I admit it.   I am a blog sponge.  I am not quite a junkie, but I like to dig in and explore and read the mind of some stranger and try his or her views on for size.

  I don’t really care that much for the ones that want to tell me how to feel, or what to think before they tell me the facts.  I have to say, that even many sites that I agree with, do this.  I am told how hideous, awful, insane the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is before they say what they have done.   If , after reading the facts, I don’t think NOM quite lived up to the hyperbole, I leave the article feeling not so much enraged, but distrustful.

   And the sad part is, that had I read the facts alone, I would likely have had a certain degree of disdain, anger and inspiration to dive into the fight.

   I have to say, however, that my reading on blogs that represent views other than my own have been even more challenging.  I have read two blogs by gay conservatives.  In principle, I do not see being gay and being conservative as the antithesis of each other.– especially on the issue of gay marriage.  Marriage and family is a conservative ideal.

   I rarely get much satisfaction reading gay conservative pieces however, since conservative principles rarely actually show up, not unless naked paranoia qualifies as such.

   Take this recent piece by Terence Jackson:  http://www.rightwingnews.com/culture/the-truth-about-the-gay-left-from-a-gay-conservative/  .   Mr Jackson claims that he is going to reveal some great revelation about “The Gay Left”, who he seems to define as Dan Savage.   Mr. Jackson sees three “communities”… the “Gay Left”,  the “Gay Moderates” and the “Gay conservatives”.   As I said, Dan S seems to be THE guy in “Gay Left”town.

   The other groups are undefined but certain acts of thuggary are laid out… like the Gay Moderates living in fear of being beaten and ostracized by the Gay Left (Dan Savage) if they speak out.

   Mr. Jackson seems convinced that gay people who are against a party that demonizes everything in their lives, but, in his opinion, has a better “economic vision” have been deluded by the Gay Left (Dan Savage).

   Listen… here’s the deal.   I like some of the things that Dan Savage has done.  I also think he has been inappropriate in others.  I know of no gay people, most of which do not slap the mandated labels across their foreheads as Mr. Jackson suggests we must, who go running to Dan Savage to figure out how to think about things.

   The Republican Party has done a pretty good job of telling us what to think about it all on its own.  If every communication an entity puts out about you is a lie, if it states how it wants you stripped of protection, honor and the ability to make determination of your own family and lives, then you don’t really need help, particularly Dan Savage’s , in figuring out how to react.

    Certainly, we don’t need the help of a Terrance Jackson either.  Mr. Jackson claimed to be presenting the “Truth” about the “Gay Left”.   All I can conclude is that it is a creation of a few paranoid conservatives that do not have compelling thoughts or arguments, so all they can do is create a strawman, stick a picture of Dan Savage on it, and beat it with sticks.

    And that’s the truth.