Meet Dick and Prick

Welcome to Texas. Allow me to introduce two of the most prominent members of our state government:

     

Governor DICK

Attorney General PRICK

 

These cruel, arrogant bigots with a long history of anti-gay activity are now persecuting transgender kids and their parents in Texas, threatening them with jail and fines for "child abuse" for supporting their child's medically supervised gender reassignment.  Read all about it in this post over at Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters:

ACLU, Lambda Legal steps in with lawsuit for family feeling the brunt of Texas investigation of trans children and their parents

A state district judge placed a temporary hold on the investigation of one family yesterday, which Prick is trying to get overturned.  Read more at the Texas Tribune, a non-profit investigative website:

Attorney General Ken Paxton appeals restraining order that blocked state agency from investigating trans teen’s family

Students at one state unversity held a protest of the anti-trans order today; I hope there will be more protests against this unconscionable and unconstitutional invasion of privacy statewide.  I can't believe any higher-level court, state or federal, will let it stand.  As I understand it, this persecution is not even based on a state law, just Prick's legal opinion, which is not legally binding.  I'd like to tell him where to stuff it.

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Darkness in Dixie

Click to enlarge.

Long-time readers of this blog will know that your Head Trucker is a Southerner through and through - a modern Southerner, that is, with an education, and respect for the dignity of every human being.  I do not, however, take those sublime words of the Prayer Book to mean that one should indulge every folly or countenance outright wickedness:  rather, I believe they mean that sometimes one should oppose such things with unflinching vigor, wherever they are found.

There is much to love about the South - a green and pleasant land blessed, for the most part, with a warm and sunny climate, lush with trees and verdant fields, and every sort of vegetation.  The camellias were blooming a month ago down here - now the azaleas are shining out, and will very soon be followed by redbuds, dogwood, wisteria, mimosas, magnolias, crepe myrtles, roses, and every other lovely jewel of nature, while our friends in the frozen North are still bundling about in heavy coats and keeping their snow shovels at the ready.  A pity, that.

We also enjoy our somewhat slower pace of life, which affords us time to say hello and please and thank you to complete strangers, and time to savor the pleasures of a well-set table, laden with all the delicacies and delights of Southern cookery, than which there is no finer.  You must admit, we do some things very well indeed:  a region that has given the world fried chicken, barbecue, Coca-Cola, and rock 'n' roll can't be all bad, can it?  The past is prologue, to be sure, but the present is given us to improve upon it.

We Southerners sometimes like to exaggerate our Southerness for effect, if only because it makes the snooty, self-righteous Yankees cringe.  We may have our flaws, it's true - but y'all have yours, too, which you conveniently ignore when you stereotype us all as ignorant hicks, as you do incessantly in public and in private.  Come on now, you know you do.  I've heard you when you thought nobody was listening.  But the truth is, there are backwaters of place and thought in all parts of the country, North and South, city and country, where the light of reason shines but dimly through the miasma of bigotry and backwardness, and no section has a monopoly on righteousness.

But I take it all in sport, and try always to keep in mind that no matter where we happened to be born, luckily or not, we are Americans all, and brothers under the skin - equal heirs to the ringing words of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," with which a certain Southerner astonished the world many long years ago, a promise which still resounds in the hearts of free peoples around the world, and those who yearn to be free.

And the South has grown up and moved on from the days of legal segregation, which was still very much in force in my childhood, as I remember vividly.  Until recent years, I thought we had gotten past all that, learning to live and let live.  But of course the progress of the human race is never in a completely straight, smooth line, but proceeds by fits and starts, now inclining a little this way, then a little that way, and sometimes a step or two backwards before finally advancing upwards.

Your Head Trucker is a great believer in the via media, the middle way, avoiding the unwholesome extremes of the right or the left.  Not only are they perilous, but it is certain that any extreme tendency in one direction will provoke an equal and opposite reaction in the other direction.  In the very recent past, and up to the present moment, we Americans have seen this principle very clearly displayed in politics and society, in ways too obvious to need explanation.

There is also a deeply embedded tendency in our human nature that seeks a scapegoat for every ill - something or better yet someone to blame when things do not go the way we would like - anyone will do, in fact, as long as it is not us!  This lamentable facet of human nature - a leftover from an early stage of child development - can be eradicated by education, empathy, and most of all, a close, unflinching examination of one's own soul.

Perhaps this is why them ol' Greek boys, pretty smart fellas, inscribed as the first principle of wisdom on the temple of Apollo - the god of wisdom - the admonition, "Know Thyself."

The second was, "Moderation in All Things."  How much suffering and sorrow the human race would have avoided down through the centuries if only these two golden maxims had been heeded!

And still, in the dark regions of the earth, and worse yet, in the dark corners of the mind, do fear and ignorance, in their perpetual infernal coupling, breed hatred, violence, and misery, a poisonous brew that can even conjure up ghastly shades from the nether regions of the past.

My readers will have no doubt already heard of the egregious outpourings of one sick, sad, twisted old man, the 80-year-old editor of a newspaper in tiny (pop. 2,000) Linden, Alabama, near Demopolis, about a hundred miles west of Montgomery.  This sorry specimen of benighted humanity, who obviously has outlived his purpose for being on this earth, in a fit of venomous spite, utter ignorance of history, and contempt for all morality, has actually called in print for the revival of lynching and murder that left such a dark stain on the pages of Southern history.

I will not give him the dignity of even mentioning his name here.  I say only that as a Southerner born and bred - the scion of a long line of Southerners stretching back to the early days of this country - I condemn him and his filthy words absolutely.  There is no place in the South, or in America, for that kind of hatred and incitement to violence - and in my view, there should be no defense for it under the principles of free speech or freedom of the press.  Liberty is not license.

I don't know anyone who would countenance his vile thoughts, and I do not for a moment believe that my parents, grandparents, or any other of my kin, if they were still living, would do so, either.  Decent people never have.  And never should.

That revoltingly ignorant hick should retire forthwith from publishing, and his paper close its doors.  I can only hope an outraged citizenry, even in the depths of Alabama, will see to that, by legal and peaceful means.


Update, 7:30 p.m.:   It seems most Linden residents have already stopped reading the local rag, according to this New York Times story.

Dishonored in Death

From the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger:

Picayune Funeral Home, in Picayune, is accused of refusing to cremate the remains of Robert "Bob" Huskey after learning he was married to a man at the time of his death, according to attorney Beth Littrell with Lambda Legal, a New York-based organization working for the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV/AIDS.

"After 52 years together and after having made pre-arrangements to ensure what was already a sad and tragic day would be as easy as possible, they were told that the funeral home was unwilling to honor their agreement and, as a result, their already sad day become immeasurably worse," Littrell said.

The little town of Picayune (pronounced picky-OON) is about 50 miles northeast of New Orleans.

Who Would Jesus Tow?

The Good Samaritan, Eugene Delacroix, 1849.

From the Washington Post:

Ken Shupe responded to a woman who was stranded on an interstate in North Carolina on Monday. Shupe is a tow truck driver; the woman had been involved in a wreck, according to reports.

But when Shupe arrived, he noticed something about the woman's car — specifically, he noticed that the woman was a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, according to Fox Carolina. . .

"When he saw 'a bunch of Bernie Sanders stuff' he said he told the woman, 'very politely,' " that he could not "tow her car because she was 'obviously a socialist' and advised her to 'call the government' for a tow." . . .

"Something came over me, I think the Lord came to me, and he just said get in the truck and leave," Shupe told an ABC affiliate. "And when I got in my truck, you know, I was so proud, because I felt like I finally drew a line in the sand and stood up for what I believed."

According to Fox Carolina, Shupe identified himself as a conservative Christian who supports Donald Trump.

You Disgusting Homo

Photo:  the Gaily Grind.

The President of Uganda doesn't like you one little bit, you dirty queer, because he has proof from Uganda's top scientists that you weren't born gay - you just choose to be a nasty faggot.  He says so in an interview with CNN's Zain Verjee (watch the whole interview at the link):

After signing the bill that made some homosexual acts punishable by life in prison, Museveni told CNN's Zain Verjee that, in his view, being homosexual is "unnatural" and not a human right.

"They're disgusting. What sort of people are they?" he said. "I never knew what they were doing. I've been told recently that what they do is terrible. Disgusting. But I was ready to ignore that if there was proof that that's how he is born, abnormal. But now the proof is not there."

Museveni had commissioned a group of Ugandan government scientists to study whether homosexuality is "learned," concluding that it is a matter of choice.

"I was regarding it as an inborn problem," he said. "Genetic distortion -- that was my argument. But now our scientists have knocked this one out."

Yesterday, President Museveni signed into law the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014, which means life in prison for homosex, or even getting married to a person of the same sex. So can anyone found to be "promoting" homosexuality in any way.  Ugandans living abroad can also be extradited home for punishment for any offense named in the law. The bill originally specified the death sentence, but the penalty was reduced to life imprisonment in the final version.

Ugandan newspaper front page from 2010; gay activist David Kato was subsequently beaten to death in his home.

The Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper today printed a list of 200 homosexuals. When signing the law, Museveni told the assembled crowd: "One of the cultures that we detest is oral sex. The mouth is for picking food, not for sex. We know the address for sex. That address [the mouth] is not for sex. It is not healthy." 

A similar bill was enacted in Nigeria last month, where judges have sentenced offenders in the Muslim northern part of the country to be whipped, while crowds have rioted in the streets protesting such judicial leniency, and threatened to burn down the courthouse - the frenzied crowds want to exercise their god-given right to stone the devilish homos to death, as prescribed by sharia law.

Thus begins a new Holocaust, which is largely due to the work of American evangelists like Scott Lively, who have spread their message of hate and murder to Uganda, Nigeria, Russia, and other parts of the world. Lively is currently facing a charge of crimes against humanity, but your Head Trucker doesn't think it will stick.

Here's the text of the bill. Read it. Keep our Ugandan brothers and and sisters in your thoughts and prayers, and never forget that this is exactly what the Christianists would do to us right here in the USA - if only they could.

Official trailer for the 2013 documentary God Loves Uganda, detailing the extensive antigay influence of American evangelicals:



New York Times op-doc, The Gospel of Intolerance, using footage from God Loves Uganda:

Anderson Cooper Exposes Pat Robertson

Earlier this week, televangelist and granddaddy-of-all-homophobes Pat Robertson said on his TV show that teh evil gays wear special rings that will cut your finger when you shake hands with them, giving you AIDS - which of course is murder. The clip was on YouTube, but Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network had it yanked after a furor arose over his shitheaded comments.

But now the essential part of the clip - and some other choice moments of fatuous bigotry - have been preserved forever in this edition of Cooper's Ridiculist:





Jonathan Capehart, columnist for the Washington Post, says it's time for real Christians to speak out against this kind of homophobia and tell Robertson and his ilk to "stuff it":

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Christianists Boo Gay Marine Vet Eric Alva

I am so fucking tired of these ignorant, self-righteous creeps who spew their hate and bigotry in the name of God.  From the Dallas Voice:

Anti-gay protesters reportedly booed a gay Marine veteran who lost his leg in the Iraq War while he was speaking in favor of a nondiscrimination ordinance at a San Antonio City Council meeting on Wednesday night. At a prayer vigil outside City Hall before the meeting, about 300 people protested the proposed addition to San Antonio’s nondiscrimination law that would add protections for sexual orientation, gender identity and veteran status.

“Let them vote ‘no’ to this ordinance, and ‘yes’ to the reign of the kingdom of God,” Pastor Charles Flowers said at the rally. About 200 people signed up to speak at the City Council meeting for and against the ordinance. Alva, a Marine staff sergeant who became the first U.S. soldier injured in Iraq when he stepped on a landmine, was booed by the crowd when he spoke in favor of the ordinance. Alva lives in San Antonio.

“To all you people that preach the word of God, shame on you because God loves me, like the day I laid bleeding on the sands of Iraq and that’s why he saved me,” Alva said before he left the podium.

Alva wrote on his Facebook page later: “Well I just left city council chambers and I feel like crying. I have never seen a city so divided and hateful towards each other. All of man kind should be ashamed. I already spoke and even some of the religious groups even boo’ed me as I spoke. Such disrespect as they preach the word of God.”

The City Council is expected to vote on the ordinance on Sept. 5. A Change.org petition calls on San Antonio city council members to support the ordinance.

Below, Alva talks about losing his leg and coming out, on an episode of the Chris Matthews show in 2010:




Update, 6:15 p.m.: From Gawker via Joe.My.God., San Antonio city councilwoman Elisa Chan and her staffers caught on tape in a major homophobic rant, equating the "disgusting" gays to bestiality, incest, pedophilia, etc., etc. I listened to just the first two minutes, that was enough.

Are People Who Oppose Gay Marriage Bigots?

John Corvino is chair of the Philosophy Department at Wayne State University in Detroit: