Phantom Stranger

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Posts by Phantom Stranger

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  101

  Bush Bash, Anti-gay marrige.

  by SC_Guy in

  1. social
  2. current

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  i think bush is trying to screw this country one more time before he's voted out of office....

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  Phantom Stranger

  Apparently my comment was too subtle...

  I never said that Jefferson was not religious... You seemed to think that I said that, and I have no idea why, but I didn't say it.

  I simply pointed out one of many instances where he avoided associating the actions of the government with a particular religious belief.

  Apparently, to my surprise, there are many people who act as if the separation of church and state was not the intent of the founding fathers.

  For those who are new to this type of argument (I was), I refer you to the following links (which I will not attempt to summarize here... seems pointless.)

  http://www.au.org/about/ a page for the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State

  http://members.tripod.com/~candst/tnppage/arg1.htm a great resource responding to many arguments, one by one, demonstrating that said separation was indeed the intent of the FF, particularly Jefferson.

  So, t, you posit that the US should incorporate religious principles into its decisions and actions?

  Also, you state that I did not respond to some issue - I apologize, I'm not clear on what you'd like me to respond to.

  P.S. Your posts read a bit "mad-bomber"-ish... different fonts, spacing, size, etc. Are you composing in Word and then pasting? If so, you might want to use Notepad instead...fewer artifacts are introduced that way.
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  41

  Constitutional Amendment : Slippery Slope

  by patio34 in

  1. social
  2. current

  this was too good to leave on the bush/gay marriage thread so i'm starting a new topic on it: .

  the following was sent to me recently: .

  as certain politicians work diligently to prevent marriage between two people of the same sex, others of us have been busy drafting a constitutional amendment codifying all marriages entirely on biblical principles.. after all, god wouldn't want us to "pick and choose" which of the scriptures we elevate to civil law and which we choose to ignore:.

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  Phantom Stranger

  Thanks, patio, for a well-made point.

  Hee hee.
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  101

  Bush Bash, Anti-gay marrige.

  by SC_Guy in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  i think bush is trying to screw this country one more time before he's voted out of office....

  1. 
  2. 
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  Phantom Stranger

  Boy, you really refuted my case that Jefferson was an atheist. Wait...
• 
  101

  Bush Bash, Anti-gay marrige.

  by SC_Guy in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  i think bush is trying to screw this country one more time before he's voted out of office....

  1. 
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  3. 
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  Phantom Stranger

  Then I suggest you exercise your religious freedom by not marrying a man.

  You kids have fun - I'm off to enjoy the rest of my Saturday outdoors.
• 
  101

  Bush Bash, Anti-gay marrige.

  by SC_Guy in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  i think bush is trying to screw this country one more time before he's voted out of office....

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  I make no claim for any party or movement to receive credit today for progress made in the past.

  However, I do think that we can learn from reading the arguments made in the past, against changes that we acknowledge today to have been positive changes, resulting in progress as a nation.

  The arguments I reads today seem to use the same structure and attempt to invoke the same fears as past arguments against emancipation, suffrage, and racial integration.

  If the pro-amendment conservatives were simply arguing for state's rights - and going after state by state as they are already doing - that would be a principled position for them to take. Trotting out stale, tired arguments is not acting on principle - it's partisan rhetoric.

  Wonder which state's gonna secede over gay marriage... maybe those divorcees in Alabama will back out.

  Where's SF Jim nowadays?
• 
  101

  Bush Bash, Anti-gay marrige.

  by SC_Guy in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  i think bush is trying to screw this country one more time before he's voted out of office....

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  Your religion and your morality may make you happy, as Washington asserted - I tend to gravitate to Jefferson, stating that yours should not be inflicted upon me:

  I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment, or free exercise, of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the U.S.
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  101

  Bush Bash, Anti-gay marrige.

  by SC_Guy in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  i think bush is trying to screw this country one more time before he's voted out of office....

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  PUT...THE...CRACK...PIPE...DOWN!

  Never said it was a "Democratic" thing - but it was the right thing, it was a "liberal" thing (in the real meaning of the word - you can look it up) and conservatives fought against it.

  I made no claim. Eisenhower was Republican - but a moderate one - and the Civil Rights Act can be described as a bipartisan victory for this nation.

  As was pointed out earlier - conservative does not equal Republican and liberal does not equal Democrat.

  And which poll numbers? As usual, the nation seems to be in the middle, and it looks like a horse race.
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  49

  Maybe I'm not a cultured as I though. :- /

  by Elsewhere in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just got back from going to the nasher sculpture museum in downtown dallas.

  they are having a showing of a rare collection of picasso paintings and sculptures that everyone is talking about.. i'm starting to wonder... maybe i'm not as cultured as a thought.

  nearly every time i looked at one of his works i found myself thinking: "what the hell was mug smoke'in when he did that?

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  Phantom Stranger

  Don't worry, elsewhere, none of us thought you were that cultured. :)

  Go read about the bombing of Guernica, pre-WWII. Practice run for the blitzkreig tactics. Read about the savagery inflicted.

  Then go look at Picassos' Guernica.

  His thing is NOT to make you think - but to make you feel.
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  101

  Bush Bash, Anti-gay marrige.

  by SC_Guy in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  i think bush is trying to screw this country one more time before he's voted out of office....

  1. 
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  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  No, we don't have our reasons why, we just know what you are afraid of.

  Plural marriage "worked" for thousands of years.

  Slavery "worked" for thousands of years.

  Oppresion of females "worked" for thousands of years.

  Racism "worked" for thousands of years.

  Hell, monarchy "worked" for thousands of years.

  Every horse dies someday. Which ones will you choose to keep beating?
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  101

  Bush Bash, Anti-gay marrige.

  by SC_Guy in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  i think bush is trying to screw this country one more time before he's voted out of office....

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  There are many Democrats whose personal beliefs make them anti-gay marriage - in personal belief.

  There is a difference between having a personal preference, and wanting to modify the Constitution to match one's personal preference.

  The Dems didn't make this an election issue. Fortunately, they don't need to. Kerry can be conflicted, being personally against something that he suspects the Constitution allows - which both he and Yeru have sworn to uphold and defend - Kerry once as a Navy officer, and again upon entry to the Senate. Kerry can express his conflicted internal state without harm - he still gets the gay vote, and people see that he's not the mythical knee-jerk liberal of talk radio.

  Yeah, allow gays to actually get Social Security benefits and health insurance from their partners, and next, dogs and cats will be living together. Blah, blah, blah. You, Jefferson Davis, and Strom Thurmond, pal. These arguments were trotted out against the Nineteenth Amendment, against the Civil Rights Act, against freeing the slaves, etc., etc.

  As has been pointed out in many instances (such as here), the DOMA prevents any state's acknowledgement of a gay marriage from having to be give "full faith and credit" by another state - but even without DOMA there are noted instances, that have never been challenged, of one state failing to give full faith and credit to a particular type of marriage that contradicts its laws and practices. I think this is a perfectly good example of state's rights - a concept that conservatives seem to believe in wholehartedly - when they don't hold the Oval office or Capitol Hill.