Putting the homa in Oklahoma?

By now, I’m sure many of you are aware of the comments made by Oklahoma state representative Sally Kern, who stated that it was a matter of fact that the “homosexual agenda was destroying the nation”, and that homosexuals were more dangerous than terrorism or Islam. I think we could aruge about whether or not homosexuals are more dangerous than war hawk Republicans who continue to fun this unsustainable level of military investment while our economic systems fail, domino-like, because of the laissez fare regulatory oversight of our financial institutions, but that’s a topic for another post. When does it become acceptable to spew hate like this? It’s one thing to say that you don’t agree with the homosexual agenda, but another thing entirely to demonize two disparate demographics – homosexuals and Muslims – in this manner.

If that weren’t bad enough, The Oklahoman published this nonsense about how the evil liberals are suffering from a sense of “selective outrage”. In the editorial, the writer conflates Keith Olbermann’s comments about how Rupert Murdoch hurt America more than al Qaida with the hate speech spewed by Representative Kern. Obviously, the editorialist missed some of those classes on logic and rhetoric. Olbermann was criticizing Murdoch, inarguably a public figure, for foisting his spurious-right-wing-propaganda-machine-masquerading-as-a-news-network on America. In the larger scheme of things, Fox News probably does more harm than al Qaida just by virtue of its reach, filling the soft-headed with hawkish drivel while ignoring larger social issues such as the middle class in America enjoying a lower standard of living than their parents, a symptom of the accelerating consolidation of the nation’s wealth into the hands of a few individuals and corporate and educational institutions. Olbermann didn’t villainize a whole segment of society, of private individuals who only seek the same levels of protection in their relationships as those enjoyed by heterosexuals. Rupert Murdoch likely has a security contingent that could knock over most third-world, banana republic dictators in at least as efficient a manner as the U.S. military. The blood of anyone who’s harmed as a result of troglodytes taking these hateful words to heart and placing a beatdown on a gay (or suspected gay) person will be on Representative Kern’s hands.

Kudos to Science Blogs for publishing this great letter from a high school student and child of a victim of the Oklahoma City bombing.