As happens often in this land of shifting mores, America is stretching long-held notions of marriage to the breaking point. Rougly half of all marriages in this country end in divorce, and homosexual couples from coast to coast are demanding the same rights as their heterosexual fellow countrymen. Among the many reasons we are in this mess is because marriage was long ago contaminated by religion. Now, instead of functioning as a secular affair designed to protect offspring and safeguard common assets, it is all too often clothed in the coarse, restrictive mantle of one organized belief system or another.
In general, Americans have little patience for old and outdated things; in the last sixty years ours has become more a nation of shoppers than one of fixers, or menders. If a car stops working the way it should, the average Ynki gets a new one. If her computer isn't fast enough, she trades it in. And if her husband turns out to be someone other than the person she thought she was marrying, she divorces him. Armed with a better understanding of what she is and is not looking for, her chances at finding a new spouse more to her liking on the open market are greater than they were before she wed.
Marriage should be a beneficial affair, one rife with Happiness, trust, and love mutually enjoyed. Often, though, people remain in broken or abusive marriages out of fear that willfully terminating them will cause their souls to be cast down for all eternity into mythical pits of mythical hellfire. If we could but free divorce from it negative moral and religious associations and celebrate it for the positive effect it can have, suffering Susan might yet escape the clutches of combative, callous Cal; through education and an different attitude, her soul could soar once more. When marriage is freed from the shackles of religious conviction, all involved win (except, of course, pastors and religious zealots who scream regularly for this author's blood). Please help end state-sanctioned inequality by signing this petition, today. Huzzah.
mentiri factorem fecit – 場黑麥
Showing posts with label marriage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marriage. Show all posts
13 March 2013
02 November 2012
tenacious Republican terrorism
Western newscasters are quick to call any Arab suspected of committing acts of violence a terrorist, a practice that appears to have blinded them to the true extent of terrorism right here in America. He calls himself Mitt, and his last name is Romney, and he and his party are pushing a terrorist agenda. Hidden in plain view in the Republican party's presidential platform is a plan to terrorize the homosexual humans living in America, a plan that would turn them into citizens with fewer rights than their heterosexual neighbors, a plan that can have as its only consequence a surge of state-sanctioned violence and hatred against these our same-sex-loving brothers and sisters. Governor Romney has stated openly that if he should become president he would amend our secular Constitution for the first time in nearly a century, adding to it rules found only in the old testament of the Christian bible (see Leviticus 20) that mandate among many other horrible things the murder of gays and the killing of young women who lose their virginity before they are married; the only purpose such an amendment serves is to strike fear in the hearts of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans-gender (LGBT) community and to cause these peace-loving and innocent persons to live their lives in constant fear of reproach, disenfranchisement, and assault.
There is another group in the world that encroaches upon the rights of its citizens (be they Women, Gay, Colored, or otherwise), that disenfranchises them, that assaults them, that stands by as their rights are stripped away and they are raped, beaten, and murdered – the Taliban. The Republican party's plan to strip away the rights of homosexuals and to encroach upon the equality guaranteed them in our Declaration of Independence puts the Republican Party in American (RePIA, pronounced “rape-ya”) on equal footing with the Taliban; it exposes the RePIA as a threat to the Safety and Happiness of the American people equal to or greater than the threat posed by other terror-promoting organizations around the world, be they al-Qaida, Hamas, or the Haqqani Network (which continues to hold an American serviceman hostage, see here.)
To vote for RePIA this November 6th is to elect terror; to support Mitt Romney in his drive for our nation's highest office is to spit in the face of lady Liberty, to shit on the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and to declare oneself so ignorant of the ideals of equality and freedom that our ancestors once fought and died for as to be unworthy of calling oneself an upstanding member of society, let alone a patriot. To effect true change, to protect our own dreams and aspirations and those of the many generations to come, to take this country back from greased-up bankers and fat-backed politicians, vote for a third-party candidate such as Dr. Jill Stein or governor Gary Johnson. The newscasters won't stop calling votes for third-party candidates wasted votes, so let's all waste our votes on a person who will stop federal oppression and end the wars on drugs and in Afghanistan, a person who will ensure freedom and equality for all citizens regardless of their race, belief, sex, or sexual orientation. Vote green, or vote yellow, and help us liberate America from the cruel lash of mindless hatred, from the heavy yoke of unchecked greed, and from the rusty chains of perpetual strife. Be well, and mahalo.
© mentiri factorem fecit (場黑麥)
There is another group in the world that encroaches upon the rights of its citizens (be they Women, Gay, Colored, or otherwise), that disenfranchises them, that assaults them, that stands by as their rights are stripped away and they are raped, beaten, and murdered – the Taliban. The Republican party's plan to strip away the rights of homosexuals and to encroach upon the equality guaranteed them in our Declaration of Independence puts the Republican Party in American (RePIA, pronounced “rape-ya”) on equal footing with the Taliban; it exposes the RePIA as a threat to the Safety and Happiness of the American people equal to or greater than the threat posed by other terror-promoting organizations around the world, be they al-Qaida, Hamas, or the Haqqani Network (which continues to hold an American serviceman hostage, see here.)
To vote for RePIA this November 6th is to elect terror; to support Mitt Romney in his drive for our nation's highest office is to spit in the face of lady Liberty, to shit on the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and to declare oneself so ignorant of the ideals of equality and freedom that our ancestors once fought and died for as to be unworthy of calling oneself an upstanding member of society, let alone a patriot. To effect true change, to protect our own dreams and aspirations and those of the many generations to come, to take this country back from greased-up bankers and fat-backed politicians, vote for a third-party candidate such as Dr. Jill Stein or governor Gary Johnson. The newscasters won't stop calling votes for third-party candidates wasted votes, so let's all waste our votes on a person who will stop federal oppression and end the wars on drugs and in Afghanistan, a person who will ensure freedom and equality for all citizens regardless of their race, belief, sex, or sexual orientation. Vote green, or vote yellow, and help us liberate America from the cruel lash of mindless hatred, from the heavy yoke of unchecked greed, and from the rusty chains of perpetual strife. Be well, and mahalo.
© mentiri factorem fecit (場黑麥)
24 September 2012
on naming conventions
Every state in America's South has destroyed the concept that “All men are created equal” by adding to its state constitution portions of the Christian bible's old testament. Proving themselves wholly ignorant of the fact that none of the persons who founded this American Republic saw fit to restrict the rights of free-thinking Americans of legal age who happen to be homosexuals to enter into contractual agreements with other free-thinking Americans of legal age who happen to be homosexuals, tens of millions of freedom-hating voters in Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virgina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kentucky decided to embed the hateful opinions of their god Jehovah, or YHWH, into their states' constitutions (for an example of these dastardly and cruel opinions, read Leviticus 20, specifically verse 13). Instead of actually coming out of their hate-closets and confessing their disdain for the notion that democracy can flourish amongst the peoples of the earth only when church is kept separate from state, these misguided voters casually forgot to mention which religious text they drew upon when drafting their laws, laws that ended hundreds of years of equality amongst the various peoples of America.
In keeping with this new tradition of doing crazy things without calling them crazy things and actually getting away with it, we Lovers of Liberty shall no longer refer to smoking weed as smoking weed, but as grimble-dinks (or something similar), and our spraying of graffiti and applying of street-art will henceforth be called huddel-fugg (or something similar). Since neither grimble-dinks nor huddel-fugg have been classified as crimes by any judge known to mankind, we shall do them to our hearts' content and without even the slightest effort to hide these our preferred methods for Pursuing our Happiness as we see best fit.
The accused war-criminal former President George Walker Bush authorized the use of torture by referring to it as “enhanced interrogation techniques,”and the accused war-criminal President Barack Hussein Obama continues to violate the right of individuals not to be transported across vast distances in order to be imprisoned without trial or access to legal counsel by referring to it as “renditioning.” By committing these crimes against humanity, our highest officers have proven to mankind that we Americans are but loathsome jackasses who long ago sacrificed our sacred Honor by violating a half-dozen national and international laws in order to end the lives of persons merely suspected of having done us harm (see the slaying of the Saudi Arabian citizen known as Usama bin Laden and the killing of the American citizen known as Anwar al-Awliki). These our accused war-criminal Presidents have shown us Lovers of Liberty a way, however, of doing whatever we please without fear of punishment, retribution, or the application of clearly-worded federal, state, local, national, and international laws and statutes – we have but to do what we wish to do when we decide is best to do it and to ignore the cries and condemnation of any and all persons who demand that we stop. Unlike our accused war-criminal presidents, however, we just want to Pursue our Happiness in accordance with the Declaration of Independence and the XIV Amendment to the Constitution when, where, and how we as individuals decide is best; we shall continue to respect the Liberty of others even as we are imprisoned and abused by the various layers of American government for living lives full of Liberty and devoid of harm to other persons. What a fucking crock of bullshit we have allowed this country to become. Hrm, though, and mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
In keeping with this new tradition of doing crazy things without calling them crazy things and actually getting away with it, we Lovers of Liberty shall no longer refer to smoking weed as smoking weed, but as grimble-dinks (or something similar), and our spraying of graffiti and applying of street-art will henceforth be called huddel-fugg (or something similar). Since neither grimble-dinks nor huddel-fugg have been classified as crimes by any judge known to mankind, we shall do them to our hearts' content and without even the slightest effort to hide these our preferred methods for Pursuing our Happiness as we see best fit.
The accused war-criminal former President George Walker Bush authorized the use of torture by referring to it as “enhanced interrogation techniques,”and the accused war-criminal President Barack Hussein Obama continues to violate the right of individuals not to be transported across vast distances in order to be imprisoned without trial or access to legal counsel by referring to it as “renditioning.” By committing these crimes against humanity, our highest officers have proven to mankind that we Americans are but loathsome jackasses who long ago sacrificed our sacred Honor by violating a half-dozen national and international laws in order to end the lives of persons merely suspected of having done us harm (see the slaying of the Saudi Arabian citizen known as Usama bin Laden and the killing of the American citizen known as Anwar al-Awliki). These our accused war-criminal Presidents have shown us Lovers of Liberty a way, however, of doing whatever we please without fear of punishment, retribution, or the application of clearly-worded federal, state, local, national, and international laws and statutes – we have but to do what we wish to do when we decide is best to do it and to ignore the cries and condemnation of any and all persons who demand that we stop. Unlike our accused war-criminal presidents, however, we just want to Pursue our Happiness in accordance with the Declaration of Independence and the XIV Amendment to the Constitution when, where, and how we as individuals decide is best; we shall continue to respect the Liberty of others even as we are imprisoned and abused by the various layers of American government for living lives full of Liberty and devoid of harm to other persons. What a fucking crock of bullshit we have allowed this country to become. Hrm, though, and mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
17 September 2012
laws to obey
Roughly a hundred and forty years ago, the persons who founded this American republic staked their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor on a simple yet profound document. Calling it the Declaration of Independence, these people wrote a text that is as powerful today as it was then, shaping our minds, our hearts, our common desires and destinies. The Declaration defines not just the rights of the entirety of humankind to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, but also the expectations we have for government, in clear and unequivocal language, cementing in the minds of millions of downtrodden persons across the globe the notion that they have the right to be ruled as they see best fit by an entity whose sole purpose it is to make them Safe and Happy.
And, yet, the federal government of the United States of America considers the Declaration to be a dead and useless document, one that We the people of this land cannot use to correct our systems' failures or to turn to for protection from our leaders' overreaches. The federal government justifies this position by claiming that the Declaration only applied to the thirteen original signatory States, and, since we have more than thirteen States today, it no longer grants us the right to shake off the stifling grip of corrupt rule or to free ourselves from the smothering grasp of tyranny. Such an opinion is indeed estimable to tyrants only, not to the democratically-elected leadership of a free and honest people. Not only would such a stance – if applied equally to all legislation passed to date by our houses of Congress – negate all laws but those issuing anew from our legislature each and every year, it would require lawmakers to continuously redefine, on a regular basis, this nation's entire legal framework. Let us take the feds at their word, though, and look at the world for a moment through their cruel and twisted eyes.
The Declaration was ratified unanimously by the Congress of the United States of America; it has been passed down from mother to son and from father to daughter, inspiring countless acts of courageous defiance and helping to lift entire generations out of the stifling sewer of poverty and oppression. In line with federal contempt for the Declaration of Independence, however, let us commonly ignore the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 – which was passed by a Congress other than the one sitting currently – and take any drugs we wish to take. Let us also ignore the provisions of the Patriot Act – which was passed by a Congress other than the one sitting currently – and regain the rights and freedoms that it took from us. Let us ignore the cruel and unusual provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act – which was passed by a Congress other than the one sitting currently – and marry whom we please, be that person man, woman, or something in-between. Is it lunacy to assume that laws only apply while the legislature that passed them is in session, and that they fall by the wayside once it convenes? If this were so, our police forces might actually serve and protect the citizenry rather than abuse us and seek to revoke our personal, human freedoms; if this were so, persons among us – such as Mitt Romney – who exploit loopholes in the tax code for personal financial gain and to the detriment of our nation's treasuries, damaging the welfare of those of us who cannot afford to hire the best tax attorneys money can buy, such persons would be punished for their evil and un-American ways and forced to play nice like everyone else. Even trying to think in such a way chaps my buns to no end; even trying to rewire my brain to see the Declaration of Independence as anything but mankind's ultimate living document drives me to the brink of tears. But, dear friend, this is the land in which we live; our federal and state overlords treat us how we allow them to treat us, in the manner of docile livestock. Perhaps we deserve not Life nor Liberty nor to Pursue our Happiness, only to live as corporate wage-slaves desperately clinging to dim memories of justice and equality for all. There is another way, however, a way for us to live in complete Liberty while looking out for each others' Lives and Fortunes, but we shall never live such a life unless we stand as one, right now, and create for ourselves the type of country that the Declaration of Independence once envisioned, wresting freedom from the corrupt individuals who make up our tyrannical and oppressive government. So stand up, speak out, and demand the right to Pursue your Happiness as you decide is best. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
And, yet, the federal government of the United States of America considers the Declaration to be a dead and useless document, one that We the people of this land cannot use to correct our systems' failures or to turn to for protection from our leaders' overreaches. The federal government justifies this position by claiming that the Declaration only applied to the thirteen original signatory States, and, since we have more than thirteen States today, it no longer grants us the right to shake off the stifling grip of corrupt rule or to free ourselves from the smothering grasp of tyranny. Such an opinion is indeed estimable to tyrants only, not to the democratically-elected leadership of a free and honest people. Not only would such a stance – if applied equally to all legislation passed to date by our houses of Congress – negate all laws but those issuing anew from our legislature each and every year, it would require lawmakers to continuously redefine, on a regular basis, this nation's entire legal framework. Let us take the feds at their word, though, and look at the world for a moment through their cruel and twisted eyes.
The Declaration was ratified unanimously by the Congress of the United States of America; it has been passed down from mother to son and from father to daughter, inspiring countless acts of courageous defiance and helping to lift entire generations out of the stifling sewer of poverty and oppression. In line with federal contempt for the Declaration of Independence, however, let us commonly ignore the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 – which was passed by a Congress other than the one sitting currently – and take any drugs we wish to take. Let us also ignore the provisions of the Patriot Act – which was passed by a Congress other than the one sitting currently – and regain the rights and freedoms that it took from us. Let us ignore the cruel and unusual provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act – which was passed by a Congress other than the one sitting currently – and marry whom we please, be that person man, woman, or something in-between. Is it lunacy to assume that laws only apply while the legislature that passed them is in session, and that they fall by the wayside once it convenes? If this were so, our police forces might actually serve and protect the citizenry rather than abuse us and seek to revoke our personal, human freedoms; if this were so, persons among us – such as Mitt Romney – who exploit loopholes in the tax code for personal financial gain and to the detriment of our nation's treasuries, damaging the welfare of those of us who cannot afford to hire the best tax attorneys money can buy, such persons would be punished for their evil and un-American ways and forced to play nice like everyone else. Even trying to think in such a way chaps my buns to no end; even trying to rewire my brain to see the Declaration of Independence as anything but mankind's ultimate living document drives me to the brink of tears. But, dear friend, this is the land in which we live; our federal and state overlords treat us how we allow them to treat us, in the manner of docile livestock. Perhaps we deserve not Life nor Liberty nor to Pursue our Happiness, only to live as corporate wage-slaves desperately clinging to dim memories of justice and equality for all. There is another way, however, a way for us to live in complete Liberty while looking out for each others' Lives and Fortunes, but we shall never live such a life unless we stand as one, right now, and create for ourselves the type of country that the Declaration of Independence once envisioned, wresting freedom from the corrupt individuals who make up our tyrannical and oppressive government. So stand up, speak out, and demand the right to Pursue your Happiness as you decide is best. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
14 September 2012
do unto others
I do not hate the bible, nor do I hate Christians or their religion, but I cannot stand people who gloss over its parts that talk about loving one another and who focus instead on their faith's sinister aspects, such as those demanding that gays be killed (Leviticus 20:13 NAB) and prostitutes be banished (Leviticus 21:9 NAB), persecuted and murdered in the name of god YHWH, Christianity's supreme deity, greater even than Mary, or Yeshua. Matthew, a man who wrote long after the death of Yeshua (if he existed at all), says in the Christian bible's new testament, basically, that what people do to each other, they do to YHWH, their god. Put a different way, Matt is trying to tell people to do unto others as they would have done unto themselves.
Oh what a peaceful and happy world this would be if professed Christians would but hew to this code, treat others as they themselves would prefer to be treated, understand that America was not founded on their faith, mind their own business, and stop trying to ban gay marriage and a woman's right to the contents of her stomach. If we lived in such a world, we would have fewer doctors being killed by Christian extremists, fewer politicians currying the favor (Defense of Marriage) of homegrown Taliban-style Christians (dominionists), and, perhaps, lower levels of industrial pollution, self-neglect, laziness, and materialism. (I am merely speculating that an interpretation of the Christian bible based on a love for the natural world and a respect for the tender fragility of the human spirit, one rooted in humility and moderation and founded on the notion that the godhead resides within each and every one of us and not in a mythical palace in the clouds, that such an interpretation would trump the many of the current interpretations, those being very similar to the hard-line and murderous views espoused by Islamic terrorists who deny women's rights and destroy anything that violates their strict religious codes.) As things stand, however, today's more prominent Christian leaders – similar to their counterparts in al-Qaida and Hezbollah – preach hatred for the unusual, fear of all things strange, unwavering obedience to codes designed for a nomadic Bronze Age desert-people, and discrimination against anyone living a life other than one of gasoline-guzzling, television-watching, Jesus-praising lethargy. How do we convince the Christians to stop their assault on the Liberty of the rest of us Americans? How do we show them just how anti-American are their efforts to restrict the freedoms of women and gays? For a religion that prides itself on its dozens of so-called saints – persons discriminated against and killed because of their faith – Christianity has made a remarkable and shocking about-face; now, it is the Christians who discriminate against and persecute others for their beliefs; now, it is the Christians calling for our nation to be smothered by religious laws similar to those that might exist under a globe-spanning Islamic Caliphate.
If the efforts of today's Christians to force the rest of us to live by the rules of their god YWHW are what they see as doing unto others as they would have done unto themselves, perhaps we who do not share their faith should give them a taste of their own medicine and drive them bodily into the sea, fighting fire with fire; perhaps we should ban their rituals and costumes and force them to live in constant fear of repression, hatred, ridicule, and physical battery, much as they do to our homosexual fellow Americans. We non-Christians, though, are Liberty-loving individuals who mind our own business and who don't care if two men want to marry one another; having fought for centuries to bring about equality and justice, we shall not allow a few thousand bible-thumping lunatics to ruin the fun for everyone else – not on this whorphan's watch, at least. No, friend, we champions of freedom would never infringe upon the inalienable rights of other adults to enter into contracts or agreements that are to their liking. We keep our minds free and our heads on swivels, fighting religious oppression wherever it should rear its ugly head. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
Oh what a peaceful and happy world this would be if professed Christians would but hew to this code, treat others as they themselves would prefer to be treated, understand that America was not founded on their faith, mind their own business, and stop trying to ban gay marriage and a woman's right to the contents of her stomach. If we lived in such a world, we would have fewer doctors being killed by Christian extremists, fewer politicians currying the favor (Defense of Marriage) of homegrown Taliban-style Christians (dominionists), and, perhaps, lower levels of industrial pollution, self-neglect, laziness, and materialism. (I am merely speculating that an interpretation of the Christian bible based on a love for the natural world and a respect for the tender fragility of the human spirit, one rooted in humility and moderation and founded on the notion that the godhead resides within each and every one of us and not in a mythical palace in the clouds, that such an interpretation would trump the many of the current interpretations, those being very similar to the hard-line and murderous views espoused by Islamic terrorists who deny women's rights and destroy anything that violates their strict religious codes.) As things stand, however, today's more prominent Christian leaders – similar to their counterparts in al-Qaida and Hezbollah – preach hatred for the unusual, fear of all things strange, unwavering obedience to codes designed for a nomadic Bronze Age desert-people, and discrimination against anyone living a life other than one of gasoline-guzzling, television-watching, Jesus-praising lethargy. How do we convince the Christians to stop their assault on the Liberty of the rest of us Americans? How do we show them just how anti-American are their efforts to restrict the freedoms of women and gays? For a religion that prides itself on its dozens of so-called saints – persons discriminated against and killed because of their faith – Christianity has made a remarkable and shocking about-face; now, it is the Christians who discriminate against and persecute others for their beliefs; now, it is the Christians calling for our nation to be smothered by religious laws similar to those that might exist under a globe-spanning Islamic Caliphate.
If the efforts of today's Christians to force the rest of us to live by the rules of their god YWHW are what they see as doing unto others as they would have done unto themselves, perhaps we who do not share their faith should give them a taste of their own medicine and drive them bodily into the sea, fighting fire with fire; perhaps we should ban their rituals and costumes and force them to live in constant fear of repression, hatred, ridicule, and physical battery, much as they do to our homosexual fellow Americans. We non-Christians, though, are Liberty-loving individuals who mind our own business and who don't care if two men want to marry one another; having fought for centuries to bring about equality and justice, we shall not allow a few thousand bible-thumping lunatics to ruin the fun for everyone else – not on this whorphan's watch, at least. No, friend, we champions of freedom would never infringe upon the inalienable rights of other adults to enter into contracts or agreements that are to their liking. We keep our minds free and our heads on swivels, fighting religious oppression wherever it should rear its ugly head. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
12 September 2012
a Declarational pledge
In the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, that legal document that lies at the heart of this American nation, our founding persons – and, by extension, all American citizens living or dead – declare that, “[A]ll Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness[.]” (Since starting this piece, I have read that the federal government does not consider the Declaration an active legal document because it was ratified before the Constitution by merely thirteen states, not after this republic's official establishment by the number of states we have now; so long as even a single American yearns for Liberty and the right to Pursue his Happiness as he sees best fit, however, the Declaration grants him – and us all – the right to alter and abolish our government until it creates Safety and Happiness for all, equally.) Long have our political and social leaders hewn to this pledge, laboring tirelessly to ensure that we are all blessed with freedom and justice; now, however, the Republican Party plans to destroy the essence of the Declaration of Independence by amending its sister-text, the Constitution, with a sentence defining marriage according to the Christian bible, just one of hundreds of different religious texts we turn to in this country, each and every day.
To restrict a person's right to marry whomever he should please is to rob him of his ability to Pursue Happiness; it says to him that he is worth less than others, that he was created less than equal, that his Liberty is less important than the Liberty of persons with a taste for heterosexual liaisons. Anyone with even the slightest shred of intelligence will look at the quote given above and immediately join our ranks as we fight the Republican Party's plans to abolish the rule of law and to supplant it with the rule of the church. (Which church or which faith is irrelevant; organized religion, with its fear-based indoctrination tactics, brainwashing of young people, and rigid, unyielding structure, poses among the greatest of conceivable threats to the Safety and Happiness of free-thinking, Liberty-loving individuals everywhere.)
This author finds it curious that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan prefer lies and hatred to Honor and Truth, and that they care so little for the opinions of the American people that they dare to stand up and say, Fuck everyone who isn't a hardcore Christian, fuck everyone who likes to sleep with persons of the same sex, and fuck everyone poorer than our corporate cronies and slave-masters. More shocking, however, is that roughly half of the American voting population – some seventy million (70,000,000) people – seem to agree with the vile nonsense spewing from the Republican Party, its members and representatives; when tens of millions of people abandon critical thinking and stop doubting the bullshit that is being shoveled down their throats we get things such as the Nazi's Holocaust, the Soviets' gulags, and Bush's Patriot Act; when tens of millions of people sit idly by as their leaders rack up record debts and wage wars of aggression against sovereign foreign nations, we can honestly say that America has fallen from grace, that the pledge of equality once made in the Declaration of Independence is null and void, and that our attempt to create a just and peaceful society comprised of self-reliant and self-respecting individuals who mind their own business has been trampled under the jackboots of mindless, Me-First automatons blindly adhering to poorly-formed notions and vacuous party-lines.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
To restrict a person's right to marry whomever he should please is to rob him of his ability to Pursue Happiness; it says to him that he is worth less than others, that he was created less than equal, that his Liberty is less important than the Liberty of persons with a taste for heterosexual liaisons. Anyone with even the slightest shred of intelligence will look at the quote given above and immediately join our ranks as we fight the Republican Party's plans to abolish the rule of law and to supplant it with the rule of the church. (Which church or which faith is irrelevant; organized religion, with its fear-based indoctrination tactics, brainwashing of young people, and rigid, unyielding structure, poses among the greatest of conceivable threats to the Safety and Happiness of free-thinking, Liberty-loving individuals everywhere.)
This author finds it curious that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan prefer lies and hatred to Honor and Truth, and that they care so little for the opinions of the American people that they dare to stand up and say, Fuck everyone who isn't a hardcore Christian, fuck everyone who likes to sleep with persons of the same sex, and fuck everyone poorer than our corporate cronies and slave-masters. More shocking, however, is that roughly half of the American voting population – some seventy million (70,000,000) people – seem to agree with the vile nonsense spewing from the Republican Party, its members and representatives; when tens of millions of people abandon critical thinking and stop doubting the bullshit that is being shoveled down their throats we get things such as the Nazi's Holocaust, the Soviets' gulags, and Bush's Patriot Act; when tens of millions of people sit idly by as their leaders rack up record debts and wage wars of aggression against sovereign foreign nations, we can honestly say that America has fallen from grace, that the pledge of equality once made in the Declaration of Independence is null and void, and that our attempt to create a just and peaceful society comprised of self-reliant and self-respecting individuals who mind their own business has been trampled under the jackboots of mindless, Me-First automatons blindly adhering to poorly-formed notions and vacuous party-lines.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
10 September 2012
things glossed over
When releasing in its platform for the Romeny and Ryan presidential ticket an assault on the liberty of gays and lesbians to get married, the Republican Party in America has proven itself fully ignorant of our founding persons' intent. Since none of our founding persons – not George Washington, Abigail Adams, or Thomas Jefferson – saw fit to speak about gay marriage or to define marriage according to the dustier and more embarrassing sections of the Christian's bible, we can only wonder how the Republicans came up with the fantastical and farcical notion that government should regulate marriage between same-sex individuals but not the amount of pollution emitted by industry.
In the Treaty of Tripoli, George Washington and John Adams wrote: “America was not in any way founded upon the Christian faith,” words that were ratified unanimously by their contemporaries in Congress. Keeping this quote in our minds, we cannot dare to allow the rules of Christianity to become the laws of our land, or stand by as they infect the halls of our secular government with narrow-mindedness and hatred; to do so would reduce us to the level of such murderous tyrants as we struggle to overthrow, the Taliban and al Qaida. Perhaps it is because our troopers by the hundreds of thousands have been battling religious-based terrorism in foreign lands, and that we as a nation have focused most of our attention and a lot of our treasure on making things better for non-American foreigners, that religious-based terrorism is now threatening to take hold of this nation's highest office. Since turning the rules of one religion into the law of the land would subject portions of our population to biblically-justified oppression, theocratic rule is a form of terrorism; if we allow someone such as Mitt Romney to pass a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman (which is spoken of only in the Christian bible's old testament and not at all mentioned by Jesus), we would establish theocratic rule, thus terrorizing innocent queers and non-combatant fags, neighbors and citizens alike.
It appears to me that the Republicans are banking all their hopes and aspirations on a voting block made up of religiously-conservative, born-again-Christian fringe-types, affluent Caucasians prone to shitting themselves with fear upon seeing men in turbans or drag. I admit that the asses' move was a genius stroke of propaganda, using the term Defense of Marriage to define their assault on the rights of homosexual Americans to marry one another; defense, however, implies that something is being attacked, whereas no one is trying to restrict heterosexuals' ability to get married, merely to grant homosexuals rights equal to those granted to heterosexuals. I have mentioned it before, and far better persons have said it before me, but I believe that we are now in the part of this country's life-cycle where things get worse before they get better; I can hardly imagine something worse than being forced to live by the rules of a religion not of my choosing, to have to kill unruly children (Deuteronomy 12:18-21), to have to kill non-virgin brides (Deuteronomy 22:13-21) – to have to kill anybody, for that matter, in order to satisfy the vain and petty blood-lust of YHWH, the Christians' god. If, friend, you feel the same way, if you would like to control your own life, if you mind your own business and could care less whom other people marry, please say NO to religious rule, fight Mitt Romney's and the Republican Party's plans for religious terrorism in America, and help defend fragile, tender Liberty. Mahalo, then, to you, oh brave and selfless warrior.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
In the Treaty of Tripoli, George Washington and John Adams wrote: “America was not in any way founded upon the Christian faith,” words that were ratified unanimously by their contemporaries in Congress. Keeping this quote in our minds, we cannot dare to allow the rules of Christianity to become the laws of our land, or stand by as they infect the halls of our secular government with narrow-mindedness and hatred; to do so would reduce us to the level of such murderous tyrants as we struggle to overthrow, the Taliban and al Qaida. Perhaps it is because our troopers by the hundreds of thousands have been battling religious-based terrorism in foreign lands, and that we as a nation have focused most of our attention and a lot of our treasure on making things better for non-American foreigners, that religious-based terrorism is now threatening to take hold of this nation's highest office. Since turning the rules of one religion into the law of the land would subject portions of our population to biblically-justified oppression, theocratic rule is a form of terrorism; if we allow someone such as Mitt Romney to pass a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman (which is spoken of only in the Christian bible's old testament and not at all mentioned by Jesus), we would establish theocratic rule, thus terrorizing innocent queers and non-combatant fags, neighbors and citizens alike.
It appears to me that the Republicans are banking all their hopes and aspirations on a voting block made up of religiously-conservative, born-again-Christian fringe-types, affluent Caucasians prone to shitting themselves with fear upon seeing men in turbans or drag. I admit that the asses' move was a genius stroke of propaganda, using the term Defense of Marriage to define their assault on the rights of homosexual Americans to marry one another; defense, however, implies that something is being attacked, whereas no one is trying to restrict heterosexuals' ability to get married, merely to grant homosexuals rights equal to those granted to heterosexuals. I have mentioned it before, and far better persons have said it before me, but I believe that we are now in the part of this country's life-cycle where things get worse before they get better; I can hardly imagine something worse than being forced to live by the rules of a religion not of my choosing, to have to kill unruly children (Deuteronomy 12:18-21), to have to kill non-virgin brides (Deuteronomy 22:13-21) – to have to kill anybody, for that matter, in order to satisfy the vain and petty blood-lust of YHWH, the Christians' god. If, friend, you feel the same way, if you would like to control your own life, if you mind your own business and could care less whom other people marry, please say NO to religious rule, fight Mitt Romney's and the Republican Party's plans for religious terrorism in America, and help defend fragile, tender Liberty. Mahalo, then, to you, oh brave and selfless warrior.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
05 September 2012
Liberty, at stake
This picture was created on 25 March 2011, well before the Republic Party in America released the Defense Of Marriage provision in its Romney/Ryan presidential platform, which is a brazen assault on the rights of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual Americans to get married. Fight theocratic rule! Fight injustice! Maintain the separation of church and state! Mahalo. X
03 September 2012
on the audacity
Attention, liberty-loving, self-respecting Americans who mind their own business: the forces of greed, deceit, and religious oppression are running for president. Anyone supporting the notion of equality amongst humans ought help to combat this threat. Long have we winced when our leader spoke of ruling us according to the rules found in Christian bible, which is just one of the countless different religious books that we Americans turn to every day. Messieurs Romney and Ryan just announced that if they should be appointed by the electoral college to the presidency that they would add to our secular Constitution a line defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Not only would such an amendment violate the rights of gay and lesbian Americans of sound mind and legal age to wed whomever they should wish to wed, it would contaminate a pure and honest document with the hateful directive of YHWH, the Christian's jealous (Exodus 20:3) and genocidal (Joshua 6:17) godhead. This, however, is not the gravest threat facing our nation at this time; the greater threat comes from the Republican Party itself, and from its mindless, lie-spewing, line-toeing members, light-skinned and well-to-do individuals, puppets marching in jackbooted lock-step with tears of joy in their eyes as their leaders gut the welfare state and destroy the last remaining remnants of fragile, precious Liberty.
Millions march across the globe to protest the greed of vulture capitalists, the avarice of our corporate overlords, and the cruelty of consumption-oriented capitalism, and yet the members of the Republican Party in America chose as their candidate for our nation's highest office a 1%er, a silver-spoon-sucking, income-tax-evading, private-jet-flying, local-job-destroying douchebag whose first name rhymes with shit. And why shouldn't they? They long ago sold their souls to the first corporate bidder to dangle an envelope stuffed with greenbacks in front of their milky gazes, forfeiting sacred Honor for cash, a paltry exchange. This author is not trying to say that only the Republican Party is a donation-addled behemoth that cannot possibly represent the varied interest of one hundred and sixty millions of American voters; the Democratic Party is just as deaf to the cries of the poor, as blind to the whites of its lies, and as polluted with the foul stink of corporate funding as are its donkey-sucking counterparts across the aisle. It is shocking, though, that the Republicans would prove so disconnected from reality, so stultified in what passes with them for thinking, so bedazzled by the righteous fury of religious conservatism that they would even seriously consider openly releasing the platform they drafted for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. It appears, however, that my hope for the future of this land was little more than cruel and short-lived fancy, that my belief that we Americans were still a compassionate people bent on uplifting those without means and on perpetuating the notion of personal Liberty was little more than foolhardy delusion.
Beyond this author's whining and my dislike for theocratic rule, the audacity of the 2012 Republican presidential platform is what really chaps my buns, that a party that once included Abraham Lincoln and Theodor Roosevelt could forget that our founding persons conceived this nation as one of Liberty, equality, Safety, and Happiness for all, not as a piggy-bank for brainwashed, super-rich, goose-stepping religious extremists. (America's native religious extremist groups are just as dangerous to our common Safety and Happiness as are foreign religious extremist groups such as al-Qaida or Hezbollah.) A Constitutional ban on gay marriage would destroy the right of each American to choose whom to spend his or her life with, be that person black, white, yellow, tall, short, fat, skinny, hirsute, balding, sick, healthy, gay, straight, whole, crippled, or born without hands. Ultimately, it is not the Republican Party's business, nor is it the business of the federal, state, or local government, nor it is not the business of heterosexual individuals to tell homosexual or transsexual individuals how they should live their lives. So let's all start minding our own business, and focus on making our own lives long, and happy. Stand up, speak out, fight injustice, and keep America free of morally-justified terrorism. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
Millions march across the globe to protest the greed of vulture capitalists, the avarice of our corporate overlords, and the cruelty of consumption-oriented capitalism, and yet the members of the Republican Party in America chose as their candidate for our nation's highest office a 1%er, a silver-spoon-sucking, income-tax-evading, private-jet-flying, local-job-destroying douchebag whose first name rhymes with shit. And why shouldn't they? They long ago sold their souls to the first corporate bidder to dangle an envelope stuffed with greenbacks in front of their milky gazes, forfeiting sacred Honor for cash, a paltry exchange. This author is not trying to say that only the Republican Party is a donation-addled behemoth that cannot possibly represent the varied interest of one hundred and sixty millions of American voters; the Democratic Party is just as deaf to the cries of the poor, as blind to the whites of its lies, and as polluted with the foul stink of corporate funding as are its donkey-sucking counterparts across the aisle. It is shocking, though, that the Republicans would prove so disconnected from reality, so stultified in what passes with them for thinking, so bedazzled by the righteous fury of religious conservatism that they would even seriously consider openly releasing the platform they drafted for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. It appears, however, that my hope for the future of this land was little more than cruel and short-lived fancy, that my belief that we Americans were still a compassionate people bent on uplifting those without means and on perpetuating the notion of personal Liberty was little more than foolhardy delusion.
Beyond this author's whining and my dislike for theocratic rule, the audacity of the 2012 Republican presidential platform is what really chaps my buns, that a party that once included Abraham Lincoln and Theodor Roosevelt could forget that our founding persons conceived this nation as one of Liberty, equality, Safety, and Happiness for all, not as a piggy-bank for brainwashed, super-rich, goose-stepping religious extremists. (America's native religious extremist groups are just as dangerous to our common Safety and Happiness as are foreign religious extremist groups such as al-Qaida or Hezbollah.) A Constitutional ban on gay marriage would destroy the right of each American to choose whom to spend his or her life with, be that person black, white, yellow, tall, short, fat, skinny, hirsute, balding, sick, healthy, gay, straight, whole, crippled, or born without hands. Ultimately, it is not the Republican Party's business, nor is it the business of the federal, state, or local government, nor it is not the business of heterosexual individuals to tell homosexual or transsexual individuals how they should live their lives. So let's all start minding our own business, and focus on making our own lives long, and happy. Stand up, speak out, fight injustice, and keep America free of morally-justified terrorism. Mahalo.
場黑麥 mentiri factorem fecit
26 September 2011
American theocracy - 3
The following are quotes from the founders of the United States of America:
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." James Madison, 1774;
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it." John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson;
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." Benjamin Franklin, in Poor Richard's Almanac;
"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." Thomas Jefferson, 1787;
"And the day will come, when the mystical generation [birth] of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation [birth] of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." Thomas Jefferson, in an 1823 letter to John Adams.
The above statements were made by the individuals who created this nation. Similar quotes were made by George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Abraham Lincoln. The content and general message we can take from these quotes is that we were founded by men who shared a love for reason rather than men seeking the elevation of a particular religion. Never can we allow religious teaching to highjack our institutions of government: for to incorporate religious teachings amongst the laws and constitutions of our land would be to destroy the efforts of our founding fathers to create a nation of equal, rational, free-thinking, exceptional human beings.
During a recent discussion, my counterpart stated that, The founding fathers were informed by Christianity; they drew from a common value system that was prevalent at the time. While this theory of osmotic religious indoctrination has some merit, I propose a theory that has perhaps equal merit. In the statements by Thomas Jefferson quoted above, we find two references to ancient Greek notions, namely Reason, and Athena (Minerva).
If Christianity informed our founding fathers, and Jefferson foremost among them, then the polytheistic teachings and value systems of the authors of Hellenistic antiquity, who wrote such works as The Republic (Plato) and Politics (Aristotle), also informed our founding fathers. The notion of Reason – the fluid process of evaluation and decision-making by which man masters adversity – can be found in the writings of both Plato and Aristotle. The notion of goddess Athena – patroness of art, craft, guile, justice, strength, civilization, and wisdom – can also be found in the writings of these two men of old.
Thomas Jefferson, an educated and well-read individual, in his crafting of the Declaration of Independence, drew upon the writings of the ancient political philosophers, and was sure to have been exposed considerably to the polytheistic notions of ancient times. And yet, when writing the Declaration, did he make mention of Zeus, or of any other gods from the Hellenistic pantheon? He makes no more mention of them than he does of YWH, the god of the Christians. If I were to stride into the Chambers of Congress and announce to those assembled that, since Greek deities informed our founding fathers, rites must be performed regularly to placate Poseidon, or to please Zeus, I would surely be laughed out of the room by all present. Congruently, any individuals entering said Chambers and demanding the observance of Christian rites is to be drowned out with raucous jesting.
Our Constitution, in the first Amendment, states that no laws shall be passed that restrict the practice of, or that establish officially, any religion. This amendment gives the right to all who here dwell to practice their religion without fear of government repression or coercion. In my opinion, a person should be able to decide which god he or she should worship, which religion to practice, and what beliefs, however outlandish and outmoded they may seem to me, to hold. I rejoice in that freedom; I do not wish to see it ever taken from the people of this land. Efforts currently under way, however: to interfere with a woman's right to abort things growing in her private property, her body; to delineate the right to marry according to the religious tracts of one specific group; these efforts pose great risk to the first Amendment, to our Constitution, and to the foundations of this American republic.
I applaud those individuals fighting against these efforts to abolish our core principles.
I applaud the judges hearing these cases, and trust that they will approach the matter resplendent in the mantle of reason, their minds broad, their logic sound, knowing well of the dangers inherent to state-mandated religious doctrine.
America, as a country, as a nation, as a concept, can only remain viable if it is founded on reason, justice, and the notion that all persons, regardless of class, creed, or color, can here find fertile grounds on which their dreams and aspirations may grow. If we allow even one snippet of religious code to find its way into our law, we will have failed our founding fathers by abandoning reason, and we will soon find ourselves in a barren and hostile wasteland rife with intolerance, and ruled by fear.
This must not come to pass. Let us continue to fight – with patient voices and open minds – for the salvation of our nation.
Stay true to our founding fathers: say NO to American theocracy.
During a recent discussion, my counterpart stated that, The founding fathers were informed by Christianity; they drew from a common value system that was prevalent at the time. While this theory of osmotic religious indoctrination has some merit, I propose a theory that has perhaps equal merit. In the statements by Thomas Jefferson quoted above, we find two references to ancient Greek notions, namely Reason, and Athena (Minerva).
If Christianity informed our founding fathers, and Jefferson foremost among them, then the polytheistic teachings and value systems of the authors of Hellenistic antiquity, who wrote such works as The Republic (Plato) and Politics (Aristotle), also informed our founding fathers. The notion of Reason – the fluid process of evaluation and decision-making by which man masters adversity – can be found in the writings of both Plato and Aristotle. The notion of goddess Athena – patroness of art, craft, guile, justice, strength, civilization, and wisdom – can also be found in the writings of these two men of old.
Thomas Jefferson, an educated and well-read individual, in his crafting of the Declaration of Independence, drew upon the writings of the ancient political philosophers, and was sure to have been exposed considerably to the polytheistic notions of ancient times. And yet, when writing the Declaration, did he make mention of Zeus, or of any other gods from the Hellenistic pantheon? He makes no more mention of them than he does of YWH, the god of the Christians. If I were to stride into the Chambers of Congress and announce to those assembled that, since Greek deities informed our founding fathers, rites must be performed regularly to placate Poseidon, or to please Zeus, I would surely be laughed out of the room by all present. Congruently, any individuals entering said Chambers and demanding the observance of Christian rites is to be drowned out with raucous jesting.
Our Constitution, in the first Amendment, states that no laws shall be passed that restrict the practice of, or that establish officially, any religion. This amendment gives the right to all who here dwell to practice their religion without fear of government repression or coercion. In my opinion, a person should be able to decide which god he or she should worship, which religion to practice, and what beliefs, however outlandish and outmoded they may seem to me, to hold. I rejoice in that freedom; I do not wish to see it ever taken from the people of this land. Efforts currently under way, however: to interfere with a woman's right to abort things growing in her private property, her body; to delineate the right to marry according to the religious tracts of one specific group; these efforts pose great risk to the first Amendment, to our Constitution, and to the foundations of this American republic.
I applaud those individuals fighting against these efforts to abolish our core principles.
I applaud the judges hearing these cases, and trust that they will approach the matter resplendent in the mantle of reason, their minds broad, their logic sound, knowing well of the dangers inherent to state-mandated religious doctrine.
America, as a country, as a nation, as a concept, can only remain viable if it is founded on reason, justice, and the notion that all persons, regardless of class, creed, or color, can here find fertile grounds on which their dreams and aspirations may grow. If we allow even one snippet of religious code to find its way into our law, we will have failed our founding fathers by abandoning reason, and we will soon find ourselves in a barren and hostile wasteland rife with intolerance, and ruled by fear.
This must not come to pass. Let us continue to fight – with patient voices and open minds – for the salvation of our nation.
Stay true to our founding fathers: say NO to American theocracy.
Ultima Ratio Regum - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp
22 September 2011
American theocracy - 2
In my writing, I am often more critical of Christianity than of the hundreds of other religions practiced every day in these United States. America is not a Christian nation, nor is it Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, or Taoist. This nation was not founded upon the principles of any one belief system. Therefore, we as a nation cannot allow one religious group, under any circumstance, to incorporate their beliefs into the laws of our land; we can ill afford to take sitting down the intractable religious rhetoric spewing from the orifices of our public figures.
Someone asked me recently: "Why are you so critical of Christianity? No one will defend Christianity, so you are better off taking Islam to task – that will drum up more controversy, boosting readership numbers on your blog in the process."
I am loathe to attack Muslims because: they are not attempting to define legally the parameters of marriage according to their own religious texts; they are not attempting to restrict legally, again according to their religious texts, a woman's inalienable right to do to her property, her body, whatever she pleases (such as aborting a fetus), a right granted to all women under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; they are not attempting to claim for their own the reference in the Declaration of Independence to Nature's God, a moniker broad enough to encompass, in the spirit of true egalitarianism, the deities of all systems of belief, not a direct reference to one god in particular. (If, instead of Nature's God the Declaration read Yahweh, I would concede the field to the Christians, but it does not, so I will stand my ground.)
In comparison, Christians are laboring to define marriage according to the books they consider holy (see here); they are trying to take from the women of this land the right to their bodies, their property, by making abortions illegal (see here); they claim that Nature's God refers to Yahweh, the god of the Christians, the father of Jesus (see here), when Nature's God could refer to anything from the Universe, to Chaos, to the Great Spirit once known to the Indian tribes.
We hear in the news about the dangers of an Islamic caliphate arising in the Middle East. (For one example of this, see here.) Here in America, we face the dangers of an impending Christianity-based theocracy. Any system of government that rules according to the code of a specific religion will, invariably, subjugate those people living under it to its own laws; it will stifle freedom of expression by striking fear in the hearts of honest but non-believing citizens; it will, when challenged, resort to barbaric and unreasonable action to silence dissent; and, most crucially, it will render unattainable to ourselves and to our Posterity the Blessings of Liberty by coercing us into recognizing and worshiping a suicidal zombie who, being “one with god,” as the “holy spirit” impregnated his own mother.
For an example of the horrors inherent to religious rule, look into life in Afghanistan under the Taliban. We, as a nation, must fight the efforts currently under way to further codify into law one religious doctrine in particular, no matter how long that religion has been practiced here or what percentage of the population holds it to be true. We cannot allow our fundamental principles to be made subservient to the beliefs of one specific religion: our republic, our rights, our liberty, and our lives are at risk. American flexibility and inventiveness will suffer under religious rule – these characteristics that we hold so highly will wither and die if confined in a closed and unchanging framework based on the writings of a desert people who lived in the Iron Age many thousands of years ago. To do any of these things would be to shatter fully our frail democracy, our tenuous republic.
Future generations will cheer our efforts at maintaining a republic dedicated to the principles upon which it was founded, those being the general Welfare, a more perfect Union, the establishment of Justice, the domestic Tranquility, the common defence, and the Blessings of Liberty. If our nation were to fall under the sway of the religious zealot, even a supposedly pious zealot possessing of convincing fear-mongery, these founding principles would fall prey to the demands of righteous necessity.
The Christians of America have not been subjected to a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations – thus, they have no Right, no Duty, to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future Security: their communities are not under siege, their places of worship are being built regardless of location, they are not being attacked in taxi cabs, or in the streets. I believe in freedom of religion. I envy the faithful for their unfaltering belief. I support fully the right to pray to the god of your choosing in public or in private. I will not, however, stand idly by as born-again, my-way-or-the-highway, ultra-conservative types vie for this country's highest office with dreams of dominionism dancing in their eyes.
Fight theocracy in the U.S.A. Act now, for the forces of oppression seldom rest.
Ultima Ratio Regum - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp
19 September 2011
American theocracy - 1
A dangerous effort is under way in these United States of America – the effort to define the concept of marriage, and its societal and legal ramifications, according to the code of a specific religion. If allowed to progress unopposed, this effort will abolish the concept of the separation of church and state as set forth in the U.S. Constitution. This effort is an assault on the liberty of the American people, and we can ill afford to further bind our nation to the tenets of one religion among the many that here persist. Just as we would not incorporate into our most hallowed documents the parameters of Shari'a law, or the teachings of Lord Krishna, we must not shackle ourselves to the strictures of the Christian religion, even though that religion is practiced by a relatively large portion of the U.S. population.
For if these efforts were to succeed in binding the concept of marriage to the code of one specific religion, we would be forced to abide by all of Yahweh's clearly-stated mandates, including the one regarding the murder, in front of the father's house, of new wives found deflowered (Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB), mandates that would result in the abolition of Justice, the loss of the domestic Tranquility, and the nullification of the Blessings of Liberty – our code of laws would become subject to the whims of a blood-thirsty and destructive god with a long and well-documented history of genocide and mass murder (see the Midianites, and the denizens of Jericho, Sodom, and Gomorrah).
George Washington and John Adams said, and the contemporary Congress agreed unanimously, “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion” (see the Treaty of Tripoli). These were more than idle words spoken in private, more than a backroom speech made to moneyed sycophants: these words were part of an official declaration made to a foreign government in hope of a future free of strife; they were written to placate the heated ire of another people by stating that we as a nation will not, under any circumstance, abandon rationality or assume to pass legislation based on the ethical code put forth by a god that demands loyalty above all, a god that ignores the balance of our needs and our desires, a god that seeks to rid us of the knowledge of a unifying and perpetual energy that lurks among the passions of our lives, a god that demands strict adherence to the myriad rules contained within the Christian bible, but one religious book among many.
We are not a nation established on the concepts of one particular religion. We are a nation founded to establish Justice and to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. We do this by guiding our country, through legislative act, executive lunge, and judicial rule, via rational and lively debate, toward the emancipation of Happiness and Security among the People, not through rule of fear or codex, but through the application of our vast collective potential in service to all peoples of this land, not simply to a diminishing minority of the fabulously rich.
Fight this impending American theocracy. If your governor prays to Jesus for an end to the woes facing your state, vote him out of office as soon as you can. If your Congresswoman claims to be guided by voices in her head that she thinks are her god, if she boasts of blind fealty to god and husband, write to her and demand she relinquish her post. There is room for faith in the hearts of the American people, but it must remain there and not pollute the halls of government – in those halls is room only for rational and measured debate focused on securing to ourselves and our Posterity the Blessings of Liberty.
Ultima Ratio Regum - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp
Ultima Ratio Regum - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp
08 September 2011
on our current dictatorship
Michelle Bachmann, on Monday 05 September 2011 (see here), warned that the federal government would become “a dictator over our lives” if it were to make the purchasing of health insurance conditional to citizenship. In support of the point she is trying to make, and to illuminate the majestic, abiding truth behind her words, let us review some of the other conditions that state and federal governments have forced upon the American people, conditions that violate our liberty and that Design to reduce us under absolute Despotism:
The motor vehicle operators of this nation are being forced to insure themselves and their conveyances;
The parents of this nation are being forced to educate their children;
The users of this nation are being forced to choose between alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, all other drugs having been declared illegal;
The heterosexual couples of this nation are being exposed to the threat of prosecution if found living together while not married (in Florida);
The homosexual couples of this nation are being restricted in their right to marry;
The women of this nation are being besieged by forces seeking to restrict their right to terminate unwanted pregnancies;
The property-owners of this nation are being forced to pay school taxes, even if they are childless;
The sick patients of this nation are being forced to suffer needlessly, the cures and remedies potential to stem-cell research unexplored and otherwise retarded by the staunch efforts of moralistic and religious extremists;
The non-believers of this nation are being forced to abide by the tenets of a religion not of their choosing (Pennsylvania's blue laws, laws defining marriage according to the Christian bible), and they have little choice but to handle currency which bears the religious statement, “In God We Trust;”
The workers of this nation are being forced to live in poverty, their jobs having been sold to the lowest foreign bidder by native corporations seeking to maximize dividends at any cost;
The peace-loving people of this nation have been forced to accept torture as a means essential to the common defense of their homeland;
The gullible inhabitants of this nation have been forced to live in constant fear of the specter of terrorism, their fists balling at the mere mention of Islam, their anxiety fueled by the vague warnings and hysterical rhetoric emanating from TV personalities and politicians alike;
The minority populations of this nation have been forced to live as second-class citizens, their communities neglected, their schools under-funded, their young people incarcerated disproportionately, and their adults abandoned to the ravages of disease and addiction;
The tranquil people of this nation are being forced to defend constantly the sanctity of their persons and other such property from unscrupulous local police officers, who, in blatant disregard of any pledge they might have made to defend and uphold the Constitution, too often resort to tricking the
people into relinquishing the protections granted them in the Bill of Rights;
The millions of registered voters of this nation are being forced to select from candidates of but two political parties, political parties that because of their size, complexity, and ossification cannot possibly endeavor to represent the myriad opinions of a people as diverse as our own;
The once-proud citizens of this nation have been forced to give up their inalienable rights, their elected officials passing legislation (Patriot Act) to this effect soon after 11 September 2001, legislation that has left the citizenry exposed to willful and unwarranted intrusions into its private affairs.
Americans do not fear the threat of dictatorship: we have already engaged the existing dictatorship. I call on Michelle Bachmann to expand her efforts, and to join in the struggle to right the wrongs listed above, if not to satisfy her base, then to prove to the rest of the voters that she is prepared to battle oppression regardless of form or frequency.
It matters little our color, conviction, or creed – we must never forget that our republic is a fragile and fleeting affair, an unusual configuration too easily corrupted by those with much to gain, too readily abandoned by those with nothing to lose. Only through vigilant and persistent action can we rekindle the Torch of Progress, and regain for ourselves and our Posterity those Blessings of Liberty that for generations have been denied us.
It matters little our color, conviction, or creed – we must never forget that our republic is a fragile and fleeting affair, an unusual configuration too easily corrupted by those with much to gain, too readily abandoned by those with nothing to lose. Only through vigilant and persistent action can we rekindle the Torch of Progress, and regain for ourselves and our Posterity those Blessings of Liberty that for generations have been denied us.
Ultima Ratio Regum - 場黑麥 John Paul Roggenkamp
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