My God! Can you believers be any more crazy?

In our local Sunday paper were three letters to the editor under the banner “Religious freedoms are being assaulted”. One letter claimed that the president and others were “attacking our constitutionally protected right of religious freedom.” The writer goes on to complain that “we have been told that religious organizations would be required to provide abortions, contraceptive and sterilization services.”

Another writer said that Obama “is disregarding the most basic tenet of the First Amendment – free exercise  of religion.” Yet another writer screams “The Obama administration’s assault on the free exercise of religion…. is an abomination.” It is interesting that all the writers were men.

This is typical of many religious zealots. Take something that “appears” to go against something they cherish and they go off the deep end declaring that their religious freedoms are crumbling. First of all nothing has really changed. Similar mandates for contraceptives were already in place in 28 states and no one said anything. Then Obama actually gave them an out by declaring that religious employers wouldn’t have to pay additional premiums to cover contraception. What zealots, or at least the ones writing letters to editors, don’t realize is that 98% of catholic women already use contraceptives, going against Catholic dogma. And that’s the real complaint from the guys in funny hats. It’s about maintaining power and control where ever they can. They can’t admit that the majority of women (and many men) don’t pay attention to guys in funny hats.

I’m so sick of religious nuts screaming to high heaven that they are being assaulted by the government and others (like Atheists) while they enjoy such massive power in this country. You can see that in the current crop of GOP nutters proudly showcasing their religious credentials at every opportunity. Let someone try to run for office who proudly declares that they are an Atheist and see what happens. You’d do better off declaring that you are gay than saying you are an unbeliever.

As someone who went through 12 years of Catholic education, or beat down as I like to call it, I know how much power the Catholic church likes to wield. This whole issue from the beginning was not about health insurance providers or the government providing contraception to women. It was about power and how much the Catholic church could flex their muscle in the body politic. (See the blog entry by Adam Lee over at www.bigthink.com/ideas/42414.) All religion is about power, pure and simple. Think about it.

Happy Birthday Mr. Darwin

Today is Charles Darwin’s birthday. Born in 1809, Charles Darwin explored the world and came to the conclusion that life on earth was not created by some big daddy in the sky as he was taught to believe. He explored and saw the evidence which he termed “Natural Selection”. He did not really “discover” evolution as that was already evident.

One must remember that if Charles Darwin didn’t put forth his ideas of natural selection some one else would have. There was no stopping the push to understand the world as it is versus what the church said it was. A 150 years after he published his “Origins of Species”, it still remains one of the most influential books ever created. Too bad those idiots who promote Intelligent Design never read it.

I’ll leave you with this quote from Mr. Darwin. When you read this quote think of the current crop of Republican candidates."Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science"

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Again, Happy Birthday Charlie!

By the way Happy Birthday to Abe Lincoln. He’s claimed these days by the Republicans but Abe wouldn’t like what’s happened today with the GOP.

Men in funny hats mess with vaginas, again!

This whole issue that the GOP is so up in arms about is so, so, so stupid. They claim that the president is now stepping over the line when it comes to religious freedom by requiring health providers cover contraceptives. He’s over stepped the bounds of the constitution, they shout! Chill out guys.

As Rachel Maddow so succinctly put it recently, 98% of Catholic women already use contraceptives which is, and has been, against Catholic teaching for decades. And currently 28 states have laws on the books that require health insurance providers to cover contraceptives, even in Catholic universities and hospitals. That’s required today! And it’s been that way for some time!

So why is the GOP making such an issue of this? Well that’s how they roll. Any little thing that they think they can use to bash the crap out of Obama, they then hype it up as much as possible and get as much air time as they can. They ramp up their hyperbole machine, get their friends like the Catholic bishops to spout drivel, find a forum like CPAC to make the evening news, and then step back and watch the carnage they’ve created. Maddow also showed that the GOP was for this years ago but only now to they have an issue with it. Why now? Well I think they know they are in trouble with main stream Americans and want to get a lot of face time with the good evangelical conservatives to show how they fight for their causes. Boo-yah!

But my real concern is that making exceptions for religious reasons is a dangerous precept. I’m sure we’ve heard about the occasional pharmacists that refuses to dispense contraceptives because it’s against his/her religious beliefs. To me if a person studies to become a pharmacist, then they know right up front that there will be things that they will have to do that MAY go against their beliefs. If a person does all that training and becomes a pharmacist, then do the job! It’s like Rachel Maddow said about an Amish person applying for a bus drivers job and get’s it, then only to quit because Amish aren’t supposed to drive machines. Find a job that doesn’t offend your precious beliefs.

I’m really tired of all this religious stuff being shoved into my face. Dare I say that I pray religion goes away? Soon! Think about it.

Tax but no tax

I watched the Bill Maher show the other day and one of his guests was a Republican congressman, believe it or not. The conversation got around taxing the rich more and changing the capital gains tax rate. The Congressman defended the idea that taxing the rich would cost jobs and implied that by letting the rich keep more of their money, more jobs would be created.

I guess on the surface it may sound OK except there is no way to prove it. The idea is that if wealthy individuals with lots of money in stocks and mutual funds get to keep more of the gains they then will somehow put that money into more stocks and mutual funds and thereby, it is alleged, create more opportunities for jobs.

For example Mitt Romney, in 2010, earned $21.6 million on his investments. This was both in capital gains and dividends. This was taxed at the 15% tax rate versus a top rate of 35%. So does that extra money that Romney now saves and gets to keep, go back and help create jobs? Certainly he is investing in various companies and mutual funds and that makes more money available to those companies but there is no way of knowing if those companies will create jobs, or just pay of debt, or plow it back into R&D, or put into cash for later. If the money Romney saved went to Uncle Sam, which Republicans don’t want, where would it go? Maybe help pay down our debt, or fund social programs (don’t say that!), or put it in a pot to be given to Congress to dole around the country on pet projects. Heard of earmarks?

This is another example of how Republicans love to seize on an issue and milk it for all it’s worth. It sounds good if you only hear 10 seconds of what they say and Republicans figure that’s all the attention span Americans have for many issues. Maybe they’re right! Think about it.

President Obama will be vindicated

Just a quick post to link to Frank Schaeffer’s blog and his recent post with the above title. It’s good look at what the President has done and why he should be given credit for it. The link to Frank’s blog is www.frank-schaeffer.blogspot.com.

Here’s a sample of what Frank says -

Given what was on his plate when he took office and the fact that we're successfully struggling out of both recession and 2 war -- and succeeding -- President Obama is one of the best of the American presidents already. His second term will consolidate that verdict and bodes greatness as his legacy.

I strongly suggestion that his post get a wide circulation.

Questions answered, Answers questioned

The cartoon at left that was in our paper this past Saturday and had me saying, “Huh?” But it also got me to think a little more about what the little guy has on his shirt.

It is true that science has questions that may never be answered. But that’s the beauty of science! As long as there are questions that need to be answered, science will continue to probe, test, and learn. Knowledge is what it’s all about!

To think that science will have all the answers all the time is to fool ourselves. Science continually updates and correct it’s self. That doesn’t make it bad or wrong.That’s the way it should work. We would like to have pat answers to most things but that will never happen. One minute coffee is bad for you and the next it’s good. That’s because we are continually learning. And just because science doesn’t get it just quite right at times is no reason to toss it all out. The consequences could be deadly as in the anti-vaccination movement recently that was promoted by people that didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.

In this very technological and complex age, where we need a sound understanding of science, we are drifting back to the Middle Ages where the churches were looked to for answers. Remember there was a reason that time was called the Dark Ages.

The second line on the shirt about religion having answers that may never be questioned is true. Religion continually claims to have “the truth” and tries to provide answers about how life came to be and how the heavens move, for example. Those answers from the church turned out be ultimately wrong as one Galileo Galilei could attest.

You see the push for answers that shouldn’t be questioned in the Intelligent Design movement. No amount of evidence will move them off their high horse of ID. All this science stuff about evolution to them is nonsense despite the 150 years of solid evidence around the world. One shouldn’t question the Bible because it’s inerrant!

I still don’t know exactly what the cartoon is trying to say but maybe it is that we must always question and no answer is so sacred it shouldn’t be questioned. Remember science books are always updated and revised. The Bible isn’t. Think about it.

No good Democrats–not one!

I was flipping through the AM dial the other day in my car and heard what appeared to be a promo for a talk radio station. The bit I caught went something like “There are no good Democrats – not one!” When I heard that I thought, OK this guy has a definite agenda and I’m assuming he must be a rabid Republican. So I put him into the junk pile of the rabid right.

It started me thinking, what constitutes a good Democrat or for that matter a good Republican? I could tell that this person didn’t have much love for any Democrat, good or bad. But what about his opinion of Republicans? Would he claim that all Republicans, by default, are good?

But looking at this a little more deeply, his comment was a reflection of what is going on in America and that is the deep polarization of the political and cultural landscape. Call me naive but long ago, Democrats and Republicans fought and traded insults, but now the discourse has gone beyond politics. Republicans, I assume, are white, Christian, rich and want power. Democrats are white liberals, mostly rich, many Christian, and push for more government spending. Or so the general trend goes.

What concerns me however, is that now it’s an “either or situation.” Either you’re with us (white, Christian, capitalist, etc.) or you’re against us (liberal, no good leach, non-believer, etc.) and we (the good ones) are coming after you! Also the GOP Right, and their Tea Party cohorts, have promoted a “just believe anything we say and don’t think” environment. To hear the drivel that comes out of many of the politicians and radio and TV people is frightening. You have to wonder if any of them have any grasp of reality. Obama is to blame for everything wrong all over the world, they spout, and the GOP darling of the moment will fix everything INSTANTLY.

I think the American electorate is setting itself for a big disappointment if Obama is replaced. By demonizing Obama to the extent it does, the far right is setting themselves up to be very, very disappointed. I don’t have time here to go into why Romney has no clue how to fix things but suffice it to say that Americans will be depressed for a long time by the person replacing Obama, if that happens. It’s like being told that the gala tonight will be the greatest thing since sliced bread only to find that no one arranged for food, forgot the tents as it is still raining, and the band consists of three teenagers who can only strum their cheap guitars. Oops, my bad! Think about it.

Atheist? – then you have nothing to live for.

I have read and heard it said that if you don’t believe in God than you have nothing to live for. You might as well kill yourself. They (those loving Christians) also throw in that Atheists have no moral compass without a supernatural Daddy to show them the way. If you’re an Atheist you must be an evil person!

It’s always bothered me that Christianity's main emphasis is that we human are bad from the get go and unless we bow down and confess to the  big guy in the sky that we believe he exists and we want forgiveness for being born, we will suffer the most unimaginable punishment ever conceived and for eternity to boot! The song “Amazing Grace” say it all -  “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me....” “A Wretch like me”, that says it. God created wretches.

It’s been part of the 2,000 year old plan of Christianity, to make sure the scum we call humans know they are crap and that we (priests, ministers, etc.) will save them and give them a reward. But only after they die! Talk about having nothing to live for!

Paula Kirby, in a January 18, 2012 Washington Post blog entry on faith, wrote a article entitled “How do atheists find meaning in life?” In it she says -

“We atheists find purpose in the world as it is, and in our real lives; we see living beings as valuable in their own right, deserving of our concern and compassion simply because they share our capacity for pain and pleasure. It is hard to imagine a position less moral, less conducive to empathy, than this inherently warped and uncharitable view of humanity proposed by Christianity.”

I think that sums it up for me. Think about it.

Republicans and Christianity

I came across an interesting blog posting at  www.futuroticacomics.blogspot.com/, a blog by Benjamin Cain. Fair warning, the blog is part of his erotic take on the Futurama cartoon series. Definitely not for the under 18 crowd.

That being said his latest posting is an essay on how the Christian church, particularly the Catholic church, strayed from the teaching of Jesus and got essentially in bed with secular and political powers of the day. The post is entitled “Christian Chutzpah: Why Christianity is the Worst Religion.” He raises some interesting points but what caught my attention was this little gem -

“The most familiar case of Christianity as a handmaiden of secular powers is the American conservative’s brand of the religion, which very obviously bears not the slightest resemblance to anything that Jesus would have welcomed. From the warmongering to the fetishes for guns, violent sporting events, and Ken and Barbie doll-like nuclear families; and from the greed for money and material goods to the seamless union between religious and Machiavellian schemes in the Republican party, conservative “Christianity” in the US is a farcical charade, a preposterous amalgamation of opposites that brings shame to all its informed participants.”

A farcical charade says it all. If you look at the current crop of GOP candidates for President and watch how they throw around their religious beliefs, trying to snare the evangelical vote, it could make you sick. As one who is not religious in the least, I really don’t care what they say on religion as long as it doesn’t translate into laws and actions that exclude the non-Christians (i.e. Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Atheists, etc.). Well that’s not entirely true. I don’t want them also to push any agenda that is primarily based on a religious belief, i.e. the abortion issue. That being said, it is laughable how the GOP as a whole, pretends to be so religious, salivating for the evangelical vote, when at the same time spouting things that would have Jesus spinning in his grave. Yeah he died and didn’t get up - get over it!

America is portrayed as a very religious country when in fact it is really a country of those who use the religious lexicon for things that the Christian religion itself, from the time of Jesus, didn’t stand for. When you look at how Jesus was portrayed in the Gospels, he was “a radical socialist and ascetic” who wasn’t really concerned about secular power or waging war or causing social uprising. Todays’ Republicans are hell bent on war, capitalism, and world domination with touches of religious side dressing to appease their in-group.

The GOP is now creating a new Christianity that is unlike any that exists today. The problem is that the “other Christianities” will have problems with this GOP Christianity in the long run and in-fighting will continue for decades. I hope one can stand on the side lines and not be hurt by it. Think about it.

Boring Muslims

A thought occurred to me after hearing about the rant the Florida Family Association  (FFA – not to be confused with the Future Farmers of America) put out about the TLC program depicting American Muslims going about their boring lives. What’s their beef? Well apparently the FFA complained that the program didn’t show the whole story about Muslims. The story didn’t mention things like Sharia law and the fact that Muslims are by default terrorists. I guess any story about Muslims has to include those who like to wear dynamite as a vest.

How about if TLC ran a story about those boring Christians, who go to work each day and don’t spout diatribes about gay marriage or rant about the fact that poor Christian children can’t pray in public schools? Would that be OK with the Florida Family Association? Or does the show have to show the Westboro Baptist Church folks who like to protest military funerals with signs like “God hates Fags” or other such nonsense? After all, a show just showing nice Christians doesn’t depict ALL Christians especially the ones like Florida Family Association who seem to have a boner when it comes to gay folks.

You can toss off the FFA as another nutty Christian group but the sad part is that many companies who had advertised on the TLC show caved into FFA and withdrew their ads. Let’s not offend those poor Christians who can’t even get the Governor of Rhode Island to call the “Holiday Tree” a “Christmas Tree.”  Talk about political correctness! Think about it.

Out of the mouth’s of babes

Or as Art Linkletter said – “Kids say the darndest things.”

If you haven’t seen the little video of Michelle Bachmann at a book signing gig in South Carolina, it is priceless. Up walks little 8 year old Elijah with his gay mom and says very quietly to Bachmann, “My mommy’s gay, but she doesn’t need fixing.” Slam dunk!

Bachmann was, needless to say, stunned and only uttered “Bye bye".”

It seems to me that the Right loves to speak in absolutes without any consideration for subtleties of life. You may not like gay sex but people come in all shades and flavors and there is no “one size fits all".” Even kids know that.

Way to go Elijah!

“Think twice!’

From “The Huffington Post” website dated 11/10/2011 -

Herman Cain lawyer Lin Wood, who spoke at a Tuesday press conference defending the Republican presidential candidate against allegations of sexual harassment, said others should "think twice" before making accusations, in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"I'm not here to scare anyone off," said the high-profile Atlanta lawyer, referring to the prospect of new accusers. "[However] they should think twice anyway." He added that the campaign had not thought about bringing legal action against the women, at least for now.

Think about this for a minute. In essence the lawyer was saying to any woman that may have been sexually harassed by Cain in the past to “think twice” about going public with the allegation. He is saying that he would bring all the power he could muster in the legal process to make it a living hell for anyone accusing Cain of sexual harassment.

This is a male power trip of the worse kind.

See also Rachel Maddow at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/

Personhood

Just a quick note about the recent vote in Mississippi about defining a person at conception. This is a bad idea on so many levels. It puts all women into legal trouble no matter what they do. Birth control could be banned. Forget in vitro fertilization. And so many other issues.

Luckily it was voted down but it may come back someplace else. Theocracy is creeping into our government at every level. It’s getting scary.

But the scariest part is that the Republicans who talk about less government in people’s lives are promoting via their Evangelical friends the most intrusive thing a government can do. That is to dictate the bodily function of every woman in the US. And by extension men too. They not only want to get into your bedroom, they want to get into your body!

The more this goes on the more I am scared for our country.

Questions that can’t be answered.

There are two questions that have plagued mankind since the dawn human existence. The first is “What is the purpose of life?” And the second is “Do these jeans make me look fat?”

Come to think about it maybe the first question is easier to answer.

Yeah for death!

The past couple of GOP “debates” had some moments that makes one think, “What the hell’s going on here?” The first moment was when Rick Perry was asked about the 234 people that were executed while he’s in office. The audience applauded! In the second “debate” Ron Paul was asked a hypothetical question regarding a person who didn’t have health insurance and would be left to die. The audience cheered. Huh?

I find this all a bit strange from a party that doggedly promotes the right to life position on abortion but doesn’t seem to have a problem with killing criminals or letting the uninsured die. I guess it OK as long as you aren’t one of the ones dying. Protect the unborn but knock off the murderer or terminally ill!

To me it really coming down to the haves and the have not’s. And this is a dangerous thing for our country. If you have health insurance (hopefully cheap insurance) who cares about those that don’t? And those who commit a capital crime, put a bullet in their head! They deserve it.

It’s also like the Catholic church’s stand on contraception. They let people die of AIDS but God and the church doesn’t want you to put on a condom because that’s interfering with the natural process of making a baby. That’s a sin! This from a religion that promotes the sanctity of life? Does any of this make sense? Think about it.

I believe it, don’t question it!

Recently Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller fame, appeared on CNN with Piers Morgan. The interview started with Piers telling Jillette that he was upset with him for saying that, essentially, anyone who believes in God is wrong. So, Piers, what’s wrong with that?

I guess Piers was looking for a free pass on the God question. He was saying essentially that his belief in a supreme being is sacrosanct and anyone who dares to question this belief is a nasty person. But why is belief in a non-material super being and an after life which is not yet proven, non-questionable?

Penn was right in saying that we should be able to question any belief, even a non-belief in God. Everything is on the table. The minute you put one subject off limits, you start to build walls to communications.

Christianity has had 2,000 years to present it’s case. And there are a growing number who don’t buy it. Sure there are those that grow up in a Christian family in the Bible belt that claim to believe all the stuff. But for those who take the time to dig into the Christian religion find that it doesn’t stand up to the light of day. The more you question the more Christianity falls apart.

Those that profess belief in the Christian religion,  like ministers who have a vested interest in it’s survival, don’t want it questioned lest the faithful end up having doubts about Christianity. Even the Bible says that a believer shouldn’t have doubts and if they do they should default to just believing. In other words if it doesn’t make sense and can’t stand up to scrutiny, believe it anyway!

It’s been said that the best case for atheism is the Bible. Think about it.

All alone in the night.

The above is from the opening dialog in the Babylon 5 sci-fi series. I think it is appropriate for the picture at left.

This picture was taken by the Juno spacecraft on it’s way to Jupiter. During the testing of the spacecraft, the controllers turned the cameras back towards Earth and shot the picture. The spacecraft is 6 million miles away. The bright dot on the left is Earth and the duller dot on the right is the moon.

When you think about it, all that we know, all that we are, and all that we will be is on the little bright dot in the night. There is no place for us to go. We are insignificant in the solar system, in the galaxy and the universe. If we screw it up on Earth, the universe won’t care. We are truly all alone in the night.

Seriously, think about it!

It’s a sad state of affairs.

Looking at the current crop of GOP candidates for president, one has to ask the question “Is this the best they got?”

The cartoon to the left is not far from an accurate picture of the candidates. I think that the idea amongst them is that the more they can sound off the wall the more they’ll get attention. It’s like the current crop of “stupid” movies that seem to keep coming out. The more one can be seen as “stupid” the more people buy tickets.

With all the vitriol that seems to come out from the GOP against Obama, one would expect someone from those ranks to emerge that could clearly and succinctly present a case against him. But all we get are sound bites and broad statements about how America is going to hell in a hand basket and “name your candidate” will get things right in short order. It’s one thing to say that you’ll create jobs and get the economy moving but it’s another to articulate how you’ll do it. The devil is in the details.

Not picture in the cartoon is the 8th dwarf, Rick Perry. Just recently he fired a shot across the bow by saying how he’ll change the Constitution with things like banning all abortions, making marriage for only straight folks and having appointed Senators. Now that last one is a hoot. Why not just get rid of Congress and have one person run everything. I can think of a few countries where they have that. I wonder how they are doing? Think of Syria, Iran, North Korea, just to name a few.

The fact of the matter is that this economic crisis we are in is not just with us alone. It’s global. And there is no quick fix. Just like global warming. We can’t just shut off all carbon dioxide tomorrow and expect the global temperatures to suddenly drop. What’s in place today on the economic front took a long time to rear it’s head and it will take a long time to undo what has been done. None of the GOP dwarfs will be able to fix it regardless of what they say. They don’t even understand the problem.

In fact if they can’t even agree on something like evolution with 150 years of solid, world wide evidence, how can they begin to tackle the economy? Think about it.

Rick Perry–George Bush Ver. 2.0

Is it my imagination but does Rick Perry seem like a redo of George Bush? Consider the obvious. Both are/were governors of Texas, both flew in the military and both seem to be very, very Christian. Oh, and both have a disconnect between their brain and mouth. Consider Rick Perry’s comments about the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke calling his actions “treasonous.” Pretty heady stuff!

Of course he is loving all the attention he is getting by his recent entry into the presidential fray. His comments have garnered more attention than Bachmann (happy birthday to Elvis on the anniversary of his death no less) or Mitt Romney making corporations into people.

The far right wing loves this but it will be interesting to see how he fares down the line. Hopefully the media will start to question his job creation hype in Texas which turns out not to be that great when you consider that most of the jobs created were low wage, menial jobs. And if you loose your job in Texas don’t expect a lot of state help. When you compare the unemployment rates in Massachusetts, New York and Texas, they are not all that different. Massachusetts may not have as much oil or gas as Texas but try and grow corn in Texas this year.

So Governor Perry, prepare next Sundays’ sermon. You seem pretty good at preaching to the choir. Think about it.

Not Guilty but not innocent

Just a comment on this Casey Anthony thing.

We have to remember that the jury’s function is to take just what is presented to them in court and make a judgment as to the guilt or innocence of the accused. They do that by looking at only the evidence and coming to a conclusion.

I didn’t follow this whole Casey Anthony trial closely but I did read enough to see that the prosecution did not present a clear case pointing to Casey as the one who caused Caylee’s death. That is not to say that Casey did or did not have anything to do with her death.

Casey may have caught a break by not being found guilty in Caylee’s death but Casey will be paying dearly for this the rest of her life. She has no assets, no money and is saddled with enormous legal bills. There are court judgments against her and she will most likely have to move someplace else. She is subject to more legal proceedings against her. Again she will have to live with this the rest of her life.

The jury system worked as it should. The prosecution didn’t have a good case. As one who sat on a jury you go by what’s presented to you and you make the best decision you can. The public may not like the decision but they didn’t have to make it, the jury did!