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| Joe Rogan signals America's intellectual downward spiral. |
A recent vote in Canada just demonstrated how progressive a country can be when government officials aren't caught in a strange hold by so-called religiously moral figures and false precepts.
From The Hill:
Canada’s House of Commons on Wednesday voted unanimously to outlaw LGBTQ+ conversion therapy, a rare example of harmony in a Parliament often fraught with discord. The bill, first proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in March of last year, will now go to the upper Senate chamber for approval. An earlier version of the bill died after the government prorogued Parliament last August and was reintroduced the following October.“There are clearly people in the Conservative caucus who exercised a great deal of leadership on the issue, and I thank them,” Canada’s Liberal justice minister, David Lametti, told reporters Wednesday. “This is what we can do when parliament works together.” "We said we wanted people to be on the right side of history on this issue. No one can consent to torture," Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault, one of eight openly queer, trans, and Two-Spirit candidates elected to Parliament this year, told reporters Wednesday.
The governing Liberals had made repeated attempts to pass legislation banning the practice, which aims to change individuals’ sexual orientation or gender identity, and has been deemed harmful by health experts globally. The Liberals first introduced the bill in March 2020, but it died after the government prorogued parliament. Trudeau’s party reintroduced the bill again but it died when parliament dissolved ahead of the September federal election.The Conservative leader, Erin O’Toole, has become an outspoken proponent of LGBTQ rights since taking control of the party. By voting to fast-track the bill, lawmakers avoid having to record their vote. Previously, 62 Conservatives voted against the motion in June. The bill will now go to the senate for a separate vote before it becomes law.A recent UN report found that conversion practices are performed in at least 68 countries, although experts say some version of conversion practice is still found in all nations. Aversion therapy, where a person is subjected to a “negative, painful or otherwise distressing sensation”– including electric shocks – to create a negative association, has been used in many countries.The vote puts Canada one step closer to joining a small number of nations – Brazil, Ecuador, Germany and Malta – that have outright banned the practice.
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| The conservative evangelicals who supported Donald Trump are a sad bunch. |
The irony of this particular Wednesday is incredibly stark.
Conservative evangelicals finally got a taste of the moment they have been wanting and anticipating for decades - a Supreme Court which may actually overturn Roe v Wade. A court which embraces their view of the so-called sanctity of life - however hypocritical - is something they have been pining for with all of their planning, plotting, and basic maneuvering. It's possibly the same court which could also give the LGBTQ community and our rights - particularly the one to marry - fresh hell after it finishes carving up a woman's right to an abortion.
And they owe it to their canny vigilance and cynical support of Donald Trump. By overlooking his basic faults, making excuses for his tendency to lie, and practically anointing him as a "baby Christian," conservative evangelicals are now in the catbird seat overlooking a moment in history where they may actually get what they want.
And it's on this same day that we learn something else equally nauseating about Donald Trump, the man which they owe their success to. According to his former aide Mark Meadows, Trump was COVID positive three days before his first debate with now President Joe Biden. And this was a day before an event he held with Gold Star military families whom he later blamed for giving him COVID.
So on top of everything else people have reason to despise Trump for, we can possibly mark him as a personal spreader of COVID. And this doesn't begin to account for how his sad governance indirectly caused the pandemic to wreak deadly havoc across the country.
Taking all that into account, you would think I am going to weave a sad narrative about how conservative evangelicals supposedly sold their souls for what looks like a moment of victory. You probably think that I am going to make literary comparison of people like Franklin Graham and groups like the Family Research Council to the legendary Faust, who sold his sold to the devil to gain his heart's desire.
But I'm not going to.
For the comparison to make sense, a soul must first be involved. The pain that comes from attaining your heart's desire at the cost of your innocence must be involved. And the sad realization that what you gained in your deal with the devil isn't worth what you gave up must be acknowledged.
But none of this internal trauma is going to happen with conservative evangelicals. How can it when they obviously didn't have a soul to begin with.
The truth is that they don't give a damn. All they care about is what Donald Trump has done for them. Because of him, they now have a conservative majority on the court and this majority is very close to overturning Roe v Wade. At least for now.
Everything else - the lives lost to COVID, the hypocrisy, the lies, the awful governance - is simply collateral damage to be explained away. Or worse yet, ignored.
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| Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg |
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| FRC president Tony Perkins |
In its latest fundraising, anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council and its President Tony Perkins commits a serious sin of omission. The organization has chosen to take up the cause of controversial North Carolina Lt Governor Mark Robinson by making him sound like a strong steadfast Christian battling the forces of evil (i.e. LGBTQ people) trying to "groom" (I believe that's the popular accusatory word these days) children into our supposed "lifestyle."
In reality, Robinson is a raging loudmouth hypocrite. whose words belie any attempt to make him look like a latter-day Joan of Arc. But in its email, FRC chose not include Robinson's various comments. Instead, the group utilized glowing adjectives to describe him. Well I decided to adjust FRC's email just a little by including various comments Robinson has made as well as certain other facts the group chose to omit or alter.
Let's begin:
As you well know, the far Left has been on a quest to police and censor parents from having a voice in their own children's education.The claim that "the far Left has been on a quest to police and censor parents" is a lie. There have been complaints that school board officials have been threatened by certain parents and other attendees of meetings. Because of this, the Justice Department had been asked to investigate.
Mark Robinson - “We had them kind of folks back in the day/ Back when I was a kid, my momma used to tell me about them. She’d say, ‘When y’all go down to the playground, if y’all see anybody hanging around in a raincoat and you don’t see no pants hanging under his raincoat, y’all get y’all stuff and come on home because that’s what we call a pervert.'”
“There is somebody somewhere right now on the internet grooming somebody’s child to put their hands on them,” Robinson warned. “You ain’t got no reason to be teaching these children those kinds of concepts unless you got—like the old folks used to say—some ideas about putting your hands on them.”
Comparing LGBTQ people to pedophiles? So much for truth, Part 1
Robinson actually said Christians (who believe has he does, of course) should take over public schools because he felt that learning about LGBTQ people and such is child abuse:
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson says Christians must take control of public schools because children are being abused by being taught "filth": "There's no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth." pic.twitter.com/aXjCPFKTs0
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) October 6, 2021
And (surprise! surprise!) The book Gender Queer is not about sexual fantasies. So much for truth, Part 2.
Right Wing Watch released a few recordings of Robinson speaking. One was in August at the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, NC. During that speech, he called trans rights "demonic" and "full of anti-Christ spirit." FRC omitted that item in its fundraising letter. The organization also omitted the fact that the Upper Room Church of Christ is run by Patrick Wooden, "a vehemently anti-gay right-wing pastor who once claimed that gay men have to wear diapers because they routinely insert cellphones, baseball bats, and animals into their anuses."
Someone should ask FRC and Tony Perkins which of these comments do they consider as truths.
Really? Here is an example of Robinson's 'boldness' signified by a few more comments from him.October 29 - North Carolina’s Christian nationalist Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who recently announced that he’s “about 95 percent sure” that he will be running for governor in 2024, spoke at a Stand Up For America rally in Raleigh Friday morning, where he thundered that “the Christian patriots of this nation will own this nation and rule this nation.”. . . “Tell our enemies on the other side of the aisle that will drag this nation down into a socialist hellhole that you will only do it as you run past me laying on the ground, choking on my own blood because I will not give up this nation to you!” Robinson bellowed. “It is not yours. You did not build it, you did not defend it, and you will not own it. We will. The Christian patriots of this nation will own this nation and rule this nation and help freedom survive for future generations.”Oct 7 -“To every animal, God has given the ability to defend yourself,” Robinson said. “God didn’t even leave the garden slug out. Garden slugs have little enzymes in it that make it unappealing for folks to eat. Certainly we wouldn’t want to eat them. But even some animals look at garden slugs and find them unappealing because there’s an enzyme in them that gives off something that drives creatures away. And there’s even an inside enzyme in some of them that if creatures eat them, they automatically spit them out.”“God gave the garden slug a way to defend itself,” he continued. “Now, if God gave the garden slug a way to defend themselves, what makes you think he didn’t give man, who he created in his own image, a way to defend himself? Those AR-15s and Glock 9mms and .45 calibers; where do you think they came from? Who do you think inspired them? God knew the world he was putting us into, so he formed in our mind the ability for us to be able to defend ourselves from anybody who may threaten us.”
Barring anything interesting happening, this will be my last post before the Thanksgiving holidays. I will begin posting again either Sunday or Monday. Enjoy this holiday with family - all of your family whether related or not. Love each other and yourselves this holiday. Because you are worthy of love.
