The Goat Pen

This is the greatest troll job in the history of American politics.

I bet the conversation went something like this:

Donald: "Governor, this is Donald Trump. I'm up against it and need to name a Secretary of Energy pronto. You want it?

Rick: "Sure thing, Mr. President-elect. But there's that video out there that'll run from now 'til eternity...where I blanked out on 'Energy Department.'

Donald: "Pally, take it from me - embarrassing videos are the new gold standard. Nowadays if you wanna get to the top you gotta pull your pants down. So are you in or out?

Rick: "I'm IN, Mr. ah....Mr. ummm.."

Trump's cabinet picks have been unusual, to say the least. I LOVED Mattis as SECDEF. But I suspect he is going to be very frustrated at how resistant the military-industrial complex is, no matter how loudly he threatens to rip off their heads and shit down their necks. I liked Sessions as AG; now maybe the Justice Department will find better things to do than raining down fire and brimstone on florists who don't want to cater gay weddings, or forcing men who think they are women into every female bathroom in America. Guns are now safe too.

The new guy at the EPA seems to hate the EPA, and that is a good thing. No more destroying tens of thousands of jobs to please the goddess of global warming.

The rest of the picks seem to be going to friendly but unqualified billionaires.

I was deeply disturbed when I heard that Trump was considering Romney for State. I never could stand Romney. He personified everything I don't like about the GOP Establishment. But I'm reading that Trump set up Romney, giving him the "Carrie" treatment. You know, that movie where the cool kids elected the class nerd for homecoming queen, and then dumped pigs' blood on her at the crowning ceremony. Trump knows how to serve his dish of revenge ice cold.

" I liked Sessions as AG; now maybe the Justice Department will find better things to do than raining down fire and brimstone on florists who don't want to cater gay weddings, or forcing men who think they are women into every female bathroom in America."

Yeah, the federal government will now be back in the business of locking up marijuana smokers, at enormous cost. Something all true conservatives like yourself can get behind, right?

As long as Prof still has his guns to shoot gays, he's good.

You forget, hedge, that I'm a Libertarian. I think the War on Drugs was a failure, and I'm okay with states legalizing the loud.

No, I have no interest in shooting gays. As a Libertarian, I believe in maximum personal freedom. So if gay couples want to get married, they can use their freedom of choice to find a florist who will be happy to take the job, and we'll all live to tell the tale.

If I want a beer, why in the world would I walk into a Muslim store and demand that the owner accommodate my constitutional right to drink alcohol, and threaten to destroy his livelihood if he does not comply? That would be height of arrogance. I respect that Muslim owner's beliefs even if I don't share them. I'll just go down the street, get what I want from a willing vendor, leave the poor Muslim grocer alone, and life goes on with harm to no one. I say, give Christian small businesses the same respect.

A)Grocers don't have to carry beer and B) if they did carry beer, they couldn't discriminate who they sell to based on sex, race, age*, religion, or sexual preference. C) You're an idiot.


*minors can't buy beer or tobacco

If a Christian florist says we don't do weddings, then I'd agree that nobody has the right to demand the florist work for his wedding. But, that's not what is happening here. What is happening is a clear case of discrimination and is against the law. Your idiotic religious beliefs don't protect you from this and hopefully never will. Though, I suppose if there is any way for your backwards, hateful ways to become law, this administration is your best shot.

Gays' preference for penises is no more exalted, heroic, or glorious than my preference for beer. If I want beer, and the Muslim grocer doesn't want to sell it to me, based on thousands of years of religious belief, then I simply go someplace else. It's really not that hard. I get my beer, the Muslim grocer gets to practice his beliefs, and we all exercised our freedom.

If he doesn't want to sell me beer, there's no compelling need for me to get my panties in a wad and scream about the grocer's "hate crime" and "alcoholaphobia" and "discrimination" and rain down lawsuits on the poor guy. That's just arrogant, thuggish and childish.

Question for you: Obama did not believe in this article of liberal faith until four years ago. The first time he ran for president, he had similar beliefs as mine. Before his conversion, was he a hater, and bigoted homophobe, deserving of vocational destruction?

PS, those laws you mentioned - that attempt to force Christian businesses to cater gay weddings and force trannies into ladies' bathrooms - have barely have had time for their ink to dry. Before the second term of Obama, they did not exist. They can disappear through the democratic process as quickly as the they appeared. That's democracy. I'm sure they will come back soon and permanently. That's democracy too, and I'll have to live with it when it does. But for now, not everybody in America sees the need to lionize, exalt and glorify men just because they like buggery.

"What is happening is a clear case of discrimination and is against the law."

Only in 22 of 50 states. The only federal law that prohibits discrimination, based on sexual orientation, is in allowing marriage.

"They can disappear through the democratic process as quickly as the they appeared."

So can the second amendment (or any of the other ones, for that matter)...

I ask again: back in his first term as president, when Obama agreed that gay marriage shouldn't even be legal, much less required to be obeyed by all, was he a hate-filled, religious nut job, homophobic bigot whose career deserved to be destroyed?

Or was he a typical lying POS politician saying anything to get elected?

When Obama said this a few short years ago....

[youtube]N6K9dS9wl7U[/youtube]

Was he a social justice heretic who should be burned at the stake? If not, then why are those of us today, who say the EXACT same thing he did, compared to Nazi's, the KKK, etc?

Yes, he was wrong. He either had the wrong position on this or he was pandering to the hateful assholes like you to get votes. Either way he was wrong and should have corrected himself much sooner.

Cletus wrote:If a Christian florist says we don't do weddings, then I'd agree that nobody has the right to demand the florist work for his wedding. But, that's not what is happening here. What is happening is a clear case of discrimination and is against the law. Your idiotic religious beliefs don't protect you from this and hopefully never will. Though, I suppose if there is any way for your backwards, hateful ways to become law, this administration is your best shot.

Hold the fucking phone. If the Christian florist doesn't want to provide flowers for a gay wedding, you and I have ZERO authority to make them do it. What we have the power to do is express our views of the place and try to turn business away from them. This is the shit that drives me nuts. A business owner has the right to sell his services to whomever they want. If they don't want to sell to black people, that isn't discrimination. It is a bad business plan once the word gets out.

What is next? Making a Jewish deli sell non-kosher meat because the deli is on your way home and by god, they should cater to folks like you? Have an Indian restaurant cook your kid a hamburger cause that is where you adults wanted to eat that night??

So yeah if you hear about shit like that, don't spend your money there and tell your friends. That is how you resolve it. Not by trying to regulate it.

I used to have an assistant who worked for me. Great lady. A black woman who would now be in her 80''s. She died a few years back, though.

She used to tell me of what it was like in for her growing up. Vacations were bad. Many hotels wouldn't take black folks. So, when traveling, they would try to find a black family that would take them in. It was hard, though, and they sometimes had to sleep in their cars. Restaurants were tough, too. If they couldn't find a restaurant that took blacks, they'd try to find a market so they could buy bread and meat and eat in the car.

When she was 12 she wanted a nice dress for her birthday. The department store wouldn't let them in to buy one. Had to order it by phone and pick it up in the service area in the back of the store. Wrong size, wrong color, wrong dress. No returns though, because a nigger had tried it on. If there was a theater that allowed blacks, you were relegated to the balcony. Separate restrooms, water fountains, schools, and neighborhoods. Separate but no where close to equal.

So, when you say "it's not racist, it's a bad business plan" you're wrong. It is racist and just heartbreakingly sad.

This isn't making someone sell a product he doesn't sell (like the silly kosher and Indian example). This is telling someone who sells wedding cakes that he can't sell his product to one and not the other because of his own retarded prejudices. And that's fine. Society decides the social construct we adhere to. And this is no different, and thank god we're becoming better. If that fuckhead baker doesn't want to play by the rules, he can close up shop.

The difference between your example of the Jim Crowe South for blacks and LGBT's today is in the former, black consumers had no choices. They could knock on the doors of every single hotel/store in Alabama and still
not get what they wanted. The law wrongly told them "You can't engage in commerce."

But today, the law does not say to gays, "you can't engage in commerce." Unless they limit their search area to Six Toe, LGBT's can go to 100 florists for gay weddings and 90 of them will gladly accept their business. The remaining ten can be easily ignored. They have vast choices where they can get what they want, unlike black Alabamians in a the '50's. Big difference.

But that's the point. The reason it's different now is because we, as a society, said "No. No more." We do not allow the bigots and the racists to deny service in a public restaurant. We do not allow it. We say, "if you want to be a part of this society and operate a public business that serves the masses, then these are your minimum standards."