1st TAKE/2nd LOOK: #10

Headlines inside and outside of the meltdown

I was completely unaware that Dolly covered the greatest rock song of all time. Unaware but not unsurprised. She is fricking amazing. She put a bluegrass spin on it and it is incredible. Of course. Here is a good backstory about the effort.

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Is this racist? She said this on-air, speaking to a black female Republican and in front of her co-host, a Latina Republican. Why is skin color considered a signifier of a political party? Remember the “you ain’t Black” statement? Seriously, how long is this going to last? Painting entire populations of people as one thing or another based entirely and solely on skin color. Slavery anyone?

Sunny Hostin Slammed Over 'I Don't Understand Black Republicans' Remark

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Oh, don’t hate on the hillbilly. I love reading descriptions of Vance’s book describing him as an imposter. Wait. What happened to the validity of lived experience? The dude wrote a book about how he came to be at the point in his life where we find him. He made some money. He got married and had kids. He decided to run for political office. And the dude he wants to replace voted 100% of the time with the current president. Then the current president went to Ohio and the current senator who has voted 100% of the time with him didn’t show up? Hmmm . . .

‘He’s Dangerous. So Is His Book.’

Biden Heads for JD Vance’s Home Turf as Democrat Sits Out Event

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I thought a couple of posts about sex would be fun. Turns out, girls like the joker! I always knew that though. God chose to deny me the 6’4” 240 lbs. frame my alter-ego enjoys, so I honed the talent God did impart to me. Humor. Got my ass kicked more than once for being the smart-ass. And then there’s Bud Sex. Who knew?

Scientists Claim to Have Found The 'Optimal' Way to Flirt in a Heterosexual Relationship

The Phenomenon of ‘Bud Sex’ Between Straight Rural Men

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China supplies 44% of the US Baby Formula. Not only that but personal protective equipment. And medicine. And semiconductors. See any issues here?

The nationwide baby formula shortage is getting worse

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I made a comment on Steven Beschloss’s platform (link below) about abortion. I’ve never said I support a ban on abortions. I make exceptions for rape and incest, and medical considerations and complications. I accept that abortion is a mortal sin for some and a personal choice for others.

It seems a little odd that in an age of trans reproductive rights, the ground-zero for abortion is a “woman’s right to choose”, this is a timely piece titled Don't Say Woman? AP Style Suggests 'Pregnant People'. Odd, no? And I’m a racist Nazi?

Writes Compass Star Wordsmith ·May 6

Maybe this would result in fewer abortions? 63 million aborted fetuses seem a high price to pay for a mom's freedom to live her life. I just dropped my Friday post, and summed it up thusly,

Listening to the protests and reading the signs completely miss the point of abortion. It’s not cancer. One doesn’t catch a fetus. Pregnancy doesn’t just happen to a birthing person. To become pregnant, (outside of rape and incest) one must engage in an activity that has been proven to cause pregnancy. Jus sayin.

Please take a look if you want to read more.

Thanks

Ric

May 6

Maybe men should be prevented from ejaculating since sperm also represent potential life

Writes Compass Star Wordsmith ·May 6

The Catholics do prohibit masturbation because of that reason. Maybe just more, free and effective birth control? for men and women?

May 6Liked by Steven Beschloss

I can remember when Rome refused to allow any form of birth control. There is a reason that most nations having a national religion, especially Catholic Christianity, are the poorest, lest educated, and most poverty ridden. Abortion was originally a Catholic issue. It is not a question of morality, as they would have us believe, but a question of how much control the church can hold over the sheep. It is the same as their fear of science and critical thought. Truth and fact are their Kryptonite.

Writes Compass Star Wordsmith ·May 7

understood. So is your point, that abortion can be utilized as birth control? Bill Maher's take is unique in that I haven't heard it publicly. Paraphrasing, life is for the living. Until one is outside the womb, one is not alive. so it's not the killing of a human being. My kids' pediatricians believed that it was life in the womb. so two schools of thought. Are you saying that one of those views is evil and the other is not?

May 8·edited May 8

Seig Heil!

Heil Hitler!

Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!

"Listening to the protests and reading the signs completely miss the point of abortion. It’s not cancer. One doesn’t catch a fetus. Pregnancy doesn’t just happen to a birthing person. To become pregnant, (outside of rape and incest) one must engage in an activity that has been proven to cause pregnancy. Jus sayin."

You are saying just what you suggest I have said: that women are using abortion as birth control. That is the entirety of your argument. But I understand, you are only able to parrot what you hear from GOP candidates and the majority of pulpits. The Republican party is carrying out the agenda of the church. Period.

Deny the right of women to choose for themselves whether a pregnancy is brought to term.

Deny the right to birth control. (It's already being proposed by GOP Governors.)

Deny the right to health care.

Deny the right to childcare.

Deny the right to family leave.

Deny the right to a living wage.

Deny the right to a safe environment.

Deny the right to all the necessary things to sustain life, and then identify yourself as the supporters of the right to life? Only the Troglodyte sycophants of your own party/church do not realize the total hypocrisy of your argument.

You mentioned in the above quote that, "... one must engage in an activity ..." that results in pregnancy. Where are the providers of the sperm in your self-righteous rage? Maybe you are one of those who think that women have some secret power to reject pregnancy in the event of rape or incest. Or maybe you think that if rape is inevitable, the victim should just lie back and enjoy the experience?

Your arguments are as disconnected from reality as they are from truth.

“Religion is an insult to human dignity. Without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” — Steven Weinberg, speech, Conference on Cosmic Design, Washington, DC, 19991

Perhaps you didn't understand the Haiku?

PS: Don't bother me with your hypocritical BS

Writes Compass Star Wordsmith ·22 hr ago

I won't bother you with my hypocritical BS, bc you obviously didn't read or understand a word I wrote. Did you see the part where I wrote that I may advocate for abortion, depending on the circumstances. But as a sperm provider that had no say whether the pregnancy said sperm assisted in causing, I think I have a point of view. It seems your side just wants to yell and kill babies. I would rather have a conversation and make that the option of last resort. That's what I'm saying.

10 hr ago

Mr. Beschloss, if this is unacceptable or out of order, then delete it.

ric leczel

"I won't bother you with my hypocritical BS, ... "

Au contraire. I did read that. However, it has no value. In declaring that you may support some abortion, but not other, you declare that you feel that you have the right to determine for another human being what they can and cannot do based on your particular prejudices. Your hypocritical bs is not unexpected but rejected.

Oh. It isn't a bother. And yes, the notion that I was denying you the right to be heard bothered me, although there are hundreds of people reading Mr. Beschloss' commentary who are more capable of entertaining you. So, in spite of my earlier decision to relegate you to Gethsemane, I want to hear your argument.

"I would rather have a conversation and make that the option of last resort. That's what I'm saying. "

Do you actually think that the first thing a woman thinks of when she learns that she is pregnant is to Google abortion clinics? Are you really that void of empathy? That far from reality?

Who do you want to have that conversation with? Where do you get the authority to make it the last option? I'm a male so I really don't feel qualified to tell women what they can or cannot do with their bodies, pregnant or not.

What is your opinion about those people who assaulted the Capitol on 01/06/21? Are they insurrectionists or patriots?

Feel free to answer. I would like an answer. Or maybe you can ask me the same question.

Ordinarily, I would not deny you or anyone else the right to advocate for their issues. But there is a difference in advocating for or against an issue and participating in the destruction of democracy.

The subject was 'Liars for Life." Remember? Sure you do. The Christian nationalists put Trump in office. Trump in turn, gave the Christian nationalists, through their agent the GOP legislature, the judges of their choice, and he stated openly that he chose the judges from a list provided by the Federalist Society. They, in turn belong to the Council on National Policy, the Christian church, in several of it's iterations, and what is generslly known as Conservatism. Those judges lied to congress, and if we believe them, some of the GOP members who voted to sanctify them. What shades of insanity do we have to turn to, in order to say it is okay for Justices on the Supreme Court of the United States be liars?

Now it is common knowledge that they are guilty of lying to congress. That is a crime. Now all the public is aware that they intentionally misled Congress and the American public, which is the moral/ethical equivalent of rape. The fact that they have no moral integrity is not the fault of the people whom they duped. The deception was intentional. It was an achievement of which they are very proud. The supreme Court Justices have admitted that they are the property of the church. So now the GOP, the Christians, the Capitalists, and Putin can have confidence that the Court will never say nay to them.

Now. You say that you advocate for the abolishment of abortion. I can't imagine that you are not aware of what is in our daily news broadcasts. I wouldn't fault you if you didn't know that until 2013 the GOP had to submit any changes in election or voting laws to the Supreme Court for review and approval. Why? Because they were found guilty of doing illegal things to curtail the vote of minorities. You can do some research to see if I'm lying, or you can choose to see what is true. You can go back and look at the kinds of laws GOP controlled states have passed since the Court in it's infinite wisdom, freed them from the obligation of honesty.

If you believe that abortion is some moral or religious issue, and that that is the end of troubles, then you are less informed than I thought.

Just as this SC document issue was heating up, some people were already declaring they would outlaw birth control, the morning after pill, and IUDs. Nobody who can fog a mirror does not understand where the right is going with this.

Yesterday the news came out that the Taliban in Afghanistan were demanding that women cover their faces, completely. Now these Taliban are Muslims. Followers of Islam. Back in the days when I wandered in the wilderness, I taught some bible studies and one thing I taught was that Islam was the Antichrist. You may have noticed that the upper-class Muslim women seldom wear a full burqa. No. It applies to the lower classes, the poor, along with the denial of education for women. But, do you know what? Those women are Muslim, too. Ah. It is the same with all religions: only the weak, poor, and unrepresented are subject to the most degradation and oppression.

If not for the fact that King Henry VIII fell out with the Pope, and Europeans threw off the yoke of Papal Rome, Christianity would still be giving the Taliban a run for their money in who could be the most, corrupt, oppressive, and nihilistic religion. The Inquisition would be the Order of The Day. We would all be as Texas is today, neighbor spying on and giving up one another to burn on the altar of ignorance just to secure our own survival. This is not what our founding fathers envisioned for America. It is not patriotic. It is not Christian.

The banner flying over the temples is the only difference in religions.

Taking away the rights of someone else does not enhance your own by any measure. Do you feel more impowered by denying a woman the right to choose her course? I don't know that the right to vote is at the top of their agenda, but I can see that it would enhance their chances of staying in power. It could increase authority, but not rights. Banning books and otherwise impeding education can increase authority, but it will reduce society to an ignorant mass incapable of having value for the state beyond dumb obedience.

Why would anyone want to ban books? What do they have to fear? Why rewrite history? It is something created in their own minds. The fear of not being in control. It is as James Baldwin said, white men cannot face up to their crimes against blacks, and their fear of blacks being in a position of authority just scares the shit out of them because they judge that any other race could be as cruel as we have been.

People who don't know where they came from, probably don't know where they are going. If you read these statements and see no relationship between them, it doesn't mean I'm a blathering idiot. Well. Not necessarily.

So, what do you think? What will be the next right 'not in the constitution' to come under attack? Voting? Black people breathing? Queers outlawed? Everyone must accept Christianity?

"It seems your side just wants to yell and kill babies."

You are straight out of Q School. Right? Damn. And you accused me of not paying attention to what you said? I also pay attention to what you mean. In all that you have said I can see nothing that is original thought on your part. You don't know what 'my side' is. I don't really yell much. I've never killed a baby. I'm a straight white male, so I've never had an abortion.

My daughter's first pregnancy was in her tubes. She was nearly dead by the time they found the problem. I understand, correct me if you can, that if she had been taken to a Catholic hospital she would have died. They cannot perform abortions. It would be nice to be wrong here.

Please. Go back through the things I have posted and tell me where I have lied, been intentionally or inadvertently dishonest, misleading, or wrong. I would like to see citations from legitimate sources.

“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.”

— Thomas Paine

Writes Compass Star Wordsmith ·4 hr ago

That's a whole lot to unpack. Thanks for taking the time to expand upon our beliefs. I'm headed to one of my side gigs rn, and don't have time to reply fully. But the first step to understanding is listening. Let me chew on this today, and I will have a full-throated reply later today. I think this thread will make it into my weekly Monday post. I'd love to interview you on my platform and present your side of American life as you see it.

thanks

Ric

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