Jeremy brings us the story of North Carolina bumpkin state senator Jim Forrester, who apparently referred to the city of Asheville, North Carolina, as a “cesspool of sin” in the lead-up to the unfortunate vote for hate that just happened in that state.  Now he has clarified his anti-Asheville comments!  Bumpkin say what?

“It was kind of brought up in a church meeting we had and I don’t know what prompted me to say that, but I distinctly remember a couple of weeks ago they were all out baring their breasts and everything up in Asheville,” Forrester said. “They have a lot of very liberal people. They have a lot of homosexuals that live in the Asheville area.”

Forrester continued: “I think, it used to be you think of Wilmington with all the movie people down there would be the worst place in the state or Chapel Hill where they have a lot of liberal people and so forth. But Asheville is just doing a lot of things that I don’t like and I don’t think a lot of people in the Asheville area like.”

Boo hoo hoo, whiny yokel. But here is why I find this funny. Here are three pictures of Asheville, North Carolina, if you have never had the good fortune to go there:

In short, Asheville, North Carolina, is one of the nicest, most beautiful places in this entire country, not to mention in North Carolina. Ooh, but wingnut no likey the Asheville, due to gays.

If you’re not familiar with Chapel Hill, it’s recognized as one of the nicest small towns in America, and is the home of UNC-Chapel Hill. Read more about it here!

I’m not as familiar with Wilmington, the third place Wingnuts McGee was whining about, and I don’t feel like looking it up right now, but you see the running theme here?

To draw a contrast, Jim Forrester’s district features a lot of race cars turning left, and also two interstates cross there.  Stop me before you get too excited.

The reason I bring this up is that it reminds me of the constant bitching and moaning that the Right does about “coastal elitists” and whatnot.  They sit in their La-Z-Boys in Nowheresville, America and lose their minds about lib’rul places like Boston and New York whar people just don’t act right.  And when you read or hear their words enough, you start to notice an undercurrent:  jealousy.  The idea that somewhere out there, smarter, better educated people are having more fun and living happier lives.

So Jim up there is free to call all the places he doesn’t like “cesspools of sin.”  The rest of the country will continue to call them “the nicest places in North Carolina.”  [And no offense if you live in another part of NC that is also nice!  There are actually lots of nice places in that state, as it is a bit like Tennessee and has a fairly strange combination of cool, cosmopolitan cities and beautiful scenery, and amidst all of that, thousands of lifelike replicas of the cast from Deliverance.]

Nice crowd the “fair and balanced” network attracts:

The Fox News Facebook page got over 8,000 death threats posted on its wall after the Communications Director for the American Atheists, Blair Scott, appeared on the network’s “America Live” discussing the group’s lawsuit hoping to stop the erection of a crucifix at the World Trade Center Memorial.

The admins of Fox’s Facebook page worked furiously to delete the hateful posts…

Yeah, but somebody got screen shots!

More where that came from at the above link.

Real Christian ‘Murkans are such a delightful group…

[h/t Kyle @ Right Wing Watch]

Wingnuts live in their own world, and they do better when they’re talking to each other, because there, in their echo chamber, no one is around to laugh at them.  Except, ahem, those of us who pay attention and expose them to a wider audience.

The other day, Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, one of those redneck goobers like Louie Gohmert and Paul Broun, went on Bill Maher’s show and let those mean reality-based people, including a conservative National Review columnist, make him look like a fool on the subject of evolution. This is a fantastic clip, if only for the constant idiot smile Kingston wears, that whole “where am I and who are all these people?” look so often seen on the faces of garden variety wingnuts:

Kingston was obviously bruised by the normal people, so he ran into the arms of a fellow wingnut-in-arms, Bryan Fischer, whose intellectual prowess will never threaten a man like Jack, so that they could tell each other that liberals are mean and they’re right. It’s truly sad viewing:

Of course, Bryan Fischer’s organization is the American Family Association, one of the most vicious groups on the SPLC’s list of hate groups, and Kyle at Right Wing Watch points out that Kingston isn’t the only Republican politician whining to and cozying up with this hateful hick; recently both Tim Pawlenty and Roger Wicker have laid crying on the couch of Bryan.

America’s dumbest Senator is making a statement:

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) is the latest Republican who has chosen to skip this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over its inclusion of a pro-gay group.

“With leading conservatives organizations not participating this year, Senator DeMint will not be attending,” Wesley Denton, a spokesman for the senator, told CNN. “He hopes to attend a unified CPAC next year.”

Yes, unified against gays, because he’s an unreconstructed bigot…

For once, I agree with Dan Blatt at Gay Patriot:

Leading conservative organizations? Well, Heritage isn’t participating. That’s about the only leading conservative organization I can think of that’s passing on the event. Seems some of those supposedly leading groups are up in arms that GOProud is participating organization.

Heh. I agree that groups like CWA and FRC need to, you know, get a hold on their delusions of grandeur and realize that they represent a demographic that’s rapidly, um, dying off. In fifteen or twenty years, the FRC will be lucky to get a kiosk in the lobby.

They revel in being low-information voters.  They really, really love it.  They are ignorant toads, here them roar.

I can only shake my head.

[h/t Joe]

When the ad lists all the things that are supposedly on the “lame-duck” agenda, it should make you marvel at the myriad things wingnuts are afraid of, almost NONE of which even exist!

If these people ever confronted their real problems, they’d simply dissolve into puddles of spittle and regret.

Because of the amazing Constance McMillen, Miss’sippi’s been all over the news lately, showing everybody their commitment to, as Wanda Sykes said, always “be on the forefront of the wrong side of history.” Well, one of Miss’sippi’s finest brains apparently got a stick in his craw about all the mean lie’bruls making fun of them, and wrote atheist science blogger P.Z. Myers a letter. I think you’ll agree it’s a true exposition of genius:

Mr. Myers:

I live in north Mississippi and the way that you and other liberals criticize small town America is deplorable. You know nothing of this town nor my state. Of course I am proud of the people in my state for standing up for what is right.

You call it “human rights” for a man to dress like a woman and act silly and for a woman to dress like a man and act like she has a pecker when she does not. Most nomral people call it sick and realize it is sin. Of course the days of 1967 may have caused permanent brain damage that the next generation inherited. This explans most liberal policies, or anti-establishment policies I call it.

Explanation for liberalism = men “acting silly” and dressing like women and women “acting like they have peckers.” Awesome. And 1967 was bad. Loving v. Virginia and whatnot. I want more of this letter:

The plain fact is this: Why can liberals not accept that a man does not wear a dress and that a woman does not wear a tuxedo and ask another woman to prom, or other engagement? Can you ot see what is wrong with that picture? Your claim to fame is that you use reason. What reason? Your reason? What about the truth? The truth and reality prevails over your “reason” Mr. Myers.

And in my version of reality, evurbody wars what thur s’posta war!

Satan is on a role in America and his minions are affecting every core element of society.

Yes, I believe he’s playing the role of Elizabeth Hasselbeck, last time I checked. Type-casting. What’s a dark lord gotta do to be a leading lady in this town?

There are those of us who have sworn an oath to destroy evil in this world and to slay Satan and his ideals which includes witchcraft, idolatry, paganism, homosexuality, etc.

Wolverines!

I’d like to take a moment to point out that that last sentence definitely does not bring to mind Magic: The Gathering or LARPing, in any way, shape or form. Absolutely not.

Homoseuality was wrong 6000 years ago after Adam sinned. It was wrong 3500 years ago when God wiped Sodom and Gomorrah from the face of the Earth for their homosexual satanic lusts.

Wait. What kind of wingnut pop-up Bible is Bubba reading, because MY fourteen Bibles seem to have about fifteen verses a-piece which all explain that the sin of Sodom was inhospitality and greed? You actually have to actively ignore most of the verses in the Bible that talk about Sodom to pretend it was about gay people. (Bible lesson from an atheist #3 if you’re counting)

The Bible predicted a day when men would see evil as good and good as evil. That day has come and those who have fulfilled this evil will be punished along with the demons who influenced these actions.

Team Edward? Team Jacob? He’s talking to both of y’all, and he’s not happy.

You, sir know nothing of the values of my culture, my heritage.

Time out! In case any of you reading are not Southern, I am, so allow me to explain that when a Southerner says “heritage,” they tend to be talking about “the good ole’ days when the nigras knew their place.” In case you didn’t know.

If you like your sodomy so much, then please set up a seperate state for it so that the sodomites can go there to be destroyed rather than bring destruction on the rest of us who do not tolerate it.

What, you mean like the blue states which subsidize Miss’sippi’s wingnut welfare existence with their abundant tax dollars? The ones where the kids are smarter and the married couples divorce less and the abortion and teen pregnancy rates are lower, and the violent crime rates are…well, you get the idea.

Oh yeah. You already have. California is a breeding ground for Satanic forces. Sodomy, prositution, gayism, witchcraft, paganism, liberalism, socialism, communism, etc all prevails there

Senator Ashburn, Bubba’s looking at you.

I hope you get saved, becuase you have caused many people to go astray and turn evil. Punishment for this will not be a light entence. Being evil yourself is bad enough, but when you cause young minds to stray from God, you received 100 fold the punishment due to you.

Better luck next time. Though. Come visit us in small town Mississippi. You might learn something – like what it means to be normal.

Sincerely,

Your most famous non-admirer

I skipped so many lines, so you need to go read the whole thing. But wait, “most famous”? P.Z. says his name was “rob1,” but there are only three famous people I can think of who live in North Mississippi. (There could be more, but they’re not coming to mind.) Jerry Lee Lewis. Morgan Freeman. John Grisham. I’m having a hard time believing any of them could be “rob1,” so I’m guessing this fool is more of a “local celebrity,” a la employee of the month at the Steak ‘n’ Shake.

Oh, and you really should read P.Z.’s response to Bubba McGoo. He’s trying to be nicer these days, and I think he made a valiant effort. So click the clicky!

And Constance, I know Wanda Sykes laughed a little bit when you said you were going to move to Tennessee after college, but you’re right — once you cross that border, it’s like you’ve entered a whole new level of civilization. (As long as you aim for the big city on the other side of that border. The “Memphis” one. If you aim too far to the right, you end up in a place called Finger, which is, um, not really an improvement. No offense to any dear friends of mine who happen to have been raised in Fain-ger.)

Anyway, I’m going to go and act silly and show some ladies how to pretend they have peckers now.