TURTLE THOUGHTS

But Would the Space Pope Approve?

The Earth-bound Roman Catholic Church is looking to expand beyond planetary borders. You know, just in case. I hope they thought to get permission from the Space Pope first.

Tennessee State Representative Still a Moron

State Representative Stacey Campfield of Tennessee is one odd dude. Not only has he introduced legislation to grant a death certificate to each abortion granted in Tennessee, he's also been under scrutiny for being an alleged slum lord and falsely claiming that a political rival had been arrested several times for drugs. But you get a better sense of what kind of buffoon the guy is when you realize the fear-mongerer has never successfully passed a piece of legislation.

 
Now there's word that Campfield was escorted by security out of the stadium on October 31st when the University of Tennessee hosted South Carolina in Knoxville. Despite the 'no masks' rule enforced at the football stadium on that Halloween day, the State Representative--who is now running for a State Senate seat---argued with security officers who asked him to remove his luchador (or Mexican wrestler's mask...no word on why he chose this outfit.) Campfield complied by taking off the mask, but he continued to give the officers a hard time. When they asked to see his ticket, it turned out he wasn't even seated where he was supposed to be. His ticket was for section LL, but he'd been sitting in section B. So he was invited to take his luchador and go home.

Happy Birthday, Big Bird

What do you give a 40-year old muppet for his birthday?  It doesn't matter, he won't enjoy anything until he gets that strange forearm removed from his innards. I grew up on Sesame Street...well, watching Sesame Street anyway. And I'm glad it's still going. I'm so old I remember Mr. Hooper.

Even though the characters are rather mellow now, it's important to remember they started out on the mean streets of the city, so they used to be a bit raw.

This is still my favorite Sesame Street-related cartoon:

 

Marriage Equality Voted Down in Maine

I wish this weren't a surprise. My only consolation is knowing beyond any doubt that those opposed to my right to marry my partner of 17 years are on the wrong side of history. Shame on them. Shame on anyone who denies that marriage is a civil institution that should be available to all Americans.  Religious-based opinions...or opinions based on irrational hatred, ignorance, or fear...should not trump equal treatment under the law for all Americans. This is not a religious argument, it's an equality argument, an AMERICAN argument.    

  And how long can we morally justify putting other people's civil rights to a vote?

Putting Civil Rights to a Vote

Tomorrow the citizens of the state of Maine will go to the polls to exercise their god-given right to vote on their fellow citizens' civil rights. They'll decide whether gays and lesbians can have the same rights as heterosexuals to marry the person they love.

The vote is expected to go the way such votes have gone in the past. It was a great day, for instance, when Americans voted to legalize marriage between blacks and whites. I'm thinking that strong majorities of people, especially in the Deep South, must have been really glad to grant that right.

And when everybody got a chance to vote on school desegration? That was cool too. Big majorities of people, especially in my home state of Mississippi, were very supportive of that. They had to be, or it wouldn't have passed, right? ...Right?

Naw, it didn't happen that way at all. It was courts who stepped in to protect the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority in those cases. Why weren't all those things put to a popular vote? Isn't that the American Way? No, it's not. And it shouldn't be.

Patrick Kennedy: An American Catholic, Not a Catholic American

       

Two Roman Catholic bishops are calling for Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) to apologize for daring to criticize the Church for opposing health care reform. 

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, of the archdiocese of New York, and Bishop Thomas Tobin, who is Kennedy's bishop, called on the Catholic lawmaker's criticism of the church's opposition to healthcare reform, citing concerns over whether the bill would allow funding for abortions.

"I can’t understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time, where the very dignity of the human person is being respected by the fact that we’re caring and giving health care to the human person," Kennedy said in an interview with the Catholic News Service.

"I thought they were prolife?" Kennedy added. "If the church is prolife, then they ought to be for health care reform, because it’s going to provide health care that are going to keep people alive."

Tobin demanded an apology, calling Kennedy's statement "irresponsible and ignorant of the facts" in a statement last week. Dolan, who occupies one of the most prominent and influential positions in the U.S. Catholic church, followed suit this week.

"His remarks were sad, uncalled-for, and inaccurate," Dolan wrote on his blog. "The Catholic community in the United States hardly needs to be lectured to about just healthcare."

"All we ask is that it be just that -- universal -- meaning that it includes the helpless baby in the womb, the immigrant, and grandma in a hospice, and that it protects a healthcare provider’s right to follow his/her own conscience," Dolan added. "This is what the President says he wants; this is what we bishops say we want."

The important thing to remember here is that Patrick Kennedy is an American first and a Catholic second. That means he's a REAL American, which is the least we can expect from elected Members of the United States House of Representatives.

Patrick Kennedy was not elected to represent Catholics, he was elected by a majority of the voters in his district to represent all the people of Rhode Island. Those people need affordable, decent healthcare, and they don't all share the Catholic Church's belief that having an abortion is a mortal sin. If the Church can force a politician to thwart the will of the people in order to meet an arbitrary set of faith-based beliefs, then that politician isn't fit for office.

If the Catholic Church forces its will on elected officials, then what's to stop Scientologists, Islamic fundamentalists, Christian fundamentalists, Moonies, and every other radical religious group from trying to do the same thing? That may sound preposterous now, but who knows what the cultural and religious landscape will look like in 40 or 50 years? We cannot allow a precedent of letting a particular religious group guide American policy. By definition, that is un-American.

Patrick Kennedy, just like his late father, is a patriot. That means he's not going to allow a narrow set of religious beliefs to dictate his decisions--he's going to abide by the US Constitution and thereby represent all of his constituents. The United States of America is not a theocracy. At least not yet, and we have elected leaders like Patrick Kennedy to thank for it.

 

Haggis Quits Scientology Cult

Academy Award winning screenwriter and director Paul Haggis is making a very public break with the Church of Scientology because of the cult's bigotry and homophobia. Haggis is the first person in more than half a century to win back-to-back Oscars for screenwriting (for "Million Dollar Baby" and "Crash", the latter of which he also directed.)

Haggis said he was forced to speak out against the Church of Scientology because of its refusal to publicly condemn its San Diego branch for homophobic statements it made during last year's Prop 8 campaign to take away the rights of some Californians to marry. In a detailed letter dated August 19, 2009 to Co$ spokesman Tommy Davis, Haggis wrote:

"I called and wrote and implored you, as the official spokesman of the church, to condemn their actions. You promised action. Ten months passed. No action."

He added: "The church's refusal to denounce the actions of these bigots, hypocrites and homophobes is cowardly. I can think of no other word. Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent ... I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology."

A spokesman for Haggis says the letter was meant to be private. Despite that, it got out and has been circulating on the web for weeks.

The last few days have been a difficult time for Tommy Davis. Last Friday he stormed off the set of "Nightline" when questions about the kooky cult started to get under his skin.

The Scientology spokesman was irked when interviewer Martin Bashir asked: "Do you believe that a galactic emperor called Xenu brought his people to earth 75 million years ago and buried them in volcanoes?"

Davis immediately bristled to hear Bashir make reference to part of a Scientology scripture derived from the writings of church founder L. Ron Hubbard. The church has reportedly attempted to keep the Xenu story secret from a non-Scientologist public, fearful it will serve to discredit the religion.

"OK, Martin, I am not going to discuss the disgusting perversions of Scientology beliefs that can be found commonly on the Internet and be put in the position of talking about things that are so fundamentally offensive to Scientologists a that's all," he said.

Bashir persisted, and Davis stormed out.

Wake up, dumb celebutards. Don't do like Haggis and wait 35 years before you realize what a sham this Scientology cult is.

Suzanne Somers Still A Dingbat

Fresh off her remark that it was chemotherapy, not cancer, that killed actor Patrick Swayze back in September, celebutard Suzanne Somers is hawking a book hyping 'alternative' cures for cancer. Dr. Somers, best known for her role as Chrissy the Dingbat on Three's Company, is proving again that God took the wrong castmate when he snatched John Ritter away six years ago. (And it's not like He didn't have other options.)

Fortunately, not everybody's buying Somers' latest load of horse droppings.

     

Suzanne Somers, M.D.

Calling Anglican Haters. Have I Got a Church for You!

The Roman Catholic Church has a problem. Hardly anybody wants to become a priest anymore. Well, hardly anybody who is a celibate-minded penised-person, that is. That's why the Vatican is now slumming by inviting into the fold all the Anglicans (aka Episcopalians in the U.S.) who are mad because their current church doesn't hate enough. All those Anglican women priests and gay priests (and gay women priests!) are scary and wrong, so the RCC is hoping to capitalize on that irrational fear by converting angry and disillusioned Anglicans. And get this: If you're a married Anglican priest, you're still welcome and so's the little lady! So you now have two separate classes of priests, the married and the unmarried. Separate but equal. There's no way you can go wrong with that.

 

Feds Will No Longer Interfere When States Allow Medicinal Pot

 
The Obama administration is letting states that have legalized medicinal marijuana continue the practice without fear of federal interference.

"The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws," according to new policy guidelines to be sent Monday to federal prosecutors, the AP reports.

"Prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws. The policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes."

"Fourteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. ... A three-page memo spelling out the policy is expected to be sent today to federal prosecutors in the 14 states and to top officials at the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration. ... The government will still prosecute those who use medical marijuana as a cover for other illegal activity, the officials said."

I disagree with Obama on some key issues, but I'm with him on this. The feds have plenty to do already without wasting resources arresting seriously ill people who smoke pot to simply combat pain or allow them to eat without becoming sick. Having a rational president is a nice change.

  

Louisiana Official Refuses to Grant Marriage License to Interracial Couple

I wished this kind of news surprised me, but it really doesn't. A Justice of the Peace in Louisiana has refused to grant a marriage license to an interracial couple. Terence McKay, who's black, and Beth Humphrey, who's white, ended up getting married by another JP.

Meanwhile, Keith Bardwell, the elected official who refused to give the couple a marriage license, says he's not racist. No, he's just worried about the children. Get that?   Not granting them a license is for their own good. Bardwell doesn't believe it's right, so he's not upholding his duty as an elected official. His personal and religious beliefs trump the American rule of law. As an individual he can be as stupid and racist as he wants, but as an elected official of Tangipahoa Parish, he must treat all citizens equally and fairly. Since he won't, he should lose his job.

....and on a related note:

We Ignore Radical Christian Fundamentalist Hatred At Our Peril

I've posted about Frank Schaeffer in the past, but this new interview of the former Christian Evangelical leader by Raw Story is still worth a look. Schaeffer says he feels like the canary in the coal mine when it comes to warning America at-large about the dangers posed by radicalized Christian fundamentalists who have taken their persecution complex and irrational fear of The Other to a new level since Barack Obama was elected president.

The bestselling status of the Left Behind novels proves that, not unlike Islamist terrorists who behead their enemies, many evangelical/ fundamentalist readers relish the prospect of God doing lots of messy killing for them as they watch in comfort from on high.

They want revenge on all people not like them -- forever. Knowingly or unknowingly, Jenkins and LaHaye cashed in on years of evangelical/fundamentalists’ imagined victimhood. I say imagined, because the born-agains had one of their very own, George W. Bush, in the White House for eight long, ruinous years and also dominated American politics for the better part of thirty years before that.

Nevertheless, their sense of being a victimized minority is still very real -- and very marketable. Whether they were winning politically or not, they nurtured a mythology of persecution by the "other." Evangelical/fundamentalists believed that even though they were winning, somehow they had actually lost.

Click over to read the entire interview. It's worth your time.