Headlines - Monday December 27

UTAH: Gay Rights Come To Grand County

In a continuance of the march to full LGBT rights for small town and rural Americans, yesterday Grand County, Utah granted housing and employment protections to its gay and transgender residents. The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

That means one in four Utahns, living in 10 communities from Moab to Logan, are protected from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Advocates for the statutes hope that groundswell of support will push the Utah Legislature to protect all Utahns. "Each of these local governments has set an example for their residents and for business owners and property owners," said Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah. "They've also set a good example for our Legislature." Sen. Ben McAdams, D-Salt Lake City, plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing housing and employment laws banning discrimination based on characteristics such as race, religion or national origin. Two-thirds of Utahns support such a law, according to a January poll by The Salt Lake Tribune.

 

Pride In Utah cautions that the GOP head of the Utah state Senate has hinted that his party may attempt to overturn local anti-discrimination laws by statewide edict. In the meantime the effort to institute a state version of ENDA in Utah continues.

"Each of these local governments has set an example for their residents and for business owners and property owners,"- They sure did in Torrey, where they came in droves to fight for the right to discriminate. You have much to be proud of, Mormons. Much to be proud of.

 

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It is a good thing when people believe in evolution:

Vice President Joe Biden says the country is evolving on the issue of gay marriage and he thinks it's inevitable there will be national consensus.

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Gay marriage is still not legal in most states. President Barack Obama recently said his feelings on the gay marriage issue are evolving, but he still believes in allowing strong civil unions that provide certain protections and legal rights that married couples have.

Good. Maybe I can speed this along. Simply put: everyone should be able to marry any consenting adult of their choice. Rinse, repeat.

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The 25th was Christmas for most Christians. To all Christians, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox or Evangelical: don't forget why our Lord was sent here in the first place:

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read... "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He appointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD... Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Luke 4:16-21

Jesus Christ was the first radical liberal. 

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This Week In Holy Crimes

Over the last seven days...

Texas: Pastor Earl Post arrested for stalking a teenage girl.
New York: Rabbi Victor Koltun pleads not guilty to ordering the murders of two men. Koltun was previously sentenced to five years for mail fraud.
Connecticut: Pastor David Pomales and his children arrested in church brawl.
Bangladesh: Imam Afsar Ali arrested in connection with the death of a woman who was publicly caned for adultery.
Kansas: Pastor Mark Holick arrested for attempting to force gospel tracts upon Muslims exiting a mosque.
Italy: Court upholds the seizure of $30M in Vatican assets used to launder money for the mafia. The Vatican claims it's all a "misunderstanding."
Texas: Pastor Sandra McGriff arrested for burglary after cops apprehended her stealing two fur coats from the home of a church member. Police also found three purses and a laptop in McGriff's Jaguar.
California: Father Joseph McCabe denied bail pending extradition to Ireland on numerous counts of child molestation.
Texas: Pastor Ivory McDaniels charged with multiple counts of sexual assaults on female minors.
Ireland: Report shows Dublin Archdiocese transferred Father Tony Walsh to cover up numerous sexual assaults on boys and girls. The church never reported Walsh to the police.
Iowa: Pastor Timothy Parker sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexual assault on a child.
Bolivia: Father Jose Ochua sentenced to 22 years in prison for sexually abusing at least 19 children in an orphanage.

This Week's Winners
Ireland: A newly released report shows that five Catholic priests formed an informal molesters network in which they enabled one another's crimes by providing rooms in which to commit the attacks and by organizing group excursions with their victims. The report is the first to show that the five accused priests all knew each other and worked together.

 

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It's that time of the year when media outlets make top 10 lists and give out various awards. Media Matters recently gave die-hard Fox "News" watchers a rare two-fer: It renamed its former "Misinformer of the Year Award" to the "Glen Beck Honorary Excellence in Misinformation Award" and its 2010 recipient is half-Governor, all-grizzly, part-time reality starlet, full-time candidate Sarah Palin.

This isn't a beauty pageant, folks. The following reel proves why the honor is well deserved. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ldp2PyXgGo&feature=player_embedded

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CNN: The richest 1% of U.S. households had a net worth 225 times greater than that of the average American household in 2009, according to analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. That's up from the previous record of 190 times greater, which was set in 2004.

The widening gap came even as wealthy households' average net worth tumbled 27% -- to about $14 million -- between 2007 to 2009. That's the first time that they suffered a decline since the three-year period of 1992 to 1995.

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Ironic Times:

New Census Data Good News for GOP
Abstinence-only programs boosting population in red states.

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Hugh Hefner Announces Engagement to Great-Granddaughter

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It's easy to forget, when you see teabaggers foaming at the mouth on cable news about birth certificates and lazy unemployed people and immigrant drug dealers and treasonous liberals, that even these most vile of people were once children.

Santa Says is a blog by a guy who seems to do seasonal work as a mall Santa, who posts his experiences dealing with children at Christmas time. What may surprise you is that for all that Christmas is the season of unbridled avarice (cf: Jean Shepherd), children really do get what's going on in the world around them: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/12/note-to-all-parents-please-dont-let.html

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Republicans treat the Constitution as idol worship.

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Lobbyist in charge of 'trying to kill' financial reform hired by GOP chair to oversee financial regulations.

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And then straight to Rhodes scholarship

Bristol Palin to fulfill her destiny by attending Arizona State

TMZ has learned America's greatest tabloid teenage prodigy, Bristol Palin, bought that giant foreclosed heap of architectural sin in exurban Arizona because she wants to attend America's finest institution of higher learnin', Arizona State, also known as "The Cambridge of the Great Air-Conditioned Desert." Sure, your editor, who went to a private university with its "standards" and "minuscule dropout rate," will make fun of Arizona State, as he just has, because he is a vile elitist with a history of "scholarships." But for twenty-year-olds of dubious academic achievement like Bristol, who flunked health class and thus had babies in high school and went on to receive a GED out of pity, Arizona State is their Harvard. And their quidditch is getting black-out drunk, showing their tits, and getting raped by twenty or so frat boys in their slumber. Which is better than the dorkiness of quidditch, at least. READ MORE »

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Daniel Balsam quits job, makes living suing email spammers.