Ankara is accusing a group with links to Syrian intelligence of carrying out two car bombings in a Turkish border town, which left 46 people dead. The blasts, which ripped through a crowded shopping street in Reyhanli on Saturday, have stoked fears that Syria’s war is spilling…
The Status of Gay Marriage and the GOP: It’s Complicated
The press coverage for CPAC
today has been focused on the
caged matchup between senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul (there
was no actual debate between the two men or anything like that, but
no force on earth can stop a media narrative once it reaches full
speed).
When CPAC comes around, the Republican Party’s position on gay
marriage ends up on display, and this year was no different. CPAC
did not invite conservative gay group GOProud to participate, but
they managed to find their way in anyway thanks to a
panel put together by the Competitive Enterprise Institute
called “A Rainbow on the Right: Growing the Coalition, Bringing
Tolerance Out of the Closet.”
With more and more Republicans “evolving” along with President
Barack Obama on the issue of recognizing same-sex marriages, it’s
then worth looking at Rubio’s and Rand’s recent comments.
Rubio addressed the issue directly in his speech today. Philip
Klein at the Washington Examiner thinks the language Rubio
used
indicates a shift within the party:
[I]t was eye-opening to hear Rubio, a major conservative in the
Senate speaking at the largest annual gathering of conservatives,
declare: “Just because I believe that states should have the right
to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot.”
…
Just a few years ago, that sentence might have read, “Just
because I believe that states shouldn’t be allowed to redefine
marriage does not make me a bigot.”
It’s telling how far the gay marriage debate has moved in the
direction of its proponents in such a short period of time.
I’m not sure I necessarily agree here. Conservatives and
progressives alike tend to have a new appreciation for federalism
when their power in Washington wanes. There’s a defensive tone to
Rubio’s comments (you can
watch the speech here and judge for yourself). He’s defending
tradition, not liberty and not the Tenth Amendment. The way he put
that sentence together makes me wonder what he would have said if
his home state of Florida had legalized gay marriage recognition.
Does he also believe states have the right to define marriage in a
non-traditional way?
Paul did not discuss gay marriage recognition in his CPAC
speech today, but he endorsed the libertarian “get government
out of marriage” position in a recent National Review
interview:
Social issues are another area where he thinks Republicans can
make a better argument to independents and centrists without
departing from their principles. Gay marriage, for instance, is one
issue on which Paul would like to shake up the Republican position.
“I’m an old-fashioned traditionalist. I believe in the historic and
religious definition of marriage,” he says. “That being said, I’m
not for eliminating contracts between adults. I think there are
ways to make the tax code more neutral, so it doesn’t mention
marriage. Then we don’t have to redefine what marriage is; we just
don’t have marriage in the tax code.”
While I don’t disagree, what I always worry about these
arguments is the lack of a path to get from point A to point B. It
seems that often the only time the “get government out of marriage”
position comes up is when recognition of same-sex marriage is
invoked. Paul’s response leaves the reader to wonder whether, in
the absence of this massive shift in the tax code, he would allow
same-sex couple the same level of federal recognition as
heterosexuals, regardless off his own traditions. … Read More
Is “shiksa” an insult?
But the shikses, ah, the shikses are something else again […] I am so awed that I am in a state of desire beyond a hard-on. My circumcised little dong is simply shriveled up with veneration. Maybe it’s dread. How do they get so gorgeous, so healthy, so blonde? My contempt for what they believe in is more than neutralized by my adoration of the way they look, the way they move and laugh and speak.– Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint¤ACCORDING TO THE Toronto Police Service’s Annual Hate/Bias Crime Statistical Report, the city of Toronto saw 174 hate crimes in 2009. This number breaks down as follows: Jews were the targeted victims in 52 of those incidents; LGBT community, 26; blacks, 24; Muslims, 6; 21 other minorities were victimized a cumulative 65 times; and, to round things off, there was a single instance of a hate crime targeting a member of a group recorded as “Non-Jewish.”Continue Reading… … Read More
The 2013 Oscar Awards: Who won?
BEST PICTURE
“Amour”
“Argo”
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”
“Django Unchained”
“Les Misérables”
“Life of Pi”
“Lincoln”
“Silver Linings Playbook”
“Zero Dark Thirty”
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
Hugh Jackman, “Les Misérables”
Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”
Denzel Washington, “Flight”
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Alan Arkin, “Argo”
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”
Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”
Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained”
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Jennifer Lawrence, ”Silver Linings Playbook”
Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”
Quvenzhané Wallis, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
Naomi Watts, “The Impossible”
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams, “The Master”
Sally Field, “Lincoln”
Anne Hathaway, “Les Misérables”
Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”
Jacki Weaver, “Silver Linings Playbook”
Birthers turn on each other in court
Birther attorney Philip Berg called birther queen Orly Taitz’s actions “deplorable” this week before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a hearing related to his libel suit against Taitz.
Berg, most notable for filing the first-ever birther lawsuit against President Obama in 2008, appeared opposite Taitz before the court after a federal judge in California declined to dismiss Berg’s complaint (and threatened sanctions against Taitz).
During the hearing, Berg, accused Taitz of acting ”with malice,” saying: ”They’ve decided that they’re going to get rid of me politically in a certain case. To do that they’re decided to get rid of me by taking down my paralegal.”
From Courthouse News:
Taitz, usually the plaintiff in unsuccessful challenges to the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency, faces a civil suit alleging that she and her organization, Defend Our Freedoms Foundation, defamed attorney Philip Berg and his paralegal, Lisa Liberi.
Berg and Liberi say Taitz found Liberi’s personal information, including her Social Security number, and then mass-emailed the information and published it online.
