Recently an excellent article came to my attention throught the amazing Feministe blog. This series about an "ex-gay" ministries seminar attended by a gay man. It's a series that is still being updated, and so far it is one of the best I've read in regards to "infiltrating enemy territory for recognisance", otherwise known as checking out the other side's viewpoint. He handles the heavy material matter well with an even look at both the psuedo-science and rhetoric being spewed by those who are putting on the seminar, as well as the anguish, confusion and pain that those who attend these seminars experience.

He discusses the language that is used by groups like Focus on the Family and Exodus to promote their agenda. Like any involved field of study (no matter how reputable) they have developed a vocabulary to define their world view. They define any kind of gay interaction as being pathological, and the only way out of that pathology is through Jesus. People are not gay, only their actions. It's a delicate line of Newspeak, almost the definition of blackwhite. It is also insidious and can be terribly damaging to people.

He described a large portion of the people there being family members and friends of lesbians and gays. I imagine many of them were there to learn to how to help change those who they love, or at least get an idea if their own idle prejudices are well-founded (I'm not comfortable with that, so it must be bad or at least unnatural and unhealthy). That was what shook me, is that these are not hate-filled homophobic asshats (for the most part, there were exceptions I'm sure) these were vulnerable people looking for answers to very real and difficult questions. What they got was nothing more than well- planned doublespeak, anecdotal 'evidence'*, and religious salesmanship. 

*I don't remember what blog it was from, or what commentor said it, but the multiple of anecdotes does not equal fact.

This is fucking absurd, but I don't think they have enough vulgar and detracting statements out there to describe the blatent  stupidity that this is.
Did you know that the earth revolves around the sun? Along with all other 9 8 planets and .

I know, fucking revolutionary right? I totally didn't steal the idea from this guy. Nope. Not at all.

Sigh. Seriously people, it's been 493 fucking years since this theory was published. Almost 5 fucking centuries! We have been to SPACE for fuck's sake, how do you think we did that? This isn't an idle guess they decided to just go with, there was research - centuries of it! - and . . . they are totally not listening. Fuck.
This is why we don't allow unintelligent design in to the classroom. These people don't even know what the fuck a scientific theory is, so they aren't shouldn't be allowed to spout ricockulous bullshit and call it science. Sometimes I swear, these people will look at something and if it's too complicated for them to understand, or it doesn't fit into their nice little box, then they assume it must be false. I suppose it's hard to have the idea that we are tiny insignificant little animals that developed through millions of years of trial and error shoved in your face with all it's "evidence", when you've been thinking you're the sky daddy's super special little buddy, created in his very own image and sent here to do his bidding. The truth is a disillusioning bitch huh?
Hat tip

Are you between the ages of 19-29 and aren't married? Well then the government is here to let you know they've got a plan for you! No sex (unless your married of course)! Eh?....Eh, eh? Not gonna go for it are you? Not with such wonderful convincing statements like these?

"For condoms to be used correctly, over 10 specific difficult steps must be followed every time. This tends to minimize the romance and spontaneity of the sex act. (Choosing the Best, p. 25)."

10 steps? Really? Let's see here, I'm gonna try to break it down as much as possible
How to use a condom
1) Open little foil package
2) Remove condom
3) Throw foil package and little torn off bit to the side
4) Figure out which is the topside
5) Roll down over erect penis
6) ENJOY!!
So the most we got was 6...and none of them could be categorized as difficult, trying maybe (ever have an issue with getting it open? Yeah me too) but not exactly difficult. And then of course there are these kick ass condoms, which I am hoping catch on here as they are currently only available in Africa (i think anyway).

"Women need affection while men need sexual fulfillment; women need conversation while men need recreation companionship; women need honest and openness while men need physical attractiveness; women need financial support while men need admiration, and women need family commitment while men need domestic support" (WAIT Training, p. 199).

Where to start? How about the fact that this is educational materials with some pretty amazing grammar, 'recreation companionship'? 'women need honest'? Great proofreading skills on whoever designed that material. Every statement is a broad, misogynistic generalization of both men and women that  equates us with television stereotypes. Women don't want sex only love, have an inherent NEED to talk and require ca$h and babies, STAT! Men just want sex, an active buddy who also happens to be totally HAWT and tells him how manly and super amazing he is while doing his laundry. Good to know.  Please remember this isn't some fundie pamphlet either, these are actual materials they are using to teach abstinence-only ed in schools and now apparently to us slutty 20-somethings.
Now we come to the all important question of why? Why do we need to be teaching abstinence to a group that over 90% has had sex before, likely more than once!

"Government data released last month show that 998,262 births in 2004 were to unmarried women 19-29, the ages with the most births to unmarried women."

Unplanned pregnancy, (which they mean as anyone who has a baby and isn't married). According to the government, if you are an unmarried person under 29 the best way to prevent pregnancy is abstinence. Which is true, just not realistic. Do we really need to be telling adults lies to intimidate them into not having sex? Because I don't think that will work. Does our government really need to be in on our sex lives anyway? Now for the real kicker, because really we all knew how the BushCo government felt about fucking (if you're anything other than a married strictly heterosexual couple), they will be spreading this misinformation with $50 million.
I know, I'm excited too.
Hat tip to Mark Morford and Travels with Floyd as well as Feministe for the great video

Sorry about the short posts and the super-extended long wait for the Reviews and just in general the laziness of me in regards to my blog. It's been a hectic few weeks what with my relationship with Shervie ending, moving in teh new roomie and getting all the paperwork figured out. So I'm hoping for a few quite weeks where I can catch up on blogging and net hopping in general. Now onto the fun stuff,
Election Day -
How about you?
I live in Hennepin County, Minneapolis MN so my vote actually went for quite a few winners!
1st the HORRIBLE DEVASTATING TERRIBLE win of Tim Pawlenty. Bah and Humbug to that bastard, although I was edgy and kind of uncomfortable voting for Hatch (he and his staff had some snaffu's and gaffe's the last few weeks of the election that were...interesting) he would have been a sight better than Pawlenty who would apparently support the president even if he had a 0% approval rating. But on the good side of things, MN helped contribute to regaining Congress for the Dems. Amy Klobuchar took the Senate spot. I liked her except for her views on gay marriage, but she wouldn't have supported a bill against it federally or locally so at least she's not hateful. We rocked the house with only 3 Republicans getting seats and 6 Dems making it into office including Keith Ellison for my district (5) who is the first Muslim to be in congress. So the election went as well as we could hope for, excepting the governor's race. Outside of my home state I am uber excited to hear that Santorum(the senator not the sex act leftovers) has failed! Hat Tip to Feministe for teh awesome pic
Just for clarity that IS Santorum's little girl crying. I am a horrible person for laughing at her. But I laugh anyway and with great joy...MUAHAHAHA!!!

The fundies are coming the fundies are coming! I often feel like riding through the streets Paul Revere style and screaming that at the top of my lungs. They are slow, and they are sneaky, but they are coming for us. If you are

not christian(or not the right kind whatever that may be)
gay
bisexual
a woman
a minority
an immigrant (here legally or not)
jewish
muslim
liberal
etc...

It seems to get worse every year. The crazy team just keeps getting crazier, and our ability to keep them out get's weaker and weaker. I'm just waiting for them to come to my door with pitchforks and torches to burn me, my roomates and our demon kitties(because the more familiars the stronger the witch!) at the stake.

I wonder what they think of the part in the constitution which seperates church and state...

...is Patrick Henry University. where this girl is considered a 'liberal'

Muench, like eighty-five per cent of the students at Patrick Henry, was homeschooled, in her case in rural Idaho...she has hung photographs of the Bushes and the Cheneys on her walls, Elisa tries to read the Bible every day, usually in the morning before working out. She told me that in any other school she’d be considered a true conservative, which is what she considers herself, “but at Patrick Henry I’m more liberal.”...She would have serious discussions about children and insurance before the first kiss. Then, at some point, the boys realized “how much I really loved politics and wanted to be a part of it,” and the prospect of her commitment to a career became a problem...When she tells her father or her old drama teacher that she wants to work at the White House, she does it tentatively, like someone testing out an identity.

I'm sure in certain circles of the school, because she would like to have a job before popping out babies like a fucking bunny, she's considered a 'feminazi'
and this guy is like a fucking poster child for 'Nice Guy'TM

He’d got a perfect 1600 on the S.A.T. but ignored solicitation letters from Yale, Harvard, and Stanford, and the fact that he chose Patrick Henry was seen as a turning point for the school, which was then less than two years old. Du Mée told me, “I considered going to an Ivy League, where I could have been more of a Christian witness”—meaning an example to others who might not share his faith. But he decided that he wanted a school “more edifying to Christ.”...Ross is du Mée’s usual debate partner...They met during freshman orientation, and before they began spending “exclusive time” together, in junior year, du Mée called Ross’s father to tell him. Last year, du Mée asked if he could court her by writing her father an eighteen-page single-spaced letter that began “My name is Matthew du Mée and I was a good kid.”...Ross would look for a job, but only to pay back loans. Eventually, they want to adjust to living on one salary so that she can homeschool their kids. Du Mée would “really, really like to run for political office,” he said. “U.S. Congress would be great.”...The fact that he was homeschooled and keeps a running conversation with Jesus in his head does not seem to him a barrier. “It’s pretty normal,” he said...He told me that he was glad to move on; his view of what’s out there hasn’t changed much since he was choosing a college, and imagined all the people who were waiting to hear his message. “We are all called to be lights out there in this world,” he said, “and I’m looking forward to that.”

So it's normal to have a running conversation with a "diety" in your head? Sweet! I guess we can tell all those schizophrenics who make statements close to that, "sorry we've kept you hospitalized and severly medicated, we were just confused.
Don't even get me started on the president of the school, oh wait too late!

Michael Farris, is a lawyer and minister who has worked for Christian causes for decades. He founded the school after getting requests from two constituencies: homeschooling parents and conservative congressmen. The parents would ask him where they could find a Christian college with a “courtship” atmosphere, meaning one where dating is regulated and subject to parental approval. The congressmen asked him where they could find homeschoolers as interns and staffers, “which I took to be shorthand for ‘someone who shares my values,’...Farris’s manifesto for the school, “The Joshua Generation,” embraces the Rove principle: the “Moses generation,” he wrote, had “left Egypt,” and now it was time for their children to “take the land.” Farris is the author of nine nonfiction books and three novels, all with Christian themes, and in them he warns against “MTV, Internet porn, abortion, homosexuality, greed and accomplished selfishness”; he calls public schools “godless monstrosities.” But students are not expected to avoid the secular world entirely. Farris told them at chapel recently that one day “an Academy Award winner will walk down the aisle to accept his trophy. On his way, he’ll get a cell-phone call; it will be the President, who happens to be his old Patrick Henry roommate, calling to congratulate him.”

Apparently the best leaders of tomorrow are the ones who won't and to some extent can't relate to anyone but white, christian EXTREME conservatives. Best foriegn policy maker's EVAR!
Somebody call me when the insanity is over, I'm going to Canada...or maybe Sweden ((begins looking for a less insane place to live))

NASA won't allow it's scientists to inform the people even if it is about something that could drastically change everyone's life.

"it appears that several agencies are laboring to silence scientists who are researching climate trends and alterations, especially where they have knowledge about the degree to which human activities are playing a role in the rapid and historically inexplicable heating of the planet's surface and atmosphere."

It's nice to know our government is protecting all of us poor stupid commoners from being terrified by the big bad scary truth about (Le GASP!!) Global warming!

"The case in point is that of Dr. James Hansen, head of climatology research for NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies...He became a whistleblower for two reasons: one, the institution he works for was participating in a campaign to withhold and to distort evidence related to climate science, so his revelations are designed to correct the disinformation; two, he could face retaliatory hostile treatment by superiors just for revealing something no one has a legal right to hide"

here comes the hammer...

"NASA's reaction, in the words of one report, was to place him under "administrative house arrest. It has also been reported by TomPaine.com that "Political appointees boasted they would 'make the president look good' by imposing blanket prior restraint, denying interview requests, announcing that agency-selected replacements would substitute for him, and threatening 'dire consequences' if he disobeyed".

Apparently now NASA=parents, in that they can spank you for "disobediance". WTF? I wonder if NASA will be called out for scientist-abuse?

"He did. Hansen appeared on CBS' 60 Minutes program and other national media. Scientists, academics and journalists formed a wave of support for Hansen and his right to speak openly and freely about public science, and NASA declared its intention to reform its media policy, saying it recognized the rights of individual employees to employ their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression."

What? No spanking? Well at least they are making an effort for free speech and promoting a healthy scientific...oh wait...

"The new media policy still places government scientists under harsh restrictions and still seems aimed to give superiors control over what the media hear and discuss, as related to agency work. This standard seems not only to work against the First Amendment, but its lean toward censorship also violates a number of other federal laws."

I thought they changed the policy? They must have meant to their advantage, not the employees' or the public.

"The policy bans anonymous disclosures, controls the timing of information’s release and institutionalizes prior restraint censorship through 'review and clearance by appropriate officials' for 'all NASA employees' involved in 'preparing and issuing' public information. This means that scientists can be censored and will need advance permission from the 'appropriate' official before anything can be released."

So, no telling the public anything that might make us look bad, oh and be home by 10! Here's the money quote IMHO

"The EPA, charged literally as the agency for 'environmental protection', has a policy that scientists may not disclose any research without authorization and are forbidden from "initiating contact" with reporters, to "prevent EPA management from being surprised by news coverage". This level of control of information clearly runs contrary to the agency's mission to ensure that a clear and objective picture of the environmental impact of human activities be known and that relevant actions be taken to curb any detrimental practices."

This is the best argument I have found in the national media (so far) that gives reasoning as to why the HPV vaccine should be a mandatory shot like polio.

"This vaccine can stop a cancer that kills about 4,000 American women a year. The Centers for Disease Control advisory committee recently recommended that the vaccine be given to all girls by age 13...Some social conservatives, however, are fighting these efforts.Their rationale is as follows: Cervical cancer is caused by the human papilloma virus, which is sexually transmitted. By doing away with the fear of most cervical cancers, this vaccine may give adolescent girls a green light to have sex."

Because with our fabulous abstinence-only policy, girls know what HPV is. I SWEAR.

"Let's dispose of the green light. Vaccine or no, the teens would remain vulnerable to a variety of other diseases, including AIDS. There remains plenty to warn them against. Then there's reality. Even before the vaccine was available, 70 percent of American girls were having sex before they reached 18. So much for the deterrent value of cervical cancer."

I've had an abnormal pap, so has my sister, both of us ended up being treated for HPV, I had a biopsy, she had to have her cervix frozen.

Best. Quote.Ever.
"Ultimately does consciousness exist in all feedback at every level of nature? I say yes.......I mean everything is made up of atoms. Ultimately atomic particles are made of wisdom, and wisdom is the product of thought – and thought is the result of consciousness. God is truly in everything! His thought is everywhere…and ultimately, thought is the originator of everything that’s around us -- including us....and thought ultimately responds from feedback. Feedback can be physical, mental, or spiritual....and ultimately God is in harmony with Himself."

supersport, Internet Infidels [Comments (39)] [2006-Aug-01]

James Wolcott: Roving Hands

Fundies Say the Darndest Things

I wonder where wisdom is on the periodic table??
Oh wait...
But seriously, go to the site, you will either cry with fear that these people are the ones who have the government's ear, or laugh riotesly at there stupidity wisdom