Got (Harvey) Milk?

So, the state of California recently passed a law creating a day of recognition for Harvey Milk, the gay rights activist murdered in 1978. The day is to teach children about Harvey Milk and what he did. And... let the screech of the religious right commence.

Some think that teaching children history and tolerance, is "indoctrinating" them. Because accepting that gays and lesbians have the same rights as everyone else does makes you friends with Satan. I'll tell you what "indoctrination" is, and that's what most Christian churches in this country are doing right now. They indoctrinate children to believe everything they spout, whether it is true or not, if it's in the Bible, that "infallible" word of "god" that urges genocide and endorses that a woman marry her rapist.

The point of education is to question. The point of blind belief is to do what your leaders tell you to do and not to ask why. Public school does (or is supposed to do) the prior, while most churches do the latter.

Over at the Collegian Online, the online paper for California State University - Fresno, they apparently have people with a lack of education:

Call me old-fashioned, call me ignorant, set the LGBT police on me, I don’t care. I think this [day honoring Harvey Milk] is ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong—I have no quarrel with homosexuals. I believe it’s unnatural and immoral, but who am I to judge. Hate the sin, love the sinner. I believe all that... I understand this may be controversial to some, and maybe it is. It is now conventional wisdom for us to see homosexuals to be born the way they are, that it’s natural. I’m sorry, but I don’t see it that way.

I'm not quite sure how one can hold that view point and still sleep soundly at night, but whatever. I'm also not quite sure how he thinks he has no quarrel with homosexuals and yet he calls them "unnatural" and "immoral". Yeah, that's not at all a quarrel. *sigh*

And there are dozens of other blogs saying pretty much the same thing and worse. It's indoctrinating the children, it's endorsing homosexuality in our public schools, gasp, screech, *fall over*!!! Just google it. I know, I know, it's really no surprise they're having a fit over it.

Someday, hopefully, humanity will look back on all of this and wonder what the hell was wrong with all of us, and with a bit of incredulity, be grateful that such barbarity is gone from the world. One can hope anyway.

Conservatism Fails the United States

As in EPIC FAIL. For eight years we had a conservative Republican administration. The conservatives controlled the House and the Senate for most of that time. Their ideology says that they want less taxes and less government. I'm sure that there are some rather thick people out there who think that this sounds like a good thing, until they think, if they have the capacity to reason that is, about all of the things that we have that are provided by our government. You know, the schools, the roads, the public services like trash pick up and water.

In fact if you listened to the Republicans enough you would think that what they really want is to go back to some sort of medieval style serfdom, where the poor have no chance of an education and are held in servitude to a lord, or in this case, a corporation. The mark of a free and democratic society is how educated it's people are. Without public education, nay, without good public education, you wind up with a society that is only fit to serve it's masters. I believe that the founders would be appalled at this.

And California is a microcosm of the bigger problem we have here in this country. There is an article in Time, that I read this morning, that really sums the entire problem up for us.

California's Fiscal Crisis:
The Legacy of Proposition 13

The financial crisis in California grew worse this week as State Controller John Chiang warned that if legislators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fail to come up with a budget-balancing package, he would begin paying California's bills with IOUs on July 2. The last time the state did this was during the Great Depression...

And at the root of California's misery lies Proposition 13, the antitax measure that ignited the Reagan Revolution and the conservative era...

Before Prop 13, in the 1950s and '60s, California was a liberal showcase. Governors Earl Warren and Pat Brown responded to the population growth of the postwar boom with a massive program of public infrastructure — the nation's finest public college system, the freeway system and the state aqueduct that carries water from the well-watered north to the parched south...

The conservative mindset has, yet again, thrust us into what I'm sure historians will decide some decades from now, is another Great Depression. They got us into the first one as well, as I wrote about some months ago. You cannot provide the things that are the mark of a free and democratic society in a modern country, things such as water and public education without taxing people. You have to pay taxes if you want these things that make our lives comfortable and free. It's really quite simple. Sure, the government, at both the federal and local level, could stand to trim fat, you know, like the two wars we're fighting for no reason, politicians who use public money to go and see mistresses in Argentina, allowing no-bid contracts to certain corporations in quid-pro-quo deals, but that's not what the Republicans want cut. That's what they want to spend money on! Meanwhile they seek to destroy public education, government assisted funding for college and anything else that serves the public good. And the Democrats are no better. They need to grow some cojones and put a stop to this shit.

When we stop funneling money and resources into killing people and into corruption, we should have all the money we need for our crumbling schools and decaying roadways.

Or we can just be stupid and let the government continue to cut funding to important things so they'll have all the money they need for the military, so that they can run off and fight unnecessary wars with our tax dollars. We can submit to this and be little more than serfs, we can throw away all of the sacrifices that our ancestors gave so that we could be free and educated, and instead live in servitude to corporations.

Miss California: The Homophobic Hypocrite

Because nude photos are so Christ-like. *roll eyes*

Yes, this doesn't surprise me, not one little bit. It's because the extreme Fundamentalists love to tell everyone else what to do, but they think that they are exempt from their own rules.

Miss California Nude Picture Carrie Prejean Naked Photo Scandal

"Hmmm…These explosive pictures could be devastating for Miss California, whose anti-gay marriage campaign recently resulted in a partnership with the National Organization for Marriage and helped to make her increasingly popular with right-wing conservatives.

Can you guys believe the nerve of this bozo? Using the Lord Jesus Christ as an excuse to support inequality when she’s just as big a sinner as anyone?

Let this be a lesson to us all; you may want to refrain from chastising other people about how they live their lives when there are digital photos of your ass buried on somebody’s hard drive. This reminds me of something my mother always said when I was growing up- Ah, that’s right, something about stones and glass houses. Ring a bell?"

This reminds me of so many other bible thumpers, who were exposed as frauds. Because this is what it boils down to. She is an air-headed idiot, who probably likes to party too much, and has done who knows what (and done who knows who), but has the audacity to stand in front of cameras and tell two people that they shouldn't be together because of her religious beliefs, which obviously don't mean very much to her in the first place.

Indeed, if she wants to take the Bible literally, she ought to put some fucking clothes on. How dare she expose herself like that! {/snark}

From a Biblical standpoint, she is a whore. She picks and chooses her verses, when they're useful for hating on other people, but ignores the ones that urge modesty, saying that the use of makeup and jewelry is a sin. I don't even know what the Biblical writers would have thought of bikinis, as they weren't invented yet, but I'm sure that those crotchety old priests would have disapproved, for the masses that is. I'm sure they were as lecherous as the next priest.

The Christians are so good at judging and hating other people. If they were truly Christians, they'd take the words of their so-called savior a little closer to heart. I believe it was a parable about throwing stones at someone when the stone throwers themselves were just as guilty. Something too about not judging. But why does anything that Jesus supposedly say matter? I mean, much of it was quite ethical, and some if it was insightful, but if it gets in the way of hate, well we can't have that.

Oh, and apparently there are some racier photos than the one displayed here. I'm sure they'll be leaked later.

Apparently there may be more too. Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself.

Miss California Denounces Racy Photo Leak

"I am a Christian, and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos. Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid website that openly mocks me for my Christian faith.

"I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be. But these attacks on me and others who speak in defense of traditional marriage are intolerant and offensive. While we may not agree on every issue, we should show respect for others' opinions and not try to silence them through vicious and mean-spirited attacks."

What is this about "high school" photos? The photos so far that have been released are estimated to have been taken quite recently, after her boob job. You know, my dad used to warn me about saying too much. Apparently Miss Carrie Prejean didn't get the same advice.

Miss California: Still a Homophopic Prick

This girl just doesn't know when to stop. She just keeps digging herself deeper into her own hell. Now she's given an interview to Faux News. I'm sure she's enjoying this popularity, although she says she is dumbstruck by all the publicity. If that's the truth, she's even dumber than I thought, and I already knew she wasn't the brightest crayon in the box.

"I'm grateful for the outpouring of support from the great majority of Americans who know in our hearts that Americans should treat others with respect, even when we disagree -- especially when we disagree about important moral issues like marriage."

Respect? Respect is denying other people rights? Is this really the platform of Miss California. Why have they not stripped her of her crown? This isn't a "moral" issue you stupid, ignorant piece of chattel. It's a civil and legal issue. If you want it to be about "moral" things alone, then the government better cease to recognize any marriage at all. Oh, but it gets better.

"You probably know by now I believe very strongly that a marriage is between a man and a woman. This vision of marriage is not hateful, it's not discriminatory. It's good."

Apparently, dim-bulb here needs a dictionary for Christmas. To help her define the term "discriminatory". It is discrimination when you allow civil and legal rights to married couples of the opposite sex, but not to those of the same sex. Like power of attorney. The right to visit their significant other if they're dying in the hospital. If you're not married, and your partner is dying, his or her family can refuse you entry to his or her hospital room because you are not related or married and have no legal right to see them. I can't even begin to imagine how absolutely devastating that is. And if you are to die, your partner cannot carry out your final wishes, because they have no legal right to do so. And this doesn't even get into issues of health insurance, tax exemptions, and other things that have to do with government and not religion.

"I do not want to raise my own children in a world where this traditional view of marriage is considered hateful or discriminatory."

Dude, I really don't want your dumb, unthinking self having children. Please, use protection.

"VAN SUSTEREN: Are you taking heat for this? Because there certainly was a lot of controversy when you answered the question at the pageant, and then Perez Hilton blogged about it, and it sort of got everything all revved up.

PREJEAN: Am I taking any heat for this?

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes, any additional heat for hooking up with the National Organization for Marriage.

I mean, are people giving you a hard time, or supporting you? In the last few hours, what's it been like?

PREJEAN: I haven't had any negative feedback. I've had only positive feedback."

Case in point. She can't even interpret the question. She is a liar or just plain stupid as well. You haven't had any negative feedback? Are you living in a bubble, you ignorant, unthinking prick. Or are you just a liar?

"VAN SUSTEREN: What is your thought on civil unions?

PREJEAN: My thought on civil unions? You know what, Greta? I don't have the answers to everything. I'm not running for political office. I don't have the answers to everything, you know, in the world out there."

I bet she doesn't even know what a civil union is. Fucking idiot.

PREJEAN: Well, I'm not a politician, so I can't give you an answer to that.

Thank god, because we have enough stupid politicians as it is.

VAN SUSTEREN: How did you get involved with them? They watched the pageant and watched the controversy, and they called you?

PREJEAN: Oh, this is a huge issue right now.

And they actually got in contact with me, and just said we thank you for standing up for what you believe, and, you know, traditional marriage. We see that you, we could tell that you wanted to win Miss USA so bad that night, and you took a stand. And, you know, you aren't afraid to stand up for what you believe in. We respect you for that.

So that's kind of how they reached me.

Come on, we're not fucking stupid. They paid you off. I wonder how much money they waived in her face to get her to risk losing her crown as Miss California, because surely she had to know the risks. Unless she's even more dumb than I thought.

Revoke her fucking crown California! I can't believe for a second they want someone like this representing them and their state. What a loser.

Miss California is a Homophobic Prick

I'm sorry, but I think that she should be stripped of her crown as Miss California. Wait. I'm not sorry. She's a stupid, ignorant prick.

Miss California to Campaign Against Gay Marriage

NEW YORK – The reigning Miss California has gone to Washington to help launch a campaign opposing same-sex marriage.

Carrie Prejean told NBC's "Today" show Thursday that she'll be working with the National Organization for Marriage to "protect traditional marriages."

The 21-year-old says that marriage is "something that is very dear to my heart" and she's in Washington to help save it.

She says many people have thanked her for standing up for traditional marriage.

Prejean was named the first runner-up to Miss North Carolina in the Miss USA pageant April 19. Her response to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton's question about legalizing same-sex marriage may have cost her the title.

Let me start by saying, this obviously wasn't her platform before. Ah, and I know good and well what happened. Whatever personal opinions she may have had before the Miss USA pageant, she didn't go on a crusade over them. But afterward, all of a sudden certain groups, like NOM and I'm sure a bunch of other right-wing wacko groups, got wind that she was a.) in the news, and b.) for their cause. Throw enough money at most people and they'll sell their souls for anything. So yes, you are right in thinking where I'm taking this. The anti-gay marriage lobby has bought her off.

Come on California! This stupid, unthinking, parrot, sorry-excuse for a human being doesn't deserve to be Miss California. Is this the platform of Miss California, to deny rights to other people? To be an ignorant, uncouth, unthinking, bought-off fool? Do the right thing and strip her of her crown.