I have read plenty of criticisms of bloggers.  I know, then, that I am about to write exactly the sort of thing that makes the stuffed suits puff up with self-important disdain.  A lifetime of journalism could not have prepared me for the propaganda and revelations of evil I have witnessed this year, however, so critique away.  I will just write the way I want to write, same as it ever was (water flowing underground).

Why should I support John McCain?
Is it because of his compassion for homosexuals and children?
Is it because he has all of his facts together when he speaks?
Is it because he is young enough to understand how to use a computer?
Is it because he never changes his positions on issues?
Is it because he has a host of surrogates who speak honestly and fairly on his behalf?
Is it because, like the working class in our nation, he has money troubles?
Is it because of his great skin?

More after the flip

Equality takes another step forward. The American people, 3 to 1, oppose discriminating against gays in the U.S. military, according to the Washington Post.

Seventy-five percent of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.

Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents alike now believe it is acceptable for openly gay people to serve in the U.S. armed forces. Shortly after he took office in 1993, Clinton faced strong resistance to his campaign pledge to lift the military’s ban on allowing gay people to enlist. At that time, 67 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives opposed the idea. A majority of independents, 56 percent, and 45 percent of Democrats also opposed changing the policy.

The most stunning statistic after the jump.

This report may only be encouraging to United Methodists who have been struggling for years against their denomination’s stand on homosexuality. As delegates meet in five regional (jurisdictional) conferences around the country this week, their main task is to elect and assign new bishops. But, as was evident yesterday from the conference in Dallas approving the Bush library at SMU, electing bishops is not their only business. In sharp contrast to the action taken at the United Methodist General Conference last spring, delegates to the denomination’s Northeastern Jurisdiction Conference meeting in Harrisburg, PA voted Thursday to support clergy in California who choose to perform same-gender marriages.

Long time lurker, first time poster.  Please bear with me.

I like to think of myself as a pretty liberal/progressive guy.  That might be despite (or perhaps because) of my Lutheran Missouri-Synod upbringing.  It still doesn't take away the shock of a friend from college coming out of the closet and telling all of us that he's gay.

I have long believed and written about the concept of "latency" as it relates to peoples political and personal beliefs. While I would not over simplify or overgeneralize, I do believe that often times people who are (over?) enthusiastic advocates for or against something in particular do so based on their own desires. The most common example of this is homosexuality. While I certainly believe that many people who are against gay marriage or anti-homosexual do not fall in this category, I do think that the most vocal and strident anti-homosexual folks are simply fighting off their own demons. There are acedemic studies and anecdotal evidence to back this up.

........more

In the 1940s in Germany, there were no secrets.

Oh, the Nazis thought they had secrets. They thought their code was unbreakable. It was like a belief system with them, such that evidence to the contrary simply didn't matter.

Until 1974, knowledge of this code and how it was broken (over and over and over again) was secret. It did not officially exist.

Twenty years before, one of the men most responsible for breaking that code had killed himself, thus making him unavailable for press conferences, a book, lecturing on the subject, etc.

He had not done this out of any sense that what he had done was wrong.

In fact, while we know how he died, historians and scholars don't agree on why he did it or even that he did it. And not everyone is convinced that he was of sound mind (certainly not of sound body) when he ended his life.

But there's no doubt that on June 23, 1912, Alan Turing, one of the most accomplished scientists of the Ultra effort, was born.

There has been a longstanding debate in evolutionary biology regarding the genetic basis for homosexuality. Back in the mid-20th century, the first debate was whether homosexuality was genetically determined at all; but studies of twins showed that it does have a strong (but not exclusive) genetic origin, a conclusion that has been strengthened by further research.

Since homosexuals have lower reproduction rates than heterosexuals, the immediate Darwinian expectation is that those alleles responsible for homosexuality should be removed from the gene pool in a few (perhaps a very few) generations. Clearly this has not happened, and that demands an explanation.

V2: Hey, I saw people were going to the Geraldo of Homosexuality the "Homosexuality getting married is icky" topic, so I thought I needed to bring people back...so a poll!"

WHO should I marry? You pick! See below!

I thought this might be of interest for discussion.

For those that want to track down the full article:

'Genetic and Environmental Effects on Same-sex Sexual Behaviour: A Population Study of Twins in Sweden', Niklas Långström, Qazi Rahman, Eva Carlström, Paul Lichtenstein, Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 7 June 2008, doi 10.1007/s10508-008-9386-1.

This was in summary a study on twins, (7600 pairs of Swedish male and female twins, in 05-06). Of the total, 7 percent have had a same-sex partner.

I do not, sorry to say, have access to the whole article, just to a summary report. If someone can get the whole article to share that would beyond fantastic.

<more after the break>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/...

The Swedish study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, compared the size of the brain's halves in 90 adults.

Gay men and heterosexual women had halves of a similar size, while the right side was bigger in lesbian women and heterosexual men.

A UK scientist said this was evidence sexual preference was set in the womb.

I do not have a solid three paragraph opening.  In fact, I don't really have a diary, just some poems culled from the litterati at Free Republic just now.  Sure it's old hat, but I thought several of their posts about the "California Homosexual Incident of Late" made for some nice "found" poetry.  I just respaced and titled.  You can find them all in different threads in the Homosexual Agenda section at that fine Republican blog thing place.

I'll start with my favorite in the next section.  Did you know South America and Mexica is a country?  I sure didn't!

Feel free to poeterize your favorite Republican Bog Quote!

Yesterday I put the following into a diary post:  "...Charlie Crist is a 'mo."  At the request of commenters, I changed it to "Charlie Crist is rumored to be a 'mo," then, at the further request of commenters, I scrubbed the slang and finally settled on "Charlie Crist is rumored to be a homosexual."  And I greatly appreciate the commenters keeping me honest (though I must say there's plenty of slang used throughout DailyKos, but whatever).

I chose "homosexual" for a specific reason.  These two definitions should help clarify why.

Actually, the headline at Afrik.com, an aggregator of news from Africa, reads President plans to kill off every single homosexual. The sub-head reads

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh says he will "cut off the head" of any homosexual caught in his country.

The Gambia, a former British colony in West Africa, already has made homosexual conduct a felony punishable by imprisonment for a term of 14 years.

Now, Pink News reports,

Gay men and lesbians must leave the country within 24 hours or face "serious consequences," the President of Gambia said on [last] Thursday.

Faerie Fire

"fairy-stories are not in normal English usage stories about fairies or elves, but stories about Fairy, that is Faërie, the realm or state in which fairies have their being." JRR Tolkien

We are taught somewhere that people have a "sexual orientation" and a "gender." We are taught that some people are "gay" and others "straight." We are told these are facts. And endless arguments come about from these supposed facts. But that's not in fact the truth.

The once every four years assembly of the United Methodist Church’s legislative body, General Conference, is not scheduled to meet again until 2012. For four more years anyway, those of us who are United Methodists will have to continue living in a house divided, a house where the majority — made up of equal numbers of lay and clergy delegates—upheld church policy by a vote of 504 to 417 declaring the practice of homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching."  

The matter was first addressed at the General Conference in 1972. The position taken was this: "Although we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching, we affirm that God's grace is available to all." At each General Conference since that time, the position has been unsuccessfully challenged. In fact, it has been extended to prohibit the ordination of homosexuals into the ministry of the church, as well as prohibiting ministers from performing ceremonies blessing same sex unions.

Summary: Nothing serious here.  Just a little fun at the expense of the website designed to counter Wikipedia's "liberal bias".

In this case, I'll be looking at what happens when you take the "fair and balanced" idea that every side of a debate is legitimate to its logical conclusion.

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. – Albert Einstein

On Saturday, I wrote in sorrow and anger about the United Methodist General Conference’s failure to change its anti-gay policy. I was, and remain, sad and angry, but not so much that I don’t appreciate the stand that our bishop and our conference delegation took on this issue.

Bishop of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference, Robert Hoshibata, wrote about his role in the demonstration.

Read on below the fold.

I haven’t told my son yet that the denomination in which his father has been a minister for his entire career has decided once again not to remove the stain from its official policy that homosexuality is "incompatible with Christian teaching." I doubt that he cares now. He has already felt the sting of rejection, which is now mutual.

On April 30, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church at its quadrennial meeting, this year in Fort Worth, once again refused to change its pronouncement of judgment on gays and lesbians by a vote of 504-417.

In an act of witness in front of delegates to the 2008 United Methodist General Conference, more than 200 people declared that the denomination's policies and practices against homosexuality are "sinful" and that "sexuality is a gift from God."
Primarily dressed in black, demonstrators walked onto the legislative floor at the Fort Worth Convention Center, formed a two-lined cross around the communion table located in the center aisle and draped it in a black shroud to witness against the church's stance on homosexual practice. They entered silently, but once all demonstrators were in place, they sang, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?"

(Cross-posted from The Blue Line)

Recently, the Internet has seen a proliferation of sites like "Stuff White People Like," "Stuff Asian People Like," and "Stuff Lesbians Like." All are designed to help you make friends and win favors from members of these groups by explaining the kind of stuff they like. However, no manual has yet been written for those who find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to deal with Republicans on a regular basis. The following is a guide to understanding stuff Republicans like. It will help you avoid detection as a non-Republican and, if you play your cards right, even get Republicans to do stuff you like for you.