Steele on Marriage

I'm a little late on this one, but I thought it was too funny to pass up. Michael Steele, the embattled chair of the RNC and its first African-American chairperson, has this to say on marriage equality:

Now all of a sudden I've got someone who wasn't a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for. So how do I pay for that? Who pays for that? You just cost me money.

Uh-huh. Your logic is making sense... I think I'm getting it... it's coming to me... wait, no, no. I think I just have gas. Sorry, Michael Steele, you still have no idea what you're talking about.

And neither do we.

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.

On the Republican-Limbaugh Controversy

The article that this comment comes from on WashingtonPost.com is so-so, but I loved this comment:

Coming from the party that invented the wedge issue, John Boehner calling the Limbaugh situation a "diversionary tactic" by Democrats is laughable hypocricy.

Amen, sister.

In response to Michael Steele...

..who doesn't feel like some jobs are "real jobs:" (thanks, JereKeys)

STEELE: You've got to look at what's going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's a job.

STEELE: No, it's not a job. A job is something that -- that a business owner creates. It's going to be long term. What he's creating...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn't count if it's a government job?

(CROSSTALK)

STEELE: Hold on. No, let me -- let me -- let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we're talking about have an end point.

As a small-business owner, I'm looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It's a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I'm -- either way, the bottom line is...

STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don't really understand that distinction.

STEELE: Well, the difference -- the distinction is this. If a government -- if you've got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That's -- there's no guarantee that that -- that there's going to be more work when you're done in that job.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we've seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.

STEELE: But they come -- yes, they -- and they come back, though, George. That's the point. When they go -- they've gone away before, and they come back.

In a way, you're right, Mr. Steele. Government jobs do end. They have a contract date. Meanwhile, you're still a jackass. See, my dad is an architect. He lost his job because no one is building anything. Because of this, Mama had to pick up a second job as a grocery cashier, which she is actually enjoying (I love my mom :-)) but so that they can pay the bills.

This may seem silly to you, but let's look at this from your situation: building jobs are temporary, therefore are bad. But building jobs could employ my father to design them, thus giving him his real job. And, so, instead, my mother, who is a professor of history (a real job, I think, but give me the clarification -- she's also on a contract, does that not count), picks up a real job at a grocery store which doesn't pay a lot and doesn't let her use her extensive intelligence and educational background.

But... that's... ok. Because the Republicans tell me so.

I think I got it.

I think I'll quit my government funded job and go work at Jimmy John's. I love Jimmy John's. It's close by and they pay less... but, you know, at least it's a real job.

Michael Steele Elected RNC Chairperson

Not to make this about race or anything, but they kinda had to, didn't they?

Ewww. That sounded awful coming out.

Regardless, congratulations Chairperson Steele (former Lt. Gov. of Maryland)!!!! Actually, this is a great choice. He's a rising star in the GOP and may actually have the know-how to remake the party. And from Maryland ... a more blue state ... I haven't done much research, but I don't think he's rampantly anti-gay. (Oh damn, damn, damn)

Sigh, it is to dream.