Nah, I see what you mean, Vatican. In all honesty, I suppose I'm more supportive of male gay guys than lesbians... which really makes no sense. I strongly believe that they should share the same rights we do, but at the same time, my hackles raise when another girl hits on me.

... Then again, the same thing happens when a guy hits on me. I'm just weird, I guess.

10 reasons why Gay marriage is "wrong"

01) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

05) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

06) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

07) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

08) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

09) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

.... sorry if the scarcasm offended anyone. I saw this on a friend's webpage, and it made me think back to this thread.

I am of the belief that people should marry for love, and that love is what defines a marrage, not gender.

I'm not gay, but I've met a lot of people who are, and many of them are hurt by predjudices and laws that tell them who they can and cannot love... at least legally.

A few years ago, I wouldn't have cared one way or the other. I may have even been against homosexuality in general, but then a gay couple brought their puppy into my work (a vet clinic). The little laborador had been poisoned by their neighbor after he had seen the two of them holding hands. He had left a note on the dog's collar that said, "You are a disgusting sin in God's eyes. I hope you suffer the same fate, faggots."

When their little puppy died, they cried the same way I've seen countless others cry when they lose something they love. They held each other the same way a husband and wife would to comfort one another. They shed the same tears, felt the same pain, and were just as helpless as anyone else would be. It was wrong, and that's what finally made me see the truth. That they're no different from us, and they deserve every right that would be granted a heterosexual couple.

Safe to say, I support gay marrage.

Who else is going to the anime expo in Anaheim, CA? (July 1st-4th) I'm going w/ a ton of friends, and nearly all of us are dressing up as something or another. (I'm going as Kurenai, that red eyed woman in Naruto. I like red eyes. ) Just wanted to know! Oh, and those of you who are, are you going as anyone, or just as yourselves? My friend isn't dressing up, but she says she'll become a "glomping accessory". Says that if she sees a Vash or Kakashi, she'll fuse herself to their side and become a part of their costume.

Alan Rickman is the perfect Snape. He's a god. I don't think they could've cast a better person.

Same thing goes for Ralphes Fiennes. I was really worried about who they were going to get to play Voldemort, considering he's one of the most important people, and if they screwed up on him, I was going to be soooo pissed. He's perfect for the part, though! *bows to unknown insanely awesome casting person*

Yep, the bar club thingy was, in theory, where the gay/les/bi peeps go. Love it there! I can't remember the name of it, but it's near Ashbury in San Francisco. It's a really nice place.

Hmmm... I guess a guy could've thought I was one too from the back. I'm pretty tall, and I wear jeans and tees, but if they were to look at me from the side... well, lets just say guys usually aren't as well endowed.

lhao OMG I just have to tell you what happened the time we went there last summer. Jason, his boyfriend David, and I were hanging out there like this last time, and poor Jase couldn't get this girl to leave him alone! She was the big booty/boob type, and he doesn't like seeing boobs. This chick pratically had them spilling over the top. He kept trying to let her down nicely, but she wouldn't take the hint!

Eventually, he came up with some polite excuse for us to leave (I was trying to hide my laughing and his bf was just sitting there, watching him squirm with no expression whatsoever. The guy's so much like a rock it's scary sometimes...), and he dropped his wallet. Just as he reached to pick it up, the girl swooped down to give him a facefull of her cleavage, and her boob fell out. Jase totally flipped out. He made this pathetic little squeaking sound, swore a blue streak, and ran away. It was so funny.

Just to show you that it isn't just the straight guys who can't take a hint.

Actually, it was kind of a bar/club… but mostly a bar. I wasn’t drinking or anything, though, ‘cause I’m underage. Hanging there seemed like a good idea at the time.

… a few girls did hit on me. But they were really nice about it, and backed off when I told them that I was straight. I like lesbians.

Yeah, Jason is a great guy. He always saves me when I get myself in trouble… after laughing for a few minutes, of course. Who wouldn’t?

What would you do after prom? My friends were asking for fun ideas for after you leave the prom. Last year, we went riding on quads... tuxes and dresses and all. Was such a blast. but this year we're out of ideas! Help!

Anyone else ever had this happen? I'm a girl, and I went to a gay bar to have a good time with my friends without having to worry about some guy trying to drug me or get into my pants. Is that so much to ask?! Apparently, it is... Within ten minutes of sitting down, three different guys had started flirting with me. One of them even went as far as to say "Let's ditch these fags and go someplace more private." XO I swear, I was about to deck him. (lucky for him, I just gave him a blank stare and the finger). My friend Jason thought it was hilarious. I had him scare him off for me. (He sat in the guy's lap and licked him. Seriously freaked him out. I guess he wasn't bi then...).

Anyway, am I the only one that this has happened to? Is there any place that's safe anymore?

Giving birth looks like it'd hurt like hell. I got to watch my mom get a c-section for my little brother.

But the actual pregnant part... eh, I dunno. It kinda depends on the woman I guess. My mom always complained about her sore feet and back, but my cousin Laurie said she didn't have any morning sickness/soreness/etc....

OMG but we sure can get irritable in the first few months. I can remember one time my dad said that my mom looked like Baby Huey (she was pre4gnat with my other little bro) Common sense: You DON'T tell a pregnant woman that. She chucked a barbie at his head and made him sleep on the couch for two weeks. Poor guy...

I hate how girls react to a bad breakup. If a guy experiences a bad relationship, they hate that girl, but if a girl has a bad relationship, they hate the male population in general.

At least that's how my friends are...

Had Anthropophobia (fear of people/society in general)until I was eight. Sucked.

Got over that a long time ago, thank goodness. But now I kinda have a fear of spiders. Ech... They always show up at work, and I can't squish them (double ech) so I get the biggest piece of paper I can find, let it crawl onto it, then run for the nearest door outside, holding the paper as far away from me as possible. Then, when I finally drop it outside (paper and all) I do the "EWWWWW! It almost TOUCHED me!" and do a crazy, heebie jeebies dance.

....And I hate needles. H.A.T.E. I start hyperventilating.

Don't really know what I'll be majoring in, but in the end, I wanna be a Veterinary Tech. Almost decided on trying for a DVM title, but I looked at the number of years it'd take, classes required, and cost, and laughed. Yeah right!

Sure, a vet tech doesn't make nearly as much as an actual vet, but I love animals, and I doubt I'll be able to throw it all in for the long haul down the vet path. Vet tech takes so much less work!

Wow, got a little intense back there, didn't it?

I love hearing about other people's opinions, and you've all given me a pretty decent insight on how others think. Not the whole picture, surely, but a good idea.

Just noticed that I didn't answer my own question, so I guess I'd better, huh?

I have a few views. As an Eckist, I should believe that Eckankar is the end result of all religions... meaning that eventually, after being reincarnated x number of times, I will eventually find that Eck is the path to God, yada yada, etc. etc... and in theory (and I say this because I'm not too sure of it myself. Don't know everything about the religion...) Eckankar embraces all religions, because they are, essentially, branches from our own.

But, if this is true, then why can't there be all the places and versions of the life (or lack thereof) after death? Why can't there be a hell and a heaven and a pugatory and a nirvana? I mean, the astral plane is endless, and doesn't involve things like matter and space, so would there be a "lack of room"? Why don't people go to wherever they believe in based on their religion(s)?

Also, as for personal belief, I think that we are reincarnated, and that "hell" is experienced through our living bodies. The death of a loved one, getting in a car accident and becoming a quadraplegic, getting into something way over your head and knowing that there is no escape... that kind of thing.

And I think karma has something to do with it. For example, you hurt someone, and you'll fall down the stairs and beak a leg, but there's also the part of Eckankar that says you need to neutralize your karma. So, for every wonderful thing you do, you'll do some terrible thing in that life or another one to even the balance. So I could be a kindergarten teacher in this life and a murderer in the next. Almost a preordained "hell" Kinda scary...

Wow, seems like I've written you a book here. Sorry 'bout that peeps! Love you all!

Quote by schimke there was thing saying (actually i think it was just a joke lol) - women go to shop, men go to buy

Heh, I think I was meant to be a guy. I HATE shopping.

.... Well, actually, I don't really hate shopping itself, but I hate shopping with others (i.e. my sisters ) When I shop, be it for clothes, groceries, whatever, I'm in and out in ten minutes. Tops. When I go with my sisters, they take 5 freakin hours to pick out a t-shirt. They have to try on ten different things, exchange just about every one for a different size, model (I'm usually the judge... don't know why they'd ask me for my opinion. I wear jeans, guy shoes, and snarky tees. ), then check about five different stores for the lowest price. THEN we have to go back to the one with the "best" and "cutest" clothes, buy them, then we spend at least another hour there 'cause something else "cute" caught someones eye. By the end, I'm just about bashing my head against the wall.

Groceries... I'm just a complete retard. I'll stand in an isle looking between my list and the shelf and not see the item.... which is usually sitting right in front of me.

.... Alright. Maybe I do hate shopping.

merged: 02-25-2006 ~ 05:41am
Actually, I like shopping online. Something about sitting on you butt, pushing buttons, knowing that hundreds of miles away, someone is getting paid to stare at your order, say "she's buying WHAT?!", then push more buttons to make countless unknown others run around for the sake of YOU... I dunno. Just makes me feel fuzzy. Laziness rules.

You mean the little man with the goat legs that plays the panpipes? Neat! I didn't know that! Makes sense though...

... My mom when she's angry. So... bushy-haired, green-eyed, and red faced. Scary...

Seriously though... I'm not really sure. I don't think I could honestly come up with my own description without it having been affected by the views of others. Don't really believe in him/her/it, but I've always thought that the devil was more of a presence than a person, and lacks a true form. Not really there, but affecting us all the same. Maybe the essence of evil? Or the devil appears as our greatist fear?

Good question!

.... Hey! Another syllogism thingy to go off my tangent!

The Devil appears as the thing we fear most.
A Boggart appears as the thing we fear most.
The Devil is a Boggart.

Now there's just the tiny problem of a Boggart not existing.... Not even going to go into whether the Devil exists or not. Makes my brain hurt just thinking about it...

Thanks for all your responses so far! You guys are great! *passes out cookies*

merged: 02-19-2006 ~ 02:24am
Hmmm... if the devil exists, is it a he or a she? Maybe neither, or a mixture of both? A she-him?

.... A shim! The devil's a shim!

Hehe... I got my dad "The Penis Book" for his last b-day with a note that said "Just in case you don't know yours well enough after 56 years." He has a really good sense of humor.

My gifts are almost never serious. For example:

My sister is afraid of birds, so I got her a singing bird clock.

My other sister is a total control freak, so I got her bondage equipment/toys (she's 15). You should've seen her face. She opened the box, her eyes got huge, then she slammed the lid back on. Of course, my grandparents were there, so they were all "Oh sweetie, what did Kate get you?"

My step-mom is a German born woman with a "clean kitchen fetish"... so I made her a apron that said "Kitchen Nazi" and gave her a riding crop and glue on "Hitler mustache".

... Yes, I have an odd sense of humor.

Oh god I hope so. If I ever get married to a guy who can't cook, we'll have to live on takeout. I catch half the kitchen on fire just trying to make toast.

Yeah, I agree with what you said regarding the "love is blind" thing. I was just explaining what our teacher explained. If you can prove that God is love, and then prove that love is blind, most people will subconsciously make the mental jump to connecting the two, that God is blind. It isn't necessarily true, it's just a form of messing with people's brains to get them to agree with your ideas, or, in the case of my debate class, prove that you're right and they're wrong.

I had to argue that conformity was better than individuality, so I stated that the definition of conformity was "to be in accordance, agreement and/or harmony", then I proved (using about half a dozen tangents, examples, and a dash of my own strange logic ) that harmony and agreement was the key to peace. Therefore, according to my evidence, conformity was the key to peace.

Then of course, I had to prove that individuality was a main component of war and death. That part was fun. Especially went we got to get up in each other's faces and argue.

.... Did I mention that the whole time I was doing this speech, I was dressed as Hitler?

Grandparents tried to get their priest person to turn me Christian. He went the wrong way about it. Tried screaming in my face about how I was gonna burn if I didn't believe. I was five.

Priests scare me.

I guess I'm an Eckist, if anything. The whole idea of Reincarnation and Karma fascinates me.

I believe in the soul and stuff, but I'm not sure if there's a higher power. That's the only thing that makes me hesitate about actually choosing a religion to follow.

Thanks for all your input everyone people! I really appreciate it.

Random tangent... the syllogism thing kellyo mentioned reminds me of one like it we did in my Speech and Debate class. My teacher assigned us a persuasion speech, and he said that using this meathod is one of the best ways to convince someone you're right. If you can prove that one is right, and that a second is also right, then people will tend to draw their own conclusion about the third. Take this one:

God is Love.
Love is Blind.
God is Blind.

That was more on the serious note. I liked this one better:

God is Love.
Love is Blind.
Ray Charles is Blind.
God is Ray Charles.

That one gave me the giggles.

Oh, and the movie Elves mentioned, Red Dwarf.... I wouldn't be surprised if he's seen it. He's Brittish.

Anyway, you've all helped clear up a lot I didn't understand about Hell in general. Like I said, I don't know squat about it. My religion believes in reincarnation and karma. I like JenosydesWhisperMatrix's interpretation of hell, though. Almost like a second chance that's not weighted by our previous choices and actions. At least, it sounds better than the whole inescapable, fire and brimstone thing by grandparents tried to teach me about.

When I was little, I wanted to be an artist or a cook. It took me a few years to realize that stick people just weren't gonna cut it, and I've caught both the toaster AND microwave on fire trying to make toast. Twice. I'm thinking chef isn't the way for me either. Right now I work at a vet clinic, and I know it's what I'll likely be doing for the rest of my life. You're right, I just LOVE working with animals! Some of the work is sad (and dangerous... I almost lost an eye once ), but I like to help the little critters. I was kinda leaning down that path anyway since both my parents are nurses, and I thought the whole medical field was really neat, but I was afraid of people.

Five years ago, I don't think I would've pictured myself where I am now, but I'm sure glad it turned out this way!

I was in my creative writing class today, and one of the people wrote a little essay thing where he tried to prove hell didn't exist. I just wanted to know what you thought about it. Does hell exist? I'm an Eckist, and don't know a lot about the teachings of the church and stuff, but from what I do understand, this sounds pretty good.

Okay, here's his paper.

Hell, by definition, is the total absence of God. We are told by the church that if we commit Mortal Sins, we are sent to Hell by God.

Now, Hell came to be because of an angelic revolt, in which the angel known as Lucifer (seeing as ‘Lucifer’ is Latin, it is highly unlikely this angel, who hates humans so much, would have a human name) and one third of the angels became angry with God because he created humans in his image, which made the angels jealous. So they were cast into Hell.

Here the first anomaly occurs. If God is indeed everywhere, then where would these outcasts go? For Hell to exist, there must be an absence of God. God created everything. Therefore, there is no possible way for Hell to be a place.

But say there is. For arguments sake, pretend God, for whatever reason, created some sort of vacuum where He and His Love does not exist. Now, it is taught by the church that God is love, that unconditional love for each of us is God’s love, which is God himself. We have love, God is love, we have God in us.

So God, who loves us no matter what the circumstances, condemns us to Hell for eternity if we commit a Mortal Sin. This is impossible. Either his love for us is indeed conditional, and he has lied to us and the angels, or we do not go to Hell, for when we die, we are pardoned by his infinite forgiveness.

Again, lets pretend Hell was not disproven a second time. So, we are sent to Hell. However, the instant we go to Hell, Hell ceases to exist, for where God exists, there can be no Hell. If God is love, and God is inside us all, wherever we go, Hell disappears. God is love, Hell is the absence of God, God loves us unconditionally, we have his love, Hell cannot exist in conjunction with God’s presence, there is no Hell.

.... Thoughts? Comments?

"Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?"

.... A guy used this one one me. I started giggling uncontrollably and fell on the ground (the 5 cups of coffee probably helped with my insanity ). Then the guy started laughing and bought me more coffee. Don't know what he was thinking...

We never ended up going out, but he's one of my best friends now.