First, I want all of you to take a moment to laugh to yourself at the fact that Alabama, the very heart of the Bible belt, will be voting on what some believe is the most evil day in a century. Personally, I think that will only be true if ultraconservative Roy Moore wins the Republican Party primary. As this article points out, this will be the 21st time the abbreviation 6-6-6 for a date has happened since the start of the current era.
Moving along, in addition to voting for various local and state positions, we will be voting on, by my highly inaccurate estimate, our 6,660th proposed amendment to the 1901 Constitution of the State of Alabama. Although Alabama already has a law against gay marriage, ousted former judge Roy Moore has somehow gotten the state legislature to put such a ban on the ballot in Tuesday's election. Doing a search on Yahoo, I found this interesting article from the Decatur (AL) Daily. I could very easily be the only person voting in the Republican Primary to vote against this poorly-written and even more poorly-thought measure, though I certainly hope I'm wrong. I've heard, as I'm sure you have, a wide variety of paleoconservative pseudochristian asshats talking about how gay marriage is somehow a threat to traditional message. Aside from telling them to go fuck themselves, I have a suggestion for them. If they want to fight real threats to "traditional marriage", don't look outside the set of people for whom "traditional marriage" has been an option. Richard Simmons, Ru Paul, and the Hearty Boys on the Food Network aren't a threat to traditional marriage, because they're not a part of the real problem. To those who view this as the next sign of the Antichrist, I advise you to do some introspection for once in your miserable, pathetic, worthless, and ultimately futile existence. Ask yourself what percentage of all people you know have been divorced, and of those, how many have been divorced more than once, or if you're Catholic, had your marriage "annulled" which is just like a divorce with the added benefit of any children born into that marriage being rendered illegitimate; and on that note, I also send a "go fuck yourself" to Senator Lurch, er, Kerry from Massachusetts. Ask yourself why more and more people are choosing to cohabitate before or instead of marrying their opposite-sex partners. Ask yourself how many husbands and wives are the victims of spousal abuse or how many children are abused by their parents, and if you know any who fall into those categories. Then ask yourself if this is a result of bad choices in mates on the part of those getting the divorces, or if the gays are secretly responsible.
Roy Moore in my state and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist are engaging in what can only be described as a modern-day reenactment of the Senate hearings by Senator "Tailgunner" Joe McCarthy. The difference is that, at the time, a Communist nation was actually attempting to do harm to the United States, though almost none of those actually accused of such misdeeds by the great and powerful Oz were guilty of anything other than being disliked by one cunt in a position of power. This, on the other hand, is even nastier if that's possible, since gay couples are only "guilty" of wanting that which heterosexual people not only have a right to do, but take for granted. Gay couples are only "guilty" of wanting to live their lives as consenting adults in the manner they see fit. By and large, they work hard at their jobs, pay their taxes, and contribute to society as the rest of us do. The only difference is that they are attracted to members of their own sex. As a result, I oppose this ban on both substantive and procedural grounds, as I also feel this does not rise to the level of requiring a new amendment to the Constitution of Alabama or the United States.
Oh, and for the record, I reiterate my support of current Governor Bob Riley and my utter contempt and lack of support for his opponent Roy Moore, as well as Roy Moore's allies currently running for state office: Tom Parker, Ben C. Hand, Hank Fowler, and Glenn Murdock. For more information, please read this editorial from the Montgomery Independent.
3 comments:
This is an interesting post, Mandelbrot. I think it is indeed fair to ask what really does threaten marriage. Not in a legal sense, but a structural sense.
I have been thinking about modern courtship practices, which are the precursor to marriage, and I think they have been jaded by our culture's hyper-competitive attitudes.
If you like a guy or a gal (as the case may be), then you are at a complete disadvantage with them to those who don't like that person because you are not seen as a challange. There is no competition of wills when you go for someone who is eager and willing. You can't force them to like you if they like you naturally, so those people are seen as unattractive. Those people are too easy and therefore obviously must be desperate or unworthy (as opposed to being seen as trusting what they like.) That seems to be the modern attitude on courtship.
We are living in a culture where guys are turned on by lesbians because they are the biggest challenge of all. There is something wrong with that.
And then we wonder why marriages don't last!!! It's because people end up with people they didn't like to start with!!!
I think marriages would last a lot longer if people would marry people who like them from the start and vice versa. It obviously limits the playing field because it is less common for both partners to like each other from the start than for one to like the other and the other to either be indifferent or outright hostile. And yet, mutual respect and favor is a good sign that things will work. Love should be easy, not difficult. If there is friction or pain or frustration, that's a great sign to move on.
Now to be fair, some people are wary because they have been mindfucked in the past, and sometimes you have to help someone heal. But I really think we have weird ideas about courtship. As if it's an earning process that you have to work at to "win" someone. I think that is so unhealthy and quite common.
A good relationship is about equality and mutual respect and both people wanting it. And until our culture recognizes that marriage is about friendship, equality, and enjoying a smile on your partner's face, then marriage will be an unhealthy institution.
I've actually seen a fairly blatant example of what you're talking about, about people believing they have to compete for someone's affections and it quickly degenerating into something worse a la Fatal Attraction (only minus the adultery and murder), and I wanted to kick the guy's ass because he deserved better than that crazy chica. He finally removed his head out of his ass, but it took him far too long to run from that toxic relationship, and until then, he made his friends' lives somewhat hellish.
I agree that love should be easy, but it should also be recognized that no matter how good it is and how much the people care for one another and like and respect each other, it will have bad spots, and it will take work to get through them. It will be those bad spots that ultimately prove the strength or weakness of the relationship, and those relationships that survive that tempering fire are much stronger as a result.
You could always write your name on the ballot.
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