I wrote this for the National Organisation for Marriage's blog in reference to the National Organisation for Marriage's Dump Starbucks campaign;
Did I tell you my niece and her fellow are setting up their own business? If I give you the name could you at NOM arrange a boycott? My niece has admitted she 'has no problem, sort of,' with same sex marriage, so that could be an excuse.
You could set a website up and get people to sign saying 'these people (well, one of two) have no problem with same sex marriage, therefore sign saying you're not going to patronise the place'.
Make sure you mention it every site NOM are affiliated with and mention it in broadcasts you make.
I've never seen so many people in Starbucks, there are half a dozen in Manchester city centre and every one has queues trailing sometimes out onto the front of the shop, from opening to shutting time. From 12 to 3pm you're lucky if you can get a seat at all.
A NOM boycott would give the youngsters the boost they need to start off right.
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Sunday, 13 May 2012
SELF KILLING
You get Christian* apologists stating that the Bible story of Jesus has to be true because the Apostles and other followers willingly went to their death for Jesus. After all, who would die for a made up tale?
Four words; Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr.
Unless you think the forty who died were all whisked off by the spacecraft in the tail of Hale Bop comet and are now living the life of Riley in some plain above humanity, not fully material yet not totally spiritual?**
*Hell, I've said it. In fact, this and some of the writings of C S Lewis seemed eminently reasonable when it came to presenting the case for Christianity.
**Another slightly different version was, who would die for something they knew was a lie? Both the murdered Christians and self killing Heaven's Gate people believed their doctrines without any doubt. Can you really say one was true and the other not? By what criteria? Certainly not the level of commitment and passion of the belief of the followers.
Four words; Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr.
Unless you think the forty who died were all whisked off by the spacecraft in the tail of Hale Bop comet and are now living the life of Riley in some plain above humanity, not fully material yet not totally spiritual?**
*Hell, I've said it. In fact, this and some of the writings of C S Lewis seemed eminently reasonable when it came to presenting the case for Christianity.
**Another slightly different version was, who would die for something they knew was a lie? Both the murdered Christians and self killing Heaven's Gate people believed their doctrines without any doubt. Can you really say one was true and the other not? By what criteria? Certainly not the level of commitment and passion of the belief of the followers.
Sunday, 6 May 2012
PERSECUTION FOR ALL!
Here's how it works;
Fundamentalist Christian ; Homosexuals are all evil perverted sinners who deserve hell. They should stop their filthy lifestyle and turn to Jesus where they will all automatically turn straight and meet and marry a member of the opposite sex and grow children in the official designated Christian way. Every government should right away make gayness illegal and a criminal offence. I'm not saying that, it's the true, holy God of the Bible who says it and I'm following what He says.
Freethinker ; Yes, you believe that. Good for you. But surely you can admit not all believe the same way as you. Is it fair that your views should be turned into laws that effect everyone?
Chris ; How dare you take away my right to speak freely!
FT ; I'm not. You've got a right to believe and say what you want, but don't try and impose your beliefs on others who in all reason can't believe the same way. Or who believe something different.
Chris ; Stop persecuting me!
FT : How am I persecuting you? I said you can say what you think, but if you make statements like homosexuals are evil, perverted sinners, according to my interpretation of the Bible, surely you should expect someone to criticise you?
Chris ; You are seriously bullying me now!
FT : I can't see how I am. OK, fair enough. What proof have you got that your God is the real one and your Bible contains the word of the true God?
Chris ; You have no right to bully me in this way and tell me what to think. This is persecution from the bowels of hell, Satan himself has sent you to torment me. I've got the truth and you haven't. If you don't go away I'm getting the police!
Every fundamentalist Christian believes they have the truth and everyone questioning them, no matter how gently, is out to destroy them and persecute them and take their rights, the rights they want to deny LGBT people just for being who they are.
And they have the audacity to say LGBT people have no right to be angry at them.
Fundamentalist Christian ; Homosexuals are all evil perverted sinners who deserve hell. They should stop their filthy lifestyle and turn to Jesus where they will all automatically turn straight and meet and marry a member of the opposite sex and grow children in the official designated Christian way. Every government should right away make gayness illegal and a criminal offence. I'm not saying that, it's the true, holy God of the Bible who says it and I'm following what He says.
Freethinker ; Yes, you believe that. Good for you. But surely you can admit not all believe the same way as you. Is it fair that your views should be turned into laws that effect everyone?
Chris ; How dare you take away my right to speak freely!
FT ; I'm not. You've got a right to believe and say what you want, but don't try and impose your beliefs on others who in all reason can't believe the same way. Or who believe something different.
Chris ; Stop persecuting me!
FT : How am I persecuting you? I said you can say what you think, but if you make statements like homosexuals are evil, perverted sinners, according to my interpretation of the Bible, surely you should expect someone to criticise you?
Chris ; You are seriously bullying me now!
FT : I can't see how I am. OK, fair enough. What proof have you got that your God is the real one and your Bible contains the word of the true God?
Chris ; You have no right to bully me in this way and tell me what to think. This is persecution from the bowels of hell, Satan himself has sent you to torment me. I've got the truth and you haven't. If you don't go away I'm getting the police!
Every fundamentalist Christian believes they have the truth and everyone questioning them, no matter how gently, is out to destroy them and persecute them and take their rights, the rights they want to deny LGBT people just for being who they are.
And they have the audacity to say LGBT people have no right to be angry at them.
Thursday, 26 April 2012
BOTH WAYS
Hey, Christians.
You don't mind people being LGBT so long as they don't act on it, try to make people approve, and work to get laws passed that gives them special rights and try to make people approve? Teaching little kids it is normal shouldn't be allowed. Why don't they keep in the bedroom?
Well, I don't mind you believing what you like so long as you don't act on it, and work to pass laws that give you special rights,and try to make people approve. Teaching little kids it is normal shouldn't be allowed. Why don't you keep it in your churches?
This is fun, isn't it?
One more. . .
Anyone who de-converts from their present belief/philosophy to Christianity is doing the right thing. Never mind what your family and peers say, just keep hold of the truth. They are in the wrong and are rightly condemned for trying to turn you away from the truth.
Anyone who de-converts from Christianity to another belief/philosophy is evil, a liar who is rightly condemned for making the wrong choice. They should hurry up back as soon as possible.
Bloody brilliant.
You don't mind people being LGBT so long as they don't act on it, try to make people approve, and work to get laws passed that gives them special rights and try to make people approve? Teaching little kids it is normal shouldn't be allowed. Why don't they keep in the bedroom?
Well, I don't mind you believing what you like so long as you don't act on it, and work to pass laws that give you special rights,and try to make people approve. Teaching little kids it is normal shouldn't be allowed. Why don't you keep it in your churches?
This is fun, isn't it?
One more. . .
Anyone who de-converts from their present belief/philosophy to Christianity is doing the right thing. Never mind what your family and peers say, just keep hold of the truth. They are in the wrong and are rightly condemned for trying to turn you away from the truth.
Anyone who de-converts from Christianity to another belief/philosophy is evil, a liar who is rightly condemned for making the wrong choice. They should hurry up back as soon as possible.
Bloody brilliant.
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
GENDER BORN
My Mum had this friend who was a male to female transsexual. She was absolutely brilliant. She was the only person who I know who was more of a misanthrope than me.* But then, she did have more cause.
I saw 'had', because she was found drowned in the canal not far from where she lived. Whether it was suicide or murder or accident no one was sure. Bloody shame, really.
My point?
A lot of people actively disliked my Mum's friend because she was transgender. Not because of what she'd done. Because well, it wasn't natural was it? Or normal. All right, if they choose to chop their parts off it's up to them but they're still a man because it's their bits, innit? Men have penises and women have vaginas. Mutilating their bodies don't make them the other sex and no one should be forced into calling them what they aren't. They shouldn't be on their own with little kiddies and they can't go round expecting people to call 'em 'lady' when they're 'man', or the other way round.
OK, we've established the biggest reason why the majority don't like the idea of people being transgender. Because it isn't normal.
Did you know there is a condition called intersex. Hermaphrodite is the old time word for it. That is, some people have XXY chromosomes or XYY** chromosomes. There is a veritable cornucopia of sex hormonal differences, a horn of plenty of XY combinations. XX for female and XY for male are just the most common.
Very, very occasionally you get people born with two perfectly functioning sets of sex organs, one male, one female.
Mostly, you get those with male organs on the outside and female organs on the inside. Or women with no breasts and large clitorises or men with very tiny penises.
Or people with ambiguous genitalia, who are XX but it's hard to tell what their gender is by looking at their organs. This condition is subject to plastic surgery, a tidying up process, while the subject is young as possible, to make their outer match their inner self, so to speak.***
You get the idea. The whole business of intersex is fascinating and I could fill pages with what I've learned recently, but this isn't the place. Intersex is a recognised birth defect which can sometimes be cured by surgical intervention, or if not, sometimes the subject needs counselling and understanding to help them be who they are.
But suppose. . .
The defect is not in the sex organs but in the brain.
Suppose a foetus in the womb's brain is swamped with male sex hormones but their body is perfectly XX female? Or the other way round. As soon as the subject is old enough to perceive and understand the difference between little and little girls, they know, it isn't a choice, they aren't doing it because they are spoilt brats or want to annoy everybody, they just know, that they are in the wrong body.
Don't laugh. You wouldn't laugh at someone with Down's syndrome or cerebral palsy or diabetes or cystic fibroses, would you? They're all genetic birth defects. You wouldn't sneer at them and tell them to stop being a brat and wait till they were older for treatment and to live with it.
All right you might. But in that case you are totally horrible and you should remove yourself from the gene pool and not leave any evidence you were ever there behind. I mean it.
Back to this kid with the birth defect where their brain is female and their body is male. Just imagine, what absolute, total hell this kid is going through. They just know everything is wrong and they can't understand why. Most kids with this birth defect know as soon as they are old enough to understand, say two or three, something is terribly wrong, and their body doesn't match with what they are.
Have you, has anyone, the right to pass judgement on this kid, to make out they're going through a phase or don't know what they want, when they have a birth defect that can be corrected with medication and then surgery? To say they have no right to have this defect corrected because it isn't natural in your thinking?
If a kid is born with an extra nose or eye or an extra limb or develops body hair so by the time they are three they are covered in downy fur, and they beg to have it removed, and their parents get it done, would it be all right for people to refer to them as 'the kid with two noses, she's got one now, but she was born with two and therefore she will always have two noses' or 'he's hairy really, I know he's had his hair removed, but he is a hairy kid, he's just going around pretending to be not hairy'?
So why is it all right to say transgender people are bogus, they are one sex who have chosen to make themselves look like the other.
Think about it.
One more thing: if a person with a birth defect has it corrected by medication and then surgery, why does that make them unfit to be around children? Would you have a problem with someone with any disability which has been corrected babysitting or teaching your kids? Or is it just because it involves sex on some level?
*I choose not to get on with people, and everyone I meet I am testing in my mind, waiting for them to do something human so I can jettison them and settle deeper into my personal aloneness, once again proven right. She didn't even wait for them to do anything cruel. They had to do something actively charitable towards her for her to accept them. My Mum got on with her because she likes everyone, is the opposite of a misanthrope, she expects humans to do good things, and gives the human race chance after chance to prove itself. Plus, anyone who doesn't fit into society's idea of norm is all right in my Mum's eyes. After all, she did live with an odd ball for forty years.
**Both the late Richard Speck and very much with us Edmund Kemper are XYY chromosome men, and scientists, backed by the FBI, tried to blame their crimes on this. They didn't succeed because the great majority of XYY men look different than the norm but don't get their jollies from raping women and killing them. Or vice versa. Plus, the massive majority of male serial sex killers are straight XY males.
***Guilty.
I saw 'had', because she was found drowned in the canal not far from where she lived. Whether it was suicide or murder or accident no one was sure. Bloody shame, really.
My point?
A lot of people actively disliked my Mum's friend because she was transgender. Not because of what she'd done. Because well, it wasn't natural was it? Or normal. All right, if they choose to chop their parts off it's up to them but they're still a man because it's their bits, innit? Men have penises and women have vaginas. Mutilating their bodies don't make them the other sex and no one should be forced into calling them what they aren't. They shouldn't be on their own with little kiddies and they can't go round expecting people to call 'em 'lady' when they're 'man', or the other way round.
OK, we've established the biggest reason why the majority don't like the idea of people being transgender. Because it isn't normal.
Did you know there is a condition called intersex. Hermaphrodite is the old time word for it. That is, some people have XXY chromosomes or XYY** chromosomes. There is a veritable cornucopia of sex hormonal differences, a horn of plenty of XY combinations. XX for female and XY for male are just the most common.
Very, very occasionally you get people born with two perfectly functioning sets of sex organs, one male, one female.
Mostly, you get those with male organs on the outside and female organs on the inside. Or women with no breasts and large clitorises or men with very tiny penises.
Or people with ambiguous genitalia, who are XX but it's hard to tell what their gender is by looking at their organs. This condition is subject to plastic surgery, a tidying up process, while the subject is young as possible, to make their outer match their inner self, so to speak.***
You get the idea. The whole business of intersex is fascinating and I could fill pages with what I've learned recently, but this isn't the place. Intersex is a recognised birth defect which can sometimes be cured by surgical intervention, or if not, sometimes the subject needs counselling and understanding to help them be who they are.
But suppose. . .
The defect is not in the sex organs but in the brain.
Suppose a foetus in the womb's brain is swamped with male sex hormones but their body is perfectly XX female? Or the other way round. As soon as the subject is old enough to perceive and understand the difference between little and little girls, they know, it isn't a choice, they aren't doing it because they are spoilt brats or want to annoy everybody, they just know, that they are in the wrong body.
Don't laugh. You wouldn't laugh at someone with Down's syndrome or cerebral palsy or diabetes or cystic fibroses, would you? They're all genetic birth defects. You wouldn't sneer at them and tell them to stop being a brat and wait till they were older for treatment and to live with it.
All right you might. But in that case you are totally horrible and you should remove yourself from the gene pool and not leave any evidence you were ever there behind. I mean it.
Back to this kid with the birth defect where their brain is female and their body is male. Just imagine, what absolute, total hell this kid is going through. They just know everything is wrong and they can't understand why. Most kids with this birth defect know as soon as they are old enough to understand, say two or three, something is terribly wrong, and their body doesn't match with what they are.
Have you, has anyone, the right to pass judgement on this kid, to make out they're going through a phase or don't know what they want, when they have a birth defect that can be corrected with medication and then surgery? To say they have no right to have this defect corrected because it isn't natural in your thinking?
If a kid is born with an extra nose or eye or an extra limb or develops body hair so by the time they are three they are covered in downy fur, and they beg to have it removed, and their parents get it done, would it be all right for people to refer to them as 'the kid with two noses, she's got one now, but she was born with two and therefore she will always have two noses' or 'he's hairy really, I know he's had his hair removed, but he is a hairy kid, he's just going around pretending to be not hairy'?
So why is it all right to say transgender people are bogus, they are one sex who have chosen to make themselves look like the other.
Think about it.
One more thing: if a person with a birth defect has it corrected by medication and then surgery, why does that make them unfit to be around children? Would you have a problem with someone with any disability which has been corrected babysitting or teaching your kids? Or is it just because it involves sex on some level?
*I choose not to get on with people, and everyone I meet I am testing in my mind, waiting for them to do something human so I can jettison them and settle deeper into my personal aloneness, once again proven right. She didn't even wait for them to do anything cruel. They had to do something actively charitable towards her for her to accept them. My Mum got on with her because she likes everyone, is the opposite of a misanthrope, she expects humans to do good things, and gives the human race chance after chance to prove itself. Plus, anyone who doesn't fit into society's idea of norm is all right in my Mum's eyes. After all, she did live with an odd ball for forty years.
**Both the late Richard Speck and very much with us Edmund Kemper are XYY chromosome men, and scientists, backed by the FBI, tried to blame their crimes on this. They didn't succeed because the great majority of XYY men look different than the norm but don't get their jollies from raping women and killing them. Or vice versa. Plus, the massive majority of male serial sex killers are straight XY males.
***Guilty.
Saturday, 21 April 2012
ABORTING MORALITY
I've have my attention pulled around to the abortion debate.
Mostly Christian groups Abort67 and 40 Days To Life have upped their picketing of British Pregnancy Advice Clinics, stopping women going in and coming out and offering them leaflets and waving pictures of dead foetuses in the hope of what they believe is saving a life.
Roman Catholic Tory MP Nadine Dorries has tried to slip in a law that makes pro-life pregnancy counselling the only counselling allowed.
I know, I know what I should say. I'm not a Christian. I should pull out that old chestnut 'it isn't alive till it's born' and insist on calling it a 'foetus' instead of an 'unborn baby'. But, well, I have more than one team in this game.
I was born with a life-threatening condition for which there is no cure. In the early 60s when I was born it was still in the guinea pig stage, out of the animal testing and into people testing. That is, I spent almost all of the first five years of my life in hospital, sometimes due to the effects of the treatment fed me to keep me alive. Up to being five, the doctors didn't know if I would survive beyond a certain age.
In fact, I remember, very vaguely, being on the ward in a hospital gown in a cot and attached to a drip feed and a little lad coming up to me and saying he had this illness (can't remember what it is) and knowing he would be dead before he reached his early twenties, and I would probably be, too. Because I hadn't been told any different.
I used to mention it a lot to my Mum, 'will I die before I'm old' and my Mum used to say 'no one know when they are going to die', that is, she wasn't going to lie to me because she didn't know because the doctors didn't know.
Now, today, it is possible to tell the parents of one born with my condition that they will live a normal life span, so long as they put restrictions on their behaviour, the first one, always remember to take your tables at eight am every morning, for ever.
God, that was drummed into me, so much so that I instinctively wake at eight am to swallow my life-giving tablets, even if I've just got into bed a couple of hours before. If I get in from work at seven I can get ready for bed, see to my cats, and then get my head down and I will wake, a silent alarm drummed into me, at eight, for my tablets. My ex was fascinated by this.
Even today, they can't make this condition go away, can't even promise to cut down the number times it will threaten my life, but they can monitor it. And they can test for it while still in the womb.
My point, if you're still with me. Suppose medical science was as it is today but my condition was at the same stage of understanding it was in the 60s. Suppose a pregnant woman, first time mother, is examined and told by a grave faced doctor that the foetus she is carrying has this mysterious illness, barely named, and they can't say if it will be born health and live and thrive, and it will need constant care and medication and be in hospital more than it's out and it could die early and it will die without treatment.
What is to stop that woman aborting someone like me? Getting the disability out of her and then catching again in the hope of replacing me with a healthy baby?
I can function, I'm more or less healthy, I've a good brain, I can contribute. If I could step out of this genetically deficient body and into one that works, like Jake Sully in James Cameron's Avatar, I would, so I could be well, but I'm alive, and can live a life alone, without having to constantly rely on others. But medical science could not have predicted, then, that I was going to be here now.
You see what I'm getting at. Abortion is not cut and dried, and those who say 'it is murder, there is no excuse' have as much right to have their as those who say 'it's up to the woman'. They aren't doing it to annoy people, they genuinely believe it, just like 'it's up to the mother' also believe it. Neither side in the war is fully right.
But you can't tell one side that about the other. Not if you want to be accused of being for the other side and words like 'insane' 'fanatical' 'lefties' 'fascist' 'feminist' 'misogynist' are more penetrating than bullets, and the blood spilled is in the soul and the wounds make the injured more enraged, more sure of their righteousness in this case.
The pro-lifers, well, you're all right so long as you are in the womb. Soon as you're born, you can shift for yourself. Those who are pro-life are more often than not anti social care programmes to give the kid a chance once it comes out screaming into the cold world. No disabled baby can hope for the money provided to make the necessary medications to maintain life.
The pro-choice lot, it's all about 'a woman's right to choose', 'she hasn't to carry it, she can get rid of it if she likes', 'it's a painless, five minute process'. 'Maybe, if it's not going to survive, better if you get rid of it.' Then they pull out the emotion-primed 'in the case of rape or incest' or 'the mother's life in danger' card, flinging it at the stone hard inexorable 'abortion is murder' 'she should have kept her legs closed' opponents.
But both sides are so lost in a blizzard of words and accusations and lies and hysteria they have forgotten the foetus itself.
If you're reading this, and you are disabled, when you get the chance, if you don't already know, and you feel comfortable doing so, ask your Mum what would she would do if you'd been conceived at a time when medical science was up to date with everything except your disability, and the doctors discovered you had this disability and suggested an abortion.
Me? My Mum would have kept me. A life is a life, after all. Even if it's a potential life.
Even if it's old demmick, innocent victim of a cluster of enzymes that didn't switch on and missed a hormonal connection when the body was being formed.
Mostly Christian groups Abort67 and 40 Days To Life have upped their picketing of British Pregnancy Advice Clinics, stopping women going in and coming out and offering them leaflets and waving pictures of dead foetuses in the hope of what they believe is saving a life.
Roman Catholic Tory MP Nadine Dorries has tried to slip in a law that makes pro-life pregnancy counselling the only counselling allowed.
I know, I know what I should say. I'm not a Christian. I should pull out that old chestnut 'it isn't alive till it's born' and insist on calling it a 'foetus' instead of an 'unborn baby'. But, well, I have more than one team in this game.
I was born with a life-threatening condition for which there is no cure. In the early 60s when I was born it was still in the guinea pig stage, out of the animal testing and into people testing. That is, I spent almost all of the first five years of my life in hospital, sometimes due to the effects of the treatment fed me to keep me alive. Up to being five, the doctors didn't know if I would survive beyond a certain age.
In fact, I remember, very vaguely, being on the ward in a hospital gown in a cot and attached to a drip feed and a little lad coming up to me and saying he had this illness (can't remember what it is) and knowing he would be dead before he reached his early twenties, and I would probably be, too. Because I hadn't been told any different.
I used to mention it a lot to my Mum, 'will I die before I'm old' and my Mum used to say 'no one know when they are going to die', that is, she wasn't going to lie to me because she didn't know because the doctors didn't know.
Now, today, it is possible to tell the parents of one born with my condition that they will live a normal life span, so long as they put restrictions on their behaviour, the first one, always remember to take your tables at eight am every morning, for ever.
God, that was drummed into me, so much so that I instinctively wake at eight am to swallow my life-giving tablets, even if I've just got into bed a couple of hours before. If I get in from work at seven I can get ready for bed, see to my cats, and then get my head down and I will wake, a silent alarm drummed into me, at eight, for my tablets. My ex was fascinated by this.
Even today, they can't make this condition go away, can't even promise to cut down the number times it will threaten my life, but they can monitor it. And they can test for it while still in the womb.
My point, if you're still with me. Suppose medical science was as it is today but my condition was at the same stage of understanding it was in the 60s. Suppose a pregnant woman, first time mother, is examined and told by a grave faced doctor that the foetus she is carrying has this mysterious illness, barely named, and they can't say if it will be born health and live and thrive, and it will need constant care and medication and be in hospital more than it's out and it could die early and it will die without treatment.
What is to stop that woman aborting someone like me? Getting the disability out of her and then catching again in the hope of replacing me with a healthy baby?
I can function, I'm more or less healthy, I've a good brain, I can contribute. If I could step out of this genetically deficient body and into one that works, like Jake Sully in James Cameron's Avatar, I would, so I could be well, but I'm alive, and can live a life alone, without having to constantly rely on others. But medical science could not have predicted, then, that I was going to be here now.
You see what I'm getting at. Abortion is not cut and dried, and those who say 'it is murder, there is no excuse' have as much right to have their as those who say 'it's up to the woman'. They aren't doing it to annoy people, they genuinely believe it, just like 'it's up to the mother' also believe it. Neither side in the war is fully right.
But you can't tell one side that about the other. Not if you want to be accused of being for the other side and words like 'insane' 'fanatical' 'lefties' 'fascist' 'feminist' 'misogynist' are more penetrating than bullets, and the blood spilled is in the soul and the wounds make the injured more enraged, more sure of their righteousness in this case.
The pro-lifers, well, you're all right so long as you are in the womb. Soon as you're born, you can shift for yourself. Those who are pro-life are more often than not anti social care programmes to give the kid a chance once it comes out screaming into the cold world. No disabled baby can hope for the money provided to make the necessary medications to maintain life.
The pro-choice lot, it's all about 'a woman's right to choose', 'she hasn't to carry it, she can get rid of it if she likes', 'it's a painless, five minute process'. 'Maybe, if it's not going to survive, better if you get rid of it.' Then they pull out the emotion-primed 'in the case of rape or incest' or 'the mother's life in danger' card, flinging it at the stone hard inexorable 'abortion is murder' 'she should have kept her legs closed' opponents.
But both sides are so lost in a blizzard of words and accusations and lies and hysteria they have forgotten the foetus itself.
If you're reading this, and you are disabled, when you get the chance, if you don't already know, and you feel comfortable doing so, ask your Mum what would she would do if you'd been conceived at a time when medical science was up to date with everything except your disability, and the doctors discovered you had this disability and suggested an abortion.
Me? My Mum would have kept me. A life is a life, after all. Even if it's a potential life.
Even if it's old demmick, innocent victim of a cluster of enzymes that didn't switch on and missed a hormonal connection when the body was being formed.
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Sunday, 18 March 2012
ACTS OF TRUTH
The massive mega church was packed to the gills.
The pews were full, people raising their hands and singing praise to their god.
Outside, in front of the marble steps, on the pavement, sat a small scruffy boy, crying.
A gentle bearded man came and crouched by him;
"What is upsetting you so, little one?"
"Oh, sir." The little boy lifted his tousled head and turned his dirty face up to the man, "them in that church won't let me in."
The man stood and gazed over the building, the marble trimmings, the smooth brickwork, the Ten Commandments picked out over the oak door in gold letters.
He shook his head and smiled and rested a hand on the small boy's head.
"I know, son. They haven't let me in there for years."
And Jesus turned and walked away.
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. - Mahatma Gandhi
The pews were full, people raising their hands and singing praise to their god.
Outside, in front of the marble steps, on the pavement, sat a small scruffy boy, crying.
A gentle bearded man came and crouched by him;
"What is upsetting you so, little one?"
"Oh, sir." The little boy lifted his tousled head and turned his dirty face up to the man, "them in that church won't let me in."
The man stood and gazed over the building, the marble trimmings, the smooth brickwork, the Ten Commandments picked out over the oak door in gold letters.
He shook his head and smiled and rested a hand on the small boy's head.
"I know, son. They haven't let me in there for years."
And Jesus turned and walked away.
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. - Mahatma Gandhi
Saturday, 17 March 2012
REDEFINING THE ISSUE
And the number one secular* argument against the coalition's plan to allow civil marriage in the UK;
We mustn't allow gays to redefine marriage.
?
How?
How do two adults who just happen to be of the same gender making a commitment to one another in front of their friends and family redefine marriage?
I know the classic term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the union of a man and a woman, but well, how many people use (or even think of) the classic terms for wallpaper, sweep and physician?
That is, words evolve, but not in a Darwinian way, more of a Lamarckian way, that is, they alter to fit in with their surroundings and then pass that meaning to the next generation.
If the meaning of marriage is expanded to cover any type of consenting adult couple, then humanity will settle in with it, just like when they talk about a corner they don't mean someone who represents the crown in criminal proceedings, rather like a barrister today.
(Note : I have purposefully avoided taking the well worn defence paths of, 'how will redefining marriage effect your marriage?' And, 'just because same sex marriage is legal doesn't mean you will have to get divorced'. Because not only have those paths been worn down so nothing fresh grows on them, that technically isn't what is meant by those who claim 'same sex marriage will redefine the meaning of marriage').
*Yes, secular. Because you don't have to be a theist to think that those disgusting poofs shouldn't be allowed to mix with decent people.
We mustn't allow gays to redefine marriage.
?
How?
How do two adults who just happen to be of the same gender making a commitment to one another in front of their friends and family redefine marriage?
I know the classic term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the union of a man and a woman, but well, how many people use (or even think of) the classic terms for wallpaper, sweep and physician?
That is, words evolve, but not in a Darwinian way, more of a Lamarckian way, that is, they alter to fit in with their surroundings and then pass that meaning to the next generation.
If the meaning of marriage is expanded to cover any type of consenting adult couple, then humanity will settle in with it, just like when they talk about a corner they don't mean someone who represents the crown in criminal proceedings, rather like a barrister today.
(Note : I have purposefully avoided taking the well worn defence paths of, 'how will redefining marriage effect your marriage?' And, 'just because same sex marriage is legal doesn't mean you will have to get divorced'. Because not only have those paths been worn down so nothing fresh grows on them, that technically isn't what is meant by those who claim 'same sex marriage will redefine the meaning of marriage').
*Yes, secular. Because you don't have to be a theist to think that those disgusting poofs shouldn't be allowed to mix with decent people.
Monday, 5 March 2012
NOT IMPOSSIBLE
In an alternate universe;
Churches go out and picket and demonstrate at funerals and political and social meetings with their signs;
GOD HATES GOATS.
GOD HATES GOAT-ENABLERS.
LEFT HANDERS ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE GOATS.
Christians (and to a smaller extent non-theists) set up groups where left-handers can find healing and freedom from their sinisterist orientation.
It can't be easy being a left-hander. We must reach out and help them into freedom, to find their potential as the right-handers they were meant to be.
After all, the opposite of 'right' is not 'left' but 'wrong'.
Let's look at the facts, shall we?
Left-handers die earlier than right-handers.
They suffer from more fatal conditions,.
They are more likely to drink and do drugs.
The majority of young left-handers commit suicide because they hate themselves and their left-handed lifestyle.
Even non-theists insist what the media have been feeding them;
Left-handers are disgusting perverts and shouldn't be allowed to teach children.
They recruit normal, healthy right-handed youth with promises of freedom from parental oppression.
Left-handers are unnatural. They take over the streets in their filthy Sinisterist Pride parades with their pens in the wrong hand, shouting;
SINISTERISM IS NOT A SIN.
When it is, it is a perversion against God and human nature.
NO ONE IS BORN LEFT-HANDED.
It is a condition, an illness, brought on by childhood abuse, neglect, a lack of love and warmth, being loved or hated by the wrong parent.
We must not hate the left-hander, but we must not encourage him in his behaviour.
For a person to be allowed to give in to his left-handed nature and pick up that pen is to allow them to overeat, to drink alcohol, to do drugs.
Of course, there is no such thing as left-handed. It's just righties doing it to rebel, or they're going through a phase.
It's a choice. Whoever says no one would choose to be left-handed because of the persecution and abuse has not met the all pervading Hollywood anti-family idea pedalled to our youth;
Left-handed is fun.
Left-handed is free.
To be left-handed means you are able to break every taboo.
We must not allow the left-hander to find acceptance. They must be forced to see their perversion will never be accepted as normal.
In some countries, left-handedness is a capital crime.
A good warrior of Lord God would kill a left-hander and make the world cleaner.
THE GREAT MAJORITY OF SERIAL MURDERERS WERE LEFT-HANDERS.
Left-handers are murderers, killers of the soul, of families.
Left-handedness is contrary to nature, or all that is good and clean and moral and healthy.
LEFT-HANDEDNESS IS NOT FOUND IN NATURE.
No left-hander can be truly happy, aware of how they are different, wrong, abnormal, in a right-handed world.
Left-handers are looking for an equality they were never find. It is a right-handed world, sinisterist, live with it. Change or die.
THERE IS NO LEFT-HANDED GENE.
Silly, eh? Annoying? It would never happen here. I'm glad I don't live in that universe where such stupid prejudice happens.
Now, read through it again and change every example where left-handedness is mentioned, or a slang word like 'goat' or 'sinisterist' and change it to 'gay' or 'faggot' or 'poof' or 'queer' or something.
Doesn't sound so silly and impossible now.
Are you glad to live in a universe where that kind of prejudice and hatred does happen?
If you think 'that's different.' ask yourself, honestly, why is it different? Why do you have no problem with picking on LGBT people and not left-handers?
Churches go out and picket and demonstrate at funerals and political and social meetings with their signs;
GOD HATES GOATS.
GOD HATES GOAT-ENABLERS.
LEFT HANDERS ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE GOATS.
Christians (and to a smaller extent non-theists) set up groups where left-handers can find healing and freedom from their sinisterist orientation.
It can't be easy being a left-hander. We must reach out and help them into freedom, to find their potential as the right-handers they were meant to be.
After all, the opposite of 'right' is not 'left' but 'wrong'.
Let's look at the facts, shall we?
Left-handers die earlier than right-handers.
They suffer from more fatal conditions,.
They are more likely to drink and do drugs.
The majority of young left-handers commit suicide because they hate themselves and their left-handed lifestyle.
Even non-theists insist what the media have been feeding them;
Left-handers are disgusting perverts and shouldn't be allowed to teach children.
They recruit normal, healthy right-handed youth with promises of freedom from parental oppression.
Left-handers are unnatural. They take over the streets in their filthy Sinisterist Pride parades with their pens in the wrong hand, shouting;
SINISTERISM IS NOT A SIN.
When it is, it is a perversion against God and human nature.
NO ONE IS BORN LEFT-HANDED.
It is a condition, an illness, brought on by childhood abuse, neglect, a lack of love and warmth, being loved or hated by the wrong parent.
We must not hate the left-hander, but we must not encourage him in his behaviour.
For a person to be allowed to give in to his left-handed nature and pick up that pen is to allow them to overeat, to drink alcohol, to do drugs.
Of course, there is no such thing as left-handed. It's just righties doing it to rebel, or they're going through a phase.
It's a choice. Whoever says no one would choose to be left-handed because of the persecution and abuse has not met the all pervading Hollywood anti-family idea pedalled to our youth;
Left-handed is fun.
Left-handed is free.
To be left-handed means you are able to break every taboo.
We must not allow the left-hander to find acceptance. They must be forced to see their perversion will never be accepted as normal.
In some countries, left-handedness is a capital crime.
A good warrior of Lord God would kill a left-hander and make the world cleaner.
THE GREAT MAJORITY OF SERIAL MURDERERS WERE LEFT-HANDERS.
Left-handers are murderers, killers of the soul, of families.
Left-handedness is contrary to nature, or all that is good and clean and moral and healthy.
LEFT-HANDEDNESS IS NOT FOUND IN NATURE.
No left-hander can be truly happy, aware of how they are different, wrong, abnormal, in a right-handed world.
Left-handers are looking for an equality they were never find. It is a right-handed world, sinisterist, live with it. Change or die.
THERE IS NO LEFT-HANDED GENE.
Silly, eh? Annoying? It would never happen here. I'm glad I don't live in that universe where such stupid prejudice happens.
Now, read through it again and change every example where left-handedness is mentioned, or a slang word like 'goat' or 'sinisterist' and change it to 'gay' or 'faggot' or 'poof' or 'queer' or something.
Doesn't sound so silly and impossible now.
Are you glad to live in a universe where that kind of prejudice and hatred does happen?
If you think 'that's different.' ask yourself, honestly, why is it different? Why do you have no problem with picking on LGBT people and not left-handers?
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