The REAL Sissy Boys And What They're Doing To America

So will the SBC apologize? Gimme a break!

Four days ago, Anderson Cooper360 and CNN ran a series which focused on the tip of a proverbial iceberg: "The Sissy Boy Experiment" brought out the frustration and the compassion of America's psyche. It also brought out the hypocrisy of "reparative therapists" and their supporters in the Christian Right.


So why isn't anyone saying "we're sorry"?


Because the REAL "sissy boys" the ones so cowardly, so unmanly, if you will,  never apologize. Where some people see apology as a sign of strength/courage in admitting an error or sin, others look upon it as a weakness: e.g. why did it take the Southern Baptist Convention over 150 years to apologize for slavery? Why did it take the Catholic church 1700 years for a pope to cry at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall?


Over the last several days, we've viewed the ultimate in cowardice in George "rentboy" Rekers on CNN (The Sissy Boy Experiment): his reaction to news of the suicide of former patient Kirk Murphy was, at best, disingenuous, and his sloughing off of any responsibility was weak and unprofessional. And on the 15th, we'll witness the disdain of the Southern Baptist Convention in being asked to apologize for the persecution and suffering heaped upon the LGBTQ community.


I've already written on the Christian Right's refusal to admit its past errors (Christian Crime Line), but its more current misdeeds need further exploration: the establishment of ex-gay organizations and ministries, the support of Dominionist historians, pseudo-scientists and fear-mongering against any collective not within its small but powerful sphere threaten to undo the diversity for which our country is so celebrated.


It is as if the Christian Right has taken up shock talk host Michael Savage's call to battle: "Diversity Equals Perversity!" One can certainly see in Bryan Fischer's bombastic rants a lethal kind of homogenization (not assimilation) that will not only kill compassion for one another, but will surely lead to actual bloodshed. The last part of The Sissy Boy Experiment focused on Joseph Nicolosi and his group NARTH (National Association for Reparative Therapy of Homosexuals). CNN missed a particular salient point in its interview with Nicolosi: he is no longer a member of the American Psychological Association, since his ethics and theories were discredited by fellow members. In fact, Nicolosi and professional anti-gay Paul Cameron look as if they are in a contest to see how many professional organizations they can be expelled from!


Real Life Persecution


Besides sponsoring reparative therapy and ex-gay organizations, the Southern Baptist roots to LGBT oppression go back to the first decades of the AIDS crisis: many people were summarily kicked out of their homes while they were sick and dying. The situation, after all, called for righteousness and Southern Baptists wanted the world to know that they were the most righteous group of all. This show of righteousness came after President Bailey Smith's infamous statement "God Almighty does not hear the prayers of a Jew" and the dictum that women must still be subservient to their husbands.*


Among the most common of sins within (as well as without) the Christian Right is the blatant sin of demonizing, but who among the CR will acknowledge it? Will Lou Engle apologize for the death of Ugandan homosexual activist David Kato? Will Scott Lively do the same? Will Tony Perkins apologize for the rash of gay teen suicides last year? Will Bryan Fischer? Will Rev. Keenan Roberts apologize for psychological damage caused by Hell Houses? Will Terry Jones apologize for the death of U.N. volunteers after he burned the Q'uran?


One might posit the idea that they will never apologize, so why should we be concerned? The problem, as some see it, is that our recent religious-political system has been getting away with saying and doing anything it pleases. It never monitors itself: if, for example, Jones had not gotten the attention of the whole world, we would not have witnessed such an outcry from the Right - especially from the Christian Right. Proper chastisement is for the enemy. In any case, Jones was not really chastised since most of the churches with a Fundamentalist bent merely whispered "he's not one of us!"


Media's "sissy boys" have also written/broadcast half-truths and misinformation with impunity: even though FOX News' credibility has slipped, it continues to advertise itself as "fair and balanced."** Watch the piece Think Progress put together about Bill O'Reilly and his demonization of immigrants. It's almost musical in its rhythm, picking its own "fair and balanced" way through O'Reilly's righteous indignation.


In politics, some of the biggest "sissy boys" are bullies:

Gov. Scott Walker abruptly reversed course today and demoted the son of a large campaign contributor [Jerry Deschane] to his former job with the state Department of Regulation and Licensing. The move comes one day after the Journal Sentinel reported that Brian Deschane, 27, had landed an $81,500-a-year job in Walker's administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. The promotion amounted to a raise of 26%. The younger Deschane has no college degree, little management experience and two drunken driving convictions.

No cure, but a push back!


So the country's REAL "sissy boys" are practically everywhere, getting away with bullying and demonizing minorities, women, gays, the poor, and anyone else not fitting into their narrow spectrum. But like all "sissy boys" they are extremely afraid of some things: the facts, experts, and activists armed with knowledge (and creativity). 


Once confronted with their sins, they will try to shirk accountability, but like kids fighting in a schoolyard, the bullies will quickly become sissies when pinned down by determined, constant, intelligent presentation of reality to the public. 


You have to make the "sissy boy" scream "Uncle!"


*Reiterated by Pat Robertson more than several times.
** Joe.My.God: "According to a former managing editor at Fox News, chairman Roger Ailes installed bullet-proof glass on his midtown Manhattan office windows because he feared assassination by gay activists." 

OMG! I Pulled A Weiner On This One!!

It was only after the recent post that I realized that during this particular picture (Gay Pride, '84) that you could see the outline of my d*ck. OMG! I was pulling a Weiner back then! After all, it was considered unfashionable to wear underwear at such an occasion. 

San Francisco Is Doomed!: Will the "Tales of the City" Bastion Of Love And Compassion Withstand The Coming Onslaught Of Righteousness?

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"If God doesn't destroy San Francisco, he should apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah"
"OK, so it won't burn down in the traditional sense, but where is that earthquake when you need it???"

"It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world"

The first two quotes were from religion-based blogs. The third was from that classic reprobate,  Oscar Wilde.

"Your city is remarkable not only for its beauty. It is also, of all the cities in the United States, the one whose name, the world over, conjures up the most visions and more than any other, incites one to dream. " - Georges Pompidou

Understatement has its purpose I suppose, but when it comes to certain topics, understatement always eludes me. So when I saw the musical Tales Of The City at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, I knew that understatement would be impossible: after all, I actually LIVED through all of it. I even topped Michael Mouse in some respects.[1]

It's not a great musical by Broadway standards, but what makes it superlative to San Franciscans is that it is as true as it is heartfelt: it tears down barriers and replaces them with freedom, love and understanding. It's San Francisco at its best.

Of course, it will be reviled, boycotted, demonized, and deemed absolutely criminal by all the Bryan Fischers, James Dobsons, Beverly LaHayes, Lou Engles, Herman Cains and Tony Perkinses of the country. And since the musical's premier is in San Francisco during Gay Pride month and before San Francisco's million-in-attendance Gay Pride celebration, those people will be working feverishly to revile, boycott, demonize and deem absolutely criminal the city of San Francisco itself. 


Thankfully, every year the City has managed to rise above all the vitriol and deliver an astoundingly loud "FU!" to those who don't admire it for what it is: the country's most accepting and compassionate city. It rises above the vilification, above the overt attempts to "save" it. It rises above the hysterical preachers (Lou Engle has called gays in the Castro "Those people who embrace the darkness"). This year, however, might prove more difficult to be celebratory than in the past: the Christian Right is ramping up the vitriol with impunity. It realizes that an attack on San Francisco is a powerful punch against the current Obama administration, the MSM, Hollywood, and every single liberal on the planet. It will try desperately to counteract the reactions to the Gallup poll that discovered over 50% of Americans are in favor of same-sex marriage. It will revel in photos of the Pride parade showing "perverts" and it will fervently hope that last year's violence at the Pink Party will be repeated - in fact, escalate into chaos and even more bloodshed. [2]

Yes, that last statement was meant to alarm: the Christian Right is becoming more violent in its hate speech, comparing gays and lesbians to N*zis, linking them to pedophilia, incest and bestiality. Granted, they use archaic stereotypes and dismissed "research," but they are mobilizing the fringe as never before with videos, ads in newspapers, politicians and a string of radio hosts who use those same politicians brazenly to promote a neo-Reconstructionist agenda. And the fringe is reacting: hate crimes against the LGBT community are up. Violence is just around the corner: it just needs a verbal spark to set off one individual, one group.

"San Francisco has been wicked from the very beginning"

I stumbled upon an ironic video while googling "San Francisco Sodom and Gomorrah". It supposedly focuses on the firebombing of a church when anti-gay preacher Lou Sheldon was supposed to speak. Edited by an evangelical Christian, it sets out to tell people how absolutely horrible and sinful San Francisco and its gay community are. In the process, however, if you count the lies and distortions you come up with, you realize that the primary purpose was to make people totally fearful of homosexuals.[3] It reeks of  "This could happen to you!" In addition, it features Scott "Pink Swastika" Lively, one of the architects of the "kill the gays  bill" in Uganda. In their momentum focusing on gay political power, they forget the oppression gays had seen well into the 80s.

Perhaps this White Night Riots incident can put things into perspective:

wikipedia:

The second stage of the violence was a police raid/riot hours later in the predominantly gay Castro neighborhood, which vandalized the Elephant Walk bar and injured many of its occupants.^[34] After order was restored at City Hall, SFPD cars carrying dozens of officers headed into the Castro District.^[35] Officers entered a gay bar called the Elephant Walk, despite their orders not to do so. They shouted "dirty cocksuckers" and "sick faggots", shattered the large plate glass windows of the bar, and attacked patrons. After fifteen minutes police withdrew from the bar and joined other officers who were indiscriminately attacking gays on the street. The incident lasted nearly two hours.[4]

I was there, at both City Hall, then later in the Castro. You haven't lived until you've seen 50 riot-helmeted cops marching toward you, shields touching each other to form a wall of plexi-glass armor ready to throw tear gas. It was sooo much fun! 

"But the Christian Right didn't cause the riot!" Perhaps because, at the time, the big CR was not as powerful as it is today. Its rhetoric not only kills indiscriminately, it owns politicians: just look at some of the proposed draconian laws in Texas.

Besides linking the LGBT community to pedophilia, incest, Nazism, witchcraft and bestiality, it has now focused on the idea of "recruitment," especially in schools. It's really a non-issue, but Tony Perkins of the disingenuous Family Research Council has sounded the alarm of "recruitment" in schools if anti-bullying education is enacted. 

Mr. Perkins will doubtless take umbrage with this passage from Tales of The City:

[In a letter written to his mother, Michael (Mouse) Tolliver telling her that he is homosexual]. 


No, Mama, I wasn't "recruited." No seasoned homosexual ever served as my mentor. But you know what? I wish someone had. I wish someone older than me and wiser than the people in Orlando had taken me aside and said, "You're all right, kid. You can grow up to be a doctor or a teacher just like anyone else. You're not crazy or sick or evil. You can succeed and be happy and find peace with friends - all kinds of friends - who don't give a damn who you go to bed with. Most of all, though, you can love and be loved, without hating yourself for it."[5]

So will the beautiful, wicked City-by-the-Bay be able to prevent possible extreme attacks? No. Nothing can prevent hate crimes perpetrated by zealots spurred on by the Religious Right. Zealots have, in fact, become the new home-grown terrorists, oblivious to the parallels their preachers have to radical Islam's imams. And will it survive the amped-up volume of rotten rhetoric? Yes. The performance of a show like Tales of the City is certainly a testament to that: San Francisco will survive because basic humanity, love and compassion will always survive, despite the efforts of some to make the very soul of The City extinct.

Alright, this piece may go down as just another rant, so as to end it with a more PC tone I will force myself to understatement: the attackers  (he says with teeth gritted) against the glorious City of San Francisco are ... not … very…nice … people.

1 Before the "Jockey Shorts Dance Contest" started, I was a go-go dancer in the infamous End Up's cage. I lasted more than three months. I was popular … as well as hungry.
2 I always seem to be close to crimes in The City: I was very near the Pink Saturday homicide (and I  was in a Castro bar during the White Night Riots), so I was able to ask police about it: it was gang-related and had nothing to do with the gay community or the Pink Saturday Party. The Christian Right, however, omits this fact, hoping that their profile of gays as violent will be proved correct.
3 FYI: Harry Hay did not intend to replace Judeo-Christian principles with his own ideologies. Furthermore, gay politics has never been as powerful as the video might leave you to believe. Gays have always been creative in their vociferousness, leading most to believe that they have enormous amounts of power. 
4 Police also shouted "sieg heil!" and "bonzai!" When they herded us all onto the intersection of 18th and Castro they were astounded at the number of patrons in the bars - approx. 1500. When we started to shout "Go Home! Go Home!" the 50 policemen reasoned that the crowd was unsustainable and ... went home. One bartender at the Elephant Walk couldn't go home: after having scalding hot water poured over him, he was clubbed viciously enough to lay in a coma for over six months. 
5 Interestingly enough, this is the same letter Maupin published in the San Francisco Chronicle, telling his own mother that he was homosexual.

Wrinkles Cost Money. What The Nation's Elderly Need Now: Facial Spackle And Fake IDs

"Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?"

In a couple of weeks, I'll be celebrating my 64th birthday. Oh, I'll be celebrating it, but my heart won't be in it: considering that I've been HIV+ for over 33 years,  I guess I should be celebrating the fact that I'm here at all, but while I should celebrate all the wonderful things and people I've experienced in my life, I don't feel like celebrating my future one bit. Why not?

I'm getting wrinkles and I can't afford them. You see, thanks to America's slash-everything conservatives, wrinkles cost money. Sure, face-lifts cost a lot, but the fierce Republican Congress, by threatening to eradicate Social Security and Medicare, have made wrinkles just as expensive. It won't be long until wrinkles will become a status symbol because anyone lasting long enough to have them will obviously be rich enough to afford them. 

And the nation's politicians have made it clear that Town Halls are filled with elderly demanding to know why their elected officials have come to consider them so ... expendable. They've met with some blunt and, frankly, cold-hearted answers.

Former Rep_ Tom Davis (R-VA) tells an elderly woman with diabetes "good luck" finding insurance*

Of course, the kinder ones have told the elderly that they should depend upon their families for support. The problem with that advice is that the "family values" people forget how some of them acted during the country's AIDS crisis.* *

Anyway, the poor elderly have no right to exist, even God says so:

According to Pastor Matt Trewhella:

3. Social Security violates God’s work ethic. The Bible has much to say against laziness. Sluggards and sloths are mentioned 15 times in the book of Proverbs alone. Proverbs 26:14 states, "As the door turns upon its hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed." The Bible extols the virtues of hard work, yet says nothing about retirement. God requires us to be honest and industrious and to help our neighbor in their need. Retirement is what Americans look forward to in order to pursue their own self-interests such as golf and fishing. Rarely is retirement used as an opportunity for further service to God.

And God-fearing Dominionists know that programs like Medicare are not God's economics.

Am I missing something here? Is the Right Wing (esp. the Christian Right Wing) conducting some kind of poor senior genocide? OK, I won't go into any stupid conspiracy theory,*** but open disdain for the poor and elderly has become alarming. 

Guilty To Die Too Soon

I'm a caregiver for my ex partner who is only 48 and has terminal liver cancer. The irony about his situation is that he feels guilty about dying too soon: he doesn't want to leave me or any one of our friends in the quagmire that will be the fate of  what he sees as a vicious, greedy and righteously arrogant society. And while I'm angry at becoming one amongst the ranks of expendables, I'm angrier that it worries him even more than it worries me. His concern makes me feel like going into a "senior closet": if the people in power want us to disappear, then I may have to get a fake ID, some facial spackle, a skate board and join Rick Warren's Saddleback Church (it has a skateboard park).

I may have to cancel my birthday party as well. Pity. I was going to have the DJ at the local bar play an upbeat tune:

"When I'm 64." 

*I would have provided the YouTube link, but the corresponding video has been pulled. I wonder why?
**Most of the people with AIDS who were evicted from their homes were God-fearing Southern Baptists. I know. Ask me about it.
*** Since I've succumbed to the Conspiracy Theory craze, I actually do have one, but you'll have to read about it later. 

Combat Satan With Rapture Kitty's "Post Non-Rapture Reading List" - Seriously!

OK, we've had enough laughs to fill a black hole. We've gone to "rapture parties" across the country. We've heard more about Harold Camping than we care to know. 

Now what? 

We can be compassionate and reach out to those people whose lives (and faith) were destroyed by believing in an isolated, totally ignorant ideology. By reaching out, however, I don't mean we should become like God's Ambulance Chasers (evangelicals who prey on disaster victims); instead, I mean we should offer them education. 

Camping, 89, said of the rapture in a May 11 interview with New York magazine, "The Bible has every word in the original language – it was written by God. Incidentally, no churches believe that at all, they don't hold the Bible in the high respect that it ought to be."

If Satan has an arsenal, literalism is probably his weapon of choice: it closes minds faster and locks them up tighter than any other evil strategy man could ever invent. Fundamentalist leaders know this to be true, which is why they always seek out the uneducated or the spiritually lazy: literalism ensures control. 

Victims of literalism, whether through loss of home or loss of faith, need to know that there are minds - accessible minds - that do not talk down to them, give them panaceas, nor promise to restore their faith. Today's biblical scholars, textual critics, historians and theologians are not hiding in some dank, dusty library (although many cannot be found in Christian bookstores, either), but in mainstream  bookstores and on the net. Of course, some Fundamentalist preachers will go so far as to ban them from becoming ancillary material in Bible Study classes, dismissing them as "pop culture" books not worthy of study. An author's expertise, published works, or educational pedigree are never considered. 

But if your minister balks against you reading the works of Biblical textual critic Bart Ehrman, for example, it may be time to look at your minister's credentials. Christians are not known for their prowess at vetting pastors (e.g. "Bishop" Eddie Long).


I've been writing a book titled "Sacred Cows Make The Best Hamburger" (for too long) and I've been able to gather some books that may help the people who are too tied to Fundamentalist doctrines to see the forest from the trees. You read them: they may help you explain to them how literalism/Fundamentalism damages more souls than it saves.


Each of these titles has a link to Amazon.com - not because you should buy them, but because you can read the reviews - and you'll get referrals to other titles. They're listed in order of difficulty.

Kenneth C. Davis - Don't Know Much About The Bible: Everything You Need To Know About The Good Book, But Never Learned. This is an ABSOLUTE MUST READ FIRST. Why? Because even though a few of Davis' historical premises have been disputed it clearly explains two basic things most Fundamentalist preachers don't want you to know about or consider: the Bible was EDITED and its inconsistencies are legion (actually mega-legion!). Davis goes about questioning/explaining the Bible book-by-book and does it with understanding and humor. This book is not a put-down of the Bible, but a thoughtful and thorough analysis put in ways that the average reader can understand. Naysayers about the book will point out that Davis has included Don't Know Much About The Bible in a pop series ("Don't Know Much About ..."). Don't listen to them, because the primary purpose of the book is to get you to asking questions about the Bible.


Edward T. Babinski - Leaving The Fold - Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists. Most former Fundamentalists turn atheist or agnostic. For them, religion was a painful experience and they wanted to rid their lives of it. Babinski is a biologist and blogger about evolution, but this book is not written by him as it is edited and put-together by him. The stories are riveting and some of the "former" Fundamentalists will surprise you.


Gary Greenberg - 101 Myths of the Bible - How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History. Greenberg is President of the Biblical Archeology Society of New York and there' no disputing his scholarship:

Myth #50 God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

The Reality: Sodom and Gomorrah were mythical cities that never existed.

(Bishop) John Shelby Spong - Rescuing The Bible From Fundamentalism. This book became a bestseller almost as much for its controversy than for its content: Spong was considered a radical within the Episcopal Church...and he still is:

The biblical scholarship of the past two hundred years has simply not been made available to the man or the woman in the pew. So mainline Christians allow the television preachers to manipulate their audiences, most times to their own financial gain, by making the most absurd biblical claims without their being called to accountability in the name of truth. (Pat Robertson, anyone?)

Bruce Bawer - Stealing Jesus - How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity. Bawer states immediately that the first Christians would never have recognized Fundamentalist Christianity and that if exposed to them, they would have wondered how these "men of God" could have "stolen" Jesus.


Chris Hedges - Losing Moses On The Freeway - The 10 Commandments in America. Christ Hedges is a frequent and welcome contributor to OpEdNews. Losing Moses On The Freeway helps show how the Golden Rule plus the Ten Commandments shape the lives of everyday people in America and how Fundamentalism distorts them.

Garry Wills - What Jesus Meant. Pulitzer Prize-winning Garry Wills (Lincoln) is a good philosopher and a very good theologian who brings home the meaning of Jesus' sayings and proverbs.  

Bart Ehrman - Misquoting Jesus. Bart Ehrman is one of the world's foremost biblical textual critics: i.e., he knows the history of the Bible, ancient Hebrew, ancient and classical Greek, Coptic, Aramaic and Assyrian. New archeological discoveries (like the Gospel of Judas) are always proffered to Erhman before most anyone. Misquoting Jesus shows us just how much Jesus may have said and what was written later, translated, rewritten and re-translated. Probably the most valuable lesson on the Gospels and their discrepancies, Erhman tells the reader to read the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) horizontally (e.g., all three first chapters, then all three second chapters, etc.). It's an exercise that will astound you!


Elaine Pagels - The Origin of Satan. Pagels is the world's pre-eminent scholar on the Gnostic Gospels, those writings which were discovered in 1947 from Gnostic Christians. In The Origin of Satan, Pagels shows that Satan, or Sai-tan was developed by Christianity as a means of demonizing Judaism. 

Karen Armstrong - The Battle For God - A History of Fundamentalism, The Bible - A Biography, The Great Transformation. Karen Armstrong is arguably one of the world's best scholars about all world religions. Admittedly, she is not an easy read, but once you realize what she is presenting and how she is presenting it, you feel richer for having read her books. Of particular note is The Great Transformation, which looks at the parallels of religions and societies during a particular time before Christianity. It's a fascinating study, but not for everyone.   

***


In the end, we all have to realize that religious belief is serious stuff. Writers like me may joke about it from time to time (ok, I do it most of the time), but when belief is blind belief (as with Harold Camping's followers) it has the power to ruin believers' lives. Coaxing believers to read something contrary to their beliefs is difficult, but it may be the only strategy there is to put people's beliefs back on a safe, even keel. 


And remember this:


Fundamentalism: it's Satan's greatest masterpiece.

Rapture Kitty Rules!!

After 78 hours, Rapture Kitty is still on top at OpEdNews!

All That Glitters Is Not Newt: The Republican Party Is Really Made Of Cheap Brass

Back in the days ...


The Republican Party used to be more, shall we say, patrician. Oh, it had people with lots of money, but it was old money, not the flashy kind you see nowadays. It was the money of the Teddy Roosevelts, not the Franklin Roosevelts,* and even though they were conservative to a fault, they spent their money (as well as other people's) in style: Teddy - national parks, Franklin - WPA. 


Sadly, all that style went away with Calvin Coolidge. Nixon? No style at all in Watergate. Ford? Stumbling has no style - in or out of Congress.  Reagan? Hollywood glitz while mixed up with Contras and stealing designer gowns.  Bush I? Can't recall much of anything. Bush II? As the youngsters say today, "Gimme a break!" 


Style. Class. Respect. Every patrician virtue seems to have eluded the Republicans for years. Unfortunately, it will continue to elude them with the present Presidential hopeful roster: 


New Gingrich - aka "serial adulterer" Mr. Gingrich announced his bid for the Presidency with the worst timing ever: owing upwards of $500,000 to Tiffany's at a time when the economy is the #1 American priority is gouache and terribly bourgeois. We realize that one young man tried to "sparkle up" Newt's image (see below) but we believe that it will take more than glitter to make him shine.


Michele Bachmann - aka "crazy eyes" and "slit our wrists" Mrs. Bachmann is more delusional than delightful: one does not make up numbers ($900 million a day for President's trip to Southeast Asia and India?),become a fear monger against the national census, nor extol the virtues of carbon dioxide.


Rick Santorum - aka "frothy mix" Mr. Santorum needs to be less obsessed with Google definitions and more concerned with his ethics: giving the warning signal to Senator John Ensign about his about-to-be-public affair was not in anyone's best interests.


Tim Pawlenty - Mr. Pawlenty was swept away from Catholicism by his wife and then turned into a devout RRR (Radical Religious Righter). He seems not to be "for" anything, but instead whines to the media (like Bryan Fischer of AFA) about what he is against (same-sex marriage, Social Security, Medicare). He continually sounds like a very poor sport.


Mitt Romney - Mr. Romney may look very patrician, have a great deal of money, and even a certain amount of pedigree,  but to put it bluntly, flip-flops are not allowed in the White House.


Mitch Daniels - Mr. Daniels seems to have all the reserve required for a good patrician Republican, however, his attachment to Eli Lilly leaves much to be desired. Although most of society is on Prozac, there is no need for a drug company to rule the country. 


Sarah Palin - aka "Rogue Something-or-other" and "Hockey mom" (her self-styled sobriquet). Mrs Palin has been in the spotlight so long without real substance that she is in danger of being "famous for being famous" The only person ever to pull that off was Zsa Zsa Gabor - with style and elegance (Queen of Outer Space notwithstanding). Her book, Going Rogue, was a paltry piece that impressed no one (least of all Katie Couric). Going Rouge** is much better. Tacky: putting an enemy's district in a crosshair for your PAC's website.


Ron Paul - aka "Dr. No" Mr. Paul has leaned so far to the Right that there is no Left left. This does not make for a good statesman. Governments are established for the benefit of the populace, but Mr. Paul's libertarianism doesn't seem to care. He quite foolishly declared that the President's raid on Osama Bin Laden was unnecessary. Bad form.


Herman Cain - his political positions are thinner than his pizza


There may be more to come, but we may not be able to stand the class deficiency. 




*Franklin's money was from the Delano side - originally made in China's Opium trade

**Going Rouge: A Candid Look inside the Mind of Political Conservative Sarah Palin, , a wonderfully insightful book - all its pages are empty.