I Didn't Say It

MJ Rodriguez, reacting to her Golden Globe win as Best Actress  for her role as Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista  in Pose and being the first Black transgender woman in history to win that award:

“OMG OMGGG!!!! Wow! You talking about sickening birthday present! Thank you! This is the door that is going to Open the door for many younger talented individuals. They will see that it is more than possible. They will see that a young Black Latina girl from Newark New Jersey who had a dream, to change the minds others would WITH LOVE. LOVE WINS. To my young LGBTQAI babies WE ARE HERE the door is now open now reach the stars!!!!!”

Brava, MJ, brava, and well-deserved.

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Franklin Graham, faux-christian, urging people to pray for Jesus to stop the Voting Rights and Social Spending Bills

“The U.S. Senate returns to session today and Democrats have said two of their highest priorities are pushing President Biden’s climate/social spending bill and working on “voting rights” legislation. These are both extremely important issues that can greatly affect our nation. Let’s start the new year off praying for these elected leaders. Join me in praying for members of our Congress, in both political parties, that God will give them wisdom and direct the decisions they make that impact all of our lives, families, and futures.”

Pray to Jesus so people of color have a tough time voting, and low-income families are pushed even further down.

Yeah, Frank, Jesus would love that. I mean, if he existed and was a Republican.

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Brian Kilmeade, Fox, says Thing 45 needed to “learn to lose” regarding the results of the 2020 election:

“I think that in life, you have to learn to lose. And if you did, in fact, get screwed out of this election, put together an A-team list of lawyers—not the ones we witnessed—and show us the districts and show us how. Is it anti-[Thing 45] by the media to report the fact that there is no significant evidence of widespread fraud? It isn’t.”

Cue Thing 45 meltdown on Kilmeade Any second now.

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Ron Johnson, GOP Senator from Wisconsin,  on why he decided to run for Senate again despite promising to impose term limits on himself:

“There are many factors [about why I changed my mind]. It wasn’t an easy decision. But I think probably the easiest way to put it is that I love America dearly. I love the American people. I love the folks in Wisconsin and I think this country is in trouble. I think Democrats in power in Washington have put us on a very dangerous path and I think I’m in a position to help improve things. It really just boils down — it’s that simple. We need to restore confidence in so many institutions within — throughout America, whether it’s in governmental agencies, whether it’s in media, in big tech. People have lost confidence. And the only way I can see restoring confidence is we need to ask a lot of questions, we need to get some answers, we need accountability. We need the truth and unfortunately the truth is being censored today at an alarming, very disconcerting rate. And so, I’m just one of those truth-tellers. I ask tough questions, I try and get answers. But when I tell the truth, the truths that the media elite, the governing elite don’t want to hear, I get censored, I get attacked, I get vilified but it doesn’t deter me. And I think we need people who are willing to seek the truth.”

In short, Ron Johnson knows he could never get as cushy a job as one where he does very little actual work and thinks he can fool the people of Wisconsin into keeping him in the Senate.

Do your job, Wisconsin, and send crazy home.

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Lucas Bravo, Emily in Paris, actor, complaining how hard it is to be so beautiful:

“I’m, like, this objectified overnight thing. It made me very self-aware. Because when you think about that word and the people it encapsulates, you see always a healthy, good-looking, ripped person [but] you can’t be aesthetically beautiful, and be smart or have depth. I kept getting roles like the dumb gym teacher. It’s hard to break that image. ‘I don’t want to be perfect. I’ve been working against that. In France, they don’t want good-looking. They want broken faces. I’m not complaining, of course, but it’s a reality. I think being famous is the worst thing that can happen to you. It’s just smoke. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Um, Lucas? You aren’t that hot so when you keep talking about how hot you are it looks even worse. And for the record, you are complaining.

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Adam Kinzinger , Illinois GOP Congressperson, refusing to be a lapdog to Thing 45 or the GOP:

"When I was six years old I became a Republican because I like the idea of strong national defense, you know, limited government," Kinzinger said. "I still believe in that. But what has changed is the use of conspiracy, the absolute lack of courage to call it out, the fear that permeates leaders of the Republican Party against a man that is basically insane, you know, sending out press releases from Mar-A-Lago. It's unrecognizable and it's sad because the Republican Party will exist and it's a major political party in the United States. We need conservative voices out there as well. But it is lost in a lot of people's minds any credibility and it's going to take a while to get it back. We have a truth crisis in this party and that is the first thing we have to get back to is truth. You can have different opinions but you can't have a different truth."

The Republican Party as we used to know it may be salvageable. Perhaps, one day the Thing 45ers and any sane Republicans will form a real Conservative Party and align with Democracy and work for the good of the country and not the good of a con artist for whom they’ve all bent over.

But that may be a long time …

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Tilda Swinton, gender fluid actor, on identity:

“For myself, I feel most relaxed when I think that identity is something entirely flexible, that we can choose at any moment, and that it’s nobody’s business, what we choose on any given day, but ours. It seems a bit of a waste to just put oneself in a box and cut off all one’s limbs. For me, it’s never been more interesting than to stay as flexible as possible and to just play.”

Swinton, who has 23-year-old twins Honor and Xavier with former partner John Byrne, is currently in a relationship with Sandro Kopp.

I think identity can be fluid, for those who feel that need, and isn’t so fluid for those who don’t.

Me? Gay man, through and through.

But that’s just me.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, on Meet the Press, about the Pope's statements this week that seemed to suggest the Catholic Church might support civil unions:

“He didn't come right out and say he was for them. Once again in an extraordinarily open, sincere, nuanced way, he said 'I know that some people in some states have chosen this. We need to think about that and look in look into it and see the reasons that have driven them.' It wasn't as if he came right out and approved them. But in a sensitivity that has won the heart of the world, he said, 'Rather than quickly condemn them, let's see. Let's just ask the questions as to why that has appealed to certain people."

I actually agree with Dolan, and I threw up a little in my mouth realizing that, but Pope Franky isn’t LGBT-friendly, y’all.

He’s simply realizing the Catholic Church is waaaay out of touch and he’s dipping his Prada-covered toe into the waters to test them.

Rachel Maddow, on her documentary Why We Did It, which delves into the reasons for the war in Iraq:

"I think that there is a desire to hear the truth told. Honestly, there are two million Iraq war veterans in this country and there are four thousand families who lost somebody. And when you think about that, when you look at Wounded Warriors and the people that are carrying this for the rest of their lives...I think even the people who were part of it in some ways want to see those people hear the truth, and it has never been explained."

And I wonder if it ever will.

Oliver North, gasbag criminal, speaking at CPAC:

"Some say that we must ignore social issues, like the definition of marriage and the sanctity of life, religious freedoms. I say those are not social issues. They are deeply moral and spiritual issues and they should be a part of America's elections. In the 1850's, a political party was born on the idea of a great moral issue - human bondage, the abolition of slavery in America. If we as conservatives cease to be a place where people of faith and those who believe in strong moral values can come, we will cease to be a political force in America.”

There’s so much to think and say about the disgrace known as Oliver North, but all I can see is that he says “deeply moral and spiritual issues … should be part of America’s elections.”

No, religion should not play a part in elections.

Separation of Church and State. We are a country of man-made laws not God’s laws. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights; we’d just have a Bible.

Paul Ryan, asshat, liar, failed Vice Presidential candidate, and droopy, dog-eyed dick, telling more stories that aren’t true:

"The left is making a big mistake here. What they’re offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul. The American people want more than that. This reminds me of a story I heard from Eloise Anderson. She serves in the cabinet of my buddy, Governor Scott Walker. She once met a young boy from a very poor family, and every day at school, he would get a free lunch from a government program. He told Eloise he didn’t want a free lunch. He wanted his own lunch, one in a brown-paper bag just like the other kids. He wanted one, he said, because he knew a kid with a brown-paper bag had someone who cared for him. This is what the left does not understand."

He says he got the story from Eloise Anderson, the secretary for children and families for the state of Wisconsin.

And then he says, of course, after he told his fable at CPAC, that he'd just learned that Secretary Anderson misspoke, and that "the story she told was improperly sourced."

First off, one cannot misspeak an entire story. You can misspeak about certain facts as part of a story, but when the whole story is blatantly, provably wrong, then what you’ve just done is lied, Paul.

You’re a liar, Paul Ryan, plain and simple.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, again, on Meet the Press, when asked if civil unions make him personally uncomfortable:

"The civil unions? It would. It would in a way, David, because I don't think, um, marriage between one man and one woman forever, leading to life and love. That's not something that is just a sacramental religious concern. You bet it is that. And that's how God is elevated into making a sacrament. But it's also the building block of society and culture. So it belongs to culture. And if we water down that sacred meaning of marriage in any way I worry that not only the church would suffer, I worry that culture and society would."

It’s funny that Dolan doesn’t see how marriage has changed even over the last century.

Just a few short decades ago, it would have been unthinkable for a Catholic to marry a non-Catholic; a Jew to marry and non-Jew; and even closer to home, it was just in the 1960s that interracial marriages became legal.

Marriage has changed Dolan, and society has not crumbled.

Put away the hate.

Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition leader, speaking at on the GOP’s ill-fated and long-running federal marriage amendment:

"Even if you passed a federal marriage amendment, I would assume it would grandfather in anyone who's been married, so I don't know. It was always a very difficult option. I don't think we ever got 50 votes in the U.S. Senate for that amendment. So, we always knew that the amendment was going to be very difficult to pass."

Too bad that many in the GOP still don’t get that and still come out against same-sex marriage.

They need to goose-step faster if they wanna keep up with the changing times.

Tilda Swinton, on The Gays and the closet:

"Well, I think there’s something that gay people have. It is true that to pass through the transitions that gay people have to in order to come out to themselves, to their families when they’re quite young, it’s a grow-bag, isn’t it? And I think that very often, heterosexual people miss out on that. There’s a feeling of development and sometimes, heterosexual people have never had to go through that self-examination and just knowing themselves, and that sense of coming out, coming to your own defense, and being your own best advocate, and going, “No! I’m going to stand by myself and say this is who I am and you can all fuck off.” That is a wonderful transition to go through, and I suppose a lot of straight people miss out on that, and then maybe their relationship choices are potentially less examined. They could be lazier or less thoroughly thought-through."

I love that because I believe we all have “closets” we need to come out of and there not just gay closets, but they’re closets of fear and shame and self-loathing about something.

And whenever someone comes out of that closet, it’s a great thing.

Kevin Swanson, Colorado “pastor”, AKA Pastor Jazz Hands, believing that Disney’s newest animated film Frozen is an attempt to convert children to being gay:

“Man, how many children are taken into these things and how many Christians are taking their kids off to see the movie Frozen, produced by an organization that is probably one of the most pro-homosexual organizations in the country? You wonder sometimes, I’m not a tinfoil hat conspiratorialist, but you wonder sometimes if maybe there’s something very evil happening here. If I was the Devil, what would I do to really foul up an entire social system and do something really, really, really evil to 5- and 6- and 7-year-olds in Christian families around America?”

Gosh, the most sane thing he said in that whole paragraph is ‘, I’m not a tinfoil hat conspiratorialist’.

And if that’s the most sane thing he said, well …..