Not Surprising

Newsweek Magazine poses the question as to whether Tea Party members are racist. No surprises in that one!

"A new survey by the University of Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race & Sexuality offers fresh insight into the racial attitudes of Tea Party sympathizers. "The data suggests that people who are Tea Party supporters have a higher probability"—25 percent, to be exact—"of being racially resentful than those who are not Tea Party supporters," says Christopher Parker, who directed the study. "The Tea Party is not just about politics and size of government. The data suggests it may also be about race."

"Surveyers asked respondents in California and a half dozen battleground states (like Michigan and Ohio) a series of questions that political scientists typically use to measure racial hostility. On each one, Tea Party backers expressed more resentment than the rest of the population, even when controlling for partisanship and ideology. When read the statement that "if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites," 73 percent of the movement's supporters agreed, while only 33 percent of people who disapproved of the Tea Party agreed. Asked if blacks should work their way up "without special favors," as the Irish, Italians, and other groups did, 88 percent of supporters agreed, compared to 56 percent of opponents. The study revealed that Tea Party enthusiasts were also more likely to have negative opinions of Latinos and immigrants."

Just goes along with the scary remarks made by people like Sarah Palin and Glen Beck. These people and groups are only gaining more followers and momentum.

Toxic Tea

If you Google the Tea Party you will find more signs and images than you can believe. These were just two of my faves.

Up till now I have been largely ignoring them and their rhetoric. I have only marginally been listening to Sarah Palin and the crap coming out of her mouth. I also include Glen Beck in that as well.

Ron Rosenbaum, of Slate Magazine, wrote an excellent article about the Tea Party and how dangerous they are to ignore. How they flagrantly misuse words like tyranny, communist, Marxist and socialist. They are also quite guilty and misrepresentation of history, but does that surprise us?

I am a great believer in used-bookstore serendipity. Sometimes when you're thinking about how to express something, you find a perfect exemplification of it just by chance in the musty stacks of such an emporium. Here's a remarkable example. I'd been trying to find a way to write about Tea Party ideology, and in particular about the fraudulent history and distorted language it indulges in. Listen to Tea Partiers on cable news—or read the signs they hoist or their Internet comments—and you frequently encounter the flagrant abuse, the historically ignorant misuse, of words such as tyranny, communist, Marxist, fascist, and socialist. "

"You hear them say, for instance, that we live under "tyranny" because one side lost a health care vote in an elected legislative body. And that, in all seriousness, the president is a communist. For many Tea Party members, the word is not just a vile epithet; it's a realistic political description. Check out this clip in which Tea Party "celebrity" spokeswoman Victoria Jackson flatly tells a flummoxed Fox News host, "The president's a communist." When the host (the Fox host!) starts to object, she responds that Glenn Beck has taught her that progressive is a code word for communist. (Time to put that ugly hammer and sickle logo inside the "O" on your I-hate-Obama T.P. protest sign!)"

How can they play so easily on the fears of the weak minded and how can these people be so lead? I shake my head when I think about this. I am continually stunned, although I guess I should not be, that people like Glen Beck can gain suck a foot hold upon the public.

These people scare me.

Divider & Hater

Glen Beck is just another, in a long list, of TV talking heads that pisses me off and drives me insane! He is another one of those talking heads who is also not very nice. Sure, some may call that his "schtick", but I don't think so. I think he is just as narrow minded, racist and fear mongering as many of his contemporaries.

Fox may claim various things about him, but they have to be loving all the attention that he and their network are getting due to his asinine behavior on air. Someone once said that there is no bad press.

He epitomizes the typical conservative Mormon man. Anything that is not like him or his faith is suspect. As someone who spent many years around them, and is a recovering Mormon, I know what I am talking about. They are rigid and afraid of anything that is not part of their faith and church. This is why the crap he spews on his show is real. He really IS that conservative, religious whack job.

Jefferson Who?

Are they or have they gone crazy in Texas? I can not believe that they are still so backwards and conservative. I lived there in the early 80's and found them to still be very critical of the North. They used to say, about the Civil War, that there was nothing civil about it! Until I adopted the local accent I would get all kinds of comments and stares. That was 20 years ago...yet they are now re-writing history. ACTUALLY!

Jefferson who? Yes the Texas school board is opting to leave Thomas Jefferson out of their new text books and replacing him with John Calvin.

"The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.”

How can this even happen in 2010?

"After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light. "

"The board’s far-right faction has spent months now proclaiming the importance of emphasizing America’s exceptionalism in social studies classrooms. But today they voted to remove one of the greatest of America’s Founders, Thomas Jefferson, from a standard about the influence of great political philosophers on political revolutions from 1750 to today. "


“We are adding balance,” said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. “History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.”

I actually laughed at this one, BALANCE? How can they even think that they are offering any balance when they are taking pieces and parts out they THEY disagree with and do not like.

Just another example of the conservative movement to make the world into what they want it to be. They don't like history, so let's just change it and make it into what they want it to be with the values they want to reflect.

It's About Time

It's about time that the top military brass decided to let those who are gay openly serve! Seems that the top guys are now agreeing that "don't ask don't tell" just doesn't work or is not the right rule.


"The military's top uniformed officer declared Tuesday that gays should be allowed to serve openly in uniform, arguing that it is "the right thing to do.""

Yes it is. There is no telling the number of service personnel, who are gay and have taken the pledge to serve their country, but are afraid of losing it all if their secret would come out.

Little White Lies?

Seems that the group, Focus on the Family, may be telling a little white lie. With their much ballyhooed Tim Tebow choose life Superbowl Ad.

The story about his mothers possible, or offered, abortion in the Philippines may just be a tad untrue. Seems that abortion was illegal at the time and any doctor suggesting one could have faced death.

Interesting how the Christians can manipulate the truth when it fits the fact/story they wish to convey. Kind of like the bible too. Appears they have been doing it for quite a long time.

Let's Not Get Serious

The reason I watch the Superbowl is for the commercials. Although I am actually supporting a team this year too! Go Saints!!

Anyway..... I do not want to be bombarded with information about God, fetuses, Christianity and the like.

I know that money talks and they were probably hurting for revenue during this weak economy, but I want to have fun and laugh, I do not want to have someone else's moral etc. rammed down my throat. I will either watch so I have something else to blog and bitch about, or I'll just leave the room or change the channel.

Round Two

Kudos to Maureen Dowd, of New York Times, for writing an excellent editorial/article about the two conservative, Republican gentlemen who are now fighting the good fight on behalf of gay marriage!

Ted Olson and David Boies are fighting the good fight on behalf of those who continue to get besmirched by those calling down the power of heaven and hell to disallow them the same rights, as human beings, that the rest of us are allowed.

Great read!

Same Sex Marriage is an American Value

"Legalizing same-sex marriage would also be a recognition of basic American principles, and would represent the culmination of our nation's commitment to equal rights. It is, some have said, the last major civil-rights milestone yet to be surpassed in our two-century struggle to attain the goals we set for this nation at its formation."

YES! Newsweek has an excellent article about California's Prop 8 that would legalize gay marriage. It is about time.

Ted Olson, a lifelong conservative Republican, has joined the ranks of those who support the initiative. He is taking a good deal of crap for doing so. I applaud and respect his guts for going against the natural grain of his own party. I am thrilled that he sees the value.

"Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social and economic partnership. We encourage couples to marry because the commitments they make to one another provide benefits not only to themselves but also to their families and communities. Marriage requires thinking beyond one's own needs. It transforms two individuals into a union based on shared aspirations, and in doing so establishes a formal investment in the well-being of society. The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance. Conservatives should celebrate this, rather than lament it."

"This bedrock American principle of equality is central to the political and legal convictions of Republicans, Democrats, liberals, and conservatives alike"

AMEN!

Out to Lunch?

Where was God when this father was letting his daughter die? Out to lunch maybe? Sarcastic? You bet! Another of these religious whack jobs lets his kid die while waiting for the Lord to step in and heal her.

I am so tired of these stories on so many levels. I am tired of these nut job parents, whether they really believe it or not, waiting for God to heal their ill children. Are there no people in the lives of these kids that could turn them in to human services? Are there no teachers , neighbors or outside people that ever come into contact with these sick or mistreated kids?

I was thrilled this morning when I read that the parents of the deceased girl were both found guilty in her death.

"A central Wisconsin man accused of killing his 11-year-old daughter by praying instead of seeking medical care was found guilty Saturday of second-degree reckless homicide."

She could not walk, talk or eat! " The father testified that he thought Madeline had the flu or a fever, and several relatives and family friends said they also did not realize how sick she was."
I don't know about your experiences, but when my kid had the flu his symptoms were never this severe.

Yet another good example of how the crazy, Christian whack jobs can't think for themselves. They have bought into "group think" and are yet more sheeple who think that there is a big sky daddy that rules their lives. They simply are too afraid of real life to live it on their own terms and to think on their own!

God Bless the American Housewife!

I just could not believe what I was hearing! I could not get to a pen and paper fast enough to write it down. It was four in the morning and I was getting ready for work. My habit is to turn on the chat radio shows to see what people are talking about. Usually, at that hour, you will find the variety of uber conservative types , that I have never heard of, that they run in the hours when there is usually no one up and not too many folks listening.....at least this is what I believe. Maybe these people have huge legions of fans and a gigantic fan base. If that is the caes then I am very afraid!!

The chat host was a woman, and I do not recall hearing her name, but she sounded somewhat youthful. I know you can not tell much from an anonymous voice, but she did not sound elderly. She was in the middfdle of a discussion when I turned her on, but it was the closing comment before commercial that cuaght my attention most. She ended with, "God bless the American housewife". Are you kidding me??

The "idea" of the traditional housewife has been dead for years! If not largely at least it is in my mind and with the people that I associate. In a time when both people in the home, not to mention those without a partner, must work I find it appalling that there are those who either yearn for the 1950's ideal of a "stay-at-home" mom type. It just can not be done. Unless the other income is so good that the woman does not need to work there is no choice these days. There are usually two cars to pay for and kids crap is not cheap. The time of the wife at home cooking dinner is long gone. Granted they still may try and enforce it in the extreme Christian home, but generally speaking the family dinner time has become a thing of the past.

When Max was small I tried to have that sort of dinner, but as he got older and more involved in other activities and John and I had different types of jobs and schedules it became more difficult and even more stressful to cook and eat a meal. It was much easier to throw in a Stouffers Lasagna and talk while we all watched a movie together.

Sometimes when I listen to these conservative chat people talk about the need for mom's to stay home and raise the kids it makes me want to scream. Their target audience might make enough for that to happen, but what about for the rest of the population that has to struggle to make ends meet and have to have multiple incomes? What about God bless the single wage earners, or multiple earners, who are trying to pay for basic living?

They always complain about how the liberals always pick on them, but it seems to me as if they are still living, or want to live, in the Father Knows Best era. Mom/wife in a dress with an apron and pearls when dad gets home from the office and she hands him the pipe and a martini!!

Also, they always have to bring God into it as well. They love to hearken back to how a good, God fearing, Christian woman/family lifestyle is the best for the country and this time in which we live. Yuck!! Obliviously ignorant of the fact that there are plenty of good women out there, raising kids and families that are neither God fearing or Christian.

A Wedding Invitation

Nothing else can get the really religious side all fired up, aside from the sanctity of Christmas, like the idea of gay marriage. Newsweek magazine has done an excellent article on the topic. They point out how the bible does not even define what the majority like to call traditional marriage. How it has been bastardized and screwed around with, homogenized if you will, to make it fit their idea of marriage as a traditional bastion between a man and a woman.

"Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an indifference to earthly attachments—especially family. The apostle Paul (also single) regarded marriage as an act of last resort for those unable to contain their animal lust. "It is better to marry than to burn with passion," says the apostle, in one of the most lukewarm endorsements of a treasured institution ever uttered. Would any contemporary heterosexual married couple—who likely woke up on their wedding day harboring some optimistic and newfangled ideas about gender equality and romantic love—turn to the Bible as a how-to script?

Of course not, yet the religious opponents of gay marriage would have it be so."

The article does a great job of pointing out how the scriptural persons and laws were nothing like folks like to paint them out to be. They use a broad brush to make it appear that all the people in the stories were just good men who had a wife and a family when in reality many were polygamous, mean and not of good character.

Many of us get married because we intend to spend the rest of our lives with someone that we love. Religion does not nor never did enter in to the situation. Just that law requires that someone marry you, so usually you get a religious person or go to City Hall. So, what is the big argument against gay marriage? I don't see why they should be denied the same rights that I have. If they are with a loving partner that they intend to be with and want to get married, why shouldn't they be able to do so. Those who say that the bible dictates thusly are incorrect. It has been re-written and homogenized so thoroughly that people constantly use that as a quote that marriage is between one man and one woman, but read the article. Nowhere does the book actually make that particular statement! Religious folks just like to trot it out and claim that it does. Maybe the version that their church prints or buys does. It is simply the tradition that they do not want to see changed.

"In the Old Testament, the concept of family is fundamental, but examples of what social conservatives would call "the traditional family" are scarcely to be found."

There really is no such thing as a "traditional family" or "traditional values". No matter who you talk to everyone has their own ideas of what a family is and means. When I was in college I took a class entitled,"Families and Other Intimate Lifestyles" which was a really good class. There are very few of us that grow up in or under anything that would be called traditional. Whether it be with your birth parents, one or both of them, some sort of dysfunction is what is more the norm. Those who continue to wave the banner and scream about what is a traditional family & the values of such make me want to scream. Those are the folks that yearn for the TV version of Ozzie & Harriet or the Cleaver family.

It is about time that this issue was settled and marriage was open to all and we moved on to the more important issues affecting us and the rest of the world. Unemployment,war, hunger and medical care to name a few. Let those who wish to marry sign up for their gift registries and let's move on. Besides who doesn't love a good wedding reception! I'll meet ya at the open bar!