The Gaytheist Agenda

A video examined by police investigators has discovered 11 more potential victims of the three Hayward Cousins who allegedly shot a man on February 26 because they believed he was gay.

A video made by three cousins from Hayward charged with an alleged anti-gay shooting with a BB rifle last month in San Francisco shows 11 other attacks in a single night, authorities said Friday.
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The three were freed on $50,000 bail soon after their arrest. But on Friday, Mohammad Habibzada, Shafiq Hashemi and Sayed Bassam, all 24, appeared in court and were immediately rearrested. They were all being held late Friday on $450,000 bail.

They were returned to custody after prosecutors viewed a video that police found in the three men’s car when they were arrested.

Brian Buckelew, spokesman for District Attorney Kamala Harris, said the video showed the 16th Street attack and BB rifle shootings aimed at 11 other men. Police say the video depicts the suspects laughing as they fire.
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This sort of predation truly angers me. (Via Fetid Fruit)

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49-year-old Richard Chotiner arrived in a Tampa courtroom with Bible in hand. He’s been out on a post-conviction bond since early 2009. That’s when Judge J. Rogers Pagett sentenced Chotiner to 15 years in the Florida State Prison.
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Nice touch, bringing a Bible to court. Was he hoping the Judge would see how “religious” he was and let him off?

The appellate court re-affirmed Chotiner’s conviction. Judge Chet Tharpe on Monday morning revoked Chotiner’s appeal bond and ordered deputies to take him into custody.
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Detectives say in May of 2007, Chotiner befriended a 23-year-old mentally disabled man at Adventure Island. Investigators say Chotiner then lured the man to his home on 39th Street, where he sexually battered him.

The sick piece of scum should never have been allowed to roam free while appealing his case. At least now he’s where he belongs.

 

I don’t understand why these men are facing any charges. I’m sure they were only acting in accordance with their deeply held religious beliefs. Their freedoms are at stake here!

SAN FRANCISCO — Three Hayward cousins are facing hate crime charges after a man was shot in the face with a BB gun because the attackers believed he was gay, according to San Francisco authorities.

A video of the assault and other similar crimes was recorded by the attackers and is being held as evidence, assistant district attorney Brian Buckelew said.

Mohammad Habibzada, 24, Shafiq Hashemi, 21, and Sayed Bassam, 21, were arrested about 15 minutes after the shooting, when police spotted a car in the area that matched a description given by the victim. The suspects have addresses in Hayward.
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All three suspects are facing three felony counts and one misdemeanor. They include assault with a deadly weapon with a hate crime enhancement, discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, and attempted mayhem.

“Here we have a guy, shot in face with BB gun, who could have easily been shot in the eye,” Buckelew said.
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Bucklew said “multiple” other victims are on the confiscated video, and the crimes appear to have happened in San Francisco. He said they have not had anyone else come forward, but more charges may be filed if someone does.
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Larry Langford is the former mayor of Birmingham. During his reign he claimed prayer and Bibles were the best way to combat the rising crime rate in his city. Accordingly he ordered thousands of Bibles and sack-cloths, so people could be properly attired when they prayed.

It was no surprise to many when Langford was later arrested for bribery and money laundering. He has now been sentenced to 15 years for 60 counts of fraud, bribery and money laundering. If only he’d remembered to save a Bible and a sackcloth for himself he might not be in this mess.

 

Another “family values” crusader bites the dust.

BAD: CBS affiliate CBS13 reports that Roy Ashburn, a state senator from Southern California was arrested for allegedly driving drunk.

WORSE: CBS affiliate CBS13 reports that Roy Ashburn, a state senator from Southern California was arrested for allegedly driving drunk AFTER LEAVING A GAY BAR.
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WORST: CBS affiliate CBS13 reports that Roy Ashburn, a MARRIED state senator from Southern California was arrested for allegedly driving drunk after leaving a gay bar with another man in the car.

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WORSTEST: CBS affiliate CBS13 reports that Roy Ashburn, a married, Republican state senator from Southern California WITH A HISTORY OF OPPOSING GAY RIGHTS was arrested for allegedly driving drunk after leaving a gay bar with another man in the car.

 
Another source indicates that it is unlikely Ashburn was at Faces, since Tuesdays are “Latin Night” at the popular club and “A white guy would stick out like a sore thumb”. However there are reportedly numerous clubs gay and straight clubs in the area so it’s possible Ashburn was at one of them rather than at Faces.

 
After his arrest, Ashburn issued the following statement:

“I am deeply sorry for my actions and offer no excuse for my poor judgment. I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences for what I did.

I am also truly sorry for the impact this incident will have on those who support and trust me - my family, my constituents, my friends, and my colleagues in the Senate.”

Needless to say, Ashburn has earned himself an entry on Conservative Babylon.

 

Two Texas men have been arrested in connection with a string of church burnings. Of course if they’re guilty I hope they suffer the consequences of their actions. But it’s what we’re not seeing in most of the stories, and what we’re seeing pushed in the headlines, that raises my eyebrows.

 

Report: Church Fire Suspect Had Books on Atheism

 
These headlines imply an angry, religion-hating atheist who went on a church burning rampage. So what’s wrong with the headlines and the stories they link to? For one thing, most of them only mention the book on atheism, and neglect the book about demon possession. That may seem insignificant but the fact is that people who are atheists (with rare exceptions) do not believe in demons (evil supernatural beings) and certainly not in the concept of “demon possession”. Atheism (lack of belief in gods) and belief in demons/demon possession are two very disparate things.

Am I saying Bourque is definitely not an atheist? Of course not. I’m just noting that one atheist book does not an atheist make, despite the media spin. (Incidentally on Bourque’s MySpace page he indicates he is a Christian.)

What is more disingenuous about the reporting is the fact that most of the news headlines or stories fail to mention the three Bibles found in Jason Bourque’s home. Honest mistake? Perhaps, but I’m inclined to believe otherwise. Most likely it just didn’t fit with the picture of the suspects as renegade atheists on a rampage to persecute religious people so it was conveniently omitted from most of the stories.

Atheists face enough stigma in society already. We don’t need slanted, dishonest reporting like this to engender more of the same.

 

In the twelve years it took to get the Matthew Shepard Act passed, and even in the months since it was finally signed into law, members of the RRRW have whined about how their precious “religious freedoms” will be denied because they can no longer beat and kill homos with impunity. But the MSA didn’t only add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing hate-crimes laws. It also added gender and disability. Of course the RRRW would have gladly seen these individuals go without hate-crimes protections just to see LGBT people do so. Such is the intensity of their hatred for us; that no amount of collateral damage is too much in their quest to see us suffer. Jennifer Daughtery would be part of that collateral damage if they’d had their way.

A bloody metal crutch, a knife, a pair of white high-top shoes and a plastic bag full of hair were among the items detectives pulled from an apartment where a woman was held captive and tortured last week, according to a police report that offers new glimpses into her slaying.
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The items, listed in an inventory of seized property, fit disturbingly with what police said unfolded in the apartment over 36 hours — that the group beat Ms. Daugherty with household items including the towel rack, the crutch and a vacuum cleaner hose, bound her with Christmas decorations, painted her face with nail polish, cut her hair, and forced her to write a fake suicide note.

They fed her medication, oil and urine and stabbed her to death for reasons police said are still unknown. Ms. Daugherty’s body, found in a garbage can at Greensburg Salem Middle School on Thursday, was the first in a string of gruesome discoveries for detectives investigating the crime and the tangled relationships of those charged in it.

Jailed without bond on charges of homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault and conspiracy are Ricky Smyrnes, 23, Robert Masters Jr., 36, Melvin Knight, 20, Peggy Miller, 27, Amber Meidinger, 20 and Angela Marinucci, 17.

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Still unknown was how Ms. Daugherty came to know her attackers. Her relatives have said she had the mental capacity of an adolescent, a disability that made her especially trusting and kind. She went to the apartment willingly, police said, boarding a bus from Mount Pleasant, where she lived with her mother and stepfather, on Feb. 8.
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Further charges under the recently signed Hate-Crimes Act are being considered though it’s too early to tell if such charges will be added.

I worked for 20 years with adults who had developmental disabilities. I find it despicable that anybody would prey on such vulnerable individuals. I’d like to see the accused, if found guilty, put away for the maximum allowable time–including any hate crimes enhancements.

In the meantime, my thoughts go out to Jennifer’s family. She was a beautiful woman and what happened to her was an abomination.

 

We’re constantly told that religion makes people more altruistic, moral, kind, etc. We’re also told that atheists are untrustworthy, immoral, depraved, and wouldn’t think twice about committing any crime (up to and including murder) because they have no “authority” to answer to. So why is it that millions of religious signs, banners and billboards go up every day without incident, while the atheist sign and billboard campaign has been met with a barrage of vehement protests, refusals by ad companies to post the billboards, vandalism and even theft?

The latest instance involves the billboards put up in Sacramento. The day I read about those billboards going up in the Sacramento area I knew there was going to be trouble and I was right. At least one thus far has been vandalized. I wonder if “god” told someone to do it.

One or more vandals used spray paint to deface part of a billboard on Interstate 80 midway between Sacramento and Davis, California, that reads “Are you good without God? Millions are.” The words “also lost?” were added below the “Millions are.”

The billboard, which was placed by the Sacramento Area Coalition of Reason last Tuesday, is one of ten such roadway ads that have gone up in and around Sacramento. They were paid for by the United Coalition of Reason, headquartered in Washington DC.

“This shows loud and clear just how necessary our message is, because prejudice against people who don’t believe in a god remains very real in America.” said Rachael Harrington, coordinator of Sacramento CoR.
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If you want to have faith or religion that’s fine. More power to you. But if your faith/religion is so weak you lash out and even commit crimes any time it is challenged in the least you have a serious problem. Any religion or faith worth a darn can tolerate opposing opinions and challenges.

Or are you actually saying your god is so effete he needs you to defend him from billboards?

 

Various pieces from around the Internutz.

 
How the most religious states fare.

Classically Liberal dissects multiple reports and studies to show what I’ve long known, and have reported more than once–that God and religion simply aren’t the answer to society’s woes.

 
While Judge Considers Same-Sex Marriage Case, House Church Leader says the Verdict Doesn’t Matter

A church leader declares many Christians have lost their way, and turned Christianity into a crusade against others rather than an effort to bring others to Christ and seek God’s Kingdom. It’s nice to see one of them speak up since our voices go largely ignored when we say it.

 
Gay harassment, bias crimes often go unreported

This isn’t anything most of us don’t already know, but it bears repeating because it’s urgent, and because the RRRW tries fervently to ignore/deny it.

 
How the Game is Played

You probably saw the NYT article that claimed 50% of gay married men are in “open marriages”. What you didn’t see is how they distorted the study, and outright lied, to once again smear gay couples. Read the facts at Truth Wins Out.

 
Anita Bryant and Me

One person’s encounter with the original “OMG won’t somebody please think of the children?!?!” anti-gay Liar for the Lord.

 

Recently a group of Baptists from Idaho were arrested in Haiti on charges of child trafficking. They claimed they were merely rescuing the 33 children they had attempted to take across the border into the Dominican Republic from dire conditions. They told of their noble intentions to have these precious orphans adopted out once they set up a facility. Of course that wasn’t the entire story, as it never is in such cases.

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The goal, according to her written submission for funds, was to “rescue Haitian orphans” and “share God’s love with these precious children, helping them heal and find new life in Christ”.
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The basics: Steal another nation’s children and convert them to Christianity. Now why is it gay people are always accused of “recruiting children”? Oh yes, that’s called projection.

A little background on the ringleader of this operation:

Laura Silsby’s life had been unravelling fast. Her once-flourishing online shopping business was being chased through the courts for unpaid bills and the four-bedroom home where the divorcee lived with her two youngest children was reclaimed by the bank just days before Christmas.
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Even as her business affairs plunged deeper into turmoil, the church-going 40-year-old had been drawing up plans to build an orphanage for Haitian children and run an adoption programme “for loving Christian parents who would otherwise not be able to afford” the cost.

Over the last year, Mrs Silsby and her live-in nanny Charisa Coulter, 24, made several trips to Haiti and the neighbouring country of Dominican Republic, where she had ambitious plans for an orphanage with resort facilities on a north coast beach.
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Christian parents, of course. Why spend all of that time indoctrinating the children only to have some heathen parents come in and undo it? And what’s an orphanage without a luxury resort so the prospective parents can loll by the sea while they ponder which stolen child to take? I wonder if others appreciate just how much White Christian Folk do for them?

Three other worshippers from Central Valley - including a mother and her 18-year-old daughter - volunteered. So did three members of the Eastside Baptist church 140 miles away in Twin Falls - the pastor Paul Thompson and his son Silas, 18, among them - and two of Mr Thompson’s relatives from Texas and Kansas.
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The 10 were arrested after trying to cross from Haiti into the Dominican Republic with a busload of 33 children, with no paperwork or authorisation to take them out of the country. It soon became clear that most were not orphans at all, but had at least a mother or father who had been persuaded to hand the children over to the Americans on the promise they would enjoy a better life.
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(Emphasis mine)

Lying for the Lord and child trafficking to perpetuate their religion. They’re not humanitarians, they’re predators.

Since then, Silsby’s volunteers have turned on her and are claiming she duped them and they’re innocent of any wrongdoing.

THE group of 10 Americans jailed in Haiti on child abduction charges are splitting up, with eight of them signing a note saying that they had been misled by Laura Silsby, the leader of the group.

”Laura wants to control,” said the scribbled note handed to a producer for NBC News at the weekend. ”We believe lying. We’re afraid.”
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In their note, the Americans, who said they came to Haiti to rescue orphans from the earthquake, complained of general malfeasance in the case but provided no details. ”There is corruption, extortion,” they wrote.
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The note signed by the group, which is affiliated with a Baptist church in Idaho, made it clear that they were emotionally distraught and divided. ”We fear for our lives here in Haiti,” said the letter, which was signed by everyone except Silsby and Charisa Coulter, Silsby’s former nanny and co-founder of the group. ”We only came as volunteers,” the note went on. ”We had NOTHING to do with any documents and have been lied to.”
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It’s entirely possible the volunteers assumed Silsby had all of the proper documentation to take the children. It’s possible (even likely) that she lied to them in order to gain their support. But I find it difficult to find much sympathy for them. Didn’t their god give them any critical thinking skills, and if so why don’t they use them? (That is a rhetorical question, of course, as one of the main purposes of religions such as theirs is to stifle critical thought.)

These people took Silsby at her word when they dropped everything to go to a foreign nation. Then they took her at her word when she asked them to help her gather 33 children, many of whom had living parents, and head for the border. None of them asked her to produce documentation that she had legal rights to do this. None of them thought it a problem that one child was begging to be reunited with her parents, who were very much alive.

But then it all goes back to Silsby’s original plan, the one that lured them all there in the first place: Bring Orphans to Jesus. So regardless of what transpired in the meantime, none of the players in this mess are truly innocent. They’re all predators to one extent or another.

 

Hat tip: The Freethinker