I had no doubt this bullshit bill will pass, I hope loving parents of trans kids will be able to move elsewhere.
For short thought I am already demonic anyway (don't go to church, unmarried, no kids, wear pants, listen non christian music, video games...). Hail Seitan 😁
Well, I still like where I am in Ohio, but then this is Cuyahoga county, up by Cleveland and Lake Erie, which is pretty blue and mostly tolerant. It's the rural areas I worry about.
SA. Mostly blue, but there was a house in my neighborhood with a Trump 2020 banner still slung across the front in April of 2021. I think a storm finally blew it down and they didn't bother to put it back up. Still have the "We back the Blue" yardsign though.
I grew up in small town southwest of Houston and now live in Canyon Lake, Comal County, a ridiculously fast growing county that's still mostly rural, it's a 5 to 1 ratio of Rep to Dims, definitely full of MAGATs. and religious types. It's not too far to Hagee's church. They all scare me.
Howdy! You're probably a lot closer to Hagee than me. I used to live in Austin and had to drive into SA all the time so went right past his big signage. SA has seems pretty progressive at least relatively but that's from a limited perspective of seeing occasional mentions in social media.
Long time Ohio resident, and fortunately, I live in a very diverse section of Akron. But once you get outside the city, this state may as well be located in south bumfork. Now we have loonies like this guy, people claiming they're magnetic from vaccines, and various insurrectionists in this very gerrymandered state. Embarrassing!
But isn't most of Ohio rural? I've driven through the state a good number of times on my way to writers' conferences in Columbus and Cincinnati, and that's sure the impression I've always had. But then I've always assumed a state as monotonously flat as Ohio would pretty much have to drive people nuts.
I suspect that most any state much larger than Delaware would be "mostly rural," when you boil it down. Ohio has Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, and Youngstown as major or semi-major urban areas with corresponding suburbs. The rest is indeed pretty rural: farmland or whatever have you, and with damned few exceptions, pretty red.
I hear ya...state after state seems to be falling like dominoes before the endless tide of batshit cray-cray. WTF? It's like they're all being sucked into a vortex.
I've begun considering European countries, but which one? With my luck whichever one I choose will suddenly lose it's collective mind as well and then I'd be royally screwed.
It's a problem. To move to a blue state, you need to find a job, probably for multiple people. The new job needs to pay 50-100% more than the current job so you can come close to the same standard of living. And you're going to need every dime of equity when you sell your house to have a 5% (as opposed to the standard 20%) down payment on the new house.
By the way one of my father's brother, their mother and most of his cousins would agree with short thought positions (just not the demonic possession part).
Oh, boy, here we go. Demons. Brought up in the Ohio House. Seriously. And this guy, Stuart Long, actually laid that crap out in front of what I presume to be a House committee.
And he wasn't laughed out of the building?!? This is 2023, and this crap can still go on? Phenomenal.
I've said it many times: the second ONE irrationality is allowed into one's field of beliefs, there is potentially no limit to the number of irrationalities that can follow ... and that is religion in a sentence.
(A line I remember from "The Horror at 37,000 Feet." It's been a while, so that's probably a paraphrase. But I still have a thing for cheesy horror movies.)
OT: Having a garage sale this weekend. Just sold a dresser to a young lady and her mom. After helping them load it, the younger asked if there was anything I wanted to pray about. I said no thanks. She persisted with but Jesus said... I cut her off and said you don't know that. She tried to start up again and
I said you just bought a dresser from an atheist, have a nice day. She got in the car but didn't leave. After a couple of minutes she cam back in, almost crying and started again with it's not to late... I cut her off again with I don't want to here it. She tried again and I cut her off again. Finally I said thanks for buying the dresser, please leave, twice. She finally left.
I once had Johos come to the house, well actually many times, but once one asked me while I was out working in the garden if I thanked god for my garden. I told her when god dragged his lazy ass here to weed, I might thank him but until then I get credit for the garden.
Don't be too optimistic I live in an apartment too and one climbed the stairs all the way to the 5th floor (4th in French count). Having a 50 pounds or a bigger dog is a good idea to get rid of them since threatening to call the cops doesn't work.
They were still coming here before the pandemic. During the pandemic one left a long rambling jeesusy message on our voip voicemail. I blocked the number so they can't call again.
I think I'd be tempted to tell them to tell their kids to give their lunch money/candy money to the church. After all, that's what their own people told them to do.
Oh, and while I was at it I'd ask them about them about their secret database on JW child molesters.
I recently got a long rambling voicemail from some drunk guy (in the middle of the day, mind you) in Washington state. My phone number is still a Washington number because I’ve never bothered to change it and I get all my junk calls with that area code. Anyway this guy was talking about some girl he needed to slap around to wake her up and she’s all pressing charges but he didn’t do anything wrong and blah blah blah. I stopped it after about five minutes because he never finished a sentence and I still didn’t have any idea what happened.
At first it was funny but it went on for too long.
Apparently young JW's and Mormons don't actually like going door-to-door. So often they will take any excuse not to interact. I felt sorry enough for them to constantly warn them about the dangerous dog next door back in the day.
A+ for persistence I must say. I had a couple of JW's or Mormons or something – I think JW's because they were relatively casually dressed – wanting to "bless my house". I politely said no thank you and they asked me is there any reason why they shouldn't be able to bless my house. I said no reason other than I don't want them to, and they persisted for another 30 seconds or so. But they were nowhere near as persistent as that woman. Why she assumed you might need Christian help at all I've no idea. But who can read the minds of the deluded.
“He even urged other Christians to join him, writing on Facebook the day before, “IT’s TIME TO PUT UP AND SHOW UP!”“
He wants butts in seats at state legislatures, he wants his congregants and followers to bombard the government with their fantasy nonsense. The only way to combat this is to show up ourselves. LGBT people and allies need to outnumber these looney toons who think they’re the majority, that they’re the morality, and that they’re the standard bearers. They are not. They are the lunatic fringe. They don’t understand the issue because they’ve been lied to, Matt Walsh insists there’s millions of children getting puberty blockers and bottom surgeries despite being fact checked live on it. (It’s around a thousand throughout the entire country, that’s a huge disparity). They’re told constantly there hundreds and thousands of transgender girls trying to compete in women’s professional sports. There’s a handful throughout the entire scope of athletics, children’s, teen’s, collegiate, and professional. They’re told they’re being overrun and replaced by transgender people, making them think the world will end if they get used to recognizing another pronoun. They won’t hear that the transgender people are just asking for a small slice of dignity and it won’t cost them anything, because the real evil GOP are using this genocide as a curtain to hide their plans of world domination.
Okay sorry, I got a little off track. Good people of the country need to show up in greater numbers to show these folks they aren’t the majority. Show up when these bills are being discussed in the states, at the federal level and most importantly show up to vote. We really can foil their gerrymandering and voter suppression and cheating, but we have to show up.
To me, what best illustrates how far these asshats are willing to go is the litterbox hoax. In case anyone missed it:
Teachers and administrators, who were concerned about where the kids in their care would relieve themselves during a school lockdown, started pitching ideas for how to provide a solution on their practically-nonexistent (thanks to Republicans) budgets, and "a bucket with some kitty litter in it" was what they came up with.
Right-wing media got wind of that and immediately twisted it into a controversy over nonexistent furries demanding litterboxes.
Here's a teacher, who's just trying to offer their students some measure of basic human dignity amid a horror they should never have to face (again, thanks to Republicans)... and Republicans decided that, no, this is the 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 wedge issue to use against trans kids. Nevermind that trans folks and furries, while there are certainly people out there who are both, are not one and the same- but to a dullard whose comprehension of the issues starts and ends with "𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘳, 𝘐 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳," what can we really expect? The point is that they're quite literally willing to force 𝘢𝘭𝘭 kids to suffer the additional indignity of having to piss on the floor, while their friends are getting murdered down the hall, just so they can shit on trans kids some more.
The Republican base just 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 that lie. It's still making the rounds. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 how far they're willing to go. Republican voters will throw their own children under the bus (or into the bullets, as it were) if it means they get to hurt trans people. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯.
They can't handle anyone different. Whether it's a different gender identity, culture, sexuality, language, or religion. They can't handle the challenge to what is familiar and what they want to be the proper order of the world.
Well, it's a matter of accepting what can't be changed and trying to change the things that can for the better. The problem is they can't tell the difference.
Most of the "Good" people of this country don't care until it affects *their* lives. They'll say they believe LGB and even T deserve rights, but the truth is they don't care, so they won't show up to the capitals, because they certainly don't care enough to use their PTO to lobby their legislators.
I'm guilty of this because it feels hopeless in this hellhole, because I'm a bit of hermit and am decidedly uncomfortable meeting new people, and because I rarely hear of these things in advance. I vote and I donate, but I don't lobby and I need to work on that.
Thing is, the vast majority of "liberal" and "progressive" christians are just fine with dipshits like this. Either they secretly agree with him and are too embarrassed to say it out loud or they're happy to let evangelicals do the wetwork needed to keep Christianity in its comfy position of hegemonic dominance. That's a huge hurdle to get over raw numbers wise.
Sometime in 2019, I had to do some cognitive tests for an issue I was having. It started off fine, name a few of these objects, what is the date (I didn't know the actual date, but knew day of the week, month, year), then got to
Nurse "Who is the president?"
Me "..."
Nurse "Can you name the president?"
ME "I'd rather not"
Nurse "Oh, right. I really shouldn't use that question because I don't want to talk about it either."
He's more of a friend, actually. After that one Friday I had to tell him 'it's not you, it's me.' Now we only exchange pleasantries at baby barbequeues.
This guy blurted it all out there -- others may try to backpedal, but ALL of the people behind ALL of these bills think the same way. The way that other people live is evil and “unnatural” according to their religion, and they just can’t get their little minds past it. Religious hysteria is behind all of it. This story just exposes the insanity for what it really is.
Good, this guy should travel around and give his little speech everywhere. Let him emphasize he means actual, literal possession on a mass scale, millions and millions of people possessed. Ugh, this whole "my opponents are controlled by demons" schtick is going to get people murdered.
How many angels was YHWH supposed to have created? To have sufficient demons to possess billions of people there must have been at least 6 billion angels, since only one third of them became demons.
And he should start his speech with "I am a conservative and I am proud to give you my conservative views. When Republicans in the Ohio Legislature heard my views on this matter, they invited me to speak to the entire House on it..."
You beat me to it. I was about to say much the same thing. God is an illusion, but his believers are very real, very driven, very power-grabbing hypocrites, who have no qualms about thwarting and harming other people "for their own good." It is "God's will" that heathens be conquered and brought kicking and screaming to "the Lord." The evil of "worldliness" must be stamped out at all costs.
I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist household, and I can recall when the idea of demons and evil spirits seemed very real, and that idea scared the living daylights out of me. I believed wholeheartedly that people who lived "for the devil" needed the spiritual equivalent of an "intervention" and that we as good Christian soldiers were responsible for seeing that they "got right with the Lord."
It took me decades to get out from under that. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to have a normal childhood without all that needless fear and insanity.
They only evil spirits in the world today are Christians. They are the ones who now scare the hell out of me.
Idea: before any Christian is allowed to take public office, their church has to submit to an audit. If this kinda shit comes from the pulpit the candidate is automatically disqualified and their church is shut down and subject to further audit by the IRS to determine how much financial bullshit has been happening there. Because there's a zero percent chance any church like that is on the up and up financially.
Oh, absolutely. According to them, anything short of carte blanche to torture and murder queer people, non-christians, and anyone with more melanin than tucker Carlson is persecution.
That said, I'm pro-christian persecution. Maybe if they get a taste of the real thing they'll shut the fuck up for a while.
No luck. It's precisely because they (allegedly) were persecuted that they feel the need, please excuse my French, de faire chier tous ceux qui ne rentrent pas dans leurs délires.
OT- Don't want to give up the power you already have as a Governor in order to seek even more of it as President? Just have your pet legislature change the law for you!
“I think the heart of this issue—the root issue, of course, there’s the money part.”
No, the heart of the issue is loving your neighbor as yourself and treating others the way you wish to be treated AKA empathy.
I don’t know why this would be a complex notion to you since both of those things are found pretty easily in the red letters of your Bible, so I can only assume you are familiar with both of those notions, reject them, and somehow still say you’re a follower of Christ.
“And when they can confuse your identity, they can destroy this country.”
Being kind will… somehow… destroy America? That’s what you’re going with, huh?
“The only thing that makes sense for what’s going on in this country is that demons are influencing people…”
Demons are well-known for being kind and possessing empathy.
“People that are possessed by demons don’t get to make demonic agendas and demonic doctrines that affect our people and our children and our laws and our country.”
So anyone who disagrees with you, even devout Christians, should be barred from expressing their opinions or passing laws that treat everyone equally regardless of your personal bigotry.
That’s called authoritarian bullshit. It would also be called idolatry and blasphemy because you’re putting yourself in the role of God, and if I were a fundamentalist, I would advise that we stone you to death with stones.
Gov. Inslee has just signed 5 bills into law that protects gender-affirming care, reproductive health, abortion rights/access and privacy. Here's what he said:
"The right of choice is an issue of freedom. Health care must remain the providence of individual Washingtonians. These laws will keep the tentacles of oppressive and overreaching states out of Washington."
He also said...
"We are here to proclaim very vocally and very forcefully that we will not allow states or any Trump-appointed judge to jeopardize a woman's right of choice in the state of Washington."
I'm still proud of the way he stood up to the Former Guy when Trump tried to bully/punish Washington. It was Trump who backed down (just as most bullies do when their victims refuse to be intimidated and fight back).
This fool demonstrated about as well as it can be, the disconnect between religion and morality. Fools like this who would have us believe he speaks for the almighty, illustrate why the wall between church and state should be a mile high, and a hundred feet thick. Can you imagine this clown having the power of life and death? It's happened before, and they would love the chance to do it again.
I had no doubt this bullshit bill will pass, I hope loving parents of trans kids will be able to move elsewhere.
For short thought I am already demonic anyway (don't go to church, unmarried, no kids, wear pants, listen non christian music, video games...). Hail Seitan 😁
I'm running out of places I would want to live in this country.
Well, I still like where I am in Ohio, but then this is Cuyahoga county, up by Cleveland and Lake Erie, which is pretty blue and mostly tolerant. It's the rural areas I worry about.
The same can be said of the burbs of north Dallas where I live. It's the small towns that scare me.
Small town person here. It's not all of us, just slightly most of us.
SA. Mostly blue, but there was a house in my neighborhood with a Trump 2020 banner still slung across the front in April of 2021. I think a storm finally blew it down and they didn't bother to put it back up. Still have the "We back the Blue" yardsign though.
Remember the good ole days, when people used to remove their campaign yard signs after an election was over?
It's those little signs of sanity that I miss the most....
I grew up in small town southwest of Houston and now live in Canyon Lake, Comal County, a ridiculously fast growing county that's still mostly rural, it's a 5 to 1 ratio of Rep to Dims, definitely full of MAGATs. and religious types. It's not too far to Hagee's church. They all scare me.
Hello, neighbor.
Howdy! You're probably a lot closer to Hagee than me. I used to live in Austin and had to drive into SA all the time so went right past his big signage. SA has seems pretty progressive at least relatively but that's from a limited perspective of seeing occasional mentions in social media.
Long time Ohio resident, and fortunately, I live in a very diverse section of Akron. But once you get outside the city, this state may as well be located in south bumfork. Now we have loonies like this guy, people claiming they're magnetic from vaccines, and various insurrectionists in this very gerrymandered state. Embarrassing!
Embarrassing? Try living in Texas.
But isn't most of Ohio rural? I've driven through the state a good number of times on my way to writers' conferences in Columbus and Cincinnati, and that's sure the impression I've always had. But then I've always assumed a state as monotonously flat as Ohio would pretty much have to drive people nuts.
I suspect that most any state much larger than Delaware would be "mostly rural," when you boil it down. Ohio has Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, and Youngstown as major or semi-major urban areas with corresponding suburbs. The rest is indeed pretty rural: farmland or whatever have you, and with damned few exceptions, pretty red.
I hear ya...state after state seems to be falling like dominoes before the endless tide of batshit cray-cray. WTF? It's like they're all being sucked into a vortex.
I've begun considering European countries, but which one? With my luck whichever one I choose will suddenly lose it's collective mind as well and then I'd be royally screwed.
I came to new mexico 36 years ago and am grateful every day.
It's a problem. To move to a blue state, you need to find a job, probably for multiple people. The new job needs to pay 50-100% more than the current job so you can come close to the same standard of living. And you're going to need every dime of equity when you sell your house to have a 5% (as opposed to the standard 20%) down payment on the new house.
I didn't think that list of stuff was demonic. I figured it was because you are French. : )
Congratulations you are not a right nut asshole.
So, a left nut asshole. I can't argue against that. : )
By the way one of my father's brother, their mother and most of his cousins would agree with short thought positions (just not the demonic possession part).
Salutate omnes Satanan! :-)
Oh, I'm possessed by 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, alright... but I wouldn't say it's demons.
𝘙𝘢𝘨𝘦 would be far more accurate.
Rage, check. Disgust, check. Surprise.... searching.... searching.... emotion not found.
But rage is demons. Unless you're turning over the tables of the moneychangers in the temple, then it's righteous.
Oh, boy, here we go. Demons. Brought up in the Ohio House. Seriously. And this guy, Stuart Long, actually laid that crap out in front of what I presume to be a House committee.
And he wasn't laughed out of the building?!? This is 2023, and this crap can still go on? Phenomenal.
If you believe in gods, believing in other deities like demons is just a very short step away.
I've said it many times: the second ONE irrationality is allowed into one's field of beliefs, there is potentially no limit to the number of irrationalities that can follow ... and that is religion in a sentence.
"If there are demons there must also be gods."
(A line I remember from "The Horror at 37,000 Feet." It's been a while, so that's probably a paraphrase. But I still have a thing for cheesy horror movies.)
OT: Having a garage sale this weekend. Just sold a dresser to a young lady and her mom. After helping them load it, the younger asked if there was anything I wanted to pray about. I said no thanks. She persisted with but Jesus said... I cut her off and said you don't know that. She tried to start up again and
I said you just bought a dresser from an atheist, have a nice day. She got in the car but didn't leave. After a couple of minutes she cam back in, almost crying and started again with it's not to late... I cut her off again with I don't want to here it. She tried again and I cut her off again. Finally I said thanks for buying the dresser, please leave, twice. She finally left.
I once had Johos come to the house, well actually many times, but once one asked me while I was out working in the garden if I thanked god for my garden. I told her when god dragged his lazy ass here to weed, I might thank him but until then I get credit for the garden.
When I was still living at home and JWs came to the door, I'd simply tell them I was an atheist. They didn't argue, they just turned around and left.
Now I live in an apartment building and the chances for them to come to my door are rather limited. :)
Don't be too optimistic I live in an apartment too and one climbed the stairs all the way to the 5th floor (4th in French count). Having a 50 pounds or a bigger dog is a good idea to get rid of them since threatening to call the cops doesn't work.
They were still coming here before the pandemic. During the pandemic one left a long rambling jeesusy message on our voip voicemail. I blocked the number so they can't call again.
I think I'd be tempted to tell them to tell their kids to give their lunch money/candy money to the church. After all, that's what their own people told them to do.
Oh, and while I was at it I'd ask them about them about their secret database on JW child molesters.
I recently got a long rambling voicemail from some drunk guy (in the middle of the day, mind you) in Washington state. My phone number is still a Washington number because I’ve never bothered to change it and I get all my junk calls with that area code. Anyway this guy was talking about some girl he needed to slap around to wake her up and she’s all pressing charges but he didn’t do anything wrong and blah blah blah. I stopped it after about five minutes because he never finished a sentence and I still didn’t have any idea what happened.
At first it was funny but it went on for too long.
Apparently young JW's and Mormons don't actually like going door-to-door. So often they will take any excuse not to interact. I felt sorry enough for them to constantly warn them about the dangerous dog next door back in the day.
A+ for persistence I must say. I had a couple of JW's or Mormons or something – I think JW's because they were relatively casually dressed – wanting to "bless my house". I politely said no thank you and they asked me is there any reason why they shouldn't be able to bless my house. I said no reason other than I don't want them to, and they persisted for another 30 seconds or so. But they were nowhere near as persistent as that woman. Why she assumed you might need Christian help at all I've no idea. But who can read the minds of the deluded.
At first, when JWs came around it was 2 or 3 adults. Then they started showing up with their kids, thinking they wouldn't be turned away.
Using their kids as human shields. Wow.
I've had a JW woman show up with a kid and the kid was on crutches.
A new low, even for them.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Frender.fineartamerica.com%2Fimages%2Frendered%2Fdefault%2Fmetal-print%2F7%2F10%2Fbreak%2Fimages%2Fartworkimages%2Fmedium%2F2%2Ftiny-tim-from-a-christmas-carol-by-charles-dickens-harold-copping.jpg&tbnid=Le86s0Q4QK4SyM&vet=12ahUKEwiJ-Yzd083-AhWmznMBHTfkAKIQMygoegUIARCLAg..i&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Ffineartamerica.com%2Ffeatured%2Ftiny-tim-from-a-christmas-carol-by-charles-dickens-harold-copping.html%3Fproduct%3Dmetal-print&docid=nqkuD3onKRjimM&w=493&h=797&q=dickens%20tiny%20tim&ved=2ahUKEwiJ-Yzd083-AhWmznMBHTfkAKIQMygoegUIARCLAg
He was the first person I thought of.
Was it a demonstration on miracles?
No, nothing like that.
You should've told her the dresser was a portal to Narnia, just to see how she would react.
You should have heard the "nooooo" when I told her I was an atheist.
I am surprised they didn't give back the dresser* and fled without taking their money* back.
* Atheist cooties.
Like Darth Vader "noooooo" or Luke Skywalker "noooooo?"
I'm suddenly torn as to which NOOOOOO! meme/GIF to post.
So many to choose from.
drumpster having to face Letitia James in court ? Maybe a TARDIS would be needed for this one 🤔
Can't wait till October? :)
Which one is the whiney toddler nooooo?
Both?
I can imagine it. :)
Or a portal to the orgy at the Satanic Temple.
Do you have any more furniture?
Yes, Yes I do.
*Kick bunch of Zs ankle to be the first to go*
No need to push, I'm diving in.
I don't know which way you swing but I still want to score as many men as possible before NOGODZ and cdbunch come 😝
If she was thoroughly brainwashed I am not sure C.S. Lewis was christian enough to be on the list of acceptable books.
Damn...that is scary.
Mostly annoying.
“He even urged other Christians to join him, writing on Facebook the day before, “IT’s TIME TO PUT UP AND SHOW UP!”“
He wants butts in seats at state legislatures, he wants his congregants and followers to bombard the government with their fantasy nonsense. The only way to combat this is to show up ourselves. LGBT people and allies need to outnumber these looney toons who think they’re the majority, that they’re the morality, and that they’re the standard bearers. They are not. They are the lunatic fringe. They don’t understand the issue because they’ve been lied to, Matt Walsh insists there’s millions of children getting puberty blockers and bottom surgeries despite being fact checked live on it. (It’s around a thousand throughout the entire country, that’s a huge disparity). They’re told constantly there hundreds and thousands of transgender girls trying to compete in women’s professional sports. There’s a handful throughout the entire scope of athletics, children’s, teen’s, collegiate, and professional. They’re told they’re being overrun and replaced by transgender people, making them think the world will end if they get used to recognizing another pronoun. They won’t hear that the transgender people are just asking for a small slice of dignity and it won’t cost them anything, because the real evil GOP are using this genocide as a curtain to hide their plans of world domination.
Okay sorry, I got a little off track. Good people of the country need to show up in greater numbers to show these folks they aren’t the majority. Show up when these bills are being discussed in the states, at the federal level and most importantly show up to vote. We really can foil their gerrymandering and voter suppression and cheating, but we have to show up.
To me, what best illustrates how far these asshats are willing to go is the litterbox hoax. In case anyone missed it:
Teachers and administrators, who were concerned about where the kids in their care would relieve themselves during a school lockdown, started pitching ideas for how to provide a solution on their practically-nonexistent (thanks to Republicans) budgets, and "a bucket with some kitty litter in it" was what they came up with.
Right-wing media got wind of that and immediately twisted it into a controversy over nonexistent furries demanding litterboxes.
Here's a teacher, who's just trying to offer their students some measure of basic human dignity amid a horror they should never have to face (again, thanks to Republicans)... and Republicans decided that, no, this is the 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 wedge issue to use against trans kids. Nevermind that trans folks and furries, while there are certainly people out there who are both, are not one and the same- but to a dullard whose comprehension of the issues starts and ends with "𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘳, 𝘐 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳," what can we really expect? The point is that they're quite literally willing to force 𝘢𝘭𝘭 kids to suffer the additional indignity of having to piss on the floor, while their friends are getting murdered down the hall, just so they can shit on trans kids some more.
The Republican base just 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 that lie. It's still making the rounds. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 how far they're willing to go. Republican voters will throw their own children under the bus (or into the bullets, as it were) if it means they get to hurt trans people. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯.
They can't handle anyone different. Whether it's a different gender identity, culture, sexuality, language, or religion. They can't handle the challenge to what is familiar and what they want to be the proper order of the world.
Rather than accept the world as is; they want to force the cold, uncaring universe to be what they want it to be.
Well, it's a matter of accepting what can't be changed and trying to change the things that can for the better. The problem is they can't tell the difference.
Most of the "Good" people of this country don't care until it affects *their* lives. They'll say they believe LGB and even T deserve rights, but the truth is they don't care, so they won't show up to the capitals, because they certainly don't care enough to use their PTO to lobby their legislators.
I'm guilty of this because it feels hopeless in this hellhole, because I'm a bit of hermit and am decidedly uncomfortable meeting new people, and because I rarely hear of these things in advance. I vote and I donate, but I don't lobby and I need to work on that.
I find lobbying is easier when doing it with other like-minded people.
Yeah, but that comes back to the problem with meeting new people. Like I said, it's something I need to work on.
You do as much as you can. It's more than moral preachers do and it will always be.
I'm not a people person, so I understand.
I wonder if any of these howler monkeys have crossed paths with a transgender person, let alone talked to one.
Since "trans people don't exist," how could they?
If they did, they didn't know it. It's not like all trans people look like Jeffrey Tambour in a dress.
Thing is, the vast majority of "liberal" and "progressive" christians are just fine with dipshits like this. Either they secretly agree with him and are too embarrassed to say it out loud or they're happy to let evangelicals do the wetwork needed to keep Christianity in its comfy position of hegemonic dominance. That's a huge hurdle to get over raw numbers wise.
Me: "Excuse me, Mr. Long, do you know what time it is?"
Stuart Long: "Yes, it's 9:31 AM."
Me: "Thank you. Oh, and what is the day of the week?"
Long: "Today is Friday."
Me: "Okay, sorry, can you remind me of today's date?"
Long: "Sure. It's April 28."
Me. "Thanks again. And what year is it?"
Long: "This is the year of our Lord, 1023."
Me: "Ah, I see. Now I understand."
At first, I thought you were testing Long to see if he'd suffered a concussion he received from some blow to his head.
Understandable, given what came out of his stupid mouth.
Sometime in 2019, I had to do some cognitive tests for an issue I was having. It started off fine, name a few of these objects, what is the date (I didn't know the actual date, but knew day of the week, month, year), then got to
Nurse "Who is the president?"
Me "..."
Nurse "Can you name the president?"
ME "I'd rather not"
Nurse "Oh, right. I really shouldn't use that question because I don't want to talk about it either."
We had an interesting discussion after that.
𝐴 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑂ℎ𝑖𝑜 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑜𝑛-𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑆𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑛-𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛 𝑊𝑒𝑑𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦...
He's more of a friend, actually. After that one Friday I had to tell him 'it's not you, it's me.' Now we only exchange pleasantries at baby barbequeues.
[edited]
Satan is involved with Chris, anyway.
This guy blurted it all out there -- others may try to backpedal, but ALL of the people behind ALL of these bills think the same way. The way that other people live is evil and “unnatural” according to their religion, and they just can’t get their little minds past it. Religious hysteria is behind all of it. This story just exposes the insanity for what it really is.
Good, this guy should travel around and give his little speech everywhere. Let him emphasize he means actual, literal possession on a mass scale, millions and millions of people possessed. Ugh, this whole "my opponents are controlled by demons" schtick is going to get people murdered.
Not bug. Feature.
All non-kkkristers means billions of us are possessed.
How many angels was YHWH supposed to have created? To have sufficient demons to possess billions of people there must have been at least 6 billion angels, since only one third of them became demons.
And he should start his speech with "I am a conservative and I am proud to give you my conservative views. When Republicans in the Ohio Legislature heard my views on this matter, they invited me to speak to the entire House on it..."
Demons have no power or influence over atheists, Long.
That's simply because atheists are real and demons aren't. Your god isn't real, either. HE sure as shit has no power or influence over us.
But HIS not-imaginary friends have way too much.
You beat me to it. I was about to say much the same thing. God is an illusion, but his believers are very real, very driven, very power-grabbing hypocrites, who have no qualms about thwarting and harming other people "for their own good." It is "God's will" that heathens be conquered and brought kicking and screaming to "the Lord." The evil of "worldliness" must be stamped out at all costs.
I grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist household, and I can recall when the idea of demons and evil spirits seemed very real, and that idea scared the living daylights out of me. I believed wholeheartedly that people who lived "for the devil" needed the spiritual equivalent of an "intervention" and that we as good Christian soldiers were responsible for seeing that they "got right with the Lord."
It took me decades to get out from under that. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to have a normal childhood without all that needless fear and insanity.
They only evil spirits in the world today are Christians. They are the ones who now scare the hell out of me.
Idea: before any Christian is allowed to take public office, their church has to submit to an audit. If this kinda shit comes from the pulpit the candidate is automatically disqualified and their church is shut down and subject to further audit by the IRS to determine how much financial bullshit has been happening there. Because there's a zero percent chance any church like that is on the up and up financially.
I can just hear the response from the church now:
𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗘𝗖𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡!!!
Oh, absolutely. According to them, anything short of carte blanche to torture and murder queer people, non-christians, and anyone with more melanin than tucker Carlson is persecution.
That said, I'm pro-christian persecution. Maybe if they get a taste of the real thing they'll shut the fuck up for a while.
No luck. It's precisely because they (allegedly) were persecuted that they feel the need, please excuse my French, de faire chier tous ceux qui ne rentrent pas dans leurs délires.
Well then I guess we'll just have to persecute them even harder.
OT- Don't want to give up the power you already have as a Governor in order to seek even more of it as President? Just have your pet legislature change the law for you!
https://apnews.com/article/desantis-president-resign-run-florida-elections-be012bb10da7b89b433bfbce4e5cfa1a
Seems like Deathsentence is worried his chances on the national stage 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 not be as great as the fascist in the mirror keeps telling him they are.
Rethuglikkkans. Ever corrupt in their lustful grasp for power.
Where is Bugs and his saw?
Tell him holding multiple offices* is a French thing, maybe he will be horrified enough to let go of this idea.
* WIP but we get rid of most of it with a law in 2014 though I doubt he knows about it.
Well, now Teddy boy has a new goal.
“I think the heart of this issue—the root issue, of course, there’s the money part.”
No, the heart of the issue is loving your neighbor as yourself and treating others the way you wish to be treated AKA empathy.
I don’t know why this would be a complex notion to you since both of those things are found pretty easily in the red letters of your Bible, so I can only assume you are familiar with both of those notions, reject them, and somehow still say you’re a follower of Christ.
“And when they can confuse your identity, they can destroy this country.”
Being kind will… somehow… destroy America? That’s what you’re going with, huh?
“The only thing that makes sense for what’s going on in this country is that demons are influencing people…”
Demons are well-known for being kind and possessing empathy.
“People that are possessed by demons don’t get to make demonic agendas and demonic doctrines that affect our people and our children and our laws and our country.”
So anyone who disagrees with you, even devout Christians, should be barred from expressing their opinions or passing laws that treat everyone equally regardless of your personal bigotry.
That’s called authoritarian bullshit. It would also be called idolatry and blasphemy because you’re putting yourself in the role of God, and if I were a fundamentalist, I would advise that we stone you to death with stones.
Christians pay lip service to following Jesus. And even Jesus was onto those charlatans who claimed to follow him:
"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' yet don't do what I tell you?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hloWmE_3d2I
The history of Christianity in 2 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka9mfZbTFbk
I recommend obsidian or flint.
It was Pius XI who claimed gawd is the ultimate boss and everyone belongs to the church. This was in regards to Mussolini claiming he ruled Italy.
Meanwhile, in a much saner state (mine)...
Gov. Inslee has just signed 5 bills into law that protects gender-affirming care, reproductive health, abortion rights/access and privacy. Here's what he said:
"The right of choice is an issue of freedom. Health care must remain the providence of individual Washingtonians. These laws will keep the tentacles of oppressive and overreaching states out of Washington."
He also said...
"We are here to proclaim very vocally and very forcefully that we will not allow states or any Trump-appointed judge to jeopardize a woman's right of choice in the state of Washington."
I'm still proud of the way he stood up to the Former Guy when Trump tried to bully/punish Washington. It was Trump who backed down (just as most bullies do when their victims refuse to be intimidated and fight back).
Rub it in. I'm really beginning to wonder if living in the Christian Hell would really be worse than living in Texas.
Texass is Hell. It's in the Book of 𝘑𝘰𝘣: 𝘈 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦.
"If I owned Texas and all Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell."
-- a distinguished (and dust-caked) General Phillip Sheridan on a hot August day in San Antonio
This fool demonstrated about as well as it can be, the disconnect between religion and morality. Fools like this who would have us believe he speaks for the almighty, illustrate why the wall between church and state should be a mile high, and a hundred feet thick. Can you imagine this clown having the power of life and death? It's happened before, and they would love the chance to do it again.
Demons. How the fuck do they work?
I believe they've been telecommuting more.
Hey now. I resemble that remark.
To be honest, I've found that they tend to shun work, the lazy bastards.
Ask Imagine Dragons or Images (French band popular in the 80's and early 90's).
Mine quit hiding ages ago. Now I just try to keep their feet off the couch.
Well, ever since they joined up with the Teamsters, safely and without exploitation.
#Solidarity
With magnets.