Recently in Quotes to Note Category

"My feeling about gay people is that we have a responsibility not only to make gay marriage acceptable and to make gays feel accepted as much as heterosexuals...Gay people are downtrodden They are beaten. They are abused for their sexuality, and it goes across race. In the white community and the black community gay people are the bastards of the world. And in order for things to change, because any one of you could have gay children, or gay relatives, or gay friends...we have a responsibility to make this acceptable, to get all this bullshit so that some gay kid going to high school doesn't get the shit beaten out of him just because he's gay...I'm as heterosexual as they come. What is this hang-up about gay marriage? Who cares? Get on with your life!"

"I am not seeking your approval for the way I live. Your approval is not terribly important to me. This is not a request for acceptance. We don't want it, we don't need it from those people."

"Where were these leaders of faith when college students of gay and lesbian orientation were beaten and often brutalized for expressing their feelings for each other? ... Why didn't they speak about that at the time when it was the other way around? See what really makes a democracy work is when you speak for others rights even when you disagree with them. I'm saying most of the religious leaders that I hear speaking out now did not do it at the time. Had they done so I think they would have better moral standing to speak at this moment on this legislation even though I disagree with them."

"Contrary to the wishes of Perkins, we believe that pastors who commit felony violence against gay and lesbian Americans should be punished to the fullest extent possible. But they won't be punished equally, unless sexual orientation is added to existing federal and state hate-crime laws, because at present most such laws treat violent crimes against a victim's race or religion more harshly than violent crimes committed on the basis of the victim's perceived sexual orientation."

"As marital equality haltingly but inexorably spreads state by state for gay Americans in the years to come, Utah will hardly be in the lead to follow Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont. But the fact that it too is taking its first steps down that road is extraordinary. It is justice, not a storm, that is gathering. Only those who have spread the poisons of bigotry and fear have any reason to be afraid."

"If we didn't do it in 2004, do you think the party would have wanted us to do it in 2006 during the midterm elections to take back Congress? God forbid. 2008? Well, it's another presidential year. And now people are saying 2010? That's another critical year to hold Congress, and we've got statehouses across the nation. 2012? Another presidential year. 2014? Another Congressional year. Wait does almost always mean never. That was Dr. King's point."

"There were a whole bunch of conservative older men and those guys were talking about gay marriage. They were talking about discussions going on across the country and my daughter Kate, after listening to them for about twenty minutes, said to them, 'You guys don't understand. You've already lost. My generation doesn't care.' I think I learned something from my daughter that day... No, Senator McKinley, I will not co-sponsor a leadership bill with you."

"Thanks to today's decision, Iowa continues to be a leader in guaranteeing all of our citizens' equal rights.

"The court has ruled today that when two Iowans promise to share their lives together, state law will respect that commitment, regardless of whether the couple is gay or straight.

"When all is said and done, we believe the only lasting question about today's events will be why it took us so long. It is a tough question to answer because treating everyone fairly is really a matter of Iowa common sense and Iowa common decency.

"Today, the Iowa Supreme Court has reaffirmed those Iowa values by ruling that gay and lesbian Iowans have all the same rights and responsibilities of citizenship as any other Iowan.

"Iowa has always been a leader in the area of civil rights.

"In 1839, the Iowa Supreme Court rejected slavery in a decision that found that a slave named Ralph became free when he stepped on Iowa soil, 26 years before the end of the Civil War decided the issue.

"In 1868, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated "separate but equal" schools had no place in Iowa, 85 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached the same decision.

"In 1873, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled against racial discrimination in public accommodations, 91 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached the same decision.

"In 1869, Iowa became the first state in the union to admit women to the practice of law.

"In the case of recognizing loving relationships between two adults, the Iowa Supreme Court is once again taking a leadership position on civil rights.

"Today, we congratulate the thousands of Iowans who now can express their love for each other and have it recognized by our laws."

"I'm struck by how many Republicans are still wedded to discrimination, even after so much evidence has been assembled revealing it to be counter-productive and based on nothing but prejudice and fear. They are the real culprits here. As for the Democrats, they seem permanently scarred by 1993, unable to move a measure that would help retain skilled service members at a time of great strain and remove a hideous burden from many patriotic Americans serving their country."

"The 9-12 Project is not for families directly affected by 9/11, just people building their careers on it."

"The dirty little secret of conservative talk radio is that the average age of listeners is 67 and rising -- the Fox News audience, likewise, is in its mid-60s: What sort of continuing power do you have as your audience strokes out?"

"Stand up for doing the right thing; for being a human being. Put human rights above politics -- because if you don't, you'll regret it for the rest of your political career. Conservatives should note that the first American soldier to 'take a bullet' at the onset of the current war in Iraq was a gay man."

"You know there's a lot of things in life I've concluded to be wrong without studying them in depth. Evolution is one of them. You know the fact that I don't know a thing about it doesn't bother me in the least."

"Why would he change his tune? Well, it sounds like he was the outcast in the room. Tolerance has become an American value. To be on the outside of that value system is awkward and difficult. So people work hard to give others the impression that they believe similarly, even when they don't."

"Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson has been doing his best George Costanza impersonation for the past week, as he lashes out again and again at Jon Stewart, who humiliated Carlson on national television more than four years ago."

"Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group. || We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say "common struggle" because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination."

"When someone asks me, "are gay rights civil rights?" my answer is always, "Of course, they are." Civil rights are positive legal prerogatives: the right to equal treatment before the law. These are the rights shared by everyone.  There is no one in the United States who does not, or should not, enjoy or share in enjoying these rights.  Gay and lesbian rights are not special rights in any way. It isn't "special" to be free from discrimination. It is an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship."

"History is cyclical, and it would be foolhardy to assume that the culture wars will never return. But after the humiliations of the Scopes trial and the repeal of Prohibition, it did take a good four decades for the religious right to begin its comeback in the 1970s. In our tough times, when any happy news can be counted as a miracle, a 40-year exodus for these ayatollahs can pass for an answer to America's prayers."

"That's the heart of the (completely justifiable) attack on Cramer and CNBC by Stewart.  They would continuously put scheming CEOs on their shows, conduct completely uncritical "interviews" and allow them to spout wholesale falsehoods.  And now that they're being called upon to explain why they did this, their excuse is:  Well, we were lied to.  What could we have done?  And the obvious answer, which Stewart repeatedly expressed, is that people who claim to be "reporters" are obligated not only to provide a forum for powerful people to make claims, but also to then investigate those claims and then to inform the public if the claims are true. That's about as basic as it gets."

"What attracted me to conservatism as a young person in the early 1980s was its challenge to engage and understand some real thinkers -- Hayek, von Mises, Kirk, Buckley, Friedman, Chambers. You didn't have to be an intellectual, but you needed to understand them. Reagan did. Now, instead of intellectuals, we have clowns like Joe the Plumber and Limbaugh getting all the attention. Conservatism is overopinionated and undereducated, proudly intolerant and insular -- populated by the type of Americans who (this happened) would spit on Darwin's tomb in Westminster Abbey."

Interviewer: Senator, since you have proposed a bill that will dramatically impact how our family courts here in Kentucky function, I assume you have personally observed your local family court to make sure you understand the repercussions of your bill?

Sen. Tapp: Naw, naw, I never been into family court.

Interviewer: Senator, I'm sure you're aware that every week across this state, countless abused and neglected children are removed from the care of abusive parents. I'm sure you're also aware that most of these children are placed in what's called a "relative placement," which is someone like a grandmother, aunt, uncle or cousin who is an appropriate care giver. The benefit is multi-faceted: a traumatized child can stay with a family member to whom they are already bonded, rather than being placed with strangers in foster care. This also saves the state a lot of money compared to foster care.

Now, much of the time grandma, aunt, or uncle has a live-in boyfriend/girlfriend. In family court jargon, this person is called a "paramour." As long as the "paramour" is not found to be inappropriate, the court is thrilled that an abused child has a safe place to stay and could not care less about a marriage certificate. Is it really your intent to disqualify all of these relative placements because grandma happens to have chosen not to get a marriage certificate?

Sen. Tapp: Yes. I think a child should be in a home with a stable relationship.

Interviewer: Senator, do you really believe that a marriage certificate is the indicator of a stable relationship? Most of the parents who are dragged into court for abusing their children or beating each other up are married. My observation from ten years in family court is a marriage certificate has nothing to do with stability.

Sen. Tapp: Well, I believe anyone raising children should be married. It means the relationship is stable.

(excerpted 3/8/09 from Page One Q via The Letter)

"We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ..."