Forced Motherhood and Automated Phone Calls

My mother-in-law got a phone call yesterday. She said that the right-wing nut jobs had called her with one of those automated recordings, begging her to send them money to support the passing of the Right to Life Act. Like that will be a cold day in hell. These people have decided that life begins at conception, and they want the government to force it on the rest of us. I really do wonder if they realize just how much this whole thing cheapens and makes a mockery of their religion.

I tell you what. You want to live in a country where birth control and abortion are illegal? Try Iran or Saudi Arabia. Well, actually even as backwards as they are, a woman can still have an abortion if she would die if she carried the child to term. And that brings me to another point. Before abortion was legal in this country, rich people would do one of two things. They would either pay their family doctor off and get him to say the mother's life was in danger and have him do it, or they would travel to Europe and have it done there. So, it being illegal is no problem for those who have the means to pay off the doctor, or to travel to another country.

However, if you're poor and don't have the money, guess what? You get to be a mother, like it or not, and now you have a(nother) mouth to feed. But don't expect any help from the State. These are the same idiots who want to do away with welfare, food stamps and WIC, because the dirty poor people are taking all their tax dollars. They only care about fetuses. I know they don't give a damn about women either, most of them are misogynist women haters. They're old white men, and if there's any women tagging along, I swear they have Stockholm Syndrome. They also don't give a damn about the children who are already here, the ones who don't have enough to eat and are living in abject poverty. There are 42 MILLION children in this country who live in families that do not make enough to meet their basic needs. The federal poverty level is already grossly low. You can't survive on that kind of income as a single adult, much less if you have other mouths to feed. So what I want to know, is where the hell are these people when it comes to the children who are already here? Oh wait, I know. Children starving to death doesn't win elections. Rhetoric and divisive issues do.

To go back to the argument of when life does indeed begin, the supreme court ruled in the decision of Roe v. Wade, that they weren't able to figure that one out. If these morons think that the congress can figure that one out, seriously, they have another thing coming. This is a philosophical question that has been argued for centuries, maybe even millenia, and we are no closer to knowing the exact moment life begins than we were when the conversation started. It almost seems as if the Christians are arguing that we are nothing more than our physical bodies, the sperm and egg coming together, making a zygote, and that's all. Hmm. That sounds exactly like what atheists believe. *blink blink* Yeah. I never did quite understand why they had a problem with abortion. It would seem to me, that from their religious beliefs, they would believe that if someone did have an abortion, the fetus would go and be in heaven with Jesus. Just one more contradiction from the unthinking Religious Right.

In fact, if these Christians are going to use their Bible as a guide, it repeatedly says that life doesn't begin until the baby draws it's first breath. It says that in multiple places. It also says that the penatly for causing a woman to miscarry is a fine paid to the woman and her family. If they had believed that the fetus was a "life" the penalty would have been death, as it was a "life for a life". But the Christians who comprise the Religious Right (if you can even call them Christians), are the biggest bunch of hypocrites I've ever met.

I don't want children. I came from abject poverty. I have seen it with my own eyes. I shouldn't have to have children if I don't want them and neither should any other woman. On top of that, I shouldn't be forced to by a government puppeted by a bunch of totalitarian theocratic religious fanatics. Jeez, is it possible that I could go one post without mentioning the Nazis? I'll leave that one alone. If you've studied history, you'll know what I'm talking about.

The Political Spectrum, for Dummies: AKA Fascism is to the Right you Idiots!

If I hear one more time that Fascism is a left-wing ideology, I think my head might explode. So, I decided to make a political spectrum chart, for dummies. I was going to do it as a line, as that would be simplest, but it's too simple. In reality, even a graph like this is too simple. No one is in one particular spot on everything. I had difficulty placing people. This is all my opinion, based on what I know of the people here.

I was going to put Ron Paul on here, but couldn't. That man is a contradiction of himself. I'm sorry, but he says that the government shouldn't interfere in people's lives, but he's for the government telling me I must carry a pregnancy to term as he thinks abortion should be illegal. Psst, the Nazis did that too. He's also mixed on business, sometimes for it, sometimes for unions. You know, I just couldn't figure him out. All I know, is that I think he's a bit of a kook. Sure, some of the things he says seem reasonable, but he invariably will say something that makes me think he's an idiot.

So, you know, American politics tend to be sort of toward the middle. I think that G.W. Bush polarized everyone, and threw all of that off. And Clinton a liberal? Ha! Sure, on the personal level, but he was very pro business too.

It's not easy to put people in one particular spot, so keep that in mind before you flame me on where I put someone. Like Marx. While his ideas were taken and terrible things were done with them, his ideas are actually more democratic, in that the masses are in charge, not a single ruler. So that's why he's on the left of authoritarian, whereas Stalin, who claimed to be Marx's heir, was a totalitarian bastard.

As for Che, I think he was pretty anarchist, despite his support and work for Castro. It seems he didn't get along with anyone very well. He was also pretty ruthless, which IMHO, being a ruthless asshole doesn't really help your cause. But perhaps, he did what he had to, which I suppose is what any of us do. That still doesn't excuse killing people.

So where the hell am I on here? Like I don't even know. I'm definitely liberal, in the sense that the government should be regulating banks and corporations, not my life. I'm liberal also in the sense, that if you want to believe that the Flying Spaghetti Monster will save the world, I'm cool. I don't really give a damn what you believe, so long as you leave me and everyone else in peace.

As for corporations, I think they're mostly bastards and that CEOs make way too much in comparison to the people who do the actual work. I think that people should make more money, I don't think they pay people enough for the jobs they do. It's caused us to prop up our economy on credit, because the people making $8 an hour at Wal-Mart can't afford to buy anything. They can barely get by, and so as cheap and easy as it was to get credit until recently, well, we know where that went. It's gotten us into what may be a depression, of course that'll be hindsight. Henry Ford, as much as an anti-Semitical bastard that he was, paid his workers enough to buy his product. If you don't pay people enough, they can't buy your shit. Or they buy it with credit as I said, and well, that only props everything up so long.

Did I mention regulation. That should be the role of the Federal government. Regulating banks. Seriously. That and providing social security, highways, and money for public works and the arts and humanities, and research. Hey, I work on a government funded research project, I'll not bite the hand that feeds me. I really think the government should regulate business. Not people.

But I can't label myself a communist, because I think communism, while it looks great on paper, especially a lot of things that Marx thought, is an EPIC FAIL in reality, because people are greedy. The collective, the people are never in charge in those cases, it's always some dictator. Why exactly that is, I'm not entirely sure. I guess it could be because people can't work together without leadership. That would be anarchy, which apparently has never been tried in a peaceful setting. People think of anarchy as violent, but it could be peaceful I suppose. If people weren't assholes.

So there we come to the crux of the matter. Whatever political or moral ideology you subscribe to, people in general are stupid bastards. And some people are determined to be leaders and utilize their power and money to gain more power and more money. Sometimes it's under the guise of organized religion. In fact, that's probably most of the time.

I've been accused of being atheist because I can't or won't tell people what I think "god" is. As if some mere mortal could define a supreme being, bind him/her up into a book, market it to the masses and call it infinite. We ain't got a fucking clue one about the nature of our planet or life here, much less the divine or the universe. It's like a blind man trying to describe to another blind man what the ocean looks like. "It's very wet," he says. But he can't see it. And even that's an overstatement. Because we usually can't feel or hear "god", whatever that is, and I daresay if you're hearing "god" you should probably go take your medication. I suppose sometimes we might sort of feel something that feels like the divine, but that doesn't mean we know what it is. Does this make me an agnostic? Some might think so. Except that if there is a "god", it might as well not exist, as it seems that "god" has done little for this planet, except in the promotion of genocide, murder and despotism. Oh sure, some people have done good and been motivated by their religion, but more often than not people have done bad and/or used religion as an excuse to do bad, or have lived in absolute fear because their neighbors would kill them if they found out they didn't believe the same way they do. Basically, an uneducated and ignorant people who believe that what amounts to fables, is inerrable truth, are not long for a democratic republic.

Well, this turned into a long rant and it is quite late. On that last note, I think of this...

"The epitaph [of Simon de Montfort] says, for those who can read it, that he is a saint and a martyr... And I have heard it said that this must be so -- if by killing men and shedding blood, and damning souls and causing deaths... by killing women and slaughtering children, a man in this world can win Jesus Christ, certainly Count Simon wears a crown and shines in heaven above." --Song of the Cathar Wars

Oh, and PS, I added Olbermann because I can. I don't claim to know where he actually stands on these things, but he seems pretty liberal so I just picked a spot.

Teabagging: MSNBC has Become Comedy Central

I got nothing. I nearly choked to death at the end of this. It's absolutely hysterical!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Nationwide Tax Protests
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

A Tea Party with the Mad Hatter

Yeah. I don't even know where to begin...

at 2:00 minutes.





I suppose I'll start with, so this is what happened to Rusty Shackleford! LOLz

WTF is that guy smoking? A communist plot? For fifty years?

Ah, I see, he's been watching Faux News. That explains a lot. But not all. Somebody needs his medication...

Brainwashing unit? Digital television is brainwashing? Wow. I can't believe the crowd didn't boo him out of there. Oh, but that would require they weren't all crazy too.

Quick! Somebody call the IRS on this lawbreaking, asshole bastard who isn't paying his taxes. I had to dish out $400 because I obey the law, whether I agree with it or not. Everyone else pays their taxes. I don't know why this idiot thinks he's above the law. Must have been taking a page out of G. Dubya Bush's book.

Yes, don't educate your children. Education is the most horrible thing ever, because then your children might think for themselves and might realize what a bunch of bullshit their parents are throwing around.

As for the woman who screamed "burn the books," it makes me realize that Nazism is alive and well right here in the United States. Oh, they may not call themselves Nazis. But the ideology is the same. So, does this mean that I've resorted to Godwin's Law? You better believe it, because in this case, it's appropriate. People screaming about burning books and about scary black presidents who are communists in hiding. This is the exact same rhetoric the Nazi party spewed.

Sometimes, We Need a Laugh

I don't know why I bother reading my friends' status updates on Facebook. Half the time they're stupid, and the other half of the time they're stupid and infuriating. I hate the damned news feed!

I truly have enough stress in my life, with work and everything else. I don't really need to know that your "opinions" coincide with the talking head you heard on the radio this morning or on the television last night. Lack of critical thinking skills are really what is hurting this country right now. No one is able to think anything through, and are most certainly not able to think for themselves. Some moron on television or the radio tells them that A=B whether it does or not, and all of a sudden it is the truth of the universe that A does indeed equal B.

I really need a vacation. In lieu of that, a laugh will work too:





So what am I pissed about? I'm sure you've heard by now how a report from the Department of Homeland Security warns that right wing wacko groups could potentially try to recruit veterans as they return home. Seems quite reasonable, commonsensical even. And then the right-wing talking heads get a hold of it, and start screaming that the government is calling their precious troops terrorists. Which isn't what it says at all. But you'd have to have half a brain, or half a thought in your head to figure that out, and those idiots obviously don't. Or maybe they do, and they see that they have a useful tool in their hands, one that can be used to stir up the masses with lies and deceit. We can't have people happy and peaceful can we? Not when there are democracies to destroy in the name of money and power. And it's working too. Because plenty of fools are screaming, in their status updates on Facebook and elsewhere, about how they support the troops, and how they don't think the troops are terrorists. Well, no fucking duh.

If all this makes you as mad as it makes me, watch the kitten. It will cheer you up, for a few minutes anyway.

What Has the Government Ever Done for Us?

You know, besides the roads, the schools, the scholarships, the public grants to fund students, health care research, promote the arts (as any reasonable society should), the sanitation, the (horribly underfunded) public transportation. You know, what have they ever done for us?

And why are the right wing, racist fanatics the ones who are raving about this? Could it be because they feel disenfranchised because a black kid gets to go to college with public money? That must really be a kick in the balls to them. Stupid fuckers. That's the problem with this world. No matter what happens, what cruel lessons are played out and suffered by humanity, nothing changes. We don't learn a damned thing.

"Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick himself up and carry on."--Winston Churchill

We have to pay taxes. It's part of being in an advanced and democratic civilization. Nothing would get done if we didn't. Indeed, we probably don't spend enough money funding the stuff that should be funded, like our crumbling infrastructures, and our schools that date from the turn of the century before last where students use books from before I was born.

And yes, a lot of money gets wasted, some of it on atrocity. But where the hell were these tax protesters when G. Dubya Bush was throwing billions of our money down a fox hole in Iraq? Where were they then? Oh, I know, we blow up brown people, and that's just fine and dandy. That doesn't fucking matter, because they ain't white and they ain't Christian, so why should we give a damn? Excuse the sarcasm. I've had just about enough stupidity for all my lifetimes, thank you.

I'll Drink My Tea, Thanks.

For all these morons who are holding "teabagging" parties tomorrow, I think it will blow up in their faces, pun intended. I don't know what they're smoking, but I make above the median income for the United States, and I got a tax cut. I am paying less in taxes right now with Obama than I was under G. Dubya Bush. Republicans don't cut taxes, unless you're rich. So, why am I paying less taxes now? Could it be because the Republican party is comprised of a bunch of lying bastards? Nah, couldn't be.

They want to complain about our government spending money? I'm glad the government spends money. *I* am the face of government spending. I am a private contractor on a research project that is being funded by our government. If the government stops spending money, I lose my job. And the thought of that pisses me off. What do these idiots think the government spends money on? Yes, I'm sure some of it is wasteful, but not all of it. They spend money on road work, building projects, and on research projects that are working to better everyone's lives. They spend money giving grants so students, who otherwise wouldn't be able to, can go to college.

You know the one thing I wish. I wish I made more money so that I would have the priveledge of paying more taxes. Pay me $300k a year, I'll pay the taxes on it! I wouldn't know what to do with that kind of income, but I'm sure I could think of a few things.

These sheeple can take their tea bags and shove them where the sun don't shine. As for me, I'll take my tea black, with sugar.

If Civilization Collapses, I'm Going Deer Hunting

I haven't written in a couple weeks. I don't know whether it's because I've had nothing to write about, or if I've been busy, or I've just not felt like writing.

I was trying to concentrate enough to focus on working on some side projects but I can never seem to concentrate enough to finish them. It's not helped either by the fact that I've found a really cool online game to play. XD

The Hunter is as close to real hunting that you can get! It's beautiful too. Even if you don't hunt, you should try it if only to wander around the environment and marvel at how real it looks at times. It's fairly accurate and gives a good feeling of how hunting really is, as much as a video game can. So, if I don't write much for the next few weeks you can bet I'm probably playing :D

Ah, and now for the rant. If I read one more time that it's all Obama's fault that the stock market is in the toilet because "...the market has fallen X amount..." since he was elected, I think I might scream. As if the previous two decades of mismanagement, deregulation, lax lending policies and a corrupt previous administration (who I'd like to remind you were in power from election day to January 20th), had absolutely nothing to do with the current predicament we find ourselves in. Yes, that had nothing to do with it, it's all Obama's fault [/sarcasm]. People are idiots.

They continue to vote the same jokers back into office because they believe the rhetoric. Republicans, Democrats, they're all the same. They want us to fight over petty crap like gay marriage so that they can continue to dismantle this democracy and strip us of our Constitutional rights so they can make a buck and extend their power. If you doubt this, you are part of the problem, and I'd like it if you'd get your head out of your ass, as the very survival of this country relies on it's citizens to be thinkers, and critical and suspicious of anything the government wants to do.

It's the same shit, just a different day. I don't think anything will ever change. This has all happened before now, and whatever lessons were learned from it, died with the people who learned them. They certainly didn't pass any of it on to a new generation. Well, as my dad used to say, sometimes you gotta learn the hard way. Well, this is the hard way. Depression v.2.0. It's gonna be some interesting times here. Perhaps the lessons we learn from it will carry on to those who come after us? Nah, that'd be too easy.

A Free Fall, of Sorts

If you've been keeping up with the news at all, you'll know that the stock market is for all intents and purposes, crashing. Some economists are starting to say that what we're witnessing could be the beginning of a financial crises that will make the Great Depression look like a picnic. Basically, it has never happened before that everything is falling so far, so fast.

Many people think that the stock market crash in 1929 was a singular event, something that happened overnight and left lasting repercussions. That isn't true at all. It was an overall gradual decline over a few years, punctuated by steep losses every few months.

Here are the charts from Yahoo! News:

The 1929 crash, and it's aftermath (Feb 1929 to Feb 1930).

The 2008 crash, and it's aftermath (Feb 2008 to Feb 2009).

If you notice, there's a great deal of similarity. However, the stock market now has lost more percentage-wise from the high of a year and half ago until today, than the stock market in 1929 did. The initial drop this time was lower, but the overall decline is what is frightening. The initial drop in 1929 was 40%, but by February the following year having recovered some, it was down 29% from it's high the year before.

Last October, the initial drop was "only" 21%, however the stock market is down as of today 48% from it's high a little under a year and a half ago. And it isn't going away anytime soon. If history is any indicator of anything, it's going to be one hell of a ride, in slow motion.

Anyone who has studied the Roman Empire knows that it didn't fall overnight. It was a gradual thing, something that happened so slowly that the people living through it might not have even noticed it until long after the fact. In many ways, Depressions are the same way. We know something is wrong, but we're not ready to call it a game yet.

On the bright side, all of this could have a very positive outcome. My grandmother used to tell me that "you can't take it with you." People are greedy and materialistic, and in all of this there is a lesson to be learned. Money is not everything. Oh, it's good to have for the purposes of having a roof over your head and food on the table, but do you really need another flat screen television for the kitchen/bathroom/garage/etc? Or the latest fashionable purse/shoes/etc? Or a car/house/boat/etc. that you can't really afford? Many people in this country are very spoiled, and in my humble opinion, they're going to have a very rude awakening before it's over with.

Money is Always More Important

You know, I think that Mrs. Clinton should really watch those Freudian slips or perhaps just shut the hell up. Why? Because every time she speaks, she manages to say something that makes my respect for her go one notch lower.

Today for instance it was reported that she said while speaking about China:

"But our pressing on [human rights] can't interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis..."

Yes, because money is always more important than life or human rights. I mean, think of all the things you can buy with money. Whereas, what can you buy with some China man's life half a world away? A life is obviously worth nothing to the politically powerful and wealthy. These are the same personality types that ruled Medieval Europe from their castles while the serfs who were practically slaves, did all the work and suffered.

Same shit, different day.

A Monkey Mess

You may have heard about the row over the NY Post publishing a comic yesterday, depicting the writer of the Stimulus Package as a crazed chimpanzee. While I'm all for artistic freedom and against censorship, if the editor of said paper didn't see the firestorm that was going to ensue from it, they're an idiot.

The offending comic from the NY Post

And it *is* racist. If the President were a white guy, well, then the comic wouldn't have been offensive. But the President is black, and since historically black people have been depicted as monkeys, it's a racist comic. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

Should they not publish it? Well, I say that's their prerogative, but they have to be willing to live with the fallout from it.

Malkin and Her Short Memory

Lay the blame anywhere but where it belongs.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/17/president-obamas-2000-point-tumble/

Ms. Malkin seems to think it's all Obama's fault that the stock market is in a free fall. She states that it's fallen 2k points since he was elected, never mind that he wasn't even in office for a majority of that time.

It couldn't possibly be the failed economic policies of the last decade. Nah, it couldn't possibly be the corruption, the deregulation, the lack of government oversight with the banks and mortgage lending. It couldn't possibly be the Republicans allowing all of the high paying factory work to be shipped to China or Mexico so that their crony CEO friends could make record profits and take home record bonuses of hundreds of millions of dollars while using slave wage labor in third world countries. It couldn't possibly be a Republican's fault.

When G. Dubya took office we had a budget surplus, which he quickly squandered. He also squandered a lot of other things too. The friendship and trust of our allies and the wealth of this country are just the tip of the iceberg to what that man and his administration squandered.

Malkin must have a very short memory, because from May of 2008 until G.Dubya Bush exited office on January 20, 2009 the stock market fell over 5,000 points. It went from over 13k to under 8k. In fact, since January 20th when Obama took office, until today, the stock market had been up a little bit on average. Of course, today it fell a lot, and I suspect it's going to continue that trend, as reversing the mismanagement of the previous administration isn't going to happen overnight.

I have a good friend who told me right after the election that she figured that the Republicans would prop up the economy the best they could until Obama took office, then they would not cooperate, and would let everything collapse and blame it all on Obama and the Democrats. That makes for a nice excuse for all sorts of fascist aspirations. I'll leave your imagination to that one.

Perhaps Malkin and her ilk, if they want to know the reason for the state our economy is in, they can go and look in the mirror. They voted for it, and they continue to advocate for failed policies.

The blame lies at their own feet.

Pakistan and the Taliban

This isn't good for anyone.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090217/wl_time/08599187982000

The Pakistani government has given the northwest part of the country to the Taliban, citing that was what the residents of the area wanted. Codswallop. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the region and some of the women who fled spoke out against it in Islamabad, insisting that it's not what the residents there want.

The Taliban there have torched schools and school girls, have murdered their opponents, and Pakistan's government thinks that the people there are going to speak out against the Taliban? It's like asking a hostage with a gun to his head whether or not he likes the hostage taker.

So what does some remote part of Pakistan have to do with anything or anyone, other than the unfortunate people stuck there? This is roughly 100 miles from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. What no one in the press is saying, is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. It has just conceded a large chunk of land as a safe haven, to a terrorist organization that would like nothing more than to have the entire world follow Sharia law and for women to be silent and hidden, or dead.

If the Taliban has a foot hold here, what prevents them from attempting to topple the government, or attempting to acquire nuclear weapons in Pakistan? Meanwhile we have squandered the goodwill of our allies, wasted money, time and resources fighting an unnecessary war in Iraq, when the real danger was in Afghanistan as a ton of military experts have been screaming for years. Now we have merely pushed these people over the border and have come closer to causing general upheaval in nuclear armed Pakistan.

The world, quite mad, sits by and does nothing, as usual.

Lies and Liars, or Why Do You Want a Theocracy?

I love history. A lot. It's like a drug for me. I read a ton of it. And when people take and twist history into something that it never was, it really pisses me off. I think that may well be an understatement.

So when I read this:

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/swank/090212

I thought I might break my teeth from clenching my jaw.

These bastards, and yes that's exactly what they are for rewriting and covering up history (and the author of this piece isn't alone), get no respect from me. I can get past the fact that he doesn't like our new president, to the point of calling him by his middle name as an insult. I can get past the fact that he thinks the way things are going is wrong. You have an opinion, fine, but state it with the FACTS. I can disagree with you, you can disagree with me, and we can still get along. However I don't get along at all with LIARS. Because if you lie to me once, I have no further cause to *ever* believe anything you say to me at any later date.

This country was never a Christian nation. I know that these people wish that it had been, that was really why the Puritans came here, not for religious freedom for everyone, but for themselves. However, by the grace of whatever god you want to thank, the founders had a depth of sense and foresight rarely matched in any other age, including our own. I cannot reiterate this enough. They had something that only comes around every once in a great while. And I can tell you, it ain't here now.

While some of the founders were Christian, many weren't. Many were deists, and others such as Thomas Jefferson, were accused of being atheists for failing to mention or worship god enough to suit the preachers of their day. The Constitution of the United States, that document that all Presidents are sworn to "defend against all enemies, both foreign and domestic" was lambasted in newspapers while it was being ratified as an atheistic document because it failed to mention god. Jefferson caught most of the heat for it too.

Grant Swank, the writer of the above article, obviously hasn't studied the subject or read any of Jefferson's letters, which are available online or he would know that this wasn't a country founded as a Christian Theocracy. Some choice tidbits from Thomas Jefferson:

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State." Letter to Danbury Baptist Association, 1 January 1802

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes." Letter to Alexander von Humboldt, 6 December 1813

And those are just two small examples of what Jefferson thought about religion when used in conjunction with government. There are dozens more. There are also attacks on Jefferson in the opinion section of many papers of the day. See, nothing really changes! He wrote in 1800 in a letter to his friend Benjamin Rush that the preachers who were lambasting him in Sunday church services while he was running for president, did indeed have cause to fear him.

"The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: & enough too in their opinion, & this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets against me..."

The bolded phrase there is carved into marble on the rotunda of Jefferson's memorial in Washington D.C. When Jefferson speaks of tyranny, he doesn't just mean political tyrants, he also means religious ones as well. So, Jefferson is just one president, what about others? I think one of the most telling documents, and often quoted is the Treat of Tripoli. Article 11 states:

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

This treaty was to assure the citizens of Tripoli that we would not wage a religious war with them, as our government was not Christian and had nothing against the Muslims there. It was *unanimously* passed in the Senate of the United States on 7 June 1797 and signed into law by President John Adams. If it had been so abhorrent to said Senators, why was there not a single vote against it? Unless of course, they believed what the document said.

So the real question is, why did the founders and early law makers in this country shy away from religion in government? Notice, I didn't say shy away from religion in general. Many of them were religious. They didn't feel that religion had a place in government for more reasons than one. If you look back at history, it becomes startlingly clear as to why they didn't want religion in government. In Europe, religion was what ran the state and it didn't turn out well. Besides the specter of the Inquisition from the medieval period through the Renaissance, if you didn't belong to the official state religion, you couldn't hold office. Indeed, this was the case in many of the colonies, where in Massachusetts Bay Colony you had to be Puritan to hold office, which was the reason why Rhode Island was founded. In the south, especially in Virginia, you had to be Anglican or Episcopal to hold office, a hold-over from the Old World, as many of the colonist there were of English decent. But that was prior to the founding of the United States as a nation, and the founders upon uniting the colonies into the United States sought to do away with that.

Indeed the only mention of religion in the Constitution, is article six. "...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." Soon after most states did away with the religious tests too.

These people who seek to institute theocracy in this country are traitors to the Constitution. I don't say that lightly, nor with any humor. It's not funny. One need only look at Iran and Saudi Arabia to see how theocracies work in the modern era. You don't even need a history book for that one. All one has to do is read Yahoo! news. In theocracies, the People are never in charge. It's always the clergy of the religion, and they choose the leaders. Or a dictator, who uses the clergy as his puppets. In theocracies, it is religious law that trumps any other law. Do we really want Biblical law in this country? Girls, do you want to be able to be sold into slavery? (Exodus 21:7) Are you a teacher and a female? Well, you're out of a job! A female student? Better shut the hell up! (1 Timothy 2:11-12)

If you think you'd like a Christian Theocracy, because well, you're a Christian, think again. Which version of Christianity? There's a ton of different sects in this country. Which one wins? Think about that.

Don't let it be too late.

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"I hated the growing atheistic movement, which was fostered and promoted by the Social Democrats and the Communists. Their hostility toward the Church made me pin my hopes on Hitler for a while... I am paying for that mistake now; and not me alone, but thousands of other persons like me."--Martin Niemöller