The intensity of discrimination endured by the various categories of people facing prejudice may not always be the same, but to the individual on the receiving end of the discrimination, it hardly matters whether others have received the same amperage of misery.

Something shared by those who have been discriminated against is the heightened possibility of recognizing and rejecting different forms of prejudice when they see it being inflicted on others. Below are excerpts from speeches given on Feb 8 by three Washington state representatives shortly before the House passed the marriage equality bill. Personal experiences with racism clearly helped these legislators empathize with those facing homophobia, and motivated them to seek equality and justice for all Washingtonians.

Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney (D-Seattle) found parallels between the discrimination she and her family experienced as Mexican-Americans, and the discrimination two of her sons face as gay men.

Preventing gay couples from marring, to me, is a form of social and civil discrimination. And I know that many of you here may have experienced some discrimination in your life. I know my family has.

As part of a farm worker family we were shut out and did not have access to education, health care or housing, and encountered many signs at businesses that said “No dogs or Mexicans allowed“.

My daughter here in this state in high school was told by her teacher that her last name meant “dumb” and “lazy”.

I have two sons that are gay. One of them has been with his partner for 24 years. Both have suffered from harassment and rejection by their peers and by some family members. And I’m going to tell you that this hurt cannot be erased, and some of it will last with them forever.

And I also want to say that the hurt in my heart was the day that my son came home from school and said, “They won’t accept me. Why can’t they accept me? I am a good person. And I am the same person that I was before they knew.”

I am very proud of my children. I am very proud of my two sons. And they deserve the same rights and privileges that their brothers and sisters have. And that has to happen, because we have to have equal rights. And they do not deserve to be harassed or looked at as different in this world.

[cont'd.]

And it was just as everyone suspected – it was a colossal bomb. But the most interesting portion is the following. Rochelle Conner, a representative of Scott Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries (an SPLC designated hate group), read a statement from Lively calling for “God himself to destroy” the SPLC:

Transcript – My prayer as one who really does hate irrational prejudice is that the Lord by His sovereign power will remove this dangerous, hate-spreading organization from our nation and its leaders and its members cause them to repent of their wickedness. Finally, to prevent the Southern Poverty Law Center from using my prayer as part of its perpetual fundraising campaign, I want to make clear that I am asking God himself to destroy their organization and I am asking that it be by His miraculous hand and not by human beings just so as with Sodom and Gomorrah, they will know that God will get the glory, and not man.

By the way, you will notice that standing next to LaBarbera – who is the only white male in the small group for those who have never seen him – is “diaper pastor” Patrick Wooden. I heard that they were filming their own press conference, so of course Wooden just had to position himself to be at the forefront of the camera.

My guess – and forgive if I am being sacrilegious here – is that the only reason why God didn’t strike these folks down for their lies is because he was laughing so hard.

The press conference was so pitiful that it’s not even worth getting angry about. However, I will say one thing.

I love girlfriend’s hat. And those boots? Smoking!

John the Baptist window in Glasgow Cathedral (photo: Glasgow Amateur/flickr)

Influential evangelical leader James Dobson set off the fireworks at this weekend’s Christian Right summit, giving a speech that lavished praise on Karen Santorum and asked whether Americans really wanted Callista Gingrich — “a woman who was a man’s mistress for eight years” — as their First Lady, according to sources who attended the meeting.

Sources told Business Insider that Dobson’s speech was a “startling moment” that left many in the audience — particularly those who support Gingrich — floored. One source described Dobson’s tone as “angry,” and said it seemed like Dobson was blaming Callista Gingrich for the couples’ affair, which began while the former House Speaker was still married to his second wife (this is Callista Gingrich’s first marriage).

“It was clear that, to him, the villian in this story is Callista Gingrich,” the source said. “And he was announcing it to 170 ministers with huge mailing lists and television ministries.”

That’s gotta sting. What no one seems to remember — not Wyler or anyone else — is that five years ago, when Gingrich was looking to reenter the political fights but knew he needed to address the adultery issue, it was to James Dobson that Gingrich turned. Gingrich and Dobson had a memorable radio conversation in which Newt admitted his adultery publicly for the first time (you can listen to the audio at the link). Folks like the late Jerry Falwell clamored to commend Gingrich for his confession:

“He has admitted his moral shortcomings to me, as well, in private conversations,” Falwell wrote in a weekly newsletter sent Friday to members of the Moral Majority Coalition and The Liberty Alliance. “And he has also told me that he has, in recent years, come to grips with his personal failures and sought God’s forgiveness.”

CNN’s Bill Schneider speculated at the time that this was a signal from Gingrich that he wanted in the presidential race and wanted the whole adultery question neutralized. In contrast to Rudy Giuliani’s interview with Larry King admitting his own rather substantive marital problems, Gingrich went to a major — perhaps the major — figure in the TheoCon movement, looking for absolution and a blessing. [cont'd.]

And he got it.

But three weeks after that radio broadcast, Dobson made an unsolicited phone call to author and blogger Dan Gilgoff (then at US News), adding another layer to the conversation with Gingrich:

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson appeared to throw cold water on a possible presidential bid by former Sen. Fred Thompson while praising former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also weighing a presidential run, in a phone interview Tuesday.

“Everyone knows he’s conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for,” Dobson said of Thompson. “[But] I don’t think he’s a Christian; at least that’s my impression,” Dobson added, saying that such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the Republican Party’s conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination.

At the time, Fred Thompson was the up-and-coming flavor of the month. Very Serious People asked questions like “Will he get in the race or won’t he? Can he save the GOP from the likes of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain?” A couple of days later, Dobson’s spokesperson tried to backpedal a bit on the Gilgoff interview, saying

[Dobson's] words weren’t intended to represent either an endorsement of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich or a disparagement of former Sen. Fred Thompson. Dr. Dobson appreciates Sen. Thompson’s solid, pro-family voting record and his position that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.

In his conversation with Mr. Gilgoff, Dr. Dobson was attempting to highlight that to the best of his knowledge, Sen. Thompson hadn’t clearly communicated his religious faith, and many evangelical Christians might find this a barrier to supporting him.

Still, the implications were clear. For whatever reason, Dobson was clearly more comfortable supporting Newt Gingrich, a repentant serial adulterer, than Fred Thompson.

That was then, but my how things have changed.

Today, it seems as if Dobson is repenting a bit for his 2007 comments about Gingrich. In that Business Insider piece that I linked to at the top, Wyler goes on to describe a division among the participants:

In the wake of the conference, Christian Right leaders have publicly split into two camps — a bad sign for a coalition whose strength has always come from its solidarity. In one camp, powerful evangelical scions like Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; Family Research Council President Tony Perkins; and Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, have thrown their support behind Santorum. On the other hand, influential California megachurch pastor Jim Garlow, evangelical activist David Lane, and Christian marketing guru George Barna have teamed up to support Gingrich.

So what’s changed?

(a) Not much. In 2007, Dobson used Gingrich as a way to undercut Fred Thompson, hoping to energize the TheoCon community to get behind someone more religiously acceptable. He wasn’t praising Gingrich as much as slipping a knife into Thompson, to try to build up support for a candidate the TheoCons could really get behind. Not necessarily Gingrich in 2008, mind you, but perhaps someone like Mike Huckabee or Sam Brownback. In 2012, Dobson’s found a more acceptable candidate, and is quite willing to use Gingrich again, this time to derail Mitt Romney’s campaign.

(b) Everything. In 2007, Dobson allowed Gingrich to use Dobson’s radio show as a means to reenter politics, proclaiming himself to be a reformed, repentant, and renewed Christian. Those are words to warm every TheoCon’s heart. But in the five years since then, what has Gingrich done to show his faith credentials? What has he done to promote the TheoCon cause? He’s done lots of lobbying and consulting, promoting the bank account of Newt and Callista Gingrich, but nothing to get the TheoCons cheering. Neither Dobson nor Gingrich has said much publicly about the other since then (until recently, that is), but there is one little public thing that might be in play. In 2009, Gingrich left the Baptist church and became a Roman Catholic — not something that went down well with many TheoCons. If this was part of Dobson’s problem with Gingrich, it’s not as simple as saying “TheoCons don’t like Catholics.” After all, Dobson recently endorsed the very Roman Catholic Rick Santorum. Instead, it may be that Dobson sees Gingrich’s conversion to Catholicism as yet another sign that Gingrich views religion as a political tool to be used to manipulate others, not as a way of life for one’s self, and yet another indication that the 2007 interview was more calculated than sincere. In other words, Dobson now sees that he got played in 2007, and doesn’t like that one bit.

(c) Both of the above. Dobson used Gingrich in 2007 to torpedo Thompson, and wants to do the same now to torpedo Mitt Romney. If Dobson thinks he was played by Gingrich in 2007, that would certainly explain the anger with which Dobson spoke out against Newt and Callista last week. Being able to pay Gingrich back for being fooled by him in 2007 while at the same time trying to boost a “real Christian conservative” like Santorum as the alternative to Romney is icing on the cake.

It’s mostly a wild guess, but put me down for (c).

_______

photo of a portion of the John the Baptist window in Glasgow Cathedral h/t to Glasgow Amateur

He can’t help himself really (via Wonkette).

As he traveled across South Carolina on Thursday, Mr. Santorum urged voters to dismiss the conventional wisdom that Mitt Romney has an upper hand in the nominating contest. He said the party can win back the White House only by offering a “clear contrast” with President Obama.

“We need contrasts,” Mr. Santorum said, “not just a paler shade of what we have.”

Not surprisingly, he got a boost when the fundie-evangelical coalition coalesced around him today in Texas.

Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal, from the city of Hutchison, sent an email before Christmas that compared the president’s wife to the Dr. Seuss character The Grinch, with a tagline asking: “Twins separated at birth?”

“I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing Mrs. YoMama a wonderful, long Hawaii Christmas vacation — at our expense, of course,” the forward read.

But wait, there’s more…

In another of O’Neal’s emails, he referenced Psalm 109 from the Old Testament, which reads in part:

May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes.

May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.

O’Neal wrote: “At last — I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up — it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an AMEN? AMEN!!!!!!”

I wonder if he has any black friends he intends to pull out of his @ss to defend his comments?

FYI – demographics of O’Neal’s district (104th) – White: 19,958; Black: 243.

Poseur. Totally faking it...

It’s not bad enough that the Mexicans (including los Romney’s) are trying to take all the good jobs in America but now, as Kidist Paulos Asrat explains, we have to worry about the insidious influence The Yellow Peril is having upon our classical music experience:

During my recent trip to NYC in December, my aunt invited me to the Lincoln Center to a concert. She knows I love music, and especially classical music, so it was in honor of me that she bought these expensive tickets.

But, as I read the program (pdf file), I realized that the performance of Handel’s Messiah was to be performed by a “Korean-American” concert choir called Peniel Choir.

What the kimchi is that all about? [cont'd.]

As the concert progressed, I began to realize a certain “prettiness” in the performance, a lack of force, drive and even drama. I don’t think this is simply a cultural phenomenon (as in misunderstanding the Messiah’s content, message, meaning, etc…). I think it is a physio/cerebral problem. I’ve seen it happen in art and design, and even in science – a friend of mine was a Korean PhD student. At some level, I think Asians demonstrate some ability (i.e. memorization, or fast, scale-like exercises). But there seems to be an inability to create a synthesized beauty, which is what much of art (and order in Science) is about.

[...]

Not only are Asians dispersed around the orchestra, they are also given lead positions in certain sections. But they are notably absent in the brass and percussion sections. Although that could just be a matter of time, these instruments (brass and percussion) might actually be too physically demanding for them.

I have attended Handel’s Messiah performed by the TSO, and it was the same effect of expecting (wishing for) more drama, or oomph!.

Well, these delicate lotuses of the Orient are no Stomp! but they seem to have a bit of oomph:

You know, someone should write a book about how Asians lack the emotional intelligence and physical attributes required to adequately perform classical music composed by 17th to 19th century European composers. They could call it The Berlioz Curve.

I’m sure Andrew Sullivan would find it provocative and worthy of consideration…

(Photo credit: World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org) swiss-image.ch/Photo by Andy Mettler)

Townhall Bigot In Residence Mike Adams has a very interesting tale about how a couple of hippies forced their daughter to date a Black boy (named Barry, just like the President!) because he was Black and of course he raped her because that is what The Blacks do when they are around white women, and then the stupid liberal hippy parents made sure the Black boy walked so that he could rape again and he didn’t fail them because, you know, it was inevitable being as he was Black. Meanwhile, the raped daughter became a stripper while getting her degree in Women’s Studies with a minor in African American Studies before becoming a counselor at Planned Parenthood where she told Black women to abort their babies and then she got fired for being so blunt, but it’s all good because she recovered nicely and now she trolls conservative websites for big George Soro’s bucks.

No. Really:

Allison paid her way through college with the money she earned doing lap dances in The Alchemist, a local gentlemen’s club. Her degree in Women’s Studies was supplemented with a minor in African American Studies. She used the degree to get a job working as an intake counselor for Planned Parenthood. Two years into her tenure with Planned Parenthood, Allison told a pregnant teenaged woman (of African extraction) that abortion was “not a big deal.” She went on to say that, “Most black babies are aborted anyway.” Planned Parenthood fired her for sharing that well-kept secret with a non- white client. So Allison moved back home with her parents. Today, she works for billionaire George Sourpus as a paid commenter on various conservative websites.

The end.

Except it’s not, because Mike Adams admits he made up this incredibly plausible story to explain why liberals are all fucked up in the head about the real world and he is not, even though he spends his days concocting black on white rape fantasies that he then sends to Stormfront Forum (“I am an Associate Professor at a small southern college and I never thought this would happen to this one one co-ed in my Intro class…“) and then presumably masturbates to them when they get published.

It almost makes you wonder why Mike Adams feels he needs to sue to get a full professorship.

Now… The end.

Tennis legend (and now televangelist/pastor of Victory Life Centre) Margaret Court can join the list of preposterous bigots looking for support after uttering homophobic trash. Let’s take a look at the statement in question that has stirred the controversy. Via the NYT in December:

“Politically correct education has masterfully escorted homosexuality out from behind closed doors, into the community openly and now is aggressively demanding marriage rights that are not theirs to take,” Court told the newspaper.

“There is no reason to put forward alternative, unhealthy, unnatural unions as some form of substitute,” she continued.

“To dismantle this sole definition of marriage and try to legitimize what God calls abominable sexual practices that include sodomy, reveals our ignorance as to the ills that come when society is forced to accept law that violates their very own God-given nature of what is right and what is wrong.”

Alrighty then. Does that sound a tad offensive in any way? Does Court think someone calling her abominable is just being neighborly? When this drew threats of protest by LGBT groups at this month’s Australian Open, and drew the ire of fellow legends Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova:  [cont'd.]

The retired tennis players and lesbian activists Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova and the recently retired Australian doubles specialist Rennae Stubbs all voiced their disappointment and disapproval of Court’s words in interviews with the Tennis Channel’s James LaRosa.

“Her myopic view is truly frightening as well as damaging to the thousands of children already living in same-gender families,” Navratilova said

Court then tossed off this jaw-dropping defense of her remarks (taking a page from the well-worn bigot handbook, 2011-2012 edition):

I remember, probably 10, 12 years ago, I spoke with Martina Navratilova. To say that I “hate” homosexuals and lesbians is not [accurate] because we have them in our church. I work with them. And I remember saying to Martina: “Martina, I love you. God loves you. But a wrong doesn’t make a right.”…

…I make a stand for both my biblical side, and what I believe. And I think — it’s a choice. And I think there’s young people today that need to know it’s a choice in life. And that was my side of it, bringing that forth. I’ve got nothing against the people themselves, I’ve always said that all the years I’ve been a minister.

FYI, this is not a one-time bigotry blast or “slip up”; Court has a long history of spewing anti-gay hate. You see, this is the basic defense gaining popularity — “I’m not a bigot, my crude, insensitive remarks are just me expressing my religious beliefs” — with the implication that any uproar about the bigotry is somehow a threat to their religious freedom.

It’s the kind of brain-dead, pious, pitiful thinking that is behind a bill in Tennessee, proposed by “Christian activist” and State Senator David Fowler (R) that would gut a anti-bullying bill with a loophole so that it would:

“not be construed or interpreted to infringe upon the First Amendment rights of students and shall not prohibit their expression of religious, philosophical, or political views”

In other words, unless the student just shows general contempt not based on anything in particular toward another student, it’s A-OK to bully for just about any reason. You can justify it if it’s a personal belief based on, say, you don’t like kids in wheelchairs because you disagree with the Americans for Disabilities Act, or your church tells you gays are an abomination. You know, that kinda thing.

People just need to own up to their bigotry and its impact on a civil society. You can say anything you want, but sometimes there are social repercussions. With the rates of teen suicides due to incessant bullying based on real or perceived LGBT status or gender identity issues, it’s clear that words do matter.

And as far as Margaret Court goes, it’s just Too. Damn. Bad. if she doesn’t want the bigot label.

Hat tip, Towleroad.

Looks like someone has been catching up on their Ron Paul Whitey Times newsletters:

If you live in a major city, you’ve probably already heard about the newest threat to your life and limb, and your family: carjacking.

It is the hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth who play unsuspecting whites like pianos. The youth simply walk up to a car they like, pull a gun, tell the family to get out, steal their jewelry and wallets, and take the car to wreck. Such actions have ballooned in the recent months.

In the old days, average people could avoid such youth by staying out of bad neighborhoods. Empowered by media, police, and political complicity, however, the youth now roam everywhere looking for cars to steal and people to rob.

What can you do? More and more Americans are carrying a gun in the car. An ex-cop I know advises that if you have to use a gun on a youth, you should leave the scene immediately, disposing of the wiped off gun as soon as possible. Such a gun cannot, of course, be registered to you, but one bought privately (through the classifieds, for example).

I frankly don’t know what to make of such advice, but even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I’ve urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense. For the animals are coming.

And while we’re checking in on Our Lady Of The Ice Cubes Soaked Up My Vodka, here is what she thought was the best line from Republican American Idol Tryouts 2011: [cont'd.]

The most memorable line of the first phase? There’s “9-9-9″ and “Oops,” but the best came from Mitt Romney when he was asked about the Gingrich campaign’s failure to qualify for the Virginia ballot. Mr. Gingrich had compared it to Pearl Harbor, a setback, but we’ll recover. Mr. Romney, breezily, to a reporter: “I think it’s more like Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory.”

It made people laugh. It made them want to repeat it, which is the best free media of all, the line people can’t resist saying in the office. And they laughed because it pinged off a truth: Gingrich is ad hoc, disorganized.

The put-down underscored Romney’s polite little zinger of a week before, that Mr. Gingrich was “zany.” And it was a multi-generationally effective: People who are 70-years-old remember “I Love Lucy,” but so do people who are 30 and grew up with its reruns. Mr. Romney’s known for being organized but not for being deft. This was deft. It’s an old commonplace in politics that if you’re explaining you’re losing, but it’s also true that if they’re laughing you’re losing. The campaign trail has been pretty much a wit-free zone. It’s odd that people who care so much about politics rarely use one of politics’ biggest tools, humor. Mr. Romney did and scored. More please, from everyone.

If only Herman Cain had continuously responded to allegations of sexual improprieties (by which we mean “getting sexy with the ladies”) with “Dy-no-mite!” or “Wha’chu talkin’ ’bout Willis?“, he’d probably still be the frontrunner…

Bob Vander Platts with Pat Buchanan, birds of a feather. (photo: Talk Media News/flickr)

Friend of the Blend, Joe Murray, a former staff attorney for the American Family Association, has written a sizzling op-ed in the Des Moines Register addressing the Wildmon family hate machine’s participation in the 2012 GOP Clown Car endorsement game.

The fundie organization, which focuses “protecting marriage,” has endorsed serial adulterer Newt Gingrich, and as Joe says, “strips the organization of its lingering legitimacy and exposes the bigotry, dipped in hypocrisy, it is trying to sell Iowans.”

Notably, in the AFA’s home base of Mississippi, divorce is quite prevalent, and…

Let’s be honest, marriage is under assault today, but it is being attacked by the overwhelming acceptance, and ease, of divorce. In Mississippi, AFA’s home state, a couple only needs to sign papers and wait 60 days and their marriage — the bond Jesus said “let no man separate” — is over.

You’d think that the AFA would be worried about this “scourge” of divorce occurring at home, but its tentacles reach all over the country in an attempt to stop LGBTs from obtaining equal rights under the law. But the spectacle of tossing the sanctity of marriage under the bus in order to bed down with Gingrich is an epic example of the rank hypocrisy of the American Family Association, designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2010. [cont'd.]