The Other McCain

Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield has pushed through committee a bill that would prohibit public schools from teaching about homosexuality prior to ninth grade. This inspires Pareene — employed as a professional journalist by Salon — to write as if he were a fanatical activist auditioning for a front-page gig at DailyKos:

The numskulls and bigots elected to various state legislatures in the last election will be, like Bush and Reagan’s many judges, the longest-lasting and probably most damaging consequence of the recent Republican resurgence. Because in state governments, where the national press seldom ventures, where local newspapers are operating with tiny staffs and shrinking readerships, and where local TV news is largely useless, these morons are basically able to pass any fool idea lobbyists and far-right think tanks can cook up — and there is an entire cottage industry devoted to cooking up awful ideas for Republican state legislatures to pass. (Bills like Arizona’s immigration crackdown do not spring fully formed from the minds of cretinous state senators.)

So in a single paragraph, Pareene describes Republicans as numbskulls, bigots, morons and cretins. We get it, OK? Alex Pareene hates him some Republicans.

And loves him some gayness.

Let me pause to ask adults who might be reading this: Do you recall any of your teachers ever addressing the topic of homosexuality in class? Because I sure don’t. I could name at least three guys I went to high school with who were gay, but cannot once remember our teachers discussing homosexuality in class. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember any classroom discussion of sex at all, except perhaps the basics of reproduction in biology class. How is it that people managed to figure out sex before schools started lecturing kids about it? But I digress . . .

Alex Pareene decided to close out his Salon screed thus:

In addition to banning the nonexistent practice of teachers indoctrinating children with homosexual propaganda, the bill will also presumably stop potential anti-bullying lessons and campaigns. Or, at least, it will preclude any anti-bullying talk that mentions sexual orientation or anti-gay language.
Why a man named Stacey would want to make it more difficult to help children who are victims of homophobic bullying is beyond me.

Did you see that? Pareene, while posturing as an advocate of enlightened tolerence, just gay-baited a guy for being named “Stacey.”

UPDATE: Linked by Little Miss Attila — who for some reason always feels as if I’m in need of a lecture — and welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE II: Alexander Cohen (ArcLights) in the comments below:

Of course, the pro-gay left seems not to realize that categorizing straight boys accused of being gay with actual gay boys is endorsing a key part of the bullies’ message and thus doing at least as much to deepen the victims’ wounds as to heal them.

Very good point. The real problem is the barbaric idea that masculinity must defined by brutality and physical dominance. Of course, children are natural-born barbarians and, without strong adult supervision, will degenerate to this kind of “Lord of the Flies” savagery.

You’d have a lot less bullying in schools if you (a) had more men teachers and (b) re-instituted corporal punishment. Paddling, or at least the threat of paddling, did much to restrain bullies in the old days.

Where I come from, “faggot” was just an insult, a synonym for “someone who won’t kick my ass for calling him a faggot.” As Cohen says, the gay left is purposefully blurring the line between that kind of childish taunting and actual violence against people on the basis of sexuality. Introducing school children to lectures about sexuality is unlikely to deter bullies from either.