[Active-l] (NEWS) Today's Cultural Warfare Update (Mini-edition)

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

Last week of the quarter, I've got a bio final on Monday; there will  
be a weekend CWU, but I wanted to go ahead and get this miniature one  
out now.

The Wall Street Journal joins in the 'faggotisation' of John Edwards,  
using a lot of the same rhetoric as seen elsewhere;

Pope Benedict declares that all Catholic politicians _must_ actively  
oppose civil marriage for gay and lesbian people, as well as legal  
abortion;

Hey, Hillary Clinton, Go Fuck Yourself - Senator Clinton (D) can't  
even manage to say t3h queers aren't intrinsically "immoral" when  
asked outright (spotted on my friendslist - it's friendslocked so I'm  
not saying who. If you want credit, lemmie know). I've just found out  
from the same source that she later, when asked repeatedly again  
later, issued a statement saying that she doesn't think t3h qu33rs  
are immoral. Assuming that's true, it took a couple of days to get  
that out of her, and I'm certainly continuing to assume that she'd do  
the same thanks-for-the-vote-now-here's-a-knife that her husband Bill  
"the Betrayer" Clinton did;

Hey, Garrison Keillor, Go Fuck Yourself - the long-time host of the  
popular radio programme _A Prairie Home Companion_, Garrison Keillor,  
apparently feels encouraged by Ann Coulter's "faggot" commentary to  
"state the obvious" - that queers aren't fit parents for children and  
marriage is with one man and one woman only ever and all those  
hyphenated-relatives from divorce are screwing things up compared  
with how things were when he was a kid;

Hey, Garrison Keillor, Go Fuck Yourself - Dan Savage points out that  
you have to take all of this crap from Garrison while ignoring his  
three marriages with kids from more than one, and his extramarital  
affairs. Presumably that's all okay if you're straight, after all. A  
defense of Mr. Keillor's comments are here ( http://www.bilerico.com/ 
2007/03/002526.php ), but I'm not buyin' it;

Mike Adams on Townhall defends the Coulter commentary, noting that  
"faggot" is going to go the way of "queer," which is to say that he  
missed when it was a perfectly good word when he and his friends used  
to play "smear the queer" in school, presumably practicing their  
gaybashing skills. Note that he refers to "the outing of John  
Edwards," implying rather directly that John Edwards is gay, when he  
is clearly and patently not. So the real point of this column is the  
continued "faggotisation" of John Edwards;

Albert Mohler Jr.'s column calling for prenatal intervention to  
eliminate GBLT people by altering them before birth finally gets a  
reaction in the mainstream press; he's president of the Southern  
Baptist Theological Seminary, which matters. Pointer courtesy  
lj:spazzkat.


----- 1 -----
Our right-wing arbiters of masculinity
Sunday March 11, 2007 13:53 EST

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/03/11/taranto/index.html

On Thursday, The Wall St. Journal's James Taranto -- in an item he  
entitled "Always a Woman to Me" -- followed in Ann Coulter's  
footsteps by very cleverly noting that "at least one prominent  
feminist . . . has been won over by John Edwards's womanly  
charms" (emphasis added). The whole Taranto item makes cute little  
references to how very womanly John Edwards is, and Taranto ended  
this way:

Doubtless America will one day have a female president. But our guess  
is it'll be someone whose appeal transcends sex--who tries to win  
votes not from women qua women but from men and women qua citizens.  
So far that would seem to exclude both Mrs. Clinton and John Edwards.

Taranto also takes particular glee in showing what a tough guy he is  
by mocking combat veterans like Max Cleland because -- unlike the  
chest-beasting, super-brave Taranto -- Cleland actually finds war to  
be trauamatizing and horrible.

[More at URL]


----- 2 -----
Catholic politicians must oppose gay marriage: Pope
Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:25AM EDT
By Philip Pullella
Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1340012320070313? 
pageNumber=1

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Church's opposition to gay marriage is  
"non-negotiable" and Catholic politicians have a moral duty to oppose  
it, as well as laws on abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict said in  
a document issued on Tuesday.

In a 140-page booklet on the workings of a synod that took place at  
the Vatican in 2005 on the theme of the Eucharist, the 79-year-old  
German Pope also re-affirmed the Catholic rule of celibacy for priests.

In the "Apostolic Exhortation" Benedict said all believers had to  
defend what he called fundamental values but that the duty was  
"especially incumbent" on those in positions of power.

[More at URL]


----- 3 -----
Senator Clinton, unplugged
March 14, 2007
ABC News

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/03/senator_clinton.html

This morning on Good Morning, America, we ran an interview with Sen.  
Hillary Clinton, D-NY, in which she called for Attorney General  
Alberto Gonzales's head.

[...]

I also asked her about the comments by General Peter Pace that  
homosexulity is "immoral." Clinton has opposed the ban on gays and  
lesbians serving openly in the military, so I asked her if that law  
-- signed by her husband in 1993 -- was a mistake, and if  
homosexuality is "immoral."

"General Pace has clarified his remarks, but let's not lose sight of  
the fact that 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' is not working," she said. "We  
are being deprived of thousands of patriotic men and women who want  
to serve their country who are bringing skills into the armed  
services that we desparately need, like translation skills. And one  
can argue whether it was a good idea when it was first implemented,  
but we know have evidence as to the fact that we are in a time of war  
-- when we really need as many people as we can to recruit and retain  
in an all-volunteer army -- we are turning people away or discharging  
them not because of what they've done but because of who they are."

[Editor's note: Note that she didn't answer the question. Even ABC  
noticed that.]

But is it immoral?

"Well I'm going to leave that to others to conclude," she said.

[More at URL]


----- 4 -----
Stating the obvious
Nature doesn't care about the emotional well-being of older people.  
It's about the continuation of the species -- in other words, children.
By Garrison Keillor
Slate.com

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/03/14/keillor/

I grew up the child of a mixed-gender marriage that lasted until  
death parted them, and I could tell you about how good that is for  
children, and you could pay me whatever you think it's worth.

Back in the day, that was the standard arrangement. Everyone had a  
yard, a garage, a female mom, a male dad, and a refrigerator with  
leftover boiled potatoes in plastic dishes with snap-on lids. This  
was before caller ID, before credit cards, before pizza, for crying  
out loud. You could put me in a glass case at the history center and  
schoolchildren could press a button and ask me questions.

Monogamy put the parents in the background where they belong and we  
children were able to hold center stage. We didn't have to contend  
with troubled, angry parents demanding that life be richer and more  
rewarding for them. We blossomed and agonized and fussed over our  
outfits and learned how to go on a date and order pizza and do the  
twist and neck in the front seat of a car back before bucket seats  
when you could slide close together, and we started down the path  
toward begetting children while Mom and Dad stood like smiling,  
helpless mannequins in the background.

Nature is about continuation of the species -- in other words,  
children. Nature does not care about the emotional well-being of  
older people.

[...]

And now gay marriage will produce a whole new string of hyphenated  
relatives. In addition to the ex-stepson and ex-in-laws and your  
wife's first husband's second wife, there now will be Bruce and  
Kevin's in-laws and Bruce's ex, Mark, and Mark's current partner, and  
I suppose we'll get used to it.

The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic  
fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a  
striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers  
and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be  
accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to  
be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and  
not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That's for the  
kids. It's their show.

[More at URL]


----- 5 -----
Fuck Garrison Keillor
SLOG - The Stranger's Blog
The Stranger
Posted by DAN SAVAGE on March 14 at 10:02 AM

http://www.thestranger.com/blog/2007/03/fuck_garrison_keillor

Oh. My. God. I’m sitting here writing a silly little blog post about  
General Peter Pace when I get an email from a friend telling to go  
read Garrison Keillor’s piece on marriage and family over at Salon.

Keillor, concerned about the emotional well-being of children, comes  
to praise heterosexual marriage, monogamy, and life-long commitment:

[...]

Keillor has been married THREE TIMES. He has children from two of his  
marriages, children who presumably need a computer program to keep  
track of their step-siblings, half-siblings, and sprawling extended  
families, children that have to be “apportioned out on Thanksgiving  
and Christmas.” Okay, fine, whatever. Keillor can recognize marriage,  
life-long commitment, and less complicated family structures as the  
ideal, even if he himself has failed—failed spectacularly—to live up  
to that ideal himself. It might have been nice, however, if the  
withered old hypocrite had admitted to Salon readers that he has  
failed to live up to the ideals he’s espousing. How about a little  
full disclosure, Garrison?

[...]

But Keillor really didn’t come to praise heterosexual marriage and  
monogamy. He came to bury gay couples—particularly gay couples with  
children.

[More at URL]


----- 6 -----
How to bomb a gay bath house
By Mike S. Adams
Wednesday, March 14, 2007

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/MikeSAdams/2007/03/14/ 
how_to_bomb_a_gay_bath_house?page=full

I've been thinking about Ann Coulter a lot lately - a real shocker, I  
know - and I think I've finally found a way to get her out of the hot  
water she's in over her recent outing of John Edwards. [Ed. Note:  
John Edwards is not gay, despite Ann Coulter's assertion that he is a  
"faggot" and Rush Limbaugh's assertion that he is a cross-dressing  
woman.] Before I reveal just what she ought to do, I have an  
obligation to tell her what not to do - especially since she's  
getting such bad advice from other conservatives.

The first thing Ann should not do is heed calls that she apologize  
for using the term "faggot." [...]

Recall that the term "queer" was once acceptable in America -  
certainly you remember playing "smear the queer" in grade school.  
After years of banning the term, the Diversity Offices are now  
establishing "Queer Resource Centers" on college campuses. [Ed. note:  
This ignores two and a half decades of history, I suppose? C.f. Queer  
Nation.]

[More at URL]


----- 7 -----
Baptist assailed for gay-baby article
By David Crary
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 15, 2007

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/ 
2003618753_gaybaby15.html

NEW YORK — The president of the leading Southern Baptist seminary has  
incurred criticism from the left and the right by suggesting that a  
biological basis for homosexuality may be proved and that prenatal  
treatment to reverse gay orientation would be biblically justified.

The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., one of the country's pre-eminent  
evangelical leaders, acknowledged he irked many fellow conservatives  
with an article earlier this month saying research "points to some  
level of biological causation" for homosexuality.

Proof of a biological basis would challenge the belief of many  
conservative Christians that homosexuality — which they view as  
sinful — is a matter of choice that can be overcome through prayer  
and counseling.

However, Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological  
Seminary in Louisville, Ky., was assailed even more harshly by gay- 
rights supporters. They were upset by his assertion that  
homosexuality would remain a sin even if it were biologically based  
and by his support for possible medical treatment that could switch  
an unborn gay baby's sexual orientation to heterosexual.

[More at URL]