Are you American? Have a computer? Congratulations! Your elected officials are working overtime to make sure you have no privacy and no rights... all in the name of your security! The House of Representatives just passed CISPA, affording the government horrendously invasive powers over its citizens. And it gets better... the bill that was passed ended up being far worse than originally thought.
The Obama administration has threatened to veto CISPA (apparently the Special Interest groups they suck up to don't have a problem with it)... but forgive me for failing to be shocked if this ends up getting turned into law anyway. In an election year, President Obama can be only be counted on for doing only one thing... doing whatever he has to do to get re-elected. If that means CISPA gets passed, I'm sure CISPA is going to get passed.
Look, I fully support tracking down cyber criminals, cyber terrorists, cyber pedophiles, and cyber stalkers. Criminals should be brought to justice, end of story. But not by completely trashing the privacy, security, and freedom of American citizens! CISPA gives the government a grotesque amount of power over its people. Power that's just begging to be abused. Because if history has taught us anything, it's that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely... no matter what the original intent. The fact that 248 politicians in the House of Representatives were either too fucking stupid to learn from history or too fucking evil to care speaks volumes about where we're at as a country. Forget about whether its Obama or Romney that's going to destroy America... THIS is where we start to fall, and it's a bipartisan effort!
Though what passes for "freedom" these days has me wondering if I should bother being this upset.
It's been tough for me to keep up with my online life this week as I've been dealing with crushing headaches, but Anissa (one of my favorite people on earth) mentioned a YouTube video where a guy with family ties to a Catholic high school was asked to speak at graduation... but got subsequently un-invited when they found out he's gay. In his video response, the guy mentions that he was "found out" because people at the school saw photos on his Facebook page.
And so I tracked down Dominic Sheahan-Stahl's page where I was expecting to see images of him having gay sex in the middle of an elementary school playground during recess. But instead I found this...
Oh yes. We just gotta protect society from that.
We simply cannot have two happy people in a relationship. What kind of example would that be for the children?
I tell you what... most days I find myself thinking that dying at age 50 would be just about perfect. I've done more in my life than most people ever will, so that should be enough for me, shouldn't it?
But then I hear about stupid bullshit like this and find myself hoping I live to be 100 years old so I can look back at this period in history and just laugh my ass off at how stupid and backwards society was. I mean, seriously, who gives a shit whether this guy finds his happiness in life with sausage or taco? The only people who should care are people interested in his sausage.
While everybody else should just be concerning themselves with is what's in his heart...
What a shame. Sounds like this is exactly the kind of person you want speaking to a graduating class.
Anybody who has ever said "FREEDOM ISN'T FREE!" is absolutely right. We paid for our freedoms dearly, and continue to pay for them every day. Which is why it's always shocking to me how people can be so quick to just piss them away. Whether it's by supporting a society where people are not allowed to speak because of what genitals are on the person they love... or by supporting a government that would steal their freedoms away in plain sight.
I just don't get it.
Which is why I'm no going to exercise my freedom to post this blog entry... while I still can.
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This is my love
This is my love for you
the end.
Hitler, Stalin, and every other dictator in history are orgasming in their graves right now.
How much do I LOVE this post? I just can’t say enough. My Godsons attend this school, and when my best friend sent a text to me about this first thing this morning, I was immediately as appalled as she is.
While I’m definitely disappointed on Dominic’s and his family’s behalf that it happened, I am glad that it did. I seems like it was meant to. His graduation speech would have only gotten so far if not for the controversy. The school/church tried to shush him, and now his voice is reaching much further than they ever could have expected. His voice was needed, because it’s inspired others to speak up and be heard, too.
Love this post. Immensely.
I hate it when the party who’s supposed to care about our civil liberties doesn’t.
Who voted these fucks into office? I am SERIOUSLY sick of stupid shit. Fed the fuck up.
Word.
Don’t die at 50. I’d be so lonely without you.
In other horrifying news, now blogging about YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCES can get you in trouble with the law, because apparently just saying you aren’t a medical professional isn’t enough, holy crap.
Congrats, or something! The same kind of law was recently elected by our politicians here in Sweden too. Feels greeat? :/
Why learn from history? That would mean progress.
THANK YOU.
Exactly. This.
Ugh. This shit just depresses the hell out of me.
Maybe this is where the fall begins, but I think the perversely named Patriot Act was the first step off the cliff. Here’s hoping there are branches to catch us & effective rescue teams in place.
Regarding the school/Bishop’s position, the word “hypocrisy” springs to mind.
Excellent post, thanks to Anissa for pointing me here.
Eloquent. Excellent. Sharing!
I posted a list of the co-sponsors of that effed up bill.
While I’m glad that my Congressmen aren’t on the list I’m a bit ticked I haven’t heard of them challenging it either.
As for the gay speaker…..the school has every right not to have him speak, but they chose him for a reason and evidently his character was good enough to not warrant a background check. My assumption is that their original reason for wanting him to speak hasn’t gone away, right?
The hypocrisy I see is that they have a stand against homosexuality, but are too lazy to really have a stand against homosexuality. If they really cared they’d have some sort of background check before selecting speakers…..
Homophobia would be hysterical if the consequences of it weren’t so tragic. I mean, what’s the guy going to get up and say? “I’M GAY AND IF YOU’RE NOT GAY YOU SHOULD BE GAY BECAUSE BEING GAY IS WHAT JESUS WANTED! FUCK HETEROSEXUALITY! GAY IS THE FUTURE OF THIS COUNTRY AND SO IF YOU WANT A FUTURE YOU SHOULD BE GAY RIGHT NOW! GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY. GAY!”
My problem is NOT that a private institution can decide what is and is not acceptable for their events… it’s their school, so they have every right to un-invite however many speakers they want. My problem is that this kind of blatant discrimination is acceptable to anybody in the first place… and it’s institutions like Sacred Heart Academy that keep it alive.
My congressman, Jim Moran (D-VA) did vote in favor of this. And he’s been trying to be seen as the congressman of the people — the rebel who fights Washington bureaucracy. Guess who I’m not voting for in November?
I hope you’ll let him know why. 🙂
Dominic was offered the chance (the rescinded invitation) to show what he’s made of. Turns out he’s decent and kind and an adult. His response to unkindness will reach more people than his speech to a graduating class ever would.