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Today In The Gay
- Today the Vatican released their new (and unsurprising) policy on allowing gay men to be priests. In short, no more flaming in the sachristy. Deep-seated homosexual tendencies, which the Vatican calls disordered, disqualify one. "Transitory tendencies" would be OK if you've been celibate for three years.
The editor of the Catholic New Times estimates that 30-50% of priests in the Catholic Church are gay. And stated on CBC that 50% of Catholic churches are currently without a priest. Hmmm, good plan Benedict! - Today the Canadian election started, and Stephen Harper, almost before the writ had left Martin's hand, was already talking about repealing equal marriage for same-sex couples. For pete's sake, is he stupid? I mean, seriously.
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You want him to keep this up! WIth statements like that it will have middle-ground Canadians (who really don't care about the matter one way or another) not wanting to go near the Conservatives with a 100-metre pole!
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And regarding electoral reform, I'm not convinced it would work well for Canada, since it coule create a large devide than already present. The coalitions required can get messy and complicated, and could result in a government nobody like (take a look at what we ended up with down here for an example).
Also I think that the media has really overplayed the Gomery thing, why no furore over the 1 billion wasted on hand-gun registration?!
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Seriously though, that's the exact question constantly raised by the poor overtaxed gun owners. I want to slap my dad when he constantly says "I'm gonna buy a gun and not register it" when he freakin' registers his car every year.
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of course the other thing I may be finding is that Canada in general is a little over-regulated. I've often found that I tend to like left-leaning social reforms (drug/coupling reform for instance), but economically a little more centrist (deregulation of the health sector might not be the end of the world *hides in shelter*...)
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He saw how well it worked for Bush... Maybe he assumes Canadians are just as prejudiced and narrow minded as americans.
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I'm kinda glad Harper did what he did. A lot of people on our side were trying to decide just how far to go in making it an election issue. Now Harper's made that decision for us.
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As for Harper, you're absolutely right. I just can't believe his willingness to completely ignore reality so consistently.
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What's so bad about any of this?
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Secondly, AAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!! A referendum on this issue would be SO VERY VERY BAD. I have no confidence that the majority of Canadians would vote in favour of SSM in a referendum. I don't really think there are clear polls indicating that. And I don't think it's fair to have the majority decide on the rights of a minority. That's sort of why we have a Charter in the first place (not that Stephen Harper has read it.)
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051129.wgaymarriage1129/BNStory/specialDecision2006/?query=stephen+harper+same+sex+marriage
As for the whole polls thing, I don't get why supporters of SSM slam their wins in them in the faces of their opponents and then consider it too risque themselves to trust if and when a real natinal referendum on the topic does arise.
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1. Human rights should not be subject to a majority vote. If they were, blacks would still be slaves, and women would never have gotten the vote.
2. He spent years claiming that Parliament should decide this issue rather than judges. And in May, Parliament finally did. Now he says that doesn't count and he wants to ask again? How many times will he want to ask? I don't believe that the issue will be closed: he has changed his story on equal marriage several times already, and cannot be trusted on that point.
3. Over two-thirds of Canadians are sick of the issue, and consider it closed, and do not want to discuss it.
4. Well over half of Canadians support equal marriage, and therefore repealing the law would actually be ignoring majority interest anyway, in favour of the small but vocal anti-gay religious conservatives and conservative right.
5. Referenda cost megabucks, and we're already spending over $210 million on this election, plus $212 million on the last one just last year. Waste of money on an issue already dealt with.
6. There are children living and dying on the streets of Canadian cities and towns. Why the fuck is he not actually dealing with something that is an actual problem, instead of wandering around in anti-gay pointless land?
Bit of a rant there. :-)
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Yes. He's stupid. First thing out of his mouth on the first day of the campaign.
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I once got the line from a Conservative staffer that the two biggest issues on the minds of Canadians are strengthening the military and same-sex marriage. Obviously, the Conservatives have some whacked out pollsters (or poll writers, or interpreters of the polling data).
Jackie said it best last night: "I can deal with politicians who are corrupt. I can deal with them misusing my tax dollars. But I don't want them messing with my rights."
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If the Tories passed a law of any sort that did not use the NC, as they claim they could, eventually it would reach the Supreme Court and they would slap it out immediately.
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