Don’t forget the Repub Clown Parade tonight at 6 PM on CNN

(If you dont have cable it will be streamed live on CNN’s Web site)
The reviews and ratings so far show it to be the most entertaining sort-of-reality TV this year.

It will be moderated by John King, who in his last appearance was attacked (to great applause) by Newt for daring to ask about his open marriage arrangements.
Personally I think Newt should have handled it differently, pointing out that Callista would be the best First Lady having already defeated two opponents in the Primaries.

I think we can safely assume that all of the candidates – except perhaps Ron Paul – will come out firmly opposed to Satan. And probably only Gingrich will imply that Satan and President Obama are one and the same. And everyone will be too polite to mention Planet Kolob.

But what makes the “debates” so entertaining are not the candidates, but the audience, and tonight we are going to have an Arizona Tea Party audience !!!

So far we have been treated to cries of “let him die” for someone without health insurance, Boos for gay soldiers, and wild applause for executing a record number of people.

But I am certain that our Arizonans can top all previous audiences – we are Number One in sheer wingnuttyness.

So pop some popcorn and have a drink everytime little Ricky can’t figure out if he’s running for Pope or National Gynecologist.

And if you’re still sober afterwards, check out Dana Carvey’s Church Lady on Youtube to complete the experience.

GO ARIZONA !!!!!

(No – not talking about SB1070 this time)

Today the 9th Circuit finally issued it’s long awaited decision on Prop 8,
finding it to be unconstitutional.

The vote was 2-1 with the Democrats outvoting the Repubbigots.

“Proposition 8 served no purpose, and had no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California,” the court said.

When I first moved to Arizona the first thing that greeted me was the christian bigot funded ballot proposition that amended the State constitution to discriminate against gays.

Pima County voted against it, but was outvoted statewide in this reddest of states.

What the decision means is still unclear – it will in all probability be stayed and appealed and may apply to Arizona or may be limited to California.

In the long run equality will have to wait for the Supreme Court, as always.

And there it hangs by a thread – the re-election of President Obama.

All of the Repub candidates have, of course, vowed to make the United States the most backwards country in the Western world and write bigotry into the Constitution.

Anyone who actually votes for Mitt or Newt or whatever clown they come up with has no excuse claiming that they don’t know they are voting for hate – it is in plain sight.

In the grand tradition of Arizona Republicans, Rep. Cecil Ash, a Republican from Mesa, is suggesting Arizona needs a holiday for white people.
You can’t make this stuff up.

Quite often now we hear someone explaining that the problem with our political process is “parties”.

If only we had open primaries, if only we didn’t print candidate’s parties on ballots, if only we had “non-partisan” elections …..

This is total nonsense – there is no better way to judge how a candidate will vote than to see the party affiliation next to their name.

These efforts are actually efforts to PREVENT voters from having the information they need to make informed decisions.

Not only can one tell how a candidate will vote based upon their party – you can tell what party they belong to based upon their vote.

Here are a few bills introduced in our state legislature in the last few weeks – I dare anyone NOT to know the party of the lawmakers who introduced them:

Bills to:

• Teach the Bible in public school
• Allow guns on campus
• Prohibit legal medical marijuana users in student housing.
• Define “human life” as starting at “conception” and lecturing pregnant women seeking abortions.
• Require hospitals to report suspected non-documented patients to immigration.

If you can’t guess the party, you aren’t informed enough to vote.

“That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.” – Papyrus (c. 664 BCE – 323 BCE)

What you do not want to happen to you, do not do it yourself either. ” – Sextus the Pythagorean.

Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others.” – Isocrates(436–338 BCE)

“What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others.” – Epictetus

“Zi Gong asked, saying, “Is there one word that may serve as a rule of practice for all one’s life?” The Master said, “Is not RECIPROCITY such a word?” – Confucius

“If people regarded other people’s families in the same way that they regard their own, who then would incite their own family to attack that of another? For one would do for others as one would do for oneself.” – Mozi

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. —Udanavarga 5:18

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12)

“Recognize that your neighbor feels as you do, and keep in mind your own dislikes.” —Sirach 31:15

“That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”
—Talmud, Shabbat 31a

The Golden Rule

Ok, so imagine that one day in high school you discover that you weren’t born in a particular city, but instead had been born in a different city which was located on the other side of a “border”.

How would you like you neighbors to treat you. What would the moral thing to do be ?

Should a Samaritan refuse aid to someone born in another country ?

Does the geography of your birth change the way you should be treated, or treat others?

Or your race ? Or gender?

Some seem to think so – but I’m going with the wisdom of the ages.

Did you know that there was a web site known as Coontube.com ?

Neither did I – thats the sort of thing that you can only learn if you bother to read the Arizona Daily Star comments section.

When I first moved to Tucson I started reading the online AZStar daily, as a way to get to know my new home. Being an online kind of person I naturally always check out the comments by the locals.

I really can’t tell you how low my estimate of Tucson was as a result of this experience – it was like living in Alabama.

At the time Arizona was deciding to amend their Constitution to strip gay citizens of their rights, and the anti-gay hatred was overwhelming.

But consistently the nativism is the overwhelming impression. It doesn’t matter the subject, you can rely on anti-hispanic and anti-”illegal” hate speech.

I’ve since realized that the commenters there are not at all representative of the people of Tucson – but who are they and what do they represent ?

Every election they overwhelmingly predict that evil liberals will be thrown out on their ears and good old fashioned racists and teabaggers will sweep the polls. Every election they are wrong. Obama is a foreign born Muslim Marxist. They want to impeach Sheriff Dupnik for even mentioning that there exists in parts of Tucson hotbeds of hate speech.

Even the mildest story that touches upon race gathers hoots of claims of racism against poor oppressed whites.

To pick a story from today, Leonard Pitts has a mild story decrying the media’s obvious obsession with missing white women.

What does this gather ?

Therein lies the liberal mindset….Going back over 40 years to find some way to criticize…

Quit living in the past. What happened 40+ years ago does not validate this guys lame article today.

Watch any advertisement and it is always the white guy who is the brunt of the joke or made to look the fool. In any advertisement where there are two men, one black the other white, the black man always plays the role of the intelligent one.

it’s as simple ‘black and white’ ain’t that right Mr. Pitts.

Geez, Pitts, if you’ve got a thing for white women, just sign up for eharmony.com and git ‘er done.

The editors of the ADS should never have published this tasteless nonsense. If someone had posted this column in these comments it would have been rightly removed by the ADS.

Pitts has a very simplistic world view:
Black is always right & white is always wrong.

Pitts really hates white people.

“Where the white women at?”

And, of course, the link to coontube.com

William J. (William Jab) Is this how Pitts was raised?

I am writing about this phenomenon, but I don’t understand it or have an answer to it .

I have heard that after the Giffords shooting the U of A was conducting a study of the AZ Star comments – and “civility” in general. I hope it is true and I hope that they publish their findings soon.

Because I really would like to understand this phenomenon. Who are these people ? Are they really our neighbors ?

How much do they represent Tucson, and if they don’t how do they so dominate the public response in Tucson’s single daily newspaper ?

Enlighten me.

Update at end ——

It’s been a typical week I suppose.

First our intrepid TC reporter D Morales posted a video of Arizona’s Superintendent of Education and all round bigoted racist Huppenthall comparing neo-nazis to “known homosexuals” and others who have “engaged in past inappropriate behavior”.

This was such a hit that Equality Arizona is using it in their email fundraising.

I urge everyone to contribute.

Then the Boston Pilot, the oldest Catholic paper in the country (and as such really only suitable for santorum clean up, not reading) published a scientific article explaining the cause of homosexuality.

A gay gene ?  Overbearing mother ?  Early exposure to Tinky Winky ? God created Adam and Steve ?

Nope.

The demons are doing it.

Devils are prowling around our pregnant women and when they find a vulnerable one are turning the foetus gay.

Now it turns out that the author Daniel Avila is not himself a theologian. He is a lawyer and the Church’s hired gun in their legal efforts to persecute gays, and as such spoke outside of his area of expertise (attacking gay people legally, not theologically).

So they have issued a “Retraction/Apology”

I think the Church really missed an opportunity here.

Just think, they could have started a small cottage industry of sprinkling holy water on pregnant women’s bellies (for a small donation of course).
Maybe even bless a cracker and superglue it to their belly buttons ( for a small contribution).

That would keep those pesky demons away.

Finally, out of fear that some might think our national motto was “E Pluribus Unum” our Congress passed a non-binding resolution stating that it is in fact “In God We Trust”.

Because that “everyone is welcome” idea is so 1940s.

It’s enough to make a gay atheist want to go invade some heathen country and bring them the benefits of freedom and Democracy.

In other words – a typical week.

UPDATE

Idiot Avila has resigned

Marriage adviser resigns over Satan-homosexuality column

Hooray !!!!! The forces of Darkness shall not prevail etc

I finally have my own blog on Tucson Citizen where I can rain my jeremiads down upon the unwashed of Arizona.

I have no area of expertise or nuggets of wisdom to share I’m afraid – my basic subject is what I have observed since my arrival here :  that Arizona – or at least the State Legislature – seems to have adopted Alabama as a role model and wants to re-make the State in its image.

I’ve seen Alabama, and it isn’t pretty.

Why anyone would adopt a state whose motto is “At least we are still better than Mississippi” as a role model is beyond me.

There are so many better models, like Vermont or Massachusetts where people live in relative peace and harmony and security.

(and have health insurance).

I hope to acquit myself as well as I did on my famous appearance on the O’Reilly show which can be viewed here :

(H/T Southpark Studios)

And I suppose I should introduce myself with a general statement of my beliefs:

We are our own worst enemies.

The human race has the brainpower and technological and economic resources to make a world where every man woman and child – all 7 billion of us –  is well fed and housed and living in peace.

Unfortunately we didn’t evolve in such a large and connected world – we evolved living in small family groups and tribes where we learned to be supportive of our tribe and hostile and resentful of any competing tribe.

So we spend our political capital resenting others who we are afraid might be getting a larger slice of the pie than ourselves. We spend our wealth on bombs and aircraft carriers and border fences. The same upstanding brave young man who loves his children and is good to his neighbors considers it an honor to fly to foreign lands and kill women and children who speak a different language or have different colored skin.

I am an optimist, though. Progress is slow but it IS happening. When I was young the possibility that we would actually nuke ourselves to smithereens was quite high – but cooler heads have prevailed and that outcome seems less likely all the time.

Such change to the human psyche takes time, but I think it is slowly happening and someday – a few generations from now – that world where we all live in peace is possible.