This picture is savagely disgusting, but it proves a point.

The point?  This is what happens when you pass laws codifying religion – one specific group of people pushing to have laws passed based on their religion.  In the above case, it’s Islamic law.  But how is this different than groups like National Organization for Marriage or Presidential candidates like Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum who push their interpretation of marriage from the bible to urge the passing of laws, desiring to make discrimination against gays and lesbians the law of the land?

It doesn’t.  It’s exactly the same.

The above picture is an extreme example of this, but it is exactly the same thing.  Think of it this way.  There are 1,500,000 Hindus in the United States.  Hindus consider cows to be sacred.  Would it be right for Hindus to push to have laws making the keeping, slaughtering, and eating of cattle illegal?  No it wouldn’t.  And that is exactly no different than people trying to push their interpretation of the Christian bible as laws in the United States.

You can have your personal point of view; that’s fine.  Every single person is entitled to their opinion without being oppressed.  But justifying discrimination against a group of people because of a set of personal beliefs?  That is itself oppression.  And we shouldn’t tolerate it here in the United States.

I’m so angry right now, words cannot describe the complete and unequaled hate that I feel.  I don’t use that word lightly, either.  But it’s the only way that I can describe the group that put this image up:

How infuriating is it that these people – and I use that term lightly – are insinuating that the “red states” are the only ones that send soldiers to war, while the blue states just have wild parties.

You can find this over at http://gaymarriagehouseofhorrors.com/ – and no, I’m not making the link active.  I refuse to link to these contemptible people.

I’m going to preface this entire post by saying that I respect all people’s rights to their own religions.  What you choose to believe, and even what you choose to not believe, is your right, and I respect that.

What I do not respect is doing something without a person’s consent.  Hateful remarks like, “I bet your father is rolling over in his grave right now” and the like are reprehensible.  I equate them to rape; you are doing something against a person’s will.  I have no right to force myself on another person sexually, just as I have no right to perform actions on a person that is deceased that may or may not interfere with a person’s belief system.  In the former, that’s called rape.  In the latter, you can call it psychological or memorial rape, because that’s really what it is.

And that is why I have such a big problem with the Mormon faith taking it upon themselves to baptize people in death.

Our founding fathers have been baptized into the Mormon faith after their deaths.  Every one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence has been baptized into the Mormon faith after their death.  David Livingston, a Christian missionary, was baptized into the Mormon faith after his death.  Paul Revere – famous for his midnight ride to alert the Colonists of the impending British attach – baptized after death.  Jewish holocaust victims, including Anne Franke, were baptized after death.  Even President Barack Obama’s mother was posthumously baptized into the Mormon faith after death.

Many of these were done without the consent of the family (the baptism of George Washington and the other founding fathers occurring after a man had a dream that Washington came to him, asking to be baptized), while some were.  But still – it’s done without the consent of the individual.  And that’s just wrong.

It continues to this day.

So as you sit back and contemplate Presidents Day, and maybe have a fleeting thought about our founding fathers, think about their legacy – and how it’s been changed, against their will.  And I’ll be sitting back, wondering why this isn’t a bigger deal in American politics.

Why is it Fox News allows racism to run rampant on their airways?

One of their commentators, Eric Bolling, talked about Maxine Waters recently.  When she called republican’s “demons”, he told her she needs to step back from the crack pipe.  He pulled back from it, but does it really matter?

Not a fan of Obama, he “joked” about the President running a cocaine and marijuana emporium.  The man is so off, that he even took on the muppets as being “anti-capitalism”.

We all know Fox News isn’t going anywhere.  But why do they allow this type of racism to air nightly?  It’s time to level the playing field, and  not only fire Bolling and his ilk, but time for Fox to pledge to keep him and his racist brethren off the airwaves.

Sometimes it really surprises me how “outraged” republicans can be over something innocuous, or even miniscule.  But something big by republicans?  It’s glossed over like, “Who cares?”

Case in point.  Remember back in 2003 when there was an uproar over a submission of a commercial where someone compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler?  People were up in arms!  And they still are.  I mean, just in 2009, some guy said that Rachel Maddow lied when she said MoveOn.org didn’t have such an ad.  This guy is so disingenuous that you’d think MoveOn.org actually did this.  But no, it’s been proven that MoveOn.org did no such thing – not that any whackjob with their own agenda (and no tolerance for facts or truth) will admit it.  (And I love the irony that any teabagger can whip out a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache and call it “freedom of expression”).

But this latest whackjob idiocy comes from the Kansas Speaker of the House, Michael O’Neal.  There’s the typical namecalling, which I expect from republicans (because who needs cogent facts when you can call the first lady “Mrs. YoMama” and the like?).  But he’s also been emailing around quoting a Psalm from the bible that states:

“May his days be few; and let another take his office.”

So everyone on the right goes into a rage when someone compares Bush to Hitler, but it’s okay for people on the right – leaders on the right – to openly pray for the President of the United States to die?  That’s bullshit.  Speaker O’Neal, you need to be ashamed of yourself, and you need to resign your office.

I saw that the students of Penn State were rioting last night, in support of their long time football coach, who was fired.  You can do that, sure.  You can support the man.  But by supporting a man who “looked the other way” on the issue of child rape, you’re showing what an asshat you really are.

I’m serious.  Asshats.

None of these people are concerned about the 9 people who were sexually abused.  They’re mad because their football coach was fired.

Since when does the love of football trump our love and concern for our fellow man?  That’s just disheartening.  And to those of you that wreaked havoc by your violent actions (tipping over a news van), do you feel better about yourselves?  Or are you just even bigger asshats than those that can’t see past football to the abuse perpetrated on 9 human beings?

We all know that DOMA, the so called “Defense of Marriage Act” from the 1990s, is discriminatory.  States are allowed to regulate marriage, and several have done so (along with the District of Columbia) to include gays and lesbians.  Senator Dianne Feinstein brought forth a bill in the Senate that repeals DOMA earlier this year.  And even better news?  Today, the President endorsed the repeal of DOMA.

So thank you, Senator, and thank you, Mister President.  We continue to need your leadership for equality in this country.

And by the way, speaker Boehner?  How about you STOP paying the tab for the expensive lawyers to defend DOMA?  You’re wasting precious funds on an unconstitutional law.

This is pretty awesome.  We all know about the health insurance companies that pay for Viagra, but refuse to pay for contraception for women.  That’s not only not right, it’s downright sexist!

But a side effect of the new healthcare law?  Apparently because of a panel recommendation, health insurance companies will be required to offer contraception coverage, as well as a whole slew of other items (HIV testing, breast pumps, etc) that they don’t now.

Now THAT is good news!  For the consumer, obviously.

I, for one, think the Murdoch empire being under such tight scrutiny because of the phone hacking scandal is awesome.  I mean seriously – the man has been supporting illegal search and seizure, phonetapping, and lord knows whatever else for decades.  And he’s finally being brought up and questioned about it.

And then an idiot with a foam pie attacked him in a hearing.

Way to TOTALLY distract from the proceedings, dickhead.  Murdoch is finally getting his.  And you have to go and do something that changes the narrative, and actually makes people sympathetic to the aging right-wing moron.

You want to know who’s fighting for you?  And who’s fighting for the billionaires out there?  I thought I’d quantify if for people.  And here it is:

Red = Millionaires, Blue = Regular Folks

How’s that?  In 2010, there were 308,000,000 Americans in the United States.  At that same time, there were 7,800,000 millionaires.  Democrats (blue) are fighting for every single person in the United States.  Republicans (red) are fighting ONLY FOR THE MILLIONAIRES.  How else can you explain why Republicans are refusing to allow tax increases on millionaires?

Based on 2010 values (click to view): Number of millionaires, Population of the United States