi-graphic.
So it doesn't register statistically as a DIVORCE.....end result is still children in broken homes!

[Exultant Democracy]

58. Ha, not even close to 100% are unmarried with children, and their projected divorce rate is 25%.

[provis99]

70. rather, Gen Xers don't get married.

I think about 50% of people my age are still single.

[Exultant Democracy]

73. none the less they are tracking to have a divorce rate closer to 25%, a significant decline.

[gtar100]

18. Irony indeed.

[LTR]

19. And remember kids - laugh at Newt Gingrich when he talks about the 'sanctity of marriage'

Especially since he cheated on all three of his wives.

[DesertDiamond]

21. I really think people who take the entire Bible literally are simply detached from reality.

So in their reality their beliefs don't have to make sense.

[Enthusiast]

28. I noticed that too. nt

[TheKentuckian]

51. They don't take the Bible literally, they just pretend to to further an agenda.

If they took the Bible literally they'd be bent out of shape over usury, welcome strangers, and forgive trespasses.

In fact they'd be forced to become socialists or failing that give up their worldly riches.
Certainly they'd internalize that what you do to or for the least among us, they also do to or for Jesus.

[stlsaxman]

22. K&R #69!!!! woo hoooooo!

[Buddha2B]

23. Don't forget Natalie Portman!

Her procreating without being married is destroying marriage too! (/sarcasm)

[CommonSensePLZ]

24. I've been pointing out this "sanctity of marriage" shit for years K&R

[Enthusiast]

26. Jillan, you are so correct.

This is outrageous. Our society is built on double standards built upon double standards piled high.

[ReggieVeggie]

29. too bad our president contributes to this idiocy

[alphafemale]

32. were you asleep this week? He said the DOMA is unconstitutional.

The POTUS will no longer defend the act in court.

[ReggieVeggie]

34. he should have condemned the act from the start

why is it unconstitutional only now?

[alphafemale]

40. He wouldn't have been elected and McCain Sure as hell wouldn't have done this.

next

[FreeState]

78. The vast majority of voters have stated in polls they would vote for someone they disagree with

In regards to marriage equality. He would not have lost.

[Sheepshank]

68. waaahhhh ...call the wambulance quick!

your moving goal post is silly. First you say he doesn't speak out at all, now you say he doesn't speak fast enough?

[alphafemale]

82. I don't understand it either.

It's a blinding blow to DOMA. Obama did it.

And he's absolutely right. With marriage being a recognized contract in some states it is absolutely unconstitutional that the contract not be recognized in all states. It is the same principal as Loving vs Virginia.

And it has absolutely nothing to do with any church being forced to perform same sex ceremonies. The Catholic church still does not recognize or perform marriage for previously divorced without making them jump through numerous hoops while there are no legal barriers to prevent such a thing.

Legal protections under law and having your union blessed by your church community are two entirely different things.

If you're a UU or some sects of Church of Christ or a few other liberal religions your union will be celebrated today.

If you are LDS or Catholic or somesuch? Chances are your love and commitment will never be respected in that community even if you are in a state where your legal rights are protected.

[Bluenorthwest]

37. He also repeated that he himself is oppoed to equal marriage

rights. He, Barack Obama, says that marriage is a 'Sacrament' which should be for only one man and one woman, he says straights are 'Sanctified by God' and gay people are not. He says our relationships lack a 'spriritual element' shared by he and his wife, Newt and Mrs Newt, shared by Britney for 55 Sanctified hours, a Sacred Bond dissolved by phone call. This is what he belives and promotes.
Telll me, what is the civil definition of the word 'Sanctified'? How do you or the President prove that he is Sanctified, and that I am not? Is it the same as 'enchanted'? Straights are Enchanted and gay people are not? Or is it more like 'Superior'? What do the words the President uses mean? Sacrament, Sanctified, Sacred. In a secular context, they are nonsense words, gibberish. Unless you can define them. I say they are meaningless jabber.

[truth2power]

39. Yes. Like many of the statements Obama makes, if you take them apart

they turn out to be devoid of any substance at all. I think that's why there's so much disagreement about what he did or didn't promise. He's very good at seeming to tell you what you most want to hear.

[tpsbmam]

52. I wish I could rec your post, Bluenorthwest. Nail-->Head nt

[NillaWafers]

65. Thank you. n/t

[alphafemale]

31. I statused that. lol.

[TBF]

33. Hypocrites - sorta like the thing with Huckabee going off on Natalie Portman

An adult woman with financial means and a fiance decides to have baby (mind you she could've easily aborted), and that's all wrong but the child Bristol Palin has a baby and that's A-ok.

[dotymed]

35. By getting government in our bedrooms

and inciting fringe Cristian (mainly) groups, "They have an effective way to conquer and divide the average American. JUDGE NOT LEST YE BE JUDGED, is one of the things these extremists need to comprehend.
They also need to understand that our Bible, in all instances, is on the side of the downtrodden (poor, working poor, underprivileged) over the wealthy.
Our Bible also tells us that in order to get Gods help, we must help ourselves (peaceful resistance, speaking out against the institutions that impoverish people).
We must stop the in-fighting and focus on our common enemy; injustice. Christians are SUPPOSED to be non-judgmental and accepting of ALL.
To accept the current wealth disparity and allow yourself to be manipulated by evil (greedy) people who want to end Gods greatest gift to mankind; FREE WILL, makes you worse than the people you attack. BY their actions, let them be known. Love is is something that there can never be enough of.....
Treat others the way you wish to be treated...there is a reason that IS the Golden Rule.

[yellerpup]

36. Also, serial sleaze, Newt Gingrich can run for president.

He's a huge champion of marriage. Just ask him.

[Bluenorthwest]

38. Barack Obama says all of those straight people had Sacred

Unions, Sacramental in nature, that each of those people was part of a Sanctified Bond, hand made by God Almighty.
I personally think he's full of horseshit, and unless some poster cares to explain to me the meaning of the word 'Sanctified' in a civil context, I think it is horseshit. How does the President prove in court that he his Sanctified and that I am not?
Simple bigotry, that is what it is.

[Zax2me]

41. I don't judge all marriages by pointing out the bad ones

It is what leads me to the position of supporting marriage for all.

[Politicalboi]

42. Think of the "Children"

Of the marriages that fail because "She" got pregnant. LOL! My Repuke brother had 2 marriages because of pregnancy. Second marriage had to be postponed due to my brother having second thoughts. LOL! They are still married with him 18 years her senior, and 2 kids who from what I can see now are going to be trouble when they get to be teens.

[InvisibleTouch]

43. That is ironic.

I've always said that *everyone* should have the right to make the mistake of marriage.

[LynneSin]

44. Don't forget Newt Gingrich giving his wife #2 her divorce papers while she was recovering.....

from cancer surgery.

[valerief]

48. Of course, same-sex marriage will destroy marriage as we know it.

Same-sex marriages will probably be more faithful and long-lasting.

America is Dumbass Central, you know.

[blackspade]

49. QFT!

Frankly, I have no problem with two people who love each other marrying regardless of gender.
Denying them that right is simply stupid.

[PatSeg]

50. It is just another diversion

to distract attention from really important issues like the economy and jobs.

Marriage as we know it is NOT traditional or sacred. It has changed throughout history and will continue to change. Most of history has seen marriage as a union between one man and several women. There are even places where it was one woman and several men (not as common of course). Marriage is whatever a particular society decides it is and as society changes, so will marriage.

These small government people sure do like the government telling other people how they should live.

[Auggie]

54. A diversion plus the chance to rally the conservative electorate

[bertman]

55. nice work, jillan!! You would think that any DOMA with Newt Gingrich supporting

it would get laughed off the stage.

REC.

[Initech]

56. Bill Maher destroyed DOMA-apologists last night.

[louslobbs]

61. I understand, that Bristol Palin is trying to help the institution of marriage,

by having her babies out of the institution of marriage, so she doesn't have to divorce and increase the horrendous statistics that you state. Of course, she does increase the statistics of unwed mothers, but divorce is far worse then being an unwed mother, I think. I've tried to ask their alleged god, but he won't seem to talk to me. If two men or two women were to get married, this would be very offensive to their alleged god and their pristine institution of marriage and therefore damn them into eternal hell, whereas, someone like Bristol Palin, will be forgiven for her sins and upon her death, given eternal life lol.....I think that's how it goes in some of the fiction I was forced to read as child. In any event, your post is more than ironic, these people and their story about the institution of "traditional" marriage, is hypocritical and pathetic. I do think, institution is a good word to describe where some of these frauds should spend a little time however.
Lou

[rpannier]

62. Not true

I never had sex with Tiger Woods

As to Jesse James... I was really drunk, so I don't remember if I did or not.

K&R

[Liberal_in_LA]

63. Don't forget Charlie Sheen - he's been married 3 times

[Zambero]

64. Why not a "Defense of Divorce Act"?

We need to protect the sacred institution of divorce. Divorce has always been betweeen a man and a woman. We'd better keep it that way, or divorce as we know it will crumble, ending western civilization. Nine Larry King ex-wives CANNOT be wrong! NO GAY DIVORCE!

[Drew Richards]

72. I understand the Conservatives Now if they will Just agree with me...

I believe there should be two kinds of marriage.

1. One, the Conservative Form, in a Religious Ceremony where if you cheat on your spouse or attempt divorce you are both stoned to death.

AND

2. Two the second, for the rest of us where by we can marry anyone we damn well please as along as they are consenting adults...

But hey that's just me.

:)

[WCGreen]

74. big K&R....

I remember when my parents got divorced back in the 60's and it took a long time to get it done and the teachers felt sorry for us because we were from a "broken home"

[SharksBreath]

75. Looking at your post. I always wondered why gay people would want to be married.

Getting the financial benefits. I understand that.

But the rest. You would have to be crazy.

Do you really want to see Gay Divorce court.

I kid but seriously.

--

Trust me. I love my wife and as a married man who's been married for 10 years and never cheated.

I could do with out the state being in my business.

When I married my wife I told her I did not believe in marriage. It's a man made contrived symbol.

Just like religion far as I was concerned. To me marriage is a religious act. I'm not religious so why would I bother.

But I told her if she wanted me to give her my word that I would never leave I would do it. I gave her my word.

My balls and my word is all I have.

She just needed it in writing.

/snark

[Clear Blue Sky]

76. spot on!

[Swede Atlanta]

79. The hypocrisy is palpable.....

I have never understood, nor could the conservatives articulate, how same-sex marriage would negatively affect heterosexual marriage. They speak of the integrity or "sanctity" of marriage in which if a same-sex couple were afforded the same rights would be devastated. They cannot describe how this would happen because, of course, they cannot.

This is really a matter of domination. These self-serving, often religious nutcases, want to preserve certain rights they don't want others to have. It is all about denying others the same benefits they have. They speak of the "marriage penalty" in income taxes but they fail to recognize the other benefits we as society afford married couples such as the right to pass property at death without tax, the right to be at your spouse's bedside and the list goes on.

It is a joke and while as a gay man I'm not jumping around for same-sex marriage I support this as another affirmation that GLBT persons are entitled to the same protections and privileges afforded all other Americans.

[Zoeisright]

80. I'd add a bit about Newt in there too.

Like "Newt Gingrich told his wife he wanted a divorce right after her cancer surgery"