Uh, Mr Kern? Mayor Cornett? I think there’s a pretty big difference between court ordered drug treatment program and homosexuality. Last I checked, being homosexual was not against the law. I’m sure you’d like to make it against the law. I think I’d almost like to make your actions against the law. I guess we all know how it feels to want.

There was a time in the South that the regs before commitment to “institutionalized care”, the patients were screened for Tryptophan and or B3 deficiency since both conditions precipitate frank psychosis and delusions. Much of the religious fanaticism was defined then as a Serotonin Deficit State and the “Bible Belt” did have very high usage levels of Prozac.
It seems that the “Bible Belt” still has the same old problems and the dementia has spread extensively throughout the country. The failure to track reality is the new redefined definition of spirituality.
Anyone find Mother Mary in their French Toast this morning………

This is how it starts.

Next he’ll be ordering up boxcars, and looking for an abandoned military base to fence off….

wow, feel the humanity.

My relatives in Oklahoma are complete and utter homophobes. On an unrelated note, I think Oklahoma went for McCain by the largest margin (32 percent). I told my sister that hopefully under Obama they’ll receive increased funding for some much-needed education.

geez, whata maroose. hope this fool gets tarred with the mud he is slinging.

Sadly, my native state has never lacked for an ability to hate and persecute anyone who wasn’t white, hetero, male, and fundamentalist. There are many things I do not miss at all.

“…start putting them in education programs…”

Welcome to the Mao Zedong Hour.
JFC, Lisa.

Not all that long ago they put people in prison for being gay. Lenny Bruce had a line about it, something like, “I love the punishment for homosexuality in this country, lock them up with a bunch of men… very clever.”

That is the era to which all these self-appointed “guardians of morality” want the country to return.

127 diggs to this post so far. lets do what we can to bump that number higher

All too true. What is rather bizarre is that the University of Oklahoma is actually a pretty good University and has steadily moved up in the rankings over the past 30 years. Just does not filter down to the K-12 schools.

“Courts can force drug offenders into treatment centers and violent people into anger management. There’s no reason our courts can’t do that with homos bigot preachers.”

Corrected.

My niece is very bright (in most respects). She and her husband are OU grads. Oddly enough, she was a big Rosie O’Donnell fan UNTIL she learned Rosie is a lesbian. I must admit I was shocked that (a) Rosie has fans?, (b) how could anyone have missed the fact that Rosie was a lesbian (at that time she had officially been “out” for several years), and (c) if you liked her before you knew, what the hell difference does it make?

WWJH? Who would Jesus hate?

Didn’t you get the memo from the Mormons, Talibangelicals, and Bill Donohue’s Catholics that it is not bigoted if you are a Christian? Probably the only thing that they have agreed on in over 100 years.

Agreement is insufficient qualification for truth.

OMFG!
I’m in Oklahoma, and knew there were crazies here, but this is something right out of the Sarah Palin playbook.
I am so ashamed of this backwards state.

You are almost guaranteed that anything those folks could agree on is not the truth.

Hoss, you need to spend more time over in the backwoods of the hill country. We breed plenty of stupid-crazy back there. Of course there is also Gaylord in OKC, who is enough crazy for most states all by himself. BTW is the rancid old bastard still alive? I left 20 years ago and have tried to forget about him.

but it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross

It really impressed me that OK went for McCain/Palin by a significantly higher percentage than Texas, Arizona, Alaska, Wyoming, etc..

These guys are (a) so bigoted that I’m surprised they can tell which way is up and (b) seriously ignorant of the laws regarding civil rights and the relationship between church and state. I’d also bet that Kern is sure that his church is the only one in the country that’s really Christian.

Sinclair was our 20th century prophet.

Upton?

It kinda makes one stop and think that evolution is still an option.

BTW that quote is one of many on my office door.

The one and only.

Living proof that evolution is not directional nor progressive.

I consider the species designation “homo sapiens” a bitter irony. Generally, we’re more superstitious than sapient.

Further evidence of the hubris which allows us to ignore the fact that we are just somewhat clever and very aggressive chimpanzees.

You’ll notice that we are the only species on Earth that was allowed to name itself.

Interesting how these purveyors of hate dress up their views in bogus religiosity.

Don’t know that I’m clever or aggressive but I do enjoy a good banana.

Just had one myself.

At least as far as we know.

It’ll all be different when the dolphins are in charge.

People used to be ashamed about their bigotry. It didn’t keep them from being bigots but they did feel bad about it. But with the rise of the Religious Right all that changed. They found they could go out and shout any twisted warped view as long as they put a couple of bible verses on it.

ah, the simpler life

eli up at the mothership

Also spent a lot of my childhood climbing trees and my pediatrician’s name was Zaius.

He died in 2003. His daughter runs the paper now.
In 1999 the Columbia Journalism Review ranked the Daily Oklahoman the “worst paper in the country”.

Not in Oklahoma. Proudly bigoted for 101 years. One early governor even proclaimed in his inaugural speech that he would be the governor not just for the rich folks but also for the n**gers, Indians, and poor white trash.

A little late weren’t they? It was the worst when I left in 1988 and had been for at least a decade.

Impressive, isn’t it. We’re number one. Spit.

In 1999 the Columbia Journalism Review ranked the Daily Oklahoman the “worst paper in the country”.

Darn those East coast intellectual elitists living in their ivory towers. Actually, given the source the Daily Oklahoman probably considers that high praise.

You mean that isn’t part of the gubernatorial oath of office?

Not since 1964.

B3 is niacin. Everybody, take your niacin, because this is true. Southerners got this deficiency from eating so much mouthwatering corn pone, cornbread, buttered grits and potatoe pancakes, eschewing cabbage, forgoing greens, and many of them too poor for eggs or meat. Palagra (sp) was the name of the disease. It mimicked schizophrenia.

Regarding tryptophan…I did not know that! The very next time my cat talks to me, I’m going to start taking that too.

Seriously, we’re headed for a trip back in time in the times ahead. Sarah Palin has awakened the Devil. These people are out of the basement, crawling up into the light of Social Acceptability, thanks to her, and we are in real trouble.

Oh my God. That should not be funny, why am I laughing out loud?

The situation in Oklahoma is more dire than it appears at first blush.

Not only did this state (I’m a transplant, and yes, there are good things about OK, but this reactionary, Christanist BS overshadows all else) go for McCain with the highest percentage margin in the entire country, but Republicans managed to take control of both houses of the legislature for the first time in forever.

The state is not only becoming more Republican, but those R’s winning office are ever closer to the fringe.

That emboldens zealots like Kerr and Cornett. The right in this state is way right – the legislature will be pulling all kinds of really ugly stunts this coming year – count on it. Some will be largely symbolic, but others will have a direct impact on people’s lives.

Sadly, the quasi middle of the road Dem governor, Brad Henry, will likely give way to a serious wacko fucktard (in “bluer” states he’d be a fairly moderate Republican). I’ll be honest – I’m surprised he managed to win not once, but twice, and the first time was against a hometown fundy and football hero, Steve Largent. I held out hope that his defeat then meant the state was slowly crawling into the modern world.

Alas, I was wrong.

*sigh*

Guess nowadays they only profess to represent the well off white folks.

Have a splendid evening, anyone who hasn’t already wandered upstairs.

The state has been sinking into the abyss ever since I left 20 years ago. It was always a bit reactionary in some areas (race was a big one) and the theocrats always had far too much influence, but things were much saner over all when I was growing up there in the 50s and 60s. Started changing in the 80s and I got out just ahead of the big shift to the Rethugs.

The odd thing for me is the election of Henry.

Still can’t quite square that with Cole, Inhoff, and company. He’s conservative, to be sure, but not fucking nuts.

I’ve been here since 2000, and it seems to me from my admittedly limited experience (8 years) that Teh Crazy has really accelerated the last two years or so.

Should make for interesting headlines the next few.

Yikes!

In reply to Suzanne re Gaylord

20 years? You may mean E.K. [Edward King] Gaylord who finally died at 103 IIRC or maybe E.L. [Edward Lord, no joke], his son who also lived to over 100. Now the Opubco/Gaylord Entertainment empire is run from their Opryland bastion in Tennessee and from Dallas by E.L.’s grandkids. Which explains some of the decline of decency in those states.

However, the Oklahoman is still spewing out the same old sewage it has pumped for over a hundred years. They are just doing it on fewer and fewer pages with fewer and fewer writers. Oklahoma City has not really had a newspaper since the 1970’s when the Journal folded.

If the non-Okies want the truth about old E.K. see if you can find a copy of “And Satan came Also” by an Oklahoman assistant editor. E.K. is the title character.

Amazingly, E.K.’s daughter was a Pulitzer winning journalist and liberal. The OU Journalism school is named for her [it’s the only way they could name it Gaylord and keep the faculty from burning it down]. She also never wrote for the Oklahoman. And I don’t recall E.L. having much good to say of her.

“We never respect stupidity in our society unless it is religious stupidity.”
—Sam Harris, author

“In general, institutions tend to do the opposite of what they claim to do. Banks make people poor, schools make people ignorant, hospitals make people ill. And churches make people evil.”
—Thomas Cahill, author. Dallas Morning News, April 8, 2001.

I moved away 22 years ago, hometown is/was the liberal oasis, Norman. I have spent more time there in the past two years dealing with family issues. The place has really changed.

My family has always been good Democrats, labor people, organizers. The stories they tell me are hideous, so, they went in one ear…

I would never move back. I’ll stay on East Coast, thanks.

oh noes .. it’s the “homos” .. run for your lives … lol

stupid rednecks … i wuz raised about 150 miles south .. the only reason texas doesn’t fall of int othe gulf of meico is because oklahoma sucks ..

I wonder how loud they would scream if someone piped up and proclaimed, “it’s high time we stopped molly-coddlying these religious extremists.”?

These folks probably go to church on Sunday and hide behind little crosses around their necks too. Preaching love, forgiveness and acceptance on Sundays. Practicing just the opposite the rest of the week.

When are Palin and the Witch-Doctor scheduled to show up???

You mean force the stupid people to be cured?

hehe… well, the Roman Catholics did go out of their way to condemn Madonna today. Said that she “encourages young people to think impure thoughts.”. Gotta cure those impure thoughts now. Reeducation camps are clearly called for to cleanse those impure thoughts….

oh… forgot to mention the funniest part of the Madonna condemnation. The Vatican official, a cardinal, who issued the statement did so minutes after officiating a ceremony today in Chile commemorating that saintly and pure-thinking Catholic Augusto Pinochet… as in the late dictator, senator for life, and world famous torturer… whose secret police used rape and sexual sadism as an instrument of state policy.