Posts under ‘intolerance’

I had a conversation with someone today. It’s my usual holiday conversation about the existence of Christ. As a gratefully recovering Catholic and now proud atheist, I did my usual dance of trying to be considerate and polite and changing the subject. As is often the case, my friend continued on undeterred with great curiosity about how I cannot believe in any god and what that might mean. I obliged by quickly employing the word delusional and said that I see no difference between one fairy tale and another. Predictably, we finished up pretty quickly after that.

Taking a cue from so many conversations going on across the blogosphere, I am discussing the prosecution of George Bush. 

The world knows what he did.  The American people know what he did.  We have a choice.  We can demand justice.  We can defend ourselves from enemies to The Constitution, both foreign and domestic.  It will not happen if we do not.  The overwhelming call to action at change.gov was for the prosecution of criminal behaviour from the White House. 

George Bush is what we got for pardoning Nixon.  Nixon was a megalomaniac whose paranoia was his undoing.  Bush is much worse: a mouthpiece for the corruption of power amassed in Oil & Defense industry executive suites.  But, the motivations for breaking the law of the land from the highest office are not important.  What is of utmost importance is this: precedent.  In this specific instance, the precedent of breaking the law of the land from the highest office.  It is the path to dictatorship. 

Is the United States of America is the world’s largest dealer of illegal drugs?  What about the world’s largest gun runner?  For years our government has used the CIA, NSA & other super-secret ‘intelligence’ agencies to cultivate drug harvest and distribution in SE Asia and Afghanistan.  We offer ‘aid’ and ‘trade’ to countries in the forms of weapons and ammunition.  The drugs come home to the US to poison and kill our own population.  The weapons we sell are used either against us directly by people to kill others, who then seek to kill Americans.  Did the founding fathers envision a country that would become the world’s largest debtor and blood merchant?

 

(Image courtesy of thinkvegan.net)

Sexism is the ‘gateway ‘ism”, that makes all other ‘isms’ possible.  It precedes all other forms of discrimination, setting the example that there are some people that view others as inferior and they use brutality upon them.  What I mean by that is that because our family and society models are built around the model of inequality, injustice and brutality – we accept that behavior as normal.  So, too is racism, classism, speciesism and any other oppression by one group toward another.  The behaviors of sexism are the behaviors of bullying, injustice, intolerance and cruelty.

 

Hi everybody! 

Did you know that today is International Anti-Corruption Day?  I sure as hell did not (but I do now).  Just in case you forgot, corruption occurs when people pay money in a secret deal, in order to break the law…so they can make a lot more money.

Why don’t we look at how the world celebrated this wonderful new holiday.  Maybe we can even see some real corruption in action.  Wow!  This is so much fun.

 

Here’s another affirmation that the GOP is buried in the mindset of Nixon and Stalin.  Wikileaks and the ACLU (MN) have recently covered the super secret security briefing from the RNC that indicates the usage of the US Military against law abiding US citizens.  Another ‘dragnet’ surveillance conducted by paranoid tyrants in the party of hate and lobbyists (aka GOP). 

In a nutshell, the party that loves (using) the military (to seize power and make fortunes) – the GOP, used military spy satellites to spy on US citizens.  This should come as no surprise, given the Bush/Cheney dictatorship’s penchant for spying on us all. 

Religious institutions have been attacking the Constitution and the people of the United States long enough.  I don’t want their money, but it is the only way to get their goddamn mitts off of my government.

Hit ‘em where it hurts!  Tax the power hungry bastards.  They cannot stop themselves and it’s up to the rest of us to do it.  Believe me, if they had to pay taxes in order to infiltrate government and tell the rest of us what to do:

• They would leave Washington and state capitals overnight.
• They would stop funding anti-gay legislation.
• We would not hear about Intelligent Design.
• They would stop trying to force regulation of women’s bodies.

These mega-churches, the LDS, Focus on Family, Pat Robertson and other charlatans would clam up in a hurry if they had to pay taxes.

The larger, politically active religions would face pressure from smaller churches and other religions that do not interfere with the lives of others.  They would ask for a separate status for their churches, but I suggest that we lump them all together.

The new rule is: even if you talk about God, you pay taxes.  That’ll stop them dead in their tracks.  Because, no matter what they tell you on Sunday…it’s all about the ‘benjamins’.

The extra benefit for the taxpayer – we can regulate them into a living hell.

bwahahahahaha….

-gadfly

I was travelling this weekend and did not have the time to do any posting. I saw a couple of good posts on the subject of Transgender Rememberance Day. I have to be honest and admit that I did not even know this occasion existed. I am sad that it is necessary, but I am happy to support it.

Individuality is something we claim to cherish in this country. Individual’s rights. The spirit of individualism. Historically, societies punish the people that exercise the most discretion and personal choice in their definitions of themselves as individuals: Transgender.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Image courtesy of ATP"][/caption]

In an article entitled “Equal share in land, property for women urged” by Sikander Shaheen in The Nation (Pakistan) details a campaign by ActionAid within Pakistan, urging equal property rights for women. (ActionAid is an international anti-poverty organization that has been in operation for over 30 years.)