Well done, Greece

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Michael

Greece has made a step in the right direction.

The Greek government has announced it will start taxing churches as part of its efforts to get out of its financial crisis. A new draft bill to be tabled in parliament next week imposes a 20 per cent tax on the Orthodox church’s real estate income, reportedly worth over 10 million Euros (US $14.8 million) a year, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In Euros, Greek debt is 216 billion, so it’s no secret that this new tax is going to generate very little. But it’s still good because there’s no reason churches should be tax exempt in the first place. There is nothing special about religion which warrants it special economic considerations or status.

Now if only we can do the same for religious institutions in America – especially when they violated the conditions set out for them under current law.

Filed under: News, Religions | Tagged: , , , | 8 Comments »

We still hate you but the First Amendment does not

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Michael

When Constance McMillen wanted to go to her prom with her girlfriend and her school said no, she sued over the violation of her rights. A judge has given a big victory in principle (a smaller one in practice).

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson refused the American Civil Liberties Union’s demand to force the Itawamba County school district to put on the April 2 prom. However, he said canceling it did violate 18-year-old Constance McMillen’s rights and that he would hold a trial on the issue.

…

“The court finds this expression and communication falls squarely within the purview of the First Amendment,” Davidson said.

It’s too bad the school was going to hold the dance so early, but the principled victory here is huge. Constance deserved to bring her girlfriend with her to prom; the judge affirmed that.

Of course, the school actually has the inanity to continue.

Ben Griffith, the school district’s attorney, said his clients were pleased with the ruling.

“What we’re looking at now is the fact that the case is still on the docket for a trial on the merits,” Griffith said.

Got that? The Itawamba County school district is pleased to hear that they violated the rights of one of their students.

And as if that wasn’t enough,

McMillen isn’t sure if she’ll go to the dance.

“I’m going to school tomorrow (Wednesday) and will get a feel of how everybody feels about me. That will help me make my decision about whether I’m going to the private prom,” McMillen said. “I want to go because all my junior and senior class will be there, but I don’t want to be somewhere I’m not welcomed.”

This lack of acceptance turned to intolerance has a real life toll; I think that’s something that can get missed in all this. We should all fight for equal rights because, as Nelson Mandela said, “Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.” Rights are exercised by individuals but they are had by all. If just one individual is denied her lawful rights, then they cease to be rights and instead become privileges.

But in all this personal turmoil, hardship, discrimination, and general social concern is some good (auxiliary) news:

[Constance] has appeared on the “The Early Show,” “The Wanda Sykes Show” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to talk about how she is fighting for tolerance. DeGeneres presented her with a $30,000 college scholarship from Tonic, a digital media company.

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Sean the con

Posted on March 23, 2010 by Michael

Sean Hannity is part of a charity which is meant to assist troops and their families in one way or another. According to one source, it’s a scam.

In fact, less than 20%–and in two recent years, less than 7% and 4%, respectively–of the money raised by Freedom Alliance went to these causes, while millions of dollars went to expenses, including consultants and apparently to ferry the Hannity posse of family and friends in high style. And, despite Hannity’s statements to the contrary on his nationally syndicated radio show, few of the children of fallen soldiers got more than $1,000-$2,000, with apparently none getting more than $6,000, while Freedom Alliance appears to have spent tens of thousands of dollars for private planes. Moreover, despite written assurances to donors that all money raised would go directly to scholarships for kids of the fallen heroes and not to expenses, has begun charging expenses of nearly $500,000 to give out just over $800,000 in scholarships.

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Of course they did

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Michael

Tea party protesters use bigoted terms – anyone surprised?

Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol , angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted “nigger” Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis , a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.

The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus , lawmakers said.

“They were shouting, sort of harassing,” Lewis said. “But, it’s okay, I’ve faced this before. It reminded me of the 60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.”

And it isn’t only black people that make these morons angry.

Protesters also used a slur as they confronted Rep. Barney Frank , D- Mass. , an openly gay member of Congress . A writer for Huffington Post said the crowd called Frank a “faggot.”

Frank told the Boston Globe that the incident happened as he was walking from the Longworth office building to the Rayburn office building, both a short distance from the Capitol. Frank said the crowd consisted of a couple of hundred of people and that they referred to him as ‘homo.’

“I’m disappointed with the unwillingness to be civil,” Frank told the Globe. “I was, I guess, surprised by the rancor. What it means is obviously the health care bill is proxy for a lot of other sentiments, some of which are perfectly reasonable, but some of which are not.”

Those “other sentiments” being the general hatred of gays and brown people. It’s like the Republican party, but a little more honest.

Filed under: News, Politics and Social | Tagged: , , , , | 6 Comments »

Extry! Extry!

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Michael

The March-April edition of Without Apology has arrived.

This month’s publication has a heavy focus on Christopher Maloney and Andreas Moritz, but it also has far kinder articles such as this one about American excess by Kaytlyn Gillis (the actual title for the article was of my less kind choosing).

The distribution for this edition is a little screwy. I usually place it around UMA right after getting it, but the coming week is spring break so it won’t be until around March 29th that I do that. I did, however, make sure to go to Christopher Maloney’s neighborhood. And he actually lucked out a little. In his last email to me, he demanded I never contact him, his neighbors, his family, or his friends. Clearly most of that is ridiculous. Christopher Maloney has no say over whether or not I contact his neighbors or friends. Legally, he has no grounds concerning his family in this regard (bar his own child/children) – though I’m not particularly concerned with them anyway. But as for himself, if he doesn’t want me giving him my paper, that’s fine with me. But I did intend on giving it to his neighborhood, including his immediate neighbors. Unfortunately – and here’s where luck steps in for him – I could only see the number on one house (#6) since it was dark, so I didn’t give the paper to the houses on either side of it (Maloney is #4). Of course, if he wants a copy, he need only walk across the street or wait a week and head on over to UMA.

Enjoy the articles.

Filed under: Administrative, News, Politics and Social | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Virginia AG gets bitched slapped

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Michael

On March 4, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sent a letter to Virginia’s public colleges and universities telling them they ought to allow discrimination against gays. (Because gay people don’t deserve employment or education, I guess.) Less than a week later, Governor Bob McDonnell issued an Executive Directive (which I apparently missed until today).

“Discrimination based on factors such as one’s sexual orientation or parental status violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution,” the new directive said in response to the letter.

“Therefore, discrimination against enumerated classes of persons set forth in the Virginia Human Rights Act or discrimination against any class of persons without a rational basis is prohibited.”

I love it…”without a rational basis is prohibited”. No one can offer a legitimate argument as to why sexual orientation is relevant to any public job. The only basis is bigotry and unqualified hatred.

But I’m torn. I can’t decide if the best part of this is the fact the equality is being enforced or if it’s Cuccinelli’s bitch slap reaction.

“I applaud Governor McDonnell for the tone he is setting for the Commonwealth of Virginia. I will remain in contact with the Governor and continue to work with him on issues important to Virginians,” Cuccinelli said. “I expect Virginia’s state employees to follow all state and federal anti-discrimination laws and will enforce Virginia’s laws to the fullest extent.”

“Because I don’t want to get fired.”

Okay, that whole equality jazz is always better, but there’s still a satisfaction in seeing a bigot’s views pushed to the side.

Filed under: News, Politics and Social | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Don’t ask, get told on

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Michael

A gay soldier in Kansas has been given the boot because she got legally married in Iowa.

Jene Newsome played by the rules as an Air Force sergeant: She never told anyone in the military she was a lesbian. The 28-year-old’s honorable discharge under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy came only after police officers in Rapid City, S.D., saw an Iowa marriage certificate in her home and told the nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base.

The Bigot Brigade PD basically ratted Newsome out because she wouldn’t cooperate with helping them find her spouse on an outstanding warrant. The BBPD claims they were running a proper investigation, but that’s an incredibly thin lie. They had no business reporting anything to the military. They knew exactly what they were doing.

Police officers, who said they spotted the marriage license on the kitchen table through a window of Newsome’s home, alerted the base, police Chief Steve Allender said in a statement sent to the AP. The license was relevant to the investigation because it showed both the relationship and residency of the two women, he said.

“It’s an emotional issue and it’s unfortunate that Newsome lost her job, but I disagree with the notion that our department might be expected to ignore the license, or not document the license, or withhold it from the Air Force once we did know about it,” Allender said Saturday. “It was a part of the case, part of the report and the Air Force was privileged to the information.”

Steve Allender (adminInt3@rcgov.org) is a liar. The marital status of a third party in their investigation is irrelevant. It doesn’t take some half-ass cop out in the boonies to see that.

“This information was intentionally turned over because of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and to out Jene so that she would lose her military status,” said Robert Doody, executive director of ACLU South Dakota. The ACLU is focusing its complaint on the police department, not the military, and Newsome said she and her attorney have not yet decided on whether to file a lawsuit.

“The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ piece is important and critical to this, but also it’s a police misconduct case,” Doody said.

The BBPD has no idea what is appropriate action. It’s a department full of petty and vengeance to the citizen who crosses them, evidently. They should have had no expectation that a third party would help them with their investigation – but they did. They precisely expected Newsome to cow-tow to their demands to make their jobs easier. When she didn’t, they sought to ruin her career.

Of course, what would be an obvious case of bigotry without the overt bigotry?

Despite claiming that she had played by the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rules, she got married to her lesbian lover in Iowa after an activist state supreme court said she could.

Well, that was tell number one. A marriage license, Ms. Newsome, is a public record. If you want to keep your sexual preference hidden from your superiors, it’s best not to advertise it to the whole world.

This is from some dying dinosaur named Bryan Fischer. Apparently Fischer thinks gays want to keep who they are private. No, no, really. People just love faking it.

Second, when the police came to her home seeking to execute an arrest warrant on her lesbian “wife” (“husband?” — it’s hard to know these days), they found the wedding license lying right in the middle of the dining room table. If you want to keep your sexual preference a secret, there are better ways.

For instance, one could hide a marriage license behind a smarmy aura of asshole. To date, no one has been able to confirm Fischer’s marital status.

Rapid City, S.D. law enforcement officials saw the wedding license and did their legal duty by reporting what they had found to the military.

What law is that again?

Ms. Newsome received an “honorable discharge” in January. (This is not your father’s military: she committed what is a crime under the UCMJ, and has the word “honorable” on her discharge papers. Go figure.)

There must be a mistake on Fischer’s website. It says he’s from Idaho, not Uganda.

Newsome’s partner in sexual deviancy is apparently not a model citizen, currently being under indictment for one felony and three misdemeanor counts of theft. That’s another tip for Ms. Newsome — if you don’t want get outed, it might be best not to “marry” somebody who robs people.

Do donation baskets count as robbery since they purport to be used for good causes but instead continue to support religion?

Gates’ theory — you get to break the law as long as you don’t rat yourself out — is absurd. Imagine if we applied that to any other realm of law enforcement. You, sir, get to go right on holding up banks because all we have to go on is ironclad eyewitness testimony from tellers, managers and other bank patrons. Please, please, pretty please admit you did it so we can lock you up. Otherwise, we will be forced to let you go so you can rob and pillage some more.

Idaho simply must be a mistake.

Filed under: News, Politics and Social, Rights, Same-sex marriage | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

A win for vaccines

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Michael

A court has ruled again against vaccine-autism claims.

The special U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that vaccines could not have caused the autism of an Oregon boy, William Mead, ending his family’s quest for reimbursement.

“The Meads believe that thimerosal-containing vaccines caused William’s regressive autism. As explained below, the undersigned finds that the Meads have not presented a scientifically sound theory,” Special Master George Hastings, a former tax claims expert at the Department of Justice, wrote in his ruling.

…

In February 2009, the court ruled against three families who claimed vaccines caused their children’s autism, saying they had been “misled by physicians who are guilty, in my view, of gross medical misjudgment”.

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We hate you so much we won’t even let you dance with your friends

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Michael

Constance McMillen is a gay high school student at Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Mississippi. She was going to go to her prom with her girlfriend, but the school objected. The ACLU quickly got involved.

The district announced Wednesday it wouldn’t host the April 2 prom. The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union demanded that officials change a policy banning same-sex prom dates because it violated students’ rights. And the ACLU said the district not letting McMillen wear a tuxedo violated her free expression rights.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oxford to force the school district to sponsor the prom and allow McMillen to bring whom she chooses and wear what she wants.

This is an astounding level of bigotry. Rather than allow a student to go to a prom with her date of the same sex, the school district actually believes it is better to ruin everyone’s biggest senior moment next to graduation.

Of course, they aren’t going to take the blame.

A school board statement said it wouldn’t host the event in Fulton, “due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events” but never mentioned McMillen or her girlfriend, who also is a student at the school.

There is often a tremendous amount of arrogance floating around the egos of those who have petty control over others, but this really takes the cake. [D]istractions to the educational process? What are these people on? Did they consume large quantities of alcohol before writing this? Was it all hard stuff?

The fact is – and this is the silver lining – the district recognizes that they will lose any lawsuit against them which challenges a ban on same sex dating. They do not have the right to ban any such thing. Upon recognition of this obvious fact, they have sought to maintain getting their childish little way by dirty means: it’s high school; everyone knows what is happening with everyone else. When they tried to blame the victim for their ineptitude and lack of concern for equality, they knew exactly what they were doing.

…the 18-year-old lesbian high school senior reluctantly returned to campus to some unfriendly looks, she said.

“Somebody said, ‘Thanks for ruining my senior year.'” McMillen said.

There was never any doubt this would happen. The district ‘leaders’ went ahead and ruined a significant moment in the lives of an entire high school class and then had the gall to blame an innocent student. They know the law disagrees with their stance. They know McMillen has a right to attend her prom with her girlfriend. They just don’t know why they’re morally wrong.

The school district had said it hoped a privately sponsored prom could be held. McMillen said if that happens, she’s sure she’ll be excluded.

“It’s a small town in Mississippi, and it’s run by an older generation with money. Most of them are more conservative and they don’t agree with it,” she said.

Okay, they topped themselves. I thought just canceling the prom was bigoted enough. Now the school is actually encouraging others to set up a private event. Why would a private event not be the same supposed distraction? Why does location matter? Why doesn’t the school want to host an event they can monitor with security for the students?

Fulton Mayor Paul Walker said he supports the school district’s decision and knew of no private efforts to host the prom.

“I think the community as a whole is probably in support of the school district,” Walker said of the town of about 4,000.

Oh. I guess if a lot of people agree, then it must be okay. It’s not like the school district is on its way to an assured legal defeat due to its bigotry or anything.

But wait! There’s more. As always, the arbitrary religious figure must be paraded out.

Southside Baptist Church Pastor Bobby Crenshaw said he’s seen the South portrayed as “backwards” on Web sites discussing the issue, “but a lot more people here have biblically based values.”

“But”? “But“?

Filed under: News, Politics and Social | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Kelly Glossip

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Michael

Every so often I will get a comment on a post from a person I’ve specifically discussed or who is specifically involved in the topic at hand. Sometimes those posts are inane. Other times they are worthwhile and concise. Then there are the times when they deserve to be highlighted for the sake of their sincerity, meaning, and even application to bigger social issues (even if that application has no bearing on what the commenter would say one way or the other).

So Dennis is shown gratitude for giving his life while he was working for the state of Missouri by leaving his entire debt onto his life partner. It just doesn’t seem like the state appreciated his life. This simply makes me sad; because he loved his job and loved helping others. Yet to show their gratitude for his life; the person that Dennis loved more than anyone (and yes I have the documentation to prove it, he kept a journal in his handwriting) he often states that I was his one and only and the person of his dreams. I’m thankful for Dennis giving his life for the safety of others, for that I will pay off his debt on my own. Because I unconditionally loved him and that is what love is.–May the Peace of the Lord be always with you and your family.

Written by Kelly Glossip, this was in response to my post about Highway Patrol Cpl. Dennis Engelhard. Engelhard was a Missouri patrolman who died in a traffic accident while on duty last Christmas. Under Missouri’s anti-equality laws, his partner, Glossip, is not entitled to any of the benefits upon death that would be awarded to married couples. Missouri has failed to make any steps forward in granting protections to such couples, instead forcing them to feel like they mean nothing, both socially and morally, not to mention economically and as productive members of society; of these four examples of forced demonization and degradation, the moral matter is the most important. However, given the nature of the concern over the loss of benefits upon death in the original article, the economic impact cannot be ignored. Glossip and Engelhard shared a home. Whether they jointly owned or not it is unclear (and Glossip need not clarify, both because my point can be made without further information and for his own privacy), but if the two are homeowners, it’s entirely plausible that the loss of one of them could result in the loss of a home. For those who make the disingenuous economic arguments against same-sex marriage (“What’s the benefit to the prosperity of the government?!?!”), this is one convincing reason to abandon such inane stances.

Of course, it has never been about the triviality of economic welfare.

Filed under: News, Politics and Social, Same-sex marriage | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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