Sunday, October 27, 2013
The relationship of Americans with their guns summed up in one gif.
Source
Touching pregnant ladies' tummies now illegal in Pennsylvania
Since there have been pregnant ladies, there have been people who randomly come up and start touching their bellies without warning, as if they’re at a petting zoo. Some women grin and bear it, others get assertive, but these days almost all return home and then complain about it on Facebook. ("Tummy-touching isn’t OK just because someone’s pregnant!"). Now, Pennslyvania has made it illegal to touch the belly of a pregnant woman without her permission, pursuant to a harassment case against a man who kept tummy-touching a pregnant lady against her will. A bit severe? Any pregnant lady will tell you no, not severe at all, in fact let’s go a step further and make it illegal to tell pregnant ladies how big they’ve gotten or ask if they’re carrying twins. [Source]
Read Full Article Source here
Author: now.msn.com
Sandy Hook, faith, and the great weight that rests on the shoulders of the President.
It deals with what the President experienced that day, how it affected him, and how it may have changed how he views his job as President.
The families came in and gathered together, room by room. Many struggled to offer a weak smile when we whispered, “The president will be here soon.” A few were visibly angry—so understandable that it barely needs to be said—and were looking for someone, anyone, to blame. Mostly they sat in silence.
I went downstairs to greet President Obama when he arrived, and I provided an overview of the situation. “Two families per classroom . . . The first is . . . and their child was . . . The second is . . . and their child was . . . We’ll tell you the rest as you go.”
The president took a deep breath and steeled himself, and went into the first classroom. And what happened next I’ll never forget.
Person after person received an engulfing hug from our commander in chief. He’d say, “Tell me about your son. . . . Tell me about your daughter,” and then hold pictures of the lost beloved as their parents described favorite foods, television shows, and the sound of their laughter. For the younger siblings of those who had passed away—many of them two, three, or four years old, too young to understand it all—the president would grab them and toss them, laughing, up into the air, and then hand them a box of White House M&M’s, which were always kept close at hand. In each room, I saw his eyes water, but he did not break.
And then the entire scene would repeat—for hours. Over and over and over again, through well over a hundred relatives of the fallen, each one equally broken, wrecked by the loss. After each classroom, we would go back into those fluorescent hallways and walk through the names of the coming families, and then the president would dive back in, like a soldier returning to a tour of duty in a worthy but wearing war. We spent what felt like a lifetime in those classrooms, and every single person received the same tender treatment. The same hugs. The same looks, directly in their eyes. The same sincere offer of support and prayer.
The staff did the preparation work, but the comfort and healing were all on President Obama. I remember worrying about the toll it was taking on him. And of course, even a president’s comfort was woefully inadequate for these families in the face of this particularly unspeakable loss. But it became some small measure of love, on a weekend when evil reigned.
And the funny thing is—President Obama has never spoken about these meetings. Yes, he addressed the shooting in Newtown and gun violence in general in a subsequent speech, but he did not speak of those private gatherings. In fact, he was nearly silent on Air Force One as we rode back to Washington, and has said very little about his time with these families since. It must have been one of the defining moments of his presidency, quiet hours in solemn classrooms, extending as much healing as was in his power to extend. But he kept it to himself—never seeking to teach a lesson based on those mournful conversations, or opening them up to public view.
The book, and the HuffPo article, focus on the President's faith, and talk about how it provided him solace during this trying time, and many others.
I am not a person of faith, but I understand completely what it is like to draw from an inner well of strength that you didn't know that you had and to use it to overcome things that may seem at first insurmountable.
Looking at that picture up above. and reading the words of this post, make it clear that President was able to put away his personal pain over what happened long enough to give strength, and compassion, and even love to these families that were so terribly impacted by the gunman's bullets that day. (The HuffPo piece also mentions that details of the killings that the President was privy to that have never been released to the public.)
Like I said, I am not a religious person, but I certainly do not fault WHATEVER the President tapped into that give him the vast reservoir of strength that he relied on that day. Because there are many among us who would have found ourselves wanting in the face of such overwhelming tragedy, anger, and despair.
It is also quite clear why afterward the President tried so hard to get at least some comprehensive gun reforms through the Congress. I have little doubt that he felt compelled to do SOMETHING to protect the next victims of senseless gun violence.
Sadly he was stopped by those who put the needs of the gun manufacturers over the needs of parents to protect their children.
Perhaps if some of them had been with the President that day, the outcome would have been far different. At least I want desperately to hope that it would have made a difference.
Source
Atheist group volunteers to work in soup kitchen, executive director says she would resign before letting that happen.
A group of Upstate atheists plans to hand out care packages downtown this weekend after the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen wouldn't let them volunteer.
"I told them we wouldn't wear our T-shirts. We wouldn't tell anyone who we are with. We just want to help out," Brannon said. "And they told us that we were not allowed."
According to the Soup Kitchen's website, the organization is dependent upon volunteers, having more than 600 community volunteers with a mission to serve the hungry in Spartanburg.
Lou Landrum, executive director of the Soup Kitchen, told the Herald-Journal she would resign from her job before she let atheists volunteer and be a "disservice to this community."
"This is a ministry to serve God" she said. "We stand on the principles of God. Do they (atheists) think that our guests are so ignorant that they don't know what an atheist is? Why are they targeting us? They don't give any money. I wouldn't want their money."
Brannon said the group has worked with Christian nonprofits, such as Habitat for Humanity, in the past.
"We can all work together to achieve something positive regardless of religion or lack thereof," she said. "We've raised money for March of Dimes, worked with the Generous Garden Project, done community park clean ups, adopted a highway, and sponsored local foster children for Christmas."
She said the group is used to its share of animosity within the community, but the exchange with the Soup Kitchen was unlike anything she had experienced.
"They are the only group that denied us the opportunity to volunteer," Brannon said.
Yep can't have Atheists helping out the poor and destitute, after all they might get infected with critical thinking skills.
I wonder how the media would respond if this were how a Muslim group, or Jewish group, or Christian group were treated?
But of course it wasn't. it was just those lowlife, good for nothing, atheists.
Source
Sarah Palin's token black friend, Star Parker, claims that President Obama is turning us all into pro-gay European zombies. Because there's nothing crazy about THAT.
So Parker appeared in the above video being interviewed by Joseph Farah, founder of the batshit crazy World Net Daily, and said some rather insane things.
Here let Raw Story fill you in:
Parker, author of the books Pimps, whores and welfare brats and Uncle Sam’s Plantation, is the founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), a Christian ministry. She told Farah that dark times are coming under Obama administration.
Parker said that “if young people start to distrust each other, we’re going to see more division. We’re going to see ourselves get separated and segregated again, not just when it comes to our ethnicity, but when it comes to our religion.”
“I mean, what this president has done to damage the Christian community to where — and the laws,” Parker ranted, “that are coming out of places like the state of California and others, you know, in California where you’ve got the boy going into the girls’ bathroom.”
“But the laws, um, the laws that are pushing homosexuality out into society,” said Parker, “when, when, when you have this type of vileness exalted, the wicked go on the prowl. That’s what the Proverbs says, is that if the wicked can now go on the prowl, people with the resources will now pull away, and so they become much more private.”
She concluded, “So while you have ill activity now in the public square, you have those decent people and quiet communities becoming much more, you know, refined, and more closed. And that’s not healthy for us as a society because when you go start walking out in the public square and nobody talks to each other, that’s what they do in Europe. They’re just a bunch of zombies and we don’t want that as Americans.”
Damn that is some Sarah Palin worthy word salad!
So to be clear, and that is almost impossible considering the subject matter, what Parker is suggesting is that President Obama's attempts to create a less racially divided, less homophobic society, is destroying the country, because "decent" more "refined" people, ie Fundamentalist Christians, are feeling closed off.
At least I THINK that's what she is saying.
And my carefully considered response to that is, "About fucking time!"
I hope that having a more openly diverse population makes the bigots and religious hypocrites run into their little cookie cutter houses, close themselves off from the rest of us, and stay out of the public square permanently!
Personally I can hardly WAIT until that happens, and we can take back our country from the judgmental religious bullies that have for too long made the majority of us feel unwelcome to participate in politics or have a voice in the direction of OUR nation.
It simply cannot happen fast enough in my opinion.
Source
