Displaying 4,411 To 4,440 Of 5,146 Comments A new low for Christian crazies It’s STILL my fave. » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 3:27 pm I was at a women’s history conference at Vassar College where a group of us headed for the women’s room. We had one guy in the group, and damned if we could find the men’s room. So we invited him in. With us. It was a tiny bit uncomfortable, but it worked – we all had individual stalls, so who cared? We all survived. Except for the women coming in who had NOT been privy to the privy party. » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 3:26 pm the Muslim community here in CA has had an about face since when they fell under siege, it was partly the GLBT community that came forward to stand with them in solidarity. They have discovered real affection for one another, and Muslims, including imams, have even written about it openly in their newspaper, In Focus. This new solidarity and understanding is nearly miraculous. There is no longer discomfort, and the issues of going beyond mere tolerance have been profound. So – progress. Much of the intolerance we see in Muslim nation has much more to do with the culture of the nation than with the faith. Women Muslims in many parts of the world are equal with men, do not cover their heads (though I do not think of that as subservient since I’ve learned a LOT about why they do) and are well educated, often professionals. There is a huge disparity among Muslims on these and many other issues depending on the national origins. They are just a diverse as Christians. » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 3:23 pm There was a mad anti-abortion zealot who had several children (God help them)whom he dragged out to clinics in all kinds of weather. His new-born son was his prop one day when it was about 90 degrees – and he had no water or any fluid for the child. He kept holding up the kid, dressed in a jumper that allowed the baby to get sunburned, and said, “This is MY picket sign!” He had a beautiful girl, the eldest, who was sweet as anything, and we talked with her until he’d come swooping down on us. She seemed to understand we meant her and her siblings no harm. One day, when she was sidling near us, he intervened, and the look she gave him was of pure hate. It was then I feared he was sexually abusing her – she was so lovely, and his beleaguered wife was so NOT. Since he saw his children as his property, I believe he was totally capable of doing her harm. I have NEVER seen such hate on the face of any child toward her own parent. I hope that alone drives her out of his life and into safety. She’d be in her twenties now, and I think of her often and hope for her well being. So many kids of zealots do get out – but so many don’t. And the law provides us with nothing we can do for them. » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 10:56 am Brilliant! The “God is watching” sentiment may constipate this crowd for generations. » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 10:28 am OK – there is NO bottom for these people. They keep inventing new bars and new lows. The “Notinmybathroom” is a direct rip off of the wonderful “Not in My Town” PBS occasional series that shows communities standing against hate. It started years ago with the Billings, MT stand against white supremacists, and morphed into documentaries about Sacramento and other CA cities, and now is moving on to show community work against anti-immigrant hate. So, since I just WENT to a screening of the new program Tuesday evening, I am NOT AMUSED. Well, OK, I AM, but I think it says volumes about these people that they have coopted the very series that would show THEM in a bad light. Obviously there is no “there there” to the bathroom issue (federal law permits gender distinctions in personal privacy). What is so worrisome is the presumption that molestation is predominantly gay while statistically it is heavily hetero. I am totally unaware of sexual molestation occurring in the Boy Scouts, and what’s happening in the Catholic church is pretty equally gay and hetero or, more to the point, hetero with same sex children simply as objects (and that is what they become) of opportunity. Nope – no bottom to their obsession with other people’s sexuality. It’s a great spectator sport because focusing on such issues means none of these folks has to look at his or her own failings. SO much easier to make up stuff and then point fingers at others! » Posted By choicelady On April 9, 2010 @ 10:18 am OMG – I had NO idea! I’ve never forgiven Dow chemical for napalm, and this is at least that bad if not worse. We do need to find out what’s going on and STOP IT! And find out who makes it, yes! Horrible! » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2010 @ 9:05 pm You Might be a Conservative if You… Yes — I lucked out and have “Betty Davis eyes”. The rest of me – not so much. » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2010 @ 9:02 pm I agree. I do think JFK was on his way to becoming a post-Cold War anti-interventionist, and it may have caused his assassination. It is said that he was preparing to leave Vietnam, and… We will never really know, I fear. It’s what scares me for Obama since I think Carter got hijacked by a deal cut by Reagan with Iran because Carter was working outside the conventional loops and wisdowm. At least he lived. Defying the Cold War neo-conservatives is damned dangerous! » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2010 @ 9:01 pm No, sad to say. Guess we’re not related after all! My mother – and especially her sisters – resembled Betty Davis. All three were really pretty young women, but my mother grew sour as she aged, and lost the verve she’d had, while her sisters flourished. My aunt for whom I am named, aged beautifully despite crippling rheumatoid arthritis, and the other sister remained lovely until her untimely death in her 60s from a small plane accident. But no, none resembled Betty White whom I would have adored being related to! Lucky you! » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2010 @ 8:56 pm You know, KQ – this seems simple, but I think you are actually right on here. If conservatism is based on “zero sum” everything – I win it all, you lose everything – then yeah, gaming the system without getting caught would be the highest achievement. I think you’re truly on to something important with this observation. » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2010 @ 8:46 pm boomer, dear – of COURSE God will help you, and you’re NOT doomed. I keep wanting to know – if God is a sentient presence, who the HELL would understand our angst better? Who would be more compassionate to our frailties? To our pain? And who would be more supportive of our positive and healthy escape from that pain? Or sad when we might not have the strength? Sheesh – if God is nothing more than a vicious, overwrought, self-centered old bat keeping microscopic tally on our tiny infractions, then who needs it/him/her? Might as well check into some snake pit and let Nurse Ratched at us. No difference. » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2010 @ 8:43 pm Karl Rove! Tight plaid pants! TMI and BAD visuals!!! Eeeuuuuuwwww!!! You have defined “disgusting” for me! Kes – I think we must be related. Clearly we had the same mother! I think those of us who had a balance between a sense of compassion toward others and a sense of responsibility for self probably wound up strong. Everyone here, no matter what the journey, has those two trait – compassion and self-direction. My non-scientific evidence? No whining exists on the Planet. Pure proof of the fact adults with strong and healthy egos live here. Now – refuste that if you can! Hah! » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2010 @ 8:38 pm Cher – you ALWAYS get a 10++++ for being honest! I know, the conservative stubborness of people is fundamentally IRRITATING to people such as we, but I’ve spent decades with them, and over time, their best side usually comes to the fore. My folks tend to be more compassionate progressives (it’s one of our better traits!) than the folks I’ve met in other walks of life who just think they know it all, have NO use for blue collar or other – often confused – people. Being annoyed at people’s fundamental denial of even basic SELF interest is not wrong – but you are not one to throw those folks away even IF you disagree with them, vehemently. There is a regard for the humanity of all people on this Planet, even when we’re pissed, even when we’re exasperated. Being critical is not being dismissive. I’ve never once seen anyone express a sneering disregard for other people. OK – Dick Cheney. But that’s entirely another issue. Everyone gets a pass on that. I’m not without teeth gritting over stubborn refusal to look at other people, at holding close to conservative values that are damaging to the nation and even to the people holding them. But I think we saw, over on the Dark Side, a mind set among so-called progressives that is pretty scary since it is as inflexible as anything the tea party folks bring out. Not as violent – no. But inflexible, yes. I see us as the bridge, and I do know Lakoff was not, is not, as cut and dried as I made it seem. I love and use his work regularly because his focus on moral framing really DOES work. Not with Dick Cheney, but with many real human beings, yes. I do think though that there are strong elements of sameness between those of us who insist on good behavior from all parties and conservatives who do the same. Only problem, of course, is we might not be thinking of the same people! But it IS a starting point, is it not? It’s a beginning, the awareness of moral framing. If we can understand the conservative frame, we can find points by which to enter the discussion WELL and keep it moving. And that is where the respect comes in – and that is what I fear I miss from too many “progressives” who won’t go that extra step to find the common humanity. Too bad. » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2010 @ 8:31 pm I took all the stages of the test, and the only place where I was “conservative” was on the balance between “do your own thing” and societal standards. The reason is part of what we’ve all been discussing – the hyper individualism of both the left and right that leads to a disconnect with the sense of us as a society where we need to balance our own wants against those of other people. I found the thing pretty arbitrary over what does “disgusting” mean? A fat banker swiping a kid’s free lunch is disgusting. I think they mean two guys kissing. I am fine with the latter but would be repulsed by the former. OK – maybe I am weird, but disgusting is too loaded a term for each of us for that to be clear. George Lakoff distinguishes liberals and conservatives as the “nurturing mother” vs. the “strong, disciplining father”. Well – he never met MY mother. She had a huge problem with rich people’s disrespect of others, of their tax dodging, of their self indulgence, and she was a martinet about it. No nurturing there! I think the distinction of how to find shared values is a good one, it works. But there are over-broad generalizations about some things – I get on very well with conservatives who think people should have a sense of self-reliance. So do I – to shake off the corporate dominance of our lives, NOT because I think people are lazy. See? Common value with no common ground. Conversations about society and change and all need to be long because this way lie pitfalls. The problem is – we are not having these conversations with many people. One thing that absolutely distinguishes this group on the Planet is how many of us have decent relationships with conservative and even bigoted people. While we marvel at their ability to be intolerant while loving people in those categories, WE are also showing our best side in respecting them, even with their flaws and illogic. I am distressed that people who mourn the dead miners in WVA would also mock them out for their social conservatism on any other day. Years spent teaching union folks, mostly Catholic, often conservative socially, I remain wedded to a genuine love for them as “salt of the earth” and not needing for them to agree with me on social issues. We do agree on everything else. All this keeps the song running through my mind, “Human kindness, overflowing. I think it’s gonna rain today.” Maybe that’s where and what we are all striving to be – kind. Then the rest comes more easily. » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2010 @ 4:15 pm Man of Steele – Episode 23: “Black Kryptonite” WTS – I hate when that happens, don’t you? » Posted By choicelady On April 7, 2010 @ 8:04 pm Blessed Are The Poor – But Not By Republicans SueinCA – this is powerful. The Congressman you cited, Bob Edgar, went on to head the National Council of Churches and now is CEO of Common Cause. Delay was one of the reasons he left government. ONE of the reasons. General policies of screwing the working people – the middle class – to benefit the rich have disillusioned him and other good elected officials. It’s not just minimum wage but all income for the middle class that has failed to keep pace with costs and that has been squashed while upper incomes have soared. In his wonderful 2003 book, “Perfectly Legal” David Cay Johnston noted that the median wage in 2000, calculated in real dollars, was $25 per year LESS than it was in 1970. Thirty years, and the median wage FELL per capita. We now calculate income by FAMILY income because most households take two incomes to support. We look more prosperous because we shifted the analysis from one income to two. In 1973 you could do very well on the median of $27,060, but how well could you live on $27,035 in 2000? Not even a single person thrived. I’d recommend Johnston’s book because he calculates the breath-taking escalation of upper incomes as well. And in his following book, “Free Lunch” he additionally examines all the other ways capitalism has shoved risk taking downward on all of us and from the handful of uber rich. We need to challenge capitalism as it pretends to operate today – entirely subsidized by government handouts sucked up out of our wallets. Sure we have “free enterprise” – it’s free to the capitalists because, as we can see from the past two years, WE take the risks. It’s not free to US. It’s as if the entire upper stratum adopted Leona Helmsley’s motto: “only the poor pay taxes.” The Queen of Mean and Gordon Grecko from the film, “Wall Street” were meant to be cautionary tales, but instead they became the icons for this past generation of high flying operators. Enough. I am in some sympathy with the working men and women drawn to the tea party folks, but I’m also fed up that they have SO little recognition that the majority are smug, cared for upper middle class people who want to give nothing up that they’ve culled off our back for themselves. Those who are truly in pain – jobless, poorly trained and educated – have NO reason to be in the tea party movement that is supported by people who see them for what they are – suckers. How do we turn this around? The evidence of greed and corruption at the top is everywhere, and you still find people gouged by the system defending the system. GROW needs a solid message here. It may be left to us to craft a new set of ideas and a new way of reaching out. If those who have been hurt the most refuse to see the system for what it is, I despair of every getting this nation back. » Posted By choicelady On April 7, 2010 @ 8:40 pm Cher and Sue – we actually PAY corporations to abandon our manufacturing and other businesses then pay again to help these poor fictitious persons locate overseas. You want to keep companies here? Let’s stop paying them to abandon this nation. If they want to go, then GO, but not on our dime. Nothing “free” about “free enterprise” when every jot and tittle they do is subsidized by taxpayers. Why reward companies for closing down? Is that not the true “moral hazard” of letting all risk go without penalty? These idiots say if you give people health care they will happily cut off a foot, but that nonsense does not remotely meet the test of “moral hazard” since losing a foot is itself totally unacceptable to the person with the foot. But if you tell a corporation they can MAKE MONEY by shutting down, well it’s someone ELSE’s job on the line, someone ELSE’s community that is affected, but it’s YOUR bottom line that gets rewarded. Now that is a true “moral hazard”. We need to stop paying failure. We need to reward work and real earnings. We have, over the past 40 years, totally undermined the ‘risk reward’ basis of capitalism and made it entirely risk free for the big guys (little guys and gals still take risk then the big guys gobble them up – no risk, all reward.) China is flooding our markets on US-based orders. If American companies demand China produces all the shoes and trinkets we used to make here, why should the US corporations placing those orders be subsidized by us? That makes smaller less competitive business without foreign trade undermine themselves by subsidizing the big guys. Displaced workers are paying taxes to BE displaced. We need to let people know it’s not the Chinese who are at fault – it’s the US producers looking for a higher profit from low, low, low wages. That is fine – so long as we do not PAY them to leave, free them to re-import goods with no barriers, and allow them to abandon communities and working people with impunity. We CAN stop this by demanding that capitalism really return to its fundamental principles – you get rewards BECAUSE you took risk. Any other input of tax money is, well, socialism… » Posted By choicelady On April 6, 2010 @ 9:52 am A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose … Cognitive Dissonance, Much? Kiba – I agree with the policy positions, but I am watching this president move steadily BY LAW on these issues. He is restoring policy control to Congress because too many presidents have ignored the division of power. On issues such as warrantless wiretapping and torture he has let the courts rule, thereby grounding the changes in solid law, not relying on cheesy Executive Orders that won’t stand past his administration. His way is slower. But it is far more steady. Health care? We NEVER could have passed single payer – could not originally get the votes for a public option. But we WILL now that the groundwork is done, and NO other president has done that since Medicare. I don’t see him as Cosby or whoever – I see him as precisely what I thought he was: a Constitutional scholar and a statesman. I am in awe of the care he takes with policy and crafting long-lasting rather than spectacular but short lived positions. We have radically changed the Cold War principles. We have dramatically altered our approach to Israel and the Palestinians. Most important, we have abandoned the knee-jerk responses that have existed since 1950; for 60 years we have rushed into every world situation because of the National Security Council memo #68 or NSC 68. It called for us to see every world event as a catastrophe and to respond with aggression. That is – until Obama refused to capitulate on Honduras. He did not and will not embrace the RW junta and will not respond with military force to that and many other situations – Iran among them. MAJOR change, not just from Bush but from our own history. I also love Dennis Kucinich, but I think he would have been massively inflexible. Why does Obama’s outreach to various factions matter? Because, over time, it is imperative to do two things: remind us all that everyone, even Michelle Bachmann, has rights. And to show that every effort has been made to honor those rights, and that the other party is the one that refuses to cooperate. That has been done. The evidence is clear. And now Obama can move forward as he did with the recess appointments and is doing on other items. But it was essential groundwork. And civility remains in place. Race – oh, yeahhhhh. Key issue. There are too many elected people who simply cannot wrap their minds around the idea that a Black man is President. It horrifies them. Too many ordinary Americans – not the majority but too many – feel the same. But I lay huge responsibility on the progressives who will not see Obama’s accomplishments at all, won’t see his work process at all, wanted someone to kick ass and can’t ever be satisfied until Bush and Cheney are clapped in irons. And they cannot forgive Obama for NOT being Superfly indeed. So I do agree that racism is just as rampant if less virulent among “our side” as within the tea party folks. It’s time for a deep breath. This man may become the greatest president in decades. I hope we’re not so invested in our prejudices, racial and otherwise, that we don’t notice what he is doing until he’s gone. That would be our greatest loss. » Posted By choicelady On April 7, 2010 @ 9:10 pm The Skeksis are in the Vatican! Hi everyone- This is very heavy stuff, Pepe. I think it’s very hard going trying to find a church or religion that lives up to what it teaches. I work with the CA Catholic Conference – great people. But the very same leadership that can be prophetic on poverty, race, immigration can be incredibly boneheaded whenever it comes to defending its internal mess, justifying its own inflexibilities, and putting waaaaay too much premium on dead laws rather than living people. Every movement, sooner or later, comes to a fork in the road where a decision must be made: protect the organization or protect and advance the mission? EVERY movement gets there. Most opt to defend the structure and all that implies – the corrupt people, the wealth or at least perceptions of wealth, the status quo of power. One of the things that keeps most people alive in faith is dropping out of it. I work for a profoundly dedicated faith organization that has chosen the mission over the organizational structure. So we are poor, relatively speaking. We do the work, we reap few rewards, but – and here is the good part – we actually make a difference for social justice (I just made Glenn Beck poop his pants) and moving society ahead for those in need. Through every day of my life, I’m in and out of churches, and with people for whom the call to justice is IT. I, personally, do not belong to a church, not any church, though I am drawn to several, and visited one Easter in a town way too far away for me ever to belong to it. Why do I go there now and then? Because you walk in the door – and love is revealed. This is a church with very small income – the pastor works a professional job because they can’t pay her,and everyone with any kind of need – the homeless people right off the street – is welcome. No judgements are ever made, and all welcome is honest and forthright. Now that’s a church! It’s not just lip service. It may be 4 hours from where I live, but I think of it as my ‘home church’ because it never lost the meaning. The Catholic Church, in addition to all you’ve written, Pepe, is also investigating nuns in America. Uh-huh. Nuns. Why? Well, you may remember that at the end of the health refrom debate, a petition was signed by 59 heads of orders saying the plan did a good job on the issue of abortion. Those signatures represented 60,000 nuns who stood up for health care over dogma. They bucked the system. The head of the movement was NETWORK, a social justice organization headed by a kick-ass nun who used to be one of my colleagues here in CA. Needless to say, having defied the Bishops, these nuns are proving DANGEROUS. So, in honorable tradition, when the sexual abuse scandals get heavy, the Vatican investigates someone or something that has them deeply worried. It has significant precedent. Back in the 80s in Rhode Island, a huge abuse scandal broke wide open – 6 priests found guilty of molestation (most of the victims were girls, BTW). So the church authorities bent their entire energies toward dealing with the horror of the abuse – and excommunicated the woman who was head of Planned Parenthood in RI. See? They are perfectly capable of tidying their house. Don’t know WHY you’re worried… I am sure that if you dig a bit in any Protestant mainline or progressive denomination, you’ll probably find an ugly item or two, but the huge difference is that these folks don’t spend all their time pointing fingers at YOU. They don’t have infallible dogma by which to beat you over the head. They know all well that people – including the clergy – are simply human beings with failings, weaknesses, and problems. That little bit in the Bible about “judge not lest ye be judged”? They believe that. It does not make their errant ways less errant, but it does mean that their institutional housecleaning is unlikely to be turned against someone other than the miscreant. They keep the mission, are not so concerned about the organization. As for God – one doubts he/she had much to do with Jesus’ crucifixtion. I can’t define God, but I strongly suspect he/she is not an old guy with a long white beard moving us around like chess pieces. (Though a friend said if we thought of God as a cranky toddler in the throes of the Terrible Twos, EVERYTHING including earthquakes makes more sense! I think that’s deliciously funny – but equally unlikely to be the case!) I think Jesus knowingly walked into Jerusalem prepared for the worst because it was HIS OWN understanding that you cannot preach truth to power without that consequence. He sacrificed his own life to give energy to what he had learned, what he taught, what he had to say that was powerful and new. It was the same sacrifice that has taken many wonderful people – Dr. King comes to mind – into the jaws of death for what they believed. Is there literal truth to his descent into hell and rising again? I doubt it. I long hated Easter because I do not believe it – until a wonderful UCC minister said to me, it just means there remains HOPE. What “rose” on Easter is hope – hope for a better and more just world, hope for grace and love supplanting hate and rules and dogma and rigidity. Hope that we would bring about, we ordinary people, a much better and finer world that included all people and was rich in its abundance and its sharing of abundance. Easter is not about a miraculous man rising from the dead. It’s about hope persisting in the face of all adversity. And it’s available to everyone, regardless of belief. So yes, the Catholic Church guards the wrong things. Rules, dogma, property, power, structure, bureaucracy – instead of the right things. If it cared for the right things, the place of love would come always first, so that no child would ever be harmed, and no person would ever be scapegoated to protect that organization. Nothing much wrong with faith. Lots wrong with religion. Took the wrong fork in the road and now does resemble and reproduce precisely what Jesus opposed. The leaders have lost their souls in the process. No reason I can see for the rest of us to follow suit. Thank you, Pepe, for calling out the hypocrisy. The church has SO missed the point! » Posted By choicelady On April 5, 2010 @ 9:44 pm Did You Hear the One About Global Warming? Well his has MR$$ MR$$ MR$$ all over it I hear. Hers? Wife#1 Wife#1 » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2010 @ 4:29 pm Teabonics: A Perfect Day for Fools boomer, I admit I had not thought of willful stupidity as a disability. I bow my head in shame. Even as I continue to laugh. » Posted By choicelady On April 2, 2010 @ 9:10 am It’s the quick fix for someone who got distracted (someone probably brought out the long necks)but could not quite get back to the point of the sign. Or someone fixed it for someone else. Probably best not to ponder it all too long. You’ll get a headache. » Posted By choicelady On April 2, 2010 @ 9:05 am Can’t even SPEAK it. I told one bonehead Christian wannabe that if he cannot master the spoken English language, how does he DARE think he can master the mysteries of the Bible? Twenty years later, I’m still waiting for an answer. » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2010 @ 4:22 pm Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower! Ann Richards! » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2010 @ 4:20 pm No. You’re a good writer with occasional typos. NO comparison. » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2010 @ 4:18 pm OK – now I know for sure (fer shur) that these are the SAME people who picket women’s clinics. One had a hand-lettered sign that read: “SAVE Babys Life’s !!!” Another had one that said: “Stop Fonication! Death! AIDS! Sex! Your choice!” (We voted for Sex…) One rocket scientist carried a pre-printed sign for about 30 minutes, holding it upside down. When I took pity and told him, he did not believe me because, looking down, it looked fine to him. Can’t fix stupid. » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2010 @ 4:16 pm OK – FELL for it! I’m a sucker for that hopey changey thing… » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2010 @ 9:47 am Uhhhhhhh- ?????? » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2010 @ 9:46 am Progressive media’s wrong turn: adversaries vs. advocates I think that’s a good assessment for most of us, though a fair number of us still prefer print since we don’t retain what we hear as well as what we read. My office overflows with ripped-out articles from New Yorker, Harper’s, Nation, etc. all filed (well, when I get around to it) for back-up on various issues. Even there, however, I find much too much assertion without evidence. Is it me or do more and more commentators simply say and write things as “fact” without back up? I taught for several years and believe attribution and source materials are essential to argument, but I think I’m falling quickly into the ‘fogey’ category. But is assertion without proof not at the core of our problems? It’s that, I think, that leads directly to “Keep government out of my Medicare!” » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2010 @ 9:26 amComments Posted By choicelady
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