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POPSStill Second Class Citizens “There’s a perception in Washington that you can throw little bits of partial equality to gay people and that gay people will be satisfied with that. Gay Americans aren’t just another political special interest group. They are Americans who are actively discriminated against by federal laws. If the president is to properly honor the memory of Stonewall, he should get up to speed on what happened there 40 years ago, when courageous kids who had nothing, not even a public acknowledgment of their existence, stood up to make history happen in the least likely of places."
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POPSAn Open Letter "Every day, LGBT Americans face discrimination and are being denied their constitutional rights. There is no one in public life who could, and based on your stated principles and promises should, do more to move America forward toward becoming a country in which LGBT people are respected and treated as fully equal under our Constitution and laws. We ask for your leadership and voice. When you lead, we will back you with every bit of heart and determination we can muster."
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POPSWhy Do Some Straights Fear Gays? Of course, this article is written in 2007, but I feel it addresses the fear I still see perpetuated about the recent Hate Crimes legislation that was signed by our President. We still have a long way to go as a society and I want to thank every person on CM who speaks out against hate.
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POPSHow Polygamy Causes Wars The only defense Islam has been able to construct for itself is to recruit these unattached males, inculcate them into the religion, and convince them that if they turn their violence and sexual frustrations outward¸ they will be rewarded with "70 virgins in heaven." This is how the ranks of martyrs and suicide bombers are created. When Muslim warriors proclaim, "We love death," they are not kidding. In a polygamous Islamic society, some men's lives have very little intrinsic value. They are literally better off seeking death. Monogamy is the social contract that lies at the heart of the relatively peaceful societies of Europe and the Orient. It is no accident that Islam has "bloody borders" with both these civilizations. We practice different social customs that give human life very different values. If the UN wanted to something really useful, it would declare reproductive equality a "human right" and ban polygamy throughout the world.
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POPSWhat does it mean to be an American? This 10-year-old boy gets it More: After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down…Each day, the substitute got a little more cross with him. On Thursday, it finally came to a head… Will was sent to the office… At the end of our interview, I ask young Will a question that might be a civics test nightmare for your average 10-year-old. Will's answer, though, is good enough — simple enough, true enough — to give me a little rush of goose pimples. What does being an American mean? “Freedom of speech,” Will says, without even stopping to think. “The freedom to disagree. That's what I think pretty much being an American represents.” Somewhere, Thomas Jefferson smiles.
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POPSEuropean Court bans classroom crucifixes "Those societies which cannot combine reverence to their symbols with freedom and revision, must ultimately decay either from anarchy, or from the slow atrophy of a life stifled by useless shadows" - A.N. Whitehead
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POPSAmerica a Rude Nation? Debating Public Decency Experts point to a variety of reasons for the apparent fall in civil standards: 1) The recession has placed many under heavy stress 2) The rise of the internet has fostered confrontational and provocative communications in which people get used to saying things they may never once have dared to utter face-to-face. These may be conditions that allow rudeness to rear its ugly head, but they are not excuses for it. Rudeness is rooted in lack of civility. If you don’t respect other people’s ideas, opinions, equality as compared to yourself, or simply their right to exist, it will be easy for you to resort to rudeness towards that person and you will be considered uncivil. We have been losing our civility for a long time now and I believe it is due to a lack of respect for others and ourselves.
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POPSMore Race-based policies from the Obama administration
His entrance into the dust-up between a Massachusetts police officer and Dr. Henry Gates proves that as far as our President is concerned, if you're white, you're not right. He played the race-card in a grand Presidential trump, accusing a white cop of violating a black man's rights. He refused to even consider that his friend, the esteemed doctor, behaved like a titty baby. The Administration's own numbers show that rural America is a diverse community. There is no need for Government intervention. Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center acknowledges that the rise in "hate" groups is astounding, in the last five years, we’ve seen a 30% increase in the number of hate groups. There you have it. All those years of Government mandated affirmative action programs have failed. If the goal was to improve racial relations, they missed it by a country mile. Further proof that the last thing the rural community needs is a bunch of liberal urbanites dictating how we live.
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POPSExposing the Colour of Prejudice John Howard Griffin was a remarkable man. As a Texan teenager who found himself in France at the outbreak of World War II, he helped to smuggle Jewish children to safety and freedom. He then served with distinction in the US Air Force in the Pacific. And then, after the war - when illness struck him blind for 10 years while he was still relatively young - he became a prolific writer. It was after his sight returned that he hit upon the idea of Black Like Me, the work which is his most important legacy. The whole business of racial impersonation might make us feel vaguely uncomfortable now, but in 1959 a black writer simply could not have found an audience for such a graphic portrayal of African-American grievance. Griffin's grim adventures as a black man in a white man's world are worth reading. They remain a set text for many American high school children.
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POPSMichael Kimmel: Why I am a feminist More: The biggest mistake we make is to assume - and men often think this - that gender equality is a zero-sum game. That if women win, then men are going to lose. And I think what we have to do is to show people that feminism is a win-win. I think we can do that at the personal level in terms of the quality of our relationships with our children, our partners and our friends, and also in terms of public policy.
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POPSLetter To TheWhiteHouse ~ re:TV MediaNews You've been trying to suppress the free marketplace of ideas since your primary campaign and you are still doing it. You guys are sooooo obvious. Why be afraid to go on FOX and, if they are wrong about you, set them straight? It seems like if you had real faith in your agenda, and if conservatives' notions of what you're up to are way off base, you'd be confident to go look people in the eye and calmly tell them where they are wrong about you, why they are wrong about your extremist associates and appointments, and clear up the issues. You could explain that your advisors aren't students of Mao, Marx, Alinsky and that you understand America is not where we forcibly "redistribute the wealth" for it's own sake.
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POPSProp 8 lawyer admits he doesn't know how same-sex marriage would threaten opposite-sex marriage More: Walker pressed on, asking again for specific "adverse consequences" that could follow expanding marriage to include same-sex couples. Cooper cited a study from the Netherlands, where gay marriage is legal, showing that straight couples were increasingly opting to become domestic partners instead of getting married. "Has that been harmful to children in the Netherlands? What is the adverse effect?" Walker asked. Cooper said he did not have the facts at hand. "But it is not self-evident that there is no chance of any harm, and the people of California are entitled not to take the risk," he said. "Since when do Constitutional rights rest on the proof of no harm?" Walker parried, adding the First Amendment right to free speech protects activities that many find offensive, "but we tolerate those in a free society."
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POPSCompletely Logical Anti-Gay 'Traditional Marriage' Advocates in Maine Want All Children Watching Their New Ad to Know About Gay Sex
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POPSRape Is Not A Game Recommended Actions Please write to the Japanese government officials below, calling on them to comply with Japan’s obligations under CEDAW, including the recent strong exhortation of the CEDAW Committee to ban games and cartoons that normalize and promote sexual violence against women and girls. In your letter to the Minister of Justice ask her also to inquire about the requested investigation into the apparent gang rape video sent by Equality Now to the Tokyo police department, and ask that her office investigates this and other actual rape videos to ensure that all those involved are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Please also continue to write to Illusion Software asking it to withdraw immediately from sale all games which involve rape, stalking or other forms of sexual violence or which otherwise denigrate women.
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POPSAnimated ‘Astro Boy’: Marxism Aimed at Your Kids? Try ‘Astro Boy,’ the upcoming animated film featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage and Kristen Bell about a boy robot (Freddie Highmore) that leaves his scientist father after finding out he isn’t human. The movie features very adult ideas of ownership and class structure that will most likely be future fodder for college philosophy classes around the country.
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POPSAndrew Sullivan: "Much Worse Than I Expected" So Andy has finally decided that Barry is a liar. Well, duh. What exactly in part of his campaign made him think he was a stand-up kinda guy? His tie to terrorists? His racist and hateful minister? Too bad for Andy he doesn't have Sarah Palin to trash for kicks to take his mind off of Obama's lying butt. Gross, I can't believe I actually agree with Andy the Clown.
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POPSHouse Votes To Expand Hate Crime Laws The proposed expansion would include crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It eases restrictions on federally protected activities. The FBI says there are some 8,000 hate crimes reported around the country in a year. More than half of those are motivated by racial bias. Next most frequent are crimes based on religious bias at around 18 percent and sexual orientation at 16 percent. Hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group, usually defined by race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation. "Hate crime" generally refers to criminal acts which are seen to have been motivated by hatred of one or more of the listed conditions. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, or offensive graffiti or letters.
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POPSI am me, all day every day More: It doesn't take away my freedom - curbs do that, building steps do that. I cannot blame my disability for the actions of others. There are some who treat me vastly differently, true. But I never stopped being me, they stopped being them. I refuse to take responsibility for anothers decision.
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POPSPenalized At Work For Being A Mom Here's one piece of irony to consider. Research has shown that employers actually prefer fathers to childless men. Unlike working mothers, they are perceived to be more stable.
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POPSThe Power of Women 70 percent of the 1.4 billion people in the world who live on less than $1.00 a day are women. Find out why.