Talk politics.

Watching one of the shows in the late afternoon/early evening on cable TV, a panel discussion on a certain topic made me seriously sick to my stomach, but also made me wonder how anyone not affiliated with the Tea Party, the Nazis, or the Westboro Baptist Church would even entertain, for one second, voting for a loon like Michele Bachman. Before I launch into this little diatribe, I will present some background on myself.

I am a 25-year old heterosexual male hailing from a small town on the east side of Washington state, just about 10 miles down the freeway to the Idaho border. I am an agnostic with a deep respect for atheists. Before this, though, I was an extreme conservative, Tea Party supporter who typically would vote straight down the traditional Republican line. I also was raised Catholic, a practicing Christian as an adult who, at one point, even would listen to Christian music exclusively and once worked at a Christian radio station in town. Eventually, I begun researching and "soul searching" if you will, realizing that what I was being fed from all the things I just mentioned were turning me into a hateful person that I, myself, wanted nothing to do with. This, coming from a family who taught me to love all and support this notion accordingly. I am an ex-Christian, liberal (maybe progressive) who, before I allowed myself to be brainwashed starting in college, was a proud member of the Gay/Straight Alliance at my high school. Nowadays, I am a proud Gay ally and aspiring activist for gay rights. Oh yeah, and I listen to NPR not just for my news and commentary, but also to be introduced to new bands and authors.

ANYWAYS, back to what I was going to say. This afternoon, a pundit I was watching led off with the discovery that Michele Bachman is a part owner of her husband's business which....are you ready for this...provides "therapy" to people who, or parents that want their children to be reprogrammed, reconditioned and "cured" of their homosexuality!

I knew from the get-go that Bachman, like Huckabee, is known, first and foremost, to be the biggest of social conservatives than any other candidate that has run in an election nationally in the last twenty years. But while Huckabee is just a garden variety Bible Thumper, this revelation over Bachman is absolute hate. Contrary to what she and her husband believe, not to mention what any given Bible-following place of worship preaches, homosexuality is not something that a person chooses. Also, studies that have been done on such "therapy," which were the kinds of tactics that the Nazis used back during their first reign of horror, have been shown to cause serious brain damage and even bring about suicidal tendencies.

Here's an article on this.

Worst of all, when called on the carpet on such things, Bachmann dodged the question completely by saying something to the effect of "I am running for president of the United States," and some crap about how she's just running a business. They're running a business alright, but they've also received a six-figure sum of government funds to run their brainwashing operation.