Feeding Frenzy #1
The voters of Maine took away the right to marry, as the tyranny of the majority strikes again. It’s truly disturbing that fundamental human rights are being decided by popular opinion.
Let’s meet the most prominent opponent of Homo sapiens marriage: Maggie Gallagher. Gallagher is the president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which spreads doomsday myths about same-sex marriage and funnels money to local organizations that oppose same-sex marriage. I was surprised to learn that Gallagher is herself married. I expected that it would have been impossible for her to find a mate willing to overlook her horrible visage, her chafing voice, and the fact that she has devoted her life to denying human rights to others. In addition, I presume that her uterus is lined with razor blades.
Gallagher and others that fight same-sex marriage must have watched a lot of soccer, because they know how to take a dive. They make the uproarious claim that they are the victims—that they just want to live in peace, that they are under attack, that they are wrongfully called bigots. I’ll make this clear to everybody: if you don’t want to be called a bigot, don’t act like one.
So traditional marriage is under attack? Until 1967, states could make interracial marriage a felony. The voters of Alabama took until 2000 to repeal their law against interracial marriage, and 40% voted to keep it. Other traditions of marriage included prohibitions against marrying outside of one’s religious group or socioeconomic class. Women were chattel and had no rights. At its heart, marriage used to be a business transaction carried out by the parents in order to secure property. Those who advocate a nostalgic “traditional marriage” need to learn that there’s a difference between reality and TV shows from 1952.
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A California schoolteacher has started a petition to require public schools to have assemblies during the holiday season where children are forced to sing Christmas carols. It wouldn’t feel like Christmas without the howls of those who feel persecuted because Sears used the word “holidays” instead of “Christmas” in a mailing. Anyway, this teacher insists that students wouldn’t be offended because any uncomfortable students could just stand up and request to be sent to a special room. She has claimed that she has never encountered a Jewish student—I’m sure that she created an accepting environment in her classroom. Why is this woman obsessed with forcing kids to carol? As she says, the kids “need it” because “they need to see that we believe in Jesus…That’s why we’re the best country on earth.”
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A Japanese railway company is installing blue lights in rail stations in the hopes that it will prevent suicides. Seriously.
The idea is that the blue lights will have a soothing effect and stop people from jumping in front of trains, as if suicide is done on a whim. They’ve already tried bright green paint and mirrors to discourage people from jumping in front of trains, and it hasn’t worked. Japan has a very high suicide rate, and trains are a popular way to kill oneself. Suicide by train is so commonplace that train companies have started charging the family of the dead for monetary damages caused by the delay caused by the suicide.
Some would say that there is a cultural and societal problem here and blue lights won’t change anything. To this assertion, the Japanese authorities reply, “stop using logic.” Hey, at least it’s not as bad as South Korea, where even the government public health service believes that leaving a fan on during the night will kill a person.
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Apparently Dwight Schrute is a congressman from Georgia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewafPV2brQA