Get the Picture?

We live in a country where sending sexually explicit text messages to a child is protected by the 1st amendment but donating $1000 to a support a bill banning same sex marriage isn’t.

Amazing how a $1000 donation from your own personal bank account six years ago can come back to bite you in the ass, isn’t it?

When we first heard about the story concerning Brendan Eich, CEO of Mozilla and his views on gay marriage, we simply rolled our eyes. It never ceases to amaze us how much time and money is spent towards either fighting for or against same-sex marriage in this day and age.  Personally, who cares if a man marries another man?  How much does it really affect your life or your own heterosexual marriage? If you feel that the legalization of same sex marriages will desanctify your own, that’s only because you let it.  Besides, take a look at some marathon Hollywood relationships and please explain how one union between two men or two women will make your marriage look like a joke, but celebrities currently exchanging their fifth set of vows doesn’t.

So, yes, we don’t agree with Eich’s stance on gay marriage and, as a result, we probably wouldn’t use his product much as we don’t eat at Chick-Fil-A.  We even spoke about it briefly on Facebook which is something we rarely do.

If only we had read the whole article.

We didn’t realize that his personal contribution to support Prop 8, banning gay marriage in the state of California, had resulted in harassment, pressure and calls for his resignation to which he finally honored on April 3, 2014.  We’re confused now.  How is it, in this country, a teacher’s 688 sexually explicit texts to a child are forgiven under his first amendment rights, but make a donation to a proposition that fit with your own individual beliefs and freedom of speech no longer applies to you?

Regardless of whether or not we agree with Eich, he does have every right to contribute funds towards what he believes.  He didn’t use company money nor did he arrange for a pack of farmers with pitchforks and torches to start invading same sex marriage ceremonies and beat up the guests.  His views, although somewhat misguided, still need to be respected much as those for gay marriage demand that we all respect theirs.  Believe it or not, in this country it’s supposed to work that way.  That was until we all turned into a bunch of thin-skinned, ornery children.

Besides, if Eich’s political actions warrant the rest of us the freedom to harass him and demand his resignation, then would he have had the same right to harass and call for the resignations of employees that do support gay marriage?  Why not?

 

Speaking of Comments…

CNN.com deleted mine.  Can you believe it?  Here I am, having a nice, friendly debate with someone over Obamacare’s success or lack thereof in my opinion and our discussion is gone.  Poof!  Never existed.  No unfriendly words were exchanged.  Nothing rude.  No one called the other stupid, incredibly stupid or Queen of the Land of Stupids.  He/She had her stance and I had mine.  I asked he/she to send some links so I can read about their talking points (because fairness can only exist when both sides are researched), he/she did and I managed to secure these links before the hand of CNN.com came down and wiped these comments away.  So much for freedom of speech.  I guess it’s only reserved for neo-nazis.

To Hops7363 – not sure if when I mentioned that I ran a blog that your curiosity got the better of you, but if it had, I want you to know that your comments and insight are always welcome here at Hairball.  If you are so inclined, even send me a guest blog post at letsplayhairball@gmail.com and we will be happy to post it.  You don’t have to agree with what we write here.  Give us your opinion, let’s hash it out and learn from each other.

That goes for everyone.  Different views are what makes the world go ’round.  Guest posts are encouraged!

As for you, CNN.com – you can’t delete what is written here.  Sorry that you found our comments to each other as threatening to your agenda.

In other news…

I found where I can watch Honor Diaries – a documentary about the atrocities towards Muslim women in the Middle East.  We will be purchasing it from iTunes next week as we have become increasingly curious about the supposed anti-Islam message it delivers, apparently powerful enough to warrant a cancellation of the screening at the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

If this documentary is going to promote Islamophobia, I vote to ban Schindler’s List because it may promote Germanophobia, 12 Years a Slave because it may promote Causcasionophobia, Amistad due to looming Europeanophobia and The Accused for it has been previously linked to Drunkasshorndogmanophobia.

Feminists, where are you now?  I realize that, in this country, my personal liberties have been strangled due to lack of employer coverage for my morning after pill by a religious group we can insult freely (Christians), but why is it when a man slices up a woman’s genitals and throws acid in her face, we must turn a blind eye to the violence and not offend a Muslim’s religious beliefs or practices? We’ll let these women live in fear with broken bones and dismembered faces caused by men, but wave our feminist flags because we love birth control!

CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) not only missed the boat on this opportunity, but have stood back and fired rockets at it, cheering as it sank.  We agree that there is a certain degree of Islamophobia that exists in this country due to September 11, 2001 and other terrorist attacks.  It’s a shame that good-hearted Muslims in America are always linked to the extremist ones elsewhere in the world.  I imagine that you came to this country looking for a better life for you and your family.  Indeed, you needed to escape the brutalities of your homeland in order to nurture your inner voices and personal successes.  We salute you and the bravery you displayed in making the journey to a strange and, sometimes, unforgiving place.

What we won’t salute is how quickly you forget your roots and, where as you were fortunate enough to leave, many other women cannot and will never know anything but terror, bruises and permanent scars.  We haven’t seen the film yet, but we know it features nine incredibly strong women, fighting for their human rights in a nation that doesn’t want to hear it.  Rather than tolerating and making excuses for the negative and unforgivable, you should be embracing and celebrating the heroics of these women of Muslim faith for standing up for what they believe in despite the harshest of criticisms and physical abuse.

We say again, MUSLIM women.  The members of CAIR should try saying these words to themselves 50 times a day.  If their sympathies continue to be overshadowed by a reluctance to condemn this horror so as not to offend the thin-skinned cowards with whips and rocks, then we’re going to conclude that the only ones that are Islamophobic are the members of CAIR.

– the cats’ Mommy

1st Amendment – Freedom to Tell You About Our Hate?

Mommy didn’t watch the Superbowl yesterday.  The only thing this game means to her is that baseball is almost here.  Even though she is expecting another tough year for her Philadelphia Phillies and wishes that Ruben Amaro, Jr. would stop perusing the AARP Yearbook for players, she’ll keep her fingers crossed and hope that this season will be a lot better than the last four.

Early prediction – Mommy will probably have three books written and have us churning out eight blogs a day.  But go Phillies!

What she did do was join a debate on a Fox News contributor’s Facebook page.  She’ll admit it.  She’s got problems.  She’s a tiny little thing, standing at 5’2”, and would probably blow away from the jet propulsion of a strong sneeze.  However, when it comes to what she is passionate about, Mommy is a towering force of advocacy with the ferociousness of a pit bull juiced up on steroids and riding on the aftermath of eight successful battles in the ring.

Not that we agree with dog fighting.  We hate every aspect of it.  It is absolutely disgusting and we’ve been exposed to only a thin slice of it, but know that the actual horrors of it are far beyond the reaches of our imaginations.  But, seeing how Mommy loses her ability to shut up when it comes to what she believes in (such as animal rights), we’ll keep that debate for another day.

We are approaching 70 years since the end of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps throughout Europe.  One would think that no amount of years could soften the blow of the Holocaust and the suffering that people endured since Dachau first opened in 1933.  Mommy, although she has no personal links to these victims or their families, has always had a morbid curiosity about the events that occurred during those 12 years of the Third Reich and immersed herself into learning as much about it as she could – books, movies, documentaries with graphic footage (it’ll make you sick) and two separate walks through the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.  She hopes that one day she will be able to pay her respects by walking through the Auschwitz memorial in Poland.

Not everyone feels as strongly as she does and that’s ok.  It doesn’t make them cold-hearted, ignorant or closet-supporters.  It doesn’t make them anything.  Surely those who do not shout out their commitments to never forgetting the Holocaust are probably raising their voices elsewhere regarding just as meaningful causes.  This is highly important as one would never want to focus all attention on one and forget about the other.

The debate had started over an article written by The Daily Beast and it had been raising questions concerning the messages of Neo-Nazis and whether or not their highly vocalized opinions and demonstrations should be protected under the 1^st Amendment.

We cannot copy and paste what others had been writing in as comments so their privacy may be protected.  Here are Mommy’s three individual responses:

“Free speech? I guess so. After all, the only time freedom of speech doesn’t apply is when wishing someone a Merry Christmas. But good old Jew-hating jokes? This is where someone’s rights are violated? I’m not even thinking about the amendments right now. I’m more in shock over the fact that there is an anti-Semitic comedian that has enough of a following that he gets a headline. Wow, have we seriously become this desensitized to the horrors of the holocaust and the deaths of 11 million people? Sure, hide behind the first amendment if that’s the only way you’ll be able to get your sick and twisted message across. This is why the other message should never cease to ring loud and clear: NEVER FORGET!”

“Freedom of speech has become a “get out of jail free” card for those trying to get hateful messages across. Are we going to tolerate apartheid comedians next? I am all for the right to speak our minds & accept that we might not like what the other person says, but there is already so much hypocrisy surrounding it already. We can’t use the word Christmas in conjunction with trees, concerts or exchanging pleasantries during the holiday season because it “offends” people, but we have to accept anti-Semitic cracks and hand gestures as this guy’s amendment rights? Sorry, until there’s no more talk about wiping out the word Christmas, I don’t want to hear any more about Humor for Hitler. It’s terrible and I’m with **** on this one.”

“The 1st amendment does not protect hate speech or speech that incites violence or encourages dangerous acts. I’ve never known neo-nazis to be a group promoting peace and harmony. The article is questioning whether or not demonstrations on the behalf of neo-nazis are within their 1st amendment rights and, if you accept the exceptions to the rule, the answer is no. I just feel that certain parts of human history – the holocaust, slavery, apartheid – should be protected more than the people who vocalize a warped support of it. We are debating more over whether the person has the right to deliver the message than the message itself. I worry that the end result will be trivialization of the Holocaust as the article mentioned and I wouldn’t want to be witness to that end result. Just my opinion – I am certainly not an expert when it comes to our rights per the amendments.”

Many, many others did not see eye-to-eye with Mommy.

To be clear, Mommy is not a Democrat or a Republican.  Her beliefs stretch and intertwine with those of both parties and she does her best to pay attention to what all have to say before making her decision based on her own novice interpretations.  She looks for practicality in ideas to help the country and the world and she certainly does not want anyone’s rights stripped away from them whether it be openly stating a thought or owning a gun.

What she fears is the rights of one belittling the traumas of another.  We do have rights to say whatever we want over a couple of beers and, yes, our beliefs may shock some and make their heads spin.  But to encourage hate due to religious differences, differences in ethnicity and differences in social and class standings…

Well, that’s when the 1^st Amendment just needs to flip a big middle finger.  And it does.  It actually doesn’t protect someone who is encouraging hate or violence towards others.  Stuck in the center of an all-consuming powwow over just how far our rights to freedom of speech can be pulled and stretched, we are ignoring the actual message.  The majority of people are wise enough to not be sucked into believing or acting upon these messages of hate, but never trivialize those who do no matter how small the numbers may be.  It doesn’t take much to start a war and we should always be wary of the man who has nothing to lose.