Value-Added Tackiness

I've noticed that I do an awful lot of carping and grousing (are they substantially different?) on this blog. I'm not that negative -- honest -- but I'll be doggone if there is not an awful lot of utterly odious B.S. these days in the every-polarizing world of American politics.

Leave it to Texas to drop more kids off at the pool. On Sunday, Gov. Rick Perry signed two measures, an abortion parental consent law and a resolution opposing same-sex marriage.

Now, I'm not gonna scream about the dangers of such legislation. I'm willing to concede that abortion, exempting the nutjob extremes of both sides, is a serious and weighty matter on which reasonable people can and do disagree. Besides, parental notification, like partial-term abortion, is one of those cleverly crafted "wedge" issues with which conservatives have been particularly successful; only the most self-defeating Red State politico would want to fight that train. The homophobia exemplified by the latter resolution, however, is a different matter, but any reader of this blog knows my views on that subject.

But what is patently offensive is that Perry chose a private Christian school for his photo-op signing of the bill: the Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Worth.

Despite the receptive Christianity-is-under-siege crowd, the Dallas Morning News reports that more than 250 protesters gathered outside the academy:

" 'It's absolutely unbelievable [that Mr. Perry] would be down here signing something into law,' said Cara Burgess, a mother of two from Dallas. She carried a sign calling for the separation of church and state. 'It's church property. Pandering to fundamentalists is what we have here.'

"The governor, who faces potential primary opposition from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in his bid for a second term, had sent an e-mail to thousands of 'pro-family Christian friends' inviting them to the event."

What is the subtext of such a photo-op backdrop?

1. The primary reason that abortion and same-sex marriage are immoral in the eyes of Perry and his supporters is because of fundamentalist Christian dogma, thereby infusing a church-vs.-state dynamic into policy debates that warrant deliberation from secularists, too.

2. Public education sucks. It is godless. It is immoral. It is not the Texas Republican base, and it sure as heck doesn't deserve the highest elected official in the state darkening its doorway.

3. A less servile location would certainly have attracted even more protesters -- you know, sodomy-addled gays and feminists sporting tufts of armpit hair. Dissent will not be tolerated!

Robot Invasion scoffs at Perry's contention that the bills needed to be signed together because they ostensibly speak to Texas "values." Brew of Robot Invasion writes:

"No, governor Perry, they don't talk about 'values,' they talk about your values, which apparently include intolerance, and a dangerous naivete about how some pregnant teens are likely to be treated by their parents. And as for the church? You mean the Christian people of Texas, don't you - everyone else just doesn't matter?"

Amen.