Via Darren Smith, I learn that Iceland has repealed its blasphemy laws. The bill that was introduced by the Pirate Party (how cool is it to have such a party in parliament?) and passed by an almost unanimous vote repealed Article 125 that stated that, “Anyone who publicly ridicules or insults the dogmas or worship of a lawful religious community in Iceland, shall be fined or imprisoned for up to 3 months.”
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As America celebrates the anniversary of its declaration of independence from England today, we will hear many expressions of patriotism. Mixed in with all of them will be sentiments that suggest that America is god’s favorite country. These sentiments are repeated all the time in public life and are pretty much obligatory for any politician in the US running for elected office. Anyone who as much as hints that perhaps god does not care much for national boundaries would be doomed to defeat.
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As the number of presidential candidates keeps rising (14 Republicans and 5 Democrats so far), their attempts to distinguish themselves from the others are getting more and more desperate and pathetic, especially on the Republican side. Meanwhile the merchandising and marketing tactics range from just simply crass to ridiculous.
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After celebrating the good decisions by the US Supreme Court on Obamacare and same-sex marriage, the next day Jon Stewart and The Daily Show team looked at two other decisions that conservatives are hailing as good news, that will either allow companies to more easily pollute the air or will kill death row inmates more painfully.
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The self-described democratic socialist running for the Democratic nomination for president is surprising political observers with the crowds that are turning up for his rallies. Yesterday saw 10,000 people packing a stadium in Madison, Wisconsin to cheer his basic message of challenging the oligarchic control of the US by “raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, bridging the gap between rich and poor, criminal justice reform and raising taxes on the wealthy and Wall Street.”
The religious right has been successful at chipping away at the right of women to get abortions and contraceptives, putting in one restriction after another. The US Supreme Court has generally gone along with these moves but at the very end of the past term the court issued two rulings that, at least in the short term, seemed to go the other way.
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Both The Daily Show and The Nightly Show celebrated the decisions on Obamacare and same-sex marriage made fun of the dire warnings of the opponents that these developments heralded the coming of the Apocalypse.
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The Girl Scout organization has been a progressive leader in LGBT rights. Unlike the Boy Scouts who have to be dragged kicking and screaming to accept gays as equals, the Girl Scouts have been way ahead of the curve in standing up for what is right and continue to do so.
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The next stage in the war waged by same-sex marriage opponents is becoming clear. Forget the bluster about passing a constitutional amendment specifically banning it or impeaching the supreme court justices who voted in favor of it and replacing them with justices who will vote in the opposite way. Those things will never, ever happen and are just red meat thrown out to the rubes by politicians to get them all riled up.
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Now that same-sex marriage is the law of the land, the next frontier is obtaining justice for the transgender community, the ‘T’ in LGBT. The discrimination they face is terrible. But apart from the major hurdles and cruelties they experience, they also face many indignities, such as how people feel that they can ask them the most intimate questions.
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