Being an agnostic, I appreciate many of the arguments made by atheists - but I can also admire some of the beliefs held by progressive Christians. Although religious fundamentalists of every stripe tend to make my frontal lobe ache, I try to keep an open mind about spiritual matters in general.
The following videos were created by YouTube user DarkMatter2525. They are definitely worth the six minutes of your life it will take to watch them. "God's Priorities" deals with starvation in Africa and professional athletes who pray for victory. "Really, Really STRONG" is one of the better parodies of Rick Perry's epic ad fail.
I suspect even ultraconservative voters grow weary of GOP candidates who whine about the need for privacy - particularly where their young children are concerned - but then eagerly exploit those children when campaign strategists decide to spotlight "traditional values." (Sarah Almost-Ran Palin has created a virtual cottage industry around her brood.)
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum doesn't hesitate to drag his children to endless photo shoots, and even uses his daughter Bella's genetic disorder to curry sympathy with the public. He sadly observes that Bella's time on earth can be "measured in days and weeks," and he frequently alludes to her disability, known to physicians as Trisomy-18, during televised debates. He wears her infirmity like a badge of honor. But as heartbreaking as the youngster's struggle is, Santorum isn't opposed to abandoning her for some intense politicking.
Less than a year ago in South Carolina, Rick was asked what many considered an odd question: If he starred in a reality TV program, what would it be about?Santorum replied that he'd let cameras into his home to record his child's illness.
Discussing Bella's medical condition is a good jumping off point for Santorum to launch into the politician's second favorite pastime (after demonizing gays and lesbians): fearmongering against President Obama's Health Care Reform bill, which he insists is leading America into - cue scary music - socialized medicine (a major talking point for Tea Party activists).
"We see with every socialized-medicine country, which is absolutely where we’re headed, those on the margins of life are treated differently... They’re not given the care, the resources aren’t allocated because it is very costly, and my little girl would probably be seen as — I hear, not only from anecdotal but actual evidence from other countries that children like this simply do not get care."
Santorum fails to offer any actual proof to back up his absurd claims. But he's ever eager to remind us of his daughter's unfortunate medical situation: "You think she’s fine, and then one cold and she’s this close to dying."
In the three weeks she spent with her dad and the rest of the family in Iowa before the straw poll there in August, that happened twice, he said. "We were in a hotel room, and I had to decide whether I was going to work — go out and do my town hall meetings — or stay and take care of her." In the end, he did some of both, and for two or three days “was pretty much up all night. She has a lot of difficulty breathing, a lot of complications as a result of that.” The situation was particularly "gut-wrenching," Santorum added, because "we wanted to protect her privacy at that point."
"At that point?" (Translation: "I'll use her when it's convenient and if she's not too sick to face the cameras.")
In the following campaign promo, Rick Santorum doesn't mention the avalanche of hurt which, if elected, he will inflict on same-sex parents who are also raising special needs children. He doesn't address the plight of low-income families with ailing and handicapped youngsters, people that would benefit from aggressive health care reform. The sole purpose of this ad is to connect with the Religious Right base. He wants conservative Christians to see themselves in him.
In this, he succeeds. I don't mean that as a compliment.
If I had a terminally ill daughter, I would want to spend whatever precious time she had left reading stories to her and playing games with her. I'd let her know that our time together was more precious than being President of the United States. I certainly wouldn't waste a single moment badmouthing same-sex parents and glad-handinganti-gaybigots.
"The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin." - Jay Leno
Below are some mildly disturbing images of the Madonna and Child ...
For some reason I feel more of a spiritual connection with the canine nativity scenes than these icons of Catholicism.
Finally, here is a photo of my sweetheart with Chance and Little Brother, taken on Christmas morning.
Merry Christmas From The Archdiocese- and you're not welcome.
In what many Christians refer to as a Season of Goodwill, the Roman Catholic hierarchy finds opportunities to promote its intolerance for gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals. Earlier this week, Chicago's esteemed Cardinal Francis George compared LGBT citizens seeking equal rights to the Ku Klux Klan. Equality Illinois has called on His Most Worshipful Self to apologize. (Yeah, like that's going to happen. We're more likely to see Pope Benedict on RuPaul's Drag Race.)
There's also some Yuletide bah-humbuggery from another "prince" of the church, in California. The Associated Press:
A Roman Catholic church in San Francisco that canceled a series of pre-Christmas services featuring gay ministers from other denominations is being criticized for sending a negative message to its predominantly gay and lesbian congregation. Pastor Steve Meriwether of Most Holy Redeemer Church late last month rescinded the invitations he had extended to the three ministers at the direction of San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer.
The action disappointed, but did not surprise the Rev. Roland Stringfellow, a minister for the gay-oriented Metropolitan Community Church, who had been scheduled to speak Wednesday. "It's ironic and hypocritical that the Catholic Church has a 'Come home' ad campaign going on right now," he said. "Clearly, not everyone is welcome within the Catholic Church." The program's first intended speaker, retired Episcopal Bishop Otis Charles, echoed those concerns. The decision to bar him and the others from speaking is another indication that the Catholic Church hierarchy's position is that "those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual are less than OK."
Y'know, if every straight person with an LGBT friend or family member stopped donating money to the Catholic Church, and I mean totally withdrew all financial support from that highly profitable institution; those pampered, bejeweled, velvet-clad, pedophile-enabling prelates might eventually reassess their priorities and stop bashing queer folk. (Pictured: Niederauer)
Here's an amusing stocking stuffer for the holidays ...
This woman in California who had a total hysterectomy decides she wants to give birth, so she asks family values guru Cindy Jacobs to help her. Cindy prays to the Lord and starts waving her hands... "operating - just like I'm doing over television!" They claim the woman's reproductive organs grew back.
It's medical magic! (Snort.)
In her spare time, Cindy casts out "homosexual demons" from gays and lesbians. (Hat Tip: Kyle at RW Watch
There's an extensive collection of Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul's racist/homophobic newsletters on The New Republic. (That would be, yknow, all those divisive campaign messages bearing Paul's name that he supposedly knew nothing about?) Below are four typical examples, published by TNR:
An October 1990 edition of the Political Report ridicules black activists, led by Al Sharpton, for demonstrating at the Statue of Liberty in favor of renaming New York City after Martin Luther King. The newsletter suggests that “Welfaria,” “Zooville,” “Rapetown,” “Dirtburg,”and “Lazyopolis ” would be better alternatives—and says, "Next time, hold that demonstration at a food stamp bureau or a crack house."
This December 1990 newsletter describes Martin Luther King Jr. as "a world-class adulterer" who "seduced underage girls and boys" and "replaced the evil of forced segregation with the evil of forced integration."
The June 1990 issue of the Political Report says: "I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities."
A January 1994 edition of the Survival Report states that "[T]hese men don't really see a reason to live past their fifties. They are not married, they have no children, and their lives are centered on new sexual partners." Also, "they enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick."
But hey, let's not dwell on the past. Let's look at some relatively recent position statements made by Dr. Paul:
Tommy Christopher at Mediaite reports that during a 2007 appearance on NBC's Meet The Press, Ron Paul said fighting the Civil War in order to end slavery was a mistake. The Texas Republican/libertarian/physician told legendary journalist Tim Russert: "Slavery was phased out in every other country of the world. And the way I’m advising that it should have been done is do like the British empire did. You buy the slaves and release them. How much would that cost compared to killing 600,000 Americans and where the hatred lingered for 100 years? Every other major country in the world got rid of slavery without a civil war. I mean, that doesn’t sound too radical to me. That sounds like a pretty reasonable approach."
Dr. Paul walks a tightrope on the issue of same-sex marriage, dragging around his peculiar "individual rights" canard like an inoperable goiter. "Marriage is a church function, it's not a state function," he declares.
Does that mean gay-welcoming churches in, say, Houston, Texas, should be permitted to marry gay and lesbian couples? And what about atheists? In Ronnie World, are they forbidden to tie the knot?
"We do not get our rights because we belong to a group (unless that group happens to be a conservative Christian denomination) whether it's homosexual, women, minorities - it leads us astray. So (if) you want to change people, you change them through persuasion, through family values and church values." (Just ask African-Americans in the Deep South how that worked out for them.) "But you can't do it through legislation because force doesn't work. A group can't force themselves on anybody else. So there should be no affirmative action for any group, so if a homosexual group wanted to enforce their way on us, there's no right to do that either." (Video here and here.)
Why, why must conservative politicians and pundits perpetuate the lie that gays and lesbians want to "force" something on heterosexuals. As taxpaying citizens, we merely want the same basic rights everybody else takes for granted.
My personal feelings about Paul are pretty much summed up in the following video from the wags at Talking Points Memo.
UPDATE: Ron Paul is courting Iowa's anti-choice extremists by signing their "Personhood Pledge." (He's a physician, see, so he knows about these things.) The pledge proclaims that "every human being at every stage of development must be recognized as a person possessing the right to life in federal and state laws without exception and without compromise." In Paul's opinion, two-celled zygotes are human beings. That makes women little more than breeding machines who could conceivably be jailed for accidentally endangering the life of a week-old fetus. (If you miscarry, ladies, you may have to explain yourselves to the authorities.) Ironically, Dr. Paul keeps insisting he believes in individual liberties and keeping the government out of our lives.
UPDATE: Would it surprise you to learn that Ron Paul once "sternly" ordered an aide to devise an excuse for him to leave the home of gay supporter because he needed to use the bathroom and refused point-blank to go wee-wee in a toilet that had been used by homosexuals? Eric Dondero, a former top aide to the politician writes about another curious incident: This top staffer adores Ron, but was extremely insulted by his behavior, I would even say flabbergasted to the point of considering resigning from his staff over it. "Bobby," a well-known and rather flamboyant and well-liked gay man in Freeport came to the BBQ. Let me stress Ron likes Bobby personally (judge for yourself the veracity of that) and Bobby was a hardcore campaign supporter. But after his speech, at the Surfside pavilion Bobby came up to Ron with his hand extended, and according to my fellow staffer, Ron literally swatted his hand away. (Afraid of "AIDS germs," Dr. Paul?)
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