Brian Tashman's blog

Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality joined Janet Mefferd yesterday for an hour of attacking LGBT rights and urgently praying for gays and lesbians to be freed from Satan’s captivity. Mefferd dedicated to help “set LGBT people free from the sin and the bondage that The Enemy has them in” and prayed that gays receive her message so they don’t end up in Hell, which she called a reflection of her love for LGBT people:

Like other conservative activists, LaBarbera condemned the Navy for allowing Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta kiss her girlfriend, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, after winning a raffle for the traditional first-off-the-ship kiss. LaBarbera claimed that the military was sanctioning “indecent behavior” and that a photo of the couple should be considered an “indecent photo,” lamenting the event as a “sad day”:

LaBarbera: As far as the lowlights, I have to say that the worse would be what’s happened in the military, we just saw the story—we were talking about it off air—of the traditional first kiss of a Navy ship just went to two lesbians intentionally. Under Obama’s Navy, lesbians get the first traditional kiss; the sailor comes off the boat greeted by his spouse which is a woman usually, man-woman, woman-man, but now under Obama this political correctness we’re going to pretend that homosexuality belongs in the military. And actually Obama posted the photo of these two women kissing on his Flickr page which to me is another first—a president posting an indecent photo on his Flickr page because homosexual sex and homosexual practice is still indecent. It doesn’t matter what the trends say what the political correctness says, it matters what the truth is, and we go by the word of God and that’s indecent behavior. And to see our president glorifying it and saying this is one of his greatest accomplishments is really a sad day.

A member of Nebraska’s unicameral legislature is introducing two of the most radical anti-choice bills in the country, a personhood measure to give legal status to zygotes and a ‘heartbeat law’ that would also effectively ban abortion. Like in Ohio, more established anti-choice groups are wary of passing such clearly unconstitutional laws and are instead encouraging the legislature to defund Planned Parenthood. The Omaha World Herald reports that State Sen. Mark Christensen is proposing both measures, and that the “heartbeat bill is expected to be introduced in the Kansas Legislature next month”:

At least one Nebraska lawmaker is looking at proposals for the new legislative session that would drastically limit legal abortion in the state.

One measure would declare that life — and legal status — begins at fertilization. The other would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is usually six to eight weeks into pregnancy.

"I'm more than willing to introduce them," said State Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial. "I'm willing to take on a fight."

The Heartbeat bill, crafted by Religious Right activist Janet Porter, has yet to face a vote in the Ohio State Senate because supporters amended the bill to make the bill even more onerous:

The proposed changes include the deletion of the word “viability” from a section of the bill. That would mean the heartbeat is the only indicator needed to prevent an abortion, not whether the fetus would survive outside the womb.

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That change seems to run counter to testimony from obstetricians opposed to the bill who said in some births a fetus has been detected to have little if any chance of surviving once born. Other proposed changes:

• Add language that the state has a legitimate interest “from the outset of the pregnancy” in protecting the health of a woman and “the life of the fetus that may become a child.” Forte said the principle comes from a U.S. Supreme Court decision. However, the language possibly could be read to mean the state’s interest starts at conception.

• Clarifies that for a woman to make “an informed choice about whether to continue her pregnancy, the pregnant woman has a legitimate interest in knowing the likelihood of the fetus surviving to full term birth based upon the presence of cardiac activity.”

• Requires the presence or absence of a fetal heartbeat be recorded in a pregnant woman’s medical record, along with the methods used to test for a heartbeat, the date and time of the test, and the results.

Meanwhile, trouble in the legislature for the Heartbeat bill hasn’t slowed down efforts by Personhood Ohio to put the anti-choice law on the ballot in 2012:

Campaign officials have submitted the first round of signatures to Attorney General Mike DeWine, who has said he will certify it. "By law, he has to certify it within a couple of weeks," reports Dr. Michael Johnston, who is heading up the campaign. "So by the beginning of 2012, we'll be ready for our statewide campaign to gather the 380,000 signatures necessary to put the Ohio personhood amendment on the ballot."

If passed, the amendment would end abortion in the state.

"We are prayerfully doing what Ohio state law allows to defy judicial tyranny and to protect every unborn child in the state of Ohio," Johnston says.

Newt Gingrich appeared on Monday’s program of WallBuilders Live with David Barton and Rick Green, where Gingrich once again praised Barton’s right-wing pseudo-history and activism. In fact, Gingrich gave Barton credit for helping him develop his plan to assault the “judicial dictatorship” if elected president. He told Barton and Green that his plan is sending shockwaves through the “the secular left, which has been using the courts to replace the America we grew up in” by legalizing abortion, “driving God out of public life” and making same-sex marriages become “legitimized as if they were the same between traditional marriage between a man and a woman.”

Gingrich added that he would appoint judges in the mold of Robert George, the chairman of the National Organization for Marriage and a drafter of the Manhattan Declaration who has called people to defy Supreme Court decisions on issues like marriage that they disagree with, and graduates of Regent University and Liberty University, the schools founded by the far-right televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, respectively. Regent University absorbed the Oral Roberts University law program and teaches conservative Christian interpretations of the law, and the Liberty University School of Law even pressured students to disobey U.S. law if it conflicts with what they believe is “God’s law” in situations such as the Lisa Miller kidnapping case. Gingrich also pointed to the right-wing Federalist Society as a source for judicial appointments

Gingrich: What you have is, the secular left, which has been using the courts to replace the America we grew up in, the secular left which is desperately committed to Roe v. Wade and abortion, desperately committed to marriage between same-sex couples becoming legitimized as if they were the same between traditional marriage between a man and a woman, desperately committed to driving God out of public life, and they are suddenly faced with the possibility that we the people are going to take back our authority, that we are going to take back our rights, that we are going to redress the balance. The level of hysteria, I predict, will grow as they come to realize at the American Bar Association and elsewhere that this really is an effort to limit the power of lawyers to redesign America.

Green: Should you become president, is there a crop of attorneys and judges out there that understand history and understand originalism that you would have to choose from, in other words it’s got to be more than just you and Congress, what about good judges?

Gingrich: You start looking at people of the caliber of Robbie George of Princeton, you look at Regent University, you look at Liberty University, you start looking around and realizing there is a whole crop - Vince Haley of University of Virginia graduate who is a deeply, deeply committed Christian who clearly understands these kinds of issues - I think people would be surprised that the Federalist Society has many members who agree that we need a balance of power between the three, not a judicial dictatorship.

With the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell fully in effect, the doomsday predictions of right-wing naysayers failed to materialize as no incidents have been reported. But that hasn’t stopped supporters of the discriminatory policy from continuing to criticize the military and attack openly gay service members, and the two women sailors who won a raffle to share the traditional ‘first kiss’ are now in the Religious Right’s crosshairs. Randy Thomasson of Save California railed against the kiss between Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta and her girlfriend Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, and told the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow that the Navy is now engaging in “perverse social engineering” on behalf of “an aggressive homosexual activist community”:

Randy Thomasson of SaveCalifornia.com is familiar with the tactics of homosexual activists in California, home to both Gaeta and Snell.

"San Diego, being the top Navy port on the West Coast, has an aggressive homosexual activist community which is just applauding this big time, saying 'it's delightful,' saying, 'it's fantastic,'" he laments.

Sailors purchased $1 tickets at a raffle to raise money for a Christmas party for children whose parents are in the military. Gaeta purchased $50 worth of tickets, and the lesbian couple was chosen to have the first kiss.

Thomasson argues that is not what the military is for. "It's about a fighting force to defend our shores, to defend our interests, and to advance the cause of the United States' security in the world," he tells OneNewsNow. "I would not make it social engineering that the Navy has done it, and now perverse social engineering."

Yesterday, Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta won a raffle to have the first kiss with her girlfriend, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, after the USS Oak Hill landed in Virginia as part of Navy tradition. In a message sent to Tea Party Nation members, the group’s resident bigot Alan Caruba wrote that the kiss proves the military is being “used by gay and lesbian advocacy groups as a petri dish to force social change” to help people who have an orientation that is a “sexual aberration”:

For generations of Americans, the most famous kiss between a Navy sailor and a nurse occurred during the celebration of V-J Day in New York’s Times Square on August 14, 1945.

The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt was published in Life magazine a week later. It said everything you needed to know about the joy with which the nation responded to the end of World War Two and everything about the shared values of the nation.

So, when a photo of a homecoming kiss between Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta kissing her “partner”, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell went public on December 22, it set gay and lesbian hearts atwitter. What the predominantly heterosexual population thought of it was unreported.

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But why? The answer is the way the U.S. military has been used by gay and lesbian advocacy groups as a petri dish to force social change. The other location for influencing such change is in our nation’s schools and manifests itself in charges of massive bullying and questionable sex education curriculums, many of which evoke outrage among today’s parents.

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There were and are still good reasons for the military’s opposition to homosexuals serving. Let it be said that homosexuals have probably always served. When I was in the Army in the 1960s, I and others in my unit knew of gays serving along side us, but practiced a tolerance we took for granted by neither acknowledging it, nor engaging in any action based on it.

At the time, there was no such thing as “gay rights” and, were it not for the incessant demands for them, they would not exist today. Gays and lesbians play on the inherent sense of fairness and tolerance that is a hallmark of American society. The result is that homosexuality is now widely represented in popular culture to the point of being accepted as “normal.” It is not “normal.” It is a sexual aberration involving a very small portion of the overall population, perhaps no more than four percent. Always was, always will be.

The U.S. military is a unique element of our society. The 1993 Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law stated that “there is no constitutional right to serve” and pointed out that the military is a “specialized society” that is “fundamentally different from civilian life.” This was and is so self-evident that the present state of affairs is nothing less than astonishing. Homosexuality was deemed an “unacceptable risk” to good order, discipline, morale and unit cohesion—qualities essential for combat readiness.

Suffice to say Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell opened a Pandora’s box of difficulties for all the ranks. Its repeal has not made those difficulties magically disappear.

The photo of two Navy lesbians kissing represents the “progress” that a vocal minority has made, given the support of liberal politicians on both sides of the aisle working against the tide of resistance of majority Americans who are fighting the social implications of “gay rights”, the demands for “gay marriage”, and the influence over young minds passing through government school systems.

It says something about life in America today, one that is very different from America at the end of World War Two.

Media Research Center president Brent Bozell has declared Lady Gaga and Conan O’Brien the two biggest “losers” of the year for their “eagerness to shred traditional values.” O’Brien married an openly gay staffer on his show to his partner, and Lady Gaga announced that she wants to become an ordained minister in order to marry one of her close friends to her partner. “Lady Gaga is as unattractive, in every sense of the word, as her name is stupid,” Bozell said, and he called O’Brien’s on-air marriage of two men “a disgusting scene.” The conservative activist went on to call Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s hit play “The Book of Mormon” a “ghastly show” and he also named Glee, which he once referred to as “gay propaganda,” another “loser” of the year:

The depravity of our popular culture and our eagerness to shred traditional values manifests itself every day. Lady Gaga, the top-earning woman in the music business and deemed by ABCs Barbara Walters to be one of the "most fascinating people," has a new vocation in mind. She's announced she wants to become an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church so she can marry two gay male friends.

Lady Gaga is as unattractive, in every sense of the word, as her name is stupid. She welcomed Easter with a single called "Judas" ("I'm still in love with Judas, baby.") and arrives at Christmas as Reverend Gaga. This is the same "instant online ordination" that TBS late-night host Conan O'Brien used in November in a disgusting scene to "marry" two gay males live on his television show. Gaga and Conan are two of the real cultural losers of 2011. Here are some other winners and losers:

Loser: "The Book of Mormon," the ghastly hit Broadway musical from the perpetually immature makers of "South Park." Most media outlets celebrated it as "brilliant" -- so spouted so-called drama critic Jake Tapper on ABC. But Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout put it best. "It's flabby, amateurish and very, very safe." Safe? Trashing the Mormons? Yes. "Making fun of Mormons in front of a Broadway crowd is like shooting trout in a demitasse cup...on the subject of imitation courage, let it be duly noted that if the title of this show were 'The Quran,' it wouldn't have opened."

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Loser: The Fox show "Glee," which seems to be losing all its popularity in only its third season. After its 3-D concert movie came in 123rd for the year (with a gross of less than $12 million, about 12 percent of the take of the "The Lion King" remake), its third season lowlight was a preachy episode about the loathsome and overrated idea of virginity in these modern, enlightened times.

But the real loser might be Bozell himself, who last night on Fox News criticized Chris Matthews for joking that Newt Gingrich looked like a “car bomber” by saying that, “How long do you think Sean Hannity’s show would last if four times in one sentence he made a comment about the president of the United States and said that he looked like a skinny ghetto crackhead — which by the way, you might want to say that Barack Obama does!”

Mission America president Linda Harvey today released her much-awaited top ten list of “‘gay’ abuses” (scare quotes hers), with the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell topping the list. Also on the list are same-sex parents who have a transgender child; the firing of a Macy’s employee who refused to follow the company’s policy on LGBT customers; the next five condemned California’s passage of SB 48, which ensures that history textbooks don’t exclude prominent LGBT figures, the Obama administration’s push to stop the criminalization of homosexuality and state-sanctioned violence against LGBT people around the world; and the anti-suicide “It Gets Better” video series and the decision by the Justice Department not to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act. Many of these initiatives Harvey has already criticized.

The repeal of the discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy is at the top of the list even though no incidents have been reported. Harvey warned that soldiers may be led by a “prancing drill sergeant” and people who have “truly lost their way, their shame, their innate sense of God's touch on and design for their lives.” Harvey warned that advances in gay rights will lead to America’s “decline into barbarism” and that they represent a “radical ideology” that is “purposely endangering families, children, our nation’s security, our economy and the religious freedom of all who don’t go along.”

Harvey goes on to caution that “God has warned us” about “this destructive agenda,” arguing that “these sinful impulses will end in catastrophe”:

And the No. 1 abuse of homosexual activism in the United States in 2011, was the implementation of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," allowing open homosexual behavior in our military. No one can yet know how damaging the repeal of the ban on sodomy will be – we can only guess – but there's no question that it will damage the character of our armed forces and undermine their effectiveness. Dare I say the obvious? We need non-effeminate men in the military. Does anyone really believe that a prancing drill sergeant won't detract from readiness? Where women are serving, they should be women of high character, not those who embrace homosexual conduct and publicly declare a "sin" identity. These folks have truly lost their way, their shame, their innate sense of God's touch on and design for their lives.

Friends, this list is a call to action. We need to first understand the decline into barbarism that homosexual and sex-change activism brings. Then, we need to each be that person who gets it, who understands that these folks with their radical ideology are purposely endangering families, children, our nation's security, our economy and the religious freedom of all who don't go along.

God has warned us in the pages of Scripture that these sinful impulses will end in catastrophe. It's not true that this is just another way to love, but these activists, as you can see, intend to overturn the beauty of traditional sexual morality.

Please join me in pledging to speak out against this destructive agenda wherever possible during 2012.

In what has become an annual Christmas tradition, televangelist and conservative activist Rod Parsley is pleading with viewers to send his Breakthrough ministry more money to fight back an attack from Satan himself. Just as he said last year and the year before that, Parsley claims that Satan is attacking the finances of his ministry, which received an F grade for financial transparency, and it is now facing a $1.2 million deficit:

Satan has attacked Breakthrough’s finances and we need $1.2 million by year’s end! Thank God for the Matching Challenge that can DOUBLE every gift!

This year we watched Parsley launch diatribes against legal abortion, Planned Parenthood and marriage equality, warn of the imminent Rapture and the coming of the Antichrist, and dance around with a fat suit and pretend to do bong hits. Parsley also took part in meetings spearheaded by James Robison to unite Religious Right groups in the presidential election.

Parsley begged for more donations, likely to fund his extravagant lifestyle, and fend off demonic attacks:

The Family Research Council today announced a Family Policy Lecture with author and radio show host Michael Brown next month where he will address the “the homosexual agenda” and “a clear and Christian response,” because “if we don’t do what is right today, we will have to apologize to our children and grandchildren tomorrow.” “Forty years ago, most Americans said they didn't know anyone who was homosexual and claimed to know little or nothing about homosexuality,” the FRC said in a statement, “Today, there’s hardly a sitcom without a prominent gay character and even school children are learning the meaning of ‘Gender: Queer.’

Brown’s hostility to gays and lesbians will surely be welcomed by the aggressively anti-gay group, as he previously claimed that “gay activism” was to blame for the brutal murder of the openly gay California teenager Lawrence King and “hypersensitive” gays intend to throw Christians “in jail.” Hopefully, FRC will show the trailer to his book, A Queer Thing Happened to America, where a young boy enters the nightmarish world of having same-sex parents:

The FRC urges attendees to leave “retreat mode” and “stand up and be counted”:

At a time when it is more important than ever for Christians to stand up and be counted, many of us seem to be in retreat mode. We do not want to sound offensive or be considered "irrelevant." But retreat spells defeat, and when we willingly shut ourselves out of public debate, we reward intimidation.

The public debate about marriage and the homosexual agenda continues. But if we don't do what is right today, we will have to apologize to our children and grandchildren tomorrow.

Join us at noon on Thursday, January 5th as author, professor, and radio host, Dr. Michael Brown explains the homosexual agenda and motivates to a clear and Christian response.

Forty years ago, most Americans said they didn't know anyone who was homosexual and claimed to know little or nothing about homosexuality. Today, there's hardly a sitcom without a prominent gay character and even school children are learning the meaning of "Gender: Queer."

Dr. Brown's recent book, A Queer Thing Happened to America, chronicles the amazing transformation of America over the last 40 years and addresses the question, "Is there really a gay agenda, or is it a fiction of the Religious Right?"

On Tuesday, the founder of the far-right American Family Association Don Wildmon endorsed Newt Gingrich for president, citing Gingrich’s stringent attacks against the judiciary and the need to stop Mitt Romney from winning the Republican nomination as reasons for his endorsement. Wildmon told AFA spokesman Bryan Fischer, who has harshly criticized Gingrich, that he was originally “ecstatic” about Rick Perry but decided against supporting him due to his poor debate performances and said that only Gingrich can stop “the homosexuals and the liberals” from their plot to “destroy the family” and “the whole of Western Civilization.”

Yesterday, Gingrich and Wildmon appeared together on The Steve Deace Show, where Gingrich praised the rabidly anti-gay, pro-censorship leader of the ultraconservative AFA and called the endorsement a “very important signal” to social conservative voters that “Newt Gingrich is the one candidate who could potentially stop Mitt Romney.”

Deace: Newt, tell me what you think this endorsement means and what you want this endorsement to say to undecided voters out there?

Gingrich: No one has been a more consistent fighter for Christian freedom to actually practice our religion, for the right to life, stopping abortion, for the protection of marriage between a man and a woman, and I think the degree to which the Rev. Wildmon has been a national leader in these areas, the 2.5 million people who recognize his leadership through his association, this is a very important signal that if you are a social conservative and you’re interest is making sure that we have a social conservative as the Republican nominee, the Rev. Wildmon from his many years of experience is telling you that Newt Gingrich is the one candidate who could potentially stop Mitt Romney. I think that is a very, very powerful and a very important message, and I think it will make a big impact not just in Iowa but across the country. Having watched his work for a number of years, I am very grateful for this kind of support and the courage he’s shown standing up in the public arena for the values that we believe in.

Wildmon said that the election is so serious that if either President Obama or Mitt Romney wins we will “lose this country”:

Wildmon: If we don’t have a strong leadership that knows and believes in maintaining our Judeo-Christian heritage, we’re going to lose it. And let me tell you, don’t load up any buses because there’s nowhere else in the world that what we have can be replicated. It’s gone and it is gone forever if Obama or Romney wins the presidency, it’s gone and it’s gone forever. That’s a strong statement, I’m not trying to scare anybody, I’m not trying to say I got any kind of intellect, but I just see it and it’s there and if we lose this country, it’s gone and it can never again be replicated.

When Deace asked Wildmon how the Religious Right leader came to terms with a supporting a candidate whose last two marriages ended following extramarital affairs, Wildmon pointed to his own conversations with Gingrich where he repented for his past indiscretions and to California pastor Jim Garlow, who has pressed evangelicals to forgive and support Gingrich. Wildmon also reminded Deace that “Paul was a murderer, Moses was a murderer, David was an adulterer and for all intents and purposes a murderer,” and were still forgiven and lifted up by God:

Deace: I keep getting questions about someone that has had the past on a personal level that Newt has had, with even Newt has himself described as moral failings in his past, and whether or not we as evangelicals can support somebody like that and do we look hypocritical, I know you obviously wrestled with this, so let me ask you that question.

Wildmon: Yes I think that is a legitimate question, my friend Jim Garlow could answer that more in depth, but let me answer what I can. Go back four years ago, I was sitting in a room in Washington and we asked Newt to come out and discuss the situation, and we did and he said that he had repented, at that time this was four years ago now and if I remember there was a tear or two, I think the man was genuine, I think he was honest, I think he meant what it said. Now and I say this with Newt sitting there, only Newt knows Newt’s heart other than God, I think that he has paid his dues, I think he has accepted his forgiveness, God has forgiven him, I forgive him, let’s go on to do what’s best for the country.

I am supporting Newt because I think he’s the best fellow for the job, as far as sin, we know what’s in Newt’s past, Paul was a murderer, Moses was a murderer, David was an adulterer and for all intents and purposes a murderer, the man has paid his dues, he’s been forgiven by God. Am I supporting him? Yes I am. Why? I’ll say it again; I think that everything considered he is the best candidate for the office. Look—I’m taking a lot of heat, a lot of people already tell me ‘I’m not going to support you anymore’—you only live once and you got to do what you believe to be right and best, and you suffer the consequences thereof, and I think this is the right and best what I did. I hope some of my influence in the state of Iowa will help the Speaker carry the state.