Buenos Aires OKs First Gay Marriage in Latin America

It will be interesting to see whether the nations of South America ultimately surge ahead of the USA, the falsely alleged land of the free, and grant marriage equality to all their citizens before the same rights are afforded nationwide in the USA. A court ruling in Buenos Aires has held that same sex couples cannot be denied marriage rights and the city has indicated that it will not appeal the ruling. Naturally, leading the forces of reactionary, backward thinking in Argentina is the corrupt and hypocritical Roman Catholic Church. Through out U.S. history, the courts have lead the way in expanding civil rights and it is nothing less than disgusting mob rule when rights are voted away by a religiously prejudice majority as has occurred now both in California and Maine. Equal protection under the law has become a farce in most of the USA and it ought to terrify EVERY minority group. Here are some story highlights:

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BUENOS AIRES – An Argentine judge paved the way for gay marriage Friday when she granted a homosexual couple permission to marry in a first for Latin America, the world's biggest Catholic region. Buenos Aires, known for its active if low-key gay movement, became the region's first city to approve civil unions for gay couples in 2002. It was followed by Villa Carlos Paz in the north and the southern province of Rio Negro.
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Friday's ruling by Judge Gabriela Seijas ordered the civil registry to make official the marriage of Alejandro Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, who had been denied their request because they were both men. It could increase pressure for lawmakers to take up a stalled gay marriage bill in Congress. In the rest of Latin America, Mexico City, the Mexican state of Coahuila and the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul also allow civil unions for same-sex couples.
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Uruguay became the first country in the region in late 2007 to legalize civil unions for gays. In January 2009, the Colombian Constitutional Court recognized a series of rights for homosexual couples, including social welfare rights. But no Latin American country authorizes marriage between gays.
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Seijas deemed that "the law must treat everyone with the same respect according to their particular situation" and declared unconstitutional two articles of the civil code, including one stating that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
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[Roman Catholic] Bishop Baldemoro Martini charged that "same-sex unions do not contribute to the public good; they put it especially at risk." The landmark decision could still be struck down if there is an appeal. But Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri, a conservative, said the government would make no such move. "The world is heading in this direction," he told reporters.

Saturday Male Beauty

Evangelist Sentenced to 175 Years for Sex Crimes

I never ceased to be amazed at the manner in which people allow themselves to be suckered by con-artists who wrap themselves in the flag of Christianity so that they can rob people blind. Or, worse yet, engage in activities of sexual predators. Naturally, all too often these perverts and shysters rant and rave against LGBT citizens and use the Bible as their weapon of choice in attacking us. Thus, it is nice to see one such false Christian - Tony Alamo, a self proclaimed prophet - gets his just rewards under the all too flawed judicial system. He's be sentenced to 175 years for sex crimes committed at his cult's compound shown in the photo above. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

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Evangelist Tony Alamo used his stature as a self-proclaimed prophet to force underage girls into sham marriages with him, controlling his followers with their fears of eternal suffering. But the judge who sentenced Alamo on Friday to 175 years in prison for child sexual abuse warned of another kind of justice awaiting the aging evangelist. "Mr. Alamo, one day you will face a higher and a greater judge than me," U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes told the preacher. "May he have mercy on your soul."
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Barnes leveled the maximum sentence against the 75-year-old, who preyed on followers' young daughters and took child "brides" as young as age 8. A jury convicted Alamo in July on a 10-count indictment accusing him of taking the girls across state lines for sex.
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Alamo, who has made millions through his ministry, also must pay $250,000 in fines. He will return to court for a Jan. 13 hearing at which Barnes will determine if the five women who testified about their sexual abuse will be paid restitution. Federal prosecutors say an expert believes each one should get $2.7 million for the physical and mental abuse they endured.
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It is sickening to see these professional Christians enrich themselves at the expense of the ignorant and easily manipulated. While Alamo was a sexual predator, many others such as James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Maggie Gallagher, and Pat Robertson are insidious predators in a different way. They are all false Christians in my opinion.

Does Focus on the Family Fund Abortions?

Wow! I love it when someone goes to the heart of the hypocrisy of faux Christian organizations like Focus on the Family. They blather ad nauseum on issues, yet then one finds that their own conduct may in fact violate the standards they seek to impose on others. In this case, the apparent hypocrisy is in respect to health insurance and funding for abortions. Something FOF doesn't want health care reform to allow, although it appears FOF's own employees have such coverage. In my view, James Dobson and FOF are modern day Pharisees and a cancer on society that needs to be exposed as a fraud whenever possible. Here are some highlights from a Time article that looks at the issue:

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It [Focus on the Family] does if you hold the organization to the same standard it uses to insist that health reform would result in publicly funded abortions. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the fungibility argument that many pro-life groups and politicians have employed to oppose health reform. The problem, they say, is that if any insurance plan that covers abortion is allowed to participate in a public exchange, then premiums paid to that plan in the form of taxpayer-funded subsidies help support that abortion coverage even if individual abortion procedures are paid for out of a separate pool of privately-paid premium dollars. You can debate about whether it makes sense to use this strict standard, but that's the argument.
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But are those pro-life organizations holding themselves to the same strict standard? As it happens, Focus on the Family provides its employees health insurance through Principal, an insurance company that covers "abortion services." A Focus spokeswoman confirmed the fact that the organization pays premiums to Principal, but declined to comment on whether that amounts to an indirect funding of abortion.
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Even if the specific plan Focus uses for its employees doesn't include abortion coverage--and I'm assuming it doesn't--the organization and its employees still pay premiums to a company that funds abortions. If health reform proposals have a fungibility problem, then Focus does as well.

Obama Adviser Splits with President on Gay Marriage

As much as President Obama strives to keep up the pretense that he's on the side of LGBT Americans, various signals continue to leak out that we are mostly likely being cynically played. The latest episode involves one of Obama's top policy advisers stating that she disagrees with the president on the issue of gay marriage and that Obama has not shifted in his views. It is discouraging that the president cannot put his own religious based beliefs aside and look at the issue from solely a constitutional issue and a civil rights perspective. Like it or not, the reality is that Christian anti-gay discrimination all derives from the Bible. Melody Barnes, the head of President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council, made the statement while speaking to students at Boston College Law School. Here are some highlights from ABC News:

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“I really appreciate your frustration and your disappointment with the President’s position on this issue,” said Barnes when asked by a student if she supported equal civil marriage rights for gays and lesbians. “[W]ith regard to my own views, those are my own views, and I come to my experience based on what I’ve learned, based on the relationships I’ve had with friends, and they’re relationships that I respect, and the children that they are raising, and that is something that I support.”
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She noted, however, that President Obama “hasn’t articulated a shift in his position”. Although President Obama continues to oppose same-sex marriage, Barnes said that he is trying to “move the ball forward” for gay, lesbian, and transgendered Americans by wanting to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, encouraging changes to military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and taking action to combat hate crimes.
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Barnes made her remarks in response to a Boston College Law School student who said that he was an Obama primary and general election voter who was deeply disappointed in the religion-based rationale that the president has offered to explain his opposition to civil marriage rights for gays and lesbians.
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Boston College Law School shot video of Barnes' speech and Q&A that followed but initially held off on releasing it to the press because it wanted to “give the White House staffers a chance to view the video and give us their thumbs up on making it public.”
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A spokesman for Boston College Law School says that he has now received the “thumbs up” from the White House, and the school is planning to post the video -- which was first shared with ABC News -- on Friday afternoon.

Like the student who asked the question, I am deeply disappointed with President Obama in general and in regard to his failure to deliver on campaign promises to the LGBT community. I had hoped that he was not just another slick politician who said whatever might be expedient to get votes - and of course, LGBT dollars. A transcript of the exchange is available on the ABC News page in the link above.

Utter Exhaustion - Many Have Suffered Damage

Dinner was a nice diversion and a much need break from clean up detail that went on from early this morning today. On the way over we spoke by phone with a couple who are some of the boyfriend's clients and with whom we socialize regularly to see how they had fared at their gorgeous home on a point in York County jutting out into Chesapeake Bay. Not only had they lost shingles on their home which allowed water to collapse their dining room ceiling, but they also had all kinds of trash and other objects (a sofa, oil drums, fuel tanks and other toxic mess) wash up in their yard. Worse yet, they also had a 52 foot yacht that had broken lose crash into their pier, damaging the pier, and also wedging itself under a neighbor's boat on a lift in their boathouse causing the neighbor's boat to be forced up through the boathouse roof. Needless to say, they have had extensive damage as a result of it all. It all makes the boyfriend and I realize that MANY have suffered damage from this freak storm and that we have been relatively lucky. I'm going to bed - I am totally exhausted and feel like I've been whipped and beaten. I will post more tomorrow.

Friday Male Beauty

Exhausting Clean Up

One of the sand bagged sliding glass doors from the great room to the deck

The flooded great room. The sofa is at right in the back ground up on saw horses.

I feel about a 150 years old at the moment after an exhausting day of moving away sand bags and then removing saturated carpet from the great room which measures 25 feet by almost 30 feet. The wet heavy carpet was bad enough, but even worse was the foam padding which had soaked up water like a sponge. While the boyfriend and I removed the carpet and padding, one of his brothers used the shop vac to suck up all of the water that had been under the carpet. We've also used Clorox to wipe out the bottom shelves of all the kitchen cabinets from which we had removed everything yesterday. Although only about an inch of water got in the cabinets, it left a brown silt on every surface it touched.

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We are going out to grab something to eat which some friends and will probably call it a day on cleaning up.

Severe Northeaster - The Morning After

Great room (carpet is soaked)

The kitchen (the tile floor is actually white)

Yours truly using the shop vac.

View from the sitting room towards the 1/2 bath and laundry room

We survived: had about 7 and 1/2 inches of water in the first floor and 2 feet in the garage. We are shop vacuuming the ceramic tile floors and will have to tear out all of the carpet in the great room. We will have to see how the wood floor on the dining room fairs once it dries out. Waiting to see if washer and dryer work or not. Main refrigerator, HVAC and hot water heater are working, so we can shower and clean up. With the water receded out of the house, we have a thin layer of mud everywhere. The Hampton Roads area took a beating and downtown Hampton may not have power restored for a day or two. Some photos above show what fun we had last night (for a while we sucked water with a shop vac, but gave up when we could not keep up even with 3 sump pumps running. I will blog more once we have done more clean up.

Washington, DC, Should Kick Catholic Church to the Curb

The morally bankrupt and corrupt bitter old queens in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy apparently still do not get the fact that we are no longer in the Middle Ages and that the Church's credibility is generally non-existent outside of far right Catholic circle. Yes, people -especially politicians - still pretend to give the Church deference, but as Andrew Sullivan recently pointed out, why should anyone listen to a group that enabled and/or cover up for sexual predators who preyed on children. Now the Archdiocese of Washington is trying to dictate civil law policy to the Washington, D.C., city counsel as it considers an ordinance providing for gay marriage. The Archdiocese threatens to will shut down its charitable operations if the Catholic organizations cannot discriminate against same sex couples. Someone on the Council needs to remind the Church eunuchs that there is such a thing as separation of church and state and a difference between the civil laws and the Church's "laws." Moreover, given the Church's activities in connection with Proposition 8 and the recent referendum in Maine, it seems time that the Church lose its tax exempt status - a privilege under the tax that obligates non-profits to not engage in activities to effect legislation. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care. . . . Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.
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Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city. . . . Several D.C. Council members said the Catholic Church is trying to erode the city's long-standing laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination.
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The church's influence seems limited. In separate interviews Wednesday, council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) referred to the church as "somewhat childish." Another council member, David A. Catania (I-At Large), said he would rather end the city's relationship with the church than give in to its demands. . . . "They don't represent, in my mind, an indispensable component of our social services infrastructure," said Catania, the sponsor of the same-sex marriage bill and the chairman of the Health Committee. . . . The council is expected to pass the same-sex marriage bill next month, but the measure continues to face strong opposition from a number of groups that are pushing for a referendum on the issue.

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Peter Rosenstein of the Campaign for All D.C. Families accused the church of trying to "blackmail the city." "The issue here is they are using public funds, and to allow people to discriminate with public money is unacceptable," Rosenstein said. Rosenstein and other gay rights activists have strong support on the council. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the judiciary committee, said the council "will not legislate based on threats."
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If the Church wants to accept public money, it needs to obey the civil non-discrimination laws. Otherwise, the Church is free to stop accepting public money if it wants to discriminate. The Church does NOT get to have its cake and eat it too.

Nearly Surrounded by Water -Updated

The next high tide is about three and a half hours away. We are as prepared as possible under the circumstances. An hour ago the power went out, but fortunately it is back on so that we can run sump pumps to keep the garage from flooding (we have the hoses running out a side window) and then spilling into the first floor. The Chihuahua has been freaking out all day knowing that things are not at all normal. I will be online as long as possible and keep updating on our situation.

A view from the dining room across the deck - the patio is under water.

View out the front door this morning with the driveway flooded - the road is in front of the hedge in the distance.

Another view out the dining room door to the deck and patio with the creek in the back ground.

The construction company folks delivered the sand bags and all of the doors to the house, including the garage door have thick plastic sheeting and sandbags stacked about 2 feet high in the hope of keeping water out of the house. We hope the extra precaution gets us through high tide late this afternoon. Thephotos above were at high tide this morning. The Jeep and Expedition are a block or more up the street on high ground - the Mercedes is safe on the second floor in a downtown garage. I will keep updating as long as we have power.

Today Will Be the Test - Northeaster Pounds Norfolk Region

We made it through this morning's hide tide, but this afternoon will be worse. The law office is closed today due to flooding in downtown Norfolk and the Ghent area and we are moving furniture and rugs to the second floor of the Hampton house. We hope to have one of the boyfriend's clients deliver some sand while the water subsides for low tide and we will then sand bag the doors to the house which was surrounded by water at high tide at 6:00AM. Since the house has conctrete and brick walls, hopefully we can minimize the amount of water that gets into the first floor. We had an inch or two of water in the garage earlier and the back patio was mostly covered by an inch of water. If the tide hits another foot more higher around 6;00PM today, the creek will literally cover this part of the street and we are likely to have water get into the first floor. Please say a prayer to God, Allah, the Earth Mother or whoever to spare us from a repeat of 2003 when the house suffered $70,000 in damage.

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A slide show of photos from the area can be viewed here.

Blackwater USA Reportedly Used Bribes in Iraq

Once again Blackwater USA based in nearby Moyock, North Carolina, is in the news. And again the coverage is proving that Blackwater's leader, Erik Prince (pictured at left), the son of hardcore Christian Right theocrats who helped found the Family Research Council, is apparently morally bankrupt and willing to resort to lies and million dollar bribes to keep his company's mercenary revenues flowing in. Previous news coverage has suggested that Prince and his hired goons see non-Christians as less than human and that they do not hesitate to murder them at will. Perhaps not surprisingly, during the delusional regime of the Chimperator, Blackwater's revenues soared as it landed government contract after government contract. The bribes reported by the New York Times today relates to the slaughter of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. Here are some highlights from the Times story:

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Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials. Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees.

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American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
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The four former Blackwater executives, who had held high-ranking posts at the company, would speak only on condition of anonymity. Two of them said they took part in talks about the payments; the two others said they had been told by several Blackwater officials about the discussions. In agreeing to describe those conversations, the four officials said that they were troubled by a pattern of questionable conduct by Blackwater, which had led them to leave the company.
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Separately, a federal grand jury in North Carolina, where the company has its headquarters, has been conducting a lengthy investigation into it. One of the former executives said that he had told federal prosecutors there about the plan to pay Iraqi officials to drop their inquiries into the Nisour Square case. If Blackwater followed through, the company or its officials could face charges of obstruction of justice and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bans bribes to foreign officials.
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Since 2001, Blackwater has undergone explosive growth, not only from security contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also from classified work for the Central Intelligence Agency that included taking part in a now defunct program to assassinate leaders of Al Qaeda and to load missiles on Predator drones. The Nisour Square shooting was the bloodiest and most controversial episode involving Blackwater in the Iraq war. At midday on Sept. 16, 2007, a Blackwater convoy opened fire on Iraqi civilians in the crowded intersection, spraying automatic weapons fire in ways that investigators later claimed was indiscriminate, and even launching grenades into a nearby school. Seventeen Iraqis were killed and dozens more were wounded.
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The former officials said that Mr. Black, Mr. Richer and others believed that Blackwater had cultivated a cowboy culture that was contemptuous of government rules and regulations, and that some of the company’s leaders — former members of the Navy Seals including Mr. Prince and Mr. Jackson — had pushed the boundaries of legality.

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Erik Prince, in my opinion, is yet another example of the toxic false Christians that permeate the Christian Right and the theocratic base of the Republican Party. He and his minions need to be prosecuted and, if convicted, sent to prison.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Mormon Church Endorses Passage of Salt Lake City LGBT Non-Discrimination Ordinance

In a somewhat of a surprise move, the Mormon Church supported the passage of a non-discrimination by the Salt Lake City city council that extends housing and employment protections to gays and lesbians in Salt Lake City. In delivering the Mormon Church's comments to city council, the Church representative credited the city council with balancing the rights of citizens to housing and employment with freedom of religion issues. Personally, I suspect what really motivated the Mormon Church was all the bad press that it has received in the wake of the largely Mormon financed passage of Proposition 8. Of course, it's also possible that some city fathers had a sit down with the Church and explained how non-competitive the city was becoming because of all of the anti-Mormon fall out. Whatever the motivation, I am thankful that the Mormon Church did the right thing for a change, although it's a bit depressing that Salt Lake City is now more progressive than the Commonwealth of Virginia. Here are some highlights from Google News:

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The Mormon church for the first time has announced its support of gay rights legislation, an endorsement that helped gain unanimous approval for Salt Lake city laws banning discrimination against gays in housing and employment.
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The Utah-based church's support ahead of Tuesday night's vote came despite its steadfast opposition to gay marriage, reflected in the high-profile role it played last year in California's Proposition 8 ballot measure that barred such unions.
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"The church supports these ordinances because they are fair and reasonable and do not do violence to the institution of marriage," Michael Otterson, the director of public affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said.
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Passage made Salt Lake City the first Utah community to prohibit bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Under the two new ordinances, it is illegal to fire someone from their job or evict someone from their residence because they are lesbian, bisexual, gay or transgender.
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Utah lawmakers tend to quickly fall in line when the influential church makes a rare foray into legislative politics. So Tuesday's action could have broad reaching effects in this highly conservative state where more than 80 percent of lawmakers and the governor are church members.
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But addressing the council on Tuesday, Otterson said the endorsement is not a shift in the church's position on gay rights and stressed it "remains unequivocally committed to defending the bedrock foundation of marriage between a man and a woman."
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Church support for the ordinances is due in part to the way the legislation was drafted to protect those rights. Exceptions in the legislation allow churches to maintain, without penalty, religious principles and religion-based codes of conduct or rules. "In drafting these ordinances, the city has granted common-sense rights that should be available to everyone, while safeguarding the crucial rights of religious organizations," Otterson said Tuesday.

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The full statement issued by the Mormon Church can be found here.

Veterans Day Reflections

On this Veterans Day it's hard not to think of those who have served their country in the armed forces - particularly in an area such as Hampton Roads with such a large military presence. Moreover, my late father and all of his brothers served in World War II and my mother's father and mother both served in World War I which gave rise to Veterans' Day observances even though the "war to end all wars" or "great war" proved anything but the world's last conflict. On this Veterans' Day 2009, I especially think of my maternal grandmother who refused to fit the typical mold for Southern women and enlisted in the Army nursing corps and saw assignments in both Italy and France during World War I. Despite her Southern manners and accent, she was definitely unconventional by the standards of New Orleans of that time.

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Even though I do not support the current Middle East conflicts, I respect the sacrifices of our men and women in the military. Would that past and present civilian leaders valued their lives and sacrifices as much as many rank and file citizens. The Chimperator and Emperor Palpatine Cheney head the list of those who dishonored our military through their deceptions and lies that took the nation to war in Iraq.

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In ending, my honor and respect goes out to all veterans, both past and present and gay and straight, including my father, grand father and grandmother, and my various aunts (e.g., one of my mother's sisters was a Wave in the Navy during World War II) and uncles.

Editor of Bilerico-DC Named One of The Advocate's People of the Year

As regular readers know, I have been a contributor to Bilerico-DC for a number of months now and it's been a pleasure working with some of the other contributors and our editor, Michael Crawford (pictured at left), who has just been named one of The Advocate's people of the year. Congratulations Michael!!! On my part, it is truly humbling to have the opportunity to interact with such incredibly dedicated activists for LGBT equality. Here are some highlights from The Advocate's profile of Michael Crawford:
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In a city that is more than 50% African-American, Michael Crawford has been leading the charge on an issue often used to exploit racial tensions: marriage equality.
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Crawford, a former associate field director for HRC, is the founder and cochair of DC for Marriage, which helped engineer the October introduction of a marriage equality bill that garnered 10 cosponsors from the 13-member Council of the District of Columbia. The bill will likely have sailed through the council by the time this magazine hits stands, and the only hurdle left will be the U.S. Congress, which approves all D.C. laws.
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Crawford has purposely recruited a large number of African-American leaders to help advance same-sex marriage. Of the 10 leaders involved in DC for Marriage, six are black, and a large number of the district’s more than 200 clergy members who support marriage equality are people of color. The composition of his coalition is deliberate, and serves a dual purpose of evangelizing outside and within the African-American population. “What we see is that the mainstream media pretty much ignores that there’s a black LGBT community, even in D.C.,” he says.
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Crawford and Co. has also targeted much of its face-to-face community outreach at predominantly African-American wards in the city. “It’s part of a much-needed conversation in the African-American community about gay people and homophobia,” Crawford says. “When we win marriage equality here in D.C., this will be the first majority-minority place in the country where [same-sex] marriage has been legalized.” It will also be the first place south of the Mason-Dixon line.

UPDATE: Things Are Looking Worrisome

UPDATED: I got home at about 6:45 PM - roughly 2+ hours after high tide - and the water in the creek was about 2 feet below the top of the bank. Thus, we are likely alright for tonight. The likely test will be high tide late tomorrow afternoon. We are obviously keeping our fingers crossed.

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Based on the latest forecasts for the tide levels, it is looking very worrisome in terms of possible flooding in the greater Norfolk area. If the water levels reach those of Hurricane Isabel, there will a great deal of damage - including to our home. The law office, salon and the house I own in Norfolk should be fine, but the house in Hampton could be at real risk. The times of high tide tomorrow will be the real test based on the tide forecast pictured above.

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Once I get home, I will blog more on various subjects and report first hand what the water levels look like in Robinson Creek behind the house as well as the harbor level as I cross the bridge/tunnel.

Wednesday Male Beauty

Nor'easter to Bring Rain and Flooding to Hampton Roads

I did not do my usual early morning blogging today. Instead the boyfriend and I scurried around moving things out of the back yard, putting lawn equipment up on folding tables in the storage shed and moving the low slung Mercedes convertible to one of the nearby City of Hampton garages in case the predicted storm is worse than expected. In 2003 Hurricane Isabel did a great deal of damage in the area and flooded portions of the area (the photo above is part of downtown Norfolk) and put two feet of water into the boyfriend's home where I now live with him. The house backs up to a tidal creek and the homes across the street front on Hampton Roads harbor itself which is open to storm surging coming in through the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. As a result, we want to be prepared for the worse, but hope that in the worse case we only see the yard and garage flood (we will park my Jeep and his Expedition up the street on high ground as a further precaution). Here's what the Virginian Pilot is saying about our less than lovely weather:

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One of the worst nor’easters in at least the past three years, and possibly within the past decade, is set to hit Hampton Roads over the next few days. Part of this system is the tropical moisture from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, but really, most of the energy is from a strong cold front that is creating a slow-moving coastal low. Because of its slow movement, it will be worse than a stronger storm that might be moving faster.

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Each successive tide gives the storm more time to build up to a level that will run about 3 to 4 feet above normal, which will be about 7 feet above the average low water level. The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch with coastal flood and high wind warnings through Friday. . . . If we get to about 7 feet, it would be similar to the Thanksgiving nor’easter of 2006. Anything higher than that would put the water closer to severe levels of flooding.

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As for the winds, expect them to build today to about 15 to 30 mph with gusts of about 40 mph. Winds could get even stronger tonight and Thursday.

Pat Robertson Disgraces Region Yet Again

Pat Robertson, Hampton Roads' leading snake oil merchant, homophobe and bigot extraordinaire, has shot off his mouth and humiliated the region yet again. Just what we do not need in a harsh economic down turn - give the area the appearance of being inhabited by nutcases who are unwelcoming to anyone who is not a raving bigot and religious fanatic. The irony in brother Pat's latest remarks is that the alleged agenda of Islam that he describes looks an awful lot like the Christianists' own agenda of fusing religion and politics and subjugating anyone who does not conform to the Christian equivalent of sharia law. Here's what Mr. Christo-fascist had to say via ThinkProgress:

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On his 700 Club TV show yesterday, Pat Robertson claimed that Islam is “not a religion,” but “a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination”:

ROBERTSON: That is the ultimate aim. And they talk about infidels and all this, but the truth is that’s what the game is. So you are dealing with not a religion. You’re dealing with a political system. And I think we should treat it as such and treat its adherences as such as we would members of the Communist Party or members of some fascist group. Well, it’s a tragedy. Our hearts go out to the families who suffered. But those in the Army should be held on account for the fact they let this man loose.
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Ironically, I met with some Muslim clients today who are hard working, law abiding constructive citizens. Unfortunately, they have to continue to worry about anti-Muslim backlash whipped up by bigots like Robertson. What is truly frightening, of course, is that there are so many Christian Right Neanderthals who think just like Robertson. As FireDogLake notes:

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[I]t’s more than a little rich for Pat to call Islam oppressive when he’s been working for decades to turn America into a theocracy where gays can’t touch each other, and women are meek subservient breeders who must carry all pregnancies to term regardless of rape/incest/health risks/unexpelled miscarriage.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Liberal Base "Worried" About Obama Agenda

As any regular reader of this blog knows, I have been worried - or worse, disgusted - about the agenda of President Obama and Congressional Democrats for a while now. Moreover, I fully support the LGBT community boycott of money donations to the DNC and affiliated entities until such time as campaign promises to the LGBT community are delivered upon by Obama, et al. Now, CBS News has picked up on the LGBT boycott called by a number of LGBT bloggers and activists, no doubt to the peevish displeasure of the White House. If the truth and our community's refusal to be further played as suckers hurts President Obama's sensibilities, then all he need do is act on his promises. I truly believe that Obama and the DNC underestimate just how angry many LGBT Americans are over being thrown under the bus once our usefulness in the 2008 election cycle was over. Here are some highlights of CBS' interview with Jane Hamsher of Fire Dog Lake:

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Jane Hamsher, the founder of liberal blog FireDogLake.com, said in an interview Tuesday that the liberal base is "worried" about the Obama administration and may "stay home" in the 2010 midterm elections. . . . She argued that the Obama administration is paying little attention to its base even as the opposition gins up support among the Republican base with events like the Tea Party protests.
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"If you're suppressing your base, and the other side is revving up theirs, and midterm elections are all about turning out the base, I sort of question what their strategy is here," she said.
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Hamsher has signed on to a financial boycott of the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America (the DNC-run operation to mobilize Obama supporters) and the Obama campaign. The boycott was organized by Americablog's John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay over what they see as President Obama and his party's failure to keep its commitments to the gay and lesbian community.
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"LGBT Americans, our families, and our friends kept our promise at the ballot box, we now expect President Obama to keep his in the White House," they wrote. In addition to Hamsher, cosponsors include the liberal blog Daily Kos, writer and editor Dan Savage and radio host Michelangelo Signorile.
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That's not enough for some on the left, however – and LGBT issues are not the only ones generating anger. Separate from the Americablog effort, another boycott is being organized by Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos. He is calling on his readers not to donate to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee because it is supporting candidates who voted against the health care reform bill. "Instead, give to those elected officials who best reflect your values," he writes.
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In addition to signing onto the Americablog boycott, Hamsher pushed her readers to unsubscribe to the Organizing for America mailing list, which is believed to include 12 - 13 million names. Liberals have been unhappy with OFA for not doing more on progressive causes like the gay marriage referendum in Maine.

"They don't want to go out on issues that would make supporters of that list happy," said Hamsher. "They're triangulating against that list."

Disingenuous “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign”

The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are not too far off and once again a number of Christianist organizations are launching bogus "protect Christmas" campaigns. One such campaign is a pet project of the theocrats at Liberty Counsel which has launched its seventh annual “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign,” pledging to be a friend to those who recognize Christmas - and basically flip the middle finger to non-Christian Americans - and a foe to those who "censor" Christmas. As Bob Felton at Civil Commotion notes, not only are such "campaigns" insulting to non-Christian Americans, but it also ignores the historical fact that the present day date of Christmas was hijacked from pagan festivals, in particular celebrations to the middle eastern derived god, Mithras. Here are a few of Bob's comments:

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‘Recognition’ includes exclusivity from retailers when greeting shoppers; those who say ’season’s greetings’ to the nation’s Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Bahai, agnostics, atheists, Wiccans … they are foes.
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The comical irony, of course, is the grotesque and garish dishonesty of it. Christianity stole the solstice from the Romans, who observed Saturnalia, who stole it from the Greeks, who stole it from the Egyptians, who stole it (probably) from Asia. The winter solstice has been the occasion for observances for at least 5000-years and, always, literally and metaphorically, the shortest day of the year has signified a sort of bottom and the promise of coming better times.
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Not only was the date of December 25th commandeered from the pagan celebrations by Pope Julius I in the year 350, but the Mithras cult had other interesting parallels to the relatively new Christian faith (as did aspects of the cult of the Egyptian goddess, Isis). Here are some highlights from History 101:

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However there is another theory - regarding the worship of Mithras, an Indo-Aryan deity (the Mitra of Vedic religion, the Mithra of the Persian Avesta) associated with the heavens and light. His cult entered the Roman Empire in the first century BC and during the formative decades of the Christian movement was a formidable rival to the latter, with temples from Syria to Britain. Given his solar associations, it made sense to believe that he had been born on the darkest day of the year, the winter solstice. That falls this year on December 21 but the Romans celebrated the birth feast of Mithras on December 25, ordered to do so by Emperor Aurelian in 274 AD. Christian texts from 325 note that the birthday of Jesus had come to be observed on that same day, and the Roman Catholic Church has in modern times acknowledged that the December 25 Christmas quite likely derived from Mithraic practice.
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Mithras, the story went, had been born of a virgin. Virgin-birth stories were a denarius a dozen in the ancient world, so this similarity to the gospel story isn't surprising. But Mithras was also born in very humble circumstances in a cave, and upon his miraculous birth found himself in immediate proximity to the bovine. In his case, not mellow manger beasts but a wild bull. In the Persian version of the myth, this bull had been the first creation of Ahura Mazda, another, greater god of light. (Ahura Mazda, in the history of Persian religion, gradually becomes conceptualized as something like the Judeo-Christian God. But his worship in the Zoroastrian tradition probably predates the Jewish conception of Yahweh as universal deity. Quite likely the Zoroastrian conception of God influenced the Jewish one.)
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Mithras serving Ahura Mazda subdued the bull, confining it in the cave, and later slaughteed it. The blood of the slaughtered bull then generated vegetation and all life. This myth surely has something to do with cattle-worship among ancient Aryan peoples, which of course survives to this day in India. In Rome the Mithras cult involved such rituals as drenching the Mithras devotee in bull-blood, and having believers in secret ceremonies consume in the form of bread and wine the flesh and blood of the fabled slaughtered bull. A communion ceremony, if you will. Mithras died and was entombed, but rose from the dead. In some accounts, he does so on the third day.
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Few Christians (or others) nowadays know of Mithras, but today much of the world unwittingly celebrates his birth.
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The irony of the history challenged, egocentric morons at Liberty Counsel is that they foolishly rely on an allegedly inerrant Bible that can be proven to be anything but inerrant. Moreover, they are in effect promoting a pagan holiday to which the early Roman Catholic Church added a veneer to further its own aggrandizement. It would be humorous but for the damage these Christo-fascists do to others in the process of their self-centered love affair with themselves.

Tuesday Male Beauty

D.C. Gay Marriage Bill Proceeding

As a Virginian it will be interesting to see whether or not gays living in Northern Virginia will pick up and move into Washington, D.C., if same sex marriage becomes a reality in the District where already LGBT citizens have protections that do not exist in Virginia. If circumstances were different, I'd certainly leave Virginia and, indeed, had once in the past wanted to move to D.C. Living as a third class citizen in a backwards area does get old after a while. The latest development in the D.C. marriage bill is a revised religious exemption which would allow denominations hostile toward gays to avoid having to in any way participate in same sex weddings. As I have stated countless times, religious views of homophobes should have no place in barring the CIVIL marriage for LGBT citizens. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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A D.C. Council committee is expected to approve major changes Tuesday to the bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the District, including adopting a provision that will make it easier for church officials to avoid participation in gay weddings and receptions.
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As currently drafted, the legislation states that religious officials would have to offer wedding-related services to same-sex couples if those services are available to the public. But the Archdiocese of Washington and other religious organizations oppose that language, arguing that it would force them to restrict charitable and other services.
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Bowing to that pressure, a council committee is expected to revise the bill to state that a church or religious official can deny services related to the "solemnization, celebration, or promotion" of a same-sex wedding without fear of running afoul of the city's anti-discrimination laws.
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The proposed revisions mean, for example, that church officials do not have to rent reception space to a same-sex couple for a wedding, even if heterosexual couples can access that space. But churches would still have to abide by other aspects of the city's Human Rights Act, including not discriminating against gay employees who choose to get married.
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The bill, which is supported by at least 10 of 13 council members, is expected to be approved before Christmas.
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In addition to the religious exemption, the revised version of the bill developed by Mendelson continues domestic partnerships in the District. If approved by the committee, the change could mean that the District will be the first jurisdiction in the nation in which same-sex couples will have the choice of getting married or entering a domestic partnership.

The Endless Black Holes of Afghanistan and Iraq

I for one never supported the Iraq War and so it as an act of extreme hubris by the dim witted Chimperator who in his religious based insanity saw himself in a crusade against the infidel. The war has brought us nothing except lost lives and a budget nightmare. Afghanistan is not much better and seems to be careening increasingly out of control, with the U.S. military somehow believing that it can subdue and area that no occupying powers in the past - the British, the Soviets and even Alexander the Great - could ever control. Yet more hubris in my view. Meanwhile, as trillions of dollars have been squandered, the USA's infrastructure crumbles, unemployment is soaring and unlike other advanced nations the USA continues to fail to provide health care security to its citizens. Yet in many ways President Obama seems set on continuing these failing policies. I don't get it. Neither does Bob Herbert in the New York Times. Here are some highlights from his column:

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Reforming the chaotic and unfair health care system in the U.S. is an important issue. But in terms of pressing national priorities, the most important are the need to find solutions to a catastrophic employment environment that is devastating American families and to end the folly of an 8-year-old war that is both extremely debilitating and ultimately unwinnable. We need to readjust our focus. We’re worried about Kabul when Detroit has gone down for the count.
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I would tell the president that more and more Americans are questioning his priorities, including millions who went to the mat for him in last year’s election. The biggest issue by far for most Americans is employment. The lack of jobs is fueling the nervousness, anxiety and full-blown anger that are becoming increasingly evident in the public at large.
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I would also tell him that rebuilding the economy in a way that allows working Americans to flourish will require a sustained monumental effort, not just bits and pieces of legislation here and there. But such an effort will never get off the ground, will never have any chance of reaching critical mass and actually succeeding, as long as we insist on feeding young, healthy American men and women and endless American dollars into the relentless meat grinders of Afghanistan and Iraq.
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We learned in the 1960s, when Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was trumped by Vietnam, that nation-building here at home is incompatible with the demands of war. We’ve managed to keep the worst of the carnage — and the staggering costs — of Iraq and Afghanistan well out of the sight of most Americans, so the full extent of the terrible price we are paying is not widely understood.
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The ultimate financial costs will be counted in the trillions. If you were to take a walk around one of the many military medical centers, like Landstuhl in Germany or Walter Reed in Washington, your heart would break at the sight of the heroic young men and women who have lost limbs (frequently more than one) or who are blind or paralyzed or horribly burned. Hundreds of thousands have suffered psychological wounds. Many have contemplated or tried suicide, and far too many have succeeded.
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While we’re preparing to pour more resources into Afghanistan, the Economic Policy Institute is telling us that one in five American children is living in poverty, that nearly 35 percent of African-American children are living in poverty, and that the unemployment crisis is pushing us toward a point in the coming years where more than half of all black children in this country will be poor.

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It is long past time to end the Chimperator's misadventure sold to the American public based on lies and doctored intelligence reports.

The Christianist Mind Set and Misplaced Priorities

This cartoon shows all too well the sick priorities of the Christianists and professional Christians. H/t to Carole. (click image for larger view)

Final Monday Male Beauty

Open Minded and Closed Minded Lutherans

The Church of Sweden - a sister church to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - has elected Eva Brunne, 55 (pictured at left), as the world's first openly lesbian bishop this past week thereby demonstrating that some within the Lutheran Church have embraced modern knowledge on sexual orientation and grasp that LGBT individuals are fully human and entitled to full membership in the Church. Here are some highlights from Metro.US:

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Yesterday was a historic one for the church: Eva Brunne, 55, became the world’s first openly lesbian bishop. Only two weeks ago the Lutheran Church of Sweden — the country’s largest — said yes to same-sex marriages. Metro spoke to Eva Brunne before her ordination in Stockholm.
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You’ll be the world’s first openly lesbian bishop. How does it feel to have so much public and media attention devoted to your sexual orientation?
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I don’t think a heterosexual bishop would ever be asked about his wife or marriage, but I am happy if I, to some degree, can be a symbolic figure. Of course there are other things in my life that qualify me as a bishop.
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Sadly, some parishes within the ELCA here in the USA are a different story from the Church of Sweden - such as the Roanoke, Virginia, parish that I discussed in a prior post that has generated comments from some of the church's members, including one that I received yesterday (I chose not to publish it in its entirety). I do not intend to be cruel to the writer of the most recent comment, but the intellectual dishonesty and contortions used to justify clinging to a few arguably anti-gay passages in the Bible, while basically ignoring prohibitions against divorce are unbelievable. Indeed, after indicating that no variance should be allowed vis-a-vis anti-gay passages, the writer said:

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God does not like divorce but accepts it when unbelievers are involved (1Corin 7:10-15). In the same context, if a church leader is experiencing emotional difficulty because of a messy divorce it would be advised that he/she take an absence from their leadership duties until such problems are dealt with. . . . What is really sad in this whole situation, is the fact that only a small number of ELCA churches are taking the correct stance.

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To the writer apparently these passages are to be ignored while passages purportedly against homosexuality are inviolate:

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Mark 10:11 He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
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Mark 10:12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."
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To me, these passages are pretty clear and I see no way that the writer can find ways around them yet mindlessly cling to the literal application of passages that do not effect her. The truth is that the Bible CANNOT be applied literally. When it is applied literally, all kinds of horrors can be justified, ranging from slavery, the murder of women and children, the subjugation of women, racial segregation, etc. The list goes on and on. Why is it so difficult to understand that the Bible was written over 2000 years ago by people who lacked modern knowledge - indeed, they believed the universe revolved around the earth - and knew nothing about modern mental health knowledge? Yet only when it comes to condemning gays, is a literal application acceptable to some.

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And as for the writer's comment that "all people are welcome in her church," she has a strange view of what being "welcome" means. Being told your relationships are sinful and that you cannot be a member of the clergy is not my idea of being welcome. I guess this woman believes blacks found segregation to be a welcome experience as well. It boggles my mind how people can be so mindlessly bigoted. My relationship with the boyfriend in no way affects her and were we to marry, her marriage would not be impacted one iota.

Sex Tape Backlash: Carrie Prejean Dumped by "Defenders of the Family"

I for one hope that former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean's 15 seconds of fame are over now that her xxx-rated sex tape escapades are known to the knuckle draggers of the Christian Right. I do have to wonder, however, why it took the homophobes so long to figure out that they were being played by Ms. Fake Boobs. Not surprisingly, the New Jersey Family Policy Council never responded to my e-mail asking for a comment on Ms. Prejean's now aborted appearance. Here are some highlights from the Examiner:
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Carrie Prejean will not be defending traditional families in New Jersey tonight [this past Friday]. The dethroned Miss California USA was scheduled to be the headliner at a Defenders of the Family fundraiser, but she was removed from the roster following news that her XXX solo sex tape essentially nullified her religious discrimination lawsuit against the Miss USA pageant.
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A spokesman for the anti-gay New Jersey Family Policy Council, which organized the event, wouldn't tell TMZ who canceled the appearance or why. Nor would her reps return phone calls about it. In light of Prejean's numerous scandals, however, it's surprising that they scheduled her in the first place. Apparently anti-gay trumps soft porn, but hard-core porn is a deal breaker -- at least when it makes headlines.