Guess Where Sexually Transmitted Disease Occurs the Most

UPDATED: I checked out the full story ay the link below and all of the rleated maps of the seven deadly sins and for the most part the highest incidence for each is concentrated in the Bible Belt.

Kudos to Bob Felton for this terrific find. As Bob notes:

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When Kansas State geographers decided to map the rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States at county level they discovered — What do you know? — that they occur with the greatest frequency throughout the Bible Belt. Nobody should be surprised. The Christian denigration of sex (see Calvin and marriage) doesn’t suppress sex, it merely sends it into unwholesome underground channels. And so much, once again, for the ‘family values’ schtick.

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The hypocrisy and damage done by those who seek to police the morals of everyone else is stunning.

A Face of Hate and Evil

UPDATED: Apparently Raani Starnes was getting some unwanted attention - she has deleted the post I just quoted. Fortunately, her words are captured here on this blog and in the image that can be found here:

http://www.zshare.net/image/50185674e05412dc/

Hopefully other blogs have captured it as well. If you'd like to share your thoughts with Ms. Starnes, her contact information is as follows:

Raani Starnes: RAANISTARNES@YAHOO.COM 1904 Camino Rio Farmington, NM 87401

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I never cease to be amazed at the level of hate and advocacy of vitrol put out by self-styled, self-righteous, self-satisfied "Christians." A case in point is a blog that I came across via Bob Felton's blog, Civil Commotion, the author of which is apparently a Christian Reconstructionist. To this woman, gays are obviously not even human and the fact that we are the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and parents of people who love us not to mention responsible citizens. It means absolutely nothing to her. It apparently is all about her selfish need to feel superior and desire to force her unwanted religious beliefs on others. She states that she has four children - I surely hope one or more of them turn out to be gay, although I hate to think about what they might go through with such a mother. To me, she represents the smiling face of evil. Here are some statements from her blog:

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When I was in the process of moving and did not have internet access, I often visited a local library to check my e-mail and look at real estate listings. . . . One day as I was surfing the net, I couldn't help but overhear a conversation that was going on across the table from me. An openly gay teenage boy who was surrounded by female "friends" was talking about how he had recently had a relationship with a girl. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl's parents. Not only was their daughter sexually active, but she had engaged in some very high risk behavior by sleeping with a gay male.

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The homosexual agenda wants people to think that homosexual men are safe for women to hang around and even be alone with. Nothing could be further from the truth. The stories about Sodomites in the Bible teach us that they do violate women as well as men. . . . The term bisexual is an unnecessary distinction, because a faggot wants to defile anyone or anything he can get his hands on.

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A friend recently sent me this article about a "gay-friendly" high school. If we were living in a biblical society, homosexuality would be punishable by death so such a school would be unnecessary. Although I'm against the special accommodations, perhaps this new trend of segregation will protect straight kids from these predators. With any luck, some radical will blow up the gay school. No, I'm not condoning vigilantism--I'm merely saying that it would be poetic justice.

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The school she mentions is the proposed Pride Campus in Chicago which is expected to serve 600 students. This woman would welcome a bombing that could kill up to 600 students. It's beyond sick. Welcome to the face of Sarah Palin's Republican Party base. Oh, I forgot. She says her favorite book is the Bible. Sick. Very, very sick.

Why This Presidential Election is so Important

Some readers accuse me of talking too much about politics. Yes, it can be over done but in reality few things impact one's life in so many ways both on the large national scene and at the local level. For those who ignore politics and stay uninvolved/uninformed, in my view they forfeit their right to bitch and complain because all too often those who wear the PTA/soccer mom blinders are part of the problem because they all too often vote for liars like McCain/Palin based on sound bites as opposed to any true fundamental understanding of the issues.

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As for this presidential election, I believe that we are faced with the choice between two world views. One, represented by today's Christianist dominated GOP represents the worse aspects of the past (including a preference for ignorance and religious bigotry) and a mindset which, while giving lip service to equality under the law, etc., actually believes that civil legal rights should be dispensed based on who one sleeps with, the color of one's skin, one's native language and a host of other prejudices. To me that mindset is the antithesis of what America should be all about. On the other side stands a mindset that faces the future and, while not perfect in many ways, does represent a belief that all citizens have legal rights be they black, gay, Hispanic or non-Christian, etc. This country cannot afford to allow the forces of division and discrimination represented by McCain/Palin win on November 4, 2008. My fellow blogger Bob Felton at Civil Commotion (with whom I do not always agree, but whom I always respect) has an interesting take on McCain/Palin which somewhat dove tails with my thoughts on this. Here are highlights from Bob's blog:

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Unexpectedly, I’m finding myself with serious reservations about McCain, though up until about 15-days ago I expected to vote for him. The Palin selection is awful. She doesn’t appear to be very bright and, worse, she seems incurious. And she is definitely a serial liar: the ‘bridge to nowhere,’ the vendetta against her brother in law, the polar bear fiasco, on and on.

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The sheer awfulness of the Palin selection says something about John McCain, too, and with the recent advertisements we know what it says — he means to win, and he’s willing to saddle the country with an incompetent, and tell any lie that’s useful, to win.

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It probably seems a strange analogy, but bear with me. Recall Tiananmin square, back in 1989, the huge dramatic crowd scenes, that brave protester who stood in front of the tank. Recall afterward, after scores of protesters were killed, and the crowd dispersed, the old men of the Forbidden City insisted that there hadn’t been any disturbance at all, that the whole thing was overblown media excitement.

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It was a lie. The whole world knew it was a lie — and those clowns had no idea that they had humiliated themselves and that the whole world knew they lied because they had no grasp of the reach of then-modern communications, couldn’t understand what it meant that the entire world had watched events in real-time.

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I keep thinking of McCain-Palin that way, that they are so out of step with reality that they don’t know every word they utter is fact-checked within minutes after they go public. You cannot lie any more. Obama missed the mark with his jibe that McCain doesn’t use e-mail, but only by a little.

American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property - Update

Over the weekend I posted about the self-styled, Catholic Church affirming "American Society for the defense of Tradition, Family and Property" which took out full page ad in three major newspapers last week attacking gay marriage and homosexuality in general and espousing a Christianist view of how government should impose the organization's religious beliefs on the country. Bob Felton at Civil Commotion has picked up on the story and will be doing some posts as he reviews in detail the propaganda set out in the ad. While Bob and I do not agree on everything, we are in full agreement as to the danger to the nation and the world by fundamentalist religions be they allegedly Christian or something else. Here's a few highlights from Bob's post today that discusses why confronting and defeating these religious fanatics is so important:

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The language of the advertisement is so overwrought that I doubt it will have much influence beyond the oddities who dug into their pockets to pay for it, but it needs remark anyway because it points to some continuing and worsening problems we have in this country. First, the rise of radical Christianity and, second, our snippet-based mass communications prize the quick, cheap insult more than careful discussion of ideas.

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And ideas matter — a lot. Behind every statement or action there is an idea, a worldview, a set of assumptions about reality. I mean to spend the next few days parsing this advertisement because it reveals much about the ideas of radical Christianity, about the worldview that drives it, and it will be defeated by only a comprehensive refutation of its ideas. We must, for our own well-being and persistence as a nation, understand these ideas and be able to say plainly, and confidently, why they are wrong.

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The thing to notice here is the rhetorical tricksterism: You are a Christian, grounded in reality, or you are out-of-touch with reality and serve the forces of evil. And make no mistake, that is how radical Christianity views the world.

A Familiar Malice

Is the title of a post by Bob Felton at Civil Commotion that accurately describes Hillary's speech last night and compares her insanity/disingenuousness with that of the worst of the Christianist preachers for whom reality is irrelevant. I truly am coming to believe that Hillary needs a mental health intervention (Bill has needed one for quite sometime). If she keeps up this behavior, her legacy will be that of a laughing stock nutcase. Here's Bob's thoughts:

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By even the standards of this strange political season that prizes religious exhibitionism, Hillary Clinton’s speech last night was reminiscent of nothing so much as the worst rantings of fundamentalist preachers.

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She is so baldly and so grossly out of touch with reality as to raise well-founded questions about her mental stability.

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She urged her followers on a course certain to damage her party, their nominal friends, and weaken it.

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They Amen!-ed at the appropriate times and they will do as she asks, resolutely working against Obama and counting on a miracle to come galloping over the hill.

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And the point is, just like any moron preacher who secretly knows he’s a moron, to humble her betters.

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Oh, yeah — another thing: She asked for money, so that her mighty work may continue. All that was different was the place.

Thinking Blogger Award Nominees

In follow up to my nomination for the Thinking Blogger’s Award by Jim at “Though Lovers Be Lost,” I wanted to post my own nominees for the award. It was a difficult choice since (a) I read a lot of blogs that make me think, and (b) some of my favorite blogs that I read daily have been previously nominated. Thus, after thinking it through, my nominees are as follows:

(1) Stephen at Gay Species (http://gayspecies.blogspot.com/) who can always find cracks and crevices in my comments and arguments large enough to accommodate a tractor trailer. Moreover, his command of the English language is remarkable.

(2) Don at Dondon009 (http://dondon009.blogspot.com/) who, while agreeing with many of my positions on issues, yet finds many interesting twists or varied applications.

(3) Bob Felton at Civil Commotion (http://www.civilcommotion.com/) who does a masterful job of reviewing issues concerning Religion, Law, and Politics, not to mention great quotes from the founding fathers of the USA and other historic figures.

(4) Bloggernista (http://bloggernista.com/) which engages in the public debates swirling around politics, culture, media, music, film, television, art and homosexuality.

(5) Pobble at Boston Pooble (http://bostonpobble.blogspot.com/) who provides me with feminine insights and commentary and likes my ideas of “male beauty.”

Anyone not mentioned, please do not take offense. I simply had too many folks in the running and only five slots. For the nominees, the rules are as follows:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote

(here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).