Future Tense: Between Huxley or Orwell

 by Nomad

Originally posted on RecombinantRecords.net

The question is: Which of these visions of the future are we closer to?

Barbara Jordan Remembered

by Nomad

Today, February 21, marks the birthday of Texas Congresswoman Barbara Charline Jordan, arguably one of the most influential black women in American political history.

Representative Jordan from Texas was the first in many categories: the first African American to serve in the Texas Senate since Reconstruction, the first black woman elected to Congress from the South. Additionally, in, July 1976, she became the first African American woman to deliver a keynote speech at a Democratic National Convention.

In fact, on an individual level, it's hard to find, in one person of this period who symbolized the breadth of American diversity. She was an African American, she was a woman and, although it was an aspect of her life she preferred to remain undisclosed, she was most likely a lesbian.

On that basis alone, she had a right to speak on behalf of many people. She once said of the first words of the preamble of the Constitution:

It is a very eloquent beginning. But when the document was completed on the seventeenth of September 1787 I was not included in that “We, the people.” I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision I have finally been included in “We, the people.”:

This Day in History: When Bankers and Big Business Betrayed a Nation

 by Nomad

When we look back at this date- February 20- we see it was a critical day in modern history. Eighty-two years ago today,  Hitler made his pitch for campaign financing to the leaders of banking and industry. It turned out to be a smashing success.

On this day in 1933, the Nazi party arranged a secret meeting between Adolf Hitler and 20 to 25 industrialists at the official residence of Hermann Wilhelm Göring, the minister of the interior in Hitler's government, 

The aim of this secret meeting was to allocate campaign financing for the Nazi party in the crucial upcoming elections. 

A German economist, banker, liberal politician Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht acted as a liaison/host for the event. As a fierce critic of his country's post-World War I reparation obligations, Schacht became a supporter of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. He served in Hitler's government as President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics. 

Until his fall from grace in 1937, Schacht proved to be a useful tool for the regime and its rise to absolute power.

Gay Cure Therapy and How the GOP in Texas Officially Endorses Consumer Fraud

by Nomad

Try to picture this. The official party platform of a key state giving its stamp of approval for consumer fraud, namely a kind of therapy which has been thoroughly discredited by professionals and is possibly dangerous.

What does this say about the ethics of that party?

Quackery Therapy

This week, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Peter F. BarsioJr. ruled  against the gay conversion therapy provider Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH). His official ruling in the case filed by Southern Poverty Law Center against the company states:

It is a misrepresentation in violation of [New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act], in advertising or selling conversion therapy services, to describe homosexuality, not as being a normal variation of human sexuality, but as being a mental illness, disease, disorder, or equivalent thereof.

David Dinielli, SPLC deputy legal director, commenting on the court decision,

“For the first time, a court has ruled that it is fraudulent as a matter of law for conversion therapists to tell clients that they have a mental disorder that can be cured. This is the principal lie the conversion therapy industry uses throughout the country to peddle its quackery to vulnerable clients. Gay people don’t need to be cured, and we are thrilled that the court has recognized this.”

Over the years, organizations, mostly religion-based, were set up  to push  conversion therapy. The idea was that homosexuality was something that could, or needed to be fixed. 

Texas Religious Leader Says Watching "Fifty Shades of Grey" is a Sin

 by Nomad

Nomad takes a look at the  rather ridiculous hysteria  surrounding a recent film, dealing with S&M and sexual submission.

It was pretty predictable that some heads would explode as soon as British author E. L. James' 2011 erotic romance novel came out as a film. The subject matter was just a little too hot for some people. 

A thoughtful depiction of a consensual S&M relationship was, for many tightly wound conservatives apparently pushing the envelop too far.  

It was just a matter of good taste either. 

Sin with a Mainstream Appeal

According to the Catholic Dioceseof El Paso, Texas, it's is a sin to watch the film "Fifty Shades of Grey." At least, that's what  El Paso Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz has written on in a post in his website.

"I’m not going to tell you that you may not go to see the movie, Fifty Shades of Grey. I’m just going to tell you to do so would be a sin."

Seitz says he considers the film to be little more than "pornography with a dangerous and degrading mainstream appeal." That hasn't stopped the newly-debuted film from having a phenomenal opening weekend. In fact, with a heap of juicy publicity like that Sietz should be on somebody's payroll. 

The bishop takes the long standing view that there can be no passive participation in pornography. Just being a viewer is an act of endorsement and form of approval. 

That right there is a sin.