I read this on the Internet. So true, it seems.

Religions always need an enemy to keep themselves relevant.

A friend sent me this. I looked at it trying to keep an open mind, but my mind went to one place. Still, for chicken soup (I assume that's what it is), perhaps the marketing people could do a bit better. Unless of course, they were trying to pull attention to their product. They certainly succeeded in doing that, with me anyway.

Feeling lonely in the Lone Star State this Valentine's Day? You'll be glad to know that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has just overturned a statute outlawing sex toy sales in Texas. ...

The statute was seldom enforced. But the owners of two Austin sex shops, as well as a retail distributor doing business as Adam & Eve, claimed it hindered their business and deprived potential customers. The state argued that it had a moral basis for maintaining the law, "discouraging prurient interests in autonomous sex and the pursuit of sexual gratification unrelated to procreation."

The 5th Circuit, however, found that sexual privacy supersedes that morality. The court cited Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down bans on consensual sex between same-sex couples. The 5th Circuit, siding 2-1, said it is unconstitutional to punish individuals selling sexual devices, since those devices are typically used in the privacy of people's homes. (source)

I love the caption under the photo, "Should buying sex toys be as easy as buying guns?" I don't know... sex toys versus guns. That's a tough one. At least now there's more to do in Texas besides shooting people and going to bar-b-ques.

On talking about changing sexual orientation...

You know, you can deny it, you can pretend, but it’s not really going to change. And it seems to me wrong — how do I say this — to forbid some people from having love in their lives. (source)

For that matter, it just seems wrong to me to forbid marriage to a couple who love each other.

Heaven is totally overrated. It seems boring. Clouds, listening to people play the harp. It should be somewhere you can’t wait to go, like a luxury hotel. Maybe blue skies and soft music were enough to keep people in line in the 17th century, but Heaven has to step it up a bit. They're basically getting by because they only have to be better than Hell – Joel Stein, columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

Well... he does have a point. It will take more than a cloud to keep my attention. Flying would be cool, but that too would get old. And if they don't have Internet, forget it.

What would one do if Heaven had clouds, harp music, and wonderful thoughts... Then, Hell had the likes of Jerry Falwell, Hitler, Satan, and a hot climate... BUT it was wired for the Internet!!! ?

Just a warning... This is ADULT MATERIAL!

“In retrospect, ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ was an astonishing act of political cowardice. Telling gay men and women that they had to hide who they were in order to earn the privilege of getting shot at for our idiot military adventures was almost worse than open bigotry. It essentially institutionalized the Closet.” (source) - Matt Taibbi wrote in Rolling Stone magazine

Furthermore, I have always been concerned about the values coming out of the Castro District. I see the hatred some of these people have towards my Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and I just took their anger as proof that some folks on the Christian right were accurate in their depiction of the "homosexual agenda." I failed to investigate the matter and just adopted the party line -- this was a monumental error on my part.

It was not until I began to look closer at the issue that I came to realize that: (a) not all of the gay community is represented by those marching in the streets of San Francisco and (b) those in the streets had a right to be angry, for they have been told for years that they were immoral, sinful and shameful. How horrible must it be to be condemned due to a trait you had no control over. I thought, hell, I would be angry, too. Even further, when I looked at society, I found that most of our societal institutions worked against the gay community. (source)

The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. - Adolf Hitler

It’s a strange world we live in where such profound truths come from such profound monsters.

I read this so long ago and forgot just what a little jewel it is. Thought I'd share it.

Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

From a soldier on signing up for the military. He is shortly going to be on his way to Iraq for one year.

you know, they made me sign 15 times that i wasnt a homosexual
just some food for thought there
a bit overkill dont you think