Beauty and the Blogger

I'm sure many of you are familiar with what took place in the recent Miss USA contest, where Miss California (Carrie Prejean) was asked her opinion of same sex marriages. This question was asked by infamously gay blogger, Perez Hilton. Miss Prejean responded to the question in an articulate, professional manner, looking into the eyes of the judges, the host and the sudience. She held her head high, shoulders back and did not appear to stumble verbally while answering the question. As a former Chapter Vice President of Toastmasters, Inc., these are the public speaking values that are sought after, and from my uderstanding, these are the charateristics and qualities sought in this portion of the competition. The SUBSTANCE of her answer is not only secondary, it shouldn't be considered AT ALL! This purpose of this portion of the competition is to judge how a contestant might handle themselves in a myriad of interview situations, most of which are "on the fly" questions, where she would be expected to handle clearly and concisely. Now, she has been victimized by the fallout of her response, and this is wrong on so many levels.First of all, this subject is a divisive subject within today's American culture. As a Republican Conservative, I am more in line with the Guiliani view of this subject. I have gay family members. I have many gay friends. I have been divorced. I believe they (gay and lesbians) are entitled to the same unhappiness that heteros enjoy everyday in THEIR marriages. I think it's CRIMINAL that those involved in a committed same-sex relationship do not have the same rights as married couples, such as visitation in ICU, tax breaks and many other issues. I do not subscribe necessarily to EVERYTHING written in the Bible- but I UNDERSTAND those who do. I do not HATE them for this viewpoint. All of the polls suggest that this is a divided issue, but a lsight majority believe what Miss Prejean stated- that she supports recognizing marriage ONLY between a man and a woman. this viewpoint was UPHELD here in California- the most liberal state in the USA, so clearly, she's with the majority. To soften her opinion even more, she apologized in advance to all those who believe differently, even though the audience erupted in applause.This, however, didn't sit well with "Mr." Hilton. Now, I've often read Perez' blogs, and I find it hilarious at times. Sometimes, he is insensitive, to say the least. because Miss Prejean's opinion on same sex marriages differs from his (apparently 180 degress different), he not only saw it fit to give her ZERO points out of a possible 100 points for the Q&A portion of the contest (yeah, I didn't think it affected the final outcome...), but he felt it necessary to go on his video blog and call Miss Prejean "a stupid bitch" and " a stupid (c-word)". Now, that's tolerance, isn't it? In a competition that is largely pomp and circumstance to have been reduced to such degradation is inexcusable. This situation is larger than Perez Hilton or same sex marriage. I thin it can be easily reduced to this common denominator. If you are liberal, and now that you are feeling superior with having a liberal government behind you, you feel that you have the power, the right and the authority to personally attack those who think differently as you. I believe that Conservatives often debate issues using facts, substance and examples/statistics, while Liberals resort to personal hits when they cannot win a debate intellectually. I truly believe this to be the most basic- and major-differences between the two parties and viewpoints. As long as fools like Perez Hilton, jeneanne Garafalo, Al Franken and Sean Penn continue to be the flag carriers for the left, this chasm of difference will only continue to grow.