Protesters banned from the Smithsonian for life

An update to my earlier post on the art that was censored by the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery under pressure from the Catholic League.  Two brave protesters (one wearing the removed video art on an ipad around his neck) were forcibly removed from the institution, and banned for life.  The 1987 video -- a piece made by the artist while he was dying of AIDS, about the ostracized sufferers of the 1980's is hard to watch and intentionally so.  See it HERE.

National Portrait Gallery removes video as Christians threaten to fight funding

SHAME on Martin Sullivan, the director of the gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington for bowing to senseless empty threats from the Catholic League. 

To ask for censorship of a piece in the NATIONAL GALLERY based on personal religious preference is boring, but allowed.  TO FACILITATE that censorship from within the organization, based on a "choose our battles" methodology, is an offense deserving of termination.  Shame on you, dude.

From the NYTimes:

"Mr. Wojnarowicz (the artist), who died of AIDS in 1992, made the video in the 1980s. Among the imagery that he uses to depict the suffering of an AIDS patient is a scene of ants crawling on a crucifix. In a telephone interview, Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, said “A Fire in My Belly” was a form of hate speech."

Really, Donohue?  HATE SPEECH?  he also mentioned that if the ants were crawling on Mohammud, we would be having a very different conversation . . . or none at all.  Well, at least he recongizes the similarities between radical Islam and his own warped Christianity.

Out.

Will the real Chris Colombus please stand up?

From the HuffingtonPost article by Eric Kasum: 

"Shockingly, Columbus supervised the selling of native girls into sexual slavery. Young girls of the ages 9 to 10 were the most desired by his men. In 1500, Columbus casually wrote about it in his log. He said: "A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand."

He forced these peaceful natives work in his gold mines until they died of exhaustion. If an "Indian" worker did not deliver his full quota of gold dust by Columbus' deadline, soldiers would cut off the man's hands and tie them around his neck to send a message. Slavery was so intolerable for these sweet, gentle island people that at one point, 100 of them committed mass suicide. Catholic law forbade the enslavement of Christians, but Columbus solved this problem. He simply refused to baptize the native people of Hispaniola.

On his second trip to the New World, Columbus brought cannons and attack dogs. If a native resisted slavery, he would cut off a nose or an ear. If slaves tried to escape, Columbus had them burned alive. Other times, he sent attack dogs to hunt them down, and the dogs would tear off the arms and legs of the screaming natives while they were still alive. If the Spaniards ran short of meat to feed the dogs, Arawak babies were killed for dog food."

Christian man reminds us that Billy Lucas is in Hell. And he deserved it.

As you watch this video, remember that this guy is talking about a 15 year-old kid who took his own life.  This Christian man is doing this pontificating two weeks after Billy hung himself in his family's Indiana barn, after merciless homophobic bullying.  This Christian man has taken it upon himself to help us all understand Billy's plight in this Christian man's imagined afterlife ONE DAY after 13-year old gay student Seth Walsh, who hung himself nine days ago and was taken off of life support (yesterday), and less than a month after eighth grader Asher Brown put a bullet in his brain after enduring years of anti-gay taunting and bullying at his Texas middle school.   
The pressures of growing up gay are immense.  That's not to say these kids even were gay . . . but in each case it was the bullying and taunting of their peers about their perceived homosexuality that pushed them past rationality and into despair.  The bullies have to be taught to taunt, to hate, and to identify and LABEL a weakness.  Hi, horrible parents.  Hi, society at large allowing this.  How are you all feeling this afternoon?   
THESE ARE VICTIMS OF SHAME,  
and shame is imposed by the outside world.
The majority of the world's religion have decided to take formal stances that make the lives of these kids even harder.  If you're a person of faith, won't you please make your voice heard within your congregation, your diocese, your coven, your whatever the hell you go to?  Now, sorry you have to see this hateful man. . . who is wrong in his interpretation, and hard in his heart, but here it is:  UPDATE:  he's taken his screed down, because in addition to being a bigot, he is also a coward.

Rick Warren lies about his massive ties to Ugandan "Kill the Gays" laws

After spreading intolerance and ignorance all over the world, supporting prop 8 in California, and encouraging condom burning in Uganda, mega-pastor (quite mega, lately) Rick Warren has spoken out against the "kill the gays" bill in that country.  He denies connections to the super-secret fundamentalist Washington Christian coven "the Family", and generally tries to cover his ass.  Rachel Maddow isn't allowing that.

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Over my dead body. Literally.

The Catholic Church has issued an "Ethical and Religious Doctrine" banning the removal of feeding tubes under any condition in every Catholic Hospital, Nursing Home and Hospice. From firedoglake:

"The Bishops’ directive even notes that patient suffering is redemptive and brings the individual closer to Christ."

The kicker is that nothing -- not a signed will, not family, not government can intervene. In many communities, Catholic health services are the ONLY health services. So their religion is determining my rights. Time to stop government funding, if you ask me. Read the whole insane inhumane medieval story HERE.