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When I first read the news about North Carolina Sen. Liddy Dole wanting to name an international HIV/AIDS medical aid act after the late Sen. Jesse Helms, I reacted somewhat like Atrios. I thought it was amusing that the name of this homophobic cadaver would be associated with legislation intended to prevent the spread of HIV. He would be certainly be mortified by the development were he not already mort-ified.
But because I am not gay or lesbian, my first reaction to the story lacked empathy for the victims of Helms' epic style of sociopathic, bigoted politics. Pam Spaulding at Pandagon explains it so the rest of us can understand, though, with some NC-level political tinge, to boot.
Afterword: For readers who are on Blog Inconsistency Patrol at this moment, I do not believe that the tone of this post is out of keeping with what I wrote yesterday about dead people who are horrible. My tone is overtly vulgar here because Helms' life work deserves no respect by any stretch of civility. Neither Helms himself nor any of his loved ones could seriously believe, in good faith, that there was any moral content whatsoever to the dead senator's soul. I'm not the judge, but I'm not responsible for the discredit he brought upon himself through a lifetime of peddling hatred to his enablers in return for income and political power.
Late update: I hereby honor Senator Dole by naming an important component of my home infrastructure after her. We shall heretofore refer to the seat of our busiest porcelain throne as the Liddy My Toilet. That something y'all can get behind, North Carolina?
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