Christianist Hypocrisy

While this cartoon is aimed at the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church, it also does a wonderful summing up of the perversion of the Gospel message by the Christianists and self-congratulatory professional Christian set such as Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, the Wildmons, James Dobson, Bryan Fischer and of course, the Mormon Church. I can only imagine Christ's horror at those who have taken his message and turned it into a message of hatred.

Obama Calls Ryan's Budget Bluff

It is definitely entertaining to watch the GOP/Tea Party Crowd react to Obama's budget deficit proposals. While the GOP plan was a mix of smoke and mirrors, bogus financial projections, and attacks on progressive programs and programs that aid the poor and disadvantaged. Enter Obama and his proposals and the GOP staged fiscal aggressiveness has been called out. Paul Krugman has a piece in the New York Times that looks at the interesting dynamics that have developed. Here are some highlights:
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Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, sounds upset. And you can see why: President Obama, to the great relief of progressives, has called his bluff.
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Last week, Mr. Ryan unveiled his budget proposal, and the initial reaction of much of the punditocracy was best summed up (sarcastically) by the blogger John Cole: “The plan is bold! It is serious! It took courage!
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Then people who actually understand budget numbers went to work, and it became clear that the proposal wasn’t serious at all. In fact, it was a sick joke. The only real things in it were savage cuts in aid to the needy and the uninsured, huge tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and Medicare privatization. All the alleged cost savings were pure fantasy.
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On Wednesday, as I said, the president called Mr. Ryan’s bluff: after offering a spirited (and reassuring) defense of social insurance, he declared, “There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. And I don’t think there’s anything courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill.” Actually, the Ryan plan calls for $2.9 trillion in tax cuts, but who’s counting? And then Mr. Obama laid out a budget plan that really is serious.
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[T]he contrast between Mr. Ryan last week and Mr. Obama on Wednesday wasn’t just about visions of society. There was also a difference in visions of how the world works. And nowhere was that clearer than in the issue of how Medicare should pay for drugs.
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Mr. Obama declared, “We will cut spending on prescription drugs by using Medicare’s purchasing power to drive greater efficiency.” Meanwhile, Mr. Ryan held up the existing Medicare drug benefit — a program run through private insurance companies, under legislation that specifically prohibits Medicare from using its bargaining power — as an example of the efficiencies that could be gained from privatizing the whole system.
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What happened over the past two weeks, then, was more about staking out positions than about enacting policies. On one side you had a combination of mean-spiritedness and fantasy; on the other you had a reaffirmation of American compassion and community, coupled with fairly realistic numbers. Which would you choose?

Saturday Male Beauty

The False Authors of the Bible

I previously wrote about Bart Ehrman’s new book, "Forged: Writing in the Name of God — Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are," which clearly underscores the ridiculousness of Christianists who rant and rave that the Bible is "the inerrant word of God." While the Bible may contain some good precepts on morality, it likewise justifies vile atrocities, discrimination and its proponents are responsible for the deaths of countless millions over the centuries as they have sought to inflict their reading of the Bible on others. Bob Felton at Civil Commotion - who is amazing in the breadth and variety of his historical reading - has a good summary of just who bogus much of the claims by the "Bible as inerrant" crowd are when one considers the falsity throughout so much of the Bible. It is important that those of who oppose religious based bigotry be able to fire back and undermine the preposterous claims of our hate-filled opponents. Here are some highlights from Bob's summary:
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[B]efore inventorying the plain-vanilla forgeries, take a look at the dubious attributions.
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■The author of not one of the four canonical gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — can be identified with confidence. Those texts appeared in the ancient world without attribution, decades after the crucifixion, and the assignment of those authors were ‘best guesses.’ Nobody knows who wrote those books. What is known is that none of the authors of those books actually knew Jesus, or even spoke the same language. This is not controversial.
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■The author of the gospel of John is not the author of Revelation; nobody knows who wrote either book, but differences in theology and writing style make it impossible that both are the work of just one man. Again, this is not controversial.
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Biblical scholars have known these things for a long, long time — and so does every seminary-educated pastor. But you never heard it in church, amidst all the yammering about inerrancy and inspiration, did you?
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■I and II Peter are forgeries, written after the destruction of the temple in 70 C.E., though Peter was dead long before.
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■I and II Timothy, and Titus, are forgeries and have been known to be so for more than 200-years.
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■II Thessalonians portrays a different End Times scenario than 1 Thessalonians; not Pauline.
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■Ephesians was not written by Paul.
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■Colossians was not written by Paul.
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■Jude was not written by the brother of James, the brother of Jesus, because it speaks of events occurring long after he must have been dead.
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■James was not written by James, because it alludes to events long after his death.
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■Acts was probably not written by a traveling companion of Paul, as claimed.
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Christianity’s first few centuries were characterized chiefly by internecine warfare, endless battles to define the new religion, to gain control of the popular movement, and forged texts were thrown into the battle in an effort to claim authority for one position or another. It’s one thing to say Paul believed such-and-such, and quite another to say, “I, Fred, believe …” whatever.
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Very little is actually known about the authors of the New Testament, including who they were. What is known is that a great many of them were not who they claimed to be. This matters, and so does it matter that your pastor knows that.

Virginian Pilot Slams Opponents of Gay Adoption

In a move that I applaud - even I'm admittedly a bit surprised by it - the Virginian Pilot's main editorial today takes to task The Family Foundation, Bob McDonnell, Ken Cuccinelli, Bob Marshall and others who would maintain anti-gay bigotry in Virginia's adoption regulations. The Pilot also correctly states that those who want tax dollars have to make a choice: either cease discriminating against tax paying citizens or give up the public money. You do not get to have it both ways. It's a theme I agree with 100% and advocate for often. Private and religious organizations can do what they wish until they accept that first tax dollar. Then the rules change. No one forces them to act as agents of the Commonwealth and if they decide to do so, banning religious based discrimination is the price these organizations have to pay to be on the public tit. The whines and shrieks of discrimination against those who want to in fact practice discrimination themselves is a lie and the Pilot calls them out. Here are some editorial highlights:
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Religious groups and a state delegate have stirred up a flurry of misinformation regarding a proposed change to state adoption regulations.
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They argue the revision would permit gay couples to adopt children in Virginia. The assertion is patently false, and it raises questions about why they would argue otherwise.
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Officials with the Virginia Department of Social Services and its governing board say the reference to sexual orientation clarifies the existing right of an individual who is gay to adopt a child as a single person. Some social conservatives may want to bar such adoptions, but the General Assembly rejected a blanket ban in 2005.
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Comments filed with the Department of Social Services suggest that some religious organizations, however, are now turning away prospective parents based on sexual orientation, whether real or perceived.
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Allowing religious organizations to discriminate in privately funded adoptions may be an appropriate accommodation of religious freedom, and the practice is not prohibited under federal law, but subsidizing those groups with tax dollars is an unnecessary and avoidable advancement of faith.
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Gov. Bob McDonnell contributed to confusion over the regulations by expressing sympathy for opponents without contradicting their misrepresentations, even though they have been rebutted by members of his own administration.
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The governor has stated that he prefers to retain existing adoption regulations, but doing so would preserve the current ambiguity about public funding for discriminatory practices.
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McDonnell should acknowledge that this is as much a battle over state money as it is about gay rights. And he should make sure every adoption agency understands that if they don't like the rules, they'll have to do without taxpayer dollars.

Friday Male Beauty

Delaware Adopts Same Sex Civil Unions Law

The options of more gay friendly states for LGBT Virginians to move to has increased as the Delaware Legislature passed a civil unions law yesterday. All indications are that Governor Jack Markell will sign the bill and he said that the bill addresses the needs of children and families throughout Delaware, ensuring their protection under the law. Meanwhile, in Virginia, pet ownership is afforded more legal recognition than the committed life partnerships/relationships of same sex couples. No one benefits other than gay hating Christofascists like Victoria Cobb and the other extremists at The Family Foundation who can pat themselves on the back and feel morally superior. It's sick, but welcome to Virginia. Not surprisingly, the gay haters in Delaware want to get to vote on whether or not LGBT citizens are afforded legal rights. Can we put the rights of far right Christians up to a vote? Here are highlights from The News Journal on yesterday's events:
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DOVER – Delaware’s House of Representatives voted 26-15 this evening to grant legal status to same-sex civil unions, giving those couples the same rights, protections and obligations now granted to married couples.
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The vote followed three hours of debate. When the vote was announced, the balcony erupted into cheers, applause and cries of “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” With passage of the bill – S.B. 30 – Delaware becomes the eighth state to grant such legal status to same-sex couples.
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The bill, which passed the Senate 13-6 last week, survived nine amendment attempts, all of which George saw as unfriendly. They would have made opposite-sex couples eligible for civil unions, replaced the bill with a Designated Beneficiary Agreement – purely contractual – added language that underlined the bill was not intended to revise Delaware’s marriage laws, added a fee, outlined specific benefits included, and made other technical changes.
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Gov. Jack Markell, who has championed gay rights throughout his public service career, celebrated passage and said he will sign the bill as soon as a suitable time and place is arranged. The bill addresses the needs of children and families throughout Delaware, ensuring their protection under the law, he said.
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Hours before the vote, John Marble of Dover was walking outside Legislative Hall with a sign calling for a referendum on civil unions. Marble, a self-employed contractor who is a member of two Delaware tea party groups, said the bill carried a “political agenda” but didn’t address all the problems of assorted relationships, including many heterosexual problems and the “bastard” laws.

Cuccinelli is Gay Bashing Yet Again

Virginia's - in my view - severely psychologically disturbed Attorney General, Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli, is once again jumping on the gay bashing band wagon and attacking the concept that same sex couples can be good, loving and stable parents. The irony to me is that Virginia's two biggest gay haters - Cuccinelli and Bob Marshall - both profess to be devout Roman Catholics. Their concern for children is selective at best. Has either one of them uttered a single word demanding an accounting from the Church hierarchy or used their powers to seek potential prosecution of those guilty of criminal conspiracy to cover up crimes against children? Of course not. They are utter and complete hypocrites and, in the case, of Cuccinelli, his anti-gay hysteria is just a bit too extreme and suggests to me that he's a self-loathing closet case like Robert Knight and other professional Christians who doth protest too much. Indeed, at last year's Equality Virginia Commonwealth Dinner (the boyfriend and I will be at tomorrow's event in Richmond) I was told by someone that Cuccinelli has played for the LGBT team in the past. I never could never definitively substantiate the claim, but if any readers out there have proof, please bring it on. This man is a menace and it would be oh so sweet to take him down. Here are highlights from the Washington Post on Cuccinelli's latest effort to denigrate LGBT Virginians:
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Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has advised a state board that it cannot impose new regulations that some argue would for the first time allow gay couples to adopt children in Virginia.
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Cuccinelli’s office said in a memo dated Tuesday that the proposal to be considered by the State Board of Social Services as early as next week “does not comport with applicable state law and public policy.”
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“Therefore the State Board lacks the authority to adopt this proposed language,’’ wrote Allen Wilson, senior assistant attorney general. Cuccinelli’s position reverses one of his predecessor, William C. Mims, a former Republican legislator and now a Virginia Supreme Court justice.
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Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), who has been lobbying Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) to do what he can to kill the proposal because he does not think it is healthy for gay couples to raise children, said he was pleased by the advice.
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“It was a correct decision in my judgment,’’ he said. “The General Assembly has not made sexual orientation a protected class. This will be welcome news to a lot of faith- based adoption agencies.”
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His memo at this stage is advice, and clients get to say one way or another whether they accept the counsel,’’ said Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, general counsel to Equality Virginia and a former chief deputy attorney general. “He was wrong when he said the state college boards of visitors did not have the authority to implement equal-opportunity policies. He’s equally wrong here.”
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Several gay-rights organizations held news conferences in Northern Virginia and Richmond on Wednesday to lobby McDonnell to eliminate discrimination in the adoption process.
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In Cuccinelli's self-loathing view, Virginia's "public policy" should be to denigrate and stigmatize LGBT citizens for the failure to embrace the religious views of Christianists who want to establish a theocracy. Oh, and to his supporters who say he can't possibly be gay because he's married with a gaggle of children, I'd suggest they re-read the name of this blog.

New HRBOR Scholarship Established to Benefit LGBT Students

Coming out in mid-life is not an easy journey as long time readers of this blog know from my travails and darkest hours over the last almost four years of this blog. One of the wisest things I did in retrospect was to co-conspire with Christiana Flynn to form Hampton Roads Business OutReach ("HRBOR") - an affiliate of the NGLCC - with the help of eight other dedicated individuals whom I now view as quasi-family. Yes, HRBOR has brought me business, and has brought me friends to replace those "friends" who abandoned me when I came out. But more importantly, HRBOR has been a vehicle where I can try to make a difference in this all too often backwards area of Virginia. Today, the paperwork was signed to establish a permanent endowed scholarship for graduating LGBT high school students in the Hampton Roads area. Here is the press release issued by HRBOR:

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PRESS RELEASE – NEW HRBOR SCHOLARSHIP ESTABLISHED

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The Board of Directors of Hampton Roads Business OutReach (“HRBOR”) is please to announce the establishment of a new scholarship to be available to students in the seven cities of the Hampton Roads area. The scholarship will be managed by the Hampton Roads Community Foundation (“HRCF”) with the first award to be made in May, 2012. Applications forms and eligibility requirements will soon be available on the HRCF website. The purpose of the scholarship is as follows:

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To provide scholarships for self-identifying, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) students attending high schools in the cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk or Virginia Beach, paying special emphasis to those who have demonstrated involvement in the LGBT community, and who are in need of financial aid for undergraduate education at a four-year college or university.”

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The scholarship will be called the George D. and Marion Phelps Hamar HRBOR Scholarship in memory of the parents of Michael B. Hamar, a co-founder of HRBOR and one of HRBOR’s founding directors, who provided the funding to endow the scholarship fund. Once the HRCF website is updated, donations to the scholarship fund will be feasible online and it is the hope of HRBOR that more than one annual recipient will be possible in future.

Hampton Roads Business OutReach (HRBOR) is a broad based coalition of LGBT owned and LGBT supportive businesses and professionals dedicated to the development, growth and advocacy of Hampton Roads and its LGBT community. By promoting an environment in which diversity can flourish, HRBOR is committed to the economic growth and prosperity of our members and our community.

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No doubt some will think me crazy. But I provided the initial funding to establish the scholarship for a number of reasons, not the least of which was to honor my parents who always valued education and who were unwavering in their support of me when I came out. In fact, when I was telling them that I was gay and made a remark that I hoped that they would not disown me, my father - not always the easiest of individuals to get along with - was indignant that I'd even think such a thing about them. He honestly could not conceive of any decent parent who would disown their own child merely because they were gay. Unfortunately, many parents do not follow my late parents' example. And as a result, LGBT youth make up a disproportionate percentage of homeless youths because too many parents prefer to cling to religious based bigotry or worry about what others will think rather than stand by their children.

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Other LGBT youths, if not disowned and homeless, nonetheless can find themselves cut off from family resources and may never have an opportunity to got to college. Sadly, I know a significant number of individuals who suffered this disheartening experience. It's a tragedy. I sincerely hope that this scholarship will help offset such bigotry in small part and over time will grow and provide benefit for more aspiring LGBT youth each year.

Thursday Male Beauty

Did Obama Deficit Speech Reveals His Core Beliefs?

In a column in the Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria maintains that Obama's speech yesterday on the nation's budget deficit mess revealed Obama's "core beliefs." If if it did -and I frankly increasingly question whether Obama has ANY core beliefs - the question is will Obama actually fight for these beliefs and for a change do more than give pretty speeches only to become missing in action when the going gets tough and a true leader is needed. I'd like to believe that just perhaps this time things with Obama may be different, but at this point, I will believe it only when I see it. Obama has punted his leadership role too many times over the last two years. Here are highlights from the Post column and readers can make their own decision on whether or not we can trust Obama this time around:
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President Obama made one of the most important speeches of his presidency on Wednesday. It was an eloquent defense of his basic approach to government and outlined specifically how he would tackle the nation’s long-term debt problems. For people who have been searching for Barack Obama’s core beliefs, this speech is perhaps the single best place to start — though it fell short in one important aspect.
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Obama revealed himself to be a left-of-center Democrat, but not very far left. To begin with, he accepts the proposition that the deficit is America’s biggest challenge; proposed a set of measures that would reduce the deficit, with large spending cuts in all programs and — crucially — proposed a fail-safe so that if the deficit targets are not met, Congress would immediately cut spending further or raise more taxes.
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Obama presented a vision of an activist government that will make crucial investments in education, infrastructure and research. These investments have been as much a part of American history, he noted, as a vibrant market economy. Without such government support, there would be no American semiconductor industry, no early adoption of computers, no Internet, no global-positioning system.
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Obama also pointed out that other countries are investing heavily in these areas. Since 1998, for example, China has tripled the percentage of its gross domestic product devoted to education. The number of college students quintupled, from 1 million in 1997 to 5.5 million in 2007. Public funding for universities is collapsing in America while growing massively in China. In this increasingly competitive landscape, should we further cut education?
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On taxes, the president’s position is correct and inevitable. For a generation, we have kept taxes low as spending crept ever higher, and we made up the difference by borrowing. . . . . America’s tax burden will have to rise; the real debate is simply in what manner. Tax reform — closing loopholes and deductions — is clearly the best approach.
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Then there are the entitlement programs. Here, Obama was at his most eloquent but least pragmatic. He made a passionate case for maintaining a basic social safety net for all, particularly the elderly and the poor, that I think will resonate with most Americans. But he lost his courage in proposing sensible reforms to these programs.
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For Social Security, we should also raise the retirement age, means-test benefits and change the indexing formula. As a society, we must determine roughly what percentage of the federal budget will pay for entitlement programs rather than simply allowing demographics and escalating costs to drive these costs ever higher.
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I praised Paul Ryan for his courage in presenting a budget that takes risks and proposes painful cuts. It has also had the effect of spurring Barack Obama to present his own serious proposal. I prefer Obama’s approach — which is also closer to that of the Simpson-Bowles commission — with more cuts to entitlements. But what’s critical is that, finally, after years of kicking the can down the road, we are having the national debate about America’s future.

Vatican Served With Abuse Case Papers - Meanwhile, Vatican Races to Canonize John Paul II

Having followed the rampant, world wide sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church for a decade, it is pretty obvious to anyone who doesn't intentionally close their eyes and hold them tightly closed that much of the criminal conspiracy to cover up crimes against children and youths was orchestrated and directed by those in high positions at the Vatican. That includes the late John Paul II and of course, Benedict XVI who headed up today's version of the Inquisition for many years. Given this reality, one has to wonder why anyone with an IQ above a trainable mental level gives any deference or respect to these nasty old men. And it certainly shows the ridiculousness of the effort by the Neanderthal elements in the Church to declare John Paul II a saint. A criminal indictment and trial for criminal conspiracy or racketeering is much more supported by the facts. Now, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that attorneys representing victims of sexual abuse by priest have succeeding in serving court papers on the Vatican. Here are some details:
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The Vatican has been served with court papers stemming from decades-old allegations of sexual abuse against a now-deceased priest at a Wisconsin school for the deaf. Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the man making the allegations, said he had been notified the papers were filed through official diplomatic channels.
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"Every time we make a step forward, as long as that takes, we are going in the right direction," Anderson said. "And the direction we're headed is a measure of accountability. We really believe that we need to put some heat on the Vatican to bring some light."
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Kohut's lawsuit alleges Murphy molested him for several years starting around 1960 while Murphy worked at the school for the deaf. The lawsuit contends Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI; Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, and his predecessor, Cardinal Angelo Sodano conspired to keep quiet decades of abuse allegations against Murphy.
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Murphy, who died in 1998, allegedly sexually abused some 200 boys at the deaf school from 1950 to 1974. In 1996, Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland complained about Murphy in a letter to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the powerful Vatican office led by then-Cardinal Ratzinger from 1981 until he became pope in 2005.
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Anderson also has a pending lawsuit against the Vatican in Oregon for a man who claims he was abused at his Catholic school in the 1960s. Anderson has asked a federal judge to require the pope and the other Vatican officials to testify.
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As for the disgusting effort to canonize the Nazi Pope's predecessor, the San Jose Mercury News has an article that reviews the misdeeds of the less than saintly John Paul II. Here are highlights from that article:
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Few deny that Pope John Paul II was a towering figure of the 20th century, a great pope of great consequence. His record-fast beatification, though, has prompted questions even from some supporters who suggest the Vatican should first answer lingering concerns about the flaws of his papacy.
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And many Vatican watchers—priests and laymen alike—point to the scandal of the Legionaries of Christ as perhaps the greatest failure. The pope held up the wealthy, conservative religious order as a model of orthodoxy. Yet for years, he and his advisers actively or passively ignored allegations that its founder was a pedophile who created a twisted cult-like movement so secretive and oppressive that his crimes went unchecked for decades.
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Church historian Michael Walsh recently questioned whether it was "necessary or fitting" to beatify John Paul so soon after his death, noting that most of the people involved in the process—Benedict included—owe their jobs in some way to the late pontiff and can't be expected to be impartial.
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Even John Paul's biographer, George Weigel, says the Vatican would do well to make public how it resolved the questions about the Legion in its investigation for the beatification. Rev. Marciel Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, was eventually sanctioned by the Vatican a year after Benedict became pope, a decade after the first allegations reached the Vatican that Maciel had molested young seminarians.

Wednesday Male Beauty

Once Again Obama is Playing on the Wrong End of the Field

Reading various blogs and op-ed pieces, it seems that I am hardly the only one disgusted with weak kneed, Jell-O spine Barack Obama. While Mitt Romney is being pummeled with questions of whether he truly believes in anything, the same could well be said of Obama. Indeed, some are making the argument that Obama needs to be challenged in a primary fight for the Democratic Party nomination. Obama's approach time and time again seems to be to give up 50% of the farm before he even begins to confront the extremists of the GOP who care nothing for average citizens and want to restore the economic brutality of the Gilded Age of the robber barons. It drives me crazy and I worry what he will give away of Medicare and other social safety net issues! Ruth Marcus has a piece in the Washington Post that lays into Obama for precisely this reason. Here are some highlights:
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I’m no sports nut but I’ve spent enough time at kids’ soccer games to understand that it’s impossible to score if you’re playing on the wrong side of the field. Which is why I have found the White House strategy for dealing with Republicans on the deficit so befuddling.
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The fight over spending this fiscal year is a case in point. The prospect of a Republican takeover of the House was evident well before the election. The inevitable result was going to be more draconian cuts than would have been required if the spending bills were passed beforehand.
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In the aftermath of the Democrats’ losses, the entire debate played out in terms they were destined to lose. If the argument is framed solely in terms of budget cuts, Republicans always win: They are willing to out-cut Democrats. That inescapable tilt was exacerbated by the virtual absence of a White House message about the impact of a shutdown or the cuts themselves.
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In the final hours, Democrats rallied their troops with complaints about a Republican “war on women” — and held fast against eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood. But how many people knew that the House-passed budget would have eliminated all federal money for family planning? Hardly anyone — because the White House and Democrats weren’t telling them.
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A second, maddening example of the White House allowing the other side to frame the debate involves the longer-term fiscal picture. The president convened a commission on the topic and then abandoned it. First, he did not lift a finger to help his co-chairs, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, assemble the 14 votes necessary to get the commission’s plan a congressional vote. Then, when the plan was released, the president pointedly declined to express a view.
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If the White House had weighed in on Simpson-Bowles before Ryan released his plan, it could have staked out an argument that the framework — a combination of spending cuts and tax increases — was correct but that some specifics (the precise mix of the two, the details of the Social Security fix) went too far in the conservative direction. Now the “reasonable” compromise would be between Simpson-Bowles on the leftward side and Ryan on the right.
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It [the White House]hurriedly arranged for a speech and slapped together what seems to be shaping up less as an Obama plan than as an endorsement of the Gang of Six approach. I’m all for the president weighing in — in fact, I’ve been recommending it for months. But I question the haste and timing: If the Gang of Six looks like the Democratic alternative to Ryan, its Republican members will be out on a limb. Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss, who convened the gang along with Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, said the White House “threw us a little bit of a curveball” with its surprise Sunday announcement. And if the White House was going to support the Simpson-Bowles framework all along, why not do it earlier and take advantage of the momentum?
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The country desperately needs a leader, but in Obama we only have a follower. The lost opportunities resulting from his refusal to be a leader are staggering.

Deadline Nears for Bob McDonnell to Show Whether He Really Cares About Children

Virginia Governor Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell - McDonnell earned the nickname during the equivalent of the lynching of former Circuit Court Judge Verbena Askew, a black woman rumored to, gasp, be a lesbian - has until this coming Saturday to provide input to the board of the Virginia Department of Social Services concerning proposed regulations that would (1) for the first time clearly allow same sex couples to adopt in Virginia and (2) require private adoption agencies acting on behalf of the Commonwealth to cease discriminating against gays and others they deem sinners. My money remains on McDonnell knuckling under to the Nazi like Victoria Cobb at The Family Foundation and religious whack jobs at Liberty University and Regent University and throwing children in need of stable, loving homes under the bus. With McDonnell, his first and foremost priority is obeying his Christofascist puppet masters. I'd love to be pleasantly surprised, but will not be holding my breath. Here are highlights from MetroWeekly:
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On April 20-21, the Virginia State Board of Social Services will meet to consider "adopting new standards for licensed private child-placing agencies," which would allow same-sex couples to adopt children in the state for the first time.
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According to the Family Equality Council, this change could be helpful for Virginia children because of the state’s poor record in the area of adoption. According to the organization, "Virginia has the unique distinction of ranking first among the states in the percentage of youth who age out of foster care each year (32%)."
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The regulations, which were supported by former Gov. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), now face tentative opposition from Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.).
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McDonnell has until April 16 to offer his formal recommendation to the Board, which is a nine-member body of appointees who serve four-year terms. According to the Post, a majority of the Board is made up of Kaine appointees. The governor's approaching deadline and the upcoming Board meeting have led LGBT organizations to begin campaigns urging that the regulations be allowed to go into effect.
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[T]he Family Equality Council launched a web ad on April 12 that calls on supporters of the proposal to click and sign an online petition demanding that McDonnell and the Board enact the proposed regulations. On the website that contains the petition, the group states, "In 2009 there were 6700 kids in foster care in the state of Virginia. While 663 children from foster care were ultimately placed with adoptive families, by year's end 1,612 kids available for adoption were still waiting for permanent families of their own."
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The far right whines about children needing parents, but it's that group's religious based bigotry and desire to stigmatize gays that are the sole reason same sex couple adoption is an issue. McDonnell needs to decide whether he puts the needs of children first or the hate and bigotry of the hate merchants at The Family Foundation and elsewhere. You can send Taliban Bob a message here.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Are Voters Belatedly Waking Up to GOP Extremism?

Thanks to the abject failure of the Congressional Democrats and the spineless occupant of the White House, the GOP did disturbingly well in the 2010 Congressional elections. Now, a new Public Policy Polling poll suggests that many voters - especially independents - are waking up to the fact that they were not only sold a false bill of goods but also that they put the inmates in charge of the asylum known as Congress. Some of us have to bite our tongues not to scream out "I told you so!" One can only hope that the GOP will continue to alienate voters at the brisk rate that they have done so over the last few months. I particularly like the responses to these two questions:

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Q6 Would you describe the Democratic Party more
as mainstream or extremist?
Mainstream..................................................... 46%
Extremist......................................................... 39%
Not sure .......................................................... 15%
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Q7 Would you describe the Republican Party more
as mainstream or extremist?
Mainstream..................................................... 40%
Extremist........................................... 48%
Not sure .......................................................... 12%
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Here are some interesting highlights from the summary of the results:
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PPP's newest national poll finds that after a little more than 3 months in charge House Republicans have fallen so far out of favor with the American public that it's entirely possible Democrats could take control of the House back next year.
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43% of voters think that House Republicans are doing a worse job now than the Democrats did, compared to only 36% who think the GOP has brought an improvement. 19% think things are about the same. 62% of voters thinking that the Republicans have either made things worse or brought no improvement to an already unpopular Congress does not bode particularly well for the party.
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46% of voters say that if there was an election for Congress today they would vote Democratic, compared to only 41% who would vote Republican. That five point advantage for Democrats is only a hair below the margin Republicans won by in the national popular vote last year.

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The key to this strong movement back toward the Democrats right now is the same as the key to the strong movement away from the Democrats last year- fickle independents quickly growing unhappy with the party in power. Exit polls showed independents supporting the GOP by a 19 point margin last year at 56-37. Now only 30% of those voters think that the Republican controlled House is moving things in the right direction, compared to 44% who think things were better with the Democrats.

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I am less than please with what the Democrats did during their two wasted years in power. However, given the lunatics and religious extremists now dictating GOP policies, the Democrats don't look so bad in retrospect.

Boston Globe Column Slams Bill Donohue - Meanwhile 57 Dioceses Fail to Comply With Anti-Sex Abuse Guidelines

Just as the Republican Party has become become a foul cesspool, so to has the Roman Catholic Church as an institution (assuming for the sake of argument that it has been so for centuries). Meanwhile, far right extremists in the Catholic fringe continue to play the role of apologists who want to blame anyone and everyone for the moral bankruptcy of the Church hierarchy other than the "princes of the church" themselves. A case in point is the always disingenuous Bill Donohue of the so-called Catholic League (a mom and pop organization which principally operates to enrich Donohue - just like NOM serves to enrich and Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown) who ran a full page in the New York Times that blamed the Church's sex abuse column on teh gays. A column in the Boston Globe slammed Donohue and his bogus organization. Here are some highlights:

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It would serve Bill Donohue and the Catholic League well if they went through some basic public relations training. Their latest attempt at bomb-throwing is a full page ad in the New York Times that blames the sexual abuse crisis on an overzealous media, scam artists, and, of course, "the gays."
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Abuse took place in the Church and it handled it very poorly. It doesn't matter whether it was pedophilia or homosexual or heterosexual in nature. People were abused and the Church did nothing for decades. The Church failed not only the victims, it failed its flock. The motivations for the abuse just don't matter.
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The fact that Donohue so desperately wants to dismiss the abuse as if it were just another part of the Culture Wars is deplorable. . . . . Donhoue likes to alienate people - not welcome and accept. He's looking to make enemies and fight battles over things that don't always make sense. Much of the apologetic work that Donhoue and his organization does hurts the greater Catholic cause. . . . . He represents the extreme conservative wing of the Church that thinks Church teachings revolve around sex and nothing else. He comes across as a hack that uses his well-funded bully pulpit for self-promotion. He should be dismissed by Catholics who want the Church to grow and not shrivel into some fundamentalist sect limited to pre-Vatican II adherents.
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And while Donohue rants against gays, a post at Huffington Post looks at the real source of the world wide sex abuse: the Church's bishops, cardinals and, yes, Popes, who clearly don't give a rat's ass about the welfare of children and youths. As proof of this allegation, the post reports that 57 dioceses are basically ignoring policies that allegedly protect children and youths. Here are some highlights:
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U.S. Catholic bishops announced Monday (April 11) that sexual abuse accusations against Catholic clergy increased in 2010, and auditors found 57 dioceses do not follow church guidelines on child protection.
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Costs related to sexual abuse also increased in 2010 by more than $19 million to $70.4 million, most of which (57 percent) was spent on settlements with sex abuse victims.
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Meanwhile, audits of local dioceses conducted by the Boston-based Gavin Group found "weaknesses in audit compliance," the bishops conference said, including 55 dioceses that could be considered noncompliant if changes are not made.
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In those dioceses, auditors found problems with church-recommended "safe environment" programs and inadequate training for children, pastors or directors of religious education. Two dioceses -- Lincoln, Neb. and Baker, Ore. -- refused to cooperate with the auditors at all.
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Yep, that's right. In 57 dioceses, things really have not changed. It's all about protecting and enabling child rapists and to Hell with children and vulnerable youths.

Alan Simpson - A vanishing Breed in the GOP

I know I've mentioned it before, but once upon a time I - and pretty much the rest of my extended family - was/were Republicans. Indeed, we were proud of our political party. But that was then and also when the GOP was not a party of religious extremists and know nothings - not to mention total political whores in the case of GOP elected officials. And now, we all vote for the Democrats who despite their many faults do understand the concept of separation of church and state. Now, I shudder at the thought now and find my former involvement in the GOP to be a point of embarrassment when confronted by those who do not understand that a sea change has occurred in the Republican Party - and not a change for the better. Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) exemplifies that former GOP which focused on real fiscal responsibility and staying out of individuals private lives. Think Progress has a piece in which Simpson reads the riot act at the Christofascists and homophobes who are the GOP's new puppet masters. Here are some highlights:

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On MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews today, former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), co-chair of President Obama’s debt commission, railed against the social conservatives in the Republican party. He admonished male legislators for voting on abortion issues and “homophobes” like Rick Santorum who say “cruel, cruel things” about gays and lesbians:
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SIMPSON: Who the hell is for abortion? I don’t know anybody running around with a sign that says, “Have an abortion! They’re wonderful!” They’re hideous, but they’re a deeply intimate and personal decision, and I don’t think men legislators should even vote on the issue.
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Then you’ve got homosexuality, you’ve got Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. We have homophobes on our party. That’s disgusting to me. We’re all human beings. We’re all God’s children. Now if they’re going to get off on that stuff—Santorum has said some cruel things—cruel, cruel things—about homosexuals. Ask him about it; see if he attributes the cruelness of his remarks years ago. Foul. * Now if that’s the kind of guys that are going to be on my ticket, you know, it makes you sort out hard what Reagan said, you know, “Stick with your folks.” But, I’m not sticking with people who are homophobic, anti-women, moral values—while you’re diddling your secretary while you’re giving a speech on moral values? Come on, get off of it.
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I find it both sad and dangerous for the nation that the GOP is now defined more by who is hated by its adherents as opposed to intelligence and reasoned argument. Yahoo News also looks at Simpson's condemnation of the bigots in the GOP.

Tuesday Male Beauty

Thoughts of a Lost Sister

April 12th is always a sad day for me - today is the 10th anniversary of the untimely death of my middle sister. It's frightening that a decade has already transpired and that in the intervening years I have also lost both of my parents. All of them will always be in my thoughts and in my heart. The photo above is of my mother and my lost sister at the beach on Chesapeake Bay near my parents' former home in the Bay Lake Pines neighborhood of Virginia Beach.

Are the Federal Government and Lenders Out to Destroy Housing?

The Virginian Pilot is reporting that in March 43% of home sales were foreclosures. This reality has several negative side effects: (1) neighborhood values are driven lower thus causing more homeowners to be "underwater" on the mortgages and (2) the bailout tab to the taxpayers increases. Yet these effects would seem to be the agenda of the federal government and the lenders as a whole. Why do I say this? Because lenders continue to refuse to enter into loan modifications to assist owners faced with plummeting prices and/or financial catastrophes that have impacted their ability to pay on loans. This refusal ultimately leads to a foreclosures sale where huge numbers of homes are taken back by lenders because no one buys the home at foreclosure. The next step is to have the foreclosed homes under the management of incompetent "management companies" where they languish until the home is transferred to HUD, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Once the homes become the property of these government or semi-governmental agencies, they typically sell for 40-50% of their former value. One doesn't need to be a math genius to realize how devastating this is to neighborhood values. The best solution for troubled homeowners and the taxpayer would be for loan modifications to be widely utilized. The fact that they are not shows just how f*cked up the system has become. Here are some story highlights:
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Sales of foreclosed and distressed properties continued to fuel the housing market in South Hampton Roads in March, according to a report released Monday. Real Estate Information Network Inc. reported that 1,090 homes sold last month in the area, up 56.4 percent from February and 13.2 percent from a year ago. Three of every seven homes sold - or 43 percent - were bank-owned or were sold for less than the seller owed on the mortgage.
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That is the highest volume of foreclosures sales on record, up from 42 percent in February.

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As such sales increase, housing prices continue to fall. Last month, the median price of homes sold dipped to $175,000, down 5.4 percent from February and 15 percent from a year ago, the Virginia Beach-based multiple listing service reported.

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Vinod Agarwal, an economist at Old Dominion University, said that although foreclosures make up a small percentage of the housing market, they are selling fast because of the perceived value. "If you think you're getting a steal, you go for it," Agarwal said.

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Despite foreclosure sales, the market as a whole is still swollen with properties. Last month, 14,360 were for sale in Hampton Roads, up 1.3 percent from February and down 3.4 percent from a year ago. That represents about 10 months of inventory. Six months of inventory is considered normal.

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It's also taking longer to sell a home, on average. The average number of days a home stays on the market rose slightly in March to 107 days. That is the lengthiest average market time in more than four years.

Prince William County, Virginia Schools Blocking LGBT Websites

I guess it should not come as any surprise that a county like Prince William County, Virginia, which would elect a gay-hating religious extremist like Del. Bob Marshall to the Virginia General Assembly would engage in Internet filtering to block LGBT students from accessing any LGBT related websites from school computers. After all, Marshall has stated before that he would like to drive all LGBT Virginians from the state (he'd probably like to include immigrants, Hispanics and most blacks in the group that he'd deport as well). The map above from the ACLU indicates that the problem of web filtering is widespread. The goal of such filtering is two-fold: kissing up to Christofascist parents and isolating LGBT students who might otherwise, God forbid, realize their rights are being trampled upon. Here are highlights from the ACLU:
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The American Civil Liberties Union and its regional affiliates today sent letters to schools in Michigan, Texas, Pennsylvania and Virginia demanding they stop viewpoint-based censorship of web content geared toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities.
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The letters were sent as part of the nationwide “Don’t Filter Me” campaign, in which the ACLU has teamed with Yale Law School to combat illegal censorship of pro-LGBT information on public school computer systems.
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“There is no legitimate reason why any public school should be using an anti-LGBT filter,” said Joshua Block, staff attorney at the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Project. “This is not a case where overbroad filters are accidentally filtering out LGBT websites. These filters are designed to discriminate and are programmed specifically to target LGBT-related content that would not otherwise be blocked as sexually explicit or inappropriate.
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The campaign asks students to check to see if web content geared toward LGBT communities – a frequent target of censorship in schools – is blocked by their schools’ web browsers, and then report instances of censorship to the ACLU LGBT Project.
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When used by a public school, programs that block all LGBT content violate First Amendment rights to free speech, as well as the Equal Access Act, which requires equal access to school resources for all extracurricular clubs. This means that gay-straight alliances and LGBT support groups must have the same access to national organizational websites that help them to function, just as other groups such as the Key Club and the chess club are able to access their national websites. By blocking access to LGBT websites, schools deny helpful information to gay-straight alliances and other support groups that could be vital for troubled LGBT youth who either don’t have access to the Internet at home or do not feel safe accessing such information on their home computers.
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“Unblocking individual sites is not a viable solution,” said Block. “As long as the anti-LGBT filter is in place, students will be confronted with a demeaning and stigmatizing message that the site has been blocked on account of its LGBT-related content. It’s unfair to put students in the difficult position of asking special permission before being allowed to access LGBT viewpoints. Public schools have a duty to provide students with viewpoint-neutral access to the Internet.”

More Monday Male Beauty

The National Organization for Marriage's Illusionary Base

Over the weekend I wrote about Louis J. Marinelli who has resigned from NOM and come out as an advocate for CIVIL marriage for same sex couples. NOM, of course, has tried desperately to minimize Marinelli's defection and depict him as a two bit part time volunteer (yet another example of NOM's inability to not resort to lying as a matter of standard procedure). Perhaps egged on by NOM's disclaimers, Marinelli has posted a new piece on his blog that looks at the artificial and illusion nature of NOM's claimed broad base support. One can only hope that Marinelli continues to speak out and expose Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown for the mean spirited, self-enriching political prostitutes that they are in fact. Here are some post highlights:
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Last week, I resigned from the National Organization and publicly declared my support for same-sex civil marriage. I also apologized and recanted the offensive and hurtful comments I’ve ever made against gay and lesbian citizens in this country. For many my actions have been a source of hope for the future of marriage equality. I wanted to take this opportunity to reinforce that hope.
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Tax records show that the vast majority of the National Organization for Marriage’s financial support comes from a handful of donors. This information is public and the Human Rights Campaign exposed it quite a while ago.
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In my work with the National Organization for Marriage, I, like you have seen on multiple occasions how fundraisers, which are matched dollar for dollar by an undisclosed source pulling the strings from behind the shadows, have met their goals. I shared the suspicion many did when gaps of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations were suddenly closed in the final hours running up to the deadline.
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The summer tour rallies were met with counter-protesters at every stop and with the exception of a couple of instances, NOM’s supporters were greatly outnumbered and their enthusiasm was bested by the gays and lesbians who came out to meet us in the streets to stand up against injustice and intolerance. Completely understandable. The lives of gay and lesbian Americans were on the line, they were being oppressed by a group seeking for force its religious doctrine on our society. If they weren’t fired up about that, what would that say about them?
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I want you to realize that NOM is a small group of devoutly religious Catholics supported by a couple of undisclosed sources. NOM is essentially made up of Brian Brown, its President, Maggie Gallagher, the CEO, a handful of other Board members (who are scattered across the country involved in other matters), a couple of advisors to Mr. Brown and a small and largely incompetent office staff.
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Their social media management isn’t operated by NOM – they’re not big enough for that nor do they understand social media! As Jeremy Hooper detailed, Opus Fidelis manages NOM’s social media and websites.
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That is all that is standing between you and the freedom to marry. There is no grassroots opposition. While they have proven to be quite successful over the past couple years, I think it’s time to put NOM’s size into perspective. Are you going to let a handful of fringe Catholics (with whom many Catholics disagree on marriage) stand between you and the freedom to marry?
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It's also time to expose NOM's donors who are pulling the strings while hidden behind a curtain. We and the world need to know who they are. The fact that NOM is going to great lengths to hide their identities suggests that the very nature of the civil marriage argument might shift if we but knew their identities.