Outrage on Michelangelo's David

In most the Western world Michelangelo's David is considered one of the greatest pieces of art ever chiseled from stone by the hand of man. In Abilene, Texas it is considered offensive and causing a neighborhood to take up arms.

A new family moved to the neighborhood and they brought with them a knock-off of David with them, which they placed in front of their home. And now the good people of Abilene are having the vapors, fanning themselves with a fury to avoid fainting, and considering how to make these people remove the offending statue.

One woman was complaining because, "It's there. It's right there." Another told reporters that art belongs in museums, not someplace where people will have to look at it.

One horrified matron of decency says the statue caused her child to ask "Mom, what is that, uh...what can you tell a child if you haven't talked about sex yet?" I should point out that this mother apparently has an incredibly stupid child, in the next sentence she referred to the child as "him." Apparently her son doesn't know what a penis is, which, no doubt, make urination something of a challenge. I guess the poor boy spends hours pointing his ears at the urinal, or perhaps bending over the toilet with his mouth open.

I should also note the mentality of these people in that they automatically equate nudity to sex. Clue: most people are not having sex while nude and one can have sex without being nude. Though I suspect such things would be illegal in the Theorcratic Republic of Texas.

Even the comment about leaving art in museums is disingenuous in Texas. Ms. Sydney McGee had been teaching art for 28 years. She organized a trip to the Dallas Museum of Art for students. In all 89 students, 5 teachers, 12 parents and one lecturer from the museum accompanied the children. Guess what? One of the poor, pure, little darlings saw a nude statue and was corrupted for eternity, gave their soul over to Satan and rushed out to rape illegal immigrants of the same sex, while marrying 32 wives and fornicating with sheep. Okay, maybe he just saw the statue and told his hysterical, brain-dead parents.

The next day Ms. McGee was verbally bashed by the principal. A few days later the school board suspended her. And then they sent out a notice to the lynch mob, I mean the parents, saying that she would not be allowed to transfer to any other school, nor would her contract be renewed, in addition a new art teacher will be hired, presumably one that will not allow the children to actually see art. School officials won't reveal who complained or which piece of art got their heart beating so violently. After the sacking became news school officials started retroactively finding reasons for termination that were unrelated to the "statue" incident.

In Lubbock, Texas police arrested eight members of the Chippendales dancers. Police attended their performance and waited until a dance routine included a "pelvic thrust," which was then described as "simulating sex."

In Texas a clerk who sells a dildo and actually calls the item a dildo can be tried, and if convicted, forced to register as a sex offender. However, if they sell the same item and call it a "safe sex demonstration device" then it is legal. Really! Do we want a sex offender's list that includes dildo clerks as people that appear on flyers warning the neighbors to protect their kids. For some of the antics that comes out of a fundamentalist controlled state view the excerpt below. Oh, and by the way, I saw two news stations in Texas cover the store about the David statues. Both felt it necessary to have the groin of the statues blocked from view.

To illustrate how the fundamentalist Christian thinks, or doesn't, let me turn to well-known fundamentalist writer Tim LaHaye and his poison pen book The Battle for the Mind, which allegedly exposes the humanist conspiracy to turn Americans into perverts and communists. LaHaye wrote about Michelangelo's David. I quote him:

The giant replica of Michelangelo's magnificent David stands nude, overlook that beautiful city. Quite naturally, this contradicts the wisdom of God, for early in Genesis, the Creator follow man's folly by giving him animal skins to cover his nakedness... The Renaissance obsession with nude 'art form' was the forerunner of the modern humanist's demand for pornography in the name of freedom. Both resulted in the self-destructive lowering of moral standards.

I guess that is where I part company the most with the moralistic pricks in Christian fundamentalism. For them "moral standards" are defined by things like nudity and what people do with their genitals in private. For me moral standards are defined by who you treat others, whether you respect their rights to their own lives, liberty and property. So I don't get upset by statues of David, even cheap concrete knock-offs but I do get upset when people hurt one another. Fundamentalists don't mind hurting people, its sexual pleasure that offends them. I wish they would crawl back into the caves from which they emerged, and take their theology and petty, tyrannical, mythological Jehovah with them.

March of the Theopublican Loons

I read the current issue of Reason magazine today, where Brink Lindsay, from the Cato Institute, makes the case for why libertarians shouldn't ally themselves with the Right. I agree whole heartily. He pointed to the bigoted Tea Party types as one example of why this strategy is bad for libertarians. Matt Kibble tried to pretend that Brink's view is merely based on "liberal" media distortions. Sorry Matt, it is precisely the sort of rampant bigotry that I personally witnessed at one of the largest Tea Party rallies in recent months.

The other day I was invited to speak to a small group of people. The host was a friend, who was at the Tea Party rally as well. He made a point of telling me how disgusted he was with what he witnessed there. His observations were the same as my own, as were two other libertarian friends at the same meeting. All four of agreed that the Tea Party is not for libertarians.

And neither are Republicans. Consider this tidbit from the Theopublican Party of Texas, in their 2010 platform. They claim to believe that "Realizing that conflict and debate is a proven learning tool in classrooms, we support objective teaching and equal treatment of all sides of scientific theories, including, evolution, Intelligent Design...." Intelligent Design is theology not science. But that aside, do the Republicans of Texas really believe in debate and equal treatment of all sides? The same platform says: "We oppose any sex education other than abstinence until heterosexual marriage."

So they want open debate when theology pretends to be science, but demand closing all debate and conflict as a "proven learning tool" when it regards sex. They are the typical conservative frauds, the typical conservative hypocrites. They only want open debate for their side until they control an agenda and they want to stifle debate and discussion entirely.

They claim to believe in, "the sanctity of human life, created in the image of God, which should be protected from fertilization until natural death." So, all human life is sacred and must be protected until natural death? Well, no. "Properly applied capital punishment is legitimate, is an effective deterrent, and should be swift and unencumbered." Hell, why even bother with a trial? Clearly not "all human life is sacred" and some lives must be ended unnaturally by execution though all life must be protected "until natural death." Of course, they are Republicans. They see it completely natural for governments to kill people.

As for sex offenders, well, they want to turn a large percentage of teens into criminals. First, they demand that an "'affirmative defense' when there is less than 36 months of age difference" be abolished. That way all teens who have consenting sex with one another are deemed sex offenders if they are the same age. Second, they demand that age of consent in Texas be raised to 18, so that even more kids will be classified as sex offenders. And they claim to be pro-family. It's enough to make one vomit. This is under they "sexual assault" section and the first thing there says they demand punishment options "should include death." More of that all life is sacred bullshit.

Yet, while they are busy demanding laws to incarcerate kids for sex, and perhaps execute a few of them, they claim they are in favor of limited government. Really? Limited by what principle?

How limited is the small government they claim to believe in? Here are a few more clauses from the platform showing exactly how big they want government to be.

We encourage state and federal governments to severely prosecute illegal dealers and manufacturers of addictive substances and pornography.

We urge the Legislature to rescind no–fault divorce laws.

We support legislation that would make it a felony to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple and for any civil official to perform a marriage ceremony for such.

We are opposed to any granting of special legal entitlements, refuse to recognize, or grant special privileges including, but not limited to: marriage between persons of the same sex (regardless of state of origin), custody of children by homosexuals, homosexual partner insurance or retirement benefits. Note: notice that they claim that adoptions, buying insurance, having retirement benefits voluntarily offered, are "special rights" in their view.

We oppose the legalization of sodomy. We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. Constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy.

We urge our governmental bodies to enforce laws regarding all forms of pornography. We urge more stringent legislation to prohibit all pornography including virtual pornography and operation of sexually–oriented businesses.

We urge the FDA to rescind approval of the physically dangerous RU-486 and oppose limiting the manufacturers’ and distributors’ liability.

We oppose sale and use of the dangerous “Morning After Pill.”

We believe rental of a woman’s womb makes child bearing a mere commodity to the highest bidder and petition the Legislature to rescind House Bill 724 of the 78th Legislature.

We support legislation that requires doctors, at first opportunity, to provide to a woman who is pregnant, information about the nervous system development of her unborn child...

Furthermore, criminal penalties should be created and experimenters prosecuted who participate in the cloning of human beings...

We support a ban on research that alters human DNA in living human beings at any stage of life, including the altering of artificial, manufactured, and natural genes and chromosomes.

We support raising the age of consent for consensual sex to 18 years.

We also believe that no homosexual ... should have the right to custody or adoption of a minor child, and that visitation with minor children by such persons should be prohibited but if ordered by the court limited to supervised periods.

Moreover, we oppose any further legalization, government facilitation, or financial guarantees relating to any type of gambling including casino, riverboat, video lottery terminals (VLTs), slot machine, video keno, eight-liners, multi-state lotteries, and other games of chance including on Indian reservations.

The real kicker is that these morons claim to support individual rights and individual freedom.

Sex crazed cops arrest dildo sales clerk.

The Theocratic Republic of Texas is certifiably insane and the head loonies in loonyland live in Lubbock. You will remember Lubbock, it was the town where the local sheriff spent his time staring at the crotches of male dancers to make sure they didn’t do pelvic thrusts. The Sheriff announced that such thrusts were not only arousing the women in the audience but satisfying them as well and that is is illegal in Texas.

Now these crazed cops have raided a lingerie store, Something Sexy, for selling “obscene” devices for self-pleasuring. In other words a dildo. One would not think the people of Lubbock or Texas, for that matter, would not be the least bit horrified by dildos. They keep electing them to office. Hell, Texas gave America the the Dildo in Chief.

And here is what is worse. The poor woman who was working as the clerk at the store was not only arrested but faces trial. In addition if she is found guilty of selling a vibrator or dildo she would be forced to register as a sex offender. At some point people will realize these “sex offender” laws have been so expanded in scope and power as to be worthless. Here is a woman who could be listed as sex offender for selling a dildo. In Arizona the crazed Andrew Thomas in Phoenix tried to force a teenage to register as a sex offender for showing a Playboy to some of his schoolmates. In Utah they worked to force two underaged kids to register as sex offenders because they had consenting sex with one another. They were accused of molesting each other. This is happening over and over. People are worried about rapists and such and instead the power-hungry Theopublicans are given them dildo sales clerks.

And that undermines the alleged purposes of such registries. As more and more people realize that being on the list might mean nothing more than selling a dildo they will stop taking the lists seriously. Of course the politicians continue to make life worse for these people by passing more and more laws restricting their freedoms after they have served their time.

This dildo sales clerk could be forbidden from working in certain professions. She can be forbidden to live in large sections of the country. For instance she could be forbidden to live within a mile or so of a school, a park, and other places frequented by children. I know of one case of a man who can’t sleep in his own home. He must leave his family every day and drive well out into the countryside to a separate apartment because he’s a sex offender. When he was 18 he had relations with his girlfriend, who was a couple of weeks under 18. She said it was consenting. No matter to the law he is now a register sex offender and his “victim” is his wife.

Now let’s look at what this woman did. Apparently she used the wrong words. If you call a dildo something other than a dildo you can sell it. If you call it a “safe sex demonstration device” you are within the law. Only if you mention that it might be used for pleasure are you a criminal. Texas Theocrats look down on the idea of pleasure. That is why the give the rest of us so much misery.

Shop owner Gary Evans feels horrible about what happened to his employee. He asked the police officer to arrest him instead and allow the clerk to go. The police refused. I guess they prefer ruining this poor woman’s life instead.The Theocratic Republic of Texas is certifiably insane and the head loonies in loonyland live in Lubbock. You will remember Lubbock, it was the town where the local sheriff spent his time staring at the crotches of male dancers to make sure they didn’t do pelvic thrusts.

Now these crazed cops have raided a lingerie store for selling “obscene” devices for self-pleasuring. In other words a dildo. One would not think the people of Lubbock or Texas, for that matter, would not be the least bit horrified by dildos. They keep electing them to office. Hell, Texas gave America the the Dildo in Chief.

And here is what is worse. The poor woman who was working as the clerk at the store was not only arrested but faces trial. In addition if she is found guilty of selling a vibrator or dildo she would be forced to register as a sex offender. At some point people will realize these “sex offender” laws have been so expanded in scope and power as to be worthless. Here is a woman who could be listed as sex offender for selling a dildo. In Arizona the crazed Andrew Thomas in Phoenix tried to force a teenage to register as a sex offender for showing a Playboy to some of his schoolmates. In Utah they worked to force two underaged kids to register as sex offenders because they had consenting sex with one another. They were accused of molesting each other. This is happening over and over. People are worried about rapists and such and instead the power-hungry Theopublicans are given them dildo sales clerks.

And that undermines the alleged purposes of such registries. As more and more people realize that being on the list might mean nothing more than selling a dildo they will stop taking the lists seriously. Of course the politicians continue to make life worse for these people by passing more and more laws restricting their freedoms after they have served their time.

This dildo sales clerk could be forbidden from working in certain professions. She can be forbidden to live in large sections of the country. For instance she could be forbidden to live within a mile or so of a school, a park, and other places frequented by children. I know of one case of a man who can’t sleep in his own home. He must leave his family every day and drive well out into the countryside to a separate apartment because he’s a sex offender. When he was 18 he had relations with his girlfriend, who was a couple of weeks under 18. She said it was consenting. No matter to the law he is now a register sex offender and his “victim” is his wife.

Now let’s look at what this woman did. Apparently she used the wrong words. If you call a dildo something other than a dildo you can sell it. If you call it a “safe sex demonstration device” you are within the law. Only if you mention that it might be used for pleasure are you a criminal. Texas Theocrats look down on the idea of pleasure. That is why the give the rest of us so much misery.

Shop owner Gary Evans feels horrible about what happened to his employee. He asked the police officer to arrest him instead and allow the clerk to go. The police refused. I guess they prefer ruining this poor woman’s life instead.

One could only guess what the loons in Lubbock would think of this Ikea commercial. No doubt they would advocate arresting all of Sweden.

Police chief eyes crotch, arrests pelvic thruster

What can you say about the Theocratic Republic of Texas? Here is a state that works very hard to prove that their average intelligence is so low that any of them could be the current occupant of the White House. As one Texas newspaper recently admitted: “Every now and then, a city somewhere in Texas gets all wrought up with moral outrage and does something really stupid.”

Don’t sell the state legislature short. They are leaders of the ban dildo movement in America.

Recently the Men of Chippendales made the mistake of performing in Lubbock, Texas, Lubbock is the 11th largest city in Texas and is situated between Dallas and the Dark Ages. Considering that geography you can see the dancers were asking for trouble.

The men were dressed. By virtue of state law and the holy edicts of the Southern Baptist Convention even children are born fully clothed in Texas. This is a state where a nudist is defined as woman who shows her ankles. But the men sinned! A couple of them opened their pants to reveal --- black boxers!

Now you know they are dancing on thin ice. Dancing indeed. At this point Police Chief Claude T. Jones (didn’t you know he’d be named Claude or Homer or Jethro) had his eye on those crotches. Yes sir. When it comes to protecting the virtue of the Lubbock lady-folk Claude will not let any male package go unwatched. Every male crotch on that stage was under police surveillance.

And then he saw it. Right there on the stage in front of God and the women of Lubbock, who forked over ridiculously high fees to attend the show, Chief Jones saw a pelvic thrust. You heard me right. A pelvic thrust!

And it was then that the Chief insisted that a heinous crime had been committed. He says Texas law forbids dancing with the intention of providing “sexual gratification.” And no woman will ever be sexually gratified when Claude T. Jones is on duty. He’ll see to that personally.

Apparently the police chief doesn’t realize that it usually takes a bit more than a pelvic thrust to sexually gratify a woman. Wouldn’t you hate to be Mrs. Claude T. Jones?

Some residents of the town questioned the police using their time to spy on male crotches and police pelvic thrusts. They tried to bring up the topic at the city council meeting when the mayor and council suddenly adjourned the meeting and headed off to prayer meeting or something.

Now one local publication in Lubbock, The Daily Toreador, a university newspaper ran a story that one might find of interest in light of the police chief’s intention to protect women. It reported that “Self Magazine ranked Lubbock as the third least safe U.S. city for women.” Now they have people who are killed in Lubbock. They have people who are assaulted. They have armed robberies that take place. But never will they have sexual gratification if Chief Jones is on the job.

If he had his way you wouldn’t have your way.

City officials, when they came out of hiding, did defend Ol’ Claude and his crotch-watching officers. Mayor David Miller said: “The council supports the Lubbock police department including the actions of last Friday. We feel there was probably cause as well as praise the officers on the scene as well as Chief Jones.”

I wonder how the Mayor knows there was probable cause? Was he in drag in the audience crotch-watching as diligently as the police were? The police insist that the dancers “sexually stimulated and sexual gratified” the female members of the audience. Even worse the police insisted that women in audience had been “aroused and gratified” by the dancing. Please note the women did not complain though I suspect some did when the police got involved.

Now let's be honest here. The typical man is not exactly the most perceptive person when involved with women. He is often oblivious to whether or not a woman is gratified. Men, if you don’t believe me, do your own poll. Now if this is the case when men have the woman naked, right in front of them, it would be almost a miracle if a man could tell a woman was sexually gratified when she was fully clothed. And considering the women were not just dressed but sitting in chairs at the time the ability to discern that they were aroused and gratified is utterly astounding.

Now this is where I’m confused. The officers were staring at the bulging, thrusting leather-bound packages of the male dancers. At the same time they could see through the women’s clothes and could discern immediately, not only arousal, but gratification. Something they rarely do when at home, in bed, with their wives. Or with their girlfriends when the wives are at church.

This talent is actually useful. Instead of expensive scanners at the airports, which now peep through you clothes (they have to make sure you don’t have bin Laden in your panties) the US government could just deploy Lubbock police officers. They have x-ray vision that would make Superman jealous -- of course with his tights they'd arrest him if it looked like the thrusted!

Apparently the city attorney won’t be going ahead with a court case. It seems there is a lack of evidence that any of the women in the audience were sexually satisfied. So the good news is that the women are still as unsatisfied as before just the way God and the Lubbock city council intended.

Dildos and Darwin and Jews, oh my!

What do they put in the water in Texas? Here ia a bit of video from something called The Dildo Diaries. It seems the good Christianists in the state legislature have passed God-fearing laws and you know what the Bible says about dildos? (You don't? Actually I never could find anything either but the Theopublicans in Texas are convinced its somewhere in there.) In Texas it is illegal to sell a dildo. Owning six of them is considered a very serious felony. Yet the state keeps electing them! Here is a bit of a documentary about the criminal dildo conspiracy. By the way the Theopublican featured in this film, who is protecting the good folk from sin, recently got into a bit off trouble. He was disseminating flyers urging other state legislators to go to a web site that warned them of the evils of evolution and exposed the century old Jewish plot to take over the world! If you think this moron is funny here wait until you read about his pampleteering.

Drink and sit and go to jail.

The Islamic Republic of Texas, home of Ayatollah Bush, has cracked down on drinking. No, it's not drinking and driving that they are going after. They are arresting people for drinking in ---- bars!

Ah, you may think this was because some of them would drive later. But police made no such distinction. One bar raided by the morality police was inside a hotel. Guests at the hotel, who only planned to walk to their room, were arrested for being drunk.

Police said they are protecting the patrons from being a danger to themselves. Such nice guys. The mullahs at the Texas Alcholic Beverage Commission said that they are concerned about saving lives "not individual rights". Sounds like Texas.

Justice Louis Brandeis said: "Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficient... the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." And CS Lewis noted: "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."