The Most Dangerous Person in America

[revtj]

Interesting Facts about Ralph Reed

• Wrote an editorial in college newpaper entitled "Gandhi: Ninny of the 20th Century," trashing Gandhi's philosophy and work. It was later discovered that he plagiarized the article and he was fired from the paper.

• In the spring of 1983, Reed was accused of rigging the election of ally Sam Harbren as his successor as president of the College Republicans at the University of Georgia. Lee Culpepper wrote to the College Republican National Committee calling the election a sham. The CRNC investigated the matter, reprimanded Reed and ordered a new election. However, in the meantime, Culpepper "led an angry exodus" out of the UGA College Republicans and into a newly formed Young Republicans of Clarke County club. Reed's candidate Sam Harben admitted later, "We ran a dirty election." (Nina J. Easton, Gang of Five, page 129-130)

Reed is running for Lt. Governor of Georgia, and thanks to stolen money, has more funds than any other candidate. Many on both sides of the aisle have speculated that he is being primed by the right wing for President of the US.

Reed is a member of the same Presbyterian Church that I have been in dialogue with through the Covenant College alumni website. He attends a PCA mega-church in Marietta that is strongly influenced by 'theonomy,' which among other draconian views, would make homosexuality a capital crime.

Want to know more?

http://stopralphreed.com/srr_background.html

[suzer1013]

Did you watch the debates last night on local PBS? My partner and I did. This man is scary, scary, scary!!! It was hard even to watch. And my fear is that he will win. I don't have much faith in the voting process anymore, let alone the general education and political astuteness of the voting public. Especially here in Georgia.

However, Georgia Equality urges not to cross-over vote to try and stop him. What are your thoughts on that? Should we cross over vote to try and stop Ralph Reed, or should we stick with the Democratic primary so we can vote in a run-off if necessary?

Susan

[Liberal Crozier]

Spouse here -

Reed is exactly one of the many but probably more significant crop of PhD's hired by Robertson, Falwell etc...in the late 70's and early 80's.

I agree that he is decidedly, the person who is considered the most charismatic figure in their base, along with his many jobs with the theocons, and I agree that he will use a gubernatorial chair to launch a national campaign in eight or so years.

If the Congress continues to be in their hands, regardless of party banner, and he becomes president of your country with a Roberts-Scalia court, I would seriously have a plan to expatriate that would allow you to escape with more than the clothing on your back.

[NathanATX]

Let's develop a covert-ops rescue team that can be deployed across the world to extract glbt people from theocon regimes.

...

I think I watched X-Men too many times... Or did I?

[revtj]

...Or we shall surely hang separately" Benjamin Franklin.

Nathan & Lib's wife, seriously, we may be in exile soon! I am trying to make all the Canadian friends I can!!!

Suzer, YES I watched part of the debates. What scared me is, I have always had a theory that a man as good-looking as Reed is, who is so homophobic as well, is HIDING SOMETHING, nnnnkay?. His blue eyes are so charming and his smile is so fetching, he was like the snake in the garden to me. YIKES!

I mean it ya'll this guy is scary. Hitler's Roehm?

[Vortex]

Originally Posted by NathanATX

Let's develop a covert-ops rescue team that can be deployed across the world to extract glbt people from theocon regimes.

...

I think I watched X-Men too many times... Or did I?

Your statement reminds me of the X-men as well, and the thought has crossed my mind that this one day might become necessary.

Let us prepare for any eventuality but hope that it does not come to this.

Originally Posted by revtj

I mean it ya'll this guy is scary. Hitler's Roehm?

Would this also mean that he is expendable by the Reich, oops I mean the Right?

[Zerbie]

Originally Posted by Vortex

Your statement reminds me of the X-men as well, and the thought has crossed my mind that this one day might become necessary.

Let us prepare for any eventuality but hope that it does not come to this.



?

In some parts of the world, it's already needed. Consider what happens in parts of Africa and places like Iran or the UAE. I wish we DID have a superhero rescue system in place to whisk LGBTs out of those places.

[Vortex]

Originally Posted by Zerbie

In some parts of the world, it's already needed. Consider what happens in parts of Africa and places like Iran or the UAE. I wish we DID have a superhero rescue system in place to whisk LGBTs out of those places.

I was referencing only the U.S. but you are so correct Zerbie, no matter how bad it seems we have it here, there are many within our community who have it much worse.

Let us say we did have such a system in place, it is so bad in many countries I wonder if they would even come if we stood on their doorsteps to set them free. I am reminded of a quote by Harriet Tubman in which she said…

“I freed thousands of slaves; I could have freed more if they knew they were slaves.”

[Zerbie]

Yes, that too Vortex.

I was thinking very specifically in wishing we had a superhero network, in terms of whisking away those who have been imprisoned.

[Rick336]

Apparently investigators have found emails linking Ralph Reed to the Abramoff scandal.

I wonder if Ralph Reed considers dishonesty and lack of good character as among the family values he loves to talk about.

Rick

[Vortex]

Originally Posted by Zerbie

Yes, that too Vortex.

I was thinking very specifically in wishing we had a superhero network, in terms of whisking away those who have been imprisoned.

Anything is possible Zerbie, if we want it to be.


We don't have to have super-powers to be heroes.

[Zerbie]

Originally Posted by Vortex

Anything is possible Zerbie, if we want it to be.


We don't have to have super-powers to be heroes.

I'd love to know what and how.

I receive info and alerts from Amnesty International's "outfront" chapter. It feels so futile at times, writing letters to officials in Africa, but a day or so ago AI sent an update that the prisoner's in Cameroon (I was among the AI members who wrote requesting their release) finally WERE released. Most of the time it feels futile. But I have to say I lit up with surprise and joy upon being told those prisoners were freed. I wish that could happen more.

[revtj]

Anyone know the words to the national anthem of Canada? New Zealand? I want to start studying for my citizenship tests early. If it's "God Save our Nation's Queen" I can have fun learning that, I'll just make Queen plural, and there you have it!

As for Mr. Reed and the emails & Abramoff, he isn't the slightest bit worried. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D GA) is already suggesting that Ga's elections could be set up to be rigged by Choice Point, purging thousands of eligible voters from the records and sending too few voting machines to large non-Republican precincts. Choice Point is the company that took care of Florida in '00, just like Ohio in '04, with a Republican Secretary of State both times. There are claims that money has been paid to Choice Point by the State of Georgia. I hope this is false.

Now to the Roehm quip. Here is Reed's idea on expendable people in politics:

"I want to be invisible. I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag."
Ralph Reed, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, November 9, 1991.

Sounds more like he prefers Dahmer-type gay affairs.

[Liberal Crozier]

Today, O Canada with the same music and lyrics in either French or English or a combination is sung.

Soon, I will begin publishing information on how to see if you qualify for permanent resident alien status and eventual citizenship in Canada.

I will also publish information about gay-affirming denominations and seminaries - such as for the Anglican Diocese of Westminster in BC and the United Church of Canada. Imagine serving as an ordained minister in a traditional mainline infrastructured Canadian church - the largest - living in the parsonage with your married spouse and family......today in 2006 or by 2009 if you enter seminary now to receive your M.Div. degree.

And yes, despite its rhetorical aspect, I will give you a website where you can read both versions.

Canadians do not have ambassadors to the UK or other Commonwealth, but High Commissioners. We do not have a pledge of allegiance but say this: "I do solemn swear or affirm allegiance to our sovereign lady Elizabeth, Queen of Canada, and to her heirs and assigns forever, so help me God." Queen Elizabeth of Canada, legally a different person in all her roles in the UK and the Commonwealth, has her own Privy Council, royal flag and Royal Assent duties, is either represented by the Governor-General, or in some newer former colonies, she has a purely honourary role since they have named a republican president to replace her constitutional duties. Only Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Jamaica have what is called " the Old Dominions approach."

PS - Many of our provincial and federal MP's are former US citizens who left the US after significant right wing advances throughout the last few decades,.

[NathanATX]

Originally Posted by Liberal Crozier

Today, O Canada with the same music and lyrics in either French or English or a combination is sung.

Soon, I will begin publishing information on how to see if you qualify for permanent resident alien status and eventual citizenship in Canada.

I will also publish information about gay-affirming denominations and seminaries - such as for the Anglican Diocese of Westminster in BC and the United Church of Canada. Imagine serving as an ordained minister in a traditional mainline infrastructured Canadian church - the largest - living in the parsonage with your married spouse and family......today in 2006 or by 2009 if you enter seminary now to receive your M.Div. degree.

And yes, despite its rhetorical aspect, I will give you a website where you can read both versions.

Canadians do not have ambassadors to the UK or other Commonwealth, but High Commissioners. We do not have a pledge of allegiance but say this: "I do solemn swear or affirm allegiance to our sovereign lady Elizabeth, Queen of Canada, and to her heirs and assigns forever, so help me God." Queen Elizabeth of Canada, legally a different person in all her roles in the UK and the Commonwealth, has her own Privy Council, royal flag and Royal Assent duties, is either represented by the Governor-General, or in some newer former colonies, she has a purely honourary role since they have named a republican president to replace her constitutional duties. Only Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Jamaica have what is called " the Old Dominions approach."

PS - Many of our provincial and federal MP's are former US citizens who left the US after significant right wing advances throughout the last few decades,.

I am VERY interested in the emigration information AND the seminaries.

[Liberal Crozier]

Okay, you are an American. You have often been to Mexico's tourist traps in the Yucatan like Cancun or Cozumel, or maybe Acapulco or Puerto Vallarta or Cabo on the Pacific side. Adventurous, and with impressive discretionary income, you have travelled all of Latin America from Nuevo Laredo, Tijuana to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of Argentina, after a crazy circuit part week in Buenos Aires.

But ignorance about Canada abounds. Statistics show that francophonne QC and gay Montreal appeals to grandchildren of immigrants to the US who understand the language somewhat. Most of their grandparents moved to NY, PA and the six states of New England. Toronto is the major Anglophonne destination for gays. It is similar enough and yet different enough to become a very comfortable destination. It is NYC - early 1960's light.

California gays love Vancouver, BC and of course share the reality of being the beginning or the end of the country - heavily Asia since the Hong Kong turnover - the ying and yang.

Now the theocons....they own the prairies but most especially Nashville North, you guessed it HELL-berta where Falwell, Robertson and Robertson have their Canadian headquarters. It is the Calgary Stampede with our Row---day-o.

OKAY - YOU ARE A SINGLE GAY CHRISTIAN MALE OR LESBIAN FEMALE. You define vacations as opportunities to visit new cities and their charm, and most especially to meet people of interest. You find the quiet piano bar and avoid the disco circuit party as not representative of your value system.

You walk around and recognise that the married gay couples whom you meet did not 1) jump the broom 2) signed a domestic partnership 3) signed a civil union and 4) had a legally non-binding committment ceremony- either secular or religious. They have a legal marriage with both nomenclature and rights have no difference whatsoever. Both documents are the same issue.

You observe children and you know instinctively that their birth certificates read the names of both same-sex couples. You think that you are living a movie, probably what was cut from ALMOST NORMAL on the director's floor.

NOW - you have a spirited conversation with a single and meet for drinks and dinner. He is not a playbook looking for a hookup - rather he is serious about love and marriage and family and is looking for a person, not a trick.
He is quick to remind one that sex and love and commitment is a gift he limits to that reality. You are smitten and realise that your parents, grandparents and siblings share those same values that you had cynically rebelled against since your first hookups.

IT seems that trips to the border become frequent enough that you are made a SELECTEE by the TSA. You soon realise that a state of growing love and affection is occurring between you. He brings you home to meet his parents and siblings. In legal-ese , he is making his intentions known to form a family unit recognised as marriage under law. Divorce laws in Canada are strict, requiring a year of residency in all provinces and territories.

SOON, it is the Thanksgiving holidays.....no October not November......so you will never disappoint the American grandparents. Two Thanksgivings every year....and the question is asked and accepted and you are ready to call the Minister or Marriage Councillor or Justice of the Peace. You choose Saint Andrew's United Church of Christ.

NOW ....we speak and spell differently and yes, are more reminiscent of an earlier American generation culturally. SO- let us remind you Americans that we Canadians propose on our right bended knee. Chivalrous eh! We have a real Royal Queen, so , eh! Yes, one knee only. That is the marriage proposal.

TWO KNEES --I'm afraid, is also a committment. It is short in duration, and despite all the emotional stroking in either length or time, does not necessarily lead to altar and marriage. For the American tourist, it is Canadian culture in short and meaningless squirts of time and effort.

TRUE and not fraudulent marriage (punishable if proven as fraud) allows the American citizen of his legal Canadian couple to receive permanent resident alien status as the legal spouse of a Canadian citizen. Citizenship has certain responsibilities and legal hoops to jump through, but is usually provided for all spouses of Canadians.


You are thirty something.....your biological clock is ticking.....you want a legal marriage with all its protections --------legal parenting for both of you...you want provincial and federal protection of your rights and privileges. You want a family and social and educational services that support your orientation by law. You immigrate to Canada...

You are thirty something ......despite the fact that a mere highway divides, you cannot leave Rolling Rock and Lynching Tree, MS. Sure, life is tough, and despite a cradle to grave existence for six generations of your family, you want to remain. You have no rights under law. Your domestic partner benefits were stopped. You are the parent of record, and your partner has no parental rights under law. You have faith in your activism that when you are sixty or more, there will be some limited rights.

Which one are you?

[NathanATX]

I had to laugh about being uneducated about Canada, because it's absolutely true. In the past, I wondered how they had a functioning society in a place that was so cold, snowy and close to the North Pole.

But, I am learning about Canada quite rapidly. I went to Vancouver a few years ago and l-o-v-e-d it.

Question. How would I emigrate if I already have a partner?

[Liberal Crozier]

Nathan -

Spouse here - with notes written by Crozier, as we three have him on the couch in the larger nursery area - and I am typing on the laptop. Magic fingers on the.......laptop.

OK Seriously.......you have a partner......and I assume that you had a spiritual committment ceremony in TX.....and not a real Canadian marriage in BC?

IF you choose to become a United Church of Canada minister - an openly gay-affirming pastor in Canada's largest Protestant denomination --then you would have to have your marriage blessed in the Church, and your marriage legalised in the eyes of the province in which you are attending seminary. At that point, in obtaining your student visa, you are legally listed in marital status as married, with the right to have your spouse visiting you or remaining with you without work permission . The next challenge would be to obtain work with a Canadian sponsoring you. There are programmes in place to help our American brothers and sisters in the rightwingnut reality of the USA at the present time.

If you finish your MDiv. with the UCC, and accept ordination at their hands, then the presiding authorities will seek your right to permanently emigrate to Canada without prejudice. The petition will be for your spouse and any children born by surrogacy or adopted since your marriage by both of you. They will then assign you to your first curacy and as a resident alien, your spouse will have the right to legally obtain work in the country.

[NathanATX]

It's actually a very new relationship, about 5 months old.

He's from Qeretaro, Mexico, but has been in Dallas, TX for 16 years with his family. He recently moved close to me in Austin, TX. We are both trying to figure out our school options to finish our undergrad degrees and then we both plan to go to seminary and then to seek ordination. We actually met during a "discovery weekend" at a seminary in Dallas.

He's amazing...

.
.
.
Ok, back from daydreaming...

We talked a few weeks ago about the possibility of moving to Canada... and he is open to it.

[Liberal Crozier]

For generations, the United Church of Canada have had husbands and wife, both ordained ministers, serving in larger and smaller communities throughout Canada.

Now, there is also a call for husbands and husbands, and wives and wives, or if you prefer same-sex ministerial spouses to serve together.

As a bishop, I often had seminary aspirants who wanted to become priests. They had not completed their undergraduate degree and wanted guidance.

Older candidates nearly thirty have options to accelerated and accredited on line or one-day-a-week programmes for those candidates who obtained at least 60 credits hours of basic cirriculum. Some even offer CLEP grades and other ways to accept decades' old grades. Life work is accepted in a programme that usually translates to one night a week for eighteen months.
The key is a baccalaureate degree, since major theological seminaries or divinity schools are not professional but graduate schools requiring completion of undergraduate study.

Eighteen months plus five months, Nathan is nearly two years of a Christian courtship with shared vocational aspirations to serve our Lord. ONE knee Nathan ! The other knee is a marital privilege.

When you have completed this, or nearly so, you can apply to the seminary. We know seminary deans and presiding authorities and a few cardinal archbishops with whom we agree with completely, or in the latter case, try to shut off the audible screaming beeps from the gaydar, coupled with their toxic rhetoric and paedophilic coverups.

We would be pleased to help you at that time to obtain interviews and provide you access to many Canadian LGBT organisations with professionals willing and able to migrate America's spiritual and secular pilgrims yet again. The Vietnam-era crop serve in provincial, territorial parliaments and in the Canadian House of Commons and Senate. They have also become Canadian religious leaders, drawing much from an American liberal tradition that dare no longer speak its name.