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Name: Jason Cunningham
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The Proud Liberal and the Smart-aleck Conservative

I dissected a recent comment to a Sandy Rios column on Townhall. Here it is, the Liberal's parts in quotes, mine without.

Says Proud Liberal: "If straight couples want to have the additional cultural benefit of being married in a church ..."

CULTURAL benefit? This isn't like trying salsa dancing when you visit Mexico. It has a meaning that transcends any and every culture. Which leads to my next point ...

" ... after they have satisfied the STATE'S requirements and their marriage first legitimated by the STATE ..."

Marriage is a creation of God. I guess states, like individuals, have the freedom to do what they want, and certainly nothing that states or individuals do will change God's truth, but let's be real: the only reasons the state is involved in marriage is to collect the marriage-license fees and keep tabs on people. As my dad says, the government would tax farts if it could figure out how. It would also, I contend, collect fees on polygamous and adult-minor "marriages" if it could.

"Please keep your religious nose out of STATE affairs."

Nope. Sorry. Can't honor that request, mainly because I -- as a whole person, being more than simply the sum of my parts -- can't just leave my "religious nose" at home and use only my "secular brain" when contributing to discussions of public policy. If anyone can compartmentalize their religious beliefs, they're not a true believer.

"The United States is a democracy dedicated to equality among its inhabitants. The CHURCH is obviously AGAINST EQUALITY."

The kingdom of God is more about equality than any government, democratic or otherwise, can ever be, and by a country mile. It states, unequivically, that ALL have sinned and thus separated themselves from God, but that "God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." The Bible also makes it clear what constitutes proper sexual/romantic relationship among humans: that of one man and one woman for as long as they both live. "Equality" is an overused, misused word when it comes to this area of discussion; we all have the right to marry ... it's just that some people want to make marriage something it's not, and is never supposed to be. And besides that ....

"Every American citizen has the right and deserves the right to marry whomever they want."

Really? To marry WHOMEVER? So I, as a married man, should be able to take additional wives? Or my wife additional husbands? Should a 30-year-old man be able to as wife a 16-year-old girl -- or boy?

There are lots of ways to take apart and analyze this issue, but let's get down to brass tacks: bottom line, homosexuality is wrong, not meant to be -- a perversion.

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B.O.'s New Title: 'Most Powerful Writer Since Caesar'

Here's a gem for you, from Rocco Landesman, President Obama's handpicked chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, in a keynote address he gave last week to the 2009 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference:

"This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln. If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists."
 
Whether Obama could be good for any artist other than the guy who "borrowed" someone else's work for the infamous "hope" poster, I don't know, but one thing's for sure: If Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar (and I never realized ol' Jules was such a wizard with the pen), then I suppose we should all start studying his words with Biblical fervor (he is, after all, the messiah, right?).
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Wanda Psycho

One of the TV ads for Wanda Sykes' new show states "nothing is off-limits." Does this mean she'll bash B.O. like she bashed Bush?
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Democratic Party a Racist Sham

So much for a post-racial Obama administration. Senate Majority Leader Scary -- I mean, Harry -- Reid, D-Nev., said today that the GOP better not vote against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor or else it would pay a steep price. Said Reid: "I just think that their voting against this good woman is going to treat them about the same way that they got treated as a result of their votes on immigration."
 
Aww. Isn't that sweet?
 
I'm sure Harry Reid is real freakin' concerned about making sure the GOP doesn't hurt itself. This, combined with the president's recent race-baiting and the Democratic Party's recent history of keeping blacks addicted to government assistance, makes it clear that the Democratic Party is the party of racism. "If you vote against Sotomayor, you must hate Hispanics." Sounds awful similar to the refrain driven home subliminally during November's presidential race: "If you vote against Obama, you must hate blacks."
 
Gimme a break. The only reason Democrats still have any power is their strategy of keeping blacks and Hispanics on the government-sponsored plantation. This is ludicrous. And pathetic. And wrong.
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Glam-rock Lambert a Study in Overhyped Theatrics

Let's get this settled right now: Adam Lambert did NOT deserve to win American Idol. He didn't deserve to even be in the top two. The guy is a total production -- a too-slick, overtheatrical, inauthentic hack. Rock 'n roll is my favorite genre of music, but I couldn't stand this guy, because he's nothing but glam-rock -- which is fun to make fun of, but never to be taken seriously. Thus, it would've been a crime to make him the winner. Anybody paying attention earlier in the season would've heard (from the show) that Lambert has a background in ... THEATER. A fact that (unfortunately) shown through with gagging clarity. Worst of all, Lambert thought he was the best thing in music this side of Twisted Sister ... and had no problem displaying his self-indulgence.
 
Kris Allen, on the other hand, is a true artist. He may not sing my favorite type of song, but he has an excellent voice; a kind, humble, highly likeable personality; a creative capacity approaching that of 2008 winner David Cook; and a genuine authenticity about him. The voters chose wisely.
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Hilton Should Take Agenda Elsewhere

I don't know much about Perez Hilton, but based on his judging performance at the Miss USA pageant, I think he's a jerk.

First of all, the issue of same-sex marriage has no bearing on what is essentially a beauty pageant -- particulary when other contestants got less-divisive questions.

Second, if he or any of the other judges voted against Carrie Prejean because of her non-PC answer, they have shown themselves to be unworthy judges of a beauty pageant. Miss Prejean spoke her mind, refusing to bow to pressure, and deserves much credit for that. Mr. Hilton, on the other hand, should conduct his personal crusades in other (appropriate) forums.
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Same-sex 'marriage' not a civil right

Vermont state Rep. William Lippert, a homosexual, after the Vermont Legislature overrode the governor's veto of a same-sex 'marriage' bill: "It's been an incredibly powerful personal journey. I consider it my personal great good fortune to be a member of the Vermont Legislature under the leadership of speakers who have in fact prioritized civil rights for the community of which I'm a part. It touches me deeply."
 
Mr. Lippert has the right to be a part of any community he chooses, but he's woefully mistaken about what constitutes a civil right.
 
As I've argued previously, civil rights comprise our political freedoms -- freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom to protest, to peaceably assemble, to petition the government. In essence, our civil rights are what protect us citizens from government tyranny. This is what made the black civil-rights movement a civil-rights movement; they had previously been denied the political freedoms due every American, such as the right to vote, and thus had a legitimate civil-rights argument: To deny them, for example, the right to vote was to treat them unequally under the law. This is the true meaning of the phrase "equal treatment under the law."
 
Homosexuals, on the other hand, are not being denied the right to vote, the right to worship as they please, the right to protest, to petition the government, to peaceably assemble. Relationships, unlike those things I've just mentioned, have nothing to do with protecting citizens from political tyranny. Furthermore, if relationships are classified under the "equal treatment under the law" rubric, then it becomes impossible to objectively draw the line as to which relationships qualify for "equal treatment." What right would any of us have, for example, to deny a 15-year-old the "right" to be with a 21-year-old? Who are any of us to say that such a relationship is not valid? 15-year-olds are people too, right? They have feelings, don't they? Can't they be "in love"?
 
Civil rights, indeed.
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Tragedy in Iowa

Well laadi-frickin-da. So now Iowa is a "gay friendly" state. And not just any gay-friendly state; unlike the Northeast and Pacific Coast states, Iowa, some say, is "mainstream America." Being originally from Maine, I resent this comment. I also disagree with the opinion that the Iowa Supreme Court's decision somehow lends legitimacy to same-sex marriage (though I fear that a great many people will fall for that notion). Anyone who still has their head securely fastened to their shoulders knows that same-sex anything is wrong.
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The Big O: His Royal Weariness Sighs Again

So President Obama has approved another gigantic spending measure, this one loaded with billions in pork-barrel pet projects. And the best he can do is call the measure "imperfect." And the real kicker: According to an AP story, Obama "sounded weary" about all the criticism of earmarks, adding that his promise was to curb, not eliminate, them.
 
Well he didn't "curb" anything in this bill, and if he refuses to put his foot down during these tough economic times, he'll never get tough. As for His Royal Weariness, now he knows how true conservatives feel about him ... and it's not even two months into his presidency. He's developed a terrible habit of whining/sighing -- remember, this is the same president who got snippy with a reporter during his first week in office, and who thought a New York Times reporter was joking when he asked Obama a question regarding socialism.
 
And what the hell does he expect to hear concerning earmarks? "Way to go, O! That's a nice, fat pig you got, there -- and just in time for Easter!"? So much for change. Newsweek has a story out describing how those in the American "establishment" (for example, corporate Americans) are already growing weary of Obama's act. Maybe the Average Joes across the land will soon get the message too.
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Baby-Smashing: Not What You Might Think

I was just reading Psalms, and I came across a verse in which the psalmist expresses a desire to see the babies of his Babylonian captors smashed on rocks. Sounds rather cruel, I confess, and I immediately asked God to help me understand it. After all, such verses are ones that atheists and other nonbelievers latch onto as reasons for rejecting the Bible and its God. Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, in particular, use such arguments, preferring to believe that a sound moral code exists independently of God and can be discovered without the aid of religion. They also presume that said moral code was available to anyone anywhere in the world at any point in history, and thus that the ancient Israelites were immoral for wanting to bash babies' heads and wage war against their Canaanite neighbors.
 
Hitchens, Dawkins, et al. make several mistakes, however. They first make the wrong assumption that this moral code is fully decipherable without the aid of God, the church or religion. They fail to realize, however, that they, despite choosing against God, were nonetheless raised in a society unmistakably saturated with and affected by Judeo-Christian morality. This affords them the opportunity to choose against God and be under the illusion that they "discovered" morality all on their own, never realizing that they can't completely escape the effects of growing up in a society influenced by Christianity.
 
Their second mistake is assuming, based on their first wrong assumption, that anyone throughout human history should have been able to fully decipher the proper moral code on their own -- and thus concluding that wishing harm on your enemies' babies should have been quite obviously wrong to any sane person. But what's wrong, as well as illogical, is to project a 21st-century understanding of morality -- culled from 2,000 years of Christian history -- onto a pre-Christian society. Not only does our basic understanding of morality today come from Christianity, but this standard had not yet been made manifest at that point in history. Thus, all they had to go on was the Law, with its eye-for-an-eye principle of "the punishment must fit the crime"; in other words, they had an incomplete understanding of mercy, compassion and grace. Combine this with the fact that survival was a daily struggle in those days -- because of limited resources, and constant warfare amongst groups over said resources -- and it's easy to see why your attack on my children would lead to my attack on your children.
 
Of course, with the advent of Jesus, we've been blessed with a full understanding of forgiveness, mercy, compassion and grace. This may be difficult, but try to imagine not having that understanding, not living in a society whose fabric is woven with the threads of Jesus' teachings, not living in a society where daily survival is thought to be a given. Makes for a different situation, doesn't it?
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Homosexuals Missing a Lot of Points

The furor over the passage of Prop 8 having abated somewhat, Scott Boardman of Monrovia feels that there just aren't enough pro-homosexual rallies taking place anymore, and he plans to do something about it. Fine; go ahead and exercise your right to waste your time -- for only in America are we affluent enough to be able to put serious effort into legitimizing perversion.
 
And speaking of rights, one of Boardman's supporters, the Rev. (and I use that term loosely) Susan Russell of All-Saints Episcopal Church, said recently: "The United States is founded on values of freedom of religion and from religion." Actually, "reverend," "freedom from religion" is nothing but a fanciful idea dreamed up by atheists and the ACLU (the Anti-Christian-Liberties Union). Like "separation of church and state," it's a phrase found nowhere in our nation's founding documents. Besides that, no one can be free from religion; even if you don't subscribe to an "organized" religion, you subscribe to whatever unorganized hodge-podge you decide upon throughout the course of your life. In other words, you believe something, and whatever it is you believe, that is your religion.
 
Russell goes on to say: "All-Saints is part of a national group that believes God's laws include everyone and that the United States Constitution provides protection for everyone." Well, duh. Of course the Constitution applies equally to everyone -- that is, it guarantees everyone's civil (a.k.a. political) rights -- the right to vote, to petition government, to peacably assemble, etc. But since marriage has nothing to do with any of these things, it can't be considered a civil (political) right. (Ditto with abortion.)
 
And it's funny that Russell speaks of God's laws applying to everyone, because she glaringly fails to encourage obedience to one of His fundamental teachings: that He designed marriage as a particular thing, to the exclusion of all other things, as a way of demonstrating to us the differences and similarities between Himself and humans, and His desire (despite our differences) for intimacy with us. Russell, I'm sure, bases her position, at least in part, on the twisted, homosexual-friendly definition of "equality," wherein any two consenting adults should be able to do whatever they want (then why not three, or 10?), and according to which there are no differences between males and females (then why do so many lesbians come off as being men, and so many homosexual men come off as being women?). At any rate, true equality doesn't mean equal results; it means having equal protection of our basic civil (political) rights, and we all have that (last I checked, homosexuals weren't being denied the right to vote, weren't being segregated and weren't being knocked over with firehoses). Beyond these "off-limits" items, society is ours (meaning everyone's) to shape as we will; you can disagree with any of the decisions, but a decision not in your favor doesn't mean that your basic rights have been violated.
 
Homosexuals and their advocates need to understand that sexual practices comprise a difference case than skin color: Even if sexuality (like skin color) is an inherent genetic characteristic, it is nonetheless (unlike skin color) a question of morality, and for many of us, the practice of homosexuality constitutes a perversion, a deviation from what God intended. For us, therefore, it's not a question of accepting someone who is different in a benign way; instead, you're asking us to agree with and approve of a behavior that we find immoral.
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Churches for Religion, Not Political PR

So the Library of Congress wants churches, synagogues and mosques across America to preserve, via print, audio or video, any and all sermons or other "passionate speeches" concerning Barack Obama in the lead-up to his inauguration. Gimme a break.
 
I understand the desire to preserve certain things for posterity's sake; my problem here is that houses of worship are not supposed to be used for political PR. Perhaps I can't speak as well for non-Christian religions (since I'm a Christian), but I'm pretty sure that all houses of worship -- Christian churches, for sure -- are supposed to be about connecting God and people, strengthening the bond between the Creator and His creation. Not that political candidates or other public figures can't be mentioned in church -- I think they can be -- but the mission of the Christian church, at least, is clear: reach people with God's message. Time spent doing anything else is wasted, and if there's any person in American history whom we don't need more souvenirs regarding, it's Obama.
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Israel Right, Palestinians Wrong ... End of Story

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has vowed to use an "iron fist" in dealing with Hamas ... and this is as it should be.
 
People can argue about who started this seemingly endless conflict, but there are some clear facts about this situation that no one can reasonably dispute: 1.) Hamas, along with many other Muslim and Arab groups, wants more than just an independent Palestinian: they want Israel destroyed. In light of that, virtually any military action Israel takes is justified. 2.) If Palestinians want their own state so badly, and if their Arab and Muslim brothers want that as well, there are plenty of Muslim/Arab nations in the Middle East -- several of them quite large -- that could give the Palestinians a chunk of land where they could live in peace and leave Israel alone. 3.) The U.N. is clearly an anti-Semitic organization.
 
The easiest road to peace in the Middle East (short of everyone there becoming Christians, which won't happen) is to follow the plan outlined in 2.) above. Nothing else will work. If those involved refuse to follow this plan, the only acceptable thing is for Israel to do what it's now doing: defend itself.
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Liberals (heart) Blacks ... Not

I feel the need to first point out what so many have forgotten or chosen to ignore: Obama isn't America's first black president; he's America's first HALF-black president.

Second (as black columnist Larry Elder points out here: http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryElder/2009/01/01/obama_the_magic_negro-gate), liberals not only forget all the good that Republicans have done for blacks; they also have the warped notion that keeping blacks dependent on government (via welfare, etc.) constitutes "help" (though it does constitute help for Dems -- helps them win votes).

Last but not least, why is it that liberals are "in favor" of blacks ... except when blacks such as Elder and Bill Cosby speak the truth? (Sorta like how liberals are "in favor" of homosexuals ... except when those who've escaped the bonds of homosexuality speak against it.)
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Three of a Kind: Crackpots, Liberals and Atheists

The hullabaloo over President-elect Obama's choice of Pastor Rick Warren to give the inauguration invocation is a sure sign of several things: 1.) many Americans have an exceedingly warped idea of what constitutes inappropriate church-state interaction; 2.) liberals apparently don't realize that Obama's brand of "change" -- the emergence of "unity" and "postpartisanship" -- requires, umm ... gosh, it should be so obvious, I'm amazed I have to point it out ... reaching out to those with whom you disagree; and 3.) a strong dislike for all things God.
 
As to item 1.), see my previous entry titled "Liberal Myths: Church-State Separation." 'Nuff said.
 
Concerning 2.): All the campaign drivel from liberals about "getting past partisan politics," "reaching across the aisle" and "inclusion" appears to be just that -- drivel. I'm hardly an Obama fan, but I give him credit for at least having the guts to include someone with whom he has marked disagreements on prominent social issues. Obama's liberal constituents, however, seem to not realize that "inclusion" means, um, including.
 
Re: 3.): This should be blatantly obvious to every sentient being in the universe. "God?? In the inauguration??? You mean, actually mentioning a God other than Obama?? Are you nuts?" This, of course, has much to do with 1.), and, intriguingly, lines up well with atheist crackpot Michael Newdow's latest attempt to remove the Almighty from public discourse.
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