America: Land of the Supressed, Home of the Docile

Overseas, when governments cut services or tamper with the social contract, we see massive public protests. Literally millions of Greek and French citizens have taken to the streets to fight for justice and protest against corrupt politicians and unfair policies.

Here in America, our politicians bail out billionaire bankers and leave middle-class homeowners holding the bag.  They barter away a woman's right to control her own body and make her own medical decisions.  They pass constitutional amendments and federal laws that permanently relegate gay and lesbian Americans to second-class citizenship. 

Where is the outrage?  Where are the sit-ins and moratoriums?  Sure, we might have hundreds thousands of protesters marching in Washington, but if you watch the mainstream media, it's barely a blip.  Thousands can rally in DC and symbolically "citizens-arrest" the health insurance companies for malfeasance, and you'd barely know it.

Meanwhile, the Fox News sponsored tea party rallies, that just coincidentally align with the interest of big business (less government regulation of banks and corporations) and the health insurance industry (OMG death squads!) are presented as a "true, genuine grass roots movement."

Here's an article that worth a close look: Normalizing the police state (and how it ends with taser-firing drones)

quote:

Here we have the completion of the perfect police state. Citizens are monitored from cradle to grave. Any signs of anger or rebellion are swiftly squelched with medication or “peace officers.” The schools step in when the state cannot act to monitor and regulate every movement of students’ lives under the banner of “Zero Tolerance.”

When the medicated and monitored children grow into dysfunctional adults, some of who eventually realize their shitty circumstances (complete with shitty healthcare, outsourced jobs, limited resources, poisoned environment, enormous wealth disparity, etc.) and they think about rebelling, they are immediately lassoed with an anchor of bureaucracy. Should you want to protest, please fill out form AYT0754 five months prior to said protest, and pay this fee, and remain in this pen, and please don’t make too much noise…

Does it get much more Orwellian?  We know we can't trust corporate-sponsored news organizations to accurately inform the public.  When are we going to wake up from our slumber and demand that the government of the people, by the people, for the people... is actually RETURNED to the people?

The alarm is sounding.  Stop hitting the snooze button and wake up.

h/t to http://www.bilerico.com for inspiration.

Holy Hypocrisy, Batman!

Never would have seen this one coming.

Apparently a Papal aide is caught up in elite gay prostitution ring that involves seminarians, undocumented immigrants and the Vatican choir.

http://www.gaynewswatch.com/Page.cfm?PageID=22&SID=7864

All this from a church that calls me and my partner a threat to the "family" and, using the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) as a front, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars making sure our relationship doesn't enjoy the same civil privileges, responsibilities and benefits as straight Americans.

All I can say is:

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 

- Matthew 7:3

Hey Pope Palpatine!  Clean up the mess in your own backyard and keep your nose out of my civil rights!

2nd Class Citizenship is Depressing... no really!

Gays and lesbians who live in states that ban gay marriage are more likely to suffer from alcoholism, mood disorder, or anxiety according to a study by the American Public Health Association.

http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/100/3/452

quote:

Psychiatric disorders defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, increased significantly between waves 1 and 2 among LGB respondents living in states that banned gay marriage for the following outcomes: any mood disorder (36.6% increase), generalized anxiety disorder (248.2% increase), any alcohol use disorder (41.9% increase), and psychiatric comorbidity (36.3% increase). These psychiatric disorders did not increase significantly among LGB respondents living in states without constitutional amendments. Additionally, we found no evidence for increases of the same magnitude among heterosexuals living in states with constitutional amendments.

Interesting thing... the study showed no differences for heterosexuals living in states that allow same-sex marriage or those that ban it.  I guess "protecting" marriage from us homos doesn't actually make you happier.  Go figure.

credit to http://www.advocate.com/ for the article link.

Curing the 'Gay'

Here's an ugly example of the psychological (and sometimes physical) abuse parents can inflict on their offspring in the name of "curing" their sexual orientation.

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/12/23/dad-accused-of-forcing-son-14-into-sex-with-hooker/

quote:... the dad is accused of forcing his son to have sex with a prostitute because he feared the 14-year-old was gay.

Before you shrug this story off as harmless, imagine the headlines if a gay father took his butch son to a male prostitute in an effort to turn him queer.