Smoking Makes You Straight And Therefore Honorable, Say Maine Haters
As LGBT activists lay the groundwork to pass a same-sex marriage initiative in Maine for this November, opponents have launched a new website that offers ill-planned juxtapositions of the "gay blue state 'lifestyle'" with "red and straight state 'America'."
Jeremy Hooper at Good.As.You and I had the same question: why is smoking cigarettes "straight," "manly" or something to celebrate?
I'm not sure, but I don't think the point is that "smoking makes you manly, and therefore straight," but rather "Being a soldier is manly & therefore straight, as opposed to these colorful queers who are effeminate & bad."
Posted by: Will | May 16, 2012 4:49:27 PM
Been smoking for years and I ain't str8 yet. Someone's research is flawed.
Posted by: jim | May 16, 2012 5:42:34 PM
"I'm not sure, but I don't think the point is that "smoking makes you manly, and therefore straight,"
To be fair, Miller was dubbed 'Marlboro Man' by the media.
Posted by: Nat | May 16, 2012 6:21:03 PM
Who says you need to be a republican to join the military? Do these people think there are no liberal soldiers?
Anyway, erase the obvious hate behind this, and you have a brave soldier fighting for our right to be gay and free :)
Posted by: Lucas | May 16, 2012 6:21:55 PM
So a gay soldier smoking a cigarette somehow represents a red state? Huh?
Posted by: Tre | May 16, 2012 7:27:14 PM
I was once told (by a redneck cop) that I was gay because I drink red wine instead of beer. When I told him I didn't drink at all that just made it worse. Some stereotypes are so ingrained it will take generations to change them.
My chemistry professor tells me that beer is full of estrogen, so go figure.
Posted by: Stevo | May 16, 2012 7:41:36 PM
The website consists of those two pictures and the link to donate...and what exactly would I be donating to? And the pictures, as a representation of a "Gay Marriage House of Horrors" makes absolutely no sense. The site and the concept is stupid, which also describes Mike Heath, IMHO.
Posted by: Dev | May 16, 2012 8:05:26 PM
Oh,calm down ratbastard. Atomic wasn't insulting him, he was saying he woulnt want to be in his shoes.
Posted by: Guy78 | May 16, 2012 9:07:25 PM
Smoking makes a number of psychological problems worse, including PTSD.
Posted by: anon | May 16, 2012 9:14:24 PM
@anon,
Smoking actually HELPS anxious people be calm and relax. Nicotine has many benefits,unfortunately it's being demonized by people with an agenda.
Posted by: ratbastard | May 16, 2012 10:21:06 PM
A soldier is trained to kill. That is an objective fact. You want to exalt their service by couching it in the language of patriotism and defense of liberty, but it doesn't change the fact that they are trained to follow orders and kill those who are deemed a threat. The best way to respect what they do is to not have them need to do it in the first place.
So, to call him a "killer"--whoever he is or whatever he is intended to portray--is not any more misleading than to call a man in a frock and makeup a drag queen. That's what you see in the image. The image shows a man who is dirty, with a cigarette in his mouth, and likely stressed out and war-torn. That's not a judgment on who he is as a person. But *look* at the picture and ask yourself whose shoes you'd rather be in.
Finally, I do not buy the premise that one must be willing to wage war to defend one's liberty. That kind of thinking is exactly why humanity has wars to begin with. You don't think that even Taliban soldiers fervently believe with every fiber of their being that they are fighting for a just cause and the defense of their way of life? It's that willingness to kill others who you deem a threat that creates this endless cycle of bloodshed. Say what you want about defending "American" values. I say that human values are far more important.
Posted by: atomic | May 16, 2012 10:39:17 PM
It's a classic masculine vs. feminine issue. Men must be men, only women (and effeminate men) waste their life on celebrating life and love. Proper men go to war.
Or something.
Posted by: Tanoka | May 16, 2012 10:39:59 PM
Ratbastard wrote: "Smoking actually HELPS anxious people be calm and relax. Nicotine has many benefits,unfortunately it's being demonized by people with an agenda."
Now your trolling is just too obvious. You might as well say the same thing about heroin--yes, why not smoke those opium poppies the Taliban is growing for all the American addicts? It's relaxing and calming too, and far more effective than nicotine!
No, your ignorance of the basic pathology of addiction is revealed with your idiotic and bumbling defense of cigarette smoking. Nicotine addicts are not calmed or relaxed by smoking; rather, it is nicotine WITHDRAWAL that makes them anxious, edgy, and irritable, and they become NORMAL when they get their fix. That's why it's called ADDICTION, stupid. You'll say and do anything to justify it and excuse your dependence on it.
Smoking does not help PTSD, because it rapidly becomes a psychological and physiological crutch whose usage pattern creates greater psychological and behavioral instability, just as alcohol abuse does. And I don't even need to mention the greatly increased risk of lung cancer, emphysema, COPD, etc.
You are a total f**king idiot who knows nothing about science and it's utterly laughable that you think you have any knowledge at all.
Posted by: atomic | May 16, 2012 10:50:39 PM
Ratbastard is the same person who said we were likely going to call the guy white trash...based on what?
Posted by: JACK | May 16, 2012 11:00:35 PM
jamie, i heard the same, 25% of straight men smoke, 50% of gay men smoke, so odds are...
Posted by: northalabama | May 17, 2012 12:09:24 AM
If one takes into account British slang you could ask, How does a man smoking a fag make him straight? The term "Pirate smoker" is my favorite.
Posted by: Dearcomrade | May 17, 2012 12:20:38 AM
Smokey soldier is actually kind of sexy. If you've ever smoked it has nothing to do with the look, it's purely addictive. The chemical reaction. It's addictive. You know. Like blowing the straight next door neighbor.
Posted by: Jason | May 17, 2012 1:13:18 AM
Whether it's smoking cigarettes or something else, an oral fixation is still an oral fixation. Too bad you can't put a condom on a cigarette.
Posted by: ophu | May 17, 2012 1:32:12 AM
Um, lord help me, but nicotine does have positive attributes. It's the delivery system, via smoking, that is most problematic with regards to health problems. Then add to that the addiction factor re: Nicotinic receptors in the brain. So something that can aid in concentration and in other ways be beneficial can also adversely affect health through associations with carcinogens via the delivery system and its addictive features, which encourage exposure to carcinogens
Posted by: TJ | May 17, 2012 2:11:12 AM
For what it's worth, I smoke like a chimney and I'm gay as a goose.
Posted by: Mark | May 17, 2012 2:23:17 AM
Mark your statement is disgusting. Geese should be allowed to come out of the closet at the time of their choosing, not be unceremoniously shoved out for the sake of political gain.
Posted by: Winston | May 17, 2012 4:11:49 AM
If you look at a red state, blue state map (Google it) the irony is that the red states are poor and rural. They could not fund a war or wage one on their own. Someone else has to fight their battles for them and pay for them.
I bet that the red states are the ones that get more federal money than they pay in taxes, and yet they vote against their own interests which shows that they are also the states lacking in brain power.
Posted by: think about it | May 17, 2012 6:04:14 AM
The proponents of the ballot initiative should have a picture of a cancerous lung and have under it: ANY QUESTIONS?
Posted by: Terry | May 17, 2012 2:46:55 PM
just did some research on him and he's separated from his wife due to PTSD. I wonder if they know that about their poster man for marriage
Posted by: Terry | May 17, 2012 2:57:49 PM
See the interview with the marine (who is NOT amused about this image, btw) at the San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/29/MNGMHGVCEV1.DTL&ao=all
Posted by: mataliandy | May 17, 2012 7:56:55 PM