Scenes from Michigan’s vagina support rally

Here are some of my photos taken last night at the Michigan rally in support of vaginas held at the steps of the State Capitol in downtown Lansing. At least 5,000 people attended in support of Women’s Rights.

Sheroes of the day – Rep. Barbara Byrum and Rep. Lisa Brown

“Vagina Monologues” being presented

Under a beautiful June evening sky.

Read Full Post »

Michigan vagina rally

Photo of portion of the crowd in front of the state capitol in Lansing.

Read Full Post »

Michigan vagina rally

I am currently attending the Rally for Vaginas at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing. This is easily the largest crowd I have seen at a capitol rally with at least 5,000 women and men of all ages attending.

The rally is in response to the overtly prudish and arrogant actions of the conservative, male dominated state house of representatives where the leader censured two female representatives last week. More will be posted tomorrow.

Read Full Post »

GOP legislative “house’shit and ‘man’ure (NSFW)

I was totally disgusted yesterday by the puritanical and prudish actions of the male-dominated Michigan House leadership for silencing two female legislators. As the War on Women has been raging for nearly two years, Representative Lisa Brown (no relation) expressed satirical appreciation to all those legislators who were “concerned about her vagina.” She was silenced for that statement.

Representative Brown

Meanwhile, Representative Barb Byrum was silenced for protesting that she was not being allowed to speak on another bill. Once again those stalwarts of liberty and freedom proceeded to silence her as well. My, how Kabul on the Grand River is so delightfully charming and civil in June.

Representative Byrum

I don’t know about you folks, but the actions of these right-wing GOP (a.k.a. Grand Old Pricks) zealots in the Michigan House is getting out of hand.

I am also curious why these women were silenced when earlier this year Representative Rick Jones was not  for using the word “hooker” to describe a female public relations executive. Oops, I forgot. He’s a man, so stupid, idiotic, prudish, puritanical, asinine, and archaic rules written by other egotistical, etc. men do not apply to him.

Read Full Post »

A disturbing example of role reversal

In 2010, the Supreme Court decided in the Citizen United case that corporations are “people.” More recently, I have seen and heard references to people as something other than “people.”  I have heard “units” utilized on a television commercial for Colonial Penn Life Insurance and “giving units” at two different churches to describe people who donate to the church. While this may be accounting lingo, I find it very disturbing that corporations are being called “people” while people are being described as “units.”

This may seem innocent to some, but my concern is these subtle alterations slowly but surely dehumanize people into something other than human beings, while raising corporations up to a standard of perception that frankly, they do not deserve.  When you dehumanize people, it can be the start of a very slippery slope towards mistreating and disrespecting them. It is much easier to dispose of a “unit” than a “person.” We all know history is littered with the corpses of those poor souls who were dehumanized by their enemies.

To keep humankind from repeating some of history’s lowest moments, it is high time for all of us to re-emphasize our love and respect for ALL of humanity, whether they are our friends, family, neighbors, fellow citizens, or our enemies. Love is life’s greatest gift. It is time for each and every one of us on the planet to start behaving like we appreciate this generous blessing.

Read Full Post »

The pungent odor of GOP brain farts

Oh, isn’t it quaint how republicans and fiscal conservatives so conveniently forget which party is principally responsible for the national debt. Being an election year, the pungent odor of hot air being expelled by them reeks across he airwaves on a daily basis.

Guess what? The national debt skyrocketed during Ronald Reagan’s presidency and ballooned again under ‘ol Dubya’s eight year reign. If the GOP is/was so concerned about budget deficits, then where the hell was their song and dance at those times? Check out this truth-revealing weblink to a chat showing how much each president has contributed to the national debt during their term. A brief summary is provided below.

• Carter: +41%
• Reagan: +189%
• Bush I: +55.6%
• Clinton: +36%
• Bush II: +89%
• Obama: +41%

The clearest and easiest way to reduce the budget deficit is to address the biggest piece of the pie – THE $1.3 TRILLION DEFENSE BUDGET, duh!  But, oh no, we can’t touch that sacred cow, despite the fact that the Defense Secretary does not what some of the programs being proposed by the right-wing.

Political brain farts are nothing new. They just tend to be stinkier and fouler these days due to the blatant flip-flopping and bold-faced lies being told, particularly by the right. Hopefully, the majority of the American public can smell rats when their catch a whiff of their aromatic b.s.

Read Full Post »

The preamble of the Constitution as it is applied in 2012

A small dose of reality is provided below as the plutocracy continue to shape this nation in their twisted and self-serving image.

-

The preamble to the Constitution as originally adopted:

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The preamble of the Constitution as it is being applied today:

“We the rich people of the United States, in order to form a more profitable union, establish injustice, insure economic disparity, provide for our own self-defense, promote corporate welfare, and secure the blessings of privilege to ourselves and our own posteriors, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of Scamerica.”

Read Full Post »

A dose of sad sixties sitcom sexism

One of my all-time favorite television shows is the Dick Van Dyke Show. It aired in the early to mid-1960s and won many Emmy Awards. One of the reasons I like the show, aside from it being very funny, is the show was trendsetting for its day. It was one of the first television shows to include a professional working woman as a principal character - Sally Rogers who was played by Rose Marie. I also felt the lead characters had great working, family, and personal relationships.

However, last night I was watching a rerun of the Dick Van Dyke Show on Me-TV and was quite disappointed by the tenor of the episode. In the show, the young son of Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) and Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore) was to sing in a school play. Unfortunately for Rob, the day before the play, his boss Alan Brady (Carl Reiner) asked him to travel to Washington to hear a singer they were considering for appearing on the fictional Alan Brady Show.

The episode centered around Rob Petrie’s guilt over disappointing his boss and seeing the play or disappointing his wife and son by going to Washington. What troubled me was the fact that he accused his wife of treating him like a puppet by expecting him to always be there, meanwhile there was no similar reference to his employer treating him like a puppet by expecting him to change his plans at the drop of a hat. There was a particularly uncomfortable scene where Rob’s supervisor Mel, played by Richard Deacon, described how he had told his wife they were not going dancing one evening because he had work to do. To the show’s credit, several of the characters expressed their contempt for his actions and attitude. In a later troubling scene, Rob Petrie even had the gall to reference the old “love, honor, and obey” portion of then-common marriage vows to his wife Laura,

As the episode was concluding I was desperately hoping Rob would apologize to Laura for his actions and statements. Instead, we got a tirade of how he was in the right on an airplane full of men returning to New York City and a capitulation from his wife Laura for getting mad at him in the first place. All this despite the fact that the trip was a complete and utter waste of time because the singer had laryngitis and could not perform.

From time to time in my own career I have had to make tough decisions between family and work responsibilities. Several decades ago. it was necessary for me to tell an employer I would not agree to travel to meetings four nights a week, because I wanted to see my three sons group up and not just hear about their activities and accomplishments. By doing that, I essentially ended my career with that particular employer. In my mind, being there is part of parenthood and despite some corporate attitudes to the contrary, is light years more important than any business activity.

To a certain extent, the current vogue of setting televisions series like Mad Men and Pan Am in the 1950s and 60s, almost seems to be a tacit desire on the part of some to reestablish the sexist morals of the past.  If that is the case, I find that reason to be a disgusting premise. Who needs a whole new generation thinking and acting in such an arcane manner?

So, the Dick Van Dyke Show is no longer brightly shining atop my pedestal of television icons. That does not mean I will never watch the show again. It just means the show has fallen a couple of notches. Great entertainment and funny yes – perfect, no.

Read Full Post »

Inconsistent right to life advocacy

I am really quite tired of those taking pious attitudes and talking in puritanical ways about the right to life for the unborn while bluntly neglecting those who are already populating the planet.

Right to life advocates fight tooth and nail to protect the unborn, but virtually disappear the moment the child arrives. From that point on they turn their backs. Why? If protecting life is their goal, then it should pertain to all life. We can disagree on when “life” begin, but their should be no disagreement on protecting life after birth. Where is their advocacy for the following:

• women’s health
• child nutrition funding
• women-infant-children programs wellchild programs
• elementary and secondary education funding
• adoption programs
• preventing war and social injustice
• homeless assistance
• protection for the abused
• opposition to capital punishment
• care for the poor, needy, and indigent
• care for the elderly

Right to life zealots seem to be only concerned about the unborn. Once you come into this world, their attitude appears to be “tough luck and go fend for yourself.” If that is their idea of protecting life, then it is awfully selective, self-aggrandizing, and woefully inconsistent.

Read Full Post »

See and discuss “The Purity Myth” on May 19th

I had an opportunity to preview the documentary, entitled The Purity Myth last night. It is a powerful film, based on the book of the same name by Jessica Valenti, which documents and critiques the ongoing war against women that is being waged primarily by conservative right-wing male zealots who see women’s rights and feminism as a threat to their puritanical interpretations and how American society should return to a patriarchal order. The film depicts and then clearly dispels the myths that are being perpetuated by both male and female right-wing politicians, religious leaders, personalities, media pundits, and educators.

Here is the trailer for the film:

A screening of The Purity Myth will be shown by the Women’s Rights Task Force of the Peace Education Center on Saturday, May 19, 2012, starting at 2:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing, located at 855 Grove Road in East Lansing. A discussion will follow the film. For more information, please contact the Peace Education Center at 517-515-5634 or peaceedcenter@gmail.com.

Read Full Post »