Upsetment

The GOP just doesn't get that it is about people not corporations.

Islam is arguing over holy sites and burial locations of "saints" as if they were Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox during the Crusades. What strange thinking religion can generate.

Have you read Memoirs From the Asylum? This article is right out of my novel or perhaps my novel is right out of this article. http://mediasuite.multicastmedia.com/player.php?p=nqm74a8k

I am posting this not because it is news -- obviously it is not -- but because it is not new -- obviously it should be, every day in every city and town of this country until reasonable gun laws have been enacted. There is no other single issue about which most Americans so agree and about which our legislators listen to corporations and lobbyists instead of us.

My good friend Micki Peluso shares another powerful piece about drunk driving.

And what would the Prophet say about this kind of sectarian violence and fighting? Probably the same thing that Jesus would have said when it was the Catholics and Protestants of Europe or when the Roman church was attacking Constantinople.

There is nothing more irrational than religious fervor.

Of course a rational change in immigration policy would cut down the need for this as would a change in the drug laws. Could it be that the military-industrial-espionage complex don't want us to have rational laws? Could that be?

There you go, ladies. Another leading Republican telling you that it's your fault. Besides not being accurate, just exactly what should women do - live off welfare? They aren't corporations so they don't get that kind of government support.

The simple fact is that fingerprinting is allowed in the course of an arrest so why not a DNA sample? On the other hand, if the original arrest is not based on probable cause or if it fails to be supported in court, should both the fingerprints and the DNA sample be considered fruit of a poisonous tree? That will have to be the next question.

On It Matters Radio we recently hosted Brandon James Miller, whose video Operation Amnesty for All follows one young immigrant who is trying to obtain that precious education. There are hardworking and decent people who deserve our support. Brought to the U.S. as children, they have picked our crops, cut our lawns, bussed our tables. Shouldn't we be giving them a chance.

There is something terribly wrong with a political system in which appeasing the extreme wing of a party is more important than representing the vast majority of your country.

If I were a woman, I would probably do two things after reading this story: 1) Send a contribution to Emily's List and 2) Decide to never vote for a Republican candidate at any level of government.

I am not generally a proponent of the death penalty; but if this is an accurate story, this ex-judge and these ex-cops should probably be stoned. They are beneath contempt.

Yet another example of how the "War on Drugs" helps to corrupt not uplift law enforcement.

Delighted to do interviews, especially when they help to get my name and books out there.

I will say it again and again, we need to be wary of the military-industrial-ESPIONAGE complex. They are counterproductive and are draining our country.

The Daily Beast mentioned the following:

"China’s borders: a court sentenced Liu Xia, the brother-in-law of imprisoned Nobel winner Liu Xiabao, to 11 years in prison for alleged real estate fraud, a fairly harsh sentence for a minor business dispute."

The Beast saw this as troubling; I see it as positive. Think of how little we punish businessmen who break laws. Yeah, it had to do with Liu Xiabao, but is also about trying to find a line between the rights of businessmen and the rights of the country. The real quesiton is what about the rights of individual Chinese. But that is not our question to be asking except when it comes to buying products made in their sweat shops.

Yup, those conservatives sure know how to help women. Consider Mississippi, a state so backward that it is more like a third world country than the rest of the United States. Consider its governor, Phil Bryant, another exemplar of misogyny Republic style.

Once again we are left with that question, when the prosecution and police don't do their job properly, when they persecute rather than investigate, what should the consequences be? This man--deprived of 25 years of his life and even a connection with his son--how does the state of Texas right his wrong? Will the state even try?
And why is it that these stories seem to so often come from Texas?

A fascinating look at how far removed we have become from real food. And you thought Twinkies were bad.

Just received a book of Raymond Barry's plays so we can talk about them this Thursday as well as his acting in movies such as Walk Hard and television like Justified. I am psyched.

Why, when the war ended, weren't the Jews and Gypsy's given their own countries carved out of Germany? Yes, I know that most Germans of today weren't alive during the war, but can they honestly say they don't still bear the guilt for those atrocities just as we in the U.S. should bear the guilt for what our ancestors did to Native Americans and to slaves? I strongly believe that even those of us whose ancestors arrived after the Civil War still have guilt, for those streets of gold to which our ancestors immigrated rested on flogged backs and dead Indians.