TresSugar

Gays With Guns Target Families in Anti-Gay-Marriage Ad

CitizenSugar — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:30:47 -0800

At nearly six minutes, this made-for-Internet ad is inciting the blogosphere with every click. Fifty-eight seconds in, you'll find the target of outrage: A family sitting on a porch blowing bubbles at each other (because that's what families do?) is seen through the lens of a sniper. Overhead an announcer says the following:

Marriage between man and woman is held up as the ideal in all of civilized society because of its profound stabilizing influence on our culture as well as the economic benefits of strong and in-tact families. But today that ideal is under an unrelenting attack. . . . Outside forces are working tirelessly to redefine marriage away from God's design to favor the desires of adults over the needs of children for the naturally balanced model of a mother and a father

The ad is on a site called wv4marriage.com, which ironically looks like a Craig's List solicitation at first glance. It appears to be paid for by CampaignSecrets.com, a Georgia firm that describes itself as "focused exclusively on electing Republicans to local office." The president of West Virginia's Family Policy Council said the council used the Georgia firm for its affordable rates, which is a relief because if you watch the ad you'll see it certainly couldn't be for its camera work!

To see it in full, read more.

Kiss of Arrest: Women Say They Were Unfairly Targeted at Mall

LibertySugar — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:30:27 -0800

After she received a kiss on the cheek from her girlfriend, a Texas woman says a mall security officer and a sheriff deputy began harassing her. Now, Jessica Garcia will argue to a court that the mall unfairly targeted her and her girlfriend when they arrested them on trespassing and other charges.

Garcia has recounted the situation like this:

He said, "This is a family mall, y'all can't do this.” We said, "Do what?" He said, "Y'all kissed, and if y'all do it again I'm going to write you a citation or I'm going to kick y'all out."

The officers eventually told them to leave, but when they reentered the mall to get to their car, the officers accused them of trespassing. After a confrontation, the couple was arrested.

This story reminds me of the one from last Summer. An usher at a Seattle Mariners baseball game asked a lesbian couple to stop kissing because it was making another fan uncomfortable. Despite the similarities, being asked to stop kissing, and being arrested for it, are very different things!

Do you think an anti-PDA (gay or straight) policy violates civil liberties, or should malls be able to enforce whatever code of conduct they want?

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Mrs. Mayor? Critics Says Mayor's Wife Runs Kansas City

LibertySugar — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:30:59 -0800

Gloria Squitiro, the wife of Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser says she volunteers 70 hours a week to help her husband fulfill his campaign promises, but critics say she's doing a job that she wasn't elected to do. After resigning, the mayor's former chief-of-staff said, "It was kind of like having your mother-in-law go along on your honeymoon."

Controversy has surrounded the duo for a while now. According to the Associated Press, when Ms. Squitiro set up a desk outside her husband's city hall office and proceeded to call a black aide "Mammy," the city council passed an anti-nepotism ordinance sending Squitiro back home. So what did Mr. Mayor do? He started working from home.

The mayor has stood up for his actions, saying: "The idea that once we won the prize, I was going to dump her and say, 'See you, honey, in four years. Go on back home and bake cookies, fold some laundry. I'll be there when I get there,' is absurd."

Should the mayor be allowed to have his wife advise him?

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Seeking Prudes: Craigslist Cracks Down on Sex Ads

LibertySugar — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:30:00 -0800

After coming under fire from 40 different state attorney generals, Craigslist has agreed to crack down on those advertising sex for sale. The classified website will more effectively rid its erotic services section of ads law enforcers deem to be illegal. Perhaps staying true to its name, the erotic marketplace has notoriously been plagued with pornography and prostitution.

Vendors will now have to provide valid identification before they post a sexy ad, thanks to the new agreement between the state officials and the company. In addition, ad posters must pay a $10 fee, using a credit card. Craigslist will donate the fee to charities that combat child exploitation and human trafficking.

Offline sex for sale is usually associated with seedy neighborhoods and other crime, like drugs and violence. Is prostitution all right with you, so long as it stays on the Internet and on private property, or do officials have a duty to uphold the prohibition online, too?

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Same-sex Marriage Ban Leading in California

CitizenSugar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:34:48 -0800

It's still too close call, but it looks like California voters have backed Proposition 8, which would change the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. California Supreme Court legalized nuptials for same-sex couples earlier this year, and more than 18,000 couples took advantage of the landmark decision.

Right now about 95 percent of the vote is counted and the measure has 52 percent of the vote, but election officials estimate there could be as many as two million ballots left to count - primarily mail ballots that arrived Tuesday. The San Francisco City Attorney's office says he plans to challenge the validity of a ballot measure.

Yesterday was a sad day for America across the board in terms of gay marriage. In Arizona, Proposition 102 which bans gay marriage, easily passed. In Florida, the gay marriage ban needed 60 percent of the vote and still passed, which also restricts rights of any cohabitating couple who are not husband and wife. Meanwhile, Arkansas passed a measure forbidding anyone other than a married man and woman from adopting a child.

Stay tuned for final results as they come in.

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Commit Adultery in South Korea? Go Directly to Jail

CitizenSugar — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:00:00 -0800

South Korea's high court upheld an adultery law that can send people to jail for having an extramarital affair last week. It has been called anachronistic and an infringement on personal freedom by critics.

The appeal made to the Constitutional Court since 1989 was brought by the lawyers for a popular actress who was charged when her actor husband filed a criminal complaint against her for having an affair with an opera singer. Sure, that sounds juicy, but to find out why the law was created in the first place, read more.

The law was enacted in 1953 to protect women because the male-dominated society offered women little protection when a husband had an affair. At the time when a wife walked out of a marriage, she would often end up penniless.

Today, it is rare for people to actually serve jail time, but several thousand spouses file criminal complaints yearly. Five judges found the law unconstitutional, one short of the six needed to strike it down. Do you think the law is fair in 2008?

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SF May Decriminalize Prostitution: How Would You Vote?

LibertySugar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:00:41 -0700

On election day, San Franciscans will be able to vote on Proposition K - which would forbid local authorities from investigating, arresting, or prosecuting anyone for selling sex.
Opponents most likely loath the idea of giving the government's stamp of approval to a depraved practice that leaves much harm in its wake. Others figure it could solve nearby Oakland's prostitution problem, since they would all move to SF.

Still some say outlawing prostitution could be compared to abstinence-only education: because something is considered "wrong" authorities ignore solutions, allowing the risks to spiral. Plus, the biggest victims of prostitution are most likely the women selling themselves for sex, who have few-to-zero alternatives. To avoid trouble with the law or other criminals they turn to pimps. And jail time and a criminal record only makes their situation more bleak. The strictly fiscally minded note that the measure will save the city $11 million spent on arresting and prosecuting prostitutes.

You all gave me some great feedback about the California ballot initiative to require parental notification for teen abortions. So tell me - how should I vote on this measure?

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Next Big Thing? How They're Texting "I Love You" in Nigeria

CitizenSugar — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:00:00 -0700

Maybe you've gotten an email or two from some nice people in Nigeria with a whale of a financial opportunity - but if you get a text from Nigeria titled “I swear, I will make sure I give you HIV," don’t call the police. It may just be someone’s idea of an affectionate overture. When you open the text you'll most likely then read “H is for happiness and joy forever with an I: Incomparable love that will never V: Vanish until death do us part. I love you.”

It’s the new way to wow your mate from the new book Touching the Heart Through Unforgettable Text Messages (Volume 2) written by Femi Emmanuel, who writes text messages for those either too busy or illiterate to express their feelings. The book is marketed mostly to Nigerians, who have been described as obsessive text senders and who are tired of the usual courtship texts littering their phones.

To see where the inspiration comes from, read more.

Femi gets his inspiration mainly from Indian (Bollywood, as some call them) films. He says, “I was watching a Bollywood film and the main actor said to his lead ‘Hey baby, I’m a crazy lover.’ I thought ‘That’s good,’ I paused the DVD and copied down the subtitles.” If you think that’s corny, consider the fact that he has published four volumes of his quotes and has purchased a new car from the profits.

Hey, what ever happened to pager code? 1-4-3? Anyone?

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School Pride: Chicago Considers Gay High School

LibertySugar — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:00:08 -0700

Questioning the notion that segregation is bad for students, Chicago's school district is considering opening a high school for gay, lesbian, and transgender students. The school is among a group of recommended specialized schools, another example being a technology-focused campus.

Schools targeting gay students - a group more likely to drop out, abusing drugs, and committing suicide - exist in other cities.

Learning in an environment where they're not automatically "different" may help youth flourish. Even so, some gay students may feel that attending a gay-focused school would limit their identity to their sexual orientation. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to give students a chance to choose a targeted environment, while working to make mainstream schools more accepting, too.

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Pregnancy-Pact City to Vote on Contraception Pact

LibertySugar — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:17 -0700

The school board in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the city of pregnancy-pact fame, is set to vote on a plan to distribute contraceptives to students. If passed, the schools and the students could enter a secret-contraception pact without parents knowing - in other words the schools would distribute condoms and such to students without parental consent.

Despite well-publicized rumors that 17 high school girls in the city decided to have children and raise them together, the mayor favors distributing contraceptives only with parental consent.

Most of you think that states should not require a teen to notify her parents before she obtains an abortion. Well, what about preventing pregnancy altogether - should public high schools distribute contraceptives without parents knowing?