The Trump Campaign

The Rise of Fascism in the US

The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines fascism as " a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government". Wikipedia defines it as "a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that came to prominence in early 20th-centruy Europe and is usually placed on the far-right within the traditional left-right spectrum". 

FascismUS.com quotes from Mussolini - "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power"; Lenin - "Fascism is capitalism in decay"; and Sen. Huey Long's warning - "Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism. I'm afraid, based on my own long experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security." 

This website also lists 14 characteristics of fascism:

1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
2. Distain for the recognition of human rights
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as unifying cause
4. Supremacy of the military
5. Rampant sexism
6. Controlled mass media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and government are intertwined
9. Corporate power is protected
10. Labor power is suppressed
11. Distain for intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

The scary thing is, I recognize all of these points and characteristics as things that have become commonplace in the current US political system. Bertrand Russell warned us of the current political plight we now find ourselves in, either under Cruz or Trump:

"The next step in a fascist government is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand, and terrorism on the other." ~Bertrand Russell

Links:

http://www.fascismusa.com/

When the Nazi's rose to power in Germany, they began as a small group of radical extremists. They were a small and minor "official" police group in the German SA (Sturmabteilung or "storm troopers") commonly known as "Brown shirts" similar to the Italian Dictator Mussolini's "Black shirts". Both Mussolini and Hitler started out their political careers in their respective National Socialist parties, appealing initially to young, nationalistic, working class men. Both had an air of legitimacy to their bid for power, climbing the political chain more or less legitimately.

Hitler made a grab for power early on in his leadership of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi for short), and was imprisoned for it. At his trial, he was so passionate in his speech about returning Germany to the world as the great nation it once was, that the judges felt sorry for him and reduced his sentence to 5 years. He was released after 9 months in part due to public sympathy and appreciation for his frankness and national pride. From there, he drew a lot of german youth who were dissatisfied with the options available to them, particularly difficulty getting work, feeling that foreigners were taking their jobs, feeling as though they were owed more and resenting anyone who wasn't as German as they were. Jews have always faced a lot of persecution, in part because they tend to have good jobs, are well respected, and have a strong community that helps them succeed in life. The working class youth saw these things that they wanted and decided they could take them from others because they "deserved" it for being more german than others were.

Fear is an amazing motivator. As Russia had a revolution in which the Communist Party took over, Germany became worried by the rising interest in Marxist ideas and communism. The Nazi party used the Reichstag Fire (some believe Hitler himself engineered the fire) to "fan the flames" of anti-communist fear and solidify his position in politics by promising to rout the group of "dutch communists" that had started a fire to burn down the parliament building. From 3,000 members in 1920, the Nazi party rose to 108,000 strong in 1929, pulling in extremists from the right wing conservative faction of german government and lower-middle class workers who wanted better pay and more jobs.

Hitler used the SA brownshirts as street thugs to enforce his ideas and destroy anyone who didn't agree with or support him. The brownshirts began as a movement of public thugs, but soon became legitimate as first the police supported their marches and vandalism, and then many police became brownshirts themselves. If a newspaper printed anti-Nazi articles, made fun of Nazi leaders, or disagreed with Nazi propaganda, the brownshirts would march in and throw typewriters out of windows, beat people up, smash windows and doors down, and steal personal items without the police lifting a finger to stop them. As the brownshirts gained followers and people joined, they began to disrupt other political parties meetings, breaking them up and even roughing up the people attending. They transformed from a small group of violent and unorganized extremists into a well-organized gang of political thugs, were given weapons and legitimate government positions and the authority not only to beat people up, but to take them away for questioning. Few returned in condition in which they were taken away, if they were ever seen again.

This all happened fairly slowly at first. From the historical records I can find, various interviews with people who survived the Nazi's regime, and Hitler's own books, it seems as though the initial stages of Nazi control were fairly subtle and unthreatening. People ignored the preliminary warning signs, thinking that there was no way sensible people in their country would ever vote someone like Hitler into power. It was all just smoke with no flame to be concerned about. Until it wasn't. Until it became real. Until Hitler did get voted into office, became a dictator, and began to slaughter millions of people from Jews to the mentally/physically handicapped.

The reign of fear and anti-semitism and thuggery in those times is mirrored in our own history today. In the US, we are constantly told to fear terrorist attacks. Ever since 9-11, even the hint of a bomb or a plane crash immediately sets people looking for a terrorist. It's like the "where's waldo" of America now. We are all so terrified of foreign terrorism, not only do we not afford domestic terrorism the concern it is due, but we overlook it entirely and claim it to be "just stuff that happens". Mass shootings are a form of domestic terrorism. Blowing up Planned Parenthood facilities is domestic terrorism. Shooting up a black church because the people there happen to have a different coloured skin is racist domestic terrorism. And yet we are all more concerned about ensuring that the TSA airport security confiscates an old ladies short sewing scissors and throwing away shampoo.

Donald Trump inspires a zeal of hatred against people of different colours, religions other than christianity, women, the LGBTQ community, and pretty much every other group apart from fat, white, middle-aged gun-happy morons and their gun-happy bible-thumping sons. He literally tells people in his rallies to go and beat up anyone who disagrees with them. He promotes violence as a way to achieve goals. He stereotypes muslims and hispanics, he is a sexist pig when it comes to women, pretty much categorizing us as a pair of breasts and a piece of meat to have sex with. He preys on the weak-minded people's fears, telling us we need to get rid of the Mexicans because they are taking all our jobs, we need to bomb the middle east because that's where all the terrorists are, we need to piss off every other major country in the world, just to show everyone how big our collective nationalist dick is.

Trump supporters are obsessed with nationalism, just as the Nazi's were. Everything is about "Making America Great Again" and "'Merica" nonsense. Wearing red/white/blue clothing, waving a flag (often the confederate flag) for no good reason, and singing patriotic songs while ganging up and  beating the crap out of someone smaller than they are while outnumbering them 10:1. Yea, really fair odds there.

And as a quick note, illegal immigrants in the US find it extremely difficult to get a job. They are not "stealing american's jobs", because you need a valid Social Security Number in order to get a legitimate job. As illegal immigrants do not have a SSN, they cannot be employed and paid legally. So instead of saying that the "Mexicans are stealing our jobs", you should really be pissed off at the American business men who are too cheap to pay a fair wage to you americans and instead pay meager pittance under the table to illegal immigrants.

The point of this blog post however, is just to illustrate how shockingly similar Trump supporters are to the "brownshirts" of the Nazi party that nearly took over Europe and destroyed the world as we know it. History is repeating itself here. The Germans were so sure that Hitler couldn't possibly be elected in a fair election, but he did. I was sure in the beginning that people couldn't really be stupid enough to believe Trump's lies and bullshit. But I guess I was wrong, because it's happening right before our eyes. If he is elected, how long do you think it will be before his supporters start setting fires to jewish and muslim owned businesses and houses. How long before they attack LGBTQ bars and meeting places because they are homophobic little creeps. How long before they set fire to women's health organizations like Planned Parenthood. How long before "free speech" is only free if it follows the appropriate mantra of America is the greatest, Trump is wonderful. How long before we go from being a slightly dysfunctional democracy to a dictatorship where the people who are supposed to keep us safe (police) turn into a fascist enforcer group who beat up anyone who doesn't hold to the status quo.

Nazi's, Stasi, KGB, Trump supporters... they're all the same in the end and they're coming for America. That's what we should be afraid of and working to prevent. Not building a wall between the US and Mexico, not waving our metaphorical penises in the air to see who has the biggest balls, and not being so obsessed with "terrorism" that we loose site of domestic terrorism.

There's more at stake here than who gets to live in the white house. I for one do not see a bright future for the US unless we really say no to the Trump supporters and start some proactive actions to ensure that they cannot turn into the new "brownshirts" pushing the Nazi regime. But the US has never been good about being proactive. We're a reactive nation that waits until the very last moment, that waits until nearly all hope is lost before actually getting up off our asses and doing something for the world, not just for ourselves. We're cowards, and probably always will be. It might just be the end of us.

Satanic Dinosaurs & Athiots

Is belief in Dinosaurs the result of Satan's influence on humanity???

Today I had the wonderful experience of coming across this webpage "Christians Against Dinosaurs" @ http://www.christiansagainstdinosaurs.com/ ...

I've known for a year or so that there are some crazy Christians out there who believe that humans lived among dinosaurs, that Adam and Eve rode dinosaurs even... I've also met one person in my life who believed that dinosaurs (and any fossils or archeological sites) were a hoax, planted by the scientists to fool people into believing that the world is older than 5,000 years. I've always thought it somewhat laughable that these people are even taken seriously, but today I found this lovely webpage full of disgusting hate rhetoric, mainly aimed at "satan worshipping atheists". Of course, that is a paradoxical statement on it's own, since atheism is the lack of belief in any higher power, and satan is a construct of a "higher power", so how could an atheist worship satan if they don't believe such a thing exists? But i'll leave that conversation for another time.

I find it astonishing that things like a bouquet of dinosaur toys for valentines day causes so much outrage and fear, that having a dinosaur day at a museum is "indoctrinating children into the lies of Satan". And I find it personally offensive that most of their posts have something to do with how atheists are just stupid, slow creatures who were tempted by satan and must now be led back into the light. Apparently, we are soulless, cold, unfeeling and without much brainpower. And they wonder why we Atheists don't like Christians very much.

 

                   

I cannot fathom how they are so threatened and terrified by the very idea of dinosaurs having walked this earth that they feel the need to call everyone they don't agree with stupid, that they seem to take such intense pleasure from their freaky posts.
As far as I am aware, there is nothing in the bible saying "thou shalt not believe in dinosaurs" or that dinos are Satan's creation. And as for that second cartoon, I'm not sure that anyone has found a dinosaur skeleton hidden inside cement, since it wasn't really around back then anyways...

             

I am always impressed by the logic of how atheists are angry all the time, filled with shame and despair, and want nothing more than to persecute good christian people. And I just love the depiction of how atheist people are all depraved sexual deviants and addicted to pornography. Yea, that's me folks, a sexual deviant filled with self-loathing and despair, longing to be saved even if I don't realize it yet... Not.

And lastly (because i'm too disgusted to go on with this post), I am disturbed by this last image from their page that depicts a crusader raising his sword ready to behead someone and the type says "Say hello to the sword of god. Atheist scum." According to the website, its supposed to make every good Christian feel all warm and fuzzy inside, as the brave knight murders atheists. Yea, because that is exactly what "loving thy neighbor as thyself" meant.

  

A final message from me, an atheist, to all those christians out there that wonder why we are so blinded to "the lord's truth" and stubbornly resist the message of Jesus, even when you try to shove it down our throats and then threaten to behead us if we don't convert, all while telling us just how much you love us...

Iran and the Released Sailors

Scaredy-cats

Today in my school's newspaper I read about the US sailors who were taken into custody and detained by the government of Iran when they sailed into Iranian waters. They were released within 18 hours, and were fed, given blankets, and not beaten or tortured in any way. They did make them apologize for trespassing and film it, then broadcasting it around the country, but honestly... that didn't hurt anything more than their pride.

And yet republican senators are taking this opportunity to tell us all how the Iran Deal has failed, how we must immediately start a war with them to show them who's boss.

What i'd like to know is what the US republicans would have done if the situation were reversed? Or what they think the Iranian government should have done instead? Should they have let a foreign nation's military vessel just sail on through their waters, should they have scooted over in a boat and offered them danish pastries and coffee and provided a welcome committee? Of course not. Now, I'm not saying they handled it properly, but what do I know about foreign politics...

All I can say is that I don't understand why everyone is so surprised. It's not like the US and Iran have been on the best terms for the last 10 years or so... You can't expect a nation that has been virtually threatened with being obliterated with nuclear bombs if they try to construct their own to suddenly trust that the USA has their best interests at heart. 

There are decades of bad will and history between the two nations and they are not about to become best buds just because they've agreed to try and work together for the first time. The fact that they detained military personnel is not a crime, especially as they were treated well and were returned promptly and without harm.

I'm just disgusted by the way the republican party constantly tries to not only demonize everything that Obama does internationally, but also continues to incite fear and hatred of foreign people and nations. 

The Republican Lineup of Candidates for Presidency

The terrifyingly insane people that might just become president...

So this country is facing a big change in 2016... A new president. Now this isn't like the usual race by each party to get a member of their side elected as leader of the USA. No, this race has transcended sanity and is now becoming a bloodbath for the people of this country. In the past whichever party won the election would change some policies and make things cushy for their party, but they wouldn't alter the very structure of the country and throw us all into war. But all that changed when the republicans elected George Bush instead of Al Gore in 2001.

Republican Candidates for 2016 Election

1. Jeb Bush, Former Governor of Florida 
2. Ben Carson, Former Neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital
3. Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey
4. Ted Cruz, United States Senator from Texas
5. Carly Fiorina, Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard
6. Jim Gilmore, Former Governor of Virginia
7. Lindsey Graham, United States Senator from South Carolina
8. Mike Huckabee, Former Governor of Arkansas
9. Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana
10. John Kasich, Governor of Ohio
11. George Pataki, Former Governor of New York
12. Rand Paul, United States Senator from Kentucky
13. Marco Rubio, United States Senator from Florida
14. Rick Santorum, Former United States Senator from Pennsylvania
15. Donald Trump, CEO of The Trump Organization

Now I'm not going to go into what each candidate stands for, because that would take forever and be fairly repetitive. I may do a later post about that for the frontrunners, however this time I want to talk about the grand picture of what these people represent...

The Republican Platform in 2016

The main things that seem to be the foot this party is standing on is as follows (in no particular order of importance):

• Religious "freedoms"
• allowing homophobia in the workplace and elsewhere
• Islamaphobic policies and preaching
• Seeding fear of immigrants, particularly hispanics from Mexico
• Demonizing Planned Parenthood and repealing the right to abortions
• Cutting taxes for the top 1% even more
• Destroying public healthcare
• Cutting public funding for infrastructure like roads, bridges, damns etc...
• Halting trade relations with other countries
• Destroying cooperation btw the US and Iran, possibly starting another war
• Defunding and cutting budgets for education
• Bring back big oil and forget about climate change because it's not real
• Lower the minimum wage

Just to name a few...

Now, let us discuss these issues because they scare the hell out of any sane american, scare the world because if one of these people gets into power we're likely to start WWIII with nukes, scare women because they're going to become objects and property again, scare anyone who is not a white, heterosexual man...

Religious "freedoms" & Homophobia

What is a religious freedom? Well, to most people it would be the definition in the constitution of this country which specifies a separation of church and state. 

The exact wording of the First Amendment is:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This gives people the right to believe in whatever religion (or lack thereof) they wish, and it allows them to practice their religion providing it does not harm another person. This last bit is what seems to be forgotten by the religious right in this country. They are allowed to pray wherever and whenever they please, they can wear crosses, they can carry their bible around with them, they can converse about their religion, they can do whatever they want to show their beliefs as long as it does not harm another person. But they do harm other people. There is rampant homophobia in this country. They don't want to employ a person if they happen to like people of the same sex, they don't want to provide services or speak or have anything to do with them. They are outraged that same-sex marriage is legal now, they are outraged that they have to hand out marriage licenses and "participate" in such a sinful celebration, even though they really don't have to. The term "religious freedom" is now used to persecute same-sex couples, homosexual people, LGBTQ groups and people, and more... 

I don't quite understand where these people get off thinking they can push their religion down our throats. I don't understand how they think it's okay to be rude, say cruel and unkind things, deny basic services, and treat them as lesser human or even animals simply because they choose to like people of the same sex as themselves. I cannot understand how they justify their vicious behaviour saying that it's the "will of god". Are they god? Do they know exactly what god thinks about these people? Are they themselves the omniscient creator of the world they worship so stridently? No. Their book of "morals" tells them first and foremost to "love thy neighbor as thyself", and "let he who is without sin throw the first stone", and yet this is forgotten in the storm of hatred hurled at anyone who is different to them. They feel so entitled to "practice their religion" that they don't see why it is wrong to use their religion to persecute and profile and attack other people. 

This is what we are in for if a republican wins this election. We are in for blatant homophobia and that whole "separation of  church and state" will go right out the window faster than you can blink. Anyone who isn't a blessed christian is going to be fodder for all sorts of hatred and hate crimes and no one will do a thing about it. 

Islamaphobic Policies and Preaching

Ever since 9/11 there has beed an outpouring of hate and mistrust against anyone who even looks a little bit middle-eastern. If they are muslim and practice islam, it seems to be generally accepted in this country that they are definitely a terrorist in the making. Doesn't matter if they are actually a greek catholic, to the uninformed and overly-suspicious republican, they are a bomber waiting to happen. 

There are entire rallies specifically to sow distrust and hatred towards muslim people that practice the religion of Islam. The truth is that there is a very small portion of muslims that make up the dangerous group of extremists, and sadly those few give the entire religion a bad reputation. It would be like looking at just the Popes and Cardinals of olden-times and claiming that every single catholic was a child molester. Happily, that is not the case with either catholics or muslims. Most of them are wonderful people who live simple lives and just want to be left in peace and safety to raise children and live out their lives doing jobs that they love. 

But ever since 9/11 people, and republicans in particular, have been claiming that Islam is a dangerous religion and condones mass murder and terrorist attacks when it does no such thing. Christianity condoned mass murder when it came to the crusades. Catholicism condoned mass murder and genocide when their explorers "found" the New World and "claimed" the uncivilized continent for their rulers, killing all the native people as they spread across the land like a plague of locusts. These are religions that have condoned such violence and actions as being "the will of god". Not by fringe-groups of extremists, but by the leaders of those nations, the Kings and Queens that ruled them, the Pope's that were their religious leaders, their priests and missionaries and preachers. No religions have inflicted such widespread harm and murder as Christianity and Catholicism, and yet those same people choose to spend most of their time telling everyone how Islam is the most potent danger to the future of this country and the world. 

The republican candidates are no exception. Claiming to be all virtuous and perfect, they push all the evils in the world on Muslims and the religion of Islam and have a hate and smear campaign that is specifically designed to make people fearful of foreigners, fearful of non-white people, fearful or people who talk in a different language or practice a different religion, or wear different clothes. And these are the people who might one day lead this country... 

I ask you, what is more scary than that?

The Fear of Immigration

Something that I find very interesting about this election and what the republicans seem to be running on is the fear of illegal immigrants. Now we've heard for years about how terrible the Mexicans are, how they constantly just hop over the border with no problem and spread diseases that we US citizens are just not equipped to handle.

It's like they are trying to re-invent history and make themselves the Native Americans dealing with the Spanish Conquests... Not only is that offensive to the peoples that actually did have to suffer through that, but it's also highly inaccurate. Whatever diseases we have here in Texas, they probably have down in Mexico too, and vice versa. Why that is even mentioned in the debate to restrict illegal immigration is a mystery to me.

What I really don't understand is how, the moment Donald Trump said that all Mexican immigrants are rapists and thieves, the whole republican party jumped on board and started saying we need to build a wall. Then, smart guy that he is, Scott Walker (republican Senator of New Hampshire) suggested that what we really need is a wall (a really big one) dividing us from Canada, and protecting us from all the terrorists that come into the US from there. Now, I think a wall between the US and Mexico is insane enough in itself. But blocking out Canada because of "terrorists" is not just stupid and irrational, I personally do not understand how this guy hasn't been committed to a secure insane asylum yet. Not only that, but he actually has a place in government and the rules that we must all live by. If you don't find that scary then I have nothing more to say to you.

The fear of immigrants to the US was ramped up the minute the attacks in Paris happened in late 2015. Before that people were scared, and talked about how we'd be letting in all the terrorists, but it wasn't until the Paris attacks that the situation really exploded (no pun intended). Suddenly people were saying how every single muslim was a terrorist and how even letting in orphaned children was a risk, because they would obviously grow up to be terrorists too...

The amount of hatred you must feel towards a culture in order to condemn orphaned children to death is pretty huge. There are so many people out there who are facing horrific circumstances, whose houses have been bombed, who have watched their loved ones - parents, life partners, children - be blown to bits, who have abandoned every worldly possession they own to escape real terror and find a safe place to live. That's what really baffles me. They are the ones who truly experience Terroism. Here in our safe little country bad things do sometimes happen. The Boston bombings were no small matter, and 9/11 was a pretty tragic event, but we know nothing of living in constant fear. Of seeing a stranger outside your house and wondering if your parents are going to dragged away and tortured, of nearly starving to death every day because there's not enough food... That is THEIR reality, what they have to face every single day. And here we sit in our nice and cozy homes, with our TV's and cars, and safety and the surety that we are not going to have our house explode around us.

And yet we are the ones talking about how we DESERVE to keep out people in need. Our government OWES it to us to close the borders and look out for itself. The whole Iraq War began because our government "supposedly" wanted to help the Iraqi people escape tyranny by their government and local terrorist groups... And yet when a group of people are ACTUALLY in danger and dying by the thousands every day, we decide to hide and leave them to their own devices...  That to me is so disgusting. And yet, that is happening right now. The combination of misinformation and hate speech by the republican party has got the conservative right of this country in fits of the vapors and demanding that we "test" the religion of anyone who wants to enter this country. If that doesn't violate the freedom of religion clause in the Constitution they supposedly hold so dear then I don't know what does...

Demonizing Planned Parenthood

I've already talked about this one in so many other blog posts, it might be a bit of a waste of time to reiterate everything i've already said, so I'll simply say this...

Planned Parenthood helps millions of women across the US remain safe and healthy. It provides a multitude of services:

• pre-natal vitamins to ensure babies are born healthy
• breast cancer exams
• STD testing
• colon cancer screenings
• ultrasounds for pregnant women
• birth control consultations and prescriptions
• condoms
• urinary tract infection treatments
• adoption agency referrals
• safe sex education
• HPV vaccines
• female & male sterilization
• abortion services.

In fact, 41% of all services provided to people in 2015 were related to Sexually Transmitted Disease screenings and treatments, 34% was contraception advice and prescriptions, and <3% were abortion related... <3%, and yet their facilities are heckled, bombed, and defaced because of uneducated, despicable domestic terrorists that hide behind the idea that they are "Good Christians" and pro-life...

A quote that stuck with me was this: "I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think that in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-live. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is." ~Sister Joan Chittister

That is exactly how I feel about it. These people don't even deserve the term "Pro-life" because they couldn't care less what happens to that tiny human after it's born. If it is so addicted to heroin because it's mother was a drug addict, even if it is adopted by a loving family, its going to have severe developmental and health defects, and even physical deformities, for the rest of it's life. How do I know this? Because my mother is a labour and delivery nurse, and she sees children born every single day to people who have so abused their bodies and their fetus that even when it is born it struggles to live beyond a few moments. She has to nurse preemies who die within hours of birth, or are sent off to a foster care home with little chance of a good life. She sees the horrific side of childbirth every day. You would think that as a nurse who delivers babies she would be pro-life too, but she knows the reality of these children's lives. She knows the struggle they face and she has to be the one to watch them die. She says that it is crueler to subject these poor little beings to hours of pain and suffering when they'll die shortly afterwards, or struggle their entire lives to find a place in society. Those people out there holding pickets outside abortion clinics have no idea what the reality is like, and yet they think they stand on the moral high-ground simply because they want to force women to give birth to lots of babies.

The War on Christmas

How the Atheists stole Christmas...

Christmas time is the time of the year when carols are played through stores, tinsel adorns everything, twinkley lights cover trees instead of snow, and people have lots of silly accidents falling off of ladders. Its a time when every church has a nativity scene outside, and inflatable blow up Santas start appearing everywhere. Its a time when family gets together and celebrates the year they have just had, eat good food, and exchange gifts. 

However, around December, we also have people who do not embrace the spirit of this holiday. What is ironic, is that these angry, argumentative people who do nothing but glare at others and complain are the very ones claiming there is a "war on christmas". They become purple in the face because someone says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". They boycott stores because their winter displays do not specifically say "Christmas Display", and they make poor Starbucks employees call them "Merry Christmas" as a way to "get back at" the store for daring to have an undecorated red holiday cup. 

I can't count the number of people I have heard complaining about how we need to "put the Christ back in Christmas" and how this country is becoming so very "un-christian"... Honestly, it's a little embarrassing to even be near these people when they start ranting about the lack of snowmen and reindeer in stores. And really, when was the last time a snowman was present at the birth of Jesus... Oh yeah, never. Because Jesus was born in the middle east, in the summer, and the only Artiodactyl animal present was a Camel, not a Reindeer... 

The world as a whole, and not just America, has been making a shift away from obsessing about Christmas and trying to be more inclusive by remembering that there are other celebrations around the month of December as well as Christmas. Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, St. Lucia Day, Boxing Day, and Yule celebrations are just some of the many holiday celebrations that occur in December. There's more than 10 different celebrations that take place in December, some of which are based in religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Other holidays are more general and non-religious, celebrating the rebirth of the year, the coming to a close of the old one, and the joy of a new time ahead. Most of these holidays center around a gift-giving, family time, and a mysterious person sneaking around giving out coal to naughty children. 

It is a harmless conglomeration of holidays that we all enjoy, and yet somehow the very fact that people are now recognizing more than just Christmas is offensive to some Christians. I love how they say that we are commercializing Christmas for profit and corrupting the spirit of the holiday in one breath, and then complain that people don't have enormous banners across their stores or TV adds that say Merry Christmas in the next. The hypocrisy is real. 

The celebration of Christmas was adapted from the pagan holiday of the winter solstice to begin with. Christians took bits and pieces from other people's and religion's version of the holiday such as gift giving, naughty vs nice, decorated trees, socks filled with little gifts, etc... None of that has anything to do with the birth of Jesus. It all came from other people's holidays and the Christians just appropriated it. Now I have no problem with that, but they can't get upset when others don't feel like following their celebrations. They can't force everyone else to do what they do, and they have no right to try.

I also find it interesting how Santa Clause has somehow become synonymous with what Christians like to call "their" holiday... I mean really, what does Santa, reindeer, snow, gift-giving, and decorated fir trees have to do with Jesus? And how does a move away from only recognizing the holiday with the fat bearded man in red have to do with a war on Christianity? 

I really want to know how on earth any sane person could ever believe there is a "War on Christmas"... Really, all I have to say to those people is: Get over yourselves and grow the fuck up.

Growing up Unconventionally

To be born to Immigrant Parents

To begin, I'll go over my background a little bit. My parents are foreign in that they were not born, nor did they grow up in the US. My father was born in England to Polish parents and grew up jointly in England and Poland, and lived much of his adult life in South Africa. My mother was born in South Africa, grew up there, and lived most of her young adult life there. My older sister was born in South Africa and grew up there until the age of six. My parents moved to the United States in 1995 because they were concerned at the rising rates of violence, particularly against white women, and did not want my sister and I (though I had yet to be born) to become a rape statistic. At the time, 1 in 3 white women were raped in their lifetime in South Africa, and they wanted their children to avoid such a fate. And so they moved to the United States, and I was born that same year.

Now I may have been born and grown up in the USA, but I was not raised as such. My parents did not raise me to be an American. They raised me to be a worldly person and they raised me as they were raised, understandably. When other kids were watching American cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants, Kim Possible, and the Powerpuff Girls, I was watching British programs like The Animals of Farthing Wood or National Geographic animal documentaries. When other parents were playing Elvis Presley music in the house, my parents were playing the Beatles, Queen, and classical orchestral pieces. When other parents were watching old western movies and war movies with John Wayne in them, My parents were watching things that were popular in England and South Africa at the time.

Up until I began kindergarten, I had a very strong South African accent, because that is what I was around. I lost that most of that accent gradually when I started school and was exposed to other American children. However, I was still not exposed to much "American Culture". When I made my first friend, she was English. Her parents were from England, and she and her older sister had been born there. She was in the same boat as me, growing up the child of immigrant parents in a country of - what to us were - foreigners. Since were were 6 or 7, we have been friends, and for a very long time Best Friends until geographic separation disrupted that.

At the end of 4th grade, my parents removed me from school and began homeschooling me because they knew they could do a good, if not better job of it than the school system. We followed the requirements of the homeschooling association and so I did learn many things that American children did, however me mainly focused on what my parents had learned growing up. I learned world history, the Greeks and Romans, the Egyptians, and the French and English. When I learned about the World Wars, I didn't just hear about how heroic America was for joining at the last minute and helping end it.  I learned about how the European Allied Forces struggled for years to keep afloat, to prevent the spread of Hitler's armies. I learned about the contribution of various countries and how the war affected Europe and Europeans who were closest to the conflict zones. I didn't learn endlessly about how brave and selfless America was and how the housewives suffered endlessly because their men were not there to help them. I did learn about it, but the focus was on the grand scheme of things, not just on America's contribution. When we studied geography, I learned about WORLD geography, and did not have to memorize the capital cities of each and every state. My parents didn't think it was as useful to know about the capital of Mississippi, a place I would likely never go, whereas knowing that there were countries out there called Australia, Japan, and Madagascar was probably going to be more helpful in my future. Knowing the difference between Australia and Austria, Sweden and Switzerland, and learning about the various languages, cultures, and people in those areas was important to my future and my world knowledge.

I had a very rounded education, but not much interaction with pop culture, american music, american tv cartoons or tv shows popular at the time. My parents listened to NPR on the radio constantly, they watched BBC world news, and so that is what I listened to and watched. I had a thoroughly foreign upbringing. And I am endlessly grateful for that. I know more about the world, and world views and issues than many of my "peers". I understand more about foreign politics and issues that go beyond the borders of the country I live in than even many adults I meet. I understand the consequences that the government that I live with will have upon the world. I can think beyond myself and my country, and for that I am grateful.

And yet I have always been picked on or bullied or teased about where I come from and what I know. When I was younger it was about music and the fact that I didn't know what "Fall Out Boy" was. When I lived in Australia, I was teased about my "American" accent. When I came to college, it was about the TV shows that I didn't know, or the Actors that I had never heard of, like John Wayne.

And I am sick and tired of having people criticize me for my lack of knowledge of all things American and wonderful, when they cannot take it in return. I am always astounded that people don't know about Maggie Smith, or Dame Judy Dench... Of British TV shows like Miss Marple, Midsommer Murders, and Masterpiece Theater... Of movies like Keeping Mum and Death At a Funeral (the original, not the horrible American remake). And yet, if I dare to voice how astounded I am, all I get is... "Well it's not American so why should we know it?"

The world does not begin and end with the blessed USA. There is more out there than the portion of the continent of North America that houses the United States. There is more land, more political arrangements, more music and culture and film and literature, more human beings out there. And yet I am always the odd one out, the less knowledgeable, the less aware simply because my specialties and likes and dislikes and humour is not American.

In the past I have had to deal with this type of ostracism because I do not have the same likes as my peers, and in the past I have ignored it and moved on and been the bigger person for the most part (excluding my obsession with proper pronunciation). But the past is not now and I am not the same little girl that had to deal with people being mean to her.

Why do my tastes have to be wrong. Why does my knowledge have to be irrelevent. Why does what I like have to always take a backseat to those around me. Why does no one ever ask if I could show them what I like and let them decide if they like it too. Why, oh god fucking why am I always the one who is weird when I act surprised that those around me don't know some of the biggest names in foreign film and TV.

And the argument is always that I was born here, in the US, so I should know all this stuff, and love America and it's culture. Because I was BORN here. I wish I hadn't been. I wish my mother had got pregnant a few months earlier so I could have been born in South Africa. Then at least I'd have the excuse that people seem to need, that I WASN'T born here. Maybe then i'd catch a break and people wouldn't hound me for not knowing what they know. Maybe then people would actually be willing to try and understand why I'm so different. Maybe then they'd actually care.

I am sick and tired of it, that just because I had a different upbringing and foreign parents and was raised to have more of an interest in world media than in American media I am strange. It hurts to have people who I think of as friends belittle and disregard me and my upbringing because it wasn't the same as theirs, because it wasn't fucking American. So I just don't give a damn anymore.

The Human Life Element...

The Right to Make your own choices

Original publish date: 10/30/15

  When we reach the age of 18 we are generally considered adults. We can get married, buy property, smoke cigarettes, make our own health decisions, move out of the familial home, etc… While we cannot buy or drink alcohol (which is ridiculous) we are – legally - adults. While it may take many years for some people to reach adult maturity and actually begin acting like a responsible adult person, technically we are once we reach that golden number 18.

  However, we are not all entitled to make our own choices. We should be, provided they do no harm to another person, but we are not allowed in some cases. The case in particular that I mention is women’s healthcare and specifically abortions.

  Now this is always a touchy topic. No one likes to think about abortions. The very topic turns some people into fiery balls of rage and others in weeping heaps. Some people support it and others call it murder. Recently Planned Parenthood, a well-known women’s health organization, came under fire for some highly controversial videos that were apparently “undercover” videos of the company selling baby parts for profit. Since then there have been at least 3 federal investigations which have unsurprisingly showed that the videos about “selling baby parts” are completely fabricated and false.

  This slander of a women’s health organization has far-reaching consequences. People all over the country are demanding that all federal funding should be pulled from these "houses of atrocious murder". Now, the little bit of federal funding that Planned Parenthood receives from the government only goes to preventative measures, such as breast exams to prevent cancer, STD tests, counseling, and even men’s health screening for colon cancer and other health options. Abortion services comprise maybe 5% of what PP actually does, and yet there is a witch-hunt out for the organization blood and trying to shut it down. In recent weeks when it came to light that PP had done absolutely nothing wrong or immoral and that they would not be shut down by the government, there have been terrible arson attempts and other hate groups destroying these facilities.

  It’s not enough that they have dragged the organization’s name through the mud and slandered their reputation, now they are so angry that they didn’t succeed that they are literally trying to burn it down. Why? Because of their religious beliefs. Not because this organization is really doing anything terrible and bad, but because according to certain people’s religious “morals”, these people are evil for aborting fetuses.

  This is where it comes down to opinion. Is abortion good or bad? Are you really murdering a baby? Is it a real human yet or still just a fetus? Is it alive? These are the questions that cause so much division on this topic. To some people the minute the egg is fertilized it is a baby already, to others it isn’t truly alive until it can breathe and live on it’s own outside the mother’s body. For many, it is somewhere in-between. However, there is enough controversy about these many opinions to cause real conflict between people based on belief that are often derived from their religion, or lack there-of.

  But does this give one group of people the right to make the decision for everyone else? There are many reasons to terminate a pregnancy and it’s no one’s damn business except those directly involved. I do not understand why fat old white men think that they have some right to force women to listen and follow their decisions. Terminating a pregnancy is a very personal decision involving emotions, economics, future ambitions, age, health, etc… It is something very personal and is a hard choice for most people to make. They think about it pretty carefully before doing something drastic like that. However, religious-based organizations lobby government officials to tack on all sorts of other requirements before you can make your own choices. You might have to have multiple counseling sessions, or an ultrasound, or an internal scope… It is not only an invasion of privacy, but it is a highly invasive process that some people are forced to endure and go through. It’s nobody’s business what you do with your body or what your reasons are. It’s nobody’s business if you don’t want kids. No one should be able to force you to give birth and go through the very difficult experience of pregnancy. It’s nobody’s damn business. And yet it is…

  There are so many reasons a person might consider terminating a pregnancy… They may be too young to properly look after it, they may not be financially secure enough to provide a decent life for the child, they may be doing drugs and the fetus might be severely deformed and disfigured. They may have gotten pregnant via rape and don’t want that reminder, or they may be in an abusive relationship and be terrified of having a child grow up in that situation, or feel as though they would be forever trapped because they couldn’t leave their child and their abusive partner would forever hold them hostage. They may simply not be emotionally ready for that. They could have hereditary diseases that have been passed on and do not want to inflict that on a new person in the world. They may already have had too many children already and it’s no longer safe for them to attempt another pregnancy (for some, this could happen with a 6^th baby or a 2^nd). There is a myriad of reasons why a woman might not want to carry a child to full term, even if she could then “give it up for adoption”. And that is her choice, and only hers. No one else has any right to get involved in that choice. No one else has any right to judge her for her decision.

  “Why doesn’t she just put it up for adoption?” is a frequent question heard about women who have abortions. “There might be someone out there that would love that child as is, no matter what is wrong with it”… Yes, that may be so, but do you know how many children are in the foster care system in the US alone? 397,122 children in the US are living without a permanent family (http://ccainstitute.org). Nearly 400,000 children do not have parents already. And a lot of these children will not get adopted for many years, will be bounced around the system from one home to the next. And don’t even get me started on the horrors of the foster cares system with over-crowded “homes” and gross neglect or even mistreatment. Even if a child does find a loving home and family, they may suffer emotional damage and have abandonment issues that will affect the rest of their life. They may end up hating their “real” parents for giving them up, even if it was the right thing to do. So when you ask, “why don’t they just put the child up for adoption”, that may not actually be a good decision, or even the right one. It is such a nuanced issue. It’s not a simple “do I murder this fetus, or don’t’ I”. It’s not an easy thing for anyone to decide, but in the end it is her choice and not yours. And no one has any right to a say except the person who has to make that choice.

  Now on to the heckling. Apart from all the various regulations and governmental controls that are put in place to traumatize, scare, and intimidate people seeking an abortion, there are also the hecklers that stand outside these facilities. There are people who hold up signs telling people they are going to hell, or calling them murderers or saying that they should commit suicide first. There are people screaming and chanting horrible vicious things at these women who are already making a pretty difficult decision. Nobody wants to have an abortion. Nobody wants to go through that experience and probably be plagued by some kind of guilt or upset for the rest of their lives, wondering what-if’s and the like. While some people know and realize that it was the right decision for them and that they are glad they went through with it, I don’t think anybody really wants to go through that experience. So the religious right is often very critical of people having abortions and make it an even more hellish experience than it already is.

  Then on top of that there is the shaming afterwards. Often, women will tell almost no one about her abortion because of the stigma attached to it and the hateful looks and comments that she’ll get in response. It may even be hard for her to tell a future spouse or family members. This leaves a lack of support for a very trying and troubling experience when support and compassion is what she really needs. It is always important to be surrounded by people who love and support you, to have a support group to help deal with the trials of life. If that is taken away because of a personal choice and the stigma surrounding it, then that leads to depression, self-hate and possibly suicide.  Some people would say that “she deserves it” because of her choice, but shouldn’t we have compassion for people? 

  Isn’t that what all religion is about, having compassion and being there for other people? Isn’t this supposed “God” the final judge of everyone, so why do people feel the need to judge and shame others? Especially when it’s none of their damn business… As it says somewhere in the bible, “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone”… Why can’t people just listen to that one line more often? Everyone makes choices, everyone has beliefs and opinions, but it is no one’s right to judge another person without knowing everything about them, why they made their choice, how they feel about it, etc… No one is perfect, that’s just how life is, and yet people constantly bite and gossip and try to hurt each other for their imperfections and decisions.

  To wrap up this whole spiel that’s kind of gone off topic now, if you are a sane and responsible human being then you should be allowed to make your own informed health choices. That should be something private between you and your doctor, not something for the local gossip committee to spread about and whisper. It is not something for politicians to get involved in. If they want a small government then they have to be consistent and keep their noses out of it.

Update 11/28/15

  Today I felt that recent events warranted an update to this post. The recent event in particular that prompted this feeling was the gun shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, CO where 3 people were killed (including a police officer) and 9 were left injured. Now we've been seeing a lot of violence and hate crimes in this country of late. First there were school shootings, then police aggression toward african americans, then hate crimes against latinos and suspected "illegal immigrants", arson and viral "videos" painting Planned Parenthood as a company that sells live babies to be butchered, and currently the mistrust and fear mongering associated with the intake of Syrian refugees, some of which are muslims - and therefore to the uneducated and republicans, who are often one and the same, terrorists. This latest attack on the Colorado Planned Parenthood though really takes the cake. We see two things squished into one; a mass shooting event and a hate crime against a center that provides abortions, among many other things.

  Now there's a lot of people out there, trolling reddit, writing their own blogs, making youtube videos, and some of then seem to be almost proud of this latest loss of life. They seem to think that shooting up people in a PP office is a good thing. Some of them are saying that it's going to bring the risks of abortions into the light and stop people from going to PP facilities to get abortions. Some claim that the shooter was crazy. And then theres a few who say things like this:

  I really don't know quite what to say about this... I'm disgusted, disappointed, horrified. While many people don't agree on gun control, or abortion issues, they do generally agree that mass shootings are at the very least sad. Sometimes they can even say that it's a tragedy and something that should never have happened. But somehow, the combination of gun rights nuts and pro-lifers leads to a horrifically ironic situation where pro-lifers are celebrating a mass shooting where 3 people died. They are not only not sad, they are happy, calling the shooter a "brave hero" and THANKING him for KILLING people...

  These nut-jobs who do not see the horror in this latest shooting seem to believe this myth that the republican party ships so hard that Planned Parenthood only ever provides abortions and does nothing else. The truth is that the people that were shot and died, and those that remain hospitalized, may very well have never even gone there for an abortion. They may have been pro-life themselves, but not rich enough to go to a fancy clinic for a breast cancer screening. Or they could have been young adults getting an STD screening, or just a young woman getting on the pill to prevent a pregnancy that could end in an abortion. The people injured and killed in this latest attack against humanity and morality and women's rights were just like anyone else. They were living, breathing people, and for christian, gun-toting, pro-life idiots to congratulate a shooter on killing innocent people just makes me lose what little hope I had for religious people to do the right thing, for humanity and decency to rule out over their "morals".

I'll end my tirade here, but I just want to say one thing. To any christian, or republican, or pro-lifer, or gun-supporter who gets offended by my lumping them with the crazies... This is what the world sees. This is what regular people see all the time. This is what your group and your ideals seem to promote. It may not be everyone, it may be just a few who give you a bad name, but as long as you promote your hatred to anything that you deem "immoral" such as abortions, and as long as you call it murder and incite people to hate anyone that deviates from your beliefs, I hold you all in contempt. You may not be responsible for other people's actions, but the message that you put out into the world has consequences, it hurts people, and I am tired of it.