etherial: an idealized black vortex on a red field (Default)
etherial ([personal profile] etherial) wrote2005-03-17 06:32 am

Never were there two friends who agreed and disagreed more.

Yesterday, I visited my friend Sean. Now, I had mostly intended only to drop off a birthday present for Billy D on my way to an SFS meeting, but I ended up staying and talking for a good four hours or so. We talked about a lot of stuff, mostly politics and religion. Apparently, someone's trying to pass a bill to totally change our tax structure to the sort of thing he's been wanting for years, except that the Gubmint would end up overtaxing you every day of your life, and paying you back at the end of the month. Bizarre.

We also talked about Marriage (of the socially/spiritually variety) versus marriage (of the legal variety). We more or less agree on the institution of marriage, that nobody can create a legal contract arrangement that is discriminatory based on gender, that changing the legal term would probably be for the best, etc. But it is interesting to note that I find the idea of implementing his concepts of Marriage abhorrent on many levels- he suggested that Marriage exists for the sole purpose of producing children through, er, manual labor. Implementing this idea would be implementing Government-sponsored genetic manipulation and, from my perspective, would invalidate every reason everyone has ever used to get married.

PS - would it be uncouth of me to wear my MacDonald of Sleat kilt on St. Patrick's Day?

[identity profile] qedrakmar.livejournal.com 2005-03-17 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
Not as bad as it would be to wear an Orange longcoat...

Oops...

[identity profile] kestrel404.livejournal.com 2005-03-17 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
You mean I shouldn't be wearing that today?

[identity profile] kadath.livejournal.com 2005-03-17 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
I love it when judges do mocking little "I'm appointed for life" dances in their controversial decisions.

[identity profile] benndragon.livejournal.com 2005-03-17 06:23 am (UTC)(link)
As soon as single moms became a normal thing, all arguements for marriage as instrument of procreation became null and void. Which is, of course, why the religious nutballs didn't like that either.

yup

[identity profile] etherial.livejournal.com 2005-03-17 01:24 pm (UTC)(link)
same logic I use. That makes me feel special.

Darn

[identity profile] kestrel404.livejournal.com 2005-03-17 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
I was also planning on visiting Sean yesterday, but I had to take Cat to the doctor's. She's got a nasty case of tendonitis (just started two days ago, and her hand looks like a partially inflated rubber glove).

[identity profile] benndragon.livejournal.com 2005-03-17 06:52 am (UTC)(link)
The Irish and the Scots are like distant cousins many times removed, IIRC. Even if that's not actually true, they can be united in their hated of the English. So show your support for your Irish bretheren on the day their pagan religion was blown away by the Christians! Woo!

Oh, I should keep track of this day, cause when I get a Bonneville it would be a poor idea to ride on this day in Charlestown with my bright orange helmet and british bike. Or I should just bite the bullet, go to Ireland, and start the first ever Irish motorcycle company. . .

(Anonymous) 2005-03-17 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I have nightmares on a regular basis where I scream at the top of my lungs with emotions of anger, fustration, and sadness at one of my family members for his view on gay marriage. Don't even think for one minute that there is one side to every story, that it is not just as painful for a mother, father, brother or sister as it is for the gay person. It's not a cut and dry issue, there is no right and wrong.

And you think people fall in love? and get married because they have compassion towards eachother, and that they care for eachother? It's not that simple my friend. We are animals after all- we have over 1,000 smell receptors coded on our DNA and we smell out our partners. We do this because we are genetically programmed to smell the person who will create the most genetically diversified child to prolong our race. You actually think that WE are SUPERIOR to animals? Thats pretty ignorant considering how close our DNA is to a mustard plant or a rat. We convince ourselves everyday that we are in relationships for more than Procreation everyday. And then, when the love -we convinced ourselves we had- fades, we live to raise our children, to continue our bloodline. The universe doesn't care if Mary Joe and Billy Bob love eachother, the universe cares about advancement and evolution. Oh, and if you don't continue your family name, that's fine, there will just be no record of your life whatsoever in history, you'll die and your life will be meaningless because you didn't even procreate. Whats the meaning of life? To have babies, and lots of them.

We're all just puppets. You're supid to believe otherwise. Hah, soulmates sounds a lot better than puppets doesn't it?

See, two sides to every story.

Things I have learned this week in my classes:

Left handed people have been statistically proven to be more suseptable to mental illness due to their brain configurations.

If children are not breast feed for the six months of life they have severly weaker immune systems, doctors reccommend to breast feed for the first 6-12 months simply to prevent your baby from getting sick. Non breast fed babies are more suseptable to diabetes, obeasity, and other illnesses.

Ugh!

[identity profile] etherial.livejournal.com 2005-03-17 07:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Cleanup in Thread 5! Someone barfed all over my Livejournal!

[identity profile] zeprosnepsid.livejournal.com 2005-03-17 10:41 pm (UTC)(link)
I know how you feel. Literally all my college friends have different opinions than me. You probably won't be happy to hear that I am pretty conservative. My friends are raving liberals. But you get through it. I think I'm pretty open-minded (for instance I support gay marriage and do not support the death penalty, despite being largely conservative). But they are still people I have fun with and sometimes you just have friends you disagree with, doesn't mean they can't be your friends.

I do feel marriage, societally anyway, is just for babies. My boyfriend and I have been together over two years and with some of our friends getting married they keep saying we are next. But I have no intention of getting married. Maybe one day. But I never ever intend to have babies so I feel like I can wait to get married. I don't know why people want marriage so badly. What's it matter? That doesn't mean that people shouldn't have the choice to get married if they want. I just don't see why they would ever want to.

I don't know who this kestrel fella is, by i feel very odd replying to a thread with someone else who has an eva icon =) I've never seen anyone else with an eva icon. This is because my friends and I don't like the same things.

Re: I don't know why people want marriage so badly.

[identity profile] etherial.livejournal.com 2005-03-18 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
For most couples, it's because it's what's next. First you graduate high school, then you go to college, then you get married. I sincerely doubt most people seriously consider what marriage means. I doubt most people have the slightest clue about the effect they will have on their children.

And PS, Eva is, like, worshipped or something at WPI.

Re: I don't know why people want marriage so badly.

[identity profile] zeprosnepsid.livejournal.com 2005-03-18 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
that's because it's the best!

all that's worshipped at USC is the BMW.

Re: I don't know why people want marriage so badly.

[identity profile] zeprosnepsid.livejournal.com 2005-03-18 01:22 pm (UTC)(link)
eva is the best i mean.

marriage is still stupid =)

[identity profile] banalapercu.livejournal.com 2005-03-18 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
As long as you remember to wear it with an orange sweater of some kind. I take no responsibility for your safety should you wander into south boston.

(Anonymous) 2005-03-18 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah because it's in fashion to blame your parents for everything and to not take any responsibility for your own actions.