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A Sense of Perspective

What a week! and it's not even over yet.  First came all that backlash to the Indiana new "Religious freedom" law.  Not happy that they are being second guessed, religious conservatives have described the strong response to their new law as "homofascism."  It seems that pizza parlors refusing to serve pizza to gays is not religious fascism, but heh you've got to stand your ground even if the Indiana legislature is working hard to amend this new law so that the owners of Memories Pizza can't hide their bigotry behind this insane law.


Meanwhile, President Obama dropped the bomb on the Republicans by acknowledging a deal struck by his state department and representatives of five other countries with Iran that would freeze its nuclear development and open their nuclear plants to international inspection teams.  The deal was met with jubilation in Iran, as it would gradually lift international sanctions, but not in the halls of Congress, where Presidential wannabes Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham all called it a "bad deal."  Not that it is binding, as all the negotiations did was set the framework for a comprehensive nuclear agreement.  But, the very thought of dealing with Iran is enough to send most Republicans into hysterics.

Newly minted US Senator Tom Cotton had the quote of the day, telling Americans "to have a sense of perspective," as "In Iran, they hang you for the crime of being gay."  Here, we only ostracize you.  He was defending Arkansas's own "religious freedom" law, also passed this week, which is little different than the one in Indiana.

No doubt, Iran's human rights offenses need to be examined, but then we seem to have no problem dealing with Saudi Arabia, which is one of several countries that have laws that punish male sodomy by death, and has even gone so far to have "gay medical tests" to bar entry of gays into the country.   Where's the outcry here?

It's not like conservative politicians ever concerned themselves with Muslim attitudes toward homosexuality, especially when they harbor very similar sentiments of their own.  A California lawyer, Matt McLaughlin, wants to have an initiative known as the "Sodomite Suppression Act" put on the 2016 state ballot that would actually sanction the killing of homosexuals.  I kid you not.

You have to ask yourselves where all these fears come from?  Tom Cotton is not even old enough to remember the Iran hostage crisis of 1980, which led to our harsh stance against the Islamic republic that has malingered for 35 years.  He certainly seems to ignore the fact that the Shah of Iran, whom the US actively supported, started building nuclear plants way back in 1974. What was all well and good back then is reprehensible and evil today.  The self-decorated potentate was no better than the Ayatollah who ousted him.  Both long since dead.  Yes, Tom, it does seem we need to have a better sense of perspective.

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