Yes, I stopped blogging...

I'm thinking about restarting, but time and energy have been very limited. We'll see what the future holds.

Hey! Biological Determinists! Listen Up!

I have a question. When you get the urge to urinate, do you just whip it out (or squat) and piss wherever you happen to be standing, regardless of whether you're in a board meeting or standing in line at the DMV? No? Didn't think so.

Do you know why you don't? Because biology produces the impulse, it does not dictate your actions. Simplistic but true. So, stop pretending that simply having certain biological impulses justifies or explains irresponsible, illegitimate, illegal, or immoral acts.

Thank you. You may now return to your regularly scheduled idiocy.

Not One Nickel

Not One Nickel lays out the new voice of the LGBT Community in the face of constant betrayals by the Democrats, who want our money, our votes, our time, our energy and our support but force us to live as second-class citizens in our own country and refuse to support us on even those issues where we have public opinion behind us. We will not stand for these cowardly betrayals any longer. As we approach the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, a new radicalism is emerging. I, for one, think it's about damned time.

No Gay Rights, No Gay Dollars!
No Gay Rights, No Gay Votes!

If you support the LGBT cause, whatever your orientation, please return any Democratic contribution requests with the words above or some equivalent written on them. If you have a web site or blog, please post this request or some version of it. Please help us send the message that human rights should never be sacrificed for political expediency.

UPDATE: If you wish, you may also like to participate in Operation DOMA Flip Flop. It'll only take a few minutes and won't hurt at all (unless you get a paper cut, in which case, it'll hurt like a bitch).

Homophobama...

In addition to flip-flopping on Don't Ask Don't Tell, under which 13,000 men and women in our armed forces have been discharged for being gay, Obama has now allowed his DOJ to defend the Defense of Marriage Act by, in part, comparing gay relationships to incest and pederasty.

Sadly, I'm not even remotely surprised. Once again, I was right all along.

Fellow Pro-Choicers...

Please stop making us look stupid.

You think it's clever to challenge pro-lifers with miscarriage and spontaneous abortion as some sort of counterpoint to their opposition to induced abortion. Often, you'll snicker and pat yourself on the back after making this argument because you're sure that the stunned look on their faces is proof of your ideological and rhetorical victory. You're wrong. It's not clever. You deserve neither to snicker nor to pat yourself on the back. That stunned look is not proof of victory but a response to the complete stupidity that is your argument. Look at any intelligent pro-choicer's face after you've made that argument and you'll probably see the same stunned look.

You see, whether you like it or not, there is a difference between miscarriage/spontaneous abortion and induced abortion just as there is a difference between dying of natural causes and dying due to some action on the part of another human being, be it manslaughter or murder or self-defense. There is a HUGE difference. To say that pro-lifers have to be opposed to G-d or nature's creation of miscarriage in order to be ideologically consistent is just ridiculous. That's the equivalent of saying that a person can't be ideologically opposed to murder or manslaughter if they're not also ideologically opposed to dying of old age.

So, please stop making that argument. You've embarassed the movement enough.

Taking "Marriage" Out of the Equation?

Many people, including the President, suggest that we should reserve the word "marriage" for heterosexuals in deference to "religion." To them and to you, I say this:

I'm a Reform Jew. Both the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations resolved in the late 90's to oppose governmental restrictions on gay marriage. In 2000, the CCAR voted to allow rabbis to perform the actual Jewish marriage ritual for gay couples. (The kiddushin thing is kind of complicated.)

Anyway, if we take the word "marriage" out of the equation in deference to "religion" as many politicians, including the President, have suggested, we allow a subset of Christian denominations to become the government-approved "official" religion of this country. We would also say that my religion and so many others are invalid and unworthy of recognition in the United States.

Personally, I would not readily surrender my 1st amendment rights any more than I would readily surrender my 14th amendment rights, the basis upon which equal rights and equal protection stand.

Obama--Constitutional Scholar?

I've been confused by this since the primaries. How has everyone bought this Obama the Great Constitutional Scholar bullshit hook, line and sinker? As far as I know, Obama managed to become Editor of the Harvard Law Review and a Professor while never having produced ANY original scholarship in constitutional law and having very little experience actually working as a lawyer. Perhaps he had some stellar academic credentials, but we don't know that because he had his academic records sealed. I, for one, highly doubt that his academics were that impressive considering his efforts to conceal them. (What candidate proud of their academic credentials has them sealed when all other candidates have provided theirs?)

In virtually every field with which I am familiar, Obama's story would be impossible. In my own field, journalism, you can't get even an associate professorship at any reputable university without having produced original, published work AND having worked as a journalist. You sure as heck would not be made editor of any of the journals without extensive publication.

Is the field of constitutional law completely devoid of such a standard?

Update: Did some research. Obama was "President" not Editor of the review. My bad. I'm used to the editor title. Anyway, it was considered extremely unusual for a President of the Harvard Law Review not to publish at that time, since membership in the review was considered "publish or perish." The Review had a policy of stripping membership from members who didn't meet a publishing due date. Those who were stripped of membership were required to contact all firms that had offered them jobs and inform them that their membership had been revoked and that they did not have the right to list it as a credential on their resumes. How did Obama escape this requirement? There is a heavily edited, unsigned "note" from before Obama's membership that is occasionally attributed to him but Obama's own people denied he'd ever published. Since it was prior to his membership, it also wouldn't have fallen within the review's publication requirement as far as I can tell.

Interestingly, it was also expected that an outgoing President would work as a clerk following graduation. EVERY outgoing President did so BUT Obama. Another oddity.

I stand by my assumption that it is ridiculous to call someone a distinguished scholar in a field in which he produced no original scholarly work.

Stupid Politicians!

Digby and Greenwald have excellent posts on the Republic and Democratic politicians' exaggerated fear of keeping terrorists in American prisons, as well as the MSM's complicity in the lies and fearmongering. I have two questions:

Why is it that suspected terrorists get fewer legal protections and less humane treatment than the men we KNOW planned, organized and carried out the brutal occupation of most of Europe, the enslavement of millions and the carefully executed murder of 12 million people (6 million of them Jews) in the Holocaust? Are we saying that Afghan shepherds are more dangerous and less human than genocidal, warmongering maniacs like Goering?

In Remembrance: Still We Have Not Forgotten

Today is Yom Hashoah, the day of remembrance for those who perished in the Holocaust. The following video may be a bit too sad for some. So be forewarned.



In case you were wondering, the song is "Ani Ma'amin" or "I Believe." which was sung by Jews on their way to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. These are the words in Hebrew (transliterated) and English:

"Ani ma'amin b'emunah shleimah beviat haMashiach, v'af al pi sheyitmameiha, im kol zeh achakeh lo b'chol yom sheyavo."

"I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, and though he may tarry, nevertheless I await his coming every day."

11-Year-Old Commits Suicide Over Anti-Gay Taunts

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover was 11. Bullies at school called him fag and sissy. They tormented him because they thought he was gay. His mother continually demanded that the school intervene. They didn't. Carl killed himself 2 weeks ago. Once again, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover was 11. Think about it.