December 11, 2013

Oklahoma lawmakers: No Satanist monument because "this is a faith-based state"

[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#dcdcdc; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]Oklahoma lawmakers: No Satanist monument because "this is a faith-based state"[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#f0f0f0; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"][center] [/center]
Oklahoma lawmakers are appalled that Satanists would try to erect a monument in their state capitol, but their decision to include a monument to the Ten Commandments of the Christian Bible’s Old Testament may have placed the state on shaky legal ground.

The Associated Press reported that constitutional scholars and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) agree, if faith-based displays are to be allowed in public spaces in Oklahoma, then a multitude of faiths must be represented, even if that faith is considered repugnant by a majority of the state’s citizens.

The New York City-based Satanic Temple heard about the Oklahoma Ten Commandments display and proposed their own monument to Satan on the state capitol grounds as well.

Before any new monument can go into production, it has to be approved by the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Society. Duane Mass, the architect who designed the capitol building and serves on the preservation board, rejected the idea outright...

More at link

EDIT: And now the Hindus of Ok. are getting in on the action:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/11/hindus-join-satanists-demanding-equal-placement-on-oklahoma-capitol-grounds/

October 4, 2013

The real boy crisis: 5 ways America tells boys not to be “girly”

[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#dcdcdc; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]http://www.salon.com/2013/09/25/5_ways_america_tells_boys_not_to_be_girly/?upw[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#f0f0f0; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"][center][/center]
Mocking boys for doing "feminine" things leaves them ill-equipped for life, and makes America a worse place for all
BY SORAYA CHEMALY

The ability to feel what others feel has many well-documented benefits, including, for empathetic people, greater psychological and physical health. The real and socially significant positive impact of empathy, however, is the ways in which it affects behavior toward others. People who are empathetic are less aggressive and prone to denigrate others; they are predisposed to act with care and compassion; they have increased egalitarian beliefs and act with less prejudice and stereotype-based hatred. Empathetic behaviors, however, are associated with being female. And weak.

The stereotypes that plague our lives teach that the characteristics of empathetic understanding are feminine: listening, sensitivity, quiet consideration and gentleness. Empathy is feminized and boys learn quickly that what is feminized is, in a man, the source of disgust. While parents, teachers, coaches, grandparents and others whose ideas shape children aren’t sitting around telling boys, “Don’t be empathetic!” they are saying, in daily micro-aggressive ways, “Don’t be like girls!” The process of “becoming a man” still often means rejecting almost any activity or preference that smacks of cross-gender expression or sympathy.

Expression and empathy are closely related for children. When boys are taught that they can’t “be like girls” it has the threefold effect. First, it alienates them from core aspects of themselves. Second, it portrays what is feminine as undesirable and inferior. Third, it forces boys into a “man box” from which emotions and empathy are excluded. An upcoming documentary, “The Mask You Live In,” carefully examines, from the perspective of boys and men, what this feels like and means in their lives.

While more and more parents are openly grappling with how to handle “non-conventional” gender behavior in children, many others won’t even consider the behavior as remotely acceptable. The policing of boys’ gender expression doesn’t require parents who yell, “Stop crying, you sound like a girl!” or homophobic classmates hurling some variation of “Don’t be so gay!” (which is, sadly, still a serious problem). A whole range or rules, traditions, daily interactions and media content come together to narrow boys’ options and, ultimately, abilities. Consider these five everyday ways that boys are taught first not to look like girls, not to be like girls, not to do “girly” things, and then, ultimately, to lose the ability to feel compassion...

More at link.

I found this article very fascinating. America has come a long way from where we were when the first wave feminist came and demanded their rights, but I think we have a long way to go.

I think this article displays that while we have had a large amount of success in advancing the role of women before the law (at least in comparison with where we were when our government was founded), we still live in a society that values "masculinity" over "femininity," and we need to work to fix that.

September 27, 2013

Christian groups sue to stop Kansas schools from adopting science standards

[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#dcdcdc; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]The Raw Story[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#f0f0f0; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"][center] [/center]

Christian groups filed a pair of lawsuits in Federal District Court challenging the Kansas state Board of Education’s decision to implement a state-wide set of science standards. On June 11, the Kansas state Board of Education adopted a universal set of science standards to be taught in classrooms across the state from kindergarten to grade 12. Faith groups are up in arms that their beliefs are not being given more credence in science classes.

According to a statement on the Pacific Justice Institute’s website, the teaching of science in all of the state’s public schools could create “a hostile learning environment for those of faith.” The institute — which purports to defend “religious freedom, parental rights and other civil liberties” — is challenging the fact that the new science standards do not give equal weight to the Christian creation myth.

The suit alleges that the new standards will “promote religious beliefs that are inconsistent with the theistic religious beliefs of plaintiffs, thereby depriving them of the right to be free from government that favors one religious view over another.” The group asked the court to place an injunction on the implementation of Next Generation Science Standards and the corresponding lesson plan handbook, Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and Core Ideas.

Another group, the Citizens for Objective Public Education (COPE, Inc.) filed suit on Sep. 26 demanding that the new curricula not be instituted. In a press release, CORE said that the science standards would “will have the effect of causing Kansas public schools to establish and endorse a non-theistic religious worldview,” which the group said is a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution...


More at:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/27/christian-groups-sue-to-stop-kansas-schools-from-adopting-science-standards/

Kansas is not having a good week for church and state separation.

September 25, 2013

Disproving evolution won’t save creationism, atheist activist says

[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#dcdcdc; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/24/disproving-evolution-wont-save-creationism-atheist-activist-says/[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#f0f0f0; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]By Travis Gettys
Tuesday, September 24, 2013 12:01 EDT

Disproving evolution cannot save creationism, a prominent atheist activist told a convention of free thinkers.

“Even if a god appeared and started poofing things out of nothing, that still wouldn’t prove the Bible because that collection of contrived and plagiarized fairy tales has already been disproved beyond redemption, and not even the existence of god could change that,” the video blogger Aron Ra said Sunday during Apostacon.

The annual conference of humanists and free thinkers gathered Friday through Sunday in Omaha, Neb.

Aron Ra discussed his efforts in his home state, Texas, to improve science education standards and fight back creationist themes in textbooks...

More at Link

September 20, 2013

This is disgusting!

My representative put up a post on FB about trying to stop the GOP from cutting funding from food stamps. What did he get? A flood of posts from Rightwing activist most of whom are not even from our state and none of which are from our district flooding the post with post after post demanding he defund Obama care!

https://www.facebook.com/CongressmanPeteGallego/posts/213176098849874



These people have no shame at all. Hijacking a post about making sure children have enough food so that they can force their right wing idiocy on OTHER PEOPLE'S DISTRICTS.

How much hate do you have to have in your heart for poor getting simple healthcare do you have to have to do that? Not to mention shitting over a post about making sure the poor have enough to eat?

I HATE REPUGS AND RIGHT WINGERS!!!! I HATE THEM SOOOOOO VERY MUCH!!!!!

ARRRGGGGGHHHHH

September 15, 2013

11 questions to see if libertarians are hypocrites

[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#dcdcdc; padding-bottom:5px; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom:none; border-radius:0.4615em 0.4615em 0em 0em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]R.J. ESKOW[div class="excerpt" style="background-color:#f0f0f0; border:1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius:0em 0em 0.4615em 0.4615em; box-shadow:3px 3px 3px #999999;"]Libertarians have a problem. Their political philosophy all but died out in the mid- to late-20th century, but was revived by billionaires and corporations that found them politically useful. And yet libertarianism retains the qualities that led to its disappearance from the public stage, before its reanimation by people like the Koch brothers: It doesn’t make any sense.

They call themselves “realists” but rely on fanciful theories that have never predicted real-world behavior. They claim that selfishness makes things better for everybody, when history shows exactly the opposite is true. They claim that a mythical “free market” is better at everything than the government is, yet when they really need government protection, they’re the first to clamor for it.

That’s no reason not to work with them on areas where they’re in agreement with people like me. In fact, the unconventionality of their thought has led libertarians to be among this nation’s most forthright and outspoken advocates for civil liberties and against military interventions.

Merriam-Webster defines “hypocrisy” as “feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not.” We aren’t suggesting every libertarian is a hypocrite. But there’s an easy way to find out...

More at:
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/12/11_questions_to_see_if_libertarians_are_hypocrites/

or the original from

http://www.alternet.org/economy/11-questions-you-should-ask-libertarians-see-if-theyre-hypocrites

I wish this article would have done more to separate left wing civil libertarians from the Crazies of the right.

September 10, 2013

Some questions for any Asexuals here

Been trying to decide whether to post this here or to register on AVEN, and decided to post it here first as I feel more comfortable posting on DU.

It is my understanding that someone who is Asexual can be attracted to a person in an aesthetic or romantic manner just not in a sexual manner. What does that mean exactly? What is meant by the term sexual attraction? From the reading I have done I feel like im getting conflicting information. One place says that asexuals can feel attracted to others but another place they will say asexuals have no sexual attraction at all.

[center] [/center]

I myself feel attracted to the opposite sex, but I have no interest in sex. I like the idea of holding hands or cuddling but the very thought of copulation repels me. I have no interest in that act. But I do feel attracted to the other sex and in a stronger way than just looking at a painting I find pretty. Simply put, I don't know if this is a sexual attraction or not; and I don't know if this makes me hetero-romantic asexual, gray a, or just celibate.

To further my confusion I feel certain I have social anxiety syndrome and an avoidant personality (both of which make talking to anyone about this even harder that it would be noramlly). Even if I do like a person I can not bring myself to act on it. I begin quivering just talking to new people I am not attracted to and wanting to crawl into my own little cave.

So I haven't ever been on so much as a single date in my life. If that was not bad enough, I feel pretty sure I have a mild case of gender disphoria. This means I'm not sure if my attraction to members of the opposite sex is due to my discomfort with my own gender of if my lack of a desire for sex stem from me wanting to simply avoid having to face sexual situations altogether.

[center] [/center]

When confronted by my family by my lack of relationships I usually give my canned reply about being too busy with school or other things to bother with the other sex.

I am just really confused about who I am and where I fit in the world. What is meant by sexual attraction? Does my lack of a desire to have sex mean I am asexual, gray a, celibate or just terrified of having to deal with someone of the opposite sex? Or is my attraction a result of my own discomfort with my own sex and lack of identification with that gender?

I know most of you are probably not psychiatrist and even if you were would probably not be able to answer some of these questions without more information. But, if possible, I would like really really appreciate some opinions from anyone who may know more about asexuality than me.

Sorry for the long post and bringing up these awkward and personal problems, but I really would just like a little direction. Forgive the pun on my username, but I feel lost.

September 2, 2013

Happy Labor Day!

I hope all of my fellow DU's have a great Labor day! That said lets all take a moment to remember all of those who sacrificed their careers, freedom, health and even their very lives fighting for the American Labor movement and the rights we now take for granted. Heroes like those who died from the Pullman labor strike of 1894.

May their sacrifices never be forgotten.

August 29, 2013

Woohoo

1000 posts!!!

And with that, I no longer feel like such an awkward noob anymore!!! Now I just feel like an awkward geek. So I guess that means all is right with the world.

I know I don't post much here in the lounge, but I just wanted to thank everyone for making this such a fun place to visit and the admins for making such a great site!!! I am now looking forward to my 10,000th post milestone!

With that, good night.....

/looks at clock

....errr make that good morning!

June 9, 2013

An all Female X-men comic!

This sounds pretty damn cool!

Marvel is releasing an X-men book focusing on an all Female X-men team featuring Storm, Rogue, Kitty Pride, Psylocke, Jubilee, and Rachel Grey!

I am probably getting my hopes up way way way too much but this sounds so cool and could be a big bump for having more strong female character driven comics.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151604849472488&set=a.106017942487.92720.6883542487&type=1&theater

http://comicstore.marvel.com/X-Men-Vol-4-1/digital-comic/FEB130492