Bang went the pope!

It is always a delight to hear Roman Catholic poobahs pronounce on scientific subjects as if they knew what they were talking about, or as if anyone gave a damn.

Historically, the Roman church has been [and remains] anti-science. The Roman church bases its beliefs, not on the rigor of scientific inquiry, but on its interpretation of the Bible and its ever-changing tradition. The Church only accepts scientific truth when that truth has labeled the church's beliefs as bullshit.

So when Pope Benny came out recently to announce that his god set up the Big Bang which resulted in the creation of our universe, one cannot help but be amused, or bemused or be caught up in a non-religious hissy-fit!

For this is one more in a long line of examples of the Roman church closing a god-gap. The Roman church has believed and promoted all kinds of non-scientific claims down through the years (remember Galileo?) and persecuted, even killed those who dared challenge the "truth" set forth by the popes and their minions. When the Church could not explain a natural event or unusual circumstance, it laid the blame or the credit on god. Then when science came along to dissemble the church's stance, to cover the gap between what the church believed and reality, the church simply moved on to another gap. Its "god" became known as the "god of the gaps."

The big gap remains, however: how did the universe begin 13 billion years ago? Who, if anyone, is responsible for the beginning of the universe?

Science can answer the first question: The universe began with the Big Bang. The only people who argue against that scientific "truth," are those numbnuts in the Discovery Institute and their creationist and intelligent design cohorts, and all the ignorant people and stupid fundamentalist Christians that befoul our fair land.

Aha! But who is responsible for the Big Bang? Scientists, by and large, say no one is responsible. It was a "chance" event. It just happened. And they've got the data to back up their claims. No god shows up in that data. No god is necessary for the Big Bang.


Here cometh Pope Benny. Pope Benny, speaking to a group of Catholics at the Vatican, saith "The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe."

Pope Benny is pronouncing here, as only a pope can pronounce, so pay attention: "Contemplating it [the universe], we are invited to read something profound into it: the wisdom of the creator, the inexhaustible creativity of God."


Sounds good; sounds nice and reassuring if you are a believer. Unfortunately, however, Pope Benny is just blowing smoke up our collective ass. He's making that up. He has absolutely no evidence for anything he said.

And, as has happened so often in the history of the Church, it continues to preach a god to cover what it assumes is a gap in scientific understanding. Benny's god is just another "god of the gaps." Sadly, however, so far as Pope Benny and his church is concerned, the gap has been closed.

There was no god present for the Big Bang and no god is needed for the Big Bang.


And that's the way it is this January, 2011.

Obama's Island

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Glenn Beck's violent rhetoric - "Shoot Them in the Head"

What follows comes from an article at AlterNet.

On his TV show back in June, 2010, Glenn Beck "told his audience that Democrats like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi had used progressive revolutionaries to gain power and that the only way to stop them would be to 'shoot them in the head.'"


We are rightly proud of our First Amendment right to speak freely in this country. But because words do have an effect (not withstanding the childhood rhyme about sticks and stones to the contrary) we have generally agreed that one cannot yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater.

Glenn Beck yells "Fire!" constantly in a nation crowded with people who are feeling oppressed and distraught.


"Beck's words were such an obvious incitement to violence that it's hard to believe Fox ever allowed them on the air. But the fact is that they did, and the full context of Beck's remarks make it clear that he meant every word to be taken literally."

In the video of that show, "Beck delivers his monologue in front of a Swastika that he's put on his chalkboard earlier in the program. Beck argues that Democrats have risen to power by cynically leveraging the efforts of progressive revolutionaries who are plotting to overthrow the American government. Together they form an unholy alliance that threatens America's very existence."

Beck's targets include Obama, Pelosi, Michael Moore, Bill Maher and Rosie O'Donnell, among others.


Beck is a lunatic. He's also a moron. He's very dangerous. He's a threat to our democracy. Inciting people to violence is a crime. That makes him a criminal. He should not be on television. He should be in jail.


Read the AlterNet article here.

The video is at Daily Kos, here.

Great apes

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Suffrage and corruption plus the real deficit problem

(Photo from the New York Daily News)

In an essay titled "Speak, Money" in the October issue of Harper's, Roger D. Hodge talks of suffrage:

"Ideally," he says, "our ballots purport to be expressions of political will, which we hope and pray will be translated into legislative and executive action by our pretended representatives. ...

"Alas ... voting is the beginning of civic virtue, not its end, and as suffrage has expanded so has its value been steadily debased. The locus of real power is elsewhere. Wealth and property qualifications, poll taxes, and the like are very far from being historical curiosities; they have simply mutated."

Here's the crux of the matter, which so many of us are feeling so deeply and painfully:

"Campaign contributions and other forms of political spending have assumed that old exclusionary function [e.g. poll taxes], and only those who can afford to pay are able truly to manifest their political will. Voters still 'matter,' of course, but only as raw material to be shaped by the actual form of political influence--money--which molds the body politic be realizing itself in the ductile mass of common voters."

Now, this state of affairs, claims Mr. Hodge, has a name. It is "corruption." Here's the process and the result: "Corruption, in its institutional sense, denotes the degeneration of republican forms of government into despotism, and typically comes about when the private ends of a narrow faction of citizens succeed in capturing the engines of government ... a corrupt citizenry is one that has allowed its private and narrow personal interests to trump those of the general public."

Mr. Hodge's entire essay may be found in the October 2010 issue of Harper's, pp. 13-17.


Now to the so-called "deficit" problem, which may be a real problem, but the Republicans really do not care about the deficit. They care only that their ideology triumphs no matter the cost to the public - especially to the poorest and most needy of our citizenry.

To repeal the health care bill will increase the deficit by at least $230 billion dollars.

Thus repeal of the health care bill is not about deficit reduction. It's about petulant Republican ass-holes in Congress pushing their moldy and quite rotten views about government onto an ignorant and unsuspecting public!

If one is serious about reducing the deficit, one does not start with programs that keep people alive, but with programs that kill people. Like, say our warmongering program; by reducing the Pentagon budget.

Again, from Harper's October issue:

Thirty-eight percent "of this year's federal budget deficit [is] attributable to Bush-era tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Thirty-eight percent!!!

One does not begin reducing the deficit by cutting Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, programs vital to the well-being of millions of our citizens. The tea party crackpots and other goofy Repugnicans like Sarah Palin have used to great effect the big lie about "death panels" in the health care reform bill. Now they are using the big lie about deficit reduction, claiming that the health care bill will send the deficit into the stratosphere.  Obviously, they know what they say is not true. But truth doesn't matter because they live only for political power. That end justifies every means available to them, no matter how low or scummy those means might be!

Honest people, people truly concerned about not only the deficit but American citizens, will start cutting the deficit by raising taxes on the rich and ultra-rich! We should not be repealing health care reform, we should repeal Bush's tax-cuts for the wealthy!

But most of our politicians are bought and paid for by the wealthy in our society. Thus, the poorest among us will necessarily bear the brunt of Republican and blue-dog Democrat machinations.

Keith Olbermann - Countdown: More death panels in Arizona

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Keith Olbermann - Countdown: Right-wing blogs demand Gifford's resignation

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Where would we be without God?

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

GOPers explain why they won't give up government health care...

h/t to Think Progress

Jon Stewart - Petty Woman (Palin)

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Holy Mary

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Bill Maher to the Teabaggers: The Founding Fathers would have hated your guts!

President Obama's statement on Religious Freedom Day, 2011

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release January 14, 2011
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY, 2011

- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION

Our Nation was founded on a shared commitment to the values of justice, freedom, and equality. On Religious Freedom Day, we commemorate Virginia's 1786 Statute for Religious Freedom, in which Thomas Jefferson wrote that "all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion." The fundamental principle of religious freedom -- guarded by our Founders and enshrined in our Constitution's First Amendment -- continues to protect rich faiths flourishing within our borders.

The writ of the Founding Fathers has upheld the ability of Americans to worship and practice religion as they choose, including the right to believe in no religion at all. However, these liberties are not self-sustaining, and require a stalwart commitment by each generation to preserve and apply them.

Throughout our Nation's history, our founding ideal of religious freedom has served as an example to the world. Though our Nation has sometimes fallen short of the weighty task of ensuring freedom of religious expression and practice, we have remained a Nation in which people of different faiths coexist with mutual respect and equality under the law. America's unshakeable commitment to religious freedom binds us together as a people, and the strength of our values underpins a country that is tolerant, just, and strong.

My Administration continues to defend the cause of religious freedom in the United States and around the world. At home, we vigorously protect the civil rights of Americans, regardless of their religious beliefs. Across the globe, we also seek to uphold this human right and to foster tolerance and peace with those whose beliefs differ from our own. We bear witness to those who are persecuted or attacked because of their faith. We condemn the attacks made in recent months against Christians in Iraq and Egypt, along with attacks against people of all backgrounds and beliefs. The United States stands with those who advocate for free religious expression and works to protect the rights of all people to follow their conscience, free from persecution and discrimination.

On Religious Freedom Day, let us reflect on the principle of religious freedom that has guided our Nation forward, and recommit to upholding this universal human right both at home and around the world.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 16, 2011, as Religious Freedom Day.

I call on all Americans to commemorate this day with events and activities that teach us about this critical foundation of our Nation's liberty, and to show us how we can protect it for future generations here and around the world.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

BARACK OBAMA

h/t to Talk2Action

A very fine commentary by Frederick Clarkson is available here.

Beyond the Palin

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Words do matter!

The right-wing pundits and prognosticators have been busy decrying any connection to their words and the recent killing and wounding in Tucson.  There is no link, they say.  Don't blame us, they say.  The shooter was mentally ill, they say.

Well, they are full of crap!  Words do matter.  A billboard like the one above which uses the word, "shooter," and includes scattered bullet holes is a powerful message.  A picture of a politician in gun sights (and Palin can whine all she wants, but everyone knows they were GUN sights and not surveyors sights!) sends a powerful message to everyone who sees it.  When someone talks about a "second amendment solution," or the need to "reload" to gain headway in a political contest, that person is using language fraught with violent imagery!

It is my understanding that the above billboard was located just a couple of miles from where Congresswoman Giffords and others were shot.  It is also my understanding that this billboard was taken down shortly after the shooting.

Why is someone like Rush Limbaugh still on the air?  Certainly he has the right to his opinions, no matter how moronic and dangerous and plain stupid they are, but to give him millions of dollars a year to spin his lies and deceit to a mult-million member audience is unconscionable.  To allow Glenn Beck a platform to rant and rave and spew his vicious racism and bitter nonsense is beyond belief.

These creeps do make a difference.  One shooter specifically took after a Glenn Beck target!

I don't see a solution at the moment so long as the Murdochs of the world care only about power and money and so long as  many of our citizens are functionally illiterate, ignorant, and dumber than doorknobs.

Better batten down the hatches, there's more to come!

Open Your Eyes

Our thanks to Crooks & Liars for this fine video

And it seems to me especially appropriate to post this today because the teapot crackpots were out in force today along one of the major thoroughfares in our city:  Old, very stupid white people carrying brightly-colored signs proclaiming Obama to be a "socialist dictator," and that he shouldn't be president, and health care is a really bad thing, blah, blah, blah.

The sons-of-bitches never get the right message or the message right. 

Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan) recap of violent rhetoric by right-wingers

Rep. Dingell, in this speech, reviews the violence-laced comments of right-wing politicians and pundits over the past couple of years.

h/t to Alternet.org

Jon Stewart - Arizona Shootings Reaction

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The vigilant mother

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Jared Loughner not atypical in today's America

This is a guest post by my good friend, Bob Poris.



Jared Loughner, the shooter of  Representative Gabrielle Giffords, is not atypical.

He was disturbed but not enough to be institutionalized! He is not atypical at all. Many conspiracy advocates believe in a variety of wacky scenarios:  the so-called birthers insist Obama was born out of the country; others are convinced President Obama is a secret Muslim; some think that Socialists are taking over the government and that all liberals are socialists, etc. 

Many relatively respectable people either believe these things or are unsure as to their veracity. Some go too far and encourage violence by their speech or actions. We cannot arrest or isolate all of them.

Listen to Beck, Limbaugh and even Bachmann and Palin sometimes. They talk of people trying to take over the government or who have already taken it over, so WE have to take it back. What does that mean to the gullible - the ignorant and easily influenced? We saw some of them at various political rallies with their goofy signs.  We saw how they shouted down their opponents or used other means to intimidate them. 

It is reasonable to assume some of these folks have enough violence festering within them to go off the deep end. We have no way of knowing.  But what does it mean to them when they see members of the U.S. Congress encouraging mobs on camera! 

We saw this kind of intimidation in 2000 during the counting of chads in Florida.  Goons were flown in from Texas to intimidate the counters in Florida.  Someone paid them and organized them!  These people are the enemies of democracy and a danger to our country!  

There are always goons available.  Hitler had the Brown Shirts; Mussolini and Stalin had their followers ready to frighten any opposition.  Intimidation and scare tactics work! 

We must become better informed so as to be aware of dangers of organizations that have enough money to sway voters and elected officials. 

We need debate between opposing views without demonizing one side or the other.  Our politicians and our media must encourage responsible debate within reasonable boundaries.