GOP leaders shame themselves again

How disingenuous can you get? Rolling Stone has compiled a list of 10 Republicans in Congress who tripped over themselves this past week to say something nice about Miles Scott, 5, who was recently granted a Make-A-Wish dream of being Batman. The entire town of San Francisco rallied to help fulfill Scott’s dream to be a super hero. It was a great story, and anything that raises publicity for Make-A-Wish is a good thing in my book.

Yet, these 10 Republicans, including Eric Cantor and Ted Cruz, were among the same ones who symbolically voted no less than 43 times against a health care law that would have ensured kids, like Scott with preexisting conditions, got the coverage they deserve. Apparently, for some folks in the GOP ranks, the word “shame” no longer holds any meaning whatsoever because if they truly felt it, they would have long since retreated into their more deserving obscurity.

Influence of progressive thought

P.Z. Myers whiffed on that Atheism Plus foolishness, but nonbelief should be about celebrating our similarities, right? That said, I couldn’t agree more with what P.Z. Myers wrote about Minnesota’s recent vote to OK gay marriage.

Gov. Mark Dayton wrote:

In my heart, I grieve on both sides. Because I know what it’s like to be alone and I know what it is like to have somebody close to you and love you. But I grieve inside because I feel we are opening the doors to Sodom and Gomorra. And in the end, God is going to be the judge,” said Nelson, of Blaine, tears running down her cheeks.

Aww, he grieves on both sides. How compassionate. He apparently doesn’t shed too many tears, however, since priestly exhortations against sodomy by fiat trump any loneliness folks might feel from the lack of a mate, straight or otherwise. In the end an all-loving, peaceful, war-loving God — depending on which part of the Bible you read — with his fire and brimstone, will be the judge.

How moving.

Myers concludes his remarks about Dayton:

I would bottle your tears and perhaps dot a little on my wrists every morning — Eau de Schadenfreude. Or perhaps I would drink them like a rich bitter wine, and laugh. Those aren’t tears of sorrow, but of nasty cruel bigotry — you didn’t get your way, you weren’t allowed to demean other citizens of this state in the way you wanted, and now you get to weep in frustration, while I have no sympathy.

And to compare the happy men and women who can now aspire to share equally in love and marriage with evil, wicked horrible people from your book of lies, to tell yourself they are damned and will be destroyed…well, I’ll dance an especially happy spiteful dance on your broken dreams of oppression, lady.

Conservatives and religious types just need to swallow this conclusion hook, line and sinker because it’s reality: in regard to equal rights – particularly gay and civil rights – as San Francisco goes, so goes the nation. Resist this trend all you want but believe you me, whatever is now acceptable in California, the Pacific Northwest and New England, will one day be acceptable in the entire nation, the South included, and no matter how long it takes, resistance to this fact is futile.

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