Poor Persecuted Christians (Not)

This demonstrates what the repulsive "Freedom To Discriminate" law being pushed in Arizona, along with the people advocating for it, are actually doing. Enshrining discrimination into law. Enshrining the right to hate, and punish, people for simply being who they are, into law.

It's monstrous. Who exactly are the evil ones here? Certainly not LGBT people, who are simply trying to gain the same rights heterosexual people have taken for granted for centuries. The right to marry. The right to form families. The right to live out their lives and participate in their society, free from prejudice.

This should not be threatening to any religious person. Another person's marriage, and another person's life, has nothing to do with yours, and your God loves all people, after all. The fact that the supporters of SB 1062 are trying to put forth the excuse of "religious freedom" to deny basic rights to anyone who falls afoul of a "sincerely held religious belief" (in much the same way as "Stand Your Ground" laws provide an excuse for murder), says a lot about them, none of it nice. They know they are losing the war against gay marriage; the dominoes of the states are falling, sometimes daily. Justice Scalia, much to his chagrin, laid the groundwork, and sooner or later (probably sooner) laws and amendments against same-sex marriage will go the same way as laws against interracial marriage, along with dodos and dinosaurs. Total extinction. It can't come soon enough.

So instead, knowing they are destined to lose, these people are taking refuge in the flimsy defense of "religious conscience," to perpetuate the same discrimination under another name and via another means. What a pathetic, twisted group of losers.

I used to call myself a Christian. Maybe I still am, in a sense. But I also know what "persecution" really means, along with George Takei and his family, Anne Frank and her family, Black Kettle and the Southern Cheyenne at Sand Creek, the Waldensians, and Hypatia of Alexandria.

If "oppression" means I have to 1) "Do unto others as I would have them do unto me," as the man whose example I claim to follow commanded (Matt. 7:12); 2) "Judge not others lest ye be judged," as the same man also stated (Matt. 7:1); and 3) "Make it your aim to live quietly and mind your own business," as advised by one of this same man's most prominent apostles (1 Thess. 4:11); then I think that's a burden I can bear.

If "persecution" means I must 1) Follow the laws and Constitution of the country I live in; 2) as a businessperson, extend service to gay people/people of a religion I don't agree with, just as I would want a pagan, atheist or Muslim to extend service to me; and 3) treat all people, no matter their ethnicity, color, or sexual orientation, as the same children of God and equals in this government's sight, then I can damn well suck it up and do it. If there is to be retribution, that's God's business, not mine.

But if those last two examples are truly "oppression" and "persecution," as opposed to the former....

...then bring it on, people.

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut...

Heh. I just had a little bit of fun with Storify.

I guess it won't embed, so go here to read.

Representative Steve Smith, according to his Twitter header, is a Tea Party Patriot from Georgia. I don't suppose this contains any great revelations, but it offers some clues as to how these people think. They really do live in their own alternate universe.

The Presidential Prophet

Harry Truman said this in 1948.

In 1948.

Really, did he build a time machine, come forward, see what Republicans would become, and go back to warn the country about them?

It certainly is refreshing [/sarcasm] to see they haven't changed their tune in 65 years.

Blood on the Tracks

This is why Ed Kilgore is one of my favorite political writers.

My iron conviction is that if Mitt Romney had won last year and Republicans had retaken the Senate, we’d be well into a reign of fire and blood characterized by instant reconciliation-enabled enactment of the Ryan Budget, the total destruction of the Affordable Care Act, and for added measure, a “nuclear option” more thoroughgoing that that recently imposed by Senate Democrats. We might also be at war with Iran. 

I added in a comment to the article: "Also the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Labor Relations Board, and a federal Personhood Amendment."

A-frakking-Men, Ed.

Dear GOP...

Dear Grumpy Old Party (seriously, you should just drop the elephant and use Grumpy Cat as your new logo):

If you want to appeal to women voters:

Stop passing laws that restrict a woman's right to an abortion.

Make your candidates shut up about rape.

If you want to appeal to minority voters:

Stop passing draconian voter ID laws.

Get your act together and pass comprehensive immigration reform.

That isn't so hard, is it? It ain't rocket science, people!

Wanker of the Day

This is the text of the unconstitutional law Virginia Attorney General Ken Kuccinelli wants to have reinstated.

§ 18.2-361. Crimes against nature; penalty.

A. If any person carnally knows in any manner any brute animal, or carnally knows any male or female person by the anus or by or with the mouth, or voluntarily submits to such carnal knowledge, he or she shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony, except as provided in subsection B.

B. Any person who performs or causes to be performed cunnilingus, fellatio, anilingus or anal intercourse upon or by his daughter or granddaughter, son or grandson, brother or sister, or father or mother is guilty of a Class 5 felony. However, if a parent or grandparent commits any such act with his child or grandchild and such child or grandchild is at least 13 but less than 18 years of age at the time of the offense, such parent or grandparent is guilty of a Class 3 felony.

C. For the purposes of this section, parent includes step-parent, grandparent includes step-grandparent, child includes step-child and grandchild includes step-grandchild.

You'll notice Section A says "any person." It doesn't say "any unmarried person," or "any non-heterosexual person." So, according to the language of this terrible law, a wife giving her husband a blow job or a husband going down on his wife, activities they have every right to do as consenting adults, could be arrested for private, personal, nobody-else's-business sexual contact.

Also, needless to say, this law directly flouts the Supreme Court's ruling in Lawrence vs. Texas.

There's something else that's peculiar about this, and I haven't seen anyone mention it. Section B has the standard boilerplate against incest and child molestation. However, if the victim is 13-17, the penalty is a Class 3 felony. According to this, Virginia felonies are ranked between 1 and 6, with penalties in descending order. Anyone else, including adults, is guilty of a Class 5.

Class 3 Felonies can have a punishable prison term of no less than five years but nor more than twenty years in a state facility. A fine of no more than one hundred thousand dollars is also possible.

Class 4 Felonies can have a prison term of no less than two years and no more than ten years in a state facility with a possible fine of no more than one hundred thousand dollars.

Class 5 Felonies can carry a prison sentence of no less than one year and no more than ten years. Also under the discretion of the court or the jury, confinement in a county jail for no more than twelve months is also possible with a fine of no more than twenty-five hundred dollars. An individual can be sentenced to one or both of these punishments.

So a perpetrator of molestation on a teenage victim could theoretically get a greater penalty than someone raping or molesting a small child.

What the hell is up with that? Is this just because there's greater possibility of pregnancy if the victim is a teenager? (Although the four acts banned here wouldn't actually result in a pregnancy.) Does Cuccinelli, or whoever wrote this boneheaded law, actually think a 13-year-old victim would suffer greater trauma than a 5-year-old one? That there are classes, and levels, of molestation victims, and one is more worthy of prosecution than another?

This law is just all-around stupid. It was also pushed because of Ken Cuccinelli's personal views, (and I would bet serious money those views are based on his religious beliefs) which he has absolutely no business foisting on the rest of us.

He declined to commit to a nondiscrimination policy against gays and lesbians observed by former Attorney General Bob McDonnell: “ My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. ... They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society.”

I don't call many people nutjobs, but Ken Cuccinelli absolutely merits that designation. I feel sorry for Virginia residents. What an embarrassment.

The Greatest Thing You'll Read All Day

Here: Amazon reviews of Wendy Davis' pink running shoes.

My favorite of the bunch:

An essential tool for running down the clock in a state 773 miles wide and 790 miles long! These shoes are perfect for those days when you must spend 13+ hours standing, not lean on your desk or take any breaks - even for meals or to use the bathroom. The snazzy hot pink color brings out your inner badassness and helps you to "humbly give voice to thousands of Texans" and stop a "raw abuse of power" in its tracks. Raise a feminist army and lead the charge when your competitors cheat and change the rules on you. These Mizuno's are built to protect your feet from mudslinging and add sunshine to the political process. Highly recommended for fierce women and anyone who's not a Greedy Old Prick (GOP).

She'll have to bring them out again next week, seeing as Governor Rick Perry has called another special session.

"Who was that masked man?"

There's been a lot of outrage, and deservedly so, about Representative Louie Gohmert telling a woman who had a medically necessary late-term abortion she should have given birth anyway. But nothing I've read has addressed this little snippet of his comment. (Maybe I look for these things because I read a lot of science fiction dystopias.)

Ms. Zink, having my great sympathy and empathy both. I still come back wondering, shouldn’t we wait… and see if the child can survive before we decide to rip him apart? So, these are ethical issues, they’re moral issues, they’re difficult issues, and the parents should certainly be consulted. But it just seems like, it’s a more educated decision if the child is in front of you to make those decisions.

The parents should certainly be consulted?

This lends a very creepy undertone to the whole thing. If the parents are not making the decision, then who the hell is? Who is this 'we' you speak of, kemosabe?

That's a rhetorical question, of course. Obviously, in Mr. Gohmert's mind, the omniscent, all-knowing State is the only entity capable of making such decisions, and we should bow to its godlike wisdom.

A party of small, limited government, my ass.

The Scorpion's Tail

Let's set up a sting, shall we?

Let's put together our hidden cameras and microphones, and walk into this jackass's store.


Southwest Shooting Authority in Pinetop, Ariz. took out an advertisement last week in the local newspaper, the White Mountain Independent, that spelled out the store's new policy in explicit terms.

"If you voted for Barack Obama your business is not welcome at Southwest Shooting Authority," the ad reads. "You have proven that you are not responsible enough to own a firearm."

Let's recruit a young man and woman, the former wearing a cowboy hat and shitkicker boots, with a telltale Skoals circle in his rear jeans pocket, the latter a wide-eyed, lipsticked, none-too-bright-looking blonde. Two walking cliches, in other words. Driving a battered, rusty 70's Ford pickup truck, of course, with a rifle rack in the back window, festooned with nasty Republican bumper stickers like these:

Into the gunstore we go. The shitkicker cowboy buys whatever gun he wants, after name-dropping Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Sarah Palin a few times, perhaps adding a couple of re-nig jokes along the way. After the purchase is completed, the two head for the door, and right as they leave the blonde turns and says, in a voice as sweet and sharp as cyanide:

"By the way, we voted for President Obama." 

I would pay good money for that to happen. 

Let's Rearrange the Deck Chairs, Honey!

Well. After all the fuss by the Romney campaign over Pennsylvania supposedly being in play...

...it turns out they bought ad time there because it was the only state with any airtime left.

With the tens of millions of dollars being funneled into the campaign in its closing weeks, that I can believe.

I just wonder how Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove will explain to the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson exactly how he squandered all their money.

Asshat of the Day

By now, surely everyone has heard that Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan to be his running mate, so I'll turn the proceedings over to the irreplacable Charles Pierce.

We're not worthy, Charlie.


Paul Ryan is an authentically dangerous zealot. He does not want to reform entitlements. He wants to eliminate them. He wants to eliminate them because he doesn't believe they are a legitimate function of government. He is a smiling, aw-shucks murderer of opportunity, a creator of dystopias in which he never will have to live. This now is an argument not over what kind of political commonwealth we will have, but rather whether or not we will have one at all, because Paul Ryan does not believe in the most primary institution of that commonwealth: our government. The first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution make a lie out of every speech he's ever given. He looks at the country and sees its government as something alien that is holding down the individual entrepreneurial genius of 200 million people, and not as their creation, and the vehicle through which that genius can be channelled for the general welfare.

To add my two cents: I would not vote for Mitt Romney if he was the Last Presidential Candidate on Earth and God Hirself was holding a gun to my head. I cannot believe any rational American citizen would contemplate putting this sleazy, arrogant, dishonest, lying slimeball into the highest office of the land.

But his pick of Paul Ryan for VP only solidifies my contempt. Paul Ryan, after all, wants to dismantle Medicare as we know it, turning it into a voucher system. No, make that a coupon system--you're given a fixed amount to purchase healthcare (just as a store coupon takes only fifty cents or a dollar off the actual cost of the merchandise), and if the annual cost of healthcare is rising beyond the value of your coupon, well, too bad, so sad, you have to make up the difference.

I didn't pay my Medicare taxes for all these years--fifty years by the time I retire--to have the system yanked out from under me just because Paul Ryan has some kind of juvenile Ayn Rand obsession.

Together, these two Twitrands constitute the worst Presidential ticket I have seen in my lifetime.

Vulture/Voucher 2012--"You People Are On Your Own"

Vote for them at your peril.

Asshat of the Day

Mitch McConnell, who thinks that 30 million uninsured people "is not the issue." 


MCCONNELL: Well first let me say the first single thing we can do for the American system is get rid of ObamaCare. … The single biggest direction we can take in terms of improving health care is to get rid of this monstrosity. [...] 


WALLACE: But you’re talking about repealing and replace, how would you provide universal coverage? 


MCCONNELL: I’ll get to it in a minute. [...]


WALLACE: I just want to ask, what specifically are you going to do to provide universal coverage to the 30 million people who are uninsured? 


MCCONNELL: That is not the issue. The question is, how can you go step by step to improve the American health care system. … We’re not going to turn the American health care system into a Western European system.

(No matter how much better a Western European system would be, by the way. We're just not going to do it because...that's not the issue, so shut up!)

As someone once wrote (and I'll be hanged if I can remember who it was, and Google is no help; so if you know, please tell me), "There is no hole that goes so far, or is so forever unending, as an asshole."

Asshat of the Day

With so many asshats to choose from today (including Darrell Issa and Antonin Scalia) it was difficult to narrow down the field. But one name finally floated to the top:

Rand Paul.

Fertilized eggs don't have much in common with flooded homes, but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is holding up a flood insurance bill until the Senate votes to recognize the life begins at conception.

I suppose Senator Paul thinks that people will be so sad over being flooded out of their homes, they'll just start humping like rabbits to make themselves feel better, and he needs to step in and save all the infants clumps of cells that result.

Fortunately, Harry Reid threw a fit over this--as much as he ever throws a fit over anything. Unfortunately, Harry Reid is naturally so mild-mannered and soft-spoken that you don't think he's pissed even when he actually is.



Although he almost raises his voice in this clip.

One could wish Harry Reid would go full-court Bruce Banner and hulk out on the Senate floor, but Harry doesn't have it in him. However, Rand Paul does have it in him to be a total asshat, and thus he wins today's competition.