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Subject: 
Re: Santorum Fails In His Effort To Pervert The Constitution
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Thu, 22 Jul 2004 15:57:20 GMT
Viewed: 
1511 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks wrote:
   In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal wrote:

  
   Well, you seem to have a problem with the term ‘marraige’ being redefined.

EUREKA! Really, is it that obscure what I’m arguing?

John, we all understand what you’re arguing. We just disagree with you.

You know what, in my crazier moments I’d be happy to leave the definition of “marriage” to whatever non governmental sanctioning bodies wanted to sanction it, and they can define it however they like. As part of that leaving I’d then go through with a big red pen and change every single occurance of the word marriage in the entire body of US law to a different term. “Relationship contract” for example, I dunno. I’m not really attached to the word Marriage per se.

But in exchange for that I would expect that the goverment STOP discriminating in favor of a particular sort of relationship contract and against other sorts. No forbidding contracts, of whatever sort, among consenting contractable entities (of whatever species, should dolphins get Uplifted, or aliens arrive bearing gifts, as long as they’re competent to enter into contracts)... No awarding government benefits, tax breaks, preferences, or special favors to persons who entered into certain permutations of the possibilities. No recognising inheritance to flow a certain way in certain cases but not flow to other equally valid contractual arrangements. And so forth. An end to relationship discrimination.

But I bet John (and his co-religionists) would not take that deal despite it meeting what he currently claims he wants, because it would mean that the government would be, however slightly, removed from imposing JudeoChristian values on everyone. And that, I fear, he cannot accept. In the final analysis, he thinks he is better than we are, and his irrational morality is superior to one that merely espouses live and let live.

(as a side note, I am not a moral relativist, long term readers know that... I am happy to claim that certain systems, certain moralities are superior to others, it’s just that my yardstick is a much simpler one than “god said so”, (which can be rather tricky to interpret and enforce) it’s merely evaluating which system better adheres to honoring individual rights...)

So for that reason, until these imposers of unjust morality are stopped once and for all (and I think the Founding Fathers think they did just that, regrettably, and I think they’d be dismayed to see how it has unraveled), I am not ready to cede control of the term Marriage. Instead I’ll fight for its expansion to include all valid relationship arrangements.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Santorum Fails In His Effort To Pervert The Constitution
 
(...) <snip> (...) I agree with everything Larry stated. Oh if wished made it so... I think Larry should change his name to Dave and become part of the Davish 5 Though there is a Larry David in teh world--mayhaps Larry's middle name is Dave... Dave (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jul-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Santorum Fails In His Effort To Pervert The Constitution
 
(...) John, we all understand what you're arguing. We just disagree with you. Chris (20 years ago, 22-Jul-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

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