The US, still controlled by religious nut-job Repubs and spineless Democrats, failed once again as they dropped equality for gay couples from the proposed immigration bills in the face of Repub threats. So undocumented non-citizens get better treatment under our laws than American citizens who are gay.
American Exceptionalism wins again – Canada laughs.

Why not a fertilizer factory ? It would be less polluting, and pay more taxes.

Just what Tucson needs is 5,000 little Pat Robertsons running around and voting but paying no taxes.

Since our Dobson controlled State Legislature is currently busy passing the Christian Bigotry Protection Act, which allows anyone to ignore non-discrimination laws as long as they claim to be “religious”, Grand Canyon University can discriminate against gays and persecute them with impunity.
Is this the kind of “industry” Tucson wishes to attract ?
Give me copper mine pollution or exploding fertilizer plants any day.

appreciation day. I expected it to be popular in Alabama but not here in Tucson.

The sight of so many of my neighbors gathering to openly express their bigotry

has made me look at Tucson quite differently than I did just a few days ago.

I saw this excellent article by a new Tucson resident that I want to recommend.

A small excerpt:

That line at Chik-Fil-A touched me like a banner of unwelcome, like a vigilante caravan of people who could hardly wait for the opportunity to openly express their belief that I was an enemy to be conquered — someone they longed to see be put back in her place as an anamoly, a threat to society, a pervert, a half-person.

Being Gay in Tucson Hurts

“free speech”.

As long as the speech is anti-gay, of course. Otherwise it’s free speech for me but not for thee, at least at

the Tucson company Vante.

Adam Smith,  Chief Financial Officer at Vante, on his own personal time and with no connection to

his employer, Vante, took it upon himself to video his protest of chick fil a as “hateful” and post

the video to youtube.

Vante issued the statement:

Vante regrets the unfortunate events that transpired yesterday in Tucson between our former CFO/Treasurer Adam Smith and an employee at Chick-fil-A. Effective immediately, Mr. Smith is no longer an employee of our company.

The actions of Mr. Smith do not reflect our corporate values in any manner.

Mr. Smith’s actions were described as “bullying”, but I confess that I can’t find any bullying in his protest.

You can judge for yourself here:

What you think may depend upon the side you are on, but there is no doubt what side Vante is on.

That “free speech” is such a tricky thing, it seems.

Or as Shep Smith suggested, National day of Intolerance.

Where is a more appropriate site for such and event than a chicken joint ?
At the behest of Head Bigot Mike Huckabee, parking lots were jammed, people waited an hour for chicken, and posted their videos on their facebook pages.

You can see your neighbors here, and what they think of you:

http://www.kvoa.com/news/video-chick-fil-a-supporters-plan-appreciation-day/

(Please notice that it is an all white crowd – pity the poor employees).

I suppose it is understandable that if it is “PC” not to be a bigot, bigots feel unable to express themselves – so given the chance to congregate with others of their type and celebrate their bigotry must be a lot of fun for them. They used to do it at Klan barbeques, but now that’s out of favor, so I suppose this will have to do.

They even have self-righteous code speech for their celebration – they are supporting the “free speech” of Chick fil a’s spending millions to support sending gays to jail, not allowing them to teach or marry, and, in Uganda, passing a “Kill the gays” law declaring the death penalty for gays.

Of course they claim it is their religious right to kill the gays, and it is, but that doesn’t make it right, or not an expression of bigotry.

This is the most successful outing of the religious bigots in quite a while, so they are feeling their oats right about now. They have been boycotting Home Depot and JC Penny’s and Target and Disneyland with no success, but this “anti-boycott” is working out well for them.

Maybe the secret is to offer them chicken.

While I share the trepidation of those who are afraid of the corrupting effect of Corporations buying our legislatures and writing our laws, a greater danger to democracy has already taken place with barely an acknowledgement. It is the extent of church involvement in our politics – something which used to be viewed as semi-prohibited in exchange for their exemption from taxation, but which is no longer enforced and indeed seems a lost cause. They are too politically powerful for any politician to dare challenge – and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family passed more legislation in the Arizona legislature last year than any other interest group.

While any effort to tax the churches has always been pooh-poohed in the past, in light of the churches increased political muscularity I can only hope that concerned citizens will reconsider our attitude towards these corrupt organizations that now far exceed the power, influence, and wealth of the Mafia.

How much does the privileging of these businesses cost us?

University of Tampa professor Ryan T. Cragun along with students Stephanie Yeager and Desmond Vega have published a study on the Council for Secular Humanism website:

Research Report: How Secular Humanists (and Everyone Else) Subsidize Religion in the United States

  While some people may be bothered by the fact that there are pastors who live in multimillion dollar homes, this is old news to most. But here is what should bother you about these expensive homes: You are helping to pay for them! You pay for them indirectly, the same way local, state, and federal governments in the United States subsidize religion—to the tune of about $71 billion every year.

The report is excellent and I urge everyone to read it. One it the points it makes clearly is that we have traditionally exempted churches because we considered them to be “charities”, while in fact a very small portion of their activities are truly “charity”.

 Wal-Mart, for instance, gives about $1.75 billion in food aid to charities each year, or twenty-eight times all of the money allotted for charity by the United Methodist Church and almost double what the LDS Church has given in the last twenty-five years.⁵

Running tax-supported businesses like schools and hospitals is not “charity”, nor are bingo games or multi-millon dollar political campaigns

The report makes clear that providing tax exemptions for true charities does, indeed, make sense but churches have abused their status and should be required to separate out for tax exemption those actual charitable parts of their businesses for tax exemption and otherwise be treated the same way that other service or business corporations are under the law – like Disneyland for the fans of Fantasy Land.

Well ok – she hasn’t actually SAID that. What she HAS said is that if Kelly manages to win Tuesday’s election she won’t challenge him in the upcoming primaries for the new seat.

On the other hand if Barber wins, she will run for the Repub nod.

So Repub voters have a chance to undo the mistake they made in choosing an obviously unqualified and apparently somewhat challenged individual to represent their party, and run a decent candidate in November. And if they are too squeamish to actually vote for a Dem, all they need to do is stay home.

You’ll feel better about yourself, and your party, if you do.

These wonderful christians are from the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle in

Indiana.

As a wise man once said:

Herr Pope

Enraged that the Obama administration has not been cowed into submission over its demands to outlaw contraception and abortion and gays – and send more tax free money - the Bishops have gone nuclear.  And GOP. Vote GOP or else.

Personally I don’t think these Mafia Dons have the power to frighten their superstitious flock with visions of hellfire any longer, but even though their followers seem wise enough to ignore the old perverts and happily use condoms and Ortho-novum, somehow they don’t seem able to break the hold over their wallets and they continue to fund the right wing in America.

There is some kind of disconnect that lets them say that they aren’t freaky religious bigots, personally, but still they feel the need to pay so that Father Flanagan can be whisked out of town rapidly and quietly before that lawsuit is filed.

After all the Vatican bank is having a little trouble at the moment, and multi-million dollar anti-gay political campaigns aren’t cheap. They need the contribution of every parishioner.

We can only hope that one day they will wake up – but still if you are afraid of ghosts or hell – this is the video for you: