Charles McVety the Stooge

Oh, HAPPY HAPPY DAY.

While this is old-ish news to some of my fans, I just discovered today that "Reverend" Charles McVety had his TV show canceled, earlier this month. For those who don't know, McVety is basically Canada's answer to Pat Robertson: an overzealous bigot, claiming to be devoutly Christian, who often tells lies to attack anyone who isn't a straight, white, God-fearing conservative Christian (hence why he was voted the Dishonurable Mention in the 2010 Douchebag of the Year awards).

Anyway, what started all of this is that back in December, he said on Word TV that (among other things) gay pride parades are sex festivals that promote pedophilia. Needless to say, this is not true -- and someone complained to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, seeing as this is against their rules. The Council agreed, and the show was suspended for a couple of days.

Of course, McVety and his supporters have claimed that this was political persecution, despite providing no evidence whatsoever that their claims about homosexuals and transgendered people are correct.

Several weeks later, the television station in question (Crossroads Television) -- a right-wing Christian station, believe it or not -- announced that Word TV would be removed permanently from their schedule, because McVety refused to change his behaviour. Sure enough, McVety is ONCE AGAIN claiming to be persecuted, and is suing his former employers.

Charles, maybe no-one ever explained it to you, but when you play a particular game, you're supposed to follow the rules. You clearly are not. You are going to lose.

(and besides, McVety is in a hell of a place to complain about being censored, given some of his previous crusades)

Of course, McVety STILL isn't getting the message -- just this morning (Feb. 8, 2011), he was on AM 640 (a Toronto talk radio station), crying that the sky is going to fall, because the Harper government is considering recognizing the legal rights of transgendered people. Admittedly, this is rather surprising, given that Harper tends to obey social bigots like McVety all the time, but anyway... What's McVety's main concern? Well, other than claiming that (like gay marriage) this will destroy society and pave the way for legalized pedophilia (um, right...), he's concerned about his daughter showering with what is technically a man, at the gym or pool.

As I've already stated, I would hope that any transgendered woman showering around a child would have the courtesy to show SOME modesty around them. In any case, he would appear to either not know or not care, that there are plenty of female sex offenders in North America (you could pretty much flip a coin, to determine which it is). Besides, how does McVety know that his daughter is any more comfortable with showering around strange women? Or, for that matter, that she's comfortable with Dear Old Daddy dragging her into his crusades (and thereby involuntarily putting the mental image of his showering daughter into the public consciousness).

If there is a God, this guy's time has come and gone, and before very long he personally will be gone forever.

Parting Words (final regular episode)

Maine Homophobes

Remember how Maine voted in the senate to legalize same-sex marriage a few months ago? Well, that didn't stick. There was a referendum on it in several states, and just like in California, the Christian Right saw to it that now, gay marriage is once again illegal. Congratulations, you bigoted fucks, you've once again demonstrated that you're not content to simply try to stop equal rights, you're fine with taking them away once they've either been democratically earned, or given by courts that actually understand what the Constitution is for. Never mind that gay marriage never had any effect on so-called traditional marriage, that churches in America were never forced to perform them, and that gay rights do no harm to families whatsoever -- the idea of sodomites having the same rights as straights is always a bad thing to you. Go fuck yourselves.

By the way, I'd be neglegent if I didn't point out two other problems with their tactics -- leaving aside that they can't possibly claim to not be homophobic when they've personally referred to homosexuals as a cancer. You guys say that legalizing same sex marriage is an assault on freedom of religion, but what about the churches that genuinely have no problem with gay marriage? You just violated THEIR freedom of religion, you hypocrites! Second thing, what would you say to other bigots who would be enabled by your movement, to do any of the following: ban interracial marriage, forbid atheists and pagans from marrying, or even make being gay a crime again? After all, there are those who say that that has to be done, to protect Christian American families, too.

I'm sorry, but I have absolutely no respect for the sort of people who proudly discriminate against total strangers, who've done no harm at all to them, and then have the nerve to say they're protecting family values. The only families that I know of, who teach hate and prejudice, are families in the KKK and Aryan Brotherhood. And conservatives wonder why the rest of the world thinks they're intolerant? Enough said.

Road Rage/Moral Grave Robbers

This was originally posted on July 5, 2008.

Now onto more current events...

As a lot of people know, there was recently a horrible murder on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba, as Tim McLean was stabbed multiple times and then decapitated (among other things that I'd rather not print). The accused culprit was captured at the scene, apparently suffering from severe mental illness.

Even though I generally have a sour view of mankind, I was still stunned and disgusted by the way some fanatics are actually exploiting this tragedy for their personal gain.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) recently took out an ad that compares the murder to the slaughter of chickens for food (which is a really faulty premise to begin with). Not surprisingly, hardly anyone is running the ad. Now, I am fully in favour of animal rights and humane treatment of them under all circumstances (to be honest, the only reason I'm not a vegetarian is because I don't have a great pallete with vegetables). However, that does not mean that I support this tasteless and just plain stupid advertisement. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that this move would only piss a lot of people off, especially so soon after the murder -- so how can someone actually think that this was a good idea? Not only does it (rightly) cast PETA in a horrible light, but it completely distracts from any legitimate point it tries to make.

The second group exploiting this is one that -- sadly -- I've come to expect contempt for human life from: The Westboro Baptist Church. If you don't know who I'm talking about, this is small congregation in Kansas (largely a family, led by Fred Phelps) who is infamous for not only being dead-set against homosexuality and gay rights, but holds protests outside various funerals that pick-your-untimely-death is a sign from God that He hates homosexuals (their website is honestly "godhatesfags.com"). They have protested at the funerals of Iraq veterans, the victims and killer at Virginia Tech, Loretta King, and even attempted to demonstrate at Heath Ledger's funeral. Perhaps most appallingly, when Matthew Sheppard was beaten to death for being gay, this "minister" and his group protested outside the trial of his killers, saying that Sheppard got what he deserved.

Suffice it to say, these people are not popular at all, and the only reason they are free in the States is because the U.S. does not have a hate speech law. Since that is not the case in Canada, they have usually been turned down at the border when they attempted to cross -- making us a popular target of their hate as well.

BUT they are now attempting to get in to protest at Tim McLean's funeral, to shout that his murder is another perverse kind of divine vengeance upon our progessive laws and social policies.

Words almsot fail me; not only is this view absurd and disgusting, but they have no right to come into Canada and spread that horseshit around. These sort of monsters should be stopped at the border, and if they do manage to get through anyway, arrested the minute they open their mouths.