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."

 

The rampant rape of children among the Roman Catholic clergy is not a local problem. It's not a US problem. It's a global problem of such magnitude that it couldn't be going on at such horribly high levels without the deliberate support of the Vatican.

There is no legitimate way that anyone can defend the RCC anymore. The crimes committed by that institution over the centuries are enormous and unforgivable. The Inquisition and earlier slaughters of Pagans, the murderous wars to slaughter Protestants for not bowing before child molesting Popes, the open and brazen support of Mussolini and Hitler, and the genocide of Eastern Orthodox Serbo-Croats in the RCC's own fascist regime in Croatia during WWII are some of the best known historical examples of how vicious and murderous the RCC has been.

But, don't think this power mad and genocidal bent has eased up. Ratzi is engaging in a campaign of racist genocide by trying to stop condom use in Africa. This was a continuation of Ratzi's jihad against condom use in order to promote the spread of HIV among gay and bisexual men who have sex with adults.

Then, there's the massive obstruction of justice by the Roman Catholic clergy of the perpetual rape of children by that evil cult. It continues to this day. Pro child rape Roman Catholic extremists dare to attack Sinead O'Connor for demanding an end to this evil church. Ratzi himself keeps trying to falsely present this as a series of isolated incidents to deny culpability and protect the child rapists. Ratzi even has the nerve to try to shift blame away from himself and his sociopathic clergy.

Obviously, the Justice Department needs to prosecute Joseph Ratzinger for obstruction of justice aiding and abetting rape. There should be extradition proceedings against that monster immediately.

But, that isn't enough. If Ratzi resigns or goes to prison, he will be replaced by someone else who will protect child raping priests. We really need to amend the constitution to permanently ban and criminalize the Roman Catholic Church.

This may seem like a big step, but you have to remember that the authors of the Bill of Rights had no idea that a major religious denomination would side against this country during WWII or that they would engage in the rampant rape of children. Constitutional amendments are big steps, but they are necessary in some cases.

At this point, there is no possible way to defend the Roman Catholic Church without endorsing mass murder and the rape of children.

Roman Catholicism = Raping Children!

Stop the Church!

 

Cindy Sheehan at last weekend's protest. She tells the truth about Obama, the Democrats, and the Republicans, the truth that is extremely unpleasant.



I think the main reason why Sheehan is attacked so viciously is that people are shooting the messenger. It's not like anyone can rationally or factually dispute what she is saying. However, pleasant fantasies often get more traction than harsh truths.

 

...this is a big part of why.

(Huffington Post 3/20/10 - Hat Tip: Mark Crispin Miller)

The insurance giant Cigna last year gave compensation packages worth more than $120 million to two executives who left the company, according to a filing with the SEC on Friday.

The vast majority of that total went to former chairman and CEO H. Edward Hanway who left his post with a retirement package worth $110.9 million -- which included $18.8 million in executive compensation for 2009, as well as a healthy pension plan, deferred compensation and stock options.

This problem is hardly limited to Cigna or health insurers. 37 HMO executives grabbed $277 Million for themselves in 2007.

We need single payer so we can put these fuckers out of business for good.


Photo: Muffett