Here in cloudy Florida, the Schiavo Saga continues:
This afternoon, the far right wing, born-again 'catholic' christian governor with total disregard of the Constitutional authority of the courts, which he well knows, inserts his religious views in the Schiavo's private tragedy with his executive authority. This time, again, in vocal support of the far right wing, born-again christian legislature's possible new 'save shiavo' bill, with total disregard of the Constitutional authority of the courts, which they well know, inserting religious views again with its legislative authority in the Schiavo's privage tragedy; and by implying that the welfare authorities may take poor Mrs. Schiavo into their custody (who since they don't do much else for the poor and disabled here, will at least have something to do, perhaps), while investigation ensues. . . (to be continued)
Oh, and this is after the unduly constituted authority of the federal court, forced upon it by the far right wing, born-again christian federal legislature, with total disregard of the Constitutional authority of the state courts, inserted its religious views with a statue requiring the federal court to review the Shiavo case; decides at the appeals level that the Schiavo matter had no standing in their jurisdiction. . . (to be continued)
--This is straight out of some 18th century comedy of errors with better production values.
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Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Sunday, March 20, 2005
GAG ME
Ethically, is there any difference between refusing to insert a feeding tube into a person who will die without it (a decision insurance companies make all the time for economic reasons) and withdrawing a feeding tube from a person in a persistent vegitative state?
The right wing shouts that the latter is murder, but it's purchased its political power and voice with huge campaign contributions from insurance companies, for whom "defending life" is a value only when there's money in it.
The denial of health care for economic reasons is morally depraved, and it's done all the time without troubling our vacationing president, who cut short his Crawford nap so he could get to D.C. and sign the Schiavo bill. "This is about defending life," his spokesman said.
But how can a congressionally mandated coma be moral?
The moral midgets in the White House and Congress would suffer political death if we withdrew the Big Insurance feeding tube from their throats. We should, because it's us who are gagging on it.
-from bopnews.com
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The right wing shouts that the latter is murder, but it's purchased its political power and voice with huge campaign contributions from insurance companies, for whom "defending life" is a value only when there's money in it.
The denial of health care for economic reasons is morally depraved, and it's done all the time without troubling our vacationing president, who cut short his Crawford nap so he could get to D.C. and sign the Schiavo bill. "This is about defending life," his spokesman said.
But how can a congressionally mandated coma be moral?
The moral midgets in the White House and Congress would suffer political death if we withdrew the Big Insurance feeding tube from their throats. We should, because it's us who are gagging on it.
-from bopnews.com
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Saturday, March 12, 2005
QUOTE FOR THOUGHT:
"Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac."
--George Orwell
Think about it!
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--George Orwell
Think about it!
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Thursday, March 10, 2005
RIGHT off the deep end!
Conservatives, newly drunk with power, are reaching critical hypocritical mass hysteria. Sane people from other countries think Americans, specifically social conservatives, have gone completely mental. The same people who see the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich are suddenly seeing threatening gay images everywhere.
The latest is Buster, the animated rabbit from PBS's Postcards From Buster, taken to task by the new secretary of Education for having the nerve to show a normal legally united Vermont family headed by lesbians, who threatens federal funding for the show. Then there is James Dobson of Focus on the Family, decreeing that SpongeBob SquarePants is sending out subliminal gay messages to unsuspecting toddlers. The Family Research Council has on its payroll a Homosexuality Detection Expert (no joke), whose duties include informing us that words like 'tolerance' and 'diversity' are part of a coded language that is regularly used by the homosexual community to undermine their idea of the American family. We can't forget Alan Keyes--one of the most sanctimoniously obnoxious politicians in history, whose entire presidential and recent senate campaign was based on 'moral values'-- who was revealed to have a gay daughter, and responded by using his 'moral values' to kick her out of the house and withhold her college tuition. What do his fellow conservatives have to say? Nothing! Just like the Cheneys, who vocal on all other issues known to man, say nothing about their gay daughter--her sexuality being 'private.'
This would be hilarious enough if it wasn't for the recently revealed, wildest disconnect between what the right wing says and what they do-- the Jeff Gannon scandal. In this case, a fake reporter who used an alias, on behalf of a fake news organization that was nothing but a Republican propaganda outlet, who regularly wrote antigay articles, had a White House press clearance endowed by the Secret Service and used it to regularly ask the president softball questions. He was also a $200-an-hour (or $1,200-a-weekend) hustler, complete with X-rated Web photos revealing just how endowed he is. What do his fellow conservatives have to say? Nothing (oh right, there is conservative Ann Coulter, who knows a propaganda-spreading fake-reporter whore when she sees one, rushing to the defense of “Jeff,” saying that hypocritical liberals are going after him simply because he is gay)!
Have conservatives suddenly taken 'don’t ask, don’t tell' to an absurd extreme? Are they strong on terrorists but soft on gay hookers? You would expect James Dobson, Alan Keyes, or any of the other moral watchdogs to go ballistic over this guy. There has to be a logical reason why a call boy with online money shots and a White House clearance gets a fraction of the attention as SpongeBob or Buster the rabbit, but one can’t expect logic with these guys.
Apparently homosexuality is a 'private' concern if you’re a conservative Republican in lockstep with the Bush crowd, who dutifully stays in the closet, but not if you’re a Democrat, a lesbian from Vermont, an out gay American, or a sponge. And it doesn’t matter if you’re an ex-Marine gay whore; it just matters whose whore you are.
-edited from an article in The Advocate
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The latest is Buster, the animated rabbit from PBS's Postcards From Buster, taken to task by the new secretary of Education for having the nerve to show a normal legally united Vermont family headed by lesbians, who threatens federal funding for the show. Then there is James Dobson of Focus on the Family, decreeing that SpongeBob SquarePants is sending out subliminal gay messages to unsuspecting toddlers. The Family Research Council has on its payroll a Homosexuality Detection Expert (no joke), whose duties include informing us that words like 'tolerance' and 'diversity' are part of a coded language that is regularly used by the homosexual community to undermine their idea of the American family. We can't forget Alan Keyes--one of the most sanctimoniously obnoxious politicians in history, whose entire presidential and recent senate campaign was based on 'moral values'-- who was revealed to have a gay daughter, and responded by using his 'moral values' to kick her out of the house and withhold her college tuition. What do his fellow conservatives have to say? Nothing! Just like the Cheneys, who vocal on all other issues known to man, say nothing about their gay daughter--her sexuality being 'private.'
This would be hilarious enough if it wasn't for the recently revealed, wildest disconnect between what the right wing says and what they do-- the Jeff Gannon scandal. In this case, a fake reporter who used an alias, on behalf of a fake news organization that was nothing but a Republican propaganda outlet, who regularly wrote antigay articles, had a White House press clearance endowed by the Secret Service and used it to regularly ask the president softball questions. He was also a $200-an-hour (or $1,200-a-weekend) hustler, complete with X-rated Web photos revealing just how endowed he is. What do his fellow conservatives have to say? Nothing (oh right, there is conservative Ann Coulter, who knows a propaganda-spreading fake-reporter whore when she sees one, rushing to the defense of “Jeff,” saying that hypocritical liberals are going after him simply because he is gay)!
Have conservatives suddenly taken 'don’t ask, don’t tell' to an absurd extreme? Are they strong on terrorists but soft on gay hookers? You would expect James Dobson, Alan Keyes, or any of the other moral watchdogs to go ballistic over this guy. There has to be a logical reason why a call boy with online money shots and a White House clearance gets a fraction of the attention as SpongeBob or Buster the rabbit, but one can’t expect logic with these guys.
Apparently homosexuality is a 'private' concern if you’re a conservative Republican in lockstep with the Bush crowd, who dutifully stays in the closet, but not if you’re a Democrat, a lesbian from Vermont, an out gay American, or a sponge. And it doesn’t matter if you’re an ex-Marine gay whore; it just matters whose whore you are.
-edited from an article in The Advocate
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Friday, March 04, 2005
A Quote for Thought:
"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
--- John Stuart Mill
(i realize this is a repeat of a quote made on this blog at an earlier date, but due to some recent encounters with 'conservatives' I felt it deserved repeating.)
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--- John Stuart Mill
(i realize this is a repeat of a quote made on this blog at an earlier date, but due to some recent encounters with 'conservatives' I felt it deserved repeating.)
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Thursday, March 03, 2005
Just the Facts!
In 1797 our government concluded a "Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli, or Barbary," now known simply as the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 of the treaty contains these words:
As the Government of the United States...is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion--as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of Musselmen--and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
This document was endorsed by Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and President John Adams (one of the few 'founding fathers' who even claimed to be a christian). It was then sent to the Senate for ratification; the vote was unanimous (most of the Senate's members then had either signed the Declaration of Independence or were directly involved in the Revolutionary War against Britain- who we now call 'founding fathers'). It is worth pointing out that up to that time it was only the third unanimous vote in the Senate's history. There is no record of debate or dissent. The text of the treaty was printed in full in the Philadelphia Gazette and in two New York papers, but there were no screams of outrage, as one might expect today. The Founding Fathers were not religious men, and they fought hard to erect, in Thomas Jefferson's words, "a wall of separation between church and state."
When the christian fundamentalist rightwing try to rewrite history by asserting America's christian foundation, just remember just this one FACT (among many that prove the same point) of early American history- it puts everything into proper perspective. The kook fundies of today are entitled to their opinions and beliefs, but not a reality that never existed, except in their deluded minds!!!
(be sure to click on the link for other blogs commenting on this subject)
-suggested by a recent article in "The Nation"
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As the Government of the United States...is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion--as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of Musselmen--and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
This document was endorsed by Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and President John Adams (one of the few 'founding fathers' who even claimed to be a christian). It was then sent to the Senate for ratification; the vote was unanimous (most of the Senate's members then had either signed the Declaration of Independence or were directly involved in the Revolutionary War against Britain- who we now call 'founding fathers'). It is worth pointing out that up to that time it was only the third unanimous vote in the Senate's history. There is no record of debate or dissent. The text of the treaty was printed in full in the Philadelphia Gazette and in two New York papers, but there were no screams of outrage, as one might expect today. The Founding Fathers were not religious men, and they fought hard to erect, in Thomas Jefferson's words, "a wall of separation between church and state."
When the christian fundamentalist rightwing try to rewrite history by asserting America's christian foundation, just remember just this one FACT (among many that prove the same point) of early American history- it puts everything into proper perspective. The kook fundies of today are entitled to their opinions and beliefs, but not a reality that never existed, except in their deluded minds!!!
(be sure to click on the link for other blogs commenting on this subject)
-suggested by a recent article in "The Nation"
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