Soccer Mom: Unplugged

raves, rants, reviews and recounts of life in middle America

2006/5/4

Outlandish Photo of the Day

Tags:
@ 06:48 PM (31 months, 15 days ago)

Page 6 of the Army Times May 8th edition carries a FastTrack blurb about HR 5037.  Commonly referred to as the "Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act",  this bill is a direct response to the inbreds at Westboro Baptist Church led by Pastor (and family patriarch) Fred Phelps.  These folks like to picket the funerals, memorial services and burials of U.S. servicemembers to remind the nation that it is not wild-eyed insurgents with cell phone operated IEDs that kill our folks in uniform,  rather it is the wrath of an angry God who dislikes the nation's tolerance for homosexuality and adultery. 

An aside:  I'm as religious right as anybody else, to be sure,  I consider homosexuality a choice (there's been no gay gene discovered) that is contrary to the basic purposes of God. Adultery falls into the same category and it undermines the family, the fundamental and very first institution ever established.  However, condemning a behavior and condemning a person are two wholly different acts.  Believe me, I'm a mother,  I have to make this distinction every day.  And certainly, the loving God I know has been more apt to allow me to suffer the natural consequences of my actions than to impose punishment for my acts on a stranger simply because he wears a camo flak jacket.  Just my opinion. 

What really caught my eye was the photo that accompanied the 2 paragraph writeup.  Generally, Phelps is lucky to draw a crowd of 6 to 8 supporters at one of his protests.  In this picture it appears that there are more reporters covering the morons than there are morons.  Must've been a slow news day...

How many same-sex couples are actually getting married?

Tags:
@ 05:11 PM (31 months, 15 days ago)

Family Leader has written an interesting article discussing the results of a recent study analyzing same-sex marriage.  Turns out that all that talk about same-sex couples wanting to make a long-term commitment through legalized marriage is even more baseless than Bill Clinton's claims not to have had sex with "that woman".  Check it out:

Same-sex Couples—No Rush to the Altar

Do homosexuals really want to marry?  Does marriage suit the homosexual lifestyle?

Despite the intense push by homosexuals to legalize same-sex "marriage," a recent study shows that very few have made that commitment in the four countries and one American state where it is legal.

A new study by the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, headed by Maggie Gallagher, shows that the percentage of homosexuals opting for "marriage" is small.

In the Netherlands where gay "marriage" was legalized in 2001, between 2.6 percent and 6.3 percent of homosexuals have been "married."  In Belgium, where it was legalized in June 2003, the estimate of same-sex "marriages" is between 1.9 and 4.7 percent.  The study estimates that in Massachusetts (legal since May 2004) between 5.9 and 16.7 percent of homosexuals have been "married."  In British Columbia, Canada, the estimate is between 2.8 and 14.3 percent. 

The figures vary because it is not known precisely how many homosexuals live in each location, but is based on a generous estimate of 5% of the population being homosexual.  If the homosexual population is larger, then the percentage of those who have "married" is even smaller.

"Trend data is extremely limited, but the available data suggest that the number of gay marriages tends to decrease after an initial burst (reflecting pent up demand)," the IMAPP study says. "Whether same-sex marriage will emerge as common or normative among gays and lesbians, or fade as time and novelty passes, cannot yet be determined."

What is clear is that legalizing same-sex "marriage" drastically changes societal norms, undoing the definition of marriage-which has already become fragile in our society where one in three children are born out of wedlock--and altering school curriculums to indoctrinate children into the homosexual lifestyle. Thus, it appears that legalizing same-sex "marriage" is a benefit to few and a detriment to many.