More Evidence Religious Heterosexuals Don't Necessarily Make Better Parents- Update

Yet again Daddy Dobson, Don Wildmon, Tony Perkins and their religious lunatic allies are being proven wrong when they claim that gay adoptive parents are a threat to raising healthy, well adjusted children and maintain that only one man and one woman can properly raise a child. They also claim that gay marriage is a travesty and will deprive children of having fathers. Tell that to the apparent son of Sergio Casian Aguiar. Oh, but you can't: his dad killed him trying to "get the demons" out of the boy. I suspect dad would have killed him likewise if he had been older and gay or interested in a GSA. Once again, I feel more and more with each passing day that religious extremists are a clear and present danger to their children, society as a whole and world peace, be they Muslim or Christian. Here are highlights of this sad story from the San Francisco Chronicle:

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Turlock, Stanislaus County -- A 27-year-old grocery store worker who police say punched and kicked his 2-year-old son to death on a country road calmly told motorists who stopped at the scene that he had to "get the demons" out of the boy, two witnesses said Monday.

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And when a Modesto police officer jumped off a helicopter and ordered Aguiar to stop at gunpoint, he raised his middle finger and continued his attack. Officer Jerry Ramar, standing in a cow pasture behind an electric fence, shot Aguiar once in the forehead, the witnesses and police said. Aguiar died at the scene. "Good shot, thank God," said Deborah McKain, a 51-year-old resident of nearby Crows Landing who pulled up to the beating scene on a cracked two-lane road while on her way home from dinner in Turlock, 10 miles to the northeast. "That guy needed to die."

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The boy was beaten so savagely that DNA tests will be needed to confirm his identity, Singh said. His name has not been released. The crime shocked this agricultural community and stunned those who knew Aguiar and his wife, Frances, who had recently separated from her husband. She was in Southern California when her son was killed.

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McKain, of Crows Landing, said she drove past Sergio Aguiar's pickup Saturday night on West Bradbury Road and, at first, thought he was "kicking garbage or something." But she said her boyfriend, Dan Robinson, told her to back up and put her headlights on Aguiar. "Sure enough, he was kicking a baby around," McKain said. She said the child was unconscious, his clothes falling off, and looked liked a "rag doll." Robinson, a volunteer fire chief in Crows Landing, showed Aguiar his badge and ordered him to stop, but Aguiar calmly said something like, "It's just trash," McKain said.

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I've received a few snide comments on this post (naturally by gutless wonders who only post anonymously - hence why I rejected their comments), so I wanted to clarify my reasoning. First, as a gay parent, I feel that despite many shortcomings, I have been nonetheless a far better parent than many straight parents. Thus, the bile put out by Daddy D and those like him against gay parenting and gay adoption pisses me off big time. Second, as a parent of three wonderful children, the notion that parents should be allowed to do whatever they want with their children is, in my mind, bull shit. These children are living, breathing individuals and they have the right to happiness and a feeling of self-worth which should not be destroyed or damaged by their parents' religious lunacy. Unlike what many Christianist think, they are not chattel belonging to the parents.

Final Tuesday Male Beauty

Parents Can Keep Kids Out of GSA in South Carolina

I have twice commented before about the controversy in the Richland-Lexington District Five school district in South Carolina over the formation of a Gay/Straight Alliance club ("GSA"). Turmoil to date has included a wingnut high school principal's decision to resign rather than work at a school that allowed the formation of the GSA in the school. At first the local fundie element was pushing the school board to eliminate ALL non-academic clubs rather than have to allow the GSA under the federal equal access laws. Fortunately, the school board grew some balls (or maybe just one ball) and rejected the option of eliminating all clubs, but put in place a provision where parents can block their children from attending clubs. I'd be willing to bet that it is precisely the kids of the parents blocking their involvement in the GSA who need the GSA the most. At some point something needs to be done in my opinion about loony parents who inflict emotional and psychological harm on their children due to their kookie/hatee based religious views. Physical abuse is not the only way to seriously mess up children and teenagers. Here are some high lights from WIS News 10 in Columbia, South Carolina:

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IRMO, SC (WIS) - High school students in one Midlands school district are in for some changes when they go back to school this fall. At a meeting Monday night, Richland-Lexington District Five board members decided to allow the formation of non-academic clubs. That would include clubs like the Gay/Straight Alliance. Plans for that club at Irmo High School in the district have caused a lot of controversy lately. But while non-academic clubs will be allowed to form, parents still have a way to keep their children from joining them.

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"Passing a policy which has never been necessary in the past at this point is because of the GSA. We look at this as a way to circumvent federal law," said Ray Drew of South Carolina Equality. My group is already training students, teachers, parents and administrators at Irmo High School for what they should be looking for next year. Anything out of compliance with federal law, we are going to be watching everything," says Drew.

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Some parents have already said when they see the Gay/Straight Alliance club as an option for their child's list, it will be the first club to be marked off. "I can make the decision. Not the Gay/Straight Alliance. What kind of assistance he needs. Protect him physically, emotionally and any way it goes," said one parent. "I don't want any organization to sway my child one way or the other." Some opponents of the policy say it is going to make kids who can't talk about their sexuality with their parents feel alone.

Anti-Gay Leader of New York State Senate to Retire

As the New York Times and 365gay.com are reporting, New York State Senate Majority Leader, Joseph Bruno, has announced that he will not seek re-election. The 79 year old Bruno and the GOP controlled Senate have been a principal obstacle for pro-gay legislation working its way through the New York State General Assembly. Inasmuch as the GOP controls the Senate by only one vote, there is the possibility that the Democrats might win control in November, 2008. Should that happen, pro gay legislation would have a greatly improved chance of passage. Obviously, if New York were to pass gay marriage legislation, the national impact would be enormous, particularly if the anti-gay marriage initiative to amend California's falls in November. Personally, I am pleased to see Bruno go. Here are highlights from 365gay.com:

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(Albany, New York) The top Republican in New York State and its most vocal opponent of LGBT civil rights, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, has confirmed he will not seek re-election. The 79-year-old state Senate Majority Leader has used his power to consistently block pro-gay legislation. Last year the NYS Assembly passed legislation that would allow same-sex couples to marry. The measure had the approval of then Gov. Elliott Spitzer and most recently current Gov. David Paterson. Bruno has refused to allow the bill to be considered in the Senate.

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For seven years in a row the Assembly passed the Dignity For All Students Act. Bruno opposed the anti-bullying bill in the Senate over its inclusion of gender identity. Bruno also opposed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, or GENDA, which bans discrimination against transgender people in housing, employment, credit, public accommodations, and other areas of everyday life.

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As for what this could mean in terms of the GOP losing control of the Senate, here are highlights from the Newy York Times:

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Senator Frank Padavan, a Queens Republican, said that Mr. Bruno’s timing was dictated by the broader political situation, including the desire to see a Republican candidate succeed him in his Senate district and the need for a quick succession so Senate Republicans could enter the fall elections unified and energized.

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A key question for Senate Republicans will be whether several other older members will stay on. Mr. Bruno had persuaded them to stand for re-election in recent years and it was not clear if, given his departure, other senior senators in their late 70s and 80s would follow.

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“His resignation, I think, will have an effect on their ability to hold on to their majority,” said Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, a Democrat from the South Bronx. “He was the center. And when the center falls, everything falls apart.” The state Democratic Party appeared gleeful about the news.

More Tuesday Male Beauty

Update - U.S. Home Prices Fall At Record Rate

The reverse Midas touch of the Republican/Chimperator "who needs regulation" mentality continues to unfold. Those being harmed are millions of homeowners, most of whom did not engage in hair brained loan transactions. MSNBC is reporting the the monthly decline in home prices for April, 2008, is the largest in more than 20 years. Yet the GOP and McCain can only think of less regulation, intermixing religion and the civil laws, and more tax breaks for the most affluent. Even in this area where prices are usually somewhat insulated due to the annual relocation of military personnel, prices have begun to slide. Meanwhile, everyone who makes their living off of the residential real estate industry - like 129 employees of a plywood plant in Chesapeake who will lose their jobs when the company closes its plant in August- and me included is undergoing extreme financial strains. Thanks a lot Chimpy! Here are some highlights:

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The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 cities fell by 15.3 percent in April versus a year ago, according to Tuesday’s report. . . . Meanwhile, a report from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said U.S. home prices fell 4.6 percent in April from the same month last year, when the index peaked. That marked the biggest decline ever in the agency’s monthly index which dates back to January 1991.

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No surveyed city stayed above water, according to the Case-Shiller index. The last holdout, Charlotte, N.C., finally succumbed to the national housing downturn, with prices there slipping 0.1 percent from a year ago. Las Vegas and Miami both continue to post the largest declines, falling 26.8 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively.

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The housing slump, along with higher food and fuel prices and disruptions in the credit markets, has taken its toll on consumer sentiment. An industry group Tuesday said U.S. consumer confidence fell unexpectedly sharply in June to the fifth-lowest level ever. The Conference Board’s reading of consumers’ expectations also hit an all-time low.

Distorting the Bible? Daddy Dobson Ought to Know - He Does It All the Time

My Way News is reporting that James Dobson, disingenuous homophobe and head of the Christianist organization, Focus on the Family (pictured at left), has his panties in a major wad because Barack Obama is reaching out to evangelical Christians and reminding them that there are passages in the Bible other than those that Dobson and company use as a basis for the hate and intolerance they disseminate daily. The disingenuous - think LIAR - Dobson claims that it's Obama who is distorting the Bible. On the contrary, it is Dobson, his bogus "Love Won Out" ex-gay program, and his minions who distort the Bible, ignore medical and mental health knowledge, and deliberately misquote experts (or quote fraudulent "experts like Paul Cameron) virtually everyday of the week, 365 days per year.

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Dobson's coniptions show that attempting to apply the Bible literally is a two edged sword and that if the passages favored by the Christianists get a literal application, then there is much that comes back to bite Dobson in his ample ass. Biblical literalism is a take it all or nothing proposition, yet Dobson wants to pick and choose when a literal application does not support his theocratic agenda. Frankly, if Dobson's lips are moving, odds are that he's lying and/or selectively quoting the Bible in order to denigrate others. The man is anything but a true Christian. As for attempting to perverting the U. S. Constitution, no one does it better than Dobson. Here are some story highlights:

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.

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[A] speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. Obama mentions Dobson in the speech. "Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools?" Obama said. "Would we go with James Dobson's or Al Sharpton's?" referring to the civil rights leader.

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Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy - chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application." "Folks haven't been reading their Bibles," Obama said. Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament.

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Joshua DuBois, director of religious affairs for Obama's campaign, said in a statement that a full reading of Obama's speech shows he is committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for families. "Obama is proud to have the support of millions of Americans of faith and looks forward to working across religious lines to bring our country together," DuBois said.

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Obama recently met in Chicago with religious leaders, including conservative evangelicals. His campaign also plans thousands of "American Values House Parties," where participants discuss Obama and religion, as well as a presence on Christian radio and blogs.

Tuesday Male Beauty

Republican Economic Policy Disaster Continues

How John McCain can basically believe more of the same in terms of economic policy and continued inadequate regulation is the prescription for a better economy is rather dumbfounding. It is exactly the "reduce regulation" spree under the Chimperator's regime that allowed lenders to make what in retrospect were insane loans to borrowers that never had a reasonable chance of keeping up with loan payments, particularly when exotic interest only and other types of loans are factored in. Why on earth can't McCain figure this out? But then again, when you are married to an heiress, I guess your view of economic matters loses touch with reality that most voters have to live with. Because of diastrous regulatory policies (or actually, the lack of sensible policies) the situation on the residential real estate front remains grim and as housing continues its slide, the rest of the economy continues to go down hill with it. As the New York Times is reporting, that a new Harvard University indicates that things will not be improving anytime soon. Here are some highlights:

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NEW YORK - Record foreclosures and limited access to credit will make it harder than usual to rebound from this U.S. housing market slump, the worst at least since World War Two, according to a Harvard University study on Monday. A two-year home price drop is eating into housing wealth, curbing consumer spending and slicing away economic growth. This is unlikely to change until potential home buyers are convinced that prices have stopped tumbling, the study found.

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The downturn has room to run. The highest home loan rates in nine months and strict lending standards are keeping buyers on the sidelines, even after aggressive Federal Reserve intervention and a 16 percent national home price slide from the 2006 peak, by some measures.

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"It will take longer this time to rebound given the unusually high levels of foreclosures and constrained credit markets," he said. "The slump in housing markets has not yet run its full course." Price declines and mortgage defaults are the worst on records dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, the study noted. Job losses and falling prices intensify risk of foreclosure. The number of homes entering foreclosure nearly doubled to 1.3 million in 2007 from about 660,000 in 2005.

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Meanwhile, the toll that the wave of foreclosures is having on communities is intensifying in a bad way. All at a time when soaring energy and food costs already have families and municipalities reeling. This MSNBC story takes a look at this negative impact:

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As mortgage defaults and foreclosures continue to rise, the impact is spreading well beyond those who are losing their homes. In communities across the country, msnbc.com readers report that local governments are coping with shrinking tax rolls, lenders are saddled with more foreclosed homes than they can sell and empty homes in many neighborhoods are being vandalized.

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[I]in hard-hit states like California, Arizona and Florida, readers report that some neighborhoods are becoming virtual ghost towns. In Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., “lots of homes have been abandoned by their owners, and many people are going into bankruptcy,” wrote a reader named Robert. “Whole condo projects sit half-finished and rotting in the Florida sun. On some streets almost half the homes are empty. Many people have lost 40-50 percent of the value of their homes."

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In hard-hit neighborhoods, the glut of foreclosed homes has not only sent prices crumbling — the houses themselves are also falling down, according to a number of readers from around the country. “Our neighborhood is going down the tubes because the properties are going unsold for so long that they're falling into disrepair,” wrote Leslie from Albuquerque, N.M. “It's a mess.”

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Some local governments facing shrinking tax revenues are resorting to cutting services. “We have terrible local road repair, our parks need landscaping and maintenance,” said Jose from South Lyon, Mich. “We volunteer our time to the village public park district and mow small park lawns with our own gas and equipment. Our fire department is going back to mostly volunteer, and we may have to lay off some police officers.” A report last November by the U.S. Conference of Mayors forecast losses of $166 billion this year for 361 metropolitan areas. The estimate included lost tax revenue, lost jobs and slower consumer spending but not the financial toll of increased crime, fires and building code violations.

Blogger.com Issues

I have been having a terrible time trying to upload posts and keep having the effort fail and wipe out my work. I may try later to see if the problem is corrected. Otherwise, I will post more tomorrow.