Assault weapons ban does not violate the Second Amendment. There is no prior claim that laws preventing citizens from buying weapons that fire 30 or more bullets without reloading violates the Second Amendment. Even the most conservative judges hold that the Second Amendment was meant to protect state militias and not individual gun owners. Banning any possession of handguns by citizens , even in the home, is the only law so far the Supreme Court has held that violates the Second Amendment.
The Right will tell you that “hunting rifles” those assault weapons, are for their personal protection. That it is about defending themselves against the government. They consider the government more and more a threat each and everyday. Would the Supreme Court uphold that the Second Amendments protects citizens owning plutonium, to defend themselves against nuclear attack? Weapons are weapons. Defending ourselves from tyranny is the justification. Protecting ourselves, the great American value, but so was slavery. Their argument is ludicrous.
American public has been conditioned to belief that their communities and country are more dangerous than they really are by their local news, television and other media. Hate, violence and intolerance do well on television. We are all watching television and being pumped full of fear. Mostly against blacks and Latinos. It is always the lead part of the story, ” a black man with a gun” or “a black or Latino man with a gun”. Never, a white man with a gun. Conditioned to fear blacks and Latinos. The Black and Latino communities have become entertainment for the rest of society. Their response is guns and more guns. Guns that can fire more bullets than can be imagined. I must protect myself. If more guns make you safer, then American would be the safest place in the world.
The simple truth is that no one wants to ban all guns. But is it really so unreasonable to ask that it be made more difficult for individuals to buy assault weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition? They even call themselves Christians. The Sixth Commandment says “Thou shalt not kill” period. It does not say thou shalt not kill unless I am “protecting” myself. Just thou shalt not kill. They call it personal protection. The argument is stupid. They want you to believe that Stalin lives in American if gun control was enacted. Their fear is purposeful. It gives them the right to kill at will. They call it “ patriotism“. They need to do better.
We all need to do better. We must come together and find a way to actually protect our country, our citizens and ourselves without resorting to Constitutional murder.
I don’t pretend to know the answer. I only know that to stop good citizens and mad men from killing innocents we must do something. American can no longer continue on the path that if you don’t agree with me I will shot you dead with a hundred bullets.
This morning was an object lesson in inhumanity. This is what it seems that Republicans and the Christian Right advocate. Hatred for anyone and everyone. They will tell you that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. That is a lie. Greed and superiority are paramount. It seems that their premise is to eliminate by any means necessary. I am not accusing them of murder, but I am accusing them of being accessories, giving them the means without reason to do harm. They don’t care. It has been evident for years.
Watch and listen to this video from a movie from 1940. It is what we are supposed to be. If we are just talk without action, then we deserve what we get.
I have been absent for sometime. Graduations, retirements, funerals and illness have had me on the move. But I have been paying attention. I am back.
I am particularly struck by the fact that he would include himself in this statement. You all have read it if not here is part of that quote:
And it’s a lot of braindead people.
I guess I should include the entire quote
Anyway, so this evil villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane. And there’s now discussion out there as to whether or not this was purposeful, and whether or not it will influence voters. It’s going to have a lot of people. This movie, the audience is going to be huge, lot of people are going to see the movie. And it’s a lot of brain-dead people, entertainment, the pop culture crowd. And they’re going to hear “Bane” in the movie, and they are going to associate Bain. And the thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, not Bain Capital, but Bain, Romney and Bain, that these people will think back to the Batman movie –“Oh yeah, I know who that is.” There are some people who think it will work. There are some people think it will work. Others think — “You’re really underestimating the American people who think that will work.”
Does anyone remember the pathetic film “Batman and Robin” from the 90’s? Bane was there and he was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger!!!!!!! Next our favorite drunk uncle/addict will be trying to tell us that “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” was actually about 9/11, despite that Tolkien wrote and published it 50 plus years ago. We are off to the right-wing so far back that even we don’t know about it machine. First, they went way back to create fake birth announcements, then they went way way back to fake autobiographies, and now the epitome of slime——-their most diabolic plot ever——-DC Comics here they come. Rush is clairvoyant, better yet, hallucinating, because he see things in so many things that the rest of us ignore. We consider it lunacy. Limbaugh makes you proud to be Foreign like Obama, because if Limbaugh and Mittler are good Americans I certainly want no part of it.
Let see if we can think of and recommend to Limbaugh other plots against Mittler. Does anyone know named Adolf? How about Hitler? We could look it up in the white pages? Rudolph!!! Now there is one Rush should jump on………a reindeer with a bright, shiny, glowing red nose every year flying over America. God Almighty, a communist reindeer. All these years we have been reading to our children the story of a communist reindeer that traversed the world allegedly to deliver toys to children, but was that really true?
Where are you Rush, drunk uncle, when we really need you?
I had hoped that this Christianity crap would not go this far, but now these men of “God” have made me mad. Most of these people Slicktorum, Newt, Mittens and now Franklin Graham have all been found out for what they are………racists, bigots, sexists and absolutely not christian.
First, I don’t think this bunch of old white, white-haired men [bishops] knew what they were doing when they screamed against contraception. I don’t think they realized that this went beyond contraception, and played right into the hands of those God-fearing pretenders, and began in earnest the repeal of “Obamacare.” The bishops didn’t understand then, but they do now.
But what has made me mad is Slicktorum saying that Freedom of Religion has become Freedom to Worship and they are not the same thing. Is he really that stupid. It is a rhetorical question don’t answer. Did he not know to google religion and discover the definition? Or simply look the word up in the dictionary. Religion: service and worshipof God or a divine being. Slicktorum has it all wrong. His definition of religious freedom means Catholicism. Follow the dictates of the church. As we have seen his church is lacking. I guess now that includes Protestantism too. I don’t usually watch “morning joe”, but I did this morning and I was dumbfounded. This pretender to the throne of a really good man, in one brief interview offended every real christian in the world. Maybe it was too early for him or what he drank, smoked and a new fangled drug the night before which led him to some drug induced glass eyed definition of a christian. The man has lost his mind like all good christian republicans. But I have gone off point and I am on a deadline to get this post done sometime tonight. Maybe I need a new drug as the old song says.
Now back to what I was going to say before my 65-year-old brain had a momentary lapse…….Slicktorum is telling me/us that his religion or no religion. He is telling us to ignore God, the God we know, and accept his “religion”. Not God mind you, his “religion.” Now don’t get me wrong he has every right to belong to his “religion”, but so do I. But it is God I/you account to, not the religion. I may belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, but I pray and answer to God. God is God.
How dare Slicktorum or Graham or Gingrich or Robertson, or Paul or any of them tell me that the God I worship is wrong. How dare he or them tell me that I am not a good christian. How dare they tell me that my “religion” is wrong. How dare they tell me that my worship of God is not freedom of “religion”. His God isn’t better than my God. Christianity isn’t bad but there just are some bad people. Islam isn’t bad, there just are some bad people, and it goes on and on. It is not freedom of religion, it is freedom from religion. They have no right to tell me./us theirs is better.
To hear Slicktorum, Graham or the rest of talk, you can just go out and buy your faith right off the shelf. Not happy with it move on to the next aisle or another department. No special discounts for God. A special on “religion” today. Can’t you just see it now, God’s Grocery Store. Bag it yourself and take home. My momma told me about people like this a long time ago. She told to beware of the “good christian.” They talk a good game, go to church each and every Sunday and pronounce out loud “I am a good christian”, but when they time comes for them to be what they say they are invisible. Missing. I just can’t sell my soul to be a “company christian”. I will not sell my soul.
These religions, be it Catholicism or Protestantism or whatever they call it is a means for them to justify their bigotry, racism, and sexism. Maybe the Catholic church is against contraception not because it is immoral, but because it means loss of income for the church. More parishioners, more money. It can’t be because they care about the health of the woman or her family. These good Christians seem to forget that God and Jesus were not racist, bigots, sexists. That Jesus loved all mankind without exception.
They don’t seem to know much about that. So I can do without the holy water induced rhetoric, the holier than I comedy routine. I will be pleased to be in hell. I’ll have good company and my dog. I don’t want to be a good christian. If they are examples of good Christians than damn I am happy to be bad.
Well I just can’t resist this. The Catholic Bishops have truly gone off the deep end or just simply thrown themselves off the cliff. They are not lemmings, but true leaders following the word of God. That is what they say. Trouble with that argument: nowhere in the Bible is there anything about contraception. Oh they will quote you Genesis 38:8-10; And Judah said unto Onan , go in unto they brother’s wife and marry her, and raise up see to they brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also. This is what they use to justify the ban on contraception. The death of the poor man.
The truth is, is that there is no passage in the Bible that supports a ban on contraception. It doesn’t exists. It is not a proclamation come from God to anyone that calls themselves Christian. Not even Catholics. It is a law laid out by the pope, a man who pretends to be God and speaks as one. He is not God. All this talk about the sanctity of life, but an ignoring of the living. It is a church doctrine created by man and not by God. The pope speaks and all are to follow. Contraception is immoral so what are they saying? All Catholics are immoral. How dare they tell me that I am immoral? Wait a minute, I am not Catholic, thank God. Shame on Catholics. The Bishops have taken a position that the only way to save their flock is to deny healthcare to Catholic women and by extension to all women. They are telling us that women prefer immorality and good healthcare to so-called damnation. We are evil.
The Bishops have joined that Republican party. They now work for them. They read letters against contraception from the pulpit. That is political speech, partisan political speech. They have tax-exempt status. How now can they claim to continue to want no tax. They should register an extreme Republican political action committee rather than remain a tax exempt religious institution outside the bounds of politics. They are working for the Republican party. Part of that dreaded 1% and they love it.
This is a fight for authority over U.S. flock. Catholics here are supposed to follow their moral authority. They want to speak for the Church once again. They have no authority and have lost their clout and standing. They have no real authority over “Catholic” colleges or university or hospitals. They are independently owned. They can have the word “Catholic” removed, but beyond that they have no power. The use of “Religious liberty” is excuse. No one is infringing on their right to worship. No one is taking that right away from them. Contraception is already included in health insurance as part of their plans. No one forces you to use it. Just as if your religious beliefs tell you abortion is wrong, no one forces you to have one.
George Carlin said the following:
Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren’t they? They’re all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus, from conception to nine months. After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neo-natal care, no day care, no Head Start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re pre-born, you’re fine. If you’re pre-school, you’re f$$$ed.
I have noticed that Catholic leaders will froth at the mouth and agitate over hot topics like access to condoms and family planning, but their fervor fails greatly when it comes to the plight of the poor. There has always been a total disconnect between the church’s concern for life at conception as opposed to life in process. They ignore and remain silent on their sexual abuse cases. What is that old line….”People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” The Church and the GOP are trying to turn the clock back. One can only wonder what witches brew Republicans the church are drinking from if they think this is an issue that will win them any major support.
Every woman in the country will see it for what it is, a naked attempt by powerful men to once again gain control over them and their bodies. Fighting the contraception issue makes the church look once again like it is targeting women. Presidential candidates in line step with the Bishops. Santorum came out firing against contraception of any kind. He might be over compensating for the fact that his wife once lived for many ears with an abortion doctor.
They have all lost their sense of reality. They long for the old days. They have forgotten what century they line in.
There is but once solution: GET THE FLOCK OUT!!!!!!!
I saw this story on the BBC this morning and just laughed myself hysterical. “Politically correct parents ditch offensive traditional fairy tales. The parents find them to dark and scary. May lead their children to nightmares or worse. Hundreds of thousands of children have grown up on these fairy tales and no one gave a good damn. We will go into that theory later.
Now they tell us that Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and The Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Rumpelstiltskin are too scary, cause nightmares and just outright offensive. Goldilocks is responsible for theft, stealing. Little Red Riding Hood is responsible for abduction and murder [depending on which version you read], and Rumpelstiltskin features kidnapping and execution. The trauma they say would just be overwhelming, leaving a lasting impression and effect on children. It will affect the rest of their lives and as adults repressed memories of murder and kidnapping and theft and stealing could lead to mischief and similar acts.
I just love that theory. I, you and all of us are potential murderers, kidnappers, thieves, abductors and executioners. I never knew that. I just knew that in the end they all lived happily ever after. Not only that, but Cinderella was a lesson for women’s liberation. She bettered herself, married the prince and no longer had to do housework. Every woman’s dream. So I guess not all fairy tells are dark. But then there is Snow White and the evil queen. “Mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of the all.” Another story of attempted murder. A fairy tale used by advertisers to lead women to buy any and all manner of makeup, weight loss programs, Botox, and plastic surgery. Never murder!!!! We might want to, but never do it, or at least most of us don’t. But goddamn, when you read dark, or rather have them read to you, stories of violence, execution and abduction and beauty to die for, you just gotta wonder.
But why should this just apply to fairy tales? Next post: How the Bible was instrumental in Catholic Bishops jumping off cliff!!!
“Fighting for Air” is the title of the book Trotta wrote in 1994. She is still fighting for air. Only this time she has rendered herself irrelevant, and shown herself to be nothing more than a Republican whore. She now speaks of women who have been “raped too much” as one who has been.
Liz Trotta used to be brilliant. She was the perfect example of what a journalist should be and she was. She was the first female correspondent in Vietnam. She served two tours of duty. She accompanied GI’s in the jungles of Vietnam. She says she is still haunted by that experience. And this make me wonder if she remembers her time of being “raped too much”. Does she speak from experience? Really, the only woman travelling with GI’s in the jungle. Men who haven’t seen a real woman in who knows when. What did she expect?
You would think that her experience would be expressed in compassion and support for women in the Military or women in general who have been assaulted or raped. Instead she justifies rape because they are in close contact with men. That they deserve whatever happens to them. If it is good enough for her, then it has to be good enough for the rest of us. After all, rape ain’t rape anymore.
She was always conservative, but she never let her politics interfere with her reporting. Now she is a whore for the “Red” states. She is still fighting for air.
Today in my local newspaper, the speak-up column was on contraception. You will find that in at least one comment, their ignorance shows. They think this is about abortion and not healthcare. I will reserve my comments for the end of this post:
At this link you can read these comments for yourself. I will post a few and comment at the end.
Present Obama’s attack on Christians on the healthcare issue is just another example of his disregard for the Constitution. It is not a doormat to be trampled on. It is to be respected and used properly. Eight years of this man would devastate our republic.
Please help stop the hysteria and propaganda. Someone needs to clarify to the public that allowing access to or providing coverage for birth-control products in the new healthcare bill does not force anyone to use the products. It only offers coverage and lets women have a choice. The word “force” is being used loosely to incite anger and fear. Let’s get the argument to the realities.
It’s a step backward for women’s rights. Why should these places be able to impose their religious on their employees? They don’t want women to use birth control to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, but they don’t want them to have an abortion to end it either.
I think employers should offer birth control coverage. Birth control is fairly expense and, without coverage, a lot women can’t afford it. The women affected by this decision are the ones who are being responsible by preventing “unwanted” pregnancies. These same religious organizations and emplyers are generally against abortions, but they don’t want to offer an acceptable solution, which would be birth control coverage……..
It is not the coverage for the “birth control” that is the issue It’s the wording within this that also allows it to cover abortion and abortion-related measures. They should not be forced by the government by any means whatsoever.
The way this has been conflated on the right to mean “Obama is forcing Catholic schools to give out condoms and provide abortions” has been pretty hilarious to watch….
I hope the U.S. Supreme Court does hear the case and puts an end to it, once and for all. Precedent is on the side of me being able to access healthcare and decide when and if I want to have more children. Sorry religious conservatives, but my body belongs to me. You may not like it, but I have the right to have sex and not conceive.
The Catholic Bishops and The Catholic Church consider contraception to be immoral. We do have to respect some matters of conscience. Their argument that Boenher has jumped on is that this is a violation of the First Amendment, Freedom of Religion. It is ludicrous. No one is saying you have lost your right to worship, lost your religion, or that the government has instituted one central religion. The Bishops mistake was to include all women and not just the Catholics is this objection. They have no right to speak for me. It doesn’t apply to churches themselves or their devotion arms. It applies to religious enterprises like hospitals and university that serve secular purposes, take taxpayer dollars, employ thousands of non-catholic women, and are already required to obey many and varied secular regulations. At these organizations, the money that pays for employee healthcare doesn’t come the
church, it comes out of the income stream they get from their customers and clients
. This is not about religious freedom, it is as David Boise stated on The Last Word, this is about labor laws.
The Bishops took on this fight on behalf of all women and they have lost. We should celebrate. These Bishops and their supporters, who probably use contraception, should be ashamed.
I have put this off for some time, but now I can’t stand it anymore. They have written in a post that they know that they will be persecuted? Persecuted? Do they compare themselves with Jesus? Jesus did not teach people to hate and vilify. He preached love, understanding, compassion, peace and tolerance. What really bothers me is that they believe that they can do my thinking for me. I don’t have a mind, cannot think rationally, and decide and choose for myself. Jesus was persecuted and murdered for his beliefs and promise of hope and salvation. Are they willing to do the same thing?
We should thank them though. They have made us stronger. It has made us show them what true Christian values are. These mothers obviously were taught from a very early age to hate. Hatred is not born in you, it is acquired. They learned their lessons well, to hate all the people their parents hated. Now they have passed them to their children in the guise of protection. Their children should be protected from their parents. Haters inspire us. They make us stronger. It brings out the best in true Christians. Jesus never condemned anyone. Have they asked themselves the questions, “What would Jesus do?” They can’t. They can’t because Jesus was no hater, bigot or racists. He loved all people.
One Million Moms is doing what other organization from our past have done. Promote hatred, racism and bigotry in the name of God. This is their war for God.
They say they are One Million Moms, that is if you count likes as members. For all we know this is 4 fat women in a garage trying to start-up an exercise regimen or routine to teach their “values.” It should be an interesting comedy routine. They are funny now, so it should be hysterical and hilarious. I might actually look at that just for the laughs.
These Christian One Million Moms are giving true Christians and their values a bad name. Fight back.
I wrote a post not to long ago saying that Republicans and The Religious Right have lost their minds. I was wrong. They have no minds. As long as the Republicans and the so-called Religious, Evangelical Right confine themselves to social issues in the next election they will lose. Go down in flames.
John Boehner wants a fight in the House over contraception. I say let him. This fight will be the end of the GOP, the next Komen for the Cure. They have under estimated the pure outrage on the further and continuing attacks on women’s health. This is not about religion, Catholic or otherwise. This is about healthcare, women’s healthcare.
Republican presidential candidates have all turned to Jesus. They all found God to run for office. And now they say that God, or the Catholic hierarchy will dictate U. S. healthcare policy. The republicans, the Christian Right claim that President Obama is out of touch. The truth is that the Vatican that is out of touch with Americans, including their own parishioners. There has always been a difference between American Catholics and European Catholics. The Vatican dictates and if you do not follow you can be damned. No offense to my Catholic friends. It simply is true that the old european, Roman Catholics are out of touch with their newer members, the Americans.
A 2011 Guttmmacher Institute survey finds that 98% of sexually active Catholic women have used contraceptives. A February 2012 Public Religion Research Institute poll finds Catholics, by a 58% to 37% margin, agreed with the statement, “All employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception at no cost.”
This is not the only issue on which the Catholic hierarchy is out of touch. Catholics disagree with their hierarchy’s handling of sex abuse cases. They think the practice of not reporting cases to police and transferring, rather than dismissing, offenders is wrong. Not to mention a crime. I guess the Vatican is against contraception, so that women can have more children that Catholic priests can sexually abuse.
The 2010 General Social Survey finds Americans nearly evenly split on allowing abortions for any reason. But all religions, including Catholics, overwhelmingly agree women should be given that right if raped, the pregnancy threatens their health, or if the fetus has a serious genetic defect. A majority of strong Republicans agree women should be allowed to abort under those conditions.
President Kennedy vowed not to let the Vatican dictate his presidency. Neither should President Obama kowtow to the Catholic hierarchy, a hierarchy who doesn’t even listen to it own parishioners.
But all this nonsense over contraception begs the question: Where is the provision in the healthcare bill for condoms, male enhancement? If it were included would these pious men be outraged? Why are they so against anything that is for better healthcare for women?
Bonehead want a fight – any fight – that allows him to sidestep the jobs issue, for which he has no solutions, no easily demagogued line, and a fastly vanishing constituency for the hings he’s said in the past [“Rich people are job creators”].
The Republican party is dead and The Religious Right will hold the funeral.
throwoutthetrash 