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[MsDemeanor]

I'm sure that it would have been Constitutional back when Republicans came up with the idea and drew up legislation for it. You know, back when Clinton was President. Back then, they insisted that it was all about "personal responsibility". Damn hypocrites.

[Toughy]

Originally Posted by MsDemeanor

I'm sure that it would have been Constitutional back when Republicans came up with the idea and drew up legislation for it. You know, back when Clinton was President. Back then, they insisted that it was all about "personal responsibility". Damn hypocrites.

of course they are hypocrites...........laughin.....that is not the question........

Can you require a person to purchase basic health insurance?

[MissItalianDiva]

Originally Posted by Toughy

of course they are hypocrites...........laughin.....that is not the question........

Can you require a person to purchase basic health insurance?

Well I am sure if they wanted to and got a judge who agreed then perhaps they could try but......the question still remains. What is the point anyways. You are still going to have a large population of people who can not afford even the basic so then what happens....oh of course the same thing that happens now. Really what is the purpose of doing it.

Not to mention I view it as unconstitutional......personal responsibility how....Whats next we mandate everyone to see a Dr every 3 months...oh maybe because that is after all making one accept personal responsibility right. What about those who do not support or follow modern medicine for personal or even religious reasons?

[Greyson]

I don't know why UCLA chose to take a look at the State of Oklahoma. The report is 8 pages long. I know Oklahoma is snowed in today. Here is offered more reading while trying to stay warm.
______________________________________________

UCLA’s Williams Institute Releases New Study Examining Employment Discrimination Against LGBT People in Oklahoma and Analyzing the Impact of Adding Sexual Orientation to Existing Non-Discrimination in the State

January 31, 2011


LOS ANGELES - Today, the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law released a new research study providing evidence of employment discrimination against LGBT people in Oklahoma. The new study also shows that adding sexual orientation and gender identity to Oklahoma’s existing non-discrimination laws would be beneficial for employees and employers, while not overburdening the administrative system.
The study estimates that there are between 43,000 and 57,000 LGB people working in Oklahoma, along with as many as 6,800 transgender people. Several sources of data demonstrate that LGBT Oklahomans face harassment and discrimination in the workplace because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. For instance, a survey of LBGT people in Tulsa revealed that 22 percent had experienced employment discrimination because of their sexual orientation. National surveys also find that large percentages of LGBT people report discrimination in the workplace.
Discrimination has many negative effects that may affect income. According to Census Bureau data, men in same-sex couples in Oklahoma face an earnings gap, earning 26% less than married men. Employment discrimination also hurts businesses. When LGBT employees fear discrimination in the workplace, they hide their identity, have less job-satisfaction, and are less productive.
“Laws that provide protection from discrimination not only benefit employees, but also help businesses recruit and retain highly-skilled employees,” explains study co-author Lee Badgett, Research Director of the Williams Institute and director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
A number of Oklahoma-based corporations, including Devon Energy Corp., OKEOK Inc., Williams Companies Inc., and OGE Energy Corp., have already adopted such policies.
The estimated impact on the state administrative agencies resulting from expanding the existing non-discrimination law is negligible. “Considering the experience of states that have already adopted non-discrimination laws protecting LGBT employees, we do not expect that such a law in Oklahoma would overwhelm state agencies or the courts,” said Christy Mallory, study co-author and Williams Institute Legal Research Fellow. The study finds that expanding Oklahoma’s non-discrimination law to include sexual orientation and gender identity will result in an estimated increase in filings of 21-29 complaints per year.


The full report may be found at: http://www2.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/home.html

[Soon]

Release: Iowa House Passes Amendment Seeking to Add Discrimination to Constitution

DES MOINES – The Iowa House today, by a vote of 62-37, passed an amendment (House Joint Resolution 6) that would deny any form of legal recognition for gay couples. The amendment seeks to prohibit not only the freedom to marry for gay couples, but also civil unions or domestic partnerships.

The bill now moves on to the Iowa Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal has vowed to fight attempts to pass the amendment. If passed through both legislative bodies in two consecutive General Assemblies, the issue could be on the ballot as soon as 2013.

“The proposed amendment devalues families and divides Iowans,” said One Iowa Executive Director Carolyn Jenison. “The Constitution is meant to protect the freedoms and liberties of all Iowans. It is inappropriate to use the political process to single out and deny a group of Iowans of their constitutional protections.”

“This goes beyond politics,” said Iowa City resident Katie Imborek. “This is about our family and the ability for Paula and me to care for one another and our two children. At a time when so many Iowans are struggling just to make ends meet, I don’t understand why legislators would choose to take up this issue.”

“From a business perspective, we do have a history of civility, tolerance and respect for the individual. I believe these same values mark the path to economic recovery,” said Suku Radia, CEO and President of Bankers Trust.


---------------

[weatherboi]

it is official...i will no longer be watching or participating in football anything!!! i think i will take Ms to see Black Swan!!!

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/413605...me_and_courts/ article

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/ video

[weatherboi]

Originally Posted by weatherboi

it is official...i will no longer be watching or participating in football anything!!! i think i will take Ms to see Black Swan!!!

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/413605...me_and_courts/ article

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/ video

[DapperButch]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._lnk3%7C199922

[Soft*Silver]

Yesterday, two gunman walked into a frat party and opened fire, killing one, shooting twelve.

Youngstown is known for its crime rate. This crime actually had its root at a bar downtown, where they began their shooting, over a woman, left and went to the frat party...where the young man who was killed made them leave. They returned and opened fire.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110207/...ouse_shootings

I posted this under the candle thread too. Pray in whatever form you wish, for our community and families are all in shock...

[MsTinkerbelly]

PUERTO RICO: Murderer Of Transwoman Ashley Santiago Sentenced To 111 Years

Some hefty justice has been doled out to the murderer of transwoman Ashely Santiago, whose brutally stabbed body was found in her Puerto Rico home last April. Michael Lavers reports at Edge News:
A Puerto Rican man who confessed to murdering a transgender woman in her Corozal home received a 111-year prison sentence on Monday, Feb. 7. Primera Hora reported Judge Jesús Peluyera imposed the sentence upon Emanuel Adorno Ayala, who confessed to stabbing Ashley Santiago more than a dozen times in April 2010. Primera Hora further reported Santiago’s mother, Carmen Ocasio, tearfully said "this pain will last for the rest of my life" after Peluyera sentenced Ayala

[Nat]

Popularity increases aggression in kids: study


LOS ANGELES, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Previous studies showed that aggression makes kids more popular, but a new study suggests that becoming more popular makes kids more aggressive.

To determine the link between popularity and aggression, researchers at the University of California, Davis examined surveys involving about 3,700 students. The surveys asked the students about their friendships as well as whom they picked on and who picked on them. The surveys' questions concerned both physical aggression and relationship aggression such as name- calling and ostracism.

After controlling for variables known to influence aggression, including dating activity, sports participation, grade-point average, socioeconomic status and physical development, the researchers found that students who were more central in their social networks were also more aggressive.

Network centrality is a bit more complex than popularity: It means that a kid has not only a lot of friends, but a lot of friends who are also socially prominent. These school-age movers and shakers have a lot of social power among their peers, lead researcher Bob Faris said in remarks published by LiveScience.com on Tuesday.

"For the most part, we find that status increases aggression," Faris told LiveScience.

"For some people, that will be a surprise. For other people who have grown up quoting 'Mean Girls,' it might be an 'Oh, duh' kind of revelation," he added, referring to the 2004 comedy about a clique of vicious but popular high school girls.

In the study, Faris and his colleagues not only examined individual traits, but also social networks where bullying takes place, using data from a long-term study of public school children in three counties in North Carolina, according to LiveScience.com.

Their approach is different from many previous studies on kid aggression which only focused on the traits of bullies and their victims. These studies suggested that bullies often have troubled family lives and may be at higher risk for depression and other mental health disorders. Their victims are often unpopular.

The gradual increase of aggression with popularity continues until one reaches the top two percent of popular students, Faris said. At that point, aggression suddenly drops off. The top two percent are even less aggressive than the kids at the very bottom of the heap, Faris said.

"We can't preclude the possibility that kids at the very top are just somehow really different, that they're incredibly nice and everybody loves them," Faris said. But other evidence suggests that these extremely popular kids are just secure enough in their positions that they don't need to be aggressive anymore, he said.

[betenoire]

Keith Olbermann launching primetime news show on "current" network this spring

Mwah Keith!

[Jesse]

Wasn't sure if this got posted or not.

Atlanta Eagle Awarded $1M for Police Raid



http://www.edgeonthenet.com/?113815

[rlin]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Wasn't sure if this got posted or not.

Atlanta Eagle Awarded $1M for Police Raid



http://www.edgeonthenet.com/?113815

not only that but projectq reported a coupla days ago that the guy that headed up the raid was arrested for dwi and a coupla other shameless hypocrisies the other night!... if that woulda happened b4 they settled it they may have gotten more than about 30k apiece!

[rlin]

Originally Posted by MissItalianDiva

Well I am sure if they wanted to and got a judge who agreed then perhaps they could try but......the question still remains. What is the point anyways. You are still going to have a large population of people who can not afford even the basic so then what happens....oh of course the same thing that happens now. Really what is the purpose of doing it.

Not to mention I view it as unconstitutional......personal responsibility how....Whats next we mandate everyone to see a Dr every 3 months...oh maybe because that is after all making one accept personal responsibility right. What about those who do not support or follow modern medicine for personal or even religious reasons?

im stuck on this one... on the onehand i do believe its ridiculous... ive been railing about the states that mandate auto insurance forever...
that said... i hate the insurance industry owning all of us... the only way that we can have a say is if everyone is insured... when it is a matter of an entire population we regain control thru real regulation...
hmmm... this is the US... where corporations rule...so not total control of course... but more than we have now...
its sorta a two sided coin for me...
i cant figure out where to flip it...
well... if i had my drothers... socialized is the way i would vote.. but this is (for damned sure) entirely my own thinking...

[Gayla]

I don't remember seeing a thread on the goings on in Egypt so I'm just tossing this up here. Heard part of this interview on the way home today. The woman they spoke to is from Seattle but has been teaching in Egypt for 20 years.

Article and Link to Interview

I haven't been following this as much as I should but I get bits and pieces of updates online. I've fascinated by these first hand accounts that aren't coming from reporters but from people looking out their windows and watching it happen.

[rlin]

thisll be coming up for a vote in the senate soon... and

If you think we have a solid pro-choice majority in the Senate, think again.

It's up to the Senate to stop the attacks on women now that the House has passed legislation to defund family planning services -- shamefully wiping out federal funding for Planned Parenthood's non-abortion health care for women, and pushing a bill that would allow hospitals to let pregnant women die rather than perform life-saving abortions.

But we cannot take for granted our ability to stop these bills in the Senate. Anti-choice forces in the Senate now out number pro-choice senators 46-40, and we need 41 votes to sustain a filibuster of the anti-woman, anti-choice bills coming out of the House.

go do something... whatever it is that is put to our govt about this will only help!

[rlin]

an open letter to westboro from anonymous... fred is done!
We, the collective super-consciousness known as ANONYMOUS - the Voice of Free Speech & the Advocate of the People - have long heard you issue your venomous statements of hatred, and we have witnessed your flagrant and absurd displays of inimitable bigotry and intolerant fanaticism. We have always regarded you and your ilk as an assembly of graceless sociopaths and maniacal chauvinists & religious zealots, however benign, who act out for the sake of attention & in the name of religion.
Being such aggressive proponents for the Freedom of Speech & Freedom of Information as we are, we have hitherto allowed you to continue preaching your benighted gospel of hatred and your theatrical exhibitions of, not only your fascist views, but your utter lack of Christ-like attributes. You have condemned the men and women who serve, fight, and perish in the armed forces of your nation; you have prayed for and celebrated the deaths of young children, who are without fault; you have stood outside the United States National Holocaust Museum, condemning the men, women, and children who, despite their innocence, were annihilated by a tyrannical embodiment of fascism and unsubstantiated repugnance. Rather than allowing the deceased some degree of peace and respect, you instead choose to torment, harass, and assault those who grieve.
Your demonstrations and your unrelenting cascade of disparaging slurs, unfounded judgments, and prejudicial innuendos, which apparently apply to every individual numbered amongst the race of Man - except for yourselves - has frequently crossed the line which separates Freedom of Speech from deliberately utilizing the same tactics and methods of intimidation and mental & emotional abuse that have been previously exploited and employed by tyrants and dictators, fascists and terrorist organizations throughout history.

ANONYMOUS cannot abide this behavior any longer. The time for us to be idle spectators in your inhumane treatment of fellow Man has reached its apex, and we shall now be moved to action. Thus, we give you a warning: Cease & desist your protest campaign in the year 2011, return to your homes in Kansas, & close your public Web sites.
Should you ignore this warning, you will meet with the vicious retaliatory arm of ANONYMOUS: We will target your public Websites, and the propaganda & detestable doctrine that you promote will be eradicated; the damage incurred will be irreversible, and neither your institution nor your congregation will ever be able to fully recover. It is in your best interest to comply now, while the option to do so is still being offered, because we will not relent until you cease the conduction & promotion of all your bigoted operations & doctrines.

The warning has been given. What happens from here shall be determined by you.



WE ARE ANONYMOUS.
WE ARE LEGION.
WE DO NOT FORGIVE.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
EXPECT US.

[Toughy]

Originally Posted by rlin

an open letter to westboro from anonymous... fred is done!
We, the collective super-consciousness known as ANONYMOUS - the Voice of Free Speech & the Advocate of the People - have long heard you issue your venomous statements of hatred, and we have witnessed your flagrant and absurd displays of inimitable bigotry and intolerant fanaticism. We have always regarded you and your ilk as an assembly of graceless sociopaths and maniacal chauvinists & religious zealots, however benign, who act out for the sake of attention & in the name of religion.
Being such aggressive proponents for the Freedom of Speech & Freedom of Information as we are, we have hitherto allowed you to continue preaching your benighted gospel of hatred and your theatrical exhibitions of, not only your fascist views, but your utter lack of Christ-like attributes. You have condemned the men and women who serve, fight, and perish in the armed forces of your nation; you have prayed for and celebrated the deaths of young children, who are without fault; you have stood outside the United States National Holocaust Museum, condemning the men, women, and children who, despite their innocence, were annihilated by a tyrannical embodiment of fascism and unsubstantiated repugnance. Rather than allowing the deceased some degree of peace and respect, you instead choose to torment, harass, and assault those who grieve.
Your demonstrations and your unrelenting cascade of disparaging slurs, unfounded judgments, and prejudicial innuendos, which apparently apply to every individual numbered amongst the race of Man - except for yourselves - has frequently crossed the line which separates Freedom of Speech from deliberately utilizing the same tactics and methods of intimidation and mental & emotional abuse that have been previously exploited and employed by tyrants and dictators, fascists and terrorist organizations throughout history.

ANONYMOUS cannot abide this behavior any longer. The time for us to be idle spectators in your inhumane treatment of fellow Man has reached its apex, and we shall now be moved to action. Thus, we give you a warning: Cease & desist your protest campaign in the year 2011, return to your homes in Kansas, & close your public Web sites.
Should you ignore this warning, you will meet with the vicious retaliatory arm of ANONYMOUS: We will target your public Websites, and the propaganda & detestable doctrine that you promote will be eradicated; the damage incurred will be irreversible, and neither your institution nor your congregation will ever be able to fully recover. It is in your best interest to comply now, while the option to do so is still being offered, because we will not relent until you cease the conduction & promotion of all your bigoted operations & doctrines.

The warning has been given. What happens from here shall be determined by you.



WE ARE ANONYMOUS.
WE ARE LEGION.
WE DO NOT FORGIVE.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
EXPECT US.

Note to rlin: my post is absolutely not directed towards you personally....it is not about you personally.....it's about the letter and it's meaning.


I understand what has motivated the above letter, however it very well could have been written by Sarah Palin or Rush or Sean or Glenn, et al. Just put 'homosexual' or 'pagan' or 'move on.org' in place of fred phelps.....

It's hateful and mean and violence is implied. I don't see any reason for any of us to be crawling around in the gutter with any of them.

[Lynn]

I am kind of invigorated by the letter, but, unfortunately, I view Anonymous as a hate group, also. They target other groups and incite violence to further their own agenda. It's kind of ironic that they attack WBC when there are some similarities between them.