Sunday, December 19, 2010

Teens hopped up on Shamanism

I swear, the unique thing about the Onion is their deadpan. You just have to wonder how many times these guys cracked up while they were filming this.
--
Do Glass Pipes, Incense Prove Teens Are Practicing Shamanism?


Tuesday, October 26, 2010

It Get's Better

Mission

The Trevor Project is determined to end suicide among LGBTQ youth by providing life-saving and life-affirming resources including our nationwide, 24/7 crisis intervention lifeline [1-866-488-7386], digital community and advocacy/educational programs that create a safe, supportive and positive environment for everyone.
Via The Trevor Project: "It Get's Better"


Thank a Liberal

I used to get angry when my parents would talk conservative politics by just repeating what they'd heard on Fox. Until, that is, I realized that I had the upper hand.

Reason having failed to reach them, I decided on a new strategy--mock.

I was with my dad the other day and something on the radio was talking about some safety regulation, and as conservatives go, at least recently, they've never seen a regulation they didn't hate, loathe and despise.

So I said "Those damn liberals and their safety regulations." And my dad stopped to think for a moment, then kind of chuckled and said "Yeah."

So whenever politics comes up, I freely admit that I'm a bleeding heart liberal -- so that thay know that I know what they think of people like me.

Now I have even more material to work with. This was on Countdown last night:
...for the mind of the republican those things are proxies for something else.

For their characterization of liberals as tree hugging, whale saving, wishy washy, namby pamby, flip flopping bed wetters who think they can reason with the Taliban and sit down with Osama Bin Laden and read John Stewart Mills on liberty and sing Kumbaya and somehow come to a peaceful resolution.
Here's some more cannon fodder. Lots of examples here:

Thank a Liberal

“Liberal policies made America the freest, wealthiest, most successful and most powerful nation in human history. Conservatism in power always threatens to undo that national progress, and is almost always frustrated by the innate decency and democratic instincts of the American people…” – Joe Conason

[I've cut this up for easier reading:

Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised. All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance – now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his workday. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It’s noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression. Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to. Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn’t mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: “We don’t need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.”

If you do not have skin cancer, and have ever stood outside without having a peeling sunburn within moments, thank the ozone layer, thank the ban on CFCs, and thank a liberal.

If you have not died in a heat wave, drought, hurricane, flood, wildfire, or other climate change disaster, and like the idea of your children and grandchildren not living in desert wastelands, thank a liberal.

If you have ever breathed clean air or drank clean water, thank a liberal.

If no woman you know has died or been maimed in a back-alley Abortion, thank a liberal.

If you have never been lynched, or had your children firebombed in a church, thank a liberal.

If you are glad we don’t live in a right-wing dictatorship along the lines of what conservatives overtly and covertly created in Iran, Guatamala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, the Congo, Chile, Brazil, El Salvador, the Phillipines, Indonesia and many others, thank a liberal.

If you have ever used Medicare, thank a liberal.

If you have not gotten cancer from radiation, thank the Nuclear test ban and thank a liberal.

If you have ever sat on a public seat, drank from a drinking fountain, stood on a bus, or done anything in public without worrying about being beaten up for being in the wrong section for your skin color, thank a liberal.

If you’ve ever driven on an interstate highway, thank a liberal.

If you grew up in a family of less than 12 kids, like the idea of being able to choose if you have 12 kids or not, if you don’t live in an overpopulated third world slum, or just think birth control is a good idea, thank a liberal.

If your family benefited from the GI Bill of Rights, FHA Mortgages, and so forth, thank a liberal.

If you have ever bought anything from Europe, and are glad the Marshall plan kept it from remained a bombed-out shell or falling to communism or neo-fascism, thank a liberal.

If you are glad that the Nazis don’t control half the world (conservatives opposed joining World War 2 until it was forced on them) thank a liberal.

If you have ever eaten food (agricultural subsidies), flicked on a light switch (rural electrification) or benefited from the Tennessee Valley Authority, thank a liberal.

If you ever drank a beer or a glass of wine without being thrown in jail, thank a liberal.

If you are not a land-owning white male, but have voted, thank a liberal.

If you have not died from tainted meat, been prescribed something useless or poisonous by a quack doctor, have not given your children cough syrup which turned out to have heroin as its secret ingredient, thank a liberal. (and Nixon)

If your workplace is safe and you are paid a living wage, including overtime; if you enjoy a 40-hour week and you are allowed to join a union to protect your rights without being lynched, thank a liberal.

If you’ve ever seen a national park, and it hadn’t been strip mined and clearcut into a desert wasteland, thank a liberal.
If you have never suffered from an economy of massive deflation, and have never even heard of an economic phenomenon called a “panic”, thank a liberal.

If your children go to school instead of working in coal mines, thank a liberal.

If you’re a Native American and have not been killed or died in a concentration camp, or if you live near Native Americans and are not at war with them, thank a liberal.

If you have an industrial or high-tech job – or really, any job other than those available in a slave-powered cash crop economy (ie, a third world economy) thank a liberal.

If you’re not a slave or “indentured servant” (white slave), don’t think protection of slavery belongs in the constitution, if you’ve never been chained to a boat where half the passengers die, been whipped, had your family split up, been forced to “breed” with another slave you’ve never met, been raped by your boss, or killed for not being profitable, thank a liberal.

If you oppose political parties starting massive wars to destroy America, just because they lost the election, and killing hundreds of thousands of Americans in process – if you just don’t have that much fanatical hatred of Lincoln’s policy of to restricting slavery to states where it already existed, thank a liberal.

If you’re part-Irish, Catholic, Jewish, or for that matter anything not Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and are allowed to live in America, and are not harassed and attacked for failing to be born Anglo-Saxon Protestant, or if you’ve ever bought or used anything built by a non-ASP American, thank a liberal.

If you kind of like freedom of speech, and don’t want the state government to be able to censor you – (you think the 14th amendment is a good idea) – thank a liberal.

If you have ever bought or sold anything transported by the transcontinental railroad, or eaten food from a farm created by the railroad, thank a liberal.

If you think the US constitution is pretty cool, and have ever traveled too or done business with a country whose democracy was inspired by the American revolution, thank a liberal.

If you have not been drafted and used as cannon-fodder in some war caused by some petty insult between nobles, clan leaders, or other various overfed dictators, or suffered rape or looting in one of those countless wars, thank a liberal.

If you have not been tortured to death in a religious inquisition, thank a liberal.

If you don’t have to walk though ankle-deep sewage in the streets (because sewers are big gummint), thank a liberal.

If you have ever done anything that is a religious or superstitious taboo (ie, done anything at all) without being stoned to death or cast out as a heretic, thank a liberal.

If you have never been raped, and then had the rapist escape punishment on the grounds that he marry you, thank a liberal.

If you are not a slave toiling to build a pyramid for some lazy dictator who’s so spoiled he thinks he’s god, and won’t even see it until he’s dead, thank a liberal.

If you have not been killed as a human sacrifice in the name of some god, thank a liberal.

In short, if you’ve ever enjoyed anything of the post-stone-age world, thank a liberal.

…And if not, become a conservative.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Focus on the Family: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" vote next week

From an email:
Of course, repealing DADT isn't just social tinkering with our armed forces.

It threatens the safety and morale of troops--who must trust and rely upon each other--by introducing sexual tension in the barracks.

It would also endanger the religious-liberty rights of chaplains and servicemen and women to share their beliefs about God's design for human sexuality.

--social tinkering
--threatens troop safety
--adds sexual tension
--endangers religious-liberty

One might think that the very moral fabric of time itself was at stake.

Not to worry:
$25 will print and mail voter registration packets to more than 25 concerned citizens in target states;
- $50 will send 25,000 "Get Out the Vote" reminder e-mails before Election Day
- $75 or more will help us continue to send these weekly e-mail updates to keep you and other values-minded voters up-to-date on key family issues and how you can be involved.

...consider giving ... voter-education ... vital efforts ... recurring gift ... monthly expenses.
And the solution...
Army Giving More Waivers in Recruiting

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Published: February 14, 2007
It has also increased the number of so-called “moral waivers” to recruits with criminal pasts, even as the total number of recruits dropped slightly. The sharpest increase was in waivers for serious misdemeanors, which make up the bulk of all the Army’s moral waivers. These include aggravated assault, burglary, robbery and vehicular homicide.
Assault: Definition: attack

Synonyms: abuse, advance, assail, bash, beset, blast, blitz, bushwhack, charge, come down on, go for, haul off on, invade, jump, jump down one's throat, jump on one's case, lay into, let have it, light into, rape, ruin, set upon, shoot down, slam, slap around, storm, strike, trash, violate, work over, zap
Why yes, Mr. Minnery, bonding with an abusive theif who's driving habits have been proven to be fatal is just the kind of confidence building cohesion that a unit needs. That, and dropping the soap in the shower in front of an ex-con.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Manhattan Declaration's statement on marriage.

"We, no less than they, are sinners"

No, that's not the statement, but it tells you where this is going.
--
I ran across this a few times lately and finally decided to Check it out.


MANHATTAN DECLARATION: A CALL OF CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE
Drafted October 20, 2009 & Released November 20, 2009

Founded by anti-gay hate monger, Chuck Colson, and drafted by himself, Robert George and Timothy George.

The Manhattan Declaration has a preamble, a declaration, and follows with articles on "life" "marriage" and "religious liberty," and boasts of nearly half a million signatories.

Naturally I was drawn to the section on marriage, to see what was being said about me homsexuality.

They begin with a couple of Bible verses, here's one of them:
The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24
They then soften us up with some “acknowledgement” of mistakes (without the anti-gay parts):

We confess with sadness that Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage ... we have too easily embraced the culture of divorce ... we repent, and call upon all Christians to do the same.

And then proceed to bash gay-marriage.
The impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same-sex [marriage] ... would lock into place the false and destructive belief that marriage is all about romance and other adult satisfactions, and not, in any intrinsic way, about procreation..."

Yes, I'm sure "romance" and "adult satisfactions" are the reasons why so many gay couples want to adopt.

We'll get back to that "procreation" song and dancee thing later.
We acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct. We have compassion for those so disposed; we respect them as human beings possessing profound, inherent, and equal dignity
Yes, I felt more "dignified" by the syllable.

There's really nothing quite like having someone express their love and support for you than by characterizing the most precious moments of your life, shared with someone you love more than life itself, as a matter of good and evil.
Marriage is what one man and one woman establish when, forsaking all others and pledging lifelong commitment, they found a sharing of life at every level of being—the biological, the emotional, the dispositional, the rational, the spiritual— on a commitment that is sealed, completed and actualized by loving sexual intercourse in which the spouses become one flesh, not in some merely metaphorical sense, but by fulfilling together the behavioral conditions of procreation.

That is why in the Christian tradition, and historically in Western law, consummated marriages are not dissoluble or annullable on the ground of infertility, even though the nature of the marital relationship is shaped and structured by its intrinsic orientation to the great good of procreation.
So, in order to blunt the accusation of hypocrisy in regard to having no problem with non-procreative heterosexual-marriages, they now maintain that gays shouldn't be able to marry because LGBT-sex DOESN'T LOOK LIKE hetero-sex?

Anyone?
…the assumption that the legal status of one set of marriage relationships affects no other would not only argue for same sex partnerships;

it could be asserted with equal validity for polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships. Should these, as a matter of equality or civil rights, be recognized as lawful marriages, and would they have no effects on other relationships? No.
No. No it could not be asserted with equal validity.

And here's why:
1) Slippery slope argument

This argument states that should one event occur, so will other harmful events. There is no proof made that the harmful events are caused by the first event.

2)
Slippery Slope Fallacy

The fallacy here is the assumption that something is wrong because it is right next to something that is wrong. Or, it is wrong because it could slide towards something that is wrong.
So there's that, plus all this stuff:

-Given that incest is Biblically-approved (see Genesis), why would you even have a problem with incestuous marriage?

-Unlike same-gender attraction, being attracted to one's siblings is NOT a sexual orientation.

-There are direct social consequences to the legalization of incestuous marriage.

If the family unit, as you say, is indeed the cornerstone of society, then the home should the safest place. Legalizing incestuous marriages could fundamentally undermine the perceived sincerity of familial affection.

On to polygamy and Polyamory:

-slippery slope fallacy
-Polygamy, also God approved
-The desire to marry ONE partner is not the same as the desire to marry additional partners
-Also, there are direct social consequences of legalizing polygamous marriages.

The wealthiest would marry up hundreds if not thousands of potential mates for other men. Marriage would become a highly coveted privilege. Now add an ocean of testosterone with no place to go. The incidences of rape and molestation would skyrocket.
--
And while we’re at it, whenever they compare the “sin” of homosexuality with the “sin” of adultery, they’re comparing having a partner with cheating on one’s partner.
---
I am left to conclude one of three things about the drafters and many, if not most of the signatories of this "Declaration."

1. They know these arguments are bogus and are fully aware that they are lying.
2. They just don't care about the truth.
3. They really are that stupid.



Inquiring eyes want to know.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

“It’s Gay, Not SSA”

I've been mulling on this since I first read the article and I think I've finally come to a conclusion.
--
From Truth Wins Out: February 12th, 2010 by Wayne Besen
Why I Loathe The Term ‘Same-Sex Attraction’(SSA)

Personally, I don’t like the bogus term “SSA”, which stands for “same-sex attraction.” There is no such thing (or diagnosis) as SSA and it is a manipulative attempt to separate LGBT people from their natural, inborn sexuality.

The term SSA is skillfully employed to make it appear as if fundamentalist bigots are not attacking the person, just their sexual feelings.

He then quotes from this article to show the power of words. Note, this is a different quote from the article that TWO uses:
New Poll Shows Support for Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’
February 11, 2010
By DALIA SUSSMAN

As the Obama administration proposes repealing the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a new New York Times/CBS News poll finds that a majority of the public support allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the military.

There’s less support, however, for allowing homosexuals to serve openly.
As one commenter put it: "The reason the far right uses the term “homosexual” is that it implies that our community consists of nothing but unfettered sexual urges on a daily basis."

Agreed. By using the term homosexuality, they are essentially able to characterize our equality-agenda as being sexually motivated. The use of the term "same-sex marriage" is no different.

When we hear "same-sex marriage," we think of marriage equality.

When they hear the term, they hear "sex marriage," reducing our motive for marriage-equality as being nothing more than a selfish desire to earn governmental recognition of our relationships promiscuity with the same person. Ergo, "sex marriage."

Another commenter had this to say: "SAME-GENDER MARRIAGE (SGM): Now, there’s a term I can understand and believe in. It’s not ambiguous to me at all."

I try to be consistent when using opposing terms, like, gay/straight heterosexual/homosexual, etc. It depends on what I'm writing and how I'm using the words.

So that much I'll defend in regard to the use of SSA, SSM, homosexual, etc.--sometimes they just fit.

But I will say that I have been, and will continue to use the terms "same-gender attraction" and "same-gender marriage" to help ensure that they are being taken in the context they were meant to be. As opposed to the anti-gay industry's use of the terms to reduce us, and the intimacy we share with our partners, as being nothing more than recurring sex acts.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Maddow at her maddest


Now, as I was assembling some facts today to put this decision into context---about the senator‘s voting record, his subsidized residence at C Street, his role as hush money negotiator between Sen. John Ensign and Sen. Ensign‘s mistress and all that---Sen. Coburn said this to the “Daily Caller” Web site. He said, quote, “Look at Rachel Maddow. She comes at me on the basis of emotion. She demonizes me. I don‘t want conservatives to win on the basis of emotion. If we lower ourselves to the level they operate on, we hurt ourselves and our arguments.”

I was trying to do my work. But then, that pops up in my Google alert and then I read it and I become ultimately so blindingly enraged and then hysterically upset and then inconsolably morose and then hyperactively giddy and then happy and then sad and then mad and then happy again.

But I couldn‘t make sense of any of the facts that I was gathering, all of which I was trying to read through the tears of joy and anger and anxiety, but I just can‘t control it. Can you tell? I‘m falling apart right now.
[I've got to memorize that for my next party]

So I promise - I‘m getting emotional by this promise. I promise that tomorrow I will gather myself and offer a full analysis of today‘s Tom Coburn news. I hope you will join us. If I can hold it together long enough, there is plenty of evidentiary facts to present and I will do it if I can, tomorrow night, right here.

Will you excuse me? I need a minute. So we‘re going to be right back. OK? OK. Sorry.
Next Day's evisceration of Tom Coburn:

Politicians should know by now not to F with Rachel Maddow.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Father Corapi on homosexuality

While sifting through my parents’ library of propaganda I came across a 2002 DVD called " Contemporary Attacks on the Family: A powerful sermon by Fr. John Corapi"

I was familiar with him from (before the anti-gay movement kicked into overdrive) when I saw one of his inspiring sermons (on TV).

The second time I ran across him, he basically said that the root cause of same-gender attraction is the result of confusion. Which I take to mean that every gay person on the planet is just to stupid to see that they are attracted to the opposite sex.

So this time, I was naturally curious to see if he’d broach the subject. And broach he did.I’d add a caveat about the age of this DVD, and how his views may be different now, but the video is still for sale on his website.
Father John Corapi: So the P squad, that’s an attack--a contemporary attack on the family. The attack of the P squad: permissiveness, promiscuity, potions [drugs], pornography, prostitution and progressivism.

Homosexuality. So called alternative lifestyles. Whenever I have talked about this, someone always misunderstands me, even though I do take great pains to try clarify what I’m saying. But I always begin by saying “Look, we are called all people. You can’t hate any class of persons. Everyone is to be loved as God loves them. A person may have a particularly loathsome---to you---habit, persuasion, be in a certain class, maybe ethnics.

You know, when I was a kid, it wasn’t fashionable, yet, to be Italian. I remember being called those names, derogatory names, when I was a little kid. I kinda hurt me. And Irish people were discriminated against. In my home area in upstate New York, it was settled by the Dutch, and the English--Protestant. And in the 1850’s the Irish came, and they were persecuted by the Protestants--Christians. And then the Italians came and low and behold, the Irish persecuted the Italians. And then the Polish came, and low and behold the Pols were persecuted by the Italians and the Irish. And then the Hispanics came, and the Hispanics were looked down upon by the Pols, the Italians and the Irish, and everybody.

So I think we’re getting better. I think there’s less of that kind of thing. But we’ve got to be careful, we don’t want to look down. We don’t want to be derisive, we don’t want to be hateful, we don’t want to be bigoted--for whatever reason a person has that sexual orientation toward a person of the same sex, we don’t quite understand it yet.

It may be a variety of environmental, and societal things. It may even have a genetic component, I don’t know, but you want to know what I tell gay people? And I don’t hate them. Many of the very creative, sensitive--beautiful people. I’m not homophobic, at all, I’m not afraid of them. I say, you know what, you’re just like me---no, not that way---you’re just like me because like me, you’re called to celibacy.

That’s the answer. For whatever reason you are the way you are, and I sympathize, with being the way you are. It must be tough--It must be tough. But if you are in fact that way, then you are called to celibacy, just like me. I am human, there are days when I might be tempted to this that or the other thing. I’m called to celibacy, and I don’t question it, and I don’t doubt it, I know it. And may I die having been faithful to it, all the days of my priestly life--I don’t mess with that, that’s a fact. And I tell them, same for you until you can resolve that, or maybe you never will, you’re called to be celibate.

That’s an attack on the family. This nonsense of giving legal recognition to samesex partners. It’s a terrible contemporary attack on the family.

It will undermine society, and society will go from bad to worse. And it will unravel, it will crash, and it will burn.
First time I’ve ever heard this one:

“…you want to know what I tell gay people? …I say, you know what, you’re just like me, you’re just like me because like me, you’re called to celibacy.”
Alan Chambers of Exodus: This is why I believe that it is so important to clarify that just living a celibate gay life is just as sinful as living a sexually promiscuous one. The sin is in identifying with anything that is contrary to Christ, which homosexuality clearly is. (218)
So, every same-sex attracted human being on the earth is not just “called” to a life of celibacy, but "called" to hate themselves on top of it.

It also goes to show the disingenuousness of those who so rabidly condemn the symptom: "homosexual behavior,” rather than the so-called "cause" of the problem: “identifying with anything that is contrary to Christ”

“…you’re just like me because like me, you’re called to celibacy.”
Calling: impulse to follow particular job: a strong urge to follow a particular career or do a particular type of work
Impulse? Urge? That which one is drawn to most? Seems to me that homosexuality would fit more in line with the definition of "calling" than does celibacy, besides, human sexuality is not a "calling," it's an empirical fact.

“…you’re just like me because like me, you’re called to celibacy.”

First of all, who the hell are you to decide what another person's calling is, especially when it is based, arbitrarily, on an unverifiable third party source?

Secondly, I was supposedly “called” to celibacy AGAINST MY WILL---the very antithesis of what it means to be "called."

Third, what do you say to those who tell you that their “calling” is to fall in love? Oh that's right:

"This nonsense of giving legal recognition to samesex partners."

"Nonsense" being code for 'their love is fake, and their relationships irrelevant.'
--
We are NOT just like you, Fr. Corapi, there’s quite a difference between “a calling” and the perversion of its meaning.

We are called, by you (et al), to rebel against our own human-nature, yet no Golden Rule has been broken. Which puts your moral credibility into serious question.
--
Celibacy is not a “calling” for homosexuals any more than lefties are "called" not write with their left hand. In this case, it's a "calling" to a life sentence of solitary confinement. The kind of "calling" you suggest is IMMORAL.

And for the record, I don’t recall him having said anything about the effect of violence---and the promotion of it---as being an attack on the family (but he had plenty to say on the evils of birth control).
--
And then there's this:
Fr. Corapi: “we’ve got to be careful, we don’t want to look down. We don’t want to be derisive, we don’t want to be hateful, we don’t want to be bigoted.”
Father Corapi, I have no respect for those who preach that I'm too stupid to know what love is, or to recognize intentionally veiled condescension.

Until you can decipher the true meaning of right and wrong, you’re "calling" will remain as an atheist generator.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Maafa 21: anti-abortion propaganda bait and switch

(Pronounced Ma-afa)

The following DVD, Maafa 21, was given to me by a card carrying member of the "Obama is Satan" club.



------------------------
Propaganda:

Definition: information that is designed to mislead or persuade

Synonyms: advertising, advertising, agitprop, announcement, brainwashing, disinformation, doctrine, evangelism, handout, hogwash, hype, implantation, inculcation, indoctrination, newspeak, promotion, promulgation, proselytism, publication, publicity

Antonyms: truth
---------------
The ending line (before the preacher’s rant) of the movie gave it away:

“As long as abortion remains legal, the Maafa cannot end.”

In word, in deed and in timing, pitch perfect propaganda.

Yet the time it took for those words to come out of that man’s mouth, is the time it took to throw the entire two hour history lesson I had just received, out the window.
---
You can argue the conspiratorial racist history and inception of Planned Parenthood all you like, but at this point, for some people, their services are vital. But exposing Planned Parenthood’s past was never the point of the movie, attempting to “secularize” the issue, was. A common political tack: Guilt by association (much of the anti-gay industry is built on this premise).

It was designed to appeal mostly to people of faith and those sympathetic to the cause, who may be on the fence about abortion. In this case, demonize Planned Parenthood’s sordid past in order to depict abortion and birth control as tools of genocide--and voilà, elective abortion = racial genocide.

The producers of this film, exploited the very history of the exploitation of blacks, in order to blur the line between genocidal intentions and abortion itself. It was never about eugenics, as the back cover of the DVD suggests:

Black Genocide in 21st Century America

They were stolen from their homes, locked in chains and taken across an ocean. And for more than 200 years, their blood and sweat would help to build the richest and most powerful nation the world has ever known.

But when slavery ended, their welcome was over. America's wealthy elite had decided it was time for them to disappear and they were not particular about how it might be done.

What you are about to see is that the plan these people set in motion 150 years ago is still being carried out today. So don't think that this is history. It is not. It is happening right here, and it's happening right now.
The back of the DVD cover also leads one to the Maafa website, where you can find that quote, as well as, after a little digging, this (PDF):

The claim is that the abortion issue is about privacy, and women’s rights, and reproductive freedom.

But that’s just marketing hype. In reality, it was EUGENICS that drove the legalization of abortion. And now, a stunning new movie lays it all out with incredible documentation.
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The film is called Maafa 21 and it exposes a plan to create “racial purity” that began 150 years ago and is still being carried out right now. It’s about the ties between the Nazis, the American eugenics movement and today’s “family planning” cartel. It’s about elitism, secret agendas, treachery and corruption at the highest levels of political and corporate America.
The rest of the Maafa 21 website seems a bit coy in revealing its anti-abortion agenda, unlike its producers, Life Dynamics Incorporated--who’s website was curiously NOT listed on the back of the DVD jacket. Even the LifeDynamics hyperlink on their YT trailer page only leads to their YT video library.

Something to hide, perhaps?

“This is the mindset that is behind everything that Life Dynamics does. We are fighting to return full legal protection for every unborn child, from the moment of conception. Because of this our motto is, "Pro-Life: without compromise, without exception, without apology."
As I said, that last line gives it all away:

“As long as abortion remains legal, the Maafa cannot end.”

A more productive and success oriented approach might be to suggest the end of unwanted pregnancies. It’s not a secret that abortions occur regardless of legality--and often with fatal consequences. But who cares about those lives, right?

That last line, and the rhetoric of every anti-abortionist that I’ve ever heard, is not at all interested in preventing the reason for abortion, but in controlling, via religiously influenced BIG government, what women do with their bodies. Misogyny at its best.

-The anti-abortion movement, as far as I have seen in my life, is intent on illegalizing not just abortion, but birth control of any kind, as well as comprehensive sex ed---all of which lead to more unwanted pregnancies, which then lead to more abortions.
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Again, from Life Dynamics, the producers of the video:

This is the mindset that is behind everything that Life Dynamics does. We are fighting to return full legal protection for every unborn child, from the moment of conception. Because of this our motto is, "Pro-Life: without compromise, without exception, without apology."
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I take it that that means “Life begins at conception,” which means that a new eternal soul is created upon conception?

Unfortunately, no anti-abortionist that I’ve seen interviewed has ever explained it like that. It would offer their “secular” audience the reason why anti-abortionists are so fervent about their opposition. Not that they would change that many minds, but it would plant some seeds of respect for their position/beliefs. Until, that is, that extra support finds out that they are also against all birth control and sexual education (sans ignorance only abstinence only education). Not to mention the resounding call for BIG government to implement this religious supremacist master plan.

“We are fighting to return full legal protection for every unborn child, from the moment of conception”

-Am I to understand that an eternal soul is created at the very moment that the lucky sperm fully penetrates the egg?

-Why would God need humans to create souls?

-How can a physical act create something non-physical?

-And if physical conception is required to create a new soul, how then did Adam and Eve come about?

And what about spontaneous abortions and miscarriages, which amount to about 20-50% of all pregnancies?

What happens if the zygote (fertilized egg) fails to adhere to the uterine wall as it often does? Where do all those eternal souls go?

Why isn’t the anti-abortion industry doing all it can to ensure that these eternal souls make it to term? Funding research to preventing spontaneous abortions and miscarriages is something practical that can be done right now, but why aren’t the leaders of the anti-abortion movement doing this? Are they that unaware of reproductive facts? Or are they intentionally keeping the focus on late term abortions that people can emotionally identify with for the sake of fundraising purposes?

They must despise their fundraising audience.

Further, The Catholic Church abolished limbo a few years back, but to my knowledge, hasn’t replaced it with another place for these aborted souls to go.
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There is a reason some of us refer to the “pro-life” movement as “anti-abortion,” or “anti-choice.” In my opinion, they are actuality pro-death.

-Support of the unnecessary Iraq war, which has resulted in tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of deaths.

-Neglect of the 40, 000 already alive people that die of starvation and preventable diseases every day.

-Support for the Bush administration’s ravaging of funding for low income children. (It was a real “treat” to hear republicans on the House Floor decry funding to enforce “dead-beat dads” to pay their alimony to mom‘s with kids.)
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Again, why aren’t they funding research to prevent spontaneous abortions/miscarriages with the millions upon millions they rake in each year? Think of all the liberal$ who would actually support that cause?

It seems clear to me that credibility and solutions are at the bottom of their priority list.

Ask your abortion leaders those questions, I would LOVE to hear their answers.

Once again, the point, even if this eugenics conspiracy is as true as they say, we have a Planned Parenthood right here in Caucasian conservative central, should they too be shut down on the basis of unrelated genocidal intentions?
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I had an idea the other day that religion is mostly for the faithless. Only someone who doesn’t believe in God would need to be reminded of its existence, or need “His” book to remind them that there is life after death.

Anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia, anti-stem cell research, these are all symptoms of the same disease: Fear of Death--or more accurately, the suppression of the fear of death.

Terri Schiavo lived for 13 days after being cut off from all food and water. Essentially, she was tortured to death. Not because she was euthanized---as per her wishes---but because the anti-euthanasia rabble refuse to allow for any legal means of dying humanely.

Faith, eh?

It seems to me that they are against anyone being euthanized, et al, because they are afraid of being reminded of death.

In that context, those who proclaim the loudest of their belief in God, and life after death, are the most terrified of death...thus the need to scream about it.
~~~~~

I highly recommend this article:

Anti-Choice Doc[umentary] Aims to Link Reproductive Rights to ‘Black Genocide’
By Michelle Goldberg
March 9, 2010

It digs into the misuses of what was presented to be factual history and makes it clear that Maafa 21 was designed as a piece of propaganda. Worse, inherent in its design is the exploitation of the exploitation of racism.
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Update: 4-6-10, 3ish AM

For the sake of disclosure, I’ve just been informed by a poster that Michelle Goldberg is biased.

One of the websites the poster lead me to included this video of Michelle talking about the importance of taking a more expansive and global look at reproductive health, and the unseen connections that exist.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Focus on the Family seeks to deprive children of parents.

Citizenlink blog, Mar 17, 2010 by Jenny
Stark bill promotes agenda over children’s needs

A
federal bill reintroduced this week would place children and their need for a mother and a father at the mercy of an agenda to promote gay and lesbian couples.
Implying that the only reason gay couples adopt children is so that the kids can be used as props to “normalize” their own relationship in the eyes of the public.
If passed, the bill would make it illegal for states that give priority to married mother and father couples for foster care and adoption placement, to receive federal funds for the purpose. Read about it here.
Yep. From the link:
The bill would make it illegal for any entity involved with adoption or foster care placement that receives federal funding to discriminate in its placement decisions based on sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status. States whose statutes or policies conflict with the laws would need to change those policies or risk losing federal adoption funds.
And voilà, “big government” finds a family, and “small government” becomes an orphan.

There's some interesting stuff in section 2 of the bill that you may want to check out:
(4) As of 2007, gay, lesbian, and bisexual parents were raising 4 percent of all adopted children and fostering for 3 percent of all foster children. A report from the Evan B. Donaldson Institute found that an additional 2,000,000 gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals are interested in adoption.

(5) According to the Urban Institute, same-sex couples raising adopted children tend to be older, more educated, and have more economic resources than other adoptive parents. Studies confirm that children with same-sex parents have the same advantages and same expectations for health, social and psychological adjustment, and development as children whose parents are heterosexual.
Unlike FOTF's disingenuous show of concern for the wefare of foster kids, This bill really is about improving their lives.
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Extrapolating from the ‘bigotry should be government sanctioned' stance, Ms. Jenny decries this potential LGBT measure of equality as a travesty, managing to take swipes at gay marriage along the way:
1) …State policies favoring the most stable family structure for orphaned children would necessarily be thrown out in order to comply with the federal law.
2) …faith-based foster care and adoption organizations … [will] lose business with the state.
3) People of sincere religious faith will marginalized…
4) …Catholic Charities in D.C. had to drop its foster care services when the city council redefined marriage.
5) …Catholic Charities of Boston was run out of that state, too—just after same-sex marriage became law.
And apparently it’s all our fault.
~The Sociopath Next Door, p59:

Using fear-based propaganda to amplify a destructive ideology, such a leader can bring the members of a frightened society to see the its as the sole impediment to the good life, for themselves and maybe even for humanity as a whole, and the conflict as and epic battle between good and evil. Once these beliefs have been disseminated, crushing the its without pity or conscience can, with chilling ease, become and incontrovertible mandate.
And if there’s one thing the anti-gay industry knows how to do best, it’s how to portray a gay as an it. Gays are promiscuous, disease ridden, drug addicted, child molesters, to name just a few of the dehumanizing terms they use to turn us into its.

Also, did you know that CHILDREN NEED A MOTHER AND A FATHER!!!!

Six out of nine paragraphs include some combination of the words “mother” and “father,” the rest implied it:

1) need for a mother and a father
2) married mother and father
3) both a mother and a father
4) mother-father homes
5) a mother and a father.
6) need a mother and a father, and the best way to make that happen is still marriage.

~~~~

To use Jenny’s words; “It’s hard to know where to begin with all that is wrong with this.”

1) Let's start with the Gay Bashing used to decry LGBT adoptions:

a) …children…at the mercy of an agenda to promote gay and lesbian couples.

b) We all know that difficult situations arise and family policy should address those situations, but it shouldn’t create them.

c) The “family”… …[is] more specific than two adults—or the current fad in social engineering.

2) Faith based adoption agencies will be forced to shut down.

a) According to the article you linked to, That's only if they can't pay their own discriminatory way.

b) If an organization wants to discriminate against a certain group, then I think it's only ethical to not receive their tax dollars in doing so.

Why should discriminatory agencies be allowed to receive federal funding that includes a portion of the tax dollars of LGBT citizens and their supporters? Otherwise it's thievery.

c) Being organizations of faith, shouldn’t this be where your “faith” kicks in?

d) And finally, If a child-placement service---especially a faith based one---is willing to sacrifice the welfare of the many in order to starve the few, I think it’s fair to question the integrity of that organization.
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This was an interesting article in regard to how Catholic Charities of Boston was “run out of that state”:
Catholic Charities stuns state, ends adoptions

Hehir said he hoped the decision will end the tumult surrounding the gay adoption issue. The controversy began in October when the Globe reported that Catholic Charities had been quietly processing a small number of gay adoptions, despite Vatican statements condemning the practice. Over the last decades, the Globe reported, approximately 13 children had been placed by Catholic Charities in gay households, a fraction [1/55th] of the 720 children placed by the agency during that period.

Agency officials said they had been permitting gay adoptions to comply with the state's antidiscrimination laws. But after the story was published, the state's four bishops announced they would appoint a panel to examine whether the practice should continue. In December, the Catholic Charities board, which is dominated by lay people, voted unanimously to continue gay adoptions.
3) “Children need a Mother and a Father”

OMG, by far the most irritating of all.

a) A motherload of a lie. If that was their concern they’d be fundraising to make divorce illegal.

One of the quotes they love to bash us with:
Mark 10:5-9

5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'[a] 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8and the two will become one flesh.'[c] So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
Yet man separates “one flesh” all the time. But who cares what the Bible says, right, FOTF?

b) Are you seriously suggesting that it would be better for a child to live in an abusive home with “a mother and a father,” than to live in a same-gender parented household that was safe?

c) The studies that FOTF points to that prove the power of the mom and dad, are too often (if not always), irrelevant and/or misleading in some way, but that’s whole ‘nother can of worms.

d) Placing so much emphasis on the importance of gender cheapens this theoretical “mother and father” down to an “Any married p and v will do” position.
~The Sociopath Next Door, p109:

When deciding whom to trust, bear in mind that the combination of consistently bad or egregiously inadequate behavior with frequent plays for your pity is as close to a warning mark on a conscienceless person’s forehead as you will ever be given.
Pity the “victims” of gay adoption, and then pity us, and our loss of yet another government subsidized expression of faith based hate religious freedom.

Boo. Hoo.
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The results of the studies on the welfare of kids in foster care are appalling. That’s a long article, you can get a sense of it here:
Now, consider a study released on April 7, 2005 by a large, Washington State-based foster-care provider, Casey Family Programs, and Harvard Medical School. The study used case records and interviews to assess the status of young adult “alumni” of foster care.

When compared to adults of the same age and ethnic background who did not endure foster care:

· Only 20 percent of the alumni could be said to be “doing well.” Thus, foster care failed for 80 percent.
· They have double the rate of mental illness.
· Their rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was double the rate for Iraq War veterans.
· The former foster children were three times more likely to be living in poverty – and fifteen times less likely to have finished college.
· And nearly one-third of the alumni reported that they had been abused by a foster parent or another adult in a foster home.
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Why, then, do we continue to pour billions of dollars into a system which fails 80 percent of the time and actually abuses at least one-third of those forced into it?

We do it because, over 150 years, we’ve built up a huge, powerful network of foster-care “providers” – “a foster care-industrial complex” with an enormous vested interest in perpetuating the status quo.
The author of that article links to another article entitled Twelve Ways To Do Child Welfare Right.

If you click on one link in this article, that’s the one. It offers a variety of solutions to fix the broken foster-care system, focusing mainly on prevention. This is where Focus on the Family’s priorities should lie--ON THE FAMILY.

Focus on the Family has an annual budget of over 100 million dollars and boasts of a 38 state network of “Fully Associated Family Policy Councils.” So far, twenty-nine states have been successful in their bid to bash gay relationships by legal decree.

They’ve raised millions upon millions upon millions through campaigns of lies and deception. The sociopaths at the top make them up, and their nonthinking followers repeat them.

Bush’s trillion dollar deficit, a-okay. An unnecessary war that cost the lives of tens of thousands (at least), to the tune of another trillion, a-okay. Children languishing in foster care, children in foster care unnecessarily, families that can’t make ends meet--also, a-okay.

But two gay people in love who want to wed? That, classily enough, opens up the floodgates. Wallets open, volunteers appear, press releases claiming victimhood are “rushed” out, and church networking explodes in the effort to prevent any chance of it.

However, when it comes to raising funds for actual families in need, Focus and their 38 state network of "family" groups are MIA.

For Shame.

_________________________________________________
Additional resources.

Rosie O’Donnell’s movie, America
-Resources and disturbing facts section.

The sociopath next door-Amazon.
-This book changed my life. It really helped me to better understand the atrocious behavior of the anti-gay industry’s talking heads and their non-thinking flocks.

Sociopaths: the predators among us.
-one of my essays (long).
_____________________________________________

Friday, March 12, 2010

Focus on the Family upset about too much respect

Citizenlink
3-11-10
Gay Agenda in New York Classrooms

New York City schools are hosting a Respect for All week.

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Citizenlink was apparently unable to provide a link to these gay-agenda shenanigans, so I took the liberty of Googling the event to find out for myself.
[NYC] Council, DOE Launch First Annual “Respect for All Week

Anti-Bullying and Harassment Week Will Kick Off on March 8 and Run through March 12, 2010

...The Department’s “Respect for All” initiative is New York City’s effort to combat bullying and harassment based on ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and other characteristics...
Re video below: The two city advocates featured here, more than ‘made the case’ for the Respect For All program and seemed genuinely and passionately interested in its success (I especially enjoyed the reasons, facts and examples portion of the adult conversation ;).
Christine Quinn: But it was just very exciting today at the kickoff precedent, just to have such a hugely diverse group of New Yorkers standing behind us. Rabbis, Imams, Reverends, ..coalition, everybody there with a united message that everyone has to be respected in our public school system if children are going to have the ability to get a quality education.

Naturally, Focus on the Family---via Citizenlink---is having none of it. One of the characteristics listed on the scale of bullying is sexual orientation, which they invariably interpret to mean homosexuality:
Joseph Mattera, presiding bishop of the Christ Covenant Coalition, said that gives GLSEN a permanent foothold in New York City classrooms.

"The whole idea is just to soften up the students so that there will be a receptivity in the future to same-sex marriage or other gay-friendly curriculum," Mattera said.
“The whole idea ... gay-friendly curriculum”

Yes. And an ethnic-friendly curriculum, and a nationality-friendly curriculum, and a religion-friendly curriculum, and a disability-friendly curriculum, and a gender-friendly curriculum, etc --- As the sign says: Respect for All.

They end with this link:

There are ways to deal with promotion of homosexuality in schools.

Which goes to a place called truetolerance.org; “a project of focus on the family”:

Concerned about the pro-gay agenda in your child’s public school? It’s sad, but many public schools have, in the name of “tolerance,” stifled free speech and true diversity by silencing students of faith, and those with conservative perspectives.

This isn’t true tolerance. True Tolerance means a free and respectful exchange of ideas.
One of those free and respectful exchanges of ideas might include the “truly tolerant” way of smearing any program that supports LGBT persons.

Such as thse participants of the Day of Silence:
The Day of Silence is a student-led national event that brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. ...The event is designed to illustrate the silencing effect of this bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT.
And this is how truetolerance.org characterizes the participants of the pro-gay Day of Silence. definition (PDF) of the Day of Silence:
GLSEN claims its “Day of Silence” event, held annually in mid April, is about tolerance and safety. But if you pay close attention to the materials being distributed for this event, it’s clear there is a one-sided political agenda beneath the rhetoric.
They define concern for LGBT bullying as “rhetoric,” and then charge that “there is a one-sided political agenda beneath” it.

IMNSHO, truetolerance.org is essentially another site designed to bash any program that brings attention to gay-bashing.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Exodus’ Jayson Graves keeps the focus on the anus.

Jayson Graves, a board member of Exodus International, co-hosts a show called “Pure Passion” (now in reruns). A show that highlights those who’ve supposedly overcome “sexual bondage.” Personally, I think it gives genuine testimony of changed (for the better) lives, and actually helps some people.

Unless you’re gay. Then you will get AIDS and die because of your “sinful behavior.” At least according to this program.
Jayson Graves (intro): Welcome to Pure Passion. My name is Jayson Graves and I’m your host for today’s program.

Did you know that the US Center for Disease Control has a
fact sheet they’ve issued, which says that in 2006, 54% of HIV infections among males age 13-29, were caused by homosexual contact. As well, that demographic is the only one that is seeing an increased rate of HIV infection in this country. Sadly, there were over 56,000 people in the US who were newly infected with HIV that same year, most of them being homosexual men.

The CDC fact sheet went on to say that 77% of HIV positive homosexual men, between the ages of 15 and 29, do not know they’ve been infected.

Another study shows that HIV positive, practicing homosexual men, are 9000% more likely to develop
anal cancer.

Even in Canada, the HIV / AIDS rates have risen sharply, 51% of infections are now found among homosexual men.

On today’s program, we’re going to talk with a man who has AIDS. These are always sobering stories, but it’s important that we become informed on the subject.

So let’s hear Dan’s testimony, and let it be a witness not only to the consequences of sinful behavior, but, also to the power and love of God, to cleanse us, and forgive us, from all unrighteousness.
The entire intro was devoted to the conclusion that HIV/AIDS are due to "sinful behavior."

From the Exodus website: "In brief, AIDS is better seen as a reaping of consequences than as God's wrath on a specific group."

Exodus leaves it up to the reader to decide whether or not AIDS is God's punishment.

Timothy Kicaid of Box Turtle Bulletin crunched some numbers and estimates that there is a "5.9% incidence of gay people (men and women) who are living with HIV/AIDS"

Instead of expressing a desire to find a cure and/or vaccine for the disease, they exploit, in God's name, the 6% of us who are suffering and dying, to suggest to their audience that anyone GLB or T are are warehouses of infectious disease.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Let the Book Burning Begin

Re: Supreme Court‘s ruling, Jan 21, 2010, in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(Transcript here)

My words:

As the result of this ruling, and in the name of free speech, corporations are now allowed to spend infinite money to influence the political process. Corporate shills will whine of the equality of such a measure, claiming that ALL corporations can do the same.

NOT TRUE.

Green corporations, renewable fuel corporations, corporations that exist to improve life on this planet in any way shape or form, by their very nature, exist to help, or at the very least, do no harm. And so will be the nature of their political influence, benign. They are guarded by conscience.

Such is NOT the case with corporations who’s ONLY GOAL is to accrue more power for themselves. Lives lost, maimed and ruined do not fit into the equation when it comes to their bottom line: More.

Karl Popper: “Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. Read more...
Similarly, capitalism without regulation cannot be sustained.

Without regulation, restriction or limit, the stronger corporations buy up the lesser ones, and so on and so on, until there is one monopolizing interest that decides the prices, the wages, the laws, everything. A tyranny. The Supreme Court of the United States just legalized tyrannical rule. Democracy is dead.

So, congratulations all you non-thinking, Bush-loving, gun-toting, flag-waving, war-mongering, anti-environmentalist, climate-change denying, materialistic, ego-addicted, religious supremacist, creationist, “pro-life,” gay-bashing, imbecilic, sociopathic, holier-than-thou bastions of hypocrisy, you’ll finally get the theocratic police state you’ve been longing for.

And for the rest of us, welcome to the beginning of hell on Earth.