"...local Republican leaders claimed the drag performer "espouses violent language against conservatives..."
You mean like "There is no place in civil society for this kind of violent degeneracy. Leftists, and specifically the mentally deranged."trans" community..."
THAT language sounds pretty violent. And as we have seen throughout recorded history of Christianity and its anti-LGBTQ stances, xtians don't stop at violent language.
Stochastic terrorism describes how influential figures use inflammatory, dehumanizing rhetoric against groups or individuals, making statistically probable but individually unpredictable violent acts by "lone wolf" followers likely, while maintaining plausible deniability for the inciting speaker. The term combines "stochastic" (random, statistical) with "terrorism," highlighting how mass media can incite real-world violence without direct commands, often falling just outside legal definitions of incitement.
Just like the "Operation Rescue" and all the other anti-abortion groups, making old timey "Wanted posters" with Gynecologists pictures on them. And when one of their fanatical followers tries to, or succeeds in killing one, say "we never told them to do that!"
Mazani talks about "degeneracy." It's not drag queens and LGBTQs that find themselves being photographed for mugshots on a daily basis. It seems to always be those religious types. The records show this.
If I had to guess (after the majority of my 68 years lived (and still living) in the deep south), my guess would be....
"MAGA hates the things they hate, more than they love the things they love."
This allowed them to watch their older and elderly parents/grandparents die alone and in misery, of Covid...as long as it "owns the libs". (And makes Trump joyously orgasmic in his hate.)
And now, to allow their "precious" children to die of easily preventable childhood diseases, because (at least to them) that allows them to honor Trump on the MAGA Sacrificial Pyre made up of their own children...as they, once again, spread hate in the name of Trump.
Tarrant County is essentially Ft. Worth. Republicans always have the dead certain answer to every question, and anyone who disagrees is a Communist. More often than not, their solutions involve turning the clocks back fifty years or longer because if they weren't behind the curve, they wouldn't be conservatives. In any event, no public meeting of our secular government at any level should EVER begin with a prayer of any kind.
I suppose in this week that honors the birth of the Prince of peace and the prophet of love and kindness, I ought to have a lot more to say about this wonderful display of Christian benevolence. But I’ve been listening to this for more than 50 years, and none of this surprises me in the slightest.
I am aware of only one time during my life when drag queens got violent and that was June 1969. I’ve never heard of a group of drag queens beating a Christian to death. I’ve never heard of a group of transgender people advocating violence against Christians, even though it is so-called Christians advocating violence against transgender people for daring to exist. I’ve never seen a political movement from the gay community dedicated to suppressing the rights of Christians. If you google sexual abuse by LGBT people, the number of hits is dwarfed by the number of christian pastors and priests every single year.
But it is a constant with a certain class of so-called christians.
Christians have been taught again and again that being persecuted means Jesus will be coming back soon (real soon!). So they try to see every little disagreement or discouragement as persecution. It makes them think they’re living in the end times.
Drag performances are entertaining. The trans people I know are just like our straight, gay, bi, etc. friends. Everyone I know just wants to live their life.
I challenge any of these conservatives to show me an endless parade of Drag queen crimes and mugshots like we see every fucking day from conservatives and xtians.
"It is time for all of our leaders, from the Trump Administration down to the local level..."
Bad idea to invoke the corrupt, lawless and violent Trump regime, headed by a convicted felon, serial adulterer, sexual predator and known associate of child traffickers.
This bullshit from a mayor just goes to show that it doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, if you’re not the right kind of Christian (you know, the hating, demeaning kind).
You’re right, but I’d suggest a slight amendment: Good afternoon, councillors. It’s good to have full attendance for this meeting, we’ve got a full agenda for today. Let’s get to work.
In all honesty in the beginning I didnt really concern myself with trans rights. I thought lumping different types of folk together under the acronym " LGBTQ" was a bad idea politically, pragmatically. I thought it would result in gay folk loosing hard earned ground by linking them to different marginalized folk.
I also didnt think black, hispanic, or Asian people would be targetted, or that ethnic cleansing would actually become policy in the US.
When I was younger I believed that we had Rights, among them due process, prohibition of discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or national origin.
I was wrong.
We see Presidential candidates questioned about whether they are " christian" or not; and if they are " born again." John Kennedy was questioned as to whether the Pope would tell him what to do.
We have seen Obama's place of birth questioned or whether he was a " secret muslim."
Women are publically demeaned and degraded by a President.
Hispanics are being chained and liaded on planes just as German Jews were loaded on trains.
Torture, rendition, and suspension of habeas corpus have been US policy since the early 2000s and the Patriot Act.
Those Rights we all talk about are just fantasy.
And all along, just as they supported slavery and Native genocide, white "christians" have excused and supported these evils...and councidenrally they always suppport the power of the rich oligarchy.
We surely dont need to go back to " when America was great" again because its always been corrupted by hypocrisy and racism, sexism, and white "christian" patriarchy.
What we need is to build a just and free society- one not cobtrolled by aristocrats and oligarchs-and be free from religion and its divisive effects.
I don’t think too many heterosexuals actually get what gay people experience. They never have the experience of being told that the finest part of themselves, the ability to love and connect, is sick and evil. They never get how much that can permeate the lives of the victims.
I have mentioned my brother many times. It’s been 23 years since he died of murder or suicide or both in a Mexican desert. He hated himself for a lot of things, but above all, he hated himself for being gay. He hated himself so much that he never even told me until after he had wrecked his life, because he knew that I would have convinced him not to hate himself quite so much.
I absolutely agree. He knew that I was gay 20 years before he told me about himself, and admitted that the only reason he didn’t tell me was he was afraid that I would convince him to be a self loving gay man. I’m still pissed at him for that.
You are kind, but I won't give credit to someone who doesn't see the problem with LGBTQI+ kids and teens fostered or adopted in christian fundies families. Not counting the contempt for non christians in some of his comments.
He’s not a gay man. I don’t find too many heterosexuals who truly understand. But I give him credit for trying in a hostile environment.
As is true about most of the regulars here,I think that I would like him, just as I would like them, if I knew him personally, rather than as a collection of electrons on a screen.
Not gay either ... well, not entirely (bisexual and own it). Honestly, I wonder about some people's mirror neurons and whether they function correctly (or at all!). I'm not trans, either, yet I completely get the possibility for conflict between one's physiology and one's self image.
Frankly, there are times when David takes an entirely too superficial view of some topics, while refusing to acknowledge the problems of his own belief system. I see that as disingenuous, and that is the problem I have with David Graf.
I understand, absolutely. I’m not condemning anybody for having problems with David. I understand it, because it’s the problem I have with all NALT Christians. But my own sense of him is that he is a good man, but not quite able to escape his belief system. That blinds him. I have always endeavored to open his eyes. Sometimes it successful.
I can think of many so-called Christians who are like him, but the difference is, I don’t think their hearts are necessarily in the right place. Why I stopped commenting a religion news for the most part. Too many other otherwise intelligent people lost in Christian fundamentalIsm.
…. Don’t laugh, it’s the real Christian love, not the fake stuff…
But for a lot of Christians, they are having to undo everything they have thought for their entire lives. David is not a young man. He is retiring. So he has a lot of stuff to undo. The very fact that he is here and persisting, but not proselytizing like a few other assholes that show up on occasion, means that there’s an opening. And who knows, maybe he’ll walk through the door
"...the decision was made not to elevate someone who is out of step with the majority of our community and its values."
So if you're not part of the majority, you're a second-class citizen. Got it.
And "elevate" someone by granting them the honor of speaking to a group of bigots? You got it backwards. Rev. Bentrup had to lower himself to even consider talking to you assholes.
It's the way many religions evolve...when you've used up all your energy fighting with OTHER religions, you start fighting amongst each other (and sometimes killing each other) over who is practicing the CORRECT religion IMPROPERLY. Humans are JUST...SO...STUPID!!
When I was trying to get the progressive churches to help with winter shelters, I was surprised that they always were competitive with one another. They didn't like working together at all.
"There is no place in society" for anything other than their narrow view of what is "Christain." Anything inclusive of all people or promotes a diverse society of different people is "obscene." Historically, Christian have burned fellow Christians at the stake as "heretics" for not believing in the right creed. This Texas Christianity of the distorted type. Yes, Hement invocations are useless to begin with.
That council meeting might more appropriately be called a Microp3n1s support group. They thing they are men? And men of gOD even? This is childish beyond belief. Their almighty gOD is deeply offended by 'teh gayz' but not homelessness, hungry children, people working full time and living in their cars? Sounds like trash to me.
For several years I was an admin assistant for the Chamber of Commerce in Keller until I moved to another state in 2011. So I know that community well. Keller and Southlake are what I would consider wealthy areas. And where I live now, the wealthiest person I know is also MAGA. What is the correlation I wonder? I don't like it.
"...local Republican leaders claimed the drag performer "espouses violent language against conservatives..."
You mean like "There is no place in civil society for this kind of violent degeneracy. Leftists, and specifically the mentally deranged."trans" community..."
THAT language sounds pretty violent. And as we have seen throughout recorded history of Christianity and its anti-LGBTQ stances, xtians don't stop at violent language.
And the word "degeneracy" or "degenerate" was used by the Nazis to describe everybody THEY hated and wanted eliminated.
Someone needs to tell Mazani that he is tasked with serving the ENTIRE Keller community and not just the parts he likes.
Someone tried to do this only to find out that the time slot to meet with Mazani was somehow "double booked".
Well, gee whiz, shock and amazement ... 😝
Stochastic terrorism describes how influential figures use inflammatory, dehumanizing rhetoric against groups or individuals, making statistically probable but individually unpredictable violent acts by "lone wolf" followers likely, while maintaining plausible deniability for the inciting speaker. The term combines "stochastic" (random, statistical) with "terrorism," highlighting how mass media can incite real-world violence without direct commands, often falling just outside legal definitions of incitement.
Just like the "Operation Rescue" and all the other anti-abortion groups, making old timey "Wanted posters" with Gynecologists pictures on them. And when one of their fanatical followers tries to, or succeeds in killing one, say "we never told them to do that!"
Exactly
Mais nous, c'est pas pareil 🎶
Pas pareil, Tryo.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49fd9ec933c1ad7134cd1a8e5c9f01eb6eb49f3e27c81426db5b17b3683b0465.jpg
Mazani talks about "degeneracy." It's not drag queens and LGBTQs that find themselves being photographed for mugshots on a daily basis. It seems to always be those religious types. The records show this.
It's always projection with these people. ALWAYS.
Projecting the secret supplications of their hearts.
👆🎯Yup they are trying to steal the trans persons persecution, and claim they are the ones being persecuted, They are not mentally right.
Ethereal Fairy (and others posting above),
If I had to guess (after the majority of my 68 years lived (and still living) in the deep south), my guess would be....
"MAGA hates the things they hate, more than they love the things they love."
This allowed them to watch their older and elderly parents/grandparents die alone and in misery, of Covid...as long as it "owns the libs". (And makes Trump joyously orgasmic in his hate.)
And now, to allow their "precious" children to die of easily preventable childhood diseases, because (at least to them) that allows them to honor Trump on the MAGA Sacrificial Pyre made up of their own children...as they, once again, spread hate in the name of Trump.
Stay safe, Ethereal Fairy.
You too, Many well wishes to you for a better 2026.
Tarrant County is essentially Ft. Worth. Republicans always have the dead certain answer to every question, and anyone who disagrees is a Communist. More often than not, their solutions involve turning the clocks back fifty years or longer because if they weren't behind the curve, they wouldn't be conservatives. In any event, no public meeting of our secular government at any level should EVER begin with a prayer of any kind.
I've often wondered what is they pray for during these invocations and whether anyone keeps score of what is requested versus what is granted.
The religious right never stops trying to mark their territory in the public square.
If someone tried that where I live, they wouldn't get far. Governance assisted by prayer? haha hahaha hahahaha.
I suppose in this week that honors the birth of the Prince of peace and the prophet of love and kindness, I ought to have a lot more to say about this wonderful display of Christian benevolence. But I’ve been listening to this for more than 50 years, and none of this surprises me in the slightest.
I am aware of only one time during my life when drag queens got violent and that was June 1969. I’ve never heard of a group of drag queens beating a Christian to death. I’ve never heard of a group of transgender people advocating violence against Christians, even though it is so-called Christians advocating violence against transgender people for daring to exist. I’ve never seen a political movement from the gay community dedicated to suppressing the rights of Christians. If you google sexual abuse by LGBT people, the number of hits is dwarfed by the number of christian pastors and priests every single year.
But it is a constant with a certain class of so-called christians.
They are beyond help or hope.
But-but-but ... those Christians have to have SOMEONE to claim are persecuting them! 😭
Wel,that is true.
Christians have been taught again and again that being persecuted means Jesus will be coming back soon (real soon!). So they try to see every little disagreement or discouragement as persecution. It makes them think they’re living in the end times.
I suspect they are going to be a LONG time waiting. Think "Waiting For Godot" time frame!
Drag performances are entertaining. The trans people I know are just like our straight, gay, bi, etc. friends. Everyone I know just wants to live their life.
It is a shitty person who gets offended by that.
Too many shitty people in the world
Too many shitty religious people in the world than there should be!
"There is no place in civil society for this kind of violent degeneracy."
How lucky for me to live in one of those degenerate countries. I will trust a Drag queen before a bigot.
"Violent degeneracy?!?" Whew. Talk about a "scared little man." Mazani fits the description to a T.
I challenge any of these conservatives to show me an endless parade of Drag queen crimes and mugshots like we see every fucking day from conservatives and xtians.
Bet their response sounds like crickets chirping,
"It is time for all of our leaders, from the Trump Administration down to the local level..."
Bad idea to invoke the corrupt, lawless and violent Trump regime, headed by a convicted felon, serial adulterer, sexual predator and known associate of child traffickers.
This bullshit from a mayor just goes to show that it doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, if you’re not the right kind of Christian (you know, the hating, demeaning kind).
The better I get to know them, the more they suck.
Want an invocation? How about "Let's get to work."
You’re right, but I’d suggest a slight amendment: Good afternoon, councillors. It’s good to have full attendance for this meeting, we’ve got a full agenda for today. Let’s get to work.
In all honesty in the beginning I didnt really concern myself with trans rights. I thought lumping different types of folk together under the acronym " LGBTQ" was a bad idea politically, pragmatically. I thought it would result in gay folk loosing hard earned ground by linking them to different marginalized folk.
I also didnt think black, hispanic, or Asian people would be targetted, or that ethnic cleansing would actually become policy in the US.
When I was younger I believed that we had Rights, among them due process, prohibition of discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or national origin.
I was wrong.
We see Presidential candidates questioned about whether they are " christian" or not; and if they are " born again." John Kennedy was questioned as to whether the Pope would tell him what to do.
We have seen Obama's place of birth questioned or whether he was a " secret muslim."
Women are publically demeaned and degraded by a President.
Hispanics are being chained and liaded on planes just as German Jews were loaded on trains.
Torture, rendition, and suspension of habeas corpus have been US policy since the early 2000s and the Patriot Act.
Those Rights we all talk about are just fantasy.
And all along, just as they supported slavery and Native genocide, white "christians" have excused and supported these evils...and councidenrally they always suppport the power of the rich oligarchy.
We surely dont need to go back to " when America was great" again because its always been corrupted by hypocrisy and racism, sexism, and white "christian" patriarchy.
What we need is to build a just and free society- one not cobtrolled by aristocrats and oligarchs-and be free from religion and its divisive effects.
https://youtu.be/3gkjWxCl6zE
I need a daily dose of him. He and Pryor always make me laugh, no matter what.
I haven't been here that long, and I have a question.
Does David Graf do anything but spout platitudes, JAQ off, and not respond to answers to his JAQing off?
If he has, I’ve missed it.
En un mot comme en cent. No.
Absolument
Nope.
That's pretty much his stock in trade. His own posts demonstrate this.
You forgot the supporting genocide part.
Good Christian (TM) ✝️
David is trying. I think he’s a good man, just a bit blind.
I think Ray Charles has better eyesight when it comes to LGBT issues.
I don’t think too many heterosexuals actually get what gay people experience. They never have the experience of being told that the finest part of themselves, the ability to love and connect, is sick and evil. They never get how much that can permeate the lives of the victims.
I have mentioned my brother many times. It’s been 23 years since he died of murder or suicide or both in a Mexican desert. He hated himself for a lot of things, but above all, he hated himself for being gay. He hated himself so much that he never even told me until after he had wrecked his life, because he knew that I would have convinced him not to hate himself quite so much.
That's so sad.
I absolutely agree. He knew that I was gay 20 years before he told me about himself, and admitted that the only reason he didn’t tell me was he was afraid that I would convince him to be a self loving gay man. I’m still pissed at him for that.
You are kind, but I won't give credit to someone who doesn't see the problem with LGBTQI+ kids and teens fostered or adopted in christian fundies families. Not counting the contempt for non christians in some of his comments.
A BIT??? 🤔
DG certainly is "trying."
He’s not a gay man. I don’t find too many heterosexuals who truly understand. But I give him credit for trying in a hostile environment.
As is true about most of the regulars here,I think that I would like him, just as I would like them, if I knew him personally, rather than as a collection of electrons on a screen.
Not gay either ... well, not entirely (bisexual and own it). Honestly, I wonder about some people's mirror neurons and whether they function correctly (or at all!). I'm not trans, either, yet I completely get the possibility for conflict between one's physiology and one's self image.
Frankly, there are times when David takes an entirely too superficial view of some topics, while refusing to acknowledge the problems of his own belief system. I see that as disingenuous, and that is the problem I have with David Graf.
I understand, absolutely. I’m not condemning anybody for having problems with David. I understand it, because it’s the problem I have with all NALT Christians. But my own sense of him is that he is a good man, but not quite able to escape his belief system. That blinds him. I have always endeavored to open his eyes. Sometimes it successful.
I can think of many so-called Christians who are like him, but the difference is, I don’t think their hearts are necessarily in the right place. Why I stopped commenting a religion news for the most part. Too many other otherwise intelligent people lost in Christian fundamentalIsm.
This regular says false.
What I meant was that I would like most of the regulars here. I didn’t mean to imply that the regulars would like David. I will fix it.
I think he wants people to think he's trying, but really isn't.
I mean this with all Christian love in my heart….
…. Don’t laugh, it’s the real Christian love, not the fake stuff…
But for a lot of Christians, they are having to undo everything they have thought for their entire lives. David is not a young man. He is retiring. So he has a lot of stuff to undo. The very fact that he is here and persisting, but not proselytizing like a few other assholes that show up on occasion, means that there’s an opening. And who knows, maybe he’ll walk through the door
"...the decision was made not to elevate someone who is out of step with the majority of our community and its values."
So if you're not part of the majority, you're a second-class citizen. Got it.
And "elevate" someone by granting them the honor of speaking to a group of bigots? You got it backwards. Rev. Bentrup had to lower himself to even consider talking to you assholes.
It's the way many religions evolve...when you've used up all your energy fighting with OTHER religions, you start fighting amongst each other (and sometimes killing each other) over who is practicing the CORRECT religion IMPROPERLY. Humans are JUST...SO...STUPID!!
Conservatives, yes.
When I was trying to get the progressive churches to help with winter shelters, I was surprised that they always were competitive with one another. They didn't like working together at all.
Be interesting if you could call them on that. Competition has it's place, but not when it comes to helping the needy.
They were not in the business of helping the needy, they were competing to recruit new members to their churches. /cynic
"There is no place in society" for anything other than their narrow view of what is "Christain." Anything inclusive of all people or promotes a diverse society of different people is "obscene." Historically, Christian have burned fellow Christians at the stake as "heretics" for not believing in the right creed. This Texas Christianity of the distorted type. Yes, Hement invocations are useless to begin with.
That council meeting might more appropriately be called a Microp3n1s support group. They thing they are men? And men of gOD even? This is childish beyond belief. Their almighty gOD is deeply offended by 'teh gayz' but not homelessness, hungry children, people working full time and living in their cars? Sounds like trash to me.
Micropenis, god.
For several years I was an admin assistant for the Chamber of Commerce in Keller until I moved to another state in 2011. So I know that community well. Keller and Southlake are what I would consider wealthy areas. And where I live now, the wealthiest person I know is also MAGA. What is the correlation I wonder? I don't like it.
Republikkkans. No matter the stripe, they're only for their kind.