The Snarky Files - Euripides' Views on the Week (May 4)

Among other things this week, we learned that the swine flu shouldn't be called the swine flu (swine farmers got angry) and that a pandemic is another word for just a few people getting sick.

The Snarky Files. Snarky means several things. I prefer the definition of "sharply critical." Here's my take on some news stories this past week. No real news here, just snark.

Today's Snarky Files focuses on some of the news this past week which indicates many, many serious attacks on marriage and the family. Both marriage and family are necessary for societies to function and both are under pressure to "conform" to modern liberal ideals which have nothing to do with preserving society.

Duh
I'll start off, however, by mentioning one news story that focused on the ever growing national debt. From the New York Times comes this article entitled "Worries Rise on the Size of the US Debt." The article lists under a subheading "Signs That Borrow and Spend Policies Aren't Sustainable." One quote from the article suffices:

Investors are starting to wonder whether the United States is headed for a new era of rising market interest rates as the government borrows, borrows and borrows some more.

All I have to say about this reaction to the spending bills (formerly known as "stimulus") and the current massive budget is:

Well, duh.

Hate Speech
What constitutes hate speech in this country? That's a particularly sticky and unsolvable question. Unsolvable, unless you number yourself with the left-leaning, loony liberals who pass themselves off as watchdogs of all things biased:

Arkansas voters who signed petitions and then voted to limit adoption strictly to married couples are getting unwelcomed publicity.

Some homosexual activists did not like the petition and its success at the ballot box. Jerry Cox is head of the Arkansas Family Council.

"Now this gay group out of Massachusetts has acquired the names of all the people who signed the petition to place the measure on the ballot here in Arkansas," he notes. "They got those from the secretary of state, and they've entered those into a database, and they've put them up on the Internet." (One News Now)

Does this sound all too familiar, you California denizens who supported Proposition 8? What's good for California apparently is good for Arkansas. It's not called "accountability" as gay activists would like to argue. It's called intimidation. It's, unfortunately, not called hate speech.

Winning
Several news stories appeared with hopeful news - hopeful, that is, for the misbegotten views of the anti-marriage brokers attempting the overthrow of marriage. From the LA Times "Same Sex Marriages Gradually Gain Legal Ground." Another from the AP headlines "Dems: Opportunity as Gay Marriage Acceptance Grows." Both stories hold opinions that acceptance of same sex marriage is inevitable.

The inevitability factor, the idea that conservatism is out of touch, the idea that all that matters is identity politics and a skewed version of civil rights, all this says, in effect: Give up.

While I refuse to give up conservatism, I will admit one thing. If the people of the US choose to continue to destroy the core institutions of marriage and family, the people of the US will get everything they seek and deserve. There is an inevitability about it. When society lies in a heap at the feet of the winners, I wonder just what they will think they've won?


False Impressions
Oprah.com announced that more and more women are leaving their men to have sex with women. Yet the oprah.com article openly admits this interesting bit of self-deception:

Statistics on how many women have traded boyfriends and husbands for girlfriends are hard to come by. Although the U.S. Census Bureau keeps track of married, divorced, single, and even same-sex partners living together, it doesn't look for the stories behind those numbers. (CNN)

In effect, the oprah.com article says, "We have absolutely no proof that more women are leaving men for other women but we'll write the article anyway, give it a pro-lesbian slant, and people will believe us."

Repeat after me: There is no gay agenda. There is no gay agenda. There is no gay agenda.

There. Do you believe it now?

Stampede
The Des Moines Register reports the stampede of people who applied for a marriage license after Iowa's court sidestepped public opinion and law to allow same sex marriages. The grand total? More than 380. (It's important to note the news wants us to know it's more than 380. We wouldn't want to short change those extra few folks.) These include licenses issued to people out of state who wanted to achieve same sex marital bliss. With a 2008 population in Iowa of more than three million, that accounts for a smidgen more than .01% of the population.

With all the outspoken liberals, gay activists, supreme court justices, and news media, somehow I thought there were a few more folks than that in Iowa who wanted to get married.

Does identity politics of .01% of the population trump the institution of marriage and its preservation? Apparently so.

Political Fair Play
How does same sex marriage legislation pass in a place like New Hampshire? Through political intimidation, of course:

State Party Chairman Ray Buckley told Democratic state Senators during closed-door negotiations that the Democratic National Committee might revoke New Hampshire’s First-in-the-Nation primary status if they failed to legalize gay marriage....

When some Senators objected that voting in favor of the legislation might jeopardize their reelection campaigns Buckley retorted that he would be able to deliver plenty of money to help them defend their seats....Senators in attendance took Buckley’s remarks to mean he would be able to deliver out-of-state money from gay rights groups.

Buckley’s successful arm-twisting in the days and hours leading up to the final vote on Wednesday drew praise from the Human Rights Campaign, a prominent gay rights organization. (NowHampshire)

Identity politics and neutering marriage go hand in hand with political intimidation and party corruption. Are we surprised?

Hate Crimes
The new hate crime legislation being forced through Congress is based, in part, on a case from 1998 when a gay man was brutally murdered. Yet, when the case was reviewed from the perspective of time there are some interesting conclusions:

"The hate crimes bill was named for [Shepard], but it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills," [Republican Congresswoman Virginia] Foxx said on the House floor last week. Immediately, Democrats sought out their unapologetic allies in the media to force Mrs. Foxx into a perfunctory, skin-saving apology. (Washington Times)

This is what Mrs. Foxx refers to:

"The prosecutor who prosecuted these crimes says that he never believed it was a hate crime. He believes it was a drug crime. Aaron McKinney, according to Aaron McKinney himself and to several other witnesses, was coming down from a five-day methamphetamine binge. He freely admits he not only used methamphetamine but dealt them, sold them. Five days up with no sleep, strung out on drugs, desperate to buy more, desperate to rob somebody to get money to buy more drugs. This was the motive, according to Aaron McKinney and the other witnesses." (Washington Times)

Yet Congress is bent on pushing through legislation, based on a faulty idea, which will have many unintended consequences, some of which may directly interfere with the First Amendment.

In other words, business as usual.

Too Young
The New York Times ran an op-ed piece that asks the question, "Are we pushing our kids to grow up too fast?" The point is valid but not in the way the Times article intended. The article refers to school homework and testing at a early age.

It does not, however, question the wisdom or the validity of children's books that teach about sex, homosexual sex, or same sex marriage. It does not question whether we should expose our children to the adult questions of same sex marriage. It does not question passing out condoms in schools. It does not question "A Day of Silence" to increase "understanding" of gays to children who should have no reason to worry about sexual pressures at all.

Are we pushing our kids to grow up too fast? Yes. So let's keep the constant bombardment of sex out of the schools.

Adultery
I suppose the explosion of the pornography industry isn't enough to try and destroy the values on which marriage and families are based. A company based out of New York calls itself Home Wreckers Inc. Its sole purpose? To provide opportunities for people to cheat on their spouses.

I'll post one quote as an epitaph of marriage:

Jennifer, who felt ignored by her husband, a workaholic investment banker, joined Ashley Madison last September and has already had three affairs with married men in their thirties.

"There is a safety in the fact that we are all in the same position," she said. "We want discretion and we don't want to jeopardise our marriages."(Telegraph)

Divorce is another in a long line of serious attacks on marriage. Now we have dating services to help people commit adultery?

In all of this we must forget that it's the children who lose out as more and more children are raised without their right to a good mom and dad.