I think, as with any other nation, it ebbs and flows here, depending on who has control of the national narrative.

In order to stop the current onslaught of intellectual pestilence and social injustice, we need to:

- Insure "Net Neutrality"

- Remove and ban former lobbyists from federal appointments, and ban politicians from becoming lobbyists once they leave public office

- Restore fair taxes (substantially increase taxes on the parasites who have not earned their billions but inherited it and/or siphoned it off of those who created the wealth) and get rid of loopholes

- Restore strict regulation of corportations

- Break down all businesses that are "too big to fail" and restore regulations against monopolies and anti-competitive, anti-consumer practices

- Restore the definition of "citizen" to apply to people, and corporations as "not citizens"

- Eliminate "privatized" prisons and essential "utilities", returning them to public control

- Eliminate "charter schools", "voucher systems" and all other attempts to resegregate or re-institute caste systems of schooling at taxpayer expense (if you think your child deserves a "better" education, pay for it yourself, or get busy tutoring your own children to supplement what they learn at school)

- Nationalize and federally subsidize and standardize public education, making free k through college available to all who want it

- Restore high school and college level requirements for civics, government, American and World history courses as well as at least two years in a foreign language. Any and all creationism, "abstinence-only", and other religiously-biased courses should be elective-only, but science-based biology and health classes should be required for graduation.

- Pay teachers well, give them the resources they need to teach well, give them the benefits that will attract people who want to teach and allow them to do their jobs

- Bring back unions. Eliminate "Right (not) to Work" laws and all other union-crushing laws that favor corporate profits over people's safety, well-being and reasonable living wages

- Get corporate, billionaire and other "Big" money out of politics. Limit the time allowed for political races, institute public financing of elections, unlock the Democratic and Republican grip on rule of this nation by making public primaries completely non-partisan (No party designation on ballots. Anyone has a right to run for public office) and instituting run-off balloting

- Eliminate all corporate welfare (defined as taking taxpayer money while doing absolutely nothing for this nation or its people) and all tax breaks for people and politicians who claim farm subsidies (et al) who have never made their living "farming".

- Any corporation that has the majority of its factories and jobs overseas, and/or uses off-shore "offices", is not an "American" corporation and should be denied any and all special benefits accorded to American corporations. American corporations are those who produce products in America, employ people in America, have their offices in America and pay taxes to support and maintain the infrastructure that they (and/or their parents and grandparents) have used to become rich in America. In other words, they are invested in America and it's welfare, not just their own prosperity. A company is either in or out - and if it is not in, it's CEO and board members are free to leave and take their chances with another nation.

- Restore suffrage to citizens - "one person, one vote", not "one dollar, one vote"

- Eliminate the electoral college

- Eliminate gerrymandering by passing laws requiring sane and reasonable congressional districts.

- Require every congressional district to have the same number of voting booths per registered voter

- Rein in politicians by restoring the job to one of service to the citizens rather than a step to wealth and low-level corporate aristocracy

- Purge our airwaves and the internet of purely partisan vectors such as Fox News, The Blaze, Rush Limbaugh, World Net Daily and "Tea Party News Network"

- Restore The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR and PBS to their original non-partisan, useful and objective goals

That ended up being a lot longer than I intended, but I've been thinking about this for a while. It's my "manifesto", based on observing the last 34 years - from Presidents Reagan to Obama, the rise of today's Corporate sycophant government, spying on it's own people in order to protect corporations, encouraging local police departments to turn on the people they should be serving -  all of which has made it clear that the answer to the question, "Who is John Galt?" is: he is a narcissitic parasite and tyrant and the inevitable product of unfettered capitalism.

"Bestowing women with the vote has ruined the family"

The title is a quote from David Barton, who has a B.A. from Oral Roberts University. Keep in mind, please, that the only reason institutions such as Oral Roberts University, Liberty University, TheFamily (aka: "The Fellowship") and The Heritage Foundation exist is to turn out people who have successfully learned NOT to think, to be non-stop founts of indefensible, unfounded Right-wing rhetoric on The Constitution, American History, Human Rights, their version of Christianity, and theocracy.

I won't get into the history of women's suffrage or why giving women the right to vote (other than the well-intended disaster that was the era of Prohibition), has only been good for America, just as giving African-Americans and Immigrants the vote has only been good for America. I will only say that any woman who believes women voting is bad for America has my absolute support if they choose not to vote. 

The right to vote is a recognition of the citizenship, even the humanity, of an individual. Which is why certain religious-political groups are working so hard to curb voting rights for "commoners" - they believe only rich white guys are fully human, fully citizens, thus the rest of us are not wise enough to make important decisions  concerning our individual and communal lives.

The right to vote matters, people, and it's the only real power that We The People have that keeps that portion of humanity that is inclined to "bossiness" in check. Use it or lose it. Vote or you have no right to whine when things aren't done the way you think they should be done.

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/12/5_conservatives_who_are_still_mad_women_have_the_right_to_vote_partner/  

A Modest Proposal - Outlawing Prostate Exams and Treatment for Protrate Cancer

I'm opposed to prostate exams and treatment for prostate cancer.  Human cancer cells contain human DNA, thus, if God gave you prostate cancer it is up to God what happens, and how dare you try to intervene in what God has declared.

I, therefore, propose legislation supporting the following:

*All doctors performing prostate exams must have hospital privileges and all urologist and proctologist offices must be up to hospital standards, including ICU beds and equipment for, say, 15 patients at a time. Just in case something goes wrong.

 *All men to watch a graphic video and receiving graphic printed matterial (containing material which is untrue and intended to discourage choosing prostate exams and treatment of prostate cancer - all of which must be read out loud to the patient and signed by them) of the mental, physical and emotional damage that can occur from prostate exams and cancer treatment (after all, if you want an prostrate exam and cancer treatment, you CLEARLY haven't thought things through), and then a 24 hour waiting period to think about all of this before the exam may be performed.

*There is no need for more than one place performing prostate exams per state (after all, it's not a hardship for a man to drive 150 miles to have an exam if it's really all that necessary), therefore the number of clinics allowed to perform prostate exams is limited to one per state.

Yes, this is stupid, cruel and hateful. Just as all of the rationalization and rhetoric and legislative gyrations employed to cut women off from access to birth control and safe, legal abortion is stupid, cruel and hateful.

TUESDAY, JUN 3, 2014 10:00 AM EDT

“Get out of people’s personal lives”: Meet the sweeping abortion restriction that even “pro-life” voters won’t support

How sweeping does a measure have to be for conservative "pro-life" voters to turn on it? Tennessee may find out

KATIE MCDONOUGH

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/03/we_need_to_get_out_of_people%E2%80%99s_personal_lives_meet_the_tennessee_abortion_restriction_that_even_pro_life_voters_think_is_too_extreme/

Dear Mr. Matthews, I respectfully disagree

Dear Mr. Chris Matthews, With regards to your conclusions in your editorial, "Let Me Finish", for May 30th, 2014: "Chris Matthews responds to universities who rescind invitations to controversial commencement speakers because of protests" , I respectfully, but strongly, disagree.

There are a number of "controversial" speakers, with whom I probably disagree on virtually every conceivable subject, but would agree should be they allowed to speak. Why, say, Sarah Palin, who has never finished anything she started (except, perhaps, giving birth) would ever be invited to speak at a college is beyond me but, sure, let her speak.

Condoleeza Rice, however, along with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and anyone else who knowingly lied our nation into a war to protect American Oil interests, costing Americans and Iraqis 1,000's of lives, locked National Guard members into perpetual service (a "backdoor draft" intended to avoid piquing the curiosity of the majority of Americans to wonder why the loved ones of the wealthy weren't required to serve alongside those of the rest of us) a long with their equipment, so that there were insufficient personnel and resources available to use in fighting hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and other disasters here in the United States, as well as draining the surplus created under the Clinton administration and coming perilously close to driving the nation over an economic cliff.

If I were a pending graduate, or graduate's family member, who had a loved one die in Iraq, a family member injured, missing, return home with mental and/or physical problems - if I were one of those people whose families were shattered, losing my home, losing my children, my family on food stamps then hearing my family disparaged by the very people who put my family in that situation - the last person I would want to hear from at my (or my family member's) commencement, would be a member of the Bush administration.

Lynne and Liz Cheney, Barbara Bush, former President George H.W. Bush, Laura Bush, legislators and pundits who voted to support the Iraq War and still support the lies that led us into it, sure, let them speak. But, please, if we can't at least have an investigation or a hearing on a group of people  who could legitimately, argueably called "war criminals" and accused of "treason", let us not legitimize their monstrous behavior by asking them on talk shows to offer their "opinions" on anything (much less Iraq, Afghanistan and President Obama's or Secretart Clinton's "culpablility" with regards to Benghazi, or their response to the rest of the world on *any* issue) or giving "advice" or inviting them to offer "adivce" of any kind to graduating class of people their behavior has most likely harmed.

First rant on my new blog: 5 years since Dr Tiller was martyred

FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2014 04:35 PM EDT

“His murder did not stop us”: Meet the women keeping George Tiller’s legacy alive in Wichita

Five years after Tiller's assassination, his former clinic honors his memory by providing fearless care for Kansans

KATIE MCDONOUGH

[...]

"I interviewed Oklahoma state Rep. Doug Cox a couple months ago, he was saying that — as a medical provider — he has patients who have said, “I personally don’t support abortion, but here I am anyway.” Or “I don’t believe in abortion, but here my daughter is, and this is the situation she finds herself in, and I want to make a compassionate decision.” Do you see possibility there?"
[...]

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/30/his_murder_did_not_stop_us_meet_the_women_keeping_george_tillers_legacy_alive_in_wichita/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's what this boils down to: lack of access to birth control, lack of serious developments in the field of effective birth control, using legislative tricks to make abortion (at any stage of development) impossible and humiliating to obtain, right-wing state legislatures that can find money for "abstinence only 'eductation' ", but not for sex education, making certain forms of birth control unavailable because an unimplanted egg fertilized by a rapist or a male family member has more human rights than the 12 - 50 year old female it may or may not implant in.

This has nothing to do with concern for human life, because anyone who calls themselves "pro-life" while making life so miserable for working families, the elderly, children, veterans (yeah the GOP is up in arms about Shinseki and the problems at the VA - too bad they don't seem to give a shit that most of those problems have arisen from cutting funding for *everything* that helps veterans and those who are still in service. Currently, our military's only function is to act as human shielding for contractors, funneling still more billions "Koch-ward", which would be the only reason politicians and pundits have a "meltdown" over mention of removing troops from any place where their lives are being risked soley to protect American Oil Interests (Bloody Bill Kritol Loses His Mind Over Afghan Troop Withdrawal  ), because when the Koch Brothers lose money, so do the Koch-Toadies.

Ooops! god side-tracked on fodder for many other blog entries.... Gee, that never happens (ha!)

But this is my blog and I can get side-tracked if I want to.

The original point, however, is that Jesus and Dr Tiller have a lot in common. They were both martyred because they threatened the mythologies and power structures that benefitted only the wealthy and powerful in the societies in which they lived. They saw unfairness and suffering and risked their lives to do something about it. They challenged the idea that there was no greater sin than having sex and that women are the greatest evil because they are the cause of sex (and he said nothing about being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgener - or abortion, for that matter).

Our would be tyrants, paving their way to monarchy with money stolen from the labor of the masses they hate so much, love rigid hiarachies. The symbol of the Elizabethan empire was the beehive - orderly, structured, everyone accepting their place, no one asspiring to rise higher than their "divinely appointed place, by birth", with, ironically enough, a supposedly "virgin Queen" overseeing the hive.

Our society still accepts the notion that women are "fallow fields" with no say over what is "planted" in them - the idea of a field rising up to a farmer and saying "NO!" is, of course, laughable. At the same time, any woman who is raped must have wanted it and is lying when she says she didn't.

Unless it is us. Or someone we care about.

We pass laws requiring parents to know when a teenager seeks an abortion - supposedly because parents have a right to know what their children are doing. Even if it was a relative who got her pregnant and who will probably force her to abort to cover up his incest.

We pass laws requiring that doctors who perform abortions have hospital privileges, require 24 - 48 hour waiting periods and require women be fed a load of bullshit about abortion before the procedure. We force women who are already grieving that the baby they wanted might kill them (leaving the children they already have motherless, sending them into a system for which funds are continually being cut or denied for those little "moochers") or the fetus is so malformed that life after birth can only be brief and excruciating.

Because none of these people are "pro-life" - especially not the women who support this kind of "self-hatred". They care for the lives of neither the children nor the women. They do care about the suffering these forced "choices" will cause because they see women's suffering as God's will. They believe that "Eve" was "evil" because she got Adam "in trouble" and their god is so hateful and cruel and, above all, male, that he sentenced all daughters of Eve to get pregnant and suffer in childbirth and submit to the will of any and all men.

I don't buy that mythology any more than I buy the idea of Zeus turning into a swan in order to rape a woman who said, "No" to him as a god.

It's time we reached a point where we accepted that women are human beings with the same power men have as to what will or will not be put in their bodies or allowed to grow there.

I also would like to see Bill "Have I Got A Loofah For You!" O'Reilly, who repeatedly referred to Dr. Tiller as a "murderer" and "baby killer", take the blame he deserves for Dr. Tiller's martyrdom, dragged off his show, publicly tarred and feathered and never heard from again. That won't ever happen but visualizing it makes me happy.

WTF is WRONG with these people?

Ronald Reagan and NONE of the Tea-Kochian Party were ever worthy to lick the dust off the soles of Maya Angelou's shoes (and, yes, I'm telling you what I really think).

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/29/wingnuts_disrespect_maya_angelou_national_reviews_shameful_response_to_her_death/

Wingnuts disrespect Maya Angelou: National Review’s shameful response to her death

For conservatism's flagship magazine, the death of the widely admired author and poet is a good chance to troll

Don't video it with your Cellphone, Call 911

If something like this happens in front of you, don't stand there and record it with your stupid cellphone. At least call 911. Better yet, be a mensch, step up and say something. 8'(

Trans woman stripped nude, beaten during MARTA attack [NSFW]

http://www.projectqatlanta.com/news_articles/view/trans_woman_stripped_nude_during_marta_attack?gid=15664

Thus, ends the first day of the new blog. I won't post as much tomorrow. Today was about looking new places for new things, so it was "busier".

Texas is not "pro-life"

As long as Texas's politicians continue their relentless defense of execution of prison inmates (regardless of I.Q., or even guilt), support of vicious attempts to outlaw abortion ("from conception") and birth control, and this kind of thing isn't even on their radar, any time they refer to themselves as "pro-life" they are flat-out liars:

Texas woman files federal lawsuit after birth in solitary confinement results in baby’s death

http://feministing.com/2014/05/28/texas-woman-files-federal-lawsuit-after-birth-in-solitary-confinement-results-in-babys-death/#more-81849

3milliondogs.com

Just watch everything on 3milliondogs.com - almost all of it is wonderful (the rest of it makes me cry ... which is not necessarily a BAD thing....)

ELEPHANT AND DOG ARE INSEPARABLE FRIENDS

http://3milliondogs.com/cute/elephant-and-dog-are-inseparable-friends?utm_source=2014-05-27&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Digest%20Email

Someday...

Someday the businessguys at the top of the tv and film production food chain might figure it out, but I doubt it: the actual structure of the face is not all there is to attractiveness, it's what's behind it, and brains (male or female) are sexy as hell.

http://www.themarysue.com/bbc-tennant-cumberbatch-attractiveness/

"Another reminder: this isn’t an isolated incident. Not by a long shot." 

http://bellejar.ca/2014/05/24/elliot-rodger-and-men-who-hate-women

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if the current, unabated "guns uber alles", anti-woman (anti-abortion, anti-birthcontrol, anti-equal pay) anti-minority shriek in the GOP isn't all about putting women and minorities back in their pre-1920's "places" - "behave or we'll rape and kill you and everyone, everything you love or care about".  

The world has lost another awesome, much needed, human voice - long may her voice and works ring on!

http://feministing.com/2014/05/28/rest-in-peace-maya-angelou/