Angry Crowd Shouts at Sarah Palin Book Signing

I will be the first to admit that I have nothing but contempt for Sarah "Bible Spice" Palin and I am of the view that most of her supporters are in need of serious mental health intervention - not to mention some serious reeducation on American history. Thus, it's more than just a wee bit fun to see some of her demented fans get their panties in a wad when Bible Spice refused to stick around and sign their books. Here's a video:

The video captures the scene as an angry crowd shouts at Sarah Palin at her book signing in Noblesville, Indiana on November 19, 2009 after Palin quits and refuses to sign books for around 300 families that spent roughly three (3) hours getting a wristband and another three (3) or more hours waiting in line to get the Palin book signed. At the Borders bookstore it had been announced that 1,000 individuals would be given wristbands and could get two books signed each. However, by the time Sarah Palin quit signing books, there were still about 300 individuals and there families who did not get even one book signed. So much for the backwoods diva living up to her promises.
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I truly have to wonder about anyone who would spend more than 6 hours in line to see Bible Spice. The reality is that Palin is so busy having a tempestuous love affair with herself that she cares nothing for the dolts who are insane enough to want to worship her. The woman is a narcisisstic, pathological liar who is a real menace.

More Saturday Male Beauty

Defenders of Proposition 8 Ignore Court Orders

In a demonstration of their contempt for the courts and the civil laws, the proponents of Proposition 8 have ignored the third federal court order compelling them to turn over internal campaign materials and memos in the federal court case wherein the Constitutionality of Proposition 8 under the U.S. Constitution is at issue. One can only hope that Judge Walker will begin sending some of the recalcitrant defendants in the case to jail so that they will turn over the ordered materials. Obviously, the proponents of Proposition 8 do not want daylight shined on their internal conspiracy and machinations against the civil rights of others. Unfortunately, the behavior of the proponents of Proposition 8 is typical of Christianists who deem themselves above the law. The Court's latest order compelling the production of the materials can be viewed here. Proposition 8 and the Right to Marry has commentary on the situation. Here are some highlights:

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Today Judge [Spero] dropped the hammer on Prop. 8 proponents and ordered immediate production of internal communications concerning their campaign strategies and messages to voters. Among other things, Judge [Spero] admonished Prop. 8 proponents that his previous discovery orders, while being appealed to the Ninth Circuit, remain in effect because the appellate court has not issued a stay. Thus, Prop. 8 proponents risk contempt of the court if they continue to withhold production. According to today’s order, Prop. 8 proponents are ordered to produce additional responsive documents on a rolling basis to conclude not later than the close of fact discovery on November 30, 2009.
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Obviously, those who have nothing to hide do not act in the manner of the proponents of Proposition 8 in this lawsuit. One can only wonder what embarrassing and revealing materials they are trying to keep out of the court case. Bigotry needs to be exposed wherever it exists and subjected to the light of day and public scrutiny.

Australian Catholic Exiting Church in Droves

It's a phenomenon that I wish more Catholics in the USA would join into since, in my view, it is the ONLY way that any change might be forced on the fossilized bitter old queens that run the Vatican. Namely, stop attending and supporting the Church and allow membership to plummet and hit the Church hierarchy where it hurts the most - in the checkbook. True, the bitter old men in dresses view the third world and Africa in particular as their new "promised land," but without money flowing from the USA to the Vatican, their efforts to prey upon less educated societies and spread a 13th century mindset across that continent will be rendered much more difficult. As I have said before, I am no longer going to set foot in a Catholic service for any reason - even to please my mother when I visit her. Catholic readers need to encourage their families and Catholic friends to stop supporting a reactionary and corrupt institution. There ARE other options including the Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church which provide mass services nearly identical to a Catholic mass - and which usually have friendlier congregations than the Catholic churches I have attended over the years. Here are some highlights from the Herald on the situation in Australia:

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HUNTER-based Catholics are shunning Mass in droves, with irrelevance, abuse at the hands of clergy and disagreement with the Church's teachings on sex among the main reasons. According to research carried out by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, only 10.2 per cent of Catholics in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle attend Mass. The national average for Mass attendance across the Church's 28 Australian diocese was 13.8 per cent.
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Maitland-Newcastle Diocese vice-chancellor for pastoral ministries Teresa Brierley said the figure was of significant concern. . . . The most common reason was that people felt it was no longer "required" to be a committed Catholic, followed by disagreement with the Church's teaching on sexual issues and disillusionment due to sexual abuse revelations.

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With the U.S. Catholic Bishop's release of their "pastoral letter" on marriage, the stage has been set to perhaps help drive more American Catholics out of the pews - or so one can only hope.

Obama's Approval Deservedly Plummeting

Yahoo News is reporting that Barack Obama's approval rating has dropped below 50 percent in a second major poll. The main causes: the continuing bad economy and the health care reform fiasco where the rump GOP has mostly called the shots and been allowed to get away with blatant efforts of obstruction. And where has Obama been during this mess - basically silent and giving the appearance of spinelessness. It has been demoralizing and aggravating to see Obama and the Congressional Democrats squander what was likely a once in a generation or more opportunity to effect real and much needed change. Rather than leading, Obama has shown himself utterly unwilling to be a LEADER, preferring instead to leave the work of change to Congress which is showing itself contemptuous of the needs of average everyday Americans and more or less incompetent. It is no wonder that Obama's approval rating has dropped to less than 50%. I hate to say it, but it is largely his own fault. The American public wanted a strong leader and that is NOT what we got. Mr. milk toast is a more apt description.

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This bungling and lack of strong leadership extends from throwing LGBT Americans once again under the bus to blatant mismanagement of the economic crisis that still grips the nation. On the financial front, Paul Krugman in the New York Times goes to the heart of the matter by looking at the wrong headed manner in which Wall Street was bailed out from the consequences of its own greed and willful misconduct. Yes, the financial system needed to be saved from collapse, but those responsible for creating the mess - both inside and out side of government - needed to suffer real consequences. Here are some highlights:

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During the bubble years, many financial companies created the illusion of financial soundness by buying credit-default swaps from A.I.G. — basically, insurance policies in which A.I.G. promised to make up the difference if borrowers defaulted on their debts. It was an illusion because the insurer didn’t have remotely enough money to make good on its promises if things went bad. And sure enough, things went bad.
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[B]anks would have suffered huge losses if A.I.G. had been allowed to fail. So it seemed only fair for them to bear part of the cost of the bailout, which they could have done by accepting a “haircut” on the amounts A.I.G. owed them. Indeed, the government asked them to do just that. But they said no — and that was the end of the story. Taxpayers not only ended up honoring foolish promises made by other people, they ended up doing so at 100 cents on the dollar. . . . [O]fficials could have called on bankers to offer a better deal, for their own sake, and simultaneously threatened to name and shame those who balked. It was their choice not to do that, just as it was their choice not to push for more control over bailed-out banks in early 2009.
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And, as I said, these seemingly safe choices have now placed the economy in grave danger. For the economy is still in deep trouble and needs much more government help. Unemployment is in double-digits; we desperately need more government spending on job creation. Banks are still weak, and credit is still tight; we desperately need more government aid to the financial sector. But try to talk to an ordinary voter about this, and the response you’re likely to get is: “No way. All they’ll do is hand out more money to Wall Street.”
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So here’s the real tragedy of the botched bailout: Government officials, perhaps influenced by spending too much time with bankers, forgot that if you want to govern effectively you have retain the trust of the people. And by treating the financial industry — which got us into this mess in the first place — with kid gloves, they have squandered that [public] trust.
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Anyone who thinks a second term for Obama is a sure thing is delusional unless, of course, the GOP ends up nominating a nutcase like Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee that frighten idependents and moderates to vote for a known danger as opposed to sheer lunacy..

Saturday Male Beauty

Northeaster Storm Damage - A Further Update

As the Hampton Roads area recovers from one of the worst flooding and wave damage episodes in decades, the boyfriend and I are among the many now faced with repairs to our home. Since the cost of raising the boyfriend's house is prohibitive, we will have the repairs done in a manner that will make the house as waterproof as possible: ceramic title throughout the entire first floor; water resistant sheet rock extending 4 feet up from the floor, sealant under the paint and possibly wider base boards to extend up higher than what we currently have. Given the French design of the house, I think we can reachieve the understated elegance that the boyfriend had created before the flooding of last week. The demolition and repair work, however, will be less than a pleasant experience and we will need to move EVERYTHING out of the first floor and will likely need to get a temporary storage unit since we simply have nowhere upstairs to put everything. Meanwhile, we still need to replace the floor in the styling area of the boyfriend's salon - Thanksgiving break will NOT be relaxing.

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The other big casualty of the storm are the beaches along Chesapeake Bay extending from Willoughby Spit in Norfolk all the way to Cape Henry in Virginia Beach. My friend Cindy Cutler who was the EV Legends honoree saw the sand dune between her backyard and the Bay disappear - along with half of her yard. As the photo above reveals, the beach erosion was near catastrophic in places and one local restaurant near the Chesapeake Bay in my parents old neighbor hood suffered severe damage and lost more than 3/4 of its parking lot. Major winter storms this winter will now pose much greater hazards to beach front properties than would otherwise be the case. Any effort at sand replenishment obviously would be months and years away.

Christo-Fascists' "Manhattan Declaration"

There are some who say I write about religion too often, but it's hard not to do so when the far right religious bigots never cease in their efforts to degrade and denigrate LGBT citizens and keep us a persecuted minority. Just yesterday a new anti-gay and anti-freedom of religion offense was launched by far right forces of hate and reactionarism in the form of the so-called "Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience.” The irony, of course, is that most of the signers of the "declaration" - who comprise a veritable who's, who of demagogues and professional Christians - have demonstrated time and time again that they have no conscience whatsoever as they deliberately lie and disseminate untruths on a daily basis, all in the supposed name of Jesus. Likewise they demonstrate nothing but contempt for the concept of freedom of religion for others even as the whine about religious freedom - which they interpret as their freedom to impose their intolerant religious beliefs on all citizens. They are an utterly self-centered, self-congratulatory, and self anointed bunch of bigots. Adding to the irony is that one of the principal drafters of the "declaration" is ex-felon Chuck Colson who has turned religious indoctrination and bigotry in to a lucrative career since his release from prison. The so-called text of the declaration can be found here. Here are some highlights from the New York Times on the Christianist offensive:

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145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that they say could be used to compel their institutions to participate in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples. “We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” it says.
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The manifesto . . . is an effort to rejuvenate the political alliance of conservative Catholics and evangelicals that dominated the religious debate during the administration of President George W. Bush. The signers include nine Roman Catholic archbishops and the primate of the Orthodox Church in America. . . . They say they also want to speak to younger Christians who have become engaged in issues like climate change and global poverty, and who are more accepting of homosexuality than their elders. They say they want to remind them that abortion, homosexuality and religious freedom are still paramount issues.
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“We argue that there is a hierarchy of issues,” said Charles Colson, a prominent evangelical who founded Prison Fellowship after serving time in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. “A lot of the younger evangelicals say they’re all alike. We’re hoping to educate them that these are the three most important issues.”
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The document says, “We will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other antilife act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent.”
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Among the signatories are NOM's Maggie Gallagher, anti-gay Bishop Harry Jackson, Gary Bauer, James Dobson, Catholic League lunatic Bill Donohue, and nine Catholic archbishops including NY Archbishop Timothy Dolan. Make no mistake. These individuals and their organizations are a clear and present danger to the religious freedom of other citizens and ultimately to constitutional government. In the final analysis, they seek a theocracy where they get to dictate what others must believe and how others will be compelled to live their lives. They represent evil, not Christian charity and love as preached by the Jesus they claim to worship.

U.S. Conservatives, African Churches and Homophobia - Part II

Yesterday I wrote here about a new report, Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches and Homophobia, that looks at the toxic efforts of U.S. Christianists to export their hate based perversion of Christianity and homophobia to the third world and Africa in particular. The issue is important to American LGBT efforts for two reasons: (1) it shows Christianist like Rick Warren to be liars - something we in the LGBT community already knew, but which is lost on most voters - and (2) it provides religious Neanderthals in mainline Protestant denominations an ability to break away from the national churches in the USA and affiliate with truly nasty bigots within the African church hierarchies like Nigeria's Peter Akinola. Queerty has a piece that looks at the issue in great depth than I did yesterday and it is something readers should look at to better understand the agenda of our enemies and their goal of making the lives of LGBT individuals around the world a true Hell. Here are some highlights:

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Rick Warren . . . understands that subscription to Judeo-Christian faith in the West is on the decline, and that's a huge impediment to winning his (homophobic) culture war. At least here in America. But the rest of the world? It's fertile ground to the Saddleback Church leader and other religious conservatives. And they're making the African continent their own Ground Zero to persecute, and sometimes eliminate, queers.

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"Last Sunday there were more Christians who went to church in China than all of Europe combined," Warren, 55, told an audience this month at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
And Warren is right: The future of Catholicism lives not in North America or Western Europe, but in Asia and Africa. Which is why you should be even more concerned about American religious leaders working with their counterparts across the world to foster homophobic beliefs. It's not just Uganda
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U.S. conservatives have successfully recruited a significant number of prominent African religious leaders to a campaign seeking to restrict the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The flagship issue … is the ordination of LGBT clergy by mainline Protestant denominations– particularly the Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches– in the United States….
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As [Project Director Kapya Kaoma, an Anglican priest from Zambia now leading churches in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts] argues, the U.S. Right – once isolated in Africa for supporting pro-apartheid, White supremacist regimes – has successfully reinvented itself as the mainstream of U.S. evangelicalism. Through their extensive communications networks in Africa, social welfare projects, Bible schools, and educational materials, U.S. religious conservatives warn of the dangers of homosexuals and present themselves as the true representatives of U.S. evangelicalism, so helping to marginalize Africans’ relationships with mainline Protestant churches.
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“Just as the United States and other northern societies routinely dump our outlawed or expired chemicals, pharmaceuticals, machinery, and cultural detritus on African and other Third World countries, we now export a political discourse and public policies our own society has discarded as outdated and dangerous,” writes PRA executive director Tarso Luís Ramos in the report’s foreword. “Africa’s antigay campaigns are to a substantial degree made in the U.S.A.”
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The future of conservative-backed bigotry is not in the James Dobsons, Rick Warrens, or even Lou Dobbs, but in cross-continental crusades to encourage the persecution of LGBTs.
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This phenomenon demonstrates why it is so essential that Christianist extremist be shown for what they really are in this country. If they can be defeated here and shown to be the hate filled liars and extremist that we know them to be to the larger public, it may be possible to thin their ranks and ultimately hit them where it hurts them the most- money contributions to fund their foul activities.

Friday Male Beauty

U.S. Conservatives Are Funding Anti-gay Jihad in Africa

Bob Felton at Civil Commotion has a post that among other things looks at the rising tide of homophobia in Africa that comes to the conclusion that the anti-gay religious extremists in the USA are behind the upsurge and are funding the draconian laws now being proposed in nations like Uganda. Among the leaders in this foul agenda is the Institute for Religion & Democracy. The report on what's happening in Africa among other things concludes:
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The Institute on Religion & Democracy is the organization named in “Globalizing the Culture Wars” as the prime mover in the the upsurge of harsh anti-gay legislation in Africa, so I went to their Web site and looked around.

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Bob has a link to the full report here. One should not be fooled by the word "democracy" in the name of the organization. While IRD describes itself as "an ecumenical alliance of U.S. Christians working to reform their churches' social witness, in accord with biblical and historic Christian teachings, and to contribute to the renewal of democratic society at home and abroad." what it is really pushing for is Christo-fascist theocracy and a subjugation of the civil laws to IRD's reactionary, hate driven form of religion. Among its preferred targets are gays and non-Christians. The organization - like so many Christianist groups - purports to have "experts" that back up its agenda, but as so often is the case behind the fancy titles bestowed upon themselves there are no legitimate credentials. Besides exporting hate and intolerance overseas, IRD seeks to turn back progressive movement in U.S. denominations that have moved away from an ignorant, fundamentalist form of Christianity.

Federal Judge to Federal Government: Give in on Same Sex Benefits

I have always thought that figuring out that different treatment for same sex couples versus straight couples was unconstitutional was a no-brainer. Finally, a federal court judge has reached this obvious conclusion and ordered that the Obama administration Thursday to stop resisting his finding that the wife of a lesbian court employee was entitled to government insurance coverage. Equal protection under the law means just that - benefits are not restricted to some based on religious derived discrimination (including that of the president). When stripped of all other excuses, anti-gay discrimination is nothing less than religious discrimination against those in society who do not blindly cling to a few ancient passages in a book that has been so modified and edited over the centuries that we will never know what it really said when first written. And even if we did know, it was written in the absence of modern knowledge and cannot be taken for literal fact. Yet millions faced disparate treatment under the civil laws daily. It is a travesty and makes a mockery of the freedom of religion alleged to exist in the USA. Here are some highlights from the San Francisco Chronicle:

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The federal agency that oversees benefits for government employees "shall cease at once its interference with the jurisdiction of this tribunal," Judge Alex Kozinski said in response to the Office of Personnel Management's rejection of his earlier ruling in the case.
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He told the agency to let Karen Golinski, a staff attorney at the court's headquarters in San Francisco, enroll her wife, Amy Cunninghis, in the family health plan that already covers their 6-year-old son. He also ordered court officials to reimburse Golinski for the costs of buying insurance for Cunninghis since she applied for coverage in September 2008. That coverage now costs $429 a month, Golinski's lawyer said.
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It was the second order from a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge in two days rebuking the Office of Personnel Management for denying insurance coverage to the same-sex spouses of court-supervised employees. The agency, whose director was appointed by President Obama, intervened in both cases in February and invoked the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that bars federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples.
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On Wednesday, Judge Stephen Reinhardt told the federal public defender's office in Los Angeles to pay a gay lawyer for the cost of insurance coverage for his husband. Kozinski went further Thursday and ordered the nationwide personnel office to allow family coverage for Golinski's wife.
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Golinski said Thursday she is grateful to work for "a court that wants to treat all its employees fairly" and that she hopes Congress will repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
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Personally, I am so disgusted that one set of religious beliefs continue to be enshrined in the civil laws. Until this changes, it makes the entire U.S. legal system with allegedly constitutional rights a farce.

Thursday Male Beauty

Modern Day Pharisees Continue to Exit the ELCA

It is sad that closed minded homophobes within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA") are so insecure with their own sexuality and biased against those who are not just like themselves that they are leaving the ELCA and now organizing a new Lutheran organization that will embrace their bigotry and super selective anti-gay reading of the Bible while utterly ignoring the larger Gospel message and those inconvenient passages that they routinely violate themselves. One can only hope that posterity lumps these folks in with racists, anti-Semites and others who place the hatred of others above living a truly Christian life. Personally, I do not understand what they find so frightening about gay clergy - like the Roman Catholic Church, I suspect they already have countless closet cases within the ranks of the break away clergy. Indeed, some of the clergy leading the break away movement are most probably self-loathing closet cases who adopt an anti-gay stance as the best way of denying their own situation just like the most hysterically anti-gay mouth pieces of the professional Christian organizations. Here are some highlights from a Washington Post story on these modern day Pharisees:

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NEW BRIGHTON, Minn. -- The split over gay clergy within the country's largest Lutheran denomination has prompted a conservative faction to begin forming a new Lutheran church body separate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. . . . Leaders of Lutheran CORE said Wednesday that a working group would immediately begin drafting a constitution and taking other steps to form the denomination, with hopes to have it off the ground by next August.
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John Brooks, spokesman at the ELCA's Chicago-based headquarters, said Lutheran CORE's move was not unexpected. He expressed hope that church members would ultimately opt to stay in the denomination as it strives to be "a place for all people despite any differences we might have on any issues."
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Neither Brooks nor Lutheran CORE leaders would guess what kind of numbers a new denomination might attract. Lutheran CORE leaders believe there is deep opposition to the new policy among rank-and-file churchgoers, but said some may not be willing to actually depart the ELCA over it. So far, he said, five congregations nationwide have voted to leave the ELCA. More have started the process, with 87 taking a first vote to leave the denomination. Of those, 28 did not achieve the two-thirds vote necessary to leave the ELCA. In all, there are 10,300 ELCA churches in the country with about 4.7 million members.
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If a congregation passes the two-thirds bar on its first vote, it must then wait 90 days before taking a second, final vote that also requires a two-thirds majority. . . . In addition to helping birth a new Lutheran church body, Lutheran CORE leaders said their organization would continue its recent move toward creating a free-floating synod within the ELCA for congregations opposed to the liberalized policy but who don't want to leave the denomination.
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So much effort, time and money that could be better spent on feeding the hungry and clothing the poor rather than taking closed minded, anti-modernity bigotry to a higher level. WWJD?

How Sarah Palin Hurts the USA and the GOP

Since she was nominated as John McCain's running mate, I've made no secret of the fact that I view Sarah Palin as a dangerous lunatic who is so self-absorbed she doesn't care what damage she wreaks on anyone or anything that stands in her demented quest for fame and power. She should have done the nation a favor and remained focused on beauty pageant activities which is about all that her uninquiring mind can handle. That a minority of Americans see this woman as qualified and a possible president of the United States is a shocking testament as to the ignorance of some of the citizenry. Now, my former law school classmate, Evan Thomas of Newsweek has a column that flat out says that Bible Spice Palin is bad news both for the Republican Party and the country at large. Evan is an astute observer and has written a number of first class books on politics and history and unlike Palin, he writes them himself. Here are some highlights on his take on the whacked out Ms. Palin:

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Moderate Republicans—yes, they are not yet extinct, though most are in hiding—scoff at Sarah Palin and wish she would go away. But she's not going away. This week she's going on-air with Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey to flog her new book, Going Rogue: An American Life, and to promote her brand of in-your-face, power-to-the-people conservatism. President Obama is no doubt happy to have her out there on full display. He cannot help but relish the prospect, no longer farfetched, that the Republicans will nominate Palin to oppose his reelection in 2012. If the Palinistas seize the GOP, they probably cannot take the White House. But their brand of no-prisoners partisanship sure can tie up Congress.
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In modern memory, Capitol Hill has never been so polarized. With conservatives refusing to reach across the aisle, it will be hard to get even the most modest health-insurance reform through the U.S. Senate, where a 41-vote minority can block legislation. Without bipartisanship, forget about reducing the deficit or doing anything meaningful on the environment, immigration, or tax reform.
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Governing effectively requires a "big tent" approach to politics. To pass the New Deal and win reelection three times, Franklin D. Roosevelt built a coalition of labor, Northern liberals, and Southern conservatives. In a body politic that swings right, swings left—but never too far without swinging back again—it is impossible to win a governing majority without a coalition of true believers and moderates.
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Since taking office, Obama has so far failed to win the battle for the center. The post-election polls show that the country is, if anything, drifting to the right. Obama needs to win some of those drifters back if he wants to get things done. The Republican right, hellbent on preventing that, aims to crush the last scattered remnants of the old moderate GOP establishment--or any Republican who will work with the opposition. The talk-show shouters are cheering on the final purge, demanding purity.
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By definition, populist movements run on a fervor that confuses honorable compromise with appeasement. Everything is reduced to us and them. This is particularly destructive when it occurs within parties. . . . The easier course is to rant and rail on The O'Reilly Factor. That will get you a big cable-TV audience. But it risks turning off the larger public to politics altogether. And that can't be good for the country.

More Wednesday Male Beauty

Dissolving Same Sex Relationships - Tips For A Smoother Breakup

While I do not handle regular divorce or family law matters in my law practice, I have come to represent on a number of occasions one of the partners in LGBT relationship who are splitting up and in need of sorting out their frequently intertwined assets, preferably with as little animosity and hatred as possible. In fact, I am representing two such clients currently. Since same sex relationships in Virginia receive zero recognition, ownership rights in and the methods for the dissolution of gay and lesbian relationships usually come down to issues of contract and property law, with a jointly titled residence generally being the issue that leads to legal warfare. Although jointly titled investment accounts, vehicles and other items can bubble to the surface and create conflict as well.

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One way to avoid battles over a co-owned residence is to have a written - and preferably recorded - agreement that spells out what will happen if the couple splits. Given the number of gays in the military in this area it is even possible to have such agreements drafted in a manner that make them appear to an outside party as nothing more than a joint ownership/investment agreement with buy-sell options and/or rights of first refusal. Thus, they do not create a possible trigger under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Sadly, most couples do not take these types of precautions and so the battle begins as the relationship falls apart. The New York Times has a story that looks at "pre-coupling" measures that can be taken to make a potential split down the road easier and perhaps even less hostile. Here are some highlights:

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[W]e asked several experts on same-sex issues what gay couples need to think about before legally partnering, and what they’ll probably need to consider should they decide to split:
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Get it in writing. Even though prenuptial agreements or domestic-partner agreements can be contested and may not be enforceable in some states, they can be useful in outlining how assets should be divided in the event of a split, especially if a couple doesn’t have access to divorce court. “Those documents often do clarify intentions and create enforceable obligations,” said Jennifer Pizer, director of Lambda Legal’s national marriage project.
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You can also get creative, said Joyce Kauffman, a lawyer in Cambridge, Mass., with a same-sex clientele, and “put language in it that says if we are not able to divorce, wherever we live, we want this to be viewed as a binding contract and it can be enforced.”
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Children. Same-sex marriage, civil unions and comprehensive domestic partnership laws generally recognize children born into these relationships as the children of both parents. But the parent-child relationship can be contested in some states, which is why parents without biological ties to their children should adopt them (or move to a state where they can). So if a couple splits, the relationship between the nonbiological parent and child will be protected — as will the parents’ obligations to the child — and any custody issues can be decided in a family court.
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Dissolve all unions. All legal unions should be dissolved through the legal system whenever possible. If you don’t (or can’t), the states that respect same-sex marriage may continue to view your former spouse or partner as the next-of-kin, which means that person may have legal rights to make medical, financial and other important decisions if you become incapacitated.
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“If a married gay man who can’t get divorced in his home state is traveling in a state that recognizes him as still married, his estranged husband will have a full range of default legal rights,” Ms. Pizer said. Some of those rights can be overridden with legal documents like medical and legal powers of attorney, but failing to sever your legal ties can also cause problems if you attempt to remarry or repartner.
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Dividing assets. Heterosexual couples can divide their assets with few, if any, tax implications in a divorce. One spouse can sell property to the other without worrying about capital gains taxes, and they can transfer an unlimited amount of assets to each other without incurring gift taxes. (While all individuals can give up to $13,000 in cash and other assets to as many people as they desire, anything above that is considered a taxable gift; everyone has a $1 million lifetime exemption.) But this is a big gray area for gay couples. The Internal Revenue Service hasn’t issued any guidance for same-sex couples, but you can assume that it doesn’t recognize gay marriage because of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that bans same-sex marriage. That means that gay couples are not entitled to tax-free division of assets in a divorce (though they may not have to pay related state taxes if they live in a state that recognizes gay unions).
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So if a gay spouse wanted to transfer his share of the house to a spouse as part of a divorce agreement, any amount above $13,000 could well be considered a taxable gift. (Both spouses would need to file a gift tax return on amounts that exceeded $13,000, which would exhaust part of their lifetime exemption).

“And the sale of one same-sex spouse’s appreciated property to the other, as commonly occurs in divorce, could result in a reportable capital gain,” said Allen Drexel, a family lawyer in New York who works with same-sex couples. But the gay partner selling his share could use the $250,000 exclusion on capital gains, as long as it’s a primary home; there are no exclusions for vacation homes or other property.
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And if a gay couple without access to divorce court can’t figure out a way to equitably split assets on their own, they may need to resort to other legal remedies. “For example, if you own property together and don’t want to, you may be able to file a petition to partition or a similar action, which will result in a court order to sell the property,” Ms. Kauffman said.
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Retirement Plans. When heterosexuals divorce, they can also split qualified retirement plans like 401(k)s without triggering federal income taxes or penalties by using a “qualified domestic relations order,” or QDRO. Individual retirement accounts can be transferred tax-free, too. But gay couples must withdraw the amount and pay all taxes and any penalties. That’s why it pays to compensate a gay spouse with other assets, if you have them, before dipping into a retirement plan . . . .
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Alimony. Typically, the person who pays spousal support can treat those payments as a tax deduction, while the recipient must report it as taxable income. But the I.R.S. hasn’t issued any guidance here either, and the person paying spousal support may not be able to deduct these payments, and he or she could could incur a federal gift tax liability, Mr. Drexel said. “The jury is still out on this very important question,” he added.
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Bottom line: in states that do not allow same sex marriage - and even in those that do because of the Defense of Marriage Act - dissolving same sex relationships and unwinding property interests can be difficult and usually will need to involve both an attorney and a tax advisor.

Catholic Church Study: No Link Between Sex Abuse and Being Gay; Outing Gay Priests

Much of the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and certainly many of the far right "traditional Catholics" were quick to blame the Church's sex abuse scandal on gays within the priesthood. Why face the real root issues when it's so much easier to scapegoat gays? It seems that this preferred storyline/excuse has blown up in the faces of those homophobes as a new Church commissioned study finds NO LINK between gays in the priesthood and sexual abuse of minors. That's right, NO LINK. Meanwhile, the Vatican commissioned a witch hunt to root out gay seminarians. It looks like this was a wasted effort if stopping sexual abuse was the real goal as opposed to persecuting gays - something that may back fire on the Church as a new organization is launched to "out" gay priests. It goes without saying that the Church will be unable to defrock all the gay priests within its ranks without rendering the Church inoperative. First some highlights from the Austin American-Statesman on the study results:

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BALTIMORE — A preliminary report commissioned by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops on the roots of the clergy sex abuse scandal found no evidence that gay priests are more likely than heterosexual clerics to molest children, the lead authors of the study said Tuesday.
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The full report by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice won't be completed until the end of next year. But the authors said they have found no evidence indicating that homosexuality is a predictor of abuse.
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"What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse," Margaret Smith of John Jay College said in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now." Many experts on sex offenders reject any link between sexual orientation and committing abuse.
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But meanwhile the Catholic Bishops' foray into anti-gay politics in both in California last year and recently in Maine and Washington, D.C., may be about to bite them in the ass. Taking a page from Mike Rogers and BlogActive.com, a new organization called ChurchOuting.org has been established with a goal of saving "LGBT children from the hypocrisy of priests in the Archdiocese of Washington who engage in romantic and sexual relationships, and yet stand silent while Archbishop Wuerl and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops increase their dogmatic war against all LGBT children of God." Here are highlights from the organization's website as it describes the Church hierarchy's transgressions against LGBT individual and why it is necessary to "out" gay priest who do not denounce the bishops' anti-gay agenda:

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Every Sunday, for generations, hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian American Catholic youth are told in church, they need to be ashamed of who they are and are deemed to live loveless lives as social and religious abominations. The emotional, psychological and spiritual pain inflicted on them by Catholic priests and our church hierarchy is more damaging than any level of physical or sexual child abuse that is quickly condemned in our society. More shameful is that this abuse is being inflicted by men, many of whom are gay themselves, leading closeted lives of self-persecution and quiet desperation.
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As America grows closer to establishing full civil equality for LGBT citizens and our families, the Church hierarchy's attacks against all LGBT children of God increases. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, under the directive of Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, is meeting to issue a new pastoral letter to every parish priest, demanding they speak out against LGBT equality and to raise money for political efforts to deny recognition of gay and lesbian families in civil law.
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We encourage every gay priest, not only to come out of the closet and free themselves from a life of fear and false wittness, but to come out in support of fairness for gay and lesbian families. . . . NOTE: no priest who signs the declaration, or comes out to their parish will be exposed as a hypocrite. Further, if a majority of the priests in the Archdiocese sign the the declaration, this campaign will immediately end.

*The situation is actually not unlike that of Virginia Republicans who launched a vicious anti-gay agenda in 2004 only to see Virginia Congressman Ed Schrock outed later that year and Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode getting deserved publicity last year in the lead up to the 2008 election. Gays who do harm to other gays deserve to have their closet door ripped off its hinges.

Catholic Bishops Put Sex Obsession Ahead of the Sick and the Poor

Having been raised Catholic, I am well aware of the Church's obsession with all things sexual and the constant message that sex is bad and sinful (as are women, who are temptresses out to drag men down into sinfulness). The obsession with celibacy and living "chaste" but miserable lives - except, of course when it involves the sexual abuse of minors which received a blind eye - stems in large part from the sexual dysfunction of those in the Church hierarchy and a subconscious desire to make everyone as miserable as the Church's supposedly celibate clergy and religious order members. Now, Adele Stan - one of the LGBT Blogger Summit attendees I met last year - has a column that looks at the Church's betrayal of its social justice message because of the above noted unrelenting obsession with sex. Here are some highlights from Adele's column:

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They lead a church that claims to stand on the side of the sick and the poor, the meek who shall inherit the earth. But in the course of a single week, the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed themselves willing to see health-care denied to millions of uninsured Americans, and to yank the social-service rug out from under the feet of tens of thousands of urban poor in the nation’s capital—all to serve the bishops’ obsession with the sex lives and reproductive organs of others.
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"This is the way the church has dealt with every human being from time immemorial—and that is to somehow make everybody else feel guilty, and they’re never guilty," said Kissling, the former president of Catholics for Choice, in an interview with AlterNet. "It’s true in your personal life, it’s true about if you have an abortion, or if you’re gay, or if you want to get divorced. It’s always, somehow, you who is being selfish."
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By its own account, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reports that it has paid a total of $2.6 billion to settle sexual-abuse claims made against its priests. Since the Globe broke the story of the bishops’ practice of concealing the crimes of abusive priests while moving them from parish to parish, where they claimed additional victims, seven dioceses have filed for bankruptcy because of the abuse claims.
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There is no small irony in the church’s self-appointed role as the moral arbiter of human sexuality, whether in the areas of human reproduction or non-heterosexual sex. As an institution, it ranks among the world’s most sexually dysfunctional. Its demands for life-long celibacy from its priests and nuns attract no small number of people who are uncomfortable with their own sexuality—be it something as benign and normal as homosexuality, or something criminal and predatory, as in the case of the priests who preyed on minors.
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By its actions, the church seems to say it’s not the sex that’s the sin, but evidence thereof. And that makes heterosexual sex primarily a woman’s sin, evidenced by pregnancy, a dynamic that feeds the misogyny of the church’s all-male leadership. . . . The church has long excluded women from the priesthood for no reason other than their sex. Only a very naive or stupid woman would take church leaders at their word when they stake their abortion position on their purported love for the fetus.

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How many pregnant women will the Archdiocese of Washington abandon in favor maintaining a discriminatory practice against those LGBT people willing to speak the name of a love once denied them. How many babies born to mothers unable to care for them would the church prefer to see languish in foster care rather than place them in the home of a same-sex couple capable of raising them? Does love for the fetus end at the outer bank of the birth canal?
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At press time, leading members the city council of the District of Columbia seemed unwilling to yield to the church’s demands. . . . But in the Congress, things are different. There a stand against the newly invigorated church can mean major policy losses, thanks to the efforts of conservative Democrats like Stupak, recruited by the Democratic National Committee to run in less-than-liberal districts, who are allied with the bishops on matters concerning women’s rights.
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"So the bishops were able to get their way," Kissling says of the anti-abortion measure added to the health-care bill. "And the thing with the bishops is, if they can get their way, no nuance or doubt enters their minds about whether getting their way is the right thing to do."

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The Church - due to its leadership - is increasingly a toxic force in society and seems even more Hell bent to inflict guilt and self-loathing on its members. All so the bishops and hierarchy can feel self-satisfied and retain their grip on control. It's really all about sexual dysfunction, power, control and money. Christ's message is lost from the mix completely.

Wednesday Male Beauty

Judge Rejects Plea Deal for Wife of Ex-Assistant Regent Dean

Some time back I did posts here and here about the sexual abuse verdicts (one was a plea deal) against a former assistant dean at Pat Robertson's Regent University Law School - Virginia governor elect, Bob McDonnell's alma mater - and his wife. The "godly couple" had been taking sexual liberties with minors in their foster care. At the time of my last post on the issue, the wife (pictured above) had copped a plea deal where she would only serve 40 days in jail. Readers were shocked at the lenient treatment given her given the disgusting nature of her crimes. It turns out that we were not the only one's disgusted by the prosecutor's plea arrangement. Now, Virginia Beach Circuit Judge A. Joseph Canada Jr.- who I know and have done legal work for - rejected the plea deal, calling it “a travesty of justice.” As a result, Melina McPherson will hopefully stand trial and get a sentence more in keeping with her depraved deeds. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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A judge today rejected a plea agreement that called for the wife of a former Regent University assistant dean to serve 40 days in jail in exchange for pleading guilty to a child molestation charge. Circuit Judge A. Joseph Canada Jr. described the plea agreement for Melina McPherson as “a travesty of justice.”
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He described the sentence for her husband, Stephen McPherson, who received a total of 19 years in prison, after being convicted in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, as adequate. The couple were house parents at Hope Haven Children’s Home in Virginia Beach during the late 1990s,
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Melina McPherson’s attorney, Franklin Swartz, asked the judge to reconsider. The judge refused. The judge also refused Commonwealth Attorney Harvey Bryant’s request that Melina McPherson’s victim, who had traveled from out of state, be permitted to read a statement to the court. . . . the judge said the plea agreement sent the wrong message to the public and gave the “appearance of impropriety.” He noted Bryant and Swartz once worked together, but said he did not think that influenced the plea deal. Melina McPherson was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom.
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The judge’s rejection of the plea agreement means the case could go to trial. A new judge would have to hear the case.

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It is noteworthy that weak sister prosecutor, Harvey Bryant, was one of Bob McDonnell's cheerleaders during the recent election campaign. McDonnell's campaign story was that he'd be hard on crime - unless, perhaps, the criminals are former Regent University personnel.

Catholic Church is Promoting Discredited "Ex-gay" Therapies

Since it took the Roman Catholic Church centuries to formally acknowledge its error in maintaining that the universe revolved around the Earth, I guess I should not be surprised that the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is continuing to promote fraudulent "ex-gay" therapies to gay Catholics - even though the American Psychological Association specifically condemned such therapies in August, 2009, and found that there is no credible evidence that they work, and more or less told licensed therapists that engaging in such "cure" therapy is unethical. Apparently, the Church's attitude is one of why let the truth and scientific evidence stand in the way of religious based bigotry. A new story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune looks at this dishonest and homophobic behavior by the Church and includes comments by Michael Bayly of The Wild Reed (listed in this blog's blog roll). Here are some highlights:

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Gay and lesbian Roman Catholics who contact the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for spiritual guidance can find themselves directed toward programs aimed at helping them become celibate. Called reparative therapy, the programs are provoking national -- and even international -- protests from critics who say they are ineffective at best and, in some cases, harmful. Many see the programs as an example of the Vatican's swing toward conservatism, and an insulting blow to a decade of bridge-building between the church and the gay community.
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"[Retired Archbishop] Harry Flynn came to us -- we didn't go to them, they came to us -- in the late 1990s and asked us to serve as resource people for the church," said Michael Bayly, executive coordinator of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM). "Then a new pope comes in. Now the archdiocese won't even take our phone calls." So they are speaking out on their own. They're hosting a forum Tuesday at St. Martin's Table Restaurant and Bookstore in Minneapolis that they say will shine a spotlight on what they term the "pseudo-scientific organizations" that endorse reparative therapy.
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Under the auspices of its Office of Marriage and Family, the Catholic church's programs are modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous and its sister program for the families of addicts, Al-Anon. The programs, called Courage (AA) and Encourage (Al-Anon), are intended to help gays remain chaste. . . [and] includes a Q&A with the director of Courage's national office, the Rev. Paul Check, in which he says, "People are relieved to know the condition [of homosexuality] is both treatable and preventable."
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"That's how much things have changed recently," Bayly said. He pointed to an article last November in the Catholic Spirit, the archdiocese's newspaper, endorsing the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). Describing itself as a nonprofit educational organization serving people with "unwanted homosexual attraction," it maintains that through therapy, homosexuals can "develop their heterosexual potential."
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Minnesotans aren't the only ones objecting. There have been protest marches outside NARTH meetings in Dallas and London, and there's a NARTH protest page on Facebook.. . . .Philip Lowe Jr., a former member of the Twin Cities chapter of Courage. . . . He quit the group and the church a year ago. He has since found a new partner and a new church home, St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis. "We've been embraced by that community," he said. "I wish that everyone could experience that."
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I continue to recommend that gay Catholics leave the Church and find a new spiritual home where they will not be deemed "inherently disordered" and fed a constant stream of anti-gay propaganda that only breeds self-hate and self-loathing. Happily, the number of church home alternatives is increasing and gay Catholics should check them out. Better yet, get your families to check them out with you. Only when enough people begin to leave and more importantly stop giving money will the Church hierarchy be forced to move from the 13th century into the 2st century.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Insane Christianists Fail to Get Arrested

Even though the Matthew Shepard-James Bryd Hate Crimes Act is now the law of the land, the far right Christianists continue to disseminate lies and untruths about the Act and continue to depict themselves as a persecuted segment of society. How Christians can be a "persecuted minority" when they constitute a majority of U.S. citizens is of no concern to the loopy religious zealots and professional Christians who seek to squeeze every possible dollar out of bigots, homophobes, and the ignorant. In order to try to maintain the drumbeat that they are being persecuted by "thought police" some of the most unhinged of the Christianists held a protest yesterday in Washington, D.C. - likely hoping that they would be arrested to aid their persecution complex. Unfortunately for them, they were largely ignored and found themselves surrounded by gay activists. Here's some video of their delusional rants:

Dana Milbank has a hysterical column on the "persecuted" Christians' non-event. Here are some highlights:

Conservative Christian ministers from across the land, determined to test the bounds of a new law punishing anti-gay hate crimes, assembled outside the Justice Department on Monday to denounce the sin of homosexuality and see whether they would be charged with lawbreaking. Anything other than sex "between a male and his wedded wife," announced the Rev. Paul Blair, "is a perversion, and the Bible says that homosexuality is in fact an abomination." No arrest was made.
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The evangelical activists had been hoping to provoke arrest, because, as organizer Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission put it, "we'd have standing to challenge the law." But their prayers were not answered. Nobody was arrested, which wasn't surprising: To run afoul of the new law, you need to "plan or prepare for an act of physical violence" or "incite an imminent act of physical violence."
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Instead of getting arrested, the ministers got something else: A couple of dozen gay activists, surrounding them with rainbow flags and signs announcing "Gaga for Gay Rights" and "I Am a Love Warrior." By the end, the gay rights activists had taken over the lectern and the sound system and were holding their own news conference denouncing the ministers.
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The gay activist smiled. "God," he said, "works in mysterious ways." In this case, God took the form of Chuck Fazio, from DC Podiums. Fazio was hired by the religious conservatives to provide the sound system for the event, but upon learning of their cause, he decided to donate his proceeds to the gay rights activists and to give them a chance at the microphone before shutting down the amplifiers. . . . . But there was no evidence of persecution at the corner of 10th and Pennsylvania. In fact, the cops at one point intervened to help the ministers, by ordering the gay rights activists to move away.
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Inshort, the "protest" turned into a farce and helped to underscore the dishonesty of the professional Christians and just out of touch they are with objective reality, not to mention the plain language of the Hate Crimes Act.

Is Sarah Palin the USA's Evita?

Sarah Palin is a woman who is definitely a legend in her own mind. In view view, she is particularly dangerous because she is oblivious to her own limitations. She continues to have a tempestuous love affair with herself. The mere thought of her in high federal office ought to make sentient Americans shiver in terror. The woman is a menace plain and simple. And it seems only the simple minded and bigots embrace her. In a tongue and cheek op-ed piece in the Washington Post, Eugene Robinson describes Sarah Palin as the USA's "very own "lite" version of Eva Perón -- a glamorous and tragic legend, minus the tragedy." While Robinson's column does a great job at looking at Palin's deficiencies, his comparison of Palin to Eva Peron is, in fact, an insult to the long dead "Evita" who, despite her many flaws, was a political and intellectual genius compared to trailer park trash once removed Palin. Here are some highlights from Robinson's column:

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It's futile to try to ignore Palin, however noble the effort may be. She's a phenomenon, and it hardly matters that so many people believe she augurs the final dissolution of American politics into a big, frothy bowl of mush. The republic will survive even her.
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Anyway, she's unlikely ever to become -- shudder -- commander in chief. A new Post-ABC News poll shows that 60 percent of Americans believe Palin is not qualified to be president, and 53 percent "definitely" would not vote for her
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Palin's followers can afford shirts. But evidently they feel so disenfranchised, so ignored, so put upon by forces beyond their control, that they are willing to look past her every shortcoming and forgive her every betrayal. What matters is "Going Rogue" -- not the cleverly titled book itself, but Palin's willingness to thumb her nose at political and social convention. So what if she displayed no real grasp of the issues in interviews during last year's campaign?
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[Tina] Fey's "Palin" predicted that she'd become either president or "a white Oprah." So on whose show does Palin launch her book? Oprah's, of course -- adding to the long list of Palin lore that you simply couldn't make up. Palin indeed would be a terrific talk-show host, but she has much bigger ambitions. Her ultimate impact, like Evita's, may be more sociological than political.
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She taps into several broad currents of discontent. She speaks for social conservatives, long taken for granted by Republicans who brandish their opposition to issues such as abortion and gay rights at election time but never actually do anything about it. She speaks for small-town and rural Americans who feel their concerns are ignored. She speaks for hunters who fear that "Washington" wants to take their guns away.
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Palin's unconventional trajectory and unkempt mind are seen as authentic, in the sense that we all know people who've had ups and downs in their lives and who couldn't point to Kazakhstan on a map. Her success to date represents a triumph of authenticity over accomplishment. In the final analysis, I believe, that's not enough to make her president. But others seeking the 2012 Republican nomination underestimate her at their peril.
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Toward the end of her life, Eva Perón gave a famous speech in which she vowed, "I will return, and I will be millions!" Sarah Palin, our Evita, has returned -- and she will make millions.
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Personally, I believe McCain's selection [or was it really James Dobson's selection?] of Palin as his vice presidential running mate lost him the 2008 election. I continue to hope that rational, thinking people will continue to see Palin for what she is. She's certainly no Evita. Instead, she's a mental case

HRBOR Third Thurday at Peninsula Fine Arts Center

Often people mistakenly believe that the must be LGBT to attend Hampton Roads Business OutReach ("HRBOR") functions. Nothing could be further from the truth and at least 25% of the membership consists of straight allies. I encourage all Penninsula readers to come to this coming Thursday's event which will feature "speed networking" which is a great way to meet people and also market yourself and your business. I llok forward to seeing you there. The details are as follows:

Peninsula Fine Arts Center
"Early start time: 5:30 PM" "SPEED NETWORKING"

RSVP NOW

Host:
Rob Boeving and Mike McGrann

Date:
Thursday, November 19, 2009

Time: 5:30 - 8 PM

(Event free to Members, $10 for Non-Members)

Peninsula Fine Arts Center
101 Museum Drive
Newport News , VA 23606
757-596-8175

In this economy, it is all about who you know. To meet more people, HRBOR is hosting its second SPEED NETWORKING event Thursday November 19th at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center, in Newport News Come loaded with business cards, and your best 45 second elevator introduction/pitch. You will meet dozens of other professionals who are like-minded and serious about building their business in a fun and interactive exercise that breaks the ice!

Tuesday Male Beauty

Teacher Accused Of Putting Hit On Gay Student

The perversion of homophobia and anti-gay hate at times seems to know no boundaries. Now, out of Georgia comes a story of a high school teacher, Randolph Forde (pictured at left) who allegedly put out a hit to have a gay student killed. The anti-gay poison preached weekly from pulpits and disseminated daily by the professional Christian organization is the real cause behind this type of disgusting mindset. Words DO have meaning and DO have consequences. Be it the National Organization for Marriage, Family Research Council, or some other parasite like "family values" organization that preys on the ignorant (or Apostles Lutheran Church in Chesapeake, Virginia), the message taken as a whole is that gays are evil and deserved whatever befalls them. How these folks look in the mirror and claim to be Christian is mind numbing. Here are some highlights from wsbtv.com:

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Randolph Forde, a 10th-grade teacher at Mundy’s Mill High School in Clayton County, is accused of trying to persuade another student to kill a 16-year-old boy. Forde was charged after, officers said, he held up a piece of paper with the alleged victim’s name on it saying he had a hit on him. The student’s mother said her son came home frightened when he found out.
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“He says, ‘Ma, you’re not going to believe this but Mr. Forde offered another student money to kill me,’” said mother Marcia Killebrew. Killebrew told Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Jones that she was shocked when her 16-year-old son told her his substitute math teacher at Mundy’s Mill High School was trying to hire a hit man to kill him.
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Killebrew’s attorney said the incident began when Forde called the student out of the classroom one day. “(Forde) asked him if he was gay,” said attorney Terrance Madden. Madden said the student became angry at the suggestion and the next day the two had a verbal altercation.
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Weeks later, police said, Forde got a Mundy’s Mill student off a school bus and told him he had a hit on someone and needed him to take care of it. Officers said the student asked who it was and Forde said he would let him know. “The teacher held a piece of paper up with the victim’s name on it,” said Otis Willis III of the Clayton County Police Department.
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Forde was arrested and faces making terroristic threats charges. He could lose his job. Killebrew’s attorney said the student reported Forde’s questions about his sexuality and the altercation at the time they occurred but Forde remained in the classroom. “Something should have been done at that time,” said Madden.

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It also sounds like another case where school officials simply closed their eyes to anti-gay bullying by a faculty member.