Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Christopher Baughman on June 28, 2011 at 7:38pm

Goddamn that man.  I just got done saying that our nation has serious problems when our state is being out competed in religious bigotry by states not as infamous as our own.  Seems I can't be facetious anymore lest that bastard catch wind of it. 

Joking aside if it weren't for the fact that this spite of religious frenzy in our society wasn't on the rise I'd dismiss our state as going on a predetermined route to the toilet.  Instead I get to make the prediction that the whole of society may very well pursue that route given the time it takes for gay marriage to be acceptable amongst the states is dramatically slower then the spreading hostility to Planned Parenthood.  Almost wish I could wash my hands of these bastards and go live in a secular paradise somewhere.  But then again that isn't truly a solution, instead it's nothing more then running away from our problems.

Permalink Reply by dr kellie on June 29, 2011 at 7:57am

Nice rant.

 

James, my parents asked me if Rick Perry was gay the last time I was down in Port Aransas.  They are super religious and conservative.  They consider me a seasoned expert on all things gay, and I have heard the rumors, but I don't really know anything.  What do you think?

Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on June 29, 2011 at 5:45pm

He's never asked me for a date.

Permalink Reply by Rick on June 29, 2011 at 9:57pm

..ok..here is my two cents..

  Back in 1984, at our Republican Precient convention after the primary elections, these two people, who'd just become Republicans wanted these three things put in to be part of the party platform.

1. Stop abortion.

2. Put prayer back in school

3. Take away "gay" rights.

   They didn't get a thing. You see, this was in the only congressional district that carried Goldwater in 64.  In the 92 election, it was the largest United We Stand congressional district. But when Perot showed his real colors it pretty much died.

  The women in the prescient convention fought these two tooth and nail on this matter. They were older women and remembered when abortion was not legal and what a women had to go through to have one. 

  As for the prayer in school issue.  One women offered this compromise, and she had at one time been a Sunday school teacher: let those who want to pray stay after school and do so.  That way, no one is forced to "pray."  Oh no, can't do that....

   In other words, we want a CAPTIVE audience. 

  Then for taking away "gay" rights...

   Sorry bible pounders, this is the United States of America. This isn't the USSR.  Just because you're different does not mean you get your rights as an American taken away from you.

  They lost on all three.

  But when asked, they responded, "But our minister said we could do this....."

  WRONG.

  However, by 1988, they'd come back strong with Pat "Crazy as a loon" Robertson won the first primary.  That got the Republicans rears in gear and Daddy Bush won.

  By 1992, things had changed.  The so called "Christian Right" had Political Action Committees (PACs) and organized heards of "sheep" who would voted the way their preachers told them to vote.

  So much for freedom, freedom of choice, free will and so on. 

  And daddy Bush and the rest of the Republican Party, save people like Goldwater, saw all that yummy money and those blocks of non-thinking voters.  By that time daddy Bush was against abortion.  In other words, I want your money and your votes and I'll tell you what ever you want to hear.

   So abortion is not part of this so called "Republican" party platform. So is the "prayer" BS.

  Funny thing.  The first head of the White House Faith Based Initiative came out when he left his appointed office and informed the people that it was all a shame.  It was just a payola scheme to pay off political supporters.  And that in short, they'd be used. 

  I could have told him and the other that going back 20 years.

  But they wouldn't have listened.  They got "God" on their side. 

  Sure.

  Perry wants to be President.  Of course, I'm sure the American voter has forgotten the 8 wonderful years of G.W. Bush, the crashed economy, 4,400 dead in Iraq, the well over 30,000 wounded from Iraq, and the mortgage situation.

  Perry is hitting hard on the bible pounders.  It is the Republicans so called "base."  As is the abortion issue.  Not the economy.  Not about jobs.  Not about a lot of other things that are major issues in this country.  Just abortion.

   For a group who are so big on "Personal Responsibility" they sure as heck want to tell you what you can and can't do with your body.  They also want to force prayer on you.  They want to force a lot of things upon you.

  Just look at the Patriot Act. I remember when if you tried to have anything NEAR that passed back in the 1980's you'd have been called a communist.  But then, the "father" of the Patriot Act spent his formative years living in Communist Vietnam.  But he's a "Christian" so that's ok.

   Perry is playing on people's ignorance. Plain and simple.

   You see, what most people forget after they take their High School and or college required state and federal government classes here in Texas, is that the Governor of Texas is ranked 49th out of all 50 governors in power.

  YES: 49th out of 50.  Been that way since Reconstruction ended.  All the real power lies in the hands of the Lt. Gov.

  That's, as I've stated elsewhere, when G.W. Bush was governor, he was perfect for the job. He couldn't do ANYTHING.  ANYTHING.

   You see, we learned long ago that sometimes you get stuck with a CHIMP.  And that chimp, like all chimps want that hand grenade.  So, to make the chimp happy, the chimp is given a dud hand grenade. 

  Why?  Simple.

  Eventually, the chimp will pull the pin on the grenade........

   With a dud, no one gets hurt........

Permalink Reply by James M. Martin on June 29, 2011 at 10:46pm

The late William S. Burroughs, quite a wag, used a similar metaphor, only he had in mind the rear ends of baboons, which are purple, and he wrote a riff on "The Coming of the Purple Better One."  The point was the same, though he had all politicians in mind, state and federal.  You say, "With a dud, no one gets hurt."  Well, I certainly wish I lived in that alternate universe where a purple better one like G. W. Bush is a Harvard-educated over-achiever like the guy who followed him in the White House.  I was in California when Reagan was governor and I voted against him both times.  I was in Texas when G. W. Bush was governor and I voted against him both times.  Of course G. W. Bush was not "elected" in 2000.  He was crowned by the Supreme Court.