In The News: Sometimes You Just Gotta Call BULLSHIT!! Captured Cuties

Sooooo, the first post of the day earlier, was about the christmas spirit and helping others this holiday season. This post is about calling bullshit, bullshit. Sorry if I gave any of you whiplash with this transition, but two items in the news today have got me boiling a bit and I need to call it out.........


First off, this is from the Associated Press no less, it seems Masschussetts Governor and presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, has been caught in lies and flip-flopping yet again. If you didnt read it last week, A gay-oriented Massachusetts newspaper, Bay Windows, released a transcript of a 1994 interview with Romney during the Senate race in which he pledged strong advocacy for the gay community. During the same interview, Romney said he opposed then-U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms' legislative amendment to ban federal funding for public schools that support homosexuality as a lifestyle alternative. ''I don't think the federal government has any business dictating to local school boards what their curriculum or practices should be,'' Romney said, according to the transcript. ''I think that's a dangerous precedent in general. I would have opposed that.''


This week, his beliefs on gay issues are under scrutiny after the re-emergence of a letter he wrote during his 1994 run for U.S. Senate in which he promised a gay Republicans group he would be a stronger advocate for gays than Sen. Edward Kennedy. The 1994 letter was written to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts, a gay Republican group, when Romney was courting gay voters during his unsuccessful campaign against Kennedy. Citing Kennedy's record of advocacy for gays and lesbians, Romney wrote, ''For some voters, it might be enough to simply match my opponent's record in this area. But I believe we can and must do better. If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern.'' Romney's views in the letter contrast with recent statements by the Massachusetts governor, who has emphasized his opposition to gay marriage as he positions himself as a committed conservative in preparation for an expected 2008 run for the Republican presidential nomination. In the Log Cabin Club letter, Romney also said he supported President Clinton's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy regarding gays serving in the armed forces, describing it as ''the first in a number of steps that will ultimately lead to gays and lesbians being able to serve openly and honestly in our nation's military.''


Noted conservative Paul Weyrich told The New York Times, ''Unless he comes out with an abject repudiation of this, I think it makes him out to be a hypocrite.'' YOU THINK??? As I said, let's call this what it is, complete and utter bullshit, that he is spewing just to get elected. When he was running for the Senate in Mass, he needed the gay vote in the Boston area to win and courted us there. Now that he is running for President, he needs the conservative vote, and he is courting them. What side of the issue does Romney really believe? Who knows and who cares, we cant trust him on either really, can we? I hope this sinks him quicker than a lead balloon in his future presidential aspirations.



Next on my bullshitometer, comes the story out of Colorado from the news staff at 365.Gay News. The senior pastor of a second Colorado megachurch has resigned following a phone call to the church outing him. The Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in South Denver announced in a video taped message to his congregation Sunday that he was stepping down. "1 have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy," Barnes said in the video according to the Denver Post which was allowed to view the tape. ".. I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take this away." Barnes founded Grace Chapel in his basement 28 years ago and saw it grow to be one of the biggest churches in the state.


Barnes preached that homosexuality is a sin, but unlike Haggard neither he nor his church took a stand on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that was approved by voters last month. In the video Barnes said he became a Christian at age 17 and felt it would help him give up homosexuality, but the feelings never went away, he said. And here is where the bullshit comes in....... Still, he said he cannot accept that a person is "born that way," adding that he believes sexuality is influenced by childhood experiences. Barnes said in the video that he has been in counseling three times but never found anyone he could talk to. His wife also appeared in the half-hour video the Post reported, saying that she didn't know about her husband's struggles until he confided in her last week. The couple has two daughters in their 20s. I am really starting to fully believe that addage, that the ones that protest homosexuality the loudest, are truly gay themselves. It must come from self-hate or something. I can almost understand a person hiding himself in religion to keep his homosexuality at bay, but to vehemently attack, ridicule, denounce, and decry it from the rooftops the way this pastor and good old Pastor Ted, is just wrong. I would love to be a fly on the wall on judgement day of those two. Now I am not meaning to offend any church go'ers here, but I couldnt find a pic of Pastor Barnes, so I thought I would take a look at church thru the eyes of Hank Hill and his friends over at the Fox cartoon show, "King of the Hill".



Now that I got my little tirade out of the way, here's some Captured Cuties from blogger friend over at Looking Out From a Southern Closet. I thought we would go "bearly" dressed and smooth and soft today. Hope your week is starting out great blogger friends and readers....enjoy...GG