# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1032
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20622 "2015-03-30T16:57:52Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > These laws are being portrayed in the press as anti-gay laws but all they really are is a way for us to settle things like wedding planners having to do gay marriages in court. What I think is a stupid liberal idea is forcing people to violate their religion in such a direct and personal way. Forcing people to have gay sex would be “violating their religion”. Forcing people to sell a wedding cake to someone they don’t like is not. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20623 "2015-03-30T17:00:22Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I can’t tell you details, but what immediately comes to mind is 20+ years of social progress on attitudes toward gay men and women. On NPR this morning Cokie Roberts was asked this exact question, and her response was part this (society has changed dramatically in the last 20 – shoot, the last 2 – years. She likened Indian’s act to someone in 1985 trying to reinstate racial segregation); and part Indiana’s absence of any legislation protection gay rights. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20624 "2015-03-30T17:14:21Z")
Excellent, thanks! I’ll look up both of those right away. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20625 "2015-03-30T17:48:34Z")
Almost a third of Republicans think Obama is a greater imminent threat to the US than Putin. Words almost fail me at the stupidity of people. And the borderline treason inherent in Fox News and their ilk encouraging this kind of thinking. [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-usa-threats-poll-idUSKBN0MQ0AV20150330](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-usa-threats-poll-idUSKBN0MQ0AV20150330) ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20626 "2015-03-30T17:50:11Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > Almost a third of Republicans think Obama is a greater imminent threat to the US than Putin. Words almost fail me at the stupidity of people. And the borderline treason inherent in Fox News and their ilk encouraging this kind of thinking. > [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-usa-threats-poll-idUSKBN0MQ0AV20150330](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-usa-threats-poll-idUSKBN0MQ0AV20150330) Imagine Ted Cruz were president. Then imagine someone asked you to say whether Cruz or Putin were a bigger threat to the US. I bet I’d say Cruz. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20627 "2015-03-30T17:52:24Z")
Well, I don’t know that Putin is an imminent threat to the USA either. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20628 "2015-03-30T19:05:44Z")
[Florida state legislator wants the state to subsidize discrimination](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/28/1374050/-FL-Legislator-s-Revenge-Bill-Goes-After-Children-Allowing-ALL-Discrimination-Take-That-Indiana?detail=facebook_sf) This is the same guy who wanted to fine psychiatrists if they asked their patients if they have a gun in the house. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20629 "2015-03-30T19:07:31Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > Almost a third of Republicans think Obama is a greater imminent threat to the US than Putin. Words almost fail me at the stupidity of people. And the borderline treason inherent in Fox News and their ilk encouraging this kind of thinking. > [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-usa-threats-poll-idUSKBN0MQ0AV20150330](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-usa-threats-poll-idUSKBN0MQ0AV20150330) Or in other words almost a third of Republicans when given the opportunity to use a poll to bash Obama took that opportunity. I’m actually more surprised that it was that low. ETA: the article doesn’t match your claim. There is no direct comparison between Obama and Putin in the poll. It’s just that 33% of Republicans perceived Obama as an imminent threat as compared to 25% who saw Putin as an imminent threat. It is actually possible that as few as 8% of Republicans rated Obama higher than Putin. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20630 "2015-03-30T19:11:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Florida state legislator wants the state to subsidize discrimination](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/28/1374050/-FL-Legislator-s-Revenge-Bill-Goes-After-Children-Allowing-ALL-Discrimination-Take-That-Indiana?detail=facebook_sf) > > This is the same guy who wanted to fine psychiatrists if they asked their patients if they have a gun in the house. So you’re saying it will breeze through the legislature with hardly a peep against it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20631 "2015-03-30T19:11:51Z")
Putin’s threat is extreme but remote, while Obama’s is significant (even without paranoid delusions, it’s easy to see how a president, any president, could make a major mistake) and likely. Calling Obama the bigger threat _can_ be rational if one calculates the potential damage times its likelihood. Arguably an even greater _threat_ is a large asteroid landing in U.S. territory and destroying a large swath, but since the _probability_ is low, it can be ignored. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20632 "2015-03-30T19:34:46Z")
[Scott Walker thinks he would make a good commander-in-chief because he was a Boy Scout.](http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/election-matters/scott-walker-suggests-being-an-eagle-scout-has-prepared-him/article_a8f0957e-5f09-504b-961d-c67c2927eb23.html) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20633 "2015-03-30T19:37:07Z")
Mike Dewine: [Gay marriage shouldn’t be legalized because gay people have too much political power.](http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/ohio-attorney-general-gays-already-have-too-much-power-thats-why-they-cant-get-married/) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20634 "2015-03-30T19:38:04Z")
How much training in military strategy, or personnel management, for that matter, does an Eagle Scout get? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20635 "2015-03-30T19:43:40Z")
DeWine used to be a reasonable, responsible-appearing adult. Now he’s got Kool Aid poisoning like all the rest. Pity. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20636 "2015-03-30T21:58:07Z")
> **[Indiana Governor Insists New Law Has Nothing To Do With Thing It Explicitly...](https://www.theonion.com/indiana-governor-insists-new-law-has-nothing-to-do-with-1819577640)** > > INDIANAPOLIS—Addressing the controversy surrounding his state’s recently signed Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Indiana governor Mike Pence forcefully insisted to reporters Monday that the new law has nothing at all to do with what it was... The Onion’s take on Indiana’s fearful new law, and Indiana’s childish denial of the law’s intent. “…emphasizing that provisions authorizing businesses to refuse service to gay customers were nothing more than the only explanation for the law being drafted in the first place.” ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20637 "2015-03-30T23:47:15Z")
And here I thought The Onion was a fake news site. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20638 "2015-03-31T00:30:22Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Imagine Ted Cruz were president. Then imagine someone asked you to say whether Cruz or Putin were a bigger threat to the US. > > I bet I’d say Cruz. See there? We can agree on something. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20639 "2015-03-31T00:52:48Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > No, although polygamy will probably legal(and I have no problem with that). There was a lot of scaremongering from the right on the subject, but some of it is probably accurate, given what’s going on elsewhere. Multiple marriage is legal in the Netherlands, for example: > > [First Trio "Married" in The Netherlands | The Brussels Journal](http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/301) Oh godenhemel, not **this** stupid old chestnut again. I already [debunked that shit on these boards nearly 10 years ago:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6641041&postcount=53) > [@Kimstu on 10-01-2005](#): > > I found a Dutch article about it (the tone of which seems somewhat less disapproving AFAICT, though my Dutch is far from perfect). > > And the deal here is a “samenlevingscontract” which, as already noted, a pair or group of roommates can get regardless of their sexual/marital relationship. It’s distinct from Dutch civil marriage (which has been available to same-sex couples since April 2001) and also from “registered partnership”, which is a civil-union type deal allowed to same-sex partners from 1998 on. The samenlevingscontract doesn’t specify a formal partnership status the way the other two arrangements do; it’s up to the contracting parties to decide what responsibilities their contract will formalize. > > In short, this “marriage” is not legally much different, AFAICT, from forming a business partnership or signing a lease together. Just because this trio choose to interpret it as a marriage and a symbol of a permanent romantic/marital commitment doesn’t mean anybody else has to. So calling it a “polygamous civil union” as the English article did seems inaccurate to me, if not actually disingenuous. The Dutch article says nothing about its being anything but a “samenlevingscontract” in any legal sense; as the bridegroom remarked, “Students who live together can also get a contract”. So no, multiple marriage is **not** currently legal in the Netherlands, you dipshit. I personally wouldn’t care in the least if it were, but it so happens that it isn’t. The fact that three Dutch people a decade ago were legally allowed to sign a _non-marital_ samenlevingscontract that _they_ chose to view as symbolizing a marital bond among them does _not_ mean that they are legally married. Honestly, there ought to be some kind of “DoperSnopes” app that we could use to check up on people posting silly old urban legends as factual cites. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20640 "2015-03-31T01:23:43Z")
[Obstetrician runs for the state Senate in Alabama so he can get a law overturned that was inspired by a patient who died as a result of his treatment of her.](http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/30/doctor-wins-state-senate-just-to-overturn-law-inspired-by-his-dead-patient/) ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20641 "2015-03-31T01:34:27Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Oh godenhemel, not **this** stupid old chestnut again. I already [debunked that shit on these boards nearly 10 years ago:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6641041&postcount=53) > > So no, multiple marriage is **not** currently legal in the Netherlands, you dipshit. I personally wouldn’t care in the least if it were, but it so happens that it isn’t. The fact that three Dutch people a decade ago were legally allowed to sign a _non-marital_ samenlevingscontract that _they_ chose to view as symbolizing a marital bond among them does _not_ mean that they are legally married. > > Honestly, there ought to be some kind of “DoperSnopes” app that we could use to check up on people posting silly old urban legends as factual cites. You know it occurs to me that one unintended consequence of these RFRA laws that states like Indiana are passing is that it might just end up legalizing polygamy. Wouldn’t it be deliciously ironic if someone were to argue that multiple marriage is a religious requirement, and the law can’t prevent it, and win? Same sex marriage doesn’t in any way imply polygamy, but a strict reading of the RFRA just might. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1031) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1033)