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Christian Religion

My Religous Phase

I went through a religious phase when I was 5. I went to a Catholic school. Everyone I knew went to a Catholic school. My family was Catholic and so was every family in our neighborhood. We went to Mass every weekday morning and I went again on Sundays. The Mass was in Latin and I didn’t understand a word but that only made me respect it more. The words were exotic and beautiful to me. We all knelt and sat and stood at the same time during Mass. We all recited the same words in unison. It was written down in our missals. We received communion at Mass which meant we were fed a small white wafer which was supposed to represent the body of Christ. Only I didn’t quite understand the represent part and I believed that the wafer was somehow transformed into a piece of a 2000 year old body. You had Christ inside you six times a week. How cool was that?

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be a saint or a nun. I had great romantic ideas about nuns. On the other hand, saints appealed to my imagination. The Christian martyrs were killed by the Romans because they wouldn’t renounce their faith. Some of them were eaten by lions and some of them were roasted alive and some were crucified. Except for the pain part, this also appealed to me mightily. Once you were a saint, you sat at the right hand of God and people prayed to you and you could perform miracles. I thought that it would probably hurt to be roasted alive or eaten by lions. I wasn’t sure it was a good trade off. I wanted to be able to perform miracles, but how much would it hurt to be eaten by a lion? I wasn’t sure. There was always being a nun. No horrific death required. I would be cloistered (shut away from the world) and I would pray all the time and I would be very holy.

I practiced being holy. I went to church and prayed for long stretches of time. The longer you prayed, the better. I asked God for silly things and told him all my troubles and made all kinds of promises to him. I said the rosary. Saying the rosary was basically repeating the Hail Mary sixty times and the Our Father six times. The Catholics are big on repetition.

You were supposed to contemplate the stations of the cross in those days and I spent a lot of time doing that. The stations of the cross, for the uninitiated, are depictions of Christ’s journey up the hill as he carried the cross on his way to be crucified. They are especially gory and sadomasochistic. The blood running down his face from the crown of thorns and his bloody back from the lashes. The nails pounded through his hands and feet. How does a five year old meditate on torture? Well I felt very very sorry for him. Poor Jesus, I thought. We must have done something very bad if he had to do all that to make up for it. I wanted to be the lady who gave him a drink of water. I wanted to be the lady who wiped his brow or the lady who cried at his feet.

One day I was praying all by myself in the church and I looked at that little gold container on the altar where we were told Christ was. It seemed to me Jesus must be very lonely in that little gold box, even if it was very pretty. I climbed over the railing (which you weren’t supposed to do) and I climbed up on the altar (which you weren’t supposed to do) and I sat next to the little gold box and I swung my legs and talked to Jesus. I told him everything that was on my five year old mind. I told him I loved him and I would always be his friend. I told him I wanted to be holy. I told him I was either going to be a nun or a saint and either way I’d be a virgin because nuns and saints are always virgins. I wasn’t sure what a virgin was but if that’s what Jesus wanted me to be, then I was going to be it.

My homeroom teacher Miss Staid came in and saw me and she nearly had a heart attack.

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Domestic Policies marriage News Politics Religion

Redefining Equality

The Supreme Court will finally hear arguments in the Marriage Equality cases this week, and it’s about time. If justice delayed is justice denied, than we’ve had denial of justice for a good part of our population for far too long.

The opponents of marriage equality do not want to talk about civil rights. They don’t want to talk about equality. They don’t want to talk about gays sharing in society and being fully accepted in American culture. What they want to talk about is redefining marriage, which they say is what these cases are all about. They also want to point to the Bible for their definition, and cite its prohibitions against any homosexual activity. You’ll excuse me, but I am tired of having to worry about what a book that also mandates stoning, banishment and ritual murder has to say about people who live in a manner that is really not your business. If religious opponents of marriage equality can pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to apply here, then I will feel free to ignore the Bible altogether as a remnant of tales, stories and oral histories that provide a fascinating narrative, but are not relevant to the modern world.

But in the end, they are simply redefining equality. And that’s wrong.

The main argument against marriage equality is that it would redefine the institution that opponents believe to be the bedrock of any civilization. Once you allow anybody who loves another person to marry them, then you’re opening the door to polygamy, incest and child marriage. Here’s Brian S. Brown, one of the most active opponents of marriage equality:

“When you knock over a core pillar of society like marriage, and then try to redefine biblical views of marriage as bigotry, there will be consequences,” Mr. Brown warned last August in a fund-raising letter. “Will one of the consequences be a serious push to normalize pedophilia?”

Then there’s this audio from the NPR program The Takeaway, where Joseph Backholm, executive director of Family Policy Institute, an anti-marriage equality group, says that not only should gays not be allowed to marry, they shouldn’t be able to adopt and raise children, since that right is traditionally reserved for those who can create children.  I guess childless heterosexual couples need not apply either.

This is what the right wing does best: They scare and twist facts so that there’s no other choice but to oppose the same things they oppose. But Mr. Brown did more than that. He enlisted African-American clergymen and women to oppose marriage equality because, he said, it was less a civil rights issue than one of religious doctrine. Wasn’t this the same argument that segregationists used to fight integration?

 Yes it was.

Denying people rights is the same no matter what their station is. Laws that forbid intermarriage were overturned. Laws that forbid certain sexual practices were overturned. Public places were integrated. The long history of our country generally moves in one direction; towards more freedom and more access for all groups. I can’t imagine the Supreme Court saying that marriage equality is against the Constitution. It’s just a matter of how far they’ll go.

The problem, though, is that even if the Court overturns the Defense of Marriage Act, it doesn’t mean that gay couples will have an unfettered right to marry or enjoy the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples. Unless the Court mandates marriage equality throughout the nation, states that don’t recognize it can continue to not do so. That will continue to complicate the lives of those couples who are legally married in the eight states that do recognize marriages if they even visit states that do not. That’s not equality. More delays. More denials.

Here is a graphic that explains how the court might rule.

I expect that the Court will open the gates to marriage equality in some way, but won’t make a sweeping judgement that covers the whole country. I also believe that this will be another John Roberts decision and that he will provide the fifth vote in favor. If Anthony Kennedy comes along, then the tally will be 6-3. I just can’t see Scalia, Alito or Thomas signing on to this.

Opponents of marriage equality say that an expansion of marriage rights is not a done deal. I disagree. Many people already have these marriage rights in the states that recognize gay marriage. I cannot imagine that the court would take those rights away. And once they are affirmed, they will become part of the American way of life. Gay couples will be more visible and will ultimately become more accepted. It will take some time and there will be bumps along the way, but it will happen.

Because this is a civil rights issue. Plain and simple.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Entertainment Featured

Sleeping Beauty

Yes, she’s in a box. And Yes, she’s sleeping.

I must admit, I don’t get it.

But if you do, you can catch Tilda Swinton at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York, NY as she sleeps in her box for her performance art pieced called “The Maybe”.

Keep in mind that this will be performed on random days where not even the museum knows when she will pop in for a long nap. So, you may have to stalk Twitter to know just exactly when she is making an appearance.

“The Maybe” includes Tilda Swinton sleeping in a box with just herself and a mattress, pillow, linen,water, and spectacles.

Sounds riveting…

 

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child Featured

Sick Child Porn Video Goes Viral On Facebook

At least 20,000 Facebook users found a child porn video in their news feeds this week, with one copy of the clip possibly originating from Oak Cliff, authorities said.

The FBI says the video is at least 7 years old and has been spread around the Internet off and on for years. The viral video has been posted on social media sites before this week, but the latest resurfacing led to new local law enforcement investigations across the world, including in Dallas, according to authorities.

The clip of an older man sexually abusing a young girl received at least 4,000 Facebook likes. Federal authorities have been searching for the abuser’s identity for years.

“This is a global issue,” said Michelle Collins with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “We’re getting inquiries from this all over the world.”

Sgt. Byron Fassett of the Dallas police child exploitation unit said they opened their investigation Wednesday morning when they received a call from Nevada. Someone in Las Vegas logged into Facebook and saw the video in the news feed. They reported it to Dallas police because the post’s location was listed as Oak Cliff, Texas, Fassett said.

The child exploitation unit found that the video was not documentation of recent abuse, but a “known video or image,” Fassett said, something police have seen before.

“It took the crisis out of the situation,” he said. “Our concern then was that people are trading child pornography. But we got calls overnight of more people seeing it on their news feeds.”

It seemed that each time a social media user commented on the clip, the video appeared in more places.

Authorities said they have received several complaints from social media users, asking what they can do to help.

“Don’t comment on it,” Fassett said. “That’s like adding gasoline to the fire.”

And don’t watch the video, Collins said. Instead, view the FBI’s Endangered Child Alert Program wanted list, where this particular video perpetrator’s description is listed.

h/t Dallas News

Categories
Featured

OMG – It’s Chuck Norris Without The Beard!

We are gathered here today to remember one of Hollywood’s greatest treasures: Chuck Norris’s beard. The well-trimmed facial hair lived a long and butt-kicking life during its decades-long existence on Norris’s face. Now — sadly — the beard is no more.

We were first alerted to the shocking news by TMZ. The gossip site ran a photo — presumably recent — of Norris enjoying the great outdoors without his beard’s company.

Is Norris, 73, going through a first-quarter-life crisis? Can Chuck still intimidate man, woman, and inanimate object without his world-famous facial hair? Well, of course he can. He’s Chuck Norris.

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Featured

Funniest Japanese Girls Video – The Switch

I must admit. At first, I too was tricked. I had to watch this one a couple of times before I really got it. And yea, they show how it’s done in the video, but it is too simple to be this clever. At least that’s my take.

A great stunt to pull on anyone!

Categories
Michele Bachmann Republican

For A Small Woman, She’s Such A Big Liar – Bachmann Says Obama’s Presidency Costs $1.4B A Year

During last year’s GOP presidential race, Bachmann racked up the highest ratio of Four-Pinocchio comments, so just about everything she says needs to be checked and double-checked before it is reported.

In this case, Bachmann appears to be citing the self-published book “Presidential Perks Gone Royal,” by Republican lobbyist Robert Keith Gray, though one wonders whether she actually read the book — which is only 131 pages — or just read a summary that appeared in the Daily Caller, since many of her points are highlighted in the Daily Caller article.

The Fact Checker read the book so that you don’t have to. It provides no specific sourcing for any of its claims, though in the back it provides a list of articles and books that presumably the author consulted. He claims that the book is not intended as an attack on President Obama, but only on the imperial trappings of the presidency, though the subtitle of the book is: “Your taxes are being used for Obama’s re-election.”

Bachmann, however, framed it as an attack on Obama, and we will examine her claims in that context. How does Obama compare with other presidents?

Bachmann’s headline figure is that Obama’s presidency costs $1.4 billion a year. Gray never quite explains how he developed that figure, though another self-published book, “The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man: Costs of the Obama White House,” by self-help writer John F. Groom, attempts to provide a breakdown. But what is quickly apparent is that this number covers every possible expense, including many having to do with the security that is necessary to protect the president. The figures also include the cost of the White House policy-making staffs. Are those really all “perks and excess?”

Groom’s figures include a number of somewhat fishy guesstimates (“unreimbursed campaign expenses”), but as it happens, a much more credible scholar — former White House aide Bradley H. Patterson Jr. — attempted to figure out the tab for the White House for a book, “To Serve the President,” published in 2010 by the Brookings Institution.

Patterson estimated that the cost of running the White House for fiscal year 2008 — when George W. Bush was president — was nearly $1.6 billion. About half — more than $800 million — related to the Secret Service budget. An additional $271 million was spent on the president’s helicopter squadron.

If Bush is a $1.6 billion man, does that make Obama a relative bargain at $1.4 billion?

h/t The Washington Post

Categories
Featured

iPad Thief Unknowingly Sends Pictures Of Herself To iPad Owner

Picture this: In your travels, you forgot your ipad on the plane, never to be seen again. A month or so later, you began getting some strange pictures on your iphone. The pictures, it turns out, are coming from your missing ipad that is set up to post all pictures to your icloud account.

That scenario is being played out right now in the life of Allen Engstrom who, after a trip to Phoenix, realized that his ipad was missing. About a month later, Allen started noticing some photos being posted to his icloud account and soon made the connection – the women in the photos is in possession of his ipad.

Allen posted the photos on his Facebook page, hoping that somehow, he will be able to identify the women in the pictures and get his ipad back. “All I have is her image and the power of social media to help me get my iPad back,” Allen says, so we here at EzKool figured we’ll do our part to advance technology, while at the same time, get Allen’s ipad back.

Categories
pope Religion

Introducing The New Pope – Cardinal Bergoglio Elected Pope Francis 1

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio Of Buenos Aires, has been elected to be the 266th pope of the Catholic Church, taking the name Pope Francis.

Francisco appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at Wednesday more than an hour after white smoke was released from the Sistine Chapel chimney at 2:05 EDT (7:05 p.m. CET) to signal that a new pope had been selected. Speaking from the balcony, he gave his first address as pope, the traditional Urbi et Orbi (to the “City and the World”), as crowds waved, cried and cheered for the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.

He prayed for the church, the papacy and for his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Francis, a Jesuit priest, was elected to the papacy after two days of conclave meetings with a total of five ballots cast. Voting in the conclave, which began Tuesday afternoon, is confidential and cardinals were sworn to secrecy, but Francis received at least 77 votes, which is the minimum two-thirds required to become pope. There were 115 cardinals eligible to vote in the conclave. All were under 80 before Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s retirement, as required by Vatican rules. In 2005, when Benedict was elected, it took two days and four votes to elect him.

r/t Huffington Post

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pope Religion

UPDATE: White Smoke In Vatican – New Pope Selected

And twitter goes wild as white smoke is seen coming from the chimney on the Sistine Chapel. The 1.2 billion Catholics are rejoicing.

There’s a new Catholic pope, signals the white smoke coming from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.

The 266th pope of the worldwide Catholic Church will be revealed shortly when he takes to the balcony in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican Square.

Thousands, including seminarians studying in Rome from Michigan and other clerics with Michigan-based roots, have crowded Vatican square.

In February, Pope Benedict XVI stunned Catholics all over the world by announcing plans to resign his post as leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The historic resignation, which officially took place on Feb. 28, made Benedict the first living pope to vacate his office in 600 years.

Update: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires will be next pope

Categories
Featured

Growing Up Black in China

Growing Up Black In China – A CNN story about a young girl named Lou Jing who was born with an African-American father and a chinese mother. She currently lives in China and deals with the stereotypes and racism that follows her.

Categories
Fox News Rape tweets women

Zerlina Maxwell Gets Death Threats And Rape Threats From Fox Viewers

Better watch what you say on Fox News. Zerlina Maxwell is now getting it first hand as the vile and hate from the Fox faithful comes her way.

What was Zerlina’s mistake? She went on Fox’s Hannity show and spoke the truth. She had the nerve to say that arming women with a gun to prevent rape or blaming women who are rape victims is not the way to begin solving the problem.

Zerlina, who is also a rape survivor, expressed that changing the focus to the men committing these acts, should be an important part of the discussion. On the Fox show, Zerlina said this;

The entire conversation is wrong. I don’t want anybody to be telling women anything. I don’t want men to be telling me what to wear how to act, not to drink, and I don’t honestly want you to be telling me that I needed a gun in order to prevent my rape.

Well of course, that was enough to cause some viewers to send Zerlina these tweets:

On Monday, Zerlina went on MSNBC’s The Ed Show and vowed to continue fighting to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to the limelight. “I’m certainly taking steps to protect my emotional health, but I will not be quiet because I refuse to be bullied into silence.”

Watch the video below.

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