The Rise of Anti-Government Bigots: Spitting, the N-Word, Anti-Gay/Lesbian Slurs

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Dean Thoreau

Has anyone noticed that the anti-governemnt,,keep government out of our business people seem to think it is alright for the government to stick their nose in a woman's right to choose and homosexuality...

Yeah, funny isn't it? That in the very same breath, people who are convinced that, for instance, making a law that insurance companies can't just drop you off the rolls because you now NEED the insurance policy is the very essence of tyranny are absolutely enthusiastic about the idea that two men or two women should be punished for a consensual act of sex or for loving one another.

I find that incredibly ironic.

Cheers
Aj

[key]

The most powerful image of this whole health care debate (or screaming match if you will) is the man with Parkinson's disease who simply sat in front of the people who were wanting to deny him health care (to be his personal death panel).

His name is Robert Letcher, he has a PhD and was a nuclear engineer before being diagnosed with Parkinson's 15 years ago.

He is also a Martial Artist and he said he used his breathing exercises while he sat there and absorbed the hatred and condescension that was being violently hurled at him.

Personally I consider him an American Hero because of that moment.

Like Martin Luther King Jr, like Gandhi, like others have shown us throughout civil rights struggles in the past

pure and centered, righteous peace in the face of injustice really can change people's hearts. And when you have changed their hearts, they will change their minds

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by key

The most powerful image of this whole health care debate (or screaming match if you will) is the man with Parkinson's disease who simply sat in front of the people who were wanting to deny him health care (to be his personal death panel).

His name is Robert Letcher, he has a PhD and was a nuclear engineer before being diagnosed with Parkinson's 15 years ago.

He is also a Martial Artist and he said he used his breathing exercises while he sat there and absorbed the hatred and condescension that was being violently hurled at him.

Personally I consider him an American Hero because of that moment.

Like Martin Luther King Jr, like Gandhi, like others have shown us throughout civil rights struggles in the past

pure and centered, righteous peace in the face of injustice really can change people's hearts. And when you have changed their hearts, they will change their minds

It was also VERY telling about just how 'compassionate' these conservatives are.

As an aside, while I admire both Gandhi and King I think, sometimes, we idealize these men without taking their actions in context. Gandhi and King were able to use non-violent protests because the people who were the oppressors were, for the most part, civilized people. By that I mean that, for instance, both British and American culture had (maybe still have) at their cultural cores the idea that it is just *wrong* for a stronger (read armed) person to beat up a weaker (read unarmed/unresisting) person. So both men and their followers were facing people who *could* be reached, eventually after enough bodies were broken.

Had Gandhi or King had to face down the Nazis then I think history would have turned out *very* differently. Post-Weimar Germany had, at its core, an ethic that the strong had every right and, what's more, every *reason* to beat up the weak. Non-violent resistance would have just *encouraged* the Nazis because it would have shown them that blacks or Hindus just weren't willing to fight back.

One of the things that makes me so concerned about what I'm seeing and the actions of the national GOP leadership (who are standing in a puddle of gasoline and playing with a lighter) is that I can't yet tell if we are dealing with the British circa 1940, the Americans circa 1960 or the Germans circa 1936. What I saw the other day, in the pictures of those Tea Party protesters throwing money at this man with Parkinson's was closer to the latter than the former two. What I saw were the healthy and strong chomping at the bit to do something to the weak and sick.


Cheers
Aj

[Kobi]

[I'm curious. If someone comes up to me and starts yelling at me that I'm a ni--er or calling me some homophobic slur or telling me that I'm hell-bound what am I supposed to compromise on? What side am I supposed to be seeing? I hear this a lot from people (usually white people--sorry but there it is) that I should "see all sides" or "focus on what we have in common". I'm equally curious why *I* should have to compromise. Why is it incumbent on the *targets* of bigotry to do the compromising, to see all sides, including the side of those that hate? I rarely see anyone asserting that it's the bigots who should see all sides or compromise. In that situation--which isn't about policy it's about personhood--what am I supposed to be compromising *on* exactly? What side am I supposed to be seeing? What is it that I'm supposed to understand there? ]

Dread,

I hear what you are saying. And I agree, taking the higher road can be a pain in the hiney.

I am also not Black so I dont know what it is like to have the n word hurled at me. I do know that many Black folks have accomplished, developed, designed, and done a lot of great things for this country. And they have endured and overcome a lot of hardship and obstacles to do so. That, to me, is a triumph of spirit, determination, and belief in self. It is something to be very proud of.

I am gay tho and if someone had the audacity to come up to me and tell me I was going to hell....I would try and remember the song....let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. I refuse to make someone elses views define me, nor will I be provoked to defend something that to me doesnt need to be defended. My concern is the person I am and who I want to be, not the person who might be harassing me. But, thats just my way of being in the world.

Trust me, sometimes I struggle with a desire to just haul off and slug an idiot. But thats just not who I am or who I want to be.

[key]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

It was also VERY telling about just how 'compassionate' these conservatives are.


One of the things that makes me so concerned about what I'm seeing and the actions of the national GOP leadership (who are standing in a puddle of gasoline and playing with a lighter) is that I can't yet tell if we are dealing with the British circa 1940, the Americans circa 1960 or the Germans circa 1936. What I saw the other day, in the pictures of those Tea Party protesters throwing money at this man with Parkinson's was closer to the latter than the former two. What I saw were the healthy and strong chomping at the bit to do something to the weak and sick.


Cheers
Aj

Have you read the book "They Thought They Were Free"
The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer

he interviews people (Non Jews) who lived through the Holocaust. Here is an excerpt:

"You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

Key: I think for the time being we have a fundamentally decent leader in the Whitehouse so we (hopefully) will not see any huge loss of rights, and we may even see some gaining of rights (DADT being repealed) but the scariest thing going on right now is the Supreme Court being so tilted towards corporate facism. This Fascism paired with these ignorant tea partiers is a dangerous combination indeed.

Perhaps in Germany, if the right people had done the right thing (hello, Christian Churches?) things would have been different.

[Dean Thoreau]

kobi, Someone comes up to you hollering stuff,,,mean stuff slurs and all that crap.......
do what my daughter does....slap the shit out of them!

or my other daughter............slaps the shit out of them!

or what my other daughter does.......... "tells the person...I love You and then makes kissy faces at them"

or what my other daughter does....she says "Excuse me but i am a heathen leasbian witch,,careful or i will cast a spell that all your children will grow up and be democrats!"



or me.....i just start grunting and groaning and call the person uncle bill and keep asking where my butterscotch pudding is.....(they seem to run).


All i know is Kobi i agree stop letitng people tell you to open your mind, see both sides and all that crap....
enuf with having to be the wiser, kinder, gentler soul...dont show you are a bigger person by not responding or responding with kindness,,,,
i at long last agree with my daughters and say dont be a doormat
slap the crap out of them!

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by key

The most powerful image of this whole health care debate (or screaming match if you will) is the man with Parkinson's disease who simply sat in front of the people who were wanting to deny him health care (to be his personal death panel).

His name is Robert Letcher, he has a PhD and was a nuclear engineer before being diagnosed with Parkinson's 15 years ago.

He is also a Martial Artist and he said he used his breathing exercises while he sat there and absorbed the hatred and condescension that was being violently hurled at him.

Personally I consider him an American Hero because of that moment.

Like Martin Luther King Jr, like Gandhi, like others have shown us throughout civil rights struggles in the past

pure and centered, righteous peace in the face of injustice really can change people's hearts. And when you have changed their hearts, they will change their minds

Yes, this struck me deeply. Change of heart, exactly. I am having a hard time with all of this because I turned 59 today and for the very first time in my life (have been an activist for decades), and no longer believe much heart changing will happen in what is left of my life. And for the first time, I am seriously considering leaving the US. Very seriously. At least an african American has been elected president, but my well of hope is drying up.

[Soft*Silver]

for you, ALH, and all others who are tired soldiers, who have lugged signs or signed petitions or sat in large groups or jumped on buses or formed a human fence...who are greyer now, move stiffer, and see not quite as well...I say this...

it seems as though all your work has been naught enough. You look around Today and you think, where is all my effort? Surely there has to be more progress....more noticable change? When I look on tv or on the internet or listen to the radio, Why do I not hear how radical the differences are? Why does it seem its all in vain...why is there not enought change?

to you, I say,

to you, who battled to open domestic violence shelters when women were still considered objects

for you who fought to make rape a crime of power and not an act of unrequited lust

for you who said 46 cents to a man's dollar is not enough for a woman to live on

for you who said racial intolerance is unacceptable and dared to drink at the only the fountains as anyone could....

for you who said education should be for everyone, not just the 12% who own 95% of the nation's wealth

for you who saw children and knew they had no rights...and committed to them a career that most would never want

for you who understood that saying "he" and "mankind" to refer to all of humankind was WRONG

for you who dreamed a life where orientations could co-exist together in a non hierarchal platform in the nation, let alone a neighborhood

for you who voted and voted and voted AND VOTED to put the right people in...

for you who fought wars to protect our nation and for you who fought so wars wouldnt be needed to be fought...

for you who made the statment "hate is not a family value" a household phrase

for you, I thank you....

and caution you...not to look ahead and think of how much is yet needing to be done. Each generation has their own legacies that they inherit, of what is still not done. Instead, look back and see all that has been done ....

by you

the individual

and the era's collective heroes...

and while your work is done, oh silver ones...yes, THE work is not all done.

So to those young who step up to the plate...

thank you

for continuing onward....




=AtLastHome;71638]
Yes, this struck me deeply. Change of heart, exactly. I am having a hard time with all of this because I turned 59 today and for the very first time in my life (have been an activist for decades), and no longer believe much heart changing will happen in what is left of my life. And for the first time, I am seriously considering leaving the US. Very seriously. At least an african American has been elected president, but my well of hope is drying up. [/QUOTE]

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Dean Thoreau

.
enuf with having to be the wiser, kinder, gentler soul...dont show you are a bigger person by not responding or responding with kindness,,,,
i at long last agree with my daughters and say dont be a doormat
slap the crap out of them!

When I was a wee young baby dyke, my friend and mentor, Bubba a self-described 'leftist, gay, redneck' who is the most wonderful bear you ever want to meet, bought a gun. He did so because he was hobbling around with one foot in a big brace, with one eye ready to crash if he took a blow to the head, and a T-cell count that was headed in the wrong direction. He was out, as much as his health would allow, doing Narcotics Anonymous and work with HIV/AIDS information. He said he needed a gun to protect himself. I couldn't agree with him at the time. We argued about it. At the time, Bubba had been out for twenty years having come out, in North Caroline no less, in 1973 while a student at UNC Asheville. He'd grown tired of having to take it and wasn't going to live out whatever time he had left in fear of some homophobe come up from San Jose or down from Fresno for a weekend's 'hunting' as some young men were wont to do during the early 90's.

Now, 17 years later and I have just entered my third decade out of the closet, I have a great deal more sympathy for where he was and I have to admit, I was wrong then. I thought I knew what I was talking about at the time, I didn't.

No, I haven't bought a gun (yet) and most likely wouldn't carry if (when) I did but simply for home defense.

I'm not arguing nor would I, in any ordinary circumstances, argue in favor of getting in people's faces and matching blow for blow. If there's a way *to* walk away, I think one *should* walk away. That said, I also believe that I do not owe the bigots the favor of being walked upon. I do not think I have to understand their bigotry, I think I have to accept that there will always be bigots and that we should order society in such a way that we minimize the effects of bigotry--including our own. I hope I hold no foolish prejudices and that I am always mindful of the old Pogo cartoon "we have met the enemy and he is us". But should I have prejudices or bigotry I hold, I do not want my problem to become someone else's problem.

Your daughter's reactions rock!

Cheers
Aj

[dreadgeek]

I have not read that although it's now on my list. (If there had been a Kindle edition I would have bought it but alas, no) The last book on the period that I read was "Hitler's Willing Executioner's" by Daniel Goldhagen. It was a chilling book because it really brings home the reality of Hannah Arendt's phrase "the banality of evil".

Terry Pratchett , as usual, manages to describe it wonderfully:

"And what it means is this: that there are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes to work every day and has a job to do."

Cheers
Aj

Originally Posted by key

Have you read the book "They Thought They Were Free"
The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer

he interviews people (Non Jews) who lived through the Holocaust. Here is an excerpt:

"You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

Key: I think for the time being we have a fundamentally decent leader in the Whitehouse so we (hopefully) will not see any huge loss of rights, and we may even see some gaining of rights (DADT being repealed) but the scariest thing going on right now is the Supreme Court being so tilted towards corporate facism. This Fascism paired with these ignorant tea partiers is a dangerous combination indeed.

Perhaps in Germany, if the right people had done the right thing (hello, Christian Churches?) things would have been different.

[key]

Originally Posted by AtLastHome

Yes, this struck me deeply. Change of heart, exactly. I am having a hard time with all of this because I turned 59 today and for the very first time in my life (have been an activist for decades), and no longer believe much heart changing will happen in what is left of my life. And for the first time, I am seriously considering leaving the US. Very seriously. At least an african American has been elected president, but my well of hope is drying up.

Have you ever listened to Thom Hartman? He is on AM radio stations. the smartest man (regarding politics and US history in particular) I know alive today. And also very courteous and respectful even as he argues for liberal principles. He is really quite refreshing! Sort of the Anti-Glenn Beck, though is much more than that, more like a professor, as he deals in facts, but is very entertaining and easy to listen to.

http://www.thomhartmann.com/

Anyway, he is always reminding his listeners about how this moment we are in is part of the larger story of our very young, very immature nation. If you do not know of him I just wanted to turn you, and everyone on to him. he might be able to replenish some of your hope reserves.

Happy Birthday BTW.

[Soft*Silver]

from our guy in Ohio...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXxpjSXtWyA&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Congressman Ryan Denounces Protestor Behavior[/ame]

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by key

Have you ever listened to Thom Hartman? He is on AM radio stations. the smartest man (regarding politics and US history in particular) I know alive today. And also very courteous and respectful even as he argues for liberal principles. He is really quite refreshing! Sort of the Anti-Glenn Beck, though is much more than that, more like a professor, as he deals in facts, but is very entertaining and easy to listen to.

http://www.thomhartmann.com/

Anyway, he is always reminding his listeners about how this moment we are in is part of the larger story of our very young, very immature nation. If you do not know of him I just wanted to turn you, and everyone on to him. he might be able to replenish some of your hope reserves.

Happy Birthday BTW.

Thank you!

yes, I have listened to Thom and am inspired. he does not scream his convictions and gives historical back-up. I think the last couple of days have just been rough with the kind of hatred I have been seeing while following the Health-Care-Reform voting and debates. Also this past year and the Tea Bag loonies. The town hall meetings in which the man with Parkinson's had money thrown at him by those assbites just sent me over the edge.

But, I do need to listen to Hartman more often. Thanks.

Originally Posted by softness

for you, ALH, and all others who are tired soldiers, who have lugged signs or signed petitions or sat in large groups or jumped on buses or formed a human fence...who are greyer now, move stiffer, and see not quite as well...I say this...

it seems as though all your work has been naught enough. You look around Today and you think, where is all my effort? Surely there has to be more progress....more noticable change? When I look on tv or on the internet or listen to the radio, Why do I not hear how radical the differences are? Why does it seem its all in vain...why is there not enought change?
to you, I say,

to you, who battled to open domestic violence shelters when women were still considered objects

for you who fought to make rape a crime of power and not an act of unrequited lust

for you who said 46 cents to a man's dollar is not enough for a woman to live on

for you who said racial intolerance is unacceptable and dared to drink at the only the fountains as anyone could....

for you who said education should be for everyone, not just the 12% who own 95% of the nation's wealth

for you who saw children and knew they had no rights...and committed to them a career that most would never want

for you who understood that saying "he" and "mankind" to refer to all of humankind was WRONG

for you who dreamed a life where orientations could co-exist together in a non hierarchal platform in the nation, let alone a neighborhood

for you who voted and voted and voted AND VOTED to put the right people in...

for you who fought wars to protect our nation and for you who fought so wars wouldnt be needed to be fought...

for you who made the statment "hate is not a family value" a household phrase

for you, I thank you....

and caution you...not to look ahead and think of how much is yet needing to be done. Each generation has their own legacies that they inherit, of what is still not done. Instead, look back and see all that has been done ....

by you

the individual

and the era's collective heroes...

and while your work is done, oh silver ones...yes, THE work is not all done.

So to those young who step up to the plate...

thank you

for continuing onward....




=AtLastHome;71638]
Yes, this struck me deeply. Change of heart, exactly. I am having a hard time with all of this because I turned 59 today and for the very first time in my life (have been an activist for decades), and no longer believe much heart changing will happen in what is left of my life. And for the first time, I am seriously considering leaving the US. Very seriously. At least an african American has been elected president, but my well of hope is drying up.

[/QUOTE]



Thank you.... I needed this. Very disillusioned of late. To the point of just pain in terms of the human cruelty around us. Yes, I do get tired and frustrated.

What I need to focus on when I feel this way is what I experienced with working along side much younger people during Obama's run. I was encouraged by seeing students back in the process and people that have never voted. On election night walking in SF to the election parties and seeing the street filled with bright, young, hopeful people did my heart good. I just am feeling that this energy must continue during such times as mid-term elections. And even though I can get mad at Obama about some things, I know that it is very important that I continue to support him and others I voted for. I have to get the energy to once again, and get back to the precinct work needed before November.

Just feeling so frustrated! And in many ways, I want to hand off the candles to younger folks. Live a little more of my own life for me.

Last night while watching some political strategists on CNN I was so angry with not just GOP analysts BS about these infractions in DC, but also those from the Dems making excuses for this behavior! They talked about how high tempers were and how both parties were reacting via being tired. So, that means that this kind of behavior can go on without taking some responsibility with making it clear that it will not be tolerated? The GOP wants the tea Bag votes and frankly, so do the Dems! The only people that said they were offended and made it clear that this behavior cannot be tolerated were the African American analysts! However, the head of the GOP national Committee, an African American man, made excuses for this, too! [B]THERE IS NO EXCUSE!!! They are just courting votes and do not give a damn about this display of bigotry!![/B]

[Jess]

Perhaps it is just my simpleton way of viewing things, but I personally feel that it is time for a clear cut anti-discrimination/ pro human rights bill/ law in this country. When FDR said " we have nothing to fear...." and when LBJ said " until we are all color blind.." and when Clinton said.."don't ask don't tell".. they were all well meaning in their attempts for us to put aside our fears and bigotry. Even though years later, those very ideas may have become outdated and even in some cases failed miserably, these leaders tried to make a difference.

We are at a point in our brief history where once again the population is bubbling over with fear and discrimination and it is obvious every time we turn on the news or open our computers. The way I see it, Pres Obama has the perfect opportunity and in my opinion, obligation to help end all of that. Not because he is a POC, but because he is our leader. In much the same way that our little planet here is attempting to discuss and create an anti- discrimination statement, our country should be doing the same thing. It could end DADT, DOMA, and a great many of our healthcare issues, by simply stating "we are all equal" under they eyes of the law. Gays can marry and receive equal benefits. Differently abled or ( sick) people can get healthcare without risk of losing homes/ properties. POC cannot be denied jobs/ housing/ growth opportunities based on skin color or ethnicity.

We should have "hate laws" that reflect discrimination on it's many levels. I agree with dreadgeek in that we can't legislate "prejudice" or "thought". We can however legislate behavior. Senators/ Congressmen especially should be held to higher standards, as they represent larger groups. Sanction/ fine their asses when they show them. I like the statement Linus posted regarding CAN and how they view the "freedom of speech" notion.

For me, we elect officials to go in there and do a job. If they aren't doing it then we have been dubbed and hopefully we will replace them with someone else we think will do it. I don't know exactly what "the" answer is regarding our politicians and our ongoing discrimination in this country. I do however feel strongly that a human rights bill would go a great distance in ensuring a more level playing field. How do we do that without becoming "big brother" ? Do we need more government involvement in our personal lives? Where does thought end and action begin? How do we truly move from the "dark age" to an enlightened equal country?

I think it is very easy for us to see what is "wrong", but it is very difficult to create laws that truly do make things just for everyone. There will be resistance to any movement that takes away "privilege" as some folks see it, as they equate what they have come to know as their "rights" for "privilege". Someone mentioned car insurance and wondered if it was not the same as health insurance. Well, frankly, it's not. The "privilege" of driving a car on state and federally maintained and monitored highways, is just that , a "privilege". Having healthcare available for all human beings should be a "right".

Perhaps in all of our distraction with this healthcare reform ( which falls short of the goal) we should be more focused on human rights. It just feels an awful lot like we are doing ( as a nation) what modern medicine does. Fix the symptom and not the illness.

My 2 cents about the "dark age" of politics, that's all.

[Soft*Silver]

[B]THERE IS NO EXCUSE!!! They are just courting votes and do not give a damn about this display of bigotry!![/B[/COLOR][/FONT]][/QUOTE]

Mr Smitty the one eyed rocking on limping kitty says that sometimes a skid-daddle is just a skid-daddle and not a run for anything but...

to transcribe that, he means, sometimes politics are just politics and not actually have any basis in being political. We who work the trenches and not the policies can never forget thats its all politics! ...because we know that its all personal, and that all personal is political. But those who practice policy, laws, words, not WE the People, well, sometimes they just run crazy with their words to justify their neediness to win their battles...

[Zimmeh]

I read this book for my Psych 305 class, Motivation and Leadership. Thus book made my skin crawl to the point as to where I never finished it and gave it away.

I will never own such an evil book again.

Zimmy

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

I have not read that although it's now on my list. (If there had been a Kindle edition I would have bought it but alas, no) The last book on the period that I read was "Hitler's Willing Executioner's" by Daniel Goldhagen. It was a chilling book because it really brings home the reality of Hannah Arendt's phrase "the banality of evil".

Terry Pratchett , as usual, manages to describe it wonderfully:

"And what it means is this: that there are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes to work every day and has a job to do."

Cheers
Aj

[Greyson]

I invite you to join in this effort of letting our elected officials and the US Capitol Police know, we as a people will not sit passively and quietly while this assault upon our elected officials takes place in our nation's capitol while doing the work of our nation.

Where was the US Capitol Police when United States Congressmen were being spat upon and being subjected to implied threats, racists and homophobic comments?

Must we wait for one of them to be seriously and permanently injured or worse? I think not. It is time to take back OUR country from the Right Wing Extremist that are leading this Republic down the path of destruction.

For the record, if Left leaning people were acting in this same manner, I would be just as disturbed by such despicable behavior.

Finally, please do not give me the "Freedom of Speech" sentiment. It is not Freedom of Speech to use hateful disparaging language that incites fear and to spit upon another human being.


_____________________________________________
Ray Taliaferro - KGO Talk Radio

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

1:00a.m. - 5:00a.m.: Ray expresses his outrage over a group of tea party protesters who on Saturday menaced and harassed three Black Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a hero of the civil rights movement, Representatives André Carson of Indiana, and Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri. The protesters hurled the N-word at the Congressmen as they walked to the Capitol to hear President Obama’s final speech on healthcare reform. One of the lawmakers, Emanuel Cleaver was spat upon. Teapartiers also shouted the homophobic slur “faggot” and “homo” to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), as the group laughed. Ray is encouraging KGO listeners to express their outrage over the spitting and slurs directed at the lawmakers.

To express your outrage, contact Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's District Office in San Francisco at (415) 556-4862 or her Capitol office in Washington, D.C. at (202) 225-4965. Email Congresswoman Pelosi at: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov

To register a complaint with the United States Capitol Police, call (202) 224-9806.

To reach the Congressional Switchboard, dial 1-866-220-0044 and ask to be connected to your district representative's office.

[Zimmeh]

Thank you AtLast for starting this thread! I live in a state I refer to as Hell. Two years ago come early June, I found out what rights I had in this state. My former boss asked me to come into her office. She informed me that I was being written up for sexual harassment. I giggled at this thought since I know the laws about this. I then informed her that it was really about me being gay, it was a female dominated job and they were all straight; and I would use my sexual discrimination card if she tried me. Needless to say she wrote me up for causing an intimidating work environment. After I left work that night, I contacted the ACLU and told them everything and then emailed my HR rep. By the time I was done, that company had the ACLU watching them and she was severely reprimanded. I left that company on June 27th and I don't regret anything I did. I wasn't going to allow that company to mistreat ppl and get away with it.

That is why until someone gets elected as governor here, we will never have any rights,

Zimmy

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by ZimmygLrL

I read this book for my Psych 305 class, Motivation and Leadership. Thus book made my skin crawl to the point as to where I never finished it and gave it away.

I will never own such an evil book again.

Zimmy

I'm curious. What was evil about the book? It's a hard book. It's a disturbing book. But I thought that Goldhagen bent over backward to be fair, accurate and scholarly. I never got the feeling that he was writing an anti-German book rather was debunking a widely held myth: that the Holocaust was committed by SS men without the knowledge of the German populace.

Cheers
Aj

[Zimmeh]

Hey AJ,

That is what I meant by evil. The book is very disturbing and one I can honestly say I never could finish. It was a book the professor recommended since our report was on Hitler.

Have a good day,

Zimmy

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

I'm curious. What was evil about the book? It's a hard book. It's a disturbing book. But I thought that Goldhagen bent over backward to be fair, accurate and scholarly. I never got the feeling that he was writing an anti-German book rather was debunking a widely held myth: that the Holocaust was committed by SS men without the knowledge of the German populace.

Cheers
Aj