This is a direct sequel to Two Reasons for Public Ignorance
Read this article, of which I will provide summaries:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-ways-big-cities-turn-you-liberal-converts-perspective/
Category Archives: Social studies
A Simple Lesson in Economics
Slavery was abolished, right? Not really…….it was just made less cruel.
Another reason to despise Michael Shermer
For a bit of background, read this:
https://dalehusband.com/2014/09/11/michael-shermer-traitor/
Now this once credible advocate for skepticism has thrown his credibility completely out the window for all to see. All to sell himself out to the forces of conservatism. Damn him!
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/donald-trump-religion-215033
Indonesia has a problem with Islamic bigotry
Damn the NRA, round 2
Sometimes I find myself seriously questioning if the Second Amendment to the U. S. Constitution should actually be repealed. Should bearing arms actually be a privilege rather than a right? Should only certain people that have been proven to be able to manage firearms properly and in a consistent manner be allowed to own one? Read this story and if it does not make your cringe in shock, I wonder if you are human.
What integrity in leadership looks like
Part of having integrity is knowing when you have failed at something, realizing you need to step aside for the good of the people you claim to serve, and move on. Today, the President of the Unitarian Universalist Association is doing just that. Continue reading
The Myth of Liberal “Intolerance”
A couple of nights ago, some transphobe made a comment on my blog under Transphobics get busted by crime victim they tried to take advantage of.
I rejected it for the filth that it was, but I made a screenshot of it in order to make an example of it.
What an idiot!
First, transgendered people are not trying to be shocking or scary towards anyone; they just want to live their lives without being a target of others’ hate. It is the transphobes who choose to react with hostility to the open existence of transgendered people. If there was no hostility, what would be the problem?
Second, who the hell made this guy an expert on mental illnesses? Most psychologists decades ago classified homosexuality as a mental illness, but they eventually stopped doing that once it became clear that the mental disorder that supposedly caused homosexuality could not be clearly defined and treated. The same may well be true of the transgendered condition. If being homosexual or being transgendered are not themselves harmful, why call them illnesses at all?
Third, if people’s rights are being violated, it does not matter if it is 50% (women) or less than 1% (transgendered). This looks like the reverse of the popularity fallacy, in which there being very few of a non-privileged group somehow justifies discriminating against them. If 100 transgendered people had been exterminated by the Nazis during World War II instead of six million Jews, it still would have been a horrible thing for them to do.
How nice of the asshole to use the slur for transgendered people that is the same as “nigger” for African-Americans!
I am a champion of tolerance for gays, lesbians, and transgendered people. Ironically, that means I have to be INTOLERANT of conservatives who express bigotry towards those types of people. Does this mean I am a bigot towards conservatives? Of course not!
The concept of bigotry towards someone’s OPINIONS is nonsense. When conservatives accuse their liberal opponents of bigotry towards them, that is merely a silencing tactic. It is the same sort of arrogance that leads to them referring to the “regressive left”. A pathological liar named Jonah Goldberg even wrote a book as right-wing propaganda titled “Liberal Fascism” based on that lame fallacy.
To explain the concept of false bigotry a little more clearly, consider this analogy: “Men fear that women may laugh at them for not being manly, while women fear that men may beat them nearly to death for not being ladylike.” Trust me, being publicly ridiculed for one’s bigotry is nothing compared to being MURDERED for being gay, transgendered or even being in the wrong place at the wrong time if you are black in a mostly white neighborhood and get confronted by a cop or some vigilante with a gun.
SO GROW THE FUCK UP, CONSERVATIVES! I am having NONE of your shit anymore!
Transphobics get busted by crime victim they tried to take advantage of.
I’m against all forms of bigotry, which is simply judging all members of one group as if they all have the same moral failings instead of judging human beings strictly as individuals. I do not assume all Muslims are terrorists, that all women deserve to be sex slaves to their husbands, or that all French people are alcoholics.
Recently, various states in the United States have either tried to pass laws allowing discrimination against transgendered people or tried to repeal laws prohibiting discrimination against them. The rationale behind such absurdities is that all transgendered women are actually still men pretending to be women so they can attack and rape women and girls in bathroom stalls. Where they get that crazy idea from is anyone’s guess, but it actually encourages hatred against all who happen to be transgendered, often making THEM targets of violence. Quite simply, people need to stop equating sexual deviancy with immorality. Just because someone is homosexual or transsexual does not mean they are inclined to violate the personal autonomy of anyone else.
Now someone who was abused TWICE, first by an actual criminal and then by opportunistic transphobes, has decided to fight back against both types of bastards.
Responding to The Future of Freedom Foundation
Freedom is a precious thing, but the best way to promote it is to take all facts into account, not merely the ones that make your cause or extreme positions look good. That’s cherry picking, a classic tactic of denialism and thus dishonesty.
Check out this statement on the The Future of Freedom Foundation website. It will be in red and my responses will be in blue.
http://www.fff.org/about/
Our nation was founded on the principles of individual freedom, free markets, private property, and limited government. As the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution reflect, people have the natural and God-given rights to live their lives any way they choose, so long as their conduct is peaceful. It is the duty of government to protect, not destroy or infringe upon, these inherent and inalienable rights.
Note that the Articles of Confederation are not mentioned. This was the first actual Constitution of the United States and was based on pure “libertarian” ideals (then known as “classical liberalism”). But reality eventually proved the Articles unable to maintain order in the USA. Government that is too limited leads to anarchy, which benefits only would-be tyrants that flourish in a society where they can engage in abuse of others and not fear punishment. Eventually, a tyrant may become popular enough to impose his own law on the society, resulting in despotism. But despotism and anarchy have no provisions for human rights. Only a government can protect them. And if rights are given by God (who is by nature an absolute monarch), they can also be taken away, making the concept meaningless. And rights cannot be natural because animals do not have any, as their behavior shows. Only humans have rights among themselves and those rights only exist when they are recognized by both governments and the people.
For well over a century, the American people said “no” to such things as income taxation, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, public schooling, economic regulations, immigration controls, drug laws, gun control, paper money, the Federal Reserve, overseas empire, militarism, entangling alliances, and foreign wars. Despite the tragic exception of slavery, the result was the most prosperous, healthy, literate, and compassionate society in history.
Wrong! The people did not say no to income taxation, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, public schooling, economic regulations, immigration controls, drug laws, gun control, paper money, the Federal Reserve, overseas empire, militarism, entangling alliances, and foreign wars. Many of these were simply not political issues at all until the 20th Century, the public schooling was done as early as the mid-19th Century, and the first of the foreign wars was the Mexican War of 1846-1848. Slavery was not merely a “tragic exception” (what an insult to the descendants of those slaves); it was a basic part of American society and thus proving that America was not at all the libertarian paradise being implied here. Slavery was ended by federal government force as a result of the Civil War (a denial of property rights of the slaves’ owners) , and more federal government force was eventually required to end the institutional racism that remained in the Southern states. The proliferation of bureaucracies resulted from the people demanding more and more services from their government, which must be paid for.
In the 20th century, however, America moved in the opposite direction—in the direction of socialism, interventionism, and imperialism. The result has been massive infringements on our economic liberty, civil liberties, gun rights, and privacy, along with out-of-control federal spending, debt, and inflation, all of which have reduced our prosperity, damaged our families, and weakened our sense of morality, self-reliance, and voluntary charity.
Again, only because the people have demanded certain things to improve their lives and then we become dependent on them. An example would be the interstate highway system. Without that, trade, tourism, and other matters relating to commerce would be far more difficult and would thus limit our economic growth. And the very reason government welfare programs were established was because with welfare being only voluntary, people still starved. People simply are not generous enough to provide for the needs of all without government intervention and force. If they were, we would not have so many billionaires in America, along with so many that are impoverished, even with government helping the poor. So that statement above is simply absurd!
The time has come for the American people to lead the world out of the statist morass in which it has plunged. The time has come to restore libertarian principles to our land. It is to that end that The Future of Freedom Foundation is dedicated.
We never had the kind of freedom they are calling for, and we likely never will. What they may really be saying is that we need to use force to overthrow the government and have libertarian extremists take over and run it their way – which would negate their entire premise of promoting freedom. If the people WANT an authoritarian government and elect one, via a free and fair democratic process, it is the height of arrogance for anyone in the name of “liberty” to say that is unacceptable.
Lying About History for the Bible, Round 2
In a previous blog entry, I tore apart an attempt by a Christian apologist online to defend the Book of Ezekiel regarding its prophecies of the city-state of Tyre. My expose was so damaging that the writer eventually took down the web page I attacked.
Now I will take on another target, the Book of Daniel.
The downfall of Milo
Milo Yiannopoulos, the weapons-grade asshole who was banned from Twitter last year, has suffered another blow to his overinflated and dishonest ego: he has been forced to leave breitbart.com!
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39043496
Milo Yiannopoulos quits Breitbart News
A senior editor at a conservative website has resigned and apologised after a furore over comments that appeared to condone paedophilia.
Milo Yiannopoulos said in a statement his “poor choice of words” was detracting from his colleagues’ work, so he was quitting immediately.
He had already lost a book deal and a speaking engagement over the row.
Videos surfaced of him discussing the merits of gay relationships between adults and boys.
But Mr Yiannopoulos, the tech editor, denied he had endorsed child abuse and said one video had been edited to give a misleading impression.
“I would like to restate my utter disgust at adults who sexually abuse minors,” the 32-year-old wrote in his resignation statement on Facebook on Tuesday.
At a press conference on Tuesday, he explained that he had been referring to his own experiences as a victim of child sexual abuse.
He said that two men, including a priest, had touched him inappropriately when he was in his young teens.
“I haven’t ever apologised before, and I don’t intend on ever doing it again,” the hero of the so-called alt-right movement read to a room full of reporters.
“To be a victim of child abuse and at the same time be accused of being an apologist for child abuse is absurd.”
But the mea culpa came too late to save him from being axed in the line-up at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.
The organising group, the American Conservative Union, said his response had been “insufficient”.
Milo is known to be openly gay, and I suspect that his comments about pedophilia were intended to play into the all too common stereotype that gays (and transgendered people, who he has also attacked) are mostly child molesters. But this was a serious miscalculation on his part. If you are trying to stir up hatred, doing it against some group you are actually a part of, even if you disown the group, is stupid. It will ultimately backfire on you, as we see here.
You do not merely quit an organization that made you famous in the first place. It is clear the operators of breitbart.com finally figured out that Milo had become more of a liability than an asset to them. He was out of control and needed to be stopped.
Now, if only we could do that also to Donald Trump!
Falsehoods about the “regressive left”
1. Progressives are now using the same subversive and highly inflammatory tactics that they have seen conservatives use against their liberal opponents for decades. But for some reason they are condemned as “intolerant” for this. That’s like going to fight with someone else when you have only a dagger when your opponent has a gun; you should not be condemned for insisting that you need a gun too!
2. Progressives are not a monolith; they are individuals and may disagree with each other as well as with conservatives. If one progressive activist claims something is racist, sexist, or otherwise prejudicial, that only reflects the opinion of that one activist; others may not agree.
3. Criticism is not censorship! If Progressive activists attack right-wing opponents via the media, that is not an indication that they are calling upon the government to shut their opponents down. Unless and until you actually hear the progressive ask for any such thing, you lie when you claim such. Freedom of speech is just that and must apply to all.
4. The media has NEVER been dominated by liberals. Back in the 1960s and 70s, the media simply reported the truth about what was going on in America and around the world, often causing conservatives to look bad. In the 1980s, President Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine, which insisted that all media outlets be fair and balanced. With that gone, corporations could then gobble up or create all sorts of media outlets (like FOX News) and force them to represent only views they could tolerate, resulting in the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press becoming a non-issue. Even worse, conservatives made their own “echo chambers” on the internet like Breitbart.com, NewsMax, RedState and others that are just like the Soviet Union’s Pravda. Only a bogus ideology dedicated to corruption and violating human rights needs to do such things.
There is no such thing as the “regressive left”; that very concept is not valid and never can be. Just as there is no such thing as “liberal fascism”. Conservatives have been lying outright about their opponents for decades; we should no longer accept any of that.
Some Right-wing Bigots have NO Shame!
Sometimes Conservatives are so desperate for validation of their extremist crusade against their political opponents that they will grab at straws and refer to things that have NOTHING to do with their politics. Below is an example of this chicanery:
How Leah Remini’s Scientology Fight Is A Front in Andrew Breitbart’s #WAR
Please note that RedState is yet another one of those right-wing propaganda mills, like breitbart.com, FOX News, WorldNetDaily, NewsMax, and others.
I don’t know any Scientologists that I’m aware of and my only connection to L. Ron Hubbard is having read his bad science fiction novel Battlefield Earth back in the ’80s and later—primarily out of morbid curiosity—watching the even worse film adaptation starring Scientologist John Travolta.
The writer starts off with something that looks completely reasonable and true. If it had stuck to the actual issue of the Church of Scientology vs. Ms. Remini, I would highly recommend it. Instead….the article goes into left field, pun intended!
Last night while watching episode 7 it dawned on me why I am so involved with this show: What Leah Remini is doing is the most Andrew Breitbart-esque thing I have seen anyone do since his untimely passing. Like Andrew did with the Democrat-media complex, Remini is throwing down the gauntlet and challenging a corrupt institution to prove her wrong.
I only met Andrew Breitbart a couple of times, both of which were in chaotic and noisy environments, so I can’t claim to have been his friend or to have really known him personally. Still, he is one of relatively few people I would consider to be personally inspiring to me.
And what did Breitbart do to be so inspiring? Save one or more lives? Create an invention to make millions of lives better? Write a fictional story to entertain and impress readers? Hold public office and push for legislation to make government better for the people? No, none of these things! He was a writer and publisher of propaganda attacking liberals!
I have no idea what Remini’s politics are. Maybe when you publicly pick a fight with a global cult that has virtually unlimited resources, there isn’t even room for politics in your life. Whether she knows it or not though, Remini’s fight is the same fight for liberty and truth that Andrew Breitbart fought, just on a different front. She is in effect saying to a the cult of Scientology, “I’m going to follow the facts where they lead and if you don’t like it, f*** you. Bring it on. Accuse me of whatever you want, I’m not going to be intimidated. I’m just going to take what you throw at me and use it to show everyone who you are and why you need to be taken down.”
She is executing her takedown just like Andrew would, by telling stories. Data and analysis don’t change people’s minds anywhere near as well as good storytelling.
Scientology is responding with the same sort of tactics the institutional left used against Andrew. According to the people whose stories Remini is telling, anyone who leaves Scientology or speaks ill of it is declared to be a “suppressive person” and is considered “fair game.” Scientologists then use any and all means to intimidate, discredit, or personally destroy those people. They employ private investigators to dig up dirt. They falsely accuse them of crimes. They follow them with cameras in order to capture embarrassing video. It is like an even more fanatical version of the Saul Alinsky tactics employed by far left progressives.
As I recall, it was Breitbart and his cronies that engaged in disruptive and deceitful tactics against liberals. Like having a guy pose as a pimp to misrepresent how ACORN did its business.
Remember when “Joe the Plumber” tripped up candidate Obama into being honest about wealth redistribution? In just a few days the media investigated the background of a private citizen more thoroughly than they ever did Obama’s. How about when the New York Times crowdsourced their sleazy fishing expedition into Sarah Palin’s emails from when she was Governor of Alaska? Have you ever heard of a black conservative who hasn’t been smeared as an “Uncle Tom?” Or a scientist skeptical about man’s role in climate change who hasn’t been accused of being in the pocket of Big Oil? Racism, sexism, misogyny, are all part of the litany against those who have a different opinion. It’s all the same though. Speak out against progressive orthodoxy and you will be smeared or destroyed. The more effectively you speak out, the more weapons they will bring to bear, not to refute what you say but to silence you from saying it.
Of course, the first two sentences are assertions not backed up with proof. The reference to Sarah Palin’s emails is ironic considering how obsessed Republicans have been about Hillary Clinton’s emails. Hypocrisy much? Also, black conservatives may have sexist (if male), religious (if Christian fundamentalist) or economic (if rich) reasons to sell out the best interests of their own race, much like Milo Yiannopoulos does in backstabbing the gay community despite being gay himself, because he is a white man too. And Big Oil is indeed rich enough to corrupt both governments and scientists; the evidence for man-made climate change is solid. It’s OK to have a different opinion as long as it does not hurt people or render them powerless, as conservative policies often do. And most obvious of all……CRITICISM IS NOT CENSORSHIP! Unless Andrew Breitbart or the others that work for his propaganda site could show attempts on their lives or even death threats sent to them by known liberals, they cannot legitimately claim to be targets of attempts to silence them. That’s just dishonest hyperbole.
I can’t help but think Andrew would be a huge fan of what she is doing. He might even be helping her if he was still with us.
Did he ever attack Scientology before he died? Did he ever attack any extremist cult? If not, that assertion is entirely baseless. The implication that liberals are also members of some extremist cult is nothing but libel.
Morgan Cryar was a Liar
Back when I was a born-again Christian, one of the many Christian artists whose albums I bought was Morgan Cryar. He was a lot like Richard Marx in his sound. One of his hit songs was “Pray in the USA”. The lyrics for it are as follows:
http://www.newreleasetoday.com/lyricsdetail.php?lyrics_id=34569
A Second American Revolution?
Ever since George W Bush served as President of the United States (2001-2009), I have been convinced that if Republicans ever took as much power over the federal government as they did in his first term, it would trigger a second American civil war and/or a second American revolution that would bring down the government and finally force some desperately needed reforms to make American a more ethical, just, and free society. Keep in mind that even though Hillary Clinton got over a million votes more than Donald Trump, the latter still got the most votes in the Electoral College, thus gaining the Presidency. Republicans have also kept control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, just as they had back in 2001, no doubt due to gerrymandering in many states as well as efforts to suppress the minority votes.
In January of next year, Donald Trump becomes the new President of the United States.The Democratic minority in the Senate proceeds to engage in the same sort of obstructionism against the policies of Trump that Republicans did against President Obama, including repeated acts of filibustering that Republicans cannot stop. A frustrated Trump eventually declares martial law over Washington D C and orders the military to arrest most of the Democratic Senators and perhaps the Democratic House members too after they threaten to impeach him. In response, the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and perhaps Nevada decide to secede from the union. They are followed soon afterward by Illinois (Barack Obama’s home state), and most of the New England states (including New York, Trump and Clinton’s home state). New York’s defection is especially shocking to Trump for members of his family still reside there. Using the internet as their communication and organization tool, the leaders of the revolt form a provisional government among themselves, name themselves the Democratic Union of America, and accept Hillary Clinton as their leader.
In a rage, Trump orders the military to put down the revolt, but the generals, already angry at having been ordered to arrest members of Congress, turn against Trump and federal troops instead storm both the White House and the Capitol building, resulting in Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence, most of Trump’s Cabinet, and most of the Republican members of Congress being arrested or killed while the Democratic members of Congress are freed. With the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff taking over the capital city, a call is made for delegates to be sent from every state in the union to create a better government to replace the broken one. Most states agree and eventually a new U S Constitution is drafted, ratified by most of the states, and the Union is reestablished. But armed revolts break out in most of the states, which the newly formed government has to deal with over several years.
Two Reasons for Public Ignorance
As I see it, there are two reasons why so many in the general public come across as “low-information”, often appearing to ignore or even deny what seems clear to those who are more knowledgeable.
First, many of us have what I call an ahistorical view. This means that if you were born in a certain year, like 1969 in my case, anything that happened before that is irrelevant to you and may be ignored. That is why you see so many white people argue, “I had nothing to do with slavery before the Civil War! Don’t blame me for that!” Or, “I did not kill all those Native Americans back then and take their land, it’s not my responsibility for them now!” See this earlier blog entry for an expression of that ignorance by an actual celebrity:
https://dalehusband.com/2015/05/13/john-wayne-great-actor-terrible-human-being/
How Donald Trump can be dealt with
Donald Trump will not actually become President until January 20 of next year. And there are several things that can derail his Presidency and minimize the damage he can do.
First, he is facing a lawsuit for fraud in his management of Trump University. Continue reading
The Cracked Website Explains a Lot about Social Issues
As a youth, I used to know Cracked as a humor magazine similar to Mad. I never see Cracked magazines on newsstands, but there is a website with the same name and logo. But it deals with a lot of serious issues.
What Trump’s Victory Means
Last night, Donald Trump won the Presidential Election of 2016, which strikes me as by far the worst one I’ve ever lived though.
Trump’s victory means that America’s tendency to be hypocritical and white male dominated will continue just as it did before. Barack Obama’s election eight years ago was an exception, not the rule. We may not see another black person or woman elected President for decades after this.
When Trump first started to run for President last year, many people, including myself, dismissed his candidacy as a joke. “He is even worse than Bush Jr!” I thought, knowing Trump never held any public office before. Seems I underestimated the collective arrogance of my fellow white men! We tolerated Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr despite the dishonorable natures of all their Presidencies. How low could America go, I wondered. Now we know!
Black lives are supposed to matter, but black VOTES do not!
Women do not matter, unless a man wants to assault them.
Gays and lesbians do not matter.
Christians matter, but no other religion does. Atheists will be even more screwed.
America will not have justice and compassion for those who want to come here and make a living and be treated fairly, but are not white and do not speak English.
We feel more comfortable electing an obvious crook because he tells us what we want to hear instead of a principled person who does not. Just like in 1972.
Americans love to talk about equality, rights, and how free we are. Never mind that the very man who wrote the Declaration of Independence and later became our third President was both a slaveowner and a rapist. He also took part in a massive land grab that would later displace lots of non-white people.
And let us not blame third parties and their supporters or Bernie Sanders and his supporters. The problem is and always should be squarely placed on the shoulders of Donald Trump and those who were stupid enough to vote for him.
I am ashamed to be an American and even more ashamed to be a white man in America!
Milo Yiannopoulos, Liar, Bigot, is Banned from Twitter
Read this story:
Twitter permanently bans Milo Yiannopoulos for abusive comments on ‘Ghostbusters’ star Leslie Jones
NEW YORK: After several complaints and repeated suspensions, the micro-blogging site Twitter has permanently ban Milo Yiannopoulos, the tech editor at conservative news site Breitbart and one of Twitter’s most offensive users.
The move came after Yiannopoulos led an online troll against ‘Ghostbusters’ star Leslie Jones who vowed to leave Twitter over her treatment, prompting a major outburst on social media, engadget.com reported on Wednesday.
“People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter. But no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others,” Twitter said in a statement.
“Over the past 48 hours in particular, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of accounts violating these policies and have taken enforcement actions against these accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension,” it added.
Yiannopoulos reacted to the ban, saying that the site has “confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and ‘Black Lives Matter’ extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives.”The Breitbart tech editor has been disturbing Twitter users with his trolls for the past few years. Twitter earlier removed his verified status, but allowed him to keep tweeting.
Last March, Chuck Johnson who once argued that homosexuality caused a horrendous Amtrak train crash, was permanently barred from the site.
Just to verify this guy’s claims, I checked to see if other prominent conservative media personalities are still on Twitter.
Here is Rush Limbaugh’s Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/rushlimbaugh
Here is Bill O’Reilly’s Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/oreillyfactor
This is Ann Coulter’s Twitter account:
https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter
Donald Trump also has a Twitter account, and uses it often:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump
No, Yiannopoulos, you were not banned for being conservative, because they all are too. You were banned for being a worse racist asshole than any of them. And that is saying a LOT. So you lied and I am calling you out on it.
Abortion Autonomy
Read this story:
http://womendeliver.org/2016/women-perform-abortions/
Inna Hudaya was a woman in trouble. Lying in a shoddy hotel room, she squeezed her eyes closed as an old woman performed an abortion on her with no anesthesia and no painkillers. They barely spoke a word after the exchange of money — a lot of money, money Hudaya had borrowed and for which she had sold many of her possessions including her motorbike to repay. This, Hudaya thought to herself, is how I will die.
But what else was she supposed to do? She was 22, pregnant, unmarried, and living in Indonesia, a country where abortion remains illegal in nearly all cases and out-of-wedlock pregnancy is intensely stigmatized. A medical student, Hudaya was just getting a toehold on a life she hoped would keep her out of Tasikmalaya, the conservative city she fled after high school. Having a baby would mean the end of everything: her studies, her relationship with her family, her freedom.
The procedure ended, and Hudaya walked out of the hotel room alive. The pain, though, persisted. Her relationship ended. A close relative disowned her, telling her it is a sin for a woman to kill her own blood. For years, Hudaya had the same dream: a baby chasing her, crying.
Conservative media can go to hell!
Read this:
A conservative radio host calls it quits over Trump: “do I really want to be part of this?”
Charlie Sykes on Trump and the decay of the conservative moment.
Locker Room Talk?
Donald Trump has claimed that when he made the remark about wanting to grab a woman by her “pussy”, which is what sexual assault is, he was merely making “locker room talk”. Really? Here is what I would consider an actual example of that, which I freely share because I was the one who started it, 16 1/2 years ago.
Donald Trump the Groper-in-Chief?
By now, the massive media uproar over Donald Trump’s admitting on a recorded statement that he wanted to sexually assault a married woman is blowing more wind than Hurricane Matthew on Florida and the east coast of North America.
The Downfall of Billy Graham’s Legacy
Long after I abandoned Christianity as a college student (after I learned that most of the claims made to support it were nothing but double standards and even outright lies), I continued to respect evangelist Billy Graham as one of the genuine Christians I knew of. While some of his fellow Christian leaders would join together to form the despicable scam known as the “Religious Right”, Billy Graham steered clear of such things and continued to merely preach the Gospel with no political references. He also befriended and advised both Democratic and Republican Presidents regardless of their political or religious background, even the first Catholic President John F. Kennedy.
What is really “dangerous” within Christianity?
First, consider this Bible reference:
Luke 9:49-50
“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”
That seems like an absolute proclamation. Jesus certainly did not say, “Whoever preaches my doctrines exactly according to some standard made long ago is for you.”
Governor Bevin is a traitor, just like his Confederate ancestors
Read this horrible story:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/kentucky-gov-matt-bevin-says-bloodshed-might-be-165058821.html
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin says bloodshed may be needed to protect conservatism
September 13, 2016Bevin speaks at a picnic on Aug. 6, in Fancy Farm Ky. (Photo: Timothy D. Easley/AP)Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said conservatives may need to turn to physical violence in order to protect the United States against contemporary liberalism.
The Republican governor put forth the controversial suggestion after speaking of the “degradation of society” during an impassioned, 15-minute speech at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. The provocative comments started to gain national attention at the start of this week.
“America is worth fighting for ideologically. I want us to be able to fight ideologically, mentally, spiritually, economically, so that we don’t have to do it physically. But that may, in fact, be the case,” he told the crowd.
Bevin suggested that if Democrat Hillary Clinton were elected president, she would set the nation on a dangerous course that might require bloodshed to correct. He told the audience that the “candle” of liberty might go out “on our watch.”
To hammer home his point, he paraphrased a famous quote from Founding Father Thomas Jefferson: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
“Whose blood will be shed? It may be that of those in this room. It might be that of our children and grandchildren. I have nine children,” he said. “It breaks my heart to think that it might be their blood that is needed to redeem something, to reclaim something that we, through our apathy and our indifference, have given away. Don’t let it happen.”
Bevin encouraged young conservatives to speak up, be bold, sound the alarm and wake up others. He told the conference attendees to not keep what they’ve learned from speakers and their books to themselves.
According to Bevin, too many people these days are following the example of former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who infamously tried to appease Adolf Hitler and promised “peace for our time,” as opposed to his successor, Winston Churchill, who is widely celebrated for understanding and combating the threat of Nazism.
He said liberals mock conservatives into silence by accusing them of being intolerant when they speak their minds. He lamented, for instance, that many conservatives have remained silent concerning “the atrocity of abortion.”
“It’s a slippery slope. First we’re killing children. Then it’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ Now it’s this gender-bending kind of ‘don’t ask, don’t be a bigot, don’t be unreasonable, don’t be unenlightened, heaven forbid, just keep your mouth shut.’”
On Friday, at a banquet in Washington, D.C., Bevin was awarded the Distinguished Christian Statesman Award from the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship, a ministry of Evangelism Explosion International.
Bevin’s office has not responded to a request for comment from Yahoo News, but he did post a statement on Twitter encouraging people to listen to his comments in their entirety. He suggested that the mention of bloodshed in his remarks was a reference to military sacrifice and that “any intelligent person will easily understand the message” if they listen to the speech.
And some might call me intolerant for saying there should be no place for conservatism in our governments? This is why! If we do not destroy them, it is increasingly clear that they will destroy us, just as they tried to do 150 years ago during the American Civil War! It was indeed conservatives who led the southern states to secede from the union to preserve the institution of slavery, resulting in vast numbers of unnecessary deaths! And what motivated slavery in the USA? Racism. Indeed, racism and fascism are the actual ideological roots of modern American conservatism, not liberty and justice for all. Gov. Bevin is not fighting for America at all, nor is he asking his bigoted followers to do so, but to fight for the society he lives in to continue to be white dominated forever. BTW, need I mention that Thomas Jefferson was himself a southern slaveowner?
But no, I do not want conservatives like Bevin to be silent at all. The more those idiots rant, the more liberals like me can expose and react to their hateful rhetoric and discredit it at every turn.That’s what free speech and freedom of the press is all about.
Trae Crowder, the “Liberal Redneck”
Ever heard of the “Liberal Redneck”? He is a comedian who has recently begun making political statements through the New York Daily News and on YouTube. He talks with an accent that makes him sound at first like a typical southern white man…..but his messages are very different!
This was the very first video of his I saw:
Satire in general is often amusing, but pairing it with serious issues like this is….HILARIOUS! Sometimes the best way to respond to absurdities is with ridicule.
Such as…..
The first video mentioned suicide rates among veterans. This video expands on that point:
A video released this month strikes directly at the “war on drugs” we have been fighting constantly since the 1970s.
Below that video is a link to a petition that I will reproduce here:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/please-do-not-make-kratom-schedule-i-substance
Here’s one more from him:
I hope he keeps it up for years to come!
Compassion and Human Dignity
One of the most powerful appeals of dogmatic God-centered religions like Christianity can be summed up perfectly in this song by Steven Curtis Chapman that was all over Christian radio back when I was a Christian. Even now, it is beautiful to me.
Sometimes His eyes were gentle
And filled with laughter,
And sometimes they cried;
Sometimes there was a fire
Of holy anger,
In Jesus eyes.
But the eyes that saw hope in the hopeless,
That saw through the fault to the need,
Are the same eyes that look down from heaven
Into the deepest part of you and me.CHORUS
His eyes are always upon us;
His eyes never close in sleep.
And no matter where you go,
You will always be in His eyes, in His eyes.Sometimes His voice comes calling
Like rolling thunder,
Or like driving rain;
And sometimes His voice is quiet,
And we start to wonder
If He knows our pain.
But He who spoke peace to the water
Cares more for our hearts than the waves,
And the voice that once said “Youre forgiven”,
Still says “Youre forgiven” today.Sometimes I look above me when stars are shining
And I feel so small;
How could the God of heaven and all creation
Know I’m here at all.
But then in silence He whispers,
“My child, I created you too
And youre my most precious creation;
I even gave my Son for you.”CHORUS
His eyes are always upon you;
His eyes never close in sleep.
And no matter where you go,
You will always be in His eyes,No matter where you go,
You will always be in His eyesSometimes His eyes were gentle
And filled with laughter,
Christians often say that we are called to be like God and Jesus, to be as loving towards lesser beings as possible. Meanwhile, when we look at how atheists often present themselves on the internet, we see very little compassion or respect for the downtrodden and broken. Instead, we see bigoted crap like this from the “Amazing Atheist”:
No, you bastard, you know nothing about the topic of triggering….
That video comes from the same sort of atheist who claims that religion itself is a scourge to society. I referred directly to such an atheist fanatic while commenting on a much earlier blog entry:
https://dalehusband.com/2010/08/09/misdefining-terms-for-purposes-of-propaganda/#comment-677
http://pandasthumb.org/archives/2010/06/in-defense-of-m.html#comment-219719
truthspeaker | June 15, 2010 2:53 PM
It wouldn’t matter if all religions behaved like the Society of Friends and the ELCA. It is still based on the premise that believing in things without evidence as a virtue. As long as it starts with that premise – and it always will, because if it didn’t it wouldn’t be religion -, it will always be evil. There’s just no getting around it – promoting irrationality as a virtue is bad for humanity. No matter how much you polish the turd, it will still be a turd.
Both the Unamazing Asshole and the “truthspeaker” can go fuk themselves. Denying something does not disprove it, in both cases. And ignoring the good that religious people often do in the name of their religions is, well…..IGNORANCE!
I will rewrite the song by Steven Curtis Chapman to reflect how I wish white male atheists would conduct themselves, instead of only thinking about themselves.
Sometimes our eyes are gentle
And filled with laughter,
And sometimes they cry;
Sometimes there is a fire
Of righteous anger,
Deep in our eyes.
But the eyes that see hope in the hopeless,
That see through the fault to the need,
Are the same eyes that look within ourselves
To seek the best of what we can be.Our eyes should always be looking;
Our eyes never close in sleep.
And no matter where we go,
We will always see with open eyesSometimes our voice comes calling
Like rolling thunder,
Or like driving rain;
And sometimes our voice is quiet,
And they start to wonder
If we know their pain.
But if we speak peace to the world
And care for their hearts anyway
Then the voice that once says “You are loved”,
Will say “You are loved” every day.Sometimes we look above us when stars are shining
And we feel so small;
How can such tiny creatures on this one world
Make a difference at all.
But then in the silence remember,
That we exist in vast numbers too
And when we all work as one species
There is so much good we can doOur eyes should always be looking;
Our eyes never close in sleep.
And no matter where we go,
We will always see with open eyes
Could that happen? Perhaps, but we would have to look to these:
Because it is HUMANISM we all need, not just atheism. If the progressive humanists among atheists can defeat and drown out the conservative bigots, and then provide all the charitable and emotional needs of people who need help and comfort, then they will cause the final downfall of dogmatic religion around the world. Let it be so.
A Horror Story of Rape, Ostracism and Triggering Memories
A friend of mine just made this long and profound statement on Facebook. I think it needs to be preserved for as many people to see as possible. I left her name out of it, but her identity does not matter. NO ONE should have to endure this!
Dale Husband's Intellectual Rants 