they wonder how we can be tolerant of diverse lifestyles while still preserving the family institutions that are under threat.

What?  Is that a slam at gays adopting kids?

Brooks is descending into hackdom at an alarming rate.

I’d say it was an overall slam of gays, in particular. 
But it sure sounds like this person is saying anyone “different” is a “threat” to “family institutions”.
The whole thing’s pure rubbish. 
Not to be rude, but why are you reading this crapola?  haha.  ;)

I ran across someone else’s outrage and wondered what it was all about. Nothing like getting the blood stirring on a wintry afternoon.

Although I’d like to go on a tirade, it’s true, I don’t even know where to begin. He has slammed almost everyone except for those illustrious and somewhat mythical ‘red staters’ with a baskteball team worth of kids. I, who only have one child, never mind the reasons why, am apparently lumped under the hedonistic, selfish, narcissistic category. And therefore, I, and all like me, must be rotten people (and lousy parents) who are more interested in perpetuating the culture war—that he is doing his very best to advance all by his little lonesome. Which is why I say, according to his own words, he obviously must not have enough children to keep his idle hands busy.

And he gets paid big bucks for this kind of illogical and propagandistic tripe? What a jerk.

Hey, at least you have a kid; you’re not nearly as much of a bum as I who has never been married. (The Gospel according to Brooks).

We’re just a nation of slugs. Except for those mythical red staters who are the picture of perfection against which all our flaws simply glow. As mad as it made me to read it, I had the feeling it was one big glorious troll on his part. Brooks is not that dumb. Is he?

Well, Brooks got well and royally slapped down over at Tapped.  One of the people cited in the NYT column is at least nominally a white supremacist, if you believe the Southern Poverty Law Center, and I do.

oh heck. Both sides feel the same way. The other side thinks we are stupid and bla bla bla. Everyone is suppose to be entitled to their own opinion, until they voice it.

And one of the beauties of the freedom to express opinion is to partake in discussion in which one disagrees with a stated opinion. And when some nabob who has considerable access to media and public opinion begins blathering about white fertility rates as some sort of cultural/spiritual salvation in the same breath that he speaks lovingly of traditional gender roles, in the New York Times, then I will express my opinion, which is to say that this sort of claptrap is ugly and racist and a coyly worded screed of bigotry aimed at non-whites and non-traditional gender roles/families in this country. He is advancing more than ‘culture war’ and I’m quite willing to express my opinion that he’s a shit for doing it.

Now if everyone could just respect the others opinion with out all the name calling.......

And I would respect white supremacist views why? Sorry, but attitudes like his are what supported organizations like the KKK for years. And still do in areas. There’s nothing to admire, respect, or like about it. He is entitled to his opinion, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t denounce it for what it is. And it is indeed my opinion that people who promote white supremacist views and bigotry toward those who fall outside traditional gender roles, especially in our so-called newspaper of record, are among the lowest of the human race.

I wasn’t talking about the extremist, just us normal (or suppose to be) everyday sorts. With all the bashing going on with these people one tend to get very discouraged. Why did I know you would go over the top with my statement. See its that kind of thing that gets everyone in such a tither! I said opinion, not actions.

For example, someone hates a minority and voices it loudly. That is their opinion, they have a right to it. Now if they were to try and bash the lights out of them, thats another story all together. Understand what I was saying? And I was mostly directing it at the Democrats VS the Republicans.

I haven’t heard the word tither in quite some time. ;)

The trouble with this resurgence of racist and bigoted editorializing in the national press is that it encourages this stuff to become legitimized and then it’s a short step for opinion to become action—when people’s skulls end up being bashed in because they aren’t the right color or religion or they are associating outside their race or because they are gay. It’s not as if the wackos need much encouragement anyway, but when these ideas begin receiving serious column space in the mainstream press, we have a problem. Perhaps simply expressing the opinion, in the mainstream press, doesn’t feel threatening or even malevolent to you, but for people of color and people living non-traditional lifestyles, this stuff has to be quite frightening and unsettling. This is just bad stuff and while David Brooks isn’t exactly thought to be an extremist, he has surely done his part to promote an extremist, morally reprehensible viewpoint in a so-called liberal (hahahaha!) newspaper. That’s pretty damned astonishing.

I give up. No more coffee for you after 1PM

LOL! I love ya. Just not gonna budge an inch and you would be shocked to death if I did.