Holidays You Need To Take Off, Now from Through August

19 Responses to Holidays You Need To Take Off, Now from Through August

1. Peggy says:

   Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 1:59 pm

   Guess we now know what the UN has been busy doing.
   See Global Warming/Climate Change day is missing. It must be in the fall or winter.
2. Pie Guevara says:

   Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 3:41 pm

   Off Topic :

   Bruce Jenner Is Not A Woman. He Is A Sick And Delusional Man.

   http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/bruce-jenner-is-not-a-woman-he-is-a-sick-and-delusional-man/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=ShareButtons

   Don’t be confused by the tweets, they are not comments to the article but part of it.

   Let the hate comments commence.
3. Pie Guevara says:

   Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 5:21 pm

   What no Save The LBGT Whales Day? The left is slipping.
4. Pie Guevara says:

   Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 5:51 pm

   Off Topic (again) :

   Obama Treats Israel As An Enemy

   “”I’m the closest thing to a Jew that’s ever sat in this office,” Obama may, as his ex-close aide David Axelrod this week related, claim.

   But columnist Charles Krauthammer called it basically a meaningless statement, noting that Israelis “have a pretty good idea of what a Jew is, and, more importantly … what a friend is.” Obama’s approval among Israelis, he said, is only about 15%.”

   http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/060315-755617-obama-seems-to-avoid-no-opportunity-to-marginalize-israel.htm
5. Dan the Man says:

   Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 8:08 pm

   If i took all those days off i wouldnt get anything done! LOL Is Congress taking them off?
6. Peggy says:

   Wednesday, June 3, 2015 at 10:47 pm

   #4 Pie, And from Israel, “For 20 years, Obama sat quietly in the pews of Jeremiah Wright’s Church listening to his pastor’s anti-Semitic rants.”

   Time to Fight the Jew Haters:

   “Lets take U.S. President Obama, for example. For 20 years, Obama sat quietly in the pews of Jeremiah Wright’s Church listening to his pastor’s anti-Semitic rants. And now, he is really angry at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s obsession with Iran. Think about it. Less than 70 years after the Holocaust, Iran is building nuclear bombs with the express purpose of incinerating Israel’s 8 million citizens and Obama is livid with Israel. What other country on this planet is facing the threat of nuclear annihilation? And what would any other country, including the United States, do if it found itself in Israel’s life and death predicament? Would it bet on Iranian rationality? Of course it wouldn’t. But for the Jews there is another standard all together.

   It would seem that things, at the moment, can’t get worse, but they can. As practically every Arab state is collapsing in a heap of blood, guts and decapitated heads, Obama’s oft-repeated foreign policy goal is to create yet another failed Arab state – Palestine. Why? Even Hamas, the dictatorial rulers of Gaza, have made it clear that they don’t want a state, which they consider a Western invention. What they explicitly want is a launching pad from which to destroy Israel and create an Islamic Republic. But Obama doesn’t care. He’s going to give the Palestinians a state whether they want one or not, whether they deserve one or not, and whether its existence will further destabilize an already volatile region. Because, as should already be clear, it’s not about the Palestinians – it’s all about the Jews.”

   Read the full article here.
   http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/42157/time-to-fight-the-jew-haters-opinion/#kFbPOV2JiA5LCQ76.97
7. Chris says:

   Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 7:15 am

   Pie Guevara: “Bruce Jenner Is Not A Woman. He Is A Sick And Delusional Man…Let the hate comments commence.”

   It would seem you have already started them.

   I’m not going to respond to hatred with hatred. I am curious what you are basing your opinion on, though. What reputable psychologists believe that transgenderism is a “sickness” or “delusion?” What peer reviewed literature have you looked at?

   From the APA:

   “A psychological state is considered a mental disorder only if it causes significant distress or disability. Many transgender people do not experience their gender as distressing or disabling, which implies that identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder. For these individuals, the significant problem is finding affordable resources, such as counseling, hormone therapy, medical procedures and the social support necessary to freely express their gender identity and minimize discrimination. Many other obstacles may lead to distress, including a lack of acceptance within society, direct or indirect experiences with discrimination, or assault. These experiences may lead many transgender people to suffer with anxiety, depression or related disorders at higher rates than nontransgender persons.

   According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), people who experience intense, persistent gender incongruence can be given the diagnosis of “gender dysphoria.” Some contend that the diagnosis inappropriately pathologizes gender noncongruence and should be eliminated. Others argue that it is essential to retain the diagnosis to ensure access to care. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is under revision and there may be changes to its current classification of intense persistent gender incongruence as “gender identity disorder.”

   http://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/transgender.aspx

   Of course, Huckabee had to make a joke about Jenner that was offensive to multiple groups of people, because that’s what Huckabee lives for:

   Washington (CNN)Mike Huckabee says there’s a time he wishes he could’ve been transgender: When it was time to hit the high school showers.

   If he “could have felt like a woman,” the Republican former Arkansas governor joked earlier this year, then he could have seen his female classmates without their clothes on.

   “Now I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE,” Huckabee said.

   “I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.’ You’re laughing because it sounds so ridiculous doesn’t it?”

   Note how Huckabee’s joke alludes to the myth that transgenders are sexual predators who are just trying to sneak a peak at the opposite sex–this has a whiff of the restroom laws that ignorant people think are there to protect their children, rather than simply to discriminate against trans people.

   Of course, as informed people know, transgenders do not choose their gender identity, and they certainly don’t do it for purposes of sexual gratification. That’s all projection. That’s the only reason Huckabee can fathom for why someone would be transgender. And since Huckabee seriously lacks empathy, he won’t even bother finding out the real reasons.

   Note also how different Huckabee’s reaction to Jenner is than his reaction to the Duggars. Apparently forcing one’s daughters to continue living with their sexual abuser, then putting them on reality TV is perfectly fine, but transitioning (which harms no one) is crossing the line.

   Fundamentalist morality is so freaking warped.
8. Peggy says:

   Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 1:14 pm

   Psychiatrist are looking into transgender individuals as having mental disorders.

   Young women and girls with anorexia risk starving themselves to death because they look into a mirror and see themselves as fat when their bodies are just skin and bones. They are diagnosed as having a psychological disorder and prescribed treatment to save their lives.

   From WebMD.
   http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/eating-disorders/understanding-eating-disorders-teens?page=3#1

   There are individuals who feel the need to cut off their own body parts. One man recently tried to cut off his arm/s with a saw in So. Calif. at a Home Depot store. It’s been classified as a psychological disorder.

   From Wikipedia.

   Body integrity identity disorder:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_integrity_identity_disorder

   What is the difference between a man who wants to cut off his penis, a woman who wants to cut off her breast, and a man/woman who wants to cut off their arm or leg and girl who is trying to starve herself to death? Nothing, except the transgender’s body part has to do with their sexual identity which aligns with the gay/lesbian equal right’s movement of today.

   I’m not saying the g/l individuals have mental disorders because I believe most have physiological factors that create their makeup. I am saying that cutting off body parts and starving yourself is not normal because you don’t like the way your body looks.

   Suicide rates for transgenders who have and have not had the surgery is very high. Even after the surgery has been completed individuals are committing suicide because they still don’t like their body. This should be a concern for everyone just like the other “disorders” and all options of treatment should be explored further.

   Transgender operations account for high suicide rates:

   “It makes you wonder why it hasn’t gotten any US press attention. The lead angle of the story was the bizarre suicide by euthanasia of a woman who got an operation to look like a man and in her own words ended up looking “like a monster”. So distraught at the irreversible damage done to herself, she committed suicide.

   Its tragic that individuals are tortured internally with unending psychological pain, but then to get it “fixed” only to fall into a worse state is proof that “transgenderism” is a serious mental dysfunction. This is what messages like this ultimately lead to particularly for unsuspecting gender confused teens.

   Suicide rates among transsexuals and those who have undergone gender reassignment surgery are high with some suggesting the rate may be as high as 31 per cent.

   Chris Hyde, professor at the University of Exeter, who has studied the issues surrounding sex change operations, told Mail Online: ‘Research we conducted a decade ago found there is huge uncertainty over whether changing someone’s sex is a good or a bad thing.

   While no doubt great care is taken to ensure that appropriate patients undergo gender reassignment, there’s still a large number of people who have the surgery but remain traumatised – often to the point of committing suicide.

   ‘While we haven’t looked at the situation since then, given the difficulties in researching this area, it is likely that the same issues remain today.’

   In the hours before his death Verhelst told Belgium’s Het Laatse Nieuws: ‘I was ready to celebrate my new birth. But when I looked in the mirror, I was disgusted with myself.”

   http://www.gcmwatch.com/10553/transgender-operations-account-for-high-suicide-rates

   Sex changes are not effective, say researchers:

   “There is no conclusive evidence that sex change operations improve the lives of transsexuals, with many people remaining severely distressed and even suicidal after the operation, according to a medical review conducted exclusively for Guardian Weekend tomorrow.

   The review of more than 100 international medical studies of post-operative transsexuals by the University of Birmingham’s aggressive research intelligence facility (Arif) found no robust scientific evidence that gender reassignment surgery is clinically effective.

   Chris Hyde, the director of Arif, said: “There is a huge uncertainty over whether changing someone’s sex is a good or a bad thing. While no doubt great care is taken to ensure that appropriate patients undergo gender reassignment, there’s still a large number of people who have the surgery but remain traumatised – often to the point of committing suicide.”

   Arif, which advises the NHS in the West Midlands about the evidence base of healthcare treatments, found that most of the medical research on gender reassignment was poorly designed, which skewed the results to suggest that sex change operations are beneficial.

   Its review warns that the results of many gender reassignment studies are unsound because researchers lost track of more than half of the participants. For example, in a five-year study of 727 post-operative transsexuals published last year, 495 people dropped out for unknown reasons. Dr Hyde said the high drop out rate could reflect high levels of dissatisfaction or even suicide among post-operative transsexuals. He called for the causes of their deaths to be tracked to provide more evidence.”

   http://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/jul/30/health.mentalhealth
9. Chris says:

   Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 5:24 pm

   Peggy, thank you for the civil and compassionate reply.

   I admit my opinions on transgender individuals are still in flux and have changed a lot over the past few years. I think the psychiatrists who argue that it is a mental illness are in the minority…but they could be right. I’m not qualified enough to say.

   My suspicion is that for some it is a real disorder, while with others it is a more permanent condition caused by very real (but not inherently harmful) differences in the brain.

   I do have issues with the idea of sex change operations, but I think there is at least one clear difference between them and cutting off an arm: an arm is something everyone needs, and a penis isn’t.

   I also share your concern about the suicide rate in the transgender community.

   That said, I don’t see how that Matt Walsh article cited by Pie could be at all helpful for someone struggling with this issue to read.

   Imagine you are a transgender youth contemplating suicide, and you are seeking advice for what to do about the way you feel. Would that Matt Walsh article help you? Or would it make you feel even worse about yourself? The rhetoric used is that of a bully–it’s not the type of language one uses when they are genuinely trying to help people struggling with mental illness. It’s the type of language one uses to put people down and re-assert who is in the in-group and who is in the out-group. (This is a major flaw of almost all of Walsh’s writing. It’s also notable that Walsh is another fundamentalist who has written in defense of the Duggars, while at the same time condemning Jenner. Because of course, in the fundamentalist community, being LGBT is way worse than molesting one’s sister. [Does anyone believe for a second that if one of the Duggar kids came out as gay or trans, their parents would continue to defend and support them like they are with Josh?]) I can’t imagine how reading that piece would help anyone. I can see how it would make someone even more full of self-loathing, how it would make them feel despicable and ugly and unnatural and wrong.

   (There’s also the fact that Walsh conflates “transgenderism” with “crossdressing,” and then goes on to argue that there is absolutely no difference between sex and gender, when even most psychologists who view transgenderism as a mental disorder know that those are two different concepts. This simply is not an informed or serious critique; Walsh has no idea what he is talking about, but his religious fundamentalist arrogance makes him think he’s more qualified to decide these issues than actual experts.)

   Given how many people think like Walsh it isn’t at all surprising that there is such a high suicide rate in the LGBT community.
10. Peggy says:

    Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 9:15 pm

    My thinking on this issue is the now available surgery to transform one’s body from one sex to another is so new that individuals may/will be harmed emotionally worse after the surgery than they were before. I too am no expert so what I’m writing is strictly from my gut.

    Anorexia and the other one were unknown for years, at least they didn’t have a name for them at first. It was only after studying them were the doctors able to come up with treatments to help them. I’m saying this disorder too will need to be studied and hopefully those wanting to have the surgery will put it off until more is known about how to really help them.

    We all have formed our opinions based on our own experiences and beliefs, religious or not. Mine was formed in part when I was in high school a couple that lived in our neighborhood had a baby with both sex organs. My mom explained to me the doctors were going to wait until he/she was 5 years old and do a hormone test. The test would determine the dominate hormone and the surgery would be done accordingly. I never knew what happened to that little baby and have always wondered how he/she is doing today.

    My oldest son was born with Duchene Dystrophy, which I was told was caused by a defective gene passed from mother to son. I had the test done three times and it always came back negative. I did not have the flawed gene and was told it was an unknown mutation with no explanation for the cause.

    God makes us all perfect, He just makes some of us different and different is ok. We all should be willing to help those who can’t help themselves and right now, from what I’ve read, those with transgenderism need help too.
11. Chris says:

    Friday, June 5, 2015 at 7:04 am

    Well said Peggy. I think it’s worth noting that not all trans people get sex operations. I share your concerns and I appreciate that you always make it clear when commenting on these types of issues that you are speaking from a point of compassion.
12. Tina says:

    Friday, June 5, 2015 at 11:40 am

    I have two things to add for consideration:

    1. LGBT activist have attained positions of power to influence and change how the medical community views the psychology. There has been a concerted effort to dismiss any views that don’t support the activist position. This is not science…sound familiar?

    2. The politicization of the issue amounts to bullying by a minority to force all opposing views out and to try to force acceptance.

    It’s possible that religious views are simply based in truth rather than evidence of bias or hatred. Information, such as that offered by Peggy in #8 would support this possibility but will be rejected and dismissed, especially by political LGBT activists.

    My own view is that the admonition in the Bible isn’t about rejection or hate but reflects a position of warning the individual based on God’s love. He’s saying, “Doing this will harm you; don’t do it.”

    We all have issues that challenge us. I don’t think of this issue as being any different, worse, or more difficult than other issues people must confront. the LBGT community seems to have a need to dramatize their issue and force all of us to join them in their drama. I don’t think anyone should be forced, especially through the power of government, to share/embrace the experience and conform to the beliefs.
13. Peggy says:

    Friday, June 5, 2015 at 1:23 pm

    She could be me. Except I won’t go without makeup in public and I prefer lacy undies over boxers.

    Blaze Personality’s Heartfelt Admission: I Wished I Had Been Born a Boy:

    http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/for-most-of-my-life-i-wished-i-had-been-born-a-boy/
14. Peggy says:

    Friday, June 5, 2015 at 1:59 pm

    Yes Tina, it does all sound familiar. And just like with the abortion issue the harm women did to themselves emotionally/mentally after the regret set in on their decision to end the life of their own unborn child. The unknown consequences for many women evolved into a life filled with guilt.

    Women’s Suicide Rates Highest After Abortion: New Study:

    “Compared to women who have not been pregnant in the prior year, deaths from suicide, accidents and homicide are 248 percent higher in the year following an abortion, according to a new 13-year study of the entire population of women in Finland.

    The study also found that majority of the extra deaths among women who had abortions were due to suicide. The suicide rate among women who had abortions was six times higher than that of women who had given birth in the prior year and double that of women who had miscarriages.

    A 1997 government-funded study in Finland found that aborting women were 3.5 times more likely to die within the next year compared to women who gave birth.

    In addition, researchers examining death records linked to medical payments for birth and abortion for 173,000 California women found that aborting women were 62 percent more likely to die than delivering women over the eight year period examined. That study also found that the increase risk of death was most prominent from suicides and accidents, with a 154 percent higher risk of death from suicide and an 82 percent higher risk of death from accidental injuries.”

    http://afterabortion.org/2005/womens-suicide-rates-highest-after-abortion-new-study/

    The politicization of another life changing and possible death causing issue needs a strong voice from the medical community to speak up and speak as loud as the bullies.

    The religious community should be there as loving supporters and not condemners.

    Romans 2:1 “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
15. Chris says:

    Friday, June 5, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    Tina: “I have two things to add for consideration:

    1. LGBT activist have attained positions of power to influence and change how the medical community views the psychology. There has been a concerted effort to dismiss any views that don’t support the activist position. This is not science…sound familiar?”

    Your last sentence here doesn’t necessarily follow from the preceding sentences. I think the idea that LGBT activists have a lot of power and influence in the psychiatric community is probably correct. But can you show that this has led to unsound methodology and bad science? What if the reason the views of those that don’t support the “activist position” (which is, as I understand it, simply the position that LGBT people are not all suffering from mental problems) have been dismissed is simply because supporters of those contrary views simply haven’t been able to support their position with good science?

    I mean, we all saw the attempts of Mark Regnerus to prove that gay parents are unfit, and the result was a study that didn’t even look at any children raised by gay parents. So…I’m not exactly convinced that the quality of the research from the opposing side has been all that awesome.

    And it’s not like the view that “LGBT people are all psychologically messed up” hasn’t been tried and tested in our society; that was the prevailing view for a long time. It was rejected due to new evidence.

    “2. The politicization of the issue amounts to bullying by a minority to force all opposing views out and to try to force acceptance.”

    I’m curious. Do you consider the traditional bans on homosexuality, to the point of making it a criminal offense, to be a “politization of the issue?” Do you consider that “bullying…a minority to force all opposing views out and to try to force acceptance?”

    The LGBT community did not make their lives a political issue. Those who tried to oppress LGBT people made their lives a political issue.

    “It’s possible that religious views are simply based in truth rather than evidence of bias or hatred.”

    I don’t know what this means. What is the source of this “truth” that religious people claim to have? I’m told it’s God, but since no one seems to have found an objective or empirical means of testing the existence of such a being, let alone what it thinks on any given issue, I’m not sure how such “truth” can be expected to be accepted by everyone.

    “My own view is that the admonition in the Bible isn’t about rejection or hate but reflects a position of warning the individual based on God’s love. He’s saying, “Doing this will harm you; don’t do it.””

    What admonition, precisely, are you talking about?

    I know of many admonitions against crossing traditional gender boundaries in the Bible. Some, like the prohibition on homosexuality, are still seen by many Christians as being literal and applicable to today. Others are followed by almost no one:

    “But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.”

    –1 Corinthians 11:5-6

    “The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.…”

    1 Corinthians 14:34

    “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering. But if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.”

    1 Corinthians 11:14-15

    Are these the admonitions you are referring to?

    It is clear that the Bible has a lot of rules about proper behavior for men and proper behavior for women. It is also clear that nearly all modern Christians reject many of these rules–even those in the New Testament–while taking others very seriously, and expecting their neighbors to as well. Why? How do you pick and choose which ones to follow?
16. Pie Guevara says:

    Friday, June 5, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    Re #7 Chris : Read the article before accusing me of hate.

    Note this statement —

    “As the doctor points out, “transgenders” have a suicide rate 20 times higher than the general population — after surgery. Naturally, we’re told the astronomically high rates of suicide, drug abuse, and depression among gender confused people can be blamed on “bullying,” but this is a convenient and dishonest assumption. The truth is, “transgenders” are plagued with a mental delusion that makes it difficult for them to accept reality, which may tempt them to permanently escape it. The best thing we can do is help them to accept the world for what it is and themselves for who they are. The worst thing we can do is play along with a fantasy that’s clearly causing them immense torment and pain.”

    F*** you Chris.
17. Pie Guevara says:

    Friday, June 5, 2015 at 7:39 pm

    In the above I should have quoted all of this —

    “The former top psychiatrist at John’s Hopkins, Dr. Chapman, penned a Wall Street journal article several months ago, making it clear that “transgenders” are mentally disordered. Boldly affirming the indisputable findings of every credible biologist who’s ever existed, Dr. Chapman reported that sex change is biologically impossible, and to tell a transgender he can be “reassigned” or “transitioned” from one gender to the other is to “promote and collaborate with mental illness.”

    As the doctor points out, “transgenders” have a suicide rate 20 times higher than the general population — after surgery. Naturally, we’re told the astronomically high rates of suicide, drug abuse, and depression among gender confused people can be blamed on “bullying,” but this is a convenient and dishonest assumption. The truth is, “transgenders” are plagued with a mental delusion that makes it difficult for them to accept reality, which may tempt them to permanently escape it. The best thing we can do is help them to accept the world for what it is and themselves for who they are. The worst thing we can do is play along with a fantasy that’s clearly causing them immense torment and pain.

    It never occurs to these exceedingly “tolerant” do-gooders that transgenders are killing themselves, abusing drugs, and carving their bodies into pieces because they are unhappy. They are unhappy before surgery, and often even less happy afterwards. They are self-loathing. They are desperate. The last thing — the absolute last thing — they need is to be told they should embrace their mental illness and believe whatever lies it tells them about themselves”

    Double f*** you Chris for implying that I am disseminating hate.
18. Chris says:

    Friday, June 5, 2015 at 8:51 pm

    Pie, I did read the article, as you would have known had you read the rest of the thread before replying.

    But you’re right. You’re replies of “f*** you” and “double f*** you” prove that you don’t have a hateful bone in your body , and that you are 100% motivated by compassion, tolerance, and respect.
19. Pie Guevara says:

    Sunday, June 7, 2015 at 12:21 pm

    Evidently Chris not only endorses self-mutilation and pandering to mental illness, he applauds and encourages it. That I do not evidently means that I disseminate hate. That I tell him to go **** himself for asserting that I disseminate hate is in itself hate.

    Chris, I do not disseminate hate and you can go **** yourself for saying I do.

    Got it?

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