Memorializing Thuggery

A hulking 6 foot 4 inch tall 285 pound 18 year old man brazenly walked into a convenience store, grabbed a handful of merchandize from the counter, turned to leave without paying, and physically assaulted the store clerk who tried to stop him.

Every detail of this strong-armed robbery was recorded on video tape for the whole world to see. The man was a thief, a robber, a violent criminal thug by any definition of those terms -- guilty of a felony beyond any possible doubt.

As this young thug and his companion were walking down the middle of the street just moments after committing the crime, he was confronted by a police officer who recognized him as fitting the reported description of the robber. The cop told him to stop, called for backup, and attempted to detain and arrest him as a suspect.

The thug walked over to the police car, punched the cop in the face and grabbed for his gun. The gun discharged striking the criminal in the hand. He ran off. The cop got out of his car and ordered him again to stop. The thug turned around and charged the cop like a raging bull. The officer, by now in mortal fear of his life shot the thug dead.

A grand jury was convened to investigate the incident. After carefully considering all the physical forensic evidence, together with sworn eyewitness testimony which corroborated that evidence, the multi-racial grand jury determined that the police officer shot the deceased in self defense. There was insufficient evidence to charge the cop with any crime.

But simply because the cop was white and the deceased black, the black community where this happened went on a rioting rampage in the streets. As far as they were concerned this was murder and they wanted the cop’s blood. What do the facts and reality have to do with it? I posted then.

The protesters created a makeshift memorial in the middle of the street marking the exact spot where their martyred hero was shot by the cop. Now they plan to make that memorial permanent by installing nearby a large brass metal plaque in his memory.

"I would like the memory of Michael Brown to be a happy one," the plaque bearing a likeness of the deceased in a graduation cap and gown reads. "He left an afterglow of smiles when life was done. He leaves an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy and loving times and bright and sunny days. "He'd like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun of happy memories that he left behind when life was done."

Only in places like North Korea (and, of course, the USA) will you find deluded people who disregard reality and demonstrate it by memorializing thuggery. 

Bigotry by decree in Louisiana

Lawmakers in the State of Louisiana this week voted down Republican Governor Bobby Jindal’s proposed law, dubbed the “Marriage and Conscience Act,” which, had it been enacted, would have explicitly allowed all businesses and even state agencies to discriminate against gays.  

Gov. Jindal, known for his vociferous criticism of President Obama’s penchant for issuing executive orders bypassing the will of Congress, immediately issued his own executive decree effectively bypassing the Louisiana State Legislature. His decree is nearly identical to the failed measure. In the name of “religious liberty” it permits every business and state agency, e.g. shops, restaurants, hotels, banks and social services offices to refuse service to gay couples.

Of course, it is no coincidence that Jindal is considering running for President of the United States on the GOP ticket in 2016. This is his way of pandering to the ultra-right-wing evangelical religious bigots in the party who believe that dictating social issues is the number one responsibility of the president.

It’s part of his campaign statement to the faithful residing on the extremist GOP fringe. After all, he has to compete with the likes of fellow travelers Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Jeb Bush and the rest of the hysterical political mob of GOP homophobes.

It also exemplifies the reason why mainstream American voters don’t like Republicans. Reasonable people these days are sick and tired of politicians arguing about inconsequential social and cultural issues which individuals ought to have the right to determine for themselves. The social issues bigots have ruined the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, the gay rights activists are going a bit too far attempting to trample upon the rights of others to freedom of expression and religion.

I’ve written on these pages many times my opinion that private businesses open to the public ought not be allowed to discriminate by denying services on purported religious grounds to gays. I stand by those posts. Bakers and florists, for example, should not be permitted to rely on religious grounds to circumvent Civil Rights Laws by denying their services to gays.

But while baking a cake or arranging flowers is one thing, expressing positive verbal sentiments which go against religious beliefs is quite another. The baker should not be forced by the law to put a same sex couple decoration on top of the cake or otherwise express on it words or depictions which support that which his religion forbids. Likewise, the florist should not be forced by the law to create expressions contrary to her religious beliefs.  

A law court in Belfast County Ireland this week found that a bakery discriminated unlawfully against a gay rights activist by declining his request to decorate a cake featuring Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie, with the slogan: “Support Gay Marriage.” That decision is wrong in my opinion. The baker is obliged to provide the cake but not to express on it sentiments with which he does not agree. In the USA that baker would and should be protected by the First Amendment.

Yet even in the USA, despite our Constitution and Bill of Rights, we still find bigotry by decree in Louisiana.

Exit the Nuns; here come the Nones

A new Age of Enlightenment is now evident in America. A modern Age of Reason is slowly catching on all over the planet. Just like the original Enlightenment movement of 17^th Century Europe, the cultural forces of humanity today are once again turning to reason, science and individualism while rejecting traditional oppressive modes of authority.  

In sum: The Nuns are departing.  The Nones are coming.

Attention GOP: The Nones are coming!

I repeat. Attention all Republicans and the GOP: The Nones are coming! If you want to get one of your own elected as President in 2016 and stem the socialist tide, you had damn well better take note of, heed this message, and act accordingly.

Thanks largely, in my opinion, to the proliferation of the Internet and World Wide Web, the influence of religion upon ordinary individuals is waning. Christianity, for example, is on the decline in America, not just among younger generations or in certain regions of the country, but across race, gender, education and geographic barriers. 

Of White Americans 24% now say they have no religion; ditto, 20% of Hispanics and 18% of Blacks. We’re talking about a Hell of a lot of voters here.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, the percentage of adults who describe themselves as religious is falling dramatically while the percentage of those who identify themselves as non-religious is soaring. “It’s remarkably widespread... The country is becoming less religious as a whole, and it’s happening across the board,” explains Alan Cooperman, director of religion research.

Today there are more religiously unaffiliated Americans (Nones) than Catholic or mainline Protestant Americans. “What we’re seeing now is that the share of people who say religion is important to them is declining,” says Greg Smith, associate director or research.

“The religiously unaffiliated are not just growing, but as they grow, they are becoming more secular... There’s a continuing religious disaffiliation among older cohorts. That is really striking,” Smith added. “I continue to be struck by the pace at which the unaffiliated are growing.”

As far as I’m concerned it can’t happen fast enough.

Here come the Nones.

Your Fantasy is Imaginary; My Fantasy is Reality

“I’m interested only in dealing with reality and facts,” declared Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal this week when he called upon President Obama and the world’s Muslim leaders  to publicly condemn  the “acts of barbarism,” perpetrated by Islamic radicals. “Let’s be honest here, Islam has a problem,” said Jindal. “We are fools to pretend otherwise.”

“It is also time for Muslim leaders everywhere to step up and declare that perpetrators of such violence are the enemy, they are wrong, and they will NOT be rewarded in the afterlife,” he concluded.

Of course Governor Jindal is absolutely correct. He’s clearly stating reality and facts. He’s being honest. Islam has a problem and those who pretend otherwise are fools. The Islamic jihadists are wrong. They will NOT be rewarded in the afterlife.

I love it when right wing religious extremists like Bobby Jindal candidly admit and loudly proclaim that religion is fantasy. Oh, no, not his own religion – not Christianity -- but that other guy’s religion. Christianity is reality. Jesus will put Christians in heaven. That other religion, however, is wrong, imaginary fantasy, and they won’t be rewarded in the afterlife.

But the reality and facts of the matter are that everything the radical Islamic jihadists believe is supported in the Koran, just like everything moderate Muslims believe is supported there. And everything that right wing Christian religious extremists believe can be found in the Holy Bible, just like everything that moderate Christians believe can be found there.

If Governor Jindal were completely honest though he would have to admit that all religions have the very same problem – they are all entirely imaginary. God’s are imaginary. When a person dies there is no ‘afterlife.’ The afterlife exists only for those who are still alive after his life expires.

 Only fools pretend otherwise. No one is going to an ‘afterlife’ when they die. They’re dead, that’s why. A million years from now they might be dug up but they’ll still be dead. That is the reality.

The sooner individuals on this planet come to recognize that reality the better off they and the rest of humanity will be. For one thing there will be no more imaginary excuses for barbarism and other bad behaviors – no more “your fantasy is imaginary”; “my fantasy is reality.“

Public School Cookie Monster

Compulsory public school education laws are unconstitutional. They violate First Amendment rights to free speech and association because the government forces parents and children to participate whether they want to or not in a group activity involving indoctrination of a government imposed educational agenda. They violate Fifth Amendment rights to due process of law because the government arbitrarily deprives parents and children of liberty and property without evidence of a crime.

There is nothing in the Constitution which permits the government to force parents and children to attend school.  There were no compulsory education laws in existence when the USA was founded; no constitutional amendment since then to allow such laws; and never any justification for the state to think otherwise.

The people were free then and at liberty to voluntarily educate their children or not as they thought best.  Where there were public schools there were no laws compelling parents and children to participate.  Yet today the state governments have been violating our constitutional rights for many decades and getting away with it.

Governments, without constitutional authority, think they have the right to ‘educate’ children according to the dictates of the state. Children are indoctrinated as to what to think, what to believe and how to act; even how to express themselves and what to wear. Kids are expected to conform in all respects in the manner dictated by the state. The government demands their allegiance as well as their minds. The government criminalizes or otherwise punishes behavior which doesn’t conform.

The principal of Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School in McMinnville, Tennessee, for example, thinks he has the right to force the parents of one of his students to style the boy’s hair according to his idea of a proper haircut.

Second grader, Adam Stinnett decided to get a military style haircut just like his soldier stepbrother. The principal didn’t like it; told the kid’s mother that it was “distracting,” and demanded that she “fix” it so that “it is in compliance with our rules.”  She was forced to shave her child’s head.

Education ‘authorities’ in Aurora Colorado would not allow Natalee, a 4-year-old child, to eat the Oreo cookies her mom had packed in her bagged lunch. They sent the poor little kid home with a note that said:  “This is a public school setting and all children are required to have a fruit, a vegetable and a healthy snack from home, along with a milk. If they have potatoes, the child will also need bread to go along with it. Lunchables, chips, fruit snacks, and peanut butter are not considered to be a healthy snack. This is a very important part of our program and we need everyone's participation.”

The statist compulsory public school education bastards are actually telling a parent in the United States of America what she can and cannot provide to her own child for lunch. Now we know that chips, fruit snacks and peanut butter are not permitted for the little kids to eat for lunch in Colorado – because they’re not part of the “program.”

It’s unbelievable!

The statist public school cookie monster even took her cookie.