Loaded Liberal Dem
Loaded Liberal Dem's JournalOne-Third Of Millennials Have Left Their Religion Because Of Anti-Gay Policies: Survey
Source: Huffington Post
Posted: 02/26/2014 12:02 am EST
It's widely accepted that young people tend to be less religious than their elders. While recent surveys have revealed that one-in-five adults in America claim no religious affiliation, the number reaches around one-in-three for Millennials under 34.
Now, a new study has uncovered the reason why some of those Americans have dropped out of the fold.
In a survey released Wednesday, nearly one-third of Millennials who left the faith they grow up with told Public Religion Research Institute that it was "negative teachings" or "negative treatment" related to gays and lesbians that played an significant role in them leaving organized religion.
Specifically, 17 percent of Millennials, or adults between 18 and 33-years-old, said negativity around LGBT issues in religion was "somewhat important" to their departure, while 14 percent said it was a "very important" factor.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/26/millennials-gay-unaffiliated-church-religion_n_4856094.html
Who'd have thunk it? The kids are all right!
Pat Buchanan: Repeal all civil rights laws!
From Salon:
With the political world talking more about the tidal wave of anti-LGBT Jim Crow legislation popping up in conservative legislatures all over the country, it was only a matter of time before the patron saint of unreconstructed right-wing bigotry, Pat Buchanan, weighed in and set the new standard in the right’s effort to roll back civil liberties in America.
Well, the wait is over: Buchanan’s written a column and the standard has been set. Using the brouhaha over Arizona’s anti-gay law as a springboard, Buchanan argues that it’s time for America to get rid of civil rights laws — all of them.
Granting that it’s “a radical idea,” Buchanan writes, “Suppose we repealed the civil rights laws and fired all the bureaucrats enforcing these laws.”
“Does anyone think hotels, motels and restaurants across Dixie, from D.C. to Texas, would stop serving black customers?” he continues. “Does anyone think there would again be signs sprouting up reading ‘whites’ and ‘colored’ on drinking foundations and restrooms?”
Uh, yeah, I do. And if Buchanan would just read some history, he'd realize that Irish Catholics like him (and yours truly, albeit lapsed) benefited from the actions of progressives 150 years ago.
Where's the birth certificate of Ted Cruz's MOTHER?
I googled both "Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson" and "Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson Darragh," went three pages deep on each name, and nothing offering proof she was born in Delaware. Plus, on both searches, the first entry was this article by Steven Lubet at Salon, excerpted below:
Still, the birth certificate does state that Cruz’s mother, Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson, was born in Wilmington, Delaware. As Cruz has often said, that made him a U.S. citizen at birth, and therefore eligible to be president – but only if the birth certificate is accurate. The Canadian officials would have had no reason to question Cruz’s mother about her native country, nor would they have demanded any proof. Her word alone was good enough for Canadian purposes. Why would they care about the baby’s future qualification for the U.S. presidency?
Which brings us – or rather, which ought to bring the birthers – to the documents Cruz has not produced. Where, for example, is the Consular Report of Birth Abroad, which Cruz’s parents could have obtained at the U.S. consulate in Calgary? That would at least establish their intention to register him as an American citizen while they were living in Canada. For that matter, where is Eleanor Wilson’s own birth certificate? I mean, anyone can claim to have been born in Delaware, and everyone (including this dual citizen of the United States and Canada) knows that Canadians are too polite to ask tough questions. Birthers will have no such qualms. Will they require documentary proof?
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/ted_cruzs_ironic_birther_predicament/
Of course, Lubet naively assumes that Cruz will get the same treatment by Trump and Taitz and a million other idiots that Barack (OH MY GOD HE'S BLACK!) Obama did, which we all know is not gonna happen.
But the question remains: Where is Wilson/Darragh's birth certificate? Where was she born?
Oldest-known Holocaust survivor dies at 110
Source: USA Today
LONDON (AP) — Alice Herz-Sommer, believed to be the oldest-known survivor of the Holocaust, died Sunday morning in London at age 110, a family member said. Herz-Sommer's devotion to the piano and to her son sustained her through two years in a Nazi prison camp, and a film about her has been nominated for best short documentary at next week's Academy Awards.
She died in a hospital Sunday morning after being admitted Friday, daughter-in-law Genevieve Sommer said.
"We all came to believe that she would just never die," said Frederic Bohbot, producer of the documentary "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life." ''There was no question in my mind, 'would she ever see the Oscars.'"
An accomplished pianist, Herz-Sommer, her husband and her son were sent from Prague in 1943 to a concentration camp in the Czech city of Terezin — Theresienstadt in German — where inmates were allowed to stage concerts in which she frequently starred.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/23/oldest-holocaust-survivor-dies/5758061/
I'm totally agnostic, but Godspeed, ma'mm.
Bill Maher HD Confronts Maddow over Christie Hysteria: It's Not Watergate
Straight Outta YouTube! (That was the name of the album, wasn't it?)
Maher's New Rule: Hearing Stories That Confirm Your Beliefs Isn't News; 'It's Fox News!'
Nailed it, as usual
Why analysts touting Ukraine's East-West division are just plain wrong.
BY Alexander J. Motyl
FEBRUARY 22, 2014
As is obvious to any visitor, Ukraine's westernmost large city, Lviv, differs fundamentally from its easternmost counterparts, Luhansk and Donetsk. Lviv is pro-Western; it supports Ukrainian independence; it has consistently voted against Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions; it speaks Ukrainian and promotes Ukrainian culture, while being multilingual, multicultural, and remarkably diverse; and it rejects the Soviet past. In contrast, Luhansk and Donetsk are more pro-Russian; they have doubts about Ukrainian independence; they support Yanukovych and the Party of Regions (and when they voice their discontent, they often vote for the Stalinist Communist Party); they speak Russian and favor Russian culture; they are monolingual, monocultural, and homogeneous; and they embrace the Soviet past.
But this neat picture becomes muddled in the environs of Luhansk and Donetsk. For example, the official website of the Bilokurakyn district of Luhansk province (which borders Russia) is in Ukrainian, and the website's sentiments are distinctly anti-Yanukovych. The countryside and smaller towns of both provinces tend to speak Ukrainian and practice Ukrainian culture. And even in the cities themselves, the vast majority of the population -- minus the pro-Russian chauvinists -- will happily engage Ukrainian speakers in conversation. One Ukrainian history professor at Donetsk State University has been conducting all his lectures in Ukrainian for over a decade. At first some students grumbled -- and he responded by pointing out that if they lack the intellectual ability to understand Ukrainian, they shouldn't be university students. Since then, there have been no complaints and no problems.
The vast majority of Lviv residents are at least proficient in Russian, gladly speak the language, read Russian newspapers and books, and watch Russian television. If a radio is playing in a restaurant or café, chances are as high that it'll be tuned to a Russian station rather than a Ukrainian one. Lviv is especially popular with Russian tourists, who like it for its Middle European feel, old architecture, and Ukrainian distinctiveness. A favorite Russian watering hole is the Kryyivka (Bunker) restaurant, modeled after the underground hideouts used by anti-Soviet Ukrainian nationalists after World War II
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/02/22/a_house_united
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As Gawwwd is my witness, I thought it was spelled "Lvov."
Misogyny? Well, DUH!
I'm a straight white male who is turning 51 on Sunday. Have I objectified members of the opposite sex in my lifetime? Again, DUH! When I was in high school and college (especially the latter), getting laid > getting grade. Sleeping with a gal when we were both blitzed out of our minds was standard operating procedure. Perhaps some of the girls we fucked felt violated afterward. I don't know, as none of the ones I was with actually told me such was the case.
Of course, as I grew into my mid-to-late 20s, I realized how me and my buds had been total assholes. But a funny thing happened on the way to repentance: A lot of women actually seemed to start embracing the misogynistic tropes that I was learning to abandon.
Item: Man-sharing. This was a prominent argument put forward by some "women's" magazines in the late 80s and early 90s like Redbook and Cosmo, the idea being that there was a "man shortage," and that smart gals should reconcile themselves to membership in a mini-harem in order to achieve happiness. This occurred at the same time that fashion mags, officiallly edited by women, began running lingerie ads using barely-pubescent girls as models.
Two decades later, where are we as a society? Well, girls and young women have role models like Lena Dunham, whose TV show Girls appears to have no problem whatsoever with guys who abuse their girlfriends, borderline raping them, and are rewarded for this behavior, while young men who dare to show "respect" (ugh!) for the female gender are cast aside.
Then, of course, we have the "properly-programmed" like Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, et al, made to specification by the Humbert Humberts of Hollywood. Sadly, these girls are now "legal" in all 50 states, so you can bet dollars to dimes that a new crop of Lolitas is on its way.
And then there's this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/19/blondie-bennett-barbie-woman-hypnotherapy-stupid_n_4815495.html
And this:
And then, saddest of all, there are these:
Hey, guys, our society is truly fucked up!
Exxon CEO joins anti-fracking lawsuit after drilling threatens his property value
Source: Salon
Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson is involved in a legal battle over fracking. The weird part is, he’s on the side that’s against it.
Don’t worry, Tillerson hasn’t changed his “Drill, baby, drill” mentality or had a change of heart about the evils of regulatory oversight in general. He’s just worried about the effect that drilling is going to have where he lives. Specifically, he wants to block the construction of a 160-foot water tower next to his home in Bartonville, Texas, which would provide water for nearby fracking operations. In order to do so, The Wall Street Journal reports, he’s signed onto a lawsuit that details the many unsavory consequences of fracking:
Tillerson and his neighbors had filed suit to block the tower, saying it is illegal and would create “a noise nuisance and traffic hazards,” in part because it would provide water for use in hydraulic fracturing. Fracking, which requires heavy trucks to haul and pump massive amounts of water, unlocks oil and gas from dense rock and has helped touch off a surge in U.S. energy output.
…While the lawsuit Mr. Tillerson joined cites the side effects of fracking, a lawyer representing the Exxon CEO said he hadn’t complained about such disturbances. “I have other clients who were concerned about the potential for noise and traffic problems, but he’s never expressed that to me or anyone else,” said Michael Whitten, who runs a small law practice in Denton, Texas. Mr. Whitten said Mr. Tillerson’s primary concern is that his property value would be harmed.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/02/21/exxon_ceo_joins_anti_fracking_lawsuit_after_drilling_threatens_his_property_value/
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Name: Robert KGender: Male
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