May I ask a stupid question?

via Calvary Chapel Pastor's Blog

The headline reads: Ex-LGBT Will March on Washington This Weekend to Celebrate Freedom. Why do these people feel compelled to publicly demonstrate their personality disorders?

At best these are gay and transgender people who are pretending to be heterosexual and cisgender. They claim that Jesus has made them heterosexual and cisgender. The reality is just the opposite: The pretense is for the glory of Jesus. Last year, a handful of people showed up. This year, organizers Jeffrey McCall, Mary Jenna Nixon (“M.J.”), Edward Byrd and Kimberly Zember are hoping for a bigger turnout.

Gasbags in the Echo Chamber

In his emails, Hate Group Leader Tony Perkins frequently links to articles at LifeSiteNews. LSN frequently cites, as authoritative, information from Family Research Council. Others cite and link to both. Were I in the mood to be uncivil I might call this a circle jerk. I am content to refer to this lack of intellectual health as an echo chamber. It repeats and amplifies statements that the participants like. It has little regard for intellectual honesty or factual accuracy.

Wednesday's piece at LSN reads: Last ‘pro-life’ House Democrat votes for extreme pro-abortion Equality Act. It was written by a gay man, Doug Mainwaring who is married for convenience to a gay woman. Mazel tov and I digress.

Target donates to GLSEN and the ensuing shitfit

via Target Corporation

Martin M. Barillas is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. With more than two watts he might not write: Target stores donate $100K to LGBT nonprofit that promotes ‘inclusive’ K-12 schools. By the way, it is either Target Corp. or Target Stores (which is a division of Target Corp.). The (lowercase) stores did not combine for a donation. It is also donates; not donate.

This serves as an excuse to denigrate GLSEN and Kevin Jennings. Selective passages:

Target department stores are not only offering clothing and accessories celebrating the gay lifestyle to adults and children, but the company has also pledged to donate to a nonprofit that trains students and teachers in LGBT politics and advocacy.

Tony Perkins decries "racial liberalism"

“Overall, it is a dishonest appeal. Perkins is suggesting that Twitter will be nicer if you give him some of your money.”

Tuesday's email from hate group leader Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) is titled: Mother Teresa BANNED! The fact that Mother Teresa has been dead for 22 years has no effect on Perkins. According to the email:

The internet is today's "public square" for tens of millions of Americans -- and Christians are being censored there for sharing biblical truths!

What a surprise: More dishonesty from Brian S. Brown with a money-beg

Tuesday's missive from Brian S. Brown is titled: We can win in the Senate. Brown is asking for money on the pretense that National Organization for Marriage can cause the Equality Act to fail in the Senate. He doesn't even know if Mitch McConnell will allow the measure to come up for a vote. Even if the bill gets to the Senate floor, there is nothing that NOM can do to affect the outcome.

According to Brown:

As you know, the US House of Representatives did the unthinkable (but expected) and passed one of the greatest legislative threats we've ever faced, the grossly misnamed Equality Act (HR 5). The legislation is really the Inequality Act, because it proposes sweeping legal provisions to benefit the LGBT community at the expense of people of faith, churches, and all Americans.

Another loss for loony Mat Staver creates more losses for taxpayers

Hate Group Leader Mad Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel

via YouTube/Fox News

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in Pickup v. Newsom challenging California's ban on conversion therapy for children.

Hate Group Leader Mat Staver (Liberty Counsel) represents conversion “therapist” David Pickup. Pickup has been suing the State of California since 2012 in an attempt to reverse the state's conversion therapy ban. California SB-1172 went into effect on January 1, 2013. On August 29, 2013 the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the ban. On June 30, 2014 the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

"The USCCB continues to oppose the Equality Act in Congress" - Rhetoric via ADF

“Why are the bishops regurgitating rhetoric from an anti-LGBT hate group? Why are they being so dishonest?”

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, who heads the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan claims to oppose "unjust" discrimination. Yet, he championed the exclusion of a child from a Catholic school because the child's parents are a gay couple.

via CNS

It should come as no surprise that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops opposes the Equality Act. They believe — and assert — that gay people are “objectively disordered.” Transgender people do not really exist according to them. The USCCB should be reclassified from a 501(c)3 to a 501(c)4 eliminating tax deductions for contributions (the Florida conference is so organized). After all, the conference devotes a great deal of time and energy into imposing on public policy the catechism of the Catholic Church.

A prophet exposes the LGBT agenda

American Prophet Michael Bresciani

via Twitter

Sunday, according to Michael Bresciani: LGBT Ignores, Denies and Attacks Biblical Truth While Claiming They are Being Assaulted. Mr. Bresciani, by the way, is a self-anointed prophet. He has a book at Amazon titled: “An American Prophet and His Message.” According to his bio brief:

Rev. Michael Bresciani is a graduate of Delgado College and Union Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana…

That would be Delgado Community College offering certificates and two-year degrees. That “seminary” is not accredited by a recognized accrediting agency.

A brief MAGA tour: Idiots electing idiots

Tour a tract of MAGA land. Reading comprehension is important.

Dean Garrison and wife or girlfriend

via Freedom Outpost

I am informed that “Dean Garrison is editor and writer at DCClothesline.com. He is a conservative independent who seeks only to recover the truth.” Really? As an aside, I was unable to connect to the aforementioned website.

According to Mr. Garrison: Demand Justice! Obama and Hillary BOTH Got Caught Committing Imprisonable Offenses and NO ONE IN OUR GOVT CARES!!!

Criminal Obama:

One week ago, news came out that Barack Obama accepted over 20 million dollars in foreign campaign contributions. Unfortunately, stories that come out on Friday have a way of getting lost.

Brian S. Brown is so damned predictable

via YouTube/Fox News

Right on cue, Brian S. Brown (National Organization for Marriage) has organized a pointless petition for the Senate to defeat the Equalityu Act. Brown knows that the votes are not there to pass the thing and Trump has said, in effect, that he would veto the measure.

Heritage Foundation joins today's BS brigade on the Equality Act

According to a piece on Heritage Foundation's blog written by Rachel del Guidice:

By inserting sexual orientation and gender identity into current anti-discrimination law, the bill would make hospitals and doctors vulnerable to litigation “if they don’t follow the medical recommendations of the transgender movement,” Emilie Kao, director of The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, wrote in a January commentary.

Citizens for Community Values: "Religious bigotry bill"

Someone simply named “Claire” with Ohio's Citizens for Community Values has written How did your US Representative vote on the religious bigotry bill?. Claire needs adult supervision. Perhaps that should come for the hate group's leader, Aaron Baer. According to Claire:

The so-called “Equality Act” legalizes religious discrimination, and obliterates parents’ rights.

Nondiscrimination is discrimination. Obviously the Equality Act has no effect on parental rights. “Claire” is either functionally illiterate or a liar. My guess is that she is just repeating someone else's BS.

The usual unhinged rhetoric:

First reaction to Equality Act comes from CNA/ADF

The first reaction to the Equality Act that I have seen is from Catholic News Agency. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was heavily invested in defeating HR5. They claimed that this was the result of the effect of the measure on Catholic Schools. That's BS I think. The bishops oppose the Equality Act because transgender people do not exist and gay people are “objectively disordered.”

According to CNA:

“This bill undermines human dignity by threatening the fundamental freedoms of speech, religion, and conscience that the First Amendment guarantees for every citizen,” said Kristen Waggoner, senior vice president of the U.S. legal division for Alliance Defending Freedom. “Americans deserve better than the profound inequality that this intolerant, deceptively titled legislation offers.”

Pray-the-gay-away is not pray-the-gay-away?

While I accumulate the religious right shit fit over the Equality Act …

Friday, ex-gay-still-gay Doug Mainwaring has written about Jeffrey McCall, the organizer of Freedom March. About a year ago, Freedom March produced about a dozen or so ex-people to march on Washington. According to McCall's bio he was a drug-addicted gay man turned transgender woman:

Jeffrey McCall lived in homosexuality and later those feelings led him into a transgender life. From age 17 to 29 he was involved in crystal meth, heavy alcohol use, psychedelic drugs, and prescription drugs. Jeffrey was an advocate for pushing transgender rights and even did local ABC interview news to push [sic] LGBTQ agenda.

Texas congressman ignorantly redefines antisemitism

Rep Michael Cloud | via Twitter

Rep. Michael J. Cloud represents Texas' 27th congressional district. As a graduate of Oral Roberts University, he is presumably a conservative Christian. Today Rep Cloud writes: Anti-Semitism Must Be Defeated at Home and Abroad for Heritage Foundation's blog. His piece begins:

Israel is under attack—both in its own homeland and in ours.

One week, The New York Times runs an anti-Semitic cartoon. The next week, Hamas launches 600 rocket attacks against Israel.

Brian S. Brown is merging email lists

People who lose a chunk of their business for refusing service to LGBT people are not victims of anything other than their own intransigence and poor judgment.

It should come as no surprise that people who respond to one of the phony National Organization for Marriage petitions are then added to the World Congress/International Organization for the Family email data base and perhaps that is the point. Clicking on the petition link is processed through:
https://worldcongress.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=[your coded email address].

World Congress of Families/International Organization for the Family is an anti-LGBT hate group.

From the batshittery: "Will everyday Catholics step up and save civilization?"

Michael Voris | via Vice.com

It is unclear who wrote this. Presumably it was ex-gay-still-gay-eunuch Michael Voris. It is titled: They’re Coming for You — And they won't stop until one of us has won. Who is “they” and who is “us?” The understated, reasonable text of this diatribe begins thus:

The Left is coming for you, giving a modern day context to the quote misattributed to Marxist Leon Trotsky, "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."

If there is a god Tony Perkins is in trouble

via YouTube/Fox News

Aside from being a hate group leader, Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) is a bald-faced liar. On Wednesday Perkins writes: The Equality Act Could Let Schools, Not Parents, Make Decisions About Children. Perkins' defense to a charge of lying would be something like “I said it could not that it will.” Except that the intent is clear. The outlet for Perkins' prevarications is Heritage Foundation's blog.

Perkins wants people to believe that the Equality Act does far more than it really does. The equality act protects people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The protections apply to employment, housing and public accommodations. According to Tony Perkins:

It’s not an alliance the media is rushing to cover—and who can blame them? After weeks of talking up this phony consensus on the Equality Act, imagine if the story got out that it’s not just conservatives who are opposed—but grassroots liberals, too.

My local hate group leader: John Stemberger re: the Equality Act

John Stemberger, 2017

via YouTube

John Stemberger (Florida Family Policy Council) is Florida's anti-LGBT hate group leader. Stemberger, you may recall, is so homophobic that he started a Boy Scouts of America (Trail Life) which excludes LGBT boys and non-Christians. God forbid Stemberger's sons had to mingle with gays and Jews in Scouting. Needless to say, Mr. Stemberger is opposed to the Equality Act. This comes as no surprise given Stemberger's past behavior.

Adoption:

Stemberger had a meltdown when Florida changed its adoption laws to comply with a 2010 court decision:

Bryan Fischer explains "homosexual privilege"

via YouTube/Right Wing Watch

Bryan Fischer (American Family Association) is a crazy, far-right and bigoted Christian nationalist who promotes Christian Privilege and Christian Supremacy. Imagine my delight when I found that the two-watt bulb has written: The Problem Isn’t White Privilege, It’s Homosexual Privilege. Good to know. Well, we do have the privilege of being denied service for items as mundane as a floral arrangement.

Among Fischer's incoherent drivel is this paragraph:

I would submit the real problem today, in our culture and in our politics, is not in fact white privilege but homosexual privilege. Despite their constant claims to martyrdom and victimhood, homosexuals have an entire array of privileges and powers that are based exclusively on their private sexual preferences, and they are privileges and powers that normal people do not possess. Homosexuals must be catered to by wedding vendors and be catered to in housing and employment, or those who refuse to cater to them will be demonized, vilified, and sued until they’re broke or out of business.

"Arthur" is probably not going to turn your kids gay

From the opening theme of Arthur | via YouTube

The religious right is in an uproar over the PBS cartoon series Arthur which is now in its 22nd year. What has the Christian crazies in an uproar is, well, here's how Dorothy Cummings McLean (a professional orthodox Catholic) describes matters:

A children’s cartoon series featured a homosexual "wedding" for its season premiere episode yesterday.

“Arthur,” the longest-running animated series for children in the USA, began its twenty-second season with the surprise "marriage" of Arthur the Aardvark’s teacher Mr. Ratburn to another man.

In the episode, Arthur and his classmates are intrigued to discover that their teacher is getting married and begin to investigate who his bride might be. When the children appear at the ceremony, they discover that Mr. Ratburn doesn’t have a bride. Instead, he walks down the aisle of the wedding tent on the arm of a male aardvark named Patrick.

Gee thanks: "What is behind the LGBTQ agenda?"

Mr. Marcus has since removed the BS about the non-existent campaign committee

Archived from LloydMarcus.com

In April, 2018 Lloyd Marcus insisted: The LGBTQ movement wants to destroy Christianity. The outlet for that moronic post was LifeSiteNews. A year later, Mr. Marcus has seemingly decided that destroying Christianity wasn't really the goal. In a diatribe titled: LGBTQ: Forcing Us to Embrace Evil, Destructive Lie:

Someone asked, "What is behind the LGBTQ agenda?" The goal of LGBTQ enforcers is to forcibly normalize their lifestyle in the minds of the 97% of the population that is not LGBTQ. This is why we are bombarded with the LGBTQ lifestyle inserted into everything. Why are major corporations making the promotion of LGBTQ, which are less than 3% of the population, their top priority?

CBN gets it wrong on gun violence

Victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting. Imagine the size of an exit wound from an assault rifle relative to the size of a six-year-old body.

via CNN.com

Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network has a reliable stable of deep thinkers. Deeply self-absorbed that is. Tuesday it is Will Maule who writes: 'We're Not Going to Give Thoughts and Prayers': 2020 Candidate Cory Booker Curses Prayer. Maule writes:

Democratic hopeful Cory Booker has issued some harsh words of criticism to those who vow to send “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of mass shootings.

The left has, for some time, sought to throw shade on Christians who insist that prayer is real and powerful, especially in the ministering of comfort and solace to those who are hurting in the wake of these tragic events.

Trump admin parrots hate group rhetoric in opposition to the Equality Act

“After all, why study an issue when a cut-and-paste is readily available.”

via Quartz

It should come as no surprise that the Trump/Pence administration opposes the Equality Act. Trump has not done anything for the benefit of LGBT Americans since he came into office. If Richard Allen Grenell, the openly gay ambassador to Germany, had any semblance of dignity or integrity he would resign. He doesn't. He won't.

According to the Washington Blade:

With a vote on the Equality Act in the U.S. House expected on Friday, a senior administration official indicated exclusively to the Washington Blade that President Trump opposes the bill.

Paul Sullins is spreading his pseudo-scientific anti-gay gibberish again

via YouTube

D. Paul Sullins is a married Catholic priest. Sullins recently retired from the faculty of Catholic University and is now associated with Ruth Institute, an anti-LGBT hate group. Sunday, at Witherspoon Institute's pseudo-intellectual blog, he has authored: It’s Time to Promote Good Social Science on Same-Sex Parenting.

Sullins claims to be a researcher but he manages to get his selective observation published to pay-per-post vanity gazettes in contrast to respected academic journals. Sullins has been obsessed same-sex parenting for a very long time. The genesis of his mania probably dates back to (then) Cardinal Ratzinger's 2003 statement on behalf of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:

Brian S. Brown refines his BS just a bit

The latest missive from Brian S. Brown, on behalf of National Organization for Marriage, is titled: HELP US STOP THIS BILL

The so-called "Equality Act" makes support for traditional marriage, and for many other values we hold dear, practically illegal. It is a threat to our basic freedoms, and it needs to be stopped. Add your voice today.

Three weeks ago Brown claimed that the Equality Act would make “support for marriage illegal.” Truth be told, it would not be “practically illegal” either.

Oh thanks: "4 Steps to Follow if Witchcraft Has Infiltrated Your Church"

via Tom Lee/Flickr

If these people do not want to be ridiculed as superstitious fools, perhaps they should refine their message. Just a tad will do. According to Andy Sanders:

What Exactly Is Witchcraft?

1. Pharmakeia (Noun): Sorcery, witchcraft, magic
2. Pharmakon (Noun): Witchcraft, sorcery, magic potion, drug

Here we see the root words of witchcraft and how is it commonly associated with other forms of evil, such as the different practices of magic and drugs. Being a former drug addict, I can see how some drugs can completely open the door to evil such as witchcraft. While I was under the influence of powerful drugs prior to salvation, I discovered that nothing pure or good ever came out of it, because being on heavy drugs opens the door to a spiritual realm of evil that we should not be involved in.

In search of an intellectually honest essay

“Apparently they are victimized by our efforts to stop them from victimizing us.”

John Wesley Reid

via CBN

One of CBN's polemicists, John Wesley Reid, has penned: The Violent Results of the 'Christians Hate Gays' Lie . Were this a bit more intelligent it might rise to the level of cognitive dissonance. The lie is the projection that people claim that Christians hate gays. Most gays are Christian. So, before we even get into the text, let me correct Mr. Reid:

Some Christians hate gays:

Often while, at the same time, professing their Christian love, hate group leaders like Peter LaBarbera, Tony Perkins and Mat Staver express their hatred of LGBTQ people. Steven Anderson is in the news today because he has been denied entry to Ireland. Anderson's best hits include celebrating the deaths of gay people at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Anderson hates Jews too. He is a Holocaust denier.

The village idiots never learned arithmetic

“The reality is that the support of LGBTQ people represents the support of essential American values.”

Converse Pride campaign

via Converse

Friday, according to American Family Association (an anti-LGBT hate group): 'Trans flag lace tips' highlight virtue-signaling for the feet. The inspiring contributors are AFA's Steve Jordahl, Peter LaBarbera and 2nd Vote's Robert Kuykendall. The three great intellects do not like the Converse Pride campaign. Converse is a division of Nike.

Behold:

As it has since 2015, Converse has introduced its annual "Pride Collection," rainbow-themed shoes for men, women, and children. The purpose, according to the company, is "to celebrate the [LGBTQ+] movement's origins" – a reference to the Stonewall riots 50 years ago.

Robert Kuykendall of 2nd Vote contends the company is trying to impress activists with its social conscience – and to attract "gay" dollars.

Inhale the religious dogma - Exhale bullshit

Verdicts on some of Michelle Cretella's assertions in defense of the faith.

Thursday, Michelle Cretella, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians (an anti-LGBT hate group), was interviewed by Heritage Foundation's Katrina Trinko and Daniel Davis. This was not exactly a Mensa colloquium. Cretella is a former pediatrician. She has not practiced medicine in a number of years and is unlicensed. Trinko and Davis are bloggers for Heritage Foundation. The subject of this confab was the Equality Act.

Confirmation bias

Heritage is a Christian-right operation. It employs people like anti-LGBT extremist Ryan T. Anderson. Michelle Cretella's views are not shaped by medical science. In contrast, Cretella represents the Catholic Church. Cretella accepts the teachings of the Church and then seeks external confirmation, conveniently ignoring contradictory evidence. She also lies.

Randall Terry is recruiting people to harass Pete Buttigieg

All Randall Terry needs is a nose ring

via WBNF

Perhaps Randall Terry had coercive potty training. Terry is the perfect caricature of the glazed-eyed Christian maniac who wants to control how everyone else should live. Terry has a piece running in Christian Newswire titled: Recruiting Protesters Against Buttigieg and Biden - Video Released. The release is supposedly from Voice of Resistance which is the squeaky voice of Randall Terry recruiting other crackpots.

The Society for Truth and Justice has released a video interviewing six of the people who disrupted Pete Buttigieg in Dallas and in Iowa.

Blowhard Bill Donohue seeks criminal probe of Brian Sims

Blowhard Bill Donohue of the Catholic League gets crazier by the day. On Thursday Donohue writes: CRIMINAL PROBE OF PA REP. SIMS NEEDED. Donohue doesn't get around to explaining what law he thinks Rep. Sims broke.

As an aside, in April, 2017, Rep. Sims was very entertaining.

State Rep. Brian Sims got fed up with the protests of Planned Parenthood in his district which include the harassment by religious zealots of every patient walking through the door. Sims confronted one of these hypocrites. As Hemant Mehta points out:

If protesters like this woman wanted to help children, as they always claim, there are a number of ways they could do it. But pro-lifers don’t give a damn about children. They just put unborn fetuses on a pedestal while missing the bigger picture.

Star Parker is simply not very intelligent

Star Parker carrying water for Donald Trump

via C-SPAN

Star Parker is shrewd — I will give her that — but not very bright. Parker knows what her constituency wants to hear and she delivers. Thursday she tells the faithful: Equality Act Is About Civil Tyranny, Not Civil Rights. Christianists seem obligated to dispense end-of-world hyperbole over HR5 to their followers.

Speaking of shrewd, Parker is also milking the hell out of her nonprofit which doesn't seem to actually do anything. Her corporate credit card debt at the end of 2017 was over $50,000 and I am reasonably sure that is all attributable to one person: Star Parker. Parker has gone from receiving state-supplied welfare to nonprofit org welfare (which we all subsidize). Parker has also had multiple abortions. Now, of course, she is opposed to both welfare and reproductive rights. I digress.

Returning to the Equality Act, Parker writes (in part):

A theologian explains everything you need to know about transgender youth

via McGill University

Douglas B. Farrow, we are informed, is a professor of theology and Christian thought at McGill University in Montreal. Farrow's work experience has obviously provided him with expertise in gender dysphoria and adolescent psychiatry. Just ask him. Apparently the study of ancient texts and the catechism of the Catholic Church provides Mr. Farrow a remarkable level of insight into medical science.

I am impressed. No, I am inspired by Farrow's omniscience. I intend to communicate with him regarding my acid reflux. Perhaps there are answers in scripture to replace the prescription strength Nexium that I take daily. I wonder how he deals with flatulence.

Wednesday, Douglas Farrow has penned The New Family Violence. Do tell. The essay deals with one teen's gender dysphoria. Mr. Farrow determined in advance that he does not approve of transgender youth. Employing selective observation Farrow has honed that belief (based on religious dogma) into a scientific treatise for which an undergraduate would deserve a “D” (from a generous grader).

Mad Mat Staver gone off the cliff of rationality

The Equality Act has severed whatever tether existed between Mat Staver and objective sanity.

via Liberty Counsel

At times Mat Staver (Liberty Counsel) has been the object of my sarcasm. There are times when the snark is inappropriate. Staver has reworked his page opposing the Equality Act which is there to provide a link to a useless petition. He is not fundraising off of his diatribe. No, this is about his animus towards LGBTQ people. The mere potential of not being able to discriminate has driven Mad Mat well beyond unhinged. He has gone full-tilt batshit crazy.

Some of the droppings:

A DANGEROUS ATTACK ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND FREE SPEECH!

HR 5 is a bill that pushes the LGBT agenda on all people and targets Christianity in every area of life—including the church. There will be an increase of instances where Christians and others are being punished unless they violate their beliefs in order to comply with such a law. And that is just the beginning of unconstitutional chaos in America…

Three years of an ineffective boycott and AFA is still at it

“AFA is fighting for the ‘right’ to be crazy.”

Hate Group Leader Tim Wildmon - American Family Association

via YouTube

Tuesday I received an email from American Family Association, an anti-LGBT hate group. The email is titled: Target makes it a matter of public record. “It” is Target Corp.'s (NYSE:TGT) proactive support of the Equality Act.

The purpose of a boycott is to alter the behavior of the target. The effectiveness of a boycott is measured by only one thing: Whether or not it has succeeded in doing just that. Has the target met the demands of the boycotters? American Family Association has been organizing a boycott of Target stores for over three years now. Their boycott has failed.

This silliness started in April of 2016 when Target clarified its policy that customers and staff can — and should — use restrooms consistent with their gender presentation. It is the same policy that virtually every major retailer has adopted. It is also just common sense.

IOF: Brian S. Brown wants money to fund what the money won't fund

B.S. Brown is quite appropriate.

Embed from Getty Images
Brian S. Brown in Verona

I have received an email from Brian S. Brown on behalf of International Organization for the family titled: The fruit of love is life 💕. Brown is president of the Howard Center for Family Religion and Society which does business as World Congress of Families (WCF) and International Organization for the Family (IOF). Whatever the initials or assumed names, the whole thing is designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

One of the problems with writing about WCF or IOF is that the finances are opaque. WCF's “congresses” are paid for by money that flows through an unknown entity in an unknown locale. From inception the Howard Center has been associated with hard right Russian figures and the Russian Orthodox Church. There is some evidence that these events, these “congresses,” are actually funded by Russian oligarchs.

Nouvelle Conversion: Treat gay teens as sex addicted

via Healing Time Ministries

Dr. Douglas Weiss attracted my attention when Steve Strang, Charisma Media, offered his effusive praise of the Colorado psychologist. According to Strang: Spirit-Filled Psychologist: Church Must Be Healed From Sexual Brokenness to Be Moral Force Again. So I took a look at Weiss' website and tip-toed through the bovine exhaust:

Heart to Heart Counseling Center specializes in sexual addiction counseling, treating intimacy anorexia and supporting partners. We are the premiere relationship counseling center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

For over thirty years, we have helped relationships heal after dealing with sex addiction and intimacy anorexia, brought husbands and wives back together and helped couples find their intimacy again. We change lives.

Blowhard Bill Donohue awkwardly smears gay men yet again

"Pope" Bill Donohue

via South Park

Bill Donohue, a divorced man, is the self-appointed apologist for the Catholic Church. Blowhard Bill has insisted for years that the Catholic Church's abuse problem is a “homosexual problem.” On Monday Donohue writes: "SNL" RIPS GAY PRIESTS (Blowhard Bill likes capital letters). According to Donohue:

“SNL” went on a tear against homosexual priests on Saturday. Michael Che Campbell (his father named him after Che Guevara, the Cuban terrorist) made a quip about Pope Francis’ warning against the negative aspects of gossip. Campbell asked, “Did you hear what happened to those altar boys?”

Heritage's not-so-novel attack on the Equality Act

Smearing transgender people to assail the Equality Act is an assault on the entire LGBT community.

Monday, according to the Heritage Foundation, the Equality Act will enable high school boys to declare themselves transgender girls for athletic advantage. The very notion is preposterous but it is advanced in a piece by Kelsey Bolar titled: 8th Place: A High School Girl’s Life After Transgender Students Join Her Sport.

I am reasonably certain that Heritage is more concerned with conservative Christianity than high school athletics. Athletics are pretext for expressing disapproval of transgender people. This is also a re-tooled anti-gay trope about our seeking special rights.

David is an idiot!

I have three pieces that I am currently working on. One is an important Quack Alert which I hope to get out tomorrow.

Today I updated from Fedora 29 to Fedora 30. Including pre-Fedora Redhat updates I have done this 32 times without a problem. I should have backed up before the update. I have three USB drives connected and considerable network storage. I was too damned lazy. After the update, the graphic user interface ("KDE") came to a crashing halt. Freeze.

An IBM update on workplace nondiscrimination

via IBM

If only I stayed on top of my email tsunami I would have posted this two days ago. As you may recall I wrote about an attempt by Justin Danhof to disrupt IBM's shareholder meeting. I was hoping to get a transcript.

I received the following for their VP of corporate communications (emphasis added):

Promoting fairness, equality and inclusion have been hallmarks of IBM's culture for our 100+ year history. Our message of inclusion encompasses religious beliefs and practices. IBMers are free to maintain their own religious beliefs, and we celebrate the diversity of experience, beliefs and backgrounds in our company and communities that have always shaped our culture. The only thing we exclude at IBM is exclusion itself, and we will continue to oppose discrimination in all its forms.

Absolutism: Tolerance is a "pseudo-virtue?"

Aaron Ames, Christian Supremacist

via The Federalist

Aaron Ames is a high school teacher. He teaches rhetoric, logic, speech, and literature at Trinity Christian Academy in Lexington, Kentucky. Mr. Ames has also written a treatise for the Federalist titled: Why Christian Children Don’t Belong In Public Schools.

His is a verbose and convoluted dissertation. In addition to the subject Mr. Ames wants to demonstrate his intellect. That might work in a Christian secondary school in Kentucky. He includes these two gems:

One: Perhaps many of us have been equally convinced that the study of the material world (science) has very little to do with the study of God (theology). Where did we receive such ideas?

Blowhard Bill Donohue is terrified of Pete Buttigieg

via Pete for America

Blowhard Bill Donohue is adrift again. The pompous hypocrite (Mr. Catholic is a divorced man) has always been off but ever since he got unplugged by Fox he has been untethered to reality. Donohue opines about: Buttigieg's Religion Problem. I did not know that he had a religious problem.

Donohue doesn't understand the math:

When it comes to matters of sexuality and the family, Buttigieg can’t persuade traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants, orthodox Jews, and most Mormons and Muslims, that he is right. His rejection of marriage, properly understood, and his celebration of abortion rights, will not get him one of their votes. So he is trying to appeal to the “religious left.”

The continuing obsession with transgender people

Earlier today I wrote about the strategy of the now defunct Tobacco Institute: Dishonestly claim that the science is not settled and then emphasize the nonexistent controversy. That approach has since been adopted by climate deniers, Creationists and others.

Wednesday, at Witherspoon Institute's pretentious blog, Nathaniel Blake writes: What We Don’t Know: Does Gender Transition Improve the Lives of People with Gender Dysphoria? The subtitle reads:

The studies assembled by the What We Know Project do not prove that transition is the best treatment for gender dysphoria, let alone that it should be the only permissible treatment. Rather, they show that the science is not settled.

Justin Danhof v. IBM

“Executives of large companies are more apt to hire a transgender person than some sanctimonious busy-body.”

Justin Danhof | via YouTube

On Tuesday, Justin Danhof of the National Center for Public Policy Research confronted IBM's CEO, Virginia (“Ginni”) Rometty at the company's annual meeting of shareholders. Danhof complained about IBM's support of the Human Rights Campaign.

It's not really a fair fight. Danhof is the poor schmuck who attends corporate shareholder meetings, frequently gets booed and accomplishes nothing. Why bother?

In the way of background, National Center for Public Policy Research (seven employees) was pro-tobacco and is now climate-denying. It is not surprising because of the similarities between the Tobacco Institute and climate denial. It's the same bullshit: Falsely claim that the science is unsettled and that a controversy exists. The organization had close and embarrassing ties to Jack Abramoff.