Beyond SSM – Far-fetched and vacuous or tip of the iceberg?

Posted on February 11, 2015 by ScottC

Pretty interesting thing I just stumbled across (via The Federalist).

In our past debates about SSM, pointing out the obvious, logical implications of arguments for re-defining marriage to include same-sex couples was variously dismissed as “false equivalencies”, “vacuous”, “far-fetched”, and as possibilities that exist only in the “slippery slope” imaginations of those who object to SSM (to wit, “I understand that no defender of SSM would have raised the idea if it had not been first made an attack point by opponents of SSM”).

It turns out, however, that a document titled Beyond Same-Sex Marriage was produced way back in the dark ages of 2006 before it was politically expedient to support SSM, in which all of the fanciful, vacuous, far-fetched, slippery slope implications of SSM we fully laid out by the burgeoning SSM movement…as long term goals. A taste:

We, the undersigned – lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and allied activists, scholars, educators, writers, artists, lawyers, journalists, and community organizers – seek to offer friends and colleagues everywhere a new vision for securing governmental and private institutional recognition of diverse kinds of partnerships, households, kinship relationships and families. In so doing, we hope to move beyond the narrow confines of marriage politics as they exist in the United States today.

…The struggle for same-sex marriage rights is only one part of a larger effort to strengthen the security and stability of diverse households and families. LGBT communities have ample reason to recognize that families and relationships know no borders and will never slot narrowly into a single existing template.

…Marriage is not the only worthy form of family or relationship, and it should not be legally and economically privileged above all others. While we honor those for whom marriage is the most meaningful personal ­– for some, also a deeply spiritual – choice, we believe that many other kinds of kinship relationship, households, and families must also be accorded recognition.

Among these relationships that should be granted the legal and cultural equivalence of marriage are:

Committed, loving households in which there is more than one conjugal partner

…and:

Close friends and siblings who live together in long-term, committed, non-conjugal relationships, serving as each other’s primary support and caregivers

…and:

Queer couples who decide to jointly create and raise a child with another queer person or couple, in two households

Perhaps what we who oppose court imposed SSM were saying all those many months ago was not quite so vacuous and far-fetched, after all.

BTW, if you want to peruse the hundreds of signatories to this document, representing ostensibly respectable institutions like Harvard, Georgetown, Columbia, University of Texas Austin, NYU, you can find them here.

Filed under: marriage | Tagged: | 36 Comments »

Boxing Day Faux Morning Report

Posted on December 26, 2014 by ScottC

It being Boxing Day in the UK and a Friday for the rest of the world, there is no European markets open and no Asian markets to follow our own. So the US is pretty much dead today, despite being officially open. I posted this mainly to avoid having to despoil the Merry Christmas post with a link to Matthew Yglesias.

Filed under: Morning Report | 21 Comments »

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2014 by ScottC

Merry Christmas to everyone still hanging around ATiM. Here’s a classic Christmas tune from an up and coming talent to help you celebrate.

Filed under: Open Thread | 10 Comments »

Happy Birthday, ATiM

Posted on September 13, 2014 by ScottC

Today ATiM celebrates its 3rd anniversary. Despite our much reduced daily content, and although I am more often than not disappointed to find nothing new, I must confess that ATiM remains the first website I check every morning, so on my own behalf I want to offer my sincere thanks to all of you who have stuck with it and continue to be daily contributors. I could easily provide a list, but this is supposed to be a happy occasion, so best not to make the depressingly short list too explicit.

One interesting thing worth noting: In my quest to make this anniversary post at least somewhat entertaining by taking a walk down memory lane, I was originally going to link to some of the better threads we’ve had over the last few years, but while searching I discovered that, despite the diminished number of contributors, we did manage to set a new record in 2014 for most comments on a single post. It was McWing’s President’s Day Post which was, ironically, itself devoid of literally any content whatsoever, but managed to produce an impressive 279 comments.

2014 also produced a 242 comment post by Mark, Gay Conservatives Denied ‘Official’ Spot at Texas GOP Convention, which placed in the top 5 of most comments in history.

To be fair, though, neither of these more recent posts can be said to even approach what was the longest thread in ATiM history. That distinction belongs to a memorable thread that was so epic it needed two separate posts by Mich, the first of which alone had the 3rd highest number of comments (252), and the second of which was nearly 70% as long as the first (176), combining for a total 428 comments. I believe that this thread represents the zenith of ATiM’s participation rate.

Anyway, congrats again to ATiM for surviving a 3rd tempestuous year. Here’s to one more.

(Shall we take bets on who is still commenting by September 13, 2015?)

Filed under: Open Thread, This Day in History | 27 Comments »

Constitutional Authorization

Posted on September 4, 2014 by ScottC

A question for all….

The powers of the congress are layed out in Section 8 of Article I of the constitution, which reads as follows:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Which of these explicit powers authorizes the creation of (to take just one of many examples) the Environmental Protection Agency and the law/regulations that it promulgates?

Filed under: Constitution | 43 Comments »

Liberal Linguistic Lies

Posted on July 20, 2014 by ScottC

I have long believed that a key component of the left’s political success over the last century has been its masterful use of deceptive language to frame both issues and their own political positions in ways that make them much more palatable to an unthinking public than they otherwise would be if they were presented more honestly. Indeed, even the use of the term “liberal” to characterize themselves is a bit of a deception in historic terms, since liberal originally indicated someone who favored free trade and limited government, quite the opposite of what liberals have now become. Anyway, with that in mind, I have cobbled together a list of common liberal linguistic lies of our modern age. Feel free to add to the list.

1. Women’s Health – When liberals speak about “women’s health” in a political context, they aren’t really talking about the health of women. They are actually speaking about abortion. So when someone says, for example, that “It’s time to remove politics from women’s health care”, what they really mean is “Abortion should be legal and immune to the processes of democracy.”

2. Reproductive rights/freedom – Like “women’s health”, this is just another liberal euphemism for abortion. Which is a bit bizarre if you think about it, because, if one did not already possess the freedom/right to reproduce, how could one possibly be in a position to need/want an abortion?

3. Marriage Equality – We’ve talked about this one extensively here at ATiM in the past. “Marriage equality” actually has nothing do with equal rights to marry, as liberals try to deceive us into believing, but is instead a call for changing the very definition of marriage from what it has always been to something new such that it can encompass homosexual relationships. Throughout US history homosexuals have always had the very same right to marry someone of the opposite sex that heterosexuals have had. But what they want is a new right, namely the right to “marry” someone of the same sex. Since, due to the very meaning of the term “marriage”, no one, not even heterosexuals, has ever had that right ever before in the US, what they want is not “equality” but rather a new conception of the notion of marriage.

4. War on (fill in the blank) – When liberals say that someone is engaging in a War on X, they don’t mean that one is literally or even figuratively waging a war on X. They simply mean that the person disagrees with them over some political issue that is really important to them. And often the issue isn’t even related to X. For example, the War on Women usually refers to just advocacy for stricter abortion laws. When Obama spoke of Bush’s War on Science, what he really meant was that he had a moral/ethical disagreement with regard to what the government should be funding.

5. Deny – The other day, following SCOTUS’ Hobby Lobby decision, Democrat Elizabeth Warren characterized the decision as giving corporations the power to “deny their employees access to birth control.” Of course the court gave no such power to “deny access” to anything at all. What she actually meant was that the court recognized that certain corporation owners have the right not to have to pay for certain kinds of birth control that are, nonetheless, still legally accessible to their employees. And this is not an isolated instance of such an idiosyncratic use of the term “deny” by liberals. For example, if one thinks that the government shouldn’t dictate what an employer has to pay employees, then one wants to “deny equal pay to women”.

6. invest/subsidize – Liberals often use the word “investment” when what they actually mean is “subsidy”, and then they use “subsidize” when what they actually mean is “not force to pay more money”. So when the government gives money or guarantees to companies like Solyndra and Tesla, it is “investing”, but when doesn’t raise the minimum wage, it is “subsidizing” corporations.

Filed under: Open Thread, politics | 14 Comments »

Faux Morning Report 7/10/14

Posted on July 10, 2014 by ScottC

The report is that Brent is still not able to post. That is all.

Filed under: Open Thread | 28 Comments »

The Liberal Zone

Posted on February 8, 2014 by ScottC

Is there any better indication of the perverse nature of progressive ideology than that the left now declares it desirable that able-bodied workers will be able to choose not to work to support themselves as the result of taxpayer funded wealth transfers? It used to be the case that the left would dismiss with contempt the notion that its welfare policies discouraged people from working. Welfare was simply for the unfortunate few that couldn’t possibly support themselves, we were always told. Now, with the announcement from the CBO that Obamacare will result in 2 million fewer workers in the workforce, the true mindset of the left comes out. Paying government subsidies to people who can and do work to support themselves is now apparently a good thing precisely because it allows them to stop working to support themselves.

When it comes to the warped and disturbed, Rod Serling has nothing on the bizarre thinking of progressives.

Filed under: Affordable Care Act | 37 Comments »

First Post of the Day

Posted on December 25, 2013 by ScottC

Merry Christmas, McWing. And everyone else, of course.

Filed under: Open Thread | 6 Comments »

Today in history – September 20

Posted on September 20, 2013 by ScottC

1975 – The Scottish pop band The Bay City Rollers makes their US debut on a short-lived ABC television show called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. The BCR had already become a teen phenomenon in the UK, inspiring scenes reminiscent of the Beatles from a decade earlier with their biggest hit and number one, Saturday Night. As it turns out, however, neither the Rollers nor the Cosell show have the same staying power of the Beatles, as SNL with Howard Cosell is cancelled after only 3 months (opening the way for NBC’s Saturday Night to change its name and go on to make history) and the Bay City Rollers themselves fade soon thereafter. But their biggest hit still makes the occasional pop culture appearance:

1973 – Wimbledon’s two time reigning women’s champion Billie Jean King defeats former Wimbledon men’s champion Bobby Riggs in a much anticipated exhibition tennis match dubbed “The Battle of the Sexes”. The 55-year old Riggs, who had been openly contemptuous of women’s tennis, had challenged the 28-year old King the previous year, a challenge that King had ignored until Riggs trounced the women’s leading money winner Margaret Court 6-1, 6-2 in the first (and long since forgotten) first battle of the sexes. Once King accepts the challenge, the match quickly becomes one of the most hyped sporting events in history, being staged in the Houston Astrodome in front of a record crowd of over 30,000 people, along with an international television audience. King beats Riggs fairly easily in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. The match has long been hailed as an iconic moment in the history of the women’s liberation movement, but ESPN recently raised question about the event, alleging in an Outside The Lines broadcast that Riggs, a notorious gambler and hustler, was involved with the mob and in fact threw the match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUCI6jb8YAQ

1519 – Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sets out from Spain in an effort to find a western passage through the Atlantic to the Spice Islands in Indonesia. Magellan will eventually find the passage after probing the South American coast, becoming the first European explorer to pass through the Atlantic to the Pacific through what will come to be known as the Straits of Magellan at the southern tip of South America. One of Magellan’s 3 ships to pass through the straits will eventually make it all the way back to Spain, the first ship to circumnavigate the globe, although it will do so sans Magellan himself, who is killed in the Philippines, the victim of a poison arrow strike.

Filed under: This Day in History | 20 Comments »

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