Feel the Love: Liberty Counsel - Gays Are Diseased

Liberty University and the toxic Liberty Law School are a blight on Virginia and long term I suspect will be a detriment to the city of Lynchburg.  What progressive, decent business will want to be based in a city where a university that rants against modernity and longs to see gays back in the closet and blacks back on the plantation is located?   A taste of the gay animus that plagues Liberty was provided by the amicus brief filed by Liberty Counsel in gay marriage case now pending before the 5th Circuit Court of appeals.  Liberty Counsel's main arguments for bans on same sex marriage: (i) gays are diseased and a health risk, and (ii) mob majority rule should trump minority rights.  One would think the brief had been drafted by Joseph Goebbels for the Nazi regime.  Simply substitute the word "Jew" for "gay."  The full brief can be found here.  Here are some excerpts:

Not only is there no bodily good or function toward which two same sex bodies can coordinate, but there are in fact inherent harms associated with same sex unions.  Gay and bisexual men (who have sex with other men) are about 17 times more likely to develop anal cancer than men who only  have sex with women.” These increased rates of disease cannot be attributed to “stigma” or discrimination, since the rates of AIDS infections is the highest in California which offers homosexuals broad protection from discrimination.  Instead, there is a biological basis for the high incidence of anal cancer and other diseases among those who engage in homosexual behavior . . 

The personal, social and financial costs of these homosexual-specific health problems concern not just those who engage in homosexual activity, but also the larger community of citizens who help provide services and who must bear part of the burdens imposed by the health challenges. It is eminently rational, if not compelling, for the voters of Florida to seek to minimize the deleterious effects of these conditions on public health, safety and welfare by affirming that marriage in Florida remains the union of one man and one woman. In addition, same-sex relationships, particularly relationships involving two male partners, carry greater risks for domestic violence than do marriages. 

Even if one were to believe what Liberty Counsel claims, stable, monogamous same-sex relationships greatly reduce promiscuity and related health concerns.  Moreover, banning same sex marriage doesn't automatically equate to less same sex activity.  Nor does it address the biggest cause of HIV exploding in the African American community: closeted and married men having unsafe "down low" sex and then spreading HIV to their girl friends and wives.  Hence, we get to Liberty Counsel real argument: the majority should have the right to determine the rights of minorities:

To hold that the FMPA does not even pass rational basis would be to hold that 5 million Florida voters acted irrationally in voting for the Amendment. Furthermore, such holding would essentially proclaim that billions of people in every government and major religion worldwide, as well as every state in the union from the founding until 2003, were irrational in their universal support of man-woman marriage. (Marriage was defined as the union of one man and one woman by every government, world religion and state until 2003.) Such a conclusion is breathtaking.

Part of me longs for the day when Christians have become a minority.  Then we can employ Liberty Counsel's argument to strip them of civil rights.  Now that would be divine justice!

 

The New Oil Crisis: Exploding Trains

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As the residents of Lynchburg, Virginia, recently found out, there is a dangerous side to America's surging oil production: trains carry large cargoes of oil in often aging tank cars that set the stage for a fiery conflagration in the event of a derailment.  Thankfully, no one died in Lynchburg, but in other places not everyone has been so lucky.  While Virginia is investigating the cause of the Lynchburg crash the trains continue to roll raising the specter of other possible disasters.  With refineries in the area and its large port facilities, Hampton Roads is often a destination for these potentially catastrophic cargoes.  A lengthy piece in Politico looks at the growing danger.  Here are highlights (read the entire piece):

Communities throughout the U.S. and Canada are waking up to the dark side of North America’s energy boom: Trains hauling crude oil are crashing, exploding and spilling in record numbers as a fast-growing industry outpaces the federal government’s oversight.

In the 11 months since a runaway oil train derailed in the middle of a small town in Quebec, incinerating 47 people, the rolling virtual pipelines have unleashed crude oil into an Alabama swamp, forced more than 1,000 North Dakota residents to evacuate, dangled from a bridge in Philadelphia and smashed into an industrial building near Pittsburgh. The latest serious accident was April’s fiery crash in Lynchburg, Virginia, where even the mayor had been unaware oil was rolling through his city.

These dangerous moments on the rails raise questions about the safety of transporting increasing amounts of oil in mile-long chains of tank cars, some of them decades old. Community leaders and activists from Oregon to Alabama to Albany call the trains a disaster waiting to happen — despite the Department of Transportation’s efforts to play catchup through a series of emergency orders, agreements with industry and proposed regulations being reviewed by the White House.

A POLITICO analysis of federal data from more than 400 oil-train incidents since 1971 shows that a once-uncommon threat has escalated dramatically in the past five years:

• This year has already shattered the record for property damage from U.S. oil-train accidents, with a toll exceeding $10 million through mid-May — nearly triple the damage for all of 2013. The number of incidents so far this year — 70 — is also on pace to set a record.
• Almost every region of the U.S. has been touched by an oil-train incident. These episodes are spreading as more refineries take crude from production hot spots like North Dakota’s Bakken region and western Canada, while companies from California and Washington state to Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida build or expand terminals for moving oil from trains to barges, trucks or pipelines.

“The boom in domestic oil production has turned many railways and small communities across our country into de facto oil pipelines, and the gold-rush-type phenomenon has unfortunately put our regulators behind the eight ball,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has been pushing for stricter safety and disclosure rules. “It has become abundantly clear that there are a whole slew of freight rail safety measures that, while for many years have been moving through the gears of bureaucracy, must now be approved and implemented in haste.”

Like the oil boom itself, the surge in oil-train traffic has come much faster than anyone expected. Meanwhile, the trains face less onerous regulations than other ways of moving oil, including pipelines like TransCanada’s Keystone XL project.

Keystone, which would carry oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, has waited more than five years for a permit from the Obama administration while provoking a national debate about climate change. But no White House approval was needed for all the trains carrying Canadian oil into the United States. In fact, freight railroads in the U.S. are considered “common carriers” for hazardous materials, meaning they can’t refuse to ship it as long as it meets federal guidelines.

Meanwhile, the oil train business is primed to get bigger. Even TransCanada might start using rail to ship oil to the U.S. while waiting for Keystone to get the green light, CEO Russ Girling said in an interview in May — despite agreeing that trains are a costlier and potentially more dangerous option.

“If anybody thinks that is a better idea, that’s delusional,” Girling said.

Lynchburg Train Derailment/Fire Underscore Need for Regulations

The proponents of unrestricted oil and gas exploration, pipeline construction, and a laissez-faire government approach to regulations of the same - a crowd that includes the Virginia GOP - suffered a possible set back yesterday.   A CSX train carrying fracked oil derailed in downtown Lynchburg setting off a fire storm that cause portions of the city's downtown to be evacuated and dumped 50,000 gallons of the oil into the James River, force the city of Richmond to shift to alternate water supply sources.   The accident is but one of many that highlight the risks associated with pipeline and rail transportation of oil.  The only good news was that no serious injuries or deaths resulted. The Lynchburg News-Advance reports on the mess.  Here are highlights:

About 50,000 gallons of crude oil were unaccounted for late Wednesday after a CSX train derailed in downtown Lynchburg and sent three flaming tanker cars careening into the James River.

The ensuing conflagration ignited oil on the surface of the river, sent flames and smoke hundreds of feet into the air, forced evacuations of downtown businesses and homes and rattled the nerves of hundreds of downtown workers.

Businesses and residences between Fifth and Washington streets and from Main Street to the riverfront had to be cleared for several hours, as firefighters and hazardous materials workers charged toward the blaze.

Evacuees swarmed Main Street, peering around buildings and police barriers, craning for a better view of the disaster that might provide some explanation as to what went so terribly wrong.

City officials said drinking water is unaffected. Lynchburg typically gets its water from the Pedlar Reservoir in Amherst County. Downstream, Richmond began Wednesday afternoon to switch to an alternate water supply.

NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman discussed oil train wrecks last week at a two-day safety forum in Washington.

Hersman said the Obama administration needed to take steps immediately to protect the public from potentially catastrophic oil train accidents even if it means using emergency authority.

The Transportation Department was in the midst of drafting regulations to toughen standards for tank cars used to transport oil and ethanol, as well as other steps prevent or mitigate accidents. But there isn't time to wait for the cumbersome federal rulemaking process - which often takes many years to complete - to run its normal course, Hersman said.

A piece in the New York Times underscores that such derailments are a growing problem.  Here are highlights:

Train traffic carrying crude was relatively rare until four years ago, when oil companies in North Dakota began shipping large quantities of Bakken shale crude out of the state by rail because there was insufficient pipeline capacity to do the job.

Now, much of the production of the Bakken region is sent by rail on trains that can stretch up to a mile long and carry roughly 85,000 barrels of oil.

When a runaway train carrying Bakken crude derailed and exploded last July in the Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic, killing 47 people, the safety issues surrounding the transportation of crude through populated areas rose in importance for both American and Canadian regulators.

Then, in December, an oil train passing through Casselton, N.D., derailed and exploded, sending flames high into the air and forcing some residents to evacuate. That followed an accident in November, when another oil train derailed in Alabama, spilling crude oil.

Many of the trains are destined for refineries on the East Coast, which have a strong desire to replace expensive imported crude from the Middle East and Africa with the high-quality, and less expensive, crude from North Dakota.

In response to the rising concerns, federal regulators and railroads agreed in February to a series of voluntary measures to improve safety, including lower speed limits for oil trains in urban areas, increasing the frequency of track inspections and adding more brakes on trains.

And last week, Canada issued tough new rules requiring emergency plans from railroads on responding to catastrophic accidents and requiring companies to retire older models of tank cars within three years. The new model of tank car, developed in 2011, would effectively set a new standard of safety for rail companies in the United States since many lines cross the United States-Canadian border.

But despite years of discussion, American regulators have lagged on requiring stronger tank cars, which are generally owned by oil companies and private investors, not by railroad companies.

Safety experts have warned for more than 20 years that the older tank cars, called DOT-111s, are prone to rupture in a derailment.

Firestorm Continues to Envelop "Christian" School that Expelled Girl for Lack of Femininity

This blog previously noted the controversy surrounding Timberlake Christian School's expulsion of Sunnie Kahle, an 8-year-old tomboy (pictured at left), who the school intimated was gay because of her preferred hair style and clothing attire.  The expulsion letter listed numerous anti-gay Bible passages among other things.  Now, with the furor continuing, the school has recruited Liberty Counsel - a designated anti-gay hate group - to represent it in the controversy which is showing all too clearly the ugly face of conservative Christianity.  If the school doesn't want to look truly homophobic, one has to wonder what mental midget brought Liberty Counsel into the mix. Note how Liberty Counsel, which is obsessed with bathroom issues, has now said that parents had expressed "concerns regarding use of the restroom." The Roanoke Times is calling for the school to apologize and cease its batshitery.  Here are highlights:

Unless you were hiding under a rock last week, you heard about the case of Sunnie Kahle, the 8-year-old tomboy who since preschool has attended Timberlake Christian Schools in Forest. The short-haired second-grader is now an international figure.

Sunnie was adopted by her great-grandparents, who wanted her to have a Christian education, so they enrolled her in Timberlake almost four years ago. Now, she’s not welcome to return there unless she changes her attire and acts more like a girl.  This was clearly outlined in a February letter from the school to the great-grandparents, Carroll and Doris Thompson.

In that, Principal Becky Bowman wrote: “We believe that unless Sunnie as well as her family clearly understand that God has made her female and her dress and behavior need to follow suit with her God-ordained identity, that TCS is not the best place for her future education.”

The letter also said: “We believe that our biblical role is to work in connection with the home to mold students to be Christlike. On those occasions in which the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home is counter to or in opposition to the biblical lifestyle that the school teaches, the school reserves the right, within its sole discretion, to refuse admission of an applicant or to discontinue enrollment of a student. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, living in, condoning, or supporting sexual immorality, practicing homosexual lifestyle or alternative gender identity.”

The story last week on WSET (Channel 13) was picked up by national and international media outlets, and the media frenzy was on. And now Liberty Counsel, a Christian Legal Foundation affiliated with Liberty University, is representing the school.

Liberty Counsel issued a statement Wednesday denying the media reports, decrying the frenzy and refusing to identify the girl except for her initials. Here are some excerpts from that.

• “We are deeply dismayed over the inaccurate and public nature of this situation and the false and inaccurate reporting.”

• “When elementary children and their parents or guardians express concerns regarding use of the restroom and other matters arising from the sensitive issues here, the School has a duty to address those concerns and to ensure that all interests are heard and protected in accordance with the Christian mission of the School.”

The part about the bathrooms was new.

Quoting some unidentified parents at Timberlake, WDBJ reported that Sunnie had stated in school that she wanted a sex-change operation and that she wanted to use the boys’ bathroom. The Thompsons said those third-hand (at best) allegations are ridiculous.

Here are some observations:

First, it is no stretch at all to read the principal’s letter and conclude it implied sexual immorality “or the like” with regard to Sunnie. The Bible passages she hunted down and cited were about sodomites and burning lust and execution-worthy abominations. If that was not the intent, the school should say so and profusely apologize. So far they have not.

Second, the school should drop the malarkey about the “false” and “inaccurate” reporting until it’s prepared to say exactly what is false and inaccurate. Right now it’s hiding behind a pretense of privacy that neither Sunnie nor her legal guardians are requesting.

Third, if some unkind boys last fall tried to play a mean bathroom prank on Sunnie, the school could best address that with the boys and their parents — if they haven’t already. It smacks of un-Christlike bullying.

Finally, the school principal ought to open up her Bible and ponder some other juicy bits.

 For crying out loud, we’re talking about an 8-year-old.

One can only hope that this ridiculous situation will make some parents open their eyes to the batshitery to which they are subjecting their children and cause them to withdraw them from the school.  The school needs to become a laughing stock and pariah among decent people.  

Lynchburg News Advance: No Endorsement; Rips Cuccinelli to Shreds

It is telling that two Virginia newspapers that normally will find a way no matter how contorted to endorse Republicans have chosen to not endorse any candidate for Governor of Virginia.  First there was the Richmond Times Dispatch, now we see the Lynchburg News Advance doing the same thing.  Equally interesting is that both newspapers, while not being kind to Democrat nominee Terry McAuliffe, are absolutely brutal in their remarks about Ken Cuccinelli.  Here is what the News Advance has to say about Cuccinelli:

Cuccinelli is one of the most in-your-face and abrasive politicians on the scene in Virginia today. A rigid ideologue who rarely worked with his philosophical opponents during his time in the state Senate, “compromise” is not a word anyone would associate with him.

Which is our biggest problem with his candidacy for governor, an office of all Virginians, not just conservative, tea party Republicans.

By its very definition, a governor has to govern. That includes working with your political opponents, reaching across the aisle to develop relationships in the legislature … and in the population at large. A governor should not be an ideologue who hews to his my-way-or-the-highway, I-am-always-right agenda at the expense of leading.

Cuccinelli, to be blunt, is a conservative extremist, and history has shown us time and again that extremists of any political stripe are not good for the body politic. The recent shutdown of the federal government and the debt ceiling debacle of 2011 that resulted in the first-ever credit downgrade of the United States are ample evidence.

Unlike any other governor in modern Virginia history save for Democrat Doug Wilder, Cuccinelli is also a politician who has proven he will do what is best for himself and his personal political standing rather than what is good for Virginia or Virginians. His attempt to sabotage Gov. Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan is only the most brazen, most recent example. Nor does he do what’s in the best interest of his own party: His machinations of summer 2012 to change the nomination process from a primary to a convention and stab Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling in the back are what’s led to the looming civil war in the state GOP.

We’ve seen the damage political extremism can do in Washington. Perpetual gridlock. Critical issues not being addressed because politicians refuse to compromise or make deals … to govern. And America has been harmed as a result.  We don’t need that same mindset in the governor’s office in Richmond.

From fiscal matters to social issues, Cuccinelli has proven himself to be an uncompromising ideologue. Taxes, support for public education, civil rights, women’s issues: The attorney general is dead-certain that what he believes is correct, that those who disagree with him are wrong and must be vanquished. It may make for good fundraising letters, but it does not make for effective governing.

Ouch!  And this from the newspaper in Liberty University's hometown.  Sane voters of every stripe need to pay attention and vote against Cuccinelli and his ticket mates.

A Blight on Virginia: God Country and McCain

Unfortunately, parts of Virginia have found themselves home to some of the worse gay-haters and Christianist whack jobs around: Virginia Beach has the dubious distinction of being home to Pat Robertson's Regent University, numerous ultra conservative groups are based in the western Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., and then there's Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg. Of course, the name Liberty University is ironic since its founder and current leadership were/are all about depriving liberty and rights to those who do not subscribe to their intolerant, unloving form of alleged Christianity. While overall Virginia is trending blue, these pockets of lunacy continue to be a blight and embarrassment to non-Kool-Aid drinkers in the state. A Washington Post story looks at some of the zealots who attend Liberty University. Fortunately, they are becoming more and more of a minority in Virginia. Here are some highlights:

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LYNCHBURG, Va. Claire Ayendi is dealing with the fading kick of two double shots of espresso. It's the eve of homecoming weekend at Liberty University, and Ayendi, the president of the college Republican club, is trying to rig up a parade float in support of Sen. John McCain.

*

To be a college Republican in the face of Obama Nation takes a measure of fortitude. For Ayendi, it also requires tons of prayer and caffeine. McCain's poll numbers are sliding. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is a bottomless pit of money and energy. Even the hay bales on the rolling hills of once solidly GOP Lynchburg are painted red, white and blue with the name "Obama." And at Liberty University, founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell in 1971, the first student Democratic club has sprung up.

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For eight years, Liberty students have had one of their own in the White House with George W. Bush. . . . A pipeline of jobs stretched from evangelical colleges such as Liberty to the executive branch. Now a new dawn threatens, and young activists such as Ayendi are fighting hard to the final hour, in part to prepare for the new phase of activism they foresee in the event of an Obama victory.

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An astonishing 80 percent of Liberty's 11,400 residential students are registered, and most are Republicans. With polls showing Virginia on the verge of going Democratic, Liberty has canceled classes on Election Day and will provide buses to the polls. The school has also encouraged out-of-state students to switch their registration to Virginia.

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Liberty operates in a parallel universe from other colleges. Alcohol and sex are prohibited. Students caught watching R-rated movies are brought before a court of their peers. Bulletin boards around campus advertise "Pre-Marital Workshops" and the bookstore sells T-shirts that say "I [Heart] Christian Boys."

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Claire Ayendi . . . In addition to opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, she is against social welfare programs and overtaxation by the government.

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Not all of Ayendi's friends at Liberty are in political lockstep, made evident by the arrival of Ray Woolson. . . . Woolson is calm. "I think being a liberal is the most compassionate thing you can do," he says. "Jesus was a pacifist who chose to spend his time with the poor people. They weren't Big Oil, they were prostitutes." "There are a lot of kids at school who are blindly conservative," he says.

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One has to wonder how a liberal was allowed into the college. As is typical, the conservatives claim to be Christian as they advocate for tax cuts and the elimination of social programs. It's about them and THEIR money. To Hell with everyone else. Somehow, I do not think, Christ would be too impressed by the prosperity gospel.