Margaret Atwood couldn't have written this, because it's too absurd to be believed. Facing vigorous public protest over the Texas Legislature's railroading of draconian abortion restrictions, Texas state troopers searched visitors to the Texas state capitol yesterday and confiscated tampons, maxi-pads, and other potential projectiles.
Not confiscated: concealed firearms, which contain potential projectiles much more dangerous than Tampax.
Only a maleficent mix of misogyny and machismo could lead a state to view a woman's personal hygiene products as a greater threat to public safety and democracy than a loaded gun.
Related 09:02 CDT: Meanwhile, a 12-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the face by the Taliban for going to school, speaks to the United Nations Youth Assembly:
The extremists are afraid of books and pens. The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women. The power of the voice of women frightens them....
Dear fellows, today I am focusing on women's rights and girls' education because they are suffering the most. There was a time when women social activists asked men to stand up for their rights. But, this time, we will do it by ourselves. I am not telling men to step away from speaking for women's rights rather I am focusing on women to be independent to fight for themselves.
Dear sisters and brothers, now it's time to speak up....
So let us wage a global struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism and let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons. [Malala Yousafzai, speech to United Nations Youth Assembly, New York City, 2013.07.12].
Unbelievable! South Carolina will have to try harder to take away Texas's political A-hole title.
It has already been said online "weapons of mass absorption". Guess they were afraid that women would take them from their bag and shout "insert here".
How big is a ten gallon hat when it covers a vast empty cavern between the ears?
Law-abiding citizens who carry guns have the self-control and manners to not shoot people who disagree with them. Liberal pro-choice activists clearly do not have the self-control or manners to not throw their feminine hygiene projectiles at people who disagree with them.
Keep you hands and feet to yourselves, children.
#ReplaceAWordInAMovieWithTampon Texas Tampon Massacre.
It is hilariously ignorant and offensive. For god's sake, what do they think would happen to them if a tampon was thrown at one of those men and it hit him?!? Did they have ambulances and medics standing by? Evac helicopters? Were guards stationed throughout the galleries so they could instantly tackle/take down/disarm any nefarious tampon slingers?!? Were the protectors of those poor, vulnerable law/laughing stock-makers being protected from the very real threat of great bodily harm by big burly men armed with tasers? Or did they wield shotguns to neutralize these extreme risks!?!
It's beyond farce. Again the Republican party demonstrates its complete contempt for women. As I've said before, such people ought to ashamed. To their detriment, they are not.
"Law-abiding citizens who carry guns have the self-control and manners to not shoot people who disagree with them. Liberal pro-choice activists clearly do not have the self-control or manners to not throw their feminine hygiene projectiles at people who disagree with them."
Your kidding Bree? Those loaded tampons could kill someone.
Maybe they can chant "Hail Satan" as they hurl tampons at the elected representatives of Texas. That would make things ever more interesting.
Or Santa: same diff.
Maybe Bree S. (BS how appropriate) can choke on her tea bag! Or get a dose of reality and a real sense of humor.
Somewhere deep in my You Tube collection is the name of a singer songwriter/ band leader long passed who recorded a tune about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre back in the late '70's. Pretty sure I still have it on an LP. It needs a rewrite. The name will come to me eventually.
Maybe you can throw used tampons and feces at me as a demonstration of your superior sense of humor, Vincent Gormley. I wonder what your opinion would be if the "tea baggers" engaged in such childish behavior.
Liberty: it's not just for foetuses anymore.
Usually I read news 3-4 hours a day. I can not write it, as here. I am not too sure that the feces and urine was not a PR thing that came out of the Perry camp.
When Salemen(?) was taken off the floor scared me to death.
I am old and have not watched what was going on in SD. Old "Horseface" from the anti abortion league in SD is winning .
A lot of these social issues that are being revisited are a small smoke screen.
If you have not watched "Park Avenue" on PBS, Netflixs or wherever please do so.
Yeah, the feces, urine thing did not come from the protesters. There is no way to rationalize, excuse, explain away such ridiculous behavior - a state legislature confiscates tampons in the state capital! You cannot make this stuff up!!! What did those dumb asses expect?!?
Maybe they get bonuses for every tampon they discover. Air Safety was being rewarded for every nail clipper, etc they found even if they were not a serious threat. Meanwhile that reward system caused them to ignore actually serious threats. I think the rules and rewards were recently changed.
This insanity is just a taste of what will come with the recent Supreme Court decision undoing the right to vote laws. Several southern states in a matter of hours or days have pushed restrictive voter ID legislation through legislatures according to last TIME magazine.
This tampon threat is reality trumping theater of the absurd fiction.
Next target will be wet tee-shirts. Incidentally, T-Shirts are 100 years old now. First Sears versions cost 29c.
Was it "tea baggers" who brought in the 18 jars of feces, Deb? Those tea baggers must be really upset at Texas legislators for passing a pro-life bill.
"AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) today received information that individuals planned to use a variety of items or props to disrupt legislative proceedings at the Texas Capitol.
Therefore for safety purposes, DPS recommended to the Texas Senate that all bags be inspected prior to allowing individuals to enter the Senate gallery, which the Texas Senate authorized.
During these inspections, DPS officers have thus far discovered one jar suspected to contain urine, 18 jars suspected to contain feces, and three bottles suspected to contain paint. All of these items – as well as significant quantities of feminine hygiene products, glitter and confetti possessed by individuals – were required to be discarded; otherwise those individuals were denied entry into the gallery.
In the interest of the safety and security of Texas legislators and the general public, these inspections will continue until the conclusion of Senate business."
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/07/13/texas-abortion-regulations-debate-nears-climax/
How dare the tea baggers plant 18 jars of feces among the mature, intelligent, eloquent pro-choice activists to make them look bad! The next time those upstanding citizens fighting for the rights of women everywhere to kill the unborn (good job with the fake blood representing the blood of murdered children painted on the lower abdomen ladies - you really made your symbolic point!).. the next time they see those rude self-centered tea baggers singing "Amazing Grace" they should immediately break into disruptive chants of "Hail Satan!" as recompense.
You are wrong about that Bree.
Do You think 'tea baggers' brought such things into the chamber? That's not what I said.
Confiscating tampons. How can the Texas Republicans be anything but laughingstocks of the nation?!
We've received a few lessons in the past couple days:
1. It's not safe to be a black man in Florida.
2. It's not safe to be a woman in Texas.
3. It's not safe to be poor in America.
(I can't take credit for that list. It's from a cogent and unsettling tweet.)
Your comment, Deb:
"Yeah, the feces, urine thing did not come from the protesters. ..."
And my sarcastic response:
"Was it "tea baggers" who brought in the 18 jars of feces, Deb? Those tea baggers must be really upset at Texas legislators for passing a pro-life bill."
Perhaps you're having trouble following the logic of our conversation. You state the feces didn't come from the protesters. I posted a sarcastic comment accusing the "tea baggers" of bringing in the jars of feces along with a statement from the Texas DPS that they confiscated 18 jars of "suspected feces" (i.e. "smells like and looks like crap but hasn't been tested by a lab yet") from protesters. Clearly your statement that the feces didn't come from the pro-choice activists is obviously false and in consideration of that my statement that the feces must have come from the "tea baggers" is obviously sarcasm.
I'm sorry that you're easily confused by the obvious. Please, continue with your offended rant that the ridiculous laughingstocks at the Texas DPS confiscated the feces, urine, paint, and tampons both used and unused that pro-choice activists were planning on throwing at legislators. You're right, it's so ridiculous that their freedom to behave like dung-throwing monkeys in the Capitol Building was impaired.
Of course, since you support killing fetuses past the preterm age of gestational viability I'm not surprised that your offended by this trampling of "freedom."
Simply childish! I do not behave that way. You always take the low road Bree S. And you like blaming others for your own failures. No class no facts so dishonest and pathetic.
Lol, Vincent. You're so well-bred, while I'm just a "no class no facts dishonest and pathetic" tea bagger who should "choke on her tea bag" who "always take[s] the low road" and "blam[es] others for [her] own failures" who needs a "dose of reality and a sense of humor."
I find hypocrites so amusing, but that could just be my poor sense of humor rearing its head.
Bree S.,
For the life of me I can not understand why you continue to post here. I post here very infrequently anymore because most posters ignore the truth or refuse to accept it because it does not fit within their world. Most post with emotion and few facts, because only emotion matters to them.
I do come here to read most every day sometimes to just get a chuckle and other times to stay current on what has the progressive left's nickers in knot. Rarely do I leave here dissatisfied.
Joseph G Thompson
The shame of the Texas legislature is now being overshadowed by the disgrace of the innocent verdict in Florida. As predicted, the misnamed "Stand Your Ground" law has legalized murder, especially of black/brown males. Martin was followed, hunted down and killed. The killer claims he was the victim. What!?! The boy didn't follow Zim, didn't hunt him down, wasn't carrying a weapon.
BTW, Florida just sentenced a black woman to 20 years when she fired warning shots Over The Head of her abusive husband to protect herself.
I wonder what would happen if the Republican party was racist, or was engaged in a War on Women? Boggles the mind.
Cmon Deb, It's safer for a black man in Florida than his own neighborhood in Chicago or LA.
It's not safe for a red man in his own neighborhood in Rapid City.
It's not safe for a white man in most of those communities.
That said Im happy to be white, my parents kicked my butt out and made me work something others were not lucky enough to have experienced in many races.
Your comment implies an untruth. Whether it is natives, blacks or Mexicans, they are in the most danger in their own hoods.
.
As for women in Tx, I don't know of another state that treats their women better or where their women are more hospitable.
Deb,
The Zimmerman--Martin case and decision is not quite that simple. It was a tragedy in all directions, and it was a very poor case to hang race on. We know that Zimmerman followed Trayvon to begin with, but we do not know that Trayvon was not following Zimmeran before the confrontation. If you go back to the start of this and find the aerial photos of the area, it appears that Trayvon would have been inside his father's home had he not circled back...assuming the 6 ft teenager was actually walking reasonably fast to get out of the rain.
With 500 or so Black youth killed by other Black youth since this tragedy unfolded, there is a certain amount of hypocrisy involved in this. And, there is a tremendous inversion of significance and proportion. Also, with guys like Tavis Smiley saying this case proves a Black male can't get justice in a court seems to ignore the OJ Simpson trial.
Also, in the nit-picking department, the jury did not decide that Zimmerman was "innocent". They decided that the prosecution failed and the defense succeeded in doubt department. There is a difference between court "not guilty" and general discourse "innocent". They should not be confused.
And, Zimmerman is as much Hispanic as he is "white".
Another problem with making too much of this case is that there were really only two people who knew what actually happening and one of them is dead. The other observers presented very contradictory testimony with some of them presenting multiple stories of what happened.
Blacks, Native Americans, and disadvantaged Whites should however be very concerned about the impact of the US Supreme Court attack on the voting rights legislation. Justice Roberts has been on the attack for 18 years and was finally in a position to gut the legislation. Already southern states have passed or are in process of passing restrictive voting ID laws etc which can effectively turn democracy upside down.
Bree needs to head up Senator Nelsons campaign communications Joseph. However folks view Bree, I seldom see anyone who can think on their feet like she does, beyond attacking her personally, which most here do well.
Yah sure, Les. And Bree never uses personal attacks to further her perspective. It is so refreshing.
If Bree is a spokesman for Nelson, he is in deep trouble.
Couple of things Les:
I didn't say that no one else is unsafe anywhere else. I didn't say white people as a skin-color are bad. Those are your conclusions. I didn't imply anything. I said what I meant. I can name many states far better than Texas to be a woman in - MN, NY, NM, WA, OR, CA, ME, MA, CT, CO, and on and on.
Lastly, I have not personally attacked BS here or anywhere else. I have strongly disagreed with her. She is not the TX legislature or other public office holders, whom I have characterized in highly critical and satiric language. On the other hand BS routinely goes directly to personal attacks. As to her intelligence, I have no need for an opinion.
"I post here very infrequently anymore because most posters ignore the truth or refuse to accept it because it does not fit within their world. Most post with emotion and few facts, because only emotion matters to them."
So Joseph when you say that the people who post here are ignoring the truth do you mean the truth as you see it?
How about an example
Yeah, read Bree's link
Doug, I am in total agreement with you regarding the attacks on voting rights. I don't think anything is more central to democracy. If certain groups of people are prevented from voting, it's not a democracy.
There are many things about the Martin case we can't be sure of due to admissible evidence games, questionable witnesses, etc. What we do know is that Zim instigated the entire episode. He followed Martin. He did not stay in the vehicle after police told him to. Zim did not stop and stay away when lawful authorities ordered him to. If Zim had respected the authority and laws of the USA, a teenage boy would still be alive today and eating Skittles. Martin is the victim who defended himself against an armed attacker.
Racists have become awfully skilled since 1965 at covering their asses, and laws passed almost entirely by white people make it very difficult to offer direct, concrete evidence that race was a central factor in the crime or verdict. Those guys aren't stupid.
I am certain that if Martin had been a white boy in a light jacket Zim would have given him a cursory glance and gone on. I'm also quite certain that if the photos of the dead victim showed a preppy white boy, Zim would have been found guilty.
Racism has been part of this country before it was a country. It's in our DNA, so integrated that's it's nearly invisible and extremely difficult to expose, let alone root out and eradicate. It's possibly America's most important task as a nation.
I see your point Joseph. I think Bree missed the point. Yes tampons and feces were taken and banned and the amazing thing it was legal to bring in guns.
Owen, I imagine the Texas DPS would have confiscated guns if they had been smeared with excrement and thrown at legislators.
Deb, racism is not in our DNA. That is a silly comment. And you don't know what was going on in Zimmerman's head anymore than you know what Martin was thinking when he called Zimmerman a "creepy ass cracker." It could have been a casual rude comment that didn't indicate anything deeper psychologically. It could also mean that Martin was a racist. It certainly isn't evidence that proves anything, just like the weak testimony from dubious characters and poor evidence didn't prove anything in the Zimmerman-Martin case. Justice requires factual evidence, not your prejudiced notions regarding what you believe are other people's thoughts.
You reposted a tweet saying it's not safe to be a black man in Florida, Deb. So your point must mean? I still contend, it is safer for a black man in Florida than most other states with high black populations, regardless of your intended thought.
.
Your certainty on this Zim case as you call it, certainly mocks justice from 2200 miles away Deb. We can only pray when our time to be judged comes, we are not judged from that distance and or with your cursory process.
.
Bree doesn't need me to defend her, Wiken, but if she attacks, it generally has facts thrown in with it. The paper boys trolling for Rounds can't hold a candle to Bree whether you like her or not and it doesn't sound like she'll jump on the Mike wagon any day soon.
You're right Les - if Stace chooses not to run for Senate I will support Rhoden.
Of course racial hatred is in human DNA: curious that someone purporting to be a christian would believe otherwise.
While I would never pretend to know what is in human DNA, Larry, I find it interesting so many of my race are reaching out to call this Hispanic racist in this inter racial situation. However, the young black teen fitting Deb's description who recently shot a baby in the head is an angry young black man.
.
Skittles huh? Just what I was after as a 17 year old teen out at night 40 some years back.
you really want to get into this with me, les?
Don't be so self centered Larry, this isn't about you or I.
class warfare is about all of us, les.
Rich women in Texas will just fly somewhere else to enjoy the right to medical procedures while poor women will become breeders because a red state legislature tells them to.
How is that not a chilling effect on civil rights as guaranteed by the US Constitution?
Rich people in a gated community effectively paid a security guard likely afflicted with Münchausen syndrome to hunt down and kill a man/child with a chip on his shoulder.
How is that not a chilling effect on rights guaranteed by the US Constitution?
just came over my twitter feed:
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18085-obscenities-of-capitalism
Rich people paid a murder of lawyers to stare down a state-financed prosecutor.
New Mexico is cutting public defender staff, South Dakota already has while lawyer/lobbyists for working for banks and private prisons push stand your ground laws.
How conservative.
Sidearms for the preborn. Stace Nelson for Grand Inquisitor.
Here's a cheery story about how poor Texas women would cross the border for the medical care being outlawed in that state:
http://www.fronterasdesk.org/content/new-abortion-regulations-impact-border
"----is in our DNA" is an expression used to indicate how deeply something is embedded in the dominant culture. That was my intention, not that "racism is in our DNA" ought to be taken literally. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
It's so interesting when the dominant culture strongly denies something a minority just as strongly affirms. Of course the majority will be unaware of how pervasive the problem is. Racism only minimally directly affects white people in the USA.
In the early 1990s I was the trainer for the SD Peace Officers Assoc. for domestic violence. Something like 95% of the participants were men and they were eager to stop this growing problem. However, there were still a few who questioned the woman's behavior. "I wouldn't have done that. . . I would have . . . " I had to remind them it wasn't about them.
The same is true in the matter of racism. Your perceptions are of limited value. You will achieve a much more complete understanding of what it's like to be oppressed under a racist system by listening to and believing people who have first hand experience in the their every day lives, day after day, week after week, year after year.
I imagine some of you are not going to like hearing this, but whether you like it or not is not relevant. If you are planning to wait for proof of racism that will stand up in an American court of law, get comfortable. You will have a long wait.
"Under the old South African apartheid categories, ''colored'' people were those who descended from black and white parents—but their Y chromosome almost always shows a European ancestry, whereas their mitochondrial DNA usually shows an African heritage. To put it plainly, white men were sleeping with black women, but black men were not sleeping with white women."
http://web.mit.edu/racescience/in_media/what_dna_says_about_human/
Clarification: if Stace chooses not to run for Senate, I will support Rhoden if at the bare minimum he signs the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
...which Rhoden has done, according to Mr. Mercer.
Good. I certainly hope Stace runs, but if he doesn't I'd like to have at least one option.
Deb, the Zimmerman case was not fought with the Stand Your Ground law, it was self-defense. Two much different scenarios. However, the media wouldn't clarify that because it might not get them as good of ratings. Zimmerman didn't break any laws by following Martin, and not listening to a 911 dispatcher is not a crime because they are not giving lawful orders. Leave the emotions out of it. Emotions are what put this in the courts when the evidence was clear that it was self-defense. Zimmerman was judged by a group of his peers and they found him not guilty. Innocent until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt still means something in this country whether your twisted view says otherwise.
Zimmerman will be tried under federal hate crimes law:
http://activisttube.com/blog/George-Zimmerman-Old-MySpace-Surfaces:-Full-of-Racist-Statements-and-Admissions-of-Criminal-Activity!/51
Bankrupting Zimmerman could drive him to self
departdeport.Native perspective on stand your ground:
http://lastrealindians.com/stand-your-ground-for-trayvon-martin-and-all-our-children-by-ruth-hopkins/
Do you want to put money on that Larry? The feds hands are almost completely tied. They found no racial motive during trial and other than a small hero complex, you've got nothing. The guy has dated black individuals, his step sister is black, and just prior to the incident he rallied against a possible cover-up of the beating of a black homeless man. The only thing racial about this is what the media has spun to push ratings. It's a joke what sort of media spectacle these court cases have become.
The Zimmerman trial had nothing to do with Stand Your Ground laws.
This case is a tragedy and travesty that has been magnified multiple times by intentional press inflation and possibly unintentional incompetence. It is certainly not something to use to generate a national irrelevancy and diversion.
As for the Justice Department, the idea of a second trial in this is pandering to dumb and amounts to another kind of double jeopardy.
This may not have been the "justice" expected by the rabid, but it is the "justice" that follows procedure.
Get on projects to reduce the Black on Black murders and to prevent the new poll tax implicit in tougher voter ID laws. There is more probability of election fraud by officials than voter fraud by voters. It is hard enough to get people to vote once let alone more than once or to vote when they can't legally do it.
ALEC and SD Republican officials have a solution in search of a non-existing problem.
Anyone could sue Zimmerman in civil court, bankrupting him is the American way. Stand your ground was a theme throughout the criminal trial whether allows or not. Betting with a pseudonym is delusional.
Stand your ground had nothing to do with it whether you want to think it did or not. Yeah, the money whores will be out in full force trying to get something for nothing. Real integrity on display right there.
The President risks alienating the Hispanic population.
Integrity has no place in American politics: we learned that from Iran-Contra and the Southern Strategy.
why is that Bree? Republicans have already done that-big time
DB correctly states that the defense did not invoke Florida's stand-your ground statute. Women and black youths remain at risk. Carry on.
Ok, the law itself was not invoked yet its implication wove through most of the testimony.
The stand your ground law was not invoked by the defense because the prosecution could have argued it, too.
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/15/after_aiding_zimmermans_case_alec_backed
There are more than 18 languages spoken in Miami, Cory. Which women and black youth at risk from whom under what laws? How about saying "our youth at risk"? http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/22/us/georgia-baby-killed
Somehow this is less offensive than a possible self defense.
Miami? Rapid City and Sioux Falls endure gang violence for all the same reasons: extensions of class warfare outside the law instead of being sanctioned by Pierre.
This was on Religious News Service, spoken by Episcopalian clergyman Greg Brewer:
"I want to live in a world where George Zimmerman offers Trayvon Martin a ride home to get him out of the rain that night. Come Lord Jesus."
Yes, so do I.
Imagine seeing someone walking in the rain and, rather than helping him, you shoot him. Says so much about Zim and racism.