I can't tell you how many songbird feeders I've bought over the years. I chose them simply because they were pleasing to the eye - and then when I filled them up with seed the birds stayed away like there was a cat crouching nearby. But this deceptively simple "bird swing" is brilliant.
It's been noted that the modern-day Republican Party, if given free reign, would create a society which would make the prophetic futures of George Orwell and Margaret Atwood seem benign. While occasional bouts of extremist posturing can be written off as the delusions of overwrought individuals, a pattern of paranoia has emerged that cannot be ignored: Shoot undocumented workers, bring back segregation, encourage anti-gay bullying in schools. (Republican leaders in Texas, not satisfied with simply recriminalizing intimacy between same-sex couples, want felony charges brought against any person - including LGBT-friendly pastors - who officiates at a non-heterosexual wedding.) These calls for violence and oppression will eventually coalesce into a Religious Right police state.
Case in point. Below is the latest howl of insanity from an elected official in the Tar Heel State ...
A lawmaker in North Carolina says doctors who perform legal abortions should be executed. Not only that, he would like to see them hanged by the neck in public. Larry Pittman, a conservative representative from Cabarrus County, recently sent emails to every member of the state's General Assembly declaring that he supports capital punishment carried out in town squares. ("Get yer hot dawgs here!" "Candied apples for the kids!") From WRAL: A Cabarrus County lawmaker wants to bring back public hangings in North Carolina as a deterrent to crime, and he says doctors who perform abortions should be in the line to the gallows. Pittman wrote in the email, "If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well." He confirmed to WRAL News on Thursday that he wrote the email ... (On the official webpage for the North Carolina Legislature, Pittman lists his current occupations as "pastor, shipping worker, and company chapman.")
Although the "pro-life" pols waging war against the female womb promise they'll only target physicians who terminate pregnancies (often because an expectant mother's health is threatened), at the very moment abortion becomes illegal and "personhood" is granted to fetuses, these same lawmakers will turn their self-righteous wrath on pregnant women. We're already seeing examples of this. (Pictured: Pittman)
The wags over at Think Progress compiled the following video which demonstrates the racial insensitivity of conservative politicians. The speakers in these clips are not Tea Party activists or evangelical zealots (although that's the GOP's target audience) - they're mainstream presidential candidates and elected officials. They are the faces of right-wing ideology.
"At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being." - Friedrich Otto Hertz
Elizabeth Warren - The Best and Definitely the Brightest Candidate
Elizabeth Warren is running against Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown for the United States Senate in what pundits are predicting will be the costliest congressional election in history. Warren, a veteran Harvard law professor, has a special knack for addressing voters' concerns without talking down to them. Scott Brown's superior airs are obvious to all but the most credulous GOPers. He cleverly used Tea Party activists in order to get himself elected, then he abandoned many of the movement's unhinged positions. (This naturally enraged the teabaggers, whose patriotic zealotry is invariably linked to southern white privilege. I suspect even now the Obama haters are busily constructing more racist signs and preparing to superglue fake Uncle Sam goatees to their chins.)
Elizabeth Warren is honest, and she speaks from her heart. Following the 2008 financial crisis, the author of nine books served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (aka TARP). Her efforts to hold Wall Street tycoons accountable for the misery they caused middle-class families have been praised by both progressives and fiscal conservatives.
The Boston Globe named Elizabeth Bostonian of the Year in 2009 in response to her sharp dealings with corrupt lending institutions. Also in 2009, Warren became the first professor at Harvard University to win the law school's prestigious Sacks-Freund Teaching Award - twice - for "teaching ability, openness to student concerns, and contributions to student life at Harvard." Time and again, the National Law Journal has named Warren as one of the Fifty Most Influential Women Attorneys in America, and in 2010 she was honored as one of the 40 most influential attorneys of the decade.
As full as Warren's schedule undoubtedly is, this amazing woman has stepped up to the plate and made an anti-bulling video for the "It Gets Better Project." (Senator Brown refused to participate because he's miffed about some unkind but true things the campaign's founder, Dan Savage, once said about him.)
Below you'll see Warren's "It Gets Better" video, followed by a clip in which Warren talks about taxing the wealthy:
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Money Quote from the second video: "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there, good for you. But I want to be clear - You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You are safe in your factories because of police forces and firemen the rest of us pay for... Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea - God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay for the next kid who comes along." (Warren isn't talking showering their offspring with limitless wealth.)
Interestingly, Elizabeth Warren, who supports the Occupy Wall Street Movement, was a Republican until the mid-1980s. She says: "I was a Republican because I thought that those were the people who best supported markets. I think that is not true anymore... The people on Wall Street broke this country. And they did it one lousy mortgage at a time. It happened more than three years ago, and there has still been no basic accountability, and there has been no real effort to fix it. That's why I want to run for the United States Senate."
Elizabeth Warren on Social Issues
Karen Suffredini, executive director of MassEquality, reminds us of Warren's commitment to equality: Elizabeth Warren shows that she understands the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Last month, Elizabeth Warren announced her support for marriage equality; repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act which discriminates against married same-sex couples (Brown supports DOMA); passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act with full protections for transgender residents; safe schools for LGBT youth; and full support for LGBT families. These positions are consistent with the legacy of the US Senate seat for which she is running, as well as the values of Massachusetts voters.
Warren would make a splendid future President of the United States. (Political caricatures, top, courtesy Kerry Waghorn)
... without actually mentioning the practice.
Still, I guess something is better than nothing considering the GOP's hands-off approach to environmental disasters.
From President Obama's State of the Union speech last night:
"We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly 100 years, and my Administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy. Experts believe this will support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade. And I’m requiring all companies that drill for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use. America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk."
We already know which toxic chemicals natural gas companies are pumping into the ground (thanks in part to corporate files obtained by filmmaker Josh Fox for his award-winning documentary Gasland). We already know that those same chemicals are contaminating the water table and causing cancer in human beings, farm animals, pets, and wildlife.
The environmentally calamitous process is called hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." President Obama's SOTU remarks were a step in the right direction - but what he should have said is this: "I’m requiring companies that drill for gas on public and private lands to disclose the chemicals they use - and if any of those chemicals are found to contain cancer-causing agents, federal permits to engage in hydraulic fracturing will be withheld until safety issues are resolved to the satisfaction of the communities involved." (Everything else aside, carcinogens blasted into the ground have been known to pollute metropolitan water reserves.)
Needless to say, Republican presidential candidates (and certain Religious Right leaders) are opposed to any regulatory restrictions on energy corporations. If the water of multi-millionaires is contaminated and flames start shooting out of their kitchen faucets, they can simply move to another area. Most rural residents don't have that option.
Conservatives cling to the ludicrous notion that greedy corporate executives will, out of the goodness of their hearts, make sure that the American public is protected while they rape the environment. But of course this would mean they value consumers' health over their personal profit - and everybody knows which greyhound wins that race.
Newt Gingrich behaves as if his deceit and faithlessness were part of some clever disguise that camouflages his dazzling virtue. He has pulled the wool over the eyes of religious zealots, many of whom may actually prefer Rick Santorum's brand of squeaky-clean homophobia but see in Newt a more bloodthirsty candidate. The GOP's fundie base have convinced themselves that Gingrich is a political pit bull capable of ripping out Obama's throat.
Newt's defiant response when confronted with his many marital infidelities has drawn the admiration of similar-minded hypocrites. Look! Two ancient Hollywood icons are shuffling into the media circus, blond trophy wives at their sides ...
Creaky action figure and religious right loon Chuck Norris issued this statement: "Newt has the heart of a conservative reformer. We believe Newt’s experience, leadership, knowledge, wisdom, faith and even humility to learn from his failures (personal and public) can return America to her glory days. And he is the best man left on the battlefield who is able to outwit, outplay and outlast Obama and his campaign machine."
Law and Order alum and 2008 presidential primary hopeful Fred Thompson added his croak to the Republican swampland: "I have come to the growing realization that Newt Gingrich is the guy who can articulate what America is all about." (If waging war on poor people, demonizing LGBT citizens, insulting black and Latino voters, being relieved of his position as House Speaker over ethics violations, and working for Freddie Mac lobbyists is what "America is all about," our beloved nation is indeed in sorry shape.)
Which brings us to the social conservatives' "most sacred institution" - heterosexual marriage. Like Gingrich, Norris and Thompson are not opposed to dumping inconvenient (read: aging) spouses for much younger females. In 1988, the Walker, Texas Ranger star abandoned his first wife of three decades for a former model more than 20 years his junior. In 2007, Fred Thompson was asked by the Associated Press to name his favorite possession. Fred replied, "Trophy wife."
Chuck Norris is 72-years-old, Fred Thompson is 70, and Newt is 69. The three of them must keep stocks soaring for the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which markets Viagra. Predictably, the wizened trio of oft-divorced horndogs are vehemently opposed to any legal recognition for committed same-sex couples. This isn't surprising since they've never been too keen on honoring their own wedding vows.
When will it end?
Yet another gay teenager in Tennessee has been driven to suicide in what can only be described as the systematic, fundie-fueled extermination of youngsters who identify as LGBT, tormented to death by classmates parroting the prejudice of right-wing lawmakers and judgmental churches. 14-year-old Phillip Parker of Gordonsville ended his young life last week after experiencing years of relentless anti-gay bullying. As reported by NewsChannel5,com in Tennessee:
The family of an openly gay teen who committed suicide Friday said it was a direct result of bullying at school. Now the parents of Phillip Parker have questions for leaders at Gordonsville High School. "A sweet kind person like Phillip took it out on himself, he killed himself to get out of the pain," said his grandfather, Paul Harris. At just 14, just a child, 8th grader Phillip Parker felt like life just wasn't worth living. "Because he was gay, he got mistreated physically, mentally by several people out there at the school, and I am very resentful as a result of it," said Harris. Parents and grandparents found Phillip's body Friday afternoon, minutes later they found a handwritten note in his trash can that read 'Please help me mom'. ... While these parents and grandparents had no idea, the students at Gordonsville High school bombarded them both with information after Phillip's death. More than hundred teens told them the bullying was obvious, and some said they went to teachers about it. Now the Parkers want to know why no one from Gordonsville alerted them to the apparent bullying happening in the hallways.
From WBIR: More than 100 people gathered in Gordonsville on Saturday night, grieving the loss of Phillip. "He was fun, he was energetic, he was happy," said Gena Parker, Phillip's mother. To his friends, Phillip was known as the boy who told everyone they're beautiful... Phillip's family said they reported their concerns over their son's bullying to Gordonsville High School on multiple occasions, but the bullying by a group of students just got worse. "That's my son," said Phillip's father. "I love him. I miss him. He shouldn't have had to kill himself to be brought to life."
Jonathan Cole at TEP's Grand Divisions writes: While attending Saturday's conference, H.G. Stovall and I met a former teacher who knew Phillip while he attended Gordonsville Elementary School. Tears flowed as she told us that Philip had endured years of anti-gay bullying at the school and that bullying in general at Gordonsville Elementary School often goes unaddressed by faculty and staff. She knew of several students who had to transfer to other schools to escape the harassment. This educator also knew Phillip had endured anti-gay preaching from the pulpit of his church.
It's over a decade into the 21st century, and this child had to listen to sermons condemning him at his own church.
Facebook comments about the tragedy were mostly supportive of Phillip - but one "Christian" named Chris Mcdade of Lenoir City actually blamed Phillip's death on the "shame" he must have felt over his sexual orientation. McDade wrote: "If I were doing something that I was so ashamed of, to the point that I would kill myself over it if I were bullied for it... then I think I'd change what I was doing. It's a choice." Another user, John Brett Vincent, suggested that Phillip suffered from mental illness: "Maybe the young man had mental problems that were not associated with the bullying? There is not enough information to make a call as who is to blame." After piously stating that Phillip's parents were responsible for his suicide (the Parkers, he says, should have put him in a private school), Matthew Rogers of Knoxville writes: "God did not make the boy gay. That is a lifestyle choice and a strange one to make at age 14."
The attitudes of narrow-minded bigots like Mcdade, Vincent, and Rogers are a major part of the problem. Their sanctimonious posturing feeds homophobia. It gives juice to the bullies.
If you haven't watched the following video by Rick Mercer, now might be a good time to do so:
WSMV.com provides video of the Saturday night vigil for Phillip Parker - but perhaps the memory of this young man would be better served if Gordonsville residents who attended the candlelight service confronted the local pastors that condemn Phillip and other LGBT Americans as "an abomination in the eyes of God."
Related Post: Tennessee Lawmakers Determined to Protect Anti-Gay Bullies
Related Post: Tennessee, Forever the Hate State
Related Post: More Anti-Gay Hate in Tennessee
Related Post: TN Schools Allow Anti-LGBT Sites, Block Gay-Positive Content
Republican voters in the Palmetto State have spoken. So much for conservative Christian family values.
(Above: Newt Gingrich and his amazingly lifelike third wife, Callista; editorial cartoon courtesy Matt Davies)
Newt Gingrich has signed NOM's anti-equality pledge in which he vows to amend the United States Constitution in order to invalidate all same-sex marriages and civil unions. He says gays and lesbians choose their sexual orientation like a priest chooses to be celibate. He says committed same-sex couples should not be allowed to adopt kids and he promises to reinstate Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the military's ban on openly gay service members.
Gingrich is the worst sort of hypocrite - a straight privileged white male who piously judges others while being unfaithful in his own personal relationships. Newt's second wife has correctly said he "lacks the moral character to be president."
Besides bashing LGBT Americans, Newt is prone to racist fearmongering. Black and Latino voters beware.
“People like me are what stand between us and Auschwitz. I see evil all around me every day.” - Newt Gingrich
Preaching Homophobia - Bitter Fruit in "Cornerstone" Texas Church
Some apples fall so close to the tree it's surprising they bother to fall at all ...
Below, in the first video, Pastor John Hagee extols the virtues of growing up in the forties without once mentioning racial segregation, mass lynchings, oppressive Jim Crow laws, glossed-over spousal abuse, and beating recalcitrant children as prescribed by the Bible. Fully aware of his crowd's dull sense of humor, he jokes: "Before 1945, closets were for clothes, not something strange people were coming out of." Hagee finishes his sermon by calling for a constitutional amendment "to protect the sanctity of marriage" and he warns that without a federal amendment, we can "kiss this country goodbye." (In a separate clip, the ancient demagogue compares gay couples raising kids to the Mafia - "Go out and kill somebody" - and reminds his rapt sheeple that Charles Manson considered his followers "a family," finally declaring that a family "certainly is not two homosexuals playing house and let's pretend.") Hagee has also claimed that God created the HIV virus in order to wipe out gay men, and he once insisted that The Lord sent Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans because Heaven was offended by an upcoming LGBT Pride Parade. (What sort of monstrous Deity do these people worship?)
In the second video you'll see Matthew, the fruit of old John's loins, blaming victims of AIDS for their own death, insinuating that the "unnatural lust" of queer folk is so overwhelming that they "choose" to die horribly. A snippet: "People say, ‘well what’s the church’s position on AIDS’? AIDS is an incurable disease according to medical science but the Bible says that He cured all of our diseases and He by his stripes has healed every one of his children. Here’s the truth about diseases like AIDS, there are people who do contact this dreaded disease by some form of innocent contact, but most of the time it’s a choice." (In another video, he warns about an imaginary "homosexual agenda" in schools.)
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One wonders how frequently Hagee The Younger bullied and tormented LGBT youngsters when he was attending school. If his sermons are any gauge, it was a commonplace occurrence.
The Hagee Christofascists are both proponents of Seven Mountains Donimionism, which advocates for a civil government controlled by religious fanatics - not dissimilar to the regimes in Iran and and Saudi Arabia.
(Pictured Top: John Hagee, Daniel Lloyd's painting "See Evil, Hear Evil, Speak Evil" - and Matthew Hagee)
J.R. Labbe writes on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (via Texas Freedom Network):
"It is baffling that so many Christians allow themselves to succumb to the 'Us versus Them' mindset ignited by politics. Jesus didn't care one nit about creating a Christian nation. He was about creating Christians, although that label would have meant nothing to the devout Jew. He neither asked nor expected government to help him in that mission."
(Editorial cartoons, left to right, courtesy Ron Cobb and David Horsey.)
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