Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
Pretty ironic when a Tea Party member, who screams about the right to bear arms, doesn’t see the irony in wanting to ban books in public schools. Ohio Board of Education President Debe Terhar, who is a member of several Tea Party groups and who once compared President Obama to Hitler, sees nothing wrong in violating the civil rights of students and their families by wanting to ban books used in schools.
Today, Monday, is Labor Day in the United States. The reason it isn’t on May 1st like the rest of the world is because of the Haymarket Massacre in May of 1886. President Grover Cleveland feared a Labor Day in May would reignite the violence. This Labor Day thank the unions for giving us many of the work related benefits we all, union or not, enjoy.
Friends of mine who are somewhat liberal ask me, Why can’t we drug test welfare recipients? I got tested for my job. It’s true, many people are tested for drug use before being employed. Even the government tests their employees. That still doesn’t make testing welfare recipients constitutional. If the Fourth Amendment means anything it means the government has to have probable cause to test you for drugs. Having a bias toward poor people, thinking they must all be dirty and on drugs isn’t probable cause and it also doesn’t match with the actual evidence of drug use by people on public assistance.
I hate war. My father was killed in Vietnam. But I’m not totally anti-war all the time. Sometimes military action is called for. I supported military action in Kosovo back in the 1990’s to try and stop the religious genocide going on there at the time. I also supported the invasion of Afghanistan because they gave shelter to the people who planned and paid for the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The coming military strike on Syria is really a tough decision. Do we really want to stand by and watch the Syrian government use chemical weapons on their own people?
Last week it was reported that sports network ESPN had pulled out of a co-production with PBS’ ‘Frontline’ documentary show about the serious issue of concussions in the National Football League (NFL). The report was that the NFL pressured ESPN to pull out which shouldn’t be a surprise since the network pays a billion dollars for the rights to NFL games and league access. It is further proof that our mainstream media won’t challenge their corporate owners.