What's wrong with Indiana?

With regards to the following piece from Daily Kos, all I can say is...

Bravo. Probably the best post I've ever read from them, and I read them every single day.

What Do Conservatives Want When 

They Say "I Want My Country Back?"

Equal rights for all: Women, Minorities, all Religions, Atheists, LGBT folks, etc... Nothing short of this is acceptable. And yet states like Indiana and Arkansas and Georgia and Nevada and too many others are doing their damnedest to go in the wrong direction.

These laws have long since ceased to be about protecting religious freedom, because nobody's "religious practices" are threatened by doing business with a gay person. (Or a black person, or a Jewish person, etc...)  If you are in the business of selling bread for $2 that costs you $1 to make, you are not HARMED if a gay person buys some: You are $1 ahead. End of story. It's THAT SIMPLE. It is not a burden to anyone to expect them to do business, in the very business that they went into business to do! It benefits them. Tangibly.  Expecting someone to drive farther, pay more or go without IS doing harm.  It imposes a burden on that person, a tangible, economic burden that is the precise, legal  DEFINITION of harm.

Arguably the stupidest defense I hear of these laws was the following:

Governor Pence? That's ALL JESUS DID. His ENTIRE LIFE was about WELCOMING SINNERS! That's pretty much ALL HE DID!  Also?  (you ignorant fuck) WE ARE ALL SINNERS.  And should anyone say otherwise they are automatically committing the sin of PRIDE.  For you to claim that this law is what Jesus wants is to take the Lord's name in vain, to the highest degree.  

MARK 2 13-17 JESUS IS A FRIEND OF SINNERS!

And you, sir, are no friend to mankind, or to civilized society.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, 

or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"

Does that sound familiar Governor? It should: You put your right hand on the Bible and swore to uphold it (not the other way around!) when you were sworn into office.  How about:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, 

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, 

that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Pretty "American" sounding, no? What part of that suggests that we discriminate?  What part of that says that people should be limited in their choice of who they love? Or marry?  What part of ANY of this allows one person to use their "deeply held religious beliefs" to harm another?

YOUR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ENDS AT THE TIP OF MY NOSE.

And your law is a disgrace.

It is NOT like so many others - established to protect ACTUAL religious practices, particularly those of minority religions and Native Americans. It is a perversion of those laws, twisted to amount to no more that a political backlash against the progress that's been made against the bigotry that holds us back from bringing TRUE equality under the law to all people.

In closing couldn't say it any better that Steven D. did in the Kos article that I linked to:

I don't want my country back.  I want a better country.  One that truly provides liberty and justice for all people.  And I certainly don't want a country where anyone can discriminate against anyone else of whom they do disapprove and escape liability for that immoral and otherwise unlawful act under any pretext, be it freedom of religion, racial superiority or traditional values. 

I never want to go back to the country that existed when I was born. The one that exists now needs far too much improvement as it is.

Bravo, Steven. Bravo.

Human Sexuality is Complciated...

So here's a GREAT educational video.  Right-Wing, Religious Conservatives, in particular, need to watch it and listen...



Now it is with all that in mind that I would also like to post the following from Dan Savage:

 "If the Bible got the easiest moral question that humanity has ever faced wrong - slavery - what are the odds that the Bible got something as complicated as human sexuality wrong?"

Or this, which I don't know from whence it came originally, but I read in an email the other day:

"Religion is like penis. It's OK to have one, but it's not OK to shove it in my face."

 I post all this, as yet another counterpoint to the completely absurd argument that anyone chooses to be gay. Because this is not about gene's, or any other part of science that the Right wants to misuse.  It's not a scientific argument. Not YET anyway. Right now? It's a semantic one. We don't yet agree on the TERMS, because SOME PEOPLE insist on refusing to acknowledge what WORDS MEAN.  (If there's any question, I'll refer you to the video above. If you have a problem with that, go argue with THEM.)

Being Gay (Bi-, Lesbian, Pan-, A-) is not about one's BEHAVIOR. It is about one's PREFERENCES. That's what ORIENTATION means.  Obviously one chooses one's behavior. No one is arguing about that. (Outside of University Philosophy Classes at anyway.) (I married a philosophy major, so I've got to cover all bases.)  But you do not choose your PREFERENCES.

And saying that you do only demonstrates a complete ignorance of the fact that there even is a philosophical debate going on between Free Will and Determinism, never mind where you stand in it.  I actually happen to hold on to the quaint and romantic notion of free-will myself. But that doesn't means that I don't understand the argument of the Determinists, even if I don't accept it in its entirely. Though, to be fair, it is completely idiotic to reject it in its entirety as well. 

Go figure that so many Conservatives do exactly that.

You don't choose you're preferences. Period. They are the things that, consciously and unconsciously, influence you're choices. And that's not being Liberal - that's just not being a moron.

And remember:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

 ~Jefferson

Remember him? THAT'S what America is all about.

Now would anyway like to try telling me, again, why these people shouldn't have THE SAME rights as everybody else? (And they ARE the SAME rights, BTW. So don't be a fucking moron and try to talk about them wanting "special rights."  That only marks YOU as "special!")


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BTW...
Date: 2/25/13
Morning Weight: 210.7 (BMI: 32.0)
Pounds Down: 4
Pounds to go: 36
No gym. (DW has Akido & Iado tonight.)

Prom Cancelled Over Lesbian Date

This is just disgusting.

And the sad thing is that there are probably a whole slew of back-woods, red-necked inbreeds that blame THE GIRL.

But perhaps the biggest load of ignorance, the crowning turd in the toliet bowl that passes for this town's cultural heritage is the following, by Anna Watson, a 17-year-old junior at the high school:

"I am a little bummed out about it. I guess it's a decision that had to be made. Either way someone was going to get disappointed — either Constance was or we were,"

Um, no sweety, you see that's what we calls a false dilemma. There's is actually a third option here:

EVERYONE GETS TO GO TO PROM, SO EVERYONE GETS WHAT THEY WANT.

See, that's how INCLUSION works. Just because a stupid policy exists does NOT mean that either Constance needs to be kicked out or the whole thing needs to be cancelled. Only the very most ass-headed Conservatives think like that. Try thinking for yourself, or you'll make me think that public education was wasted on you. Check it out: You get to go. (Happy.) She gets to go. (Happy.) Everyone is happy except for the inbred, bible-humping, rednecks that need to GROW THE FUCK UP and MIND THEIR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS.

This is the stupidest bunch of bullshit I've seen in a long time. Maybe she should graduate in a separate ceremony too. You know, the way things USED to be in Mississ-fucking-ssippi. What'd they call it? Separate but equal? I don't know why we ever had to get rid of that! I mean... separate water fountains means shorter lines for everyone, right?

I wonder how many white might take blacks to the prom and vice-versa. Well... it's Mississippi, so probably NONE. But I'm sure it's happened. And I'm sure there was a brouhaha the first time it did. You gotta wonder how THAT couple views something like this. Amazing how many people refuse to evolve, refuse to progress, refuse to GROW UP.

This is not Constance's fault and this is not the ACLU's fault.  This is the SCHOOL'S fault, 100%.  They ought to be ashamed of themselves, but I know they arent.  And ALL of the parents should be pissed at the school, but I'd be surprised if ANY are.