So, in addition to 9-11, the Indian tsunami, the deaths of all the U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and tornadoes and meteors, what else can we blame gays for?

Of course! Hurricane Katrina!
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I imagine "reparative therapy" is a lot like this. Sure, maybe after all the denial, self-hatred, and torture you can change, but why the fuck bother?
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The Ethics of Iraq: Moral Strength vs. Material Strength
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Random articles

Two Years Before 9/11, Candidate Bush was Already Talking Privately About Attacking Iraq, According to His Former Ghost Writer

Japanese Robot Knows Words, Can House-Sit
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Boo-yah!

Gay Marriage in the Netherlands Proves No Impact on Straight Marriage, Discovers New Web Site Company Featuring Narrated European Photo Tours
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Give me your shoes.
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Makes me wonder how many other people on the Discovery Institute's list of 400 scientists who doubt evolution, don't.

And this is... odd.
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Britain to unveil new measures against hate preachers, including "either deportation or a ban on entry."

I have to wonder, though: would this apply to, say, Pat 'We Ought to Assassinate Hugo Chávez' Robertson? * Or Jerry 'The Pagans and Abortionists and Feminists and Gays Were Responsible for 9/11' Falwell? Or Fred 'God Hates Fags' Phelps?

* Robertson is saying he "was misinterpreted". Apparently when he said "If [Chavez] thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it", he meant something other than assassination.
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Huh.

Cute.
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12 reasons same-sex marriage will ruin society
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Prostitution: it's not just for penguins anymore. Bonobos, one of our closest animal relatives, also seem to practice a form of prostitution:

A female bonobo shows extended receptivity and uses sex to obtain a male's favors when--usually because of youth--she is too low in social status to dominate him.

At the San Diego Zoo, I observed that if Loretta was in a sexually attractive state, she would not hesitate to approach the adult male, Vernon, if he had food. Presenting herself to Vernon, she would mate with him and make high- pitched food calls while taking over his entire bundle of branches and leaves. When Loretta had no genital swelling, she would wait until Vernon was ready to share. Primatologist Suehisa Kuroda reports similar exchanges at Wamba: "A young female approached a male, who was eating sugarcane. They copulated in short order, whereupon she took one of the two canes held by him and left."

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'Gay Batman' show riles comics publisher
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This would be an awesome game

Grand Theft Auto: Venice
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And they thought today's political discourse was lowered....

His speeches leave the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea. Sometimes these meandering words would actually capture a straggling thought and bear it triumphantly a prisoner in their midst until it died of servitude and overwork.

Senator William McAdoo on Warren Harding

Why, if a man were to call my god McKinley, and the bruite failed to resent to the death the damning insult, I'd drown it.

William Cowper Brann on William E. McKinley

The trouble with Senator Long is that he is suffering from halitosis of the intellect. That's presuming Emperor Long has an intellect.

Harold Ickes on Huey Long

Filthy Story-Teller, Despot, Liar, Thief, Braggart, Buffoon, Usurper, Monster, Ignoramus Abe, Old Scoundrel, Perjurer, Robber, Swindler, Tyrant, Field-Butcher, Land-Pirate.

Harper's Weekly on Abraham Lincoln

Murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practised, the air will be rent with the cries of distress, the soil soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes. Where is the heart that can contemplate such a scene without shivering with horror?

The New England Courant on the election of Thomas Jefferson

God damn your god damned old hellfired god damned soul to hell god damn you and god damn your god damned family's god damned hellfired god damned soul to hell and good damnation god damn them and god damn your god damned friends to hell.

Mr. Pete Muggins, Letter to Abraham Lincoln

All the above were taken from The Book of Insults.
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Seething hatred... bile rising... incoherent sputtering....

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a Michigan conservative public-policy organization that concentrates on military personnel issues, said homosexuality is incompatible with military service and people such as Sparks should not be allowed to serve.

Yes, his 14 years in the military certainly shows that he wasn't compatible with service.

"If we really want to hurt recruiting, all we have to do is stand by and let the federal court strike down this law and open the military to homosexuals," Donnelly said.

"That would have a tremendous negative effect on recruiting and would hurt our volunteer force and dissuade young people from joining the military."

Brilliant. The way to hurt recruiting is to open it up to a group of people who previously could not be recruited. Makes perfect sense! Just like how we can ensure that there are more marriages by making sure that a certain portion of our population can't have them!

Donnelly, of the Center for Military Readiness, said she believes gays simply should not serve in the military: "It's a matter of good order, discipline and morale.

There's really nothing that can be added to that.

"To imply that sexuality doesn't matter, shouldn't matter in the military ... is not fair to the majority of young people who want to serve."

Really? To give a minority the same rights as the majority is somehow unfair to that majority? How does that work, exactly? And does it mean we should repeal the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments?
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From an article on John Roberts' views on sex discrimination, I find this interesting piece of information:

Her opinion relied in part on a 1976 high court ruling that different government treatment of the genders, such as separate job benefits or minimum drinking ages, is permissible only if it meets an important public objective. That's a higher standard of review than is used in most discrimination cases, although not as strict as the one reserved for policies that treat people differently based on their race.

I don't suppose anyone knows what case they're referring to?
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Library offers imam, gypsy, gay person for 'loan'
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Maybe they think Al Qaeda has developed exploding diapers or anthrax-emitting pacifiers?
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Amen

"I have been, uh, questioned about the right of the state to regulate marriage. And I think that where the court has found that the State could, in fact, regulate marriage--within permissible grounds--they have gone on, as they did in the Reynolds case, to find that the people... that there was a danger to the principles on which the government of the people, to a greater or lesser extent, rests. I ask this court: if the State is urging here that there is some State principle involved, or some principle of the people involved, that is a proper principle of theirs, what is it? What is the danger to the state of Virginia of interracial marriage? What is the state of the danger to the people of interracial marriage? This question has been carefully avoided."

-oral arguments before the Supreme Court on Loving v. Virginia
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I was going to write one thing, but instead I wrote this

So I decided to look up "necromancy" in the dictionary:

1. The practice of supposedly communicating with the spirits of the dead in order to predict the future.

...

Alteration of Middle English nigromancie, from Old French nigremancie, from Medieval Latin nigromantia, alteration (influenced by Latin niger, black), of Late Latin necromantia from Greek nekromanteia: nekros, corpse; see nek-¹ in
Indo-European Roots + manteia, divination; see -mancy.

Having grown up on D&D and similar genres of entertainment, this came as bit of a surprise to me. Necromancy always was more like this: a (generally reviled) branch of magic dedicated to working with death and creating undead. And from there you have people come up with "pyromancy" for fire mages, etc.

Having learned what the word actually means, I am now loathe to use it as I used to, and have been trying to come up with a suitable replacement. So I looked up a few Greek words, and I think I have settled on the word "exousia", meaning "authorities, lordship, power". So then I'd have something like "necrousy" or "necrousia" (for "power over death") as my new favorite branch of magic.

Is it weird that I insist on etymologically-correct fantasies?
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Now, I understand, on a purely intellectual level, that people get pretty worked up about this Jesus guy. And, hey, why not, right? He had some very groovy ideas about how to live, though it sure would be nice if most of the people who were so worked up about him actually behaved how he advised.

But that's another topic.

Anyway, the sheer fervor he inspires in some people is something I've never fully grasped.

Until, one day while driving somewhere with Lydia, I was struck as if from a blackhole-powered cannon.

"What if Jesus is their Optimus Prime?"

And it made sense.

"Okay, Apostles--transform and roll out!"
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Thou art no Romeo

Boston's beloved pair of swans -- feted by city leaders, residents, and tourists alike as one of the Hub's most celebrated summer attractions -- are a same-sex couple. Yes, scientific tests have shown that the pair, named Romeo and Juliet, are really Juliet and Juliet.

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Wiccan prayer dispute heads to U.S. Supreme Court
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I make a pretty good boat figurehead. Except I don't have long, wavy hair and I won't go topless.
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It's just not natural!

Protogenes, though, is alarmed at the idea of an elder woman wooing a young man; he says that for a woman to become the pursuer - the active partner - is a sign of intemperance. Here Plutarch enters into the dialogue, stating that, while it's true that some women have sought to rule over their husbands, this was the fault of the husband; any man of character will be able to control and guide his wife. What is important is that both parties be able to procreate - and if they are also in love with each other, all the better.

At this point in the dialogue, the startling news arrives that the widow has kidnapped the young man in order to persuade him to marry her. Protogenes furiously asserts that the laws of nature have been overturned; soon women will be taking over the government.

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From Justice Shenk's dissenting opinion in Perez v. Sharp:

[W]hen the right to enact a law depends upon the existence of a fact, the passage of the act implies, and the conclusive presumption is, that the existence of the fact has been ascertained by the legislative body.

In other words, "Let's just assume that our legislators have done their homework and legislated according to well-researched, verifiable facts. No need to double-check, we'll trust them to be honest and free of any ideological prejudices!"
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"I see you've gouged out your eyes again."
"We all have our little idiosyncrasies."
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Finally, a theory on the creation of the universe that we can all agree on.
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