Why did Elton play for Rush: They have one thing in common (and this will shock you!)

[LynneSin]

They both support Civil Unions?

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20391960,00.html?xid=rss-fullcontent

Elton John may have seemed like the last person expected to perform at Rush Limbaugh's wedding over the weekend.

Limbaugh, 59, has made a number of colorful remarks about gays that have sparked outrage – and kept his conservative credentials intact. But on some issues, they do share common ground.

Limbaugh, for instance, told Zev Chafetz, author of the Limbaugh biography Army of One, that he supports civil unions for gay couples instead of marriage – a point on which Limbaugh and the openly gay John agree.

"I don't want to be married," John said in 2005 when he and David Furnish tied the knot in a civil partnership ceremony. "If gay people want to get married or get together, they should have a civil partnership. The word 'marriage,' I think, puts a lot of people off."

Nothing personal but if Rush supports even just civil unions for the GLBT community then why the *#$# is he such an asshole about Gays & Lesbians in general? Geez, that would be like saying you support the Civil Rights amendment in 1964 but still use the N-word all the time and insult them. I don't know about you but I don't play that way!

[bullwinkle428]

1. So they both support "separate but equal"? What a shock.

[Mike Daniels]

2. The answer's probably simpler...dollars and lots of them

A million dollars for what was probably a 10 to 15 minute performance? I'd take that regardless of how I felt about Pig-Boy.

[LynneSin]

3. He could offer me $1 billion and I still wouldn't take it

I have standards and he doesn't even come close to them

[GreenStormCloud]

10. Hey, for a cool million dollars I will sing at his funeral.

However, with my voice, I would be paid to not sing.

[LynneSin]

11. I would do it for $1million and the condition that Rush never be on the radio, newspaper, TV...

or internet ever ever EVER again.

Hell if I could get him to shut up I'd pay him $1 million.

[GreenStormCloud]

12. If it was his funeral, I think your conditions would be met. N/T

[LynneSin]

13. I'd do that for free only if the song I sing is "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead"

:D

[guitar man]

15. I'd do it

Playing the gig would mean access to his crib. If I made it into his personal bathroom I'd have his toothbrush in my butt crack while I was replacing all his oxycontin with sugar pills that looked just like them :evilgrin:

[era veteran]

28. You'd get a bonus from the toothbrush caper

Mr. Anal Cyst is fascinated with ass.

[Ian David]

4. Elton John played in Sun City and other South African Venues During Apartheid

See also:

Elton John played in Sun City and other South African Venues During Apartheid
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8499956

Rush Limbaugh’s Wedding Ends a Bad Week for Marriage You Can't Divorce Yourself
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8503297

[peekaloo]

7. I posted these lyrics on another thread from Captain Fantastic and

the Brown Nose Cowboy }( and I'm doing it again.

(Gotta get a) Meal Ticket

I can hound you if I need to
Sip your brandy from a crystal shoe
In the corner, in the corner
While the others climb reaching dizzy heights
The world's in front of me in black and white
I'm on the bottom line, I'm on the bottom line

I'd have a cardiac if I had such luck
Lucky losers, lucky losers landing on skid row
Landing on skid row
While the Diamond Jims
And the Kings road pimps
Breath heavy in their brand new clothes
I'm on the bottom line, I'm on the bottom line

And I gotta get a meal ticket
To survive you need a meal ticket
To stay alive you need a meal ticket
Feel no pain, no pain
No regret, no regret
When the line's been signed
You're someone else
Do yourself a favor, the meal ticket does the rest

Shake a hand if you have to
Trust in us and we will love you anyway, anyway
Don't leave us stranded in the jungle
With fifty percent that's hard to handle
Ain't that so, ain't that so

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. Peter Gabriel was playing the song Biko at the same time

Elton was playing South Africa.

"Biko"

September '77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

When I try to sleep at night
I can only dream in red
The outside world is black and white
With only one colour dead
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko
Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja
-The man is dead

And the eyes of the world are
watching now
watching now

I'll say it again ............ the South Africa Tour pissed me off.

[SidDithers]

26. +1...

for the song and the last line of your post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLg-8Jxi5aE

Sid

[Ichingcarpenter]

29. I was in Denmark in 77 and they had a lot of Political Refugees

from South Africa learning Danish just like me at the University of Odense

IT WAS AN EYE OPENER

Fuck Elton..... Bernie Taupin was the genius

[blondeatlast]

31. EJ sucked rotten banans post-Taupin. nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

32. Taupin was politically and morally connected

Madman across the Waters and all that...... Elton never was
It was about Elton, ALWAYS

[blondeatlast]

30. Me too. Playing SA was unforgivable to me, period. nt

[CBGLuthier]

5. The rich have no scruples, morals, or values beyond the money in their lives.

They got theirs and fuck everyone else.

[Ian David]

6. Three things. They also both love money above all else. And they both hate Obama.

Elton John joined the PUMA bandwagon after Obama won the Primary.

[joeybee12]

18. If so, then that kills Elton's excuse that he doesn't follow American politics/culture

all that closely and didn't know what Rush was all about.

[Recursion]

9. Err... Limbaugh never talks religion and doesn't like it when callers do

His target audience isn't really the fundamentalist nutjobs, it's the pissed off exurban middle-aged white guys who don't understand why their economic prospects are disappearing. Doesn't really surprise me at all.

[Bluerthanblue]

14. they are also both "performers"-

:shrug:

[KatyMan]

16. this might be a can of worms,

because I think this was heatedly discussed before, but I never quite understood the difference between a civil union and a marriage. Isn't it semantics? My wife and I were married by a judge, is that a civil union? Really just curious on the definition, not trying to start anything.

[LynneSin]

17. Yes and No

Civil Unions would give GLBT community the same rights as a marriage but it's one of those "Separate but Equal" type situations. I mean here is Rush Limbaugh working on his FOURTH marriage so how is he promoting the so-called wonders of marriage if the guy can't even keep one for that long. Personally I think everyone is entitled to one marriage (regardless of sexual orientation) and after that you can only have a civil union (exception for those who are widow/widower).

[KatyMan]

19. Thanks Lynne

In my mind marriage is a term of convenience when talking about my particular situation (or anyone's, I guess), but I think if I had to define it I would say a "marriage" is performed by a church, and is a largely symbolic affair.
Would the state issue a different type of certificate to a GLBT civil union than they would a hetero civl union?

Again, I'm not trying to be difficult or stir up shit. Whatever the GLBT community wants in this situation is what I would agree with, but I don't know how to argue it.

[ieoeja]

20. Marriage is a legal partnership.

There are a lot of rights and obligations associated with a marriage partnership that may or may not accrue to a new civil union partnership. It is pretty much guaranteed that any such rights not explictly written into law -- i.e. common law rights -- will be thrown out by a rightwing judge.

And, no, writing the definition of civil union to mean the same thing as marriage will not do the trick. The very fact that they give it a different name suggests the intent of the law was to *not* give same-gender partnerships the exact same rights and obligations. A judge could rule in that fashion very easily.

As you have already stated, you got married with no religious overtones whatsoever. Your marriage is a perfect example of why those claiming marriage is religious are so wrong. That and thousands of years of history. Not to mention the rare, but not unheard of, marriage between people of the same gender throughout history.

[KatyMan]

22. ah, I see.

So the talk of civil unions is a scam. I just assumed when people used that phrase it meant getting the same piece of paper as my wife and I did, and the rights that come with it.

thanks for patience and clarifications, ieoeja and LynneSin!

[LynneSin]

25. THank you, I figured someone could do it better than me

I know I'm not the expert on this one! I just know it's the right thing to do!

[Unvanguard]

27. I don't know if that's true on the judicial level.

Hard to argue "intent" when you have clear legislative language, and I've never heard of a case like that in New Jersey, California, Vermont (prior to marriage equality there), or any other state with legally-equivalent civil unions or domestic partnerships.

However, it is certainly true when dealing with bureaucracies in the ordinary course of life: because people do not understand what such unions are or what they signify under the law, in practice same-sex couples are discriminated against, illegally, in ways that would disappear if they had access to a readily-recognizable institution like marriage. This was the conclusion of the New Jersey report on this subject.

[demwing]

21. So make it "Just Equal"

and make the only "legal" marriages "Civil Unions." Grandfather in all church marriages before "X" date, and you're set.

Then, those who are religious can have a ceremony in the church of their choice...it just doesn't carry any legal weight. It would be like a Baptism or a Bar Mitzvah. Purely ceremonial, no civil standing at all.

More importantly, we get the Churches out of a government process, and we keep the government out of the churches - just as our founders intended.

[snooper2]

23. I think everyone should just have civil unions...

I got married in a court house...should just have been called a civil union...

If the religous god people want to be "married under god", they can have that done at a church of their choosing. And the priest or priestess or pastor or bishop or whatever he/she is called can provide some document or piece of paper...

But that piece of paper would be worthless in the eyes of the law...

[LynneSin]

33. That would be fine too as long as it was equal for everyone

Marriage could be saved for those unions performed within a church and a church would be allowed to decide who they want to marry. It's highly unlikely that the Mormom or Catholic Church would marry gays but then again they won't marry you under a host of different reasons other than being gay. But there are plenty of churches that would perform gay marriages if give the rights to do so.

[Unvanguard]

24. There's an important cultural difference between the US and the UK on this issue.

Basically, if gays in the UK were concerned about marriage equality, they could get it, as they cannot in nearly all states in the US. Effectively, in UK terms, civil partnerships really are equivalent to marriage.

In the US, they never will be. It's a combination of the fact that we have a more marriage-focused culture and the fact that we have a far stronger anti-gay movement: culturally, domestic partnerships/civil unions, because they don't have the social status of "real" marriages and because they were plainly and evidently designed to avoid giving same-sex couples real equality, just don't count the same way they do elsewhere. They are merely legal arrangements, even if they have all the rights and benefits of marriage, and they connote the inferiority of same-sex couples and same-sex couple-led families: just as they are supposed to, if you read the arguments of the people behind Prop. 8 and the like.

Elton John's comments were stupid, but they were a stupidity borne out of ignorance. Limbaugh, on the other hand, is almost certainly homophobic.