Rick Perry has fired the first shot in what I can only imagine to be a rapidly escalating cultural war in Texas.  Sitting at a Christian school, a sign that the separation between church and state is all but gone, he made it quite clear that certain people are no longer welcome here.

"Texans have made a decision about marriage.  If there's some other state that has a more lenient view than Texas, maybe that's a better place for them to live (emphasis added by the editor)."

Those were Rick Perry's words as he signed the bill that would send the gay-marriage banning constitutional amendment to the voters.

Correct me if I'm wrong — and I'm not wrong — but is the governor of Texas telling people who are being discriminated against that they can leave the state if they don't like being discriminated against?  Yes, that's exactly what he's saying.

Them?  What the hell is that about?

And when did Texans make a decision on this issue?  It's not even been put on a ballot yet.

The fact is that politicians spoke in the state legislature, not Texans as a whole.  There's a significant difference between politicians saying something and their respective constituencies saying something.  When politicians speak, it rarely has anything to do with what the people want.

In the meantime, Perry is telling every non-heterosexual in the state to get out.

"If there's some other state… maybe that's a better place for them to live."

It strikes me as near unimaginable that anyone would say we're going to discriminate against you and you can leave if you don't like it — and that's exactly what the asshole said.

The conservative Christian effort to firmly take the reigns of this country appears to be moving along successfully.  More and more Americans are being subjugated by governments at all levels as Jesus' cult elbows its way into power (remember that cult is the term large congregations use to describe small congregations, but they're all cults by definition).

The idea that religious fanatics could so easily take power in this country is frightening.  Even more disturbing is the premise that they can so easily practice discrimination, bigotry and hatred, clear indications of their own hypocrisy, while still claiming to be followers of Biblical teachings.  Those teachings, by the way, clearly prohibit such activities and make clear that those who practice them are evil men doomed to spend eternity in Texas… er… uh… I mean hell (now apparently the same place).

The legacy of Jasper Texas is alive and well in our country, except it's moved from the back roads to the state and federal capitals.  Hate crimes are still hate crimes, even when they're hidden in the law books.  Discrimination is discrimination regardless of how you explain it away.  And to hear Perry say the people of Texas have spoken when in fact they've not even voted on the amendment yet is disgusting.

When is enough really enough?

It wasn't OK to discriminate against blacks but it's more than OK to discriminate against gays?  Laws banning marriage between blacks and whites were unacceptable, but we don't mind if they ban marriages between same-gender couples?

Who do I hurt by being gay?  If I have a relationship with a man, does it cause financial hardship on someone?  Does it diminish their heterosexual marriage rights?  Does it in some way damage marriage between men and women?

Of course not!

This state, this country, the Republicans and especially Christians are bigots and evil hypocrites.  The funny thing is, although they'd never admit it, my life fulfills more of the Biblical guidelines than 99% of the Christians on the planet.  I don't hate.  I don't discriminate.  I sure as hell don't think any class of people deserves fewer rights than I do.  I believe all people should be treated equally, justly and fairly, and everyone should enjoy the same rights as everyone else.  I'm not a hypocrite.  I'm not a bigot.  I don't claim to believe and practice something while publicly and happily demonstrating the exact opposite.

There will be a backlash in this country.  Churches will burn.  Religions will be seen as the rabid cults they are.  Fanatics will be recognized and dealt with severely.  Governments will be toppled by popular demand.  Revolution will sweep across the states.  And that's if we're lucky enough to make it that far.

Sadly, the hypocrites in charge and those pushing from behind the curtains will never understand how it happened, they'll be blind to their own hypocrisy and hatred and bigotry, and they won't understand how their actions brought about the downfall of the United States.  10 years, give or take, and this country will be a shell of its former self.  I assure you it will happen.  You can only subjugate people with hate and fear and loathing for so long before the people have enough and decide not to take it anymore.

It is a social and class war being waged by governments who are being driven by religious zealots and radicals.  We as a people have become everything we said we were against when this country was founded and when all past wars were raged.  We torture, we hate, we discriminate, we abuse the rights of others, we show disregard for international law, we show disdain for the very same human rights we claim to uphold and cherish, and we readily violate our own Constitution.  We as a country, as a people, have become the Nazis of the new age.  Hitler would be proud of America.

If anyone truly studied what the Nazis did with the Jews during World War II, it all started just like this.  Take their rights away a little at a time.  Next, move them into the ghettos so you can keep them all together and get them out of regular society (sound familiar, Dick Perry?).  After that, begin helping them relocate "for their own safety."  Concentration camps are the final step — genocide based on sexual orientation.

Mark my words: that's what it's coming to.  Americans are just too blind and too stupid to see it coming unless, like me, you're on the receiving end.

How the great have fallen.  How the once magnificent America has become the enemy it claims to pursue.

If the American people do not take the country back from the radical fanatics who now control it, especially the religious zealots and extremists who are trying to re-implement the puritanical reign of fire (watch for "burning at the stake" to return as a legitimate punishment…), this country will die.  Our principles have already been violated and watered down.  Our freedoms have been eroded.  Our non-religious government has been replaced with a purely Christian régime which readily spits on other religions and those who do not believe as they do (just ask the Muslims).

Yes, we as a society are doomed if we don't act soon.  Actually, it may already be too late.