Today's Cultural Warfare Update (1/2)

So we're back to this: Dinesh D'Souza blames "the cultural left," particularly queers, for the 9/11 attacks. He thinks the US should change its culture in response and, one presumes, crack down on women, t3h gay, contraception, etc. Yes, this is January 2007. Yes, he thinks that this is an original assertion; no, he apparently doesn't remember why Fallwell et Robertson Delenda Est. Yes, all this still pisses me off - credit for the spot to Andrew Sullivan;

I don't usually include other people commenting about the fundamentalist movement, and I think this one has a few things wrong - I think he underestimates the influence of not Rushdooney himself, but of Rushdooney's successors, for example - but I think the author has a few compelling points, so I'm including it;

"Christian Lawyers to Petition Queen to Block Gay Rights Bill" - the argument being that equal rights law for GBLT people is inherently discriminatory against (anti-gay) Christians; it's the same thing we see in the US, where the fundamentalists say that if they can't discriminate against queers in the public space, then they can't practice their religion;

Concerned Women for America's Janet LaRue, writing for townhall.com, tries to wedge the "GL" away from the "B" in a column that also asserts all bisexual people need to marry one person of each gender in order to have their rights respected, and this is why we can't have same-sex legal marriage;

"Answers in Genesis," a creationist website, says that Neanderthals had to have been humans because all humans are "descended from Noah's three sons and their wives"; they're attacking a study placing an approximate age from the split-off of the neanderthals and cro-magnon man from a common ancestor; the funny thing is where they condemn and then use the same data in one paragraph, the condemnation is for indicating too old an age for the mitochondrial DNA in question, since the world is only 6,000 years or so old, of course;

Dinesh D'Souza on NRO outlines clearly that he wants an alliance between American fundamentalists and Muslim non-radicalised "social conservatives" who are against things like GBLT people, church-state separation, and reproductive rights, to fight in "the war at home" with Mr. Bush against queers, secular government, and social "liberals"; states you can't win a war on radical Islamist movements without winning the "war at home" against non-theoconservatives;

Rabidly anti-gay theocon Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) formally announces his entry into the Presidential race; this'll be really neat to watch in an academic way, as he's the Ellen Craswell of the national Republican Party; the theocons love him desperately, but the non-theocon party elite want no part of him - and he's alienating the neocons. Will the Dobsons (et al) push their followers to someone else to keep the alliance intact? stay tuned;

Anti-abortion clergy to hold "preborn memorial" in Senate auditorium, including a "memorial" to "honor those who have lost their lives to abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem-cell research";

Mr. Bush issues proclamation of "National Sanctity of Human Life Day" tomorrow;

Focus on the Family wants the HPV vaccine - the one that prevents cervical cancer from the sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus - "opt-in" and a separate shot from the rest of the school vaccination requirement set; they can't bring themselves to outright oppose it, clearly - and even state outright that it will save lives - but since HPV is sexually transmitted (one has to presume) then apparently it's radioactive;

Focus on the Family carries water for the Bush team on Mr. Bush's fantastically expensive prescription-drug programme; the story implies that drug prices can be negotiated under the current programme (untrue, and the entire point of the revisions), implies that people can't buy these drugs at all outside the programme (wtf?), and says that negotiations over price and the government _not_ paying for some expensive prevision drugs is "the same thing as involuntary euthanasia";

FotF: "Wisconsin Officials Will Denounce Marriage" - by not supporting the anti-marriage amendment recently passed, and issuing a declaration saying they oppose it and will work to overturn it;

New anti-marriage amendment introduced in New Mexico;

Another article on the conflict within evangelical Christianity over global warming, with Focus becoming slightly less condemnational, but still pushing the idea as a "liberal... wedge";

FotF outraged that a public school painted over bible verses ("So the King will greatly desire your beauty; because He is your Lord, worship Him") added to a public middle school girls' bathroom by volunteers;

Focus on the Family says "ministers and state officials" will be "forced" to perform civil unions in New Jersey; first, civil unions aren't marriage; second, civil marriage isn't church marriage; third, "ministers" and "state officials" aren't the same thing no matter how much Focus on the Family wants them to be. The story closes with the assertion that anti-gay state officials should be allowed to opt-out of job duties if they hate queers;

FotF tries to make the "Embryo Saved From Katrina's Flood is Now a Boy Named Noah" into a rally for efforts to ban embryonic stem-cell research;

FotF attacks Lawrence v. Texas (2003) again by noting that a polygamist in Utah is using it as part of his appeal to the Supreme Court;

FotF declares Virginia school curriculum that talks about when abortion is legal to be "advocacy";

The late Terri Schiavo's brother and sister will march in anti-abortion rally on Monday;

Anti-abortion activists plan to appeal ruling striking down a law requiring doctors to deliver an anti-abortion lecture to women considering abortion; FotF's subheading on it is, "Doctors may once again be compelled to disclose the truth about abortion";

Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM against Federal hate-crimes bill; they assert it will be used to make opposition to "homosexuality" illegal;

FotF article on "trigger laws" - comprehensive abortion bans that only take effect when and if Roe v. Wade is overturned;

Planned Parenthood article on pharmacists refusing to prescribe "Plan B" (the morning-after birth control pill) includes the claim - again - that Plan B "can cause an early abortion";

"How the left caused 9/11," by Dinesh D'Souza; one of "the left's" crimes is working to make contraception available to Muslim women;

Concerned Women for America: "'Thought Crimes' Bill Re-introduced in Congress"; says liberals care more about gay men being killed than a "4-year-old daughter" being killed;

CWA condemns embryonic stem-cell research bill, jumps on the Noah Markham Is Our New Poster Child bandwagon mentioned above;

CWA condemns UN report calling for more gender equality worldwide, says they expected "more" out of a Bush appointee; I'm particularly nauseated by the they mock report concerns about women having no control over their sexual lives in many countries;

CWA ACTION ITEM against Fox Sports's NFL playoff broadcast for showing a picture of a woman wearing a T-shirt reading "Fuck Da Eagles"; says Fox has no "right to air... offensive language";

CWA's Mike Mears on a Virginia attempt to overturn their recent anti-marriage/anti-civil-unions Constitutional amendment;

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