No sympathy.

At least some of the allegations are true. Andrew Sullivan says he "feels for" the Rev. Ted Haggard, former president of the National Association of Evangelicals and a major fundamentalist player behind the scenes in the culture wars. "This is what happens to a man psychologically and spiritually destroyed by actually advancing a lie he knows to be a lie about homosexuality as a "chosen lifestyle" while being gay himself." Andrew has some sympathy for Mr. Haggard.

Y'know what? I don't. I have no sympathy for Ted Haggard. None. It's because of people like him that I've had to spend my entire adult life fighting fundamentalist attempts to pass state and Federal law mandiating government discrimination against me - five citizen initiatives in the 1990s alone! It's because of people like Haggard that I watch a nonstop new-type blood libel propoganda machine crank out anti-queer smears of the filthiest kind every day, calling me and people like me violent, diseased, insane child rapists working to bring about the end of Western civilisation. It's because of him, and people like him. I better things I want to be doing with my life than spending hours and days every week just trying to beat back the theocratic hordes, and he's been leading them and rallying them on.

I am sick and tired of the closeted self-loathing evangelical queers using the sane rest of us as distractions for their followers and externalisations for their self-loathing. I am through with people like him ruining the lives of others to prop themselves up. It's wretched, vile, abusive, evil - I have as many words as you want for it, and still don't have as many as I think I need. I hope his followers tear him to shreads and leave him bleeding against a barbed wire fence in the middle of nowhere. I have lots of words for how I feel about people like him.

But what I do not have is sympathy. Of that, I have absolutely none.

Today's Cultural Warfare Update

ABC news: Government Tells Singles No Sex Till You're 30. What's interesting in particular about this story is that the DHHS statement they quote is using fundamentalist rhetoric;

Focus on the Family: abstinence-only for the over-20 set is good;

Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to back anti-marriage-rights initiatives in various states, claims New Jersey citizens overwhelmingly support a comprehensive marriage ban;

FotF lists a big set of ballot initiatives they've endorsed, tells people not to forget to vote; the focus appears to have shifted from "VOTE GOP!" to individual initiatives;

Concerned Women for America: "homosexuals... usurp both the courts and the democratic process [to] help homosexuals gain special rights";

Faith and Freedom Network response to the Haggard scandal;

Canada Family Action Coalition short note on an Oregon State University experiment to implant devices in sheep brains to dispense estrogen in an attempt to make gay sheep heterosexual;

American Family Association says Haggard has stepped down "Amidst One Man's Accusations" - but hedges their bets on whether it's likely to turn out to be true - and they're awfully okay with ignoring the drug purchases and stuff while waiting for more news;

AFA/Agape Press: God wants you to vote Republican, Democrats will destroy the soul of America;

AFA/Agape Press pushes anti-marriage-rights initiatives; in particular, also accuses opponents of dishonesty by referring to it as a "gay marriage" initiative - apparently actually saying what they're trying to ban is dishonest;

AFA/Agape Press pushes anti-marriage-rights initiatives again;

AFA/Agape Press newsbriefs suggest that Wal-Mart's lack of sales growth last month is because they joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce; also talk about the Virginia anti-marriage amendment and a happy little report on Kansas attourney general Phill Kline's medical-records digging;

Family Research Council video starring Tony Perkins on why you must get out and vote, and vote GOP; "Voting [is] a duty owed to God";

FRC hedges its bets on the Haggard scandal as well.

( Articles and excerpts )

not very much

Chores finally handled: getting the dead wasp nest out of the fireplace chimney, invoicing for some writing I did a couple of months ago - and not enough else. I've been sleepy since school let out! At least I cleared a lot of crap out of my email queue.

Tomorrow, I must study, tho' I am also considering some play of the video game type. We're getting into adjectives in Japanese 111 now. I ph33r. I ph33r very much.


Like Melting Butter

Here, have a couple of financial links I found interesting today:

* One estimate suggests that 2007 will be the Year of the Vampire, as $1 trillion-worth of ARMs (or 12% of all U.S. mortgage debt) will be readjusted upward, increasing monthly payments and adding to homeowners' burdens.

* The M3b: a reconstruction of the no-longer-offered M3 data. Less strict than the next item, but also contains other interesting charts.

* ShadowStat's reconstructed true M3, or as close as you can come without being the government. Potentially useful if you follow dollar trends.

Friday's miles: 2.0
Miles out of Hobbiton: 1396
Miles out of Rivendell: 938
Miles out of Lothlórien: 484
Miles past Rauros Falls: 66.1
Miles to Isengard: 395.6

日本人のthug life、よ:

You are Yakuza (Japanese mafia)

What Japanese Smiley Are You?