SATURDAY POLITICS: Republicans View Things Very Differently Than Democrats and Independents

Of course, for the last week the political world has been buzzing over the march by white supremacists and Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia and President Trump's widely panned response. However, it should be noted that this negative response to Trump's assigning equal responsibility to white supremacists and those who oppose them for the violence that occurred in Charlottesville (despite the fact that it was an avowed racist who has been arrested and charged with driving the car that killed one of the people protesting the white supremacists) is not universal. 64% of Republicans  agree (with Trump's statements that "both [sides are] equally [to blame]" while 66% of Democrats assign responsibility to the neo-Nazis, anti-semites and white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville.

However, as I have blogged about previously on Saturday Politics Republicans have views about things that are very different from others, such as viewing discrimination against groups differently based on partisan differences as well as which groups suffer more discrimination than others.

Today's blog post is about how Republicans view many institutions (colleges and universities, labor unions, national news media and churches) very differently than others.

Queer Quote: Gingrich Accepts "Reality" of Gay Marriage

Getty

Well, well, well! Maybe miracles can happen after all. (Not!) The thrice-married, serial adulterer and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has apparently evolved on the question of marriage equality.

In an interview with Huffington Post Gingrich said the following, which is today's queer quote.

"It is in every family. It is in every community. The momentum is clearly now in the direction in finding some way to ... accommodate and deal with reality. And the reality is going to be that in a number of American states -- and it will be more after 2014 -- gay relationships will be legal, period."

It may not be clear from the context, but the "it" in Gingrihc's quote is "marriage for same sex couples." It's quite a big deal that Republicans are starting to embrace reality ni any form, but that it is happening on the question of marriage equality is astonishing.

And Gingrich, while still maintaining his heterosexual supremacist bonafides by insisting that he still believes marriage is only between a man and a woman, also said that he could accept a distinction between "marriage in a church from a legal document issued by the state."

Well, duh! That's what we've been talking about the whole time: civil marriage. Civil marriage is about going down to some out of the way crappy government building and getting an official piece of paper from a bored bureaucrat which allows one to access all the rights, benefits and responsibilities of marriage. It has absolutely nothing to do with whatever people do in a church. That's called a wedding. You're not married under the law until you actually sign the marriage license issued by the government and get your official marriage certificate back.

UPDATE: Rubio Admits Earth is 4.5B Years Old

As regular readers of this here blog thingy know, we at madprofessah.com are members of the reality-based community. So, when putative 2016 presidential hopeful U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) answered the innocuous question "How old do you think the Earth is?" from GQ magazine with a frankly unacceptable response, I called him on it.

Even crazy old coot Pat Robertson rejects the notion of a "young earth" and encourages others to as well.

Today, the 41-year-old Cuban-American GOP wonderboy admitted he does know how old the earth is to Politico:

Rubio also addressed the controversy surrounding his recent comments to GQ about the age of the earth. 

“Science says it’s about four and a half billion years old and my faith teaches that that’s not inconsistent,” he clarified. “The answer I gave was actually trying to make the same point the president made a few years ago, and that is there is no scientific debate on the age of the earth. I mean, it’s established pretty definitively as at least four and a half billion years old … I was referring to a theological debate and which is a pretty healthy debate.” 

“The theological debate is how do you reconcile what science has definitively established with what you think your faith teaches? For me, actually, when it comes to the age of the earth there is no conflict: I believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and I think scientific advances give us insight into when he did it and how he did it,” he said. “But I still believe God did it, And that’s how I’ve been able to reconcile that and I think it’s consistent with the teachings of my church. But other people have a deeper conflict and I just think in America we should have the freedom to teach our children whatever we believe.”

Really, Senator Rubio? This response just shows how sneaky he can be. He got caught pandering to religious extremists and know he is blathering about a "theological debate." The question was NOT about the theological debate. The question was about a scientifically determined fact, and he answered differently from what he knew was true, in order to not offend people who wish to have a debate (theological or other) about this question. Busted!

And the point about "[I]n America we should have the freedom to teach our children whatever we believe" is just a canard. PARENTS can teach their kids whatever craziness they want to, but public schools, paid from the taxes of everyone can not endorse any parent's religious views and so should just teach the facts. This last point is something fellow Brown GOP 2016 Presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal does not understand either.

Water Found On Planet Mercury!

The Messenger spacecraft orbited the planet closest to the Sun, Mercury, in March 2011 and now an analysis of some of the data found by that device indicates that a lot of water has been found on another planet in our Solar System.

Mercury may be a scorching hunk of rock just next door to the sun, but planetary scientists have discovered nearly pure frozen water and even some organic material in the planet's frigid polar regions. 

The findings from the Messenger spacecraft orbiting the planet cap the decades-long search for water on the second-hottest planet in the solar system and may help scientists better understand the origins of the molecular building blocks for life on Earth. 

The new research "doesn't mean we have life on Mercury," said UCLA planetary scientist David Paige, lead author of one of three papers published Thursday by the journal Science. "But it is relevant for the question of life in the solar system in general." 

As much as 1.1 trillion tons of ice could lie on or just beneath Mercury's surface in the nooks and crannies of craters that never see sunlight, according to scientists working on the Messenger mission. Much of that ice may be protected by a dark layer of carbon-rich organic material several inches thick, they said.

I wonder if someone will ask Marco Rubio about this discovery?

Queer Quote: Even Pat Robertson Knows Earth's Age

Famous heterosexual supremacist and well-known religious extremist Pat Robertson is recorded on video denying the central belief of people who are known as "young Earth creationists," i.e. that the earth was created by "God" and is only about 6,000 years old. His statement is today's Queer Quote.

Look, I know that people will probably try to lynch me when I say this, but Bishop [James] Ussher wasn't inspired by the Lord when he said that it all took 6,000 years. It just didn't. 

You go back in time, you've got radiocarbon dating. You got all these things and you've got the carcasses of dinosaurs frozen in time out in the Dakotas. They're out there. So, there was a time when these giant reptiles were on the Earth and it was before the time of the Bible. So, don't try and cover it up and make like everything was 6,000 years. That's not the Bible. 

If you fight science, you are going to lose your children, and I believe in telling them the way it was.

This is a pretty astonishing admission from a card-carrying members of the Religious Right, who ran for president in 1988 and received millions of votes in the Republican primary. Robertson is rejecting the position claimed by 2016 presidential hopeful Marco Rubio that I remarked upon recently where the Junior Senator from Florida was quoted saying "I'm not a scientist, man" when asked the age of the Earth.