2. Alabama Congressman Parker Griffeth, elected last year as a Democrat, has switched to the Republican party. As a result, his entire legislative and communications staff and his chief of staff resigned, saying:
". . . we cannot, in good conscience, continue working for him. . . . because we are unwavering in our own principles, we have no choice but to move on. We do not know what the future holds, but we are taking a leap of faith with the belief we will soon find ourselves in the employment of principled public officials."Wow!! That must have stung, as it should have. The principled thing would have been for the Congressman himself to have resigned, if he felt he could not fulfill the expectations of those who elected him just one year ago.
3. In spite of the Christmas eve terrorist scare, which reminded us of the inadequacy of our airport security system, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) continues to block the confirmation vote on Obama's nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration.
What is it with those three South Carolina politicians? Secret trysts in Argentina, shouting "You Lie" in the middle of the President's State of the Union speech to Congress, and now this?
4. So, last year three American "healing homosexuality" type evangelicals traveled to Uganda to present themselves as experts (on how homosexuals can change) at a conference organized on the theme of "the hidden, dark gay agenda" and the threat to Bible-based values and the traditional African family. The conference was attended by some members of the Ugandan parliament.
And now they are shocked that, one month later, a bill was introduced by one of those attendees that would include the death penalty for some homosexual acts and jail for friends or relatives that fail to report such behavior. That's the problem with these anti-homosexual zealots: they don't realize the harm they do, both in the direct effect on gays themselves and in stirring up and rationalizing anti-gay violence.
Or perhaps they do realize. Missionary Scott Lively said, on his website, that he had been told by a respected observer of society in Kampala "that our campaign was like a nuclear bomb against the "gay" agenda in Uganda. I pray that this, and the predictions, are true."
You pray that your effect will be "like a nuclear bomb" -- and then you're surprised when these people take you seriously and want to put homosexuals to death?
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In sharp contrast to such ignorant bigotry, President Obama has just taken an historical step in appointing a transsexual woman as Senior Technical Adviser to the Commerce Department. Amanda Simpson, a former test pilot and 2004 YWCA "Woman On The Move," has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for 30 years, including being Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development for Raytheon.
Now, Mr. President, just keep going and work to end DA/DT and DOMA.
Ralph
A trifecta showing that there's still a cancer on the land.
ReplyDeleteNow we're getting the predictable backlash from the religious right to Obama's appointment of a transsexual woman to a position for which she is highly qualified.
ReplyDeleteThe rational response to their outrage over "quotas" now including such people is this from the National Center for Transgender Equality: "The story is . . . not that [Obama] appointed one of us but that finally we have an administration for which that's not a deal breaker."