Archive for February, 2009

Homosexuals should be allowed to marry. To me, this is obvious. They are Americans protected by the Constitution, which gives each American equal rights. Our society has built up finding a partner to spend the rest of your life with as one of the main means of finding happiness, and denying homosexuals this right denies them their pursuit of happiness. In addition to this, denying them the ability to marry and all the rights and benefits that come with marriage implies that they are second-class citizens, that they are somehow lower than the rest of Americans because of who they are. They are fine to watch on television, just as long as they don’t have equal rights. What an absolute joke.

I am so sick of the argument that homosexuality is a choice. I just spent a couple minutes searching through LexisNexis Academic and JSTORE and studies showing that homosexuality is not a choice are seemingly infinite. With humans and animals, sexual preference is often fixed at birth. Over 450 species of animals exhibit homosexual behavior (The Monitor). Man is an animal. Whether it is a gene, the hypothalamus, or any other number of things, homosexuals are who they are. If you want more proof that homosexuality is not a choice, think of it this way: Does it make someone’s life easier to “choose” homosexuality? If it’s a choice, why do so many repressed fundamentalists who a oppose gay marriage get busted engaging in homosexual activity?

The main opposition to gay marriage is religious. This really upsets me. This is America, but we are letting religious views deny a minority equal rights. What happened to separation of church and state? That is one of America’s biggest contributions to the world, and it should matter. We don’t have a state religion, we don’t force people to go to church on Sunday, and we shouldn’t deny rights based on interpretations of religious dogma. I would even argue it from a religious perspective. Did Jesus ever say anything about homosexuality? No. If you want to use the Old Testament as your guide, then all Christians should be keeping Kosher and stoning people for a huge number of offenses.

What is left? Any slippery slope argument cannot work in a debate, because it is a fallacy. Even if one were to take up the fallacy and argue that gay marriage would lead to polygamy and marrying animals or whatever, they would be wrong. The logic just is not there. It is an attempt to change the subject, and it is not the point.

I’m not sure what other arguments against gay marriage there are. Gay marriage is not an attack on traditional marriage. How is it an attack? I never understood this logic, either. How does allowing gays to marry affect traditional marriage? As Jon Stewart said, “Divorce isn’t caused because 50% of marriages end in gayness.” For me, it is as simple as this: If you don’t want a gay marriage, don’t get one. How simple is that?

In America, history does not look kindly on those that opposed civil rights. Interracial marriage was once illegal, and the people who wanted to keep it that way look absolutely ridiculous. The fight for gay rights will be remembered in the same way. People will look back and wonder how anyone could have wanted to make gay marriage illegal, how Americans could have denied fellow Americans equal rights.

Again, if you don’t want a gay marriage, don’t get one. But don’t force your beliefs on others.

Adam Feser

The poll is closed, and here are the results:

What would you like to see Feser write?
Haiku about Simpsons characters (29%, 19 Votes)

A fictional interview with L. Ron Hubbard (26%, 17 Votes)

A poem for Bo Pelini (15%, 10 Votes)

A short story involving Alex Rodriguez (9%, 6 Votes)

Interview with GoldenLyon Productions (Bryan Goldsmith and Chris Lyon, creators of Wolves on a Submarine and Pumping Dudes) (8%, 5 Votes)

A short story involving Michelle Bachmann (5%, 3 Votes)

Scenarios from Lost (TV show) comparing Democratic and Republican strategies for rescuing the survivors (5%, 3 Votes)

Top Ten List of Guilty Pleasures (3%, 2 Votes)

A preview of the upcoming film Watchmen (2%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 66

There were a decent number of votes, and thank you to everyone that participated. Some time this weekend, when I’m not debating, I will be posting several haiku about characters from The Simpsons. It was a surprise comeback over the early leader, a fictional interview with L. Ron Hubbard. I am stoked to do this, and I may throw in some of the others later on just for the heck of it. I must admit that I was hoping one of the short stories was going to get more votes. I had a lot of good ideas and tend to write short stories when I’m bored. You may be getting the short stories whether or not you want them. Get excited about the haiku, get excited about the debate, and get excited about Watchmen.

Enjoy a snowball fight.

Adam Feser

The school choice idea sounds really stupid…but thats just reading what you posed.

Lets do the gay marriage topic.  Have Carrie flip the coin to see who goes first and take off.  And trust me, if I have to debate about, or i get upset, I will check daily.  SO, with that said…lets get this thing rolling.  (New one that just came to mind, assisted suicide, where do you stand there)

Enjoy NFL free agency

DR

Wow, I am impressed by how much we have in common. No torture, no intelligent design in schools, pro legalization, affirmative action, election-day voter registration, dogs, and pie? Nice. That being said, there are some issues left for us to debate. Here is a list of where we differ:

• Funding stem cell research – Feser – affirmative; Dr. – negative
• Offshore drilling – Dr. – affrimative; Feser – negative
• Gay marriage – Feser – affirmative; Dr. – negative
• Universal Healthcare – Feser – affirmative; Dr. – negative
• Racing as sport – Dr. – affirmative; Feser – who cares? scratch this one, I’ll just agree
• South Dakota stuff

For the record, school choice is a favorite of many conservatives and free market proponents. The programs proposed often involve school vouchers. The idea is that if you make schools more or less private institutions and let parents pick which school their child will attend, the schools will be forced to compete and the best ones will survive. I am not a fan of this idea.

Alright, we have some good options here. I would love to debate gay marriage, but I am open to ideas. Are we just going to pick a topic and run with it? Were there any other ideas you had? Do we want readers to help decide the topic or bring up other ideas? I would be willing to debate any of the topics, so we can just run with one if you like. If we are going to do this, we should be sure and do it in a somewhat timely fashion (no taking two weeks between posts, Dr.).

I only wish we could find a truly unbiased and objective jury of 9 so we could have a wager and a winner. But since this isn’t feasible, the only wager shall be pride (and I’m guessing we’ll both feel as though we won; as Michael Scott would say: win-win-win, with the third win being for the readers).

I anxiously await your reply.

Enjoy some trash talk, cause it’s a-comin’

Adam Feser

Here are some issues I would debate and the side I would take:
Legalization of marijuana – Affirmative
Funding stem cell research – Negative
Torture – Due unto others
Offshore drilling – affirmative
Pie or cake – Pie…is there anything else
Intelligent design in schools – Negative
Election-day voter registration – ABSOLUTELY
Affirmative Action – Affirmative
Gay Marriage – nope
Universal Healthcare – nope
Dogs or Cats – Dogs, cats are a waste
School Choice – Not sure what you mean by that
Auto racing a sport – affirmative
Possible 2010 Governor, House and Senate matchups in SD

I may have brought this up before, but a segment on The Daily Show reminded me of a question I have, which also happens to be the thought of the day. If you believed in the rapture, end times, antichrist stuff, wouldn’t you be pumped for the antichrist? His arrival and ascendence to power would imply that the rapture is about to happen and that Jesus is about to defeat the antichrist’s army and reign over earth. Wouldn’t you be excited for that? So the people that think Obama is the antichrist should be stoked, right?

Here is the clip from The Daily Show that got me thinking about it. It looks as though Barack Obama is either the antichrist or Hitler. Jason Jones is always phenomenal, and this clip is no different. These people are absolutely ridiculous. It is simply amazing how crazy people can be. It’s even more amazing that CNN and Fox News actually take the time to report on this stuff.

Enjoy King of the Hill on Adult Swim.

Adam Feser

That is a very good idea. We should have a debate. That is the purpose of this site. The problem I see is that I am not sure exactly where you stand on every issue as I am sure that you don’t know my position on every issue. I prefer not to pretend that people are completely conservative or liberal, Democratic or Republican.

How about we list issues we would like to debate. Then we can see where we differ. Once we figure out where we differ, we can let the readers decide what they would like to see us debate. We could also just debate whatever we decided. That part can be left up to you.

The format should also be discussed. It could be like this: Carrie flips a coin for who goes first, Opening statement A, Opening statement B, Rebuttal B, Rebuttal A, Closing A, Closing B. Hopefully there would be several comments form readers throughout. We could also open up comments between the opponents. This is just an idea. We could also have a much more open, less structured debate style where we just sort of go back and forth.

Here are some issues I would debate and the side I would take:
Legalization of marijuana – Affirmative
Funding stem cell research – Affirmative
Torture – Negative
Offshore drilling – Negative
Pie or cake – Pie
Intelligent design in schools – Negative
Election-day voter registration – Affirmative
Affirmative Action – Affirmative
Gay Marriage – Affirmative
Universal Healthcare – Affirmative
Dogs or Cats – Dogs
School Choice – Negative

There are probably several other things we could debate, these are just the ones that came to mind.
These are my ideas, let me know what you think.

Enjoy college baseball starting up.

Adam Feser

Instead of what you want to see Adam write, what should we debate…Thats a good thought!

Enjoy the combines!

DR

Since this is the man they have chosen to respond to President Obama, I figured I would pass along some information no one may have heard when he was discussed as a possible running mate for John McCain. Bobby Jindal has exercised demons and cured cancer.

In an essay Jindal wrote for the New Oxford Review, a right-wing Catholic journal, in 1994, Jindal details the whole experience. Here is the link to the article: Jindal: Demon Hunter. The problem with this link is that you have to purchase the article. Here is a link that to fill you in on some of the other stuff: TPM summary and commentary. Oh spinning heads and (actual) inner demons, how real you are.

Just thought my readers would be interested in this article. How you can write something like this and still win a race for governor is beyond me. Obama’s priest said crazy things that Obama doesn’t even believe and people wanted to write him off. Why shouldn’t Jindal be called out for this lunacy? Would you want this man making education decisions for your children? Probably not, because, as you may have guessed, he supports teaching intelligent design in public schools.

Enjoy this rising star’s crash (I hope).

Adam Feser

Bobby Jindal is one of many Republican governors to come out and speak against the stimulus plan. They cannot take the money, except for all the money they take. Jindal speaks passionately against the stimulus, tells us why he is turning down the money, then takes $3.7 billion of the $3.8 billion offered. If this whole thing isn’t to get some face time in the press, I’m not sure exactly what these guys are doing. Here is a little piece on it from the Daily Show.  Warning: Some of the jokes in the video are not clean

Enjoy spring training.

Adam Feser