A victory for women in Congress today, as the Senate passed an amendment put forth by Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), which would require insurance companies to offer various preventative services to women. The amendment passed in what (I suppose) technically counts as a bipartisan vote, with three Republicans voting alongside the Democratic majority.
I’m not even gay and as a New Yorker I felt like I got kicked in the nuts today. It was so hard to try and play objective journalist today. Some of the crowing on the side of the bigots nearly caused me to break something. I even ran a red light and got caught by one of those camera things.
There’s a multitude of reasons why the vote in the NYS Senate went down the way it did. Senator Joe Addabbo of Queens was threatened by the Catholic church, who just came off a big victory by carrying a Republican to Addabbo’s old city council seat in a landslide over Addabbo’s former chief of staff. Senator Carl Krueger of Brooklyn had hundreds of calls from constituents asking him to vote no, but only a handful in favor.
Still, I feel crushed. Why? This doesn’t effect me in an any way. Why do I feel so distraught? Why did I find it hard to write the story today at work?
Watch it at MSNBC, post your thoughts and comments.
Thought it was time for an open thread.
Thanksgiving is over. If you are a political junky then the next month will give you plenty to cheer or moan and groan about.
First up is Afghanistan. I wish I could wave a magic flag and bring the troops home tomorrow. I wish we could find an honorable way out of the region. But, wishes are what you resort to when reality isn’t cooperating. All I can really say about this mess is that I’m glad we have a President who thinks through his decisions even when pressured to do otherwise. Don’t doubt this man’s backbone. Brains and courage. Great combination.
Health care is about to heat up, also. You betcha. The opposition is going to throw everything they’ve got into the gears to try to bring it screeching to a halt. The advantage held by the pro-reform side is razor-thin. It will take supreme effort to see it through to success.
Anything else on your mind?
It never ceases to frustrate me how ignorant so many of my fellow Americans are about the Muslim faith (or, really, about any faith beyond Christianity). There are over a BILLION Muslims on this silly planet of ours, and merely a fraction of a fraction of them are ‘terrorists’. Yet, the entire faith gets slapped with the broad brush whenever a follower of Muhammad wreaks havoc. Did the atrocities committed in Bosnia by Christians against Muslims (genocide!) represent all Christians? Does the attempt by Christian leaders in Uganda (with the possible backing of Christian leaders here in the States) to make being HIV positive and homosexual punishable by death represent all Christians? IMO, no single group of followers throughout history have been more ‘terrorizing’ than Christians; yet, for some reason, seldom do you hear Americans lashing out at the followers of Christ for the evils committed by a tiny fraction of their brethren. In both cases the blame is misplaced. It is evidence of ignorance and fear of the unknown and unfamiliar…of the need to blame ‘other’ and ‘different’ for the evils and ills of the world. And it has been used to manipulate the majority against the minority in countless ways since the beginning of time. It is such fear and hatred and ignorance that are to blame for terrorism, not any particular faith (or its followers).
I have noticed several conversations and comments about Muslims in recent threads on the Moose. While visiting family for Thanksgiving, something I read here reminded me of an email exchange from a few years back. A friend received a hateful forward in a mass email blast, and she asked me to help her pen a response to ‘reply to all’…. You will find the result below the fold.
It never ceases to frustrate me how ignorant so many of my fellow Americans are about the Muslim faith (or, really, about any faith beyond Christianity). There are over a BILLION Muslims on this silly planet of ours, and merely a fraction of a fraction of them are ‘terrorists’. Yet, the entire faith gets slapped with the broad brush whenever a follower of Muhammad wreaks havoc. Did the atrocities committed in Bosnia by Christians against Muslims….the attempted genocide of an entire people…represent all Christians? IMO, no single group of followers throughout history have been more ‘terrorizing’ than Christians; yet, for some reason, seldom do you hear Americans lashing out at the followers of Christ for the evils committed by a tiny fraction of their brethren. In both cases the blame is misplaced. It is evidence of ignorance and fear of the unknown and unfamiliar…of the need to blame ‘other’ and ‘different’ for the evils and ills of the world. And it has been used to manipulate the majority against the minority in countless ways since the beginning of time. It is such fear and hatred and ignorance that are to blame for terrorism, not any particular faith (or its followers).
I have noticed several conversations and comments about Muslims in recent threads on the Moose. While visiting family for Thanksgiving, something I read here reminded me of an email exchange from a few years back. A friend received a hateful forward in a mass email blast, and she asked me to help her pen a response to ‘reply to all’…. You will find the result below the fold.