Israel and Marriage Key Issues in New York Special Election

Two of my most important public policy issues.

From John McCormack, at Weekly Standard:

How did Republican Bob Turner pull off an 8-point win (54%-46%) in a district that gave Turner just 39% of the vote in 2010 and went 55% for Obama in 2008? Sure, it helped that the Democratic incumbent Anthony Weiner resigned in disgrace after he accidentally posted a lewd photo of himself, intended for a young woman, to his public Twitter account. But scandal alone wasn't enough to flip New York's 9th congressional district to Republicans. In early August a Siena poll showed Democrat David Weprin leading Turner 48% to 42%, but by late last week Siena showed Turner had pulled into the lead 50% to 44%.

o win in a Democratic district, Turner needed Democratic votes. The two issues that seem to have helped drive some of the district's traditionally Democratic voters to cast their ballots for Turner were Obama's Israel policy and Weprin's vote for same-sex marriage. Former Democratic New York City mayor Ed Koch endorsed Turner primarily to send a message to Obama on Israel. Democratic state senator Ruben Diaz backed Turner because of Weprin's vote on marriage. Democratic state assemblyman Dov Hikind says both issues, as well as dissatisfaction with Obama's failed economic policies, were "overriding" factors that led him to support Turner.

"This is an underlying issue that is extremely powerful issue," Hikind says of Weprin's vote for same-sex marriage. Weprin didn't merely vote for the bill. He got on the floor of the assembly and compared voting against same-sex marriage to "outlawing marriages between Jews and non-Jews or interracial marriages.”

"The fundamental message was 'I'm an orthodox Jew and gay marriage is perfectly fine,'" Hikind says of his Democratic colleague's speech. "To me, when he did that, he crossed every single line." Forty orthodox rabbis declared that orthodox Jews could not support Weprin.

Keep reading.

And yeah, he crossed every single line, ASFL.

Jerry Buell, Florida History Teacher, Suspended for Posting His Personal Gay Marriage Opinions on Facebook

The guy was Mount Dora High School's Teacher of the Year. His peers obviously consider him excellent in the classroom. And his comments on gay marriage are nothing compared to the left's foul dirtbag death chants against conservatives. Seriously. He says gay marriage makes him sick to his stomach and is an attack on God. You think? See Orlando Sentinel, "Teacher suspended, reassigned for anti-gay Facebook comments." And Hot Air, "Florida teacher suspended for Facebook entry opposing NY gay-marriage law":

Do teachers in public-school systems have a “special ethics” code that prevents them from publicly speaking on policy issues? Lake County Schools in Florida suspended Jerry Buell, a high-school teacher with a reportedly impeccable record for 22 years, for posting his opposition to New York’s new gay-marriage law, and will start termination proceedings against him. The case will test First Amendment rights and encroaching political correctness.

You can say that again.



Here's the guy's comments:

“I’m watching the news, eating dinner when the story about New York okaying same-sex unions came on and I almost threw up,” he wrote. “And now they showed two guys kissing after their announcement. If they want to call it a union, go ahead. But don’t insult a man and woman’s marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool of whatever. God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable?”



*****



“By the way, if one doesn’t like the most recently posted opinion based on biblical principles and God’s laws, then go ahead and unfriend me. I’ll miss you like I miss my kidney stone from 1994. And I will never accept it because God will never accept it. Romans chapter one.”

And here come the progressive thought police totalitarians. Lauren Ritchie, for example, also at The Sentinal, "Respect between teachers, students at heart of teacher's anti-gay Facebook rant":

Buell said last week that he started the Facebook discussion after watching a news story about New York legalizing unions for same-sex partners.



In most of it, Buell simply expounded on view that homosexuality is wrong because of his religious beliefs. All that was fine.



Where the teacher of the year went wrong was in saying he "almost threw up" when the story came on the screen and in comparing gay relations to a "cesspool."



His remarks were out of line, and they were made in a public forum. As a teacher of history and government, Buell should know that responsibility comes with freedom of speech.



Students — gay, straight or otherwise — have the right to come to school expecting a fair shake from their teachers. Can a student who makes a teacher want to vomit really expect equal treatment?

Of course they can? Progressives assume that people from different backgrounds are perpetual victims who can't think for themselves. And they assume that a teacher expressing a private opinion can't act professionally in the classroom. Hello people??!! It's called debating both sides of an issue. Thousands upon thousands of teachers do it every day inside the classroom. One doesn't have to agree with a political position to be able to discuss it and offer it up to students for critical analysis. Progressives assume that a conservative can't hold two conflicting opinions at the same time and offer them for debate. It's the left that's metastasizing from monochromatic thinking. Just this week, as part of my introductory discussions, I was helping students think about the stakes of the upcoming presidential election in 2012. Since Rick Perry's been in the news I hypothesized a presidential match-up between the Texas Governor and President Obama. I discussed the likely policy platforms the candidates might have, and especially how they would differ on the question of creating more jobs and getting the nation back to work. I don't agree with the Democrats' program, but I laid it out there and said that Obama inherited a collapsing economy and that so far his stimulus program hasn't had the desired effect of creating more jobs. He'll argue that he needs four more years to continue his work in generating economic growth. Then I mentioned that Rick Perry's been propelled to the top ranks of the GOP field because of Texas's record of job creation. I then suggested how both Obama and Perry might criticize the other. After that, I opened up the classroom for discussion, and students were able to raise additional points, not only about that hypothetical contest but anything else they thought relevant. Duh. That's called open inquiry and critical discussion. I'm not making my students agree with one program or another. And I'm not attacking President Obama as an Alynskite community organizer communist attempting to turn the U.S. into a corrupt bureaucratic European welfare regime. He is that. But we can get to whether progressive programs are productive without the more polarizing language. In other words, I don't teach my ideology. I teach based on critical thinking and helping students think for themselves. Shoot, sometimes my student evaluations criticize me as a bleeding heart liberal, which I find hilarious, since I'm one of the most outspoken conservative blogging professors in the United States.



Anyway, progressives are losers. They're ASFL totalitarian dicks. (And stupid too, like Racist Idiot W. James Casper.) If Jerry Buell posts about how gay marriage makes him sick on Facebook, so fucking what? No doubt he'd be reported for saying so much inside the classroom, and that's when school officials would be warranted in taking action. Outside of that, Buell's First Amendment rights are being violated. Basically, he's getting reamed up the you-know-what harder than two New York rim-station freaks overdosing on erection enhancement pills. (And hey, W. James Casper's down with that!)



RELATED VIDEO: "School Suspends Teacher After Gay Marriage Facebook Comment."

Stay Classy Progressives: Gay Rights Extremists Lash Out After NOH8 Caught Wellstoning the Death of Christina Santiago

From the comments at, "Extremist NOH8 Campaign Exploits Christina Santiago Death for Crass Political Gain":

dave™© said...



Dear hste-filled wingnut asshole,



Go fuck yourself.



Too bad it wasn't a moron like you who got snuffed out instead of a loving person working to change the world for the better. The fewer clueless motherfuckers like you around, the better.



Did I tell you to go fuck yourself? Just checking...



August 17, 2011 5:59 AM

And the fever-nihilists at Balloon Juice endorse the hate. Plus, more from the haters at Truth Wins Out.



FLASHBACK: Recall my recent post that explains exactly this kind of violent extremism:

Gay activists are the most venal, vicious, and unprincipled political organizers going. It's like Rick Santorum noted the other day, when he suggested that gays enjoy "super rights." Progressive gay activists are the left's ultimate bullies. They are in your face, attacking anyone with the slightest inclination toward tradition as a "homophobe" and "racist." They browbeat, intimidate, and harass to get their way. They've threatened to destroy livelihoods over the simple act of voting on a proposition. They's lied and cheated in public forums, for example, with the mock judicial process that reviewed Prop. 8 in Federal District Court. Basically, they've raped the political process to leverage a disgusting and morally reprobate barebacking, rim-station sexual agenda that majorities of voters have consistently rejected nationwide. Fully thirty states continue to prohibit gay marriage across the country, but the tentacles of deathly progressivism have worked their subterfuge in the more left-leaning states, using all manner of deceit and duplicity to carry the day. Most of all is the sickening progressive discrimination that is the centerpiece of folks like the disgusting perv Dan Savage. I wrote recently on his sick bigotry and hatred of regular people: "Gay Sexual Abandon and the Perverse Inversion of Values by Same-Sex Extremists." The gay progressive program of ideological bigotry works because society has been beaten down by political correctness. No one wants to appear intolerant. No one wants to be attacked as anti "civil rights." The problem of course, is that gay marriage isn't a civil right, although regular people have been so brainwashed by progressive Orwellianism they don't know what is good and moral, and to even speak up for something decent is to be viciously attacked, with people's very lives being threatened.

Extremist NOH8 Campaign Exploits Christina Santiago Death for Crass Political Gain

This is disgusting.



They couldn't have just given her a beautiful commemoration. They had to turn Ms. Santiago death into sick sympathy shakedown:

Tragedies like this just illustrate how important it is for couples to have the rights that allow them to celebrate their love and their lives now.



Christina and Alisha were one of the first couples to get a civil union in Cook County when civil unions became legal in Illinois earlier this year. Those who claim the issue of same sex marriages and civil unions can "wait" should think hard about that idea after reading stories like these. This beautiful couple only had a short few months together to celebrate their civil union -- but we take solace in the fact they at least had that opportunity to prove their love to the world, however brief.

A beautiful young woman is dead. And LGBT ASFL NOH8 couldn't simply commemorate her life with dignity. These idiots had to turn it into some kind of epic guilt trip about "only" a few months to celebrate a civil union.



People die. And always, every death reminds us for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.



A much more reserved article at Chicago Tribune, "Health center mourns staffer killed in Indiana State Fair stage accident."

Bert and Ernie Not Gay, Will Not Marry

Some FUBAR progressive wankery shot down in flames, first promoted at the radical gay website, New Civil Rights Movement, "Sesame Street's Bert And Ernie Are Gay and a Same-Sex Couple, Right?"



But see ABC News, "Bert and Ernie Do Not Have Sexual Orientation, Says 'Sesame Street'."

And see All Facebook, "Facebookers Fiercely Debate Bert And Ernie Marriage."



RELATED: "Bert and Ernie wed? An idea divorced from reality."

Belladonna Rogers: 'Conservatives and Gay Marriage'

The piece is from a couple of weeks ago, and it's very well done, "Conservatives and Gay Marriage: A Guide for the Perplexed." That said, a lot of this is straw man argumentation, with a bit of hopeless defeatism thrown in. Also interesting is her endorsement of Jennifer Chrisler, of Family Equality Council. She's articulate and attractive, and has honed fear-calming to high art. Yet as I pointed out yesterday, these "nice" people are hunkered down inside the Trojan horse driving a radical LGBT agenda that would horrify a majority of Americans if the truth were known. It turns out Chrisler's spouse is Cheryl Jacques, the former Executive Director of Human Rights Campaign, the extremist gay rights organization that rejects the morality and goodness of a majority of the American people. Here's an interesting tidbit from the comments at Popehat:

The radical LBGT agenda is best defined by such a person as President Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings program intended to sexualize school chidren. Kevin Jennings agenda would be held in high regard by the NAMBLA pedophiles. Closer to home Scott Brown replaced Lesbian Senator Cheryl Jacques who went to Washington to head up the LBGT Human Rights Campaign. The mission of the Human Rights campaign is to ram gay rights down the throat of the American people. Scott Brown in turn defeated Cheryl Jacques chief of staff Chief of Staff, and openly homosexual Angus, McQuilken. He is also the Chief of Staff of Planned Partenhood League of Mass. Funny how much of this ties together. I believe that we may be on the eve of a new revolution.

Chrisler's spouse is also discussed here: "The FISTGATE Report." No one is saying gays can't make a family. It's a lie though to entertain the notion the gay family values are mainstream. They're not. And gays activists must use subterfuge and thuggery to ram that agenda home.

Related: At Nampion, "Please Don’t Hurt The Gerbil – New And Improved 2011 Version."

Joseph Fein Defends Pamela Geller

My friend Joseph Fein, who regrettably I haven't linked here in a while, made a very shrewd argument the other day in his post standing up for Pamela Geller, "History Will Look Kindly on Pamela Geller Not Glenn Greenwald." I'm not so focused on the commentary on Glenn Greenwald, who while I've slammed mercilessly in the past (he's a genuine asshole, frankly), I've also commended him for avoiding the herd Obama cult mentality (I recognize consistency when I see it). What caught my eye about Joseph's essay was this passage on ideological rationalization:

Glenn Greenwald wanted Gay marriage to be the norm in the United States. As a Social libertarian, I see no issue here. As a partisan, I see a weak person who won't even stay in his own country and fight for what he believes in. He expects others to do the heavy lifting. Speaking to partisans who think the same way you do on TV, radio and the Internet does not expand converts. (nor does sock-puppeting).



I voted No on 8; I support any two consenting adults to be happy. But every time Andrew Sullivan attacks Palin's family, I always have to rethink that vote.



Now, compare Greenwald to Pam Geller.

I've highlighted in bold the key sentence, but check the whole post for the context. I'd have to talk to Joseph in person to see how he'd vote on a gay marriage proposition next time around (if it's not decided at the U.S. Supreme Court beforehand), but the key is that Joseph would consider changing his position because of the ideological and political violence of the progressive left's pro-gay marriage ayatollahs. I cringed the other day when Andrew Breitbart announced he'd boycott CPAC over the organization's exclusion of GOProud. It's not so much that GOProud is either in or out at CPAC (I think the group's a Trojan horse but I'd let them compete in the marketplace of ideas rather than exclude them). It's that for all of Andrew Breitbart's super aggressive battles against the institutional left, he obviously doesn't get it on this issue. My sense is that he's got friends who are gay. Fine. So do I. But that doesn't mean one has to capitulate to the progressive barebacking agenda. It's bears repeating and repeating again: Gay activists are the most venal, vicious, and unprincipled political organizers going. It's like Rick Santorum noted the other day, when he suggested that gays enjoy "super rights." Progressive gay activists are the left's ultimate bullies. They are in your face, attacking anyone with the slightest inclination toward tradition as a "homophobe" and "racist." They browbeat, intimidate, and harass to get their way. They've threatened to destroy livelihoods over the simple act of voting on a proposition. They's lied and cheated in public forums, for example, with the mock judicial process that reviewed Prop. 8 in Federal District Court. Basically, they've raped the political process to leverage a disgusting and morally reprobate barebacking, rim-station sexual agenda that majorities of voters have consistently rejected nationwide. Fully thirty states continue to prohibit gay marriage across the country, but the tentacles of deathly progressivism have worked their subterfuge in the more left-leaning states, using all manner of deceit and duplicity to carry the day. Most of all is the sickening progressive discrimination that is the centerpiece of folks like the disgusting perv Dan Savage. I wrote recently on his sick bigotry and hatred of regular people: "Gay Sexual Abandon and the Perverse Inversion of Values by Same-Sex Extremists." The gay progressive program of ideological bigotry works because society has been beaten down by political correctness. No one wants to appear intolerant. No one wants to be attacked as anti "civil rights." The problem of course, is that gay marriage isn't a civil right, although regular people have been so brainwashed by progressive Orwellianism they don't know what is good and moral, and to even speak up for something decent is to be viciously attacked, with people's very lives being threatened. So this is why I think Joseph's rethinking of his vote on Prop. 8 is such an incisive opening on this issue. If it were me I'd leave it to the states, and if the voters choose full gay marriage rights so be it. But the process is hijacked by extremists and thugs, and it's not likely those rights would come around through a free and fair democratic process. And thus those folks so happy to call themselves libertarian on the issue just end up being fellow soldiers in the left's campaign to destroy decency in this country.