"United We Stand, Divided We Fall"

The above title is a nice saying, isn't it? Catchy. In 1942 the commonwealth of Kentucky took it on as its state motto (incidentally, in 2002 the commonwealth decided to adopt an "Offical Latin Motto"--Deo gratiam habeamus ["Let us be grateful to God"]). So anyway, the commonwealth is all about being a uniter, not a divider. Maybe someone should tell that to one of its senators:

This week, Roeding [Dick, R-Lakeside] mixed himself up in the University of Louisville's decision to offer health benefits to domestic partners, and in so doing the senator came across as a bigot unfit for further public service.

"I find this very repulsive,'' Roeding said of U of L's plans, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. And he continued: "I don't want to entice any of those people into our state. Those are the wrong kind of people.''

"Those people"; "The wrong kind of people".

Roeding wasn't misquoted:

In case you're thinking Roeding was misquoted, or that those statements don't reflect his genuine sentiments, consider what he said when a Kentucky Post reporter called to get his reaction to criticism of his remarks from the Republican Log Cabin organization. "Who are they?'' Reading asked our reporter. Told they were a gay rights organization within the GOP, Roeding said, "Oh, a bunch of queers.''

Wow. Quite the winner there, eh?. Roeding is very serious about just how much he doesn't want "those people" to be a part of the commonwealth. From the original Courier-Journal article:

He warned of legislative retribution, since U of L receives a substantial level of support from Frankfort [the capital].

Yes, that's right. The University decided to offer health insurance to domestic partners and this retrofuck jackhole (to use Shakes' phrase) is threatening to bring "legislative retribution" against them. What utter horseshit.

The Cincinnati Post notes:

Kentucky - like any other state - needs all the intellectual capital, all the talent, that it can get. Whether anyone likes it or not, some percentage of the population is gay. What Roeding and others like him are really doing is marginalizing an entire segment of the population. That's not just wrong, it's stupid.

When the Cincinnati Post is talking sense and calling you stupid (even if they are equating all people to working chattel), you know you've reached the shite-covered bottom of the stupid barrel.



(hat tip to S&C, one of those people at Preemptive Karma)