Florida primary headlines and famous women breaking taboos

Actress Mary Tyler Moore was also a dancer early in her career. Her dancing talents were featured from time-to-time in her first big hit, groundbreaking TV sitcom, "The Dick Van Dyke Show," which ran from 1961 to 1966.
Actress Mary Tyler Moore was given a Life Achievement Award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night. Ms. Moore was also a dancer early in her career. Her dancing talents were occasionally featured in her first big hit, "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Which I did not have to look up in Wikipedia because I saw those episodes when they were originally aired.

 

“Mary Tyler Moore’s taboo-breaking shows seen in a new light“:

Between “The Dick Van Dyke Show’s” Laura Petrie and Mary Richards, Moore helped create two of televisions most influential and indelible roles — there’s a statue depicting the famous Mary hat toss in downtown Minneapolis. How many other television characters have their own statue?

With her then-husband Grant Tinker, she formed MTM Enterprises, which produced equally influential and successful shows including “Rhoda,” “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Hill Street Blues.” Following a career path almost unheard of in the United States at the time, she went on to win accolades for her work in film (including an Oscar nomination for “Ordinary People”) and stage (where she was the first female lead in “Whose Life Is It Anyway?”).

Speaking of women bravely breaking taboos:

“Charlotte Bergmann is running for Congress in Tennessee’s most racist, misogynist corner”

Spoiler alert: Ms. Bergmann is a black Republic in a heavily Democratic district.

“Romney has double-digit lead in Florida polls“:

Three new polls showed the former Massachusetts governor seizing a double-digit lead over his nearest competitor, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in Florida, where voting will end on Tuesday.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania trailed far behind, with little hope of victory in a state where the winner will take all 50 delegates, and the rest will get nothing.

“Florida Fever: Naples Struck by Sudden Outbreak of Raging Mitt-mania Epidemic“:

Dear Stacy McCain reports from the scene with photos and videos:

Attention young conservatives: Your grandma loves Mitt Romney.

The phenomenal shift in the polls here in the Sunshine State — which has provoked much commentary and analysis about “strategy” and “messaging” — may in fact be little more complicated than that. And the massive crowd that turned out in downtown Naples today to hear and see Mitt was certainly evidence of how real Romney’s Florida surge is.

“A Mormon Church in need of reform“:

“… mainstream Mormons banned polygamy in 1890 to obtain Utah’s statehood, but they continue to perform temple ceremonies that “seal” one man to multiple women in the hereafter. My idea of heaven did not involve a husband whose love could be shared with many wives. [Dear Stacy McCain: Why don’t you ask Romney for his total number of wives counting both this world and the Mormon “spirit world”?]

“… Perhaps someday the church will not excommunicate, fire and demote people who want honest, church-wide dialogue about Mormon history and doctrine.

“Some Mormons compare Joseph Smith, the church’s founder, to Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer who exposed Catholic power abuses and doctrinal inconsistencies. Mormonism needs a Luther of its own.”

“Gingrich says he’s in till GOP convention“:

Gingrich’s pledge, in an already remarkably unpredictable race, raised the prospect of an extended struggle inside the party as Republicans work to defeat President Barack Obama in the fall. “You just had two national polls that show me ahead,” he said. “Why don’t you ask Gov. Romney what he will do if he loses” in Florida.

“George Will: We’re at the horrid stage with Newt Gingrich” (boldfacing mine):

“Time is not Newt Gingrich’s friend because the more time he has the more he talks. And the more he talks the more he says things, as he just here this morning, he said that I would love to be civil, but I’m running against a maniacal liar. Now, that’s pretty strong language. I don’t know if you have ever told Longfellow’s nursery rhyme to your 4-year-old daughter Alice yet. ‘There’s a little girl, had a little curl right in the middle of the forehead. When she was good, she was very good indeed. And when she was bad, she was very horrid.’ And we’re at the horrid stage with Newt Gingrich,” George Will said on ABC’s “This Week” today.

Jonah Goldberg made the same point a few days ago during the brief period when Gingrich was ahead in the Florida polls — although Goldberg used a more contemporary allusion to Japanese cinema:

Right now, Romney’s best hope is time, because history shows the only thing that can truly defeat Newtzilla is Newtzilla himself. The question is, is there time?

Gov. Palin on Fox News puts her finger on the quality of Gingrich that tea party voters find most appealing:

“You gotta rage against the machine, at this point in order to defend our republic and save what is good and secure and prosperous about our nation, we need somebody who is engaged in sudden and relentless reform and isn’t afraid to shake it up. Shake up that establishment.

“So, if for no other reason to rage against the machine vote for Newt, annoy a liberal. Vote Newt. Keep this vetting process going, keep the debate going.”

“Ron Paul: Staying in GOP race through the convention“:

Ron Paul vowed today he’ll stay in the GOP race through the national convention in Tampa and defended his decision to campaign in Maine while his rivals are focused on Florida.

“Santorum says daughter has pneumonia but is recovering, he will return to campaigning soon“:

Santorum described the situation as a “very, very tough night last night” but said by late Sunday Bella was “alert and back to her own beautiful, happy girl.”

“Congressional GOP slam Obama sloganeering, accuse Obama of slow march to Election Day“:

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that Obama uses the rhetoric of the right to make a case about fairness and equality, but produces policies that lead to “crony capitalism” and result in giving the government more power.

(snip)

“What we have learned with the president time and again is he is going to put some kind of poll-tested line in the State of the Union address and have no follow-up whatsoever,” Ryan said. “We have learned already that the president who’s had three years to try and propose real solutions to fix our fiscal crisis is ducking it. He hasn’t put a plan on the table yet. He formed commissions and super committees, so he sort of outsourced the leadership only to decry their results.”

Finally, good news for the world’s youngest blogger:

“A blog as therapy for teenagers“:

Research has long backed the therapeutic value of diary-keeping for teenage girls and boys. But according to a new study, when teenagers detail their woes onto a blog, the therapeutic value is even greater. Blogging, it seems, can be good for you.

The study, published in the journal Psychological Services and conducted by Meyran Boniel-Nissim and Azy Barak, psychology professors at the University of Haifa, Israel, found the engagement with an online community allowed by the blog format made it more effective in relieving the writer’s social distress than a private diary would be.

I thank you in advance for hitting the tip jar! If I raise at least $400 today, I can meet the deadline for a class I need to take to have the skills to support myself after my father is gone. (Note to new gentle readers: I am a writer but have been out of the work force for many years taking care of my late life partner and now my father, who will be 96 in April. I am 58. I’ve also been recovering from my own life-threatening health challenges, which I will be explaining soon. My persistence and hard work have paid off, but I still have to get the tools and skills necessary to be self-supporting. Luckily, as a writer and blogger, I can work from home. However, getting a job to raise money is not an option because I would have to pay someone more per hour than I would be likely to earn to look after my father while I was out of the house. Your donation will help me keep this blog going and put me on the road to self-reliance.)

Headlines from the Republican campaign trail — did Gingrich get one of his talking points from Cracked.com?

"Dream Girl" pin-up girl art from 1945, a beautiful young blonde woman in a long white evening gown leans against a low stone balcony rail at night.
Dream Girl, 1945. Why, yes, dear Stacy McCain DID put me up to this.

“The 6 Stupidest Things We Use to Judge People We Don’t Know” — John Cheese, a columnist at Cracked.com, notes that Newt Gingrich adopted a new talking point shortly after it appeared in one of his columns:

Last November, I wrote a piece on the Occupy Wall Street generation, and the first point was about how we’ve made the current generation of workers ashamed and afraid of taking certain jobs. A week or so later, Newt Gingrich started bringing up the same point in interviews as a platform for his campaign.

“Florida Fireworks Finale” — Dear Stacy McCain was at the Republican candidates’ debate last night in Florida. He has a handy summary at “The American Spectator“:

Thursday’s debate, the 19th televised debate among Republican presidential candidates this year, certainly did not lack fireworks. And while many political junkies have become weary of watching these affairs, the event here on the campus of the University of North Florida may be as decisive as the South Carolina debates that were credited with helping Gingrich score a crucial win there Saturday. Polls this week in Florida show Romney pulling away, and the former Massachusetts governor had one of his best-ever debate performances Thursday, while Gingrich had one of his worst yet.

“Cannibals in GOP Establishment Employ Tactics of the Left“ — Sarah Palin shares her thoughts on yesterday’s fragging of Newt Gingrich:

I am sadly too familiar with these tactics because they were used against the GOP ticket in 2008. The left seeks to single someone out and destroy his or her record and reputation and family using the media as a channel to dump handpicked and half-baked campaign opposition research on the public. The difference in 2008 was that I was largely unknown to the American public, so they had no way of differentiating between the lies and the truth. All of it came at them at once as “facts” about me. But Newt Gingrich is known to us – both the good and the bad.
(H/T to Prof. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, where I first saw this.)

“Tough New Gingrich ad: ‘What kind of man?’“ — At Hot Air, Allahpundit explains why he thinks Newt’s new attack ad against Romney is not going to peel off any Romney supporters or outweigh the greater amount of money Romney has for his own anti-Newt ads:

So psyched is Team Newt about this spot that they started pushing it to the media this morning before the vid was even done, sending around the script instead. It’s good, but the image of Romney as a ruthless, slippery politician who’ll say whatever he has to in order to win is, I fear, already priced into his stock.

“Mitt Romney leading polls in Florida” — The Los Angeles Times notes a new poll by Quinnipiac University shows Romney is leading the pack:

Romney has, for now at least, pulled ahead of Gingrich in the roller-coaster campaign for Florida. An opinion survey of Florida Republicans, released Friday by Quinnipiac University, showed Romney leading Gingrich by nine points, 38% to 29%. Rep. Ron Paul and former Sen. Rick Santorum were far back, at 14% and 12%, respectively.

“I think if Romney wins this, it’s over for Newt,” said John McLaughlin, a veteran Republican pollster who is unaffiliated in the presidential campaign. Looking ahead, Romney has the advantage in the Feb. 4 Nevada caucuses and other, largely symbolic contests next month, including a nonbinding Feb. 7 primary in Missouri, where Gingrich failed to qualify for the ballot.

“In retiree-heavy Florida, health care reform not a popular topic“ — Reuters reports:

There’s one small-government idea that Republican presidential candidates are reluctant to discuss in this retiree-heavy state: their plans to rein in health care costs for the elderly. (Note to Reuters: we call this “entitlement reform.” “Health care reform” is now called “Obamacare.” You’re welcome.)

“Santorum Praised by Rush Limbaugh, Endorsed by Florida State Sen. Plakon“ — Stacy McCain reports Rush Limbaugh praised Santorum for this exchange with Romney over Romneycare during last night’s debate:

SANTORUM: Just so I understand this, in Massachusetts , everybody is mandated as a condition of breathing in Massachusetts , to buy health insurance, and if you don’t, and if you don’t, you have to pay a fine.

What has happened in Massachusetts is that people are now paying the fine because health insurance is so expensive. And you have a pre-existing condition clause in yours, just like Barack Obama.

So what is happening in Massachusetts, the people that Governor Romney said he wanted to go after, the people that were free-riding, free ridership has gone up five-fold in Massachusetts. Five times the rate it was before. Why? Because…

ROMNEY: That’s total, complete…

SANTORUM: I’ll be happy to give you the study. Five times the rate it has gone up. Why? Because people are ready to pay a cheaper fine and then be able to sign up to insurance, which are now guaranteed under “Romney-care,” than pay high cost insurance, which is what has happened as a result of “Romney-care.”

ROMNEY: First of all, it’s not worth getting angry about.

Limbaugh said it is worth getting angry about, and many Republican voters who watched last night’s debate are probably reconsidering whether the media’s predetermined Mitt-vs.-Newt frontrunner narrative is overlooking the possibility that neither Romney nor Gingrich is the best choice to take on Obama.

“Santorum’s Main Backer Plans to Keep on Funding“ — The Wall Street Journal reports that Santorum is assured of money to stay in the race after Florida:

While Rick Santorum is in Florida seeking to revive his presidential campaign, a man in Wyoming might hold the key to extending his candidacy, and the entire fight for the Republican nomination.

“With focus on sunny Florida, GOP candidate Ron Paul braves snowy Maine in hunt for delegates“ — The Washington Post outlines Ron Paul’s campaign plans:

Paul is all but skipping Florida, whose primary is Jan. 31, to focus on Maine and other states holding caucuses, including Nevada, Colorado and Minnesota. Nevada’s caucuses are Feb. 4 and Colorado and Minnesota’s follow on Feb. 7.

Hit the tip jar! I’ll put your money to good use obtaining the skills, software and services I urgently need to re-boot this blog into one that does not depend on donations:

Update, 1/28/12: My thanks to Stacy McCain for the link and donation! He’s on the road in Florida covering the run-up to the Republican primary there on Tueday, Jan. 31.

How to improve Paula Deen’s ‘The Lady’s Brunch Burger’


One of the first things I knew I had to do in June 2010 when I started the diet and exercise program that has trimmed over 65 pounds from my figure was to stop watching Paula Deen’s cooking shows. But I have to love and admire her. She brings people together and makes them feel at home. And as dear Fausta reminds us, you didn’t get fat because of Paula Deen.

Ms. Deen’s story of bootstrapping her warm and bubbly personality and cooking talents into a multi-million dollar empire is an example of what an individual can accomplish in a free market economy and a business niche not strangled by onerous regulations and start-up costs. I was saddened to learn that she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes three years ago. I think the fact that she didn’t admit her diagnosis until she became a paid endorser for a diabetes medication just shows what an excellent head she has for business. I expect now she’ll make even more money with cookbooks tailored to the needs of diabetics — and good for her!

However, I didn’t learn that the “The Lady’s Brunch Burger,” is one of Ms. Deen’s signature dishes until this story broke. It’s a hamburger topped by a fried egg and two strips of bacon, sandwiched between two Krispy Kreme donuts (or a split hamburger bun or English muffin). I learned this thanks to hard drinkin’ and druggin’ chef Anthony Bourdain, who stands by his own vices, but objects to Ms. Deen’s gleeful use of butter, fatty foods and sugar. That’s where he draws the line.

Well.

I have news for Anthony Bourdain. I read the recipe for Paula Deen’s Krispy Kreme hamburger and in my opinion, it needs to be more Southern and does not go nearly far enough.

Let’s call my variations “A Conservative Lesbian’s Brunch Burger” — after all, I was born in Knoxville and I’m Southern on my mother’s side:

Ingredients for one serving:

Two Krispy Kreme donuts or rolled biscuits (because you can easily split them in half)
Patty-type breakfast sausage — slice off enough to make two patties that will be the size of your donut or biscuit after frying shrinks them.
Six strips of bacon
One egg

Steps:

  1. In separate skillets, fry the bacon and sausage to taste. (I like patty sausage extra crispy.) When cooked, set aside on a warm plate covered with a paper towel to absorb fat (not that it matters that much with this recipe).
  2. In the skillet you used to fry the bacon, fry the egg in the bacon fat, sunny-side up, to your preferred firmness of the yolk.
  3. To assemble the Krispy Kreme version of your brunch burger, take one whole Krispy Kreme donut and put three strips of bacon on it. Add a sausage patty. Put the fried egg on top of the sausage patty, then put the second sausage patty on top of the fried egg. Put the remaining three strips of bacon on top of the second sausage patty. Top it all with the second Krispy Kreme donut.

Variation One:

Instead of the Krispy Kreme donuts as a bun, substitute a rolled biscuit that you tear in half, or two rolled biscuits (recipe here, but Ms. Deen leaves out the step of folding the dough once after you roll it out — folding the dough allows you to easily tear the biscuits in half after they’re baked).

I recommend slathering the biscuit halves with soft butter and then adding honey. You can let the butter and honey soak into the biscuits in a low oven for a few minutes while you cook the sausage, bacon and egg, so the honey won’t drip all over you when you eat your brunch burger.

Variation Two:

Melt a slice of Velveeta cheese on each Krispy Kreme donut or biscuit. What is more Southern than Velveeta cheese?

Reboot coming, seeking financial angels

I am about to reboot this blog. I have finally worked out how to make the unique contribution to the conservative cause that I’ve been passionate about from the moment I decided to found this blog in January 2009. I’ve also finally figured out how to make money while I’m doing it. And I’ve just found the tools and mentors to teach me how to do it.

I’ve worked hard over the last few months to get my father’s and my financial affairs in order. (I’ll explain how they got out of order in a future post.) The new clarity feels wonderful! We now have an agreement with the IRS for paying my father’s taxes. While the levy of all my father’s income for October has put us two months behind on the mortgage, as long as we don’t fall behind another month, we won’t be in default. I am juggling the other bills — so far, so good. Our current situation is precarious but with hard work and a little luck, I feel certain we’ll pull through.

I can earn my way out of our financial challenges. But to do it I need some financial angels willing to invest in me. I must generate $1500 for my reboot. One of the things I’ll be doing is teaching the fundamental principles of conservatism along with practical solutions to prove to liberals that money comes from ideas, not a black box. I’ll also be featuring experts in wellness and personal transformation, since the heart of the conservative message is about achieving your full potential to enjoy a life of health, abundance and spiritual development.

Here is my offer: I will consider any amount contributed through the “Donate” button in this post to be a loan. I don’t know when I will be able to pay it back, but when I do, I will pay double the amount sent and match it as a donation to the blogger who referred you and recommended me. However, I need an escape clause: God forbid any disaster befalls my father or me, but if one does, I may never be able to pay you back. Please consider that most investments carry that same risk.

The benefit I am planning for the conservative cause is to answer the fundamental objections to conservatism that liberals have. They believe money comes from a black box and the only sure way to get it is to take it from people who have it. They don’t see the “how.” They don’t see the source. Well, I plan to feature experts in the “how” and the source. I’ll also feature success stories. My ambition is to make this a place of education, inspiration, laughter and certainty in my gentle readers in their ability to create a brighter future for themselves and for America. And I will do so in a way that generates money for me so that I will be able to support myself now and in the future without constant fundraising appeals.

If there are at least 40 people who can spare $40, I estimate that I can have my reboot up and running in about nine weeks. I thank all my gentle readers in advance for the treasure of your time in reading my blog. For the dear gentle readers who are unable to spare any money at this time, your prayers and positive thoughts also are a valuable contribution for which I am very grateful. I wish all my dear gentle readers prosperity, health and every blessing always.





The civility wars and gay conservatives

Yesterday Lisa De Pasquale, GOProud’s interim chair, published a piece worth reading in The Daily Caller calling out the gay Left for its vicious treatment of gay conservatives and their supporters while simultaneously deploring bullying:

Dan Savage, the “It Gets Better” project’s co-founder, has been just as vicious toward gay conservatives as schoolyard bullies have been toward their gay classmates. In an MSNBC interview, Savage referred to the members of GOProud, an organization of gay conservatives, as “gay Quislings and useful idiots.” He said they were just “window dressing” for bigoted Republicans. Like a schoolyard bully, Savage ridicules people who are different from him.

In 2007, the Human Rights Campaign congratulated Joe Jervis, the creator of the Joe My God blog, for an award he received for having the best LGBT blog. In 2011, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) awarded Jervis with its “Blogger of the Year” award. At the time, GOProud Chairman Emeritus Chris Barron wrote in The Daily Caller:

GLAAD’s tag line is “Words and images matter.”… Jervis goes as far as allowing calls for actual violence against gay conservatives to stand on his site. On two separate occasions, Jervis has openly ridiculed incidents of violent anti-gay hate crimes against gay conservatives. Apparently, words and images don’t matter to GLAAD’s members as long as the subject of those attacks is someone they disagree with politically.

I’m still working on establishing the order necessary for turning things around for us financially and going forward, but I couldn’t resist writing the following comment:

The Left works very hard to make sure its followers do not understand the full implications of the planned economy that they advocate. It also works hard to ensure its followers do not understand the Right and its ideological diversity. Unfortunately for the Right, its social conservatives preach family values, liberty and fiscal conservatism while practicing destruction of any family with a gay member, religion-based totalitarianism and big government redistribution of wealth for their own pet causes. Their saying one thing and doing another while conducting purges goes a long way toward confusing people about the conservative brand. Speaking to the Right, what we have to do as fiscal conservative/social liberals is to do a better job of holding members of our own party to account for behavior that violates our stated ideals.

Speaking to the Left, we have to work to educate the Left about how destructive their beliefs in planned economies are. This is especially true for the gay community, which thrives due to free market principles because gays as a minority must be entrepreneurs in order to cope with job discrimination. In fact, the gay community is a model of fiscal conservatism and self-reliance because gays can never depend on the government for help. That is why the gay community has so many charities, non-profits and clubs for practically every cause, hobby, sport, affinity and interest. Embracing the Left’s economic principles is suicide for the gay community because a planned economy would never duplicate or support the kind of diversity we have because, for the time being, the government doesn’t take so much money that we don’t have enough left over to spend on what we value.

My observation of Ann Coulter is that she is a woman with a good heart who stands by her friends in good times and bad. She also has many gay friends whom she loves and who love her. I wish I were one of them. The gay Left does not understand what an enormous act of love and courage it is for her to stand by GOProud. Single-handedly Ann makes it impossible for social conservatives to claim that gays can’t truly be fiscal conservatives and national security conservatives. Single-handedly Ann makes it impossible for social conservatives to purge the conservative movement of gays. When social conservatives can’t purge the movement of gay conservatives, that means we get to work with other conservatives for the causes we have in common and through the friendships we develop prove that our equality will make America stronger and more prosperous.

Lisa De Pasquale also is a woman of enormous courage and executive ability. Anyone who objects to her leadership role at GOProud is not a strategic thinker. Lisa was executive director of CPAC for many years. This means that she knows everyone who is anyone in the conservative movement as well as where all the bodies are buried. And that means she is well-connected and people take her calls and read e-mails she sends. She began her public support of GOProud while she was CPAC’s executive director and GOProud is fortunate to have her.

However, I do wish that GOProud would show some leadership in the civility wars and adopt a policy that forbids name-calling. Name-calling does nothing to persuade or educate or inspire people to see the merits of any point-of-view. Instead, it causes hurt and anger and closes minds and hearts. It is time to apologize for past errors and pledge to take the high road from now on.

Note: I will resume blogging as soon as I’ve finished creating order in our finances and my work environment. It is an emotionally demanding process and is requiring all my attention. I appreciate all good thoughts, prayers and practical support in the form of donations (see the “Donate” button in the sidebar) that any of my dear gentle readers wish to share to inspire me and help me through my current challenges. I’m really looking forward to finishing this project and returning to blogging.

Happy New Year

I wish for all my dear gentle readers a happy new year and progress, prosperity, perfect health, enlightenment, wisdom, love, friends, divine protection, divine guidance, good luck and every blessing always.

The tax levy in October has presented me with a number of challenges that I’m still sorting out. That’s what I’ve been focusing on instead of blogging. I hope that I will have things in hand enough by the weekend to start posting regularly again. In the meantime, I will appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts for my success.

UPDATEDx2: ‘The Case for “Outing” Gay Congressmen and Staffers’ at PJ Media

My essay making the case for outing members of Congress and their staffers who are gay and engage in anti-gay activism posted this morning at PJ Media. I’m finding that straight people are having a hard time understanding that there’s no such thing as privacy when it comes to anyone’s sexual orientation. Since there is no such thing as privacy about sexual orientation, there is no such thing as a “right to privacy” about sexual orientation. After your gender, it is the main thing people want to know about you in order to know how to relate to you. Therefore they figure it out for themselves, regardless of how many obstacles you may put in their path. You can’t stop people from doing this. Therefore there is no such thing as a “right to privacy” about sexual orientation.

UPDATE, 12/21/11, Wed.: 

The small number of commenters here and pretty much all the commenters at PJ Media seem to me to be putting words in my mouth in order to disagree with me. I’m fine with disagreement, but have to draw the line at misrepresenting what I wrote. The primary confusion is about my point that when someone wants to know your sexual orientation, you can say anything you want but they are going to observe you and make up their own minds — that’s what makes sexual orientation not private. I focused my article specifically on members of Congress and their staffers who meet two additional conditions:

  1. They are gay.
  2. They are engaging in anti-gay activism.

Frankly, I am already being accused of engaging in anti-gay activism for supporting practically any Republican, since so few support gay equality. I think it is a threat to America that so many Republicans are intent on shredding the Constitution in order to impose their religious beliefs through the state and on destroying the power of the judiciary in our traditional constitutional balance-of-powers because it is the most effective obstacle to achieving this goal. These are definitely poison pills. However, Obama and the Democrats do as little as they can toward gay equality to keep gays in the fold, which also is bad. But what is infinitely worse is that they want to destroy free enterprise and impose socialism. I believe I have a better shot at gaining my equality under free enterprise than under socialism. Therefore I will support an anti-gay Republican candidate who understands the policies required to get the economy thriving again — just as gay Democrats voted for Obama, who is still “evolving” on marriage equality and has savagely fought against gays in federal lawsuits on gay equality. (Note: one of those lawsuits, by the Log Cabin Republicans, forced Obama to support the repeal of DADT, but he gets no credit since he didn’t get in front of the parade until it nearly passed him by.)

I’m not going to out the average closeted lesbian or gay man who is minding her or his own business. But I am telling them they do not have control over what other people see and think, so without their permission, a lot of people in their lives have figured out their sexual orientation without being told.

However, I will grant that some people are harder to discern than others. I had to be told that financial advisor Suze Orman, Iron Chef Cat Cora and country singer Chely Wright are lesbians. But I believe if I were in a position to observe them in daily life, I’d have figured it out.

The truth that sexual orientation is virtually impossible to keep secret particularly seems to bother closeted gays, perhaps because they didn’t realize that this information about their life is not and never has been totally subject to their control. This thought frightens them and makes them go through the list of everyone in their life trying to figure out who might know without having been told. This also is embarrassing. I still cringe when I think of all the people who tried to reach out to me to let me know they were OK with my being a lesbian when I thought I’d pulled off being an ex-lesbian in my 20’s.

It also alarms people who do not have well-developed powers of observation because they can’t imagine what observant people are doing in order to read other people better than they can. This may frighten or shame them. That was not my intention, but few people react well to those emotions.

Others are terribly concerned about what would happen to closeted gay members of Congress and their staffers who have married a straight person, especially those with children, if they are outed for anti-gay activism. They seem to feel these people are entitled to enjoy all the perks of heterosexuality while exploiting the gay community — for men this typically means seeing gay prostitutes, or having one-nighters or brief flings. Lesbians tend to have longer affairs. But for both lesbians and gay men, they are involved with someone who will never commit to them. This creates despair and instability in the gay and lesbian community. Gay lives are ruined and no one cares. The sympathy has been entirely for the liar and cheat, never for the gays they exploit — and not even for the straight spouses and the children who have a legitimate entitlement to honesty. Funnily enough, the sympathy never seems to go to a straight liar who is cheating on a spouse, so Mark Sanford and Anthony Weiner were widely reviled when their affairs were exposed and the destruction to their careers was considered their just desserts.

Enough gays and lesbians are openly gay that we have reached the tipping point where it is assumed that if you are out and about in the gay community, you are out, period. Part of gay equality is that it is just as dangerous to your career and family life to lead a double life, or to say one thing (anti-gay!) and do another (gay!), as it is for any straight person because of the unpredictability of scorned lovers. I am not saying that everyone in the gay community who is leading a double life should be outed. If you are a private person, people should mind their own business. But if you are a gay member of Congress, or staffer — or any public figure, including celebrities — and you engage in anti-gay activism by demonizing gays and opposing gay equality — then the fact that you are secretly gay IS legitimate news. It is fair to bring your true sexual orientation to the public’s attention and ask for an explanation because of the destruction you are causing in the lives of an untold number of people both in the present and for many years to come.

UPDATE, 1/6/12, Fri.: HA! I was very specific about outing only gay members of Congress and staffers who ALSO engage in anti-gay activism. Both things have to be true to deserve outing. Everyone else who is not in a position of power can make his or her own decision about the closet. And Lily Tomlin said it first:

Lisa De Pasquale is the new interim chair of GOProud, replacing Chris Barron

Lisa De Pasquale and Cynthia Yockey at BlogCon 2010 in Virginia in September 2010.
Lisa De Pasquale and Cynthia Yockey at BlogCon 2010 in Virginia in September 2010.

GOProud announced yesterday that co-founder Christopher Barron is stepping down as chairman of the board. Lisa De Pasquale, former executive director of CPAC from June 2006 to April 2011 has been elected interim chairman of the board. Chris will continue as GOProud’s chief strategist and serve on the board as chairman emeritus.

Joe.My.God., a progressive gay blog, carried the news and a comment there included a photo of Lisa and me taken at BlogCon 2010 in Virginia, which I’m including above, from someone trying to determine if Lisa is a lesbian. No, she’s straight.

I’m overjoyed to see Lisa take on this role. She is the perfect person to lead this re-structuring:

“I am truly honored to be elected interim chairman of the GOProud board,” said De Pasquale. “The next several months will be important for their growth. Along with the GOProud staff, the Board will help refine the organization’s mission, develop a strategy for making Obama a one-term president, do substantive activities across the country, and build coalitions with conservative organizations, lawmakers and activists.”

“One of the first steps the new GOProud Board will be taking is to expand,” continued De Pasquale. “We will be inviting many of our Advisory Council members to join the Board of Directors. We need their support, their talents and their advice in a more formal capacity to continue to be able to build on the successes of the last two and a half years.”

“The day to day management of the organization will remain the same. The board has 100% faith in the leadership of Chris Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia,” concluded De Pasquale.

Robert Laurie’s open letter to social conservatives

I have been repenting this week that I have started writing this blog again before my bliss, compassion and sense of humor have entirely returned or surpassed what they were in my jolly fat days before I started my diet in June 2010. I’ve lost over 65 pounds now and I’m getting close to my goal. But I have let myself become a bit short with social conservatives and have put out a little more heat than light. The provocations have been far from trivial but still, I have not been as empathic as I would like to be so that social conservatives would feel entirely heard and understood before I say anything to get them to see the ways in which their zeal actually is in an almost complete disconnect with their intentions to create the conditions for an honorable, well-behaved and prosperous society.

However, Robert Laurie is up to the job and today has this compassionate “Open Letter to Conservatives” in the Daily Caller that says everything I have been saying and more. It concludes as follows:

If you don’t like a person, for whatever reason, that’s fine. That’s your right as an American. If you’re a Christian and you feel that it’s wrong to live a certain way, by all means, live by that creed and pass those morals on to your children. Just remember, your religion also features free will as a central truth. You’re not supposed to control your neighbor’s life, and it isn’t your job to judge everyone else. Your desire to do so has drawn the political spotlight away from provable issues and drawn attention to nebulous moral debates.

The bad news for the moral majority is that there’s a younger breed of conservative headed their way. It’s the future of the movement they claim to cherish, and it’s far, far less concerned with social issues than the old guard. If we’re going to maintain the United States as a constitutionally limited republic, and roll back the transgressions of past decades, social conservatives are going to have let go of a few sacred cows.

It’s time to make a choice: fight for a truly limited government or lose that battle in a failing attempt to present morality as government business.

This is why I constantly draw the distinction between government as the realm of coercion and religion as the realm of persuasion. What is most chilling about religion when it leaves the realm of persuasion to take over the realm of coercion is that it would never do so if it were succeeding on its merits in the realm of persuasion.

Rejoicing in tiny karmic miracles

Consider the paradoxes in the following sequence of events:

  • Presidential candidate and Republican governor of Texas, Rick Perry, releases a TV ad attacking the honor of lesbian and gay service members, saying, ““I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian, but you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school,” which means Perry supports and would re-institute DADT, a program for outing lesbian and gay service members and destroying their careers …
  • But when GOProud’s leaders, Jimmy LaSalvia and Chris Barron, publicly object to the fact that Perry’s chief campaign strategist, Tony Fabrizio, is gay and did not resign to protest Perry’s decision to release this ad, they are subjected to a maelstrom of criticism for outing him …
  • Even though Jimmy and Chris have known Fabrizio to be openly gay for so many years it never occurred to them anyone considered him to be in the closet …
  • But while Fabrizio neither resigns the Perry campaign to protest the anti-gay TV ad nor is fired for having his already considerable outness outed up several notches …
  • Andrew Breitbart does resign from GOProud’s advisory board to protest the outing of someone who is out because outing can destroy families and careers — thereby damaging the careers of two men who did not out anyone and the organization they founded — yes, this is the same Andrew Breitbart who outed Congressman Anthony Weiner as a tweeter of lewd self-portraits and destroyed his career …
  • Then remember this started with Rick Perry denouncing the end of a policy that outed lesbian and gay service members and destroyed their careers …

Now click thee to Cracked.com and scroll down to #1 to rejoice in this “tiny karmic miracle.”