Today's Cultural Warfare Update (Mini-Edition)

[solarbird]

Last week of the quarter, I've got a bio final on Monday; there will be a weekend CWU, but I wanted to go ahead and get this miniature one out now.

The Wall Street Journal joins in the 'faggotisation' of John Edwards, using a lot of the same rhetoric as seen elsewhere;

Pope Benedict declares that all Catholic politicians must actively oppose civil marriage for gay and lesbian people, as well as legal abortion;

Hey, Hillary Clinton, Go Fuck Yourself - Senator Clinton (D) can't even manage to say t3h queers aren't intrinsically "immoral" when asked outright (spotted on my friendslist - it's friendslocked so I'm not saying who. If you want credit, lemmie know). I've just found out from the same source that she later, when asked repeatedly again later, issued a statement saying that she doesn't think t3h qu33rs are immoral. Assuming that's true, it took a couple of days to get that out of her, and I'm certainly continuing to assume that she'd do the same thanks-for-the-vote-now-here's-a-knife that her husband Bill "the Betrayer" Clinton did;

Hey, Garrison Keillor, Go Fuck Yourself - the long-time host of the popular radio programme A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor, apparently feels encouraged by Ann Coulter's "faggot" commentary to "state the obvious" - that queers aren't fit parents for children and marriage is with one man and one woman only ever and all those hyphenated-relatives from divorce are screwing things up compared with how things were when he was a kid;

Hey, Garrison Keillor, Go Fuck Yourself - Dan Savage points out that you have to take all of this crap from Garrison while ignoring his three marriages with kids from more than one, and his extramarital affairs. Presumably that's all okay if you're straight, after all. A defense of Mr. Keillor's comments are here, but I'm not buyin' it;

Mike Adams on Townhall defends the Coulter commentary, noting that "faggot" is going to go the way of "queer," which is to say that he missed when it was a perfectly good word when he and his friends used to play "smear the queer" in school, presumably practicing their gaybashing skills. Note that he refers to "the outing of John Edwards," implying rather directly that John Edwards is gay, when he is clearly and patently not. So the real point of this column is the continued "faggotisation" of John Edwards;

Albert Mohler Jr.'s column calling for prenatal intervention to eliminate GBLT people by altering them before birth finally gets a reaction in the mainstream press; he's president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which matters. Pointer courtesy spazzkat.


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Our right-wing arbiters of masculinity
Sunday March 11, 2007 13:53 EST

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/03/11/taranto/index.html

On Thursday, The Wall St. Journal's James Taranto -- in an item he entitled "Always a Woman to Me" -- followed in Ann Coulter's footsteps by very cleverly noting that "at least one prominent feminist . . . has been won over by John Edwards's womanly charms" (emphasis added). The whole Taranto item makes cute little references to how very womanly John Edwards is, and Taranto ended this way:

Doubtless America will one day have a female president. But our guess is it'll be someone whose appeal transcends sex--who tries to win votes not from women qua women but from men and women qua citizens. So far that would seem to exclude both Mrs. Clinton and John Edwards.

Taranto also takes particular glee in showing what a tough guy he is by mocking combat veterans like Max Cleland because -- unlike the chest-beasting, super-brave Taranto -- Cleland actually finds war to be trauamatizing and horrible.

[More at URL]


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Catholic politicians must oppose gay marriage: Pope
Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:25AM EDT
By Philip Pullella
Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1340012320070313?pageNumber=1

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Church's opposition to gay marriage is "non-negotiable" and Catholic politicians have a moral duty to oppose it, as well as laws on abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict said in a document issued on Tuesday.

In a 140-page booklet on the workings of a synod that took place at the Vatican in 2005 on the theme of the Eucharist, the 79-year-old German Pope also re-affirmed the Catholic rule of celibacy for priests.

In the "Apostolic Exhortation" Benedict said all believers had to defend what he called fundamental values but that the duty was "especially incumbent" on those in positions of power.

[More at URL]


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Senator Clinton, unplugged
March 14, 2007
ABC News

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/03/senator_clinton.html

This morning on Good Morning, America, we ran an interview with Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, in which she called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's head.

[...]

I also asked her about the comments by General Peter Pace that homosexulity is "immoral." Clinton has opposed the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, so I asked her if that law -- signed by her husband in 1993 -- was a mistake, and if homosexuality is "immoral."

"General Pace has clarified his remarks, but let's not lose sight of the fact that 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' is not working," she said. "We are being deprived of thousands of patriotic men and women who want to serve their country who are bringing skills into the armed services that we desparately need, like translation skills. And one can argue whether it was a good idea when it was first implemented, but we know have evidence as to the fact that we are in a time of war -- when we really need as many people as we can to recruit and retain in an all-volunteer army -- we are turning people away or discharging them not because of what they've done but because of who they are."

[Editor's note: Note that she didn't answer the question. Even ABC noticed that.]

But is it immoral?

"Well I'm going to leave that to others to conclude," she said.

[More at URL]


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Stating the obvious
Nature doesn't care about the emotional well-being of older people. It's about the continuation of the species -- in other words, children.
By Garrison Keillor
Slate.com

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/03/14/keillor/

I grew up the child of a mixed-gender marriage that lasted until death parted them, and I could tell you about how good that is for children, and you could pay me whatever you think it's worth.

Back in the day, that was the standard arrangement. Everyone had a yard, a garage, a female mom, a male dad, and a refrigerator with leftover boiled potatoes in plastic dishes with snap-on lids. This was before caller ID, before credit cards, before pizza, for crying out loud. You could put me in a glass case at the history center and schoolchildren could press a button and ask me questions.

Monogamy put the parents in the background where they belong and we children were able to hold center stage. We didn't have to contend with troubled, angry parents demanding that life be richer and more rewarding for them. We blossomed and agonized and fussed over our outfits and learned how to go on a date and order pizza and do the twist and neck in the front seat of a car back before bucket seats when you could slide close together, and we started down the path toward begetting children while Mom and Dad stood like smiling, helpless mannequins in the background.

Nature is about continuation of the species -- in other words, children. Nature does not care about the emotional well-being of older people.

[...]

And now gay marriage will produce a whole new string of hyphenated relatives. In addition to the ex-stepson and ex-in-laws and your wife's first husband's second wife, there now will be Bruce and Kevin's in-laws and Bruce's ex, Mark, and Mark's current partner, and I suppose we'll get used to it.

The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That's for the kids. It's their show.

[More at URL]


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Fuck Garrison Keillor
SLOG - The Stranger's Blog
The Stranger
Posted by DAN SAVAGE on March 14 at 10:02 AM

http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2007/03/fuck_garrison_keillor

Oh. My. God. I’m sitting here writing a silly little blog post about General Peter Pace when I get an email from a friend telling to go read Garrison Keillor’s piece on marriage and family over at Salon.

Keillor, concerned about the emotional well-being of children, comes to praise heterosexual marriage, monogamy, and life-long commitment:

[...]

Keillor has been married THREE TIMES. He has children from two of his marriages, children who presumably need a computer program to keep track of their step-siblings, half-siblings, and sprawling extended families, children that have to be “apportioned out on Thanksgiving and Christmas.” Okay, fine, whatever. Keillor can recognize marriage, life-long commitment, and less complicated family structures as the ideal, even if he himself has failed—failed spectacularly—to live up to that ideal himself. It might have been nice, however, if the withered old hypocrite had admitted to Salon readers that he has failed to live up to the ideals he’s espousing. How about a little full disclosure, Garrison?

[...]

But Keillor really didn’t come to praise heterosexual marriage and monogamy. He came to bury gay couples—particularly gay couples with children.

[More at URL]


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How to bomb a gay bath house
By Mike S. Adams
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/MikeSAdams/2007/03/14/how_to_bomb_a_gay_bath_house?page=full

I've been thinking about Ann Coulter a lot lately - a real shocker, I know - and I think I've finally found a way to get her out of the hot water she's in over her recent outing of John Edwards. [Ed. Note: John Edwards is not gay, despite Ann Coulter's assertion that he is a "faggot" and Rush Limbaugh's assertion that he is a cross-dressing woman.] Before I reveal just what she ought to do, I have an obligation to tell her what not to do - especially since she's getting such bad advice from other conservatives.

The first thing Ann should not do is heed calls that she apologize for using the term "faggot." [...]

Recall that the term "queer" was once acceptable in America - certainly you remember playing "smear the queer" in grade school. After years of banning the term, the Diversity Offices are now establishing "Queer Resource Centers" on college campuses. [Ed. note: This ignores two and a half decades of history, I suppose? C.f. Queer Nation.]

[More at URL]


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Baptist assailed for gay-baby article
By David Crary
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 15, 2007

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003618753_gaybaby15.html

NEW YORK — The president of the leading Southern Baptist seminary has incurred criticism from the left and the right by suggesting that a biological basis for homosexuality may be proved and that prenatal treatment to reverse gay orientation would be biblically justified.

The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., one of the country's pre-eminent evangelical leaders, acknowledged he irked many fellow conservatives with an article earlier this month saying research "points to some level of biological causation" for homosexuality.

Proof of a biological basis would challenge the belief of many conservative Christians that homosexuality — which they view as sinful — is a matter of choice that can be overcome through prayer and counseling.

However, Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., was assailed even more harshly by gay-rights supporters. They were upset by his assertion that homosexuality would remain a sin even if it were biologically based and by his support for possible medical treatment that could switch an unborn gay baby's sexual orientation to heterosexual.

[More at URL]

Comments

[cubes.livejournal.com]

FYI, for those following the idiocy here in Florida (he had and still has a tremendous amount of support from city residents and employees, so please don't take it out on the city as a whole):

Stanton has 9 days to prepare (http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/14/Northpinellas/Stanton_has_9_days_to.shtml)

LARGO - City Manager Steve Stanton will make his case to keep his job on March 23.

City Commissioners on Tuesday night chose that date for the public hearing because that's when they'll all be available.

But his attorney said she might not be.

Full article: http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/14/Northpinellas/Stanton_has_9_days_to.shtml

[mathmuffin.livejournal.com]

Garrison Keillor makes a living selling nostalgia, so it is no surprise that he idealizes the old ways. But usually he is smart enough to remember not to criticize the present when harping on the past.

His title, "Stating the Obvious," opens the door for my counter-arguments. When I look at solarbird and annathepiper, I see a married couple. Despite the doctrine touted by many of my fellow Bible-thumpers, it is obvious that that relationship is a real and good marriage. The one lesbian couple that I know in my church has a son who occasionally attends my Sunday School classes. Despite Garrison Keillor's viewpoint, it is obvious that that son is well raised in that family. Many people have spun elaborate theories about the merits of mixed-gender families, but as we scientists know, theories are glass structures that shatter to pieces when opposed by the hard reality of facts.

In theory, a father and a mother provide role models of both genders for their children of both genders. In practice, I am the father of two daughters. What role am I modeling for them? Well, I model many roles to them, but obviously not a gender role. In fact, my younger daughter developed her fondness for power tools after she left home for college, because I am more a hand-tool type.

It makes no sense to deny marriage to same-sex couples for the sake of theories that don't hold water. That is obvious.

Erin Schram

[emrecom.livejournal.com]

Someone might want to point out to Garrison Keillor that that paragon of old skool liberlism, the ACLU, recently published stats showing that financially solvent single-parent/queer families have far better parenting outcomes than hets. But what big band song can you play behind that?


Hi.

[solarbird]

Yo?

[emrecom.livejournal.com]

Yes, yo. Saw your response to one of Nick's posts. I know him a bit; he included a story of mine in the antho he edited.