# Ted Cruz vs. Ellen "Juno" Page **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 22, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540 "2015-08-22T18:32:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/1 "2015-08-22T18:32:58Z")
This strikes me as MPSIMS material, but I’ll put it here anyway. I have not bothered to watch this video, and am not inclined to watch it at all, but in the past 24 hours, almost all of my annoying conservative Facebook friends have shared with me a video with headings like, “Watch Ted Cruz Kick Lesbian Actress’ Butt.” Simultaneously, all my annoying liberal Facebook friends have shared the very same video, with headings like, “Watch Ellen Page Crush Homophobe Ted Cruz.” As I say, I don’t intend to watch, but BOTH sides can’t be right… can they? ---
**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:** [August 22, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/2 "2015-08-22T18:40:33Z")
I’ve seen it. Neither kicked the others ass. Cruz had no idea he was talking to someone famous, and he did the old routine of condescendingly telling a hypothetical example with the certainty that he’d just made some irrefutable point. He failed, and she didn’t change his mind. It is amusing to watch him holding -I think- a pork chop the whole time. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/3 "2015-08-22T18:40:52Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > BOTH sides can’t be right… can they? Why not? Isn’t that pretty SOP? 😉 Anyway, I happened to come across it on CNN and wanted to take a quick look at the article, and the video automatically started playing. My view is that both sides are actually wrong because the whole thing was a total non-event. Ellen was being polite like the good Canadian girl from Nova Scotia that she is, and Cruz was being whatever an asshole politician is when he knows he’s being watched and recorded, so no one really got in any punches. I want that two minutes of my life back. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/4 "2015-08-22T21:56:59Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > As I say, I don’t intend to watch, but BOTH sides can’t be right… can they? Indeed, they can’t be both right, but that is the easy solution. Someone famous said once that that easy way out will usually give us the wrong conclusion. If we look at the performance one could say that both did not do much and we can leave it as a wash. But that is indeed the easy thing to do, instead of just reporting a “He said” “she said”, one should basically look at who got things right. > **[Watch Ted Cruz Bend the Truth While Debating Ellen Page at the Iowa State Fair](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/08/ellen-page-ted-cruz-actress-confronts-gop-hopeful-about-gay-rights-at-iowa-state-fair.html)** > > Ted Cruz’s trip to the Iowa State Fair on Friday included an impromptu exchange with actress Ellen Page about gay rights. The Juno star, who memorably... > [@](#): > > One important fact check about the story of the Iowa couple that Cruz tells early in the video: Dick and Betty Odgaard are indeed a Mennonite couple who agreed to pay a $5,000 fine late last year after they refused to provide service to a gay couple. But though Cruz repeatedly suggests the couple owns a church, in reality they own a former church that they converted into an art gallery, flower shop, and bistro that they then ran as a wedding venue. So the Texan’s taking some rather large liberties when he suggests that requiring the Odgaards to allow a gay couple to wed in their for-profit business would be the same as “forcing a Muslim imam to conduct a Jewish wedding ceremony.” > > Cruz, though, has twisted the facts of the Odgaard’s case before—and he’s likely to again. So, by looking just a bit further I can say that indeed I do not care much about the encounter, suffice to say that we found out that Cruz is indeed just being a false witness that will gladly continue to [del]cook the information[/del] spew misinformation. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/5 "2015-08-23T04:11:36Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Ellen was being polite like the good Canadian girl from Nova Scotia that she is, And did Cruz behave like the brash Albertan that he is? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/6 "2015-08-23T04:14:10Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > And did Cruz behave like the brash Albertan that he is? 😉 Ugly American. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2015, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/7 "2015-08-23T04:24:45Z")
I’m not seeing any ownage - just Cruz trying to spin the issue in an entirely predictable way. Someone wants to discriminate in their business practices, but it’s okay because religion is involved. He suggested he’d be similarly okay with someone refusing service to evangelicals, but I have my doubts. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/8 "2015-08-23T04:41:35Z")
Don’t say that about Northern Piper! 😉 I would say neither really scored any points. Both tasked the issue they wanted from the perspective they wanted and didn’t really try to get on the same topic. Both made strong statements for their crowd, which is why both claim victory. Marginal points to Ellen because she asked the question, so it is incumbent on the responder to address her question, not the question he wishes were asked. Huge duduction of points for Cruz distorting the case study to claim it was church instead of a business shop that rented out for special services like weddings. Also minor points to Cruz for getting Ellen of guard by turning it on Obama, but that’s offset by distorting the conversation to be about “Obama giving money to the muderers of gays”, and then another deduction for “so them we’re agreed about Obama”. He wasn’t exactly rude per se, he gave her a fair amount of time to keep after him, trying to make him admit something he was never going to admit, or else make a hugely anti GLBT comment. But he didn’t really address her concern the way she wanted, either, and instead tried the “poor Christians” angle. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/9 "2015-08-23T04:58:50Z")
I think this goes a long way towards explaining the intellectual merit of most political opinions. [Science confirms: Politics wrecks your ability to do math](http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2013/10/10/politics-bad-math-study_n_4060350.html?ir=Australia) > [@](#): > > Everybody knows that our political views can sometimes get in the way of thinking clearly. But perhaps we don’t realize how bad the problem actually is. According to a new psychology paper, our political passions can even undermine our very basic reasoning skills. More specifically, the study finds that people who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs. Your story just demonstrates the same inability of the politically partisan to remain objective. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/10 "2015-08-23T05:07:31Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > And did Cruz behave like the brash Albertan that he is? 😉 Nah, he’s about as much an Albertan as I am – his mom moved him to Houston when he was still pooping his diapers. Whatever is wrong with Cruz, I blame the effects of Texas and oil fumes, and a renegade lunatic Cuban father. I’m sure there must be medication that might make him nearly normal. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-vs-ellen-juno-page/728540/11 "2015-08-23T05:16:51Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > This strikes me as MPSIMS material, . . . It strikes me the same way. Enjoy it there.