Trying times

Our Iowa Supreme Court today unanimously gave the okay to same sex marriages in our state.  Once again, the will of the people is overturned by the courts.  Our state legislature will pass a law doing away with the deductability of federal income taxes.  They say it is 'revenue neutral', but I have to say that there has never been a tinkering of tax laws that did not eventually create more revenue for the government.  I listened to our state auditor say yesterday that the new law would be relatively revenue neutral until the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire at which time taxes on just about everyone who pays taxes would greatly increase.  It will be so much fun to pay taxes on money we never got.  Then I get to watch European leaders applaud our President for supporting the movement to the 'New World Order' and the push to a 'Global Economy'.  They must love him over there, but I guess if I go to my grandchildren's preschool and handed out suckers, I'd be pretty popular, too.  I hear there is a bill to allow the government to set pay standards for any company that gets bailout money.  I listen to the White House press secretary answer a question regarding whether cabinet members that received bonuses from companies that got bailout money by saying 'we can't get into the finances of our staff and they are too busy working on important issues to be concerned about any bonus money they might have received.'  I observe the Secretary of the Treasury stating that he can't remember anything about AIG bonuses in the bailout package he helped author.  I see a Senator that at first denies any knowledge of an amendment that bears his name allowing AIG bonuses, and later admitting he knew about it, but the bill itself was so important that minor details such as the bonuses were inconsequential.  I think this was the same senator that said the American public really doesn't care about all the pork in the stimulus package.  I also couldn't help but notice that he was the number one recipient of campaign contributions from that company.  Are we up to seven new government appointeess that 'forgot' to pay income taxes?  Is anybody else out there to the brink of saying 'Stop the world, I want to get off!'?  I have just about had enough.

it's treason to question the government.

I'm right there with you, Lonnie, and damn disappointed in our court system.   Its interesting to see how few people there are in Iowa just 60 days into this administration who won't admit they voted for "the anointed one" and are coming to the cold, hard realization of just how damn much money it will cost them.

As I said last fall, its like he's a Hollywood star in a movie the liberals have written and directed--only you can't just pay to see it and walk away.   They'll charge us taxpayers every day and expect us to be "joyful about giving" to paraphrase Biden!   Meanwhile, those who don't want to work or never have will be able to get in to the movie free every day, get the best seats, and have all the concessions paid for by the actual taxpayers.  

Wow, I never thought I'd see our country try to emulate the mistakes of the "European Experience"---isn't that why  our ancestors moved here, to get away from the socialist types of government??

I wouldn't be surprised to see our nation's history revised to the point where we might as well have our nation's capitol moved to Hollywood and let them write the future as well.  We'll probably end up drivng our GM(Government Motors) car to the 1st Bank of Obama to deposit our paycheck directly to the IRS and then return to our government assigned housing to eat only government approved "safe" food , watch only "Progressive friendly" television,  and wait for the call from the National Health Plan to see when we can see a government approved "physician" be treated for our medical needs.  Oh, and by the way, we'll probably also be allowed to attend the "Church of the Enlightened"--it'll be the only one that is government approved as well.   Who would have thought that we could actually get worse leadership than Pelosi and Reed----now we have Obama and his enforcers led by a man named Emmanuel!!  What irony!!

So, I wonder, is there gender bias in a same sex divorce? And I wonder what the divorce rate is in same sex marriages? 75%? Same as mixed sex marrages? I wonder, I wonder, I wonder????? Or shall humanity just through out all Divine authority and dive in head first into the new Sodom and Gomorrah?

From where I stand I believe I can see the end!

Hey Lynn, that last paragraph sounds a lot like something I said on here a few months back, and what Knabe has been talking about for over a year. 

This is not just an American issue. Same stuff going on here in Canada, if not worse. I get almost sick with all this political correctness stuff that is developed by these mush headed bureaucrats.

Last week at a Canadian college in Calgary Alberta, a group of students wanted to replace a large Canadian flag that flies over one of the buildings on campus. It was getting a bit tattered and this group of students wanted to replace it with a new one. The approached the college administration about this, and were told they could not replace the flag unless a survey was done of all the international students attending the school. They were concerned that some of the international students may feel inferior if a Canadian flag was flying.  Good grief! This is  beyond stupid! This is so stupid I can hardly write this without wanting to  smash my head again a wall... or become an axe murderer. I doubt if this crap would be allowed in the US, so you are still way ahead of us in this regard. How warped do you have to be, to not understand that THIS COLLEGE IS A CANADIAN COLLEGE AND THE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ARE HERE TO BENEFIT FROM THE KNOWLEDGE THEY CAN RECEIVE. IF ANY OF THESE STUDENTS ARE UPSET BECAUSE OF A CANADIAN FLAG FLYING OVER A CANADIAN COLLEGE, THEY SHOULD BE SENT PACKING TO WHEREVER THEY COME FROM .... IN VERY SHORT ORDER... END OF DISCUSSION!  And this is not  a racist comment... it is just common sense!

There is almost not a day that I don't hear something on the radio that makes me wonder if there is a sane mind in any position of authority left. How do we take our countries back from these idiots? How do we stop this insanity? It doesn't seem to matter what political stripe is in power, it just continues on. There are black and white issues. There are some that have a tinge of grey. The ones that I am concerned about are these black and white issues... there should not be any movement in how we think about them.
This stuff really concerns me. I could go on and on......

One more example of total stupidity in action. A little girl came home from her first day of school and told her parents that the school teacher had told her she needed to get new sneakers. She told her mother this several times, over a few days. The mother had purchased new sneakers for her daughter so she called the teacher and asked about this. The teacher said that some of the other kids in grade 1 could not tie their own shoes, and seeing that this little girl could, she was making the other students feel inferior. The teacher suggested that the mother purchase some new sneakers that had the Velcro strips to fasten them. This story is typical of some of the pure insanity that has seeped into our society's. Rather than encourage the kids that could not tie their own shoes to learn..... this teacher wanted to bring all the students down to the lowest common denominator. Again.... way beyond stupid!  Sorry I am ranting now... but I feel a little better!

ELBEE said:

So, I wonder, is there gender bias in a same sex divorce? And I wonder what the divorce rate is in same sex marriages? 75%? Same as mixed sex marrages? I wonder, I wonder, I wonder????? Or shall humanity just through out all Divine authority and dive in head first into the new Sodom and Gomorrah?

From where I stand I believe I can see the end!

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the rate of hetero marriage is supposedly 50% (stats suspect).  for evangelicals, it's around 27-30%.  for atheists, it's around 20-25%.

to me, the issue is that hetero's have a word, non-hetero's don't.  so the solution is that no one can have a word.  since hetero used to confer benefits, and in more and more states those benefits have been created for homo's, all that's left is the word.  homo's want hetero's to have no say in what they call themselves.  of course hetero's are doing the same thing when they say homo marriage should just be marriage.  why not have 3 partners?  why not just let everyone marry everyone else so no one has to pay inheritance tax again?  then, who your parents are won't matter, you can be raised by anyone at any age, there should just be reallly nothing to constrain anyone from anything.

all societies are based on hypocrisy.  that which you build it upon will be that which it will crumble.  most of the time, our lifespan doesn't have enough time to offer perspective. 

    In a compensation program that has drawn angry protests from politicians, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expect to pay about $210 million in retention bonuses to 7,600 employees over 18 months, according to a letter from the mortgage companies’ regulator to Sen. Charles Grassley.

    The maximum retention bonus for any individual executive under the plan will total $1.5 million during the 18 months ending in early 2010, according to the letter, which provides previously undisclosed details about the bonuses. The regulator, James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said in a letter to the Iowa Republican senator that about $51 million of the payouts were made in late 2008 and that the rest are to be made this year and early next year.

    In the letter, a copy of which was made available to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Lockhart defends the bonuses as vital to retaining talent at the two companies, the main providers of funding for U.S. home mortgages. Fannie and Freddie, which reported combined losses of about $108 billion for 2008, are being propped up by capital infusions from the U.S. Treasury.

will anyone notice?  NO
will the press run with this issue they way they ran with AIG bonuses?  NO

and therein lies the bias of the media. 

will they cover the bonuses given out to congressional staff?  NO

congress won't change till both parties are voted out.  the public has no guts to do this.  and they won't run themselves.

this will only continue till a tipping point is reached, which will cause a lot of damage.  history has proven this over and over.

I don't think the constitution should be messed with. I am not pro gay marriage. But there have been gays for 18,000 years. Oh I forgot the world is only 2,000 years old. It is not a disease or sickness it is a physiology deal. It is a left brain right brain deal. A lot of gays don't want gay marriage. I think the best family situation is a man and a woman for raising kids. But the bible beaters who think that man walked with dinasaurs 2,000 years ago and believe that god is a vengfull god lost my respect a long time ago. Same thing with the age of the earth. The bible beaters are so wrong on so many things. Oh yeah..a guy that help leads the local church has owed me 600$ for two years laughs in my face when I ask him for a check. So I guess we should all go out out and beat the hell of the next gay we see and then go and pray to the lord. (argue)

AJ, did you see P-F's post on tea parties? 12 values and 9 principles kinda goes along with the 7 virtues and 7 deadly sins. None of which are Biblical, but morally right just the same. Speaking in generalities here: I'm concerned for my right to keep your hand out of my pants, and that goes for you wife's hand too. A story was told of a guy who had relations with his horse. The fella was hanker'in towards marriage, but the horse had different ideas. Seems in order for the relations to occur, the mare had to be haltered and tied in her stall.

Please take these comments with a grain of salt! And read between the lines!

aj said:

Oh yeah..a guy that help leads the local church has owed me 600$ for two years laughs in my face when I ask him for a check.

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Some steer jocks are/were pretty shaddy too, but that doesn't make you a shaddy cattle breeder or does it?   ???

Judas (one of the 12 Apostles) turned on Jesus Christ, so what you point out above doesn't surprise me in the slightest.   It's like the parable about wheat & tares.  Not all faithful church attenders are wheat & not all are tares.  Some TV Evangelist do worse than the guy above.  I don't know if the guy above is lost or backslidden or if there is more to the story, but the bottom line is this... even if 98% of the people who attend churches are really lost souls, that still will not change the fact that Jesus is Lord.     

You know me....I don't like to stir up trouble. I know in Prine, John song 7 "When the world was flat, Mona Lisa was as happy as a clam." 

^ Had Mona Lisa read Isaiah 40:22, she would've known that the world wasn't flat & she probably would've been much happier than a clam.      And if Mona Lisa had read Job 26:7, she would've known that God hung the world upon nothing and she could have corrected the Hindu's who believed that the world was held up by elephants that were standing on the back of a huge tortoise.   

I can hardly wait for a year or two to pass so we can all see if Iowa has ceased to be a state or disintegrated or something else terrible.  I read the court's decision.  It is very enlightening.  I suggest all of you do the same.  It is all about our state treating ALL people equally.  The tenor of people on this board surprises me.  Christianity is all about treating people fairly.  I don't think a good Christian should hate anyone.  Shouldn't we try to help people who are different than us?  Hatred of gays and lesbians is simply a form of prejudice.  All of the Christians on this board should be above hatred and prejudice.  This reminds me of our country's past hatred of Irish people.  When the Irish came to America in droves because they were starving in their own country, they were treated like trash, ridiculed, mistreated and prevented from participating in many activities that most Americans took for granted.  Now we all are Irish one day every year.  We have St Patrick's day parades, drink green beer, wear green clothes and generally celebrate everything Irish.  I guess it only took 125 years.

The decision of the Iowa Supreme Court is very well reasoned and will give you a very good insight into the reasons for the decision.  Please take the time to read it.  Religious groups, charitable entities, and many other groups from across the nation filed briefs in this case on both sides of the issue.  This case was first decided by an Iowa District Judge from Polk County, Iowa.  He found Iowa's statue limiting marriage to a man and a woman to be in violation of the Iowa Constitution.  That was very courageous for any Iowa Judge to do.  It shows you how strong the case was from a legal standpoint.  On appeal, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision upholding the decision of the District Judge.  A UNANIMOUS decision.  The Iowa Supreme Court is widely considered to be a conservative court from a conservative state.  The Justices obviously felt there was no other way to decide the case based on the law.

The case is about our constitution.  Our constitution guarantees the same rights to every citizen of Iowa.  We cannot discriminate among people just because they are different than us.  Simple fairness.  The Court did not say that we all must marry someone of the same sex.  They merely said the state has no business telling anyone how to live their personal lives.  The court also pointed out the fact that religion is not the basis of our law - the constitution is.  If religion is deemed to be the basis of law, who's religion do we base our laws upon?  In this country and in the state of Iowa any person can practice any religion he or she chooses.  Or he or she can choose to practice no religion.  Certainly Christianity is the most common religion in America.  That does not make America a Christian nation because our constitution guarantees to every person they can practice any religion.  That is what this nation is about - having the freedom to live your own life however we see fit.  That is exactly what the Iowa Supreme Court guaranteed with its decision.  I congratulate the court. 

doesn't it seem odd that IA has legalized gay marriage and in CA it failed?


of all the places

But remember Iowa is also the state that has a rest area every 20 miles.   

I don't know anybody who said or implied anything remotely close to "beating up gays" (except for aj) or anyone who talked about "hating homosexuals" (except for BJN).  Talk about putting words in other peoples mouths!!  Not allowing Homosexual marriage has absolutely nothing to do with "hating" anybody and it most certain doesn't have anything to do with violence.  For the record, I talk to & I am friendly toward homosexuals & I get along with them.  However, I don't agree with their lifestyle & guess what, they don't agree with mine!!  If "Homophobia" is a word, then "Christianphobia" needs to be one too!!                 

"Are you sure the world isn't held up by elephants?"  Plane 7; 101st and 82nd Airbourne divisions.

I don't hate homosexuals but I don't think that there lifestyle is best for raising a child.  I think that this shouldn't be a choice of the courts, but a choice of the people.  Most people do not want marriage to be tarnished by letting people of the same sex marry.  Just look at of all places California where they voted against same sex marriage.  Let the citizens of Iowa decide not a couple of people that see themselves as all mighty.   

How come when Homosexual issues are discussed Christianity is always brought into the picture? Aren't all Men and all Women sinners?

I do think BJN is right in thinking some of you are displaying your prejudice.

What makes Iowa different from California is that the Iowa Supreme Court made that decision and in California it was voted by the people which was lobbied hard by the Mormon Church.

Marriage under God's law and Government law should always be seperated like everything else. I don't understand why people get so paranoid about this. Equal rights and equal benefits is only fair IMO.