Year: 2006

Ski Resort Fires Women Because They Got Married

Jon Ponder

You’re fired: Yes, Dorothy, you can be fired for being gay in George Bush’s America. It happened to a lesbian couple from gay-friendly Asheville, N.C., who got married in Massachusetts – only to be fired forthwith by Wolf Laurel Slopes, a ski resort in nearby Mars Hill. Pam’s House Blend, based in even-gay-friendlier Durham, is on it:

This kind of hatred and bigotry has no place in my state. While I am not surprised at the depth of contempt some have for gay and lesbian citizens, this story is a reminder that you can be fired simply for being gay.

Here’s how the couple described what happened on their website:

We at All Terrain Images, Inc., are sorry to say that we will not be able to provide photography services for skiers and snowboarders at Wolf Laurel this year.

Just before opening day, the owners of Wolf Laurel Slopes, Orville English and Rick Bussey, informed us that we were not welcome back, despite the excellent service we have provided for the past two years. The owners of Wolf Laurel Slopes have both admitted that one of the reasons they will not have us back is because All Terrain Images, Inc., is owned and operated by a lesbian couple whose wedding announcement was placed in the local Asheville newspaper. We believe this is the only reason for termination of our agreement.

Tell Wolf Laurel Slopes how you feel about workplace discrimination: marketing@skiwolflaurel.com.

Anti-Gay Pastor Arrested for Soliciting Male Undercover Officer

Buck Banks

Better to be known as a sinner than a hypocrite: Lonnie Latham, senior pastor at the South Tulsa Baptist Church and member of the executuve board of the Southern Baptist Convention (the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S.), was arrested Tuesday night for “offering to engage in an act of lewdness” with an undercover police officer. According to the Associated Press report, Latham propositioned the officer, asking him to return with Latham to his Oklahoma City hotel room for oral sex.

The arrest was in a section of Oklahoma City where residents had complained of male prostitutes flagging down drivers and propositioning them.

When he left jail after posting $500 bond, Latham reportedly said: “I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police.”

So that’s what they call oral sex in South Tulsa, huh?

According to the AP:

[Latham] has also spoken out against same-sex marriage and in support of a Southern Baptist Convention directive urging its 42,000 churches to befriend gays and lesbians and try to convince them that they can become heterosexual “if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their ‘sinful, destructive lifestyle.”‘

Florida Supreme Court Kills Jeb’s Voucher Scheme

Trish

The sweet smell of defeat: Gov. Jeb Bush’s devious plan to privatize Florida schools took a major hit yesterday. His cornerstone voucher system — the nation’s first to be used statewide — was ruled unconstitutional by Florida’s Supreme Court.

“What we must do to is to stop hair-brained schemes of funding (private) schools and focus on adequately funding the public schools”

The elaborate scheme involved first grading schools according to Jeb’s Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT), and then punishing “failing” schools by cutting their funding and offering their students vouchers for tuition at private schools.

Chief Justice Barbara Pariente, writing for the majority, said the program “diverts public dollars into separate private systems parallel to and in competition with the free public schools,” which are the sole means set out in the state constitution for educating Florida children.

Private schools also are not uniform when compared with each other or the public system and they are exempt from many standards imposed by law on public schools, such as mandatory testing, she added.

The system has been marked by fraud, including recipients taking kickbacks to funnel the vouchers to schools which are actually post office boxes or strip center offices. The vast majority of real private schools receiving money are religious in nature, and had the court ruled other than it did, the ACLU, League of Women Votes, NAACP, and others were prepared to challenge it for violating separation of church and state.

Only two justices dissented from the majority opinion, and — surprise –” they were both appointed by Jeb.

State Sen. Rod Smith, a Democratic candidate for governor, said he was certain from the beginning that the voucher program eventually would be struck down.

“What we must do to is to stop hair-brained schemes of funding (private) schools and focus on adequately funding the public schools,” Smith said. “That’s what our constitution requires of us and our taxpayers expect of us.”

But Jeb is nothing if not a sore loser and this time is no exception . “I’m disappointed,” Bush said. “Let’s leave it at that.”

If only.

Jeb is already plotting a way around the legal decision, with a new plan that would make Tom DeLay proud — laundering the money for private schools through corporations. Jeb wants to provide voucher money to big business through tax breaks which will, in turn, pass it on to private schools.

Recess Appointment Just Another Example of Bush’s Cronyism

Buck Banks

Heckuva job: George Bush’s appointment of 36-year-old Julie Myers to the post of head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is another example of his penchant for appointing unqualified cronies. And, the fact that it was a recess appointment, and thereby skirts the Senate confirmation process, indicates that his advisors recognized that Myers likely wouldn’t have made the cut.

According to GovExec.com, Myers has some good connections — her daddy is former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers and her husband is chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

So what qualifies her to head the second-largest federal law enforcement agency with 15,000 employees and an annual budget of $4 billion? She previously worked in the departments of Treasury, Commerce and Justice, and — here’s the ghost of Harriet Meiers — most recently served as a special assistant to Bush.

To try and combat appointments of incompetent political cronies (remeber Michael Brown aka Brownie?), Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) has introduced legislation that sets standards of experience for high-level appointees to positions requiring Senate confirmation.

That’s all well and good, but when the incompetence starts at the top with the president, it’s going to be nigh on impossible to keep it out of the lower ranks.

Rev. Robertson Comforts Ailing PM’s Family by Saying God Smote Him

Jon Ponder

“God considers [Israel] to be His. You read the Bible and He says ‘this is my land’ and for any Prime Minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says ‘no, this is mine.’

“I had a wonderful meeting with [former Israeli Prime Minister] Yitzhak Rabin in 1974. He was tragically assassinated, it was a terrible thing that happened but nevertheless he was dead.

“And now Ariel Sharon who again was a very likeable person, a delightful person to be with, I prayed with him personally, but here he’s at the point of death.

“He was dividing God’s land and I would say woe unto any Prime Minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations, or the United States of America. God says ‘this land belongs to me. You’d better leave it alone.’”

— Rev. Pat Robertson

High School for Scandal: Abramoff Among Infamous Alums of Beverly Hills High

Jon Ponder

Besides having a place at the center of major scandals over the past few years, what do Jack Abramoff, Monica Lewinksy and Lyle and Erik Menendez have in common?

Yup. They’re graduates of Beverly Hills High School. New York has it’s “fame high school.” In Los Angeles, we have our “scandal high school.”

There is no parity between the Menendez brothers killing their parents and the political maelstroms caused by Abramoff and Lewinsky. What these four alumni have in common is the fact that scandal turned their names into household words.

BHHS itself is clearly not a corrupting influence. The ratio of famous BHHS graduates to infamous ones is easily four to one. The famous grads include Nicolas Cage, David Schwimmer, Alicia Silverstone, Lenny Kravitz, Carrie Fisher, Tori Spelling, Julie Kavner, Betty White, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner, Marlo Thomas, and Richard Chamberlain – just to name a few of the better known alums.

Holy Rollers Plan Holy Land Theme Park

Buck Banks

Lord, please smite ’em: A consortium of U.S. evangelical Christians and the Israeli goverment are negotiating a deal for an evangelical theme park near where, legend has it, Jesus fed the multitudes on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The leader of the Bible-thumpers is Hugo-hatin’ nutcake tee-vangelist Pat Robertson.

The Israelis are planning to lease the land — about 125 acres — for free and the Jesus freaks will spend about $48 million to create what is tentatively called the Galilee World Heritage Park. It would be located northeast of the Mount of the Beatitudes, where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and Capernaum, Jesus’ hometown. Plans call for a garden and nature park, auditorium, Holy Land exhibition, outdoor amphitheaters, information center and a media studio (Heeeeere’s Pat — Live from the Holy Land!).

Despite the million additional visitors the park is projected to bring to Israel, some Israeli Jews are suspicious of the evangelicals’ motives. The Guardian describes it this way:

The primary reason [the American Christian right has been among the strongest supporters of Israel in the U.S.] is that according to the Old Testament, Israel was given to the Jews by God. Fundamentalist Christians believe that in order for Jesus to return, two preconditions are Jewish control of the land of Israel and the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.

And that Rapture Plan doesn’t sit well with some Israeli Jews:

Yossi Sarid, a former government minister and member of the Knesset, said he was wary of the friendship of the American Christian right and projects such as the Galilee centre. He said: “I am not enthusiastic about this cooperation because I have no desire to be cannon fodder for the evangelists.

“As a Jew, they believe I have to vanish before Jesus can make his second appearance. As I have no plans to convert, as an Israeli and a Jew, I find this a provocation. There is something sinister about their embrace.”

But in the end, Israel seems willing to trade the souls of the Jews for the tourism dollars of fundamentalist Christians:

Avraham Hirschson, the Israeli tourism minister, said: “I’m not a theologian, I’m the minister of tourism, and I’m not interested in the politics of our tourists as long as they come here. They come here as tourists, and they’re friends of Israel.”

Pensito Review: Over Half a Million Readers Since Sept. 1

Jon Ponder

According to Webalyzer, the web traffic software provided by our hosting service, Pensito Review has had 504,807 readers (translated to Geek: “unique visitors”) since Sept. 1, 2005.

Another number that blows us away is that Webalyzer has recorded 849,659 “page views” over the same period. We’re told this number represents readers who venture beyond the homepage and spend time reading our archives and other articles.

This month also marks an anniversary of sorts for us. We launched a beta version of the site on Blogger in January 2005, before moving to this permanent address two months later.

Thanks a million to the half-million of you have stopped by – and especially to all of you who have spread the word about Pensito Review.

First Human Avian Flu Deaths in Eurasia Confirmed

Buck Banks

Health authorities in Turkey have reversed an earlier diagnosis in the death of a 14-year-old boy who they now say died of avian flu last weekend. They had said his death was caused by pneumonia. His sister died today and two other siblings are hospitalized with flu symptoms.

Health authorities have confirmed that the strain of flu that killed the boy and his sister was of the H5 variety, but said further testing will be required to determine if it is the H5N1 strain that killed more than 70 people in Southeast Asia in 2005.

The children worked on a poultry farm and allegedly became infected after eating an infected bird. The World Health Organization says that there still are no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

For more details, visit the BBC or CNN.

Bush-Cheney ’04 to Return Donations to Chippewa

Jon Ponder

WWMT:

President Bush’s re-election campaign is returning $6,000 in contributions connected to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The donations include money from a Michigan Indian tribe.

Abramoff entered guilty pleas yesterday as part of a political corruption investigation.

Abramoff, his wife and the Saginaw Chippewas each donated $2,000 to the Bush campaign.

The lobbyist earned the honorary title of “pioneer” after raising at least $100,000 for the campaign…

A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee says the returned money is being donated to the American Heart Association.