By Madison S. Hughes (01.14.2012)
What makes classic literature the greatest of literary masterpiece is its ability to transcend time, and place of composition. What makes one able to appreciate it is one’s ability to transcend one’s contemporary time, and place of comprehension.
Mt. Pleasant’s city manager has asked the town’s chaplain to refrain from holding prayer services at City Hall while employees are on the clock, a move she attributes to the separation of church and state.
Michelle Williams, who is serving in her second week as city manager, said the request is not aimed at ceasing acts of worship at City Hall. She said any time before 8 a.m. or after 5 p.m. would be appropriate times for prayer.
We’ve profile 20 leading American progressives (see list [below]), from a range of backgrounds, who have been at the forefront of efforts to defend not just liberal, but left-wing, social-democratic ideals. Some of them are well-known names; most of them have little to do directly with the Democratic Party; all of them are defiantly and unashamedly partisan.
As Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos blog, once said: “I am a progressive. I make no apologies.”
The list
Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right.
Mitt Romney regularly incorporates lyrics from “America the Beautiful” into his stump speeches. Little does he probably realize that the hymn was written by a progressive feminist lesbian who composed it to critique country’s greed, excess, and growing economic inequality. The original third-verse lyrics Katharine Lee Bates wrote in 1894 were as follows:
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!
Clinton Richard Dawkins, Ph.D., (born 26 March 1941)
Ethologist, Evolutionary Biologist, Author, and Outspoken Atheist
Personal opinion, which is not informed by evidence, is not of interest.
Clinton Richard Dawkins, Ph.D., (born 26 March 1941)
Ethologist, Evolutionary Biologist, Author, and Outspoken Atheist
Ignorance is something that can be remedied by education.
When a totalitarian regime aids and abets the rape of tens of thousands of children one would expect it to be shunned by governments and citizens alike. And any statements it might issue on matters of morality accorded no respect. Why should we make an exception when the regime is the Catholic Church? . . .
That the Catholic Church is guilty of widespread rape is also undeniable. A few years ago there was a spate of news items when sexual abuse cases first surfaced in Boston and a few other cities. Media coverage since then has withered but the issue has not. Just the opposite. In 2011 allegations of sexual abuse of minors have spread to 26 countries. . .
The Vatican has been a state since 1929, when it was granted that status by Benito Mussolini in return for its support for his dictatorship. Comprising 110 acres, an area smaller than Washington’s National Mall, and 800 people Vatican City is by far the smallest nation in the world.
Some might say that an institution, even a totalitarian institution, cannot be blamed for the actions of a small fraction of its members. But when stories of sexual abuse were first raised the Catholic Church ignored them. Later it often reassigned the rapacious priest to another parish where he might prey on other minors. . .
Instructively, virtually all of the Church’s most aggressive policy interventions relate to sex. (e.g. contraception, abortion, gay rights).
Indeed, the Catholic Church acts of if it believes that sex matters above anything else. It will not go to the mat to fight against poverty or injustice but it will pull out all the stops to prevent people of the same sex from marrying.
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856)
German Poet, Journalist, Essayist, Literary Critic. His verse and prose is distinguished by its satirical wit and irony. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned.
Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.
Always Question Authority 