Its getting crowded in here

Many, if not most, of the gay and lesbian organizations which have signed on to the battle for same-sex marriage do not take marriage itself as their goal. Instead, these advocacy groups are broadly supportive of the radical family agenda announced in the Beyond Same-Sex Marriage manifesto. By following the public response of gay-marriage activists to the Beyond Same-Sex Marriage manifesto, we can see that the policy goals of family radicals are largely shared, even by most mainstream supporters of same-sex marriage.

More Kurtz 

Here come the brides

ON SEPTEMBER 23, 2005, the 46-year-old Victor de Bruijn and his 31-year-old wife of eight years, Bianca, presented themselves to a notary public in the small Dutch border town of Roosendaal. And they brought a friend. Dressed in wedding clothes, Victor and Bianca de Bruijn were formally united with a bridally bedecked Mirjam Geven, a recently divorced 35-year-old whom they’d met several years previously through an Internet chatroom. As the notary validated a samenlevingscontract, or “cohabitation contract,” the three exchanged rings, held a wedding feast, and departed for their honeymoon.

…

In short, while the Dutch triple wedding set the conservative blogosphere ablaze with warnings, same-sex marriage advocates dismissed the story as a silly stunt with absolutely no implications for the gay marriage debate. And how did America’s mainstream media adjudicate the radically different responses of same-sex marriage advocates and opponents to events in the Netherlands? By ignoring the entire affair.

And then there were three 

Manitoba Election, Around the Corner

Rumblings in and around the Manitoba Legislature suggest that Premier Gary Doer will drop the writ shortly on the next Manitoba election.

The Manitoba NDP convention takes place on February 2-4 where some general housekeeping is expected, including the collective nod to Gary Doer as the party’s leader. With that out of the way the election call is speculated to be on February 8th or 9th. That will allow the Province to deal with the election before the possible federal fall when the budget is introduced on March 20th.

With recent polls showing Doer at roughly 70% approval throughout the province, even the rumour of a minority government, opposed by Hugh McFayden of the provincial Tories, has dried up and blown away.

The Manitoba public seems to have a good impression of the NDP even though the party has had numerous scandals in riding associations, the Crocus Investment Fund, Workers Compensation Board and the Auditor General of the province.

Plus ca change

A former resident of France comments on dual citizenship:

Infused as he was with a liberal disposition, Aron’s views on multiple citizenship and dual nationality were pessimistic. In his 1974 article, “Is Multinational Citizenship Possible?” he clearly considered it an anachronism, totally incommensurate with the logic of the sovereign-state system. Aron argued that multiple citizenship could not break the indelible link between the individual citizen and his nation-state. Citizenship, according to Aron, was a special relation between the individual and the state; citizenship defined the state’s rule within a specific territory, and in turn the state determined who its citizens were and what rights and obligations bound citizens to the state.

 The Opium of the Intellectuals among other works by Raymond Aron is covered by Roger Kimball in the May 2001 issue of the New Criterion. Well worth the read.

Gay Rights Trump Religious Rights in Saskatchewan: Consequence of Same Sex Marriage

CBC reports on a Saskatchewan human rights tribunal proceeding directed against Orville Nichols, a marriage commissioner, who refused to perform a marriage for two men.

Nichols advised them to find another marriage commissioner, which they did, and they got married.

However, they were purportedly so upset – as activists tend to be when stoked by human rights lawyers – that they waged a human rights complaint against him. This is after the Human Rights Commission refused to hear Nichols’ own case – that he ought not be forced to perform same-sex marriages on account of his religious beliefs. The advisory decision, which advised his case not proceed to full hearings by the commission, is a disgrace. It follows the typical secularist logic by which a religious person’s beliefs are not impeded when he is forced to act against his beliefs.

In short, you can believe what you want to believe, but don’t act on those beliefs. Don’t ask, don’t tell for religious people.

Sadly, the Canadian tradition of accommodating religious diversity is out the window here. Even the military in WW2 accommodated the beliefs of pacifists. By the SK HRC’s reasoning, the state should have shot them for insubordination when they refused to fight. Most proponents of SSM claim rights of gays are too important to make accommodations. But are said rights more important than national security, as in the case of WW2 accommodations? If the Canadian military can do it, so can the SK Human Rights Commission.

By offering a plurality of marriage commissioners, Saskatchewan is quite capable of lawfully accommodating same sex partners as is their right under the law. Perhaps their website should also list the types of services their commissioners offer. One can imagine this “menu option” as something governments could offer in a variety of services. For instance, if you’re pro-life you might want a pediatrician who does not perform abortions. By the same logic, if you’re gay you should be able to find a marriage commissioner who will marry you without destroying the rights and freedoms of those with opposing views such as your own. The state is quite capable of making accommodations, and this is no exception.

I don’t mind saying, but I TOLD YOU SO.

Same Sex Marriage Undermines Marriage: But Not the Way You Think

ThePolitic.com has devoted considerable space and energy to discussing and analyzing the pros and cons of same sex marriage. Most of our contributors oppose SSM for reasons conventionally labeled as traditional (i.e., marriage has a unique or even sacred place in society and our moral economy).

Not that many people are aware of the Beyond Marriage movement, which is composed largely of people on the left. These people think that SSM is only one step toward their eventual goal, which is dismantling marriage altogether. Critics of SSM have argued that the Beyond Marriage movement simply radicalizes the principles that are largely implicit in the logic of legitimating SSM.

However much the logic of both SSM-proponents and the Beyond Marriage folks overlaps, there seems to be some overlap of political logic between the Beyond Marriage folks and those who would prefer to have the state remove itself from the marriage business altogether. The Nation reports on how various BM proponents argue for economic dependency as the basis for extending benefits to domestic partnership arrangements.

This, in effect, is identical to the “civil union” or “domestic partnership” solution that the Law Commission of Canada proposed several years ago. Today, SSM-proponents reject that as “backward” because it doesn’t “recognize” SSM-relationships (SSM is about “recognition”, not about economic benefits).

However, it’s noteworthy that that argument has been embraced from the left side, by those who have realized that SSM is an empty category.

While it’s unlikely a political solution on this basis can be achieved in Canada, now that the Harper government has surrendered on the file, but it’ll be interested to see how things play out in the US

Time for Mourning: Quebec Separatism Near Death

The only one sadder than Andre Bosclair about the state of the Parti Quebecois is me. At 20%, it looks like the PQ is ill-prepared to take Quebec out of Canada and thus save ROC (ie., Alberta) billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, Barry Cooper in the Calgary Herald (behind firewall) documents yet more evidence why trying to appease Quebec undermines Canadian constitutionalism.

Legalizing Drugs is Not the Solution

Hat tip to Rempelia Prime for this thought-stirring article:

Why the hell aren’t we making all drugs available to all adults? Yes, we’d have another mess on our hands, but it would be a better mess than women’s heads sliced in half and left in buckets. It would instantly drain the power of violent criminals. Yes, prostitutes need protection. But perhaps we could make it unnecessary for them to climb into a car and ride into the fetid, bloody pit of death that we will peer into during this trial.

Why indeed? Perhaps it is because there are no good solutions for government to take to this problem. This is a human problem: a problem of individuals. It cannot be resolved from a decree from our appointed masters.

No, I don’t mean it is THEIR problem. It is OUR problem. It is MY problem. It is YOUR problem. Legalizing drugs to make them readily available will do one thing: it will accelerate the rate at which we incapacitate our own citizens into ineffectual zombies. It will not do one thing: it will not keep women off the street.

The reasons for women entering into the sex trade are legion. They are not all drug related. Yes, many prostitute themselves because they need money for drugs. But why do they value themselves so lowly that they would rent out their orifices for men’s pleasure? Is that the fault of drugs? Will they really do ANYTHING for drugs? Or has something else gnawed away at their sense of self-worth long before the drugs? What caused them to turn to drugs in the first place? What drove them away from their family, their friends? What dragged them out into the street?

Drugs are an answer, but they are not the answer. They are an answer as to the question of what is keeping them down – it is one of many things. Legalizing them is not the answer to their prayers. You and I need to accept personal responsibility for those less fortunate. We need to step up, help people out.

We need to teach our children, our teens about these consequences, about the effects of their actions on their peers, their classmates.

We must raise up a generation that does not let this happen to anyone they know – that stays away from the drugs, that loves and supports each other and builds each other up so that they don’t feel desperate, alone, and unloved.

This begins at home, and it won’t cost a dime of taxpayer money. Its cost cannot be measured, but it will always be treasured, if we have the guts to pay it.

ThePolitic Website Problems – Sorry for the Delay

Sorry for the delay, a server upgrade caused a few problems with the newest version of WordPress 2.1. However, most of the issues have been resolved and everything should be back up and running normal.

If you encounter any problems or you noticed the overall performance of the site is down, please contact me.

Insane Racists Influence CBC Ratings

A glimpse of the inward looking personality of the mother corp was held up by the cool kid the other night on “The Hour”.

The Hour, broadcast on January 25th,  featured a little rant by show host George Stroumboulopolos about the network’s multicultural gem, Little Mosque on the Prairie. Praise is given to the new sitcom for being inducted into the Museum of Television and Radio in Los Angles (after two shows, yes we heard you George). George goes on further to discuss the shows ratings and how they were split, er, ummm, amazing, well, split, not split, well most people liked it. And the others? Those others who found it to be more CBC produced time wasting?

“A few were insanely racist, and they were insanely racist, there’s no way to cover it.”

The narrow view of those at the CBC is barley wide enough to fit their own egos through each day. This is how more of our tax dollars are bartered for in CBC board meetings. Have business plans for development been replaced by partisan chicken scratching and explanations of viewers who don’t choose to watch as “insanely racist”?

Note: For those of you who can’t sit through the entire show, or who may be insanely racist against people with Greek last names, the comments are made at around the 25:00 mark. 

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