Brayton’s Bag of Links and Snark: Godwin, Guns and Gays

We’re pro-family. No, not those families.

The Michigan Supreme Court this week ruled that Proposal 2, the 2004 referendum that banned same-sex marriage in this state, also prohibits public employers like cities and universities from offering health insurance or other benefits to the partners of gay employees, despite innumerable public statements from the group that wrote that referendum denying that it would do such a thing. This little bait and switch is brought to you by the “family values” crowd. What’s that? This will actually harm families headed by gay couples by removing benefits they rely on to protect their health and financial well-being?

No, no, you see, those don’t count; they’re not real families, they’re gay families. And the four adopted and one foster child of Tom Patrick and his partner Dennis, plaintiffs in the case, should have known better than to allow their biological parents to abuse them or die too young. Did they not foresee that this might lead to them being adopted by – gasp! – gay people? They really should have thought it through. I mean, sure, they”re doing it “for the children” but not for those children.

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You see, family values doesn’t mean valuing actual families, it means doing anything you can to make life as bad as possible for gay people. Because if the lives of gay people are not nasty, brutish and short, more children might decide to be gay. Because as we all know, people chose their sexual orientation by weighing the costs and benefits; thus, we have to make the costs higher and the benefits lower in order to sway those decisions in the right direction. Because The Gay is so powerful that unless we constantly bully, harass and oppress gay people, the temptation will simply prove too strong. It all stands to….reason? Maybe not. But it stands to revelation.

From the “not getting the concept” department

Scott Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, a Federal agency empowered to protect government whistle-blowers from retaliation, had his office raided this week by the FBI as part of an investigation into allegations that he retaliated against government whistle-blowers on his own staff. In related news, the pot and the kettle were married by an Elvis impersonator at the Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas.

Mr. Godwin, call your office

Blogging for Michigan has this post about John McCain’s visit to Michigan on Tuesday night for a private fundraiser. Alongside McCain were John Rakolta and Robert Liggett, the folks who financed the infamous ad comparing Gov. Jennifer Granholm to Adolf Hitler during the 2006 gubernatorial election (an ad that was roundly condemned even by Republicans).

And yes, Rakolta is married to Terry Rakolta, who became famous in the late 1980s for her campaign to get Married With Children taken off the air. The best that could be said about her then was said by the National Catholic Reporter:

To her credit, however, and unlike certain prestigous Catholic critics who bragged that they never saw “The Last Temptation of Christ” or read “The Satanic Verses” but whacked them anyway, Rakolta has at least watched “Married… with Children”.

Well yes, indeed she did. Apparently, though, she was trapped under something terribly heavy and was incapable of doing something as simple as turning the channel to a show more to her liking.

Supporting the troops requires more than a ribbon on your SUV

Gary Peters, who is running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Joe Knollenberg’s seat in Congress, has a post at Michigan Liberal about the scandal of veteran care once they return from the war. The horrible situation at Walter Reed is just the tip of the iceberg. Recently it came out that Iraq War vets are committing suicide at a rate as high as 18 per day; at that rate, more vets will have died of suicide after returning home than died in combat. Peters, a former Lt. Commander in the Navy, notes:

When the House voted on a bill to guarantee that soldiers would have at least as much time at home as they spend deployed overseas, Congressman Knollenberg voted no.

When the House took up a bill that included $3.3 billion to improve military medical care, $1.8 billion for veterans care, and that would have started withdrawing troops this summer, Congressman Knollenberg voted no. After that bill was vetoed by the President, Congressman Knollenberg voted to sustain the veto.

But that’s okay, because Knollenberg paid a buck fifty for a yellow ribbon magnet for his car. In a related story, Dennis Lennox was last seen huddled near a men’s room at CMU screaming “you’re a big poopyhead” at a picture of Gary Peters.