They are trying to break this agency in order to turn the public against it, so they can privatize it, liquidate it, and steal at least a portion or all of the 2.7 trillion that’s in the trust fund.
--Martin O'Malley, former Commisioner of the Social Security Administration
Deadline White House:
Morning Joe:
Just wait till Ma and Pa in Hooterville, or Houston, stop getting their monthly checks and have to pay the doctor in cash. If this horrific news doesn't provoke a spontaneous MAGA uprising against the Tyrant, I don't know what will.
And what's happening with all your personal records in the federal files? Who's got all the private, personal information about you now, and what will they do with it?
Not to mention that the Tyrant and his filthy-rich hitman are doing their damnedest to crash the whole American economy. It won't hurt them a bit; and they don't give a damn who suffers from their orgy of destruction. I'm afraid it's going to be a long, dark night ahead, fellas. Buckle up and hang on.
What did I tell you just yesterday about the REIGN OF TRUMP? What more proof do you want? And just what will the Republicans have to say about this? Just wait and see how they twist and turn, hem and haw, and try to laugh it off. THEY HAVE NO BALLS.
But of course, that's just what they want: an all-powerful king to completely remake American government and society, sweeping away all opposition. And that's what a majority voted for, too. Oh, what weeping and wailing there will be when their fantasy turns into nightmare.
So stop trying to figure out the whys and wherefores of shithead's pronouncements: there's only one purpose to it all, and you see it in the picture above. He wants to be the Emperor of America, from the North Pole to the Equator. Meanwhile enriching his billionaire buddies beyond the dreams of avarice, to use an antique phrase, and getting endless praise for himself from millions of adoring fanatics or slaves. (Just like the dick daddy dictators he admires so much - they are the father figures whose approval he desperately craves.)
THAT is his one and only ambition - limitless power and worship to fill the gaping hole where his soul ought to be. And the gutless wonders in Congress are lapping it all up. No one else in all of American history would have lasted five minutes in office if they put out something like the image above. No one else in American history would have dared even to think of it. But here we are.
Fasten your seat belts, boys - it's going to be a bumpy ride.
Excerpt from a read-worthy essay by historian and Pulitzer-prize-winning author Garry Wills - a Catholic but also a longtime critic of Vatican policies - in the New York Review of Books:
By a revolting combination of con men and fanatics, the current primary race has become a demonstration that the Republican party does not deserve serious consideration for public office. Take the controversy over contraceptives. American bishops at first opposed having hospitals and schools connected with them pay employee health costs for contraceptives. But when the President backed off from that requirement, saying insurance companies can pay the costs, the bishops doubled down and said no one should have to pay for anything so evil as contraception. Some Republicans are using the bishops’ stupidity to hurt the supposed “moderate” candidate Mitt Romney, giving a temporary leg up to the faux naïf Rick Santorum; others are attacking Barack Obama as an “enemy of religion.”
Pusillanimous Catholics—Mark Shields and even, to a degree, the admirable E. J. Dionne—are saying that Catholics understandably resent an attack on “their” doctrine (even though they do not personally believe in it). Omnidirectional bad-faith arguments have clustered around what is falsely presented as a defense of “faith.” The layers of ignorance are equaled only by the willingness of people “of all faiths” to use them for their own purposes. Consider just some of the layers:
The bishops’ opposition to contraception is not an argument for a “conscience exemption.” It is a way of imposing Catholic requirements on non-Catholics. This is religious dictatorship, not religious freedom.
Contraception is not even a religious matter. Nowhere in Scripture or the Creed is it forbidden. Catholic authorities themselves say it is a matter of “natural law,” over which natural reason is the arbiter—and natural reason, even for Catholics, has long rejected the idea that contraception is evil. More of that later; what matters here is that contraception is legal, ordinary, and accepted even by most Catholics. To say that others must accept what Catholics themselves do not is bad enough. To say that President Obama is “trying to destroy the Catholic Church” if he does not accept it is much, much worse.
To disagree with Catholic bishops is called “disrespectful,” an offense against religious freedom. That is why there is a kind of taboo against bringing up Romney’s Mormonism. But if Romney sincerely believed in polygamy on religious grounds, as his grandfather did, he would not even be considered for the presidency—any more than a sincere Christian Scientist, who rejects the use of medicine, would be voted for to handle public health care. Yet a man who believes that contraception is evil is an aberrant from the American norm, like the polygamist or the faith healer. . . .
Do go read the rest of this well-reasoned essay, and the comments section as well.
What I Say: The Republican Party, as currently constituted, is wholly unfit to govern. No further elaboration is necessary on this point, which is self-evident to any reasonable being.
And another thing: I don't care how many Bibles or bulls or birettas they pile up to support it, the Catholic teaching that contraception is evil is simply bizarre - as crazy as anything that, say, Scientology might teach, and is an evil lie. The Catholic Church, to speak in the most broad and general terms, has a much greater comprehension of history and human society than perhaps a small-town Baptist church out here on the prairie - but even so, as the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles state, "the Church of Rome hath erred . . ." and egregiously so in this matter so very necessary to the happiness of individuals and the wellbeing of society.
It's just damn wrong, and anyone who says otherwise is either a religious fanatic or a simpleton. It is nearly beyond belief that we are even having this debate now, in the 21st century - and yet, history offers ample proof that the wickedness and folly of the human race are inexhaustible.
It's in this context that you have to understand the recent cruel withholding of communion to a lesbian daughter at her mother's funeral, or the abrupt firing of a gifted music teacher because he sought to marry the man he loves. As modern society shifts, and as its own flock shifts with it, the Church hierarchy has decided to double-down on its sexual absolutism. The cruelty comes with it.
This big-mouthed motherfucker - the one on the left, I mean - is Clint McCance, a sitting member of the Midland School Board in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas (about 80 miles northeast of Little Rock).
Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE.
No because being a fag doesn’t give you the right to ruin the rest of our lives. It you get easily offended by being caleld a fag then don’t tell anyone you are a fag. Keep that shit to yourself. I don’t care how people decide to live their lives. They don’t bother me if they keep it thereselves. It pisses me off though that we make special purple fag day for them. I like that fags can’t procreate. I also enjoy the fact that they often give each other AIDS and die. If you aren’t against it, you might as well be for it.
I would disown my kids if they were gay. They will not be welcome at my home or in my vicinity. I will absolutely run them off. Of course my kids will know better. My kids will have solid christian beliefs. See it infect everyone.
Human Rights Campaign has posted a PDF of the Facebook page here. HRC's Joe Solmonese says:
Clint McCance has put a face on the hate that devastates our young people. McCance and his hate shouldn’t be allowed near children, let alone managing their education. We call for his immediate resignation from the school board.
A Facebook page called "Fire Clint McCance" has been set up here.
Queerty has published the name of the bigot's business and says:
Without question, this man must lose his board seat. It is not a matter of his First Amendment rights. Let this guy spew all the bile he wants on his own free time (and Facebook page). It is the matter of what's in the best interest of children — and it is certainly not a man who thinks gay youth should kill themselves. This man just wrote himself into history as a human stain.
It's not clear if McCance has taken down the thread, since his Facebook page is private — the messages were made available to The Advocate via a forwarded screen capture. The superintendent of the Midland school district was unavailable and a phone call to the principal of the Midland High School was not returned. There was no response to e-mails to the superintendent and to the secretary of the Midland school board.
It looks like the Midland School Districthas wiped the names of its board members from its website, but Midland Superintendent Dean Stanley can be reached at dstanley@midlandschools.org. Be polite, yet forceful.
What I Say: Oh no. We are not going to take this lying down. It's 2010 and it's a new day, boys - we are not going to let an elected official get away with this filthy talk and still keep his job. In backwoods Arkansas or anywhere else. Oh no.
Oh hell no.
Update: Wayne Besen over at Truth Wins Out has dug up this very revealing photo of Clint - apparently posted by Clint himself at this site - presented as a public service by your Head Trucker:
Clint is the one with his, um, finger poking through his pants.
Discuss.
Update 2: Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times, is interviewed by openly gay newsman Thomas Roberts of MSNBC:
Read Brantley's report of his conversation with McCance here.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
.
We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
and welcome to the Blue Truck, a blog for mature gay men with news and views on gay rights, history, art, humor, and whatever comes to mind. Plus a few hot men. The truck's all washed and gassed up, so hop in buddy, let's go.
CAUTION: For mature gay men only beyond this point. Some posts and links may not be suitable for children or the unco guid. You have been warned.
Insert valid picture ID with date of birth now, or click here.
My Story
click photograph to read
Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?
It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.
