Quote for Monday, April 11

I'll admit that I didn't think much of Jimmy Carter while he was in the White House, but I do think that he is the best ex-president this country has seen in a very long time, perhaps forever.

I also believe that he's the Christian Jesus had in mind when He left his words for His followers.

monday quote:

"Homosexuality was well known in the ancient world, well before Christ was born, and Jesus never said a word about homosexuality.  In all his teachings about multiple things, He never said that gay people should be condemned."

Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, 1924 -        ) 

Democracy or Theocracy?

Well, which will it be?

Why is this so difficult to understand?

Mississippi - a REAL Christian Speaks Out

(Mitchell Moore), the Republican owner of Campbell's Bakery in Jackson (Mississippi) told NPR during an interview on Wednesday that Gov. Phil Bryant (R) and GOP lawmakers were actually violating Christian principles with a new law that claims to protect the "sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions" of business owners.

"I'm here to bake cakes and to sell those cakes," Moore explained to NPR host Renee Montagne. "I'm not here to decide arbitrarily who deserves my cake and who doesn't.  That's not what I do.  That's not my job."...

..."I can actually say I think the law of unintended consequences is going to come back to bite the people who signed this bill... If it is my sincerely held religious belief that I shouldn't serve them, then I can do that.  And I can hide behind that language.  But that language is so vague it opens a Pandora's box.  And you can't shut it again."

According to the bakery owner, there (is) no such thing as "a deeply held religious belief that you should not serve people... There is no sincerely held religious belief to think that I am better than other people."...

Moore asserted that lawmakers were wasting time instead of focusing on the real problems facing the people of Mississippi...

..."We rank number one--our state government is the most dependent on federal money.  We are the third most obese state.  We rank at the bottom in employment, in education.  We've got crumbling infrastructure.  None of them are being tackled.  Instead, we are passing, hey-let's-discriminate bills...It boggles the mind."

eye'm thynkin':  But it does keep all those good ol' Southern pseudo-Christians happily gorging on their full plate of red meat!  

Read more at Raw Story

Republicans Say the Darndest Things: Oh, Blessed Irony

For this Monday Quote day, I have several...

First, God told Heidi Cruz that Ted should run (a story Rafael the elder is only too happy to retell and retell and retell:

"We were on our knees for two hours seeking God's will.  At the end of that time, a word came through his wife, Heidi...  And I'll tell you, it was as if there was a cloud of the holy spirit filling that place.  Some of us were weeping, and Ted just looked up and said, 'Lord, here am I, use me.  I surrender to you, whatever you want.'  And he felt that was a green light to move forward."

Next we witnessed an entire year of Ted on the campaign trail boasting that God speaks to him, that the country is in dire need of a spiritual revival, and that his presidency will bring God back to Washington.

"(God) speaks to me.  Literally.  In my head." 

"Any president who doesn't begin every day on his knees isn't fit to be commander-in-chief of this nation."

Then last Tuesday, at CNN's Presidential Town Hall, Ted said this:

"Listen, with me, as with many people in America, my faith is an integral part of who I am.  I'm a Christian and I'm not embarrassed to say that.  I'm not going to hide that and treat it like it's something you can't admit publicly and acknowledge.  It's an important part of who you are. 

But I also think that those in politics have an obligation not to wear their faith on their sleeve. There have been far too many politicians that run around behaving like they're holier than thou.  And I'll tell you, my attitude as a voter, if some politician stands up and says 'I'm running because God told me to run,' my reaction as a voter is 'Great.  When God tells me to vote for you, we'll be on the same page.'"

what eye thynk:  No words.  None.  --  Okay, one word: Hypocrite.

Something to think about while you're on your way to church...

Kinda makes me wonder, do these religious freedom advocates think they're BETTER than Jesus?

Mississippi Digs Deeper, Finds More and Better Ways to Discriminate

Methodist Chaplain Rev. Chris Donald
speaks at a protest of the anti-LGBT bill last week. 

Many states have considered bills that enable discrimination against the LGBT community, but Mississippi's proposed legislation is perhaps the most explicit in this regard.  HB 1523 spells out in storied detail all the different ways that a person should be able to mistreat people for being LGBT without consequences from the government.

The bill does not pretend to be neutral; it only protects people with anti-LGBT religious beliefs and nobody else...

...(a) Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman;
(b) Sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage; and
(c) Male (man) or female )woman) refer to an individual's immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.

eye'm thynkin':  Nine months ago, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that same-sex marriage is a right.  Just this past week, a U.S. District Court Judge struck down Mississippi's ban against same-sex couples adopting. But the Mississippi legislature isn't going to let a little thing like judicial rulings or moral fairness stand in the way of state-sponsored discrimination.  In fact, this new bill goes into such far-reaching specifics of government sanctioned discrimination that other anti-LGBT states are going to be pea-green with envy. 

Of course, in their zeal to make sure all protections for LGBT people are eliminated, Mississippi seems to have gotten a little carried away (or maybe it was purposeful, who knows) and left loopholes large enough that will allow evangelical Christians in their state to discriminate against just about anyone.

Specifics like:  "Any person can choose not to provide treatment, counseling, or surgery related to gender transition or same-sex parenting."

So when a gay teen with suicidal thoughts seeks counseling, some right-wing nutcase can refuse to help.  How proud Mississippi must be to make sure that the opportunity to increase the number of teen suicides will now be provided by state law.

Or this: "Any person can establish 'sex-specific standards or policies concerning employee or student dress or grooming...'"  

Obviously aimed at the trans-gender community, the Mississippi legislature has technically left the door open for an employer who doesn't like women in pants to set "sex-specific standards," and to insist that all female employees wear dresses and heels. A woman who fails to comply can be fired with no legal recourse. 

Conservatives have lost the fight against same-sex marriage, so now they're falling all over themselves to be the loudest voice against transgender people.  No evidence of the existence of a problem in need of a solution is necessary, only a Bible-thumping zeal to castigate anyone who is different.  It's like the Republican voter ID thing.  They can't actually come up with any examples of a transgender person committing violence against a straight person (especially in a restroom), but they're sure it's out there somewhere and they're going to protect their women, their children and their God against it!

Read more, including a list of Mississippi's many, specific "Get Away with Discrimination Free" cards at Think Progress

More Stories from My Facebook Political Pollution Page

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m'eye thoughts:  Is anyone surprised?

Read more at Huffington Post

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Oh, my.  I wonder what names are on that list that make this long-ago case "relevant" again?

Read more at MSNBC

--3--

First there was King Combover telling Chris Matthews "there has to be some form of punishment" for women who have an abortion.  The negative blowback was swift, so the self-proclaimed wordsmith backtracked.  But when CNN's Alisyn Camerota asked for clarification, his talkinghead got a bit upset.

I'm trying to imagine how that "misspeak" excuse is going to play when He-Who-Knows-Words says something incredibly stupid to a foreign leader.

Read more at Raw Story

--4--

Here we go again.

If we're going to become a nation of religion-based laws, how about we become a nation of religions paying taxes?  If you don't pay, you shouldn't get to play.

Read more at 

The New Civil Rights Movement

Monday Stories from Political Pollution

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m'eye thoughts: It's a start!

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Oh grow up!  For days we've heard nothing but childish my-mommy-is-prettier-than-your-mommy taunts.  The two leading Republican candidates have the emotional maturity of 9-year-olds!  Where is the substance?  Where are the issues?  I want to know more than "It will be great,OK?" and "I love Jesus."

The world is watching.  We're supposed to be the leader of the free world.  We gained that position by earning the respect of our allies and our enemies alike, and now these two clowns are turning us into a global joke.

Read more at Raw Story

--3--

Nathan Deal, a Democrat until 1995 when he switched and joined the GOP.

Guess there's still a little Democrat left in him.

Read more at Raw Story

Fox News: Making Christians Look Stupid, One Holiday at a Time

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m'eye thoughts:  I think some of the Twitter responses are pretty funny, but then, I will admit that I am entertained when Christians go all Yosemite Sam over something as pointless as this.

from Cadbury:  "Most of our East eggs don't say Easter or egg on the front as we don't feel the need to tell people this--it is very obvious through the packaging that it is an Easter egg."

Read more at Addicting Info

Two More Stories from Political Pollution

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New York City Police Chief Bill Bratton:

"He doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.  Quite frankly, I took great offense at that statement.  I have almost 1,000 Muslim officers in the NYPD.  Ironically, when he's running around here, we probably have a few Muslim officers guarding him."

m'eye thoughts:  Cruz doesn't care about facts.  Hate sells, and he's just trying to make his monthly quota.

Read more at Raw Story

--2--

If more guns make us safer, why wouldn't the RNC want guns at their convention; after all, they're the "good guys," right?

Read more and sign the petition at 

Change dot Org

Food for thought:

Navy Veteran Ejected from Trump Rally for Being Muslim

Navy Veteran Nate Terani (center)

One of the most perplexing parts of the Donald Trump experience is that his fans don't seem to believe in anything. They hold no principles they won't instantly abandon on a whim; they never practice what they preach, and what they preach has absolutely no relation to reality.  This bizarre lack of ideological cohesion is particularly galling when it comes to our veterans--publicly, they put our fighting men and women on a pedestal to use for political brownie points, but when it comes down to it, your religion means more to them than the sacrifices you've made to keep them free.  That disgusting hypocrisy put on full display (yesterday) when a Muslim-American Navy veteran was forcibly ejected from a Trump rally--his crime was holding up a sign saying "Stop Hate Speech Against Muslims!"...

...After he served his country, he dedicated his life to the men and women he served with.  He is the Veterans Coordinator at an Arizona nonprofit called Soldier's Best Friend, which provides and trains service and therapeutic dogs to our warriors who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury.

Trump supporters claim to be true patriots (who) are proud of their military, but apparently that respect and pride only extends to white Christian veterans. How dare these ignorant bigots treat a man who has put his life on the line for their country with such callous disrespect?  They claim to love their country and want to make America great again, but they hate everything that made this country great in the first place.

eye'm thynkin':  Donald J. Trump, with his hamster habitat head, and his orange face, and the white raccoon circle around his eyes, and his too-small-for-his-fleshy-face mouth, and his so-predictable-they're-almost-a-line-dance physical mannerisms, is as dependable as the sunrise.  

Every day I can count on dependable Mr. Rich White Trash to find a new way to disgust me.

Read more at Occupy Democrats

More Stories from Political Pollution

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MaKayla was killed by an 11-year-old who had easy access to a firearm.  Her family wants gun owners who do not store their guns safely to be held responsible for tragedies like this.

MaKayla's Law is now making its way through the Tennessee legislature. Erin Luper, an NRA lobbyist in Tennessee, wants to make sure the law never passes.

m'eye thoughts:  They call themselves "responsible gun owners," until it's time to be held responsible.  Makes sense, in a rabid NRA kind of way.

Erin Luper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinluper

News on the progress of MaKayla's Law

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/522/941/981/makayla-gun-rights/

--2--

These people have completely fallen off the cliff of common decency.  Violence is not a virtue. Rioting is not a civilized response to rejection.  Just when I think they can't surprise me any more, they say or do something that not only surprises, it shocks and disgusts.

I want my America back.

Read more at Liberal America

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"I want, no, I demand, a president whose first loyalty is to the Constitution, and to the people--all the people--he or she was elected to serve.  Only a Christian has the privilege--and only ones like Ted cruz, who present themselves as holier than thou, would have the gall--to claim otherwise."

Read more at Daily Kos

Obama Stops Sale of Sacred Native American Land to Foreign Mining Company

It's like President Obama can't go a day without infuriating the Right over something stupid... Republican Congressman Paul Gosar is furious that President Obama thwarted his effort to sell an Apache holy site to foreign business interests.

Joining with Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick--a Democrat who bears equal shame in this horrific endeavor to place greed over decency--attempted to have an area known as Oak Flat, or Chi'chil Bildagoteel, sold to British-Australian owned Resolution Copper in what would have marked the first time in history that Native American land would be handed over to foreign interests by Congress.

To protest the attempt to sell holy land, 300 Apaches marched 44 miles to occupy the ancient sacred ground where the New York Times reports coming-of-age ceremonies, especially for girls, have been performed "for many generations"...  The area has been closed to mining since 1955 when then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized the importance of protecting the land.  The ban was reinforced in 1971 by the Nixon administration.  Though the land is protected, Kirkpatrick and Gosar managed to slide a provision that would hand the land over to the mining company into the National Defense Authorization Act...

...Unfortunately for the duo, the Obama Administration swooped in to save the day.  The Park Service and Forest Service listed the land as a historic location, thus preventing the sale--and Gosar is furious.  In a press release, the Congressman melted down over the bad (for him) news:

"Shame on the Park Service and Forest Service for ramming a bogus historic place listing down the throats of Arizonans.  Clearly, the Obama Administration cares more about pandering to extremist environmental groups and a D.C. lobbyist from the Clinton Administration than following the law and listening to the American people."

eye'm thynkin':  Translation:  We tried to ram the sale of Native American sacred land through Congress by hiding it in a defense bill that nobody in Congress actually read, and we're really p*ssed that Obama caught it, so we're going to blame it on Clinton and lobbyists because our lobbyist didn't pay us enough, and the British/Australian company that wants this land speaks English so they're kinda like American people too and that's why we listened to them.  And anyway, this site is used for girls, and everybody knows girls aren't that important, and they're Native American girls so they're probably not even Christian!  

Read more at Addicting Info

The Christians Gotta Hate Ticket - Coming Out on Top

what eye thynk:  Watching the results come in from South Carolina last night, I felt empty, possessed of a kind of vacuum surrounding a growing kernel of dread because I had to believe, but couldn't explain, what I saw in front of me.  

I, like a lot of Americans, thought -- Trump is a joke, this will be fun to watch for a while, but once voting starts, he'll fade quickly.  The American people know this job is too important to turn over to a narcissistic, rich-white-trash, foul-mouthed bully, who possesses no diplomatic skills, and who loves nothing more than the sound of his own voice.  In a world where America's power rests in the respect accorded it by the rest of the world, no one will vote for someone who is already laughed at and disrespected by other foreign powers.  New Hampshire was a fluke.  Surely this will be over soon.

Then came yesterday in South Carolina.  Raised a Christian, now an agnostic, I always knew, even if I could no longer stand in church and swear to believe the Apostle's Creed, that the Christian values on which I was raised were there, in the background, guiding what I said and how I thought. I could always depend on love thy neighbor, the story of the Good Samaritan, the Beatitudes to keep me safe. I have watched my country's myriad religions fracture over issues of sexuality and women's rights, especially over recent years; but, surely, goodness always triumphs.  There will always be fringes who would have it otherwise, but they're just that, fringes, right?   

Last night, I sat in front of my TV and thought,  "It has come to this?"  One frontrunner and two also-rans, each claiming to be Christian--from fundamentalist Ted Cruz, to Catholic/Mormon/Baptist Marco Rubio, to (he says) Presbyterian Donald Trump--each out to capture and seemingly appealing to a base of conservative, evangelical Christian voters. 

Will someone please tell me:  Where is the Christ in any one of these candidate's divisive, anti-gay, anti-women, anti-minority, anti-immigrant, anti-poor, anti-healthcare, anti-education, anti-science platforms, declarations that leave no room for polite discussion or compromise, that aim to demean any who dare disagree?  I went to bed grieving for the religion of my youth and fearing for my country.

One thing I noted in all the reporting, was that voter exit polls seemed to indicate that these three, and in particular Mr. Trump, appeal overwhelmingly to those who do not have a college degree.  Looks like the keep-'em-dumb, keep-'em-Republican pigeon has come home to roost.

The Republican establishment, with the exit of Jeb Bush from the primary race, is now completely at a loss over what to do.  If they truly love this country as they claim to, the RNC will begin running ads in support of whichever Democratic candidate wins the nomination.  Once a sane person is safely in charge of the U.S., the GOP can then spend the next four years rebuilding their brand--hopefully into a party that respects the American principles of diversity and inclusiveness, where education is be applauded, where the choice to worship as we see fit is a right, not a dictum, and where hate is no longer accepted as an American value.

Two More Stories From My Political Pollution Page

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m'eye thoughts: "Trump has destroyed the illusion that the right wing cares about religion, morals, or fetuses.  They care about hating Those People and maintaining white supremacy... That's why Trump is their man."

Read more at Addicting Info

--2--

Thank you, Gary Trudeau.  I needed this.

Doonesbury, by Gary Trudeau
February 21, 2016

From Doonsebury.Washington Post

A Few More Stories From My Political Pollution Page

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m'eye thoughts:  Facts?!  We don't do facts! This is Texas!  Kill the messenger! He has offended us!

Read more at

The Washington Post

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"A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges is not Christian.  This is not the gospel," Pope Francis during his Mexico visit.

If the shoe fits...

And, let me go all grammar geek here, but the Pope never said he-who-shall-not-be-named was not "a" Christian, only that his actions were not Christian-like.  That missing "a" is important.  It was Trump who immediately took offense (the Pope was mean to me, waaa, waaaa, waaaa), maybe because he recognized the truth in the statement; but technically there isn't a Republican presidential candidate out there whose foot wouldn't slide into that shoe just as easily.

Read more at Raw Story

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"He has missed 60 percent of Foreign Relations hearings since joining the Senate despite making his committee experience a centerpiece of his qualifications for president."

And that was BEFORE he announced he wanted to live in the White House.  Looking at his record, going all the way back to his time as a Florida state legislator, No-Show Marco is one lazy boy.

Read more at MSNBC

--4--

Trump says he knows of "very secret papers" that he will show you once you've elected him president.   Ooooooooooo!

Is this man really insane?  I am seriously beginning to wonder.

Read more at Addicting Info

More Stuff I Originally Posted at Political Pollution

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m'eye thoughts:  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

Visit

Dr. John Kasich, Gynotician

--2--

This would be a lot funnier if it weren't for the people who actually believe this stuff.

Read more at Raw Story

--3--

This made me smile this morning.

The Extreme Creepiness of the Christian Purity Movement

Perhaps one of the most disturbing images on the Internet recently comes from the Christian fundamentalist website, "Let Them Marry."  Formerly called, "True Love Doesn't Wait (It Marries," the pro-early marriage site is a Quiverfull ministry dedicated to teaching fathers the truly biblical path to marriage for their young sons and daughters...

...(This) onerous quote...which likens daughters to apples and their fathers to farmers, is an apt representation of the creepy objectification of young girls and women by their own fathers which pervades the Christian purity movement.  The message is clear:  the value of a young woman is in her virginity--a consumable commodity owned by her future husband, kept in trust by Daddy.

Gross.

eye'm thynkin':  Yes, gross.  Also extremely creepy...and icky...ugh!  

It reminds me of the Middle East's focus on female virginity and the sale of daughters to satisfy a debt.  If this is what evangelical candidates want to bring to mainstream Christianity and to America, I'll pass, thank you.

Read more at Raw Story