Dobson speaks

There was speculation all week about the meeting in Salt Lake City last weekend between religious right honchos, who are becoming increasingly alarmed that the frontrunning GOP nominees don't make the cut when it comes to the "Values Test" (the Big Two: abortion and gay marriage). They're particularly freaked about Giuliani, who seems poised to take the nomination. So freaked out are they by the prospect of a Giuliani nomination that they've threatened to abandon the GOP for a 3rd-party candidate. The Dobster pontificated about it last week in that baby-killing homo newspaper, the New York Times:

"REPORTS have surfaced in the press about a meeting that occurred last Saturday in Salt Lake City involving more than 50 pro-family leaders. The purpose of the gathering was to discuss our response if both the Democratic and Republican Parties nominate standard-bearers who are supportive of abortion." [...]

After two hours of deliberation, we voted on a resolution that can be summarized as follows: If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate. Those agreeing with the proposition were invited to stand. The result was almost unanimous." (emphasis mine)

So the wars don't matter, national security is small potatoes, health care a trifle, the environment a sniffle, the huge burgeoning out-of-control debt not a problem... all the Dobsonoids care about is being able to stuff their noses in the wassypoovoos of the nation and keep teh gayz from getting married. Well, we knew that. But this is the first time (that I can remember) that they've been willing to turn their backs on the GOP to get it done.

Dobson goes on to address recent stories (in the "secular" media - heh) about the "implosion" of the religious right, maintaining that on the contrary, they have never been more united. He threatens "If the major political parties decide to abandon conservative principles, the cohesion of pro-family advocates will be all too apparent in 2008."

I'm constantly amazed by the marketing acumen that enabled these Christian talibangelists to co-opt expressions like "pro-family" and "moral values". Misogyny is never "pro-family" and there's nothing "moral" about bigotry, yet they've been able to re-define and own those terms completely. This is as much a failure of progressives to meet such semantic stealth with equal aggression as it is a sign of the religious right's creeping malevolence. But onward...

The 3rd-party threat was largely seen as just that -- an empty threat -- but it looks like they might be serious. It'd be interesting to see who they'd back as a candidate -- would one of the GOP nomination losers make the cut? Or someone from within the religious right itself -- after all, they don't want a president, they want an ayatollah.

This could be good. A 3rd party would almost certainly kill the GOP's chances unless massive numbers of Democrats stayed home on election day -- although if the Democrats don't smarten up pretty quick, that could happen, too.

Christian Love for Belinda

Earlier this morning I read an amusing post at StageLeft that showed some examples of noxious excretions from so-called "christians", who as we are constantly reminded (by them) are all about Love. Having received my own little message of christian love from one of these scum-sucking pigfuckers a couple of weeks ago, I can only say "Tell me about it!", but it's always good for a larf to see more examples of their hypocrisy.

Then I read about Belinda Stronach's breast cancer. While anyone with a half a brain and a smidgeon of conscience would simply be wishing her well, here's how a poster at Free Dominion kicked off a thread on the subject:

"The Toronto Star is reporting Liberal MP Belinda Stronach is battling breast cancer. The 41-year-old is reportedly at an undisclosed hospital in the Toronto area after undergoing a mastectomy and breast reconstruction on Tuesday. -Ends-
___________________ Why? Well, if she was pumped full of oral contraceptives, it explains alot. Then there is, of course, the abortion possibility. Check it out here. http://therosarium.ca/indextemps/cancer.html Keep scrolling down for the ABC link. Please pray that Belinda, even though she is a liberal, has a successful operation and more importantly repents of her selfish and narcissistic life." I hardly know where to start. Even for FD, this is pretty sick, sad and despicable.

The first thing most decent people do when they find out someone has cancer is wish them well, not speculate on how the sick person might have caused their own disease. And certainly not insinuate that it might have been caused by the person's sex life, the use of contraceptives or, because it's "a possibility", abortion. (Why it's a "possibility" I have no idea -- abortion isn't mandatory for membership to the Liberal Party.) And nobody with their head screwed on would use such news as an opportunity to disseminate false and completely debunked theories about the cancer's relationship to abortion. Do these people ever read what they type? Do they have any fucking idea what they sound like? When even other FDers took issue, the original poster came back and said "Oh yeah, and I'm praying for her to recover", or some such happy horseshit. No apology for speculating about her sex life and medical history, though.

Now excuse me while I go and shower for the rest of the day. At least I can shower -- I may have to junk my computer.

CBC Facebook Wishlist

CBC has a Facebook space with a "Great Canadian Wishlist" where Canadians can Make A Wish. I know what I wish. I wish the Fetus Fetishists would get their snouts out of women's crotches and go play with themselves or something. That's what I wish. What do you wish?

Pagans-1, Xtians-0

My goodness, it looks like more anti-Christian bigotry is rearing its ugly head. This time the offense takes place at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where the Pagan Society has been given the go-ahead to hold its annual conference on campus:

"The University of Edinburgh has granted permission to the Pagan Society to hold its annual conference - involving talks on witchcraft, pagan weddings and tribal dancing - on campus next month. Druids, heathens, shamans and witches are expected to attend what is a major event in the pagan calendar."

Wow! Sounds pretty cool! But hmm... not everyone thinks so:

"Matthew Tindale, an Edinburgh-based Christian Union staff worker, claimed some faiths and beliefs appeared to be more equal than others on campus.

'This seems to be a clear case of discrimination,' he said. 'It's okay for other religions, such as the pagans, to have their say at the university, but there appears to be a reluctance to allow Christians to do the same. All we are asking for is the tolerance that is afforded to other faiths and organisations.'

The Union has won strong backing from the Catholic Church in Scotland, whose spokesman, Simon Dames, felt that allowing the pagan festival to go ahead while barring the Union meeting was an example of "Christianphobia".

Christianphobia! Damn straight it is! It's a rough old world, and so unfair. Everyone should get their say; it's all about tolerance. So why doesn't the Christian Union get to have their own little shindig?

"The row has its roots in last year's decision by university officials to ban the Christian Union from using campus premises to run a course which claimed that gay sex was morally wrong."

Oh, I forgot. "Christian tolerance" means tolerance of intolerance. Well, too bad for the little hatebots, they'll have to find somewhere else to hold their homophobia fest. Maybe the Grand Wizard will let them use the same clearing in the woods that his group uses.

"We're sorry... so sorry..."

From that bottomless pit of wingnuttery, bigotry, misogyny and bad science known as "Lifesite" comes the news that several far-right wanker organizations have taken it upon themselves to "apologize to the world". Not, as one might expect, for their own ongoing spew of ridiculous and backward absurdities, but for Canada's recognition of human rights in the form of same-sex marriage.

"We, the people of Canada who support marriage solely as the union of a man and a woman, apologize to the people of the world for harm done through Canada’s legalization of homosexual marriage."

(Trying hard... real hard... to maintain civility here... NAAHHH, fuck it!)

On one hand, I find it amusing that these cretins, who make up but a tiny part of the Canadian public, have the gonads to make such pronouncements to the world. They remind me of animal rights extremists who are so convinced that their view is The Right One that they do things like free domestic turkeys, resulting in their immediate death by predation, and then they're dismayed to find that nobody supports them. So-called "socons" don't represent much of Canada, but they're so goddamn sure they're right that they act like they're the majority. It'd almost be cute if it didn't occasionally have real-world consequences.

The list of signatories on the apology includes such 20-amp lightbulbs as R.E.A.L. Women, the Canada Family Action Coalition, the Christian Heritage Party, and a mixed-nut assortment of other bastions of bigotry. All people who neither represent "Canadian values", which include tolerance and acceptance of diversity, nor stand for anything that's particularly helpful to the majority of Canadians, especially the 50% that are female.

The hyperbole goes on to warn that because of Canada's stand on equal marriage, the apocalypse is surely at hand:

"We are grieved and troubled as we consider the impact this is having in weakening the fundamental institution of marriage in countries and cultures around the world. We understand that because Canada does not impose citizenship or residency requirements in order for same-sex individuals to be “married” here, couples are coming to Canada to seek legal sanction for their homosexual relationships with the intent of returning to their own countries to challenge those countries’ legal definition of marriage."

First Canada, then the world! The Queering of the Universe!

These fucking nitwits whine continuously about the "sanctity of marriage" and the weakening of said institution, but have yet to offer any real reason why they think this is the case. To me, it's a no-brainer: if more people are getting married, the institution becomes stronger, no? If a formerly marginalized community becomes part of the larger community by entering one of the larger community's institutions, marriage, should that not make the whole community stronger?

They end their missive on an ominous note:

"Our warning to you, the people of the world, is to learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating them in your own countries. Forewarned should be forearmed."

And the world's warning in return might be "Stop obsessing about other people's sex lives and take up stamp collecting, or basketweaving, or masturbating, or anything that'll keep your noses out of everyone else's crotches!"