The liberty to blaspheme

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Sunday February 15, 2009 · 8:04 AM PST

2009/02/15 · 08:04

Considering how often I've written about this topic in the past, I had some reluctance to return to it, fearing I wouldn't have anything new or unique to say this time around. But the right of free speech is once again under assault, and whenever that happens, I believe friends of liberty around the world have a moral duty to man the barricades and raise our voices against the barbarous fanatics who would take it away.

ebonmuse

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Tuesday October 21, 2008 · 5:04 PM PDT

2008/10/21 · 17:04

I've been personally attacked by the Republican party - again.

ebonmuse

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Tuesday October 07, 2008 · 5:15 PM PDT

2008/10/07 · 17:15

Back in August, on my own site, I wrote about an incident in the North Carolina Senate race: Elizabeth Dole's campaign put out a press release attacking Kay Hagan for holding a fundraiser hosted by atheists, specifically Wendy Kaminer and her husband Woody. I wrote a letter to both campaigns with harsh words for Dole's strategy of demonizing atheists, and let them know I was making a donation to Kay Hagan in return.

I got a nice thank-you note from Hagan's campaign and a stock form letter from Dole's. But as I found out today, my efforts have attracted attention in a way I didn't at all expect.

ebonmuse

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Thursday June 26, 2008 · 7:13 AM PDT

2008/06/26 · 07:13

Back in January, when he was still contending for the nomination, Barack Obama said this:

No one should get a free pass to violate the basic civil liberties of the American people - not the President of the United States, and not the telecommunications companies that fell in line with his warrantless surveillance program. We have to make clear the lines that cannot be crossed.

...It's time for Washington to hear your voices, and to act. I share your commitment to this cause, and will stand with you in the fights to come. And when I am President, the American people will once again be able to trust that their government will stand for justice, and will defend the liberties that we hold so dear as vigorously as we defend our security.

How times have changed...

Poll

144 votes Show Results

If Obama caves on amnesty, is it a deal-breaker?

144 votes Vote Now!

If Obama caves on amnesty, is it a deal-breaker?

Yes - I will neither support his campaign nor vote for him.

8 votes

Yes - I'll still hold my nose and vote for him, but I'll no longer volunteer or contribute to his campaign.

25 votes

No - I'll continue to support his campaign, but much more reluctantly than in the past.

32 votes

No - it doesn't make any difference to me at all.

79 votes

Groundhog Day and the "eclipse of God"

ebonmuse

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday June 09, 2006 · 11:21 AM PDT

2006/06/09 · 11:21

Despite their fervent denials of evolution, the religious right constantly shows by their own behavior that humanity is more closely related to the rest of the animal kingdom than they would like to admit. Just consider, as an example, how uncannily similar their behavior is to the common groundhog. Just as the groundhog's annual emergence foretells whether there will be a continuation of winter, so too on every even-numbered year in America, the religious right crawls out of its hole. If it sees an upcoming election, then the rest of us know we're in for six more months of anti-gay pandering and bigotry. Read More

Some thoughts on Memorial Day

ebonmuse

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Monday May 29, 2006 · 4:47 PM PDT

2006/05/29 · 16:47

In the United States, this Monday is Memorial Day, established by Congress to commemorate America's war dead. Across the nation, the day is marked by parades and solemn ceremonies, 21-gun salutes, roll calls of the names of the fallen, and flags, wreaths and ribbons placed on the graves of veterans. These ceremonies are familiar to us; we repeat them every year. And yet, those flags seem to have a special poignancy this year. Against the green grass, their colors seem especially bright. Read More

Creating an "activism bank"

ebonmuse

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Wednesday March 22, 2006 · 9:39 AM PST

2006/03/22 · 09:39

I was inspired to write this by DarkSyde's recent post, Are You Mad Enough Yet? He's got it dead right, in my opinion: expressing outrage on the Internet is easy; taking action to do something about it is a lot more difficult. I know I myself have been guilty of this many times, reading stories that anger me and then not doing anything substantive about them.

So, I have a suggestion.

Why couldn't this site have some sort of database where people who have written letters and placed phone calls to politicians, or otherwise taken action in response to something they've read here, could make a record of that fact? The database could show how much total action Kossacks have taken on any given issue, and each individual commenter and diarist could have their total activism count listed next to their name, similar to comment mojo. I think this could play a valuable role in encouraging members of the community to do more - I know it would be a help to me.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Right-winger: American soldiers' deaths are "so 2003"

ebonmuse

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Sunday February 12, 2006 · 10:36 PM PST

2006/02/12 · 22:36

Hello all,

I've been a long-time reader of Daily Kos, but until now, never a diarist. I just didn't think I had anything to contribute that the fine people on this site hadn't already expressed far more eloquently than I ever could have. However, about two weeks ago, I had a run-in with a truly despicable individual over the issue of American combat deaths in Iraq. If you're not all suffering from outrage fatigue already, I thought it might be worth writing about.

This exchange occurred on a right-wing Christian blog called the Evangelical Outpost, in the comment thread for a post in which the site's author complained about the "contempt" liberals have for the members of the US military - just to give you an idea of the intellectual caliber we're talking about here. The major issue under debate was the needless deaths of American soldiers due to this administration's refusal to supply them with adequate armor; here's the thread. (The comment thread's a bit long, but search for "Ebonmuse" - me - and "ucfengr" - him - to see the posts.)

When I brought up that point, here was his response, unedited: Read More

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The liberty to blaspheme

The NRSC makes a play for the religious bigot vote

I've been attacked by a Republican senator

Why is Obama still on the Orange to Blue list?

Groundhog Day and the "eclipse of God"

Some thoughts on Memorial Day

Creating an "activism bank"

Right-winger: American soldiers' deaths are "so 2003"