A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Christianists Call For California School Boycott Over Harvey Milk Day
Christianist outfit Save California has issued a call for parents to "boycott" California's public schools over last week's approval of Harvey Milk Day by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Via the American Family Association's "news site" OneNewsNow:
Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, tells OneNewsNow he is calling for a boycott over a law designed to force students to honor a deceased homosexual activist. "With Harvey Milk Gay Day now the law for California government schools, and a handful of sexual indoctrination laws already existing that are in effect throughout the entire school year, parents have to at least boycott Harvey Milk Day or days or week," Thomasson urges. The boycott, he says, needs to be established by parents to protect their children, but also to drive home a point that they do not want their children indoctrinated with a pro-homosexual philosophy. Thomasson feels that taking students out of the government school system is the only way to accomplish this protection. He adds that parents also need to be aware of the quality of education their children are receiving in California. Thomasson reports that "on the academic chart, California is among the lowest academically in the country. On the sexual indoctrination chart, California leads the pack with Massachusetts following."Thomasson believes that Harvey Milk Day will strike so much terror into parents that they will begin home schooling or send their kids to private religious schools.
Labels: California, dumbassery, Harvey Millk Day, Randy Thomasson, religion, Save California
Heritage Foundation, Part of Right Wing Infrastructure, Defends 30 Republican Senators Who Enabled Rape
- BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG
By Mark Karlin
For BuzzFlash, when it comes to enabling rape, the Republican think tank-media-political infrastructure sticks together: a bunch of white guys -- primarily from the South -- who believe corporate criminal personhood trumps the rule of law when it comes to gang rape.
I have written two pieces on the extraordinarily shocking and ethically sick vote of 3/4s of the GOP Senate delegation who voted not to cut off the contracts of defense contractors who prohibit employees from suing them for job-related rape.
Sure enough, the right wing Heritage Foundation -- who, along with the American Enterprise Institute, is a favorite of the "respected" RWNJs --wrote a convoluted defense of the 30 GOP Senators who claimed that not interfering with Halliburton/KBR and other leeches on the government was more important than holding them accountable for preventing rape in the workplace.
The Heritage Foundation managed to, in the same "defense of rape" article, argue that because the federal courts held that Halliburton/KBR could not prevent a rape victim from suing, there was no need to punish them for trying to prevent such a suit (still trying by the way). Heritage also managed to blame the whole idea of allowing a lawsuit for rape against the likes of Halliburton as a stealth tactic by attorneys to launch frivolous lawsuits that would result in the creation of fewer jobs.
Excuse us, we are talking about rape here.
So now we are discussing the vast right wing infrastructure created over three decades supporting rape. If you are a woman, how can you vote Republican? It's a question of backing a party that enables rape, period, whatever specious defense they cook up.
A satirical site posted the photos of all 30 GOP Senators who voted for corporate noblesse oblige privilege over rape prevention and accountablity. You can view the rape rogues gallery, with a pink frame for any Republican Senator from a state where both Senators voted for rape.
I guess if you're in the GOP, rape and racism are as American as apple pie and a noose.
Didn't they used to lynch black men for just looking at a white woman the wrong way?
These are some twisted, perverse minds in the GOP, and enablers of crime.
BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Quote of the Day
- Elton John, from a coming anthology titled Dear Me: A Letter To My 16 Year-Old Self.
House Bill Would Cut Funding To States That Oppose LGBT Adoption
Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) has introduced a bill that would restrict federal child welfare funding from any state that discriminates against LGBT people attempting to adopt.
Stark said in an interview that he introduced the legislation, H.R. 3827, in part because thousands of children each year "age out" of the child welfare system without finding homes. "We got 25,000 kids a year maturing out of the welfare system without permanent foster care or adoptive care, and the prospects of those children having a successful adult life are diminished greatly," he said. "These are kids who end up in the criminal justice system, or end up homeless."Stark rates the chances of his bill passing as "pretty good," but no hearing is yet planned. A spokesman for the HRC said they'll get behind the bill if it gains traction in Congress.
States with explicit restrictions on adoption that the pending legislation would affect are Utah, Florida, Arkansas, Nebraska and Mississippi. Florida, for example, has a statute specifically prohibiting gays from adopting, and in Arkansas, voters last year approved Act 1, which prevents unmarried co-habitating couples, including same-sex partners, from adopting children. The legislation, Stark said, also would restrict funds for states where restrictions are put in place by agencies, individual social workers or judges, or where restrictions are part of the common law of the state. For states that don't comply with the law, federal officials could withhold from the states funds provided to them for child welfare services. The bill also calls for a Government Accountability Office study within five years to examine how states are complying with the new rules.
Labels: adoption, Congress, gay adoption, gay parents, House of Representatives
20% Of Polled Identify As Republicans
From a story about an ABC News/Washington Post poll about attitudes on health care reform comes this little nugget: "Only 20 percent of adults identify themselves as Republicans, little changed in recent months, but still the lowest single number in Post-ABC polls since 1983."
Subject: Stay off FOX
To draw attention to its biased coverage, President Obama will not appear on FOX for the rest of this year.
I signed a petition urging Democrats to support President Obama's stance by staying off FOX as long as he does. Can you join me at the link below?
http://civic.moveon.org/foxobama/?r_by=17603-538505-1HB2w4x&rc=paste
Thanks!
National Equality March: "Imagine"
Monday, October 19, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
CNN Leaves It There | ||||
www.thedailyshow.com | ||||
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Double Quote of the Day
“The first principle Bahá'u'lláh urged was the independent investigation of truth. "Each individual," he said, "is following the faith of his ancestors who themselves are lost in the maze of tradition. Reality is steeped in dogmas and doctrines. If each investigate for himself, he will find that Reality is one; does not admit of multiplicity; is not divisible. All will find the same foundation and all will be at peace."
– ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i Scriptures, p. 276.
"The basic principle of the Cause is independent investigation of truth. This applies to us as much as to our children. They should be free to chose for themselves any religion they wish. To promise that they will belong to a certain Faith and not to another is therefore not only contrary to our precepts, but is also a futile promise to give. How can we make the future generation think as we do or follow our dictates. God has made them free. All that we can do is to open their eyes and tell them of what we think to be the truth."
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, March 3, 1931)
(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 155)