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Homophobia

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 07:11:33 GMT

clipped by: Snaggle

it really is a fear of homosexuality or at least homosexuals

homophobia does kill, and it kills with surprising frequency

the deaths of homosexuals are not considered worth recording as a separate category

countless suicides every year by gay men and lesbians

not the direct result of the victim's homosexuality, but is actually the result of how the homosexual is treated by society

The Reasons Homophobes Give For Their Hatred

It's not natural.

Well, that's probably the weakest argument of all

It's a perversion.

a variation of the "it's not natural" argument

It's against God's law. Well, of course this is a purely religious argument, and it presumes that the homosexual is or should be bound by the religious principles that are propounded here by the religionist.

It's disgusting. Has the person who says that ever watched sausage being made?

The Real Reasons Behind Their Hatred

Us versus them:

Loss of control:

Threat to one's world-view:

Fear that one may actually be homosexual himself:

It's not just the Muslims

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:37:01 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Down there in Weird Kansas, there was a minor incident that is symptomatic of an ugly way of thinking. A high school basketball team refused to allow a woman to referee.

The Kansas State High School Activities Association said referees reported that Michelle Campbell was preparing to officiate at St. Mary's Academy near Topeka on Feb. 2 when a school official insisted that Campbell could not call the game.

The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy's beliefs.

It's also quite possible that her face was uncovered, that she had driven a car to the game, and that she may at some time in the past have actually played basketball in immodest clothing, against men…and she might even have won.

I'm sure that when all of the activities of this domineering Jezebel aspiring to be almost as good as a man are revealed, the upright young men of St Mary's Academy will march over and burn her.

Vanishing America: quirky pics

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:19:05 GMT

clipped by: righthand

Clip Source: www.younggalleryphoto.com

me_05

Vanishing America

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Tags: photos, usa

Clip Title Deleted

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:16:15 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: It's for "National Security."

Screw our own rights and liberties and security and privacy, as long as the tyrannical, paranoid, fear-driven Empire is happy. Right?

America's behaviour is alarming, annoying, paranoid and ridiculous, to say the least, and very unbecoming of a so-called "free and brave" nation.

"It's one thing to say it's reasonable for government agents to open your luggage. It's another thing to say it's reasonable for them to read your mind and everything you have thought over the last year. What a laptop records is as personal as a diary, but much more extensive. It records every Web site you have searched. Every e-mail you have sent. It's as if you're crossing the border with your home in your suitcase."
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One law firm has instructed its lawyers to travel to the United States with "blank laptops" whose hard drives contain no data
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Lawyers cannot fully advise people how they may exercise their rights during a border search.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Clarity Sought on Electronics Searches

U.S. Agents Seize Travelers' Devices

Nabila Mango

was detained at customs and her cellphone was taken from her purse.

after her phone was returned, Mango saw that records of her daughter's calls had been erased.

earlier in the same airport, a tech engineer

objected when a federal agent asked him to type his password into his laptop computer. "This laptop doesn't belong to me," he remembers protesting. "It belongs to my company." Eventually, he agreed to log on and stood by as the officer copied the Web sites he had visited

a marketing executive

flying from Dulles International Airport

said the agent told her he had "a security concern" with her. "I was basically given the option of handing over my laptop or not getting on that flight,"

The seizure of electronics at U.S. borders has prompted protests from travelers

They also want to know the boundaries for asking travelers about their political views, religious practices and other activities

Tags: screw you, big brother

"Humanity" by Milo Manara

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:41:47 GMT

clipped by: astronkyttaron
clipper's remarks: Nothing really seems to change..

Clip Source: www.inout.gr

One screwed up, vile little backwater of a barbarous craphole

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:39:56 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Unbelievable

Category: Religion
Posted on: February 14, 2008 5:52 PM, by PZ Myers

Saudi Arabia is one screwed up, vile little backwater of a barbarous craphole. You have to read the case of Fawza Falih.

She has been condemned to death. By beheading.

She has been beaten to the point of hospitalization during her incarceration.

The authorities have a signed confession, which she has not had read to her.

She didn't read what she signed, either, because she's illiterate.

She and her representatives were not allowed to attend much of the trial.

And the crime for which she is to be executed? Witchcraft. She is accused of casting a spell that caused a man to become impotent, and threatening to cause people to be possessed by dogs.

Apparently, the spells must have worked all too well, since all the men of Saudi Arabia are now cowardly eunuchs with the souls of craven mongrels. At least, that's the only explanation I can see for their uncivilized behavior.

Another Gay Teen Dies At Hands Of A Schoolmate

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:34:52 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: A student thought to be gay was five times as likely to be threatened or injured by a weapon, a 2002 California Department of Education study said.

Clip Source: dailykos.com

Yesterday Lawrence King, a 15-year old student at E.O. Green Junior High in Ventura County, California was shot by a fellow student with whom he'd had an ealier "altercation" over the fact that other students perceived him to be gay.

Today Lawrence King was declared brain-dead and placed on a ventilator awaiting the possible donation of his organs. His assailant, another student who was 14-years old, was caught minutes after the shooting and is now in custody.

The teenager sometimes wore feminine clothing and makeup, and proclaimed he was gay, students said.

"He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails -- the whole thing," said Michael Sweeney, 13, an eighth-grader. "That was freaking the guys out."

"Freaking the guys out." And the acceptable response to any perceived threat to a man's masculinity is violence, and not only violence but deadly violence.

And again we're reminded of the dangers gay students and youth face in America's schools:

The all new anti- depressant

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:02:58 GMT

clipped by: dakotayii

Clip Source: www.alteredperception.net

Tags: humor

Bullying a Student for Reading "The Golden Compass"

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:05:44 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: atheism.about.com

Christians are supposedly the ones being persecuted in America, but when was the last time you heard about a Christian in public school having to endure organized bullying from multiple kids simply for reading one of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books? That doesn't sound like the sort of thing that is likely to happen, but it is possible for a student to endure such treatment for reading The Golden Compass; in fact, it's already happened.

Possum Mama relates what happened to her son when he was seen reading The Golden Compass in school

One boy saw the book and flipped out. He stood in front of P2 and demanded to know if he believed in god. When P2 didn't answer, he escalated things by saying, "You're totally an atheist. Do you love Satan?" At which point, another boy started asking intrusive and silly questions. To his credit, P2 kept saying, "This isn't the time or place to talk about this."

Can you imagine the outcry if atheists had done this to a Christian reading a Narnia book?

Greek Coffee: a man's drink

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:41:48 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: grhomeboy.wordpress.com

Every neighborhood, in every city of Greece, has its bastion of male comrade, the local kafenion or coffee shop. Unfortunately, most of the grand kafenia of old have been razed and supplanted by fast food chain outlets. The neighborhood places, with few exceptions, tend to be rather colorless store fronts, where retired or inexplicably idle men while away the time over a cup or two of Greek coffee, talking politics, gossiping, playing backgammon (tavli), or just plain hanging out, because there is nothing better to do.

The grand kafenia had their coffee master, called tambi, who was versed in the art of making Greek coffee in the oldest, most traditional way: over an open flame, or over burning embers or over hot sand. He knew the preferences of every regular customer, for how one preferred his coffee told tomes about who one was.

Frappe is the dynamo of Greek coffee drinks, an unlikely combination of instant coffee, almost exclusively the brand Nescafe, sugar, water, and milk.

Tags: greek coffee

The HiJacking Of Jesus

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:54:58 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "A very large church in New York where I've spoken before did not want me to come and talk about this book. They said that after several guest ministers spoke against the Iraq War, people had left the congregation and threatened to resign their membership. These issues have become really matters of keeping your job."

The religious right feels threatened by the Social Gospel of Jesus for a number of reasons. One, IMO, is that they are more concerned with an afterlife than they are with practicing what Jesus said. What could be more Christ-like than universal health care?

Clip Source: www.thenation.com

How is it that so many in the ranks of the Christian right are missing the message of love in the New Testament?

They've missed the words of Jesus

If you were to do that, then there would be a much greater focus on the Sermon on the Mount, treating your neighbor as yourself, helping the Samaritans and everything else that was in Jesus' message.

What do you think is so attractive about the theology of the religious right? Is it simply the "sophisticated marketing" and plethora of services and activities that you found at the mega-churches, or is it something in their message?

I think also that it's the belief factor. While I'm not sure what it is now that they believe in--since they don't believe in a lot of the messages of Jesus--they do have a strong belief in whatever they conceive of as Jesus and his resurrection.

Valentines From Hearts Now Stilled

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:01:18 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

PHILADELPHIA -- On a stretch of land here dusted with the wings of sycamore seeds, love stories lie underground with the dead.

There is the human heart buried next to the man who first captured it. The body of a banker whose wife left him for a famous actor. The couple hit by a train after a wedding reception.

Along came Gwen Kaminski, a history buff whose heart had been broken before she was hired at Laurel Hill.

What lessons, she wondered, loomed behind those faded unfamiliar names etched in dirt-smudged stone, those of the dead with last wishes to rest forever next to one they loved? What happens to feelings when they are buried with the people they belonged to?

She began digging for more tales, spending late nights researching archives, the Internet and genealogists' records, copying handwritten love letters and black-and-white photos.

Tags: love, stories