Hate and Maine

Fear and hate won the day in Maine this past election day. And no matter what you say, that election was all about hate and keeping gays and lesbians from having their civil rights. I've seen the ads the anti gay marriage people ran in Maine and they are all fear based. They played on the uneducated and religious people's basest darkest fears. They used the fear of children being exposed to homosexual sex to scare people into voting to take away rights that they themselves already have.
And let's be honest here too, the gay marriage foes are against same sex marriage because their church tells them to be. It is written in their book of metaphors and fairy tales that it is evil for two dudes to kiss and love one another and it's horrible if two women make love with each other and have a stable loving home. Some guy chiseled that into a stone tablet back in the Bronze age so it must be true.

But people of reason and goodwill know it's not. And another thing we know is that if your religion and your church and your minister is against same sex marriage and extending civil rights to gays, lesbians, and transgendered folks then you are too . It doesn't matter if you say you're for same sex marriage, if your church is against it, then so are you. If you proclaim your love for gays and you say you want them to be able to get married, but if the religion you follow is against it, then so are you. If you are a Roman Catholic and you say, "I love teh gay! I want teh gays to get married!," but your church as a whole opposes same sex marriage and works to outlaw it, then you by your financial support, by your attendance, by your adherence to it's dogma, help keep those gays you claim to love from having marriage equality. Same goes if you're a United Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Sikh, a Muslim, a Seventh Day Adventist, a Scientologist, a what the fuck ever. If you really want to see gays get the right to marry then you need to stop supporting religious organizations that work their sanctimonious asses off to keep them from being equal.

Film director Paul Haggis put his money where his mouth was and he very publicly left the cult of Scientology over this issue. How many of you have left your church over it? How many of you pay lip service to loving gays and wanting gay marriage but still pay, through your donations, to keep gays separate and unequal?
But you know, having lived in the so called Bible belt for so many years amongst some of the most hypocritical people on earth when it comes to religion and sex, I can see how and why they hate gays so much. The born agains hate and fear gays because their Bible tells them to and because they are either uneducated or just plain ignorant. A former boss of mine, a reasonably intelligent woman with a college degree, once told me that she was glad that gays couldn't serve in the military because she was afraid if they were allowed to serve in the middle of battle those gays might be winking at other soldiers instead of trying to kill the enemy. And the sad truth is she's not the only one who thinks that gay people are some kind of hypersexed beasts who think of nothing but getting it on. When you hear someone claim they don't their kids around homos, it's a good bet they think that somehow gays can't control themselves sexually around anyone, especially kids.

While I can see why people who believe that witches are real and that the earth is only a little over 6000 years old hate gays and want to keep them from having the same freedoms and rights that straight people have, there is one group who's opposition to same sex marriage baffles me and that group is black people who lived through the Jim Crow years. If anyone would know what it feels like to be a second class citizen with the law stacked against them, then it's older black folks. The parallels between the struggle for civil rights for blacks in the 1950's and 1960's and the fight for equality for gay folks are as obvious as the noses on their faces. Both groups were ostracized and derided for seeking justice, both groups were beaten and mocked for seeking equality, both groups were told that the oppressors had the Bible and Jesus on their side, and both groups faced enormous amounts of hatred when they set out to gain rights that others had.

Just like in the struggle for civil rights for black folks, the federal government is going to have to step in on this one. If the government hadn't stepped in and forced schools to desegregate then it would never have happened. If Robert Kennedy and LBJ hadn't used the power of the federal government to stop voter intimidation then many black folks would still be unable to vote in many parts of this country.

The sad fact is that in this country the minority will always have to use the power of the courts and the federal government to gain equal rights. If we had put civil rights for blacks up for a vote back in the '60's like we do same sex marriage today, then blacks would still be living under Jim Crow laws today. It's time for our judges to become activist once again, like they did when Earl Warren was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and extend marriage rights to all the citizens of this nation.

Hater-ade

The hate crimes bill passed and was signed into law today, thank goodness. On one hand it's sad that we have to have another hate crimes bill but on the other when you have people like Bernie Goldberg who spew hate via their books and via their Fox 'News' appearances and then act all innocent and claim it's not their fault when someone acted on their words, then I guess we do need such a thing as a hate crimes bill.

Bernie Goldberg wrote a book that listed 100 people, mostly liberals, who were, in his opinion, destroying the USA. Then this nutcase
stocked up on ammo and decided to go shoot up a church full of liberals because he couldn't kill the people on Goldberg's list. And in his suicide note, he fully expected the police to shoot him dead but instead the wimpy liberals he wanted to kill stopped him and they held him for the police, he said that he was out to kill liberals and he wished he could kill all the liberals Goldberg pointed out in his book. So to me, that's a hate crime and Goldberg is just as guilty of the deaths of those people in that Unitarian church in Knoxville, TN as the man who pulled the trigger. And this kind of thing is what the hate crimes bill that was just signed into law does.

It doesn't make the twisting of Jesus's words illegal, as some on the right have claimed. Preachers can still interpret the gospels in such a way as to demonize gays, blacks, women, and Latinos if they so choose. What it does do is make the act of saying, "Jesus hates gays so it's okay to go out and beat them up or kill them."
So don't be freaking out you born agains, you can still get your hate for gays, women, blacks, Asians, Latinos, and us atheists on. What you can't do is call for us to get beaten or killed in the name of your twisted hateful brand of Christianity.

And no matter how much you born agains hate it, the hate crimes bill made our world a little bit safer from the likes of you.

By all means keep doing what you're doing

The right wingers are just beside themselves these days what with a black man being our President elect and bigger Democratic party majorities in the Congress. And I couldn't be happier. There's plenty of blame to go around for their losses and as usual there's plenty of bat shit crazy to go around when it comes to their thinking of how they can hijack the country once again.

I'm praying to the dark gods that spawned me that they keep the same people in power who led them to their current place. I'd love to see that fish faced prig from Kentucky Mitch McConnell stay the leader of the Republicans in the Senate and that conservative douche/gas bag Jim Boner stay in charge of the House Republicans. They poisoned the minds of many voters in the past two years with their obstructionist ways and the people rewarded them in kind. So hell yes, keep on listening to those two grinning baying jackals you Republicans, and while you're at it, find a few more like these two to lead your party in Congress long after they die.

Please right wingers, could you also keep listening to your media pundits? Laura Inghram is spot on when she says that you need to stop being moderates and go back to being even more conservative. Yes please! Do that! Follow Miss Laura and that pretty hateful little can of bile that is Michelle Malkin. Those two really know what they are talking about when they say that you've got to move further to the right, after all they're rich and somewhat famous, so in the minds of your party they are super in touch with what the people in the heartland and the fly over states want. Yes! Michelle, Coultergiest, and Laura all know that the people who live out here in the real America want more more more tax breaks for business and millionaires. They just know that we want to stay at war forever and ever and that we all hate gay and lesbian people. Heck yes, these three have their heads planted firmly up their asses so please oh pretty please keep on listening to them.

And don't forget your terrible trio of male pundits, Rush, Rove, and Bill Kristol, who need to be kept on and left to blather their nonsense at all costs. All three got everything wrong. All three are helping kill any chance you once had at a permanent Republican majority. All three offer nothing but failed policies and division, so yes please, keep all three and give them more air time! Give them each their own TV show!! Hell, give them their own freakin' TV channel!!!

Don't forget not to kick those religious nut bags like Dobson, Rick Warren, and Pat Robertson out of your party as well. You need to stay in bed with those people just like you've done for the past 30 years. They really know what they're talking about when they say that Jesus hates teh gay, lazy people, and the poor and that only rich white folk are going to heaven. Forgiveness? Not so much. Hatred and demonizing of any one who isn't one of them, hell yeah! Shoot yeah, you keep those nut bags in your Grand Old Party forever because they give the Christian religion such a good name!

Oh yeah, let's not forget your pretty new fairy princess Sarah Palin. Please, oh, pretty please make her the head of your party. She's just what you guys need. It's time for someone who rose to power by swimming in the corrupt murky waters that are Alaska politics to lead you. It's time for an intellectual lightweight who can't speak in complete sentences to be your standard bearer. Yes, by all means give the reins of power to a person who has led only a tiny town and the least populous state in the union. Yes, oh yes, let someone who wears her badge of ignorance proudly lead your party... straight off the cliff.

While I'm on the subject of Sarah Palin let's get a few things straight:

• It's not sexist to accuse her of being unintelligent because she is pretty dumb, she thinks the world is only 6000 years old and that her god put everything where you see it today.
• It's not sexist to bring up the fact that the RNC spent god knows how much money on her wardrobe while they preached fiscal responsibility for the rest of us.
• It's not sexist to say that she appeals to the worst elements of the Republican base and that her job in the McCain campaign was to look pretty and be the attack dog at the same time.
• It's not sexist to point out she has no idea what freedom of speech is and what Vice President's job is.
• It's entirely fair to demand to know about the associations of her and her husband with people who hate this country. Her husband after all was in a political party that wants Alaska to secede from our union.

So hells yeah Republicans, keep doing what you're doing because it's working for me and millions of other liberals and progressives like me. Keep going to the right, keep on listening to rich people who "know" what we working class schlubs want, and stop that centerist shit this instant. If you don't stop it, then a couple of guys who dodged the draft during the Vietnam war, Ted Nugent and Dick Cheney, will shoot you in the face.

Goodbye Madam

Obama's grandmother has died and my sympathies are with him and his family. I'm sure she passed comfortably and with the knowledge that her grandson was going to become the next President of the United States.


To find out how the right wingers in this nation feel about Obama losing his grandmother, the woman who raised him after his mother died, go read the commenter's at Malkin's blog. I refuse to link to her hateful blog but if you're so inclined go see what the people who are supposed to be lovers of Christ say about this sad event.

Stay classy you right wingers!

Here's a truly sick quote from a right wing blog:

Obama dropped everything in the last two weeks of a heated Presidential campaign to visit his sick grandma in Hawaii today (any grandma worth her salt would have said, "don't be silly, win the presidency and visit me in two weeks).

I knew these people could not contain themselves. I knew from the second I heard he was going to visit his ailing Grandmother that they would claim all sorts of crap. I figured it would be that he was going out there to make sure that only he was in the will, but they've gone even lower than that. They're claiming he's going out to Hawaii to quash his old birth certificate that shows he was born outside of the USA, which I find really funny. The man who was born in the USA, no matter how they parse it Hawaii is in the USA, is being challenged by supporters of the man who was born outside of the USA, Bush McCain was born in Panama on a US military base.

If Sen. Obama hadn't gone to see his ailing Grandmother and she died while on the campaign trail they would have claimed he was cold, callous, politically manipulating, and unconcerned with the lives of those around him. They would have said that he cares more about getting elected than he does about the woman who helped make hm what he is today. But in their sick twisted eyes he's not only damned if he doesn't, he's damned if he does because evidently only they know what sick grandma's worth their salt would say.

I wonder if those right wing bloggers ever get tired of being the moral compass for our country? Do they ever get tired of being the only ones who do the correct thing? I hope their heads explode when Obama wins this thing in a landslide electoral college victory.

Behold the new face of crazy:

Poor Jon Voight, he's convinced himself that only Bush McCain/Palin have real "American" values and that he's scared of the tall highly educated black man in the Presidential race. Boy howdy, who knew that he'd turn out to be such a douche?

Hey dumbass, most of us out here in the flyover states aren't scared of a black President, but we are scared of a nutty old coot who's had more cancer than he'll admit to and his wolf shooting Pentecostal running mate who hasn't read a fucking book in years. You may be scared of a black guy who is going to raise your taxes Mr. Movie Star, but we're not.

A gentle reminder

If the baby Jesus can forgive Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Newt Gingrich, John McCain, Larry Craig, and David Vitter, and if he lets Jerry Falwell, and all those other bigoted hateful people, like the Catholic missionaries who forced Christianity on aboriginal peoples at the point of a sword, then I bet he forgives John Edwards too.

Oh, by the way Slappy, your comments only stay up as long as it takes me to notice them and then they go down. It's a shame that no one in the liberal/progressive blogoshpere reads your little rants so you have to resort to posting your inane comments on our blogs. As soon as I see you left one of your little invective comments here I don't even bother to read it, I just delete it as soon as I sign in. Feel free to write what you like on your blog and I'll feel free never to go there and read it. This is the USA after all and I have all the freedom in the world to ignore your blog.