3 Hours Of Free Speech

Nov 29th, 2011

Apparently, if you are carrying a sign, that's it in Texas. The other 21 hours belong to the state.

Quote Of The Day

Nov 16th, 2011

"All oppression creates a state of war."
-- Simone de Beauvoir

Things You Can't Make Up - Tar Sands Edition

Sept 1st, 2011

Did you know that opposition to the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline extension is morally wrong? Did you know that such opposition is an endorsement of the oppression of women in the Middle East? Of course you didn't. Because that is very nearly an insane position. However, that is exactly the pitch in a new campaign from the pipeline's supporters.

Kate Sheppard reports over at Mother Jones:

"The promoters of the Canadian oil industry are now resorting to appeals to "women's liberation" to promote tar sands oil. A group calling itself "Ethical Oil" is running ads on the Oprah Winfrey Network asking women to support extracting and exporting oil from the tar sands as a means of protecting women in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia, the ad says, "doesn't allow women to drive, doesn't allow them to leave their homes or work without their male guardian's permission." "Why are we paying their bills and funding their oppression?" it asks."

Indeed, the protection of the single most important and fragile water table in the United States, the Ogallala aquifer, is being framed as complicity in the actions of a totalitarian regime's systemic abuse of women.

A video from the campaign highlighted by Sheppard is below.

It's NOT Getting Better Everywhere

July 21st, 2011

As the slow but steady progress towards full equality for the LGBT community continues here in our own country, another African nation has increased its open oppression. It is time for all western nations to offer asylum to those whose very lives may in danger due to their orientation.

From The Independent:

"In a new burst of African homophobia, a government minister in Ghana has drawn support after calling on the country's intelligence services to track down and arrest all gays and lesbians.

Worth 1,000 Words

Feb 4th, 2011

An Egyptian anti-government protester uses debris to protect himself from the continuing attacks of Mubarak and Suleiman's Thugs.

It's Time To Ask

Jan 31st, 2011

How long can the nation of Israel maintain the position that it's very existence is dependent on preserving the oppressive regimes of it's neighbors? Yuval Ben Ami asks the question:






"According to Haaretz, the Israeli government sent a message to world governments urging them to enhance their support of Mubarak’s regime in Egypt. The message urged that the stability of Egypt’s regime is beneficial to the stability of the entire middle east and thus must be preserved.

What is the value of our so called democracy if it can only flourish by keeping millions and millions out of democracy’s reach? We have been told for years that such occupation techniques as the construction of the separation barrier are neccesary to ensure the survival of “the Middle East’s only democracy”. We learned to accept that our democracy is dependent on human rights infringements. Now we learn that the scale of these infringements must be fantastically greater.

For 30 years Israel enjoyed the status quo with Egypt, while Egyptians suffered from tyranny, lacked freedom of speech and could not effect their own destiny. What message is Israel sending now? Does it truly imply that only a dictatorial Middle East will permit it to survive as a Jewish state?

Is this Jewish state such a fragile fantasy, that an entire region of the world must be kept imprisoned in order for it to thrive?" 

"How many people must be deprived of liberty so we can have ours? Can we only have our liberty by maintaining absolute dictators as allies? Are we really that scared?"