Tennessee Seeks tonBar Same Sex Marriage

[TheProgressivePatriot]

To whoever said that gay people can't naturally reproduce, please tell that to Jody Foster who has two sons she carried and delivered. And, they're also full brothers because she used the same sperm donor for both boys.

How artificial insemination- which Ms. Foster received- qualify as "natural reproduction"?

How does IVF qualify as "natural reproduction?"

What does that have to do with legal marriage?

Nothing. But these bigots use that "Unable to procreate" crap as a means of questioning the validity same sex marriage. They tried that shit all through the marriage equality litigation, as well as trying to claim that gay people are inferior parents, and got their ass kicked in court every time.

Gay marriage and gay parenting are 2 seperate issues - Fags and dikes have every right to co-miserate in the sanctity of Marriage and it never should have been denied in the first place . Gay Parenting is an entirely different topic Gays as all perverts - and I include large swarms of the religous realm in that statement should allways be kept at arms length from degenerates - its a duty we as human beings owe to our youngest members. .... progressive I don't include you in that statement - that part about being a human being that is :>

You are so full of shit it makes me sick

LGBT Adoption Facts

For many, LGBT adoption is still a new concept, and society’s image of a “perfect” family includes a mother and a father of opposite sexes. However, this is a just a stereotype. Today, more and more gay and lesbian couples are becoming parents, whether through artificial insemination, a surrogate or LGBT adoption. LifeLong Adoptions caters to heterosexual couples, single parents and gay & lesbian families. LGBT Adoption Facts | Gay Adoption | Same Sex Adoption


The push against gay, lesbian, and same-sex couple adoption is more about gay discrimination than child welfare. So, before you buy into the myths and rhetoric that gay adoption poses an unsafe environment for children or that a gay household is a "recruitment center" for young adults, the facts those against same-sex adoption aren't telling you:

• There are already thousands of children living in gay couple households. The 2000 U. S. Census reports 33% of female same-sex couple households and 22% of male same-sex couple households already have at least one child under the age of 18 living at home.


10 Ways You Can Join the Fight for Gay Rights


In 2008 there were 129,000 children waiting to be adopted, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported. In 2007, the Urban Institute reported that two million gay or lesbian individuals said they had considered adoption. A hotly debated issue in the United States is whether or not those two million interested individuals should be able to adopt the children in need. There is currently no federal law that explicitly bans or allows gays and lesbians to adopt; the decision is left up to each state.



Read more: http://www.ehow.com/about_6746455_gay-lesbian-adoption.html#ixzz2vb55w73S


Here is more for you to chew on:


A final word to all of the low life bigots who shamelessly use propaganda about children in their failed war on equality. I’m sure that these figures are much higher now

There were an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 gay and lesbian biological parents in 1976. In 1990, an estimated 6 to 14 million children have gay or lesbian parents.

Latest statistics from the U.S. Census 2000, the National Survey of Family Growth (2002), and the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (2004) include:

• An estimated two million LGLB people are interested in adopting.

• An estimated 65,500 adopted children are living with a lesbian or gay parent.

• More than 16,000 adopted children are living with lesbian and gay parents in California, the highest number among the states.

• Gay and lesbian parents are raising four percent of all adopted children in the United States.

• Adopted children with same-sex parents are younger and more likely to be foreign born.

How Many U.S. Children Have Gay Parents?

In addition, adoption is legal in all 50 states. Generally, acceptance of gay and lesbian adoption has been way out in front of same sex marriage. In some states, it has been occurring for decades.

Given these numbers, please answer the following questions:

• If children who are in the care of gay people are at risk of abuse or having developmental/ adjustment issues why have the states been allowing this for so long?

• If mistreatment of children by gays was prevalent, why are we not hearing horror stories and seeing headlines about this on a regular basis ?

• Why have we not been seeing large numbers of adults who had been children of gays coming forward to speak out against gay parenting?

Claims that gay parenting is harmful to children are bogus and stupid.

 

[TheProgressivePatriot]

How artificial insemination- which Ms. Foster received- qualify as "natural reproduction"?

How does IVF qualify as "natural reproduction?"

What does that have to do with legal marriage?

Nothing. But these bigots use that "Unable to procreate" crap as a means of questioning the validity same sex marriage. They tried that shit all through the marriage equality litigation, as well as trying to claim that gay people are inferior parents, and got their ass kicked in court every time.

Gay marriage and gay parenting are 2 seperate issues - Fags and dikes have every right to co-miserate in the sanctity of Marriage and it never should have been denied in the first place . Gay Parenting is an entirely different topic Gays as all perverts - and I include large swarms of the religous realm in that statement should allways be kept at arms length from degenerates - its a duty we as human beings owe to our youngest members. .... progressive I don't include you in that statement - that part about being a human being that is :>

I've had about enough of your bullshit! I know of two gay men who became fosters of newborns. they are white and both babies are black. One was born drug addicted and the other with fetal alcohol syndrome. No one else wanted them, but these men took them into their home. They walked the floor with them as they screamed in pain, they took them to the doctor for treatment, they spent loads of money on these boys not knowing if they would ever get to adopt them. They introduced them to a black woman friend who had a daughter and would teach the boys about their culture. And then one day, they were granted the right to adopt them.They cried like babies and hugged them and had a family party to celebrate. NO ONE else wanted these babies....do you understand that? Many,many times gay couple will take special needs children that no one else wants. Do you think those children shouldn't be allowed to have a home where they are wanted and cherished and cared for?
Funny how it's always the "straight" couples who only take fosters for the money who are the ones abusing the kids. There was a couple here who tied a small girl up to the porch with a chicken tied around her neck and she died of starvation and hypothermia. She was a foster. They were a MAN and a WOMAN!
So stick your indignation and hate up your hateful ass!

You go girl!! What a sick and stupid piece of shit!

 

[P@triot]

The authoritarian right will never stop in their efforts to discriminate against gay and transgender Americans and deny them their rights and protected liberties – even though it violates the Constitution to seek to do so.

Nobody is less qualified to speak about the U.S. Constitution than you. So please...just stop. You're making a fool out of yourself.

 

[P@triot]

The push against gay, lesbian, and same-sex couple adoption is more about gay discrimination than child welfare.

Oh bullshit. Stop with your idiotic nonsense already. This is the queer version of yelling "racist". Every time you people can't fight science or facts, you scream "bigot" or "homophobe". Just stop already.

In 2012, in his New Family Structures Study, Dr. Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, addressed each of the three main problems with the earlier studies.[4] His research found that, similar to children from non-intact families, those children who at some point during their childhood lived with one parent and that parent’s same-sex partner fared, on average, significantly worse than children of married biological parents on a multitude of measures, including their educational progress as children and eventual employment and dependence on public assistance in adulthood.

There is nothing healthy about a child going home to two mom's or two dad's. Nothing. At best, they grow up questioning why they have a fucked up situation that differs from every other child they know. At worst, it plays hell on their development and mental health. The science is settled, you radical lying hippie asshole.

The Research on Same-Sex Parenting: “No Differences” No More

 

[P@triot]

The push against gay, lesbian, and same-sex couple adoption is more about gay discrimination than child welfare.

Oh bullshit. Stop with your idiotic nonsense already. This is the queer version of yelling "racist". Every time you people can't fight science or facts, you scream "bigot" or "homophobe". Just stop already.

Controlling for child sex, age, and race and parents’ education and income, Dr. Sullins finds that children of parents in same-sex relationships fare significantly worse than those of opposite-sex parents on nine of 12 measures of emotional or developmental problems and their use of mental health treatment. In general, children of parents in same-sex relationships are about two to three times more likely to experience such problems.

There is nothing healthy about a child going home to two mom's or two dad's. Nothing. At best, they grow up questioning why they have a fucked up situation that differs from every other child they know. At worst, it plays hell on their development and mental health. The science is settled, you radical lying hippie asshole.

The Research on Same-Sex Parenting: “No Differences” No More

 

[P@triot]

The push against gay, lesbian, and same-sex couple adoption is more about gay discrimination than child welfare.

Oh bullshit. Stop with your idiotic nonsense already. This is the queer version of yelling "racist". Every time you people can't fight science or facts, you scream "bigot" or "homophobe". Just stop already.

There is nothing healthy about a child going home to two mom's or two dad's. Nothing. At best, they grow up questioning why they have a fucked up situation that differs from every other child they know. At worst, it plays hell on their development and mental health. The science is settled, you radical lying hippie asshole.

Impact of Same-Sex Parenting on Children: Evaluating the Research

 

[bodecea]

The authoritarian right will never stop in their efforts to discriminate against gay and transgender Americans and deny them their rights and protected liberties – even though it violates the Constitution to seek to do so.

Nobody is less qualified to speak about the U.S. Constitution than you. So please...just stop. You're making a fool out of yourself.

I love Irony on the weekend.

 

[P@triot]

The push against gay, lesbian, and same-sex couple adoption is more about gay discrimination than child welfare.

The science is settled on this. Stop being a science denier like you tools are with the "Global Warming" scam.

How Children Raised By Same-Sex Married Couples Fare

 

[bodecea]

The push against gay, lesbian, and same-sex couple adoption is more about gay discrimination than child welfare.

Oh bullshit. Stop with your idiotic nonsense already. This is the queer version of yelling "racist". Every time you people can't fight science or facts, you scream "bigot" or "homophobe". Just stop already.

There is nothing healthy about a child going home to two mom's or two dad's. Nothing. At best, they grow up questioning why they have a fucked up situation that differs from every other child they know. At worst, it plays hell on their development and mental health. The science is settled, you radical lying hippie asshole.

Impact of Same-Sex Parenting on Children: Evaluating the Research

Stuttering? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[P@triot]

I love Irony on the weekend.

Sweetie, I've forgotten more about the U.S. Constitution than you and every single one of your wing-nut pals here on USMB combined will ever know. I've studied it top to bottom, front to back, left to right, inside and out. I've read supporting materials about (such as original writings from the founders about it, such as the Federalist Papers), I've watched documentaries about it, and I've attended speaking engagements about it by experts.

The ridiculous part is that I know that you know that I know it inside and out. That's why you never challenge me on it and instead just make desperate snarky comments like a junior high school girl frustrated that she's not getting her way.

 

[P@triot]

The push against gay, lesbian, and same-sex couple adoption is more about gay discrimination than child welfare.

Oh bullshit. Stop with your idiotic nonsense already. This is the queer version of yelling "racist". Every time you people can't fight science or facts, you scream "bigot" or "homophobe". Just stop already.

There is nothing healthy about a child going home to two mom's or two dad's. Nothing. At best, they grow up questioning why they have a fucked up situation that differs from every other child they know. At worst, it plays hell on their development and mental health. The science is settled, you radical lying hippie asshole.

Impact of Same-Sex Parenting on Children: Evaluating the Research

Stuttering? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

No sweetie. Providing volumes of data proving you people are liars.

 

[Silhouette]

.... you just consider us as an inferior species who are only here to do your bidding and keep you happy.... I have many gay friends and they have always treated me with the utmost respect and never once have I ever heard them refer to a woman as a "dame!" You've called women other derogatory names on this thread and it seems that you really hate women because no gentleman who respects women would ever stoop so low as you have.

You are aware that an extremely common term gay men refer to women ....is “Breeders”.

Who else will churn out those pretty little boys/twinks?

 

[Lysistrata]

Why do these people have to go after people who are LGBTQs? What drives this thing? I am a woman who is attracted to men. But I do not have to devote my time to making life hard for people who have a same-sex attraction. What is the reason for attacking folks who have a same-sex orientation? They are just living their lives, same as the rest of us.

What is the motivation here? What is it that you are doing and why?

 

[Silhouette]

Why do these people have to go after people who are LGBTQs? What drives this thing? I am a woman who is attracted to men. But I do not have to devote my time to making life hard for people who have a same-sex attraction. What is the reason for attacking folks who have a same-sex orientation? They are just living their lives, same as the rest of us.

What is the motivation here? What is it that you are doing and why?

“Attacking” ??! A state wanting to protect children isn’t “attacking” the perpetrators. It is defending against the LGBT affront.

Because this isn’t JUST about freedoms of adult lifestyles. It’s about states’ interests in regulating marriage for the benefit of all parties to the contract.

If a state encourages homes without a mother or homes without a father, the state is being forced to incentivize statistically deprived children. Reams upon reams of studies show boys fare best with a father in their home & girls same with a mother.

Plus, a child notices as he grows up that the rejection of his gender in his two lesbian parents = a fundamental rejection of his maleness; no matter how many times the lesbians struggle against their manifest example to reassure him to the opposite. (Opposite true for girls contractually deprived for life from a mother).

 

[Kittymom1026]

Why do these people have to go after people who are LGBTQs? What drives this thing? I am a woman who is attracted to men. But I do not have to devote my time to making life hard for people who have a same-sex attraction. What is the reason for attacking folks who have a same-sex orientation? They are just living their lives, same as the rest of us.

What is the motivation here? What is it that you are doing and why?

“Attacking” ??! A state wanting to protect children isn’t “attacking” the perpetrators. It is defending against the LGBT affront.

Because this isn’t JUST about freedoms of adult lifestyles. It’s about states’ interests in regulating marriage for the benefit of all parties to the contract.

If a state encourages homes without a mother or homes without a father, the state is being forced to incentivize statistically deprived children. Reams upon reams of studies show boys fare best with a father in their home & girls same with a mother.

Plus, a child notices as he grows up that the rejection of his gender in his two lesbian parents = a fundamental rejection of his maleness; no matter how many times the lesbians struggle against their manifest example to reassure him to the opposite. (Opposite true for girls contractually deprived for life from a mother).

A testimonial to prove you wrong......

 

[TheProgressivePatriot]

The push against gay, lesbian, and same-sex couple adoption is more about gay discrimination than child welfare.

Oh bullshit. Stop with your idiotic nonsense already. This is the queer version of yelling "racist". Every time you people can't fight science or facts, you scream "bigot" or "homophobe". Just stop already.

In 2012, in his New Family Structures Study, Dr. Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, addressed each of the three main problems with the earlier studies.[4] His research found that, similar to children from non-intact families, those children who at some point during their childhood lived with one parent and that parent’s same-sex partner fared, on average, significantly worse than children of married biological parents on a multitude of measures, including their educational progress as children and eventual employment and dependence on public assistance in adulthood.

There is nothing healthy about a child going home to two mom's or two dad's. Nothing. At best, they grow up questioning why they have a fucked up situation that differs from every other child they know. At worst, it plays hell on their development and mental health. The science is settled, you radical lying hippie asshole.

The Research on Same-Sex Parenting: “No Differences” No More

Holly shit! Seriously? Regnerus? He is a fraud who was humiliated in court over his bullshit

Here is a clear example of the lengths to which opponents of same sex marriage, and child rearing by gays will go in order to manipulate data and distort evidence to support their narrow minded and bigoted agenda. If there was a body of credible evidence to show that having gay parents was in any way detrimental to children, this would not be necessary!

Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage Take Bad-for-Children Argument to Court 2.22.14 Selected excerpts follow….the full article can be found at Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage Take Bad-for-Children Argument to Court

Scholars testifying in defense of Michigan’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage aim to sow doubt about the wisdom of change. They brandish a few sharply disputed recent studies — the fruits of a concerted and expensive effort by conservatives to sponsor research by sympathetic scholars — to suggest that children of same-sex couples do not fare as well as those raised by married heterosexuals.

That view will be challenged in court by longtime scholars in the field, backed by major professional organizations, who call those studies fatally flawed. These scholars will describe a near consensus that, other factors like income and stability being equal, children of same-sex couples do just as well as those of heterosexual couples.

In meetings hosted by the Heritage Foundation in Washington in late 2010, opponents of same-sex marriage discussed the urgent need to generate new studies on family structures and children, according to recent pretrial depositions of two witnesses in the Michigan trial and other participants. One result was the marshaling of $785,000 for a large-scale study by Mark HYPERLINK "https://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/sociology/faculty/mdr93"Regnerus, a meeting participant and a sociologist at the University of Texas who will testify in Michigan.

………four social science researchers, all of whom attended at least one of the Heritage Foundation meetings and went on to publish new reports, are scheduled to testify in favor of Michigan’s ban.

The most prominent is Dr. Regnerus. His study, published in 2012, was condemned by leading social scientists as misleading and irrelevant, but some conservatives call it the best of its kind and continue to cite it in speeches and court cases.

Dr. Regnerus found that the subjects in that category fared worse based on a host of behavioral and psychological measures than those who grew up in intact traditional families. The study, Dr. Regnerus wrote, “clearly reveals” that children are most apt to succeed when they grow up “with their married mother and father.”

But professional rejections of Dr. Regnerus’s conclusions were swift and severe. In a friend of the court brief To Better Social Policies, Listen to Beneficiaries the Supreme Court last year in two same-sex marriage cases, a report by the 14,000-member American Sociological Association noted that more than half the subjects whom Dr. Regnerus had described as children of “lesbian mothers” and “gay fathers” were the offspring of failed opposite-sex marriages in which a parent later engaged in same-sex behavior, and that many others never lived with same-sex parents.

“If any conclusion can be reached from Regnerus’s study,” the association said, “it is that family stability is predictive of child well-being.”

Wendy D. Manning, a professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and the main author of the association report, said of the wider literature: “Every study has shortcomings, but when you pull them all together, the picture is very clear. There is no evidence that children fare worse in same-sex families.”



Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage Take Bad-for-Children Argument to Court

 

[mdk]

“Attacking” ??! A state wanting to protect children isn’t “attacking” the perpetrators. It is defending against the LGBT affront.

Because this isn’t JUST about freedoms of adult lifestyles. It’s about states’ interests in regulating marriage for the benefit of all parties to the contract.

You keep repeating this lie as we both know that children are not parties to the marriage contract of their parents in any state in this nation. Not Tennessee. Not Ohio. Not one. You've invented this legal standard and demand people follow it, but luckily for all of us, no one is bound by legal gibberish you've pulled out of your ass.

If a state encourages homes without a mother or homes without a father, the state is being forced to incentivize statistically deprived children. Reams upon reams of studies show boys fare best with a father in their home & girls same with a mother.

Ending gay marriage in no way stops gay households from raising children. These homes suddenly don't have a mother or father added as result of your prohibiting gays from marrying. Your 'solution' doesn't address your problem in any way.

Plus, a child notices as he grows up that the rejection of his gender in his two lesbian parents = a fundamental rejection of his maleness; no matter how many times the lesbians struggle against their manifest example to reassure him to the opposite. (Opposite true for girls contractually deprived for life from a mother).

Is this the case in your household that is devoid of a father? Or does this only apply to gay homes? Something tells me you only believe the latter. You demand gay people meet a standard that you yourself cannot meet. Get a life and worry about the happenings under your own roof.

 

[Silhouette]

Why do these people have to go after people who are LGBTQs? What drives this thing? I am a woman who is attracted to men. But I do not have to devote my time to making life hard for people who have a same-sex attraction. What is the reason for attacking folks who have a same-sex orientation? They are just living their lives, same as the rest of us.

What is the motivation here? What is it that you are doing and why?

“Attacking” ??! A state wanting to protect children isn’t “attacking” the perpetrators. It is defending against the LGBT affront.

Because this isn’t JUST about freedoms of adult lifestyles. It’s about states’ interests in regulating marriage for the benefit of all parties to the contract.

If a state encourages homes without a mother or homes without a father, the state is being forced to incentivize statistically deprived children. Reams upon reams of studies show boys fare best with a father in their home & girls same with a mother.

Plus, a child notices as he grows up that the rejection of his gender in his two lesbian parents = a fundamental rejection of his maleness; no matter how many times the lesbians struggle against their manifest example to reassure him to the opposite. (Opposite true for girls contractually deprived for life from a mother).

A testimonial to prove you wrong......

A singular or minority sampling of subjective statements supporting gay marriage does not refute reams of objective peer reviewed studies to the contrary. This is especially true when a bunch of adult children raised in gay homes having a negative experience were disallowed to submit amicus briefs to Obergefell.

 

[dannyboys]

The push against gay, lesbian, and same-sex couple adoption is more about gay discrimination than child welfare.

Oh bullshit. Stop with your idiotic nonsense already. This is the queer version of yelling "racist". Every time you people can't fight science or facts, you scream "bigot" or "homophobe". Just stop already.

In 2012, in his New Family Structures Study, Dr. Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, addressed each of the three main problems with the earlier studies.[4] His research found that, similar to children from non-intact families, those children who at some point during their childhood lived with one parent and that parent’s same-sex partner fared, on average, significantly worse than children of married biological parents on a multitude of measures, including their educational progress as children and eventual employment and dependence on public assistance in adulthood.

There is nothing healthy about a child going home to two mom's or two dad's. Nothing. At best, they grow up questioning why they have a fucked up situation that differs from every other child they know. At worst, it plays hell on their development and mental health. The science is settled, you radical lying hippie asshole.

The Research on Same-Sex Parenting: “No Differences” No More

Holly shit! Seriously? Regnerus? He is a fraud who was humiliated in court over his bullshit

Here is a clear example of the lengths to which opponents of same sex marriage, and child rearing by gays will go in order to manipulate data and distort evidence to support their narrow minded and bigoted agenda. If there was a body of credible evidence to show that having gay parents was in any way detrimental to children, this would not be necessary!

Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage Take Bad-for-Children Argument to Court 2.22.14 Selected excerpts follow….the full article can be found at Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage Take Bad-for-Children Argument to Court

Scholars testifying in defense of Michigan’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage aim to sow doubt about the wisdom of change. They brandish a few sharply disputed recent studies — the fruits of a concerted and expensive effort by conservatives to sponsor research by sympathetic scholars — to suggest that children of same-sex couples do not fare as well as those raised by married heterosexuals.

That view will be challenged in court by longtime scholars in the field, backed by major professional organizations, who call those studies fatally flawed. These scholars will describe a near consensus that, other factors like income and stability being equal, children of same-sex couples do just as well as those of heterosexual couples.

In meetings hosted by the Heritage Foundation in Washington in late 2010, opponents of same-sex marriage discussed the urgent need to generate new studies on family structures and children, according to recent pretrial depositions of two witnesses in the Michigan trial and other participants. One result was the marshaling of $785,000 for a large-scale study by Mark HYPERLINK "https://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/sociology/faculty/mdr93"Regnerus, a meeting participant and a sociologist at the University of Texas who will testify in Michigan.

………four social science researchers, all of whom attended at least one of the Heritage Foundation meetings and went on to publish new reports, are scheduled to testify in favor of Michigan’s ban.

The most prominent is Dr. Regnerus. His study, published in 2012, was condemned by leading social scientists as misleading and irrelevant, but some conservatives call it the best of its kind and continue to cite it in speeches and court cases.

Dr. Regnerus found that the subjects in that category fared worse based on a host of behavioral and psychological measures than those who grew up in intact traditional families. The study, Dr. Regnerus wrote, “clearly reveals” that children are most apt to succeed when they grow up “with their married mother and father.”

But professional rejections of Dr. Regnerus’s conclusions were swift and severe. In a friend of the court brief To Better Social Policies, Listen to Beneficiaries the Supreme Court last year in two same-sex marriage cases, a report by the 14,000-member American Sociological Association noted that more than half the subjects whom Dr. Regnerus had described as children of “lesbian mothers” and “gay fathers” were the offspring of failed opposite-sex marriages in which a parent later engaged in same-sex behavior, and that many others never lived with same-sex parents.

“If any conclusion can be reached from Regnerus’s study,” the association said, “it is that family stability is predictive of child well-being.”

Wendy D. Manning, a professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and the main author of the association report, said of the wider literature: “Every study has shortcomings, but when you pull them all together, the picture is very clear. There is no evidence that children fare worse in same-sex families.”



Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage Take Bad-for-Children Argument to Court

I have never witnessed anyone more consumed by being gay since I watched Little Britain.
I sincerely feel sorry for you.
It's like you feel you are "the only gay in the village".
Get some help.

 

[JoeB131]

A singular or minority sampling of subjective statements supporting gay marriage does not refute reams of objective peer reviewed studies to the contrary. This is especially true when a bunch of adult children raised in gay homes having a negative experience were disallowed to submit amicus briefs to Obergefell.

Yes, Junk Science by religious nuts has no place in our legal system.