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Pen Points
Letters to Gay Today |
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Gore, Bush & the Supreme Court
Both parties buy too much into the "fight crime at the expense of liberty" argument for my tastes, but in the upcoming Presidential race either Bush or Gore will be our next President. Neither is my first choice, I'm guessing we can agree on that at least. (I could go on about how Gore's addiction to "faith-based programs" ~ government funding of religion IMHO is repugnant to me, how his position on Elian was politics at its worst, etc. I think Bush is far, far too in thrall to the rabid right wing. You pick your own reasons.) But they're who's running.
But of the two, I intend to vote for Gore, who will, I believe, tend to appoint more judges concerned for individual liberty than will GWB. The Supreme Court is VERY close to falling to the Ultra-Conservative wackos who would gleefully support religiously-based laws which would strip us as gay men of basic freedom. In Louisiana last week their court rendered just such a "Gawd's Laws" kind of decision, as repugnant as the reasoning in the Supreme's in Bowers v Hardwick. The thought of Scalia-like judges being the clear majority for the next 20 years makes my blood run cold.
Ellipse, S.M. ABC News & Redistributed Misinformation After reading your article on the San Francisco Department of Public Health's de facto retractions of their "900" number on the new HIV/AIDS infection rates, I was pretty shocked that ABC News used the bad numbers in its World News Saturday main story, which is still up on its website at www.abcnews.go.com I suppose ABC News does not read the Bay Area Reporter. . . or GayToday. You're better at getting retractions. . . thought you might like to know. JAG Ed. Note: At the ABC web site you've provided us, the redistributed misinformation is available through its “Search” engine by using the words “San Francisco Health” My Invisible Friend Wants You to 'Stand on Your Head'
What if I started going around telling people that I had an invisible friend who wanted them to stand on their heads? "Oh, you can't see my invisible friend, but I know he's there, because he talks to me and he's done so many wonderful things in my life. I know that if you only believe in him and stand on your head, he'd do wonderful things for you too." Well, that would sound pretty stupid, wouldn't it? I'd probably be taken to a psych ward and locked up for awhile. But there really isn't any difference in that and Christianity, except that more people believe in one than the other. I think that anyone who believes in such unscientific principles ought to be held up to intense scrutiny and criticism--even ridicule, just like people who believe the Earth is flat…(One of the unfortunate outcomes of political correctness is that people have become overly sensitive to others' beliefs, no matter how stupid they are. Sometimes you just have to say, "That's a stupid idea.") I also believe that hypocrisy should be pointed out, especially when it is so virulent that it affects people's lives in negative ways. The Catholic Church has been directly or indirectly responsible for some of the most horrendous crimes in the history of the world: mass murder, extortion, deception, brainwashing, theft, amassing great fortunes at the expense of the poor. Yet the leader of that powerful and corrupt institution hobbles out on his balcony and expresses "bitterness" at a gay pride event. The year is 2000. It's time to put the magic of the past behind us and believe in ourselves.
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