In which I pit the governor of Maryland

[Kiger]

I usually stay out of these kinds of discussions, but this is absurd. You gay people sure are threatening. :dubious:

Linky link:
Ehrlich Denounces Gay Marriage, Vows Legislative Fight (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1784-2003Nov20.html)

During an interview on WTOP radio, Ehrlich (R) was emphatic in his rejection of gay marriage, saying Maryland lawmakers should not bother trying to capitalize on a Massachusetts court ruling this week that recognized a right to civil marriage regardless of sexual orientation.

Gay marriage, on the other hand, "is far different," Ehrlich said. "The institution of marriage, obviously, is the bedrock of our foundation. It's been under attack; it's been weakened for many, many decades now. I'm not going to play a part in further weakening this incredibly important institution."

So... marriage is the bedrock of our society, but if the two people are the same sex... SOCIETY IMPLODES! I got it! It's all quite logical when you think about it.

Wait.
:rolleyes:

[gobear]

If he really believes gay marriage is a threat to the institution itself, he's a bigoted fool; if he's just playing to the extreme right wing of his party, then he's a sleazy opportunist willing to barter his beliefs for ballots.

Either way, he's an asshole.

[fushj00mang]

My question is, why do gay's feel the need to call it 'marraige?' In Hawaii, it's not marraige, but a 'civil union' with all the same legal rights as a married couple. Can someone answer this for me?

[gobear]

Originally posted by fushj00mang
My question is, why do gay's feel the need to call it 'marraige?' In Hawaii, it's not marraige, but a 'civil union' with all the same legal rights as a married couple. Can someone answer this for me?

Would you want a Jim Crow ceremony that does NOT give the same rights as a married couple? That the gay version had to be named differently should tell you something right there.

[Mehitabel]

Well, it's not of Red Ken's Evil-Walks-Amongst-Us caliber, but it's pretty silly.

And to think I was looking forward to Election '04. Oy. It's gonna be stupider than I thought possible.

[Otto]

I miss Parris Glenndenning...

My question is, why do gay's feel the need to call it 'marraige?' In Hawaii, it's not marraige, but a 'civil union' with all the same legal rights as a married couple. Can someone answer this for me? First, Vermont is the only state in the union with civil unions. Hawaii offers some marital benefits to same-sex couples but does not offer civil unions.

Secondly, why should same-sex couples be required to call their marriage something other than what it is? Convicted serial killers have a fundamental right to marry in this country; is it really so much to ask that I have the same rights as a convicted serial killer?

[Sanscour]

Hawaii fushj00mang? Don't you mean Vermont calls them civil unions? The last I checked Hawaii was ADAMANTLY opposed to gay marriage in ANY form, no matter what you call it. As a matter of fact the people of Hawaii were lobbying hard to get Vermonters to vote against it...like Vermonters give a shit what Hawaiians want for their state.

a snip:

The Hawaii Legislature in 1994 amended the state's marriage law to provide that only marriages between a man and a woman are valid. And in November 1998, Hawaii citizens voted to give the state legislature the power to decide the same-sex marriage issue. In December 1999, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the 1998 amendment ratified by the voters of Hawaii rendered the plaintiff's argument moot, with the result that same-sex marriage remains illegal in Hawaii.

Full text can be found here:
http://usmarriagelaws.com/search/alternative_lifestyles/same_sex_marriage/index.shtml

It looks like while Hawaii does not have Civil Unions, they do have some other things to benefit same sex partners.

Sanscour

[fushj00mang]

Sanscour,

I stand corrected. It is indeed Vermont. I remember a few months ago when Vermont was in the news about it that Hawaii was mentioned too. Anyway, mia culpa.

[Weirddave]

Originally posted by Otto
I miss Parris Glenndenning...



It's perfectly fine for you to miss him, you don't have to live here. It'll take years to undo all of the harm he did to this state, along with that carpetbagger bitch KKT.


That being said, this is the first thing Earlich has said or done that I have viehamently disagreed with. I suspect he's pandering to the right wing of his party, he's a Republican after all and it's a "safe" issue for him because there is no present legeslative or judical challenge or refiew going on in Md right now. We'll see what happens if this issue becomes big in Maryland.

[Sanscour]

no problem fush, I only know as much as I do about the situation because I'm a born and bred Vermonter, so I was there for it all: Hawaii's snit, the Take Back Vermont bumper stickers, the ever clever retort bumper sticker, Take Vermont Forward, and Governor Dean's signing it into law. There was even one old redneck who promised god would punish us with floods and tornados if we passed it. Leave it to us hicks to do the United States' trailblazing for them ;) yeehaw.

Sanscour

[John Corrado]

As weirddave said- Erhlich's hounddogging. He knows it won't be any big issue come 2006, because if it was, he wouldn't be touching it with a ten foot pole. C'mon, Maryland's almost as Democratic as you get, and Ehrlich knows he can't run too far to the right and still get re-elected.

And weirddave's also right on Glendening- anyone who'd like to see him back in office didn't actually live here when he was governer.



And Erhlich can tell me that the sun is black, that pain is pleasure, and that we must fight a holy crusade agaisnt Virginia- just so long as he builds me my fucking ICC.

[Kiger]

I have to agree with Weirddave (even if he is from Balmer. :p) that Spendening was very bad for this state. I don't miss him at all. I'm pretty shocked at Ehrlich though since there was such a big push during his campaign to show how "moderate" he is. Guess that flies out the window when opportunity knocks. The fact that his constituency has elected Democrats for the past 30 years seems to have gone completely over his head.

Originally posted by John Corrado
And Erhlich can tell me that the sun is black, that pain is pleasure, and that we must fight a holy crusade agaisnt Virginia- just so long as he builds me my fucking ICC.

Well, he is going to build it... I mean, he wouldn't lie about that, right? He promised!

[Governor Quinn]

What the fuck is the ICC?

(BTW, I regard this as a possible effort to gain more support from 1) conservative Dems in East Baltimore, Anne Arundel, and the Eastern Shore, and 2) black voters. Tsk tsk. And I would have voted for him over Townsend.)

[susan]

I spent me some good money in Vermont whooping it up with that civil union a few years ago. Seems to me that Massachusetts might enjoy my money as well. When I lived in Rhode Island, we'd have gay political actions where we drove to Massachusetts, bought big-ticket items, then totaled the receipts and sales tax and submitted the numbers to RI to show how much money they were losing by not attending to protections for gay citizens.

[Weirddave]

Originally posted by Governor Quinn
What the fuck is the ICC?



The Inner County Connector. A road that connects I-95 to I-270 a few miles further out from the DC beltway. The original traffic planning for the area called for it, the area badly needs it, but it's been blocked for years by people living in Montgomery County, so instead of a good percentage of traffic being able to use the ICC to get where it's going directly, all of the traffic around DC feeds right on to the DC Beltway which is thus massivly overloaded, leading to lots of long delays, even at non "rush" times of the day. During rush hours, forget it.

[Saint Zero]

Originally posted by Shoshana
I spent me some good money in Vermont whooping it up with that civil union a few years ago. Seems to me that Massachusetts might enjoy my money as well. When I lived in Rhode Island, we'd have gay political actions where we drove to Massachusetts, bought big-ticket items, then totaled the receipts and sales tax and submitted the numbers to RI to show how much money they were losing by not attending to protections for gay citizens.


Did you break double digits?

[moriah]

Looking at the divorce rates, I would think that it's the heterosexuals that are weakening the institution of marriage.

A heterosexual who's shamed marriage through divorce, even many times over, has a right to marry.

Even those conservative Christians who proclaim that gay marriage is anti-Biblical, and yet turn a blind eye to Jesus' prohibition on divorce, say that these divorced heterosexuals have a right to marriage, though they should be calling it adultery.

Liza Minelli, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, and Donald Trump -- all who make a mockery of marriage -- have a right to marriage.

Anyone with a pre-nuptial agreement, that is, an exit plan in case their vow to love, honor, and obey till death do us part is bogus, or becomes inconvenient.... they have a right to marriage.

Perhaps the real reason that the straights who don't want there to be gay marriage are so opposed to gay marriage is that they're afraid that the gays will shame them by doing it right.

Yay for the protection of marriage.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Originally posted by fushj00mang
My question is, why do gay's feel the need to call it 'marraige?' In Hawaii, it's not marraige, but a 'civil union' with all the same legal rights as a married couple. Can someone answer this for me?
Why do straights feel the need to call it "marriage?"

[eli_the_fanatic]

My question is, why do gay's feel the need to call it 'marraige?'

My question is, why do folks feel the need to put apostrophes before the "s" in perfectly ordinary plural words?

[Twin]

Why do straights feel the need to call it "marriage?"


Because the word marriage has a specific meaning.

mar·riage noun.

The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife.

A gay marriage is a way to describe a marriage. Gay=happy. The word gay has already been corrupted, no need to corrupt marriage. Call it something else. Because, well, it is.

[Cerri]

As you've just demonstrated, we change the meaning of words all the time.

Therefore, it seems the easiest way to solve both the issues of gays not "corrupting" marriage for straight people ( :rolleyes: ), and gay people being allowed to enjoy the same rights as straight people, would be for the government to stop calling it marriage entirely, and to call ALL such unions civil unions.

Of course, I'm sure The Ignorant Masses would have plenty to say were that proposed, as well. Some people just aren't happy if they can't micromanage everyone's life according to their particular morals, standards, or values.

[Cerri]

As you've just demonstrated, we change the meaning of words all the time.

Therefore, it seems the easiest way to solve both the issues of gays not "corrupting" marriage for straight people ( :rolleyes: ), and gay people being allowed to enjoy the same rights as straight people, would be for the government to stop calling it marriage entirely, and to call ALL such unions civil unions.

Of course, I'm sure The Ignorant Masses would have plenty to say were that proposed, as well. Some people just aren't happy if they can't micromanage everyone's life according to their particular morals, standards, or values.

[susan]

Did you break double digits?
Sometimes even quadruple. Just because it's the smallest state in the union doesn't mean I didn't have a big apartment!