06.30.06
The Prophet Colbert
I came across this today, and how TRUE it rings. This is the predictions of Stephen Colbert on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart about the future of Presidunce Bush.
06.28.06
America Has Short-Term Memory Loss
I’m no fan of this administration, and would probably classify myself as a left-winger, but I don’t see why the White House is in such a tizzy over the “breaking” news that the government and other cooperating governments and financial institutions have been tracking finances. It would seem to me that the MSM and the White House have a bit of a short term memory loss problem. The President announced this program and the plans of the “secret” plans 13, count ‘em, 13 days after the 9/11 attacks, from the Rose Garden of the White House. Here’s the money quote that divulges exactly what the NYT and the WSJ reported.
September 24, 2001“We know that many of these individuals and groups operate primarily overseas, and they don’t have much money in the United States. So we’ve developed a strategy to deal with that. We’re putting banks and financial institutions around the world on notice, we will work with their governments, ask them to freeze or block terrorist’s ability to access funds in foreign accounts. If they fail to help us by sharing information or freezing accounts, the Department of the Treasury now has the authority to freeze their bank’s assets and transactions in the United States.”
Later during the press Q&A:
“…It is a war that will require the United States to use our influence in a variety of areas in order to win it. And one area is financial. We know there are some banks, for example, that provide easy access money for terrorist organizations. We will deal with them. And if we can’t deal with them individually, we will call upon our friends to deal with them. One of the interesting things that the Secretary can tell you — both Secretaries will tell you — is a lot of nations and their representatives have asked, how can we help; what can we do to join the effort. Some nations will feel comfortable providing troops. Some nations will feel comfortable providing intelligence. Some nations will only feel comfortable helping us wage the battle on the financial front. And that’s fine by us, because we understand how important it is to stop the flow of funds.”
Section 10 of the Executive Order on Terrorist Financing:
Sec 10. For those persons listed in the Annex to this order or determined to be subject to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that because of the ability to transfer funds or assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in this order, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to this order.
It would appear that many in this country, especially the MSM, and the White House, have extremely short term memory problems. The White House is attacking the NYT for the wrong reason. The White House should be attacking the NYT for recycling OLD NEWS stories to try and generate anger and discontent against the administration.
UPDATE: It would appear that I cannot count! I said 3 days but that was only because I was counting the digit in the one’s place. It is really 13 days. It is now corrected above.
06.22.06
Common Ground:AFA Blasts School Administrators For Censoring Valedictorian
While I don’t normally find myself agreeing with or liking any of the religious “right” groups, I must agree with the AFA’s stance on the censorship of Brittany McComb’s speech. Her right to free speech and freedom of religion were both violated by school officials and the ACLU. The schools have decided to err too far on the side of “separation of church and state” and forgotten that it is the student’s rights to pray if they want to, or to form student religious organizations. They’ve also forgotten that the student’s rights to free speech is what is important in today’s society.
Schools are sending the message that only secular speech and thinking is allowed in public settings when we all know this simply isn’t true. As a private citizen anyone is allowed to think and talk with religious overtones. She was merely thanking her God for helping her get to where she was in life. She was not speaking on behalf of the school and therefore should have been allowed to say her speech in full and unedited.
Now if only the fundamentalists at the AFA could get it through their thick boulbus skulls to actually practice what they preach and leave others’ alone when they make speeches regarding acceptance of the GLBT community. While I think it’s deplorable what the school and the ACLU have done to this student it is absolutely reprehensible what the AFA and other pro-family organizations do to gay youth who want to start a Gay/Straight Alliance at their school or promote Anti-Bullying laws.
One day the AFA will get it right.
Brittany McComb was one of the valedictorians at Foothill High School recently. She graduated with a 4.7 GPA. She earned the right to address the other graduates at Foothill, located in Henderson, Nevada.
She gave a copy of her graduating speech to the school administrators. It contained some Biblical references and even mentioned (one time) the name “Christ”. The school administrators censored some of the Biblical references. They also censored the single reference to Christ.
Then the school officials handed the speech over to the ACLU for approval and/or more censoring. After getting the OK from the ACLU, Brittany’s speech (minus the censored references to the Bible and Christ) was approved. Brittany was warned that if she deviated from the ACLU approved language, her mike would be cut off.
Then came the moment for the big decision. She would not bow down, she decided. She would go with her original version. She stepped to the mike and began her speech. But just before she could utter the name “Christ”, her mike went dead. School officials silenced her. The crowd of 400 jeered for several minutes, angry at the action of the school officials. The ACLU was happy. They had silenced another Christian.
“I went through four years of school at Foothill and they taught me logic and they taught me freedom of speech. God’s the biggest part of my life. Just like other valedictorians thank their parents, I wanted to thank my lord and savior,” Brittany said.
Because she refused to bow down to the ACLU’s idol of gold, she did not get her wish. She was censored.
This young heroine deserves praise and a thank you from those who believe in free speech.
06.19.06
See Dick. See Jane. Jane was Dick. Now Dick is Jane
This article is rather long but it would appear that the “boy” in this story knew he wanted to be a girl from the age of 3. This could be the youngest (documented) transgendered person in history. This does raise a few issues though and I’m not sure if I can form an opinion about them. The parents are very supportive, even supportive to the point now that they plan on registering for kindergarten, their biological son as a girl in the school district.The Principal of the school seems supportive, but there is mixed messages coming from both sides. Some questions that this raises for me however are confusing to answer and to comprehend because when I was the child’s age I struggled with some of these same questions but I am glad and extremely happy that I lived my childhood as a genetic male and am now a happily masculine gay man. This definitly reaffirms the “born gay” theory, but it leaves me conflicted on whether the parents should be teaching the child to be happy in his own skin or reaffirming the child’s dislike for his own body.
When I was but a wee boy no higher than a grasshopper’s knee, I can remember saying to my mother once “I wish I was a girl, then I’d be a lot happier.” I was 5; the same age as the child in this story. My favorite color was pink. I liked to play with the neighborhood girls and their toys and generally avoided the boys. It never dawned on me at that age what I was doing was different from all of the other boys because the girls liked me and played with me and welcomed me in their circles.
At the time, my mother was a single mom but let me do my own thing for the most part. When I told her the fore-mentioned statement she simply responded to me that she loved me for who I was and that I should love myself just the same. She also said that I should never try to change myself for anyone. So for that point forward I just accepted the fact that I was a boy and born that way and eventually over the time period of a few short years my tastes and interests changed into more “boy-like qualities.” Though there were a few traits that remained.
As a third-grader I tried my hands at crochet and managed to crank out many a pot-holder as christmas gifts, and was fascinated by my grandmother’s knitting. I never took an interest in sports which my dad (adopted) was accepting of because he had no interest in them either.
In the fifth-grade, during the start of puberty, I would get aroused at the thought of “manly change.” This was no more apparant when a teacher started to read to our class “The Monster’s Ring” by Bruce Coville. A poem in the book read:
Twist it once,
You’re horned and haired.
Twist it twice
And Fangs are bared
Twist it thrice?
No one has dared!
Every time in the story the kid twisted the ring, once, twice, or thrice, the book would go into a rather imaginative decription of the changes. I would get “stomache aches” during these descriptions which I finally realized toward the end of the book was my own arousal.
I was always mindful of the “good looking” boys and most of the other kids noticed something different about me, so yes I was picked on from an early age and called “fag,” “homo,” “gay,” and a multitude of other things which caused me to come home and cry.
In middle-school I started to notice other guys but due to my experiences dealing with the name calling actively sought out a girlfriend which of course did not last, not because we had problems with eachother, but because the name calling and unpopularity that I endured started to spill over on to her and that was something she was not used to. Our relationship was very much G-rated. Our kiss as to any girl I dated was no more than a smooch on the lips. I found the lip locking and tongue smacking of the other boy-girl relationships personally revolting. Sometimes, when I’d come home from school ESPN would have body building contests, and I would have to “take care of business.”
In high-school I finally became somewhat numb to the taunts and/or teases thrown at me by the other kids. Which actually made some of it stop, except for the truly hateful students. I was never an “A” student but an average student when it came to grades. I proceeded to date 5 more girls after the first girlfriend (who was a knockout for her age group) but the rest were the lonely homely girls that frankly no one else wanted to date because as you remember, in high-school image is EVERYTHING. And even though I was used to hearing homophobic and/or racial terms by not only my parents and my peers I always had my own opinion that no one deserved to be treated without respect and dignity. So, even though the kids that bullied me said mean hateful things I still said “Hi. How are you?” in passing. I floated from clique to clique because I didn’t quite belong to any group in particular. Then in ‘97 my parents bought our first computer and I had unfettered access to the internet. Like any hormonal teenager who knew 100 times what my parents knew about computers, and also how to sneak across the house at 1 AM, found myself looking at internet pornogrophy. My searches started out “straight” but soon almost always included the “gay” keyword.
I even started to take note of gay politics before the internet was available to me. I heard of Hawaii’s and Vermont’s sudden issues with gay marriage and even voiced my opinion out loud, much to the discomfort of the others around me, that I beleived that the law should not discriminate against anyone. During a particularly boring math class in my junior year I picked up a copy of the regional inter-scholastic paper which had a cover story about gay students and the troubles they faced. All of the articles in the paper were written by students. Fortunately, NY schools, administrators, and parents really pay no attention to any media that is not their own/ or were extremely progressive. I’ll stick with the first statement though. I read the article and realized that there were kids who were out there struggling like me and I had to excuse myself so I could finally cry. I still, for literal fear of my own life, stayed in the closet.
I joined the military and was assigned to Washington, DC, where I met the person who dragged me out of my introverted closet and showed me a world of people like myself, both the good and the bad, and showed me what a relationship was supposed to feel like.
My point though is that even though as a 5 year old I made the statement that I wished I was a girl, I’m ultimately thankful that I listened to my mother’s advice and didn’t undergo such a transformation. That I was allowed to go through the natural hormonal changes that would make me the man I am today, but I understand a reason to support the child in this article because possibly if given the right sensitivity by administrators and faculty, as well as the right hormonal therapies, could prevent the child from ever having to reveal her “secret” to the other children and going through the emotional roller coaster, and sometimes suicidal thoughts that I did.
I hope, that by you reading this article and my own mini story, can either understand my conundrum and perhaps put it into perspective for me.
06.12.06
President W. Christ or Jesus W. Bush
President Bush, our new savior? Possibly, according to a reader of World Net Daily.
Don’t you know that you are aiding the enemy when you speak against President Bush? I will bet you that of all the presidents since 1950, with the exception of President Ronald Reagan, President Bush is by far the best. We and hundreds of thousands of Americans stand by the president. Of course, he is not perfect, but he is a man of God. If you are a born-again Christian, you will support him and pray for him every day. We are called, no, commanded, to pray for our president.
Mary Beth Ethridge
06.08.06
Bush: Immigrants Must Assimilate
Ripped from the headlines of the Washington Post’s “Express” newspaper, President Bush insists on assimilation.
On the assertation that “resistance is futile” the President says that immigrants must adopt American culture and “learn the values and history and language of America.”
If only our “Compassionate Conservative” of a President would learn these things too. *sigh.
This is merely a way of trying to get his base back on his side of this important keystone issue with the upcoming elections in November. He’s trying to make sure that his republican base will vote republican.
With the President’s approval ratings at roughly 35% it’s fair to say that this is just a political game.
Those of us who beleive that the diversity in this country are what make up it’s culture and history and language(s) of America only hope you fail. I, however, do beleive in better border control and no amnesty for illegal immigrants, but do not beleive in a national language or culture. Even though it’s sometimes frustrating to press 2 for English I can still accomplish what I need to do. Besides, who would it hurt to become a bi-lingual?
Northern Virginia Anti-Discrimination Laws Illegal??
On the Shocker scale of 1 to 10, 1 being a very loud and obnixios “Well Duuuuh!” the other being “Like, oh mah gosh! Seriously?” this rates as a 2, “Figures as much.”
For a state that actually prides its self on being one of the states that held onto and fought tooth and nail the longest to keep slavery, and being one of the last states to have anti-miscenegation laws repealed, it’s really no surprise that Virginia legislature would make it so no one underneath could expand on it’s antidiscrimination policies.
Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, and Stafford Counties all have anti-discrimination policies protecting sexual orientation. However due to recent events may lose these progressive and rational ideas to a state that has a proud long history of discrimination and predjudices. A recent case has a film reproduction company up in arms.
A film-and-video lab owner has filed suit against a county Human Rights Commission for ordering him to duplicate two pro-homosexual videos produced by a lesbian activist.
Tim Bono and Bono Film and Video, Inc. of Arlington, Va., is challenging the authority of the Arlington County Human Rights Commission, the Arlington County Board and Arlington County.
The controversy began when Tim Bono was contacted by lesbian activist Lilli Vincenz via e-mail to reproduce documentaries entitled “Gay and Proud” and “Second Largest Minority.”
Bono told Vincenz his company does not duplicate material that is obscene, could embarrass employees, hurt the company’s reputation or runs counter to the company’s core values and to Christian ethics.
Vincenz filed a complaint with the Arlington Human Rights Commission under the county’s nondiscrimination ordinance, which was amended to include “sexual orientation.”
On April 13, the commission entered a decision directing Bono Film to “provide the requested duplication service at the complainant’s expense or in the alternative to assist the complainant in locating a suitable facility where this service can be provided at the Bono Film and Video’s expense.”
Bono, represented by Florida-based Liberty Counsel, argues Virginia law, under a provision called “Dillon’s Rule,” prohibits local government from passing or enforcing nondiscrimination laws that are not authorized by the state.
The state does not list “sexual orientation” as a protected civil right or class.
Liberty Counsel says that in addition to removing the county commission’s authority to enforce “sexual orientation” nondiscrimination laws, the lawsuit also will affect several other Virginia counties that have illegally passed “sexual orientation” antidiscrimination laws.
So even though the county promotes diversity in the community the state can come in and say “We don’t like fags, and you have to hate who we hate! So there!” Clearly, more “family” values from upon “high.”
To which I propose an amendment to our state motto. Instead of “Virginia is for Lovers” we have it say “Virginia is for whomever we deem human enough to live here otherwise get out.” This way people will know right away whether or not they fit into the Virginian community.
My advice, don’t move here, don’t spend money here, don’t visit here, maybe if they lose enough money they’ll have a “change of heart.”
