tagged w/ Proposition 8
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Santorum uses the recent 9th Circuit Court’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional because the referendum’s only practical effect was to “single out a certain class of citizens for disfavored legal status.” But Santorum said that the court found that “the only reason you could possibly have to believe marriage should only be between men and women is because you are a bigot and you are a hater.” And we all know that Santorum doesn’t really hate gays or women. He’s just confused by our evil and godless behavior...
http://veracitystew.com/?p=30827Santorum uses the recent 9th Circuit Court’s ruling that Proposition 8 is... more
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A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, clearing the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on gay marriage as early as next year.A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down California’s ban on same-sex... more
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CNN...
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February 5th, 2012
05:33 PM ET
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Crossing the plains and kicking up dirt, a new Mormon pioneer
PART ONE…
By Jessica Ravitz, CNN
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San Diego (CNN) – At a 1950s-style house nestled in a peaceful neighborhood nicknamed “Hanukkah Hill,” a smiling Buddha on the porch greets visitors – his arms raised as if to say all are welcome.
Affixed to the doorpost is a mezuzah, a decorative case holding blessings for a Jewish home. Inside, on the family’s refrigerator, hangs a magnet from the Feminist Mormon Housewives blog that says, “Jesus loves us. Who cares what you think?”
In the kitchen stands Joanna Brooks, an accidental, unofficial and admittedly unauthorized source for all things Mormon. She’s making “funeral potatoes,” a classic Mormon casserole, and heaped on the counter are the ingredients: a not-so-healthy dose of cheese, butter, sour cream, hash browns and chicken soup. Her Jewish husband strolls by, takes a look at what’s cooking, and grimaces. Bespectacled and freckled 6-year-old Rosa, standing atop a chair, proudly announces, “I’m Jewish and Mormon!”
The home and life Brooks has created is the product of a complicated journey.
She cannot separate The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from her identity any more than she can leave cheese out of funeral potatoes. But like her persecuted ancestors who braved the unforgiving plains to reach the promised land of what is now Utah, Brooks, 40, fights for her faith.
The battle has, at times, left her feeling beaten.
As a young feminist activist, she saw her beloved church excommunicate her intellectual heroes. She’s felt outrage and soul-crushing grief while watching her church mobilize against same-sex marriages. For about 10 years, she walked away.
But today a vintage postcard of a Mormon missionary boarding a plane sits on her desk to inspire. It reads, in part, “Dare to be different.”
She believes there’s room in the LDS Church for loving criticism and candid talk, that Latter-day Saints like her can not just belong but also serve – without fear of being cast out into the wilderness.
She’s staking her claim to Mormonism, writing about it for Religion Dispatches, debunking myths in national papers, speaking up on podcasts, radio shows and from stages, and offering advice in her column and blog, Ask Mormon Girl. She recently self-published her memoir, “The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith” and writes regularly for Feminist Mormon Housewives. Politico has named her, or specifically her Twitter account, one of the “50 Politicos to Watch.” All this while being an award-winning scholar, a published poet and, oh yeah, a department chair and professor of English and comparative literature at San Diego State University.
[Click the audio player for a Q&A with Joanna Brooks from CNN Radio's John Lisk ]
Amid Mitt Romney’s presidential bid, the “I’m a Mormon” ad campaign and the smash-hit Broadway musical “Book of Mormon,” this Obama supporter has emerged as a refreshing voice for media, hungry for frank discussion about her faith.
Her goal? To be her authentic self and humanize a tradition and people she couldn't love more.
“I just refuse to be ashamed of being Mormon,” she says. “Don’t talk about us like we’re not in the room.”
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CONTINUED…
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February 5th, 2012
05:33 PM ET
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Crossing the plains and... more
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Rev. Tom Daniels is pastor of the Rio Linda Baptist Church, a fundamentalist church in northern California. He was also an activist who urged the passage of Proposition 8, to ban gay couples from being allowed to marry one another. Somehow preventing gay people from marrying is supposed to protect children, from something.... what is never quite made clear to me.
Rev. Daniels in in jail and charged with lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 as well three or more acts of sexual conduct with a child. But, the good news, Rev. Daniels isn't gay so the kid was protected! The molestations supposedly took place between 2004 and 2007. Originally Daniels was investigated in 2008 for molestation charges but police said they couldn't find enough evidence. A second child has since come forward with similar accusations and the two together apparently were sufficient to file charges this time.
Wasn't denying gays people from marrying supposed to magically stop children from being molested?
It hasn't been a good week for Religious Right types and their sexual hypocrisy.
If we go to the hotbed of Right-wing Republicanism, Maricopa County, Arizona another scandal is brewing. Fulton Brock is a far Right Republican Mormon. He is a member of the County Board of Supervisors.
In the last few days his wife, Susan, was arrested(http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/2010/10/27/20101027susan-brock-arrest-sex-case-brk1027.html). Apparently Susan meet a member of her church and decided to seduce him. The problem was that this young Mormon was 14 years old at the time. For the last three years Susan has been engaging in sexual activities with the boy, though not full-on intercourse. In Bill Clinton lingo, it all depends on what sex means and this ins't sex, since it apparently was only blow jobs and masturbation.
Now, I am not one who thinks teenagers are children. But Republicans do, and Republicans support these laws, so the point about moral hypocrisy stands.
Brock, who has served as chairman of the board of supervisors three times, called on the public to pray for his family, of course. Apparently those prayers feel on deaf ears, if anything they made matters worse. A few days later Brock's daughter was also arrested for having several sexual encounters with the same boy. Arizona, being a conservative Republican state, has an absurdly high age of consent, well above the national average of 16. It is 18 in Arizona and the teen in question is now just 17.
It seems a bit kinky that both mother and daughter were fighting for the carnal pleasures of the same teenage boy. Admittedly, alleged photos of the "victim" indicate he is a piece of eye candy (see photo above, allegedly of the boy, photo by Rachel Brock). And I guess these Mormon Republicans couldn't resist but to lick the lollypop. Daughter Rachel, was charged with sexual conduct with a minor as well as furnishing him with obscene material. I can assure you it wasn't a photo of Mormons in their sexy (sic) magic underwear. Apparently she started first with the boy since the charges say he was 13 when she went after him. She also sent a video of herself masturbating to the boy's cell phone.
Of course, Mormons publicize themselves as advocate of family cohesion, and talk about the importance of family during times of trauma and difficulty. So how is this Mormon handling the situation. I'm sure that Fulton Brock will be there at his wife's side, condemning the sin but loving the sinner, forgiving her and working to heal their relationship. Oops! That doesn't seem to be the case. Almost as soon as the charges were filed, he was doing a little filing of his own, filing for divorce.
Supervisor Brock told the waiting press: "I have filed to divorce my wife. I cannot divorce my daughter." Wow! Please note that there has been no conviction for anything, not yet anyway. I would think that people who bashed gays so heavily on Proposition 8, in the name of family cohesion, would at least wait until there was a conviction before thrown the wife and daughter under the bus.
Apparently Susan Brock had access to the boy's on-line email account. To avoid them sending messages to each other she would go into his account and type a draft message to him. He would then type a draft message to her. They were never sent so the emails never showed up in an in-box or out-box, where they might easily be noticed. Mrs. Brock realized that these draft messages might be considered evidence.
So she had some help from another conservative Republican activist, named Christian Weems. Mrs. Weems is also a member of the same Mormon church as Susan Brock. Weems came to Brock, in jail, and started hinting that if Brock gave her the password she could delete the messages.
Weems kept asking Brock for the "password" for a gate to a beach house. At first Brock was clueless (it comes with the territory). Brock said, "I don't remember a beach house, what are you talking about?" When Weems started suggesting passwords Brock figure it out and supplied her the password to the boy's account. Weems intended to go to the account and remove the evidence on behalf of her friend, but she was arrested before she could do that.
This implies that Weems was fully aware that Mrs. Brock was licking her eye-candy. Certainly she knew about the message system that Brock and the boy had set up. So it would appear she was aware of the relationship since Brock was then in prison and couldn't inform her after the fact. That Weems came to Brock to try to help her clearly indicates prior knowledge on her part. Newspapers report that numerous "high ranking" members of the Mormon Church will be called as witnesses.
Rahcel Brock published photos of the alleged boy on her website with comments that described him as "AWESOME!!!" wishing that "his awesomeness would rub off onto me," apparently something was rubbed off, just not the awesomeness. She said he knows how to "strut" his "studly stuff."
So, the coalition that passed Prop 8 were Catholics, Baptists and Mormons. And they were going to protect kids from married gays. Exactly who is protecting the kids from priests, Baptist preachers, and Mormon housewives? I'm waiting for Joe Arpaio to hold a press conference and tie the whole thing to undocumented Mexicans.Rev. Tom Daniels is pastor of the Rio Linda Baptist Church, a fundamentalist church in... more
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I just received a text message:
"From AFER: 9th Circuit just announced oral arguments for Prop 8 appeal will be on Dec. 6 @ 10am in San Francisco. Text EQUAL to 25383 to donate $10 and support the fight!"
So I did a one-second Google search, and came up with this article, from the San Francisco Examiner........
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http://www.examiner.com/sf-in-san-francisco/breaking-news-oral-arguments-for-prop-8-appeal-set-for-dec-6-san-francisco
Breaking News: Oral arguments for Prop 8 appeal set for Dec 6 in San Francisco
* October 21st, 2010 12:45 pm PT
The 9th Circuit just announced that oral arguments for the Proposition 8 appeal will be on Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. in San Francisco. Attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies submitted their response brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this week. If you haven’t read it yet, check out this amazing conclusion written by Olsen:
"Last month, in a widely publicized tragedy, a young Rutgers student jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after being outed on the Internet as gay. A few days later, across the Hudson River in the Bronx, two 17-year-old young men were beaten and tortured to the brink of death by a gang of nine because they were suspected of being gay. Incidents such as these are all too familiar to our society. And it is too plain for argument that discrimination written into our constitutional charters inexorably leads to shame, humiliation, ostracism, fear, and hostility. The consequences are all too often very, very tragic.
Proposition 8 was promoted as necessary to protect marriage and children, but its unmistakable purpose and effect is to isolate gay men and lesbians and their relationships as separate, unusual, dangerous, and unworthy of the marital relationship. By definition, such a law stigmatizes gay men and lesbians, and that kind of stigmatization leads, often indirectly, but certainly inevitably, to isolation and estrangement.
What can the Supreme Court mean when it says that our Constitution “neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,” if a majority can so stigmatize a small, visible, and vulnerable minority and in the process cause such wrenching anguish? The American promise—and dream—of equality surely means at a minimum that the government, before “drawing a line around” some segment of its citizenry and designating them unworthy of something as important and socially meaningful as the institution of marriage, must have a legitimate and factually tenable rationale for doing so. Proposition 8 fails even this most basic level of scrutiny. It advances no legitimate purpose."
Photo: David Boies (right) speaking with Ted Olsen (left)
Photo: American Foundation for Equal RightsI just received a text message:
"From AFER: 9th Circuit just announced oral... more
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Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox review a selection of summer documentaries, including "Restrepo," "Winnebago Man," and "8: The Mormon Proposition," in which director and writer Reed Cowan investigates the Mormon Church's extensive campaign against gay rights and the passage of California's Proposition 8.
The Rotten Tomatoes Show is a movie review show that airs on Thursday nights at 10:30 e/p on Current TV. From reviews of the newest releases to commentary on cult favorites and movie trends, each episode of The Rotten Tomatoes Show is a fast-paced, comedic journey through the week in cinema.
For more from the Rotten Tomatoes Show: http://rottentomatoesshow.comBrett Erlich and Ellen Fox review a selection of summer documentaries, including... more
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When California's anti-gay Proposition 8 was declared unconstitutional, LA gays headed to West Hollywood to celebrate. infoMania's Bryan Safi went with a slightly different goal: to try to land a husband.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Erin Gibson, Ben Hoffman, Bryan Safi and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10/9c on Current TV.
Go to http://current.com/infomania for more, and make sure to check out our Facebook profile for special features at http://facebook.com/infomania.When California's anti-gay Proposition 8 was declared unconstitutional, LA gays... more
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MizPiz
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1 year ago
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I’m not political.
I can’t cite court cases; I can’t argue about the judicial system or discuss the left and right. (I couldn’t even tie my shoes until I was 9. I was lucky to know my right foot from my left.)
But I can tell you what the Proposition 8 ruling means to me. It may not sound fancy, it may not hold up in court, but it’ll be honest.
It means that I have hope.
I’m a cynic on the surface, a softie beneath. My initial reaction was one of joy — if it could happen there, if some judge in California could rule that denying someone like me the right to marry was unconstitutional, it could happen here. But not long after, I was over it. The joy left, the cynicism crept in, and I started complaining that I still couldn’t get married — no matter what happened in California.
I decided to post a Top 8 list. The Top 8 things the Proposition 8 ruling was like. It included things like being in love on the Titanic — you’re in love, but you’re still not on a lifeboat like that snooty rich lady over there. It included things like Ariel, The Little Mermaid, having a statue of Eric but being stuck with fins while everyone else had legs. It even included my roommate deciding to get rid of the less hairy of her two cats to ease my allergies.
But in the end, I wasn’t happy with it. I wasn’t happy with not being happy. I couldn’t throw up my defensive, I-still-can’t-get-married walls. Because somewhere on the west coast, some gay man who fell in love and wed while it was legal in good ol’ CA was allowed to do so. He believed, as much as I believe, that every time he crawled into bed with the man of his dreams, he was lucky. That he’d found the man he wanted to love for as long as he could, that he wanted to sleep next to, wake up beside, and grow gray with. (Incidentally, sideburns, I’m watching you. I still remember the stunt you pulled last week — and so do my tweezers.)
READ THE REST AT: http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2010/08/06/a-gay-in-the-life-how-a-proposition-ate-my-cynicism/I’m not political.
I can’t cite court cases; I can’t argue about... more
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In this extended version of our show segment, InfoMania's resident gay expert Bryan Safi hits the Prop 8 rally in West Hollywood to see what the anti-gay measure being overturned means for the future of gay marriage. Bryan gets caught up in the excitement and proposes, nearly accepts a proposal and then puts his boyfriend on the spot about their future plans to wed.
Watch more Bryan on infoMania every Thursday at 10/9c on Current TV.
infoMania is a half-hour satirical news show that airs on Current TV. The show puts a comedic spin on the 24-hour chaos and information overload brought about by the constant bombardment of the media. Hosted by Conor Knighton and co-starring Brett Erlich, Erin Gibson, Ben Hoffman, Bryan Safi and Sergio Cilli, the show airs on Thursdays at 10/9c on Current TV.In this extended version of our show segment, InfoMania's resident gay expert... more
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A federal judge in San Francisco struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage on Wednesday, stating that it discriminates against gay men and women. The ruling hands supporters of gay marriage at least a temporary victory in a legal battle that seems all but certain to be settled by the Supreme Court.
Wednesday’s decision is just the latest chapter in what has been a long battle over the ban, Proposition 8, which was passed in 2008. But on Wednesday, the ruling provided fresh new winds behind those who feel that marriage is not, as the voters of California and many other states have claimed, solely the province of a man and a woman.
“Proposition 8 cannot withstand any level of scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause,” wrote Judge Vaughn R. Walker. “Excluding same-sex couples from marriage is simply not rationally related to a legitimate state interest.” The very existence of a federal court ruling recognizing same-sex marriage in California, the nation’s most populous state, set off cheers of “We won!” from the large crowds gathered in front of the courthouse in San Francisco. Evening rallies and celebrations were planned in dozens of cities across the state and several across the nation.
This piece includes a number of colorful photographs and four videos, including a music video.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/federal-judge-strikes-down-californias-proposition-8-ruling-recognizes-gay-marriage/A federal judge in San Francisco struck down California’s ban on same-sex... more
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1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control are not natural.
2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people cannot get legally married because the world needs more children.
3. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children because straight parents only raise straight children.
4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful, since Britney Spears’s 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.
5. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and it hasn’t changed at all: women are property, Blacks can’t marry Whites, and divorce is illegal.
6. Gay marriage should be decided by the people, not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of minorities.
7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are always imposed on the entire country. That’s why we only have one religion in America.
8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people makes you tall.
9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage license.
10. Children can never succeed without both male and female role models at home. That’s why single parents are forbidden to raise children.
11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven’t adapted to cars or longer lifespans.
12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “separate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages will for gays & lesbians.
12 reasons via GGSA @ UF
http://www.tabloidprodigy.com/?p=177801. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control... more
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CONCLUSION
Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis,the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.CONCLUSION
Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay... more
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L.A. NOW
Southern California -- this just in
Federal judge to rule on whether gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry [Updated]
August 3, 2010 | 5:03 pm
Protesters marched into the early morning in Los Angeles yesterday, expressing their anger against the passage of Proposition 8.
A federal judge in San Francisco will decide Wednesday whether gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry.
U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who presided over a trial earlier this year on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, will release his long-awaited ruling Wednesday on whether the 2008 ballot initiative violates the U.S. Constitution, a court spokeswoman said. [Updated, 5:50 p.m.: His ruling is expected to be released between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.]
Walker, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, heard myriad witnesses testify about the history of marriage, the nature of homosexuality and the degree of power gays and lesbians possess in the political system during the 2 1/2-week trial in January.
Most of the testimony favored marriage rights for homosexuals. Walker’s decision is expected to be appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A Los Angeles-based group funding the litigation hired former Solicitor General Ted Olson, a conservative, and noted litigator David Boies, who squared off against Olson in Bush vs. Gore, to represent two couples who are challenging Proposition 8.
The California Supreme Court ruled 4 to 3 that gays and lesbians were entitled to marry under the state Constitution in an historic ruling in May 2008. Voters passed Proposition 8 six months later, amending the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Walker will decide whether California’s ban on same-sex marriage violates equal protection and due process rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
-- Maura Dolan in San Francisco
Photo: Associated PressL.A. NOW
Southern California -- this just in
Federal judge to rule on whether... more
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FlexSF
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And so now we catch up on a couple of very good films that opened last week, but — because there’s only so much podcasting I can do before my ears start to bleed — had to wait a week to be covered. In the case of the film featured in this episode, STONEWALL UPRISING, the delay turns out not to be too bad: We’re still in the midst of Pride Week, after all, so this documentary remains relevant.
This is from Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, whom we met earlier this year with the release of their black metal documentary WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON. There are fewer church burnings in STONEWALL, but that doesn’t mean the event depicted — a 1969, NYC riot sparked when the police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn and the patrons decided they’d had their fill of harassment — didn’t stoke its own kind of fire, specifically the birth of the gay rights movement. Davis and Heilbroner rally some great, eyewitness interviews — including the vice cop who led the raid — and manage to put the story in context with considerable footage from news shows and “educational” films showing how, even in the mid- to late-sixties, attitudes towards homosexuality had barely advanced beyond the let’s-burn-’em-at-the-stake stage. If you paired this up with another great doc released last week — 8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION, about the Mormon church’s concerted efforts to have their institutionalized homophobia turned into law — you’d get a good view of how far gay rights have come, and how far they still need to go.
Click on the link to hear the show:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-persons/liberations-forge-kate-da_b_621930.htmlAnd so now we catch up on a couple of very good films that opened last week, but... more
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As millions of lesbian women, gay men, bisexuals and transgenders prepare to march in celebratory pride parades all across the United States and around the world this weekend, many will be casting an eye on a federal judge in San Francisco as he prepares to issue a long-awaited ruling in a closely-watched constitutional challenge to California's voter-approved Proposition 8, which bars gay and lesbian couples from marrying...
http://www.skeeterbitesreport.com/2010/06/all-eyes-on-california-as-federal-judge.htmlAs millions of lesbian women, gay men, bisexuals and transgenders prepare to march in... more
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