Posted on 10/19/2002 10:34:23 PM PDT by I_Love_My_Husband
DataLounge Editorial: A Gathering Storm Friday, 18 October 2002
Honestly? We'd rather ladle hot tar onto our privates than give a minute's credence to the fetid propaganda spewing out of Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. But even we delightfully fay homosexuals here at the DataLounge in New York are generous enough to admit when that black-hearted harridan in the tragic wig and pilling-polyester has a point.
Not. Pretty. In her October 9th newsletter, Schlafly writes: "The coming election won't decide whether or not we go to war, whether the Homeland Security bill will pass, whether seniors will get their prescription drugs paid for by the taxpayers, or whether Social Security will be privatized. But the 2002 election will decide whether constitutionalists or judicial activists control the federal judiciary for the next 30 years."
These lyrically described "constitutionalists," by the way, are well to the right of the Thomases, Rehnquists and Scalias to whom we've sadly grown accustomed. Ideologically speaking, these folks stand cheek to jowl with the mighty eagle soaring and naked statue draping likes of Attorney General John Ashcroft. These are the grinning Borks and McConnells who stand in the wings hugging themselves at the prospect of dismantling a half-century of judicial canon in the name of God, Guns and Country.
Gay ladies and gentlemen, the threat these people pose to our conception of life, liberty and 3-decade old organized pursuit of happiness goes way beyond marriage equality or whether gay people will ever win the right to screw lawfully in Alabama. The courts are the only institution in this country with the duty and will to protect us from the zealots who consider us walking abominations.
Forget for a moment the courts' role in protecting the accused; keeping religious coercion out of public schools; defending freedom of expression and voting rights; and little things like safeguarding a woman's right to decide on her own if she'll bear children or not.
We're chancing state and local anti-bias laws; fair hiring, firing and promotion in the workplace; partnership rights; health benefits coverage; adoption law and little things like the equal protection clause that guarantee us the right to be covered under the same protective statutes that safeguard other (heterosexual) citizens.
Hit it, Phyllis.
"Activist judges have been advancing a liberal agenda that opposes religious values, conventional morality, the separation of powers, our structure of federalism, the Rule of Law, and even the right of all of us as American citizens to govern ourselves," she quivers and quakes.
Who would make it otherwise?
Overview of this issue > 2002 Mid-Term Elections > Bush II Presidency Web Sites > GayVote.com Other Data Lounge stories > Washington DC Send this article to a friend Her coupling of "conventional morality" and "the right to govern ourselves" ought to send a strong rivulet of ice water curling down the spine of every gay person within shouting distance of this page. It is a recipe for rights conferred only with the blessings of the majority. This is civil right reordered and made subject to mob referendum. This is Colorado's Amendment 2 (which denied gay men and lesbians the right to be protected under any legislative, executive or judicial action) not overturned but upheld, as Justices Scalia, Rehnquist and Thomas voted to do.
This is dangerous. And serious. And scary.
Chicken Little Sky is Falling, blogging and logging apologists say? Folks, take a good look around. That panicked yellow peep is nothing but a hollow-eyed puff of bones in the polluted backlot of a KFC processing plant. Every dire prediction made two years ago about the kind of president George W. Bush would be -- anti environment, anti-gay, pro-corporate, militaristic, ideologically rigid, unerringly conservative -- have all come to pass.
Far from being a compassionate national uniter, George W. Bush has reverted to a Reaganesque style of social conservatism that panders to the worst fringe rightists in the country. His dismissal of Scott Evertz from the Office of National AIDS Policy, and his pressure on the CDC to advocate abstinence over condom use are only the most obvious examples of a strong absolutist vein.
In the run-up to next month's mid-terms, the White House has downplayed its frustration that hand-picked judicial nominees have hit the Senate's Democratic wall. It's not a lack of commitment, however, but a change in strategy that accounts for this relative calm. Pushing too hard now would make his intentions a political issue. Bush is waiting for election results in November that will give him the free hand he needs to pack the judiciary.
Which is why Phyllis and others like her adore him so.
Bush's nominees to the federal bench have been almost without exception the type she goes positively damp in her cotton tummy tucks over: Miguel Estrada, John Roberts, Terrence Boyle, Dennis Shedd, Priscilla Owen, Deborah Cook, Jeffrey Sutton and Michael McConnell are cut from the same ideological cloth. The only reason they're not wreaking havoc from the bench right now is due to the timely defection of Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont that denied the Republicans their majority in the Senate.
Given these circumstances, the closeness of the coming election in so many key Senate races should scare the hopping good bejumpus out of every Democrat, Independent and McCain moderate in this country, to say nothing of those on good speaking terms with gay civil rights supporters. The time for advocating against the dangers of Republican dominance in the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of government is even more relevant now than it was in 2000.
Our last line of defense against conservative mob rule is the courts, and they know it. "November 5th is our big opportunity to restore our constitutional form of government by electing Senators who will confirm good constitutionalist judges," Schlafly says. Believe her. She means it. And she's far from alone in her thinking.
We'll end by paraphrasing the president with the kind of unbending moral absolutism he and his friends prefer. Think of it as another aspect to the war on terror, only this is the domestic kind that comes from striking out at fellow Americans in the name of (a Fundamentalist Conservative Christian) God.
When you cast your vote this November, you're either with us or against us. -- C. Barillas, Editor
The title of this post is derived from the homosexual "rights" group, ACT-UP. What they mean by their slogan is that since their community is being devastated by the AIDS plague, and although funding for AIDS research is about equal to cancer and heart disease research combined, they are griping because society is not spending ALL the money on research for AIDS.
A better slogan would be: SODOMY = DEATH.
Sodomy results in both spiritual death and physical death. It wasn't silence which brought on their own unneeded suffering. It was their own evil behaviors.
I, for one, am 100% against you.
It is at moments like this that I am inexpressibly grateful that Florida's 25 electoral votes went to George Walker Bush.
Let's call it what it is...not screwing, not having sex, not making love, but plain old disgusting sodomy.
Dear C. Barillas,
I felt it necessary to inform you that the "pursuit of happiness" to which you refer to is actually the aquisition of real property and has nothing whatsoever to do with someone's sexual perversions (or would you rather I say "lifestyle"?) and the "happiness" they may gain from that act (I've heard that anal sex is actually somewhat painful, not that I want to find out mind you, until the "receiver" is "broken in"). This oversight and ignorance of history on your part should be corrected. Maybe you really didn't know.
But, then again, by your choice of sexual choices and actions it's all too apparent that you aren't too bright to begin with. I mean, come on! You don't even know that your anus is for defecation and not sex. How smart can you be?
Phil
P.S. And ya'll are organized too. Thanks for the admission. LOL
God Bless Phyllis Schlafly...a true Conservative as well as a true lady.
Where? Where?! -- LOL!
And this is how they regard the president who appoints Log Cabins to public office and instructs DoJ to start looking into the idea of beginning nationwide registration of firearms. Wonder what this guy would do if a real conservative, someone like Alan Keyes or Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, ever got into the White House?
Yes, I noticed that, too. Looks like he uses Stonewall as his starting point, though, not the publication of After the Ball.
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