They aren't the Badlands for Nothin'

Well, we finally have the first Christian state.
They have passed a law against all abortions.
Period.
Not after the first trimester, not discounting rape or a 10 year old being the pregnant victim. Nope- they got that sanctity of life buzz.

Or not.
These laws aren't based on when life begins, as we know from standard scientific fact. They are based on religious beliefs, which makes them illegal according to our constitution and separation of church and state.
That is pretty simple to figure out. Like the sun rising in the east and a flat earth and a 6, 000 year old planet and Jesus coming tomorrow-- um... forget that last part.

Now, the great lower Dakota has it's share of bad moments to look back on with pride, the slaughter of the American Indian in retaliation for Custer's assinine racism being the first. The ongoing persecution of same said free race being next.
I have never understood the need of the human being to force what any individual wants on everyone around them. Validating the ego?
Power struggles? Mental illness?
It doesn't matter. This was set in motion 6 years ago, when shrub took office. The powers that have choked on Roe vs. Wade were promised a Supreme Court that would support a religious state and wipe out personal freedoms to fuck who you want, so where you want, get medical care without state interventions, and be a deviant should you choose (that internet porn bull is really a great smokescreen for persecution of sex).

So now they got the cat fight they wanted. Gonna wipe out that evil law that guarnateed women that are already born the right to NOT be forced breeders. After all- women should pay the price for having sex- that's the punishment for "doing it" without wanting to have a child.

God save us all from the sex haters. These people materialize all over t he globe, cutting off children's clitoris's in primitive countries, stoning women to death in middle eastern countries (oh those honor killings- what honor??)
And now trying to force women to spend 9 months pregnant and loving it.
I often wonder just how many laws they are going to pass to keep women from just starving themselves until they naturally abort, eating mild poisions until they natually abort, and otherwise using drugs and abusing themselves- afte all, if you force a woman to be and stay pregnant, you certaintly can't expect her to CARE, can you? And therein is the rub. How can you trust me with a child if you won't allow me the choice?
You can't. But all the rich white folks bemoaning not enough pure babies to adopt are gonna roll the dice and then deal with it afterwards.
I am going to find a Planned Parenthood outlet that will run buses in and out of South Dakota on a weekly basis to help women escape the place. And my tourist dollars won't be spent there. And I am writing my congresspersons to veto any legislation for pork there. I am sure the zealots will love their new martyrdom.

Those Poor Persecuted Christians

Two Thousand years. That's how long it's been since Jesus died on that large roman symbol of pain and suffering.
I believe in that fact.
I believe that there is a God, and that He is watching.
I haven't found too many organized religions that I think He would approve of.

Having said that, I will now be a blasphemous traitor to the thousands of brainwashed frightened Americans screaming that they are persecuted, living in fear of being nailed up on one of those in the near future.

THINK.
Give yourself the respect that God does. Use that very smart brain He put in you. You, the greater portion of persecution believers, are being duped.


There are some horrible places in the world where Christians (or Muslims, or Tootsie Tribes, or other religious groups) are being persecuted. This isn't it. Most Americans feel that Christians are the persecutors here, eschewing tolerance and diversity, creating "straw men" issues ranging from school prayer (which is allowed- just not REQUIRED, and cannot be led by a teacher as that pressures and persecutes other religions to feel intimidated and segregates the children who do not participate. THAT creates kids picking on kids for what they believe, something we do not tolerate in America), to posting the 10 commandments in public places where legal decisions are made (Everyone who is NOT a Christian is not included in those "laws", creating a 2 tier system of government where one group feels their interests are served by BOTH the secular laws and the religious beliefs of the court, and the rest feel that they are not equal in the eyes of the court).

America was supposed to be a haven for EVERYONE with tolerance and diversity, where no person felt they were being denied their rights based on religion. A lofty goal, and one few people truly take into their hearts.
But once ANY group is told by leaders they trust that they are under attack, human nature is to fight back, to be unfair to those who do not believe as you do, and to become irrational. Jim Jones exploited those human traits and led over 100 people to their deaths. The religious leaders that feed the fear, that make Christians think they must push anger and war to bring on Armageddon and the end of the world (doing "God's" work) are not right. God will bring what God brings when He is darned good and ready. He might look askance at you for taking matters into your own hands.
Jesus spoke about false gods and having his followers misled. He was a liberal, and espoused ALL the traits of same. He offered a great role model- one that most of the fearmongers have overlooked.
Don't impose yourself through the law on others. That was what the Romans did.
It's a thick piece of thinking I doubt most believers can grok right now. They hear the sound of distanct drums coming for them. I do wish they would turn off the TV and radio, and go out into America. Doing God's work includes forgiveness and being tolerant of everyone. Few are.

NonCompus

I would be disgusted with this government if we had one.
We really don't. We have a bunch of wealthy people who were so pissed over Bill Clintons win over Bush Sr. that they spent 8 years gearing up to do whatever it took to win back "their territory".
Sadly, they have the morals of snakes and people died.
Thousands.
Baby Bush has not, 5 years later, run out of "other options" and gone with the mea culpa approach of pretending to care.
Jimmy Carter he is not.
Idi Amin maybe, but no Carter. He is in all likelyhood just incompetent at everything he has ever done.

The deaths and destruction of Hurrican Katrina were well known. They just did not care enough to tell their cronies "no job for you" and buckle down to preparing. Bush, Rove, Cheney, and the senators that supported them all approved of appointments based on cronyisim. Political payback.

Everyone on the planet knew that a hurricane hitting New Orleans was going to blow the levees. Kids in school have studied it. National Geographic did an issue about it. Smithsonian as well. The advisors to the White House for 4 administrations have warned of it. But this bunch doesn't listen. Not to the press, not to Democrats, not to scientists.
I often wonder if Bush and company have some mental problem that creates the mistaken belief system that what they don't like won't happen. Fantastical thinking it is called in mental health circles.

Yesterday it was announced that Bush has (yet again...yawn) been lying about knowing Katrina in advance. Aside from all the reports and signs, it turns out that there were a LOT of briefings about this disaster coming. But Bush was confidant that "Brownie" could handle it. He handled the Arabian Horse association, didn't he? And that's good enough on a resume to get you the head FEMA spot. Thank God Bush's daughters aren't old enough for jobs. Cronyisim will kill us all.

Brownie went to hearings. Since there were no questions about horse shows and escorting rich women to parties, he did what loyal Republicans have been doing this entire administration. He blamed someone else. Lying on a resume- about the ONLY experience for the job he MIGHT have had was, to Brownie, not the biggest fault. Taking a job he was patently unqualified for- with people's lives in his hands- was not his fault. He blatantly disregarded the safety of Americans, but it is not his fault. His Republican handlers should have known better.
While it appears that the Republicans are making him a scapegoat, I guarantee that he was already promised an even nicer job- with less responsiblity- someplace else when this is all over. In the meantime, before you vote for these pampered boys from the rich end of Martha's vineyard, read what AP had to say about the hearings:
(AP) Former federal disaster chief Michael Brown, the face of the government's listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said Friday he told top Bush officials the day the storm howled ashore of massive flooding in New Orleans and warned "we were realizing our worst nightmare."More defiant than defensive, Brown told senators he dealt directly with White House officials the day of the Aug. 29 storm, including chief of staff Andrew Card and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin.He also said officials from the Department of Homeland Security were getting regular briefings that day. Administration officials have said they did not realize the severe damage Katrina had caused until after the storm had passed.Under oath, Brown told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he could not explain why his appeals failed to produce a faster response."I expected them to cut every piece of red tape, do everything they could ... that I didn't want to hear anybody say that we couldn't do everything they humanly could to respond to this," Brown said about a video conference with administration officials _ in which President Bush briefly participated _ the day before Katrina hit. "Because I knew in my gut this was the bad one."In the end, the storm claimed more than 1,300 lives, uprooted hundreds of thousands more and caused tens of billions in damage. The devastation in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities left Americans with enduring images of their countrymen dying in flooded nursing homes and pleading for rescue from rooftops.Brown, in his second Capitol Hill appearance since Katrina, told his side to the senators five months after he quit under fire as chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.He agreed with some senators who characterized him as a scapegoat for government failures."I feel somewhat abandoned," said Brown,Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said he did not know that New Orleans' levees were breached until Aug. 30. Bush at the time said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."At an occasionally contentious White House briefing Friday, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said there were conflicting reports about the levees in the immediate aftermath of the storm."We knew of the flooding that was going on," McClellan said. "That's why our top priority was focused on saving lives. ... The cause of the flooding was secondary to that top priority and that's the way it should be."After three hours of testimony, Brown was handed a subpoena ordering him to reappear in front of a House panel investigating the storm response. Brown is expected to be questioned by House investigators this weekend _ days before the panel is expected to release its findings on the storm.Recounting conference calls that described initial damage reports the day Katrina hit, Brown scoffed at claims that Homeland Security didn't know about the devastation's scope until the next day. He called those claims "just baloney."Some senators suggested Brown look inward before pointing the finger elsewhere."You're not prepared to put a mirror in front of your face and recognize your own inadequacies," said Norm Coleman, R-Minn. "Perhaps you may get a more sympathetic hearing if you had a willingness to confess your own sins in this."Brown responded: "That's very easy for you to say sitting behind that dais and not being there in the middle of that disaster watching that human suffering and watching those people dying and trying to deal with those structural dysfunctionalities, even within the federal government."The disjointed federal response, Brown said, was in part the result of FEMA being swallowed in 2003 by the newly created Homeland Security Department, which he said was focused on fighting terrorism.Natural disasters "had become the stepchild of the Department of Homeland Security," he said. Had there been a report that "a terrorist had blown up the 17th Street Canal levee, then everybody would have jumped all over that," he added.Some senators attempted to trace the failures back to the White House."You quite appropriately and admirably wanted to get the word to the president as quickly as you could," said Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., asking about Brown's conversation with Hagin on the evening of Aug. 29. "Did you tell Mr. Hagin in that phone call that New Orleans was flooding?"Brown answered: "I think I told him that we were realizing our worst nightmare, that everything we had planned about, worried about, that FEMA, frankly, had worried about for 10 years was coming true."Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, suggested Brown may have delayed the federal response by cutting Homeland Security out of the loop about the levee failures and going straight to the White House."I think I now understand why Secretary Chertoff says he didn't know," Bennett said. "The reason he didn't know is because you didn't think it important to tell him."Brown said he communicated directly with the White House instead of Homeland Security because FEMA's parent agency "just bogged things down."

As long as we the people want to cut the taxes of those who need it least, thus cutting spending on things that affect those who need it most, this is our future. Sharing the blame and making public scapegoats that retire to lush private careers after they are done is now so comonplace we all can predict it coming. Even Brownie.

Start Making Sense

Well, I am not sticking my neck out on this one, as it is apparent to every journalist in the free world that a religion that demands the whole nation to follow their rules is a Taliban, and when the members start making that demand of the entire world, they are ignorant.
Stupid.
Uneducated backward primitive narrow minded illogical fervant radical zealots of death and hatred.
GOD is not happy about this. Whomever she is.


So lets get right to the premise. The minority sects of the middle east that happen to THINK they are Muslims (they are not, they have been lied to and isolated) have decided that since THEY think Allah is the one and only prophet of God and have a rule about images of him, that everyone has to follow that.

Ya know, I would like to make a polite statement here, but I can't.
I cannot believe anyone would think that they could legislate and demand the entire population of a country or a world to follow the mandatory teachings of any religious organization. Think of it. No more coffee world wide 'cuz it offends the Mormons. No more television because it offends the Amish. No more sex because it offends the faux American Christians. No more world.

Oh- wait. South Dakota has outlawed abortion due to religious beliefs. Pharmacists refuse to fill legal birth control prescriptions. Legal guardians with the best medical advice in the world cannot follow the wishes of their spouses when they are brain dead. Schools have outlawed givig children their legally prescribed and medically indicated medications. Oh- wrong subject.

Gimme a BREAK! There is no liberty and justice for anyone, anywhere, if everyone has to follow just one religions rules. GET THAT YET?
Better yet, how about if all of us that are fed up with being given the ONE TRUE WAY speech from all these morons world wide join THIS religion:
http://www.venganza.org/

You will love this site. It is, for all intents and purposes, creating an exacting religion that has just as much right to exist as yours, your mama's, the Taliban's, or the pancake lady's. Belief may be a powerful personal feeling- but that's IT. It is not science, it is not proven, it is not all encompassing and for anyone with a single blinking brain cell to think that they should impose their religious beliefs- and their taboo's- on others is really stupid.

But, being a woman, I see a lot of stupid in this world. Not all of it from men, but the majority, yes.

So, I want to make you think again. I want the people that are not thinking to hear from you all. I want you to ask anyone who demands ANYTHING of you with respect to their religious beliefs (including the ones they wanted legislated- that's just the Taliban with a nice mask) to have to first spend a week following Flying Spaghetti Monsterism. Someday, I would love to live to see the day when we really are a free nation, and a free world where everyone's beliefs are respected. Right now, there are too many people who feel that not only should everyone else let them follow the God they want to- but they want all the rest of us to follow it to.

Out in Front

I know how Garbo felt.
I am sure that human being decended from Lemmings.
I can now understand why DVD sales and rentals soar and theaters are dying.

It's all YOUR fault.

I know this because I practice what I am about to preach.

It's simple. It's easy.

SPREAD OUT.

Do you know what that means?

It means that you need to not feel the need to be so close to me that you can smell my feet, my perfume or my popcorn. It means to find a space a few spaces away from me at the parking lot, to give at least an arm's length between me and you in line, and to WAIT 10 seconds before you reach around me at a condiment stand, cause I really AM moving out of your way.

Now, I am not referring to the times that the parking lot is full or even semi-loaded, the times when there is a rush for the last 15 straws, when the movie has already started, or the seats

look like this view in the theater.
I am talking about that moment when you enter the place, and there are half a dozen people, yet you INSIST on sitting right damned in front of me. What the hell is wrong with you? Afraid of the dark? Need a mommy figure? Too stupid to find your own seats?
Now, I am usually not smack dab in the "middle" of the seats, just so that I don't appear to be ASKING for someone to want the next best view- something slightly closer to the screen than is optimal, but still in the center.
I actually sit "off sides" slightly. Yet you people STILL find the need to be right in front of me. Even when I have a foot up on that empty seat in the SEA of empty seats. Even when the seat is covered in wet cola. Even when there is a live iguana on it waiting to bite you in the butt, you insist on being RIGHT there.
I am not sure why some humans feel the need to do this. My friends say that they are not even thinking at ALL (big surprise there!), just drifting like voters to whomever is already in place. I have been tempted to start public farting just to warn them off.
I have tried all the simple alternatives. I wait until the movie is about to start before taking a seat- you ignorami just arrive AFTER the damned things starts, chat with your kids, pass the food back and forth (with the crackly bag), and seem to feel that you are at your house and are therefore free to ignore the world.
Big hint here : YOU'RE NOT!
I have tried moving when the rude tudes arrive- but inevitably, I am then bothering someone else. I have put clothing on the chairs (they just move it without even asking, and my interventions of holding seats are met with shrugs), and I have been so loudly rude and smelly that wart hogs turn their backs to me. Not you people though!
The same situation holds for parking lots that look like this:
If I park my car out there, I KNOW you will be parking right next to me. Not a space away, not across the isle, not nose to nose, but RIGHT NEXT to my car. The odds are high that you will also bang my sheet metal with the edge of your door and not bother to look.
I am not being mean. I am not blowing things out of porportion.
They keep happening. ALL the time.

So I thought I would take a moment to mention the situation so that you could work on it. Or forward this essay to whatever family and friends you have that might fit the profile.

Surrealistic Fellow

Well, just when you thought that you had seen the current facist powers do EVERYTHING- You shake your head in disbelief at what happens next.

As you recall, our illustrious gun toting, Hawk-eyed VP had a little "accident" while stalking quail (no former V.P. reference intended) at a private "drive up, step out, and point at our hand raised tame birds" shooting rance in Texas (the only state in the union to still allow open beer containers in HAND while driving). He shot his friend, 78 year old Harry Whittington, in the face and neck.

WOW. Now, my first reaction if *I* had done that, would be to hang on to my friend all the way to the hospital, be profoundly sorry, and stand up immediately to say so.

Oh ho- not so in Conservative Oil circles. In that lofty world of power and corruption and power and private cells in foreign countries and lifting of Geneva convention rules and re-writing the rules of engagment to fit torture and Barbara Bush compassion, the amount of power is so absurdly great that the VICTIM apologized first.
Yep- you got it right. I can see how that can happen in these times.

Cheney, the ultimate poster child for soulless death, sat back quietly (although I am sure he felt a little bit bad), and waitied until his sick friend went before the cameras to make it ALL HIS FAULT. Then our illustrious VP came out - on his government sanctioned network FOX (Full Of Xhit) for a carefully crafted hand holding prescripted completely spun interview where he cried on cue to show us he cared.

WHO in their right mind lets their friend take the heat for shooting them? What kind of people do YOU know that you let apologize when YOU hurt THEM? Cummon- this isn't morals, this isn't the golden rule, this isn't even human.

As John Stewart of "The Daily Show" said 2-27: "Do you have a problem living in an abyss of soul crushing sadness?". I sure do.

Do you know what kind of POWER someone has to have to control the media, the country, and the party so heavily that a 78 year old shooting vicitim has to get up out of his hospital, face the inevitable cameras, and instead of saying "I forgive my friend, I was at fault too, these things happen, it was not forseeable, we both learned lessons, He has been very supportive for years, this won't hurt our friendship, OF COURSE he is still welcome at our house" and say "It was all MY fault"?

Yes, you probably can imagine. The kind of power that Jimmy Carter didn't have. The kind of power that Clinton didn't have. Clinton put UP with all that "free speech crap" for 8 years as one stupid accusation after another was hurtled at him.

These people in power now are SMART. They have enough control, repressive policies, and painful consequences to scare even their high paying FRIENDS.

They actually created the REAL poster on the right ("Watch, Ride, Report") for the DC subway system. They were approved by the adminsitration and put out on our streets.

Who SAYS Stalin died?

You sure can't prove it by this story.

So, if you like the folks in power- THINK a little bit about the way this entire story happened- and try to compare how the opposition handled their response to Cheney. The reflect on how the current administration acted, spoke, and hounded Clinton over numerous issues (many of which they now admit to having created). Look at that poster on the right there, and think about how historically the powerful have manipulated and controlled both the societies they rule and the media they allow to operate.

You have to be pretty damned powerful to have people apologize for YOUR mistakes.

Powerful- and mean.

(True Press Release reported in US Free Press, a non-Fox corporation publication).

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- The lawyer shot by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney while quail hunting left hospital yesterday, stressing it was an accident and giving Cheney his apologies.
"My family and I are deeply sorry for everything Vice-President Cheney and his family have had to deal with," Harry Whittington said in his first comments since being shot on a South Texas ranch six days earlier.
The Austin lawyer spoke less than 20 minutes before Cheney made his first public appearance since the shooting, receiving a rousing ovation from legislators in his home state Wyoming.
"It's a wonderful experience to be greeted by such warmth by the leaders of our great state. It's especially true when you've had a very long week," Cheney told lawmakers in Cheyenne. "Thankfully, Harry Whittington is on the mend and doing very well."
Whittington, 78, was hit in the face, neck and chest with birdshot Feb. 11. After a shotgun pellet travelled to his heart, he had suffered a mild heart attack Tuesday while being treated in hospital.

Whittington's voice was a bit raspy but strong, as he gave his brief statement. He had what appeared to be a line of cuts on his upper right eyelid and scrapes on his neck.
"We all assume certain risks in what we do, in what activities we pursue," Whittington said. "Accidents do and will happen."
He said last weekend involved "a cloud of misfortune and sadness that is not easy to explain, especially with those who are not familiar with the great sport of quail hunting."
Dr. David Blanchard said the lawyer was lucky to have survived the shooting. But he added Whittington wasn't answering questions because "he is not 100%."
Whittington sent his love and respect to Cheney and his family. "We hope that he will continue to come to Texas and seek the relaxation that he deserves."
Cheney took full blame for the shooting in a Wednesday appearance on Fox News but his comments yesterday were focused on reminiscing about Wyoming politicians.
About a dozen people waited outside the Capitol in freezing temperatures to protest Cheney's appearance.
"We're a little embarrassed that he's from our state," said Tony Hayden, of Cheyenne.
But Cheney also had his supporters, including Dan Yoksh, of Cheyenne, who watched Cheney's speech on television at the Cheyenne Regional Airport.
"I think the media has blown things out of proportion," Yoksh said of the accident.
"If you go duck hunting out here, you're bound to get shot sometime."
In Texas, the Kenedy County Sheriff's Department closed its investigation in the shooting Thursday without filing any charges. The department's report supported the account of the vice-president, who told an investigator he did not see his hunting partner while aiming for a bird. )

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