Then there were the predictable surprises. A closeted gay man trying to pretend he’s straight eventually breaks down and reveals the truth under threat of blackmail from a lover. How many times has that happened? Worse, NcGreevey tried to spin it as an advance for gay rights. Nope. What the gay rights movement is trying to achieve is an end to these kinds of decptions and lies and phony marriages. Then a prominent moralist, a man who has aggressively denied any distinction between private morals and public lives, a theocon much beloved by the National Review crowd, turns out to have had a checkered past. Again: big surprise. And then that left-wing maniac, Dick Cheney, refuses to give up his federalist principles, his love of family and freedom, or his basic humanity, by signing on to the president’s anti-gay constitutional amendment. Good for the veep, and the entire Cheney family. Too bad his own president has put them in such an awful position. And the GOP platform dispenses with any nuance and comes out not just against marriage rights for gays, but any kind of legal protections for their relationships whatever. That, of course, is what the FMA is designed to do, whatever lies its sponsors tell. No wonder Zell Miller is now the keynoter for the Republicans. Here’s a man who once proudly condemned LBJ for backing civil rights for African-Americans, while Bush’s Republican grandfather stood up for decency. History has come full circle, hasn’t it? The Dixiecrats meet again in New York. Now they’re called Republicans.
DERBYSHIRE AWARD NOMINEE: “I am openminded about the possibility that some longstanding population groups just might not be capable of rational self-government,” – John Derbyshire, refuting – yes, refuting! – the notion that he is a racist. A simple question: what does he mean by “longstanding population groups”? Except, of course, we know the answer.
The Dish 