Anything that didn't exist 50 years ago is absurd. Internet? Absurd! I guess that makes internet access a privilege that government can deny people on a whim. China
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I've come to a conclusion that I'm against gay marriage.
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Really the only way out of your terrible line of thinking is to do what regexcellent said, which is to conceptualize marriage as an incentive given to a certain kind of sexual partnership. The government hands out incentives to behavior all the time. It doesn't hand out new rights very often, nor should it, or rights lose meaning.
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Originally posted by gribbler View PostAnything that didn't exist 50 years ago is absurd. Internet? Absurd! I guess that makes internet access a privilege that government can deny people on a whim. China
The government can't deny certain people Internet access, but it doesn't have to give it to them. That's kind of the whole point.
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Originally posted by Wiglaf View PostReally the only way out of your terrible line of thinking is to do what regexcellent said, which is to conceptualize marriage as an incentive given to a certain kind of sexual partnership. The government hands out incentives to behavior all the time. It doesn't hand out new rights very often, nor should it, or rights lose meaning.
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Originally posted by regexcellent View PostThe government doesn't have to provide it to you.
edit: Wiggy's got it.
They need legal recognition, but the same is true for other supposed rights like a right to life (government police and courts must provide the service of preventing other people from killing you.)
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Originally posted by Hauldren Collider View PostWe've managed to get gribbler in his robotic contrarianism to adopt a distinctly Republican aphorism
edit: I don't personally think anyone ought to get tax breaks just for getting married, because I think it basically is a freebie. But if we do hand out freebies let's not act like gays have an entitled mentality just because they don't want to get screwed over by the tax code.Last edited by giblets; July 28, 2012, 23:10.
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Originally posted by Aeson View PostIt should hand out new rights as often as handing out new rights would be good. Putting things on a timer is what is absurd. If gay marriage was thought of a million years ago or just this second the value of it as a right (whatever you want to deem that to be) wouldn't change unless you're a moron who can only assign value based on how long an idea has been existent.
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Originally posted by Wiglaf View PostNo one ever argued this point.
"It doesn't hand out new rights very often, nor should it, or rights lose meaning." - Wiglaf
You're arguing that frequency of adding rights affects the value of other rights. That is mutually exclusive with my statement that frequency of adding rights does not impact the value any given right.
The second portion of the quote is what reg is arguing against. He probably is a "no one" and so we can agree there.
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Originally posted by Asher View PostNo way.
What Ben's spouting here is far more offensive to me on every level than a comment like that can ever be. Enough is enough."The Christian way has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found to be hard and left untried" - GK Chesterton.
"The most obvious predicition about the future is that it will be mostly like the past" - Alain de Botton
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I wouldn't say you're a "no one".
The bottom line is people like you and gkribbler and Asher throw around the term like "right" very casually. It's obvious from this thread how deep this entitlement runs. Seeing my sick gay lover in the hospital? Fundamental right! Getting a tax break for marrying a dude? Fundamental right! Accessing the Internet? Fundamental right! Health insurance? Fundamental right!
This kind of entitlement has consequences. It's why our country's in a financial mess.
Get over yourselves. The Huffington Post tells you you need something and you bend over and whine until you get what you want, then you just come back begging for more.
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