A followup interview with Andrew Sullivan on ditching the right wing.

Here’s the main thread post:

If we ignore climate change and just keep burning fossil fuels, nothing bad will happen. But if gays get married or atheists get treated fairly in public, it will be the end of America. – How can people that think like that get positions of power in America?

– submitted by KingBeetle

That’s a pretty good assessment of the GOP’s stupidity. However, in the comments is a fantastic breakdown of what makes person worth ignoring:

– comment by echo_USER

People have differing views on economics that i can respect, hey they disagree with me but I can respect them, and their level of intelligence.

People can disagree with environmental policy, and hey, I can respect that.

As long as they make reasoned, logical arguments supported by fact.

The anti-gay marriage crowd has not a single one well reasoned argument. Lets review a few.

God made adam and eve, not adam and steve.

Congrats, you’re officially “special”. Get on the fucking short bus. I refuse to even speak to anyone who says something this stupid.

American has christian founders.

Um, the base populace maybe, but the majority of the founding fathers were either deist or flat out atheist. not christian. The christians who founded this nation (the base populace) also fled religious persecution, it seems odd to flee from persecution just to set up a society that persecutes others. Our constitution is setup in a way that keeps government from wielding religious influence over the public. It’s right there in th first amendment.

nevermind the fact that just b/c things were a certain way means they always need to be that way. See: slavery, women’s suffrage, etc..

Gays will raise gay kids and it’ll be the end of man

Just like straight people only raise straight kids, right? It also would seem odd for a parent to experience the pains of being made to feel guilty for who they are their entire lives, then impose an equal and opposite evil unto their child.

Gay marriage will ruin he sanctity of marriage.

First off, i can show you pictures and court records of a 10000 marriages that have zero sanctity to them. Ignoring that, i don’t see how one set of people getting married affects anyone else.

Gays are perverse and kids do not need to be exposed to it

Kids don’t need to be exposed to their parents fucking period, regardless of sexuality. Just b/c you’re gay doesn’t mean a second goes by in which you don’t have a dick in your mouth. They are normal human beings with jobs, who watch tv, and have daily chores just like their straight counterparts.

Gay marriages will raise insurance premiums

I guess we should kick blacks off too for having higher STD rates.

Gay’s can’t procreate so they shouldn’t have families

Neither can infertile women, or the elderly, or men who shoot blanks, maybe we should ban them from being married too.

Since they can’t procreate we’ll be ending the human race as we know it by supporting a lifestlye that doesn’t allow for reproduction

No one is forcing anyone else to be gay. Secondly gays have ALWAYS been around and our population is still increasing in size at an alarming rate. Thirdly, not that it will happen, but our population size is far too big to be sustainable on this planet, and fourth. We’re talking like 1-4% of the population here. That’s it. All this fuss over a tiny tiny demographic. They’re not going to end the human race.

I just don’t want to be exposed to that sort of stuff

And what about the gay people who are exposed the hetero stuff day in and day out

No matter how you spin it, a person against gay marriage is ALWAYS going to come back to an irrational fear or dislike of homosexuals, when asked why the basic argument reverts to “that’s the way i was raised” or “that’s what it says in the bible” (ignoring the fact that the bible does touch on gay men, but never says a single thing about lesbians, and only does so in the Old Testament.. in Leviticus, which all Christians ignore today anyways).

some people might tell you “i have gay friends”, well my father is a sexist and he’s married, so what? I’ve seen people utter the word “nigger” one moment then kiss some black dude’s ass the next. Some might tell you that they don’t have a problem with gays, but just think what they do is gross.. .like anyone is forcing them to watch what goes on behind closed doors by putting a gun to their head.

I have never, not once heard a well reasoned arguement against gay marriage, gays, or gay families and if you could give me one, i’ll respect it. Until then, everyone against it, is a fucking idiot.

The worst part is, you have people I have debated with (like my father) who, point after point gets backed into a corner.. and they’ll readily admit: ” My logic my be faulty, but that’s the way I was raised and I know I’m right. Those people are degenerates”. He’ll get all red faced, he’ll admit, that his every point fails in this argument, he’ll admit he has no logic, but swear that he’s correct in this. And frankly, that what it falls down to.

It comes down to people believing in shit, without a reason. They believe something they were taught, and questioning that is incredibly uncomfortable.. so instead, they fight it. Because change is hard for people.

Read Shirley Jackson’s – The Lottery sometime. Believing in traditional things without questioning the tradition, can have disastrous outcomes, an those outcomes make people suffer.

And it’s odd to me, that people smile and hold hands and clap when marriage amendments at the state level get voted down, or over-turned.. they’re all happy about it. And it saddens me, because a sizable portion of our population gains happiness from other’s misery. They have invaded someone else’s lives with the government on their side, to bully them. And they’re happy about it.

Think about that. To me that says we have much deep cultural issues than just homosexuality.

it’s called religion. Only religion, nationalism, and psychiatric disorders can make someone happy that others suffer.

That should be chiseled into something somewhere.

Charles Johnson, over at Little Green Footballs, has decided to call out and step away from the right wing racist hate mob currently running the GOP.

This doesn’t mean he’s gone liberal or that I’d agree with the guy on much of anything. But he and Andrew Sullivan, who left the conservatives when they went into ultra gay bashing mode but just realized it himself are onto something.

I don’t mind a cautious voice in our politics. I don’t mind a trend towards fiscal discipline. I don’t even mind an overly protective voice. It moderates those who want to run full force into the future.

That said, those elements describe Bill Clinton more than any Republican candidate or actual president in recent decades. Republicans, unfairly or not, are those tied to restricting rights to, well, you name it: women, minorities, gays, Muslims. And so on.

Republicans sold all our jobs overseas and let corporations off the hook for paying ANY taxes, putting the burden on the rest of us.

Republicans make boogeymen for us to hate and fear; from Murphy Brown to gays to Muslims to “Socialist Kenyans”. Never taking the blame for any failure (9/11, Katrina, Afghanistan (both times), Enron/WorldCom, the Bush Recession, and you name it really).

My father-in-law is a Republican and I can’t fathom how much shit he has to ignore about his party just to get through the day. He’s not into torturing people. He’s not a racist, well, not anymore than one can be living on a golf course north of Houston. You know, not consciously. He can’t possibly allow the hypocrisy of arguing against a trillion dollars in health care while being cool with a three trillion dollar war in Iraq.

At least I’d like to think so.

So, it is with him in mind that I read Johnson’s manifesto and check out his attacks on the GOP’s malfeasance in bowing at the feet and crotch of Rush Limbaugh for inspiration.

Or about how he asks how evangelicals can possibly be fine with executing gays in Uganda because it was a Religious Right plan that put this in motion.

Or even how the Right can be fine with vile, racist attacks on the President such as this:

Once again, I’m glad he and others are waking up to the freakish pack of bastards they have made common cause with. I sincerely hope they can either kick the cretins out of their party or make something new and, if not something I can agree with, at least be something the rest of the country can tolerate and hopefully respect the opinions of.

If not, he’s just singled himself out as a “traitor” to the mob rule that currently festers and controls his party. Best of luck to him.

Republicans don’t want you to think about it, but increasingly America is not only a nation full of different racial groups, but they blend together. Yeah, I know, race mixing! Call out the National Guard or the Klan or something.

Given that *I* am a mix, and so is my son, it is nice to see some positive attention given the concept outside of GOP fear mailers. Here is a story about a book coming out called Blended Nation. It might be worth a glance.

I know we are supposed to be “beyond race” or some such crap, but what you are sometimes determines who you are. It certainly matters in some of the more racist and redneck parts of America. I just don’t see why I should put it under a bushel or something. I am who I am and I refuse to not be proud for ALL the things that make me an individual.

This morning I heard that I’d better improve on my taking the trash out routine if I want to stay useful at home.

According to a new bit o’research, scientists can now make sperm and eggs from stem cells. Yes, that’s right, men are no longer needed for reproduction.

Granted, this will be cool for some gay couples who can now genuinely have children that have the genes of both parents. Hopefully that should be enough to silence the anti-gay marriage bigots, but I doubt anything less than a tac nuke on their hate-filled homes would accomplish that.

That said, as far as the male part of the species is concerned, we’ve got some reason for worry.

In Dallas, cops have been writing illegal citations for those either speak no English or broken English. That’s Texas in a nutshell for ya. Give us an appointed illiterate as “president” and then bust people driving their kids around for not being able to do the same as Lil’ Bush.

In Geneva High School in Illinois, it’s a double whammy as a teacher bashes both gays and blacks in the same breath.

Yeah, you know what? Keep your white sheet and hood in the closet for your weekend activities and stop spreading hate in public schools.

Seriously, do you think this girl is fat?

Filippa Hamilton is 5′ 10″ and 120 pounds, and was fired for being too fat by Ralph Lauren. So much so that they mutated a picture of her to look like this:

Here’s her interview this morning:

Here’s another story on the subject.

It’s a damn shame fashion morons think this is what a woman should look like.

For some contrast, here is an example of an attractive woman who actually exists in the real world.

Also, a video from former Baywatch star Nicole Eggert reacting to asshats who have mocked her weight gain.

Turns out you can be fired at an office supply company for voting for a black guy. This is what a guy found out at (K)KK Office Supplies last year after his CEO “jokingly” told his employees that he’d fire people for voting for Obama.

After bringing in around $300,000 in new business, he got sacked weeks after the election. He says this has much to do with him being a vocal Obama supporter.

If that’s why he was fired, he’s got a case. I figure he put himself on a short list and that’s a tad harder to prove.

That said, I work for a bunch of conservative Aussies and one Kiwi who is actually very American conservative and not that European and First World kind of conservative that makes you a raging liberal by Republican standards. The company donates to the GOP against the will of many of the workers here. We have some Talibangelical prayer circle sanctioned by the higher ups that has a calendar where they pray for us “heathens”. Apparently I’ve been on that.

So yeah, I’m smart enough not to wave a huge “O” flag up in here. If asked, I’m not going to lie, but I’m also not going out of my way to get fired either.