Stewart asks Mike Huckabee all the right questions about gay marriage…
The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c
…but when is someone going to ask Huckabee about his weight? The man rose to national prominence for losing weight. But it sure looks like Mike has returned to digging his grave with a knife and a fork. Huckabee is the white, male, socially conservative Oprah.
Stick a fork in Huck–he’s done. Keep shovelling in those trans-fat calories, Mikey….
“Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality.” I want to Gay marry Jon Stewart.
“Unlike homosexuality, my weight isn’t choiceables.”
“semantics is cold comfort when it comes to humanity” 🙂 Oh Jon Stewart, you are fantastic
Mike Huckabee hates gays and Dan Savage hates fatties.
Some of us here don’t hate either.
I don’t hate fatties. I love fatties. I do think, though, that when someone uses weight loss to gain national attention, and then gains all the weight back… that you have a right to ask ’em about it. Obesity is a life-threatening, as Huckabee wrote in his book, and it’s a “lifestyle choice,” as Huckabee wrote in his book. So… fair game to ask him about it, I think.
When I watch this my blood pressure rises. And you’re right, Dan, dude’s put on some weight. I hope he finds the inner strength to change his lifestyle to a healthier one.
We will still be able to tell them apart. Oprah is the one who reads.
Opposing gay marriage IS homophobic! Of course it is!
I have such a HUGE boner for Jon Stewart right now.
Religion IS more of a lifestyle choice than homosexuality will ever be.
You mean like when a community pretends to be multicultural and inclusive, and then very publicly displays that they aren’t? Some tough questions there too, right Dan?
In other news, Larry Kramer discounts the notion that the marriage battle is in any way like ACT-UP or Stonewall:
The sudden burst of energy has drawn some comparisons to demonstrations during the early days of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. But Larry Kramer, the playwright and founder of ACT UP, which used confrontational tactics to fight for money for AIDS treatment and research, said advances in treating the disease had, somewhat incongruously, robbed the gay rights movement of broader political momentum.
“For activism to work, you have to be scared and you have to be angry,” Mr. Kramer said. “Nobody’s frightened anymore. The drugs have taken care of that.”
Back when Andrew Sullivan published “The End of AIDS”–for Europeans and Americans, anyhow–I wondered to myself exactly what common ground this multifarious group of people known as ‘gays’ stood upon. That’s when I realized it was marriage, and then they were done with liberalism.
The energy provided by that initial scare was the core of the gay movement. How deftly that communal feeling was diverted into the desire for normalcy, i.e. the associated upscale products that were now being marketed by gay mags. And now that all of the gay news is basically owned by the same people–think Seadicor, Dan–is it really a surprise that marriage is the number one thing on people’s minds?
That rising HIV rate amongst gay youth–remember Sullivan’s article, Dan? Remember how you regurgitated it for your readers, Dan? Just like you did with the Iraq War? Who is going to pay for all their meds, Dan? Will national health care create a moral hazard in this regard? I know you aren’t much of an ethicist (with the exception of obesity), but don’t you feel any sense of responsibility for this?
brilliant piece of work by Stewart – most cogent argument (dissertation even) to date on the same-sex marriage fiasco
I thought of you as I watched this last night – glad you picked it up and hope it made your day. Wouldn’t be surprised if Stewart was a fan of yours as well.
But, c’mon – weight drama aside – Huckabee is in no way a parallel to Oprah.
Keep the faith – we will get there soon! Even Huck was laughing it off as if – hey, I have to say this stuff…
@5: way to miss the entire point.
Jon Stewart completely owned that interview, and Huckabee knew it. Hence, the “I’m not a homophobe” red herring.
The Bible *doesn’t* say that marriage is between a man and a woman. Read it in Newsweek yesterday.
@14
A homophobe, to men like Huckabee, is someone who would beat up a guy for being gay. Not that–according to men like Huckabee–things like that ever happen.
Do you think that christian conservatives are happy with how Huckabee did? I mean, we watch that and obviously think that Huckabee had his ass handed to him by a calm and logical Jon Stewart.
But, do they watch it and think, “Good for Huckabee for sticking up for what he believes in! He was being attacked by the liberal media and he didn’t back down!” Even though, clearly, his argument holds absolutely no water.
I wonder….
Stewart is brilliant as usual. The only thing missing was pointing out to Huckabee that marriage in no way requires children–infertile people can get married, and of course atheists can get married, satan worshippers can get married, and, my favorite–transsexuals can get married (right?). Their arguments about keeping marriage for “one man and one woman” because of biology kind of falls apart when you look at one man and one FTM. If they don’t think people are born gay, they can’t possibly think people are born the “wrong” sex.
How does one officially and legally change one’s gender, anyway? Is there a physical exam? Maybe someone should look into that. Then one partner of a gay couple could just declare themselves to be the other sex, and they can go ahead and get married.
A little humanity here regarding the weight. When you lose a shitload of weight, your body still retains the fat cells. Only now they’re empty. This means that someone who goes about weight loss honestly – through diet and exercise, not surgery – has to fight to maintain the lower weight in a way that you folks can’t possibly understand. Those fat cells want their fat back.
The least bit of stress – like, say, running for president – can trigger someone to fall off the wagon a bit and then POW! The weight is back.
I lost 90 pounds in my mid-twenties and kept it off for eight years. But lifestress caught up with me in my early thirties and all of sudden, where most girls would gain ten or fifteen pounds of stress weight, I gained 80. And yeah, I know some troll is gonna say, “Just eat less you fucking cow.” YOU eat fewer than 1200 calories day in and day out for years on end, motherfucker, and then talk to me about your quality of life.
If you haven’t lived through this, you have no fucking idea what a battle it is. Not even Mike Huckabee knew when he wrote his book that he’d very likely gain it back. Because he wrote about it so publicly and because he used it to political advantage, you’re right, Dan, that it’s fair game to ask about. But a little perspective on the issue would be nice.
Love for John Stewart. Blow Huckabee off his talking points. He tries to end the discussion of gay marriage many times, but Stewart keeps on hammering home.
I am now totally in love with Jon Stewart. Can I straight-marry him? Or at least invite him over for a dinner party?
@16. That’s a great point. People like him take homophobia to mean “people who hate gays”. Whereas, we see a much less strict definition — “people who think gays deserve to be treated differently from straights”, maybe.
This difference in opinion is the source of all those people who say things like “I’m not a homophobe, I love gays! Some of my best friends are gays! But, I just don’t think they should marry…”
@18
That’s where the Mormons were more ‘biblical’ in their view of marriage. Originally, a barren woman was considered to be defective; the man was obliged to seek fertility elsewhere, as Abram did with Hagar, his slave. I mean his *other* slave.
As regards gender-bending, the Old Testament is pretty explicit about its “honor code”–even transvestitism is punishable by death.
Julie @ #22… He’s not a homophobe, he’s a bigot.
Glad this is not our first family:
http://wonkette.com/assets/resources/200…
Hmmm…believing that gay marriage is wrong does not make you a homophobe.
Excellent! By that logic, believing that religion is a dangerous and irresponsible lifestyle choice and that religions should have NO special privileges does not make me anti-religious.
Can we get “In God we trust” off our money now?
I think Stewart would have asked him about the weight if he needed to deflate Huck, but he held Huck in the palm of his hand, on a perfectly controlled platform with total control of time allowed, and Huck clearly respected that power enough to not be too evasive. If he was instead with some wannabe pundit king instead of the actual pundit king, the wannabe would have had to go with the weight question. Stewart’s so on his game now there was no need at all.
if i believe that marriage is wrong, period, for everyone, anywhere, anytime, does that make me a homophobe?
@25. Photo caption: Huckabee family learns that vertical stripes are not always slimming.
@19. I WAS fat until I lost 80 pounds almost 15 years ago. And I’ve managed to keep it off through good food choices and exercise.
Blessings.
So, we need to save marriage because:
1. It will redefine a word
2. Gays can’t fuck and make babies
So,
1. Who gives a fuck, “gay” and “queer” used to mean “happy” and “strange”
2. We’re not exactly running short on children in this country
Jon Stewart is simply one of the best people on TV. I wish I could give him a hug.
i think most conservatives wouldn’t be able to follow stewarts logic, it’s a bit complex for them, encompassing a broad historical context, scientific understanding, and real world experience. thus i fear that any ‘social conservatives’ watching this thought huckabee did great and stewart is a bully. particularly given that conservative types aren’t bound by logic to begin with.
that being said, this was extremely satisfying to watch, it’s everything i’ve always wanted to ask a figure like huckabee, but done in a coherent, non swearword laced way.
Of course! Since Christians can’t burn people at the stake anymore, the gays don’t get to marry. Makes perfect sense! I can’t believe I was so misguided, thoughtlessly hoping to undo whole social structures!
I’m amazed at Stewart’s self control.
I know it’s not very progressive of me, but by about the third question I’m so enraged I want to choke Huckster with my bare hands.
How Stewart can maintain complete calm and a sense of humor throughout the whole interview boggles my mind.
I would really like to add Mike Huckabee that if we allow religious freaks to burn someone at the stake, can I get married?
I wonder if Jon Stewart still honestly believes that thing he’s always telling people about how he’s not a journalist. I can see a lot of reasons to keep saying it — he couldn’t do an interview like this if he was explicitly holding himself out as someone who defines “truth” for the American media consumer. But I think even he has to be admitting by now that he’s one of the most important journalistic voices in the country.
Unlike sexual preference, a person’s weight is a private matter.
@38
Awesome
GAH! I don’t understand. This isn’t really that complicated. Religious groups don’t want to marry homosexuals – fine. They feel that government recognition of homosexual marriage will eventually lead to forcing them to marry homosexuals – dubious, but ok.
The solution is simple – government no longer recognizes marriage of anyone, and everyone currently on the books as “married” is reclassed into a civil union. You can go to your church and get married — or not — and the government doesn’t care. You can apply for a civil union with the government regardless of your religion-sanctioned marriage. The government does a search-and-replace on all it’s laws & documents for marriage to civil union. Civil Union certificate. Civilly Unionized Filing Separately. You have separation of Church and State, the Christians can continue to deny Marriage to homosexuals, the Good Earth Church can grant Marriage to homosexuals, and everyone gets equal protection and status under the law. finis.
what 40 said.
Watched this last night as well. Huckabee was tying himself up in knots, and Stewart just kept feeding him more string. Social conservatives are cognitively impaired, unable to grasp that homosexuality is not a lifestyle choice.
@19 – lived it right along with ya’. Lost 75 lbs in my late 20s, kept if off for 5 years. In spite of diet, climbing mountains, skiing, bike commuting, etc, etc, I gained all the weight back. For several years now, my weight has remained stable.
@30 – Happy for you. You are among the 10 percent who keep it off. Then there’s the remaining 90 percent of us…
@15 Precisely.
Stewart did a great job, but just once I wanna hear an interviewer challenge REVEREND Huckabee to cite and quote the exact Bible scriptures that sanctify marriage as “one man and one woman,” to explain the verses that okay polygamy and why it shouldn’t be okay–Hey, it’s right there in the Bible! (and Stewart needed to cite chapter and verse on those) and then answer about the nearby quotes that okay slavery, etc.
Stewart for Grand Marshall of NYC Gay Pride 09.
Um, why do you feel it necessary to use fatphobic ad hominem remarks to bring this guy down a peg? He’s an ass and a bigot, and I don’t see what his weight has to do with it. I think if you look around the blogosphere, you will find that the same people fighting against fatphobia are also majorly pro-gay rights and anti-homophobia. Perhaps you could return the favor a little. And please read up a bit on the Health At Every Size movement – weight gain does not automatically equal “digging his grave with a knife and fork.”
Your intolerance really surprises me, since you are usually such a fantastic promoter of tolerance and understanding. Keep up the good work, but please give a little more thought to the way you speak about weight.
@44. Huckabee’s book was called “Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork”. That’s what Dan is referring to.
Honestly, when I watched this last night, the first thing I thought when I saw him was, wow, Huckabee has gained a lot of weight. So, I don’t think Dan is being particularly intolerant by pointing that out.
According to Webster’s:
marriage |ˈmarij|
noun
1 the formal union of a man and a woman, typically recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife.
• a similar long-term relationship between partners of the same sex.
• a relationship between married people or the period for which it lasts : a happy marriage | the children from his first marriage.
• figurative a combination or mixture of two or more elements : a marriage of jazz, pop, blues, and gospel.
2 (in pinochle and other card games) a combination of a king and queen of the same suit.
Like the Bible, Christians like to pick and choose the parts of a book they agree with and ignore the parts they don’t.
@8 FTW
And I love Jon Stewart so, so hard.
Julie @22: Do you think that christian conservatives are happy with how Huckabee did? I mean, we watch that and obviously think that Huckabee had his ass handed to him by a calm and logical Jon Stewart.
But, do they watch it and think, “Good for Huckabee for sticking up for what he believes in! He was being attacked by the liberal media and he didn’t back down!” Even though, clearly, his argument holds absolutely no water.
I think you’re right Julie. Despite what we think of Huckabee, he scored major points in this appearance.
1. He got Jon to agree that you can be against gay marriage and not be a homophobe. That’s great for his base and for those people on the fence.
2. He got to say that despite the evolution of marriage from polygamy to property to loving union between two people, marriage is for biological reproduction and civil reproduction, for reproducing ourselves in society. In doing so, he got to say that gay couples shouldn’t be allowed to marry because they can’t serve the main purpose of the act and—more subversively—that they shouldn’t be allowed to marry so they can’t reproduce themselves socially. That’ll play well with his base. Jon didn’t correct or address either interpretations.
3. He got to frame the debate in religious terms instead of secular terms of human rights and equality. On this, Jon was at his best, but he let Huckabee score points by discussing this in terms of religion. Religion was a major factor in determining whether someone favored Proposition 8. He got to say that those people were right to consult their bibles in determining how they should approach this issue.
4. Finally, he got to say that majority rules in this case, going on about how electoral results and the will of the people justified denying gay couples their rights. Jon did say jokingly that you can’t trust the voters. What should have been asserted but wasn’t is that in our society there are rights that no majority can vote away (“Majority rule/minority rights”). Huckabee got to say that there aren’t.
That doesn’t matter to those of us that support gay marriage, but I think all of those points matter to the anti-gay marriage people and some religious people on the fence.
They may be “cognitively impaired,” but conservative operatives are politically astute. They know how to get their message out there, and to speak to their base.
I think they are very happy with Huckabee right now.
I’m totally gay for Jon now. Saying that the greatest travesty is that a segment of the population has to “make the case” for civil rights. WOW. Way to own the debate.
@44: Julie from Chicago’s response to you is fantastic. I’d also add that gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins and so a fat preacher man, using the Bible to justify his bigotry, should expect those of us he’s harming to hold a mirror up to his hypocrisy.
Dan makes an excellent case for this in his chapter on gluttony in Skipping Towards Gomorrah. It’s not like he is always saying, “Look! Look at the fat people!” in his posts. But a fat guy ranting about the “sin” of homosexuality is fair game.
@49: I guess I can say I’m straight for Jon. hee!