Rants, ramblings, vitriol & occasional subversive venom
Posts tagged religion
Desperation Politics in New York
Oct 11th
It’s probably risky making a judgment about something that’s going on 3,000 miles away. But that’s never stopped me before.
I’m referring to the governor’s race in the state of New York. What it looks like from the other coast is a multi-faceted story of desperation.
On the one hand, it looks like the Republican candidate — Carl Paladino — is engaging in some pathetically desperate moves to garner a few votes and possibly inch forward in the polls. His event yesterday during which he rubbed homophobic elbows with Orthodox Jews is only one such shameless attempt to align himself with people with whom he seems to have nothing else in common but their mutual distaste for gay people. I’m sure his anti-gay invective appealed to that particular audience. But I’m guessing that these so-called religious leaders were not recipients of his racist emails. Did they get to see the horse/human sexual interaction?
Then there’s the desperation of the Republican party. They’re clearly attempting to balance their undying desire to reclaim political power against the very real truth that the candidate that voters chose in the primary is extreme even for them. That part is kind of predictable, but it’s still fun to watch.
The part that’s not so much fun is the poll numbers. Cuomo still has a pretty commanding lead, according to just about every poll out there. But somewhere in the vicinity of 37% of New York voters are still supportive of Paladino. What kind of desperation leads voters to support someone as hateful and out of control as this candidate? And what does that say about the voters of New York? Do 37% of them truly share his extremist views? Or is that 37% of voters simply are willing to overlook the kind of bigotry and insanity that this man presents to us? Either way, it’s pretty scary.
We always hear politicians say how much they “trust the intelligence of the American people.” (It’s kind of a standard answer when a candidate is behind in the polls and they can’t think of anything else to hang their hopes on.) This election clearly brings that trust into question.
The Bigotry-Driven Life
Dec 19th
When Barack Obama spoke in August at the Saddleback forum during the presidential campaign, something smelled really stinky to me about Rick Warren. He had all the smarmy earmarks of a latter-day Elmer Gantry. I remember speaking with friends and predicting that we’ve not heard the last of Rick Warren.
Despite my prediction, I had no idea we’d be facing the firestorm that we’re currently facing.
I am so insulted at the choice of of Rick Warren to give the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration, I could spit. The gay community and other true progressives are still reeling from the passage of Proposition 8 in California. How can Obama start his term in office with a position of prominence for someone who is so overtly homophobic? Rick Warren is so out of touch with the issues that gay people face that he laughs people ask him if he’s homophobic. He clearly has no understanding of the separation of church and state.
This guy is clearly the heir-apparent to Jerry Falwell. He’s just learned how to package his bigotry a little more slickly to make it a little more palatable — and profitable.
Outrage Overload
Jul 11th
I guess most of us have become numb to the ‘outrage-a-day’ policies of the Bush administration. The primary tactic of this gaggle of traitors, liars, and thieves seems to have been to do at least one unbelievably stupid, arrogant, questionable, or downright illegal thing each day. While the press corps focuses (for a moment, at least) on that act, they’re already onto the next. The net result is the accrual of a sludge-pile of aberrant behavior so deep that no one can (or wants to) slog through it. It’s virtually impossible to achieve even a modicum of justice or truth. Make the scandal so dense, complex and multi-faceted that few have the time or inclination to attempt to challenge or even make sense of it.
Couple this modus operandi with the general malaise and scandal-fatigue of the American people, and you have a recipe for the deterioration of our government and our very way of life, the likes of which I believe this nation has never seen.
All that being said, there seems to be an escalation of the Bushies’ strategy of scandal bombardment. It seems like they take pride in outdoing themselves, and the events of the last few days seem to confirm that.
First, we have George once again attempting — like a broken record — to justify our continued involvement in Iraq. His entreaties have become less and less convincing, so much so that even many of those who have always marched in lockstep with him are publicly demanding a ‘change of course.’ (Unfortunately, in the Republican’s playbook, that’s not a euphemism for withdrawal of troops but rather for a change in policy. But at least it represents a small amount of progress.)
When George and his cronies realize that he’s not making any headway, welcome to the stage once again Michael ‘Mephistopheles’ Chertoff, our head of Homeland Security, informing us about his ‘gut feeling‘ that we’re about to have another attack by Al Qaeda on U.S. soil. (Am I crazy, or shouldn’t we expect better of our government than that? I seem to recall that the Department of Homeland Security was created and the rest of our government restructured around it so that we would be basing our policies and our actions on something a little bit more sound than opinions, fears, and folklore.)
But this, too, is a familiar play from the neo-con playbook: When public opinion turns against you, fill the populace with as much fear and anxiety as possible. It doesn’t matter whether it’s substantiated or not; in fact, the neo-cons seem to have learned that it’s actually better if it’s vague and unnamed. The more vague the fear is — using the ‘broken-clock-is-right-twice-a-day’ analogy — the better the opportunity down the line of using whatever may happen to falsely substantiate their claims.
You may want to take a deep breath here, because all of this is happening against a backdrop of Sara Taylor, the former White House political director, claiming executive privilege in order to refuse to answer any questions regarding the firings and hirings of U.S. Attorneys, in spite of a subpoena by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Then comes the news that Bush has ordered former White House counsel Harriet ‘Love Note’ Miers not only not to answer questions but also not even to appear before the Committee. On the count of three, everybody say ‘Jeezus H. Christ!’
OK. Now add to the mix that former Surgeon General Richard Carmona told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the Bush administration demanded that he withhold medical findings from the American public when those findings weren’t in synch with the non-scientific right-wing-religion-driven agenda. For example, he was forbidden from stating that abstinence-only programs don’t work. (Don’t forget, millions of taxpayer dollars got passed along to those faith-based organizations that W loves so much to espouse the bullshit that abstinence is the only way to prevent AIDS. Worse than the loss of taxpayer money is the loss of life that results from their failure to state the truth and consequent dissemination of misinformation.)
Now, I’m still reeling from the commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence and the subsequent payment of his fine by an unnamed source. (I can’t seem to rid my brain of the image of some low-level neo-con operative going into an inside-the-beltway 7-Eleven and asking for a banana Slurpee, a pack of Marlboro lights, and a money order for $250,000. Oh, yeah, and one of them scratch tickets.)
So when things start stacking up like this, is it any wonder that most Americans simply short circuit from the overload?
Death of a Right-Wing Bloat-Throat
May 15th
I couldn’t let the passing of Jerry Falwell go unacknowledged. The New York Times obituary gives a pretty charitable assessment of this hate-monger’s life. Christopher Hitchens was not so warm-hearted:
What has baffled me for years is the fact that the media have actually solicited Falwell’s opinions on various matters. The man has clearly been at best a crackpot or (if you take the more cynical view, as I do) an evil hate-filled charlatan.
It’s instructive to note that, in the many interviews I’ve seen in the past day or so, I haven’t heard one tale — even from his supporters — about his goodness as a person. About the best anyone can say about him is that he was shrewd enough to amass a lot of political power. (I think Ralph Reed may have said something to this effect, filled with right-wing envy.)
I imagine that most of the grass in a several mile radius of his burial site will soon turn black, if not from the evil that emanates from within, then at least from the throngs who will undoubtedly line up to piss on his grave.
Where Would Jesus Advertise?
Apr 25th
I almost drove off the road in Indiana when I saw this billboard:
Seeing this billboard made me realize how (relatively) easy it is to be out in places like New York and Los Angeles and, conversely, how much courage it takes to post a billboard like this on the outskirts of Indianapolis. As you might expect, there was all kinds of outrage in the newspapers and on talk radio about this.
Cured!
Feb 13th
It’s amazing. The beloved Pastor Ted Haggard is claiming that he has been “cured” of his homosexuality. In a mere three weeks, Ted and his posse have been able to do what scientists, theologians, philosophers, doctors, and psychologists have never been able to do, as Reuters and other sources have reported.
If you had any uncertainty how out of touch Haggard and his cronies are, this most recent assertion should help clarify things.
I guess we’re s’posed to believe that he was getting busy (for pay) with a male hustler for three years for the purpose of religious and spiritual research.
Just What This Country Needs: More Hate Legislation
Jul 31st
On the heels of George W.’s press conference yesterday, in which he informed us that his lawyers were working on a way to pass a national law to prevent gay marriage, the Vatican has launched a worldwide campaign to attempt to stem the tide.
Apparently, the blissfully unaware Bush forgot about D.O.M.A., the ‘Defense of Marriage Act,’ that his right-wing cronies managed to force through Congress. Or perhaps he’s worried that this essentially flawed piece of partisan hack legislation isn’t even remotely able to withstand judicial scrutiny should a state’s law put it to the test.
And apparently, the Vatican believes that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. And gay sex should only be between a priest and his altar boys.
Kiss Those Social Programs Goodbye …
Jan 29th
Alright, students. Please take out your right-wing rhetoric glossaries and prepare to make a new entry: ‘Faith-based initiatives‘ (a/k/a ‘FBI’). That means taking your tax dollars and giving them directly to religious organizations. That means absolving the government of responsibility for social programs. That means inextricably linking church and state. That means the principle of separation of church and state is out the door. One of our most basic freedoms — indeed, the freedom that was the primary reason that our nation was established — is being seriously eroded.
And, kids, now what’s that giant sucking sound? It’s the sound of billions of dollars of your tax dollars being siphoned away from existing social programs where they should be going and into the hands of religious organizations.
How ironic that George W.’s assault comes on the same day that the bodies of Madeline Murray O’Hare and her two sons, missing for years, have reportedly been found in — where else — Texas. (O’Hare, of course, is the atheist who brought the successful challenge of the practice school prayer to the Supreme Court.) You probably won’t hear much about this, though, because of the right-leaning bias of our nation’s media. They’re too busy covering Robert Downey, Jr.’s drug trial.
(By the way, if anyone has suggestions for a more disparaging name for President Bush, please fill in the blanks with it. Somehow, Dubya doesn’t sound quite disdainful enough.)
Three cheers to Sen. Patrick Leahy for announcing today that he would be voting against the confirmation of John Ashcroft as Attorney General. We’ll see how many others stand on their principles when the vote happens later this week or early next week.
