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Given the re-definition of anti-Semitism conserv-o-partisans like Anne Leary and others have come up with (if you oppose a Jewish person’s politics, you are anti-Semitic)… it’s becoming clear that whiners like Fran Eaton at Illinois Review and Braig Gernliver of Broken Liver are, in fact, anti-Semitic because they’re ranting against Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s vote against a recent House resolution.
For pointing out this bit of logical conclusion-making I’m sure the affable, laughable Pat Hickey will use his eponymous blog to call me a “knuckle gnawer” or some such (as he did earlier in the week) when, in reality, he ought to be calling Ms. Leary and others who hope to pervert the definition of “anti-Semitism” such silly kindergarten names.
(And Mr. Hickey, the song writers you note weren’t wasting time on bizarrely partisan non-issues in Congress… They were trying to write popular songs in an effort to live the American Dream of making a decent buck. And here we thought conservatives whined about the overcommercialization of Christmas.)
Yesterday, the same week archconservative Republican Rep. Steve King (Iowa) had his resolution on Christmas pass the House … and conserv-o-partisans at the Illinois Review chose to rant against a Jewish Congresswoman for not voting in favor of the non-issue (even while ignoring the fact Illinois GOP Rep. Tim Johnson also didn’t vote in favor of it) …
We see yet another actual case of the War on Christmas flair up, this time in the New York subway of all places. Essentially, gang of hooligans yelled “Merry Christmas” on a subway car and a fellow also riding in that car called back with “Happy Hannukah.” The punks proceeded to beat the guy and one of his friends. In the true spirit of Christmas, a Muslim foreigner came to the Jewish guys’ aid against the “Merry Christmas Muckrakers.”
This begs the question, if conservatives keep saying they want to see tolerance for Christianity in public … what about tolerance for Judaism, let alone Muslim Good Samaritans? (Or is all their cackling about “Judeo-Christian heritage” so much meaningless partisan spin?)
Don’t rush out to buy it now. I’m sure there will be plenty of wasted paper left after Boxing Day:
God’s Gift to Women: Discovering the Lost Greatness of Masculinity
No word on whether it comes with instruction manuals on how to get yer woman to scrub floors on her hands and knees and generally treat her like dirt.
Pathetic… Why must hardline conservatives constantly seek out people to lord over and tear asunder?
(h/t Elizabeth’s Little Blog)
This blog has from time to time discussed Andy Schlafly and his conserv-o-partisan “Conservapedia”, which is mislabeled as “The Trustworthy Encyclopedia”. In reality, this work of fiction gives rational, honest conservatives everywhere a black eye by promoting some of the more silly “rhetoric” (if it can be called that) on the Internets.
Interestingly, nine of the ten most popular topics at Andy-Boy’s conservative wiki (trailing only the main page in popularity) deal with issues which one might think are not on the top of most folks’ gaydar radar but apparently are mighty important matters for social conservatives.
From the Conservapedia “Statistics” page:
Most viewed pages
- Main Page [1,912,012]
- Homosexuality [1,583,882]
- Homosexuality and Hepatitis [517,345]
- Homosexuality and Promiscuity [421,055]
- Gay Bowel Syndrome [393,822]
- Homosexuality and Parasites [388,470]
- Homosexuality and Domestic Violence [373,149]
- Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [331,665]
- Homosexuality and Mental Health [292,657]
- Homosexual Agenda [270,376]
Why are cons so fascinated by teh gay? What is it that they find so appealling? Recall that curiosity killed the cat, so it’s a good thing the Republicans (conservatives included) are represented by elephants.
That said, what the heck is “gay bowel syndrome” and why does Andy Schlafly’s Conservapedia find it so … alluring … that it’s in the Top 5?
Suitable for framing…
Be sure to keep all this info quiet from Petey LaBarbera lest he find himself lost in ‘research’.
(h/t Cheers & Jeers and Graham)
When will the craziness from the people claiming to be Christian stop?
I would think this would be a parody, but they link to “Rev.” Phelps’ virulently anti-gay bullcrap and their other posts (especially their replies to comments) sound genuine enough.
Here’s hoping I’m wrong and these sorry sobs aren’t contributing to the black eye other arch-conservative nitwits are constantly giving Christianity.
Let me get this straight — Fundamentalist Dominionists feel a sense of entitlement and thus engage in a frivolous lawsuit to try and impose their way of revolutionary, outside-the-norm thinking on an entire state (California in this case) after becoming upset because a secular collegiate system declared their quasi-education standards lacking due to a religious-based rewriting of historical and factual information so as to actually remove factual info to the point of rendering the Dominionists’ education meaningless.
It’s fine if you want to educate students from a religious point of view, but this lawsuit by Dominionists against the University of California school system is beyond ridiculous. Basically, the UC has decided that any religious-based or secular-based high schools need to meet certain minimum standards in teaching information to their students. They’ve rejected curricula from both religious-based and secular-based schools due to their curricula being under those standards.
But when an entire group of schools base their curricula — from US History to Literature to Science (namely Biology) — on texts that have so much context and reality removed from them that they border on misinformation … don’t get uppity by complaining that the secular school system has minimum standards.
I’ve always thought it interesting when partisans pull “life lessons” from pop culture and use them to illustrate their own perceived superiority of their political philosophy. Such in-the-moment analogies serve as little windows into the soul, revealing what a partisan is actually thinking and feeling deep down.
I get it, of course. Talking about a new movie, a big game or a hot news event serves as a readily-understood means for partisans to promote their ideas and it’s also an easy device to use because at any given moment everyone’s focused on the pop event of that moment.
Fran “Gene Shallot” Eaton illustrates my point to a T with her commentary on “Shrek the Third” over at Illinois Review this morning. This recently opened kid-oriented animation is, as our pres-schooler says, ‘only in vaders’ (Star Wars made a big impression) and the commercial promotion and cross-promotion is fast and furious, especially in the kids’ media.
Ms. Eaton calls her soliloquy “Shrek: a strange setting to promote transgenderism” and this paragraph sums up her thoughts:
Right in the midst of a warm “traditional family” setting, the film writers place a man dressed as a woman in with Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White (the good gals). The crossdressing character simply doesn’t make sense, except as a ploy to desensitize children and parents to transgenders.
Desensitize? Really? Desensitize them to what?
John Ruskin gives us another little bit of alarmism this morning with a brief link to a Jerusalem Post opinion column about the recent Burlington, NJ school terrorism drill.
I’ve written before about the routine practice of self-fulfilling martyrdom among conservative Christianists (a sort of modern day, pop-media inspired self-flagellation). They think they’re being persecuted therefore they run around ranting about the burden of being persecuted. Elwood McQuaid, the essayist who wrote that J-Post column, even provides the appropriate New Testament passage:
“For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:29)
These folks create scenarios in which they either set themselves up to be victims of their own minority viewpoint (”Woe is me for no one agrees that we should ban books”) or, as in this case, they ignore the facts in order to paint themselves as victims. That’s not actually suffering “for His sake” … but to them it clearly feels like it is.
The Other Anonymous, over at Capitol Fax blog, says:
Unfortunately, too many do believe in the prejudicial stereotypes that IFI sells.
TOA writes this in response to Rich Miller’s question on whether or not folks buy into the over-the-top rhetoric that groups like Illinois Family Institute promulgate. The original post is in regards to IFI’s bizarre diarrhea of the mouth over a proposed state bill which offer same-sex benefits to certain school employees. Oh dear, we can’t have “the gays” treated just like … just like … like every other American?!! Preposterous!
Yet lo and behold, we see a plethora of other gay-hatin’ going on this very same day from among the Midwest conservatives’ ranks:
- Illinois Review all but announces its “watch list” of gay folks supporting Sen. Obama. (Who cares which gay people support Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain for that matter?)
- The despicable cult leader Rev. Phelps is headed to Indiana today to spout hatred during another military funeral. (Thank God for the Patriotic Guard riders. I encourage all Illinois Reason readers to join PGR and attend as often as you’re able.)
- “Culture” Campaign’s first link on their homepage is still a discussion of why folks like Petey LaBarbera ought to keep their kids tucked away at home lest they get any ideas about “the gays”. Maybe they’ll update that after reading about IFI’s strange interpretation of this proposal since anything related to sex and schools seems to immediately pop up on Sandy Rios’ radar.
When conservatives finally get over their hatred of gay Americans it will be a good day in this country. I’m not holding my breath.
UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: Illinois Review copied its list of Sen. Obama’s gay supporters from Rod 2.0 blog wherein blogger Rod discusses the political ramifications of not only Sen. Obama’s gay and lesbian supporters but also those of Sens. Clinton and Edwards (Rod found the list via the campaign). Illinois Review chose to remove that discussion in favor of repeating only the list, changing the emphasis entirely.
Due to my involvement as a volunteer (for the incumbents: Dussling, Kruetzer and Zimmanck) in the recently concluded H.S. District 214 race I thought it best to hold off on posting this til after the election since the topic is really more general than just the one campaign so I “embargoed” it back on March 29th. Plus, I didn’t want to give the main opponents (Frizane, Konzcyk and the ‘Christianist right-wing’) any more material for their abundant lies. Now that those two opponents have had their butts significantly kicked by the voters, I’m posting it. (As a sidenote, one of the disputed authors is Kurt Vonnegut who has passed in the weeks since this was first written.)
This was originally written March 29th:
Over at Culture Campaign, it’s been well known for some time that Sandy Rios and Friends are obsessed with sex in Illinois’ schools. Actually, more like obsessed with sex discussed in the books in our schools (just read that homepage…).
The election two years back of Leslie Pinney to a high school board of education has proven to be a highlight for Culture Campaign and other groups of similar interests. CC was there to fight the good fight with Ms. Pinney as she attempted to ban books from honors-level classrooms and optional summer reading programs.
This April 17th will mark the first local election since freshman Pinney was sworn in and since her attempt last year to impose a radical reallignment of the local, commonly-accepted education system (I think it’s clear enough that AP classes, and the material they cover, are commonly accepted). Culture Campaigners are right there in the thick of it, jumping up and down demanding their side of things be heard also. CC’er Abigail Ruth tells us her thoughts in a blow-by-blow reaction to a newspaper article which really only serves to highlight just how far outside the mainstream she and her fellow CC social-more extremists are…
In a way, being so far outside the accepted norm sets Ms. Ruth and those like her up to play the role of downtrodden martyr. Their ideas and concepts of reality are so radically different compared to the rest of us in the community at large that, when this is pointed out to them, they immediately feel as if they’re being attacked simply for holding and expressing such minority viewpoints.
Their extremism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in which they act the part of modern-day Daniels in a Lion’s Den built of their own perception. And it’s easy to point out how far outside the norm they are simply by deconstructing Abigail’s point-by-point analysis of the March 26th Daily Herald article…
Read more of “Self-fulfilling Martyrdom” below the fold…
(Again, apologies to Phil Collins.)
I’ve been holding off on commenting on this race because of my own involvement — I’ve endorsed and have been actively volunteering for the incumbents in the High School District 214 race (northwest suburban Cook County). There’s your full disclosure.
Sometime last night (between evening time and the newspaper delivery this morning) we got a middle-of-the-night lit drop from those opposing the District 214 incumbents. The Daily Herald lists 214 as one of its “key races” and based on the number of yard signs for the incumbents and the challengers (almost as much as last year’s Republican vs. Democrats dogfight) it certainly seems to be key.
Indeed, District 214 has been on conservatives’ radar for a few years now. Illinois Family Institute Board of Directors member Bruce Tincknell lives in the district and is frequently opposing this or that move during school board meetings. Sandy Rios’ Culture Campaign has been helping to promote a partisan conservative version of District 214 events for a while (replete with “On the Scene” reporting…). Even radio talk show host and Illinois conservative blogger Bruno Behrend picks up on District 214 by recently repeating something conservative school board member Leslie Pinney brought up during a school board meeting (have these folks ever heard of context — bring up the fact you noticed this large number and then ask for an explanation before pouring acid all over the issue).
