I feel pretty and witty and gay

Georgia Grad Student Sues University Over Gay Sensitivity Training

Jennifer Keeton Says She Was Told to Change Her Christian Beliefs or Be Dropped From the Program
[...]
David French, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund and also director of its Center for Academic Freedom, told ABCNews.com that the lawsuit on Keeton's behalf is one of about a half-dozen similiar cases involving counseling or social work students in the last few years.

Hmm, David French, where have I heard that name before? Oh wait, I remember:

Eastern Michigan U. student's lawsuit is dismissed
[...]
Julea Ward says she was removed from Eastern's counseling program because she refused to counsel gay clients, saying she believed homosexuality was morally wrong.
[...]
Alliance Defense Fund attorney David French says the group will appeal the decision.

Oh where to start ... I'll start here: Jennifer Keeton wasn't told to change her beliefs, she was just told she'd have to attend sensitivity classes. And if she didn't attend them she couldn't complete her studies.

That sounds reasonable to me. They didn't ask for her to change her beliefs, they just asked her to attend more classes.

Julea Ward also failed in her attempt to get a degree so she could impose her religious beliefs on the public.

That also sounds reasonable to me.

Look, if you're going for a geology degree, and you think the Earth is 6000 years old, you flunk. Because you can't do your job.

If you're a pharmacist and you refuse to sell condoms, or any other legal BC, you flunk. Because you can't do your job.

Frankly, if your religious views make it impossible to do your job? Find another job.

By bringing their doxastic errors into secular professions they are imposing their religion on others. The 1st Amendment doesn't work that way.

Cause our love would be forever

If I was 30 years younger, I would play lead guitar for this band:

Take Five

My heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery go out to Al Jarreau. I'll never forget you and your wife having me over for Thanksgiving when I lived in LA. Take Five Al, and get well soon!




Update (SteveAudio): I second that emotion, Sailor. I've never worked with Al, but he's a national treasure, to be sure.

For reference, here's Take 5 performed by the original artist, some guy called Dave Brubeck:

Still I look to find a reason to believe

I regularly read the Orange County Register to see how stupidly Libertarianism is represented and explained. But this week it's especially easy to see how empty their positions are, when they publish letters that contain such as this:

He said he was not a socialist yet everything he has done in regard to domestic affairs has dramatically risen(sic) our level of debt, increased government control over every aspect of our lives and slammed the private sector. That is socialism.

He promised the "most transparent administration in history" yet everything is done in backroom deals, requests for documentation are dismissed or ignored and you can't get a straight answer out of anyone in his administration. Fog is more transparent than Obama.
He sold himself as the great uniter on matters of race yet he's proven to be nothing more than a race-baiting bigot himself. He calls a white police officer's actions stupid on national TV while admitting he knows nothing about the case yet he refuses to prosecute Black Panthers who are caught on film violating people's civil rights. He sends he wife to speak at the NAACP, an organization that's sole purpose is to promote one race and who calls the Tea party movement "racist" without any proof whatsoever. He is willing to falsely accuse Arizona of passing a racist immigration bill just to garner Hispanic votes in November when the bill specifically prohibits racial profiling and virtually mirrors federal law that he will not enforce. Obama is every bit the uniter as was George Wallace who, by way, was another Democrat.

Extra points for the Wallace reference: "I'm not racist, Wallace was. But I hate a black president as much as Wallace would have!"

I'm not going to bother to fisk the points the write presents. Anyone who reads here regularly will see through the idiocy & hypocrisy without my help.

My sole point is that the OCRegister has this at the top of their "Letters to the Editor" section with no comment, so they must feel this represents what their readers believe. I can't figure out who is more empty-headed, the Editors, or the letter writer. I'm surprised they're smart enough to breath regularly.

Faith is a great thing sometimes. In a relationship it's key. For religion it's pretty mandatory. But for a reality-based world view, it's really not appropriate. That's not faith, that's being a sucker. Believe in reality, not in dogma or ideology.

A nice cover of the great Tim Hardin song:

happy blogiversary skippy!

skippy & co. are some of the hardest working people in blogtopia, and yes, we know skippy coined that phrase!

the 'roo crew are fabulous, fantastic and funny, not necessarily in that order.

I read the news today, oh boy!

Crazy here, get your crazy here!

Angle: My campaign is part of God’s ‘plan’

GOP candidate: Obama taking away your chance to find God

La. Senator David (Diaper) Vitter Endorses Birthers

(MN Rep) Michele Bachmann sees a 'nation of slaves'

Is it just me or does anyone else think the above folks, elected or want to be elected, are ... hmmm, what's the DSM term ... fucking nuts!?

Steve Benen is much more civil than I am, so I'll quote him instead of my original four letter filled, fact filled, objective rant:

WHEN AN ENTIRE POLITICAL PARTY MOVES TO BIZARRO WORLD.... Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) probably didn't realize the impact his remarks would have. The right-wing Arizonan was asked on Fox News how his party would pay for $678 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy, which Republicans are currently demanding. Kyl said what he actually believed: Republicans wouldn't pay for them, and thinks it's a mistake to even try. Spending should be paid for, Kyl said, but tax cuts shouldn't.

Read the whole thing, I'll wait.

Owner of a lonely heart

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had a reality check today:

A nephew of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suffered a seizure after he was beaten and shocked during a scuffle with security guards at a New Orleans area hospital, relatives alleged Friday.

Derek Thomas, 25, was immobilized with a stun gun Thursday after he tried to leave the emergency room at West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, La., his sister told WDSU, a local television station. Security responded after Thomas refused a doctor's request to put on a hospital gown and started to leave, Kimberly Thomas said.

While this action by the security guards is deplorable, maybe this is a teachable moment for Justice Thomas, who once found such thuggish behavior less than awful:

Back in 1992, just after joining the court, Thomas dissented in the 7-2 decision that upheld a $800 award for damages for a Louisiana inmate who, from behind his locked cell, argued with a prison guard. Three guards took the inmate out of his cell, put him in handcuffs and shackles, and dragged him to a hallway where they beat him so badly that he suffered a cracked dental plate.

The lower court ruled that the beating had nothing to do with acceptable prison discipline. But Thomas all but laughed off the beating, saying the injuries were ''minor.'' Thomas said the ''use of force that causes only insignificant harm to a prisoner may be immoral, it may be tortious, it may be criminal, and it may even be remediable under other provisions of the Federal Constitution, but it is not `cruel and unusual punishment.'''

Perspective, dude.

Why do so many on the right lack the ability to intellectualize about awful treatment of other human beings? This shouldn't be that hard. But until it happens in their close circle of family & friends, it remains an abstraction uncomprehensible.

Of course, Thomas might still not understand what empathy is:

To the Editor:

Your July 7 article about Judge Clarence Thomas's intellectual journey on the path of self-help reports his oft-repeated quotation about his sister, then on welfare: "She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check. That's how dependent she is." The rest of the quotation condemns her children: "What's worse is that now her kids feel entitled to the check, too. They have no motivation for doing better or getting out of that situation."

This is an appallingly callous statement and contrary to the facts. As reported in The Los Angeles Times on July 5, Judge Thomas's father deserted the family when the children were small. The mother supported the family by picking crabs at 5 cents a pound. When a fire destroyed their home and belongings, the mother, who could no longer support the children cleaning houses at $15 a week, sent the boys -- not the girls -- to live with their grandfather, an independent small-business man.

Judge Thomas's sister, Emma Mae, stayed home and graduated from high school. She got married and had children, and then her husband deserted her. While the judge was attending Yale Law School, she supported her family with two minimum-wage jobs. Her mother worked as a nurse's aide at the local hospital, and an aunt took care of the children.

Then the aunt suffered a stroke, and Emma Mae Martin had to quit work to take care of her. This was when she went on welfare. She was on welfare about four and a half years. Now she works as a cook at the local hospital, reporting to work at 3 A.M. She has three children. One works as a carpenter; one was just laid off, and the 15-year-old is in school.

This is hardly a story of welfare dependency. The women of this household worked hard at low-paying jobs, took care of one another and raised their children. It is a story not only of race and poverty, but also of sexism -- desertion by husbands, lack of child support, giving boys, not girls, the opportunities to get ahead.

And when the elderly aunt needed care, it was the adult female relative -- again, typical -- rather than the men who assumed the burdens. This was when Emma Mae Martin had to go on welfare. What was she to do? Can you imagine the long-term care that might have been available to an elderly African-American woman in rural Georgia?

Ms. Martin then left welfare, again works hard, and her three children are in the labor market or in school. In other words, in the face of great odds, she did exactly what Charles Murray and other conservatives have asked: she completed school, she worked, she got married. She has suffered because of irresponsible men, male preferences, lack of an effective child-support system, lousy jobs and a lousy health-care system.

What can we say about her brother? He had the advantages. Yet he cruelly distorted her situation and publicly humiliated her and her children. Is this the kind of person we want as a Justice of the Supreme Court? In contrast, Emma Mae Martin has retained her dignity, her tolerance and generosity -- qualities one would like to see in a Justice. It's too bad she was not nominated for the Court. JOEL F. HANDLER Prof. of Law, University of California Los Angeles, July 8, 1991

So for young Derek Thomas, best wishes for a good outcome. For Justice Thomas, fuck you.

Bastard.

Waste Deep in the Big Oily

Governor Bobby Jindal is a piece of ... work:

Gov. Bobby Jindal urges Obama to get deepwater drilling back quickly

Jindal vetoes bill to open oil spill records

Jindal's statement doesn't address the specific question of why Louisiana is using only 1,053 of the 6,000 National Guard troops available to the state.

But, but, he has a better plan!

I, Bobby Jindal, Governor of the State of Louisiana, do hereby proclaim June 27, 2010 as a Statewide Day of Prayer In the State of Louisiana and in the Gulf of Mexico.

Jesus Christ Bobby, don't you think god already knows about the spill, and that your policies are helped cause it!? Instead of asking folks to pray how about asking them to go down to the shore and clean some birds or use those absorbent ShamWows to clean up the mess.

I mean, for god's sake Bobby, first you say you turned down the stimulus money, then you're caught handing out big checks of the stimulus money and taking credit for it; you say the Feds should back off while whining that they're not doing enough!

The only thing you have going for you in the party of gNOPE is you have been out dumbed by your fellow Gulf Coast Governors. And that's not a nice thing to say about anyone.

Bobby et al, pray in one hand, shit in the other. Let me know which one gets full first.

Rock of Ages

Been a soldier for a thousand years . . .

So McChrystal was sacked today, for obvious reasons. He's a complicated guy, who voted for Obama, and banned Fox News from TV's at his headquarters.

But lest anyone remember him fondly, he's still this guy:

Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, describing McChrystal's role in what he calls an "executive assassination wing" of the military's joint special-operations command that Hersh claims reported directly to former Vice President Cheney's office (NPR, March 30, 2009).

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1897542,00.html#ixzz0rqYP1wp6

And this guy:

McChrystal has been accused of involvement in covering up of the fact that Tillman had been shot by his own comrades, having approved a citation for a posthumous medal that attributed his death to "enemy fire," though the general also penned a memo warning the White House against describing the circumstance of Tillman's death for fear of future embarrassment.

An official investigation blamed McChrystal for “inaccurate and misleading assertions” in the formal recommendation of Tillman for a Silver Star.

And this guy:

Camp Nama, for example, was clearly authorized by high authorities, was a mini-concentration camp for detainees, with U.S. soldiers in no uniform, with no names, licensed by their commander-in-chief to beat and terrorize and torture at will. Money quote from a soldier who witnessed the systematic, approved abuse:

"Once, somebody brought it up with the colonel. 'Will [the Red Cross] ever be allowed in here?' And he said absolutely not. He had this directly from General McChrystal and the Pentagon that there's no way that the Red Cross could get in — they won't have access and they never will. This facility was completely closed off to anybody investigating, even Army investigators." ...

Was he just allowing his staff to shoot-off their collective mouts, or was he condoning clear and obvious disrespect for the chain of command? Was he even trying to organize a "soft coup"?

McChrystal’s, of course, playing innocent now, and he’s apologized to the White House, but it’s hard to believe a man who spends his every waking hour plotting strategy would “accidentally” leak these kinds of whopping gaffs to the press.

It should serve as a reminder to everyone that not all military coups are violent overthrows of a democratically elected president. Sometimes, disgruntled generals can perform “soft coups,” a gradual, sneaky undermining of presidential authority and policy. Oops, did I just mentioned we’re killing civilians to the press? Whoops! Did I just discredit the president to Rolling Stone?

I dunno. But he's clearly not in charge of his staff. And that doesn't bode well for a military commander.

And he doesn't seem to understand this kind of soldier: