Rape victims say military labels them ‘crazy’ – CNN.com

Rape victims say military labels them ‘crazy’ – CNN.com.
This makes me sick. These people, our soldiers, are putting their lives in harm’s way to protect us. WHY aren’t we protecting them?

I have to admit that when I read and edited PFC Liberty Stryker, it opened my eyes to a side of the military I did not understand existed. THIS. MUST. STOP.

Christian Groups Take Issue With Anti-Bullying Laws

Christian Groups Take Issue With Anti-Bullying Laws.

 

Well, of course. Because someone said the “G” word. It’s okay to bully certain groups. If the Christians say it’s okay.

The Ties That Bind: Natalie R. Collins: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

The Ties That Bind: Natalie R. Collins: Amazon.com: Kindle Store.

 

Preselling is going quite well.

Ann Romney ‘stay-at-home mom’ debate: Mormons react – Under God – The Washington Post

Ann Romney ‘stay-at-home mom’ debate: Mormons react – Under God – The Washington Post.

 

I don’t think it counts if you stay at home with five nannies, six maids, a gardener, pool boy, cook, etc. etc… Just saying.

The Story of a Writer: PFC Liberty Stryker

The Story of a Writer: PFC Liberty Stryker.

 

Great review of PFC Liberty Stryker, published by Sisterhood Publications! Awesome.

This is NOT your father’s army….

MSNBC host apologizes for Mormon comments | FOX13Now.com – Salt Lake City, Utah News & Weather from KSTU Television FOX 13

MSNBC host apologizes for Mormon comments | FOX13Now.com – Salt Lake City, Utah News & Weather from KSTU Television FOX 13.

 

I think I’d be apologizing right about the time that Joseph Smith apologized for sticking his head in a hat and called it translation. Just saying.

Apple sued by Justice: Highlights from the filing – The Washington Post

Apple sued by Justice: Highlights from the filing – The Washington Post.

 

So, where does this leave those of us in the industry? Things are already changing. Good thing I have a little imprint to use…. www.sisterhoodpublications.com

How Mitt Romney became the presumptive nominee – Political Hotsheet – CBS News

How Mitt Romney became the presumptive nominee – Political Hotsheet – CBS News.

…and the white horse you rode in on!

As I predicted, MittMo Romney will be getting the Republican presidential nod. It doesn’t take a genius, of course, to predict this. The other candidates combined as a barrel full of dysfunction. The only mystery that remains is why Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are still running. Even Santorum dropped out. And Gingrich, the ethical and moral person that he is, is bouncing checks. A $500 check, mind you, written right in the heart of MittMo country. A check written to get his name on the ballot in Utah. Yeah, that’s ethics and morals.

But it brings up a very interesting conundrum. Will residents of the United States of America vote for a Mormon over an African American?

I personally believe that MittMo will NEVER win, because bias against Mormons is, if possible, stronger than it is against African Americans. Picking a VP running mate who has the evangelicals in his pocket could help, but is MittMo willing to do that? Probably, but will it be enough? I doubt it.

From Salon.com:

“When Mitt Romney received his patriarchal blessing as a Michigan teenager, he was told that the Lord expected great things from him.  All young Mormon men — the “worthy males” of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is officially known — receive such a blessing as they embark on their requisite journeys as religious missionaries.  But at 19 years of age, the youngest son of the most prominent Mormon in American politics — a seventh-generation direct descendant of one of the faith’s founding 12 apostles—Mitt Romney had been singled out as a destined leader.”

The White Horse Prophecy, compliments of Joseph Smith, is going to dog him…er, horse him, right into the stable where he he will stay. I don’t see how this can turn out any other way.

The problem lies in both the prophecy’s statement that “one mighty and strong” will take over the presidency, save the country just as the government is “hanging by a thread,” and from this point on the Church, the only true Church, would run the country; and the fact that this prophecy will bring attention raining down on the history of the Church.

So what’s the biggest problem? Joseph Smith was talking about HIMSELF. He really didn’t see MittMo–with his perfect hair and his perfect life and his one wife–as the man who was mighty and strong and all that.
More from Salon.com:

Romney avoids mentioning it, but Smith ran for president in 1844 as an independent commander in chief of an “army of God” advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government in favor of a Mormon-ruled theocracy. Challenging Democrat James Polk and Whig Henry Clay, Smith prophesied that if the U.S. Congress did not accede to his demands that “they shall be broken up as a government and God shall damn them.” Smith viewed capturing the presidency as part of the mission of the church.  He had predicted the emergence of “the one Mighty and Strong” — a leader who would “set in order the house of God” — and became the first of many prominent Mormon men to claim the mantle.

Smith’s insertion of religion into politics and his call for a “theodemocracy where God and people hold the power to conduct the affairs of men in righteous matters” created a sensation and drew hostility from the outside world.  But his candidacy was cut short when he was shot to death by an anti-Mormon vigilante mob. Out of Smith’s national political ambitions grew what would become known in Mormon circles as the “White Horse Prophecy” — a belief ingrained in Mormon culture and passed down through generations by church leaders that the day would come when the U.S. Constitution would “hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber” and the Mormon priesthood would save it.

So, it’s no surprise that many Mormons of Romney’s generation believe that HE is the one mighty and strong. The question is, does Mitt believe it? There is, among Mormons, a sense of entitlement. They believe themselves to be God’s children, but Generation X Mormons don’t know much of the Church’s early history, and would find the White Horse Prophecy and things like Joseph Smith practicing polygamy quite baffling. Younger Mormons do not realize that Joseph had lots of wives, Brigham Young taught killing people was the way to bring them closer to God (See blood atonement), and Danites were roaming the country killing people for God–or Joseph and Brigham, however you want to look at it.

The Danites WERE God’s Army.

And as MittMo mounts his campaign, more and more scrutiny is going to come to rest on the heads of the Mormons and the LDS Church and its violent past. There simply is no getting past the fact that early Mormonism was nothing short of bloody and controversial. Is this something Mormons alone deal with? Of course not. Religion, and the My-God-Can-Beat-Up-Your-God philosophy is rampant in any fundamental religion, and by fundamental, I am not talking about Weenie Rat Face aka Warren Jeffs, and his merry band of perverted miscreants.

So how does Mitt overcome this? He doesn’t. It’s not his to overcome. The Mormon Church is going to have to step up, own up, and back away from their controversial past in order to get a Mormon in the White House. And what will that do to their claims and belief to have the only one true church?

Ah, a conundrum… It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

Rush Limbaugh and his band of bullies

The name Rush Limbaugh evokes a lot of emotions and feelings in people, but in the current state of our nation, i.e. Tea-Party-Fanaticism-Gone-Wild, he seems to have earned a certain cachet he most decidedly does not deserve. “Well, gosh darn it there, if Rush said it, it MUST be true. So I’m just going to repeat it as fact until someone points out that it’s a bald-faced lie, and I have to back down and look stupid. Then I’ll just repeat it as fact to the people who won’t argue with me and defriend all the others.”

Yeah.

I understand why Rush is popular, because I myself find Bill Maher quite amusing, and while I would not want to marry him or even spend two weeks on a vacation with him (I”m sure the feeling would be mutual), I still watch him and smile. That crazy Bill. That crazy Rush.

But recently, Rush thought it would be okay to COMPLETELY twist and turn someone’s personal statement into a mess, that resembles nothing of what it started out to be. There’s a song by He is We called “A Mess It Grows.” This mess just keeps growing.

Here’s what happened, as far as I can interpret it correctly. (Heh. You have to be a Mormon to get that reference. Look it up.)

1. Providing birth control for women, paid for by insurance, became an issue with Congress and Obama, who are usually poking sticks at each other while the teacher isn’t looking and then pointing fingers when she turns back around and tries to figure out who started it.

2. Congress had a hearing, about birth control for women, provided by INSURANCE COMPANIES, and no women were there to testify.

3. This was not a problem for the religious right and the Tea Party, who like their women barefoot and pregnant, and serving them up a cold lemonade on a hot day, thank-you-very-much.

4. This went on DESPITE the fact that women have had the right to vote umpteen years now, and everybody has pretty much figured out that if you don’t treat mother with respect, you probably aren’t going to like your dinner for the next two years.

5. When people became OUTRAGED at the antics of our mostly-male Congress, fingers started pointed in all directions so fast it’s a wonder anyone in Washington was left with an eye that did not get poked out.

6. Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown student who was SUPPOSED to testify at the hearing, was allowed to make her statement.

7. She made the statement, and was immediately attacked. Rush Limbaugh and his misogynistic band of bullies promptly attacked her, turned everything around, and claimed she wanted to have as much sex as she wanted, and as much birth control as she wanted, and she expect US TO PAY FOR IT.

8. It went from that to “OBAMA IS ATTACKING RELIGION (because you know he’s secretly a Muslim and was born in a test tube, on a top secret island called Hawaii, where the men wear skirts) and is going to force ALL THE CHURCHES TO PROVIDE BIRTH CONTROL.” Even the Catholic Church, which has never provided birth control for anyone, and doesn’t really care to do so. They feel that sex is for ONE PURPOSE. Procreation. Any other spillage of sperm is against God’s plan. Thus, there should be no birth control. (I made the test tube part up. I think it’s best to get that out there right now.)

9. From there, Sandra Fluke, the “prostitute” and “slut,” became the target of some pretty far-fetched yarns, and many words she did not even come CLOSE to saying were attributed to her. People said, “Oh, yeah, did you listen to it, Natalie, because I heard it and that’s what she said. She wants us to pay for her birth control, and as much of it as she wants, and she is having a lot of sex because she needs a lot of birth control.”

Now, at this point, I must point out that the birth control Sandra Fluke would like provided to her is a once a day pill. You could take a lot of it every time you had sex, and it would probably give you cancer, so nobody is doing that. Once a day, three weeks out of the month is all it takes. We certainly hope that no one is taking hordes of it in the hopes they can HAVE tons of sex which probably won’t happen anyway. At least we hope they aren’t. Buying HORDES of birth control so you can have TONS of sex isn’t really a problem in our country. Nobody is jacking pharmacies and screaming “Hand over the pill and no one will get hurt.” They save that for Oxycontin. Despite all of this, which is just common sense, Rush Limbaugh and his misogynistic band of bullies attacked Sandra Fluke, and suddenly this ridiculous scenario was being repeated as FACT on FB, message boards, in newspapers, radio shows, etc. etc….

And why? Because a woman believes that she should have the right to make the choices she needs for her body and her health. Viagra and Cialis are covered by insurance. These erectile dysfunction drugs are given to men, so apparently that is not an issue. A friend of mine said that it has been proven that lack of ejaculation can cause prostate cancer, so these medications SHOULD be provided. But the Catholic Church stance on birth control is one that is FIRM on the purpose of sex. It is for PROCREATION ONLY. If you are not having babies, you are not to have sex. Period. Cancer? Too bad. So why do insurance companies regularly pay for these medications, and NOT birth control? Complications of pregnancy can include some really nasty little things like pre-eclampsia, stroke, diabetes, placenta previa, death…. Some women need to use monthly birth control just to control extremely painful periods and rampaging endometriosis, that can permanently scar a woman. No matter. None of this weighs in, because OBAMA WANTS TO MAKE THE CHURCHES PROVIDE BIRTH CONTROL TO EVERYONE ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET. In fact, I heard that he is trying to mandate that the Catholic Church hand out pills to every person on the planet, just so he can giggle behind their backs as the priests say “sex.” Kinda like in junior high.

And the sad fact is that none of this is true. Sandra Fluke did not tell the world she wanted Georgetown and the Catholic Church and the American public to pay for her birth control, tons of it, thousands of dollars of it, so she could have sex 42 times a day and not get pregnant.

Here is what she actually said.

Go read it. Please. And then explain to me why Rush Limbaugh and the BoB should not lose all sponsorships and money in their pocket, and be forced to live their days panhandling on the side of freeway exists, with a sign that says, “I lied on my radio show and lost my job. Will do no work for food, and will spread misinformation and lies, and you better just hand over the dough anyway.”

Now, one of the weirdest parts of all of this was the “look over there” portion of these events. Instead of admitting that they were wrong about what Sandra Fluke said, people said, “Well, Bill Maher called Sarah Palin a very nasty word and no one complained about that.” Actually, they did. I found this interesting commentary about the “c” word and Sarah Palin. The difference is, people know that Bill Maher is going to go after Palin, and he is also going to OWN UP to the fact he is going after her. He’s wrong. And he damn sure shouldn’t be saying what he is saying. Bill Maher should wash his mouth out with soap and show a little respect for women. He knows this. He doesn’t lose sponsors, because he didn’t have those sponsors to BEGIN WITH. Yeah, he has people on his side, and he has money, but they are not the rabid, right-wing Rush Limbaugh BoB who choose to ignore what a misogynistic bullying moron he is because he comes across as a “good old boy,” and he says what they are already thinking. He just says it out loud.

I am now going to attempt to sum this up with THE TRUTH. The actual events. The things that took place.

Sandra Fluke gave an impassioned speech about the fact that some female employees of Georgetown University have to pay for their own birth control pills, because Georgetown, a Jesuit university, is a private school owned by the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church does not believe in birth control. However, they DO provide erectile dysfunction drugs to their male employees, despite the fact that these male employees are most likely not having sex for the purpose of procreation. This is a bias and an inequality. Nonetheless, they are a private university, and they have the right to dictate the moral code of their campus. UNLESS THEY ARE ACCEPTING FEDERAL MONIES. At that point, they gave up that right, and must now live by the same “separation of church and state” issues the rest of us do.

Nobody is going in to the Vatican and telling the Pope he needs to get on the birth control band-wagon, least of all President Obama.

Rush Limbaugh is a schoolyard bully, and should be treated as such. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR. We get it, Rush. You don’t like women, unless they are pregnant and barefoot and serving you lemonade with your prescription drugs that you are addicted to. Is that an unfair slam? Maybe, maybe not. How did it feel?

What the hell is wrong with just showing respect and being decent, period. Why aren’t more people on the Dalai Lama bandwagon, huh? That’s a band-wagon for which I would learn to play the tuba. Or how about the Gandhi bandwagon? I would totally be in the drumline for that. Mother Teresa? Count me in! I could totally play the cymbals.

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?
Mother Teresa

A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

Mahatma Gandhi

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them. Dalai Lama

This, people, is the music of life. Drown out the bullies.