Today's Tweet

Trans people should start dropping off jars filled with their urine at @PatMcCroryNC's office so his staff can oversee its safe disposal.

— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) May 9, 2016

Dan Savage is the kind of guerrilla activist we haven't seen in too long a time.

Today's Quote

It occurs to me that seeing all those Islamist martyrs blowing themselves up and crashing various modes of transportation into various symbols of Western Colonialism or whatever, Americans are feeling a bit challenged.  

"We own this fuckin' joint and nobody ever out-maniacs America.  USA! USA!"

But we'll do it our own way, thanks and fuck you very much.

From Addicting Info:

Like the equally discriminatory Memories Pizza, in Indiana, which has earned over $800,000 in sympathy donations so far, Stutzman’s own GoFundMe campaign has pulled in nearly $90,000.

According to The Seattle Times, almost half of the money Stutzman has gained so far has been picked up in the last few days, though. It seems her campaign, created back in February, may be getting a fresh insurgence of support on the coattails of the Memories Pizza success.

It’s always interesting to see in the dirty, sell-anything world of capitalism when Jesus and morals win, isn’t it? Yes, you too can hate and get paid!

Stutzman was fined by the Benton County Superior Court last month for refusing service to a same-sex couple two years ago, claiming her Southern Baptist beliefs prohibited her from doing so. She is the owner of Arlene’s Flowers and Gifts.

So what’s the moral of this story, and is it anything remotely “Christian?”

So in light of this "hot new fashion trend" of good Christian entrepreneurs lining up to make a show of their eagerness to become martyrs to the noble cause of TheoCommercialist Bigotry, I tho't Mencken's quote from about 90 years ago might be timely.

“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” --HL Mencken, Chicago Tribune 1926

One of the favorite themes of all three of the Book Religions is the one about being Persecuted For Your Faith.  And it doesn't matter that you're a totally dominant majority of your country's population.  If there's any chance for you to reaffirm one of the big deal tenets of your religion, you jump on it.  It also doesn't matter if you have to make up some shit about your current circumstances to get everything to fit, because religion is all about making shit up to begin with.

I guess I'm a little surprised that anybody - including me - is at all surprised by any of this.

Keith Speaks

Keith makes a great point by stitching the actions of "sports figures" to the politics of their contemporary circumstance.  He says you don't get to separate sports-world events from the political environment in which those sports-world events occur.

Here's my fer-instance:  If racial segregation wasn't political; if figuring out ways to force the realization of the need for change wasn't political, then how is it that Bear Bryant waited for exactly the right time to invite USC and Sam Cunningham to come to Tuscaloosa and kick Bama's all-white SEC ass on national TV?

Ya gotta be a little careful about drawing parallels between (eg) racism and LGBT discrimination, but when we're talking about equal rights, we're supposed to be talking about everybody being afforded the same rights as everybody else.  

Equal. Fucking. Rights.

Go Keith go.  Pretty smart guy.

Handsome Joe

The Veep hits one out - and for a nice change, nobody in the White House is threatening to staple his tongue to his forehead (so far).

Then there's Dan Savage.  This guy is a fucking hero as far as I'm concerned.  I'm not gay - as far as I know - but if I were, I'd be seriously tempted to move to Seattle and see about becoming his number one groupie.

Gay rights activist Dan Savage called Ben Carson out in his syndicated column this week, challenging the prospective GOP presidential candidate to put his money where his mouth was — so to speak — regarding his views on homosexuality.

“If being gay is a choice, prove it,” Savage wrote. “Choose it. Choose to be gay yourself. Show America how that’s done, Ben, show us how a man can choose to be gay. Suck my dick. Name the time and the place and I’ll bring my dick and a camera crew and you can suck me off and win the argument.”

And it's not because of the sexuality thing anyway - he's a hero because he's fierce and competitive and he insists on public people having the balls to be intellectually honest.

I hear it's nice in Seattle tho' - sometimes anyway(?)

Rev Fishsticks Speaks

Because - of course - equal rights for LGBT can only mean "two guys havin' sex".

I'm tellin' ya, these theo-cons always zero in on the sex, and who they can punish for it.

hat tip = Mock Paper Scissors

Eat It, Haters

hat tip = Addicting Info

It Gets Better

Wouldn't it be nice if every LGBT kid knew he could call a cop who actually gets it - and knew that cop was ready to kick ass to stand up for him if it turned out that's what was needed?
(hat tip = Balloon Juice)

Truth Will Out

Clint McCance. Remember that name. Notable for two reasons, I think.
1) he's a complete raging asshole redneck.
2) there's a small probability that he's trying to stop being a complete raging asshole redneck.

It's pretty amazing that he wanted to talk openly on the air about it and that he seems fairly contrite. We can wonder about ulterior motives, and about his true level of sincerity, but the thing that sticks with me is that he comes off as being genuinely conflicted about the whole thing. It's like he read his Facebook comments afterwards and was himself shocked at what a complete raging asshole redneck he actually is.

There's a kicker, too. The guy's Facebook comments were to the effect that if his own kids were gay, he'd run them off. He'd disown them. He'd refuse to allow them near him. During the interview, he says at least twice that he loves his kids, and that they mean the world to him, and he expands that out to say he'd never do anything to hurt anybody's kids. But very near the end, Cooper asks him how he'd react if his own kid turns out to be gay, and the guy equivocates. Watch.