I find this profoundly disturbing

[spinetingler]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/us/05liberty.html?ex=1152763200&en=2013016dd3fb4841&ei=5070&emc=eta1


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/04/us/05liberty.1901.jpg

[TallGirl]

Why does it always have to be the south?

[fluffy]

let me guess-the new topper to the white house christmas tree?

[spinetingler]

Why does it always have to be the south?
It doesn't.

You did follow the news from NY this week, right?

[fluffy]

Why does it always have to be the south?


cause people everywhere else have better things to do with their time. like, ya know, feed the homeless and collect for charities.

[TallGirl]

It doesn't.

You did follow the news from NY this week, right?

No. I've been a bit pre-occupied with other things. Sorry. It just always seems to be the south. Sorry.

[spinetingler]

No. I've been a bit pre-occupied with other things. Sorry. It just always seems to be the south. Sorry.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=165940

[shady lane]

"I decree the spirit of conviction on this intersection," Mr. Williams boomed from a podium decorated with red, white and blue bunting. "This statue proves that Jesus Christ is Lord over America, he is Lord over Tennessee, he is Lord over Memphis."


well, i don't see how it proves anything when even the local dairy queen customers disapprove. we're a little rusty on our scientific method, i see.

[TallGirl]

http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=165940

Don't forget GA also vetoed the gay marriage, I think. Or maybe I dreamed that.

[gypsy]

yeah, a couple of my friends at work are gay, and the level of anger in the room rose and rose and rose yesterday as we were all reading that n.y. court opinion. it wasn't just that they ruled the way they did -- a lot of people expected them to kick it over to the legislature -- but the way the majority opinion used all these weird rationalizations about protecting children and shoring up heterosexual relationships. really disheartening.

[TallGirl]

yeah, a couple of my friends at work are gay, and the level of anger in the room rose and rose and rose yesterday as we were all reading that n.y. court opinion. it wasn't just that they ruled the way they did -- a lot of people expected them to kick it over to the legislature -- but the way the majority opinion used all these weird rationalizations about protecting children and shoring up heterosexual relationships. really disheartening.


Before life got complicated, I was one of 4 people going to Vegas to open the first Gay and Lesbian wedding chapel. First as in exclusively catering to gays and lesbians. 3 of the 4 where either gay or heteroflexible. Our mission statement was that every ceremony performed would be an act of protest. There was never a solely gay chapel b/c ppl in Vegas didn't think it could make it because the services weren't legal.

They didn't get that it was standing before someone, anyone and making a commitment to the person you love. About having something to acknowledge your relationship. I know hordes of gays/lesbians who would gladly fork over money for a ceremony. Love can never be wrong.

My argument was always this:

You want to protect marriage? OK. Everyone who has been married more than once, please sit down. You made a mockery of marriage by not staying together until death do you part.

Would all those church youth ministers who get it on with the 16 year old girl please step aside. You are a pedophile, no better than the way you try to paint gay ppl.

Hey, if you weren't married in a church, you only have a civil ceremony. You don't have a marriage.

Is Falwell any better than anyone else?

Seperate but equal?

2 of the 4 women I've gone out with were radicals and believed in gay marriage and telling 6 year olds liking the same sex was just fine. (I don't think 6 year olds should be told anything either way). One was so closeted she'll never come out and the other one semi-mocked a couple she knew who had exchanged rings (I rather thinks it's a nice idea, I'll just probably never do it).

My point being, there are as many differing views within the gay community as there are in the hetero community about commitments, but heteros can marry and get benefits gays can't.

My family would most certainly keep my lover away if I were in a coma and it was a she, not a he. And that's just wrong.

In LA, you can get a domestic partnership, which gives you some rights. The "breeders" got all up in arms and demanded they be eligible for the same benefits because they too lived together, shared a household. My problem with that is, you can marry. Gays can't, so quit trying to get the few benefits afforded us for yourselves.

I don't know. I don't know about anything.

[dilettantedude]

All I can say is that these are the same morons who proudly display a statue of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan in the middle of the city...

still standing.

I simply don't know how to explain people so degenerate they seem incapable of outrage, and to have completely lost their moral and historical bearings.

[Gnaw Parker]

All I can say is that these are the same morons who proudly display a statue of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan in the middle of the city...

still standing.

I simply don't know how to explain people so degenerate they seem incapable of outrage, and to have completely lost their moral and historical bearings.


I think of them as the cliffs notes of society .

[fluffy]

All I can say is that these are the same morons who proudly display a statue of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan in the middle of the city...

still standing.


are you freakin serious?!??! time to install a winch onto the ol Element and take a little road trip...

[Pan]

the Statue of Liberty is actually a rendition of the Greek/Roman goddess Libertas.
this church just erected a statue of ancient goddess... interesting.

also, America's symbol of Justice is a rendition of the Greek/Roman goddess Justicia.

we should write them a letter, asking them to next recreate the Last Supper with Hercules as Jesus and various gods and goddesses as the Apostles.

[dilettantedude]

the Statue of Liberty is actually a rendition of the Greek/Roman goddess Libertas.
this church just erected a statue of ancient goddess... interesting.

Now, look, you can't just go around using words like 'erected.'

[jmac]

... time to install a winch onto the ol Element and take a little road trip...

the goddamn statue is there because the mayor wants it there. end of story. dont fucking pretend to know what its like to live in memphis.

[fluffy]

the goddamn statue is there because the mayor wants it there. end of story. dont fucking pretend to know what its like to live in memphis.


what are you talking about now, sweetie? that you approve of a statue of a Forrest being in the middle of the city?!?

[jmac]

i stand with the mayor on this issue

[Headless Geisha]

Wow, I can't imagine how ANYONE can "stand for" a statue of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan. That's insane, as well as one of the most insensitive things I've heard in quite some time.

[jmac]

why dont you take it up with the mayor. he'll tell you exactly why he and most of his constituents wants it there. fool

[Headless Geisha]

Are you intentionally talking like Mr. T for emPHAsis or do you actually talk like him? Fool.

PS
The mayor isn't taking my calls.

[fluffy]

why dont you take it up with the mayor. he'll tell you exactly why he and most of his constituents wants it there. fool


actually he never said he wanted it there, he just left it to ease tensions;

"In the aftermath of the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in our city, we do not need another event that portrays Memphis nationally as a city still racially polarized and fighting the Civil War all over again," Herenton said when he announced his decision in August.

"Believe me," he continued, "I understand and share the same commitment many citizens have to resist bigotry and racial hatred, but digging up and moving graves or renaming city parks is not the proper way of dealing with this issue."

www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4478913,00.html

[Deanna's Daydreamer]

The first statute of the confederate general was built and put into place years and years and years ago. No one alive in Memphis is responsible for it, and that general certainly still has his place in civil war history.

No, on the NEW statue. I can see both sides. The members of this almost completely African American church voted to build this statute. They felt it would be a solid contribution to Memphis. I'm sure they had and still have good intentions.

The problem is the people who made this statue.... took an American symbol (the statue of liberty which is in New York harbor and was a gift from France) and bastardized it. They did not seem to realise that people would be offended by them taking a symbol for freedom and putting a religious symbol in her right hand where the torch used to be, and putting the ten commandments in her left hand where a book used to be.

Perhaps the best way to phrase this is that many, MANY people in this town (who as you might imagine are caucasion) feel that the statue is in incredibly BAD TASTE. It's goofy, corny, silly, stewpid, and an eyesore. It's the talk of the town right now, and most of the people I have heard talking do not much care for the 'statue of liberation' or the cult like church that built it.

Many people are afraid to criticise it because they are fairly religious themselves, but many of them will still say that the church could have done something else. All they had to do was make it a statue of a woman holding the ten commandments and a cross-- no big deal. But they didn't want to do that-- oh no-- they WANTED controversy, media attention, and people to NOTICE them-- in the exact same way some of these inner city punks buys a 4,000 dollar pair of rims for a 15 hundred dollar car. Same thing-- LOOK AT ME. Look ma... no hands! Got to be the center of attention. It's a pretty much human condition, with cultural variations.

So they bought a statue of liberty, and then built a HUGE golden cross to put in the hand of Libertas, and they made a dual sided version of ten commandment tablets, and put it in her left hand. And we have national attention on Memphis, with damn few people nationwide impressed. So now New Yorkers can sit around and ask whether or not the southerners have running water, or indoor plumbing, or if we all show up to work barefoot or not.

By the way-- the 'cult of liberation' makes ANY visitors to their church sit in a 'special area' so the exalted ones can observe them for possible inclusion. They run background checks and credit reports on people who wish to join, and they make the members 'pledge' a certain amount of CASHOLA (yes, God takes cash, and American Express, and ATM cards) every year. They do not pass an offering plate around; they keep up with what you have 'pledged' to give them. And their preacher weighs every bit of 400 pounds. If he keeps on breaking bread he'll be MEETING his savior a little earlier than he thought he would. And apparently he feels the Lord had asked him to wear thousand dollar suits. And jewelry.

[jmac]

i think he's a wise mayor, and that's why i side with him. that speach was awesome

[fluffy]

JJJ, you do remember you are on my ignore list, right? so if that was aimed at me, whatever youve said, its fallen on deaf ears...or blind eyes, as it were.

[annieO]

Fluffy, what JJJ said wasn't bad at all. Just his opinion on the church statue. Quite rational and evenhanded, actually, for once.

Oh, and I've been away for awhile. What did you do to JMAC to piss him off so badly?

[fluffy]

What did you do to JMAC to piss him off so badly?

what can i say? he broke my heart.

[dilettantedude]

It's goofy, corny, silly, stewpid, and an eyesore.

... and jingoist as hell.

Thanks for the history - that was interesting!

[Deanna's Daydreamer]

Glad to be on Fluffy's ignore list.

You know you have made it when one of the biggest flamers you've ever read has decided that even HE doesn't want to talk with you anymore, and therefore places you on HIS 'ignore list'....

proud to be there, Fluffy.

For the record, I do not have an 'ignore list' that I manage. I just skip over the posts from cats like Fluffy and Fermaggio.

Put me on the 'do not call' list Fluffbagger. Count me among the folks who don't read yer posts anyway.

[JFermaggio]

Glad to be on Fluffy's ignore list.
For the record, I do not have an 'ignore list' that I manage. I just skip over the posts from cats like Fluffy and Fermaggio.

C'mon JJJ, YOU respond to EVERYTHING I write about you. Don't lie.

[spinetingler]

Count me among the folks who don't read yer posts anyway.

OK, so that's one...

[fluffy]

C'mon JJJ, YOU respond to EVERYTHING I write about you. Don't lie.


only when you post pics of 14 year old tennis players. he loves those.

[jeffx]

it's mostly just really tacky.

although we are talking about the home of graceland here, so maybe appropriate.

[~Rumormonger~]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/us/05liberty.html?ex=1152763200&en=2013016dd3fb4841&ei=5070&emc=eta1


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/04/us/05liberty.1901.jpg

http://media.threadless.com/subs/big/37530.gif