AFTER WHAT TURNED OUT BEING A RATHER MILD AND PLEASANT SATURDAY HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI, things turned downhill in the weather department starting yesterday.

Even with occasional episodes of hazy sunshine, rain was pretty much the rule yesterday and into this morning (howbeit mixed with snow as melted before it could accumulate onto grassy surfaces more than likely, yet nonetheless making the roads and walks wet.)

And as I write this, things are rather cloudy and dreary looking, with maybe some showery rain possible towards the evening. That, and a rain/light snow mix suggested in the forecasts for tonight into tomorrow morning.

But still, though, Your Correspondent had his bicycle tuned up and ready for another season the other day, so will be starting to use that a little more unless obviously rainy conditions dictate otherwise.

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THE CONSPIRACISTS ARE PROBABLY CRYING IN THEIR PINTS OF MILD ALE over the news that the tragic 1997 accident as killed Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed was caused by grossly negligent driving on the part of both chauffeur Henri Paul and the flocks of paparazzi in hot pursuit.

In other words, putting paid to already-discredited conspiracy theories involving The Duke of Edinburgh and MI6 (and perhaps even some involvement from the Lyndon LaRouchenik element) cooking up the whole for the sake of G-d and Crown.

Meanwhile, The Duke of Edinburgh checked himself into hospital @ the weekend complaining of a chest infection, staying a couple of nights for observation. (One should consider the fact of His Royal Highness being 84 years of age, making him all the more vulnerable to illness.)

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"A role model? No! But I do consider myself someone that kids should look up to."

THUS OBSERVED TANK "THE SHREDDER" EVANS IN SURF'S UP IN EXPLAINING THE PRICE OF HIS CELEBRITY (as in nine-times-running winner of the Big Z Memorial Surf-Off Classic on Pen Gu Island, never mind his resort to the devious and dishonest to achieve such attention).

I bring this up in view of the hero and role-model status being accorded Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern in the wake of her remarks about homosexuals being "a greater threat [to American soverignty and soverign identity] than terrorism" being exposed to air and sunshine, in turn revealing something about the warped religiopolitical priorities of the GOP in Indecision 2008 (as in homosexuality being a Higher Priority than socioeconomic dislocation and its effects on the poor, undereducated and easily-influenced).

Howbeit in the wrong sort of circles, as People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch notes:

After Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern’s anti-gay speech—in which she warned that the “homosexual agenda” is “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam”—was made public and Kern became the center of attention, some right-wing activists rushed to her defense, including Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth, the sources she cited for proof that gays are out of destroy America. CWA’s Barber complained that Kern had been subjected to “tremendous assault” by “homosexual anti-Christian hate groups.”

But the Oklahoma chapter of CWA has its own take:

An Oklahoma State Representative is being "jammed" by homosexual activists and a sympathetic media for taking a stand on homosexuality, and she is not backing down.  The term "jamming" refers to the public smearing of Christians, traditionalists or anyone else who opposes the "gay" agenda.

According to CWA Oklahoma director Linda Caswell, “Rep. Kern represents the vast majority of Oklahomans.”

Yeah, right--"the vast majority of Oklahomans" as are poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced. Not to mention dependent upon Fox Prolefeed for "news and information" tending to the discredited and disreputable.

Returning to Right Wing Watch, it's now emerging that Rep. Kern is playing the "victim of persecution" card to whip up sympathy and win points in the "hero and role-model" department among as much the Religiopolitical Right as their droogs among the weird and unwholesome:

At least a thousand people attended a rally in the Oklahoma capitol for state Rep. Sally Kern, who recently became a right-wing celebrity after ranting about how gays are a bigger threat than terrorism. In her speech, Kern called homosexuality “the death knell for this country,” warned of a sinister “gay agenda” of indoctrinating “two year olds” and “infiltrating city councils,” and associated gays with “deadly” diseases. Unsurprisingly, the legislator has been catching some flack for her over-the-top anti-gay broadside, but according to Kern and her supporters, criticism of Kern (including angry e-mails, “many of them filled with profanity and vulgarity”) is proof of the persecution of the Religious Right.

From the Oklahoman:

"I told the people when I was running for this office that I was a Christian candidate and that I believed we were in a cultural war for the very existence of our Judeo-Christian values,” said Kern, who was elected to the House in 2004. "This situation proves that I was right. We are in a cultural war; this is for real.”

Concerned Women for America’s Matt Barber, who has helped promote Kern as a right-wing hero and who recently cited blood donations as proof of the “gay agenda” Kern warned against, said Kern had been the victim of “tremendous assault” by “homosexual anti-Christian hate groups.” After the rally, he portrayed this “persecution” as biblical:

People with traditional values who value God's design for human sexuality will not be intimidated and bullied into silence.  Political correctness can never trump truth. Sally Kern stood for truth, and she was hated for it. She was persecuted for Christ, but the Body of Christ was there to lift her up.

Likewise, Kern herself claimed the mantle of St. Paul in his imprisonment by the Romans:

"This is not about me," Kern said at the rally, which spilled over from the first floor rotunda to the building's second and third floors. She is the wife of Olivet Baptist Church pastor Steven Kern in Oklahoma City. "It's about the church having the right to speak out for the redeeming love of Jesus Christ Who died to set us all free from sin. The Lord gave me a verse I've been claiming. Philippians 1:12, 'I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.'"

The Religious Right has long sought to claim that Christianity is under attack by nefarious forces in the form of whatever policies and politics it disagrees with, as a way to convince people to go along with its far-right platform. Presenting Kern as the victim of a “gay hate campaign” neatly deflects the obvious criticism that Kern, Barber, and the others have been waging their anti-gay “hate campaign” the whole time.

That, and the likelihood of Rep. Kern's perhaps developing a martyr complex which can be deployed "when the proper time comes" to whip up "healthy" homophobic as can be neatly excused as "Christian Patriot Love."

But then again, there's also the risk that Rep. Kern could be used for potentially dangerous purposes and ends. As in being controlled to the point of manipulation by her handlers on the Religiopolitical Right, who can easily be expected to bring in busloads of "sponatenous popular support" to rallies where she's expected to deliver the same notorious message night after night, unaware that she may be risking emotional collapse.

The whole thing, it turns out, being a scripted farce serving not so much homophobic purposes as the Elmer Gantry Institute of Religiopolitical Theology.

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A HIGH-RANKING HEALTH OFFICIAL IN NEW ZEALAND, WHERE BUTTER CONSUMPTION IS PERHAPS THE HIGHEST ON EARTH, is calling for a "health tax" on butter, describing it as, in his words, "pure, natural poison" that poses as much a public health risk as smoking or drinking liquor.

Try suggesting such an idea in Wisconsin, where sentiment for dairy products has traditionally been rather strong--strong enough, in fact, to justify a long-since-abolished ban on sales of coloured margerine--and expect to be dunked in a Wisconsin Dells wavepool pretty quickly.