The story so far: a bill before Congress to include an additional 11 victims of the WTC bombing as entitled to benefits. Bill sails past the Senate unanimously. Gets out of committee in the House, and Dick Armey scuttles it. Says something about its costs needing to be examined.
Later revelations give the appearance that the ultimate concern of Mr. Armey had to do with the sexual orientation of one of the eleven. Who was a gay priest, chaplain of a local fire department. Who died giving the last rites to a dead fireman.
Now, I have no particular emphasis on “gay rights”. They’re human, that covers it, 'nuff sed. And the “plot” of this arouses my skepticism, it seems rather like a TV movie.
Trouble is, I believe it, at least until solid contradictory evidence is brought forward. I believe that he is just as much a nasty little bigot as these actions would imply. I further believe that he’s gutless enough to perform the deed with parliamentary underhandedness.
Shit like this makes the Baby Jesus puke his little guts out.
Do you think its true?
(Secondary note: why must all these assholes be from Texas? Can’t they be born in other places as well? Why, Lord? Cousins marry in Vermont too, you know? Just ain’t fair.)
Note to mods: if you think this is more Pit-like, I shan’t object. Then I wont have to labor under the burden of civility. Feeling damn little civility at the moment.
From what I’ve read, if there were any justice in the world, Father Judge would right now be on the fast track to sainthood. He was supposed to have been an incredible human being. And even if he weren’t…
To make it a great debate: you’ve just drunk a case of Old Milwaukee, but you’ve been unable to find a restroom. Dick Armey falls to the ground two feet in front of you and spontaneously bursts into flame. Do you turn 90 degrees to one side or the other before letting it fly, or do you turn all the way around?
[list=1]
[li]The “fellow” was a genuine hero, given comfort to the dying to the very end;[/li][li]If “the gay lover” was his wife, there wouldn’t be a problem, now would there?[/li][/list=1]
Minty, I think you and some others may have misunderstood this law. It honored Mychal Judge (and properly so IMHO) by being named after him. However, as has been pointed out, it may not have given his “extended family” anything because he was a priest. (Unless the money went to the Church, where it could be used to defend pedophile claims. :))
The Law would have covered 9 other people, who otherwise had no famliy. Some or all of them may have been gay. Others may simply have been unmarried, without siblings or children. “Under current law, only parents, spouses or children of public-safety officers who died in the Sept. 11 attacks are eligible to receive the standard $250,000 in federal death benefits.” See
I agree with CaptMurdock: "If ‘the gay lover’ was his wife, there wouldn’t be a problem, now would there? " This is, I believe, the same standard as is used for Social Security, Worker’s Compensation, Railroad Retirement Act, and the United States Longshoremen and Harbor Workers Act. Death benefits go to “dependents,” who have not been defined by the government to include gay partners. BTW, note that there are records to identify spouses and siblings. Absent those records, anyone at all of any either sex could claim a relation with any deceased.
Furthermore, I have seen no evidence that anyone was in fact financially dependent on any of these 9 victims.
There is a lot to be said for including gay partners as dependents, and many employers are moving in that direction. Still, it’s not unreasonable for 9/11 benefits to follow the standard definition as is currently used by the government.
So, basically, Dick Armey isn’t being particularly homophobic, merely holding to the present level of homophobia enshrined in our laws. Which I guess is fair, in a way, even if not really right. I guess, based on this alone, I see no reason to not piss on him if he was on fire, even if I do recognize that I wouldn’t be saving the world from the loss of one of its most enlightened denizens.
Moderator’s Note: Well, I think the “I wouldn’t piss on him if he were on fire” theme of a number of posts is going to push this one in the direction of the Pit.
If someone feels this should be debated up here, feel free to start a new, more sedate thread.
It passed unanimously in the senate. That means that two senators from every single state in the union, with half of them from each side of the aisle, voted for this bill. I can’t recall a single issue that was passed unanimously in the senate that I would consider unreasonable.
Well, I certainly won’t be voting for this monster’s son come fall. Next time someone sends out anthrax, use the home address, where Mr. Armey and his ilk might actually open their own mail.
I take it you didn’t hear about the runoff. The Dallas Morning News ran a bunch of stories about how Scott Armey (reminds me of Scott Evil, the character, not the poster) screwed everything up in his tenure as Denton County Judge so people voted for some nobody doctor and now he’ll be the next Congressman from the 26th Congressional District. It’s stuff like this that gives me faith in the system. Dick Armey gerrymanders a seat for his son to replace him in, only to be beaten by a guy who, back in December, was only looking forward to early retirement and not Congress.
Getting back to the point at hand, I’d pee at an angle so that Dick could clearly see I was denying him his life but not so close that I might actually get some on him.
Really? Damn, I guess not reading the local paper has its downside.
Oh well… I’m still not voting for little Scotty in the Fall.
Here’s a more challenging question, though: If you had to save either Dick Armey or Tom DeLay from a horrible fire, who would it be?
