The Story So Far… » Archives, 2005 Jul. 1

Archives, 2005 Jul. 1

Thursday July 21, 2005

The Difference Between The United States And Other Industrial Nations

There’s this joke about how Australia got all of Britain’s criminals and the we got all its religious fanatics, and between the two countries we got the short end of it. I’m sure there’s a few Australians who might take offence at that, and some religious people here in the US who would, but look at this:

(Ottawa) With the stroke of a vice-regal pen Canada becomes the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
The federal government's gay marriage legislation passed its final hurdle shortly before midnight following a raucous, emotional debate in the Senate. (story). The final word in the debate came from Ione Christensen, the 71-year-old Liberal senator from the Yukon. To a hushed chamber Chistensen read an e-mail from a constituent. "You have no idea what a difference it makes to the human spirit to know that you are treated equally under the law," the e-mail said. With that, members of the upper chamber were called in for a three-minute vote that came after about three years of political and legal battles. The Senate voted 47-21 to pass the bill that allows civil marriage for same-sex couples. Three senators abstained. There are currently 95 sitting senators and 10 vacancies in the appointed upper house.
When the vote was tallied the chamber erupted in a loud cheer.

Dig it. They Cheered. Now try to imagine that happening here. Just try. I dare you. And if you think the only people who need to be afraid of the religious right in America are homosexuals or licentious liberals, here's a second thought for you, courtesy of Toyota, which decided to locate its new North American plant in Canada, even though it was promised sweeter deals down in Jesusland: They got a $125 Million is subsidies from the Canadians. But that wasn't what sealed the deal, because several southern states offered nearly double the subsidies. What sealed the deal was the quality of education that their potential workers in Canada possesed. The extra subsidies offered by the U.S. state would have been eaten up by the need to train and educate the workers in those states to the standards of a modern mechanized and digitized automobile plant. CBC news reports: The factory will cost $800 million to build, with the federal and provincial governments kicking in $125 million of that to help cover research, training and infrastructure costs. Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double that amount of subsidy. But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project. He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment. "The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said. It's ironic that those southern states were willing to fork over the money to get the plant, but not to spend the same money to raise the educational standards in their schools. It's a classic penny-wise, pound-foolish approach. But what about a northern state with better education. Well too bad northern states, you also are being "penny-wise and pound-foolish". Only now it's health care that is a show stopper" In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson. "Most people don't think of our health-care system as being a competitive advantage," he said.

Public Education. Public Heathcare. If you think working to improve the lives of the common people, or the poor, are high priorities in the bible belt, because Jesus taught us to love and care for one another, then you haven't been paying attention. The poorest and most ignorant places in the United States, are where the religious right is the most firmly in control. And they are anything but ashamed at what their rule has brought their people. Fundamentalism teaches that the end is coming anyway, that it's all preordained, that making this world a better place is not only useless, it's wrong because this world is a veil of corruption, will only get better after the second coming, and that trying to make it better yourself is acting against god's will. Notice what a tidy excuse all that is, not just to be a self righteous do nothing, but to actively try and drag down your betters. Fundamentalism is just one big excuse for the worst kind of human envy...the kind that doesn't covet possessions, doesn't covet lovers, doesn't covet anything at all, it just hates. It hates the nobility of the human spirit, and wants to snuff it out wherever it sees it in action, so the stench of its own dead soul isn't as noticeable. There are many people of faith in this country, and you can tell them, by the way their faith moves them to try against all odds to make this world a better place. And that includes the religious, the agnostic, and the atheist alike. People of faith, against all odds trying, trying, to make this world a better place. Believing in the ability of the human spirit to learn, and grow, and endure. The culture wars here in America now aren't between people of faith, and secularists, but between people of faith, and envious soul-rotted haters of humanity. That is also the battle line between the civilized world and Al Quada right now. Our problem here in America, is that we're having to fight that war on two fronts. by Bruce Garrett | Link Tuesday July 19, 2005 Monday's Protest At Love In Action HQ. A post and links to some pictures of Monday's Love In Action protests here. Apparently John Smid's Stalinist's instincts extend toward his organizations own history too... The protest got off to a great start, as has every day of demonstrations, with blue, sunny skies. Today, however started special for QAC, as we received a package from one of Love In Action's two original founders, John Evans, now an openly gay Christian living in California. QAC spoke with John on the phone last week. He was very encouraging, expressing the importance of voicing alternatives to LIA's practices, calling what they do "dangerous", and "harmful". At the time he had no knowledge that LIA had formed REFUGE, or that they had been counseling kids in any way. He was surprised, and reacted with disbelief. "Love in Action is a very, very dangerous organization that has been destroying people's lives since 1973, and they continue to do so today" When informed that LIA no longer referred to him as a founder of the organization, Evans responded: "Well, of course they don't, because they're scared...they're scared of letting people know the truth"

No shit Sherlock. That's why his inmates cannot have any contact with the outside world while they're in his clutches. And Via QAC... MSNBC's Ron Reagan weighs in on conversion camps: Summer's here, meaning thousands of kids are heading off to camp and participating in a host of familiar activities: hiking, canoeing, archery, re-programming their sexual orientation. Don't you remember that from your summers at camp? ... Reverend Smid himself claims to be a recovered homosexual. He goes on to say, "I may see a man and say, heÃs handsome, he's attractive, and it might touch a part of me that is different from someone else." Reverend, that would be the gay part.

Meanwhile...via reader Billy Sorensen, comes a link to 10 Wacky Ex-Gay Ideas, from author Wayne Besen. If you're read his book, Anything But Straight, you've already run across these, but distilled like that you really see how absolutely nuts these people are. Bad enough grown adults get lured into these cults. But now they're dragging gay teens who are otherwise completely comfortable with themselves into them too...robbing them certainly of the childhoods they could have had, doing their best absolutely to rob these kids of any possibility of experiencing love and trust and tender human intimacy in their future too. That's what sexual abuse does to a teen. These people are nuts, yes. They're laughable, yes. They're pathetic, yes. They're just another weapon in the religious right's anti-gay jihad, yes. Nobody in the crusade above the level of John Smid actually believes these groups can cure homosexuality, or even that they bring people closer to God (and maybe I'm being generous to Smid here too). These groups exist only to serve a political purpose, yes. But never doubt the damage they do along the way. To really get a feel for the gutter the religious right exists in, consider that they're not only condoning, but actively supporting people who do to teenagers at an emotional level, exactly what a sexual predator does. Shame. Guilt. Self loathing. Distrust. Withdrawal. Fear of intimacy. by Bruce Garrett | Link Monday July 18, 2005 Reminder: Protest Today At Love In Action HQ. QAC is calling for a rally today at the Love In Action HQ. 4 PM at 4780 Yale Rd, Memphis Tennessee. If you are in the area, please consider attending. Speak truth to bigotry with your presence and your witness. by Bruce Garrett | Link Obscure Film References A scene from Tarzan's Memphis Adventure on the cartoon page this morning. It's interesting how the mind wanders around the odds and ends of pop culture you've accumulated over your life. I used to watch the old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan flicks raptly, long before I was old enough to fully appreciate just what exactly my interest in them was. Series films of that time tended to follow predictable plot lines, and as I was transferring the pencil roughs and inking this week's cartoon, my mind began to flesh this one out... Cast of Characters Tarzan........................................Tarzan Jane..........................................Jane Boy...........................................Boy Evil Rich Ivory Poacher Who Gets Eaten By Crocodiles..................James Dobson Evil Safari Leader Who Gets Eaten By Lions................................Donald Wildmon Crazy Scientist Who Violates The Sacred Temple And Falls Down A Bottomless Pit................................Jeffrey Satinover Evil Greedy Missionary Who Gets Crushed By Stampeding Elephants.....................................Rick Santorum Big Blowhard Safari Foreman Who Drowns In Quicksand.......................Rush Limbaugh Sniveling Greedy Weasel Guy who Kidnaps The Chief's Son And Gets Strangled By A Python....................Paul Cameron Evil Rich Man's Wife Who Steals The Sacred Idol And Falls Into A Tiger Trap.............................Laura Schlessinger Pathetic Cronies Who Get Eaten By Piranhas...Ken Mehlman, Robert Traynham, The Log Cabin Republicans Comic Relief Who Is Ridiculed By Cheetah All Through The Film..................John Smid Cheetah....The Faculty Of The Institute For Creation Research

I could watch that movie.

No Coming Out Story yet…sorry. I’m not going to rush this one because, light-hearted as it will be when it gets going, it’s an important one to me. But soon. Very soon.