Yearly Archives: 2005

Republican Senators Attack the Red Cross

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Yeah, THE Red Cross… you know, the wonderful folks who come and save your ass after natural disasters. I’ll be this goes over as well as when they attacked the beloved AARP. Here, read about it for yourself:

Republican Senators believe the US should reconsider funds allocated to the International Committee of the Red Cross in view of its repeated criticism of rights violations by US troops in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In a report titled “Are American Interests Being Disserved by International Committee of the Red Cross?”, the Senate Republican Policy Committee called for an audit of funds spent by the ICRC to ensure that American dollars are not being used for lobbying against US interests.

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A-List?

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A site called “blogebrity” (I won’t even start bitching about that weird mash-up name) is ranking Blogs by category: A-List, B-List, and C-List. I don’t make the list anywhere (Of course. Like I would). But what’s weird is that 98% of the people on the A-List I’ve never even heard of. And I’ve been reading blogs and blogging since before there was blogger software.
Now some of the people on the B-List and C-List are people I’ve heard of, but not too many of those, either. Who the heck are these dorks putting the list together?

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Vaccinations and Autism

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Salon Magazine has an scary article on the connection between vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal (a form of mercury) and autism. People were vaccinated with thimerosal preserved medicines since the 1930s, but in 1989 the number of vaccinations given to children went from 3 to 22, increasing children’s exposure to the preservative. What’s even more scary is the list of other problems that people exposed to thimerosal might have.

What is Mercury?
Mercury is the second most toxic element on earth to plutonium. It is a metal, a naturally occurring chemical element that is found everywhere in the environment. Toxicity of mercury has been linked to many different diseases, including autism, learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis, depression, and bipolar disorder. The amount of mercury found in one mercury thermometer is enough to pollute a small lake. Mercury can be toxic when inhaled, eaten, or when placed on the skin. Low concentrations of mercury may appear to have no effect but signs of toxicity can develop later or become more noticeable with continued exposure. When toxicity in humans takes place loss of feeling or a burning sensation in arms and legs, psychological effects, loss of memory, loss of vision, loss of hearing, paralysis, congenital malformations, kidney toxicity, and death may occur. Prenatal toxicity can result in a child with normal appearance at birth but who later exhibits a developmental delay in the ability to walk and/or talk. Because of the long latent period for observable effects, the need for treatment may be recognized too late.

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Operation Clambake: The Inner Secrets of Scientology

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What a fun site documenting the nuttiness of Scientology. Run, Katie, run!!!
Favorite quote:

But respecting and tolerating the opinions of others does not mean one either has to agree or suppress one’s disagreement. The freedom to stand up and express critical opinions and views is what makes human thought evolve and is the core of what I consider my moral and ethical guidelines: The Human Rights as defined by UN.

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City-County council member Virginia Cain

Advance Indiana has a very interesting in-depth article on homophobe and city-county council member Virginia Cain. Among her choice quotes:

Homosexuals have a shorter life span, are more likely to contract HIV/AIDS, experience serious bouts of depression and even suicide….
Thus, we need to help those who are entrapped in any kind of unhealthy lifestyle. I will never support something that is meant for destruction of human beings and our civilization.

I know that you probably know better than all this, but in case you don’t, let’s talk about the lifespan and AIDS issue. Half of the homosexuals in this world are lesbians, who have longer expected lifespans than heterosexual men and women, and who have the lowest instances of contracting HIV/AIDS of any group. That alone makes her statement false.
And when it comes to gay men, her statement makes it sound like AIDS is the fault of gay men, rather than something that has unfortunately happened to them. We don’t blame kids for contracting rheumatic fever, so why is she blaming gay men for the disease attacking them? Oh yeah, because she’s a bigot, that’s why.
Now lets talk about depression. We aren’t depressed because we’re gay. We’re depressed because people are filled with hatred and bigotry towards gay people, and they take it out on us by firing us from jobs, kicking us out of housing, throwing gay kids out into the streets, not letting us see our loved ones, stealing our children away from us, threatening us, beating us, raping us, and killing us.
In short, we’re depressed because of evil people like Virginia Cain. If she’d stop being a bigot, we’d be happy.

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Top Ten Conservative Idiots (#201)

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I usually link to one of my favorite Top Ten lists on Mondays, but this week I’m late. Of course they count down the best of conservative misbehavior, only this week, they included the best reader submissions. Here’s an sample of my very favorite:

Back in 1991-92 I was a volunteer escort at an abortion clinic in Fargo, ND. This was when Operation Rescue came to town to whip the local Lambs of Christ into even more of a frenzy. The very Reverend Keith Tucci gave a free public address, which some of us attended in the spirit of “know thy enemy.” Of all idiocy spewed that night, the real jaw dropper was when Reverend Tucci explained how he justifies denying an abortion to a woman who has been raped. He said, “You shouldn’t punish a rapist by killing his child.”

Now if you know enough information about me, you can guess why I might decide to take a swing at the very Reverent Tucci if he ever shows up here in Indianapolis.

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More on those wacky Mormons

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This time they’re kicking out teenage boys (hundreds of them) so there’s less competition for the men who are marrying as many as a dozen teenage girls. Read the story in the L.A. Times.

Gideon is one of the “Lost Boys,” a group of more than 400 teenagers — some as young as 13 — who authorities in Utah and Arizona say have fled or been driven out of the polygamous enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City over the last four years.
His stated offenses: wearing short-sleeved shirts, listening to CDs and having a girlfriend. Other boys say they were booted out for going to movies, watching television and staying out past curfew.
Some say they were sometimes given as little as two hours’ notice before being driven to St. George or nearby Hurricane, Utah, and left like unwanted pets along the road.
Authorities say the teens aren’t really being expelled for what they watch or wear, but rather to reduce competition for women in places where men can have dozens of wives.
“It’s a mathematical thing. If you are marrying all these girls to one man, what do you do with all the boys?” said Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff, who has had boys in his office crying to see their mothers. “People have said to me: ‘Why don’t you prosecute the parents?’ But the kids don’t want their parents prosecuted; they want us to get the No. 1 bad guy — Warren Jeffs. He is chiefly responsible for kicking out these boys.”

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Rep. Espich on supporting bigotry: “I sure do!”

Representative Jeff Espich (R 82) was asked, “You don’t support bigotry do you, Sir?” His reply? “I sure do!”

There were around 150 people protesting against House Speaker Brian Bosma’s Beer Bash for Cash last night at the Rathskeller in the Antheaneum, and my partner Stephanie and I were two of them. The problem with Bosma’s fundraiser is, of course, that Massachusetts Avenue was revitalized primarily by gay and lesbian business owners who moved into the area and restored buildings and built prosperous businesses when most of the real estate there was boarded up and the Republican mayor at the time, Stephen Goldsmith, was ignoring the area.

Now Massachusetts Avenue is a flourishing cultural district, and Bosma was attempting to cash in on the success of GLBT people’s hard work by holding a fundraiser designed to raise money to crush the very people who made the area a success. Fortunately, he failed, because our protest was a smashing success.

Bosma’s party expected 500 supporters, but they had no more than 50 people in attendance, and apparently at one point Bosma was pounding the table in frustration over the noise and commotion we created.

We held up signs outside the event; we took photos of people entering and leaving the fundraiser, chanted and talked to people on their way in, gave them leaflets and information on why we were there, and when their fundraiser moved outside to the beer garden, we walked around to the side of the building with a bullhorn and chanted and talked to drown out their speeches. We also aired some of the dirty laundry some attendees brought with them; several politicians who claim to support “the sanctity of marriage” have some less than stellar records when it comes to marital fidelity, and a list of those incidents read into the bull horn stopped some Bosma supporters in shock.

The protest was organized by the Indiana Action Network (a direct action group) and attended by people from StopTheAmendment.org, Greater Indianapolis Fairness Alliance, Indiana Equality, Jesus Metropolitan Community Church, and Rock Indiana as well as many individuals.
The event was not without incident; one male Bosma supporter viciously attacked Outword Bound Bookstore owner Tamara Tracy, attempting to steal and break the camera she was holding after she took his picture. He was stopped and quickly hustled inside where he couldn’t harm anyone else.

“Bosma Faces Protesters over Gay Marriage Ban” — That’s the headline on the Star article about the event. In the Star, Bosma has a very strange quote:

“I’m not overly concerned about any protest,” Bosma said. “We will just have to agree to disagree on this issue.”

I’m not sure what he thinks that means, really. We’re not going to “agree to disagree” when heterosexual people enjoy special rights that are denied to others. We’re not going to “agree to disagree” on the issue of being denied health care benefits and the ability to see our family members in the hospital. We’re not going to “agree to disagree” on being fired from our jobs because some people are bigots. We’re not going to “agree to disagree” when gay and lesbian youth are harrassed in school. We’re not going to “agree to disagree” when we’re told we can’t worship as we please.

There’s no agreement with any of those injustices here.

Continue ReadingRep. Espich on supporting bigotry: “I sure do!”