U.S. NOT going to "Durban II" conference

My thanks to good friend, Bob Poris, for letting me in on this good bit of news!

According to an article by Ron Kampeas at JTA, "The Obama administration has decided to boycott the so-called Durban II conference out of concerns for anti-Semitism. ...

"The conference reprises the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa that devolved into an anti-Jewish free-for-all. Canada and Israel have opted not to attend the conference ...

"Preparations for a draft document so far have seen Iran leading a coterie of nations blocking inclusion of anything that might guarantee Jewish protections -- including mention of the Holocaust -- while inserting draconian language guarding Islam against 'insult.'"

A U.S. delegation sent to the preparatory talks concluded that the U.S. should not participate in that "the anti-Israel and anti-Western tendencies were too deeply entrenched to excise."

It appears that other European nations may follow the lead of the U.S. and pull out of the conference, too.


Yeah!

Here's what Mr. Poris has to say:

"Hooray for Obama! It's well past time to confront the Durban anti-Semites. There will never be peace until acceptance of Jews and a Jewish state is universal.

"If the world accepts Islamic states, Islamic states must accept Jewish and non-Islamic states. If not, we will eventually see a new religious world war. Christians in Muslim lands are discriminated against, just as the Jews had been before they were killed or expelled.

"It never fails: first the Jews then another minority! It has happened in Iraq and throughout the Arab world, including the Westbank areas.

"If the Holocaust taught us anything, it is that genocide is still alive and well."

U.S. supporting U.N. on sexual orientation discrimination

Not too long ago we wrote about the Bush administration's refusal to sign on to a U.N. resolution opposing discrimination based on sexual orientation. That, of course, was typical of George W. and his cronies, for they were and are beholden body and soul to the religious right.

Thank God (if you'll pardon the expression), things are changing.


Think Progress reminds us that "Last December, France and the Netherlands co-sponsored an unprecedented U.N. declaration calling for a worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. Sixty-six countries signed the nonbinding declaration, including most of Europe, Japan, Australia and Mexico. However, the United States joined China, Russia, the Vatican and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in refusing to support the measure."

(Which again reminds us that the Bush administration, in some ways, had much more in comment with the totalitarian regimes in the world than with the free states!)


Enter Obama. "At preparations for the U.N.'s so-called 'Durban Review Conference' on racism and xenophonia in Geneva, the U.S. offered support for a proposal to condemn 'all forms of discrimination and all other human rights violations based on sexual orientation.'"

Ultimately, this measure failed. But, as Leon Goldberg noted, "...it's relieving to see that the United States is now back on the side of the enlightened on this issue of basic human rights."

And God and her angels said, "Amen!"

"A Resolution Combating Defamation of Religions

Here's some new insanity to come out of the United Nations. An absolutely ridiculous resolution which is certainly nothing more than an attempt to soothe the feelings of Islamist fundamentalist nutcases.

h/t to The Blog for Why

"Conscience" rule on the way out

According to The New York Times, the Obama administration is on the brink of undoing one of Bush's "midnight" rules which allowed health workers to refuse to participate in abortions or provide other health services in which they did not believe.

David Stout, writing for The New York Times, says this particular regulation was "announced on December 19, 2008, and took effect on the day President Obama took office."

Obama plans to publish an official notice of his intent, which will be followed by a 30-day period for public comment, "after which the regulation can be repealed or modified."


This rule, a particularly onerous one, "prohibits recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or assist in abortions or sterilization procedures because of their 'religious beliefs or moral convictions.'"

Guess which organization was one of it's biggest supporters. Yup. The good old Roman Catholic Church, which has always believed it had the right to decide right and wrong for the rest of us!

This is a particularly onerous rule because opponents such as the AMA say "it could have voided state laws requiring insurance plans to cover contraceptives and requiring hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims. It could also all drugstore employees to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives..."


One big victory for the good guys!

Darwin v. ID & the Flying Spaghetti Monster

This is a bit late, but I just found it at Unreasonable Faith. And it's a bit long at 7 plus minutes, but it's worth every second.

Thanks to Daniel Florien!

Joe (Sam) the Plumber and eliminating members of Congress

Joe or Sam, the plumber thinks it wouldn't be a bad idea if some member of Congress were shot.

Thanks to Think Progress; read the full article here.

Bobby Jindal's lousy, lying speech

My dad used to opine that education and wisdom were two different things. You could take a fool and educate him but then you had a serious problem: a really smart fool.

I thought about that thinking about Bobby Jindal, the Repugnican nogoodnik governor of Louisiana. Jindal is highly educated, and supposedly very smart. He is also a fool.

Greg Palast notes just how big a fool in his commentary on Jindal's speech responding to President Obama's address to Congress.

Jindal said the the stimulus bill was "larded with wasteful spending." Palast asks, "Where's the lard? All week, Jindal has been screeching that Obama wants to require states such as Louisiana to extend unemployment insurance to -- get this -- the unemployed! (Technically, the federal government would pay 100% of the cost of reforming Louisiana's .... Scrooge-sized benefit requirements."

Palast does not truck with such crap. "Jindal, and some other Republican governors, notably Haley Barbour of Mississippi, are actually turning down millions in federal funds for their own state's unemployed out of fear that, four years from now, they may have to maintain full unemployment insurance like the rest of America."

He remarks that Jindal's loving concern for the people of Louisiana is displayed by the fact that Louisiana "solved its unemployment problem by sending its unemployed to Texas in FEMA trailers."

After rightfully excoriating Jindal for his continuation of Louisiana's "history of local Republican plantation-mentality cruelty, Palast notes that the "Republican Party, by making Jindal the party's official spokesman, is adopting the Barbourous refusal to reach out a saving hand to Americans drowning in this economy."


Jindal, as we noted, spoke of the stimulus bill as "larded with wasteful spending." Pork, in other words. Meg, writing at BuzzFlash, says this is not surprising. "Many have written about the lies that Jindal repeated about supposed stimulus pork, which ran the gamut from miserly mice to voracious volcanoes. But it turns out he was being disingenuous and hypocritical at the same time."

Jindal is a big-time pork supporter; a hog for pork, you might say. "In fiscal 2008, his last hurrah as a U.S. congressman representing Louisiana before taking over the governor's mansion, Jindal scored big in the pork contest. He, sometimes in concert with other lawmakers, ended up bringing home $97,913,200 in bacon. That put him at the number 14 spot in Taxpayers for Common Sense's annual tally of the most successful appropriators in the House."

Jindal's also a liar. He complained about stimulus money going to monitor volcanoes. Not true. "...the $140 billion Jindal was whining about will be spent on 'U.S. Geological Survey facilities and equipment, including stream gages, seismic and volcanic monitoring systems and national map activities.'" He also repeated the worn-out lie about the salt marsh harvest mouse, which first surfaced from the lips of another liar, Minority Leader John Boehner, "which he dubbed as Nancy Pelosi's pet mouse."

But the biggie was Jindal's story about the sheriff that he went to visit; Sheriff Harry Lee, who was so upset because he couldn't send boats to rescue people on rooftops during Hurricane Katrina because government bureaucrats demanded registration documents first.

It appears Jindal made the story up!

And this is a Republican front-runner for president in 2012? I guess Bush set a precedent. Now the Repugs figure any fool can be president!


Read Palast's entire article here. And the whole story about Jindal's tall tale is here.

Class war - the rich against the rest?

[Image from Wall Street Trader]

Justin Fox, writing in Time magazine's March 2 issue, tells of a study done by two finance professors at the University of Chicago, the purpose of which was to determine "who was behind the spectacular rise in the very top incomes in the U.S."

Turns out it wasn't "corporate chief executives and their lieutenants," nor was it "highly paid athletes and entertainers."

It was those folks working on Wall Street.

"At least 2,500 people at major investment banks made more that $2.5 million a year," estimated professors Steven Kaplan and Joshua Rauh. They also surmised "that the actual figure was probably substantially higher."


"Overall," says Fox, "the top 0.1% of the income distribution in the U.S. in 2006 -- the most recent year for which data are available--was made up of 148,361 taxpayers who took home more than $1.9 million each. This top 0.1% accounted for 11.6% of personal income..."

Two things to remember: These folks produce nothing, they create nothing. The move money around for their own benefit! In other words, they could be considered leeches.

Secondly, as Fox notes, "the scads of lushly paid Wall Streeters have driven the financial sector into a ditch, and taxpayers around the world are spending trillions of dollars to fix the problem."


And the problems have just begun. The world is on fire, from China to Europe, from Russia to India, and all places in between.

Michael Kare, in an article for Salon, says "The global economic meltdown has already caused bank failures, bankruptcies, plant closings and foreclosures and will, in the coming year, leave many tens of millions unemployed across the planet. But another perilous consequence of the crash of 2008 has only recently made its appearance: increased civil unrest and ethnic strife. Someday, perhaps, war may follow."

All because a bunch of con artists without portfolios, who neither create nor contribute any good thing to the world, lined their pockets at the expense of the rest of us.

Sounds like class war to me.

Joe the plumber to advise Young Republicans?

[Image from the Christian Science Monitor]

Yup! Sam (Joe) Wurzelbacher, the unlicensed plumbing magnate made famous by McCain/Palin, is going to provide advice to Young Republicans at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference.

This merely indicates the depths to which the Republican Party has sunk.

Both Bush and Cheney "starred" at last year's conference. They seemed to have disappeared below the radar this year.

So, enter Sam (Joe). Oh, and also John Ziegler who is busy trying to rehabilitate Palin, blaming the media of course, for her blundering, asinine idiocy.

Rush Limbaugh "will be there as the biggest draw."

In fact, every nogoodnik Republican moron on the far right wing of the wingnut Party will be there: Michelle Bachmann, the mental midget from Minnesota; as well as the lovely, truthful, warm Ann Coulter.

Talk about the bottom of the barrel!


The above from Katharine Zeleski here.

The FDA under Bush and cronies

It appears that the federal government, which is supposed to work FOR the American people, basically shut down under George W. Bush and his cronies. Well, the Bush administration did work to better the welfare of the corporations and the rich, but the rest of us were left out in the cold. It also appears that word was passed down on from high: let things slide; don't worry if you don't do your jobs, nobody's going to check; and we don't care!

The Food and Drug Administration is a case in point. Sarah Avery and Sabina Vollmer, writing for The News & Observer, tell this story out of Raleigh, North Carolina:

"Months before an Angier company shipped deadly bacteria-tainted drugs, the federal Food and Drug Administration received numerous complaints about sediment and debris in the medicine.

"The FDA received reports about AM2PAT as early as 2005, but not until December 2007 did the agency pull any of the drugs off the market.

"AM2PAT, which is now the subject of a criminal investigation, sold tainted syringes of heparin and saline that have been linked to five deaths. Hundreds more people were sickened, often after receiving the medicines during chemotherapy, kidney dialysis and other intravenous procedures."

So, who cares if a few people died and hundreds more got sick? Not the FDA!

Here are some highlights of this mess:

Conditions at the plant were a mess..."in flagrant violation of proper manufacturing processes."

Note that "...the company's 'chief microbiologist' was a teenager who dropped out of high school."

"A key piece of laboratory equipment designed to catch evidence of contamination was broken."

The so-called clean room, "where air is carefully controlled to reduce the spread of germs, was ventilated with an ordinary room fan."


The FDA is not responding to questions.

Part of the problem is the FDA is underfunded and understaffed. That is the fault of the Bush administration! Plants like this are supposed to be inspected every two years but instead have received site inspections every five years!

Now we've got more problems what with medications that cause heart attacks and toys from China full of lead and not to forget that we can't eat peanut butter products at the moment without risking suffering and perhaps death.

Forest Horne, a medical malpractice lawyer in Raleigh, says The FDA is clearly asleep at the switch."


And not without reason. The FDA has too much to do and has not enough people or money to do it.

But, hey, we can spend $10 billion a month in Iraq. No problemo. Saving the Iraqis from what? Us!


The complete article is here.

Hilda Solis, the working class, and Republicans

We finally have a Secretary of Labor who cares about working people, people who actually labor for a living!

Hilda Solis was finally confirmed as Secretary of Labor - and by a good margin - 80 - 17.

Elaine Chao, as you recall, the wife of GOP Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, is gone, thank god! Chao, a Bush crony, with no qualifications, didn't much care for working people -- their problems or their needs.

McConnell had threatened to filibuster Solis' nomination, but evidently thought better of it and allowed the nomination to go to a vote.

As Joe Sudbay says at Americablog, "This is a huge victory for progressives and, especially for working men and women. They'll have a Secretary who is on their side."


For your information, and for purposes of deleting these nogoodniks from Congress, the GOP naysayers are:

Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)


These are the Regugnicans who voted against working men and women! Let's do everything possible to see they are sent packing the next go-around!

What is my risk for cervical cancer?

[Image of sex ed class from Boston.com]

That sounds like a reasonable question.

Except it was asked by a sincere MALE student at Texas State University!

In Texas, according to Matt Frazier, "any course material and instruction relating to human sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases ... must:

"Present abstinence from sexual activity as preferred for unmarried people of school age.

"Devote more attention to abstinence than to any other behavior.

"Emphasize that only abstinence is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and the emotional trauma associated with adolescent sexual activity.

"Teach contraception and condom use based on usage rates instead of theoretical laboratory rates, if instruction on contraception and condoms is included in curriculum.

"..."


The Texas Freedom Network released a report the other day indicating that "The overwhelming majority of Texas schools use scare tactics and spread myths in place of teaching basic sex and health information that students can use to protect themselves and others."

This report derives from a two-year study of sex education materials from 990 Texas school districts, and shows that "94 percent of public schools use abstinence-only programs that usually pass moral judgments while either downplaying or ignoring contraception and health screenings."

It isn't any wonder, then, that "Texas continues to have one of the nation's highest teen pregnancy rates despite receiving more federal abstinence funding than any other state."

And this fits with other national studies which show that while the federal government has poured $1 billion down the black hole of abstinence-only sex education, it has had no effect whatsoever on teen sexual activity and teen pregnancy rates.

'What it has done, unfortunately, is left millions of our school children without basic sex information and left them vulnerable to pregnancy and disease!


The report also showed that 41 percent of the material used by Texas school districts contained errors of fact with regard to condom use and STDs. "Shaming and fear-based instruction are standard means of teaching students about sexuality."

Maybe these districts should listen to Bristol Palin!


Read more from the Star-Telegram here.

David Vitter, hypocrite extraordinaire

David Vitter, the prostitute-loving Jesus freak senator from Louisiana, has called for Sen. Roland Burris, a Democratic senator from Illinois, to quit the Senate and go back to Illinois because Burris has shown he is ethically challenged.

But Vitter, the Jesus freak who loves prostitutes and senator from Louisiana, doesn't see any connection between his behavior and Burris' behavior. "I honestly don't know anybody who would compare these situations," said Vitter. "They are completely different."

Sheesh!

Oh, that's right. Vitter refused to resign his seat after his sexual escapades came to light because Jesus had forgiven him and his wife had forgiven him and he would never do it again, honest.

Americablog quotes The Hill: "I do have to laugh that the Republicans keep letting David 'I'm a married family-values Republican who paid multiple whores for sex repeatedly behind my wife's back' Vitter take the lead on ethical issues. Are they nuts? Is he? We're happy to keep writing about David Vitter committing adultery while frequenting prostitutes and then telling other people how to live their lives. Keep it coming Senator Vitter (no pun intended)."


h/t to John at Americablog

Jon Huntsman, Jr., rips into Congressional Repugs

John Huntsman, Jr., is the governor of the state of Utah. He is a Republican politico. He is not happy with the Republicans who represent him in the United States Congress. That's not so surprising - I mean, anyone with half a brain would be unhappy with the Repugnican nitwits in Congress. What's surprising is that he's pissed off enough to make his unhappiness public.

In an interview with the Washington Times, Huntsman "said his party is blighted by leaders in Congress whose lack of new ideas renders them so 'inconsequential' that he doesn't even bother to talk to them.

"'I don't even know the congressional leadership,' Gov. John Huntsman, Jr. told editors and reporters at the Washington Times, shrugging off questions about top congressional Republicans, including House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. 'I have not met them. I don't listen or read whatever it is they say because it is inconsequential - completely.'"


Heh. Heh.

It's amazing, but when you watch Boehner and McConnell and Cantor and Vitter and other Repugnican wingnuts flit about the legislative chamber, you begin to realize they are lost - like children; they are lost in a storm of intelligence, commitment, dedication, and service blowing out of the White House and they don't even recognize these things. So they stand, backs up against the wall, and whine that nobody cares about them and what they think, crying "No, no, no, no!"


h/t to Daily Kos

Florida wingnuts want to control your marriage

[Image of christianist wingnut, John Stemberger]

We have, in the state of Florida, a christianist wingnut group connected with James Dobson's Focus on the Family that wants to tell you if and when you have the right to get a divorce.

Not content to rest on their success in conning the voters to approve a horrendous anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution, these wingnuts, feeling their oats, now want to legislate standards of marriage.

John Stemberger, the chief wingnut of this outfit, has announced a program called "Strong Marriages Florida" which is supposed to lead to a 10% drop in the divorce rate in the state.

Why does this asshat care? He says this is being done to "serve the children, families, communities of Florida. ... The breakdown of families in our state brings not only high social costs to children whose lives are often devastated, but there is an enormous economic cost to taxpayers and to businesses."

Oh, right. Wingnuts care a lot of "enormous" economis costs!


The Palm Beach Post editorialized this way:

"Mr. Stemberger's group and its allies promoted the gay marriage ban that voters put in Florida's Constitution in November. Success in that campaign, which featured misinformation and religious intolerance, doesn't qualify the Florida Family Policy Council to be the state's marriage counselor."

You think?

Here's what these religious con artists think is the cat's meow:

* Waiting periods of up to two years before a divorce can be obtained. (Florida has no waiting period now)

* According to the Palm Beach Post, "An article on the Web site says that married couples with children should have to stay married unless both agree to the divorce of there has been a 'major fault,' such as abuse, adultery or desertion.'"


We agree that divorce is serious business and can be hurtful to all those involved. So why make it more hurtful? Why require a couple to wait two years, especially if they are seething with mutual hatred? Why require a couple with children to stay married when the marriage is broken?

I think these christianist fruitcakes really like to see people suffer. That's probably the reason the love the notion of hell; they can consign all of us who disagree with them to eternal torture! And won't that be grand?


This moronic bunch, like Dobson's outfit, are clearly and openly fundamentalist christianist organizations promoting fundamentalist christianist notions of morality; indeed their entire operation is geared to imposing that morality on the rest of us. I sure as hell hope they're not tax-exempt!

They are theocrats! The should be laughed at, derided, run out of town! They've already done too much damage by their intolerant promotion of hatred for gays. They must have no further say in legislating morality in the state of Florida or anywhere else.


Their website is here. More here. The Palm Beach Post editorial here. The best article on Stemberger is here.

h/t to Pensito Review

Jesus and your money

When you come right down to it, Kendra Todd is a promoter of the so-called "prosperity gospel."

In a recent article at the 700 Club, called "Turn Passion into Prosperity," Terri Simmons describes how Todd, an "investment-related real estate agent," is all about "teaching people how to develop a healthy attitude and mindset towards money."

The title of Todd's "best-selling" book says it all: Risk & Grow Rich. According to Simmons, Todd's "team's main mission is to match buyers with properties that fit their goals, and to help people grow one step closer to financial freedom. [But] ... her main goal is equipping people with the knowledge that success and wealth comes from God."

Uh, oh.

Wait, it gets better. "I'm a strong Christian," says Todd [that's opposed to a "weak" Christian], and I'm getting ready to launch a Christian biblical based approach to making and saving money, tithing and giving. I am getting ready to do what I am passionate about. I want to empower people to create a real positive relationship with and perspective on money, and realize it's all God."


If she left out the "God" stuff, she might make some sense, but then, of course, she'd be no different than all the other real estate shucksters filling up the market with books on how to invest and get rich.

Where she bites the dust, is her horsehockey about God and money, and how "it's all God," and "that success and wealth comes from God."


In the Gospels, the character of Jesus is shown to have quite a different viewpoint. In fact, one might even conclude that Jesus had an opposite viewpoint to Ms. Todd's.

Consider:

"'Man cannot live on bread alone.'" (Matthew 2:4)

"He went round the whole of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom..." (Matthew 4:23)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth..." (Matthew 6:19)

"You cannot serve God and Money." (Matthew 6:24) See also Luke 16:13)

"Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice before everything else." (Matthew 6:33)

"If anyone wishes to be a follower of mine, he must leave self behind; he must take up his cross and come with me. Whoever cares for his own safety is lost..." (Matthew 16:24-25)

"I tell you this: a rich man will find it hard to enter the kingdom of Heaven. I repeat, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
(Matthew 19:23-25). See also Mark 10:23-27.

The Parable of the sheep and goats explicitly states that only those who saw Jesus in the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the naked, and in prison and offered help will enter the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 25:31-46)

"But alas for you who are rich; you have had your time of happiness. Alas for you who are well-fed now; you shall go hungry." (Luke 6:24-25)

"Have no fear, little flock; for your Father has chosen to give you the Kingdom. Sell your possessions and give in charity. Provide for yourselves purses that do not wear out, and never-failing treasure in heaven, where no thief can near it, no moth destroy it. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Luke 12:32-34)

"So also none of you can be a disciple of mine without parting with all his possessions." (Luke 14:33)

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus. (Luke 16:19-31)


I have not verified this, but I remember reading that, in the Gospels, Jesus used parables 38 times to get across his messages. Sixteen of these involved money, the use of money, the danger of money. Jesus spoke more about money than love, prayer, or sin.


Back to Kendra Todd and her "passion into prosperity" nonsense. Todd won Season 3 of The Apprentice and worked one year with the Trump organization renovating a $125 million estate in Palm Beach.

Now she's working with HGTV, hosting "Your House is Worth What?"

And it's all God.


Now I think it's wonderful that this young lady has reached a certain level of material success and a celebrity status in our society. Nothing wrong with that.

Except that Kendra wants us to believe that "success and wealth come from God." And that, simply put, is horseshockey!

Obviously, either Kendra Todd has never read the Gospel stories about Jesus or she simply does not believe the Bible. Jesus said, over and over again, that success and wealth are oppositional to God's will for out lives.

Believe it or not.


Read the entire article here. Todd's website is here.

Pascal's wager

Our thanks to Flea Snobbery! Great job Andres!

Alan Keyes calls Obama a "radical communist"

There is a great sickness in this country; a sickness of mind and spirit; a sickness that usually represents itself contrarily as "health," or "spiritual," or "godly."

Alan Keyes represents that great sickness. Crooks and Liars reports that when Keyes was interviewed by a reporter from KHAS-TV in Hastings, Nebraska, he said:

"Obama is a radical communist, and I think it is becoming clear. That is what I told people in Illinois and now everybody realizes it's true. He is going to destroy this country and we are either going to stop him or the United States of America is going to cease to exist."

David Neiwert, writing at Crooks and Liars suggests, rightly, that this is a call to action, which with these right wingnut fruitcakes "inevitably translates as violent action."

The video is being hailed by rightwing Websites as "the truth" and "telling it like it is."

No, says Neiwert, what it is, "is classic right-wing eliminationism: Depicting the opposition as the embodiment of evil, intent on destroying the nation. For militia/Patriot types, this kind of rhetoric also becomes a call to action."

Keyes' remarks are not surprising, of course. George W. Bush and his administration used this tactic to enhance and entrench their power for eight years. Alan Keyes is following a long and illustrious Republican tradition.

But dammit all, we're better than that! This country's better than that! Alan Keyes is a pathological remnant of the worst of humanity's traits. As such, he is a reminder that we must always be vigilant, aware, awake, and refuse to be coerced by the scum in our society who threaten the worst if their particular psychoses aren't continually fed.

God's global warning to the nations

Don't you want to be apprised of God's latest activities, warnings and general musings?

Well, you can! Just go to TBN on March 1. Biblical prophecy freaks Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson and have received the word from on high and they'll be discussing that word for your edification and ultimate salvation.

LaHaye and Hindson have teamed up to write Global Warning - Are We on the Brink of WWIII? - a new book described as a "powerful report on the earth's final hour."

Isn't that cute? Global Warning!

But hang on...You're so close to getting god's word, god's global warning!

Read this carefully: "For ages people have speculated about how the world will end. How can we discern the real clues from many false alarms? LaHaye and Hindson examine ancient Bible prophecies in light of today's news headlines and provide a panoramic survey of the final signs that will serve as God's global warning to the people of all nations.

"Jesus promised He would someday return to Earth to bring judgment and set up His kingdom. He even reveals specific details about what will happen.

"What are those details? What can we expect? Will terrorism, nuclear threats, and the Middle East crisis have a part? Are there other clues we may have missed?"


Drum roll, please! Tada! Just tune in and you will become privy to God and his plans! TBN, March 1.

Remember, however, that all of this is unmitigated bullshit! LaHaye, Hindson, and every other prophetic freak in the world are full of shit. They haven't a clue what they are talking about, and they use the Bible as their magical little book from which to gain pretend answers they can foist on the public who will then buy their stupid books and they will get rich so they can buy big houses and live like kings while waiting for Jesus to return.

Biblical fundamentalism - a sickness

Among fundy christianists, there continues to be a running debate as to the validity and worth of the King James Version of the Protestant Bible.

I'm not going to go into detail as to why that's insane, but I will say that anyone who still argues that the King James Version has any value other than historical value cannot be reasoned with. The King James Version is so riddled with errors it is undoubtedly the very worst version to use if one is concerned about faithfulness to the thousands of manuscripts available today.

Ultimately, of course, it matters not which translation or version one reads, for we cannot know if any are correct. We have no original manuscripts. And what if we did? What would that prove? Absolutely nothing! Furthermore, the only people for which any of this makes a difference are the ignorant and superstitious who treat the Bible as a magical primer.

Historically, there are other problems. During the first 400 years or so of Christian beginnings, there were literally hundreds of "Christ" groups, most of which had their own gospels and other writings, which they considered authoritative. When the "orthodox" or "proto-orthodox" Christians came into power in the 4th century as a result of a deal with the Roman Emperor Constantine, those books were banned and destroyed and many of the Christians who used them were brutally and savagely killed.

The winners write history. The Orthodox decided what books were to be included in the Christian Bible. Even so, the debate continued for years, especially over the book of Revelation. And it continues today.


What prompted these musings was a stop at the Website, faithfulwordbaptist.org, which is always quite a trip. Steven Anderson is the pastor of Faithful Word, a truly goofy Baptist exercise in ignorance. Steven Anderson represents probably the most recalcitrant biblicistic ignorance around today. Truth, reality, reason - none of those things affect him at all.

And he BELIEVES in the KJV! Here is some of his reasoning:

1. "Somewhere on the face of the earth today, there must be a book that is 100% without error, the very words of God." Somewhere! Oh, if only we could find it! The "very words of God."

Wait, Anderson has found it: It's the King James Version of the Bible! Yeah! "For our generation God has provided the King James Bible."

Yup. "In the 17th and 18th centuries, the nation God was using the most was the nation of England." Heh. Heh. Tell that to the other nations of the world who were slammed into the ground by the heel of the British Empire! Later, says Steven, God used the U.S. to take the gospel to the world. But what's really exciting is that "In God's foresight, he supplied the English-speaking people with a perfect preservation of his word, the King James Bible." Perfect!

It must be true, says Anderson, for "If the King James Bible is not God's word, then where is God's word?" Where indeed? "It must be somewhere," he says, "and there is no parallel to the magnificent perfection of the King James Bible."

Then, Anderson does a unique bit of interpretation. He recognizes there is a problem in that the original manuscripts don't exist. But, he says, we can be sure that the Textus Receptus from which the KJV was derives is absolutely without error! How do we know this? Because Paul told us in I Cor. 13:9, 10. "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away."

Actually, this verse reflects Paul's gnostic leanings. In fact, the gnostic Christians claimed Paul as one of their own - their leader. But Anderson wouldn't understand that. He thinks this verse means that Paul's reference to "perfect" has to do with the King James Version of the Bible, and "that which is in part shall be done away" refers to the ancient Greek manuscripts.

Finally, he says pastors don't want to use the KJV because of pride. They like to stand in the pulpit and expound on their knowledge of Greek which results in "producing bogus revelations..."


With pastors like Anderson preaching every Sunday, it shouldn't be surprising that so many people in our fair land believe in ghosts, fairy tales and devils. It shouldn't be surprising that people pray to be healed, or that they believe lighting a candle will get the attention of the gods. It shouldn't be surprising that even educated idiots reject the science that makes the world go around.

Some people even believe that the King James Version of the Bible is the "word" of a god.

Repugnican Big Brothers and the Internet

One of the most amazing realities of our time has to do with how the Republican Party has been able to fool so many people so much of the time. Unwashed white folks drive around our town in beat-up old wrecks of cars that boast four different colors, with tailpipes dragging on the ground and broken windows covered with cardboard, but splashed across their rear-ends are McCain/Palin signs.

The Republican Party is their party! The Republican Party, they believe, is the key to freedom, prosperity, a godly country, and, of course, keeping the "wrong" people in their right place!


Such are the myths by which so many live.

Let's consider personal freedom which the Repugs like to tie to "big" government; i.e. more government, less freedom. Government is the problem, you remember the B-grade, failed move actor, president saying. Big government is a bigger problem. Can't have freedom when big government is telling you what to do!

Fast forward to now.

Lamar Smith (a right wingnut Repugnican from Texas), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Senator John Cornyn (another right wingnut Repugnican from Texas) last Thursday introduced the Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act of 2009, or as it also known, The Internet SAFETY Act. (S. 436 and H.R. 1076).

At the present time, there is a 1996 law known as the Electronic Communication Transactional Records Act that has to do with data regulation. "It requires Internet providers to retain any 'record' in their possession for 90 days 'upon the request of a governmental entity.' It does not require home users to produce records."

Smith and Cornyn, however, in their befuddled Repugnican state of playing God and promoting governmental power, demand that YOU will keep records of each specific wireless access point, whether in your office, your coffee shop, or your home! You will have to keep these records for TWO years! You will have to produce this information if federal (read Big Brother) officers ask for it!

Bruce Sarte, writing for the Philadelphia Examiner, says:

"What this really means is that any network, whether it be home, AT&T, Comcast, your office, coffee shop, library that dynamically assigns IP addresses vias DHCP, PTPP, BOOTP or any other method would be liable to produce all the data related to any connections that were attached to your network. Yes, that means you."

Or, in the words of Jamie at Crooks and Liars:

"So, in essence, if you have a wireless router in your home then you would be required to log all access to that router and keep those logs for two years. Why? Because your neighbor might do something bad and use your internet connection to do it."

Jamie continues: "What if my $50 Linksys decides to bite the dust after one year? Do I have to store that router for another year to comply with this law?

"How about people who have routers without logging, or that has very limited logging that might keep X number of records and couldn't possibly store the data for two years? Will these people have to go out and by [sic] new routers?"


Isn't it interesting that these Repugnican paragons of family values, small government, sexual virtue, etc., ad nauseum, are trying to gain access to your computer records and force you to do the work of a Big Brother government?

Again, from Bruce Sarte:

"We've already given up far too many rights and liberties in our day-to-day lives commuting to work, flying to meetings and just driving to the mall. ... Stay out of our houses."

Tell Smith and Cornyn to go to hell! Then send them back to Texas. Maybe they'll get run over by a Longhorn!


Sarte's article is here. Crooks and Liars article here.