All hell breaks loose

What a weekend I have been having.

On Thursday night, my computer went home to Jesus, causing me to have to get another one. That one, a loaner, died also. I am finally back online after feeling like I have literally been to the other side of the mountain. (It's an old movie reference.)

Meanwhile, some people have lost their damned minds while I was away. Let's take each situation one by one.

Apparently conservative Dennis Prager has an axe to grind about newly appointed Minnesota Congressman, Keith Ellison.

Congressman Ellison pissed Prager off by wanting to use the Koran to be sworn in come January. Ellison is the first Muslim ever to be elected to Congress but Prager feels that he should be forced to use the Bible because it's tradition.

Sorry, Mr. Prager but that's bullshit. (Sorry, my computer calamities has led me not to put up with the excesses of silly behavior with sang froid like I usually do.)

Mr. Prager has laid out his points in a nasty screed, American, Not Keith Ellison decides what book a congressman takes his oath on - link

Prager's comments are rude and very unintelligent. He has been skewered by people from the left and the right, and rightfully so, for such un-American tripe. I am not even going to waste my time rehashing his comments.

Unfortunately this is not the first time Congressman Ellison has had to deal with nasty innuendos because of his religion. On November 14, CNN commentator Glenn Beck had the nerve to ask him:

" . . . I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."
And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way." - http://mediamatters.org/items/200611150004

I don't know if a lot of Americans do actually feel that way. Putting that in his comments as some sort of excuse for him asking the question is a cop-out. It was a totally uncalled-for question to ask a man who was elected by his peers to Congress and Mr. Beck should have shown some discernment.

Beck only proves that any Tom, Dick, or Doofus can be given his own show. All you have to do is be loud and say outrageous things.

Prager's comments are a bit more sinister because they reveal a mindset that too many people in this country and throughout history have.

Prager and those who agree with him (unfortunately based on the comments page on Town Hall and Free Republic, there are quite a few) seem to think they are entitled to tell others what to believe. Christianity to them is not a way that God connects with us but a caste system. It is this mindset that makes Prager and others believe that even though Congressman Ellison was born in this country, he is somehow not conforming to American culture and tradition.

Congressman Ellison is not on the outside of American culture because he is an American, and therfore his beliefs as an Islamic American counts just as much as those who consider themselves Christians or Jews. Congressman Ellison is America personified and to me, that's pretty damned cool.

And don't give me that crap about 9-11. That awful day is a tragedy that will live with this country forever, but I am so damned tired of people using 9-11 or "the terrorists" as an excuse to show their asses, phobias, and to forget what this country was founded on; liberty and freedom for everyone.

And the first rule of observing liberty and freedom for everyone should be an elimination of the mindset of entitlement. Under the root of racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, and yes homophobia is the idea by a group of people that somehow they are superior or divinely chosen to set the standard that the rest of us must follow.

Mr. Prager, America has already decided which book Congressman Ellison has a right to give his oath of office on. We have decided by the Constitution. You need to get your ass with the program.

And speaking of homophobia, I see that our friend Peter LaBarbera has banded with a group of others like him in some sort of "Legion of Doom" type group, The AIDS Truth Coalition - link

If they actually believed in truth, they would have never formed. Of course it's the same mess they always put out - blah blah blah, evil oversexed homosexuals, blah, blah, blah.

Then what makes it worse, LaBarbera posted this hot mess - link

For the benefit of those who do not wish to read it (but I advise that you do) it is the same nonsense that I have refuted, Joe Brummer has refuted, Jim Burroway has refuted, and every scholar who knows how the anti-gay industry likes to demonize our community has refuted. The piece is filled with out-of-date sources, Paul Cameron references, and made up medical terms, such as "gay bowel syndrome."

Now I cover all of these lies in my upcoming book, so rather than go step by step and demonstrate the lies, I want to do something different but that will still show the point I am trying to make.

A very intelligent man, John Aravois, created a page that compares lies told about Jewish people to lies told about the gay community. It is one of the best pages I have ever seen. It contains comparisons such as:

Jews are Diseased -

Insidious Jews spread disease like rats"In this way, they (the rats) spread disease, plague, leprosy, typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, and so on. They are cunning, cowardly, and cruel, and are found mostly in large packs. Among the animals, they represent the rudiment of an insidious and underground destruction - just like the Jews among human beings."- Nazi propaganda film, "The Eternal Jew," http://www.holocaust-history.org/der-ewige-jude/stills.shtml

Gays are Diseased -

Disgusting gays are diseased"The disgusting details of the homosexual lifestyle explain why so many diseases are present in the homosexual community." - American Family Association, http://www.afa.net, Homosexuality in America: Exposing the Myths.
Gays disproportionately diseased"Homosexuals account for a disproportionate number of America's most serious STD's, including syphilis, gonorrhea, genital warts, and hepatitis A and B." - Family Research Council, http://www.frc.org/insight/is95d1hm.html

Many STDs linked to gays"the many sexually transmitted diseases linked to unnatural homosexual practices" -10-8-98, news release from Americans for the Truth About Homosexuality, quoting Peter LaBarbera, who is the organization's head and also an employee at the Family Research Council, http://www.americansfortruth.com/Ncod2808.html

Gays more diseased than straights"Lesbians and homosexual men are 19 times and 14 times more likely, respectively, to have had syphilis than heterosexual men and women" - NARTH's Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D. (a top psychologist of the "ex-gay" movement), the footnote reads: "P. Cameron, K. Proctor, and W. Coburn, 'Sexual Orientation and Sexually Transmitted Disease,' Nebraska Medical Journal, Vol. 70 No. 8, August 1985, pp. 292-299." - http://www.frc.org/insight/is93g2hs.html

I invite everyone to look it over - http://www.hatecrime.org/subpages/hitler/hitler.html .

Especially you, Mr. LaBarbera