"Religious Freedom" Laws Losing Public Support

Some positives seem to be flowing out of the efforts of Christofascists and their groveling political whores in the Republican Party to enact license to discriminate laws paraded about as "religious freedom" laws.  Public support for these laws has dropped markedly and perhaps the efforts to pass them are finally waking the larger public up to the true ugliness of the "godly Christian" crowd and its demands to have special rights that put them above the civil laws.  The Washington Post looks at this welcomed development.  Here are highlights:

One of the apparent side effects of the religious freedom controversies in Indiana and (to a lesser extent) Arkansas: More Americans now oppose such laws than before.

While a Pew Research Center poll conducted in September showed Americans were split on whether businesses with religious objections should be able to refuse service to a gay wedding (with 47 percent in favor), and a January AP-GfK poll showed a clear majority (57 percent) thought they should be able to, a new CNN/Opinion Research poll suggests increasing skepticism of religious freedom laws.

The new poll shows just 41 percent think businesses should be able to refuse service to gay weddings, while 57 percent disagree.

Similarly, a Suffolk poll from earlier this month showed 58 percent opposed to such an exemption.

Defending such business protections might still play well in Republican audiences, but not among Democrats or independents. The CNN poll found 70 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of independents say businesses should be required to provide wedding services despite religious objections -- both slightly higher than in Pew’s poll before the Indiana controversy. But 67 percent of Republicans still support businesses having the freedom to refuse same-sex marriage clients -- a number that is hardly changed from the fall (68 percent).

The fact that even the more-palatable idea of refusing services just to gay weddings appears to be falling out of favor is bad omen for religious freedom laws -- in case it wasn't already clear from what happened in Indiana that they were in trouble.

Let's hope the trend continues and that more and more members of the public will oppose the Christofascist push for special rights. 

Ann "Marie Antoinette" Romney: Throw Out Public Education

Proving herself again to be an out of touch bitch Ann "Marie Antoinette" Romney proposes that the solution to America's education system is to discard it and go with charter schools.  I'm surprised she didn't outright say school vouchers are the solution since a pet project of the Christianists is to send their children to church affiliated, science denying schools - the Christianist equivalent of a madrassa, if you will - and have the government pick up the cost.  As for everyone else's children, being the "godly Christians" that they are, they'd happily kick those children to the curb.   The irony, of course, as noted in Daily Kos is that neither Ann Romney, her husband, or any of her children has ever attended public school:

Among her talking points, this:

I've been a First Lady of the State. I have seen what happens to people's lives if they don't get a proper education. And we know the answers to that. The charter schools have provided the answers. The teachers' unions are preventing those things from happening, from bringing real change to our educational system. We need to throw out the system.

 Mrs. Romney, of course, is not an educator and has no experience as a teacher. Other than as a candidate's wife (if then), she's probably never even set a well-shod dainty foot inside a public school. She went to private school; so did her husband and children. And the "answers" the charter schools are providing? As mysterious as her tax returns. I guess we'll just have to take her word for it.

Equally disturbing is her mindset that serving as a Mormon missionary is equivalent with serving in the nation's armed forces.  Unlike one of my sons-in-law, the Romney sons are too good to risk their lives for their country - they are "too important" just like their draft dodging father:

As Mrs. Romney said on The View last week, Mormon missions are the equivalent of military service:

My five sons have also served their mission. None served in the military. None served in the military, but I do have one son that feels that he’s giving back to his country in a significant way where he is now a doctor, and he is taking care of veterans. So we find different ways of serving, and my five boys and my husband did serve missions, and did not serve in the military.   "I sent them away boys, and they came back men," she added.

So many real "gold star" Moms would have been so very grateful to have had their sons "come back men" -- or to have had them come back at all.

Can someone please tell this woman to get her head out of her self-centered, self-absorbed ass?   The woman is despicable.

 

Acceptance of Gays in the Military Grows Dramatically

I know that I talk about gays in the military with some frequency. Partly it is because living in this area with its huge military personnel population I see first hand virtually daily, patriotic, competent and responsible gays and lesbians who are serving with distinction. I also see what "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" does to them in terms of making them live secretly and the constant fear of discovery that so many of them live with. It's destructive not to mention utterly stupid - and all because of repressed, frigid, sexually dysfunctions types like Elaine Donnelly get off by disparaging gays and seeking to make them less than full citizens just to massage their warped egos. It is sick and disgusting. And it needs to end NOW. Fortunately, hearings on DADT will begin on July 23rd when the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the impact of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The hearing will be the first since Congress enacted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” fifteen years ago. Just in time to support throwing DADT on the garbage heap is a new poll that shows a radical change in the public attitude that shows the false premise behind DADT does not have public support (not that the gay-hating Christianists won't scream and belly ache to no end about the fabricated need to retain the policy). Here are some highlights from the Washington Post on the new polling results:
*

Public attitudes about gays in the military have shifted dramatically since President Bill Clinton unveiled what became his administration's "don't ask, don't tell" policy 15 years ago today. Seventy-five percent of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.

*

Today, Americans have become more supportive of allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the armed forces. Support from Republicans has doubled over the past 15 years, from 32 to 64 percent. More than eight in 10 Democrats and more than three-quarters of independents now support the idea, as did nearly two-thirds of self-described conservatives.

*
Changing attitudes on the issue parallel broader swings in public views about homosexuality. In their recent review of 20 years of polling data, the Pew Research Center reported "a major shift away from highly negative attitudes toward gays and support for punitive actions against gays." In the 2007 Pew data, for example, 28 percent said local school boards should have the right to fire teachers known to be gay; that was down sharply from the 51 percent who said so in 1987.

*

Fifty-seven percent of white evangelical Protestants now support allowing openly gay service members in the military, compared with 82 percent of white Catholics and 80 percent of those with no declared religious affiliation. Three-quarters of both married and single people support the idea, both significantly higher than in 1993. Across all three periodic Post-ABC surveys on the issue, women have been more apt than men to support gays in the military. Today, more than eight in 10 women support allowing openly gay soldiers, compared with nearly two-thirds of men.

*

Needless to say, these polling results will terrify the extreme lunatic fringe of the Christianists because it shows that despite all their lies and distortions and vast spending to denigrate gays they are nonetheless slowly losing the war. One can only wonder who their next target for discrimination will be since they seem to only feel good about themselves when slandering someone else. They are one sick bunch, in my view.