Steve and I have been close since childhood. We shared a bedroom all the years we lived with our parents. We lived together one year in college. We email multiple times every day. We visit each other as often as possible. However, we are 150 miles apart, have busy lives, and with gas prices at $4/gallon the visits are more rare.

And now there is a new problem - I'm just plain scared to visit him.

Below is the letter I just sent to my brother and his family.

I am aware of diaries about the attempted mass murder of liberals in Tennessee. I am aware that the murderer was an intellectual of sorts who read such great savants as O'Reilly, Hannity, and Savage.

This is my first diary post here, though I am a long time reader and sometime commenter.  I thought this would be good place to tell this story.

Outing, as I would assume most people here know, is forcing someone out of the closet, i.e. showing them to be gay. It is most often done when the person ia in some position of power and the person has either done something that has not advanced gay rights OR more usually hurt the gay community at the same time the person is gay themselves.

I am obviously writing this as 1 gay man's view and voice and no way do I represent nor wish to nor would ever hope to represent anything then just little old me.

<more after the break>

This is one of those news items where the lede makes you want to scroll up and confirm the date is not April 1st.

A church in Oklahoma regrets to inform the teenagers coming to its youth faith conference that it won't be giving away that assault rifle after all.

Let me try to piece this together: Church Retreat. Kids. Assault Rifle.

I shit you not.

When George W Bush introduced his plan to use federal funds to back faith-based programs, I was outraged, as were many other firm believers in separation of church and state.

Obama's plan, on the other hand, does what Bush's plan pretended to do.  It strengthens the partnership between church and community, to help faith-based programs combat social ills like poverty.  And most importantly, Obama's plan WILL NOT give federal money to any program that has the intention to proselytize, or will use religion as a basis to hire or not hire someone.

In a press release today (July 2), the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty responded to Obama's speech on faith-based initiatives.

No matter which side of this you are on, you probably think you know what the BJC said. Jump the fold to see if you're right.

See

http://www.cbsnews.com/...
I am not sure what Obama said to the Evangelicals, but here is what he should have said:  

Gay Marriage:  You may not agree with it and the scripture does prohibit it, however, there should not be a law against it as some demand.  Consider, if gay marriage is a sin, Man has the option to chose sin.  If God wanted to prohibit sin, He would have not placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.  Certainly, He would not have placed it in the "midst" of the garden, where it was readily accessible, but perhaps would have placed it in the back somewhere, where it could not be happened upon by an inquiring mind.  Instead He put the tree in the midst and relied on Adam and Eve to chose to obey.  

I am saddened by the news that's unravelling right now, that Sen. Obama has decided to resign his Church that has become his sanctuary and home for more than two decades. The decision is, as the senator himself said, a "personal" and "sad" one. At the constitutioal level, he has his right to do so.

His action, the Senator maintains, is not a denouncement of the former Church and, in fact, the official response from the Church itself is quite reasonable, that it's also saddened by the decision and prayed for Sen. Obama and his family

His principal reasons, as cited by Obama:

- Media onslaught on members - sick and shut in getting calls

- Distraction to business of church

- Controversial statements

- He did not want to subject his church to the same rigors as a political campaign - did not think it was fair to them

He didn't throw anyone under the bus.

He wished his church well and indicated that he hoped that when they find their next church home that they will be able to do what they desire to do in church - worship God.

He moved on to comments regarding the R&B Committee rulings.

There is nothing as good in America as a Whiteman that speaks the truth, even when it will not benefit him directly and temporarily.  That is not only a man and a true Christian, but also a true American soldier for the war that brings genuine racial reconciliation to America.  

Bill O’Reilly, Geraldine Ferrero, and other Catholic are mad at him and are calling for his head from the church.  If half of White Americans were as bold as Pfleger in the areas of fairness and truth, racism would have long been removed from the fabric of our great nation.  Instead, we pretend to act like racism is long dead and forgotten.  Are the Clintons and Fox News not playing the race card to make Obama look un-presidential?  Even at a time when McClellan is claiming that Bush and the White house made him lie, racist O’Reilly and Ferrero are still focusing on Obama’s Church instead of questioning the Republicans and McCain’s dream of continuing this Bush agenda.

Admittedly, that title isn't mine.  The "news" today is all about the latest "Revelation" about Barack Obama's church, featuring video of a guest preacher at Trinity.  This time, a Catholic priest who has defended Jeremiah Wright is speaking out to say that Hillary Clinton is crying because "a black man stole my show."

This sermon was delivered Sunday, and is conveniently taking news time away from the shocking and dramatic words in Scott McClellan's new book.

More...

I am a big fan of the Ed Shultz show; mainly because it's one of the few outlets of progressive info I can get on radio/during the day (especially when the cable news shows are "acting up")here in NY.

Shultz gives a male, western, progressive viewpoint, with a forceful, animated, republican style delivery, to good ratings. That's a postive to many. He's also been a strong supporter of Barack Obama.

But today, at the beginning of his show (broadcast 12pm here in NYC) Ed Shultz just played right into the Corporate medias hand.

He started his show on Fri, by eviscerating the latest alleged/burgeoning Obama "Pastor Disaster", Father Flagler, who said some not so kind (but some feel honest) things about HRC, and her sense of "white-Clinton" entitlement at Trinity this past Sunday.Ok. That's understandable.

But now Shultz wants Obama to leave Trinity?

Who is Ed Shultz to tell Obama where to go to church?  He should know better! If the MSM media, is not sure what to make of this story yet (they've been relatively reserved in light of Hagee's pastor disaster,and Clinton's recent assassination comments). Why would Ed Shultz give it legitimacy by asking Obama "to leave Trinity Church"?

Almost every civilization known to man fell not because of external forces like Al-Qaeda, but because of internal disharmony such as racial untruthfulness, religious misunderstandings, and cultural intolerance.  Internal disharmony is a cancer in any society that quietly and systematically erodes the fabric of any civilization and brings it down to its knees.  This is the cancer that O’Reilly and Hannity of Fox news represents.  

Wealth is not always how much you make or save, but the peace of mind acquired through the understanding of our world, our attitude towards it, and our attitude towards each other.  One of the most ignorant and closed-minded entity ever formed by man is the Church.  They always used their misunderstanding of the Bible to satisfy their greed.  It is amazing that the Church that once believed that the earth was the center of the universe, actually admitted to its ignorance in 1992.  Now, they believe in aliens.  How wonderful!!!!  

At every turn OPEC is twisting and turning any attempt at lowering the cost of Oil, America has to set in motion a MOON PROGRAM, too get America off MIDDLE EAST OIL and pandering too a gas tax, is OLD POLITICS and is exactly what has added to America’s poor and middle classes woes, we’re blinded by the short term pandering and vote for the person who says, "I’ll give you money... TODAY" and then don’t deliver.

"I’ll give you money... TODAY"

Last night the Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart devoted a large amount of their headline coverage to how the news media is devoting a large amount of their coverage to Reverend Jeremiah Wright day-in and day-out.

It's a pretty well done segment complete with priceless phrases like "Wright... who has been dominating cable news like a missing white girl." While some might wish the Daily Show would focus their attentions elsewhere I disagree - this is what the Daily Show is, a mockery of the news networks. This is precisely why the Daily Show exists - to call out the news media for their stupidity, obsession and shallow coverage.

I've been watching so much Wright nonsense on TV over the past week or so that I find this kind of spoofing very cathartic.

The campaign that won’t die has the controversy that wont die, "The Sermons of Reverend Wright".  Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard at least one of the sound bytes from Barack Obama’s former Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.  The clip of Rev. Wright in a traditional African Dress at the pulpit delivering a "controversial" sermon after 9/11 has been played adnasuem.