plagiarism on prop 8

There are only two other blogs that i follow outside my own blog.  one is "high ridiculousness" by Oliver Wallis, and the other is "in the name of the best within us" by Bryce Gessell.  today, after reading a post by Bryce about an article in the Deseret News about prop 8 in california and the reactions against the Mormon church, i thought that i would be worth restating what Bryce has said on his blog.  i'm not going to try and put into words the points and principles that he (Bryce) has eloquently laid out but i think it's important for people to see what he has written about.  so, without permission or further tactless writing on my part, i'm going to plagialristicly copy his post onto this one.  

THE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE "BUSINESS" 

In today's Deseret News, there is an article on the continued efforts of Proposition 8 opponents to vilify the LDS Church. Here is a passage from the article, written by Karl Vick:

"The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!" warned ads placed on newspaper Web sites in three Eastern states last month. The ad was rejected by sites in three other states, including Maine, where the Kennebec Journal informed Californians Against Hate that the copy "borders on insulting and denigrating a whole set of people based on their religion."
"I'm not intending to harm the religion. I think they do wonderful things. Nicest people," said Fred Karger, a former Republican campaign consultant who establised Californians Against Hate. "My single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the astonishing misunderstanding and inconsistency of Fred Karger and his group, Californians Against Hate. What century are we living in? The Web ads placed in the Eastern newspapers don't border on "insulting and denigrating" a whole set of people; this is because they do insult and denigrate a whole set of people. Imagine if an anti-Semite group wanted to run ads that said, "The Jews are coming! The Jews are coming!" or if the KKK had run ads during the last presidential election that said, "The blacks are coming! The blacks are coming!" That the LDS Church does not choose to be offended like every other minority group in America does not mean that they do not possess the same right to be free from persecution for their beliefs. This, however, is the contradiction on which Fred Karger and his associates thrive. They use the concept of "tolerance" as a means to destroy the concept of "tolerance." In the mind of Mr. Karger and others, there are two concepts in play here: tolerance (for us) and tolerance (for you). Tolerance (for us) has primacy over tolerance (for you), because if they were on equal standing, the tactics of the crusade for tolerance (for us) would have no foundation. However, tolerance is not two concepts; it is only one. It has the same application for everyone. Unfortunately, this singular nature of tolerance makes the concept difficult to accept when one wants to be tolerated but not to tolerate, so it's much easier to slash it up into two and pretend that one is more important than the other. A concept cannot be divided in this manner. It cannot be used to obliterate itself.

What about Mr. Karger's goal--to "get them [the LDS Church] out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims"? Here again we see an example of misunderstanding concepts, which leads to inappropriate conceptual divisions. The LDS Church's stand on same-sex marriage is based on principles--the same principles that give rise to their service to hurrican victims. These activities have the same root and must be carried out simultaneously or not at all. To Mr. Karger, the LDS Church is nothing more than a social organization that makes people feel good and brings them food when their houses have been destroyed. The degree of his ignorance of principled religion is only matched by the conceptual disintegration that has taken place in his mind, allowing for a crusade led by a group that is based on the very idea that their success demands they deny to others.

Anberlin Concert

Tonight is the Anberlin and Taking Back Sunday concert.  it's going on at the Venue in Salt Lake City.  i'm not so excited to see taking back sunday but anberlin is going to be amazing!  bryce and ollie are also coming tonight which takes the concert total to 2, only one more to see before the summer is over (the Fray/ Jack's Mannequin).  what makes me most excited about hearing anberlin live in concert is the chance that they might play the song "Breathe"  which was recently released just a couple of months ago on their newest CD named New Surrender.   For those of you who may not be familiar with Anberlin or the song Breathe here is a link to youtube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhfTAZVlVI4 Now, understand that this is not the music video, but it plays the song and gives you the lyrics.  other song that i hope they play are, Dismantle. Repair, Adelaide, Time and Confusion, and Young life.  luckily Anberlin has yet to come out with a song that sucks so even if they dont play any of these songs, the concert is still going to be incredible. Stay tuned for the post-concert review... 

party hearty

tonight is the real mocktail party.  as reported earlier in this blog the party was suppose to happen last week but because of procrastination and scheduling problems we postponed it until today.  we've purchased mixers, tonic water, ice, olives, cherries, lemons, limes, margarita salt, chips, crackers, lights...the whole 9 yards.  the party tonight is going to be a great one that i think a lot of people are looking forward to because lots of people have heard of mocktail parties but have never been to one.  i have specially organized a playlist that i'm listening to in right now and it rocks.  the only things that we have left to do is clean the house and wait until 9 o'clock for people to start showing up.  also, Katelyn Dot Scott is going to be attending this "rhythmic ceremonial ritual" and i'm very excited about that.  i'm excited to see her again and spend a little bit of time with her, even if it is in a crowded atmosphere.  it will be interesting to see how many people show up and come to the party.  it might be a good estimate at to our social status in amongst our friends.  just kidding, i'm really not that concerned with how we stand in the popularity contest.  so in short... tonight is going to be awesome and the first of several parties that hometheatre.org will be hosting, both in liberty square and at carriage cove.    This picture pretty much explains how i feel about the whole thing.

NBA playoffs

as the NBA playoffs are starting to show forth the teams that really want to win as well as those who simply think they could waltz in and beat everyone (Boston) i would like to make some predictions as to what's really going to happen.  first off, allow me to say that if you log on to inthenameofthebestwithinus.blogspot.com you will also see some playoff predictions.  unfortunately, being the expert that i am, i happen to know that those predictions, while correctly stating that the Cleveland Cavaliers would win the NBA playoffs, is terribly mistaken as to who will win the Western Conference Finals.  in the western conference, the Lakers are getting ready to face the Denver Nuggets.  "inthenameofthebestwithinus" has Denver beating the LA Lakers in six games, whereas my predictions are that the Lakers are going to beat down Denver and the Bird Man in six games.  the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals are going to beat orlando in 6 games as well. making the NBA finals between the LA Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers.  i think the match will be an intense one but i see LeBron James showing up Kobe Bryant as they take the Lakers in 6 games.  with Cleveland beating up on the Lakers, i think we will safely be able to place King James as #1 in the NBA with the arrogant Kobe Bryant in 2nd.   mark my words ladies and gentleman, because what i have written, i have written and i excuse not myself.  yes, write it in the history books because no matter what any ESPN announcer thinks, or what any polls may believe, lakers vs cavaliers and LeBron in 6.

Mocktail

Concord 4 (Hometheater.org) is having a mocktail party this friday.  this is going to be the first of it's kind.  i say the first, because it definitely  wont be the last.  drinks, cute girls from arch house, friends, and everything else that comes with a mocktail party.  Here's what the invitation looks like.