At least Gore (as far as we know) waited until being separated for a year or two; that compares favorably to all the past presidents who have slept around while married.

And, although he was single, think of Grover Cleveland’s illegitimate child becoming an issue when he was running for president. The golden age was never.

I’m actually kind of relieved that Gore is dating someone who is more-or-less the same generation as him; when I read the description of her as his “squeeze,” I was mentally preparing to click through to a report of him dating someone half his age.

* * *

Karen (not Karen Clark, other Karen): That’s a really disgusting story, nothing but slimy insinuations and using tragedy for partisan purposes. The person who wrote it should be ashamed.

http://opine-editorials.blogspot.com/2012/05/public-service-announcement-do-not-have.html

Saturday, May 19, 2012
Public Service Announcement: Do not have a relationship with a Kennedy.
Posted by Renee

I’m trying to have moment of charity here, but I’m lacking it at this moment.

This week the wife of Robert Kennedy Jr. committed suicide.

Kennedy has already moved on with a new girl friend in public, and in the divorce proceedings Mary Richardson was being hammered with restraining orders and the reality she was going to lose custody of her children.

The Kennedy Clan blamed her mental illness, but you must ask what must of made her ill to retreat to a alcohol and depression.

“Her Camelot dreams were falling apart.
Mary Richardson Kennedy was deep in credit-card debt and getting hammered in divorce court when she hanged herself in a barn on her Westchester estate, friends and documents revealed yesterday.
Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. slapped the mother of his four children with several restraining orders, trying to get full custody of the kids — all while he publicly replaced her with his actress girlfriend, Cheryl Hines.
“He was kicking her while she’s down, all alone in this house that she built,” a close friend said. “In the end, everything was just too much.”

And of all things… the poor woman is being buried near the Kennedy Compound on Cape Cod.

There is no such things as ‘Camelot Dreams’.

I would be interested in hearing him — and others like him — talk about why they believe that.

Why?

It’s been my observation that straight people who think homosexuality is immoral use folks like Gonnerman as an example for what all gay and lesbian people are supposed to do. A comparison: “see! He’s a good gay man, as opposed to those bad gays and lesbians who have relationships.”

I’m with Phil; Gonnerman is free to make that choice for himself; neither he nor anyone else has any moral standing to ask that of anyone else. The pork analogy is apt.

There you will find that 62% of the United Church of Christ, 59% of The Episcopal Church and 49% of Unitarian Universalists are over 50 years old. On the other hand, only 40% of Catholics, 34% of Mormons and 23% of Muslims are over 50.

Darel, this isn’t really representative of religious affiliation in the US; different faiths/denominations have very different ways of counting membership. Unitarian Universalists are very strict about who counts as a member; basically, you have to have formally signed the membership book and have been an active member of the congregation in the past year (meaning, have shown up and participated in the life of the congregation. UUs don’t tithe, so money doesn’t have anything to do with it—face time does).

Contrast that with the Catholic Church, who counts everyone baptized who has not formally repudiated membership in the Catholic Church.
(Pretty sure they’re still counting my father, who is agnostic/atheist and hasn’t attended Mass in over fifty years. Probably over half the people counted as Catholics in the US are not Catholic in reality—either they practice a different faith, consider themselves “spiritual but not religious”, or are agnostic/atheist. I know few practicing Catholics that aren’t collecting Social Security, but an amphitheater-sized crowd that would readily describe themselves as “former Catholics” or “recovering Catholics”.)

Just sayin’. The UU congregation I attend has no problem attracting younger people, though most regular attendees are post college-age (over 22). One of the big attraction points for the under-40 set is the non-dogmatic religious education for children (it’s one of the reasons I became a member). There were a bunch of folks in the 18-22 set that signed the interest sheet at yesterday’s PrideFest, though.

Is not “homophile” the opposite of “homophobe”?

For relevant statistics backing up my points, please consult The US Religious Landscape Survey from The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (2008), pp. 81-83.

There you will find that 62% of the United Church of Christ, 59% of The Episcopal Church and 49% of Unitarian Universalists are over 50 years old. On the other hand, only 40% of Catholics, 34% of Mormons and 23% of Muslims are over 50.

What people do not have a right to do is to impose their choices on other people or impose their religious beliefs on other people. If people think that homosexuality is immoral, they should not practice homosexuality. But they have no right to think that they can condemn homosexuality and expect to have pleasant, mutually respectful relationships with homosexuals.

Phil’s example of having very good relationships with people who, on religious grounds, do not eat pork is very apt. It would be difficult for me to be friends with someone who attempted to force me or the country from eating pork, but I have no objection to their not eating pork.

Perhaps a more productive question is, is Joshua Gonnerman’s stance (“homosexual acts are immoral, but the presence of homosexual inclinations is not”) respectful of the dignity of un-chaste lesbian, gay, and bisexual people? And I would say no. Like Phil, I find it disingenuous.

Without knowing him, I suspect that Joshua Gonnerman — and other self-identifying gay, chaste persons like him — would disagree with you that he is disrespecting his own dignity as a person, or the dignity of other people, by following the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality. I would be interested in hearing him — and others like him — talk about why they believe that.