NOM is always mad about activist judges and activist legislatures and activist houseplants and whatever else. Now let them start grunting about activist voters, as a new poll out of New York shows that NOM’s desire to rewrite discrimination into that state’s laws has a fairly fat chance of actually happening:
- 55 percent of registered voters support the legalization of same-sex marriage.
- 63 percent of registered voters oppose overturning the new marriage equality law.
- 44 percent of registered voters (a plurality) say they are more likely to vote for a state senator who voted to pass the same-sex marriage law.
- 70 percent of New Yorkers would attend a same-sex wedding if invited, including 34 percent of those who oppose the law.
Maggie ‘n’ Brian: get jobs.
Meanwhile, wingnut dominionist pastor David Barton has an idea’r about how to “punish” the New York GOP senators who voted for marriage equality:
“No disrespect to our Native American friends, but this is where you hang a bloody scalp over the gallery rail. You hang these four Republican scalps over the Senate rail and every other Republican senator looks up and sees those scalps and says, ‘my gosh, I’ll be hanging up there beside them if I don’t stay with this pro-family stuff.’ And that’s exactly what has to happen.”
Uh yeah, David, great idea, considering the fact that those other Republicans will be looking up at that rail and seeing those scalps (NO OFFENSE OUR NATIVE AMERICAN FRIENDS!) and face a real hard choice: cater to the whims of the rapidly dwindling minority of New Yorkers who are unreconstructed bigots, or be normal. Tough decision.
Also: we talked/argued about the mid-term elections. Go vote, people.
Wayne spoke in Arizona last night, Memphis is having a huge March for Gay Rights on Monday and the message of equality is even being taken to little towns in Arkansas. Lastly, MARK YOUR CALENDARS for the big, hilarious “Lift My Luggage” protest against NARTH in Philadelphia on November 6.
Music this week is from one of my favorite artists of all time, Jill Sobule. This is one of her old, old songs, and it popped back into my life a few weeks back, and I’ve kept it in the mix since then. It’s sorta 80′s, and I love it. It’s called “Tell Me Your Dreams,” and the original version is in the player. Below that is a much more recent, acoustic performance of the song, and you can almost tell that Jill and the players sort of feel like they’re winging it, perhaps because she really doesn’t do the song very much anymore. Anyway, it makes for a completely charming performance. So we’ll start with that, hit shuffle and see where we are ten songs later. More videos below the jump.
1. Hot Chip – “I Feel Better”
2. Brandi Carlile – “Dying Day”
3. CocoRosie – “The Moon Asked The Crow”
4. Starship – “Sara”
5. How To Destroy Angels – “BBB”
6. Soul Miner’s Daughter – “With Me” [Soul Miner's Daughter, you will remember, is one of Jennifer Nettles' early bands. She is now, of course with a little outfit called Sugarland.]
7. My Brightest Diamond – “Golden Star”
8. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - “Gray Sunset”
9. Nina Simone – “Compassion”
10. No Doubt - “Don’t Speak”
Yeah yeah yeah, I have Starship on my iTunes, go to hell. I also, to be fair, have all the Jefferson Airplane, so it’s not pure cheese.
Unfortunately, we’re dealing with a wingnut and not a real doctor here. Otherwise, the dingbat would understand that you don’t treat the symptoms of a disease, but rather the disease itself. This exchange between David Barton and Rick Green happened on their Wallbuilders radio program today:
Barton: We’re a health-conscious people, no question …
Green: We are, very.
Barton: We have a Department of Health and Human Services; we have health care bills; we have health insurance and we’re trying to stop all unhealthy things so we’re going after transfats and we’re going after transparency in labeling to make sure we get all the healthy stuff in there. And we’re going after school lunch programs and we’re trying to get juices in schools and Cokes out of schools and snack machines out of schools. And we’re trying to tell McDonalds what they can use and how they can cook their french fries because it’s unhealthy. And we’ve got cigarettes and trying to get them off and raising the taxes so high that nobody will smoke them, ‘cause that’s unhealthy. And hard liquor; that’s unhealthy, we can’t do that. And salt, man, we’ve got to have salt-free diets, so we have to post the potassium, salt and all the different types of salt … just everything, obesity, overweight, we are so doggone health conscious because we want to live healthy because, among other things, it makes your health care a whole lot cheaper. You live a healthy life, no question it’s a lot cheaper …
Green: Which is typically the excuse for the Federal Government claiming we have the responsibility here, or we have the authority I should say …
Barton: … to tell you how to live a healthy lifestyle. So if I got to the Centers for Disease Control and I’m concerned about health, I find some interesting stats there and this should tell me something about health.
Homosexual/bi-sexual individuals are seven times to contemplate or commit suicide. Oooh, that doesn’t sound very healthy.
The disease is bigotry and homophobia, and the cause is Fundamentalist Christians, so if you want to go down that road of eradicating that disease, we can…
Homosexuals die decades earlier than heterosexuals. That doesn’t sound healthy.
Nearly one-half of practicing homosexuals admit to five hundred or more sex partners and nearly one-third admit to a thousand or more sex partners in a lifetime.
Statistics from the height of the AIDS crisis? Really? Which commandment is the one about lying again?
Green: Wow.
Barton: That doesn’t sound very healthy.
Homosexuals have an HIV prevalence sixty times higher than the general population.
And people living in Africa have an even higher HIV rate! But these dumb bigots wouldn’t dare suggest we regulate “African” behavior. But it’s the same logical strain of the same disease.
Kyle has the rest of the mindless transcript at his place, as well as the audio.
But I just wanted to highlight yet another Religious Right leader blaming gays for the problems that fundamentalists cause for gays.
Glenn Beck may not personally care whether or not gays can get married, but the wingnuts who form his worldview certainly do. Media Matters has put together a handy little guide, which includes quotes and background on the following people in Beck’s sphere of influence:
David Barton
James Dobson
Randy Forbes
Jim Garlow
John Hagee
Terence Henry
Alveda King
Richard Land
Daniel Lapin
Patrick Lee
Richard Lee
Miles McPherson
Chuck Norris
Sarah Palin
James Robison
Charles Stanley
After failing at almost everything she has tried since the late 1970′s, former orange juice queen turned homophobe Anita Bryant (pictured) is back. She is speaking at the anti-gay, “Reclaiming America for Christ” rally in Oklahoma City tonight.
The hate event will also include the husband of state Rep. Sally Kern (R). The ever-lying David Barton of Wallbuilders will be appearing. Barton is known for inventing quotes out of thin air and ascribing them to the Founding Fathers. How Christian….
Reclaiming America For Christ was started by D. James Kennedy and is traditionally held in the liberal city of Fort Lauderdale, FL. As the right wing is losing steam, they are retreating to strongholds, such as rural Oklahoma. Recent mega-events from right wing groups have turned out to be duds this year. It will be interesting to see how this free event in Oklahoma does in terms of attendance. If Bryant can’t draw a crowd in the most conservative part of the nation, the extreme right should be very concerned.
Here are examples of three anti-gay mega events this year where attendance fell flat.
After failing at almost everything she has tried since the late 1970′s, former orange juice queen turned homophobe Anita Bryant (pictured) 
