The Double Standard

I'm sure that by now you all have heard about the shooting at Fort Hood here in Texas. It's a tragic thing, so many people killed for no good reason. It's really sad. What's also sad is some of the comments left on various news articles. Instead of offering the families of those who were slain their condolences, the racists are out in force and the anti-Muslim sentiment is oozing forth. The shooter is apparently of Jordanian descent and his name is of Arabic origin.

Whether or not he did what he did because of his religious beliefs (which I do doubt at this moment), why does everyone blame Islam? What truly would be irony is if he turns out to be a fundamentalist Christian evangelist, but I do digress. You see, crazy doesn't discriminate. He didn't open fire on those people because of religion, even if he claims that is the reason. Rather he did it because he's crazy. Period. Crazy. Nothing else.

But you say, the Koran is full of violence. Then I dare you to read the Bible. The Bible too has commandments to kill non-believers, witches, idolaters, homosexuals, etc. But when some crazy Christian kills someone, even when they claim their religion made them do it, we don't see people condemning Christianity.

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Ex 22:18

And the man that committeth adultery with [another] man's wife, [even he] that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. Lev 20:10 (Man, all the cheating Republicans better watch out!)

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them. Lev 20:13

A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood [shall be] upon them. Lev 20:27

That is of course not counting all the smiting that "god" does, or ordering the killing of a man for gathering sticks on the sabbath (Num 15:32-35) or the ordering of the ancient Israelites to keep all the virgins for themselves after slaughtering an entire town (Num 31:17). However, "god" appears to change his mind by Deu 5:17 by saying "Thou shalt not kill" but forgets all about it by Deu 13:6,

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which [is] as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; [Namely], of the gods of the people which [are] round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the [one] end of the earth even unto the [other] end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Deu 13:6-10

The Bible is full of genocide, of "god" ordering the ancient Israelites to kill their neighbors and take their land. Of ordering them to kill unbelievers. During the Medieval period, western Europeans took all of this to heart, and murdered millions because of it, and that's not counting the crusades in the Middle East.

On that note, do you want to know why the Middle East is in the state it's in today? Because Medieval Christians invaded one of the most enlightened civilizations on earth and reduced it to ashes, and the British came along and finished it off in the 19th and early 20th century. Of course, they fucked up Africa too, so go figure.

The Arabs gave us the number zero, algebra, optics, and a myriad of other things prior to the invasion by a bunch of barbaric western Europeans. If you were a female in the Middle Ages, it would have been best for you to have been born in the Muslim world. During the Medieval period, women in the Middle East had rights that the women in western Europe did not have. Such as the right to testify in court, hold property and initiate divorce. And this history is buried here in the west, glossed over by people who would rather forget that our ancestors were a bunch of asshats.

Recommended reading: The Crusades through Arab Eyes

Fox News is of course NOT NEWS!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
For Fox Sake!
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

"But according to Fox, their weekday news programming, and this is according to Fox, runs from 9am to 4pm and from 6pm to 8pm for a total of nine newsy hours a day. So for the audience let me help you out because it does get confusing.

The three hours that you spend in the morning with Fox and Friends, not news! Your four o'clock to five o'clock post tea and crumpets neo-Kabudo break, NOT NEWS! The five o'clock to six o'clock emotional whirl wind and national group therapy session that is Glenn Beck, not even close to news!

O'Reilly, Hannity, Van Susternenenen, NOT NEWS! This is according to Fox News. Those people, the ones featured in promos about how "Fair and Balanced" Fox News is, are not news. These people, otherwise known as the only people you ever think of, when you think about Fox News, are not news. They're Fox Opinu-tainment. Apparently Fox News are these folks, or as they're known, who the fuck are these folks? That's Fox News...

The truth is the news side of Fox and the opinion side of Fox are like the McDLT. The hot side stays hot, and the cool side stays cool, but when you put it together and eat it, well I think you know what ends up happening."

US Government Sponsored Human Trafficking

As if allowing your employees to gang-rape women isn't enough, how about abducting people from their homes by promising them jobs in the United States, only to take them and force them to work for little pay in Iraq?

Buddhi Gurung, who calls himself a poor Nepali man, described how he was unable to get a job to support his wife and two sons during fighting by Maoist rebels and the army in 2004. When an agent promised him a job in America for $500 a month, he said he borrowed about $2,800 to pay him — but instead of going to the United States, he was taken to Jordan via New Delhi.

After a month in Jordan, he said he was put in a van with 11 others and driven to Baghdad. Twelve Nepali friends in the van that left just before his were abducted, paraded on television and eventually beheaded. Gurung said he wound up at the U.S. Al Asad Air Base where he was forced to work and paid less than the promised $500 a month.

"We would hear bomb blasts nearby and we knew our life was at risk," Gurung said. "I always wanted to go back to Nepal but neither my passport was with me, nor did I have any money or knew any other way to go back. ... Finally, after 15 months, I was permitted to go back to Nepal. ... This is how my life was saved."

Gurung and the families of the 12 Nepali men have filed a U.S. federal lawsuit accusing Houston-based defense contractor KBR Inc. and a Jordanian subcontractor, Daoud & Partners, of human trafficking.

When I was reading this, I was like, how in the hell did he wind up being forced to work in Iraq? I know that there are criminal organizations that abduct people, but surely once he was found by our people, he would have been sent home. And then I read that KBR was responsible, and it suddenly made sense. Why recruit Americans, who you'll have to pay really well, and pay hazard pay for going some place so dangerous, when you can just abduct people from third world countries and force them to work? This shit just keeps getting deeper. And our congressmen are tangentially responsible for everything that these contractors have done, by failing to have oversight of the situation.

I did a search but, there doesn't seem to be much about this case in the news. Surprise, surprise.

Al Franken Pwns Hudson Institute Bitch

Hahahahahahahah.

It would be funnier if it weren't so damned sad.

Let me tell you a little story about the "American Dream." My step-mother developed cancer. Her insurance company dropped her and she needed multiple surgeries to remove the tumor. (Surprise, surprise you say). She kept having seizures and couldn't work obviously, she had to wait forever to get disability. My father and her had to file bankruptcy to keep from losing everything they had worked so hard for. It destroyed their marriage. And they're not the only ones. Their story is the same many times over throughout this whole country.

Meanwhile, these politicians are lining their pockets with lobbying money from the Corporatocracy. Wall street fucks up and they get million dollar bonuses. How does that bitch in the video sleep at night? I'm not sure.

I'm sorry, but if you bust your ass and work hard, you shouldn't be in danger of losing everything if you get sick. When the one percent of the people in the United States are worth the same amount of money as ninety percent of the people here, you have an uneven distribution of wealth. Guess what? Tax the fuckers, because there is a point where "doing well" becomes having an obscene amount of money. Oh, "but that's not fair" whine the idiots who are persuaded by those who it affects (see: the bloody filthy rich) to be righteously indignant. Life isn't fair. Guess what else isn't fair? Starving to death on the streets while Buffy dines in her yacht and complains about having to pay too much in taxes.

Come on, I want to make so much money that I have to pay a lot of taxes on it. I'll do it and I'll be happy about it! Seriously. But then again, I grew up in a ghetto. I know true poverty. I have seen it with my own eyes. I have lived it and I have breathed it. It's ridiculous that in the richest nation on the planet, we have people who are homeless, who don't know where their next meal is coming from, who are laid off after working thirty years at the same place because their job was outsourced to Mexico, where we have people who die because they can't get the care they need. Where Corporations are subsidized with our tax money by the government while they make record profits. WTF America? WTF.

Transcript:

Al: I think we disagree on whether the health care reform we're talking about now in congress should pass. You said that kinda the way we're going will increase bankruptcies. I want to ask you, how many bankruptcies because of medical crises were there last year in Switzerland?

Bitch: I don't have that number in front of me, but I can find out and get back to you.

Al: I can tell you how many it was. It's zero.

*laughter*

Al: Do you know how many medical bankruptcies there were last year in France?

Bitch: I don't have that number but I can get back to you if you like.

Al: Yeah, the number is zero. Do you know how many were in Germany?

Bitch: From the trend of your questions I'm assuming the answer is zero, but I don't know the precise amount and I would have to get back to you.

Al: Well, you're very good, you're very fast. The point is, is that I think we need to go in that direction, not in the opposite direction. Thank you.

Bitch: Do you know the cancer survival rates in those countries?

Al: You know, you've picked on one, and if you look at that study, did you know that we pick easily, much more easily survivable cancer rates. So if you want to get into digging deep into studies, that study isn't legitimate. I've heard that before. That's because we find easily survivable cancers to count as ones that we survive. You can cherry pick stuff to find one little place where somebody says our system works better than the French or the Germans, but we're talking about bankruptcy here today.

Bitch: *deer-in-headlight look*

Al: And the fact of the matter is, you're saying that if we go more to a French system or a Swiss system, that we'll have increased bankruptcies, but the fact is they don't have bankruptcies and we do for medical care. Thank you.

Beck: Freedom is not *really* Freedom

From Crooks and Liars:



Watching Glenn Beck is like watching a real life version of Orwell's 1984 in action.

War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
Corporations are your friend.

Hey Beck! The 13th century called, they want you back. Because that's what this boils down to. They don't want the plebes to have information, just like the medieval Church didn't want the peasants to be literate, because then they might get ideas in their head. And when they say they want broadband access for everyone, that doesn't necessarily mean in their homes. It means that you can go to a library or some other publicly funded place and access the internet. I think that's an important thing.

The only thing that disturbs me is that people believe everything Beck says. As much as he mentions him, I wonder if Beck has ever read anything by Karl Marx. I wonder if he can define "socialism" or "fascism" or "Marxism" beyond just saying that the Obama administration is "all of those things."

“You have a freedom of speech or the government. You can’t really have both,” said Beck.

Really? I could have sworn that the piece of paper that G. Dubya Bush wiped his ass with, also known as our Constitution said that *we the People* are the government. And herein lies the danger. The right-wing wackos scream about how terrible the government is, but we're all supposed to be the government. We're supposed to decide what happens, by electing officials who carry out our wishes. The Constitution, that piece of paper that so many religious fundies want to throw out and replace with the Bible, is supposed to protect our rights. And yet we have Conservatives screaming we need a revolution, we need to overthrow a duly elected government, yadda yadda yadda. There is nothing wrong with our Constitution. It has served this country well (for the most part) for over two hundred years. I do believe that there is a word for that. It's called treachery. And, as Jack Sparrow said in Pirates of the Caribbean, "The deepest circle of Hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers." But on a more serious note, these people have apparently never read the Declaration of Independence (or anything else of value for that matter):

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

Maybe what it boils down to is that Beck is so paranoid, he's afraid of himself.

Think Progress has more.

What *Was* Fought For at Omaha Beach?

Thanks to True Blue Texan for this:




This video moved me to tears. Can you tell me exactly what was fought for at Omaha Beach? Was it so that we could discriminate against people? So we could lynch and roast people alive? Was it so we could act like moral busy bodies and holier-than-thou-arts? Was it so that religion could take over our government and run it as a theocracy?

Or was it so that everyone could have life, liberty and pursue happiness? So that the Constitution of the United States could be upheld? That everyone would have equal protection under the law.

"I have seen with my own eyes the consequences of caste system and it makes some people less than others or second class, never again. We must have equal rights for everyone. It's what this country was started for."

And I too have seen the depths of human depravity (just read some history). It is often masked as religious piety or national pride. Do not forget that it wasn't just Jews who were massacred by the Nazis seventy some years ago.

"As many as one-half million Gypsies, at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled persons, and more than three million Soviet prisoners-of-war also fell victim to Nazi genocide. Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Social Democrats, Communists, partisans, trade unionists, Polish intelligentsia and other undesirables were also victims of the hate and aggression carried out by the Nazis." citation

All that it takes for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing. Why is equal rights even a question? It's the United States for godsake! WHY?! So that some religious fanatics can feel better knowing that preventing Joe and Jack down the street from getting married makes their deity happy? WHAT. THE. FUCK.

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- CS Lewis

Christians Fighting Each Other in Ireland in 1908

I found this today and it's very interesting. It's a reprint of a newspaper article from a hundred and one years ago today (their time), when Catholics got angry about a local man, a Protestant who had a meeting in his store. It caused days of violence.

The lower classes of Roman Catholics in the country were very ignorant, and made a ready prey for any bad leading and bad passions...and the least suspicion of proselytising on the part of Protestants... was quite enough to drive their Roman Catholic neighbours of a less educated class into paroxysms of senseless intolerance such as they experienced in Swords last week.

Those words are profound, and still relevant today. Intolerance and upheaval is what happens when you have a few people inciting the less educated among us, by stoking fears and prejudices.

Got (Harvey) Milk?

So, the state of California recently passed a law creating a day of recognition for Harvey Milk, the gay rights activist murdered in 1978. The day is to teach children about Harvey Milk and what he did. And... let the screech of the religious right commence.

Some think that teaching children history and tolerance, is "indoctrinating" them. Because accepting that gays and lesbians have the same rights as everyone else does makes you friends with Satan. I'll tell you what "indoctrination" is, and that's what most Christian churches in this country are doing right now. They indoctrinate children to believe everything they spout, whether it is true or not, if it's in the Bible, that "infallible" word of "god" that urges genocide and endorses that a woman marry her rapist.

The point of education is to question. The point of blind belief is to do what your leaders tell you to do and not to ask why. Public school does (or is supposed to do) the prior, while most churches do the latter.

Over at the Collegian Online, the online paper for California State University - Fresno, they apparently have people with a lack of education:

Call me old-fashioned, call me ignorant, set the LGBT police on me, I don’t care. I think this [day honoring Harvey Milk] is ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong—I have no quarrel with homosexuals. I believe it’s unnatural and immoral, but who am I to judge. Hate the sin, love the sinner. I believe all that... I understand this may be controversial to some, and maybe it is. It is now conventional wisdom for us to see homosexuals to be born the way they are, that it’s natural. I’m sorry, but I don’t see it that way.

I'm not quite sure how one can hold that view point and still sleep soundly at night, but whatever. I'm also not quite sure how he thinks he has no quarrel with homosexuals and yet he calls them "unnatural" and "immoral". Yeah, that's not at all a quarrel. *sigh*

And there are dozens of other blogs saying pretty much the same thing and worse. It's indoctrinating the children, it's endorsing homosexuality in our public schools, gasp, screech, *fall over*!!! Just google it. I know, I know, it's really no surprise they're having a fit over it.

Someday, hopefully, humanity will look back on all of this and wonder what the hell was wrong with all of us, and with a bit of incredulity, be grateful that such barbarity is gone from the world. One can hope anyway.

A Good Ol' Fashioned Book Burning

I had read about the wackos in Canton, North Carolina who are going to have a book burning on Halloween night the other day. Ah, but this isn't just any ol' book burning where they burn Harry Potter or something. No, they're going to burn Bibles and other Christian writings instead.

I didn't get around to writing about it until now. Part of this is probably because it came as no surprise to me. I grew up not far from where these people are. Do not for a moment think that this is some kind of minority in a microcosm of Christianity in this area. Western North Carolina is full of these types, so keep this in mind when the media is sure to say that their church has "only" fourteen members. I have met a good many who believe exactly what they do. They believe the KJV of the Bible is the only version acceptable. If you try to have a rational conversation with them and discuss the history of the Bible, how it came to be, how it was translated, their response will be "that's the devil talking." I'm not making this shit up, I have actually had people say that very line to me. Speaking of a lack of understanding about biblical scholarship, I have come across people who have told me point blank that the Bible was written by Jesus himself. Again, you can't reason with these people, or have a rational conversation. If you don't agree with them, it's all Satan's fault.

Apparently, everyone is very interested in these people, because their site has evidently exceeded it's bandwidth and is down. Yay for the wayback machine. It was stated on their main page:

We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and it is our final authority in all matters. We believe in teaching “no other doctrine”, like Paul told Timothy, and that is our stand. We stand on God’s Word and not man ideas or “scholarship.” We make no apology for our stand. We are an old fashion Independent Fundamental Baptist Church.

In other words, they don't like education or studying. Their followers are to follow, not question, and do so blindly. Apparently they mock the god that they believe gave them a brain complete with the capacity for critical thinking skills. They don't trust their own brain, or anything that can be learned from "scholarship", but rather put their trust in the often incoherent writings of semi-nomadic pastoralists who thought that the earth was flat and that the stars were permanently pasted into the night sky.

I find book burnings, of any book, whether I agree with it or not, abhorrent. These people are ignorant, so much so, that they have no idea that when they say they're going to burn books, that the first thing most educated people think is "like the Nazis". Well, except for me, but then I'm weird. I automatically think of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Idiots.


The picture at the beginning of this entry is of the Dominicans tossing Catholic and Cathar books into a fire. Of course the Catholic ones floated away from the flames while the Cathar ones were consumed. 15th century painting by Pedro Berruguete after a legend from the 13th century. The picture on the left is of the Nazis burning books.

Republican Gomorrah

This is an amazing talk, it's a little long, an hour and ten minutes, but well worth watching the whole thing. I think I gotta read this book. It's about more than just the closet cases of the Republican Party.




There are parts that are hysterically funny, and other parts that are absolutely appalling. The right-wing neo-cons want nothing more or less than the utter destruction of our democracy. They want a theocracy, do not doubt this for a moment.

"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air — however slight — lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. " --Justice William O. Douglas

Thirty United States Senators who are For Rape

You know, I have to ask myself what in the hell is wrong with some people. I often wonder how it is they sleep at night. I also wonder how they manage to call themselves Christian. Of course, they're not really Christian. They're hypocrites, and if Jesus (if he even existed) were actually here, he would probably bitch slap them. But I digress.

How in the fuck do you vote to allow companies to allow their employees to be gang raped, and then have no legal recourse? How do you justify that? How do you just casually act like you're voting against that because it's "political". Tell that to the girl who was gang raped, you stupid, stupid fucks.

Oh, I have an idea about what would be just for these thirty poor excuses for humans that we call senators, but it would be wrong of me to say it. I'll leave it to your imagination.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rape-Nuts
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Alexander (R-TN), Barrasso (R-WY), Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS), Bunning (R-KY), Burr (R-NC), Chambliss (R-GA), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Ensign (R-NV), Enzi (R-WY), Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Thune (R-SD), Vitter (R-LA), Wicker (R-MS)

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/07/meet-the-senators-who-vot_n_312976.html

I would like to point out that a.) if there was any political point to them voting no on this, it was because these Republicans are a bunch of asshats who didn't want to agree with anything a Democrat might propose, and that b.) all of them are white males. Maybe they were just sorry that they didn't get in on the action, knowing that they could never be held criminally or civilly responsible for it. I wonder how they would have felt if it'd been their wife or their daughter that this happened to.

IMHO, I think they should pass a law that if you're working overseas for the government, that our criminal law applies to the employees who are working there if they violate the law, and these asshats who think they can get away with stuff like this could then be prosecuted criminally for it here.

My Kingdom for a Golf Package!

I've been a bit busy lately, and have had better things to do than read the news (the stupidity, it only makes me angry) but I came across this today in my email, and just had to post it because it is humorous, on quite a few levels.

BTW, don't ask me how I got on the Republican's mailing list, I'm not entirely sure, but I certainly didn't ask for it.

Dear Supporter,

You only have one day left to register for your opportunity win a trip to the NRSC's first ever private Golf Outing with 7-time PGA Tour Winner Peter Jacobsen in Naples, FL.

We'll start the day with lunch and a golf clinic hosted by Peter Jacobsen. After you've tested the tips you've learned from Peter on the course, we'll have a cocktail reception and photos with Peter and Republican members of the U.S. Senate.

Don't miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity. If you contribute at least $18 by tomorrow at midnight, representing the 18 seats the Democrats have to defend in 2010, you will be entered into a drawing to win an all expense paid trip for you and a guest to attend this special event.

Sincerely,

Senator John Cornyn
Chairman

Wow. So they're seeking campaign donations by giving away golf packages because... because? Could it be because they got nothing else to campaign on. Apparently fucking the American people over isn't a popular platform, but throw in a golf package and all aboard! The only people who haven't caught on to this are the ones with no critical thinking skills. I suppose one lucky dumbass will win a trip for two to Florida.

My kingdom, my kingdom for a golf package...

And yes, I altered the links, click them and enjoy the rickrolling LMAO

The Party of "Waaaaah!"

The Republicans lately seem to act like a bunch of two year olds who missed nap time and can't shut-up long enough to let the adults have a conversation. They can't control themselves and they have no tact. And it isn't just your average un-educated American any more. No sirree, it's our elected officials who have no decorum. Joe Wilson, if Benjamin Franklin were alive, he'd probably smack you across the face with a white lace glove.

But I digress. What happened to statesmanship? To debate, not arguing and screaming? Oh, I know. A black man got elected, and all the good ol' boys nearly died of shock. The shock must have been so great, that it gave them Turrets, because they can't seem to control what they say any more.

We have some serious problems here, including poverty, a lack of health insurance for our poor, a lack of education (especially access to higher education), unemployment, etc. etc. etc., and all the Republican talking heads can do is scream about fantasy things like death panels and illegals getting health insurance. *rolls eyes* If they want to act like two year olds, and not let the adults have the important conversations over where we're going, then they need to be treated like two year olds. Put them in time-out, ignore them, and let them rave about their fantasy-land there and let the rest of us get on with the real work of reforming this inadequate system.

A Miscarriage of Justice, or Same Shit, Different Day

Maybe you have heard the story of a young Afghan man named Mohammad Jawad, who has spent the last seven years of his life in prison. Accused of a crime he probably didn't commit. He was only about twelve when he was arrested. I've read various news reports on it, and I have to inject my two cents, that the government doesn't really have a leg to stand on. Their defense is, never mind the torture that was involved, that a bone scan they did showed he was either 16, 17 or 18 depending on which version of their story you want to believe. I suppose that story is fine and well for the uneducated masses, but I've studied Archaeology and I know good and well you cannot accurately determine an exact age from a bone scan. There is variation in populations and that is only accurate within maybe three years in either direction making for a window of six years, and he could have had an advanced bone structure and been twelve or thirteen. I somehow don't think that defense would hold up in a court of law.

His mother says he was born in 1991, and for some reason, I have more reason to believe her than I do a government that lies about everything else. How sad, not only did they take away seven years of this young man's life that cannot be given back, but they took him away from his family, and didn't even bother to tell his family where he was until Red Cross workers delivered a message from him nine months later.

On top of the fact that they imprisoned a young minor, they tortured him as well, using sleep deprivation and what the Spanish Inquisition called "Strapado" where they bind your hands behind your back and hang you up by your wrists. Isn't that special? The news reports never identify what they're describing, might be a bit much for the masses to realize what our government has done. Then again, would they even realize? When 8% of North Carolinians don't even realize that Hawaii is a state, I somehow doubt it.

Makes me real proud of my country and of humanity in general, to know that my fellow countrymen carried out medieval torture like barbarians and all in the 21st century. Not.

McCain *has* Publicly Funded Health Care

The fucking hypocrites. I can't stand them. They make my blood boil with their hypocrisy. It really pisses me off. This article here, is just another example of the depth of deceitfulness that the average politician will go to, to fuck YOU over. That's right. Most of them don't give a damn about the American people, and if you think they do, you should really reassess why it is that you think so.

Most politicians are money-grubbing, they're after lobbying dollars and like to misuse our tax money, so they can do things like fly to Argentina to see their mistress, and of course live a lavish lifestyle, many times that rivals the stars out in Hollywood. And you know what is even stupider, WE elect the idiots.

So what has me so pissed off this morning? McCain has the fucking COJONES to sit there and tell us that while he gets publicly funded health care, you know, the health care funded by OUR tax dollars, that the average citizen doesn't deserve that. FUCK HIM.

And if you think that the Insurance Companies are our friends and we don't need a public option, then FUCK YOU TOO.

Woman Yells "Heil Hitler" at Jewish man in Nevada Town Hall Meeting

The bitch is so dumb, that she doesn't even realize the gravity of what she's said. Look at her face after the camera pans to her. There's no regret there, no remorse, nothing. No thought in her head either, if you ask me.

Millions of people died under the Third Reich, and millions more died fighting that bastard, and yet this woman has the cojones to say that, to an Israeli Jew nonetheless. That man probably lost family members in the holocaust, and she has the fucking nerve to say something like that. Either she's a racist bastard, or she's just plain fucking dumb. Maybe a bit of both. I've watched a lot of dumb shit on the Internets lately, but this makes my blood boil. It pisses me off beyond words. It's a good thing I wasn't there, because I'd have gone to jail.

The stupidity, the idiocy of these people, it's absolutely beyond me. How can you be that fucking stupid? On that note, I bet if you asked her about WWII, Hitler, or the holocaust, she wouldn't be able to tell you a thing about any of it.

edit: What was I saying earlier about two year olds? At the end there, she reminded me of being on a playground in pre-school. Yeah, THAT'S real mature.

Arguing with a Dining Room Table: An Analogy for having a Conversation with Conservatives

This is total LULZ. Rep. Barney Frank (D. - Ma) totally gave some of his idiot constituents a what-for.

Rep. Barney Frank lashed out at protester who held a poster depicting President Barack Obama with a Hitler-style mustache during a heated town hall meeting on federal health care reform.

"On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Frank asked the woman, who had stepped up to the podium at a southeastern Massachusetts senior center to ask why Frank supports what she called a Nazi policy.

"Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it," Frank replied.

These people, who come to these event to disrupt them, are like two year olds who won't let mommy and daddy have a conversation because they're busy banging pots and pans together on the kitchen floor because someone took their toy away. This is a start, but I really think they ought to start treating them like the two year olds that they're acting like. Perhaps some parenting experts can help in this regard.

Just Say No to... Trolls and your Own Interests while you're at it

Two things today. The first is, no more anonymous posting. I originally (and probably naively so) didn't have a problem with people posting anonymously, until I realized that it's usually only trolls that have nothing to add to the conversation, and that I can't tell who I'm talking to. They're all anonymous. So from now on, you have to be registered. Sorry, but some pricks always have to go and ruin a good thing for everyone else.

The second thing is, I was checking out France24, a news agency in France. I like to watch them, they tend to give a different perspective on things, since they have less of a vested interest in our politics, especially so when compared to local news networks. And I have to say, I love the comments regarding our health care. I'm sure the French, who have that *evil* "socialist" medical system are laughing their asses off at us. Well, at least laughing themselves silly over the idiots in this country. And we wonder why there is a prevalent attitude that Americans are stupid. We re-elected GDubya, so that's a case in point. We have people running around screaming against their own interests in favor of the interests of the Insurance Industry. How dumb can you get? Some comments from France24... translation is mine, and I'm not a native speaker, so I might miss some of the subtelty, but you'll get the gist of it anyway

"When Bush was in power, the Senate didn't hesitate to vote in favor of more funds to support an increase in cost of opearations for the soldiers in Iraq, that money was wasted and lost, but now they hesistate to vote in favor of a project that benefits all Americans, especially the poor."

"I do not understand why certain people (USA) are so hostile to this project? It's simple enough to be empathetic and understand the best interest of the project..."

"Good luck to this President, for this initiative for health."

Yeah, he's going to need all the luck he can get. And yes, it should be simple to understand that we think health care is a right, and that all people regardless of income should have access to it. But that requires critical thinking skills, and those are unfortunately sorely lacking in this country.

When I was in France, I came across a French family vacationing in the Pyrenees. We had a conversation about our vacations and what we were up to. The husband told me he thought it was insane that we didn't get more vacation time here in the States, followed by a little laugh, as if he knew he had the better end of the deal and was thanking his lucky stars he wasn't American. The French get an average of 39 days of vacation a year. In my white collar job, I get 10 a year. Yeah. They understand there, that there is more to life than money. Something that I think we've forgotten in this country. Sure money is important for living, I come from poverty and understand that really well, however it is not the be-all and end-all of life. What happened to enjoying life? Or are we too busy killing ourselves chasing after material shit that the talking heads on the TV tell us we have to have?

If you want to see an prime example of this, watch HGTV sometime. Watch how prospective home buyers and home owners either talk about or rip out entire kitchens and bathrooms because they're "dated". They complain about the color of the appliances because they're not "in". Talk about environmentally unfriendly! How many resources are wasted to build a new appliance, how many appliances are dumped in landfills because they're the "wrong" color? And these same people talk about going "green" while being the most wasteful fucks on the planet.

Everyone has to have the latest of everything, the latest phone, the latest custom cabinetry, the latest computer (okay well, maybe if you want to play the latest games you'll need that LOL), a brand new car, a brand new this and a brand new that. What happened to using things until they don't work?

Le sigh.

Your Quote of the Day on Health Care, or how you're a fucking idiot if you think private corporations are the answer

"...leaving private insurance companies the job of controlling the costs of health care is like making a pyromaniac the fire chief." --Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.

You know after much thought, I've decided that if people are so stupid that they don't want universal and public health care like Canada and the UK and much of the rest of Europe have, that they don't deserve it. God forbid that they lie sick in the hospital with cancer, and are having to argue with their creditors because they're losing their house and everything they have because their insurance company dropped them when they got sick. Think it can't happen to you? It can, and it will. If you get sick with an expensive disease, your insurance company WILL drop you. End of fucking story.

Against universal health care? How does it feel to be a pawn of the insurance lobby? If you haven't enough sense in your head to see that the problem is the corporations, the insurance companies, etc., then you deserve exactly what you get. Hope you eat it up. Enjoy! Let me know how that works out for you, k?

I'm sick of the stupidity in this country.

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

Your Anger *will* Consume You

"There is more anger in America today than at any time I can remember." --Arlen Specter

Never thought I'd quote old Specter, but that quote caught my attention. There's a whole lot of anger all right, and a whole lot of ignorance to go along with it. The talking radio heads are pandering to the ignorant masses, feeding them lies and sending them off to disrupt democratic town hall meetings. They're like a two year old throwing a temper tantrum and making it impossible for the grown ups to talk.

They're spray painting swastikas outside of US Representative's offices. They're threatening a revolution. Yes, a revolution because they can't stand the fact that a black man is President. THAT is what this all boils down to. And if you don't believe it, you've not been paying attention. It's bad enough for these people that a democrat is in office, and our civil rights are semi-protected for the time being, but that there's a black democrat in office. That's just the straw that broke the camel's back for them. It has nothing to do with Socialism, they don't even understand the definition of that, as they're using it right now (Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, etc.). That we might have healthcare like the UK, Canada or Sweden, is a good thing, but they believe the lies because they can't think for themselves. For them, money is prime, yet they don't have much of it. They are content to be the pawns of the Republican party, the lobbyists, the Corporations, like the Pharmaceutical and Insurance companies. Oh yes, they're told to be angry and go crash these meetings on behalf of these entities that have no business being in our politics in the first place. And these people are too stupid to realize it. They're rebels without a clue, to quote Tom Petty LOL

Lincoln was right. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. If we let these neo-Nazi wanna-bes crash democratically run town hall meetings, if we let them threaten and intimidate politicians by spray painting racist crap outside their offices, they may eventually get the upper hand, and we all know where that road leads. It isn't a pretty drive. They need to arrest these people and charge them with criminal trespass and disturbing the peace. If they can't come to a discussion and have just that, a discussion, and instead scream and throw their tantrums, they need to be removed from the event and punished, like a two year old, put them in time-out at the local jail.

40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 and New LRO photos

When I was a kid I loved astronomy and anything to do with space. And then it seemed for so long that we weren't really doing all that much in space and I kinda lost interest. If you had asked me when I was ten if we'd have a man on Mars by now, I would have told you without hesitating, yes. But money is scarce when you're throwing trillions away on killing people. We can spend more money than you and I can even imagine on blowing brown people up half way across the world, but we can't spend it to engineer a way to send a man to Mars. We can make the Internets to waste everyone's time and be an utter distraction, but we can' seem to come up with a way to travel through the solar system. Maybe I'm just jaded.

But today, I got really excited for the first time in a long time about our space program. NASA has released new images of the Apollo landing sites for the 40th anniversary of us landing men on the moon for the first time. And on that note, if you had asked me, again when I was ten, if a woman or a black person would have landed on the moon by 2010, I'd have told you hell yes. And maybe that's coming soon, maybe real soon. We squander our time here in so many ways, and our wealth too.

At any rate, the images were taken by their Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is mapping the entire moon so they can send people back to the moon, this time on a more permanent basis instead of just for a few hours.

I think the most interesting picture is where you can see the astronauts' footprints. They're still there because there's no weather on the moon. It's pretty nifty if you ask me. In the coming weeks they'll have better, higher res images as the satellite drops lower into it's orbit. Maybe they'll have GoogleMoon eventually. Wouldn't that be cool?

Ignorance is bliss?

I've been a little busy with things, and so I haven't even read the news lately, and so I have nothing to write about. I realized while on my trip to Europe that I enjoyed not knowing what was going on. The world kept on going without me knowing anything about all the crap I can't change or do anything about. You can read about all these politicians, and the things they do to muck up the world. You can read about all the crazy fundamentalist fanatics that are burning books or lashing women in some backwater in Afghanistan or beating their wives right here in the good ol' US of A. And I can't do shit about any of it. I sometimes question whether or not it's even worthwhile to know about all of the travesty that goes on in this world.

That's almost anathema to what I believe, that knowledge is important, it gives you power. I don't know what kind of power that is exactly though. The power to drive yourself quite mad at the craziness of humanity, both in the past and now, and I'm sure into the future. The entire world is quite mad. And that's why I named this blog that. Humanity is really fucked up on so many levels.

So why am I writing this? I don't even know, something to do with the fact that I realized I hadn't written in a few days, and realized also that I didn't know what to write about. That and it's late, I'm rambling and I should go to bed, but I'm procrastinating about that.

Republicans are Racist Bastards (but we knew that)

Of course the Republicans are kicking and screaming over Sotomayor. It's not enough that she's a woman, but she's a Hispanic woman! The Republican reaction?

Republicans: Oh noes!!11!!1! The colored people are wanting equality again and are gaining important positions, even the Presidency! :'( Drat! Our evil scheme is coming undone...

So now they're saying that she's associated with an "extremist" group. Apparently if you're associated with a right-wing extremist group though it's not a problem, and how dare you say anything bad about them, especially if they're infiltrating our military. {/sarcasm}

At any rate, I hardly call the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund an extremist group. They're like the NAACP... but I suppose the Republicans don't have the cojones to call the NAACP an extremist group because they'd have Jesse Jackson protesting outside their offices. I guess the Hispanics are just a little too mellow for that.

Hispanic Rights Group at Center of Sotomayor Fight

Conservatives have called the group's stances on capital punishment and abortion rights, as well as its advocacy of affirmative action in worker discrimination cases, "extreme" and "shocking."...

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, used the word "extreme" to describe the PRLDEF's views on capital punishment and race...

So, what it boils down to is that this group supports rights for minorities and women, the enemies of the rich, white guys in the Republican party. Since the Republicans have no leg to stand on and nothing of substance to run on (and no brains I dare say either) they have to paint their enemies with the "terrorist brush." They basically have equated PRLDEF with extremists and terrorists in their opposition to Sotomayor. They did the same thing with Obama, so I suppose it should come no surprise to anyone that they should go as far as to paint Sotomayor with that same brush as well.

Racism in the 21st Century

Down here in south Texas we have a radio station (well, probably more than one) where the DJs are ignorant, stupid bastards. They play decent music some of the time, but I don't think I'll be listening to them any more. I think they must listen to right-wing talk radio in their off time, because back during the election they were allowing people on the air to propagate all the lies about Obama that were going around at the time, like he was Muslim and wasn't a citizen, etc. This isn't supposed to be a right-wing talk radio. It's supposed to play music from the "80's, 90's and today" but the DJs seem to like to inject their own political and religious persuations into what's supposed to just be music.

Now don't ask me why I continued to listen to the station after that. I guess because there just aren't any other stations that play music I like. Well from now on I'll go with the radio off before I listen to their stupid asses. The reason? Yesterday I read about some minority children that were asked by a private pool to leave. It sounded like they knew how many children there were, but when the members using the pool saw they were black and hispanic, they pulled their children out of the pool and went and complained. The people who ran the pool then refunded their money and asked them to never come back. They tried to say they didn't have the capacity to deal with that many kids. WHAT? You have got to be kidding me. I'm sure they knew how many kids were involved when they arranged for them to come. I'm sure the question was asked, "how many kids do you have?" I'll bet what wasn't asked was "what color are the kids?"

Now you may ask why I'm mad at the radio station? The DJs (who are white) dismissed this as being "overblown" and that there's no racism in the 21st century. Excuse me? I'm from western North Carolina, where there are still Klan up in the mountains. So what the fuck ever. You want to be so stupid and ignorant and think that, you can bite my ass. I know for a fact that country clubs discriminate against minorities, and find ways around laws so they don't have to accept minorities into them. So again, whatever. The DJs here are ignorant assholes and I pray they never know what it's like to be discriminated against. People are so quick to forget history. My mother, yes, my mother, went to a segregated school. She'll be sixty this year. That's not even very old. It wasn't even that long ago they were lynching black people in the south, in my mother's lifetime! And these DJs have the temerity, the cojones to dare to say that it's magically all gone? Fuck them.

You see, racism isn't gone. It's swept under the rug and that makes it more dangerous, because if we deny there's a problem, then there's never any justice. I believe there's an old adage, that sunlight is the best disinfectant. In 1955, when my mother was five years old, a fourteen year old boy by the name of Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. His mother insisted on an open casket, so that the world might see the brutality of the killing. If we just sweep it all under the rug, if we don't take a stand and say, no, it's not right what you're doing, then we are just as guilty as the people who perpetrate the crime, whether it's discriminating from a job or beating someone or telling a group of elementary aged students they can't swim in the same pool as the rich white kids.

The greater crime here isn't the fact that the private pool kicked the poor minority kids out. The greater crime here is the ignorance that says there's not a problem.

President Obama is a Geek

This totally cracked me up:

John Hodgman at Radio & TV Correspondents' Dinner



Quote highlights:

"Speaking of Supreme Court Nominees, strict constructionists, [are] jocks. Anyone who believes that they know the original intent of the framers of the Constitution are obviously jocks, because a.) they hate hippies, and b.) they neglect the fact that the Constitution is perhaps the most geeky document of all time. It is essentially the Frequently Asked Questions list of the United States that was written by monied, sickly, bookish, bi-focal wearing nerds who believed that God was a distant, uncaring Dungeon Master."

"It is an exciting time to be a nerd... at this very moment the fate of Iran is strangely entwined with the sleep schedules of the geeks who maintain the servers at Twitter and Youtube."

Conservatism Fails the United States

As in EPIC FAIL. For eight years we had a conservative Republican administration. The conservatives controlled the House and the Senate for most of that time. Their ideology says that they want less taxes and less government. I'm sure that there are some rather thick people out there who think that this sounds like a good thing, until they think, if they have the capacity to reason that is, about all of the things that we have that are provided by our government. You know, the schools, the roads, the public services like trash pick up and water.

In fact if you listened to the Republicans enough you would think that what they really want is to go back to some sort of medieval style serfdom, where the poor have no chance of an education and are held in servitude to a lord, or in this case, a corporation. The mark of a free and democratic society is how educated it's people are. Without public education, nay, without good public education, you wind up with a society that is only fit to serve it's masters. I believe that the founders would be appalled at this.

And California is a microcosm of the bigger problem we have here in this country. There is an article in Time, that I read this morning, that really sums the entire problem up for us.

California's Fiscal Crisis:
The Legacy of Proposition 13

The financial crisis in California grew worse this week as State Controller John Chiang warned that if legislators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fail to come up with a budget-balancing package, he would begin paying California's bills with IOUs on July 2. The last time the state did this was during the Great Depression...

And at the root of California's misery lies Proposition 13, the antitax measure that ignited the Reagan Revolution and the conservative era...

Before Prop 13, in the 1950s and '60s, California was a liberal showcase. Governors Earl Warren and Pat Brown responded to the population growth of the postwar boom with a massive program of public infrastructure — the nation's finest public college system, the freeway system and the state aqueduct that carries water from the well-watered north to the parched south...

The conservative mindset has, yet again, thrust us into what I'm sure historians will decide some decades from now, is another Great Depression. They got us into the first one as well, as I wrote about some months ago. You cannot provide the things that are the mark of a free and democratic society in a modern country, things such as water and public education without taxing people. You have to pay taxes if you want these things that make our lives comfortable and free. It's really quite simple. Sure, the government, at both the federal and local level, could stand to trim fat, you know, like the two wars we're fighting for no reason, politicians who use public money to go and see mistresses in Argentina, allowing no-bid contracts to certain corporations in quid-pro-quo deals, but that's not what the Republicans want cut. That's what they want to spend money on! Meanwhile they seek to destroy public education, government assisted funding for college and anything else that serves the public good. And the Democrats are no better. They need to grow some cojones and put a stop to this shit.

When we stop funneling money and resources into killing people and into corruption, we should have all the money we need for our crumbling schools and decaying roadways.

Or we can just be stupid and let the government continue to cut funding to important things so they'll have all the money they need for the military, so that they can run off and fight unnecessary wars with our tax dollars. We can submit to this and be little more than serfs, we can throw away all of the sacrifices that our ancestors gave so that we could be free and educated, and instead live in servitude to corporations.

The Forces of Darkness

War is Peace,

Freedom is Slavery,

Ignorance is Strength.

I don't think that any of these Republicans who are clamoring for their own little totalitarian theocracy have ever read 1984. Because if they had read it, they'd realize that what they're doing is straight out of Big Brother's propaganda machine. These are all from ThinkProgress and all from this evening.

The Democrats are just as bad as the North Korean and Iranian regimes.

Phil Gingrey (R. Ga): "Americans are watching as from Iran to North Korea, the forces of darkness are attempting to silence the forces of democracy and freedom. The irony is on this day, the Democratic process and the nation’s economic freedom are under threat not by some rogue state, but in this very chamber in which we stand."

Pelosi has created an autocracy in the House.

John McCain (R. Az): "And I guarantee you we are using every parliamentary possibility we have and I have great sympathy for my friends in the House because it’s almost under an autocracy now with Speaker Pelosi."

Obama is an Colonial African Despot.

Rush Limbaugh: "We’ve elected somebody who’s more African in his roots than he is American…and is behaving like an African colonial despot."

Because, G.W. Bush wiping his ass with the Constitution of the United States, getting us into two wars we had no business being in, and sending our economy down the fucking drain, promoting theocracy in this country, and being an overall dipshit that the whole world hated, didn't cause these asshats any sort of bother at all. They didn't wake up in the middle of the night, wondering if maybe they should be doing something to save this country.

Now that the democrats are trying to save it, perhaps slowly and perhaps ineffectively, all they can do is scream about how the democrats are really despots and tyrants. Oh please. They wouldn't know a tyrant if they were arrested by them, thrown into prison without trial, and taken out behind a woodshed and summarily executed. Why? Because they don't have any cognizant thought or reason in their heads. Nor do they have any empathy. All they have is a singular idea that god tells them they're special and deserve to have absolute power over everyone else, and because they're rich, they don't have to bother with the lesser classes who should know their place.

Forces of darkness? The only forces of darkness I see are McCain, Limbaugh and the rest of their hangers-on.

Anonymous Fails Christianity 101

Oh, of all the things I could write about, oh, this one struck me as the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. I got a bunch of comments from some "Anonymous" on my last post. Anonymous is someone I'm sure who's too afraid to post with an ID, mainly because they have no valid argument to counter mine, and they know it.

While talking about Sanford's humanity, and his failure to live up to his own moral code, I said and I quote,

Instead, I'm sure Mr. Ensign and Mr. Sanford are blaming Satan, the scapegoat for everything, for their failings. That's the problem with religions like Christianity. They promote the belief that one is not responsible for their actions, that bad things are done by the devil (or by people influenced by the devil) and that if they only put aside their reason, that Jesus will make it all better by a simple thought in their head that he's a god and came to earth to save them, like some kind of superhero.

To which Anonymous responded,

Wrong, again. Do you just make this stuff up while you tap away in Starbucks? When you include a statement like that it just collapses the reader's belief that you have any capacity to reason.

First of all, I hate Starbucks. They burn their coffee. Quite frankly, the coffee at our local bookstore is much better and they roast the beans fresh every day. But I digress. You see, Anonymous fails Christianity 101. The main tenet of Christianity is that it doesn't matter what you do, what actions you perform, bad or good, all that matters is that you think in your head that Jesus has "saved" you. If you have murdered a million people and then "accept the Lord Jesus" into your heart, you're going to heaven because Jesus absolves all sins no matter how bad. But if you don't believe in Jesus, you're going to burn in the lake of fire for all eternity, no matter how good of a life you've lived or how many charitable acts you've done. Now, the more moderate Christians tend to gloss this over, especially Unitarians, who try to be inclusive. But the doctrine is still there, they just don't harp on it, like say, the Southern Baptists.

I can't make this shit up. I've lived among too many Christian Fundamentalists for that. I know verbatim what they say. I know all of their arguments, and all of their weak refutations which always go back to a belief in Jesus. And if Anonymous thinks that one can be saved without a simple belief in Jesus, I don't know what religion he or she thinks they're talking about, but it isn't Christianity.

Finally, with the reference to Starbucks, I'm sure Anonymous thinks I'm a "latte sipping liberal" and that's a red flag that he or she gets their news from Faux and listens to Rush daily. What he or she doesn't realize, is that I hate both the Republicans and the Democrats. I don't believe the left or the right. I despise them all equally because I think they're all fucked up. I don't take anyone's side, save my own, and that of the impoverished and the oppressed. I don't need to take sides with politicians who are lying rats and who are born with a silver spoon up their ass. It's really too bad that all these people who claim to be Christian, don't bother to read one iota of what Jesus actually said, and then actually *gasp* go do it. You know, about taking care of the poor, social justice and all that. About going into your closet to pray, instead of standing on the street corner like hypocrites. Oh, but that would mean that they'd have actually had to read the Bible and comprehend it and think about it, instead of listening to people like Rush, Coulter and Malkin telling them what to think.

And I don't sip lattes.

Mark Sanford: Another One Bites the Dust

And here we have, in a mere one week, another shamed Republican presidential 2012 hopeful. Laid low by the strict moral view espoused by their twisted interpretation of ancient manuscripts, they fail to see the irony that is their life. While insisting that everyone else live up to a certain moral, they themselves fail the proverbial hypocrite test, of failing to practice what one preaches.

Personally, I don't give a damn if he had an affair with someone. IMHO, that's between him and his wife. The problem is, these politicians scream for morality, and then when they don't practice what they preach, it's because they're "just human." Well yes, they are just human, which is why they fuck up. So why can't that be a lesson to politicians, that we're not interested in your morality. Just do your damned job of representing the people, and don't worry about how I live my life and I won't worry about how you live yours. So long as no laws are broken, who cares? Instead, I'm sure Mr. Ensign and Mr. Sanford are blaming Satan, the scapegoat for everything, for their failings. That's the problem with religions like Christianity. They promote the belief that one is not responsible for their actions, that bad things are done by the devil (or by people influenced by the devil) and that if they only put aside their reason, that Jesus will make it all better by a simple thought in their head that he's a god and came to earth to save them, like some kind of superhero.

The 2012 election is going to be interesting. When your most likable (as in likable by those who have no thoughts in their head) is a dumb bitch from Alaska, you have problems. You see, the GOP has been the party of anti-intellectualism for the last three plus decades, and the lack of viable candidates that have half a thought in their head, shows us that this strategy has finally come home to roost for them. So not only do they now have a bunch of followers who are unthinking hypocrites, the core of their leadership is made up of much the same.

English Only Conferenece [sic]

From think progress
Yeah. I couldn't help myself. It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words.


Why? Why do we still have racist bastards in the 21st century? The guy on the right is Peter Brimelow, the editor of a white nationalist website. You see, these people try to tie up the immigration debate in the package that it's about jobs or national security. But it isn't. That's what they want you to think. It's really about racism. These people are like the Nazis. Yes, yes, I know, Godwin's Law. But it's true in this case. They're conservative, fascist bastards who think the white race is somehow better than any other race. They miss the fact that race is a socially contrived thing, and genetically there is little difference between the so called races, and that skin color is a very late adaptation, perhaps arising as late as 10,000 years ago. But whatever, you can't argue with stupid.

PAT BUCHANAN: Judge Sotomayor is up there at school in New York, she gets a scholarship to Princeton, she’s graduated with all these big honors and awards they said she never won. What’s she doing there in the summer? They said her adviser told her to read children’s classics so she can learn English better. How do you graduate number one in Princeton if you’re in the summer and you’re reading Rumpelstiltskin and Snow White?

Seriously? You're kidding right? I bet you anything these ignorant morons haven't read a classic in their lives, children's or otherwise. Huckleberry Finn is a children's classic. So is Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. All worthy of being read if you haven't done so. But I digress, because what he has said is a lie. First of all, she was born in New York City. She's American, you can't say she doesn't speak English. What he has said has a kernel of truth to it, which is the most powerful kind of lie. When she went to college, she lacked a knowledge of the classics, perhaps children's or otherwise. Had nothing to do with her ability to speak English, but these clowns couldn't understand that. And I might add, that we only call a lot of books children's classics because most read them when they're in public school. Quite frankly, I think a good many of them have themes and situations that are over most children's heads, and should be re-read later in life. But I digress.

You know, this pisses me off a lot. Sotomayor was born in poverty and pulled herself out of it, and these rich, priveledged white men, who have never had to do a day's manual labor in their lives mock her for not being as educated upon entering Princeton as her white classmates were. What a bunch of fucking pricks. I'm sure there's some more nuanced way to put it, but that right there is how I'm feeling about them right now.

Neda: The Revolution will be on Youtube

A government that attacks it's own people isn't fit to govern them. Perhaps in a time not long ago, governments could sweep the terrible things that they do under the rug, but not any more. Not with cell phones with cameras and the internet. And youtube. There are a ton of videos on there that people have uploaded showing the horrific, and pointless violence. All these people wanted was a say in their government, and the freedom to live as they see fit, and to be free from fear of being arrested for mere words. But the Iranian government couldn't abide by their people being able to have a voice.

And people are dying because of it. And there are videos on youtube showing these people's last moments, with their friends and family members screaming in agony, wondering why their child, their brother, their father, or mother or their friend had to die. So, the government of Iran can't sweep it under the rug. There is a video of a girl whom they are calling Neda, which in Persian means "voice", who is shot in the chest and dies moments later. All caught on camera. I warn you if you click the link that is in her name that it is graphic. It is death. But you get to watch it safe at home, on your computer screen. These people are living with this day and night. With the police shooting at them for merely assembling and demanding their human rights. The government can't silence Neda. She may be dead, but she's all over everyone's computer screens right now. They may kill the people who are on their roof tops shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Great), and thereby silence them, but they can't silence them. They're also on youtube. The harder the Iranian government cracks down, the more the voices of the disenfranchised Iranians will be heard across the world. And it will never go away. Their voices will ring out forever, as long as the internet lasts, demanding their right to be free from tyranny and fear.

"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof." --V. from V for Vendetta

Republican Senator John Ensign had an affair!

Surprise, surprise.

What is it with these self righteous conservatives who think everyone else needs to follow their version of "morality" but then don't bother to apply it to themselves? Bloody hypocrites.

Sen. Ensign quits GOP post after admitting affair

...The Nevada lawmaker is a member of the Christian ministry Promise Keepers and has championed causes pushed by the GOP's conservative religious base while seeking to raise his political profile for a possible presidential campaign...

The disclosure resurrected questions about a two-week period in 2002, when Ensign abruptly dropped from public view. A person familiar with that episode, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Tuesday the senator told a close associate the absence followed an earlier affair...

And of course it's not his first affair. He's apparently had others. This from a man who is vehemently against two people of the same sex getting married and being faithful to one another. If you're going to be a lying, hypocritical bastard, the least you can do is not expect everyone else to follow your supposed "moral" code. I personally don't give a damn what you do. If he wanted to cheat on his wife, whatever, ain't none of my business. However, it is my business when he wants to tell me how to live my life. He can take his "morals" and shove them where the sun doesn't shine.

Racism and the Grand Old Party

Okay, so not all Republicans are racist obviously. But for some strange reason, racists seem to flock to the party like geese to Canada in the summer. So it really comes as no surprise to me that a long time Republican activist, Rusty DePass of South Carolina, made the comment a few days ago that an escaped gorilla was one of Michelle Obama's ancestors. He then tried to cover his ass by saying that the First Lady had said herself that we were all descended from apes. Remember they hate evolution too. No one has found where the First Lady said this either, and I doubt that she said anything like it. And at any rate, in this case, this has nothing to do with evolution, but rather with a long standing tradition that black people are just one step above being a monkey, and are obviously not human.

This isn't the first time that rude, racist comments have been said, if you recall former Senator George Allen of Virginia, called a democrat volunteer of Indian descent "macaca" a clearly racist pejorative. He claimed he didn't know what it meant. Yeah right. At any rate, it destroyed his political career on the national stage. In the end he lost his seat, but not because he's a racist. Indeed, he was narrowly defeated by Webb who held a mere one third of one percent (0.3%) more votes than Allen. All of those people who voted for Allen didn't care that he was a racist, probably because most of them were racist as well.

Many people act like racism isn't a problem any more, that it's something that was a problem a long time ago but isn't now. Usually this view is espoused by the ones who are racist. They don't want a spotlight shown on their beliefs, so it serves them well if most people think that it really isn't a problem. Where I grew up in the south out in the countryside, there are still Klan. I knew plenty of people in high school who were virulently racist, and would say terrible things, like "the only good n____ is a dead n____." And they'd get away with saying things like that because the administration was probably racist too. I also recall a kid on the bus who told this other kid that there were probably black people in his family tree, and I remember the other kid getting really angry, and saying that there "ain't no n____ in my family!". He threatened to beat the kid up if he didn't take back the statement that he could have ancestors that were black. That was in the 90s, it hasn't been that long ago. These are things that I saw and heard first hand, so I know good and well the reality of it. And those people are still there, most of them have had a few children now, and are passing their hate on to them.