Tangier Island: Doomed by Climate Change But Loving Trump

The rapidly disappearing Tangier Island where climate change and sea level rise are denied.

In the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia, many of us are acutely aware of climate change and rising sea levels.  The cities of Norfolk and Hampton have severe issues ahead of them as "repetitive flooding" - the term Virginia Republicans love to use rather than utter the phrases climate change or rising sea level - impacts growing areas.  The Poquoson area of York County faces even worse problems and will be the first area to be completely inundated.  Most threatened of all is Tangier Island which sits out in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.   I would argue that a majority of residents of the region believe climate change is real and want government action to address the problem which nowadays by definition means that one most support Democrats.  Yet Tangier Island - and Poquoson - embrace Trump, an individual who claims climate change is a "Chinese hoax" and who is pushing an agenda that will increase greenhouse gases and accelerate sea level rise.  Personally, I view these people as either idiots or so swayed by appeals to racism and/or religious extremism that they have their heads in the sand (actually, I think they have their heads somewhere else, but am being polite on a Sunday morning).  A lengthy piece in Politico looks at the idiocy of Tangier Islanders who seemingly are on a path to suicide for their island (like much of rural/backward areas of Virginia, the Tangier Islanders want the rest of the state to pay to fix their bad decisions/embrace of ignorance).  Here are excerpts:

As the summer of 2016 enters its final weeks, the upcoming presidential election looms ever larger on Virginia’s Tangier Island. Tourists travel a harbor channel lined with TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT signs, then step off the boats into a gauntlet of them. Golf carts display Trump bumper stickers at bow and stern. One café and cart-rental business is so adorned with Make America Great Again placards and Trump flags that it looks more like a campaign headquarters.

The election even snakes its way into church. “Now, I’m going to get political on you for just a minute,” Pastor John Flood announces . . . Soon enough, he gets to a but. “There is one party that believes that there should be same-sex marriage,” he says. “How can a Christian vote for that? How can a Christian vote for anything goes?” Many heads nod. “Who would have ever thought that there would be a party pushing the point that you could go in any bathroom that you want to?”

Such talk comes as little surprise on deeply religious Tangier, where faith intersects with virtually every aspect of daily life. Mapped by John Smith in 1608, settled during the Revolution, the island has never been an easy place: This whisper of marsh and mud in the Chesapeake Bay’s middle, 12 miles from the nearest mainland port, is among the most isolated communities in the East. Its primary industry is chasing the prized blue crab, which Tangiermen fish up, weather be damned, in shallow-draft boats that toss like carnival rides. The nearest doctor is 30 minutes away by helicopter. Prayer matters here.

Now more than ever, for the very water that has long sustained the place is poised to erase it. Tangier has lost two-thirds of its land mass to the bay’s erosive force since 1850. Acres more are carved from its shores each year.

The onslaught is projected to worsen in the coming few years, as the bay rises along with the planet’s seas, and the island—like much of the Mid-Atlantic coast—subsides.

This one-two punch makes relative sea-level rise in the lower Chesapeake among the highest on Earth. And of all the towns around the bay, none is so wide open to the whims of weather, so vulnerable to the effects of climate change, as Tangier.

Except that most of the island’s 460 residents don’t see it that way. Distrustful of scientists (with whom they’ve often disagreed on matters of bay ecology), staunchly patriotic (Tangier contributed more of its young men to fight in World War II, per capita, than any other town in Virginia), and biblically literalist (man is too puny to so affect the works of God), old-school Tangiermen see their dilemma not as a product of man-induced rising seas, but wind-driven waves that have smacked into its flanks since the Creation.

The solution is as simple as the problem, they figure. They want the federal and state governments to build a protective wall around its perimeter. The response has been tepid. . . . the islanders’ impatience peaked in 2016, when more than 87 percent of them voted for Donald Trump—a man who’d labeled climate change a hoax.

What we focus on is erosion,” he said. “Sea-level rise is at such a slow pace that erosion will get us long before sea-level rise does . . . ” This is an article of faith on Tangier. Islanders tend to consider erosion as separate and distinct from sea-level rise, while scientists point out they’re interlinked—the higher the water, the more destructive the incoming waves. . . . . “It causes people to hold back from investing here,” Ooker said. “You find yourself thinking, ‘Should I invest here, when it might not even be here?’ ”

“Yeah, build us a wall,” Ooker said, as Cook chuckled off-camera. “They talk about a wall—we’ll take a wall. We’d like to have a wall all the way around Tangier.”  The subject turned to the island’s affinity for the president. Ooker said he liked the man’s willingness to slice through red tape: “He’s gonna cut down on the time it takes to study something. We’ve been studied to death. We just need something done.” He did not stop there. “I love Trump,” Ooker declared without the hint of a smile, “as much as any family member I got.”

The [CNN] segment aired four days later, on Friday, June 9. Gray’s report juxtaposed the island’s steady inundation, its support for Donald Trump and Trump’s characterization of climate change as a hoax—and included a brief interview with me toward the end. In the first minutes after the story ran, several Tangiermen posted Facebook comments lauding the piece and congratulating Ooker for his comments.

But almost immediately CNN’s Twitter account blew up with comments from viewers astounded that the island voted overwhelmingly for a man who derides the science behind sea-level rise. “I have NO sympathy for the people of Tangier Island,” one wrote. . . . And: “Hard to be empathetic for residents, who are objectively stupid and proud of it.”

The islanders I spoke with, and those whose Facebook accounts I follow, were dumbstruck by the ferocity of this invective from strangers, and confused—heartsick—disgusted—alarmed, even—that their support for Trump had moved fellow Americans to wish them dead. . . . “We’ve actually got people sitting around debating whether these people are worth saving. How is that okay?” she said. “I don’t care if you want to call it erosion or sea-level rise or Aunt Sadie’s butt boil. It doesn’t matter what’s causing it. The point is that this disaster is happening, and these people need help.”

He [Trump] said that he and his family loved the citizens of Tangier. And he provided fodder for headlines around the globe. As Ooker described it to a reporter, “He said not to worry about sea-level rise. He said, ‘Your island has been there for hundreds of years, and I believe your island will be there for hundreds more.’ ” Many islanders were reassured by this. The world at large found it preposterous.

Tangier Island epitomizes the problem with rural areas of Virginia - they embrace ignorance and religious zealotry and then wonder why no one wants to move there or open new businesses. Meanwhile, the population dwindles and the downward spiral continues despite state efforts to grow economic opportunities where the local population is the biggest obstacle.  On the lower Virginia peninsula, Trump loving Poquoson will be the first to disappear beneath the waters of the rising Bay levels.

The Idiocy of Biblical Literalism

One of the things that I find most amazing (or disturbing, depending on how one wants to describe the phenomenon) is the lengths that Christofascists will go to avoid admitting that the Bible is neither historically correct as a narrative of accurate history and that much of its premise, The Fall and the coming of a savior as embodied by Christ, has a major problem, namely that Adam and Eve never existed as historical persons.  Without Adam and Eve, there was no Fall, and the rest of the story line collapses. No Fall, and then no need for a savior, etc.  Related to this is the manner in which Christofascists ignore the impossibility of some of the Old Testament.  Which brings me to an article in The Atlantic on the "Ark Encounter."  How 8 people built the huge ark - especially when they had no shipbuilding experience - defies belief.  The same goes for the lunatic claim that dinosaurs were on board.  Here are article highlights (note the references to fabricating "facts"):

Of all the biblical episodes, Voltaire thought none required more faith than the story of Noah’s Ark: “The history of the deluge being that of the most miraculous event of which the world ever heard, it must be the height of folly and madness to attempt an explanation of it.” If only he had visited Ark Encounter—a Christian theme park that opened this summer in Kentucky and boasts a “life-sized” reconstruction of Noah’s Ark. Seemingly impossible details have been fanatically researched and naturalistically explained by Answers in Genesis (AiG), a literalist Christian organization that’s also responsible for the nearby Creation Museum. 

In over 100 exhibits on the ship, visitors learn how each difficulty might have been surmounted: How could eight people feed so many animals? Through an elaborate system of drains and chutes, as illustrated by an interactive video. And what about the stench? Solved easily enough—Noah just needed a ventilation system powered by the tides. And the daily tons of animal waste? Noah could dispose of that with a treadmill-cum-conveyor belt powered by elephants. But how did he fit elephants on the ship? And all those dinosaurs? They were babies at the time. And if visitors doubted that a wooden ship carrying all this cargo could withstand an apocalyptic flood, a placard explains that the ship’s dimensions, as specified in Genesis . . . .

But many I spoke with also confessed that they had never really worried about these details before; instead, they had just ascribed it to God’s power. 

For self-proclaimed literalists, the ark includes a striking amount of fabrications and fictionalizations. Consider, for example, one of the most popular exhibits, where visitors can walk through the family’s living quarters. At the entrance are two placards, one entitled “Artistic License,” and the other “Why Are the Living Quarters So Nice?” In each of the following rooms, visitors can see mannequin renderings of the family and read short bios. . . . But none of these details appear in the Bible. Genesis never takes a charming detour through the family’s hobbies. It never even reveals the names of the women on the ship. And yet these details are integral to the experience of Ark Encounter.

On AiG’s blog, Simon Turpin equates literalism with “plain reading” and “natural interpretation,” suggesting that anyone with common sense will read the Bible as they do. But as Ark Encounter reveals, this apparent simplicity demands endless fabrication. 

Obviously, the First Amendment guarantees citizens the right to cling to whatever religious belief they choose.  That does not, however, mean that the rest of us have to  agree with them or, more importantly, respect them or their insane beliefs that defy reality.

Religious Extremist Rally for Davis

click image to enlarge

UPDATED: As blogger friend Joe Jervis reports, the group rallying in support of Kim Davis not surprisingly included a rabid white supremacist.  Highlights from Joe's post:

Yesterday notorious white supremacist Michael Peroutka spoke at the rally outside the jail holding Kim Davis. Peroutka is a former leader of the League Of The South, which recently “celebrated” the 150th anniversary of the assassination of “tyrant” Abraham Lincoln. 
 
The SPLC calls Peroutka “an avid Southern secessionist and radical Christian Reconstructionist.” According to Wikipedia, Christian Reconstructionists call for overthrowing the US government and replacing it with a “biblical theocracy.” The new Christian theocracy would then reinstate Mosaic penal laws under which “the list of crimes which carried a death sentence would include homosexuality, adultery [KIM DAVIS!], incest, lying about one’s virginity, bestiality, witchcraft, idolatry or apostasy, public blasphemy, false prophesying, kidnapping, rape, and bearing false witness in a capital case.”

As I have said, this folk are pushing treason.

ORIGINAL POST: The image above pretty sums up the mindset of the extreme Christofascists who rallied in support for jailed law breaker Kim Davis.  To say that they hold the religious freedom of others in contempt is an understatement.  Even more frightening is that at least half of the Republican presidential nominee candidates are actively prostituting themselves to these people.  The Lexington Courier-Journal has more on the gathering of those who ultimately seek to subvert the U.S. Constitution - which once upon a time was called treason .  Here are highlights:

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Carter County Detention Center on Saturday and prayed for jailed Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who was locked up just a few hundred feet away.

"She won't bow, I promise you," her husband, Joe Davis, told the crowd while dressed in overalls and a camouflage ball cap. He said he talked to her the morning she was put in jail and the two of them decided not to give in.  "I'm just an old, dumb, country hillbilly, but I know God," he said.

People came from as far as Wisconsin and North Carolina to attend.  "This is as grass roots as it gets," he said.

Some speakers took a more prayerful tone while others got political — one ordained minister and insurance agent from Morehead told the crowd that it needs to send Gov. Steve Beshear, who he blames for Davis' jailing, by voting against his son, Andy, who is running for attorney general.

"Make sure we hold Beshear responsible for his inaction," Randy Smith exhorted the crowd.

Smith also attacked Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway, who is running for governor, accusing him of violating the law when he did not appeal the original judicial ruling striking down the state's gay marriage ban — and Beshear for letting him.

The crowd and the speakers didn't have kind words for Bunning, either.   One man held a sign that said "Judge Bunning is an abomination."

Flip Benham, an evangelist from North Carolina, praised Bunning's father, former U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, as a staunch conservative but ended his kind words there.  "His son is working against the will of God," said Benham, who carried a white cap with the name "Jesus" on it. "He's being used by the devil to park Kim here."

These people are clearly crazy.  The only question is that of when some will resort to violence as they fight against modernity itself and anything that threatens the fantasy world in which they live.  

Are the Deeply Religious Insane?

As regular readers know, I have a very low regard for the Christofascists and others who reject objective reality, logic, reason, and scientific fact in favor of "religious faith" and claims based on the writings of ignorant, uneducated (in modern terms) and generally unknown authors - Islam being an exception since the author of the Koran is know even if no less ignorant.  As the world hurtles forward in modernity and science provides explanations and solutions to countless situations, the Christofascists and those like them of other faiths nonetheless cling to unsubstantiated myths and beliefs of Bronze Age herders.  Is this behavior a demonstration of insanity.  A fun piece in Salon that using a satire piece as its launching pad suggests that the answer to this question is a resounding "yes."  Here are article highlights:

The headline on the [satirical] News Nerd was almost too good to be true: “American Psychological Association to Classify Belief in God As a Mental Illness.”  A study, the story beneath it read, had led the APA to conclude that “a strong and passionate belief in a deity or higher power, to the point where it impairs one’s ability to make conscientious decisions about common sense matters, will now be classified as a mental illness.”  Faith’s recurrent lethality was adduced: “Every year thousands of people die after refusing life-saving treatment on religious grounds.”  Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, said the article, refuse lifesaving transfusions (on account of biblical prohibitions against the drinking of blood).

Most gratifyingly, for a rationalist, the author quoted a certain Dr. Lillian Andrews, who opined that, “Religious belief and the angry God phenomenon has caused chaos, destruction, death, and wars for centuries.  The time for evolving into a modern society and classifying these archaic beliefs as a mental disorder has been long overdue.”

A “strong and passionate belief” in a (nonexistent) God does our world immeasurable harm: look no further than ISIS or al-Qaida.  In fact, look no further than the damage religion causes to progressive causes of every sort (and thus to our psychological well-being) in the United States, from women’s reproductive rights to same-sex marriage to teaching science in schools to depriving federal coffers of $82.5 billion a year (in tax exemptions).  Consider the enrichment of all sorts of faith-charlatans who thrive off the gullibility of millions of Americans.  Recall the sick “purity movements” that allow meddlesome parents to ruin the lives of their daughters.

I could go on.  In any case, it was to be expected that sooner or later psychologists would catch on to the quasi-psychotic elements (including detachment from reality, belief in spirits, hearing “the voice of the Lord, and so on) inherent in religion.

The fine-print disclaimer at the foot of the News Nerd’s page ruthlessly dispelled my elation: The story, like the others the site publishes, was “for entertainment purposes only,” and “purely satirical.”  In other words, a spoof.  . . . psychologists were not yet ready to diagnose firm belief in God as what it is: an unhealthy delusion.

Yet the satire in the News Nerd’s piece derives its efficacy from an obvious truth: belief in a deity motivates people to behave in all sorts of ways — some childish and pathetic, others harmful, a few outright criminal — most of which, to the nonbeliever at least, mimic symptoms of an all-encompassing mental illness, if of widely varying severity.

Why childish?  A majority of adults in one of the most developed countries on Earth believe, in all seriousness, that an invisible, inaudible, undetectable “father” exercises parental supervision over them, protecting them from evil (except when he doesn’t), and, for the mere price of surrendering their faculty of reason and behaving in ways spelled out in various magic books, will ensure their postmortem survival.  Wishful thinking characterizes childhood, yes, but, where the religious are concerned, not only.  That is childish.

To have all the resources to begin reliably fathoming the mysteries of the universe, and yet to cast them aside for slavish fidelity to primitive fables (most of which deserve no more “reverence” than tales from the Brothers Grimm) that no one past the age of six or seven should believe . . .   well, such is the very definition of pathetic.

But the harm is greater than that.  All in all, the most pernicious constellation of rubbish misbeliefs forming the core of the Abrahamic faiths concerns women, blamed for sin itself (the “original sin”), and the Fall of all mankind.  Every mainstream misogynistic superstition stems from the rotten old myth of Genesis: woman as made not in God’s image, but from one of Adam’s spare parts, and thus inferior to man.  Woman as temptress, woman as unreliable, woman as “unclean.”  The rest of the Old and New Testaments inculcate an array of injurious ideas: that women depreciate after their initial sexual encounter, and serve only to bear children and satisfy the lust of their mates.  

Religion as child abuse has, of course, always formed the mainstay of faith.  A desire to indoctrinate the unsuspecting young in faith’s dark, lurid dogmas before science, reason, and the enlightening joys of secularism take over and help them mature into healthy adults has for decades motivated a controversial homeschooling movement afflicting some 2.5 million children in the United States.

Homeschooling amounts to allowing the faith-deranged to infect their young with their disorder.  But it covers only the academic year.  Summertime, some of those same faith-deranged foist the God delusion on their defenseless children via a noxious plethora of “Bible camps.”  For a shocking look inside this perverted institution, check out the masterly (if enraging) 2006 documentary “Jesus Camp,”. . .

“Jesus Camp” shows children at the gruesomely named North Dakota camp “Kids on Fire” suffering through a miasma of brainwashing involving the abusive instillation of fear, self-loathing, and guilt, an incitement to al-Qaida-style martyrdom for the sake of Christ, . . . . The searing documentary exercised a salutary effect on the “Kids on Fire” camp, which is to say, it led to its demise.  Unfortunately, there are plenty of others like it.

Suffice it to say that religion is the chief motivator of terrorism the world over.  Apologists can rant themselves red in the face trying to ascribe such crimes to anything but faith, but the truth is, any Islamic fundamentalist can claim, with irrefutable textual justification, to be acting in accordance with “holy writ.”

Terrorism aside, though, faith’s role in the death of its own votaries could well serve as sufficient evidence for classifying strongly-held religious convictions as symptomatic of a possibly homicidal mens rea (criminal intent).  Here the courts have proved complicit, aided by our prevailing custom of exculpating religion and deferring to the religious.  

If the News Nerd’s APA story was a hoax, professionals are, nonetheless, taking note of the danger it was parodying.  A San-Franciscan human development consultant named Dr. Marlene Winell, herself a survivor of a Pentecostal upbringing, has bruited the idea of “religious trauma syndrome” and established its symptoms as “anxiety . . . depression, cognitive difficulties, and problems with social functioning.”  Kathleen Taylor, an Oxford neuroscientist, has proposed treating religious fundamentalism itself as a “mental disturbance.”

The religious blather about evil in the world yet are too blind to see that much of the evil we see stems directly from religion.  It's time that deference to religion and the deeply religious end. 

Nebraska Woman Files Suit Against all Homosexuals

In what is in some ways a logical progression - assuming that the word logic and Christofascist are not a complete oxymoron - a woman in Nebraska who describes herself as "an ambassador for God and his son, Jesus Christ"  has filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking a ruling that all gays are sinners and an abomination and that "God is not a liar."  (She sounds perfect for the position of campaign director for Ted Cruz or Mike Huckabee doesn't she?).  It goes without saying that the woman, Sylvia Driskell, age 66, is not represented by counsel.    But her insane action demonstrates just how extreme and untethered from reality the "godly Christian" crowd/GOP base has become.  The Omaha World Herald looks at the insanity (it would be hard to make up stuff this crazy if one tried).  Here are highlights:

An Auburn woman claiming to be an ambassador for God and his son, Jesus Christ, is suing all homosexuals.

Sylvia Driskell, 66, asked an Omaha federal judge to decide whether homosexuality is a sin.

Citing Bible verses, Driskell contends “that homosexuality is a sin and that they the homosexuals know it is a sin to live a life of homosexuality. Why else would they have been hiding in the closet(?)”

Driskell wrote in a seven-page petition to the court that God has said homosexuality is an abomination. She challenged the court to not call God a liar.

“I never thought that I would see a day in which our great nation or our own great state of Nebraska would become so compliant to the complicity of some people(’s) lewd behavior.”

Driskell could not be reached by phone. She is representing herself in the lawsuit. 

I truly ponder how individuals like Ms. Driskell have become this mentally unhinged.   That said, two things spring to mind: (i) this is the type of person that folks to today's Republican Party and (ii) her pastor/priest is probably applauding her insanity.  A third things also comes to mind: religious belief/affiliation is a choice while sexual orientation is not. 

 

Self-Loathing Gays Married to Women Ask SCOTUS to Uphold Marriage Bans

Former "ex-gay" John Paulk - who has now denounced conversion therapy -and his delusional former wife

There are many things in life that are not a choice: skin color, the nation of one's birth, eye color, and sexual orientation are but a few.  But one thing that is totally a choice is one's religious affiliation and beliefs.  One can choose to embrace knowledge and science - modernity, if you will - and walk away from religious fairy tales and religious inspired bigotry as surveys suggest one third of Catholics have done and as Millennials are doing. Those who hysterically cling to religious dogma that demeans and condemns them are, in my view, suffering from severe psychological issues that candidly make me question the state of the mental health and sanity.  Nowhere is this mental illness more on display than in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by “same-sex attracted men and their wives.”  Both the husbands and the wives in such marriages need a serious mental health intervention because they are living in a complete fantasy world that they sadly want to force on others (isn't that always the conservative Christian goal?).  A piece in Slate looks at this utter batshitery.  Here are excerpts:

There are a lot of terrible arguments against same-sex marriage, but this may be the worst: The Supreme Court must not protect gay couples’ marriages, because doing so would demean marriages between gay men and their wives.

That, in a nutshell, is the argument put forth in an amicus brief recently filed by a group who call themselves “same-sex attracted men and their wives.” These men don’t claim to have become straight through conversion therapy—though a group of self-proclaimed ex-gays did file their own deeply sad and strange brief. Nor do they claim to be bisexual. Rather, these men admit that they’re “same-sex attracted,” but insist that “a Constitutional right to same-sex marriage can only come at the cost of marginalizing and demeaning the marriages and families” of gay men married to straight women. And that risk, they say, is reason enough for the court to rule against marriage equality.

Confused? Let the same-sex attracted men walk you through their reasoning. The gay couples suing their states for recognition argue that gay marriage bans “disfavor and demean their very identities and existence” by excluding them from marriage. But “that could only be true if the marriages of [gay men and straight women] are fakes and shams”—which, these men assert, is simply not the case.

These testimonies are designed to disprove the notion that gay people can only have fulfilled marriages by wedding someone of the same sex. In United States v. Windsor, the court held that a federal gay marriage ban “degrade[s] and demean[s]” gay people by sending them a message that their relationship is not “worthy of dignity.” The brief confronts that powerful idea head-on by arguing that, in fact, same-sex relationships are less worthy of dignity, since gay people always have the option of marrying straight people.

The “same-sex attracted men and their wives” brief proudly shouts what all these other briefs can only whisper: Same-sex marriages don’t deserve “equal dignity.” You can decide for yourself why these men are so desperately eager to prove to the court that their marriages aren’t “fakes and shams.” But give them credit for saying what their allies cannot—and, ironically, filing what may be the most honest anti-gay-marriage brief yet.

I was in the closet for 37 years and it took a lot of self-deception and lying to myself to make it work as long as it did (even thought I was filled with self hate and self-loathing), but these men and their equally insane wives take self-delusion to stratospheric heights.  Delusion and psychosis seem to be among the "fruits" enjoyed by the godly folk. 

The 10 Most Unhinged Conservative Reactions to Expanding Marriage Equality

As noted previously, the reaction to Christofascists, professional Christians, and political whores in the Republican Party in the wake of this weeks rulings that have rapidly increased the number of states with same sex marriage has been one of claiming that the world is ending, that Western Civilization will soon collapse and demagoguery that Christians will soon be arrested and/or prosecuted for their anti-gay beliefs.  Some of the noise comes from those who have made a very comfortable living peddling anti-gay hate and fighting for the "sanctity of marriage."  Other sources are from Christofacists who (in my view they are psychologically/mentally ill) cannot countenance anything that suggests their artificial reality isn't true.  A piece in Salon looks at some of the most crazed of the reactions from all of these folks.  Here are excerpts:

[A]s America finally inches towards joining numerous other countries where same-sex marriage is legal, the right-wing is freaking out, predicting all manner of doom. Here’s ten of the craziest reactions:

1. Gay Marriage Is Like The Pro-Slavery Dred Scott Decision: At The National Review, Matthew J. Franck, said that the expansion of marriage equality is like “a slow-motion Dred Scott for the twenty-first century.”

2. Gay Marriage Will Spread Disease: Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver warned that marriage equality would be “harmful to individuals” and lead to all “kinds of serious and deadly disease.”

3. Gay Marriage Will Of Course Lead To Polygamy: Right-wing radio host and activist Erick Erickson predicted that “all the people now saying polygamy is different from gay marriage will be polygamy’s chief advocates within the decade.”

4. We Need To Amend The Constitution To Stop Gay Marriage: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) went as far as to say he will introduce an amendment to the Constitution to stop the national recognition of marriage equality.
  
5. The Courts Are Inflicting A “Crime Against Nature”: The American Family Association’s Brian Fischer had a characteristically crazy response, saying that the court decisions have inflicted “on every state in the Union marriage that is based on the infamous crime against nature.”

6. Gay Marriage Will Put You Out Of Work: The Family Research Council warned, “As more and more people lose their livelihoods because they refuse to not just tolerate but celebrate same-sex marriage, Americans will see the true goal, which is for activists to use the Court to impose a redefinition of natural marriage on the entire nation.”

7. Gay Marriage Is Why You Should Leave The Overly-Tolerant Republican Party: Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee threatened to leave the Republican Party if it did not act to stop the expansion of gay marriage.

8. The Supreme Court Refusing To Hear Appeals To Marriage Equality Committed A “Hit And Run”: Virginia Republican delegate Bob Marshall called the pro-marriage court decision a legislative “hit and run.”

9. Gay Marriage Is Reason For Impeachment: The American Renewal Project called for impeaching judges that paved the way for marriage equality.

10. Marriage Equality Is A Threat To National Security: GOP chairman Reince Priebus was asked about the issue and said that while it’s not a “top here issue for the midterms, I think long term it’s an issue in regard to what we need to do in the country to have a strong economy, a strong defense and a strong society.”

The Republicans making these remarks make tawdry whores look virtuous.  As for the others, they candidly belong in mental institutions. 

The GOP Descent Into Utter Insanity Continues

If one wants to see the face of GOP insanity - something that is sadly now the norm - look no farther than Susanne Atanus (pictured above) who just won the GOP primary for the 9th U.S. Congressional district in Cook County, Illinois.  Atanus is so insane that even the Illinois Republican Party tried to distance itself from her and encouraged her to drop out of the primary race.  Atanus claims that God is angry with America because of abortion and gay rights and has, therefore, unleashed tornadoes and natural disasters on America and inflicted Americans with dementia.  Once upon a time anyone as certifiably insane as Atanus would never have been allowed to enter a GOP primary much less win the primary.    Yet, given the swamp fever and proud embrace of ignorance and bigotry that typify the GOP base, Atanus won the primary.  One can only assume that her Democrat opponent is rejoicing and waiting with bated breath for Atanus' next batshitery eruption that will make for a great campaign ad clip.  Here are details from the Huffington Post:

A Republican candidate who believes that God dictates weather patterns and that tornadoes, autism and dementia are God's punishments for marriage equality and abortion access won the GOP nomination to challenge Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) in the Chicago-area 9th Congressional District.

Susanne Atanus, of Niles, Ill., garnered 54 percent of the vote in her Tuesday win over David Earl Williams III.

"I am not in favor of abortions, I am not in favor of gay rights," Atanus told the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper, in January.

She blamed natural disasters and mental disorders on recent advances in LGBT equality and legal abortions. 

"God is angry. We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions," she said. "Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it's in our military, it will weaken our military. We need to respect God."

Jack Dorgan, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, and Adam Robinson, chairman of the Chicago Republican Party, both condemned Atanus' comments and distanced the party from her candidacy. 

I would argue that if anyone has been stricken with dementia it is Atanus and the lunatics who voted for her.  My Republican ancestors must be spinning like tops in their graves!!

Southern Baptist Convention Pastor: Obama Is Opening The Door to The Antichrist

For those who think I over estimate the racism that now motivates the Republican Party and its Christofascists/Tea Party base, one need only look at the lunacy coming out of pillars of far right Christianity.  These folks are obsessed with Barack Obama, a black man, being in the White House.  It's not enough to continue to lie and claim Obama is really from Kenya or claim that he was not born in the United States.  No, he's now credited by some in the Southern Baptist Convention, a defacto arm of the GOP, as opening the door for the Antichrist !  The fetid swamp fever that afflicts these people truly knows no bounds.  A piece in the Associated Baptist Press looks at this delusional batshitery in the form of a new book by Robert Jeffress (pictured at left):

A Southern Baptist pastor who made news in the last presidential election for saying candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion is a cult claims in a new book coming out this month that President Obama’s re-election is paving the way for the Antichrist foretold in Scripture.

Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas since 2007, says in Perfect Ending, due for release by Worthy Publishing Jan. 21, the Bible “is able to foretell with laser-like accuracy events that will occur hundreds and even thousands of years after it was written.”

That includes a coming Antichrist — a word that appears only in the Epistles of John but with parallels in other books like Daniel and Revelation — connected with the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world.

Jeffress says that while past attempts to predict the specific date for Christ’s return were misguided, Christians can recognize prophetic events that might be taking place in the world and America's government today.

“For the first time in history a president of our country has openly proposed altering one of society’s (not to mention God’s) most fundamental laws: that marriage should be between a man and a woman,” Jeffress writes on Page 103.

“It is significant that the Antichrist will be able to persecute God’s people, seek to change God’s laws, and usurp people’s freedom of worship and commerce without any recorded opposition,” he writes.

“How could that happen?” he asks. “The only explanation is that prior to the appearance of the Antichrist, people will have already become so numb to immorality, apathetic and even sympathetic to the persecution of religious ‘extremists’ (which will be the new term for committed Christians), and conditioned to the government’s usurpation of personal freedom, that the Antichrist’s rise to power will go unchallenged.”

Jeffress delivered a similar message in a sermon at First Baptist Church just prior to the November 2012 election.

[W]hat I am saying is this: the course he [Obama] is choosing to lead our nation is paving the way for the future reign of the Antichrist.”

I believe it is time for Christians to stand up and to push back against this evil that is overtaking our nation,” Jeffress said. “To stand up and push back against these actions that are paving the way for the final world dictator.”

I'm sorry, but these folks in my view are mentally ill and decent and moral people should give them no respect or deference.  

Values Voter Summit - A Study In Batshit Craziness and What's Wrong with the GOP

If one wants to understand what's really wrong with the Republican Party nowadays, all one need do is follow the utter lunacy that has been transpiring at the so-called "Values Voter Summit' orchestrated by anti-gay and white supremacist embracing hate groups.  Right Wing Watch has been documenting much of the utter insanity transpiring and what one needs to remember is that these delusional speakers represent the true face of the Christofascist/Tea Party base of the GOP.  Here's a sampling of some of the craziness via post captions:

At VVS Heritage Predicts 'MassiveUpheaval' and Right-Wing Takeover of GOP

Bomberger:Gays Like Kleptomaniacs, Homophobia A Myth   

Brown:Gay Marriage Deconstructs 'The Very Nature Of What It Means To Be A HumanBeing'  

Santorum: Contraception Mandate Is A'Descendant Of The French Revolution' 

Parker: Gay People And 'Enemies OfGod' Should 'Keep It Private' 

Bachmann: Obama Is Supporting AlQaeda, Proving That We Are In The End Times 

"Bishop" E.W. Jackson: Next To Jesus, America HasBeen 'The Greatest Blessing Given To Mankind

 

Jim Bob Duggar Compares US To Nazi Germany During The Holocaust

  

There's much more which ought to be required reading for Americans so that they would understand the lunacy that has over taken the GOP.  Even just 20 years ago, no sane and self-respecting Republican politician would want to be seen with these crazy people.  Now, the troop through swearing fealty to those perhaps better committed to a mental ward.  And the swamp fever seems to be only intensifying as these bigots and racist become more hysterical in their opposition to modernity and demographic change that is eroding the white privilege these people feel they are losing.  Sane and decent people need to do all they can to stop these people from gaining any more political power and influence.

At VVS Heritage Predicts 'Massive Upheaval' and Right-Wing Takeover of GOP - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/vvs-heritage-predicts-massive-upheaval-and-right-wing-takeover-gop#sthash.5JERotIa.dpuf