My husband and I discuss why we didn’t vote yesterday, why we don’t feel bad about it (at all) and what we did instead. The belief that voting is some moral duty regardless of what you are asked to choose between is a fallacy we break down in detail.
San Fransisco 49er’s quarterback Colin Kaepernick is under fire after refusing to stand for the national anthem. Check his Twitter feed if you’d like to follow some of the action.
In true American fashion, within hours people were burning his jersey, he was mocked for daring to care about the oppression of others while he himself is a multi millionaire, memes were circling the internet showing wounded warriors going to great lengths to stand for the anthem while Colin Kaepernick is “able bodied, yet refuses”
But if you ask me? I’m impressed.
Because to be frank, patriotism isn’t that great. Nazi’s and North Koreans are very patriotic, what’s so great about that? Is a dutiful Nazi better than our unpatriotic and treasonous founding fathers who very un-patriotically told THEIR country to “F off”?
Kaepernick was quoted as saying the following:
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game against Green Bay. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
The 49ers issued this statement: “The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pre-game ceremony. It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose and participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.”…
“This is not something that I am going to run by anybody,” he said. “I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. … If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.”
Showing integrity and using your platform to make a difference in the world vs merely using it for your own self promotion, is nothing to be ridiculed, disdained, or mocked. It should be commended.
Wasn’t this the same attitude our founding fathers had when their government became intolerable and oppressive? Why are so many people able to applaud these actions from over 200 years ago, but vilify the same spirit of righteous indignation and demands for justice when they see it in people today? . What is weak about a man abiding by his conscience, even to his own detriment?
As a Christian, I see pledging to a flag as a form of idolatry. A person’s postal address has nothing to do with the content of their character. A flag is nothing to die or kill for. My allegiance is to God, and the values I believe in – truth, liberty, and justice. My thoughts on flags, anthems, and allegiance aligns with that of Arundhati Roy when she said the following:
Like Kaepernick, I also often times do not stand for the anthem. It’s not something I hold particularly strong feelings about, for example, if I’m in the middle of a conversation with a friend at a game and the anthem comes on, I likely wont sit and will just stay standing. But if I’m not otherwise distracted or am already sitting down? – no way I am standing up just to talk to a piece of cloth. I’m not the only one. Last year I wrote a story about a New Hampshire girl who refused to stand..Linked here: Teacher Takes Action Against Student Who Refused to Stand for Pledge of Allegiance
Here is another quote from Kaepernick I would like to share:
“My faith is the basis from where my game comes from. I’ve been very blessed to have the talent to play the game that I do and be successful at it. I think God guides me through every day and helps me take the right steps and has helped me to get to where I’m at. When I step on the field, I always say a prayer, say I am thankful to be able to wake up that morning and go out there and try to glorify the Lord with what I do on the field. I think if you go out and try to do that, no matter what you do on the field, you can be happy about what you did,” Kaepernick told Daily Sparks Tribune in 2012.
I do believe Kaepernick should be proud of his actions on the field Friday. I believe he took a much bolder stand against injustice by sitting than he ever could have by standing and saying the pledge like everyone else.
Ironically, Kaepernick also showed a firm intolerance for systemic injustice and oppression – values shared by the often praised founders of our country – how very “American” of him.
I had never thought much about Bristol Palin. When I first saw her on television during the 2008 campaign, I don’t think I thought anything beyond: “Oh weird, her mom is way cuter than her. I figured Sarah Palin’s daughter would be hotter.” – Super deep I know, but its what I thought.
I remember all the media frenzy and the way Conservatives lauded her as a hero for “not getting an abortion and choosing life” seemed weird to me. It just seemed like a bizarre angle. Like being given a medal for going to lunch and not punching your friend in the face. Or being commended for your “family values” because you spent the weekend with your sister and didn’t stab her. The vast majority of women who get pregnant keep their baby. Only 21% of pregnancies end in abortion. (yes, I know that number is HUGE) but my point is, no one is noble or heroic for doing something 79% of people do in the same situation. Not aborting your baby isn’t “heroic” – it is normal.
I never thought or saw anything of her again. That is, until we fast forward to 2015 when she announced her second pregnancy and the internet went ballistic. The first thing I noticed wasn’t what a raging monster pious freak she was (as the trolls would describe her), but how beautiful she had become! Bristol had blossomed from a chubby round faced teen into a stunning woman. Not just beautiful, but stunning!!
My guess is she had a chin implant, but the fact she was smart enough to get one is a plus in and of itself.
She lost weight, learned how to shape her eyebrows, lost the ugly highlights, and became a better dresser – in other words, she grew into her own!
I will be honest when I say I thought she was hopelessly average looking, and I was both surprised and impressed by her physical transformation over the years. 
I could not help but feel she was being treated incredibly unfairly by the media’s response to her second pregnancy. Bristol is a human being not a caricature. People really need to break things down, and have some understanding before they bash on her. So here goes….
Firstly, Bristol was not raised in some fundamentalist cult. Her mom was busy with her political aspirations and her parents were rarely even home. The family went to church like 5 times a year – if that. Bristol’s first pregnancy is not the outcome of “fundamentalist upbringing” or “abstinence only education” but the outcome of a largely unsupervised childhood.
Secondly, a 17 year old girl getting pregnant by her long-term boyfriend generally is never planned. But it also isn’t absurdly rare or crazy, especially in today’s culture. It really pisses me off the campaign even made a statement about a private family matter.
Going “public” was her mother’s fault, not hers, so don’t blame Bristol for it. Sarah Palin was the one parading herself as some pro-life christian family values spectacle all over the world – not Bristol. Palin should have known her daughter’s pregnancy would be mercilessly criticized and taken actions to protect her daughter from all of it.
A simple “Yes I am expecting my first grandchild from my daughter and her fiance.” If asked if she thought this was hypocritical of her “family values” stance, a simple, “No, we are pro-life, and very excited about this child, they’ve been planning on marriage and children for a while now, so it is sooner than expected, but we believe life is a blessing regardless of circumstances” – THE END. It would not have been such an emphasis throughout the campaign if she hadn’t been the one to bring attention to her teen daughter, parade her around on camera, go off on “hard life lessons”, and speak about her so much.
As a result, the media looked into Bristol’s life, her relationship, Levi’s life (since the family trotted him out into all this as well), followed the pregnancy, kept asking about “wedding plans”, knew every up and down of the relationship of a 17 year old!, they were interviewed about custody issues. etc. No one, and I mean no one needed to, or had a right to know any of this. What a nightmare, having to parade around on international TV just to be called a whore, “white trash”, and be made into a joke, all while several months pregnant and feeling super gross.
Now, as for the accusation of Bristol throwing stones from a so called “glass house” The vast majority of Bristol’s views were an echo of her mother’s. Regardless of her individual beliefs, she wasn’t in a position to slam her mom’s viewpoints or do much more than stand by and support her mother, as most politician’s children do.
She is called a “hypocrite” often because she worked with organizations aimed at preventing teen pregnancy by promoting “safe sex” and abstinence. Just imagine you are Bristol. Your mom is Sarah Palin. You are an 18/19 year old. You have a kid and organizations such as Candies Foundation approach you and offer you hundreds of thousands of dollars to talk about your experience with teen pregnancy. Would you really not take the offer? Would you even really care what the hell they asked you to talk about so long as it wasn’t evil? The money was a ticket to independence and I don’t blame her for taking it.
Her PSAs and speeches were hardly “judgmental” or pious. And were generally no more hardcore than a basic “think about things before having sex.” ..oh wow, what a moral crusader! Example of one below. The only thing offensive about them is how lame and cheesy they are.
She never acted morally superior or slammed people who didn’t practice abstinence. The accusation of her “shaming others” for doing what she did, simply is not true. Even a prostitute could factually say the only 100% effective way to prevent pregnancy is with abstinence – because it is a true statement regardless who says it. Even the PSAs themselves recognized many wouldn’t want to use abstinence, and gave alternatives (as shown above). Bristol was an advocate for preventing teen pregnancy by using herself as a cautionary tale, and to be fair, she never had another child as a teen. The accusation of her being a hypocrite because of her work with the Candies foundation is simply untrue.
Yes, she went on TV with her mom by her side, and said she “would wait till marriage to have sex again.” But what else was she supposed to say? “I plan on sleeping around”??? Plus, she probably said she was waiting – because she genuinely planned on waiting! And at the time, believed she would.
Life happened, the cameras went away, years passed, relationships came and went, and it became something she probably still supported the idea of, but just didn’t believe that strongly in anymore. Do you realize how many teens plan on “waiting till marriage” or “waiting till love” then don’t? How many of us said things when we were 18 that as we aged went out the window?
Never get married? – now you are married with 3 kids. Become a doctor? – decide you hate the medical field and now you are a lawyer. Wait til you fall in love or marriage to have sex? – ended up sleeping with a loser who cheated on you.
Really, if nothing of the sort has ever happened to you, then you must be the most psychic person ever. I personally believed all sorts of stuff I am straight up embarrassed by today, and I said I wanted to do all sorts of things I changed my mind about and never did.
I would wager the vast majority of those condemning her are actually the ones in glass houses throwing stones – not Bristol. Are the people attacking her all virgins? I highly doubt it. And given the vast majority of those criticizing her are probably basement dwellers with NO life, I would guess if they are virgins – it isn’t by choice.
If I were Bristol and Sarah Palin were my mother I would have a lot of animosity toward her for a myriad of reasons. So when I came across this clip of Bristol getting into a public altercation where she defended her mother (and looked super hot and badass while doing so), I couldn’t help but be impressed. She is a better person than I would be. After all this public condemnation caused by her mother, she still stands by her mom and defends her. Fight:
She doesn’t deserve to be called a whore and a slut by a slew of degenerates or gross 47 year old losers perusing bars with nothing better to do than be obsessed with her.
From what I can tell she is a normal woman. She had a child with a long term boyfriend. And now as a grown woman, she is expecting another with a man she was planning on marriage and having more children with. Nothing about those pregnancies make her any less “moral” than the vast majority of Americans. As a result – the vast majority of Americans have no room to bash her!
She is her own person. She has a chill personality. She doesn’t have the scary glassy stare her mom does, or the strange way of speaking with strings of one-liners and talking points in a weird accent. If you are mad at Sarah Palin or do not like her, then take it out on Sarah Palin, not her daughter.
She has handled the onslaught of criticism with grace. She has a way cooler life than most of those bashing her will ever have. Yes, I’m sure this gorgeous woman with show offers, close friends, family, a son she loves, another on the way, faith, book deals, private jet vacations, and a million other things is really just a ” white trash loser with a totally lame life” just because she broke an engagement. Seriously, the fact people think a breakup is that much of an end all be all as to whether someone’s life is good, makes me question them way more than it makes me question her. Get real and grow up.
14 year old Middle School student Fatima Smart of New Hampshire was allegedly forced by her teacher to leave class after refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Smart claims she was later lectured in front of all the other students.
“She kind of used me as an example in front of the class to say that, ‘You have to stand for the flag salute, or you can be like Fatima and wait outside,’” Smart said.
“I don’t like our government at all,” she said. “I think they are making bad decisions, and I didn’t stand. I don’t like pretending to believe in something I don’t believe in to please others… They have their rights, and I have mine.”
I would not be able to hide my pride if my child got in trouble for this. It’d be one of those signs you are winning at the parenting thing. Fatima’s parent’s raised a daughter who stands by what she believes in, who is engaged and interested in the world around her, and who is intelligent enough to question the merit of robotic (and frankly creepy) traditions.
So of course her school authority figure can’t have any of it and attempts to “fix” her immediately. Check out the smirk of clear pride on her Dad’s face in the background in this new clip.. I don’t blame him.
Smart’s parents rightfully stand by their daughter, and have asked for an apology from school officials. Smart had every right to stand by her conscience.
In New Hampshire it is voluntary for students to stand for the pledge. Smart’s parents believe she was singled out and her rights were violated for personal reasons. Her teacher said as the daughter of a military man she found Smart’s position to be offensive.
Being offended because someone won’t idolize a flag doesn’t give someone the right to force flag worship down their student’s throats, nor does it give them the right to bully students into submission. I salute this young lady for standing her ground and living up to her last name of Smart!
In Maine more heads explode over this issue when local politicians refuse to stand for Pledge of Allegiance. In the wake of the completely over the top uproar over Cecil the lion, I think its time folks stop calling for people’s heads and take a step back to look at what is actually taking place before becoming so vitriolic over issues.
A human didn’t want to say a creepy pledge to a piece of cloth.
That’s it.
They didn’t spit on your dead grandfathers grave who served in WW2, and no, your dad/secondcousin/uncle/great grandpa didn’t “die for that flag” – He didn’t need to, you can buy them at Walmart for like ten dollars.
Many soldiers have died for freedom, liberty, free speech, and the security of their families. Many soldiers have died for corrupt leaders, greed, and ethnocentrism. A plethora of reasons, good and bad, that have very little to do with a piece of cloth dyed different colors and put into a starry and striped design. So take a chill pill.
While I personally do not partake in flag burning, it is merely for the reason I don’t randomly burn pieces of cloth to prove my point, so i don’t see why I would start now. However, I truly have no issue with those who do, nor do I have an issue with those who refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
If the actions of one’s government becomes a danger to, and constrains the freedom of, its nations citizens, I would say it would be immoral to pretend the flag still represented a country noble enough to pledge one’s allegiance.
Even if you lived in the perfect country, ten years from now it could devolve into an incredibly evil place. Is it ok to claim your allegiance is justified because the country “used to be cool like 200 years ago”?
This makes blind patriotism and nationalism rather illogical concepts. The leaders you are directed under could instruct you to do horrible things, such as worship them or commit mass murder. ( ie Nazis and North Korea with their 99% government approval rating) – the most patriotic of all nations I would say.
Surely this shows such visceral reactions concerning a flag are for those without enough intelligence or depth of thought to recognize its absurdity.
Patriotism would be great if we lived in a Godly righteous nation with just laws and a peaceful society that strongly valued liberty, freedom, and individual rights. But that is not the case nor is it even realistic. No faith should be put into something as fallible and changeable as a nation and its governing body.
Let people be guided by their morals & values. If you want to fight or stand or pledge to something make it God, liberty, justice, freedom. The timeless and eternal principles and truths that can never change or be corrupted, and save your outrage for a real issue.
Since 2011 over 100 people have won lawsuits against the Baltimore Police Department for use of excessive force. Many of the officers involved were given a slap on the wrist, did not even lose their job, and continued to walk free after terrorizing the very people they were entrusted to protect.
In the rare instance an officer actually stood up against one of his own, the results were typical and disappointing to say the least.
After blowing the whistle on two fellow officers after they assaulted a suspect in 2011, former officer Joseph Crystal was forced to resign after continued harassment from officers in his department for being a snitch.
The message is clear. Cops protect their own, this allegiance is placed above, right, wrong, injustice, and justice. Any officer who fails to comply with this code of “honor” pays the price.
The 10,000 protesters who marched the streets of Baltimore for justice in the death of Freddie Gray should not be expected to answer for, or be responsible for the actions of looters and vandals. The protesters do not represent them, and are in no way responsible for those taking advantage of a moment of civil unrest.
No amount of looting or vandalism discredits the true issue at hand. And to those who actually care, no amount of misdirection is going to numb the pain and hurt levied against communities by lawless, power hungry police officers who walk free time and time again after they destroy and end lives.
When men are left beaten or dead, and those responsible are more likely to receive paid vacations during “investigations” than prison sentences, you would be naive to not expect outrage.
The riots in Baltimore are tame and what is to be expected given the devastating circumstance those protesting find themselves in. The fact media outlets claim to be appalled and shocked by a few days of mayhem in response to decades of oppression and systematic police brutality only goes to showcase the flippancy with which they view the devastation caused by systematic unpunished police brutality against entire communities.
While I do not condone violence, and while I do not support looting or robbing random businesses who are innocent in this situation, I also must be honest in saying, I really don’t give a damn about a looted CVS store, and I really don’t give a damn about a few people getting roughed up amongst some rioters, and I really don’t give a damn about people setting fire to police vehicles.
I just don’t.
The thought of a broken window or a pair of stolen Reeboks isn’t going to keep me up at night, it just isn’t. It shouldn’t keep you up at night either. A looted CVS store has never been cause for national outrage or national attention before, so why would it suddenly be so important now?
The media is intentionally changing the narrative of this story.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Something has to change. If you expect the community to do nothing or depend on and have faith in a justice system that has failed them over and over and over again then you are completely illogical.
The justice system and the police force that victims are told to put their trust in, are the very entities that have oppressed them for decades. We have reached a point where there is no reasonable or logical hope for legal means of retaliation or justice.
Do you honestly expect these people to just sit down, shut up and trust the moral sensibilities of their oppressors, hoping their oppressors decide to yield justice against themselves?
That is insanity.
We as a nation need help, this is about more than Freddie Gray, the riots in Ferguson, or the Baltimore Police Department, this is about an epidemic of unbridled police power throughout our entire nation and it has gone on for far too long.
Right now communities such as the impoverished areas of Baltimore are feeling the brunt of police violence because police know they can get away with attacking those of little power, with little influence, and little means of retaliation. Police consistently attack those who are impoverished and consistently attack minorities because they know that they can.
It is up to us to tell them they can not. It is up to us to let them know we do care, we will speak up, and we will make sure officers are held accountable for their actions.
We are not looking at an instance of “two wrongs” but an example of an oppressed and victimized community taking a stand, taking action -any action, against their violent oppressors.
And it is only at this point the media has the gall to act offended by violence? It is at this point the media has chosen to make a call for peace?
Where was the media’s concern with violence when Freddie Gray was being murdered? Where was the media’s concern with violence while the Baltimore police murdered 6 black men from January 2014 to March 2015 alone?
This isn’t a game, it isn’t a soundbite. We are talking about human lives, and it is only when those victimized take a stand against their oppressors that our media has the audacity to position itself as the moral authority on the issue of violence.
The media coverage over this has been disgusting, and we should all be disgusted. The outrage felt by these protesters is more than justified. Condemning peaceful protesters, or even those who are opportunistic looters, over state funded murderers is morally indefensible.
Crime and injustice are not the same thing. If a robber robs a store, and is then apprehended tried and convicted; justice was served. Robbery is not something our society repeatedly turns a blind eye to. Authoritative abuse is. When a cop can murder a man on camera, and walk away a free man. No justice was served.
This is not just one cop. It is not a few “bad apples”, but every member of the police force who turned a blind eye to misconduct and did nothing is also responsible for the situation at hand. They are the ones responsible for the situation in Baltimore. Their families, their friends, their loved ones who did not speak out against their deplorable actions are also responsible. The time has come for us to hold officers accountable for their actions, for even in their inaction they have chosen action.
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Well known Republican apologist Allen West gives one of the most superficial and divisive list of reasons for the Baltimore riots I have heard to date.
On April 29th Allen West posted an article The Dirty Little Secret No One Wants to Admit about Baltimore
How ignorant does Allen West have to be in order to write this? How much more ignorant does someone have to be in order to buy this?
Allen West like so many others in the media is missing the point. Instead of taking an honest look at the situation, he takes complex events and contrives everything into a series of Republican talking points aimed at demonizing the valid concerns of a long oppressed community against their oppressors.
With a complete lack of comprehension West blames the rioting and protesting on the fact Baltimore is “socialist” and that they “elect democrats”.
Sure West, rioters are burning down a city, and protesters are hitting the streets because: Democrats.
This has nothing at all to do with the fact the police in Baltimore and around the nation habitually murder and brutalize the people they are supposed to protect and then walk free. Nothing at all to do with the fact a hurt and devastated community has continually been given no avenue or hope for retaliation or justice through legal means. Nothing at all to do with the fact the legal system and police force they are told to trust is the very thing that has oppressed them for decades. It is time for us to wake up and stop buying into these lies, Democrat, Republican, white, black, it doesn’t matter. This issue affects all of us. Right now the black communities and those in impoverished regions are feeling the brunt of police violence because police know they can get away with attacking those of little power, with little influence, and little means of retaliation. You think you are safe just because you don’t fit the demographic? Think again.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
– Martin Niemoller
Both film and fiction undoubtedly have an effect on our world perspective and our culture as a whole. Our enemies know this and are diligently working to push their ideology into the mainstream of society. “American Sniper” is just another recent example of film being utilized to create nationalistic pro-war propaganda.
It is refreshing to come across directors, actors, film producers, and authors willing to go against the grain – and often times their own governments, to reveal a truth that hadn’t been told before. We need more individuals within the media to counter the lies and false narratives bombarding movie theaters and television screens around the world. One such director is David Kirk West. His film Liberation, goes against the false narrative that unjust war is of God. His movie was one of unconditional love, faith, and liberty.
The film is competing for a prize in “The Audience Awards” and you can not only watch the film for free, but help him win a cash prize by voting. As more films such as these gain popularity, we can work together to spread a new perspective around the world. Monetary contest winnings allow directors like David to continue making films of this nature.
You have to register for the site, but it’s really easy. You can do it and be voting for David in just a few seconds. By voting, you can actually even win cool prizes like $25 gift cards to Fandango, iTunes, or Amazon.com!
Here is the link to vote:
http://theaudienceawards.com/film/liberation28431#
You can vote once a day from now until April 14th, so please check back and vote often! Your vote is NOT just worth a single vote, either. The more involved you are on the website, the more votes your vote is worth, so be sure to check out a few of the other films and competitions that they’re running.
We hear progressives over and over repeating that Conservatives are “Setting us back 50 years” by supporting religious freedom. The truth is, however, that progressive who are advocating forced labor, are taking us back even further: to the days of slavery, when men did not have the right to refuse to do labor for another.
While all slavery is bad, forcing someone to do labor fundamentally against their beliefs is the worst form of slavery imaginable. Forcing someone to labor for you against their will is slavery. But forcing someone to labor for you by doing a task you know goes against their beliefs (however stupid you think those beliefs are) is a form of slavery that also involves criminalizing thought, torture, and denying a person their right to their own beliefs, morals, individuality, and their ability to choose. When detainees at Guantanamo Bay were forced to eat pork – that was torture. Forcing someone to partake in work that goes against their conscience is also torture.
I can not believe we have reached such a moral low in our nation that multitudes are hitting the streets in support of an oppressive world in which a black baker can not deny the request of White Supremacists to make a cake for a KKK event.
What will happen when all states no longer allow businesses to refuse to work with customers at their own discretion? What happens when these oppressive policies move to states like Nevada, where brothels are legal? Do liberals not want a prostitute to have the right to deny any man sex that comes to them for services? Should she also be denied her right to discriminate? What if she refuses to sleep with gay men or men of certain ethnicity or ages?
You do realize that by denying a prostitute’s ability to choose and discriminate, you are advocating for government forced rape, right?
Do you want to live in a world In which our government has the power to force a prostitute to have sex against her will or face penalty of law? Simply because YOU disagree with her reason for denying services? If you follow this line of thinking and say businesses do not have the right to serve who they want, this is where it leads.
If such an analogy sounds absurd – good. Because it is. In the same way no man has the right to violate someone’s body, no man has the right to violate another man’s business or private property. There are no exceptions to the fundamental principle that violating another person is wrong.
Because of this, anyone should be permitted to refuse service to anyone for any reason they please. It does not matter their reasoning. It does not matter if their reasoning is good or bad, moral or immoral, logical or illogical.
Even If an owner were to refuse service to a race because he is racist against them – he should not be forced to serve them.
Even if he does not want to service a gay person because he in fact IS homophobic – he should not be forced to serve them.
A private business is private
Forcing a Muslim advertiser to take on a Pork company as their client, forcing a christian baker to make a gay cake for a gay wedding, forcing an atheist artist who thinks religion is the end of society to paint a “Jesus loves you mural”, is not freedom.
The fact anyone would be against a law allowing individuals to choose who they interact with is disgusting. It is our human right to decide who we do business with, and what kind of business we do. Choosing who you associate with and serve in your own establishment is one of the most basic of human rights. You can not force someone to believe what you believe. Forcing someone to go against their most fundamental beliefs is one of the most disgusting forms of oppression imaginable.
The outrage over people simply acknowledging their individual right to religious freedom is the opposite of tolerance. This is nothing more than horrible people going into businesses owned by people who are not hurting or bothering them in any way shape or form, and threatening to sue them for hundreds of thousands of dollars and take away their livelihood unless they deny their faith or their beliefs and do whatever action the patron requests of them.
A man has the right to run a business by his own rules and discretion. He does not have to tell you any reason why he chooses not to take your money or do what you want or request of him.
Period. End of story.
The government does not have the right to prevent anyone from opening any kind of legal business or service. Nor do they have the right to tell those businesses they cannot be exclusive based on gender, orientation, religious beliefs, race, or anything else they choose. Frankly, it takes a very sick a person to derive pleasure from forcing someone who hates them to do business with them.
Discrimination and exclusivity is imperative to the functionality of millions of businesses across the world.
Entire dating industries service only straight couples, or only “hot people”, or only take on male clients, or are gay only services.
Entire gyms and organizations are male or female only. There are black only and white only organizations.There are salons that only work on hair of a certain ethnicity because that is what they are specialized in.
Should the government force a stylist to give you a haircut they would do a horrible job at? Can a movie producer no longer specify the age range and ethnicity and body type of certain roles for a play or movie? If a restaurant wanted to only service blondes and take the hit that would result on their business from it, that is completely fine and their prerogative.
There is nothing inherently wrong with discrimination, and in many industries it is necessary,
Should entire industries be shut down or completely change their business models for the sake of placating this insane and irrational public sentiment? This implication of FORCE through law of anyone who doesn’t do everything you want them to do is completely oppressive and would wipe out entire industries to the point almost no business would be able to function.
Rest assured we are well on our way to being doomed when hooters is forced to hire men and overweight unattractive women because we no longer have the right to choose how we run our own establishments in this country. Soon it will be considered racist and “body shaming” to hire actors and actresses who fit character descriptions. And unwillingness to hire a male for a female role will be worthy of gender discrimination lawsuits
You do not have the right to force someone to offer you their skills and services. You DO have a right to not go there, you do have a right to complain to the media, you do have a right to tell your friends not to go there, you do have a right to write a bad review. But you don’t have a right to use government force and legal action against them for running their own business as they wish simply because you don’t like their beliefs and think their business model is mean or stupid.
People need to understand the difference between government entities, equality under the law, public schools, access to public transportation, police services, and libraries etc and privately owned businesses. It is imperative people also understand there should be a huge difference between things that are deemed acceptable, good, or bad, and things that we deem as illegal.
Someone not wanting to do business with you does not infringe upon your individual rights in any way shape or form. What is more oppressive? Shutting down someones entire business and forcing their family into poverty through force of law because “they don’t like you or your request”
…….or telling someone you wont be able to make their cake because the event it is being made for is something you disagree with (such as a business owner saying he doesn’t want to make a cake for a Nazi supremacist wedding).
The Nazis can freely find someone else to make the cake for them. Or if no one wants to work with them, they can make it themselves.
Forcing someone through threat of law to offer their services to whoever requests services of them is slavery. Forcing an individual to go completely against their beliefs or even simply their business model. is wrong and immoral. Our right to our own mind and our ability to use our skills and services as we choose is fundamental to our dignity as human beings. To lose this right would take us into an oppressive dystopian world void of freedom and free will. It is up to us to stop it. We need as many voices as humanly possible shouting out truth in order to drown out all the nonsense, lies, and deception.
Reports on the arrest of UVA Honor student Martese Johnson made their rounds in the media last week. The public and UVA campus were outraged over the excessive use of force. And despite initial reports claiming the altercation was caused because Martese had been intoxicated, belligerent, and using a fake I.D. – the majority of people were disgusted by the officer’s response to a non-violent offense.
Photos of Martese’s bloodied face surfaced.- It was clear to any reasonable person the attack had been inexcusable. He was an unarmed man, outnumbered by police 3 to 1 – who had been viciously attacked for doing something hoards of college aged kids have done at some point within their college career. There was no excuse for why it had escalated to that level. The incident showed us that if a violent police assault could happen to an upstanding campus leader and honor student, it could happen to any of us. Police brutality could be directed toward regular people, regular college students, and other complete non-criminals.
But this story turned out to be even worse than we thought.
As more information surfaces, it appears Martese had neither been intoxicated or using a fake I.D. Meaning he had been brutalized and arrested for doing nothing more than standing on a public sidewalk, talking to a doorman regarding his entry. A conversation the doorman later described as “polite and courteous”.
After Martese showed his I.D. to the doorman, a respectful conversation ensued as to why the establishment could not let him in. Martese had given the wrong zip code when asked. He had given the doorman his current zip-code instead of the one listed on his license. And as part of the establishment’s policy,guests were required to verify their license zip-code as an extra means of properly ensuring identification prior to being granted entry.
Everything had gone just as “the law” would have intended right?… An absolute “non-event” had just occurred. – A patron was unable to provide the proper identification required for entry, and as a result he was denied entry.
Just to put this into perspective, it would be no different than someone buying a pack of cigarettes – only to get to the counter and realize they do not have their I.D. on them, and as a result they are denied the sale. – This would be an example of a non event, the law working just as the state intended.
Think of how completely insane it would be for officers to beat you down and arrest you because you were unsuccessful in buying a pack of cigarettes.
But the law working as intended wasn’t good enough for the officers who assaulted Martese.. In line with the same heartbreaking and disturbing trend we have seen over and over, the officers involved simply would not be satisfied until they had successfully escalated a perfectly peaceful situation into a violent one.
We have to wake up and open our eyes. This can not continue. If it seems like all you hear about is “racial profiling”, “police brutality” and judicial corruption against the least powerful, let me submit the folllowing clip to show you just how out of touch a huge percentage of Americans still are regarding these issues and their magnitude. I guarantee you, however sick of hearing about it you are. It isn’t enough. It is not possible to stress equality under law, justice, and peace enough. For one minute put yourself in another’s shoes.
Police officers have become far removed from the law respecting people-protecting days of Andy Griffith. Officers now seem to more closely resemble lawless savages committing systematic violence against citizens. No respect for life. No respect for dignity. No respect for law. If a cop asks to search your car, and you tell him he better get a warrant. He is more likely to unlawfully search you than respect your human rights.
Police have brutalized the mentally unstable and homeless, have murdered teenage girls half their weight. Yet when it comes to instances such as the suspect captured in Houston who had just massacred an entire family at gunpoint. The police had all the patience and restraint in the world. They manage to execute a 3 hour stand off that resulted in the suspect being taken into custody without so much as a scratch on him.
See, serial killers, and violent gangsters are actual threats, so police use caution with them so as to not endanger themselves. The disturbing trend of police brutality far too often involves officers executing and abusing their power on those with little to no means of retaliation.
Officers need to take individual responsibility for their actions, and they need to be people who are compassionate. The entire system is broken and this HAS to change. It is killing us as a society and destroying respect for law, order, and human dignity.
Police should be voted into office. and reelected by their districts each year. that way we have ample opportunity to kick these scumbags out when they commit violent rampages against the people they are supposed to protect. Officers would then have an incentive to be a “good cop”
WE need to bond together. There is no reason for us to allow such violence to be inflicted against our fellow man. We have to stick up for one another. Today it was Martese but tomorrow it could be any of us. Don’t wait until you are beaten to a bloody pulp on a sidewalk to care about this. The system has got to change, Film everything, and hold these officers accountable, especially if this happens in your local community where you have the power to make significant change. We need a complete transformation of our police system. The way officers are trained, how they are hired, how they stay in their positions should revolve only around the extent to which they protect us and our human rights.
I love conservatives. In fact I am one – a true conservative. As in, I believe in limited government in all regards not just in regard to economic freedom and religious freedom. I just want less government. I want the government decentralized, so as to provide more choice for people and individual communities regarding how they choose to live. A smaller,decentralized government that restores power to the people. Sounds logical right? Surely such a philosophy would attract those in society who are the most reasonable, logical, and “together” among us. – Well, not quite.
Instead, I feel almost embarrassed when i tell people I am conservative because it lumps me in with a group of people who are so delusional and out of touch with reality, it borders on embarrassing – in fact, it is embarrassing. I try to solve this problem, by offering quick explanations like “I’m really more of a libertarian conservative though” or “I just believe in limited and decentralized government.” But the truth is, I actually am just a conservative person, and those who wish to see liberty, freedom, and the restoration of conservative values would be wise to listen to what I am about to say because I am seriously trying to help you out.
You have got to stop doing all this weird stuff that makes you look crazy.
I mean really really crazy.
Bordering on delusional if not well past it and into the open fields of la la land.
1. Stop your assault on the poor and working class. – Look, I get it, it is wrong and immoral to take money from someone without their permission through taxation and give it to someone you think needs it more. Such acts of generosity should be done through charity and individual generosity. People should be free to decide who they would like to donate money to without it being decided for them through government programs such as food stamps and welfare. It is not the fact you want more control over your income that makes you look horrible. While people can argue over the virtue or immorality of government welfare programs, such a viewpoint is at least understandable.
The reason why Republicans and conservatives are viewed as “poor haters” has less to do with a desire for voluntary charity and more to do with blatant hypocrisy and an unfathomable lack of compassion.
What is NOT understandable is that while your average Conservative Republican espouses a belief in “conservative values” and “limited government” they simultaneously call for trillions of dollars to be spent on wars and military bases all over the world. They want border patrol agents armed with the most expensive and up to date equipment possible lining the border, ready to stop those “monstrous illegals” from entering our country with such nefarious desires as providing a decent life for their family. They are ok spending billions upon billions of dollars to fight a drug war against plants and substances, and billions more to house their neighbors and fellow citizens in cages run by the government for possessing or daring to sell these evil plants and substances. These conservatives will gladly spend billions to feed, clothe, and provide medical care to inmates guilty of non-violent offenses – but it is those damn food stamp recipients who are ruining everything.
From a fellow conservative, trust me please – food stamp and welfare recipients are by far the least of your worries.
If it was truly our ability to have control over more of our income that you care about – a far more logical place to start would be our military. Stop having bases all over the world, they don’t want you there, and we don’t need you there, it is not our job to infringe on other countries and be the policeman of the world. I lived in the Italian city of Naples during my teens and was unable to go anywhere without people muttering “Damn American” – and I don’t blame them, Naples was home to an American military base, and they assumed I was there as the child of a military member. (I wasn’t thankfully) but you get the picture. – It is weird, it is rude, and it is destroying our reputation around the world. Remove military bases, stop partaking in preemptive war, and restore our military to the singular task of defending America from imminent threats on our own soil.
End the war on drugs and eliminate most of the ridiculous laws against other forms of non violent behavior. Cut the budget by closing down a large portion of prisons in America and reducing the number of border patrol agents. Drug trafficking from Mexico is far less of a problem when drugs aren’t even illegal. Make citizenship easy, allow decent people from all over the world to come here and give us the honor of adding their gifts and innovations to our economy.
Only after you have first tackled these drains on our economy, only once we have drastically reduced the entities of our government that make us hated around the world, and throw non violent people into cages. Then and only then, do you have the moral authority to draw attention to and tackle reduction of the few programs that actually serve and help your neighbors and fellow citizens. Which by the way, are a drastically drastically smaller portion of our nations budget than the military, police, and border patrol. The best part is, all the above changes, don’t even require much upkeep or money, By making less laws, and restoring our military to its originally intended purpose We have just reduced taxes 100x more than any elimination of a welfare program ever could. Which brings me to my next suggestion….
2. Stop with the military, police, and border patrol worship – It is irrational. Let’s be for limited government in all regards, including reducing the military budget, and cutting back on massive border patrol efforts. I believe people from all over the world should be free to come to America to create a better life for themselves and their families. Instead of going into other nations and telling them how to live at a significant cost to us, we should be making citizenship easy and fast. Giving people who want freedom an escape from totalitarian regimes, and a place to come and write their own destinies – The shining city on a hill this nation was intended to be.
The government should not be involved in one’s personal life. The court’s only role should be limited to rulings on those crimes of a violent and depraved nature. The war on drugs as well as the police state we have created need to end immediately.
3. Stop expecting sympathy for your “plight as a white male” – Yes, white men, especially those gainfully employed, and from middle and upper class homes are not given many handouts in life – this is true. Yes, there are programs such as affirmative action that are wrong in their intent to force employees to hire people based on the color of their skin in order to meet a “minority quota” vs solely on a person’s individual ability. Yes, such programs by nature are “racist against whites” Yes, in court systems women are often given children after a divorce, and violence against women is taken far more seriously than violence against men. We get it, We know this, and guess what? We still don’t feel sorry for you.
I will be the first to admit there truly are initiatives in place that serve to discriminate against white men. But long diatribes on the injustices of child support, and the horrors of an impending “white genocide” literally make you look insane. Case in point this #whitegenocide billboard in Alabama.
Why does feeling sorry for a demographic so clearly discriminated against by systems within our society just feel so well, – unnatural for most people?
Because, It is delusional and out of touch with reality to ask society to pity a demographic that has been vastly over-represented in the heads of major corporations, boardrooms, and positions of political power since our nation’s inception. It is hard to look at every president in history – all white males, (until our most recent who is a half white – half black male) and expect people to say “Yes, this is definitely the serious issue of our time.”
It isn’t that much of what you say isn’t true – it is. It is just that no one cares. You have not been the primary victim of societal stigma, lynchings, police profiling, racism, and negative superficial judgments for the past 100 years. You just haven’t. Wake up. Yes a woman, or a black, or a latino, may be granted college admission before a white male of equal capability. But you also have not had to endure the societal and cultural limitations that still exist for many within those minority groups. In run ins with police, job interviews, and youthful indiscretions you are granted every benefit of the doubt imaginable, and because you have never experienced this type of cultural stigma and discrimination the “advantaged minorities” have – you think it doesn’t exist – but it does.
You have not had to endure many of the limitations that made it difficult and in many cases seemingly impossible for minorities within certain communities to arrive at the same point of being able to apply for that college or apply for that job in the first place. Yes I am well aware there are white men born into poverty who are far less privileged than a black male born into affluence and in those cases such systematic advantages are unfair. And I do not believe in these programs whatsoever. I believe in the words Martin Luther King Jr. spoke; of judging a man on the content of his character not the color of his skin, and for that reason i see initiatives such as affirmative action as reprehensible.
But, to focus on the “plight of the white male” makes you no better than the “feminazis” you so ardently despise who focus on the rights of women to the detriment of others. If you are concerned about judicial, systematic injustices within the government, that is plenty. A focus on human rights, and the promotion of a system blind to color and gender where all are equal in the eyes of the law, would fix the problems you feel so discriminated by. So Stop with the “ridiculous to the point of comical” pity party. At the end of the day, despite whatever injustices you feel slighted by, you are still the ruling demographic of America and others have it a lot worse.. No one is going to pity you, and these diatribes make you look completely out of touch with American history, police profiling, cultural discrimination and the suffering endured by millions of minorities.
if you truly are a racist concerned with “white purity” and “white genocide” , episodes of idiocy such as that exhibited by the slavery defender at CPAC a couple years back, only serve to make people think weeding your kind from the gene pool may not be such a bad idea after all.
4. Stop with the “Obama is a closet Muslim” Conspiracy – Is Obama the Christian he claims to be? No. I completely agree with you on that. He clearly has disdain for the overly religious and an obvious disdain for many of the tenants of Christianity. That is evident in virtually all his policies and public speeches. But to make the jump from him not being a Christian to being part of some Muslim conspiracy is completely insane.
Obama could be spiritual or perhaps atheist – but one obviously can’t run a campaign in our country without claiming to be christian. He does the easy thing and just tells people he is Christian. There is nothing shocking or scandalous about this. Millions of people have been doing the same thing for thousands of years. He does not have a “vendetta against the Jews” and he is not part of a “Muslim conspiracy”. He has done nothing but placate Israel, perpetuate war, bomb, and terrorize Muslim countries since he has been in power. I wish he was secretly Muslim because then maybe he’d finally stop killing them!
Your entire theory isn’t even based on reality but Republican pundit talking points. There are many reasons to despise this administration, why anyone would resort to making new ones up is beyond me. It is only hurting any chance you have at ever being taken seriously, and makes you look unaware of reality.
5. Stop pretending like you are the political side that *truly* supports minorities and diversity – Just stop, it is not true, you know it, i know it. When you say things like this it just makes you look like someone who is so completely full of shit they have started to believe their own lies. Between supporting any war involving blowing up brown people. Gasping in terror at the word “Muslim” and telling immigrants they are diseased leaches upon our society who should go back where they came from – Where exactly is the promotion of diversity?
Conservatives will often combat this by saying preposterous things like “Well i know this one Mexican man, and he supports harsh laws against illegals.So clearly this is what the Mexicans want too!”
Congratulations you found one masochist to help you promote your racism.
Wouldn’t diversity mean leaving other countries alone, and although you may find their governments and culture appalling, realizing it is none of your business how another country chooses to live? Wouldn’t diversity include welcoming immigrants with open arms and appreciating their unique attributions to our country? Wouldn’t a love of diversity include the realization that America was meant to be a refuge for all who seek freedom and a new beginning in the world?
As carved on the statue of liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
When you spend all your time going on vicious tirades against people just trying to get by, it makes you look like an asshole. The state, and the massive size our government has reached – these things are the enemies, not our fellow humans. If we had a decentralized government, if we didn’t spend so much money on war and border patrol, if there wasn’t such a massive welfare state – immigrants coming here would be nothing but a blessing and a huge gift to our economy. How sick, that we have a large part of our population that would rather spend massive amounts of money keeping people out, but they won’t spend that same amount of money to help them. The state is our enemy – not each other.
I say all this to help you.
Ignore me at your own peril 🙂
– Love, Kathryn, your “true conservative” friend.
TheSteeleChronicles 