Kosovar, Bosnian, and Albanian Muslims are actually quite pro-Isreal, seeing themselves in a similar position. Also, Kurds see the whole Arab-Isreali conflict as an ethnic issue, not one of religion. They’re not on the Arab side, of course.

You shouldn’t need government approval for your choice of marriage partner (or partners if you’re inclined to polygamy). It’s the state sticking its nose into the private affairs of its citizens.

If it makes you feel any better, I am a staunch supporter of Israel and have been all my life.

The second I knew about Obama’s Muslim upbringing and current involvement with anti-Israel Muslims (are there any other kind? I don’t know) I knew I could never support his candidacy because he would never support equality for gays in any practical way.

Another thing that led me to conservatism was all the research I had to do about Obama in the fall of 2008 for an e-mail discusssion I had with a Jewish friend who was passionately committed to Obama — while I was passionately committed to McCain/Palin from the moment McCain announced Gov. Palin as his VP choice. I carefully researched all of Obama’s anti-Israel positions and allies and friends and sent my friend links so she could see for herself how bad an Obama presidency would be for Israel and all Jews, but she remained devoted to Obama to a level that I finally regarded as crazy and in January I dropped the friendship. I cannot fathom how 80 percent of American Jews sold out Israel by voting for Obama.

And that is the real problem we have, the nature of the commitment has changed fundamentally and was broken at the core, long before gays even we legalised.

So, I’m not understanding why promoting marriage (or the sorry construct that is called this nowadays) undermines the little that is left of the institution, if anything gays marrying saves the taxpayer lots of money, ensures they have someone to look after them in their old age and settles them down too. In other words, marriage(or however you want to call this particular commitment) helps everyone, straight or gay and society in general.

I don’t think it’s good for kids to grow up seeing people who never bond and who are not allowed to either officially — and that broken legal structure that passes for marriage nowadays is not a good example of real marriage either: in other words, an unmarried gay couple who have been devoted to each other for 20 years are a far better example for all of us than people who nip down to Vegas for yet another marriage every 2-3 years, a ‘married’ woman whose kids are all fatherless half-siblings is a disaster for us all.

True gays don’t bring up kids, but there are plenty of childfree marriages, and no-one thinks that those people are not really married.

I personally like to see people to marry and to stay with each other so they can evolve into the full human being they should be, regardless of their sexuality, because people who have bonded with a partner properly are much nicer to have around and they are the folks in this world who usually take the adult role in life and get things done.

However, I don’t want it to be called marriage. Marriage is a load-bearing beam of our society. It is necessary to the proper upbringing of our children. The fact that marriage has become so dispensable has contributed greatly to the decay of our society. As marriage rates go down, and divorces go up, our society becomes more dysfunctional in direct relation.

So, we must build back up the value of marriage in our society to arrest the decline. We need to exalt it. People need to treat it as truly valuable. Couples need to work to make it work. We need to honor those who have held together marriages for long periods of time, so that they’ll be less likely to abandon such status.

With that premise, I say we cannot afford to water down the issue by allowing gay marriage. I want my kids to grow up seeing marriage as one thing, not as some morally equivalent thing. I want the example set properly. One can talk all one wants, but it is the deeds which children see. Men and women get married and stay married. That is the norm I want them to see and emulate. I want this to be their reality. Our society depends upon it.

Yes.

Do people think that if they prevent gays from having a normal life that they’ll turn straight? Or is there some kind of revenge going on here?

It just does not make sense for the right to go against conservative core values and maybe one day someone will explain this complete irrationality here.

(remember, it’s the liberals who is against people forming life-long bonds out of principle… Oh well, there is nowt queerer than folks as they say!)

I assume five “opposite marriages” collapsed as a result of this vicious attack.

Call it a carry-over from the “Possessor vs. Non-Possessor” debate in Russia after the successful overthrow of the Mongol yoke.

For the non-possessors steadfastly upheld the ban
of using the civil arm to punish what falls short
of the universal standard.