tagged w/ Truthdig
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The sentencing of Dharun Ravi for the hateful abuse that may have driven his gay roommate at Rutgers, Tyler Clementi, to commit suicide, or Barack Obama’s public acceptance of gay marriage, prevents many of us from seeing that life for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people is getting worse—much worse.
No one understands this better than the gay activist and pastor Mel White. White, along with his husband and partner of 30 years, Gary Nixon, founded Soulforce, an organization committed to using nonviolent resistance to end religion-based oppression. White and hundreds of Soulforce volunteers protest outside megachurches that preach hatred and bigotry in the name of religion. White travels to communities where young gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transgender people have committed suicide. He holds memorial services for them in front of the church doors. He accuses the pastors of these churches of murder. His books “Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America” and “Holy Terror: Lies the Christian Right Tell Us to Deny Gay Equality,” are two of the most important works that examine the innate cruelty and proto-fascism of the Christian right. White, more than perhaps any other preacher in the country, has pulled young men and women back from the brink of despair, from succumbing to the tragic fate of Tyler Clementi. And White is scared.
“What kind of environment creates a Dharun Ravi who would carry out that kind of bullying, as well as a kid like Tyler who would become a victim of that kind of bullying?” White asked when I reached him by phone at his home in Long Beach, Calif. “It is society. At its heart it is the church. The churches should be convicted, not just Ravi. He’s just an extension of the hatred that people feel about this threat, this gay threat. Pope Benedict XVI should be on trial. Richard Land from the Southern Baptists should be on trial. Religious leaders, Protestant and Catholic, should be on trial. They made this happen, but too few Americans make the connection.”
White applauds President Obama for taking a personal stand for marriage equality. But he also notes that the president’s statement was accompanied by a reiteration that states have the right to determine their own policies toward marriage.
Despite gains by gays in the wider culture, especially in the entertainment industry, and despite the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the civil rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people in most states are deteriorating, White said.
Click the link to continue reading.The sentencing of Dharun Ravi for the hateful abuse that may have driven his gay... more
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It’s election year, and that means it’s time for the ugliest sides of humanity to come trotting out, and not just in candidates’ debates and ads or on Fox News. Thanks to the Interwebs, we now can also look forward to hearing about some less-than-noble sentiments shared in forwarded emails, as one Montana federal judge just got busted doing. The whole anti-Obama racist email thing was apparently not played out in the last election cycle.It’s election year, and that means it’s time for the ugliest sides of... more
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For all this talk about the need for more jobs, politicians and the corporate media rarely discuss whether those positions empower individuals rather than simply boosting the economy.For all this talk about the need for more jobs, politicians and the corporate media... more
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Seeking applause from a right-wing audience in Michigan, Mitt Romney vowed on Saturday: “I will cut spending, I will cap spending and I will finally balance the budget,” saying that he will end federal funding for all the usual Republican budgetary scapegoats—the Public Broadcasting System, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has said much the same thing many times in recent months, hoping to woo the tea party extremists who keep rejecting his candidacy.Seeking applause from a right-wing audience in Michigan, Mitt Romney vowed on... more
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Their missions are aligned in many ways, but WikiLeaks and the group of international cyberpunks known collectively as Anonymous made it official in a joint effort, posted by WikiLeaks late on Sunday, consisting of quite a few internal emails from an intelligence company Anonymous targeted over the holidays last year.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/wikileaks_anonymous_join_forces_20120227/Their missions are aligned in many ways, but WikiLeaks and the group of international... more
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This disturbing video clip shows Occupy Oakland protester and three-tour Iraq war veteran Kayvan Sabehgi in an altercation with riot police on October 2. The Guardian posted the clip late last week and reported that Sabehgi suffered a ruptured spleen as a result of the beat-down captured here, and that Oakland police say they are looking into the incident.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/another_vet_struck_down_by_police_in_oakland_20111121This disturbing video clip shows Occupy Oakland protester and three-tour Iraq war... more
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A series of stories that I hold close to my heart, the plot thickens and things keep changing. But we'll keep on keeping on, power to everyone out on the street!
What do you all think?A series of stories that I hold close to my heart, the plot thickens and things keep... more
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LONDON—The first week of August 2011 will be remembered as a singularly irrational, wasteful and shameful moment in the political and economic history of the United States. It reflected much of what is wrong with the priorities of our political elites and the obsessions of those who now hold effective veto power over our government.
It began with the world hanging on to every development in the debt-ceiling negotiations as it fretted over whether Washington’s dysfunction would lead to American default and global calamity. Even robustly pro-American commentators and politicians wondered aloud if the United States could still govern itself.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/can_america_still_lead_20110809/LONDON—The first week of August 2011 will be remembered as a singularly... more
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The Sky Really Is Falling |
The rapid and terrifying acceleration of global warming, which is disfiguring the ecosystem at a swifter pace than even the gloomiest scientific studies predicted a few years ago, has been confronted by the power elite with equal parts of self-delusion.The Sky Really Is Falling |
The rapid and terrifying acceleration of global warming,... more
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An extremist Florida church says it will go ahead with plans to mark the ninth anniversary of 9/11 by setting copies of the Quran on fire, even though authorities have warned that such actions would endanger Americans fighting, serving and traveling abroad.
The White House said the event “puts our troops in harm’s way,” while the State Department called it “un-American.”
The Dove World Outreach Center is led by a man named Terry Jones, pictured, who wrote a book called “Islam Is of the Devil.” Jones’ raving can be witnessed in the video below.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/florida_church_determined_to_burn_qurans_despite_warnings_20100907/An extremist Florida church says it will go ahead with plans to mark the ninth... more
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Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer took the opportunity to stick it to the neighborhood.
For the uninitiated, Webby winners are held to a strict five-word limit for their speeches. It’s pretty difficult to say something profound, relevant or even just funny in that space, but Bob did a great job.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/our_webby_acceptance_speech_20100615/Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer took the opportunity to stick it to the neighborhood.... more
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Tuesday’s election results were pretty good for progressives. The retirement of that windbag chameleon Sen. Arlen Specter is long overdue, and pro-labor forces were able to push Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a runoff in Arkansas. Even the big tea party win in Kentucky has its bright side.
Count me as one lefty liberal who is not the least bit unhappy with the victory by Rand Paul in Kentucky’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. Not because it might make it easier for some Democratic Party hack to win in the general, but rather because he seems to be a principled libertarian in the mold of his father, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and we need more of that impulse in the Congress. What’s wrong with cutting back big government that mostly exists to serve the interests of big corporations? Surely it would be better if that challenge came from populist progressives of the left, in the Bernie Sanders mold, but this is Kentucky we’re talking about.
Rand Paul, like his dad, is worthy of praise for standing in opposition to the Wall Street bailout, which will come to be marked as the greatest swindle in U.S. history and which was, as he noted on his website, an unconstitutional redistribution of income in favor of the undeserving rich:
“Federal bailouts reward inefficient and corrupt management, rob taxpayers, hurt smaller and more responsible private firms, exacerbate our budget problems, explode national debt, and destroy our U.S. dollar. Even more importantly, any bailout of private industry is in direct violation of the Constitution. It is a transfer of wealth from those who have earned to those who have squandered.”
read more:http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/whos_afraid_of_rand_paul_20100518/Tuesday’s election results were pretty good for progressives. The retirement of... more
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Meet Marco Calasan, the world’s youngest Microsoft systems engineer and official computer genius. At the advanced age of 9, Marco, who calls Macedonia his home, is already the author of a book on Windows 7 that he’s hoping to publish and has earned four Microsoft certificates. Oh, and he speaks three languages. And they say all the youngsters like the Macs these daysMeet Marco Calasan, the world’s youngest Microsoft systems engineer and official... more
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A two-pronged war against wild horses is under way and at this moment the country’s great icon of freedom is losing.
One front in this war involves agencies tasked with wild horse management, primarily the Bureau of Land Management. It recently carried out a mandated although deadly mustang roundup in Nevada during which foals were harried by helicopter over rough terrain until their hooves apparently fell off and other horses later died of stress and exhaustion.
The other front involves lone operators who venture into the wilderness and kill wild horses—which is illegal, although arrests are rarely made and when they are, the cases often fall apart
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_war_against_the_horse_20100504/A two-pronged war against wild horses is under way and at this moment the... more
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Here’s some footage to keep the dysfunction of U.S. politics in perspective. Our lawmakers may not agree on anything, they may be rude to the president and on the corporate take, but at least they have the decency to keep their eggs and smoke bombs at home.Here’s some footage to keep the dysfunction of U.S. politics in perspective. Our... more
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While most U.S. media coverage of events in Mexico these days focuses on that country’s ongoing drug conflict, other news, such as the fact that Mexico has become America’s leading provider of sex slaves—some as young as 6—gets overlooked.
In what is being called the “other” crisis in Mexico, analysts claim the country has achieved the notorious ranking due to confusion and/or negligence over which agencies have jurisdiction over sex-trafficking cases.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/mexicos_other_crisis_20100418/While most U.S. media coverage of events in Mexico these days focuses on that... more
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After apparently shaking the hand of a Haitian at one of the camps of displaced survivors he and Bill Clinton visited as part of their work for the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Bush gave No. 42 a chummy pat on the shoulder that lingered into a swipe on Clinton’s sleeve. Next time, Bush might want to wait a beat or two longer before going for the handy-wipe move
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/bush_shakes_haitians_hand_wipes_his_on_clinton_20100324/?lnAfter apparently shaking the hand of a Haitian at one of the camps of displaced... more
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