The 4/30/10 Edition of The Hill, a publication that targets Congress and their employees, has an Op Ed piece that makes a strong case for the passage of ENDA, the Employment Non Discrimination Act. It is written by Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund. Here's a passage that I find particularly persuasive.

Last week, I heard from James in Florida, who several years earlier, had just gotten a raise for his great work as an account manager when he was seen leaving a gay bar by a coworker. His employer asked him if he was gay and he said he yes, wanting to be honest. He was fired and it took him years to find a comparable job; even with his college degree, he could only find a job as a food server.

Congress heard last fall from Vandy Beth Glenn, who landed her dream job as a copy editor with the Georgia Legislature in 2005. After four years in the U.S. Navy and reaching the rank of lieutenant, this was her chance to use her journalism degree from the University of Georgia. She was a reliable and valued employee for more than two years until the day she announced she was going to transition from male to female. She too was fired and escorted from her workplace.

This happens every day in this country, and it will continue to happen until Congress passes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

I've long thought that it was important to argue for queer issues in human terms, where we easily win. I encourage you to read the entire commentary.

The NGLTF is encouraging people to contact Congress.

We are closer than ever to getting workplace discrimination protections for all LGBT people passed in the House. Text “ENDA” to 69866 to be connected to your representative or call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202.224.3121. Your phone calls will make a huge difference. Even if you think your representative is supportive or if you've called before, it's still important to call now!

The militant fundamentalists at the "American Family Association" are having their flock send emails to Congress to oppose ENDA. It is important to keep them from imposing their religious beliefs on LGBT Americans. The teabaggers are trying to stop ENDA too.

On our side, PFLAG also has an Action Alert for people who support LGBT equality to email their representatives. Please fill it out.

ENDA is the most important queer issue in terms of the number of people affected and the influence over peoples' lives. ENDA is so critical that six protesters were arrested at Nancy Pelosi's office last month, trying to get action on the bill.

Also, if you live in Alaska, please take part in Bent Alaska's Action Alert for ENDA.

Photo: afagen

 

Here is a widget from CO2now.org which illustrate how much CO2 us humans have been adding to the Earth's atmosphere. (I should credit It's My Right to Be Left of Center for posting another Global Warming widget from the same people.)

You can also add this widget to a blog posting of yours.
<br /><!-- Start of Current CO2 Widget--><br /><p><a href="http://co2now.org/".html><img src="http://co2now.org/images/stories/widgets/co2_widget_brundtland_600_graph.gif" alt="Current chart and data for atmospheric CO2" width="600" height="500" border="0" /></a></p><br /><!-- End of Current CO2 Widget-->

You also might want to check out their global temperature graph, which is pretty disturbing.

 

The UK election has gotten a lot of coverage here in the US, but the best news has largely been ignored by the corporate media in this country. (Guardian 5/7/10)

The Green leader, Caroline Lucas, promised today to be a radical and distinctive voice in parliament after overturning a hefty Labour majority in Brighton to become her party's first-ever MP.

Her stunning success, involving an 8.4% swing in the student and bohemian-heavy Brighton Pavilion constituency, marked the arrival of "a new political force in Westminister", Lucas said following a nail-biting eight-hour count that ended in ecstasy for her still disbelieving supporters.

However, the Greens' triumph was tempered by a slight drop in their share of the national poll, at about 1%, something the party put down to left-leaning voters switching to Labour or the Liberal Democrats to try to prevent a Tory government.

The last paragraph alludes to the undemocratic voting system that exists in Britain as well as here in the US. They call it "first past the post." It means that the candidate with the most votes in the district wins, even if that candidate is far from winning a majority. This means that parties can win a majority of seats in parliament or congress with a minority of the vote if there are more than two significant political parties. It also means that people whose views aren't represented by the main parties get partially or completely disenfranchised. For instance, Margaret Thatcher never came close to winning a majority vote in parliamentary elections.

Most European democracies (and most democracies in general) have at least some proportional representation. Proportional representation means that each party runs a slate and the voters vote for that slate, rather than running in various districts. Voter turnout tends to be much higher because there usually is a party to represent each voter, unlike the US where the Democrats and the Republicans only really represent wealthy, heterosexual, white, Christian males.

Some people like instant runoff voting, which gives the illusion of greater representation. However, with the way that peoples' second and third choices generally fall, using this system in district elections would just perpetuate the Democrats' and the Republicans' duopoly in power. I've seen instant runoff voting, in practice, on small scales in political clubs, and it does nothing to enfranchise people who are left out despite the theories behind it.

Having a Green in the British parliament will give a voice to progressive values and put pressure on the Labor and Liberal Democratic Parties to stop acting like Tory light. If only we had a Green or two in Congress here in the US.

Photo: Subterranean Tourist Board

 

From Isthmus the Daily Page 5/7/10:

The UW-Madison Atheists, Humanists & Agnostics group decided to make a statement by chalking stick figures of "Muhammad" around campus. Since the night they drew them, there has been some curious signs of tampering. Click on the "gallery" tab below the picture to see some examples. They're quite funny.

Keep in mind that in some European countries, such a simple display of religious criticism can get people in trouble for "inciting hatred." In fact, in France, some left-wing groups support re-introducing the crime of "blasphemy" for any criticism of a religion. While it is unfortunate that America is largely run by religious lunatics, we as a people have the power to mock them when they deserve it.

I do sympathize with the many Muslim students who have to put up with suspicion and prejudice that their equally superstitious Christian friends do not face. It's unfortunate that many Muslims may feel that this display is just another part of the ongoing cultural war against a religious and cultural minority. It is not. It is a principled stand against religious extremism, in all of its forms.

I think it's great that people are standing up to religious extremism.

Be sure to check out the gallery linked from the article. The religious nutjobs have been erasing the name of the pedoprophet of Islam.

 

Obama needs to stop pandering to Big Oil. Big Oil companies are literally enemies of America.

 

Photo: Martin LeBar

My blog has been there five years now. Guess I'm pretty stubborn.

Recently, I received an email from the American Humanist Association notifying me about National Reason Day:

Every year on the first Thursday in May, our right to religious freedom--the right to decide when, how and whether or not to pray free from government interference or compulsion--is disregarded. The National Day of Prayer, which will be observed this year on May 6, is an event in which citizens are urged by the president to "turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups and as individuals."

The government has no business directing citizens to pray. Moreover, such an observance is especially offensive to nontheists, who are made to feel as though they don't count.

This affront to our First Amendment principle of separation of church and state has been ruled as unconstitutional by a federal judge. Yet President Obama has indicated that he plans to celebrate the National Day of Prayer anyway.

You can learn more at the National Day of Reason website.

Barack Bush, showing his contempt for the Constitution and the civil rights of atheists, did indeed issue such a proclamation for the "National Day of Prayer." Remember how he talked about "change" a lot during his campaign?

Anyway, this seems to be a good time to go over the issues and concerns that motivated me to start this blog in the first place.

A national hate crimes bill passed for queer and disabled people. This was a huge deal, and it was the second most important lgbt issue, behind employment discrimination. Other queer issues have remained stalled on the national level, and the Democrats still are trying to avoid passing legislation supporting us whenever they think they can get away with it.

Racism and sexism are even worse today than they were five years ago, especially sexism. The war on Iraq continues with no end in sight. The corporate media are even more rightist and propagandistic than back then. Our tax code is still inequitable, our military is absurdly overextended throughout the world, and corporate power/corruption still runs roughshod over the middle class and the poor.

Religious extremists of a lot of faiths are still doing everything they can to shove their superstitious beliefs down the throats of people who don't share them. State/Church separation needs to do a lot better here in the US. Yet, there are a couple of good things on this front. More and more religious hypocrisy and barbarism is being exposed. More importantly, freethinkers are becoming more vocal and assertive in expressing their atheism, agnosticism, and humanism.

Having Barack Bush in the White House has created the eighth term of the Reagan administration, and Obusha has acted like almost as much of a wingnut Republican as the Clintons. Our elections are still being bought and sold by wealthy and corporate interests.

It looks like I will have a lot to write about for some time.

 

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I could use my own words, but Heaven 17 said it so much better all those years ago.



 

Desperate to change the subject from the rampant rape of children (and fairly common rape of adult women) by his clergy, Vatican Dictator Joseph Ratzinger paid a visit to the infamous Shroud of Turin. Ratzi went on to make a complete ass of himself. (Independent 5/4/10)

The shroud of Turin allowed Pope Benedict XVI a rare moment of reprieve from the raging clerical child sex scandal yesterday as he prayed before the relic after performing open air Mass with some 25,000 faithful in the Italian city. "The Holy Shroud eloquently reminds us always of the one who was crucified and who has shared our suffering," the pontiff said.

Last year, an Italian scientist recreated the Shroud of Turin. (Reuters 10/5/09 - Hat Tip to Pharyngula)

Garlaschelli reproduced the full-sized shroud using materials and techniques that were available in the middle ages.

They placed a linen sheet flat over a volunteer and then rubbed it with a pigment containing traces of acid. A mask was used for the face.

PIGMENT, BLOODSTAINS AND SCORCHES

The pigment was then artificially aged by heating the cloth in an oven and washing it, a process which removed it from the surface but left a fuzzy, half-tone image similar to that on the Shroud. He believes the pigment on the original Shroud faded naturally over the centuries.

They then added blood stains, burn holes, scorches and water stains to achieve the final effect.

The Shroud had already been proven as fake by carbon dating that placed it in the 13th or 14th century. Now that scientists have shown how it was made, the last excuse by the RCC relic industry, that it couldn't have been made by medieval people, has been disproven.

2 million easy marks are expected to visit this fraud.

It's not just that the Shroud is fake. The fact that Ratzi knows it's a fake and stages a greedy dog and pony show with it demonstrates how dishonest he is. (It's a bit late for him to need to display how completely amoral he is.) Ratzi's worship of a fake relic also makes you wonder how fake all of his supposed concern is over the unending revelations of Roman Catholic clerical rape.

 

Back on April 6th, I ran a post with three political actions people could take to fight Global Warming. The first item, with the picture I ran, follows:

1. Tell Barack Bush You Don't Want Any More Offshore Drilling
Now that Barack Bush has announced that he will open up parts of America's coastline to Big Oil and big oil spills, people need to take action. Sarah Palin may like the idea of "drill, baby drill," but responsible people know that we need to end our habit of drilling for more oil instead of building more trains. A lot of the coverage of this focuses on the danger to the beaches and the tourism industry. Those problems are very real, but we also need to keep a focus on impacts on climate change.

People who care about the environment, unlike our President, are urging that he reverse this shocking and disgusting decision. If you aren't familiar with the issue, the Center for American Progress has ten reasons why the drilling shouldn't happen.

Sign 350.org's Petition!

Sign Firedog Lake's Petition!

Also, you can join the Facebook Group Against the Offshore Drilling. (not affiliated with Firedog Lake)

I've turned off the link to the Facebook group which no longer is there.

I could make a show of how psychic I was or how brilliant of a prognosticator I supposedly am, but honesty requires that I point out that catastrophic oil spills happen periodically. Anyone who knows the history of offshore drilling is keenly aware of this.

That isn't all. Think about this. If an earthquake in the Carribean set off a Tsunami, there could be dozens or even hundreds of oil spills from many of the platforms out there and in the Gulf of Mexico. Snark loving liberals have the real slogan down pat.

"Spill, Baby, Spill"

 

A lot of attention is deservedly going to Greece, which is facing a fiscal crisis due to the global downturn. Greece isn't the only European country in trouble.

Spain's unemployment rate was at 20% at the end of the first quarter this year. Official unemployment figures during the beginning of the Great Depression here in the US was at 25%, to provide a sense of perspective.

Most of the corporate media reporting on Spain, like that on Greece, is focusing on demands by the bankster controlled IMF and the corrupt rightist government in Germany for the Spanish government to cut spending on social programs (though not on the military). No mention is made about making the banks and the speculators who own them pay for the damage they have done.

Coverage on the global downturn typically censors the idea of making the rich pay their fair share of taxes instead of budget cuts for the middle class and the poor. Global tax cuts for the rich have done enormous damage to the well being of the overwhelming majority of the people on the planet, yet that topic is kept off the table by the "liberal press."