He hates us because we have sex with adults.

 

Image: Contando Estrelas

The Burmese opposition has decided not to go along with being window dressing for the dictatorship's bogus upcoming election. (The Irrawaddy 3/29/10 - Hat Tip: Ten Percent)

Burma's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Monday decided against registering for the general election this year, a party spokesman told The Irrawaddy.

“Without any objections, all the party leaders reached a consensus not to register the party and join the election because the junta's election laws are unjust,” said senior party official Khin Maung Swe who attended the meeting at the party's Rangoon headquarters. “We also agreed to call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners.”

Party officials said that the lawyer of detained leader Suu Kyi read out a message from Suu Kyi to the party leaders at the meeting and said that “Daw Suu could not accept the party registering under the unjust laws, but she said that neither she nor anyone else owns the party. Therefore, the party members have to make the decision by themselves democratically.”

The Obama administration has said that it is disappointed, blaming the generals, but will continue to "engage" with the military dictatorship. This policy, which even sounds a lot like Reagan's policy of "constructive engagement" with the apartheid regime in South Africa, emboldened the Burmese dictatorship to rig the elections with an election law which, among other things, would ban Suu Kyi from the party she leads in return for a chance to participate in "elections" whose outcome would be predetermined anyway.

 

So much of the media coverage is focused on how the rampant child molestation in the Roman Catholic clergy is affecting Ratzi and the Vatican. What about its effects on the rape victims? When anyone defends those clerical monsters, they should be forced to read and listen to the words of people who have been raped.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has a statement that should be required reading for anyone who defends Ratzinger or his evil church at this point.

SNAP Press Statement

For immediate release: Saturday, March 27, 2010

A Wisconsin victim's impact statement

Statement by Kevin Dresdow

I was a typical twelve year old boy before I met Jim Blume. I had a lot of friends. I was athletic, a good student, and attended mass every Sunday. My family was very supportive and always there for me; we were an ordinary happy family. Everybody who knew Jim wanted to be his friend because of his generosity and kind nature. The racquetball games, ski trips, playing board games were all just a ploy to get me alone whenever he had the chance. I was twelve, shy and trapped inside Jim’s parent’s house in Mishawauka Indiana the first time he molested me while I was trying to sleep. I was confused, wondering what had just happened. The molesting continued for the next two years, dozens of times in five different states from right here in Wisconsin to California.

It is hard to describe in words how this has impacted my life for the last thirty-two years. I have very low self –esteem. I have lost my faith in the Catholic Church and I trust no one. I have been addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex and tobacco. I worry everyday for my three children and wonder if this might happen to them. I lied to and kept this secret from my former wife who I was with for twenty-four years. I have troubles with all of my relationships, which resulted in my divorce five years ago. I have occasional nightmares and have trouble focusing on daily tasks, which has prevented me from holding a job for a long term basis. I kept this inside of me for all of these years because I was confused, ashamed, and worried what my family and friends would think. To this day I am seeing a counselor in the hopes that someday I will be healed. There were other victims after me, and now I feel guilty for not coming forward before they became prey to this pedophile. Now my parents who are in their seventies share their own guilt for allowing me to spend so much time with Jim Blume and encouraging me to take a trip with him across the country. They even had him over for dinner on occasion; he had everyone believing he was a good man.

I need to move on with my life. I am so sorry I wasn’t able to come forward sooner and offer my deepest apologies to those who were victimized after me. For me to think that this man might still have the ability to molest another child is unbearable. The fact that he originally denied my allegations only made this process worse. Now I need to see him punished so he doesn’t have the opportunity to ruin another person’s life.

 

March 28 - April 3 is National LGBT Health Awareness Week. This is an issue that really hits home for me. In addition to all the problems straight people have to deal with during situations they need healthcare, I have a whole other set of issues. I try to find queer or queer friendly practitioners, but that isn't always an option. I have to figure out whether or when to come out to them and how to deal with any possible adverse reactions. When you add that to a healthcare system that keeps getting more and more devastated by the greed and corruption of the HMOs and health insurers, it's a lot.

I know that far from makes me unique. Those are issues that all queers have to deal with. That's why I think it's especially important for us to focus on it at least once a year with particular intensity.

Thanks to Queers United for publicizing this!

Learn More About the National Coalition for LGBT Health and Queer Health Issues in General!

Contrary to far right propaganda, the New York Times is a very conservative, Republican paper with a strong pro-Roman Catholic bias. They have been downplaying the long running story of rampant child molestation in that church's clergy for years. If the Times and other papers were more honest and less biased, the far greater coverage of the story would have prevented a lot of rapes and gotten a lot of priests thrown in prison where they belong. Yet, on those rare occasions when that paper actually does cover the clerical rape of children, Roman Catholic supremacists throw the most vile of tantrums.

If you aren't familiar with them, the "Catholic League" is a tiny racist, sexist, heterosexist, and Roman Catholic supremacist hate group run by the reprehensible Bill Donohue. In a 3/26/10 press release, they actually said the following.

Let's say Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, now the pope, did in fact learn of the transfer. So what? Wasn't that what he expected to happen? After all, we know from a March 16 Times story that when Ratzinger's subordinates recommended therapy for Hullermann, he approved it. That was the drill of the day: after being treated, the patient (I prefer the term offender) returns to work. It's still the drill of the day in many secular quarters today, particularly in the public schools. A more hard-line approach, obviously, makes more sense, but the therapeutic industry is very powerful.

In other words, there is no real news in today's news story. So why print it? To keep the flame alive. Look for the Times to run another story saying they have proof Ratzinger knew of the transfer. Did they think that after he approved the therapy that Hullermann would be sent to the Gulag?

Yesterday's Times story on the half-century old case concerning Father Lawrence Murphy will be the subject of an op-ed page ad in Tuesday's New York Times. Meanwhile, I am taking advantage of every TV opportunity to set the record straight. The pope is a great man, and the Catholic League is proud to stand by him.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I'm seldom at a loss of words for anything. However, in this case, I cannot find words strong enough to describe my revulsion at this statement. Sickening doesn't even begin to cover it.

One thing is for sure. No decent, moral human being would stand by Ratzi at this point.

Photo: eürodäna

 

Apologists for Obama's wealthcare plan for the HMOs and health insurance companies have been citing Mitt Romney's Republican wealthcare plan in Massachusetts as a "success." They just don't say who it is a success for.

Thanks to Romney's wealthcare system, Massachusetts has the highest premiums in the country. Last fall those greedy corporations raised premiums 7-12%.

Corporate greed has gotten so insatiable that the state of Massachusetts is considering loosening up on the fines imposed on people who can't afford insurance. (Boston Globe 3/12/10)

State regulators said yesterday that they will probably change the complex formula they use to determine how many Massachusetts residents face a tax penalty for not having health insurance, because spiraling costs are making coverage unaffordable for too many people.

Each year, the Massachusetts Health Insurance Connector Authority board updates the formula it uses to determine whether health insurance is affordable for individuals, couples, and families and whether people in each group should face a tax penalty for not having coverage.

The state’s landmark 2006 health law requires nearly everyone to have health insurance or to pay a stiff tax penalty.

The "spiraling costs" are for insurance premiums. The costs of care haven't changed much at all. Romney's wealthcare plan has been such a disaster that even he is starting to disown it.

Keep in mind that fact that HMO and health insurance premiums have very little to do with actual costs. The costs of care provided are only a fraction of the money collected by these larcenous corporations. The only restraint on premiums is what these evil corporations think they can get away with.

As I have pointed out before, if Obama's fines for people who can't afford the defective products of the HMO/health insurance industry are allowed to go into effect as scheduled in 2014, the result will by dramatic increases in insurance premiums. Sadly, the only restraint on outlandishly high premium prices is the ability for some people to opt out. Without that, the sky is the limit for these corporate thieves.

Obviously, Medicare for All or some other single payer plan is the only real solution to the lack of care and wildly exaggerated prices people are facing in our country. The only obstacles are bought politicians like Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, John "Keating Five" McCain, and the rest of the crooks in DC.

Photo: madhavaji

 

This whole thing gets worse and worse and worse.



I just don't understand how anyone can defend that church at this point.

 

If you don't like Isreal's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, here's something you can do about it. Ahava cosmetic products are made in Mitzpe Shalem, a Jewish only settlement in occupied Palestine. The products are made on stolen land, and the company markets their crap based on the Dead Sea location.

Ahava also is using misleading labeling, putting "Made in Israel" even though Mitzpe Shalem is not in Israel, but rather in occupied Palestine.

CODEPINK has targeted a lot of companies, requesting that they stop selling Ahava products. The latest company is Nordtrom. From their Action Alert email:

On March 30, 2010, activists around the world will mark Land Day with coordinated BDS actions. There will be Stolen Beauty (www.stolenbeauty.org) AHAVA boycott actions in NYC, D.C., Chicago, Montreal, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. This past week we moved forward with our boycott in NYC when the president of Ricky's NYC, a family-owned cosmetics & sundries chain, called in response to the 2,000 e-mails our supporters sent him for Valentine's Day. Our latest Stolen Beauty target is Nordstrom, a chain of department stores that touts itself as a socially responsible business. Join us in telling Nordstrom to stop selling AHAVA products, which are made from stolen resources in occupied Palestine.

Please Contact Nordstrom Now!

Here's a comic strip on the issue (click on images for full sized versions):





Update:
Here are some photos from a recent protest against Ahava in the UK.

 

At this point, it is physically impossible to criticize Ms. O'Connor's actions without deliberately endorsing the rape of children.



 

The Roman Catholic Church gets more evil with each passing day. From The Independent 3/27/10:

The Vatican responded to the claims in L'Osservatore Romano newspaper saying that the US press reports were part of an "ignoble attempt to attack at any cost Benedict XVI and his closest collaborators". Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, also blasted what it called a "frenetic desire to tarnish" the Pope.

Here's more:



These tactics only make it clear that it is absolutely critical that people speak out against Ratzi and the child rapists he has worked so hard to protect. Silencing opponents is one of the tactics Ratzi's idol, Adolph Hitler, routinely used on his rise to power.

Photo: eürodäna

 

American rightists who seek to impose themselves on other countries are furious that a Canadian university canceled a speech by Osama bin Coulter in the face of overwhelming campus opposition. But what does the evil one herself think about free speech? (The Independent Florida Alligator 10/21/05 - Hat Tip: Dawg's Blog)

She also criticized the media for being liberal and Democrats for whining about their rights under the First Amendment.

"They're always accusing us of repressing their speech," she said. "I say let's do it. Let's repress them."

She later added, "Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the First Amendment."

The reactions by many of the right show how incredibly stupid they are. The Democratic Party doesn't even exist outside of the US, but that hasn't stopped many on the right fringe for attacking the Democrats for something they had nothing to do with. (e.g. The Lewis Crusade)

There is no secret that our own Democratic Party has a huge admiration for Canada and wants to turn the US into Canada.

Incidents like this just prove once again what the Democrats really are: Stalinists.

The title of this post was equally offensive and idiotic too, "All liberals are terrorists."