Thursday, February 27, 2014

6 Truly Unhinged Right-Wing Reactions to Jan Brewer"s Veto of AZ"s Anti-Gay Bill



"Tyranny is on the march," and "Now, we"ll all have to bake penis cakes."








Right-wingers in media, politics and so-called “think-tanks” wasted no time in becoming apoplectic about Arizona Governor Jan Brewer"s reluctant decision to veto her state"s blatantly discriminatory law which would allow businesses to refuse service to gay customers. 


Here are some of the most ridiculous immediate reactions. Expect plenty more idiocy and hate in the coming days:


1. Tucker Carlson on Fox News. Just before the veto, Carlson opined that Arizona"s anti-gay bill promotes “tolerance.” Then he argued that it"s “fascism” to require individuals and business owners to provide equal service to gay people. “If you try to force me to bake a cake for your gay wedding, that"s fascism,” Carlson said. Might we suggest another visit to your dictionary, Tucker?


2. Todd Starnes, Fox News “Business” host tweeted, just after the veto: “AZ Gov. Jan Brewer makes Christians in her state second-class citizens.” So, to be clear, not being allowed to discriminate legally is the definition of discrimination. Surely, all the Christians will flee Arizona. But where will they go? To the promised, homophobic land?


3. Rick Lowry of the National Review tweeted: “The Brewer veto shows that poorly informed hysteria works.” He means, of course, that Brewer caved to the hysteria from the business community who argued, fairly rationally, that the proposed law would hurt business and tourism in the state. But wait, we thought conservatives were pro-business. Are we to understand that they are only pro-business when it does not clash with their desire to discriminate against gays? It"s a lot to keep straight.


4. Judson Phillips, president of Tea Party Nation had a predictably measured reaction: “Tyranny is on the march!” he ranted. Business owners who are not allowed to discriminate against gays and lesbians are “slaves” to the “great liberal state,” which now has a handservant in “French Republicans” like Jan Brewer. Also, now business owners are going to be forced to bake cakes with “a giant phallic symbol on it,” yes, the dreaded penis cake; or possibly a cake with another “shape of genitalia,” might invade. Still other businesses will be forced to “photograph a homosexual wedding where the participants decide they want to be nude or engage in sexual behavior.” And what"s really weird is that, obviously, all businesses are going to be forced to do these things, whether they are bakers or photographers, or not. Bet you didn"t read that in the fine print.  


5. Rush Limbaugh: Jan Brewer got bullied by corporate America, says Rush. But wait, some kinds of bullying are okay, just not when I disagree. Naturally, the right-wing shock jock unleashed his usual mish-mash of incoherent thoughts on the matter. Examples: “Religious beliefs can’t be used to stop anything the left wants to impose, unless they’re Muslim religious beliefs and then we have to honor those.” 


Exactly. Leftists, Muslims, one and the same, led by Muslim-in-chief, Obama, all of them love the gays. Then there is poor Jan Brewer being bullied so:


“She’s being bullied by the homosexual lobby in Arizona and elsewhere,” Limbaugh said. “She’s being bullied by the nationwide drive-by media,she’s being bullied by certain elements of corporate America in order to advance the gay agenda. I guess in that circumstance bullying is admirable. In fact, this kind of bullying is honorable.”


Spoken like a true bully..


6. Michelle Bachmann: Brewer “eviscerated free speech.”  What was funny was that Michelle Bachmann was doing her level best to sound balanced and reasonable in her interview with CNN"s Wolf Blitzer on the topic.  “Just like we need to observe tolerance for the gay and lesbian community, we need to have tolerance for the community of people who hold sincerely held religious belief,” she said. But, just to be clear, Bachmann did not think Brewer should veto the bigoted bill, and did not think that discriminating against gays means “intolerance.”


“Oh in fact, it’s just the opposite,” Bachmann patiently explained to Wolf. “This is a decided level of intolerance — it’s effectively eviscerating the rights of freedom of speech, expression and religious expression for the people of Arizona, and it sets a terrible precedent.”


We can only imagine the other “terrible precedents” Bachmann sees: The Voting Rights Act? Emancipation Proclamation? Scary indeed.


 

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6 Truly Unhinged Right-Wing Reactions to Jan Brewer"s Veto of AZ"s Anti-Gay Bill

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