The White House is set to announce a ‘compromise’ on the rule, but it should be noted that the compromise goes from being based on this law:

(2) Outpatient prescription benefits for an enrollee shall be the same for an enrollee’s covered spouse and covered nonspouse dependents.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, a religious employer may request a health care service plan contract without coverage for federal Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods that are contrary to the religious employer’s religious tenets.  If so requested, a health care service plan contract shall be provided without coverage for contraceptive methods.  This subdivision shall not be construed to deny an enrollee coverage of, and timely access to, contraceptive methods.
(1) For purposes of this section, a “religious employer” is an entity for which each of the following is true:
(A) The inculcation of religious values is the purpose of the entity.
(B) The entity primarily employs persons who share the religious tenets of the entity.
(C) The entity serves primarily persons who share the religious tenets of the entity.
(D) The entity is a nonprofit organization as described in Section 6033(a)(2)(A)i or iii, of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.
(2) Every religious employer that invokes the exemption provided under this section shall provide written notice to prospective enrollees prior to enrollment with the plan, listing the
contraceptive health care services the employer refuses to cover for religious reasons.

Which is California’s law governing religious exemption regarding contraception to this one which is based on Hawaii’s:

(a)  A “religious employer” is an entity for which each of the following is true:
(1)  The inculcation of religious values is the purpose of the entity;
(2)  The entity primarily employs persons who share the religious tenets of the entity;
(3)  The entity is not staffed by public employees; and
(4)  The entity is a nonprofit organization as defined under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended.
For the purpose of this definition, any educational, health care, or other nonprofit institution or organization owned or controlled by the religious employer is included in this exemption.
(b)  Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, any religious employer may request an accident and health or sickness insurance plan without coverage for contraceptive services and supplies that are contrary to the religious employer’s religious tenets.  If so requested, the accident and health or sickness insurer, mutual benefit society, or health maintenance organization shall provide a plan without coverage for contraceptive services and supplies.  This subsection shall not be construed to deny an enrollee coverage of, and timely access to, contraceptive services and supplies.
(c)  Each religious employer that invokes the exemption provided under this section shall:
(1)  Provide written notice to enrollees upon enrollment with the plan, listing the contraceptive health care services the employer refuses to cover for religious reasons;
(2)  Provide written information describing how an enrollee may directly access contraceptive services and supplies in an expeditious manner; and
(3)  Ensure that enrollees who are refused contraceptive services and supplies coverage under this section have prompt access to the information developed under paragraph (2).  Such notice shall appear, in not less than twelve-point type, in the policy, application, and sales brochure for such policy.

The White House is set to announce that “the relationship between the religious employer and the insurance company will not need to have any component involving contraception. The insurance company will reach out on its own to the women employees. This is better for both sides, the source says, since the religious organizations do not have to deal with medical care to which they object, and women employees will not have to be dependent upon an organization strongly opposed to that care in order to obtain it.”

Actually, it looks like the California option, which is the one that the rule was originally based upon, would be far better for the religious organizations than the second one, which is based on Hawaii’s law.  The way the rule works right now, these organizations can opt out entirely from covering contraception if they happen to be employing a majority of people who share their religious beliefs, are dedicated to spreading the values and religion of that particular faith, or primarily serves those of said faith.

So, basically, it comes down to those religious organizations which do not fit those criteria.  In fact, for many religious organizations forced by state laws to cover contraception, the rule as it stands will end up easing those restrictions.

Update:

Obama made the announcement and this is pretty much what he announced.

Via ABC News

So, in an email blast, they wrote:

If you haven’t already heard, Ellen DeGeneres mentioned One Million Moms on her television show yesterday with a few hand-picked Facebook comments that supported her of course. Watch the video of her show to see how she validates all of OMM’s concerns about the J.C. Penney decision. She starts with celebrating California’s Prop 8 decision that came Tuesday, February 7, 2012, against traditional marriage, and then goes after OMM in a rant. For those who are not aware, Prop 8 bans same-sex marriage, but unfortunately the Appeals Court ruled earlier this week that it was unconstitutional. If something is legal it doesn’t make it morally right. What it boils down to is agenda.

Of course, OMM would know about how something being legal not making it morally correct given that they push hatred and are part of a group that actively uses hatred, lies and attacks on every minority under the sun including many Christians who do not agree with them. While hate speech is legally allowed, it is certainly not morally correct to say that Native Americans deserved to be slaughtered, or Blacks deserved to be enslaved. The AFA, of which OMM is an affiliate, have said those things in the past.

They went on to say:

OMM appreciates your support for our agenda – standing up for Biblical values. As Christians we know God says homosexuality is a sin (Romans 1:26-27), like adultery, fornication, and other sexual sins. Ellen is attempting to indoctrinate our children.

And yet, adultery and fornication are legal. It should also be noted that children cannot be indoctrinated into being lesbian or gay since science has shown sexuality to be inherent. Even the Roman Catholic Church has admitted that homosexuality is inherent even if they believe it is wrong. Of course, that is a problem given that homosexuality is inherent. That is like demanding that a Black person stop being Black just because it is considered morally impure. Oh that is right, at one point, being Black was seen as being automatically immoral.

Oh, and it is nice to see that they admit that they have an agenda.

They continue:

In today’s culture when an individual stands up for what they believe in and someone disagrees with them then they are referred to as a hater when in reality it is OMM’s opponents who are hating us. Tolerance does go both ways. Apparently, OMM must be doing something right because scripture says that we will be persecuted for our Biblical beliefs (Matthew 5:11). Our voice is being heard! The Word also says that Jesus told his disciples that they would be hated because He was hated first (John 15:18). OMM will remain strong because we are to be the salt and light.

There is, of course, a difference between disagreeing based upon something factual and relying solely upon someone’s religion given that religious beliefs are not universal. What is more, when someone has to rely upon lies in order to spread their agenda, they are easily someone who hates. If they actually had any facts to support their beliefs that do not rely upon their religious beliefs, then they would use them. Instead, they rely upon lies about how children are hurt by homosexuality even when it has been shown to be incorrect time and time again. They rely upon claiming that children raised by lesbians and gays are harmed, even though the evidence shows that they are incorrect on that front too.

And finally, they wrote:

OMM has hundreds of thousands of supporters joining together for what is right. Yes, OMM will have its critics, but remember Godly principles validate our stand. OMM is growing everyday and has gained new supporters over this past week. There is strength in numbers! It is our responsibility as parents to do everything in our power to protect our children from being misled and desensitized.

OMM plans to cover other issues in the near future, but we will not change our stance on Ellen becoming the new spokesperson for JC Penney. OMM will not back down or give in to pressure from the media.

Hundreds of thousands. . .hundreds of thousands. . .Ellen’s show brings in 2.4 million viewers every day. Guess who people are listening to more.

The problem is that it is established precedent that you cannot give someone a right and then take it away without due process or a just reason. Since NOM and company could not muster so much as a decent argument as to why it was necessary to remove the right for same-sex couples to get married, and ended up showing that their reasoning was based on religion, well, their case pretty much was doomed.

Of course, Brown wrote:

Even while pretending their ruling was a “narrow” decision, these judges effectively decreed themselves to be the supreme overlords of the people, invalidating the votes of over 7 million Californians and declaring that they, the vaunted elite in black robes and cloaked with lifetime tenure, will decide what marriage means in California and the nation.

In this nation, it has never been the standard practice to put the rights of a minority group to a popular vote. In fact, had the civil and political rights of Roman Catholics been put to a vote back in 1789, they would have been defeated. It was not until the 1960′s that Catholics were even trusted by the majority if Americans. We can also guess how putting the civil and political rights of Blacks to a vote in 1965 would have gone.

Brown’s reaction and statements are identical or similar to those written in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education by those demanding Segregation. The Southern Manifesto states “This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding.” and “The unwarranted decision of the Supreme Court in the public school cases is now bearing the fruit always produced when men substitute naked power for established law.”

The Southern Manifesto was signed by Strom Thurmond and Harry F. Byrd among others. In fact, of the Southern Senators at the time it was written, only three refused to sign it- Estes Kefauver, Albert Gore Sr., and Lyndon Banes Johnson.

Brown went on to say:

Not only must our founding fathers be rolling over in their graves with the preposterous notion that marriage is unconstitutional, but the ruling is an affront to the millions of Americans—the vast majority of the nation—who recognize that man does not have the right to redefine marriage. After all, how can federal judges redefine something that man didn’t create?

Actually, the Founding Fathers would be far more upset over a Catholic puppet trying to backdoor theocracy in this nation. In fact, while the Founding Fathers would have been upset over the notion of homosexuality being legal, they would be furious over just how theocratic Brown and company are given their battle against theocracy in this nation, and their declaration that this nation was not a Christian nation, but rather a Secular one.

Brown also stated:

America is supposed to be a nation where the rule of law prevails. Until this case yesterday, no federal appeals court had ever declared that marriage is unconstitutional. To justify its outrageous opinion, the Ninth Circuit had to totally ignore binding U.S. Supreme Court precedent that state laws like Proposition 8 defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman do not violate the US Constitution.

The two judges who formed the majority opinion dismissed this precedent with a mere mention in a footnote because it inconveniences their radical judicial activism.

The judicial overlords on the Ninth Circuit have come to the amazing conclusion that once a court has imposed same-sex marriage on a state—as the California Supreme Court did in 2008 in a hotly-contested 4-3 ruling—the voters of that state are powerless to do anything about it. Maybe these activist judges think they are above the law, but we don’t!

In America, the people are sovereign, not elitist federal judges with their Hollywood values and lifetime tenure. Nobody is above the law, and it’s time we reminded them of that fact!

Of course, the fact that NOM has fought tooth and nail to try and keep their donor lists secret in violation of the law makes their last statement absolutely idiotic. What is more, the judges used existing laws to their benefit. In fact, they used case law to make their ruling, and case law that flies in the face of those who hate the rule of law like NOM.

Of course, that brings us to Bill O’Rielly who nearly had an aneurysm on his show last night:

Simply put, O’Reilly went into a fury because he cannot stands have anyone actually tell him he is wrong.

Which he is.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have both condemned the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stating that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. It is not surprising that they decided to attack the ruling even though it was based on accurate law and precedent. Romney attacked the judges because they are “unelected”, and Gingrich attacked it because of the supposed way it assaults the “Judeo-Christian foundations of the United States.

Romney stated

“Today, unelected judges cast aside the will of the people of California who voted to protect traditional marriage. This decision does not end this fight, and I expect it to go to the Supreme Court. That prospect underscores the vital importance of this election and the movement to preserve our values. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and, as president, I will protect traditional marriage and appoint judges who interpret the Constitution as it is written and not according to their own politics and prejudices.”

Gingrich stated

With today’s decision on marriage by the Ninth Circuit, and the likely appeal to the Supreme Court, more and more Americans are being exposed to the radical overreach of federal judges and their continued assault on the Judeo-Christian foundations of the United States….

Should the Supreme Court fail to heed the disastrous lessons if its own history and attempt to impose its will on the marriage debate in this country by affirming today’s Ninth Circuit decision, it will bear the burden of igniting a constitutional crisis of the first order.

The Social Conservatives are up in arms over the ruling, and already threatening to appeal the ruling even though the appeal might not be in their best interest. The probability is that the Supreme Court will rule against Prop 8, and that is even if they are willing to take the case.

The Ninth’s ruling is based on established precedent that it is unlikely that the Court will likely want to revisit at this point. Even with the Court moving more towards the Right, there is still a probability that they will be unwilling to take up the case given the way the ruling was worded and structured.

The big problem for the pro-Prop 8 groups is that appealing this ruling is far more risky than it is if they leave it. It will set precedent that will make repealing same-sex marriage laws impossible, but appealing it risks sending this to the Supreme Court where the likelihood is that it will be ruled unconstitutional 5 to 4 due to the way that the current Court is structured, and at that point, they could widen the ruling to make it unconstitutional across the board.

According to the Press Release:

“GSA Network is proud to see national officials recognize the courageous leadership of GSA activists, who have successfully advocated for essential student protections in several states, including California,” said Carolyn Laub, Executive Director of GSA Network. “It is time for our Senators to honor and exhibit that same leadership by passing federal student protections.”

Senator Franken will host a call with GSA activists on National GSA Day to discuss the country’s urgent need for safer schools. He has already released a video calling on viewers to “make it better” for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth by asking their Senators to co-sponsor the Student Non-Discrimination Act.

“National GSA Day is a time to celebrate the contributions made by Gay Straight Alliance clubs all over the country,” said Sen. Franken. “GSA clubs make schools safer and provide a supportive community for LGBT students, who are bullied far more frequently than other students and, tragically, have a much higher rate of suicide. I’m proud to call myself an ally of the LGBT community and I’ve been working with the GSA Network to pass legislation – the Student Non-Discrimination Act – to protect students from bullying, harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Together, we can make sure our kids feel safe and supported at school so they can get the education they need and deserve.”

The Student Non-Discrimination Act would establish a comprehensive federal prohibition against discrimination, including harassment, in public elementary and secondary schools based on a student’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

“My Gay-Straight Alliance club has empowered me and other youth to improve policies, laws, and culture in my school and in the state,” said Trio Harris, GSA Network Board Member and President of the Carlsbad High School GSA. “I’m excited that GSA Network is joining with Senator Franken to celebrate the tradition of youth activism on National GSA Day by advocating for the Student Non-Discrimination Act, a federal law with important protections that would make it better for all students in America.”

In preparation for the day of action, Gay-Straight Alliance Network sent a letter Tuesday to the United States Senate urging all Senators to support SNDA. Since its founding in 1998, GSA Network has grown from just 40 GSA clubs in the Bay Area to 870 clubs with an estimated 13,000 student members in California alone. Nationally, GSA Network operates an association of state networks with 35 member organizations. Youth advocates trained by GSA Network have successfully lobbied ten successful pieces of state legislation in California, including student protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

GSA Network is part of a broad coalition of organizations across the country partnering to honor National GSA Day. Coordinated and sponsored nationally by Iowa Pride Network (IPN), National GSA Day on January 25, 2012 is a time to strengthen the bond between LGBT people and straight allies and in particular recognize and honor student organizations called Gay-Straight Alliances. These student led groups work to educate their peers to stop homophobia, transphobia and violence in schools and colleges throughout the country. Find out more about National GSA Day at GSADay.org.

Ever since Dee Brown published Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee in 1970, the battle of historical accuracy has raged. In the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant version of American history, Washington threw a silver dollar over the half-mile wide Potomac at the age of 62 and Americans put the native population in reservations for their own good. Newt Gingrich’s and Rush Limbaugh’s favorite phrase for describing any attempt to correct the historical record is “revisionist history,” meaning that historians were trying to revise history for a liberal perspective instead of correcting its errors.

Let’s get this straight right off: the Americans didn’t liberate the people of Texas or California. They conquered both those states. They wanted slavery in Texas, which was against Mexican law, and the wanted California’s access to the Pacific and resources. Zorro is an Anglo myth, not a Mexican legend. The people of California were no worse off under Spanish rule than any people in a top-down, rich-man’s control situation, and they sure as hell were better off under Mexican rule in Texas without slavery.

In Tucson, Arizona, the school board has decided that students should not have access to any facts about the WASP conquest of this continent. They sent in goons to seize books from classrooms and out of students’ hands. The majority of books seized were by Native American authors ranging from the twenty-year old text book Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years co-edited by that radical Hispanic Bill Bigelow to N. Scott Momaday’s The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee and a picture book of Mexican landscapes.

When Star Trek: Voyager premiered, there was some criticism from Native Americans of the casting of Mexican-American actor Robert Beltran as an Southwestern Native American. Beltran explained, rather emphatically and somewhat angrily, that most Mexicans are Native Americans, not Spaniards. Latin America was always racially divided. At the political and economic top were the Spaniards like my grandparents – a closed society of immigrants who were frequently the younger members of upper-class and aristocratic Spanish families and their descendants. In the middle were the mix-bloods, descendants of Spanish soldiers and lower-class immigrants who intermarried with the native population. At the bottom, the overwhelming majority of inhabitants of Mexico, the continent, the islands and the isthmus, were Native Americans. The Mexican Civil War of 1909-13 was fought along these racial lines.

At the core of the school board’s decision (which interestingly enough included banning Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but not Othello) is the personal agenda of Arizona state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal, who campaigned for his office on the promise to “stop la raza.” “La Raza” refers in an narrow sense to Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida, a Chicano political party that as founded in the 1970s to work for better conditions of Mexican-Americans. In Huppenthal’s usage, it means all Latin-American peoples who want equal opportunity, equal rights and preservation of their culture.

The Tucson school board has informed teachers of Mexican-American studies that they are to avoid any class units where “race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes.” So, they are forbidden to teach the Trail of Tears, the genocidal Indian Wars, the reservations on land that could not support agriculture, the truth in all its uncomfortable forms?

So-called “revisionist history” seeks to correct the American mythology by providing the other side of the story – the facts about the Indian Wars and the conquest of the Southwest. It is not a liberal agenda, but an agenda of truth and fact. It is an assertion of who really built this nation and what those men and women contributed to it and who suffered for it.

I can hear the complaints now – you live in New England, so what the hell do you know about the Mexican border? What I know is that the northern border and Canadians are the same situation as the southern border and Mexicans, just less obviously because of the racial factor. The entire northern tier from the Atlantic to the Dakotas was settled by the French Canadians. They settled as far south as Colorado and all along the Mississippi Valley. They founded Louisiana before the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia. Canadians and Canadian-Americans crossed back and forth over the border as though it didn’t exist until 2001. There were hundreds of little roads that were unmonitored border crossings. My husband’s grandparents crossed the border twice a year with their entire brood of children in the back of the truck, following the seasonal work. No one questioned that practice. It was the same on the southern border. The borders didn’t exist in the minds of those who lived along them. In point of fact, our immigration laws did not initially include any reference to Mexicans and Canadians. The hysteria over 9-11 – and in this regard it was pure hysteria – damaged the cultures of both borders. It denied us the right to do what had been done since before any of these three nations existed, maintain contact with friends and relatives no matter where they lived, take jobs that shifted with the seasons. There is nothing in the Canadian-American border vocabulary that parallels the word “tejano” – the culture of the border. One Canadian explained it to me thusly: these were for the most part illiterate laborers. They couldn’t write letters to the families they left behind, but they could get in their cars or trucks and visit. Those who didn’t do that were deemed to have been swallowed up by America, lost to their families and friends. In a Québeqois family reunion, the presence of descendants of the lost ones is a big deal. It re-establishes connections thought to be gone for all time.

Arizona has a population of 6.4 million. The non-Hispanic white population is 57.8% of that. Hispanics are 29.6%. Native Americans make up only 4.6% of the population. The remaining 8% of the population is “other” or mixed race. One third of the population is Hispanic and Native American, while the non-white population is over 40%. Huppenthal wants to deny 40% of the population of his state access to anything other than the Anglo white-washed version of history and Anglo literature. He wants Arizona children to be raised to think there has never been racial prejudice, racial injustice or even a multitude of races in this country. He wants a curriculum of lies. The Tucson high school students who compared the seizing of their books to Nazi Germany had it right. The Nazis wanted an ethnically and religiously pure nation, too.

The Republican charge that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama “apologize” for America is part of this battle over historical accuracy. The United States has done some stupid things over time, especially as part of the Cold War. We supported vicious, butchering dictators because they said they were “pro-America,” including men like Saddam Hussein and Augusto Pinochet, whose body count in Chile was higher than Hussein’s in Iraq. We did this. That is historical fact. It is not an apology to acknowledge it. The acknowledgment shows that as a nation we – or at least some of us – have grown beyond the fascist nationalism of the Cold War era.

There is a minor benefit to men like Huppenthal, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. They have gotten arrogant. They believe that there is enough support in this country for their bigotry that they can drop the facade of inclusiveness. They think they are free to pursue their agendas that denigrate, demean and deny the wide range of ethnic and racial identities in America. They think that the color of my skin will make me their ally. They do not understand that even whites have been victims of discrimination over time and that there is a strong sense among Americans that oppression and repression based on ethnicity or race or culture is fundamentally wrong.

The more secure they think they are in such overt expressions of bigotry, the more they turn good Americans against their agenda.

Related articles

• Tucson school board suspends Mexican-American studies program (cnn.com)
• Tucson schools ban books by Chicano and Native American authors (moorbey.wordpress.com)
• A critical reading of Tucson’s ‘Banned Books’ list (alanlechusza.wordpress.com)
• Arizona bigotry: How it can affect us all (dailykos.com)
• Testament’s Chuck Billy Opens Up About His Native American Upbringing (noisecreep.com)
• The Ten Commandments of the Native American Indians (the2012scenario.com)
• Neo-Racism in the Southwest (moorbey.wordpress.com)
• School Suspends Mexican-American History Program To Comply With Arizona’s Ban On Ethnic Studies (thinkprogress.org)
• Tucson Unified School District Ban Rethinking Columbus (ecochildsplay.com)

The thing is, I still have gone through, and continue to go through, many of the same issues that other transsexuals, intersexuals and transgendereds have to go through on a daily basis. For one thing, I always wanted to be a Girl Scout. I wanted to dress up in girl’s clothing. I wanted to live my life as a girl. Instead, I had to join the Boy Scouts, dress in boy’s clothing, and lived as a male until I was much older. While I was lucky that I had a family that allowed me and even encouraged me to be fairly feminine as a boy, I still wanted those things.

Of course, we live in a society where one is defined not by what is between one’s head, but what is between one’s legs. Society is defined by those who are, shall we say, ‘Penetrators’ and those who are ‘Penetrated.’ Anyone who is born a Penetrator is suppose to adore being that, and want to remain in that exalted status forever. Anyone who is born a Penetrated is suppose to aspire to being like a Penetrator even though they can never be given that status. Anyone who wants to leave being a Penetrator is automatically seen as being suspect and wrong. They are a threat to the Penetrators and need to be stamped out. The same is true of any Penetrated who gain too much status and get too close to being a Penetrator.

This is not totally analogous to male/female. Penetrators are heterosexual males- period. It is assumed by our society that all males are Penetrators and thus heterosexual. To want to be homosexual- and thus penetrated- is a threat to the Penetrators as it means losing status as a male. Thus, Penetrators are all heterosexual males and Penetrated are everyone else.

The machinery in society that has been enforcing this binary system for so long has been breaking down slowly. The problem is that there are still people who hate the fact that it is breaking down at all.

A 14-year-old California Girl Scout known only as “Taylor” railed against the Girl Scout’s decision to allow 7-year-old trans girl Bobby into the Scouts. Others have joined in Taylor’s calls for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies. Let us be honest here. The reality is that the Girl Scouts have always been a threat to those who want women to remain second class citizens. The Girl Scouts have always supported what empowers girls and women without regards to who they love or what genitals they were born with.

Perhaps Taylor missed that lesson.

H/T Edge

Two landmark transgender rights bills signed by Governor Brown last year became law on January 1, 2012. AB 887, the Gender Nondiscrimination Act, authored by Assemblymember Toni Atkins, strongly clarifies the existing employment, housing and other civil rights protections for all Californians. The law makes it clear that discrimination is not legal in California. AB433, the Vital Statistics Modernization Act, authored by Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal, streamlines the process for Californians to obtain and update birth certificates.

“This is a huge victory, and yet there is still work to be done in order to make sure all our laws and societal attitudes are fair and promote justice for transgender people,” said Kristina Wertz, “The passage of these bills motivates me to work harder than ever before to ensure transgender and gender non-conforming people have access to quality health care and are treated with dignity and respect.”

Transgender Law Center will continue to offer assistance to anyone who experiences challenges in obtaining documentation appropriate to their gender identity or anyone who experiences discrimination in housing, employment and other situations. The process of legally changing name or gender can take longer than expected, as courts are experiencing a back-up due to budget cuts.

“It’s a new era for transgender Californians and their families. I am incredibly proud of our staff, our allies, the legislators and Governor Brown for putting an end to discrimination,” said Masen Davis, executive Director.

Frequently Asked Questions about both laws are available at www.transgenderlawcenter.org as well as information about the most up-to-date forms and necessary paperwork.

Dye served six months in jail and was ordered to register as a sex offender. She did that in Ohio, but suddenly moved without providing a new address. This occurred last December. Dye moved to California, from whence she was returned to Ohio.

Via the Dispatch.

Jules Manson (no relation to Charles or Marilyn)

Conservatives, Republicans and Tea Partiers get very upset when they are called racist. The uncomfortable truth is, within their ranks there are a number of racists, and as long as they fail to completely disavow these vermin, they get painted with the same brush.

Around the time of the BP oil spill, there was a commenter on Yahoo News who called himself “Dark Clown.” He called for the gang rape of the Obama/Robinson women – Michelle, Sasha, Malia and Mrs. Robinson. Then, he recommended the gang rape of every Democratic Party woman in Washington, starting with Nancy Pelosi. Not exactly a racist, but definitely misogynistic. Placards held up by Tea Party members during the health care “debate” depicted the President as an African witch doctor. That was racist.

It is also racist to refer to Allah as a “monkey god” or call Mohammed a pedophile. It is racist to portray all Muslims as terrorists and barbarians. These views are fairly widely held among conservatives and Tea Party members and part of the rhetoric of the Republican Party.

Right now, Tea Party members are incensed that a Californian named Jules Manson is being identified with their movement in the press. He calls himself a Tea Partier but he has announced that he is going to run for the California State Senate in the 28^th District as a Democrat. He would be challenging incumbent Ted Lieu, who helped create the backlash against Lowe’s.

Manson posted on his Facebook page that “I am very RACIST: an Insidious American Against Sociality Takeover.” That would be I-A-A-S-T, not R-A-C-I-S-T, but that might require more education than Manson appears to have.

What is focusing attention on Manson right now is a couple of postings. First, he used very Biblical language to call for the assassination of the President and his daughters “…it MUST be countered with assassination onto them and their children.” Yup, doesn’t know his “onto” from his “unto.” Then, in case his readers didn’t get the message, he posted “Assassinate the fucking nigger and his monkey children.”

This week’s source of Manson’s anger is the National Defense Authorization Act which some people are getting hysterical about because the language in it seems to suggest that Americans could be taken into custody as suspected terrorists and held without due process. The hysteria is stupid. That portion of the NDAA will never withstand a court challenge on the grounds of Constitutionality. The President signed the NDAA to fund the military before they ran out of money. He’s a former professor of Constitutional Law, for crying out loud. He’d be the first person to tell you how unconstitutional that provision is and how it doesn’t stand a chance of sticking if any President were dumb enough to try it.

But it is President Bush’s crowning legislative achievement that brought the Secret Service to Manson’s door. There is a provision in the Patriot Act that restricts free speech, if that speech threatens the life of a Federal employee or elected official or members of their families.

Manson claims that his rants are protected free speech, no matter what the intent behind them. It’s the same defense Bill O’Reilly used when Dr. George Tiller was murdered – he can say anything he wants and he is not responsible if someone else does something. They are both dead wrong.

The United States criminal code says that “whoever aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures the commission of an offense, is punishable as a principal.” And “whoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense, is punishable as a principal.”

Bill O’Reilly never actually told anyone to kill Dr. Tiller, but his language made it apparent to those of that mindset that Tiller was a murderer. Manson, on the other hand, encouraged murder. He is legally responsible if someone kills or attempts to kill the President or one of his daughters. We know there are real nutcases out there, men and women as crazy as Jared Loughner or Tim McVeigh, who would take a call to assassinate the President or his daughters seriously. In the coming ten months, the President will be more exposed than usual because of campaign appearances.

Unless or until someone takes a shot at the Obamas, Manson has not committed a crime. For now, the best we can hope for is the voters of California’s 28^th District making his life unbearable. Every single campaign appearance he makes should serve as a reminder to him of how unacceptable his language is.

Christmas photo of Sasha, Michelle, President Barack and Malia Obama

Related articles

• Former Carson City Council Candidate Calls For Assassination Of Obama ‘And His Monkey Children’ (laist.com)
• California Politician and Ron Paul Supporter, Jules Manson, Is A Racist And Advocates Assassinating Obama And His Children (practikel.com)
• Failed Tea Party Politician Posts Facebook Page Calling For Obama Assassination (crooksandliars.com)
• Feds following up after California man’s anti-Obama post (cnn.com)
• Mr. Jules Manson: “Assassinate the fucken nigger and his monkey children” (theobamacrat.com)
• Libertarian Candidate Calls For Assassination Of Obama And His Children (joemygod.blogspot.com)
• Calif. man says he’s sorry for Obama threat (sfgate.com)
• Ron Paul-Loving Teabagger Turns Out to Be Huge Racist (slog.thestranger.com)

President Obama signing Affordable Health Act

Just remember, the Tea Party is not racist. Jules Manson is a failed Tea Party candidate in California who has now called for the assassination of President Barack Obama and his daughters in a racial epithet-laden Facebook rant. Manson stated “Assassinate the f—– n—– and his monkey children.” The post was originally about his opposition to the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act in which Congress gives the President the right to detain suspected foreign (and possibly domestic) terrorists.

A screen shot of it was uploaded by “Americans Against the Tea Party”.

Manson later pulled the comments from his Facebook page and tried to explain that the comments were “careless, emotionally driven remarks that had no real substance.” Manson is an avid Ron Paul supporter and libertarian. He has since been visited by the Secret Service and said that he cooperated fully.

Manson has, in the past, posted pictures of Obama dressed as Hitler.

Author’s Note: Since a bunch of people cannot seem to quite grasp that there is no guilt by association in this article, or anything else other than a statement of fact, comments are hereby closed. Attempts to address this article in other locations will be viewed as a violation of our commenting policies and result in a ban. There is no editorialization here, just statements of fact. Understood?

Via Huffington Post

Mark Meckler at Capital, Nov. 2, 2010 (Getty Images)

Mark Meckler, co-founder ad chariman of the Tea Party Patriots, was arrested in New York’s LaGuardia Airport for trying to check in for a flight with a gun and ammunition in his luggage. According to Meckler’s attorney, this whole thing is improper. Meckler, “legally declared his possession of the firearm in his checked baggage at the ticket counter as required by law and in a manner approved by the TSA and the airline, yet was arrested by the port authority for said possession.”

Let us review, complements of the TSA website:

–Travelers must declare all firearms to the airline during the ticket counter check in process.      –The firearm must be unloaded.                                                                                                                                   –The firearm must be in a hard-sided container                                                                                                     –The container must be locked. A locked container is defined as one taht completely secures the firearm from being accessed. Locked cases that can be pulled open with little effort cannot be brought aboard the aircraft.                                                                                                                                           –If firearms are not properly declared or packaged, TSA will provide the bag to law enforcement for resolution with the airline. If the issue is resolved, law enforcement will release the bag to TSA so screening may be completed.

(There are several sentences concerning the resolution of firearms that are not secured and set off alarms.)

–Travelers must securely pack any ammunition in fiber (such as cardboard), wood or metal boxes or other packaging specifically designed to carry small amount of ammuniti                            –Firearm magazines and ammunition clips must be securely boxed or included with a hard-sided case containing an unloaded firearm.                                                                                                                         –Small arms ammunition, including ammunition not exceeding .75 caliber for rifle or pistol and shotgun shells of any gauge, may be carried in the same hard-sided case as the firearm, as long as it follows the packing guidelines described above.                                                                                                  –TSA prohibits black powder or percussion caps used with black-powder.

My money’s on the method of packing. Though Meckler’s attorney has declared that the weapon was declared, he has not also said that it was properly packed.

Meckler is charged with criminal possession of a weapon, which is a class C felony with a maximum 15-year sentence. Meckler’s Glock 27 pistol is registered in California, but not in New York. Prosecutors say that since the weapon isn’t illegal, and Meckler is licensed in his home state, he will probably only get a fine. He will, however, lose the Glock. It has been seized and will be destroyed.

Meckler, by the way, says he carries the Glock when he travels because he “recieves threats.”

Related articles

• Tea Party Honcho Busted For Gun At LaGuardia Airport (huffingtonpost.com)
• Tea Party member arrested on gun charge at NY airport (cnn.com)
• Tea-party leader shocked by arrest on gun charges(NY) (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
• Tea Party Leader Mark Meckler Arrested For Trying To Board Flight With A Gun (mediaite.com)
• Tea Party Patriots Co-Founder Mark Meckler Arrested – Charged With Gun Possession At LaGuardia Airport (yubanet.com)

Chickens Say- Eat More Beef!

Chick-fil-A is having problems again. Their attitudes towards the LGBT Community and their spat with a Vermont-based T-shirt designer have caused them some well deserved ire across the nation, and now, they are having problems out of Irvine, California. Three students of Asian heritage there have said that a Chick-fil-A location in Orange County insulted them with racist stereotypes.

The employee at the register never asked the names of the students, but wrote “Ching” and “Chong” on their receipts. According to Chick-fil-A, the incident did occur, and the employee in question was fired from his job. This brings up echos of Macy’s employee Natalie Johnson’s firing for harassing a transgender teen who wanted to use the women’s changing rooms.

Chick-fil-A issued a statement saying:

Please understand and accept our confirmation that the inappropriate, and unthinking behavior of a young team member at one of our restaurants does not support any claim or even suggestion of racism at our restaurant. The individual clearly violated our operating standards; the matter was addressed and discussed immediately with the guests on the spot; and a confirmation was provided that the employee was immediately dismissed for the individual behavior.

Our Chick-fil-A restaurant Operators and their employees try very hard every day to actually go the extra mile in serving ALL of our customers with honor, dignity and respect. The circumstances here are a simply case of immaturity, failed judgment, and human error….it has nothing to do with the service and operational standards of our Chick-fil-A restaurants which are consistently rated at the highest level of service in the foodservice industry.”

Chick-fil-A has had some major problems of late. They have vocally supported anti-LGBT groups, some of whom are known to consort with known hate organizations.

Oh, and how the Founding Fathers actually celebrated Christmas.

By and large, the Founding Fathers did very little in the way of celebrating Christmas…it was a more religious holiday and people either spent the day in church or with family and really, only Catholic and Unitarians made a big to-do about the day. . .

And, of course, the Daily Show has to have the last laugh on the subject:

Fantelli is not only a racer, she is a trans woman, and she has been living as a woman for less than two years. That is a problem since, according to her physician, she needs to be full time for two years as a woman before she can change her California identification.

According to Fantelli, the ranger went from referring to her by female terms to calling her by male terms after seeing her identification. She was informed by the ranger that she was being arrested for public drunkenness after she consumed a beer. She claims to have had two and a half beers, but the ranger claims she had four.

The ranger then tazed her.

She is heard audibly screaming in the video and told San Diego’s 10News that “He actually looked me straight in the eye and says, ‘You used to be a guy,’ and I said, ‘Yes, I did.’ There was no way around it. I could see it in his eyes. He wanted to do that. It was obvious. He hated me.”

The escort complained that Myers only paid him $500, but never came through with the car and other gifts. The website involved has been taken down.

Myters had, initially, refused to comment on the allegations, and did not mention them in his resignation letter. He stated in his resignation letter “My work commitments will not allow me to devote the time that is needed in the months ahead.”

Some other council members have complained that the allegations have gotten in the way of doing business. He was suspended as a vice-president at Lockheed Martin Corp.

Via Huffington Post

North Carolina had a Democratic legislature ten years ago, and created allegedly Democratic districts. That didn’t prevent the state’s voters from electing a Republican majority this time around. And the Republicans are trying to extract their pound of flesh vengeance for that last district map. The new map virtually eliminates all Democratic-majority districts and ends the tenure of all of North Carolina’s female Congresspersons. The new districts are also written in such a way that there will be no minority-majority districts. Did that sentence make sense? The very convoluted districts split up neighborhoods, towns and counties to achieve ten districts that have a voting majority of white Republicans and three districts that cluster 50% of the states black population. The Supreme Court decision in Bartlett v. Strickland, 556 U. S. 1 (2009), March 9, 2009, pretty much gutted the provisions of the Voting Rights Act that would put North Carolina under pre-clearance status over this new map. The Roberts Court literally ruled that a minority in a voting district has to be a majority for their minority status to be relevant to districting. Gee, and you thought I had a problem with minority/majority language.

In addition to clustering black voters and reducing their impact both in Congress and in the state’s legislature, the new maps eliminate the districts of 40% of the women currently serving in the state’s legislature. About 66% of the women in the North Carolina Assembly are Democrats. Eliminate 40% of them and you reduce the number of Democratic women to less than 40% of the women in the Assembly. That seriously reduces the ability of Democratic women to fight for women’s rights. The attempted cuts are being achieved by a technique called “double bunking.” In a “double bunk” two districts are joined, pitting two incumbents against each other. In the three majority-black districts, there will be black incumbents going against each other and in the female-represented districts, the women will be going against fellow Democrats or against very strong Republican incumbents in newly Republican districts.

The Justice Department pre-cleared the district maps in the 40 counties it has jurisdiction over. That left 60 counties that could be gerrymandered to the Republicans’ hearts’ content.

Voters in North Carolina have filed suit over the new maps. With Bartlett v. Strickland as a legal precedent, it will be very hard for North Carolina’s voters to get any action on these new maps. Women are neither a perceived nor actual minority, even if we are a repressed and oppressed group. We are 50.8% of the American population and the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment means North Carolina’s women cannot sue over the new districts. All they can do is protest, which they are doing with television ads and calls for support from North Carolina’s women. Whether or not Republican women in North Carolina are willing to cross party lines and stand up for women is real iffy.

Related articles

• NAACP prez: GOP-led legislature practices ‘racism and classism’ (goqnotes.com)
• North Carolina Senate Rewrites Racial Justice Act; Gov Urged To Veto Changes (blogs.wsj.com)
• Veto debate follows NC legislature’s vote to repeal state’s capital Racial Justice Act (sentencing.typepad.com)
• Gay candidates win big across North Carolina (goqnotes.com)
• Gerry-rigged: Does your vote matter? (cnn.com)
• Approval of North Carolina Voting Maps Followed by Lawsuits (willetcreek.wordpress.com)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Rick Perry sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi challenging her to a debate over his “Overhauling Washington” plan. She seems to have accepted, though not really, and one has to say that the debate is very simple…

Part Time Congress? Need an Amendment for that.

In fact, everything that Perry has proposed in his Overhauling Washington plan would, pretty much, require a Constitutional amendment in order for him to enact them.

Pelosi replied to Perry stating “He did ask if I could debate here in Washington, Monday, it is my understanding. I’m going to be in Portland in the morning … and California in the afternoon. That’s two — and I can’t remember what the other thing is…”

In his letter, Perry states that:

My plan would overhaul Washington, eliminating certain agencies and reducing the size and scope of others. It will force Congress to make the tough decisions to balance the budget or require a further reduction in their pay. It would end lifetime appointments to future appointees to the federal bench. I don’t want to tinker around the edges when the American People demand a complete overhaul of Washington.

Here is the problem, agencies and departments are created or dissolved by Congress and Congress alone. While it can be easy to create an agency, it is not quite so easy to get rid of one. This is why we have something like fifteen different intelligence agencies. The President can certainly ASK Congress to remove a department or an agency, but he has no way of forcing them to.

As for reducing the pay of Congress…he has to get Congress to agree to that. For a man who says he loves the Constitution, he apparently has never read that document.

Here is the bulk of the letter from Perry to Pelosi:

“Dear Leader Pelosi,

After reading about House Minority Whip Steny Hoyers’ outburst over my “Overhauling Washington” plan, I wonder if his obstructionism reflects your own opposition and that of the Democratic Caucus to urgent reforms the American public so vehemently demand.

After increasing the debt by $4 trillion in less than three years, no one can truly believe that Americans are satisfied with business as usual, and that a permanent political class in Washington can get us out of the mess you and your colleagues have created.

A part-time Congress with half the pay would still make $38,000 a year more than the average American Family. Do you truly oppose lawmakers spending more time in their districts? Is it so important for the Washington power brokers to build their fiefdoms of influence, including providing bailouts to Wall Street while businesses on Main Street are being boarded up every day?

…………………..

My plan would overhaul Washington, eliminating certain agencies and reducing the size and scope of others. It will force Congress to make the tough decisions to balance the budget or require a further reduction in their pay. It would end lifetime appointments to future appointees to the federal bench. I don’t want to tinker around the edges when the American People demand a complete overhaul of Washington.

Let me conclude with an invitation: I am in Washington Monday and would love to engage you in a public debate about my Overhaul Washington plan versus the congressional status quo.

I think it would be a tremendous service to the American public to see a public airing of those differences. Let the people decide.

If Monday doesn’t work, perhaps we could find a time in Iowa over the course of the next month to discuss these issues in front of the people of America’s heartland.

Should you choose not to respond or engage in such a healthy discussion, I will take it to mean you will continue your obstructionist ways in the face of much needed Washington reform.

At least he didn’t call her “Princess”.

Anti-gay opponents of SB 48, the California law that mandates the teaching of history of LGBT people, disabled people and other minority groups in the state’s public schools, have filed paperwork to qualify a referendum that would strike out  references to LGBT people and sexual orientation from the act.

The FAIR Education Act, authored by state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and sponsored by Equality California and Gay-Straight Alliance Network, was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown earlier this year. It requires schools to integrate age-appropriate and factual information about historical roles of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, people with disabilities and people of color into existing social science instruction.

The proposed referendum, if passed, would allow the study of the role and contributions of both men and women, Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, European Americans, persons with disabilities, and members of other ethnic and cultural groups – except LGBT Americans.

After California’s Attorney General approves the paperwork, the proponents will have 150 days to collect the nearly 505,000 signatures need to place the measure on the ballot. Last month another group  failed to qualify their voter initiative to repeal the entire law after they fail to secure the required signatures.

“In the past few months, organizations across the state have been working tirelessly in coalition to ensure California schools value and protect equality for all Americans, including students and the figures they read about in history books,” said James Gilliam, deputy executive eirector of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “This initiative seeks to distort the history taught in California schools and present students with a censored, inaccurate view of our nation, which our coalition will not let stand.”

“Here they go again. At a time when California is facing real economic and social challenges, opponents of equality are manufacturing ‘problems’ to advance their extremist agenda — and they’re using our schools as the battleground,” said Clarissa Filgioun, Equality California board chair. “The FAIR Education Act will simply ensure that California’s students learn an honest, accurate, and inclusive account of history, but opponents of equality have grossly distorted the intent and the effect of the FAIR Education act in their quest dismantle it. We know that when Californians learn the facts about the FAIR Education Act they see these efforts for what they are–the same tired attacks and lies these groups have used for years to turn back the clock on LGBT equality.”

Related articles

• Law mandating teaching of LGBT history faces new challenge (sfgate.com)

The California Supreme Court stated in their ruling that:

…In response to the question submitted by the Ninth Circuit, we conclude, for the reasons discussed above, that when the public officials who ordinarily defend a challenged state law or appeal a judgment invalidating the law decline to do so, under article II, section 8 of the California Constitution and the relevant provisions of the Elections Code, the official proponents of a voter-approved initiative measure are authorized to assert the state’s interest in the initiative’s validity, enabling the proponents to defend the constitutionality of the initiative and to appeal a judgment invalidating the initiative.

The ruling is advisory, but it is very influential and likely means that the Ninth will allow ProtectMarriage, et al to go forward with their case. The question now is whether or not the proponents of Prop 8 have standing in Federal court to appeal.

Proponents of Prop 8 have a difficult job ahead of them. An appeal must show that Judge Vaughn Walker made some error of law, procedure, or fact in making his ruling. Given the lack of evidence put forth by the opponents of same-sex marriage, that seems to be a difficult task to prove.

Via Prop 8 Trial Tracker

The court stated that:

The court granted the request of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to address the following question: “Whether under Article II, Section 8 of the California Constitution, or otherwise under California law, the official proponents of an initiative measure possess either a particularized interest in the initiative’s validity or the authority to assert the State’s interest in the initiative’s validity, which would enable them to defend the constitutionality of the initiative upon its adoption or appeal a judgment invalidating the initiative, when the public officials charged with that duty refuse to do so.”

This is not a binding decision on the case, though. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will have the final say, but they asked the California Supreme Court to issue a ruling guiding whether or not they should grant standing to the proponents of Prop 8.

If they do not rule in favor of the marriage equality opponents, then that will leave Prop 8 without a defendant, and that means that the plaintiffs, the supporters of marriage equality, win.

The supporters of marriage inequality including the National Organization for Marriage lost the case that went before Judge Vaughn Walker when they realized that they had little to no evidence that would stand up in court showing that granting lesbians and gays marriage equality would destroy “traditional” marriage.

The ruling could end up going to the full 9th Circuit and then to the Supreme Court. Those may or may not take up any appeals.

Via Prop 8 Tracker

Janelle has been covered in the OC Weekly and Los Angeles Times as well as the Huffington Post and Orange County Register. Heck, she even got covered here on our little blog.

According to GLAAD, “She breaks stereotypes and is spreading the message of diversity, creativity and equality. At GLAAD, we think telling these types of stories in the media is important. Jenelle will be a role model for other young LGBT folks to look up to.”

The writer at GLAAD talked to Janelle and she stated that “I am running for Miss Long Beach and Miss California USA. I will be the first to wear a tux on stage. Also, this will be the first time someone who is openly lesbian this will represented in this pageant. I hope to bring a message of equality. As an artist in the beauty industry, I can appreciate every texture and color on my pallet. I believe true beauty is something we see every day and comes from within, and I will represent a variety of beauty on stage.”

She is having to raise a lot of money to cover the registration for the Miss California USA pageant, and you can find out how to help her via the GLAAD blog.

According to WalMart spokeswoman Tara Raddohl, the retail giant will announce in January the “partners” who will help them “dramatically….lower the cost of healthcare…by becoming the largest provider of primary healthcare services in the nation.”

Gee, I wonder if they’ll accept Medicaid, since so many of their employees’ children are enrolled in state health insurance programs.

There are a range of clinics available in many communities, from free clinics to walk-in clinics to multi-doctor practices to clinics that accept patients who can afford to pay on a sliding scale. Most of them are over-used and under-funded.

Ian Morrison, a California health care consultant, told NPR that in-store clinics may be the wave of the future. There are clinics in malls. A cynic like me would say that WalMart is ramping up competition against the malls. It already did major damage to small pharmacies when they offered $4 a month generics.

But Ann O’Malley, a researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington told NPR that WalMart may be over-reaching. “Maybe WalMart can deliver a lot of this stuff more cheaply because it is an expert at doing this with other types of widgets, but health care is not a widget and managing individual human being is not nearly as simple as selling commiercial products to consumers.” She was unsure if WalMart could “truly attack cost problems” in health care.

WalMart holds down costs through a system of distribution centers. They buy huge amounts of a product and have them delivered to the center and they distribute them to the stores form there. There are no choices of merchandise by an individual store to match their community. They are also one of China’s biggest customers. Their optical departments buy large quantities of frames, which holds down the cost of glasses, offsetting the cost of lenses.

Years ago, we belonged to an HMO that ended up abandoning its highly cost-effective model. They owned our local hospital, which processed all the lab work for patients from their multi-doctor clinic. One could choose to see only one doctor repeatedly or take the spin of the wheel when making an appointment. One of the doctors told me that the clinic was very attractive for new doctors and ones nearing retirement age. The younger ones got to practice medicine without the exorbitant costs of setting up offices and buying malpractice insurance. The older ones liked the office hours and the fact that the younger ones got stuck with being on-call. When the HMO had a problem with the pharmacy chain they had contracted with, they opened their own pharmacy. While it lasted, it was the lowest cost, most effective and efficient health care we ever had. The thing that killed it was the narrow profit margin. The HMO’s shareholders wanted a higher return on their investments.

For this idea to work effectively, it will be necessary for WalMart to also offer the insurance. The more the layers of profit are reduced, the greater the over-all profitability of a venture like this. And WalMart employees can spell irony.

Related articles

• Wal-Mart looks into expanding services at health clinics (usatoday.com)
• WalMart Shifts Employee Healthcare Costs To States (lezgetreal.com)
• Dr. Always Low Prices? Wal-Mart wants to be your physician (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
• Wal-Mart Slices Health Benefits (lawprofessors.typepad.com)

Lang was on RoveOnline, which apparently is a podcast show of the Australian comedian Rove McManus. She was there alongside NCIS: Los Angeles star LL Cool J and Dexter star Michael C. Hall. He pulled a random question out of a hat and Lang got asked “Justin Bieber, hot or not?”

She answered “Justin Bieber looks like a lesbian. So I’m going to say – hot as sh*t!”

Via RadarOnline

Bieber’s publicist said in a statement that “While we haven’t yet seen the lawsuit, it’s sad that someone would fabricate malicious, defamatory and demonstrably false claims. We will vigorously pursue all available legal remedies to defend and protect Justin against these allegations.”

The reports are that Mariah Yeater has claimed that she had unprotected sex with Bieber a year ago while backstage at one of the singer’s concerts. She got pregnant and gave birth three months ago. MTV is quoting Star Magazine as saying “in a hand-signed affidavit, sworn under the penalty of perjury, Yeater told a California court that Bieber propositioned her on October 25 of last year, when she was 19. The pair had a sexual tryst after his concert and backstage at L.A.’s Staples Center, it’s alleged in court papers.”

The affidavit also requests that the court compel Bieber to have a paternity test done in order to prove whether or not the child, who is named Tristran, is his and then to provide “reasonable child support, effective immediately.”

Bieber has confirmed that he is dating Selena Gomez, and has voiced his beliefs that homosexuality is a choice, and that he is opposed to casual sex. He told Rolling Stone magazine that “I don’t think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them.” A court hearing is schedules for December. Bieber just released his first Christmas album called “under the Mistletoe.”

Now, here is The View on this whole sordid affair:

Lindsay Lohan via Celebuzz

Lindsay Lohan is going to jail…oh and not house arrest either. Lohan will spend thirty days in jail for violating her probation, and after that, she will be on a tight leash (which she may enjoy, we’re not sure what she likes) in order to make sure she completes her probation. Lohan admitted to violating her probation by not attending therapy sessions as was required by the courts and for getting kicked out of the Downtown Women’s Center.

The judge says that all of Lohan’s community service must now be served at the LA County Morgue, where she gets to bedazzle the corpses. The judge also made it clear that, if Lohan violates her probation again, she will be in jail for 270 days.

According to TMZ, the LA Sheriff’s Department has said that Lohan will serve only about twenty percent of the thirty days in jail, or about six days.

TMZ also reported that

Judge Stephanie Sautner gave Lindsay a strict schedule on completing the rest of her probation — by December 14, she must have completed 12 days at the morgue and 4 psychotherapy sessions. By January 17, another 12 days at morgue and 4 psychotherapy sessions. And so on. Everything must be completed by March 29 — or she goes directly to jail for 270 days.

Oh, and Lohan was…strongly encouraged to stop tweeting about what she is doing at the morgue. Lohan apparently appeared happy about this, and said “thank God” under her breath as she left the court.

The written statements have been put in already. In the past, minority judges have been permitted to preside over civil rights cases affecting their race, ethnicity or sex. The dispute over Walker’s sexuality is likely to simply clarify this situation. Walker’s sexuality was widely known before the trial even began, though he did not make it explicitly clear. By the logic of the homophobic groups, though, a straight judge is likely to rule against same-sex marriage.

The homophobic groups are busy saying that Walker should have disclosed any interest he may have in marrying his partner of ten years, or he should have stepped aside. The homophobic group ProtectMarriage- which is out to destroy marriage at all costs- stated “Although a judge may choose to avoid disclosure by recusing himself without explanation, he cannot both remain silent and sit in judgment of a case in which a reasonable observer, with knowledge of all of the relevant facts (disclosed or not) would conclude the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

According to the LA Times:

Gay rights lawyers countered that judges must disqualify, or recuse, themselves from hearing cases only when they have a “substantial and individualized interest in the case, particularly a financial interest, that gives rise to actual bias,” the lawyers for Proposition 8’s challengers said.

“A recusal rule that turns on a minority judge’s subjective desire to enjoy his basic civil rights would effectively disqualify all minority judges,” Proposition 8’s challengers said.

This is an appeal of an earlier ruling where the homophobic groups found themselves on the losing end of the argument. By and large, they lost the case put before Walker because of their inability to actually field any credible witnesses or any evidence to back up their assertions.

Level Two- which is out of four levels, means that there is a “potential substandard degradation in the level of safety of the plant.” The leak was detected at about 3pm in the Number 3 make-up water treatment system in the non-nuclear section of the plant. The leak was confined to Unit Three, and employees in the area of the leak were evacuated. Other plant employees remained at their posts.

Via LA Times

FRC Action, a subsidiary of the hate group FRC, recently took to the email in order to crow about their national bus tour, which seems to be doing a wonderful job of logging tons of miles and chugging out more greenhouse gasses. According to their press release “The bus gives us access to numerous press opportunities and voter rallies where we can share concerns about the family, the issues of life and marriage, and how keeping families intact is the pathway to economic stability.”

Of course, I was left scratching my head. So far, they have been meandering across the nation and only announced one stop- in California. Specifically, the only listed stop on their tour is the small city of 58,000 people called Gardena, California.

Of course, the FRC touts that “At these rallies we have been joined by presidential, senate, and local candidates, whom we have urged to carry the messages of life, marriage, religious liberty, and smaller government.” Yeah….why has there been so little information released regarding the claimed swings through New Hampshire, Ohio, Texas, and Arizona. The Values Stealth Bus claims that they will continue to register people to vote and urge them to back candidates who

Fully support protection of the life of all people, born or unborn;
Stand for marriage as the union of one man and one woman
Seek to protect our religious liberty as our First Freedom

So….at least the FRC learned a lesson from the National Organization for Marriage. Hold your bus tour in secret. Don’t put out photographs, don’t put out press releases. Don’t tout it. Just hide away and do it in quiet so that you can claim that you are doing all this stuff while not actually doing anything. That way people don’t know that you’re values tour is failing badly.

Cottonmouth's mouth, photo by Terry McCormack

About 12 years ago, my son-in-law, an amateur herpetologist, acquired a cottonmouth, a very venomous snake. This female was estimated to be between six and eight years old at the time and was called P. K., short for Preacher Killer, because she did.

You’ve heard of those snake-handling churches? Well, one of them lost their preacher to P. K. That made her famous in the herper world. After a while I lost track of how many thousands of dollars Brian was offered for her. The first time I saw her, she was in her plastic winter-hibernation storage case and she lunged at the cover. Scared the hell out of me. Sixteen foot red tails crawling around the floor I could handle, but there was something about P. K….no one could ever think of her as adorable or loveable or even beautiful as some of Brian’s snakes were. P. K. was just plain mean.

Brian was a serious herper, participating in rattlesnake rescues the days before the infamous Georgia “rattlesnake round-ups” which are killing hunts. He took a seminar at Loma Linda hospital in California with venom expert Dr. Sean Bush. He worked with an Atlanta vet on research in boa diseases. P. K. was his pride and joy, his living proof that people need to respect the snake – respect its nature, respect its power, respect its space.

After Brian was bitten by a venomous snake that he had rescued, and almost lost his arm because the dipsticks in the hospital didn’t believe him when he told them to call Miami-Dade’s snake center to get the proper dosage and duration for the anti-venom, Brian agreed to get rid of his collection of venomous snakes. He refused all offers for P. K. and donated her to the Atlanta Zoo.

She also became famous for her virgin births. The last time P. K. was anywhere near a male cottonmouth was before Brian acquired her, yet she delivered almost 20 babies. The last one, Special K, was born just two months ago. The zoo’s vet believes that this last birth was too much for a nearly twenty-year old cottonmouth who was already eight years beyond the normal lifespan of her species. She passed peacefully today in her private habitat at the zoo.

I have this vision of her arriving on the other side and searching out the preacher she killed, just to thank him for dying. If he hadn’t, she would never have been able to live for twelve years in snakey luxury or become one of the most famous cottonmouths in the South.

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Haileigh said about her girlfriend “She’s really funny and, of course, beautiful, and she’s just perfect to me.” Rebeca said about the whole thing that “It is crazy to think that a few years later I am being nominated as king.”

The two have been getting an abundance of support from their family, friends and pretty much everyone. The couple have said that they had not planned to run. Rebeca stated that “Any of the guys are not happy about me running because I’m taking a guy’s place, but if there was any other way to do it and have two lesbians that are a couple win, I would.”

According to 10News out of San Diego, California:

Their nominations have made a difference for many students at Patrick Henry High School.

“The fact that other people are feeling more confident about themselves or feeling like they might have a chance at doing this, it’s opening doors,” Haileigh said.

It may be opening doors and minds.

A fellow student who spoke up did not know the girls personally, but knew of them. She stated that “I’m actually bi [sexual] myself. It makes me think that you can be more open and stuff, and the way the school’s reacting to it, like, positively … It makes you more comfortable in the school, and in your environment.”

Haileigh said that “We don’t know if we’re going to win. We’re not sure, but if we do, it would be an amazing gesture to the LGBT community and everything that we stand for.”

According to police Sergeant Mike Andraychak believes that the thieves may have gone after the plaque in order to recycle the brass for some profit. The police estimate that the plaque to be worth about ten grand. Weiner has said that he is not sure that the theft was a hate crime and does hope that it will return safely.

According to Mercury News “Milk is considered to be the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in a major U.S. city when he was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated by a disgruntled former supervisor a year later.”

The plaque reads:

Harvey Milk * May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978

Harvey Milk made history as the first openly gay elected official in California, and one of the first in the nation, when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in November 1977. His camera store and campaign headquarters at 575 Castro Street and his apartment upstairs were centers of community activism for a wide range of human rights, environmental, labor and neighborhood issues. Harvey Milk’s hard work and accomplishments on behalf of all San Franciscans earned him widespread respect and support. His life is an inspiration to all people committed to equal opportunity and an end to bigotry.

“You gotta give ‘em hope

Looking gaunt and dressed in white, Lohan often sat quietly looking down at the table. Since her role last year in Machete, she has had almost no gigs at all lately. The judge revoked Lohan’s probation and set a 2 November probation violation hearing as well as set bail at $100,000. The bail was immediately posted by Lohan’s spokesman Steve Honig.

He stated that “Lindsay is hoping this matter will be resolved on Nov. 2 and the court will reinstate probation and allow her to continue fulfilling her community service.” Lohan was cuffed and taken away before the bail was set. City prosecutors had been pushing for Lohan to return to jail while the probation department has asked that she not be.

Lohan looked horrendous in poorly done blush and her face looked puffy.

The twenty-five year old also got a tongue lashing of a kind that she is not use to from Judge Sautner because of the fact that Lohan blew off nine scheduled appointments for community service at the Downtown Women’s Center and the one time she did show up, she stayed only an hour. The judge said that “there has been violation upon violation.” What is more, she was kicked out of the center, which is a violation of her probation.

Even though Lohan did go on to serve time at the Red Cross, that time was denied to her by the judge. The judge stated that “a year is a generous amount of time” and pointed out Lohan’s poor progress at doing her community service. Lohan has six more months to complete her community service, but, as the judge pointed out that “Probation is a gift not a right. If jail meant any time in the state of California, I’d send her to jail.”

Lohan’s lawyer Shawn Holley stated that Lohan’s acting opportunities were limited and that she mostly works in Europe. Holley even tried to say that Lohan has to work to support herself and her family. Sautner, though, has decided that Lohan will have to work at the morgue at least twice a week once Lohan is free, and was not sure that Lohan had finished her shoplifter’s course just last night even though she has had months to do it.

Sautner was not even sure that Lohan was seeing a shrink every week while in Europe.

TMZ, though, decided to run with:

We told you it was gonna happen — Lindsay Lohan’s probation got revoked … and she was led out of court in handcuffs. We know why Judge Sautner threw the book at her … and if Lindsay is finally headed for the slammer.

We’ll take your phone calls at 855-TMZ-LIVE (869-5483) starting at 1:30 PM PT! Submit your comments via Twitter to @harveylevintmz or on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/tmz!

Story, Photo via New York Post

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House Speaker John Boehner was doing one of his favorite things – combining golf and fundraising. It’s the golf part that is responsible for the Speaker being known as John of Orange, so maybe there was some poetic justice in this fundraiser taking place in Orange County. Members of Occupy Irvine and the Courage Campaign delivered a petition to Speaker Boeher, demanding action on job creation. Boehner treated the petition deliverer, businessman Rick Jacobs, with disdain. A security guard stepped in to grab an activist’s camera. Just as Boehner thought the whole thing had been dealt with, a small plane flew low overhead, trailing a banner.

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• Uncouth Barbarians Harass John Boehner at a Golf Course [Video] (gawker.com)
• Occupy OC protest held in city of Orange (abclocal.go.com)
• Hundreds join Occupy O.C. protest while others scoff (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• Occupy Seattle (bulltopia.wordpress.com)
• Occupy Wall Street growing rapidly (dailykos.com)
• Report from a few of the Occupy Satellites – Oct 8, 2011 (iflizwerequeen.com)
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The letter stated that “It is imperative that we marshal our resources to educate the faithful about the Church’s teachings on these matters, and to vigorously organize and support a grass roots effort to get out the vote to support the passage of the amendment.” It went out to every priest in the state.

Archbishop John Niensteadt and his Favorite Politicians

What is more, according to one report, “The archbishop said it wants priests in every parish to identify a ‘church captain’ in order to create an ‘ad hoc committee’ in every church in the state. The ‘church captain’ is a component of the Schubert Flint strategy used in 2008?s divisive Proposition 8 battle in California.”

The church captains will then be organized by the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the political strong arm of the Catholic Church, and they will then report to the Minnesota for Marriage Coalition which is made up of the Minnesota Family Council, the MCC and the National Organization for Marriage- which is a known national hate group.

Niensteadt wrote “A major issues will be placed before the State of Minnesota in the November 2012 election. a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The sanctity of marriage and vital role of the family is at stake. It is a firmly-held teaching of our church that a marriage is a union of a husband and a wife, and that they together are the ones suited to be a father and a mother.”

At what point does the Roman Catholic Church want to admit that they want this nation to be just like Spain was under General Francisco Franco? That they want a theocratically tinged dictatorship so bad that they are popping boners over it? These people will push their views and their ideas and they will do so using lies, slander, innuendo and hate. They will have blood on their hands as their words will be like a thousand cuts bleeding some poor lesbian or gay youth into thinking that being lesbian or gay is wrong, evil and monstrous. They want desperately to believe that they are in the right, but when you surround the Truth with a bodyguard of lies, all you show is that your truth is worth less than the cost of the paper it was printed on.

In fact, it is worth less than the shit that comes out of a snake.

For another perspective on this, go over to Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.

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In the complaint filed in California Superior Court on 30 August, Bonjour stated that “I started to get faint from the loss of blood. My boyfriend called 911. By the time they got there, I was in and out of consciousness.” She also noted that both she and her son “thought I was dying … Once we got to the hospital, I had lost so much blood I was given several pints.”

She has filed suit against California-based Pipedream, which has not been willing to answer questions about the suit or the injuries which occurred while the product was being used in the manner intended. She is seeking more than $25,000

Via New York Daily News

Christian groups failed to get enough signatures to take the FAIR Education Act to the voters. In fact, they fell thousands of signatures short and are now really upset over the fact that children will learn that being lesbian and gay is perfectly healthy so long as you can live in the open, and trans children can learn that it is alright to go through their transition. Of course, the Christian fundamentalists have yet to walk away from that. They are rather upset and claim that they will punish the people who voted for it.

Well, that seems unlikely. They could not even get enough money to get anywhere with this particular push.

Well, as Christian Broadcasting News seems to have not noticed, the loss happened because, at this point, no one really believes the horribly bigoted things that they keep spewing.

The thing is, it failed miserably. They could not get enough people to sign their petition even with the dirty tactics that they resorted to. Roland Palencia, Equality California Executive Director and Interim Executive Committee Co-Chair of the coalition to protect the FAIR Education Act stated:

“The FAIR Education Act will simply ensure that California’s students learn an honest, accurate, and inclusive account of history, but opponents of equality have grossly distorted the intent and the effect of the FAIR Education act in their quest to secure signatures for this referendum. Today’s victory shows that their lies cannot stand up to our truth. But we know that opponents of equality won’t stop here. We remain vigilant, not only to make sure that people know the facts about the FAIR Education Act, but also to continue preparing for new attacks on the FAIR Education Act at the ballot box, in the legislature and in courts of law.”

Laura Valdez, Interim Executive Director of Gay-Straight Alliance Network and Co-Chair of the Interim Executive Committee of the coalition to protect the FAIR Education Act, stated “Now it’s time to focus on implementing the FAIR Education Act and demonstrate to the public that our opponents’ lies are nothing more than smear tactics designed to censor the historical contributions of LGBT people, people with disabilities and people of color from social studies classes. “Already, we are working with school administrators, teachers, students, parents, and community groups to ensure the fair and accurate portrayal of historically marginalized groups in schools, and we will continue to work to educate the public.”

Teresa Favuzzi, Executive Director of the California Foundation for Independent Living, said “Today’s news is welcome and it comes as the Second Annual Disability History Week in full swing, a reminder that youth with disabilities are powerful voices for change and tolerance. We look forward to getting to work to implement this important law and to ensure that disability history is included in a full, inclusive, study of our history.”

EQCA’s press release also said “Since July, FAIR Education Act supporters across the state have built a broad coalition to protect the law and educate the public that spans people of faith; labor organizations; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights groups; disability rights advocates; racial justice organizations and many others who care about equality. These organizations remain committed to strengthening the coalition and protecting this important law. For more information, please go to www.FAIREducationAction.com.”

In the packed Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wisconsin, Anderson told the hundreds of backers and friends “To the thousands of Presbyterians who have worked and prayed for almost 40 years for this day, I give thanks. And I give thanks for those who disagree with what we’re doing today yet who know that we are one in Jesus Christ.”

The audience members gave him a thunderous standing ovation and roared with cheers. Doug Poland, an elder at that church, stated “That was very atypical of Presbyterians. Usually our hands are in our laps.”

Last year, the church’s national assembly removed the ban on lesbians and gays in the ministry. Nancy Enderle, the interim executive director of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, informed the AP that the ordination touched everyone. She stated “He’s a very dignified and poised person, but you could tell he was deeply moved.”

According to the Washington Times:

Mr. Anderson currently serves as the executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches in Sun Prairie, which is near Madison, where he lives. His ordination means he’ll be ordained to the specific job he already has. The only change is that he’ll now be able to administer sacraments such as communion. He could also become a parish minister, a role he said he might consider in three or four years.

Anderson chose Reverend Mark Achtemeier of Dubuque, Iowa to deliver the sermon this past Saturday in part because Achtemeier was once vehemently opposed to gay ordination. In the end, though, he changed his mind thanks to his friendship with gay Christians. Achetemeier told those gathered that he hoped that Anderson’s ministry would bring “healing good news” to those who have felt ostracized and alienated by the church.

Westboro Baptist Church has a smattering of members there to protest. This is not uncommon. After all, they seem to show up like ants at a picnic or roaches in a Florida apartment.

They have a week to get all the signatures that they nee an asking rather pitifully that church members join in their movement. The Huffington Post wrote “To help convince people of the dangers of what the FRC refers to as ‘LGBT heroes’ in the classroom, they’ve whipped up a YouTube video (see below) that members can share with their congregations as well as a fun Power Point presentation.”

They also point out that the FRC is afraid that this is what will happen:

SB 48 would force some public school educators to go against their own deeply held religious and moral beliefs in order to endorse “LGBT heroes” in their schools and classrooms.

SB 48 would expose children as young as five years old to the “role and contributions” of “LGBT heroes” in the classrooms. Parents would not be able to have their children “opt out” from learning about these sinful and aberrant behaviors and lifestyles.

SB 48 would require teachertime away from focusing on traditionally recognized California and American heroes in order to promote the “role and contributions” of “LGBT heroes.”

Less George Washington… More Chaz Bono!

Ah, the smell of desperation.

Two California burglars looking for blank CDs in a barn ended up with a whole lot more after stumbling upon their victim’s stash of kiddie porn.

According to Fox News, the pair broke into Kraig Stockards barn in Delhi, Calif., on Sept. 12 and stole 50 CD-Rs, which Stockard later reported stolen. However, when the burglars took the CDs home to burn music onto, they discovered that more than 30 of the “blank” CDs actually had child pornography on them.

A family member later convinced the larcenous duo to come forward and report the contents of the discs to the Merced County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff deputies then  served a search warrant on Stockard’s property and found three desktop computers and three laptops containing child porn on those computers. Investigators believe Stockard has been downloading the images and movies since 2004.

Stockard was booked into jail for possession of child pornography and already made his $25,000 bail.

The two burglars who found the pornography were not arrested for the burglary.

Said Deputy Tom McKenzie, “We did not actually go out and arrest the suspects for the burglary. They were obviously the lesser of two evils.”

The above clip shows the lengths that the anti-LGBT and largely Christian affiliated groups will go to in order to get people to sign their petition. In this case, they claim that they are trying to increase the penalties for child molesters rather than their true intention which is to repeal the state’s LGBT education bill.

So, who is on the side of good hear, and who is on the side of evil? The ones who want to stop the violence, want tolerance, and want to live life with all their rights, or those who are more than willing to lie and deceive in order to get their aim?

This is not a surprising move, but it does delay the release of tapes that were made for the later use of Judge Vaughn Walker in the crafting of his ruling regarding the constitutionality of Prop 8. California is one of those states where the democratic process has become so inflated that it has resulted in the near decimation of the government since it is ridiculously easy to get an amendment made to their constitution, and almost everything has to be passed by a majority.

Recently, TMZ obtained legal documents which show that the two will be fighting over just about everything. The two were together for nine years, and included the fact that Michaels gave birth to the couple’s twins. The documents show that Etheridge is fighting with Michaels over child custody, visitation, child support, spousal support, division of property and attorney’s fees.

They are even fighting over whether or not the two of them were married. Etheridge says that they were not claiming that their vows stemmed from a non-binding commitment ceremony, but Michaels says that they were. The question is, does the state of California have any paper work for them? If they were married, Michaels is entitled to quite a lot.

Thomasson, who is a Christian Conservative from the group Save California, Lawrence King provoked his own murder. Thomasson is one of the people working to overturn California’s FAIR Education Act. The act mandates the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and disabled Americans in the state’s educational materials. Because of the number of books that the state buys, it could have an effect on the textbooks bought across the nation.

While appearing on The Janet Mefferd Show, Thomasson attacked claims that the law will help reduce bullying by, basically, saying that Lawrence King provoked his own murder three years ago.

Thomasson stated:

“The homosexual activists are saying, ‘Well we have to do this so that we won’t have another Larry King.’ Now Larry King was saying he was homosexual but he also was a cross-dresser and he had a bad teacher who actually got him a girl’s dress and taught him how to put makeup on. And it came out in court that this boy was parading around in makeup and high heels in front of a classmate outside on a bench and the fifteen-year-old Larry King was walking back and forth and saying, ‘You know you want me, you know you want me.’ And there was a lot of anger that another teacher saw on the boy’s face who was being taunted, I mean who’s harassing whom?”

“[T]he whole point is, why in the world would you let two wrongs to be done? Murder is wrong, but allowing reverse harassment to be done and allowing teachers to actually dress up boys as girls, this is causing tension, it’s causing sexual tension, it’s causing emotional tension and this is not anything that goes along with the purpose of academics. This is social engineering. So whenever you hear ‘bullying’ from the homosexual activists, think indoctrination. And it’s coming to all fifty states, I’m sorry but it is one way or the other, get your kids into godly schools and do the sacrifice of time or money and realize that you only have a few years with your children, otherwise they’re going to become liberal adults and call you bigots.”

Thomasson is not a bigot. He is heartless, and in no way a Christian. The day will come when he will stand before his God and have to justify his actions. That is, if he even has a soul.

Source

It may be a stretch to call the sex life of Octopoteuthis deletron or O. Deletron bisexuality. The mating habits of this squid sound more like find someone, anyone of the right species, mate with them, and hope th heck that you just did it with a female of the same species as you.

Like many a less developed organism, sex for the O. Deletron is far more about reproduction than it is about pleasure. While many advanced animals actually feel a great deal of pleasure from sex, and many even enjoy it recreationally (and not just humans, incidentally), for many less advanced animals, sex is fast, dirty and not about anything other than making sure that there is another generation to take over.

Think of it as a very primitive form of “wham, bam, thank you ma’am.”

The O. Deletron lives in the deep darkness of the ocean. They inhabit a zone at about 2,600 feet or 800 meters, and it can be a long, lonely search for another one of the same species. This means that mating with a male, if you happen to be a male squid, it is probably less of a problem than having to ask the next squid out for a bite to eat (avoid the calamari), a bit of snuggling, a bit of caressing, and then do the mating ritual.

Instead, the males search long and fervently for somesquid with which to do a quickie, and then it is off to another conquest. Ok, actually, they don’t go off to another conquest. They die.

On a more serious note, France24 notes:

“In the deep, dark habitat where O. deletron lives, potential mates are few and far between,” a team of researchers note in a study, published in the journal Biology Letters.

And even when these solitary, bug-eyed cephalopods do run into each other, they probably can’t tell a he-squid from she-squid, prompting males to proposition the first shapely body that comes along, no matter what its sex.

That, in any case, is what Hendrik Hoving of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, California and colleagues suspected when they set out to film the creatures in their natural setting.

During mating, which was well known already, “the males use a long tentacle-like appendage…to deposit small sperm-laden sacs, called spermatangia, into females.” The sacs then release the sperm into the tissue of the female and they get pregnant. After mating, though, the male dies.

Hoving noticed that there were “empty spermatangia on the surface of dead males caught in fishing nets.” This lead him to wonder…how did they get there. After that, he sent down a drone to investigate and found some 108 different individual squid. The problem was, they could only identify the sex of 39 of them. This might explain why the males do not discriminate as two whom they sleep with. In total, they did find that nine male squids and ten female squids had clusters of spermatangia attached to their bodies, front and back. The study concluded “Males were as likely to be found mated as females.”

It also concluded that the males “routinely and indiscriminately mates with both males and females.”

France24 noted:

In evolutionary terms, a “shot in the dark,” as the researchers called it, would not seem to make much sense.

But the costs involved in wasting sperm on another male are probably smaller than the costs of developing courtship or the ability to discriminate between sexes.

One thing is sure, they concluded.

“This behaviour further exemplifies the ‘live fast, die young’ life strategy of many cephalopods.”

I would not say that they are bisexual, but they at least know that mating is blind.

The California Republican Party and The Christian Coalition of California have blood on their hands. Today, we learned of the suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer. He is one of so many young girls and boys who are bullied every day, and not just because of their sexual orientation. Robert Newman, the head of the CC of C told ThinkProgress that “I hardly think that bullying is a real issue in schools.” He also called bullying “part of the maturation process.”

Newman along with his rabid right wing fanatics are upset about the law which allows the teaching of LGBT and disabled history in the schools. He stated that “there’s no reason to have a special bill for say three percent of the population, period.” Lesbians and gays make up about a tenth of the human population, incidentally. Newman is relying upon estimates that go back some sixty years.

ThinkProgress also noted:

ThinkProgress spoke to Robert Newman, the head of the California Christian Coalition, who said his group would be mobilizing its members to repeal the gay education law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) earlier this year. Newman said the law, which “adds sexual orientation to the state’s existing anti-discrimination protections that prohibit bias in school activities, instruction, and instructional materials,” is unnecessary and encourages sexually transmitted diseases. The law also compels school districts to teach LGBT history alongside history of other California ethnic and minority groups.

It is obvious that these supposed Christians care more about their fears than they do about the lives that they ruin.

The videotapes of the Prop 8 trail conducted by Judge Vaughn Walker have been ordered released by US District Judge James Ware, but the order has been stayed until 30 September so that the supporters of Prop 8 have time to appeal.  The order comes on the same day that Dustin Lance Black’s play “8″ is set to debut in New York.  It is a dramatization of the events of the trial.

Supporters of the ban on same-sex marriage are deeply opposed to the release of the tapes because it creates an Emperor Has No Clothing situation for them as they are shown not mounting any real defense against those seeking to have the constitutional amendment declared unconstitutional.

Ware fond that there was no compelling reason to continue to keep the tapes sealed stating “Foremost among the aspects of the federal judicial system that foster public confidence in the fairness and integrity of the process are public access to trials and public access to the record of judicial proceedings. Consequently, once an item is placed in the record of judicial proceedings, there must be compelling reasons for keeping that item secret.”

It is likely that this will go to the US Supreme Court.

While those words are by the author Terry Pratchett, they are based on the moto of the Jesuit order. If you teach a child tolerance before they are old enough to learn prejudice, then you have a tolerant populous. Thus, it is not surprising that many of those opposed to LGBT rights are busy demanding that children not be taught that being lesbian or gay is alright. It is why Randy Thomasson of Save California would say that LGBT rights activists are “kidnapping the brains of the kids” because we would rather have children learn intolerance rather than tolerance, and learn bigotry rather than acceptance.

He is the moral equivalent of all those people who opposed learning about African-American history in the schools, or of women’s history in schools. In fact, it would not be surprising if he feels that women’s history should not be taught in the schools. Should it be surprising that he opposes any measure that would allow for tolerance to be taught?

It should not surprise people that many lesbians and gays hate religious institutions and churches given their track record of attacking the LGBT Community on the basis of a morality dictated by a collection of books written over two thousand years ago and based on whatever logic that they can muster in order to find a way to make it sound like lesbians and gays are going to ruin society.

Right now, the churches are mobilizing in order to defeat a bill that made it mandatory for children to learn about the history of LGBT individuals as well as the disabled. They are gathering signatures in order to put this on the ballot in California and vote on it.

It really is time for someone to collect signatures to get rid of the initiative system in California.

In the above video, a group of lesbians and gays were kicked out of a gathering of clergy.

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