So you thought it was all about freedom of religion, government out of our lives, and the virtue of women, didn't you?
Right.
In fact, it's all about putting us women right back in our places. In the 19th century.
Oh, to be back in those halcyon days, when men were men and women were HOME.
'Rick Santorum...in his 2005 book, “It Takes a Family,”...disparaged “radical feminists” for giving women the idea that they might find greater fulfillment outside the home.'
And dare they venture as far as to join the military, well, they'll get just what they deserve: raped.
'In response to...a new Pentagon report on sexual abuse in the military [that states that since 2006, there's been a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults]', Fox News contributor Liz Trotta says, 'Now, what did they expect?'
And now, audaciously! '...feminists...[are directing the Pentagon] to spend a lot of money. They have sexual counselors all over the place, victims’ advocates, sexual response coordinators. … So, you have this whole bureaucracy upon bureaucracy being built up with all kinds of levels of people to support women in the military who are now being raped too much.'
Oh, if they'd just stayed HOME! Where women are cherished, treasured, pedastaled. And beaten.
'Current [domestic violence] law in New Hampshire states...that an officer “has the discretion to decide when an arrest is warranted with or without corroborating evidence.” This means that if an officer shows up to a house, he or she takes a look at the scene to assess the situation and makes a decision about whether the alleged assault took place.
But a piece of legislation proposed by state Republicans would require police to get a judge or justice of the peace to issue a warrant for the alleged perpetrator’s arrest...So even if a cop shows up, the victim is covered in bruises, the neighbors say they heard screaming, and there is a hole punched in the wall...it is not too difficult to figure out what happens next: “The officer leaves [to get a warrant], and the abuser renews his attack with even more ferocity, punishing his victim for having called for help.”
And should those cherished women wish to choose when and how many children they'd like to have and raise....think again, 21st/19th century fairer sex...
'Republican legislators are trying to extend the exemption (extended to Catholic charities, hospitals, and universities...which would allow religious groups to opt out of the mandate [to provide free contraceptive care] and require insurers to provide birth control directly to consumers) to any employer opposed to birth control, not just the Catholic church.'
Dear women! Beware of conservative outrage—and the laws that follow—cloaked in the dictates of religion, the 'veneration' of women, and the demonization of government.
The real target is you.
14 February 2012
04 February 2012
Spending in the Twilight Zone
Two statements submitted for your approval:
'Overall spending by all candidates in 2012 is predicted to eclipse an astounding $8 billion.'
And,
'As part of the drive to cut spending, the Obama administration and Congress have trimmed the energy-assistance program that helps the poor — 65,000 households in Maine alone — to pay their heating bills.'
Let's try two more...
'[Obama attended] a $35,000-per-person [campaign fundraising] event at MK Restaurant, where he [ate] dinner...including...Maine salmon with asparagus and shaved fennel, seared Maine sea scallops, rosemary braised short ribs, and parsnip puree.'
And,
'The average amount [of energy assistance] given [in Maine] is $483, down from $804 last year, all at a time when the price of oil has risen more than 40 cents in a year, to $3.71 a gallon...Mainers try to make do. They warm up in idling cars, then dash inside and dive under the covers. They pour a few gallons of kerosene into their oil tank and hope it lasts.'
Two final statements submitted for your approval:
'The Romney plan “would throw 10 million low-income people off the benefit rolls, cut benefits by thousands of dollars a year, or some combination of the two. These cuts would primarily affect very-low-income families with children, seniors and people with disabilities.”
And,
[Mainer] Mr. Hartford, 68, has a bad shoulder, Mrs. Hartford, 71, needs a wheelchair, and the two survive on $1,200 a month. So far this year they have received $360 in heating assistance...about a quarter of last year’s allocation. There is no oil to burn, so the cold takes up residence, beside the dog and the four cats, under the velvet painting of Jesus. The couple has no choice but to run up their electric bill. They turn on the stove’s burners and circulate the heat with a small fan. They run the dryer’s hose back into the basement to keep pipes from freezing, even when there were no clothes to dry.'
The Twilight Zone? No...this is our present reality...
'And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone...'
'Mr. Hartford drove up to Hometown Energy’s small office in his weathered gray Lincoln, walked inside, and made his desperate offer: the title to his car for some oil.'
'Overall spending by all candidates in 2012 is predicted to eclipse an astounding $8 billion.'
And,
'As part of the drive to cut spending, the Obama administration and Congress have trimmed the energy-assistance program that helps the poor — 65,000 households in Maine alone — to pay their heating bills.'
Let's try two more...
'[Obama attended] a $35,000-per-person [campaign fundraising] event at MK Restaurant, where he [ate] dinner...including...Maine salmon with asparagus and shaved fennel, seared Maine sea scallops, rosemary braised short ribs, and parsnip puree.'
And,
'The average amount [of energy assistance] given [in Maine] is $483, down from $804 last year, all at a time when the price of oil has risen more than 40 cents in a year, to $3.71 a gallon...Mainers try to make do. They warm up in idling cars, then dash inside and dive under the covers. They pour a few gallons of kerosene into their oil tank and hope it lasts.'
Two final statements submitted for your approval:
'The Romney plan “would throw 10 million low-income people off the benefit rolls, cut benefits by thousands of dollars a year, or some combination of the two. These cuts would primarily affect very-low-income families with children, seniors and people with disabilities.”
And,
[Mainer] Mr. Hartford, 68, has a bad shoulder, Mrs. Hartford, 71, needs a wheelchair, and the two survive on $1,200 a month. So far this year they have received $360 in heating assistance...about a quarter of last year’s allocation. There is no oil to burn, so the cold takes up residence, beside the dog and the four cats, under the velvet painting of Jesus. The couple has no choice but to run up their electric bill. They turn on the stove’s burners and circulate the heat with a small fan. They run the dryer’s hose back into the basement to keep pipes from freezing, even when there were no clothes to dry.'
The Twilight Zone? No...this is our present reality...
'And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone...'
'Mr. Hartford drove up to Hometown Energy’s small office in his weathered gray Lincoln, walked inside, and made his desperate offer: the title to his car for some oil.'
24 April 2009
Policy Differences?!?!
I have now, officially and certifiably, heard it all.
Torture is nothing more than a policy difference.
Omigosh.
I thought the eight long years of Bush Hell had visited the most wretchedly ludicrous palaver possible on a vulnerable world. Guess not. Guess they had to crown their execrable efforts with the most contemptible canard of all:
Torturing human beings is not wrong, criminal, nor even morally heinous--it's just POLICY.
It defies imagination.
Or even coherent thought.
Torture is nothing more than a policy difference.
Omigosh.
I thought the eight long years of Bush Hell had visited the most wretchedly ludicrous palaver possible on a vulnerable world. Guess not. Guess they had to crown their execrable efforts with the most contemptible canard of all:
Torturing human beings is not wrong, criminal, nor even morally heinous--it's just POLICY.
It defies imagination.
Or even coherent thought.
09 January 2009
Gaza, Sudan, Northern Ireland, Somalia, Nigeria...
Cry out, Americans! When hatred kills children, there is no justification. Ever.
GENEVA – The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called Friday for an independent war crimes investigation in Gaza after reports that Israeli forces shelled a house full of Palestinian civilians, killing 30 people.
Navi Pillay...[said] an incident in Gaza City this week "appears to have all the elements of war crimes."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli troops evacuated Palestinian civilians to a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood on Jan. 4, then shelled the building 24 hours later.
The U.N. agency said 110 people were in the house, according to testimony from four witnesses.
On Thursday, the international Red Cross said the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach wounded people in the neighborhood for four days. Israel said the delay was caused by fighting in the area.
GENEVA – The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights called Friday for an independent war crimes investigation in Gaza after reports that Israeli forces shelled a house full of Palestinian civilians, killing 30 people.
Navi Pillay...[said] an incident in Gaza City this week "appears to have all the elements of war crimes."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli troops evacuated Palestinian civilians to a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood on Jan. 4, then shelled the building 24 hours later.
The U.N. agency said 110 people were in the house, according to testimony from four witnesses.
On Thursday, the international Red Cross said the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach wounded people in the neighborhood for four days. Israel said the delay was caused by fighting in the area.
Gaza, Addendum
I was talking with my kids yesterday about the fact that President-Elect Obama does not speak out about the Gaza massacre and they asked why Senator Clinton does not. I opened my mouth to answer as it dawned on me that she cannot now. She works for Obama.
What is that fine political axiom?...Hold your friends close; hold your enemies...
What is that fine political axiom?...Hold your friends close; hold your enemies...
08 January 2009
The True Horror That Is Gaza
699 and 11.
How do those numbers strike you?
They strike me as wildly disparate. Especially when each whole number represents a LIFE.
As our Congress and our president-elect are busy demurring 'weighing in' on these numbers, they're mounting--with the larger one on track to four digits probably before the president-elect can say again that there can only be 'one administration at a time'.
It's this complacency in the face of needless death--children, no less--that I find the most excruciatingly obscene in the dispositions of those who would conduct our country. I have, at last, faced the reality of our lame duck president's barren soul, and our representatives' spineless souls, but I was so hoping for some caring souls to take the helm.
In other words, anyone in a position to speak out against the wholesale slaughter of civilians and children who does not do so is a complete conundrum to me.
Well, I'm not in that position, but I'm going to speak out anyway.
The first part of the equation is that Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel for years. While in no way defensible, Hamas' actions have lacked lethality. No such lack can be found in the Israeli answer. As the most heavily-armed helicopters in the world rain death on Gaza, and equally ferocious armed vehicles snuff out any animate square meters of that strip of land, the purveyors of the firestorm claim victimhood and protest their right to protect their land.
Accordingly, 699 Palestinians have died in Gaza. 11 Israeli soldiers have died.
If I could employ an analogy, it might be this: a student gang comes to school each day and behaves badly, really badly. They kick the other students, slam lockers in other students' faces, trip other students, even wave guns in their faces---all with belligerent impunity. Well, the other students have had just about enough of the constant mistreatment. And rightly so.
So they BOMB every last house of this gang's families, plus every last house next to the gang's families' houses, plus every last place of business patronized by the gang's families' members, plus every last house belonging to the business owners. And everything else in between.
Sound about right?
699 and 11.
How do those numbers strike you?
They strike me as wildly disparate. Especially when each whole number represents a LIFE.
As our Congress and our president-elect are busy demurring 'weighing in' on these numbers, they're mounting--with the larger one on track to four digits probably before the president-elect can say again that there can only be 'one administration at a time'.
It's this complacency in the face of needless death--children, no less--that I find the most excruciatingly obscene in the dispositions of those who would conduct our country. I have, at last, faced the reality of our lame duck president's barren soul, and our representatives' spineless souls, but I was so hoping for some caring souls to take the helm.
In other words, anyone in a position to speak out against the wholesale slaughter of civilians and children who does not do so is a complete conundrum to me.
Well, I'm not in that position, but I'm going to speak out anyway.
The first part of the equation is that Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel for years. While in no way defensible, Hamas' actions have lacked lethality. No such lack can be found in the Israeli answer. As the most heavily-armed helicopters in the world rain death on Gaza, and equally ferocious armed vehicles snuff out any animate square meters of that strip of land, the purveyors of the firestorm claim victimhood and protest their right to protect their land.
Accordingly, 699 Palestinians have died in Gaza. 11 Israeli soldiers have died.
If I could employ an analogy, it might be this: a student gang comes to school each day and behaves badly, really badly. They kick the other students, slam lockers in other students' faces, trip other students, even wave guns in their faces---all with belligerent impunity. Well, the other students have had just about enough of the constant mistreatment. And rightly so.
So they BOMB every last house of this gang's families, plus every last house next to the gang's families' houses, plus every last place of business patronized by the gang's families' members, plus every last house belonging to the business owners. And everything else in between.
Sound about right?
699 and 11.
06 January 2009
Just Imagine a World Where....
...children being killed by bombs dropped by Apache helicopters is more important than stopping a duly-appointed senator from sitting down in Congress...
...soldiers dying endlessly in an endless conflict of obscene origin is more important than fighting to appoint someone wholly ill-equipped but well-named to Congress...
...keeping families in their homes is more important than voting billions of dollars to the evictors...
...teaching civics in schools is more important than omitting its existence because we aren't supposed to know the laws and rules that are being stomped upon...
...the right to one's civil liberties is more important than a daily diet of fearing terrorists...
...respecting the earth is more important than filling the coffers...
...helping people is more important than helping corporations...
...[I invite you to add your own wish for the world we all deserve]...
...soldiers dying endlessly in an endless conflict of obscene origin is more important than fighting to appoint someone wholly ill-equipped but well-named to Congress...
...keeping families in their homes is more important than voting billions of dollars to the evictors...
...teaching civics in schools is more important than omitting its existence because we aren't supposed to know the laws and rules that are being stomped upon...
...the right to one's civil liberties is more important than a daily diet of fearing terrorists...
...respecting the earth is more important than filling the coffers...
...helping people is more important than helping corporations...
...[I invite you to add your own wish for the world we all deserve]...
04 January 2009
Of Blogs, Blogging and Blogojevich...Oh, and I'M BACK!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a task left long undone becomes next to impossible to tackle! I've left my blog for so long I'm beyond rusty. And Dorothy with her oilcan is nowhere in sight. So I'll just have to crank back into gear on my own power here. If you hear a whack, whir, wheeze, whine, sputter, splat, squirt, scrape, clink, clank, clunk, clatter, crash, bang, beep, buzz, ring, rip, roar, retch, twang, toot, tinkle, thud, pop, plop, plunk, pow, snort, snuk, sniff, smack, screech, splash, squish, squeek, jingle, rattle, squeel, boing, honk, hoot, hack, belch...it's just me, stretching my blog limbs again.*
*With thanks to Jane Austin and Todd Rundgren, from whom I stole the opening and closing of the paragraph.
So how are you all in blogville nowadays? Nowadays filled with Gaza, Iraq and Mumbai; cool ash, foreclosures and inaugurations; Warrens, Blagojeviches and Kennedys? Hmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have taken up the blog reins again quite so fast...
Naw. I'll jump in. But just in the shallow end.
I understand the democrats are planning to unceremoniously oust the honorable Mr. Roland Burris from the Senate before he gets to put a crease in his trousers.
Right.
And so we're off and running into 2009 with the exact same attitude toward THE LAW that defined 2008. Just what is the difficulty the dems have with following laws, rules and directives? Here are a few that come to mind:
*The presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is covered by the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. And it should cover Blogojevich in his present pickle, if I'm not mistaken.
*When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. This is from the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. And it should speak to Blagojevich's duties, again, if I'm not mistaken.
*Did I mention 'Everyone is supposed innocent until having been declared guilty'? This is broached in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the legal codes of untold numbers of the nations of the world.
But it's evidently not included in our majority leader's vocabulary. Just this morn I listened to him declare Blagojevich guilty of contemptuous crimes, thereby nullifying that governor's rights and duties of office.
Right.
I guess we can just dispense with that whole indictment, plea and jury business.
*With thanks to Jane Austin and Todd Rundgren, from whom I stole the opening and closing of the paragraph.
So how are you all in blogville nowadays? Nowadays filled with Gaza, Iraq and Mumbai; cool ash, foreclosures and inaugurations; Warrens, Blagojeviches and Kennedys? Hmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have taken up the blog reins again quite so fast...
Naw. I'll jump in. But just in the shallow end.
I understand the democrats are planning to unceremoniously oust the honorable Mr. Roland Burris from the Senate before he gets to put a crease in his trousers.
Right.
And so we're off and running into 2009 with the exact same attitude toward THE LAW that defined 2008. Just what is the difficulty the dems have with following laws, rules and directives? Here are a few that come to mind:
*The presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is covered by the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. And it should cover Blogojevich in his present pickle, if I'm not mistaken.
*When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of each State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. This is from the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. And it should speak to Blagojevich's duties, again, if I'm not mistaken.
*Did I mention 'Everyone is supposed innocent until having been declared guilty'? This is broached in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the legal codes of untold numbers of the nations of the world.
But it's evidently not included in our majority leader's vocabulary. Just this morn I listened to him declare Blagojevich guilty of contemptuous crimes, thereby nullifying that governor's rights and duties of office.
Right.
I guess we can just dispense with that whole indictment, plea and jury business.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
