Curing Religious and Bigoted Lifestyle Choices

Because Rick Warren needs tolerant human gene implants to be cured of his sick, perverted and wicked ways.

Given those views, it should come as no surprise that Warren is also a supporter of the ex-gay movement that tries to cure people of their homosexuality. A reader writes to Andrew Sullivan pointing out that Warren’s Saddleback Church operates a program called Celebrate Recovery that seeks to “help people overcome their hurts, habits and hang-ups” by encouraging people to “grow toward full Christlike maturity.”

Hate like this is more sinful than incest, pedophilia, beastiality and allowing marriages between people that can't procreate - like teh gays, sterile people or people that chose not to have kids.

Say what?

"In short the argument goes, "Marriage exists for the next generation's benefit. Gay marriage shouldn't exist because they can't produce offspring."

At first, this seems, if not rational, at least not insane.

But if you think about it, by that measure, a marriage isn't 'real' until the couple produces a child. If one accepts this argument, one is also saying that people who choose to not have children, or are sterile, don't have the privilege of being married."

Can we find a cure for people like Rick Warren before we have to consider just subjugating these Christianists to second class citizen status by revoking their rights or, maybe even, just castrating those of this sub-human religious species to avoid them reproducing more of their kind?

Some Christianists are obviously genetically defective if they can't be cured of the religious bigotry inherent in their lifestyle choices.

That is what it is. You always hear them talking about personal choices and lifestyle choices of others.

For over seven minutes last night, Jon Stewart grilled former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on his opposition to gay marriage. Huckabee is touring the country to promote his new book, “Do The Right Thing.” When Stewart compared gay marriage bans to interracial marriage bans, Huckabee restated his view that homosexuality is simply a behavior choice:

STEWART: Segregation used to be the law until the courts intervened.

HUCK: There’s a big difference between a person being black and a person practicing a lifestyle and engaging in a marital relationship.

STEWART: Okay, actually this is helpful because it gets to the crux of it. … And I’ll tell you this: Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. And the protections that we have for religion — we protect religion. And talk about a lifestyle choice — that is absolutely a choice. Gay people don’t choose to be gay. At what age did you choose to not be gay?

Huckabee tried to insist that “60 percent of the American population” opposes gay marriage. Stewart interrupted him, calling it a “travesty” that gay Americans have to plead for their civil rights... (READ ON)

The truth is that being gay or lesbian is not likely a lifestyle choice. The facts would seem to suggest that it is the way you were when you born - in pretty much the exact same way that you are born black, white, whatever, etc. - and environment may only be a factor in how it can effect the genetic code that people are born with.

And even if it were a choice?

Who cares... Exercising free will, to make your own choice, is as much a right as it is a personal responsibility or, even, A REAL AND HONEST CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. Like choosing to be part of the GLBT community and choosing to get married. They have as much right to their own free will as you do to yours.

So Listen up all of you khaki-brown shit-head semi-epsilon-moron-minus, speudo-scientific, religiously bigoted, sin projectoralist Christianists... Pull the fuckin' log out of your eye and shove it up yer ass. 'Cause it is giving you all brain damage the way you are doing it.

Did someone say snow?

[update] The snow is falling like mad now...

Maybe? Haven't seen any here in New Milford, Connecticut, YET... And at the current 28 degrees in New Milford I don't think we can be expecting the forecasted "frozen mix" unless the temperature shoots up? More likely one big dump of white crap everywhere. From Weather.com:

Storm Heads to the Northeast

The current Midwest storm will find its way into the Northeast today; snow and freezing rain will create problems.

Article | Video

Storm Watch

Winter Storm from Midwest to Northeast

A winter storm will spread a heavy snow and ice from the Midwest and Great Lakes, into the New England States today.

Article | Video

• Friday Highlights: Highs | Outlook
• Maps: Current Temps | Current Winds/Gusts | Wind Chills

Planning for Winter Weather

• Ice Storm Prep: What to do Before the Storm | Tips for Snow and Ice Removal
• Travel: Check Airport Delays | Monitor Road Conditions
• At Home: Prevent Frozen Pipes | Winterize your Roof

It is pretty darn clear that the storm is moving this way... A snapshot of the storm at 9:45 a.m.:



So be ready for whatever it brings. Because it looks to be a real doozy!

2nd best use of shoes I've seen...

Calling someone a dog and showing them the soles of your shoes - especially up close and personal like - are kind of like ultimate insults in their culture. An Iraqi journalist tosses several insults at Bush on his farewell to Iraq tour:



And ya want your So Called Liberal Media? There it is in Iraq... 99% of our right wing corporate owned and controlled media don't have the balls to editorialize like that. Most of them have problems just telling the plain truth.

(h/t Booman for the story and bumblebums for the MSNBC video)

[update] Via Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors:

Our own Scissorhead Laura has a great idea.

Awesome idea!

I had thought that holding a shoe in the air would be a great at demonstrations. One of those few things that the Preznit’s SS wouldn’t take from you as you enter a place where he is scheduled to mangle the English language.

“Bare your sole for Bush!”

But Laura's idea is much more practical...

A lot of people seem to be thinking the same thing here: "He’s got great reflexes for an old dude."

You would too if your BFF was the shotgun wielding neoconservative cheney. Bush is lucky the irate Iraqi wasn't playing horseshoes with hand grenades...

All that I want...

Is to wish you all a safe and happy holiday season...

Stimulate the Economy and Your Brain!

Every once in a while I am going to put up a link here and there to some Blogging friends (well, I think of them as friends? They link, they read and comment occasionally - as do I at their Blogging homes) that have put some serious effort into the causes many of us support and that have something like a book, some art, or maybe something to support a cause dear to their hearts for sale. I don't think it will be more than once a week, give or take, because I don't want to alienate my 3 regular readers (Me, myself and I).

Some may be doing it for a cause, others may be doing it to pay for their bandwidth, and others may be trying eke out a meager living in this piss poor outsourced and unemployed based economy.

In all of those cases, I think that it makes them worthy of our support. I get absolutely nothing from them for these little blurbs - except, maybe, an "attaboy" and the satisfaction of knowing that the few people that click through here may learn about a new site or a new author/artist/cause.

I figured that I would start with this book, The Pains, written by John and available for pre-order over at The Wetmachine, and since my verbosity is generally limited to and usually starts and ends questionably with 4 letter words ("What the fuck?"), I'll let John's words try and sell you on it:

Let's say you're the Savior, Fred Christ.
Would you want your frozen head to be
reanimated in 1984?

The book will be going to press in November, 2008, and printed books will be in hand sometime in early-to-mid December, 2008.

This book is way off schedule. Sometimes stuff happens, and since I announced The Pains, stuff has happened in giant bucketsfull. However, the book essentially done. Originally I promised it for Summer, 2006, then I said March 2007. Thank you to those of you who have waited, (sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently) and encouraged me to finish writing the book. Well, I have finished. Selah. I hope you like it.

Starting with Chapter 3, attentive readers may notice some allusions to, and borrowing from, the work of the late Chis McKinstry, creator of the Mindpixel project. As far as I've been able to determine, there is no copyright holder. I'll have more to say about this when the final book is prepared for publication, but for now I just want to make this acknowledgment.

I have made fair-use use of songs by Kate Bush, Leonard Cohen and Social Distortion, and I have borrowed themes, characters, and even a bit of prose here and there from George Orwell's 1984. Proper attribution will be given in the printed version.

I hope that if you like the book, you'll buy a printed copy or make a donation using Paypal. Cheeseburger and I could really use the money. Really.

This little story is dedicated to the memory of my late brother Paul Damien Sundman and of my late sister Maureen Sundman Angevine. I know that Paul liked the early chapters, and I think he would have liked the finished book. Maureen probably would have hated it--she didn't approve of blasphemy. But I like to think she's in heaven now, putting in a good word for me on the grounds that I'm too stupid to know any better.

You can even get a peek at the book's contents:

Here comes "The Pains," by me, John Damien Sundman, with illustrations by Cheeseburger Brown. The HTML version is [here]; the PDF version that will be used to create the printed book will be along soon. Feel free to read, save, print, copy and share among your friends.

So you can decide for yourself. A couple of other books by John - Acts of the Apostles, and Cheap Complex Devices - are there to take a look at, as well. Also, I encourage you to poke around the Wetmachine site just to get a better idea of where John and his Blogging friends are coming from and going to. And you may just like the Blog... I do.

Support The Blog!

I am going to be filing these under a convenient tag - "Support The Blog" - so you can find them all as they accumulate. I believe that when you support a fellow Blogger you are supporting everything you are fighting for. My next stops - yeah... I have been thinking about doing this for a while - are going to be in the heart of Liberal America and somewhere around Hooterville... Just so as you know. If you have any suggestions for future features feel free to contact me through my profile email and use the title "Support The Blog" so I can find it easily and pull it out of the spam box if it ends up there. By the way... You can always find something new to read over here. And thanks for reading this!