John Lewis

The US Representative and civil rights icon who recently passed away after a battle with cancer.

"Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring."

WE ARE HERE

An enormously powerful video that uses real life examples of how easy it is to be killed in 21st century America if you're black.

Watch it:

Why the "pro-life" movement is just plain wrong

I'm pro-choice because it makes sense. Because women shouldn't be forced to have babies they can't take care of or simply don't want to have, whatever the reasons.

A child is a big responsibility. It's a human being with needs that start out basic (eat, sleep, be clothed) and only grow from there. It's expensive too. Very expensive. And it's a lifetime commitment.

This opinion piece I found on Raw Story perfectly sums up why the other side's argument is just wrongheaded:

Since the 1970s, abortion providers have been the target for arson and bombings by the very people who claim they value life at the moment of conception. 

[...] While no one was hurt during this clear act of violence, there have been numerous instances over the last few decades where people were either seriously injured or killed by religious zealots who cherish the lives of non-viable zygotes over living, breathing human beings. 

[...] According to statistics gathered by the National Abortion Federation (NAF), since 1977 in the United States and Canada, there have been 17 attempted murders, 383 death threats, 153 incidents of assault or battery, 13 wounded,100 butyric acid attacks, 373 physical invasions, 41 bombings, 655 anthrax threats, and 3 kidnappings committed against abortion providers. 

While these direct acts of violence are clear examples of how disingenuous right-wingers are in regard to how much they value human lives, one can also look to their conflicting political beliefs. Of the 33 states that restrict public funding of abortion, 27 permit death sentences. Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana are among the most “pro-life” states, and yet are also the most supportive of capital punishment. 

While these extremist anti-choicers are quick to threaten or take the lives of people they disagree with on abortion, they’re rarely seen protesting for public assistance to help those in lower socioeconomic statuses so they can take care of their children.

Amen

America. The Land of the Whites.

Here's another example of how white privilege works in America.

Apparently, some guy broke the law by carrying a gun without permit in 1999, assaulted an officer when caught, refused to go to court, holed up in his house, and nothing ever happened.

And he is white.

That last detail is the key here, because I can assure you that if he had been any other skin color or of a religion other than Christian, he'd absolutely be dead or at a minimum behind bars.

Here's more details:

A stand-off between police and a Texas man, who holed up on his 47-acre ranch for fifteen years after he assaulted a police officer, ended peacefully this week when the man –and the sheriff’s department — were informed that charges against him were dropped back in 2014. 

According to WFAA, John Joe Gray was arrested in 1999 for assaulting a state trooper during a traffic stop when he was found carrying a pistol without a permit. Telling the officer it was his God-given right to carry the gun,  Gray attacked the officer and bit him. 

Although charged with assaulting a public servant, Gray refused to go to court and face charges. Instead he armed himself in his home, warning law enforcement officials if they came looking for him that they better “bring extra body bags. Those who live by the sword will die.” 

Since that time, Gray has kept to his property —  festooned with anti-government signs, with one reading, “Vaccinations equal annihilation.” 

Henderson County Sheriff Ray Nutt said he never sent officers in to extract Gray, saying he feared for their lives if they entered the property. 

“It wasn’t worth it,” the sheriff said. “Joe Gray has been in prison out there himself, in my opinion, for 14 years.”  

During that time, Gray, his children and his grandchildren, have patrolled the property with pistols and rifles, refusing to let strangers in.

Now, I can see the Sheriff's point that he needs to weigh the need to apprehend and punish this douchebag against  the risk to the lives of his officers and the danger to the community, given that the guy is living like a recluse. And I can almost agree that yes, it's as if he's been in jail for 14 years because he never could leave his property.

However, he was still enjoying the comforts of his home. He could get whatever he needed or wanted from friends and neighbors. He certainly had a lot more freedom than he'd have had in a jail cell for 14 years!!

And let's not forget that if he had been black, Hispanic, Asian, or Muslim, or probably even a Jew his self-imposed isolation would not have been tolerated.

How White Privilege Works

As all of you know, a bunch of armed to the teeth crazy white people terrorists took over a federal building because they don't like the laws of the country and don't think they should follow them.

They were hoping for a lot of support nationwide from other militias, but they were either turned down or criticized by them because even they thought these people were going about it the wrong way.

Anyway, to avoid violence that would have certainly ended with someone dead, the government pretty much let them free to come and go, hoping they'd get over it sooner or later.

Finally, the whole ordeal ended when the FBI was able to arrest several of these delusional individuals, and one was actually killed when he refused to let the cops stop and arrest him, and even tried to shoot at them, so it serves him right. One less asshole spewing hate out there.

Today, I stumbled upon this video in which Cenk Uygur puts in perspective what really went on here and how there really are two Americas. One for the white right-wingers and the other one for everyone else:

Astounding.

From Rawstory.

Fighting the Real Enemy

I read this article on Rawstory and it was an eye opener.  This paramedic from Texas is amazed by how easily common workers are manipulated by those in power to fight against each other while they reap all the benefits:

“Look, if any job is going to take up someone’s life, it deserves a living wage. If a job exists and you have to hire someone to do it, they deserve a living wage. End of story. There’s a lot of talk going around my workplace along the lines of, “These guys with no education and no skills think they deserve as much as us? Fuck those guys.” And elsewhere on FB: ‘I’m a licensed electrician, I make $13/hr, fuck these burger flippers.'”

He continued, “And that’s exactly what the bosses want! They want us fighting over who has the bigger pile of crumbs so we don’t realize they made off with almost the whole damn cake. Why are you angry about fast food workers making two bucks more an hour when your CEO makes four hundred TIMES what you do? It’s in the bosses’ interests to keep your anger directed downward, at the poor people who are just trying to get by, like you, rather than at the rich assholes who consume almost everything we produce and give next to nothing for it. ”

Pretty solid argument in my opinion.

Slavery and Racial Discrimination

Rawstory points us to this eye opening illustration of slavery in America and what its connection is to today’s racial inequalities.

A must see:

The Protester

Time has picked it’s annual “Person of the Year”

No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a public square, it would incite protests that would topple dictators and start a global wave of dissent. In 2011, protesters didn’t just voice their complaints; they changed the world.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

That title might sound like something I made up, but it’s a real thing in the world:

An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".

Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons.

Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.

[…]

After receiving his application the Austrian authorities had required him to obtain a doctor's certificate that he was "psychologically fit" to drive.

The idea came into Mr Alm's noodle three years ago as a way of making a serious, if ironic, point.

A self-confessed atheist, Mr Alm says he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light-hearted, US-based faith whose members call themselves pastafarians.

The group's website states that "the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma".

In response to pressure for American schools to teach the theory known as intelligent design, which some Christians favour as an alternative to natural selection, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster wrote to the Kansas School Board asking for the pastafarian version of intelligent design to be taught to schoolchildren.

In the same spirit, Mr Alm's pastafarian-style application for a driving licence was a response to the Austrian recognition of confessional headgear in official photographs.

Well, I salute Mr. Alm’s attempt to draw attention to the seriously problematic (and fraked up) fact that many US citizens honestly believe (or rather, have been brainwashed into believing) that evolution is just another “side of the story” and that creationism (the real moniker of intelligent design) could really be how we got here.

Egypt protests

A view of protestors gathered in Tahrir, or Liberation Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Jan. 31, 2011. A coalition of opposition groups called for a million people to take to Cairo's streets Tuesday to demand the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.

Link.

Should history be sanitized to make it politically correct?

Some Native American tribes are pushing for the removal of the word "squaw" from any geographical location in the country, because the word has now acquired a negative connotation for their women, equating it to the "N" word for African Americans:

"It's like saying the 'N-word' to a black person," says Bernal, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock, one of five tribes with reservations in Idaho.

"To me, it's a slap in the face. It belittles me and it belittles all Indian women."

Bernal is among Native Americans across the West fighting to excise "squaw" from the names of region's waterways, peaks and river valleys.

The 55 tribes of the Pacific Northwest say the "S-word," once commonly used when referring to an American Indian woman, is demeaning and never uttered on reservations.

They claim the term evokes the painful chapter in American history when Indian lands were confiscated and native peoples were subjugated by whites.

Yet the word litters the national map, with more than 800 place names including the word "squaw" and some resistance from local officials who object to what they say is a push to be politically correct.

I believe everybody deserves the uttermost respect, but in this case I'm not on the side of the offended. I actually happen to agree with Jeff Ford, former member of the Idaho names council, who said, "It's not meant to be demeaning and that term's been there forever. There must have been a reason for people of European descent to call places that. It probably wasn't a nice reason but we can't keep whitewashing history. A geographic name should reflect the story that brought it about."

I agree with that position. There's a town in Italy named "Bastardo," I heard of a road somewhere named "Dick," a river in Argentina is called "Negro," and a town in Austria is called "Fucking." Should we change them all? I'm sure those names are upsetting or insulting to someone.

What we're talking about here is rewriting history because now those words have a different meaning, or because now the people offended by that meaning have more powerful outlets to vent their frustration, anger, and dissatisfaction.

We're not talking about a word used in comedy skits or in movies or TV shows with the sole purpose to offend the recipients or earn a cheap laugh. These are names of peaks, rivers, cities, with a history behind them. Maybe it's not a pretty history, but it's their history. Are we going to wipe out everything we don't like about the past?

How long before someone demands the deletion of all references to the Holocaust from history books, so as to avoid hurting the feelings of Jewish students?

The rise of the machines

Interesting article from CNN about one day robots being smart and independent enough to demand civil rights for themselves, and the consequences of such an occurrence:

Robots might one day be smart enough to demand emancipation from their human owners, raising the prospects they'll have to be treated as citizens, according to a speculative paper released by the British government.

Among the warnings: a "monumental shift" could occur if robots were developed to the point where they could reproduce, improve or think for themselves.

"Correctly managed, there is a very real possibility for increased labor output and greater intelligence to be provided by robots that will ultimatly lead to greater human prosperity and an improvement of the human condition," it said.

However, it warned that robots could sue for their rights if these were denied to them.

Should they prove successful, the paper said, "states will be obligated to provide full social benefits to them including income support, housing and possibly robo-healthcare to fix the machines over time."

I just have one request. Could gays' civil rights be recognized before we give them to machines, or at least at the same time? At the rate we're going, they might see them before we do.

I wonder if robots can be gay... Would gay robots earn their civil rights before human gays?

France's riots

It's been two weeks now that France has been rattled by civil unrest that has caused a lot of property damage and plenty of political turmoil. The spark for the violence was the accidental death by electrocution of two teens of North African descent, while they were hiding from the police in an electricity sub-station in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.

The violence has spread to Paris and several other cities in France, and was feared it could spread to other European cities as well. The underlying problem is racism.

Racism exists and is a problem on both sides of the Atlantic (actually, everywhere in the world,) but it's been mostly ignored in Europe for decades. Immigrants (legal and illegal) pour into just about any European country from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe. They perform the lowest paying jobs and duties that Europeans don't want to do anymore, and are regarded as inferior to the countries' "real" citizens.

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before we would see in Europe the same kind of riots and violence America witnessed in the past decades, before and after the Civil Rights Act was added to the US Constitution.

The 'rioters' demand to be treated fairly and equally, especially if they are legal immigrants or citizens themselves, a request that is more than reasonable, if you ask me.

From CNN:

Violence in France appeared to be on the decline as officials toughened their stance against rioters and threatened to deport any foreigners convicted of involvement.

Vehicle torchings continued overnight as the unrest stretched into a 14th night. But the number of arson attacks dropped.
...
Vandals set several cars on fire in Toulouse, including one they pushed into a school courtyard, setting the facility on fire.

Another school was torched in the eastern city of Belfort, and vandalism at power stations in Lyon, France's second-largest city, caused blackouts. The night before, Lyon's subway system was shut down after a petrol bomb was thrown in a train station, French media reported.
...
Although France's national unemployment rate is about 10 percent, in areas hit by rioting the level is nearer 40 percent.

France has no affirmative action; an official French study found that youths with Arab-sounding names have their job applications rejected up to five times as often as those with traditional French names.

I'm Italian, so I can speak for experience. Immigrants come in, take up some job no one else wants to do, and try to insert themselves in the local society. Problem is, they look and sound different. Everybody knows they are immigrants, and are viewed with suspicion and diffidence, no matter their situation or behavior.

The citizens tolerate them, as long as they stay 'invisible.' As soon as they try to affirm their rights, to which they should be entitled, especially after living in a country for years, they are put back in their place, and told not to make a stink.

That's not right, and can't keep them quiet forever, especially when their population grows in number at a faster pace than the citizenry itself.

Large minority pockets can be found everywhere across the Old Continent, but they are seldom viewed or treated as the so-called 'locals.'

I'm curious to see if the latest unrest will finally bring about some much needed expansion of civil rights and full acceptance on the part of the European countries that, just like the US, can't keep on ignoring the problem of immigrants as if they didn't exist or were undeserving, since Europe's economy depends on them just as much as it depends on its 'real' citizens.

Race in America

Black workers at a Tyson Food facility in Alabama are suing the company for violating their civil rights. This is their complaint:

A group of black workers is suing the world's largest poultry meat producer, accusing it of tolerating a racist workplace where African Americans were routinely abused and a "whites only" sign was pinned to the lavatory door.

...the workers allege that the lavatory was padlocked and only white workers were given a key, that workers hung a noose in one of the recreation rooms and annotated a picture of monkeys with the names of black staff. When the workers complained, they say the plant manager told them the facilities had been locked because they were "nasty, dirty [and] behaved like children".

It is incredible that in 2005 we still witness events like these in America. We just saw how the Republicans don't care about the black or the poor. Now we see that in the south segregation is still on many people's minds.

That is so sad and unfortunate. Why can't people accept one another regardless of the color of their skin? I would understand racism existing when different people are initially introduced to each other, but after centuries of co-existence?? How do you justify that? Haven't blacks proven they are equal to us yet? What kind of proof would those racists need?

I just feel bad for our children, since we will not be able to shield them from racism and bigotry for their whole lives. I hope Ray and I will do a good enough job with them to give them the tools to deal with situations like these.

Fetuses feel no pain up to 29 weeks

This report isn't gonna please anyone on the religious right, let me tell you, but it will definitely help the pro-choice side of the debate.

I'm clearly pro-choice.

A woman shouldn't be forced to have a baby if she doesn't want to. This is not the Middle Ages.

I'm sorry, every life is worthy of utmost respect, but that should include the woman's life too, which gets changed forever by motherhood. And if the woman isn't ready or doesn't want that change to happen, she shouldn't be forced to, she should be allowed to opt out of it.

The argument that she should have thought about it before having sex or that she shouldn't have sex outside of wedlock if she doesn't want to risk becoming pregnant is idiotic, and it only underscores how far out of the mainstream pro-lifers who make it really are.

Why don't they ever tell the man who has sex with the woman that becomes pregnant that now he has to marry her and care for her and their baby, since he's responsible too? And that if he doesn't like it, he should have tought about it before having sex!!