Pope Benedict's take on the Gospel of John

The former Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, is playing biblical scholar and claiming the Gospel of John confirms the "historical reality" of Jesus. That, according to an article from Richard Owen, at timesonline.

Actually, Pope Benedict is just engaging in wishful thinking. He wishfully thinks that the Gospel of John is "'the passionate testimony' of a man who as a young, humble fisherman had been attracted to Jesus, had loved him as a disciple, had shared his experiences at first hand for three years, and had seen Him die on the Cross and then rise again."

He also wishfully thinks that "From this experience, which he meditated in his heart, John drew an intimate certainty - that Jesus was the Knowledge of God incarnate." Pope Benedict insists that "incarnation" was an historical reality.


Ah, if only it were so. Scholars, however, have known for years that the Gospel of John is fiction, a creative writing exercise by someone who used legends of godmen to put together a new and more extensive tale of the Jesus story as told by Matthew, Mark and Luke.

The writer of John, utilized only a fraction of the synoptic material. The rest he made up. Ninety percent of the Gospel of John does not appear in the synoptics. John gives an entirely different and quite gnostic picture of the godman, Jesus, putting long homiletical dialogues in his mouth, none of which were known to Matthew, Mark and Luke, who wrote many years before the Gospel of John was put to papyrus.

One glaring example of John's "creativity," is his three-year time span for Jesus' ministry. The synoptic gospels agree that Jesus wandered around Palestine for only a year. There are numerous other major inconsistencies and contradictions between John and the three Synoptics.


Pope Benedict may find St. John fun to read, and may wish it were all historical stuff as that would serve to further justify Roman Catholic theology and practice. But wishing does not make it so.

We get a clue in chapter 1:1-4 -

"When all things began, the Word already was. The Word dwelt with God, and what God was, the Word was. The Word, then, was with God at the beginning, and through him all things came to be; no single thing was created without him. All that came to be was alive with his life, and that life was the light of men."

No silly little Christmas story here. John doesn't want to hear anything about his Jesus being born of a woman in a cave/manger. His Jesus was the Logos, the Word, of God!

The writer of John uses motifs from the pagan mysteries and the gnostics to portray his Jesus as the "Word" of God. Freke and Gandy, in their most excellent book, The Jesus Mysteries, explain that "The concept of the Logos is completely foreign to Judaism and is entirely derived from the Pagan Mysteries. As long ago as the sixth century BCE Heraclitus set out on a journey of self-discovery and discovered the 'Logos shared by all.' ...

"The Pagan sage Epictetus preaches: 'The Logos of the philosophers doth promise us peace which God proclaimed through his Logos.' The Roman Vitruvius writes: 'Let no one think I have erred if I believe in the Logos.' Clement of Alexandria [a church father] acknowledges that: 'It may be freely granted that the Greeks received some glimmers of the divine logos,' and quotes the legendary Pagan sage Orpheus, who proclaims: 'Behold the Logos divine. Tread well the narrow path of life and gaze on Him, the world's greatest ruler, our immortal King.'"

Freke and Gandy further explain that the concept of the Logos, St. John's "word," is very old, "found in the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts of the Third Dynasty, which were written more than 2,500 years before the Christian era!"


The Logos, or "Word," in the Gospel of John had many meanings to the ancients. Clement suggested it was "'the Idea of Ideas.' It was God's primal thought. The legendary Pagan sage Hermes Trismegistus expresses exactly the same concept. He describes the Logos--the Idea of Ideas--emerging from the Oneness of God like a word or thought."

Furthermore, the notion expressed in John's Gospel that the Word was with God and the Word was God, derives from ancient Pagan doctrines. The Son of God, the Word of God, is a personification of the Oneness of the the soul or God of the universe.

For the Pagans, however, the Logos represented "an eternal philosophical principle" and was mythically represented in various godmen down through the ages.

For Christians, as represented in John's Gospel, the Logos (now Jesus) no longer mythically embodied the principle, but actually, literally, became the incarnate representation of the Logos principle. He was, explains St. Augustine, the "Word made flesh."


All of the above was unknown to the writers of the Synoptic Gospels. The Gospel of John presents a new and mystical savior, different from the pagan godmen only in his incarnational representation. John is not writing history, but theology, taking Christianity out of its Jewish roots and moving it into the realm of the Pagan Mysteries from which it borrowed much.

So sorry, Pope Benedict. You can believe what you wish, you can wish for what you would like, but none of that makes it so.

The Gospel of John is not an historical portrait of a human being who lived and died upon this earth, but a creative theological representation of the Logos incarnated; a mythical construct that is based, not on historical reality, but on the wisdom of the ancient sages who taught that various godmen embodied mythologically, the Logos, the "word" of the one God.

On the beach - Hollywood (Florida)

A warm, day-after-Thanksgiving at Hollywood Beach, Florida.

Papal Kitsch No. 7 - Cologne

Yes, you can smell just like the Pope - musty and crusty and dank - Vatican cave-like. Well, maybe not, but you can buy The Pope's Cologne which will make you odoriferous or perhaps just plain odious.

Purchase here.

Joe the Plumber going to war ... ?

[Image from the Huffington Post]

Yes, Samuel Joseph Wurzleburger or Watsitbacher or Whirlybird or something is going off to Israel for ten whole days to play war correspondent.

He's representing a conservative website, PJTV. He's going to get the story of the regular Joe, the common man (or woman), the soldier in the trenches.

And how's he gonna write with a plunger?

Heh, heh.


You can't make this stuff up!

The anointing of Obama's "Inaugural Walkway"

Today, in Washington, D.C., three resplendent christianist wingnuts gathered to anoint the doorway through which Barack Obama will pass as he walks to the inaugural platform to be sworn in as president of the United States.

Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia, noted for his wacky wingnuttery such as saving our military from the perversity of porn, joined the right wing theocrat, Rob Schenck of Faith and Action, and the looney-tune Patrick J. Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition to anoint the doorway.

Schenck, who just can't get it through his thick skull that this is not a Christian nation, said "Oil symbolizes consecration, or setting something apart for God's use."

Obviously, he doesn't understand. He's a christianist clergy person and as such has no business setting anything or anyone involved with our government "apart for God's use."

This is a secular nation.


But Schenck and the other two christianist wingnuts did it anyway. Representative Broun, who should be recalled for his flaunting of our Constitution, preached a little sermon right there in the Capitol as to how we need to do God's will and how Obama needs to do what is "right."

Schenck dabbed his "sacred" oil on the doorposts while reading Bible passages.

Mahoney, who has been fasting and praying for Obama, read a Billy Graham inaugural prayer used some 40 years ago.

It's magic!


Maybe these clowns could put together their own sitcom, the plot focusing on three self-anointed christianist stooges who try to take over the government for God, shredding the Constitution in their wake. The name of the sitcom might be: "De-establishing the Establishment Clause for Christ."

At the end of each episode, they could sit around and howl and sacrifice chickens while reading from their holy books.

Here's the video.

The flamboyant priest problem

[Partying with Fr. Malia - by Gawker]

A brief article by AP, titled "Priest ousted for Flamboyant Partying," has been making the rounds, finding a spot at CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) and FOX News, among others.

Sounded interesting. Flamboyant, I figured, meant something kinda wild, gaudy, in-your-face stuff; leather pants, bright red bow ties, funny hats - you know, flamboyant!

The priest was probably less flamboyant than it would seem.


His name is Gregory Malia. He's of the Episcopal persuasion. He's 43 years old and currently single. In 2005, he was involved in a "bitter" divorce and is said to be estranged from his two daughters and there's also something about an assault charge in 1991.

What most defines him, though, is his hemophilia, from which he has suffered since childhood.

Thus, he is not just a priest, but the owner of NewLifeHomeCare, Inc., a company he formed in 2000, that provides medical services to people with hemophilia, Von Willebrand and other bleeding disorders.

Ordained in 2001, Malia is, in fact, merely a very part-time priest, serving as vicar of St. James Chapel in Dundaff, Pennsylvania. St. James is open 10 Sundays a year.


He is also, as reported by the New York Daily News, a "big-spending, champagne-swilling, club-hopping priest..."

And now he's out of a job. When the elders at his church found out about his escapades in the Big Apple, he was "relieved of his priestly duties" by the Right Rev. Paul Marshall, bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

The bishop was distraught at reports that Malia had dropped huge sums of money in New York City nightclubs. "What Father Malia is reported to have spent on a single evening would build and equip an African school or totally underwrite the homeless shelter we are building in Scranton," said the bishop. Bishop Marshall claimed Malia's lifestyle was a "scandal."


The NY Daily News tells quite a tale. "Malia is a legend in clubland, where staffers report that he routinely drops tens of thousands of dollars in a single night.

"He's known to buy magnums of Dom Perignon, which cost as much as $25,000 ... Everybody smiles when he walks in the door because in walks six figures," said one club impresario.


So that's what flamboyant means. I'll never be flamboyant!


Malia has defended himself. He has done nothing wrong. He does not live a lavish lifestyle. He takes no pay for his priestly duties. "I'm a national businessman dealing with very chronic and severe illnesses that cost huge amounts of money."

The story, said Malia, "has been blown way out of proportion and misconstrued. It's so twisted."

His nightclub activity has to do with fundraising and business. "I have business interests and there are some people who ask to meet me in club, and as a business person I'm sort of forced to be accomodating. I've never acted inappropriately."

Hmmm. Maybe he's never acted inappropriately, but certainly one does not need to meet business people in a nightclub. And when you look at the photos, the ones he's partying with do not fit a typical business person's description.


New Life Home Care has had a few problems along the way, also, such as a current $3.6 million lawsuit involving Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Last year NewLifeHomeCare was investigated by the Pennsylvania's attorney general's office, but no evidence of wrongdoing was found.


Here's the situation: A businessman (making pretty good money) is also a part-time priest in a little-bitty parish that's only open 10 Sundays a year and from which he draws no salary.

Same businessman owns an apartment in New York City because that is where he undergoes treatment for his illness.

When in the city, he parties in local nightclubs, and it seems he spends a lot of his money.

That's it. There have been no accusations of evil or sinister goings-on. No stories about drunken, sex orgies. No skimming off the collection plate.

I'm not trying to defend Malia. But I can't help be reminded of how Jesus was accused of eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors which meant of course his accusers thought him to be a bad person.

The bishop would have probably taken away his "priesthood."


The New York Daily News story is here.

NewLifeHomeCare website here.

Party Pics by gawker.com here.

The auto bailout and the working people

Jim Hightower, in the latest issue of his newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown, issues a biting critique of congressional wingnuttery as regards the auto bailout.

"Republican lawmakers, backed by a raucous chorus of right-wing pundits and corporate lobbyists, have turned Motor City's economic woes into an excuse for launching a mendacious and pernicious assault on America's hard-working, highly-skilled, unionized working families--and on the middle class ideals that they embody."

Hightower notes that the "purple-robed princes of Citigroup, AIG, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and other bailees from The Street" were gifted a huge financial bonus by Secretary Paulson, who "unilaterally, secretly, and illegally nullified a federal law because it was in the way of his unauthorized plan to help big banks take over smaller ones. Hank's autocratic decree allows banks to use off-shore tax dodges that Congress banned 23 years ago. This executive maneuver provides an under-the-table tax subsidy for predatory banks wanting public financing to absorb their rivals--a subsidy that will cost our national treasury upwards of $140 billion even as it reduces bank competition."

And all this was done without hardly a murmur from those we elect to protect us from these greedy and degenerate nasties!

Isn't unfettered capitalism wunnerful?


But, when it came to Detroit, out elected poohbahs sang a different tune!

"Right-wing senators from the South and West were suddenly baring claws and hissing furiously that to get aid these supplicants had to restructure their businesses in accordance with government dictates. These congressional one-time free-market holy rollers made a demand that was specific and blunt: Whack your unions."

Hightower is referring to Bob Corker, a multimillionaire from Tennessee, Jim DeMint, an unredeemed clown from South Carolina, and John Kyl, McCain's buddy from Arizona. In fact, Kyl grabbed onto the myth perpetrated by the right that Detroit was going down the tubes because of those terrible unions. Why, union workers in the auto plants make $73 a hour, said the man from Arizona who suffers from sand on the brain.

Not so. As Hightower notes, "the $73 figure is a hoax. The right-wing contrived it by lumping in all of the health-care and pension costs of retirees, plus ... training costs and ... payroll taxes that the companies owe."

The truth is much different: "...the base wage of a veteran UAW member in a Big Three auto company is about $29 per hour, compared to $26 per hour for a non-union worker in Toyota's Kentucky factory."

Hightower has more. "In fact, it's not wages that burden the auto companies--it's the skyrocketing cost of health care in America. Japanese, Korean, European, and other carmakers don't pay this cost because their countries have national health care for all, financed by taxpayers."

And isn't it strange, asks Jim, that none of these self-righteous right-wingers support universal health care in our country, "which would drastically improve the global competitiveness of all of our industries"?

One more thing. These "union-busting senators don't mention" that "the share of a made-in-Detroit car's price tag that goes to cover all labor costs" is 10%! Labor, as Hightower notes, is not a burden so much as it is an asset, for "unionized workers bring award-winning productivity to the industry."

It isn't the fault of the workers that Detroit cars don't sell. The blame rests solely on the heads of those who fly corporate jets when they're not drinking coffee and complaining about the "bad" times in their corporate boardrooms: Rick Wagoner of GM; Alan Mulally of Ford, and Bob Nardelli of Chrysler.

Furthermore, as Hightower explicates, "90% of what we consumers pay for cars goes to bankers, bondholders, investors, executives, suppliers, dealers, and a myriad of others who are part and parcel of every vehicle we drive.

"The senators could force UAW members to work for free, but that would not begin to solve the industry's financial problems."


Once again, when it comes to our right-wing congress people, ideology and power trump common sense and true concern for the nation every time!


Hightower has much more to say and you can read it all here.

Christian Anti-Defamation Commission attacks Obama

[Image of the Rev. Don Hamer]

Normal people might think that the title, "Christian Anti-Defamation Commission," would have something to do with defending "Christians" or "Christianity" from being defamed by nasty atheists and such.

Actually, no. At the beginning of this new year, America's CADC has it shorts in a knot about the "Christianity" of President-elect Barack Obama. The CADC has launched a viral attack on Obama's Christian faith or what they perceive as the lack thereof.

This is curious, for Obama has not "defamed" Christians or their faith; in fact, Obama is adamant in his Christian stance.


Not good enough for the goofballs at the CADC!

In seven videos, CADC explains why Barack Obama is not a Christian. The overall theme is "Barack Obama, who claims to be a Christian, is not a Christian, by any biblical or historic measure." Here's why:

Video #1 - Obama believes there are many paths to heaven. Omigod! Can you imagine? Obama thinks that maybe there is a god big enough to allow people through the Pearly Gates even though they don't dot every "i" and cross every "t" the way the CADC thinks they should?

Here's the problem: Obama says he believes "there are many paths to the same place." Then he turns right around and says, "Jesus is the only way for me."

And that, says the CADC, is "a stunning example of subtle, diabolical deceit."

Stunning, diabolical!

Well, to hell with you, Obama!


Video #2 - Obama denies the authority of the Bible. Omigod, again! Obama seems to be of the mind that everything in the Bible is not literally true, and that there might be errors of fact in those 66 books.

Oh, and Obama, "In a very cynical way ... twists selective scriptures to advance non-Biblical lifestyles using the golden rule supporting homosexual sodomy."

Ah...there it is. Obama is a threat to the CADC homophobic agenda!


Video #3 - Obama supports homosexuality. Omigod, again! In fact, he "is an unabashed supporter of special privileges for homosexuals, a stand that flies in the face of the biblical prohibition on homosexual sodomy." Yup. The CADC has flies in their face!


Video #4 - Obama supports abortion. Omigod, once more! And he's going to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. The CADC, consisting of people who lie for a living, then pervert Obama's record on abortion by claiming he voted four times "against bills that prevented the killing of infants that are born alive."

That is not true, and the goddamned CADC knows it!


Video #5 - Obama affirms Muslim Prayer. Well, this is just silly.


Video #6 - Obama is associated with Black Liberation Theology. Guilt by association? Oh, and you remember all those passages in the gospels where Jesus warned that anyone associated with Black Liberation Theology would have a special place in hell!

Racism? You betcha!


Video #7 - Obama has no Bona Fide Christian testimony. Who decides what is "bona fide?" The CADC, of course.


All of this is ridiculous nonsense, and a transparent attempt at character assassination. If there is any group or any person whose Christianity might be challenged it's the creeps that run this outfit, like Gary Cass or the clown that narrated the videos, Don Hamer.

These are very sick people, and they represent a christianist right that's had too much power in our country, and continues to exercise too much power.

Maybe if "real" Christians, and other people of conscience and goodwill, mock the CADC wingnuts long and hard enough, they will slink off to their dark and dirty dungeons and sink into their own slime.

Or they could just go get a real job.


If you desire to watch the videos, click here. More here.

Photo - The calm before the storm

Central Florida - January 4, 2009
Photo by Mrs. Jacob

Jeb won't run for U.S. Senator

Jeb Bush has been emailing his friends and supporters to inform them he will not be a candidate for the U.S. Senate when Mel Martinez retires.

This decision is surprising in that Jeb has been tossing out hints to certain power brokers that he just might try to fool the citizens of Florida into putting him on the public dole a third time.

So maybe there is a benevolent deity?

Jeb's father, however, George H.W., who spawned the Bush brothers, says he hopes that Jeb, some day, can be prezident of the U.S. As if he and his idiot son George W. haven't done enough damage!

Watch the video.

Ann Coulter banned for life?

According to the Drudge Report, NBC has banned Ann Coulter for life.

Click here.

Maybe there is a god?

And here, in a lighter vein, Al Franken and Ann Coulter, in 2007. Al makes Ann look like the fool she is!

Christian Anti-Defamation Commission & the "war" on Christmas

[Image of Gary Cass borrowed from southern4life blog]

Ah, the poor christianists in our country. They are sorely abused, challenged, chastised, made to feel inferior, unable to promote their religion, beat up by atheists, agnostics and other weird religious groups.

One wonders why this should be, seeing as how the majority of people in the United States lay claim to some form of Christianity. As PZ Myers notes at Pharyngula, you can't even get elected in this fair land without espousing a belief in God, and being a Christian believer just makes attaining a place on the public dole that much easier.

Nevertheless, Christians are under seige and we can be very glad there is such a thing as the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission! God can't help these poor christianists, so it's about time they took the situation in hand and did something about it. Rejoice in the fact that the CADC is on top of things and busy protecting Christians from their anti-Christians neighbors!


One example as to how Christians are persecuted, according to Dr. Gary Cass, head poohbah of the CADC, is the war that secularists and atheists and mainline church-goers wage on Christian Christmas celebrations.

Cass comments "The twin enemies of Christmas, secular humanism and political correctness, have had a very corrosive influence on Christmas this year."

What in the world does that mean? Were any Christians anywhere in the United States not allowed to celebrate Christmas according to the tenets of their faith? Did secular humanists burst into churches on Christmas Eve and disrupt the services? Was Santa Claus outlawed from sliding down the chimney anywhere in the U.S. where they have chimneys?

I'm mocking Mr. Cass.


The truth is that Cass has looked into the future and doesn't like what he sees. "Radical atheist groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation ... have gone on the offense." Yup. These nasties have actually placed signs and billboards around the country "attacking faith in general and Christian faith in particular." Dontcha know only Christians are allowed to put up signs advocating their beliefs?

It's almost too much to bear: "While FFRF is free to express their benighted perspective," whines Cass, "why do they feel they have to do it in the midst of the Christmas season?" They don't put up signs during Ramadan or during Jewish holidays. "Their intentions appear to be only anti-Christian."

Omigod.


Cass whines on about the bus signs in Washington, D.C. that asked "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake." I guess he thinks people should only be good when and if a deity specifically instructs them to do so.

More whining, this time about "political correctness." There were just too many big retail stores that refused to mention Christmas in their advertising. Rather, they used the phrase "Happy Holidays" merely to avoid offending some people. Yikes!

And the schools! My goodness for goodness sake, some schools took the name "Jesus" out of Christmas assignments, and the University of North Carolina took down their Xmas trees because some folks complained about them.


'Tis a terrible problem, this persecution of Christians. Next thing you know some atheist SOB will want to throw 'em to the lions; right here in the US of A where trust in god is part of our money.

Cass suggests good Christian folks can help to mitigate the damage done by the atheists, agnostics, leftists, liberals, mainline Christians and just plain pagans by reading the Christmas story in Luke 1 & 2 to their families.

Why not read the Xmas story in Mark, or John, or even Matthew? Oops, that's right. There is no Xmas story in those Gospels! Well, except for Matthew. But his story conflicts with Luke's! Damn.

And go to church. Lock the doors behind you, though, just in case some leftist Christmas-hater walks by and shouts "Happy Holidays" through the portal!

Then run around wishing everyone a "Merry Christmas."

Try to smile!

Heh. Heh.

Contraception, a mortal sin, pollutes the environment

[Image from qassia.com]

Yup. Those little pills that women take to avoid unwanted pregnancies, are bad, bad, bad! That's according to the Roman Catholic poohbah, Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations.

I've a question for women "on the pill": Don't you feel just terrible? You're committing a mortal sin which means if you die before you confess said sin to the appropriate priestly authority, you'll spend eternity burning in hell. But not only that, you are also polluting the environment!

And that pollution causes male infertility!

Ye gods!

Yahoo News reports that Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi says "We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill."

"Non-negligible?"

How can that be? Pedro tells us that nasty little pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" via female urine.

Hey, that's what he said!


A number of organizations have disputed Pedro's nonsense.


It all has to do, of course, with the Vatican's stubborn insistence that God wants as many unwanted babies in the world as possible, so nobody can use birth control devices of any kind and the pill is one of the worst because it's so sneaky and Catholic women can indulge without their neighbors or their parish priest knowing!

Pope Benedict XVI hisself said back in October that contraception "means negating the truth of conjugal love, with which the divine gift (of life) is communicated."

Heh. Heh.

How the hell would this elderly and prostatic celibate gentleman have a goddamn clue about conjugal love?

The really funny part is that a majority of Roman Catholic women have simply ignored all papal pronouncements about contraception since contraception began!


Polluting the environment! What won't these clerical clowns think of next?


Link to Yahoo article here.

h/t to Freethinker

Though Christians say torture OK, Panetta says "no" to torture, "yes" to rule of law

[Image of Leon Panetta from Wikimedia]

According to every single poll I have seen in the past 50 years, a majority of people in the U.S. call themselves Christians of one stripe or another.

More recently, polls suggest a growing number of American Christians identify with the various fundamentalist or so-called "evangelical" movements. These are the "born againers," who are convinced that their God has great concern for the minutia of their lives, and, of all the nations in the world, is most supportive of the United States. The reason for God's prejudice toward our country, they say, is that our Founding Fathers were fundamentally, if not fundamentalist, Christians who conceived and structured the United States on the same biblical principles which fundy Christians believe crucial to survival today.

Over the past eight years, many leaders in our government have been born-again Christians. The most important of these is George W. Bush, who claims to have personally accepted Jesus into his heart, and has referred numerous times to his spiritual life: Bush not only claims to read the Bible daily, he has also heard the voice of God directing him to take certain actions.


George W. Bush is also a torturer. A number of the people George W. Bush placed in lofty government positions agree that torture is a valuable method of gaining information from our enemies. Bush's lawyers have taken torturous legal paths to justify the use of torture.

As incredible as it sounds, torture has been made acceptable under the Bush adminstration.


Things are going to change, however. Leon E. Panetta, Obama's choice to head up the CIA, has written a brief article in the Washington Monthly about torture and the rule of law.

Panetta begins by noting that the latest polls indicate "two-thirds of the American public believes that torturing suspected terrorists to gain important information is justified in some circumstances."

Two-thirds! To put it another way: most Christians in the United States believe torture to be a positive, not a negative practice; that torture, in some instances, is not only appropriate and legal, but the right thing to do.


"How," asks Panetta, "did we transform from champions of human dignity and individual rights into a nation of armchair torturers? One word: fear.

"Fear is blinding, hateful, and vengeful. It makes the end justify the means. And why not? If torture can stop the next terrorist attack, the next suicide bomber, then what's wrong with a little waterboarding or electric shock?"


What Panetta writes next should be required reading for all American citizens: "The simple answer is the rule of law. Our Constitution defines the rules that guide our nation. It was drafted by those who looked around the world of the eighteenth century and saw persecution, torture, and other crimes against humanity and believed that America could be better than that. This new nation would recognize that every individual has an inherent right to personal dignity, to justice, to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment."

These are the values that have defined the United States. "We are sworn to govern by rule of law, not by brute force."

And, most importantly for our times, Panetta says "We cannot simply suspend these beliefs in the name of national security."


To all those Christians fooled by the wankers of the religious right, this nation is not "under God" but under the Constitution.

And that is of critical importance! You'd be hard-pressed to find two people who agree on what God is, or what God requires and you'd be even harder-pressed to find two people to agree on anything in the Bible. People make the Bible say just about anything to to justify whatever actions they wish to take. You can even find passages that justify torture, and slavery and murder!

When the majority of Christians in our land come to believe that torture is OK, we know that religious belief is not only irrelevant to the greatness of America but is inimical to that greatness!


The United States of America lives by the rule of law as specified in our Constitution. While our Founding Fathers were primarily deists and often hostile to organized religion, they did on occasion nod to God, which would be expected given the times in which they lived.

They believed, however, primarily in the rule of law, as that rule evolved down through the centuries following the signing of the Magna Carta by King John in 1215. They feared religion and the corruption of government by religion and religious people. That is why there is no reference in our Constitution or the Bill of Rights to God. There is no statement in our founding documents about "depending" on God or any deity.


Many christianists today pronounce, as if it were a fact, that non-religious people have no basis for morality or ethics. The falseness of this has been proven over and over again. In fact, the opposite is too often true: it is the religious who are poverty stricken, morally and ethically. Belief guarantees nothing and often leads people to horrific actions based upon what they perceive their god desires.

That is why we should not be surprised that a majority of Christians in this country - people who claim to follow the Prince of Peace - find it possible to justify and support the torture of other human beings.

And that is why, we as a country, must never forget that our foundation does not rest on trust in a god, but on trust in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.

Too many people have already experienced the hell that derives from our leaders' "trust" in their god.

It's time to get back to trusting the rule of law as laid out in our founding documents.


h/t to Andrew Sullivan

Papal Kitsch No. 6

It's soap on a rope you dope - of the Pope! Buy yours here.

The Call to Dunkirk - Get your kids out of public schools!

For some time the christianist wingnuts on the right have pushed Christians to remove their children from the public schools.

A leader in this movement as been one of the chief christianist wingnuts, James Dobson, of Focus on the Family. Dobson's position is essentially the same as all the rest of the wingnuts and derives from 1) the notion that public schools should mirror the fundamentalist christianist mindset, and 2) extreme homophobia.

Another, perhaps more important leader in the effort to get "Christian" kids out of public schools is a fruitcake by name of E. Roy Moore, who is the "founder and director of the Exodus Mandate Project."

Moore is "launching" what some claim is "a new effort highlighting the need for Christians to exit the system [of public schools]." While it isn't a "new" effort at all, but simply part and parcel of continuing christianist attempts to destroy the public schools, the Exodus Mandate is pushing a video named "The Call to Dunkirk," which is the baby of one Dr. Bruce Shortt, the Rev. Voddie Baucham, and E. Roy Moore.

This video, says Moore, is "a special emergency effort to try to get other ministries, churches, pastors, and the major Christian right and pro-family movement to join with us and the other K-12 home-school ministries in rescuing the children from the public schools during the year 2009."

Moore is a retired Army chaplain, thus the military title. Dunkirk was a WWII disaster, but some 300,000 of the Allied forces at Dunkirk were assisted in escaping the clutches of the Nazis by local residents.

Get it? The public schools are a disaster, a Dunkirk. With your help, we can help our children survive by pulling them out of harm's way - the public schools.


Dr. Bruce Shortt is one of the strongmen of this effort. Shortt got a degree from Harvard Law, and then a Ph.D. from Stanford. Which just goes to show if you educate a fool, you've got a real problem - you end up with a really smart fool.

Shortt, Moore and others of their ilk find justification for their insanity in the work of Marlin Maddoux, a man largely responsible for Christian talk radio and a conspiracy theory which begs any form of rationality.

In a WorldNetDaily article, Shortt discusses Maddoux's book, Public Education Against America: the Hidden Agenda, revealing the massive mental breakdown that is the mind of Maddoux, and because he is as sick as Maddoux, praises him for his paranoid delusions.

Maddoux believed that our public schools were destroying our country. Public education is "a cauldron of toxic pathologies," and our government school system can best be summarized as "metastasizing pathologies."

How did he come to such conclusions. Well, our current system is one of "cultural Marxism," which derived from "an obscure band of German Marxists known as the 'Frankfurt School.'" These bad people began coming to this country with their pathologies in 1933 and they "all ... adhered to a form of Marxism developed by an Italian named Antonio Gramsci."

What does that have to do with anything, you ask?

Gramsci was the founder of the Italian Communist Party and became convinced that the West could not be beaten military or economically -- the Christendom of the West was just too strong. So "the only way," argued Gramsci, "was moral subversion through destroying the West's values, obliterating its knowledge of its own history, and destroying its Christian spiritual foundation."

Thus, when the German Marxists arrived in the good ol' US of A, "they almost immediately began drawing upon Gramsci's principles for 'deconstructing' American culture. ... the objective was to de-legitimize such pillars of American culture as Christianity, capitalism, the family, sexual restraint and patriotism."

Boy, they were good, too. They got jobs in "colleges, universities and other institutions where they were able to use their positions to influence generation after generation of students. As their influence on campus grew ... they consistently pursued 'a policy of intimidation, censorship, and slander against anyone opposing their agenda for America.'"

The result: "Today, Cultural Marxism is virtually the norm on most campuses."


The only solution, therefore, is to home school your children! (Or send them to christianist wingnut non-educational institutions).

Of course it is.

I have attended four American universities and have obtained degrees from two of them including a degree in American History. I have also attended other graduate schools, earning yet another degree.

For eleven years, I taught American history in the public schools. My wife spent her working life as a teacher in the public schools.

Let me be clear:

Everything you've just read from Shortt/Maddoux about "cultural Marxism," is unmitigated bullshit!


These people are insane! They are also anti-Christian, anti-God, anti-American, and anti-just about everything else of any value in our society. They are destroyers, not builders. They are liars who know not the truth. They spend their lives hating, not loving. Today, they hate gays, Mormons, liberals, Democrats, free-thinkers, agnostics, mainstream Christians, atheists. They hate anyone who thinks for himself or herself. They hate all who disagree with them.

The best thing they could do for this country is pack up and leave for a deserted island where they could indoctrinate their precious children with all the hate that seethes in their hearts. At least we wouldn't have to listen to their nonsense and put up with their viciousness any more.


Shortt's entire article is here.

You'll find the Exodus Mandate Project here.

For another point of view, click here.

Vatican tells us what's new in sin

[Image from Vatican.va/news_services]

Isn't it wonderful that we have an international organization with a direct pipeline to the Almighty? The Roman Catholic Church, on more or less regular occasions, receives directives from on high to relay to the rest of us about what is and what isn't "sin."

Complicating the matter, however, is that God has told the Vatican impresarios there are two types of sin: venial and mortal. Venial sins are relatively minor, like telling a white lie. No biggie. Mortal sins, though, carry eternal weight. Unconfessed, these can send you to an eternity of hellfire.

Somewhere along about the 6th century C.E., a pope named Gregory defined what have become known as the Seven Deadly Sins. You won't find a list of these in the Bible, but nevertheless, they are bad. They are:

Lust
Gluttony
Greed
Sloth
Wrath
Envy
Pride

They are not only bad but they are pervasive. Can you name one single person you've known who has not committed all of them at some point in his/her life? Actually, when you think about it, when you put them all together, they sort of define the Vatican hierarchy.


Not only so, but the RC Church has traditionally also listed the following as mortal sins:

Murder
Contraception
Abortion
Perjury
Adultery



Now, however, having just received a communique from god herself, the Vatican says that while those sins are still "deadly," there are some other things we'd better be concerned about if we care at all for our immortal souls.

Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican poohbah who heads up the Apostolic Penitentiary and who thus speaks for the pope and other high and mighty prelates, claims god said that engaging in the following will leave one with hell to pay:

Drug dealing
Being "obscenely" rich
Polluting the environment
Genetic engineering
Abortion (again)
Pedophilia
Causing social injustice

Girotto wants us to know the Church considers the Seven Deadlies as "individual matters," but that these new "sins" have "social resonance." [That makes no sense when you think about it! The Seven Deadlies can and usually do sure as hell lead to "social resonance"!]

"You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming or coveting your neighbor's wife," warns Girotti, "but also by ruining the environment, carrying out morally debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations which alter DNA or compromise embryos."

Furthermore, you put your mortal soul in danger by dealing in drugs, causing people to be poor, or having too damn much money.


Abortion continues to play its part as a really big sin. And Girotti noted that the Vatican was offended by whatever damages "the dignity and rights of women." That's just too funny, coming from an old dress-wearing celibate who claims his god won't allow women to be priests!

Oh, and the Church doesn't like pedophilia, in spite of the fact a fair percentage of its clergy have practiced it. Of course, the "media" has "blown up" the whole pedophilia scandal "to discredit the Church," says Girotti.

Of course.


I just think it wonderful that we are blessed with an institution which speaks for God and thus is able to tell the rest of us what is right and what is wrong. If only the media wouldn't keep confusing the issue by reporting on the evil that the Church and its priests commit!

Now, I just need to find a way to quit being "obscenely rich." Maybe just plain obscene is OK?

Papal Kitsch No. 5 - Caganer

If you have a taste for this sort of thing and wish to purchase the caganer, click here.

Central Florida - January 4, 2009

It was a beautiful evening, calm and warm.

Palin perversity goes on and on

[Photo from lalate]

The following is from an article by Sean Cockerham at the Anchorage Daily News.

Sherry Johnston, mother of Levi Johnston the father of Sarah Palin's daughter's baby, was under investigation while Sarah Palin was running for vice president on the Republican ticket.

Sherry Johnston was arrested on December 18 "on charges of selling the prescription painkiller OxyContin."

Now, according to "A Mat-Su drug investigator and the union representing Alaska State Troopers," there was "political meddling in the Sherry Johnston drug case, including a delay in serving the search warrant because of the November election."

Well, hell, it wouldn't look good if the mother of Sarah's daughter's soon-to-be husband was arrested and thrown in jail as a drug dealer. Right?


But, Col. Audie Holloway, the director of the Alaska State Troopers, and Joe Masters, the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner, "vigorously dispute that there was anything irregular in how this case was handled."

They may be right. But I'll always remember my days in the Navy when we expected a visit from some high and mighty poohbah. Everything was scrubbed down and everything was in perfect order and all the faults and cracks were hidden away. The high and mighty poohbah would come and look and like what he saw and go back to whatever Navy heaven from whence he came and write a report that had absolutely no relationship to reality!

So, I'm not sure if two of Alaska's head honchos have a clue.


Furthermore, the troopers' drug investigator, sent an e-mail to members of the Public Safety Employees Association saying that political meddling interfered with the investigation: "It was not allowed to progress in a normal fashion, the search warrant service WAS delayed because of the pending election and the Mat Su Drug Unit and the case officer were not the ones calling the shots."

Uh, oh.


Mr. Cockerham has lots more stuff to say and I must admit this appears to be another instance of Ms. Sarah Palin and/or her office abusing her powers as the governor of Alaska. Sometimes, as John F. Kennedy said, when there's smoke there's a smoke-making machine. Othertimes, however, there really is a fire.

Methinks we're talking fire here.

Oh, wait. Sources say she didn't know anything about the ongoing investigation. And if you believe that...


Read all of Mr. Cockerham's article here.