A River's water of thoughts

Today our most awesome president ever has signed into law the Matthew Sheppard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Bill.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard_Act

This is what the Matthew Shepard Act does:

It expands coverage of the already existing Federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

And

The bill also:

1. removes the current prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally-protected activity, like voting or going to school;

2. gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue;

3. provides $10 million in funding for 2008 and 2009 to help state and local agencies pay for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes;

4. requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to track statistics on hate crimes against transgender people (statistics for the other groups are already tracked).

The Matthew Shepard Act is the first law in the history of the United States federal government to extend legal protections to transgender persons.

This is what a Republican used to be. In the good old days they stood for protecting people.
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I wasn't there. Stuck being poor in Texas.

Here are some links of personal accounts with PICTURES.

Equality March (PHOTOS): Gay Rights Advocates March On DC, Divided On Obama <- HuffPo

National Equality March roll call! Were you there? Let's see some pictures!

Equality March picspam of awesome

These are some of my favorites.


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Dallas judge paves way for gay couple to get divorce (October 01, 2009 - The Dallas Morning News - ROY APPLETON)

In a first for Texas, a judge ruled Thursday that two men married in another state can divorce here and that the state's ban on gay marriage violates the U.S. Constitution.

Both a voter-approved state constitutional amendment and the Texas Family Code prohibit same-sex marriages or civil unions.

Although the case is far from settled, and the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage is a long way from being thrown out, Dallas state District Judge Tena Callahan's ruling says the state prohibition of same-sex marriage violates the federal constitutional right to equal protection.
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Jerry Nadler, fuck yeah

Dems To Introduce DOMA Repeal in House

A group of Democrats, including New York Representative Jerry Nadler are reportedly preparing to introduce a repeal to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA.

A group of Democrats in Congress, including New York representative Jerry Nadler, are reportedly preparing to introduce a repeal to the law that restricts the federal government from recognizing gay and lesbian marriages or partnerships legally recognized in certain states.

The group is gearing up to notify fellow congressmembers that the bill will introduced, while asking for their support, according to Politico.com.

While House speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she supports repealing the 13-year-old law, the House has a full slate of economic issues to deal with over the next session. President Barack Obama also campaigned on the message that he would approve of repealing DOMA. However, the Department of Justice, under Obama, has issued two briefs pertaining to the law over the summer, defending it in federal court cases.

In Solider the UK military magazine's July 2009 issue they did a profile on equality within the military in regards to gay soldiers. On pages 23-27.

Pride not Prejudice

In an interview with Soldier, Tpr James Wharton (The Household Cavalry Regiment) explained that instead of being oppressed, gay and lesbian Army personnel are now given full support.

“I came out to the Army before I told my parents, so that says a lot for the Armed Forces,” said the 22-year-old.
“I told the Army in March 2003, after all my initial training was over – I was 18. I have always known I was gay but it wasn’t until then that I told anyone.”

The decision to lift the ban on gays in the Army came after two landmark cases heard at the European Court of Human Rights, which found that the MoD’s policy was not sustainable.
Despite the change, the other half of the UK’s “special relationship” – the United States – has not relaxed its attitude towards homosexuals in
the Forces.

“I still can’t get my head round the US’ ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” said Tpr Wharton, who has served Queen and country for six years.

“Luckily I don’t have to deal with it, but clearly there will be gay soldiers in the US Army who are not being themselves – they aren’t allowed to be.”

Tpr Wharton was deployed to Iraq on OpTelic 10 in 2007 on long-range desert patrols and he says the idea of a “pansy” serving in a conflict zone is a flawed one.

“I would say whoever goes on a tour to a place like Iraq can’t really be described as a pansy – so the gay stereotype doesn’t really apply,” he said.

The Liverpool FC fan, who met his boyfriend Ryan during last year’s London Gay Pride march – the first time members of the Armed Forces were allowed to march in uniform – went on to say that although he can find himself on the wrong end of “banter”, it is
not a problem.

Equal Partners Mrs. & Mrs.

THE pressures of military life have never discriminated against Helen and Elspeth De Montes-Davis – the reality of deployments, risk to life and limb and long periods of separation are as real to them as they are to anyone in the Army.

Based in Catterick, Yorkshire, the two captains have been unfailingly successful in their careers as health professionals. Moving from the ranks to earn a commission as an officer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, nurse Helen has seen action on two busy Op
Telic tours. Elspeth, a recruit from the NHS, is studying to be a GP.

The only aspect of life that sets the pair, both aged 30, aside from their colleagues is the fact that they are a gay couple. Married in a civil partnership in February, they now have the right to be posted together and are entitled to their own quarter. And they are both delighted with the respect they have been shown by colleagues.

“I think the fact that we are both completely open about our sexuality does make life a lot easier,” Helen admitted. “We don’t try to hide it at all and people are very accepting. At the end of the day, we’re just another Army couple.

“Life is really no easier or harder than it is for a straight partnership – we’ve been married for 18 months now and often go out to each other’s functions together. The Army Medical Services is great and we’ve had no negative backchat.”

Now while we look on in jealously at the U.K. look at this:



We are making progress. It is time to put pressure on our lawmakers. We have a young representative who is taking this issue head on. It doubly helps that he is an Iraq Vet and has had to deal with the negative consequences of DADT that lost us valuable men and women in the armed forces.

Three and a half brigades have been fired for being gay!! We are losing two people every damn day! We are in war-time. We need these people. This is a matter of national security not morality, not religion, not prejudice...this is about being able to protect this nation and this should finally get those gd bigots to wake the fuck up and allow this law to die and allow Gay and Lesbian men and women (trans too!) to fight for nation being openly gay!!

God, I love this.

WTF? They were winning!!

Update: The internets (twitter: Pirate Bay & #piratebay are the leading trends - how many tweets have been done? p.s. my piratebay protest tweet has been well received...I like being a revolutionary!) are a buzz of Pirate Bay. First, the verdict was leaked by a reporter to one of the defendants. Second...there's going to be an appeal. They are planning to take this to the top courts in Sweden. Meanwhile, The Pirate Bay Party is applying to the EU Parliament Election in June. Considering these stats I don't think they are going to lose. People Are PISSSED!

The right-wing extremists nutsos had their Teabagging Tea Parties I say we have our Pirate Bay Parties!! Fuck the MPAA and RIAA. Let's see how many people we can raise who want to protest the way they are treating us!

In other news, the RIAA is flexing it's muscle again and got the 1st U.S. Circut Court of Appeals to outlaw the webcast of the upcoming trail. Geee, I wonder if it's because they are nothing bullies and liars and it will make the broadcast news networks see how they treat these people.

Time Warner has backed off the download cap program. Of course there is legislation in the works about setting a cap limit ala like our cell minute contracts. Otherwise, we will face net shortages... Why don't you build more broadband network you dickwads?

YouTube is going Corporate</a>.

Wikipedia.org tells Phorm to leave it's users alone! Finally a company that is standing up against corporate spying for marketing purposes.

And in more What the Fuckery is going on, Tenneesee schools block access to Pro-Gay websites. That means no support for the gay students unless they wish to seek "reparative therapy" for their gayness. Then that is okay.

Voting is underway on Wikipedia to whether or not they are to take it to a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike primary content license. If you have made more than 25 edits, and considering the LJ strike fest I'm sure some people have vastly exceeded that, then you are able to vote and can vote until May 3rd.

FBI SPYWEAR has been spying on us all for YEARS! See Sculy, we aren't crazy. They are out there to get us.

Fundoshi is back!! This time for women and being hailed as liberating lingerie.

Did you know that bee's go through a brain modification to prevent a mid-life crisis?

Does God's hand exist? Picture found here. A cosmic hand has been seen in the sky made up of nebula. Sometimes when I see things like this it really does make one believe in things beyond our wildest imaginations.

The two faces of Nefertiti's bust

In the biggest news of the day a milestone has been reached. For the first time ever we have a State in our Union that has legalized Gay Marriage by legislative votes and the Governor cannot veto it. Hallelujah! Vermont legalizes gay marriage with veto override"

Tony Blair's fight for Gay Equality as espoused by this interview. It is kind of mind blowing to see how much has changed in 12 years. Amazing accomplishments.

Now let's finish this fight within the next five years. We are in a war and we are dismissing thousands of needed soldiers just because they are gay. It is time to repeal DADT.

Ladies and Gents Gay Marriage has been ruled legal in Iowa. Iowa, one of the reddest states there is. Iowa, the state in which where Barack Obama won in 2007 made his candiacy for President look realistic. Iowa, not New York, Not Oregon. Iowa, a state in the middle of the heartland and in midst of the bible thumpers.

"The County does not, and could not in good faith, dispute the historical reality that gay and lesbian people as a group have long been the victim of purposeful and invidious discrimination because of their sexual orientation. The long and painful history of discrimination against gay and lesbian persons is epitomized by the criminalization of homosexual conduct in many parts of this country until very recently. School-yard bullies have psychologically ground children with apparently gay or lesbian sexual orientation in the cruel mortar and pestle of school-yard prejudice.

But the true power of the decision lies not in its equal protection analysis, though it is rooted there. Instead, what sets this decision apart is the frank way in which it raises the issue of religious objections to gay marriage. As the Supreme Court did in Lawrence v. Texas, its seminal 2003 ruling striking down sodomy laws, the Iowa court says that mere moral opprobrium or deeply held values are not enough to warrant legal sanctions or the denial of legal rights. The court then subtly raises the issue of religious opposition to gay marriage, even though the legal briefs by the other side did not.

Whether expressly or impliedly, much of society rejects same-sex marriage due to sincere, deeply ingrained — even fundamental — religious belief," the court said, before adding that religious views are nonetheless mixed on the subject. "As a result, civil marriage must be judged under our constitutional standards of equal protection and not under religious doctrines or the religious views of individuals. This approach does not disrespect or denigrate the religious views of many Iowans who may strongly believe in marriage as a dual-gender union, but considers, as we must, only the constitutional rights of all people, as expressed by the promise of equal protection for all. We are not permitted to do less and would damage our constitution immeasurably by trying to do more.""

My god people we are winning ground. Vermont is looking to be the first state to allow Gay Marriage by the legislature process.

A major credible news source is calling for legalization of mariajuna, The Times

"For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp. In this case, I mean the high-minded part literally. And so, a deal: give us drugs, after a certain age — say, 80 — all drugs, any drugs we want. In return, we will give you our driver's licenses. (I mean, can you imagine how terrifying a nation of decrepit, solipsistic 90-year-old boomers behind the wheel would be?) We'll let you proceed with your lives — much of which will be spent paying for our retirement, in any case — without having to hear us complain about our every ache and reflux. We'll be too busy exploring altered states of consciousness. I even have a slogan for the campaign: "Tune in, turn on, drop dead.""

"But there are big issues here, issues of economy and simple justice, especially on the sentencing side. As Webb pointed out in a cover story in Parade magazine, the U.S. is, by far, the most "criminal" country in the world, with 5% of the world's population and 25% of its prisoners. We spend $68 billion per year on corrections, and one-third of those being corrected are serving time for nonviolent drug crimes. We spend about $150 billion on policing and courts, and 47.5% of all arrests are marijuana-related. That is an awful lot of money, most of it nonfederal, that could be spent on better schools or infrastructure — or simply returned to the public."

"In any case, the drug-reform discussion comes just at the right moment. We boomers are getting older every day. You're not going to want us on the highways. Make us your best offer."

And finally, The Guardian, espouses that Google is the epitome of amoralness and the road to hell. I'm uncertain how I feel. I think there are some genuine concerns...but I also am a strong advocate in the freeing and intermingling of knowledge.

Oh and a little late news. You know how the GOP is exploding and that Gringich threatened that if they don't shape up they will be facing a third-party system in 2012? Well, for that third party I will actively support it if it is the The US version of the Pirate Party. Funny how a website to exchange information freely between parties is now becoming a cultural icon and revolutionary movement.

Let's hope that what he says comes to pass.

It does not look good in Cali over prop 8 reversal...but then again we still have 90 days before they make their ruling. Cali Court.

One reason I bring up this...is because I have noticed (briefly the past two days) not a mention of the Cali Court Case in any of my flists journals. I was wondering why that is.

Another thing, did any of you know that Jodie Foster is gay? I don't care. I just didn't know. I bring this up because of a blog post on HuffPost in which they talk about about how there is barely any Openly Gay Movie stars. And that we are, quote unquote, "probably months away from it being more acceptable to be a gay soldier than to be a gay actor."

One commenter had it right, Scream had dozens of rippoff like movies succeed it, but did Brokeback Mountain, which had won actual acadmey awards? Not a one.

P.s. Forgot to add this. Gay married couples are suing the Government over not being able to file their taxes as joint couples because of the Defense of Marriage Act that does not recognize them, federally, as a married couple.

It's been a bad month for us all. I have a step-uncle who is doing really bad while fighting cancer...

So this story...it brought tears to my eyes. We may be in a recession, a deep one at that, but it is hopeful to know that people like this still exist. The bad always gets televised and we rarely hear the good of humanity unless it is something major like that swan landing in the river.

Oh yeah, I forgot about this A draq queen homecoming queen. What a time we live in!! ;d

I'm not sure that many of you know this but Best Buy has decided to cut most of it's anime from the stores. Best Buy's new dvd strategy The only good news out of this is that starting March 1st there will be a 50% off discount on the titles.

Canada may be great for Gay Marriage but my ass is staying put in the states where I can watch gay anime porn and not have to worry about being convicted of child porn. Canadian Man guilty of possessing porno anime

Canadian law defines child pornography as "a photographic, film, video or other visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means, that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under the age of eighteen years."

There is a major sale going on at Right Stuff on all of their anime!

From now through Monday, March 2, take 35% OFF the retail prices of all DVDs from Geneon Animation. (This includes pre-orders!) How? Just use the following reusable coupon code when you check out through RightStuf.com:

Coupon Code: revvedup
Expires: Monday, March 2, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. CST

REMEMBER: If you’re a Got Anime member, you can stack your discounts for even more savings! (This means you have the potential to save up to 42% OFF the MSRP on DVDs from Geneon. Check out www.gotanime.com for details.)

* Not sure which products are included in the sale? To get started, just click on the “Get Revved Up” graphic on RightStuf.com: It will take you to a list of all of the Geneon items we carry! (Please note: Bargain Bin, Weekly Special and Closeout items are not eligible for this sale because they’re already awesome deals, and this will be noted on the individual product pages for these items!)Go here for details.

I'm frustrated.

Next tuesday my local stations go Digital Only. We are picking up ABC and NBC fine. But we are going to lose fox. That means no House, no Bones, no Fringe and no Lie To Me (even if I haven't seen an episode yet).

So today I went to Radio Shack (in Victoria) given the run around about what attenna to get and the guy wasn't very helpful since he doesn't use his because he has DirecTV. Lucky bastard.

So I come home to hook it up. It doesn't work. It's an indoor/outdoor and it looks like we have to stick it outside. So I go back to Radio Shack (in Port Lavaca) and this guy knows more about the digital stuff but he can't really help me.

We live too far out that we can only pick up signals from where we point the attenna. We need to look at the digital attenna as if it is a satelite. That means it needs to be high off the ground, outside and pointed in the direction we want to recieve the signals from. That means if we want to recieve our local channels from Victoria that we need to point it in the direction of Victora. Same for Houston. That means to see whats on CBS (Houston) we have to switch the direction (manually - going outside and changing the direction of the signal).

We could buy a rotater so we wouldn't have to manually change it. But that's like a hundred bucks. Oh and did I mention that the minum signal strength atenna that the Victoria stations are guaranteeing to pick up their channels is five dollars more than the one I bought ($60) and is one of those big ass atennas that is hooked to a pole and mounted on the house.

I feel like a fool. I feel taken advantage of. I feel angry and frustrated. I'm losing my FOX tv and we will never be able to get CBS in the clear all the time and forget about trying to pick up the CW.

I've been thinking heavily about switching to wireless internet. My neighboor has and it and a bunch of people in the country areas have it. I think the highest connection speed we can get is 60kbps. Which is considerably faster than we have now...it's nearly double. We get 44kbps and we have an accelerator to load the pages faster. Fastest download speed is 5.0 kbps.

To set up wireless will cost me $150 not including the price of the router and about $50-60 a month thereafter.

I don't like spending money. I like having money.

This will in the long run save me money if I am able to get it. You know because I won't be buying as much manga since I can download it, anime, and rent movies through netflix. It will also cut down time on having reload my crashed browsers and my webct stuff for class.

*sighs*

Here are some tuition free colleges there is even a law school that is providing free tuition for it's inaugural class. You can still apply to it if you wish to have a tution-free Law School education.

It's marriage day for GBLTQ (I have no idea how to put this in. GBQLT? What sound's better to you?) people nation-wide. I wonder how many people will apply.

It's a DTMFA-a-thon and he uses it to spout off on the new studies about straight kids doing the saddlebacking and the gay kids knocking each other up.

It's the funniest damn thing I've read in a long while.

DTMFA-a-Thon

Just checked google...the church website is still the top for saddlebacking and in fact no where on the list is the website for saddlebacking. I guess we still have a ways to go for the google bomb?

Does anyone know about this Freedom to Marry week?

*is currently spending money on HRC merchandise. Is currently excusing away her spending habbits as a) supporting a damn good cause and b) she's been looking for that equality sticker FOREVER! Not to mention she needs a new mouse pad and...*

UPDATE: I just saw here that Houston's own openly lesbian Annise Parker is putting herself up for the Mayoral election. Awesome.

I'm bored. I'm also cabin fevery stir crazy.

When I was young and I felt like this...it usually meant I would soon get in trouble...possibly with the law. I lived in a small village/hamlet town of 500 people. There was a little port by the park in which us kids were not allowed to visit because it was a little dangerous. It was also right in front of the public pool. There was the playground area of the elementary school.

What we usually did was trespass on federal land. There's this big pipe behind the park and it was all sorts of fun to defy getting ourselves killed trying to do all sorts of dangerous and illegal activity to break into the private land.

So now I'm bored...and want to do something... It's a beautiful day out. Perfect spring sunny weather. And there is nothing to do.

I doubt the beach is open. Even if it is, I'm not sure I want to swim in it. The public pools aren't open yet. I don't know anyone out here to do anything with. Sports? No. Video games? No. Movies? No. Talk? ...well the guy lost his voice and he NEVER calls only texts and I have initiate it. I'm not too sure of the guys I know from okcupid...so no.

So I'm bored.
I'm thinking of painting...but I got crappy cheap wal-mart paints. And I'm not in the mood to drive to the city and buy new fancy paints. That would require me to know good from bad and spend hours in a store...that is not filled with books and manga.

I HATE shopping!!!
It's like the third or fourth level of hell.

So I'm bored.

Anyways, here is some interesting stories you may or may not be aware of that do impact your life. Especially those of us fandom slashers. ;d

Lesbian Representative Rejected From Committee on Children and Families, why am I not surprised this is from Missouri?

Gay Rights on Fast Track at State Dept. Madame Secretary Clinton - I love saying that - is working make sure that all the state workers who are sent overseas and are in same-sex relationships will be afforded the same securities and benefits of those in hetero relationships. First of all, good going for her and she best might want to make sure that this eventually gets passed to ALL Federal employees, like the Postal Service. Second, why the fuck in the year 2009 is this only now being addressed? We have people in war zones or in hostile regions and just because they are gay, transgender or whatever the government will not protect their partners in the same manner as hetero couples?! WTF?!
This pisses me off. This is about people's lives!!

Gallery: Matthew Mitcham This guy is so damn hot. His partner is one lucky man. I wish I knew about him being in the Olympics before reading about how NBC dissed his and his partner's story because he was the first openly gay Olympic diver competing in the Olympics. He won gold! He is soooo damn hot and I'm a fan for life now. *drools*

On Uncle Sam's role in public schools, Republicans have it backward I like this article about NCLB. I didn't know that it was FAILING because the Feds weren't fully funding it. I still think it needs to be re-written.

Blue the hue of creativity? Red for detail? Does this mean we finally get classrooms in shades of blue and red chalk for detailed stuff we need to know? I vote yay! I HATE that fugly tan/off-white/cream prison-style wall paint color that all the schools use. It downs my intelligence.

Shepard Fairey Arrested In Boston He arrested for tagging. ;d This is in addition to the lawsuit over the HOPE painting over the original photo that inspired it.

Will Ferrel on George W. Bush: No President Needs This Kind of Exposure Is it bad of me that I want to see this play just because of the Penis picture that is making Repubs walk out in digust and horror? *laughs*

I didn't know that Savage has now officially picked the new definition for Saddlebacking.
Here it is in his own words:

“Saddlebacking: the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities."After attending the Purity Ball, Heather and Bill saddlebacked all night because she's saving herself for marriage.

Here's why this definition is perfect: Saddlebacking, like barebacking, involves one person riding up on another's backside. But in this case, it's not the bare-naked cock-in-ass that's the most important feature of the ride, but the fact that the person being ridden has been saddled—thanks to the efforts of the Rick Warrens of this world—with religious hang-ups and serious misconceptions about sex. Like the barebacker who casually tosses away his health—or his partner's health—because he believes, quite erroneously, that "risky = sexy," the saddlebacker offers up her ass because she believes, quite erroneously, that she can get fucked in the ass—vigorously, religiously—and still be considered a virgin on her wedding night.

*dies laughing* I voted for this one. Or I think I voted. *shrugs* I liked it, it 'fitted' with the same. Barebacking, saddlebacking, sounds the same to me.
Oh god the example for the definition on saddlebacking.com uses both saddlebacking and santorum!!

Btw, do any of you know what GBLTQIA is?

*goes off to read more Savage articles*

The Christopher Handley manga porn obscenity ownership trial is postponed to the last two weeks of March, though, no official date has been made yet.

The Prop 8 Court case is to be started on March 5th!

California Court rules that a Christian School can discriminate against its students since it is not a business. This is over two girls who were expelled for lesbian-like behavior.

DOJ rehires an ex-DOJ employee that was fired and banned for being accused of being a lesbian.

Two girls arrested after kissing each other in public mall.

I'm just about done with my second essay. I'm starting on the English essay, the horrible soul-eating one.

Btw, Obama has given a high government position head of EPA for the first time to an openly gay person. Congrats to Gay rights.
Also did anyone else see that big "f*ck you" to Cheney that Obama gave by getting Steven Chu for Energy Secretary.

Btw, it seems that all 50 Democrat Senators are calling for Blago to resign... Damn did he piss people off.


Here be dragons:






P.S. This is where you go to sign up for X-Mas/Holiday Cards. Last day to sign up, I'm sending them off tomorrow.

UPDATE: Done with Essay 2!!! Now just the hell essay is left.

NASA has found water vapor from an exoplanet outside our galaxy it's only 63 Light Years away. It's called a "Hot Jupiter" so it's not like a terrestrial planet like earth but a gasseous planet like Saturn and Jupiter.

Censorship is alive and well in a highschool. a person or group complained and so high school students took their book to the English dept and they ripped out 6 pages out of the book.

So social networking sites are all going to die out? Facebook is facing the same money crisis as GM?

And in a manner to piss everyone off, Pat Boone equates Prop 8 protests with Mumbai terrorist attacks. I shit you not. He actually said that.

Well, if current theories and intel are correct, this slaughter was planned and executed by one of many Islamic groups that feel directed by their religion to subjugate - or exterminate - "infidels" like Hindus, Jews, Christians and even other Muslims who don't hew to their extremist views. To them, there is only one acceptable worldview - a theology they intend to enforce on all humankind - and anyone who might disagree or obstruct their goals should be removed, violently if need be...Have you not seen the awful similarity between what happened in Mumbai and what's happening right now in our cities?