I can tell you why Brian: Nobody cares.

And what was your last name BEFORE the Spanish decision?

I didn't read about Haley Joel Osment, what happened with him?

He saw gay people . . .

Steve: Give it a rest man...it's the weekend. Do SOMTETHING different that you and the rest of the "peanut gallery" do during the week when the rest of us are working!

Am I de only one mon who notice dis here mon's last name? Is dat his name fer real? It's no wonder dat he be a supportin' de gays and de marriage.

Jah Rastafari

I picked up "somtehing" in my spoon once eating alphabet soup, it looked pretty stupid then as it does now. You worry about yourself, not me.

Blil,

yuo aer oen dmub moof?

ok people...even I had to laugh at this dude's name.
hehehehehehehehehe

John, this (those comments above this one) is why Letters has to be moderated or controlled in some fashion. NO ON-TOPIC POST should be edited but these? C'mon.

Brian's letter proves why he's right. The N&R should have covered this and made it local. There's a lot of work to be done in this burg.

Sue,

Your hypocrisy is showing (again). Do you not advocate free speech as a card carrying member of the A.C.L.U? The first belligerent comment was #5 (clean, yet purely evil). Words are no better or worse than the intention behind them. But words are tangible and excite the passions of sue-zee cream cheeses like yourself. What causes a person to act? Why do they say what they do? That's right, you don't know. To act like you do know is the presentation of an attitude far worse than basic sarcasm. You need to ponder this and say what you really mean.

It is a disgrace that this letter and so many others are taken so lightly. In this venue where anyone can read and comment, it is appalling that Mr. Cockman's letter is so disregarded.

Why make rude & crude comments about an individuals name, etc. What does that matter and have to do with the topic matter of the letter written?

Mr. Cockman is correct that it is shameful that the N & R placed such a news article on page A12! Is this the new N & R coverage of more local news? I feel it is a disgrace. Especially since the latest vote of the United Church of Christ. And to know that there was a meeting of a large number of Southern Conference Church's held in Lexington to address this issue just a few days ago. Where was the coverage in the N & R on this? This would classify as local news!

Come on N & R Editors, do what you say or shut up!

Darryl,

There's not much to say about the letter except he has a good point.

The gay/church/marriage/wedding thing has been rehashed a million times (and it won't stop the queen music from pounding tonight).

Why don't you write something controversial and give us something new to comment about?

No one cares.

Soon that will be villified as a crime.

I just visited "Sue's Place" (a.k.a. dullsville) and I found where she's having a real good elitist time trying to get Allen to censor these blogs by removing any off-topic comment. This same woman claims to cry and bleed every day for our right to free speech! Her explanations to her readers (all two of them), is full of half-truths and prejudice.

Where does it say that comments have to be on topic? Why does anyone have to be speaking to anyone in particular? My own comments may be for my wheelchair ridden ex-roommate, this is a public venue.

Sue's agenda is to be categorized "one of the real people" and to lump in any and all offenders into a firepit made from the founding of her hypocritical stance with the A.C.L.U.

Can Allen be intimidated? Probably.

While gay marriage does not impact me, and thus the issue does not hold high priority for me, I am always interested in "liberty and justice" for all. Therefore, I found the following to be interesting and somewhat different. Take whatever you will from it or disregard it all together; it is your choice.

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero made this speech (condensed) before parliment after the law was passed: "We are not legislating, honorable members, for people far away and not known by us. We are enlarging the opportunity for happiness to our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and, our families: at the same time we are making a more decent society, because a decent society is one that does not humiliate its members.

Today, the Spanish society answers to a group of people who, during many years have, been humiliated, whose rights have been ignored, whose dignity has been offended, their identity denied, and their liberty oppressed. Today the Spanish society grants them the respect they deserve, recognizes their rights, restores their dignity, affirms their identity, and restores their liberty.

It is true that they are only a minority, but their triumph is everyone?s triumph. It is also the triumph of those who oppose this law, even though they do not know this yet: because it is the triumph of Liberty. Their victory makes all of us (even those who oppose the law) better people, it makes our society better. Honorable members, There is no damage to marriage or to the concept of family in allowing two people of the same sex to get married. To the contrary, what happens is that this class of Spanish citizens will get the potential to organize their lives with the rights and privileges of marriage and family. There is no danger to the institution of marriage, but precisely the opposite: this law enhances and respects marriage.

Today, conscious that some people and institutions are in a profound disagreement with this change in our civil law, I wish to express that, like other reforms to the marriage code that preceded this one, this Law will generate no evil, that its only consequence will be the avoiding of senseless suffering of decent human beings. A society that avoids senseless suffering of decent human beings is a better society.

With the approval of this Bill, our country takes another step in the path of liberty and tolerance that was begun by the democratic change of government.

Today we demonstrate with this Bill that societies can better themselves and can cross barriers and create tolerance by putting a stop to the unhappiness and humiliation of some of our citizens. Today, for many of our countrymen, comes the day predicted by Kavafis [the great Greek gay poet] one century ago: 'Later 'twas said of the most perfect society, someone else, made like me, certainly will come out and act freely?."

Wow Yvonne. I mean really...WOW!!! Thank you for that! Although I made light of the writer's name, everyone knows my stance.

El mundo estaria mejor, si toda pais se parecia mas como espana.

viva Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero!

a truly civilized society recognizes people for who they are: whether male, female, straight, gay, black/white/asian/hispanic etc. baptist/jewish/lutheran/agnostic, etc...(and the many variations). we are in this world together, and like it or not, it behooves us to work together instead of against each other. i remember someone saying that God made us all different enough to see how long it would take for us to figure out that it is in our best interest to accept others, even though they are not like us in some way or another. respecting one another is a sign of maturity and basic goodness. it seems pretty basic.

No offense meant to anyone, but I imagine that something of interest to a minuscule local minority and happened in Spain was just judged not worthy of covering.
Since the N&R does not have local reporters in Spain (or most of the rest of the world) they rely on the worldwide news services (AP, UPI, Reuters, etc.) for stories occuring oceans away. Perhaps it was not covered well from those services and thus not given much play in the U.S.
At any rate, I doubt it was newsworthy enough to edge out some of the more relevant news of that day.

After a more thorough revisit of "Sue's Place", I came a cross a tab heading called "friends". After clicking on this, it expanded into "Friends of Sue's Place". The tenth blog down, "Teramis", has a story on it called "Him". One sentence in that story reads: "A voice rasps. If I had a cock, I'd jam it down your throat right now." Seems like Sue advocates the very thing on her personal blog that she complains of here. Maybe there's more to it than that, whatever it is, it has nothing to do with anything but her personal vendettas.

John wrote:

"a truly civilized society recognizes people for who they are: whether male, female, straight, gay, black/white/asian/hispanic etc. baptist/jewish/lutheran/agnostic, etc...(and the many variations)."

It's pertinent at this point to note that the definition of "civilized society" is pretty durn slippery. It also evolves as time goes forward. The values that signified "civilized" in the 18th century are far different from today. Treating one's slaves in a kindly manner and giving them clean housing was "civilized" in 1750 for an awful lot of this country, for instance.

That being said, I think that defining what constitutes a "family" has to be one of the central issues when talking about society's values. I would hope that America would be able to tolerate the idea of a family of two men, or a family of two women, or any number of imaginitive domestic arrangements that might come along. But tolerance is deemed such a nasty word these days, in certain quarters. I sort of understand where the fear of tolerating differences in sexuality comes from, but it's pretty alien to me.

I think that it will go a long way for us to see what happens in countries that have expanded the definition of marriage and families. The people who claim that society will explode if a couple of guys settle down together will have to validate their notion using data from Spain, the Netherlands and so on. I can hardly wait...

I gotta hand it to ya Brian,You must have a set the size of basketballs to allow this letter to be printed. My hat is off.

Sue Sweetie, Cat got your tongue?

A simple rule for dealing with off-topic/hostile/childish comments: Don't feed the trolls.

Ignore them. Stay on subject yourself. If someone says something that's truly objectionable, the administrator will take it down. Otherwise, why bother with it?

Perhaps the Spaniard politicians went against their constituents like the Canadiens did. And you have no basis for claiming there are 4 million gays in Spain.

Steve, I don't spend my days responding to you, but in a word, if you had the money Teramis did from publishing, you'd probably have other things to do than call people names here.

BTW, I noted you neglected to include Teramis's categories of activism, civil liberties, law, politics, public policy, social justice, social psychology and sociology in addition to her fiction writing.

As for censorship, who's censoring now?

I'm proud of ALL the people I know and respect. And I use my real name. Wanna give that a try?

Sue,

"Steve, I don't spend my days responding to you, but in a word, if you had the money Teramis did from publishing, you'd probably have other things to do than call people names here."

So you advocate filthy profanity if it comes from wealthy people? I thought so.

You may not spend your day responding to me, but you did put a comment on the "Editor's Log" at 9:58 concerning this little problem. At 11:49 you put a letter in your own blog asking Allen to remove the off-topic comments from the N&R blogs. You also had the time to make responses to some of the six comments that came in. You also added a disclaimer at the top of your letter later on so that nobody would get the idea you have it in for the N&R. This was done after one of the commenters had accused you of that very thing. That is called making it up as you go. You mentioned there were 38 responses on one thread on the LTE that didn't meet your standards. You sure had a lot of time to pout and try to get your way on this.

But guess what, I forgive you! Let's have a pact not to even think of each other again. Then you won't get offended by my poor, profane self and you will have more time to hang out with your rich profane friends. Take care. (and Steve IS my name, I know four of the regulars personally and they will tell you it's all true).

"So you advocate filthy profanity if it comes from wealthy people? I thought so."

Profanity is what I deleted from my blog's comments yesterday. Teramis is a popular and successful writer in a particular circle. She writes on topic and well. She writes what she chooses to write and no one has to read her works in a public setting if s/he chooses not to. (That's what the 1st amendment is all about.) The Letters comments have become a nexus of the Town Square, a public place.

My comment/plea to Allen is to remove "off-topic" and personal mudslinging comments from a public place that is designed to be shared.

Your comparison is illegitimate and invalid (again).

Door shut. I shall certainly cease thinking about you from here on out. Please do the same.

Your blog isn't public? Reading the N&R is then mandatory? When you buy your stairway to heaven make sure to keep the receipt. Door shut and locked and the key is where the sun don't shine.

Sue, I know it is hard, but take Ed's advice... like everyone else has. Trolls always will insist on having the last word.

No they don't!

Steve IS his real name.

Steve adds something to this forum that will be missed when he is gone. A different perspective that most, but one that I appreciate. His sense of humor is cutting, both sophisticated and crass, and in top form.

If you want a sterilized Letters to the Editor, then just read the paper in paper form. The very essence and benefits of this electronic format is that we get real, diverse, cut-throat comments from people who can disagree without losing sleep over it.

I love this forum. If someone bothers you, ignore them. Steve doesn't bother me, but he might bother you. If so, ignore him. Or, beat him at his own game.

I think the problem here is that Sue can do neither.

Hey Truth, Keep that ten bucks . . .