Christianists Really Think That Reality-Centric People Don’t Recognize “Irony”

Coming on the heals of the hereditary Darwin Award-winning snakristianist taking a dirt nap, we have the story of some christianists who didn’t want to let any icky, legitimate physicians stop their child from taking a dirt nap:

A Washington state couple has agreed to accept a plea deal that spares them jail time but holds them responsible for their teenage son’s death after they failed to call a doctor.

A jury acquitted JaLea and Greg Swezey of Carlton of second-degree murder charges for failing to call a doctor or ambulance before their son Zachery died of a ruptured appendix in 2009. However, they still faced manslaughter charges.

JaLea Swezey pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal mistreatment and received a suspended sentence. Greg Swezey was charged with second-degree criminal mistreatment and his case was continued for two years.

The Swezeys are members of the Church of the First Born, which believes in faith healing.

And they’re star citizens of the Circling-the-Drain States of America – who lets murderers like this go free but imprisons trans women for defending themselves (shout out to Om!; apparently CeCe McDonald made the mistake of not claiming ‘religious freedom,’ eh?)

The item about the oppressive child-murderering christianists who – for all practical purposes – got off scot free by claiming that paying for the crime that they committed would mean that they were being oppressed came from one of the wonderful sub-Fox ‘News’ christianist propaganda sources: One News Nowt.

Note, however, how the page appeared:

It is beneath a banner ad for a movie entitled ‘October Baby.’

Well, on a christianist propaganda site, you can probably guess what such a movie would be about, but lets take a look at the info for the film:

The listing of the ‘stars’ (featuring such luminaries as, um…, John Schneider and Jasmine Guy) is hard to read on that, but at least a few of the organizational logos promoting the ‘film’ should stand out – well-known terroristic hate groups such as the ‘American’ ‘Family’ Association (AFA), the ‘Concerned’ ‘Women’ ‘for America’ (CWFA) and Focus Fraud on the Family.

Now, the money shot – the IMDB synopsis of the ‘film’:

A college freshman’s world is rocked when she learns she is the adopted survivor of an attempted abortion.

Yes, with right-wing tool – who would have had no career but for a television series (30 years ago, but why quibble; and the less said about his singing career the better) which glamorized all manner of illegal activity (so long as it is done by white, ostensibly-christian country-folk) – John Schneider as its biggest name (Victoria Jackson, Kirk Cameron and Stephen Baldwin weren’t available? I’m shocked!), you know its a high-quality production…

and, of course, a propaganda film opposing abortion…

something which christianists claim to consider to be murder (until one of them – or one of their daughters needs one – but why quibble?)…

yet, here, being opposed by a film being promoted on a webpage that not only facially claims to be ‘news’ but also uncritically accepts the notion of America’s legal system giving special rights for people who kill actual, non-fetal children by witholding legitimate medical treatment from them.

Maybe America really does deserve Mitt Romney.

How Dumb is Darrell Issa?

I said ‘dumb,’ not hideous; the latter, we know about.

He wants to play the parsing game and say that the pro-womb-control hearing was all about religion and not at all about women’s reproductive health, so, therefore, it was okay to have nothing but men on the panel.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) defended his decision to not allow a women to testifyat his hearing on the Obama administration’s new birth control rule yesterday, telling Fox News host Greta Van Susteren last night that the woman’s story wasn’t at all relevant to the hearing.

Democrats had originally planned to have Rev. Barry Lynn, a prominent supporter of the separation of Church and State, testify, but decided that a woman’s voice was needed, as every single other witness was a man. They tried bring in someone who has been personally affected by the issue — Sandra Fluke, a law student at Georgetown, which is affiliated with the Catholic Church and does not insure birth control for students — but Issa refused.

Appearing on Fox News with host Greta Van Susteren last night, Issa defended the decision, saying Fluke was unqualified to speak and that her first hand experience “wasn’t in any way related” to the issue at hand

Uh huh…

So….

He couldn’t have found enough anti-choice women to fill up the entirety of the hearing, or even one of the panels?

C’mon…he – and every other anti-constitutionist christianist nutcase in the House leadership – is bound to have Syphyllis Schlaffly on speed dail, as well as Andrea Lafferty, Maggie Gallagher Srivastav, all of the so-called ‘Concerned Women for America’ and whatever female lifeform that Pat Robertson is currently using to prop himelf up with on the (tax-free) 700(million) Club.

We know what it was all about…

and it wasn’t religion.

Three (And a Half) Out of Four….

From the Houston Chronk:

A national conservative leader thinks that the Politico story today headlined “Is Rick Perry Dumb?” is really, really dumb.

And biased. That old liberal media bias that you’ve heard so much about.

Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, an organization of social conservatives, reacted furiously to the Politico story, saying it was the latest in a long line of negative media stereotypes of right-of-center politicians.

“Is Ronald Reagan electable? Is George Bush a wimp? Is Michele Bachmann crazy? Is Rick Perry dumb?” asked Nance, citing famous — or infamous — media headlines about conservative candidates.

Uhhh…

Well, yes, Reagan got elected – though, of course, neither Nance nor CWFA are going to mention that in no small part that was less the result of Reagan himself than the combination of Carter disintegrating like a pile of packing peanuts in a hurricane and the corporatist media ensuring that there was no viable third option (John Anderson?  John Anderson?).

Bush?  I seem to recall Saddam Hussein still being around when his kid stole the presidency.

Bachmann?  If she believes the shit she’s spouting then, yes, she is crazy.

Perry?  If he believes the shit he’s spouting then, yes, he is dumb.

“It’s bad enough to raise these questions but the pathetic mainstream media only asks them about conservatives. Today’s Politico story about Rick Perry is just the latest example. Where was the 2007 Politico lead story raising questions about whether or not Barack Obama was all style, no substance and just might be in over his head? That might have saved us from a presidency that is defined as a miserable failure with every passing day. Where was the 1991 Newsweek cover asking ‘Does Bill Clinton have a problem with the truth?’ Such a story could have certainly spared this nation in ways too many to count, and there was plenty of evidence of such a problem while he was running.”

Nance says these stories (or lack of them) lead to an inescapable query: “Perhaps the American people should be asking: ‘Does an unbiased mainstream media really exist, or is it just an extension of the Democratic National Committee?”

Unbiased….

Like FOX?

CWFA: The Barbie Dolls of Vorshtein America

Missoula, Montana just passed a legitimate (read: one that The John and St. Barney will at some point have to rationalize out of discursive existence) civil rights ordiance.

Not surprisingly, anti-constitutionist theocrats were hyperbolic beforehand and are apoplectic now.

And, of course, the (so-called) Concerned (rarely, though seemingly more frequently now that they’re continually called on it) Women (cough, hack) for America is among the hyperapoplectic.

Note, however, what Alvin McEwen noticed:

Concerned Women for America is another religious right group which opposes any and all pro-lgbt non-discrimination ordinances and the organization does like to use the “men in women’s bathrooms” claim. But [CWFA prez Wendy] Wright, while defending the usage of this claim in an article with the Missoulian (while attacking a pro-lgbt ordinance in Missoula), demonstrated a degree of candor in her comments about this claim:

Even one of the most staunch opponents of those laws can’t point to increases in frivolous lawsuits or sexual predation. Still, Concerned Women for America president Wendy Wright said such ordinances lead the country down the wrong track.

“We have a constitutional protection for religious freedom in our First Amendment,” Wright said. “There is not a constitutional protection for sexual orientation, and yet judges and city councils and others are acting as if sexual orientation trumps religious freedom.”

. . . Wright couldn’t point to places that have counted increases in sexual offenses because of such laws, but she said such data is beside the point.

“It doesn’t go back to numbers,” Wright said. “It goes back to the issue that people will have legal rights that will trump other people’s rights. The right of a woman or a girl to feel safe in a fitting room, a locker, a restroom, their rights will be trumped by a person who is claiming their sexual orientation right has legal protection.”

While there should be some appreciation of Wright’s admittance that the “men in womens bathrooms” argument is without proof, she shouldn’t be able to get away with claiming that the lack of proof  is beside the point, mainly because the lack of proof  is the point.

But, of course, she will.

When the pushers of the Cassie Bernal myth were confronted with the reality that the ‘she said yes’ story that they were marketing in all likelihood could not have happened, one actually said it didn’t matter because it was still a worthwhile parable. [Note: I’m still looking for a link on this, but I saw it on the telly not long after the money-making, er…, ‘christian’ witnessing began in earnest about 10 year ago]

We’re living in Vorshtein America, folks.  Facts simply do not matter; and neither does being called out on the fact – the fact-fact – that what one is saying/pushing is total bullshit.  There are no consequences – NONE!  Forget the spectre of having to defend what one says in a libel action; hell, there aren’t even follow-up questions.  At this point, we should all be amazed that people like Wright aren’t claiming that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, is a muslim and is both a socialist and a fascist.

Oh…

Never mind….

The ENDA Robert Knight’s Sanity*

* Assuming it ever existed.

‘Concerned Woman’ Robert Knight’s wackiness can be found here.  There’s no real need to quote from it.  After all – when you’re talking Robert Knight, the (so-called) Concerned (rarely) Women (cough, hack, snigger) for America (Knight’s former enabler), and the ultra christo-fascist Coral Ridge Ministries (his current institutional pimp), you get three strikes from one pitch.  What more could one want?

STFU

The (so-called) Concerned (so-called) Women (cough, hack) for America say:

Here’s some encouragement: Return your body to its (cough, hack) god-given state, shut the fuck up, get married, submit to the guy and start cranking out future christofascists.

Oh…

Those rules don’t apply to the pretty christofascist girls who want to have bigger breasts than god wanted them to have?

Silly me.

The Barber of Concerned Women-Ville on ENDA

[UPDATE – 10/25/2007, 10:30 CDT: There’s an audio file on CWA’s website featuring the Barber of Concerned Women-Ville.  I haven’t listened to it yet, but I’m guessing it will be good for a few laughs.] 

That ‘concerned woman,’ Matt Barber speaketh:

Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues, said, “ENDA pits the government directly against religion, which is unconstitutional on its face. It would force employers to check their First Amendment guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, speech and association at the workplace door. It would make federal lawbreakers out of Christian, Jewish or Muslim business owners who honor their faith and would require that newfangled ‘gay rights’ based entirely upon individuals’ sexual choices trump employers’ enumerated constitutional rights.  

Uhhhhhhhh…you mean the way that existing anti-discrimination law makes ‘federal lawbreakers’ out of business owners who might ‘honor their faith’ by not wanting to have any employees of a different faith?  Or business owners who might have a faith that includes doctrine about non-whites being inferior to whites and who might want to ‘honor their faith’ by not wanting to have any non-white employees?  You know…that pesky Title VII that protects employees’ religious choices, trumping employers’ religious choices?

ENDA would force business owners to betray their faith and adopt a view of sexual morality which directly conflicts with fundamental tenets of that faith.

You mean the way that virtually all federal statutory and constitutional law would does force business owners to ‘betray their faith’ about ‘sexual morality’ if said faith included doctrine that commands adherents to discriminate against those who interracially marry?

You mean like that, eh Matt?

Well, while Matt is thinking that over, lets see what a ‘concerned’ actual woman has to say:

 Shari Rendall, CWA’s Director of Legislation and Public Policy, said of ENDA, “This bill would unfairly extend special privileges based on an individual’s changeable sexual behaviors rather than focusing on immutable, non-behavior characteristics such as skin color or sex.”

Notice she didn’t talk about the mutable, behavioral characteristic of religion?

“Its passage would both overtly discriminate against and muzzle people of faith. This bill is even more dangerous than pending ‘hate crimes’ legislation.”

Uh oh! Looks like someone didn’t have her rant vetted!  Looks like someone tipped the christianists’ hand.

A civil statute is more dangerous than a criminal one?

Business owners’ moolah is more important than innocent people (people you feel would be innocent of any legitimate crime) staying out of prison?

Yep – she laid the christofascist gameplan right out on the table for everyone to see: The money of the christofascist elites is more important than the freedom of the christofascists’ followers.

Gotta love it.  I don’t think the leaders of the ‘concerned women’ will, though.

Don’t worry Shari. 

I’m sure you’ll be able to land a gig at Bob Jones U – or maybe with the Fred Thompson presidential campaign.

Link Roundup for Tuesday

Here are some ENDA links for you:

• Monica Roberts at TransGriot pens a letter to the Congressional Black Congress.
• dyssonance at Pam’s points out the ways John Aravosis doesn’t understand marriage rights when he chides transfolk for getting married.
• Oh, speaking of Aravosis, he’s still a whiner who continues on acting like any other offended right-winger besieged by “teh PeeCee police!”
• Workplace Prof Blog says that we’ll look back on gender identity protections as “an obvious no-brainer,” comparable to sexual discrimination inclusion in Title VII 44 years ago.
• Good As You compares the ENDA opinions of Concerned Women For America to a dog fart.
• Vanessa Edwards Foster at Transadvocate writes about HRC killing hope.
• Also at Transadvocate, Lincoln Rose tells how to hold HRC accountable.
• Autumn Sandeen calls for truth in labeling: Winnie Stachelberg is a known transphobe.
• Left in SF notes that United ENDA is raising money for ads on liberal blogs. Probably not AmericaBlog, though?
• Denise at Life, Law, Gender shares her personal experiences and urges readers to support gender identity in ENDA.

The ENDA-lite (3685) vote may happen tomorrow; the Baldwin amendment vote may happen today. I’m hoping to speak with Rep. Raul Grijalva, my congressman and a supporter of gender identity protections in ENDA, soon.