Big Pharma's Wasteful Advertising

Just watching the NBC Evening News a few minutes ago I was yet again struck by the amount of needless, wasteful spending by the big pharmaceutical companies. In the half-hour broadcast there were five (5) ads - all for prescription drugs that no consumer can purchase on their own. Only doctors and physician assistants can write the required prescriptions, yet here we are with countless millions of dollars spent nationwide daily to market to viewers who cannot make the decision to prescribe the drugs pushed in the ads. Meanwhile, of course, the drug company reps are likewise spending lavishly entertaining doctors and physician assistants pushing the same drugs. My sister - a physician assistant - says that the drug reps she interfaces with market to her and others on the medical staff only at the very, very best [and most expensive] restaurants in town.

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With all the discussion of health care reform and the insane cost of many prescription drugs, I am baffled why no one has argued for the immediate cessation of such wasteful advertising spending by pharmaceutical companies with the savings passed on to the consumer. This kind of advertising makes no practical sense, particularly in a nation where over 47 million citizens have no health insurance coverage.

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Another wasteful example of a broken health care system is the monopoly games played by many non-profit hospital systems that place little focus on the provision of health care but great effort into wiping out competition. Tied this insanity is advertising by non-profit hospital systems that already have a near market monopoly. Locally, Sentara Health Systems is a case in point. Sentara controls five of the seven local hospitals in south Hampton Roads and has much more state of the art facilities than its competitors - two hospitals owned by the sisters of Bon Secours - yet Sentara continues massive television and print advertising campaigns. Why? And why can't this wasteful spending be eliminated so that savings could be passed along to consumers?

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One last question is this: why can't Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats ask these same questions?

More Monday Male Beauty

Meanwhile More Priests Charged With Sexual Abuse

The Roman Catholic Church has expended a large quantity of Crocodile tears in its feigned remorse over the sexual abuse of minors by priests and claims that it has purged its ranks of pedophiles. Like so much disseminated by the Church, the claims that all abusers have been removed are not true. Two new cases illustrate the continuing phenomenon. First, a situation from Ohio where a priest previously cleared by the diocese has again been charged with abuse. Here are some highlights:

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A former Catholic priest who served at St. Jude Church and is accused of having sexual contact with a teenage boy 12 years ago pleaded not guilty Thursday to a single count of sexual battery. . . . O’Connor, 51, resigned in June 2008 after the latest allegation against him surfaced when the victim in the case, who wasn’t a parishioner, came forward to the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. The victim, now in his late 20s, was a teenager during the summer of 1997 when the sexual contact allegedly took place, according to prosecutors.

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O’Connor previously had been suspended as a priest between 2003 and 2007 while the church was investigating another sexual abuse allegation from his time as a priest at St. Joseph Church in Cuyahoga Falls during the 1980s. A diocese review board cleared him of those allegations, which surfaced in 2003 and prompted him to leave his position with the Police Department. O’Connor was reinstated as a priest in 2007, but the diocese restricted his access to children. O’Connor, who is free on bond, could receive up to five years in prison if convicted.

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Then, in Illinois a priest has been arrested for his involvement with a 15 year old boy he met through an Internet chat room. As I have said before, only a thorough house cleaning from top to bottom of the Catholic clergy will end this seemingly never ending story of abuse and inappropriate contact with minors. Here are highlights on the Illinois case:

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Wayne E. Wigglesworth of Valparaiso was arrested Aug. 17 after police pulled his vehicle over near the intersection of 60th and Rockwell streets in Chicago when Wigglesworth's vehicle made an improper turn. They found the 15-year-old teen with him, but the teen didn't know Wigglesworth's name.

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When police further questioned him, the teen said he met Wigglesworth through an Internet chat room, TeenChat.com., and they talked for several days. Wigglesworth eventually asked to meet the teen so they could perform oral sex on each other and then "hold and hug each other," according to the criminal complaint.

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Wigglesworth is being held without bond although no indictment has been filed against him in federal court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Trumbull-Harris said the case was still being investigated and that anyone with information about improper conduct regarding Wigglesworth should call Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America

The Christian Century has a review of a book written by William Lobdell, a religion reporter for the Los Angeles Times, the full title of which is "Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America—and Found Unexpected Peace." I suspect that Lobdell's spiritual journey to unbelief resonates with many, particularly with the LGBT community which has been the target of some many lies and so much viciousness from allegedly "godly Christians." I also suspect that many in the younger generations who view Christianity negatively may identify as well. It seems that the behavior of Christians - and in Lobdell's case the Roman Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal - is one of the strongest arguments against Christianity. Indeed, it is proof, at least in the opinion of some, that institutional Christianity is an utter sham, peopled with hopelessly unloving practitioners such as the leaders of "professional Christian" organizations like The Family Foundation here in Virginia. Here are some review highlights:

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Former religion reporter William Lobdell's deconversion narrative, Losing My Religion, refrains from both bombast and suggestions of dopiness. By his very choice of genre—memoir rather than apologia—Lobdell enters a different territory of the new atheism, one already inhabited by several other counter conversion narrators, including John Loftus, who wrote Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity (Prometheus, 2008), and Dan Barker, author of Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists (Ulysses, 2008).

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He calls himself a "reluctant atheist" and a "skeptical deist." "With all that has happened to me," Lobdell says, "I don't feel qualified to judge anyone else.""All that has happened" includes, most notably, Lobdell's eight-year tenure on the religion beat of the Los Angeles Times during the breaking of the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal.

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Then a colleague of Lobdell's passed him some documents about a priest named Michael Harris who was named in a clergy sex abuse lawsuit. . . . It was the first of more than $1 billion worth of settlements with victims of clergy sex abuse across the nation. Lobdell became convinced that as chilling as the pedophile priests' actions were, the real story lay in the bishops' cover-ups of the felonies, their quiet transfers of accused clergy to new and unsuspecting parishes, and the Catholic Church's revictimization of the victims.

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The Harris case dealt Lobdell's personal faith what he calls a "spiritual body blow." . . . But the deeper he got into the story, the more difficult it became to square the sins of the church with his image of a loving and powerful God. "I couldn't get the victims' stories or the bishops' lies—many of them written on their own stationery, undeniable and permanent—out of my head," he writes. "Like a homicide detective, I had seen too much."

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Lobdell depicts the ebbing of his faith as inevitable, something that he could not control or choose to fight. Many people assume that Christians-turned-agnostics make a conscious decision to leave the faith, but he insists that in his case that's simply not true. "As deeply as I missed my faith, as hard as I tried to keep it, my head could not command my gut.

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While the review goes on to critique Lobdell for not retaining his faith, personally, I he is very much on point. As a former Catholic I find it difficult to even walk into a Catholic Church given the hypocrisy and evilness of the Church hierarchy. While I still consider myself Christian, it is in spite of not because institutional Christianity.

Angst Over Obama's Hapless Weakness Continues to Grow

No matter what lunacy the GOP and its deranged base decides to put forth, President Obama continues to act like the class nerd who runs from confrontation and yields the field by default to the lunatic fringe of the freeper swamps. Like many Democrats who not only voted for Obama but also worked for his campaign and advocated for his campaign, I feel that I was sold a false bill of goods. With majorities in both houses of Congress and a Democrat in the White House, the Democrats should have been able to move forward with the agenda that Obama was elected to oversee. Instead, we see the increasingly irrational and out right bizarre elements of the GOP calling all the shots and Obama unable to control "blue dog" Democrats who are selling the public out in favor of large donations from the health insurance industry and the pharmaceutical companies. America Blog has a new post that looks ate comments from readers that well sums up the level of disgust among those who worked to get Obama and a Democrat majority elected:

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Let me share with you some of the recent, and most popular, comments our readers have left regarding the President's actions of late. I really feel in my gut that these are illustrative of what Democrats are saying across the country about the President. This is very dangerous for the President, the party, and for our agenda that things have gone this sour, and this public.

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I still can't believe that I actually worked to get this "wuss" elected. . . . Obama's version of chess is the one in which you simply allow your opponents to place you in "check" every move and considering that, the fact that they haven't managed to "mate" you; considering that some kind of victory. I know a "wuss" when I see one and I'm seeing one right now: Obama.

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It's not what I voted for or donated money to either. I don't appreciated getting punked by the man so many millions worked so hard for to get elected. . . . Hillary is laughing her ass off right about now.

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You take the polls where the majority of the public wants the public option and tell the Blue Dogs to get on board by educating their constituents. . . . What you don't do is insult your base, and you don't let a party determined to see you fail and few scared politicians in unsafe districts, who are probably going to lose anyway because life isn't fair, dictate against the tide of public opinion. That is, unless you are scared shitless because the industry deals you made at the start when you were pretending to negotiate in good faith (and transparency) on the part of the public are falling apart before your eyes.

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If the Democrats cannot perform better than this and maintain party unity and discipline, then they do not deserve to be in charge and, sadly, I believe more and more rank and file voters are appalled and figuring this out. It takes real effort to be defeated by crazy people when you had a amazing position strength when the battle began. This debacle is spilling over from the national front to hurt Democrats in statewide races in Virginia and New Jersey - if they fail, the media and the lunatic elements of the GOP will be trumpeting victory and a repudiation of Obama. And Obama will have no one to blame but himself.

Monday Male Beauty

Obama Speaking to Children and Right Wing Insanity

UPDATED: Pam's House Blend has the text of Obama's speech here. Reading the speech only reenforces my thoughts on why the GOP's lunatic fringe is so unwound by the speech - because it's a black man delievering a message that, if heard and followed by students from other minority groups, indirectly might further undermine the white privilege the wingers cling to.

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I haven't commented until now on the increasing bat shittery - to use one of Pam Spaulding's terms I love - of the lunatic base of the Republican Party that is utterly melting down over President Obama making a speech about personal responsibility and remaining in school. This topic is precisely what the GOP claims to support, hence why the sobbing nut jobs and irrational foaming at the mouth? People in other parts of the world must truly look at the USA and think that their is some insanity inducing agent in the water in some locals. How else to explain utterly bizarre and insane conduct?

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Personally, I believe a couple things are in play: (1) as the photo above indicates, I believe that not so subtle racism is at play, and (2) with the exodus of moderates and intellectuals from the GOP the base of the GOP is becoming increasingly ignorant, uneducated, paranoid and down right pathological. I truly fear where such detachment from reason and logic may lead. The Seattle Post Intelligencer has a column that looks at the insanity of the far right which acts as if Obama is doing something that other presidents have not previously done. Here are some highlights:

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He pledged to be "the education president," so it was fitting in 1991 that President George H. W. Bush gave a speech to America's schoolchildren aimed at motivating kids to "strive for excellence."
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Eighteen years later, President Obama is about to give a similar talk that will encourage students to work hard, set educational goals for themselves and take responsibility for their learning. The president's persist-and-succeed speech, set for Sept. 8, has produced a wellspring of hate from the far right. Hate talk radio is even urging parents to keep kids home from school.

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Far-right media are engaged in niche marketing. The likes of a Limbaugh, O'Reilly or Beck attract a hard-core audience, deliver designated devil figures, and play on fears of gullible, resentful -- and largely elderly -- people. With Obama's speech to students, other goals come into play. With right-thinking Supreme Court justices leading the way, conservatives have long sought to limit young peoples' free expression, from censoring student newspapers to penalizing students for holding up signs off campus.

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The 2008 Obama campaign energized the young in numbers not seen since the 1960's. At an Obama rally in Bend, Ore., last year, a 17-year-old high school student served as warm up act, delivering a cogent analysis of all that the Bush administration had wrecked. National Review online picked up my article. It condemned the kid, which put him on the receiving end of hate mail.

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The Obama speech seems largely an appeal for students keep on truckin' and never get discouraged. It's not all that different from the thoughts of Bush Sr. Or the stay-in-school message delivered at East High School in Anchorage last week by Alaska's new GOP Gov. Sean Parnell. Yet, in Anchorage, right-wing parents have demanded that the speech be blocked from the classroom. Districts in Missouri, Texas, Virginia -- even the president's home state of Illinois -- have opted not to show it.

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The action of Medina, Ohio, schools superintendent Randy Stepp is a typical cave in: Civics education -- not just sex education -- is getting censored by crazies.

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The far right has been on a rampage this summer. "Birthers" have disrupted lawmakers' town meetings with the false claim that Obama was born in Kenya. Opponents of health care reform have carried posters depicting the president as The Joker from Batman movies, even as Adolf Hitler.

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The vast majority of Americans are civil and tolerant. Most people want presidents to succeed, even if their candidate came up short in the last election. The country loses footing when an administration flops: Look at the last eight years. Instead, the far right and its media megaphones -- notably Fox News -- debase debate, spread lies, and demean a president 200 days into his term.

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Joe Scarborough, congressman from the Republicans' Class of 94, Florida conservative, now host of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, speaks the truth to the crazies -- and their enablers. "Where are the national GOP leaders speaking out against this kind of hysteria?" Scarborough asked Friday in a Twitter entry.

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Truth be told, the national GOP leadership has become just as nasty and debased as the Party's base. Ignorance and religious extremism are now the hallmarks of a party that once prided itself on educated and thoughtful conservatism. Those days are gone, perhaps forever.

Panel to Discuss Virginia Courts and Judiciary

The Waynesboro News Virginian has a timely story that needs much more publicity - the Virginia Coalition for Open Government will be holding a meeting that will look at both the judicial selection process, controlled by the General Assembly, and other transparency issues. Virginia has some very good judges, but it also has some very bad ones. Moreover, the enforcement of the Canons of Judicial Conduct are an absolute farce with the blatant violation of the Canons having no effect on the outcome of cases where misconduct occurred. The litigant harmed by prejudice is left with only one recourse: appealing the adverse outcome with added cost and expense involved and no guarantee of the ruling being overturned. The biased or homophobic judge (the majority of gays in divorce cases for instance appear to receive punative treatment for "choosing" to be gay and judges get away with this violation of the Canons regularly) may or may not get their wrist slapped, but most often it seems no adverse consequence to the offending judge is the norm. Here are some story highlights:

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Virginia’s judiciary will be the top topic of an annual conference this fall on opening the working of government to public view. The judicial selection process, controlled by the General Assembly, and a hot-button proposal to make jurors anonymous in criminal cases will be debated by panelists at Access 2009, a conference convened by the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. The judicial topics will occupy two of the four panels on the second day of the conference, scheduled for Oct. 15 and 16 at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton.

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A group of citizens, known as the “Pitchfork Rebellion,” have called this year for a public examination of judicial selection. Virginia is one of two states in which the legislature elects judges, but direct election isn’t the primary issue under debate. The group has expressed more concern about the lack of openness in the way judicial candidates are evaluated and chosen, and it wants a public forum on whether to change the selection process and how.

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Whether some changes will be forthcoming will be interesting to watch. Currently, there seems to be few standards for appointment to the bench and judges in the past have been appointed by ultra-conservative members of the General Assembly because of their extreme far right views rather than experience and competence. This needs to end. In addition, the Canons of Judicial Conduct the prohibit biased judges from hearing cases need to start being enforced.

More Sunday Male Beauty

Hiding [And Deluding One's Self] Behind The Sacrament

Over at Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish there has been a running discussion and commentary on the Roman Catholic Church's annulment process which is the Church's somewhat dubious way around granting divorces. Nonetheless, the process does address some issues such as when one spouse is gay/lesbian and foolishly - like was the case with me - believes their religious indoctrination and thinks that if the pray hard enough and get married the same sex attractions (even if not fully admitted as existing) will miraculously disappear. Sadly, it doesn't work that way and if the Roman Catholic Church were honest, it would admit that some people are born LGBT and allow them full church membership as they are - something the ELCA is thankfully attempting to do. One of the posts at Andrew's site struck home with me:

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I understand your skepticism of point 5. To demonstrate why such a vague description might be important, let me offer you the story of my parents' annulment. My mother and father married in good faith, mostly. I say "mostly" because "good faith" on my mother's end meant that she thought God's blessing on her marriage would end her attraction to women. It did not.

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It's sort of a dramatic case, but I think it's illustrative: a lot of people put a great deal of faith in the sacrament of marriage to cure woes it actually cannot. My mother thought, mistakenly, that marriage would end her conflict about her sexuality by magically making her straight.

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I am pleased to report that coming out of the closet actually cured most of her conflict about her sexuality -- by allowing her to accept who she was. Although "Lack of appreciation of the full implications of marriage" is vague enough to include, say, not understanding that marriage is forever, I think the clause is there more for people like my mom, whether it's because they're gay or for another reason.

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Many straight spouses mistakenly believe that their gay spouse deliberately sought to fool them and entered into marriage in bad faith - mine certainly seems to believe so - when in reality that not the case whatsoever. Both the straight spouse and the gay spouse are, in my view, victims of a religious belief system that ignores reality and modern knowledge on sexual orientation. Tragically, all concerned suffer harm even though neither spouse sought to do anything other than what they believed was expected and required by God. The sooner the antiquated and false religious concept of condemning homosexuality is thrown in the trash bin of history, the better off countless LGBT and straight individuals will be.

Obama's Lack of Leadership: The Change Agenda At a Crossroads

For some time I and a number of other liberal bloggers - certainly a number at Bilerico and AmericaBlog - have been lamenting Barack Obama's failure to deliver on campaign promises, not only on LGBT issues, but basically everything. Obama has taken a position of great strength and public support and basically squandered it. His poor leadership style, failure to aggressively go after "blue dog Democrats who favor the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries more the American families, and delusional quest for bipartisan support - something the GOP will NEVER cooperate in - has made a ruin of health care reform. Moreover, his poor, gutless leadership may well cause a GOP sweep in Virginia in November - a sweep by the most reactionary and backward thinking slate in recent memory in Virginia. Indeed, all that the GOP statewide slate lacks is a white supremacist in terms of reactionary thinking. The Washington Post has a story that looks at the mess and speculates whether Obama can snatch victory back from disaster and save his plummeting popularity:

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As President Obama's senior advisers gathered at Blair House at the end of July for a two-day review of their first six months in office, what was meant to be a breath-catching moment of reflection was colored by a sense of unease. But opinion polls showed support for the president and his policies dipping sharply, and the disheartening numbers had shaken the confidence of some of Obama's staff. Vice President Biden addressed the anxiousness when the Cabinet and senior staff met in the State Dining Room in the White House residence the next morning. "Did you really think this was going to be easy?" Biden said, according to one participant.

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The slide has only quickened. Emerging from an angry August recess, Obama is weakened politically and faces growing concerns, particularly from within his own party, over his strength as a leader. Dozens of interviews this summer in six states -- from Maine to California -- have revealed a growing angst and disappointment over the administration's present course.

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Democratic officials and foot soldiers, who have experienced the volatile public mood firsthand, are asking Obama to take a more assertive approach this fall. His senior advisers say he will, beginning with his Wednesday address to Congress on health care.

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[H]e is entering a period when consensus may not be possible on the issues most important to his administration and party. Whatever approach he takes is likely to upset some of his most ardent supporters, many of whom are unwilling to compromise at a time when Democrats control the White House and Congress.

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"Until last week, he was still trying to play ball with the Republicans who said, 'We're going to bring you down,' " said Karen Davis, 42, a musician from Jersey City who raised funds for Obama last year. "Now I'm thinking, 'This isn't what I voted for.' "

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"At the root of his difficulties is a misperception on his part of the root cause of the problem," said Obama critic Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University professor and presidential scholar. "He sees the problem as Washington. Fine. But the basic cause is the evolution of the Republican Party."

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Later, in an interview, Grayson said his advice for the president based on his experiences this recess is "to not only combat the lies, but to combat the liars." "He must recognize that he has reached out his hand to the Republican leadership and they have spat on it," he said. . . . Beyond the Beltway, many Democrats say they would be less afraid if Obama appeared less fearful himself, including on issues such as race and the legacy of torture that he has eloquently addressed in the past. In office, Obama has tended to view those subjects largely as distractions from his reform ambitions.

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Axelrod said the White House has been receiving advice, much of it unsolicited, to push back harder against the opposition, particularly as the health-care debate heads into the fall legislative session. He said the president intends to do so, but on his own terms. "He's not going to get punked or pushed around," Axelrod said. "On the other hand, I don't think he's going to fill his day with gratuitous partisan back-and-forth, because it isn't productive and it's not healthy."

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In my view, the current GOP is acting like the classic class bully who thinks he/she can lie and get away with anything and everything. The only way that attitude can be undone is by playing hardball right back and punching the bully in the mouth. To date, Obama has acted like a cowering sissy trying to placate the bully rather than face the threats and lies head on. I still believe that there is chance to turn things around, but Obama needs to grow a spine NOW and go on the offensive against those who think nothing of deliberately lying and fabricating untruths - even as in the next breath they claim to patriots and to honor Christian values.

Sunday Male Beauty

Dedicated to Ken Cuccinelli

Ken Cuccinelli Makes Taliban Bob Seem Moderate

I have done a number of posts on Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's CBN University thesis and road map for a Christianist/GOP rule of society. Lost in all the discussion of McDonnell's extremism and out of the mainstream mind set is the fact that the GOP candidate for Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli (pictured at left), is even more extreme than McDonnell. Indeed, following Cuccinelli since he was elected to the General Assembly, in my opinion, he is a total whack job and cut from the same cloth as Bob Marshall, author of Virginia's "Marriage Amendment" that impacted not only same sex couples but also unmarried heterosexual couples who cannot formally marry because they would lose health insurance coverage or retirement benefits. In a speech nominating Marshall to run for U.S. Senate back in the spring (fortunately, Marshall lost out to lackluster Jim Gilmore), Cuccinelli described Marshall as a head of the curb. The same Bob Marshall who stated he'd be happy if anti-gay legislation cause all LGBT Virginians to leave the state.

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Like Taliban Bob, Cuccinelli is attempting to depict himself as a moderate - a disingenuous lie, of course - since if his real positions were known, moderates and independents would run screaming to pull the lever for Steve Shannon. Cuccinelli's much scrubbed website, however, still gives hints of his true agenda. Here is a sampling:

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As Virginia’s Attorney General, I will continue to support the sanctity of all human life, from conception to natural death. I will also strive to support women in crisis pregnancies.

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Marriage: I believe marriage should be protected as a sacred union between one man and one woman.

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I led the fight to pass the Marriage Amendment in Northern Virginia. I was one of only a small number of legislators around Virginia that actually went out and actively campaigned on behalf of the Marriage Amendment.
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I have proposed numerous bills to protect marriage and families, and to reduce the incidence of divorce in Virginia.

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Both the United States and Virginia Constitutions were written to permanently protect the individual right of law abiding citizens to own and use firearms for any lawful reason.

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Translated, Cuccinelli wants no legal abortions in the state, prefers that individuals remain trapped in failed marriages, wants same sex couples and unmarried straight couples to have no legal rights in respect to each other, and has no problem with citizens running around with assault rifles and automatic weapons. The Daily Kos did a piece that compared Cuccinelli to Steve Shannon on the issue of employment protections which is enlightening. Here are a few highlights:

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Although Ken will lead you to believe that he has "less friends" than Steve I think he is not realizing that his 0% rating from the AFL-CIO provides him with a great deal of "friends" within the big business community. Secondly, Ken's 100% NFIB rating compared to Steve's 50%. Again, a quick analysis will demonstrate a key difference between the two. Ken's 0% rating compared to Steve's 50% rating shows that Ken is absolutely unwilling to work with working men and women on any labor issue, consistently voting against it. You have to really work hard to obtain a 0% rating but Ken always succeeds.

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Also telling of what Cuccinelli's real agenda is all about is his cozy relationship with James Dobson's Virginia affiliate, The Family Foundation, one of the most powerful religious extremist organizations in the Virginia. In 2008 - that's right just last year - The Family Foundation awarded Cuccinelli its "Legislator of the Year" award. One needs to be pretty extreme to win that accolade from the Kool-Aid drinkers at The Family Foundation, a group that has utterly no regard for the religious freedoms of others. Here are some highlights from the Fairfax Family Forum about this most telling award:

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(Richmond, VA) – State Senator Ken Cuccinelli was named “Legislator of the Year” by The Family Foundation at their 2008 Annual Gala this evening. “It’s very humbling to be singled out among all of our dedicated pro-family representatives in Richmond,” said Cuccinelli. “But our efforts in Richmond on behalf of Virginia’s families couldn’t be successful without the hard work of groups like The Family Foundation.” “The traditional values we grew up with are under daily assault by liberals in Washington and Hollywood. We are not immune to the attacks on our culture here in Virginia and need to stand up for faith and families.”

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Truth be told, Cuccinelli is as whacked out as Sarah Palin and the voters in Virginia had best wake up to the snow job that McDonnell and Cuccinelli are trying to foist on the citizenry. Neither of them are moderates and both of them will work to impose elements of McDonnell's thesis on all Virginians.

More Saturday Male Beauty

One Way Or Another, USA Needs to Leave Iraq and Afghanistan

Columnist George Will is hardly a liberal and he and I often differ radically in our views, but we now are in agreement on two things: the USA needs to leave Iraq and Afghanistan which are now no win quagmires regardless of what bullsh*t the military commands may say. The USA now finds itself in roughly the same situations got themselves into going on two decades ago - we are stuck in foreign nations that have long eluded being conquered governed by utterly corrupt and self-serving governments. No amount of money expended and no amount of blood from U.S. military members will change the long existing dynamics. The first Bush administration understood this when George H.W. Bush called off the advance on Baghdad - sadly, the Chimperator never even thought of the aftermath since he was driven solely by religious fanaticism and a warped desire to avenge his daddy. Unfortunately, Barack Obama seems to have learned nothing from the Soviet experience in Afghanistan and is increasing the number of U.S. troops - even as our European allies get closer and closer to recognizing reality and withdrawing their troops. Here are some highlights from Will's recent column:

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Since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq's cities, two months have passed, and so has the illusion that Iraq is smoothly transitioning to a normality free of sectarian violence. Recently, Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. troops there, "blanched" when asked if the war is "functionally over." According to The Post's Greg Jaffe, Odierno said:

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"There are still civilians being killed in Iraq. We still have people that are attempting to attack the new Iraqi order and the move towards democracy and a more open economy. So we still have some work to do."

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No, we don't, even if, as Jaffe reports, the presence of 130,000 U.S. troops "serves as a check on Iraqi military and political leaders' baser and more sectarian instincts." After almost 6 1/2 years, and 4,327 American dead and 31,483 wounded, with a war spiraling downward in Afghanistan, it would be indefensible for the U.S. military -- overextended and in need of materiel repair and mental recuperation -- to loiter in Iraq to improve the instincts of corrupt elites. If there is a worse use of the U.S. military than "nation-building," it is adult supervision and behavior modification of other peoples' politicians.

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Already that [U.S. military] presence is irrelevant to the rising chaos, which the Iraqi government can neither contain nor refrain from participating in: Security forces seem to have been involved in the recent robbery of a state-run bank in central Baghdad.
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Two more years of U.S. military presence cannot control whether that is in Iraq's future. Some people believe the war in Iraq was not only "won," but vindicated by the success of the 2007 U.S. troop surge. Yet as Iraqi violence is resurgent, the logic of triumphalism leads here: If, in spite of contrary evidence, the U.S. surge permanently dampened sectarian violence, all U.S. forces can come home sooner than the end of 2011. If, however, the surge did not so succeed, U.S. forces must come home sooner.

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The sad truth is that the Iraq War is a disaster that need never have happened had the MSM asked hard questions, demanded hard evidence from the Chimperator and his idiot [and in the case of Cheney, insane] minions. So many lives lost and so much destruction or nothing. At least George Will has the integrity to admit he was wrong. If only the media would have learned its lesson and stop focusing on organized displays of lunacy - such as at the town hall meetings - and asked for hard facts and figures. True, that takes more work, but isn't that what journalists are paid to do?

Navy Investigation Finds Hazing and Harassment - Gay Victim Expelled Under DADT While Abuser Promoted.

A number of LGBT blogs and web sites had picked up this story about yet another case of psychologically sick and twisted heterosexual members of the military engaging in sexually charged hazing and harassment. Worse yet, Michael Toussaint, the Chief over the unit during the period that the abuse occurred, has been promoted to Senior Chief and is now stationed with the elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group at the Dam Neck Naval Base in nearby Virginia Beach, Virginia. Meanwhile, one of the victims, Joseph Christopher Rocha, had his career ended under DADT. Among some of the perverse conduct overseen by Toussaint included the following:

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All say the tone was set by Chief Toussaint. Some sailors participated in the culture of hazing as victims, others as perpetrators, or in some cases both. They say the hazing continued because of a series of threats that were also integral to the culture of the unit, which not only tolerated abuse, but also invited it. To prevent them from speaking out, sailors Youth Radio interviewed say Toussaint would threaten to revoke their handlers’ licenses--taking away their dogs and their specialty in the Navy.

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Another incident cited in the investigation found that two female service members were ordered to simulate sex with each other on video. According to the Findings of Fact, the women were handcuffed to a bed and appeared to be naked under a sheet.

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Again, that this type of nastiness and abuse of power is allowed to go on makes a mockery out of the feeble excuse for DADT being needed to protect unit moral and cohesiveness. Its supporters can dress up DADT however they want, but in the final analysis its only justification is the legalization of religious based anti-gay discrimination and homophobia. Instead of receiving a promotion, Toussaint should have been expelled from the Navy. Some of the Navy investigation report that confirmed the abuse can be found here. Even the Virginian Pilot is now reporting on the abuse and misconduct that occurred. Here are some highlights:

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An internal Navy investigation of a dog-handling unit in Bahrain found repeated episodes of hazing and sexual harassment in 2005, as well as allegations that prostitutes were routinely brought into government quarters for parties. The non commissioned officer who allegedly allowed and encouraged the abuse to flourish was promoted and is now assigned to an elite special warfare unit at Dam Neck Annex to Oceana Naval Air Station.

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"These actions don't reflect who we are as a Navy," said Cmdr. Cappy Surette, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon.

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Most of the documents' pages have some information redacted, and entire sections - including the investigator's opinion and recommendations - were removed before the document was released. It is unclear whether anyone was punished for the alleged abuses.
But three things are clear:
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- Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint remains in the Navy and has been promoted since serving as head of the military working-dog division in Bahrain.
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- Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Valdivia, a dog handler, was found dead in her living quarters on the Bahrain base. Her death was reportedly a suicide.

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- Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha - called "an exceptionally outstanding young sailor" in a performance evaluation and recommended by the secretary of the Navy for an appointment to the Naval Academy - is out of the military [under DADT] and in treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder that resulted from two years of alleged abuse.

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Central to the unfolding story is Petty Officer 1st Class Shaun Hogan, a dog handler who was assigned to Bahrain with Toussaint, Valdivia and Rocha. . . . Hogan said in an interview Friday that he witnessed many of the alleged abuses, including a videotaped "training scenario" in which Rocha was directed to simulate homosexual sex.

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Hogan said he participated in that exercise as a dog handler. When he entered the room with his dog, he said, "I was expecting to find someone role-playing an intruder. I didn't expect to see somebody role-playing homosexual sex." Hogan said he saw a videotape of another "training scenario" involving a woman handcuffed to a bed. The woman in the bed, he said, was Valdivia, the unit's second-in-command.

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"There are a lot of people who were victimized," Hogan said. "I think the Navy is trying to cover this up." Particularly galling to him, Hogan said, is that Toussaint, whom he considers the ringleader of the alleged abuses, not only escaped punishment but received a career boost. "To the best of my knowledge, the charges were dropped," he said. "The guy got promoted, and now he's in charge of the most coveted canine position in the entire Navy - the canine special warfare unit. That's the Navy's way of punishing him?"

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Rocha left the Navy after acknowledging he was gay. He said the abuse began after he refused to have sex with a female prostitute in Bahrain - something he claimed was common among other masters-at-arms and dog handlers in the unit. Rocha is now attending classes at the University of San Diego. In an interview Friday, he said he continues to suffer PTSD symptoms, including nightmares, anxiety attacks and extreme depression.

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Rocha said he was assured by his commanding officer in Bahrain that Toussaint would be punished. In late 2007, he said, a Navy lawyer contacted him and asked if he would testify in a court-martial. Even though he was afraid of retribution from Toussaint, he said, he finally agreed. Weeks later, he said, the lawyer called back and said the case was being closed and his testimony would not be needed.

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As I read this case, the moral is that members of the military who are straight sexual perverts and sadists get promoted while exceptional gay service members are forced out. Something is very, very fucked up in this picture. No doubt, the sexually disturbed Elaine Donnelly thinks all of this is fine since the gay guy was thrown out of the military.

Saturday Male Beauty

Coverage of Taliban Bob's Thesis Goes International

I use several Google search agents to find stories on varying topics, one of which focuses on Virginia and gays. I was rather surprised this morning to find that the venerable British publication, the Economist, has now done a story on Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's thesis, thereby exposing the religious right insanity in Virginia to the entire world wide business community. Obviously, one of the tasks of the next governor of Virginia will be to work to create new jobs and attract progressive businesses to the Commonwealth. Having a governor now known throughout the business world as at theocratic whack job doesn't strike me as a positive when Virginia is trying to recruit business relocations to the state. Low taxes go only so far in attracting businesses and a backward and intolerant perception of the state will not make it attractive to many businesses or their key staff members. Companies do NOT want to relocate to areas where their key personnel will refuse to move. One need only look to parts of Virginia like Martinsville with 20% unemployment as an example of how being culturally reactionary is not a positive for recruiting new businesses. Here are some highlights from the Economist:

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SOMETIMES it seems that the candidates for governor of Virginia aren’t running against each other. They’re running away from other people. The Democratic candidate, Creigh Deeds, is fleeing from Barack Obama and his health-care plan. His Republican rival, Bob McDonnell, is hectically distancing himself from—well, himself.

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Over more than two decades in public life, Mr McDonnell has been a reliable social and religious conservative. He successfully diverted attention from his flinty views by playing to voters’ worries about the economy and too much change in Washington. At one point he held a double-digit lead in the polls. Mr Deeds struggled to compete with him—until, at the end of August, he was handed a gift by the candidate himself.

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It came in the form of a long-forgotten 1989 graduate thesis. Mr McDonnell made the mistake of mentioning its existence to the Washington Post; the paper lost no time in splashing it. Its tone is not going down well in the Washington suburbs, where many of Virginia’s voters live.

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As a lawmaker and, later, Virginia’s attorney-general, Mr McDonnell did not forget his research paper. He clamped down on abortion, resisted anti-discrimination protections for gay public employees and aligned the state government with breakaway Episcopal parishes after the appointment of an openly gay bishop. Now, however, he is in hot-disavowal mode.

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His professed conversion was apparently meant to soothe independents. But it may rattle the Republican base. Patrick McSweeney, a former state party chairman, told the Post that Mr McDonnell risks losing votes for retracting his previous views. He can’t win. Mr Deeds, backed by the Democratic National Committee, is fanning the fire with glee. He intends first to reduce Mr McDonnell to a caricature, and then to shift the campaign’s focus to issues on which a governor can actually make a difference: transport, education and public safety.

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Having known Bob McDonnell for 15 years, I remain convinced that his disavowal of his thesis views is not genuine. His has long been beholden to Pat Robertson - who I suspect gave him a large campaign contribution - and The Family Foundation, the Virginia affiliate of James Dobson's Neanderthal organization, Focus on the Family. I just hope moderates and independent voters wake up to who really pulls the puppet strings on Taliban Bob.

Straight Pastors Do Not Know the Suffering of LGBT Lutherans

I have been a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA") for over seven years after leaving the Roman Catholic Church in which I was raised because its hierarchy still describes LGBT individuals as "inherently disordered" - talk about the pot calling the kettle black - and accepts us in the Church only so long as we condemn ourselves to a lifetime of celibacy - in short, a cruel life sentence without love and physical intimacy. Two weeks ago the ELCA's Churchwide Assembly took the major step of allowing partnered gay clergy, thereby bringing the ELCA in line with modern medical and mental health knowledge on the immutability of sexual orientation. I have discussed this issue a great deal and now Queerity has several relevant follow up posts that look at the split between homophobic elements in the ELCA who selectively apply a literal application of a few passages in the Bible (while utterly ignoring many others) and progressives and gays within the Church. One post is by a straight pastor who makes a stab at what this change means for LGBT Lutherans and he does a pretty good job:

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It's easier to hate people when you don't have to look across the table and say “pass the salt” to them. But the witness of the Gospel of Jesus (when we are getting it right) is that everyone means everyone, all are welcome at the table—and that means anti-gay folks as much as gay folks, as hard as that may be. What the “magical homo” did was a very difficult act of justice, kindness, and humble walking with God, when nobody would have been surprised if he were to have acted in vengeance instead (as one queerty.com commentator said: “kick some ass”) and many would have cheered him on. And what I saw again and again on that assembly floor was that gay and lesbian people and their allies (including me) were surprised by the feeling of pain and compassion they experienced when the thing they had longed for finally was reality.

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Leading up to the vote I wrote all of the voting members attending from the Virginia Synod trying to explain the spiritual harm the denial of full membership in the Church did to its LGBT members. I refer to it as a form of spiritual murder since the message is that if one is gay, you can never, ever be good enough. Thankfully, a majority at the Assembly figured that out. One voting member sent me the following note:

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Thank you for the communications you provided over the past several weeks. You should know that testimonies like yours were offered throughout the assembly. You should also know that the work on the floor of the assembly was accompanied by many people who sat in the adjacent halls praying for the work of this church. I do not underestimate the power this prayer had in achieving the results of last week. Our work as voting members was only part of the story (albeit the only part reported by the press).

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The most recent Queerity post on the ELCA is from the perspective of a lesbian pastor from Houston, Texas. She does a great job of holding the Church - that's all Christian churches - for the harm done to LGBT individuals over the centuries. Hopefully, pastors like this one will get the message across to those who would prefer to cling to a few Bible passages and continue to inflict spiritual and psychological harm on other human beings. Here are some highlights:

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The church, including the Evangelical Church of America, has done great harm to people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. Not only has it denied our callings and refused to bless our relationships, it has provided a theological framework for homophobia. This is more than causing pain to us; this is participating in our discrimination.

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Homosexuality is not wrong, sinful, or deviant. But homophobia is deviant. Heterosexism is sinful. Remaining silent in the face of discrimination is wrong. Homophobia, Heterosexism, and silence have caused many of us to lose our livelihoods, our families, our safety, and even our lives. By providing theological reasons for these sins, the church has participated in this discrimination.

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The church has also tried to teach us that the love at the center of our beings is sinful, that our sexualities are not created by God, and that the church’s acceptance of us is conditional. The harm caused to our relationships with God is even more violent than the beatings, the murders, some of us have endured. I won’t pretend to know what Pastor Ryan Mills feels [a pastor contemplating leaving the ELCA due to the vote]. But to equivocate the suffering he, and other like him, may be feeling to the queer experience is false and perpetuates discrimination.

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Mills . . . does now know the pain of having his church profoundly disagree with him on the issue of sexual orientation, and perhaps he knows the pain of wondering whether to go or stay. . . . But to equate those two experiences to the discrimination that LGBT people face is to show that you cannot understand the depth of queer experience.

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Because we need to truthfully, lovingly, tell those anti-gay sisters and brothers not only that they are wrong, but that they are sinful. I expect my straight allies to take up this work, not ask to be congratulated for the small steps we have taken. And I don’t expect non-Lutheran queer people to celebrate when we reach a compromise that still falls short of the church apologizing for the sin of homophobia, heterosexism, and silence.

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Personally, I cannot understand anti-gay pastors. Accepting gays - and modern knowledge - costs them nothing other than perhaps taking away the ease with which they have been allowed to feel privileged and felt free to look down on others. In contrast, LGBT Lutherans have been told after years of pain that they are after all fully human. I hope and pray that in time the homophobic elements will come to realize these horrific harm they have done to others and cast aside their anti-gay crutch. Also, with younger generations increasingly rejecting homophobia, these pastors need to realize that their message of exclusion may in time jeopardize the continued existence of their parishes.

More Friday Male Beauty

A Delusional Cristianist Attacks the Washington Post for Exposing Bob McDonnell

Over the last 6 or more years I have crossed swords with Uber-Christian and hysterical self-hating closet case (that's my assessment) Robert Knight on a number of cases and we have had some battles royal via e-mail. For example, in one exchange where Knight claimed that the Roman Empire fell because of its acceptance of homosexuality when pressed with the real historical facts behind Rome's fall, Knight recanted and admitted that his heated rhetoric was not correct. Yet literally within days he was again making the same false statements to history ignorant audiences. Personally, I believe that Knight, being a self-hating closet case, just cannot handle the thought of gays accepting their God given sexual orientation and having happy, normal lives. The envy just drives him over the top.

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Knight's latest rant over at OneNewsNow - the alleged "news" arm of American Family Association - involves the Washington Post's August 30, 2009, story that brought to light Bob McDonnell's 1989 Christianist thesis written when McDonnell was a 34 year old graduate student. Knight is so over the top and factually off base that one might nearly expect him to wet himself in the midst of his spittle flying frenzy. As is the norm for Knight, he never lets facts and reality get in the way of his demagoguery. Indeed, goes so berserk that he alleges every possible conspiracy other than claiming it was gay rights activists responsible for the thesis coming to light. In truth, it was McDonnell's own remark to the Post reporter that lead her to review the thesis. But then, facts and the truth have never held much sway with Mr. Knight. Here are some highlights of his foaming at the mouth:

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The Washington Post's behavior lately goes so far beyond mere bias that it looks like a caricature cooked up by a comedian or saboteur. The paper's bid to fix the Virginia gubernatorial election is right out of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

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The Post has launched a bald-faced attempt to "freeze" GOP candidate Robert McDonnell. It would be funny if it were not such a serious breach of journalistic ethics. The campaign began on August 30, with a top of the page, single column headline, "'89 Thesis a Different Side of McDonnell: Va. GOP candidate Wrote on Women, Marriage and Gays."

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As a grad student at what became Regent University, McDonnell penned a paper in 1989 that focuses a biblical lens on public policy. A Post reporter doing opposition research turned it up. Perhaps the most egregious assertion in the Post's eyes is McDonnell's use of the term "fornicators" to describe people who engage in, well, fornication. He didn't think the law should give those folks the same marital rights as those of folks who take a marriage vow.

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Now, it's not bad per se to be a culture warrior. It's okay if you want to redefine marriage, teach children that "safe" fornication and sodomy are fun and inevitable, oppose partial-birth abortion bans, ensure an onslaught of pornography and illegal immigration, expand government and redistribute income as fast as possible. But if you believe that God's plan for natural marriage should be reflected in the law, that sex outside marriage should be discouraged for everyone's benefit, especially children's, then you are a "culture warrior" of a different sort.

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Unless McDonnell wants to go down Allen's trail, he might consider giving a bold defense of the importance of Judeo-Christian values to the founding and continued success of our free republic.

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As I have suggested before, Knight needs to get himself a cute rent boy, satisfy his inner most secret longings, and stop trying to force his extreme religious views on the rest of the citizenry. He might also do well - as would Bob McDonnell - to read the preamble to Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Virginian Statute for Religious Freedom and then look in a mirror and understand that Jefferson was condemning people exactly like Knight and his Christianist allies.

What Happened to the Rational Right?

I just finished watching Keith Olbermann and part of the Rachel Madow show and what struck me once again is how utterly insane and detached from objective reality the base of the Republican Party has become. From the birthers to the town hall opponents of health care reform, any semblance of rational thought and a grasp of objective facts was entirely absent. I especially like the idiots - that's about the only term that fits the level of ignorance displayed - who whine about "death panels" as insurance companies in effect are already acting as death panels as as much as 39% of health insurance are denied by one large California insurer. As a former Republican, I continue to be shocked by how ignorant and insane the main stream members of the Party have become. William F. Buckley (pictured above) must be rolling over in his grave. Leading the charge of conservative insanity are Faux News - Glenn Beck in particular - and WingNutDaily. I seriously wonder what mind altering drugs these folk are taking because they are simply batshit crazy. Here are some highlights from a recent column written by a disgusted conservative (a dying breed) that looks at the intellectual suicide of the GOP:
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Over the last few days, Jon Henke has laid out the case for the Right more strongly disavowing outfits like WorldNetDaily that actively peddle Birther nonsense. To the extent the mainstream Right has weighed in, it has been to urge Jon to ignore WND and move on, in the interests avoiding an intra-movement civil war. Some have even tried to subtly distance Jon from the conservative movement, saying his views don't represent those of most conservatives. Many on the Right have made the calculation that however distasteful their views, a public fight with the Birthers just isn't worth it.

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The Birthers are the latest in a long line of paranoid conspiracy believers of the left and right who happen to attach themselves to notions that simply are not true. Descended from the 9/11 Truthers, the LaRouchies, the North American Union buffs, and way back when, the John Birch Society, the Birthers are hardly a new breed in American politics. Each and every time they have appeared, mainstream conservatives from William F. Buckley to Ronald Reagan have risen to reject these influences -- and I expect that will be the case once again here.
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But there is another subtext that makes Jon's appeal more urgent. As a pretty down-the-line conservative, I don't believe I am alone in noting with disappointment the trivialization, excessive sloganeering, and pettiness that has overtaken the movement of late. . . . In founding National Review, Buckley made a point of casting out the conspiracy nuts and the cranks of his day because he saw them as a fundamental threat to a conservatism that was just emerging as a political force. In doing so, he was able to define conservatism for a generation.

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What is interesting about Buckley (and that is so different today) was his ability to align intellectual firepower and a faster march to the Right. Buckley was a man of class and erudition who happened to be more conservative than virtually all of his peers. That's the key point. To the extent we think of intellectuals today, we deride them as creatures of the Left.

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The automatic problem that arises when someone who is not a William F. Buckley (and none of us here pretend to be) is that you're instantly tagged a RINO for calling out something that is objectively and demonstrably false. The space between fact and fiction is confused as a litmus test between right and left. But what if the WNDers are not the true conservatives in this argument? What if the actual test of conservatism was not how fervently you oppose Obama, or where you went to school, or where you pray, but how firmly your conservatism is rooted in First Principles and not personalities or conspiracy?

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.This is why there is a unique urgency now to cast out the obscurantists and the conspiracy nuts We don't have a Buckley anymore. Our intellectual giants have died off and not being replaced. And preventing the lowest common denominator from filling the void is a constant daily struggle. In a movement and a party that has largely defined itself outside centers of higher learning in recent years (for good or ill) I believe the time is ripe for a return to Buckleyite elite conservatism.

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I totally agree that intellectuals are needed if the Republican Party is to escape becoming a Southern party made up of racists, Christo-facists and the ignorant. However, given the dynamics of the Party's base and the near cult of anti-knowledge, I do not know how any intellectual who has not undergone a lobotomy will be able to rise in the GOP. The lowest common denominator is now in control and elected officials - even U.S. Senators - are afraid to take on the rabble of the Party base. Hence it becomes an ever increasing downward spiral.