NOW THAT'S MESSED UP

In 2005, former Secretary of Education and conservative stalwart William J. Bennett said the following on his radio call-in show "Bill Bennett's Morning in America": But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.  After admitting that this would be highly impractical and morally wrong, he reiterates that nevertheless it would indeed reduce crime.  He later denied that his comment was racist (despite the fact that it's true of any group that commits crime at all that less of that group would reduce crime, and he nevertheless chooses to identify the group that our cultural racist stereotypes associate with crime).
        source: Media Matters

In 1979, a man living in Ireland sued another man for property damage because the other man had committed adultery with his wife.  He won.
        source: Carol Pateman, The Sexual Contract

In the 1984 Bowers v. Hardwick decision, the United States Supreme Court upheld the 10-year conviction of Michael Hardwick for violating Georgia's anti-sodomy law by performing oral sex on another man.  If Hardwick had murdered the other man instead, he could have received as little as 5 years in prison.

Until 2002, when the Supreme Court decision Lawrence et al v. Texas invalidated anti-sodomy laws as unconstitutional, in Utah, it was a felony offense to engage in "that infamous crime against nature".
        source: Richard Posner; A Guide to America's Sex Laws

In 2006 in Italy, a man accused of sexually assaulting his stepdaughter requested that her status as sexually active be considered a mitigating factor in the charges against him.  The court agreed, claiming that "it would be fair to argue" that the trauma of sexual assault is lower for women that are no longer virgins.
        source: CNN news report

In 2005, the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee passed legislation making gamecock fighting a felony offense.  Rep. John Altman said of the legislation: "I was all for that. Cockfighting reminds me of the Roman circus, coliseum."  They tabled a resolution that would make domestic violence a felony.  The same Rep. Altman had this to say: "I think this bill is probably drafted out of an abundance of ignorance."
        source: WisTV

A New York Times survey from July of 2006 found that not only do women, even working women, do more housework than men (no surprise there), but that even unemployed men do less housework than women who work full-time.
        source: Jessica Valenti; Full Frontal Feminism

Pharmacist Dan Gransinger in Scottsdale, AZ, contends that if a pharmacist is uncomfortable with dispensing emergency contraception, they should simply circumvent state laws requiring them to dispense EC by lying to the patient by claiming to be out of the medication and unable to obtain it for a week.
        source: The Arizona Republic, April 15, 2005.

In New York state, girls under 18 can obtain an abortion without parental consent, but need parental consent to obtain the emergency contraceptive that would prevent that abortion.

In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control recommended that all women of reproductive age treat themselves as "pre-pregnant".  Maybe doesn't sound too bad until you take into account that many states have 'maternal fetal abuse' laws that criminalize behavior that is potentially harmful to the fetus, including failure to receive prenatal care. 
        source: The Washington Post, May 16, 2006

Here's how badly people want to keep their heterosexual privilege.  After the state Supreme Court of Hawaii ruled in its 1993 Baehr v. Lewin decision that its laws against same-sex marriage violated due process and equal protection statutes in both the state and federal constitutions, Colorado decided to "protect" itself from having to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states by passing a constitutional amendment in 1996 that specifically excluded homosexuals from state due process and equal protection statutes.  (It was struck down as unconstitutional due to the fact that the amendment itself was a gross violation of due process and equal protection.)  That same year, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (which was signed by President Clinton), which by giving a federal standard for marriage allows any state an out if it does not wish to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.  As questions of the constitutionality of D.O.M.A. mounted, the U.S. House of Representatives in 2003 proposed (and in 2007 passed) the Marriage Protection Act, which specifically restricts the ability of the U.S. Supreme Court to evaluate the constitutionality of D.O.M.A.

There are a number of pro-abstinence t-shirts available, ironically including such things like "Abstinence is Sexy" and "Virgins are Hot".  My favorite is the girl's t-shirt that reads NOTICE: No Trespassing on This Property, My Father is Watching.  Apparently, in some peoples' worlds, daughters are still the property of their fathers.  Given the rates of childhood sexual abuse against underage girls by their fathers or male guardians, this shirt isn't just creepy, it's downright disturbing.

In June 1998 at a Republican Senate fundraiser, Senator and future Presidential candidate John McCain (who would have been 62 at the time) told the following joke: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."  So here's one of the GOP's most respected politicians (and one recommended to us for the Presidency because of his maturity, experience and good decision-making) making fun of the physical appearance of a teenage girl to get laughs from his colleagues and supporters.
        for many citations, just google 'McCain Chelsea Clinton'

Among the many falsehoods being spread by the abstinence movement, by far the most asinine is the claim that condom use causes cancer.  This came to public attention after parents as Bozeman High School in Bozeman, MT expressed public outrage over the content of their children's abstinence-only sex education curriculum.
        source: Daily Chronicle (Bozeman, MT), May 11, 2005

Dr. W. David Hager, appointed to the F.D.A. Advisory Board by President George W. Bush, advised prayer and Bible study as a cure for P.M.S.
        source: W. David Hager & Linda Carruth-Hager, Stress and the Woman's Body

A 1993 poll found that 25% of overweight men and 16% of overweight women had been struck or physically threatened because of their weight.
        source: New York Times, October 30, 1993

St. Paul once contended (1 Cor. 11: 14-15) that nature itself teaches us that long hair degrades a man's humanity.  Someone ought to inform Jesus, who is consistently portrayed as having long hair.

Medicare, Medicaid and many private insurance companies have policies that require you to pay back any payment they made to cover treatment due to medical injuries if you win a malpractice suit for those injuries.
        source: Tom Baker; The Medical Malpractice Myth

James Dobson, founder and head of Focus on Family, once analogized supporters of same-sex marriage to Hitler, in that both are apparently willing to do what they want "regardless of the democratic processes that stand in the way".
        source: James Dobson; Marriage Under Fire

Speaking on the subject of James Dobson and homosexuality.  Dobson claims that homosexuality is the product of not properly disciplining boys when they engage in "prehomosexual" behaviors, and/or failing to engage in activities that "mirror and affirm his son's maleness".  Among these activities is showering together, so that the son can see that "Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger".
        source: James Dobson; Bringing Up Boys

Wow--James Dobson sure gives us a lot.  Dobson is well known as a firm promoter of 'loving discipline', which he defines as the "deliberate, premeditated application of minor pain to a small child".  As for when we should start to discipline our children in this way, Dobson is clear.  He tells us that "[i]f discipline begins on the second day of life, you're one day late".  What makes this even more absurd is that Dobson supports the idea that life begins at conception.  So just how does one discipline a zygote in it's mother's fallopian tube?
        source: James Dobson; Dare to Discipline

On Tuesday, January 12th, 2010, the nation of Haiti was hit by an earthquake that may have cost up to 50,000 lives.  Why did this happen?  According to televangelist and former Presidential candidate Pat Robertson on the Wednesday, January 13th episode of The 700 Club; this was the inevitable result of the Haitian revolutionaries who overthrew French colonialism having made a pact to be aided by Satan.

Richard Teller Crane, the millionaire industrialist who founded and owned R.  T. Crane & Bro. Manufacturing, once claimed that the only people who deserve to be happy are "those who are useful"; i.e., those who work to make money for people like him.  Among the many features you might have that would debar you from being useful, one of the most interesting is a "taste for literature".  No one who enjoys the activity of reading, according to Crane, has "the right to be happy".
        source: Richard T. Crane; The Utility of All Kinds of Higher Schooling