Alex Meyers: Revolutionary

MoonHowler

So where would you have Alex Meyers use the rest room?  He seems like a guy to me.  I would chase him out of the ladies room in a New York minute.

I think the problem some of us have is that we can’t wrap our heads around our gender not always matching our genitalia.   I can’t imagine identifying as a male.  The closest I can get to it is attempting to use the bathroom standing up.  I got a good hard spanking for that stunt!    That has nothing to do with transgender.

I admit that “transgender” confuses me.  It probably confuses most of us who classify ourselves as “normal.”

Regardless, discrimination is simply wrong.

Discrimination marches forwards in Virginia

MoonHowler

The House of Delegates passed the bill making it legal to discriminate for religious reasons.

According to the Washington Post:

The Virginia House passed a bill Tuesday that would block state agencies from punishing discrimination against people who are in same-sex marriages, transgender or have sex outside marriage.

Supporters say the Government Nondiscrimination Act is needed to protect what they call religious freedom in the face of shifting cultural attitudes toward gay rights and the legalization of gay marriage. Opponents say it amounts to a license to discriminate, with broad-reaching consequences.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled chamber 56 to 41, with seven Republican members voting “no,” two not voting and one absent. Although the vote is a win for the socially conservative wing of the party, the fact that some Republicans voted against it reflects a divide within the Republican Party in Virginia and the nation.

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Multiculturalism: A rose by any other name?

MoonHowler

multi

Huffingtonpost.com:

In an address to the Christian Democratic Union on Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to limit the flow of refugees entering the country, addressing critics in her own party who have questioned her decision to open Germany’s borders.

As a top economic and political power, Germany has a “humanitarian imperative” to accept people fleeing turmoil in Syria, Merkel said. Yet after accepting roughly 1 million refugees so far this year, she added that the country must now “noticeably reduce” the number of new arrivals.

In comments The Guardian translated into English, Merkel said refugees will have to make an effort to assimilate into German society. She also dismissed the idea of multiculturalism, which in parts of Europe is associated with a policy of encouraging distinct cultural groups to live in separate communities.

“Those who seek refuge with us also have to respect our laws and traditions, and learn to speak German,” she said. “Multiculturalism leads to parallel societies, and therefore multiculturalism remains a grand delusion.”

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Free speech–the forgotten freedom

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

From a statement by the group Amherst Uprising:

5. President Martin must issue a statement to the Amherst College community at large that states we do not tolerate the actions of student(s) who posted the “All Lives Matter” and “Free Speech” posters. Also let the student body know that it was racially insensitive to the students of color on our college campus and beyond who are victim to racial harassment and death threats; alert them that Student Affairs may require them to go through the Disciplinary Process if a formal complaint is filed, and that they will be required to attend extensive training for racial and cultural competency.

6. President Martin must issue a statement of support for the revision of the Honor Code to reflect a zero-tolerance policy for racial insensitivity and hate speech.

According to the president of the Amherst College Republicans, the “All Lives Matter” posters were pro-life posters (or antiabortion posters, if you prefer).

These young upstarts really need to take a good look at themselves, then at the Constitution.  Right now I am ready to call to repeal the 26th Amendment.  That would be a good place to start.

“All lives matter” is hardly offensive.  Since when are the students running the colleges?

 

GOP candidates need to be wary of the CSA flag issue

MoonHowler

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Washingtonpost.com:

If there’s one subject on which you just can’t win as a Republican politician these days, it seems to be the Confederate flag.

After the racially motivated Charleston shootings this week and a Supreme Court case regarding the flag, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) is facing pressure to take down the flag, which is still flying high at a Confederate War memorial on state house grounds. She hasn’t heeded the calls, and her staff says it’s up to the general assembly. Her fellow South Carolinian and GOP presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, defended the flag flying in his home state by telling CNN on Friday that it is “part of who we are.”

and…

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Republican House considers altering birthright citizenship

MoonHowler

msnbc.com:

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution doesn’t leave much in the way of wiggle room: the rights of American citizenship are given to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” It’s a principle generally known as “birthright citizenship,” and after its enactment following the Civil War, the Supreme Court has protected the tenet many times.
But as Republican politics moved sharply to the right, and anti-immigration sentiments within the GOP became more extreme, the party’s “constitutional conservatives” decided the principle, championed by Republicans nearly 150 years ago, needs to go. Shortly after the “Tea Party” gains in 2010, ending birthright citizenship was added to the far-right’s to-do list.

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Indiana SB101: Legalized discrimination?

MoonHowler

Wikipedia:

Indiana Senate Bill 101, titled the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,[1] is a law that mandates that religious liberty of individuals and corporations can only be limited by the “least restrictive means of furthering a compelling government interest.”[2] The bill has been controversial. Opponents of the law claim that is targeted against LGBT people and other groups. The bill is similar to the controversial Arizona SB 1062 vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer in 2014, which expanded Arizona’s existing RFRA to include corporations.[3][4]

The bill was approved by a vote of 40-10[5] and on March 26, 2015, Mike Pence signed SB 101 into law.[6] The law’s signing was met with widespread criticism by such organizations as the NCAA, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, the gamer convention Gen Con, and the Disciples of Christ. Technology company Salesforce said it would halt its plans to expand in the state.

Pence is speaking now.  He started off his speech by comparing himself to Clinton.  What a nerve.  He has probably spent a good portion of his life spitting on Bill Clinton.

Pence continues to make excuses.  He says he and the general assembly will craft legislation that makes it clear that businesses don’t deny services to anyone.  Then why have the law?

Meanwhile, Gov. McAuliffe has told Indiana corporations to come to Virginia.  I like a guy that sees opportunity.

Citizens of Charlottesville and beyond clash over Lee / Jackson Day

MoonHowler

confederate

Dailyprogress.com:

A debate over whether to pan Charlottesville’s annual observance of a holiday honoring Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson plunged the Charlottesville City Council Chambers into chaos at times Monday.

On Feb. 17, the council is scheduled to decide whether Charlottesville will continue to mark the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day — the third Monday of January — as a local government holiday.

“There is a sentiment in our community that the holiday is outdated and offensive to many, and should be retired here in the City,” City Manager Maurice Jones wrote in a Jan. 28 email to city employees.

Charlottesville does not give employees a paid day off on Veterans Day, he noted, at the meeting.

The debate Monday drew speakers from Petersburg and Richmond and letter writers from Oregon, Maryland and Ohio, some of whom signed their notes “In Honor of Old Virginia” or “Respectfully … a daughter of the South.”

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“Melanin is thicker than water?”

MoonHowler

I guess Rush Limbaugh has just announced that he will vote for whatever white candidate is on the ticket. According to News One:

Right wing talk show host, Rush Limbaugh reiterated what he said during the 2008 Election when he said that Powell supported the candidate Barack Obama “because he’s Black” on his radio show.

After Colin Powell told CBS News “Face The Nation” that he wasn’t sure who he was going to vote for in the 2012 Election, Limbaugh said on his radio show that Powell will vote for President Obama in 2012 because “melanin is thicker than water.”

Colin Powell is one of the most respected military and political leaders of our time.  He has served his nation in time of war as a general and again as Secretary of State under George W. Bush.  He is hardly  ‘wink wink nudge nudge’ material. 

Using Limbaugh logic (is that an oxymoron?), the United States must have a great many more blacks than are showing up on the census in order for Obama to ever have been elected in the first place if “melanin is thicker than water.”   Perhaps Limbaugh is math challenged. 

This kind of thinking is popping up in all sorts of places.  Rush was actually a little kinder than a couple of the local blogs here in Prince William County who have busied themselves with making fun of those individuals and organizations supporting local “minority” candidates for office.   I suppose they forget that PWC is now a majority-minority  county.  As of 2008, about 10% of the counties in the United States were designated at majority-minority which simply means that non-Hispanic whites are less than 49% of the population.  More areas are joining those majority-minority ranks, according to today’s Washington Post. 

I would hate to see our  elections break down along racial lines, especially our local elections.  Locally, some groups seem to have little compunction against name-calling and finger pointing if the candidates aren’t “their brand.”  Perhaps some of the blogs need to stick to topic  and issues rather than   trying to hang labels on certain candidates.

NY Marriage Equality Act passes!

MoonHowler

The codification of same sex marriage rights has passed the house but not the Republican held senate in NY State.  Observers expect the needed vote to come as early as next week.  NY is significant because it it the third largest state by population. 

President Obama stopped short of endorsing the efforts to pass  marriage equality legislation by stating that he is evolving on this issue.  The President sees the issue as a civil rights equality issue but personally struggles with his comfort zone of one man-one woman marriage. 

Should marriage equality  or same-sex marriage be decided at the state level  or should it be national?  Will the courts decide or will legislatures decide?  Should the nation just go with civil unions for all and leave ‘marriage to churches and other religious institutions?  Is this a civil rights issue such as the President believes?

 

Flesh-Colored Crayons: The New Multiculturalism?

MoonHowler

Fox and Friends was trying to stir it up early this morning.  Flesh colored crayons, colored pencils, and markers are now available from Crayola, the crayon company.  Fox and Friends presented this coloring media in terms of multiculturalism.  Is this an attempt at social engineering by corporate America?

When I was a kid, which granted, has been many years ago, the only choice  for me was pink, even in the 64 box set, which was as big as it got.   People either got to be pink or you left the page white.  If you had brown skin you were actually luckier, you got to get a little closer.  People just aren’t pink or white. 

The colors which are white, black, peach, apricot, tan, burnt sienna, mahogany and sepia  come as thick crayons, colored pencils and markers.  You can probably find all the colors now in a regular large box of crayons, but these are conveniently separated into their  box, exclusively for coloring flesh. The 8 crayons are also more expensive than a box of 24.  It’s probably a money-making gimmick rather than an attempt to blindside our children with ideas of diversity. 

I would say its a good thing to be able to represent ourselves, our friendsm  family and others when we color.  We aren’t all the same color, even within families.  Human beings are diverse.  I see this as a good thing.  And Fox and Friends never misses an opportunity to stir the pot with a little pinch of dissension and a heaping tablespoon of ‘out to get us.’ 

 

 

Parent 1 and Parent 2

MoonHowler

 

Let the foolishness begin.  Now we  don’t have mothers and fathers.  I still haven’t recovered from the girl winning damages about 20 years ago for being called a water buffalo.  Now we have this, and out of the State Department no less!

According to the Washington Post:

The State Department has decided to make U.S. passport application forms “gender neutral” by removing references to mother and father, officials said, in favor of language that describes one’s parentage somewhat less tenderly.

The change is “in recognition of different types of families,” according to a statement issued just before Christmas that drew widespread attention Friday after a Fox News report.

The announcement of the change was buried at the end of a Dec. 22 news release, titled “Consular Report of Birth Abroad Certificate Improvements,” that highlighted unrelated security changes.

I don’t care if gay people adopt children or have children by whatever means that happens.  But, I am not willing to become parent 1 or parent 2 for the sake of a situation that  rarely occurs.  As far as I am concerned, the gay parents can just flip over who gets to be the mom and who gets to be the dad.  

 

 

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All Muslims aren’t Terrorists but All Terrorists are Muslims?

MoonHowler

At least according to Brian Kilmeade, that’s how it is.  According to the Huffington Post:

On both TV and radio Friday, Kilmeade said that, while not all Muslims are terrorists, “all terrorists are Muslims.”

Keith Olbermann responded with the following:

“There is stupid and there is bigoted and there is paranoid and there is Islamophobic, but it takes a big man to combine all four of them,” Olbermann said of Kilmeade.

Olbermann also rattled off a list of non-Muslim terrorists, including several murderers from the radical right and Oklahoma City bomber. Timothy McVeigh

“So, here’s one for Mr. Kilmeade: not every unamerican bastard is Brian Kilmeade, but all Brian Kilmeades are unamerican bastards,” Olbermann said.

I don’t know what either of them are thinking.  Certainly we can all think of terrorists who aren’t Muslims. I immediately thought of the man who charged into the Holocaust Museum and killed a guard and Scott Roeder who assassinated Dr. George Tiller while he was attending Sunday church service.  Keith Olbermann also knows better than to call someone an unAmerican bastard. 

Shame on both of them.  Both men need to be setting a better example.  Has the world gone mad?

To his credit, Brian Kilmeade did apologize. Case closed:

 

 

Senator Jim Webb: Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege

MoonHowler

Southern people have always had a way of simply not talking about things.  We, as a group, all know the things exist but we don’t talk about them.  Kids learn at an early age  because their mothers have a way of grabbing them up under their arms and giving them this special squeeze….I used to call it the grocery store squeeze….not to ask questions about certain things.  Senator Jim Webb has grabbed the proverbial tiger by the tail in an op/ed piece in the Wall Street Journal as he comments on the myth of white privilege and how 95% of white southerns have perhaps been miscast. 

Senator Webb definitely has cojones for taking on this ‘unmentionable.’

Suggested by Poor Richard, from the Wall Street Journal:

By JAMES WEBB

The NAACP believes the tea party is racist. The tea party believes the NAACP is racist. And Pat Buchanan got into trouble recently by pointing out that if Elena Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court, there will not be a single Protestant Justice, although Protestants make up half the U.S. population and dominated the court for generations.

Forty years ago, as the United States experienced the civil rights movement, the supposed monolith of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant dominance served as the whipping post for almost every debate about power and status in America. After a full generation of such debate, WASP elites have fallen by the wayside and a plethora of government-enforced diversity policies have marginalized many white workers. The time has come to cease the false arguments and allow every American the benefit of a fair chance at the future.

I have dedicated my political career to bringing fairness to America’s economic system and to our work force, regardless of what people look like or where they may worship. Unfortunately, present-day diversity programs work against that notion, having expanded so far beyond their original purpose that they now favor anyone who does not happen to be white.

In an odd historical twist that all Americans see but few can understand, many programs allow recently arrived immigrants to move ahead of similarly situated whites whose families have been in the country for generations. These programs have damaged racial harmony. And the more they have grown, the less they have actually helped African-Americans, the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action as it was originally conceived.

How so?

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Update on Mississippi Teen Lesbian and the Prom

MoonHowler

A follow up on the original story about  Constance McMillan’s desire to go to her own prom with her girl friend has lead to a less than conclusive end:

 

ABERDEEN, Miss. — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Itawamba County, Miss., school board violated the rights of a lesbian student by canceling the prom when the student challenged a ban on same-sex dates, but the judge stopped short of ordering the district to reinstate the April 2 prom.U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson said he denied the injunction request because a private prom parents are planning will serve the same purpose as the school prom and because “requiring defendants to step back into a sponsorship role at this late date would only confuse and confound the community on the issue.”

 Did Constance win/lose or did she lose/win?  The school violated her rights.  However the judge isn’t going to make things right.  The school will not be forced to have a prom.  The private prom folks will not be forced to admit Constance.  Constance must go to the gay and lesbian prom instead of to her school prom.  Does this sound like forced segregation to you?

The federal judge sounds like the chicken you-know- what judge to me.  I thought the entire point of these kinds of court rulings was to either say yes her rights were violated and fix things or no her rights were not violated, go home and get over it.   I guess there is a lot of laughter and snickering in the Itawamba County school district today.  I guess they showed “them thar dykes a thing or 3 now didn’t they?”   What a shame that this young woman’s civil rights weren’t upheld. 

Maybe Constance McMillan has the last laugh after all.  She appeared on the” Ellen” and was awareded $30,000 in scholarship money by the talk show host who said she was so proud of her.  DeGeneres said:

“I admire you so much. “When I was your age I never would have had the strength to do what you are doing.”

 

Meanwhile, her ACLU lawyer is preparing round 2 of her legal battle. 

USA Today story