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POPSBigotry Sanctioned by Religion The question is one of privilege over bigotry. Should certain Christian sects be allowed to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation? The theists claim they are simply following their holy book which they contend makes the practice of prejudice and bigotry against gays and lesbians legitimate. They cling to their repeatedly refuted dogma that the "homosexual lifestyle" is something voluntary. Their argument? The Bible says it's so. This anti-reality viewpoint is not confined to sexual orientation. It is seen in a general anti-intellectualism and distrust of science. No wonder that a growing segment of the public are beginning to see through this and respond accordingly.
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POPSA brief PSA on language More: You don’t have to take the brunt of it. You don’t have to deal with the negative consequences. You don’t have to face employment discrimination, street harassment, caretaker abuse, and other people’s general cluelessness about our lives. You get to sit tight in your privilege, enjoying it without even realizing you’re doing it.… We’re the ones who are putting our safety on the line trying to change the cultural system that oppresses us. Two seconds to reconsidering what you’re really trying to say? Easy. Changing other people’s deep-seated attitudes? Really damn hard. How do you think we feel when you complain that two seconds is just tooooo haaaaard for you to take on?
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POPSBigotry on Display I read the entire document yesterday and found it to be riddled with false information, barely disguised hatred, and blatant prejudice. If this represents the thinking of religious leaders today than it's a sad commentary indeed.
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POPSContrast - Press Release vs Actual News This is a press release. A careful reading shows the lengths the publishers will go to increase sales. It clearly frames the "authors" (quotes are for ridicule) as somehow victims of the angry hordes of evil atheists gathering outside the town's walls waving pitchforks and torches. This approach probably will be successful. It plays right into the Religious Rights perceptions of persecution and prejudice.
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POPSAnd he ends with Pascal's Wager I run into people like this quite frequently. They're not necessarily bad people, except for their bigotry and prejudice. Yet I'm continually amazed at the breadth of their ignorance.
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POPSMarine reservist attacks Greek priest with tire iron, says "He's a terrorist!"
More: An exterior surveillance video of Tuesday's chase captured the two men in motion… "You see a very short, small man running, and an enormous, large muscular man chasing after him." This is what police say happened at 6:35 p.m. Monday: The priest's GPS gave him the wrong directions, leading him off Interstate 275 and into downtown Tampa. He followed a line of cars into a garage at the Seaport Channelside condominium to ask for help. He found Bruce, whose back was turned, bending over the trunk of his car, and he tapped his shoulder before saying, in broken English, "please" and "help." That's when Bruce reached for the tire iron. Police say that by the end of the chase, he had hit the priest four times… say that the priest was disoriented when they found him at the corner of Madison and Meridian avenues, but a translator at Tampa General Hospital helped him communicate. And that the GPS corroborates the priest's story.
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POPSThe The "The Beat(en) Generation" And our youth, oh youth, are being seduced By the greedy hands of politics and half truths The beaten generation, the beaten generation Reared on a diet of prejudice and misinformation The beaten generation, the beaten generation Open your eyes, open your imagination We're being sedated by the gasoline fumes And hypnotised by the satellites Into believing what is good and what is right You may be worshipping the temples of mammon Or lost in the prisons of religion But can you still walk back to happiness When you've nowhere left to run? If they send in the special police To deliver us from evil and keep us from peace Then won't the words sit ill upon their tongues When they tell us justice is being done That freedom lives in the barrels of a warm gun? The beaten generation, the beaten generation Reared on a diet of prejudice and misinformation The beaten generation, the beaten generation Open your eyes, open your imagination
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POPS10% US Mosques preach Jihad The problem is not the Quran, which is no more incendiary than some passages in the Bible. (Deuteronomy, for example, prescribes stoning to death for those who “served other gods and worshipped them.”) The problem is the radical element that uses the Quran as an excuse to engage in terrorism and the failure of many moderate Muslims to condemn the extremists.
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POPSDown Under Bigotry At first I thought this must be a parody piece but then I read that it was written by the vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University. A simple substitution of just about any minority in the place of atheists reveals the blatant prejudice and bigotry shown by this fine Christian.
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POPSParisians ashamed of being from Paris The whole affair came to light when the French authorities decided to introduce new license plates that displayed the symbol of the country's departments, and not only the number of the department as previously. Moreover, the French can now choose any department they like- it does not have to be their actual place of residence. It soon turned out that the residents of Paris preferred to choose plates other than Parisian ones. As a result, the number of Parisian plates has declined by 60% since April 2009. The decline in license plates has also been reported in Hauts-de-Seine department near Paris. It is a place where the richest people in the country live. Also many residents of Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the poorest departments near Paris, have decided to hide their place of residence, as "bad address" often makes it difficult to get a good job.
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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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POPSTown Hall protesters are nativists, not racists More: Just consider how utterly stupid and idiotic conservatives seem to serious Democrats when they smugly tell each other that progressives and Democrats are all really “fascists” because they support a variety of mild social-democratic polices. Within their closed ideological bubble the conservatives feel quite certain that they have achieved a deep psychological insight by recognizing that latent Adolph Hitlers lie just beneath the surface of everyone from Teddy Kennedy to Robert Redford and Jane Goodall. They actually sit around and pat themselves on the back for their penetrating aptitude at psychological analysis. This is exactly how stupid progressives and Democrats appear to culturally conservative Americans when they label as “racism” beliefs that these Americans know are in reality vastly different and more complex.
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POPSBlack SAS war hero who held off 250 rebels single-handed
With no cover and facing certain death, he sprinted across 800 metres of exposed ground to reach a 25-pound field-gun. It was a brave - but apparently futile manouevre - as the huge weapon took three men to operate. That, however, did not deter Labalaba. Nor did facial injuries which would have rendered a lesser man helpless. As British forces watched in astonishment, Labalaba turned the cumbersome gun on the enemy and opened fire at near point blank range. He went on for six hours, decimating the rebels and ultimately paying for his courage with his life. His comrades found him slumped face down by the massive gun. His selfless actions undoubtedly saved many of the British soldiers holed up inside the fort and won him a posthumous Mention in Despatches. For many, his statue will be a long-overdue memorial to one of the SAS's greatest heroes. It is also some small recompense to thousands of ethnic minority servicemen, many from Commonwealth countries, who feel their
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POPSYou Can't Have A Picnic Without Ants. “Don’t feed the troll” Simple and surefire rule. Trolls feed on your reactions. Ignore them. Put comments under moderation. This way you can approve or disapprove of inappropriate comments. Don’t be overly sensitive just because they go against what you stood for. Debate is healthy. Ban them. If you have persistent trolls, you might just want to block them. This way they will not be able to wreck havoc as they please. If you remove a post, aren't you preventing free speech? Discussion boards are by design a forum for open communication, a place where the community is encouraged to freely discuss its opinions. Only remove troll posts when they become disruptive to open communication. A troll is actually silencing the voice of a majority of the community members. Ask the troll to take their comments elsewhere.
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POPSJustice of the Peace Bardwell is wrong that mixed-race children suffer because they are mixed-race More: These desires and questions don't change just because your parents are from different racial backgrounds. And they certainly don't get easier if your parents are from different faiths, different parts of the world, different ... you name it. So Mr. Bardwell is just simply ridiculous if he thinks he's thinking about the children. Yes, children go through tough times, but we are resilient. Even more important, we learn from our challenges -- and I think we become better people. Because I am of mixed race, I cannot simply stick to stereotypes of how one racial or ethnic group behave. I must look at each individual independent of what I think -- and I think that assessment happens when people look at me and try to figure out what I'm all about. This process of not jumping to conclusions, of really viewing people on some deeper level, makes me a better person. And I think it could work for you, Mr. Bardwell.
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POPSResearch: Stereotypes Loom Larger As Our Brains Age More: The second paper… contains a way around this problem.… "with explicit labeling, older adults were able to discount their stereotypes and avoid processing difficulties when subsequent stereotype-inconsistent information was encountered… when counter-stereotypical information is explicitly provided at encoding (that is, the first stage of the memory process, in which stimuli are initially registered), older adults are no more likely than younger adults to rely on stereotypes, and are similarly capable of altering their interpretation of a situation when information suggests that information is incorrect." In real life, of course, no one is pointing out biased statements as they emerge from the mouths or friends, family members or talk-show hosts. So for older adults, the best advice might be to avoid acquaintances who speak in stereotypes. This research suggests prejudice can be contagious, and we become more susceptible as our brains age.
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POPSThe "Vision Chart Effect" in health reporting If a person is overweight, often that's the only thing a doctor will focus on. Your knees hurt? It's because you're fat! Your skin is breaking out? It's because you're fat! You have a cavity in a tooth? It's because you're fat! You're getting headaches? It's because you're fat! For many people, this eventually discourages them from going to see the doctor, even when they have a possibly-serious health problem. Like my mother. She'd spent a lifetime being told by doctors that all her problems were because she was fat. So when she felt a lump in her breast, she latched on to the (false) conventional wisdom that "if it hurts, it's not malignant." By the time she saw a doctor about it, it was stage 4 and had metastasized to her lymph nodes. She died at age 53. She was the smartest, funniest, most loving, toughest, most dynamic woman I've ever known. I miss her terribly every day. And she died as a result of fat prejudice. Yeah, I take this personally.
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POPSWhy "but it will confuse the children" is an obnoxious excuse for discrimination As the post points out, ou know what else confuses kids? Everything: Time zones. Books without pictures. Cargo pants. Certain hair colors. Jello molds. The magic trick with the quarter behind the ear. Mirrors. Mentadent toothpaste dispensers. Everything confuses kids, because they're kids. So "Will it confuse kids?" is probably not the best litmus test for, well, anything besides toys and Spongebob plotlines (and even then, there's a lot of leeway).
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POPSThree wishes for baby Sadie More: May she read in many languages, sing in many tongues and dance to many rhythms. May she walk beside a wheelchair with comfort, may she always know the sign for 'dreams', may she be comfortable in her own skin and with the skins of others. May she come to understand the difference between cost and value. All things cost. All people have value.… I hope that we who welcome Sadie into our lives…May we teach her the breadth of the word family. May we let her learn early to feel secure in the fact that she is loved, she is valued and she is wanted. May one day, when she is 30 and tired, when she is at the end of her rope, may she discover that our hands have weaved her an extra foot or two. That we have stored up enough love, packed into every corner of her heart, she never need fear of running out. May we give her the foundation of knowing love. From this beginning, may Sadie, first crawl, then walk, then run, finally fly ...
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POPSThe last untouchable in Europe More: On occasions, the bigotry was brutally enforced: in the early 18th century a prosperous Cagot in the Landes was caught using the font reserved for non-Cagots – his hand was chopped off and nailed to the church door. Another Cagot who dared to farm his fields (strictly verboten) had his feet pierced with hot iron spikes.… Even in death, the discrimination persisted – the Cagots were buried in their own humble cemeteries; there is still one in Bentayou-Sérée, a tiny village north of Pau.… I ask Marie-Pierre if she will let me use a picture of Sylvia – and the rest of her children. She shakes her head. "I'm sorry but no. It is OK for me to admit where I come from. But if people knew about my children's background, it might be difficult for them." She gazes out of the window, at the distant green Pyrenees. "In some places, the hatred lingers. Even now. The Cagots may be silent but I can still hear it."
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POPSBeing Politically Incorrect Isn't Edgy But At Least It's Honest Announcing to the world at large that your not "politically correct" doesn't make you a rebel or a cowboy, it doesn't make you edgy or tough. It just tells us that you are prejudiced and proud of it and have no intention of changing. Well at least your honest,I'll give you that much. Just don't expect me to respect you for it or not to call you on it.
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POPSJudge to Prop. 8 backers: Hand over your papers More: Although "voters cannot be asked to explain their votes," Walker said, a ballot measure's authors and strategists can be scrutinized to see what their motives were. He cited a magazine article last year by the heads of the public relations firm that managed the Prop. 8 campaign in which they discussed their strategy, including plans to show how advocates of same-sex marriage would indoctrinate schoolchildren. Walker said the article undermined the campaign's insistence that its strategy discussions were confidential.
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POPSThe Importance of Having Friends Who Disagree Many people make the mistake of surrounding themselves with people who think exactly like them and reinforce every idea or prejudice they have. This is a bad mistake and will often end up distorting the reality you see. One may end up with a "fan club" that just reinforces your prejudices. So do a quick test right now. Make a list of your closest friends/acquintances/advisors. Then make a separate list of those who think totally differently from you, but are worth listening to anyway. Look at the intersection of these lists. You may be surprised.
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POPSNate Phelps: My father is addicted to hate Nate Phelps is the son of Fred Phelps , leader of the hate-filled Westboro Baptist Church. More: violence was a fact of life in our home, and is interwoven from my earliest memories as a child… In terms of knowing how to administer punishment, my father was an adept. Seven or eight blows would be enough to cause the skin to swell and bruise. However, if he administered a few blows, and then waited five to ten minutes before the next round, this gave the damaged tissue time to swell and stretch the skin tight. The new round of blows would cause that skin to split and bleed.… When my mother tried to intervene in some of his more brutal beatings, he’d turn on her and punish her, also. Proverbs 13:24 was core to his actions: He that spareth his rod hateth his son. But there was a fundamental contradiction. He claimed that this punishment was done out of love for his children; yet as he beat us, he’d scream his hatred at us also.
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