Keeping Kids Safe, The Crazy Way

Here we are, not even a full 24 hours into the New Year, and we already have an amazing display out and out crazy.

Some background before I delve into what will be a piece by piece criticism of what basically amounts to a political platform that is staggeringly backwards and ridiculous.  Mission:America is a Right Wing Christian organization whose purpose is “to equip Christians with current, accurate information about cultural issues such as feminism, homosexuality, education and New Age influences.”  I’m pretty sure you can imagine their stances on a number of issues.  Mission:America was founded by Linda Harvey (who also wrote the article in question), a former advertising executive who, as she puts it, “‘was part of the problem'”.

Well, Linda Harvey has decided to kick-start the New Year by writing a piece on “The Top 10 Ways To Make Kids Truly Safe in 2010”.  And here we go:

“As we close 2009, America is once more forced to confront the ongoing threat of terrorism.”Safety” for the citizens of the United States is foremost in everyone’s mind.

And yet we still face huge unresolved issues on the domestic front. For every parent, the future of our children is always top on our list. How do we make sure our kids are secure next year and in decades to come in an ever-more insecure world?

There are some actions well within the power of every knowledgeable and concerned parent. All we have to do, is do them. File these under “eternal vigilance.”  ”

Apparently to write an article on how to keep kids safe you must go to the tried and true GWB Handbook, Chapter 1: Invoke Terror.  But I can forgive her that transgression, because, so far, her intent appears to be good.  She wants to keep kids safe, right? Let’s continue.

“10. Let’s teach our children to refrain from honoring oppressive, liberty-denying practices and beliefs. Children should be civil to all, but refuse to be manipulated into “respecting” Islam, praying to Allah, etc., no matter how many points it counts on the social studies/diversity unit test. They should urge every girl they know wearing a hijab to remove it and no longer submit to a system of subtle bondage. They should share the Gospel of Jesus Christ deliberately with every Muslim they know— and make sure these lost kids know that Christians believe in a loving God who gives us free will.”

I agree with her first sentence entirely; we should teach our children to refrain from that, to include Christianity, cults, and anything else that robs you of your ability to think clearly and rationally and that dictates to you how you should live your life down to the very minutia of day-to-day activities.  And for the record, and this may just be my ignorance speaking, so feel free to correct me, but I’ve never heard of any non-Muslim child being forced or even told to pray to Allah.  They shouldn’t be told to pray to ANYONE in a Public School.  Separation of Church and State is supposed to keep things like this from happening.  However, what really strikes me about this paragraph is its ending.  Tell people to abandon their faith and to join yours.  Very classy.  “Yes, little Muslim girl, remove your hijab! Don’t be oppressed by your religion! Instead, become a Christian, so you can still be oppressed, but without having to cover your head!”  And I only bring up oppression of females in Christianity because of passages in the New Testament that tell women to refrain from talking in public and to be submissive to their husbands in everything.  Some real freedom to be gained by converting from Islam to Christianity!

“9. Our homes should be safe havens. That means no carbon monitors, parenting or end-of-life counselors under ObamaCare, home school checks or community organizers. We should be able to hear truly free speech and porn-free programming on radio and TV stations, and neither we nor our children should ever be tempted to have our mortgages paid for us through government hand-outs.”

The only thing I really care to go after here is the thing about home school checks.  Don’t take that to mean that I don’t find problems with the rest, it’s just that such things have been handled elsewhere, and I just don’t care to go into them at the moment.  May I ask, what exactly is wrong with home school checks?  Wouldn’t you want, if you were a home schooling parent, to be checked up on to ensure that you were teaching your children facts and truth?  Or are you afraid of what they would tell you when they see that you’re telling them that Evolution is evil and that college is a liberal brainwashing institution and that you should only vote Republican? Home schooling should still be schooling; children should be getting a proper education and they should be learning things.  They shouldn’t have their heads filled with nonsense.  And because what children learn has a direct impact on the future of the nation itself, everyone should have a vested interest in what is being taught, whether in public schools, private schools, or home schools.  End of story.

“8. Our kids should not have to face the limited options and reduced quality of life in a once-great country burdened with crushing debt. They should not have to face fifty percent or higher taxes, few employment options, and life in a corrupt and increasingly vulnerable nation. Let’s hold elected officials responsible for reckless spending, pay-offs and pork, by removing them from power at the earliest opportunity.”

More politics that I don’t care to deal with at the moment.  But I would argue that we are a “once-great country” because of the direction people of her mode of thinking took us.

“7. Children should not be endangered personally by sexually transmitted diseases allowed to rage unchecked through our under-30 population because of political correctness. They should no longer be told the outright lies that life-threatening and/or debilitating infections can be managed through either latex or life-long, expensive drug therapy. Let’s not leave them with rampant infertility due to “everyone’s” reproductive damage. We need to establish a public health system that deals with reality.”

Outright lies? STI’s are rampant because of abstinence only programs funded and promoted by the GOP and the Catholic Church, and statistics show that by teaching Safe Sex as opposed to no sex that teen pregnancy rates and STI rates are much lower.

“6. Intrusive, low- quality and high- cost health care delivery should not be the legacy we leave our children. We should recognize that America has the greatest health care system in the world, that it truly needs little reform, except to recapture personal responsibility for both cost and options. Let’s refuse to put Washington, DC in charge of your son’s and daughter’s physical well-being.”

More Obamacare scare.  Sadly, having worked in the medical field for a few years, I can safely say that we do NOT have the greatest health care system in the world and that it does need reform.  This type of American Exceptionalism coupled with Socialist scares does nothing.

“5. Let’s give our children some true leadership choices. Let’s leave them examples like Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Mike Pence. Let’s stop propping up a failed and compromised GOP, and let’s make sure the Democratic/Socialist party fades into oblivion.”

Sarah Palin? Really? Hopefully by now you realize that anyone who thinks that Sarah Palin is a role model must be insane.  I’m sure you can just feel the Birther remark that seems to be coming (don’t worry, it doesn’t, surprisingly).

“4. We must pledge to overhaul the schools we are paying for. Let’s start sending our children to Christian schools, conservative charter schools, or begin home schooling them, while we simultaneously evict our local NEA-backed public school boards and replace them with smart soccer moms and dads who have true family values. Let’s get the radicals out of our taxpayer- funded classrooms, and refuse to vote for one more levy guaranteeing the same old anti-Christian, socialist, Darwinist, hyper-sexualized, and phony “green” school curricula.”

Again, she starts off on the right track, and then just fails, epically.  The Public School System in America needs to be overhauled, desperately.  Especially when it comes to Math and the Sciences.  Children aren’t learning what they should be learning.  Sadly, much of the lack in learning in the sciences is a direct result of parents who think like this.  Not wanting to offend anyone, Evolution and other theories are pulled out of the classroom.  As a product of a Christian School, I can safely say that that is not what children need.  To have their heads filled with nonsense about Science on top of the nonsense that is religion is doing a disservice to them and to their educational needs.  By moving in the direction that she wants us to move in, we would only be moving backwards when we need to be moving forward.  For such an American Exceptionalist, you would think that she would want America to be number one in the world in the Sciences.  But, we’re not. There is nothing “Anti-Christian” about schools except for the fact that they refuse to cater to Christianity, which is exactly what they should be doing.  Separation of Church and State.  And how exactly can a school be Socialist?  I don’t remember ever being taught that Socialism leads to good things while in school; in fact, if they get the education that they need, they will be able to see the shortcomings of socialism and the successes of socialism and be able to decide their own politics.  And Darwinism, while an almost pejorative misnomer, is necessary for our kids to perform better in the sciences.  Trying to teach Intelligent Design and that the Universe is only 6,000 years old is both intellectually dishonest and just plain wrong.

“3. As responsible stewards, we must continue to demand that U.S. Department of Education ‘safe schools’ czar Kevin Jennings be fired for his lack of experience plus his known radical, sexually corrupt ideology. Let’s also eject Obama’s Chicago crony, DOE Secretary Arne Duncan, and all public officials whose track records attest to “poor education as usual” policies. Where’s the commitment to genuine child safety? Let’s make plans to fire Barack Obama at least by 2012, too, while we are at it, before he does any more damage to the next generation.”

More politics, and politics that I will admit that I don’t know much about.  And unless Barack Obama is a sexual predator, I sincerely doubt that “firing” him will make children any safer than having a Republican in office will.

“2. Get all pro-homosexual and pro-promiscuity programs, literature, teachers, and counselors out of every school now. Remove “gay” clubs, Planned Parenthood at health fairs, and GLSEN- PFLAG- SIECUS activists. Cease all condom demonstrations, abortion referrals, on-site birth control dispensing, sexual orientation affirmation, and messing with children’s hearts, minds and bodies. Demand that schools uphold the traditional value of heterosexual identities, teach abstinence- until- marriage, and celebrate male/ female gender differences.”

Wouldn’t that make kids less safe?  What about the children who are bullied for being homosexual?  What about the children who commit suicide because of conflicts about being homosexual and their and their parents beliefs? And how does teaching abstinence only make children more safe? Didn’t we just cover how it makes things worse?  Homosexual groups, affirming one’s sexual orientation, abortion counseling, and allowing access to prophylactics and birth control are all things that are trying to make kids safer and to help them make wise choices.  It decreases teen pregnancies, makes an effort to stop bullying due to sexual orientation, among many other things.  Going this route would change things for the worse, yet again.

“1. Allow—no, welcome— Christianity back into the American public square…in schools, in community groups, in city council meetings, in the Senate, on city streets, in the courthouse square, in the media, in college lectures. Laugh at the ACLU. Elect judges who agree. Don’t elect presidents who think we are no longer a Christian nation.

Let’s refuse to leave our children an inheritance of American rubble. Instead, let our New Year’s resolution and fervent prayer be to give our children an America that is the best it can be.”

ALL RELIGIONS SHOULD BE KEPT SEPARATE FROM GOVERNMENT AND IT’S BODIES, TO INCLUDE SCHOOLS, COURTHOUSES, AND EVERYWHERE ELSE.  As a friend of mine once told me, religion should be treated like your genitalia: you shouldn’t show it off in public and you shouldn’t force it down your children’s throats.  There are a multitude of beliefs in America, and there is also a growing presence of lack of belief.  All of these need to be kept out of government and shouldn’t be proclaimed over another.  Just because I disagree with Christianity and every other religion doesn’t mean that I will make that known in full view of the public, and doesn’t mean that I will try to posit my Atheism over every other religion.  Nor do I want to proselytize and convert everyone to my lack of belief.  I respect religion when it comes to people’s personal faith, but when it extends beyond that in any way, I will speak out against it, just as anyone else should.  And America was never a Christian Nation. Ever.

Kudos to The Friendly Atheist for a great handling of this article and for also being the people who brought it to my attention. If you’ve never read Hemant Mehta’s blog before, you should!

I think that’s more than enough for now.

There’s A Way To Go About These Things

This is going to be my last political blog for a little bit. Not because I don’t like blogging about politics or sharing my views on things, but because I like to vary what I write about, and sadly political blogs tend to repeat themselves quite a bit. So, for this blog I’m going to talk about what I see as the problem with the 9/12 protest, the Tea Parties, and the Town Hall Outbreaks.

Now, before I get started in all of this, I would like to preface my observations with a very important point (and maybe two or three, even.) I have actually been to a Tea Party protest; I talked to people, asked questions, took pictures, took notes. Not only that, but I happen to be from one of the most Conservative parts of California, and I was raised in a very Conservative family, many of whom have gone to Town Halls and Tea Parties. So I’m writing this not as an outside observer, but as someone who has first-hand observations and has daily conversations with these people. While my family may not be on the fringe, they do accept as fact all of the wild theories and assertions made by these people. Now, allow me to share my observations.

Now what I believe to be the two main functions of a protest are to a) display opposition to something and/or b) create and raise awareness about the issue being protested and hopefully sway people’s opinions. You and I may disagree on this, but this is just my opinion from observing various protests. So what do I see as the main problems with these protests? The problem is that they are ONLY showing opposition, in true Republican “Party of Opposition” style. The signs, buttons, T-shirts, and slogans aren’t aimed at people who don’t agree with them, at least not in order to convert them to their way of thinking. They are only aimed at people who agree with them or to show what they really think about the issue. Let me offer some examples. Tea Party signs often have slogans like “Where’s The Birth Certificate?”, various takes on “Obamacare” and “an Obamanation”, and signs with pictures of Obama as Hitler with accusations of Socialism, Marxism, and Fascism. Also, lest I forget, plenty of signs that state “We The People”. Also, I have seen signs that declared “God only takes 10%”, “Jesus is the Messiah, not Obama”, and the occasional sign that quotes Thomas Jefferson. You know which one, “The Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of Tyrants”. I always think it’s funny that they leave out the last part, “and Patriots”. Before I offer counter-examples, I’ll share with you my favorite: “Republicans Freed The Slaves, Democrats Freed The Terrorists”. Yeah, and I have pictures of it, too. I’ll compare this to signs at the protest in San Francisco against the California Supreme Courts Decision about Prop 8. Signs often proclaimed how long couples have been together, made statements like “I was raised by Gay Parents, I came out ok!”, “Gay Straight Black White, Marriage is a Civil Right”, “History judges bigotry”, and “End H8 Now!”. My favorite from that protest? “I can’t believe we’re still protesting this shit!” The difference? Apart from the obvious difference in types of slogans and signs, the Prop 8 protest had signs that didn’t try to alienate or offend. The signs focuses more on emotional appeals than just plain statements. Not to say that Tea Partiers don’t use Appeals to Emotion, but their appeals to emotion tend more towards fear than empathy. The signs are aimed at making a rhetorical point, at trying to sway people’s opinion. Also, they don’t seem to care that their signs are being used as political fodder against them by those who disagree with them. They just seem to care about voicing their opinion, which is well within their right, and to show those they oppose that they, as Glenn Beck said, “We surround them!”. In only showing opposition they are restricting themselves to themselves. They gain no more supporters, and they only keep themselves in the fringe, in their oppositions eyes. This is the biggest problem, in my opinion.

The second problem I see is that the people protesting are ONLY protesting. They walk away from these protests feeling as if they’ve made some sort of impact, as if they’ve accomplished something huge. They walk away, smiling, laughing, talking about their lives as normal. They act as if they’ve done the penultimate act to accomplish political change, and it only took three hours out of their day. Basically, the mindset is that by protesting and showing opposition and waving pictures of Hitler and screaming at Congressman that they are changing things and getting out an important message. With this mindset nothing can be expected to be accomplished. I’ll compare their movement to that of Gay Marriage Proponents and the Activists who got Obama elected in the first place. Gay Marriage Proponents give up months of their time standing on street corners asking for donations, sending out emails, passing around and signing petitions, maintaining websites, going door to door trying to drum up support. They use Facebook, Myspace, Moveon.org, Twitter, and other forms of Social Networking and the Internet, to include YouTube, to sway opinions, garner support, and hopefully accomplish something. And it’s not just a small number of people accomplishing this, but vast numbers of people. There are leaders of these movements, but they aren’t the only ones truly doing anything. Both leaders and supporters have been arrested for civil disobedience, have went door to door, have made videos on YouTube. Where are the Tea Partiers doing the same thing? Besides showing up in force where TV Cameras will be present, they do nothing, save for maybe the occasional letter to a member of Congress. I have yet to be approached on the street to support the 9/12 Project, to donate money to Tea Party Patriots, to join them at the next Town Hall Meeting, however I have been approached countless times to donate money to Equality California, to sign a petition to overturn Prop 8, to make a YouTube video against H8, to encourage my friends to go to a protest with me, to vote for change, to call my representatives and Senators and voice my opinion on Health Care Reform, Marriage Equality, and other progressive ideals. This lack of true activism is where the movement truly falls apart. Without the extra effort, the movement will not extend beyond those who already support it and go to such events.

The third problem? Even the grassroots Tea Partiers aren’t truly grassroots at all, even if they don’t realize it. Where I would call these people grassroots is that a majority of them are going to the Tea Parties of their own volition. They are driving themselves there and they are making their own signs. However, where the astroturf begins is that the people pushing these events are high-level individuals. FreedomWorks, led by Dick Armey, Glenn Beck, Fox News in General, Newt Gingrich, various representatives. Fox News goes so far as to give time normally devoted to real news stories to promote Tea Parties and to detail various locations and cover them with cameras and reporters. Fox News and various organizations and conservative websites list Town Hall Meeting times and give potential attendees questions to ask their representatives. While organizations on the left may be organizing and promoting protests and other activities on their websites, there are no media outlets actively supporting, promoting, and covering these events like Fox News is for the Tea Parties, 9/12, and Town Halls. That’s where it truly becomes astroturf. These people may be going because they really are angry, I won’t deny them that. I talked to many of them myself. They really are angry, but only about what they are hearing on Fox News and reading on WorldNetDaily and Politico. And then they are told by these same sources where to go to vent there anger, at what time, and who will be speaking at these events. Beyond that, they take the conspiracy theories they hear on Glenn Beck and WorldNetDaily and accept them as akin to Gospel truth, and anyone who can’t see it the way they do is deluded, or a member of ACORN. The astroturfness of the movement, coupled with the fringe conspiracy theories that have been debunked countless times, make the movement seem all the more to the fringe, and not worthy of true support or even consideration, much less credibility.

These are the problems I have noticed with the movement. Granted, these are just my observations and my opinions based on these observations. I see a movement that is only devoted to opposition, a movement that lacks any true activism beyond protesting and voicing opinion, and a movement that is supported by Media Outlets and personalities and that embraces fringe and radical beliefs without any rational thought or examination of evidence. Unless the movement decides to turn these three problems around, I sincerely doubt they will change anything, much less make any progress, beyond creating noise and patting each other on the back. Then again, if they changed anything, they wouldn’t be Tea Partiers anymore, but probably Obama supporters and evil liberals. “God” forbid.

Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, Communism… Which one is it?

So to all the Tea Partiers out there, I pose to you this question: Which political ideology is Obama, and why can no one on the right agree on this point?

To me, it’s simple. Obama is a Liberal Capitalist. Perhaps a slightly Hawkish Liberal Capitalist, but a Liberal Capitalist just the same. But he is definitely none of the ideologies people like Glenn Beck would have you believe. Glenn Beck and his followers would have you believe that he is all of them; that these words are interchangeable and are all evil and must be eradicated OR ELSE. Or else what? Let me assure you, should Obama suddenly say “Gotcha!” and go full force towards Communism, I’ll buy it, and I would do all I could to help stop it. But until then, I see no reason to believe that, and furthermore, I want Tea Partiers and Right Wingers in general to educate themselves in politics and government before they try to become Posterboard Pundits. Here we go:

Communism is a political ideology that strives for a classless state. The word Communism is derived from the idea that everything will be communal in a perfect Communist state. Now I would like to point out that while Communism is pretty on paper, it has yet to work on any stage larger than a small village. Reason number 1 being that people are people, and thus naturally lazy and looking for a way to get over. Even if 90% of people work hard, you’ll still have that one guy who’s standing off towards the side doing nothing. Probably one of the Right Wing guys who always point out that under Communism there are no incentives to work hard. Communism can be considered socialist in many ways, mostly because under Communism everything is supplied by the government. In fact, Communism is probably the last stop on the left wing of the political spectrum where there is any socialism whatsoever, as the only place to go from there is towards Anarchism; I know, it sounds weird that you would go from Communism to Anarchy, but they are both to the left.

Marxism is Communism, but not necessarily Communism as we have seen played out globally. Cuba and the Soviet Union were Leninists and then Stalinists, which are based on the principles of Marxism. China is Maoist, and then other Asian countries can fall into almost any category if not their own. Marxism = Communism, just not observed Communism. Which is what makes it slightly wrong to use the two interchangeably, but mostly just because of the connotation. People hear Communism and their minds jump immediately to Evil Soviets, the Hammer and Sickle, Mass Murders, Siberian Work Camps, and then to China and Tienamen Square. Obviously not what people want. In the case of most political discussions and debates, Communism itself refers more to Stalinist  principles than to Marxist or Leninist principles, thus making the two different, even if only slightly.

I won’t go into Socialism here, except to note that Nazism has nothing to do with Socialism. The fact that Nazi comes from the Original German for National Socialist German Worker’s Party is the only link between the two, and the Socialism part of that is not the Socialism that Obama is accused of and that Communism and Liberalism embrace. Also, while I’m on this topic, Liberalism will never embrace pure socialism, as it has never worked (see Communism). However, forms of Socialism work very well, as in Sweden, for example. Free Healthcare, Free schooling, to include College and Professional Schools, free everything. Swedish citizens are very well taken care of under a Socialist system that still maintains a Capitalist underpinning, and they do this while having the best Healthcare and Education in the world. Oh my, look at how horribly Socialism fails. Except for when it’s implemented correctly.

Fascism is a very right wing ideology. Don’t believe me? Go look it up on Wikipedia. Go on, I’ll wait. Now, if you read through it, I’m assuming you were looking at the principles of Fascism and saying “Dear God, it sounds almost like hardcore Right Wingers!” That’s because Fascism IS hardcore Right Wing! It’s often pointed out that George W. Bush’s grandfather was part of an American Fascist movement. He espoused certain fascists ideals, especially after September 11th and during OEF/OIF. Let’s run down the primary principles of Fascism, shall we? Nationalism. Instead of focusing on class struggles, fascism focuses on national struggles. Here it particularly embraces Social Darwinism to advocate the furthering a one’s nation and that nation’s dominance and exceptionality. Opposition to immigrants can be prevalent. National pride and national unity are major virtues in a fascist state. Sound familiar? What about objection to Abortion, Birth Control, and Genocide. Why, that’s what the Tea Partiers are objecting to now, isn’t it? What about the objection to Multiculturalism? Tea Parties, Tea Parties, Tea Parties! Opposition to homosexuality, and the list goes on. Corporate based economies. Not Capitalism, to be sure, but definitely not Communism, either. Fascism is probably the ideological antithesis to Obama’s beliefs and policies. To call him Fascist is to call him… well, a Right Winger. And yet he is surprisingly absent from the Tea Party protests. Unless, of course, you count all of the pictures of him as Chairman Mao, as Stalin, and as Hitler. The endless Hitler comparisons are funny, as well, to anyone who knows anything about history and politics. Nazi’s hate Communists as much as Fascists do. And yet so many signs will have a picture of Obama with a Hitler moustache and then call him a Communist in the same breath. Hitler is rolling in his grave every time this is done. And of course let us not forget that putting Hitler moustaches on Barney Frank and Rahm Emanuel is beyond ironic, but is deeply insulting. Barney Frank being a homosexual Jew and Rahm Emanuel being Jewish. The only way it could be more appropriate is if Barney Frank were also a Gypsy and a Jehova’s Witness, and possibly black.

So, Tea Partiers, I ask you again, which one is Obama?

Before I close this up, I’ll leave you with a collection of photos from the 9/12 Protest. Please, those of you on the Right, make no attempt to stay classy or even attempt to be unoffensive or educated, or all three, even.

Next time I’ll talk about the protest itself, and what I feel is wrong with the entire concept. Until then, stay safe and sane.