Category Archives: freedom

Happy Thanksgivoween

Kelli Jae Baeli Posted on by

NOTE: I typed in Thanksgivoween, as the title of this blog, while thumbing it into my iPhone…and the autocorrect made it Thank Gully Nig (sounds like a good title- who’s Gully Nig?–I’m sure I’ll come up with a story for that). So–Today I am thankful that I finally found the love of my life even though we can’t be together right now. I am thankful that I have a nice vehicle to provide autonomy and comfort, and a reasonably comfortable place to live, even though it’s just a lonely hotel and nothing more. I am thankful that I am able to … Continue reading →

Condemned to Repeat it?

Kelli Jae Baeli Posted on by

Today, I woke, sat down to my first cup of coffee and found a headline that gave me the sensation of a lead weight in my stomach. North Carolina May Declare Official State Religion Under New Bill Republican North Carolina state legislators have proposed allowing an official state religion in a measure that would declare the state exempt from the Constitution and court rulings. The bill, filed Monday by two GOP lawmakers from Rowan County and backed by nine other Republicans, says each state “is sovereign” and courts cannot block a state “from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” … Continue reading →

Gun Laws: the Truth is in the Middle

Kelli Jae Baeli Posted on by

In a sign-meme on Facebook recently, there was a quote by Ronald Reagan: “I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.” ~Ronald Reagan, in a speech at his 78th birthday celebration in Los Angeles on February 6, 1989. KG MacGregor makes all salient points on this, in her blog Baby, You Can Drive My Gun when suggests using driving laws as a template … Continue reading →

The Handmaid’s Tale: An American Dream Gone Awry

Kelli Jae Baeli Posted on by

Throughout our recent election process, I kept thinking about how a Romney presidency would begin to remind me of The Handmaid’s Tale, the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood. It reminded me that I wrote a paper on this book years ago in college. I don’t seem to have it compiled in any of my published anthologies, so i thought i would post it here. It’s a timely piece of literature still, which does not speak well of our republic. The Tea-Party is just the sort of organization to bring this dystopian theocracy to fruition. Hopefully those things are back on … Continue reading →

More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops (NYTimes)

Kelli Jae Baeli Posted on by

More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops By LAURIE GOODSTEIN Published: April 26, 2009 CHARLESTON, S.C. — Two months after the local atheist organization here put up a billboard saying “Don’t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone,” the group’s 13 board members met in Laura and Alex Kasman’s living room to grapple with the fallout. The problem was not that the group, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, had attracted an outpouring of hostility. It was the opposite. An overflow audience of more than 100 had showed up for their most recent public symposium, and the board members discussed … Continue reading →

Symbols Are Not Things

Kelli Jae Baeli Posted on by

In recent news there is a battle of wills at play regarding the presence of a 10 Commandments monument in the Alabama Judiciary Building. I feel the same way about this as i do the flag-burning issue. The real issue here, i believe, is that people make the error of attaching God to a symbol, rather than to their own inner consciousness. It makes no difference what they do to that monument or symbol. Proponents of keeping it in that building are saying, essentially, that removal of the monument will somehow damage God. This is essentially a fallacious argument, since … Continue reading →