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The Sunday Planet - Saturday Edition - June 16, 2012

Angry Americans

President Obama breaks a move. A policy change on Friday will allow "dreamers" to legally remain in the country for two years while the battle on immigration continues. The President had to deal with the usual lack of civility from the right that he has encountered since taking office.

Neil Munro from The Daily Caller, a hack job news service run by Tucker Carlson, decided to interrupt the president's speech because of his false self-image of importance. The President kindly scolded the child and continued with his prepared remarks.

As Mr. Munro makes it apparent; it is very easy to be a clown.

Starting off with Representative Wilson's "you lie!" statement during the President's State of the Union address, and continuing with that bastion of conservatism, the Supreme Court's Alito's "not true" comment; the lack of respect continues.

Elizabeth Warren is the center of a manufactured controversy. As the polls show her climbing in the Massachusetts senate race, the opposition gets frantic. If you were to watch FOX - and I do not recommend anyone ever watching FOX - the "Cherokee" statement would be the only piece of information you would need to make up your mind on who gets your vote. 

Unfortunately, Warren stated that she had Cherokee blood in her family line, and conservatives want her to prove it. This is the big news of course, anything that actually has to do with running the country is off limits to right wing media. 

Massachusetts voters do not care, but conservatives will keep drilling her on the topic until it becomes the central issue regarding her electability.

Can you blame them though? Warren is a liberal rock star right now. A populist message that voters embrace; she is a strong democrat that we should all support right now. This senate race will be one of the most expensive this year; big money has a need to stop her.

These lines say it all:

“The Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, said, ‘Corporations are people.’ No, Mitt, corporations are not people,” she said to cheers. “People have hearts. They have kids. They get jobs. They get sick, they laugh, they cry, they dance, they live and they die. Learn the difference.”

Democrats need her strength, support this woman.

State Scum

My home state of Michigan with it's Tea Party Governor and state legislature have decided to bring the war on women home. At one time I stopped calling this a war, because in wars people die. I'm back to calling it a war, because women will die.

Michigan has been taken over by conservatives. The Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, House, Senate, Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Not good days for the state at all. Besides the implementation of non-democratic Emergency Financial Managers, the taxing of the poorest to pay for the tax cuts of the richest, the union busting and civil rights destroying tactics; we now must stop abortion at all costs.

State Representative Mike Shirkey has made this perfectly clear with his statement regarding the legislation; "Until we completely eliminate abortions in Michigan and completely defund Planned Parenthood, we have work to do."

Any questions?

Once again woman to the rescue. The opposition started off with Representative Rashida Tlaib telling the GOP controlled House that the men there should stop having sex with women, they should find someone else to have it with. She also asked all women in Michigan to stop having sex. Representatives Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum were both banned from speaking on the House floor after the use of the words "vagina" and "vasectomy."

Planned Parenthood supporters descended on the capital in force. Yelling, "this is our house" and "we'll remember in November," they will not stop fighting.

House Speaker Jase Bolger stated that it is his job to maintain the decorum of the house. I guess vagina and vasectomy are new four letter words for conservatives. If you have the time and inclination, tweet "vagina" to @mihousegop; they are getting bombed.

Right to Life of Michigan helped write the current crop of bills that will basically make it illegal to have an abortion in the state.

This is democracy in action:

Silent Suicide

Global Warming, or what conservative strategist Frank Lutz managed to change to "Climate Change" so it didn't sound so bad, is to the best of our knowledge slowly destroying our planet. The Rio+20, the United Nation's Conference on Sustainable Development is under way.

It appears that the global demand for resources is fifty percent higher than the rate that nature can regenerate them. Does this not compute? We are reaching the point of no return. Politics and greed are more important than life. Our oceans are polluted, the planet is warming and species are disappearing; and the world does nothing. Drill for more oil, blow off mountaintops for coal, fracking for natural gas; hastening our demise appears to be the only goal.

Why we will not confront the problem is simple, there are forces keeping the discussion at bay. The Heartland Institute last May made it clear that those who worry about the science of climate change are left wing extremists. Santorum says climate change is not real, because plants like CO2. As far back as 2009, congress was told that global warming is not real. The biblical world view looks at the earth as being well designed, no reason to do anything. Then we have several climatologists who are not associated with big oil that deny there is a problem. There work has been discredited, but that isn't stopping them from creating confusion.

As a freethinking group, should atheists in general support the theories that have been accepted by the scientific community, or are we like much of the rest of the planet's population, apathetic?

Jehovah Jackasses

Apparently mormons have an extra chromosome when it comes to American exceptionalism according to Senator Mike Lee of Utah. One can take comfort in the thought that if they do have that extra chromosome, it makes up for the lack of grey matter.

religious discrimination suit against Taco Bell was recently settled for $27,000. A man who refused to cut his hair because of his religious beliefs was the center of the controversy. Apparently religious beliefs are more important than hair in your food.

The sacred hair battle continues in New York City where a man was cut by the police department. The gentleman, a Hasidic Jew, is the man behind the law suit. It worked for him in the army, he's giving it a shot now with the police department. The NYPD says that the gentleman was aware of the restrictions while in the Academy, so this appears to be a setup.  

Muslim in Washington D.C. is suing over religious discrimination as well this month. He needs Fridays off to attend prayer services. 

All of these stories are examples of an increasingly popular theme; religious people are being allowed to subvert society by imposing their personal religion on us all. This is how to gain a foothold in America that will be hard for secularists to regain. If we keep rolling over to the nonsense that theists are being picked on, we have lost the battle.

Entertain no doubts, this is a perversion of everything the U.S. once stood for.

Supreme Stupidity

fairly new poll is out showing that the Supreme Court favorability is down to 44%. Only one in eight Americans think the justices decide cases on their merits and 75% of the respondents said that cases were decided on personal and political views. 

I'll keep this short with just one thought. Why would Arizona remain so adamant about their immigration laws, or Florida fighting for the right to remove legal voters from the polls unless they know they have friends in the highest court of the land?

Conservatives are thumbing their noses at Obama's administration because they have a bought and paid for court. 

Citizen's United, the soon to be heard ruling of the Affordable Care Act; this court could prove that citizens have no rights and only the powerful are allowed to participate in democracy.

Final Fixations

First off, happy made up holiday to all the fathers out there. This edition of The Sunday Planet is being published early so I can keep my father-in-law company.

Here for your enjoyment, selected holidays in March:

March 3rd - If Pets Had Thumbs Day

March 5th - Multiple Personalities Day

March 9th - Panic Day

March 15th - Everything You Think Is Wrong Day

March 20th - Extraterrestrial Abductions Day

And a personal favorite:

March 26th - Make Up Your Own Holiday Day

From 31 Wacky Holidays in March.

 

Views: 727

Tags: americans, angry, edition, final, fixations, jackasses, jehovah, planet, politics, saturday, More…scum, silent, state, stupidity, suicide, sunday, supreme, the

Comments are closed for this blog post

Comment by MJ on June 24, 2012 at 12:45pm
Infringes and proportionately typos....anyone who knows how to fix these for me, please do so.
=)
Comment by MJ on June 24, 2012 at 12:41pm

I dropped out of this discussion a while back because I am not very familiar with the dynamics of this group and it started to feel like it was getting personal. Now I have to jump back in. Thinking any of us are on opposite sides confirms my feeling of the discussion becoming personal and I'd like to steer us back to the issue as I understand it. One school of thought is that religious folks' rights are to be defended even if doing so infringes on my rights; the other thought being religious folks rights are to be defended only to the point that they don't affect my rights as an employee. Not really opposites; just different degrees of protection. Please keep in mind that we are talking personal opinions, not legal opinions.

Example: There is a staff of six public assistance eligibility determination workers. One of the most popular allowable "flex" work schedules is to work 4 ten-hour days with one day off per week. Only one worker per staff is allowed a flex schedule that includes being off on Friday. A second Friday off is available to workers requesting vacation time that includes Friday. Policy is that flex schedules are approved based on highest seniority. Low seniority worker who worked a regular 5-day work week during her probationary period, now qualifies to request a flex schedule. Her request is to be off every Friday for religious practices. School of thought one believes seniority shouldn't matter and religious person should be given preferential treatment that infringes on my right to be off every Friday. School of thought two believes religious person has the right to pray etc., only as long as it does not interfer with my right not to be religious, and keep my Fridays off. Twist: a third staff member has a temporary daycare issue that prevents her from working on Fridays. As high seniority worker, I may volunteer to give her my Friday flex schedule, but she has no protection as some view the religious person should. I think it's clear to which school of thought I ascribe.

BTW, this is very different from affirmative action which I totally support. But religious folks are not a protected group being compensated for injustices of the past that have prevented them from being proportionately represented in the work place.

Looking forward to more stimulating discussion about what's new on the planet this week. Let's try to keep focused on the topic and not get carried away with emotion. I think that is something all of us passionate folks struggle with.

Hoping not to have offended anyone.

Comment by Neal on June 23, 2012 at 10:29pm

Opposite sides? Interesting. Can someone tell me what the sides are so I can join one?

Comment by Susan Stanko on June 23, 2012 at 11:10am

Actually I think most of it is talking past one another.

Comment by Neal on June 23, 2012 at 10:19am

I don't think we are on opposite sides Bill, just a difference of opinion. =)

Comment by Davy on June 23, 2012 at 5:42am

Depends on how you define the word liberal and liberalism?

Comment by Bill Stoner on June 22, 2012 at 9:12pm

Sorry if I seem a bit paranoid but I seem to be on the opposite side of almost everyone which is damn surreal because I'm arguing for the rights of the individual in America with a bunch of liberals. Mindwarping weirdness. Oh well.

Comment by Bill Stoner on June 21, 2012 at 9:01pm

@ doone

Is that meant to be comment on something?

Comment by doone on June 21, 2012 at 8:13pm

When Trees Express Their Feelings

Jun. 21, 2012

funny real estate - Eff You Too, Tree!

this is a comment about the current state of mankind on Earth, with the tree making a gesture.

Comment by Bill Stoner on June 20, 2012 at 7:20pm

Religious organizations may discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation unless they begin to look and act like a profitable business. WTF!!!! There is nothing right about this!

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