This Is Breaking My Heart

Last night, after a meeting and hitting the diner with my buddies (one piece of cake—split four ways!), I was happy to make it home in time to watch my favorite news broadcast—which you already know is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

I made it through the election and the aftermath laughing at the foibles of both sides with Jon. But you can see that our current political climate is beginning to wear even on him. Last night’s episode—while funny—was truly depressing.

First he talked about the ridiculous Justice Sunday event. I certainly didn’t watch it, and The Daily Show only showed snippets, but the bits I saw were full of hate and anger. Watching people denounce things that are important to me, like choice and gay marriage, just depresses the shit out of me. Watching it be aligned with God makes me actually feel ill.

Then he discussed the new law proposed in Texas that would prohibit lesbians and gays from being foster parents. This is depressing enough; after all, former drug addicts, felons, and even people with a history of child abuse are allowed to be foster parents in Texas, but FOR GOD’S SAKE DON’T LET THE HOMOS TAKE CARE OF THE CHILDREN! Not only will gays and lesbians be prevented from fostering, but social workers will be permitted to investigate potential foster parents to be sure that they aren’t pretending to be straight. Civil rights violations? Hello? Anyone?

What on earth are people so fucking afraid of? Well, to answer that question, Jon Stewart turned to a pundit on CNN. This idiotic woman (I’m afraid I can’t find who it was, but she was from the Family Research Council, a lovely organization of people attempting to use Jesus as a weapon) claims that children fostered by homosexuals are 11 times more likely to be molested. She sites a study well known (as Jon Stewart reminded us) to be complete fucking bullshit and COMPLETELY FUCKING WRONG.

So that was depressing enough, but, as Jon pointed out, what was even worse was the fact that the anchorwoman on CNN allowed this woman to state this bullshit as fact and didn’t even suggest that the study she was referencing was bogus. The anchor merely wrapped it up and said, “Good debate.” (Jon’s face at that was priceless. Good debate??? What a load of crap. You can view the whole piece on The Daily Show here, just click on "Gaywatch").

This is what terrifies me, people: the fact that the news media isn’t doing its job. They are allowing pundits to state their spin WITHOUT INVESTIGATING ACCURACY. No wonder people are misinformed!

I promise you, I would want the media to investigate the claims of every left-wing pundit as well as every right-wing one. I want to know if what I’m hearing is based in fact or opinion. Don’t you?

I have met plenty of people who have been through the foster system. I have heard stories of wonderful and loving foster parents as well as stories of horrendous abuse. Based only on that small sampling, the abusers were all heterosexual. I’ve also met several gay couples that have done fostering—and they have been, across the board, wonderful. All of the couples I’ve met that have done fostering eventually adopted several children, and all of those children had HIV (kids almost nobody else wants, by the way).

If you have a big enough heart to be a foster parent (I don’t think I could do it—I could never give the children back, and that is usually required), and you have a clean record, you should be allowed to be a foster parent. There are thousands upon thousands of children that need a safe place to be.

The amount of hatred, bigotry, and fear that is being held up as doctrine right now is making my heart sick. I feel like I’ve entered some sort of awful parallel universe; I swear I didn’t feel this hopeless under Reagan or the first Bush.

Last night I listened to a young man share about losing his little brother to violence a few days earlier. The boy had been stabbed, and died in his brother’s arms. The young man is sober, and a Muslim, and he spoke eloquently about his pain and his desire for revenge. He even spoke about the fact that his religion sanctifies revenge. This young man committed violent crimes during his addiction (and got sober while serving time in prison). But last night he said he knew he couldn’t live that way any longer, and while he didn’t know if he could, he would try to pray for his brother’s murderer.

Did you hear that? He said he would try to pray for the man that killed his brother only three days after the murder occured. If this angry young man can set aside his hate, can’t the rest of us?

Even though God and I aren’t on the best speaking terms these days, I will pray for the legislators in Texas. I will pray for the folks at Justice Sunday. I will pray for all the children that need to be fostered, and pray they find safe haven. I will pray for that idiotic woman spouting hatred and lies like facts on CNN, and I will pray for the clueless anchor woman that didn’t challenge her. I will pray that we all find the way to love and tolerance.

I have to. It’s the only way I can keep from weeping about what my country has become in such a few short years.

Comments

[dish]

1.

"I swear I didn’t feel this hopeless under Reagan or the first Bush"

I was saying almost the same thing to my husband just last week. And it makes me so very sad and scared. I will join you in praying for all of those things.

[Kath]

2.

What is happening in Texas staggers me.
I am currently going through foster/adoptive parent training in a province in Canada which I used to think of as the Texas of the north, but no longer.
There are so many children in the system in North America that need safe, loving foster homes and there just aren't enough available.
In all the research that I have been doing about fostering/adopting, Texas comes up time and again as the worst of the worst in providing appropriate care for its children.
I wonder how many of the people who are for this ridiculous, cruel proposal are foster parents? How many have adopted through the system? How many ensure that it is properly funded and administrated. How many are willing to uto take the 2000-2500 children this will affect into their own homes?
Not enough.

[RainbowW]

3.

"Civil rights violations? Hello? Anyone?"

we don't have civil rights in texas, didn't you know? we have the southern baptist convention.

[-A-]

4.

Being from Texas, I feel compelled to say that I did not vote for the idiots who are trying to get this bill passed. Unfortunately, I am in the minority.

This bill is stupid, and I pray that it never becomes law. I do not believe that being gay/bi makes you a child molester. I would not have the strength to give a child back. I could not be a foster mother. Therefore, I admire and respect anyone who is willing to be a foster parent (no matter what their sexual orientation is).

What they also failed to mention is what they plan to do with the foster children who are currently in homosexual homes. We certainly can't leave them there to learn to be tolerant of others.

I did go watch Gaywatch (I love The Daily Show), and I think that Jon Stewart said it best in saying that we should take the children out of the homes of gay people and give them back to their birth parents who were abusing them to begin with (obviously that is paraphrased).

And, Justice Sunday. I thought it would be hard for one "conservative Christian" to offend other conservative Christians, but he did. Just put me in the "liberal Christian" group. :)

[suze]

5.

i hear you cecily. it saddens me to see what's happening in the states and to know that it's only a matter of time before the conservative wave hits canada. hopefully not to the extent it has you folks, but i fear for what my country will become if the conservatives get into power.
as for journalists not doing their jobs - i was quickly disallusioned by journalism after working only six short weeks at a daily paper. it's all about what sells, and it's no longer about impartial facts. which is sad. (((HUGS)))

[CursingMama]

6.

It is all so very depressing and distressing that I have been known to stick my head in the sand and pretend nothing is wrong for a few days; just to get my feet back under me. I don't understand why more journalists aren't doing their jobs, why they aren't striving to the Woodward and Bernstein level, why journalism has become an arm of the entertainment industry.
Maybe instead of contacting only our representatives who repeatedly ignore us we should also contact the news organizations that aren't doing their jobs and their sponsors - they say money talks.

[Michelle]

7.

The law in Texas disgusts me personally for two reasons.

One..I am sitting here waiting for my first call as a foster parent. Just willing the phone to ring. It is hard process to become a foster parent. It's not like those legislators are taking in foster children.

And Two..as an abuse survivor..I was abused by my straight grandfather. I know tons of women who are abuse survivors and not one that were abused by a gay man.

Sheesh. It's so so ridiculous. This hateful mentality blows me away. Nevermind that these children are taken away from their STRAIGHT parents who abused them. Nevermind that someone thinks it is a better idea to put these kids on the street instead of letting someone who is gay raise them.

I have a great bumper sticker, "That's ok. I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway."

[JT]

8.

Some scary shit there...
For a supposedly "free" country, people sure want to have a say in how you live your life!

[Julie]

9.

Is that fucking state still part of this country? UUUGGGHHHH

While I wasn't in foster care, the man who sexually abused me when I was 6 was straight. Of all of the people I've known in my life that have been sexually abused, the abuser has always been straight.

I work for a company that is predominately gay. I would trust any one of these men and women to care for my children.

[Croupier]

10.

amen.com/motherfuckin_testify

As a queer girl born and raised in Texas, I thank you for your prayers. The Prayer of St. Francis keeps repeating in my head--"Where there is hatred, let me sow love."

[ivy]

11.

Thank the Goddess for John Stewart.

The press has been bought. They'll do whatever they're told to do. What bothers me more is that so many of the American public won't bother to think critically. If you read and heard the President refer to "private accounts" for yourself for months, and later the press says that now it's "Personal Accounts" and anyone (like those dems) who says "private accounts" is obviously using slanted rhetoric, why do you accept that? Why don't people think, "Well I'm not stupid. I've heard W and many other Republicans use the term private accounts for quite awhile now, so how can it be a phrase the dems are using to be divisive? The press sure is slanted." People are not really that dumb. But for some reason they are willing to be told what they should think, and I don't understand why. Why are so many people I know (not stupid people, by the way) willing to be spoon fed lies without question?

[ivy]

12.

btw- did you ever read The Bronze Bow as a kid? I was sort of obsessed with that book when I was 12, because I had a big crush on the main character. I read it again recently. Jesus is a character in the book and it's all about turning away from hate and towards forgiveness and love. It's a great book. Made me remember the loving Jesus of my childhood. I don't think that Jesus is allowed in evangelical churches.

[Anne Basso]

13.

Just so you know, all of us conservative Christians aren't completely clueless A-holes. While I don't support gay marriage (due to my religious beliefs about the sacrament of marriage) I totally support them as foster parents. There are so many children who need a stable home. And if a homosexual couple can provide that for a child in need of one, I say GREAT!

And it always ticks me off when people bring up pedophilia. Most pedophiles consider themselves heterosexual,not homosexual. For goodness sake, most homosexual are wonderful generous people.

[Janis]

14.

Interesting statistic. 11 times more likely to be abused by homosexuals who foster care.

I was molested by three different straight men when I was a child. As a young dating teen, I was raped by a straight male. When I was raped as a young married woman, it was by a straight man.

Tell me (and many others) again how safe some straight men are.

Pedophiles are pedophiles straight, gay, polka dotted or striped.

*shakes head* All gays are evil, all straights are safe. Yeah, whatever...

[eve]

15.

Yesterday was a depressing day for me too.

The local conservative radio show hosts in this area brought a group of their listeners/followers to DC to talk face to face with their local representatives. (Has anyone else heard of this?) The overriding point being, you make an appointment, you are civil and professional, you state your case, you put a face to their constituency. That's (supposedly) it.

I was astonished to hear how rudely these people were treated by their elected representatives and their staffs. They were insulted, told to leave "or we'd call security", and the people they spoke with wouldn't even give their names! Can you imagine speaking with a member of the US government, who then refuses to give you their name?

I don't agree with everything these people were going and saying. But at least they were going and saying, kwim? Isn't that what democracy is supposed to be about?Makes you wonder where we're living when the people come to see the government, and are turned away.

It made me so disenchanted. But then I realized, that's what "they" want. They hope that people like me will read about the bill yesterday and this parenting bill, and sit and stew at my computer in silence, and then go about my business. We're faced more than ever with the realization that that kind of behavior is no longer an option. It can't be, otherwise we'll wake up in a world tomorrow where we're *all* subject to "sexual orientation investigation." Ugh.

[JuliaKB]

16.

Yeah, I feel like the world is caving in on me. More to the point, I feel like I am in the weird vortex that is taking me back to the country of my birth. The signals, I recognize them. The whole echo chamber media is a big one.
But at least we have a real opposition party. Small miracles, I guess.

[Soper]

17.

Look at that, you made me click off of Bloglines to come comment. That's how cool I think you are.

[oliviadrab]

18.

Fucking astounding. So what the hell are the social workers going to do, ask the couple to have heterosexual sex in front of him/her just to prove they do it that way? It is getting harder to not grab my hair and scream at the shit this country allows people to get away with. AAAUGH!

[Encyclopedia Brown]

19.

Good Afternoon...

As a Man from TEXAS I know I am delurking at my own peril, but I have to at least throw in a good word or two for my home state. I mean, I realize we get lumped in a lot with The President... and that is something Texans can't get away from. But there are still a lot of good people here who don't let their religion blind them to what is right in their hearts, and what just makes sense when it comes to respecting your fellow man or woman.

If you think on the whole thing though, The President is just paying off the debt he owes to the congregations of tithe-payers who got him re-elected in the first place... and it is there that I think a change is possible. I mean, it doesn't do anything to sound the alarm and wring your hands everytime some Politician plays to the pews. (Politicians are what they are... and they always will be.) It only serves to darken the tone of any conversation and expand the growing chasm between Left and Right, or Dem/Rep. What will make a difference though is to change someone else's mind... granted, that requires a lot of work, and OF COURSE it will always be much easier to pitch a fit everytime some "bad news" comes down. -But face it... those "Religious Nuts" that scare you to death, and make you wonder what happened to your country, well they are American Citizens too. YOU KNOW they are scheming to convert you to "the light," as it were... so why not make a Patient and Tolerant move to help them see your side of things.

(And as that will be something akin to putting the toothpaste back in the tube, you might as well start by not citing a COMEDY SHOW as source of "News")

-Now I say all that with every bit of the respect I was raised to give to each and every person I came across. And for my part, I agree that it is complete bullshit to deny children in need the chance to have caring, responsible adults open their home and their hearts to them... because there is a vast shortage of that as it is. (Gay or Straight should never enter into the conversation)

I'll go back to my corner now... thanks for the time.

[cecily]

20.

Encyclopedia:

While I think you have many valid points, I must say the following:

--that "comedy show" is scrupulously accurate and actually one of the best sources of news out there these days.

--I have been working hard, one person at a time, shedding the light on the truth about partial birth abortion

--while those 'religious nuts' are Amercian citizens, so am I, and I actually represent the majority far more accurately than they do.

But I'm glad you agree about the foster parents thing.

:)

[R]

21.

There is a heartbreaking account of one TX family's struggle with this at http://from0to5.blogspot.com/ It really makes my heart hurt for them and all the other families dealing with this issue.

[Kinneret]

22.

Ditto, babe. And a belated happy birthday. I really miss Canada these days, flawed though it may be.

[Melessa]

23.

"The amount of hatred, bigotry, and fear that is being held up as doctrine right now is making my heart sick. I feel like I’ve entered some sort of awful parallel universe; I swear I didn’t feel this hopeless under Reagan or the first Bush."

I couldn't have said it better myself, and I wish I didn't have to. This kind of behavior by "Christians" makesme reluctant to identify myself as one. I'm not ashamed of my personal beliefs, but I also feel they aren't represented accurately by the so-called "moral majority" that seem to have frightening amounts of power in the government and media these days. They seem to forget, Christ didn't particularly like the Pharisees who were seen as the paragon of piety in their day. Instead, He preferred the company of those that his society perceived as different from everyone else. In their eagerness to use His name, they seem to have forgotten His mission.

[Charlie]

24.

Unfortunately laws like the one in TX are what follows from a political philosophy based on falacies like "the American family is in jeopardy" and "gays are more likely than straights to be pedophiles." These ideas, though spectacularly inaccurate, are needed to manufacture the culture of fear, hysteria, exclusion, and bigotry on which some factions of our society thrive.

[Katherine]

25.

I totally agree with you. It seems that only yesterday, under the good ol' Clinton administration, this sort of religious hysteria didn't sway most of the populace. And if it did, everyone knew they were nuts.

It's really quite frightening how such a vocal minority can effectively hijack a country like this.

[Sacha]

26.

Texas is the foster care cesspool of the US. We have one of the largest populations of children in foster care and arguably the least progressive system. I work for a foster care and adoption agency that contracts with the state. We are really excited about some of the potential changes to the system, but it is beyond depressing when some redneck asshole of a legislator tries to tack on a rule about no LGBT foster/adoptive parents. The odds of it actually passing through are slim to none, but it gets everyone all riled up about the "injustice" of poor, abused children being placed in LGBT homes. The people who are complaining are not exactly opening their homes to these children. The ignorance is scary, terrifying, and disgusting. I am luck to work for an agency where our CEO is very active in the legislative arena and is working hard to make sure that changes are benefitting the kids, not the legislators.

[Sacha]

27.

I forgot to add: The general consensus amongst the agencies is that if it did pass, it would become a "don't ask, don't tell policy". Right now, LGBT couples cannot be licensed as a couple. One person of the couple is the licensed one and the other is just a resident of the household. There is one judge in the San Antonio area who will grant joint adoptions of foster children. In other cases, one parent would be the legal parent in order to finalize the adoption, and the other parent would have no legal claim to the child. Sad, but true.

[Menita]

28.

At home we say, on a nightly basis, "Thank God for Jon Stewart."
What is heartbreaking though is that his is a very lonely voice.
And that the voice of reason and critical thinking is on only four nights a week, late night, for half an hour.
I keep waiting for someone, anyone, in the "serious" media to scrounge up a shred of his courage and begin to question things in earnest, right or left, liberal or conservative.
And I keep waiting.

[DMouse]

29.

It is fucking scary.

The UK is by no means perfect, but I am grateful every day that the religious whackjobs aren't in charge. At least yet.

[mijk]

30.

sometimes the US of A scares the hell out of me.. And this is one of the times!

Mijk

[Cat, Galloping]

31.

The media doesn't investigate and report properly in large part because they're fucking terrified of this vengeful, vindictive administration that uses tactics ranging from not giving the NY Times a seat on the campaign airplane, forcing him to try to catch up by flying commercial, to putting reporters in jail for refusing to reveal their sources.

While the editorials often get it right, the front pages are full of suck-up stories. The other day they defended the John Bolton nomination by saying something to the effect that there are lots of nasty people in politics so he shouldn't be singled out. I wish I could find the exact quote but I don't have time right now. So much for the liberal bias. ARGH!!!

[Christine]

32.

Can I get an A M E N! Cec, that is just, wow...I am stunned this is going on IN OUR COUNTRY.

Also wanted to add that the man who molested me from the time I was four until I was 8 years old was straight, married and was molesting his own daughters too - but as long as he wasn't one of those hateful homos, I guess it was OK...

God help us all.

[Christine]

33.

Just wanted to add that I probably shouldn't have said I was "stunned" when "disgusted" is a more accurate description of what I am feeling.

[Irina]

34.

By the way, have you read "America: The Book"? It's hilarious!

[Lola]

35.

Once again Cecily you've taken the words right out of my mouth. I'm horrified that these religious zealots are trying to force their bigoted and ignorant views on the rest of us. Worse yet, they are completely unapologetic about trying to throw democracy out the window in pursuit of their agenda.

Texas has always been openly hostile to homosexuals (anyone else remember Lawrence v. Texas ?) and this new atrocity the Texas legislature is trying to perpetrate upon kids who need loving and stable homes is just another example of that hostility. What makes me even more furious is that it arbitrarily eliminates an entire group of otherwise suitable foster parents who are ready and willing to take in a foster child. Something else I don't think they've thought through is the fact that a whole lot of (homosexual) family members of foster kids will be made unavailable to foster them if this law is passed. Last time I looked into this issue, a huge percentage of foster kids are placed with family members who are willing to take them in. (In my state it's actually considered preferable to place foster kids with family members, so I wouldn't be surprised if public policy in Texas is the same.)

Anyway, you're right that simply sitting back and being pissed off isn't enough. I hope that some of your readers from Texas will actually be inspired by this post to speak up and contact their local legislators to voice their opposition.

Thanks for the great post.

[laura]

36.

Listening to the news this morning as I drove into San Antonio on the way to work, I heard that the anti-gay foster family bill is not going to pass. That the (and forgive me, I am terribly ignorant about who does what when and under what title), but the legislator who is the committee chairperson in charge of this bill says she has big problems with it both morally and financially. That it would require children currently placed in gay families to be removed, and that's the last thing she wants to see happen. I'll keep listening, and if I see or hear anything newsworth, I'll pass it on.

[laura]

37.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/shared/tx/legislature/stories/04/28foster.html

Here ya go. This 'splains it a little better. It's all but dead, but the asshole who suggested the ban is going to try to push it through some other way. I hope the other lege's find him as repugnant as the foster care reform folks do.

[Debe]

38.

I'm in Texas and it still amazes me. This weekend we drove past a truck pulling a flat bed trailer with a life size replica of the Liberty Bell between two "stone" tablets bearing the 10 commandments with signs on the trailer saying Stevens for City Council supports. All of that for the freaking City Council. It's scarey as hell. I'm sure he'll win, too.

[Amyesq]

39.

Yay the bill is not going to pass!! Thank God. Funny, Em, when I first decided on adoption, my mom and I were out to lunch in a nice restaurant and saw two men with an adorable little baby girl, obviously adopted from a Latin country. I was telling her how I noticed tranracial adoptions so much more now that I was doing one. My mom, usually an extremely loving and open-minded person, was saying that she wasn't sure about gay couples adopting. I asked her why and she said that she thought God had a pretty good plan when he made a man and a woman be parents. "Well mom, as far as I know, only a man and a woman can still reproduce, so that "plan" is pretty much still in place. The thing you have to think about it this.." I pointed to the sweet little girl (named Josie, who we found out was adopted from Mexico) "Would you rather that little girl be stuck in an orphanage in Mexico than with her two parents over there who obviously adore her and have the means to give her a good life?" "Good Lord no!" she said.
"Well there you go."

One person at a time. Sometimes that's all we can do.

[Amyesq]

40.

PS I just called you Em instead of Cecily. I haven't had my coffee yet today.

[anonymousey]

41.

I just can't think about it any more. I can't handle watching the news. I can't read the newspaper. I cry every time I hear/see/read something so hateful. I feel like there's nothing I can do and that makes me cry even harder. Stupid, hateful people. I wish they would all just go away.

[sheilah]

42.

It makes me mad that some people instantly equate gays and lesbians with pedophiles. This is so ignorant and wrong.

Just as most straight people are not pedophiles, the same is true for gays and lesbians.

I hate sweeping generalizations about whole groups of people.

[Liz]

43.

Cecily - it's gotten so bad at our place I can't even WATCH The Daily Show anymore. The night Stewart did his report on Schiavo, then equated it with the case of the little boy removed from life support by the hospital in Texas, then let out a primal scream? Remember that episode? I started crying so hard I took the show off of my record list on my Tivo.

Now that's bad.

[Gerah]

44.

Cecily - Have you seen this?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050426/photos_bs_afp/050426113733_ldrg7w4q_photo0

I don't know whether to laugh, or cry.

[Karinsamira]

45.

Really frightening to see how certain peolpe in Bushistan seem to hate everything and everyone who does not follow their exact beliefs. I do think it is not only Texas, there are other such things going on on other places too. For example, wasn't there somewhere a new law that excluded gay men from being organ donors? I mean, how fucked up is that?
Some days ago I did a google search because i was looking for a Kinsey biography, and that got me some disturbing hits to religious "family protection sites", too. It just makes me sick to see how plain ignorant and hateful some people are.

Karinsamira

[KimK]

46.

Wow. That is so frustrating. During all of my studies while obtaining my M.S. Degree in Child Dev. one thing I clearly remember is that homosexuals are much less likely to abuse or molest children than straight men. I am a Christian and having that woman be so ignorant embarasses me. If these couples are willing to lovingly care for children then more power to them. A child isn't going to "turn gay" by being taken care of by a homosexual couple.

[Anne]

47.

Cecily I don’t know how many readers you have outside of our generation (you know us post boomers) so if there are any I’m curious to know if things felt this way during the 60s; it just feels like the country is so fractured, so black and white, so with me or against me. I attended an Earth Day celebration here on campus this past Friday and one of the speakers brought up the many parallels between this year’s celebration and the first one he attended on our campus back in the early 70s. The thought that we’ve been here before is a very saddening one, cant we break the cycle – learn from the past, but in a strange way it gives me some hope. I was a history major so I have a strong belief in the circles of life, culture, and society so I do take some comfort in the fact that this era shall pass but it would give me more hope to hear that, “yeah it felt this bad before but it got better.”

Ford is the first president I really remember and like other commenters have said in all this time I cant remember ever feeling this hopeless and this tired of fighting against it, it seems so easy right now to put my head in the sand. I just hope that things don't have to get worse before they get better.

[Clio]

48.

Thank God* for you Cecily!
Thank God for Jon Stewart!
Thank God for free thinkers who aren't afraid to ask questions!
Thank God for anyone who speaks out against hypocrisy and hate!
Thank God for the growing Progressive movement in our country! May it build until the roar is deafening!
Thank God for the growing voice of mainstream (NOT fundamentalist) Christianity based on love--I know you are out there! I read your blogs!
And finally, thank God that there are term limits on the presidency!

*Feel free to replace "God" with the term of your choice--Goddess, Creator, Divinity on High, Allah, Over-Soul, Great Spirit, Life Force, Power of Humanity, etc. =)

I live in "Texas to the North" a.k.a. Oklahoma, where our tourism motto is "If you think Texas is too open-minded, try Oklahoma!" I dearly love my home state, so I'm disheartened to see its name associated with such evil. But I guess that's nothing new.

49.

You share a birthday with my favorite person, my son, Thomas. Happy belated birthday.

[Sad]

50.

I thought of you immediately after watching that. God, Jon Stewart is doing a great job recently.

I discussed this topic over at Cubbiegirl's blog the other day. 3 men have molested me in my life. None were gay. One was my dad. Ya that's right, "the man of the house" the "king of the castle". You know who did it to him? His parents.

How d'ya like them apples Family Research Council? Maybe someone needs to research why the fuck so many "straight" adults can't seem to understand that it's not ok to fuck children.

Excuse me while my heart explodes.

[Karen]

51.

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

*trying to keep from exploding*

[Thalia]

52.

If you haven't already, you should read the recent vanity fair article about the right wing media in the US. It was terrifying. It's in the edition with desparate housewives on the cover (at least it was in the UK, I guess it might be different there)