National Review - Living in an Alternate Reality

I do not want to beat a dead horse, but the far right's reaction to the veto of Arizona SB 1062 continues to reveal the detachment of bot the Christofascists and far right pundits from objective reality.  Some are claiming that SB 1062 was not targeting LGBT Arizonans despite the commentary from the Center for Arizona Policy - the original backer of the law - which make it clear that a license to discriminate against gays was the goal.  Others like George Will are describing gays as "sore winners" - even though Arizona has no statewide non-discrimination laws based on sexual orientation (less than a  half dozen cities have such protections via city ordinance).  And then there is National Review which describes SB 1062 as a "live and let live law."  Are these folks serious or do they have their heads so far up their asses that they are delusional from lack of oxygen?  Here are highlights from a main editorial followed by highlights from a slap down Rich Lowry received on This Week.  First the editorial:

In response to a number of lawsuits in which such providers of wedding-related services as bakers and photographers have been threatened with conscription into participating in same-sex ceremonies to which they object on religious grounds, Arizona’s state legislature has adopted a law under which businesses that decline to provide such services will enjoy protection.

It is perhaps unfortunate that it has come to this, but organized homosexuality, a phenomenon that is more about progressive pieties than gay rights per se, remains on the permanent offensive in the culture wars. Live-and-let-live is a creed that the gay lobby specifically rejects: The owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado was threatened with a year in jail for declining to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. New Mexico photographer Elaine Huguenin was similarly threatened for declining to photograph a same-sex wedding. 

And the so-called liberals answer: “To hell with your consciences.”

In T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, the nature of totalitarianism is captured in the motto “Everything not forbidden is compulsory.” Gay marriage has made the sprint from forbidden to compulsory in record time; the day before yesterday, a homosexual marriage was a legal impossibility — and today it is a crime to sit one out.

Gay Americans, like many members of minority groups, are poorly served by their self-styled leadership. Like feminists and union bosses, the leaders of the nation’s gay organizations suffer from oppression envy, likening their situation to that of black Americans — as though having to find a gay-friendly wedding planner (pro tip: try swinging a dead cat) were the moral equivalent of having spent centuries in slavery and systematic oppression under Jim Crow.

As one who was forced from my job for being gay, ended up in bankruptcy as a result , and had many sleepless nights worried about how I would support my children, these comments are beyond infuriating.  Time and time again these "godly Christians" knowingly and deliberately harm others  citing "sincerely held religious belief" as the magic wand that makes all the harm OK.  The truth is that they are horrible, selfish, self-centered people who prefer to embrace ignorance rather than think for themselves or deal with uncertainty.  I suggest that the editorial board of National Review get their heads out of their asses and get out an see what religious based bigotry does to others on a daily basis.  

Thankfully, when Rich Lowry of National review appeared on This Week, he basically had himself "ripped a new one" and deservedly so.  Bigotry is bigotry, plain and simple.  Here are highlights via Towleroad:

Responded Jones to Lowry's points:  You can't -- look, if you want to be a bigot on your own time, that's fine. But if you want to extend that to your LLC, to your business that you own and hold out for public, you can't point to god to excuse your bigotry.