JUNE IS GONE AND SO ARE THE GAY PRIDE CELEBRATIONS

But we should all carry on, still insist in maintaining our pride and our dignity the other months of the year as if it was June

The rejection of homosexuality on the part of Evangelicals and other flavored religions is most noticeable by their objections to GAY PRIDE PARADES. It pisses them off to no end that these deviates, these sinners and less than human characters would even demand equal rights let alone parade shamelessly flaunting their homosexuality.

We see for example in Russia how they have banned Pride parades for one hundred years. It is not surprising because as they were brought up and got used to everyone being the same mediocre selves, it was imperative that everyone should conform. Nothing has changed since the fall of the Soviet Union in that aspect of culture…the people are still expected to follow like sheep and not show any individuality, any kind of dissent, any type of organizing and mostly, not demanding civil rights.

This is more or less what has happened in America and what the homophobic religious fanatics would like to perpetuate…and they want city, state and Federal governments to assist them in their quest to discriminate. 

They actually want and have even passed laws in some places that criminalize and punish our LGBT population.

This of course goes against the very principles of Christianity and after all, Jesus never uttered one single word against homosexuality…and he had a very close friend…perhaps closer than Christianists would be comfortable with…he had a buddy: John.

There are places where certain words like “VAGINA” and”GAY” have been basically outlawed. How absurd, how terribly backwards and deviate is that? All the while all kinds of extramarital, adulterous affairs go on, incest, sexual abuse of underage girls and boys...but that's not as serious because supposedly Christians are forgiven.

  The homosexual should never forget that we are/were a captive people. This does not mean we are a defeated people. You're not defeated until you have given in to the enemy. Giving in means giving the enemy what he wants. Of course, the first thing they want us to do is to stop resisting and fighting back. The second thing they want is for us to stop being our true homosexual selves and to become a sissy, which means to accept the role they are most comfortable with.” - IAm(A)ga(Y)te-keeper http://thegayte-keeper.blogspot.com/

When dealing with these stupid homophobes we should be as in your face, as obnoxious, as militant and as intolerant of their homophobia as we can possibly be. They are not going to give one inch unless they meet with vigorous opposition; they are going to continue their relentless bigotry and the spewing of hatred unless we summarily and unconditionally oppose them. 

That is the reason for Pride Parades, that is the reason we should always remember what Eleanor Roosevelt said: “Nobody can humiliate you without your consent” Gay Pride Parades are fun, they are a venue for letting it all hang out and we should participate to have a little fun, to poke fun at the prudish and intolerant homophobes…but most of all it is a necessary tool to show the world that we are no longer willing to accept their erroneous interpretations of the Scriptures, we are not happy with accepting second class citizen status and we will not be subdued and silenced so that we are forced back in the closet where they feel more comfortable with gays…out of sight, out of mind. 

VISIT

iAm(A)ga(Y)te-keeper

http://thegayte-keeper.blogspot.com/

IT IS A GREAT BLOG

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ODDITIES – UP

“Up yours” is perhaps the most dreaded thing anybody could say to you…but have you ever thought of how many other ways “UP” is used?

This is the only word in the English language that could be a noun, verb, adj, adv, prep.

UP Read until the end... you'll laugh. This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is "UP." It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]. It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, brightenUP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car. At other times, this little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UPabout UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out, we say it is clearingUP. When it rains, it soaks UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now. . . my time is UP! Oh. . . one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? U P! Did that one crack you UP? Don't screw UP. Send this on to everyone you look UP in your address book. . . or not. . . it's UPto you. Now I'll shut UP

MANY, MANY REASONS WHY OBAMACARE WILL NOT BE REPEALED

Republicans can whine all they want and even misinform and lie about the Healthcare issue, but it is here to stay and this is why:

From Think Progress.org

1) Romney has no authority to issue waivers. Romney has promised to expand a provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows states to opt out of certain sections of the law to permit states to ignore it entirely. But the executive branch and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) likely don’t have the authority to grant such broad waivers. According to the law, HHS (together with the IRS) have waiver authority, but only if the states meet very specific requirements. Neither have blanket waiver authority, which would have to come from Congress. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) — the author of the waiver provision — has challenged Romney’s claims, saying, “Anybody who tries to move outside the standards of the bill — which is the coverage and costs and the like — well I’ll certainly fight that. But I think lots of other people will too.”

2) Congress can’t repeal the full law through reconciliation. Without the necessary 60 votes in the Senate for full repeal, Republicans are pledging to use a budget reconciliation bill to undo the ACA. But this process would only apply to the budget-related elements of the law and would thus leave many portions — including the mandate — intact. As health care expert Robert Laszewski put it, “Romney could end up creating a chaotic environment driven by enormous uncertainty over just which parts of the new health care law would be implemented–for consumers, health care providers, and insurers.”

3) Republicans have nothing to replace it with. David Frum explains that since the expansion of coverage provisions go into effect in 2014, Romney would have just one year to both repeal and replace the law. Republicans haven’t even coalesced around a single plan — and many in the party believe that the federal government should leave health care alone and want to leave the entire reform process to the states. Thus, “if replacement does not happen in the first 100 days, it won’t happen at all—that is, it won’t happen as a single measure, but rather will take the form of dozens of small incremental changes adopted episodically over the next 20 years.”

4) Americans support Obamacare’s provisions. While Americans may not like “Obamacare” — and the political process of passing it — they do support its major provisions and are likely to resist any effort by Republicans to take away their benefits. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that while 56 percent of Americans oppose the law as a whole, 61 percent of respondents favored allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26, 72 percent wish to maintain the requirement that companies with more than 50 workers provide health insurance for their employees, and 82 percent of respondents favored banning insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. As more benefits roll out in 2014, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to argue for their repeal.

5) There won't be enough Republicans left in the House after November to push through anything. Even with all the voter disenfranchising, the attempt to rig elections in the Republican’s favor, shitloads of money being poured in from anonymous sources…some of which might even be foreign…I seriously doubt that Republicans will be able to gain enough seats in the Senate or even maintain a majority in the House…I am placing my bets on the American people who are just tired of Congress doing nothing but sabotage the economy, vote against any and all legislation and let’s call it for what it is…SABOTAGE! With that in mind it is difficult for me to understand how Romney could become President and how the Republicans will gain both houses of Congress.

6) I think that it is going to be difficult to defend a repeal when it was Mitt Romney’s health care plan he put in place in Massachussetts in the first place that was the mold of OBAMACARE…he can’t run away from his authorship of that any more than he can run away from Bain Capital and his VULTURE CAPITALISM ideology.

SOURCE: http://thinkprogress.org/health/issue/

 

WHAT IS RUSH WAITING FOR NOW? MOVE TO COSTA RICA ALREADY

 Tell Rush: "Obamacare Won. Move to Costa Rica"

Well, Rush Limbaugh is apparently going apoplectic over the Supreme Court upholding President Obama's health care law. No way you can tell us he is not pissed.


But here's the odd thing.  We don't understand why he's still around to complain, since Rush said earlier that if this law passed, he'd leave America, and move to Costa Rica:

If Democrats didn't have all the incentive they needed to pass health care reform already, then conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh may have provided the final push they needed by vowing to flee the country if the reform bill is passed. Responding to a caller who asked him where he would go for health care if Congress enacts reform, Limbaugh replied, "I don't know. 

I'll just tell you this, if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented -- I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica." (Source)

Well, now that the Supreme Court has weighed in, and now that it's clear that health care reform will be implemented, we have just one thing to say to Rush:
"Adios mother fucker!"

Send Rush a message.  Tell him the make good on his promise, and to start packing his bags. 

(Oh, and to the good people of Costa Rica....um... sorry, foreign aid for catastrophic distress from the damage will surely follow).

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THIS SITE AND SIGN PETITION:

http://leftaction.com/action/tell-rush-obamacare-won-move-costa-rica

UNACCEPTABLE TERMINOLOGY

Here are some terms and words that rattle my cage:

Holly Bible, Prophet, Apostles, Sanctity of Marriage, Holly Matrimony, Miracles, Pastor, the flock, saved, salvation, eternal damnation, eternal darkness, hell, the faithful and these are just to name a few. There are many other terms and words that have negative connotations and are code words for much bigotry.

HOLLY BIBLE: The term “holly” applied to the Scriptures we all assume will impart some sort of divinity to these as if they were the word of GOD. We don’t know that and these are but accounts and stories, mostly told in parables from ancient peoples that may or may not have occurred. But make no mistake about it, they were written by men after they acquired the skills to write them. Before that, they were being told verbally to be passed on from generation to generation and in order to do that, they had to be memorable…it was necessary to embellish and exaggerate because the ignorant people of the times needed those qualities to have them remember the stories.

The ambiguous Scriptures give me particular distress. On the one hand, you have the Old Testament with a vengeful, wrathful God that does horrible things to humans. On the other you have The New Testament with a loving, kind and empathetic God. You have things like "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" contrasted with "turn the other cheek".

PROPHET: Here is one that I get a particular feeling of disgust when I hear it. Some of these if not all are self-anointed, delusional con artists. It is assumed that a Prophet is one very privileged and gifted human being that is above the rest because he has the capability of communicating directly with God. That to me is the biggest bunch of crap there is. Nobody can communicate with God directly, nobody has, nobody ever will.

APOSTLES: Any of the early followers of Jesus who carried the Christian message into the world. (Sometimes initial capital letter) any of the original 12 disciples called by Jesus to preach the gospel: Simon Peter, the brothers James and John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot. That is what the dictionary says. But then there are other religions that apply this title to the highest ecclesiastical official in certain Protestant sects. (Among the Jews of the Christian epoch) a title borne by persons sent on foreign missions.

But for the Mormons it is used as one of the 12 administrative officials of the Mormon Church. The whole issue here is that the usage of this word conjures up some sort of noble and divine nature because of the association it has to those called Apostles by Jesus to preach the gospel. The Mormons think that by calling them that it imparts some validation of some sort in religious terms.

SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE: Sanctity (derived from “saint”) conjures up an idea that this is a very coveted and blissful union of two people. But what it does not explain is why this so-called Sanctity could possibly be applied to unions where the bride is unwilling or too young as was the case of the dirty old men that practiced polygamy in ancient times and more recently in the Mormon religion. Young girls as young as 8 years old were “betrothed” to much older men whom they did not love and could not possibly be attractive as sexual mates for them. The founder of the Mormon Church, Brigham Young, comes to mind; if he were living in our times he would be classified as a white supremacist racist, polygamist pedophile in addition to being a delusional con artist.

Many of the Fundamentalists, Evangelicals and Mormons insist on defining marriage for the rest of us as “the union between one man and one woman” not taking into consideration that it really is about one union of two people who love each other and enter into a commitment and pledge to love one another. Their insistence of defining marriage for the rest of us is in my opinion an intrusion into my feelings and my principles because I think it is possible for two people to love each other regardless of what gender they are. Sadly, they are telling gays that their love is unworthy and not valid, that they are somehow inferior and undeserving of this right.

HOLLY MATRIMONY: Pretty much the same concept as the Sanctity of Marriage, by adding the word “holly” they think they are imparting some divine validation.

MIRACLES: This is one of the most abused of all the words in the religious vernacular. Why? Because it applies the word to unexplained phenomena or unusual events that have no explanations. But to be honest, how many of those so-called MIRACLES are not even that unusual and have a plausible scientific explanation? And then again, how many more of those miracles are just fabricated fairy tales to impress an ignorant populace? How about “set ups” like the priests of the Egyptian temples did with their thunder machine and dye that turned the waters red?

Like this glacier in Antarctica that has a “bleeding” waterfall? You could easily say that the glaciers are bleeding because they have been injured by us and are dying, couldn’t you?

PASTOR, THE FLOCK, SHEEP: this one just pisses me off. It is irritating to me to think of human being as sheep that will follow their shepherd blindly. The flock, plurality applied to solicit conformity and obedience. I like to think of myself as a free thinking, rational and reasonable human, not a wimpy, dumb animal like a sheep.

SAVED, SALVATION: this one too is so irritating a term. Because it insinuates that unless you follow a certain set of beliefs and behave in a conforming way according to what religion prescribes then you will not be “saved”. But I ask: saved from what? Am I supposed to be scared shitless not to be saved? Is fear my only motivation for believing or not believing? I dare say that if you believe in any religion because you fear you are not going to be “saved” then you deserve not to be saved. You should believe because it is something you carefully thought out and rationalized. Not because some shithead church leader tells you eternal harm will be imparted upon you if you don’t do as I say. You should be a good person because it is in your nature to be that.

ETERNAL DAMNATION, ETERNAL DARKNESS: Meant to multiply the fear of those poor bastards who are forced to accept some idiotic religion because they don’t want to feel pain or discomfort. So what do religions do? They not only promise pain and discomfort but make it endless…eternal, forever and ever burning in hell, being fried, roasted. How terribly unpleasant, right? And what if not the most painful death anybody can have? It is that of burning or being consumed in flames. The darkness part is particularly funny to me because it invokes the fear of the dark we all have as children and represents the unknown, the unfamiliar.

HELL: This one of course is supposed to be the opposite of “Heaven” or PARADISE. It is the place where you will be sent to suffer, to burn, to have pain if you don’t do as you are told. Obedience and submission can buy you HEAVEN, 

PARADISE, supposedly a reward for being good, something you look forward to at the end of your life. Why at the end of life? Because for the majority of human beings, particularly in the dark ages and even to this day, life was terrible, living conditions deplorable and the sickness, suffering and pain seemed endless. Actually looking forward to death was at times attractive for them and the church and governments made use of this to be able to control and make the populace submissive.

People should be “good” because it is in their hearts to be good, not because they fear. It should be an automatic thing, an expected quality, being good to you and to others…love thy neighbor as you love thyself. If you are “good” for fear and that reason only then you really aren’t good…you are a big mother fucking hypocrite.

FAITHFUL is to me insulting because it has the connotation of a person adhering to a dogma or a set of beliefs, a loyal follower, a submissive being that is told what to do, how to think and what to say.

KING OF KING, LORD OF LORDS This is repugnant as well...a kind above all others, a powerful lord unlike any there are...how impressive!

If you care to know, in case you haven’t perceived that already; I am anti-religious, very militant and outspoken, I despise what some of these religions are doing and what they stand for and will continue to be indignant and will not tone it down until they tone it down themselves. I will not accept inflammatory rhetoric coming from any pulpit; nor will I tolerate discrimination and persecution of any kind in the name of religion. I will not accept them getting together and depriving many of their civil rights and will denounce it for as long as I can draw a breath of air.

I will not tone it down; I will continue to be as indignant as I need to be because my civil rights are not negotiable. I will tone it down when religions desist in taking my rights away, when they stop trying to humiliate and belittle me and my friends. No, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Stop using that inflammatory rhetoric from the pulpit, you are not better than I am nor will you gain access to heaven or be looked upon favorable by the Creator because you insert your penis into a vagina.

Lately, the prudish conservatives are even attempting to outlaw the words "VAGINA and GAY"  - I wish them luck!

PHOTO SOURCES: http://www.christiandevotions.us/uploaded_images/scripture-733483.gif

http://www.prayingwithjesus.com/jesus_miracles1.jpg

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_15/1120746701DjUKgN.jpg

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2465594/posts

WHAT THE HEALTHCARE SUPREME COURT DECISION MEANS

  All of a sudden, this healthcare issue has taken a different dimension.

What I think it means in the long run is a big win for the American people…no, it is not just an Obama victory…it is precisely a rejection of what the Tea Party stood for; the biggest talking point that motivated all those demonstrations across the country back in the summer of 2009. 

In case you have forgotten, this Astroturf movement that was funded and organized by the very wealthy, the Koch brothers up to their neck in it, gave birth to the odious, disruptive Town Hall meetings when they targeted every time a legislator attempted to meet with constituents. The disruptions and visceral spewing of insane disruptions was appalling and some of us found them to be repugnant. 

Now, everything is taking on a different outlook, there is actually hope for the American people. 

The good guys won for a change!