Sunday, September 23, 2012

Gay Marriage Minnesota - NIENSTEDT Demonstrates Deception - How DOUBLE-SPEAK language - evades responsibility, designed to mislead, while pretending not to e.g. his stating - Marriage amendment 'NOT INTENDED TO BE HURTFUL' 9/18/12

Nienstedt: Marriage amendment 'not intended to be hurtful' – 9/18/12
          …The Catholic Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John Nienstedt, said the proposed amendment isn't about forcing religious teachings on non-believers.
          "This is a positive affirmation, not intended to be hurtful or discriminatory to anyone," Nienstedt said. "Our understanding of marriage between a man and a woman predates any government, or in fact, any religious denomination."  Read more:

DOUBLESPEAK – defined:
Intentionally deceiving language. Not an outright lie or a tactful euphemism, but systematic use of ambiguous, evasive words and sentence structures to say one thing but mean something else. Commonly associated with bureaucracy…also as a calculated attempt to (1) avoid or shift responsibility, (2) distort reality by making the bad, negative, or unpleasant look good, positive, or pleasant, and vice versa, and (3) confuse by using unfamiliar or concocted jargon… Also called doubletalk or doublethink.
Read more:

Doublespeak: language used to deceive usually through concealment or misrepresentation of truth
You can fool all the people some of the time, and 
some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.


Doublespeak

Shell Shock - Combat Fatigue - Operational Exhaustion - Post-traumatic stress disorder
George Carlin: When people can't handle any more combat - in the First World War, that was called shell shock, which is very simple, honest and direct language. Shell shock, it describes exactly what it is. It almost sounds like guns. In the Second World War, a generation later, they decided to call that battle fatigue. It's twice as long now, four syllables, takes longer to say, doesn't seem to hurt. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock - shell shock, battle fatigue. Photo

Then we had Korea in 1950. They called the same thing operational exhaustion. Now that humanity is completely missing from it and it sounds like something that might happen to your jeep. And in Vietnam, of course, the same condition was called post-traumatic stress disorder. And my point is, if we had still been calling it shell shock, maybe Vietnam veterans might have gotten some attention at the time.
Read more: Photo

Doublespeak

William Lutz, professor of English at Rutgers University, discusses his most recent book Double-Speak: The Use of Language to Deceive You. A unique analysis of American English, examples of double-speak are "human kinetics" in place of "physical education," and "pavement deficiencies" instead of "potholes." Double-speak is consciously used to manipulate. Lutz points out that his mission is not to eradicate double-speak, but to eliminate double-speak from the discourse of important issues where it is most dangerous…

Double-speak is language designed to evade responsibility, make the unpleasant appear pleasant, the unattractive appear attractive. Basically, it's language that pretends to communicate, but really doesn't. It is language designed to mislead, while pretending not to. Photo Korean War

Double-speak is not a slip of the tongue or a mistaken use of language, it's exactly the opposite. It is language used by people who are very intelligent and very sophisticated in the use of language, and know that you can do an awful lot with language.
Read more:
Doublespeak | C- SPAN Video
William Lutz,
Rutgers University Faculty and Staff Experts Directory

Slip of the tongue or a mistaken use of language?

Doublespeak Photo

Pope likens "saving" gays to saving the rainforest – December 22, 2008 “…Benedict said on Monday that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.”
Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican's Number 2: Priest Pedophilia Linked To Homosexuality – April 12, 2010 This is a perverse strategy by the Vatican to shirk its own ethical and legal responsibility by making a spurious and disgusting connection…"
Vatican 'clarifies' cardinal's homosexuality abuse link - "…clumsily trying to shift attention to homosexuality and away from the focus on new crimes against children that emerge every day" – April 14, 2010
Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation
John Jay Criminal Justice Initial Report on Child Sexual Abuse - November 17, 2009
…the John Jay report confirms other studies in concluding that sexual orientation is not connected to pedophilia or other sex crimes.
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops - adviser - saying DEVIL makes people gay – November 4, 2011
Chicago's Cardinal George - under fire for comparing gay rights movement to Ku Klux Klan – December 22, 2011
Pope: Gay marriage threatens humanity’s future - January 9, 2012

Doublespeak Definition

Webster's dictionary defines doublespeak with these words: evasive, ambiguous, high-flown language intended to deceive or confuse.

In his bestselling book Doublespeak, William Lutz notes that doublespeak is not an accident or a "slip of the tongue." Instead, it is a deliberate, calculated misuse of language.

Specific Attributes of Doublespeak
Lutz provides several defining attributes of doublespeak:
misleads
distorts reality
pretends to communicate
makes the bad seem good
avoids or shifts responsibility
makes the negative appear positive
creates a false verbal map of the world
limits, conceals, corrupts, and prevents thought
makes the unpleasant appear attractive or tolerable
creates incongruity between reality and what is said or not said
Read more:

Doublespeak

Evasive, Ambiguous, High-Flown Language
Intended To Deceive or Confuse

Foreign Policy: The Vatican And Child Abuse – NPR – October 1, 2009
…Following a meeting with the U.N. Human Rights Council meant to address concerns that the Church was failing to respond appropriately to a long history of members of the clergy abusing their flocks, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi read a statement that was undoubtedly considered by some spin doctor-equivalent somewhere to advance their case but which actually probably amounted to more convincing proof that the Vatican doesn't get it on this issue than anything discussed behind closed doors with the United Nations…
Vatican’s New Defense on Child Molestation Charges: Finger-pointing – October 7, 2009
…Over the past decade, thousands of Catholic priests around the world have been accused of molesting children and the Church has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to settle sex-abuse lawsuits. The litigation exposed a far-reaching cover-up of child sexual abuse by the Church hierarchy, which included transferring pedophile priests to new parishes and intimidating victims and their families into silence...
…Tomasi’s statement also drew a bizarre distinction between pedophilia and “ephebophilia,” which he defined as a “homosexual attraction to adolescent males.”
Vatican defense: ‘Only 5%’ of clergy sex abusers and most of those gay – October 1, 2009
…Vatican representative to the UN Archbishop Silvano Tomasi defended the Church against accusations of irresponsibility in the face of child sexual abuse…Tomasi alarmed observers by reading an official statement that claimed up to 5 percent of the Catholic clergy worldwide had been linked to sexual abuse and that this was primarily the result of homosexual attraction not pedophilia…
Same-sex couples can be effective parents, researchers find - January 21, 2010
Archbishop Dolan: GAY MARRIAGE ‘ORWELLIAN SOCIAL ENGINEERING’ - May 13, 2011
Dolan “…says to expand the one-man, one-woman definition of marriage would be…‘perilous to all of us’…[Dolan] called the allegation that anti-gay marriage advocates are prejudiced or bigoted ‘nonsense’”
Archbishop Nienstedt: Gay marriage ban is not anti-gay – June 9, 2011
…“Regrettably, the media and some secular commentators have chosen to mischaracterize this measure as anti-gay, mean-spirited and prejudicial,” wrote Nienstedt…“This is not the case or the intent behind the initiative.”
…Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who says if same-sex marriage is legalized, it could lead to polygamy and incest
“Pastorally, children flourish best in the context of having both a mother and a father. Every scientific study confirms this reality,” [Nienstedt] wrote.
But a review of 81 studies of many family types released late last year showed the opposite…
Dolan wrote…“If the definition of marriage is continually being altered, could it not in the future be morphed again to include multiple spouses or even family members?”
N.Y. Archbishop Compares Gay Marriage to Communist Regimes – June 15, 2011

McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. Photo

Edward R. Murrow: A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
See it Now (CBS-TV, March 9, 1954)

This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it -- and rather successfully. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." Photo
Edward R. Murrow - Speech to his See It Now staff (9 March 1954)
"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices." When someone asked what he would say on the McCarthy broadcast, he replied, "If none of us ever read a book that was 'dangerous,' nor had a friend who was 'different,' or never joined an organization that advocated 'change,' we would all be just the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants.”

We human beings have a remarkable ability to dehumanize one another: to conceive of one another as subhuman creatures, and to treat them accordingly… In dehumanizing others, we exclude them from the circle of moral obligation. - David Livingstone Smith – December 2, 2011

Archbishop Calls Gay Marriage Bill an ‘Ominous Threat’ – June 17, 2011
Archbishop Dolan…repeatedly made it clear that he strongly opposed gay marriage, which he called “unjust and immoral,” “detrimental for the common good” and “a violation of what we consider the natural law that’s embedded in every man and woman.”
GAY MARRIAGE – Understanding – NATURAL LAW & How it can be used? – With or Without - Reason & Rational |To Support - Benedict XVI & Hierarchy’s Vague & Negative Statements Against Homosexuality | PART 2

Above excerpts taken from:

GAY MARRIAGE – “Doublespeak” Benedict XVI - IRRATIONAL Shift Blame Gays – Evading UN Accusations Global COVER-UPS Child Sexual Abuse “…a COMPLETE FAILURE to take responsibility” | PART 3


Minnesota's Anti-Gay Marriage Constitutional Amendment – The Rachel Maddow Show – 5/23/11 - STATE REP. STEVE SIMON (D), STATE REP.  JOHN KRIESEL (R), JEFF and LORI WILFAHRT, the parents of CORPORAL ANDREW WILFAHRT, who was killed on February 27th in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Rachel Maddow on Minnesota's Anti-Gay Marriage Constitutional Amendment - May 23, 2011 – View video Photo

Representative Steve Simon, a Democrat in Minnesota, making the case earlier this month against the proposed anti-gay constitutional amendment in that state.

May 6, 2011, STATE REP. STEVE SIMON (D), MINNESOTA:  We have to be careful about trying to enshrine our beliefs, however religiously valid we believe them to be, in the Minnesota Constitution.  And what I‘m hearing today and what I heard on Friday was largely a religious justification for a change in the Minnesota Constitution.  And I don‘t think that‘s right.  I don‘t think it‘s fair.  I think it departs from our tradition.
          You just ask yourself: not now in glare of the capitol and caucuses and interest groups., but ask yourself: if it‘s true that sexual orientation is innate, God-given, and what does it mean to the moral force of your argument?  And I guess to put in the particular, what I would ask is: how many more gay people does God have to create before we ask yourselves whether or not God actually wants them around?
Read transcript from - 'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Monday, May 23rd, 2011


This is state rep from Minnesota named John Kriesel.  Staff Sergeant John Kriesel, he lost both his legs in an IED blast in Fallujah.  He is a Republican – making the case against the proposed anti-gay constitutional amendment in Minnesota.

May 19, 2011, STATE REP.  JOHN KRIESEL (R), MINNESOTA:  I went to Iraq.  I was in an incident and nearly died.  I remember laying there and seeing my legs mangled and pretty much guaranteeing that I was done—I was a done deal.  I thought that‘s where my life was going to end.
          I remember thinking of my wife and my kids.  That‘s what crossed my mind.  And that‘s what kept me fighting.
          This amendment doesn‘t represent what I went to fight for.  This doesn‘t represent that.
          Hear that out there?  That‘s the America I fought for.  And I‘m proud of that.
          A little bit earlier I had this passed around.  It‘s a photo of a gentleman named Corporal Andrew Wilfahrt.  He gave his life in Afghanistan on February 27th of this year.  He hit an improvised explosive device, while keeping us safe, protecting our freedoms, giving us the right to have this debate tonight.
          He was gay.  He was gay.  I don‘t know about you guys, but I cannot look at this family and look at this picture and say, you know what, corporal, you were good enough to fight for your country and give your life, but you were not good enough to marry the person you love…
Read transcript from - 'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Monday, May 23rd, 2011


MADDOW:  …The man whose picture John Kriesel handed out to the whole state assembly before he made that speech, which you saw him referenced there, that man who was pictured in the picture that he handed out was Corporal Andrew Wilfahrt of Rosemont, Minnesota.  Andrew Wilfahrt‘s parents have been a force of nature in this fight in their home state.
          Joins us now for the interview tonight are Jeff and Lori Wilfahrt, the parents of Corporal Andrew Wilfahrt, who was killed on February 27th in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Read transcript from - 'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Monday, May 23rd, 2011

Obama GAY MARRIAGE Endorsement Is 'Political Bravery'- RACHEL MADDOW (VIDEO) & Obama Lets Go of Fear – “…I think of all the GAY KIDS out there who now know they have their president on their side…” By ANDREW SULLIVAN - NPR – May 9 & 10, 2012

Obama Gay Marriage Endorsement Is 'Political Bravery' – By Rachel Maddow -  (VIDEO) – 5/10/12
          Rachel Maddow reacted to President Obama endorsing same-sex marriage, calling Wednesday a "historic day in civil rights in this country."
          On her MSNBC show Wednesday night, Maddow said it was "icing" on Obama's previous record on gay rights. During her Thursday morning appearance on NBC's "Today" show, Maddow called Obama's endorsement "political bravery" as she was unclear what the electoral impact will be... Read/watch more:

Obama declaration "icing on the cake" of gay rights legacy - The Rachel Maddow Show (May 9th, 2012)
Video:
Transcript: Excerpts -
          …The Barack Obama administration has been very, very, very pro-gay rights. They have pursued at every level policies to improve the lives of gay Americans and to further gay rights.
          …repealing "don`t ask, don`t tell."
          …expanding federal benefits for the same-sex partners of people who work in the executive branch.
          …signing the Hate Crimes Act into law.
          …clearing the way for hospital visitation rights for same-sex couples…
          … It`s expanding the census, even, to make sure that people in same-sex relationships get counted.
          …directing U.S. agencies who work with foreign countries to ensure that our humanitarian and diplomatic efforts abroad take into accounts the rights of gay and lesbian people in those other countries.
          …supporting states that are trying to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples…
          …refusing to defend… the Defense of Marriage Act.
If you are in favor of gay rights, the Barack Obama administration has been great on the issue of gay rights…
          …ultimately, what presidents do is they wield political power. And even before today [publically supporting gay marriage], that legacy of the first term of the Barack Obama presidency was already clear.
          Today, he added to that...
          …he took this extra step today...something extra…This was above and beyond.
          And it is not without risk. And now having said these words publicly that no president has ever said before, now we get to see how this changes the country.
Read complete transcript:


Andrew Sullivan on Obama's Support of Gay Marriage – 5/09/12 – NPR – Transcript
…One interview doesn't make a difference. And then I watched the interview and the tears flooded. There is something about hearing your president affirm your humanity that you don't know what effect it has until you hear it. And I think of all those gay Americans over the centuries who never heard that, never believed it could happen. And I have to say I'm immensely proud of this president for doing what he did… Read/listen more:


Obama Lets Go Of Fear - By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast 5/09/12
          I do not know how orchestrated this was; and I do not know how calculated it is. What I know is that, absorbing the news, I was uncharacteristically at a loss for words for a while, didn't know what to write, and, like many Dish readers, there are tears in my eyes.
          So let me simply say: I think of all the gay kids out there who now know they have their president on their side
          …The interview changes no laws; it has no tangible effect. But it reaffirms for me the integrity of this man we are immensely lucky to have in the White House. Obama's journey on this has been like that of many other Americans, when faced with the actual reality of gay lives and gay relationships… Read more:

President Obama's Emancipation Proclamation – 9/22/12 |First U.S. President to come out in support of same-sex marriage

 …By becoming the first U.S. President to come out in support of same-sex marriage, President Obama has boldly illuminated bone-deep and often ugly differences of opinion dividing Americans, and exposed them to open civil discussion. Comparisons to Abraham Lincoln and his stand on slavery a century and a half ago are ample and inescapable.
          Both presidents, incumbents from Illinois facing difficult reelections, were forced to confront a crisis cleaving the nation along uncomfortably similar political and geographic boundaries: North vs. South, federal vs. state, equal vs. unequal. Harsh, often brutal and vulgar criticism, often having little to do with issues, was heaped upon both heads, with vicious lies and distortions about their private lives and beliefs running rampant. Photo
          Both men, from all accounts pensive by nature, apparently agonized over the slow, difficult conclusions they came to -- decisions overdue to many and rash to others, unwelcome to an unyielding third constituency and inconsequential only to a benumbed, indifferent fourth. President Obama described his position as "evolving" toward espousing same-sex marriage, while allowing, "I've always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally." Lincoln stated his decision was part of a "personal wish that all men everywhere could be free."…
          As landmark civil rights proceedings go, the two historic drafted documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation, made the third, unwritten one, President Obama's endorsement of same-sex marriage, possible. The president has in effect "edited" and enhanced Jefferson's classic dictum to avow, unequivocally, all men and women are created equal. As such, his pronouncement may be the last major civil rights action of our time. Photo

Ray Errol Fox is an Oscar-nominated documentarian and journalist/writer. He regularly posts on his on his wide-ranging blog, SON OF THE CUCUMBER KING.
Jacopo della Quercia is a history writer researching the Lincoln and Taft presidencies for an upcoming book.
Read complete article:

President Barack Obama's acceptance speech on Thursday night drew the largest television audience of this year's political conventions and ranked as the biggest political moment ever on social media site Twitter – 9/07/12

Transcript: President Obama's Convention Speech – 9/06/12


GAY MARRIAGE – OBAMA’s Support - Courageous Openness & Moral Leadership for Simple Fairness & Human Yearning for Love | BENEDICT XVI’s Opposition - Secrecy & Cover-ups - Corruption & Sandals – Using Power to Settle & Silence Questions of Truth --- Related News Media & Research


Amistad Africans – Supreme Court Trial 1841 - President John Quincy Adam - “The truth, in truth, has been driven from this case like a SLAVE, flogged from court to court, wretched and destitute…a ‘keen mind of the SOUTH,’ … asserts that: ‘There has never existed a civilized society in which one segment did not thrive upon the labor of another. As far back as one chooses to look – to ancient times, to BIBLICAL times – history bears this out. In Eden, where only two were created, even there, one was pronounced subordinate to the other. SLAVERY has always been with us and is neither sinful nor immoral… SLAVERY, as NATURAL as it is inevitable.’ ’ …I must say I DIFFER with the keen minds of the SOUTH…offering that the NATURAL STATE OF MANKIND is, instead – and I know this is a controversial idea – IS FREEDOM, is freedom. And the proof is the length to which a man, woman, or child will go to regain it, once taken. He will break loose his chains. He will decimate his enemies. He will try and try and try AGAINST ALL ODDS, against all prejudices, to get home…Yet, if the SOUTH is right, what are we to do with that embarrassing, annoying document, The DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE? What of its conceits? ‘ALL MEN…CREATED EQUAL,’ ‘INALIENABLE RIGHTS,’ ‘LIFE,’ ‘LIBERTY,’ and so on and so forth? …We desperately need your strength and wisdom to triumph over our fears, our prejudices, ourselves. Give us the courage to do what is right. And if it means civil war, then let it come. And when it does, may it be, finally, the last battle of the American Revolution. [Patrick Henry, American Revolution “GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH”] - Photo
"Amistad" (1997) - American Rhetoric: Movie Speech – Watch Video:
AMISTAD - 1997 movie, Spielberg - Video  
Amistad Case 1839 - Library of Congress

Obama’s embrace of Gay Marriage makes for a spiritual Mother’s Day – 51112

Obama's family influenced his gay marriage shift – 51012

Obama: ‘I Think Same-Sex Couples Should Be Able to Get Married’- 50912 ABC

Nancy Pelosi praised Obama’s support of GAY MARRIAGE - for advancing civil rights…“quite historic” that “spoke to the values of our families, the values of our faith and the values of our country.” Pelosi said her Catholicism “compels” her “to be against discrimination of any kind in our country…” – 51012 ABC

Do Most Catholic Theologians Support Same-Sex Marriage? – 51112

Catholic coalition pleased with Obama's stance on marriage equality – 51012 NCR



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