Black opposed making spousal rape a crime, citing the impossibility of convicting a husband accused of raping his wife "when they're living together, sleeping in the same bed, she's in a nightie, and so forth." [...] Black invited a TV reporter to film him using a library terminal to watch violent rape porn. [...] [He] called military rape "as predictable as human nature." "Think of yourself at 25," Black told a newspaper in 1996. "Wouldn't you love to have a group of 19-year-old girls under your control, day in, day out?" [...] The 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, for example, inspired Black to suggest legislation requiring Virginia students to address their teachers as "Ma'am," "Sir," "Mr.," "Ms.," or "Mrs.," because, Black explained, "The counterculture revolution of the '70s took the war into the classroom. Before that time, public schools were a model of decorum, and then we began this thing we've seen play out at Columbine." [...] Black tried to pass legislation preventing same-sex couples to apply for low-interest home loans from the Virginia Housing and Development Authority. The current policy, he explained, "subsidize[s] sodomy and adultery." [...]

I know it's still early and we shouldn't get our impeccably cynical hopes up, but Republicans may have found their new E.W. Jackson. And yes, Virginia, he's from Virginia. For those of you who haven't heard of him yet, we present Republican state Sen. "Dick" Black, who wants to be Virginia's newest member of Congress because, well, gawd only knows Whether Black will be successful in getting the Republican nomination depends in large part on whether state Republicans decide to nominate via party convention (notoriously wingnut-laden; see E.W. Jackson) or state primary (marginally less wingnut-laden). So far, they haven't decided.

You know, Virginia Republicans, just because you can dig these people up and present them for higher office doesn't mean you should. Between Cuccinelli, Jackson, and the wackos, the state's political delegation is beginning to look like a cross between a period Victorian piece and a zombie horror film. "No couuuunterculture. Sodomy baaaaaaad."

Seriously, though, can't we scoop these folks up from all the states and give them their own little island somewhere where they can be as anti-sodomy as they want? As long as everybody wanders around calling each other "Sir" or "Ma'am" I'm sure they'll get along just fine.

