Via JMG: Barney Frank: If Aaron Schock Is Gay, He Has Forfeited His Right To The Closet

"I don't know if he's gay or not. But if he is, he's forfeited any right to privacy because he votes anti-gay. My view is that people who are gay who vote to support the right of other people to do it have a right to privacy, but the right to privacy does not include hypocrisy. The one thing that puzzled me, The New York Times had a story about how he redecorated his office to look like Downton Abbey, but all I saw were pictures of like Ulysses S. Grant. It's obviously sort of disjunctive in my mind. There were all these pictures of Republican presidents. I don't know what they were doing in Downton Abbey. I suppose you could say, from a certain angle, Herbert Hoover does look a little bit like Maggie Smith depending on the light, but nobody could have been Ulysses S. Grant. I have to say, if they're not true [the rumors], he spent entirely too much time in the gym for a straight man." - Barney Frank, speaking to Business Insider.

Labels: Aaron Schock, Barney Frank, GOP, homocons

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Gay Death Penalty Ballot Measure Will Probably Be Advanced

Last month a Christian activist filed a 2016 California ballot measure that calls for the death penalty for homosexuality. And it appears that Attorney General Kamala Harris can do little to prevent the the proposed referendum from reaching the petition signature gathering stage. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The state Supreme Court has the power to keep measures off the ballot if they violate the California Constitution. It has exercised that power to disqualify measures that cover more than one subject, broadly defined, and to block last year’s attempt by legislative Democrats to seek a statewide advisory vote on a U.S. constitutional amendment that would limit corporate spending in federal elections. Presumably the justices could locate a state constitutional provision that would discourage shooting people in the head.
But McLaughlin’s measure is currently before Harris, whose options appear to be limited. Once the sponsor has paid the required fee, state law directs the attorney general to prepare a title and a maximum 100-word summary of the initiative and forward it to the secretary of state for a 90-day period of public signature-gathering. The secretary of state’s website says Harris is scheduled to take those actions by about May 4.
Does she have the power to refuse if the measure is patently unconstitutional? Harris isn’t saying; her office did not return repeated phone calls. But some veteran practitioners of election law said they don’t think so. “The statute is clear: that the office has to prepare a summary provided the proponents have paid $200 and followed the right procedures,” said attorney Robert Stern, author of the state’s 1974 Political Reform Act. He said he’s never heard of a case in which the attorney general refused to issue a title and summary.

The ballot measure briefly vanished from the AG's official website earlier this month, but soon reappeared. The proposed referendum includes this stipulation: "Any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification shall be put to death by bullets to the head or by any other convenient method." Jesus is love.

Labels: 2016 elections, California, Christian Love, Christianists, gay death penalty, Kamala Harris, religion

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via LGBT: Life Gets Better Together / FB:

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día- Flower of the day 19/03/2015

“A água é uma manifestação da vida. A crise hídrica tem se manifestado com mais força em alguns lugares, mas o desequilíbrio é geral. O sintoma aparece com mais força em um continente, mas a doença é planetária. É um desequilíbrio no ciclo da própria vida. Embora o tema seja complexo, e envolva questões sociais, políticas e econômicas, na raiz da crise está a negação da Verdade. A água representa nossos sentimentos mais profundos, e a falta dela é justamente a negação desses sentimentos. Mas, no mais profundo, esse desequilíbrio é um sintoma da esquecimento da espiritualidade.”

“El agua es una manifestación de la vida. La crisis hídrica se ha manifestado con más fuerza en algunos lugares, pero el desequilibrio es general. El síntoma aparece con más fuerza en un continente, pero la enfermedad es planetaria. Es un desequilibrio en el ciclo de la propia vida. Aunque el tema sea complejo, e involucre cuestiones sociales, políticas y económicas, en la raíz de la crisis está la negación de la Verdad. El agua representa nuestros sentimientos más profundos, y la falta de ella es justamente la negación de estos sentimientos. Pero en lo más profundo, este desequilibrio es un síntoma del olvido de la espiritualidad.”

"Water is a manifestation of life. The water crisis has manifested itself more strongly in some places, but the imbalance is worldwide. The symptoms appear stronger in certain continents, but the disease is global. It is an imbalance in the cycle of life itself. Although the issue is complex and involves social, political and economic issues, the root of the crisis lies in the denial of truth. Water represents our deepest feelings, and the lack of water is precisely the denial of these feelings. On the deepest level, this imbalance is a symptom of the forgetfulness of spirituality."

One Thousand Buddhas | March 19, 2015 Where there are one thousand human beings, within one thousand ways of living, one thousand buddhas are revealed. Buddha is revealed through mountains, valleys, trees, and grasses, through a multitude of phenomena. The heart that can be revered in whatever form we see, in whatever direction we look, this is the true heart of Buddhism, this is Buddha life. - Soko Morinaga Roshi, "One Chance, One Encounter" Read More →