Former Mayors Discuss Cincinnati, including LGBT Cincy

In a meeting between former mayors of Cincinnati on the city's problems, the discussion turned towards LGBT folks, much thanks to former mayor Jerry Springer, from WLWT:

Jerry Springer said the riots and votes against gay rights have left Cincinnati with reputation of intolerance, and the city has to be more welcoming.

"Come on in. Come on in with your color, come on in with your religion, come on in with your sexual orientation, come on in with your lifestyle, obey the law, but come on in," Springer said....

But Dwight Tillery seemed to agree with Springers assessment, telling the audience that new buildings downtown don't matter unless all groups fell welcome there.

It's a beautiful thing, though that term "lifestyle" raises my hackles. Details, though. Also included were former mayors Ken Blackwell (via video), Arn Bortz, and current Councilmember Roxanne Qualls (whose on her way to a quick endorsement from this blogger in the coming election!).

How valid is Springer's point? Well, I think his and Blackwell's opinions may be a little more telling, as they are the ones who get to experience Cincinnati's reputation from outside of the tri-state area. Blackwell's opinion was not featured in the article, except to say that he suggests to keep tax rates low.

He is, after all, a Republican.

Thanks to @WLWT.

Alan Keyes on Hate Crimes

Yea. Yea. Yea.

It's almost priceless, blame-the-liberals for the problems of the world that we have come to know and expect from Alan Keyes but... you know what, I'm not going to even do the typical "he brings up a good point here" thing I usually try to pull.

It's just a funny read:

Liberals nowadays are disposed to blather condescendingly about the separation of church and state when it comes to defending the natural family or legally established standards of decency for sexual behavior. Ironically, their penchant for hate crimes legislation seems intent on revisiting the mentality of the medieval statutes that enabled the Inquisition- laws that insisted on states of mind that satisfied a standard of purity in the understanding and observance of sacred ideas, people and things. Much like the special penalties imposed by some religions for mistreatment of sacred groups of people or animals, the proponents of "hate crimes" legislation deal in special classes of people against whom criminal acts are somehow more grievous and offensive.

Pity benighted individuals like me, who actually thought it an advance in jurisprudence when people concluded that actions, rather than thoughts and attitudes, are the proper objects of legal regulation and punishment. How absurd were those philosophers of human liberty who saw efforts to impose purity of thought and attitude as thin excuses for sectarian persecution or vengefulness. Of course, today's benevolent liberals aren't looking for excuses to arrest and try those who disagree with their promotion of homosexuality. They aren't seeking a legal excuse to censor the language of preachers who reject their worship of hedonistic sexuality. They are liberals, whose sole aim is to free the world from every semblance of thought that might produce an evil consequence, provided only that everyone is made to think of good and evil exactly as they do.

Sarcasm aside, hate crimes legislation is the statutory framework for the forceful imposition of a political and social religion. The so-called liberals mean to institutionalize intolerance, even as they loudly proclaim Holy Tolerance as their all in all. Because we seek to protect a form of human life that they despise, they defame as bigots or religious fanatics people working to re-establish respect for the law against abortion. Meanwhile they move boldly to use the force of law to punish the thoughts and attitudes of any who move against the sacred untouchables of their new cult of sexual pleasure and self-indulgence. Behind their phony slogans of hope and progress comes the return of Dark Age zealotry, dressed up in the fleshy tones of New Age vanity and glamour.

You know, I have to say this: I read it a few times, and one thing struck me -- Alan Keyes runs a blog? And it's hosted on Blogger?

Didn't he run for President once? Oh, and for Senator of a state he didn't live in? Oh, and has he made up with his lesbian daughter, or is he still the pinnacle of Christian family policy, having cast her out?

Sorry. My point is the same: Alan Keyes has a blog? Does anyone care?

Oh, and apparently you can follow him on Twitter. Weird. I think most of the world just wished he disappeared into the "also ran" category of history and gone home to (Maryland? Illinois? where is he from? where is he running for office?) and been quiet. I wonder if, at some point, the GOP looked at their African-American national players (Keyes, Blackwell, and Steele) and went, "Seriously? This is the best we can do?" There are better ones, I promise you. I'm just making fun.

Ken Blackwell is Anti-Gay

The Republicans are in a big nasty fight over the "heart and soul" of their party. See, even with the moderate John McCain as their presidential candidate, and all the licking of the boots of the Christian right as evidenced by the nomination of Sarah Palin... the Republicans can't seem to figure out what to do with themselves.

Along comes former Ohio Secretary of State and once-gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell to "save the day."

Is this a joke? Really?

The Raw Story reminds, at least this blogger, of reasons why Blackwell is no good for the job of the RNC Party Chairman:

But his past may yet come back to haunt him. As Ohio's Secretary of State, he was instrumental in passing Ohio's gay marriage ban amendment, and he let some of his personal feelings slip in 2006 in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch. Blackwell told the interviewer that being gay was like having a compulsion -- for instance, he said, a penchant for arson or kleptomania.

"I think [homosexuality] is a transgression against God's law, God's will," he said. "The reality is, again...that I think we make choices all the time. And I think you make good choices and bad choices in terms of lifestyle. Our expectation is that one's genetic makeup might make one more inclined to be an arsonist or might make one more inclined to be a kleptomaniac. Do I think that they can be changed? Yes."

Honestly, at this point, Sarah Palin sounds like a better choice to run the Republicans, no? It's sad, really, seeing as how Mr. Blackwell is something like one of three higher ranking black Republican officials, and with the Log Cabin Republicans out of cash, it seems like good time to make a big change for progressive policies in the party.

I'm sure there are millions of other reasons why Mr. Blackwell shouldn't be on top of that party... what are yours? 

Thanks to Michelangelo Signorile for posting the entire transcript of the Blackwell interview.