"Every child is a blessing (except the gay ones)"

I've seen a lot of pro-life billboards that claim "Every child is a blessing" and then show a kid with Downs syndrome. Based on comments from religious talking heads, apparently it's a gift from zombie jeebus if you have a retarded baby, but if you have a gay one, well, that's not so special. (I'm not going to privilege the actual religious whackjobs' websites with extra traffic, so you'll have to hunt them out on your own.)

Dear Jesus and the G.O.P.

Here's a little story for my Xian and Republican friends.

Once upon a time there was a couple who'd been together for many years. We'll call them B1 and B2. In every respect but the legal one, you could say they were married. B1 decided to return to school for a graduate degree, and gave up gainful employment to do so. Naturally, this sacrifice of income was accompanied by a loss of health insurance benefits as well. Fortunately, B2 had a job that offered health insurance for both of them, and so all was well. B2's employer, however, was bought out by a company less inclined to offer insurance coverage to the euphemistically-termed "domestic partners" of a particular subset of their employees, but agreed to continue the coverage for employees who had received it in the past.

This situation went on until the final year of B1's education, when B2's employer decided that they would no longer pay any portion of the insurance premium for B1. While the opportunity still existed to receive coverage through the employer, the cost for B2 would increase by almost 400%. Seeking a more acceptable alternative, B1 decided to enroll in the school's insurance plan, which was much cheaper and offered good coverage. The catch was that for 21 days at the beginning of the calendar year, before the school term began, B1 would be without insurance. B1 ordered enough of the necessary prescriptions to remain sane until the new coverage kicked in, and carefully scheduled medical appointments after the 22nd day of the new year.

But this stop-gap measure would prove inadequate. On the 7th day of the new year, B1 received a letter, dated the last day of the previous year, indicating that B1 was not eligible to use the prescription drug service at the time the order was placed, 5 days before that year ended. B1 was confused - B2 had been paying the same premium for insurance coverage throughout the year. Why would coverage be terminated in the middle of the year, and why would they not have been notified? There was obviously an error, and although B1 anticipated a fight from the insurance company, it would not be difficult to rectify - or so B1 assumed.

As it turned out, B1's coverage had been terminated, according to the insurance company, on the first day of May in the previous year. This was ridiculous - B1 told the representative that claims had been paid and prescriptions filled through November, no questions asked. After putting B1 on hold, the representative returned to state that B2's employer had been slow turning in the paperwork to update their records - instead of notifying the insurance company in May, they waited until the 4th of December to do so. As a result, the insurance company continued to cover B1 up to the point that update was made, despite the fact that the employer didn't want B1 to receive benefits after April 30th.

My question for the Jesus-fucking Republicans out there is this: do you think that couples like B1 and B2, who are currently denied the right to legal recognition of their relationship, ought to receive the same treatment that legally married couples receive, vis-a-vis said relationships?

Answer carefully, and stay tuned to find out how this situation is resolved.

Greetings second-class citizen! Welcome to America!

Ben will be posting more about this shortly (and I'll include a link when he does), but he found out today that his company decided that they'd make a tiny change to their benefits offerings this year. They no longer pay ANY of the premium for domestic partner coverage, leaving the entire cost (around $5K for the year) to the employee. Lucky for us, I can get coverage through the U for a lot less than that, and it looks like it'll be as good as what I'm getting now. Isn't it great that we live in a country where everyone is treated as equal, except for those of us who aren't?

Randomness

The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks made the Blogs of Note list today! This is far more exciting to me than it ought to be. Or rather, it is "far" more "exciting" to me than it "ought" to "be." iscanbe. Money.

I was contemplating something on the way over here this morning, something that was a "ponderable" or a "musing," (not to be confused with "amusing," though the two characteristics might intersect at times, and share ancestry), and it's completely gone now. One imagines it was something about school, or cities, or something else that's been on my mind a lot of late.

One of my classmates has passed out blank CDs to the rest of us with the request that we burn her a disc of our favorite music. While I presently lack the technology, I've started a list (every time I hear a song that I want to include, I write it down), and after the first few days, I had to get a 2nd disc from her. I might need to snag a couple more before this little side project is finished - which might not even happen until Christmas break.

I saw that billboard again this morning that says "Embryos are just tiny babies!" All I can think when I see that is "and you can sprinkle them on salads or breakfast cereal, just like Bacon Bits(TM)!"

I was thinking the other day about making a bumper sticker that says "Jesus Loves You - Unless You're Black or Gay." I don't think I'd put it on my car though....

Suck it Jesus

SuckItJesus.com was set up as a petition to prevent the censorship of Kathy Griffin's Emmy acceptance speech.

In her speech, Griffin said that "a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus." She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-color remark about Christ and proclaim, "Suck It, Jesus. This award is my god now!"

Needless to say, idiot Christians, unable to cope with the fact that not everyone agrees with them, are flipping out. This is the same type of bullshit that the Muslims pulled back when that Dutch newspaper printed cartoons they didn't like. While this event is unlikely to spark physical violence the way the cartoons did (face it, Islam, as practiced and as represented, is a more violent religion than Christianity - abortion clinic murders notwithstanding), the same sense of entitlement to respect drives both of these misguided systems (as they are currently practiced). Here's some advice for all you religious nutbags out there: GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELVES. First, "you" never seem to have trouble saying things that you know will annoy/frustrate/offend other people, and are eager to protect your freedom of religion and speech to say whatever you want about those people (the gays, for example - who, incidentally, constitute a large segment of Ms. Griffin's fanbase, and whom God hates, according to some). Second, your cows are "mighty good on a bun," and I'll eat them if I want to.

Anti-gay Republican something something

Seriously? Another one? (Adult language warning). Vocally anti-gay Republican senator Larry Craig of Idaho was arrested in the Minneapolis airport back in June for - you guessed it - soliciting sex in the men's room.

** UPDATE **
I'm bringing this one back to the top of the queue after reading a couple of great posts that need to be shared.

If I were Jewish, I'd be waiting for a call from the Egyptians

Remember this spring, when I apologized to my Jewish classmate for the Holocaust? (I have German ancestry from mater and pater, though my progenitors were in the U.S. during WWII. But hey, these days, you can't be too careful, right?) In another pointless, idiotic gesture, the Danes have apologized for the Viking invasion of Ireland (thanks to Mary for pointing this out). For those of you who can't remember your high school world history class, this event happened over 1000 years ago. Yes, that is the right number of zeros. No, this story was not reported in The Onion. (I wonder if they'll apologize for those blasphemous cartoons of that religious guy...or did they do that already?)

Other apologies I'm looking forward to hearing:
-- The South, for slavery - Oops! That's happened several times.
-- Napoleon, for invading Russia.
-- The British Royal family, for (a) inbreeding; (b) Prince Charles's ears; and (c) the Revolutionary War.
-- Bigfoot, Nessie, and El Chupacabra, for not existing.
-- Corporate bigwigs, for being greedy bastards.
-- India, for slamming into the Asian continent and creating the Himalayas.
-- God, for hating fags.
-- That asteroid, for killing off the dinosaurs.
-- Powerball, for me not winning the jackpot last night.
-- Bush/Cheney, for -- ahh, forget it. I should keep this realistic.

Rabid anti-gay Republican turns out to be jizz-hungry cock-sucker

Let's see - we've had Ted Haggard, Mark Foley, ... wasn't there some "ex-gay" guy who "relapsed" a few years ago? Bob Allen, a state Representative in Florida, was busted by an undercover cop.

His explanation is priceless. To paraphrase: "There were a lot of scary black guys in the park, and he would to anything to get away from them."

This comment made me wet myself a little.

A gay man's ideal job?

Check out the guy on the right.