Supposedly, the Supreme Court will consider the constitutionality of gay marriage this week. What the court will really consider is whether religious doctrine that promotes bigotry and hatred will be the basis for establishing American laws.  If you do not think the opposition to gay marriage is religiously based, consider this:  Gay marriage will cause no harm to anyone.  No one will die. The economy will not be affected in any way. It will not get us into a war. Gay marriage will have no effect on heterosexual marriage which in itself is not such a righteous institution since it ends in divorce more than 50 per cent of the time. Children will not be corrupted.  The opposition is based purely on the so-called “Christian” belief that gay marriage is immoral and contrary to the will of God. Nobody, not the Catholic Church, the Pope, Evangelical preachers nor the National Organization for Marriage knows what God wants or thinks. This is another abominable example of bigots using God to justify their hatred and prejudice against gays.  These people are the ones screaming about government taking liberties away from them but they have no qualms about taking liberties from others in the name of God.  The gay marriage issues is a perfect example of why religion should be kept out of our government.

This week marks the day in American history that will live in ignominy.   March 19, 2003, is the day George W. Bush, goaded by his neocon puppeteers Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, invaded Iraq without provocation. It was the most stupid episode ever in American foreign policy.  
The entire world knows that the Bush Republican Administration lied about the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction just to satisfy its war mongering factions. The latest figures I have found report 4,488 American killed, over 32,000 wounded, 320,000 suffering brain injuries and one estimate that total death military and civilian are nearly 1.5 million.  It has cost us about $1.7 trillion and the residual effect of what it could cost over the next 40 years is $6 trillion.  That is enough to cover Medicare, Medicaid and Education for the next two decades.  All that American blood and money spent for nothing in return.  Let’s remember and honor all the wonderful young Americans who did what their country asked of them.  And let’s hold a moment of scorn for the rotten lying bastards who sent them there.

My last blog post generated this comment: “As I understand it, the government is now telling Catholics how to practice their faith regarding birth control.”  Here is my reply:

 There is no law that tells Catholics or anyone else how to practice their faith.  Contraceptives are legal in the United States but the law does not require you to use them.  Ironically, polls show that over 90 per cent of Catholic women do use them. However, if Congress passed a law prohibiting contraceptives, it would be doing so based on Catholic principles, thereby imposing a religious doctrine on the entire American public. Believe whatever you want but don’t force legislation that imposes your beliefs on me.  You may be referring to the health insurance issue on contraceptive coverage which, I believe, did ultimately exempt Catholic organizations.  The absurdity of all this is that government is getting involved in the legality of contraceptives at all.  It is a woman’s health and personal choice issue and the Catholic Church has no business trying to make its doctrine become American law.

It should not be a big surprise to the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics that some of us do not really care who the Pope is, where he comes from, what he thinks or what color his shoes are.  What does matter to us is that old men in colorful, fancy lace dresses with bright red hats and capes, carrying on quaint, medieval traditions are pushing their theological beliefs on the United States government.  The Catholic Church’s position on gay marriage (really cute considering many priests are homosexuals and pedophiles), abortion and contraception should stay in the cathedral and not the Congress.  The Constitution does not guarantee Catholics anything more than the right to exercise their religion.  The same people who scream about government meddling in their lives seem to have no problem when that intervention becomes laws that conform to Catholic religious doctrine.  By forcing Catholic doctrine into our laws through certain politicians, our political system is essentially condoning moral judgment against some of our citizens.  I don’t think Jesus nor St. Francis would agree with that.

Much to the chagrin of my Republican friends (or perhaps I should say “former” friends since the more right wing among them consider disagreeing with their views renders you no longer worthy of friendship) I have decided to get back into blogging.  Rather than dwell only on politics, I have decided to comment on the enormous stupidity going on in this meaningless world of ours.  I was going to resume with some uncomplimentary comments on the Republican Party but I don’t have to since the party is doing a good job of bad-mouthing itself. I could not agree more with Bobby Jindal that the Republicans are a “stupid” party or that Rand Paul is right by stating The Republican Party has grown "stale and moss-covered" and needs a fresh direction (good luck on that with the Teapartistas). Have you noticed how Republican pundits are flagellating themselves and the party for not “reaching out” to the minorities they have shit on for decades? Never mind Republican Senator Rob Portman’s new found support for gay marriage after his son came out.  So combine this with what’s going on in the Catholic Church and I doubt if I will ever run out of absurdities to comment on.  Stay tuned.