Sweet Schadenfreude

Here's what happens when you spend all your money on hate:

Colorado Independent reports that Focus on the Family “is poised to announce major layoffs to its Colorado Springs-based ministry and media empire today.” The layoffs come after the right-wing group spent more than $600,000 to defeat marriage equality in California.

They announced a cut of 202 jobs - 20% of their workforce. Lessee... how many employees would've been saved without them pouring all that cash down the cesspool of anti-gay animus?

The cash contributions are equal to the salaries of 19 Coloradans earning the 2008 per capita income of $29,133.

I'm sure those 19 employees are just thrilled to know that, although they're out of a job, their salary for this year means icky gays can't get hitched. That money went for a good cause, right?

Let's see how many starving children could've been fed. UNICEF can provide 20 packets of food for $15 per month; Save the Children lets you sponsor a child for $28. Let's just call it $30 per month for a nice full tummy. Lessee... $600,000 bucks divided by 30, that is:

20,000 kids not starving this month.

But it's so much more Christian to pour cash into an effort to deny marriage to teh gays.

Look like more layoffs might be in the offing, too:

I swear, War On Christmas season just gets earlier every year. The Dobsonites can't even wait for Thanksgiving:

Focus on the Family wants shoppers to know which retailers are naughty and which ones are nice - at least when it comes to holiday lingo.

On Thursday the Colorado Springs-based ministry's political action arm launched its second-annual holiday campaign by posting an online shoppers guide with three categories: "Christmas-friendly" retailers, "Christmas-negligent" retailers and "Christmas-offensive" retailers.

The "friendly" retailers are so designated because they prominently use "Merry Christmas" and other Christmas-specific references in their catalogs and in-store promotions. Those on the Christmas-offensive list use secular phrases such as "happy holidays" and have "apparently abandoned" the use of the word "Christmas," Focus said. Christmas-negligent companies "marginalize" their message by using "Christmas" in some cases and "holidays" in others.

Because saying "Merry Christmas" is so much more important than expending your efforts to actually make someone's Christmas merry.

Is it any wonder that, while I have some sympathy for the poor bigots who're going to be out looking for work in a tough economy this winter, I'm all aglow with the warm fuzzies at the sight of Focus on the Family dwindling from extended clan to broken home?

Happy Solstice, FotF!