"I have no problem with homosexuality.  I have a problem with homosexual acts."

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

A number of people have pointed out that I'm being “unfair” in calling Sen. Santorum's homophobic and bigotted quotes — in which he'd said that gays were in effect sexual criminals that were “antithetical to a healthy family” (more) — as being statements “by the government”… So I'm adding this entry to cut down on the number of replies I have to do.

Let me be clear on why I put it that way… primarily because he said it with the (silent) support of the government and that support continues. And that silent support should not be ignored, and it is saying volumes.

First, he's the Senate's 3rd ranking Republican (if he can't speak for the government, who can?). Second, he “clarified” his remarks be saying*, “I have no problem with gays, I just have a big problem with them acting on their sodomite desires, and lots of people agree with me too!” (more, more, more). Third, not only has no official statement been issued by the government (more) — Ari Fleisher just said in effect, “it's not a big deal — we've got more important things to worry about” when asked about it (more) — but they are actively supporting him via their “unofficial channels” (more, more).

So, simply:

  1. He is a direct representative of the ruling branch of the US government.
  2. He made profoundly bigotted remarks as a representative of the government.
  3. No statements decrying his comments were issued by the government, so we can assume they stand. On the contrary, the traditional “pseudo-government” lobby groups all supported him.
  4. When asked to clarify his remarks, he “clarified” them into an even more bigotted form.
  5. Again, no statement from the government.
  6. When asked by the press what the President thought about the comments, Ari Fleisher replied that they were really no big deal and joked with the reporters that monitoring the UN inspection teams (which isn't happening) is more important.

PS. Just so you know exactly who Sen. Santorum is, here are a few of his claims to political fame (and I've listed only a few here):

  • He directly supported a bill that would make murdering an abortion provider “justifiable homicide” (more, more).
  • He tried to force through a bill ensuring that “creationism” was taught as a viable scientific theory alongside education in schools (ie. trying to force schools to teach Christian mythology). (more, more, more)
  • He was of course a supporter of the “faith-based” charity system which allows funneling of federal funds to religious groups (more).
  • He's the guy that along with Sen. Brownback is pushing through legislation that would cut federal funding to any educational facilities that allow students to speak against Israel (more, more) — that is, he doesn't give a damn about Constitutional rights.
  • He's also part of the crew supporting putting that crook Chalabi in power (more).
  • He's trying to initiate sanctions against both Syria and Syrians in America (more, more, more).
* PARAPHRASED: The actual quote is “I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts. As I would with acts of other, what I would consider to be, acts outside of traditional heterosexual relationships… (and so on)” (more)

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Stupid snow

Wednesday, April 23, 2003



STUPID SNOW

The US government, via Sen. Rick Santorum, said recently that homosexuality was a crime up there with incest (more, more), and called for US leaders to embrace religion. He went all to call George Bush (a Methodist) a great Roman Catholic leader, and decried JFK for not listening more to the Roman Catholic Church when he was in power — not that Bush listened to the profoundly anti-war Pope (more).. Of course, given that many Republicans are being housed in mansions paid for by the Christian right, his statements are no surprise (more, more).

I could link a thousand stories about gigantic protests by Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq demanding a theocracy of their own, complete with repression and less “freedom” than ever existed under Saddam (more, more, more) — that seems to be the story of Iraq right now — looting, chaos, killing, and louder and louder calls to kill America… Then there's always the Red Menace as well (more).

Innocent civilians, mostly children, continue to die every day in Iraq thanks to US aggression (more)… Thanks to mines, US cluster bombs, and so on, children are being killed in playgrounds (more, more, more). Not only that, but the US, who clearly can not handle the overwhelming humanitarian crisis, is blocking any UN aid teams from entering Iraq (more), presumably so they can hand out “aid contracts” to US corporations (more).

I think most of us realize at this point that Iraq didn't have any weapons of mass destruction and the war was started using lies (more), and the fast roll-over clearly shows that Iraq posed no credible threat… That said, given that mainstream America still believes the WMD story (and anything else they're told to believe), the US is blocking access to UN weapons inspectors — after all, if you're going to lie, it's best not to let others prove you're trying to deceive them (more, more).

But don't worry, the government is fighting to get you “easy to use” mini-nukes (more)! Yay for the end of the world. Oh, and here's the best way to guarantee terrorist attacks: hand Iraqi oil to the Israelis (more) under US command… While we're screwing stuff up, did you know that the US is holding children at “Camp Xray”? (more)…

…oh yeah, that and expelling nine-year old girls from school for havin red streaks in their hair (more). America is getting very screwed up… Here's the message that's being sent:

  • If you look normal, act normal, and do what the government tells you, you're the “good american”.
  • If you get bad grades, screw stuff up, don't do your homework, don't learn to read, whatever, it's probably someone else's fault — probably someone with red hair made it impossible for you to work. It's not your fault if you're “normal”.
  • If you don't look normal, you have no right to an education or other government services because you are not a “good american”.

Fight it now, or live with it forever. There's a serious snapback erupting on mods, alternate sexuality, free expression, religion, and everything that one would expect should be embraced in a free society.

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I'm a sticker maniac…

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

OK, I just added six more to the order… I've tried to size them to a legit 72DPI so they will probably be about life sized (or a chunk smaller depending on your monitor settings).

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New stickers in 2-8 weeks

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

The following six sticker designs have just been ordered since people seemed happy with the first set — and I think these look a lot better as well… More will be on the way soon. You can never get enough stickers. Anyway, these are all red, white, and black on vinyl in a 2.13″ x 2.75″ size, courtesy of Sticker Guy (if you wanted to make stickers for a BBQ, or something it's pretty cheap — you can do runs of 250 stickers for $20 postage-paid — just be sure to give 8 weeks lead time).

PS. As always, these are not for sale. When they get here I divide them into four piles. I give one pile to Ryan to throw in with BMEshop orders as he sees fit, one pile goes to BBQ hosts, and the other piles get sent to people who help out via PayPal as well as sending random packages to the pros.

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He ain't heavy

Monday, April 21, 2003

I don't know how I'm not arrested (or dead) right now — my only explanation is that I have an in at the CCCC*…       ————rewind!

My brother, his partner, and his gargantuan grinning baby came to visit this morning. About ten or twelve minutes after they left, we noticed that he'd forgotten his jacket and work ID, which is a big deal because he works in secure areas that need ID swipes for access. About twenty minutes from the house is the merge from the “local” road to the larger highway, at which point traffic is heavy enough that I wouldn't have caught him easily.

So I grabbed his stuff and threw it into the Porsche, turned the Cuban rap way up, and tore out of the driveway. Traffic wasn't bad until I passed Tweed where it started to get bogged down with people returning from the holiday, so I had to do a lot of passing — if I didn't maintain an average speed of at least 140, I wasn't going to catch them.

Coming around a bend I saw that I had perhaps a quarter mile before an oncoming transport convoy passed me, so I dropped down into fifth and gunned it — I squeaked between the transport and the car in front of me at over 160, only to notice that a police cruiser was sandwiched between the first two trucks… Luckily I suppose his predicament did not allow him to catch me, so I guess he just cursed all the way home.

At the intersection of the highway I caught up to them, and they didn't seem to realize who I was — it wasn't until I pulled up along side them and honked that they realized it was me and stopped… When they thanked me for the delivery, I thanked them back — it's not often I have a “valid” excuse to drive 175 on curvy country roads!

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