Having Yourself A Gay Old Time On A GOP Camping Trip

And the fun never ends with the Republican Party...a new report claims another gay Congressman (what, you thought Mark Foley was the only one? As if) took some pages on a camping trip to the Grand Canyon. Arizona Representative Jim kolbe also took some staff members, and while no one's actually alleged sexual improprieties occurred, all that could mean is that no one has any complaints about what happened on the trip. At any rate, it happened back in 1996 so even if improprieties did occur, the charges may be too old to be, well, chargeable. Kolbe is the only openly gay Republican Congressmen so even the Religious Reich can't pretend to be appalled the the knowledge.

Even The Republicans Think They're A Bunch Of Dumbasses

This has to be the worst possible month for the Religious Reich, as first they were hit square in the face with the knowledge that there were gay Republicans in Congress, then that one of them was pursuing teenage pages with the full knowledge of pretty much everyone in the party, and now they find that as much as Republicans, especially the Bush Cabinet, kowtows to and kisses the ass of religious conservatives in public, in private they make fun of them and is only using them to amass and hold on to their power. A new book by former White House official David Kuo, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, details how top Bush officials and White House strategists called religious conservative "nuts" and "goofy" and "out of control". Kuo will be featured on this Sunday's 60 Minutes program.

Support Your Local Child Molester

Be a good Christian, contribute generously to a fund to support defrocked priests who couldn't keep their hands of little children. From New Hampshire comes this story of the Catholic Diocese of Manchester raising money to help support their fellow kid-diddlers. It's also been "expanded" to include "sick and retired" priests which, I'm gathering, won't benefit them much if people realize their money isn't just being used to support priests with cancer and heart disease, but priests who think Mark Foley chased guys who were far too old for him. I sent this to my mother with the subject line, "Now you HAVE seen everything. No really. This is *it*!"

Too Bad This Didn't Happen In Texas

In a story that should have happened somewhere in the American South rather than in the U.K., a former British Airways employee is suing the company for axing her for wearing a small Christian cross necklace. Nadia Eweida, who describes herself as a "committed Christian", claims Muslims and Sikhs at the airline are allowed to wear symbols of their faith (hijabs and turbans), but that they're discriminating against her because she's a Christian. BA argues she's not complying with "uniform regulations." While I hope the British courts resolve this matter in favour of Ms. Eweida, I do find myself wishing this had happened in some American southern state where Christians are trying to remove the religious rights of non-Christians.

Or Maybe Muslim Women Could Gesticulate More

In other news from the U.K., Cabinet Minister Jack Straw has raised a shitstorm in England for saying he would prefer Muslim women not cover their faces when they're speaking to him. He also says he's asked them to unveil when he's speaking to them in his office - always with a female aide nearby to ensure nothing improper happens - and that the women have always complied. He was quoted as saying, "Communities are bound together partly by informal chance relations between strangers - people being able to acknowledge each other in the street or being able pass the time of day. That's made more difficult if people are wearing a veil. That's just a fact of life."

England, a country which as far as I can tell is even more in love with multiculturalism than Canada, is debating just how far multiculturalism should go. Straw has taken a heavy critical hit for his remarks despite his making it perfectly clear that his feelings are a request, not a demand.

Multicultural Debates, Canadian-Style

In today's Toronto Star (my apologies, this link will be inaccessible after a week), Somali-born ex-Muslim now-atheist refugee Ayaan Hirsi Ali had some flat, harsh things to say about Canada's embrace of multiculturalism. Ali travels with bodyguards because so many Muslim extremists want to kill her. The former Dutch member of Parliament began irking the extremists during a radio interview (back when she was a researcher for the Dutch Labour Party) that she was now an atheist, although with emotional and identity ties to the world of Islam. That's when the death threats began, once she essentially labeled herself an apostate.

She has been a conservative Muslim at one time, then later embraced rationalism and logic in school. (See, the Taliban is *right* about the dangers of educating women!) Now she speaks out as much as she wants, inflaming extremist passions every time she opens her mouth. She also annoys non-extremists as well, who claim she goes "too far" (a charge I have to wonder about myself, considering she's now working for a neo-con think tank in Washington D.C.) She says Canada should simply ban its Muslim religious schools, and she came her to protest last year when the government was considering allowing Canadian Muslims to enact sharia law here. She claims - and I agree with her entirely here - that Muslims (as well as other immigrants) need to be told firmly and without argument that if they're going to move to this country they need to abide by its laws 100%. That's what I've always said - if you don't like how we do things here, go back to whatever Third World shithole you came from.

What A Relief - I Was So Afraid Marie Osmond Was Going To Run

My buddy Dan Appleton in N'Awlins sent me an article informing me that 66% of Americans are "not ready" for a Mormon President. Is this a concern now in the U.S.? Last I checked page-chasing family-values Republicans were the latest obsession, along with the looming prospect of overwhelming political defeat for the GOP (Grand Ol' Pedophiles) in the forthcoming Congressional elections. At the very least, I thought a Condi vs. Hilary face-off for the '08 Presidential race would strike greater fear in both liberal and conservative hearts. I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen with a Mormon president? We'd all have to bless our underwear?

Starring Mohammed Landon and Melissa Ghotzbadeh

It amazes me to think that Toronto filmmaker Zarqa Nawaz hasn't been murdered by Islamic extremists yet, because she's apparently not afraid to criticize Islamic culture, albeit with humour and gentleness. On January 10th here in the Great White North she will debut the eight-episode sitcom Little Mosque On The Prairie on the CBC. She says she wants to "put the fun back into fundamentalism," which has the strange side effect of making people think she's a born-again Christian. She's already made a documentary on gender segregation in mosques and a comedy sketch called BBQ Muslims about two brothers pursued as terrorists when their backyard barbecue blows up.

The prairie setting will be Saskatchewan rather than Kansas, and will be about a Muslim family trying to interact with their prairie community. I'll be watching!!!