Via JMG: San Francisco Asks Appeals Court For Advance Notice On Prop 8 Verdict

Via Ian Millhiser at Think Progress, we learn that the city of San Francisco has sent an unusual request to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Clearly, they fear civil unrest in the event of a decision against equality.

In several prior instances when decisions have been issued relating to the marriage rights of same-sex couples, there have been large gatherings, including protesters, at the courthouses and in the Civic Center area of San Francisco. . . . In any instance where crowds of protesters gather, and particularly where the issue is as emotional and contested as this one, it is helpful for the San Francisco Police Department to be aware of the gathering in advance to plan for and deploy an adequate number of officers to the areas where protests are likely to occur. We would therefore be grateful if the Court could provide advance notice of its intention to issue its decision in this case.

View the letter.

Labels: Ninth Circuit Court., Proposition 8, San Francisco

Reposted from Joe

JMG Asshat Of The Day - Joe Dallas

"Satan’s strategy is leading humans astray, whether the arena is doctrinal or moral, is to deceive an individual into thinking that what God has forbidden is not really wrong or destructive, but is, in fact, life enhancing. So it was I the garden when Satan tempted Eve; so it may well be with your loved one. The sin of homosexuality is human nature, but the belief that sin is not really sin comes not from human nature alone but from an ancient and evil messenger. [snip]

"And as you know, if you took the Bible hard enough you could make it say whatever you want it to, cults can do that, Nazis did that and I’m afraid it’s being done today under the guise of civil rights and gay liberation." - Former Exodus International leader and alleged former homosexual Joe Dallas, who says he wants to be "nowhere near" openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson when God judges him.

RELATED: You can learn more about "gays are from Satan" and "gays are like Nazis" by reading the loving Christian website of Joe Dallas.

Labels: "ex-gay", asshats, brainwashing, con men, Exodus International, liars, religion, scam artists, still totally gay, torture

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: You Thought You Were Second Class? Romney Has A Third Class For Gays

After suffering national embarrassment at the hands of a gay-married Vietnam veteran, Mitt Romney has issued his new plan for marriage in which gays aren't just second class, some of us are third. The Boston Herald notes:

[Romney] expressed support for a constitutional amendment that could create a complex three-tier system of marriage — maintaining marriage rights for straight couples, allowing gays who have already married to remain married, but barring future same-sex marriages. "I think it would keep intact those marriages which had occurred under the law but maintain future plans based on marriage being between a man and a woman,” Romney said.

He's talking out of his ass, of course, as this sort of federal plan would never be instituted. Maybe he thinks this makes him look like less of a meanie after that takedown by Bob Garon.

Labels: GOP, marriage equality, Mitt Romney

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Gingrich Signs NOM's Hate Pledge

Gingrich joins Romney, Santorum, Perry, and Bachmann in vowing to thwart the civil rights guaranteed to LGBT Americans by the U.S. Constitution. The only remaining holdout is Ron Paul.

Labels: adultery, bigotry, Catholic Church, hate groups, hypocrisy, NOM, religion, theocracy

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 16, 2011

Bowing is Just Bowing

Bowing is just bowing. You do it mindfully, in a particular way, aware of the body and mind in the doing of it. The so-called meaning of it is extra. It’s not a symbolic or conceptual act. It’s just another form of sitting practice. You sit, you walk, the bell rings, you get up and bow. To just do what you do with full attention and without much worry is an important part of the method in Zen.

- Norman Fischer, "Why do we bow?"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

I wrote more on bowing here 

Via Kate Clinton: Tough Love

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 15, 2011

How to Become Generous

The movement from ordinary states of self-concern to selfless giving always involves a gradual transformation of character, not a sudden leap. Like any form of strength, generosity needs to be intentionally cultivated over time, and everyone must begin in whatever state of mind they already happen to be. Understanding and accepting who you really are right now is as important as the commitment to become someone more open and generous. Whatever the quality of motivation, when we intentionally reach out to others in giving, some degree of transformation occurs. We become what we practice and do in daily life.

- Dale Wright, "The Bodhisattva's Gift"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Ellen DeGeneres Talks To Extremely Inspiring 14-Year-Old Graeme Taylor

Via JMG: Eagle Forum: We Hates Gays, Blacks, Mexicans, And Non-Christians

Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum has posted their list of demands on Congressional candidates. I've gone thru the lengthy list and compiled a Top Ten. Unsurprisingly, much of their list is drenched in anti-gay hate, racism, and xenophobia.

1. Will you vote to protect the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)?
 

2. Will you vote for federal school appropriations to require informed, written parental consent for curricula, surveys, classes or books that may be privacy-invading or offensive to religion or conscience?
 

3. Will you support legislation for Congress to use its Article III power vote to deny jurisdiction to the federal courts over areas where we don’t trust them, namely, the definition of marriage, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Ten Commandments, the Cross on veterans’ memorials, and the Boy Scouts?
 

4. Will you vote to prohibit the federal courts from hearing challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) or similar state laws respecting the definition of marriage?
 

5. Will you oppose federal hate crimes laws?
 

6. Will you vote against any legislation to help Puerto Rico to become a state?
 

7. Will you vote against any legislation to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state or entitled to a state’s representation in Congress?
 

8. Will you vote to end federal funding of so-called bilingual education (teaching immigrant children in their native languages) which the voters of CA, AZ, and MA have rejected?
 

9. Will you vote to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens who betray their oath of U.S. citizenship by claiming “dual citizenship” with their native country?
 

10. Will you support federal funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

Hit the link if you've got the gut for much more bile.

Labels: bigotry, hate groups, Phyllis Schlafly, racism

reposted from Joe

Via Esteja Aqui e Agora...

Meditação apaga áreas cerebrais

Posted: 13 Dec 2011 05:12 PM PST

 

Pesquisa mostra que praticantes frequentes da meditação têm mais facilidade para excluir o “eu” das suas divagaçõesPesquisadores da Universidade de Yale, nos Estados Unidos, comprovaram, com a ajuda de imagens, que a meditação frequente desconecta as áreas do cérebro relacionadas com o “sonhar acordado” e divagações, assim como as que têm ligação com transtornos psiquiátricos como o autismo e a

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 14, 2011

Evolution's Body

In the Samyutta Nikaya, the Buddha says, “This body is not mine or anyone else’s. It has arisen due to past causes and conditions.” The Buddha intuited some type of evolutionary process that creates our bodies, and his essential point is that they are neither formed nor owned by us. We now have evidence that our bodies arise from the forces and elements that make up the entire universe, through a complex chain of interdependent events. Internalizing this understanding can help liberate us from the powerful sense of ownership and attachment we have to the body, which is a cause of tremendous suffering, especially as the body grows old and we must face its inevitable destiny.

- Wes Nisker, "Evolution's Body"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Bob Garon on Romney

Via AmericaBlogGay: It’s not religious discrimination when you refuse to do your job

The day that a woman working the fitting room at Macy's thinks she can make store policy, in violation of store policy, because of her "religion," she should be fired. This is a rather amazing story, and an amazing assertion. That the rest of us have to do what our bosses say, that the rest of us have to let our bosses set policy for our companies, but if you're a Christian (well, a bigoted religious right Christian), you get to trump all that, and YOU get to decide. 

That's not religious freedom. It's special rights for southern baptists.

Media matters covers the issue of a woman working at Macy's who tried to stop a transgender teenage girl, who appeared to be "a man... wearing lipstick" from entering the ladies' changing room. The woman freaked, thinking some perverted guy was stalking the women's changing rooms. But that's not why she got fired. She got fired because after a manager told her the next day that in fact Macy's policy is to let a customer go into whatever fitting room the customer feels matches their gender identity, she refused. The woman insisted that her religious views trumped Macy's changing room policy.

A manager called Johnson in the next day to explain that Macy's policy permits individuals to go into the changing room of whatever gender they identify with.

"I refuse to comply with this policy," Johnson says she replied. She was then fired.

"I had to either comply with Macy's or comply with God," Johnson told The San Antonio Express-News.

Oh spare me.  What's next? Do we not let Muslims into changing rooms? How about Jews (I hear they killed Christ, you know)? How about socialists? Or Republicans?

This isn't a story about her being fired because she got confused when meeting her first transgender customer.  It's about refusing to obey store policy once the situation was explained to her. You just don't get to overrule your bosses on a public accommodations issue because you don't like someone, or your religion doesn't like someone. Under this theory, she could also turn away lesbians from the women's changing room, because after all her religion doesn't approve of "LGBT people" as she says during the interview. Does the religious right think that's okay too?

This isn't about religion. It's about special rights for one particular fringe American religion that thinks every other American, and every other employer, needs to live by its rules.

Via AmericaBlog Gay: Remember: Romney once said he’d do more for gays than even Ted Kennedy

Never forget who this chameleon really is. From Greg Sargent at the Washington Post:

But back in 1994, he stated that “full equality” for gays and lesbians should be a goal, and even said he’d be a better Senator on gay rights than Ted Kennedy, who he was challenging at the time.

In a 1994 letter to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts that was obtained way back when by the Boston Globe that has been mostly forgotten, then-Senate candidate Romney said:

As a result of our discussions and other interactions with gay and lesbian voters across the state, I am more convinced than ever before that as we seek to establish full equality for America’s gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent.

Romney’s previous quotes and his shifts on the issues are often presented as evidence that he has never had core beliefs and will say and do anything to win. But it seems clear that Romney sincerely held relatively progressive beliefs on issues like gay rights, health care, and climate change, back during his time as a politician in Massachusetts. In other words, he sincerely was a liberal Republican. After all, there were a lot of liberal Republicans in the northeast in those days. He was one of them, before jettisoning those views in service of his national ambitions, and conservatives like Perry are right to scoff at his claim that he’s always been one of them.

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 13, 2011

Sit Down and Settle the Body and Mind

We need to talk about a balance. Frankly, I think Asian monastics probably spend too much time sitting in meditation looking inward, and not enough time outdoors. They have to go out, as Shakyamuni did, and find out how people are living in society. But in the West, it’s the opposite problem. People spend all their time in the outer world. They’ve been successful in business, in their professional lives, but they have no relief from the stress of their lives. They need to sit down and settle the body and mind, instead of always running around feeling agitated inside.

- Samu Sunim, “Buddha in the Market: An Interview with Korean Zen Master Samu Sunim”
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via JMG: Canadians On Marriage Equality

The more yellow an area is, the greater the opposition to same-sex marriage. The reverse is true for gray areas. Keep in mind that some of the huge areas that appear to be largely anti-gay are virtually unpopulated. The real story is told in the areas closest to Canada's southern border, where the three largest metropolitan regions are solidly on the side of the good guys. (Tipped by JMG reader Chris.)

Labels: Canada, maps, marriage equality

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: NOM's 2010 Financials Published

The Washington Independent has published an analysis of NOM's 2010 financial reporting. While no names have been disclosed, NOM's funding comes from just a few persons. That fact has long been predicted here on this blog and elsewhere.

In 2010, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a tax-exempt nonprofit trying to thwart the legalization of same-sex marriage throughout the U.S., reported the highest individual donations it has received since its inception in 2007, according to NOM’s most recent income disclosures to the Internal Revenue Service, recently obtained by The American Independent. Per NOM’s numbers, just two individuals contributed more than $6 million to the organization’s political arm – accounting for about two-thirds of NOM’s 2010 revenue, while single donations below $5,000 covered only 8 percent of reported revenue.

Two-thirds from two persons! And according to the linked report, 92% of NOM's 2010 money came from just 22 donations of $5000 or more. NOM, however, claims to be funded by 50,000 pious Christian households. SNORK!
Who wants to bet that a huge percentage of NOM's donations flow thru the bejeweled hands of "celibate" men in dresses?

Labels: bigotry, hate groups, LGBT rights, NOM

reposted from Joe

Newt Gingrich: Selling Access

Via JMG: Romney Vs. Gay Vietnam Veteran

At a campaign stop in a New Hampshire diner, Mitt Romney slid into a booth to chat with a man wearing a Vietnam Veteran cap. What Romney didn't know is that the man was sitting there with his husband. Things went quickly downhill after the introductions.

Garon challenged Romney, saying, “If two men get married, apparently a veteran’s spouse would not be entitled to any burial benefits or medical benefits or anything that the serviceman has devoted his time and effort to his country, and you just don’t support equality in terms of same-sex marriage?” Romney reiterated his support for the Defense of Marriage Act, and added, “And we apparently disagree.” “It’s good to know how you feel,” Garon said. “That you do not believe that everyone is entitled to their constitutional rights.”

“No, actually, I think at the time the Constitution was written it was pretty clear that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Romney replied. “And I don’t believe the Supreme Court has changed that.” With that, a Romney aide interrupted, saying, “Governor, we’ve got to get on with Fox News right now.” “Oh,” said Garon. “I guess the question was too hot.” “No, I gave you the answer,” Romney said.

Labels: 2012 elections, GOP, marriage equality, Mitt Romney, New Hampshire

reposted from Joe