In today’s New York Times, Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich addressed the Obama choice of anti-gay minister Rick Warren as part of his inaugural ceremony:

December 28, 2008
You’re Likable Enough, Gay People
By FRANK RICH

IN his first press conference after his re-election in 2004, President Bush memorably declared, “I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.” We all know how that turned out.

Barack Obama has little in common with George W. Bush, thank God, his obsessive workouts and message control notwithstanding. At a time when very few Americans feel very good about very much, Obama is generating huge hopes even before he takes office. So much so that his name and face, affixed to any product, may be the last commodity left in the marketplace that can still move Americans to shop.

I share these high hopes. But for the first time a faint tinge of Bush crept into my Obama reveries this month.
(more…)

John Hodgman, a self-proclaimed “famous minor television personality” (and co-star of the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials for Apple), said this about Obama and Rev. Rick Warren:

WHAT’S MORE: this not solely a question of being inclusive of different viewpoints. If Warren were merely a pro-life creationist, I would not be so bothered. It’s the question that Obama and Warren agree on that really troubles me.
BOTH WARREN AND OBAMA believe in a fallacy: that one can support equal rights for “everybody” (Warren) and for gay folks specifically (Obama), and yet not support a gay person having the same access as a straight person to the governmental special status known as “marriage.”
I KNOW HOW TEMPTING this fallacy can be: I am ashamed to admit that I half-fell for it myself until Massachusetts proved that the world would not end, and the semantic difference between “domestic partnerships” and “marriage” was so meaningless as to be offensive. I was wrong, I am sorry.
I HAVE CONFIDENCE that, in no short order, Prop 8 will be repealed, and the gay marriage debate will look as absurd at the miscegenation debates of the 20th century do now. I have confidence this will happen not because it is merely right, or because the electorate will suddenly love gayness, but because opposition to gay marriage has no logical foundation in a civil society that is premised on equality.
(CHURCHES can go ahead and ban it all they like. They have their own charters, and no obligation to logic.)
THOSE OF US, however, who foolishly refused to take Obama at his word when he told us he didn’t support gay marriage OVER AND OVER AGAIN must now take him at his deed. He really, really doesn’t want gays to get married. SRSLY.

John Hodgman’s blog

From CNN:
Prop 8 proponents seek to nullify same-sex marriages

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

CNN LINK

Thanks to Bonnie for sending me the link for this. Keith Olbermann is a commentator on MSNBC. Here is his editorial/commentary on California’s Proposition 8:

The Wall Street Journal has a newly-posted entry referencing the possible legal challenges that could stem from the passing of Proposition 8 in California, which constitutionally bans gay marriage.

We are going to Temple Square in a few minutes to protest the LDS church’s stance of mandating members’ resources in favor of changing the California constitution. My first protest in 50 years.

Tonight at 6:00.

Be there — at the Square.

The previews for this new film are hilarious (and just in time for the election).

Watch the trailer in High Definition on Apple.

Religulous hits theaters on October 3rd 2008.

This has got to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen:

LINK

The American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site used an automated search and replace feature to get rid of the word “gay” on their entire website and replace it with the word “homosexual” as reported on the People for the American Way website.

Poor runner Tyson Gay, who did so well in the Olympic track trials.

My Note: I guess this falls under the same religious mindset as when the LDS church calls homosexuality, “SSA” [same sex attraction] or some such tripe. I’ve even seen it taken a step further as “same gender attraction” to de-sensualize it further.

My niece and her husband are raising their kids without religion and firmly believe (as do I) that religion does not have a monopoly on morals and doing what is right, but indeed is the cause of much of the suffering in today’s world, as well as throughout history.

They feel that the decision to affiliate with religion is a decision their kids can make when they are old enough to decide intelligently for themselves and are doing everything they can to avoid indoctrinating any religious beliefs in them.

Their six-year-old saw three small wooden crosses marking my brother’s dog burial ground over the weekend and innocently asked his mother, “What are those church things doing here?”

I thought that was funny on several levels, but especially because he already recognizes the difference between the religious and the secular.

This same kindergartner also recently performed his own survey among his school friends: “Do you believe in God?”

When his mother asked him the results, he said that they all said they did. Then she asked him what he had told them about his own beliefs. He replied that he had said nothing.

Smart kid — especially in Texas!