A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Via JMG: MICHIGAN: Assistant AG Andrew Shirvell May Be Disbarred For Anti-Gay Stalking
A complaint has been filed seeking the disbarment of Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell over his anti-gay harassment of UM student body president Chris Armstrong.
The complaint alleges Shirvell harassed and defamed Armstrong during what Gordon describes as a six-month campaign "of lies, dishonesty, heckling, hate speech and even job interference." The commission could disbar Shirvell if it investigates. "I could not stand by and let Mr. Shirvell continue his reckless, bullying behavior," Armstrong said in a statement. Shirvell already is fighting a ban from the U-M campus. And he faces a Friday disciplinary hearing in the Attorney General's Office.Armstrong's attorney: "We just feel very strongly ... that you can't be a licensed attorney and an officer of the court and conduct yourself this way and essentially terrorize a college student."
Via JMG: Noose Hung At Equality California
Workers arrived at the Santa Ana office of Equality California to find a small string noose hanging from the door. Local police were uninterested. EQCA employee Mel Distel relates her exchange with the cop who responded to her call:
"There was nothing they could do, of course, there was no suspect and no crime had been committed. The officer said 'what it is, is a string on a door.' My vision got blurry, I was embarrased and felt stupid for making the call. I took a deep breath and said 'Do you see any correlation between the fact that this is a gay office and there was a noose left on our door in the wake of all of these teen suicides?' The officer said, 'Sometimes you just have to live with being a victim,' and proceeded to mention that his car had been broken into before." That didn't exactly sit well with Distel. "As if that's the same. As if having your stereo stolen is anything like the message 'You should kill yourself.' As if random theft is anything like an act meant to convey hate and stir up fear in the heart of a minority group."Making threats of violence against an LGBT group is considered a hate crime in California, despite the officer's indifference.
via jmg: WASHINGTON: Rally For Sanity Smashes All-Time Metro Ridership Record
Yesterday's Rally For Sanity broke Washington's all-time record for Metro ridership on a Saturday.
By preliminary estimates, Metro recorded 825,437 Metrorail trips on Saturday. Whether it served any of those riders very well is different question. The demand for public transit to attend the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear -- hosted by Comedy Central duo Stewart and Colbert -- exceeded supply. Metro customers suffered long waits at various Metro stations throughout the city. Several even suffered injuries. Nevertheless, the new record fairly shattered the old record, set on June 8, 1991, when Washington played host to a victory celebration for U.S. troops who served in the First Gulf War. That day Metro recorded 786,358 trips. A 1997 Promise Keepers rally in the District has the third-place record, with 735,909 trips.Of course, we'll never know how many more people were turned away from using the subway (as was my group) because the cops were freaking out about how crowded the platforms were. We ended up walking the hour or so from our hotel to the Mall and it was amazing to look down the side streets and see tens of thousands of people streaming up from all directions.
RELATED: Despite the ridership count and all the other attendance reports, the Freepers are, of course, declaring that the lamestream media are conspiring to cook the head count so that Glenn Beck's rally looks smaller in comparison.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Via Truthout: Bigger Than Beck? Huge Crowd Attends Restore Sanity Rally
Steve Thomma and David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers: "Three days before hotly contested national elections, a pair of comedians drew tens of thousands to the National Mall on Saturday with a blend of jokes and music meant to counter some of the anger and fear they see in the country."
Read the Article
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Via JMG: New York Times Asks: Why Aren't Gays Fired Up Against Meg Whitman?
The New York Times observes that there appears to be "little passion" among LGBT voters regarding the outcome of California's gubernatorial race. And that's curious because Meg Whitman has vowed to attempt to defend Proposition 8 in the Ninth Circuit Court, should she be elected.
Intervention would be an “unprecedented situation,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine. “We don’t know what would happen if a new governor or attorney general tried to intervene,” he said. The December appeals hearing could face a lengthy delay, or an argument could be made for a new trial, with the state reversing its stance and supporting the marriage ban. Rory Little, professor of law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, said that a new trial would be unlikely, but that the judges would carefully consider the motion. “The court will take this very seriously,” Mr. Little said. With the election possibly affecting such a hard-fought legal victory, gay men and lesbians should be motivated to vote, but they might not be aware of the stakes, according to political analysts.I think we at this here website thingy have been ringing the Fear Whitman bell fairly loudly, but the above-linked NYT piece places the overall blame for Whitman apathy on LGBT disappointment with the Obama administration.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Facebook Quote of the Day (via Joe Jervis):
Folks, not voting Dem because you're angry about LGBT rights is like burning down your house because you don't like the carpet. We can and will eventually change that shitty carpet, but we need the HOUSE it goes in.
Via JMG: HomoQuotable - David Mixner
"No one has been more gravely disappointed and, at times livid, with the practically non-existent record of President Obama on LGBT equal rights. Over and over again I have held this administration's feet to the fire in an effort to force them to move forward in our struggle for freedom. As we all know by now, those pleas often have fallen on deaf ears. Our disappointment, anger and frustration is totally justified. What is not justified is to allow those emotions to intrude on our ability to be intelligent voters this election day. We cannot and should not shoot ourselves in the collective foot because of the administration's actions.
"Why is it important to vote? Let's get right down to it: If the House and Senate fall into Republican Tea Party hands on November 2nd, the LGBT community will be facing the most hostile United States Congress in our history. The election of these bonafide Teabagging wing-nuts could cause chaos, fear and intimidation in our political process. Their ascendancy to power would validate some truly dark and despicable forces operating in American politics. If we think it is hard to achieve equal rights now just try and do it in a Tea Party dominated Congress." - David Mixner, writing on his personal blog. That's just the first two paragraphs, hit the link and read the rest.
Via JMG: Anti-Gay Christian Hate Groups Issue Joint Statement Denouncing Bullying Education
A coalition of the nation's leading anti-gay Christian activists have issued a joint statement denouncing any attempt to teach Christian children that it's wrong to beat gay kids.
Authentic Christians will remember several key concepts from Scripture:And who are the signers of the statement? All your old favorites.
1. Homosexual behavior is always a sin, God's plan for sexuality is male/female marriage, and God has not changed His mind about this (Genesis 19; Leviticus 18:22; Matthew 19:4-6; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
2. Jesus described marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and that humans were created male and female "from the beginning." Gender change is a defiant and ungrateful sin against God's direction and design (Matthew 19:4-6)
3. Violence against children is wrong. Jesus was very clear in his protection of children and also had harsh words for those who would forbid children from knowing His truth and love ( Luke 17:2; Luke 18: 15-16). "Gay" activists want to keep children from knowing, loving and following the real Jesus Christ. At the very least, schools must not interfere in the desires of parents to raise their own children to follow Christ and live out biblical morality.
4. School boards aid child corruption and insult faithful families when they allow "gay-straight alliances," homosexual indoctrination programs, permission for use of opposite sex restrooms, and any of the other ridiculous demands of the "gay" lobby.
Buddy Smith, Vice President, American Family AssociationMission America's Linda Harvey: "Communities must not allow themselves to be manipulated into supporting pro-homosexual bullying prevention plans, and believers in Jesus Christ need to stand up against this corruption of youth."
Phil Burress, President, Citizens for Community Values
Mathew D. Staver, Founder and Chairman, Liberty Counsel
Peter LaBarbera, President, Americans for Truth
Gary Glenn, President, AFA of Michigan
Diane Gramley, President, AFA of Pennsylvania
Micah Clark, American Family Association of Indiana
J. Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs, Liberty Counsel
Rena Lindevaldson, Liberty Center for Law & Policy
Matt C. Abbott, Catholic columnist,RenewAmerica.com
Labels: AFA, bigotry, bullying, Christianists, education, hate groups, LGBT youth, Linda Harvey, Matt Barber, Peter LaBarbera, religion
Via JMG: Tweets Of The Day - NOM
reposted from Joe
Via JMG: Sharron Angle: The Wicked Ways Of Gay Marriage & Medicare Are Destroying Us
Speaking to a Nevada church, Sharron Angle got all caught up in Jeebus and denounced social programs, abortion, divorce, and gay marriage as the "wicked ways" that are destroying America.
"I confess that we are a nation who has killed our children. I confess that we are a nation who has walked away from the family and allowed divorce even among our ranks. We have walked away from the biblical definition of marriage; one man, one woman, the two become one flesh," Angle said. "We as a nation have been walking away from our constitutional freedom and relying on government instead to take care of the widow and the orphan...we're saying 'well, the government we have all these programs now, aid for families with dependent children and medicare and social security."According to Angle, "the people" should help their needy, not the government.
Facebook Quote of the Day (via Tim Van Den Bos):
They can out spend your candidate. They can drag you down and stomp on your head because you are carrying a sign they don't like. They can even try to ruin your life because you can't be bought. What they can't do is take away your convictions, your soul, or your vote.
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