red fuzzy jesus

Letter To Peter LaBarbera following the Prop. 8 decision.

This is the letter I emailed Peter LaBarbera after the decision in Perry et al, v. Schwarzenegger et al (the Prop. 8 decision) came out.  Perry was released on the eve of Peter's "Truth Academy".  LaBarbera claims the point of the academy is to train people better in countering the "lies" of the "homosexual agenda" and provide a venue to discuss issues in a way disallowed by the "Gay Thought Police" in academia.  But, one should note that the people in charge of the political campaign and judicial defense for Prop. 8 had the most training in countering the so-called agenda.  And, LaBarbera took CIA-worthy measures to screen students for his "academy" out of fear a "homosexual activist" would sneak in.  So much for free thought, but what about training?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I take a lot of solace that your “Truth Academy” is happening right after the Prop. 8 decision was announced.  You purport to teach people how to counter the “homosexual agenda”.  However, the people in charge of the Prop. 8 campaign in 2008 and the legal team established to defend it were educated people extremely skilled in their various professions.  Skilled politicians tasked with selling a message and skilled attorneys experienced at litigation went before the judge.  And still, Prop. 8 was called what it is, irrational discrimination. 

 

“It [California] has already issued 18,000 marriage licenses to same-sex couples and has not suffered any demonstrated harm as a result, see FF 64-66; moreover, California officials have chosen not to defend Proposition 8 in these proceedings.”

 

You can claim that there is harm.  However, when forced under oath to demonstrate harm it is impossible because there IS NO HARM.  The problem for your side isn’t a lack of training.  The people working to sell Prop. 8 to California voters and defend it in court have a lot of training.  The fault is a fundamental flaw in your position. 

 

You can blame “activist judges”, as I’m sure your side will do.  You never once look at your losses and blame inadequate argumentation.  You continue to lose in court over and over again and fail to realize that the argument is the problem rather than a lack of training or obstinate judges. 

 

All your side had to do was go into that courthouse and demonstrate the harm.  The National Organization for Marriage had an ad about a coming storm.  It’s a nice metaphor but if there really were some coming threat or harm that should have been easy to explain in court.  Instead, Judge Walker saw both sides present their best arguments for and against Proposition 8 and concluded:

 

“Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.”

 

Simple.  Straightforward.  Correct.

 

Proposition 8 was about discrimination and saying, without any basis, that one group of people is better than another.  Your Truth Academy can train people in messaging but the facts behind the message do not change.  It’s not a matter of training to sell something better or get better at arguing the ridiculous.  When given equal time for two sides to make their case, one side wins and the other side loses because only one side is grounded in rationality while the other relies on subjective religious interpretation that is unconvincing in court. 

Letters To Morons No. 2

July 14, 2004

To: Tony Perkins, Family Research Council
Don Wildmon, American Family Association
James Dobson, Focus on the Family
Jan LaRue, Concerned Women for America

I was pleased today to hear the news that religious fundamentalist had failed to convince the Senate to pass the FMA. You not only failed to get the necessary super-majority for passage, you failed to get a simple majority even with Senators Kerry and Edwards not present for the vote. All the money you spent, dishonest articles you published, and scare tactics you deployed amounted to nothing in the end.

When you first started pushing the FMA I wrote you a letter informing you that you would fail. Fair-minded Americans decided long ago that discrimination against gay people doesn’t make a lot of sense and is simply, well, un-American. Politicians figured out that the best way to look like a rampant bigot is to cower to demands of groups like yours. Far-right religious fundamentalists are the primary liability to the Republican Party these days. I ask you once again to end your war against the dignity of gay people. While I think there is little chance in convincing you to do so, I take comfort again in the futility of your efforts.

Warm regards,

Gabriel Hudson

Letters to Morons - No. 1

The following letter was written in response to an article that appeared on the American Family Association web site on May 14, 2004. The article contained links to gruesome photos and the video of the beheading of Nick Berg. Because I don’t want to indirectly link to those images I am including the full text of the article below without the links. The article asserts that because graphic photos of the Abu Ghraib torture were used in the news but the most gruesome photos from 9/11 and other murders were not it represents a bias against President Bush. I counter that the same standards of decency were applied to all referenced stories. The photos they link to include captions such as ‘What the Real Enemy is Capable Of” and the text of the article is inflammatory against all Muslims.

---------

May 16, 2004

Dear Mr. Lambert:

I am writing in regards to an article titled Moral Equivalency Justified by Major News Groups that appeared on the American Family Association website, www.afa.net, on May 14, 2004. The end of the article contained links to graphic photos of people jumping out of the World Trade Center on 9/11, the murder of Daniel Pearl, and the beheading of Nick Berg. The article also contained a link to the full video of the beheading of Nick Berg.

The premise of your article is wrong. You claim that the media demonstrated a liberal bias by repeatedly showing images of the prisoner torture at Abu Ghraib but did not show the type of images you linked in your article. This assertion is absurd. 9/11, Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg’s murders all received extensive media coverage. However, network news and print media did not show the most gruesome images from these stories in the interest of common decency and out of sensitivity to their readers and viewers. The same rule applied to the photos from Abu Ghraib. The images that appeared in the news were edited to make them appropriate. And the worst images shown to members of Congress have been classified by the Pentagon and not shown to the media. It is ridiculous to assert that because gruesome and disturbing photos are kept out of mainstream media it proves some sort of bias. All of these stories contained horrible images not fit for mass consumption and understandably those images were censored.

The American Family Association was the most active group encouraging censorship and backlash following the exposure of a breast for less than a second on network television. Supposedly, an instantaneous glimpse of Janet Jackson’s naked boob was harmful enough to justify lawsuits, boycotts, mass mailing campaigns, and calls for the resignation of FCC officials. The American Family Association lead the charge in all of these pursuits and spent months campaigning for stringent censorship in every form of media. However, while that organization shames the female body it now chastises the 6 o’clock news for not showing videos of someone being beheaded. This dichotomy in your ideology is beyond misogynistic, beyond religious fundamentalism, beyond idiocy. It is patently insane.

I am thankful someone had the courage to get those photos out of Abu Ghraib. It is not hatred of George Bush that inspired their distribution. It is morality. What happened to those detainees is a grotesque violation of human rights and it is the media’s job to expose such aberrations – especially during a time of war. Had photos not been taken and shared with the media the abuse could be continuing today. The Pentagon certainly wasn’t correcting the problem on its own.

The reason why the prison torture photos are so disturbing is because the torturers are Americans. Americans are supposed to be different than Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. We preach to the world about human rights and use Saddam’s bloody rule as a justification to take over his country. Then these photos come out. They could potentially destroy our credibility in world affairs. They also will make the United States more hated around the world putting every single American in more danger from a terrorist attack. They deserve the attention and significance they are given. Their implication is immeasurable.

In your article and by the headings above the pictures you repeat a racist ‘us’ v. ‘them’ theme. You imply that the deaths of Americans are somehow more tragic than the brutal rape and sodomizing of prisoners. You value some human life above others based on nationality and religion and it is disgusting. You frame the war as a white Christian crusade against Islam. It is not. If it is anything it is a fight for freedom against terror and tyranny. Your ideology, your hatred of women, your racist views and your backward religious fundamentalism is as threatening to the freedom of Americans as any Islamic fundamentalist. The views you espouse are as much a perversion of Christianity as the Taliban is a perversion of Islam.

I am disgusted by your decision to post such horrifying and disturbing images. I am more disgusted you would use your web site to encourage hatred of all Muslims. To say that censoring nauseating, graphic, violent pictures in the news is a campaign against President Bush is dishonest and stupid. You hate Muslims, love George Bush, and hate that these photos are embarrassing his administration. So, you have created some bizarre fantasy of media bias to defend your man. You have no moral compass and no standards of decency.

Sincerely sickened,

Gabriel Hudson

----------
[[referenced links removed]]

Guest Commentary
Moral Equivalency Justified by Major News Groups
CAUTION: THIS COMMENTARY CONTAINS LINKS TO GRISLY, GRAPHIC IMAGES THAT ARE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN TO VIEW. THESE LINKS ARE PROVIDED FOR TWO REASONS: (1) TO DEMONSTRATE THE BRUTALITY OF THOSE AGAINST WHOM THE WAR ON TERRORISM IS BEING WAGED; AND (2) BECAUSE THE MAINSTREAM AMERICAN MEDIA HAS SELECTIVELY CHOSEN TO FOCUS ITS WRATH ON THE RECENT PRISON-ABUSE SCANDAL WITHOUT BALANCING ITS REPORTING BY SHOWING IMAGES PORTRAYING THE ATROCITIES COMMITTED BY TERRORISTS AGAINST AMERICANS.
By James L. and Lori Lambert
May 14, 2004
(AgapePress) - Last week I expressed my outrage over the media's lack of balance in reporting the discovery of Iraqi prison abuse and the related pictures that were splashed all over the front pages of many major news outlets around the country. I also recounted the horrific murders of non-combat personnel by butchers in the Middle East and how the "elite" media refused to show the imagery of their brutal deaths, yet simultaneously used the pages of their newspapers to parade footage of the Iraqi prisoners who were humiliated.
See last week's commentary by James Lambert
Not long after that commentary, a 26-year-old American worker, Nick Berg, was brutally murdered by terrorists who admittedly had strong ties to the al-Qaida terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden. The video depicting this murder shows scenes where these animals take approximately 30 seconds to carve off Michael's head while he is screaming. After this occurred, we can hear rabid chants to 'Allah', while they say, "God is great, God is great!" -- all while holding Berg's head up to the camera.
It is amazing that papers like the New York Times and many others gave short shrift to this brutal and ritualistic killing. Yet within the same pages of these same websites and newspapers, the Iraqi prison scandal was again highlighted in such a way as to seriously detract from Berg's tragic beheading.
It is strongly apparent that the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, and many other news groups are clearly agenda-driven. It particularly annoys me when media groups like the LA Times places an "Analysis" banner under their headlines to justify placement of editorialized reporting on their front page.
Traditionally the front pages of major newspapers have always been reserved for objective news stories. What papers like the LA Times have done is to transfer their opinions from the editorial pages to their front pages and couch it as "news." This is exactly what these media and other news groups have done to this Iraqi prison story. Further, it appears that extreme hatred of George W. Bush is the engine driving the prison-abuse story by various editors of these news groups. It has now become a partisan story to help bring down the President this fall.
While what occurred in the Abu Ghraib prison is indeed appalling, it is of extreme importance that we be reminded of other "abuses" that have resulted in death -- the death of Americans. For that reason, I have provided links to web pages that will provide "balance" to the imagery that clearly demonstrates the type of adversary we are up against.
While these images are brutal and graphic, these images express why we are fighting the war against terrorism. It is important, at this time, not to hide our collective heads in the sand, but to view this imagery so that we may "know the enemy."
CAUTION: THESE LINKS WILL TAKE THE READER TO GRISLY, GRAPHIC IMAGES THAT ARE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN TO VIEW. THE IMAGES DEPICT PEOPLE JUMPING FROM THE WORLD TRADE CENTER, ABUSE OF CHARRED BODIES, AND HUMAN DECAPITATION

James L. Lambert, who resides in San Diego, California, is a frequent contributor to AgapePress. He is the author of Porn in America (Huntington House), which can be purchased through the American Family Association; and a licensed loan sales agent who offers all types of real-estate mortgage loans. He can be reached via his website: JamesLLambert.com