Monday, March 2, 2015

Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Christian Activist Files Ballot Measure For Executing All Homosexuals



 
A Christian activist named Matt McLaughlin has filed a proposed ballot measure with the California Attorney General's office which would ask voters to approve the death penalty for homosexuality.  Wonkette has tried to identify McLaughlin:
The ballot initiative filing with the AG’s office offers little in the way of clues to McLaughlin’s identity, but there is an address that matches that of a lawyer by that name and address on avvo.com. When we looked the address up, it turned out to be a Mail Box Express store in Huntington Beach. Huh. That is definitely not a law office! In approximately four minutes of thorough searching, we also couldn’t come up with any legal cases involving a Matthew G. McLaughlin, and then we suddenly had to go read all of the think pieces about what color that dress was (#TeamGoldAndWhite), so we got distracted.
We DID get a hit on a Matt McLaughlin, lawyer, same Mail Box Express address, BOOM, who in 2004 submitted a citizen ballot initiative to give bibles to all public school kids in California, grades 1-12, because “great literature.” That initiative was way less crazy than the “sodomite” one (although still very crazy), and, as a Literate Person and also A English Major, we see the value of learning about how the Bible has impacted Western literature. More to the point, that initiative included an opt-out provision. However. Groups like the Anti-Defamation League and Americans United for Separation of Church and State were extremely suspicious, and McLaughlin didn’t collect the required number of signatures, so it didn’t go anywhere.
In order for the gay death penalty to be put to California voters, the backers of an initiative must pay the $200 filing fee (which has been done in this case) and then collect petition signatures equal to 5% of the total votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. Per the results of the 2014 election, McLaughlin must gather about 366K names. Below is opening text of his Sodomite Suppression Act.



Reposted from  Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Nebraska Turns Cerulean



 
The color will shift to mustard should the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issue a stay. In January the Eighth Circuit declined to lift the stay in Missouri, which is shaded sapphire due to the legality of same-sex marriage in St. Louis and its recognition statewide. The Eighth Circuit will hear oral arguments in the cases out of Missouri, Arkansas, and South Dakota in May.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia- Flor del día- Flower of the day 2/03/2015:

O planeta Terra está atravessando um nódulo karmico. Estamos colhendo o plantio que fizemos durante um determinado ciclo do tempo. Temos fracassado em nossa tentativa de criar união; temos fracassado em nossa tentativa de sermos felizes. E o que podemos fazer para não piorar a situação? Ser felizes! Porque somente uma pessoa feliz não destrói. Mas, me refiro à felicidade autêntica – aquela que vem de dentro – e que está intimamente relacionada com a capacidade de criar união. Esse é o segredo para criarmos uma cultura de paz e prosperidade, e consequentemente é o caminho para o fim da crise de sustentabilidade.

El planeta Tierra está atravesando un nudo kármico. Estamos cosechando la siembra que hicimos durante un determinado ciclo del tiempo. Hemos fracasado en nuestro intento de crear unión; hemos fracasado en nuestro intento de ser felices. ¿Y qué podemos hacer para no empeorar la situación? ¡Ser felices! Porque solamente una persona feliz no destruye. Pero me refiero a la felicidad auténtica - aquella que viene desde adentro - y que está íntimamente relacionada con la capacidad de crear unión. Este es el secreto para crear una cultura de paz y prosperidad, y consecuentemente es el camino para el fin de la crisis de sustentabilidad.

Planet Earth is passing through a karmic nodule. We are harvesting the crops we have sown over a certain cycle of time. Our attempts to create union and to be happy have failed. So what can we do to avoid making the situation worse? Be happy! Only a happy person does not cause destruction. Here I am referring to true happiness; the happiness that comes from within, which is intimately related to our capacity to create union. This is the secret to creating a culture of peace and prosperity and, therefore, it is the path that will end the sustainability crisis.

Via Daily Dharma


The Mindfulness Solution | March 2, 2015


It is useful to distinguish between mindfulness as a mental state on one hand and the unskillful pursuit of this state on the other. Consider the case of a person plunging into the jungle, in search of a beautiful and healing flower, he gets torn up by thorns and battered by branches in the process. The problem is not that the flower itself is harmful; what is harmful is only the means of pursuing it.

- Andrew Olendzki, "The Mindfulness Solution"