I love the passing of time

At least, I don’t see any through the green-tinted plexiglass of the exercise wheel.

:-(

We don’t want to breed hamsters, but I know the kids (and I) would think it was cool to watch one or two of them grow up.

So, we’ll wait a few weeks, then let them go back together & see what happens.

They’re trying to distract the voters from the real issues with ‘Gay Marriage’ scares.

Personally, I think that any two consenting adults who wish to make a lifetime commitment to each other should be legally allowed to do so. Really, how ’special and sactified’ is a *legal* marriage, anyway, these days? What’s the divorce rate again? Something like 50%, isn’t it? And, yes, I know those numbers are skewed and hard to pin down, but, honestly, how many heterosexual couples do you know who really shouldn’t have married to begin with? So much of the time, a marriage is just a fun party, a thing to do, a way to get insurance, a way to keep people (including yourself) from wondering if you’re ever going to get married. There are no guarantees. There’s not enough honesty in relationships and in the world. There are so many people who married the wrong person. Or, who never married the right person.

Anyway, I just don’t see how allowing gay people to marry would affect any heterosexual marriages at all. Your marriage is either good or it isn’t. You either communicate well and have a great life together or you don’t. Someone else’s relationship doesn’t affect that in any way. Neither does it affect the values that you choose to teach to your children. Of course, they may see homosexuality being ‘accepted’ by society and, therefore, question the values that you taught them (if you are teaching them that it is wrong), but, if they respect you and the lessons you have taught them, then *their seeing homosexuality as acceptable by society is not going to be any different than when you saw it happen*. It’s not going to change their beliefs any more than it changed yours.

And, I know a few gay people (probably more than I realize) who think it would be nice to be able to marry, make a public declaration of their commitment, be allowed legal rights that married couples are allowed… But, they are also aware that it may take some time for that to happen & they aren’t really all that upset that they may not be able to do that, legally, for a while now. They’re OK with it, but wish that it would change.

So, why the e-mail (that was forwarded to me on a UU church mailing list), from “Project Marriage Illinois” regarding the new ‘threat from pro-homosexuals’ in the form of “Equal Marriage Illinois” (which is an organization so new that it’s website is still under construction)?

Now, I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist But, I’m thinking that it’s possible that the right wing *loves* this issue -and- makes it more than it is in order to get higher voter turnout from the single-issue voters, who might be (for some reason that I just don’t understand) afraid that if homosexuals are allowed to marry, their lives (and/or the lives of all people in America and in the world) will be made worse (or, maybe, that God will be angry with them/us if this is ever allowed to happen). Voters who, even if they would have *not voted otherwise* or, maybe, voted for a more liberal stance on some of the bigger issues (war, healthcare, foreign policy, etc), will now vote straight conservative, in order to keep themselves safe from gay marriage.

Sigh.

I couldn’t find a link to the e-mailed letter on the PMI website, so here’s a cut/paste of it, if you’re interested in seeing it. If you are prone to nightmares about the scary gay boogie-man, you might want to skip it :p

Illinois Homosexual Groups Launch Counterfeit “Marriage” Project
9/13/2006 4:59:00 AM

By Peter LaBarbera and David E. Smith, IFI

Protect Marriage Illinois effort will resume for 2008 ballot

Illinois Family Institute has been warning you for a long time that pro-homosexual forces in the state would be pushing hard to legalize counterfeit “marriage”– even as they disingenuously argue that a statewide marriage amendment is not necessary because “Illinois already has a marriage law on the books.”

Well, now they have formally begun their dubious crusade to overturn that law: a coalition of pro-homosexual activist groups, including Equality Illinois, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU of Illinois, will soon be launching a statewide campaign under the name “Equal Marriage Illinois” project–a misguided rip-off of Protect Marriage Illinois.

Equal Marriage Illinois (EMI) “has been building alliances in communities statewide, and has received terrific pro bono creative work from ad agency Young & Rubicam,” according to an e-newsletter from the homosexual lobby group Equality Illinois. (To give feedback to Young & Rubicam for their promotion of counterfeit “marriage,” call their Chicago branch office at 312-596-3000. )

The campaign is a statewide “public information and dialogue campaign focusing attention on the core issues of justice and family at the center of the marriage equality debate,” according to Equality Illinois.
In other words, you’re about to be hit with a slick PR campaign to radically twist the age-old definition of marriage, in the nice-sounding name of “equality.” This latest move by the state’s rich and powerful (yet tiny in numbers) homosexual lobby only proves our point: we MUST enact a Marriage Protection Amendment, as 20 states already have, and seven more likely will this fall.

We’ve already seen how the Illinois Left–including the above groups and others like NOW-Illinois, the Gay Liberation Network, and People for the American Way–united to deny the people of Illinois an opportunity to voice their opinion on preserving marriage. (PMI has lost its legal appeals to get on the ballot, but not before these groups challenged over 100,000 signatures from the PMI petition drive–many for ridiculous reasons that never would have withstood challenge.)

Now these groups are coalescing under the umbrella of ‘Equal Marriage Illinois’ in a marketing blitz that will mock the God-ordained institution of marriage with a Madison Avenue touch. We know that “EMI’s” PR assault on everyday Illinois residents will be relentless, so it’s up to all of us to demand fairness from the media.

The whole notion of a marketing campaign to promote counterfeit, “same-sex marriage” is ironic when you remember that Rick Garcia of Equality Illinois has continually pointed to his own polling data (two different surveys) to suggest that Illinois citizens do not want to amend our Illinois Constitution to permanently define marriage as what it is: between one man and one woman. Of course, anyone can get the answers they want with the right questions.

(IFI readers will recall that it was Garcia, a self-proclaimed Catholic, called his own Cardinal, Francis George, a “bigot” simply because George defends the historic moral teachings of the Catholic Church, inc luding preserving marriage as one-man, one-woman. Garcia’s friends at the Gay Liberation Network maligned the unassuming George, and Chicago’s wonderful Moody Bible Church, as a “haters”–just part of the Illinois Left’s regrettable campaign to smear marriage defenders and people of faith.)

They’re not equal
Even as the homosexual activists celebrate the fact that Protect Marriage Illinois fell just shy of its goal of making the ballot, they and their allies obviously fear what we’ve already accomplished in Illinois–especiall y that hundreds of thousands of Illinois citizens mobilized to defend marriage. (Over 400,000 of us signed the PMI petition.)

The other side may have more money, media friends and marketing power, but most Americans–and most Illinois citizens–understan d that homosexual attempts at “marriage” cannot come close to the real thing. Marriage is one of God’s great creations. It is simply too important to society to be radically homosexualized as a “constitutional right” by unaccountable and arrogant judges–as Massachusetts’ highest court did by a 4-3 vote on that dark day, February 6, 2004.

PMI will return
The Left’s announcement of a corporate-level public relations campaign shows that they see Illinois as fertile ground as a potential second homosexual “marriage” state.

They want to make Illinois the “Massachusetts of the Midwest. ” Well, we won’t let them.
The Left’s latest serious PR plan demonstrates why we cannot walk away from securing a Marriage-Protection Referendum on the ballot as part of our larger goal to constitutionally preserve marriage in our state constitution. Many of the regional and local leaders of the Protect Marriage Illinois petition drive have contacted us after last week’s court’s decision to ask, “When are we able to start again?”
We are very encouraged by your resilience and dedication, and your desire to get the job done. We will soon be discussing the specifics of relaunching the PMI petition drive, so stay tuned for more information.

Make no mistake: Illinois’ pro-homosexual- “marriage” leaders really don’t trust their own polling numbers. All the more reason for us to let the people’s will to preserve marriage be registered at the ballot box.

It’s soft and warm. It goes with everything. It looks good on me, especially when I’ve just dyed my hair just the right shade of brown.

Just wanted to say that. That’s how I’m feeling today. I love my brown sweater!