Get Your Stoning Right Here! - UPDATE

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.

PHOTOS: LGBT Activists Demand Stoning at Antigay Harlem Church

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.

 

NUT FIGHT! NUT FIGHT! Get the popcorn.

UPDATE:

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.

They are also fighting about who the National Right to Life folks will support for election in the Georgia Senate race. It is Karen Handel vs. Paul Broun. I already gave Karen Handel an Asshat Award.

The Fight about Abortion for Rape and Incest:

Georgia Right to Life:

“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.

versus 

Georgia Life Alliance:

 "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?

• Girls ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.

Georgia women are not at all happy. Women vote. Eyes on Georgia because it is going to be a hoot.

Conscientious Objection, Nuns, and President Obama

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.

The Roman Catholic Church and the Religious Right are engaging in the War on Women as allies. They sent in some Nuns to the battle along with the requisite Corpos. Some other Nuns have filed a brief supporting the Affordable Care Act. 

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 a red 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/

Garden Dreaming in Snowy Philadelphia

Borage

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.

You can grow Things to Eat and Flowers in the smallest space. If you are new to gardening and/or tend to be neat and like structure, you may find Square Foot Gardening of use. Or you may plant a Spiral Garden. Or grow vegetables in a pipe. 

Origanum Syriacum

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.