Flood of Sewer Fetuses Will Spread HIV!

Carol Everett (Photo: The Heidi Group).

Carol Everett (Photo: The Heidi Group).

In the not enough facepalm in the universe category, Texas legislature has designated 1.65 million dollars to a non-medical based, anti-abortion group, on the basis of aborted fetuses flooding the sewers, and somehow or another, causing the general water supply to be contaminated with STDs or HIV, because that’s just oh so realistic. Honestly, this is so goddamned embarrassing.

Carol Everett is the founder and CEO of The Heidi Group, an anti-abortion organization that gives women health “advice,” but is not a medical provider and can’t perform any health care services.

Earlier this month, Everett testified at a hearing at the Austin, Texas statehouse on a proposed requirement that women either bury or cremate the remains of an aborted fetus. According to The Austin Chronicle, Everett testified about her concerns of an impending public health disaster if fetuses were flushed down toilets. She argued that the general public could be afflicted with STDs or even HIV due to fetuses flooding the sewer systems.

“What if one day something horrible escaped into the sewer system?” she said, as the audience snickered.

Everett’s claims are scientifically impossible.

Just days later, the Texas legislature awarded The Heidi Group $1.65 million in taxpayer money for the organization’s “health care services.” Their organization doesn’t provide health care services.

While the group’s website advertises “Helping Texas Women,” further examination reveals their claims to have “programs” lists merely a phone number, the page that offers to help women with pregnancy/infant loss says “Page Coming Soon” and if a woman needs a pregnancy test they have a list of links to crisis pregnancy centers, that counsel women against abortion.

“The Heidi Group exists to ensure that all Texas women have access to quality health care by coordinating services in a statewide network of full-service medical providers,” the website says. It doesn’t explain how this is different from a Google search.

The grant comes out of funding that previously went to Planned Parenthood before Texas politicians kicked them out of the program in 2012.

In an interview with the Texas Observer, Everett admitted that she’ll be forking over a lot of the money to crisis pregnancy centers, which an investigation showed lie to women about the realities of their reproductive health. She assures the Observer that the taxpayer funds will not go to administrative costs at The Heidi Group or the organization’s rent, but it will go to nurses and doctors in rural Texas that urge women against abortions.

“My goal is to reach that little girl in a small county with no hope of having anybody explain her birth control options or have her blood pressure checked,” she said.

The local CVS pharmacy and Walmart often have machines where people can have their blood pressure taken for free. Crisis pregnancy centers in Texas have been caught counseling women to use abstinence only as a birth control method and refusing to dispense contraception.

Full Story Here.

Canadians, Not Always Nice.

Rainbow Bridge Border Crossing.

Rainbow Bridge Border Crossing.

A common discrepancy between passport nationality and license plate origin got Akwesasne District Chief Akwesasne District Chief Steven Thomas turned away at the Canadian border last month, and the Mohawk Akwesasne are concerned.

En route to an Assembly of First Nations (AFN) meeting in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on July 10, Thomas was stopped at the Rainbow Bridge crossing and refused entry. The reason? While he presented a Canadian passport, his car has New York State license plates. Thomas lives in the Ontario section of the Akwesasne reserve, which straddles the boundaries of Ontario, Quebec and New York.

“I worked in the United States for 37 years and have always owned an American-plated vehicle,” he said, adding that even when occasionally stopped, “I have never had any issues in crossing at any of the New York-Canada borders in the past and have done so hundreds of times.”

It is not that rare for Indians who are not Canadian citizens to occasionally be denied entry, Akwesasne Grand Chief Abram Benedict told Indian Country Today Media Network.

“It happens a few times a year,” he said.

[…]

There have been rare cases like Thomas’s, in which the CBSA demands that the person go through the process of importing the vehicle, Benedict said. However, Thomas’s incident highlights a broader problem, he added.

“The fact is CBSA doesn’t broadly recognize aboriginal rights when it comes to border crossings, and that’s clearly what this case has demonstrated,” Benedict told the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder.

Thomas cited the Jay Treaty of 1794, which has a clause confirming Indians’ free border-crossing rights. However, Canada’s Supreme Court has ruled that the treaty does not apply because Parliament didn’t ratify it—it was struck between Great Britain and the U.S.—and because in any case the War of 1812 would have abrogated it. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended that war, included a promise to restore Indian rights and a commitment to “engage” to do so “forthwith.” But the court found it was not definitive enough in its wording to compel Canada on the matter.

In June, Canada’s Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples issued a report, Border Crossing Issues and the Jay Treaty, acknowledging that border crossing protocol must be clarified.

“Means must be implemented to facilitate legitimate travel for day-to-day activities by First Nations people,” the report said, recommending that “the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs appoint a special representative to explore further solutions to address Canada-U.S. border crossing challenges faced by First Nations communities across Canada.”

As for Thomas, he entered Canada the next day by way of the Cornwall border crossing, without difficulty, and drove to the AFN meeting.

“The ironic part of this denial was, I was on my way to attend the Assembly of First Nations for a border crossing presentation!” he said.

Another day, another broken treaty. Another day, another government disrespecting the rights of a First Nation. The Canadian government needs to get their Canada Nice on.

Via ICTMN.

Girls Do Not Need A Prince.

 

Twitter/@KNKNOKU Image caption Kim Jayeon could not have expected that a tweet would have cost her her job.

Twitter/@KNKNOKU
Image caption Kim Jayeon could not have expected that a tweet would have cost her her job.

Gamergate in Korea. Every bit as bad, and I’d say worse.

On the face of it, the slogan “Girls do not need a prince” doesn’t seem that controversial.

In many parts of the world, it would pass as the kind of thing any young woman might wear without prompting a second look.

But when the actress, Kim Jayeon, tweeted a photograph of herself wearing the garment, she generated a storm and lost herself a job.

She was the voice of one of the characters in a South Korean online game called “Closers”. Gaming is very big in South Korea, as much a part of the culture as football.

Fans of “Closers” inundated Nexon, the company which produced the game, with complaints. Many of the complaints, according to female activists, were offensive and anti-women.

Nexon quickly bowed to the protesters and sacked the actress. It told the BBC that she would be paid in full for her work but her voice would not be used on the game.

It issued a statement saying it had “recognised the voices of concern amongst the Closers community”, adding that “we have suddenly decided to seek a replacement in the role”.

The full story is at BBC.com.

Baltimore: Good Ol’ Boys Club Convention.

Baltimore police conference protest (Photo: Baynard Woods/Twitter).

Baltimore police conference protest (Photo: Baynard Woods/Twitter).

There is the woman being publicly strip-searched after being stopped for a missing headlight. There are the officers coercing sex from prostitutes in exchange for avoiding arrest, planting drugs on people they stopped, cursing “shut the fuck up bitch” because they are “the fucking law.” There is the supervisor telling officers “to arrest ‘all the black hoodies’ in a neighborhood.” There are officers using templates for arrests where they only had to fill in dates and names — the words “black male” were already inked in.

Running to 163 pages, the Department of Justice report on the ongoing abuse inflicted upon African Americans by the Baltimore police is full of stories like these.

In light of the DOJ report on just how corrupt the Baltimore cops shops are, of course the staunch defenders of bigoted, killer cops, the FOP, decided to have their conference, which was protested. Well, for a while, at least, until all those pesky persons insistent on pointing to reality were arrested.

Baltimore police arrested a dozen protesters at the Hyatt Regency on Sunday afternoon where the state Fraternal Order of Police was holding a conference.

Some of the protesters refused to leave the hotel on Light Street, blocked access to an escalator and chained themselves to railings as part of a demonstration against discriminatory police practices.

The group, some of whom were with the activist group Baltimore BLOC, were joining hands and carrying signs that read “Abolish Racist F.O.P.”

[Read more…]

Curing LGBT people from their affliction.

Pray-away-the-gay-800x430

Illinois, like many states, passed legislation called the Youth Mental Health Protection Act, to ban the practice of a “failed and discredited non-therapy that attempts to change the unchangeable,” as Equality Illinois put it.

But now five pastors have come together to sue based on religious freedom. They believe they should be exempt from the bill because of their religion and designation as a church and religious institution. Like many churches and religious businesses over the years, when they see a law they don’t like they claim First Amendment protections. This argument could be made with any law, however. There could be an argument that slavery and servitude not to mention abuse of one’s children and family could be sanctioned by The Bible, and thus laws outlawing it should be allowed in the church as part of a “religious freedom” exemption.

Pink News reports Pastor Steven Stultz of Nu-Church Apostolic Ministries of East Garfield is one of those seeking to use the torturous technique on LGBT people. Claiming, “In 1 Corinthians 6:9, the Apostle Paul writes to those who had overcome many sins including homosexuality, stating, ‘such were some of you’ but you were changed through God’s healing,” he said. “I have personally witnessed many people change their sexual orientation through counseling and know it is possible. The government is interfering into someone’s private decisions. This ban on counseling creates fear in the people most in need of comfort and support.”

The pastors’ attorney insists this is a ban on those who seek spiritual guidance at difficult times where they are questioning their sexual orientation.

“Each person should be free to receive Biblical and spiritual counseling from the pastor of their choice to help them orient their sexuality,” said John W Mauck from Mauck and Baker LLC.

Most recently, a Texas teen was forced into a “pray away the gay” boarding school after she tried to take her girlfriend to the prom. The litigation in her case is ongoing and the court documents have been sealed, but she was ultimately released, after trying to escape.

Pastors, go fuck yourselves, please. You aren’t offering comfort, aid, or help. You’re looking for governmental help in kidnapping, imprisoning, and torturing people. While that’s certainly biblical, it has no place among thinking, compassionate, rational people who are living in the 21st century.

Via Raw story.

That Is Pathetic.

nom

“That is pathetic.” I haven’t heard such a lovely sentence in quite a long time.

It’s been just over a year since same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in the US, and it turns out the fundraising buckets at homophobic anti-equality campaigns are looking a little empty.

National Organization for Marriage, the main US group opposing same-sex marriage, has launched a desperate plea for cash from its dwindling supporters.

And halfway through the campaign, it looks like it’s not going very well.

‘We’re now three weeks into our drive — the halfway point — and we have only received 256 contributions from our members. We’re only 17% toward our goal of receiving 1,500 membership contributions of at least $35,’ Brian Brown, the president of NOM, said in an email to the group’s supporters.

‘That is pathetic.

‘Unless this situation improves drastically right away, NOM will have little choice but to cut some of the critical programs we have underway and not pursue some of our most important work to protect you and other supporters of marriage from being targeted by LGBT extremists and their allies in government.’

NOM then lists all the horrific homophobic and transphobic things they would like to do if they only had the funds to get rid of that pesky ‘equality’ laws. He blames ‘LGBT extremists’.

That includes influencing Congress to pass a First Amendment Defense Act, which is similar to the ‘religious freedom’ law in Indiana that caused such outrage, and as well as fighting ‘President Obama’s dangerous gender “identity” agenda”.

‘I really don’t believe — I just can’t imagine the thought — that NOM’s members have quit fighting for the institution of marriage as a union between man and woman,’ Brown said.

‘And yet, only 256 of you have responded with an urgently needed membership contribution during this critical period.’

‘If NOM has to scale back, the fight for marriage and religious liberty is seriously weakened,’ he added.

It looks like NOM is finally dying, and that’s a very good thing. I suspect the reason for that though, is that conservatives are seeing an easier to attain road with all the current religious liberty laws, so it’s not like the fight is over in the least. That said, I couldn’t be happier to see the ugliness that is NOM wither away. It’s about time.

Via Gay Star News.

Trump Confederacy in Kissimmee.

confederate-flag-at-the-trump-rally-x750

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The most controversial moment of a Donald Trump rally here Thursday night may have come before the bombastic candidate took the stage. For a solid 20 minutes, a Confederate flag with the words “Trump 2016” hung from the railing in the Silver Spurs Arena.

It was easily visible even as public figures like Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Pastor Mark Burns gave warm-up speeches before the Republican presidential nominee took the stage. Then minutes before Trump began his speech, organizers asked the supporters who brought the flag into the venue to furl it.

The imagery harkens back to a heated debate throughout the South over the flag’s racist meaning after another mass shooting, in Charleston, S.C., which ended with the flag being removed from the capitol grounds. It also harkens back to a New York Times video that recently went viral that recorded unfiltered remarks by Trump supporters that were unabashedly racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic. Confederate symbolism makes an apperance there as well.

The media doesn’t often focus on the attitude of the Trump crowds. Even in this latest case, as tends to happen at Trump rallies, such symbolism got brushed aside as the crowd got whipped up over other matters.

[…]

Most importantly, Trump was speaking in a suburb of Orlando two months after the Pulse massacre and hours after meeting with pastors and evangelicals during an event critics have called an anti-LGBT gathering. Trump made mention of the Orlando attack, saying more people should have reported shooter Omar Mateen to the FBI: “People knew he was demented.” In fact, Mateen was interviewed multiple times by the FBI based on complaints placed by those who knew him.

Clearly building off the closed-door discussions with leaders at the American Renewal Project conference in Orlando earlier in the day, Trump appealed to social conservatives in the room. “The evangelicals took me to a point that I never even thought we could reach,” he said. “All around the country we did well.”

The Advocate has the full story. Speaking of the intense anti-LGBT gathering in Orlando, again, Marco Rubio just will not shut up about being a keynote speaker, and keeps on attempting to defend his stance, while at the same time, telling people not to be judgmental. Hypocrisy knows no limit where Rubio is concerned:

 

ORLANDO — In a speech laden with scripture, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio on Friday compelled church leaders at a conference here to “abandon the spirit of judgment” against LGBT neighbors. The remarks came on the two-month anniversary of a shooting at the Pulse night club located about 10 miles from the religious gathering.

[…]

Rubio was the headline speaker for The American Renewal Project’s two-day event in Orlando, and on Friday devoted much of a 30-minute speech to encouraging preachers to create an accepting environment free of discrimination. “In order to love people, we have to listen to them,” he said. “When it comes to our brothers and our sisters, our fellow Americans, our neighbors in the LGBT community, we should recognize that our nation, while the greatest nation in the history of  mankind, is one with a history that has been marred by the discrimination against and the rejection of gays and lesbians.”

He also emphasized his continued opposition to marriage equality, saying his faith called for the elevation of the “union of one man and one woman.” But he said Christian leaders should understand many gays and lesbians felt “angry and humiliated” that the law until recently did not recognize their own loving relationships. “Many have experienced sometimes severe condemnation and judgment from some Christians,” Rubio said. “They have heard some say that the reason God will bring condemnation on America is because of them. As if somehow God was willing to put up with adultery and gluttony and greed and pride, but now this is the last straw.”

[…]

Rubio’s anti-LGBT record is lengthy. The senator doesn’t support the Equality Act proposed in Congress, for example. It would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the 1967 Civil Rights Act, ensuring protection from discrimination in housing and employment. When he had a chance to vote in 2013, Rubio voted against passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which some moderate Republicans helped pass 64-32 in the Senate, though it would stall in the House. But his discriminatory policy stands don’t stop there. Rubio has in the past said letting LGBT people adopt children is a “social experiment” that he opposes. He also opposed reversing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that required LGBT people to stay closeted while serving in the U.S. military.

The Advocate has the full story.

You’ll know they are Christian by their love…

Dr. Paul Hard.

Dr. Paul Hard.

It happened in Alabama, and as the Chief Justice Roy Moore was speaking after being suspended for defying the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling.

He will go on trial in September.

A few hundred feet away from Moore’s speech to crowds with many holding signs like ‘homosexuality destroy families’ and ‘sodomy ruins nations’, there was an alternative press conference organized by the Human Rights Campaign.

Among the people speaking there were people like Dr Paul Hard, who has been involved in a legal fight for his husband who died five years ago to be recognized as his husband.

And when he began to speak about his partner’s death, a man in the crowd laughed.

‘You can’t have a husband,’ he said.

John Archibald, a columnist who was there at the conference, asked: ‘How can any man, no matter his position on Roy Moore or any issue, stand before another and mock his pain?

‘How can one stand under the banner of God and laugh at another man’s death?

‘How — in the name of God — can one deride genuine grief?’

He added: ‘Christians cannot let these people define their religion. All they have is volume. As a substitute for moral authority.’

https://vine.co/v/5bihOImElmJ

Lovely, isn’t it, how Christians behave? If they don’t like something, they can be as ugly and immoral as they like, smug in their sense of self-righteousness. They should be busy cultivating a sense of shame. If you aren’t one of those very ugly Christians, where are your voices? Get busy, and drown these assholes out, put them down, tell them in no uncertain terms that they are not Christians, regardless of them sharing the same beliefs.

Via Gay Star News.

International Left Handers Day!

Left

August 13th is International Left Handers Day, and that should be something celebratory and fun, but for a great many children, it’s anything but. At Intransitive, left0ver1under is doing a 7 day series on why this is an important issue which needs attention.

Why is left handedness an important social justice issue?  Because those most affected are children, and there is no one who speaks out for them.  It’s not a “first world problem” – the countries where it happens most are in Asia, Africa and muslim countries, where use of the left hand is deemed “shameful” and “disrespectful”, where “corporal punishment” is still inflicted on children.  In South America and many Eastern European countries, it is still seen as “problem that needs correction”.

But even in wealthy and supposedly “enlightened” countries, it’s still an issue.  I have found a grand total of *one* teacher training program (Stephen F. Austin University in Texas) where teachers are taught how to teach left handed handwriting.  Everywhere else, they say, “Just copy what the right handers do.”  Poor training in writing skills affects speed, learning and testing at school.  Left handed kids are getting a second class education.  And that’s without mentioning the design of classroom furniture or stationery….

Visit Intransitive, and spend some time on the sinister side.

P.S. If you’re having a difficult time with the image, note that it’s the print of the inside of a left hand. If you hold up your left hand to the monitor, it will magically match! :D Or you could have fun, and coat your left palm and fingers with paint, and do a print.

John Lott: Oh So Fraudulent.

JOhn_Lott_screencap-800x430

Think Progress has an excellent, in depth look at the fall and rise of John Lott, the so-called academic of the NRA and gun fondlers everywhere. Apparently, his fraudulent, unethical past has not stopped people from taking this scary side quack seriously, once again.

The United States seems to be in a perpetual cycle mourning mass shootings in the country. This year alone, there have already been 233 mass shootings, where four or more victims were shot, leaving 310 dead and 930 injured. But every time another shooting happens, advocates pop up arguing that more guns don’t actually lead to more violence and stall the much-needed conversation about gun control.

John Lott is, if not the most influential, certainly the most prolific “academic” in the gun debate. He has authored weekly columns in local newspapers on the horrors of gun free zones, published widely-distributed books on the ostensible benefits of right-to-carry laws, and his newest book The War on Guns has received rave reviews by prominent conservatives, like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Newt Gingrich.

Before Lott’s flurry of activity, it was difficult to find anybody arguing that widespread gun ownership made societies safer — even the NRA was reticent to make such a bold claim, defending gun ownership with reference to the constitution, not criminology.

But Lott’s recent successes belie a far more shadowy past. A little over a decade ago, he was disgraced and his career was in tatters. Not only was Lott’s assertion that more guns leads to more safety formally repudiated by a National Research Council panel, but he had also been caught pushing studies with severe statistical errors on numerous occasions. An investigation uncovered that he had almost certainly fabricated an entire survey on defensive gun use. And a blogger revealed that Mary Rosh, an online commentator claiming to be a former student of Lott’s who would frequently post about how amazing he was, was in fact John Lott himself. He was all but excommunicated from academia.

Despite his ethical failings, Lott rose from the ashes in the wake of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School to once more become a prominent voice in the gun debate.

Perhaps unaware of Lott’s previous transgressions, or believing he had turned a new page by founding the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), many in the media who were desperate for an authoritative, pro-gun academic voice seized on Lott’s credentials and provided him with a new platform. In the past few years, Lott and his organization have been cited by dozens of media outlets as an authority on gun violence statistics, including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Politifact, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and many others.

However, the media’s newfound faith in John Lott is deeply misguided. Rather than turn a new page, Lott has instead returned to his old playbook and used his platform to deceive the public. Our own multi-year investigation into Lott and his organization has uncovered a startling array of new ethical violations, ranging from the profoundly bizarre to the outright fraudulent.

Devin Hughes and Evan DeFilippis have a breakdown of the five most troubling incidents at Think Progress. Highly recommended reading, because way too many people believe this absolute bullshit, clinging to it, because this confirms what they so desperately want to believe, that the good cowboy with the gun can come blazing in to save the day against any odds, no matter how overwhelming. In a country so stuffed with guns, it doesn’t do to simply dismiss the high amount of fantasists with guns, they are dangerous, and becoming more dangerous every day, and it’s well to remember that many of those gun happy fantasists are cops, who play their little fantasies out every day. It pays to be well informed, especially when it comes to a con-man happily shilling for the NRA, and assuring all those fantasists they are so very right.

Full story here.

Diagnosing Tea Party Style.

Dr. Jane Orient (Screen cap via NewsMax TV).

Dr. Jane Orient (Screen cap via NewsMax TV).

On Wednesday, pro-Trump website Breitbart published Dr. Jane Orient’s unfounded speculation that Hillary Clinton could be “medically unfit to serve,” referring to Dr. Orient as the “executive director of a physicians’ organization.”

AAPS is a small nonprofit organization with Tea Party ties that prioritizes “individual liberty, personal responsibility, [and] limited government.” Their journal, as Mother Jones reported, has published articles suggesting that abortion causes breast cancer, that vaccines cause autism, and that AIDS is not caused by HIV. (Breitbart, naturally, has publishedarticles lending credence to at least two of these disproven theories.)

The AAPS also has a long history with the Clintons as well. The organization’s “About” page prominently features its opposition to the 1993 Clinton health care plan. In fact, the organization spent the better part of the ’90s embroiled in litigation against the former first lady, first suing her in 1993 to gain access to the records of the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. Eventually, in 1999, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Clinton administration.

[…]

Orient is quite the Trump fan, which of course, make her long distance diagnoses perfectly okay, yessir.

“Surely [Trump’s] style can be abrasive and blunt,” she wrote. “But a huge number of ordinary Americans cheer him, probably because he said what they were thinking.”

Her praise for Trump supporters continues: “They are sick of being pushed around and disrespected by the politically correct crowd who are hypersensitive about almost everything—but constantly spew profane, obscene, and vulgar language that demeans American and Christian culture and blames it for all the world’s evil.”

[…]

In her blog post, Orient repeats the usual conspiracy theories about the former Secretary of State’s physical condition. First, she comments on the photograph of Clinton supposedly having difficulty with a set of stairs, which was actually taken after an accidental slip.

“Did she simply trip?” Orient asks. And then, breathlessly: “Or was it a seizure or a stroke?”

In addition to that bit of grossly unethical speculation, Orient uses circuitous, Trump-esque phrasing to paint a picture of an ailing Clinton.

Instead of using the signature Trump phrase “many people are saying,” for example, Orient says that “it is widely stated that [Clinton] experienced a fall that caused a concussion” (emphasis added). She opines that certain videos of the Democratic nominee, “if authentic,” are “very concerning.” And she packs a mouthful of qualifiers into her claim that an object in a Secret Service agent’s hand “purportedly might have been an autoinjector of Valium” (emphasis added).

[…]

The irony of Orient adding fuel to that fire is that she herself is critical in the blog post of people who are “tossing out psychiatric diagnoses” such as narcissistic personality disorder to criticize Trump. …But even when asked why she would critique lay diagnoses of Trump if she engages in speculation about Clinton, Orient insisted that her choice was not unethical or hypocritical.

“Asking questions based on observable events is not engaging in unfounded speculation,” she told The Daily Beast. “I feel it would be irresponsible to ‘choose’ not to raise important questions.”

Via The Daily Beast.

Facebook, Oh Facebook, Part V.

Corey Multer (LinkedIn)

Corey Multer (LinkedIn)

Content Warning: contains social media posts that some may find offensive.

Yet another person who just could not manage to reign in their bigotry and hatred. This time it’s one Corey Multer, a managing director for New York Life Insurance Co. Well, make that former managing director. It looks like New York Life Insurance makes a concerted effort to be a diverse company, but any person of colour working with or near Mr. Multer couldn’t have had an easy time of it, given his attitude and views.

Shanelle Matthews, director of communications with the Black Lives Matter organization, was verbally attacked on Facebook by Corey Multer, a managing director of New York Life Insurance Co.

Multer wrote:

You f–king racist pig whore. The world would be a much better place if you jumped in front of a moving train. Die!

facebook

Ms. Matthews had quite the response, and it was most excellent. For those of you who aren’t on facebook, her complete response is under the fold.

After a brief back and forth with New York Life Insurance, this was tweeted:

Good for Ms. Matthews for fighting the good fight, and refusing to back down. And good on New York Life Insurance Co too, for putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak.

[Read more…]

Where the Confederacy Is Rising Again.

static2.politico.com

John Savage at Politico has an in-depth article about the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who not only continue their constant fight to keep confederate statues, symbols, and flags in place and protected, but are now planning a massive confederate monument, at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Orange’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, in the town of Orange, East Texas. Nothing subtle about that.

…Throughout this tempest, the Texas chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an aging army of deeply religious, federal government distrusting, neo-Confederate true believers, has emerged as a steadfast defender of Confederate iconography. The Texas SCV only claims about 5,000 members, but their ideology carries significant weight in the state. SCV members sued the University of Texas in an effort to stop the removal of the Jefferson Davis statue. They distributed more than 1,000 Confederate flags in Fort Worth after the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo banned the Confederate battle flag. Wherever someone wants to rename a school or remove a statue that honors the Confederacy, the SCV’s members soon follow.

But the Texas SCV is not only fighting against the disappearance of Confederate symbolism, they are behind the construction of what is likely the largest Confederate memorial built in a century — a multi-ton shrine nearing completion in an east Texas town near the Louisiana border. For the SCV, this battle is not just about protecting a Confederate heritage, it’s about resurrecting it, restoring that heritage so that they will continue to have something to protect.

[…]

Jim Toungate is the adjutant of the Williamson County chapter of the Texas SCV, and Savage had a long interview with him at his residence.

[Read more…]