Whenever I read “Lincoln gave the slaves freedom” or “Roe v. Wade gave women the right to their bodies” or “The Supreme Court gave gays the right to get married,” it always sounds strange.
If I steal your car and then return it, you don’t say “Michael gave me a car.”
Now that more information has come out about the confrontation with those Catholic boys and the Native American, it seems clearer to me that it went somewhat like this:
“We’re a bunch of spoiled boys marching to fight against women’s rights! We’re wearing our MAGA hats to show everyone that we’re bigots!”
“I am a Native American veteran and I will stand up to you peacefully.”
“We will defuse the situation by mocking native people and screaming ‘build the wall’ while doing a Maori dance! There, we’re the good guys here!”
Nah, not buying it. The fact that the veteran walked up to people who should be confronted doesn’t make him the bad guy here. He did the right thing. We should all be confronting the haters.
cartoon by Clay Jones
The Wall was never about security. It won’t stop immigrants from coming here (most of whom come by plane); it won’t stop the drugs — it’s just a way for the bigots in America, led by their Prime Leader Trump, to show their hatred of anyone not like them.
And he’s not even pretending any more. The latest tweet from him warns us that Muslim prayer rugs have been found.
Muslims! Be very very afraid! Despite the fact that the majority of terrorist attacks in America in the past ten years have been from white male Christians, Muslims! They’re different from you! A lot of them are brown! Be very very scared and vote for Republicans who will protect you!
But hey, you know, when elected Republican bigots are asking why it’s wrong to be a white supremacist and when they’re hosting holocaust deniers in the capitol, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.
Just angry.
New Democrats in Congress include:
New Republican Congress members include:
Idiots: “Both parties are the same!”
Here’s the thing.
If you lived in a society where you were treated as a second class citizen because you had green eyes, I would absolutely be in favor of you having a “Green Eyes Pride Day” to say to the world “Hell, no, I will not be ashamed for what I am, nor will I allow you to treat me poorly simply because of my eye color. I am proud of who I am.”
So if there was ever a time where whites (or men, or Christians) were being constantly discriminated against in our society, I would then say it would be fine to have a “White Pride” day.
But if you’re the ones doing the discrimination, you have nothing to be proud of.
Let the Nazis and confederate traitors buy the statues and put them on their own property and let’s stop using taxpayer money to upkeep monuments to people who advocated holding others as property.
No one is trying to outlaw statues (or confederate flags). We just don’t think we should be paying for them with our tax dollars.
“But Jefferson had slaves!” someone always responds. “Next you’ll want to tear down the Washington monument, too!”
No. Neither Washington or Jefferson declared treason against the United States and were willing to kill people in order to keep their slaves. We can make that distinction easily enough.
Many of these statutes were erected in the Jim Crow days, years after the Civil War, by southerners who insisted on celebrating the losers and the racists who caused the bloodiest war in American history.
Imagine having a statue to the KKK in the center of your city, complete with hoods and a burning cross in the background. Imagine how the Jewish residents of the city would feel walking past that every day. That’s how our black Americans feel when they pass by the monuments honoring people who committed war in order to hold blacks as property.
This isn’t censorship. The statues can still exist. Let the bigots move these to private property and let them take care of them, in the same way we need to remove Ten Commandment monuments from public property.
Bottom line: We should not be using taxpayer money on people who rebelled and declared treason against that same government that now pays for the statues.
If you ever said to yourself “If I had been around when the nazis started to rise, I would have fought them!” — now’s your chance to prove it.
Tolerance is a good thing when we’re talking about people’s lifestyles which hurt no one else.
It does not mean tolerating hate, discrimination and bigotry that does hurt people.
The two sides are not “equally at fault.” Nazis and Confederate supporters are wrong. We fought wars with them both in the past. Wars they started in which millions died.
There is no way to claim that those who fought against them, who defended freedom, were at fault.
“As a show of support, groups of people across America are attaching safety pins to their lapels, shirts and dresses to signify that they are linked, willing to stand up for the vulnerable” says the New York Times. 
While I clearly stand with that group, I have not yet worn a pin.
And mostly it’s because I am not sure the “vulnerable” want me to. I mean, it seems kind of condescending to me. Am I wrong there?
Some are saying the pin is a meaningless gesture, like sending your prayers and thoughts after a tragedy. A friend of mine recently pointed out, however, that as an attorney, my pin may mean more to someone–because I really am in a position where I might be able to actually help someone who needs it.
I’d really like to hear from my friends on this, especially those who will be impacted by Trump’s policies, such as the LGBT community and the Muslims and racial minorities and women and atheists and … okay, everyone except for Christian white males, I guess.
Here we go again. People are still debating whether a make-believe character can be a color other than their own.
The Mall of America — you know that place, America? Home of the widest variety of people on the planet? — anyway, the Mall has a Santa Claus this year who isn’t white, and that is making racists’ heads spin.
Many conservatives cannot stand the idea. Ronald Reagan would have never stood for it. 
(Here, of course, is where I insert a picture of Mr. T performing as Santa at the White House in the Reagan administration. Come on, you all knew that was coming.)
Santa is, of course, based on St. Nicholas, who was from Turkey, and thus was a darker skinned middle eastern man (just like Jesus!).
The idea that a fictional character like Santa must be white fits in with the conservative bubble, where everything involves them and has to fit into their world view or it either doesn’t exist (climate change, evolution) or it is changed to be just like them (Jesus and Santa).
But it’s not just Santa. I’ve seen science fiction geeks get all crazy when someone suggests that Superman could be black. “But he’s not!” they scream.
Well why not? Geez, he’s not even from earth. He could be green with yellow polka dots. Why would that distract from truth, justice, and the American way? (OK, well, admittedly it would make it harder to pose as mild-mannered Clark Kent…)
There are indeed instances where the race or gender or sexual orientation of a fictional character is important to the story — but if it’s not, who cares? Why does it matter one bit what race Santa is?
For that matter, artistic license allows you to change the race of real people. Look at Hamilton, the wildly successful play. There was a conscious choice to cast people of all races to make an artistic statement even while the story itself tried to be accurate. So what? It’s art. Enjoy it and stop insisting that everything has to revolve around you.
Look how happy this kid is and how he doesn’t care about the Mall of America Santa’s race
“Why are most of the animals in ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ male?” asked a female reviewer.
I thought that was a good question. It’s not like there was a plot reason to have the characters male. 
So I posted that article on a page devoted to animation, and immediately was attacked. “Oh, here go the feminists again!” they said. “This woman doesn’t know what she’s talking about” and so on.
All from men, of course.
I expected one to scream “All cartoons matter!”
I always try to listen to the experts. When the vast majority of scientists are telling me that climate change is real and vaccinations are good, I tend to listen. I don’t have any experience in that area.
Similarly, it is tremendously frustrating for me as a lawyer who once taught Constitutional Law to be lectured by some high school dropout about the meaning of the second amendment.
Everyone reading this is an expert in something. Your job, your hobbies, your life — how do you like it when someone tries to tell you you’re wrong about something you know better than anyone else?
So when women tell you that the lack of representation in a film is important to them, don’t go tell them they shouldn’t feel that way. If black people are telling you that they fear the police and are targeted by them often, don’t go saying that they are wrong.
Let’s assume they’re the experts here.
ventrellaquest.com 