There are always warning signs...

The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., one of the country's pre-eminent evangelical leaders, acknowledged that he irked many fellow conservatives with an article earlier this month saying scientific research "points to some level of biological causation" for homosexuality.

[...]

However, Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., was assailed even more harshly by gay-rights supporters. They were upset by his assertion that homosexuality would remain a sin even if it were biologically based, and by his support for possible medical treatment that could switch an unborn gay baby's sexual orientation to heterosexual.

[...]

Mohler said he was aware of the invective being directed at him on gay-rights blogs, where some participants have likened him to Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor notorious for death-camp experimentation. "I wonder if people actually read what I wrote," Mohler said in a telephone interview. "But I wrote the article intending to start a conversation, and I think I've been successful at that."

[...]

"I realize this sounds very offensive to homosexuals, but it's the only way a Christian can look at it," Mohler said. "We should have no more problem with that than treating any medical problem."

Mohler's argument was endorsed by a prominent Roman Catholic thinker, the Rev. Joseph Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla., and editor of Ignatius Press, Pope Benedict XVI's U.S. publisher.

"Same-sex activity is considered disordered," Fessio said. "If there are ways of detecting diseases or disorders of children in the womb, and a way of treating them that respected the dignity of the child and mother, it would be a wonderful advancement of science."

[...]

Paul Myers, a biology professor at the University of Minnesota-Morris, wrote a detailed critique of Mohler's column, contending that there could be many genes contributing to sexual orientation and that medical attempts to alter it could be risky.

"If there are such genes, they will also contribute to other aspects of social and sexual interactions," Myers wrote. "Disentangling the nuances of preference from the whole damn problem of loving people might well be impossible."

"Same-sex activity is considered disordered," Fessio said.

As a wise man once said: in English, the passive voice is only used to facilitate lying.

Some further enquiry into this subject continues to contradict PETA's claims. The project is called "A Ram Model of Neuroendocrine Function Objectives." The stated objectives of the project are quite simple, though they are not worded all that simply:



They are most assuredly trying to demonstrate the accuracy of their hypothesis that "sexual orientation" in sheep is biologically determined, and they are trying to do this by creating "homosexual" sheep.

Researchers are often very quick to point out that sheep are not people -- probably because they really aren't. Still, the sheep research has come up with remarkably similar results to earlier research on the biological determinants of orientation in humans.



Now, PETA is welcome to oppose this research -- after all, they are killing sheep. They are drugging pregnant ewes in an effort to alter the mating behavior of their offspring. I can certainly see how that runs afoul PETA's stated principles and objectives. I am not especially amused by their Orwellian double-speak though. Certainly the research might be applicable to humans. I fail to see how a medical technique for enhancing the chances that your children will be born gay is a bad thing.

I have not yet found any information specifically regading the researchers' grant application -- or PETA's claim that the "experimenters plan to extrapolate the test results to humans.

One of my favorite bloggers, Thomas Kraemer is one of the founding benefactors of the Magnus Hirschfeld Fund for sexual orientation and gender identity research at Oregon State University. One hundred percent of his estate will be used to endow the fund. It's rather a moot point at the moment, because Mr. Kraemer has not died.

The endowment specifically may not be used to fund certain types of research -- namely what most reasonable people would call "anti-gay" research.




Mr. Roselli's and Mr. Stormshak's research into ovine preoptic hypothalamuses, however, is specifically cited as an example of acceptable research to be funded by this endowment.

I wonder if there is a stem cell cure for conservatism? Or for assholishness?

If they could determine wheter their embrios will be gay or not, straight parents would have little scrupples to weed the gay ones out. In India they are weeding out female embrions because boys are more profitable.

Quite likely, yes. I think it is inevitable that a fairly precise group of "causes" of homosexuality will be identified, and that tests to identify orientation will one day exist for most if not all of these "causes." And yes... I do not hesitate to agree that the straights will be highly motivated to obtain these tests, and to use them in just the way you describe. It is rather unfortunate that we will so readily presume this degree of wickedness on their part, but we do so. In fact, if someone were to suggest that the straight people would not promptly consider aborting a gay child if it were possible to determine it's orientation... well, that would just be naive. I find it odd that on this point a great many gays have little hope for the "goodness" of straight people, but on almost every other point gays are willing to assume a basic altruism on the part of straights that just isn't in evidence. Such tests do not currently exist, so of course I do not know what proportion of straights would act on this information. Even so, I readily believe that they would kill us all if they had the chance and it was convenient.

To use an EM metaphor, I think the attitude is a gay version of the Infosaturated Syndrome... or to place it further back in history, the Briggs Gambit.

There are so many of us who do believe that the vast majority of str8s actually mean us no harm, no, not in thought nor deed. But... these same gay people will often attest that they can kinda-sorta understand why str8 parents wouldn't want, say, their kids to be taught by gay teachers and the like. Or they can kinda-sorta 'understand' why str8 people get stereotypical attitudes toward us... I mean, look at Gay Pride parades... oh yes, these particular gay people will tell you.

No, no, it's not *right*, these particular gay people will tell you, but it is "understandable" because, ya know, lotsa times parents go overboard in trying protect their kids... even from imaginary risks... even at the expense of other people's rights.. even gay parents sometimes... so you can kinda-sorta see why.... ya know?

That's why, these particular gay people will tell you, it's so terribly important that we *educate* str8 people... so that, ya know, they aren't afraid anymore and will eventually stop doing stuff like this.

And so I am given to wonder, how many Jews thought education was the answer when the Weimar government fell? I'm betting there were plenty... and those particular Jews ended up just as dead as the Jews who went placidly, just as dead as the ones who tried to flee (but failed), and just as dead as the ones who fought back in Warsaw.

It doesn't matter how 'understandable' your enemy's attitude is. He remains your enemy.

To pretend otherwise is fatal... particularly when we pretend it to ourselves.

And now the genocide advocate is getting backing from a leading Roman Catholic priest and educator

The 66-year-old said he was doing well one day after he resigned after Ave Maria officials asked him to step down, citing irreconcilable differences.

Fessio’s dismissal came after statements he made were published Tuesday in an article in the California Catholic Daily titled, "Hey, Hey, Baby Gay! What Do You Do? What Do You Say?" and on the personal Web site of one of the country’s preeminent evangelist leaders, the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Fessio said his comments about homosexuality in the California Catholic Daily article or on Mohler’s Web site were not the reason for his dismissal.

Research into the human genome and the possibility of germ-line therapies raises all kinds of moral concerns, ranging from the creation of designer babies to the redefinition of humanity. In one article, I was said to advocate genetic therapies. I never said that, and I resolutely oppose such proposals. I would not advocate the use of genetic therapies to create heterosexual babies — or any other therapy of this type. The hypothetical question I addressed had nothing to do with genetic factors at all. Furthermore, genetic factors are likely to be so complex and inter-related that no single genetic factor or set of factors is likely to be found to cause anything as complex as sexual attraction.

If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin.

It seems that genocide has become a label to be stuck on your worst enemy, a perverse version of the Nobel Prize, part of a rhetorical arsenal that helps you vilify your adversaries while ensuring impunity for your allies. [..] Darfur gives the Warriors on Terror a valuable asset with which to demonise an enemy: a genocide perpetrated by Arabs.

‘When I spoke at Cornell University recently, a woman asked why I always harp on Darfur. It’s a fair question. [..] We have a moral compass within us and its needle is moved not only by human suffering but also by human evil. That’s what makes genocide special – not just the number of deaths but the government policy behind them. And that in turn is why stopping genocide should be an even higher priority than saving lives from Aids or malaria.’

If many of the leading lights in the Darfur campaign are fired by moral indignation, this derives from two events: the Nazi Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. [..] Again, the encounter between the two seemed to take place outside any context, as part of an eternal encounter between evil and innocence.

Homosexuality in the animal kingdom is as natural as green grass in summer. Amusing or appalling as some might find it, this ‘weird proclivity’ has been recorded in 1,500 animals species from mammals to crabs and worms.

Same sex pairs of animals kiss and caress each other with obvious affection and tenderness. Any homosexual behavior you care to name — anal sex, same sex kissing, long term pair bonding between members of the same sex, courtship rituals unique to homosexual couples and more are commonly found in the animal kingdom. Yet this not yesterday’s discovery.

The earliest mention of animal homosexuality was by Aristotle, who spoke of homosexuality between hyenas.

The earliest mention of animal homosexuality was by Aristotle, who spoke of homosexuality between hyenas.

Hyena females are considerably larger than the males. The females are masculinized due to the excess testosterone in their bodies; they have more testosterone in their bodies than most male hyenas. As a result of this masculinization, females are a third larger than the males, have more muscle mass, are more aggressive, and have masculinized genetalia. Their vulva is fused to look like a scrotum and testes, and their clitoris is large and looks like a phallus, and can be erected just like a penis. The vagina runs through the pseudo penis. This makes it hard for them to mate and give birth, since they do so through this pseudo penis. It was once thought that hyenas were hermaphroditic animals because the females sported genitalia similar to the males. In fact, the only sure way to determine the sex of a hyena is that after giving birth the female's two black nipples become enlarged.

The erect 'penis' of both sexes plays a prominent role in ritualized greeting
.

Golly... that'd mean it pre-dated the bible, wouldn't it?

Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC)