Ferris Bueller: imo...lgbt is a morel issue...same as incest and pedophilia.

In the case of homophobia.. is it that the phobia is just regarding men being gay? Then is some of this 'phobia' just the basic "get a room"?

.... plus .. plain old simple traditional taking of the Bible via preachers to make it a morally right overreaction.

Use of homophobia, homophobic, and homophobe has been criticized as pejorative against those with differing value positions.

* In 1993, behavioral scientists William O'Donohue and Christine Caselles concluded that the usage of the term "as it is usually used, makes an illegitimately pejorative evaluation of certain open and debatable value positions, much like the former disease construct of homosexuality" itself, arguing that the term may be used as an ad hominem argument against those who advocate values or positions of which the speaker does not approve. The social construct of masculinity is not defined by attraction to females alone but also by negative attraction to males. The implication of a fear of something unmasculine, given the term's scientific etymology, may be used illegitimately to imply that anyone with a different opinion is unmasculine.[21]
* A group of psychologists from the University of Arkansas conducted research that showed that participants' responses were not fear-based but reflected a disapproval of homosexuality that was due to other factors, such as "disgust".[22]
* The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, an organization affiliated with the ex-gay movement, describes the term homophobia as being "often used inaccurately to describe any person who objects to homosexual behavior on either moral, psychological or medical grounds." They state that, "Technically, however, the terms actually denotes a person who has a phobia — or irrational fear — of homosexuality. Principled disagreement, therefore, cannot be labeled 'homophobia.'"[23]

because you dont believe in,nor are willing to accept homo's...doesnt automatically make you a "homophobe", and people who live in glass houses,shouldnt throw stones.

Rupert Murdoch has been given clearance to 'own' BskyB. One condition... he has to sell off Sky News. I don't think he's to fussed as it's losing money anyway.

(V):

rod03801: Right.. so it an assumption.

Gotcha!!

(V): Um. I said "I've seen".... and "apparently".. Nothing about "think" or "know"

rod03801: ?? You think or know??

Übergeek 바둑이: Well after a neo con saying that being educated and being the President was basically incompatible.

.... makes you think.. or not if you are a neo con!!

Übergeek 바둑이: Nah, I've seen plenty of left wingers who apparently haven't even graduated high school.

lizrising:

"How many are professional left wingers and how many are regular folks?" I never knew left wing was a profession. I suppose you need a university degree and a license to be a left winger!

Oh, Billll. Try to make your fake footage less obvious next time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRcmeA1k-ik

Tuesday:

This cracks me up. It is not the first homophobic religious nut to be caught being a hypocrite. I suppose he can blame pornography for making him "pee in a bottle". He should go into the hall of fame for lame excuses.

Tuesday: Guilty until proven innocent, huh?

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

...."It's the Inequality, Stupid"

RBS created their near collapse (only prevented by Joe Voter bailing them out via the UK government) by neglecting to obtain complete accounts of the bank they and other European banks were buying as a consortium. In the accounts of why they did not obtain the completes accounts of that bank, it was revealed that it was a done deal even without such vital info. Those accounts would have shown that the bank had a serious bad debt problem that left it for all accounts ... bankrupt.

The collapse of RBS would have caused a collapse of the world banking system.

And yet.. the banks say we cannot tell them to ensure (via a change in their bonus system) such mistakes do not by greed be done again. We are told by the banks they are angry we are taxing them..... to go into a fund to cover any more greedy bankers playing with Joe Plumbers money.

Imagine not being able to access your money....

That's about £3200....... Ok explain the economy of the banks still "bailed out" paying billions in bonuses (that's £1,000,000,000+) and yet holding the economies of the world to ransom saying....

.... "If you make us pay for our mess and stop us from profiting while Joe Voter suffers... we'll leave and cause your economies more harm.. we don't care!!"

********************
Just for clarity

Artful Dodger: I made a error... golly .. oh dear. I corrected it now.. Thankyou!!

Must stop mutli tasking!! I'm only a man

What about UK company British Gas who yet again makes record profits while their customers say "why are our bills going up so much more than inflation"..

.. They would move... but all the other energy companies are doing the same.

How big are share holder functions these days?

Artful Dodger: That's about £3200....... Ok explain the economy of the banks still "bailed out" paying billions in bonuses (that's £1,000,000,000+) and yet holding the economies of the world to ransom saying....

.... "If you make us pay for our mess and stop us from profiting while Joe Voter suffers... we'll leave and cause your economies more harm.. we don't care!!"

Condoleeza Rice's former employer Chevron-Texaco was slapped with a 9.5 billion dollar fine for polluting the rainforest in Ecuador. Chevron is trying to weasel their way out of paying trying to pass the blame onto Texaco and Petroecuador. It just never occurred to them that the pollution that Texaco left behind would ever come back to haunt them. It is easy to acquire a company and then assume that if they did dirty things in a Third World country then those deliberate mistakes would never be prosecuted by the law. Well, I am sure Chevron has another option: leave Ecuador without paying and then open shop in another Third World country!

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/indigenous-ecuadoran-woman-humbles-us-oil-giant-20110223-060924-978.html

... I wish I could post a link to a rather accurate video explaining the Daily Mail.

.. unfortunately the swearing involved in the comical video about Hitler's fav UK paper is too strong to post the link.

Artful Dodger: One of the reasons unions started as a result of exploitation by the bosses. Just as did the Suffragettes arise from the lack of votes for women.

alilsassy: President Raygun, the "Star Wars" President.. you've not heard of him??

Tuesday: "comparing Obama to Regan" who's Regan?

A distinct set of definitions for the word republic evolved in the United States. In common parlance a republic is a state that does not practice direct democracy but rather has a government indirectly controlled by the people. This is known as representative democracy. This understanding of the term was originally developed by James Madison, and notably employed in Federalist Paper No. 10. This meaning was widely adopted early in the history of the United States, including in Noah Webster's dictionary of 1828. It was a novel meaning to the term, representative democracy was not an idea mentioned by Machiavelli and did not exist in the classical republics.[48]

The term republic does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, but does appear in Article IV of the Constitution which "guarantee[s] to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government." What exactly the writers of the constitution felt this should mean is uncertain. The Supreme Court, in Luther v. Borden (1849), declared that the definition of republic was a "political question" in which it would not intervene. In two later cases, it did establish a basic definition. In United States v. Cruikshank (1875), the court ruled that the "equal rights of citizens" were inherent to the idea of republic. The opinion of the court from In re Duncan[49] (1891) held that the "right of the people to choose their government" is also part of the definition. Due to the 1875 and 1891 court decisions establishing basic definition, in the first version (1892) of the Pledge of Allegiance, which included the word republic, and like Article IV which refers to a Republican form of government, the basic definition of republic is implied and continues to do so in all subsequent versions, including the present edition, by virtue of its consistent inclusion.

Beyond these basic definitions the word republic has a number of other connotations. W. Paul Adams observes that republic is most often used in the United States as a synonym for state or government, but with more positive connotations than either of those terms.[50] Republicanism is often referred to as the founding ideology of the United States. Traditionally scholars believed this American republicanism was a derivation of the liberal ideologies of John Locke and others developed in Europe.

The political philosophy of republicanism initiated by Machiavelli was thought to have had little impact on the founders of the United States. In the 1960s and 1970s a revisionist school lead by the likes of Bernard Bailyn began to argue that republicanism was just as or even more important than liberalism in the creation of the United States.[51] This issue is still much disputed and scholars like Kramnick completely reject this view.[52]

Artful Dodger:

>A pure democracy is a weak government.

It is impossible to tell since that government has never existed in practice. Direct democracy remains something that was never tried in any country anyswhere. Democracy always was a priviledge of the rich and powerful. The working class were always there to merely cast a vote and surrender political power to a wealthy and powerful elite. It was like that from the beginnings of representative democracy in the late 18th century and continues like that in the present.

> I think what we have is good to a point. The problem lies where special interest
> groups can dictate (via - "vote for this and we'll vote for you!") policy that effects
> and entire population. But the Dems tried that sort of nonsense last year and many
> of them are booted out of office as a result.

And the Reps never did? I suppose the conservative right is really, really immune to special interest groups and lobbyists!

Artful Dodger:

Maybe citizens should push for a referendum on the issue. Then, there are so many issues that deserve a referendum. Health care, defense spending, bank bailouts, war declarations, etc. The great weakness of representative democracy is that it leaves the decision making in the hands of a handful of individuals. It is funny that under 1,000 people decide the fate of 300,000,000 others. I suppose representative democracy must be better than direct democracy.

Artful Dodger: Says someone who has never lived in a multicultural society.

The area I live in is a great mix of cultures. Muslims, Christians, Hindu's, Sikhs, Turkish, Chinese.. even Aussies!!.. We all get along... as we all in our area have respect for each other.

.. And we get a great selection and variety of shops and services based on the various cultures... complimentary medicines, clothes, foods (if you are like me and love cooking a great thing) ... and the shops have transformed certain areas from nearly empty shopping areas to bustling areas of trade which boosts the income of traditional British shops purely from the likes of passing trade.

Artful Dodger:

> A cultural mosaic is a country divided.

Divided in what sense? I doubt Canadians would see their country as divided. Divisions in Canada have more to do with regionalism than with culture per se. The biggest division is between "Francophone Canada" and "Anglophone Canada", and that has as much to do with local politicians wanting power for themselves than with language and culture. Francophones outside Quebec are more ambivalent about separation. Outside Quebec Canada is unified not by language and culture, but by values.

Well, in my experience people who fear multiculturalism usually are those who have lived in a culturally homogenous environment all their life. The fear stems from fear of change more than a fear of losing cultural identity. Most countries are a lot more multicultural than they would admit. There are always regional differences, differences in languages and dialects, differences in food, dress, music, etc. I doubt all countries are entirely homogeneous.