The Anti-Homosexual Agenda

I keep running into a lot of talk about the homosexual agenda. I can't seem to read a news article anymore without some hot shot talking about how Gay people will destroy the fabric of society if they are allowed to be themselves. (gee, maybe the fundies should consider this. They are looking for a way to end the world anyway :)

After reading a lot of articles, I have gleaned the following list of unreasonable demands and special rights, that the Gay Agenda would force on the right thinking people of the world:

They want to be able to get married

They want to be able to raise children

They want to be able to join the military and serve their country

They want to be able to work and pay taxes

They want to be able to hold hands without being threatened with violence on city streets

They want to be able to have a place to live

How dare they want these 'special rights'?
How many people do YOU know that would want these things?

I submit that the rest of the population already takes these things for granted and so can't imagine a need to specifically grant these rights to a specific group?

That seems to be the crux of the matter.

Nine out of Ten americans never have to wonder whether they will ever be allowed to marry or have their marriage annuled by the government.

Nine out of Ten americans don't have to worry whether they will be permitted to adopt children or even whether they will be allowed to have medical assistance in having their own.

Nine out of Ten americans certainly needn't be concerned with whether they will be allowed to serve in the military or whether their own forces will assault or kill them if they try.

Stupid me! Here I thought we were supposed to be living in a free society, and that the constitution of the United States guaranteed all citizens the right to pursue happiness.

How wrong can one man be?

OK! I have seen the light!

Let's not give Gay people these 'special rights'. Lets take it even one step further. Since they shouldn't have a right to have a job and a place to live, they will be a burden on society. we can make homosexuality illegal and force them to carry identification letting people and law enforcement know the kind of folks they are.

Then we can arrest them anywhere for illegal sexual activity.

While we are at it, why not build special prisons just to house these perverts. Think of the jobs it would provide to decent members of society. Since we will be concentrating all the queers in special prisons, we can call these places 'concentration camps'. Has a sort of ring to it, doesn't it?

Once we have them all together, we can even implement a 'final solution' save our society once and for all!

Now! On to the Jews!

The revenge of the fundamentalists

Please note that I call them fundamentalists, not religious conservatives. I deliberatly use that term since it is insulting to truly religiously conservative folks like the Quakers and Menonites to confuse them with wingnuts like the followers of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

Now I don't claim to be an expert in fundamentalist fetishes or mythology, but recently I have been hearing a lot about something called 'revelations'. Seems there is a myth out there that if certain things occur (or can be made to occur), then the so called 'good Christians' will bodily be transported to heaven while the rest of us will be subject to horrible plagues, torture, and grisly death. They call this the 'rapture' though it doesn't exactly sound very rapturous to me!

Naturally, all these folks want to be part of the rapture, so they follow all the rules, real and imagined, deny themselves, and dull their minds, so that they may sleep easily at night, confident that if the 'tribulation' arrives, they will be 'raptured' up to heaven before the fireworks start.

I don't have a problem with this. Hopefully they will have better luck then their brethren that waited to be 'raptured' up to comet kohoutek after selling all their worldly posessions. I think those guys are still sitting on top of a mesa waiting for its next pass.

But, and this is a big BUT, it seems that many of these looney tunes are actually trying to bring this situation about by influencing politics in hopes of bringing on the apocolypse. They are recruiting in the military (I don't know about you, but the idea of the person behind the button actually believing that pushing it is a good thing is a bit scary), trying to influence global politics, and generally involving themselves in areas well beyond the purview of religion. Now this is not only incredibly frightening, but incredibly selfish.

If they believe they are going to heaven anyway when they die, and if they believe they will be raptured out before the apocolypse begins, then what is the point of bringing it on? If they are in such a big hurry to get to heaven, why not just go mountain climbing in the Himalayas without cold weather gear, or try scuba diving without air tanks? Why try and get there in a manner that will cause the most pain and suffering to everyone else?

There is only one conclusion to be drawn.

REVENGE.

They want to be able to say "I TOLD YOU SO" to all the "unbelievers" who went blythly along living there lives and having a good time, while the 'True Christians' denied themselves any pleasure in life and learned to suffer.

Of course if what they believe really was true, they wouldn't be here to say it, and I am sure the rest of the world would have more on their minds then to pay attention to a fundamentalist saying "Nyah Nyah" from heaven, but you get the idea.

How incredibly mean spirited, and um, if I may say it... unchristian.

The notorious Wyatt Slurp

I live in Central New York.

Normally this isn't something I brag about, due to our two main seasons... Winter and Road Repair. However there is one dubious benefit to living in this area.

You can be owned by a Malamute.

Yes, I said be owned by. Certainly one doesn't own a northern breed dog. At best, they agree to let you pretend you are in charge... sometimes.

As a puppy, Wyatt was incredibly cute, and rather shy. He spent most of his time hiding under the kitchen table when inside and under the porch when outside.

That lasted about two months.

One day I noticed that petting him had become a dangerous pastime (picture a large sopping wet sponge filled with razor blades). Then he started become vocal. I mean most puppies don't like being told what they can and can't do, but Wyatt talked back. Continually. A simple "NO" would bring on 30 seconds of backtalk, including a variety of woofs, woo woos, and and occasional howl.

Turns out that Malamutes take independence to new levels. They are quick learners and catch on to commands rapidly. However, they only obey those commands that suit them at the time and turn conveniently 'selective hearing' on any command that directs them to either do something they don't want to do, or stop them from doing something they find interesting.

He also started to grow. Not just your average garden variety puppy growth, but the kind of growth one sees mostly in grade B horror movies, after the pup has ingested some alien spore that causes him to want to take over the world.

This is when I discovered the joys of tying the dog outside. I am currently in the process of building a yard sized pen out back to acoomodate his highness the lawdog, but even that is a challenge.
Malamutes are great diggers, and great climbers, which means I have to build a pen that would also be able to contain Steve McQueen from the Pappilion movie. So, as you might guess, it is not quite finished yet. I still need to bury the netting to keep him from digging his way out, and make sure there are no nearby trees he can climb to get over the fence .

So for the moment, he is destroying the railing of my front porch and has made the front yard his outdoor home.

Now fortunately for me, although Central NY is cold in the winter, Malamutes thrive on the cold, and even when the temperature gets below zero, he stretches and luxuriates in the cold.

Except, he doesn't like to be outdoors. Malamutes LOVE to be outdoors. They are known for being outdoor dogs that don't like to come inside. Not the pupzilla though. This guy only wants to be outside if someone else is. Otherwise he wants to be nice and warm indoors, forcing you to play with him or searching every available surface in the kitchen for food. Did I mention that Mals are the biggest food moochers on the face of the earth?

All your food are belong to him.


Now why, you ask would I want to own this overgrown lop eared galoot, that not only insists on being the center of the universe, but also the prime recipient of every edible tidbit in the refrigerator.

Cause he is still a cute puppy, even though at 10 months, he is rapidly becoming the size of a small truck!

questions for a new year

1. how can Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania be concerned about and against the president going outside the law to spy on american citizens, yet be stubbornly supportive of a supreme court nominee that would enshrine into law, the president's ability to do anything?

2. Why are the Log Cabin Republicans in Florida so upset that the GOP is funding the anti gay marriage initiative. Seems to me that they are partially responsible for supporting the folks who are advocating this course. It may sound a bit perverse, but they sort of sound like 'jews for hitler'.

3. How can gay Catholics still stay Catholic considering that the Catholic church thinks they are sick and 'disordered'?

4. How can the democrats, faced with a supreme court nominee that has such a clear paper trail showing his disdain for individual rights and the right to choose, and has shown over and over again in his testimony that he will evade answering any specific questions, be so inept at being able to make that case?

5. in conjunction with this, after giving the conservatives every court appointment they wanted in exchange for saving the judicial filibuster for an important candidate, refuse to even use it when the confirmation of this man would irrevocably turn the court so far to the right that civil rights in this country are in jeapardy for the next generation?