Disturbing Facts About Gun Violence In America

While the NRA and its prostitute like apologists in the Republican Party continue to spew disingenuous lies and disinformation to blow a smoke screen to obscure the huge societal problem that firearms comprise, others are endeavoring to bring forth the truth.  One truth teller is Business Insider which shares these frightening statistics:

31 Mass shootings in the U.S. since Columbine in 1999.

70  People killed in mass shootings this year in the U.S. (not including the shooters who killed themselves). Seventy-two more people were injured.

19.5/1 Ratio of people killed by guns in the U.S. compared to other developed countries in the OECD. For 15-to-20-year-olds, firearm homicide rates in the U.S. are 42.7 times higher than in other OECD countries, according to a 2011 UCLA School of Public Health study.

80 Percent of all firearm deaths that occurred in the U.S., among the 23 developed countries looked at in the UCLA study. Eighty-seven percent of all children ages 0 to 14 killed by guns in these countries are U.S. children.

47,500 Murders from firearms in the U.S. between the years 2001-2005 alone – and nearly 8 in 10 of these murders involved a handgun, according to the FBI.

300 million The approximate number of firearms owned by civilians in the U.S. as of 2010, according to the book Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. Some 47 percent of adults report having a gun in their home, according to an October 2011 Gallup survey.

2,000 – 5,200 Gun shows that take place in the U.S. each year.

99  The number of laws the NRA has pushed through in the past four years making guns easier to own, carry in public, and harder for the government to track. Eight states currently allow firearms in bars.

These are very disturbing statistics.  The question is whether or not the politicians in Washington will have the spine to do something to stop the madness.

 

Thomas Jefferson's Directive to Constitutional "Originalists" Like Antonin Scalia

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia - who it would seem is working hard to become the Court's most notable buffoon - likes to claim that he is a "Constitutional originalist" as a justification for his Neanderthal like backwardness and resistance to acceptance of a changing nation and changing levels of knowledge.  What's a Constitutional originalist?  It is someone who claims that the Constitution is not subject to changing interpretations and can only be construed in the context of the  knowledge known to the Founding Fathers when the Constitution was written.  Interestingly enough, Thomas Jefferson apparently foresaw bigots like Scalia when he wrote the following in a letter written to Samuel Kercheval in 1816, had this to say about the law and human progress:

I am certainly not an advocate for for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Obviously, the foregoing passage cuts Scalia's argument off at the knees, but I doubt Scalia can overcome his own arrogance and bigotry to accept the views of one of America's most illustrious Founding Fathers.   The man truly needs to be removed from the Supreme Court.

New Gallup Poll On LGBT Issues Shows That The Christianists Are Losing Ground

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A new survey by Gallup indicates that support for LGBT rights is growing across all political parties with commanding majorities of Democrats and Independents supporting LGBT rights - not exactly good news for the Christofascist and professional Christian crowd who continue to strive to deprive LGBT citizens of civil rights as punishment for our refusal to submit to their fear and hate based version of Christianity.  Here are some of the findings:

Most Americans say gay and lesbian domestic partners or spouses should have inheritance rights and health insurance and other benefits. And a majority say gays and lesbians should be able to legally adopt children.

Republicans are less in favor of inheritance rights, health insurance and other benefits, and adoption rights for gays and lesbians than are either independents or Democrats. They are also less supportive of allowing openly gay Boy Scout leaders to serve. The partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats is at least 20 percentage points on all four issues.

Still, a majority of all partisan groups support inheritance rights and employee benefits for gay and lesbian spouses and partners. But slightly less than half of Republicans support adoption rights.

Bottom Line
While 53% of Americans support legalizing same-sex marriage, significantly higher percentages support the idea of equal rights for partners or spouses of gays or lesbians when it comes to inheritance rights and employee benefits, and making it legal for gays and lesbians to adopt children.

Republicans may claim to support religious freedom and talk about liberty and freedom, but they still for the most part only want such rights for their fellow Bible beaters.  Everyone else in their view should remain second class citizens.

 

Wednesday Morning Male Beauty

It's Republicans Who Don't Know the Real America

Ensconced in their reality denying bubble Republicans claim to represent "real Americans" and seek to uphold a version of America that in many ways never really existed outside of small pockets and, of course in the programing of shows like Leave It to Beaver.  Most people never existed in this false idyllic world, but that doesn't matter to those who want to keep America white and Christian and hold contempt for most Americans.  The real America, however, is changing rapidly and underscores the alternate universe world of today's GOP.  A piece in Politico looks at the phenomenon and the need for Republicans to come outside their bubble.  Here are highlights:

Republicans’ post-election soul-searching has to go beyond a simple self-reflection about who we are – we know our core belief in small government and individual liberty remains unchanged. Rather than look inward, it’s time to look outward and finally get to know the people we seek to represent.

The days and months and years ahead must be about a nationwide effort to introduce ourselves and get to know the millions of people and thousands of communities that make up our 21st-century America.

We all know the GOP has become synonymous with older, white males. This isn’t entirely accurate, but it’s public perception, and perception is reality.

 

As we evolve, it doesn’t just matter what we say but who is saying it.  Howie Long and Charles Barkley are two of America’s most popular and successful sports analysts today. That’s because they have credibility: Football fans know that Howie understands football, and basketball fans know that Barkley gets hoops. We respect their opinion because we believe they know what they’re talking about.  It’s the same in politics.

No citizen will support a candidate they don’t think understands them. After all, the whole point of representative government is putting into office someone who represents your values.  The focus has got to be on inclusion – welcoming minorities, women, youth and all Americans into the party and giving them a voice in shaping who we are, not just a one-way conversation in telling them what we believe.

[I]f all we’re doing is looking inward, we’re going the wrong way.  Look outward and find out who America is instead. We have a lot of people to get to know.

Will Republicans take heed of this message?  I for one will not be holding my breath.  Frankly, I believe that the Christianist base of the GOP cannot and will not change.  No real change will occur until several more generations of angry whites die off.

"Ex-Gay" Super Star John Paulk Exposed As Fraud…Again

Speaking of "ex-gay" frauds, one of the top super stars of the "ex-gay" industry, John Paulk, who appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine some years back has been exposed again as an out right fraud.  He and his equally disingenuous wife, Anne Paulk, have been suckling the tit of the anti-gay crowd for nearly 25 years since being hailed as "living proof" that gays can change their sexual orientation in a nationwide media campaign funded by some of the foulest anti-gay organizations.  Candidly, a sleazy prostitute has more honesty and integrity in my opinion than these two charlatans.  Truth Wins Out - the same group that documented that "Marcia" Bachmann's "Christian counseling center" was engaging in reparative therapy and receiving government payments for it - has documented again that the Paulks are frauds and liars.  Here are highlights from the new expose:

One of the primary movers-and-shakers in this hard-line separatist movement was “ex-lesbian” Anne Paulk, a major figure in “ex-gay” circles for two decades. Fourteen years earlier, she and John, her “ex-gay” husband, campaigned against LGBT rights under the advertising slogan: “I’m living Proof that Truth can set you free.”

It was part of the 1998 “Truth in Love” campaign that was launched by a coalition of more than 15 virulently anti-gay organizations, such as the American Family Association, The Family Research Council (FRC), The Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, and the Christian Coalition. These groups hoped to use the tales of “ex-gay” rock stars like John and Anne Paulk to drive the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender movement back into the closet. Robert Knight, who at the time worked at FRC, was so confident in the ultimate success of this “ex-gay” advertising campaign that he referred to it as “the Normandy landing in the larger cultural wars.”

It was now 2012, but just as in 1998, Anne Paulk was peddling her mystical story in Sacramento, crying out to the world that miracles are real and that she and her perfect family were still “living proof” of God’s power to transform lives. According to Kathy Baldock who attended the conference:

Paulk mentioned her marriage once publicly during the conference saying, “I never thought I would be married and the mother of three sons.”

It is also safe to assume that she probably never thought her allegedly straight husband would frequent gay strip clubs, constantly proposition men for sex, and parade around town with male “eye candy.” But that is exactly what was happening back in Portland where the couple lives, even as she posed on stage and held up her marriage as a shining example of traditional family values.

This is not the first time that John Paulk had lived a double life. On Sept. 19, 2000, I photographed John inside Mr. P’s, a Washington, DC gay bar. He originally claimed that he was in the establishment, drinking cocktails and flirting with patrons, because he had to use the bathroom. He then swore that he thought Mr. P’s was a straight bar because there were both men and women inside. Of course, as a former Columbus, Ohio drag queen named Candi, he knew there weren’t any women — it was drag night. 

As the Paulk family’s star fell in Colorado Springs and they were eased out of the spotlight they needed a fresh start. They found one in Portland, Oregon, where John had previously lived while he attended the local “ex-gay” ministry, Portland Fellowship. A credit to his ingenuity, John quickly reinvented himself as a chef and started Mezzaluna, an upscale catering business.

While Paulk was living in the fast lane, hitting on young guys, and attending wild parties, the vast majority of Portland residents were clueless about his notorious anti-gay past. They did not know that he and Anne had starred in the Truth in Love advertising campaign that landed them on the cover of Newsweek. They had no idea that John had been on Oprah, 60 Minutes, and Good Morning America to claim that he had converted from gay to straight. There was no memory of John appearing in the notorious and destructive anti-gay propaganda videos The Gay Agenda and Gay Rights Special Rights. To most gay Portland residents, Paulk was an affable homosexual simply known as “Chef John.”

John has been active in the so-called “ex-gay” industry as recently as 2010 when he spoke at an Evergreen International conference, the Mormon “ex-gay” organization. According to the event program:

Together, John and Anne have shared their remarkable stories of overcoming homosexuality to audiences world-wide and extensively in the national media. Both John and Anne have served on the Exodus board of directors and in 1998, John went on staff with Focus on the Family and founded the Love Won Out ministry and conference which toured the country speaking to audiences for 11 years.

Additionally, books featuring the Paulk family are often still sold at “ex-gay” conferences and widely available on the Internet. There are also the many endorsements John has made of other “ex-gay” works, including Dr. Joseph Nicolosi’s controversial book that he co-wrote with his wife Linda, A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality:

[W]hen Anne became a self-righteous and outspoken critic of Exodus’ Alan Chambers, leading the charge to form the Restored Hope Network. It was simply unacceptable for her to use her failing marriage as “proof” that the “ex-gay” charade actually worked.

[T]he consumer fraud continues with Anne Paulk scheduled to speak on March 15-16 at Janet Boynes Ministries “Power of Change” conference. No doubt, she will try to win converts by telling them about her wholesome and “healed” family.

No one lies more than the "godly Christian" crowd and within that circle of liars, none are more shameless about lying than the fraudulent "ex-gay" crowd and their supporters who continue to market a lie for political purposes and financial gain.  They are despicable human beings who truly do not care who they harm or that all legitimate medical and mental health associations condemn reparative therapy..

Appeals Court Upholds Firing of College Official Over Anti-Gay Op-Ed

Why does it seem that while claiming that it is gays who want special rights it is actually the Christianists who want special rights?  The special right to bully at will, the right to stigmatize and denigrate others without consequence, and, in the case of Crystal Dixon (pictured at left), to ignore the responsibilities at the University of Toledo and engage in an anti-gay rant in an op-ed in the Toledo Free Press.  This demand by Christianists boils down to an incredible level of selfishness and open contempt for the rights of others.  The Christianists believe that their rights and beliefs trump everything and everyone else.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, however, ruled otherwise and affirmed the University of Toledo's decision to fire Ms. Dixon from her position as a high-level human-resources administrator.  The Chronicle of Higher Education looks at the slap down delivered to Dixon and by extension other self-centered bigots like her.  Here are excerpts"

In a ruling handed down on Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that the administrator's column "contradicted the very policies she was charged with creating, promoting, and enforcing," and cannot be excused as merely a statement of her own views as a private citizen. The panel affirmed a lower court's decision to dismiss the administrator's lawsuit accusing the public university of violating her constitutional rights by firing her.

At the center of the case was an opinion essay that Crystal Dixon, who had been the university's interim associate vice president for human resources, published in the Toledo Free Press in April 2008. In it, she wrote that she takes "great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil-rights victims.'" She argued that she "cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a black woman" because she is biologically and genetically such "as my creator intended." But, she said, "daily, thousands of homosexuals make a life decision to leave the gay lifestyle" with the help of groups such as Exodus International, which claim to be able to help people overcome homosexual desires.

She was fired after a hearing in which she stood by her views but argued that they did not affect her performance as a human-resources administrator, citing her recent decisions to hire "one, possibly two practicing homosexuals" in her own department.

In upholding the dismissal of Ms. Dixon's lawsuit, the federal appeals court said she differed from other employees cited in her equal-protection claim in that her speech, and not theirs, contradicted university policies. The appeals panel said her essay "spoke on policy issues related directly to her position at the university," and the government's interests as an employer outweighed her free-speech interests in the dispute.

Note how Dixon cited the fraudulent bullshit disseminated by the "ex-gay" crowd to support he bigotry.  That alone in my view makes it clear that the woman is too ignorant to hold any senior university opinion.  We can expect shrieking and flying spittle to engulf the professional Christian set who will falsely claim Christians are being persecuted when in fact it is they who are doing the persecuting.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Republicans Push For Military ‘License To Bully’ Gay Servicemembers

When not seeking to force women to submit to invasive ultrasounds, telling immigrants to "self-deport," and seeking to cut government programs for the the poor and middle class in order to give tax cuts to the obscenely wealthy, the Republican Party's sport of choice is to devise legislation to deny LGBT Americans of equality under the civil laws and allow religious based bigotry against gays to run amok unfettered.  Indeed, in their effort to gain special rights to hate filled Christofascist, today's GOP turns the Constitution's First Amendment on its head and blatantly undermine laws that prohibit discrimination based on religion.  And, as noted many times before, the only basis for anti-gay discrimination is religion.  Now, with DADT on the trash heap of history where it belongs, the GOP, lead by Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin is striving to add amendments to legislation that would add a "conscience clause" that in effect gives religious extremists within the ranks of the U. S. military to bully and torment gay service members.  Think Progress looks at this insidious effort.  Here are highlights:

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) is departing the House at the end of this year, but he’s trying to force some of his odious anti-gay rhetoric into law before he goes. Earlier this year, he proposed an amendment to the defense budget that would create a “license to bully” for military personnel, essentially guaranteeing that anybody who has a problem with LGBT people can’t be disciplined for it, even if they’re engaging in blatant discrimination or harassment. 

The House passed the amendment, but the Senate didn’t give the idea any consideration. Now that the bill is in conference, Republican leaders are trying to add it back in.

The conference is being negotiated by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), both of whom opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) and have substantial anti-gay records. When McKeon assumed leadership of the House Armed Services Committee, he pledged to pass clean defense bills that were “not weighed down” by social issues, but for the past two years, he has done just the opposite, supporting anti-gay measures like Akin’s and others.

Though none of the measures advanced by the House last year survived conference with the Senate, a House Democratic aide says McCain and McKeon are “pushing pretty hard” to get Akin’s through this year.

OutServe-SLDN’s Allyson Robinson points out that Akin’s measure would foster the kind of unit cohesion problems Republicans incorrectly claimed DADT repeal would cause:

ROBINSON: As a former military commander, I can tell you that allowing any service member to openly discriminate against a comrade in this way will compromise good order and discipline — the very thing supporters of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ falsely claimed was going to happen back when we repealed the law. The fact is, there are already strong protections for all service members, including chaplains, in place, and all this provision would do is create a license to discriminate. The next Secretary of Defense should not be saddled with a law that makes it harder for small unit commanders in the field to lead their troops.

One can only hope that this anti-gay initiative is defeated.

Handful of Republicans Support Uniting American Families Act

As a post this morning noted, some within the Republican Party get the message that "business as usual" based on God, guns and gays and the subjugation of women is a recipe for disaster.  A case in point is the small handful of Republicans who have signed on in support of the Uniting American Families Act which would afford equal treatment to legally married same sex couples as already enjoyed by heterosexual couples under the nation's immigration laws.  What is telling is that these legislators recognize that the anti-gay legal framework favored by the GOP base is harming America's competitiveness in the global market for the best and the brightest employees and innovators.  It goes without saying that one can only imagine the shrieks and sheets of flying spittle these brave and rational Republicans will illicit from the Christofascists within the GOP base.  Here are highlights from Huffington Post:

Two Republican House members signed a bill on Friday that would allow same-sex couples equal rights as heterosexual ones for immigration purposes, making the legislation bipartisan -- although with only small levels of GOP support -- in both chambers.

Reps. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) joined Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and 145 Democratic lawmakers in support of the bill, called the Uniting American Families Act. Dent, Hanna and Collins are the only Republican cosponsors of the bill. All three were endorsed by Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay supporters of the GOP, in their most recent campaigns.

Hanna explained his move in a Tuesday statement to HuffPost as a pro-business decision. Our laws force some couples to live apart rather than in the country of their choice, pressuring Americans to take their talent, innovation, and wealth elsewhere," Hanna said. "Businesses large and small in New York, many of them multinational corporations, are struggling to keep some of their best workers in the United States ... We can keep jobs, dollars and talent right here in the United States by simply allowing financially and emotionally committed couples to live together in the same country.”

Shawn Millan, a spokesman for Dent, gave the same reason for support in a statement, saying "business leaders have consistently told Congressman Dent that they are losing talented workers because the existing immigration laws threaten to break up committed couples."

The Uniting American Families Act was introduced in April 2011 by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). It could help as many as 40,000 binational same-sex couples who hope to petition for their partner for legal immigration, according to a study from the Wilson Institute at UCLA. Those couples have nearly 25,000 children in total, the same report found.

Because of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, those couples are not afforded the same rights as opposite-sex couples to petition for green cards for their spouses, even if they are also legally married in their state. That can mean couples are separated for at least six months -- or longer, if one partner is in the United States without authorization -- while they wait for another visa to temporarily return to the country.

One can only hoe that this commonsense legislation will be enacted both because it makes business sense but also because it reflects common fairness and equality under the nation's civil laws.