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Comments Posted By choicelady

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I don’t agree. There are those who think being strong is ‘descending’ as opposed to being biting and on target.

We spent decades being nicey nice, never criticizing, never calling out bad behavior for how reprehensible it is. And that bad behavior grew ever worse.

The article avoids the kinds of stupid and infantile name calling the RW engages in all the time. It is absolutely merciless, that I agree, but the object of the critique is a person – and with her the body of allied people – who have lied, cheated, and stolen from the public.

Those who cannot call out sheer evil when it presents itself I can understand. We are taught not to do that. But it leaves a hole where principle needs to live when we insist that NO ONE should do it.

There is nothing scurrilous in this article. It is unrelenting in its criticism but NEVER descends to Palin’s vituperation and nastiness. That is the key difference, and it matters.

» Posted By choicelady On March 11, 2014 @ 9:08 pm

This is all taking on some very bizarre aspects including tracking the plane to an island but no farther. It is beyond comprehension how these factors all add up. Just scary for the families and everyone watching hoping for an answer.

» Posted By choicelady On March 11, 2014 @ 12:42 pm

I’ve not seen a mainstream periodical be that blunt and right on the money. Damned well about time! Thanks for the link, kes. That is superb.

» Posted By choicelady On March 10, 2014 @ 10:46 pm

With gerrymandering, if we don’t get a huge turnout of the Dems IN those districts, redistricting will remain in the hands of the Tea Party into the future. That is the result of low Dem turnout in 2010. In too many states that will persist.

Very scary.

» Posted By choicelady On March 6, 2014 @ 3:01 pm

Whole Foods is now on my hit list, too. Lousy pay, lousy working conditions, and the owner is one of the Libertarians who is denying employees health care coverage by cutting hours. Overpriced goods sold to enrich a man who rivals Scrooge at heart is NOT my idea of good monetary expenditure or social justice action.

» Posted By choicelady On February 24, 2014 @ 11:38 pm

Indeed! They aren’t Christians, they’re heretics making it up to suit their politics. THEY are the ones who believe in fantasies but not even Biblical ones – their own! So why have they gotten SO much power over ‘religion’ in America? Time to take it back – and that’s a lot of what the Moral Mondays is about, the Methodists protesting against deportations, the sit in within the Capitol Rotunda, the lines of people outside the Capitol when ACA was signed. Those who follow the teachings and are not at all terrified of not being saved are the real lineage of our nation’s history of social justice. Those who follow the teachings have the right to have those signs: WE WANT OUR JESUS BACK!

» Posted By choicelady On February 19, 2014 @ 9:28 pm

It’s not about rational data. It’s racism.

» Posted By choicelady On February 18, 2014 @ 10:37 pm

You know, of course, I agree!

I am stunned every time some of these bigots trot out Old Testament verses. The whole point of the story is the movement – alluded to by various prophets – from narrow, fearful tribalism to universality and inclusion. But todays faux Christians have reverted to that tribal mentality, and there is a major disconnect between their professed love of Jesus and their actual adherence to the teachings.

That’s why Jesus is just a slogan, a ‘brand’ and not a teacher for them. His message is simply too complicated for the fearful and the smug.

» Posted By choicelady On February 18, 2014 @ 10:24 pm

Finding an avatar representing the ‘essential me’? Too much like work. Everyone else has ones I like – so I stick with being a ‘pawn star’. Kinda looks like me anyway. Only problem is when glenn and a couple of other ‘pawns’ start chatting on Vox, it is hard to keep one another clear.

While we have made HUGE strides with warrants and other legal barriers w NSA surveillance and while the law EXPLICITLY forbids NSA to target US citizens and lawfully present non-citizens and to respect the Constitutional rights of ALL people present, that would not – DID not – stop a Bush. So we still have a lot of work to do.

I’m not concerned with the laws that seem pretty comprehensive, I’m concerned that we once again might elect someone who doesn’t give a damn. Bush never changed one single thing regarding torture – no laws were passed on that – he simply ‘interpreted’ them as he wished thanks to Yoo and company. Laws work with a president who respects them. They are – to cite Bush directly – just “paper” when a president doesn’t respect them.

So the question of absolute immunity from violations MAY lie in technological barriers. Around this I have no ideas because I don’t understand the tech behind most of our communications. Since I can’t seem to get our wireless connected to a new pad I was given, I’m thinking I’m safer than most! Not connected? Can’t be spied upon. There are others wiser than I who need to be considering how you can insulate yourself from unwarranted surveillance.

That said – I know first hand that domestic terrorists have bypassed ALL the tech with an amazingly simple tactic. They don’t email anything to anyone. Everything goes into the Draft folder, and everyone has the passwords. If nothing is sent – nothing can be intercepted. Bam. So some of this is up to us.

I love the internet, but I’m not very connected to much of anything. Were I to have to cut it off, I’d miss it all. But maybe THAT is the price of freedom? Off the grid or at least the ether. Our choice. But then I’d never see those great sales at Bed, Bath & Beyond…

» Posted By choicelady On January 29, 2014 @ 11:08 pm

The bagger you describe obviously does a job well – something that idiot would not believe possible.

In a job it’s not WHO you are but what you do that earns the pay. In the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, people with developmental disabilities can and do become worker owners. They do what they can, and they are treated equally to all others doing the same. What is hard to understand about that?

Of course NON monetary value – whole ‘nother ball game. But I’m sure this bozo reckons our worth solely in our contribution to someone ELSE’s prosperity which is why cooperatives are so much better an answer. Then those who MAKE the wealth share in it. And that is as should be.

» Posted By choicelady On January 29, 2014 @ 10:21 pm

My organization has an account, and yup – every single person “liking” us can be identified.

It’s why I look like a chess pawn – thought there IS a natural resemblance – because who needs more stalkers I ask you? A friend posted HIS wife’s photo on my personal page and, for some reason, it became ID’d as me. That was fine – she lives nowhere near me so even if we got that cleared up, she’d not be at risk from any weird folk. But I get requests for dates meant for her (she’s quite lovely) that I gently turn away. She’s not open to them either.

I don’t fear NSA with the 2007-2008 safeguards, but I DO fear all the private surveillance. I’m not being stalked by my government but by Bed,Bath & Beyond. They are EVERYWHERE pushing their wares at me. Enough already.

» Posted By choicelady On January 29, 2014 @ 10:17 pm

Thought that happened only in CA where it hasn’t rained in MONTHS. Streets are really slick, so everyone goes faster. Gotta get off them, right?

I lived in TN years ago and got caught in a major mess on the main N-S drag from Chicago to Florida – NOT an interstate then. Two inches. A truck spun out and blocked the two lanes (yes – ONLY two lane major interstate but not expressway road). So we all had to take back roads around the hills. It worked out, but that’s the South. One inch – school buses don’t run. Two inches – schools close and businesses shut. They never have been able to handle it.

» Posted By choicelady On January 29, 2014 @ 10:11 pm

Latest is that her entire body is failing, and when the heart stops, the family WILL accept the inevitable.

I don’t know what brain function shows – and I understand Terri Schiavo had a part of her brain already liquefied – but I’m not judging these folks. It’s up to them. I think nature will take its course and soon. I wish them well in getting through it all.

» Posted By choicelady On January 7, 2014 @ 8:25 pm

Just read an article at New Republic that says Gates did NOT say these things, or at least not as Woodward interprets them. The hostility to PBO seems to emanate from Woodward NOT from Gates!

» Posted By choicelady On January 7, 2014 @ 8:22 pm

I’m rooting for E for EVIL. Nothing religious about it. They have no hearts when it’s their views, so they need to take off the false piety now.

I don’t need Satan and don’t believe in the Devil. We have them. They don’t need the help.

» Posted By choicelady On January 6, 2014 @ 7:02 pm

Hope you have the hot toddies ready. That an lots of warm blankies are the ONLY way to deal with this event. Be safe, kes. We’re thinking of you!

» Posted By choicelady On January 6, 2014 @ 6:59 pm

Uh huh. Bu-bye Liz. I mourn your leaving if only because I need a good laugh I get when you were there. You will be missed though not as you’d prefer. Being the butt of jokes is a civic good even if it’s not so hot for you.

» Posted By choicelady On January 6, 2014 @ 6:58 pm

But it HAS happened. There are tests – and I surely hope the hospital ran them – to show if ‘imaging’ detects brain function. Not EKGs but EKGs with stories being read or spoken to her to see if she can hear and ‘visualize’ actions. If not, she’s beyond hope. If they found NO brain activity, then…

But we are NOT fit to pass judgment on them for having the hope that she might wake up. They have found a way to be with her for now. It’s their call down the road when the reality faces them.

There are many stories – enough to keep people teetering on the brink – of people waking from comas many years later who WERE moderately conscious of life around them. It’s that they are hoping for. We shall see. Until then – just sorrow at their loss and all they face. It’s not reprehensible for them to want that.

» Posted By choicelady On January 6, 2014 @ 6:56 pm

Nirek – this is really about them and their desperate need to keep hope. If we start denying people that right – hope that she will wake up – we have lost the game. I tend to agree with the hospital, but I’m not sure if my child died so horribly that I’d not do the same. They cannot be ‘objective’, and we cannot be calculating. They may have help from Right to Life groups – so what? At some point, like Terri Schiavo, it will become clear. They will need our compassion then just as much as her family did even though I supported her husband’s decision totally.

No one at this point has made political hay out of her move to a secure facility – NOT a hospital – so it’s the family’s call. I hope it always is.

May they find comfort AND courage when – and it probably will – becomes clear she’s NOT going to wake up again. Poor little thing – 13 is just too damned young to die so wretchedly. I feel for them all.

» Posted By choicelady On January 6, 2014 @ 6:52 pm

PLEASE be safe inside, KT. I lived through blizzards in Buffalo that drove snow past STORM windows into the bathtub. It was so cold the thermostat stopped working. If it’s that bad IN your house – not a thing in the world should move you outside!

To all our friends in the land of the Deep Freeze – please take good care of yourselves. You are very precious to us, and we are thinking of you.

» Posted By choicelady On January 6, 2014 @ 6:48 pm

They WANT people desperate. They may not realize, probably never having BEEN unemployed, that you MUST look for work to get your check. You get interviewed, have to list places where you have applied – and it gets checked out. So the goal must be to make people SO DESPERATE they will work for minimum wage at high level jobs – that is the corporate and Libertarian wet dream.

» Posted By choicelady On January 5, 2014 @ 6:51 pm

This is all pretty scary. Of course while I was back East, I heard a lot of GOP grumbling that their unusually high snowfall “proved” climate change was a hoax.

Our dwindling reservoirs prove it’s NOT. Sorry as all get out to see YOU are having a shortage, too. THAT is even MORE scary.

» Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2013 @ 2:50 pm

Yikes – could you send some south? We are SO DRY here! At least shovel some into the Sacramento River… Bet it’s fun watching bumper cars on the highways though. Be safe if you’re out in it all!

» Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2013 @ 11:15 am

Thank you, Nirek!

» Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2013 @ 11:10 am

One observation – for progressives there are NO answers in a book, only questions to be pondered. It is a lifelong quest through everything including science and philosophy (love Bertrand Russell including his teapot).

If you dismiss all of us because some we also reject profess absolutism, then absolutism becomes your MO as well. THAT is what Kalima, Fergie, Vegas Babe, and I among others do NOT do – stand upon absolutes. No ‘agree to disagree’ cuts it then, because it’s said out of a sense of superiority instead of out of honest inquiry.

I reject all fundamentalism, even atheist versions. The idea any of us has a lock on the truth is, it seems to me, hubris.

» Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2013 @ 7:56 am

Brilliant, funk! How funny!

» Posted By choicelady On December 19, 2013 @ 9:39 pm

Can’t reply to your reply, so I’ll do it here.

What makes you think we believe in a ‘magical sky being’ as the conservatives do? That’s pretty limited viewing.

With all the focus today on quantum physics and ‘spooky action at a distance’ that engages connection among particles, things that cannot now be explained BY science, we are feeling right at home with it all. It’s not about a mystical single entity that directs everything – Protestants largely haven’t believed that in centuries – but in the connectedness of being, of consciousness, of something greater than each individual. The terminology remains for our collective origins for a lack of other words to define it all – just as science cannot do it now either.

God becomes metaphor for the power of good, of collective human action that is synergistic. It’s not a persona for most of us but that indecipherable life force that has allowed human beings to create. Don’t believe in Satan either – one has only to look at humans to know we need no “help” that way. NOT to say every single one of us feels that way, but we’re far more in the camp of unexplainable forces than in the guy on the Sistine Chapel ceiling or, worse, a cranky Santa Claus.

So I’d call you out for bias, of making an ecological fallacy. You’re seeing the religious right’s views that are growing backwards in fear to the ‘sky guy’ who judges, has a big book, and keep rules and records. That’s tribalism wrought large among fearful people, but it is not us. You’re projecting.

Believe what you want but it’s not grounded in fact meaning that you’re willing to BE biased which is not, I think, how you think of your own self as a rational person? There’s far more to how people engage in faith today than your words and dismissal convey.

» Posted By choicelady On December 19, 2013 @ 5:21 pm

VB – those beliefs he espoused are based on very poor understanding of Scripture, of the transition of the Bible as a document concerning the movement from tribalism to universal inclusion. THAT is the only message, and he missed it.

Does he have a right to his views? Maybe – but if they are supposed to be authoritative based on the Bible, then he’s using it as a cover for his own misunderstanding. So “right” also has “responsibility” which many narrow Christians don’t accept.

The single most powerful group of Christians I’ve ever met are LGBT people. Nothing moves me more than those who have been barred from faith but who passionately seek it. Jesus would not have barred them ever – and those who seek to do so are NOT Christians but “Old Testamentarians” who just have missed the point utterly. Using rules they made up to exclude people from anything is not part of faith at all.

So while I suppose everyone has the right to believe the world is flat or the sky is orange, it does not require the rest of us to agree or to refrain from countering those claims. They are not based on either reality or even the very principles they claim. So the ‘right’ to an opinion does not remove the responsibility to honor others as equals. That is part of being in a democracy, not a theocracy, and it is the responsibility of the faith not to promote false interpretations of its own messages.

» Posted By choicelady On December 19, 2013 @ 3:05 pm

I can see you and I are going to have to talk…I do public policy for a large Protestant organization in CA that stands on the side of several things: human and civil rights for all people, NO exceptions. Standing for the rights of atheists, agnostics, and other non-believers against the religious right; economic and social justice for all people; fighting hate crimes and all forms of discrimination, etc., etc. – and one part of our organization does LOBBY for these issues.

We are 1.5 million strong, and we represent 21 denominations with an additional 5 million. They (mostly) believe in science, in democracy as a first principle, in the separation of church and state meaning one may speak FROM one’s point of view but NEVER impose it, and nobody believes in Biblical inerrancy or literalism.

We are equal in numbers to the religious right in CA so we’re NOT a tiny minority at all. Sorry you’ve not run into us. Probably too busy being run OVER by the very people who do it to us as well. We get hate threats pretty regularly from the RW.

Our denominations came out on behalf of marriage equality including Methodist ministers who defied what happened today back in PA with the defrocking of a Methodist minister who’d performed a same sex wedding. Our folks do it all the time – tough noogies for the conservatives.

So we’re not the people you’ve encountered, and we have made standing for your rights as an atheist to be one of our core actions and efforts. Hope you’ll learn to pay us some attention. We’re not superstitious or basing our values on blind rules but on thoughtful and thorough reflection of teachings about justice. We are NOT interested in personal salvation but in promoting a world of justice. So we may, I hope, have many shared values.

Hope to see you around. I’ve been here for years NOT pissing people off but supporting them in their rights and in their value to the world and to the Planet here. Welcome!

» Posted By choicelady On December 19, 2013 @ 2:58 pm

I am still waiting for the day when “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” is equal to the Second Amendment.

Those of us wishing to be free of gun violence have equal rights to those who desire guns.

I am sad for the TSA agent murdered so pointlessly. What did he do to deserve death by maniac? Nothing. Time to push for NON gun owners’ rights – the right to be secure in your unarmed person wherever you may be.

My heart goes out to his colleagues and friends and to all those also wounded. Totally horrible thing to have happen to them.

» Posted By choicelady On November 1, 2013 @ 3:23 pm