* In Colorado, the state supreme court ruled that students and faculty at the state's universities who had valid concealed weapons licenses could carry guns on campus thus overturning the ban on carrying weapons which had been imposed by the educational institutions.
* Legislators in the enlightened state of Utah have decided to forbid any discussion of homosexuality in the schools and allow the dropping of sex education in the schools. Nothing like godliness in good ol' Mormon country!
* In New Hampshire, state legislators have dropped mandated contraception coverage. No doubt they look forward to more babies, more abortions and more poverty.
* The GOP neocon idiots calling for strikes on Syria and war on Iran have not discussed how they would pay for such misguided actions. A huge part of our current budget deficit is the result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which Georgi W. Buski conveniently neglected to include in his budgets. It is interesting to observe that most Republicans believe we cannot afford anything but war!
* The brilliant, intellectual genius, good Christian and promiscuous liar, Michele Bachmann, crawled out of her cave in Minnesota to warn the country that Obama's desire to have insurance companies pay for contraception coverage is likely to lead to a policy of "one child per family." Hmm...not a bad idea!
* The Catholic bishops who have a reputation of overlooking sexual assaults on young children by their peers in the priesthood, are all worked up about their Catholic institutions (schools, hospitals, etc.,) having to pay for contraception coverage for their employees when the Roman church does not believe in contraception. But it isn't true that the institutions have to pay for contraception coverage. Obama changed the policy so the insurance companies pick up the tab. That didn't matter to the old, white men who have never been married or raised a family and thus know next to nothing about what that entails. So, they are still screaming about Obama's "war on religion," which is nothing but a smokescreen to hide their own pernicious dealings with their criminal priests. Is there any question anymore that the Roman church is one of the greatest incubators of criminality in the world?
* An addendum to the above: A number of the Catholic institutions referred to in this contraception controversy have publicly stated they have no problem providing contraception coverage to their employees. Not only so, but the bishops seem to be so out of the loop they don't realize or don't care that about 90+ percent of their constituents ignore the church's teaching on birth control.
* Pat Robertson, the aging agent of a spurious and evil deity, claims that the recent tornadoes which tore up the Midwest occurred because the people living in that area had not spent sufficient time in prayer to Robertson's god. It's interesting, though, that the Midwest is considered one of the more religious areas of the country. California, on the other hand, is often said to be the hotbed of decadence and immorality. I don't think California has many tornadoes. Florida gets tornadoes and hurricanes, and what's worse, we got Rick Scott as governor, so obviously those of us who live in the Sunshine State are seriously lacking in goodness and time spent on knees in abject pleading.
* It's about time we got serious about gun control! Enough is enough. A teacher, recently fired, returned to his Episcopal church school in Jacksonville, Florida and shot dead the principal after which he committed suicide. That hardly made a ripple in the news cycle for such events have become commonplace.
I'm going to say this out loud so listen up: the Second Amendment has nothing to do with the right of individuals in 2012 to own guns, carry them on their person, and shoot other people with them. The Second Amendment refers to the rights of states to form and arm militias. Like the state National Guard!
The NRA (talk about the incarnation of evil) has hornswoggled the whole country into thinking that the Second Amendment is a sacred promise to every Tom, Harry, Mary and dick in this country that they can own any kind of gun and any amount of guns no matter what kind of people Tom, Harry, Mary and dick may be or what their mental state might be or whether they are a danger to themselves and others just by being alive, much less carrying around AK 47's under their black trench coats!
* Mrs. Willard Romney, wife of the presidential wannabe, while sitting on a personal fortune of $250 million, said she doesn't consider herself wealthy.
* Patricia Heaton, who I loved as Debra in "Everybody Loves Raymond," is a right-wing, ultra-Catholic blowhard who spouts the Vatican hard line on abortion, contraception and only the Catholic god knows what else. Shut up Ms. Heaton or I'm not gonna watch any more of your old re-runs!
* Did you see the latest pictures of our vanishing ice caps and how the seas are rising and how we've got one hell of a problem that is rapidly getting out of hand? Probably not. Didn't make the news. But right on the front page was a note about Kim Kardashian's long legs. What a great country this is.
* Evidently employers and government bureaucrats will now have the right to demand your Facebook password. Give it to them. Then set up a fake Facebook account but don't tell anybody. Big Brother is everywhere!
* There's a new bill being proposed in South Carolina that would take away the driver's licenses of high school dropouts. Hey, that will really solve the problem. Now the kids won't be able to drive to their jobs. Maybe some of them dropped out to earn money so their families can eat. So, now they'll lose their jobs. Maybe they can become state legislators in South Carolina. Stupidity and ignorance seems to be the main qualification for that job in that state!
* The ultra-right-wing christianist governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, signed a law requiring women to have an ultrasound procedure before they can legally have an abortion. Virginia is the 7th state to require this procedure. While it no longer involves a vaginal intrusion (state-rape) it is still an unwarranted assault on women. I like what one person suggested: that every man be required to have an anal prostate exam before he can obtain ED drugs like Viagra.
* Santorum believes that every sperm is sacred, a person. It is mind-boggling that anyone can be as stupid as he is!
* An atheist billboard which reads, "You know it's a myth, and you have a choice," was supposed to be placed on a building in a mostly Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn. The landlord, who is Jewish, backed down at the last minute, ostensibly because of pressure from local residents. Words are fearsome things!
* Joyce Meyer has written a prayer book for children, called "Every Which Way to Pray." In it she suggests that children be taught that prayer is simply talking to God and they can just talk to God anytime and any place, that he will never be too busy to hear their concerns.
What a crock. There's something obscene about teaching young children who don't know better that there's a caring big ol' man up there somewhere who's going to take care of them. They'll learn that's not true soon enough. About the same time they realize Santa is a myth cut out of the same cloth!
* I know a 20-something young lady who firmly believes in the power of prayer. Whenever she wants something, she convinces herself that it is God's will and then she urges her friends to "pray, pray, pray." I don't think she will ever see the inherent contradiction. If something is God's will, then why must one engage in "pray, pray, pray"? Why must one persist in a constant, sickening, pleading for God to do what it is his will to do?
And on that note, I shall close this rant.
Forget prayer. Enjoy! Do what you think is best, and try to be kind to others so we can make this a better world for all people. If there were a God who cared, that's what I think she would want us to do!
