Doug's Views

August 23, 2013April 18, 2020

GOP Winning Strategy To Elect Democrats In 2014

Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the Republicans who wants to hold the government hostage over Obamacare

Republicans in Congress HATE the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). They have tried to repeal it 40 times while not even considering a needed jobs bill. They would rather put the 1% ahead of those who need help with the cost of basic health care. Now some of the rogue GOP members want to hold all us hostage by causing a government shut down this fall. They demand that Obamacare be defunded or else. They are under the delusion that jazzing up their small block of bigoted selfish voters will bring them overall victory in 2014 and 2016. Going for a shutdown will in fact bring a strong victory for Democrats.

August 16, 2013April 18, 2020

Why Can’t I Have A He-Man Woman Hater Atheist Club?

image from Braveheart with No women in text

Not the kind of atheist meeting I want to attend

The secular community has been rocked by a firestorm over sexism in the movement. Blogs and tweets have flown back and forth between women speaking out about it and some men who disagree that it is an issue. Recently accusations of sexual assault have been leveled at some prominent men in the movement and at some conferences. Since there is such strong male privilege and a cult of personality in a lot of these groups, it seems these gender issues are beyond being fixed (at least until the current generation of sexist men die off). Maybe we need to have separate groups.

There have been plenty of articles and blog posts about the firestorm but not too many that examine the underlying issue of why it seems the sexism won’t go away in a movement that prides itself on freethought, evidence and logic:

August 13, 2013April 18, 2020

Moving The Goal Posts Of Corporatism

This week would’ve been my 10th anniversary working for a large health care concern as a call center representative. I probably would still be there had it not been for the common corporate practice of weeding out the high wage workers so that lower paid workers can take their place. I’m sure you think this is just sour grapes, people get fired all the time. The point of this post is to rant about the practice of weeding out good workers just because they make high wages.

Back in 2003, I learned there was an opening at a major health care company. I applied to be a security guard and as a lark I applied to be a Customer Service Representative (CSR). I ended up getting the CSR job and 10 years ago this week started my training class.

August 9, 2013April 18, 2020

What’s More Important, Sports Or Human Rights?

photo of woman Protesting 2014 Sochi Olympics

Russia is hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Russia also recently passed a new law banning ‘propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations around minors’ which has been used to attack LGBT groups in the country. The law means gay pride parades are forbidden as is any literature or signs supporting gay rights. Although the Russian government has told the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the law won’t be applied to athletes, there are calls for a boycott of the games. Of course the people who will profit from the games are against the boycott. They have put sports ahead of human rights.

August 4, 2013April 18, 2020

New Cold War Over Snowden? What About One Over Human Rights?

photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin entry in the ‘Dictators’ of the World Calendar

The corporate media have been obsessed with the adventures of NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden. Not about what he publicized – the overbroad spying on Americans in the name of ‘security’ – but where he is going and where he is located. Now that Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia, the media have been speculating how this will damage US – Russia relations. Of course they have no such concerns over Russia’s suspect human rights record.