Wednesday, December 20, 2006

So many issues going down today

I tell you, the right has gone ape crazy today. I usually make only one post regarding the anti-gay industry, but so many things have gone on, I think I will make several posts.

Dobson answers

James Dobson finally answered charges that he distorted and cherry picked the work of various researchers and professors during his Time magazine tirade last week.

Or something like that.

Another member of Focus on the Family, Bill Maier, attacks the notion that Dobson misrepresented anything.

As usual, the routine anti-gay industry standby excuse is pushed: it's a "liberal conspiracy," or in this case, a "liberal groupthink":

"These are well-respected scientists who probably feel they have no choice but to cry 'foul' because they work in a field that is so dominated by liberal groupthink," Maier explained. "But the fact they aren't happy their data was used to reach a conclusion they disagree with doesn't mean the data was not properly applied. Dr. Dobson never claimed these researchers share his view on this issue -- they clearly do not. But there is no denying that the data they compiled can be appropriately cited to show the unique contributions mothers and fathers make in the lives of their children.

Feel free to go over the past posts about the researchers complaining over Dobson's misuse of their work and see how the answer his subordinate gave is yet another lie.

While I like it when the anti-gay industry shoots itself in the foot, the desire of Dobson to continuously cut his own throat in this matter is just pitiful.

Claiming 'War on Christmas' yields profits

The People for the American Way (an excellent organization) is claiming that the so-called War on Christmas that Dobson and company claim folks like myself declare every year is a fluke that garners them much influence and money:

The conservative Christian groups declined to provide all the numbers behind their Christmas efforts, but some did disclose how many items they had sold and distributed.

Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian legal group, has shipped 20,000 "Christmas packs" this year, said spokesman Greg Scott. The value of the "goods and services" included is $4, receipts show. The rest of the money goes into ADF's general fund, Scott said. A majority of the packs were sold for less than the suggested $29 donation, he added, though he declined to provide details.


To that, I say - no shit!

Obama fears

I will say something for Barack Obama - he may or may not become president, but he certainly has some people showing their true colors, or rather, prejudices:

In a December 18 column headlined "Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim" and posted on her website, right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel argued that because Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) middle name is Hussein, his late, estranged father was of Muslim descent, and he has shown interest in his father's Kenyan heritage, Obama's "loyalties" must be called into question as he emerges as a possible Democratic presidential candidate. In the column, Schlussel asked: "So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian ... is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?" She ended her column by asking if Obama becoming vice president instead would be acceptable. Answering her own question, she wrote: "NO WAY, JOSE ... Or, is that, HUSSEIN?"

Where do they dig these people up and why do they give them their own shows? I was born the wrong gender, color (skin and hair). Although for a brief period in college, I was a blond and yes, they do have more fun.

Finally, penguins in North Carolina

Some people have too much time on their hands. Apparently a school district in North Carolina banned a book because it featured two male penguins who "adopted" a hatchling in order to nurture it and keep it from dying.

Now to some, it looks like a usual move by penguins to make sure baby penguins don't die from neglect.

But to the school district and Mecklenberg Commissioner Bill James, it is another example of the "gay agenda":

"I am opposed to any book that promotes a homosexual lifestyle to elementary school students as normal," he said.

Now this is the same Bill James who has gone very public on many occasions with his disagreement of the supposed "gay lifestyle," as witnessed by a letter he wrote to a constituent:

“You really think that a pool of people (homosexuals) where 45% of them eat feces from the rear end of another male is "normal"? If you do, you are frankly nuts. A lifestyle where one of their past times is buying gerbils and hamsters from the pet store and cramming them up their rears in an activity called feltching? A group of people who like to urinate on their partners and call them "golden showers"? Where one of the honored members of the Gay Alliance is an organization called the "Man-Boy Love Association" that promotes sex with underage boys? That behavior is worthy of protection? That behavior is worthy to be taught in our schools? to our children? You are one sick "Independent, white, married-heterosexual, presbyterian" if you do. . .”

Such a nice fellow. I'm personally rooting for the penguins.