Ten year old boy - Gay rights Ally

So why can't other Americans...

A 10-year-old Arkansan who has refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance until gays and lesbians have equal rights. CNN's John Roberts asks Will Phillips why the issue is so important to him.

Says Phillips: "Because I have many -- I've grown up with a lot of people and good friends with a lot of people that are gay and I really -- I think they should have the rights all people should. And I'm not going to swear that they do."

Roberts also asks Phillips what he said to the teacher after refusing to say the Pledge.

Said Phillips: "I eventually, very solemnly, with a little bit of malice in my voice, said, 'Ma'am with all due respect, you can go jump off a bridge.'"

Phillips says that since taking a stand he has been repeatedly called a "gay-wad" by other students, which he calls a "discriminatory name for homosexuals." - Towleroad

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Everything is disposable

Okay, who is a collector out there? It looks like we collect a ton of things, all of which are disposable yet we keep them. Is anything really made to last forever?

"We live in this moment where nothing must be thrown out, yet everything is disposable” said Ken Hillis, editor of Everyday eBay, a collection of essays about the auction site on which millions of objects are bought and sold each day. “I think you see eBay working very well there to tell people that this sense of self and long-term identity can be completely attached to objects.” Globe and Mail.

Maybe all those tonka toys and dinky cars are worth something, sure wish I still had them... Sphere: Related Content

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sick for profit

Check out sick for profit. Post it or send it to all your American friends. Get them to send to all their friends.

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“our Father, who art in heaven”

That's what could be used to begin every council meeting of the Lanark County. Lanark County Warden Paul Dulmage announced a week ago he plans to introduce a motion to that effect. My Zeus what is happening to this country of Canada. In a couple of hours the House of Commons will be voting to end the long gun registry and now I read that the community I spend half my time in when I escape the Centre of the Universe (that's you Toronto) for three or four days a week has decided to stuff some other god down my throat.

It was only a few weeks ago I read that some anti-gay christian radical dude that wants to ban books about gay families was appointed to sit on the Library board in Eganville an hour away from Lanark. The world is changing but not for the better.

It kind of makes me wonder if Canada is caught in the BUSH era. It also says that there is no way on Estre's green earth we can let Harper gain a majority government. I mean it would be all of rich fat dead leader of the moral majority's wet dreams come true.

And then there is the Senate. This ought to scare a few folks here.

Wake up folks, don't you see that the land is being taken over by the Leave it to beaver crowd. Soon we won't even be able to toke up to take away these awful maladies if we don't do something. Sphere: Related Content

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We were born to FIGHT...

The good fight was set back in Maine last night and I can think of no better way to sum it up than how my fellow warrior Montreal Simon does here.

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Do you want good news first? Washington State yes to gays

Gays win in Washington, lose in Maine

In the two big election events held in the USA yesterday an anti gay marriage victory in Maine and in Washington State "everything but marriage" passed.

The Maine vote was seen to have a good chance of succeeding. It almost did. Just after midnight with 82% Reporting 52.36% opposed gay marriage and 47.64% supported it. It appears to be lost.

Washington State's vote was 51.9% for "Gay Marriage" and 48.10% opposed. A victory to celebrate. The referendum confers all State and local rights of marriage to same-sex couples in registered domestic partnerships.

In Houston, Lesbian Parker was the top vote getter with 30% of the vote. She will take on the runner up in a run off in the weeks ahead...

... and in Chapel Hill, NC openly gay man Mark Kleinschmidt is going to be the next mayor. See Pam's House.

For more on queer victories in the USA go to gaypolitics.com.






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Queer Mayor for Houston Texas? No way right?

It could be a big night for gays across the USA tonight. Two gay marriage votes are happening, one in Maine, the second in Washington State. In Houston Texas a lesbian, Annise Parker is leading the voting as I write this.

Yes deep in the heart of Texas a Lesbian could become the Mayor of Houston, America's forth largest city. That's got to be something for Bush and Dick Armey to choke on.

Tonight is the night when voters in Maine could become the first voters in the country to sanction gay marriage. Washington State follows a few hours later.


It's looking like a good night for us, a bad night for the religious bigots and their immoral minority. Hey it will be a minority soon... Sphere: Related Content

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Canada and Ontario took unacceptable risks

The current H1N1 vaccination effort is a mammoth job. It is made larger by the fact that every western country is trying to do the same thing at the same time. Alas we have shortages and the Ontario vaccination effort forcing people to line up for hour after hour until seven or eight hours go by is bizarre by Canadian standards of care.

These lineups were made inevitable due to the lack of foresight or outright risk taking by the Ontario Mike Harris government and in some cases by the current McGinty government. Harris slashed the heck out of public health in this province and McGinty has failed to fix it beyond a few band-aids and another round of reorganization.

We have learned little it seems from SARS or WALKERTON. The government has slashed or reorganized public health to a point that when they have to address a monumental task like the H1N1 vaccination of the entire population, they have few staff or resources available to get the job done.

It use to be that these vaccinations would occur in schools for our children. Seems to me that it would be much easier for the system to set up at each school and do this. Perhaps a team of nurses could do a few schools every day. They could even do this is daycare and kindergarten.

Large employers could deliver this to staff at work. Non-profit, Co-op's and community housing would be great places to do these shots as well. People could sign up online for a a window of time to get their shots. Many people living with compromised immune systems belong to or receive services from community organizations that could deliver the flu vaccine.

No the Ontario option has been to make people line-up for hours at a time or be one of the lucky to belong to a private clinic. All you need is $2300 a year for personalized care. Then there are all the staff in public health that are being run ragged. Working long hours and taking abuse from angry folks that have lined up for several hours.

Our health care system is being rationalized out of business. Our once vaunted status as a nation that looks after its citizens, where health care is a right, is showing severe signs of strain and lacking credibility. I live in St. Jamestown. The health care system could easily set up in the lobby of each building and vaccinate thousands of people in a few days and people would not have to stand in line for hours.

I believe those at the top have rolled the dice. They have measured the risks and gone ahead and accepted that lack of resources and staffing is acceptable for these "rare" occasions. Sphere: Related Content

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Polygamy in Canada

Here comes the end of Canadian Marriage laws as we know them...

The BC Government is seeking the opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada with respect to polygamy laws...

From the BC Government press release...

“Until Canadians and the justice system have clarity about the constitutionality of our polygamy laws, all provinces, including ours, face a lengthy and costly legal process in prosecuting alleged offences. With that in mind, I have instructed counsel not to appeal the Sept. 23 B.C. Supreme Court decision and, instead, to proceed with the reference questions I will be submitting to the court.

“I am proposing to pose two questions. The first will ask the court to determine if Section 293 is consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The second will seek clarity on the Criminal Code provisions of Section 293. I am confident, given the importance of this matter, the court will agree to hear the questions.

After the Ontario Court approved three names on a birth certificate as parents a couple years ago, the changes to who and how many can marry can't be far behind. Sphere: Related Content

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LPC bodychecked by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has just sunk Liberal (LPC) fortunes in Quebec. Today they ruled against Bill 104 stating it was unconstitutional and gave the Quebec government one year to clean it up. The Bloc will use this as another reason to send them to Ottawa to look out for Quebec as yet another Canadian institution has assaulted the sovereignty of French nation of Quebec.

The Supreme Court decision was unanimous. That says that even the three Supreme Court Justices from Quebec have deemed the law unconstitutional. That is not going to go over well and it provides an opportune time for the BLOC to solidify what was a weakening lead over the LPC in Quebec.

Add to this story the recent book by former Philadelphia Flyer player Bob Sirois, who examines forty years of NHL draft picks and determines that francophone Quebecers are systematically ignored by an “anti-french virus”.

"Francophone Quebecers are wrongly disparaged as too small, too lax on defence and not suited to the robust “Canadian” style of play, Mr. Sirois writes in the book, published in French and titled Le Québec mis en échec (Quebec Bodychecked). “Myths, prejudices, stereotypes and favoritism make up an integral part of every draft session in the National Hockey League.” - Graeme Hamilton, National Post, October 19, 2009

Sirous makes a good case for his findings while pointing out that the current General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens, Bob Gainey has drafted fewer and fewer french players since he came into the job. If Quebec's team can't or won't draft french players who will?

Have a look at the the Montreal Canadiens roster and it likely has more Russians than French Canadiens. That would have been unheard of 15 or 20 years ago.

These stories add up to the Bloc becoming rightiously indignant about the Quebec place in Canada. I can see an ad coming, Iggy and Harper gaining up and bodychecking some pee wee hockey player in a school league somewhere. Sphere: Related Content

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Happy women and fag day

Here is proof Satan took advantage of the moral majority (MM)..

Women taking control, a fag rising from the womb, and more...

a bad couple of days where the MM lost ...

On October 16, 1919 Planned Parenthood opened its first space, the first U.S. birth control clinic. A woman named Margaret Sanger made it happen.


That was followed by Canadian Women becoming persons on October 18, 1929. They could vote in 1920 as long they were a British subject, not Asian, Inuit, or Indian or reside in Quebec. For some reason Quebec said no to women voting until 1940!

Edmonton feminist Emily Murphy, whose actions as a magistrate had been challenged on the grounds that she was not a "person" under the BNA Act, was the preferred Senate candidate of national women's groups.

Along with four other prominent women activists - Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, and Henrietta Muir Edwards - Judge Murphy persuaded the government to direct the Supreme Court to rule on whether women were indeed "persons."

The court ruled in the negative, but on October 18, 1929, eight years after the campaign began, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England, then the appeals court for the Canadian Supreme Court, ruled in the women's favour. - YorkU

Then of course one of the most well known, loved and despised men to gain an audience was Oscar Wilde. He joined the world on October 16, 1854. He was a little "out" there for the comfort of general society and spent some time in the brig for it, then deciding to remove himself from Victorian England for the freedom of Paris.

"the great Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and author of short stories known for his barbed wit, he was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. As the result of a famous trial, he suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years of hard labor after being convicted of the offense of gross indecency"- White Crane

Then on this day in 1933 the Singing Nun was born, she was a real nun and she hid the fact she was a lesbian. It seems the Church also had a don't ask, don't tell policy. The singing nun is famous for her big hit in 1963 that tossed Elvis Presley from the top of the charts for at least 4 weeks with the it single "Dominique".


Soeur Sourire was a Belgian nun. Her real name was Jeanine Decker and her name in the convent was Sister Luc-Gabrielle. In 1985 Soeur Sourire and her (female) friend Annie Pecher committed suicide. Sphere: Related Content

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Can I have this dance

Commercials, supporting queer youth are popping up all over the world it seems except Canada. When was the last time you saw an ad on Canadian TV about queer teens. This one is Norwegian though this has English text added.

Call me silly, but I was that boy in school, I would have loved to walk up to a boy like this boy does. That would have been said to have "taken a lot of courage" and or "You are NUTS!" when I was in school. The ad suggests that differing attitudes are in place today, though the ad also says its still a problem. Sphere: Related Content

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LPC have a Rae of hope

It looks as if Jack Layton made the right decision when he decided to keep the Harper government in power for now. It is clear the Tories are on a high and today's ekos poll shows the LPCers losing ground in Toronto. To put that in perspective, imagine the Liberals being in the game in Calgary. Thats how big this is. The LPC Iggy lead party is performing as bad and maybe worse than the Dion lead team. At least with Dion, you knew what the LPC stood for.

As is usual, the New Democrat numbers go up a little when the LPC goes down. No different in today's polling info. The New Democrats need to do a lot more advertising, spend it now and show the country they do have some alternative views on the issues of the day. The LPC is sliding and the New Democrats can make some head way.

And the LPC needs to sit down and decide what it is that defines them. Can anyone point to an issue they lead on, that they have made their own?

Can Bob Rae have been worse than this? Rae's NDP government was likely the deciding factor in the LPC decision to choose Iggy to save Ontario. It looks like losing Ontario has happened anyway. The slide in Toronto is even worse. Would Bob have let this happen? Sphere: Related Content

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Son don't pay to register your gun

Looks like if he can't get rid of the gun registry Harper will simply make it irrelevant. He is going to wave the fees for registration of your gun(s). Smart move on his part. It's some movement he can put to his anti-gun control crowd.

The decision to cancel fees will cost us 15 million this year in lost revenue. Just another way to say thanks to your friends. More over at Musings from the political youth corner.

Perhaps now he can change other regulations? Sphere: Related Content

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Okay, show me an LPCer

...that still wants an election

Support for the Harper Conservatives is flirting with majority government levels after weeks of parliamentary wrangling that saw the Liberals try and fail to topple the Tory minority amid a recession.

A Strategic Counsel poll conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV says Conservative support has risen to 41 per cent nationally – a six-point jump from a month ago. - The globe and mail

Kiss up with Jack and be nice

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HST for the record....

"... We need another way. This harmonization of the GST, this tax collusion between provincial and federal Liberal governments, is not the way to reverse the economic decline of this country...."

Who said this in 1996? Not the New Democrats, Not the LPC Government, no it was Stephen Harper MP from Calgary West.

h/t to Blogging a dead horse

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Ephebophilia

Ephebophilia!

a sexual orientation or preference in which an adult's primary sexual attraction is towards pubescent or postpubescent adolescents

Thanks to Bruce over at Canuck Attitude, I learned a new word. Ephebophilia is apparently what Catholic priests practice, but not only Catholics do this, it is apparently just as common in other denominations... according to the Holy See.

I think there is value in being a Catholic, I mean you get to say sorry every time you do something you shouldn't...

Bruce has a good piece on this, go have a look. Sphere: Related Content

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New NDP ad hits the mark

Ok, this is on the right track. Lets see more of these ads on a variety of issues.




See others can do better! Sphere: Related Content

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New Democrats and LPCers need to look deep

Update - 5:30 pm Sep 30/09: Olivia Chow has not said she would be thinking she would run for the Mayor's job in Toronto. In fact she will be staying in Parliament! I stand corrected and very happy!
---------------------------

Politics creates some odd realities. The Liberals fed up with taking the brunt for supporting the Harper minority decided it was time someone else picked up that dirty job and the New Democrats have obliged. Jeff over at his "I'm an Ontarian after being a BCer" blog has a good analysis of the situation, albeit from an LPCer point of view. He takes few little shots at the New Democrats.

The truth of the stranger than reality show in Ottawa is that the New Democrats and Liberals do not want an election now. The New Democrats are taking the hit in the media and from Iggy for "propping up" the Harperites. Funny thing is, its truly to Iggy's short term benefit that we don't have an election, especially with Bob Rae breathing down his back. An election now would likely see the NDP lose some seats and the LPC gain a few and Harper gaining some, maybe enough for a majority.

With a another dismal LPC performance, Iggy will have to leave and Bob Rae will step in, bringing with him all of Jean's buddies. The demon of Paul Martin will be washed away and the LPC will actually stand some chance of regaining government.

The New Democrats future looks about the same or worse. I wish I could suggest it would be otherwise. Instead of being acknowledged by the media for preventing an election and trying to make Parliament work at least until spring, they are being characterised as having to hold their noses while voting with Harper.

I haven't met any Canadian other than a few party hacks that want an election or think we need one. With that public thought pervading the land, the New Democrats should get some credit for doing the dirty work. But this is politics and the New Democrats are being roasted as hypocrites (79 Liberal votes).

Further disconcerting is the lack of imagination in any of the political parties. We Can Do Better and Standing up for Average Working Families are lame and bereft of content. Where is the grand vision. All we get is, "they are wrong and we are right."

The New Democrats must do better this time out or Jack is finished. With rumours that Olivia Chow may leave one of only two New Democrat seats in Toronto to seek the Mayor's job, the New Democrats fortunes look bleak for making any advances in Canada's biggest city. If Chow runs for Mayor then I expect the left and centre vote will split and John Tory will become Mayor, thats a lovely thought to contemplate.

The LPC and the New Democrats have a big job to do this winter. Polling does not build grand visions, polls do not inspire people to support this idea or that one. They both need to be out there listening and talking with Canadians.

I have seen many of the ideas the New Democrats have proposed and I support them whole heartedly. What they have failed to do is capture the attention of voters and would be voters. Instead of being seen as a party that supports working families, they are seen as the party that hates business. The LPC on the other hand is seen as having destroyed its foundation.

If we want to stop a Conservative majority we New Democrats and LPCers must take a good look at what our respective parties are offering Canadians and will Canadians like it enough to support it. Sphere: Related Content

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UnitedHealth deny, deny, deny

Whats wrong with for profit health care? How about this striking number. For every $700 spent on health care $1.00 goes to one person. That's unreal. UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley makes 819,363.10 every day of 2009. Hemsley's stock options of over 700 million dollars would pay for flu vaccinations for every man, woman and child in California, Texas and Minnesota.

This company has been fined millions of dollars for wrongly denying coverage and delaying payment for health care services delivered to patients. They pay the fines because its better for the bottom line. Deny payment, deny coverage and many people will go away, in some cases die.



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Trouble in Quebec

Liberal MP Denis Coderre has resigned as the LPCer in charge for Quebec and as the Defense critic. Coderre did say he still has confidence in Iggy even if he Coderre has taken all the heat for the party in Quebec. Sounds like all is not as nice as the public statements make it seem too be.

Its always hard learning on the job especially when you are busy trying to look like you want an election despite being way way down in the polls. Lucky for the LPCers the NDP managed to get some EI money, no matter how short lived it may end up being, at least it saved Iggy from being the second Liberal leader from going down in flames in an election.

An election now could do nothing other than give Harper his majority without Quebec, now that would make for an interesting four years. That is especially true given Harper's announcement today that 90% of stimulus funding has found a home, even if most of it is in Conservative ridings. Wonder where the Conservatives learned that way of doing business. Sphere: Related Content

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2,700 lobbyists at war with Obama

2,700 lobbyists are working for the private health insurance industry and other health care corporations in Washington right now. That's more people than Canada has in Afghanistan. You might call this lobby effort a war. Their goal is simple. Stop any attempt at offering a Public Option or public health Care plan.

At issue is a Public plan that would compete with private insurance companies to provide insurance and changes that would prevent insurance companies from eliminating coverage for people with pre-exisiting health problems.

All of this lobbying is having an effect. Many lawmakers have still to agree on a public option despite 65% of Americans being in favour of a Government run plan that competes with insurance companies. Its time lawmakers in the USA trust themselves and the people.

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They didn't know Matthew, John and Joel.

"I watched The 700 Club sometimes with Pat Robertson -- they're constantly talking about gays."

Those are the words of a confessed killer, Jay Johnson. Johnson's father was VP of Bethel College and Seminary and often spoke openly against homosexuality. He was raised in a strict, religious household.

Johnson learned to hate gays and himself. He was gay himself and felt what he was doing was wrong. To deal with his feelings of guilt and remorse he killed two gay men and attacked another.

Jay Thomas Johnson plead guilty to the murder of former State Sen. John Chenoweth, 48, and Joel Larson, 21. That was 17 years ago on September 30, 1992. Since then the anti gay rhetoric has gone up a few notches.

You can't convince me that the words of "moral" leaders don't lead to acts such as those exhibited by Jay. These moral leaders have instilled a deep hatred and a sense of responsibility or obligation to act, among many that listen to them.

In this case three lives were sadly taken, the two men Jay killed and his own. Jay has admitted to being gay himself and according to this website, has accepted himself now. Its an outrage that these murders, inspired by words of the demonizing Christian fundamentalist leadership and supported by stupid people like the one guy I mentioned in the post below, happen at all.

These murders happened before Matthew Shepard. Who said words will never hurt me? They didn't know Matthew, John and Joel. Sphere: Related Content

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Another Penn State "the sky is falling" Republican

We're tired of god gays and guns - the sky is falling...

Okay many of us are and this is not that rare in the USA today or parts of Canada for that matter. There is however one person who has been singled out for attention by Change.org. Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe seems to want to keep America white, christian and gays in jail.

There is no real need to read this if you live outside Pennsylvania. If you do live in this great state, then do something about Metcalfe.

This guy sees every progressive action in the State as an item on the Gay Agenda. End Violence against women, a gay plot. He simply has to go.

Off course if he sticks around he could become a spokesperson for the Republican party, that would help out progressive republicans and independents make up their minds on which party to support.

Do you live in PA House District # 12 in Butler County. You do if you live in any of these municipalities: Adams Twp, Callery, Clinton Twp, Connoquenessing, Cranberry Twp, Evans City, Forward Twp, Jefferson Twp, Mars, Middlesex Twp, Penn Twp, Saxonburg, Seven Fields, & Valencia. And the School Districts of: Butler Area School District, Mars Area School District, South Butler County School District, Seneca Valley School District.

Register to vote, write the local, state and national GOP leadership and demand Metcalfe be set free or turned out to pasture. Perhaps his local church could use an alter boy?

All the help you need is here. Sphere: Related Content

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