San Francisco Sues to Block Trump/Pence Health Care 'Conscience Rule'

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera with Deputy City Attorney Sara Eisenberg.

As noted many times on this blog, Donald Trump's - a/k/a Der Trumpenführer - most loyal supporters are evangelical Christians.  Why?  Because he has promised to support their desire to harm and discriminate against those who do not subscribe to their Bronze Age beliefs and general hatred of others who are different from themselves. Among those they hate the most are gays, although the list of targeted individuals includes racial minorities, non-Christians, women seeking to control their own bodies, and anyone who challenges the Christofascists' perceived right to be above the law when it comes to non-discrimination laws.  Freedom of religion which the Founding Fathers viewed as (i) freedom to worship as one chose, and (ii) freedom from having to pay taxes to support an official state church has now become a smoke screen for hate and bigotry as long as one bases their cruelty on "sincerely held religious belief."  The Trump/Pence regime's "conscience rule" announced this week would put right wing Christians completely above the law while endangering the health and lives of other citizens.  Thankfully, the city of San Francisco has sued to block this vile license to discriminate and hopefully other cities and states will join in opposing this dangerous special right for Christian extremists (Mark Herring, are you paying attention?).  The Advocate looks at why San Francisco has taken action.  Here are highlights:

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration’s new “conscience rule” that allows health care providers to opt out of procedures to which they have religious or moral objections.

The final version of the rule, announced by the administration Thursday, stands to jeopardize care for LGBTQ people, women seeking reproductive health care, and many others, according to Herrera and others who oppose it.

“At its core, this rule is about denying people medical care,” Herrera said in a press release. “This administration is willing to sacrifice patients’ health and lives — particularly those of women, members of the LGBTQ community, and low-income families — to score right-wing political points. It’s reprehensible." "People’s health should not be a political football," he continued.  

Herrera filed the suit Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, within hours of the final rule’s release. It appears to be the first lawsuit challenging the measure.

The Department of Health and Human Services says the rule simply assures the implementation of existing conscience protections for health care workers. But the San Francisco suit contends it goes much farther.

“The rule is so broad it applies not just to doctors and nurses, but anyone even tangentially related to health care, like receptionists,” Herrera’s press release notes. “Schedulers, for example, could refuse to schedule appointments for LGBTQ patients or a woman seeking information about an abortion, with potentially devastating impacts on the patients’ health or lives."

Herrera notes that this new regulation could potentially have employers facing a discrimination lawsuit if they do not agree with a health care worker's beliefs. 

"If San Francisco sought to address the situation by transferring the staff person to another assignment so their professional role did not conflict with their personal beliefs, that could be considered ‘discrimination’ against the staffer under the new federal rule," he adds.  

Noncompliance with the rule will result in loss of federal funding. San Francisco, for instance, risks losing nearly $1 billion a year in funding from Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs, according to the city attorney.

Herrera’s lawsuit seeks to not only have the rule declared unconstitutional but also seeks a court order preventing the new rule from taking effect, which is set to happen within 60 days.

Rally Against Oppressive ‘Religious Freedom’

The rallying cry and Trojan Horse of the Christofascists and far right politicians who prostitute them selves to them is "religious freedom" and now laws that claim to protect it while, in fact, granting broad licenses to discriminate.  While the chief targets of such laws are gays, the language is often so broad that any number of other laws may be ignored if one bases one's actions on "religious belief," opening the right to discriminate against blacks, Jews, and a host of other minorities.  These laws thus grant a wide array of special rights to the hate-filled, bigoted set.  A piece in Salon looks at efforts to rally against such a law under consideration in Georgia (amazingly, a similar law was just defeated in West Virginia).  Here are highlights:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Georgians had another reason to be drinking yesterday besides the obvious one. A new bill could make Georgia one of the least LGBT-friendly states in the country and there’s less than a month left to stop it. . . . the “Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (GRFRA).

The GRFRA—also known as SB129—is headed to the Georgia House of Representatives after clearing the Senate by a wide margin and, if passed, it will become what The Daily Beast’s Jay Michaelson has called “the nation’s harshest ‘religious freedom’ law,” granting business owners unprecedented latitude to refuse service to LGBT people and potentially even impeding child abuse investigations.

The law itself makes no reference to these consequences, only citing the need to defend “persons whose religious exercise is substantially burdened by government.”  

“We know that this is about discrimination,” said Executive Director of Georgia Equality Jeff Graham at the start of the rally.

SB129 is just one of many state-level RFRA laws that have become the religious right’s reactionary response to recent same-sex marriage gains. With a Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage expected this year, the fight over LGBT rights is quickly moving from weddings to wedding cakes—specifically to whether or not a Christian baker can refuse to make one for a same-sex couple.

The speakers at yesterday’s rally to stop SB129 seemed like an unlikely group of allies: a rabbi, a Republican, a lawyer, a Baptist. One organizer told The Daily Beast that it was “like the start of a bad joke.”  But the diverse array of speakers revealed the breadth of groups who oppose the bill while highlighting the fact that LGBT Georgians will need to make some strange bedfellows to keep it off the governor’s desk.

 While LGBT Georgians continue to write emails and flood phone lines, the fate of SB129 remains uncertain in the House. On one hand, Speaker David Ralston (R) has been skeptical of SB129 in recent comments on Georgia public television.

But Ralston’s caution has already earned him the ire of those further to his right. Erick Erickson of RedState has concluded from his comments that “Speaker of the House David Ralston does not believe Christians need their faith protected” and that Ralston is “willing to see Christians surrender their ability to live their faith outside of 11 AM to noon on Sunday.” The religious right in Georgia will be making phone calls as well.

 The hatred of others and extreme selfishness of the "godly folk" is chilling. Again I ask, when are moral and decent folk going to stop giving them - and religion in general - undeserved deference?

RNC Delegate Offended By "Mexican" Employee At Disney’s Epcot Center

Click image to enlarge

The racism of today's Republican Party is becoming increasingly obvious despite attempts to do damage control when the true nastiness of party members and candidates is revealed.  A recent GOP convention related racism eruption involved Pennsylvania GOP convention delegate Mark Harris who visited Epcot Center during the convention.  While visiting the United States pavilion, Harris was incensed to find a "Mexican" working in the pavilion (see his blog screen shot above).  He felt that only "Americans" should be working at the the United States pavilion.  The incident underscores the sad fact that in the minds of far too many in today's GOP that if one isn't white, one isn't an American.  The irony, of course, is that Hispanics in parts of the United States are  descendants of those who were residents of those areas long before they were annexed to the United States - e.g., Texas, California, New Mexico, and Arizona - and long before Harris' ancestors arrived in America.  Think Progress has more and here are highlights:

During a trip to Epcot at Disneyworld, Pennsylvania delegate Mark Harris and his wife were shocked and offended to find a Mexican employee working at the amusement park’s American pavilion, which showcases the different cultures in the United States. According to the couple’s blog, Harris complained to staff that he was “highly offended” that a “person from Mexico” was working in the American pavilion when other nations’ pavilions were staffed by people from each respective country.

According to their website, “Mark and Irene are both pro‐life, believe marriage is between one man and one woman, are for open records and transparency, believe in very conservative principles and the Republican platform.”

The RNC has been marred by racist incidents this week; on Tuesday, two delegates had to be escorted out after throwing peanuts at a black camerawoman and called her an “animal.” Harris told the AP at the beginning of the convention that he liked how Romney was “hitting all the conservative bells” and “has the potential to be a great president if he keeps going in that direction.”

It would seem that Harris has been taking lessons from George "Macaca" Allen, the GOP candidate for U.S. Senator here in Virginia.  I was in law school with Mr. Allen and I'm supporting his opponent Tim Kaine - we need a grown up and non-bigot in the U.S. Senate.

The Rank Hypocrisy of Christians and Republicans Who Accept Divorce

I've addressed the hypocrisy of the Christianists and their political whores in the GOP who continually condemn gays as sinners and have a near aneurysm at the mention of same sex marriage yet close their eyes to divorce.  Under scoring this incredible hypocrisy is the release of a video in support of North Carolina's foul Amendment One by thrice married serial adulterer Newt Gingrich.  And if that's not proof enough, it is evangelical Christians in the Bible Belt who have the highest divorce rate, not supposed "liberals" in Massachusetts.   Joe Jervis aptly comments on Gingrich's disingenuous bullshit this way:

Newt Gingrich would like to remind everybody that marriage is between one man and one woman whom you abandon riddled with cancer on her hospital bed while you fuck the shit out of your mistress whom you later marry and cheat on with a third decades-younger woman while screaming with Godly moral outrage about the infidelities of the president.

Andrew Sullivan looks at the disconnect and  hypocrisy a bit more calmly, but it all comes down to the same thing: Hypocrisy and a double standard of selectively deciding which Bible passages to ignore while using others to bludgeon a minority of the population.  I suspect this hypocrisy and the general meanness displayed by "conservative Christians" is what id fueling the exodus of millenials from Christianity.  Here are excerpts from Andrew's comments directed at a Catholic defender of bans on same sex marriage:

[H]ow do you tell 2 percent of the population that in this culture they have to be chaste and invisible? In this culture? And if you cannot, what is your actual social policy toward these people? Or do you simply not have one - except to wish we did not exist?

Let me use an obvious analogy which really gets to the heart of the unfairness at the center of this. Modern America is full of divorced couples. Unlike homosexuality, Jesus spoke unequivocally about divorce. Does Ross insist that our civil laws return to banning divorce on all grounds? No. Does he back a constitutional amendment to ban civil divorce? No. His reason would be to say that it simply cannot be done democratically. But that precisely reveals the church's discriminatory position on gay people. Unlike divorcees, the gays' position is not a choice. But unlike divorcees, they alone are the target of a massive campaign by Christianists to deny them any right to marry at all - not just twice but ever! This is where the current hierarchy is.

Notice too how they are not threatening to shut down services for the poor and homeless because one of their civil employees might be re-married or divorced (and thereby violating church doctrine). And yet they apply that standard to gay people - who have not chosen any lifestyle, but are guilty purely of being as God made them. They do it because we are few in number and they can deploy the power of religion to demonize us.

This deliberate tolerance of heterosexuals and deliberate intolerance of homosexuals on the same issue is on its face discriminatory. And don't get me started on annulments. Newt Gingrich gets to marry his third wife in church, but the Vatican wants a constitutional amendment to prevent my having one civil marriage with no church involvement. What else can this be rooted in but animus? And total panic.

The GOP's War on Unions and Fiscal Common Sense

I continue to shake my head and ask myself WTF has happened to the GOP. A political party that once upon a time had some integrity and decency. Of course, I know the answer: the hate filled Christian Right and the Tea Party crowd have staged a coup and the few moderate and sane Republican lack the guts to stand for integrity and decency. As a result, we see the open war on unions - a force that did much to create the middle class that now finds itself under assault and financial decline - a vote to defund Planned Parenthood that will do more to cause more unwanted pregnancies and thus abortions rather than fewer abortions, and cuts to programs that provide the already pathetic social safety net in this country. Meanwhile, a bill to cut government support of NASCAR has been killed. As noted before on this blog, what the GOP base supports in politics and what it claims to profess in terms of the Gospel message are increasingly light years apart. Greed, self-centeredness and hostility to many other groups of humans are now the principle hallmarks of the Christian Right and the GOP.

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Going back to the Planned Parenthood for a moment, the GOP tools of the Christian Right say anti-abortion Christians should not have to fund contraception and other things they oppose on religious grounds. Never mind that these same people are perfectly fine with forcing gays to pay taxes to the government yet allowing the very same government to fire gays at will because we don't subscribe to Christianist religious views. It's the Christianists who continue to demand special rights even as they say its others who are doing so. The term disingenuous liars is what best applies to these false Christians. As the New York Times notes, here's what would be killed in funding cuts and the actual INCREASED cost that will fall on society:
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Planned Parenthood offers family planning, H.I.V. counseling, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, cancer screening and other services as well as abortions, mainly to low-income women.
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For every dollar spent on contraception for low-income women, the government saves four dollars in medical costs within the next year by averting unwanted pregnancies, said Ms. Cohen of the Guttmacher Institute.
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That's right - it'll cost four times as much if these services go away. And that's only in terms of unwanted pregnancies. Factoring cancer prevention and other services the figure mushrooms - and that's without putting nay human cost into the equation.
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On the union busting mission of the GOP and the manner in which it will hopefully backfire, here are highlights from the New York Times:
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The unrest in Wisconsin this week over Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to cut the bargaining rights and benefits of public workers is spreading to other states.
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Already, protests erupted in Ohio this week, where another newly elected Republican governor, John Kasich, has been seeking to take away collective bargaining rights from unions. In Tennessee, a law that would abolish collective bargaining rights for teachers passed a State Senate committee this week despite teachers’ objections. Indiana is weighing proposals to weaken unions.
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The images from Wisconsin — with its protests, shutdown of some public services and missing Democratic senators, who fled the state to block a vote — evoked the Middle East more than the Midwest. The parallels raise the inevitable question: Is Wisconsin the Tunisia of collective bargaining rights?
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But Wisconsin is also proving to be a catalyst for Democrats and labor leaders, as they take heart from the way thousands of workers have rallied to the cause. With the falling popularity of unions in recent years, some union leaders see the attempt to take away bargaining powers as an effort that could shift the question from whether public-sector workers are overpaid to whether they should have the right to negotiate contracts at all.
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To that end, unions and Democrats are preparing their own post-Wisconsin campaigns in a number of states against what President Obama called “an assault on unions” in a television interview this week.

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I shudder to think what the USA will become if the Christianists and today's GOP are not defeated. It will certainly become a country in which I will not want to live.

A Mother's Anti-Homophobia Rant Goes Viral

I had read the post "My Son is Gay," on the blog Nerdy Apple Bottom and loved it, having first become aware of it via Good As You. That was before it apparently went viral and was picked up by Salon and other large outlets. The post is written by a self-described "cop's wife" living in the Bible Belt and lets loose against smug, self-satisfied "Christians" who would demonize and torment a five year old boy simply because of his chosen Halloween costume. This wonderful mom goes off like a lioness and takes down her son's petty, hypocritical, Pharisee like critics and in the process condemns those who are a driving force for homophobia and anti-gay bigotry and bullying. And as she does so, she demonstrates wit and humor worthy of a drag queen that has her game full on. Bigotry and homophobia begin at home in families such as those of these "fine Christian women." Here are highlights from Salon's coverage of this enjoyable demonstration of what maternal love should be all about:
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This is how it's done, folks. When the Bible Belt blogger known as Nerdy Apple Bottom's 5-year-old son wanted to be Daphne from Scooby Doo for Halloween this year, she supported his costume choice, orange wig and pink boots and all. Because duh, it's Halloween; the point is to be somebody you're not.
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On Friday, the self-described "cop's wife" hinted about her child's experience at school that day on her blog by saying, "I am so proud of my brave little Daphne…. He had a few moments where he was worked up about people making fun of him, but mustered up the courage to go for it. He held his little orange wig high today," and "for those of you that looked at my sweet boy in disdain this morning, or looked at me funny for 'allowing' my son to be what he wanted to for Halloween, or made those snide and unnecessary comments -- your lives are small, your tact is lacking, and you can SUCK IT!"
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This week she expanded on the experience and the sentiment, with a warm, funny cri de coeur entitled "My son is gay." She went on: "Or he’s not. I don’t care. He is still my son. And he is 5. And I am his mother. And if you have a problem with anything mentioned above, I don’t want to know you." Bada BING.
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It didn't take long for Nerdy Apple Bottom's eloquent, passionate post to start making making the rounds as a refreshing example of great parenting in action – and a sobering reminder that even the youngest boys and girls who stray outside the most rigid of gender expectations scare the crap out of a lot of people. In a pathetic, non Halloween-ish way.
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Though the inevitable handful of trolls has shown up in the blogger's comments, the response has been overwhelmingly supportive, positive and wildly enthusiastic. Think of it as nature's way of refreshing our faith in humanity after Clint McCance's notorious Facebook diatribe last week that "I would disown my kids they were gay. They will not be welcome at my home or in my vicinity. I will absolutely run them off."
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As the blogger herself says it, "If he wants to carry a purse, or marry a man, or paint fingernails with his best girlfriend, then ok. My job as his mother is not to stifle that man that he will be, but to help him along his way. Mine is not to dictate what is 'normal' and what is not, but to help him become a good person."

Doctor Treating Pregnant Women with Drug to Prevent Lesbianism

I guess something like this should have been expected, yet it is very frightening - especially since the doctor pushing (pictured at right) this treatment regime candidly doesn't (1) know if it will work and (2) doesn't know what unexpected consequences and side effects/damage it might cause. My mother took DES when pregnant with me because it supposedly reduced miscarriages. It turns out that it did no such thing, but it DID cause unusual cancers and other problems in the children of many mothers who took DES. Given this story on ending lesbianism, one has to wonder when the Christo-fascists will begin also demanding research on drugs that will make all children white, blond and blue eyed. This "research" has all the hallmarks of something out of the plot of Frankenstein. As for the parents who would take such drugs, I would propose that they probably should not be parents in the first place. Here are some highlights via Dan Savage at The Stranger:
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Pediatric endocrinologist Maria New—of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Florida International University—isn't just trying to prevent lesbianism by treating pregnant women with an experimental hormone. She's also trying to prevent the births of girls who display an "abnormal" disinterest in babies, don't want to play with girls' toys or become mothers, and whose "career preferences" are deemed to "masculine." Unbelievable:
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Pediatric endocrinologist Maria New, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Florida International University, and her long-time collaborator, psychologist Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, of Columbia University, have been tracing evidence for the influence of prenatal androgens in sexual orientation.... They specifically point to reasons to believe that it is prenatal androgens that have an impact on the development of sexual orientation. The authors write, "Most women were heterosexual, but the rates of bisexual and homosexual orientation were increased above controls . . . and correlated with the degree of prenatal androgenization.”
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In a paper published just this year in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, New and her colleague, pediatric endocrinologist Saroj Nimkarn of Weill Cornell Medical College, go further, constructing low interest in babies and men—and even interest in what they consider to be men’s occupations and games—as “abnormal,” and potentially preventable with prenatal dex:
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“Gender-related behaviors, namely childhood play, peer association, career and leisure time preferences in adolescence and adulthood, maternalism, aggression, and sexual orientation become masculinized in 46,XX girls and women with 21OHD deficiency [CAH]. These abnormalities have been attributed to the effects of excessive prenatal androgen levels on the sexual differentiation of the brain and later on behavior.” Nimkarn and New continue: “We anticipate that prenatal dexamethasone therapy will reduce the well-documented behavioral masculinization...”
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It seems more than a little ironic to have New, one of the first women pediatric endocrinologists and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, constructing women who go into “men’s” fields as “abnormal.” And yet it appears that New is suggesting that the “prevention” of “behavioral masculinization” is a benefit of treatment to parents with whom she speaks about prenatal dex.
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So no more Elena Kagans, no more Donna Shalalas, no more Martina Navratilovas, no more k.d. langs, no more Constance McMillens—because all women must grow up to suck dick, crank out babies, and do women's work. And the existence of adult women who are not interested in "becoming someone's wife" and "making babies" constitutes a medical emergency that requires women who are currently pregnant to be treated with an experimental hormone. Otherwise their daughters could grow up to, um, be nominated to sit on the Supreme Court, serve as cabinet secretaries, take 18 Grand Slam singles titles, win Grammies, or take their girlfriends to prom. And we can't have that.

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UPDATE: A little more about dex from Alice Dreger: The specific drug we're talking about, dexamethasone, is not a benign drug for pregnant women, nor for the children exposed in utero. The studies we do have on the early prenatal use of "dex" are worrisome. The number of women and children missing from the follow-up studies of this drug use is more worrisome still. This drug is unequivocally experimental and risky.
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Make no mistake: In spite of Dr. Maria New's outrageous FDA-regulation-flaunting claims that this off-label drug use "has been found safe for mother and child," it ain't been. New is a rogue pediatrician whom medical societies have been nudging (and sometimes yelling at) for years.

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This is a worrisome development that ought to be stopped. One can only wonder how many women could have their lives - and health - profoundly damaged by such experimental research by someone who apparently believes that she can play God.

Warning- Graphic Photo of Those Condemned by Pat Robertson

The evil of self-proclaimed Christians like Pat Robertson is sometimes hard to fathom. Yet fools - at least in my opinion - continue to support the nasty bastard and worse yet send him and others like him who disseminate hatred money to fund more evil. It literally sickens me as does the photo below of the bodies of those Robertson would diminish and blame for their own deaths. As you will note, some appear to be quite young. When will Americans recognize the Christianist for the extreme evil and danger that they represent? Some comments on the Virginian Pilot's coverage of Robertson's latest foulness highlighted below indicate that I'm not alone in my thoughts:

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keep it to yourself, ok? You sound like an idiot when you open your mouth. Your proclamations make Christians as a whole look foolish. Basing your interpretation on a fairy tale 200+ years old was dumb enough, but then using it as an explanation for events is just downright nasty. Frankly sir, you've become an embarrassment to us all.
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Quit believing the Pat Robertsons, hes no better than Ernest Angley, who actually goes to African nations and tell mothers to bring him their AIDS-infected babies, and after touching these babies, tells the mother that they are now AIDS free!Now if you believe that and Mr Robertson, you may need some help.

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One has to wonder what Robertson got in exchange for his soul when he sold it for fame and riches? Well, I guess I answered my own question; fame and riches. What I'm curious about now is what did the devil get?

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Let me get this straight. There was a slavery rebellion with the slaves essentially freeing themselves, yet according to Pat this was a "pact with the devil"?? What boggles my mind more so is the “devil pact” stems from folklore. Will someone PLEASE check Pat's prescription meds and make sure he's taking his anti-whacky pills?

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Muslim extremists comments and Pat's, what's the difference! They need a place on the planet reserved for these people to fight over who's belief's are correct. Keep them away from the sane people of the world.

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Sally Kern Blames Gays for Economic Turn Down

Oklahoma's increasingly insane and demented Rep. Sally Kern needs to be, in my opinion, subjected to an involuntary stay in a mental health institution since she clearly is losing what little grasp of reality that once had. Now the homophobe extraordinaire is saying that the crash of the U. S. economy is because of homosexuality. Never mind the eight years of the Chimperator's disastrous rule or the seven years of GOP control of Congress that set the stage for the financial system melt down. How people continue to vote for nutcases like Kern is truly mind boggling. Here are some highlights from the Business Insider on Kern's latest lunacy:

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Sally Kern is an Oklahoma state representative with her own, unique take on the economic crisis: gays are to blame. She's introduced a proclamation stating:

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WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

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WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion,pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and

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WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and

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WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer; and

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WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;

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NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we the undersigned elected officials of the people of Oklahoma, religious leaders and citizens of the State of Oklahoma, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, solemnly declare that the HOPE of the great State of Oklahoma and of these United States, rests upon the Principles of Religion and Morality as put forth in the HOLY BIBLE; and

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BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, believers in the One True God and His only Son, call upon all to join with us in recognizing that “Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord,” and humbly implore all who love Truth and Virtue to live above reproach in the sight of God and man with a firm reliance on the leadership and protection of Almighty God; and

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BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, humbly call upon Holy God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer, to have mercy on this nation, to stay His hand of judgment, and grant a national awakening of righteousness and Christian renewal as we repent of our great sin.

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You could not make this stuff up if you tried. Of course, Kern's own great sin is her hatred towards and judgment of others, contempt for the freedom of religion of others, and general Pharisee like behavior. If I lived in Oklahoma, I would be seriously embarrassed to have Kern in public office.

Former Senator Jesse Helms is Dead at 86

I know it is not nice to speak ill of the dead, but Jesse Helms, former U. S. Senator from North Carolina, was in many ways NOT a nice man. Among other things he was a racist and a homophobe who did all he could to subvert gay rights and reduce funding for HIV/AIDS. He clearly was of a Christianist mindset and cared nothing for the religious freedom rights of those who held counter religious views. As is all too typical, many of the stories now running on Helms ignore the ugly underbelly of what Helms was all really about - and what conservatism in its current form is all about as well. America Blog has a good post that reminds us of what the true Jesse Helms was all about. It is not a nice picture. Here are highlights:

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Can't even begin to think of anything nice to say about this guy -- but a lot of other people will start praising Helms as if none of the hateful stuff matters. The hateful stuff matters. Let's reminisce on the life of one of America's biggest bigots who ruined the lives of so many.

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Jesse Helms on "negroes": As an aide to the 1950 Senate campaign of North Carolina Republican candidate Willis Smith, Helms reportedly helped create attack ads against Smith's opponent, including one which read: "White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races." Another ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. (The News and Observer, 8/26/01; The New Republic, 6/19/95; The Observer, 5/5/96; Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms, by Ernest B. Furgurson, Norton, 1986)

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The University of North Carolina was "the University of Negroes and Communists." (Capital Times, 11/22/94) Black civil rights activists were "Communists and sex perverts." (Copley News Service, 8/23/01)

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Of civil rights protests Helms wrote, "The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that's thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men's rights." (WRAL-TV commentary, 1963) He also wrote, "Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced." (New York Times, 2/8/81)

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Helms on "degenerate, weak, sick homosexuals": Over the years Helms has declared homosexuality "degenerate," and homosexuals "weak, morally sick wretches." (Newsweek, 12/5/94) In a tirade highlighting his routine opposition to AIDS research funding, Helms lashed out at the Kennedy-Hatch AIDS bill in 1988: "There is not one single case of AIDS in this country that cannot be traced in origin to sodomy." (States News Service, 5/17/88)

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Helms being a racist: And the man ABC News now describes as a "conservative icon" (8/22/01) in 1993 sang "Dixie" in an elevator to Carol Moseley-Braun, the first African-American woman elected to the Senate, bragging, "I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing Dixie until she cries." (Chicago Sun-Times, 8/5/93)

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On cutting AIDS funding: Sen. Jesse Helms says the government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of "deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct," The New York Times reported Wednesday...."We've got to have some common sense about a disease transmitted by people deliberately engaging in unnatural acts," Helms told the Times.

South Carolina Insanity/Bigotry

Years ago when I lived in Alabama, we would always say "Thank God for Mississippi" since in no matter what the ranking involved might be, Mississippi almost always scored worse or rated lower that Alabama in terms of backwardness, etc. Now, liviing in Virginia - hardly a beacon of of progressive thinking - I can say "Thank God for South Carolina" where the level of bigotry and out right religious insanity seems to know few limits. Between a local school district which is seriously considering the elimination of all school clubs rather than allow the formation of a GSA to the legislature's adoption of a bill that aloows the Christianists to have auto license plates with "I Believe" and a cross on them, the level bat sh*ttery in the state seems to be completely out of control.

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In terms of the license plates, it seems to me the legislators are needlessly pandering to the Christianist voting block with no thought or care as to the larger message that will be sent by these state issued license plates. Moreover, I find it ironic that the modern day Pharisees in South Carolina who would be the likely purchasers will be enabled by the state to wear their intolerant religion on their vehicles (as opposed to their sleeves) while at the at the same time by their actions and propaganda they spread a message of hate against gays, immigrants, non-Christians and others (I personnally suspect that many of these "Christians" are probably also racists and hate black as well). What the Hell is in the water down there? First some highlights from Yahoo News on the insane efforts to block a high school Gay-Straight Alliance club:

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A South Carolina school district has delayed until later in the month a vote on whether to ban all student clubs that don't relate to academics or sports as a way to close a gay student organization. Vice chairman Robert Gantt said Monday the Lexington-Richland School District 5 board was delaying its vote on whether to ban the clubs to get more public input.

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Officials had said the district couldn't stop the alliance from forming because federal law prohibits discriminating against a club based on its purpose. The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network says there are about 4,000 gay-straight alliances at schools nationwide, including 16 in South Carolina. (AP)

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One has to wonder whether these nutcases education bureaucrats have given any thought to the fact that the elimination of all clubs is surely NOT in the best interest of district's students? Most likely not, since with the Christianists, its's really all about coddling their bigotry. Nothing else matters. As for the license plate issue, while the state's Republican Governor seems in touch with reality and the concept of separation of church and state, the rest of the legislature clearly is not. Here are highlights from the New York Times:

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South Carolina drivers will be the first in the nation to be offered license plates that carry the phrase “I Believe” and a Christian cross over a stained-glass window under a law that took effect on Thursday.

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The bill authorizing the plate passed the State House and Senate unanimously on May 22. It became law without the signature of Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, under the South Carolina Constitution. “While I do, in fact, ‘believe,’ it is my personal view that the largest proclamation of one’s faith ought to be in how one lives one’s life,” Mr. Sanford wrote on Thursday in a letter to Glenn F. McConnell, president pro tem of the Senate and a fellow Republican.

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Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Jewish Congress said they were considering suing the state over the plate. Neither organization was aware of any previous state that has approved a similar plate. A proposal for an “I believe” plate in Florida failed in April. “The whole issue here is that people are trying to get the state to endorse their religion, and that’s wrong,” said Dr. T. Jeremey Gunn, director of the A.C.L.U. Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “It’s almost as if there’s insufficient support, and they have to go to the state to get it.”

New Christianist-Bush/Cheney Propaganda Poster

One would swear that this was issued by James Dobson and Don Wildmon working together with the Chimperator's regime. VIA Magicb Bellybutton.

A truth worth Sharing this Christmas

This article via Pam's House Blend (http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4006) is a perfect follow up to Jefferson's Statute and shows the dangers of what happens when Jefferson's analysis of religion is ignored. Here are highlights, but I recommend you read the entire piece:

The harm experienced by two Florida and South Carolina families this Christmas because of religion-based bigotry against gay and lesbian individuals is very real.

Many evangelical Christians this year may have to admit to their children that they've been perpetrating an "untruth." Perhaps they are made just a smidgen more uncomfortable by the fact that they believe truth was embodied in Christ - who according to their religious teachings was a person born different than any other human being.

So at a time when many Christians are cautioned not to forget the "reason behind the season," they are confronted with the fact that they must close the door on a part of their son's or daughter's childhood by telling them that certain stories about the partially eaten cookies, the hand-scrawled note left behind and the soot smeared on the floor were really not true.

But the young lives of a future generation will go on albeit perhaps a bit more cynical and somewhat dejected from discovering such a truth. For the families of Pat and Lynn Mulder of Auburndale, Fla., and Elke Kennedy and Jim Parker of Greenville, S.C., the lives of their two children will not be going on. The day-to-day gifts of joy they gave their parents, siblings and friends ended with their deaths - and no amount of perception will make their future lives and their gifts to those around them a reality.

I pray that in 2008 more people will come to realize that no living human has all the answers whether derived from a fallible understanding of the Bible or other religious writings.