Be careful what you wish for. (2)

In renewing the push for legal recognition of same-sex marriage in Maryland, people are revisiting the debate over religious exemptions. I heard someone argue today that forcing a homophobic florist to sell them flowers "by court order" is perfectly appropriate. Beside the fact that people in the wedding industry are salivating over the prospect of making money off of queer nuptials, advocates of forcing social change on that hypothetical florist are missing a more fundamental point.

Once you have declared that government imposition of a preferred outcome trumps individual liberty, you have conceded the religious right's entire argument. Once you have declared that government should force people to reorder their private affairs to adhere to a certain code of conduct regarding homosexuality, you do not have much ground to complain when the Pat Robertsons of the state or country choose that code of conduct. The government has spoken, so tough noogies for you. We can avoid that difficulty by accepting that society has enough room for both those who want equal rights for those in same-sex relationships and those who do not want to participate in solemnizing such relationships.

Religious right or P.C. left? Quote 27

In this series of blog posts, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read each quote and guess, before doing a Web search, whether someone in the religious right or the politically correct left said it.

27.

The best way for a trannie (noun, A person born with male genitals and has been privileged in society and who systematically participates in the oppression and blatant mockery of female humans) not to be sent to the wrong prison is to not commit a crime. Heard that one before, have ya?

Quote of the week

"People in this country need to learn how to use their left brains more, instead of living in some right brain dream world where anything goes. Both sides of the brain are necessary, yet way too many people in this country seem to not even know where the light switch is on the left side." — ThankGodForScience, comment on Christianity Today

I'm a prophet.

After our building was evacuated for the earthquake, one of my first thoughts was "Someone will find a way to blame this on gays." Sure enough, Rabbi Yehuda Levin has done just that.

Aside: Regarding the point about "censorship," why does YouTube, as a private business in a competitive market, not have the right to make its own rules about hate speech?

Evidence: You're doing it wrong.

The other day, I had a conversation along the following all too common lines:

"We have evidence that [event described in holy text] actually occurred."

"What is that evidence?"

"No one has ever proved that it didn't."

When you try to reason with such people, arguments like this all too often elicit blank stares.

Things God hates (earthquake edition)

In light of yesterday's festivities, we need to add to the list of things God hates:

• Rural central Virginia


• The National Cathedral and the Washington Mormon Temple


• D.C. (but you already knew that)


• The Washington Monument. Maybe those preachers who call it a pagan symbol are right.


• The tchotchkes on your shelves. Mine weren't affected, so God obviously prefers my tastes to yours.


• The Smithsonian Institution. Maybe God is smiting them for kowtowing to social conservatives.

Name that Tea Partier (2)

Which Teabagger was quoted as follows?

The next day, at a rural economic forum in northeastern Iowa, he expressed a more limited view of Washington.

“America is going to come back from this recession stronger than before,” he said. “I’m also convinced that comeback isn’t going to be driven by Washington.”

Would you believe that it was Barack Obama? Now if only there were some way to nudge him past heresy by word to heresy by deed.

Quote of the week

"Judicial restraint isn’t so appealing when it comes down to the other side’s legislation." — Damon W. Root, Reason

Today's vocabulary word: monogamous

monogamous, adj. characterized by being the biggest whore ever; term used as a self-description in personal ads

Stuff gay men supposedly like: 18. Frou-frou bars

Everyone knows that gay bars are full of ferns, chrome, Patrick Nagel prints, and effeminate, impeccably dressed men who sip blender drinks while saying things so witty that Dorothy Parker would be nonplussed, right? Not exactly. A lot of that stuff (not the witty conversation) sounds more like something in a chain restaurant in a suburb named after a prince.

For real gay bars, imagine the Mos Eisley cantina with a "Let's make it up as we go along" approach to carding and a TV playing either porn or terrible music videos that are at least a decade out of date. (If it's a leather or bear bar, and it's game day, the TV may be playing the game instead.) Imagine also that the restrooms look like the Star Wars trash compactor, complete with monster. You get the idea now, I trust. Also, most gay bars are BYOWB (bring your own witty banter).

Today's vocabulary word: jock

jock, n. a gym bunny who has never played a sport in his life; term used in personal ads

Quote of the week

"[C]apitalism, for all its vices, also brings better lives. In the past 25 years it has lifted perhaps 500 million Chinese and 400 million Indians out of absolute poverty. Want will be ended by the market, not Marx." — Sir Tony Benton, "Keep communism on the trash heap of history," The Times of London

Name that Tea Partier

Which far-right, loonytarian Teabagger do you suppose said the following?

The days when the debt-ridden Uncle Sam could leisurely squander unlimited overseas borrowing appeared to be numbered as its triple A-credit rating was slashed by Standard & Poor's (S&P) for the first time on Friday.

* * *

S&P has already indicated that more credit downgrades may still follow. Thus, if no substantial cuts were made to the U.S. gigantic military expenditure and bloated social welfare costs, the downgrade would prove to be only a prelude to more devastating credit rating cuts, which will further roil the global financial markets all along the way.

* * *

The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone.

So which reactionary freeper wingnut made such extreme statements? It was China's official news agency.

Quote of the week

"But I think traditionalists need gay people more than they know. In a world where (conservatives lament) old-fashioned values are always on the brink of some sort of fatal decline, it is gay people such as my sister and her girlfriend who are intent on upholding tradition." — Stefanie Marsh in The Times of London

Blondienomics

After the deal on the debt ceiling, people are fretting about the prospect of smaller government. Nonetheless, the cuts, if they happen at all, will be only relative to a rapidly expanding baseline, with the result that spending will actually increase.

If you're old like me, you'll likely remember an episode of the comic strip Blondie in which Blondie tells Dagwood how much money she's saved him by hitting a sale at Tudbury's. Yes, I see the sex stereotyping, but bear with me. Baseline budgeting basically works in the same way as Blondie's "savings."