liveonearth: (Default)
 
I didn't mean to have anything to do with the protests in PDX yesterday but by accident I visited the fringe.  I worked until 1pm and then I went into SE PDX for an appointment.  My appointment was on Morrison, just a block east of the bridge.  When I parked at 1:15pm, the first oddity I saw was two large trucks loaded to the gills with PDX cops dressed out in riot gear.  The trucks are set up such that the police can stand around the edges of the back and hang on, and when the truck stops they all step off.  They had helmets with face guards and a large assortment of weapons.  There appeared to be a medic on each truck.

There was a helicopter hovering overhead, and another helicopter roaming.  Soon two more truckloads of police came by my parking spot.  I got out of my vehicle and walked around.  There were drunken white tourists coming out of a bar.  They climbed onto one of those big bicycle carts and rowdied off down the street.  Then a crowd of black and camo-clad men sauntered by, wearing masks and armor and carrying medieval looking weapons.  There was at least one woman with them.  They were scary, intentionally so.  I think they were anti-fa.  They appeared to simply be making their presence known.  Two truckloads of riot police unloaded from their trucks and stood on the street corner.  Another two truckloads of riot police came through behind the anti-fa after they left.  I read this morning that Rump is talking about treating the anti-fa as another terrorist org.  I don't think so.  Their goal is not violence.  Their goal is to be there and intervene in bigoted violence when the cops aren't around.  I am grateful, frankly, that there are local citizens willing to step in and stop white supremacists from hurting/killing for their "cause".  I'm not about to risk my own neck.

I walked around the area for a while because I was early to my appointment.  I saw three very clean black suburbans slowly creeping through the blocks.  I presume those were the feds behind bulletproof glass.  Large ford trucks were arriving and parking in the area, and from each truck spilled four white men.  They were mostly wearing polo shirts and blue jeans, and were mostly young to middle-aged and in good shape.  They looked like they were ready for a brawl.  Itching for a fight, maybe.  I presume those were the so-called Proud Boys in spite of the fact that none were wearing black polos with yellow trim which is their uniform.  That group is required to physically fight for their "western chauvinism" cause in order to reach the top level of membership.  They are racist and misogynist and I was glad our local anti-fa and the cops were there ready to suppress their efforts to beat up gay and brown people.

I am proud of Portland with its bubble of relative safety for LGBT and brown people.  Oregon doesn't have the finest of history in this regard, but at least now there are a lot of people willing to stick their necks out to stop hate.

Below are some of the links I visited on Saturday morning when trying to understand what is going on.  I think McInnes and his crew will continue to come here because they get attention, and that is what they want.  Attention and a fight.  The PDX goal was to stop the fighting.  After the protests the word was that they plan to return every month.  It will be expensive for the city to continue to provide the kind of police presence that I saw.

I find it interesting that they call themselves boys.  Oh yeah?  Not men?  So desperate to belong that they'll revert to boyhood?  And proud of what, exactly?  Their white skin?  They had nothing to do with that, they were just born with it.  Their tatoos?  Their toughness?  Not very proud of their independence I guess.  Not too proud of their critical thinking or compassion.  They may be proud but we are not proud of them.

Wiki on Proud Boys
The Proud Boys say they have an initiation process that has four stages and includes hazing. The first stage is a loyalty oath, on the order of "I’m a proud Western chauvinist, I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world"; the second is getting punched until the person recites pop culture trivia, such as the names of five breakfast cereals; the third is getting a tattoo and agreeing to not masturbate; and the fourth is getting into a major fight "for the cause." 

CBS
No one has applied for permits for today's protests
FBI will be there
 
SPLC
Proud boys = "general hate" white supremacist, misogynist, antisemitic

Gavin McInnes
Gavin's website: http://streetcarnage.com/
 
Rollingstone
 
Israel
https://www.newsweek.com/ilhan-omar-rashida-tlaib-palestine-israel-bds-trump-boycott-proud-boys-1454613 
 
liveonearth: (old books)

I have been increasingly conscious, for the last 10 years or so, of deaths among my contemporaries. My generation is on the way out, and each death I have felt as an abruption, a tearing away of part of myself. There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate — the genetic and neural fate — of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.
--Oliver Sachs
(New York Times, Opinion, “Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer,” Feb. 19, 2015)


This from the FFRF blog: )

*Created tags for reason and humanism.

SOURCE
http://ffrf.org/news/blog/item/23735-remembering-oliver-sacks

liveonearth: (Default)
I must mark this moment when my LGBT friends are truly heartened by the change in US law. It brings a tear to my eye. My half-aunt in North Carolina is going to marry her longtime partner on Halloween day. Successful gay parents are gloating. My friends from all walks are sporting rainbows. The culture shift is generational as all large shifts must be.

Yes, yes you lawyers out there will have all manner of refinements to put on my headline. I have not really studied on this change, rather I've absorbed its impact while ignoring the news. It's just not OK anymore for states not to recognize gay marriages. Or something like that. I've heard that a state is still not obligated to PROVIDE gay marriages, but that is another step in a very long series. I've been busy with other things.... but I am noting this vibration through the land that something really has changed... and with it brings a little bit of hope that we might manage other changes.

I'm sure the social conservative media is damning. I need an antenna in that world somehow. (Thinking cult: which cults are most anti-gay?)

That cartoon of the rebel flag setting and rainbow flag rising is everywhere. Show me some fresh art, not so trite already.
liveonearth: (Gay_batman_n_robin)
The city with the highest concentration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is no surprise: San Francisco at 6.2%. Next is my new hometown Portland, Oregon, at 5.4%. Austin, Texas is third at 5.3%. The surprise was fourth place. Salt Lake City came in at 4%. I must say, I have known more than a few lesbians who were closeted within their LDS communities. Here in Portland I keep meeting jack-Mormons.

SOURCE
The Week, 4/3/15 issue, factoids taken from The New York Times
page 14 in the "Noted" section
liveonearth: (trek jive)
This state is so delightfully progressive it curls my toes. Much as I liked Kitzhaber, I think I am going to like our new governor Kate Brown more! She was sworn in yesterday. On Monday this week (when she was still Secretary of State) she made the announcement that the Independent Party of Oregon qualifies to be a MAJOR PARTY claiming as members more than 5% of registered voters as of the 2014 gubernatorial election. The total membership of the Independent Party as of 2/2/15 was 108,742, which is three voters over the minimum to become a major party. I suspect that with the publicity incurred by this landmark change, more people will change their voter registration from Dem or Rep to INDY.

SOURCES
http://www.indparty.com/node/25
http://time.com/3709837/oregon-kate-brown-governor/
liveonearth: (Gay_batman_n_robin)
What's neat about this vote is that the party whips did not instruct the Members of Parliament (MPs) to vote any particular way. The next step for this bill is the House of Lords, which probably won't pass it by the same huge margin.

SOURCE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21346220
liveonearth: (Default)
http://www.buddhanet.net/winton_s.htm
A worthwhile read. Draws a distinction between ethnic religions and universal ones. Ethnic ones are value systems based on maintaining a tribe. Universal ones transcend tribal identity. Non-procreative sex, ie homosexuality, is banned by ethic mores but in universal terms is seen more openly.
liveonearth: (moon)
iat.org about implicit associations
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/ <---this is the site
take tests to discover your own unconscious filters, about lots of things
the first step in cultural competency is to know who you are and what you believe

notes )

FckH8

Oct. 18th, 2010 06:49 pm
liveonearth: (Default)
This bit had me smiling by the end, in spite of the intentional affront of aggressive F-bombing. The little kids need some practice to curse better. There's a bleeped version if you'd like to share without all the bombing. Found via The Gaytheist Agenda, an awesome blog by a lesbian atheist human rights activist who goes by Buffy.

liveonearth: (Default)
Yesterday the Kansas crowd had a protest at Grant High school, first thing in the morning. Perhaps they did not know how well organized the queers are here. Perhaps they did not consider that in the face of hate, the Portland LGBT crowd is capable of responding with love and humor. Whatever the case, I hear that the Kansas churchies were tormented with silly gay flirtations and outrageousness. In one particular case a local man stripped off his pants, and wearing only some very short shorts went up and started complimenting one of the self-righteous about his swimmer's build. The Kansas bunch also has a series of protests scheduled at synagogues, and because they are also anti-queer, the queers are supporting the Jews in facing them down. It is a beautiful thing.
liveonearth: (Default)
Here in the US we desperately need to get on the ball and pass a law by which same sex couples can have all the same legal rights as religiously married couples. Seriously now folks. It's not about HOMOSEXUALITY, and it's not about MARRIAGE. It's about human rights. Asexual, monosexual, bisexual, trisexual, whatever any kind of people, even a-religious people should be permitted to join their fates in a legal way with the person (or persons!) of their choosing. That person should be the one contacted first when there is a need. Everyone deserves to have someone at their back. Period. (Shut up you pervs.) It is a crime that as a society we disallow some people's families.

On the other hand, thinking about the military, I think it is reasonable to extend some of the requirements of DADT to all servicepeople. Lust of all kinds should be on the downlow while on duty. Military service is not about getting laid. I know that packs of high testosterone men are a sexual liability, so figure out somehow to manage it, eh? There must be a way to let these men have healthy outlets to prevent them from embarrassing themselves and from raping anybody's daughter.
liveonearth: (Default)
He has kicked off quite the furor after beating the mainstream Republican in the Kentucky primary. The media is all over him, calling him nuts. The girls at my school were completely positive that he is a Racist. I wonder if they even know why they think he is a racist. The web is calling him racist because he doesn't agree with part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Well I haven't studied the law, but I am positive that if I did I would find something about it that I don't agree with either. Does that make me a racist? We have a new definition of racist!! Are there not more ways to abolish racism than this one law? Is political correctness always so simple minded? I'd love to see a reasonable intellectual discussion of the issues before the witch hunt begins. His position is incomprehensible from the liberal groupthink mindset, hence he must be insane.
Rant. )
liveonearth: (Default)
News Alert: Obama orders hospitals to grant same-sex couples visitation rights
07:34 PM EDT Thursday, April 15, 2010

President Obama signed an order Thursday night requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.

The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision.

An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/RRHKUP/DZZWC/4VCV3L/3XH9IF/XVNKS/7V/t

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