Polite Society

a community in which everyone is fucking each other, fucking each other over, or both. But since "fuck" is considered a bad word no one talks about it and pretends to be friends and family.

---

Praise the Lord and Hand Me the Taser

I made the mistake of going to church  this past Sunday. That's what I get for wishing to be social.

I've been attending church quite regularly for several years now in spite of my skepticism and Free Thinking. 

You see, I cared for my mother at our extremely rural home for the last few years of her life and had become quite isolated. The little church that I grew up in is just across a couple of fields. Much of my blood family that's still around goes there. It's also where I learned to hate religion. But I figured, hey, what harm can come of going there? It's the only place around that I can think of to socialize with people who aren't drunks or meth heads. And I get to visit with family, too!

Over the years I have only objected to some of their beliefs and teachings a few times, and even then it was not something that made me terribly uncomfortable. But the preacher for the congregation retired recently.

We have a "substitute" preacher now. He doesn't have a home here. His is quite a ways away. He and his wife are staying in their travel home. They are from the old school. I've heard several sermon from him and not been offended.

But the last sermon he gave was one of those "hell fire and brimstone", everyone is a sinner but me and should all go to hell, and "true Christians" are discriminated against in their own "Christian Nation". He lashed out at atheists, humanists, Democrats, Catholics, gays, and everyone else that isn't a carbon copy of him. 

And Jesus hates everyone that isn't him!

I've been pissed off ever since. What on Earth do they get out of playing the victim and degrading everyone else? That's rhetorical. I remember what they get out of it from my childhood. 

In a nutshell, it's superiority. And it makes me sick.

I don't even want to go back. But what do I tell my cousins who I love and respect and who love and accept me? "You're beliefs are so fucked up that I can't stand to be around you anymore"? I don't think so. And I can't just stop going. They will call and come by to check on me.

I find myself in an awkward position:

I've grown intolerant of their intolerance.

There is PLENTY to teach about love, forgiveness, and compassion. Why they choose to teach the low hanging fruit of hate is beyond my grasp. I don't need to be changed to hate "the others". And if I want to change them in any way at all it is for them to LOVE "the others" without condition. They don't have to get down in the mud of life with anyone; I just think they need to teach love and not hate.

That's what their Jesus would do. That's actually WHAT HE DID in their stories. In fact, the only times he exhibited anger or frustration in those stories is when he was dealing with the unyielding, intolerant, hyper-conservative bigots of His time.

Fuck it.

7 Things Every Christian Needs To Know About Hell

 NOVEMBER 6, 2019 BY KEITH GILES

WHEN IT COMES TO THE DOCTRINE OF HELL, MOST AMERICAN CHRISTIANS KNOW NEXT TO NOTHING ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF THEIR OWN VIEW [ETERNAL TORMENT] AND EVEN LESS ABOUT OTHER PERSPECTIVES ON THE TOPIC.

Here are 7 things that every American Christian needs to know about the doctrine of Hell

1- There have always been 3 “Biblical” Christian views of Hell.

It’s true. Those 3 views are: Universal Reconciliation, Annihilation and Eternal Torment.

Note this reference in the New Schaff-Herzog Christian Encyclopedia which says:

“The earliest system of Universalistic theology was by Clement of Alexandria who was the head of the theological school in that city until 202 A.D. His successor in the school was the great Origen, the most distinguished advocate of this doctrine in all time.” (From the New Schaff-Herzog, page 96, paragraph 2)

“In the first five or six centuries of Christianity there were six known theological schools, of which four (Alexandria, Antioch, Caesarea, and Edessa, or Nisibis) were Universalist; one (Ephesus) accepted conditional immortality; one (Carthage or Rome) taught endless punishment of the wicked.” (From the New Schaff-Herzog, page 96, paragraph 3)

2- The Old Testament [Hebrew] Scriptures never mention Eternal Torment.

If God’s plan for humanity from day 1 was to roast unbelievers for all Eternity, it’s sort of odd that it slipped His mind and He failed to mention this for thousands of years.

Those Old Testament scriptures mention Sheol, but that’s simply the Hebrew word for the grave. No mention of endless torment. Not a whisper.

Does that make any sense?

So, if this idea of Eternal Torment doesn’t come from the Old Testament Prophets, then where does it come from?

I’m glad you asked.

3- The doctrine of Eternal Torment was introduced in the Intertestimental Period by Pagan influences on Judaism.

Hmm…

So, God failed to mention this idea to any of the Hebrew prophets for hundreds of years, but somehow the Pagans had it right?

[Read more about this here]

4- The Pharisees of Jesus’ day embraced the Pagan view of Eternal Torment, even though it’s not found in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Wait. The Pharisees embraced this Pagan view?

Wow. So, does it make sense that Jesus would have sided with the Pharisees on a doctrine that the Hebrew Scriptures never mentioned?

Wait, I thought that no one ever preached more about Hell than Jesus? Isn’t that true?

Not exactly.

5- Most of the “Hell” verses in the New Testament are not about what happens to anyone after they die.

It’s true.

Even though Jesus uses phrases like “Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched”, and “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” those verses are not about the afterlife.

How do we know? Because those passages are direct quotes from Old Testament Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc. and – as we’ve already established – the Old Testament Scriptures contain no mention of Eternal Torment.

So, if the Old Testament uses those same phrases about undying worms and unquenchable fire, yet never refers to endless torment, then what the heck is going on? What ARE those verses about?

Apocalyptic Hyperbole. Or, the common Hebraic practice of over-stating something in metaphorical language to motivate your listeners to stop and pay attention.

Those verses from the Old Testament prophets were all about actual, real-world invasions of literal armies who were poised to pounce on Babylon, Edom, Egypt and yes, even Jerusalem. Not about what would happen to anyone after they were dead.

Jesus uses that same tried-and-true Apocalyptic Hyberbole to warn the Israelites of his day about a similar destruction that was only 40 years away – the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple in AD 70.

6- If you believe in the Trinity or the Nicean Creed, thank a Christian Universalist for that. [Gregory of Nyssa]

Some Christians today love to hurl the word “heretic” around whenever someone suggests that they embrace Christian Universal Reconciliation. But the problem is, it’s not a heresy. At least, it wasn’t during the first 500 years of Church History.

What’s more Orthodox than the Nicean Creed or the Doctrine of the Trinity? [Right?]

But, most Christians don’t realize that those early Christian doctrines were developed by, and presided over, by people like Gregory of Nyssa who was an openly Universalist Christian.

Oh, snap.


7- The minority view of Hell for 500 years was “Eternal Torment”? Augustine said so.

“It is quite in vain, then, that some–indeed very many–yield to merely human feelings and deplore the notion of the eternal punishment of the damned and their interminable and perpetual misery. They do not believe that such things will be. Not that they would go counter to divine Scripture—but, yielding to their own human feelings, they soften what seems harsh and give a milder emphasis to statements they believe are meant more to terrify than to express literal truth.”

— Augustine, Enchiridion, sec. 112.

If you doubt this assertion, Theologian and Biblical Scholar, Michael Trenkel clears this up nicely:

“I am a theologian and work in a working group for Patristics at the University of Bonn, and I am also a lecturer with emphasis on early Christian doctrine. Over the last few years, we have been scrutinizing the writings of the earliest Christianity and the patritic writings right up to John Cassianus with a Europe-wide team of over 40 patrons. Our result would be that the patristic universalism actually makes up a large majority, about 85%. Whoever claims otherwise, such as Michael McClymond in his monumental work, from my point of view either simply did not want to have sufficient insight into all available texts or a deliberately one-sided (Calvinistic) defense for his own point of view.

“The argument that the majority can often be wrong, I think here for nonsensical nonsense, because this majority did not arise because this view was the easier. On the contrary, many church fathers and scholars of the later patristic period paid for this conviction with their lives, because an eternal fire of hell was a much desired political decision. We also see this with Jerome. He writes e.g. in his comment on Isaiah, that “the true fate of the so-called damned must of course be withheld from the church, otherwise the church would lose its power.” Here, the early Christian gospel was simply replaced with an everlasting theory of hell more useful to the Church’s power.”

Not only that, but of the 3 views of Hell, Eternal Torment was the only view embraced by early Church leaders who didn’t speak Greek.

That should make you stop and think.

If you’re really curious to learn more about the 3 views of Hell, where they come from, what scriptures support the doctrines, and why the majority of Christians embraced Universal Reconciliation for the first 500 years of Church History, you may want to read my new book, “Jesus Undefeated: Condemning the False Doctrine of Eternal Torment” which is already a #1 Best Seller on Amazon’s “Hot New Releases” list, releasing Nov. 9.

You can read a sample chapter of the book and watch a video interview where I talk about the book HERE.

Bottom line: This lie of Eternal Torment needs to die. I’m doing all I can to breathe life into the “Great News” of the Gospel that is affirmed throughout the New Testament which says:

“God is the savior of all men, especially of those who believe.” [1 Tim. 4:10]

“One day every knee will bow and every tongue will gladly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” [Phil. 2:10-11]

“As in Adam, all die, but in Christ all will be made alive.” [Romans 5:19]

“Behold: I am making all things new!” [Acts 3:21; Rev. 21:5]

“That God was, in Christ, not counting our sins against us but reconciling the world to Himself.” [2 Cor. 5:19]

Hell is not an eternal torture chamber, God is not the kind of Father who would toss his children into a furnace, and the Gospel of Jesus is not only “Good News”, it’s fantastically GREAT NEWS!

The End of Knowledge

"it is easy to centralize power but  impossible to centralize all knowledge which is distributed  over many individual minds... Unable to ascertain what is in  the minds of many individuals,( the state ) just try to  control and stereotype interests and beliefs by education  and propaganda. But this attempt ( by the state) to exercise  power over minds must destroy the last possibility of finding out what people really think, for it is clearly  incompatible with the free expression of thought, especially of critical thought. Ultimately it must destroy knowledge;  and the greater the gain in power, the greater will be the loss of knowledge."  -  Karl Popper.  

 

Opioid Hysteria

 I've been battling chronic illness for 30 years. The medicines that have kept me alive are wreaking havoc on my body. As a result I live in constant pain over my entire body.

I was being treated for pain for 6 years until this hysteria broke out. During that time I was generally treated like a criminal by the pain centers that treated me. But I got treated.

Then Missouri got crazy and now I've been almost 2 years without treatment. I used to be able to take care of myself and my home. But I've been suffering recurring hospitalizations since last fall as my body is failing due to the stress induced by untreated pain. Now, I require an in home nurse and aid.

They'd rather pay the wages of these professionals than prescribe a bottle of pills.

If I could find heroin I'd do it. I'd do almost anything to have some relief. At this point it's a count down to the day I can take it no longer and give in to the voice inside of me telling me how to make it stop.

It's no longer just the physical pain - it's also the psycholgical pain of living in a society so calloused and so hateful that they would torture and kill innocent people who just want to be as normal as possible.

So, that's me and where I live... for now.

The World We Live In

I'm feeling particularly vulnerable tonight.

It's been a rough day.

Nazi Marines transfer to Coast Guard and plan a mass casualty event.

Criminals running the Executive Branch.

The seething hate that has consumed the nation... the WORLD!

Facebook

Facebook just made the stunning admission that 100 percent of its 2 billion users have likely had their personal data stolen by “malicious actors.”¹

That’s right. One hundred percent. If you’re on Facebook, then it’s a virtual lock that your data has been stolen.

This is a massive privacy violation on a global scale, and it’s clear that Facebook simply can’t be trusted with the massive amount of data that they’ve allowed to be stolen and used to manipulate our behaviour, influence elections, and worse.

We’re calling on the government to make sure Canada's privacy laws protect us from modern-day digital threats so this kind of privacy violation can never happen again.

Will you make a donation to help demand action to prevent the next massive Facebook data scandal?

Facebook has been saying for years that there’s nothing to worry about, and even now we wouldn’t even know about these violations if not for whistleblowers and activists.

Canadian whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed how Cambridge Analytica improperly harvested the data of millions of Facebook users to influence voters in the U.K. during the Brexit referendum and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. Imagine what else has been done that we don’t know about?

The good news from all this is that the Canadian government may finally wake up and take action to put privacy protections in place to prevent this kind of massive data theft from happening again. Already, privacy watchdogs in B.C. and Ottawa are investigating whether current laws were broken by AggregateIQ in its efforts to sway the Brexit vote.² And the Canadian government has FINALLY agreed to push forward mandatory data-breach disclosure rules that have been been delayed for nearly three years.³

But we won’t be safe until the laws covering our privacy rights are significantly strengthened. For example, under current law, our Privacy Commissioner has no power to force compliance with our laws or issue fines. So many companies simply flout the law, knowing that there will be no repercussions.

To harness the momentum from these scandals, we’re launching an emergency campaign to demand a commitment from our government to reform these toothless privacy laws.

Will you make a donation to help demand action to prevent the next massive Facebook data scandal?

Footnotes: 1 Facebook: ‘Malicious actors’ used its tools to discover identities and collect data on a massive global scale: The Washington Post 
2 Privacy watchdog suggests he may join ongoing AggregateIQ investigations: CBC 
3 Feds to enforce mandatory data breach disclosure rules on Nov. 1: iPolitics

New Orleans mayor denounces 'false narrative of our history' in speech defending Confederate monument removal

The last of four major Confederate monuments in New Orleans came down on Friday, the final step of a campaign launched in 2015 by Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

While construction workers were taking down the enormous statue of Robert E. Lee, Landrieu delivered a powerful speech about Confederate monuments, the reason they were erected —and why they must come down.

The SPLC joined a number of grassroots organizers including Take 'Em Down NOLA and filed an amicus brief supporting the removal of the monuments. The SPLC has also catalogued the number of publicly supported symbols of the Confederacy around the country and the number of symbols removed since the Charleston massacre. 

Landrieu's speech is, as David Menschel said, "one of the most honest speeches given by a Southern politician." We've printed it in full below:

Watch Mayor Mitch Landrieu deliver his speech here. 

Thank you for coming.

The soul of our beloved city is deeply rooted in a history that has evolved over thousands of years; rooted in a diverse people who have been here together every step of the way—for both good and for ill. It is a history that holds in its heart the stories of Native Americans—the Choctaw, Houma Nation, the Chitimacha. Of Hernando de Soto, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the Acadians, the Islenos, the enslaved people from Senegambia, Free People of Colorix, the Haitians, the Germans, both the empires of France and Spain. The Italians, the Irish, the Cubans, the south and central Americans, the Vietnamese, and so many more.

You see, New Orleans is truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling cauldron of many cultures. There is no other place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e pluribus unum: out of many we are one. But there are also other truths about our city that we must confront. New Orleans was America’s largest slave market, a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were bought, sold, and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor, of misery, of rape, of torture. America was the place where nearly 4000 of our fellow citizens were lynched, 540 alone in Louisiana; where the courts enshrined “separate but equal”; where Freedom riders coming to New Orleans were beaten to a bloody pulp. So when people say to me that the monuments in question are history, well, what I just described is real history as well, and it is the searing truth.

And it immediately begs the questions, why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame … all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans. So for those self-appointed defenders of history and the monuments, they are eerily silent on what amounts to this historical malfeasance, a lie by omission. There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it.

For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth. As President George W. Bush said at the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of African American History & Culture, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.” So today I want to speak about why we chose to remove these four monuments to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, but also how and why this process can move us towards healing and understanding of each other. So, let's start with the facts.

The historic record is clear: The Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to honor these men, but as part of the movement which became known as The Cult of the Lost Cause. This “cult” had one goal—through monuments and through other means—to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity. First erected over 166 years after the founding of our city and 19 years after the end of the Civil War, the monuments that we took down were meant to rebrand the history of our city and the ideals of a defeated Confederacy. It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the United States of America. They fought against it. They may have been warriors, but in this cause they were not patriots. These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy, ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement and the terror that it actually stood for.

After the Civil War, these statues were a part of that terrorism as much as a burning cross on someone's lawn; they were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge in this city. Should you have further doubt about the true goals of the Confederacy, in the very weeks before the war broke out, the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens, made it clear that the Confederate cause was about maintaining slavery and white supremacy. He said in his now famous “corner-stone speech” that the Confederacy's “cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first in the history of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Now, with these shocking words still ringing in your ears, I want to try to gently peel from your hands the grip on a false narrative of our history that I think weakens us, and make straight a wrong turn we made many years ago. We can more closely connect with integrity to the founding principles of our nation and forge a clearer and straighter path toward a better city and a more perfect union.

Last year, President Barack Obama echoed these sentiments about the need to contextualize and remember all our history. He recalled a piece of stone, a slave auction block engraved with a marker commemorating a single moment in 1830 when Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay stood and spoke from it. President Obama said, “Consider what this artifact tells us about history. … On a stone where day after day for years, men and women … bound and bought and sold and bid like cattle on a stone worn down by the tragedy of over a thousand bare feet. For a long time the only thing we considered important, the singular thing we once chose to commemorate as history with a plaque, were the unmemorable speeches of two powerful men.”

A piece of stone—one stone. Both stories were history. One story told. One story forgotten or maybe even purposefully ignored. As clear as it is for me today … for a long time, even though I grew up in one of New Orleans’ most diverse neighborhoods, even with my family's long proud history of fighting for civil rights … I must have passed by those monuments a million times without giving them a second thought. So I am not judging anybody, I am not judging people. We all take our own journey on race.

I just hope people listen like I did when my dear friend Wynton Marsalis helped me see the truth. He asked me to think about all the people who have left New Orleans because of our exclusionary attitudes. Another friend asked me to consider these four monuments from the perspective of an African American mother or father trying to explain to their fifth-grade daughter who Robert E. Lee is and why he stands atop of our beautiful city. Can you do it? Can you look into that young girl’s eyes and convince her that Robert E. Lee is there to encourage her? Do you think she will feel inspired and hopeful by that story? Do these monuments help her see a future with limitless potential? Have you ever thought that if her potential is limited, yours and mine are too? We all know the answer to these very simple questions. When you look into this child's eyes is the moment when the searing truth comes into focus for us. This is the moment when we know what is right and what we must do. We can't walk away from this truth.

And I knew that taking down the monuments was going to be tough, but you elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing and this is what that looks like. So relocating these Confederate monuments is not about taking something away from someone else. This is not about politics. This is not about blame or retaliation. This is not a naive quest to solve all our problems at once.

This is, however, about showing the whole world that we as a city and as a people are able to acknowledge, understand, reconcile and most importantly, choose a better future for ourselves, making straight what has been crooked and making right what was wrong. Otherwise, we will continue to pay a price with discord, with division and, yes, with violence.

To literally put the Confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of our full past. It is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future. History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a statue. What is done is done. The Civil War is over, and the Confederacy lost and we are better for it. Surely we are far enough removed from this dark time to acknowledge that the cause of the Confederacy was wrong.

And in the second decade of the 21st century, asking African Americans—or anyone else—to drive by property that they own; occupied by reverential statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity seems perverse and absurd. Centuries-old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place. Here is the essential truth: We are better together than we are apart.

Indivisibility is our essence. Isn’t this the gift that the people of New Orleans have given to the world? We radiate beauty and grace in our food, in our music, in our architecture, in our joy of life, in our celebration of death; in everything that we do. We gave the world this funky thing called jazz, the most uniquely American art form that is developed across the ages from different cultures. Think about second lines, think about Mardi Gras, think about muffaletta, think about the Saints, gumbo, red beans and rice. By God, just think.

All we hold dear is created by throwing everything in the pot; creating, producing something better; everything a product of our historic diversity. We are proof that out of many we are one—and better for it! Out of many we are one—and we really do love it! And yet, we still seem to find so many excuses for not doing the right thing. Again, remember President Bush’s words. “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.”

We forget, we deny how much we really depend on each other, how much we need each other. We justify our silence and inaction by manufacturing noble causes that marinate in historical denial. We still find a way to say, “Wait, not so fast.” But like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Wait has almost always meant never.” We can’t wait any longer. We need to change. And we need to change now.

No more waiting. This is not just about statues, this is about our attitudes and behavior as well. If we take these statues down and don’t change to become a more open and inclusive society this would have all been in vain. While some have driven by these monuments every day and either revered their beauty or failed to see them at all, many of our neighbors and fellow Americans see them very clearly. Many are painfully aware of the long shadows their presence casts; not only literally but figuratively. And they clearly receive the message that the Confederacy and the cult of the lost cause intended to deliver.

Earlier this week, as the cult of the lost cause statue of P.G.T Beauregard came down, world renowned musician Terence Blanchard stood watch, his wife Robin and their two beautiful daughters at their side. Terence went to a high school on the edge of City Park named after one of America’s greatest heroes and patriots, John F. Kennedy. But to get there he had to pass by this monument to a man who fought to deny him his humanity.

He said, “I’ve never looked at them as a source of pride … it’s always made me feel as if they were put there by people who don't respect us. This is something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime. It’s a sign that the world is changing.” Yes, Terence, it is. And it is long overdue. Now is the time to send a new message to the next generation of New Orleanians who can follow in Terence and Robin’s remarkable footsteps.

A message about the future, about the next 300 years and beyond: Let us not miss this opportunity, New Orleans, and let us help the rest of the country do the same. Because now is the time for choosing. Now is the time to actually make this the City we always should have been, had we gotten it right in the first place.

We should stop for a moment and ask ourselves: At this point in our history—after Katrina, after Rita, after Ike, after Gustav, after the national recession, after the BP oil catastrophe and after the tornado—if presented with the opportunity to build monuments that told our story or to curate these particular spaces, would these monuments be what we want the world to see? Is this really our story?

We have not erased history; we are becoming part of the city’s history by righting the wrong image these monuments represent and crafting a better, more complete future for all our children and for future generations. And unlike when these Confederate monuments were first erected as symbols of white supremacy, we now have a chance to create not only new symbols, but to do it together, as one people. In our blessed land we all come to the table of democracy as equals. We have to reaffirm our commitment to a future where each citizen is guaranteed the uniquely American gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That is what really makes America great and today it is more important than ever to hold fast to these values and together say a self-evident truth that out of many we are one. That is why today we reclaim these spaces for the United States of America. Because we are one nation, not two; indivisible with liberty and justice for all, not some. We all are part of one nation, all pledging allegiance to one flag, the flag of the United States of America. And New Orleanians are in … all of the way. It is in this union and in this truth that real patriotism is rooted and flourishes. Instead of revering a 4-year brief historical aberration that was called the Confederacy, we can celebrate all 300 years of our rich, diverse history as a place named New Orleans, and set the tone for the next 300 years.

After decades of public debate, of anger, of anxiety, of anticipation, of humiliation and of frustration. After public hearings and approvals from three separate community led commissions. After two robust public hearings and a 6–1 vote by the duly elected New Orleans City Council. After review by 13 different federal and state judges. The full weight of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government has been brought to bear and the monuments, in accordance with the law, have been removed. So now is the time to come together and heal and focus on our larger task. Not only building new symbols, but making this city a beautiful manifestation of what is possible and what we as a people can become.

Let us remember what the once exiled, imprisoned, and now universally loved Nelson Mandela and what he said after the fall of apartheid. “If the pain has often been unbearable and the revelations shocking to all of us, it is because they indeed bring us the beginnings of a common understanding of what happened and a steady restoration of the nation’s humanity.” So before we part let us again state the truth clearly.

The Confederacy was on the wrong side of history and humanity. It sought to tear apart our nation and subjugate our fellow Americans to slavery. This is the history we should never forget and one that we should never again put on a pedestal to be revered. As a community, we must recognize the significance of removing New Orleans’ Confederate monuments. It is our acknowledgment that now is the time to take stock of, and then move past, a painful part of our history.

Anything less would render generations of courageous struggle and soul-searching a truly lost cause. Anything less would fall short of the immortal words of our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, who with an open heart and clarity of purpose calls on us today to unite as one people when he said, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

12 Signs America is in Decline

1. Median wealth per adult Rank of U.S.: 27th out of 27 high-income countries Americans may feel like global leaders, but Spain, Cyprus and Qatar all have higher median wealth (per capita) than America’s (about $39,000). So does much of Europe and the industrialized world. Per capita median income in the US ($18,700) is also relatively low–and unchanged since 2000. A middle-class Canadian’s income is now higher.

2. Education and skills Rank of U.S.: 16th out of 23 countries The US ranked near the bottom in a skills survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which examined European and other developed nations. In its Skills Outlook 2013, the US placed 16th in adult literacy, 21st in adult numeracy out of 23, and 14th in problem-solving. Spots in prestigious US universities are highly sought-after. Yet higher education, once an effective way out of poverty in the US, isn’t anymore – at least not for lower-income and minority students. The authors quote studies showing, for example, that today 80% of white college students attend Barron’s Top 500 schools, while 75% of black and Latino students go to two-year junior colleges or open-admissions (not Top 500) schools. Poor students are also far less likely to complete a degree.

3. Internet speed and access Rank of U.S.: 16th out of 34 countries Broadband access has become essential for industry to grow and flourish. Yet in the US, penetration is low and speed relatively slow versus wealthy nations—thought the cost of internet is among the highest ($0.04 per megabit per second in Japan, for example, versus $0.53 in the US). The problem may be too much concentration and too little competition in the industry, the authors suggest.

4. Health Rank of U.S.: 33rd out of 145 countries When it comes to its citizens’ health, in countries that are home to at least one million people, the US ranks below many other wealthy countries. More American women also are dying during pregnancy and childbirth, the authors note, quoting a Lancet study. For every 100,000 births in the United States, 18.5 women die. Saudi Arabia and Canada have half that maternal death rate.

5. People living below the poverty line Rank of U.S.: 36th out of 162 countries, behind Morocco and Albania Officially, 14.5% of Americans are impoverished — 45.3 million people–according to the latest US Census data. That’s a larger fraction of the population in poverty than Morocco and Albania (though how nations define poverty varies considerably). The elderly have Social Security, with its automatic cost-of-living adjustments, to thank, the authors say, for doing better: Few seniors (one in 10) are poor today versus 50 years ago (when it was one in three). Poverty is also down among African Americans. Now America’s poor are more often in their prime working years, or in households headed by single mothers.

6. Children in poverty Rank of U.S.: 34th out of 35 countries surveyed When UNICEF relative poverty – relative to the average in each society—the US ranked at the bottom, above only Romania, even as Americans are, on average, six times richer than Romanians. Children in all of Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan fare better.

7. Income inequality Rank of U.S.: Fourth highest inequality in the world. The authors argue that the most severe inequality can be found in Chile, Mexico, Turkey — and the US. Citing the Gini coefficient, a common inequality metric, and data from Wall Street Journal/Mercer Human Resource Consulting, they say this inequality slows economic growth, impedes youths’ opportunities, and ultimately threatens the nation’s future (an OECD video explains). Worsening income inequality is also evident in the ratio of average CEO earnings to average workers’ pay. That ratio went from 24:1 in 1965 to 262:1 in 2005.

8. Prison population Rank of U.S.: First out of 224 countries More than 2.2 million Americans are in jail. Only China comes close, the authors write, with about 1.66 million.

9. Life satisfaction Rank of U.S.: 17th out of 36 countries The authors note Americans’ happiness score is only middling, according to the OECD Better Life Index. (The index measures how people evaluate their life as a whole rather than their current feelings.) People in New Zealand, Finland, and Israel rate higher in life satisfaction. A UN report had a similar finding.

10. Corruption Rank of U.S.: 17th out of 175 countries. Barbados and Luxembourg are ahead of the US when it comes to citizens’ perceptions of corruption. Americans view their country as “somewhat corrupt,” the authors note, according to Transparency International, a Berlin-based nonprofit. In a separate survey of American citizens, many said politicians don’t serve the majority’s interest, but are biased toward corporate lobbyists and the super-rich. “Special interest groups are gradually transforming the United States into an oligarchy,” the authors argue, “concerned only about the needs of the wealthy.”

11. Stability Rank of U.S.: 20th out of 178 countries. The Fragile States Index considers factors such as inequality, corruption, and factionalism. The US lags behind Portugal, Slovenia and Iceland.

12. Social progress index Rank of U.S.: 16th out of 133 countries A broad measure of social well-being, the index comprises 52 economic indicators such as access to clean water and air, access to advanced education, access to basic knowledge, and safety. Countries surpassing the US include Ireland, the UK, Iceland, and Canada.

---

Fascism is the new Chic

It appears that fascism has returned to out doorstep. Not that it ever left. I simply grew tired of writing about it every day. And I had hoped that a Republican-led government was not and issue. I thought they had discredited their selves. Instead, they have opened the door and empowered the basest elements of our society and given rise to the very real threat of fascism in America.

Our new fearless leader has given voice to the most fascist elements of the United States. They are coming out into the open in all their fearless glory since the Golden Haired God has pandered to them by removing civility from public discourse.

And people are fighting back with massive protests from coast to coast, the likes of which have not been seen in a century.

The disgruntled white man has decided that if they cannot maintain their illusion of superiority over all others that they will burn the whole thing down. And, I fear, that is exactly what they will do.

As I write our militarized police force is gearing up for martial law.

So, as I stated above, it appears that this voice will be forced to come out of semi-retirement and begin this commentary again.

---

Senator asks for investigation in response to news that Trump's modeling agency illegaly hired immigrant women who did not have the appropriate work visas.

Courtesy of the Bipartisan Report:  

A United States senator just sent the Department of Homeland Security a letter asking for the immediate investigation of Donald Trump’s modeling agency after an August 30th publication by media outlet, Mother Jones, in which Trump’s company was accused of trafficking illegal immigrants willing to work as models.

The openly anti-immigrant candidate is being accused of “illegally importing” women to work as models in his agency, and while this makes him look like a giant fool, it could also hold legal ramifications that would leave Trump paying a hefty fine, and possibly even serving jail time for human trafficking. 

This isn’t the first time that Trump has been accused of shipping immigrants in with the sole intention of exploiting them for near slave wages. One woman, in particular, was set to be on Trump’s cancelled MTV show “Girls of Hedsor Hall.” Earlier this summer, she spoke out against Trump, saying that he brought her here for no reason other than to be able to pay her less than minimum wage.

Good I'm glad SOMEONE is responding to some of these illegal activities undertaken by Donald Trump.

Don't forget he is also still being accused of multiple rapes, facing a lawsuit for ripping Trump University students off, and the subject of a probe into possibly illegal donations to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

And that is all on top of the thousands of lawsuits that already involve Donald Trump.

Oh yeah, this running for President was a great idea.

---

Pocket Constitution

This election season, the ACLU wants to help you brush up on your rights. So they're giving away FREE pocket Constitutions - and you can order yours now! 
 
Join me in getting this election season's must-have accessory: the ACLU pocket Constitution.
https://www.aclu.org/freeconstitutionsTAF

All Christians are bad

I'm really getting tired of the "all Muslims are bad" trope.

Everyone everywhere is always so quick to condemn those of whom they know nothing.

The truth is that people are people regardless what they call their creator... or if they even believe in a creator!

This debate is an insult to intelligent thinking people everywhere.

Southern Comfort

One of the things I love about the south is their human compassion.

The consensus among them is that Gay's "asked for it", said of the Orlando Massacre.

Yeah, that Southern Charm is heart warming.

U.S. Congressman Reads Bible Verse Before Vote on LGBT Rights — Calling for ‘Death to Gays’

Here’s your very own American Taliban in action.

Washington D.C. — (RT) A GOP congressman has called on the Bible for help with a verse condemning homosexuality – right ahead of the vote on a Democrat-proposed amendment that would prohibit work discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Shortly before voting started on Thursday on the Energy-Water appropriations bill, a freshman member had read a verse that essentially calls for death to homosexuals.

Rick W. Allen, the Georgia Republican with the Bible, went straight for the jugular with Romans 1:18-32 and Revelations 22:18-19, which greatly antagonized gay activists who called for him to be censured.

Read more…

White, Heterosexual Christians Are The Only Hope For America

Here's a tip: if you have to assert that the word vomit coming from your mouth is not racist, it probably is.

Ohio Religious Right activist “Coach” Dave Daubenmire posted a video message this morning declaring that Satan is out to destroy white, heterosexual Christian males because they represent the only hope for saving America.

“The attack that’s going on in America today is against the white, heterosexual male,” he said. “That’s the battle. If Satan can get control of the family, if they can get the white, heterosexual male removed from the scene, if they can get him ‘de-balled,’ if I will, if they can do that, there is nothing to hold back the forces of darkness in America.”

“It’s not racist, it’s the truth,” he added

Read more...

More Attacks On Freedom By The Far Right

The far-right backlash against our civil rights progress reaches the U.S. Supreme Court this week with two critically important cases that could dramatically set back efforts to achieve racial equality in our nation.  

In Evenwel v. Abbott, heard by the Court yesterday, the plaintiffs are seeking to demolish our longstanding “one person, one vote” standard, so that only voters, not all people, are counted when legislative districts are drawn.

  This is nothing less than a power grab and a frontal assault on the core of the 14th Amendment, which was enacted after the Civil War to give equal representation and protection to all people.

Voting rights experts say that by not counting everyone – including children, unnaturalized immigrants and others who can’t vote – our political system inevitably will become even more skewed toward the political right, because urban areas will lose representation.

In Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, being heard today, the plaintiffs hope to strip our universities of the right to consider racial diversity as a compelling factor when making individual admissions decisions.

You and I understand that diversity in our institutions of higher learning enriches all of us. It expands opportunity to talented minority students who face so many barriers in life. It reduces racial isolation, which helps us overcome prejudice. And, the exposure of all students to the perspectives of others is critical to our future in an increasingly complex and globalized world.

That’s why we filed a briefsupporting this affirmative action policy. To foster diversity, universities must have the ability to help level the playing field for disadvantaged or marginalized young people.

We’ve made so much progress. But I’m concerned about the erosion of rights that have made us a more just nation.

It’s particularly worrisome that both cases are part of a systematic legal campaign by the same right-wing legal organization – called, ironically, the Project on Fair Representation – that earlier succeeded in gutting the Voting Rights Act.

In Evenwel, the lead plaintiff is a Texas Tea Party activist who has promoted far-right conspiracy theories about President Obama. Her co-plaintiff says that “[t]he Jew is the enemy of the Cross” and has characterized the Holocaust as a “miracle.”

I hope you’ll take the time to read more about these casesand make your voice heard.

And, if you’re in Washington on Wednesday, please join others who will be gathering on the Supreme Court steps at 8 a.m. to show support for diversity in our universities.

A Veteran's "Thanks"

I think it's kinda stupid to whip out your patriotism, wave your flag, and thank veterans one day a year. I appreciate where your heart is in it. But I, as a veteran, would much rather you wrote your legislators and held them accountable for the contract they broke with so many than to watch an endless stream of meaningless "Thank You's" scrolling across a meaningless social media feed. But thanks anyway.

Why The 2nd And Not The 1st?

I've been seeing a lot of posts on Facebook and Twitter by conservative fundamentalists proclaiming the supreme authority and untouchability of the Second Amendment:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

In each case, they claim that this amendment protects their right as individuals to own and possess, and in many cases carry anywhere they wish, firearms.

I'm not debating the validity of their claim here. I am, however, pointing out their abject hypocrisy when those very same people post demands for ill conceived calls banning Islam and any practice associated with it.

The First Amendment reads:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

One can't help but wonder from what depth of ignorance comes the idea that number two is untouchable, not open to interpretation in any way, and taken in its most literal sense but number one is taken to mean that only that which applies to them, only Christianity is intended for protection.

These fascist minded reactionaries can't conceive in their pea brains the notion that banning any religion or their practices is the beginning of the end for the exercise of their own.

I'm not suggesting that some schools of Islamic thought don't call for banning the practice of religion's other than theirs. Indeed, some do! I'm simply suggesting that We are suppose to be better than that.

Or are we?

And The Difference is...

Beats the hell out of me.