K. Now I’m pissed.
Chris Buttars, Utah State Senator from West Jordan, is an ass. I have to believe that even wingnuts who support him as a champion of moral causes privately think, "What an ass." Generally I just try and ignore him. Otherwise, I'd be angry all the time, but this just tears it.
Buttars just lost his seat as the chairman of the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee. It's about damn time he was sanctioned. Of course, you don't get sanctioned for being a homophobic and racist bigot. Sorry, I meant Champion of Moral Causes. However, you can get sanctioned for unethical behavior, which is only a matter of time when you've got an ego as big as Buttars'. Buttars wrote a letter to a judge, on Senate letterhead, scolding him for ruling against a personal friend (and large campaign contributor) of Buttars' in a land dispute said friend is engaged in with Mapleton city. And here is what Buttars said in that letter that just burns my shorts.
I had hoped that we had appointed a judge that would err on the side of individual rights, not a liberal activist judge who would champion government." (Salt Lake Tribune, 2/26/08)
ARE YOU [expletive deleted] KIDDING ME???!!! This is the [expletive deleted] who introduced a bill to put the kabosh on a recently created domestic partner registry in Salt Lake City. Passed unanimously by the city council, it would allow local businesses to offer domestic partner benefits if they so desire (Salt Lake Tribune, 2/23/2008). What a hypocritical [expletive deleted]. He's only a champion of individual rights if you're rich, white, straight and a campaign contributor. Otherwise, the state (ie. Buttars) gets to decide what constitutes individual rights.
All you have to do is read the news from the last few weeks and any rational, thinking individual would be able to tell the man is clueless, probably a raging narcissist, and has no business in the Senate. He plans to seek re-election, because he knows his critics are unjustified. I think the odds he will get re-elected are actually pretty good, but if by some stroke of luck he should lose, you know it won't be because he's an [expletive deleted]. It will be because his critics sabotaged and slandered him.
Democrap
Boi from Troy asks, “Why does Obama oppose gay marriage?” Ostensibly Obama's reason is because his religious views dictate that marriage should be between a man and a woman. He might as well have finished his statement with, “Polly want a cracker!”
Obama doesn't support gay marriage because it is not politically expedient to do so. Period. Religion. has. nothing. to. do. with. it. Maybe he figures, “Hey, it worked for Edwards.” Except that Edwards actually does come from a conservative religious background. Obama claims membership in the United Church of Christ which is actually quite gay friendly, and...wait for it...supports gay marriage. It's hard to imagine a religious body more gay friendly than the United Church of Christ, except maybe the Metropolitan Community Church.
Wanna try again Obama? Oh, and while you're at it, want to explain how talking out of both sides of your mouth is a “change” from past and current political bullshit?
Religion continues to serve one of its vital functions for society: to provide a screen for individual and institutional bigotry. God said Europeans should “colonize” the rest of the world and convert the colored heathen to the true faith, and if the point of the sword happens to be involved, well, they're better off dead than living in darkness anyway. God said the institutional, systematic and organized attempts to destroy the culture of native peoples in the western hemisphere, including the forced removal of native children from their homes to be placed in “proper” Christian homes, was necessary for their ultimate salvation. God said black people are cursed and naughty and deserve to be treated like animals and beasts of burden.
This is really the god you believe in and worship and I'm supposed to be impressed?
And just so there is no confusion, Hillary doesn't get a pass either. It was her darling husband that gave us DOMA and DADT. She's already on record as having no intention of trying to undo DOMA, and I suspect she has no intention of trying to undo DADT either.
Just a wee bit spooky
I got an email from my 13 year old nephew last night. Not odd in and of itself except that it came to an email address at Gmail I have created as a professional front for my new MSW career, an email I haven't told anyone about. I'm assuming he was able to do a search on my name at Google and find the email address. He's 13 and he's that Net savvy. <sigh>
I had someone else recently find me by looking up whois info for a domain where my name is deliberately, completely absent from everything else to do with that domain. I guess I should fix that. It's not that I mind people finding me. I had a way to contact me there, but I've recently learned that the privacy service I was using bailed on me. It's just a bit disturbing how easy it is for people to find you if they know what they are doing.
Doing a Google search on my name pulls up several references which is also oddly discomfiting. I suppose I should be surprised that after 12+ years of working with the Net, there are only about a dozen Google references to my name.
The duh factor.
Found a January 15 copy of the Daily Chronicle the student newspaper here at the U. The headline:
"Gastric acid in crocodilians aids digestion."
I suppose the purpose of the headline is to get people the newspaper and it worked because I actually picked up the paper and scanned the article just because of the "Is this for real?" factor. Yes. It was for real and yes, gastric acid in crocodiles aids their digestion.
"Romney Backs McCain for GOP Nominee" (NPR)
Really? What a shocker. I thought Romney and Huckabee were best buds.
Talking Points: 1 Clues: 0
If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or (Barack) Obama would win," he said. "And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror" (NPR).
Of all the things Romney might have said on his way out, of all things that might have turned my opinion of him even slightly toward positive, this wasn't it.
Oh, for crying out loud
Can't we just leave Britteny alone, people? She's self-destructed. I get it. She got rich and famous too fast and too young, she apparently didn't have much of a familial foundation to build on and she couldn't manage it and went into a tail spin. Fine. Leave her be and let her try to put her life back together.
It's not that she's the first/only/last person to be unable to manage life. She's not the first to have her children taken by the courts. She's not the first narcissist to live either. She is just one in millions. She's only news worthy because she was once a rising star. She had everything people like to covet: fame, wealth and beauty. Now fame has turned to infamy and we just love that, because we can't stand someone else having what we want.
Frankly, I've got to say those of you petty enough to be gloating over her fall probably don't have the character or the constitution to have pulled it off either.
DROP IT!