Just when you think the Religious Right can’t get any dumber, they prove you wrong. A friend sent me a link to a website where a Yahoo listowner deleted  her Harry Potter list because Dumblodore was gay, and it was so insane that  I decided to check the blogosphere for  the Christian Right’s reaction to J.K. Rowling’s outing of Dumbledore—and it was both unpleasant and, at times, hilarious. Laura Mallory has an article decrying his gayness on her [hisvoicetoday.org home page ]. And, just as predictably, the Christian Coalition couldn’t keep its mouth shut—anything to gain some free publicity as its popularity has waned.

A number of you have asked me what’s been happening with my net pal Shonda and her ongoing battle with the Alapaha UMC Church. For those you who want the whole sad story in all its gory detail, I diaried about it here.  

If you prefer the short version, it’s below the fold.  

I am posting this in response to ROcket Scientist's diary, which implied that women choose abortion because they don't want to support their children, and which ignores the difficulty of making the decision to abort.  Originally posted on DKos.

One of the many lies told by the Religious Right about women who choose to end a pregnancy, is that they do it with cavalier abandon and little thought about the morality of their actions or the consequences.

As someone who has walked that road, I can tell you this is not true.  The choice may be easy and quick, because it is dictated by harsh reality--but it also difficult.  I know this from my own experience.  Let me tell you about the two times I had to make this painful decision, even though I have never had an abortio

Promoted by Wolfie : This is a shocking violation of everything that Jesus preached. And Christians screech that they are persecuted ?!?! Give me a break !

Crossposted from DKos. (The word "Christian" is in quotation marks for a REASON: because the behavior involled isn't Christian at all)

The Christian Right has gotten complacent under Bush, They now feel safe committing petty crimes like vandalism, certain that no one will dare oppose them.  But one lady in Tifton, Georgia, a small city  half way between Atlanta and the Florida line. is taking them on. She needs our help.

Here's how I got involved.

Crossposted at DKos and My Left WIng

A friend who works for McClatchy  (formerly Knight-Ridder) alerted me to an important report that has gotten lost in the furor over Anna Nicole Smith's death and the furor over Doug Feith.  Vets with mental health issues and our broken V.A. system can't compete with a dead blonde or a political scandal. After all, by definition, vets are just ordinary people who volunteered for the nasty jobs they do, and pay for it with mental anguish and maimed bodies.  The report is an in-depth look at how poorly equipped the system is to deal with the results of a war where 25% of soldier report PTSD symptoms--and many are medicated with drugs that require careful monitoring and then sent back to the fight.  To put it bluntly, the state of our Veterans' Administration hospitals is a national disgrace. Thank you, George Bush and the  12 years of GOP Congress who broke it.

Yesterday was a very bad day for my husband.  As some of you know, he served for 23 years in the Navy, and suffers from occasional PTSD from incidents which occurred while he was active duty. He retired in April 2003, so he wouldn't have to fight this bogus war, and is now a pre-nursing student at a local community college.

It should have been a good day.  He got in early, got a lot of work done in the library and computer lab, and he only had one class, his favorite, American history. The professor has a very dry sense of humor (the class begins with Reconstruction, and his opening line to a group of Southern teenagers, most of whom buy into the Southern Mythos,  was "You lost. Get over it") and challenges the students to think, something they appear to resist with all their might.  Ben was looking forward to this class.

Thanksgiving this year got mixed reviews in our family.  My mother-in-law had her heart broken, but my husband and I enjoyed a very Goth Thanksgiving meal, alone and in peace.

For those of you who don't know me,  we are living with my mother-in-law while my husband attends pre-nursing school.  We're surviving on his Navy pension and VA bennies (which pretty much just pay for books and tuition).  While we aren't paying rent, my husband is the unofficial janitor at my MiL's Pre-K and does a lot of work there (this summer he put in 12-18 hours every weekend stripping and waxing the floors and painting the classrooms which saved her a bundle), as well as around the house.  We buy our own food, and share it with her when she feels like joining us. So we aren't mooching

Since the Christmas season officially begins on Thanksgiving these days (though my local discount stores have had Christmas stuff since the day after Halloween), I fully expect Bill O'Reilly and his fellow conservatives to start cranking up the  ol' familiar War on Christmas whine the moment Santa passes the reviewing stand in the Macy's Parade

Bush treats the military as if they were toy soldiers and he were a ten year-old playing  War.  Unfortunately, the soldiers he plays with aren't made of metal or plastic and they can't be thrown away when they are broken. They are flesh and blood, and they die or come home maimed.

Crossposted at My Left WIng and Daily Kos

I've spent that last two weeks researching and writing about the dangerous problem of Christian Nationalism for Daily Kos, a depressing and frightening terrain to explore. There was  a brief detour to get snarky about Laura Mallory, the Gwinnett County  fundy Mom who is trying (again to get Harry Potter banned from public school bookshelves because she believes it promotes Wicca -but even she represents Christian Nationalism at its lowest common denominator.  I just took a long, hot shower, and have washed Rousas Rushdoony and Pat Robertson and the institutes for Religion and Democracy out of my hair--and am left feeling sad.

Why sad?

Right now, the words "Southern Fundamentalist Christian" is right up there with "Nazi" in  my book. No, I am not turning into a bigot.  I am just furious and hurt.

My mother-in-law, yes, the one who banned us practicing our religion while we live under her roof, has basically told us to get out.  Her two bitchy, self-righteous daughters and their Daughters From Hell essentially used blackmail: they will not set foot under her roof while we reside there.  So she has told us we need to go.

My Dad is 86. He has Parkinson's. Mom died last year and he lives alone in Ocala FL, and drives everywhere.  He's a good driver, and safe--but he's alone, lonely, bored, and needs company and friends.

We offered to be that for him--but we are living on $1200 a month which barely pays rent here in a decent apt.   He has a house valued at 220K, which he could sell and reinvest in a home, large enough for all of us. Which essentially means one with an in-law suite, since Dad is deaf in one ear and plays his TV louder than most  metal bands run their speakers.  Not kidding. We spent a week with him after Mom's death, packing up her things and helping him through it.  I had a low grade headache the entire time.  But he needed us, so we toughed it out