Dr. E
TMV Assistant Editor

Ah, what a class act. Thank you for your thoughtful drive-by commentary.

Somebody doesn't know how to spell—uses hyphens instead. Soon he/she will be using *#@&!'s…

Gays and lesbians had the right to marry under the California constitution until Proposition 8 was passed. Prop. 8 was an amendment to the constitution, banning same sex marriages.

So gays and lesbians had the constitutional right to marry before conservatives took that right away by amending the California constitution.

As I keep saying conservatives want others to live like them, even if they have to amend the constitution to do it. That's not freedom for all. That's conservatives being bullies and it's even more bullying because these were rights in the CA constitution. The conservatives were ACTIVELY taking away rights of those they don't like.

Less than one week ago, Governor Palin asked the media to 'quit making things up. . .

my question is would it be in Palin's “gottcha” PR resurrenction to set up rumors and situations to prove her point premise; “Poor Sarah Palin if only the media would”guit making things up”??????

once of the problems with Palin is she is crafty like a fox by not real integral. . . .this entire Palin divorce seems like some media people fell into the foxes trap??? “gottcha'???

I did misread your comment and I apologize completely and without reservation.

I didn't casually claim otherwise, in fact I just wrote the opposite. I'm stating that there is documentary evidence that the birther rumor is untrue, but people still believe it…just like the evidence that the Palin's are not divorcing will not convince people otherwise.

When the Palins remain married, it will be hard to seriously claim they are divorced.

I'm not required to worry about potential weirdness when there is actual weirdness doing its actual damage.

For example, Obama's birth certificate has been released. You can see it for yourself on the internet.

When a sensible person like yourself feels entitled to casually claim otherwise–that's cause for concern.

Surely you know that people who believe these things will believe them no matter what, and that's why it's wrong to give any credibility to the stories by publishing about them without any real substantiation of facts.

First of all, gays have the same freedom as we do to pass laws through the legislative branch. No one (gay, straight or liberal) should be passing laws through the judicial branch. Second of all, everyone has the right to marry someone of the opposite sex. No one has the right (except for the state that passed laws through their legislative branch) to marry a person of the same sex. That is equal treatment under the law. If you want to get into discussions about a right to marry the one you love, you need to change the law through the legislative branch to reflect this new right.

School choice through vouchers, less government interference in your life and most of all…the big one…the freedom to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Those are freedoms that are enjoyed by everyone. What freedoms do the Democrat party offer?

First of all, gays have the same freedom as we do to pass laws through the legistalive branch. No one (gay, straight or liberal) should be passing laws through the judicial branch. Second of all, everyone has the right to marry someone of the opposite sex. No one has the right (except for the states that passed laws through their legistiatlive branch) to marry a person of the same sex. That is equal treatment under the law.

School choice through vouchers, less government interference in your business and most of all…the big one…the freedom to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Those are freedoms that are enjoyed by everyone. What freedoms do the Democrat party offer?

This isn't like, for example, the Swiftboating claims against John Kerry.

A filing for divorce requires legal documentation. When there proves to be no such legal documentation, that will be the proof of the negative.

This is more like those stories about Angelina and Brad breaking up–unserious.

Why would you need to make anything up by yourself about the Palin's, Kathy, when there's already a cottage industry of bloggers who do that and can be quoted as though their made up stories have some basis in fact?

While I appreciate Dr. E's thoughtful comment about retractions, I have two questions about that.

First, how does someone prove a negative in this case? At what point will Kathy have to acknowledge that this was not a factual story? How long would we have to wait to see if any attorneys come forward or any divorce papers are filed, before she will have to say that this was all made up? Will the Palin's have to renew their wedding vows before they can prove they're not divorcing?

And second, isn't there still some priniciple that says that spreading the story was a wrong that can't even be corrected? I don't know about other parents here, but I teach my kids not to repeat gossip even if they think it might be true- partly because even true stories shouldn't always be everyone's business, and partly because of course a false rumor even when retracted ends up being believed by some people and damages relationships and reputations. A good example of that here is the repetition of the claim that Sarah Palin had an affair- a claim which led to people saying it was justified to open sealed divorce documents of the alleged 'other man', and then no substantiation for the alleged affair was ever found. Yet here, some bloggers still repeat the claim as though it was fact, and now Kathy is also doing so. This is the sort of thing that won't get corrected even if the current story is eventually retracted or a correction issued.