Earlier tonight, I saw Tony Perkins (what a name for a Christian right-winger - too funny!) on Lou Dobbs' program on CNN. As Religious Right-types are prone to do, all Perkins did was cut off his opponent, confuse and cloud issues and topics, and tap dance around direct questions. Perkins' question-dodging would have made James Dobson proud. Come to think about it, he probably did.

After seeing this "masterful performance", I went to the FRC website with the full intention of calling Mr. Perkins an asshole. If the shoe fits, I always say.

When I got to the site, I saw that the FRC (farce?) covered many topics. In fact, too many, even for a Christian Coalition-type of operation. In addition to the usual standards like abortion, same-sex marriage, and stem cell research, they also included: Homosexual agenda (their words, they can't be respectful enough to call them gays & lesbians), Homosexuals in our schools, prayer in schools, the Ten Commandments in public places, the Ten Commandments taught in public schools, television, movies, music, entertainment, media, slanted mainstream news, and so many other things that I didn't know were "problems."

Shows what I know. With things like the needless war in Iraq, the economy, crime, poverty, immigration, racism, sexism, and global warming, among many other issues, I guess, according to the FRC, me, most people, and the media have been totally clueless on what's really important. The FRC will tell you that.

I also saw that they're not real big on receiving feedback, unless you want to make a donation. They make that part easy. Of course. When you finally get to the part where you can send an email, they want to know everything about you: Your first & last name, your mailing address, your phone number, where you were on the night of June 23rd, 1989, and all fields are required in order for your email to go through.

I recently left a conservative Christian denomination. Not for these reasons. It was all a matter of personal choice. I did not get pressure from the church itself to stay. Only from my family. And that's how it should be. With all of the church's faults, they never, ever associated themselves with the Christian Coalition, the Religious Right, the Moral Majority, or any of these religious yahoo groups. And God bless them for that. I may not be with that religion anymore, but keeping the hell out of politics made me very proud of them.

Mixing religion & politics is always a bad idea. For further proof, may I please refer you to the Middle East?

I finally decided against sending Tony Perkins his "asshole" email. I think from his public appearances, that it's quite possible that I'm not the first one to think that about him. Besides, I figure that with all that personal information the FRC wanted from me, I'd be deluged with emails, letters, phone calls, and God knows what else from those people, wanting money, more personal information, and perhaps my first born. I don't want to see these dreadful people get actual political power.

Jerry Falwell recently died. Pat Robertson is pushing 80. James Dobson can't remember what century he's in. Ronald Reagan too, has passed. The First George Bush would be forgotten if not for his nincompoop son. I think the chance for Jeb Bush, supposedly the "intelligent Bush", to be elected President has been forever ruined. I hope so. When the latter-day Bush finally leaves office, I like to think that we'll never see this type of conservativism ever again. With the main people either dead or too old, and with increasingly unpopular and out-of-touch views, we perhaps won't have to hear their nonsense ever again. Then, this country can do what it used to be so good at doing: make progress and move foward.

As for the Family Research Council? Let them be like the Old South: Gone With The Wind.