Local Government TV

Friday, June 28, 2013

Bethlehem's False Equality

On my way to cover Bethlehem's Zoning Hearing Board meeting on Wednesday night, I stumbled upon the rally celebrating the Supreme Court's favorable LGBT rulings earlier that day. In addition to a strident Adrian Shanker,the president of Equality Pa, there were a number of local politicians present, including Mayor John Callahan, City Council members Willie Reynolds, Karen Dolan and Mike Recchiuti and Council candidates Bryan Callahan and Adam Waldron. Allentown City Council Prez Julio Guridy was there, too.

Presumptive Mayor Bob Donchez was not there. Nor were Council members Jean Belinski, Dave DiGiacinto and Eric Evans. Are they homophobes? All four of them had voted for Bethlehem's Human Relations Ordinance, but I don't think their presence was requested and they were not listed on the Facebook announcementt of this rally.

Thanks to that new Human Relations Ordinance, we know that everyone is equal in Bethlehem.  The rally held Wednesday also convinces me that some people are more equal than others. It is OK to express religious intolerance as Karen Dolan did to Catholics and Planning Commissioner Jim Fiorentino did to Mormons, so long as you support gay rights.  

This false equality is precisely because I would have voted against that feel good ordinance.

73 comments:

  1. Kinda of late to be talking about anti cathlolic remarks that nobody heard. She was the second highest vote getter.

    Perhaps a greater public service would have been to tell what those remorks were.

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  2. She was heard at a packed meeting when the "anti" discrimination ordinance was adopted. I do not consider Karen anti-Catholic and would vote for her if I lived in Bethlehem. But i did not appreciate her remarks.

    http://www.bethlehem-pa.gov/city_council/agenda_minutes/archive/2011/Minutes/2011-05-18.htm

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  3. A biological choice, if made by all, that would result in the end of humanity is inherently nihilistic. I support civil unions. They can call it marriage if they like. But I, like most of the tolerant, view their behavior as disgusting and aberrant. Most of the tolerant do. They just don't share these thoughts among homosexuals whose primary personal identification is their sexuality.

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  4. Guess donchez , evans and dg are still in the closet. All of this had nothing to do with tolerance - it has everything to do with pandering for votes.

    let them have their unions on earth. In the end (pun intended) they'll get theirs

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  5. notice the picture shows them at the back door to city hall - how appropriate

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  6. When people are purposely NOT invited to an even, you can't slam them like that and say they are homophobic. I live in Bethlehem all of my life and I was not invited either, so maybe wee Willie is still upset about his loss and rischutti was told to NOT invite those of us who did not support wee Willie.

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  7. "A biological choice, if made by all, that would result in the end of humanity is inherently nihilistic"

    wow...I never thought of a blowjob in that way before.

    thanks for the insight...

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  8. Since the BLTG (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Group) has had a psuedo victory with the Supreme Court, maybe they can now take up the cause of polygamists. That would help prove they are tolerant, and not bigots. Me, personally, I think men should be able to marry sheep!

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    1. Thars good, as a youth a local developer these days used to walk a animal as such on a leash and he always had hip waiters on, is this your comment Abe¿

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  9. Once the homosexual gene is accurately located, even homosexuals will abort potential homosexuals. Sex selection is here. Sexual preference selection will quickly follow. Problem solved.

    Donchez wasn't invited because they don't find him hot enough. And several nervous attendees who dropped their car keys kicked them all the way back to the parking garage.

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  10. Anon 359am, I think your focus is too narrow - there is nothing more intolerant than a liberal.

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  11. http://i.imgur.com/jMt4Mwl.jpg

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  12. Specificly what "anti-MORMON" remarks did your new whipping boy make?
    I only recall him pointing out the sillyness of certain Temple ceremonies, and as lapsed LDS, I can tell you they certainly are silly. Does that make me " anti Mormon"? More than a few of my family members would agree, sadly. I love these people, they are my people, but it is they who win no Blue Ribbons for tolerance.
    Before you attack me now, know that I voted for Mitt. Go ahead,attack.

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  13. You are obviously a religious bigot. I don't give a shit who you voted for, and since you are too much of a coward to ID yourself, you likely know you are a bigot.

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  14. So if you don't[t run around with a gay flag in a thong you are intolerant?

    I love music but don't go to musikfest because it is to hot and a pain in the ass(no pun intended), does that mean I secretly hate music.
    This Shaker dude is a very pushy militant homosexual who loves to put on shows and the pols who were there are playing for votes. Stop the nonsense.


    Many people really don't care if Homo's get married or not. Some do. That alone does not make someone a bigot. Many people believe marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman as old as mankind. Yet they are in favor of secular civil unions recognized by law.

    Stop the histrionics and grow the hell up. We enough victims in the world.

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  15. Wow. These comments are filled with hate, and you people posting them should be ashamed of yourselves. It's disgusting the way you talk about your friends and neighbors.

    Bernie, I tried to write this last night on a previous post but it didn't go through. Just as an FYI, I received an email from Pride LV on Tuesday, the day before the Supreme Court announcements, informing me of the rally to be held in Bethlehem. The rally was to be held rain or shine, victory or not. I am not a politician, nor am I a member of the LGBT community. I attended some Pride events, liked what I saw, read up more about Equality Pennsylvania, and Pride Lehigh Valley, and I signed up for the mailing list.

    Rather than taking offense that they weren't personally invited to this rally by the organizers (if they even are taking offense in the first place), perhaps if the politicians truly cared about LGBT rights, they would have already been active in those organizations. All it took for me was typing in my email address.

    Bernie, I would be more than happy to provide you with proof that this was an invite to everyone on the mailing list, and not some exclusionary rally that you are making it out to be. Please, before you write pieces like this which defame the LGBT community and brand them as exclusionary, take a moment to gather all the facts first. Just because they're politicians doesn't make them special and get a personal invitation. Everyone is, was, and will always be, welcome.

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  16. I am well aware of the Facebook invitations. But at the time they went out, a line up was already prepared, and it excluded some elected officials who supported the folly known as the Human Relations Ordinance. I happen to know for a fact that at least one of these elected officials was NOT invited at the time of the announcement with all the starts on Facebook.

    Like I said, all humans are equal, but some are more equal than others.

    So much for real human relations.

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  17. Anon 2:40 -

    You seem to know an awful lot about the way this event was organized for someone who just became aware/ involved with the organization.

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  18. Bernie, you should see Gregory's facebook page. He is really getting unglued. He is hyping his July 3rd hearing and claiming Jen Slevold and all lawyers should be there for him. He is damming all who won't come. He has even thrown his old friend Heckman under the bus. All I have ever heard Ron do is tell people there are two sides to every story and hopes everything works out. Gregory is also claiming he will have national media there.

    Is this guy really this unbalanced. He claims no one understands him because he is cursed with a superior intellect and sees things others can not see.

    WOW and OMG!!!

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  19. Bernie, you have a lot of courage speaking this truth. They're largely a mean-spirited, vindictive bunch. Watch out.

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  20. @3:10 ditto.
    BOH,
    Thanks for showing us the truth. Homosexual bigotry is still alive and largely acceptable in the US.

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  21. .....and fools. Witness Gurity.

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    Replies
    1. What was he doin there allentowns prez court jester would sell he own mothers ass for kin palumpa and give the nod in counsil chambers as echinwald is the only counsilperson to stand up to allentowns bully

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  22. 3:10, This is OT, but yes, he is blaming everyone. He is now attacking:
    - Jen Sletvold (reason unknown); - Judge Koury (he misspelled his name and claims Koury owed him a favor bc he was in his camp politically);
    - Ron Heckman (apparently, for not publicly supporting him. Gregory claims Heckman will now lose.);
    - Jerry Seyfried (is told he must go to Gregory's hearing or can no longer call him a friend);
    - Callahan (is going to dime him over a hooker);
    - Chris Spadoni (is supposed to go fuck himself);
    - John Morganelli (should have prosecuted his ex-girlfriend);

    He also claims his girlfriend made the whole thing up to keep Jen Sletvold away from him. He is apparently calling God as a witness.

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  23. As usual OHare you and the moron above misquoted Gregory. It's in black and white on the Facebook page and you still can't read it correctly. He or his nephew who authored the piece or his friends who have access to the house, who could have authored it, did not say anything
    Heckman knows why Gregory is pissed. Doesn't matter, he's toast whether Gregory gets involved or not. Three Rublicans will win and Seyfried and Hunter will win, no matter what Gregory does

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  24. My uncle never threatened Sletvold. What she perceives as threats are her problem. If you read the remarks you can see, if you have a brain of a dead toad, that he admires her intellect, spirit, passion, and dedication to family. Is that clear enough for you toad brains !!!!!!

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  25. Gregory, what you have done and said, on Facebook alone, could result in you going to jail on Tuesday. Your complaint about Judge Koury is particularly disturbing. Moreover, after being cited twice for contempt, you are still trying to convey messages to your ex. For someone who claims to be an almost Mensa, your behavior is incredibly stupid. And your latest playmate is another disturbed person who was just fond guilty of harassment bc she also has incredibly poor judgment. You need to shut up, stay off facebook and the blogs, and get your head on right.

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  26. Apparently, Jerry and my uncle were never friends. So be it. Then Jerry should stay home on Tuesday. By the way, the Bethlehem Police have all my uncles communication devices and have had them for over two weeks.. So, if he , himself, posted anything on Facebook for the last two weeks, then God might stop at the hearing, cause he will Want to see this miracle man who posts without any devices to post. How stupid are you people ????????

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  27. I hven't herad of now person more sympathetic to Gregory then Heckman. The guy even told me everyone should wait until all the hearings are over before passing judgment. I told him he was nuts but he said he always thought Jim had a good heart.

    Sounds like Gregory is burning bridges faster than he can build any new ones.

    What is what up this guy Bernie. Is he as whacky as Mezzacappa?

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  28. Gregory, you yourself stated that you purchased a new iPad and even posted from the Mezzacappa hearing. It is you. You can try denying it like Mezzacappa tried denying she was the author and publisher of her blog. I would recommend you stop lying and stop posting here or anywhere.

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  29. "What is what up this guy Bernie. Is he as whacky as Mezzacappa?"

    I don't think so. Mezzacappa has been hateful a long time. Gregory has only been acting this way in recent months. Something has thrown him off. I think everyone is interested primarily in seeing that he get help.

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  30. Does Gregory work? Or is he sucking up some year long government benefit?

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  31. 11:54 is Mezzacappa,who, by her own admission, acts like a 5 year old.

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  32. Hey Callahan lover. You turncoat. How did you feel about him a few years ago? How about his girlfriend at riverport. Or a hooker in a hotel room. Muffy should be proud to know that scum you protect him and joe Kelly. Muff knows all the baggage. Ask her. See what she says about her husband.

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  33. Muffy is to worried about him and she should no that she does not need him. He needs her! Her family is well off. We all know who they are. He is a pill pusher. Count your blessings mayor. Your time will come!

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  34. Gregory, that is you style of writing and your MO. Knock it off you "Mensa" coward!!!

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  35. Tic Tac I don't know what is smaller. Your brain or what's between your legs

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  36. Ooooh! A blog war!

    What are you going to do? CAPS LOCK me to death???

    Shut the hell up your fag coward!!! Your bitch rightfully left you and now you going running to an old hag that is a psychopath! Are you for real?8

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  37. Why does Gregory keep posting his nonsense. He keeps digging himself a deeper hole. He attacks everyone who doesn't' tell him what he wants to hear. No one gives him any credibility at this point.

    He is really a sad and pathetic case. Maybe the judge will order a psychiatric evaluation, he needs it. Agree with Seyfried on this one.

    Cukcoo

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  38. Who's the "Blog Mentor" now, bitch?

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  39. Not Gregory. Just some loser that lives above the army navy store. Probably watching sick porn because unlike a lot of males they can have a relationship with a woman or a man if they choose. You can't get a single person to want to be with you. You had to run down stairs naked to try to turn someone one. Only thing you did is make them run a call the police on your fat tic Tac butt.

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  40. Hey Bitch! What is going to happen in a few more years when you are even uglier and everyone knows that you are insane? How are you going to handle your life then? You are running out of people to accuse.

    If she looks that bad on the outside, image what she looks and smells like underneath all of that. Bacteria grows in dark and warm places. It must be really, really smelly. Poor Earl and Jim!

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  41. Earl and Jim? What you trying to saY BO

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  42. Gregory must be certifiable at this point. How can the county let him near any of other employees?

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  43. Latelty many of the topics are going off message.Enough already with the Jim and Tammy show. Sorry Jim and Trish show before your nielsons take a dive.

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  44. Gregory will be looking for some new friends in prison come Tuesday. He'll need them because he has none on the outside. Not sure they sell Meth in NCP.....too bad, so sad

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  45. He deleted some of his more recent threats on facebook. Since his latest rants include Judge-elect Sletvold and Judge Koury and continued to violate the PFA, that is probably a good idea and a sign that he still has some sense left.

    I know that before this happened, he had a lot of friends. He thinks they have left him, but that's not true. They just won't enable him. If he gets help, I am sure they will back him every step of the way. Even I would.

    He needs to stay away from people like Mezzacappa, who is encouraging him to engage in the same destructive behavior that has ruined her.

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  46. I think Gregory's threat to run against Ken Kraft is up in smoke.

    The guy is not only nutz Bernie, who knew he was such a mean bastard. Sorry but his friends have been better to him than he has ever been to them.

    You don't agree with your friend who wants to drive drunk or act like Gregory.

    Frankly, Bernie the guy has always been nuts now he is all the way.

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  47. If he recognizes he has a problem and takes steps to deal with it, I am sure everyone will wish him the best.

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  48. I was having a problem with one of the employees/contractors over at swb&r. So I called up Ernie over at the Adler Place institution over in Bethlehem and gave him an earful. He assured me that he was going to rectify the problem and take the necessary precautions to make sure it won't happen again. Oopsie!!!

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151847898823488&set=a.153945243487.146877.101933898487&type=1&theater

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  49. I don't understand that comment. It makes no sense.

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  50. OHaire,

    Much you attribute to Gregory is not him. In fact by doing so , you break the new law. He has only admiration of Jen and Mike and his friend expressed that on Facebook.. Your despicable lies and half truths will end soon enough. Gregory actually defended Judge Koury on your blog years ago when you, you despicable pig kicker , were attacking the judge. If you actually read what was said on his page was that he always respected Mike and he admired Jens strengths . Your problem here you despicable piece of pond scum is that Gregorys communication devices were all taken by theolice and he has no Ipad..Sucks for you all all your fake Gregorys above.

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  51. Looks like Gregory is no longer able to keep his mouth shut. I know what you wrote on your own Facebook page with your newly purchased iPad, and so do most of the victims of your venom. It's good that you deleted it, but don't lie about it or about what you said. I am always amazed that people like you or Mezzacappa, who clearly did impersonate Dees, accuse me of what you both do so recklessly.

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  52. Bernie's hatred of gays and Gregory is just scary. He's pissed that the girl who he tried to show his missing penis to is hanging with Gregory now. Sucks to be so pathetic and ugly that your hatred seethes from your being. You are sad and pathetic Ohare. You have gone way to far and will be exorcized soon enough. Soon enough

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  53. Bernie, watch out for yourself, this guy is really crazy. He has insulted and attacked just about everyone.

    Who the Hell wants anything to do with him now. Even union leaders are tellig their guys to steer clear of him.

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  54. oh yeah 7:08! Well take that one!

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151203070083488&set=pb.101933898487.-2207520000.1372570695.&type=3&theater

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  55. Can we please get back to insulting gay citizens here?

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  56. It's called and is "gay marriage" for a reason. People will never see it as a real marriage. Let them marry and the rest of us will explain to our children that it isn't really marriage. Instead of going steady they marry. They deny a child at least one natural parent and in the case of lesbians they hate men because they compete with them and really can't without a penis. The are the most hateful vindictive emotional abusive group I've ever seen. When you teach a child to hate their father or to see him as nothing what more can u say about these she men. They will never be good for kids....

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  57. I have no desire to see the gay community denied the same rights afforded the rest of us. The fact is that many people find the lifestyle sinful. That's more than understandable in a people taught to believe that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality.

    I'm not into gay bashing or crimes based on sexual orientation or any kind of discrimination. But I hate the false equality on display.

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  58. Couldn't have put it better. Our treatment of minorities defines us. But a very small and sinful minority should also not define us. Tolerance and acceptance are different things entirely. I've buried a beloved brother who succumbed to AIDS. I think SCOTUS got the rulings right. But don't assume I should accept the behavior of a small minority just because I think it deserves tolerance in law.

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  59. Gregory + Trish= Cuckoo

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  60. Bernie, question. Gregory keeps claiming that at his contempt hearing, he will bring all kinds of stuff out about Stoffa, Callahan and who knows who. Yet won't the judge just tell him no, that unless he has something relevant to the case he can';[t just waste court time by ranting and raving about whatever he wants?

    This is a court of law and not an open forum. He thinks the judge is going to tolerate him talking about things that have no relevance to the case at hand.

    He is defending himself but he still has to obey the rules of the court.

    The latest nonsense he has poste don WEF is pure evil and trash. he will be lucky if the judge des not throw him in jail.

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  61. His various complaints about Stoffa and Callahan and God knows who else are totally irrelevant. What is relevant is that he is continuing to attempt communications to his ex via Facebook. That's contempt of the PFA. I have repeatedly told him, for his own sake, to knock it off. Yet he continues. Instead of listening to his lawyers, he has apparently fired them, is going in pro se, and is allow himself to be instigated by people like Tricia Mezzacappa and Maryann Schmoyer, who have their own agenda. To compound his problems, he insulted a judge elect, a sitting judge, a magistrate, a DA, a detective, Bethlehem police, the County Executive, the Mayor of Bethlehem and several Council candidates and a host of others.

    If his ex has printed these out and her attorney introduces those comments as evidence, he could spend July 4 in jail. In fact, some of his comments are tantamount to witness intimidation.

    Despite the threats he's directed at me, I really bear him no ill will. He is mentally ill, and needs help. I confess that I'm spending more time than I should with him for the same reason that I rubber neck at car accidents.

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  62. Just because I don't automatically vote for everything the Allentown Diocese wants Bethlehem City Council to do -- grant them exemptions from laws, demolish structures in historic districts-- doesn't make me anti-Catholic. Is a person bigoted because they disagree with a religious administration? Galileo and Salmund Rushdie might have some thoughts on that.

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  63. Karen, I do not consider you anti-Catholic and would vote for you if I lived in Bethlehem, but some of your statements about Bethlehem being a catholic town and suggesting some papist cabal, are insensitive at best. Maybe you should be a blogger!

    Tonight you will be visited by three Cardinals.

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  64. Perhaps it is the great blogger himself who is a tad too sensitive about his own religion? It isn't rude to use the word Catholic, to disagree politically with a Catholic person, or to vote against a bad or wrong idea, even if the idea is supported by a Catholic Diocese. I wasn't elected to a Catholic Council. I'm a Bethlehem Councilwoman, and I've disagreed with Moravians too!

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  65. "Perhaps it is the great blogger himself who is a tad too sensitive about his own religion?"

    Karen, I am a Druid. What's the dun of having a religion w/o a few human sacrifices?

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  66. It is improper to assume Donchez, Evans and DeGiacinto are homophobes just because they didn't attend the event. Perhaps like many of us, they simply don't condone or agree with marriage being defined as anything other than between and man and a woman.

    Reynolds,Dolan,Callahan et al are simply swallowed up in the politically correct world that has lost its way in America.

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  67. " Perhaps like many of us, they simply don't condone or agree with marriage being defined as anything other than between and man and a woman."

    ... or more likely, they weren't invited. Not pure enough for the LGBT crowd.

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