Religious Right in tizzy about new Capitol Visitor Center's secularism

Here they go boo-hooing again about the new Capitol Visitor Center that will soon be opening in Washington D.C being “too secular”.

LINK: Making (Up) History: Religious Right Forces Try To Tilt Capitol Visitor Center

The fundies are whining that it “doesn’t display America’s “Christian heritage” and are insisting that America is a Christian Nation and even though we are a melting pot of diverse beliefs and backgrounds, they want to force their Christianity in the faces of all visitors who pass through the visitor center.

Sandhya Bathija of AU states:

They are complaining that the Center, funded by more than $600 million in taxpayer dollars, is too secular and doesn’t display America’s “Christian heritage.” Apparently, they would rather push their own version of American history — that America is a “Christian nation” — so citizens who are non-Christian feel second-class when they tour our nation’s capitol.

Leading the campaign to promote these historical inaccuracies is David Barton, founder and president of Texas-based WallBuilders, a Religious Right organization pushing Barton’s sectarian version of American history. Barton has no credentials as a historian, and his historical accounts are based on “Christian nation” propaganda.

If you haven’t heard of WallBuilders and David Barton, here is a YouTube by RightWingWatchdotorg of David Barton at the Rediscovering God in America Conference in Florida on Jan. 21, 2008 where he discusses the “best way to control the political forces.”

When promoting mixing of god beliefs and government, evangelicals really do not understand the big can of worms they are opening up. First of all, they really do not understand that Washington and Jefferson and many other of our founding fathers were Deists. Thomas Paine wrote about how ludicrous the Christian beliefs and the Bible are. Evangelicals who would turn us into their kind of theocracy conveniently leave that part out and choose to be willfully ignorant of historical facts and the true meaning of our U.S. Constitution's first amendment.

Bathija continues to points out:

In a YouTube video produced by Wallbuilders, the group refers to the Center as a “$621 million shrine to political correctness” and urges Americans to write or call Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress asking them not “to use our federal tax dollars to further secularize America.”

Here is that video:

Last week, U.S. Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) announced that 108 members of Congress, including members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, signed a letter to the Architect of the Capitol complaining about the lack of references to God in the Center.

The letter complains that the Center includes photos from Earth Day celebrations and an AIDS rally but does not include photos from the National Day of Prayer or the March for Life events.

The letter isn’t Forbes’ first foray into Religious Right activism. In December 2007, the Virginia congressman introduced a resolution that would declare the first week in May as “American Religious History Week.” The measure also asked Congress to accept that “political scientists have documented that the most frequently-cited source in the political period known as The Founding Era was the Bible,” among other inflammatory historical inaccuracies.

The version of American history pushed by Barton and Forbes is their own skewed version. For the rest of us, we have learned since kindergarten that our founding fathers had enough sense to keep religion out of government and government out of religion in order to preserve religious liberty for all.

I’m pleased that the new Capitol Visitor Center hasn’t yielded to Religious Right propagandists. I hope it doesn’t do so now.

I hope it doesn’t do so now, also.

View of Milky Way from inside False Kiva

Click on image to enlarge....spectacular!A True Image from False Kiva

Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics.com/TWAN)

Explanation: Is there any place in the world you could see a real sight like this? Yes. Pictured above is single exposure image spectacular near, far, and in between. Diving into the Earth far in the distance is part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, taken with a long duration exposure. Much closer, the planet Jupiter is visible as the bright point just to band's left. Closer still are picturesque buttes and mesas of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA, lit by a crescent moon. In the foreground is a cave housing a stone circle of unknown origin named False Kiva. The cave was briefly lit by flashlight during the long exposure. Astrophotographer Wally Pacholka reports that getting to the cave to take this image was no easy trek. Also, mountain lions were a concern while waiting alone in the dark for just the right exposure.

Check out some more of Wally Pacholka's works here...absolutely incredible.

Sarah Palin's crazyass beliefs

I am sure more and more videos will surface about Palin's religious nuttery the closer we get to election time. It would be great if they found one of her rolling on the floor speaking in jibberish as is customary in her denomination. Maybe a few snake-handling sessions, too?

McCain showed extreme lack of judgement in choosing Palin. There were so many more distinquished and experienced women to choose from. He just wanted to add spark and dazzle for appearances sake without any consideration of who Sarah Palin really is and what her true religious intentions are, which, first and foremost are to promote her religious propaganda. Keith Olbermann finally did a segment on Palin being purged of witchcraft influences a couple nights ago, but her religious whackery is not getting as much attention as Obama's crazy pastor did and Rev Wright wasn't even running for public office!



Thanks to my friendly neighborhood neocon for pointing to this one. ;)

And here's the Olbermann video. Nutjobs think that Alaska is the last refuge of the Tribulation before the End of Times. Lucky this is just a minority belief, but we definitely cannot have a dominionist one heartbeat away from the most powerful position on the planet. Olbernmann is right on when he says that Murthee makes Rev. Wright seems like Father Flannigan from Boystown!

They want to control all aspects of your life,

Pastor Gus Booth and other right-wing religious freaks like him want to control all aspects of your life, from the voting booth to the bedroom. If he wants to tell his church full of sheeple who to vote for, then start paying taxes like everyone else. If people like Gus don't want to respect separation of church and state, then pay up buddy and you can promote whatever political candidate you want from your pulpit! But you can't have it both ways.

From Americans United for Separation of Church and State: LINK: Hurricane Gus Update: Church Policking Scheme Is Category 4 Threat to American Democracy

The Rev. Gus Booth is one of a handful of clergy who plan to endorse political candidates from the pulpit this Sunday as part of a Religious Right scheme to turn churches into a right-wing political machine.

Booth, pastor of the Warroad Community Church in Warroad, Minn., says he has every right to tell his parishioners how to vote.

“If we can tell you what to do in the bedroom, we can certainly tell you what to do in the voting booth,” Booth told the Religion News Service’s Adelle Banks. “The voting booth is not some sort of sacred cow that you can’t talk about. You’re supposed to bring the gospel into every area of life.”

Okaaaaay.

I don’t know about you, but I would just as soon that Pastor Booth stay out of both my bedroom and the voting booth (certainly when I’m in it).

Apparently I’m not alone. On Wednesday, Baptist Press released a new LifeWay Research poll that had some astounding figures in it.

According to this public opinion survey, 75 percent of Americans do not believe “it is appropriate for churches to publicly endorse candidates for public office.” What’s more, 85 percent think it is not “appropriate for churches to use their resources to campaign for candidates for public office.” Eighty-seven percent do not “believe it is appropriate for pastors to publicly endorse candidates for public office during a church service.”

And here are some good reasons Mr Conn provides for why politicking from the pulpit is bad:

Americans know that politicizing our churches is terrible thing to do. It will divide our communities along religious lines, undercutting our secular and pluralistic democracy. If elections boil down to which churches can turn out the most voters from their own pews, the majority faiths will control the government and church-state separation and interfaith peace are sure to fall by the wayside.

Partisanship in the pulpit is also disastrous for religion. It will split congregations, pitting church members against each other and against their religious leaders. And it will open the door to manipulation by unscrupulous politicians. The integrity of houses of worship will almost certainly be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

And ends with this:

Booth, of course, has a broadly protected right to tell his congregants what to think about a wide variety of religious, moral and, yes, political matters. The Constitution protects his freedom of speech and freedom of religion. I personally don’t want his advice on any of those things. If his congregants do want his recommendations on how best to fold their bed sheets, it’s up to them.

But if Booth’s church wants to keep its tax exemption, it cannot endorse partisan political candidates. That’s a simple rule of the IRS Code that applies to all churches, charities and educational groups with a 501(c)(3) status.

It's like I said, if Booth wants to endorse a particular candidate and tell people who to vote for, then start paying taxes.

Yet another evangelist sicko!

Tony Alamo says the Bible says pedophilia and sex with children is okay.

Evangelist Alamo faces charges in child sex probe

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Evangelist and convicted tax evader Tony Alamo says the age of consent is puberty and there's a mandate in the Bible for girls marrying young.

"In the Bible it happened. But girls today, I don't marry 'em if they want to at 14-15 years old," Alamo said Saturday after federal agents raided his southwestern Arkansas compound and placed six girls into state custody. "We won't do it, even though I believe it's OK."

But authorities don't believe it's OK — and now Alamo faces charges he transported children across state lines for sexual activities, in violation of the Mann Act. And so once again, the one-time rock promoter and street preacher that former President Clinton likened to "Roy Orbison on speed" will return to federal court.

It's not okay, Tony...lock this dude up and throw away the key!

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Saturday, Alamo said girls are fit for marriage once they are sexually mature, but denied any involvement with pornography.

"We don't go into pornography; nobody in the church is into that," Alamo said. "Where do these allegations stem from? The anti-Christ government. The Catholics don't like me because I have cut their congregation in half. They hate true Christianity."

And there is the persecution complex again which they pull out every time they are caught doing a crime against society and the truly innocent. Boo-fucking-hoo! Everyone hates "true Christianity", he cries!

Instead of prison, Alamo proves he should be committed to a mental institution:

Alamo and his late wife Susan were street preachers in Los Angeles before forming a commune near Saugus, Calif. Susan Alamo died of cancer in 1982; Alamo claimed she would be resurrected and kept her body on display for six months while followers prayed.

And when that didn't work:

Remembering the fiasco after Susan Alamo's death, [Bill} Clinton wrote: "A couple of years later, he got involved with a younger woman. Lo and behold, God spoke to him again and told him Susan wasn't coming back after all, so he took her out of the glass box and buried her."

Alamo has been under investigation and watched for years:

Alamo was convicted of tax-related charges in 1994 and served four years in prison after the IRS said he owed the government $7.9 million. Prosecutors in that case argued that Alamo was a flight risk and a polygamist who preyed on married women and girls in his congregation.

This psycho should have been put away years ago.

Ewww

I try to be open-minded about most things, but my mind slams shut on this new idea. Ya'll want ice cream made from the milk of nursing mamas? No thanks!

LINK: Mama's milk ice cream cone, anyone?

WATERBURY, Vt. - Mooove over, Holsteins. PETA wants world-famous Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream to tap nursing moms, rather than cows, for the milk used in its ice cream.

Supporters say that mama's milk ice cream would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product.

I have been to dairy farms and it doesn't appear that cows are suffering in any way when being milked. They just stand there and moo and munch grass. Their lives are cushy. They are given the best food and treated well so they keep producing. IMO this is just another gimmick to attempt to attract overly obsessive health nuts.

The logic of "God's Will"

It's a good thing prayer doesn't work

This is just what we DON’T need . . . more priests!

U.S. Catholics pray for more priests

WELLESLEY, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The sign outside St. James Church in the affluent Boston suburb of Wellesley sums up Catholicism’s deepening struggles in the United States.

“Still searching for a priest,” it reads. Another sign affixed to its thick doors pleads: “Save St. James.”

Facing dwindling congregations, shifting demographics and a drain on cash from settling sexual abuse lawsuits, Roman Catholic churches are shuttering at a quickening pace in a traditional stronghold, the U.S. Northeast.

Thank human goodness!

FEWER PRIESTS

While Catholics remain the nation’s second-biggest religious group with about 22 percent of the population, a figure roughly unchanged since 1965 thanks to an influx of Hispanics, many dioceses are struggling to find priests.

Of the nation’s 18,479 parishes in 2008, 3,141 were without resident pastors, while the 480 priests ordained in 2008 is less than half the number of new priests in 1965.

The pedophiles can no longer find a safe haven in the priesthood. And who wants to be a priest with the reputation the Church now has? What will they do?

Sound of Mooseshit

I love this website, not only for it's satire, but he also posts some interesting artwork. Click on image for link to Internet Weekly:"I’ve been in Alaska only a week, but I’m already feeling ever so much smarter about Russia." - Maureen Dowd

The Onion

People demand their shitty jobs!



And, then here is to the No Value Voters!

Religion in the workplace

Being an employer in this era of increasing cultural and religious diversity must be quite frustrating with believers of all types demanding fair time for their gods and magical rituals and traditions. Often, it isn’t enough just to have a day off from work for mythological reasons, but increasingly the delusional want to bring religious rituals into work hours which then cuts into production time and burdens other workers with having to pick up the slack. If time was given to every person who wanted special consideration for their delusional beliefs, nothing would ever get done.

Last week, Somali workers at a Colorado meatpacking plant went apeshit over not being allowed time during work hours for prayers during the Muslim observance of Ramadan. Apparently the great and mighty Allah cannot hear their mutterings while working or doing anything else, and this Allah apparently only hears prayer mutterings at magical times of day. We’re not talking a handful of people in this case, we are talking about 220 employees who want to stop working to pray or murmur or pick their ass, whatever. Before someone calls me “intolerant”, I have been a boss and though some have “true delusions”, many more use that special preference to escape from work for a bit.

Christians get special days off, so do Jews for religious observances. Now the Muslims want special breaks from work and who knows what next…carpeted prayer rooms like they are demanding in airports and schools? Who is going to be left to actually do any work? Atheists?

In this case, the company did try to accommodate their sunset prayer delusions by changing break time of the afternoon shift from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m. but that wasn’t good enough, and workers who took unapproved breaks earlier were fired. Now the workers who were fired are bitching and complaining and even getting violent about not having a job to pay for food for their families. They wouldn’t dare stop to even think that their sky boss doesn’t come by to feed them or anything for their loyalty. They will starve without a job given to them by their employers who in turn gives them money to maintain their households. No god comes. Yet they risk their jobs for their pointless beliefs and cry persecution when they aren’t given preferential treatment.

Colo. plant and Somali workers fight over prayer

“With any new ethnic or religious groups, there is an adjustment period as the group becomes part of the American social fabric,”

says one supporter of the delusional fired workers.

And like I asked above, if more and more ethnic and religious groups demand more and more time away from the job for their traditions and magical rituals and special days, who is going to be left to do the job? Atheists? How about we start demanding time for sacred napping or time to get in touch with our inner selves or something? Then bitch and protest till we get our way.

Pope says to "accept death at hour chosen by God"

The euthanasia controversy has come up in the news once again.

Pope says to "accept death at the hour chosen by God"

People must accept death at “the hour chosen by God,” Pope Benedict XVI told ailing pilgrims Monday in an anti-euthanasia message at Lourdes, the shrine that draws the desperate, sick and dying.

So, grown and supposedly intelligent people believe that a magical being sits at a magical control center and chooses who is going to die and how, all-the-while listening to and answering prayers of billions of people, controlling the path of storms and natural disasters all over the planet and deciding who will escape injury and who will be hurt or die, blessing football teams, choosing which sexy rock star or pants-falling-down rapper should win an MTV award, controlling the elements of the universe all the other innumerable things that believers give credit to their imaginary friend for.

I am not so certain how I feel about euthanasia yet, but what I do know is that often when people die it is NOT “their time” as when people are murdered, young soldiers killed in wars, innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. When helpless and infants are brutally beaten by their own parents or trusted caretakers, that is the plan of an awesome god? If a murderer kills another person, isn’t he, according to the Pope, doing what God chooses? The lack of logic of god believers boggles my mind.

The ancient Greek definition of Euthanasia literally means “good death”. It is the ending of a life in a painless and peaceful manner.

From Wiki:

As of 2008, some forms of euthanasia are legal in Belgium,[1] Luxemburg,[2] The Netherlands,[1] Switzerland,[1] the U.S. state of Oregon,[3], the Autonomous Community of Andalusia (Spain)[4][5] and Thailand.[6]

Opinions on euthanasia vary, Some, like the Catholic church and pro-lifers call it murderous, while many people consider it merciful and the right choice for someone with a terminal illness who is in pain and will not get better. Controversy arises from the moral aspects concerning with the choosing to take one’s life, and doctors like Kevorkian and others who assist in these suicides are considered “evil”. But the Pope and others who believe that only their god can take a life have nothing to say about a god who “chooses the hour” of a young person’s death at the hand of a perverted psychopath. Only God can choose to cause a spontaneous abortion or a baby born deformed and without a brain, or like my first child and many other mothers whose child was born dead after a full-term otherwise healthy pregnancy.

There are many reasons for voluntary euthanasia, and even more reasons against voluntary euthanasia. The ethical debate is complicated with many good points from either side, but the religious ones are quite illogical and unreasonable. While some are afraid of potential abuse of euthanasia, many people feel that it should be a decision of the patient and family members and not the government or the priests to decide that a terminally ill person should continue to suffer to an agonizing end. But the whole argument about “god choosing our time” is ludicrous.

The Beginning of a New Era or the End of Planet Earth?

I hope to hear what my resident NeoCon commenter, Jason who has a degree in Physics has to say about the Large Hadron Collider for which scientists have been getting death threats about because some folks are afraid it will destroy the planet. A U.S. lawsuit calls it a Doomsday Device.

BBC News - Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.

They have now fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash protons together with cataclysmic force.

Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.

But there are great concerns about the safety of these experiments. Wikipedia summarizes some of these concerns.

Concerns have been raised in the media, on the Internet and through the law courts about the safety of the particle physics experiments planned to take place at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator to date, built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, in Switzerland.^[1][2] The claimed dangers of the LHC particle collisions, which are scheduled to begin on 21 October 2008,^[3] include doomsday scenarios involving the production of stable micro black holes and the creation of hypothetical particles called strangelets. To address such concerns, CERN mandated a group of independent scientists to review these scenarios. In a report issued in 2003, they concluded that, like current particle experiments such as the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the LHC particle collisions pose no conceivable threat.^[5] A second review of the evidence commissioned by CERN was released in 2008. The report, prepared by a group of physicists not involved in the LHC experiments, reaffirmed the safety of the LHC collisions in light of further research conducted since the 2003 assessment.^[6][7] It was reviewed and endorsed by a CERN committee of 20 external scientists and by the Executive Committee of the Division of Particles & Fields of the American Physical Society, and was later published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Physics G.^[8][9][6] The report concludes that any doomsday scenarios at the LHC are ruled out because the physical conditions and events that will be created in the LHC experiments occur naturally in the universe without hazardous consequences.^[6]

Should we be worried?

Addition: I should clarify that I am not afraid and find the whole thing fascinating.

120 million year-old ant found in Amazon rainforest

This is an incredible discovery, like finding a needle in a haystack.Yet more evidence to prove the young earth creationists wrong.

German scientists discover 120 million-year-old ant

BERLIN (Reuters) - German biologists have discovered a new species of ant they believe is the oldest on the planet, dating back around 120 million years.

Researchers from Karlsruhe's Natural History Museum found the 3-millimetre-long (0.118 inch) insect in the Amazon rainforest in 2007, and hope it will shed light on the early evolution of ants.

"It's by far the most spectacular find of my 26-year career," said museum biologist Manfred Verhaagh on Tuesday.

Scientists from Karlsruhe originally found an unidentified species of ant of a similar type in the Brazilian rainforest in 2003. However, due to an accident in the laboratory, the insect dried up, making further research impossible, Verhaagh said.

Last year a separate team from the museum's research body was in the forest investigating fungus when they stumbled upon the tiny insect, and named it "Martialis heureka".

Resembling a miniature wasp, the insect is like no other ant, and probably dates back 120 million years, making it the oldest still inhabiting the earth, Verhaagh said. The scientists used DNA samples from its front leg to establish its likely age.

The last discovery of a new ant species was in 1923, he added.

(Reporting by Josie Cox, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Scientists get images of planet with sun-like star

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have snapped the first images of a planet outside our solar system that is orbiting a star very much like the sun.

in findings announced on Monday, University of Toronto scientists said they used the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to take direct pictures of the planet, which is about the size of Jupiter but with eight times the mass.

It is also much hotter than Jupiter, they said.

This planet and the star it seems to orbit are located in our Milky Way galaxy about 500 light years from Earth, the scientists said. A light year is about 6 trillion miles, or the distance light travels in a year.

"It's always been a goal to take a picture of a planet around another star. The challenge, of course, is that planets are much, much fainter than stars," Ray Jayawardhana, one of the scientists, said in a telephone interview.

Of all known extrasolar planets, this one is orbiting the furthest from its star. It is located roughly 11 times further from its star than Neptune -- the outermost planet in our solar system -- is located from the sun, the scientists said.

They said they are working to confirm that the planet is indeed orbiting this star as it appears, but it may take up to two years to get that data.

"The star is very typical. It's like the sun, just younger. But the planet is quite unusual. It's on the high end of the mass of the extrasolar planets found so far. And it's also very far away from its star," Jayawardhana added.

Before this, the only planets or similar objects that have been directly imaged outside of the solar system were either free-floating in space and not orbiting a star, or orbiting a brown dwarf, a failed star that did not reach the mass necessary to spark the nuclear fusion typical of a star.

The scientists said they benefited from technology that reduces distortions from turbulence in Earth's atmosphere.

Jayawardhana said the scientists have evidence of water and carbon monoxide in the planet's atmosphere. The planet is not thought to be a good candidate for extraterrestrial life because it appears to be a gas giant, a type of planet inhospitable to life, and because it is too young.

The star is considered a newborn, forming an estimated 5 million years ago. The sun is about 4-1/2 billion years old.

Creationists will say it's an image from Satan or whatever they want to make up in order to protect their beliefs that our billions of years-old planet is 6,000 years. Evidence is continuously proving their beliefs to be pure mythology.

LINK TO FULL STORY

Is Morality Natural?

Here is a Newsweek article and video by Harvard’s Michael Craig Miller on what happens in the brain when people have “spiritual experiences” and explains how morality may be naturally hardwired in the brain. Religious folks will still insist that a god put morality and spirituality in our heads. Most humans will continue to believe because, as the video illustrates, magical incantations and superstitious beliefs make them feel better. The video also points out that while prayer and meditation makes a person feel better, prayer will not heal terminal illnesses nor change things beyond human control. It’s like we atheists have said, prayer and religion are coping devices.

On Jan. 2, 2007, a large woman entered the Cango caves of South Africa and wedged herself into the only exit, trapping 22 tourists behind her. Digging her out appeared not to be an option, which left a terrible moral dilemma: take the woman’s life to free the 22, or leave her to die along with her fellow tourists? It is a dilemma because it pushes us to decide between saving many and using someone else’s life as a means to this end.

A new science of morality is beginning to uncover how people in different cultures judge such dilemmas, identifying the factors that influence judgment and the actions that follow. These studies suggest that nature provides a universal moral grammar, designed to generate fast, intuitive and universally held judgments of right and wrong.

Consider yourself a subject in an experiment on the Moral Sense Test (moral .wjh.harvard.edu), a site presenting dilemmas such as these: Would you drive your boat faster to save the lives of five drowning people knowing that a person in your boat will fall off and drown? Would you fail to give a drug to a terminally ill patient knowing that he will die without it but his organs could be used to save three other patients? Would you suffocate your screaming baby if it would prevent enemy soldiers from finding and killing you both, along with the eight others hiding out with you?

These are moral dilemmas because there are no clear-cut answers that obligate duty to one party over the other. What is remarkable is that people with different backgrounds, including atheists and those of faith, respond in the same way.[my emphasis]

Sam Harris on Palin: average isn't good enough

Sam Harris sums up pretty well my thoughts and opinions about this election and how the American people have come to settle for so little. The dumbing-down of America seems unstoppable. I may not be here to witness it, but "Rome" will fall once again.

"As many people have noted, placing Palin on the ticket has made these final months of the already overlong 2008 campaign much more interesting. Is Palin remotely qualified to be president of the United States? No. But that's precisely what is so interesting. McCain not only has thrown all sensible concerns about good governance aside merely to pander to a sliver of female and masses of conservative Christian voters, he has turned this period of American history into an episode of high-stakes reality television: Don't look now, but our cousin Sarah just became leader of the free world! Tune in next week and watch her get sassy with Pakistan!

Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to positions of great authority. No one wants an average neurosurgeon or even an average carpenter, but when it comes time to vest a man or woman with more power and responsibility than any person has held in human history, Americans say they want a regular guy, someone just like themselves. President Bush kept his edge on the "Who would you like to have a beer with?" poll question in 2004, and won reelection.

This is one of the many points at which narcissism becomes indistinguishable from masochism. Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages -- and loses -- both necessary and unnecessary wars.

McCain has so little respect for the presidency of the United States that he is willing to put the girl next door (soon, too, to be a grandma) into office beside him. He has so little respect for the average American voter that he thinks this reckless and cynical ploy will work.

And it might. Palin's nomination has clearly excited Christian conservatives, and it may entice a few million gender-obsessed fans of Hillary Clinton to vote entirely on the basis of chromosomes. Throw in a few million more average Americans who will just love how the nice lady smiles, and 2009 could be a very interesting year.

Tune in next week and watch cousin Sarah fuss with our nuclear arsenal ... ."~ Sam Harris

Read Sam's article here at Atheist Nation via this link:

Sam Harris on Palin: average isn't good enough

Reality tv politics

"As many people have noted, placing Palin on the ticket has made these final months of the already overlong 2008 campaign much more interesting. Is Palin remotely qualified to be president of the United States? No. But that's precisely what is so interesting. McCain not only has thrown all sensible concerns about good governance aside merely to pander to a sliver of female and masses of conservative Christian voters, he has turned this period of American history into an episode of high-stakes reality television: Don't look now, but our cousin Sarah just became leader of the free world! Tune in next week and watch her get sassy with Pakistan!" ~ Sam Harris

SNL Clinton V. Palin

For those who haven't seen this or who want to see it again, this is great.

Milky Way Road Trip

This is absolutely magnificent.

click on image to enlargeCredit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN)

Explanation: In search of planets and the summer Milky Way, astronomer Tunç Tezel took an evening road trip. Last Saturday, after driving the winding road up Uludag, a mountain near Bursa, Turkey, he was rewarded by this beautiful skyview to the south. Near the center, bright planet Jupiter outshines the city lights below and the stars of the constellation Sagittarius. Above the mountain peaks, an arcing cloud bank seems to lead to the Milky Way's own cloudy apparition plunging into the distant horizon. In Turkish, Uludag means Great Mountain. Uludag was known in ancient times as the Mysian Olympus.

Saturday funny from our creative friends at Internet Weekly

Don't tell me my Republican lurkers that this doesn't make you chuckle to yourself:

Pigism

When will all the circus sideshows end on both sides and get to the business of debating and discussing the issues and ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH STRAIGHT ANSWERS? The "Straight-Talk Express" has been derailed by paparazzi style reporting and sensationalistic drama. Obama is struggling to redirect the audience attention back to himself. My friends in other countries are enjoying it as much if not more than their favorite reality television programs. In many ways, there isn't much if a difference.

Quote of the day

The radical religious right has succeeded in taking over one of America's great political parties. The country is not yet a theocracy but the Republican Party is, and they are driving American politics, using God as a battering ram on almost every issue: crime and punishment, foreign policy, health care, taxation, energy, regulation, social services and so on." -- Bill Moyers

Palin's Churches and the Holy Laughter anointing

Palin is not a moderate Chrisitian. The way she talks, the rhetoric she uses and her deliverance is total fundamentalist Christian. She is of a crazy-ass cult denomination...and a dominionist:

From Bruce Wilson at Huffington Post (I’ve provided a few links):

Sarah Palin's churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949. This is the same 'Spiritual Warfare' movement that was featured in the award winning movie, "Jesus Camp," which showed young children being trained to do battle for the Lord. At least three of four of Palin's churches are involved with major organizations and leaders of this movement, which is referred to as The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit or the New Apostolic Reformation. The movement is training a young "Joel's Army" to take dominion over the United States and the world.

Along with her entire family, Sarah Palin was re-baptized at twelve at the Wasilla Assembly of God in Wasilla, Alaska and she attended the church from the time she was ten until 2002: over two and 1/2 decades. Sarah Palin's extensive pattern of association with the Wasilla Assembly of God has continued nearly up to the day she was picked by Senator John McCain as a vice-presidential running mate. Palin's dedication to the Wasilla church is indicated by a Saturday, September 7, 2008, McClatchy news service story detailing possibly improper use of state travel funds by Palin for a trip she made to Wasilla, Alaska to attend, on June 8, 2008, both a Wasilla Assembly of God "Masters Commission" graduation ceremony and also a multi-church Wasilla area event known as "One Lord Sunday." At the latter event, Palin and Alaska LT Governor Scott Parnell were publicly blessed, onstage before an estimated crowd of 6,000, through the "laying on of hands" by Wasilla Assembly of God's Head Pastor Ed Kalnins whose sermons espouse such theological concepts as the possession of geographic territories by demonic spirits and the inter-generational transmission of family "curses". Palin has also been blessed, or "anointed," by an African cleric, prominent in the Third Wave movement, who has repeatedly visited the Wasilla Assembly of God and claims to have effected positive, dramatic social change in a Kenyan town by driving out a "spirit of witchcraft."

The Wasilla Assembly of God church is deeply involved with both Third Wave activities and theology. Their Master's Commission program is part of an three year post-high school international training program with studies in prophecy, intercessory prayer, Biblical exegesis, authority and leadership. The pastor, Ed Kalnins, and Masters Commission students have traveled to South Carolina to participate in a "prophetic conference" at Morningstar Ministries, one of the major ministries of the Third Wave movement. Becky Fischer was a pastor at Morningstar prior to being featured in the movie "Jesus Camp." The head of prophecy at Morningstar, Steve Thompson, is currently scheduled to do a prophecy seminar at the Wasilla Assembly of God. Other major leaders in the movement have also traveled to Wasilla to visit and speak at the church.

(More at Huffington Post under Bruce Wilson's page.)

Sarah Palin And Republican Hypocrisy

Just read this headline at MSN’s mainpage. The media continues to perpetuate the god shit instead of emphasizing GET THE HELL OUT OF THE AREA:



As Ike storm surge begins, ‘it’s time for prayers’

GALVESTON, Texas - Hurricane Ike rumbled through the Gulf of Mexico as a 350-mile-wide monster Friday toward the Texas coast, led by a massive storm surge that was already flooding homes many hours before the main event was to begin. Texas Gov. Rick Perry said authorities had done everything they could to evacuate more than 1.2 million people from the coast and “now it’s time for prayers.”

Perry said the hurricane could cause more than $100 billion of damage, making it the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, while Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who called the storm “potentially catastrophic,” warned that as many as 100,000 homes could be flooded.

My heart does go out for victims of natural disasters. And “praying” is just saying as Gov. Perry says that they have done everything they can do. But when will anyone ever say that people must use their brains and common sense in order to have a chance to survive these things because that is what it actually takes . . . human survival skills.

Prayer will not stop a hurricane or any other forces of nature beyond our control.

When “prayers are answered in Florida, for instance and the hurricane changes course, what about the prayers of those in the new path of inevitable disaster?

To the news media, STOP THIS PRAYER BULLCRAP and encourage people to follow evacuation orders to get the hell out of the storm’s path. Homes can be replaced, things can be replaced but no god will save your life.

Other things that have been done is the national guard and rescue units are on alert ready to help clean up and help the ones who chose to stay and pray.

Palin Asked On Bush Doctrine - Stumbles On Answer

Palin hasn't had any answers to the important questions yet, only hems and haws while in her brain she is thinking "darn, darn, double darn! Why didn't I study more before coming out here!" Did she think that running for the VP position was going to be a cakewalk? The next several weeks are going to be pathetically comical with Obama's "ummms and stutterings" and Palin's cutsie sorority girl giggly evasivions. She brings back memories of me standing around talking to all of the soccer moms and band moms when our kids were in school jabbering away how wonderful our kids are, talking about community and family baloney, shooting the breeze (as the men would call it). But doesn't it worry anyone that she cannot have a serious discussion, cannot answer difficult questions and doesn't have any thoughts of her own?

"Tooling it up" for Sarah Palin

We keep being told that Palin isn't running for president, that she is only running as McCain's sidekick, however, as someone has said, she will be "one melonoma away from the presidency." It seems that Gramps McLame found someone to take over the spotlight for him so he could go back to his rocking chair and let the focus be on her instead of him while she is being coached by the GOP in the fine art of bullshit propaganda and question evading.

Campbell Brown interviews Tucker Bounds on Sarah Palin’s national security experience and Tucker just keeps evading her questions which is pretty much how her supporters respond when it comes to her lack of experience. Palin keeps spouting off about her experience as “commander and chief” of Alaska’s National Guard and Tucker brings it up too in this interview with Campbell, but he never does state even one order she has given to the Alaska National Guard in times of crisis since she has been governor.



As we reflect on the incidents which happened on 9-11-2001, I hope that voters will really think about who they are going to entrust with our national security but my cynicism tells me that the evangelicals will blindly vote for their party of God candidates once again just because they have the same fundamentalist god beliefs, or that they believe it will expedite the end-of-times and the great Armageddon or whatever. How can people believe this is the greatest nation in the western world when more than half of our population are morons?

And then this one:

Sarah Palin says the war is from God and it’s gods plan

Sarah Palin loves Jeezus—”the real deal” believer

The Huffington Post reported:

“Speaking before the Pentecostal church, Palin painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord.”

“‘Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending out on a task that is from God,’ she exhorted the congregants. ‘That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.’”

“Religion, however, was not strictly a thread in Palin’s foreign policy. It was part of her energy proposals as well. Just prior to discussing Iraq, Alaska’s governor asked the audience to pray for another matter — a $30 billion national gas pipeline project that she wanted built in the state. ‘I think God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,’ she said.”

This video is from HuffingtonPost.com, broadcast September 2, 2008.

And we were worried about McCain choosing FHuckabee.

Sarah Palin's Kooky Cult Church

911 Remembered

Since being laid up again after yet another surgery, I have been watching the news a lot and getting my BP up about this Palin and lipstick on a pig bullcrap. Then today was watching the remembrances of 911 and the scenes are just as horrific now as they were the day it happened. I think of all the folks who went to work as usual and unknowingly to their horrible end.

I was watching Shrub give his dedication speech for the memorial at the Pentagon and he said he prayed that Gob would bless this nation and I would love to ask him a question…a one-word question…”why?” Why should a god bless us while allowing us to kill thousands of innocent people in a land that had nothing to do with our attackers on 911? And why didn’t his God if he was all powerful and willing to bless us now not stop the terrorist from killing all those people who were just going to work to make a living for themselves and their families?

Bush went on to say how we have not had an attack on our country in the past 7 years, as if that is some big personal achievement for him and his party. He, of course conveniently left out the fact that we had not had an attack on our nation in the 7 years previous to him stealing the election from Al Gore. He fails to acknowledge that we had not had an attack on our own soil since Pearl Harbor. He wants to paint himself as some sort of hero when the fact is that he was a total stupified idiot, sitting there reading a children’s book while blinking his eyes and the look on his face what “wtf are they saying to me?” Then he retaliated against the wrong country because his imaginary friend told him to, Bin Laden is still at large and the terrorists are still out there doing who knows what and no god is going to bless us, no god is going to protect us . . . we need a leader and military leaders to do that and McCain/ Palin would be a catastrophic commander in chief team Half of this country have not learned anything since 911. The go with who looks prettiest, who can make them “feel good” about themselves instead of who can really lead.