Turbulent Black Tea

Circle of Life??

Trillian McMillan — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:32:54 +0000

But but but… then there’s going to be more young, single mothers on welfare and medicaid!! And we knnoowwww how desperately the far right is trying to get rid of socialized programs like welfare, public housing and medicaid.

So then these young, unwed mothers and their offspring will end up on the streets… starving and victim to both the elements and the cruelty that is the world of the homeless.

Jane is 17. She had to quit high school two semesters before she was supposed to graduate because the neighborhood pool she would normally spend her summer days at had been closed the previous season for public health reasons. Her little girl is now 5 months old and she is still far, far down the waiting list for a public housing apartment. As winter turns colder and colder, she falls prey to prostitution in order to feed her tiny baby girl. The tiny baby girl she is now leaving alone for hours at a time in the wee hours of the night at the abandoned warehouse she has resorted to living in.

One night a ‘john’ beats her to the point of unconsciousness. She’s found dumped on a street corner and taken to the local emergency room, where she’s screaming desperately that she needs to get back to her baby!! But the nursing staff doesn’t listen. Why would they listen to some street prostitute? By the time they let her leave the hospital… unceremoniously tossing her out the front door into the harsh light of the early next morning…

Jane hears the sounds of sirens in the near distance. Thick smoke clouds fill the sky of downtown. Downtown. Downtown!!! Where late during the previous night she had left her sleeping baby next to a makeshift fireplace…

With what weakened energy she has left within her, she runs. But it’s too late. Too late. Firemen. Police….

And child services.

So what happens if swimming is banned?!? Prostitution and murdered babies!

But wait. If the teenage girl in question had only had access to birth control. Or the morning after pill…

But but but… birth control, abortion and the morning after pill are MURDER!!! (Only murder that in most cases doesn’t leave the mother in question in prison for the rest of her youth.)

Wait. Did someone say prison? As in a SOCIALIZED correctional facility that costs thousands of dollars more per month per inmate than the young, single mother was previously getting with both her food stamps and welfare check combined??

HOW HAS THIS HAPPENED?!?

The fundie conservatives who proposed the ban on swimming sit cluelessly at their fashion designed breakfast nook in their mansion on the hill. What is that racket on the news? Something about a fire downtown. One of those street whores killed her baby? Stupid, uneducated peasants… with nothing better to do than run around getting pregnant and having babies they expect OUR tax dollars to pay for! Now this is just one more ignorant, low class serf in prison… once again eating up our tax dollars!!

They look at one another across their catered breakfast and indignantly exclaim, “Oohh!! The injustice if it all!!!”

We Command No Worship. We Mandate No Belief.

Black Tea — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 15:50:08 +0000

We were founded as a nation of openness to people of all beliefs. And so we must remain. Our very unity has been strengthened by our pluralism.

We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free, and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief.

-Ronald Reagan
Temple Hillel
10/26/1984

Loud & Proud Regressivism

Black Tea — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:18:53 +0000

Overheard at Panera Bread in Oak Ridge, TN:

“There simply aren’t enough children being born to Christian families. That’s why we have to step up and put a stop to contraception. Remember, Eve went against god and given the opportunity and without proper godly guidance from their husbands, today’s women will naturally choose the godless path.”

-via Brian Ellis
Knoxville, TN

Now be sure and share this piece of wisdom with every unemployed and struggling family you know. Because another mouth to feed when you can’t pay the heat bill, buy health insurance or repair the broken water pump on your 20 year old car is surely the answer to all the world’s problems.

One person skips a stone across a sunlit lake. And so the ripple begins…

Black Tea — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:22:54 +0000

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ~Margaret Mead.

Don’t give up. For we ARE the majority. It’s ok to start with only a ripple. For ripples spread… as does hope.

Hope.

Give A Man….

Black Tea — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:40:57 +0000

What IS Yours??

Black Tea — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:52:55 +0000

How Does The World Judge You?

Black Tea — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:45:21 +0000

“I never told my religion nor scrutinize that of another. I never attempted to make a convert nor wished to change another’s creed. I have judged of others’ religion by their lives, for it is from our lives and not from our words that our religion must be read. By the same test must the world judge me.”

-Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

One Word. SOPA.

Trillian McMillan — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:57:59 +0000

“There will always be pirate sites, just as there will always be knockoffs of Gucci bags and Rolex watches. It’s a cost of doing business. In a way, it’s a form of guerilla marketing: “Our stuff is so good, people who can’t otherwise afford to pay for it are settling for cheap copies.” (Via PC World)
-
One thing that hasn’t even been mentioned is the COST of internet service… which is just ‘slightly’ required to be able to download pirated material. We’re talking a minimum of $50 a month for high speed cable… and that’s not even the super high speed option. I can’t even begin to count how many people I know who have combined internet/tv bills totaling over $200 a month.

I mean, seriously, even when I was young and had no real financial responsibilities, I wouldn’t spend that kind of money a month on movies. But then… it only cost $5 to see a movie in the 80s. And a soda & popcorn didn’t cost $20 (or more if you take the entire family)!

What I’m getting at is that I still go see movies in the theater. I still buy books. People still spend absolutely insane amounts of money for home entertainment. The entertainment industry is NOT hurting. They are greedy… and willing to fork out millions annually for lobbyists to keep feeding that greed via Washington.

“Many of the companies spent more on lobbying than they do on taxes.”

Did you realize that RIAA alone has spent $90 million in lobbying just in the past 10 years. Imagine how much that number becomes when you put together all of the entertainment companies that are lobbying for SOPA.

This is money going directly or indirectly to congressman/individuals… when these same companies will do anything and everything in their power to find tax shelters to avoid paying taxes to the same government they are asking to protect their ‘profits’.

Tax money that is desperately needed to keep this country from spinning any deeper into deficit and recession.

(Tax analysts estimate that more than one hundred billion dollars of tax revenue is lost per year due tax shelters used by wealthy individuals and corporations.)

Mom Wasn’t Kidding About Life Not Being Fair. Unfortunately, Neither Are The Powers That Be…

Black Tea — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:06:04 +0000

If they enforced bank regulations like they do park rules, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place!

-OWS

The Warning From A Congresswoman That Every American Should See

Black Tea — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:01:34 +0000

From Republican Congressmen behind closed doors:

“We don’t care how bad the economy gets. We just want to make Obama look bad. Nothing is moving. We want to get rid of him AND healthcare reform!”