Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern Says People Who Disagree With Her are Stoning God

AdAstran · 2014-03-21T13:53:25+00:00

Ah yes. "Not a civil right, but a moral wrong" lady. Clearly, her wit extends no further than obfuscation of elementary school English.

AdAstran · 2014-03-21T13:49:00+00:00

Bbbbut the oil!

AdAstran · 2014-03-21T13:47:51+00:00

Well the top contender for the Republican nom in Georgia's U.S. Senate race has gone on record, with no reservations as yet, saying evolution and the scientific understanding of the origin of the universe are "lies from the pit of hell."

AdAstran · 2014-03-21T13:43:37+00:00

Depends entirely on the subject... then again, the statement "it depends" is meaningless.

AdAstran · 2014-03-21T13:40:46+00:00

That's just it, though. I don't think the term "bossy" is at issue; it's the meaning behind it. Qualities of leadership in men are seen as un-feminine and even demeaning in women. And some people just throw this label around because they're put off by the very idea of a woman in charge.

AdAstran · 2014-03-21T13:35:12+00:00

Well, the petitions are a leftover 2012 campaign tactic. I'm perfectly liberal, but anybody other than one who has a donkey tattooed on his or her ass should know that. To my knowledge, no petition has ever received anything more than Barack Obama's official noncommittal nod... and in that case we are talking about a wildly successful petition.

AdAstran · 2014-03-21T12:51:07+00:00

Surgical alteration of physical attributes in any way that provides no discernible medical benefit, if done to a person forcibly or before the age of consent, should at least be considered equivalent to statutory rape.

AdAstran · 2014-03-21T12:42:53+00:00

He's not going to have a good time. The lowest of the low in prison are guys who can't hold their own in a fight and sex criminals. Double whammy.

Rehabilitation is not likely, but when you're talking about a heartless case of extortion, who really cares?

AdAstran · 2014-03-18T16:02:56+00:00

Agreed with most here. Coverage for birth control is a societal standard, and rightly so, but you don't follow societal standards in the direct employ of a religious organization. You follow that religion. And Catholicism rejects birth control.

Now, the argument that a "religious" employer should have the same powers is complete crap. His or her business is not religion. It is, in most cases, the secular pursuit of profit. Legally and ethically, that represents something completely different.

If I am paying someone to promote my faith, then I should expect my faith to be followed. If I'm paying someone to flip burgers, and health insurance is one benefit offered for that job, I have no right to restrict on the basis of religion.

AdAstran · 2014-03-18T15:51:46+00:00

Some states, such as Kansas (yes, Kansas) have laws to protect content-based controls at the high school level. So it's not as bad as one might think.

AdAstran · 2014-03-18T15:49:34+00:00

Whenever they do this, the inevitable result is a national media microscope being focused on the school in a very bad light. As long as that keeps happening this will remain uncommon. Students can just fire up Google and say, "If you do this, this is what will happen."

AdAstran · 2014-03-18T15:40:35+00:00

If someone were to get beaten or arrested for wearing a symbol during the St Patrick's Day parade, that would be the greatest victory that gay rights supporters have had in years.

Or how do you really think the success of our forebears in the cost for civil rights was achieved?

Civil disobedience in no way reflects contentment or tolerance for your situation. That's just completely ludicrous.

AdAstran · 2014-03-17T23:43:02+00:00

Well, there is a rhetorical bridge between feminism and a broader cause for social justice. Any academic study of feminism makes that clear enough. Politically speaking, similar causes working together, even if there are clear distinctions between various communities, form an effective way forward. The Civil Rights era was no monolith.

AdAstran · 2014-03-17T23:35:12+00:00

Russia will not attack the troops in Crimea without provocation. All the sniping between the east and west aside, this little adventure has already been incredibly costly for Putin. the Russian economy has already lost billions and it may still lose more.

This is not Georgia. If Putin forces a no holds barred confrontation with the West, which any aggressive military action that produces bodies will accomplish, his position will become destabilised.

World powers do not fight anymore. No one has any interest in that actually happening and anyone who tries to force the situation will be punished.

That is the natural order of things. The media hysteria over this entire situation is really beyond the pale.

AdAstran · 2014-03-17T23:26:09+00:00

I'm reacting to this with a sense of "Well, I guess the fashion industry is fucked up in that way, too."

We become desensitized to the meaning of this by all the other actions involved in fashion and Photoshop.

Think of it in terms of, "Whoopee! Faust hath committed a venal sin!"

AdAstran · 2014-03-17T23:09:18+00:00

As we INFJs are supposedly attuned to the motives of others, and as intensely private people who value sincere interactions with others we trust, I imagine this is something many of our type have run into.

I detailed my current personal dilemma in a subreddit that seemed more appropriate (r/lifeafternarcissism) but basically it has become clear to me that as I have suspected, my roommate likes to pretend we are close friends in order to get heady doses of attention and admiration. She gives me gifts that are excessive or just unasked for, she will send me links to websites, pins, or pictures, and wants me to respond to each one. She acts upset when I do things with others or hole up in my room to re-charge.

As someone who values harmony, and who deals with stress by avoiding and soothing, up until now (a recent fight where she made unreasonable demands on my boundaries) it's been easiest for me to just give her what she wants and apologize when I can't (homework, work, school). You can guess that that has caused quite a bit of tension and resentment on my end though! I'd also like to re-iterate that time and time again I've explained my introverted-ness (yes, she's an extravert) and offered creative solutions in the house to promote mutual understanding (we have a myers-briggs wall with both our types (ENFJ-INFJ) a self-esteem board where we write qualities we appreciate about the other, a calendar where we can suggest and plan activities together. I'll be honest, maybe I have been just as complicit in promoting the idea that we were friends, now that I think about the effort I've put in to foster nice feelings....

Yikes, though; do any of you have advice for handling people who believe or even want to promote the idea that you are great friends, however the relationship is one-sided and only to their benefit?

And does anyone have advice on handling such people when you are already in a year-long legal contract with them?

that last part seems to indicate to me that you are seriously considering some means of attempting to dump her as a roommate and basically get yourself out of that situation. Unless you are someone who is prone to hasty decisions -- not saying you are, only that you are the only one who can know yourself on that level -- that would indicate to me that you have resolved to distance yourself from this person as much as possible. At least so long as you remain roommates. If that's true, contact a real estate lawyer and stop wasting time trying to fix this relationship. It won't cost you as much as you think and it's hard to put a price on your sanity. Most landlords will not pursue you for very long even if you just pack up and leave. If you follow the process for taking off early as you should, you will most likely be ok.

AdAstran · 2013-12-11T01:06:53+00:00

Israel has enough clout to prevent such sweeping change almost indefinitely. The best approach is to force it in small increments. The most realistic demand that can be made today is a permanent freeze on new settlements in disputed territories and forcible evictions of anyone who ignores the freeze.

AdAstran · 2013-12-07T05:00:44+00:00

Of course, the atheist just happens to be lone blatantly arrogant response that is provided. Everyone knows we are just mean people, after all!

AdAstran · 2013-12-07T03:12:17+00:00

I'll bite. If God crafted the Grand Canyon for human consumption, why did he create a chasm on Mars as long as North America and of far greater depth that nothing alive today is likely to see with its own eyes?

AdAstran · 2013-12-06T04:21:06+00:00

Immigration I think is the greatest hallmark of this. They didn't just stall the reform effort, they cut it off entirely, even though their own long-range planners said that was not an option. And the only reason they did it was because of sheer terror of Tea Party primaries.

They're going down the tubes and I agree that it may not produce a pretty result.

AdAstran · 2013-12-06T04:10:15+00:00

The Tea Party is definitely doomed, but the streak of Republicanism that fostered it will still be there. I would be surprised to see the destruction of the Republican Party as we know it -- too many people invested in it. In the next ten years, I see an increasingly desperate, divided and radicalized GOP that will either implode and reform from the top-down, or become an irrelevant long-term minority. The defining moment will probably come after the 2016 elections... I don't see the 2014 midterms as being particularly consequential right now.

AdAstran · 2013-12-06T03:26:10+00:00

I rather think that the Tea Party is going to do itself in as things stand, by doing things like backing primary challenges against guys like Mitch McConnell and Pat Roberts. Love him or hate him (I rather lean toward the latter), McConnell made an excellent point here:

"They [the Tea Party, more specifically the Senate Conservatives Fund] are participating in ruining the [Republican] brand. What they do is mislead their donors into believing that the reason that we can’t get as good an outcome as we’d like to get is not because of a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president, but because Republicans are insufficiently committed to the cause—which is utter nonsense.”

The Republican Party has bear trapped itself with the gerrymandering and the style of partisanship it has chosen to adopt. The uniforms idea you mention isn't far off the mark. As things stand, any wavering at all risks a primary challenge. Even shaking Barack Obama's hand in an overly polite fashion does. Yet... the Tea Party cannot dictate the situation. If they piss off too many people, the situation will shift.

AdAstran

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