Women with Opinions

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Critiques the Christian Church

“For the supposed crimes of heresy and witchcraft, hundreds of women endured such persecutions and tortures that the most stolid historians are said to have wept in recording them; and no one can read them to-day but with a bleeding heart. And, as the Christian Church grew stronger, woman's fate grew more helpless. Even the Reformation and Protestantism brought no relief, the clergy being all along their most bitter persecutors, the inventors of the most infernal tortures.

Thumbs Down on the D&C's Dumb Idea

Mildred Loving died this week.  Her obituary was in the New York Times.  She was 68.  Who was Mildred Loving?  A black woman who fell in love with a white man  back in 1958 and had the audacity to marry him even though the law said no, that was forbidden.

Mildred and Richard Loving married in Washington, DC, then moved back to Virginia where the law said that a marriage between people of different races was invalid even though it was performed in a place where it was legal.

Who You Callin' Bitter, Obama?

National Day of Reason Replaces National Day of Prayer. Thank God.

Evangelicals, as we know, are hell-bent on turning the good, old USA into a Christian Nation, and they've made great headway since they installed George W. Bush in the White House.  Take, for instance, the Christian conservatives' campaign to stamp out sex among teenagers.

Thanks to $1 billion dollars spent on their abstinence-only sex education classes, a quarter of teenagers in this country (and half of African-American teenagers) are now infected with sexually transmitted diseases.  Ignorance, it turns out, is not always bliss.

McCain & Misogyny: Yikes!

Back when John McCain (R, Arizona) was running for president the first time, the Arizona Republic ran an editorial in which the paper  questioned whether McCain had the right temperament for the presidency.  Here's part of what was said in that editorial:

"If McCain is truly a serious contender for the presidency, it is time the rest of the nation learned about the John McCain we know in Arizona. There is also reason to seriously question whether he has the temperament, and the political approach and skills, we want in the next president of the United States."

Progressive Blog is Sour on Jon Powers; Gives Thumbs Up to Alice Kryzan

Here's what the blog "Progressive Democrats WNY"  has to say about Jon Powers and Alice Kryzan who are running for the Congressional seat being vacated by Tom Reynolds:   

"As a point of interest this Blog will not endorse nor support Jon Powers in the upcoming primary campaign.  In response to questions he indicated that he does not support the basic progressive concept of National Health Care choosing the Republican theme of affordable health care - how does one achieve that in a free market economy where the number of physicians, health care plans, technologies, and medications has not driven costs down but up. The tradition progressive position of a national health policy was only supported by Alice Krysan.

Mr. Powers has also come out in favor of what could be a prolonged stay in Iraq and possible conflict with Iran. Both Alice Krysan and Jack Davis disagreed with him on this area.

Looking to the local economy, all three candidates advocated pursuit of a Green Economy and development of a locally based green production production program.
I have been a frequent attendee at local alternative energy, green industry, and green technology programs sponsored through out the area.  Alice Krysan has usually been in attendance while Mr. Powers and Davis have not.

I believe that Ms. Krysan is better suited to be the candidate more than willing to lead the community in changing a firmly entrenched conservative mindset to doing business, government activity, and political leadership that has held the area back over the years."

What's Right With Our Media? Helen Thomas

We hear a lot these days about what's wrong with the media in this country, how journalists are failing us, choosing to entertain  instead of inform.  Helen Thomas is of the Old School.  In this clip, Helen  asks the administration hard questions about  torture:

Abstinence-Only Education Gets Failing Grades

Arlene Schenker, of Brighton, a board member and past president of the National Council of Jewish Women, Greater Rochester Section, has a Speaking Out piece in today's Democrat and Chronicle about abstinence-only education.

Schenker's group knows how stupid and dangerous abstinence-only education is and so has launched "Plan A: NCJW's Campaign for Contraceptive Access."   Read all about it here.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has also done extensive work on this issue and has published an informative report on the subject pertaining to how abstinence-only education is working in NY State.  The report is titled "Financing Ignorance: A Report on Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Funding in New York."   As the report reveals, the Catholic Church is very much to blame for helping spread this irresponsible idea.

Permission to use the Ann Telnaes cartoon granted by Women's eNews (womensenews.org).

Stand Up For Us, Senator Robach!

The Rochester Chapter of NOW staged a protest in front of State Senator Joe Robach's office in Greece on Tuesday, April 22.  At issue is the New York State Fair Pay Act (S.2936), which Robach (R,Greece) and his fellow Republicans are  trying to scuttle. 

As the  new head of the Senate Labor Committee, Robach can keep the bill bottled up in committee so it can't be voted upon.  And, that's just what he's doing.

He'll See You in Court

Jack Davis is mad and he's taking the matter to court, the high court.  We're talking the US Supreme Court, and you can't get no higher than that.

One thing about Jack, you make him mad, he doesn't let it fester; he acts.  Back in 2003, for instance, when Jack was still a Republican, he plunked down money for two tickets to a $1000 a plate fund raiser in Buffalo so he could have a word with the guest of honor  Vice President Dick Cheney about free trade.  Jack hates free trade, thinks it's ruining our country, destroying jobs.  Don't get him started.

Anyway, Cheney wouldn't speak to Jack, and Jack didn't take it well.  In fact, he threw a fit, a super-sized fit.  The upshot of that was, Cheney's goons  ejected Jack from the room.  That's right, threw him OUT.  Next thing you know, Jack left the Republican Party (Take that, Cheney!) and signed up as a Democrat.   

Now Jack Davis is running for Congress in the 26th District (That's the seat that Tom Reynolds is vacating, the seat that Alice Kryzan and Jon Peters also want to sit in.).  This will make the third time Jack has run for that seat.   The first two times, he spent a total of $3.5  million dollars of his own  money (Jack's an industrialist, a rich one, a millionaire, in fact).