Update: Hump-day Happy Hour!

Coda: According to excellent virtual sleuth, Jeremy Hooper at Good As You, the mysterious identity of the woman Sen. Grassley had asked to testify was not Maggie Gallagher.  I shall be inquiring the Sen. myself, as his constituent, as to her identity and why he felt it necessary to contact her, as well as what he had hoped she might testify to.

Well, today just keeps getting better and better.  Today in Washington, DC. a Senate Judiciary Committee is hosting a hearing in order to repeal the viciously anti-Gay Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- those senators and congressmen who passed it in 1996 with "bipartisan support" (as Maggie Gallagher likes to insist) did so by engaging in demoralizing anti-Gay stereotypes.  Through the testimony of various radical anti-Gay bigots on the fringe of society, as well as that of our allies, it is hoped that the current Administration might be able to pass a complimentary law called the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA).  However, I was tickled pink (as my Great Aunt Liz used to say) when I observed a couple clips showing how the Senate Committee ruthlessly raked Focus on the Family (FOF) over the coals for their mendacity!

Focus on the Family, a group based out of Colorado Springs, was one of the few groups principally in charge of getting onto the Colorado ballot and abiding in passage of the viciously anti-Gay law Amendment 2 back in 1992 which enshrined in their state Constitution legal discrimination of the Gay community for any reason.  In fact, just last year the group has organized a campaign opposing anti-bullying policies that specifically address anti-Gay bullying and the special needs of GLBT students as an attack of the so-called "gay agenda" in an effort to get homosexuality taught in our public schools.

In the first clip, the fabulous Sen. Al Frankin (who I wish would represent my district, here in Iowa!) lampoons FOF's Sr. V.P., Tim Minnery for his group's disingenuous misreading of an academic social study; while, in the second clip, Sen. Patrick Leahy get's Tim to admit that DOMA harms children and their families!  (Money quotes transcribed in the respective links, thanks to Think Progressive!)  By the way, considering how Maggie Gallagher-Srivastav has been a staunch supporter of Federally recognized marriage discrimination, one wonders why she was not called to testify?  One wonders how she might have answered the same questions that may have been just as narrowly defined?  Is she even on the roster?  Not according to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, although representatives of the HRC and Freedom to Marry will be giving testimony later on.  My speculation, of course, is that she declined to testify in a forum in which she cannot control the debate and the message, seeing as how Tim Minnery was just compelled to admit that laws which his coevals support do, in fact, disadvantage children!  However, according to one of my home-state Rep. reps. Sen. Chuck Grassley (if, indeed, it was Gallagher) she refused to testify out of fear for reprisals, even insisting that she would never speak out against Marriage Equality in public, again!  (We can only hope!)  She will, of course, "still write about it".

Sadly, the repeal of DOMA has been characterized as somewhat difficult under the present political climate (check out some of the other fascinating, albeit horrible, news briefs by Bradley Voorhees!):

Also, I squealed with joy, today, when I happened upon these hunky merman Solstice tree ornaments; I want to collect them all!  Wouldn't you?  I happen to know several men whose personas easily fit with several of these mermen!