Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
It was announced on Friday (01/04/2012) that The Dispatch Printing Company would be shutting down the alternative paper The Other Paper (TOP) here in Columbus. Those of us who have read TOP over the years know that TOP died when the Dispatch bought it over a year ago. After the purchase, Columbus lost our only real alternative paper in the city.
Hurricane Sandy damage along New Jersey coastAnother natural disaster and another opportunity for the Republicans in Congress to be dicks about approving federal disaster aid. It happened with the tornado in Joplin Missouri and the recent Hurricane Sandy on the east coast. Republicans say that any disaster aid has to be offset by spending cuts. Not only is the demand hurtful to those who depend on the target of the cuts, the social safety net, but the GOP demand is stupidly irrational. Federal disaster aid comes back as increased tax revenue from spending by restored businesses and residential restoration work.
We’ve had several major natural disasters in the past few years like the tornado that hit Joplin Missouri in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy that hit the east coast in October. Each time Federal disaster relief funds were requested in Congress and each time some Republicans said they would only approve the relief aid if the money was offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.
Stop Censoring Me BitchesPolitical correctness is where one tries to think about the words one uses before speaking. It’s about diplomacy and tact. You also try to keep in mind if you would like it if someone used offensive words at you. On the other hand I don’t support censoring people who sound like assholes. They should be able to say what they want when they want. What I don’t support is when the assholes get angry and complain when their assholeness is pointed out to them. That isn’t censorship. It’s making an observation and if they can’t take it then maybe they need to shut their pie hole.
Imagine if we took votes on what people could believe in, speak about, or who people could love? That doesn’t sound fair at all, right? People who support gay marriage know what I mean. That’s why when I read almost 250,000 people had signed a petition on the White House website to legally label the Westboro Baptist Church a hate group, I actually had a problem with the petition. While I agree with the point, Fred Phelps and his church are way off the crazy scale, just imagine if you were on the wrong side of popular opinion. As much as I dislike the Westboro Baptist Church, this petition shows why we shouldn’t let rights be put up for a popular vote – PERIOD.
Here is the text of the petition:
The NRA may not have pulled the trigger at the elementary school in Connecticut but they can’t avoid any blame since they fight for little or no gun laws and benefit from and promote an irrational public fear that drives gun sales. The press conference they held on Friday 12/21 proves the point that they don’t really care about mass killings accomplished after their hard work. They now join tobacco and alcohol producers who also refuse to accept any blame for killing people and work to get legal protection. They have joined the merchants of death.
Here is the main take away from the NRA press conference: