This is all the blogging that you will get out of me today. Discuss my lameness in the space provided.
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by Tim F| 30 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
This is all the blogging that you will get out of me today. Discuss my lameness in the space provided.
Comments are closed.
ThymeZone
Is this thread gay, straight, or bi?
Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those choices.
The Other Steve
Speaking of gay…
In Ohio, when not trying to figure out a way where he can declare his Democratic challenger ineligble… Blackwell is now calling Strickland possibly gay
Tim F.
Don’t know about that, but this blogger is unapologetically centipede-phobic. Any centipedes or centipede-lovers who want to grant centipedes the size of your f-cking thumb the right to live behind my toilet will be harshly repudiated.
The Other Steve
BTW… I wouldn’t be surprised if Blackwell hasn’t been purging the voter registration lists in Ohio.
Here in Minnesota(and I think also Wisconsin), we have same day voter registration. We also do not need to register by party affiliation.
Frankly, I think more states need to adopt that. We end up with the highest voter turnout in the country time and time again, in 2004 it was around 70%.
ThymeZone
Unfit for camping trips?
demimondian
It sounds to me like you must have had a truly horrific experience with a c****p*** in your youth.
Lee
Latest scare mongering about illegals.
Arizona Seizes wire transfers
I’m not a big ‘black helicopter’ guy.
but….HOLY SHIT! this is a bit scary.
Frankblack
Emo?
BarneyG2000
If collusion is illegal in business (baseball, price fixing, market manipulation..) than why do we allow quid pro quo agreements within Congress? No more of those “I’ll vote for your pork if you vote for mine” deals.
Krista
Well Tim, considering the amount of work you did on the previous thread, I think you get a pass. (Not a gay pass — I’m female so any passes at you would be strictly hetero.)
Ned Raggett
Mention not the dread word.
John Cole
I’m here, so the thread is now queer.
demimondian
So, JC, you finally own up to commenting under the D-pseudonym?
Robbie
I’m not sure Mr. Cole reads comments, but I did want to bring up a point now that I’ve caught up on a few of his posts.
One thing mentioned in the outing fiasco is how Andrew Sullivan is treated by right-wing bloggers. Sure, his homosexuality is mocked, jeered, insulted, used as political fodder. There is little denying that.
However, one thing I’m not sure you’re aware of is that Sullivan has been vilified and targeted by the Gay Left throughout most of his career. It was not Republicans but liberal gays who went digging through Sullivan’s sexual trash, publicizing details, making sure everyone knew had every juicy morsel of his every bedroom technique.
As a gay man, I’m very familiar with the behavior of radical gays, and it is plain and simple McCarthyism. Activists like Mike Rogers have a long tradition of invading the private lives of *any* homosexual who opposes their political agenda. It’s on the same level as calling Condi Rice a house negro or Uncle Tom (for gay people, it’s an Aunt Patti). Except it’s far more invasive, far more vicious, and wrapped in far more righteousness to the point of dangerous, obsessive fanatacism.
Yes, the Republicans and Karl Rove are incredibly wrong for using gays as their political cannon fodder. They deserve our disdain. However, if anyone wants to do the gay community a huge favor, it would be the unequivocal denunciation of Rogers and his ilk.
This, “Sure outing is wrong, but Republicans . . .” does us no favors. You may think you’re helping. You’re really not. You’re encouraging it by providing justification – no matter how tenuous. “Outing’s wrong, but now that it’s done, let’s make a lot of useful political points with it.”
That sort of thing encourages sexual persecution and emboldens the gay radicals. I respectfully wish you wouldn’t.
The Other Steve
Apparently John McCain has promised to commit suicide if the Democrats win control of Congress in November.
I guess we can count him out running in 2008.
SeesThroughIt
Speaking of lame, the Steelers are playing in Oakland (where I live) on my birthday, and the best tickets I can find are practically at the top of the stadium. Having been to this stadium before, I know from experience that there’s really not much of a point in going if you sit all the way up at the top–can’t see a damn thing from there. Fuckin’ lame, man.
By the way: We’re here! We’re queer! We don’t want any more bears!
The Other Steve
I think you’re thinking defensively rather than offensively. I’ve been kind of watching this from the sidelines over the years, and I honestly don’t care about the issue. I’m just observing here.
It seems to me over the years that what we have had is a handful of radicals who have been pushing for an anti-gay agenda, and then a huge group of people in the middle who are apathetic. Because they have nothing at stake in this, by and large they’ve just let the anti-gay radicals have their way.
But these outings ahve upped the stakes a bit. They’ve basically warned the Republicans “Ok, you have a choice. Do you denounce this guy like you’ve been denouncing all of us. Or do you change your tune?”
The answer thus far has been changing their tune.
As Edmund Burke noted, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” That is what has been happening with the gay issue, good men have sat by doing nothing because they don’t think it matters to them.
So to the point. Does it embolden the radicals? Yes.
Does it empower them? No. Rather the opposite, because it reveals the evil of their thinking. Radicalism cannot stand on it’s own, it can only survive because good men do nothing. By highlighting the hypocrisy, and emboldening the radicals, it empowers the good men to back away.
Jay C
Is there sufficient bandwidth?
Perry Como
Ok. That’s fucking stupid.
Pb
Yes, and maybe they had a point in doing so:
So is that “Sexual McCarthyism”, or exposing hypocrisy? I did read Sullivan’s blog for a while, but it was way after that fiasco, once he had distanced himself somewhat from the pro-torture side of the GOP. Of course, some people who read Sully earlier than that are still steaming from essentially being called traitors:
That looks more like *actual* McCarthyism to me…
Robbie
Pb – Hypocrisy is the argument of the political child. “I can’t actually refute the arguments you’re making, so let’s have a dig through your personal life.” Hypocrisy justification always comes with a double standard. Republicans point to an almost eternal array of hypocritical Democratic behaviors and vice-versa. At the end of the day, we’re all hypocrites to an amazing degree. It’s a dodge, a hustle, a changing of subject. Because we’re not bright enough to rest on our ideas.
At the end of the day, either you believe in privacy, or you do not. You’re either a decent person, or you’re a prick who sifts through people’s trash. It doesn’t matter who’s engaging in it, be it Kenneth Starr or Mike Rogers.
This idea that there’s some noble cause (“Exposing hypocrisy!”) is bs, and everyone knows it. If people were interested in that sort of thing on a principled level – especially with sexual matters – they’d be willing to engage in it with their political allies as well. Which, of course, they are not.
Outing is wrong. The people who do it should be shunned. Furthermore, as impossible as this sounds, people can be gay, vote for various “anti-gay” legislation, and not be hypocrites. Being gay does not mean we have to have a pre-set, pre-approved, pre-mandated political belief system which, if violated, means we ought to subjugated to mass violations of personal privacy.
It’s similar to the idea that all black people must vote Democrat or else they’re traitors to their race and must be viciously assaulted. That’s not just McCarthyism – it’s borderline racial fascism.
Only radicals believe that. Only radicals attempt to justify it. I’m really getting sick of it.
Punchy
New Mex has a genius idea–all voters are eligible to win a a cool mill if they actually cast a ballot. Like entering a free lottery. Of course, being it a mildly red state, I’m guessin only R’s really have a chance at the scratch…
Perry Como
What’s the difference between Kim Jong Il and a Republican congressman?
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Kim Jong Il doesn’t choke his mistress.
The Other Steve
Apparently robbie is not interested in debating in good faith.
Steve
Um, no, it would be more like a black person voting for segregation. If a gay person wants to join the GOP because they love tax cuts, more power to them, but I’d sure hope they wouldn’t support anti-gay legislation while they’re there.
Perry Como
More sexual McCarthyism from the angry left. Although I’m torn on the issue. On one side Anne Coulter has said McCarthy was a good man that did good things, ergo sexual McCarthyism would be a good thing. On the other Glenn Reynolds has said that sexual McCarthyism is bad. Which wingnut should I believe?
Perry Como
btw, I have to admire the courage and conviction of Congressman Ney. He has been found guilty in a court of law, yet he is staying the course in collecting congressional pay. We should all tip our hats (and give our tax dollars) to this worthy Congressman.
Tim F.
While I think that outing is lame, I think that it matters that the gay community has faced nonstop, harsh attacks from Republicans who look at gay-baiting and see votes. The anti-gay constitutional amendment does such a great job motivating the fundies that it has become standard practice for the majority of state-level Republican parties.
Frankly, if the GOP spent as much energy attacking Jews as it does attacking gays then I would have an awfully hard time not ‘outing’ a Republican who was secretly Jewish. If they want to make my personal life into a political football then why should I not return the favor?
Pb
Robbie,
That’s not hypocrisy, though–hypocrisy is when the personal life in question runs counter to the argument being made. That is to say, when the argument being made is “do as I say, don’t do as I do”. And there’s an easy way to stop these attacks–don’t be a hypocrite, don’t say one thing and do the opposite.
It is possible to use one’s personal experiences as an example to others, to say “don’t be like me, I did this and it was a mistake”. It might take some courage, but I think it’s often worth doing, and it’s certainly better than the alternative–falsely taking the moral high road by lying about one’s own conduct whilst demonizing everybody else.
Paul L.
More on a Man’s right to choice.
The Morning Vent