I like Facebook because that's one way I keep up with what's going on in the world. But almost every time I browse through the news items I get depressed, or pissed off. And this morning was no different.
In the span of about an hour here are some of the stories that caught my attention:
The Southern Baptist churches across the country are kicking out the Boy Scouts because their national organization decided it would no longer discriminate against gay scouts. This is freakishly and blatantly bigoted. And I assume the move is approved of by the vast majority of the church's membership, which is even more depressing. These boys have done nothing wrong whatsoever but now they are made to feel like vile, subhuman creatures because their organization now tolerates homosexuals.
I read about how General Mills had to disallow commenting non its YouTube commercial that features an interracial family, including a biracial little girl, because there were too many assholes commenting with racial slurs or otherwise disapproving of the ad because it featured a mixed-race family. And this is the 21st century?
I read about a political candidate running for Lt. Governor in Virginia who believes that evolution cannot be true because God gave the gift of speech to humans only, which is why other animals cannot speak. He insinuated that if we evolved from apes that chimps should be able to speak. I also read that the governor of Louisiana believes that creationism should be taught in science classes as an alternative to evolution. These are the people who make policy in this country and they can't even get simple science right. It's science that has been accepted and used by scientists for well over 100 years. It's science that is non-controversial within the ranks of scientists worldwide. But because some ancient book written by superstitious goat herders says that God created everything in six days, well then science must have gotten it wrong. It is so depressing that so many citizens and leaders of this country still believe that bullshit. Get over it folks; there is no such thing as the Christian god or any other god who meddles in personal lives. And if there is a god of some kind out there, quit thinking you know what he wants you to do or how he wants you to behave. Grow up and join the 21st century and stop being so goddamn stupid!
I saw a meme picturing a U.S. flag with the words "Like if you agree that we are one nation under God." Well, whose god are we talking about here? There are Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, and Native Americans living here as citizens and they all have different gods. There are agnostics and atheists living here and they have no god at all. So why are we supposed to be one nation under God? Every religion believes that their god is the one true god, or that their gods are the real ones. We are a religiously diverse country founded on religious freedom. We are not a Christian nation any more than we are a Hindu nation, so take your Christian-centric meme and shove it.
I read where a committee of all men in Congress voted to recommend a law that would prevent any woman from having an abortion beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy, even if at 21 weeks the woman discovers that her fetus is inviable or will be born severely deformed. She would still be forced, under penalty of law, to carry it full term. There were no women on the panel made up mostly of Republicans. The Democrats on the committee voted against it.
According to a Rasmussen poll, Congress has an approval rating of only six percent. Those six percent who believe Congress is doing a good job must have been on crack. Nobody in their right minds would believe that Congress is doing anywhere near a good job. Mostly they are doing nothing at all. The House of Representatives has punted to the Senate to initiate any policy legislation. All they've been doing is trying to eliminate Obamacare for the 38th time. In the Senate, Republicans seem to want to make one important policy change on immigration, but they can't even seem to get that passed. And even if they did, any bill would be DOA in the House. The one and only goal of the Republicans in both chambers during Obama's first term was to make sure he was a one-term president. Having failed in that effort, they just seem to be spending his second term whining and denying the president from any success at all, including approving any of his nominations. It's politics at its worst. No wonder even the rank-and-file Republicans in this country believe their party has gone off the deep end.
No wonder I get depressed and angry when I read Facebook.
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