[Monkei]

Originally Posted by skyc6

However, it is illegal for someone to say they will not sell their real estate to someone of a certain race. In fact, it is illegal to deny any business to someone because of race, so how can you deny based on sexual orientation?

It should not be. These are another one of those issues that will take some people along by dragging them just like they were over the years for civil rights, womens rights, etc.

[TrappedCorrectCoaster]

Yes they are. Marriage is a state sanctioned status so YES Gay Marriage is EQUAL to STR8 Marriage. Unless you want STR8 Marriage to be called something else under the law and you too can forfeit all Federal and State Benefits offered by Marriage.

[Quixote]

I no longer have the inclination to spend extensive time on social and other websites, but I do look occasionally as time allows and noted this as interesting to me:

Originally Posted by rubicon

Quixote: Alexis de Tocqueville also said in that same publication that" he marveled at the way Americans preferred voluntary association to government regulation." "The inhabitants of the United States has only a defiant and restive regard for social authority and he appeals to it only when he can do without it. In other words self-rule

I am leaving the first paragraph of this quote exactly as I found it in order to say that I have looked through de Tocqueville's Democracy in America quotes and cannot find it. Possibly not copied absolutely accurately? The quotation marks confused me, particularly in that the second one opens and never closes, so I'm not sure where the quote ends. However, the point made in the quote seems clear: the value of self-rule. Please correct me if I misunderstand....

Originally Posted by ilovetv

Exaggerated individualism (or selfishness) is one of the big problems this nation has....

"Exaggerated individualism" equated with "selfishness"? In contrast with (ostensibly de Tocqueville's observation) "a defiant and restive regard for social authority".... How can this view of America and Americans come to terms with the point made about "self-rule" (above)? Here I thought that individualism is what built this country!

Here are some de Tocqueville quotes from Democracy in America that would appear to have relevance not so much to the specific content of this thread but to the manner in which posters' personalities and attitudes from all sides of this topic come across:

“Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”

“I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.”

“America is a land of wonders, in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement.”

This is a good website:

Alexis de Tocqueville quotes

[Tweety Bird]

Disgusting!!!!

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by Tweety Bird

Disgusting!!!!

Could you please be a little more specific? Thank you.

[DaleMN]

How do you really feel?