Romney's Prep School Bully Stigma And Why "Dumb Things" Doesn't Wash: A Very Personal View.

Perhaps it is Romney's youth that will 

finally belie the youthful Romney
There are certain things in a person's psyche that are harder to change than others . A feeling of superiority is one of them. And when you are bred to believe that you are superior, that feeling is almost insurmountably hard to dislodge from your mind...and your soul.

I went to a Catholic boys college prep school, and although it was not exactly the image of Pencey Prep* because it was a commuter school, it was perhaps the most elitist school in the Chicagoland area. The most elitist, the most academic...and the most macho: from our first day of freshmen year we were referred by the priests/teachers as "men." Our football and swim teams were considered among the best in the country. So many of our "men" went to Notre Dame that my going to the University of Illinois was looked upon as a humiliating apostasy. Because of its proximity to Chicago, it was certainly an upper class school for sons of the Mafioso. And with its Dominican priests, it was strict and not for the faint of heart.

Being even slightly effeminate made for four difficult years. Four VERY difficult years, in fact.

Every morning I knew that I would have a horrendous time in PE, I would upchuck breakfast. I was a "spaz". Some guys called me "Vo-Queer" instead of Vojir. I hung out with others like me - other guys who didn't completely fit in. We simply called ourselves "The Group" (before Mary McCarthy's book ever came out). By happenstance, we all came out of the closet in our mid-twenties**, but during our prep school years, we knew what "homosexuals" were, what they did sexually, and that they had relationships.

So perhaps the most disingenuous statement made by Mitt Romney after the appearance of "Lord of the Shears" is:

"I don't remember that incident," Romney told Kilmeade. "I tell you I certainly don't believe that I ... thought the fella was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s. So that was not the case.

He knew. He remembered ... and he knew. Bullies always remember their exploits: they brag about them enough to keep them fresh for a long while. They especially brag about their exploits in terms of sexuality: beating up fags is as much of a right of passage as having sex with members of the opposite sex. In extreme cases, sometimes sodomizing (gang-raping) an effeminate boy was also a right of passage. Showers and locker rooms were not always the safest places to be, especially if you had a limp wrist.


The Romney campaign has predictably back peddled with an "apology", claims of "evolution" and "dumb things." Supposedly we should all move on and look past it to a man who has a sterling character. But the portrait of Mitt Romney emerging as an insufferably arrogant, preppy kid is totally appropriate in a world that demands the birth certificate of the President.

The Bully Being Bullied

The timing of the expose couldn't have been more hazardous for the Romney campaign, coming at the heels of Romney's gay advisor Richard Grenell resigning from pressure from other bullies - the Christian Right. The boyhood "pranks" are explained away as simply the result of typical teenage angst, kind of like what waterboarding of detainees at Guantanamo is to Ann Coultergeist. The irony of the Grenell affair is that some people are sounding like bullies themselves: admittedly, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association does think much of a presidential candidate who will buckle under "yokels" like Bryan Fischer.

Another part of the portrait: some of today's bullies - the corporate kind - aren't particularly concerned about the very poor.

During the past twenty years, Mitt Romney has not physically changed - his youthful visage and energy gave the Republican Party its JFK. The portrait of a man who's temples are grey contrasting to Obama's increasingly graying hair makes a difference in politics since so much of politics is based on appearance. But it's a portrait that may change regardless of Romney's appearance. The "Lord Of The Shears" affair may start to reveal a hidden portrait - one which may turn out more like the Picture of Dorian Grey. How fitting that a story of Oscar Wilde - the most flamboyant man of his time - could serve as a metaphor for such a man.




*The school in J.D. Salinger's Catcher In The Rye.

** I burst, nay, exploded out of the closet, eventually winding up as a go-go dancer at San Francisco's End Up in 1975, two years before Armistead Maupin's Tales of The City featured it.

You Might Be A Right Wing Bible Thumper, If...: Foxworthy's New Bible Quiz Show Promises Unintended Laughs

You Might Be A Right Wing Bible Thumper if...

You have to give Jeff Foxworthy credit: he doesn't mind deprecation, especially self-deprecation. The man who coined the phrase "You might be a redneck, if...." and hosted "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" is getting set for some more deprecatory comments, even from some of his own fans.

Even without knowing much about the exact format of the program, The American Bible Challenge, it doesn't take a fifth grader to sense that the show will produce some very embarrassing, unintended moments.

From Punchline Magazine:

Part of the show will be centered around the contestant’s home lives, as the network explained their personal stories will be shared with the audience. Contestants will form teams and will represent “worthy faith-based organizations,” to which all cash won will go, according to GSN. The show pilot is scheduled to shoot later this month.

Foxworthy has promised to "to present the Bible in a fun and entertaining way."

That was done by pop historian Kenneth C. Davis in his book "Don't Know Much About The Bible."* It didn't go over well with Fundamentalists.

KJV, NIV or PPP (Pure Pulpit Pimp)?

So which version of the Bible will Foxworthy use for his questions? If he doesn't use the King James Version, he's going to rile some people. Then again, saying all those "thees" "thous" "sayeths" and "begats" will make for more archaic-sounding buffoonery.

Foxworthy will also be walking a fine line in other areas: will interpretation have anything to do with the questions? Will the Bible be presented as absolute fact? Will he skirt socio-political issues such as homosexuality? Will he lean towards the David Barton history and mindset of EVERYTHING being set in the Bible? How Dominionist will he get? More pertinent: will the contestants be culled from our most visible Christian Right leaders? Can you imagine:

JF: "The Old Testament mentions the Witch of Endor. Where is Endor?"
Cindy Jacobs: "Was it shaped like a dragon?"
Pat Robertson: "I don't know, but I think it signed a pact with the devil."

JF: What was the sin of Sodom?
Bryan Fischer: Making the first homosexuals, therefore the first N*zis.
Tony Perkins: Homosexual activists forced Lot's daughters to become lesbians.

JF: How many wives did King Solomon Have?
Robert Jeffress: I don't know, but he was definitely not a member of the Mormon cult.

Michelle Duggars: A lot! He must have had a zillion kids!

JF: Did God want the Israelites to slay all the Amelekites?
Ann Coulter: He only wanted them to slay their leaders and convert them to Christianity.
Sean Hannity: He didn't want to slay them at all, only waterboard them.

Other guests might include Chuck Norris, David Barton, Stephen Baldwin, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann, Tim Tebow, Linda Harvey, Kirk Cameron, Rick Perry, Bishop Eddie Long... and anyone Southern Baptist. The possibilities are endless.

Unfortunately, they might be much more interesting than the people Foxworthy considers sincere and knowledgeable, turning American Bible Challenge into one boring romp, a forum devoid of meaning...or entertainment.




*I highly recommend this book for the simple reason that it brings out all the discrepancies. Some of Davis' historical standpoints have been challenged, but the fact remains that Fundamentalists and Evangelicals hate him for calling them out. E.G.: there are TWO creations, the New Testament was not written by Matthew Mark, Luke and John and God couldn't seem to get his Son's birthday right.

Ann Coultergeist: Gays Love Me! I'm Their Judy Garland! I'm Delusional!

Urban Dictionary:Definition: Coultergeist
A word used to describe the haunting feeling one gets when watching Fox News.Example A: "Man, there was nothing else on last night, so I decided to watch some Fox News. After a few minutes of Sean Hannity it felt like there was a Coultergeist in my house."

WARNING: SOME FANS MAY WANT TO DE-FAN ME FOR THIS ONE. THIS IS MY SNARKIEST SHOT AT ANN COULTER. LIKE SLAPPING A MOSQUITO, I JUST HAD TO DO IT. 

It's time to put Ann Coultergeist to rest, or in an asylum. There is a difference between egotism and ODN (Outright Delusional Narcissism). ODN is a terrible disease of the brain - borne of years of self-adulation - which turns the slightest attention or publicity into an all-encompassing feeling of idolatry by everyone. 


Ann Coultergeist has terminal ODN. We should pray for her, but her ODN is too far advanced. Even God cannot work such a miracle, so save the prayers.


We all knew the end was coming: she insisted that her audience was growing even while her book sales had started to tank. But now we have seen the beginning of the end: this single (very single) strand of spaghetti insists that she has a huge gay following.

One comment:

Forget the fact that GoProud has adopted her as their mascot.  GoProud is a farce: a farce hiring another farce to degrade them for publicity.How many gays love GoProud?

Not many. From Queerty:

Considering that GOProud regularly supports anti-gay candidates, doesn’t support gay marriage—even though GOProud Chairman Christopher R. Barron is married (the hypocrite)—and has been mocked by Coulter in the past—they totally deserve each other. Barron says that Coulter’s appearance at their 2010 Homocon event “helped put [GOProud] on the map.”
Yes, just like the nuclear meltdown helped put Chernobyl on the map.

The ODN that now drives Ms. Coultergeist can be viewed in the video below. But it's too intense. So let's go point by point, quote by quote, shall we?

Log Cabin Republicans is not a truly conservative group. Why? Because conservative groups want gays back in the closet? GoProud has done everything it can to do just that: by trying to negate everything the gay rights movement has ever accomplished, it has all but told Republicans that they can vote just as well from the closet as from the room.

Have you ever been to a LGBT group before?
Yes, I call them Ann Coulter book signings. This is possibly the height of hypocritical hyperbole. And the most delusional of her statements. If one gay person were at her signings, it would be to size her up for portrayal at Halloween.  Even if GoProud were to attend all of her signings, it would be a small event and Coulter would fire her publicist. 

Speaking at Homocon:” I’m in the market for a new hair stylist” Coulter dilusionally thinks that  gays love to be insulted. However, like African-Americans, gays can insult their own, but no one else can (or should). 

Right Wing Judy Garland  A weird correlation, don't you think? Garland was considered an icon for several things, none of which fit Coultergeist: Garland had talent that was exploited and abused. The only abuse occuring with Coultergeist is her abuse of other people. Coulter has no real talent. She can marginally be called a professional - a professional bitch.

I didn’t expect that all right wing girls would all be good looking. Coultergeist has not taken a look the a mirror for a very long time. Nor has she taken a look at her very unflattering (but fairly accurate), caricatures. Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God) calls her "Skeletor." She looks so much like a palomino that friends warn her not to go to England: Princess Anne would try to ride her.* Yes, I admit this is a vicious retort, but we're talking about the pundit who cannot talk about Joe Biden without inserting a comment about his hair plugs.


Didn’t expect that SO many gays would be HUGE fans of mine. Like many of her statements, Coulter fails to come up with substantive support. She thinks that all of her pronouncements are automatically taken as fact. Again, most delusional.

If you’re born gay, why would you be a liberal? If you were born straight, why would you be conservative? 

One of the highest incomes demographically. This is a myth that has been dispelled, but not enough. The idea that gay males make MORE than straight males is certainly untrue. Coultergeist's GoProud friends might make more money than most (and most gays) but Coulter is still dillusional if she thinks that all/most gays are like the GoProud crowd. These are gays whose primary purpose in life is to protect their own money and get some publicity while they're doing it so that they can make more money.

They are victims of crimes.  But the kind of crimes perpetrated by most conservatives: discrimination, bashing, and hate speech.

Muslims don’t think too highly of them. They don' think too highly of you either, Ms. Coultergeist,  but that doesn't mean that you should consider "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." 

Entire Republican platform is fighting the same causes as any sane gay person. So gays are against universal healthcare coverage? They're against government subsidizing of non-profits (like the San Francisco AIDS Emergency Fund - through the Ryan White Act)? 


All gays who are born gay are overwhelmingly conservative. Huh? Parts of today's conservative movement are not genetic or systemic: like the South Pacific song goes, "You have to be taught ton hate."

Angry gays causing trouble weren’t born gay. They were just angry at their fathers. When pundits play psychologist, it's time to click off the video. 

Gay marriage: I talked them out of it when I was at that meeting. So much so that GoProud Chairman Christopher R. Barron is considering an annulment? I don't think so.

I tell them “we like you”  Severe ODN always negates the disingenuous.

* Another reason the Brits dislike her so much: "[Diana is] an ordinary and pathetic and confessional — I've never had bulimia! I've never had an affair! I've never had a divorce! So I don't think she's better than I am." Actually, Coulter's never had much of anything.