There’s no reason that the government should prevent homosexuals from entering civil marriages because some religions object to the concept, any more than the government should ban atheism because some religions object to it.

Lisa Pampuch

I don’t know who Lisa Pampuch is. There are dozens of her on the Net. I couldn’t find the original source of the quote either, but it’s everywhere. I’m thinking it has something to do with how eminently reasonable it is. Of course, as this Lisa Pampuch points out, reason has little to do with the religious experience.

When asked what he would do if Camping* is wrong again, Rick LaCasse, who witnessed Camping’s 1994 failure, said: “I can’t even think like that. Everything is too positive right now. There’s too little time to think like that.”

UPDATE:This Lisa Pampuch, cited above, is the Lisa Pampuch who has thoughtfully provided links to the original article in the comments. Thanks, Lisa.

*Camping is currently predicting the rapture will occur on May 21, 2011. Obviously, it wasn’t 1994.

Hatch asserted that the health bills, which he believes represent a “step-by-step approach to socialized medicine,” will lead to Americans’ dependence on Democrats for their health and other issues. “And if they get there, of course, you’re going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody’s going to say, ‘All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party,’ ” Hatch said. . . .(TheHill.com)

It boggles the mind that he can say that with a straight face. If I had time, I’ll bet I could find at least a dozen similar quotes regarding the New Deal. Well, 70 years later we’re still not a socialist state and we still have a two-party system. True to conservative form, if facts aren’t on your side, try hysteria.

Visited the Apple store on 5th, and shot a pretty typical up looking view of the spiral staircase there. Liked the graphics of it, until of course an Apple employee stepped up and told me I couldn’t shoot up at the stairs cause somebody might be wearing a skirt. Now in Manhattan the array of people who could be potentially wearing a skirt is widely varied, so I could understand their concern. But really–all you see are the bottoms of shoes. Do I look that desperate? The guy who complained to me musta had the nuns.

“Musta had the nuns.” I like that. Oh, and don’t you think someone had already thought of that which is why the glass is frosted? Sounds to me like someone can’t think of any other reason to be looking up . . .

. . . It’s a simple matter of logic, really. God made me who I am, and who I am is a cold, anti-gay zealot. Thus, I abhor gay people because God made me that way. Why is that so hard to understand?

Compassion, tolerance, understanding, basic decency, the ability to put myself in another person’s position: God could have endowed me with any of those traits and yet—here is the crucial part—He didn’t. Why? Because the Creator of the Universe wants me to demonize homosexuals in an effort to strip them of their fundamental human rights.

. . . So unless our almighty Lord and Savior decides to change His mind about my ability to empathize on even the most basic level—which I find highly unlikely—then everyone is just going to have to accept the fact that I’m going to keep on hating homosexuals. And I know that He will fill me with the strength to remain mindless and hurtful in the face of adversity.

You can find the rest here.

HT: MoHoHawaii

There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender… identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results.

No idea where this comes from. Found it on a boy blog I follow. I suspect it’s not original to the author of the blog. I see sentences constructed like this and know they are inaccessible to a large segment of the population. It’s not that they couldn’t understand it, but a first parsing doesn’t bear fruit so they just check out. In the past I’ve found it necessary to translate statements in Ivory Tower Speak to be more accessible to my clients.

On the other hand, I think of right-wing buffoons like Beck and Limbaugh and have guilty fantasies of an aneurysm cause by intellectual overload to their atrophied and addlepated brains.

I was stunned when this actually made news. Talk about a tempest in a teapot. Have we really sunk this far? How far up your ass does your head have to be to even consider the President of the United States encouraging kids to stay in school a bad thing? Have you been watching the man at all the last nine months? He couldn’t be more restrained, diplomatic or politic. What do you think he’s really going to say TO. SCHOOL. CHILDREN?

HT: Greg Prince

She was mayor of a town of roughly 5,500. Yes, Wasilla is part of the Anchorage metropolitan area, for a total population of about 360,000. Does anyone else wonder if being Mayor of a small town extrapolates well to being President of the United States? She was elected governor in 2006, that means she was basically governor for one year, maybe 18 months. How effective a governor do you think she was while on the campaign trail? And now she has resigned. She didn’t even complete a full term as governor. All I’ve heard is whining about media scrutiny, a.k.a. slander and defamation. I’m sorry, but she is a nobody from nowhere and suddenly she’s candidate for Vice President. You think that isn’t going to raise eyebrows? You set yourself up as a target then complain when people start taking shots at you. Does that sound like someone who can take the heat of being President?

When asked if he had any regrets about choosing Palin as his running mate, McCain responded, “…with all due respect to those who like to examine the entrails and look backward, the fact is we were three points ahead on September 15 and then the stock market crashed and we went seven points down…”

Ummmm…isn’t examining entrails about looking forward? And how do you give respect to someone who you then immediately dismiss and a conjurer or a quack? He talks about the stock market crash like it was a force of nature beyond his control and not a reflection on eight years of Republican economic policy, which maybe, just maybe had an impact on voter confidence in his and her ability to govern well.

I don’t get the Sarah Palin obsession. From where I sit it has to be one of two things: a delusional attempt to rescue an ego and save face, or they really do think she would be a great president because she is so clueless, Republican power brokers would have a perfect puppet in the White House. Oh, I’m sorry. Was that a personal attack?

It was the most polite event I’ve been to since I can remember. But then I wasn’t a street preacher.

On the northwest corner, a couple of preachers were telling passersby they were going to hell, and in turn being told to “[deleted] off.”

The one with the “Homo Sex is Sin” sign was besieged by a dozen furious lesbians, a fact I deduced partly because of how they looked but mostly because they kept saying so at the top of their lungs.

The other preacher periodically held up two female ends of electrical cord and jammed them together to show, I guess, that the fit didn’t work.

Neither did the object lesson. For me, it begged all sorts of gospel imponderables about biblically approved amps, volts, etc. Is Heaven 220 or 110? Are power strips brothels or plural marriage?

Or not. But that’s okay. Jesus doesn’t mind a little dishonesty as long as it’s for a “good cause.”

Valerie Mills of Bountiful’s Citizens for Families argued the “collapse of traditional marriage” is leading to high rates of child anxiety and obesity.

Salt Lake Tribune: Legislative panel approves first gay-rights bill

OK. I lied. The collapse of traditional marriage has nothing to do with gay sex, gay marriage or gay rights. It’s about toxic heterosexual couples who lack the maturity and relationship skills to even be in a relationship, much less be a parent or get married. Heterosexuals have done a fine job of demolishing marriage without our help.

Oh, but don’t lets talk about the failings of heterosexuals. Let’s just blame the gays.