Free Republic

I’m going to bow out of this conversation and these forums. I’m seeing far too much of the kind of thinking exhibited in this thread and throughout these forums. It’s just not in line with what I believe and know to be true.

You’re entitled to your opinions and your community here, but I won’t subject myself to verbal and personal attacks when I present a contrary opinion. I have a thick skin but my patience is razor thin. I should have known better.

I was 100% wrong about one thing - I don’t belong on these forums. Even though I may disagree with many of the opinions expressed here, I would prefer them to the alternative.

Adios and good luck.

The way I believe we can fix marriage and the American family is to take government/courts out of the picture. This way the looming horrific consequences of divorce are null and void and man and wife (that’s right, man and woman) can act of their own free will to love and cherish as God intended and suffer God’s given consequences if they choose to enter that mutual agreement frivolously or without true commitment.

Because in this life and the next, I think we suffer when we forsake our spouse.

Once you sign that LEGAL contract, though, you’re legally bound for the ride and if you decide to get off for whatever reason, “justified” or not, you’re screwed.

Don’t call me a dumbass, dumbass.

We need to defend those bakers rights to refuse to make wedding cakes. No head in sand here, sir. STOP ASSUMING YOU KNOW WHAT I KNOW. You do not know me, and I do not assume to know you.

I’m well aware of the incidents with wedding planners, bakers, etc., and it enrages me.

But I won’t take away someone else’s liberty to defend another’s unless they have harmed said person in a profound way. There’s a difference.

Liberty is forfeit when an individuals actions takes away the liberty of another. So in the case of the wedding cake bakers, if we remove their ability to conduct their business as they like, we risk having to forfeit the rights of those filing suit against them (ACLU and homosexuals on a crusade - a pox on their heads and others).

So our courts must defend the rights of the bakers as well the rights of the homosexuals who want to have their civil unions and marry in the churches that will allow it.

Quite simply, the bakers can say “no,” and the churches can say “no,” and the homosexuals can get married in their back yard by whomever will have them and they can bake their own damn cakes. They can make their choices and we can make ours. It’s just that simple.

I will defend liberty where it is threatened. I won’t attack an entire misguided community and take away their rights, however.

Here’s how conservative I am. I wholeheartedly disagree with Lincoln’s decision to preserve the union when half the nation had a fundamentally different belief system and wanted to pursue it on their own and in peace. Lincoln was wrong.

Slavery is also wrong, as it deprives men of their god given liberty, but taking away the liberty of an entire culture to defend the liberty of others is a crime in and of itself.

I believe in liberty so profoundly that I know that it will triumph no matter what we do. Eventually the slaves would have freed themselves and killed their masters. Eventually the south would have had to abandon that entire way of life and economy because it deprived so many of their rights and because it competed poorly against a more free market, free labor driven economy right north of them. History has proven me right over and over again. Russia, France, England - it will happen in China sooner rather than later, and it will happen wherever humans are not free to make their own decisions and live their own lives.

The government shouldn’t sanction, forbid, condone, or support any kind of marriage in any way. It’s none of the U.S. Government’s business, it’s none of the state’s business.

You also didn’t read my post - I already said I would defend churches who are forced by the government to conduct gay marriages.

I make some general statements about my beliefs and you attack me - which leads me to believe that you have no leg to stand on.

First off - don’t put words in my mouth and don’t tell me what forum I should or shouldn’t be on just because I happen to think that you’re jousting windmills. If the mods want to kick me off for expressing my thoughts - which ARE conservative, then let it be so. Then you can be a forum of sheeple who think, talk, and act alike. How liberal of you.

Also - what rights are we defending? The right to marriage? Freedom of religion? You already have the right to get married. You have the right to get married in a church if the church allows it. If a homosexual gets married in a different church or even your church, is that infringing on your rights? Do you not have the right to leave that congregation? AS I WOULD?

As I mentioned, I would defend any church’s right to deny marrying a same-sex couple and I would fight vigorously to defend the right of that church to do so if the government steps in and tries to force denominations to do so like in HOUSTON.

You call me a libertarian. Maybe. In some ways I am. But if you think being a conservative is being a straight down the line Republican then I think YOU’RE on the wrong forum. If I’m wrong, then I will absolutely leave today and never come back or post again. As usual, I think for myself, make my own decisions, and don’t follow the herd unless the herd is going to the right pasture.

If I could see some sort of severe, criminal, tangible cost to our country from gay marriage, then I would say that we need to do something - but there’s no proof of that. Even if there was some sort of tangible social cost, would it be worse than the social cost heterosexual marriage already imposes on our society?

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN DIVORCED? Do you have any idea what it does to a family? How much it costs society in every sense of the word? Do you know how absolutely horrific an experience it is? It wouldn’t be so bad, but the courts have nosed their way so far into our personal lives that to get divorced is absolutely devastating in every way you can imagine. Even if you don’t believe in divorce, and the other person does, you’re screwed.

Here’s an idea there Chucky, why don’t we focus on getting the courts and the government out of our personal family lives (and stop with their little social engineering experiments through taxation loopholes for married couples and children) and people might not get divorced quite so often. THAT’S CONSERVATIVE.

Here’s what I think, slick. You don’t want small government. You want government that imposes your agenda and your belief system. What’s the difference between you and goofball up in NYC who bans super sized soft drinks and smoking. They’re both bad for your health, aren’t they? You drink enough of those and smoke enough cigarettes and you’ll probably kill yourself eventually and prematurely before God planned it. That’s suicide - that’s a sin. So let’s regulate it because God considers suicide a sin.

When does it stop? Where is the line between liberal and conservative? I’ll tell you where - the line starts with the liberty of the people and ends there - period. Government intervention is a sword wielded only in the most dire of circumstances. Otherwise - it’s just we the people doing our thing.

Small, unobtrusive government doesn’t care who gets married to whom. It doesn’t care if you want to kill yourself with tobacco. It lets the people decide for themselves what they want to do unless it disrupts the general welfare.

I’m not in favor of civil unions, I just don’t see how it effects me one way or the other except that those people will be paying fewer taxes because of how our tax system works - which means guys like me will probably have to pick up the slack for married (gay or otherwise) people like you? unless we get spending under control.

Why don’t you worry about that instead of making me pay higher taxes in order to support your brood and your “let’s all get married like Ozzie and Harriet” philosophy? Like those tax breaks do you? Nice aren’t they?

See, I don’t get those because I’m divorced and my child is 19. Instead, I have to pay a higher rate with no deductions while people all over this country can have 3,4,5 kids and get money for it.

Why aren’t you fighting that fight instead of this one?

Your faith? Here’s a lesson in faith - have faith God will judge these people. Equating gay marriage with MURDER is quite possibly the most apples and oranges comparison I have ever heard.

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Let’s see: Murder - check. Stealing - check. Adultery - check. Homosexual marriage - can’t find that one.

Is it mentioned elsewhere in the scriptures - sure. I believe it’s a sin, but you’re sure as s**t cherry picking what you are fighting against and for. Where’s your righteous indignation against RAMPANT adultery in this country? Where are the laws there? Is that okay now? Is that worse or better than gay marriage? Because the way I was brought up the Ten Commandments are THE primary laws of GOD and you seem to be ignoring a whole bunch of them in favor of something that seems to rile you up.

So I’ll tell you what. If you want to regulate who can and can’t get married, then you need to start incarcerating people for adultery. Because it’s a right there in your big ole dumb face 10 commandment. There needs to be a national movement against adultery. The courts need to start granting 100% rights to the cheated upon spouse. If one spouse cheats on another, the non-offending spouse gets all assets, custody, etc. automatically no exceptions. Not only that, but the spouse needs to be jailed and lose all the rights to ever marry again.

Think that would work?

I see no point in defending an institution which fails 41-50% of the time on the first go around and 60-67% the second go around.

Factor in divorce court costs, costs to the system in place, emotional damage, financial damage, and what you’ve got is a social and legal albatross.

If my fellow conservatives want to get up in arms to defend a ruined castle with no walls, go right ahead, but I consider it a waste of time.

Not only that, but it’s none of my business unless freedom of religion is infringed upon.

If homosexuals want to be civilly unioned, then so be it - and may God help them because I guarantee the divorce statistics will be the same for them once it becomes commonplace - probably higher. I will defend any church’s right to refuse to marry a same sex couple, but I will also defend the legal right of any church that wishes to do so, however unchristian it may be.

Defending the American family? Look, that institution has been holding on by a very thin thread for a number of different reasons for decades now - well before this homo broohahah started - mainly because of failed marriages and unwed, single mothers.

Let people do what they’re going to do and let God judge them. It’s not our place to do so.

Man, the same thing Amelia does - I start putting my shoes on and it’s time for a walk. Off the couch she comes and ready to go. Same thing if I’m putting on my hat.

And they’re not smart - BOSH. Not as smart as us - but give it time.

Oh tis true “I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ― Winston S. Churchill

“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” ― Mark Twain

Dachshunds are faster than they look, aren’t they?? Aerodynamic too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXn2QVipK2o

Well, I have not seen that before. That’s real. That actually happened.

Somebody at some ad agency actually put that up. There are no words...no words.

Despite the title “General,” I don’t remember seeing any stars on his shoulders. He needs to STFU.

I don’t know what it is - it’s weird. She’s strong, but not that strong.

That being said, when I was a boy, I had a dachshund who was attacked by a huge shepherd/lab mix from next door (who had killed two other stray dogs and a couple of cats) He jumped the fence into our yard.

My girl curled up in a ball (phalanx style) and took one bite in the side from the enemy (a few stitches fixed her right up). I was running toward both of them when I saw my dog lash out - quick as a flash, and popped out the other dog’s eye - which she ate.

He ran away, never came back and the owner never said a word. She also saved my mother while she was gardening one day by killing a copperhead - grabbed it before my mother even saw it, shook it, and took off it’s head...which she didn’t eat.

I’ve always had dachshunds ever since...or rather they’ve had me.

I know what he said:

“The President, The First Lady, and I are waiting for you in the Oval Bedroom...power has it’s price Mrs. Carter.”

Like sands through the hourglass, these are the Days of Our Lives.

RAPPER/ISIS: “Darling, I’ve beheaded someone.”

FBI AGENT: “But...we were so in love...why would you do this? I can’t love a man who beheads people!”

RAPPER/ISIS: “You must understand, my love, that I have a dreadful secret.”

FBI AGENT: “No more secrets, no more lies!”

RAPPER/ISIS: “Very well...I’m in ISIS!” DUN DUN DUN!!!!

FBI AGENT: “But I thought you were a German rapper!”

RAPPER/ISIS: “That’s because you are a fool, my love. A beautiful, trusting, fool - but I still love you, my darling. I always will.”

FBI AGENT: “But we can’t be together...not now, I’m in the FBI! DUN DUN DUN!!!!!”

RAPPER/ISIS: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

FBI AGENT: “And I’m a transexual! DUN DUN DUN!!!!!!”

RAPPER/ISIS: “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Well...maybe.”

Amelia the Wonder Dachshund understands:

Good girl, lay down, come, want some water (goes to water bowl)? hungry (goes to the kitchen where the food is stored)? go outside (goes to the door - also, if I bring out her walking harness and leash, she goes to the door)NO! (goes under the bed) get in your bed, and several others.

I have never spanked her - only verbally scolded her when she’s peed on the floor (twice in 2 years)

I have to clean her ears and teeth frequently, and when she hears (from the other room) the tell tale crumpling of the package with the cleaning fluid, toothbrush, toothpaste, and cotton balls, she hides under the bed. She hates that.

If I had to take a wild guess, I’d say she has the intelligence of a 2 or 3 year old human.

If I pat some location with my hand and look at her, she goes where I pat. She learned how to use an indoor pee pad with absolutely zero training. I have never trained this dog one day on anything. She just learns on her own.

If my dachshund gets pissed off at me for any reason (like not taking her on her thrice daily walk where she carefully surveys her empire), she takes her full food bowl (which is a solid porcelain bowl) and tumps it over with her snout. She then looks at me as if to say “you expect me to eat this???”

My dog is a war hound. Bred for battle and hostile to all those who are not me. It makes me very proud of her.

She’s a 14 pound, muscled up miniature dachshund. She makes our neighborhood German Shepherd flee in terror and wimper like the weakling he is.

Never mess with a dog bred to chase wild badgers down deep, dark tunnels.

At the rate we’re going, they will.

And to that I say “GOOD.”

The cup holder depth and diameter is insufficient. My dachshund already figured that out on our business flight the other day. Her cup spilled out on her laptop, ruining days of work on her design of a highly durable, throwable, furry squeak toy.

She’s the lead designer.

Back to the drawing board with you sir.

Ripley: How many drops is this for you, Obama?

Obama: Thirty eight... simulated.

Vasquez: How many *combat* drops?

Obama: Uh, two. Including this one.

Drake: Shit.

Hudson: Oh, man...