Mary, herself, is preggers

Wonder if she'll be more forceful in fighting for GLB family rights now.

Dang, you bet me to it. Yeah, I wonder what kind of family values spin the GOP will put on this. Perhaps they'll suddenly be in favor of Mary's right to an abortion?

I love what America Blog wrote about the pregnancy.

I'm so glad Allen pointed out AmericaBlog's take. Virginia now has some of the most restrictive anti-gay laws on its books, so what're Mary and her partner Heather Poe going to do? Maybe they'll move to DC or Maryland. Maybe she'll also push for Virginia to roll back some of its anti-gay legislation. And speaking of family values, aren't the Republicans always railing against women having children while not being married? And not having a hetero unit and fathers in children's lives? So does Mary Cheney (Poe) get a free pass?

Yep, and Rosie on "The View" today mentioned that Mary and her partner will now find out just how difficult it will be to be gay and have kids, as far as the national laws and all...it was a good point. She thought this MAYBE somewhat of an eye opening ( mind) opening experience for them.

This is going to be a shocker for Mary & her partner, being lesbians while having children. Hopefully this will be the spur to action, the final reason to take action on behalf of her family. Children have a way of changing people, mostly for the better.

As for the Republicans, unless and until Mary takes actions against her GOP masters, they have their cake and eat it too. They can claim Mary as one of their own, while also claiming to be gay-friendly for families. While anyone with an objective eye will see this as a complete fallacy, it will resonate with middle America (aka: fly-over country).

So does this mean Mary Cheney inhaled?



I am not sure if this will even matter to Mary Cheney. All she will have to do is say, "I am Mary Cheney, the Vice President's Daughter" She will get anything she wants without having to push for equal rights for the remainder of us. You can sure bet Heather Poe will get this same upper level treatment too. I bet the memos have already gone out to everyone in Virgina Government that Mary and Heather are to be treated just like any other heterosexual couple. PERIOD. I bet being the Vice President's daughter gets you a lot of special treatment.

I am not sure that having a bodyguard from the moment you are born is a fate I would wish on anyone, even my worst enemy...

I feel nothing but sympathy for what that entire family will be going through if they choose to stay in VA.

Frankly, politics aside, I wish all three of them well; I think they will need all the good will they can find.

R

I find Mary Cheney to be a sad figure, actually. "I don't have the luxury of being a single-issue voter." What crap. Mary, strip away all the privilege that goes along with having a rich father who is also the most powerful Vice President in US history, add in a sick partner or shared-custody adopted kid and you'll soon find yourself not having the luxury of being anything but a single-issue voter.

Despite my contempt for her and her entire family (with the exception of her unborn child), I do wish her and her partner luck. Parenting is a tough job, particularly when the parents of a newborn are not bubbly 20-somethings. On top of that, I hope that Mary will soon realize that her multi-issue voting has real consequences to herself, her partner and their child. I hope she soon realizes that her actions emboldened those who seek to strip her partner of any legal relationship with the baby she is carrying, nullify any property and inheritance contracts she and her partner have in place, and remove any health-care proxies they may have signed. I further hope that she will gain the spine of a mother whose child is threatened when she realizes she lives in a state whose government aims to strip her child of the right to its own family and that she will do something notable for the betterment of all GLBT semi-citizens.

My hunch, however, is that Mary will do as Mary has always done: retreat into the coccoon crafted by her family's wealth, the rest of the community be damned.

I wonder if she borrowed Tom & Katie's turkey baster?

Not another Mary giving birty without a husband's insemination!

My god it's only been, what, 2000 years!

Well, the conservatives are none too pleased with this revelation.

To quote MIB ... Oh, the hypocrasy!

(I miss chatting w/ ya MIB.)

Mary Cheney is just as arrogant and self-involved as her parents and their affiliations. She'll certainly encounter plenty of difficulty but she'll also have doors opened easily as she always has because of the Cheneys. Plus, have you ever seen a more "bullying" family? I've never been more disgusted by American politics than when Lynne and Mary Cheney slandered, yes, slandered John Kerry after the debates for including her in his thoughtful, intelligent and accurate response to the question regarding the roots of homosexuality. I came to despise both of them that day. When Lynne Cheney berated Wolf Blitzer on CNN, while promoting her kids' book, I came to despise her even more. They're are bullying, hypocritical, disingenuous people completely focused on their own greed and power. Bringing another of these people into the world is not a good thing. But perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel will be this arrogant young woman waking up to a reality not protected by her father's power and priviledge. Good luck.

I don't suppose anyone knows anything about the papa?

I thought Heather was the papa?

David Crosby?

LOL! I'm betting on Ted Haggard -- his "boys" are real good swimmers!

That whole family truly disgusts me. I could not care any less about some evil spawn that Mary is about to give birth to...the whole family makes me sick to my stomach. How dare she claim the title of being gay. She has no idea what it is really like, considering the sheltered environment she has lived. Perhaps if I were raised with a silver spoon firmly planted in my mouth, I could be as hypocritical has her. I really pity the poor child. Another innocent life is about to be ruined.

Miller said
too funny.

I thought he was dead

maybe Ronnie McReagan had some frozen sperm laying around

In "The Onion", Dan Savage, author of the column "Savage Love" offers an excellent quip about the blessed event and the surrounding hypocrisy...

(Here's the link, it's about half-way down the page. I cut and pasted the portion regarding Cheney's baby:

http://www.avclub.com/content/node/56474)


Speaking of messy homos, it feels strange to rush to the defense of Mary Cheney, the useless dyke daughter of our malevolent vice president. But I knew I had to speak up after Janice Crouse of Concerned Women For America called Cheney's pregnancy "unconscionable." A few thoughts for you, Janice:
First, because Christianists like you can't come out and say they oppose Cheney's pregnancy because it says right there in Leviticus that Mary Cheney should be put to death (along with all adulterers, rebellious slaves, and lobstermen), they're condemning Cheney for creating a "fatherless" child, a child that will have no masculine role models. Have you gotten a good look at Heather Poe, Mary Cheney's partner of 15 years? My son has two fathers, but Heather Poe's left labial lip is butcher than both of us put together. Even if Mary and Heather planned on raising their child on a deserted island somewhere, their kid wouldn't want for masculine role models. And if things get too girly at Mary and Heather's place, Grandpa Dick can always take the kid hunting.
Second, fathers are great—my son couldn't agree more, Janice. And guess what? A lesbian couple can't have a child without one. For all we know, Mary and Heather, like so many other lesbian couples, used a known gay male sperm donor—Ken Mehlman? Mark Foley? Ted Haggard?—and this kid is going to have a father in his life.
Third, Concerned Women For America doesn't think Mary Cheney should have a baby. Great, fine, whatever. But Mary Cheney's uterus belongs to Mary Cheney, Janice, and she can do whatever the f**k she likes with it. She can have babies with it or keep her car keys in it or fill it up with potting soil and plant tulips in it. It's her f**king uterus, Janice, not yours. And if you keep inserting yourself into it, people are gonna think you're a dyke too, or Heather Poe is going to show up on your doorstep and beat the holy living hell out of you.
Fourth, Concerned Women For America and the Christian Coalition and Mitt Romney and Pat Robertson have all made it clear that they think it's wrong for lesbians to have children. Would someone in the media please ask them the obvious follow-up question: How the f**k do they propose to stop lesbians from having children? Post two members of the National Guard at the entrance to every lesbian vagina in the country? Forced sterilizations at women's music festivals? Mandatory abortions for every lesbian who does manage to get herself pregnant?
Fifth, up in Canada—sane, sane Canada—a bill to reopen, and possibly reverse, the decision to legalize gay marriage failed by a wide margin in Parliament Thursday, December 7.

If Janice Crouse is a Christian, I think her response is appropriate. The homophobia of the Bible isn't limited to the Hebrew Bible, it is found throughout. I know it is an uncomfortable reality for many, but homophobic Christians have both the Bible and 2000 years of tradition on their side. Here is one example from the New Testament:

1 Corinthians 6:9 (English Standard Version)
9Do you not know that the unrighteous[a] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

I don't understand why it is so hard for many queers to accept that Christianity is an inherently homophobic ideology. I'm amazed that some can deny it in the face of overwhelming evidence. Perhaps wishful thinking is the basis of all religious belief. I know that those who disagree with me will try the whole "what Jesus really meant" argument but I will just remind them that there is nothing to stop an omnipotent deity from removing all homophobic references from the Bible and the hearts of bigots everywhere were he so inclined. If Jesus is real, he either hates queers or just can't find the time in his busy schedule to do something to help us.

Log Cabin Christians are a bit hypocritical for criticizing Mary Cheney for supporting the Republicans. At least the Republicans are limited to America. Everywhere in the world queers make progress in civil rights, the Christians are there to fight it.

Well, one of the reasons many Christians fight against the traditionally homophobic view of Christianity is because that homophobia did not really arise until the 12th or 13th centuries. Early Christianity was not nearly as upset by male homosexuality. Women, of course, were chattel back then, and there was much less tolerance for independent women, but female homosexuality in some cases seems to have been tolerated by the same early Christians. Boswell's works on the subject are a fascinating read - not only because of his discussion of the likely mistranslations of the very passages you quote (e.g., there was no word for "homosexual" in Greek or Hebrew, the two languages of the early books of the bible), but because of his analysis of the evidence of tolerance, and even blessings, of relationships between two men in the first few centuries of the church.

Christianity only becomes homophobic if one decides to follow a specific branch of thought, arising with Augustine (who had a male lover at one time, but rejected his own homosexuality), and strengthened by the church of the middle ages (when the church really took over the role of local government, and needed to keep order). The perversion of Christianity seen in the evangelical and fundamentalist movements are simply modern versions of this thinking.

I've heard this asserted before but it is completely a-historical so far as I can tell. You're right that Augustine was a 4th century Ted Haggart (without the meth), but homophobic attitudes are clear in the New Testament and throughout the history of Christianity from the very beginning. The history of homophobia in the West is essentially a history of Christianity. Writers like Boswell along with earlier thinkers like Scanzoni and Mollencott et. al. have made great efforts to re-fashion Christianity into an ideology that isn't bigoted against queers. I'd be all for their efforts as long as they didn't try to pretend that "true" Christianity was somehow gay-positive all those years--only no one noticed. Unfortunately, they are apologists rather that objective scholars. Here are some quick examples of pre-12th century homophobia:

--In 314 the Council of Ancyra in Asia Minor excluded all homosexuals from receiving the sacrament.

--St Basil in 375 and Gregory of Nyssa in 390 demanded of homosexuals a 15-year penitential of self-mortification while going without the sacrament — along with those who committed adultery, pederasty, incest, bestiality, idolatry, witchcraft and murder.

I'd love to see all the pre-12th century gay-positive writings and doctrines you mention. I urge gay people to transform Christianity from what it has been for the last 2000 years into something positive. I only ask that they don't distort the historical record in doing so.

As for Mary Cheney, I assume that she is just another victim of religion and its inevitable moral distortions. I still hold her accountable for her actions.

Dick Cheney is not happy w/ Wolf Blitzer asking questions about Mary's pregnancy.

Hilarty ensues!!!

Oh god....

Wolf: You're about to have another grandchild, that's great. You must be happy.
Cheney: Frankly Wolf, that question is inappropriate and out of line.

My god, could he be anymore freaked out about having a gay child?

OMG! That man DOES have a heart of stone! I have never met a grandparent, either current or future, that WASN'T interested in talking about a grandchild. Usually, the grandparents drool more than the baby! What a cold, evil, insensitive man. He doesn't deserve grandchildren with an attitude like that. Special note to Cheney: no, dick-head Cheney, that question is not out of line. The host was actually doing you a favor by trying to make you appear human. As with everything else in this adminstration, you screwed that up as well. Way to go, Cheney!

Here is the YouTube link of their exchange.

and here is Jon Stewart's take on it.

I love it, especially the Darth Vader mask.

Ok, it's the truth. Never, ever have I gone out in 'drag'. Yes, in female character on Halloween, ala "Wonder Woman", "The Dominatrix" "Grandma", "The Bride", "Mammy from GWTW" and "Jackie Kennedy on the Day of the Assassination After the Bullets Exploded Her Husband's Brains in Her Lap". But all of that is another story.

Today, I'm a Jewish Dike. I'm loud, obnoxious, boisterous, abrasive, big and husky, swarthy and with some facial hair. And I'm stereotypically mean. When I go forward, you see a bulldozer, hence the moniker, 'diesel'dike. I am no one to like, if I have my way.

But why today? I'll tell you why. I want to perform the circumcision on rose-Mary Cheney's new baby boy, born this morning. Why me? Because I want to miss with my izmail, aka the 'bris knife', and decapitate that little baby's penis. This will force rose-Mary and her partner Heather Poe to consider raising their newborn as a girl, who is really a boy, who will most like behave like a lesbian, and take a female lover someday.

Is this mean and demented? Of course it is. So is rose-Mary Cheney, for her behavior over the past seven years. And I want it in her face. I don't hate her, not like I hate Ann Coulter and Nancy Reagan. Real grudges exist long term for them. But rose-Mary? No. Just for today, I want to be a Jewish Dike, and to rile for my own indulgence. And to predict the future. The prediction? Mary's new son, VP Dick's grandson, will grow up perfectly straight, happy and healthy, smart and intelligent, with the benefit of comfort, privilege, education, et al. Which will refute all the naysayers about same sex couple-hood and parenthood.

So, take that you right-wing weenies, from this overbearing, over-rated, over it all, Jewish Dike for a Day.