Westboro intends to picket Liz Taylor's funeral.
Can we organize a picket of Fred Phelps' life? We can carry signs that say, "God Hates A*******".
(MODERATOR NOTE: I censored the word at the end of this post out of respect for site owner Phil Farrand's wishes that it remain family-friendly.)
Ugh- those freaks again. I have an e-mail campaign picketing them (probably just a drop in the bucket compared to what they receive on a daily basis, I'm sure) a taste of their own medicine all prepped, but their website and contact address seems to have been down for the last 2-3 weeks. Can't imagine why anyone would want to distance themselves from hosting such a sterling website...
Language please, Benn.
I was appalled at the thought of them picketing Ms. Taylor's funeral. In fact, I'm appalled at the thought of any group picketing anybody's funeral. It's a solemn occasion for the family and friends of the deceased; it should not be marred by rabble rousers and attention seekers. The protest may have been little more than wishful thinking (or more likely, publicity seeking) on the part of Fred Phelps, as Ms. Taylor was laid to rest in a private ceremony the day after her death, as required by Jewish custom.
New York legalizes gay marriage.
It is now the sixth state to do so.
NJ has to fight in court all over again for the rights won in Lewis v Harris in 2006. A new lawsuit has been initiated.
In 2006, the court granted marriage equity rights. They left it up to the legislature to impliment it, though. Which was right, since they had neither the time nor the authority. At that time, the legislature passed a law with two parts: the first part immediately legalized civil unions which supposedly gave the rights of marriage (at least it was better than the domestic partnership law that it overrode), and the second part established a commission to investigate whether the civil unions fulfill the obligations that the court placed on the legislature. The commission came to the conclusion that it did not. The horror stories are too numerous to mention.
The State Senate dropped the ball in 2009, and although they should have the votes now, Chris Christie has on several occasions, forsworn his oath of office by stating that he will not sign any equity bill, leaving the courts as the only option.
Since he forced the issue into court, the costs should come out of his pocket. His salary should be docked. If he dares try to raise my taxes or cut needed programs using the costs of defending the failed civil union law as an excuse, he should be arrested for theft.
Al Franken OWNS Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery.
Fr Mike Judge, fire department chaplain, was one of the 9/11 hero-victims. He was also gay, albeit celibate.
Now one of the New Jersey churches Fr Mike once served in was recently changed hands from the Franciscan order (to which Fr Mike belonged) to the secular* church (represented by the Archdiocese of Newark). The church congregation is rather liberal, but the new pastor is extremely conservative. His sermons, especially his diatribes against homosexuality, has caused the congregants to desert the church in droves. Now he has, in effect, forced the music minister to resign. When he found out that the music director, Robert Russel, is gay and in a relationship of 22 years, he vetoed Russel's plans for a children's choir and suggested that Russel change his orientation through therapy.
Outrageous!
Story
*There are two branches of the hierarchical organization of the RCC: the Secular branch ministers to the general public, and is what most people think of when the think of the church hierarchy: from the Pope to the Cardinals to the Bishops to the parish priests to the people; the Regular branch ministers to those under the Rule of Benedict (or under those regulations of other Orders), and the organization goes from the Pope to the Father General of each order to the abbotts, to the monks**, nuns**, service brothers, service sisters, lay brothers and lay sisters.
** The titles "monk" and "nun" properly should only be applied to religious members of cloistered orders. Service orders, whose members work in schools and hospitals, even though they wear (or used to wear)
habits and they take the same three traditional vows (poverty, chastity, and obedience), are not monks and nuns, but brothers and sisters. Lay brothers and sisters live dedicated lives in the cloistered orders, but do not take the vows. they are usually the ones who do most of the manual labor and who deal with the world outside the cloister. The Franciscans have both cloistered and service communities.
LOL! Fighting Westboro's fire with fire.
(Warning: Contains NSFW language.)
The first gay divorces in New York State will be filed this week, a year after gay marriage was legalized. IMHO, it was only a matter of time before it happened. More here.
Gay men still can't donate blood.
Luigi, that's not really a "he's gay -- he's EVIL!!!" sort of thing. It's an HIV issue. Yes, it's profiling, but in the US at the time the policy was implemented, gay men were statistically much more likely to be carrying HIV.
I don't particularly like it, and wish the situation and the policy were otherwise. And to be honest, I don't know if the HIV statistics have changed.
This is from behind an American media paywall but it hits the nail on the head:
quote:JK Rowling's merit as a writer seems to be like that of Jane Austen over Mary Shelley, overhyped and overblown by virtue of being Karen incarnate.
Austen's only merit was to record a lot of aimless bourgeois chitchat, now praised as some kind of gender-based achievement.
Shelley was as a writer of substance with a story to tell.
If people like Orange Peel get power, all the rights gays and lesbians have gained will disappear faster than one could say "boo".
Re Luigi, July25 2013
Policy has changed and HIV negative gay men may donate