Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
There have been some news reports about young women in middle school and high school being sent home because the administrators have deemed their clothing inappropriate. An article, from 2013, on ThinkProgress gave me pause to reexamine my views on dress codes and the treatment of young women. While I feel any dress codes need to apply to all genders equally, I do believe that teens need some boundary setting.
It’s common knowledge that Governor John Kasich wears his religious beliefs like a suit and inserts them into his speeches and remarks when he can. Democrat challenger Ed FitzGerald rarely talks about his faith because he feels religion is a private matter. Contrary to the ‘no religious test’ words in the US Constitution, the Columbus Dispatch ran an article about the public religiousness of each man.
The media, both broadcast and social, was a buzz when Phil Robertson who stars on the ‘reality’ TV show Duck Dynasty said some nasty things about gays and African-Americans in a magazine interview. Needless to say my Facebook feed lit up with my conservative friends coming to Phil’s defense and standing with him. Not a peep was said about what he said they only complained about Robertson being suspended from the show. The lack of comments about what Robertson said says a lot about conservatives.
First off I want to head off the casual argument I’ve seen where people try to deny Robertson said anything bad or that he was misquoted.
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.
The reactions to the George Zimmerman murder trial were a bit predictable. African-Americans generally hated the acquittal and whites in general approved of the verdict. The reason is obvious, even in 2013 we have issues with race in this country. We also see that in the rush of some white conservative pundits who say it is racist to complain about racism or they wonder aloud why African-Americans don’t freak out about black on white violence. These pundits hate being called racist and will go to outlandish extremes to keep from having to deal with the real issue of race in this country.
Classic reactions from white conservative pundits came after President Obama made some remarks and offered some personal experiences about being black in America: