Posted on 04/22/2009 10:11:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Greg Hengler gives us the Larry King matchup between Townhall’s Dennis Prager and Perez Hilton from last night. In boxing terms, this intellectual debate would be akin to Joe Louis vs Manny Pacquiao’s public-relations guy. It’s no contest. My friend Dennis talks about philosophy, history, and biology, while Perez mostly whines about his feelings. Perez’ corner should have thrown in the towel in the first minute.
And yet … does Dennis really score any points here?
Dennis brings up several analogies, but only one of them really has any relation to the issue, and that’s the e-Harmony case. Civil litigation imposed a requirement on e-Harmony to provide services to gays, even though the owners really only wanted to serve straights. No one imposed such solutions on gay dating services, and Dennis makes the good point that a free market serves all by promoting business that cater to market demand. Very few would argue that the government should put such dating services out of business or force them to serve a market against their will.
But that’s not the same thing as government recognition of gay marriage, nor are the Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts or social club analogies that Dennis uses. Those are also private associations, not government agencies, and the Scouts have a right to organize as they see fit, as long as they don’t break other laws in doing so. American culture looks more favorably on organizing along gender lines with children than they do with adults, as the single-gender social clubs that Dennis mentions have been disappearing for decades under the pressure of gender equality. None of these have any need for government recognition, which makes them irrelevant to the issue of whether governments should recognize same-sex relationships as marriages.
If I were Dennis, I would have used a sports analogy instead. Title IX guarantees equal access on gender, but doesn’t require that schools eliminate gender separation for their athletic departments. Gymnastics, golf, baseball/softball, basketball, hockey, and other sports get separate teams for men and women, but they get equal financing. That would at least somewhat parallel the policy of recognizing marriage for heterosexual unions only while providing for civil unions for gay relationships that protect their partnership rights. That’s actually an analogous government-treatment argument that Dennis misses in favor of an irrelevant free-market argument.
For the record, I don’t think government should be in the marriage business at all. We’d be better off having everyone use partnership agreements that will get treated better than marriage contracts ever do these days in court, and leave the question of marriage to religious institutions. No-fault divorce destroyed any argument that government should protect the sanctity of marriage, and unless I’ve missed a deep groundswell for eliminating that, government does more to damage marriage now than it helps.
CLICK ABOVE LINK TO VIEW THE VIDEO
Miss USA California Responds To Gay Marriage Question From Perez Hilton
See here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOa_9ftwlbM
Is it just me or did she seem at first she was giving a namby pamby response and then half way through decided to be daring and answer the way God would have her answer, and not fallen man?
Good for her in any case but I would have preferred she not said the first part of her answer.
It wasn't just you--I thought the same thing. Her answer wasn't very good and I thought she was trying to sugar coat her answer too much by couching it the way she did.
She was on Hannity yesterday and that’s exactly what she said happened.
P.S. Here’s a link of her on Cavuto in case you hadn’t seen it—she did a much better job. Kinda like when you are no longer running for President and can say what you really think.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2234658/posts
I would have agreed with you before watching Prager, I think she was trying to say she too has compassion but doesn’t agree with gay marriage.
I think Prager is spot on, but no one listens to nice guys :)
That's why Larry chose him. An unbiased moderator would have chose Ann Coulter.
in 5000 YEARS....FIVE THOUSAND YEARS....There has NEVER been GAY MARRIAGE!!! Why now?? Are we SO DEPRAVED that SEX SEX SEX with the SAME SEX is ALL people think about???
Forgetaboutit.
Dennis should not have bothered to debate if he was going to bend over forwards to play reasonable. Debating in these venues ain’t about arguing sweet reason. It’s about demolishing your opponent. That’s lesson one.
I’m sure she would have preferred to have had the time to think out a well articulated response, but she must have been in a state of shock at the moment.
The important thing was that she stuck to her guns in the end, fully understanding that to do so she would lose the contest.
Ping to watch later. Thanks for posting.
There is a poll on Yahoo at this time on this subject.
Our side is pounding the gay butt boys like Hilton.
http://js.polls.yahoo.com/quiz/quiziframe.php?poll_id=44881
Go to the site and vote to pound more shame on the truly ugly/two ton gay butt boy, Hilton.
Carrie Prejean caused a stir on the Miss USA stage when she said marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Judge Perez Hilton and others in the pageant slammed the response, which may have cost her the crown. On the talk-show circuit Prejan has stood by her response and garnered praise from opponents of same-sex marriage.
What do you think? Does Prejean deserve criticism or praise for her response?
She should be criticized. That sort of prejudice should never be tolerated. 11%
She should be praised for expressing her opinion. 87%
Not sure/No opinion. 1%
40252 votes
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.