American Division By Politicians

When you look at any person in America you can see an American if you truly open your eyes.  Almost all of Americans are descendents of an immigrant except for those that are the original people that we now call "American Indian" which I think is wrong.  I call them by their first name.  They return the acknowledgment.  

Back in my school days we all had to relearn basic math every single year because somebody in the class didn't pay attention to the facts of math the previous year.  Simple math, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and decimals were foreign information even into some of my high school years.  Every single year I would groan about doing stupid stuff we learned in elementary school because half the class was way behind.

The same thing is happening in national politics with simple division.  If you divide enough of the people into special groups then you divide the nation.  Then all you need to do to get elected is use key phrases to get the misinformed vote.  You tell the rich people that the poor people are to blame for their woes, you tell the poor people that the rich people are to blame for their woes.  Then you pivot and blame the gays for the heterosexuals woes and the opposing argument is that the heterosexuals are to blame for the gay peoples woes.  Then you target immigrants for Americans not being able to find a job and pivot and blame the government for not loosening the immigration laws so businesses can afford to hire cheap labor that hard working Americans refuse to do.  You blame woman for the so called degradation of America because they want their own choice on what is their body when it comes to medical care and turn to support woman... well never.

Last time I checked I was raised an American.  My father fought for this country in two wars and was buried with honors.  The same people that claim they respect veterans want to cut benefits to veterans because it makes them hero's to people that hate the government deficit.  See the pivot there?  But then they want to support military spending that feeds the pockets of big supporters.  See the pivot?

How can a society that was raised by strong woman back any candidate for federal or local office that thinks that a woman is second class and should stay in the kitchen?  How can a society elect someone to a federal office as a congressman or congresswoman that is openly racist against minorities when the congress is the government body that says racism of any kind is illegal?  How can a society elect someone to a federal office that has for years done everything in their power to hurt the poorest of the poor by voting against unemployment extensions, against healthcare for all, against all job programs, against food stamps, against everything that the poorest of our society need.

Our nation is only as good as the way we treat the poorest of our kind.  When we the people forget that and keep electing people that have been paid to forget that, then the American experiment is over.

Division is simple math.  Division is very dangerous in politics for the common good.

Papamoka

Amazon is Too Large, Too Important to Discriminate

Hello Papamoka Readers! It boggles the mind, but for some reason Amazon.com decided to discriminate against gays over the weekend. How? It's subtle, but it's still discriminatory. They decided to "de-rank" hundreds of book titles with gay subject matter on the grounds that they were too "adult." It appears they may be ready to reverse the new policy, but it's still unclear this morning what will happen.

It seems they just decided to equate MILLIONS OF AMERICANS with pornography. Why should stories/books featuring average Americans, who happen to be gays and lesbians, be considered "adult" material? Adult material is adult material! It's different for God's sake.

The Los Angeles Times found that great books like Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown, and Becoming a Man by Paul Monette, have been categorized as "adult" material and struck from their rankings. Interestingly, books with the same types of stories, yet written from heterosexual perspectives, didn't get bumped from the rankings.

They need to reverse the policy, and soon. It's closed-minded and discriminatory. It's bad enough that gays and lesbians are treated like second class citizens when it comes to politics and marriage, but to be called pornographic? Amazon may be a private company, but discrimination is still wrong. They need to remain neutral, or we need to find an alternative.

Besides, good literature is never really pornographic. It's challenging, thought-provoking, and difficult. Amazon should know the difference. There is a clear difference between good literature and smut. In the end, love and emotion are not "adult" themes, but human themes. The sooner the idiots of Amazon.com get that message the better.

Michael Boh
Papamoka's Left Coast Contributor
from Our Rants & Raves Blog

PS - Amazon is trying to claim that it was a computer "glitch," but there is a lot of evidence to suggest otherwise. For example, there were statements from company executives defending the changes over the weekend. Until we know the truth, please let Amazon know how you feel by clicking here.