Bill O'Reilly and Ellen DeGeneres. Fair and Balanced ? Yes !

JCP and Ellen get my vote. I know a few gay couples and they have stayed together longer than most straight couple I know. What does that say about our society? I happen to think Ellen is one of the funniest people out there. I have her first series on DVD and her second short livid series on DVD. My "traditional" family, the dogs and cats included, love the shows. My daughter knew from an early ago about gay couples. I made it very simple for her. It's people loving people.

Hi Karen Anne - I enjoyed your post and particularly applaud your comment at #25.  

But then the folks who will discuss their agreements and disagreements in a civil way are probably not the folks who would call a store to demand the firing of a person they have never met.

I am old enough to remember the "kerfuffel" caused by Anita Bryant in the seventies as spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission.  Ms Bryant became an rabid anti-gay activist and was fired by the Citrus folks.  It was not a matter of their agreement or disagreement with her cause.  They had hired a singer to represent their product and they did not sign on for the controversial image that evolved around Ms Bryant.

Ellen is talented, popular and funny.  I think her open discussions about her life and relationship gives her a boost in the credibility and honesty categories - not bad for a corporate spokesperson.  Is JCP willing to offend a segment of their customer base - no matter how unreasonable their complaint may be? We will see. I hope that we live in a different time than the seventies (but I applauded when they fired Anita Bryant).  

As for the gay marriage question - both sides of the issue get mad at me. I believe the word "marriage" has meaning from centuries of use and I am not real flexible about redefining the language for someone's convenience.  That said, I see no important government interest to be served by denying the legal rights of a same sex couple.  So i favor the concept of a civil union for all couples - straight or gay -  to provide the legal relationship necessary to protect individual property rights and rights of couples who wish to enter into a legal relationship.  Marriage is, in my view, a religious sacrement of the various faiths and should be the exclusive province of the churches. I would take government out of the marriage business.  The concept of the civil union is sufficient for government purposes.

I'm pretty conservative and usually like Fox News- except lately they've been peeving me off a bit with their coverage of the Republican primaries and their dismissal of Ron Paul. But I do have a big problem with so called conservatives who bash a group for being different than themselves. And when they throw in religion for their reasons they must have read a different bible than I did (I'm an atheist and have read the bible). If they are protecting family values then they should look in the mirror. The sanctity of marriage kind of took a hit when the divorce rate passed the 50% mark. I guess it must be nice to have so little to worry about in their lives that this is the biggest cause they can take up.

age is just a number, Karen Anne.. You are not that old!! :)

Isn't it neat how the language keeps changing?? LOL

I have had lesbian clients who were lovely PEOPLE. I'm sure many of the one million moms are lovely PEOPLE, too!  I never thought of my lesbian clients as LESBIANS but as PEOPLE...but after reading all of the above comments I have to say something! :)

To all: 

Does it really matter what I think about the issue?  Does it matter what you think about the issue?  No on both counts.

Only one opinion matters--and that's God's opinion.  There are many verses in the Bible that address the issue of sexual sin, but before I quote one for you, let me just say, that JESUS LOVES PEOPLE, but hates sin.  We are ALL cut out of the same cookie dough.  We ALL have sinned and deserve to be punished. (Romans 3:23)  Yours truly included. (Yours truly especially!!)

But, we (or in this case I) cannot say sin is ok. 

 If my best friend wanted to cheat on her husband, should I say, "Sure...if you found someone better lookin' go fot it!!" ?  No, I would tell her...you cannot SIN against God and against your husband by doing this!  So, I'd speak up!

There are other verses in the Bible if you want to look them up, but here is one for thought.

I Corinthians 6:9-11  "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you.  But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus..."

Karen: Well I am certainly late to the party. Given the statistics that as many as 1 in 9 people are gay or lesbian, that would mean that approximately 90,000 of the children of the Million Moms may be gay. Would that open their hearts?

Karen, somewhere in these comments, you have wriiten about the self doubt and discrimination gays and lesbians have suffered before, during and after they discovered and announced who they really are. The loving God I believe in does not want any of his children to suffer prejudice. I have always believed that people fear what they do not know.

Penney's new ad campaign, pre Ellen is a little bit confusing. All those screaming women, you knew something big was up. It actually drove me into the store and there was no signage to indicate the new pricing policy. The store looks beautiful.  And at least in my suburban Philadelphia mall, I think they could give the competition (Macy's), who is floundering a bit, a run for their money. 

Funny, non-threatening Ellen, who is chirpy and very well known,  could be the perfect spokeperson to articulate their new direction. God knows they are screwing it up out of the box.  I am going to the store tomorrow and will try to to see the manager.

Love this discussion!  Kudos, Karen Anne.

And if I were elected President manana, I would seek Mr. Ted Baker as part of my advisors.  Yes I would:)

I had not heard about this but I do find it incredibly ridiculous.  I hope JCP sticks to their use of Ellen.

Jason - if that is your plan, you might not get my vote.  But thank you for the kind words.

Karen Anne - I would prefer to think that sometimes we agree and other times we agree to disagree... but neither of us are easy to persuade. But we both enjoy the occasional epiphany.

Karen Anne-wow! Am not generally a fan of the big guy myself, but this is great. Intersting justaposition of views here...at the end of the day, it WILL all be about that great equalizer MONEY. Interesting JCP in their quest for MONEY made the RIGHT decision, supporting gay and gay-friendly-America. not usually how things work out, huh?

Karen Anne, OReilly was right to call the woman out.  To each their own. I don't care.  But you did call her a bigot although in your posts you said you never would.  Maybe that needs to be looked into.

karen Anne:

Your Words:

"I would never label everyone who is conservative... as being bigoted.  Some are... just as some "progressives" may also be bigoted."

Also your Words:

"And last night... Bill O'Reilly had a far-right conservative on his show, and debated the "JCP needs to fire Ellen DeGeneres" issue with this bigotted woman."

Your lookin into the issue just means you ignore the bovious.  If you agree with something, it is right, if you disagree, it must be wrong.  How about the same with fervor with Rush's statement about the 30 something student being a slut? 

Your words:

Dale at Home Realty:  I was very "light" on this woman.  What she really was doing... saying that because Ellen did not conform to HER definition of "good family values..." that she should be fired.  What that actually WAS... was a great examply of an attempt to impose her version of "christian Shari'a Law."  Sorry... this is not Iran.  This is not Afghanistan or Pakistan.

You are right, it isn't Afghanistan or Pakistan, doesn't rush have the right to say what he feels? Or is it just another obvious bias by the left?  The left seems to be holding Rush to their ideals, that he should be held accountable?

I can't believe we are still talking about things like this in America.  I don't care, do what you got to do, but there is no right to take anyone"s money just to give it to somebody you feel may be more deserving.  That holds true for both the left and the right.