Disqus - Latest Comments for DanV

Re: How Many Southern Whites Believe Obama Was Born in America?

DanV — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:15:09 -0000

So 70% of white southerners either don't think Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or are uncertain. How many of them could SPELL Barack Obama? How many of them could READ Barack Obama? How many even KNOW who the current President is? In answer to that, I'm sure that some of them knocked around the names Hoover and Coolidge!

Oh, and one more thing: Tuci and Stephenberry - it takes forever to scroll past your personal (and tiring) feud. I've commented on this sight for the first time - and the last (if I see your names in the comments section).

If you want to joust with each other, please take your barbs and lances somewhere else!

Re: Christian Group Urges Burning of Francesca Lia Block Book - mediabistro.com: GalleyCat

DanV — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:59:12 -0000

OK, so the CCLU is made up of 4 idiots who want to cash in on censorship and homophobia. But one week after this brouhaha and CCLU is still a nebulous entity. I've tried every source imaginable to find out about it and the only thing I came up with was a two-man for-profit establishment on the outskirts of Kansas City: American Christian Civil Liberties Union. There's nothing on Rev. Cleveland Eden either. He sounds like a snake-oil sales man of the Southern Baptist variety. And one who cruises nursing homes to be plaintiffs in law suits.

It would all be worth investigating if it weren't so the fact that it all sounds like a grade B movie, or a one-ring circus.

http://thedevilanddanvojir....

Re: Jesus Christ Collection Agent

DanV — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:08:35 -0000

This might sound a bit arrogant, but the real criminals in this scam just might be the people who fall for it. WWJD mean a lot to some people. Those people are weighted under Christianity's greatest guilt trip: Original Sin. And since "EVERYONE is a sinner"...

(Washington Independent take note) This is almost as ridiculous as the West Bend, Wisc. library suit that is currently going on: the "Christian Civil Liberties Union" (very shady) is suing the local library for $120,000 because it display a young adult novel about being gay-bashed. They also want to burn the book. The (very elderly) plaintiffs' accusations? It's presence:

"Caused mental and emotional distress" AND "`It might possibly be considered a hate crime against Christians."

I kid you not.

I have some substance on the matter.
http://thedevilanddanvojir....

Re: I am a work in progress but it is REALLY difficult - Letters to the Webmaster

DanV — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:56:50 -0000

Dear Dean:

I'm glad that your post garnered so much interest, concern and positive feedback. I'd like to add some more if I may.

You're doing better than many other people. I am an older gay man who has lived in San Francisco for over 35 years. Yes, I lived through the onslaught of the worst epidemic the world has ever seen. I was privileged to volunteer for a non-profit called the AIDS Emergency Fund. I was a client intake volunteer, i.e. I was the one who saw the people personally and signed them up. Some of them passed out in front of my desk! People were - literally - dying in the streets.

Then I had an epiphany of sorts: there were thousands of people in SF giving their time, their money, their very lives to helping people with AIDS. People they didn't know. And all those people doing all those good works were a thousand times more Christian and a million times more human than all the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells who were encouraging people to evict them from their lives, from their homes WHILE THEY WERE SICK AND DYING!

Where am I going with this? The point is that organized religion (mostly Christianity) had a chance at a shining hour. And blew it. It may never have a chance like that again. It's back-pedaling now by concentrating on AIDS in Africa.

When people ask me what I believe, I say: "I have FAITH (not just belief) in God, and then I have FAITH in HUMANITY. I also have FAITH in today's scholars like Karen Armstrong, Bart Ehrman, John Boswell.

Many churches do not allow you to have faith in humanity. "Original Sin" is what they preach and believe. EVERYONE is a "sinner." Original Sin is the biggest guilt trip put upon mankind: everyone is sinful because everyone is born with a black mark against them!

But if you don't believe in original sin...Christianity falls apart. At least THEY think so. Dean:

Have FAITH in God, FAITH in the TEACHINGS of Jesus Christ. FAITH in the teachings of Buddha, FAITH in the teachings of Aristotle, FAITH in your neighbor and FAITH in yourself. And FAITH in humanity. You don't have to go to church for all of this FAITH. You don't need a denomination. You don't need a minister. You don't even need the Bible. Read about other people and religions and beliefs. Read, discover and then have FAITH.

Re: Sarah Palin: Diplomat Without Porfolio (Yet?)

DanV — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:25:35 -0000

Added to her misstatements on Russia, it was reported today that, while speaking to Alaskans being deployed to Iraq (of which her son was one - who timed THAT?) she more than implied that Iraq was responsible for 9/11! Palin not only has a lot to prove, but she's now in a position where she CAN'T prove to anyone of sound reasoning that she can lead. Or is she really Dan Quayle in a dress? Her nomination has been called "the best political maneuver of the campaign" It was political alright. We get that.

We live in a world where if we don't know our neighbor's every thought, word and need (as well as deed), tensions can flare up and there will sanctions followed by inspections followed by presumptive (not preemptive) war. EVERY DIPLOMATIC STEP HAS TO BE THE RIGHT ONE. False moves, false starts, inconsistencies, will eventually lead to deaths. Our fearless leader thought diplomacy was putting your best foot forward at the Ranch in Crawford, Texas. Unfortunately, every time Bush put his best foot forward, it invariably landed in a cow patty.

And the offices of President and Vice President are NOT classrooms where McCain and Palin can try out moves and ideologies, then throw them away and start new ones. There are no "redos" while you're in office. Put it this way: at this point in time - 7 weeks away from election, people won't change, policies won't change, laws won't change. Look at these two very closely and ask:

DO YOU REALLY WANT THESE TWO TO REPRESENT YOU TO THE REST OF THE WORLD?? Do you want to send a brave veteran and senator out into the wilds of the world (some of which he's seen already) along with his trusty sidekick who can only (to date) promote oil, mooseburgers and Christofascism? Take a long, hard look.

Do you really want to defend yourself from the international barbs and laughs that will follow by saying "well, ah, this was the best we could do." People around the world have been laughing at the little old former POW trotting around the Middle East and "cluck clucking" like an old hen, now they're laughing at a pretty young woman who is a dyed-in-wool Christofascist, whose speeches she has to explain again and again in confusing detail.

Als! If George Burns and Gracie Allen were alive today to teach them how to do it!

Re: McCain Camp Unveils Palin ‘Truth Squad’

DanV — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:30:01 -0000

Are we certain that it won't be a HIT SQUAD? Isn't Palin, this "gutsy pit bull" able to fend for herself? Hasn't she heard some of the questions before? And just how deep are they willing to dig to defend her before hitting something they can't defend? She's supposedly an intelligent adult, the governor of a state, someone who's "electrified" the Republican Party, but she has to be hidden from the major media for a while and now has to have a whole group of people fending off critics (sorry, I mean the Internet and liberal smears - BTW, does that mean that the Internet isn't liberal or liberals don't use the Internet?).

This woman has a lot of excess baggage. She is NOT Hillary Clinton. She is "smart" but not intelligent. As far as the "vetting" process was concerned, McCain picked her too quickly and she accepted too quickly. In the past, VPs were picked for how many votes they could bring in. McCain just looked at the number of possible votes and not the person, not the professional. On her part, Palin was so awed by the possibility of becoming VP, she didn't care enough to quickly and thoroughly cover her ass.

On a personal note: If I hear the phrase "thanks, but no thanks" I'm going to vomit.

Re: Exclusive: (Fake) Sarah Palin Twitter Interview

DanV — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:29:38 -0000

I'd love to interview FSP! She'd be fun to quote for my upcoming book, "Sacred Cows Make the Best Hamburger!" I want to ask her about where babies come from! I'm 61 and still don't get it. Also, since I'm gay, I want to ask her which closet I should go back into, the hall closet or the (shock!!) bedroom closet? Does she give advice on anything? Should I listen to her or keep watching the 700 Club?

Re: Ties That Bind

DanV — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 23:48:24 -0000

VERY GOOD ARTICLE! (I've bookmarked it to read again!).

And you state the very crux of the article first:

"President George W. Bush, like so many before him, succumbed to the illusion that a little personal diplomacy — oiled with a few billion in trade and aid — would secure a dependable ally in a strategic area of the world."

1. Bush thinks in terms of "cowboy" diplomacy which, actually, is no diplomacy at all. It's a "shoot first" philosophy. And in today's globalization, it stinks.
2. Bush's world is still steeped in back-slapping "good 'ole boys". That is his fantasy, his break from reality.
3. Bush succumbs to the theory that "liberty" "freedom" "democracy" are the only words you need when talking to people in troubled countries. He has no idea that those words have different meanings for different people.

I've long called Bush history's "Greatest Diplomatic Dimwit." People laugh when I say it, probably because they think there's more than a grain of truth in that title. But it's sad. His entire administration has become a "back hole" for diplomacy and it will take more than "a little personal diplomacy" for us to grapple up to where we were eight years ago.

Re: McCain poised to beat Palin’s drum all the way to White House

DanV — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:54:35 -0000

I thought that if he picked Pawlenty it would be a bad choice, but Palin. Her inexperience far out reach's Obama's. Government experience: mayor of a town with 9000 population, then governor for two years. Her "story" is pro-life, but how many times is she going to have to drag it out in every one of her speeches? She may be "new" and "fresh" but also very, very green. Look at the pairs together:

McCain: lot's of senatorial experience, but flip-flopping all over the place. And since 2000, has voted with Bush 90% of the time.
Palin: almost no political experience at all. Governor of Alaska for only two years.
Obama: senator for only two years, but quick learner bright, enthusiastic and young
Biden: 30 years in the Senate and most of them on the Foreign relations committee. Among the four of them, Biden's got the most knowledge of foreign affairs.

O.K., you pick!