Clack

Keep Your Jesus off my Pen Is

Almost certainly not safe for work, but absolutely hysterical! Keep Your Jesus Off My Penis

Link via MeFi

Dubyah interviewed

If you haven't already seen this, you should!

Interview of the President by Radio and Television Ireland

The link's busy, so you may have to try a few times.

Also, if you're interested, here's the official transcript:

Q Mr. President, you're going to arrive in Ireland in about 24 hours' time, and no doubt you will be welcomed by our political leaders. Unfortunately, the majority of our public do not welcome your visit because they're angry over Iraq, they're angry over Abu Ghraib. Are you bothered by what Irish people think?

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, I hope the Irish people understand the great values of our country. And if they think that a few soldiers represents the entirety of America, they don't really understand America then.

There have been great ties between Ireland and America, and we've got a lot of Irish Americans here that are very proud of their heritage and their country. But, you know, they must not understand if they're angry over Abu Ghraib -- if they say, this is what America represents, they don't understand our country, because we don't represent that. We are a compassionate country. We're a strong country, and we'll defend ourselves -- but we help people. And we've helped the Irish and we'll continue to do so. We've got a good relationship with Ireland.

Q And they're angry over Iraq, as well, and particularly the continuing death toll there.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I can understand that. People don't like war. But what they should be angry about is the fact that there was a brutal dictator there that had destroyed lives and put them in mass graves and had torture rooms. Listen, I wish they could have seen the seven men that came to see me in the Oval Office -- they had their right hands cut off by Saddam Hussein because the currency had devalued when he was the leader. And guess what happened? An American saw the fact that they had had their hands cut off and crosses -- or Xs carved in their forehead. And he flew them to America. And they came to my office with a new hand, grateful for the generosity of America, and with Saddam Hussein's brutality in their mind.

Look, Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction against his own people, against the neighborhood. He was a brutal dictator who posed a threat -- such a threat that the United Nations voted unanimously to say, Mr. Saddam Hussein --

Q Indeed, Mr. President, but you didn't find the weapons of mass destruction.

THE PRESIDENT: Let me finish. Let me finish. May I finish?

He said -- the United Nations said, disarm or face serious consequences. That's what the United Nations said. And guess what? He didn't disarm. He didn't disclose his arms. And, therefore, he faced serious consequences. But we have found a capacity for him to make a weapon. See, he had the capacity to make weapons. He was dangerous. And no one can argue that the world is better off with Saddam -- if Saddam Hussein were in power.

Q But, Mr. President, the world is a more dangerous place today. I don't know whether you can see that or not.

THE PRESIDENT: Why do you say that?

Q There are terrorist bombings every single day. It's now a daily event. It wasn't like that two years ago.

THE PRESIDENT: What was it like September the 11th, 2001? It was a -- there was a relative calm, we --

Q But it's your response to Iraq that's considered --

THE PRESIDENT: Let me finish. Let me finish, please. Please. You ask the questions and I'll answer them, if you don't mind.

On September the 11th, 2001, we were attacked in an unprovoked fashion. Everybody thought the world was calm. And then there have been bombings since then -- not because of my response to Iraq. There were bombings in Madrid. There were bombings in Istanbul. There were bombings in Bali. There were killings in Pakistan.

Q Indeed, Mr. President, and I think Irish people understand that. But I think there is a feeling that the world has become a more dangerous place because you have taken the focus off al Qaeda and diverted into Iraq. Do you not see that the world is a more dangerous place? I saw four of your soldiers lying dead on the television the other day, a picture of four soldiers just lying there without their flight jackets.

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, nobody cares more about the death than I do --

Q Is there a point or place --

THE PRESIDENT: Let me finish, please. Please. Let me finish, and then you can follow up, if you don't mind.

Nobody cares more about the deaths than I do. I care about it a lot. But I do believe the world is a safer place and becoming a safer place. I know that a free Iraq is going to be a necessary part of changing the world. Listen, people join terrorist organizations because there's no hope and there's no chance to raise their families in a peaceful world where there is not freedom. And so the idea is to promote freedom, and at the same time protect our security. And I do believe the world is becoming a better place, absolutely.

Q Mr. President, you are a man who has a great faith in God. I've heard you say many times that you strive to serve somebody greater than yourself.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

Q Do you believe that the hand of God is guiding you in this war on terror?

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, I think that God -- that my relationship with God is a very personal relationship. And I turn to the good Lord for strength. And I turn to the good Lord for guidance. I turn to the good Lord for forgiveness.

But the God I know is not one that -- the God I know is one that promotes peace and freedom. But I get great sustenance from my personal relationship. That doesn't make me think I'm a better person than you are, by the way. Because one of the great admonitions in the Good Book is, don't try to take a speck out of your eye if I've got a log in my own.

Q You're going to meet Bertie Ahern when you arrive in Shannon Airport tomorrow. I guess he went out on a limb for you, presumably because of the great friendship between our two countries. Can you look him in the eye when you get there and say, it will be worth it, it will work out?

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely. I wouldn't be doing this, I wouldn't have made the decisions I did if I didn't think the world would be better. Of course. I'm not going to put people in harm's way, our young, if I didn't think the world would be better. And --

Q Why is it that others --

THE PRESIDENT: Let me finish.

And so, yes, I can turn to my friend, Bertie Ahern, and say, thank you, thanks for helping, and I appreciate it very much. And there will be other challenges, by the way.

Q Why is it that others don't understand what you're about?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't know. History will judge what I'm about. But I'm the kind of person, I don't really try to chase popular polls, or popularity polls. My job is to do my job and make the decisions that I think are important for our country and for the world. And I argue strongly that the world is better off because of the decisions I have made -- along with others. America is not in this alone. One of our greatest allies of -- in the world is your neighbor, Great Britain. Tony Blair has been a strong advocate for not only battling terrorists, but promoting freedom, for which I am grateful.

Let me say one other thing about America that your viewers must know -- is that not only are we working hard to promote security and peace, we're also working to eradicate famine and disease. There is no more generous country on the face of the earth than the United States of America, when it comes to fighting HIV/AIDS. As a matter of fact, it was my initiative --

Q Indeed, that's understood --

THE PRESIDENT: -- my initiative, that asked Congress to spend $15 billion over five years to battle this pandemic. And we're following through on it. And no other country in the world feeds more of the hungry than the United States. We're a compassionate nation.

Q Mr. President, I know your time is tight, can I move you on to Europe? Are you satisfied that you are getting enough help in Iraq from European countries? You have come together, you are more friendly now -- but they're not really stepping up to the plate with help, are they?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think, first of all, most of Europe supported the decision in Iraq. And, really, what you're talking about is France, isn't it? And they didn't agree with my decision. They did vote for the U.N. Security Council resolution that said, disclose, disarm or face serious consequences. We just had a difference of opinion about when you say something, do you mean it.

But, nevertheless, there's no doubt in my mind President Chirac would like to see a free and democratic and whole Iraq emerge. And same in Afghanistan. They've been very helpful in Afghanistan. They're willing to forgive debt in Iraq. But most European countries are very supportive and are participating in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Q And how do you see the handover going? The next few weeks are going to be crucial. Can democracy really flourish with the violence that's going on? A hundred Iraqis dead today, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: I don't like death, either. I mean, you keep emphasizing the death and I don't blame you -- but all that goes to show is the nature of the enemy. These people are willing to kill innocent people. They're willing to slaughter innocent people to stop the advance of freedom. And so the free world has to make a choice: Do we cower in the face of terror, or do we lead in the face of terror?

And I'm going to lead in the face of terror. We will not let these terrorists dash the hopes and ambitions of the people of Iraq. There's some kind of attitude that says, oh, gosh, the terrorists attacked, let's let the Iraqis suffer more. We're not going to let them suffer more. We're going to work with them. And I'm most proud of this fellow, Prime Minister Allawi. He's strong and he's tough. He says to me, Mr. President, don't leave our country, help us secure our country so we can be free.

Q Indeed, Mr. President, just to get back to that. Can I just turn to the Middle East --

THE PRESIDENT: Sure.

Q -- and you will be discussing at the EU summit and the idea of bringing democracy to the broader Middle East.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

Q Is that something that really should start, though, with the solving of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think, first of all, you've got a democracy in Turkey. And you've got a democracy emerging in Afghanistan. You've got a democracy in Pakistan. In other words --

Q But shouldn't that be on the top of the list --

THE PRESIDENT: Please. Please. Please, for a minute, okay. It'll be better if you let me finish my answers, and then you can follow up, if you don't mind.

What I'm telling you is democracy can emerge at the same time that a democracy can emerge in the Palestinian state. I'm the first American President to have called for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the first one to do so. Because I believe it is in the Palestinian people's interest; I believe it's in Israel's interest. And, yes, we're working. But we can do more than, you know, one thing at a time. And we are working on the road map with the Quartet, to advance the process down the road.

Like Iraq, the Palestinian and the Israeli issue is going to require good security measures. And --

Q And a bit more even-handedness from America?

THE PRESIDENT: -- and we're working on security measures. And America -- I'm the first President to ever have called for a Palestinian state. That's, to me, sounds like a reasonable, balanced approach. But I will not allow terrorists to determine the fate -- as best I can, determine the fate of people who want to be free.

Q Mr. President, thank you very much for talking to us.

THE PRESIDENT: You're welcome.

END 4:19 P.M. EDT

Conspiracy theories abound

Entertaing Flash site, presenting the conspiracy theory that Osama Bin Laden has already been captured and the Bushies are waiting for the right moment to roll him into the public eye

http://www.bushflash.com/lotto.html

NYC Council Overrides Mayor's Veto of Equal Benefits Bill

from 365gay.com:

A day after some gay New Yorkers booed mayor Michael Bloomberg as he marched in the Gay Pride Parade city council voted 41 - 4 to override the mayor's veto and pass the Equal Benefits Bill.

The legislation requires contractors that do more than $100,000 of business each year with NYC to offer the equal benefits. It is expected to make health coverage available to tens of thousands of additional people in the New York City region and hundreds of thousands across the country.

US Army Told Not To Use Israeli Bullets in Iraq

I should probably start a special WTF?! category in Clack, since this would certainly belong there. According to this Reuters/Yahoo! article, US soldiers are being told that, under no circumstances, should bullets that were purchased from Israel Military Industries, Ltd be used in Iraq except for training purposes.

Since the Army has other stockpiled ammunition, "by no means, under any circumstances should a round (from Israel) be utilized," said Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, the top Democrat on a House of Representatives Armed Services subcommittee with jurisdiction over land forces.

The Army contracted with Israel Military Industries Ltd. in December for $70 million in small-caliber ammunition.

[...]

Although the Army should not have to worry about "political correctness," Abercrombie was making a valid point about the propaganda pitfalls of using Israeli rounds in the U.S.-declared war on terror, said Rep. Curt Weldon, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the subcommittee on tactical air and land forces.

"There's a sensitivity that I think all of us recognize," Weldon told the Army witnesses, including Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, who led the U.S. Third Infantry Division that captured Baghdad in April 2003.

Yeah, nothing like being "sensitive" as you pull the trigger to send a bullet toward someone's head.

Also, in the same article, Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, now the Army's assistant deputy chief of staff, said the Army's needs will grow to about 1.5 billion to 1.7 billion rounds a year in coming years.

Does this imply that everybody already knows we're going to be fighting this (and possibly other) war for many years to come against increasing resistance and hostility? Would this also imply that Dubyah's declaration of the winning of the war in Iraq was bullshit?

Colin Farrell's B-I-G scene

Apparently, Colin Farrell is "gifted" in the crotch department. According to Eonline/Yahoo!, a full-frontal scene is his upcoming movie, A Home at the End of the World, had to be cut from the film because his endowment disrupted the flow of the movie.

Members of both sexes cheered at the unrobed Irishman during a test audience screening of the flick recently, disrupting what was supposed to be a poignant scene, according to the New York Post. (In a slightly differing account, the New York Daily News reported that the audience "gasped.")

But, fear not, you seekers of the knowledge....according to rumor, the scene will be left in the DVD version of the movie.

"Here Comes Da Judge"

OK, forgive the title of this entry, but I just couldn't resist. Sapulpa District (in Oklahoma) Judge Donald Thompson has been accused of (among other things we'll get to later) masturbating while in the courtroom.

All quotes from Reuters/Yahoo!

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson filed the petition on Wednesday with state judicial authorities seeking the ouster of Sapulpa District Judge Donald Thompson, 57, for "conduct constituting an offense involving moral turpitude in violation of the Oklahoma Constitution," Edmondson's spokesman said on Thursday.

AG Edmondson's petition also alleges Judge Thompson "used a device for enhancing erections," ie, a penis pump. But, the story doesn't end there.

"On one occasion, Ms. (Lisa) Foster (Thompson's court reporter for 15 years), saw Judge Thompson holding his penis up and shaving underneath it with a disposable razor while on the bench," the petition reads.

Several witnesses, including jurors in Thompson's court and police officers called to testify in trials, said in the petition they heard the "swooshing" sound of a penis pump during trials and saw the judge slumped in his chair, with his elbows on his knees, working the device. The witnesses said the pump sounded like a blood pressure cuff being pumped up.

You know, I wonder if Rasputin used a penis pump?

Hey folks! Just testing a

Hey folks! Just testing a new piece of software on my new treo 600 that'll let me blog on the go. We'll see how well it works over the next few days

Congratulations Spaceship One!

Today marks a significant point in history. Scaled Composite's Spaceship One and it's pilot, Mike Melvill touched the edge of space.

With a triumphant thumbs-up and a broad grin, the pilot of the SpaceShipOne rocket plane celebrated becoming the first private-sector astronaut to steer his ship into space — by less than a tenth of a mile.

"I feel great, I really do!" pilot Mike Melvill exclaimed after emerging from his craft on the tarmac of the Mojave Airport here.

The flight was not without its problems, however. During the flight, a glitch in the flight control system knocked Spaceship One 22 miles off course. Fortunately, Melvill switched over to a backup system. On the way down, Melvill says he experience roughly 5 G's

"I was not afraid all the way up, but I was a little afraid on the way down," he told journalists at a postflight news conference.

In addition to all that, a fairing that was added to the rocket plane's engine nozzle for this flight buckled, causing a loud booming sound inside the cabin.

Spaceship One is the odds-on favorite to win the X-prize, a $10 million dollar prize for the first privately-funded and privately-developed suborbital craft to make the trip from the earth to the edge of space and back twice in two weeks while carrying three people (or their equivalent weight).

Quoted text taken from MSNBC. Videos of the takeoff and landing are also available on that page.

Soldier dismissed after revealing he's gay

Yahoo!/AP

"I didn't do it to get out of a war — I already served in a war," Muller, 25, said in an interview. "After putting my life on the line in the war, the idea that I was fighting for the freedoms of so many other people that I couldn't myself enjoy was almost unbearable."

[...]

Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, a conservative advocacy group that opposes gays serving in the military, said the loss of gays and lesbians serving in specialized areas is irrelevant because they never should have been in those jobs in the first place.

"We need to defend the law, and the law says that homosexuality is incompatible with military service," Donnelly said. "There is no shortage of people in the military, and we do not need people who identify themselves as homosexual."

20 things you have to believe to be a republican today

from Steve Gillard's News Blog

1. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery

[...]

6. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

[...]

9. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

[...]

11. HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.

12. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

13. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

[...]

16. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

[...]

Spaceship One scheduled to Launch

link from Boing Boing

According to Scaled Composite's web site, the world's first private manned spaceflight will launch on Monday, June 21, 2004 from the Mojave Desert. The public is invited.

The FAQ page gives more details such as the exact date and time (Monday, June 21, 2004; 6:30 am PDT), why the launch is so early in the morning (winds), and live media coverage of the event (live broadcast by CNN).

Good luck, Spaceship One Crew!

no entries on front page of clack

Alright, so it's been a week since I've posted anything. I spent last week in Pasadena, CA on work-related travel and most of those days were spent in almost constant meetings.

I pulled up the front page of clack today to trace down a comment, and low and behold, it was empty! Well, it wasn't empty, but there were no entries on it.

If you're running MT, the default behavior is to keep only the number of days' worth of posts on the front page that you specified when you set up your blog. Note this is number of actual days! This is not the number of days in the past that actually contain a post!

Here's how to "fix" that problem (from the help file of MT 2.661):

Number of days displayed The number of days displayed by default on your index templates. Note that you can override this behavior in your MTEntries tag; this is merely the default, used when you do not supply MTEntries with any attributes.

For example, if you wish to display the last 15 entries that you have posted to your weblog, you could use the lastn attribute to MTEntries instead of relying on the default behavior:

< MTEntries lastn="15">
...
< /MTEntries>

Note that, if you choose 7 days, 7 days means the last 7 consecutive days, not necessarily the last 7 days on which you posted an entry. So if you have posted on just 3 of the last 7 days, only the posts from those 3 days will be listed on your main indexes.

Note also that a ``day'' is defined as the time from 24 hours ago to now, where ``now'' is the time at which you are rebuilding your site. It does not mean from 12 AM to now on the current day. As an example, if you are including 1 day on your index and you posted an entry one day at 6 PM, that entry will show up on your index until the next day at 5:59 PM.

Flashback alert!

I was reading Dave's entry about having the background music for the arcade game Moon Patrol stuck in his head for a week this morning, and he provides a link to the Moon Patrol game at the Coin-Op museum.

Poking around on their pages, I was having flashbacks to my teenage years when a group of friends and I would go to the Putt-Putt mini-golf/arcade in Albertville. Oh my, I wasted countless hours of my life (and probably thousands of dollars in quarters) playing games like Asteroids, Atari Football, Baby Pac-Man, BurgerTime, Centipede, Defender, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong Junior, Frogger, Joust, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo, Missile Command, Ms. Pac-Man, Mario Brothers, Pac-Man, Qix, Q*bert, Tempest, Tron, and Zaxxon.

Great fun!

Ray Charles dead at 73

Rest in peace, Ray. Thanks for all the great songs!

Yahoo!

Ray Charles, a transcendent talent who erased musical boundaries between the sacred and the secular with hits such as "What'd I Say," "Georgia on My Mind" and "I Can't Stop Loving You," died Thursday. He was 73.

Charles died of acute liver disease at his Beverly Hills home at 11:35 a.m., surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.

Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, the gifted pianist and saxophonist spent his life shattering any notion of musical categories and defying easy definition. One of the first artists to record the "blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them," as legendary producer Jerry Wexler once said, Charles' music spanned gospel, R&B, soul, rock 'n' roll, country, jazz, big band and blues.

Brilliant Advertising

OK, the 2nd season of Six Feet Under hits the shelves on July 6 according to amazon.com.

Season four starts Sunday on HBO.

picture via towleroad

Christian Wake Up Call

James Hopper, a good friend of mine from the Huntsville area, called a few nights ago to tell me about an article placed in a local paper. According to greeneyedgrrl (the only reference I could find on the internet to the article), the text read:

Attention Church!!
How many of us to to church? How many of us like to go to Disney World? Then get ready to go, because starting the weekend after Memorial Day, Saturday, June 5, starts The Annual Gay/Homosexual Week. They go to different parts of the park (Central Florida) on different days. It started back in 1990 as an Annual Gay/Homosexual Day, but now they make a week of it. I was told "Disney World doesn't sponsor this, they just come." So how many of us Christians are going? Are you?

Satan's laughing! Don't you think it's past time we took a stand!!

I've written about the overly dramatic "religious" people before. The writer of this article, Mark Underwood, obviously falls into the same category. Satan's laughing?

For starters, Mr. Underwood, it's called Gay Days. There are multiple websites you can look at to determine that. Yes, thousands of gays and lesbians show up, and yes, many of then travel to the different parks on different days of the week. I've been twice, and will go again given the chance.

However, unlike you, we do not discriminate. Straight people are welcome to walk alongside us in the parks; hell, some of us have even brought our straight friends with us to the park.

James wrote a letter to the editor in response to Mr. Underwood. His letter is printed here in its entirity from the CourierJournal. Once again, there is a message that all people should pay attention to, but the self-avowed "Christians" should pay close attention.

Christian Wake-up Call

To the Editor:

In response to the “Attention Church” advertisement in the June 2, 2004 edition of the Courier Journal submitted by Mark Underwood, the people spoken of here are human beings. They have the same right to life, love, and the pursuit of happiness just like everyone else.

Yes, Disney World does have the annual Gay/Homosexual Week there. Why not? This park is full of hypocrites, adulterers, liars, cheaters, etc. year-round. Heaven forbid the “Christians” mix and mingle in this environment. Wake-up call -- you are around any one or more of these people in your daily life. Whether you know it or will admit to it, everyone knows, or is related to someone who is gay.

Chances are, the people spoken of in this piece would treat you better than you treat them. Since sin is what is being referred to here, let me say that the Bible does not say anything about there being different hells for different sins.

Articles or ads of this nature spread hatred. This hatred can lead and has led to violence and murders. If this is what you want, then oh what a fine Christian you are! Hatred is not a family or true Christian value.

James Hooper

greeneyedgrrl sums up her feelings in a way that's very much in line with mine....

Can you believe we have to put up with this shit here in Alabama? When are the Christians going to give up their self righteous indignation and start acting more like Jesus? Isn't that the whole premise of Christianity--love your neighbor, treat others with respect, give to the community, teach others by your own positive example? Here's a little tip for Mr. Underwood--You're not going to convince anyone to hear your views on religion/God/spirituality while promoting hate and intolerance.

Welcome New Blogger!

After some harrowing installation problems fun last night, NightOwl is officially part of the blogging community! Welcome to the fray!

Rhea County, TN in the news again

You might think Rhea County sounds familiar....well, you're correct. See Gay Day.... at Dollywood?, We Need To Keep Them Out Of Here, Rhea County, TN Reverses "Ban on Gays", and Rhea County Issues Pride Permit

from Yahoo!:

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that argued weekly Bible classes are unconstitutional in the public schools of Rhea County, the same county where the "Scopes Monkey Trial" pitted creationists against evolutionists 79 years ago.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati agreed Monday with a February 2002 ruling by U.S. District Judge R. Allan Edgar of Chattanooga.

Edgar ruled that the Bible Education Ministry program in Rhea County violated the First Amendment's clause calling for separation of church and state.

The 30-minute classes were held weekly for about 800 students in kindergarten through fifth grade at the county's three elementary schools. Parental consent was not required and students were allowed to participate in alternative activities if they objected to the classes.

Rhea County superintendent Sue Porter said Monday that school board members would likely discuss whether to appeal the latest ruling at their Thursday night meeting. Bible classes had been offered in Rhea County for 51 years.

"I'm disappointed, not surprised though," Porter said.

The appeals judges ruled that although school officials contended that the classes were value-driven, teaching responsibility and positive morals, they were "also teaching the Bible as religious truth."

Assault with a deadly Chalupa

from Yahoo!:

Man Charged With Chalupa Assault

DES MOINES, Iowa - A man who claimed he didn't get the taco he paid for has been charged with assault for allegedly pelting a Taco Bell clerk in the face with a chalupa.

Nancy Harrison told police she was working the drive-through Thursday night when Christopher Lame, 24, ordered some food.

He later came into the store, complaining he didn't get the taco he had ordered, police records say. Harrison said that when she asked for a receipt, he went back to his car and brought back the bag.

Harrison said she told him the store was closing, and as she turned away, a chalupa hit her in the face near her right eye. She said she ran into the parking lot and took down the license number as the motorist was driving away.

Lame was identified through the license number.

He is scheduled to appear in court June 15.

Who Knew?!?

So, how many of you out there knew you could buy ... ummm ... "personal massagers" on Amazon?

There's some doozies in there too... but, I'll leave it up to you to find them

Bush Campaign Seeks to Enlist Tax-exempt Congregations in Campaign

from US Newswire, via Yahoo!:

Today, The Interfaith Alliance denounced an initiative from the Bush-Cheney campaign seeking to enlist campaign support in 1600 "friendly congregations" in Pennsylvania.

"Whether or not this is legal, this is an astonishing abuse of religion," said the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance. "It is the rawest form of manipulation of religion for partisan gain."

A member of The Interfaith Alliance (TIA) sent a copy of the e-mail she received from the Bush-Cheney campaign asking for volunteers to "serve as a coordinator in your place of worship." A campaign spokesperson in Pennsylvania admitted to Rabbi Jack Moline, a TIA board member, that the email was from the campaign but had only been intended for central Pennsylvania. The spokesperson said that the Bush national headquarters in Virginia had apparently sent it out to others on their list.

"If ever there were a question about the real intent of expanding faith-based initiatives and promoting a presence of religion in government, this tactic puts it to rest," Rabbi Moline said. "The Bush-Cheney campaign has dropped any pretense of honoring the separation of church and state mandated by the Constitution, and puts in jeopardy the non-profit status of 1600 houses of worship by asking them to engage in partisan politics. The President should repudiate this initiative immediately. 1600 Pennsylvania churches for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. How clever. How reprehensible."

[...]

"Sadly, the Bush campaign is willing to jeopardize churches' tax exempt status, by asking them to endorse his candidacy," said Rabbi Gregory S. Marx, Congregation Beth Or, and treasurer of the Southeast Pennsylvania Interfaith Alliance (SEPIA). "This is one further step, way past Bush's 'Faith Based Initiatives' towards blurring the necessary and historic lines separating church and state."

---

The following text is from the email.

Subject: Lead Your Congregation for President Bush

Dear : The Bush-Cheney '04 national headquarters in Virginia has asked us to identify 1600 "Friendly Congregations" in Pennsylvania where voters friendly to President Bush might gather on a regular basis. In each of these friendly congregations, we would like to identify a volunteer coordinator who can help distribute general information to other supporters. I'd like to ask if you would like to serve as a coordinator in your place of worship. We plan to undertake activities such as distributing general information/updates or voter registration materials in a place accessible to the congregation. If you are interested, please email Luke Bernstein at LBernstein@GeorgeWBush.com (mailto: LBernstein@GeorgeWBush.com ) your name, address, phone number and place of worship. If you have any ideas, questions, or concerns please do not hesitate to e-mail me or you can call me at 717-233-4066. Thanks, Luke

Paid for by Bush-Cheney '04, Inc

Sharon Underwood's Letter

Link via MeFi

seablogger has an entry about a purported letter to the editor of the Valley News in White River Junction, VT written by Sharon Underwood and published on Sunday, April 30, 2000.

Several of the comments on seablogger's entry discuss whether or not the letter is genuine. Regardless of the validity of the letter, it delivers a message that the "Moral Majority" and the "Religious Right" should take to heart.

The letter is reprinted here, but, seablogger's remarks, the comments on the entry, and a special comment section set up for the post are certainly worth reading as well.

Letter to the Editor

by Sharon Underwood, Sunday, April 30, 2000
from the Valley News (White River Junction, VT/Hanover, NH)

As the mother of a gay son, I've seen firsthand how cruel and misguided people can be.

Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.

I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.

My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.

He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.

In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't face a life without dignity.

You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it's about time you started doing that.

At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.

If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?

A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for "true Vermonters."

You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn't give their lives so that the "homosexual agenda "could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.

He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn't the measure of the man.

You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.

How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage.

You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.

The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks: "What ever happened to the idea of striving...to be better human beings than we are?"

Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?

Self-realization and understanding

Bill has written an incredibly powerful entry. It's sad. It's beautiful. It's about things in his life that made him who he is today. It's a must read.

So now, I look at my life and realize that I have it all. I love what I am, I have a great partner who loves me, I have only a few friends in life, but all have shown that they don't care what I am, in fact they love what I am. I have a home filled with love. And, for the first time in my life, it hit me that I didn't hate myself for being homosexual. I love what I am. I love that it has given me the sight to see what others can't. That surprised me more than anything else. I never hide it. I don't think I flaunt it, but it seems easy to spot because I am just being myself. I have no desire, time, or energy to care about what others will think of me. I am just, me. And, that is a good thing!

I used to tell people that if I could be straight, I would be. That if I had kids, I would want them to be straight, because life is easier. But now, I realize how much I would be giving up. In essence, I would be giving up the most wonderful gift anyone could have; the unique ability to look at the world and see more of what it has to offer, in all it's good and bad.

Now, the only thing that will complete my journey would be marriage. The ability to put a label on what Kent and I have together and the ability for society to see us together and say, "A couple, not gay or straight, but a couple. We accept you. Welcome to our family."

Before I die, I want to feel that.

Today's SpeedBump

from Yahoo!

Majority of Americans Support Gay Couples

According to a poll conducted by CBS News, 57 percent of Americans support legal status for gay and lesbian couples. Twenty-eight percent said same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, 29 percent said gay couples should be entitled to civil unions. Forty percent said that gay couples should not permitted to wed.

However, 60% of those polled favor a constitutional ammendment to permanently ban gay marriage, while only 37% oppose it.

There's some interesting classification statistics in the poll, such as

Groups most likely to support same-sex marriage include those under age 30, those living in the Northeast, and college graduates, CBS News reported Monday.

Democrats and Independents are more likely than Republicans to favor same-sex marriages. Men and women have similar views on the legal recognition of same-sex couples.

The poll also asked about the role same-sex marriage would play in the November election.

Fifty-s[i]x percent of [those polled] say they could vote for someone who disagrees with their position on same-sex marriage, while 35% say they could not vote for such a candidate. In March, voters were more evenly split. Then, 45% said they could vote for someone who disagreed with them on same-sex marriage, but 44% said they could not support a candidate who held a different position.

Most voters said there were more pressing issues facing the nation than same-sex marriage.

And, my favorite: "Seventy percent of votors said the issue should have have no part in the campaign. 20% say it should have a minor role, and only 9% think it should have a major role."

from 365gay.com