Obscanity: You'll know it when you see it

Pam’s House Blend:: More from “Nation for Marriage:” the talking points revealed.

A fabulous post that will have you snickering the entire time… I do like the Jewey font best. That’s probably because I’m Jewish.

Our Heart Aches for This Self-Hating Little Boy on YouTube / Queerty.

This is so sad.

Same-sex marriage rights a step closer in District of Columbia – CNN.com.

"Same-sex 'marriage' is a movement driven by wealthy homosexual activists and a liberal elite determined to destroy not only the institution of marriage, but democracy as well. Time and again, we see when citizens have the opportunity to vote at the ballot box, they consistently opt to support traditional marriage," Perkins said.

That is of course a load of shit – but you want to know what DOES undermine democracy? Maintaining a district of 591,833 people who have no right to govern themselves without subjecting their votes to the review of the whole of Congress. Sorry, but when the founders forbade D.C. from having a vote or becoming a state, they certainly weren’t anticipating that it would become a major metropolitan area the way it has.

On the other hand, allowing state Supreme Courts to exercise their judicial oversight as to the other branches of government is fully and wholly in line with the three-branch, “checks and balances” government our intelligent founders set up to prevent tyranny by the majority.

With veto overrides, Vermont legalizes same-sex marriage – CNN.com.

What a beautiful sight.

Civil rights aside (hey, there’s something CA knows how to do), it’s wonderful that Vermont and Iowa will reap the economic benefits of these decisions, in this lousy economy. It’s a damned shame California didn’t get to cash in on that, particularly since it would have been couples’ only west coast option (besides Vancouver). Oh well. It’s not like the California economy NEEDED those hundreds of millions of out-of-state dollars and a couple thousand new jobs… Oh, wait…

When Same-Sex Marriage Was a Christian Rite – Colfax Record.

Well, duh. Read the works of John Boswell.

Renegade DEA finds new excuses « The Hemp Factor.

So the fun now is that the DEA is going to start claiming that dispensaries are in violation of state law in order to continue their raids. Never mind that in the most recent raid in San Francisco, in which the DEA claimed the dispensary was not in compliance with state law, local law enforcement was not even included in the decision to raid. What gives these federal bureaucrats the idea that they get to decide what complies with state laws? Don’t they realize that interferes with the state’s authority to enforce its OWN laws?

Gay Couple Feels Pressured To Marry | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

LMAO. The funny thing is that this could totally be a real article.

Pam’s House Blend:: New 50,000-volt Taser offers capability to shock multiple ‘targets’ at once.

Great. Just wait ’til this comes to America – now cops can incapacitate black men and political protesters from 100 meters away. That’ll DEFINITELY lead to fewer unnecessary and undeserved Tasings of innocent civilians.

Oh, wait.

Vermont House Passes Marriage Bill | News | Advocate.com.

My favorite quote:

"When I hear referendum I hear California," said Rep. Mike Mrowicki. "I don't know if we want to start emulating them. "

Mmmmm, yummy marriage sanctity. With some sweet fidelity for dessert. Oh, wait..

A nod and a link: April Fools’ Day pranks abound in the news – CNN.com.

CNN advises: “If a news item seems especially outrageous on April 1, it just may be a hoax.”

So I can only hope that this one is somebody’s idea of a joke. Either that, or somebody got a really big bonus recently…

The Gay “Marriage” Slippery Slope | US Political Scene.

This is such an intellectually dishonest piece, but I had to comment anyway. My comment:

The CNN article is incorrect anyway. CA was the first to pass marriage legislation, which was vetoed just as it will be in VT. They’ll make history if they can override the veto.

In any event, you assume that same-gender marriage IS the catastrophe that people usually point to when they wring their hands and talk about “gay marriage and the slippery slope.” But that’s never the case, and I think you know it.

For one thing, we’ve always been open about the fact that we will not accept anything less than equality, and that domestic partnerships are an interim deal (unless of course you’re willing to give up state marriage altogether, in which case we can have civil unions for all, and leave marriage to the religions). So gay marriage is at the top of the slope, not at the bottom.

But more importantly, your analysis is based on a faulty premise. Nobody ever says, “You can’t allow domestic partnerships because one thing will lead to another and suddenly you’ll have same-sex marriage, and that is the worst possible thing that can happen.” That’s virtually never the slippery-slope argument that is made, and I think it’s intellectually dishonest to suggest that it is.

If you’re going to analyze the slippery-slope argument honestly, you need to address the fact that the real argument tossed around in public debate, particularly when there are marriage initiatives on the ballot, is that allowing same-gender marriage will lead to incest (legal in 26 states, ironically), bestiality, pedophilia, and ultimately, men marrying their pet goats. That is the slippery-slope argument that is made in the marriage debate, by everybody from housewives to federal-level politicians. Until you can show me an example of a state legislature having a serious debate over whether an animal has standing to sign a marriage license, you cannot possibly make a serious assertion that the alleged “gay marriage slippery slope” has played out.

May God bless you with gay children to teach you what you will never learn on your own.

Vermont on cusp of legalizing same-sex marriage – CNN.com.

CNN says: “It would be the first time a state took the action without being forced by courts.”

WRONG, CNN. California passed marriage legislation TWICE – but it was vetoed by the Governator. A truly historical event will occur if the Vermont legislature has enough votes to override the VT governor’s certain veto, but as of right now, VT is NOT the first state to take legislative action toward marriage equality without a court order.

Leaked memos: Gay rights group make new charges over LDS Prop 8 role – Salt Lake Tribune.

No surprises here. Well, a few – turns out they were deeper in than anybody imagined.

But then again, why should we be surprised?

The belief that the wealthy are worthy is waning – Los Angeles Times.

That the point is even open for discussion suggests that a sea change is taking place on the American political scene. For decades, the wealthy have been held up as people to be admired, victors in the Darwinian economic struggle by virtue of their personal ingenuity and hard work.

Americans consistently supported fiscal policies that undermined middle- and working-class interests partially because they saw themselves as rich-people-in-waiting: Given time, toil and the magic of compound interest, anyone could retire a millionaire.

That mind-set has all but been eradicated by the damage sustained by the average worker's nest egg, combined with the spectacle of bankers and financial engineers maintaining their lifestyles with multimillion-dollar bonuses while the submerged 99% struggle for oxygen.

(emphasis added)

I hope his predictions are right. For FAR too long we’ve been living in an a faux democracy where 1% of the people own more than a third of the wealth, and the top 20% own more than 80% of it. The purpose of income tax was to raise revenue for the government, but it was mostly to prevent an aristocracy from forming. Are we there yet?

Attorney general signals shift in marijuana policy.

I wonder how this will affect people who are serving time for complying with state medical marijuana laws, e.g. Charles Lynch.

According to the government's sentencing recommendation for Lynch, which says the five-year mandatory minimum prison term is an appropriate one, Lynch had violated California state law because his "operation was rife with activities having more to do with business and casual drug distribution than anything medical."

Well, obviously. The federal government had refused to acknowledge any medicinal properties of cannabis in the first place, so obviously they were going to say he was operating in casual drug distribution. They also claimed that Lynch was distributing marijuana to children, failing to mention that the minors involved were teenaged cancer patients whose parents had initiated contact with Lynch because pharmaceutical appetite stimulants had proved ineffective.

Time shall tell, I guess.

Pam’s House Blend:: Louisiana: unarmed, black, 73-year-old cancer survivor shot dead by police.

Mmmm, yummy morals and values. Jesus would be proud.

Oh, wait.

I’ve been saying all along that the current Republican strategy is to let the economy tank, and fight against every possible measure designed to prevent that from happening. They *want* the economy to fail, at least until 2010 and 2012, and they’re willing to do anything to make that happen. Then when we’re all in the poorhouse or jumping out of windows like in 1929, the Republicans will say, “Hey, look, the Democrats failed. Elect us instead.” Hopefully the American people won’t be stupid enough to fall for it – especially now that they’ve admitted outright what they are trying to do:

“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

U.S. divorce rates: for various faith groups, age groups and geographical areas.

Guess what, folks? Not only do the “liberal, family hating” west and northeast have LOWER divorce rates than the marriage-protecting south and midwest (which, to be fair, probably has something to do with wealth and education as well as religion), but those who fight the MOST to prevent gay people from marrying – fundamentalist, evangelical Christians – actually have HIGHER divorce rates than atheists and agnostics! Jews are the highest in proportion by a slight margin, but hey, guess what? Judaism doesn’t prohibit divorce, and in fact the marriage contract itself usually includes protections for the woman in case of divorce.

But do the religious fundamentalists accept that they might ACTUALLY be hypocrites? Of course not. I love that the conservative Christian response is essentially to say, “But we know that can’t possibly be true, because these people are Christian, so of course they wouldn’t get divorced, because they’re living a Christian lifestyle, which doesn’t include divorce,” or “Well, they weren’t really Christian if they got divorced, so that doesn’t count.” But hey – these are the same people who say “These facts are true. We know they are true, because the Bible says they’re true. And we know the Bible is right, because the Bible says it’s right You see? There’s your proof. You can’t ignore the facts.”

Citigroup breaks the buck – Mar. 5, 2009.

This really SUCKS for people who have worked for Citibank for 30+ years, and have relied on the promise of a pension, and stayed with Citibank because they had a pension plan, and have received their annual bonuses in the form of stock options. Hey, guess what? These people now have little to nothing remaining of the pensions, healthcare, and options they earned over three decades’ span. We’re not talking about executives, CEOs and rich investors. We’re talking about middle class employees. What are they supposed to do now?

California Court to Weigh Gay Marriage Ban – NYTimes.com.

California Supreme Court may reveal stance on Prop. 8 on Thursday – Los Angeles Times.

Reporting from San Francisco — The California Supreme Court may reveal Thursday whether it intends to uphold Proposition 8, and if so, whether an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages will remain valid, during a high-stakes televised session that has sparked plans for demonstrations throughout the state.

By now, the court already has drafted a decision on the case, with an author and at least three other justices willing to sign it. Oral arguments sometimes result in changes to the draft, but rarely do they change the majority position. The ruling is due in 90 days.

(Read the article)

California high court reviews gay marriage ban | Reuters.

The countdown starts.

I’m Sorry Rush – by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Funny stuff. 🙂