Prop 8 aka Prop Hate, lolz

Marc Shaiman, the composer of "Hairspray," has recently made a very popular mini-musical about the controversial gay-marriage ban that was passed in the state of California. It was titled Proposition Eight, and has been oh-so-cleverly renamed "Proposition Hate" by the left. The relatively short 3 and 1/2 minute video is not only hilarious but also a surprisingly accurate depiction of the debate that is going on in the U.S right now, as to whether or not the State should honor gay marriage. While getting my daily dose of conservative news, I came across this article by conservative journalist, Dennis Prager:

A Response to Marc Shaiman's Musical Against Prop 8

Mr. Prager's article is well...stupid. For such a well educated guy (apparently he's a professor at the American Jewish University) he has a really crummy argument.

Shaiman puts hateful words in the mouths of the religious proponents of the man-woman definition of marriage: “It’s time to spread some hate and put it in the constitution.” But no one put hate in the constitution. The only words Proposition 8 added to the California Constitution were: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” What is hateful about that?

Well, to answer your question Dennis: first of all, the state is defining the parameters of a union between two people by Biblical standards. Right off the bat, that is wrong and oppressive. Secondly, the law is repealing the right of gay people to get married in the state of California. This not only more rigidly defines marriage unnecessarily, but it also outlaws gay marriage. Mr. Prager attempts to make the half-baked argument that the state of California is not oppressing anyone, they're simply restructuring the definition of marriage to suit the opinion of their constituents. Unfortunately, this opinion actively oppresses a certain part of the community. Essentially, when it comes down to it, he's essentially splitting hairs. 'We don't hate gays, we just don't like the act of homosexuality.' 'We're not uncomfortable with the idea of gays, but we are uncomfortable with the idea of homosexuality being introduced as acceptable in the classroom.' Grow up Mr. Prager. You're an adult and a pretty well-educated one, at that. Don't you see what you're doing? The distinctions you draw are negligible and fail to see the core of the issue. Defining marriage as 'only between one man and one woman' IS the same as passing a 'gays are not allowed to get married' law. Claiming that there is a fundamental difference between the two is the same as viewing a "Whites only water fountain" and a "No blacks allowed water fountain" as two completely different entities. Get a grip man.

The only good news to come out of this article is that Mr. Prager is the first time winner of the much coveted lol-scale rating of:

Rush LMAOgh

One of the most disgusting human beings in the media and political punditry business today, Rush LMAOgh is most famous for his radio talkshow, The Rush LMAOgh Show, where he regularly offends racial minorities, women and gay people. He is famous for coining intelligent phrases on his show, including "Femi-Nazis" and "ChopaDicKoffoMe." (Referring to transgender people.) This award is specially reserved for people who are close-minded, prone to bigotry and just generally assholes.

Congratulations to Dennis Prager! Kevin and I invite you to comment on our thoughts, and tell us where we're wrong (or right!)

Moderation

In the recent turbulent history of the GOP, there have emerged several competing threads. One of these was advocated a few weeks ago when an anonymous senator told the Politico, "I don’t think we [the GOP] have learned much from the election in terms of what people want to see.” The anonymous senator further said that the Republicans needed someone who could “speak from the center” and wanted it known that “Sarah Palin is not the voice of [the Republican] party.”

From the objective point of view of someone observing the events, this analysis seems quite accurate. And as a Florida-bred boy, I was very surprised to learn that these anonymous words came out of Senator Mel Martinez's mouth. Of course, Martinez, known from Pensacola to Key West as a staunch Bush footsoldier and a very right-leaning conservative, only expressed this yearning for moderation and *gasp* rationality after he'd announced he will not seek reelection in 2010. So the sane wing of the GOP has gained one convert, if a bit late. Luckily, Erick Erickson, managing editor at RedState, a far-right blog, provides us with the opposite perspective:

A Different Bush

The funniest thing about wise Mr. Erickson's perspective is that it holds to the conventional wisdom of the Bush years without acknowledging any flaws with itself. Well, maybe this, in and of itself, is not quite so amusing. Seemingly, this view holds Iraq as a success, Katrina as an innocent stumble, and our tattered global image, merely a byproduct of the liberal international media. This is not only a dangerous or ignorant view. It is a sinister one. Because for people with any rationality, any decency, it is impossible, deplorable to overlook what has happened in this country over the past eight years.

But, despite the sobering influence that writers like Erickson have had in the past, and by mere virtue of this article's laughable intent, I award Erick Erickson, managing editor at RedState, the:

Sean Hilarity

Sean Hilarity has been blessing the airwaves of American punditry since 1989, where he had his first radio talk show at UC Santa Barbara. He co-hosts a show on (of all places) FoxXx N3wz called Hilarity and Colmes which regularly features Sean spewing misleading rhetoric, patriotic overkill, and irrationality which Alan Colmes counters by consistently being Sean Hilarity's bitch. (Edit: We posit that, while Alan Colmes left the show recently, he remains Sean Hilarity's bitch in private life.)

For thinking for a second that the dangerous path we've been going down is the right one, for claiming that this is not the time for moderation and reconciliation (not to mention, solidarity in the face of economic hardships), and, perhaps worst of all, for not accepting that Sarah Palin, for the love of God, will not be the figurehead for a new, reinvigorated Republican party, but merely the embattled leader of an embattled opposition, mired by their prejudices and divisions; for all these reasons, Erick Erickson embodies so much of what Sean Hilarity's all about. And furthermore...wait, who won in November? Barack Obama. So hopefully, for the time being, people like Erick Erickson won't matter much at all.

Olmert Speaks

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in response to the violence perpetrated against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in Hebron last week, claimed that the actions of the rioting settlers constituted a "pogrom", a Yiddish term for an organized massacre that has historically referred to such actions against Jewry. The riots in Hebron, which surprisingly left no fatalities and only three seriously wounded, were provoked by some Israeli settlers who refused to leave a house they had been occupying for months before given a court order to vacate; a Palestinian man brought the case before the authorities, proving that the property was his. The attacks, by settlers, on innocent and wholly uninvolved Palestinian civilians followed, causing widespread outrage in the Muslim world, as well as firm disapproval from the usually pro-Israeli West. The statement is a positive step forward, bringing some objective and rational positions to the front on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Ehud Olmert (and, perhaps more importantly, whoever eventually takes his place) need to take more of these pragmatic steps in the future; the Israeli leadership, for the sake of survival and stability, must seek ways to incorporate a comprehensive, humane, and just solution to the Palestinian question. And this is definitely a positive step, in that the Israeli state isn't apologizing or legitimizing their citizens' outrageously illegal actions outside of the internationally accepted parameters for their state. Yet, we must be wary of allowing a reactionary or extremist attitude to yet again invade the rhetoric and action of the Israeli government in response to future offensives. These, which are almost certainly going to happen, must underscore the importance of ending the situation peacefully and pervasively, not trigger a reaction that is, at best, ineffective, and at worst, extremely counterproductive and increasingly dangerous.

But I digress. Coming soon will be a much more lol-worthy post. Feed on this for a while.