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Amazon’s Founder Pledges $2.5 Million in Support of Same-Sex Marriage
New York Times ^ | July 27 2012 | Michael D Shear

Posted on 07/27/2012 6:39:44 AM PDT by scottjewell

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com, and his wife, MacKenzie, have agreed to donate $2.5 million to help pass a same-sex marriage referendum in Washington State, instantly becoming among the largest financial backers of gay marriage rights in the country.

With the gift, the couple have doubled the money available to the proponents of Referendum 74, which would legalize same-sex marriage in the state by affirming a law that passed the Legislature this year. Courts or lawmakers have declared gay marriage legal in six other states, but backers of such measures have never succeeded at the ballot box.

Proponents of the effort in Washington State called it a game-changing gift that gives them a fighting chance in November.

“To get this from a straight, married couple sends a powerful message that marriage is seen as a fundamental question of fairness,” Zach Silk, the campaign manager for Washington United for Marriage, said Thursday in an interview.

(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amazon; ecommerce; homosexualagenda; samesexmarriage
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To: presently no screen name
You are just being a real d**k.

Clearly I am not qualified to argue with someone who has learned their debating skills at the Westboro Baptist School of Rhetoric.

81 posted on 07/27/2012 4:46:48 PM PDT by newheart (At what point does policy become treason?)
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To: scottjewell

If you click on the link for this and look at the goofy looking founder of Amazon and his wife, do you actually think they have a straight, normal, marriage. And he had better give a few more million if he wants to buy sodomite marriage in Washington State. The Mormans defeated the bill in California and they are coming out in force again. Good luck you goofy looking nerd dipsh*t.


82 posted on 07/27/2012 5:21:50 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
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To: newheart

I’m not debating you I’m telling you!!

And you fell for it - as I KNEW you would - I wanted to see on ‘what’ you would focus on and you didn’t disappoint! Thanks, chump! Enjoy supporting the homo agenda!


83 posted on 07/27/2012 5:24:58 PM PDT by presently no screen name
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To: presently no screen name

Please do not remember me when you come into your Kingdom.


84 posted on 07/27/2012 5:42:13 PM PDT by newheart (At what point does policy become treason?)
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To: scottjewell

I’m not going with the majority on this, because it’s foolish. As a couple of posters pointed out, Amazon is Huge (69,000 employees?) plus they are the clearing house for unknown thousands of small businesses. “Punishing” the founder of this giant employer of people and seller of writers is punishing all of them, not him. No, I’m not supporting evil; I’m supporting business. And, as someone else pointed out, if we can have our opinions under the first amendment, so can the founder. When he can’t have his, neither can we. No, I don’t agree with his. But my grandmother always told me “don’t cut your nose off to spite your face.”


85 posted on 07/27/2012 7:05:07 PM PDT by CatDancer (Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty. 2 Cor.3:17)
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To: scottjewell

Done with Amazon.


86 posted on 07/27/2012 7:16:27 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (.)
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To: jwalsh07

Me too. I’ll never order anything from them again.


87 posted on 07/27/2012 7:19:37 PM PDT by mickie (My grandson is a Marine...God Bless them all!)
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To: newheart

Yours is a bogus argument. You are certainly entitled to do business with anybody you choose but your argument is the same one lefties and big government righties used to justify bailing out GM. The problem with their argument and yours is that if their is a market for a product or service somebody will provide that product or service and they will need employees to do it. Screw Amazon and every other company that wants to destroy the traditional family even further than what the Great Society accomplished. They have a right to do what they want with their money and so do I. Supporting homofascism ain’t in the cards.


88 posted on 07/27/2012 7:25:44 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (.)
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To: jwalsh07
Screw Amazon and every other company that wants to destroy the traditional family even further than what the Great Society accomplished.

Unless I am mistaken (and I certainly could be) Bezos and his wife used their own money for their wrongheaded donation. No doubt you have a job. You get a paycheck. You may even own a piece of the company. The money you make is yours to do with as you please. This was not Amazon the company. I seriously doubt that it is company policy to bring about the destruction of the traditional family. I suppose it might be written into some corporate by-laws somewhere, but I doubt it.

...your argument is the same one lefties and big government righties used to justify bailing out GM.

My argument has only a faint similarity to the one the lefties and big gov righties proclaim to justify bailing out GM. However, they only used their so-called concern for employees as window dressing for their agenda of putting government in control of an industry. I am simply saying that it is ineffective to hold the employees of a company accountable for the personal, individual actions of the founder who owns only about 20% of the company. That is a heck of a lot of money, but it is not a majority share.

I understand perfectly that if there is a demand someone will find a way to meet it. And they will need employees to do it, but not necessarily the same displaced employees who were laid off when the business tanks.

It may make us feel great to have done our part to stop the homosexual agenda by not shopping at Amazon, but that is about the only positive thing it will accomplish. That feel good stance has consequences in the lives of real people, not simply some faceless, utilitarian demographic. Sadly the failure to see, or give a damn about individuals is a blind spot of both the ideological left and right.

89 posted on 07/27/2012 9:39:23 PM PDT by newheart (At what point does policy become treason?)
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To: newheart

Your argument is exactly the same as the GM bailout. It was bogus then, it is bogus now. But perhaps you are consistently wrong. Did you support the bailout of GM to save those particular people’s jobs or are you a heartless bastard?


90 posted on 07/27/2012 9:57:10 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (.)
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To: jwalsh07

Then I am consistently wrong, and apparently I must enjoy arguing with people who think name calling is a debate technique.


91 posted on 07/28/2012 9:12:53 AM PDT by newheart (At what point does policy become treason?)
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To: scottjewell

I always thought Jeff looked like he might be Gay, perhaps he is going to do like Jan Wenner of Rolling Stone Magazine and leave his wife for another man.


92 posted on 07/28/2012 9:23:40 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
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To: scottjewell

Well well well, lookie here.

So Mr. Bezos is opening up his checkbook for certain political causes. Not a smart move fro a CEO in my opinion to pick sides like this, but what do I know, after all he is the billionaire CEO and I’m not.

Anyhow what does Mr. Bezos get for his $2.5M might well you ask. I’ll tell you what. I GUARANTEE you that the Seattle Times will NEVER AGAIN run a story critical of Amazon’s business or employment practices like they did in April of 2012. I know how the Seattle liberal mind operates, and if Idi Amin himself gave money to their pet causes they would overlook everything else.


93 posted on 07/28/2012 10:03:09 AM PDT by vmpolesov
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To: Pollster1

That’s a good plan, but Amazon’s got a hard model to replace. Easy returns and great search options. You’re buying from hundreds of fly-by-nights and Amazon acts as a name brand.


94 posted on 07/28/2012 5:21:23 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: newheart

Evidently you can not take what you dish, there is no question about that. Adios.


95 posted on 07/28/2012 7:11:38 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (.)
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To: jwalsh07
Evidently you can not take what you dish, there is no question about that. Adios.

Funny. I don't recall calling anyone a heartless bastard, like you called me. Or a "dick," a "dumbass" and someone who has chosen to support evil, like 'presently no screen name' charged me with. Personally, I don't mind being called names. Having been around FR since 1998 I have worn our several sets of flame-retardant underwear. But the insults (especially in the name of Jesus the way 'presently' argues) demeans the forum and the many thoughtful and intelligent people who participate here.

What does bother me though, is that for too many (though, thank God, not all) it is a hanging offense to have a different opinion than the one they hold on pretty much any subject. I am more than happy to discuss the issues, and unlike that same crew, I recognize that I am capable of being wrong. But for those who brook no difference of opinion on any issue, I believe their vision of America is disturbingly close to that of our current president. Adios, indeed.

96 posted on 07/28/2012 7:45:06 PM PDT by newheart (At what point does policy become treason?)
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To: scottjewell

They’re getting sucked into it. They need to avoid the bait.


97 posted on 07/31/2012 9:36:08 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs (Does beheading qualify as 'breaking my back', in the Jeffersonian sense of the expression?)
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To: scottjewell
What to do to download books — any suggestions?

First, install the great program calibre on your computer. This allows you to convert ebooks with many different formats and upload them to your ebook reader.

Free ebooks:

gutenberg.org

gutenberg.ca

mobileread.com

With paid for books, the problem is digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. Many publishers now sell non-DRM ebooks that can be installed on any reader. Some of these are:

smashwords.com

baenbooks.com

feedbooks.com

More are listed here:

http://www.ebookreadergeek.com/2012/05/29/where-to-buy-drm-free-ebooks/
98 posted on 07/31/2012 10:31:08 AM PDT by fifedom
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