Posted on 05/02/2006 1:10:54 PM PDT by meandog
New York, N.Y. – In her new memoir, NOW IT'S MY TURN(Simon & Schuster/Threshold Editions, 2006), Mary Cheney writes that when she told her parents she was gay, the first words out of her father’s mouth “were exactly the ones that I wanted to hear: ‘You’re my daughter, and I love you, and I just want you to be happy.’”
VANITY FAIR editor Todd Purdum reports that Mary Cheney tells her story in a voice very much like her father’s, and that she came out to her parents when she was a junior in high school, on a day when, after breaking up with her first girlfriend, she skipped school, ran a red light, and crashed the family car. Cheney writes that her mother hugged her, but then burst into tears, worried that she would face a life of pain and prejudice.
When Purdum asks the vice president whether he thinks gay people are born that way, Cheney scrunches up his mouth, fixes him with a look that says “Nice try,” then says: “I’m not going to get into that. Those are deeply personal questions. You can ask.”
Mary Cheney tells Purdum that her father “has very little tolerance for bullshit, pardon my French.” She also says that one common reaction from people who have read the manuscript of her book is “‘Wow, you guys really have this close-knit, loving family,’ and it always strikes me as ‘Yeah, of course we do.’ It was very surprising to me that people would think we didn’t.”
When Purdum asks Cheney if he is fatalistic about his heart disease, Cheney says, “I am. I don’t even think about it most of the time. You do those things a prudent man would do, and I live with it.” Asked what he would have for breakfast at Nora’s Fish Creek Inn, his favorite pre-fishing spot in Wilson, Wyoming, Cheney responds without missing a beat: “I’d probably have two eggs over easy, sausage and hash browns,” then hastens to add that that is not his normal breakfast. “The day I go fishing, I get off my diet,” he says.” At a roundtable lunch with reporters a couple of years ago, two who were present tell Purdum that Cheney cut his buffalo steak in bite-size pieces the moment it arrived, then proceeded to salt each side of each piece.
Cheney tells Purdum that he has not changed over the years, but perhaps many of his contemporaries think he has “because of my associations over the years, or because I came across as a reasonable guy, people have one view of me that was not necessarily an accurate reflection of my philosophy or my view of the world.”
Purdum asks Cheney if, during his “darkest night,” he has even “a little doubt” about the administration’s course. “No,” he tells Purdum. “I think we’ve done what needed to be done.” Of the debate over whether or not the administration hyped the pre-war intelligence, Cheney says, “In the end, you can argue about the quality of the intelligence and so forth, but ... I look at that whole spectrum of possibilities and options, and I think we did the right thing.”
Cheney rejects the caricature of him as the power behind the throne, insisting, “I think we have created a system that works for this president and for me, in terms of my ability to be able to contribute and participate in the process.” When Purdum says that the cartoon characterization of him must not be accurate, Cheney says, “My image might be better out there, this caricature you talk about might be avoided, if I spent more time as a public figure trying to improve my image, but that’s not why I’m here.”
Purdum reports that Cheney travels with a chemical-biological suit at all times. When he gave his friend Robin West and his twin children a ride to the White House a couple of years ago, West commented on the fact that Cheney’s motorcade varied its daily path. “And he said, ‘Yeah, we take different routes so that “The Jackal” can’t get me,’” West tells Purdum. “And then there was this big duffel bag in the middle of the backseat, and I said, ‘What’s that? It’s not very roomy in here.’ And [Cheney] said, ‘No, because it’s a chemical-biological suit,’ and he looked at it and said, ‘Robin, there’s only one. You lose.’”
Purdum talks with former New York Times reporter and former executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, James Naughton, who asks of Cheney: “Does he acknowledge that he is not as pleasant as he used to be?” Naughton knew Cheney as a fellow prankster during the 1976 campaign, and all but sighs in search of an explanation as to why he is so different now. “I guess I would like to believe,” he says, “without any evidence to support it, that coming very close to death has somehow compelled him to act as though he only has so much breath and so much life, that he’s only got so much time to accomplish what he has to do. But the public figure is nothing like the private one that I remember.”
Gerald Ford tells Purdum: “He may have changed a bit, but that was required for the change of circumstances.” Ford, who will turn 93 in July, adds, “Times change, and people change as a result of that.”
“If you’re looking for a change from one point to another, being vice president is sui generis,” Lynne Cheney tells Purdum. “It’s not quite like any other job.”
The June issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and L.A. on May 3 and nationally on May 9.
His first words were:
Does this mean there isn't going to be a family carpet business after all?
So are you saying that you could have gone either way, but you made a concious decision to be straight? That people are sexual free agents until they choose to like one gender or another?
In a word? Yes.
Oh I've got some rabbinical squigglies up my sleeve pertaining to time dilatation as it relates to the expansion of the universe, but more or less, you've got the idea.
"You are a wise man "
If I have any wisdom, I got it from my parents, who gave me my head and loved me, even when I disappointed them.
"Not all parents should be parents."
That bears repeating.
Because men are more apt to compartmentalize, fixate on parts. Blondes, rather than brunettes. Legs, rather than (as you say) butts. Specific body part or related fetishes - a foot fetish, a smoking fetish as a sexual stimulant - seem to be almost uniquely the province of the male.
I'm not sure why this is, but I bet it is strongly related to the reason men turn off the car radio when they're looking for a parking place.
Man is not an animal. Man can reason and animals cannot. Animals live by instinct and man lives by thought and choice.
The alternative is that humans are born tabula rasa, a blank slate, as far as sexual orientation is concerned. And therefore have to learn to like the opposite sex.
Not so. God created man to multiply and fill the earth (Gen 9:1). Anything opposite that is a learned and conditioned response.
....and when they try, they act like a character in a Tex Avery cartoon.
It's my considered opinion that sex is a swamp with a lot of pyschological/emotional/physical variables at play. Very difficult to untangle.
You are not the enigma you might think. Your assertion the son said nothing bad about the father falls apart on the first reading of the interview.
That his comments are cunningly crafted makes them no less derogatory.
Perhaps... you DID catch me updating the .xls spreadsheet of our stocks and mutual funds between posts....
Joking aside, I take it you see my point?
With the possible exception of the 10 Commandments, I don't recall God writing one single word of the Bible. It was written by man, and man IS indeed flawed.
More to the point, how do you go about determining what parts of the Bible are flawed, and which ones are trustworthy? Your opinion? You've already said that you reject doctrines that don't align with your modern principles (the role of women in worship, etc.) How do you know that your principles are superior to the scriptures?
By tradition and REASON, as God gave me a mind to think...ahd I think NOT that God's entire universe was created in six 24-hour days. I also think that God allows for persons believe as they believe...then again, God allows for ignorance to cloud religion too (check out Copernicus and his fight with earlier age fundamentalists regarding heliocentric theory)
The Bible is either true, or it is flawed. Would you fly in an airplane with parts that did not work together? Of course not. How much less would you trust your eternal state to a flawed and inconsitant holy book.
The Bible is neither completely true, nor is it completely true...like any law, history, or theological book it is< IMHO< to be regarded in shades of gray rather than in black or white (i.e. Jesus admonishing those ready to stone the adulteress)
If you're not sure where you stand on this issue, you may find this of interest: Dr. Robert Spitzer Interviewed In 'Christianity Today' Magazine. Read that very carefully. Take special note of who Dr. Spitzer is, what he used to think and what he thinks and says now.
Now couple the above with the very important results of the Twins Studies, a summary of what science has stated and the extremely important growing number of ex-gays:
People Can ChangeAfter reading the above links you should have a better understanding of the issues.
I Do Exist
Yup, for me it is!
"....and when they try, they act like a character in a Tex Avery cartoon."
So easy to picture, if you're a fan of animation, like I am. The tongue all the way out, feet in the air, eyes out on stems, and the "aaaaoooooogah!" noise in the background....
But there are some people who are suddenly skeptical when one claims to be ex-gay. They don't believe the ex-gay claim, they don't believe the ex-gay testimony nor their declaration that they are ex-gay.
When somebody uses a certain standard to measure the credibility of what one group says, but then refuses to use the same standard to measure the credibility of what another group says--thereby ignoring the claims of the second group (ex-gays)--he should ask himself why he believes one group and not the other... This is a double standard.
Well, as for me, I have to believe that God, along with the universe, also created laws of astrophysics, string theory, weak and strong forces of gravity, etc. that would make such an event an impossibility.
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.