Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
I got a huge chuckle out of the recent arguments on Findlay City Council over Bed Tax give aways to a certain non-profit group and not to others who asked. It gives an air of impropriety to the actions of an elected body especially when the people argue for an action that will benefit their friends.
A Bed Tax is collected from users of hotels and motels and is shared by the city of Findlay and Hancock county. Last year it amounted to about $510,000.
I received a flyer in the mail, from a new mega-church opening in my area. Normally I treat these flyers like most junk mail but this one from Cedar Creek Church promises if I come to their opening week services I will become a better lover by hearing a ‘Steamy and Sexy message’ from the Holy Bible. Just reading the flyer made me want to take a shower to get the creepiness off me.
There has been a major storm over misogyny in the freethought movement for several years. Women in the movement who have spoken out against it have been harassed with rape and death threats among other nasty reactions. People who don’t see anything wrong with the misogyny, like comedian Penn Jillette, worry more about being able to call a woman a ‘cunt’ than why one shouldn’t be doing that in the first place. That’s the problem.
Buzzfeed has a very thorough article about the misogyny conflict in the freethought movement. It actually gave both sides of the issue and while I knew most of the incidents described the article also included interviews with several women who had been raped and/or harassed.
There have been some news reports about young women in middle school and high school being sent home because the administrators have deemed their clothing inappropriate. An article, from 2013, on ThinkProgress gave me pause to reexamine my views on dress codes and the treatment of young women. While I feel any dress codes need to apply to all genders equally, I do believe that teens need some boundary setting.
Michael Brown was shot by a police officer on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. His shooting led to several weeks of protests, which sometimes got violent. His shooting illustrates not just racism but much worse. The treatment of Michael Brown and African-Americans like him shows a general attempt to dehumanize a group of people. If we stay silent about it, how long before we are next?