Hometown Paper Blues

Many of you know something of my history -- I was raised on a diary farm in rural (and liberal!) Oklahoma in the 1950s, and then moved to the small milltown of Longview Washington where I graduated high school.

So naturally I always read what I consider my "hometown" newspaper, the Longview Daily News to keep up on local happenings, watch the arrests of my former classmates, etc.

They also have, as do so many other online newspapers, the ability to comment on various news stories.

Which leads me to today's post. The Washington State Legislature (filled as it is for the first time in umpteen years with a clear Democratic majority) passed a law allowing same-sex domestic partners for the first time to have all of the legal rights that a married couple has.

So what do the knuckledraggers in Longview do? Naturally they come unglued, with the same old tired arguments that we've heard a million times before:

·"Liberal" social engineering
·"Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve"
·"Special" rights for homosexuals
·"Sex with animals"
·"Child molesting"
· etc etc etc ad infinitum ad nauseum.
You know, all the usual weak and stupid and crazy and bigoted illogical arguments.

See the full discussion, and look for Farnsworth's commentary down towards the end, where he asks a very simple question:

Interesting discussion by the usual gang of small-minded provincial louts.
No one has yet answered the question, though: 'What effect will legalized gay marriage have on YOUR marriage, YOUR lifestyle choices, YOUR family?' I'm not talking about some abstract society-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket handwringing sob story crap -- you know, the same s*&t that was used when cross-racial intermarriage was legalized, or when black children were integrated into white schools, or when the slaves were freed. How will it affect YOUR life?

No answers yet, but the day is young...