Gay Patriot

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Does David Brooks read GayPatriot?

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Three months ago, I posted Captain Ahab Democrats where I noted that, like Captain Ahab obsessed with the white whale in Moby Dick, many Democrats, notably their hater-in-chief chairman are similarly obsessed with the president, seeing him as his party as the “the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them.” Just moments ago, when reading a David Brooks column (linked by Instapundit), I wondered if that columnist reads our blog. In commenting on Senator Kerry’s speech attacking the man who beat him last November for his handling Katrina, he writes:

In the first place, not even Karl Rove’s worldview is so obsessively Bush-centric as John Kerry’s. There are many interesting issues raised by Katrina, but for Senator Ahab it all goes back to the great white monster, Bush. Bush and his crew should have known the levees were weak. Bush and his crew should have known thousands in New Orleans would be trapped. (Did I miss Kerry’s own warnings on these subjects?) All reality flows back to Bush. All begins with Bush, ends with Bush, is explained by Bush and is polluted by Bush, cursed be thy name.

Prez Slams Clinton on USA’s Weakness to Terror Threat

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Wooooo hoooo! Dubya takes the gloves off and says the things I’ve been saying for over a year….. the ferocity of the 9/11 attacks had much more to do with the weakness of the United States’ previous response (under Clinton, Bush 41, Reagan and Carter) than it did about the first 8 months of the Bush 43 term.
Bush finally said what the 9/11 Commission was too politically-whipped to say: Bill Clinton, Sandy Berger, Madeleine Albright, Al Gore and Richard Clarke all bear primary responsibility for 9/11 by their sleeping on the job for eight years while al-Qaeda plotted and repeatedly attacked America.
President Bush: Clinton Weakness Led to 9/11 – NewsMax.com

“The terrorists saw our response to the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings in the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole,” Bush noted, after getting an update on the war on terror at the Pentagon.
“The terrorists concluded that we lacked the courage and character to defend ourselves and so they attacked us,” the president added, in quotes picked up by United Press International.
Four of the six terrorist attacks cited by Bush took place on Clinton’s watch, with the first two coming during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Bush Firm on Iraq Policy as Antiwar Forces Plan Protest – NY Times

The president asserted at a news conference afterward that terrorists had studied the American responses to the Iranian hostage crisis during the Carter administration, the bombing of United States Marines’ barracks in Lebanon during the Reagan administration and the first terror attack on the World Trade Center during the Clinton administration, among other events.
“The terrorists concluded that we lacked the courage and character to defend ourselves, and so they attacked us,” the president said. “The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon the mission.”
“For the safety and security of the American people, that’s not going to happen on my watch,” he said.

Same story, different sources, different quotes by the President used. Same message.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Iraq’s President Thanks America, Reaffirms Democracy

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Hat tip: ConservativePunk (gotta love that name!)
We Need American Troops – Iraqi President Talabani in the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 21, 2005

There is no more important international issue today than the need to defeat the curse of terrorism. And as the first democratically elected president of Iraq, I have a responsibility to ensure that the world’s youngest democracy survives the inherently difficult transition from totalitarianism to pluralism. A transformation of the Iraqi state and Iraqi society is impossible without a sustained commitment of soldiers from the United States and other democracies.
Without foreign intervention, the transition in Iraq would have been from Saddam’s bloodstained hands to his psychopathic offspring. Instead, thanks to American leadership, Iraqis have been given an opportunity of peaceful, participatory politics. Contrary to the new conventional wisdom, Iraq and the history of 20th-century Europe demonstrate that force of arms can implant democracy in the most arid soil.
To contain these tensions, and to defend our young democracy, requires the support of American and other troops. Foreign forces are needed to train and equip the new Iraqi armed forces and to give Iraq its own counterterrorism capability. Only the United States and its closest allies are able to provide such assistance.
Creating these Iraqi forces has not been easy, but Iraqis have been undaunted by the difficulties. Every terrorist attack on Iraqi forces leads to a surge in military recruitment–the opposite of the appeasers’ myth that resisting terrorism causes more terrorism.
American forces are in Iraq at the invitation of the democratically elected government of Iraq, and with the backing of a United Nations Security Council resolution. Your soldiers are in my country because of your commitment to democracy.
Americans should be proud of what its soldiers have achieved. The presence of foreign forces has prevented a renewed civil war in Iraq–renewed because there has already been a civil war in Iraq. For 35 years, Saddam and his Baath Party made war on the Iraqi people. The liberation of Iraq ended that civil war.
Without American forces, the vision of American leadership and the quiet fortitude of the American people, Iraqis would be almost alone in the world. With its allies, the United States has provided Iraqis with an unprecedented opportunity. Iraqis have responded by enthusiastically embracing democracy and volunteering to fight for their country. By giving us the tools, your troops help us to defend Iraqi democracy and to finish the job of uprooting Baathist fascism.

Elections matter…. I doubt there would have been a democratically-elected President of Iraq to write this piece if John Kerry had been elected President. He wanted the Jan. 30 election delayed, and US troops to be withdrawn.
Elections matter….
(Related story – Update from the Iraqi Theatre in the War on Terror from Michael Yon, a truly embedded blogger.
Funny, I haven’t heard about this on CBS News. All I know from the MSM is that there is a car bomb in Iraq on days that news coverage of Katrina gets slow. Now, why is that?? I guess it is because they are ‘stuck on stupid.’)
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Non-Partisan Congressional Study Outlines Proper Federal Disaster Response Mandated By Law

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The following is the executive summary from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service detailing the proper Federal Response to a Natural Disaster based on a review of the Federal statute passed in 1988 establishing the process.
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Overview of the Process for a Federal Response to a Natural Disaster
In an effort to provide better understanding of the process, the following document is intended to be a brief overview explaining how the federal government responds to natural disasters.
In 1988, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, was enacted to support State and local governments and their citizens when disasters strike. This law establishes a process for requesting and obtaining a Presidential disaster declaration, defines the type and scope of assistance available from the Federal government, and sets the conditions for obtaining that assistance. All incidents are handled at the most immediate organizational and jurisdictional level – local and State agencies are the primary response and recovery units for any disaster. Police, fire, public health and medical, emergency management, and other personnel are responsible for incident management at the local level. The National Guard, State Police, and other responding state agencies are coordinated by the Governor. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is tasked with coordinating the Federal response.
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Pope Benedict XVI & NGLTF — an appalling policy, an offensive release

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If you want evidence of where the gay movement is failing gay people, you only need look at this press release from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). For once, I basically agree with the Task Force, but find their rhetoric way over the top and counterproductive. It offends those they should be trying to convince.
They fault Pope Benedict XVI for favoring an “‘Instruction’ that gay men should not be ordained as Roman Catholic priests.” That is, the church would “bar even celibate gay men from seminaries” Instead of calling the practice wrong, narrow-minded, unfair or discriminatory, all terms which I would use, NGTLF’s Executive Director Matt Foreman calls it “evil” and accuses the Church of “unbridled hatred” of gay people.
This over-the-top rhetoric obscures the merits of their case. I had to read the release twice before realizing that I basically agreed with the Task Force on this one. It does them no good to call the church evil — or to attack the Church as Foreman does. His screed will not succeed in convincing many people (who do not already have a negative opinion of the Catholic Church) of the extreme nature of this “instruction.”
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Let Me Pick! Let Me Pick!!!

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NBC/Universal Chief Jeff Zucker dropped the “L” bomb at ’30 Rock’ today….. “Layoffs.”
Zucker Tells NBC Newsers: “There Will Likely Be Layoffs.”
This one has been under my skin since she first started…..

And this one!!! Well, I believe she has a hotline phone to Hell for tips to improve her integrity and objectivity.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Hello, Hello!?! Schumer=Nixon?

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Good news folks…. we won’t have to see or hear Senator Camera Hog for a while now that this news has broken….
Newsday.com — They’re Not A Credit To Schumer

WASHINGTON — Two opposition researchers working for Sen. Charles Schumer at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee obtained copies of a confidential credit report on Maryland’s Republican lieutenant governor, prompting calls for their prosecution.
In July, committee research director Katie Barge and Lauren Weiner, a junior staffer, used Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s Social Security number to get his credit report, according to a Democratic official familiar with the case.
The committee, which works to elect Democrats to the Senate, has been compiling research on Steele, Maryland’s highest-ranking African-American official, a GOP contender for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Democrat Paul Sarbanes in 2006.

Since Steele is an African-American, I assume that based on the usual LibDem talking point strategy, that Schumer must be a racist, right?
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Judiciary Committee vote on Roberts Shows (Once Again) why Republicans are Better than Democrats

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With the Senate Judiciary Committee vote to approve the nomination of John Roberts as the next Chief Justice, we once again have proof that Republicans show more respect for their ideological adversaries than do Democrats. Only three of the Committee’s eight Democrats (Vermont’s Patrick Leahy and the two Senators from Wisconsin, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold) joined all ten Republicans in voting to confirm this good man. Five voted against. This contrasts with the same committee’s unanimous vote twelve years ago to confirm a one-time American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) activist to the Supreme Court.
Yep, all the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1993 voted to confirm Ruth Bader Ginsburg even though her appointment would shift the court to the left. President Clinton tapped her to replace Byron White who, while appointed by President Kennedy, usually voted with the court’s conservative bloc; he wrote the dissenting opinion in Roe. v. Wade.
Even though conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer thinks a Chief Justice Roberts would “move the court only mildly, but most assuredly, to the left,” a majority of Judiciary Committee Democrats voted against this good man. My state’s normally sensible senior Senator, Dianne Feinstein, said “her vote was decided after Roberts refused to fully answer questions from her and other Democrats in his confirmation hearing last week.” Twelve years ago, she didn’t express similar qualms about Ms. Ginsburg’s failure to fully answer questions from Democrats — or Republicans.
Let’s face it, while Democrats and others on the left repeatedly accuse conservatives of intolerance and narrow-mindedness, they, by and large, are far more ideologically hardheaded than are most Republicans and conservatives. Bill Clinton won only 43% of the popular vote in 1992, yet Republican Senators respected his constitutional role in appointing judges — even if his first Supreme Court appointment shifted the court to the left. Today’s Senate Democrats are a much different sort, more concerned with answering to left-wing interest groups than in respecting constitutional principles.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
UPDATE: Powerline‘s Paul writes, “The Democratic “no” vote on the 18 member Committee exceeds the number of Republican votes, Senate-wide, against Justice Ginsburg.”
UPDATE FROM GP: I noted with interest the point that Rush Limbaugh made today. DiFi was voting no on Roberts partially because she wasn’t sure how Roberts was as a husband and a father. Really. So feminism is now decided on whether you are a GOOD husband and father? I thought it was irrelevant to them. Plus, imagine the screams from the LibDems had someone asked Ginsberg if she were a good mother or wife!!! Double-standards never end among our friends from the Anti-Religious Left.

News From The Gay-R-Den State of NJ

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G’Stater at the new New Jersey Blog has some recent updates on two stories that we all equate with the Garden State now.
Golan Cipel (McGreevey’s ‘mistress’)

“Forrester was clearly the stronger of the two candidates on stage tonight. He won the debate on points, but, unfortunately, political debates aren’t won on points — they’re won on perceptions, and expectations. * * * The one memorable line of the night from Doug: “If he’s [Corzine] a tax cutter, then Golan Cipel is a homeland security adviser.”

and
Democrats Corruption Not Confined to Homeland Security Funds.

Towns in legislative districts represented by Trenton’s ruling Democratic Party got nearly 90 percent of $86 million in special state grants the past three years, even though officials proclaimed they had removed politics from the process, a Star-Ledger analysis has found
A review of 10 programs showed state officials repeatedly ignored a carefully crafted application process and instead distributed the money to satisy wishes of key Democratic lawmakers.
The grants helped towns pay for everything from Homeland Security equipment and tourism promotion, to library shelves and ramps for the disabled.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Getting Gay Marriage the Old-Fashioned Way — Earning It

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In a post last week, Bruce linked a gem of the witty (and often wise) PrismWarden, Tell Me Lies and I’ll Love You Forever, a piece on the difference between gay conservative and gay liberals. Last night, he published a follow-up post, Adolescence Revisted: Part One — Earn It.
In his piece, Robbie puts forward a theory one similar to that I had spelled out in many of my posts on gay marriage, but takes this argument in a direction that might upset many advocates of gay marriage. He says that we need to earn marriage:

Gay liberals want gay marriage right now. They don’t particularly care how they get it, just so long as they get it. When they don’t get it, they tend to throw temper tantrums of enormous proportions. Gay conservatives, on the other hand, realize the importance of how we get it. We know we cannot simply demand it and have it granted through the beatific wave of the magical judicial wand. We must argue for it, persuade for it, and convince others of why we must have it. The method is just as important, if not more so, as the final result.

Some will contend, “But straight people didn’t need to make such arguments for marriage!” Straight marriage (one man to one woman) existed as institution long before the United States came into being, indeed, long before the idea of a constitutional republic was even discussed.
The notion of gay marriage, of two individuals living together in a lifelong monogamous relationship, is a relatively novel idea. Sure, some cultures have recognized such institutions. In the United States, however, until recently, even the staunchest gay rights’ advocates didn’t consider it.
As this blog has done, Robbie looks at the backlash against court-sanctioned gay marriage, noting the numbers of states which have passed “protection of marriage” laws and constitutional amendments. At the same time, too many advocates of gay marriage belittle opponents as “bigoted,” “narrow-minded” or “anti-gay” without taking the time to understand their arguments.
It’s important that, as Robbie puts it, through “ardent, but respectful engagement of the issue,” we make our case. And I will also add, as I’ve said before, we need to talk about marriage as a sacred institution and make clear that we do not just see this as a right to which we are entitled, but a privilege for which we are willing to work. That we understand the obligations of matrimony and are committed to living up to them just as heterosexual couples have done for millennia.
And now that I’ve whet your appetite for Robbie’s post, read the whole thing!
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

Media Neglects Rita’s Gay Angle

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In an excellent column on media bias and the coverage of Katrina, Jonah Goldberg has also noticed bias in the coverage of Rita which even your humble blogger missed, but then again, so did the gay media:

The questions raised by unlovely Rita are as painful as they are obvious. Will gays stay behind in disproportionate numbers in this disproportionately gay city? If so, Why? If gay marriage were legalized, could some of this disaster be avoided? Would George W. Bush have responded more quickly if the victims were just a tad less stylish? And, of course: Will the federal government help keep Key West festive?
Why weren’t reporters standing at the ready to caterwaul about the wreckage at their feet? Cher albums and the collected writings of James Wolcott strewn about like beer cans and pizza boxes in an apartment yet to be transformed by the cast of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Now, just read the whole thing for Jonah’s broader points on media coverage of Katrina.
HT: Polipundit’s Lorie Byrd
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

Say it isn’t so!

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Colorado Patriot wrote in to tell me how poorly one of my favorite singers behaved at a concert/fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Not only am I am a fan of Bette Midler’s voice, but I often love her acting as well. In a past post, I mentioned how her “stupid comedy,” Ruthless People, changed my life for the better. I love her (and Lily) in Big Business and delighted in her cameo in Get Shorty. And, of course, I am a fan of Beaches.
At the New York concert, this talented actress and singer said:

I got a letter from the Republican Party the other day. I wrote back, ‘Go fuck yourself’ . . . George Bush is a fan of mine — he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.

As Colorado Patriot put it, “Truly tasteless considering what the organizers of this event were trying to accomplish.” Exactly.
Boycotting Bette’s work is clearly out of the question; as PrismWarden put it, “Giving up Bette, it’s practically a gay funeral.” Still, Beaches may never again be the same.

Happy Blogiversary, Boi!

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As our Pal BoiFromTroy, who edged us out for Wizbang’s Best LGBT Blog, celebrates his second blogiversary today, he also received his one millionth visitor.
Congratulations, Boi!
(Update from GP – I also, reluctantly, share my envious congrats with the Boi. But I’m gonna win the 2005 LGBT Blog Awards this year, dammit!)
(Up-update from GPW — Um, we, Bruce, we’re gonna win it this year.)

Calif. Gays Go Over The Top… Again

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Yep, this is a great way to appeal to the 61% of Californians who voted against accepting gay marriage in the state in 2000: Equate Gov. Schwarzenegger, and those same voters indirectly, with the racist policies of the late Alabama Gov. George Wallace.
Commercial Compares Schwarzenegger to Wallace – CBS 5 (San Francisco)

Gay rights activists plan to air a television commercial this week that compares Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s forthcoming veto of a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in California to the segregationist policies of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace.

Because Lord knows, when ever you oppose any political issue of the Secular Left, you are obviously a racist.
RELATED UPDATE: Chad at Cake Or Death points out that the gay rights groups in Massachusetts now have the LibDem Party all in a twist…..

State Speaker Sal DiMasi (D) “has no realistic choice other than to allow a vote of the legislators inasmuch as the Democratic support of homosexual marriage is destroying his Party in this state.”

-Bruce (GayPatriot)
UP-UPDATE (from GPW): On the day after his second blogiversary, BoifromTroy notes that a Reiner (AKA Meathead) Strategist is Behind the Attacks on the Governator. And he thinks Equality California may be becoming a “fringe-organization in California Politics instead of a useful means to advance gay and lesbian rights in the State.”

Required Reading for our Youth

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Hat Tip: GOP Vixen

“HELP! MOM! THERE ARE LIBERALS UNDER MY BED tells of two brothers who open a lemonade stand. Their plans to save up their hard earned profits to buy a swing set go awry when a Ted Kennedy character taxes away their profits and a pants-suit clad Hillary Clinton look-alike outlaws sugary drinks.”

I hope there is a chapter where the Liberals are so afraid of offending their voters that they allow Al-Qaeda to infiltrate the country. Thank goodness this is only fiction…..
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Iranian Authorities Torture Gay Youth

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Thank goodness that at least one gay organization in the world, OutRage!, actually cares about the real and physical (not imagined) war against our community by the Islamic Fascist governments and terror organizations.

Iran sanctions state violence against gay people
Gay Amir, aged 22, given 100 lashes
Apathy of gay, left and human rights groups condemned
London – 20 September 2005
The bruised and bloodied body of a 22 year old gay Iranian, Amir, bears witness to the brutality of the Ayatollah’s regime.
Amir escaped Iran after the authorities threatened him with execution for being gay – but not before he was subjected to the barbarism of 100 lashes, which left his back covered in huge bloody welts.
A copy of Amir’s story, together with photos of his savage injuries, has been sent to the British LGBT human rights group OutRage! by Iranian LGBT activists (see below).
View the photos of Amir:
http://www.outrage.org.uk/imagezoom.asp?file=Iranian_gay_flogging1
http://www.outrage.org.uk/imagezoom.asp?file=Iranian_gay_flogging2
http://www.outrage.org.uk/imagezoom.asp?file=Iranian_gay_flogging3
http://www.outrage.org.uk/imagezoom.asp?file=Iranian_gay_flogging4
http://www.outrage.org.uk/imagezoom.asp?file=Iranian_gay_flogging5
http://www.outrage.org.uk/imagezoom.asp?file=Iranian_gay_flogging6
“This is a further example of the violent homophobia of the Iran’s Islamic fundamentalist regime,” said Brett Lock of OutRage!
OutRage! is appalled that large sections of liberal and left opinion in the West shows little concern regarding the murderous brutality of the clerical fascist regime in Tehran.
“We deplore the gullibility of many gay, left and human rights groups concerning the abuse of LGBT human rights in Iran.
“Too many are willing to believe the smears and slurs of the Iranian government and state-approved newspapers like Qods.
“When two young men were executed for same-sex acts in the Iranian city of Mashad in July, some left and human rights organisations accepted at face value claims by the state-controlled media that the youths were hanged for rape.
“Similar gullibility has been shown by some left-wingers. They have long swallowed Iran’s homophobic propaganda.
“Believing the stories in Iran’s state-sanctioned media is like accepting the news as reported by the press in Franco’s Spain or Pinochet’s Chile.
“Where are the left-wing campaigns in western countries to support the freedom struggles of Iranian LGBTs, women, democrats, socialists and workers?

Answer: They are accusing the popularly-elected, and re-elected leaders of their own democracies of being the “real terrorists” and so wound up in their own self-absorbed panties about the semantics of civil unions versus marriage to care.
Welcome to readers from Best of the Web and Roger L. Simon!
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
UPDATE (from GPW): Commenting on Bruce’s post, the Anchoress explains, “The condition is this: In order to be offended by images of torture, the torturers have to be U.S. Troops, serving under a CIC who has an R after his name.” Read the whole thing.

Corporate America Improving Gay Equality

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Every year, the Human Rights Campaign (you know, that “bi-partisan” gay organization) issues a report card on corporate America’s treatment of their GLBT employees. The report ranks companies on seven criteria:
1. Include “sexual orientation” in the non-discrimination policy…
2. Include “gender identity and/or expression” in the non-discrimination policy…
3. Offer health insurance coverage to employees’ same-sex domestic partners company-wide…
4. Officially recognize and support a GLBT employee resource group…
5. Offer diversity training that includes sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the workplace…
6. Engage in respectful and appropriate marketing to the GLBT community…
7. Do NOT engage in corporate actions that undermine the goal of equal rights for GLBT people…
In 2005, 101 companies scored a perfect 100% on the index.
I am pleased to say, I work for one of those companies.
Full press release can be found here.
-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Meeting Gays in Egypt

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I guess today is Middle Eastern Day at GP? Here’s an interesting posting from The Big Pharaoh’s trip to Egypt.
Meeting Egypt’s Gays

Gays in Egypt have to take maximum care because sometimes the authorities here leave the corrupt businessmen and the criminals and arrest homosexuals instead. “We try to stay close to each other, we don’t usually open up to those we don’t know” I was told.
Amazingly, the guys were well aware of what’s happening around the world. They were aware of the same sex marriage debate that’s going on in the U.S and other countries, and they unanimously expressed their disapproval towards gay marriage and gay foster parents. See, that’s the irony. Religion plays a huge role in the definition of the personality of any Egyptians no matter how observant he/she is. Even though those guys are gay, they know that as far as religion is concerned they are committing a sin, and so legal sex marriage is something that shouldn’t be even considered.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

In Memoriam Simon Wiesenthal

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One of the great voices of conscience of the last century has fallen silent. Simon Wiesenthal, a survivor of five Nazi death camps who spent the better part of the past six decades tracking down Nazi war criminals and speaking out for tolerance, died in his sleep early this morning at his home in Vienna. He was 96.
Calling Wiesenthal “the conscience of the Holocaust,” Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the LA-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, added:

When the Holocaust ended in 1945 and the whole world went home to forget, he alone remained behind to remember. He did not forget. He became the permanent representative of the victims, determined to bring the perpetrators of the history’s greatest crime to justice. There was no press conference and no president or Prime Minister or world leader announced his appointment. He just took the job. It was a job no one else wanted.

Having lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust, Wiesenthal brought over 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice and devoted his life to fighting prejudice and promoting tolerance. He understood that “there is no freedom without justice.”
Born in Bucacz in what is now Ukraine, Wiesenthal, trained as an architect, was forced to work in a bedspring factory after the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939. The Nazis arrested him when they took over his town in 1941. While imprisoned in one camp, Wiesenthal was taken to the besdside of a dying Nazi soldier who had asked him, as a Jew, for forgiveness for participating in the murder of two hundred Jews in a town in Ukraine. After the war, Wiesenthal posed this soldier’s question to a number of leading theologians, writers and other prominent individuals: how would they repond to this request? Could they forgive him? He published their replies in his book, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness. (I highly, **highly** recommend this book.)
You can read more about this great man here. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, “an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust by fostering tolerance and understanding through community involvement, educational outreach and social action,” was founded in 1977 and inspired The Museum of Tolerance in 1993. In memory of Simon Wiesenthal, please join me in supporting these institutions.
George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Wiesenthal well understood the wisdom of those words and devoted his life to the pursuit of justice, the promotion of tolerance, teaching us all the lesson of the Holocaust so that mankind would not repeat the horrors of the Nazi era. As a tribute to this great man, remembering the past, let us strive to understand our neighbors and learn to tolerate difference in our fellow man.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

A Warm Reception from Conservatives, a Colder One from the Gay Left

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I had intended to blog yesterday on a National Review fundraiser I attended Saturday night in Studio City, but decided to delay my post until after I had attended a gay party in the heart of West Hollywood later in the afternoon. And in contrasting my reception at these two gatherings, one where I was openly gay among conservative, the second where I was openly conservative among gays, I experienced nearly exactly the same thing I had when I attended two such events back to back last fall.
This time, however, I actually had a good discussion of gays and the GOP with one guy at the gay party. I had quite a blast at the NR shindig Saturday. The hostess (a former liberal and fan of the magazine) told me that she had never seen so many straight people at her place at one time. She regularly socializes with gay men. More evidence that conservatives are not so narrow as our critics (and some readers of this blog) claim.
I met a number of writers and editors whose columns (and Corner “chatter) I enjoy and got to talk to Peter Robinson, newly installed as a trustee of Dartmouth and author of the wonderful book, How Reagan Changed My Life (which I bought when I visited the Reagan library with Bruce). Jonah Goldberg was much taller than I imagined and most gregarious. A Lord of the Rings fan like me, he is, alas, not so keen (as I) on The Silmarillion.
Ramesh Ponnuru proved to be an excellent conversationalist, well-read and familiar with the details of legislation in this Congress (and past Congresses). K-Lo (i.e., Kathryn Jean Lopez), witty and smart, informed me that my Athena reads the Corner. And even though he once considered running for Mayor of New York, Rich Lowry looks like he’s still a student at America’s finest state university.
I introduced myself to each by indicating the blog (with which most were familiar). Kate O’Beirne was the only one who raised an eyebrow when I identified myself as gay. And that may have been because I reminded her of an exchange we had at the Cato Institute in the mid-90s (which she did not remember as well as I–if she remembered it all).
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