We the People…

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The people of Florida murder 72,000 babies every year while the “pro life” politicians we’ve elected to protect them attempt to regulate the practice of child sacrifice as if it were healthcare, instead of addressing it as murder. The governing authorities of our state possess the moral, legal, and constitutional duty to establish justice for all human beings within their jurisdiction, including the pre-born fatherless by prohibiting the slaughter of children in the womb. Contrary to widespread misinformation, the right to murder humans is not protected by the Constitution and our legislature is not bound by any law or duty to aid or abet the Supreme Court in their attempted perversion of it. On the contrary, they are duty bound by their oaths to support, obey, and defend the United States Constitution and oppose such perversions and abuses of it. We demand that our legislators stop passing laws to regulate abortion. We demand the total and immediate abolition of human abortion.

Some evangelical Christians in Florida are already making plans for the 2018 ballot, and they want heads to roll. Specifically, they want abortion declared a capital crime, premeditated murder, so that any person who seeks and obtains an abortion, as well as any doctor who perform the procedure, to be arrested and tried, while eligible for the death penalty. Why that’s just so stunningly pro-life, it’s smacked my gob.

Their resolution to the Florida legislature can be read here. Be warned, it’s done in very bad ‘colonial constitution’ style, a la the header above, with each clause beginning with a flourished “Whereas”.

Their constitutional amendment petition is a tad more on the modern side:

Given that our state legislature has thoroughly failed to establish justice for the pre-born, Abolitionists in Florida have taken it upon themselves to attempt to put such a measure before the people and make way for the abolition of abortion.

Unlike our Resolution, this is an official constitutional amendment initiative petition. When enough signatures are collected, it may become a state question on the ballot for a vote. With enough votes, it will become law in Florida. Please sign and collect signatures (instructions below).

BALLOT TITLE: ABOLISH ABORTION

BALLOT SUMMARY: Abortion deprives an innocent human being of the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Any person who performs or procures an abortion shall be guilty of premeditated murder in the first degree, and any person who attempts to perform or procure an abortion shall be guilty of felony attempted murder. This provision shall prevail over any other conflicting provisions.

ARTICLE AND SECTION BEING CREATED OR AMENDED: Amends Article I to create a new Section 28.

FULL TEXT OF THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT: Article 1, Section 28. Abortion is Murder – Inasmuch as abortion deprives an innocent human being of the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, any person who performs or procures an abortion shall be guilty of premeditated murder in the first degree, and any person who attempts to perform or procure an abortion shall be guilty of felony attempted murder. This provision shall prevail over any other conflicting provision(s). “Abortion” means the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance or device, to intentionally kill an unborn human being. “Unborn human being” means the offspring of human beings, from the moment of fertilization of the ovum of a female individual by the sperm of a male individual until either live birth or natural death, whether conceived and/or located inside or outside the body of a human female.

Daz was nice enough to render the resolution into text, so here it is:

We are calling on the legislature to do its job and protect the innocent.

WHEREAS all human beings are created in the image of God, and are thus endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to life—

WHEREAS governments are instituted by God among men, being charged with the duty to secure this right and establish justice for all—

WHEREAS the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land throughout all the states and territories of our nation—

WHEREAS the Constitution of the United Slates mandates that no state shall deprive any human being of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any human being within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws—

WHEREAS the Constitution of the United States in no way, shape, or form gives the Supreme Court the right to pervert the meaning of the Constitution and impose this perversion upon the other branches and/or states with the legal force of the Constitution itself—

WHEREAS the policy of following judicial precedent (stare decisis) is merely a judicial policy and not a rule of law mandated by the Constitution—

WHEREAS our state legislators, judges, and executive officers have sworn a solemn oath to support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States—

WHEREAS murder deprives an innocent human being of life—

WHEREAS abortion is murder—the murder of the weakest and most innocent human beings within our midst—

WHEREAS any government that allows murder to go unpunished has abandoned its most basic moral duties and obligations—

THEREFORE,
We the people of the State of Florida are:

Resolved. That by allowing the murder of innocent children to go unpunished, the government of the State of Florida has abandoned its most basic moral duties and obligations—

Resolved. That by falsely claiming that the “right” to murder one’s child is a right mandated by the Constitution of the United Stales, the Supreme Court has perverted the meaning of the Constitution—

Resolved. That our state legislators, judges, and executive officers are bound by neither law nor moral duty to accept or enforce this perversion of the Constitution—

Resolved. That our state legislators, judges, and executive officers are bound by solemn oath and moral duty to oppose this perversion of the Constitution within our state—

Resolved. That our state legislators, judges, and executive officers are bound by solemn oath and moral duty to provide the equal protection of the laws to all human beings in our state.

BEING SO RESOLVED,
we hereby respectfully demand that our state government stop protecting the murder of children by abortion within its jurisdiction and establish justice for all pre-born human beings in our state. We demand that our legislators stop passing laws to regulate abortion, and instead outlaw all abortion as murder. We demand that our judges fulfill [sic] their oaths of office and stop rubber-stamping the Supreme Court’s perversion of the U.S. Constitution in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. We demand that these changes be made now—not five, ten, or fifteen years down the road. In short, we the people of the State of Florida demand the total and immediate abolition of human abortion as the legal, Constitutional. and moral duty of our elected and appointed officials.

Via AAFL.

Clinton, Trump, And Spit Buckets.

Courtesy globalresearch.ca

Courtesy globalresearch.ca

Simon Moya-Smith outlines the current plot lines in the political show. If you’re feeling a bit more serious, you can read Steve Russell’s take on the debate. Right now, I’m thinking maybe weed and ice cream are the way to go. Yep.

Right now, somewhere in America, Anthony Weiner is taking another dick pic.

In New York, however, earlier today, I imagine Hillary Clinton was popping throat lozenges like a Vicodin addict, and Donald Trump was backstage pulling on his fingers because he’s convinced that if he does this twice daily for 30-minute intervals, his puny digits will stretch and the jokes will cease.

But he’s wrong. The jokes will never cease, and his fingers will never grow, and Clinton will keep on coughing for reasons unknown (to us, anyway), and Weiner will snap pic after pic after pic of his dick – because if there’s anything he loves more than sexting strangers it’s seeing his phallic name in headlines for doing so.

There’s been an overwhelming shared and looming sense of loss and fear in this country since Bernie Sanders dropped out of this rotten presidential race at the Democratic National Convention in July. How did the fracking lady and the reality television shill make it this far?

“How could it be that these two are the best America has to offer?” a man muttered into his Lefthand Milk Stout at a pub here in Denver recently. He looked like a sports fan who has lost all hope in his team. So I bought him another beer and said, “Hey, at least we’ve still got legal weed and ice cream, huh?” That cheered him up a bit, I think.

I was recently at a local pot dispensary on the west side where they’ve got tightly-rolled joints and edibles that would calm a rhino, or at minimum, Chris Christie.

But that’s another story for another day. About tonight’s debate:

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39.

whitehouse.gov

whitehouse.gov

James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr., made no public mention of American Indians during his entire first year in office.

The 39th president of the United States, Carter only briefly mentioned Indians in his first State of the Union Address, a 12,000-word speech delivered to Congress in January 1978. Even then, Carter’s remarks were vague.

“The Administration has acted consistently to uphold its trusteeship responsibility to Native Americans,” he told Congress. “In 1978, the Administration will review Federal Native American policy and will step up efforts to help Indian tribes assess and manage their natural resources.”

The reference, likely the work of Carter’s speechwriter, Chris Matthews, set the tone for an administration that—in the beginning—largely ignored Indians. In fact, by the end of 1978, the Carter administration had decided not to announce any formal presidential Indian policy at all, historian George Pierre Castile wrote in his 2006 book Taking Charge: Native American Self-Determination and Federal Indian Policy, 1975-1993.

“Absent a presidential message, the policy of self-determination remained in place by default, but never seems to have gotten a clear endorsement by the Carter domestic policy staff,” Castile wrote. “Indian matters were dealt with piecemeal.”

Carter, who took office in January 1977, followed Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford—two presidents who championed for the end of Indian termination and ushered in an era of self-determination. Yet Carter, who inherited the new approach to Indian Affairs, maintained minimal involvement and thrust primary responsibility for Indians on the Interior Department.

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Alive.

Images courtesy the Nuart Festival.

Images courtesy the Nuart Festival.

You won’t find the artwork of Spanish artist, SpY, on the walls of a gallery or in a museum: the graffito-turned-urban art activist operates almost exclusively within the public realm. In his latest large-scale text mural for the Nuart festival, an annual international street art gathering held in Norway, SpY painted the word “alive” upside down on the exterior wall of an abandoned warehouse. The mural’s location and position next to water is significant because it creates a reflection of the text right-side up. The body of water flips the text off the wall as well as the other buildings surrounding it, making “alive” come alive amidst the city’s concrete horizon.

alive1

SpY’s mural and installation work is geared to instigate reflection, to create a public dialogue that isn’t confined to the people who can afford to visit a gallery. Previous installations like Cameras and Barriers incorporate inert items found in urban environments. SpY replicates these in a way that creates a commentary on our urban reality. See Alive come to life in the video below:

I love this so much, because I do think there are too many people in dire need of this particular reminder. Via The Creators Project.

Spot sobre la situación educativa y laboral de las personas trans.

Argentina’s trans community, as is the case in many countries, faces an extraordinary amount of discrimination, from education and employment opportunities to violence. Animator Virginia Gilles, writer Stephanie Santoro and sound designer Thomas Corley decided to put some facts about the community’s Argentine experience into stark relief in an experimental short, which features hypnotic animation, motion graphics, music, and voiceover.

“The spot is not part of any campaign,” Gilles tells The Creators Project. “Our objective is to demonstrate the problems of employment and educational discrimination against trans people. As for aesthetics, we wanted to create a powerful but cool effect, mixing the character of the words with experimentation in image and sound.”

As the artists note in the voiceover, quoting Argentina’s Fundación Huésped (Guest Foundation), “Six out of ten transgender women and seven out of ten transgender men failed at completing their secondary school education.” Half of these individuals failed because of discrimination against their gender identity. The artists are also attempting to raise awareness about the various forms of violence suffered by transvestites and transsexuals.

“The policies implemented by the Argentine government and the expansion of their rights through laws that generate greater inclusion are insufficient,” they write. “We believe that in order to reverse this painful reality requires a real commitment by the whole society, to eliminate social hatred and generate inclusion and actual acceptance of all trans people in various fields, which will enable them to develop a equally dignified life without being discriminated against because of their identity.”

“As people, we have the right to be treated in accordance with our self perception and this should be respected,” the artists say. “Education empowers you and gives you tools to stop discrimination. The doors are open. You have to take impulse and go through them.”

Via The Creators Project.

The Illusion of Racism and The Intellect of God.

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Ginni Thomas, tea partier and wife of Clarence Thomas, recently hosted noted conservative bigot Jesse Lee Peterson, where they had a lovely chat about how evil Black Lives Matter is, and that race is just an illusion. Imagine that! I had no idea.

“Who are the race hustlers?” Thomas asked. “Who’s in the business of keeping blacks angry?”

“The race hustlers,” Peterson replied, “are people like Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus, Louis Farrakhan—the so-called civil rights leaders—many of the black preachers, Barack Obama, they’re all into keeping black Americans angry and demoralized for power and wealth for themselves. And you have to demoralize a person or a people in order to control them, you cannot control a moral people so they keep them in a state of anger and confusion so that they can use them for their personal gain.”

Peterson then told Thomas about his theory that he explains in a recent book positing that because President Obama “grew up without a father in the home,” he only feels “anger” and not “love,” and that’s why he’s sympathetic to Black Lives Matter.

“Those people are evil, they’re wicked, they’re an agitating group, they’re worse than the KKK,” he said. “If Black Lives Matter was a white organization and doing exactly what they’re doing now, America would not accept them, they would not. But because they are black and white people are afraid, and then they have the support of the president, they’re allowed to bring on destruction in this country.”

Erm, white organizations do exist, Rev., and they are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want to do, including the KKK and other white supremacist organizations hosting counter protests which are full of truly abominable sentiments which are racist in nature. Some people, like yourself, are all upsetty because for once, black people are standing up for themselves, and sending the classic message of we’re angry as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore. I’m all the way behind that, my people are doing a similar thing right now, because they face great discrimination, oppression, and marginalization too. We’ve all had generation after generation after generation who has remained trodden down, told over and over to assimilate, to be the best white person you can be, be polite, smile, be submissive. In this so called land of the free, a court has ruled that it is perfectly okay for people to discriminate against and not hire anyone who dares to have natural hair, or a specifically cultural hair style. Fuck that, and fuck you, Reverend.

Claiming that Obama sees the killing of police officers as “no big deal,” Peterson went on to repeat his exhortation to white people to “stand up for themselves” against the Black Lives Matter movement.

“There’s no such thing as racism,” he concluded. “It doesn’t exist. It’s an illusion. It has been made up by the race hustlers in order to intimidate and control to get that power.”

Okay, I would really like to know just when it was that black people had control and power in this country. Anyone know? I’m pretty sure that black people aren’t looking to lord it over the precious white people, Rev. They would like it if they were treated as people, y’know, human beings, with the full rights thereof. They would like some respect. They’d like it if they could go one day without being under constant suspicion of something or other. They would like it if they could live without a constant fear of white people. They would like it if cops would stop murdering black people with impunity. The list goes on. My people (Lakota) have a similar list. So do all other indigenous peoples. I’m pretty sure Hispanic and Latino peoples also have a similar list. Well, pretty much everyone who isn’t white.  Going by the Reverend’s logic, slavery was the apex of black people in America.

After that lovely little chat neatly disposing of racism, the Reverend went on to rail and moan about intellectuals and drag queens in foxholes.

Right-wing activist Jesse Lee Peterson recently delivered a sermon in which he warned his congregation not to become intellectuals because intellectualism is responsible for foisting things like gay marriage upon America.

“I notice that the people who are really into the intellect are nutcases,” Peterson said. “Absolute nutcases. Because of this intellectual thing taking over and the people rule us, we now have so-called same-sex marriage. That wouldn’t happen if we weren’t into the intellect. Common sense would dictate that is not going to happen and common sense wouldn’t care what you thought about it because we would know that that’s wrong.”

Intellectuals are also responsible for the fact that “we now have drag queens running around in the military,” Peterson added.

“Can you imagine jumping down in a foxhole, running from bin Laden, and there is a man in there with a dress and lipstick on? It would shock you. You would rather be out with bin Laden,” Peterson stated, apparently so dedicated to being anti-intellectual that he’s totally unaware that Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.

People simply need to rely “on the intellect of God,” he recommended, because human intellect is a tool of the devil, which is why “all intellectual people are insecure people … because their father is weak, their father Satan is a deceiver.”

Y’know, if you’re going to buy into that whole creationism business, and that we’re created in El Shaddai’s image and all that, fine, but what does that say about your god? That he’s an idiot? Or just his standard sociopathic sadism at work, giving people a brain to use, in order to punish us for using it. That’s probably about right. Oh, yes, and I almost forgot, that evil intellect stuff is Eve’s fault, ennit? Right, so once again it’s the evil of women at fault.

As for dresses and lipstick in foxholes, I’m not sure how you missed this one, Rev, but the military provides uniforms, and people are expected to wear them. Personally, if I found myself in the middle of a war zone, trying not to piss myself in a foxhole, I wouldn’t care if a whole regiment of drag queens showed up, as long as they got me out alive, and they’d have my undying thanks.

Via Right Wing Watch, here and here.

Lies and Myths about Bisexual People.

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I’ve gotten so weary over the years about the pervasive nonsense people hold in their heads about bisexuals, I gave up trying to talk sense about it. That was wrong, and I’ve been reminded that said nonsense still holds sway, and if things are ever going to get better for bisexual people, everyone has to get a good handle on the reality, and keep on speaking up. I’ve had a woman say to me “stay the hell away from my husband!…and me too!” and a man say to me “stay the hell away from my wife!” even though I’m very long time married , and happily so. I have no interest in someone else’s spouse because I’m not interested in cheating, it doesn’t have anything to do with  me being bi. It has more to do with me disliking any relationship in which a person will be hurt. After a while, such things didn’t even elicit an eyeroll, just a small sigh. Then I stopped talking about it, or mentioning it at all. Bisexual people still remain invisible, and often when we are visible, it’s simply to be scoffed at by someone or other. I think I can do better, and I think most other people can do better, too.

Eliel Cruz has a good article up at The Advocate, addressing the top problematic societal beliefs and behaviour regarding bisexual people.

So here we are in the supposedly enlightened year of 2016, and yet, biphobia persists. In no particular order, here are a few of the most tiresome lies society really needs to stop telling about bisexual people.

1. Bisexuals don’t exist.
This is the first and most pervasive lie about bisexuality. Some people simply can’t fathom a sexuality in which individuals are attracted to more than one gender. You can test the waters, but you eventually must pick a side, the thinking goes. But bisexuals don’t need science — or the approval of those attracted to only one gender — to prove that they exist.

2. Bisexuals are just going through a phase.
Yes, it’s true that plenty of gays and lesbians used bisexuality as a way to soften the blow of coming out to conservative parents. Many may even have identified as bi for a time while they were still making sense of their own orientation. And while coming out is an intensely personal decision, the strategies of some should not invalidate the identities of the majority, for whom bisexuality wasn’t a “stepping stone” but the final, concrete destination.

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Oh. Speechless.

Sometimes, there just isn’t an adequate expression, and even wow doesn’t make the cut.

Photograph by Mark Cowan.

Photograph by Mark Cowan.

 

Photograph by Mark Cowan.

Photograph by Mark Cowan.

While traveling through the Amazon to study reptile and amphibian diversity with the Herpetology Division at the University of Michigan, photographer Mark Cowan happened upon a strange sight: a caiman whose head was nearly covered in butterflies. The phenomenon itself isn’t particularly unusual, salt is critical to the survival of many creatures like butterflies and bees who sometimes drink tears from reptiles in regions where the mineral is scarce. What made this sight so unusual was seeing the butterflies organize themselves into three different species groups atop the caiman’s head.

Uh, also, that side eye!

Cowan’s photograph received special commendation from the 2016 Royal Society Publishing photography competition, you can see the rest of this year’s finalists here.

More speechless:

“Hitchhikers” (Lion’s Mane Jellyfish), St Kilda, off the Island of Hirta, Scotland, by George Stoyle.

“Hitchhikers” (Lion’s Mane Jellyfish), St Kilda, off the Island of Hirta, Scotland, by George Stoyle.

The British Wildlife Photography Awards just announced the 2016 winners of their annual competition in categories including Animal Behavior, Animal Portraits, Urban Wildlife, and an overall winner. The awards, established in 2009, aim to highlight photographers working in the UK, while also showcasing the biodiversity, species, and habitats found in Britain.

George Stoyle, overall winner of this year’s competition, found his subject off the Island of Hirta in Scotland.  “I was working for Scottish Natural Heritage on a project to assess the current biological status of major sea caves around some of the UK’s most remote islands,” Stoyle told the BWPA. “At the end of one of the dives I was swimming back to the boat when I came face to ‘face’ with the largest jellyfish I’d ever encountered. As I approached cautiously I noticed a number of juvenile fish had taken refuge inside the stinging tentacles.”

You can see more UK habitats and animal portraits from 2016’s British Wildlife Photography Awards on their website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Via Colossal Art, here and here.