Saturday, March 28, 2009

Sarah Palin didn't learn prayer doesn't work


Or maybe she just didn't have enough McCainites praying with her. Whatever, she and ol' John were discarded by the American people, thank God!

Which actually may disprove my theory that prayer doesn't work. Maybe God did hear Sarah's prayers, decided she was a moron and ensured that his favorite son, Barack Obama, made it to the White House. One never knows about these things. It's a matter of faith.


In case you missed the brouhaha, Ms Palin, prevaricating governor of Alaska, is currently embroiled in a battle with Alaska's legislators because she doesn't want to take the offer of government money in the stimulus package for needy Alaskans. It's the principal of the thing, you know. That's the way Repugnicans talk, although most of them don't know the difference between a principle and a principal.

Sorry, I got off topic a bit there. What I intended to say is Ms. Palin found a paucity of prayer partners amongst the McCain campaigners. Prior to her debate with Joe Biden, she felt the urge to talk to her god up there in heaven - in the clouds, I think. She was worried that God might give Biden a boost, or something, 'cause well, you know, Joe's a "good" Catholic.

"So, I'm looking around for somebody to pray with, I just need maybe a little help, maybe a little extra. And the McCain campaign, love 'em, you know, they're a lot of people around me, but nobody I could find that I wanted to hold hands with and pray."

She finally grabbed her daughter Piper and held her hand and prayed.


I think God went on vacation that day. Her prayer(s) obviously went unanswered, and everybody knew she was a winking fool.

But she's still praying. Mostly she was praying for her hubby to win Iditarod. That prayer didn't work, either. She never learns a thing!


And, would you believe, some of the McCainites are not happy about Palin's verbal punches?

But the saddest thing is that the Moose, pictured above in all it's bloody glory, was praying Palin's bullet would miss. Didn't work. And the moral of that story is, that if Palin's got you her sights, forget praying, shoot back!

Matt Taibbi on Michele Bachmann



Finally, someone in the media tells it like it is! If we can't impeach Bachmann for being an idiot, is it possible to laugh someone out of Congress?

Thanks to Video Cafe.

Reason versus faith


Here it is, in color! The truth. No wonder Baptists and other Christianists are so unreasonable!

Sadly, yes. This sign tells it like it is.


Borrowed with gratitude from Pharyngula.

Republicans: Just go away!


P.M. Carpenter has a great article on Republicans and the budget at Salon. Here's how he sums up his feelings:

"I'll also offer Republicans a little sincere advice: Go away. Just go away for a long, long while. Grab whatever cash you have in the RNC account and hasten thee to a faraway exotic spa, or go on a year-long drunk, or simply hide yourselves at home, shutter the blinds, and shut the f*ck up.

"It's not your critics doing you harm. It's you and your non-budgeting budgets which advocate spending freezes during a deep freeze. It's Dick Cheney running around defending torture and denouncing social progress. It's Sarah Palin babbling about deficiently prayerful McCainites. It's your Cantors and Pences and Boehners looking and sounding goofy. It's Michael Steele strategizing with God but genuflecting before Rush. For those fond of reifying brevity, it can even be just two words: Michele Bachmann."


Read the entire article here.

A day in the life of the President


For eight long years, we had to put up with a president that couldn't swing a golf club and watch his ball; who couldn't, like Jerry Ford, chew gum and walk at the same time; who couldn't speak English if his life depended on it; who didn't read books; who didn't read newspapers; who could barely get through his morning briefing report; who went to bed a 9:00 PM; who had no clue in the morning who the hell he was or where he was!

Compare please: (Courtesy of McClatchy)

"In the past week, President Barack Obama spoke via video to Iranians and, separately, to viewers of a Latin music awards show, appeared on Jay Leno's 'Tonight Show' and on '60 Minutes,' held a prime-time news conference at which he called on several special-audience publications and wrote an opinion column that ran in newspapers around the world.

"He also arranged two events that bypassed the news media, an online 'town hall' and a volunteer door-knocking campaign across the nation to rouse support for his budget."


The difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration is like moving from the 16th century to the 21st in one fell swoop!

Ain't it great?

We have a president with a brain: who's not only intelligent but also competent and energetic and caring. Did I mention intelligent? Brilliant, even?


The entire McClatchy article is here.

How media hyenas join to smear the president



This is from Media Matters.

The Republican Budget - an empty shell

Aw these Congressional Repugnicans!

The other day, President Obama mentioned that for all the Republican crabbing about his budget, "we haven't seen an alternative budget out of them."

Well, they've got one now. Sort of. Weepy John Boehner held up the Republican "answer," a "glossy 18-page book, 'The Republican Road to Recovery,'" and said, "Here it is, Mr. President."

Heh. Heh. McClatchy has pointed out, poignantly, that "the document contained virtually no specifics on spending, taxes or deficit reduction.." Instead, it "was largely a harangue against Democratic policie and a series of statements of long-held Republican principles."

Oh...not to worry. Weepy Boehner said the details will be forthcoming.


Jesus, these people are not only weepy, but creepy!

Or, as Rep. John Spratt, D-SC, said: "It's like being in the era of the Bush administration all over again."

Of course it is. These fools haven't had a creative idea in a century! They don't want national health care; they want to cut spending (by which Repugnicans always mean cut programs that actually help people); they want to drill everywhere for more oil; and they want to cut taxes.

Whoopee!

No wonder they lost the election. I wonder if they realize that yet?

Ban Mormon marriage!

[Photo of Mormon Temple from Dawkins Watch Files]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka the Mormons, has been in the forefront of the campaign to ban gay marriage in California. Mormons have donated $20 million to the effort, and Mormon honchos put up almost $190,000 to help pass Proposition 8.

Why, one wonders, would a Utah-based religious organization care about what people do in California?

Well, because like religionists everywhere, they think they have the right to impose their beliefs on the rest of the population!

According to Tana Ganeva, writing at AlterNet, another "church," the Universal Free Church, which is a amorphous kind of group, has taken umbrage at such goings-on, and has begun a petition to ban Mormon marriage.

Said petition isn't going anywhere, but as Mary Cristos (love that name!) of the UFC Church mentioned, while Mormons can believe anything they so desire, the don't have the right to use their money and power to deny other people their rights!

"Any time you use the tax-exempt wealth and political power of America's religious majority to create any secular law that forces any religious belief on everyone else, that's religious fascism. It's evil, and it violates the 'establishment clause' of the First Amendment."


Ganeva points out we shouldn't tar all Mormons with the same brush; that she personally observed Mormons working against their church's messing with California's legal system. The trouble is they are very much in a minority.

Whether you're religious or not; whether you're a Mormon or not; whether you're gay or not; it seems that in this great land religious facism should be condemned and fought.


Read Ganeva's entire article here.

Earth Hour 2009



This is a good thing...hopefully, everyone will participate.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Water in North Dakota makes legislators crazy

Well, maybe it isn't the water. But something in North Dakota severely compromises intelligent thinking among the legislators in that state.

First they tried to ban all abortions.

Now, a piece of asshat legislation called the Personhood bill, SF 1572 is on the table. It's already passed the North Dakota House and is figured to slide through the Senate easily. And, the governor of the state, while he hasn't said much, is very much against women having any control over their own bodies.

This idiotic, moronic piece of legislation is a mirror image of the piece of crap that Colorado turned down: It will "grant every fertilized egg in the state full rights, and any intentional death of that fertilized egg would constitute murder." That's according to Andy Birkey, writing at rhreality.check.org.

Here's part of the actual wording: "The state shall naturalize all preborn persons and shall afford to them all the privileges and immunities of state citizenship guaranteed in... the Constitution of North Dakota."

Heh. Heh.


Now, whatever else you want to say about this, it is, in fact, a piece of religious bullshit, foisted upon the public by a bunch of rightwingnut christianists of both the Protestant and Catholic variety.

It is RELIGION! It is not science, it is not connected to reality. It is insanity!


Birkey notes that Tim Stanley, who represents Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, is a bit upset. He believes, rightly, I think, that this bill could reverberate and cause all kinds of untold suffering and despair across the country.

The asshat religious fruitcakes in the North Dakota legislature may well have opened a Pandora's Box: "It's possible," said Stanley, that this bill could result in criminal prosecution for women who have a miscarriage. Under this language a miscarriage could be investigated for manslaughter or reckless abandonment."

It gets sillier. A law in the grand state of North Dakota forbids two people from riding a bicycle built for one! If the bill passes, a pregnant woman riding a bike would be breaking the law!


The man behind this garbage is Dan Ruby, a Repugnican from Minot. Ruby spends most of his time worrying that women might do something with their bodies that is forbidden by the Pope. He's 38 years old, a Roman Catholic, has TEN CHILDREN and has a waste disposal business.

Some have called him a serial moron.

His goal, which he has stated clearly, is to rid our country of Roe v. Wade.


If worse comes to worse, under this law a woman's life could be compromised to save a fertilized egg.

That makes a hell of a lot of sense, doesn't it?

I wonder if the Catholics have a hell for serial morons who insist on making their psychotic belief system the law of the land?

Rachel Maddow and Matt Taibbi



Matt Taibbi is one of a few journalists today who tell it straight no matter what the consequences. He is usually right on target and that's why the rightwingnut Repugnicans don't appreciate what he has to say. Common sense doesn't play well in the Repugnican theater of the absurd. For example, Taibbi notes that if an institution is to big too fail, it's too big, period!

Take it away...

Thanks to Video Cafe.

Rachel Maddow and Bryron Dorgan



Nobody's been minding the store. But we knew that! The foxes have been in charge of the hen house for way too many years.

Thanks to Video Cafe.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Right wingnuts and teleprompters

The christianist rightwingnuts' heads have exploded recently about President Obama and his teleprompter.

The accusation is being passed around from one wingnut to another that President Obama cannot think on his feet and cannot say anything that makes sense without having it written down and appearing on his teleprompter. The implication is that some sneaky socialist or commie down in the basement of the White House is somehow incorporating horrible socialist or communist plans in Obama's speeches but does it so effectively the public is not only not aware of it but somehow succumbs to socialism and communism.

I mean we can see this every day. Drive down the street, any street and people will be out waving the banner and sickle yelling about our failing capitalistic system and how only socialism and communism can save us.


What's really funny is that we finally have a president who can, indeed, think on his feet and can do a press conference for god knows how many minutes taking and fielding questions, answering them using big words, with intelligence and wit and irony and satire. Hell, half the press corps doesn't know what he's talking about he's so far over their heads.

Have the right wingnuts forgotten G.W. Bush, who couldn't string three words together in a comprehensible sentence; who thinks the children is reading?

Please: to all the right wingnuts with nothing to say except moronic nonsense, get a life!

What's going on in Kansas?


The answer to that question is "Same old, same old."

Seems a bunch of youngish females out partying in Wichita had a bit too much to drink the other night and when a police officer on a horse checked them out, a friend with a 5 foot-long inflatable penis rammed the police horse, which spooked. By the time this little melee was over two of the women were under arrest. One of them was from McPherson, Kansas, a quiet, quite religious town where such goings on would be mightily frowned upon! I know that for a fact as a number of my very religious relatives come from McPherson!

More importantly, however, there is underway an attempt in the Kansas Legislature to increase the minimum wage in that state. The minimum wage in Kansas has not been raised in 20 years, and now stands at the incredibly high rate of $2.65!!!


Republicans have, as usual, fought any increases. But it looks now like there's a chance. Senate Bill 160 is to be voted on today and there is a possibility it will pass which will mean that 15,000 people in Kansas will be bumped from $2.65 per hour to $7.25 per hour.

Whoopee!

But before you get too excited, ask your self how the hell anyone can live on $7.25 per hour. That's $290 per week, before taxes. That's a whole $15,080 per year, before taxes. You can't pay rent and eat on that kind of money.

Still, some Repugnicans want to keep the minimum wage at $2.65! Figures, right? I mean Jesus said we'll always have poor people around, so why give them a break? Right?

Let 'em join the Army. Or a bread line!

Cantor at concert and lies about it

[Image from Stupid Celebrities.net]

This is kinda silly, but maybe not. Think Progress had a minor piece on the fact that Eric Cantor, House Minority Whip went to a Britney Spears concert the other night at the Verizon Center.

The trouble with Cantor is that he doesn't think very clearly. He doesn't realize that often what goes around, comes around.

You'll recall he has been busily criticizing our president for wasting time on frivolous activities (like signing a bill removing the ban on funding for embryonic stem cell research). We are in a terrible crisis, said Mr. Cantor fiercely with a Repugnican scowl. How dare the president fool with such unnecessary things like stem cell research? He should be fixing the economy, said Cantor.

Heh. Heh.

It doth make one wonder then, doesn't it, how Mr. Cantor can take time off from dealing with the immense and immediate needs of our country to go to a Britney Spears concert? I mean, you can't even claim that is a cultural event!

Not only so, but Mr. Cantor went to the concert on the same night that the president gave a prime-time press conference!

Amanda Terkel, who wrote the article for Think Progress, relates that Cantor's office put out this statement:

"After attending the NRCC dinner, Eric, like President Obama has been known to do, enjoyed a night at the Verizon Center. It was a bipartisan night, as Eric was joined by Senator Landrieu and other Democrats."

'Tis interesting that the statement mentions no other Democrats by name. Maybe Cantor doesn't know or doesn't remember the names of any other Democrats.

Not only so, but the statement was a lie! Yup. Another member of the Family Values caucus creates a falsehood to make himself look better than usual.

"Think Progress spoke with a staffer in Landrieu's office, who said that the senator was indeed not at the concert."


Read Ms. Terkel's article here.

Who the hell is the racist Tammy Bruce

I had never heard of Tammy Bruce. Probably because I don't watch FAUX News. Turns out she's some rightwing nutcase who likes to bash gays, liberals, Democrats, and especially black people - she's been doing it for years.

So the other day, on the Laura Ingraham show, she blasted Michelle Obama in a series of racist rants, calling her trash. We have trash in the White House, said Ms. Bruce.

Normal people will, of course, rightfully consign Ms. Bruce to the trash bin of contemporary society.

Note, however, that Bruce, just like Ingraham, Coulter, Limgaargh, O'Reilly, Hannity, and the certifiably insane Glenn Beck, all claim to represent "family values" and God and Jesus. Now, think: let's assume that these asshats are correct in their religious ideas. They believe in heaven. They think they're going to heaven and the rest of us, well, we're going to the other place.

Compared to that, the "other place" can't be so bad. I mean, would you really want to spend eternity with these kinds of creeps?


Here's a month old taste of Bruce.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Michelle Bachmann want Minnesotans "armed and dangerous"


One wonders what Michelle Bachmann will say next proving beyond all doubt she's probably the most ignorant and stupid member to ever inhabit the halls of Congress.

[What does that say about those Minnesotans who pushed the ballot lever in her favor?]

Think Progress and other sources of truth have recorded and provided Bachmann's latest foray into insanity for all of the world to see and hear.

Last Saturday, in an interview with WWTC 1280 AM, Rep. Blockhead went on a rant:

[She's really pissed at President Obama's cap and trade plan--it would have, she said, "the impact of forever changing our country." I suppose that in her mind it would result in fewer rich people. She is also really, really pissed that some folks think global warming is real!]

Speaking to the issue of global warming, she said: "And actually, we want this debate because the science is on our side on this one. And the science indicates that human activity is not the cause of all this global warming. And that in fact, nature is the cause, with solar flares, etc." [The "science" she refers to is the Book of Genesis!]

But, as TP points out, Bachmann isn't satisfied to merely oppose any relevant legislation. She went on:

"And really now in Washington, I'm a foreign correspondent in enemy lines. And I try to keep everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington. [...]

"I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us, having a revolution every now and then is a good thing, and the people -- we the people -- are going to have to fight back hard if we're not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States."


So, a batshit crazy Representative to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota, not only denies the real causes of global warming, she also accuses the President of trying to change the country forever [whatever that means], and is calling for the people of Minnesota to arm themselves because we may have to instigate an armed revolution against the administration in order to "save" our country.

I guess Chuck Norris and Glenn Beck agree with her as they're busy putting together "cells" of revolution in Texas and elsewhere.


If you had told me that our airwaves and our Congress would be infested with these nutcases 20-30 years BR [Before Reagan), I would have told you you were out of your mind.

It's all so sad, though, when we really need to come together as a country and work together to accomplish badly-needed reforms and try to fix the wrongs that have resulted from the Bush/Cheney wrecking crew.


Here's Bachmann running off at the mouth about the poor rich people.

Newt Gingrich concerned God-lover

[Image from viiphoto.com]

Heh, heh. You gotta laugh. Newt Gingrich is running around pretending he cares about religion, Jesus Christ, who saved his worthless soul, ethics, morals, and the danger of our country going SECULAR!

The is the same asshat who worked to impeach President Clinton for lying while he was simultaneously carrying on an affair with a woman who would become his THIRD wife!


Rob Boston, at Talk 2 Action, eviscerates Gingrich the clown, in an article entitled "He's Baaaaaack!: Newt Gingrich Slithers Out From Under A Rock - Again."

Evidently, old Newt gave an interview to a U.S. News & World Report blogger by name of Dan Gilgoff and Gilgoff wondered why Gingrich was fiddling around with Religious Right causes when he has never been much concerned about Religious Right stuff before.

Newt said: "'I think it's that the overtness of the assault on religious liberty has risen dramatically. It was the 9th Circuit Court's decision [in 2002] that was the last straw.' (Gingrich is referring here to the infamous "under God" case.) He added, 'It's time to challenge head-on secular domination in the West.'"

Newt's worried about his grandchildren who might end up living in a godless society that has kicked God out of public schools and "are now antireligious centers of propaganda."

We're in a crisis, says old Newt. Yup. The secularists are coming. God is leaving. Omigod!


Well, we all know Newt is full of crap. Always has been, and always will be. He's got the morals and ethics of a snake.

Boston, I think, puts his finger on the real issue: Gingrich is looking to reincarnate himself as some kind of political leader. So he's climbed in bed (again) with the Religious Right, thinking he needs the support of the ungodly godly to get wherever it is he wants to go.

Boston says, "Part of Gingrich's new crusade, of course, is to save us from those pesky gays who would destroy marriage by seeking the right to get married themselves. Newt as the savior of marriage? That is rich.

"Remember, this is the guy who told his first wife he was divorcing her while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer. In 1999, he dumped his second wife for a congressional aid 23 years his junior, a woman, who according to some accounts, he had been involved with since 1993. Newt's so pro-marriage he's had three of them!"


And that's only part of the Newt Gingrich story of moral and ethical collapse. That anyone would take this clown seriously is beyond belief! Somebody should read to him the Constitution, too, so that he might realize this is, indeed, a secular nation and was meant to be so from the very beginning.

Oh, one last thing: Newt also pretends to be an historian! Heh. Heh.

UPDATE: See Video below for more on this hypocritcal asshat!

Hey Jindal! Breaking news!

[Mt. Redoubt photo from Anchorage Daily News]

Yup. The Anchorage Daily News reports today that Mount Redoubt, after "roaring to life Sunday and Monday, blasting a column of ash and steam almost 12 miles above Cook inlet," has undergone another more minor eruption this morning.

Mount Redoubt's been blowing its top. No problem, though according to the Repugnican nogoodnik governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. I'm not sure if he even knows we have volcanoes in the United States.

You remember, in his "rebuttal" (Ha!) to Obama's address to Congress, nogoodnik Jindal "singled out '$140 million for something called "volcano monitoring"' as an example of out-of-control federal spending." He said, with that disgusting smirk, "Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C."

Well, really. First of all, it's become commonplace for christianist wingnuts to lie through their teeth about anything or anyone Democratic, and especially about President Obama. And these are the religious clowns who claim you've got to believe in their god and their holy book in order to have any ethics or morals.

Not really! So Jindal, who if he didn't know better, should have, speaketh ill of Obama and the budget not knowing he's blowing hot air and looking like a fool? Maybe. But again, maybe he knew damn well we need volcano monitoring in this country and being a good Repugnican simply stuck to Repugnican talking points, truth and honesty be damned.


Here's the truth: The $140 million was for "repair and restoration of a variety of USGS science facilities and laboratories.

NPR.org notes that "Only a fraction of that money would be spent on monitoring volcanoes," maybe $15.6 million or so."

Marianne Guffanti with the U.S. Geological Survey says that monitoring volcanoes is extremely important (hear that, Jindal?) because "We are one of the most volcanically active countries in the world. We have nearly 170 volcanoes that are either active or capable of reawakening."


Erupting volcanoes are very dangerous, especially for airplanes. "In 1989, a full[y]-loaded Boeing 747 jumbo jet was flying over Alaska when an ash cloud suddenly appeared and all four engines suddenly stalled out, causing the plane to fall dangerously close to the mountains that surround Anchorage before the engines could be restarted. That ash came from Mount Redoubt."

Life repeats itself. Mount Redoubt has spewed all kinds of ash into the atmosphere and everyone who knows anything is thanking the gods that we had volcano monitoring. It was because of volcano monitoring that the U.S. Geological Survey at the Alaska Volcano Observatory was given due warning and was able to warn others.

Especially pilots. And every pilot that flies the Alaska skies is a big fan of volcano monitoring. In fact hundreds of flights in and out of Alaska have been canceled because the USGS was able to get word out in time - before they flew into danger!


I think, in order to teach the christianist wingnut from Louisiana a little lesson, we should no longer provide hurricane information to that state! Hah! Who needs the Weather Service anyway, right Jindal?

Nah, we could not and would not do that! Unlike the wingnut, we have ethics and morals. And to take away advance hurricane warning from Louisiana wouldn't hurt the wingnut anyway, 'cause he'd be ensconced in some underground bunker; it would only hurt the people of Louisiana.

Still...

Time to call the Bushites to account - DC NY


Millions of people in the United States and the world over feel it is past time to call George W. Bush and his administration to account for criminal misconduct. Unfortunately, President Obama does not appear to be interested in such an endeavor and there seems insufficient support in Congress.

Obama believes, I think, that it is best to let sleeping does lie, but that is not so in this case. Perhaps the lack of support in Congress derives from the fear that many members of Congress may find themselves implicated in the Bushites nefarious schemes.

Distributor Cap NY recently posted an article called "Collective Guilt." In this article DC lays out the case for a an investigation of Bush, his administration, and his minions who went blithely about lying to the American people as they turned our laws upside down and ran our country into the ground.

DC says: "There is little doubt in any sane, rationale (sic) or thinking person's mind that the Bush Junta Administration is guilty of many, many, many (did I say many) egregious, felonious and treasonous violations of American and International law. A small sample includes (in no particular order):

* Lying [to] the American people to start the Iraq War
* No bid contracts to Halliburton and other Bush favorites
* Politicization and hiring practices in the Justice Department
* Torture
* Private Armies
* Illegal wiretaps
* Holding prisoners without charging them of crimes - shipping them off US territory to avoid US law
* Abuses at Abu Graibh and violations of the Geneva Convention


What DC posits, and I agree with him, we need a thorough and complete investigation into these and other criminal and unlaw acts of the Bush administration, because "no matter what ideas, plans and bailouts Obama embarks on, we will never be able to regain the psychological wherewithal as a nation to heal, grow and finally, like Gerry Ford said, move on. Never. I hate to sound cliche - but the truth will set you free."

DC continues on to suggest there are several historical parallels, such as the Nuremberg Trials, which can point the way for us to proceed.


But if looks like we are going to have to prod the Obama administration and OUR elected leaders in Washington to get off their duffs and take action...


Read it all here.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Word from the old rich guy himself

The Pope, Poverty, AIDS and Africa


I'm going to tell you a story:

Once upon a time, a very rich, old man with his own country inside of another country lived in a huge, beautiful castle which was adorned with much gold, precious paintings, and thousands of priceless artifacts.

Although he was not married, he was surrounded by many other old and young men, most of whom wore skirted robes like the very rich, old man.

These men all worshiped a Jewish guy who died over 2,000 years earlier, and the castle was dedicated to this Jewish guy, named Yeshua or Joshua, or in Greek, Jesus. According to the tales written down in a collection of ancient books, Jesus was never married, so perhaps that's the reason these men do not marry. This is strange, because one would also think that all the men in this group, known as Roman Catholics, would also have to be Jews. But that is not the case. In fact, the group has actively persecuted and killed Jews over the years and even today many of these men do not like Jews. And they claim to worship a Jew. It's a conundrum.

While they are all supposed to be celibate and virgins, stories have come out that a goodly number of them have mistresses and others like to have sex with other men, even though having mistresses and having sex with other men are forbidden by their Jesus; or so they claim. Quite a few of them like having sex with very young children -- mostly boys -- and that has caused some problems in the church, especially when it was discovered that almost all the big cheeses in the church had, for years, tried to cover up the fact that the skirted men were abusing little boys and girls.

The old rich man is called pope, and he is the biggest of the big cheeses in this group that worships the Jesus person, who they claim is God. The pope seems obsessed with sex, as he insists not only that the other men cannot get married, but that all people who worship Jesus in the way the Pope does cannot have sex outside of marriage and cannot use any contraceptive devices.

The pope, who is very rich and lives in his own castle in his own country within another country, is so serious about this anti-contraception business that he will not allow his people to use condoms even though it has been proven condoms can save lives.


One day not too long ago, the pope and a number of his skirted minions flew off in luxury jets to visit the continent of Africa where there are a growing number of Roman Catholics. Many of the people in Africa are very poor. Many of the people in Africa have a terrible disease called AIDS.

Before he went to Africa, the pope made it clear to all Catholics as well as everyone else that he was opposed to the use of condoms. When someone pointed out to the old, very rich man, who lives in a castle in his own country within another country, that condoms could help stop the spread of AIDS in Africa, he became quite upset, religiously upset, and not only insisted that condoms were forbidden, but that, in fact, condoms were "aggravating the spread of AIDS."

No one knows where he got that information. It is not in his holy book, and it can't be found anywhere else, so many people think the pope made it up and criticised him for making a false statement.


When the pope got to Africa, he again stated condoms were bad and Jesus would not like them, and Catholics must not use them, and if some people got AIDS and died, oh well, that's just too bad, but one cannot defy the church's rules and go to heaven and live forever with Jesus and the popes!

It is ironic, as many have noted, that this very old, very rich, celibate man believes he has the right to tell other people what to do with their sex lives.

Then the pope, who is very rich and lives in a castle in his own country within another country, talked about poverty. Now, there are a lot of nasty people in the world, and some of them pointed out the irony of this very rich old man, who lives...well, you know, calling for Africans to do something about their poverty. I mean, he does live in a castle with much gold and all that other stuff.

Even more ironic was his call for African leaders to confront corruption. Everyone knows that his own group, the Roman Catholic Church, is a leader in the corruption field. In fact, some say that the Roman Catholic Church is the most corrupt organization in the world at the present time.


You may think I'm deliberately mocking the Roman Catholic Church and the very rich old man who lives in a castle in his own country within another country, and that may be true, but everything I've said so far is true, too!

But now something quite humorous has occurred. The Italian Catholic Church (Italy being the country within which the very rich, old man's own country is located) became very angry with people like me who dared to criticize or point out some of ironies mentioned above.

In fact, Italy's senior bishop (that's another very rich, old, celibate man who runs around wearing dresses, talking about sex) said angrily: "We will not accept the pope being made the object of mockery and offence, in the media or elsewhere."

Wow. You can see he was religiously pissed off!

Then Bishop Angelo Bagnasco went on to say: "He [the pope] represents for everyone a moral authority, which this journey has made people appreciate even more."


Well, I think Bagnasco is wrong. First of all, no cares what he thinks. And he can object all he wants to mockery and offence of the pope in the media or wherever, but it doesn't matter. He can't tell the media or anyone what they can do or say.

Also, to say the pope "represents for everyone a moral authority" is just silly. I mean, c'mon. He's just a very rich, celibate old man, who wears a dress and lives in a castle in his own country within another country and who presides over one of the most corrupt institutions in the world. How can he represent anyone's "moral authority."


I think Bagnasco is wrong. I think the pope is wrong. They have no moral authority whatsoever.

Anyone who would try to ban condoms knowing such a ban means the death of thousands, perhaps millions of human beings, cannot claim moral authority.

Finally, I have to say I've read a little bit about this Jesus guy, and this very rich, celibate old man who wears dresses and lives in luxury in his own castle in his own country within another country, doesn't resemble the Jewish guy at all.

The lies of the Bushites brought us where?


If President Obama does not wish to go back and take care of old business, if he refuses to deal with the lies of the Bush administration relative to 9/11, Iraq, torture, etc., he is wrong. The future cannot be secured without staunching the bleeding wounds of the past, for the pain remains. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and all the nogoodniks who, through their chicanery, brought our country to its knees, need to be held accountable and justice must be served.

Leftist Grandpa has an excellent piece detailing some of the lies told to the American people by the Bush administration that have brought US involvement in Iraq to its present quagmire. And no, no matter what anyone says, we have not won the war and we are not, winning the war!

It begins with this quote:

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." - Dick Cheney, Vice President, in a speech to the VFW National Convention - 8/26/02

It continues with this quote:

"The president of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would not assert as plainly and bluntly as they have that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction if it was not true, and if they did not have a solid basis for saying it." - Ari Fleischer, Press Secretary in response to a question from the press - 12/4/02.

And it ends with this quote:

"I think the burden is on those people who think he didn't have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are." - Ari Fleischer, Press Secretary at a press briefing - 7/9/2003.

And there is much more in between!


Read it all here.

Christian ethics at Fayetteville Christian School


It's not supposed to be this way. You know, "everyone says" that you have to believe in God or be a Christian to have ethics and morals and follow the rules. Unbelievers, "everyone says," live only for themselves, and because there's no hell, they do anything they want because they aren't afraid of burning eternally.

Actually, "everyone" doesn't say those things. But you will find them said by many, if not most, Christian apologists. The fact that they are not true doesn't seem to matter. The fact that studies indicate quite clearly that they are not true is not taken seriously.

The "fact" of the matter is that when it comes to living ethically and morally, Christians or religious people behave no better than anyone else. In some cases, their behavior is worse.

One glaring example is the "fact" that evangelical Christians get divorced more frequently than any other group; and much more frequently than atheists.


Here's another example from North Carolina. Fayetteville Christian school in Fayetteville, North Carolina, will be taking away student's cell phones when they arrive at school, putting them in plastic bags, and returning them to students at the end of the school day.

What? Why would they do that?

Well, it seems that some of these "Christian" students have used their cell phones to cheat on exams - they've been texting the answers to test questions to their friends!

Omigod! You might expect something like this is a public school, but certainly not in a school where everyone loves Jesus!


The school, being a christianist school, plans to put the fear of God back into these little rascals! If you get caught with a cell phone, you'll have to spend a Saturday working at the school. You'll also have to pay a $25 fine. Do it again, and they may throw you out!

"That's a hell of a way to treat us," whined one student. (Nah, I just made that up.)


You can read all about Fayetteville Christian School here.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Veterans in Miami find out no one's responsible anymore

This is such a sad and sick story. From McClatchy.

The office of Kendrick Meek, US Rep. from south Florida, put out a statement noting that "Veterans who got colonoscopies through the Miami VA medical system are at risk of being infected with hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV through the procedure... "

Evidently whoever was in charge neglected to ensure that the medical equipment used in those colonoscopies was cleaned properly--according to the manufacturer's instructions.

This did not just happen one time. This failure to clean instruments properly went on from May 2004 to the present.

Some 3,260 veterans are involved!

The Veterans Administration has sent letters to most of the veterans urging them to come in for blood tests, but the VA has not been able to locate 700 vets who have moved out of the area.

Fortunately, so far as the VA knows, no one has been infected.

Read this mea culpa from Miami VA director, Mary D. Berrocal, in a letter to the veterans: "As a result of a manufacturer's alert and our review of endoscopy procedures, we have become aware of a potential health risk. Although we believe that this risk is minimal, we would like to provide you with additional information and follow-up care."

Would that comfort you, knowing the risk was "minimal"?


How can this kind of thing happen? I think part of the reason is that we live in an increasingly dog-eat-dog world (as evidenced by the Wall Street fiasco) and few people care enough about other people to do their jobs properly, even if other people's lives are at stake.

Perhaps a more impertinent question is this: How can this happen in a country where 90% of the population claim to believe in God, and where close to half claim to attend worship on a weekly basis, and whole bunches have given their lives to Jesus? Some of the religious must work for the Miami VA. The bad guys can't all be atheists, can they?

Texas wingnut Don McLeroy on the march

We've written before about the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, Don McLeroy, the christianist wingnut dentist.

McLeroy is endorsing a new book called Sowing Atheism: The National Academy of Sciences' Sinister Scheme to Teach Our Children They've Descended from Reptiles by Robert Bowie Johnson Jr., who just happened to "self-publish" the book.

In this book students in science classes in Texas will learn, according to the Texas Freedom Network, that "Scientists are 'atheists.' Parents who want to teach their children about evolution are 'monsters.' Pastors who support sound science are 'morons.'"


This would be hilarious if it wasn't so damn serious. How does a wingnut like McLeroy get to hold the position of chairman of any state board of education?

And again, all of this is an attempt to impose and install fundamentalist christianity into our public schools.

From the book: "Creationists do not want to bring religion into the classroom... Creationists simply want the God hypothesis brought back into the science classroom, and recognized for what it is--a scientifically valid hypothesis."

Heh, heh!

The "God hypothesis" is not "religion," according to this fruitcake!


TFN summarizes: "As bizzarre and abrasive as some of these ideas may be [in the book], clearly any yahoo with a half-baked idea can write and self-publish a book. That is not the important point here. The real issue is the inability of the chair of the Texas State Board of Education to distinguish between legitimate, mainstream science - a represented by the National Academy of Sciences - and a lone crackpot with an openly religious agenda."

I disagree to some degree. I think the chair of the Texas State Board of Education can distinguish quite clearly the difference between "legitimate mainstream science" and "a lone crackpot with an openly religious agenda."

I think the real point and the real problem is that the chair of the Texas State Board of Education cares not about science and students in Texas schools, but is doing everything in his power to ensure that his particular brand of fundamentalist christianity has a gateway to spread its pernicious doctrines in Texas schools.


Read the entire article here.

h/t to Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly via Alternet.

"Be silent!" said the Texas teacher

[This image can be found here. These are school boys engaged in prayer at an Islamic school in Nigeria. This is exactly what the christianist wingnuts would like to see in the U.S. public schools; the only difference is the god to whom they pray!]

Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist tipped me to this one.

The story goes like this. "A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a district court ruling, saying the law is constitutional because it expressly allows for any silent use of the period, either religious or nonreligious.

"The 2003 law allows children to 'reflect, pray, meditate or engage in any other silent activities' for one minute at the beginning of each school day.'"


My first thought is that the nitwits who thought up this "moment of silence" have never been in a classroom. The challenge for many teachers has to do with the monumental task of getting the kiddos into their [proper and assigned] seat!

Moment of silence, indeed!

Secondly, this whole business is just another ploy by the christianist wingnuts to sneak prayer into our public schools. Public schools have NEVER outlawed prayer. I've known many students who prayed before class, before a test, before lunch, and before a football game. They did it silently and unobtrusively and no one EVER questioned their right to do so.

So, why do we need a "moment of silence"?

We don't - not in Texas, not in Florida, not in New York, not anywhere!


Actually, it could end up a real problem, if some of the more intelligent kids put this moment of silence to good use. For example, as long as they were silent, for one minute they could:

1. Stand up and play with a yoyo.
2. Use hand-signals to communicate with a student across the room.
3. Males could pull the hair of a girl sitting in front of them.
4. Girls could put on make-up, comb their hair, make sure their lipstick is not all over their faces.
5. Text-message on a cell phone.
6. Draw graffiti in a text book.
7. Sneak notes to other people in the room.
8. Go to sleep (without snoring).
9. Daydream.
10. Study for the quiz (which I always gave first thing every morning).
11. Make goofy faces at a friend in the next row.
12. Pretend to tear up one's homework.
13. Plan one's afterschool activities.
14. Stare at the teacher with an amused expression.
15. Stare at the teacher with a bored expression.
16. Stare at the teacher with an angry expression.

I'm sure there are many more creative ways that students can use this blessed "moment of silence," thanks to the asshats in the Texas Legislature who know from nothing about public schools but are driven to try to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us!

Finally! Action on global warming!

Bruce Niles, writing for the Sierra Club and picked up by AlterNet, describes "a leaked Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) document" indicating "that the agency 'is fast-tracking its response to the Supreme Court's 2007 climate decision with plans to issue a mid-April finding that global warming threatens both public health and welfare.'"

The nay-sayers, hopefully, have had their day. For eight long, benighted years, the administration of Bush/Cheney not only denied the facts of global warming, but neglected to take any substantial steps to mitigate the problem. There will be, I'm afraid, a terrible price to pay for this neglect.

And while there may not yet be light on the horizon, there is a small glimmer of hope. As Niles says, "this action by EPA will set the stage for the first-ever national regulation of CO2 in US history."


Background: On April 2, 2007, the Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA, determined that CO2 (carbon dioxide) "was a pollutant under the Clean Air Act" and "ordered EPA to determine whether CO2 endangered public health or welfare, and, if so, to begin regulating CO2.

"The Bush administration unlawfully ignored the decision for nearly two years, continuing its long campaign of denial, obfuscation, and foot-dragging on global warming and other key environmental issues."


The Obama administration is moving to correct this insanity and it looks like this particular aspect of our long national nightmare might be over!


You can read the entire article here.

Rachel Maddow & Deregulation


Rachel lets go on the subject of deregulation; it is wonderful to finally have someone on the tube who has a grasp on the truth, who isn't afraid to speak it and who doesn't pull her punches.

Kudos to Video Cafe.

For an even more detailed and significant analysis of the problem, read Matt Taibbi's article from Rolling Stone here. Taibbi is one of the few real investigative journalists left in the world!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Harming the environment is no idle threat

[Image from SodaHead.com]

Sierra magazine, March/April 2009 issue, p. 14:

Idling cars are an economic and an environmental disaster.

How many times have you sat in line for several minutes at a bank or fast-food drive-through and wondered how much gas you were wasting? Perhaps you even thought of the possible environmental damage the idling cars was causing?

Idling is costly, in several ways: "Every hour you idle, you waste up to 0.7 gallons of gas (depending on your engine type) going nowhere. So it pays to turn your engine off if you're going to be still for more than 30 seconds.

"In a given year, U.S. cars burn some 1.4 billion gallons of fuel just idling. Not to mention idling trucks, which waste another 1.5 billion gallons. Collectively, we emit about 58 million tons of carbon dioxide while we're essentially doing nothing."

Whether one goes to McDonald's or Wendy's or Burger King or another fast-food outlet, it takes on average close to 2 1/2 minutes to get your order and be on your way. McDonald's consumers alone account for burning more than 7.25 million gallons of gas waiting in line!

The entire fast-food industry? We waste about 50 million gallons of gas!


All of that is bad enough. But we're spreading our lazy, wastrel habits to the rest of the world which bodes nothing but ill for the future. "...McDonald's plans to open 25 drive-throughs in China, following KFC's lead. KFC installed its first drive-through there in 2002 and is working on 100 more. If China and India, which is also jumping aboard the drive-through bandwagon, get up to speed, they can idle away a truly staggering figure: 30 billion gallons of gas. Every year."

Yikes!

Florida wingnuts want control over women's bodies

It never ends in Florida. The rightwingnuts, most of which are also crazy christianists, and Repugnicans, continue to try to impose their religious beliefs, not only on our science classes, but also on our sexual activities.

Part and parcel of the legislative agenda of these rightwingnut christianists is to control what women do with their bodies.

The anti-abortion crowd never gives up and when one door closes, they sneak around the hallowed halls of Tallahassee to find another that might be unlocked.

Now they want to "require women seeking an abortion to get an ultrasound exam and have the option to view the scan. ... "

A similar resolution was defeated last year in the state Senate by a 20-20 vote!


Like I said, the nutcases never quit. So, we're fighting the same battle this year. Now, the rightwingnut christianists are all Repugnicans, so that tells you something right away. And they, like John Boehner, can get all teary as they explain that this is for the good of Florida's women everywhere, and the only reason they want this law is to help the poor, benighted women of Florida who don't seem to be able to think for themselves, blah, blah, blah.

That's all horse-hockey, of course. They don't give a damn about women or what women want! They are Mel Gibson in legislative suits!

This measure is simply another way to get a foot in the door in their attempt to restrict abortions in the state of Florida. They think, in their mealy-minded, christianist, Old Testament godly sort of way, that if a woman has to look at an ultra-sound of the fetus, she will all of a sudden reject the abortion option.

Not only so, but they also think that they, in their legislative wisdom, sitting in seats of power in the statehouse, have the right to tell women what's best for them.


This measure is a slap in the face of every woman in Florida! It says that not only do men know best what women want and what women should do with their bodies, but that fat old Repugnican christianist rightwingnuts in Tallahassee have the right to impose the will of their god on every woman in Florida!

At the present time, there is nothing whatsoever that would forbid a pregnant woman to have an ultrasound. At the present time, however, that decision is made by the woman and her doctor. The way it should be.

Florida Repugnican christianist rightwingnut legislators want to have the power to make that decision for every woman of child-bearing age in the Sunshine State.

My hope is the women of Florida will rise en masse and tell the good ol' boys in Tallahassee to go to hell!