tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53389872601961726902024-02-22T02:43:04.181-08:00UT Austin Anscombe SocietyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.comBlogger485125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-91627901890216601982013-06-26T04:19:00.000-07:002013-07-28T02:46:30.443-07:00Why I Fight Against Same-Sex Marriage<a href="http://www.chitika.com/publishers/apply?refid=mohammadazam"><img src="http://images.chitika.net/ref_banners/300x250_money.png" /></a>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_5826" style="border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 560px;"><a href="http://religionandpolitics.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Teetsel-550-x-358.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="(Getty/Tom Williams)" class="size-full wp-image-5826" height="358" src="http://religionandpolitics.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Teetsel-550-x-358.jpg" style="border: none; color: #333333; height: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; width: auto;" width="550" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">(Getty/Tom Williams)</div></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="init-cap" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">R</span>ich Stearns is a servant, a Wharton grad who leapt from the top of corporate America and landed in a stream, knees bent bracing. Arms outstretched, he is a fisher of men, desperate to save the poor, sick and suffering. Stearns’ talent has transformed World Vision into the eighth largest charity in America, with annual revenues of more than $1 billion. Some 40,000 employees are active worldwide doing disaster relief, providing food, and assisting refugees. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">According to a 2009 interview, Stearns intends to reduce by half the number of children who die daily from poverty-related causes. If he succeeds (count me among those who believe he will) that number will still be 13,000 dead children daily.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">At a recent gathering in Los Angeles, Stearns privileged the work he and others do around poverty issues and criticized Christians who he sees as preoccupied by work focused on the meaning and purpose of marriage. “No one ever died of gay marriage,” he argued.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">It is unlikely that “number of deaths prevented” is actually Stearns’ metric for determining the legitimacy of a vocation. Surely he recognizes the mundane contributions of faithful Christians in education, law, engineering, art, and a thousand other fields as legitimate whether or not life hangs in the balance.</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">No, the comment tells us that Stearns finds marriage a trivial issue. <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nero fiddled as Rome burned; meanwhile, Teetsel blogged about same-sex marriage</i>. And so he pleads, “Why don’t you do something that matters?”</div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Stearns is not alone. As the 29 year-old director of the Manhattan Declaration I am often asked that question. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Founded in 2009 by Charles Colson and more than 100 religious leaders from the three historic Christian traditions, the Manhattan Declaration defines life, marriage, and religious liberty as foundational principles necessary for the common good. The Declaration asks Christians to prioritize these concerns and refuse to “render unto Caesar” when the laws of man contradict moral obligations to God. Why be involved in such work? </div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Life, marriage, and religious liberty are not arbitrary choices; they are inextricable. The ethic of life is premised on the doctrine of <i style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Imago Dei, </i>the inherent dignity of every human being as a creature uniquely crafted in the image of God himself. Why do we care about the poor, oppressed, and suffering? Because they are human beings.<br /><br />Read more at <a href="http://religionandpolitics.org/2013/06/25/why-i-fight-against-same-sex-marriage/#sthash.e3LngqXL.dpuf">Religion and Politics</a>.</div>
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</script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-60557088531011291432013-06-26T04:18:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.597-07:00What is a mother to do? Questions for same-sex ‘marriage’ advocates<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">June 25, 2013 (<a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/" style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none;">thePublicDiscourse</a>) - The speed at which marriage was redefined last month in the state of Minnesota has left me with a sense of vertigo. My head is still spinning. And though the war wages on, one thing seems clear: Those of us for whom same-sex marriage has been, until now, almost impossible to contemplate, have some things to figure out. Of those, the most urgent is the question of what we are to tell our children.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">I am the mother of a ten-year-old girl, a beautiful child, more precious to me than anything you can imagine. When, on June 1, same-sex marriage became legal in the state of Minnesota, I needed to know what to tell her. How is this supposed to work—actually—in the concrete world of a ten-year-old child and her mother? Her father is wondering too, of course, but he is rather speechless at the moment. And the way it works in our house, though he is really good at protecting her from possible physical threats, it usually falls to me to protect her from the more psychological threats she encounters occasionally in her young life. But this is a new one. So I need some advice.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div class="photo-right clear" id="image_wrapper3" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 5px 14px; padding: 0px; width: 240px;"><img alt="" class="article-img" height="125" src="http://www.lifesitenews.com/images/sized/images/news/marriage_man-240x125.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="240" /><div class="article-img-caption" style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 4px 6px 0px; padding: 0px 10px;">When you ask my daughter to accept that a man may marry another man, that a woman may marry another woman, you are requiring her to declare that 2 + 2 = 5.</div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">In the interests of full disclosure, I should state that, as a philosopher, I have gotten fairly skilled at treating the philosophical errors of our age in the classroom setting. But a ten-year-old is at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to the arguments I have developed against relativism, nominalism, dualism, materialism, and so on. And then of course, parenting comes with its own specific challenges. So I am hoping those who advocate same-sex marriage have given some thought to this, eager as they seem to be to take on the task of parenting themselves.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">For starters, can we agree that, along with her father of course, I am still responsible to her for doing my part to raise her to be the intelligent, responsible young woman she is destined to be? If so, how should I help her grapple with what it means to know the truth about something? Doesn’t any claim to the truth have to begin with a grasp of what is actually so? Should there not be some sort of correspondence between what is so and what she thinks is so? At least, that is what I have been trying to teach her.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Read more at <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/what-is-a-mother-to-do-questions-for-same-sex-marriage-advocates">Life Site News</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-28831786158444089872013-06-26T04:16:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.602-07:00The False Narrative of Gay ‘Marriage’: It Is Not Inevitable<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">June 25, 2013 (<a href="http://www.breakpoint.org/" style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none;">Breakpoint.org</a>) - In his book, “The Black Swan,” Nicholas Nassim Taleb discussed what he calls the “narrative fallacy.” This refers to our “limited ability” to look at a sequence of facts “without weaving an explanation into them.”</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">While this tendency helps us make sense of the world around us, it can and often does mislead us. It creates a mistaken impression that we understand things better than we really do. And, it often causes us to view the facts in ways that are consistent with the narrative we ourselves have created.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div class="photo-right clear" id="image_wrapper3" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 5px 14px; padding: 0px; width: 240px;"><img alt="" class="article-img" height="137" src="http://www.lifesitenews.com/images/sized/images/news/gay_marriage_inevitable-240x137.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="240" /><div class="article-img-caption" style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 4px 6px 0px; padding: 0px 10px;">Or is it?</div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Case in point: the recent news – or in this case, news blackout – out of Illinois.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">A few weeks ago the state legislature took up the issue of same-sex marriage. The outcome was regarded as a foregone conclusion. Illinois is President Obama’s home state, and his party enjoys commanding majorities in both houses. Same-sex marriage enjoyed the support of both the governor and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The president had even personally lobbied state legislators.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Given all that, the vote in favor of gay “marriage” in Illinois was inevitable, right?</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Well, no one bothered to tell the state’s African-American pastors. As Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage wrote in the National Review, the pastors “worked hard to reach and convince African-American legislators to stand tall for the truth of marriage.”</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">The pastors demanded that legislators acknowledge that marriage “is an institution created by God to bring men and women together for the benefit of children that can only be created through the union of men and women.”</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Read more at <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/the-false-narrative-of-gay-marriage-it-is-not-inevitable">Life Site News</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-59840263876796272232013-06-26T04:15:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.608-07:00How Songs Like Macklemore’s “Same Love” Change the Marriage Debate<div style="background-color: #ede9d0; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: georgia, 'times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><img alt="macklemore" src="http://www.firstthings.com/userImages/9140/tumblr_static_tumblr_static_macklemore.jpg" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;" /></div><div style="background-color: #ede9d0; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: georgia, 'times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">So, too, with “Same Love.” At most, it theorizes that it’s the <em>same love</em>, that love is love however expressed, but this is never defended so much as assumed; and since, as Macklemore asserts, “We press play, don’t press pause / Progress, march on,” with all other positions retrograde and bigoted, the millions of viewers, “ten years hence,” may remember that there was a controversy, but not why. </div><br style="background-color: #ede9d0; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: georgia, 'times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><div style="background-color: #ede9d0; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: georgia, 'times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">As powerfully as any cultural artifact I know, “Same Love” reveals the odd imbalance or mismatch involved in the marriage dispute. On the one hand, the traditional, conjugal view held by, for instance, the Catholic Church, operates within the vocabulary of metaphysics (nature, being, cause, structure, purpose), practical reason/ethics (good, bad, right, wrong, proper, flourishing), and logos (causation, inference, syllogism, entailment). On the other hand, metaphysics is replaced with self-identity and expression (“Live on and be yourself”), ethics gives way to egalitarianism (“I might not be the same, but that’s not important / No freedom till we’re equal, damn right I support it), and logos to sentiment (“My love / She keeps me warm”).</div><br style="background-color: #ede9d0; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: georgia, 'times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><div style="background-color: #ede9d0; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: georgia, 'times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">So you have <em>Theology of the Body</em> or the arguments of natural law versus the word–image association of Macklemore—that’s not likely a ripe conversation—and Macklemore has a lead of 48 million views and a culture moving in his direction, not only in its beliefs but in its vocabulary.</div><div style="background-color: #ede9d0; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: georgia, 'times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: #ede9d0; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: georgia, 'times New Roman'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Read more at <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/06/how-songs-like-macklemorersquos-ldquosame-loverdquo-change-the-marriage-debate">First Things</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-1433669744281823842013-06-26T04:14:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.615-07:00Less Marriage, Fewer Fathers<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><img height="332" src="http://www.mensfitness.com/sites/mensfitness.com/files/imagecache/node_page_image/blog_images/dad-persistence_main.jpg" style="vertical-align: middle;" width="500" /></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In this day and age, we are being told to come to terms with the fact that marriage is on the decline. What we don’t often hear about however is one huge consequence, as pointed out in an <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/351006/happy-fatherless-day-w-bradford-wilcox" style="color: #002aff; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">article</a> by author and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Bradford Wilcox: and that’s the decrease of genuine and holistic fatherhood.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Why’s this? Wilcox points out that as society retreats from marriage, there’s a growth in fatherless families. With cohabitation, these couples are already more likely than married couples to end up on the rocks. But the institution of marriage is the only one that binds men to their children, the only one that can keep them under the same roof. Statistics make it clear that while the number of married middle-aged women in America fell from 82 per cent in 1970 to 62 per cent today, the share of children living in fatherless homes has doubled from 14 to 28 per cent.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Read more at <a href="http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/12373#sthash.rGmtYXN1.Vb4W2L15.dpuf">Mercator.net</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-24637272987583033642013-06-26T04:12:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.621-07:00Great Love Scenes that Could Have Never Been Homosexual<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2063938378857348097" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #191919; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; position: relative; width: 636px;">In honor of the Supreme Court's decisions on gay marriage tomorrow -- whatever those decisions are -- I want to invoke my shameless love of Hollywood musicals and share some classic dance scenes that epitomize men loving women and women loving men. These are scenes that could simply never be homosexual.<br /><br />Men and women together, being themselves, in love -- nothing will ever match such chemistry. You can pass a law but gayness will just never measure up. Check these out:<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5GMNvFo7kgQ" width="420"></iframe><br /><br />If you want to pay proper tribute to male-female love, why not start with Marge and Gower Champion? Married for thirty years, they were the face of love in motion. Oozing sexuality and raw animal magnetism, the towering and slender blond boy Gower throws around the round-faced and athletic Marge but every move is tinged with seduction! Yowza!<br /><br />Read more at <a href="http://englishmanif.blogspot.com/2013/06/great-love-scenes-that-could-have-never.html">English Manif</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-16732695421534407662013-06-26T04:11:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.628-07:00More than enough love to go around<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My mother Lupita is a beautiful, intelligent, charming woman, who has had eleven boys and five girls. They range from 28 to 8. She has never had a moment’s regret. Perhaps, as her daughter I am biased, but I believe that each birth has enriched my mother, making her even more attractive and allowing her heart to expand and reach each of her children in a special motherly manner. My mother is now past child-bearing age, but if she could she would have more. Adoption has crossed her mind, and my father’s mind, more than once.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are some women out there who don’t have children because they think that having children will make them uglier. My mother is living proof that this is not the case. Just a year ago, when my grade 12 English teacher met my mother she was deeply impressed. There was even a hint of a tear. Afterwards she admitted to me: “I imagined your mother to be, well, ugly. And fat”. More than once, due to her youthful, charming, looks, people have taken her for my older sister.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is plenty of constant hard work, but my mother has never considered herself a slave. Rather she is a living holocaust of love for her family. My mother is no superwoman and there days when she is exhausted and has not had one single moment for herself. Yet there is always a smile on her face.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Read more at <a href="http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/12381#sthash.AkVz9pwx.I9CDbwYn.dpuf">Mercator.Net</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-47032049543411520862013-06-26T04:10:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.636-07:00Girls who smoke marijuana are more likely to sleep around at university, claims study<div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Girls are more likely to sleep around at university if they smoke cannabis, according to a new study.</span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">American researchers set out to discover if some students are more likely than others to 'hook up'.</span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They discovered that smoking cannabis was one of the main factors determining whether first-year, female university students took part in casual, 'no-strings' sexual relationships.</span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lead author Robyn Fielder, from The Miriam Hospital’s Centres for Behavioural and Preventive Medicine in Rhode Island, surveyed 483 incoming first-year female university students about their risk behaviours, personality traits and social environment. </span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Specific questions covered the students’ sexual behaviour and their attitudes towards sex.</span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They also discussed the students' self-esteem, religious beliefs, parents’ relationship status, alcohol and cannabis use, smoking, impulsivity and sensation-seeking behaviour. </span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Researchers re-interviewed the women monthly for eight months.</span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Fielder said: 'Our findings suggest hooking up during the first year of college is influenced by marijuana use.'<br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The study is believed to be the first to explore cannabis use as a reason why students took part in casual sexual relationships.</span></div><div style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"></div><div class="relatedItemsTopBorder" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px;"></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Read more at <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2345689/Girls-likely-sleep-university-smoke-dope-claims-study.html#ixzz2XJsOd9mM">Daily Mail</a>.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-6357519752289241572013-06-26T04:08:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.642-07:00Latin America buckling under anti-life, anti-family imperialism of Obama administration<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">The Obama administration is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to propagandize the peoples of impoverished regions and to bribe their governments to impose the abortion industry on the weakest and most vulnerable countries in the world. It is joined in this by many European states, as well as multi-billion-dollar foundations established for the purpose of world de-population programs.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">Obama's State Department is also aggressively undermining the sexual morality of young people and degrading the natural family. Governments that refuse to cave into the homosexual agenda and partake in the destruction of their precious family cultures are blackmailed by loss of development aid.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">Despite a courageous response on the part of pro-life and pro-family groups to this terrible onslaught, Latin America is beginning to buckle. The signs are everywhere.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>Read more at <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/latin-america-buckling-under-anti-life-anti-family-imperialism-of-obama-adm">Life Site News</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-26850023106191570982013-06-24T05:31:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.647-07:00What’s the connection between abortion and careers?<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">I told my mom I was pregnant. She said, “Get an abortion.”<span id="more-2763"></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">I didn't say anything. I wasn't really thinking I had any choices. I didn't have a job that could support a child. And I wasn't sure if I was planning to marry my boyfriend, although we were living together. I knew that I had big ideas for my life and I hadn't figured things out yet.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">My mom got militant. “You'll destroy your career possibilities.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">She riffed on this theme for a week, calling me every night. Her passion is understandable. My mom took a job when I was young because she hated being home with kids. She endured interview questions like, “Does your husband want you away from home working?” She was one of the first women to become an executive at her Fortune 500 company. She blazed trails so I could have career goals that required an abortion to preserve.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">Here's what else happened: Other women called. It turned out that many, many women I knew had had an abortion. This is not something women talk about. I mean, I had no idea how ubiquitous the procedure was, at least in my big-city, liberal, Jewish world.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">Each of those women told me that I should get an abortion so that I could keep my options open. “You're a smart girl. You can do anything with your life right now. Don't ruin it.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">My boyfriend was laying low. He was no slouch when it came to pro-choice politics and he knew it was, ultimately, my decision.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #3f3f41; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">Read more at <a href="http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/06/17/whats-the-connection-between-abortions-and-careers/">Penelope Trunk Blog</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-59932615771101393612013-06-24T05:29:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.653-07:00How a Country’s Economy is Determined by the Quality of its Marriages<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Fagan notes that society is made up of five facets: the family, church, school, the marketplace and government. The first three mentioned are the places that “grow the people” so to speak, and are closely interrelated. The last two areas of society are those into which people are set loose, once they’ve grown up: but the role that they play in these spheres of economy and government really depends on what happened in their experience of family, church and school.</span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The statistics which Fagan shares are both interesting and revealing. When men marry, their productivity increases by over 20%, and the highest rates of productivity in society come from men who are married with three kids. Married people also make up the demographic that shows the lowest level of unemployment. And while sadly only 45% of children in America reach the age of 17 with their parents’ marriage still intact, those who do achieve better education results. </span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So it becomes obvious that the quality of marriage in a society affects its economy.</span></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br />Read more at <a href="http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/12371#sthash.jTNHnAAH.RrDH80pn.dpuf">Mercator.Net</a>. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-88201607640149346292013-06-24T05:27:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.725-07:00A Social-Metaphysical Theory of Marriage <div style="background-color: #fffef8; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To begin, I would like to engage with the notion of social-metaphysical necessity that I’ve just invoked. Marriage is not, in the proper sense, a mere metaphysical fact for, while the necessity is grounded in the essential metaphysical nature of man and woman, marriage is also essentially, in the metaphysical sense, a social institution. Ergo, social-metaphysical necessity. The structure of society as conditioned by the metaphysical properties of the two sexual groups makes it impossible for marriage, insofar as it is <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">that</em>institution picked out historically to designate a kind of explicit communal oath, rather than some <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">other</em> social construct, to be a construct that involves sexually opposite pairs in a relationship grounded by some specific premises.</div><div style="background-color: #fffef8; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What I mean by this is that, however one may want to use the word ‘marriage,’ it will always be necessary for the good of society to pick out that particular relationship which has historically gone by the name of ‘marriage.’ Whatever happens politically, however language is changed, it will always be an essential good for society to save a particular veneration for the good of <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">marriage</em>. A society which foregoes the essential metaphysics of marriage, whatever else it may call ‘marriage,’ is a society which has lost an essential foundation, and it can only wither until it collapses. The argument which establishes this is partly historical, partly social theory. There is, comparing between the metaphysical potential a heterosexual union possesses and that of a homosexual union, a specific and important potential that heterosexual union possesses which society is built on that homosexual union does not possess.</div><div style="background-color: #fffef8; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more at <a href="http://anarchopapist.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/a-social-metaphysical-theory-of-marriage-part-1/">Anarcho-Papist</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-47944440203805804802013-06-24T05:25:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.796-07:00Lesbians Try to Suppress Free Speech in Cambridge<div style="line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Last month Jonathan Hall, a young student in Cambridge, was speaking in public about religion and same-sex marriage, to which he is opposed. To his amazement, a lesbian couple started filming him, shouting at him and then they telephoned the police and demanded his arrest.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is the <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">GAYSTAPO </strong>in action.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to them, “Anyone who believes in man/woman only marriage should be sent to jail.” “Equality overrides free speech and your views are homophobic, intolerant and very very offensive” they screamed. “Nobody should be allowed to believe that marriage is only between a man and a woman in the 21st century, we’re calling the police and we’re calling them now.”</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While one of them was on the phone to the police, Mr Hall asked, “What next, are you going to have MPs who voted against same-sex marriage arrested? What about people who voted UKIP in the local elections – are you going to have them arrested too?”</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They replied, “We’d love to !” they screamed, revealing their fascist tendencies. “We’ve got all of the evidence to put you in jail!”</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Read more at <a href="http://victimsofgaybullying.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/lesbians-try-to-suppress-free-speech-in-cambridge/">Victims of Gay Bullying</a>.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-72375463431989270332013-06-24T05:24:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.869-07:00On Winning the Marriage Debate<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 20px; orphans: 4; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No issue demonstrates this more than marriage. Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George recently wrote a <a href="http://www.whatismarriagebook.com/" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">masterful defense</a> of what marriage is and why it matters. It is no exaggeration to say that their argument is the intellectual foundation for marriage advocates, used by the <a href="http://www.nationformarriage.org/" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">National Organization for Marriage</a>, the <a href="http://www.heritage.org/issues/family-and-marriage/protecting-the-institution-of-marriage" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Heritage Foundation</a>, and others (including my own <a href="http://manhattandeclaration.org/#0" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Manhattan Declaration</a>). What did the same-sex marriage movement do with this seminal book? They ignored it.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 20px; orphans: 4; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">They don’t have answers to the authors’ claims; they don’t need them. Advocates of same-sex marriage aren’t concerned about the logic of their arguments or the precedents they establish. Forget facts; theirs is a more powerful weapon in the era of amusement: fad...</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 20px; orphans: 4; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This week, the Supreme Court will issue decisions in two cases involving the meaning and purpose of marriage. Whatever the results, our work to rebuild a culture of marriage and family will continue. Restoration will require that we better brand ourselves and make our case more attractive.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 20px; orphans: 4; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more at <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/06/10426/">Public Discourse</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-74621443118843435432013-06-22T07:05:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:31.942-07:00Less than One Third of Americans Support Redefinition of Marriage<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">WASHINGTON, D.C., June 21, 2013 (</span><a href="http://frc.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #336699; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;">Family Research Council</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">) - With the Supreme Court due to rule on two cases seeking the redefinition of marriage next week, the media have been reporting widely on polls that claim a majority of Americans now support such a redefinition to include homosexual couples. The implication left by some of these stories is that a majority would therefore be happy to have the Supreme Court rule that the U.S. Constitution </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">requires </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">changing the definition of marriage and </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">forbids </em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">any state from defining it as the union of a man and a woman.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Read more at <a href="http://www.frcblog.com/2013/06/less-third-americans-want-federal-government-redefine-marriage/">Family Research Council</a>.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-31230618664724992392013-06-22T07:02:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.015-07:00New York Senate Defeats Andrew Cuomo’s Radical Abortion Bill<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 18px;">The failure of a last-ditch hostile amendment to try to effect passage of the Abortion Expansion Act is a remarkable victory for unborn children<span id="more-56554"></span>, as well as vulnerable women and girls who so often face unrelenting societal and family pressure to abort.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 18px;">That’s the feeling of pro-life groups and the state’s Catholic bishops following the defeat of the radical abortion bill pro-abortion New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was promoting in the state legislature.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 18px;"><a href="http://lifenews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/newyor2b.jpg" style="color: #154e70;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-55933" height="206" src="http://lifenews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/newyor2b.jpg" style="border-style: none; float: left; margin: 0px 1em 1em 0px;" width="200" /></a>Senator Jeff Klein, leader of the Independent Democratic Conference, offered the late-term abortion expansion plank of Governor Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Act as a hostile amendment to a bill having to do with medical records. The amendment failed to garner the votes necessary to pass.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 18px;">The Rev. Jason J. McGuire, President of New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation, made the following comments:</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 18px;">“New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation is thankful that late-term abortion expansion legislation has failed to pass the State Senate. New York is already the abortion capital of the nation, and the last thing New York needs is more abortion. It is wonderful to see so many New Yorkers—including Members of the Legislature—bravely standing for the unborn. Late-term abortion expansion would harm women and families, as well as resulting in the loss of more innocent lives. The Senate has done the right thing.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 18px;">Read more at <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2013/06/21/new-york-senate-defeats-andrew-cuomos-radical-abortion-bill/">Life Site News</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-39786339448074377742013-06-22T07:01:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.088-07:00What is the Point of Marriage Equality?<div style="background-color: #fffef8; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Marriage equality. Equal opportunity. Wealth inequality. Gender equality. Equal outcome. Equality before the law. “All men are created equal.” The concept of equality is pervasive and used to justify a broad range of policies. But what exactly is equality, and why would it serve to justify anything?</div><div style="background-color: #fffef8; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There really is no straightforward and obviously correct definition of “equality” or “equal.” Aristotle, agreeing with Plato, defined equality as “treating like cases as like.” When you have two or more members of a set and there is some relevant likeness between them, they will receive equal treatment. But that’s the thing; equal treatment is dependent on that possession of relevant likeness. Appealing to equality presupposes that relevant likeness, but that relevant likeness is exactly what is at issue. Doubling down on the claim of equality misses the point.</div><div style="background-color: #fffef8; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Consider the notion of “marriage equality.” Why is it called “marriage equality?” The notion is that same-sex couples are being treated the same, since they already possess the relevant likeness to opposite-sex couples. Is there a relevant likeness? Maybe, maybe not, but you do not prove equality by calling it equality. This may be difficult to understand for progressivists, but demonstrating that marriage is a social construct essentially based on nothing more than love (rather than, say, certain material elements) is hard to accomplish; <a href="http://anarchopapist.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/experience-and-theory-building-a-speculation-on-religious-life/" style="border: 0px; color: #990000; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the testimony of history</a> ought to make one skeptical of the illusively straightforward kinds of argument meant to demonstrate relevant equality.</div><div style="background-color: #fffef8; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 23px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more at <a href="http://anarchopapist.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/whats-the-point-of-equality/">Anarcho-Papist</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-83511996975991315242013-06-22T07:00:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.160-07:00Vatican Cardinal: We need a new appreciation of Christian wives and mothers<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">ROME, June 21 2013 (<a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/" style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none;">LifeSiteNews.com</a>) - Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Signitura launched the Vatican’s celebration of Pope John Paul II’s pro-life encyclical the <a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html" style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none;">Gospel of Life</a> (Evangelium Vitae) Saturday, delivering the main address at the English-language catechesis. The promotion of a culture of life depends, said Cardinal Burke “on a new appreciation of Christian wives and mothers… on a new proclamation regarding woman and motherhood.”<br /></div><div class="photo-left clear" id="image_wrapper2" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 14px 5px 0px; padding: 0px; width: 240px;"><img alt="" class="article-img" height="194" src="http://www.lifesitenews.com/images/sized/images/news/Cardinal-Burke-240x194.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="240" /><div class="article-img-caption" style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 4px 6px 0px; padding: 0px 10px;"></div><div class="article-img-credits" style="border: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;">Photo: Steve Jalsevac/LifeSiteNews.com</div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">The catechesis on the encyclical marked the beginning of the Evangelium Vitae Day which culminated in a Mass <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/200000-people-join-pope-francis-for-mass-celebrating-famous-pro-life-encycl" style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none;">Sunday morning with Pope Francis</a> which was attended by over 200,000. An <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/candle-light-procession-adoration-mark-vaticans-celebration-of-pope-jpiis-p" style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none;">adoration hour and candlelight vigil</a> concluded the Saturday events.<br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Quoting Evangelium Vitae, Burke drew attention to the “daily heroism” of "brave mothers who devote themselves to their own family without reserve, who suffer in giving birth to their children and who are ready to make any effort, to face any sacrifice, in order to pass on to them the best of themselves".</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Burke further quoted from the encycical:</div><blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="line-height: 20px;">"In living out their mission "these heroic women do not always find support in the world around them. On the contrary, the cultural models frequently promoted and broadcast by the media do not encourage motherhood. In the name of progress and modernity the values of fidelity, chastity, sacrifice, to which a host of Christian wives and mothers have borne and continue to bear outstanding witness, are presented as obsolete ... We thank you, heroic mothers, for your invincible love! We thank you for your intrepid trust in God and in his love. We thank you for the sacrifice of your life ... In the Paschal Mystery, Christ restores to you the gift you gave him. Indeed, he has the power to give you back the life you gave him as an offering".</div></blockquote>Read more at <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-cardinal-we-need-a-new-appreciation-of-christian-wives-and-mothers">Life Site News</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-54246933627310224262013-06-22T06:58:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.233-07:00Anal hazing is apparently a thing in American high schools<div class="pic-container" style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; height: 162px; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img src="http://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/locker-room-Getty-Images.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(131, 41, 33); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="610" /><span class="image_caption_toggle_off" style="background-image: url(http://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/themes/dctwo/images/dc-sprite-v3.png); background-position: -355px -9px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; bottom: 6px; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: block; float: right; font-size: 11px; height: 17px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; position: absolute; right: 6px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 17px; z-index: 999;"> </span></div><h1 style="border: 0px; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 46px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Anal hazing is apparently a thing in American high school</h1><span style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: red;">[Warning: Graphic Content]</span><br />In the last year, there have been more than a dozen hazing incidents around the country involving high school boys who have sodomized other boys with foreign objects, <a class="external" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-20/sodomy-hazing-leaves-13-year-old-victim-outcast-in-colorado-town.html" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #63201a; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">reports</a> Bloomberg. Over 40 boys have been reported victims. Most have been younger students.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There’s a dearth of data concerning the size and scope of the national boy-on-boy anal hazing problem. Astonishingly, though, a study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence has claimed that nearly 10 percent of high school males report suffering some form of sexual assault including, in some cases, forced oral sex or rape.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 2em; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Social media plays a big role in the spread of hazing in high schools, asserts Susan Lipkins, a New York psychologist who has studied the phenomenon. High schoolers learn new and more brutal ways to haze thanks to virtual communities.</div><span style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />Read more at <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/21/anal-hazing-is-apparently-a-thing-in-american-high-schools-now/#ixzz2WxASTSQH">the Daily Caller</a></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-47051359568185033592013-06-22T06:56:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.305-07:00Sexual Assaults in the Military: Porn is Part of the Problem<div class="photo-full-width clear" id="image_wrapper1" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 5px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 640px;"><img alt="" class="article-img" height="329" src="http://www.lifesitenews.com/images/sized/images/news/Army_sexual_assault-550x329.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="550" /><div class="article-img-caption" style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 4px 6px 0px; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: left;"></div></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 20px; orphans: 4; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is bad enough when high-ranking military officers are arrested for sexual assault, including instructors who have <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57582551/lackland-sex-scandal-prompts-u.s-air-force-to-discipline-former-commanders/" style="border: 0px; color: #608ec4; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">assaulted trainees</a>. It is almost unthinkable that two military members recently arrested happened to be in charge of or were associated with <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/15/us/army-sexual-assault-investigation/index.html" style="border: 0px; color: #608ec4; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">sexual assault prevention programs</a> for <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/06/air-force-sexual-assault-watchdog-arrested-for-sexual-assault/2139325/" style="border: 0px; color: #608ec4; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, serif; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">their</a>respective services. It is not hyperbole to say that the US military is in a sexual assault crisis not seen since the Navy’s Tailhook scandal.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 20px; orphans: 4; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To extract itself from this sexual assault wash cycle, the Air Force, in which we serve, along with other branches of the military, must take swift action to recognize many of the underlying behaviors that lead to sexual assault and warn its Airmen accordingly. Specifically, it is imperative that the Air Force recognize the direct link between sexual assaults and the elevated amount of pornography consumption in its ranks. Pornography has become the new drug of many Airmen, and the service must help its members deal with this addictive new health hazard.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 20px; orphans: 4; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Members of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAGs) can help solve this problem and provide insight from their unique perspective on military duty. Military legal offices work closely with the military commanders to help maintain good order and discipline, and as a result, get to see the “ugly side” of the military services. Daily, they conduct investigations of and prosecute crimes committed by military members. JAGs also provide free legal advice to service members on a whole range of issues such as divorce, which offers JAGs another window into the causes of common personal problems. Many JAGs also gain rare insight into the root causes of crimes like sexual assault committed by Airmen.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Crimson Text', Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 20px; orphans: 4; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The military’s sexual assault problem is grim, but unfortunately, the current Air Force sexual assault prevention training, although well-intended, is not cutting the mustard. A brief anecdote might help illuminate the issue.<br /><br />Read more at <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/06/10360/">Public Discourse</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-59523368060396086752013-06-22T06:52:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.378-07:00We Stand in Solidarity to Defend Marriage and the Family and Society Founded Upon ThemWe stand together as Christians in defense of marriage and the family and society founded upon them. While we come from a variety of communities and hold differing faith perspectives, we are united in our common faith in Jesus Christ.<br /><br />We acknowledge that differences exist between us on important matters of religious doctrine and practice. But, on the matter of marriage, we stand in solidarity. As a nation, we have lost our moral compass. As a result, we are losing true freedom. We affirm together that there is a moral basis to a free society. Though we live in a secular society, together we reject relativism and secularism.<br /><br />We affirm that marriage and family have been inscribed by the Divine Architect into the order of creation. Marriage is ontologically between one man and one woman, ordered toward the union of the spouses, open to children and formative of family. Family is the first vital cell of society; the first church, first school, first hospital, first economy, first government and first mediating institution of our social order. The future of a free and healthy society passes through marriage and the family.<br /><br />Marriage as existing solely between one man and one woman was not an idea manufactured by the Christian Church. It precedes Christianity. Though affirmed, fulfilled, and elevated by Christian teaching, the truth that marriage can exist only between one man and one woman is not based on religion or revelation alone, but on the Natural Moral Law, written on the human heart and discernible through the exercise of reason.<br /><br />This claim of the existence of such a Natural Moral Law is the ground upon which every great civilization has been built. It is the source of every authentic human and civil rights movement. This Natural Moral Law gives us the norms we need to build truly human and humane societies and govern ourselves. It should also inform our positive law or we will become lawless and devolve into anarchy.<br /><br />Read more at Freedom Federation: <a href="http://www.lc.org/media/9980/attachments/pr_marriage_solidarity_statement_062013.pdf">http://www.lc.org/media/9980/attachments/pr_marriage_solidarity_statement_062013.pdf</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-43456785324139131212013-06-21T05:58:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.450-07:00Immigration to outstrip births in the USA<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In her last blogpost, Shannon talked about the sea change that can been seen in the demographics of the USA – the overtaking of births by deaths in the white (non-Hispanic) population. No longer can it be said that the traditional majority ethnic population of the USA is growing more slowly than other ethnic minorities, instead the other minorities are catching up because, unlike the white (non-Hispanic) population, they are actually replacing themselves.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><br /><br />Read more at <a href="http://mercator.net/">Mercator.Net</a>.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-1857206661224949812013-06-21T05:56:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.523-07:00Equality and the Redefinition of Marriage<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 1.7em; padding: 0px 0px 25px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What’s at issue is whether the Supreme Court will <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/03/marriage-what-it-is-why-it-matters-and-the-consequences-of-redefining-it" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">redefine marriage</a>—and then force every citizen, religious institution, and business to treat same-sex relationships as if they are marriages. At issue is whether the government will trample the real civil rights of Americans (<a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/06/10393/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">such as religious liberty</a>) as it coerces and compels <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">them</em> to recognize and affirm same-sex relationships as marriages.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 1.7em; padding: 0px 0px 25px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Equality demands that we treat in the same ways things that are the same. But a same-sex relationship is fundamentally different from a marriage. No same-sex union can produce a child. And no same-sex relationship can provide a child with a mother and a father.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 1.7em; padding: 0px 0px 25px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While respecting everyone’s civil rights, government rightly recognizes, protects, and promotes marriage between a man and a woman as the ideal institution for procreative love, childbearing, and child-rearing. Recognizing that we are all created equal doesn’t challenge this historical understanding.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.7em; padding: 0px 0px 25px; vertical-align: baseline;">Read More at <a href="http://blog.heritage.org/2013/06/19/equality-and-the-redefinition-of-marriage/">the Heritage Foundation</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-74409147998621004392013-06-21T05:53:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.596-07:00The gay people against gay marriage<h1 class="story-header" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 2.461em; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 34px; margin: 3px -160px 13px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 623px;">The gay people against gay marriage</h1><span class="byline" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(216, 216, 216); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #505050; display: block; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: -1px -160px 21px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; position: relative;"><span class="byline-name" style="display: block; font-size: 1.231em; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">By Tom Geoghegan</span><span class="byline-title" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 0px;">BBC News, Washington</span></span><br /><div class="caption full-width" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #505050; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; position: relative;"><img alt="Clockwise: Gay wedding cake, lesbian brides, champagne flutes, two male hands with a wedding ring" height="351" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68005000/jpg/_68005064_comp_624.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="624" /></div><div class="embedded-hyper" style="background-color: white; clear: right; color: #505050; display: inline; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px -160px 0px 16px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; width: 144px;"><a class="hidden" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22758434#story_continues_1" style="color: #4a7194; font-weight: bold; left: -5000px; position: absolute; text-decoration: none; top: -5000px;">Continue reading the main story</a><div class="hyperpuff"><h2 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-size: 1.231em; margin: 0px 0px 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 12px 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine/" style="background-color: #d60000; color: white; display: block; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: -13px; margin-top: -13px; padding: 13px 8px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; z-index: 1;">In today's Magazine</a></h2><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;"><li style="background-image: none; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: auto;"><a class="story" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22987447" rel="published-1371773591697" style="color: #4a7194; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Romania's adult orphans leave horror behind</a></li><li style="background-image: none; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: auto;"><a class="story" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22886728" rel="published-1371773818557" style="color: #4a7194; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">10 things festivals have given us</a></li><li style="background-image: none; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: auto;"><a class="story" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-22993251" rel="published-1371773768530" style="color: #4a7194; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">Quiz of the week's news</a></li><li style="background-image: none; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-rendering: auto;"><a class="story" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22972610" rel="published-1371687977228" style="color: #4a7194; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;">The Greeks who worship the ancient gods</a></li></ul></div></div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">After France's first same-sex marriage, and a vote in the UK Parliament which puts England and Wales on course for gay weddings next summer, two US Supreme Court rulings expected soon could hasten the advance of same-sex marriage across the Atlantic. But some gay people remain opposed. Why?</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"It's demonstrably not the same as heterosexual marriage - the religious and social significance of a gay wedding ceremony simply isn't the same."</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Jonathan Soroff lives in liberal Massachusetts with his male partner, Sam. He doesn't fit the common stereotype of an opponent of gay marriage.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">But like half of his friends, he does not believe that couples of the same gender should marry.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"We're not going to procreate as a couple and while the desire to demonstrate commitment might be laudable, the religious traditions that have accommodated same-sex couples have had to do some fairly major contortions," says Soroff.z</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 1.077em; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Read more at <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22758434">the BBC</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5338987260196172690.post-58103868829009522832013-06-21T05:52:00.000-07:002013-06-27T09:45:32.669-07:00Marriage, Democracy, and the Court<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">President Obama instructed Attorney General Eric Holder not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Congress passed in 1996. The governor of California told the state’s attorney general to do the same with respect to Proposition 8, which was passed by popular vote of the citizens of California.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">This is a scandalous dereliction of duty. The abdication of the constitutional responsibility to defend the laws passed by citizens and their elected representatives sets a disturbing precedent. Their inaction also distorts the balance of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. This tactic allows the executive branch to effectively veto any duly enacted law, simply by refusing to defend it against a constitutional challenge.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;">Whatever your views on the policy merits of redefining marriage, all Americans should be loud and clear on this: Activist courts shouldn’t silence the voices and votes of citizens. There is nothing in the text, history, logic, or structure of the Constitution that requires the redefinition of marriage.</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Read more at the <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/node/351478/">National Review</a>.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13417750202825691704noreply@blogger.com0