God Wants Ben Carson To Be President!

George W. Bush said God wanted him to be president of the United States; lo, and behold, his wish came true!

Rick Santorum made noises that God wanted him to be President.  Rick Perry, currently governor of Texas, says much the same thing.  Mike Huckabee talks about God a lot, and he, too, might run for president.

Now we've got a medical doctor by name of Benjamin Carson who says he's just a pawn on God's chess board, or something like that.  When David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network asked ol' Ben if he was thinking of a political life, Ben said "God would have to grab him by the collar.  Has he felt the tug?

"I feel fingers," he saith to Mr. Broday..

Isn't that cute?

But which one will God choose?


Carson will never be president because he has zero political experience, he's a member of the 7th Day Adventist cult, he's not very bright when it comes to non-surgical matters, and he tends to shoot from the mouth before putting ammunition into his brain.

I hope the Repugs give him the nod, though, as it will make things much easier for the Dems.


Carson has written a couple of books, the most important being "Gifted Hands," which has also been made into a movie and tells his life story so familiar to so many already.  It's much like a soap opera.

Born poor, raised by a single mom in Detroit, he was headed down the wrong path.  He even tried to stab a kid with a knife but hit the kid's belt and thus no damage was done.  But lil' Ben went home, found a Bible, "gave his life to Jesus and asked the Lord to take away his violent temper."  Today, he claims, he just doesn't get angry.

Carson made his way through Yale, eventually ending up at Johns Hopkins University where he became the director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, among other things, and in 1987 became the first surgeon to successfully separate siamese twins conjoined at the back of the head.

Talk about a success story!


Unfortunately, such a story does not automatically translate into brilliance in other fields or political success.  A surgeon, no matter how gifted, does not necessarily have the wherewithal to become a good president, or a senator for that matter.  James Inhofe, an MD from Oklahoma sits in our Congress and calls climate change a hoax, for his god would never destroy the earth in such a manner; and Paul C. Broun of Georgia, who will be leaving Congress in January, is also an MD (a GYN, I believe) who is convinced that evolution is Satan's plot to send us all to hell.


Carson's belief that God wants him to be president may not be enough.  As a 7th Day Adventist, he holds to a literal interpretation of the Bible, affirming every word to be true.  Thus he believes in a 6-day creation which happened about 6,000 years ago and that God created all life on earth.  Carson rejects the theory of evolution.

"Evolution and creationism both require faith," he claims.  "It's just a matter of where you choose to place that faith."

Now that's just plain dumb.  Creationism requires one hell of a lot of faith for there is not one piece of evidence anywhere to verify it.  Evolution, on the other hand, is a theory that is verified in millions of ways every day, and "is the central principle that animates modern biology, uniting all biological fields under one theoretical tent, and which virtually all modern scientists agree is true." (Quote from Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet.)

When Carson was invited to deliver the commencement speech at Emory University, almost 500 faculty, students and alumni signed a letter of protest because of Carson's anti-science views and the fact that he has intimated that people who believe in evolution may lack ethics.

He claims he never said that, but what we're going to find as we look closer at this man is that he says a lot of things which he then claims he never said or his words were misinterpreted or too much emphasis was put on his words when he meant something different from what he said.  He doesn't make much sense.

He said, for example, "By believing we are the product of random acts, we eliminate morality and the basis of ethical behavior.  For if there is no such thing as moral authority, you can do anything you want.  You make everything relative, and there's no reason for any of our higher values."

Then, he backtracked, saying he never said that people who believe in evolution were unethical.  If you believe in God then it's easy to be ethical, but "People who believe in the survival of the fittest might have more difficulty deriving where their ethics come from.  A lot of evolutionists are very ethical people."

Huh?  He seems to want it both ways.  Believe in evolution and you're going to be a moral mess.  On the other hand "a lot of evolutionists are very ethical people."  Sorry, Ben, but you need to make up your mind.

In an interview with "Faith & Liberty," Carson spoke of his rejection of evolution "arguing that the science of evolution is a sign of humankind's arrogance and belief 'that they are so smart that if they can't explain how God did something, then it didn't happen, which of course means that they're God.  You don't need a God if you consider yourself capable of explaining everything.'"

Uh huh.

[Carson might profit from reading "God - The Failed Hypothesis," by the late Victor J. Stenger who brilliantly shows how science proves God does not exist.  The fact is, science can explain everything and we no longer need a god.]

Worse, though, is that Carson's belief system is based on false premises for which there is no evidence.  As the Emory protestors said:

"Dr. Carson argues that there is no evidence for evolution, that there are no transitional fossils that provide evidence for the evolution of humans from a common ancestor with other apes, that evolution is a wholly random process, and that life is too complex to have originated by the natural process of evolution.  All of these claims are incorrect. The evidence for evolution is overwhelming: ape-human transitional fossils are discovered at an ever increasing rate, and the processes by which organisms evolve new and more complex body plans are now known to be caused by relatively simple alterations of the expression of small numbers of developmental genes.  Our understanding of the evolutionary process has advanced our ability to develop animal models for disease, our ability to combat the spread of infectious disease and, in point of fact, the work of Dr. Carson himself is based on scientific advances fostered by an understanding of evolution."

Here's another example of his confusion:  He believes no one can know the age of the earth ... "carbon dating and all of these things really don't mean anything to a God who has the ability to create anything at any point in time."

That makes no sense.  The discussion isn't about what might mean something to his magic man in the sky.  We're talking about what might mean something to humans.  Evolution means something.  Creationism means nothing for it is unverifiable and is diametrically opposed to all of science!

It's really quite sad.  He's simply ignorant of what the theory of evolution is all about as evidenced by his comment about the complexity of the human brain and the human eyeball:  Those things, he says, prove that evolution is a "myth".  "Somebody says that came from a slime pit full of promiscuous chemicals?  I don't think so."

Perhaps if he went back to school and studied evolution, about which he obviously doesn't have a clue, he might change his tune.  Probably not, though, as religion tends to trump reality every time.

In this day and age, it would be insane to have a president who failed to accept the truth of evolution which is proven over and over again millions of times every day!


Perhaps that's why Dr. Carson, a believer in holy ghosts, can feel the fingers of god tugging him in the direction of the White House.  If you can discard evolution, which is verifiable, well you can believe in just about anything, verifiable or not.

Or, as someone else put it:  Carson may be a brilliant brain surgeon, "Yet he still holds a worldview so transparently in opposition to reality and suffused with Tea Party-esque delusions of socialism and social decay that it's truly stunning, sometimes, that he believes the things he's saying.  It's almost like Carson considers stupidity an innately Christian virtue, standing resolutely against all those eggheads working to turn America into a hedonistic hellhole."


We've determined that Ben Carson is not a viable candidate for the office of the presidency because he does not accept proven facts about reality, but relies on his fundamentalist Christian notions instead.

Let's turn now to some of his political beliefs and proclivities and pronouncements.  His god, as you might imagine, is ever present.  For example, Carson is hoping that God will get involved in our health care system and "expose the truth about Obamacare."  Carson claims that the Affordable Care Act will make people lose their health care - even though the reverse is true.  But ol' Ben has "prayed to God that he will expose even to people of low information what is going on."

In October of 2013, Carson compared the ACA to slavery.  The ACA was "the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery," and then said the law is "slavery, in a way."  Try telling that to the hundreds of thousands who now have health care and couldn't get it before the ACA.


One of the mantras promoted by our whiny Christian fundamentalists is that Christians are being terribly persecuted in the United States - even though the reverse is true.  Christians, says Carson, have "been bludgeoned into silence."  Not quite.  Every time you turn around they're busy promoting their fundy Christianity in the public square.  What is really happening is they are afraid of a pluralistic society and thus fight any attempt to deny their "right" to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us.

Nazi Germany also enters the Carson conversation.  You know, of course, that the Obama administration is "turning America into Nazi Germany," and you also know that the President found his inspiration from Mein Kampf."  "There comes a time," Carson said, "when people with values simply have to stand up.  Think about Nazi Germany.  Most of those people did not believe in what Hitler was doing.  But did they speak up?  Did they stand up for what they believe in?  They did not, and you saw what happened."

I don't think Carson is historically correct here, either.

Note though, if you don't agree with Carson's religious and political stances, you don't have "values."  But if you have "values" then you need to "stand up" and run the president and Democrats out of the country!

He's expounded on those Nazi comparisons.  This country, he says, is "very much like Nazi Germany.  And I know you're not supposed to say 'Nazi Germany,' but I don't care about political correctness.  You know, you had a government using its tools to intimidate the population.  We now live in a society where people are afraid to say what they actually believe."

What?  This is pure nonsense.  Gibberish that could have come from Bachman or Palin.  They only difference is they don't have a M.D. after their name.

Here again we have a so-called Christian promoting lies.  He must know they are lies.  If he doesn't then he's either dumber and/or more evil than he appears to be!

Carson got his shorts in a knot when the U.S. Navy decided to remove Bibles from their Navy Lodge hotel rooms.  This was a terrible travesty he whined.  His mind is so screwed up that he thinks the absence of Christian Bibles in a military structure is actually the imposition of atheism on  people and thus a promotion of atheism.

And atheism, he says in just another religion.  Not.  It is the absence of religion; the absence of belief.

Moving right along.  He is warning we might not be able to have elections in 2016 because of anarchy.  Why?  Because ISIS; and the national debt, which he claims is "rapidly increasing," although the truth is that under Obama the national debt has been significantly reduced.  More lies by Mr. Carson.

Gay marriage.  He's against it.  Carson is afraid that "'neo-marxists' are trying to undermine the very bedrock of America's uniquely successful project by changing the definition of family.  He says, "My thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman.  It's a well-established fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in beastiality, it doesn't matter what they are, they don't get to change the definition."

Make one wonder just how much of the Bible he has read, for it's quite clear that in the "good old days," men could have multiple wives even, and they could add on a few mistresses for good measure.


Seventh Day Adventist theology is quite strange.  The 7th Day folks believe that the U.S. will ally itself with the Roman Catholic Papacy and that alliance is going to take away the civil and religious liberties of Americans and other people all over the world.  It will force everyone to worship on Sunday (that's threatening to 7th Dayers, as they worship on Saturday).

All of this will culminate in a huge conflagration or apocalypse during which millions of people who refuse to agree to the order to worship on Sunday will be killed.  In fact, this is already beginning to happen!

I suppose Ben figures that if Mitt got a by with his Mormonism, he'll have no problem because it's very clear that Mormons are not Christians at all.

There's much more about Carson's religious views that are worthy of scrutiny but I'll save that for another time.  I think the next couple years will bring lots of laughs.


God has tugged at his collar and it looks like Carson will answer God's call to throw his hat in the presidential ring.  Ben and his wife are ready.  His wife, Candy Carson (that's really her name!) is well aware of what lies ahead, how people will "demonize" Ben as time goes by.  But they must do it because, she says, "Our country is going in a way that is different from what our founding fathers were thinking..."  And their Christian faith will see them through.

Conservative Christians glom onto Carson like a bug on a light.  And that's fascinating to me as I knew Christian conservatives back 40 years ago who thought that Adventism was a miserable cult and of the devil and Adventists weren't going to go to heaven!

But times have changed.  Boy have the changed.  When the fundys and the Catholics get together to promote each other's agendas, that's a whole new world.  So, good old Christian, Ben, says he relies on God.  In fact, God "directs" their lives.  "We recognize that we are instruments in the hand of God.  He is the one who really orchestrates all of this."  And fundamentalists of all stripes clap their hands and praise the Lord!

It is hard for me to think of a more elitist, prideful, bunch of BS; to think that of all the possible candidates in the world for the presidency of the United States, the god of the universe has selected this somewhat ignorant and foolish medical doctor for the job.

Chew on that for awhile.


Here's a few final tidbits that help define Dr. Carson.

1.  He believes the U.S of A. is a Judeo-Christian nation.  It says so on our coinage!
2.  Our debt is the big issue.  It's out-of-control.
3.  We should have a flat-tax; lower corporate tax rates, and create health savings accounts for everyone.
4.  President Obama is much like Vladimir Putin in that he just keeps doing whatever he wants to do because nobody's resisting him.  [This I thought especially funny and really stupid for the Congress of the United States has fought Obama tooth and nail for six years.  The Republicans in Congress have been very open about the fact they care nothing about doing their job, only about bringing Obama down.  How's that for resistance, Mr. Carson?]
5.  The president is doing unconstitutional things and Congress needs to get a "spine."
6.  Carson is praying to his god that he "show his power in a mighty way."  "We most definitely need a spiritual awakening.  Look at the direction we are going in.  Absolute absurdity."


There is indeed "absolute absurdity."  It is what best defines Dr. Benjamin Carson!

Finally, I would hope that the people of the United States remember what happened the last time they elected someone who said he talked to a mythical male in the sky and that mythical male wanted him to be president.

Of course, the mythical male was wrong.  It took the Supreme Court to hand old Bush the White House which he took of course, as a nod from God.

Christians Walk Out of Public Meeting Because of Atheist Invocation

This is funny but rather sad, too.  And I would not credit these people who walked out with being Christians.  Just the opposite.  Unfortunately, fundamentalist "Christianity" has devolved into a hateful, spiteful, intolerant religion in the U.S.

Those people branded "fundamentalists" have co-opted the religious space, demanding their particular take on superstition become accepted by all because, in their delusions, this is a "Christian" nation.

Religious freedom for them, as we see over and over again, means simply that they be allowed to foist their religious views on the rest of us.


h/t to Ybor City Stogie.

Christianity - The Urban Dictionary definition

Christianity, according to the Urban Dictionary, involves believing that ...

"...a cosmic Jewish zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree."

This definition quoted as a footnote in Bill Mutranowski's book, "You Bloggin' to Me?  How the Self Illusion Trolls Us and Why Skeptics Should Care."

Note:  Cartoon by Bill Mutranowski.  Used with permission.

Concern about torture misplaced says Christian writer

Recently I read of a study which indicated that beliefs often override facts. Fantasy overrides reality.  I'll be writing more about that later, but in this essay I'm aiming specifically at one so-called Christian who doesn't let his faith get in the way of his belief torture is a legitimate exercise!

His name is Mark D. Tooley.  He's a member of the United Methodist Church which at first I found hard to understand as the UMC is one of the more liberal mainline denominations.  But I soon discovered the Tooley is on a mission to "save" the UMC from itself.  He's working from the inside out.

And no wonder!  He was with the CIA for eight years.  I'd guess in those eight years he learned a lot about being a spook!  He learned nothing about being a follower of Jesus, which he claims to be.


Yesterday, an article of his appeared in The Christian Post, titled "Opposition to Torture Often 'Misplaced' By Christian Activists."

Mr. Tooley is not happy with the recent release of the U. S. Senate Intelligence Committee Democrat's report on torture ("enhanced interrogation techniques"). He claims (wrongly, I think) the debate about the EITs (enhanced interrogation techniques) involved is "primarily historical."

Critics of the report's release "argue that it over simplifies the moral issues, ignores the exigencies of the immediate threat after 9-11, and at this point only aids America's terrorist enemies with additional propaganda tools, possibly endangering American lives."

Tooley also mentions that "Several former CIA directors reacted to the ... report with a Wall Street Journal op-ed defending enhanced interrogation."  Why is that not surprising?

In contrast, he quotes a "Liberal Episcopalisn" who in a "liturgy of atonement for enhanced interrogation", spoke of our security being based "not on threats of harm or weapons of war, but on the hope of God's love toward all people."


Methodist Mr. Tooley did not like that, just like he doesn't like to use the word, "torture."  So he said, "We can be confident in God's love for all people.  But until God sets forth the new heavens and new earth, temporal security will indeed require threats of harm or weapons of war."

Hmmm.  Obviously, Tooley doesn't trust his god to do his job.  So, it's back to the usual killing, maiming and torturing.

But Tooley continues to claim that torture (or EIT) "was a desperate attempt, with bipartisan support, to prevent another 9-11."  That's pretty much a crock.  And torture continued way past 9-11!  But here's where he really goes off the rails and his religion is shown to be bullshit, pure and simple:

"Even if immoral in full or in part ... the 39 captives subjected to it, one of whom reportedly died, should be seen in the larger context of 3000 killed on 9-11, tens of thousands subsequently killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and several million killed in wars globally across the last 12 years..."

So, Tooley, says what the hell, a little torture is nothing compared to all the rest of the crap that's being going on ... which, he fails to mention, was instigated by the same people who have been doing the torturing!  These people started the wars, continued the wars, and tortured their enemies!

And finally, "The sustained zeal devoted by some religious groups against enhanced interrogation of 7-12 years ago seems at best misplaced energy better expended on today's global and more admirable victims of unalloyed torture.'


Once again, here's a Christian claimant insisting the ends justify the means.  It's OK if we torture a few people because the really bad guys are torturing people around the world.

Sorry, Mr. Tooley, I gave up on your Christian god a long time ago and people like you are one of the reasons.  It's the principle of the thing, you see, and you don't seem to have any principles.  Jesus said "Turn the other cheek," but you don't agree with that.  Jesus said "Love your neighbor as yourself," but you don't agree with that, either.  Jesus said, "Do not seek revenge, for revenge belongs to God," but you don't give a crap about what Jesus said.

You are first and foremost a political animal with certain political beliefs which trump not only your religion but reality.  We've seen how your religion is a scam and the reality is that EIT doesn't work and produced nothing worthwhile.

But that doesn't matter, anyway, because it is immoral and wrong and in spite of Justice Antonin Scalia's belief the Constitution doesn't have anything to say about torture (an unbelievably stupid statement in itself), it is against everything we stand for in this country!  It is not WHO we are, said President Obama!


Finally, I admit that there are times when we must defend ourselves against those who wish to destroy us.  That is different that making stuff up to justify the invasion and destruction of another country, killing hundreds of thousands in order to ensure that a neighboring country doesn't get the oil!

Self-defense is one thing and yes, it is necessary.  Torture is not self-defense and is indefensible on moral grounds.  It is mostly an act of revenge and seldom, if ever, produces the desired results.

Mr. Tooley, you need to turn in your Christian card.  You can't even use the word, "torture," but rather  your guilt forces you to a euphemism, "enhanced interrogation techniques"!

Scott Walker - Son of a Preacher Man - Damn!

Originally, I thought that the governor of Wisconsin, a guy named Scott Walker, and the son of a preacher man, made a gaffe while speaking to a group of Jewish folks.  Evidently I was wrong.  It appears the gaffe came at the end of a letter to a Wisconsin person of the Jewish persuasion.

Walker wrote, in closing, "Thanks again and Molotov."

Kaboom!

It is likely he meant to write Mazel Tov.

Damn, damn, son of a preacher man, is Mr. Scott Walker.


From Crooks & Liars:  About a month ago Walker gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he said, "My reading of the Bible finds plenty of reminders that it's better to teach someone to fish than to give them fish if they're able ... Caring for the poor isn't the same as taking money from the federal government to lock more people into Medicaid."

Yikes!

A blogger by name of Chris Walker (not related to ol' Scott) noted that Scott got mixed up (again).  He wasn't quoting the Bible - there's nothing in the Bible about teaching people to fish"  He was referring to a rather well-known Chinese proverb.

And as Chris pointed out, in the New Testament, Jesus actually does give people fish.  He and his disciples caught the fish and then they gave it to those who were hungry without asking anything in return!

So, Walker the despot, ignorant as he is, tries to use the Bible to justify his defiance of the Feds and his callous unwillingness to help poor people in the State of Wisconsin receive medical care which would cost the State of Wisconsin almost nothing!

Damn, damn, son of a preacher man, is Mr. Scott Walker.

Pose with Santa & Your Favorite Weapon

h/t to Crooks & Liars.

Message from Congress: Screw You America!

Here we go again.  Congress is talking about shutting down the government.  A funding bill must be approved ASAP so that doesn't happen.  Same old, same old!

The last election cycle was a minor revelation.  The revelation wasn't that very few people voted.  That's not unusual in this so-called democracy.  Most people just don't give a damn or they're too damn dumb to understand the issues involved.  The "minor" revelation was that too many voters cannot distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys so when they vote, they vote in the same rascals or even worse rascals than we had before.

Considering some of the new people heading to Capitol Hill, the country doesn't have a chance!


To reiterate:  There's a new funding bill in progress, and it needs to be voted on soon to avoid shutting down the government again!

The Republicans are in charge of the House and while the Dems have a slight majority in the Senate (which will change come January), there are enough DINOS in the Senate to allow a lot of nasty things into this funding bill.

First of all, Citigroup was allowed to write a provision which will allow Wall Street to screw the country once more, big time.

Elizabeth Warren put it this way:  "Who does Congress work for?  Does it work for the millionaires, the billionaires, the giant companies with their armies of lobbyists and lawyers, or does it work for the people?"

(That's a rhetorical question and we've known for a long time it works for the rich and powerful.  The common folk are lucky to get a nod as to their presence once in awhile.)

"Now the House of Representatives is about to show the worst of government for the rich and powerful.  The House is about to vote on a budget deal, a deal negotiated behind closed doors that slips in a provision that would let derivatives traders on Wall Street gamble with taxpayer money and get bailed out by the government when their risky bets threaten to blow up our financial system."

This is exactly what led to the economic crash of 2008!


This funding bill also cuts the EPA's budget by $60 million which will allow the polluters to continue to spew their deadly emissions into our atmosphere and our waters!  The bill even bars "the EPA from regulating methane emissions from livestock production."  Methane - a powerful greenhouse gas - is what livestock emit when they fart and it accounts for 10% of U.S emissions.


There's another huge travesty buried in the proposal's pages:  It gives the "trustees" of pension accounts the right to "slash the benefits of already retired workers to shreds."  That's going to hurt a hell of a lot of people.

One gets a feel for those Congress really cares about in the provision that blocks the Transportation Department from issuing regulations that require truckers to get two nights sleep before starting a new work week.  Regulations cutting truckers' work weeks from 82 to 70 hours is also forbidden.


There's more but these are some of the more egregious pieces of the proposed budget.


And the message from Congress is clear:  Screw You, America!

America - Land of Liars and Torturers

I'm very sad this morning.  There is something very wrong with my country.  Evil is deeply ensconced here.  It is terrifying because it's evil disguised as "good," or "necessary," or "proper" by those running the show.

Although I was a bit too young to participate in WWII, the war was ever present.  I remember food rationing and gasoline rationing, air raid sirens, and blackouts.  I remember newsreels showing indescribable horrors on the various war fronts.  I remember "Rosie the Riveter," and "Lend-Lease," and Pearl Harbor.

Back then, however, I was proud of my country.  We were engaged in a fight for the right, in what was, at least in part, a moral exercise to excise the unspeakable and despicable terrors unleashed by the satanic Nazis, the godless Japanese, and the unconscionable Italians.

In later years, I became intrigued with all the events and ramifications of the Second World War.  I read extensively about the events that triggered the war, the people involved, and the battles which destroyed cities and countries.  The Holocaust and Nagasaki and Hiroshima were etched into my brain.

Germany and the Nazis became a special area of interest and as an historian I immersed myself in books and movies about Hitler and his rise to power and the Nazi machine which turned against its own people, especially the Jews, and how the Nazis used torture routinely to gain information or simply punish.  How could this happen in a so-called "Christian" country?  Then I learned maybe it happened because it was a "Christian" country.  Hitler, a Roman Catholic, used Martin Luther's book, "Against the Jews" as a blueprint for Jewish genocide!

I remember how horrified I was.  Torture, I believed and still do, is truly evil, of the devil, and in no way justifiable.  The end can never, ever justify the means when it comes to torture.  While I knew there were isolated instances when American troops in both the European and Pacific theaters were involved in torture, those instances were,  I believed, an aberration, not policy.

In recent years, however, it seems torture was policy!  We've known for some time that some of our country's leadership - the war criminal triad pictured above - our military and our spy machine, the CIA,  has engaged in torture either just for the hell of it or under the pretense of obtaining information.  We've also known for some time that torture does not work, that claims made by then Vice President Cheney that information derived from torture was vital and useful in the defeat of our enemies was a crock.

My first disappointment with President Obama was his decision not to charge the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld gang with war crimes.  The evidence was overwhelming. This triad of war criminals did not even bother denying their affinity for and and their use of torture!

Now, the so-called "torture report" has been released.  It verifies and confirms that the United States of America, the home of the brave and land of the free, engaged in multiple instances of torture as a matter of course, a matter of policy, over the past 14 years.

Mr. Obama has made a public statement that this is a terrible thing, the is "not who we are."


Unfortunately, Mr. Obama is wrong.  The evidence shows clearly this IS who we are.  And it breaks my heart.  FAUX News, the propaganda wing of the neocons and the whole of the Republican Party, Dick Cheney and officials of the CIA are not hanging their heads in shame begging to be forgiven for their dastardly deeds.

It's just the reverse.  They have gathered as a huge choir to tout the wonders and worthiness of torture.  Their voices ring across the land that torture is good and useful and it's not un-American but part of who we are!

Cheney lies as a matter of course; we've come to expect that.  He has a black heart and no moral compass whatsoever.  So when he defends the use of torture during the Bush regime, it's no surprise.

But it's still stomach-turning.  His words drench us like the flow from a broken sewer as he continues to lie over and over again.  Torture, in no instance, provided us with information that was useful in the defeat of our enemies.

Others follow his lead, including persons in and out of Congress.

And the CIA's leadership, bastards out-of-control and filled with bile, stroll out from the dark corners where they dwell, briefcases in hand, to defend the practice and their right to torture those they deem unsavory and a threat to the U.S. or themselves.


It's hard to believe.  This is my country?  This is the United States?  This is the land that I love?

Please tell me it's not so.  Please tell me it's all a bad dream!

Welcome to North Central Florida!

Thanks to Ybor City Stogie!

RWW News: Jindal Prayer Rally Welcome Message

Don't watch this unless you have a strong stomach.  This is a the freaking governor of Louisiana.  Who the hell does he think he is, the Pope?  Barf!

Rachel Maddow: Best Of Michele Bachmann FAILS

Sam Harris, Islam and Israel

Recently, David Samuels interviewed Sam Harris in Venice Beach, California. Harris' first book, "The End of Faith," had an explosive impact in this country and while many considered it a much-needed breath of fresh air,  others, especially conservative Christians, thought it proved he was the antiChrist.

The discussion between Samuels and Harris covered a number of topics, but there was one area I thought most interesting, insightful and helpful in trying to make sense out of our world.

Harris emphasizes that beliefs matter.  What a person believes gives impetus to his or her actions.   He offers the example of a bus driver who believes in the power of prayer to the extent that from time to time he takes his hands off the wheel because Jesus is driving.  Such a person is dangerous.

For some reason some people have a hard time accepting that beliefs matter. Samuels asked how Harris would respond to those who agree with much of what he has "to say about God and science and religion" and yet "find themselves politically sympathetic to obscurantist and often violent political movements like Hezbollah, which have no interest whatsoever in reason and science or in protecting the rights of gays or women?"

Harris notes again that beliefs matter.  Religious beliefs matter.  Religious beliefs drive much of the violence in the world.  There is a hesitancy to criticize religion and a willingness to accept the religions' claim that their beliefs are sacrosanct and above criticism, even though the word, religion, applies to various groups that are sharply divided on most issues.  "Islam is a religion and Jainism is a religion and they have few things in common, but what they don't have in common is a commitment to nonviolence, which Jainism has in spades and Islam doesn't have in principle.  That's a difference worth noticing."

So, we should not speak of all religions or political movements driven by religion as being the same or of equal worth.  There are important, even crucial differences between them.


On to Islam.  One of today's "memes" ...  "is that terrorism ... has nothing in principle to do with the religion of Islam:  It's coming out of other things, economic inequality, political hopelessness, people have been victimized by the Israelis or somebody else or by the legacy of colonialism; there's nothing about the actual doctrine of Islam that accounts for it.  That is untrue."

Untrue or not, there are those who continue to stress a "moral parity claim, which obviously the Israelis suffer from the most.  The Israelis are confronting people who will blow themselves up to kill the maximum number of noncombatants and will even use their own children as human shields.  They'll launch their missiles from the edge of a hospital or a school so that any retaliation will produce the maximum number of innocent casualties.  And they do all this secure in the knowledge that their opponents are genuinely worried about killing innocent people.  It's the most cynical thing imaginable.  And yet within the moral discourse of the liberal West, the Israeli side looks like it's the most egregiously insensitive to the cost of the conflict."

Harris then references what he calls the "pathology of liberalism," by which he means the notion often adopted by [some] "liberals" that "everyone everywhere more or less wants the same thing and ignores the endless supply of people with no obvious political or economic grievance who are willing to devote their lives to jihad.  What you don't hear Jihadis saying, 'I was just so desperate, I just saw no way out [f]or me or my family, and it just seemed like the only thing I could do to express my rage at an unfair system."

That isn't what we hear at all.  Rather the jihadis speak specifically of going to the Islamic paradise if killed in their pursuit of violence.

"There are people who will use human shields on one side, and there are people who will be deterred by other people's use of human shields:  They're still worried about killing the children of their enemies.  Those are two very different groups of people."


For too long, says Harris, religion has gotten by with the claim it is above criticism.  "What religion has had up until this moment is a different set of rules that apply only to it, which is you have to respect my religious certainty even though I'm telling you I arrived at it irrationally."

We can apply this to fundamentalist Christianity in the United States which continues to insist that they be exempt from community laws, Constitutional laws and common standards in order to practice the "faith."  That's what the Hobby Lobby case was all about.  And when they are challenged as to their insouciance regarding the rights of others, they cry foul.

Harris, however, is concerned in this instance with Islam.  He argues that if you can demonstrate why the Quran is worthy of respect and deference, please do so.  But, "I've read the Quran several times and it's not that good.  In fact, it's conspicuously bad as a moral map, and a spiritual map.  You can wander blindfolded into a Barnes & Noble, and the first book you pick off the shelf will have more wisdom than the Quran.  The Quran is uniquely barren of wisdom relevant to the 21st century.  It's got a few good lines about patience and generosity, and the rest is just vilification of the infidel."

He could, and has, of course, said similar things about the Bible.  In an article entitled, "Why Don't I Criticize Israel?", he notes that "when we're talking about the consequences of irrational beliefs based on scripture, the Jews are the least of the least offenders.  [...]  But let me remind you that parts of the Hebrew Bible--books like Leviticus and Exodus and Deuteronomy--are the most repellent, the most sickeningly unethical documents to be found in any religion.  They're worse than the Koran.  They're worse than any part of the New Testament.  But the truth is, most Jews recognize this and don't take these texts seriously.  It's simply a fact that most Jews and most Israelis are not guided by scripture--and that's a very good thing."

In the United States, we have a number of theocrats who would, if they could, take over our government and remake it into a kind of Old Testament theocracy where violence would play a very important role.  They have told us this.  They have warned us.  The speak reverently of stoning those caught in adultery and executing gays.

These are dangerous people because of what they believe.  Their religion deserves to be criticized and mocked, not treated with respect!


Finally, in this article Harris speaks of the difference between Israel and Hamas. "The truth is that there is an obvious, undeniable, and hugely consequential moral difference between Israel and her enemies.  The Israelis are surrounded by people who have explicitly genocidal intentions toward them."  The charter of Hamas is explicitly genocidal, looking forward to the fulfillment of a Koranic prophesy when all Jews will be killed.

"The discourse in the Muslim world about Jews is utterly shocking.  Not only is there Holocaust denial--there's Holocaust denial that then asserts that we will do it for real if given the chance. [...]  There are children's shows in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere that teach five-year olds about the glories of martyrdom and about the necessity of killing Jews."

He goes on:  To appreciate the moral difference between Israel and her enemies, "you have to ask what each side would do if they had the power to do it."

We know what Israel would do, because while they have they power to kill everyone in Gaza at any time, they forgo that option.  On the other hand, the Palestinians "have told us what they would do.  They tell us they would commit genocide.  They tell us they will kill every Jew in Israel."

And that is a world of difference!  It is not a trivial difference.  And it's a difference that impacts all of us.  9/11 is an example.  "For the rest of our lives, and the lives of our children, we are going to be confronted by people who don't want to live peacefully in a secular, pluralistic world, because they are desperate to get to Paradise, and they are willing to destroy the very possibility of human happiness along the way.

"The truth is, we are all living in Israel.  It's just that some of us haven't realized it yet."


For more of Mr. Harris' writings, go to his website here.

A Veritable Circus of Religious Freaks

First of all, Ben Carson.

Ben Carson is a 7th Day Adventist. While our Constitution says there shall be no religious test to hold a political office, someone who is a 7th Day Adventist should be considered very carefully by the voters, for this sect/cult is pure nonsense.  A person who believes in the tenets of Adventism must be considered a religious freak.

Carson, though, holds political views which are even worse.  He's ultra-right on the batshit crazy side of things.  For example, he said earlier this year that the United States is "very much like Nazi Germany."  What?  Yup.  The reason is that the Kenyan Usurper is using the government to "intimidate the population."

I'm not quite sure how that works seeing as how most of the dummies that voted in the last cycle voted for the same assholes who got us into this horrible mess to begin with and those assholes have been running the government for a long time.

Oh, wait, it's the IRS.  The government (i.e. Obama) is using the IRS to "punish" its opponents.  Hmmm.  Now how does that work? The Wall Street gangsters, who should be on a chain gang, are still intact and still stealing, still trying to grab even more of our money with their latest charade of insisting that any deal which would stop the impetus to shut down the government must allow them to continue with their shady financial practices!

Carson is part of that cadre of medical doctors who are dumber than doorknobs when it comes to politics, American history, and common sense (cf. James Inhofe of Oklahoma - climate change is a hoax, and Paul Broun of Georgia - evolution is the devil's work to send us all to hell).  Carson actually said that Obamacare was the "worst thing" since slavery.  Huh?

And when asked about the problem in Ferguson, Missouri, Carson opined that the reason young, unarmed black men like Michael Brown are getting shot by the police is because they "never really learn how to relate to authority in the proper way."

Yassuh master, that's what he said!

And then when the conversation turned to "a sense of entitlement," Carson blamed women's liberation.  "I think a lot of it really got started in the '60s with the 'me generation.''What's in it for me?'  I hate to say it, but a lot of it had to do with the women's lib movement."

It will be fun when the race for the White House begins.  Oops, I guess it already has.  This IS fun!


On to the sports arena.  Ray Rice, the Baltimore Raven football player, who knocked his fiancee out cold in an Atlantic City elevator last February is gonna be playing football again.  He’s been reinstated in the NFL.  

According to the latest version, his fiancee who is now his wife, claims the “assault … was part of God’s divine plan to raise awareness for domestic abuse in America.”

“God chose me and Ray for a reason,” she believes.

Yikes!

Greg Laurie, a wingnut preacher on the far right side of reality, claims there is “No Question These Are the End Times; America’s Role as Superpower Will Diminish as New World Order Forms.”

“Harvest Ministries Pastor Greg Laurie said Sunday his study of Bible prophecy and current events shows America will fade as the world’s foremost superpower in the last days, either because it will join with the antichrist or it will be diminished by the rapture.

Bible prophecy is really something.  Gotta wonder, though, why every Biblical prophet these days gets different meanings from the same material.

David Jeremiah, another far right lunatic, says “The End Times Are Here and Began With the Re-Establishment of Israel.”  The End Times began in 1948 says Jeremiah.  Poor Israel doesn't have a chance.  All the Israelis who haven't accepted Christ are going to hell and that road to hell got a jump start in 1948!

Back to sports, specifically golf.  Larry Alford, when he was 18, was supposedly a top golf star ranked up there with Tiger.  (The name is not familiar to me, so maybe that claim in an exaggeration.)  Then he was in a car accident - he’d been partying and drinking.  He was seriously injured, spent months in the hospital and underwent over 50 surgeries.

He lost his left arm.

But he’s found God or Jesus or both.  That happened because he started asking himself why this happened to him.  Somehow God told him one reason was he “never stuck with Christ in my walk through high school and college.”

He began praying about getting  back on a golf course, and found someone who designed a “one-of-a-kind” prosthetic that works pretty good.  

Now he travels around to golf tournaments raising money for charity by challenging other golfers on the course.

But the big thing is “I feel I have been saved because all those people who have been in accidents and lost a limb, God has put me in their life to encourage them that they can go on in life.”

And finally, a bizness called Samaritan Ministries - “a Biblical, non-insurance approach to health care needs.”  Here's how it appears to work.  You put in your money which is put into a pool and then when you need money for a health problem, they give you some of your money back.

But it's only for "committed Christians."  What follows is from their website:

If you are a committed Christian, you do not have to violate your faith by purchasing health insurance from a company that pays for abortions and other unbiblical medical practices. You can live consistently with your beliefs by sharing medical needs directly with fellow believers through Samaritan Ministries’ non-insurance approach. This approach even satisfies the Federal health care law’s (Affordable Care Act) requirement that you have insurance or pay a penalty-tax (see 26 United States Code Section 5000A, (d), (2), (B)).

The IRS will be issuing details explaining how your participation in health care sharing through Samaritan Ministries will exempt you from the penalty-tax. Since those details will not be needed until 2015 when you file your 2014 tax return, it may be a while before the information is released. Samaritan Ministries is working with the IRS to develop these procedures and will notify all of its members as soon as finalized.

Every month the more than 36,000 households of Samaritan Ministries share more than $9 million in medical needs directly—one household to another. They also pray for one another and send notes of encouragement. The monthly share for a family of any size has never exceeded $405, and is even less for singles, couples, and single-parent families.

Ha, ha.  It’s a socialist healthcare program for true believers!  Ha, ha!

If you want to know more, click here.

An Economic Agenda for America: 12 Steps Forward

1. Rebuilding Our Roads

2. Reversing Climate Change

3. Creating Jobs

4. Protecting Unions

5. Raising the Wage

6. Pay Equity

7.Making Trade Work for Workers

8. Cutting College Costs

9. Breaking Up Big Banks

10. Bringing Health Care to All

11. Ending Poverty

12. Stopping Tax Dodging Corporations

THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A LIBERAL!

Our thanks to YborCityStogie for this post!

The Robots Are Coming...

"In the lab of Hod Lipson, an expert in evolutionary robotics at Cornell, graduate students have created two computers that can speak to each other.  The 'male' computer speaks with a slight British accent, the 'female' with a syncopated Indian voice.  And what do robots say to each other?

"'What is God to you?' the female robot asks.
"'Not everything,' the male responds.
"'Not everything could still be something.'
"'Very true.'
"'I would like to believe it is.'
"'Do you believe in God?'
"'Yes, I do.'
"'Don't you want to have a body?'
"'Sure.'"

The above is taken from an article, "Only Human - The evolution of a flawed species," by Tim Flannery in the December 2014 issue of Harper's Magazine.

"Surely," he writes, "Lipson's two robots could not be called human, but their fabricated 'minds' speak to each other out of learned experience.  The generation of machines envisioned by Lipson may be far more capable that this--they may, he believes, have their own emotions informed by direct contact with the world."

The question Flannery raises in this article and the question which has begged for an answer for so long is:  "What does it mean to be human?"

Maybe the robots can tell us?


Note:  The above photo was taken from an article about teaching robots (10 Hardest Things To Teach a Robot") here.

Secularism and the so-called War on God, Christians and Christmas

If you check out websites of the Christian Right, you will be inundated with articles complaining about the "war" on God, or the "war" on Christians, or how "liberals" and secularism have stymied Christians so they can no longer freely practice their beliefs.  And at this time of year, they whine about the non-existent "war" on Christmas.

The authors of these websites bellyache about how we are rapidly becoming a "secular" society, and that secularism is taking over our government, and that secularism is akin to atheism, and the God will punish America mightily for this terrible perversion.  One wingnut is certain that our secularism has set the apocalypse in motion and the antichrist on his way!


It is true that religion is becoming less popular in the United States as it is in many other countries around the world.  As the years go by, more and more Americans are opting out of religious affiliation and religious belief.

But there is no substance to the notion that secularism has made it impossible for Christians to profess or practice their faith.  Religious Right whackos screech over and over that there is no separation of church and state in our Constitution.  Rick Santorum, the dodo from Pennsylvania, said recently that separation of church and state is a Communist idea!  But the fact remains:  The Constitution does insist that there be a separation of Church and State, no matter what these misfits would like to think.

As to the belief that secularism is guilty of denying Christians the right to live their faith, the reality is something else.   Christians actually have enough power in many areas to violate the Constitution in numerous ways:  providing private/church school with taxpayer dollars; conducting prayers at public meetings; placing religious posters in public squares; establishing a "faith" office in the White House; demanding that their right to practice their religion means they can deny you your right to believe and practice what you wish, as is portrayed perfectly in the Hobby Lobby case.


Secularism is a terrible thing, according to the Christian Right.  But there's some confusion about what the word means, and it is often used wrongly.

Sam Harris recently conducted an interview with Phil Zuckerman, "a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California.  He has written a number of books dealing with the "secular" life, such as "Faith No More," and "Society Without God."  Zukerman has a blog at Psychology Today called "The Secular Life."

During the course of the interview, Zuckerman clarified "three terms that are closely related, but also distinct."  The one on which I'll focus is "secularism."  Central to understanding this term is the last three letters:  "ism."  "It implies ideology.  Social movement.  Political agenda.  How things 'ought' to be."


Generally, the Religious Right identifies secularism wrongly with atheism.  And that sends them up the wall.  But that's not what it means.  And this is most important for our country today:  Zuckerman says,

In this country ...  "we've primarily got good, old-fashioned Jeffersonian secularism, which at root is nothing more than the ideology or political position that church and state ought to be separate and that government ought to be as neutral as possible when it comes to religion in the public square.  This version of secularism is basically anti-theocracy-ism (or what used to be called disestablishmentarianism).  It is an ideology that is often embraced by both religious and secular people.  And it most definitely is not the same thing as 'atheism.'  In this instance, 'secularism' is a political or ideological position concerning the relationship between government and religion (keep them separate!), whereas 'atheism' is a personal absence of belief in gods."


In dialogue (when possible) with the religious right, we need to call them on their attempt to conflate any position different than their own with a "secularism" by which they mean atheism.  At that point, then, anyone who disagrees with them must also be an atheist.

From the onset "secularism" has been the basis of our government.  We are not and should never be, a theocracy!  Religion may play a role in the lives of our citizens, but does not play a role in our government.  And that's precisely what has the Religious Right up in arms.  In their hatred and fear of "secular" and "secularization," they attack "secularism" and insist their religious beliefs be granted a special status, that this country be defined as a "Christian" nation, and that a theocracy of sorts be established in Washington!

It's a con game.  Any time they are forced to bow to the secularism of our country, they cry foul and whine about being persecuted.  The fact is, they don't want to play by the rules.  There is no war on God or Christians or Christmas or any other religion or religious belief.  They make up this crap in order to confuse the issue and thus insinuate their theocratic leanings into the various structures of our political system.


You can read the entire interview here.

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George W. Bush, War Criminal, Tries to Make Amends

The latest issue of Golf Digest includes an article titled, "The Healing Power of Golf," by Jerry Tarde, the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Golf Digest.

It's no secret that many professional golfers are rabid Republicans, some being on the ultra-right side of things, as well as claiming to be "born-again," fundamentalistic Christians.  The latter often praise their god when they win a tournament (cf. Zach Johnson at the Masters), hold prayer meetings during the week, and talk about how Jesus helps them during their difficult times.

In light of those facts, it's not surprising that Mr. Tarde saw fit to interview former president George W. Bush.  George, as you may remember, is also a rabid Republican and talked about God a lot.  He's been "born again," and claimed God wanted him to become president!

But Mr. Tarde also wanted to talk to George about the golf.  Golf and the Bushes are friends of long-standing.   Bush showed Mr. Tarde a picture of his most recent painting of three old caddies who had caddied for his grandfather, his father, and himself.  "Golf runs deep in the Bush clan," saith Mr. G.W. Bush.

The interview took place in Dallas where Bush was holding forth at the "Warrior Open golf event for wounded veterans and active servicemen who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.  It's part of the Bush Institute's Military Service Initiative."  Thus Golf Digest is "honoring him this month as a Golfer Who Gives Back."

This is just plain weird!  It is eerie!  Bush says, "I feel a special kinship for our military, because, unfortunately, I became a wartime president."

Oh, barf!  There's nothing wrong and a lot right with helping our wounded veterans and those in active service, so long as we don't make heroes out of people merely because they wore a uniform or got themselves shot.

But does Golf Digest not see the irony?  Bush didn't somehow, "accidentally," become a "wartime president" as he implies.  Iraq and Afghanistan did not just "happen" when he was president.  He was the chief liar, and the chief warmonger who instigated this country's unnecessary and unprecedented wars of aggression which killed over 4,000 of our soldiers and wounded many thousands more; which killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, leaving Iraq a pile of rubble and destroying whatever political stability that country had!  And it's not over yet.  In fact, in some ways, the horror may be just beginning.

Bush, as we know, lied about WMDs.  He ignored warnings during the summer of 2001 that terrorists were planning to use airlines in an attack on our country.  Then, in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Bush not only forbade the FBI from interviewing Saudis in this country, but provided the means for them to flee to Saudi Arabia asap.  Why?  Did he know from the beginning that almost all of the terrorists were Saudi Arabians?  Or was it just because for years the Bush family has been in bed with the Saudis?

And let's not forget Bush's own military record and what a joke that was.  He cried to Daddy who pulled strings so he could avoid going to Vietnam.  Then, instead of completing his commitment to military service, Bush used his connections to play politics and stay out of harm's way.

It seems likely that Bush uses the Bush Institute's Military Service Initiative as a sop to ease his guilty conscience.

What really sinks my boat, though, is how Tarde fawns over this war criminal who authorized the use of torture.  Bush, he says, like the wounded warriors, uses golf as a "restorative power," whatever that means in his case.  George feels badly about sending all these people into harm's way.  But, hey, he's playing the best golf of his life!  Yeah!  He plays with Lee Trevino and David Graham even.

Tarde mentions that Bush's "handlers" refused to let him ask Bush about "President Obama continuing to play golf under withering criticism in contrast with Bush's decision not to play in his second term."   In that mention you get a sense of Golf Digest's political leanings.  And you get a sense of Bush's mindset when he says he "chose not to play because my view was I could find other ways to be myself, like mountain biking.  And I didn't want to send a signal to mothers whose sons were in combat that while they were sacrificing, I was on the golf course.

It wouldn't matter to me what the hell Bush did in his 2nd term.  Not playing golf doesn't bring back all the dead or heal the wounded.  Not playing golf doesn't wash the blood dripping from his hands.  Not playing golf does not somehow absolve him from responsibility.

So far as criticism of Obama's golf:  It's true, he has played more golf than Bush did.  But he's taken only one-third as many vacations as did Bush.  To catch up with George, Obama would have to take 879 days of vacation between now and the end of his 2nd term.  Bush, as you recall, ran off to his Texas ranch at every opportunity!

In the end, George W. Bush is a war criminal and should have been sentenced to prison, along with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.  One of President Obama's big failings in my opinion, was to forgo charging this triad with war crimes and putting them on trial.

No one, including Mr. Tarde of Golf Digest, should be promoting this criminal and his nonsense even if he is, belatedly, trying to "give back" something to those who somehow survived his monstrous decision and need to become a "wartime president."

Let him do it anonymously and penitentially, for no good deeds can ever make up for the misery he unleashed on this country and the Middle East.

Bachmann called a rally and (almost) nobody came

This from Daily Kos:

Michele Bachmann (you do remember her, right?), just after the President notified the world he intended to issue an executive order to halt the deportation of illegal immigrants, went on FAUX News to issue her own "executive order" - a call for a rally to protest the president’s “illegal” action.

“I’m calling on your viewers to come to DC on Wednesday, December 3," she said, "at high noon on the west steps of the Capitol.  We need to have a rally, and we need to go visit our senators and visit our congressman, because nothing frightens a congressman like the whites of his constituents’ eyes … “

Dontcha just love the phrase “whites of his constituents’ eyes”?  So cute.  

And dontcha just love the assumption that all the viewers of FAUX News hate the Kenyan Usurper in Chief so much they’d drop everything and head to D.C.?

And dontca think this is a pretty good example of why “fair and balanced” can never be applied to FAUX Nexs, because FAUX News is nothing more than an organ in service to the ultra right SOBs trying to screw our country.

The story ends this way:  Nobody showed up at Bachmann’s rally.  Well, that’s not quite true.  Two other wingnuts with screws loose - Ted Cruz and Steve King were there, along with about 40 other “protestors.”

So, Bachmann settled for a press conference. 

A quote from Daily Kos, “I guess when you lose a presidential primary and decide to leave Congress, you lose some of that special sparkle.  But Bachmann’s level of celebrity also has to have been hurt by the ever-increasing competition she faces in the flagrantly inane extremism category.”

I think “inane” is not quite the right word.  Batshit crazy is more appropriate.

Voting right are important...

...unless you're just a normal person trying to attain the "American Dream."

A Successful Presidency

Thanks to Ybor City Stogie for this!

Republicans, Thanksgiving and Socialism

Talking Turkey About Guns 2014

For Christ's sake, tell the NRA to stop with all this gun crap, already!  

What follows comes from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

This Thanksgiving, when talk around the table turns to politics and current events, you can help set the record straight on some of the most common myths about guns.

Myth:  More guns in more places make us all safer.

Fact:  The NRA’s vision of guns for anyone, anywhere, anytime actually puts everyone at risk.  Without a background check, there’s no way to tell the difference between a good guy with a gun and a bad guy with a gun.  Most states don’t require safety training, or even a criminal background check, to openly carry a loaded firearm in public.

Myth:  Having a gun at home make women safer from domestic violence.

Fact:  Women are five times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner when a firearm is present.

Myth:  The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Fact:  If more guns stopped gun crime, we’d be the safest country in the developed world.  Instead, Americans are 20 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than people in other developed countries.

Myth:  Hiding your guns is enough to keep them away from your kids.

Fact:  The only proven way to keep guns safely away from children is to store them locked and unloaded.  A Harvard study found that more than two-thirds of children know where their parents keep their guns, even when the parents think they don’t.  And more than a third have actually handled the gun without their parent’s knowledge.

Myth:  Congress hasn’t passed a background checks law, which proves that Americans don’t support background checks on gun sales.

Fact:   Congress’ failure only proves that too many lawmakers cater to the gun lobby instead of the American people.  92 percent of Americans - including 82 percent of gun owners - support background checks for all gun sales.  In Washington State, the only state where the question was put to the people in the 2014 election, an overwhelming majority of votes passed a ballot initiative to require background checks for all gun sales.

One View - The Roosevelts by Gene Bocknek

This is a guest post by Gene Bocknek.  

[Photo is of Franklin Delano Roosevelt]


The recent Ken Burns PBS series on the Roosevelts is an astonishingly good documentary, a classic in every way.  I had just finished reading Doris Kearn's biography of TR Roosevelt and doubted I needed any more.  But the film and commentary are brilliantly done, with harsh honesty.

What I find remarkable is how one large family of fabulously wealthy high society produced two such men, one a Republican and the other a Democrat, both of whom recognized a debt to the common working people of the nation, brutally exploited by the equivalent of today's Walton family and Koch Brothers.  A quotation from the lips of JP Morgan tells it all:  "I owe the public nothing".

Unrestrained Capitalism had women and children factory workers - usually new immigrants - working 16 hour days, seven days a week, at poverty wages.  Men and boys in coal mines had it worse, dealing with black lungs and periodic explosions.

Teddy Roosevelt acted on his own, avoiding a Congress that was controlled by those piratical millionaires, threatening to nationalize the mines unless the owners negotiated better terms with their workers.  He set up a government agency to regulate prices of industrial and farm goods so as to provide better wages and working conditions.  He also attacked monopolies which squeezed out competition to control prices and wages (the product of a "free market").  Theodore Roosevelt also endorsed a national income tax and enforcement of the anti-trust acts, and became the most loved president in American history.

FDR faced a nation during the Great Depression of the 1930s, created by shoddy practices on Wall Street, including buying stocks on margin (10% of cost).  Only by bulling a reluctant Congress and Supreme Court was he able to institute the workers' right to organize, create
Social Security as a reward for a lifetime of hard work, provide jobs through his new Public Works Administration (PWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and support Republican Senator Norris' battle for the Tennessee Valley Administration (TVA), this latter for the poorest section of the nation.  As the national leader Roosevelt broke America loose from its isolationism to face the threat of Nazi Germany by providing lend-lease equipment to Great Britain, and brought the nation into World War II when the Japanese attacked our naval fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Despite the benefits of great wealth and privilege the Roosevelt men chose to see the privations of the working class and felt a moral obligation to rectify that situation.  It required heroic effort on their part, and earned them the bitter enmity of their wealthy peers.

They were sustained in their efforts by moral and/or religious convictions about the obligations of government toward its desperate citizens.  They also recognized a truth that persists to the present time - that government is the only counterweight to unrestrained capitalism.  In our time the president with the closest comparison is George W. Bush.  There the comparison ends.  Bush equated personal loyalty with competence, appointing ignorant people to nationally vital government positions in Homeland Security and Emergency Management.  He stood by while Texas-based Enron stole the pension of 35,000 employees and further demonstrated his loyalty by invading Iraq on false, trumped-up charges of nuclear armament when his real concern was Saddam Hussein's refusal to cooperate with American and British oil interests.

Bush family oil connections included the Saudi family of Osama bin Laden.  The 9/11/01 attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon was perpetrated by Saudi Arabians!  Bush issued an executive order permitting some 200 Saudis to leave the USA immediately after the attack, and barred the FBI and other agencies from interviewing any of them.

Bush also got Congress to pass a tax reform bill which reduced taxes on the wealthiest of our citizens.  His budget cuts to pay for the lost revenue reduced the IRS staff of fraud investigators by 50%.  Finally, he urged dissolution of Social Security in favor of providing citizens the "freedom" to invest their pensions elsewhere.  The subsequent collapse of the stock market put a damper on that proposal.  The enormous billions wasted on the Iraq invasion bankrupted the US Treasury which was his parting gift to President Obama, and laid the groundwork for the horrific mess of a fractured Iraqi nation and people now in evidence.

Not all rich president are the same!