The cancer-healing god

[Image from picturesofjesus4you.com]

The 700 Club is a notorious fraud which has been foisted on the easily deluded and naive for years. But, because Pat Robertson and his minions claim to speak for Jesus, people tune in and send them mega-bucks year after year which allows him to continue to spread his religious poison around the world. It also makes him, in a sense, untouchable, no matter how off-the-wall he becomes.

He has, in fact, had the ear of our presidents, and has held a revered place in the halls of the religious right and has even gained the respect of certain Jewish groups because of his feigned concern for Israel. I say "feigned" concern, because it should be obvious that he isn't concerned for Israel or the Jewish people for themselves, but because they play an important role in Robertson's deranged end-times scenario.


Here's an example of what oozes out of CBN and the 700 Club.

This "amazing" story derives from CBN.com. It's about a mand named Ray Hayworth who was doing very well in life, thank you, until one day he discovered a lump in his neck. It was cancer. Not just one, "but two types of cancer: carcinoma and melanoma."

Ray and his wife, Billie, were distraught. "Billie said, 'At night I would lay my hands on his neck and he'd be sleeping away. And I would say, "Satan, how dare you! How dare you come against us like this! Greater is He, God, who is in us!" and I would just yell out, "I command you in the name of Jesus, you get off, you get off of his neck."'"

Everybody started praying for Ray and Billie. Well, not everybody, but you know what I mean.


Guess what? Yup. The cancer disappeared! When the doctor told them the cancer was gone, Billie glanced at Ray and Ray "just raised his hands and said, 'thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus.'"

Three years later, Ray is still cancer-free.

"He says the Lord gave him a scripture that signifies God's amazing power. "'Be still and know that I am God. That's my theme for the rest of my life,' said Ray.:


Now, it is wonderful that Ray is cancer-free. But there are some questions - big questions:

1. Why would God cure Ray of cancer and not everyone else who has cancer? Is Ray a better person, a better Christian than all the other people with cancer?

2. Did Satan cause Ray's cancer?

3. Was it Billie's laying on of hands and casting out Satan that did it?

4. If God loved Ray, why did He/She allow Ray to get cancer in the first place. Being all-powerful, God certainly could have stopped the cancer in its tracks?

5. Does healing of cancer depend upon a certain laying on of hands, cries of "Get out Satan!" and lots of prayer?

6. How much prayer is enough? Did God not know of Ray's dilemma, or did it take prayer to remind him?

7. Why does a supposedly-loving God allow people to get cancer in the first place?

8. Why can God heal cancer and cannot heal an amputee? Have you ever heard of an amputee being healed by God?


Spontaneous remissions of certain diseases, while uncommon, are not unusual. In may cases, the body heals itself and the doctors are not certain why that is so.

To rely on prayer to manipulate a deity to cure oneself while ignoring the fact that millions of people the world over are also suffering from cancer, is obtuse and uncaring.

To think that there is a person called Satan who causes cancer is religious insanity.

To believe that one can "cast out" cancer by reciting words like "I command you, in the name of Jesus to get off his neck," is just the same as relying on the incantations of shamans and witches.


And that's the bottom line: Ray and Billie believed in magic. Magic, not God, cured Ray.

God doesn't care. Just take a look around. It's obvious.

John Boehner - the Democratic budget - "Imprisoning our Kids and Grandkids"

By Heather:

From The Newshour with Jim Lehrer April 2, 2009. John Boehner is suddenly now concerned about fiscal responsibility with his criticism of the Democratic budget. Never mind the debt that was run up under the Bush administration for things like invading other countries that weren't a threat to us and war profiteering. Never mind tax cuts that never trickle down and enrich those at the top. Now that the spending is needed to keep our country out of a depression, Boehner is concerned about the debt being left to future generations. His talk about bi-partisanship after the way he and his fellow Republicans ran the House of Representatives is also laughable.

Thanks to Video Cafe.

Nelson, Bayh, the Budget and the rich

The following is derived from Think Progress.

First of all, when the Senate passed President Obama's budget, NOT one Republican voted Aye! Which is what we've come to expect from these partisan asshats who cry about the need for bi-partisanship while undermining bi-partisanship at every opportunity.

What we don't expect and what we don't need are hypocritical Democrats who go against the president in order to fulfill some deranged commitment to a "principle" in which they don't really believe.

We're talking about Ben Nelson from Nebraska and Evan Bayh from Indiana, both of whom joined with the Repugs and voted NO.

In a statement explaining his negative vote, Nelson harped on how Obama's budget had "trillion dollar-plus deficits" and would increase the debt, blah, blah, blah.

Bayh said essentially the same thing in his statement.


Both of them are full of horsehockey. As Think Progress asks, "why then did they also vote ... in favor of a $250 billion tax cut for the rich? ... Bayh and Nelson along with eight other 'moderate' Democrats broke with Obama and voted to reduce estate taxes from which 99.7 percent of Americans were already exempt."

Yup. Ten Dems in total voted for an amendment (introduced, by nogoodniks John Kyl, Repugnican from Arizona and Blanche Lincoln, Democrat from Arkansas, which would "slash estate taxes for the heirs of multmillion-dollar estates."

The Democrats were (and you may wish to join other progressives in trying to remove these bums from Congress):

Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Cantwell (D-WA), Landrieu (D-LA), Lincoln (D-AR), Murray (D-WA), Nelson (D-Fl), Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR), and Tester (D-MT).

Think Progress quotes from The New York Times: "99.8 percent of estates will never -- ever -- pay a penny of estate tax. The heirs of the remaining 0.2 percent of estates are who Ms. Lincoln and Mr. Kyl are so worried about."


One cannot help but wonder about the motivation of these dismal Democrats. Again, of all the problems we have in our country and in the world, the problems (hah!) of the super rich aren't among them!

Or maybe these Democratic senators are in that 0.2 category?

Or maybe they owe their election to the people in that 0.2 category?

It makes no sense. And it is extremely discouraging that people like Nelson of Nebraska and Bayh of Indiana, who pretend to be so worried about deficits and debt, vote to "slash" $250 billion in taxes from the federal treasury!

G-20 - Building up, not tearing down

[Image from BBC]

The differences between our current administration and our former administration are stark. The latter was mostly concerned with flaunting power and tearing down, and the Obama administration is concerned with cooperation and building up.

Thus, at G-20, the "leader of the free world" (our president!), helped to bring about what McClatchy calls "large achievements."

"The leaders of the world's major industrialized nations accomplished something at their G-20 summit...that rarely happens at such gatherings of heads of state.

"The produced large achievements.

"They pledged the first-ever global regulation of hedge funds and private-equity firms, big players in global finance that have enjoying operating under the regulatory radar. They agreed to require banks to set aside more capital in good times to help them function in bad times. They vowed to crack down on tax haven nations that allow the wealthy to escape taxation. And they pledged $1.1 trillion to the International Monetary Fund and related institutions to help revive the global economy."


What struck me, in particular, was how for the first time in a long time, the United States held out the hand of friendship by explicitly involving itself in cooperative efforts, and thus telling the rest of the world we not only own up to our culpability in this godawful mess, but recognize that we do not live in isolation, that we cannot "make it" on our own, that we're all in this together and we'll do whatever it takes to make it right.

That's a 180 from how the Bush/Cheney gang of criminal thugs operated over the past eight years!


This obviously does not mean that our problems are over and that we're on the way back to easy street. We may never walk easy street again. But it does mean that we're committed to taking the necessary steps to modify the system so that it works, not just for the greedy bastards on Wall Streets around the world, but for all the people -- those who because of the greedy bastards are now homeless, jobless, and hopeless.


McClatchy has much more on this subject which you can survey here.

David Shuster's Hypocrisy Watch: Karl Rove

Thanks to Video Cafe.

In London, the First Lady makes a school visit

A fine, interpretative article comes with the video at Video Cafe. Here's a snippet of that article:

"In my opinion this little clip gives us yet another example of what a transformational couple the Obama's have become in the world. In what could easily have been contrived for the cameras, the sense is that something genuine and real is happening, not faked. And as seen in this clip, Michelle Obama's message is especially resonant with young women and girls of color."

Read the entire article here.

The unpardonable Mr. McCain

[Image by Victoria]

What's with this clown? He wanders around like he's in a fog, muttering about how the Repubs got it right and the Dems got it wrong, and HIS new budget is the real McCoy and why doesn't anyone pay attention to him anymore; he was the Republican nominee for president for Christ's sake!

Almost makes one feel sorry for the old coot. I said, almost!

McCain has pulled off so much chicanery in his lifetime, that one just can't feel sorry for him; his sins, unfortunately, are unpardonable.

Maybe that's why he is pushing President Obama to issue a presidential pardon for Jack Johnson: so he can enjoy a pardon vicariously.


Now, you're supposed to ask, who the hell is Jack Johnson? Jack was the first American black heavyweight boxing champeen! But Jack, back in 1913, got into a lot of trouble (yup, 1913!) by screwing around with a white woman. He took her across a state line and so they got him on the Mann Act. But this was no one-night stand; the woman later became his wife.

All this turmoil (he ran off after his conviction for a number of years, but later ended up serving 10 months) wrecked his career. He was killed in a car wreck in 1946. He was 68 years old.


I have no problem with Obama pardoning Johnson. That's fine, even if presidents have rarely pardoned dead people, thinking, I suppose, that's a job for the deity. But if it would clear his name from what were most likely racially-motivated, trumped up charges, then go ahead and do it.

Won't help him any, of course, 'cause he's dead and gone. But it might make his survivors feel better.


The real question, though, is why John McCain is fooling around with this? I thought he was busy telling the Republicans how to win elections, praising Sarah Palin, and, because he still doesn't realize he lost the election, writing his own budget, which will be read by two people, he and his wife.

The world economy is in the tank; the depression is deepening everywhere as more and more people lose their jobs and their homes; we're still screwing around in Iraq; Afghanistan is become a deeper quagmire; Pakistan has nuclear weapons and is unstable as hell; the crazy fool in North Korea is planning to shoot off a missile into the sky which maybe, might could reach the U.S.; Mexico is falling apart and the drug dealers may well take over the government; Iran is, well, Iran; hunger goes unabated across the globe; McCain's wife still wears too much makeup ... all of this and McCain is spending his time on trying to get a presidential pardon for a guy who's been dead almost 100 years!

And what about all those other black folks who received a raw deal from racially-motivated, trumped up charges? Shouldn't they get pardons, too? Or is a pardon just for an prominent athlete and the rest of us don't count?


Oh, that's right. We're talking about John McCain. The rest of us really don't count!

He was corrupt then, he's corrupt now, so what's Palin's problem?

[Image of Ted Stevens by Lauren Victoria Burke/AP]

I don't get it.

I mean she's for him before he got into trouble. She was against him when he got into trouble because she figured he couldn't win so suggested he might want to drop out of the race. Now, that his indictment has been dismissed, she's for him again.

Makes you dizzy watching Ms. Sarah spin around!

Ted Stevens has been corrupt for years. The people of Alaska have excused that corruption and elected the old bat to Congress because he done so much good for the people of Alaska. Shore enuf!

He wasn't found not guilty, by the way; and no matter what he would like to believe, this does not clear him of the charges. The indictment was dismissed, not because he was innocent or such a nice guy, but because the prosecutor messed up big time. So old Ted gets a walk. Doesn't mean he shouldn't be in prison. Doesn't mean he's been washed clean in the blood of the lamb.



But Palin's been spinning!

Poor Ted. He probably would've been elected if it wasn't for this horrible trial. What to do? What to do?

Aha! Let's tell the guy who was elected legitimately by the people of Alaska, to get his funky ass out of Washington so Alaska can hold another election and send good, ol' corrupt Ted back to the Senate where he belongs and where he can pork-a-lot of stuff back to the people, whom he loves so much.


And that's what Randy Ruedrich (he's the chief poohbah of the Repugnican Party in Alaska) did! As reported by the Anchorage Daily News, Ruedrich "called on Sen. Mark Begich to step down from the U.S. Senate, saying that the state's voters would have re-elected former Sen. Ted Stevens had they known the U.S. Department of Jusice would abandon its prosecution of him."

Heh, heh, heh!

Palin, the prevaricator, jumped on the Ruedrich bandwagon, saying, Yes! Yes! Let's have a special election. Begich give it up and crawl back to Alaska!


Hah! Begich said, nicely, go to hell! He reminded these Repugnican morons that Stevens was in trouble long before the Senatorial race and he [Begich] was elected because the people of Alaska wanted a change from the corruption that prevails among rightwingnuts in the Repugnican Party.

Indeed, it's amazing how morally bankrupt the Republican Party really is. Palin and every other Repug in Alaska knows about Ted Stevens. But Stevens has brought more federal dollars to Alaska than there are Polar bears and wolves hiding from Sarah! So, who cares if Stevens is corrupt?

Fortunately, Begich is in place and cannot be removed by the whims of a Repugnican state chairman or a moronic Repugnican governor.

Still...

High taxes like the Holocaust says Beck

It just gets worse and worse. You've got to see this.

Thanks to BuzzFlash. Article and more here.

David Shuster's hypocrisy watch featuring Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell pushed his hair back over his head, smiled at the camera and said he just didn't like Obama's partisan attitude. It's just not nice. Obama just isn't nice to us wonderful Republicans.

Watch.



Thanks to Video Cafe.

John McCain, the talking widget and his budget

All one can do when watching this performance is thank the gods that this clown was not elected president. He has a budget proposal because Obama's budget is just terrible - it doesn't give tax breaks to the ultra-rich, and Obama actually plans to help people other than the military, and Obama's budget sends the deficit into the stratosphere.

Heh. Heh.

But listen to McCain - a lobbyist's best friend, a serial adulterer, one of those corrupt five who tried to get a Congressional committee to take the pressure off their S&L guy who cost the American people billions of dollars - and what he says about HIS budget proposal. By god, his budget won't cut taxes on the rich, that's for sure! And it won't cut defense spending, even if a large portion of defense spending is wasted on corruption and shoddy products. And the Repugs want a bi-partisan commission to study Social Security and Medicare (read: do away with Social Security and Medicare, which has been their goal since the 1930s!) And, by golly, gee, McCain's budget will result in a mere $3.3 trillion deficit - ooops! He meant $2.3 trillion.

But, hey, what's a trillion dollars these days?

As someone asked: Didn't this guy lose the election?

Thanks to Video Cafe.

The archbishop and the governor

[Photo of Joseph Naumann from Catholic.org]

Once again, in recent days, we have seen a Roman Catholic archbishop flex his godly muscles in an attempt to extort piety from one of the Roman Catholic faithful.

First of all, we should note that according to the most recent polls, Catholics by and large, view things like abortion, birth control, homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, gambling, etc., in a more liberal fashion than their non-Catholic neighbors.

Secondly, it is important to reiterate that studies have shown at least 25% of Roman Catholic priests/seminarians are homosexuals, and some insist the figure is probably closer to 50%, in spite of the fact that the Church considers homosexuality a "disorder," and believes homosexuals should not be priests.

Thirdly, we cannot forget that literally thousands of Roman Catholic priests have abused little children, both boys and girls, for decades. The Roman Catholic bishops and other poohbahs have known all about this abuse, but instead of reporting it to the authorities, they deliberately covered it up, and then fought every attempt to bring it to light and take appropriate action.
They didn't even remove these pedophile priests from the ministry. What they did do was move them from one parish to another, without informing the parish leaders or telling them that they should watch their children as they had a predator priest in their midst.


With those three points before us, we can now consider the case of the Archbishop of the Kansas City, Kansas, archdiocese, one Joseph Naumann.

Naumann is pissed off at the governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, who is a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Sebelius, you recall, has been nominated by President Obama to head up the Department of Health and Human Services.

[Rightwingnuts everywhere are up in arms about Sebelius and have innundated our Senators with dire warnings of disaster to come if they dare vote in her favor!]

The reason? Abortion, of course. Sebelius is pro-choice and thinks women should be able to choose relative to abortion without government interference or priestly dictates. Thus, she has seen fit to veto at least a couple of bills which would restrict abortion rights in Kansas.


The Archbishop is unhappy because Sebelius won't kiss his ring on this issue. According to Joshua Holland at Alternet, the archbishop was interviewed by Catholics for Faith and Family. In this intervew he explains his efforts to get Sebelius to toe the party line.

For example, the Archbishop conducted a "long dialogue" with Sibelius after which he wrote her a letter telling her she must not partake of the magical cracker. She did it anyway, and some dipshit priest tattled on her to the Archbishop.

So Naumann "went public," and told the whole world that the governor had been banned from the altar until she accepted the RC teaching on abortion.


I don't know that Governor Sebelius intends to do. Probably the same thing that John Kerry and Joe Biden do - ignor the rantings of the hyper hierarchical keepers of the keys to the Kingdom.

Also, consider this: Forty percent of American Catholics reject the official Catholic teaching on abortion! They simply don't hear the rantings of their skirted pontificators of piety, having recognized long ago that many of them don't have a clue as to what real life is all about.

What is especially poignant about all this is the fact that an archbishop of the Roman Church, in spite of the fact that 25-50% of the priests of the Church are in flagrant disobedience of the church's teaching on homosexuality, and in spite of the fact that the church has disobeyed the law and its own teachings by protecting thousands of pedophile priests, believes he has some moral authority to exert over the governor of Kansas or anybody else.

In his view, Governor Sebelius is unworthy to take Communion at the altar of a Roman Catholic Church where the odds are about even the priest is a homosexual, or in some cases, a pedophile, because she rejects the right of a church run by celibate (more or less) men to tell women what to do with their bodies.

There's something radically wrong with that picture.

Maybe there are too many archbishopricks in the Roman Church.

Poor little rightwingnuts have no voice in the MSM

[Image of Glenn Greenwald from Flickr - Majikthise]

This is so funny.

Glenn Greenwald, in a piece at Salon.com, dissects the continuous whining of the rightwingnuts as to how they are shut out of the mainstream media. He refers to a C-SPAN broadcast of a Commentary Magazine event involving William Kristol, John Podhoretz, and Jonah Goldberg, three self-appointed spokespersons for rightwingnuts everywhere.

Greenwald writes:

"Exemplifying the deeply self-pitying theme of the entire discussion, Jonah continuously insisted that conservative magazines are so very, very important to the political landscape -- indispensably so -- because conservative voices are frozen out of mainstream media venues by The Liberal Media, so that poor, lonely, stigmatized conservatives can only get right-wing opinion in places like Weekly Standard and National Review."

Hmmm. Seems like a lot of right-wing crap gets printed in the Wall Street Journal and even ze Washington Post, not to mention the New York Times. And what about FAUX News?

Greenwald continues:

"In between Jonah's petulant laments about how conservative opinion cannot be heard in The Mainstream Media, Bill Kristol talked about his New York Times column and his Washington Post column, John Podhoretz told stories about his tenure editing The New York Post Editorial Page and Charles Krauthammer's years of writing a column for Time and The New Republic, and Jonah referenced his Los Angeles Times column."

Heh. Heh.

Greenwald concludes:

"None of them ever recognized the gaping disparity between those facts and their woe-is-us whining about conservative voices like theirs being shut out of The Liberal Media. So important in conservative mythology is self-victimization that they maintain it even as they themselves unwittingly provide the facts which disprove it."


Ultimately, when one thinks about it, this is not surprising, for these rightwingnut neocons' lives are based on mythology, a mythology which seldom, if ever, allows facts to get in the way of opinion/philosophy/principles/theology.


Greenwald has much more, which you can read here.

Stephen Colbert rips Glenn Beck

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The 10/31 Project
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

h/t to Alternet.org

License to kill common sense in Florida

[Image of Florida state house from dms.myflorida.com]

Here in our town, and in our county, the powers-that-be have decided that because things are so bad economically, we should turn our backs on common sense and throw the notion of restriction and/or regulation to the wind.

So, "they" have decided to move on a number of delayed applications and approve another gazillion new homes in an area where the infrastructure is already strained to the breaking point. But these construction projects will bring jobs, they cry! That's always the mantra of the Chamber of Commerce types. Think of all the money they will bring into the community, they cry.

They don't tell you how paving over paradise creates a host of new problems. They don't tell you these projects will create a need for new schools and we can't fund the schools we have now; that increased traffic will increase congestion, and will contribute to more noise and fouling of the air we breathe; that we're running short of water; that houses already on the market aren't selling; that several major developers have gone broke and their half-completed projects sit unfinished and desolate as the topsoil blows away; that we've got tons of foreclosed homes vacant and deteriorating; etc.


The same thing happens up in Tallahassee, where the state legislators sit in session thinking up new ways to help their developer money-pots rake in even more money. And the sinking economy gives them a perfect excuse to bypass common sense and care for the community.

Rob Brinkman, for example, writing in the Suwannee-St. Johns Sierra Club newsletter, says that "This year, in the name of economic stimulus, there is a move to drastically reduce the regulation and permitting of new development on the theory that, if only these weren't holding builders back, everyone would have a job and there would be no foreclosures."

Actually, they don't give a damn about foreclosures. There are 300,000 foreclosures in Florida. Slicing regulatory rules to allow developers to bypass normal criteria for paving over paradise is going to do nothing to mitigate the foreclosure problem.

Or, as Brinkman says, the whole idea is "absurd." Unless, of course, you are a legislator and your first obligation is to those who funded your political campaign and not the people whom you are supposed to represent.

Brinkman also notes there "are also at least two proposals to either gut or simply dispense with the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), the state agency that reviews comprehensive plan amendments."

And here's another absurdity: It appears that the infamous red tide on some of our beaches in Florida may be due, at least in part, to over-fertilization. Some cities are considering regulating fertilizer application. The poohbahs in Tallahassee, to meet this crisis, are considering restricting the right of local governments to regulate fertilizer application.


And so it goes; on and on. And it is probably going on in your state, too, if your state, like Florida, is controlled by the Repugnicans. Got a problem? Any problem? Too much regulation! Let's cut out all the rules and allow our developer friends to do their thing. That will solve the problem!


Sheesh!

The Gospel of the Easter Bunny

The famous poem, The Gospel of the Easter Bunny, is back by popular demand.

If your faith in the Easter Bunny and his meaning for your life has been wavering of late, you'll want to re-read this Gospel and re-invigorate your spiritual side.

So grab a cold beer (martini, Jack Daniels, whatever) and drag up a chair and find your faith lifted.

Won't cost you a dime.

You can find The Gospel of the Easter Bunny at Creative Confections, here.

Joe the plumber, getting dumber

Yeah, some rightwingnuts against the EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act) invited Joe the plumber getting dumber to come to Pennsylvania and speak his mind, to tell the folks in Pennsylvania what a bad, bad thing is the EFCA.

Oops! Joe the plumber getting dumber doesn't know much about the EFCA.

Naturally.

But that's what Repugnicans do these days. Hire a dumbass like Joe the plumber getting dumber to go out and make fool of himself believing the whole while that the American people are gonna get snookered by this ignorant bozo.


Thanks to Video Cafe.

The challenge of nuclear power

[Image of Three Mile Island from nukeworker.com]

John McCain got on the bandwagon during last years presidential race. Others in and out of government have been touting the benefits of nuclear power. By and large, the dangers of nuclear technology have been pooh-poohed, or ignored.

But the dangers are real. France is often held up as an example of how a country can effectively use nuclear power to meet a majority of its energy needs. Seldom, however, are the problems France has, and is, experiencing, discussed. We have published at least two articles previously detailing some of those problems. One of those is here, and a more comprehensive article on the dangers of nuclear power is here.


Harvey Wasserman, writing for AlterNet, has brought the issue to our attention once again. He reminds us that we've had our own problems with nuclear power/plants in our country.

"People died -- and are still dying -- at Three Mile Island."

Some of us remember well the horror of 30 years ago, "America's most infamous industrial accident ... [and] we mourn the deaths that accompanied the biggest string of lies ever told in US industrial history."

Maybe that's the scariest part of all. We have discovered over and over again down through the years that our government has no compunction about lying to us when it serves the interests of those in power. Thus the Bush/Cheney gang, with straight faces, lied over and over again to justify their invasion of Iraq; or you may recall how the military lied to deflect investigation relative to its medical experiments on unsuspecting conscripts; or, in this case, how the government lied (and continues to lie) about what really happened at Three Mile Island.


Wasserman brings it all back: "As news of the accident poured into the global media, the public was assured there were no radiation releases.

"That quickly proved to be false.

"The public was then told the releases were controlled and done purposely to alleviate pressure on the core."

That was also untrue!

"The public was told the releases were 'insignificant."

Hah! The Nuclear Regulatory Commission still has no idea "how much radiation was released at Three Mile Island, or where it went."

Didn't matter.

Everybody lied. No problem, they said, just about the same radiation as an x-ray. They had no clue!

No problem, they said, the fuel did not melt inside the core. A lie. "...robotic cameras later showed a very substantial portion of the fuel did melt."

No problem, they said, there's no danger of an explosion. But there was!


Mr. Wasserman offers significant other information, including the fact that "the state of Pennsylvania hid the health impacts [of the meltdown], including deletion of cancers from the public record, abolition of the state's tumor registry, misrepresentation of the impacts it could not hide (including an apparent tripling of the infant death rate in nearby Harrisburg) and much more."

The truth? Surveys where fallout was the highest showed "very substantial plagues of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, respiratory problems, hair loss, rashes, lesions and much more."


Here's the real problem and the focus of this essay: We cannot and must not trust our government to tell us the truth, especially when it comes to nuclear energy! Or, as Wasserman put it:

"As the pushers of the 'nuclear renaissance' demand massive tax- and rate-payer subsidies to build yet another generation of reactors, they cynically stonewall the obvious death toll that continues to mount at the site of an accident that happened thirty years ago. The "see-no-evil' mantra continues to define all official approaches to the victims of this horrible disaster."

Even more frightening is that Three Mile Island had a state-of-the-art reactor, while "Every reactor now operating in the US is much older -- nearly all fully three decades older ... Their potential fallout ... could dwarf what came down in 1979."


So don't believe "them" when they say nuclear power is clean, safe, and the way to go. "They" are a bunch of rotten liars.


Read all of Wasserman's article here.

Another chapter in "The Worst Person in the World Series"

This is definitely worth watching!



Thanks to Video Cafe.

Laughing at Glenn Beck (the crying hyena)

It all happened on "Morning Joe."

As Video Cafe said, "Somebody get this blubbering buffoon a Kleenex."



Thanks to Video Cafe.

Spain takes point on torture

There is one issue I disagree heartily with President Obama about and that's the need to investigate and prosecute former President Bush, former Vice President Cheney and their minions for instigating, commending, furthering and then justifying the use of torture.

I'm not sure we need an investigation: Both Cheney (just recently again) and Chimpy have said straight out they ordered and approved the torturing of our enemies.

At any rate, nothing has happened to bring these criminals to justice so far, and it seems unlikely that anyone in Congress has enough backbone to do the job, so...


Spain has taken point on this issue.

Liliana Segura, writing for AlterNet, notes that "a Spanish court has launched a criminal probe into six Bush administration attorneys who created the legal architecture for the [use] of torture at Guantanamo Bay."

Well, that particular net doesn't sweep up Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, but it's a start.

The people being probed are: John Yoo, William J. Haynes, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, Jay Bybee and Douglas Feith.

Segura says this probe "is not symbolic." She quotes Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights: "If you're any of those six at this point, you don't want to go to the twenty-five countries that make up the European Union, because you may be subject to immediate arrest."

Yes!

Even better is the fact that this probe is just the beginning, and it may well lead all the way up the chain of command to Chimpy and his side-kick, Numbnuts Cheney and others!

It is also possible, as Ratner points out, that this probe will bring additional pressure for the U.S. to set up it's own criminal investigation.


How can Spain do this? you ask. Well, Democracy Now explains: "Spain's law allows it to claim jurisdiction in the case because five Spanish citizens or residents who were prisoners at Guantanamo Bay say they were tortured there."


Segura's full article here.

Easter & the magical bunny rabbit

Thanks to Dan Florien at Unreasonable Faith.

Governor of South Carolina deserts needy citizens

That headline is not surprising. Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina, is one of the worst Repugnical wingnut governors we have in this country. He is truly an elitist, and he doesn't give a damn about real people, which means he doesn't give a damn about those suffering in his own state.

The regular folks in South Carolina are suffering mightily from our current Depression (and I use that word purposely). Unemployment is skyrocketing which has resulted in personal devastation. More and more people in South Carolina are losing their homes through foreclosure.


Sanford, however, being a Repugnican is concerned about principals (and I use that word purposely). He's worried about the principal honchos of the big companies. He pretends he's concerned about "principles," such as a government should not run up a big deficit and carry a load of debt.

This is, of course, all horsehockey! He doesn't give a damn about government debt or deficits, either. Just look at his record. If you can find one statement where Sanford expressed concern about the fact that Chimpy was borrowing money like mad to finance his insanity in Iraq, I'll be glad to publish it and make a retraction. If you can find one statement where Sanford expressed despair because Chimpy ran through Clinton's surplus and proceeded to climb the national debt to record highs, I'll be glad to publish it and make a retraction.

So far as Repugnicans go, it's OK to pile up a huge amount of debt caused by deficit spending if you want to kill people. But, sure as hell don't try to "socialize" the country by helping folks save their homes, feed their kids, buy medication, or obtain decent, affordable health care!


So, naturally, Sanford has refused money from Obama's stimulus bill! He's not going to take $700 million just to pass out to poor folks. Only CEO's should get that kind of money!

This stubborn, idiotic refusal has created problems for Sanford in the state of South Carolina. Even some Repugnicans in the legislature think think he's overreacting...and hey, wouldn't it help them get reelected if they could dole out a few bucks to the needy?

So, a battle has been waging. And now, Gov. Mark has said he would accept this $700 mil but ONLY if the legislature would agree to "use an equivalent amount of state money to pay down debt over the next two years." (from McClatchy)

There's more, but you get the point. Let's not use the money to help people. Let's use it to pay down the state debt.

I don't think they can do that in any case, but the point of this rant is that Repugnicans like Mark Sanford do not, I repeat, do not care about real people, regular folks out trying to make ends meet, struggling to survive!

How the hell they keep getting elected is simply beyond comprehension!

The Bible tells me so

If you grew up in an "evangelical" or fundy church setting, you'll remember those words from a little ditty often sang in Sunday School...how do we know something is true? The Bible tells me so!

Some people never do leave Sunday School behind and enter the real world. One of those is a moronic Congressman from Illinois, John Shimkus, who for reasons only the devil could understand, is a member of the Energy and Air Quality Committee.

Shimkus told members of Congress that the Bible is the infallible word of God and that in the "Old Testament" you can find infallible proof there is no such thing as global warming.

The end of the earth will come in God's own time, says Shimkus. You'll know when that happens when you hear the trumpet of the Lord blaring over the earth.


This is, of course, exactly the same crap spouted by fundamentalists everywhere and was preached by Jerry Falwell before he disappeared from the earth.

It was, it is, and it ever will be, CRAP; world without end. Amen.


h/t to BS Alert.

The winds of change - in Alaska

[Mea culpa: The previous photo - now excised, was of Tim's father, Ben. This photo of Tim Grussendorf is from TV station KTUU.com]

It is said that the winds in Alaska blow hard.

Oops! Maybe I should have said it is said the blowhards in Alaska are windy, and sneaky.


To better understand this story, let's say that you are a longtime Repugnican and profess to follow Repugnican beliefs, such as they are, and let's say that because of your position as a legislative aide you got WIND that a state Senate seat was soon to be vacated BUT, according to Alaska state law, only a Democrat could fill the seat.

What would you do?

Well, you'd do the Repugnican thing, naturally. You'd switch to the Democratic Party because you also knew that the governor of Alaska, Prevaricator Palin, would appoint you to that seat if'n you were a Democratic type person.

Now...you probably, being a Repugnican and all, figured that you could switch back to the Repugnican Party at some time in the future when the other Democrats in the state house couldn't do nuttin about it.


Sounds good. And Guv. Prevaricator Palin did it; she appointed legislative aide, newly-minted Democrat, Tim Grussendorf, to the state Senate. Yes, she did!


Except...the Democrats in the state Senate are not totally stupid. So, they're putting in motion an attempt to set-up a knock-down, so that when newly-minted Democrat Grussendorf comes up for a vote, he gets voted down.

Stay tuned for more fun from out northernmost state with the governor who can see Alaska, sells planes on eBay and loves to shoot wolves from helicopters!

The Qur'an/Bible tells me so!

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

The Catholic god does not want Obama to speak at Notre Dame!

That's right. How do I know? Because the Catholic god's papal pontificators, those MEN who don't have sex and wear dresses, are screaming bloody murder. Yup, a good Catholic school like Notre Dame, they say, should not, indeed must not, allow the President of the United States to deliver the commencement address this year!

Absolutely not! He is pro-choice, for god's sake. And he has not condemned condoms. He obviously does not respect Pope Ratzy!

Several bishops have said so. Catholic pundits have said so. Newt Gingrich has said so.

What? Why the hell does Gingrich care? I mean, I know he's an asshat, but what possible reason could this disgraced politico with a peanut brain and no morals have for wanting Obama punted off Notre Dame's commencement agenda?


Heh. Heh. Old Newt, serial adulterer, facile liar, famous asshat, either became a Roman Catholic over this past weekend or will become a Roman Catolic on Easter Sunday (There seems to be some confusion about the time). Yup. Now his allegiance is or will be to the Pope and not the devil. Hmmm.... No, I'm not gonna say it!

Anyway, old Newt, the ignorant former perfessor of history, said that "It is sad to see Notre Dame invite President Obama to give the commencement address since his policies are so anti-Catholic values."

Heh, heh, again! This from a thrice-married bum who got tossed out of Congress on his butt, who wouldn't know an ethic from a enema.

Not only so, but the Political Machine has a bit as to how, back in 2005, Gingrich spoke at Catholic University. Some righteous Catholics got their skirts in a bunch because they said Gingrich supported the death penalty and was noted for his infidelities and thus "violated the school's prohibition against speakers with positions contrary to Vatican teachings."

[This has nothing to do with the subject, but I wonder how an institution can call itself a "university" when it cannot teach anything contradictory to "Vatican teachings," or have a speaker on campus who might be construed as having values contradictory to "Vatican teachings." That's not a university, that's a incubator designed to pump out mental midgets from a Catholic mold.




Thanks to Daniel Florien at Unreasonable Faith.

Barack Obama's "power grab"

Some people are just freaking crazy! This asshole is worried that Obama is planning to "grab power." And do what? Become a dictator.

That is, of course, what you read on every single one of the rightwingnut websites, especially the christianist ones. We expect it of christianists, because they have no morals or values whatsoever. We might hope for a higher standard from someone in the national media. Oh, hell, that's right! Sammon works for FAUX News and FAUX News has no standards.

Bill Sammon is nothing more than a hypocritical, moronic talking head. He left the Washington Times to become a managing editor for FAUX News. That tells you pretty much just how black is heart is!

Sammon roared with approval every time Chimpy invaded a country, signed a signing statement saying he wouldn't obey a law passed by Congress, wiretapped American citizens with no warrants, renditioned and tortured our "enemies," discarded the constitution, etc., etc.

And he's worried about Obama grabbing power. Please! Go crawl back under the rock from whence you came!


Thanks to Video Cafe.

Obama nails Dickie Cheney

[Image from fanpix.net]

He was speaking to Steve Croft at CBS. He was referring to our former vice president, Dickie Numbnuts who whined to the world that Obama's "new terrorism policies" were dangerous for they put the country in danger.

President Obama responded thusly:

"I fundamentally disagree with Dick Cheney. [Note that: "fundamentally." That's basic!] Nor surprisingly. You know, I think that Vice President Cheney has been at the head of a movement whose notion is somehow that we can't reconcile our core values, our constitution, our belief that we don't torture with our national security interests. I think he's drawing the wrong lesson from history. The facts don't bear him out. I think he is... that attitude, that philosophy has done incredible damage to our image and position in the world. I mean, the fact of the matter is, after all these years, how many convictions actually came out of Guantanamo? How many... how many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment, which means that there is constant effective recruitment of Arab fighters and Muslim fighters against U.S. interests all around the world."


What I love to see is Dickey Cheney sputtering off in a corner and no one is listening to him because they know he is full of horsehockey, and he's no longer in a position to do our country harm.

The only place I might disagree with Obama in the above statement is his assumption that Cheney might possibly have "core values," or might actually care about our constitution. Cheney may have core values, but they're not American values, nor are they humanistic values. They are all based on what's good for Cheney and the corporate interests he represents!

Furthermore, it has been demonstrated over and over again during the past eight years that Dickie Cheney doesn't give a flying you-know-what about our constitution. He and Chimpy sat up late at night trying to figure out new ways to shred those basic rights guaranteed by that document.


But isn't it nice to have a president who knows what a "core" value is, and what the constitution contains and means and believes that this country should operate from those values and under the constitution?

Off-shore tax havens are expensive: for US

How expensive are these corporate off-shore tax havens of BAILED-OUT companies? How much are these tax havens, set up by many of our "patriotic" and "family values" executives (and share-holders) costing US?

Would you believe they cost the US (that's US!) $100 billion?

A view from the Vatican

Thanks for Flea Snobbery.

Ancient bowls, Jesus, and magic

"A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaelogist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world's first known reference to Christ."

That's Jesus H. Christ. The Jesus Christ of the Gospels.

The bowl carries an engraving in Greek which reads "DIA CHRISTOU O GOISTAIS," which could mean "by Christ the magician," or perhaps "the magician by Christ."

Goddio thinks the engraving "could very well be a reference to Jesus Christ, in that he was once the primary exponent of white magic."


But, maybe not.

There were many "Christ" groups in the ancient world, "Christ" being the Greek for "messiah." Some of these existed long before the legendary Jesus is said to have come on the scene. [Read any of Earl Doherty's works on the "historical" Jesus.]


Still, it is fascinating. It is also possible that magicians (or magus) who divined the supernatural using oil in cups like this legitimized their powers by invoking the name of Christ."

But for now, all of this is pure speculation. There's no real evidence for anything other than an ancient cup with an inscription indicating that some Christ was a magician or involved in magic.

Turning water into wine was certainly magic.

That's not to say that the Jesus of the Gospels was the Christ of the cup.


You can read the entire article at Debunking Christianity here.