July 29, 2009

Good As You’s Message for Petey LaBarbera We’re Going to Steal and Record on Our Answering Machine

“This from America in general: Because a great nation screens”:

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April 3, 2009

Tobias Davis, Since Your Comments Aren’t Working, I’ll Challenge You Here

Tobias, I think you are lying — or regurgitating lies fed to you without using the critical thinking skills your god gave you:

Protests against Proposition 8 resort to violence

In California, homosexual protesters against the recently passed proposition 8 are resorting to violence to argue their view.

A group of 10-20 Christians had been gathered on a street corner in San Francisco’s “Castro” district, quietly praying and singing, when a group of men began yelling and shouting profanities, warning the Christians to leave the district. The group of Christians were backed into a corner, had hot coffee poured on some of them, were hit on the head, and some Christians were pushed to the ground and kicked. The mob-like crowd which was violently harassing the Christians started taking pictures, shouting “We know where you live” and “We’re going to kill you,” and continuously blowing shrieking whistles directly in their ears. Police officers in raid gear had to be called to get the Christians safely out, with the mob of homosexuals following for several blocks, still shouting and screaming.

In another related event, a little old lady showed up to a homosexual protest holding a simple cross, as a simple counter-protest to the larger group. Within seconds the mob had torn the cross from her hands, broken it apart on the ground, surrounded her, and began shouting and pushing at her. In this case a News Agency was there, and it did not appear that the Police were called.

While it might be nice to believe that this was an isolated event, the truth is that most of the homosexual community in California has resorted to these violent and under-handed tactics. Searching news sources online for terms such as “california church vandalism” pulled up immediate hits for recent events related to violence protesting proposition 8. …

If you’re talking about this incident in the Castro, it happened last November, and there was no “violence.” You show me verifiable news reports that the “group of Christians were backed into a corner, had hot coffee poured on some of them, were hit on the head, and some Christians were pushed to the ground and kicked.” And I mean verifiable, from the mainstream media — or, better yet, police reports — and not the fantastical delusions pulled out of Petey LaBarbera’s diseased imagination, or the Weekly World News School of Reporting from LifeSiteNews.

In other words, Tobias: Prove it. Prove it all. Hell, prove any of it.

And as for that poor widdle “persecuted” lady with the styrofoam cross, there’s a reason the phrases “Attention Whore with a Persecution Agenda,” “Delusional Nutbag,” and “Off Her Meds” come to mind every time I think of her.

Phrases which, for some strange reason, come to mind every time I read a blog post like yours.

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January 18, 2009

Doubletree Hotel Chain: If No One’s Called a Boycott Yet, We Will

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November 21, 2008

That “Christian” “Lady” with the Styrofoam Cross? Looks Like Just Another Desperate Attention Whore with a Persecution Agenda

Joe, “The Truth About Phyllis Burgess:

There’s more to the story of Phylliss Burgess, 69, the “Styrofoam Cross Lady” that is currently the darling of Christianist websites after her cross was ripped from her hands and stomped during a Prop 8 rally in Palm Springs. If you buy the story being told on right-wing sites, Burgesss is a frail, elderly, innocent victim of “gay fascists.”

But it turns out that Burgess is somewhat of a professional rabble-rouser and has disrupted at least several other LGBT events, including Palm Springs Gay Pride. Burgess even showed up to protest at the White Party, a giant circuit party held every spring.

On CNN’s iReport, a witness to the cross incident tells a somewhat different version of the event than the one depicted on the news video that is on so many right-wing sites.

At City Hall a woman with a huge styrofoam cross appeared screaming about YES on 8 at the back of the crowd of NO on 8 supporters — their rally. She wanted to get to where the speakers were up front and I saw her knock a disabled man, a NO on 8 supporter to the ground, screaming, “Get out of my way!”. People in the crowd around her tore away her cross and threw it to the ground and began pushing her. Local CBS channel 2 and KMIR channel 6 videotaped the woman being shoved and then interviewed her, ignoring the poor disabled man who was attacked first. Later after all of the rally, march and protest were over I watched the news which headlined this as “Gay Protest Turns Violent!”

Joe also cites the always-enjoyable Mike Tidmus, who has more on the tighty-righty spin, including extensive quotes from professional gay-hater and Folsom Street leather obsessive Peter LaBarbera (whose fondness for the word “homo-fascists” could be taken as a clue about Petey’s fantasy life, but we cannot draw that conclusion, not being actual shrinks who specialize in what we like to call The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, MeThinks Syndrome).

Joe also notes:

Burgess is apparently well-known to the Palm Springs police and she informed them in advance that she would be attending the No On 8 candlelight vigil during which the cross incident occurred. Several days later, new cross in hand, she again appeared, this time at the Palm Springs Village Fest, telling the press, “I have a right to be here. It’s not to antagonize, but it exposes where the hatred is.”

Check out Burgess’ MySpace page in which she rails against gay rights. The gay people who snatched and stomped Burgess’ cross were definitely in the wrong, but it’s clear that she is a professional agitator and hardly an “innocent victim.”

We did check out her MySpace page (Wow! Three whole “friends,” including “Tom“!), and have concluded that Phyllis Burgess is a certified Hateful Old Sow doing a cheap knockoff impression of the Westboro Baptist Church (which, to its credit, for lack of a better word, just stands there and says hateful things while holding hateful signs; at least the Phelps Family doesn’t get into anybody else’s space, or face).

Here’s the nasty thing, with a couple of choice blog entries:

Friday, November 14, 2008

Repentence

This is regarding the Palm Springs Village Fest March

I carried the cross and a message: Shake the Hate out of 8. As I approached the crowd, a big tough biker that told me he was homosexual said to me, “I am so sorry what I did to you. Can you forgive me?” And then he not only asked for forgiveness for himself, but he then said, “can you forgive what we all did to you? You had every right to be there and do what you did.” I told him that I love him, I forgive you, and I forgive all of you. I knew that by doing this God’s love would flow to and through us. And at that instant of forgiveness, I knew that he was sincere, and that there was a lot of sorry. And because of that forgiveness, and because I want God’s love to reach all of us, I am announcing that I WILL NOT PRESS CHARGES for what they did to me; I forgive them. I will not press charges and I believe I’m doing what Christ did for us on the cross by saying, “Father forgive them; they know not what they do.” All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that includes me and I work on it everyday.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Wake up out of your STUPOR Palm Springs

STUPOR..a state of reduced sensibility; lethargy; mental confusion; daze

The “no” on Prop 8 crowd not only has a ban list, but has started an attack against Desert Sun/Gannett News reporter Nicole Brambila to get her to downgrade the truth (as seen on live tv, on Nov 7.) Note in the following hate blog where Blue Beaumont Boyz aka Blue Palm Springs Boyz begin the verbal whipping of Nicole:

“In two online articles that night, Nicole Brambila, writer for the Desert Sun, focused on the behavior of a couple of people who behaved badly rather on the positive statements at the rallys and the enthusiam of hundreds of local townspeople.” Nicole is further critized for issues of credibility.

See the hate blog for yourself at

http://www.mydesert.com/…

After you read this, you will see that this incident of the ripping the cross out of my hand, has exposed a bigger can of worms: MANIPULATION OF THE PRESS AND THE WHOLE TRUTH. Their efforts to censor the reporter also exposes the hate list generators that want to take down businesses and any individual who disagrees with them. I will further expose GINNY FOAT’s alliance with this agenda and her denouncement of her alliance at the Palm Springs City Hall Meeting of November 14. 2008. You can go to Palm Springs City Hall and purchase the complete meeting. I, Phyllis Burgess just purchased my copy on DVD for only $10. GINNY’s agenda at this city hall meeting was to further extend her hatred and likened me to some family that exercises vulgarities at random funerals and gay functions. GINNY’s credibility as a community leader is to be questioned as she blatently lied on this DVD. She portrays this group of 500 candlight folks as being attacked at a moment of sorrowfulness while screeching out to the media from her hate list. Granted, there was some genuine sorrow of same sex couples; nevertheless, they were used as a backdrop, WHILE GINNY STIRRED THE HATRED OF THE GROUP. I’m sure this will all be taken into consideration as I have heard that the police department is looking into aspects of this being a HATE CRIME.

Did I say I thought she looks like “Just Another Attention Whore with a Persecution Agenda”? I’m sorry, I forgot to add “Delusional Nutbag” and “Off Her Meds” in there somewhere.

Nevertheless, she is the perfect poster-thing for the Radical Religious Right mob that stripped us of our equality because they actually, like, speak for God and all that.

And, who knows? With the right management, the old girl may get her 15 minutes’ fame as the next “God Warrior”:

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September 19, 2008

Anti-Gay Blog Cherry-Picks Varnum v. Brien for “Six Consequences” Workaround

Freedom Writer

My daily Google Alert for “mean-spirited, ignorant, and/or deliberately misleading homophobes who want to permanently classify me as three-fifths of a person, probably because they can’t do it to African-Americans anymore, and LGBTs are the last group they can piss on to make themselves feel better about their sorry, narrowminded existence you couldn’t pay me enough money to live through, and if I’d been born them, I’d shoot myself in order to make the world a better place”…

I’m kidding. It wasn’t anything in my Google Alert (for, simply, “Proposition 8″) that caught my eye this morning, but a Google query in my server logs that didn’t fit in with the thousands of hits from queries for “how stupid is sarah palin” and “black lesbians” and “why does kkk vote republican” (although there haven’t been any searches yet for “folsom street leathermen video whip beat naked,” so I guess Petey LaBarbera hasn’t sat down at his computer today):

My first thought was: I wonder if Gus Van Sant finally kicked in some cash to defeat Proposition 8?

Hitting the corresponding Google link, I didn’t find any such news — but I did find a hit for a pro-Prop 8 blog, yesproposition8.blogspot.com/, citing — get this — Harvey Milk Day as yet another justification for supporting Prop 8 and denying us our rights:

More and more, the No crowd is using public schools as propaganda engines. The defeat of Proposition 8 will ensure continual indoctrination.

Okaaaaaaaaaaay.

Never mind that Mark Leno introduced A.B. 2567 back in February — three months before the California Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on marriage equality — and never mind that Harvey Milk Day has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with equal marriage, Proposition 8, Proposition 22, or the man in the bloody moon for that matter.

I shouldn’t be surprised that any anti-gay crusader would grasp for the most vacuous evidence of “indoctrination” (If my children have to breathe the same air as homosexuals, they will be indoctrinated!) — such are the unthinking, singleminded robots, fools, and downright liars fueling the idiocy of all anti-gay propaganda, from “Six Consequences If Proposition 8 Fails” to Fred Phelps’ conviction that “God hates fags” because America refuses to kill queers to Jerry Falwell’s certainty that “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America” were responsible for a bunch of freedom-hating Saudi religious extremists (gosh! the irony!) of flying planes into the World Trade Center and killing 3,000 people.

So, I figure, if this anti-equality blogger will go as far as trying to connect Harvey Milk Day to the downfall of civilization, there ought to be some other real turd nuggets in the rest of this genius’s posts.

And, I thought: I bet I find “Mormon” written all over this blog.

It didn’t take long to confirm that conclusion:

August 29, 2008

I recently read The Divine Institution of Marriage…

Ah, yes, “The Divine Institution of Marriage” — the Mormon church’s attempt to clarify its full-frontal attack on gay and lesbian couples, which is essentially based on a single argument, repeated in more ways to put you into a coma than a year’s worth of “Lawrence Welk Show” reruns: that same-sex marriage is inferior because it cannot result in the production of biological children, and that Mormons should oppose same-sex marriage because children should only be raised in homes with one male parent and one female parent.

Yep, you read that right: The LDS’s alleged rationale is that same-sex marriage is bad because it does not produce children — and those children that can’t exist in the first place belong in straight households.

(Hey, it’s their knuckleheaded argument, not mine.)

August 27, 2008: The blogger links to a Mormon anti-marriage video on YouTube.

And, throughout the rest of the blog (which has been in existence only since August), the blogger notes the days he’s gone door-to-door to canvass for Prop 8.

If this guy’s not a Mormon, he should be.

Oh, but don’t get the idea that this dude is a homophobe — he’s got close, personal friends who are gay, so he can’t be a homophobe!

Rrrrrrrrrrright.

But now we come to the real poop in the pool: “Summary of Potential Legal Consequences of SSM,” in which Mister “Some of My Best Friends Are Gay” quotes “an amicus brief filed by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in an Iowa lawsuit which provided the court with an explanation of what dangers SSM poses to religious liberties.” Since he got his ass kicked by Tom Bestor in the comments section after posting the “Six Consequences” lies (I posted a comment too, and invited the blogger to surprise me by approving it), I guess he had to find something that hasn’t been debunked point by point, and sounds, you know, reeeeeal official-like, being an amicus brief and all, which is, you know, italicized, so it must be the ultimate authority, right?

Let me tell you about that amicus brief.

First, let’s get our terms straight (so to speak): An amicus curiae — “friend of the court” — brief is an opinion filed by a person or (usually) an organization, often not a party to litigation, but who believes he/she/it has certain information that may help the court render a decision in a specific case, and/or believes his/her/its own interest may be affected by that decision. (As I always say, I’m no lawyer, but I know my basics.)

The case in question is Varnum v. Brien, described most succinctly by the NCLR:

Six Iowa same-sex couples brought suit seeking the right to marry under the Iowa constitution. In August 2007, the Iowa District Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples access to marriage. The opposition filed for an appeal and a “stay” on the decision the next day, which were granted. The case is now pending before the highest state court in the state court system. Lambda Legal represents the couples. NCLR submitted an amicus brief with co-counsel McGuire Woods LLP and Joseph Barron, Esq. on behalf of several professors of family law in support of the couples, addressing the use of social science research in constitutional cases.

Here’s the court’s conclusion (full doc in PDF):

The Court concludes that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that Plaintiffs are entitled to judgment as a matter of law but Defendant is not. Because $595.2(1) violates Plaintiffs’ due process and equal protection rights for the aforementioned reasons including, but not limited to, the absence of a rational relationship to the achievement of any legitimate governmental interest, the Court concludes it is unconstitutional and invalid. Couples, such as Plaintiffs, who are otherwise qualified to marry one another may not be denied licenses to marry or certificates of marriage or in any other way prevented from entering into a civil marriage pursuant to Iowa Code Chapter 595 by reason of the fact that both persons comprising such a couple are of the same sex.

$595.2(1) must be nullified, severed and stricken from Chapter 595 and all remaining provisions of Chapter 595 must be read and applied in a gender neutral manner so as to permit same-sex couples to enter into a civil marriage pursuant to said chapter.

ORDER

It Is Therefore Ordered, Adjudged, and Decreed as follows:

1. Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is GRANTED and Defendant’s opposing motion for summary judgment is DENIED.

2. Iowa Code §595.2(1) is hereby nullified, severed and stricken fiom Iowa Code Chapter 595.

3. All remaining provisions of Iowa Code Chapter 595 are to be interpreted in a gender-neutral manner so as not to exclude couples of the same sex from eligibility for a marriage license.

4. Defendant is hereby enjoined from refusing to issue marriage licenses to Plaintiffs or any other same-sex couples who a) are otherwise eligible for said licenses pursuant to Chapter 595 as amended and interpreted by this order, and b) who properly apply for such licenses.

5. Court costs are hereby taxed to Defendant.

Dated this 30th day of August, 2007.

[signed]
ROBERT B. HANSEN, JUDGE
Fifth Judicial District of Iowa

In other words, the blogger is quoting an amicus brief that presented “no genuine issues of material fact,” in a case in which equality won, and the anti-gay side lost.

Our little friend states, with no qualifiers, that this brief is an “explanation of what dangers SSM poses to religious liberties.” If you read the entire brief, you’ll see it’s little more than the same fearmongering and unsubstantiated projections underlying the “Six Consequences” propaganda (Christians will be persecuted! We’re all going to get suuuuuuuuuuuuuuued by the homos!) — and is probably the original basis for “Six Consequences.”

It’s a steaming load. But it’s worth the read if you’d like to see how lawyers with an agenda try to prop up the anti-gay attacks with a lot of hot air — and lots of boring footnotes so that it all looks real important and legal-like.

Wait. How can I assume the lawyers who wrote this brief have an agenda?

Because it was written by Anthony R. Picarello, Jr., and Roger T. Severino.

Picarello is general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Now, what do you think the USCCB’s position on marriage equality is?

Uh-huh.

And Severino? He can speak for himself — and has:

The experience of legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, and of civil unions elsewhere, cannot be ignored. It shows that, even with the best of intentions, legalizing same-sex marriage will seriously undermine the religious freedom citizens have enjoyed since the founding.

Although the First Amendment protects dissenting houses of worship from being forced to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies against their will, that is not the end of the story — it is barely even the beginning.

Simply changing the definition of marriage opens the door to a flood of lawsuits against dissenting religious institutions based on state public accommodation and employment laws that prohibit marital status and sexual orientation discrimination.

Additionally, religious institutions that refuse to recognize a new state-imposed definition could be stripped of access to government programs, have their tax exemption denied and even lose the ability to solemnize civil marriages.

We need only look at Massachusetts for a preview of what to expect. There, in 2004, justices of the peace who refused to solemnize same-sex unions due to religious objections were summarily fired.

It did not matter that other justices of the peace were available to do the job because, by Massachusetts law, same-sex unions were now entitled to equal treatment. A religious belief became a firing offense. …

Blah blah blah Ginger blah Ginger blah blah blah blah…

You’ve heard all this crap before.

Picarello and Severino wrote the Varnum v. Brien brief on behalf of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which bills itself as a “nonprofit, nonpartisan, and interfaith” “public interest law firm protecting the free expression of all religious traditions.”

I find that extremely difficult to believe.

What would you call a law firm that bestows “Courage in Defense of Religious Liberty” awards on equality-hating religious zealots like Mitt Romney and convicted felon and certified wingnut Chuck Colson (award to Elie Wiesel notwithstanding)? I know what I’d call it, but I won’t.

Then you’ve got Becket Fund CEO Kevin “Seamus” Hasson, who…

…worked for the Reagan administration handling church-state matters in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel under Samuel Alito, whom he calls a “stickler for the law.”

…and who insists that the “right answer” to the war between the Christian Right and secularists is “the Catholic answer. It’s natural for us to seek the true and the good — to seek God. The religious impulse to seek God flows from the human intellect and the human heart. Therefore, religious expression is natural to human culture.”

So, in Hasson’s world, “religious liberty” doesn’t extend to liberty from religion.

Hasson is also a hypocritical flip-flopper. In the 2006 interview linked above, he stated:

“The Becket Fund is different from everything else out there. We defend religious liberty and only religious liberty. We don’t get involved in the marriage issue, pro-family stuff or pro-life cases.”

Oh, really now? Then why did the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty just publish an entire book — Same-Sex Marriage: Emerging Conflicts — and in pushing the book, conclude that “legalization of same-sex marriage poses a direct threat to the civil liberties of religious Americans who oppose homosexuality”?

(Just guess who one of the three editors of Same-Sex Marriage: Emerging Conflicts is? Yep: Anthony R. Picarello, Jr.)

If you’d like to read the last chapter of Same-Sex Marriage: Emerging Conflicts, it’s available in PDF right here.

Granted, the issue is explored from both sides — but why publish such a book if you have no intention of getting involved “in the marriage issue”?

Sounds like the Becket Fund is neck-deep in “the marriage issue.” Well, why not? It’s a great way to sell books.

The punch line to all this would be pretty funny if we LGBTs weren’t the target of this crusade:

You’ve got a Mormon blogger citing Catholic lawyers who are pumping up an anti-gay crusade headed by evangelicals who discriminate against Jews.

The only thing all these groups agree on is that gays are bad and should be persecuted and legislated out of society without recourse, through all the ballot measures money can buy.

And all these groups (except for Jews, who are largely out of the picture, and don’t believe in hell anyway) think they’re right and everybody else is wrong and going straight to hell, and nobody involved in the anti-gay crusade realizes they’re all just chumps (Chino Blanco’s apt word) for the same ugly little man behind the curtain.

And when all is said and done, they’ll all go back to hating one another again.

Politics, as they say, makes strange bedfellows. But it should come as no surprise to anyone that such natural enemies as the Mormons, the Catholics, and the born-again-Taliban would band together for the sole purpose of attacking gay people, because this is what they do.

This is what religious extremism is: Forging an identity through a common bogeyman.

I keep urging you to read Chris Hedges, and I hope you have by now. My dog-eared copy of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America is the only thing that’s saved my sanity when trying to figure out how the fervently religious can preach the love of Jesus yet be so damned hostile to us, and attack us, aggressively, and repeatedly — when we have never done anything to them, much less engage in all this imaginary “Christian persecution” they keep screaming about.

Now I understand why. The path to understanding is what I imagine it might be like to consume a lot of drugs and alcohol, stay awake for a week, get abducted by a UFO, and then stay up another week and watch Eraserhead fifty times in a row. It’s that convoluted and unbelievable — but the final, chilling, horrifying truth is very, very simple:

They need somebody to hate, or they don’t know who they are.

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July 29, 2008

Rabid Religious Righties Brand Church Shooter Atheist Attack Dog. As Usual, the Right is Wrong.

Mere moments after the story broke of hate-filled whackjob Jim David Adkisson barging into a children’s production of Annie inside Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and opening fire on the crowd, CINO (Christian-In-Name-Only) fundamentalists (emphasis on “mental”) everywhere pounced:

Atheist attacks church! See how Christians are persecuted, and murdered by godless heathens! The atheist movement is on the march! It’s the end of the world! …

What, you don’t believe me? Here, see for yourself just a few of the delirious reactions:

A delusional dissonant (notice the anti-humanist, anti-science bent of the recent posts) at something called Recrudescent Religion titles his (her? its?) blog post, “When Atheists Attack,” reasoning (for lack of a better word) that this Adkisson fella couldn’t be a lib’rul-hatin’ right-winger, ‘cuz the paper says he wuz a real nice guy who just turned bad, ‘cuz… well, ‘cuz he was a God-hater, just all the rest of them atheists, like he musta been, dawgawnit:

If you’ve been following the news, you are surely aware of the recent mass-shooting attack at a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tennesee. If not, then click here to find out. The news media at this stage appear to be trying to spin it as “a right winger attacks a liberal church”, or some such rubbish. However, this is not supported by the actual evidence. …

So, you have a guy who is bitter that his parents “made him go to church all his life”, who rants and raves about the “Bible contradicting itself”, and who becomes inexplicably angry when a neighbour tells him that her daughter just graduated from a Bible college. This sounds suspiciously like the formula we see with so many of the so-called “New Atheists”. Even the fact that he attacked an Unitarian Universalist assembly doesn’t necessarily argue against the notion that he was an angry God-hater. Most God-haters out there are so mixed up they can’t (or simply won’t) make a distinction between far-left groups like the UUs and fundamentalists - anyone smacking of religion draws their ire.

We can probably expect to see more of this sort of thing in this country for as long as the secularist worldview continues to advance in this country. Let’s face it - secularism is no more “rational” than anything else, despite its pretentions. Just as there are always some Muslims who will cross the line into violence because of their religious beliefs, there are secular fundamentalists who will also.

Ignoring the idiotic oxymoron “secular fundamentalist,” if there’s ever been an atheist who ran around shooting at Christians, I can’t name him. Even apart from institutionalized, societally-sanctioned, mass hate crimes instigated and carried out by sworn Christians (e.g., the Salem witch trials, the European Inquisitions, the Holocaust), more murders in which the victim represented a targeted group have been executed by the devoutly religious than by atheists.

Prove me wrong, Tighty Righties. I dare you.

Next, here’s some real Red-under-every-bed lunacy from something called The Delete France News Blog (which was cross-posted on several other right-wing-lunatic blogs, but for reasons not too hard to fathom, has since been scrubbed):

The police are being very quiet about this shooting and the suspect that was caught. I wonder why? Is this due to all of the anti-Religion hate speech coming from “the left” these days? I am not sure if you people noticed that there is a huge atheist movement going on right now. Christianity is being bashed from all angles and it is interesting that this shooter was a stranger to the church, nobody recognized him.

Religion is the thorn in the side to all Marxists that have a Global communism agenda. They feel it must be discredited and destroyed to allow their evil ideology take over.

When a commenter points out that the target was “a left wing, pro-gay Unitarian Church,” the blogger responds:

Well he was obviously further left then the commies running the church

…and later remarks:

13 people were just killed in Turkey, I am sure leftists were behind that one too….I will check that out later

And a hotbed of ignorance (and racism) that calls itself Serr8d’s Cutting Edge concludes, under the title, “Atheist madman kills two in Knoxville Church“:

The FBI was investigating, in case this was a ‘hate crime’. Funny that; all murder is hate. And, Christians aren’t on the leftist’s ‘protected’ list.

In other words, there’s no such thing as a hate crime, unless Christians are the target. Got it.

On a highly reactionary, end-of-times fundy forum called TheologyOnline.com, where the story is posted under the subject line, “Loving Atheist Enters Church and Opens Fire…,” brave dissidents who dared challenge the inevitable conclusion that Adkisson was a Christian-killing atheist were promptly shouted down, and in at least one case, banned.

Of course, posters toeing the poor-little-persecuted-Christians/it’s a sign of the end times! line (while backhanding the UU church) are still active and in good standing; e.g.:

Something tells me that if a man walks into a church and shouts “hateful things” as reported by congregation members before opening fire, he isn’t a Christian. Or it could have been a religious fanatic. It was a Unitarian church after all.

In a back-and-forth between the OP and the banned poster, the OP reacts to the reminder of Killer Christians (by way of witch hunts, the Inquisitions, and anti-Semitism) with nothing more or less than because-I-say-so insistence:

You will know them by their fruits. If anyone does these things, they are not Christian, though they may claim to be.

Finally backed into a corner, the OP blows off the issue with:

So I assumed a religion-hater did it. Is something bad going to happen now?

Hm, let me see… Assigning blame to a member of a specific minority group for a heinous crime, refusing to correct the ASS-umption, and finally equating atheists with “religion-haters”… Yeah, I’d say something bad happened: The OP just spread more lies about atheists and propagated more hatred against atheists.

Some “Christian.”

No matter — that Adkisson sure sounds like a real Christian-hater, doesn’t he?

Uh, no, he doesn’t. Apart from the idea that Unitarian Universalism isn’t your traditional Christian church (I’ll leave it up to UU’s to explain what it is), Jim David Adkisson was no atheist targeting the Lord’s People.

Per Duncan Mansfield:

A four-page letter found in Jim D. Adkisson’s small SUV indicated he intentionally targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because, the police chief said, “he hated the liberal movement” and was upset with “liberals in general as well as gays.” …

Adkisson was a loner who hates “blacks, gays and anyone different from him,” longtime acquaintance Carol Smallwood of Alice, Texas, told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

So now we know his motive. And the reason he picked TVUU as his target? It’s not lost on anyone that the church (which is welcoming and affirming), had recently erected a sign: “Gays Welcome.”

Bizarrely, Adkisson is “a 58-year-old truck driver on the verge of losing his food stamps” — “It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement,” said the chief of police — and he blames liberals for his predicament? Liberals, the unyielding promoters and defenders of labor and social welfare programs that made it possible for him to get those food stamps in the first place?

Makes perfect sense… but only to Joe Conservative.

And, as far as Adkisson’s unemployment goes, he can thank the Bush administration and the rest of the “Let them eat… nothing!” Republicans for the abysmal economic climate that’s killing blue-collars joes like himself.

But it sounds like Adkisson drank the Blame-the-Liberals-and-Gays Kool-Aid — gallons of it — and it’s no secret who spiked his glass. Just as Timothy McVeigh was “inspired” to blow up 168 people inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by the neo-Nazi bible The Turner Diaries, Adkisson appears to have been “inspired” by the non-stop hate speech of such rabid liberal-haters as Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, and Sean Hannity:

Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity
on accused shooter’s reading list

Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals “who are ruining the country,” court records show. …

Adkisson targeted the church, [Knoxville Police Department Officer Steve Still] wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, “because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country’s hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets.”

Adkisson told Still that “he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office.” …

Inside the house, officers found “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by radio talk show host Michael Savage, “Let Freedom Ring” by talk show host Sean Hannity, and “The O’Reilly Factor,” by television talk show host Bill O’Reilly. …

Owen said Adkisson specifically targeted the church for its beliefs, rather than a particular member of the congregation.

“It appears that church had received some publicity regarding its liberal stance,” the chief said. The church has a “gays welcome” sign and regularly runs announcements in the News Sentinel about meetings of the Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays meetings at the church.

Owen said Adkisson’s stated hatred of the liberal movement was not necessarily connected to any hostility toward Christianity or religion per say, but rather the political advocacy of the church.

The church’s Web site states that it has worked for “desegregation, racial harmony, fair wages, women’s rights and gay rights” since the 1950s. Current ministries involve emergency aid for the needy, school tutoring and support for the homeless, as well as a cafe that provides a gathering place for gay and lesbian high-schoolers. …

What’s more, Dark Christianity — in a well-thought-out post full of excellent research — is mulling over Adkisson’s possible far-right/dominionist links:

There’s been speculation on anti-dominionist forums on LJ that a recent church shooting (at a Unitarian church) may have been the work of a dominionist — unfortunately, this is not unlikely, as UU churches have been explicitly targeted for protests by dominionist groups and the incident occured in Knoxville, located in a part of Tennessee that is a wee bit of a dominionist hotbed. …

I will note at present, as a caveat, that we do *not yet know* what dominionist groups — if any — he was a member of; it should be noted that “Christian Patriot” militia groups and “Joel’s Army” groups *are* rather popular in eastern TN — and this is also an area of the country where there is more overt “Joel’s Army” influence over the Southern Baptist Convention than is apparent in much of the country. Eastern TN, including Knoxville itself, also has one of the decidedly larger concentrations of active Klan groups and Christian Identity groups in the US. There *is* some indication, per articles in Knoxville media (below), that the shooter did tend to have similar viewpoints to Christian Identity and Klan groups — especially in regards to anti-African American and anti-LGBT sentiments. It should also be noted, however, that there are also plenty of *non-dominionist* racist groups; western North Carolina in particular has been noted as a hotbed of not just dominionist-linked racist groups but also groups like neo-Nazis and “Confederate Skins”.

Here’s something that dovetails with that thought, from WBIR’s timeline of the shooting:

A neighbor told 10News Adkisson described himself as a “Confederate” and a “believer in the old South.” She says Adkisson self-identified in this way to her on more than one occasion, but that she didn’t know what he meant by it.

Hmmm.

Back to Dark Christianity:

There *may* be dominionist links, even aside from the obvious — namely, with the damage caused by dominionist coercive groups. Per a report in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the shooter may have been forced as a child to attend First Christian Church of Harriman, TN; First Christian Church is part of an association of “nondenominational Christian Churches” often linked to dominionism and does have a bibolatrous statement of faith. It also has connections with an explicitly dominionist anti-reproductive-health group that specialises in confrontational protest–including an exhortation to pastors to “put their lives and ministries on the line” (comparing persons who support the right to choose who would personally not have an abortion to Pontius Pilate); it explicitly promotes setting up dominionist steeplejacking of not just culture but the country, at one point, subtly hints that the US is considered a “pagan nation”, and there is also the distinct possibility that the anti-abortion group may be an Assemblies front or closely related due to known links with Assemblies frontgroup Mercy Ministries. The imagery in the church newsletter tends to be telling. There are also reports from relatives he may have had psychological issues as a youth, apparently was adopted as an infant in an arranged adoption, and had longterm harassment even after moving away by his dominionist adoptive parents and ongoing issues related to this; hence there is a real possibility complex PTSD may be a factor in a similar manner to Matthew Murray’s final breakdown.

There is also evidence that the assailant has a long history of violence and threatened violence. At one point this resulted in filing of an EPO by his ex-wife due to threats to shoot himself and his wife; the same ex-spouse has reported he was heavily into conspiracy theories re the government and hated “”blacks, gays, anyone who was a different color or just different from him”. Again, evidence points to complex PTSD as a potential factor. …

Among other things, writings by several neoconservative authors that have expressed sympathy with dominionist viewpoints (including Michael Savage, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly) have been found; among other groups, Media Matters for America has reported on inflammatory speech by these authors. Shows by these writers also tend to get play on dominionist networks, often as the only secular material (for instance, Fox News is the sole secular news provider on the dominionist DSS service Sky Angel). …

Reader dogemperor adds:

[Adkisson] being “force-fed the Bible” has been confirmed per the Knoxville News-Sentinel:
 

According to Massey, Adkisson talked frequently about his parents, who “made him go to church all his life. … He acted like he was forced to do that.”

(I’ve noted the church does appear to have strong dominionist links, and it does appear he was adopted in what may be a private adoption; this is, unfortunately, quite common among dominionist adoptions.)

The rather strong reaction he had with news of a friends’ daughter’s graduation from a college apparently associated with these “independent Christian” churches also points strongly to “multigen walkaway with severe complex PTSD who has likely gotten into racist stuffle to boot”.

Fascinating — especially if you’re familiar with “independent fundamentalist” churches in general (Baptist or otherwise).

Finally — although we disagree, vehemently, on the need for hate-crimes legislation (sorry, but not all violent crimes are hate crimes) — Miscellanea Agnostica sums up the Rabid Righties’ cognitive dissonance best:

Early reports had pointed out that Adkisson complained about Christians, for instance railing against a woman who told him his daughter had attended a Bible college. This fits, of course, with most Christians’ inherent compulsion to feel persecuted, and the story was told according to this angle — until Adkisson’s letter surfaced, showing his motivation to be much more personal and not a philosophically-driven effort to wipe out Christians just because they’re Christians.

So it turns out this was not a “hate crime” against Christians … it was against people of two classes that Adkisson had a personal grudge against.

Folks on the Right were — and possibly still are — railing about this being a “hate crime” because largely they despise the very notion of “hate crime.” They fear that any crime by a Christian against, say, a gay person — regardless of whether or not religion or sexual orientation played a part in the particular event — would have “hate crime” charges tacked on for added measure. Some go further, claiming that all “hate crime” legislation is, by definition, an attempt to “silence” all Christians everywhere. This sort of paranoia is, of course, yet another example of the Christian Martyr Complex, which I already mentioned. While I consider “hate crime” laws to be dubious at best — after all, aren’t all violent crimes “hate” crimes? — this fear is completely irrational.

At any rate, hopefully the Right will stop claiming this crime is an anti-Christian massacre, because truthfully, it wasn’t — and they know it.

But, of course, the professional haters out there will still try to spin it to suit their twisted agenda — like our little leather-obsessed friend, Pete LaBarbera, of Christofascists for Slander and Libel (a.k.a. Americans for Truth) — Petey’s found a way to use this tragedy to 1) denounce hate-crimes legislation, 2) satisfy his lust for the death penalty, 3) slam Out & About as “anti-family,” and 4) accuse “pro-homosexual activists” of doing exactly what he’s doing: politicizing the tragedy.

And all in just two short paragraphs.

(Petey, I think you’ve outdone yourself this time. Whatsamatter, run out of Folsom Street Fair pictures to gaze at?)

Further reading:

Right Wing Blogosphere Completely Ignores Domestic Terrorism In Knoxville
Blue Texan, Firedog Lake, July 28, 2008

In Tennessee, Eliminationism Is No Longer ‘Just A Joke’
David Neiwert, Firedog Lake, July 28, 2008

AFA Approved Comments: Knoxville Church Doing “Satan’s Work”
Jim Burroway, Box Turtle Bulletin, July 28, 2008

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May 3, 2008

Radical Religious Right: Noisome and Noisy As Ever, But Mostly Smoke and Mirrors

This post is the result of my running across two seemingly unrelated stories today — one about the resounding defeat of a right-wing bid to overturn Wells Fargo’s anti-discrimination protections via a shareholder vote, and the other, “California Supreme Court to Hear Case of Lambda Legal Lesbian Client Denied Infertility Treatment by Christian Fundamentalist Doctors.”

4. The radical religionists are losing the culture wars — but they’re not through with us yet, and none of us can allow complacency. Just because they’re not trying to strip you of your rights today, don’t assume you’ll be safe from their attacks tomorrow. Never forget the words of Martin Niemoller.

That said…

There’s nothing wrong with the idea of investing your money in companies whose practices you agree with, and withholding your investments from companies with which you disagree. In fact, I encourage it. I practice it myself.

What’s wrong is attempting to force other people to do as you do.

But that’s what the Radical Religious Right is all about: forcing you to do as they do (or at least profess to do), instead of living their lives as they see fit, and leaving you alone to live your life as you see fit.

Their reasons are legion. Some of radical righties are trying to increase their scorecard of “souls saved” so they get a better spot in Heaven. Some claim “the Bible says” they’ve been charged with the mission to “witness” (read: annoy non-believers to pieces) for Jesus. Some of them are undoubtedly closet ‘mos who think they can repress their own true nature by repressing everybody else’s true nature.

Whatever. The reasons (and if you’re interested in the reasons, you couldn’t find a better explanation than Chris Hedges’ American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America) don’t really matter right now. In the end, it’s all — and only — about conversion through coercion. (Tip of the hat to Wayne Besen for inspiring that phrase.) They try to do it in many different ways, none of which is ever successful in the long run (and seldom in the short run, either), for the simple reason that the world (yes, even the puritan United States) has left them, and their Inquisition-era mindset, far behind.

The radical religionists are a dying breed, and they know it — which is why they’re getting more aggressive in their futile efforts to drag us all back into a Levitical lifestyle (which might not be such a bad thing, if they had to face stoning in the streets for patronizing Red Lobster, sticking a ham sandwich in their kid’s lunch bag, and wearing cotton-polyester blends — the last being, of course, a crime in any era).

If they’d just live their lives as they think their wrathful, jealous God wants them to, and leave the rest of us alone, we wouldn’t care how they expressed their fear-based worship (as long as no animals were sacrificed or otherwise harmed).

But that’s not good enough for them. In trying to force the secular, reality-based world to conform to their suffocating, restrictive ways, they are doing harm — a lot of harm — and in their twisted quest to create a “culture of life,” they are in fact propagating a culture of death.

I said just that on the occasion of the passing of Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, who, among other atrocities, outright lied about the effectiveness of condoms in preventing the spread of HIV. It’s an atrocity because that kind of radical, right-wing activism kills people. Literally.

The same is true of attempts to prevent the use of contraceptives, eliminate reproductive rights (can you say “back alley abortions”?), halt stem cell research (funny how righties like Arlen Specter and Nancy Reagan suddenly go all pro-stem cell when they’re the ones directly impacted by cancer, or Alzheimer’s disease), and even gay-straight student alliances and diversity programs. (You teach a gay kid to hate himself for who he is, and you may very well create a suicide victim; you teach a gay kid he’s as good and worthy as you are, and you’re helping to build a healthy, happy, productive citizen. You teach a straight — or questioning — kid that being gay is bad, and you’ve just increased the chances that your new little hater is going to go kick some gay ass in the playground — at best — or, at worst, murder the next Matthew Shepard, the next Sakia Gunn, the next Gwen Araujo.)

And, yes, that goes for same-sex marriage as well: If my relationship with my partner is not recognized outside our home state, and I get sick or injured away from home, it’s entirely possible that the one person I want making my medical decisions will not be allowed to. (Not that the anti-gay brigades would care if I died — I’m certain they would prefer I did.)

I always tell the righties that the solution is simple: If you’re against abortion, don’t have one. If you’re against gay marriage, don’t marry one of us.

But, of course, they refuse (no doubt deliberately, as reason would stand in the way of their singleminded goal to inflict their beliefs on your life and mine) to make the connection between their life-diminishing, often life-ending crusade.

Which brings us to this story from 365gay.com, and a right-wing outfit we’d never heard of before now, “Pro Vita Advisors” — “pro vita” being Latin for “pro-life,” which is, predictably, the antithesis of the anti-life, anti-freedom, anti-American agenda these radicals actually promote:

Shareholders Reject Bid To Strip Gay Protections At Wells Fargo

(San Francisco, California) A motion by a Wells Fargo shareholder to remove protections for LGBT workers from the company’s non-discrimination policy was defeated this week at its annual meeting. …

The motion called for the company to “to formulate an equal employment policy …that does not make reference to any matters related to sexual interests, activities or orientation.”

It said that homosexuality has been “condemned by the major traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for a thousand years or more”.

The motion was crafted by Pro Vita Advisors, a group that helps promote conservative values.

The motion said that “While the legal institution of marriage between a man and a woman should be protected, the sexual interests of, inclinations and activities of all employees should be a private matter, not a corporate concern.”

The proposal was easily defeated. …

Conservative groups have attacked Wells Fargo for the past three years over its “pro-gay policies”.

In 2005 Focus on the Family withdrew its funds from Wells Fargo. …

Similar shareholder challenges to non-discrimination policies that include gays have been fought and lost at Ford Motor Company.

If you want a good laugh, read the anti-gay resolution proposed to Wells Fargo shareholders (which is the same in tone as most Pro-Vita proposals), “”to formulate an equal employment policy … that does not make reference to any matters related to sexual interests, activities or orientation.” Here are the biggest knee-slappers:

Whereas, our company seeks to hire the most qualified person and has never had a policy discriminating against any person, or groups of persons, for any reason.

Whereas, it would be inappropriate and possibly illegal to ask a job applicant or employee about their sexual interests, inclinations and activities.

Whereas, it is similarly inappropriate and legally problematic for employees to discuss personal sexual matters while on the job.

Whereas, unlike the issues of race, age, gender and certain physical disabilities, it would be impossible to discern a person’s sexual orientation from their appearance.

Whereas, unless an employee chooses to talk about their sexual interests or activities while working, the issue of sexual orientation is, essentially, moot.

Whereas, domestic partner benefit policies pay employee benefits based on the employee engaging in unmarried, homosexual relations. These relations have been condemned by the major traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for a thousand years or more.

Whereas, the Armed Forces of the United States is one of the largest and most diverse organizations in the world. They protect the security of us all while adhering to a “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” regarding sexual interests.

Whereas, marriage between heterosexuals has been protected and encouraged by a wide range of societies, cultures and faiths for ages.

Statement: While the legal institution of marriage between a man and a woman should be protected, the sexual interests of, inclinations and activities of all employees should be a private matter, not a corporate concern.

Pro Vita Advisors helped write and present this resolution. Contact: Thomas Strobhar, Pro Vita Advisors, 937-226-1337.

Asks Jason at Good As You:

And what exactly does the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have to do with Banking? I notice they don’t bring up Buddhism, Wicca, or Atheism. …

[W]hat does the Armed Forces have to do with Banking? And how cute they, they re-wrote DADT, it’s just about keeping soldiers from talking about sexual interests. As if that were possible. …

“Statement: While the legal institution of marriage between a man and a woman should be protected, the sexual interests of, inclinations and activities of all employees should be a private matter, not a corporate concern.”

Oh, here they’re trying to divorce marriage and sex. As if marriage doesn’t have anything to do with sex, it’s just those nasty, pervy, homos that are trying to get recognition of their sexual interests. Yes, babies are just found under cabbage leaves. If, in fact, the sexual interests of, inclinations and activities of all employees should be a private matter, not a corporate concern, there’s no need to have any spousal benefits at all, as that has as much to do with “sexual interests” as DP.

Seriously, though, how stupid is this “Pro Vita Advisors” outfit, anyway, thinking they can suck Wells Fargo (a citadel of diversity which should be a model for every corporation in the world), headquartered in San Francisco (duh! I said San Francisco!) since 1852 back into the Dark Ages?

“How stupid” is up for debate; one thing’s for sure: “Pro Vita Advisors” is a nasty, tenacious little bunch. Over the past few years, they’ve attempted to strongarm AT&T, NCR (as Good As You correctly summarizes Pro Vita’s goal: “Pro Vita Advisors: Denying health care is our moral obligation”), and, of course, Ford Motor Company (a longtime target of the gay-hating American Family Association, whose top dog, Donald Wildmon, just plain lied when he announced in March that the AFA’s two-year boycott of Ford had come to a successful end; perhaps the AFA is still stinging after coming to grips with the fact that its nine-year Disney boycott was a resounding failure).

So, who are these life-denying whackjobs? Most visible, and vocal, is Pro Vita president Thomas C. Strobhar — who, unsurprisingly, is also the chairman, founder, and/or other executive of the following organizations:

Strobhar Financial: “Financial investing for people who put their morals first.”

National Association of Christian Financial Consultants, “a group of investment professionals committed to investment and financial planning disciplines centered upon biblical principles.”

Pro-Life Action League:

Chicago-based Joseph Scheidler founded the Pro-Life Action League in 1980 after being ousted from other pro-life groups for his resistance to compromise. A master of public relations and a former journalism professor, Scheidler knew how to draw mainstream media attention. In 1985, he published a provocative tract, Closed: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion, in which he suggested that civil disobedience, harassment, and militant direct action were justified interventions where abortion was concerned. Scheidler argued that because the act of abortion was murder, it must be prevented at all costs.

Perhaps more important, Scheidler influenced other confrontational pro-lifers like the founder of Operation Rescue, Randall Terry, and his successor, Flip Benham. …

Pam Chamberlain and Jean Hardisty
Reproducing Patriarchy: Reproductive Rights Under Siege
The Public Eye Magazine

[I]n Delaware, Joseph Scheidler and three other large men illegally entered a clinic, trapping the clinic administrator inside. The men put the phones on hold — effectively cutting her off from the outside world — and told her they were there to “case the place.” This was shortly after several clinics had been bombed. In another incident, Scheidler went to Pensacola and met with John Burt and Joan Andrews. Together, they discussed and planned an event to take place at the Ladies Center. The next day, while Scheidler was outside doing “P.R.” (he did not want to get arrested), Burt, Andrews and two others burst into the clinic, shoved the administrator to the floor and slammed an escort up against a wall. Then they went upstairs to wreck equipment. Still more evidence of force and violence came as the jury heard from a doctor who had been stalked, her house surrounded, and her life threatened. She was also physically assaulted by Monica Miller and Matt Trewhella. The jury also heard evidence of scores of blockades, which deprived people of access to the clinics, and where people were assaulted for daring to try to enter. One woman, who was going to see her doctor for postoperative surgery (surgery that in no way was related to abortion and that had been done to try and save her reproductive organs), was hit over the head with a picketer’s sign.

Sara Love, Esq.
Antiabortionists convicted in Chicago
Freedom Writer, May/June 1998

Life Decisions International:

LDI calls itself “a fully independent organization” (swearing it is “not allied with any political party”) that appears devoted solely to destroying Planned Parenthood (as witnessed by the organization’s Web URL alone: “fightpp.org”).

Dating to the 1980s — when it began with anti-abortion protests at women’s health care clinics — the campaign against Planned Parenthood is now waged on many other fronts as well: legislative attacks on government funding, organized boycotts of sponsors, challenges to corporate supporters and vocal opposition to sex-education programs. While dozens of groups spread and magnify opposition to the 84-year-old Planned Parenthood, two national organizations — Life Decisions International, and STOPP International — provide full-time leadership.

With an annual budget of approximately $110,000, Douglas R. Scott, Life Decisions’ president, and his staff of three, research and publish “The Boycott List” of companies — usually about 50 or 60 in number — that donate to Planned Parenthood. Approximately 10,000 copies of the $15.75 list are distributed twice a year, including to 33 anti-abortion organizations that endorse it, ranging from Human Life International to Concerned Women for America, Christian Coalition, Family Research Council, American Family Association and Traditional Values Coalition. …

According to a March press release, current boycott targets include Adobe Systems, Bank of America, Johnson and Johnson, Kenneth Cole, Levi Strauss, Nationwide Insurance, Prudential, Unilever, Wachovia, Whole Foods and Walt Disney. Walt Disney is listed because its theme park gave a donation to Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando to prevent teen pregnancy, according to a Life Decisions newsletter.

Life Decisions — which Scott describes as being based in northern Virginia — also introduces resolutions at annual meetings of corporate shareholders designed to end corporate donations to Planned Parenthood. Thomas Strohbar, Life Decisions board chair and the head of Pro Vita Advisors, an anti-choice investment firm in Dayton, Ohio, spearheads this effort, which he claims is going well. …

Privately Scott says it’s more about rallying anti-abortion forces than the money. “Planned Parenthood has nearly $300 million dollars in savings in reserve, so they’re not lacking in money; they just don’t like a public black eye,” said Scott.

Some companies, instead of bowing to Life Decisions, buck the pressure. The March-April issue of Life Decisions’ bimonthly newsletter, “The Caleb Report,” contains the text of a phone message attributed to a Richmond, Va., businessman who apparently didn’t appreciate being warned that his company’s name will go on the boycott list. “I will not be threatened by scumbags like you. I will not stop supporting Planned Parenthood,” the message said.

Karen Pearl, interim president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York, confirms that some companies are resisting the Life Decisions pressure. “One corporation heard about another corporation turning us down and was so outraged that they, in turn, donated what we had asked the other corporation for,” Pearl said.

Nationally, Pearl says, Planned Parenthood retains a high level of public support. …

Cynthia L. Cooper
Family Planners Stand Up To Right-Wing Boycott
Women’s eNews, July 18, 2005

On its Web site (www.fightpp.org), LDI attempts — undoubtedly for the benefit of those of us who have dug beneath the surface to trace the organization’s violent anti-abortion roots — to pre-empt the question, “What Is LDI’s Policy On Violence?”

LDI leaders wholeheartedly embrace a policy that condemns the use of violence as a means of achieving their goals:

While LDI steadfastly upholds the free exercise of constitutional rights, its leaders unequivocally condemn acts of violence committed in the name of the Pro-Life Movement. Violence is morally reprehensible and contradicts the fundamental premise that every human life is precious and deserving of respect. In line with this policy, LDI will accept only those words and deeds that are life-affirming and God-honoring in dealing with the abortion holocaust and related evils. No amount of justification will change the truth; violence is wrong–in and out the womb. This policy is a deeply held conviction and will not be ignored, weakened or altered for any reason whatsoever.

Any person who disagrees with this policy is invited to withhold financial support from LDI.

Predictably, however, LDI often wanders far afield from its stated goal, and plays the Christian-martyr card, apparently just for (eh-heh!) the hell of it. Chastising and attempting to smear celebrities seems to be a favorite pastime of LDI’s. For example:

Charlie Sheen denounced for obscene song

Actor Charlie Sheen gave a rendition of a traditional Christmas song that changed the lyrics to an affront to Christians, says head of Life Decisions International.

“CBS Television has crossed the line in a big way,” said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI). “In an affront to all of Christendom, the network allowed actor Charlie Sheen to change the lyrics of ‘Joy to the World’ into a song that could be called ‘Joy to Fornication.’”

On December 11, 2006, the CBS program “Two and a Half Men” opened with Sheen lighting candles and singing a song to the tune of “Joy to the World”:

Joy to the world
I’m getting laid
I’m getting laid tonight. …

“‘Joy to the World’ is a song about the birth of Jesus Christ. Yet CBS has allowed a song about the most precious, sacred and significant moment in history to be turned into a song about having sex outside of marriage,” Scott said. “Is there any line that anti-Christian people in the media will not cross? This is something one would expect from more well-known ungodly networks such as MTV.” …

Sheen is the son of actor Martin Sheen, a Catholic, whose name appears on LDI’s list of celebrities that support legal abortion. Charlie Sheen has a troubled history: he was once associated with the celebrated Heidi Fleiss, who ran a prostitution ring in Hollywood. He once accidentally shot an erstwhile girlfriend and later was rumored to have a cocaine addiction. However, Sheen announced in 1996 that he had become a born-again Christian.

Friendly Atheist recounts another example, from January, 2007:

Life Decisions International, a pro-life group that apparently enjoys sticking its head into events that have nothing to do with abortion whatsoever, is angry with Conan O’Brien. What has he done?

The show airing Wednesday night featured Conan introducing “new characters” to the show (characters who never actually appear after the one episode).

One of the characters was a “homophobic country western singer.” He was introduced by Conan, who said, “Our last new character’s heart is in the right place, even if he’s a complete idiot.”

The man came on stage with a guitar and sang the following lyrics:

Oh I love you Jesus
But only as a friend.
You touched my heart but I hope
That’s where the touchin’ ends. …

Here’s Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International, commenting on this sketch:

The idea that anyone would think about the Son of God in this way is simply appalling… The inferences that permeate the song are utterly disgusting… We wonder if O’Brien’s description of the character as a “complete idiot” is based on the man’s “homophobic” beliefs or if it is because of the inference that Jesus could be sexually interested in seeing the man naked… I don’t know if the man is a complete idiot, but I do suspect that the writer of the segment is a complete bigot.

It’s obvious to anyone who saw the sketch that the singer was referred to as an idiot because he was purposely saying something offensive. It’s called a joke. …

Mind you, Conan himself is Roman Catholic. …

Citizen Action Now:

From the Citizen Action Now Web site (http://citizenactionnow.com/) — which, amazingly, admits its tactics are “designed to create havoc at corporations who openly support homosexual groups or policies”:

Today we are at grave risk. We have seen the introduction of homosexual marriages, homosexual civil unions, homosexual adoptions, homosexual domestic partner benefits and the persecution of those who oppose these new “rights.” Large organizations funded with millions of dollars have sprung up to promote the so called Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgenedered [sic] (GLBT) agenda. Tomorrow, there is the real possibility of criminalization of those who dare speak against these perverse changes.

Citizen Action Now was created to challenge GLBT groups on all fronts, but will concentrate on areas currently being ignored by other pro-family groups, such as, corporations. The brainchild of the Alan Keyes organization, Declaration Alliance, Citizen Action Now will fight for an America free from the manipulation of homosexual groups. These groups have long realized that by changing the way America does business, they will eventually change America. Once they have instituted “domestic partner” benefits at most major American corporations, once they have included mandatory sensitivity training concerning the most bizarre sexual practices, once they have established “gay” sex clubs in the schools—

“Gay sex clubs”?

—the sooner they will be able to achieve their ultimate goal of complete acceptance of homosexual lifestyles. While we sympathize with individuals consumed with homosexual desires, we can not let our sympathy distract us from defending traditional standards of moral purity against an onslaught of “homosexual rights” shrilly demanded by groups brought together by their shared sexual interests. These “rights,” which include the right to marry, adopt and publicly act out strange sexual mental maladies threaten an America built on values cherished by Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Citizen Action Now is headed by Thomas Strobhar who honed his skills in the pro-life movement successfully fighting corporations which gave money to Planned Parenthood. Thomas had a singular effect on such corporate giants as American Express, AT&T, Berkshire Hathaway, General Mills, Target Stores and many others. All told, over 115 companies have stopped contributing to Planned Parenthood, in part, because of Thomas’ efforts. …

Citizen Action Now, drawing on Thomas Strobhar’s business and financial background, is committed to minimizing cost and maximizing output. Already, on a minimal budget—

Remember that phrase, “on a minimal budget.” It’ll have more meaning later.

—Citizen Action Now, has lead petition drives confronting the pro-homosexual management of Allstate Insurance and Walgreens pharmacy. In just a short period of time shareholder resolutions confronting the homosexual agenda at American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup, IBM, Merrill Lynch and others have been filed. All were done at little expense, but designed to create havoc at corporations who openly support homosexual groups or policies. …

Citizen Action Now is committed to helping individuals and groups challenge the homosexual agenda in America through actions that work. We have been bequeathed cultural and religious values centuries old and now are at risk of seeing these values trashed and those who defend them silenced. That is why this organization was formed. We can wait no longer. We must act now. Any delay will require ten times the work just to return things to the status quo.

In other words, the usual hysterical rhetoric.

So, just how deep do Pro Vita’s right-wing roots go? Citizen Action Now alone is connected to:

• The AGN Financial Network (an “affiliate” of rabidly anti-gay Ken Hutcherson’s Antioch Bible Church, which shares its anti-gay “outreach” in Latvia with “Latvian megachurch preacher Alexey Ledyaev, who was at the Seattle homobigot’s side at the 2006 conference of the Watchmen on the Walls, along with Scott Lively, former director of the California tentacle of the American Family Association and the anti-gay Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA)” and pastor of Abiding Truth Ministries “[a.k.a. Defend the Family] … author of The Pink Swastika: Homosexuals and the Nazi Party, and Holocaust revisionist”), on whose advisory board Strobhar sits, along with Wildmon, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land; Herb Lusk, anti-gay, anti-equality, Bush-loving pastor of Greater Exodus Baptist Church, who’s sucked up “more than $1 million in grants under the president’s faith-based initiative” and whom Bush appointed to the Presidential HIV/AIDS Advisory Council, and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, and whose supporters include Nixon’s “evil genius” and “hatchet man,” ex-con Chuck Colson (who was pardoned by Jeb Bush) and perennially purse-lipped Gary L. Bauer of the Family Research Council…

• Muslim-baiting, Clinton-hating, litigation-happy Ron Brown conspiracy theorist Larry Klayman (who in 1998 sued his own mother) formerly of the rabidly right-wing Judicial Watch (financed in part by Richard Mellon Scaife, and helped along by radical-righty mass-email mogul Richard Viguerie), which Klayman left (and then sued the organization he himself had founded). Klayman is (or was) a member of the secretive Council for National Policy, the organization (founded by Left Behind co-author and Moral Majority co-founder Tim LaHaye, who is married to Beverly Haye, founder of the “anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-feminism and anti-sex education” Concerned Women for America, of which Robert Knight’s Culture and Family Institute is a spin-off, and on whose board sits Matt Barber, of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, founded by Folsom Street Fair-obsessed ex-Family Research Council head Pete LaBarbera) that marries the Radical Religious Right to the Republican Party…

…and that’s just for starters.

“So,” asks Chris at Cynical-C Blog, “is the pro-life movement about saving unborn babies or about controlling people’s sex lives?”

The answer is: the latter, with a caveat. It’s always been about controlling people, period. They just make it sound like our lives revolve around sex. (”I love how they try to dumb it down to ‘homosexual relations,’” says Jason at Good As You, “attempting to suggest it’s just about sex.”)

And then there’s “Pharmacists For Life International,” founded by Pro Vita advisor Bogomir M. Kuhar, an Ohio pharmacist:

The founder of the group is Bogomir (M.) Kuhar, a pro-lifer so radical that he’s anti-birth control. Kuhar has calculated that many millions of lives are “terminated” each year by people who use contraceptives. …

Kuhar appears to have been involved in pro-life Catholic movement since at least the late eighties. …

Pharmacists for Life
Riffle, April 4, 2005

But Bogomir Kuhar is nothing compared to Pharmacists for Life president Karen Brauer, who can only be described as a real piece of work. And not in a good way.

Brauer and Pharmacists for Life are at the forefront of a growing movement aimed at giving pharmacists the right to refuse to fill prescriptions if filling them would be inconsistent with their moral or ethical beliefs. Thus far, the fight has primarily revolved around birth control prescriptions.

On February 10, the Associated Press reported:

Last year, Mississippi lawmakers passed a bill that allows all types of health care workers and facilities to refuse performing virtually any service they object to on moral or religious grounds. Anti-abortion organizations and a group called Pharmacists for Life are urging pharmacists to refuse to distribute emergency contraceptives.

…A February 7, 2005, National Law Journal article illustrates that while the bulk of attention has been given to pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills, the potential exists for pharmacists to refuse to dispense a wide range of essential, prescribed medicine if advocates of the so-called “conscience clause” for pharmacists are successful; the article noted that in 2004, “a Dallas pharmacist refused to fill a mother’s prescription for her son’s Ritalin.”

Though “conscience clause” advocates prefer to focus on birth control pills — and the media reports that cover the controversy do likewise — their position that pharmacists need not fill prescriptions they disagree with has far-reaching implications. By the same rationale, a pharmacist who believes, as the Rev. Jerry Falwell once claimed, that AIDS is “God’s punishment for homosexuals” could refuse to fill a prescription for an AIDS patient. Pharmacists could refuse to fill prescriptions for heart medicine for the elderly, antidepressants for a suicidal patient — anything. …

Pharmacists for Life president Karen Brauer was fired by a Kmart pharmacy in Ohio for refusing to fill birth control prescriptions. As Brauer acknowledged during an April 16, 2001, appearance on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, Brauer didn’t merely refuse to fill a patient’s prescription, she lied to the patient, as well…

Presumably, the mere act of lying to a patient would have been reason enough for Brauer to be fired; at the least, it seems to be a direct violation of the American Pharmacists Association’s “Principles of Practice for Pharmaceutical Care,” which state: “Interaction between the pharmacist and the patient must occur to assure that a relationship based upon caring, trust, open communication, cooperation, and mutual decision making is established and maintained.” …

Pharmacists for Life’s web page contains numerous controversial statements that have thus far escaped the notice of the media outlets that have given the group attention. PFL’s “Frequently asked questions” section states “Pharmacists are under no obligation, even if written in the positive law, to violate the Divine Law.” This suggestion that pharmacists are not bound by the laws of the United States so long as they think God disagrees with those laws is but the tip of the iceberg. Other examples, taken from the group’s recent comments on the Terri Schiavo case…

Who are Karen Brauer and “Pharmacists for Life”?
Media Matters, March 30, 2005

Like Life Decisions International, Pharmacists for Life International reaches far beyond its stated goal (which is bad enough); PFLI is getting mixed up in every issue it deems “godless”:

While most of Pharmacists for Life and Brauer’s public comments relate to pharmacists refusing to dispense birth control medication, their efforts — and their effects — are not limited to issues of reproductive rights; Brauer said during her O’Reilly Factor appearance that she refused to fill prescriptions for diet pills “due to the abuse potential in the area in which I was working.”

And a caption on a photo accompanying a February 2 Santa Fe New Mexican article suggests that Pharmacists for Life’s agenda may go well beyond pharmacies. The caption reads:

GRAPHIC: 1. Sen. Bill Sharer, left, R-Farmington, meets Tuesday with supporters of his bill defining marriage in New Mexico as only between a man and a woman. Meeting with Sharer are representatives of the Pharmacists for Life and Life League of New Mexico, Abran Gabaldon, former Sen. Tom Benavides of Albuquerque and Manuel Rodriguez.

The good news is that pharmacists who refuse to follow the law — secular law, that is, and not whatever “divine law” they’ve dreamed up out of their own bigoted little imaginations — have created an effective backlash, leading several states to take action:

In Illinois, Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) … issued an executive rule clarifying his view of state law: Any pharmacy that sells contraceptives must promptly fill a woman’s prescription for them.

Four states, including California and New Jersey, are considering laws that would require pharmacists to fill prescriptions despite any religious or moral objections, unless they could find an alternative that doesn’t inconvenience the patient.

Culture war hits local pharmacy
Christian Science Monitor, April 8, 2005

Unfortunately, some radical rightists in elected office have often opted to side with pharmacists endangering the lives of their customers:

Thirteen states are considering giving pharmacists the kind of conscience-clause outs that doctors have, allowing them to refuse to fill some prescriptions that go against their personal beliefs. (Four already have such laws on the books.)

In a related issue, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens (R) exercised a rare veto this week, for a bill that would have required all hospitals — including Catholic ones — to inform rape victims about the availability of emergency contraceptives. Among other concerns, he questioned the constitutionality of forcing religious institutions to engage in speech counter to their principles.

(Bill Owens? Oh, yeah, now there’s a real above-board, “family values” Christian. Not.)

Nevertheless:

Public opinion tends to come down in favor of the patient. In a November New York Times poll, just 16 percent of respondents said they believed a pharmacist should be able to refuse to dispense birth-control pills for religious reasons. Among white evangelical Christians, that number grew to just 24 percent.

But many of these “Christian” pharmacists don’t want to stop at merely refusing to fill a prescription:

“We intervene and stop prescriptions and make doctors change prescriptions,” says Karen Brauer, a pharmacist in Lawrenceburg, Ind.

By now, as DrugMonkey says at Your Pharmacist May Hate You, you might have thought…

…that this Pharmacists for Life outfit must be some big, powerful organization with a giant headquarters somewhere on K street, ready to deploy an army of lobbyists over to the halls of government power to get things done. Or you would think that they’d at least have an office. Think again. According to the group’s 2003 IRS filing (most recent available) they raised and spent less than $30,000 and had no paid employees. … Even though that’s not a lot of money as far as these advocacy groups go, I would think they would have at least been able to afford a copy of Microsoft Frontpage and/or someone who knows how to use the web-page building program to make a page that isn’t…um…hideously fucking ugly, but evidently not, as you can see here…

Adds Riffle:

The Pharmacists for Life group, though they claim to represent “over 1600+ pharmacists, and many hundreds of lay supporters, in the USA, Canada and worldwide,” seems to be run out Powell, Ohio, probably in the Kuhars’ home.

The contact phone (740.881.5520) and post office box for PIL is the same as the vitamin-selling business that the Kuhar’s have at kuhar.com (known as Life Enterprises, though sometimes identified as Pro-Life Enterprises). Presumably the Marcia Kuhar listed there is Bogomir’s wife.

She’s also used the same PO Box and phone number as her contacts listed on the Central Ohio Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Inc., also known as COAOHN.

With this single phone number being used as Marcia’s contact number, PFL’s contact number, and the businesses’ contact number, PFL is probably running out of their house, which also houses their business. … [T]hey’re tiny and represent a very small number of religiously hyper=zealous pharmacists who do not want women to receive birth control.

Which leads me to the “good news” I promised you near the beginning of this post: There’s every reason to believe that the shakiness of Pharmacists for Life’s underpinning is not an anomaly — no matter how well-connected its adherents may be.

The regular bathroom-reading material in our house includes my better half’s subscription to Mother Jones. In a stroke of serendipity, while I was contemplating a way to tie everything I’d written above into the idea that maybe, just maybe, the Radical Religious Right wasn’t so big and powerful as it claimed, I noticed the current issue of MJ happened to be turned open to the feature, “The Myth of the Moral Majority” — which challenges the accepted notion that the American Radical Religious Right is, or ever was, as massive or as powerful as it makes itself out to be.

That article (which isn’t online yet) confirms exactly what I had been wondering, but for which I had no confirmation by way of hard facts.

What if, asks MJ, the numbers — “that nearly 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and 40 percent attend church weekly” — “and everything we’ve assumed they tell us about the power of the religious right — are wildly wrong?”

When newspaper reporter and author of The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church Christine Wicker…

…started looking into the numbers on church attendance, she found that researchers could vouch for only 18 percent of Americans being regular churchgoers — less than half the accepted figure. That led her to wonder about the already widely reported claim that 25 percent of Americans are evangelicals; could the real number also be less than half that? …

…Wicker discovered that the numbers the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) releases for public consumption tell a much different story than the ones it uses internally. The organization claims 16 million members, but as one reverend cracks, “the FBI couldn’t find half of [them] if they had to.” A 2006 SBC report states that only 11 million of its members live in the same area as their home church anymore; that number includes those who have been double- or even triple-counted elsewhere. …

With more digging, Wicker came across a 2007 SBC report that found only 5.4 million adults attended services regularly enough to be considered church members. …

Factoring all this in, Wicker calculated that there are fewer than 4 million devoted Southern Baptists. Her math seems to be backed up by collection-plate totals: If the church truly has 16 million members, then they contributed a miserly $3.50 each to a nationwide fundraising campaign last year.

And it’s not just the Southern Baptists who appear to be playing number games. The National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group that does not include the SBC, claimed 30 million members on its website. When Wicker contacted the association for comment, the figure changed to 4.5 million. No one there could — or would — explain the sudden 85 percent drop in believers. …

The emperor’s-new-clothes flimsiness of these widely accepted exaggerated numbers says much about the cold calculation of far-right religious leaders. … “The idea that evangelicals are taking over America is one of the greatest publicity scams in history,” Wicker concludes, “a perfect coup accomplished by savvy politicos and religous leaders, who understand media weaknesses and exploit them brilliantly.” …

Whether they viewed it as a new political reality, megatrend, or a bogeyman, the media embraced the idea of a reenergized, monolithic Christianity and faithfully chronicled something that didn’t exist. …

Could it be that the seeming, teeming legions of evangelicals hell bent on destroying our chances of equality really aren’t all that and a chalice-o’-wafers?

The further we pull back the curtain, the more clearly the shape behind it comes into focus. The Great and Powerful Oz is a fraud.

Not that we should ever underestimate the enemy; they’ve proven themselves quite brilliant frauds. But the more they are exposed, the weaker they become.

And that, my friends, for those of us who want to be left to live our lives in peace — and freedom — is very good news indeed.

Further reading::

NOW v. Scheidler Timeline: The Complete Story (1984-2002)
NOW

NOW v. Scheidler in the Courts
NOW

Giving Until It Hurts: Pampered chefs revolt against population control.
Thomas Strobhar masquerades as a mere “president of an investment firm” for this thinly-veiled victory dance over pushing around Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2003

Why does Alan Keyes hate his lesbian daughter?
John Aravosis publishes the text of a message from Larry Klayman touting his association with Alan Keyes to eliminating the “radical homosexual” threat.
AMERICAblog, December 19, 2004

The NAACP and the Virgin Mary
Strobhar’s blatant racism is on full display as he uses the Virgin Mary as an excuse to ridicule NAACP president Kwesei Mfume.
January 22, 2005

Charles C. Boycott and America’s Christian Right
Mel Seesholtz, Counterbias.com, June 6, 2005

Religious Right Discovers Investment Activism; Bible Thumpers Boycott “Cultural Polluters”
Cynthia L. Cooper, CorpWatch, August 3, 2005

Antigay Conservatives Threaten Major Corporations
GFN, December 7, 2005

Bigot Pastor: Pump-and-Dump Microsoft
“I think it would be a wonderful idea for Bigot Reverend Hutcherson to try this. I really hope he goes ahead with this plan… …because pump-and-dump is illegal.”
A Stitch in Haste, January 25, 2006

Concerned Women for America: A Case Study
Steven Gardiner, Coalition for Human Dignity, August 28, 2006

Abortion foes’ new rallying point: Conservatives take on contraception
Judith Graham, Chicago Tribune, September 24, 2006

Conservative pastor urges buying Microsoft stock to fight its gay rights efforts (Ken Hutcherson)
Andrea James, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 8, 2008

The Success of AFA’s Ford Boycott Is a Disney-esque Fairy Tale
PajamasMedia, February 1, 2008

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April 9, 2008

What Barack Obama Has Taught Me About Racism, Sexism, and Homophobia

Barack Obama has taught me that racism — even faux outrage over nonexistent racism — is worse than the most egregious sexism or homophobia.

Always. Without exception.

I’ve also learned — from Obama supporters — that the word “urban” is racist. (And for nearly half a century, I thought “urban” meant “of or pertaining to a city,” as opposed to the country, or the suburbs. Silly me!)

I’ve also learned — from professional Obama shills (waving at Donna Brazile and Chris “Tingle Leg” Matthews) — that the phrase “fairy tale” is racist. But only if it’s used by Bill Clinton to criticize Barack Obama’s foreign policy positions, of course.

I’ve also learned — from some backwater ‘burb (oops, sorry! is “‘burb” racist, too?) in Illinois called Carpentersville — that saying a couple of kids are climbing a tree “like monkeys” is racist. (That would have come as a surprise to my dearly departed grandfather, whose pet name for me was “macaca” — and not in the George Allen sense, either. As much as I detest the idea of agreeing with Tony Blankley on anything, even the weather, it’s true: “macaca” is indeed an Italian term of endearment expressing good-natured exasperation with a mischievous child; it means “clown,” or “goof.”)

From yesterday’s Chicago Sun-Times:

Moving to nip in the bud some potential bad press, White House hopeful Barack Obama’s campaign persuaded a delegate to step down after she was ticketed for calling her neighbor’s African-American children “monkeys.”

Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, a Carpentersville village trustee, was elected as an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She sports an Obama sign in her front yard.

On Saturday, two neighbor children were playing in the tree next-door to her house.

Ramirez-Sliwinski “came outside and told the children to quit playing in the tree like monkeys. The tree was not on Ramirez-Sliwinski’s property,” Carpentersville Police Commander Michael Kilbourne said.

Ramirez-Sliwinski admitted she used the word “monkeys,” but said she did not intend racism. She said she was only trying to protect them from falling out of the tree.

“Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski said she saw the kids playing in the tree and didn’t want them falling out of the tree and getting hurt. She said she calls her own grandchildren ‘monkeys,’” Kilbourne said. The mother of one of the children did not see it that way, noting she and Ramirez-Sliwinski have clashed before.

“She felt it was racist because of the fact the children were African-American,” Kilbourne said.

Told of the incident Monday by the Sun-Times, Obama’s campaign called Ramirez-Sliwinski and persuaded her to step aside as a delegate because the campaign felt her remarks were “divisive and unacceptable.”

“Given the incident, she is stepping down as a delegate and will be replaced,” said campaign spokesman Ben Labolt.

Let’s recap:

• Calling Hillary Clinton a “big f*****g whore” and Geraldine Ferraro “David Duke in drag” is not “divisive and unacceptable” enough for Obama to dress down Randi Rhodes (hey, ya think Obama returned the money raised at Randi’s Hillary-bashing event?)…

• Preaching about evil, children-killing gays is not “divisive and unacceptable” enough for Obama to fire Donnie McClurkin before handing him a microphone and giving him free reign to spew his hateful, “ex-gay” tripe (hey, ya think Obama returned the blood money from that fundraiser?)…

• Condemning America to hell, blasting mythical “rich white people” for all the evil in the world, making appalling cracks about “stemen-stained dresses,” and slurring Italians as “garlic noses” is not “divisive and unacceptable” enough for Obama to stand up and walk out on the bigot he calls his pastor, “spiritual mentor” and “role model” who “helps keep his priorities straight and his moral compass calibrated,” Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. (ya think Obama plans to take back the tens of thousands he’s tithed over two decades?)…

• Consorting with such organizations — established for the sole purpose of demonizing and legislating gay and lesbian Americans out of existence — as Americans for Truth and Focus on the Family, calling various mayors “slave masters” and certain politicians “house n****rs,” warning “white people who believe in Jesus” that “I will stand on top of the Sears Tower and call every one of y’all racist” is not “divisive and unacceptable” enough for Obama to cut ties completely with another of his “closest religious advisors,” Rev. James Meeks…

• Expressing the desire to “rip Bill Clinton’s eyes out” is not “divisive and unacceptable” enough for Obama to take his own wife aside and tell her to chill the anti-Clinton crap, her condescending reluctance to back Hillary as the Democratic nominee, and the grim view she takes of America, at least when she’s representing him in public…

…but saying a couple of kids were climbing a tree “like monkeys” is “divisive and unacceptable” enough for Obama to kick Ramirez-Sliwinski to the curb?

So, now what? If you call playground equipment “monkey bars,” are you a racist? I guess so, since anything and everything — as long as it suits a pro-Obama agenda — can and will be deemed racist.

(It’s also not lost on us that Ramirez-Sliwinski was an elected delegate, more beholden to the wil of the people than to the will of any candidate.)

What’s more, you read that first line in the story right: Ramirez-Sliwinski was ticketed — cited and fined — under the stupidest ordinance we’ve heard of in a long time. From the Chicago Tribune:

Carpentersville Trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski vowed Monday to fight a citation she received over the weekend for a comment that apparently offended her African-American neighbors. …

Ramirez-Sliwinski, who is Hispanic, was issued a citation alleging that she violated a village ordinance prohibiting disorderly conduct. The ordinance bans conduct that disturbs or alarms people, and one of the boys told police he was scared by Ramirez-Sliwinski’s comment, Police Cmdr. Michael Kilbourne said.

The citation carries a fine of $75.

“She was not arrested. She was not fingerprinted. It is a local ordinance violation,” Kilbourne said.

“Conduct that disturbs or alarms people”? Remind me to stay the hell out of Carpentersville then. The way this stupid law is worded, I could be cited if my “Christian Right is Neither” T-shirt “disturbed or alarmed” somebody.

(On the other hand, I could go to Carpentersville and lodge a criminal complaint against every right-wing church that preaches anti-gay rhetoric from the pulpit. Now that would be fun. And it would also trigger an emergency meeting of the town council to repeal that stupid law, quick-smart.)

The Trib piece also provides more detail on the “monkeys” incident, in Ramirez-Sliwinski’s own words:

[Ramirez-Sliwinski] said the parents were outside, but she intervened because she was concerned about the boys’ safety and because the small magnolia tree was being damaged.

“I went over to the kids and told them to get out of the tree,” Ramirez-Sliwinski said.

The father of one of the boys told her it was none of her business, she said, and “I calmly said the tree is not there for them to be climbing in there like monkeys.”

There has been friction between Ramirez-Sliwinski and her neighbors in the past. She said she has told them to turn down loud music and has instructed them on how to properly use the village’s new garbage bins.

Ramirez-Sliwinski said she intends to contest the citation in an effort to force the neighbors to talk to her. …

Attempts to reach the neighbors for comment were unsuccessful.

“My take on this is that it is really being blown out of proportion,” Village President Bill Sarto said. “To a great extent, you have to take the remarks and put them in proper context. The trustee saw children playing in a tree, and she made an observation that they should be careful because they are acting like monkeys. Had they not been in a tree, it could be inappropriate.”

Something stinks. Something really, really stinks.

Hey, but what do I know? In Obama’s book, I’m just another “typical white person.”

Here’s the last word, from Village President Bill Sarto, quoted in the Sun-Times piece):

“Frankly, I don’t see a law that was broken here,” [Village President Bill Sarto] said. “I think this entire thing has been blown out of proportion. She’s a good neighor. She went over to caution the children to be careful not to fall out of a tree.

She has never indicated to me any prejudice whatsoever. We have a trustee who has been convicted on four counts of domestic battery and refuses to resign from the board. He beat his wife with a baseball bat. This seems far less egregious to me.”

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March 24, 2008

And the Meeks Shall Inherit the Obamanation

A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress, by his tastes, by his distastes, by the stories he tells, by his gait, by the notion of his eye, by the look of his house, of his chamber; for nothing on earth is solitary but every thing hath affinities infinite.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

You can cool it for a while with the hate mail, Obamaniacs — you know what I mean: the ones that go “You racist!” and “You quoted Fox News! That proves you’re a paid political operative for Hillary and/or the GOP!”

Here’s one you can’t lay at our doorstep, from Queerty.com — a news blog (one of our favorites, in fact) even queerer than the one you’re reading right now, and one that’s been extremely fair (often to a fault) to The Anointed One:

More Preacher Probs For Obama

… First, we had Donnie McClurkin, the man who nearly derailed the Senator’s mega church campaign. Then came Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s preacher who damned the United States and spurred that revolutionary race speech.

And now Fox’s ire-inducing Sean Hannity & Alan Colmes have turned their attention to another Obama “spiritual counselor,” Reverend James Meeks, a state Senator who spends his free time blasting the bent boys and girls. Obama’s camp already denounced the remarks, saying:

Obama has appeared at hundreds of churches and served with scores of colleagues and can hardly be expected to be held responsible for all that they say.

While that may be true, Meeks’ history will certainly propel a few news stories this week. …

Meeks, who’s closely associated with anti-gay groups like Americans for Truth and Focus On The Family, told a reporter during his 2006 gubernatorial run that he’s the perfect candidate for conservative white voters: “Theologically, politically, for the white conservative voter, I’m their guy. I have their philosophy.” That philosophy became his common call during that year, when he was swiftly defeated:

Come on with me white churches … Call me and tell me to run for governor. White people who believe in Jesus, call me and tell me to run for governor”

…

If I do run and there are two people in the race who both are not standing for morality, if I don’t have every white Christian vote in the state of Illinois, I will stand on top of the Sears Tower and call every one of ya’ll racist.Just one year earlier Meeks railed against white Christians…

Meanwhile, like Wright, Meeks has come under fire for using the pulpit to dispense racialized opinions, even referring to mayors as “slave masters” and some unnamed politicians as “house n****rs…

Though he’s since apologized for those remarks — and, again, Obama himself has denounced them — we’ve got no doubt Meeks’ Obama connection will be making the rounds this week. Can we expect another speech or will Obama be able to shrug this one aside and start focusing on the task at hand: the campaign. We’re hoping the latter, because the Democrats need to make sure they’re strong enough to fight John McCain. And the past few weeks have not been helping their case.

More — including links, an embedded video of Meeks, and some spirited reader comments (”Obama describes Meeks as one of his ‘closest religious advisors’; Meeks appeared in TV ads for Obama’s US Senate campaign; When he ran for US Senate in 2004, Obama campaigned at Meeks’ Salem Baptist church; Meeks’ church was Obama’s last stop on the night he won that primary … Obama appointed Meeks to his exploratory committee for the Presidency; Meeks is listed on Obama’s campaign website of influential black supporters”…) — at the link.

Our reaction:

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March 12, 2008

The Nominees for RRRW Drama Queen Are…..

I’m guessing that the fundie churches hand out a heaping dose of fear mongering when they go to church on Sunday because yesterday’s RRRW propaganda news theme was hysteria. The biggest theme of the day was about the recent California decision that parents could not home-school their children unless the person providing the instruction had a teaching certificate. Needless to say the “Christian” news sources provided their own spin and bias on the matter. From WorldNetDaily:

Watch out parents; they’re after your children again, this time in California, but it could spread nationally….

Remember his name: Justice H. Walter Croskey. As he spoke of the 3-0 ruling issued Feb. 28, he added that failure to comply means that parents can be criminally prosecuted.

He’s talking about parents teaching their own children, in their own homes!…

This case came about because of a child welfare investigation in Los Angeles County. Mary and Philip Long were homeschooling their eight children. Mrs. Long is the teacher, but she’s not credentialed. The children were also enrolled in the Sunland Christian School as part of an independent study program.

Apparently, one of the children complained to someone about “mistreatment.” As part of the investigation, a juvenile court judge found the children were being “poorly educated” (because of homeschooling) but made no changes.

However, lawyers appointed for the children after child advocates got involved pursued the issue. The appeals court then ordered the children to state schools, not permitting them to continue with Sunland school because it (Sunland) “was willing to participate in the deprivation of the children’s right to a legal education.”…

It seems everything is spinning out of control. The government on every level, from local to national; the judiciary on every level; the bureaucracy in every facet of life, schools, businesses, medicine, social organizations and yes, sometimes even churches: All have spread their tentacles into what used to be our personal lives and taken control to one degree or another.

Sometimes it’s major, sometimes minor, but it adds up to loss of privacy and loss of control of our lives, families, children, homes, property, jobs, medical care, social activities and what ever else they can infiltrate.

Despite the efforts of many, we are still the “home of the brave,” but we’re losing out on being “the home of the free.”

This is the real battle on the home front. It’s a battle we must win. The alternative is totalitarianism, and it’s closer than we realize.

Now wait, champions of individual freedom and parental rights, before you get outraged. Here’s what they didn’t tell you about those poor parents whose rights have been trod upon by the Big Bad State of California.

Simpson doesn’t mention that courts have found that were was, in fact, mistreatment going on by the father against his children and that the house where the family lived was in “an endangering filthy, unsanitary and unsafe condition, and the minors were chronically filthy, and unsupervised late at night.”

Further, the judge did not conclude that the children were being “poorly educated” because they were being homeschooled; the judge made no general statement about the overall quality of homeschooled. Rather, the judge stated that, in this case, the education the children received at home as “lousy,” “meager,” and “bad,” and that the supervision by the Christian school with which the family was affiliated was minimal at best. One child testified that she “was not taught geography or history. Asked if she can add, subtract, multiply and divide, [she] stated she cannot.”

So it seems, at least to certain Christians, that personal freedoms include the right to raise children in squalor, neglect them and fail to teach them things that they need to survive in the world. Is it any wonder they hate the notion of the State requiring any form of standards, and that enforcing said standards amounts to totalitarianism? Funny how them imposing their religion on others (which they would by force if given half a chance) doesn’t count as such in their minds).

OneNewsNow chimes with their take on the matter (and I notice they’ve updated their Website by the way). Jeff Johnson says:

Adolf Hitler outlawed home schooling in Germany in 1938. The practice is still illegal in re-unified Germany to this day.

Jeff, have you heard of Godwin’s Law? Guess what? You lose.

Moving on, sort of, we discover that Janet Folger believes that Anita Bryant was right.

Last weekend I met a true hero. A woman I have long admired for a stand that cost her everything. In fact, I dedicated my book, “The Criminalization of Christianity,” to her. The inscription reads:

“To all those with courage to speak the truth in the face of ridicule, blame, assault, censorship, and the threat of being criminalized: Including Anita Bryant …”

That’s quite a martyr complex Janet has there. Maybe she should be a gaytheist for a month and learn what it’s really like to speak the truth in the face of ridicule, blame, assault, censorship, and actually being criminalized. She hasn’t the first clue what it is like to not have her Human and Civil Rights, and her claims that Christianity is being criminalized are pure hyperbole.

A friend of mine who heard about the highlight of my weekend asked, “Who is Anita Bryant?” He said he had only heard me talk about Phyllis Schlafly with “such superlatives.”

…..

This beauty queen and orange juice spokeswoman was known for saying “a day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.” She had her own television show at the age of 12. She had a successful singing career and entertained the troops with Bob Hope. And when a candidate she had endorsed took a stand for the homosexual agenda in the public schools in Miami-Dade County, Anita Bryant took a stand against it.

That Anita Bryant and Phyllis Schlafly are her heroes tells me all I need to know about Folger. Anita Bryant is a hateful bigot who used her fame to set the gay-rights movement back years, if not decades. She spread lies and propaganda wrapped in the name of Christianity. In other words, she’s just like most of today’s homophobes.

Enter the real “hate speech”: pies in the face, kidnapping threats, death threats, threats to her children, acts of violence to her home. Like a scene out of Sodom, homosexual activists surrounded her home screaming at the top of their lungs. Her mother was afraid to open the front door. She lost her marriage. She lost her jobs and any means of supporting herself and her four children. She was a sacrificial lamb to wake a sleeping nation. She stood alone. And yet she stood.

My heart can’t bleed for her over a pie in the face or some gay people ranting at her outside her home because they were angry over her hateful lies. Not when we’ve had an anti-LGBT hate crime at least every eight days this year so far, Congresswomen spewing hatred against us in their capacity as elected officials, and more than 1,000 anti-LGBT hate crimes last year.

“Hate crimes” legislation (which passed both the U.S. House and Senate last year –stopped only by a threat of a veto) would silence pastors in their pulpits and outlaw books like “The Criminalization of Christianity,” whose subtitle is: “Read this Before it Becomes Illegal!” The “Employment Non-Discrimination Act” would put an “ENDA” to religious liberty in the workplace and, with its transgender amendment, threaten any business that would fire a man who came to work wearing a dress. By the way, Mitt Romney favors states enacting this business-closing legislation.

Funny how Christians have hate-crimes protection and are the first to scream about “persecution”, yet fight tooth and nail to keep everybody else from having equal protection under the law. As usual, the ones who do the most discriminationg are the ones who whine the most about being discriminated against. Projection, anyone?

The textbooks in California are being rewritten to remove any references to “mom” and “dad” and revised to appear more like the Washington Blade or a homosexual newsletter.

I’d like to see an actual example of this. I’ve seen the Washington Blade, having lived in that region before, and I can’t imagine California school textbooks are now advertising massage services for gay men and providing personals columns for the LGBT community. Frankly I get the impression Folger is completely making this up and assuming her readers will just buy it–which they likely will. I may just go check out some of those textbooks myself so I can call her on it.

And now California courts are telling parents that it’s illegal to homeschool or send their children to Christian and private schools that may have teachers without “state certification.”

And there it is! She’s trying to blame the California homeschooling decision on The Gay Agenda. Is there nothing she and her ilk won’t blame on us? Sadly her readers will probably fall for it.

To those thinking about “sitting it out,” or “supporting a third party” now, consider an analogy. We are facing a burning building. There is a day-care center full of children burning down and we have three options before us.

A. We have a candidate named John who will rescue most everyone in that building. He hasn’t pledged that he’ll get everyone out just yet, but the vast majority of those kids are going to be carried out alive with his pro-life policies and judges.

B. Or you can protest (with a third-party candidate). Pick up a sign and march because you didn’t get the candidate you wanted chanting, “Rescue all the children! Rescue all the children!” while the building burns and all the children die.

C. Or you can sit it out. Don’t endorse. Don’t vote. And Clinton or Obama will deadbolt the fire exits and rip out the sprinklers. They will then lock arms and prevent any of us from entering the building to rescue the children inside. They will also prevent notification of parents whose children are about to be burned alive.

If I were the one in the burning building, I know what I would want you to do. Either we protect nearly all of the kids or none of the kids. Oh? But you think in four years we can come back and teach everyone a lesson? Really?

If B. Hussein Obama or Mrs. Clinton get elected, you can expect two to three justices on the Supreme Court to be replaced with 45-year-old rabid pro-abortion liberals who hate marriage and everything we believe. Then you can expect:

1. Thought crimes to become law and pastors to be arrested for the content of their sermons.

2. The silencing of Christian and conservative talk radio with the UnFairness Doctrine.

3. ENDA to bring an end to free speech in the workplace, shutting down business like Boston’s Catholic Charities who wanted to place orphan children with a mom and a dad rather than with homosexual activists.

4. The Union Thug Law removing the secret ballot for union membership and delivering more coerced funds to the Democrat coffers then ever before.

…..

First, repent on behalf of our nation; then put your faith to action. Because if we stand by while the building burns, it’s not just the innocent children who will remain in harm’s way. No, if we throw our influence and our vote away, each of us will face the ridicule, blame, assault, censorship and the threat of being criminalized with the same steamroller that ran over Anita Bryant. And educating our children to the contrary will become a criminal act.

Won’t somebody please think of the children?!?!

Back to OneNewsNow, their “Persecution” section has this story about a pastor who was allegedly shot for his evangelical work.

Persecution against Christians continues in Sri Lanka, as a pastor has been gunned down outside his home in the country’s eastern province of Ampara.

Pastor Neil Edirisinghe of the House Church Foundation died at the scene, while his wife was shot in the stomach and was expected to recover. The couple’s two-year-old son also received minor injuries in the attack and was reportedly being treated for trauma. Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says persecution against Christians in Sri Lanka is not new.

“The country of Sri Lanka is one where we have seen persecution …. We don’t know all the details of that situation yet; it’s still unfolding. But we do know here is a pastor gunned down, and it seems to be targeted because of his church leadership, because of his faith,” says Nettleton.

Nettleton says the shooting is a stark reminder of the dangers Christians face in restricted nations. “There’s somewhat of a perception that every Christian is as free as we are here in America. That is simply not true,” states the ministry spokesman. “There’s also the perception that persecution happened in the Bible, in the Book of Acts, but then it stopped after the Bible was finished — and that’s not true either.”

Nettleton references the scripture found in John 15, in which Jesus reminds his disciples that the world hates him — and that the world will hate them as well if they follow him. “And that’s what we see in so many restricted nations around the world,” he adds.

Here’s a clue. When you go into somebody else’s home/country and try to force your ways on them despite their protests that they don’t want it, you can’t claim persecution if they finally fight back. Did any of you ever consider that the reason people “hate you” as you claim is because when they tell you they don’t want to hear about your religion you continue to pester them? Learn the meaning of the word “NO” and you’ll see a dramatic drop in the so-called persecution you face.

So, there are the nominees. After much consideration I’ve decided the RRRW Drama Queen award will go to…..

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January 4, 2008

Bigots spew hatred on gaytheist teenager.

Those lovable loonies at Americans for (the distortion of) Truth are at it again. In response to a letter they received from 14-year-old gay boy they unleashed a torrent of homophobic associations and lies.

I no more hate you than I hate those who engage in other behaviors that I consider immoral, and those would include me, my husband, and my children. Every single human who has ever lived, save one, engages in immoral behavior. Our task is figuring out what constitutes moral and immoral behavior. You have appropriated one philosophical perspective on what determines right and wrong: you believe that if a behavior doesn’t directly harm another person physically, then it’s moral. But some of the greatest thinkers who have ever lived define morality differently. Defining morality as you have would permit adult consensual incest, lying, selfishness, polyamory, and apotemnophilia.

Funny you should mention lying…..

And as to people who claim “morality” based on Biblical principles while whipping others for their alleged immorality, just check out this monument to their utter hypocrisy. I hope you have lots of spare time available.

Neither Mr. LaBarbera nor I believe that homosexuals choose the feelings they have anymore than those who are attracted to adolescents or children or their siblings choose their powerful attractions, or those married men who are attracted to other women choose those attractions, or those who are powerfully drawn toward gambling or alcohol or drugs choose those attractions. We do believe, however, that those who experience same-sex attraction choose how they will respond to their desires, just as I choose how to respond to my selfish, or greedy, or angry, or lustful desires. Some in society tell you that acting on same-sex impulses is legitimate and good. They have lied to you, and it is a cruel lie.

Comparing gays to pedophiles, people who commit incest, adulterers, addicts, etc. How original. Not. The simple fact is that being gay is a natural state of being which has been observed in more than 1,000 species of animals (including human beings). The “cruel lie” is that perpetuated by the RRRW; that being gay is unnatural, must be changed–can be changed.

Joe, homosexuals do have the full complement of civil rights. They even have marital rights. Every homosexual can get married; they simply can’t redefine marriage. They can’t eliminate the criterion of complementarity, just as those who “love” children cannot eliminate the minimum age criterion, and those who love relatives cannot eliminate the consanguinity requirement, and those who love multiple partners cannot eliminate the binary requirement. The fact that homosexuals cannot redefine the institution does not mean the institution is unavailable to them.

No we don’t. We can still be fired and/or be denied housing for being gay in many states. We do not have federal hate-crimes protection. We cannot get married in any state but MA, and cannot get federal marriage benefits anywhere. Do not give us that nonsense about “redefining” marriage. Marriage has been “redefined” countless times over time. If one wants to rely on the Bible, we have to recognize that men often took not only wives (yes, that’s multiple wives) but numerous concubines as well in Biblical times. Therefore this notion of “One Man, One Woman” is not rooted in the Bible but a recent “redefinition” of the RRRW. Of course historical redefinitions of marriage included allowing inter-faith and interracial marriages. So this notion that marriage has been a static institution that never has been, and never should be, changed, is a fabrication of lying liars.

As to your comment that homosexuals can think logically: You’re absolutely right, Joe; you were created in the image and likeness of God, and, therefore, you possess the gift of reason. It is not just religious traditions that inform us that homosexual conduct is wrong. Natural law tells us that. You are heterosexual, Joe. All humans are. Species cannot procreate homosexually. Our bodies are not designed for homosexual sex.

Again, gay sex has been observed in more than 1,000 animal species so natural law tells us that gay sex is perfectly normal and acceptable. Without referring to religious dogma/texts people cannot come up with a single valid argument against homosexuality (and the “ick factor” is not a valid argument). Furthermore, procreation is not the only purpose of sex no matter how loudly the RRRW tries to scream that it is. Sex is an expression of love, and it’s also quite pleasurable. (Of course that’s a significant reason the RRRW tries so hard to suppress the sex-instinct.)

Please, do not dismiss arguments that emerge from religious tradition. Speaking as one who deeply values logic, evidence, and intellectual argument, I can attest that Christianity holds up intellectually. And remember, atheism too is based on faith. You are no more able to prove the non-existence of God than I am able to prove unequivocally God’s existence.

You admit you’re not able to prove God’s existence, yet you insist on imposing your religious principles and morals on everybody, of every religion (and no religion). You won’t provide others the very religious freedom that you wish for yourself and your loved ones. That is utterly despicable.

And it’s not just the Christian Bible that teaches that homosexuality is wrong; the Old Testament does also, as does the Koran.

They also teach that lying is wrong, but you do that constantly and seemingly without concern for the damage it will have on others. Do you not fear the wrath of God or has he promised you special dispensation?

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December 29, 2007

Spin, spin, spin.

You may have heard about Felipe Rivera.

Felipe Rivera, 43, is charged with a hate crime as well as aggravated criminal sexual assault and other offenses, said a spokesman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. If convicted, he could face more than 30 years in prison, a source said.

…..

“Mr. Rivera got upset apparently because he believed the victim, No. 1, didn’t respond to a female and then, No. 2, somehow winked at him — made what he perceived as a sexual advance,” said Cicero police spokesman Dan Proft.

Rivera then punched the victim in the face, Proft said, and was asked to leave the party. He allegedly waited outside for the victim. According to Rivera, the victim, 37, then propositioned Rivera for a sex act — a claim the victim denies, Proft said.

Rivera followed the victim to the outer staircase of a basement apartment, where he removed the victim’s pants and raped him, authorities said. Afterward, Rivera punched the victim in the head, leaving him semi-conscious, then inserted a metal broom handle in the victim’s rectum, sources said.

But of course hate-monger Peter Labarbera , who feels Rivera has been wrongly charged, has to put his unique spin on the event.

Regardless, what we still have with this case is a maniac who sexually assaulted another man, while later claiming to hate “faggots.” Strange. Most men would never think of sodomizing another man, and last I heard anal sodomy was seen as the defining act of male homosexuality.

Of course the sexual assault of men by other men is nothing new and it has nothing to do with homosexuality. Men have been sexually assaulting one another in wartime for centuries. Male prisoners assault one another for similar reasons; to show their dominance over others. It has nothing to do with sexuality, it has to do with power. But Peter is never one to let facts get in the way of his bigotry.

It is even more ridiculous to treat the victims of same-sex rape with greater deference than, say, straight women raped by men — or, conversely, to punish “straight” male rapists of women any less harshly than, say, a “homo-hating” pseudo-straight guy who sodomizes another man in an act of rage – simply because the latter says he “hates faggots.”

We need harsher laws against people like Felipe Rivera thanks to people like you, Peter. Because you spew so much bile and hatred against us that people like Felipe Rivera think it’s OK to rape, beat and even kill us because we are gay. You demonize us, turn us into monsters and make it so people who buy your lies recoil in horror at the mere thought of being touched by us, or even being in the same room with us. That means we don’t have to do anything to provoke being abused except exist, and any LGBT person is at risk when a homophobe is around.

I’ll make a deal with you, Peter. When you get the government to eradicate the hate-crime laws that protect you as a Christian, I’ll stop striving for hate-crimes laws for LGBT people. I expect hell to freeze over before that happens though.

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October 15, 2007

Folsom Street Events™ Defends Folsom Street Fair™ from Attacks by the Extreme Religious Right

Press release:

San Francisco charity calls upon the community to call Miller to show its support

San Francisco, October 10, 2007 — Today, the Board of Directors of Folsom Street Events released the following statement about its signature event, the Folsom Street Fair.

Andy Copper, President of the Board of Directors, stated, “We can no longer stand by while Folsom Street Fair remains under attack. The Catholic League insists upon provoking its followers, resulting in emails and phone calls threatening us with everything from ill-will to bodily harm. We understand that The Catholic League believes it is doing ‘the right thing’ but they are attacking our San Francisco values of community, diversity, education, and freedom of self expression. If they do not share in our values or do not understand them, that’s fine; but, they have never opened up a dialogue with us. They have only stood in judgment, making threats. We can no longer remain silent on the issue.”

Andy Copper added the following, “To date, we have donated over $5 million to charities serving the community’s needs in the areas of public health, human services, and the arts. Sponsorship dollars only underwrite the direct expenses of the Fair itself. Miller’s sponsorship does not support the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence or any other charity that benefits from the Fair. The donations brought in at our gates from individual community members support our charities. Additionally, Folsom Street Fair generates approximately $36.4 million in travel and tourism dollars benefiting San Francisco and the nation.”

In closing, the organization asks the following, “Please support FOLSOM STREET FAIR by calling Miller Brewing Company and thanking them for not caving into extreme right-wing pressure, requesting that they pull out from presenting sponsorship of our Fair. We have worked successfully with this company for many years, and they have been very supportive. This is no longer an issue of our poster image, but it is an issue of free speech and freedom of expression. We think it’s important for Miller to hear from you – the people who enjoy the Fair! Please contact Miller spokesman Julian Green at green.julian@mbco.com or call 1-800-MILLER 6 or 414-931-2000 to let them know how much you appreciate their support.”

Presenting sponsors of the event were Miller Lite/Miller Genuine Draft, NakedSword, TitanMen.com, and GLOSS. Premier sponsors are RECON, Hot House Entertainment, Elbow Grease, Mr. S Leather, and Maximus Vodka. Charter sponsors were Steamworks, BigMuscle.com, Blow Buddies, Dungeonbeds, Leatherpost.com, Joie de Vivre Hospitality, and Powerhouse. Media sponsors were LIVE 105, SF Bay Guardian, IN LA Magazine, and Bear Party Magazine.

Major beneficiaries included AIDS Emergency Fund, Dolores Street Community Services, Frameline, Healing Waters, Lyon-Martin Health Services, Pets Are Wonderful Support, Positive Resource Center, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, STOP AIDS Project, and Tenderloin Health. Supporting beneficiaries included Berkeley Free Clinic, Black Rock Arts Foundation, GLBT Historical Society, Transgender Law Center, and Triangle Martial Arts Association.

About Folsom Street Events

Folsom Street Events is a 501(c)3 nonprofit agency that produces four annual fetish events: Bay of Pigs™, Up Your Alley™, Magnitude™, and the Folsom Street Fair™. The mission is to create volunteer-driven leather events that provide the adult alternative lifestyle community with safe venues for self-expression while emphasizing freedom, fun, frolic and fetish and raising funds to benefit charity. In 2006, over 350,000 attendees raised $301,512 for charitable donations. 2008 marks the 25th Anniversary of the Folsom Street Fair.

See also:
Folsom Street Poster Has Tighty Righties Frothing
Peter LaBarbera’s Unhealthy Obsession With Folsom Street Leathermen
Meanwhile, Back at Petey LaBarbera’s BDSM Obsession…

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October 7, 2007

Meanwhile, Back at Petey LaBarbera’s BDSM Obsession…

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters clues us in to:

Something worth knowing about the Folsom Street Fair and our friend Peter

Yesterday, an online buddy of mine wrote me saying that he attended the Folsom Street Fair. His observations are very interesting:

I have to say I went to the Folsom Street Fair (and this was my third year).

It is clear from these pictures that the whippings and such that occurred on Folsum Street were not the popular parts of the Street Fair (his pictures of the flogging shows 4 people watching, plus himself and Allyson Smith). He might find them exciting, but it isn’t the focus of the Street Fair.

And most people who went were fully dressed. It is extremely rare to see fully naked people on the street. One thing that Peter LaBarbera didn’t mention in his complaining about nudity–it is legal in San Francisco to walk around fully nude.

. . .

It is also clear from these pictures that Peter LaBarbera asked most of these people to pose for him.

. . .

However the question still remains. Just how did Peter know how long the “mutual masturbation” went on.

Let me guess. He was watching and timing it for “research purposes.”

See also:
Folsom Street Poster Has Tighty Righties Frothing
Peter LaBarbera’s Unhealthy Obsession With Folsom Street Leathermen

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October 4, 2007

Peter LaBarbera’s Unhealthy Obsession With Folsom Street Leathermen

Buffy, who observes, “For someone who claims he’s disgusted by all of that ‘depravity’ Peter sure took lots of pictures of those naked men,” found this gem — well worth clicking and reading in full — at Pam’s House Blend:

What you’ve been waiting for - the full Folsom report from The Peter

In a multipart on-the-scene “exclusive” series — complete with photos with alleged naughty bits blacked out — on the Folsum Street Fair in San Francisco, Peter LaBarbera and Allyson Smith of Americans For Truth Against Homosexuality go into almost orgasmic detail about the BDSM going on at the event.

I kid you not, this is “Christian” oppo research gone horribly wrong. From Part One:

How do you describe the most depraved pubic event in the most depraved city in America? Well, we’ll let the pictures do the talking — with our strategically-placed black boxes so as not to reward the perverted exhibitionists who invaded the city’s streets Sunday for the “Folsom Street Fair.” The Fair is an annual street party for BDSM enthusiasts (meaning bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism — or domination/submission) held on several blocked-off city streets here, that reportedly draws hundreds of thousands of “leather” practitioners and curious spectators every year…

Apparently Peter has realized that he can no longer report on these BDSM events as homosex-only, so he couches the heterosexual behavior as an anomoly, likely caused by proximity to the homos. He describes another of his photos:

Man leads bare-breasted female slave “partner” around by a dog collar. It appears that in recent years, heterosexual perverts have joined their “gay” brethren at the “fair” in increasing numbers. Talk about a setback for women’s rights … On the flip side, women were also seen leading around their male “slaves” at the twisted “fair”…

Why are Peter and Allyson so curiously attracted to these kink festivals? I personally have no interest in them, but the fact that he had to “escalate” to do “research” on king beyond his hometown International Mr. Leather convention says quite a bit.

And never mind the idiocy of the statement that the leather scene is a “setback for women’s rights”; we want to know when Radical Righties like LaBarbera (and his cohorts in the Folsom attack, Concerned Women for America) suddenly started caring about women’s rights.

See also:
Folsom Street Poster Has Tighty Righties Frothing

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