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According to a list published in the yearbook of an Arkansas middle school, the worst people ever to exist in the world are:
1. Adolf Hitler
2. Osama Bin Laden
3. Charles Manson
4. George W. Bush
5. Dick Cheney
The local Christianist hate group is outraged. OUTRAGED, I tells ya!
"While governor of Arkansas, 11 years ago, [Mike] Huckabee commuted the 108-year prison sentence of Maurice Clemmons. Clemmons then went on a crime spree and ended up in Seattle, Washington, where on 19 November 2010, he casually walked into a coffee shop early one morning and shot and killed four police officers while they were eating breakfast. He fired at point blank range, killing all four instantly. Mike Huckabee has the blood of those four police officers on his hands. He has never even apologised to the families of the slain officers, or showed any remorse for what happened in Seattle that day.
"One year ago, Mike Huckabee said terrible things about my community and me. He compared gay marriage to incest, polygamy and drug abuse. He said that gay couples should not be able to adopt: 'These are not puppies, raising children is not an experiment.' Who the hell is he to cast aspersions on others?" - Openly gay GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger, comparing the above-cited murders to Michael Dukasis' 1988 "Willie Horton" incident, which Karger used against Dukakis in his role on the committee to elect George H.W. Bush.
"What this ruling does is it puts the rights of adults and their preferences ahead of what's best for children, and that's a sad thing and a bad day for the foster and adoptive children of Arkansas. The court simply ignored the will of the people, took matters into their own hands and looked at the people and said, 'What you think doesn't matter; we're going to have the final word in this.' And they took control of the issue and struck down a good law that's there for the welfare of children." - Arkansas Family Policy Council spokesbigot Jerry Cox, lamenting the "judicial activism" of yesterday's state Supreme Court ruling.
In 2008 an Arkansas voter referendum against gay adoption was approved by 57% of the state's voters. Cox and his group are now threatening to "boot from office" the state Supreme Court, as was done last year in Iowa over same-sex marriage, where three justices lost their jobs.
Something to brighten your day:
The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld a decision to strike down a state law barring gay couples and other unmarried people living together from serving as adoptive or foster parents. The state's high court wrote in an opinion Thursday that the law burdens the privacy of unmarried couples who live together. A state judge struck down the law last April because he said it forced unmarried couples to choose between their relationships and becoming adoptive parents.The case had been brought by the anti-gay state attorney general, who said that adoption was not a constitutionally protected right.
Yesterday a group of students at Harding University in Arkansas launched an online zine meant to "give voice to the experiences of gay and lesbians" on campus, but the school immediately blocked the site from campus by listing it on its porn filter. Read the students' stirring manifesto, The State Of The Gay.
RELATED: Harding alum and JMG reader Brett blogs his reaction.
From students at the University of Arkansas.
(Tipped by Dr. Jeff)
My click-tracker tells me that over 1700 of you hit the Harps contact page link I posted at the beginning of the day. It's a tiny victory to be sure, but it's also a message to all the nation's retailers. Nice work, everybody.
UPDATE: Appreciative positive reinforcement would be a nice thing for us to do.
Last night Twitter user JennHudd tweeted out this photo she took at Harps, a grocery store in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Apparently US Weekly's cover shot of Elton John, his partner, and baby is just too shocking for children. Harps has over 60 locations in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Call their home office at 877-772-8193 or use their contact form if you'd like to register a polite protest.
UPDATE: According to a company spokesperson, the store claims it was responding to customer complaints when it covered up the magazine. GLAAD investigates:
I spoke with Harps Corporate Executive Assistant Marty Yarborough, who told me that every Harps store is equipped with these shields and that they get put up whenever customers complain about the content of a magazine cover. She said the word from the store about this particular cover was that “several” customers had complained, so the shield went up. She also confirmed that these shields are utilized on a store-by-store basis, so the magazine would not have been covered up at any of the other Harps locations, unless customers complained there as well. She also told me that the usage of the shield on this particular cover is “in no way our opinion on this issue.” She quickly added, ”we do not have an opinion on this issue.”UPDATE II: The Harps corporate office has issued an official press release on the matter.
Miss New York and her unprecedented platform of LGBT equality did not triumph at Miss America tonight. Neither did Miss Arkansas, but her talent of yodeling ventriloquism will surely be what people remember.
