I will believe that a corporation is a person, and its money is speech, and a corporation has spiritual life when a corporation goes to jail for depraved indifference. A big corporation has destroyed the Gulf of Mexico and its entire food chain. Who is going to jail for that? Anybody? Hello?
A big Corporation, Religious Authoritarians and the Supreme Court are practicing medicine and making social policy. They just picked my pocket. A meat person who picks pockets goes to jail. And they did it to me because ... wait for it ... they did it because I am a woman and they can. They did it to me for Jesus.
I am so angry and stunned it has taken me days to write or do a thing but garden. I am getting upset just writing about this right now. Do not expect this rant to be coherent.
Brendan Boyle
I was pulling weeds and muttering "I do not know what to do." And then the light dawned. The Democratic Party 170th district candidate for PA State Senator is a "staunchly pro life" forced birth cultist. I am going to do a Mississippi-McDaniel on Brendan Boyle.
I swear that I will never vote for an anti choice Democrat. Never. I am going to vote for his Republican opponent. I am going to ask every pro choice woman I know to do the same.
Except he has no Republican opponent it seems. I googled. Okay. I am going to write Margaret Sanger's name on the ballot.
I know Boyle is popular. I also know I am not alone. Women talk and we do not have to whisper about abortion and contraception in the kitchen anymore.
If I cannot control my own body and sexual and family life, what difference does it make who holds the whip? Maybe the Democrats will get the message. Do not mess with the Roe v. Wade the Republicans gave us. Oh the irony.
Our State of PA, which cannot find money for schools to educate children, has found more tax money to fund "crisis pregnancy centers" like Real Alternatives in order to manage PA women's reproductive decisions. I think PA women can manage their own sexual and family lives and should be left alone to do so.
It is state politics that we must concentrate on now, Folks. Bigtime.
Just this summer, the Pennsylvania legislature doled out $5.8 million to Real Alternatives, which is not a penny less than last year, giving the organization a special distinction indeed. In a year that saw huge slashes to the state budget — including cuts in AIDS pharmaceutical services, an 18 percent loss in the operating budget of the Department of Environmental Protection, and $1 billion eliminated from schools, among many other cuts — Real Alternatives' budget was left untouched. - Holly Otterbein, City Paper
I am going out into the garden and pull some more weeds. And continue to ask myself "What can I do about this?" Can you impeach a Supreme Court Justice?
The sign in question is indisputably the most remarkable political sign that I saw in June. It is the work of street artist Sabo. You can see it in one of its settings below.
I almost let the month slip by without a winner. I have been gardening obsessively. Sometimes that is all I do in June.
Go Wendy. Do not let the bastids grind you down. Keep on going no matter what is said or what they do.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
- Mahatma Gandhi
So I googled "feminazi barbie" and a really interesting batch of images came up.
I thought this image ----> was funny in a perverse sardonic way. Google images said its best artistic source is Nazi propaganda. The rest is the product of a witty photoshop artist. Anybody know who?
UPDATE 2: The man murdered in the video, James Boyd, was shot in the back and that is the shot that murdered him. The citizens of Albuquerque are battling their own police force.
ALBUQUERQUE — The 13 protesters who stormed the mayor’s office here and were arrested and jailed Monday said they were spurred by renewed outrage over the latest development in a string of fatal police shootings: An autopsy released last week showed the bullet that killed a homeless man, James Boyd, had been fired into his lower back.
What began as a peaceful protest against the Albuquerque Police Department’s systemic abuse of force and frequent shooting of unarmed civilians spiraled into chaos Sunday evening after police officers—many mounted on horses and in riot gear—assaulted the demonstrators with tear gas.
UPDATE: Because of the Isla Vista mass murder by a mentally ill man, I thought it would be useful to publish this essay again. My apology to those who have already read it. I wrote this precisely a year ago. Not much has changed. In fact, the gagging of doctors has gotten worse.
Do you want the government telling your doctor what to say to you? Or what S/he must not say to you? Did Nancy Lanza's doctor ask her about guns?
Gagging doctors and scientists or giving them a script to follow seems to be a right wing hobby these days. Who do we thank for the proliferation of bills dictating what your doctor can or must say to you? Is it ALEC, the NRA, the Republican Party or the Religious Right?
AMA Supports Blocking Illegal Florida Gun Gag Law
CHICAGO - The American Medical Association (AMA) today filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the State of Florida’s attempt to revive a law preventing doctors from asking patients and families about guns in the home. The brief condemned government-sponsored censorship of private medical discussions between patients and physicians.
It is easy to see why medical personnel might ask clients about guns. Take a look at the leading causes of death per the CDC. Suicide is #10. Chronic depression and bipolar disorder can and do kill patients and others who know them.
I wonder if Nancy Lanza was afraid of her son? Many parents of mentally ill children live in fear. The Police routinely ask medical professionals if they are aware of guns in the home in the course of investigations, for their own safety as well as ours. Do we really want to tell medical professionals they cannot ask about guns?
Psychiatrists and Psychologists who have clients like shooter Jared Loughner and the Lanza boy are understandably confused. They are damned if they do report a scary or aged client and damned if they do not. "Why did you not know they were dangerous?" we accuse. They may get sued if they speak about a client's behavior or their guns. And sued if they do not. Add gun gag laws to the mix. No wonder malpractice insurance is so high. I think the President has got this. Now let us all make a lot of noise and help him out!
President Obama’s multifaceted plan to reduce gun violence calls on physicians to play an important role in decreasing shooting deaths and injuries in communities nationwide.
Obama clarified that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors from discussing gun safety. He assured physicians that they can report credible threats of violence without fear of penalties from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule. He also authorized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research the causes and prevention of gun violence, work that was suspended in 1996 after a National Rifle Assn.-backed push to block the study’s funding.
Dr. Denise Dowd
“We need to counsel our families about how to keep our children safe,” regardless of whether that involves bicycles, guns or swimming pools, said Denise Dowd, MD, MPH, a pediatric emergency physician and director of research in the Division of Emergency and Urgent Care at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo.
Dr. Dowd said Obama’s clarification on this issue was needed, because some physicians were confused by language in the ACA that prohibits the collection of any data pertaining to firearm counseling, language inserted by pressure from theNRA.
Update: Kansas legislature proposing aBillto prevent doctors from asking questions about gun ownership. Five other states have gag laws in the works. Why?
Sec. 9. No physician, other than a psychiatrist, shall inquire of any patient in conjunction with obtaining the patient's personal information and medical history, whether the patient has any firearms in such patient's home or on such patient's property and shall not require such information before providing treatment.
My Dad was a big gun guy. His guns nearly killed my baby brother and, years later, my toddlers. His guns were never of real use. They bagged him a wild boar, a dozen woodchucks and almost 3 children over three generations. In his elder years, Father laid up in the front bedroom and waited with his shotgun and a revolver for the "college boys who are running over my mailbox for fun." In suburban Lawrenceville New Jersey. To be fair, our nearest neighbor was a half acre away behind trees. No other neighbors were near. Good reason to have a gun in the country.
If you have a gun, you have good chance someone around you will be maimed or die. Thank you Gun Nuts and the National Rifle Association for my bad dreams and the deaths of a good many children over the years.
The Gun Nut mofos buy junior rifles for their kids. Pink ones for girls. A toddler bleeding to death from a gunshot wound in the parlor is Gun Nut chic evidently. Doesn't everybody have one?
The picture below of the boy with the gun comes from the Facebook page of Flakoo del Campo a typical Open Carry Mofo. I would not trust this guy to get me a cup of coffee much less trust him with guns or my child. Flakoo got so much flak he removed the picture.
I learned a new word for these Mofos and that word is Ammosexual. Flakoo recently took part in the invasion of a Chipotle restaurant. And what is up with this boys Mother? Is she nuts? Child protective services anyone? If I lived in Texas I would be on the phone ASAP.
Have patience if you go to their website. Everyone is going there for more information, more pictures and to donate to this great program. The boy in the photo thought he was "too dumb" to learn to read. Nope. His reading and grades have improved tremendously. And the cats are finding forever homes.
“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Hot damn I love Texans. A bunch of open carry Mofos showed up at the Jack in the Box and the employees called the Cops and hid in the freezer. Mofos were indignant that they were treated like criminals. Video at the link.
“They locked themselves inside a freezer for protection out of fear the rifle-carrying men would rob them,” the email stated. “The demonstration had no signage that would have alerted anyone to their real purpose, and to our knowledge they did not attempt to contact anyone in the Fort Worth Police Department to advise us prior to the demonstration.”
Fort Worth police responded to the situation as if it was a robbery.
Imagine if the employees were also big fans of open carry and 'stand your ground'. You want to be the Cop deciding who to shoot?
What are the PoPo going to do if some customer decides to stand their ground and shoots these Mofos? Charge the frightened customer? Know how much a trial would cost?
Shaking my damn head. Not in my State. How much tax money do they have to waste in Texas? How crazy stupid are these folks? Maybe it is the heat? You have to admit that Texans have panache. What does Pennsylvania have to offer? Scrapple? Quakers? At least when we go out to get a hamburger, we do not end up hiding in the freezer. I will take it. I am getting a little too long in the tooth for hide and seek. And scrapple is delicious.
We need the Affordable Care Act. Why is the government shut down to prevent us from having health care? I have nothing funny, happy or partisan to say about this debacle. I say this:
The agency’s overall — and, it stressed, conservative — assessment of the problem:
Each year, in the U.S., 2,049,442 illnesses caused by bacteria and fungi that are resistant to at least some classes of antibiotics;
Each year, out of those illnesses, 23,000 deaths;
Because of those illnesses and deaths, $20 billion each year in additional healthcare spending;
And beyond the direct healthcare costs, an additional $35 billion lost to society in foregone productivity.
“If we are not careful, we will soon be in a post-antibiotic era,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC’s director, said in a media briefing. “And for some patients and for some microbes, we are already there.”
WPA Poster
We are in bad shape. We are 37th in health care outcomes among all the nations. And we pay the most for health care. That is bad, it is true. It is worse than folks think. Some Governors are resisting the ACA. Their solutions to these serious disease issues are, for example:
2. Close the only public tuberculosis hospital in the state and house the contagious patients in an old motel in a large city.
This creates active disease vectors in major population areas. These diseases will bubble upward from the poor, who cannot get medical treatment, to the rich and privileged. Disease is no respecter of gated communities, security guards, or wealth. Everyone has heard of Typhoid Mary, right? As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Do we really want to go back to 1940s? Those who do not remember and learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
I remember how shocked everyone was when Sinead OConnor sang this on Saturday Night Live in the 70s. I was there watching the TV. Ms. OConnor was reviled.
Fight the real enemy. It was appropriate then and is even more appropriate now. I am a Catholic baptized and confirmed.
'How can you post this and call yourself a Catholic' you may ask. It is complicated.
"Over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one's own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else, if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority. Conscience confronts [the individual] with a supreme and ultimate tribunal, and one which in the last resort is beyond the claim of external social groups, even of the official church." (Pope Benedict XVI [then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger], "Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II", ed. Vorgrimler, 1968, on Gaudium et spes, part 1, chapter 1.)
My house is a tiny HUD row house I bought as a veritable shell a decade ago. I have had to dedicate any money I had to serious repairs like putting in a heating system and erecting a front door.
I love to garden. However, my garden gets the least investment in terms of capital available. Nevertheless, I have turned it from hard packed clay with a scraggly lawn I had to mow to its present state.
I scavenged antique bricks from an old house and we made a walk. Who wants a lawn to mow? Not me. I use fallen tree branches to make garden beds. I use chunks of cement. I scavenge fallen leaves that others bag up and throw away. I compost to make soil and keep weeds down. In that way, I have raised the level of my garden 6 inches of fertile composted soil all over. Took some time.
I write a lot about garden design here. Even so, I did not realize quite what I was doing, until my Daughter suggested I get some nicer paving stones on a trip to the garden store. I recoiled. And I was not sure why. I mean, I just spent $50.00 on new fig trees.
And then the light dawned. I like the scavenging. Saves money so I can indulge in fig trees. It is a challenge. I just did not know it was a design theme. I scavenged every single one of those Iris and in another few weeks they will be glorious. I have the Herbs in and my Blueberries are doing fine.
My garden theme is Ghetto Fabulous. Example is the old ladder. It is a bean tower. I think it will be beautiful. We shall see. God bless my Daughter. Eventually she will whip me into shape. One way or another. Kind of like my garden.
Jore Puusa
I am a Fin living in Finland, Europe. ( BTW Europe is on the other side of Atlantic ocean for those who had no free education)
We have free education and free healthcare. Of course we pay lots of taxes- me about 21% and richer people even 50%. But, this way everybody can stay healthy and study whatever he/she likes and has talent. Most of fins learn english, swedish, germany or french in schools, I hear that even American English is a problem at certain areas in US???.
We are a small country of five million and we do not try to learn how to live to other nations. So here I´m only telling to US citizens what real freedom sounds.
On the opposite of US we have real freedom of speech cause most of us can read or write ---as I`ve heard 14% millions of US citizens cannot read. Our people do not beg or sleep in the streets. If one gets sick he/she goes to local health station and sees a doctor. If You go only once or twice a year You pay 40 USD for those two first... all the rest is free. I does not depend on disease, if You have cancer it is as cheap as a broken leg or a flu. So why can we pay for it and mighty US cannot??
Maybe cause we are not to the right so much and we really care for other people.
Or for some other reason. Maybe You could care about Your citizens if You did not throw away Your money in useless wars. maybe.
I am a photojournalist, I´we been twice to USA. In 1984 La Olympics and in Lake Placid olympics. No other problems but the racism everywhere and crime all over seemed a bit sad. When I read angry and almost facist comments in this thread I understood that You just cannot make it better, so sad.
But its Your choice. Good luck.
Jore Puusa
Helsinki
Finland
THERE IS NO MORE UNCOMFORTABLY BIZARRE SENTENCE AVAILABLE ON FRED PHELPS THAN THIS FROM JON MICHAEL BELL’S ADDICTED TO HATE You can read the full text of Bell's Addicted to Hate at the link.
“Mark remembers the family coming back once to find Pastor Phelps jogging around the dining room table, beating the sobbing [Nate] with a broom handle; while doing so, he was alternately spitting on the frightened child and chuckling the same sinister laugh so disturbing to those who've seen him on television.”
The guy in the white coat is C.J. Grisham of Open Carry Texas and the other guys are his Posse. Aren't they special? How confident do you feel that they can and will meet the challenges of Wayne LaPierre's brave new world?
“We, the American people, clearly see the daunting forces we will undoubtedly face: terrorists, crime, drug gangs, the possibility of Euro-style debt riots, civil unrest or natural disaster.” - Wayne LaPierre, National Rifle Association
"Most Texans are surprised to learn that the people they see openly carrying in our streets and our public spaces are not required to have had a background check or to have received any firearms safety training whatsoever," said Hillary Rand.
Activists have congregated in malls, store parking lots, restaurants and city parks in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio in an effort to "normalize" the open carry of firearms. Last year in Arlington, nearly 40 open carry activists protested four Moms Demand Action volunteers by standing in the parking lot with long guns. - http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/15065/texas-moms-demand-action-chapter-gives-testimony-on-open-carry-laws
When I googled "open carry Texas," I also found this lovely young lady with a BLOG. I looked at the picture of the posse above and I looked at her and I thought to myself "Self, maybe you misunderstand Texas culture. Could this be a mating ritual like Christian Mingle?" Then I found this photograph with the label "gun-girl.' My mind is officially blown. And I grew up in New Jersey. These are the women Texas legislators are trying to take reproductive rights from? Texas, like New Jersey, has lately become one long messy greasy salty popcorn worthy event. I am starting to love Texas. Note: For those who are not familiar with American slang, the meaning of 'mofo' can be found HERE. I'm from Texas, and one of the reasons I like Texas is because there's no one in control.
Shreveport Louisiana asked to stone some gays by transexual woman.
What is really ironic is the guy who proposed the bill in question appears to wear glasses because he has a defect in his eyes. And I wonder if he has prostate issues? According to the Levites, Ron Webb has no right to preach or even approach the Altar of God. Does he have both his testicles. Maybe he will let us check?
Leviticus 21 states:
17 “Speak unto Aaron, saying, ‘Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations who hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. 18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, 19 or a man who is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, 20 or crookbacked, or a dwarf, or who hath a blemish in his eye, or hath scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken.
I wonder if Ron Webb has ever read the book he is thumping. Man is an embarrassment to Christians. Blasphemy is a sin, if you are into the sin type of coercion. Personally, I like Pope Frankie's approach. The thing to keep in mind when dealing with religious authoritarians is - they have very high standards - for YOU.
If you read my blog, it is no secret I despise religious authoritarians. I hope this action becomes a standard way of dealing with religious zealots. In your face!
Call these folks out on their bullshit. Make them live up to all of the "rules," not just the ones that suit their personal prejudices. They cannot live up to their own rhetoric. Biblical morality will get you arrested.
Well, they'll stone you when you walk all alone They'll stone you when you are walking home They'll stone you and then say you are brave They'll stone you when you are set down in your grave But I would not feel so all alone Everybody must get stoned.
- Bob Dylan, Poet Another uppity queer woman. Is this a new trend? I approve.
WASHINGTON – The Board of Directors of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the nation’s oldest and largest pro-life organization, today voted to seat the Georgia Life Alliance as its official NRLC affiliate for the state of Georgia, replacing Georgia Right to Life in that capacity.
According to WHO, unsafe abortion is one of the three leading causes of maternal mortality, along with hemorrhage and sepsis from childbirth.1 America ranks 50th in maternal mortality worldwide.
What are the "prolife" fighting over? They are fighting over compelling me to birth a rapist's child by force of law or not. Or birth my Daddy's child or not. Because they care. Oh how they care.
“If all aren’t protected, none are protected … Rape and incest is a horrible scenario and we have the utmost sympathy for anyone in those circumstances, but we can’t condone murder in those circumstances,” Suzanne Ward of Georgia Right to Life told Fox 5 Atlanta.
"No one is asking them to condone it (abortion for rape and incest). But what conservatives have asked is that we at least move the ball forward where we can on this issue. Georgia Right to Life has refused to do so. And now they are going on record with their position — better all die than work to save as many as we can. This is horrific. This is Westboro Baptist Church insanity. Georgia needs a new pro-life group — one that actually wants to save as many lives as possible." - Erick Erickson of Red State Blog.
I think it would be useful here to define rape. Words have meaning. Commandeer or make unconsensual use of my body and you have committed rape. Violence is defined by the act of rape itself, not by the intention of the rapist.
The term rape originates in the Latin rapere, from raptus, "to snatch, to grab, to carry off". The term has come to mean, since approximately the 14th century, "to seize and take away by force." In Roman law in the carrying off of a woman by force, with or without intercourse, constituted "raptus." In Medieval English law the same term could refer to either kidnapping or rape in the modern sense of "sexual violation." The original meaning of "carry off by force" is still found in some phrases, such as "rape and pillage" or in titles, such as the story of the Rape of the Sabine Women or the poem The Rape of the Lock, which is about the theft of a lock of hair. The term is most often defined in criminal law. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape
Meanwhile, the citizens of Georgia have been denied health care under the ACA MedicAid expansion by the same Republicans who want to force them to give birth no matter what. 15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 12. You think that might be pertinent?
UPDATE: The battle for women's reproductive health has been joined by America's Nuns. Nuns supported the ACA, and now they have come out in support of the contraception mandate.
It is the Nuns against the Bishops and Hobby Lobby. My money is on the Nuns. Sign a petition in support of the Nuns HERE.
What is nonviolent civil or religious disobedience? Gandhi's definition is the clearest in my opinion:
"I have also called it love-force or soul-force. . . I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself." - Mohandas Gandhi.
Let us examine the definition of violence:
Violence is defined by the World Health Organization as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation. This definition associates intentionality with the committing of the act itself, irrespective of the outcome it produces. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V...
A Conscientious Objector takes on the burden of the Objection. That is the nature of nonviolent conscientious objection, religious or otherwise. Transferring the burden of one's own conscientious objection onto the Other is not conscientious objection. It is assault.
This religious war on women is not new. It is very old. And now the Nuns are in a civil(?) war up to their necks. Do most America's Nuns support the ACA? Evidently, they do.
As further proof that conservative efforts to paint President Obama as the enemy of religion are ared herring, nearly two dozen leading Catholic nuns filed a brief in the Supreme Court last week supporting the president’s signature legislative accomplishment. As they explain in their brief:
Amici curiae represent the leadership of Catholic women’s religious orders from across the United States. Amici and the orders they serve have a long history of public service in healthcare in America dating back to the 1700s. These services include founding hospitals and free clinics and providing free healthcare to the underprivileged and uninsured. The work by Amici gives them a unique perspective on the unmet healthcare needs of the poor, as well as on the positive impact that will result from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or the “Act”). . . .
Amici believe that a civilized society must ensure the provision of basic healthcare to its citizens regardless of their ability to pay for it. They further believe it is a moral imperative that all levels of government institute programs that ensure the poor receive such care. They believe Medicaid expansion under the Act is critical to the communities they serve. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/02/23/431147/catholic-nuns-file-brief-supporting-affordable-care-act/
SPRING will be here March 21 and I am dreaming my new garden. I have a very small back garden. Every year I do something different. Ask me "So what is new and exciting" and I will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about Bees.
I come from Farmer stock and I am of the "just throw it in there and see if it grows" school of garden thought. Nature is wild and so am I.
Even I dream and plan. You have to plan. Ever grow too many Zucchini? No? Never do that. Your neighbors will only absorb so much Zucchini before they run when they see you coming.
This year I am adding two new Herbs, lovely blue Borage to attract Bees and an exotic Oregano used to make a condiment called Zaatar to sprinkle on my Hummus. It is so worth it to grow Herbs. I thought I hated Oregano until I grew some and tasted the dried Herb I grew myself. Nothing like that dessicated stuff in the supermarket. And I sent for my Fig Tree.
Every warmish sunny day I am outside staring prayerfully at my Texas Star Hibiscus and hoping for that first shoot. I planted it last Summer. It is said to be hardy but it has been a long snowy Winter here in Philadelphia. Even in Texas they pamper it. We shall see. No room in a row house garden for sissy plants.
Last but not least, I am excited about the Three Sisters garden concept, so I am going to squeeze in one of them somewhere. Squash tends to spread. I have too much shade from neighboring back gardens. So maybe I will have to borrow a garden? And so my fevered garden dreams grow and go.