equality blooms with spring

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A smidgen of shame = honor killings?

What would your analogy be if I proposed we went back to stigmatizing laziness? Ovens?
 
Erm, that's not an 'honor killing'...
Is that divorces per marriage or divorces per population?
I'm not aware of any organization which tracks refined divorce rates (rate per 1000 married women) by state. You could collect the needed info to make those calculations from the Census Bureau, but it'd take more time than it's worth here IMO, because what you'd need would be scattered through multiple charts. What you can pretty easily calculate are state-by-state marriage:divorce ratios, which are considered to be in-between the crude divorce rate (rate per 1000 population) and the refined divorce rate in terms of accuracy. Looking at the Census Bureau's most recent state-by-state figures for # of marriages and # of divorces, and looking at just Massachusetts and those 'Bible Belt' states for which both figures are available, the ratios, from 'best' to 'worst,' would be:

Massachusetts 2.65: 1 (marriages: divorces)
Texas 2.26: 1
Tennessee 2.19: 1
South Carolina 2.19: 1
Alabama 2.14: 1
Arkansas 2.01: 1
Virginia 1.96: 1
North Carolina 1.82: 1
Missouri 1.76: 1
Kentucky 1.71: 1
Oklahoma 1.40: 1
Mississippi 1.11: 1

Statistically, the strongest correlations with low divorce rates are high levels of education, low levels of poverty, and low geographic mobility (the latter correlation is interesting in that it can partially 'counteract' the former two--as seen in a 'bad' way in the high-mobility Pacific Northwest, and in a 'good' way in the low-mobility Northern Plains).


ETA: The National Marriage Project at Rutgers calculated refined divorce rates for a few relevant states for 2005, no comprehensive list unfortunately:
The highest divorce rates are found in the more religiously-based Red states such as Arkansas (25), Oklahoma (25), and West Virginia (23), in striking contrast to more secular Blue states such as Pennsylvania (11), and Massachusetts (11). The national divorce rate was 16 divorces per 1000 married women in 2005.
 
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if we want to measure "morality," and since divorce now doesn't count, maybe we could measure STD rates by state.

because, again, the Red States are going to come out on top of that one as well.

and i think the lesson here is that "morality" has nothing to do with morals, and everything to do with economics.
 
Not that I've ever seen.

Well, you believe you have before, INDY. Usually it's some vague reference to how "we don't know" what could happen if we "alter the definition of marriage." Which sounds like a FOXNews propaganda story, but, nonetheless, is your usual answer.
 
INDY, I just want to know that those of us that are divorced and should feel shame, do we get different colored 'D's.

I mean should my ex-wife wear the scarlet 'D' and me a light blue 'D'?

I mean how is society going to know who to blame and judge?
 
Ask the man you voted for to be president.

The man who is for at the bare minimum civil unions across America and for the states to only decide between the title "civil union" and "marriage?"

He's much closer to being reasonable than most politicians.
 
Ask the man you voted for to be president.

Deflection won't cut it. You made a statement - a fair one to make, btw - about potential societal consequences of same-sex marriage. It was just incomplete.

Changes to public policy should always be fully assessed on the realistic, potential benefits, costs and risks/consequences.

Can you back up the statement you made?
 
if one believes in, accepts, and supports the concept of "sin".

they are a party to the belief system that is responsible for that video
 
and from the mouths of babes, truth!
Strangely enough, my kids have never found our gay friends confusing. :shrug:

(And I've never heard kids that young say "what about Adam and Eve" unless they've been coached to...they ain't that rhetorically clever.)
 
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Opposing Gay Marriage

By Bill O'Reilly for Bill O'Reilly.com
Thursday, May 21, 2009

So, here's the thing about homosexual marriage in the United States: It is going to be legal in about half the states. There is no stopping the gay nuptials now, even though most Americans say they are opposed to extending marital law to same sex couples.

Right now, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, and Maine allow gays to marry. New Hampshire will soon do so. Once the legislatures of New York and New Jersey get finished taxing the life out of their citizens, they, too, will most likely pass gay marriage. And, even though the folks in California voted down gay nuptials, the Supreme Court there is desperately trying to find a way to nullify the vote.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Poll says 54% of Americans oppose gay marriage, while 45% support it. But if you oppose gay marriage, your opinion makes you a bigot. Did you know that? That's what the Miss California controversy was all about.

Your humble correspondent doesn't really care much about gay marriage because I believe it is no danger to the republic and the deity can sort all this stuff out after we're dead. I take a libertarian position on issues like gay marriage because I want all Americans to be able to pursue happiness equally.

However, I do understand that most Americans believe heterosexual marriage deserves a special place in our society. Our Judeo-Christian traditions, which have made the United States the most prosperous and just society the world has ever known, speak to a family built around a responsible mother and a father—certainly the optimum when it comes to raising children.

I also understand that once America changes marital law for one group, homosexuals, it will have to allow plural marriages and other types of situations under "equal justice for all." Also, there is no question the Scandinavian marriage model of anything goes has led to a drastic decline in traditional marriage.

But you rarely hear those arguments articulated in the media, which is largely sympathetic to gay marriage. And not only that, but people who feel strongly about maintaining a special status for traditional marriage have allowed themselves to be intimidated. When was the last time you saw a Catholic cardinal or archbishop speak against gay marriage on television? I know—I've invited some of them. They all turned me down.

The truth is that pro-gay marriage forces have succeeded in their bigot-branding campaign and will not stop with marriage. Because they won this public relations war, you can expect to see the racist, bigot label marketed in other controversial situations. Already, abortion zealots are branding pro-life people "anti-woman" and "anti-privacy." The left knows it has a powerful cannon with this bigot stuff.

So the gay marriage debate is just about over. Conservative states won't pass it, but liberal states will. There was a time when we were truly the united states. No longer. :(
 
However, I do understand that most Americans believe heterosexual marriage deserves a special place in our society. Our Judeo-Christian traditions, which have made the United States the most prosperous and just society the world has ever known, speak to a family built around a responsible mother and a father—certainly the optimum when it comes to raising children.


:yawn:


I also understand that once America changes marital law for one group, homosexuals, it will have to allow plural marriages and other types of situations under "equal justice for all." Also, there is no question the Scandinavian marriage model of anything goes has led to a drastic decline in traditional marriage.


what a weak linkage, however semi-skillfully made. he's equating "anything goes" to same-sex marriage, when the two are not the same thing, nor is there any evidence that a reluctance to enter traditional marriage in Scandinavia has anything to do with the following:

1. gay people
2. same-sex marriage
3. any sort of negative social impact

as has been pointed out, Scandinavia does not have many of the social problems that afflict the US, and simply because a child might not have married parents that does not mean that he doesn't live with two parents who love each other and are committed to each other. what's going on in Scandinavia -- and it's a relatively minor trend -- is that many people are choosing to forgo marriage even though they might live as we understand that married people do. and there's no evidence of any sort of social decay related to this in Scandinavia.

so, yeah, bunk.


But you rarely hear those arguments articulated in the media, which is largely sympathetic to gay marriage. And not only that, but people who feel strongly about maintaining a special status for traditional marriage have allowed themselves to be intimidated. When was the last time you saw a Catholic cardinal or archbishop speak against gay marriage on television? I know—I've invited some of them. They all turned me down.


yes, it is well known that Christians are an oppressed minority in America and that they all think exactly the same and that the failure to make Christian doctrine law is tantamount to religious discrimination. poor Christians, getting bullied by the gays. just like it was in 5th grade. :sad:


The truth is that pro-gay marriage forces have succeeded in their bigot-branding campaign and will not stop with marriage. Because they won this public relations war, you can expect to see the racist, bigot label marketed in other controversial situations. Already, abortion zealots are branding pro-life people "anti-woman" and "anti-privacy." The left knows it has a powerful cannon with this bigot stuff.


the truth is that the same-sex marriage is winning because of two reasons:

1. the increasing acceptance of gay people as full and equal citizens as gay people come out of the closet and live open lives
2. the American impulse towards fairness and equality and sympathy towards rights and freedom
3. the understanding that homophobia is the same as racism or sexism

So the gay marriage debate is just about over. Conservative states won't pass it, but liberal states will. There was a time when we were truly the united states. No longer. :(


and conservative states will continue to be carried along by the liberal states, and conservative states will continue to blame their vastly higher social and economic problems on gay people. and that's how it's always been.
 
and conservative states will continue to blame their vastly higher social and economic problems on gay people. and that's how it's always been.

They got pretty good traction blaming minorities and feminists, so yeah
use what works. :up:
 
When was the last time you saw a Catholic cardinal or archbishop speak against gay marriage on television? I know—I've invited some of them. They all turned me down.

Maybe - just maybe, Bill, it's because they know what a dickhead you can be to your "guests" and didn't even want to deal with it, even though it sounds like ya'll are on the same page in regards to this issue.
 
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