Showing posts with label Right. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Right. Show all posts
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
8 Appalling Moments by the Right Wing This Week: Gay Marriage Wedding Cakes Edition
The parade of right-wing morons and lunatics marched on this week. Some highlights:
1. Donald Rumsfeld: A “trained ape” would be better at foreign policy than Obama
Donald Rumsfeld continues to both shock and awe us with his arrogance and his psychopathic inability to admit he was completely wrong about every aspect of the Iraq war. Being a psychopath, he still has the audacity to hold forth on questions of foreign policy. That he recently included a dollop of racism to his unwanted commentary on President Obama’s conduct as Commander-in-Chief, is just par for the course for good ol" Rummy.
In an interview with Fox’s Greta Van Susteren this week, Rummy railed against Obama’s dealings with Afghanistan, and with characteristic colorfulness said that relations with Afghan president Hamid Karzai had gone “downhill like a toboggan,” under Obama whereas all had been rosy under Bush.
“Take for example that we have status of forces agreements probably with 100, 125 countries in the world,” Rumsfeld said, amping up the technical jargon to confuse the audience and make himself look smart, no doubt. “This administration, the White House and the State Department, have failed to get a status of forces agreement.”
He added: “A trained ape could get a status of forces agreement. It does not take a genius.”
Hmm, no racism there.
It is either a known unknown (or an unknown known—we’re never quite sure) that Rumsfeld likes to use these kinds of metaphors, but no, we don’t believe it was an accident. As bad as that is, perhaps worse is his perpetuating the lie that the Bush administration was not a catastrophe for foreign relations, and that he was not hugely responsible for the biggest fuckup, lie and war crimes of all Bush’s merry band of jackals.
2. Pat Robertson: Rape causes atheism.
What planet is Pat Robertson on? Planet crazy, that’s what. On Monday, the “700 Club” host talked about a letter he had received from a confused Christian viewer named Sandra. Sandra was flummoxed as to why a coworker was “hostile at the mere mention of God” whenever Sandra tried to proselytize or “bring her to Jesus.” Reading between the lines, the co-worker did not care for being hounded to go to Sandra’s church, or repent, ‘cause the end is near.
“Should I abandon the idea of being a positive influence on her and just let her perish?” Sandra wondered to the televangelist.
Uncle Patty reads between a different set of lines, and he had a variety of theories on why relentless evangelizing might rub someone the wrong way. Could be something “demonic… something beyond normal human experience,” he conjectured.
Working overtime, his little brain alit on the perfect explanation: “Maybe she had an abusing father, somebody who raped her and acted like he was preaching to her from the Bible,” the TV pastor continued. “You just never know what’s going on in somebody’s childhood.”
Eureka! Case closed.
“Just pray for that anointing,” Pat concluded.
3. Pat Robertson (yeupp, again) points out that Jesus would not have baked a gay couple a wedding cake.
Jesus was a carpenter, from what we’ve read, not a baker, so as far as we know, he was not given to baking wedding cakes for even heterosexual couples. Also, did they have wedding cakes in biblical times? Note to self: research wedding rituals in Jesus’ day.
But historical anachronisms are besides the point when you’re Pat Robertson and you want to make a point about homosexuality.
“I think you got to remember from the Bible,” the televangelist said this week, “if you look carefully at the Bible what would have happened in Jesus’ time if two men decided they wanted to cohabit together, they would have been stoned to death.”
True enough, Uncle Pat. It’s this next part that gives us pause.
“So Jesus would not have baked them a wedding cake nor would he have made them a bed to sleep in because they wouldn’t have been there. But we don’t have that in this country here so that’s the way it is.”
So, the problem is that gay people are around and not being stoned to death. This whole thing gets Uncle Pat worked up into a lather, because he is very pro-life.
“What is it about gays? What is it about abortion?” he ranted. “Have you ever thought why they’re on the forefront right now? Both of them deny the reproduction of human species…. The Devil is trying to say, ‘I’m going to destroy your progeny any way I can. If you will kill your babies, that’s fine, I’m with you; if you will deny the chance of having babies, that’s fine too; but I want to destroy your opportunities to reproduce." It’s a very serious thing and we’re not talking about it, and we need to as a society, we have to realize where the attack is coming because it is definitely an attack.”
Do you follow that? Devil. Gays. Women. Birth control. Big cabal. Out to get us.
h/t: rightwingwatch
4. Chris Christie declares himself innocent, blames “emotional” woman for Bridgegate.
Chris Christie ran his own investigation into Bridgegate, used a million dollars of taxpayer money to do it, and declared himself innocent this week. This was treated as news. Case closed, right?
The internal investigation did reveal that Christie was told about the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge (petty payback to the Fort Lee Mayor who dared not support Christie). But Christie says he does not recall that conversation. Memory is a funny thing, and Chris Christie’s memory is really funny, because at one point he asserted that although he did not recall this conversation (with David Wildstein of the Port Authority, who orchestrated the whole lane closure payback thing), he did recall that the conversation had nothing to do with getting back at some rinky dink mayor.
While Team Chris Christie shockingly exonerated Chris Christie, they gratuitously stuck it to Bridget Kelly, the staffer Christie already scapegoated and fired for the whole mess. The report called her “emotional” and mentioned she had been jilted by another staffer, despite this not having a thing to do with anything. It’s just fun to bring up the fact that women are emotional and don’t like being jilted. Whereas men are the opposite.
5. Bill O’Reilly: Critics of Paul Ryan are “race hustlers.”
Paul Ryan has spoken. He does “not have a racist bone in his body.” Also, some of his best friends are black. Wait, that’s not true. He does not have any black friends.
But Bill O’Reilly stood up for his boy Ryan this week, defending Ryan’s right to talk about the “culture” of shiftlessness of “inner-city males,” cite known racist author Charles Murray, and not be called racist. Anyone who accuses Ryan of using racist code language is a “race hustler,” O’Reilly says, and he’s sick and tired of that sort of behavior. “These race hustlers make a big living and they get voted into office by portraying their constituents as victims,” O’Reilly said. “And it’s all your fault, and it’s my fault, it’s the rich people’s fault, it’s the Republicans’ fault. It’s everybody’s fault except what’s going on.”
One of these race hustlers was California Rep. Barbara Lee, who had accurately called Ryan’s statement “a thinly veiled racial attack.”
She had some choice words about the race hustler characterization as well. “Unfortunately we’ve come to expect language like ‘welfare queens,’ ‘food stamp president,’ and now ‘race hustlers’ from the right wing and Mr. O’Reilly,” she said in a statement. “It is disgusting and divisive and should never be accepted in our national discourse.”
O’Reilly maturely responded that if Lee did not like being called a race hustler, he’d be happy to call her other names.
“How about ‘pinhead,’ congresswoman?” he said on the air. “You like that better?”
So there, you meanie lady!
6. Michele Bachmann: Birth control equals “killer drugs.”
Speaking of pinheads…. In her latest dispatch from Planet Nutjob, Michele Bachmann spewed yet more illogical nonsense this week.
Continuing her relentless attack on Obamacare, Democrats and just anything resembling progress, she vented about the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case, and how the religious freedoms of companies are under assault. Religious freedom means Christians are allowed to ram their religion down other people"s throat. That"s how the Founding Fathers envisioned it.
Bachmann could not quite bring herself to use the word “contraception” (it"s long and multi-syllabic, so pretty hard). She has a different nickname for it. The birth control that evil socialist Obama is so eager to have companies cover are “killer drugs,” according to Bachmann, and by that we don’t think she means drugs that make you really really high. In Bachmann"s world, there are “killer drugs,” a.k.a. contraception, and then there are the good drugs, “life-saving drugs and surgical procedures” that Bachmann says “only politically connected best friends” of President Obama’s administration will get.
You probably did not read that in the fine print of your Obamacare insurance policy.
For more of Bachmann"s lunacy, click here.
7. Rep. Bill Cassidy: The uninsured are “less sophisticated” and illiterate.
Of course, there is a reason you did not read that in your new insurance policy that you got thanks to Obamacare, and that reason is that you are ignorant and stupid. Louisiana Rep. and Senate hopeful Bill Cassidy says he thinks he knows a whole lot more about poor people than Barack Obama, that alleged former community organizer, does. The uninsured are, says Cassidy “illiterate.” He also says: “I’m not saying that to be mean. I say it in compassion.”
He knows, because he’s a doctor and they are his patients (poor things). And it is for their sake that he opposes expanding Medicaid in Louisiana. See how compassionate he is. He’s a doctor, for pete’s sake. He has to be compassionate.
He then further reflected on his version of “the reality of who the uninsured are: relatively less sophisticated, less comfortable with forms, less educated,” he said.
Ergo, no healthcare coverage for them!
h/t: tpm
8. Ted Nugent: I’m just like Rosa Parks.
Bereft of his “singing” career, Nugent is now a columnist and an all-out, full-throttle race-baiting, gun-slinging slimebucket. Just like Rosa Parks.
And just like Rosa"s civil rights were, Ted’s right to sling those guns are under assault.
“In 1955, my hero, Rosa Parks,” he wrote this week, “refused to give up her seat on a city bus. Good for her. In 2014, gun owners must learn from Rosa Parks and definitely refuse to give up our guns. As Rosa Parks once said, "You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right."”
It’s not the first time Nugent has declared himself a sistah with Rosa. “I’m Rosa Parks with a Gibson,” Nugent has previously claimed. Further confusing his metaphors he has called for gun owners to “sit down on the front seat of the bus.” And do what? Shoot out the windows?
Although he says he deplores racism, Nugent has also said that apartheid was not all bad, and that some people aren’t created equal, like indigenous people in South Africa who “still put bones in their noses.” So he and Rosa are absolutely together on that.
h/t: mediamatters
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8 Appalling Moments by the Right Wing This Week: Gay Marriage Wedding Cakes Edition
Friday, March 28, 2014
This Dog Has An Amazing Reaction Right After Being Rescued
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This Dog Has An Amazing Reaction Right After Being Rescued
Thursday, March 27, 2014
College Athletes Granted the Right to Unionize—Is This the End of the NCAA?
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College Athletes Granted the Right to Unionize—Is This the End of the NCAA?
College Athletes Granted the Right to Unionize—Is This the End of the NCAA?
In a ground breaking decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a ruling on Wednesday holding that Northwestern football players qualified as “employees” of the university and therefore had the right to form a union, the NY Times reported.
The ruling in essence now allows players to hold a vote on whether they want to be represented by a union as well as granting them collective bargaining powers with Northwestern over player benefits.
NLRB regional director Peter Sung Ohr mentioned in the 24-page decision that the player’s time commitment to their sports and the fact that their scholarships, valued at $ 60,000 per year, are tied directly to their performance allowed them to fall within the broad definition of ‘employee’ under common law.
President of the National College Players Association, Ramogi Human, said he had much respect for the players who stood up to exercise their rights under labor law, ESPN reported.
“The NCAA invented the term student-athlete to prevent the exact ruling that was made today. For 60 years, people have bought into the notion that they are students only. The reality is players are employees, and today"s ruling confirms that. The players are one giant step closer to justice.”
The decision comes as a huge blow to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) which plans on fighting the decision. Northwestern issued a statement after the ruling saying it would appeal to the full NLRB in Washington D.C. arguing that student-athletes are not employees but students and that the decision will throw away a system that has helped millions of students attend college.
“We want student athletes – 99 percent of whom will never make it to the professional leagues – focused on what matters most, finding success in the classroom, on the field and in life,” NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy said.
They say giving employee status to students can hurt college kids in many ways by raising the prospects of strikes by dissatisfied players or lockouts by athletic departments.
Yet, advocates of the ruling say the organization is merely acting out of fear in an epic fight for its life as the decision potentially has the power to threaten its very existence. Not to mention, a ruling of this magnitude could open the floodgates for other university non-employees such as custodial staff, work-study students and graduate teachers to join in the fight for union rights.
The NCAA currently generates billions of dollars from college football and has come under scrutiny before for its amateur, byzantine rules. It has been criticized for failing to protect players from debilitating head injuries as well as unfairly profiting from players from live broadcasts, all for the indulgence of corporate sponsors.
Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter, one of the students who brought the case in January has declared the decision a huge win for all college athletes. Colter testified that he was steered away from difficult science class and denied his dream of pursuing a career as a doctor.
“For me this was just an opportunity to make things right and stick up for future generations and make up for the wrongs of past generations,” Colter said.
Consequently, the College Athletes Player Association hopes the decision will modify the rules on how athletes should be compensated and lead to guarantees to protect coverage of sports-related medical expenses for current and former players. What’s more, it is hoped the ruling will allow players to fairly profit and pursue commercial sponsorships, which may one day extend to other division at private universities.
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College Athletes Granted the Right to Unionize—Is This the End of the NCAA?
College Athletes Granted the Right to Unionize—Is This the End of the NCAA?
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College Athletes Granted the Right to Unionize—Is This the End of the NCAA?
Ricky Gervais Is Absolutely Right About Hollywood"s Woman Problem
In an interview with Radio Times, English actor and comedian Ricky Gervais expressed his frustration with how women are portrayed on TV and in Hollywood movies, especially comedies. (The 52-year-old co-creator of the UK’s The Office was promoting his show Derek, which returns for a second season in April. He said his show will soon feature some “real, good, modern girl power.”)
“I love writing interesting female characters because usually they’re props, particularly in comedy,” Gervais said. “Even in Hollywood, they’re usually air heads or if they’re ambitious they’re straight away cold and need to be taught a lesson. They need to show that getting a man is more important than getting a career. Or they’re just props for men to do funny things…People think that men rule the world but they don’t, really. That was never my experience growing up and certainly not at Broad Hill [nursing home]. Men, when they’re together, revert to the playground.”
(Gervais is correct; Hollywood absolutely does have a woman—and girl—problem.)
For this, Indiewire declared him the “Hollywood Feminist of the Day,” which fits nicely with some of Gervais’ other comments:
I love angry, god fearing men in power imposing ancient myth-induced morality on what modern women can and can’t do with their own bodies.
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) July 19, 2013
Gervais has also spoken about atheism, war, racism, rape jokes, obesity, Nelson Mandela, Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, and animal rights, typically in very funny ways.
MoJo Blogs and Articles | Mother Jones
Ricky Gervais Is Absolutely Right About Hollywood"s Woman Problem
Monday, March 24, 2014
Assessing the Extreme Right In Ukraine
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Assessing the Extreme Right In Ukraine
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
We’re still not asking the right questions about HS2
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We’re still not asking the right questions about HS2
Monday, March 10, 2014
Edward Snowden tells SXSW: Mass NSA spying ‘is something we have a right to know’
Edward Snowden tells SXSW: Mass NSA spying ‘is something we have a right to know’
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/A-recent-undated-picture-received-from-Channel-4-on-December-24-2013-shows-US-intelligence-leaker-Edward-Snowden-AFP.jpg
By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, March 10, 2014 15:47 EDT
Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden said Monday he has no regrets over his leaks about mass surveillance programs, saying they sparked a needed public debate on spying and data collection.
Snowden, who spoke via video link from Russia to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, said he revealed the programs of the US National Security Agency and other such services to foster “a better civic understanding” about what had been secret programs.
He said his decision to leak documents to journalists “wasn’t so I could single handedly change the government; what I wanted to do was inform the public so they could provide their consent to what we should do.”
Snowden, a former NSA contractor who has been in hiding in Russia and has been charged in the United States with espionage, maintained that “every society in the world has benefited” from the debate on surveillance.
“Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we have a right to know,” he said on the link with members of the American Civil Liberties Union, who noted that the hookup was routed through seven proxy servers to keep his location secure.
Snowden, who appeared against a backdrop of a giant copy of the US constitution, said the NSA programs have fundamentally altered the rights outlined in the charter.
“The interpretation of the constitution has been changed from ‘no unreasonable searches and seizures,’ to ‘any seizure is fine, just don’t search it,’” he said.
Snowden said he chose to speak to SXSW because he believes it is important to encourage technology companies to make changes to stem mass surveillance.
“The people who are in the room in Austin right now, they are the folks who can really fix things through technical standards,” he said.
Snowden said more companies should adopt robust encryption that is built into communications without users having to use complex technical tools.
He maintained that if encryption is too complex, “people aren’t going to use it; it has to happen automatically, it has to happen seamlessly.”
If online communications are fully encrypted at all stages, Snowden said, bulk data collection would become too difficult for intelligence agencies.
He also said the NSA and other agencies have devoted too many resources to this type of bulk collection and not enough to traditional methods to catch criminals and terrorists.
“We’ve had tremendous intelligence failures because we are monitoring everybody’s communications, instead of suspects,” he said.
He cited the Boston marathon bombings as an example, saying “if we hadn’t spent so much on mass surveillance, if we followed traditional models, we might have caught” the suspects.
- Congress needs watchdog -
One of the questions came via Twitter from Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, who thanked Snowden and asked how to make an intelligence oversight system more accountable.
Snowden said “the key factor is accountability” and that Congress needed a watchdog because it failed to adequately oversee the NSA.
“We can’t have officials who can lie to the Congress and not face any consequences,” he said. “We need a watchdog that watches Congress.”
Documents leaked by Snowden in 2013 revealed widespread surveillance of individuals and institutions in the United States and around the world.
He received temporary asylum in Russia in August — a move that infuriated the United States and was a key factor behind President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel a summit with counterpart Vladimir Putin last year.
Eric W. Dolan
Eric W. Dolan has served as an editor for Raw Story since August 2010, and is based out of Sacramento, California. He grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and received a Bachelor of Science from Bradley University. Eric is also the publisher and editor of PsyPost. You can follow him on Twitter @ewdolan.
Read more about Edward Snowden tells SXSW: Mass NSA spying ‘is something we have a right to know’ and other interesting subjects concerning Commentary at TheDailyNewsReport.com
Karl Rove Was Totally Right - Action Creates Reality, See: Ukraine
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Karl Rove Was Totally Right - Action Creates Reality, See: Ukraine
Friday, March 7, 2014
5 Most Absurd Christian Right Claims of Persecution
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5 Most Absurd Christian Right Claims of Persecution
Monday, March 3, 2014
The third insurrectionary moment of the Venezuelan Right
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The third insurrectionary moment of the Venezuelan Right
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Right Sector Calls On Russia’s Bin Laden to Fight in Ukraine
Chechen Islamist has claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian civilians
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
March 2, 2014
Doku Umarov, leader of the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, an al-Qaeda affiliate in the Caucasus. Image taken from a videotape in which Umarov took credit for the 2010 suicide attacks on the Moscow Metro.
Right Sector, the ultra-nationalist street fighting group that targeted police prior to the coup in Ukraine, has called for Doku Umarov to fight in a war against Russia.
Umarov, known as the “Bin Laden of Russia,” is a Chechen Islamist who has claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian civilians. According to media reports, his most recent threat was against the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. No terrorist attacks, however, occured during the games.
Russian media reports the appeal to recruit Umarov was issued by Dmitry Yarosh, the leader of the ultra-nationalist and fascist Right Sector. The group is aligned with other extreme nationalist groups in Ukraine, including “Trident,” Patriot of Ukraine, “White Hammer” and the Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian National Self Defense. Although it is not associated with the largest nationalist political party in the country, Svoboda, it has “a lot of common positions when it comes to ideological questions,” according to Yarosh.
The Voice of Russia reports:
President Yunus-bek Yevkurov of Ingushetia said that with his appeal to the leader of gangsters in the North Caucasus Doku Umarov, the leader of the Right Sector in Ukraine Dmitry Yarosh has confirmed that those who had been gangsters in the North Caucasus were also in Independence Square in Kiev. That appeal puts the Right Sector on a par with international terrorist organizations, he pointed out. He said that he was interested in the West’s response to this appeal because the West supported the new power in Ukraine.
There is a growing consensus in the United States Congress to support diplomatically, economically and, to a lesser degree, militarily the coup government in Ukraine.
Umarov’s connection to U.S. intelligence and the State Department
In April, 2013, we reported on Umarov’s shady connections. According to research conducted by Eric Draitser and others, Umarov’s Kavkaz Center was funded by the State Department and several supporting fronts including the National Endowment for Democracy-funded Russian-Chechen Friendship Society.
The militant Chechen effort to undermine Russia is supported by a number of influential neocons. “Despite the fact that organs such as Kavkaz Center operate in the service of terrorists who advocate the destruction of Russia, their activity alone is not altogether significant if seen in a vacuum,” writes Draitser.
Rather, it is the association of these types of individuals and organizations with the US State Department and US intelligence that makes them particularly insidious. One such entity that bears scrutiny is the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (ACPC), previously known as the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya. As reported by Right Web at the Institute for Policy Studies, “The ACPC was founded in 1999 by Freedom House, a neoconservative organization that has worked closely with the U.S. government, receiving funds from the National Endowment for Democracy and other U.S. democratization initiatives.” This intimate relationship between the ACPC and the US State Department indicates not merely a confluence of interests, but rather a direct relationship wherein the former is an organ of the latter.
This article was posted: Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Right Sector Calls On Russia’s Bin Laden to Fight in Ukraine
Saturday, March 1, 2014
More Americans Than Ever Support Gay Marriage, Leaving Christian Right Behind
In America today, it"s more normal to support gay marriage than not to.
That"s according to findings from the Public Religion Research Institute, a non-profit, nonpartisan research organization. By comparing results of a survey it conducted in 2013 with one it did a decade ago, PRRI found that today, over half of Americans support same-sex marriage, up from just 32% in 2003. Its findings are similar to those of the Pew Research Center, Gallup, and other poling organizations, which have all noted a significant increase in support for same-sex marriage in the past 10 years.
Certain groups stick out as being far less supportive than others. Only 39% of African Americans support same-sex marriage, compared with 53% of Hispanics and 53% of whites. There is a nine-point difference between men and women, with 57% of women in support, compared to 48% of men. Sixty-four percent of Democrats and 57% of independents support same-sex marriage, compared to only 34% of Republicans, a gap that has increased by 21 percent points in the last decade.
But regardless of differences between groups, within groups, it"s becoming more popular to support same-sex matrimony, even among those who have been traditionally staunchly against it. Take white evangelical Protestants, who continue to be some of the least supportive: while only 27% support same-sex marriage today, that"s a significant increase from the 12% who supported it in 2003. Support for same-sex marriage is strongest among Millennials (people aged 18-33), with 69% in support, compared with only 37% of the Silent Generation (those aged 68 and older). The “generational tidal wave,” as PRRI CEO Robert Jones calls it, holds true across religious and political lines: for example, whereas only 34% of Republicans overall support same-sex marriage, half of Millennial Republicans support it.
Personal connection and perception matter: knowing someone who"s gay, and thinking that sexuality is biologically determined, strongly influences whether an individual supports gay marriage. The difference is striking: while 63% of those who support same-sex marriage have a close friend or family member who identifies as gay or lesbian, only 36% of those who oppose do. More Americans have family and friends who are openly gay than ever before: 65% today, versus just 22% in 1993.
Notions of whether being gay is something you"re born with, or something you acquire through upbringing and environment, has also shifted in the last decade. In 2003, 38% of Americans thought a person"s sexuality was biologically determined. Today, 44% do. People"s views on the topic are positively correlated with their support for gay marriage, with 76% of those who believe it is biologically determined supporting same-sex marriage, compared with only 28% among those who believe it"s a learned trait.
“In a certain sense sexuality becomes less dangerous if it is fixed early,” explains Clyde Wilcox, professor of government at Georgetown University, who spoke at the launch of the report in Washington DC this week. “It"s not contagious, and it"s not anyone"s fault. You can"t discriminate because it"s not a choice.” Groups least supportive of same-sex nuptials—evangelicals, Republicans, African Americans—are less likely to think sexuality is biologically determined than those who are not, and less likely to have a close friend or family member who identifies as gay or lesbian.
Religious conservatives may be getting left behind as the country changes its mind. With the exception of Jews (83% of whom support gay marriage), religious people are far less likely to support gay marriage than those who are not. (Religiously unaffiliated people trail closely behind Jews in their support, followed by white mainline Protestants. Around 50% of white Catholics, Hispanic Catholics and Hispanic Protestants support gay marriage. Thirty-five percent of black Protestants do.) Americans also tend to view religions as not supportive of LGBT rights, a perception that may be hurting their cause. Survey findings demonstrate a significant drop in religious affiliation across America (22% are unaffiliated today, versus 8% in 2003), which may be in part linked to negative perceptions of religious" groups treatment of LGBT people.
“Nearly one-third of Millennials who left their childhood religion say unfavorable church teachings about or treatment of gay and lesbian people played a significant role in their decision to head for the exit,” says Jones. Fifty-eight percentof Americans, including 70% of Millennials, say that religious groups" stance on LGBT issues is alienating young people. Young people and those who identify as LGBT are far more likely to be religiously unaffiliated than the population at large.
Jones says negative public perception of religious groupings on LGBT rights and a lag in support for gay marriage among worshippers may provoke change by religious institutions. “Can theology just take its cues from public opinion? Most theologians would have a problem with that position,” he says. “But what does it do when public opinion moves over here, and theology is over here?”
While LGBT and their allies have reason to celebrate the national upsurge in support, PRRI notes that a large proportion of Americans, especially religious Americans, think that same-sex sexual relationships are immoral (although they may still support gay marriage), and that LGBT face some of the highest discrimination in the country. And even though there"s a national shift in attitudes on same-sex marriage, it still isn"t a priority for most Americans. Only 24% of Americans say same-sex marriage is a critical issue for them personally, with 25% saying it"s one of several important issues. Nearly 50% of Americans say that the issue is not that important to them personally, with same-sex marriage ranking below jobs and unemployment, healthcare, immigration, HIV/AIDS and abortion.
Moreover, just because there"s increasing support for same-sex marriage, it doesn"t mean the US is becoming less conservative as a whole. “We"re not winning on guns. Sometimes Millennials are the most conservative on pro-choice. It"s not that these are changing attitudes on sexuality in general,” notes Wilcox. “Since 1992, the percentage of people who say that LGBT sex is always wrong has plummeted, but those who say that sex outside of marriage is always wrong went up.”
Nationally, Americans are more likely to consider themselves pro-life (48%) than pro-choice (45%), and more likely to identify as conservatives (38%) than liberals (23%). Wilcox suggests that while other issues remain polarized, the rise of LGBT people in pop culture helped to make the issue more palatable, which made it easier for people to come out to their family and friends.
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More Americans Than Ever Support Gay Marriage, Leaving Christian Right Behind
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Brewer: "I will do the right thing"
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says her decision is coming in the “near future” on whether to sign or veto a controversial bill that critics warn will lead to discrimination against gays and lesbians.
“I can assure you, as always, I will do the right thing for the state of Arizona,” Brewer said in a CNN interview Monday night.
The legislation, know as SB 1062, which passed the state Senate last week, would allow businesses to refuse service to any person on the basis of the business owners’ religious beliefs. Opponents have called the bill discriminatory against gays and lesbians, and GOP Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake have urged her to veto it.
(Also on POLITICO: Markell: No Super Bowl for Arizona)
“I have a history of deliberating and having open dialogue on bills that are controversial,” Brewer said, perhaps a reference to the controversial illegal immigration bill she signed in 2010, SB 1070.
When pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash on what her initial reaction to the bill was, Brewer said, “I don’t rely a whole lot on my gut.”
Brewer has until Friday to act on the bill. Some of begun speculating that the NFL could pull the next season’s Super Bowl from the state if Brewer signs the bill into law.
Brewer: "I will do the right thing"
Hated textbook gets Reagan’s dark side half right
Conservative student group Turning Point USA caused a stir last week by posting pages online from a textbook used at the University of South Carolina. The book calls Ronald Reagan “sexist” and says conservatives “take a basically pessimistic view of human nature” — one in which “people are conceived of as being corrupt.”
Several avowed conservatives balked not just at the negative portrayal of Reagan but also at the idea that the conservative persuasion contains a measure of pessimism. On this point, the textbook is right and they are wrong.
Russell Kirk was the man credited by William F. Buckley for the very existence of an American conservatism. To Kirk, human fallenness was an essential pillar of conservative thought. He called Original Sin the one empirically verifiable dogma.
“Human nature suffers irremediably from certain grave faults,” Kirk wrote. “To seek for utopia is to end in disaster, the conservative says: we are not made for perfect things.”
This sentiment is shared by the Apostle Paul, who wrote that human beings are “by nature children of wrath,” and by John Adams, who warned us to distrust government because “there is danger from all men.”
If conservatives are offended by this idea, they have forgotten their own inheritance. The conservative intellectual tradition has been challenging progressive assumptions since Edmund Burke assailed the tyranny of Jacobin France.
If conservatism’s answers have been forgotten, then conservatives are doomed merely to attack or water down progressivism without offering a coherent worldview of their own.
Granted, the textbook was discussing the cheerful Ronald Reagan. Yet it correctly specifies a “pessimistic view of human nature,” not of all reality.
Reagan was a temperamentally happy man, but he took a grave view of the appropriate things: the dangers posed by the Soviet Union abroad and by big government at home. It’s precisely because Reagan recognized these evils that he was able to fight them.
A dark view of the human condition is often necessary to yield the brightest results. Imagine you are trying to dissuade a delusional person from leaping off a tall building. The crazed man insists that he can fly. Though your view that he cannot fly would save him from death, his take is clearly more optimistic.
When the Wright Brothers did succeed in flying, it was only because they were not so optimistic as to think they could do so by flapping their arms.
Arguments over gun rights usually involve two scenarios: the home invasion and the tyrannical government. In both cases, the progressive position rests upon an optimistic view of human nature.
Last year, an Oregon woman dialed 911 as a man was breaking into her home to sexually assault her. Because there were no police in the area, the dispatcher offered her some interesting advice: “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away?”
This statement might sound disastrously naïve, but it was really only the logical, though absurd, conclusion of an argument that liberals routinely make.
Likewise, progressives dismiss as absurd any suggestion that the U.S. government could, even a hundred years into the future, become tyrannical enough to warrant armed resistance.
The left’s trust in government is so unshakeable that this was true even when George W. Bush was president. As they warned of creeping fascism, they still wanted people to give up their guns.
Edmund Burke
Such faith in the goodness of democracy is historically absurd. In Edmund Burke’s words, “in a democracy, the majority… is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.”
If conservatives were to rediscover their roots, they could counter the loony left on both counts. Self-defense is paramount if people are “by nature children of wrath.” Democracy is fallible if “there is danger from all men.”
Science adds heft to the conservative position here. We now know, for instance, that testosterone acts to reduce empathy.
Burke likely would have agreed with the controversial textbook’s assessment. He said “there is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men.”
We have good reason to channel Burke today. If Americans come to see government and its goals as susceptible to human imperfection, then conservatism will win handily. If that’s pessimism, we need more pessimism.
New textbook trashes Reagan and conservatives
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Hated textbook gets Reagan’s dark side half right
Sunday, February 23, 2014
The Cold War is over. Right?
Greg Clary
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
February 23, 2014
Gay rights, Edward Snowden, Syria and now Ukraine: They’re all recent issues in which the United States and Russia have had disagreements.
Tension has always seemed to exist between the two countries, and that’s certainly been the case for President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some days, it almost seems like the Cold War never went away.
In the latest example, Ukraine, it appears the Russian-backed government of President Viktor Yanukovych has been removed from office after deadly protests, setting up a power vacuum in a country known for Russian meddling.
This article was posted: Sunday, February 23, 2014 at 12:41 pm
The Cold War is over. Right?
Monday, February 17, 2014
Ackman: Air Products shares could double with right CEO
NEW YORK
William Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, speaks at the Partner Connect 2013 conference, sponsored by Thomson Reuters, in Boston April 5, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Billionaire investor William Ackman said there is room for Air Products and Chemicals Inc’s (APD.N) stock price to double in the next few years if the industrial gas producer hires the right chief executive.
“This is a $ 200 plus stock over the next three years with new management,” Ackman said at an investment conference. Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management is Air Products’ biggest shareholder with a 9.71 percent stake.
The company has been looking for a new leader since Chief Executive Officer John McGlade said in September that he would retire this year. McGlade plans to stay on as chairman of the board for a limited time as the new CEO settles in.
Air Products is one of the world’s largest industrial gas companies, breaking down air to form oxygen, nitrogen and other components used in construction, healthcare, oil refining and scores of other industries.
McGlade’s replacement will have to turn around a corporate culture that has long had a reputation as top-down and bureaucratic. That inefficiency has cost the company market share and dented margins, which badly trail Praxair Inc (PX.N) and other rivals.
Air Products also has invested capital in unrelated businesses, including specialty chemicals for electronics makers and liquefied natural gas heat exchangers, that Ackman and others have said diverts the company from its core mission.
Since McGlade’s announcement, the company’s stock price has moved up and down and is now trading only about 2 percent higher at $ 112.04 then where it was in late September.
As an activist investor, Ackman knows firsthand how selecting the right person for the top job can make or break investments.
Watching Ron Johnson’s vision for remaking J.C.Penney (JCP.N) fall apart cost his hedge fund $ 500 million, but installing Hunter Harrison at Canadian Pacific (CP.TO) helped him earn more than $ 2 billion in less than two years.
“The risk at Air Products is whether or not they are going to choose the right CEO,” Ackman said at the 2014 Harbor Investment Conference, which he runs with Mark Axelowitz.
Pershing Square does not sit on the Air Products board and will have no official say in who ends up getting the job, Ackman said.
But as the biggest shareholder, the hedge fund does have significant influence over the decision.
“No one would be willing to take the job without having the biggest shareholder on their side,” Ackman said.
(Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Ackman: Air Products shares could double with right CEO
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