And this is why religion is dangerous...
Greetings, fellow Dot Calm Readers, Freedom Righters, and Truth Crusaders!
Still processing what happened in Orlando a week ago...
...and I keep seeing videos on what happened, and I keep seeing videos on how Christians and Muslims react that make my blood boil.
These religious people are completely warped...not only about sex but about morality in general.
They are so skrooed up they have no idea what "moral" even means any more.
Sick, disgusting, repulsive.
There are no words...no words to describe how hateful and wrong--how vile--it is for some human beings to treat other perfectly normal, completely harmless human beings this way and to call it, by definition of their religion, "good."
I sympathize and empathize with my brothers/sisters/everything-in-between in the LGBTQ+ community.
I've never exactly been "normal" myself, so I've always been drawn to other outsiders, trying to make them feel safe by accepting them unconditionally and loving them for who they are...no matter what. As a result, I have some very dear friends who are LGBTQ+...and, hey presto, they've always made me feel safe by accepting me unconditionally and loving me for who I am. I never cared what the hell label they wanted to call themselves--I only ever saw them as PEOPLE...beautiful, intelligent, loving, lovable, compassionate, creative, FUNNY, joyful people...people so sadly oppressed by this society that it's taken them some thirty years to feel comfortable enough to use those labels (to the degree that they apply--sexuality being a continuum)...and learning, finally, how to be comfortable in their own skins, right out there in plain view...as they deserve to be.
So, yeah, the bathroom bullshit pissed me off, but the bloodbath...! And knowing that it all comes down to religious hate speech...!!
49 beautiful, joyful, intelligent people are gone forever because of religious hate speech...and this tragedy has sparked the additional tragedy of even more religious hate speech that is celebrating the deaths of these innocent Americans.
Yes, we need sensible gun control...average Americans should not need or be able to buy weapons of war or high-capacity magazines...remember, Jared Loughner, who shot Gabby Giffords because of Sarah Palin's hate speech, was tackled by onlookers as he tried to reload. Yes, we need sensible background checks that keep guns from being purchased legally by convicted domestic abusers, by those who are violently mentally unstable, by potential terrorists, or by actual terrorists. All of this seems like a no-duh to me, especially since no one is talking about taking away handguns, even though handguns are behind most gun deaths in this country. Yes, we need better mental health care just as we need better health care all around.
But Omar Mateen would not have been a self-hating homosexual if his religion hadn't taught him to be. Islam taught him to hate himself and others like him. Christianity is doing the same to its adherents.
What is it going to take before we as a society admit that religion is dangerous?
When are we going to stop abusing children with all the shame and fear of religion? When are we going to stop abusing each other for having the wrong imaginary sky friend or for worshiping said imaginary sky friend the wrong way? When are we going to get our heads out of our butts and start giving reality a try?
Seriously, what the phuque is it going to take?
Don't forget to read Dot Calm's shadow's favorite independent sources of news and information:
Daily Kos
AlterNet
Democracy Now!
Slate
Vox
BuzzFeed
Conservatives are Destroying our Future
Conservative Clown Car
Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian(TM)
God, the Good Lord Above
Americans Against the Republican Party
Americans Against the Tea Party
Please keep supporting Bernie's "revolution" back to the center. Send him a buck o' five if you can. At the very least, I'm gonna send $15 to Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Democratic primary opponent, Tim Canova, on Bernie's behalf (yup--ain't done it yet but still definitely planning to...I know, I know!). Schultz needs to GO!
Thanks for reading, and thanks for being good to yourself and your loved ones. Hug or call an LGBTQ friend today, please. I did.
With condolences for the victims in Orlando and their families and in solidarity with my LGBTQ brothers, sisters, and everything in between around the world, I remain
- Dot Calm's shadow
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MAKE AMERICA
GAY AGAIN
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Mailbag
The
FBI is going after our civil rights, fastracking a transparency
exemption that would completely block our ability to stop their racially
biased activities.
Tell the DOJ: No Privacy Act exemption for the FBI.
Take Action |
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Just this week, a nonpartisan group called the Partnership for Responsible Growth ran ads in The Wall Street Journal calling out the paper for its relentless, dishonest climate change denial.
The extent of The Wall Street Journal’s bias is astonishing: A recent report from Climate Nexus found that over the past two decades, only 14% of their op-eds reflected mainstream climate science. They’re distorting the facts to benefit their fossil fuel friends. It’s outrageous, and the American people deserve the truth.
The Wall Street Journal has repeatedly come after me
personally for standing up to the fossil fuel industry’s climate denial
machine. We’ve been calling them out, and now others are joining us.
Will you add your voice to demand The Wall Street Journal start reporting the truth?
Thank you for speaking out for the truth.
Sheldon Whitehouse
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| What Congress can do to fight campus sexual assault | |
| Tell Congress:
“Pass the Hold Accountable and Lend Transparency (HALT) Campus Sexual Violence Act to strengthen efforts to combat the epidemic of sexual violence on college campuses.”
Add your name:
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From Change.org--save this beloved mother's home from the predators at Wells Fargo
Three
generations of our family have lived in our mother’s home. She has been
living there for over 50 years and her favorite part is her yard, which
she has lovingly tended to ever since we can remember. Mom is an
85-year-old, a breast cancer survivor, with Alzheimer's Disease. Her
home has always been one of the most meaningful parts of her life. It
is all about to be taken away. Our mother is one of many Wells Fargo
predatory lending victims.
Mom
was living alone when Wells Fargo approached her and interviewed her
for a number of loan applications. Despite being elderly and living on a
fixed Social Security income, they gave her two mortgage loans. When
she was about to default on one, they issued a third. How could Wells Fargo give her loans that they knew she couldn’t possibly afford?
Our
mother had no idea she was trapped in a predatory lending scheme, the
type that Wells Fargo has been found guilty of doing time and time
again. By the time we realized how much trouble mom was in, it
was too late to intervene. The statute of limitations for predatory
lending had run out and Wells Fargo was on her doorstep coming to
collect the house.
An attorney for Wells Fargo recently told our family that they, “are not in the business of running a nursing home.” We
have little time to prevent this foreclosure sale from occurring or she
will be torn away from her home. This will surely leave her devastated
and confused -- a fate she does not deserve. Please sign our petition and tell Wells Fargo to let our mom stay in her beloved home where she belongs.
Thank you!
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It's been nearly three months since President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court.
Garland is eminently qualified for this role, but the Republican
Senate majority has refused to do its job and give him a fair, timely
hearing and an up or down vote.
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From Change.org--rape survivors' basic Bill of Rights...long overdue!
You would be shocked at how few rights rape survivors have--in way too many cases, their attackers get off even more lightly than Brock Turner. Read the petition for a full description...but watch your stomach. The sheer injustice may make you want to vomit.
-- Dot Calm's shadow
This
is a crisis for 25 million survivors across America, and I’ve come
together with citizens, advocates, and legislators to do something about
it. We’re fighting for a comprehensive Bill of Rights for all survivors.
By
denying survivors basic rights, we diminish the value of their lives,
and all others as well. This erodes at the values of respect and trust
that hold our community together. Only once those values are protected
will I begin to feel truly apart of that community again. Only then will
I recover. Join me by signing this petition and calling on your Senators and Representatives to pass this important legislation now.
We’re ready to make history. Are you?
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| |
| Tell Democratic leaders: Don’t help Republicans gut Wall Street reform | |
| Petition to Senate and House Democratic Leaders:
"Unite the Senate Democrats in opposition to House and Senate Republicans’ broad assault on financial sector reforms, and refuse to lend bipartisan cover to any giveaways to Wall Street."
Add your name:
|
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Daily Kos--stop Wall Street's unending influence
Sign if you agree: The time is now to end Wall Street’s never-ending greed and their influence in American politics.
Daily Kos has joined a bold coalition working to advance an ambitious agenda to make Wall Street accountable to everyday Americans. This agenda will
- End the “carried interest” loophole that gives billionaires a lower tax rate than teachers.
- Close the CEO bonus loophole and stop subsidizing astronomical executive salaries.
- Make banks smaller, simpler, and safer by passing a 21st century Glass-Steagall rule.
- Create a tax on Wall Street trades, generating billions in revenue.
- Provide fair and affordable financial services so low-income people will no longer be preyed on by schemes like payday lenders.
Stand with Elizabeth Warren to Take on Wall Street. Tell your elected officials to re-write the rules of the economy to benefit working families, not just the billionaires.
Keep fighting,
Irna Landrum, Daily Kos
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From Daily Kos--stop Rx price gouging
The cost for prescription drugs is out of control. In 2014, over 35 million Americans did not fill a necessary prescription because they could not afford to. And drug costs continue to soar.
This issue is so critical that both Hillary Clinton’s and Bernie Sanders’ campaigns addressed how Big Pharma’s price-gouging negatively affects the health of seniors and working Americans. Each campaign shared plans to lower costs and rein in drug company abuses.
Between now and the end of the month, the Democratic Platform Committee is seeking input on this year’s Party Platform. As Democrats start gearing up for the general election, the Party must strengthen its fight against pharmaceutical price gouging.
Tell the Democratic Platform Committee: Take a stand against big drug companies abusing hardworking Americans and senior citizens.
Daily Kos is proud to be part of a coalition calling on the Democratic Platform Committee to endorse a number of innovative cost-saving measures, so that Americans can easily access the medication they need.
These measures include ending tax breaks for drug company advertising, higher Medicare rebates for prescriptions, more generic brands for expensive medications, penalties for drug companies who excessively hike prices every year, and more.
Sign our petition to the Democratic Platform Committee and demand that they fight to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Keep fighting,
Irna Landrum, Daily Kos
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I would NOT MIND for my daughter
to share a bathroom with someone LGBTQ+.
You know who I would NOT WANT
in my daughter's bathroom?
BROCK ALLEN TURNER
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Democracy Now!
Thousands
gathered over the weekend in Chicago for "The People's Summit," a major
conference that brought together activists, community leaders and ... Read More →
|
At
The People's Summit in Chicago, Naomi Klein praises Bernie Sanders for
reshaping the debate over neoliberalism and so-called free trade
agreements. ... Read More →
|
In
the wake of the shooting massacre that killed 49 people at a gay
nightclub in Orlando, Florida, the Senate is expected to vote today on
four gun control measures. ... Read More →
|
For
months, actor Rosario Dawson has been campaigning across the country
for Bernie Sanders. She spoke in Chicago at The People's Summit on how
... Read More →
|
At
The People's Summit in Chicago, author and activist Naomi Klein looks
at the link between the Sanders campaign and the growth of other
people-powered ... Read More →
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I'M WITH LGBTQ+
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GOD HATES FACTS
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PRIDE
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Movies
Leviticus 20:13
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Some of these videos are a year or three old, but they represent CHRISTIAN anti-gay hate speech at its most vile. I still wonder why my Tea Party Christian friend, who claims to believe the Bible literally, doesn't buy this bullshit just like he buys the rest of the bullshit... How the phuque is it that it's more reasonable to be a self-deceiving hypocrite than an honest literalist...?
Gawker reports that Mateen was a gay nightclub regular
Arizona terrorist sympathizer and Christian pastor Steven Anderson must be one real self-hating GAY. Otherwise, there would be no reason for the level of filth spewing forth from his lips...equating LGBTQ to pedophiles (they're not)...saying that it's good that they were all killed (it isn't)...but that the only problem is the vigilantism: a "righteous" government should have executed those who died. WTF?!??!?? Seriously, d00d needs to move to Saudi Arabia or Iran--they have the theocracies of his dreams over there! Here in America, for the time being at least, we're still a little more civilized than what he calls his flock to be.
2014 candidate in Oklahoma wanted gays stoned to death
Georgia church sign says gays should die...not in 1015 but in 2015
In 2015, televangelist Gordon Klingenschmitt demonized LGBTQ+ advocates, calling them "the devil." Why am I not surprised? Ya gno what, Klingy? Go ahead and call me the devil! BWAH HA HA HA HA HA! He probably thinks that if you click your heels together and say "Lucifer" three times that the devil will appear before you and grant you your fondest desire in exchange for your soul.
Secular Talk: Catholic archbishop not sure that raping children is illegal. The systemic child-rape and its condoning among priests--all the way up through the Church hierarchy--was one of Dot Calm's hot-button issues. This video would have made her blood boil. What Kyle says about being good by definition is the same point I've made on this blog recently: once "saved," Christians are "incapable" of sin--no matter how heinous their actions--because the Bible says so. What you will see in this video is a case in point...if you can stomach it.
What does Deuteronomy say about false prophets--those whose prophecies fail to come true? That's right--ignore them and do not fear them. But my Tea Party Christian friend hangs on every syllable that falls from John Hagee's filthy mouth. Frankly, the failed prophecy that JEEzus would return in 2007 is probably the LEAST stupid and offensive thing Hagee has ever said...
Oh, wait--here's something a little more like Hagee's usual offensive self (his son Matthew is turning out to be an equally disgusting self-righteous prik)...knowledge leads to Nazism!
Creationist science deniers don't just misunderstand things like carbon dating--they lie, too. Who knew?
Oh, look--more creationists! Women this time. Why should only men look like maROONs?
I need a break after all that! Here's some Wacky Weligious News from potholer54.
Blasphemy! Blasphemy! I blaspheme, you blaspheme, we all blaspheme for blasphemy!
If God exists. Very thought provoking.
Jesus would definitely deport illegals, pastor Robert Jeffress says. My Tea Party Christian friend laps up every syllable this crud has to say. *sigh*
And now for something that's not about religion...Brock Turner's pathetic letter to the judge. That stoopit, privileged kid just does NOT get it...!
Sam Seder on McCain blaming Obama for the Orlando massacre...there are no words for what a traitorous, violent IDIOT John McCain is (remember his hit tune, "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran"?). McCain blames Obama for BUSH'S removal of forces in the middle east...which Bush set into motion after CREATING the power vacuum that created ISIS...because REAGAN created and propped up Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, calling them freedom fighters and equating them to America's founding fathers. ...Excuse me while I go vomit. Old bastard needs to get back on his meds and back to the loony bin so they can keep him from harming himself or society! I hear what Sam's saying, but McCain's idiocy totally misses the point of RELIGIOUS HATE SPEECH and ANTI-GAY HATE. McCain needs to be put out to pasture...go hit the golf course...in his baggy plaid Bermuda shorts...with his black socks and dress shoes...or go sit in a rocking chair on his back porch if golf is too much for him.
FBI schools Trump on Muslims. I guess Trump never read "How to Win Friends and Influence People."
Remember the video I recently posted from Bill Maher, proving how stupid Americans are? Well, neo-confederates seem to be a cut below even that limbo-lower-now bar of stupid. I can't believe they actually fear ethnic cleansing...then again, since they equate" not being able to run roughshod over everyone else" with "persecution of themselves," I guess it's not that much of a stretch. Blerch.
"Righteous" racism: Christian KKK member quotes the Bible, saying that it's part of his religion to be racist...just like it was part of the Old South's religion to own Black people as chattel property...and just like it was part of all Christian men's religion to own women as chattel property until less than 50 years ago. Heavens...those uppity Blacks and women, wanting to be treated like people...no wonder Christians feel so persecuted!
Trump's nosedive in the polls
Republicans want to politicize math...economics, that is. This is a Big Deal...but it seems like spit in the bucket right now...
The Liberal Redneck on the NRA and gun control
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posted by Dot Calm @ 5:10 PM
