• UPDATE: While originally reporting that Perry’s ad had originally surpassed Rebecca Black’s “Friday” as the most disliked video in YouTube history, the Huffington Post has now corrected (with some disappointment, if I’m not mistaken) that Perry is still safely behind the Biebs by nearly a factor of 10 for that coveted title; still, as you can see, to get to where he did with the number of views that he had is pretty remarkable. Who knew people would hate aimlessly lashing out at people so much?

If you’ve been following the GOP primaries at all, this is probably not a news flash, but Rick Perry, fading fast in the polls, played the “Desperation Homophobia / Obama Will Steal Your Religion” card yesterday, and looked pretty bad doing it. See for yourself:

The funniest thing about this is that while GOP primary voters are certainly not, as a rule, big fans of equal rights for homosexual folks, social issues are obviously taking a back seat in this election. The economy and the scope of government are driving the debate more often than not, but my guess is that Mr. Umm-Uhh-Ooops figures he’s not going to make much headway in that department, so he resorted to trying to fabricate a Evil Liberal And Eviler Homosexual War On Christianity in the hopes that his base will focus more on how much they can’t stand a little man-on-man action and less about how out of control unemployment could still get. I don’t think it’s going to work.

Also, it’s funny; while I no longer practice, I was raised Catholic for all of my childhood. I don’t recall ever being prevented from praying in school, and I’m pretty sure that I was allowed to openly celebrate Christmas everywhere I went. My parents are still quite religious, as are many of my friends. They seem to celebrate both Christmas and their faith in general completely unimpeded by our SocialstAntiReligiousKenyan “President”, and in spite of the fact that some people love other people of the same gender. Where is this war taking place exactly, Rick? If anyone’s being attacked, it’s those gay service-members that you apparently can’t stand. Despite their service, they, along with their civilian counterparts, still can’t get married before they leave or after they get home in most of the states in the union.

Fortunately, I can’t really envision a future where this guy’s campaign survives past the first primary election or two, so we won’t have to hear his ridiculousness for much longer, but seriously, given America’s history with a number of vehemently anti-gay politicians, are we all going to act surprised two years down the road when this guy gets caught with a male prostitute or playing footsie in a rest area bathroom?