Commentary
Sh*t Homophobic People Say: no spoofing necessary, 100% real commentary by antigay public figures. Some, many, masquerading as Christians.
Lambda Legal fights for the rights of LGBT people and people with HIV.
Wow.
On the Liberal Front
- Category Archives Ethics
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Dogs Against Romney: Mitt Really Really Abused the Family Dog Seamus
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Mitt Romney tied his dog Seamus to the roof of a car for a family vacation.
The dog got sick.
Romney hosed down the dog and went on.
Abuse? You bet.
In response to a query on this Chris Wallace at Fox News, Romney says, "This is a completely air-tight kennel on the top of our car."
If the kennel was "air-tight," how did the "brown liquid" pour from the dog’s kennel atop the wagon?
For more information:
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Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney: The (Un-)Artful Dodger
Ask Willard "Mitt" Romney, the (Un-)Artful Dodger, anything? Really? For those who watched the GOP circular firing squad Saturday night, you may recall Mitt Romney referring to a question about states banning birth control “silly.”
The only thing “silly” was his dodge, as he tried to deny his own state the right to offer birth control in 2005.
Mitt Romney artfully dodged a question about whether states have the right to ban birth control during Saturday’s Republican presidential debate, calling the question “silly” and saying that states wouldn’t want to do that anyway. But as governor of Massachusetts in 2005, Romney took a harder line on contraception, vetoing a widely supported bill that would make the morning-after pill available over the counter in that state and require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims.
His surprising veto did not stand. The Massachusetts state Senate voted unanimously to overrule it, and the state House voted 139-16 to do the same.
Imagine that.
If he does get the GOP nomination, this multi-millionaire’s record will speak for itself, even as he tries to blow smoke over it.
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Santorum: I Cashed In Because I Care
I actually watched tonight’s GOP presidential debate. Saw no one that appeared very presidential. Much, much pandering to the far, far right.
Every time Rick Santorum spoke he looked like a nervous schoolboy who had to pee. No kidding.
Not my observation, but the observation of someone with whom I was watching.
Still, Santorum managed to defend the massive amounts of money he made from lobbying since he lost his U.S. Senate seat.
During Saturday’s GOP Primary debate, Rep. Ron Paul accused Rick Santorum of being a “big government person” who exploited his beltway connections with lobbyists to get wealthy after losing his Senate seat in 2006. Santorum insisted that he only took a series of high paying “consulting” jobs because he believed in the causes.
“I’m known in this race and I was known in Washington, DC, as a cause guy. I am a cause guy. I care deeply about this country and about the causes that make me —that I think are at the core of this country,” Santorum said. “And when I left the United States Senate, I got involved in causes that I believe in.”
Santorum was one of the less wealthy members of the Senate during his tenure, though as the main gatekeeper for the “K-Street Project,” the attempt to place Republicans in influential positions in DC lobbying firms, Santorum developed plenty of key connections with lobbying firms and trade associations. After leaving Congress those connections proved financially beneficial. Financial disclosure forms filed last year indicate that Santorum went from making around $200,000 a year to more than a million dollars in 2010.
Washington, as it stands now, is an incredible cash cow for these GOP candidates. Do you really think any of them will change that in the least if they win the presidency?
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‘Punished for Living Too Long,’ Paralyzed High School Football Player Dies at 27
Rocky Clark in his home in Robbins in 2010. The sad news comes from the Chicago Tribune: “Rasul “Rocky” Clark, who was paralyzed while playing football for Blue Island’s Eisenhower High School in 2000 and later fought an unsuccessful battle to keep his health insurance, died Thursday after undergoing surgery at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, a hospital spokeswoman said.”
He was a 16-year-old backup running back on Sept. 15, 2000, when Eisenhower’s starting running back separated his shoulder in a game at Oak Forest High School. Mr. Clark went into the game. Four plays later, he was tackled and suffered two broken vertebrae in his neck and a spinal injury.
Left a quadriplegic, Mr. Clark for 10 years received top-notch health care through the catastrophic medical insurance provided by Community High School District 218. That included nurses in his home around the clock, access to pain medicines and prescriptions and a storeroom of supplies.
But in August 2010, Clark was informed the $5 million health insurance had reached its maximum and would no longer cover his medical needs. Officials with Clark’s insurance agency, Health Special Risk Inc., previously declined to discuss his case or their policies on claims and lifetime maximums with the Tribune.
At the time his policy ended, Clark said he felt he was being punished for living too long. Many quadriplegics die within 10 years after their injury because of lung or kidney failure. But Clark was able to thrive, in part because of the meticulous health care he received, his physician and family members said.
Punished for living too long.
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Rick Santorum’s Wife had a Second-term Abortion – But That’s Supposed to be Different
We must tread lightly regarding family members of candidates. Still, when anyone takes radical positions, preaches endlessly and with great sanctimony, well, that candidate merits closer attention – especially if that candidate wants to be President of the United States.
Frankly, I am in shock as I write this.
Rick Santorum’s wife had a second-term abortion to save her life, so reports oursilverribbon.org:
Rick Santorum is one dangerously confused denialist. The former Pennsylvania Senator and presidential aspirant is best known for his inability to associate his professed compassion for life at the level of the zygote, with the physical realities of human sexuality. He has equated loving same-sex relationships to bestiality. He is opposed to abortion under any circumstance. Almost.
In October, 1996, his wife Karen had a second trimester abortion. They don’t like to describe it that way. In his 2004 interview with Terry Gross, Santorum characterizes the fetus, who must be treated as an autonomous person, as a practically a gunslinging threat, whom the mother must murder in self-defense. Karen has had to justify her decision to save her own life by explaining that if she died her other children would have lost a mother.
The compassionate side of me says this is an incredibly private family issue. However, the Santorums have already discussed this publicly.
Read for yourself and decide: http://oursilverribbon.org
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DailyMail: Single Catholic school teacher fired for ‘grave immoral act’ of having baby through artificial insemination
Christa Dias, a former teacher at Holy Family and St. Lawrence Catholic schools in Cincinnati, Ohio, claims she was fired for becoming pregnant using artificial insemination.
Ms Dias was fired in October 2010 when, at five and a half months pregnant, she approached her employer about maternity leave options.
And this is truly despicable:
The schools initially fired Ms Dias, 32, for being single and pregnant, Cincinnati.com reports.
When the schools discovered that violated several federal and state anti-discrimination laws, they said she was fired because she became pregnant using artificial insemination.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
And Cardinal George in Chicago defends likening the Gay Pride Parade to a Ku Klux Klan rally.
How sad for him.
How saw for Catholics everywhere.
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GOP Working Overtime To Keep College Students from Voting
Political leaders should be encouraging young adults to participate in civic life, but many Republican state lawmakers are doing everything they can instead to prevent students from voting in the 2012 presidential election. Some have openly acknowledged doing so because students tend to be liberal.
And this too:
William O’Brien, the speaker of the New Hampshire State House, told a Tea Party group earlier this year that students are “foolish” and tend to “vote their feelings” because they lack life experience. “Voting as a liberal,” he said, “that’s what kids do.” And that’s why, he said, he supported measures to prohibit students from voting from their college addresses and to end same-day registration. New Hampshire Republicans even tried to pass a bill that would have kept students who previously lived elsewhere from voting in the state; fortunately, the measure failed, as did the others Mr. O’Brien favored.
Nod to Eric Byler.
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Washington Post: Growing Wealth Widens Distance Between Lawmakers and Constituents
The growth of income inequality has tracked very closely with measures of political polarization, which has been gauged using the average difference between the liberal/conservative scores for Republican and Democratic members of the House.
“The proximity of these trends is uncanny,” according to a 2003 paper by researchers Nolan McCarty, Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal. “Remarkably, the trends of economic inequality and elite political polarization have moved almost in tandem for the past half-century.”
Excellent commentary on this from Eric Byler at Coffee Party USA.
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Ron Paul’s Views Finding Support Among White Nationalists
Ron Paul with white Supremacists Don and Derek Black Ron Paul says he “wouldn’t be happy” with support from the white supremacists, survivalists and anti-Zionists who have rallied to his support, but he will not disavow their support, saying, “They’re endorsing what I do or say — it has nothing to do with endorsing what they say.”
So Ron Paul will accept support from Neo-Nazis. He simply won’t endorse anthing they say, except, of course, that, for whatever reason, they support Ron Paul.
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
The American Free Press, which markets books such as “The Invention of the Jewish People” and “March of the Titans: A History of the White Race,” is urging its subscribers to help it send hundreds of copies of Ron Paul’s collected speeches to voters in New Hampshire. The book, it promises, will “Help Dr. Ron Paul Win the GOP Nomination in 2012!”
Don Black, the director of the white nationalist website Stormfront, said in an interview that dozens of his members were volunteering for Mr. Paul’s campaign, and a site forum titled “Why is Ron Paul such a favorite here?” has no fewer than 24 pages of comments.
“I understand he wins many fans because his monetary policy would hurt Jews,” read one. Far right groups like the Militia of Montana say they are rooting for him as a stalwart against government tyranny.