“What I do is not up to you.”
??The best 2017 movie quote came from Wonder Woman.NeoNotes are the selected comments that I made on other boards, in email, or in response to articles where I could not respond directly.“What I do is not up to you.”
One reason that some pagans tolerate me at all is because my biggest ongoing argument with conservative Christians is some version of "Your religion doesn't control what other people do." Not what they wear, not who they live with, not what they eat, not what happens in the bedroom, not what they read, not how they do it, and not who they do it with.
Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do by Peter McWilliams points out that vice laws are all based in religion.??Personally I'd be willing to live and let live with Christians. But that works two ways. If my beliefs don't control the actions and beliefs of monotheists, then theirs don't control mine. That means that the law must treat every faith (and even no faith) equally. Neither help nor hinder. No special consideration or privilege. But at the same time, some Christians act as if their religion must be raised above all others, even by those who do not practice it. Freedom of religion does not mean putting Christianity first. It means choice, even if that choice is one you do not agree with.??
I love throwing that quote of mine at them, it frustrates them to no end. It's even more fun watching them try to justify why Christianity must be above all others.??
Comments
FDR and the IRS
Wednesday - 01May2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Politics
““My father may have been the originator of the concept of employing the IRS as a weapon of political retribution.””
“I Built a City Of Lawless Anarchy and This Happened - Citystate”
Wednesday - 01May2019 Filed in: Entertainment&Politics
“Green New Deal: Fact versus Fiction”
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal proposes to save the planet. It calls for the United States to reduce carbon emissions to zero in 10 years.”
Read More...Works better
Sunday - 21Apr2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Free Markets
““Capitalism works better than it sounds. Socialism sounds better than it works.””
tip of the hat to Brian Micklethwait
Only reason
Sunday - 21Apr2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Free Markets
““Capitalism is the only reason socialism has any money to redistribute.””
tip of the hat to Brian Micklethwait
Women's rights
??The first and most important "women's right" is the right to vote. Then comes the right to earn, to keep what is earned, and to hold property. Free speech and the rest listed in the Bill of Rights come next. Reproductive "rights" don't even make the top ten. Especially since the last time I checked, sex is supposed to be a consensual activity.??— NeoWayland, comments from The “no news is good news” open thread
Racial justice
Thursday - 18Apr2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Liberty
??Technically I'm a mutt. My mother's family is from the Louisiana and Tennessee. I don't know enough about my biological father to say what his ancestry was. And I will say it again, racial justice imposed from above is not freedom. It's privilege. The major civil rights act was passed 54 years ago. That's nearly three generations. And yet to hear people like you tell it, we're just as bad as we ever were and are on the edge of a racial apocalypse that will happen the next time a "white" person says no to a "black" person.??— NeoWayland, comments from The “no news is good news” open thread
Worker rights
Thursday - 18Apr2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Liberty
??If you don't have the right to walk away from any organization, it is not freedom. Meanwhile, there's always the option of finding another job. If there are no other jobs, then chances are that's a government sanctioned monopoly. There are plenty of other ways to protect worker rights, many which work better than unions. ESOPs are one example.??— NeoWayland, comments from The “no news is good news” open thread
“CBS STOKES Political Division: The Good Fight”
Thursday - 18Apr2019 Filed in: Politics&Morality & Modern Life
“CBS show "The Good Fight" caused controversy by releasing a social media promo that seemed to encourage political division, and another tweet targeting Trump and Mar-a-Lago.”
Read More...Language
??Just to point out the obvious, previously language changed without being mandated or legally sanctioned or morally correct. It worked because people used it and decided that it worked.??
“Preferred Pronouns or Prison”
““He.” “She.” “They.” Have you ever given a moment’s thought to your everyday use of these pronouns? It has probably never occurred to you that those words could be misused. Or that doing so could cost you your business or your job – or even your freedom. Journalist Abigail Shrier explains how this happened and why it's become a major free speech issue.”
Read More...“The Debunkers Save Libertarianism”
Sunday - 14Apr2019 Filed in: Politics&Free Markets
“John McWhorter: America Has Never Been Less Racist”
“Columbia University linguist John McWhorter on the Jussie Smollett hoax, Donald Trump, and "antiracism" as a new secular religion.”
Read More...“Stossel: Enough Crony Capitalism!”
Tuesday - 09Apr2019 Filed in: Headlines&Free Speech
Hollywood Made It Wild
Saturday - 06Apr2019 Filed in: Headlines
“The American Old West: How Hollywood Made It “Wild” to Make Money & Advance Gun Control”
Read More...“Coolness was never conservative.”
Saturday - 06Apr2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Morality & Modern Life
??Coolness was never conservative.
It grew out of the jazz age and into the Las Vegas and West Coast aesthetic personified by Hefner, Sinatra, and Bruce. It was always about pushing the envelope with just a touch of rebellion. It was always about the show over substance and the deeds better left unmentioned.??
NeoNote — Virtue is a choice
Thursday - 04Apr2019 Filed in: NeoNotes&Morality & Modern Life
??Do you want people who can make the right choice? Or do you want ignorant children who don't know any better???Read More...
“War Is A Racket” by Major General Smedley Butler
“A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.”
Read More...Childlike moral binary
““The childlike moral binary: only people who hold the all correct positions merit empathy or respect.””— Dorian Lynskey, 2:50 AM - 2 Apr 2019
Fuel of war
Tuesday - 02Apr2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Politics
Helped Trump
Journalists Matt Taibbi and Aaron Maté explain how the Russiagate narrative helped Trump
““A sad irony is that the Russiagate narrative, which so many people clung to in an attempt to bring down Trump, only helped him. Actual occurrences that could have undermined Trump’s authority and damaged his reputation were ignored as much of the media and political class focused almost exclusively on a literal conspiracy theory that does not resonate with the voter base that stayed home on Election Day or the Obama-to-Trump voters. Surely, Trump has done awful things, coverage of which could get out the vote and galvanize opposition. But the Russiagate obsession perpetuated Trump’s narrative about being picked-on by a media that peddles fake news and a political elite that represents the status quo. Trump was able to come off, once again, as the outsider who takes on the establishment, which in turn persecutes him. And now that the Mueller report has said he didn’t collude with Russia, he’s celebrating.””
— Katie Halper
Works for religion
Monday - 01Apr2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Morality & Modern Life
??People are looking for something, and some of them are not finding it in churches. Some are, but there never was a one-size-fits-all solution. Competition keeps us honest. It works for peanut butter, smart phones, and politics.
And it most certainly works for religion.??— NeoWayland, comments from Pagan Community News: Twin Cities man charged with child exploitation, SCOTUS decision, and more!
The dangers of delegitimizing
Monday - 01Apr2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums
Jefferson on democracy
““Democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty one percent can vote away the rights of the other forty nine.””
Franklin on democracy
““Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.””
Say what you want about Republicans
Friday - 29Mar2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Politics
??The perception and focus of the Democrat party is that there are groups who have been disenfranchised by society at large and that it is time to "get theirs." It's not about rights, it's about the politics of victimhood. Interests aren't addressed, certainly not in a larger context of all rights for all people. It's about slights and injustices, even if those have to be manufactured.
Say what you want about Republicans (and I often say a lot), at least they don't define rights in terms of politically approved sub-groups to exploit victimhood and the divisions between people.??— NeoWayland, comments from That time when Democrats were responsible for low Black unemployment
One tenth the effort
??If the mainstream media spent one tenth the effort looking at Democrat misconduct that it does looking for Republican misconduct, the nation would be far better off.??
“The EU Just Destroyed The Internet #Article11 #Article13”
The internet is the last, best hope for freedom. And the European Union can't stand that idea.
Read More...Focus
Thursday - 28Mar2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Morality & Modern Life
““When disaster strikes, the national media focus on the despair and helplessness of those affected; the local media emphasize the strength and determination.””— Christopher Harper, Flyover Country: The Real News About Floods
Not necessary
Wednesday - 27Mar2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Politics
““It's not necessary—and certainly not helpful to public discourse—to take a gratuitous swipe at the other side almost every time you share your political perspective. Maybe your view isn't that great if it can't stand on its own.””— Justin Amash (@justinamash), March 25, 2019
“Stossel: Venezuela IS Socialism”
“Media personalities claim socialism didn't cause Venezuela's collapse, but it did. Here's how.”
Read More...Carlin's first rule to live by
Wednesday - 27Mar2019 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Law
““I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don’t believe anything the government tells me. Nothing. Zero.””
NeoNote — The grand distraction
??While we're arguing over who did what, there are unelected and unaccountable elements in government and high finance who are taking power and freedom away from you.??Read More...
War & banking
““It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking.””— Ron Paul, End the Fed
Islam
??Islam is a faith. Criticism of Islam is not racism.??
NeoNote — Unjustified privilege
??It's not about rights. It's about privilege for some taken at the expense of others.??Read More...