Is a bigot.

I was reading this news article today. It discusses the fact that “Creation”, the new movie about the life of Charles Darwin has failed to secure a US distributor, as his theory of evolution has been deemed “too controversial” for American audiences. When I was done weeping over that particular extreme fact of Fail (which probably deserves an isabigot.com post of its own–though “American movie audiences” feels like too broad a target for one), I decided to investigate the assertion the article made concerning Movieguide.org. Specifically:

Christian review website Movieguide.org has branded Darwin as “a racist, a bigot and a 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder”.

After a little searching on Movieguide.org, I found the reference, here. It’s illustrative to reprint the referenced paragraph in its entirety:

DARWIN’S RACISTS – YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW exposes the real Charles Darwin: a racist, a bigot and 1800′s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder. This well written book shows that Adolf Hitler, along with other genocidal mass murderers, was influenced by Darwin’s half-baked Theory of Evolution. This book exposes Darwin’s Theory of Evolution for what it is: an elitist and racist dogma that has infiltrated our every area of culture thereby undermining sense and sensibility.

See, this was one of those cases where I had figured the article was making inflated claims, or decontextualizing a statement inappropriately. Nope. Turns out the source material is being referenced euphemistically, if anything. So what the fuck is Movieguide.org’s deal? Originally a biweekly journal, it was founded by M. Robert E. Theodore Baehr, a manifestly insane right-wing fundamentalist Christian nutjob if ever there were one. He currently serves as its publisher and Editor-in-Chief. While the site’s stated mission is “helping parents use informed judgment when deciding what entertainment products are suitable for their families’ enjoyment” (noxious enough), its real job is, as evidenced, the dissemination of right wing Christian hate speech.

And it doesn’t stop there.

Baehr’s public relations company, “Kairos Marketing”, is apparently in the business of accepting payment for “consulting and promotional activities” on behalf of movies “reviewed” in Movieguide. Movies for which payment are accepted are always reviewed positively. If Kairos is not strictly speaking part of Good News Communications (the non-profit that publishes Movieguide), Kairos does “donate” to Good News Communications, and both organizations have the same face on the flag. It’s a clear example of Baehr using the site’s popularity with vagina farm Bible-hugging lunatics to feather his own nest. A hilariously familiar story that grows even more comical when you realize that Movieguide.org is desperately attempting to portray itself as some morally righteous “Hollywood watchdog.” When Baehr got totally busted in 2004 for his two-faced shilling (by a fellow Christian rag, no less), his response served as testimony to the lawyer he once was:

“We’ve lent our expertise to many movies – gratis, for the sake of helping God’s kingdom advance in this industry. In a few cases, after we approve of and review the movie according to our stringent criteria, we have been remunerated for our services through a sister organization set up for this purpose to help underwrite the extra time these promotional efforts required.”

Nice job, Doctor Goebbels. I mean Baehr. Drop us a line if you ever want to stop lying, being a greedy shill, poisoning people’s minds with filth, and publishing slanderous attacks on brilliant scientists who happen to be long dead. We’ll give you a job in our legal department.

Shining shoes.

Some of you may be familiar with the Bernard Baran case. In the first 1980s “day-care-panic” case to secure a conviction, Baran, an openly gay daycare worker, was railroaded into serving a 22-year prison sentence. He was (dis)ably assisted by an incompetent lawyer, obviously coerced child “confessions”, and the general atmosphere of hysteria that permeated “childcare molester” trials of this sort at the time. No one, however, did so much to ensure that Baran spent enough time in prison to be raped and beaten over 30 times as Judge Daniel A. Ford.

Then a prosecutor, Ford wasted no opportunity to trumpet his hatred of all things of the gay, repeatedly referring to Baran inside and outside the courtroom as “the fag” and “that queer”. He edited out sections of the interview footage with the “molested children” shown to the jury in which the children deny any abuse by Baran, accuse other members of the daycare faculty of abuse or of witnessing abuse, are given rewards for their answers, and, most importantly, where interrogators were shown asking the same questions over and over—even after repeated denials—until a child gives them an affirmative answer.

Ford then withheld the unedited video from the grand jury ( itself an act of misconduct) and looks very likely to have withheld it from Baran’s trial attorney (who, unfortunately, was far from competent himself.) He also deliberately withheld from the defense police reports and DSS materials indicating that at least two of the children were very likely sexually abused by someone other than Baran.

An affidavit signed by Baran’s boyfriend at the time paints Ford as the homophobe that he surely is. According to the document, the D.A. spent an inordinate amount of time asking Baran’s boyfriend about his own sex life, employing variations of the word faggot, and using a mocking, drawn-out pronunciation of homosexual. During the trial, Baran’s boyfriend was pulled over by police officers and harassed on a daily basis. Ford told Baran’s boyfriend, illegally, that if he spoke with Baran or Baran’s defense attorney, he would be arrested.

The thing is, while Baran now attempts to put the pieces of his life back together, Ford has been racking up 20 years as a sitting judge on the Massachusetts Superior Court, no doubt enjoying life sucking on the nipple of the public tit and indulging his love of golf and spectator sports.

Isabigot.com thinks Ford should be cracking rocks himself right now for his outrageous perverting of the course of justice, and his consequent responsibility for the destruction of this innocent man’s life.

Sadly, prosecutors enjoy absolute immunity from civil rights lawsuits, even in cases of misconduct that lead to false convictions. The only way Ford’s actions in the Baran case could now be examined would be for one of the state’s legal ethics boards to open an investigation, either on its own or in response to a complaint. Baran himself would rather not be dragged through another trial–and who could blame him? Harvey Silverglate, one of Baran’s appellate attorneys says that if there’s no action in the coming months, he may file a complaint himself. We hope he does.

Dear Daniel A. Ford. Eat a thousand dicks that rain from the sky. You vile bigot.

Charles R Darwin, is there anything good in Missouri? Came across this link via Richard Dawkins’ twitter. Briefly, Smith-Cotton High School’s marching band created the above t-shirt for its players to wear to promote their fall program. No sooner had the band debuted the t-shirts at the Missouri State Fair parade when complaints by “concerned parents” (including the eponymous Sherry Melby) trickled in.

The public school, naturally enough, caved in and forced the band members to turn in their shirts. What really had me blowing milk out my nose was the statement by Assistant Superintendent Brad Pollitt: “The district is required by law to remain neutral where religion is concerned. If the shirts had said ‘Brass Resurrections’ and had a picture of Jesus on the cross, we would have done the same thing,” he said.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s rewind here, people. “WHERE RELIGION IS CONCERNED”? Where does this knuckle-dragging, boneheaded jerkwad get off conflating “magical zombie man myth for retards” with “the observable fact of changes in populations of biological organisms over time”?

And Melby’s statement that “[she] [doesn't] think evolution should be associated with our school.” is hilarious. Imagine! The horror! Associating BASIC SCIENCE with an institution tasked with the instruction of young people in same! How could the local board of education live with itself?

The answer to that question is, sadly, “pretty easily”. I’ll pass the baton of outrage to PZ Myers on this one. I’ve got milk to buy.