ACLU- who supports actions like this??

[sharon kinsella]

Ryan, My life isn't a lifestyle, is yours? I believe that being christian is a choice.

Who I am is a beautiful, loving mom and woman and not you or anyone has a right to say I'm abnormal.

Personally, I don't believe in your religious lifestyle, but it's not up to me to judge because of that or decide (based on what information) that a life is abnormal. Life is a life Ryan. Get off that phony high horse before you fall and break your sanctimonious neck kiddo.

[Bryan Schwegler]

Ellen,
Here's what you need to quickly understand about any Ryan Salo post on the deck....

• Ryan will say he doesn't hate particular group XYZ (gays, liberals, anyone who's not a white evangelical Christian, etc) and then go on to use the most hateful language to describe them throughout the "conversation"
• Ryan will say he just thinks everyone should be free to live their life and no one should be forced to accept the views of another, but then he'll do nothing but espouse laws restricting the rights of others that don't meet his very narrow and abnormally conservative views.
• Ryan will say he's open minded, but when confronted with true facts about something, he'll look for ways to deny it or just completely ignore any of the inconvenient truths that may pop out.

As long as you can accept those things and participate in his threads just for the pure enteraintment value of watching him froth himself up into a Glenn Beck inspired frenzy, then you'll have a good time in them.

As for the "abnormality" of gay marriage, I personally can't wait to see what Ryan does when either a) the Supreme Court strikes down DOMA and then state-level "marriage" amendments over the next few years (which every competent legal and constitutional scholar says is ultimately the only outcome based in law) or b) the overwhelming majority of US citizens who support gay marriage (already over 52% and rising every year) vote more and more to start allowing it.

Ryan's head will explode, or he may choose to move to a country that better fits his moral values like Saudi Arabia or Sudan.

This whole post is a little tongue-in-cheek and I honestly believe Ryan isn't a bad person and I give him his right to have the beliefs he wants to have, I just think he doesn't understand how his words actually are interpreted by most people.

[Ellen Cormier]

Bryan, thanks for the insight. I stopped posting for a while becausing it is too frustrating when people are intentionally inflammatory. I have some strong opinions and I don't want to be intentionally inflammatory either.

Ryan s, I think you are probably a decent guy but I hope you know fox "news" are documented liars and have been playing a very dangerous game warping the minds of Americans. Fox news has literally single handedly turned millions of Americans against each other. People who with the same set of facts would be working hard together to improve this country instead of the bizarre partisan warfare.

Low-income, the disabled, children, single mothers, the elderly, and all their "handouts" are not the ones responsible for the collapse of society and I am sick to death of hearing about it. And frankly conservatives need to face facts that the bush tax cuts and 2 unfunded wars have been the worst things to happen to this country in decades and start working with democrats, who as a group are hardly the liberal god hating demons fox news makes them out to be.

[Ryan Salo]

Ellen,
You may be surprised to know that I don't watch foxnews tv. I get my news from CNN.com and foxnews.com not from tv. I know both have their own slant. If you really believe foxnews is what is destroying the nation you have not been paying attention. Do you remember the hatred from the left when gw was pres? I have yet to see a fu#$ obama bumper sticker here in lakewood but saw at least a dozen f bush. The hatred towards conservatives is crazy here, you wouldnt believe things that I have seen here.

Here is a link to some of the "free speech" the left get away with that would be considered hate speech if an r said it.

http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/17/liber ... -standard/

Bryan I will not be surprised when gay marriage is legal. It is part of the moral collapse of our country. Every major country goes through these phases on their way down. I will just be disappointed, sorry but my head won't explode. I really don't get worked up much about these things, it just surprises me how people really think.

[Ellen Cormier]

Ryan, why does it surprise you when people want equality? And why does that signal the collapse of society?

P.S. Foxnews.com is fox news. Fox news does not just have a slant it is a lying propaganda machine with an agenda. there is no liberal equivalent to it and there never has been.

[Ryan Salo]

Have you not been paying attention to msnbc over the past years? Too many blatantly false stories to even keep track of. At least I can see the slant of the right, the left can't even admit they are equally responsible.

Moral decay =equality? I have to admit the left are way better at using words to make immoral acts sound better and the opposition sound worse, Equality/hate speech and pro-choice/anti-choice. That is probably why feelings are so important to liberals, because all they have to justify their behavior is word manipulation.

[Ellen Cormier]

Ryan, yes I can see how it must be so frustrating that the truth seems to have such a liberal bias! Now you're getting it! Because when we say it's ok for 2 consenting adults to love eachother and they should be allowed to get married it's because it's the truth and it's actually NOT moral turpitude.

[Ryan Salo]

the truth seems to have such a liberal bias

Nothing could be further from the truth

I hope we can at least both agree that we are blessed to live in this great country.

Have a good 4th of July.

[Roy Pitchford]

I'm going to be brief with my comments, but I'm also going to be candid.

1. I have every respect for gay society. What you do in your own home, provided it is legal, is your own business.

2. To anyone who wants to argue equality: Let's organize a straight pride parade then. Hmm, no takers?
You're gay and you're proud of it. Guess what? I'm straight and I'm proud of it, but I'm not interested in marching down the street proclaiming it to others and neither is any straight person I know.
You want equality and acceptance? Stop asking for special favors.

3. I would like to present an idea I've had regarding this whole civil union/marriage debate. Its a very simple concept, provided I can put my thoughts into words properly:
- Make a civil union the same as a marriage in the eyes of the law, down to benefits, visitation rights, etc.
- A civil union comes from a courthouse (hence, civil) ceremony.
- A marriage comes from a religious ceremony.

If a man and woman go to a courthouse, they end up with a civil union.
If two men or two women go to a church, they will have a marriage.

As I see it, everyone has the same rights. If a gay couple wishes to have the "benefit" (if there is any benefit) of a "marriage", they'll have to go through the process of finding a church willing to perform the ceremony (In the same way that a person looking for a specific college degree might have to look at the offerings of several schools).

However, this is not a federal issue unless specifically taken up by the states or the Congress as a constitutional amendment. This should be left to the states to decide, as prescribed by the 10th Amendment.

[Ellen Cormier]

Well there are plenty of churches willing to sanctify gay marriages but what you are asking in your proposal would necessitate changing the rules for everyone. I think people propose such things because they have a problem with calling a gay marriage a marriage and feel more comfortable with civil union. I think it's a silly way to try to make things separate but equal which in the past has been tried and failed. Along with trying to make it a "states rights" issue which has been used for extreme discrimination in the past and obviously can cause problems when people move to another state.

As for gay pride parades and such I think the idea is to not To have to live your life in the closet as for in all of previous history gays were forced to live a lie or worse.

[Bryan Schwegler]

Uh oh, the end is nigh...better get into your bunkers and prepare for the end of America...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43660098/ns/us_news-life/

[Thealexa Becker]

I'm going to be brief with my comments, but I'm also going to be candid.

1. I have every respect for gay society. What you do in your own home, provided it is legal, is your own business.

Good.

2. To anyone who wants to argue equality: Let's organize a straight pride parade then. Hmm, no takers?
You're gay and you're proud of it. Guess what? I'm straight and I'm proud of it, but I'm not interested in marching down the street proclaiming it to others and neither is any straight person I know.
You want equality and acceptance? Stop asking for special favors.

I guess women and minorities should also stop asking for "special favors" (or as members of those groups call it, equality) in things like equal pay or, you know, no sexual harrasment or violation of our civil rights.

It's free speech, they can march if they want. Just like those radical anti-government people can complain all they want and say inaccurate things.

Straight people don't march down the street proclaiming that they are straight and proud because they don't need support for their community. They are not harrassed because they are straight. They are not excluded from things because they are straight. If anyone did that it's like rubbing it in the faces of the minorities and the gay community.

People in the favored group don't have the right to tell those who feel persecuted how to feel. The gay community is subject to all kinds of cruelty, even among children. It's disgusting. And to debase their show of public of pride and support for their community as "asking for special favors" is just unfair and shows how little you understand their perspective.

3. I would like to present an idea I've had regarding this whole civil union/marriage debate. Its a very simple concept, provided I can put my thoughts into words properly:
- Make a civil union the same as a marriage in the eyes of the law, down to benefits, visitation rights, etc.
- A civil union comes from a courthouse (hence, civil) ceremony.
- A marriage comes from a religious ceremony.

If a man and woman go to a courthouse, they end up with a civil union.
If two men or two women go to a church, they will have a marriage.

Seems reasonable, except that churches for the most part don't marry gay couples.

However, this is not a federal issue unless specifically taken up by the states or the Congress as a constitutional amendment. This should be left to the states to decide, as prescribed by the 10th Amendment.

Also true, but eventually it will become and should become federal. This is civil rights. States should not be left to decide civil rights. I think we all know how that went before.