Thursday, August 16, 2012

Via JMG: SPLC Condemns Tony Perkins


Via press release and posted publicly to the Southern Poverty Law Center website. From SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potak:
Yesterday’s attack on the Family Research Council and the shooting of a security guard there was a tragedy. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) deplores all violence, and our thoughts are with the wounded victim, Leo Johnson, his family and others who lived through the attack.

For more than 40 years, the SPLC has battled against political extremism and political violence. We have argued consistently that violence is no answer to problems in a democratic society, and we have strongly criticized all those who endorse such violence, whether on the political left or the political right.

But this afternoon, FRC President Tony Perkins attacked the SPLC, saying it had encouraged and enabled the attack by labeling the FRC a “hate group.” The attacker, Floyd Corkins, “was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center,” Perkins said. “I believe the Southern Poverty Law Center should be held accountable for their reckless use of terminology.”

Perkins’ accusation is outrageous. The SPLC has listed the FRC as a hate group since 2010 because it has knowingly spread false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people — not, as some claim, because it opposes same-sex marriage. The FRC and its allies on the religious right are saying, in effect, that offering legitimate and fact-based criticism in a democratic society is tantamount to suggesting that the objects of criticism should be the targets of criminal violence.

As the SPLC made clear at the time and in hundreds of subsequent statements and press interviews, we criticize the FRC for claiming, in Perkins’ words, that pedophilia is “a homosexual problem” — an utter falsehood, as every relevant scientific authority has stated. An FRC official has said he wanted to “export homosexuals from the United States.” The same official advocated the criminalizing of homosexuality.

Perkins and his allies, seeing an opportunity to score points, are using the attack on their offices to pose a false equivalency between the SPLC’s criticisms of the FRC and the FRC’s criticisms of LGBT people. The FRC routinely pushes out demonizing claims that gay people are child molesters and worse — claims that are provably false. It should stop the demonization and affirm the dignity of all people.
Right on, SPLC!


Reposted from Joe

Via Chelsea Clinton Mulls Politics:


Chelsea Clinton says she's no longer totally against following in the footsteps of her parents.
"Before my mom's campaign I would have said no. Not because it was something I had thought a lot about but because people have been asking me that my whole life," Clinton, speaking of her mother's unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid, said in an interview for the September issue of Vogue. [snip] "If there were to be a point where it was something I felt called to do and I didn't think there was someone who was sufficiently committed to building a healthier, more just, more equitable, more productive world? Then that would be a question I'd have to ask and answer."
In the Vogue interview, Chelsea credits her friendships with gay men as helping change her father's stance on same-sex marriage.
One night, over dinner at Cheddar’s, Chelsea mentions that a lot of her male friends are gay. “It was something that I wasn’t even aware of until Marc pointed it out,” she says. Observing the strength of those friendships—many of Chelsea’s friends spend every Thanksgiving with the Clintons at Chappaqua—was one of the key factors in changing Bill Clinton’s position on gay marriage. “Those conversations often start in families and then billow out into the community. Change is hard. And I was really proud of my dad.”

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:


Daily Buddhist Wisdom






Here he's tormented he's tormented hereafter. In both worlds the wrong-doer's tormented. He's tormented at the thought, 'I've done wrong.' Having gone to a bad destination, he's tormented all the more. Here he delights he delights hereafter. In both worlds the merit-maker delights. He delights at the thought, 'I've made merit.' Having gone to a good destination, he delights all the more.
- Dhammapada, 17-18, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Via Follower of the Buddha / FB:


The purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticize others. Rather, we must criticize ourselves. How much am I doing about my anger? About my attachment, about my hatred, about my jealousy?  -- His Holiness the Dalai Lama
 
 

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma August 16, 2012

At Home with Ourselves

Simply watching also allows us to stop struggling: to stop trying so hard to accomplish, to prove ourselves, to measure up—to cover over whatever sense of lack we might have. It may be frightening when we first stop struggling; we’ve become accustomed to this way of being, and feel anxious about leaving the comfort of the familiar. But when we stop the struggle, we then have the space to be at home with ourselves.
- Ezra Bayda, "Reflect, Without Thinking"
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