The Army’s Wrong-Headed (and Discriminatory) “Spiritual Fitness Test”

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Mike

It’s hard to believe that the U.S. Army has something known as the “Spiritual Fitness Test.”  According to an NPR report, Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, director of something called “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness,” supposedly found data that “spiritual fitness has a positive impact on quality of life, on coping and on mental health.”  Since that “finding,” the [...]

Filed under: GLBT, Law, Religion, Uncategorized, Workplace | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

State Department Backslides on Passport Application Change that Benefits Gay Rights

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Mike

Last week, I wrote about the State Department change to passport application forms that improved gender equality.  Instead of having boxes on the form for “Mother” and “Father,” the boxes would now say “Parent 1″ and “Parent 2.”  Obviously, applicants with same-sex parents could not fill out the old form accurately.  They would be forced [...]

Filed under: GLBT, Same-sex Marriage, Workplace | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Dear Republicans: Will You End Your Use of “Killing” Language?

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Mike

Right wingers such as Republican Congress members , “patriots,” and tea partiers have learned that it helps them with their “base” to use the words like “killing” and “killers” and “death.”  For instance, they used “baby killer” to refer to abortion providers and, in particular, Bill O’Reilly and many others used “Tiller the Baby Killer” [...]

Filed under: Health, Politics, Violence | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Fox News Cannot Separate Itself from the Giffords Shootings

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Mike

Fox News president Roger Ailes, in an interview with Russell Simmons, said that any attempts to connect his network or the tea party to the Gabrielle Giffords shootings are “bullshit.” He thinks that “both sides” are responsible for the hate rhetoric that has pervaded the country since 2000.  Nice try, Ailes, but it’s not going [...]

Filed under: Politics, Violence | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Do Women Begin More Questions with “Sorry” than Do Men?

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Mike

Periodically, I have written about language and feminist issues.  For instance, see this post about the terms to use for the opposing sides in the abortion issue, this about “Stereotyping by Pronouns,” and this about jumping to conclusions about whether a flight attendant is female or male.  It’s an interesting subject and one that contributes [...]

Filed under: Feminism, Stereotyping | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

John Boehner’s Statements Contributing to the Giffords Shootings

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Mike

Most politicians are now talking about how the “heated” political rhetoric needs to be “toned down.”  But, of course, not much is expected to change.  Does anyone really believe that Sarah Palin will no longer talk about “targeting” someone?  Does anyone really believe that tea party supporters will not do something as obscene as screaming [...]

Filed under: Politics, Violence | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

U.S. Passport Application Form Change — No More “Mother” and “Father”

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Mike

In the latest welcome move toward gender equality, the U.S. State Department has dropped the words “mother” and “father” from its passport application forms.  Instead, applicants will need to fill out spaces labeled “Parent One” and “Parents Two.”  This obviously makes sense since it reflects the changing models of family structures and eliminates the need [...]

Filed under: GLBT, Same-sex Marriage | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Right-Wing Actions Contributing to the Giffords Shooting Attack

Posted on January 9, 2011 by Mike

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the TV reports yesterday of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting went out of their way to avoid mentioning the political party that she belonged to, at least in the lead-ins to the stories.  Was there a conscious effort to try to avoid offending (or exciting) members [...]

Filed under: Politics, Violence | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

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