Tolerance

I'm getting a bit tired of hearing that "both sides" need to cool it over the Prop 8 deal in California, especially when I keep seeing stories like this:

Employees of the Los Angeles restaurant that came under fire this week after a manager gave $100 to the campaign to ban same-sex marriage in California said they had made a $500 contribution to the advocacy group that is raising money to challenge Proposition 8...

Manager Larry Crenshaw gave $50 to "try to smooth things over" and counter the boycott. He said the protests had started to affect employees.

One server called in Thursday worried about going into work. Thursday night crowds grew to about 200 people, and customers leaving the restaurant were called vulgarities, Crenshaw said.

Money for peace and quiet? That could be called extortion. If I was, you know, cynical.

The California people voted to have marriage be defined as a union between a man and a woman. Unfortunately, that doesn't fit the modern political narrative. It just wasn't supposed to be this way. Now there's protests, threats to people and property, and a call for everybody to keep calm.

Huh. As far as I can tell, it's only the Anti-8 side trying to put businesses under and threatening people with violence.

The Anti-8's have their target now: religious people, and Mormons in particular. You can't just protest at every house in California, so you have to pick your spots wisely. Like, say, Utah.

Anti-8 groups and gay rights activists conveniently see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints as the financial muscle behind the Pro-8 vote. Thousands of protesters have shown up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and packages containing "white powder" were delivered to the Church's head office. The FBI is investigating.

There is also a name-and-shame campaign in the works, to identify Mormon business owners and, presumably, target their businesses for protests and boycotts. The Independent says, "Dozens of Hollywood stars are backing the movement."

The other day I watched a video where a few gay rights guys stomped a woman's styrofoam cross and wouldn't let her speak to the press. So much for tolerating free speech. This was followed by the two bubble-headed news anchors saying, "There's a lot of hate on both sides." If by "a lot" you mean one old woman and hundreds of Anti-8 loud mouths, you're on the money.

Question: do any of these people have jobs? A lot of these protests take place during the week and well into the night. What do they tell their boss? "Boss, I need a few days off. I have to go yell at Mormons in Salt Lake City." Maybe that's why the unemployment rate's going up. Everyone's out of state shouting at someone until they quit their job or close up shop.

Further protests of Mormon churches are now taking place in Chicago and New York. None of the church-goers there cast a ballot in California, but what does it matter? They're all the same. Right?

I laugh at the way the Anti-8 news is spread in the press. If thousands of protesters from Utah descended on Castro Street in San Francisco, or outed gay business owners and asked the nation to boycott them, it would be regarded as a shocking hate crime.

What do we get from the mainstream press instead? Not much. A little tongue clucking, some advice that both sides need to remain calm, and the AP calling the white powder deliveries an "attack" with quotation marks, as if scaring the hell out of an office secretary isn't the real deal.

What about the will of the voters? Ahh, who cares? Governor Schwarzenegger: "For me, marriage is between a man and a woman. But I don't want to ever force my will on anyone," Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on ABC television's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

"I think that the Supreme Court was right and that everyone should have the right.

"So the Supreme Court, you know, I think ought to go and look at that again. And we'll go back to the same decision. I think that they will. And I think that the important thing now is to resolve this issue in that way."

Ooookay. So the governor doesn't think gay marriage is right, knows his state's people agree with him, but still thinks the Supreme Court should tell them all what to do. He doesn't want to force his will on anyone, he just wants the court to force their will on the state. Some "leader." (I've been putting the word "leader" in quotation marks a lot lately. I haven't seen enough evidence of leadership in the past year to give me respect for almost any elected official on the planet).

In the same vein, the NAACP recently asked the state Supreme Court to halt the ban on gay marriage, though 80% of African Americans voted yes to Prop 8. Once again, nothing like listening to the desires of your constituents.

Me, I'm not one way or the other on the whole gay marriage thing, but this is just one more episode in 2008 that cracks me up. This election cycle has exposed so many people for the hypocrites that they are. It's hilarious watching them work, and even funnier watching people bend over backwards not to offend the offenders.

Tolerance. Ain't it a bitch?