An outstanding article by Pastor Philip Gulley: "I was Wrong About the Second Amendment: Why my View of Guns Totally Changed."

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Chris Christie vetoes bill banning pig torture. Not an Onion headline.

Chris Christie shamefully approves of torturing animals because he's trying to impress corporate pork producers as he prepares for a presidential run. Let's remember his craven, disgusting actions and make him accountable. And let's make sure this man never gets near the White House--except as a tourist. Here are the details.

By the way, no Christie-is-fat comments please. It's too easy, too far off the topic, and too much like something shallow right-wingers would say.

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Walmart is the real "welfare queen."

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

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It's hard to comprehend the mentality of a person not wanting to change the events leading to killing another human being.

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Few people deserve a stocking full of coal more than Sean Hannity.

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Only a wealthy Republican would think that hunger in a land of plenty is "noble." Shameful.

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Not only do the president's executive actions on immigration not increase the deficit, they can't be defunded by Republicans fiddling with the federal budget.

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Mitch McConnell and many Republicans are saying that President Obama is acting like "an emperor" for exercising his legal authority to try to fix our broken immigration system. It's time to call out those kinds of comments for what they are: B.S.

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What liberal media?

The networks were under no obligation to broadcast President Obama's immigration speech last night, of course, but two things are clear: (1) The corporate media has shirked its responsibility for keeping people informed about important issues. The news divisions are lazy and only concerned about ratings, and the rest of the network corporations don't even want to bother. (2) Anyone who believes in the myth of a "liberal media" isn't paying attention to reality.

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Every President since Eisenhower has taken executive action on immigration.

First, Republicans blocked immigration reform in Congress under president Bush. Then they blocked it again under President Obama. Now they're losing their minds over President Obama's executive action on immigration. It's time we learned that Republicans aren't serious about this issue--or even serious about governing in general. They just hate Obama and hate effective government.

Every President since Eisenhower has taken executive action on immigration. 

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One more time for the people who park their butts on the couch in front of Fox News all day ... snow in cold place does not disprove global warming/climate change.

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If you support a legal system that says Charles Manson can get married but two gay people can't, then you're part of the problem.

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There's no such thing as "Republicancare."

So 100,000 people signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act--on the first day of the new enrollment period last week.

Dear Republican friends, please tell us again about what a failure Obamacare is.

By the way, we don't mind calling it "Obamacare" because Obama cares. There's not such thing as "RepublicanCare." And try to say "McConnellcare," "Boehnercare," "Cruzcare," or "Christiecare" without laughing. Even Mitt Romney has pretty much disavowed "Romneycare." The only thing Republicans will ever try to bring us is "Corporationcare" or "Wealthycare," which is what we've had for too many years and is the reason we needed reform in the first place.

Read about the 100,000 first-day signups here.

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More people have seen Kim Kardashian's posterior than voted in the midterm elections. That's pathetic.

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Obamacare enrollments reopen today, so Fox News will probably have a death panel report.

Just a reminder that the Affordable Care Act enrollment reopens today. In the real world, that's good news because the ACA enrolment gives people the opportunity to get health insurance. In the Fox News alternate universe, that's just more victims for the Obamacare death panels.

Meanwhile, a new Gallup Poll shows that 71% of people insured through the ACA are satisfied with their insurance coverage, 74% are satisfied with the quality of their healthcare, 75% are satisfied with the cost, and 75% plan to continue getting coverage through the ACA.

Ironically, those great numbers aren't getting much attention on Fox News.

Check out the Gallup poll here.

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In only two years in the Senate, Elizabeth Warren has worked her way to a leadership position. She represents all of the liberal/progressive values that our country needs now more than ever.

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Thanksgiving is just two weeks away! We're all looking forward to that great family tradition of listening to your right-wing uncle telling everyone that Obama invented Ebola to bring on a New World Order and only Republicans taking the Senate prevented disaster ... this time!

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Net Neutrality is not a government plot to control the internet.

Net Neutrality is not a government plot to control the internet. In fact, it's just the opposite. It's government regulation of corporations that want to control the internet for their own profit. President Obama sided with millions of everyday Americans by supporting Net Neutrality. Republicans would rather let corporations control the flow of information and squeeze every last penny out of our wallets. In other words, Democrats are with the people, and Republicans are with their corporate overlords ... as usual.

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Happy Veterans Day! Let's honor our heroes (such as Tammy Duckworth) and honor all of our troops the best way possible: work for peace.

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Do conservatives and liberals behave differently in social media? Yes.

Originally published in my award-winning hometown newspaper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

A recent Pew Research Center study showed that 44 percent of liberals have blocked or unfriended someone on social media for political reasons, compared to 31 percent of conservatives. Some folks are heralding the study as proof that liberals are intolerant. But that interpretation misses an obvious point: Conservatives deserve to be unfriended far more often than liberals do.

I’m very active in social media, particularly Facebook, where I’ve seen plenty of rudeness and incivility from both conservatives and liberals. Online discussions too often resemble the basement of an outhouse. 

But I’ve noticed a distinct difference between conservative and liberal incivility. When conservatives are intolerant, they’re also usually wrong on the facts. When liberals get rude, it’s usually in reaction to conservative ignorance and incivility. 

I administer a Facebook page named for one of my books, Tales of a Real American Liberal, a collection of personal essays on political and social topics. Like the book, the Facebook page connects my personal experiences with politics and current events, always supported by facts rather than unfounded speculation. Naturally, the page attracts a fair number of contrarian conservative comments. 

Occasionally, these conservative visitors are polite and open to civil discussion. Far more often, unfortunately, the conservative side of the conversation is represented by people who drop in with hit-and-run insults, profanity, copy-and-paste misinformation from right-wing websites and accusations that I’m a baby killer who hates God and America.

I have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior, so I begin every discussion with this disclaimer: “Please keep the comments civil and on topic. Disagreement and humor are fine, but anyone who just wants to hijack the discussion with ignorance, insults, or debunked misinformation will be satirized, deleted, and banned — so please don’t waste everybody’s time. Thanks.” 

I can’t really use such a disclaimer on my personal Facebook account where I’ve sometimes unfriended and been unfriended — almost always for political reasons. A few examples from my own personal social media experience can be illuminating on the subject of political incivility and intolerance.  

I unfriended one guy I know from the gym after he claimed that the Sandy Hook mass shooting was a “false flag” staged by “Odumbo” to stir anti-gun feelings. Before unfriending him, I replied firmly but politely with references to several online debunkings of his theory. His ranting, paranoid reply ended by calling me another one of “Obalmer’s sheeple.” Was I intolerant for unfriending someone who insists that the murder of children was faked? 

Another unfriending occurred when a former coworker posted a link to a Fox News article with the headline “Obamacare Price Hikes Hit Red States Hardest.” Here’s her comment about the article, verbatim: “Obummers death panels are just for real americans in red states. Lets impeech this kenyen basterd before he kills us all!!!” When I pointed out the obvious fact that Republican elected officials in those red states had sabotaged the law’s benefits, she immediately called me a “libtard.” It’s a shame that’s not a real word because it’s one of the few she spelled correctly. Was I intolerant for unfriending someone so rude? 

A third unfriending happened when a high school classmate posted a completely false claim that President Obama’s first-term stimulus program had created more jobs in China than in the United States. I sent him several sources showing that economists said the stimulus led to millions of American jobs and saved us from another Great Depression. He replied that he always knew I was a “commie homo.” Was I intolerant for unfriending someone who told me I should move to China where I belonged? 

A typical case where I was unfriended happened when an acquaintance posted an unflattering photo of Michelle Obama with claims that the First Lady was born a man. I immediately commented that this claim was misogynist, immature and intolerant. Strong words, yes, but was I being intolerant for pointing out his gross intolerance? 

One college classmate objected to my posts praising Connecticut’s recently expanded gun-safety laws. He sent this message before unfriending me: “Maybe you shouldn’t flaunt your gun-grabbing BS to someone who owns as many guns as I do and can find out where you live.” Was I intolerant for not wanting to be the target of his implied threats of violence? 

I was once even unfriended over the course of a full year. A college classmate posted misinformation several times each day, flooding his Facebook page with obviously false claims from right-wing websites. I painstakingly and politely explained the countervailing facts and provided nonpartisan references as often as I could. He rarely responded to my comments, and when he did, he usually threatened to block me. One day, out of the blue, he sent me a message that he was unfriending me for harassing him and being “a closed-minded liberal.”

Ironically, “open-minded” is one of the primary definitions of the word “liberal.” I’ve actually studied conservative claims and policies with a fully open mind. That’s how I’ve discovered that they’re often fact-free, ineffective, beneficial mainly to the wealthy and powerful and counter to the best of American values, traditions and history. 

If I had studied conservative claims and policies with a closed, intolerant mind, I probably would have liked them more. 

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It's time for the Supreme Court to follow the Constitution and legalize marriage equality throughout the country.

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The midterm election Democrats who ran away from President Obama's accomplishments paid the price.

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Raising the minimum wage is widely supported in red states, blue states, and purple states.

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36.6% midterm voter turnout ... Ouch!

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Republicans will control the House and Senate come January, but their specialty is holding there breath to get their way. That's not a very productive governing strategy.

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Chin up, my friends. We have work to do. Shake off these losses. Learn from them. Do everything we can to minimize the damage. And regroup for 2016.

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"Unlikely voters" win elections. Be unlikely!

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Fear. It's all the Republicans have. Don't fall for it.

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Vote. But please don't vote for the party that hates government. They just make things worse.

We get it. People are mad at politicians and don't trust the government. But please make sure you're anger is expressed at the politicians who have sabotaged the government, not the folks trying to make things better for all of us. Vote. But don't vote for the party that hates government so much that they end up making it a tool for the powerful rather then a support for everyone. Vote for the party that believes government is on the side of everyday Americans.

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Republicans thrive on fear. The Republican fear campaign about Ebola is a destructive and counter to the facts.

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It's a cliché to say that all politicians lie. But some are really good at lying.

Charlie Baker, Massachusetts Republican Candidate for Governor, seems to have made up most or all of a sob story about a fisherman who was hurt by government regulations.

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