Tag Archives: equality

Gay Marriage: Should Empathy Or Thomistic Intellect Be The Deciding Factor For Heterosexual Opinion?

With regard to gay and lesbian marriage, maybe empathy is not the way to go. Maybe Aquinas-style intellect separated from empathy is correct. Aquinas, after all, was quite tough on Jews without apparent pangs of conscience. He called them “Christ-killers” … Continue reading

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Breeding for Intelligence? A Google Employee Asks the Question to Researcher Stephen Hsu of the Beijing Genomics Institute

In the below Google Tech Talk, Stephen Hsu talks to Google employees about the search for the genes behind intelligence (and seeks to recruit them into an ongoing study being conducted at the Beijing Genomics Institute). I shit you not. … Continue reading

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An Awesome, Awesome Documentary on the Women’s Movement

I recently watched the first two hours of a three hour documentary on the American women’s movement (I found it at a local library, then bought it at Amazon to have my own copy). It’s titled, Makers: Women Who Make … Continue reading

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Hillary’s Fate: Mitt Romney’s?

I personally think that Hillary Clinton’s calculated insincerity, so persistently on display whenever she opens her mouth in interview (or writes a book), is going to doom her as a candidate. Her husband was insincere, but he knew how to … Continue reading

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Aquinas and Dante On Homosexuality

Louis Crompton. Homosexuality and History (Harvard 2003), by Louis Crompton, is by far the best general history of homosexuality yet written, and in his chapter on the medieval world, he has a fascinating discussion of Thomas Aquinas’s and Dante’s treatment of … Continue reading

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A $10 Dollar Minimum Wage: Who Would Benefit?

Democrats want to increase the minimum wage to $10 an hour. Who would benefit from this? Surprisingly, it’s not primarily teenagers. Here are some interesting statistics: According to the Economic Policy Institute, 80 percent of workers affected by a minimum … Continue reading

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Ted Haggard Links Sexual Behavior to Belief in Evolution

He appears to have fingered the wrong culprit.  

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Republicans Oppose the Violence Against Women Act—and Lesbians

The Republicans are reluctant to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act this year. Why? Because nondiscrimination against lesbians is included in the bill. The poet Adrienne Rich, who died this past month at the age of 82 and who raised … Continue reading

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Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009: Mitt Romney Won’t Say Whether He Supports It

In the first month of his presidency, President Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay bill, assuring that women who believe they have been subject to wage discrimination get their due day in court. The bill made it … Continue reading

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A Powerful Plea for Gay Marriage from a Republican

Maureen Walsh (R), 16th District, Walla Walla, Washington:  

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A Nice Parody of Rick Perry’s Anti-Gay “Strong” Ad

___ Rick Perry’s inane original ad here.

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Let Freedom Sing: Feminism Under Fire in Israel

The intellectual and cultural rot of religious fundamentalism continues its 21st century spread. This is in Haaretz today: Secular and religious cabinet members engaged in a heated discussion over the issue of women’s rights in Israel on Sunday, forcing Prime … Continue reading

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Anti-Gay Marriage Watch: What’s Your Argument Again?

Notice that the below commercial in support of excluding gays from civil marriages in Minnesota actually offers no direct argumentative supports for the position at all. Watch: ___ In the intellectually bankrupt culture surrounding the anti-gay marriage movement, it’s taken to be acceptable to … Continue reading

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Michelle Bachmann Defines a Submissive and Subservient Woman

Here’s a stunner from CBS News: In 2006, [Michelle] Bachmann said her husband had told her to get a post-doctorate degree in tax law. “Tax law? I hate taxes,” she continued. “Why should I go into something like that? But the … Continue reading

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Chris Hedges 101: Resisting the Moloch of American Plutocracy

In his most recent TruthDig column, former New York Times war correspondent, Chris Hedges, observes that reform in America via personality-based electoral politics has “become a form of magical thinking.” He is, of course, alluding to the hope that accompanied Barack … Continue reading

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Deconstructing Barack Obama (the Brand) and America (the Plutocracy)

Lifting the Veil is an unusually well done compilation documentary. Though long, I ended up watching the whole thing at YouTube, and found it so compelling I’m posting it here. You might find yourself unable to stop watching it as well. I can’t … Continue reading

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The Gay Marriage Trap?

Lawyer and philosopher Linda Hirshman thinks President Obama’s recent decision not to defend in court section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is political gold for the Democrats. Here’s the link to her interesting article at Salon: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/02/23/hirshman_obama_doma/index.html

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The Courage of Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders

A revelation and change of heart, and an example to other politicians facing tough decisions:

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Zach Wahls Defends His Two Mommies

19-year-old Iowan college student Zach Wahls’s self-possession and public speaking ability is remarkable—and he was raised by a lesbian couple. Here he is defending his two mothers against a discriminatory law being proposed in his state:

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Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: The Human Toll

A news article in the Los Angeles Times this morning cited a statistic that startled me. I had no idea that this many service members have been dismissed from the armed services in the United States, since the early 1990s, as a result … Continue reading

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