Oh, fuck you, Barack

President-Elect Barack Obama has picked fundamentalist evangelical Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Rev. Warren was a big supporter of California's Proposition 8, which wrote "fuck you, queers" into the California constitution and eliminating marriage rights in that state. He says same-sex marriage is the same as paedophilia, incest, and so on. He pushed the freakish lie that civil marriage for GBLT people destroys free speech. He considers abortion rights the same as the Holocaust, and supports efforts to keep GBLT people illegal in countries in Africa. Oh, and "mainline" Christian churches preach "Marxism in Christian clothing."

Andrew Sullivan calls Rick Warren "Dobson-lite" and gets the motivation - but calls it more wedge politics and says "not on the backs of gay people." Sorry, Andrew, it's the Democratic Party. Glenn Greenwald notes:

Obama's "inclusiveness" mantra always seems to head only in one direction -- an excuse to scorn progressives and embrace the Right. Not even Bill Clinton's most extreme Dick-Morris-led "triangulation" tactics involved an attempt to court Jerry Falwell.

Of course, he's getting plaudits from places like Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. But also, sadly predictably, people like Marc Ambinder at Salon are praising the choice for its "inclusiveness." Thanks, dicks. Will be seeing a representative of the Klu Klux Klan for the Benediction? How fucking "inclusive" would that be?

So, fuck you, Barack, and by the way, Merry fucking Christmas to you too. I'd like to be more surprised, but I'm not.

birdies

Birdies

That's not really a sparrowsphere - take that feeder and really envelope it in about four times as many birds and that's a true sparrowsphere. Mostly we get those only in the summer. Yesterday, the feeder was very busy, but not in that kind of mass-action way.

after snowpocalypse, before windpocalypse

Our House

( a gazillion pictures, taken in the snow today )

Oh dear

Local people, be aware: forecasters are calling for another round of snow on Saturday, followed by a dangerous ice storm, followed by possibly dangerous winds overnight Saturday and on Sunday. They're saying to stock up on food and to be prepared for power outages.

So Longestnight is looking like it's going to be Long, in bad ways. Be prepared.

more on the rick warren selection

A survivor of Rick Warren's ex-gay ministry comments on the Rev. Warren's selection to deliver the invocation. There's delight and hope from the Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, who stresses Rev. Warren's involvement in Proposition 8 and his firm and unwavering opposition to faggots on every front. Rev. Warren is of course thrilled to have been invited. Some fundamentalists are pretty cranky that Rev. Warren accepted, because of Mr. Obama's support for abortion rights.

For the record; I'm not against "engaging" with people like Rev. Warren; not doing so is not an option. I object to honouring them. I object even more to boosting their position and helping them with one of their major immediate and vital goals: keeping anti-queer hate-politics "respectable," and "polite," which is to say, in the game, which is what this does.

Allow me to explain.

A few years ago when I posted about a big theoconservative confab where people from Concerned Women for America and Focus on the Family were doing things like quoting Stalin without irony, I also posted how they were talking about how they were in danger of becoming like the racists, and had to avoid that same fate. Some people saw that as kind of an awareness that they didn't have any ground to stand upon. That's part of it, but they don't care; they're anti-rationalists anyway.

This is what they actually meant: the overt racists, the segregationists, and so on, were put out of the game because it it stopped being a respectable position. Having those positions alienated you from polite political society. After that happened, nobody would defend the selection of a segregationist with the inevitable argument, "He can be engaged. He does good work in many areas." It became a disqualifying attribute in many circles. Not all, of course, but many. The fundamentalist leadership saw this happening to them, and it scared them good. It should've; you don't easily climb back out of that hole.

Mr. Obama's selection of Reverend Rick Warren helps preserve and further their respectability. It arguably adds to it, within the Democratic party. It supports and elevates the idea that you can support work to have queer people be illegal, you can argue that we're paedophiles and that our relationships will destroy free speech, and even if someone else in the political class doesn't agree, or even finds it distasteful, they won't really hold it against you. It's not important enough for that. It's still reasonable. It's still respectable. It's still accepted in polite politics. You're still in the game.

The worst part is, continuing this is exactly the point. Mr. Obama wants some of that fundamentalist evangelical segment in the Democratic party. He's trying to wedge off some of the GOP's largest remaining base group, the theoconservatives; the "inclusiveness" he wants is to include them, knowing he doesn't have to give a rat's ass about us. He wants them to know that just because they hate queers, that doesn't mean they aren't welcome in today's Democratic party. He knows they haven't gotten what they want out of the GOP, and he's telling them, "it's okay; you can have a big hate-on for the fags, and we're just fine with that. C'mon over."

Chris Crain thinks this is all bullshit; he dismisses the anger as a "unity call" falling on "PC ears." He also thinks Mr. Obama will deliver on his campaign promises, talking about his campaign positions being "the most supportive ever on LGBT civil rights." I do not share this particular faith; I remember the last time that sentiment was expressed, and I remember what actually happened. I rather suspect we're being offered as the chip in this little exchange, and I assure you, I do object.

Eight days meme (day two)

Things making me happier today, Thursday 18 December:

1. OMG PWNIES
2. Walking around in snow, pelting annathepiper with snowballs

(Eight days meme rules here)