It's Thumpy Thursday - that day when things are just thumping along and you're waiting 'til Friday. To ehlp us along is the inimitable Betty Bowers. Enjoy!
Mike Huckabee: “I found Dan Savage to be unnecessarily rude, vile, and angry. Just angry. He was not a happy person and he just takes out his venom on other people, but he’s gone to a level I’ve never seen.” Perkins responded, “As my teenagers would say, he has some issues. He is a man with some real deep-seated issues … and Dan Savage is nowhere near, he’s a hundred and eighty degrees from the positions that we have taken. It’s wrong and I will tell you this, we are pursuing everything possible to deal with him because he is out of control.”
Note that Perkins did not answer to the responsibility the FRC has in teen suicides.
Refusal of culpability always leads to further investigation, and even though the Christian Right counters such investigation with cries of "PERSECUTION!", investigation is indeed necessary: a grain of truth can be supplanted in everyone's mind and counter-actions must be taken.
Walking Backward: A Much Wider Sphere Of Hate And Destruction
Going back to the origins of demonizing gays and lesbians is, to some, like going back to the Stone Age in America's Evangelical vs LGBT culture war, but it must be done to give scope to the current battle. Perkins' demonizing is following a tradition laid down by Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Jesse Helms. So to get a clearer perspective it may be necessary to walk backwards - to a time even before the Age of AIDS.
In November of 2010, The Family Research Council was named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The reason: disseminating false information about gays and lesbians in order to create animosity towards a specific group. Tony Perkins, of course, hit the ceiling, but he had good company: the evangelical American Family Association was also named a hate group. One strong reason for this: the rhetoric of the AFA's Director Of Issues Analysis (whatever that means), Bryan Fischer*. Fischer's celebrity stems from the fact that he has denigrated not only gays, but Muslims, feminists and African-Americans.
In 1992, the Family Research Council came out with a video, the Gay Agenda in which was cited the discredited research of Paul Cameron. This video was widely distributed among evangelical church groups and conservative organizations. In that same year, minister-turned politician Mike Huckabee came out with the statement: "I feel [homosexuality] is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk." He also suggested that AIDS patients should be "isolated from the general population."**
From 1982 onward, the most favorite culture war battle cry was 'AIDS is a gay plague." The demonizing that resulted from groups like the Southern Baptist Convention is still far-reaching: From OPEdNews (Demonizing America - Part 2: "Kill Them All! God Will Take Care Of His Kind!"):
Probably the most obvious (and the most vicious) holdout as far as demonizing PWAs is concerned is the powerful Southern Baptist Convention. Almost thirty years after the start of the epidemic, the SBC still cannot point to the sponsorship of any faith-based agency dealing with AIDS ...in this country. ...Today, they still follow Jesse Helms dictum that helping AIDS victims in Africa was fine because they were "all heterosexuals" while all AIDS victims in America were perverted sodomites.
(Of note: Tony Perkins is Southern Baptist and carries on its traditions extremely well. In 1991, Mr. Perkins was cited during a political campaign for failing to report that he had knowingly purchased the mailing list of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.) In 1980, the Traditional Values Coalition was formed by Rev. Lou Sheldon as a bulwark against what it deemed a "deviant lifestyle."*** And although discrimination against homosexuals had long been in place by the evangelical community, the formation of the Coalition marked the first organized attempt to demonize a group. Body Count The number of fatalities resulting from the demonizing of people like Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council is impossible to calculate: to count the number of pulpits, televangelists, hate groups and hell houses that have caused people to be kicked out of their homes while they were sick and dying, that have caused adult and teen suicides, that have caused people to be bashed and killed, is incalculable. It is unknowable, because the nature of demonizing is too insidious to calculate. And this is what Tony Perkins and his ilk count on: without direct cause and effect, the Family Research Council will continue to going skipping merrily down Unaccountable Lane.
* Wikipedia: "In August, 2012, AFA Director of Issue Analysis Bryan Fischer compared the children of gay parents to slaves, tweeting that "we need an Underground Railroad to deliver innocent children from same-sex households". ** This was several years after the CDC determined that AIDS was not transmitted through casual contact. ***Both Lou Sheldon and the Traditional Values Coalition were later embroiled in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Yes, it's Ken Hutcherson. Remember: he's the guy who said that if a man opened a door for him, he'd rip his arm off! His unwavering stance against gay marriage is getting more vitriolic and he is someone to watch ...very, very carefully.
The analysts will be too kind. Sorry. The re-election of George Bush showed just how stupid our country had gotten. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 showed the world that America had its fill of stupidity. The re-election of Barack Obama has re-affirmed that attitude ... ...but barely. With George Bush, we had the world's greatest diplomatic dimwit: reading the expression on his face as he descended from Air Force One, you had the distinct impression that he didn't have a clue as to where he was. His presidency was a diplomatic void so vast that everyone and their mother screamed to him in his last year "Legacy, can you spell legacy?" And after years of blood shed in Iraq, then Afghanistan - blood shed essentially for Bush's ego - other countries were wondering if they would be next, and Bush's last year was a feeble attempt to make him look like a statesman for peace. By contrast, Mitt Romney's forays into foreign policy were prize-winning blunders that showcased his ineptitude against the Nobel Prize-winning Obama. And while Romney didn't talk with his mouth full of turkey sandwich to heads of state, he did have his foot in his mouth most of the time. Comparisons in stupidity, however, may stop there since Romney and his campaign seemed to have a stupidity uniquely its own. Worse Than George? The possibility that Mitt Romney might be a mental lightweight surfaced early on in his campaign: no intelligent official refuses to be transparent when it comes to tax returns, then states that there could not possibly be anything incriminating in them. And the Bain debacle: Dick Cheney may have convinced the public that he had absolutely no ties to Halliburton, but that was before Halliburton got the most lucrative of all Iraq War no-bid contracts - and behind closed doors. Romney's convoluted non-explanations of his exit from Bain did nothing to keep liberals from scratching their heads. Then there followed "I'm not concerned about the poor", "47%", "Eastwooding"*, "Obama screwed up Lybia," "I shop at Costco," "Fire Big Bird," "Binders full of women," and, by extension, the idiocy of Paul Ryan's tax returns (less than 2.4% to the charities he told everyone would "pick up the slack" from his budget hatchet job), gym photos and "cleaning clean pots." Image Problem? What Image Problem? Molly Ivins' uncovering of the Bush Texas Ranger shenanigans did not dent the image of George Bush: he was a spoiled brat-turned-wheeler-dealer, but somehow his innate "good ole boy" oafishness covered him. That image, indeed, served him well afterward when people were disbelieving of the fact that he held 100,000 acres in non-extradictable Paraguay (for a quick and easy get-away should the "war crimes" heat get too much). Romney' attempts at an image change were, by contrast, pathetic and useless (e.g., the best joke to come out of the Hurricane Sandy disaster: "Romney's Hurricane Sandy Tip: 'Upon approach of the hurricane, evacuate to your second or third home.").** He seemed clueless as to how he presented himself to the public, thinking that they would like him no matter what he said - or how he lied. He couldn't put his past governorship of Massachusetts in the light enough to obscure the fact that he was a rich Gordon Gecko playing at being a politician. The Real Problem Throughout it all, however, the most glaringly stupid thing about Romney's campaign is that people actually dismissed the idiocies: they dismissed the lies, the foreign policy ineptitude, the image blunders, the feigned concern for all Americans. Almost HALF of America. Maybe the same people who voted for Bush twice. They're still with us. Scary.
Deferrment Of Stupidity, But Not Of Anger The re-election of Barack Obama may have deferred the onslaught of stupidity in terms of campaigning and policies, but it will not quell the anger of the Right. Consider the other people who won/lost: Akin and Mourdoch lost, while Tammy Baldwin and Elizabeth Warren won.
On all accounts of the Christian Right, demonspawn won.
*Not Romney's gaff, but certainly the RNC's blunder. ** Anne Romney also contributed to the ill image with "you people." Republicans must still be smarting with their attempt to paint Theresa Heinz Kerry - richer than the Romneys - in an unflattering light. But since they could get nothing glaringly hypocritical from the saavy philanthropist, they had to settl on the fact that she (admittedly) had Botox injections.
Last Minute Election Revival Crazies Take Center Stage.
Before watching the following video, it's important to note that the fringe element always screams the loudest.
And Cindy Japan-is-shaped-like-a-dragon Jacobs (founder of Generals International) is certainly fringe. The woman who has declared herself a "prophetess" and a "New Apostle" may have packed them in after promising to cure hysterectomies, raising children from the dead and smash as many Native American artifacts as she can find.
Last week, Pastor Gary Cass declared that "You can't be a Christian and not own a gun." However, with the vehemence of these people (to be fair - one of them is really praying for Obama to receive the Holy Spirit), it is evident that some people should not heed Cass' Christofascist, NRA, Patriot Movement activism. The words may be holy, but their screams are hellish.
The video also invites one to look at the background - a barely filled stadium staged with people filled not with "Possession of the Spirit" but with the Spirit of Possession, possession by the speakers. Trance-like (and in what seems to be terminal slow motion), these people are to be feared the most: what goes on in their minds may be the stuff of horror films. It is as I've always stated about Christfascists: there are two kinds - the Elmer Gantrys who charismatically control people and the Elmer Fudds being controlled. The Elmer Gantrys are dangerous enough, but the Elmer Fudds may be lethal: after all, they're the ones with the guns. Gary Cass' guns.
I'm posting this teaser a day ahread of time. It's one of the most important (and frightening) articles I've ever attempted. We must brace for the worst cpoming out in the Christian Right: if Romney wins, we'll definitely see a surge in righteous arrogance and a clamping down on reproductive and gay rights. If Obama wins, the Christian Right will definitely be a tiger to be reckoned with: the poor Presidetn will receive more hate mail and deat threats - an imprecatory prayers than ever.
Stay tuned....
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
Mark Twain
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