We Cannot, Must Not Give Up

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Saturday November 14, 2015 · 11:22 AM PST

2015/11/14 · 11:22

2000px-Civil_and_Naval_Ensign_of_France.svg.png — Nous Sommes Unis

Today, the world grieves.

Once again, we’ve seen the actions of a monstrous few harm countless innocent lives. People are outraged, heartbroken, and angry, and rightly so. So am I. So is anyone with a conscience.

It’s days like yesterday that threaten two of my core beliefs: that there is hope for the future, and that humanity, for all its flaws and savagery, is essentially good at heart. It’s days like today when the hardest thing in the world is to hold on to those beliefs, in the face of overwhelming opposition.

But I will hold on to them. I cannot, must not give up, My faith in humanity is shaken, yes, but not broken.

BHSDesk

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Wednesday October 28, 2015 · 3:27 PM PDT

2015/10/28 · 15:27

It's supposed to be the 31st that's the scariest night of the year, not tonight. As if we needed any more proof that Trump and his ilk are out of touch with reality.

Just a little humor in advance of tonight's circu- er, debate.

Poll

20 votes Show Results

How scared are YOU of the insanity we'll hear tonight?

20 votes Vote Now!

How scared are YOU of the insanity we'll hear tonight?

Horrified

1 vote

Petrified

0 votes

Apprehensive

1 vote

Anxious

0 votes

Existential dread

2 votes

Nail-biting

0 votes

Pants-sh*tting terror

1 vote

Checking myself into a mental hospital in advance

0 votes

Cashing in my IRA

0 votes

AUUUUUUUUUUGH GOD HELP US ALL

3 votes

Locking myself in my basement and/or fallout shelter

0 votes

I am not scared, because I am a Republican and have no soul, thus rendering me immune to fear and feelings in general

1 vote

I am an extradimensional cosmic entity(ies) eagerly awaiting the surge of incoherent madness in the near future

3 votes

I am an alien (the kind from space, not the kind the GOP hates), and I have little stake in human matters

2 votes

All of the above

6 votes

Well, That Was Pointless

BHSDesk

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Wednesday September 30, 2015 · 1:05 PM PDT

2015/09/30 · 13:05

At the eleventh hour, a stop-gap budget bill was passed by the House, which averts a shutdown and keeps Planned Parenthood funded. The Tea Partiers and soon-to-be-former House Speaker Boehner once again slink back into their holes.... but at least they didn't cost us $24 billion this time.

What was the point of all that shutdown talk, and all the screaming rage from the right-wingers to shut down PP?

There was no point. It was totally, emphatically pointless.

BHSDesk

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Friday September 11, 2015 · 11:26 AM PDT

2015/09/11 · 11:26

NEO-MILLENNIALISM: A TREATISE

I stopped being a Christian around ten years ago.
This wasn’t a decision that came easily. I was raised as a devout Episcopalian, and my father was a minister and chaplain for over thirty years. Both he and my mother graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary, and from a very young age they gave me a Christian Protestant upbringing.
However, at a certain age I began questioning: what makes one religion any more real or authentic than others? Didn’t the ancient Greeks worship Zeus as a god? What made that mythology and the Bible truth?
In my twenties, my faith wavered as I learned of all the horrors committed in the name of not just the Christian God, but all of them. Every brand of religion has been used to justify oppression, murder, slavery, poverty, genocide, or some combination of the above at one time or another. My twenties also saw me despairing as the Neoconservatives rose to power, and began using my God as justification to wage endless war on anyone who wasn’t white, male, rich, straight, right-wing, and Christian. The horrors of the Aughts and beyond shattered my faith in any sort of God that would allow such perversion of his words. I became an Agnostic, and after several months I confronted my father with my feelings. It took him a while, but he accepted my decision.
The problem still eats at me, though: religious extremism is tearing the planet apart, and there seems no way to fight back. How can you win against someone who claims to have God on their side? How can you win against the kind of blind, stubborn, willfully ignorant faith that claims that treating other people like shit is a divine right?

Maybe there is no rational answer.

So maybe it’s time for an irrational one.

Maybe it’s time to fight fire with fire.

BHSDesk

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Wednesday September 02, 2015 · 12:06 PM PDT

2015/09/02 · 12:06

I don't know about you, fellow Kossacks, but I'm getting awfully sick and tired of being mad. I'm sick of feeling like most of the planet has gone batsh-t insane. Every morning I get up, feed the dog, check my messages, and head upstairs where my father is listening to NPR on the radio. This used to be a pleasant ritual, but over the past few weeks I've had to go up there with my headphones on and my iPod blaring, because hearing the news only makes me mad.

Even NPR, it seems, is jumping on the Trump bandwagon, because Trump means ratings. I've heard his name something like eight out of the past ten mornings, always connected to phrases like "controversial statements". Bullsh-t they're controversial statements, they're xenophobic, racist, sexist garbage and they're only getting worse now that the others in the Parade of Fools are busily trying to one-up each other for the title of Most Horrible Person on Earth.

How is this happening? Why do we let them get away with it? Is there no one to yell, "Stop this madness"? It got to be too much even for poor Jon Stewart, and if even he can't stand it anymore, who else is there to turn to?

I, for one, am sick of waiting for the next voice to come along that can cut through the lies and the hype and the spin and the whole depraved circus that American mainstream media and politics has become. I may just be a mostly-unemployed 30-something unpublished writer, but if I don't do something, who will?

BHSDesk

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Tuesday June 23, 2015 · 12:53 PM PDT

2015/06/23 · 12:53

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore!" - Network (1976)

Well, now we're screwed.

Fast Track has passed both the House and Senate, and now it's all but certain that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the nightmarish pro-corporate monstrosity that refused to die, will be signed into law.

BHSDesk

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Thursday April 09, 2015 · 4:34 PM PDT

2015/04/09 · 16:34

For Trayvon Martin.
Michael Brown.
Eric Garner.
Walter Scott.
And too many others.

Brushes from corelila. Please visit her website at digitalpresscreation.com
Done using a tutorial from oxcreative.com

Originally posted by BHSDesk on DeviantArt.

Today is a Day to Honor All Tea Partiers

BHSDesk

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Tuesday March 31, 2015 · 9:45 PM PDT

2015/03/31 · 21:45

On this day, we should honor the members of the Tea Party, upholders of truth and decency in our society. These selfless heroes do whatever it takes to make themselves heard, and they deserve to be commended for doing so.

Let today be forevermore be remembered as the day we honor the contributions of the Tea Party to our society. Truly, they embody the spirit of April 1st.

Ferguson

BHSDesk

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Thursday August 14, 2014 · 4:42 AM PDT

2014/08/14 · 04:42

Twitter post about the protests in Ferguson, Missouri.

What's happening in Ferguson right now should be unbelievable. Should being the operative word.

Horribly, it's not.

Tear gas. Riot gear. Swat teams. Snipers. Mace. Dogs. Tanks. All against a group of unarmed protesters fighting for justice against the murder of an innocent child.

And what does the national media say about this?

Nothing.

We are in the dark.

BHSDesk

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Tuesday August 12, 2014 · 7:36 AM PDT

2014/08/12 · 07:36

Robin Williams killed himself yesterday.

While the media is focused on the shock and tragedy of the event, and the body of his work to a far lesser extent, and while love and grief and remembrances pour in from all over the world... part of me hopes that maybe, just maybe, this will be a trigger for an essential change in how we view mental illnesses as a society.

Because if someone as rich, famous, and beloved as Robin Williams couldn't get the help he needed for his depression, there's something terribly, drastically wrong.

BHSDesk

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Thursday May 22, 2014 · 8:07 AM PDT

2014/05/22 · 08:07

Life is a wall.

It’s a wall that’s huge, impossibly tall and wide, made of the hardest stone, so we have to climb it to get over it.

When we start climbing, it’s easy. Simple. It’s fun, even enjoyable. The surface is smooth. The footholds are strong and well-defined.

But as we climb, the going gets rougher. Smooth surfaces become hard and rough. The footholds grow fewer and fewer. We become tired, our muscles aching. We wish that we could stop.

Some of us let go of the wall at that point, and fall back to earth.

But others… others keep climbing. We keep climbing, though our arms and legs are tired, though our hands become worn and ragged and bloodied, though the air grows thin.

We keep climbing. Scaling the wall.

Because every once in a while, as we ascend, we see the stone of the wall thin out and become transparent as glass, and in those moments we can see the other side.

The ones who go on climbing grow more tired. Our bodies ache, our muscles wither. The air grows cold. And as the ascent continues, the stone becomes rougher than ever, and the footholds disappear. Each inch up the wall becomes a struggle.

But each inch also brings us closer to the top. To the other side that we can see as the wall slowly becomes thinner and more transparent.

And sometimes, we lose our grip, and slide back down the wall… some of us stop then.

Others take a rest, and then climb back up again.

And those few of us who reach the top, exhausted and broken but triumphant… they’re the ones with the clearest view of the other side.

- BHS

It Can Happen Anywhere

BHSDesk

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Wednesday May 14, 2014 · 7:36 PM PDT

2014/05/14 · 19:36

Another attempted shooting. Another maniac with a gun. This one was practically in my backyard.

The gunman fired five shots from the top of the Starlite Motel on Melrose Avenue, a little more than ten minutes from my home. No one was hurt, thank heaven, and the suspect is now in custody.

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We Cannot, Must Not Give Up

The GOP Candidates Have Got It All Wrong

Well, That Was Pointless

Neo-Millennialsm: A Treatise

Don't Get Mad, Do Something

Time to Raise Hell

Serve and Protect

Today is a Day to Honor All Tea Partiers

Ferguson

Screaming in the Dark

Life is a Wall

It Can Happen Anywhere