Quote:

Uschi said:
Quote:

r3x29yz4a said:
the gay marriage amendment is writing a ban on a right and a form of discrimination into the constitution. this pisses on the essence of the constitution's foundings.



pisses on the ESSENCE of the constitution's foundings

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es‧sence  /ˈɛsəns/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[es-uhns] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing or its significant individual feature or features: Freedom is the very essence of our democracy.
2. a substance obtained from a plant, drug, or the like, by distillation, infusion, etc., and containing its characteristic properties in concentrated form.
3. an alcoholic solution of an essential oil; spirit.
4. a perfume; scent.
5. Philosophy. the inward nature, true substance, or constitution of anything, as opposed to what is accidental, phenomenal, illusory, etc.
6. something that exists, esp. a spiritual or immaterial entity.
—Idioms
7. in essence, essentially; at bottom, often despite appearances: For all his bluster, he is in essence a shy person.
8. of the essence, absolutely essential; critical; crucial: In chess, cool nerves are of the essence.




i.e. understood as pissing on the base ideals contained in the [living] constitution, those facets which are immutable dispite the passage of time (and to be fair, these last two centuries have had a lot happen in the way of looking at things). pissing on the ESSENCE is not "pissing on the FF INTENT" as you seem to be reading.


jesus christ maybe i used the wrong word. the point is that constitutional ammendments are historically for adding rights. this is the first, to my knowledge, to specifically deny something to one group of people.
the constitution has the great mechanism of allowing for change, of adding rights that were not considered at the time of its writing. such as the rights of women and the ban on slavery.

Bow ties are coool.