Rick Santorum's going down!

I grew up in a fundamentalist Protestant home. Back in the days, there wasn't an evangelical in sight who would vote for a Roman Catholic. Roman Catholics were not Christians! Everyone knew that!

There wasn't an evangelical in the entire universe who would vote for a Mormon. My god, Mormonism was a cult of the worst kind. Mormons were strange people who believed in all kinds of strange things, who were out two by two sucking people into the deep crags of their perverse religion.

It wasn't just that Mormons were not Christians by any stretch of the imagination, they were dangerous.

How times change.


In Iowa, supposedly the mother lode of evangelicals, a Mormon wins the caucuses with a Roman Catholic close behind.

You can put money on the fact that the religious folks of my youth are turning over in their graves. Actually, they're probably knocking the lids from their coffins trying to get out and right the terrible wrongs that have been done.

Iowa, they are dead sure, spells disaster.

Not that these evangelicals of my youth would have preferred a Democrat or even a specific Democrat such as Barack Obama for president, but it would be a close call if their only choices were a Mormon and a Catholic!


In this essay, I'm going to rip into the Roman Catholic candidate, Rick Santorum. Santorum is not of this world. His is the world of the 16th century. Or maybe even the 4th century. Santorum would be burning heretics at the stake. Santorum would be heading up the Inquisition. Santorum, you see, really believes in Holy Mother Church and all the doctrinal crap that flows out of the Vatican into the rivers of ecclesiastical latrines (aka churches). He would, if he could, turn the United States into a Roman Catholic diocese because that's what God wants!!!!

He's just as crazy as Pat Robertson on the other end of the religious spectrum.

Igor Volsky, writing at Think Progress, has put together a list of 10 of the Santorum's most egregious statements. In case you were thinking I'm a little too hard on Ricky from Pennsylvania, read on!

* First of all, Ricky just hates same-sex marriage! God, you see, hates homosexuality. (Ricky can't quite understand how his god could actually create humans who are homosexual, so it's not God's problem, but the homos' problem 'cause they chose to be the way they are!)

So, Ricky says, as president, he will annul all same-sex marriages. (Being less than bright, he doesn't understand that a president does not have that power). He's going to annul these marriages because he thinks gay marriage is a terrible aberration, and a cause of our economic crisis. Yep!  Not only so, but religious folks like himself, have the "right to discriminate against gays." Ricky said, "We have a right the Constitution of religious liberty [sic] but now the courts have created a super-right that's above a right that's actually in the Constitution, and that's of sexual liberty. And I think that's a wrong that's a destructive element."

Huh? Do you get the impression that he has no idea as to what the hell he's talking about but simply trying to mouth Roman Catholic inanities and gets it all screwed up.


* Ricky likes income inequality! The rich folks, as we all know, have worked very hard their whole lives to accumulate masses of money and they did this without any help from anybody and therefore we should applaud them and help them protect their massive fortunes. Poor people, on the other hand, obviously don't work hard at all and therefore they are not ever going to be rich!  So screw 'em!

So much for the American dream. Thanks a lot, Ricky!


* Ricky, being an ultra-conservative Roman Catholic (who believes everything the Vatican tells him) must also believe that all non-Catholics are going to burn forever in hell. That, my evangelical Iowans, means you!

Ultra-conservative Roman Catholics (of which there is a dwindling supply, (thank the gods) tout the Papal line that sex is only for procreation and never for recreation and therefore ALL FORMS OF BIRTH CONTROL are illegitimate! That's another of Ricky's sacred beliefs. As Mr. Volsky has pointed out, "Santorum has pledged to repeal all federal funding for contraception and allow the states to outlaw birth control, insisting that 'it's a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.'"

Damn! Did we just return to the Dark Ages? Where did this clown come from? Something like 98% of all Roman Catholics use birth control 'cause they are aware those funny old guys in white collars and skirts don't know what the hell they're talking about!


* Ricky would also defend and return to the policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the military because when he thinks of all those gay soldiers showering together...well, he gets all excited.  I mean, really,  gays dropping soap in the shower would disrupt the whole military enterprise! "[...] they're in close quarters they live with people, they obviously shower with people."

Oh my god! Let it go, Ricky. You'll feel better if you do.


* Needless to say, this paragon of virtuous claptrap opposes abortion for any reason. But, his dumbness really shines through at times. He was on a Christian TV program last January and mentioned that it surprised him President Obama didn't know when life began (at the moment of conception, for those of you who haven't gotten the latest word from the far-right). And the surprising thing is that Obama should know that because he is black. "I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, 'now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people."  Wait a minute.  Obama's half white.  Maybe if his skin was a bit lighter, he would know who are and who aren't people.  Whatcha think, Ricky?


* If you're obese, Santorum does NOT have your back. You're kind of like a queer - you could be different if you wanted to but you don't want to, so you're fat and you don't deserve things like food stamps! Ricky, the lover of the Catholic god, plans, once he's "the man" to "significantly reduce federal funding for food stamps..."


* We mentioned that Rick will not support abortion for any reason; no exceptions for rape, incest, to protect the life of mothers, etc. No exceptions. None. God told him so. Let 'em die! Let 'em carry the child of a retarded, vicious killer to term and deal with it! What the hell, they're gonna burn in hell, anyway! Exceptions, says Ricky, are "phony"!


* Ricky hates Obamacare. Exactly why he hates Obamacare when it is built on Republican ideas, is hard to understand. But he does and he claims that his daughter who was born with a genetic defect "wouldn't survive in a country with 'socialized medicine.'" That's because he's afraid other children would be treated prior to and more effectively than his daughter.

Yes, he's quite crazy!


* Another of Ricky's crazy statements has to do with cell phones and health care. People who spend money on cable TV and cell phones should stop crabbing about the high cost of health care. Get rid of those luxuries so you can continue to pay outrageous sums to insurance companies and purveyors of drugs!


* And, finally, tied to the above, is Santorum's notion that insurance companies should have the right to discriminate against people who have pre-existing conditions. And if you're sick, you need to pay higher prices for your health care, 'cause you're costing the insurance companies more money.


Here's a few additional notes to add to your list as to why Santorum belongs in a sanitarium and not in the White House:

He disbelieves in the scientific theory that underlies all scientific study, evolution.

He disbelieves in climate change/global warming even though climate change is not a matter of "belief." Climate change is not up for debate. It's the reality we live with.

He thinks all undocumented immigrants are criminals and should be treated as such.

Iraq was a godly war.

The Crusades represented Christian and American values.

We are obliged to make the United States into a Christian (read Catholic) nation!


Well, there you have it: Rick Santorum in a nutshell, and I use the word NUTshell purposely. No doubt his life would have been much more fulfilling if he had lived in the 16th century rather than now. Now, he's bound by the Constitution and laws so he cannot enforce his Roman Catholic beliefs on the rest of us. It is doubtful, in my opinion, that he would ever get elected president, but he'd probably be a wonderful Republican candidate to run against Obama.

Get out there and nominate him, you Republicans!

You can read all of Igor Volsky's article here.

Pat Robertson knows 'cause God told him! You betcha!

Pat Robertson says God has told him who the next president will be -- but it's a secret.

The televangelist revealed on Tuesday that he had spent the nearly a week in prayer, asking God to "show me something."

"I think He showed me the next president, but I’m not supposed to talk about that," Robertson explained. "So I’ll leave you in the dark -- probably just as well -- I think I’ll know who it will be.  God, who obviously isn't a Democratic voter, told Robertson that President Barack Obama had "a radical view of the future of this country."

"Your president holds a radical view of the direction of your country which is at odds with the majority, expect chaos and paralysis," God reportedly said.

"The future of the world is at stake because if America falls, there’s no longer a strong champion of freedom and a champion of the oppressed of the world. There must be an urgent call to prayer. The Lord said, a time of maximum stress and peril, greater than at any time since the CBN ministry began. This country will begin disintegrating."

Robertson recalled that since his CBN ministry began in 1960, there had been several wars and a presidential assassination.

"He is saying you will have worse stress than before. So I’m saying, 'God, let me give you some suggestions and you tell me if any of them is right, pick one,'" Robertson explained. "I said, 'Is it an EMP blast? No that isn’t it. Is it a cosmic or solar or radiation blast? No. Is it Mayan galaxy alignment? No. Is it Iranian or North Korean nuclear threat? No. Is it an earthquake or a volcano? No. Is it a massive power failure? No.'"

"What is it? It’s an economic collapse," the conservative leader finally disclosed. "And God said, 'This is not my judgment, they are bringing it upon themselves.'"

Thanks to David at Crooks & Liars for the above video and commentary!


I know this Robertson nonsense has been all over the Internet and the MSM, but I think there's more to be said and at least one question to be asked.

Why, after Robertson has made a complete ass of himself over and over again down through the years, does anyone bother to report the crap that spews out of his mouth?

I say this without trepidation or fear of contradiction:  Pat Robertson is certifiably insane!  And that's just on the face of things.  There is something really crazy about an adult male who believes (or who claims to believe) that an imaginary person "up" there somewhere talks to him and confides important information to him and to no one else - well, maybe a few others.  Bachmann must have got her wires crossed, 'cause she has now dropped out of the race which God wanted her to win.  And Rick Perry, the moronic Texan, who also claimed God had told him he should run for president, didn't do very well in Iowa.  He's gonna carry on, though, waste a few more million dollars, and convince even die-hard Republicans he's dumber than a hoof on one of his Texas Longhorns!

Robertson is nuts and parades the fact proudly in front of the whole world and people still tune him in and send him money and so desperately need to have someone tell them what to do they bow down and kiss his proverbial ass every time he opens his mouth!

There is no god up there telling Robertson anything. Where are the men in the white jackets when we need them? We really needed them in 2003 when George Bush got the word from God and invaded Iraq and destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives at a cost of over a trillion dollars for no good reason whatsoever. (He thought he had a good reason and it had nothing to do with WMD, it had to do with Iraqi oil which he wanted to secure for his friends in the oil bizness!)

Robertson is not really a threat anymore because a majority of Republicans are even crazier than he is!  They are the real threat!  When you have a 16th century Roman Catholic like Santorum going around talking about outlawing birth control, you know crazy when you hear it!  When Republicans in state legislatures around the country introduce laws which would replace the teaching of evolution with religious crapola from the Hebrew bible, the problems increase exponentially.  Evolution is the foundation of knowledge today; it is the greatest theory of the structure of life ever discovered.  But people who think that evolution teaches their ancestors were monkeys get all upset and then act in ways that indicate their ancestors weren't smart enough yet to become monkeys!  When you recognize that the Republican Party has turned into a version of Robertson's 700 Club, you realize that the danger of a theocracy becomes more real with every ounce of power the party is given. 

Robertson is still dangerous, though.  His law school is where Michele Bachmann got her degree and her notion that the law of God as she interprets it trumps the Constitution every time!

One final thought:  Robertson is a very rich man, which means he isn't going to get into heaven.  It's impossible, said Jesus, for a rich man to enter the Kingdom.  But he's still laughing all the way to the bank.  Fortunately, for us, money is not a critical issue, so...

Perhaps the best thing we can do is laugh at the nitwit.  Ignorance has obviously paid off for him (along with some diamond trading chicanery a few years ago) and he isn't going away until "the Lord takes him home."

Oh, Lord, we've waited so long.  Not that we wish him ill, but could you hurry the process a bit?

Don't let reason & evidence interfere with what you want to believe!

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

The GOP & Healthcare...A high point of hypocrisy!

If you've paid attention to what the Republican wingnuts running for public office have to say relative to what they disparagingly call "Obamacare," you would get the impression that the government's health care plan (saturated with gifts to Republicans) was just about the worst example of governmental interference in the lives of average Americans since George Bush stole the 2000 election with the help of his friends on the U.S. Supreme Court!

It is important, I think, for everyone to realize that by and large, Republicans lie as a matter of course.  Most of them claim to love Jesus which gives one pause until you realize that they have reinterpreted Jesus' words to mean the ends justify the means!  Because they actually believe that it has become part of their essence and to lie, then, is perfectly all right so long as it helps to bring down that socialist, Muslim, fascist, unAmerican, black guy in the White House.

(A very young, and very stupid acquaintance of mine, educated in an ultra-right-wing Christianist diploma mill never had a chance to get smart.  And although he is convinced that he loves Jesus with his whole heart and will definitely go to heaven and plans to give his life to Jesus by convincing Jews and other apostates of the need to convert to his brand of Christianity, he readily lies about the president of the United States.  He can do that because his small little brain, no doubt wired at random, believes Mr. Obama is a Muslim, a socialist, and is involved in a conspiracy to bring down the United States.  But he goes one further:  Obama, he says, is the epitome of evil.  He is the anti-Christ!)

The Republican candidates who finally wound up their sad little shows in Iowa, operate in the same way.  Truth seems not to concern them.  Mr. Romney claims that President Obama created no new jobs in his two years, when the reality is much different.  Mr. Romney claims that he created lots of new jobs while at Bain but the truth is the opposite!  We've noted previously that each of the Republican wannabees operates the same way - with no or little regard for the truth.


Each of these wannabees hates what Republicans often call "Obamacare."  The lies that have been told about Obamacare would fill a book.  Who can forget Palin's romance with "death panels."  Bachmann, since the bill was passed, has fought it tooth and nail.  Lots of Americans listen to these nogoodniks and determine if they say Obamacare is a socialist plot, it must be true.  Ignorance rules.

There's a wonderful article in the December 23 issue of "The Week."  Here are some items gleaned from this article:

1)  A conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, was first to propose making health insurance mandatory.  In the late 1980s.  The Heritage people weren't suggesting this out of the goodness of their heart, mind you, that would be too "unRepublicanlike."  They were concerned about how universal health insurance might cost the insurance companies too much.  If insurance companies could no longer reject people with pre-existing conditions, they would be financially stressed because young and healthy folks might put off buying health insurance until they became sick.  Voila!  The individual mandate where everyone is required to buy health insurance!

2)  In the early 90s, President Clinton pushed for companies to provide their employees with health insurance.  A number of Republicans immediately jumped up to offer the individual mandate as part of that plan.  Here's a quote from ol' Newt:

"I am for people, individuals--exactly like automobile insurance--having health insurance and being required to have health insurance."

I don't think that's what he is saying now.  In fact, I'd guess that would be second most terrible thing he did in his life other than sitting down with Nancy Pelosi to begin working on a solution to the problem of global warming.

But the whole business went down the tubes in 1994.

3)  Ten years later, though, the good ol' lying Mitt Romney, now the guv of Massachusetts, brought the notion of the individual mandate to the good folks of that state.  The state health-care plan required everyone to buy in or pay a penalty - "up to $1,212 in annual penalties."

When the law went into effect, Mitt told the world "It's [his health plan] is a Republican way of reforming the market.  [To have] people who show up [at a hospital] when they get sick, and expect someone else to pay, that's a Democratic approach."

Whee!  What a turnaround from the Mitt campaigning in Iowa!

4)  Although Obama initially rejected the Republican notion of an individual mandate, he eventually came to see it was the right thing to do.  He "allowed his 2010 Affordable Care Act to incorporate a provision that, by 2014, all Americans must have health coverage or face a tax penalty."

Do you remember the faux Republican outrage?  "Conservatives decried that directive as a gross infringement of individual liberty [remember this was a Republican plan from the get-go!], and their anger helped fuel the rise of the Tea Party."

But the party's not over yet.  "Twenty-six states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses are now challenging the mandate's constitutionality at the Supreme Court, which will make a final judgment in June."

Stay tuned!  The hypocrisy is running rampant over the golden plains and majestic mountains of our land!

[Specific information on healthcare reform was taken from "A mandate for controversy," p. 13, THE WEEK, December 23, 2011]

Amazing Pictures From a Year in the Life of Barack Obama

These wonderful photographs, which give a sense of the dignity, compassion, and intelligence of our President - Barack Obama - should be seen by everyone. Please click here.

It's time to be proud ... of our President ...

I do not know the author of this piece, but would like to thank Irv DeWitt, Irv Cohen and Bob Poris for bringing it to my attention.  It is an important essay in light of the vicious attacks on our president by the Republican presidential candidates and their followers. 

Yesterday, for example, possible front-runner Mitt Romney said this:

"I think president Obama wants to make us a European style welfare state, where instead of being a merit society, we're an entitlement society, where government's role is to take from some and give to others.  What I know is if they do that, they'll substitute envy for ambition, and they'll poison the very spirit of America and keep us from being one nation under God.

"I want to see America united.  I watch a president who has become the great divider, the great complainer, the great excuse giver, the great blamer."

It is difficult to realize that this very stupid and cretinous person has any chance at all of becoming president.  Everything Romney said is false!  All lies!  Everything!  It is a deliberate attempt to turn people against our president and thus bring down our country in order to gain power and turn the United States into an oligarchy where the rich rule.  If there were a just god, surely she would strike down Mr. Romney in the corn fields of Iowa!

The truth is, in 2012, we have a president of which we can be proud, even when we disagree with him!  He isn't a perfect president.  There is no such thing.  But after the dark years of George Bush, he is a ray of light!  It is time for Americans to stand up to the Romneys, the Bachmanns, the Santorums, the Gingriches, the Pauls and denounce their message of lies.


It is time for all to be proud of someone in the White House...proud...a word we have been wanting:


Thank you, Mr. President, 

* for the 'room-lighting' smile

* for the mind that always thinks

* for preventing a second Great Depression

* for the humor

* for bringing the number of women on the Supreme Court to 3

* for making the White House the 'people's' house

* for 1.1 million jobs created in 2010 alone - more than were created during the entire 8 years of George Bush's tenure

* for the Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz, California

* for the love of people

* for the love of family

* for America's first Lady

* for health care reform

* for leaving the past behind

* for helping the world to begin to respect America again

* for quietly and calmly dealing with crisis after crisis, after crisis, after crisis, even if not being responsible for any of them

* for being so 'cool'

* for being fierce - when needed

* for having the intellect to be curious

* for the capacity to know that you are, as we are, imperfect

* for  having the sense to not let it destroy you

* for the capacity to be compassionate

* for being an inspiration to so many

* for saving the auto industry and at least 1.4 million jobs

* for loving the troops

* for understanding the horrible price of war

* for bringing 100,000 men and women back from Iraq

* for facing the most difficult and loneliest job in the world with grace, dignity, honesty and guts in spite of so many 'Haters'

* for being, in spite of all the hate, pettiness, racism, corruption and immaturity around, the most progrressive and 'for the people' president in decades

* and simply for this - for being................Mr. President!

A pagan Christmas

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

Insights from Bill Moyers

Notice that he gives no examples of Obama's so-called "lies."  Mitt Romney, Republican, erstwhile wannabe president, says the real president - President Obama - lies like Kim Kardashian.  Romney wants your vote.  He thinks he has the qualifications to be president of the United States.  But instead of offering positive programs and possibilities, all he can do is attempt to make the current president look bad by comparing him to a moronic reality show participant who has nothing to offer but gobs of makeup and plastic breasts.

Romney is representative of the other Republican presidential wannabees.  Their campaigns consist primarily of trying to tear down Obama or each other.  Much of the time they come off looking like goofy comic strip characters.  Ms. Bachmann, for example, claims President Obama is placing anti-abortion aids on the "bubble-gum" aisle in stores where they are easily available to young children.

Bachmann lies.  They all lie.  They lie about their past, their beliefs, each other, the government, and Obama!

They also pretend they are "one of us."  They want us to believe that they are not wealthy elitists.  They hide the facts that they believe the government exists to enrich the wealthy; that they care nothing for the middle- or lower-classes.  They do that by lying about government programs which exist to help people in need.  Social Security, they say, is bankrupt.  That is a lie.  It is not even close to bankruptcy.  And a quick fix is available -- just bump up the taxes on the wealthy a tad.  But any additional taxes on the rich is devoutly disavowed for "no more taxes" serves as part of their religious creed!

It is tempting to look at these clowns and write them off as so impossibly stupid that they could not possibly be elected.  But that would be a mistake.  George Bush stole the election in 2000 and was actually re-elected (more or less) in 2004.

Especially sad is the fact these people represent the best the Republican Party can offer the country.  That should be laughable but it is actually quite tragic.  As Frank Schaeffer says, the Republican Party no longer exists.  It has been co-opted by far right-wing christianists and kooks.


One of this country's most astute political and social commentators is Bill Moyers.  Unfortunately, his is a voice too little heard amidst the rabble-rousing monstrosities like Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.  But we need to listen to what Moyers has to say, for he is a man uncorrupted by either wealth or greed or power.

The following is from his book, Moyers On America:

The "oldest story in America," he says, is "the struggle to determine whether 'we, the people' is a spiritual idea embedded in a political reality--one nation, indivisible--or merely a charade masquerading as piety and manipulated by the powerful and privileged to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others. ...

"[...] the difference between a society whose arrangements roughly serve all its citizens and one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud [...] ... is the difference between democracy and oligarchy."

Moyers wrote those words in 2003.  Not much has changed.  We remain, in my opinion, on the brink of oligarchy, aided and abetted by a Congress whose members are deeply indebted for their political lives to the oligarchs, and a Supreme Court, the majority of which are part and parcel of the oligarchical dream and live for the erection and expansion of an oligarchy.  Thus, the court has determined, in opposition to the foundational beliefs of this country, that corporations are "people" and are free to undermine the political process and democracy itself through massive infusions of corporate money to elect synchophants who will do the bidding of their corporate masters.

Moyers, after a brilliant discussion of how this country came to be, brings us up-to-date by laying much of the blame on "Democratic politicians and public thinkers" ... who did not live up to the legacy of FDR and thus failed "to respond to popular discontents--to the daily lives of workers, consumers, parents, and ordinary taxpayers..."

While perhaps a bit simplistic in his neglect of the Republican Congressional tragedies of the mid-90s (Newt Gringrich's war on compromise, for example), Moyers provides much food for thought.

The failure of our politicians and political structures, says Moyers, "allowed a resurgent conservatism to convert public concern and hostility into a crusade that masked the resurrection of social Darwinism as a moral philosophy, multi-national corporations as a governing class, and the theology of markets as a transcendental belief system.

"As a citizen," Moyers says, "I don't like the consequences of this crusade, but I respect the conservatives for their successful strategy in gaining control of the national agenda.  Their stated and open aim is to strip from government all its functions except those that reward their rich and privileged benefactors.  They are quite candid about it, even acknowledging proudly the mean spirit invoked to accomplish their ambitions. ... Grover Norquist, in commenting on the fiscal crisis in the states and its effect on schools and poor people said, 'I hope one of them' -- one of the states -- 'goes bankrupt."

Ladies and gentlemen:  Today's crop of Republican nominees for the presidential nomination are the end result of this morbid and desolate strategy.  And all they can promise is more of the same.  Much more of the same.  And they are just as candid and open about it.  They promise to destroy the American dream and tens of millions of Americans cheer them on.   

Other than reject these pretenders to the throne, what else can we, as responsible Americans, as Americans who love our country deeply, do?  I would recommend, first off, that everyone read Moyers' book.  But since that is highly unlikely to occur, I will put forth below what Mr. Moyers says is our "first order of business" which is "to understand the real interests and deep opinions of the American people."

These are:

*  That a Social Security card is not a private portfolio statement but a membership ticket in a society where we all contribute to a common treasury so that none need face the indignities of poverty in old age

*  That tax evasion is not a form of conserving investment capital but a brazen abandonment of responsibility to the country

*  That income inequality is not a sign of freedom of opportunity at work, because if it persists and grows, then unless you believe that some people are naturally born to ride and some to wear saddles, it's a sign that opportunity is less than equal

*  That self-interest is a great motivator for production and progress but is amoral unless contained within the framework of social justice

*  That the rich have the right to buy more cars than anyone else, more homes, vacations, gadgets, and gizmos, but they do not have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else

*  That public services, when privatized, serve only those who can afford them and weaken the sense that we all rise and fall together as 'one nation, indivisible'

*  That concentration in the production of goods may sometimes be useful and efficient, but monopoly over the dissemination of ideas is tyranny

*  That prosperity requires good wages and benefits for workers

*  That our nation can no more survive as half democracy and half oligarchy than it could survive half slave and half free, and that keeping it from becoming all oligarchy is steady work--our work

Hey, Tim! The word of the Lord!

I do not know the name of the person who put this together but I give a hat tip to my friend, Bob Poris.

Fear is the foundation of religion

The following comes from Why I Am Not a Christian, by the great philospher, Bertrand Russell. What Mr. Russell had to say in 1957, unfortunately, still resonates today for religion--in particular the Christian religion--continues to dominate our culture, our country, our discourse and is, in my opinion, one of the true terrors that we face as a nation.

Consider that the entire troupe of Republican presidential wannabees are religious to a fault. Their political beliefs as well as their personal beliefs, are based, not on science or reason, but on religion -- and in every case, a particularly pernicious form of Christianity. Each of them disavows evolution, the greatest theory in all of human history, the theory upon which most everything we know in the world is based. They dismiss the science behind global warming as if that science was simply a matter of faith and not a morbid matter of fact that threatens the very existence of the human race!

In each case, although they profess allegiance in one form or another to the mythical Jesus, they boldly disregard his teachings across the board, whether it has to do with riches, prayer, charity or politics.

Perhaps it is beneficial to listen once again to some of the great scientific and philosophic minds out of which have flowed nuggets of truth forged in the cauldron, not of fear, but of scientific reality; the same reality by which we have been given the tools to understand the mightiest fact on earth: We are not controlled by gods and witches and the stars, but by nature.

We need no longer to cling desperately to the fear religion suggests as good in order to survive in this world. Science has negated such nonsense and at the same time suggested we are responsible for what becomes of our earth and our life together. In fact, we are the only hope we have!

So, listen once again, to Mr. Russell:  

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, [...] the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. 

Fear is the basis of the whole thing--fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. 

In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts. 

Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it.

Tim Tebow has God on his side!

[AP Photo by Julie Jacobson]

Over the past year or two, we've had some fun with Tim Tebow and his religious pretentions - praying and placing Bible verses on his face while playing football for the University of Florida and the Denver Broncos.

We have nothing against Tim Tebow.  He is no doubt a fine, young man.  

However, I am sick to death of this kind of in-your-face Christianity espoused by Tebow and others who think they have been called to save the world.  I'm sick of that kind of religion and those who preach it because the reality is their god is a small, incompetent pissant who can do nothing about tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, famine, floods, drought, cancer, TB, unemployment, anti-Semitism, racism, or war ... 

Hell, their god is such a numbskull he (it's always a "he") can't even shut up  asshats like Bachmann and Santorum and Romney and Gingrich, who claim to speak in his name.

Yet they seem to think that this pissant of a god gives a damn about football games and a quarterback named Tebow!  Take a bow, Tebow!!!

Tebow and his co-religionists are convinced that their god will give everyone whatever it is they pray for and eventually eternal life if they turn their hearts over to Jesus and be converted to this egregious form of fundamentalist Christianity.  

What the heck, their god might even help Tebow win a football game if he gets down on his knees and makes an ass of himself in front of millions of people every week.

It's rather amusing, really.  Tebow, who claims to love Jesus, does just the opposite of what Jesus commands.  Jesus hated public displays of piety because he knew they were inherently hypocritical.  That's why he counseled his followers not to pray on street corners (football fields) but rather go into a closet and pray SECRETLY to Yahweh!

Tebow must have missed that particular teaching!  Among other things.

My good friend, Bob Poris, after following the antics of Mr. Tebow on the gridiron, had this to say:

According to Tebow, he has God on his side when he plays. Is that fair and ethical? If an opposing player is a Muslim or a Jew, do they all pray to the same God? If so, how come Tebow gets God on his side most of the time? Are there no rules that limit outside help for a player? Should there be?

If players of other religions or none at all, win or lose, does that make the game a contest between Gods?

I wonder why God helps Tebow sometimes but not others. Is he busy elsewhere the days He does not help Tebow or is He upset because Jesus was not happy with those that loudly prayed in public and wore their religion on their sleeve, so to speak (in whatever the language He spoke those days.)

Personally my suggestion or request to whichever God is watching Tebow play, is that They devote more effort to saving lives anywhere -- people or pets who are in danger. There is a time to play games for money, and a time to help those in need. Praying to win a game seems selfish to me and should not be rewarded.

Where is it written that a single game of football is worthy of God’s attention? It is not mentioned in either the Old or New Testament as far as I know. I am sure it is not in the Koran or in any of the holy books in the Eastern religions. If Tebow has a losing streak will he continue to devote himself to Jesus or pursue some other endeavor?

President Obama Will Win In An Overwhelming Landslide in 2012....

Frank Schaeffer writes at the Huffington Post.  He says:

America is a one party state. The Democratic Party is the sole political party in the US now.

The Republican Party is no more. It is not a normal political party... It has become a clearing house for religious fanatics, Ayn Rand groupie weirdos and angry white racists driven literally mad by seeing a black man in the White House, a black man more articulate and intelligent -- not to mention annoyingly even tempered -- than they or their bizarre leaders are.

I was a Republican activist in the 1970s and 80s. My father was a founder of the religious right and I was his sidekick. What he and I did -- sadly -- still resonates today.

For instance Michele Bachmann got into politics because of reading my father's work. I escaped -- fled -- in the early 1990s. ...

...

As Hal Crowther writes:

The Republican Party's slapstick search for a leader would be heartwarming and sidesplitting, but for the tragic knowledge that one of these scrambling midgets will collect tens of millions of votes in the presidential election of 2012. Never have so many amounted to so little, talked so much rubbish, dreamed of an office so far above their abilities. ...

The GOP dilemma -- a golden opportunity to rule but nothing to say and no one to say it -- is so desperate that my instinct is to help them sort it out. Could we make a start, at least, by dismissing candidates who called for President Obama's birth certificate or raised the specter of Sharia law in America, followed briskly off the stage by lunatics who dismiss global warming as a socialist plot?

This is what not whom, President Obama will run against in 2012. He will be running against the "party" that in the matter of the debt crisis is happy to take the whole country with them over the cliff of loony and contradictory Bible-based/Ayn Rand-inspired, ideology into economic chaos. None of which any former Republicans, let alone any actual Christians -- i.e., those who try to follow the teachings of Christ -- would recognize.

The rest of this essay as to why Obama will win overwhelmingly in 2012 - which details his very real accomplishments and his strength of character, can be read here.

For example, Obama, in spite of the total non-cooperation of the Republican Party, "Extended child tax credits and marriage-penalty fixes; killed bin Laden; increased minority access to capital; closed the 'doughnut hole' in [the] Medicare prescription drug plan, required insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions" and much more.

The concluding paragraph is blunt, to the point, and absolutely on target: "As for the 'Republicans,' there are none, just a rag-tag group of losers who have hooked their despicably low expectations to bronze-age biblical myths on the one hand and a cult of anti-middle-class selfishness and union-busting, job-exporting, billionaire worship on the other."

Can anyone say "Amen!"?

Your friends in the House of Representatives wish you one hell of a Merry Christmas and a bitch of a New Year!

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

CNN Breaking News!

Speaker John Boehner said Monday morning that he expects the House to reject the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut bill that the Senate approved on Saturday.  Boehner also said he expects the House to pass legislation reinforcing the need for a one-year extension and wants the matter to be taken up by a House-Senate conference committee.  

A Senate Democratic aide told CNN that the chances were "zero" that the Senate would return to Washington from its holiday recess to continue negotiating with the House on the issue.

The payroll tax cut extension expires at the end of the year and is worth roughly $1,000 a year for an average family. 

Commentary by Bob Poris:

I assume most people reading this are not directly affected by the monumental stupidity of the House, nor are our elected representatives who created this monumental stupidity.   About 47% of our representatives are millionaires!  The rest are well paid and have taken care of themselves through their government jobs.

It is sad that so many formerly working people at all levels are now homeless or out of work - in most cases through no fault of their own!  When the government checks stop coming for those dependent upon them, I guess they will find ways to survive or die. 

Because most of the members of the House claim to love Jesus, it behooves us to ask, "What would Jesus say?  What would Jesus do?"  Charitable organizations are having a difficult time during this Great Recession with more people to help with less funding.  

A minister who belongs to a discussion group I attend told me that God has a plan and will provide.  This minister has done well with his Army retirement, his VA benefits, etc., added to his current salary as a minister. 

God has provided for him, along with help from our socialist government programs, e.g. government retirement and veteran's benefits.  He dislikes Obama and Obama's "socialist" secret goals. 

The minister is very opposed to Obamacare and wants the government to get out of his life, with some exceptions, of course.  I did not ask him what Jesus would say about such hypocrisy as he is sensitive to questions like that.  

I am lucky to live in a gated, senior community, so I do not see those in need or the sick who try to survive without health care. I do hear of many that were forced to sell and move as their retirement funds were insufficient to handle their losses in the stock market, or the depletion of their retirement agreements. 

I do not see all the children who are living in cars or motels because they have no other homes.  I don't know what happens to them when the government checks stop.   CBS' 60 Minutes did two segments that focused on the huge numbers of homeless children and families here in Central Florida. I hope the charities can help them but know they are having trouble too.
 

I am trying to learn to ignore them all but am having trouble saying that God will provide.

---

From CNN:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said Monday he will not agree to reopen negotiations with House leaders on a payroll tax cut until the House passes the two-month extension already approved by the Senate.

Earlier Monday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he expected the House to reject the tax cut bill that the Senate approved Saturday.

Boehner also said that he expected the House to pass legislation reinforcing the need for a one-year extension and that he wanted the matter to be taken up by a House-Senate conference committee.  Reid said in a statement that, "My House colleagues should be clear on what their vote means today. If Republicans vote down the bipartisan compromise negotiated by Republican and Democratic leaders, and passed by 89 senators including 39 Republicans, their intransigence will mean that in ten days, 160 million middle class Americans will see a tax increase, over two million Americans will begin losing their unem ployment benefits, and millions of senior citizens on Medicare could find it harder to receive treatment from physicians."

The payroll tax cut extension expires at the end of the year and is worth roughly $1,000 a year for an average family. 


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all from our wonderful representatives in Washington.

Jon Stewart - FAUX News = The 700 Club?

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Catholic bishops, cretins, pedophiles and birth control

 [Photo by AP/J. Scott Applewhite.  OrlandoSentinel.com]

I am so damn sick of religious people insisting that it's their way or the highway.  It matters not what religion or what cult within any religion, they are all the same.  Give the religious a little power and they will do everything within their power to force the rest of the world to believe as they do and act as they say.

That's the road the Roman Church has taken, all the way from the Nicene Council in the 4th century to the seat of American episcopacy in the 21st century.  When the so-called "orthodox" took control in 381 CE, they immediately banned all books they didn't like and required everyone to toe their theological line.  Those who dared disobey the orthodox bishops were killed and their books were burned.  If the American bishops had their way today they might not kill, but you can be sure that no one would be able to publicly or privately disagree with them or print anything not approved by the Vatican!

Down through the years, there has been no religion more horrendous and murderous than the Christian religion, represented mainly by the Roman Church.  Those defined as heretics were routinely burned at the stake.  So-called witches were raped by priests and then brutally murdered.  Jews were sought out and killed wherever they were found.  Dissent was disallowed and mercilessly suppressed.

Protestants were no better.  Martin Luther was a vicious hater and had no problem killing those who opposed him.  He took the side of the princes rather than the peasants in a war where thousands were slaughtered!  Luther hated Jews with a passion, and the book he wrote on the Jews became the blueprint for Adolph Hitler's "Final Solution."  John Calvin, representing another Protestant faction, actually killed one of his closest supporters who dared oppose him as Calvin became more insane.


Today, in the United States, the Roman Church does not have the power to torture, maim or kill dissenters.  But that does not deter them from attempting to force their beliefs on every man, woman and child in the country!

The issue of the moment is birth control.  Because the Roman Church has medieval and non-scientific views on sexual issues and behavior and because it has hitched it's wagon to an other-worldly mythical theology (which even the ancient Greeks would reject), it promotes the notion that sex is only for procreation and not recreation!  Therefore, anything that gets in the way or procreation is taboo.  They have the audacity to claim this is the will of God.

It's fascinating that a bunch of celibate, male, priestly characters running around in dresses would claim the right to circumscribe the sexual behavior of normal human beings!  Not only so, but the Roman Church, filled as it is with the worst hypocrites, has no moral authority whatsoever.  That ship, as they say, sailed long ago.

Studies have shown that somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of Roman Catholic priests are homosexuals.  Not that that is necessarily bad except for the fact that the church teaches homosexuality is a disorder of creation and homosexual behavior is a sin!  Every gay priest is living a hypocritical life!

I'm not sure of the percentage of priests and nuns who are child-abusers and pedophiles, but many thousands of Catholic children are suffering long-term damage from the treatment received at the hands of these cretinous "religious" leaders.  Almost every day a new story appears in the media related to child sexual abuse by priests who are supposed to be mediators of God's love in the world!


Now, the Roman Catholic bishops in the USA (these are the same bishops who, for years, have used every device at their disposal to hide and cover up the sexual abuse of their clergy!) are lobbying hard to make it more difficult, if not impossible, to obtain birth control devices in this country.  Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance providers are required to provide contraceptives without a co-pay.  Note this applies to "private" insurance plans.  This has nothing to do with government money or government insurance plans.

Note also there is an exemption for certain religious groups.  Irin Carmon, writing at Salon, says, "An institution which provides its employees with health benefits can qualify for it, if its major purpose is to employ and serve co-religionists - like a church.  That's not enough for the Catholic Church, which says (though possibly not in these words) that it doesn't want to subsidize the shameful non-procreative sexing of its employees at affiliated hospitals, charities and universities, whether they agree with the Church about birth control or not."

And all this in spite of the fact that studies done for a number of years have shown that a large majority of Catholic men and women have used contraceptive devices in direct opposition to the teaching of the Church!

The bishops are lobbying the Obama administration to deny those who disagree with the sexual views of these male celibates the right to "essential medical care."  We've got to hope Obama will not bow to the wishes of these bishopricks.

Georgia, public schools, and the Bible

Nobody would ever mistake the state of Georgia for a progressive state.  But Georgia doth love the Bible!

There are 180 schools districts in the state of Georgia.  Public school districts.  School districts which are paid for with taxes paid to the state by its hard-working citizens.  These are not religious schools or Sunday Schools.  Because they are public school districts they are bound by the constitutional provision that the state must refrain from mixing religion with public education.  Public schools contain students of many different faiths or of no faith.  It is not the business of the public schools to teach material from any particular "holy" book for any reason.


Georgia missed that constitutional lesson along the way.  Or more likely, Georgia is flouting the law!  Forty eight of its schools districts have been conducting "Bible education classes."  Because Georgia is overrun with fundamentalist Christianists, it has been able to get away with this by claiming they don't teach any particular religion but rather the "literature" of the Bible.  But what the Bible says depends on who is interpreting it.  And the material they use interprets the Bible from a fundamentalist Christian perspective.  One example is that all the magical stories are treated as factual.


Honk, honk!  The material used in these classes is from an fundamentalist Christianist outfit called the Bible Literacy Project.  The BLP is a thinly-disguised attempt by radical Christianists to foist their religious/biblical beliefs on unsuspecting and basically ignorant young people.  It appears that you could sit through a year's worth of classes and never learn that the creation stories, the Noah story, the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David and Solomon are mythological in nature and not historical.  You can read a more detailed and scholarly analysis of BLP material here.

What's quite humorous is that while the Bible Literacy Project is less offensive than other such biblical "projects," it isn't fundamentalistic enough for the nutcases on the far right, like World Net Daily and you can get the flavor of their hostility to it here.

But however one feels about the Bible and however one interprets the Bible is irrelevant.  The Bible is not to be taught in our public schools.  Neither should the Quran be taught in our public schools.  Nor any other religious "holy" book.  Georgia has enough Christian churches to gag a god!  It seems most sensible that those churches should be the sites for Biblical "literacy," or any other biblical studies.  That's why there are churches, which, by the way pay no taxes!


Well, there's good news in and amidst the economic decline.  Because of the lack of funds, only 16 school districts are able to offer Bible classes in the coming year!  Budget cuts, you know!  That's still 16 too many, and these school districts are still in direct violation of our constitution (the Law!) but that will not deter them from what they perceive as a "good" thing.

Bible studies are not "good" things when run by fundamentalists who interpret the Bible according to their faith.  Can't really blame them, though, because if they turned that around and really understood what the Bible was and how it came to be and how it was written, they'd probably lose their faith!

So, we can rejoice that fewer young people will be exposed to a faulty understanding of the Bible.  And perhaps we can take all of this as a good sign; a sign that Georgia's school districts don't take "biblical literacy" too seriously.  When push comes to shove, economically, the first thing to go is Bible classes!  Yeah!

Now, perhaps there could be a special emphasis in history and civics classes about how our Constitution provides for a separation of church and state and how, if students want to know more about their particular religion or holy book, they should ask their parents or their pastors/priests!

Washington pours federal money (welfare) into the coffers of the wealthy!

Steven Spielberg to direct epic of mythical proportions!

The Huffington Post is reporting today that Steven Spielberg has expressed an interest in directing an epic film titled "Gods and Kings."

The film would tell "Moses entire life story.  A sweeping narrative about the biblical figure's birth through death, which would include the story of the Jews' emancipation from Egypt and years in the desert..."

This is really quite humorous.  I know that Spielberg is an entertainer and doesn't worry too much about the difference between fact and fiction.  He wants to draw people in to watch his film and there's nothing wrong about that.

The funny thing is that most biblical scholars today are convinced that Moses is a mythical figure not an historical one!  Scholars of the Bible and archaeologists studying the ancient Near East have been unable to discover any external evidence for the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt, the person of Moses, the escape from Egypt, the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, or the wandering in the desert!

NO evidence whatsoever.  The Egyptians, who kept quite detailed records never mention Israelites living in their midst.  Moses is not cited in any Egyptian document.  There is nothing recorded anywhere that mentions 600,000 Israelites escaping from Egypt with the Egyptian army on their heels, or of a sea parting or the Egyptian army drowning when the parted seas came back together.

What is especially damning is the fact that archaeologists, after extensive work for many years, have yet to come up with a shred of evidence of the Israelites desert wanderings.  If 600,000 people had actually plodded around the desert for 40 years, there should be a great deal of Israelite trash and treasure buried beneath its sands!  Maybe even the Ark of the Covenant!

It is pure craziness to think that such a large group could go unnoticed for any period of time.  Egyptian police stations were placed at various intervals all the way up to Palestine.  The Egyptians would know very quickly of any large group of people in the desert.

But I guess fiction is stranger than reality; and more fun.  So, in Spielberg's epic we'll probably see Moses in his wee basket in the river.  We'll see him in the Pharoah's court.  I wonder, though, how Spielberg will film the plagues and the "passover?"  You can bet Moses will be a heroic figure as he defies Pharoah and leads his people out of the land, through the water and into the desert.  I wonder, too, if Spielberg will include the bit where Moses finds a wife out in no-man's land and adopts the religion and the god (Yahweh) of his father-in-law?  That's an interesting touch.  Could this be the same god of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and his sons, Abraham and Isaac, etc?  Nah, probably not.  Moses wouldn't have known anything about that god and those folks.  Those stories hadn't been created yet.  So, we've got a new god and new commands. 

Being an epic filmmaker of some note, you can expect Spielberg to give you a rollicking good time watching the Israelites bumping into each other in the desert; ignoring Moses and his so-called Ten Commandments; flaunting the laws of god; eating manna; worshiping a golden calf and dying by the thousands by the hand of one really pissed-off god.  And the climax will come when poor Moses, old and withered and disappointed in his people will not be allowed by his beloved Yahweh to enter the "promised land."  Poor Moses, no matter how hard he worked, no matter it wasn't his fault the Israelites were so damn stubborn, god, being a hard-nose, said Moses just didn't cut it.  No promised land for him!

Of course, the assault on and the conquering of the promised land is also mythical.  It never happened.  In fact, most everything in the Hebrew Bible never happened.  But, hey, there are some good stories, and if Spielberg wants to film one of them that's OK with me.

Except for one nagging concern:  there are already too many ignoramuses who actually believe this stuff.  If Spielberg presents it as history, it simply perpetuates ignorance and gives the Christian fundamentalists more ammo in their fight against biblical literacy and common sense!

Rick Santorum makes a fool of himself. Again.

Maybe Santorum could go live in another country; say Saudi Arabia.  His views would be welcome there and he could be a closet Christian while pretending to be a Muslim.  In this country he's really a closet Muslim extremist into Sharia-type laws while pretending to be a Christian. 

It is possible, however, that some real Christians see through him for what he is:  a bigoted, 16th Century Roman Catholic whose Christianity has no relationship to the Jesus character of the Gospels. 

Well, hell, Christianity as a whole today has little or no relationship to the Jesus character of the Gospels.  Christianity is "Paulinism in disguise."  But that's another whole article.

Rich Santorum believes single moms give the Dems an advantage!

It's hard to describe someone as despicable as is Rick Santorum.  One of the things the Roman Catholic Church could do to scrub its image is excommunicate Santorum.  Can someone be excommunicated just for being incredibly stupid and prejudiced?

Atheists Anonymous

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

A video on the mega money harvest of mega churches

The New Tithe from Justin Wilson on Vimeo.


Thanks to the Friendly Atheist.

GOP contenders hate Jesus!

 Photo by Richard Shiro/AP

By and large, most of the current crop of nutcases running for the Republican nomination for president, are professing Christians solidly in the ultra-right fundamentalist camp.  They believe that Jesus was god and also the son of god who was sacrificed on a cross in Jerusalem about 30 CE. 

That sacrifice was propitiatory which means it satisfied god's blood lust.  We are all "sinners" and thus it is only right and just because God is just that God kill us for our sins.  But Jesus' death atoned for our sins; his death was a substitute for ours so now God, happy as a lark because his need for justice was satisfied, gives eternal life to all people who "confess" Jesus is god and are thereby "born  again." Those who fail to believe or accept Jesus as the sacrificial lamb whose bloody death on Calvary was necessary to earn God's forgiveness, will burn forever in hell complements of the loving creator who made them in his image.

These fundamentalist Christians also believe that Jesus is coming back soon at which time true believers will be "raptured" into heaven and the rest of us will have hell to pay.  Additionally, they are certain every word in the Bible is the word of God and absolutely true no matter what the subject matter is.  If there is ever a conflict between science and the Bible, the Bible has the last word.  Most of these fundys do not accept the theory of evolution as explanatory relative to life's origin and subsequent development, because they perceive evolution to be contrary to the ancient creation myths in Genesis, chapters 1 and 2. 


What strikes me is the fact that in spite of their protestations of profession of faith, these Republican contenders really don't know the Bible and they have no clue what the Jesus character said and did as recorded in the Gospel story(s) about him.  Or, if they do have a clue, they don't care and hate him so much they do the opposite of what he instructed his followers to do.

For example, today Michele Bachmann, perhaps the most ignorant fool of the bunch, slammed President Obama for banning the torture method of waterboarding.  She said she would, if elected, make that a tool of her fight against the Islamic terrorists.  She said waterboarding has successfully provided us with essential information about our enemies.  The rest of the contender clowns jumped on board to agree waterboarding was a wonderful addition to our arsenal of anti-terrorist weapons.

Actually, they are dead wrong on every count.  It has been shown over and over again that torture in whatever form does not work.  The person being tortured will say anything, make up anything, just to get the torture to stop.  The truth is, no matter what Dickie Cheney claims, torture has provided us with no important information.  But whether it works or not is ultimately irrelevant!  It goes against everything we stand for in this country.  It is unconstitutional!  And that's the most important indictment against it.

Finally, and this matters only to people who profess to follow Jesus, it goes against everything Jesus taught!

But consider, all these Republican pretenders to the throne claim to love Jesus.  They do not love Jesus!   They hate Jesus.  They must, for Jesus said to love your enemies, to turn the other cheek, to never resort to violence.  It is inconceivable that anyone who gives a damn about what Jesus said would condone waterboarding or any other form of torture.


These would-be presidents are hypocrites of the highest (or maybe lowest) order!  They do not love Jesus!  They hate Jesus and they refuse to follow Jesus' teachings.  They publicly deny their Lord every time they open their mouths!  They are, as one author called their type years ago, "A Generation of Vipers."


But there's more.  The Jesus of the Gospels went out of his way to take care of the sick and the needy.  The Jesus of the Gospels taught his followers to go the extra mile, to love their enemies, to turn the other cheek, and if someone wants your cloak, give him your coat, too.  He also said that we should not bear false witness!

That's not the Jesus of  Bachmann, et. al.  These Republican vipers would destroy our country's safety nets for the needy.  They fight tooth and nail every attempt to provide the poorest among us with the resources to survive in an increasingly hostile world made more so by the machinations of the richest of our brethren.  They want to torture those they perceive as enemies and lock away forever those they hate.  Perry even prides himself on how many people he has legally murdered as governor of Texas!  These vipers want to bomb a country and a people they consider to be the enemy!

As to bearing false witness, each of them lies through their teeth at every opportunity.  They lie about our president, about our Constitution, about our heritage.  They lie about their background and their beliefs.

Finally, the Jesus of the Gospels said straight out that riches will void your passport to the heavenly gates.  Rich people don't have a chance in hell of reaching paradise.  He said it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Obviously, a camel can, under no circumstances, go through the eye of a needle!

But what do these Republican vipers do?  Accumulate wealth!  As I recall ol' Newt recently blew about a quarter of a million on baubles at Tiffany's.  They defend to the death their rich friends in positions of corporate power.  As for the least among us who need health care?  Forget it!  The elderly who depend upon Social Security?  Take it down!  Privatize it and make the Wall Street barons richer!  And for those who cling to Medicare to meet their health needs?  Cut their damn benefits!

But they do not, under any circumstances, ask the rich to pay their fair share.  That's "socialism," say the vipers as if Jesus would care about labels!  In fact the New Testament indicates that the earliest followers of the Jesus character "held all things in common," and distributed resources fairly among the group as to each person's need.  Sounds like "socialism" to me.

These vipers do not believe that Bible story, either.  The actually believe Jesus was a capitalist and that's why they worry so much about our national debt (well, except when George W. Bushski ran it up by several trillion fighting illegal and stupid wars!  They didn't care about the national debt then!)


It should not be necessary to discuss religious beliefs held by people running for the presidency.  But these contender/pretenders have brought it on themselves.  They hold up themselves as paragons of virtue, or faith.  They pretend a belief in Jesus such as they have is vital for a president of the United States.

I think more and more people, watching the sickening display of amorality put on by these Republican candidates, are realizing their religious beliefs are a sham.  They are the Pharisees praying in the public square so that people will see them and thus hold them in greater esteem.  Jesus denounced those Pharisees for the hypocrites they were, just as he denounces Bachmann, Perry, Cain, Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich.  God, especially Gingrich.  George W. Bush is probably the only one who has done more harm to our country than Gingrich!


So, if you are a Republican and you are called upon to vote for a Republican candidate for president, remember there is no religious test.  Your vote should not be based upon the religious beliefs of any candidate.  But, if you find that a candidate's life contradicts what that candidate professes to believe, you must, in good conscience, vote for another.  Even if it's a Democrat.

One final word:  All of us are hypocrites to a certain extent.  That's only to say we do not always act in accordance with our beliefs.  So, in an election like this, what might be most important is to choose the one who is the least hypocritical, the lesser of two evils, so to speak.

At this point I can't imagine any individual with a conscience voting for any one of the current crop of Republican candidates.  Every one is a major hypocrite, a liar, and a phony and their religion is a sham!

Herman Cain, God and the GOP (Goofy Odd People) Candidates

It was inevitable, I suppose.  Just a matter of time.  One wonders, though, why old Herman didn't come forth with this revelation previously.  It doesn't make sense.  If, indeed, his god called his name and said, "Herman, I want you to run for president of the United States," then we would expect old Herman would have trumpeted this from the rooftop of every pizza place in the country!

But old Herman did not do that.  He said nothing about god calling him to run for president until today, November 12, 2011.  Old Herman's been flitting all over the country yammering about his 9-9-9 tax plan (by the way, please note if'n you turn that upside down you get 666!  Yikes.  Maybe Herman is the anti-Christ!  It's not Obama after all!  Jesus, save us!) and about how he didn't make any sexual overtures to all the women coming out of the woodwork claiming that old Herman is a groper, and about how only he's smart enough to be president 'cause he's a business man you know!

And god loves him 'cause he's against abortion.  Well, he may be against abortion but then again he thinks that women ought to be able to choose.  Nope.  That's not right, either.  Maybe old Herman can clarify his position before election time.  (It's also reported by the woodwork women that ol' Herman don't much care for the "missionary" position)!


None of this god stuff is true, of course.  Old Herman's just saying that 'cause his reputation has taken a nose dive amongst the fairer sex in the last week or so.  And it is a matter of principle with ultra-fundamentalist Christian crackpot Repugnicans running for office that god speaks to them and is backing their candidacy.

One problem is this:  Which god are we talking about? The nasty old SOB of the Hebrew Bible who loves to murder and rape and steal land?  Or are we talking about the god of the Jesus character who seems a bit more loving.  Well, until you get to the part where everyone who doesn't confess the name of Jesus will burn forever (and that's a long, long time) in terrible hellfire.  That god sounds a lot like the old SOB of the Hebrew Bible.

Doesn't matter.  Neither exist.  Well, except in the minds of people like Herman Cain who hears voices.  Oh, and Michele Bachmann who also insists that this same god called her to run for president because she so much smarter than the other mucky-mucks running against her.  Wait!  This same god has also been talking to Ricky Perry, the governor who has screwed up Texas so badly it's soon gonna lose third-world status!  Yep, Perry the guy who can't remember which multi-billion dollar agency he's going to shut down which will mess up the country so bad it will become like Texas and put thousands of people out of work, claims that god has called him to become president.  He even had a big prayer fest (for fundy Christians only) in Houston where the most radical nutcases on the Christian right came by to pump his hand and let the masses know god wants Perry in the White House.


Please read this carefully:  ANYONE who claims to speak to some unfathomable deity out in space is NOT qualified for the presidency or any other elective office.  He or she is clearly insane with an imagination that is bound by neither reason nor common sense!

This does not let Mitt or Newt off the hook.  Ol' Mitt can believe anything he wants because with his record he shouldn't be elected to any position of responsibility.  But when you add to that the nonsense that Mormons believe he's got an even bigger problem.

Gingrich, the serial adulterer, has the gift of gab, but he, too, has fallen into a snake-filled pit of religious nonsense and has not a clue as to what he's about or what he believes.  He's always been a man to seize the moment and easily bends with the prevailing wind in order to do so.

I'll just mention that other kook, the "libertarian" Ron Paul.  He may talk to god, too.  But he's so crazy not even the god of Cain, Bachmann and Perry would talk back to him!

Forget Rick Santorum.  No god would talk to that wingnut!

According to our Constitution, there is to be no religious test for political office in our country.  And that's as it should be.  But when these fruitcakes try to gain votes by pushing their religion as if their religion is the most important thing about them, the situation is turned on its head.  Now, we've got to toss them out of the presidential ring because they have established a new and unwarranted religious test!  They think that only people who believe as they do should be elected president because that is what their god wants! 

They are people of "faith."  Not a single one of them accepts the validity of science or reason.  Facts don't matter.  Faith matters.  They don't believe in climate change even though the fact and the consequences of global warming hit them in the face every single day.  God promised in their precious holy book that he would never again destroy the people of earth and they have "faith" that this promise found in an ancient folk tale written by men ignorant of the most fundamental knowledge about the earth is true.

They would destroy our country by living their "faith."

You remember James Watts, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior who argued that he need do nothing to protect the environment because the Rapture was going to happen soon and Jesus would return and it would be all over!


And now, Herman Cain, supposedly a viable candidate for the Republican nomination for president in the year 2012, said:

"I prayed and prayed and prayed.  I'm a man of faith.  I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I'd ever done before in my life.  And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses.  'You've got the wrong man, Lord.  Are you sure?"

Sadly, this resonates with millions of our fellow citizens.  We have never left the 16th century.

I'd say, "God help us," but this time we're on our own.  And we know it.

Jon Stewart on why Penn State is like the Catholic Church

Jon Stewart explains R. Perry going down in flames!

                       

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Jesus is coming soon! Are you ready?

The Roman Catholic Church introduces new translation of the Mass...

Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.

...and people everywhere are confused, angry, mystified, joyous, stunned, remorseful, leaving the church, drinking excessively, and voting Democratic.

The next major topic the Roman church will take on in these perilous times is the perennial favorite, which has never been answered satisfactorily in accordance with Holy Scripture:  "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

If you have nothing better to do and like to waste time you can learn everything you want to know about the new translation of the Mass by clicking here.

God declines the support of the U.S.

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If there were a god, he or she or it would most certainly find the antics of the U.S. House of Representatives, dominated by Repugnicans and too many bought-and-paid-for Democrats, amusing.  Or not.  Maybe sad.  In fact, mad!  Really mad!

God, according to the Bible, doesn't give a damn about people proclaiming their trust in him.  According to  the later Hebrew prophets, God cannot abide religious ceremonies, resolutions proclaiming trust in him/her/it and similar nonsense.  He/she/it finds them abominable.

I admit that's a minority opinion among writers of the Bible in that most of those unknown authors believed God to be about hatred and killing.  God told those writers that if the Israelites would follow his laws he would help them massacre millions of innocent and unsuspecting people throughout the ANE (Ancient Near East) and take over their land.  And sure enough, that's what he did.  So the Israelites took the land, slaughtered their male enemies, raped their women enemies and smashed the heads of their enemies' children against rocks.  If you can believe the Bible. 

However, in recent years, many biblical scholars have, through intensive study and prayer, determined that the majority opinion as presented in the Bible is a crock and all these stories do not represent the true nature of God.  They have been enlightened and now realize that God is really a loving god who wishes people to take care of each other and live in peace with one another.  They believe that the god the prophets proclaimed -- a god who desired mercy and justice -- was a better god than that old SOB who gave the legendary Moses those rules on that legendary mountain!

Thus, most biblical scholars today (biblical scholars is a phrase that does not include fundamentalist nincompoops or mega-pastor asshats!) believe that resolutions such as the one passed by the House of Representatives not only do not make God happy, but piss him/her/it off to the nth degree!

In fact, some of these scholars would go so far as to suggest that God became extremely angry when the U.S. Congress, clutched in fear of the Soviet Union, decided to change the national motto from "E Pluribus Unum" to "In God We Trust" back in 1956!

He/she/it said at the time to those who listen that the facts of the matter are these:  If there is any ONE or any THING that the United States does not trust, is God.  As a whole, the U.S. trusts money, greed, the good life, hate, war, killing, etc., but does not trust in any god in any sense.  And to blather about our trust (which is really a lack of trust) in God or how much we love God when god's people are suffering and dying because of our commitment to what we really trust -- greed and money, etc., -- makes God angry as only a god can get angry.

Look what he/she/it did to Texas after Guv. Goodhair told people to pray to God to send rain.  Texas has become a desert with its rivers and lakes dry as a bone!  Guv. Goodhair, as you know, exemplifies the commitment to money and greed over the welfare of his people more than anyone in the country;  except for the governors of Florida, Arizona, South Caroline, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Ohio ...

And that should be a warning to the posturing jackasses that inhabit the halls of the Congress of the United States!

So, who's the big tuna?

Our thanks to Greenpeace for this fine video!

Rick Perry ... uh ... who is this man?

War can be profitable!