In a post two days ago, I expressed puzzlement about why some were so cruel towards transgender people, harassing them unmercifully. I suggested that they may have felt somehow threatened by them, though I could not see why. Now from the mouth of the odious Rush Limbaugh commenting on Caitlyn Jenner, we get a further clue.
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After much manufactured drama, the USA Freedom Act (which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection and Online Monitoring) has been signed into law by president Obama, modifying key provisions of the USA Patriot Act (which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism).
As I have said before, you know that any legislation that has such contrived and tortured acronyms has to be a piece of rubbish intended to either hide something truly noxious or is utterly useless and is meant to provide window dressing to hide inaction.
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And so we have senator Lindsey Graham, a man who is perpetually terrified that all of us are going to die from one catastrophe or another, announcing that he too is entering the race for the Republican nomination for president. This was undoubtedly good news for The Daily Show, to be exceeded in its comedic potential only by Donald Trump also joining the race.
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One of the best ways for a nation to develop is to provide equal opportunities for education for its girls, followed closely by easy availability to clean water and sanitation, the latter two being important factors in improving health and life expectancy. Although education for girls may seem to be an unmitigated good, there are many factors that work against it.
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As we all know, Christians are a highly persecuted group in the US, forced against their deeply held beliefs to not discriminate against the LGBT community. The situation has got so bad that various states are passing their own versions of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to provide relief to this beleaguered group. Indiana is one of those states that passed such legislation and the governor of the state Mike Pence signed it into law
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I am about two-thirds of the way through the fascinating book The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI by Betty Medsger that deals with the 1971 break-in to the FBI offices in Media, PA by a group of eight anti-war and civil rights activists who took away all the files and then revealed all those that showed that the FBI was engaged in all manner of illegal activities, such as spying on and harassing people who were engaged in purely legal actions of dissent and maintaining extensive dossiers on thousands of people. Medsger uses that story as a springboard to also write a comprehensive true history of the FBI as revealed by the documents and subsequent discoveries as opposed to the myths that the agency cultivated. (See here, here, and here for earlier posts on this topic.)
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There are some encouraging signs that Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the Democratic nomination is picking up support. He is drawing large crowds during his first visit to Iowa, surprising pundits and causing them to take notice.
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The recent murders of three secular bloggers Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman, and Ananta Bijoy Das in Bangladesh by religious extremists purportedly linked to al Qaeda have resulted in serious concerns for the safety of others who are still there. One of the FtB bloggers Taslima Nasrin lived in India and had also been targeted with death threats. Given the recent history in that part of the world, this was not a threat to be taken lightly and the local police did not inspire confidence in their ability to protect her.
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When critics of the Iraq war condemn it and criticize those who started it and the others who acted as cheerleaders, supporters frequently come back with what they feel is the ultimate argument clincher, that the world is better without Saddam Hussein and so for that reason alone the decision to invade was the correct one, even if subsequent events have resulted in a disastrous situation.
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Jon Oliver of Last Week Tonight thinks that the arrests of top FIFA officials for widespread corruption does not go nearly far enough and has launched one of his campaigns, this time calling for the removal of its long time head Sepp Blatter, which he says could be facilitated by major sponsors withdrawing their support for FIFA.
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