This Week in Crazy II

So what do Sharron Angle, the Texas State Board of Education and the Values Voter Summit have in common? They're all candidates for this weeks Crazy of the Week award.

There's been a lot of potential candidates out there - from someone in Sen. Saxby Chambliss' office posting "all faggots must die" in comments on Joe.My.God, to Tom Emmer, Tea-Party candidate for Governor of Minnesota, running neck and neck in the polls with Democrat Mark Drayton or the Italian Minster of Family Policy publicly stating that gay adoption leads to human trafficking.  It made the choices hard. So much crazy, so little time.

And really, one crazy is often interchangeable with another.

So what has Sharron Angle been up to that spikes her status? Well, it's really a two-fer. Apparently former Arkansas Governor and perennial Republican candidate for President Mike Huckabee has a show on Faux News. Whoda thunk? And he had Sharron Angle on to talk about that dastardly Harry Reid's smear campaign against her. She spends her time attacking Reid and never takes on Reid's  statements except to say they're half truths. Care to know what Poltifact has to say about this race?  It's not pretty.  And you've got to love that Angle counters Reid's half-truths with her own wholly untrue ad. I'm sorry, really, but that grin just creeps me out.



Not satisfied with garnering national attention for their proposed changes to Texas social studies curriculum, the Texas SBOE has decided to enter the anti-Muslim fray that's currently making the headlines across America. They've put out a resolution condemning what they call a pro-Muslim and anti-Christian bias in World History textbooks. These are the same textbooks that, in many cases, this same board approved just a few years ago after forcing publishers to change positive passages regarding Islam (among other things). Check out the Texas Freedom Network's coverage. Here's the a PDF of the resolution.  Though the SBOE has no authorization under Texas statute to edit or censor textbooks, they generally ignore that little fact and issue edicts like this or resort to outright pressure towards publishers to get their way. The good news is that two of the craziest have been voted off the board. The bad news is this is their last ditch effort to leave a "legacy".

But this week's winner, and trust me there were lots of deserving crazies out there this week, would have to be the Values Voter Summit. First of all, this is a collection of crazy at high levels. Sponsored by the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation, among others, the Value Voters Summit is described as a conference to

"join with other pro-family, conservative organizations from across the country and reach an audience of grassroots activists who believe in traditional marriage, the protection of our religious freedoms, defending the sanctity of life, protecting our borders and defending our homeland".(www.valuevotersummit.org)

 Their breakout sessions this year are a veritable plethora of crazy:

• American Apocalypse--When Christians Do Nothing, Secularists Do Everything--The Case for Christian Activism
• Indivisible: Social and Economic Foundations of American Liberty
• Social Justice: Am I My Brother's Keeper?
• The Falsehood of the Inevitablity of Same-Sex "Marriage"
• The Economic Impact of Illegal Immigration
• How to Reach the Online Generation (Without Losing Your Soul)
• Against the Odds: Real Students Making Real Change
• A Special Polling Presentation: Who are Tea Party and Christian Voters and What Do They Believe?
• Establishing a Culture Impact Team In Your Church
• Why Christians Should Support Israel
• Getting Out the Vote on Election Day
• Who's Politicizing Science? The Obama Administration's War on Life

 As crazy as all of this sounds, at least to me, the statements made by Tony Perkins and Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis regarding the repeal of DADT were the worst.  Perkins and Maginnis claimed that allowing gays to serve openly in the military would "make the military weaker, understaffed and morally corrupt." They went on to say that those countries that allow gays to serve openly no longer participate in wars. Money quote:

"Well, those that do, they're the ones that participate in parades, they don't fight wars to keep the nation and the world free. So there's a big difference". - Tony Perkins

 Just to set the record straight, here's a list of countries that allow gays to serve openly in their military.


Albania*
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium*
Canada*
Colombia
Czech Republic*
Denmark*
Estonia*
Finland
France*
Germany*
Ireland
Israel
Italy*
Lithuania*
Luxembourg*
Malta
The Netherlands*
New Zealand
Norway*
Peru
Philippines
Poland*
Romania*
Russia
Slovenia*
South Africa
Spain*
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
United Kingdom*
Bermuda
Uruguay

Great Britain and Australia have or had significant numbers of soldiers in Iraq and are, of course,  our allies. Israel is on that list and last I checked we were pretty fond of them. (Plus, they fight. A lot. Generally by shooting Palestinians who throw rocks.) Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and France all of have forces in Afghanistan. and are part of NATO. You remember NATO? That pesky little treaty we signed back in 1949? Those countries with an asterisk are all signatories.

Somehow, I think that Tony Perkins and his cronies are so worked up about LGBT rights that they don't really care who they hurt in the process of defending their "way of life".

And really pisses me off that these folks feel like they've won with the Senate vote.

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• Tony Perkins hosts shameless lie-filled panel on DADT repeal at Values Voter Summit (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Texas Board Of Education Approves Resolution Limiting Islam References (huffingtonpost.com)
• Supporters Of Harry Reid And Sharron Angle Come To Blows During Debate (mediaite.com)