Masked Liberal Evangelist

Corporations are people with Robots

2012-01-22T16:45:00.008-06:00

Headline and lede from Fox Business website:

US HUD's Donovan: 'Very Close' To Robo-Signing Settlement

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said Wednesday that a pending settlement of an investigation into banks' foreclosure-processing problems would benefit about 1 million families with cuts in the amount they owe on their home loans.

Headline and lead from Daily Kos:

Obama to Grant Banks Robosigning Immunity in Showdown With Breakaway AGs

byAmeriGus

Without considering the guilt or innocence of the five major banks involved, the Obama Administration is poised to let Wall Street off the hook for foreclosures where as many as one million borrowers were "harmed" by robo-signing practices.

2011-12-28T20:47:00.001-06:00

Hot Air

2011-12-24T21:52:00.002-06:00

I saw kids lining up in the cold for half a block at 7:30 in the morning to get into Foot Locker. I asked another middle aged gawker what inspired the line, and he told me with some disgust that the kids were foolishly wasting money on the new retro Jordans. I shared his sentiment, then remembered that I was wearing shoes that had inserts that cost me $400 (even with BCBS).

More from Sanity Claus: No! No! No!

2011-12-21T09:24:00.003-06:00

Michele Bachmann to Santa: All I want for Christmas is to win in Iowa

There Ain't No Such Thing as Sanity Clause

2011-12-08T15:35:00.005-06:00

I was talking with a Jehovah's Witness about Santa Claus when he was making his round in my neighborhood. He remembered being disappointed and confused when he found out that there was no Santa Claus. I remember being skeptical 51 weeks of the year, but suspending disbelief every December. There was no sudden crisis of faith or outrage at being deceived. I now enjoy the rituals of Christmas and view Santa as the embodiment of the holiday season. When one rambunctious older brother told his mother during a visit to see Santa that I was "F-A-K-E" I told him that there are different ways of being real. Things like truth and justice might not literally exist in the real world, but they're still important ideas, just like Santa. The kid shrugged off my explanation, and his siblings didn't seem to notice his skepticism or my defense of the metaphorical existance of Santa.

The latest from the War on Christmas:

Eng, 58, was in the middle of a lesson about the North Pole Tuesday when one of her students pointed out that that was where Santa Claus lives.

The educator snapped that not only was there no Santa, but their parents are the ones who leave presents under the tree.

To P or not to P

2011-12-08T13:26:00.008-06:00

I started my seasonal job last month and was suprised when I showed up for work and was told to wait in the manger's office and not punch in. He told me the HR Director wanted him to talk to me at 1:30, so we waited for half an hour and then he told me I had to retake a drug test at 2:00.

I was shocked, since I had aced three drug tests last year. How unfair is life when you can't pass a drug test but hadn't even had the benefit of a strange trip beforehand? My supervisor couldn't give me any more information, since it was confidential. I called the lab in Kentucky, but they couldn't disclose any information to me since my employer in Florida was their client. A half hour later I retook the test and passed.

It's hard being a recreational drug user these days-especially if you can't afford it. State budgets are tight and legislators seem to be looking ways to cut spendingon public assistance programs. I've read that more than half the states are considering drug testing welfare recipients, home heating assistance, unemployment insurance and other programs. Too bad the cost of putting drug users in jail and making children wards of the state is even more costly than providing marijuana smokers with food stamps or housing vouchers.

Who among us takes notice if a sparrow falls to the ground

2011-11-24T23:29:00.004-06:00

Around the 2:00 mark, a female protester is pushed back into a bush and a bird drops out. She alerts a policeman who picks it up and it flies away on the left side of the screen.

Occupy the Voting Booths

2011-11-23T19:35:00.008-06:00

Occupy Wall Street is a hipper version of the Tea Party where the guests refuse to leave. The protesters' commitment is admirable and they have identified dozens of issues that need confronting. Unfortunately, as the weather changes and the public's attention and patience begins to fade, OWS needs to change tactics.

If OWS is going to change the social order, it will have to settle on a plan of action. Had John McCain won the election, no doubt the left would hope that simply getting a candidate like Barack Obama would be the simplest and most effective way to deliver cultural and social change.

OWS supporters have demonstrated strong motivation and commitment for almost 3 months. To successfully change and reform Wall Street, occupiers will have to identify several priorities and engage in extensive planning and commitment to get it. In short, OWS will have to compromise a little and indulge in Realpolitik. The Tea Party did something like this by fielding right wing looney candidates in 2010, but the TEA Party also lost its soul in the process, becoming another cog in the well financed and lubricated vast right wing outrage machine. How OWS will keep its soul is anybody's guess.

Happy Birthday Doctor Who

2011-11-23T18:29:00.006-06:00

My favorite TV show turned 48 this week...

From the TARDIS Index File

Barack Obama was the President of the United States in the early part of the 21st century.

Biography

Barack was making a publicised speech from the White House on the recession when, like everyone else on Earth, he was transformed into a copy of the Master. After the substitution had taken place, the Master made the remark that the solution to the world economic crisis Obama had been about to present was "deleted". (DW: The End of Time)

Nanny

2011-11-15T08:36:00.003-06:00

Libertarians and Objectivists are always accusing liberals of being collectivists who want a nanny state. I suppose this could be the Objectivist version of one of the few Disney movies I consider a classic.

The Job Creators

2011-11-02T14:32:00.007-05:00

Years ago, sociologist Herbert Gans asked the question, "Does poverty have functions to explain its persistence?"

His answer: The poor are job creators.

Poverty keeps the fields of penology, criminology, social work, and public health in business. It creates the need for social scientists, social workers, journalists, and other 'poverty warriors.' Poverty provides tenants for run down housing, gamblers for the gaming industry, employees for Walmart and recruitees for the peacetime army.

Because the poor are required to work at a low wage, they subsidize a variety of economic activities that benefit the affluent. The poor also pay a larger share of their income in property and sales taxes.

The poor also play a role once filled by minorities, giving upper and middle class people someone to look down upon.

"Not only does the alleged moral deviancy of the poor reduce the moral pressure on the political economy to reduce poverty, but socialist alternatives can be made to look unattractive if those who will benefit most from them can be described as lazy, spendthrift, dishonest, and promiscuous."

-Herman Gans

Raging Bachmann

2011-10-22T23:20:00.000-05:00

From Michele Bachmann's statement on Iraq:

We have been ejected from a country by the people that we liberated and that the United States paid for with precious blood and treasure... The United States needed a working democratic partnership in Iraq and we should have demanded that Iraq repay the full cost of liberating them given their rich oil revenues...

We "liberated" the country by sending it into chaos, setting the stage for ethnic violence, the deaths of thousands upon thousands, and over 4 million refugees. Now the liberated people don't want to be our "democratic partners" if we insist our soldiers have immunity for any future actions.

The CIA Factbook reports that last year Iraq had a GDP of $113 billion. We've already spent $800 billion on Iraq, and the costs are still mounting. Maybe next time we should liberate the Cayman Islands or Switzerland so we can get our money back.

Mitt wants Everybody to be Rich

2011-10-13T18:25:00.004-05:00

Mitt Romney's latest one liner makes even less sense than his "Corporations are people, my friend" zinger from this summer. Most of the economy would come to a grinding halt if everyone suddenly inherited millions of dollars from their parents. Awarding every citizen a million dollars would be a good way to pass immigration reform, however. Mitt used illegal immigrants to take care of one of his houses a few years ago-just imagine if the poor and working class started hiring undocumented workers as well.

It's Only Socialism When Obama Is for It

2011-10-11T20:37:00.002-05:00

Today's headline:

Senate Republicans vote to kill Obama's jobs bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans have voted to kill the $447 billion White House jobs bill despite weeks of barnstorming by President Barack Obama across the country.

2005 Headline:

Bush says $286 bln highway bill creates U.S. jobs
Yahoo News via Reuters ^ | 8/10/05 | Reuters News Service

President Bush signed a $286.5 billion highway bill on Wednesday that he said would create new jobs but which critics contend is stuffed with billions of dollars worth of lawmakers' pet projects.

From Desert News archives:

BUSH SAYS HIGHWAY BILL MEANS `JOBS, JOBS, JOBS'

Published: Wednesday, Dec. 18, 1991

All of the Above

2011-10-05T21:56:00.000-05:00

President Bush was wrong about going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, arrogantly abused executive power through the Patriot Act and other secret programs, and disastrously enabled Wall Street and Corporations too Big To Fail to rig the American economy in their favor.

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President Obama is continuing the same Bush policies. True, Obama has accomplished some good things and has faces ridiculous accusations from birthers and the tin foil hat brigade, but liberals, progressives, and left of center Democrats should not simply acquiesce only because our incumbent candidate is somewhat less disastrous than his predecessor. Rather than stay at home (which may or may not have caused the 2010 electoral "shellacking") I hope registered Democrats will vote for someone...anyone else in the primaries. The time to protest is now, while President Obama is still in office and could actually end the war on "terror" and seriously try to fight the war on poverty. Write in Cornell West or Russ Feingold. Write in the name of your favorite social studies teacher or one of your parents. In the New Hampshire primary, you could even vote for me, if all goes according to plan.

More Right Wing Falsehoods

2011-10-01T22:47:00.002-05:00

I was almost hooked by a forwarded Facebook message expressing outrage at hypocritical politicians:

Derek Batchelor's Photos

Unexplainable, Inexcusable

No one has been able to explain to me why young men... and women serve in the U.S. Military for 20 years, risking their lives protecting freedom, and only get 50% of their pay. While Politicians hold their political positions in the safe confines of the capital, protected by these same men and women, and receive full pay retirement after serving one term. It just does not make any sense.

The message continued, praising FOX News, condemning the media, and urging everyone to paste the messge on their wall and work for a constitutional amendement to end the federal government from burdening the states. It concluded:

Now, what are you going to do about it? Read and delete, or work for reform? Share on the wall of EVERY congressman, representative, governor, the white house!!!!! Pass it around!!! Make calls, send fax's and email's...............

— with Veterans Freedom, Desertstorm Veterans, Steven Sonich, Bob Veteran and Veterans.See More
By: Tim Shuler
.

By: Derek Batchelor

It's an effective message and will get the authors lots of attention and outrage many people further. Too bad it was debunked several months ago. Check here or here.

You Betcha

2011-09-27T11:10:00.001-05:00

Sarah Palin once indulged in sex and drugs according to a new biography. Some of the accusations in the book are obviously false, for example:

-That 'refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' and 'wee-wee'd up' aren't in the dictionary.

-Palin "palled around" with terrorists in collge.
-Palin wanted to form a death panel to kill her baby with Down Syndrome.
-Spent $2 million to keep her non-native birth secret quiet.

"I love that smell of the emissions!" --Sarah Palin, May 29, 2011

Definitely Not Separated at Birth

2011-09-27T10:40:00.000-05:00

Andea Dworkin and Jerry Clower were both born on September 26. If I remember correctly, the "She Coon" in Jerry's anecdote was in fact Andrea Dworkin.

Score: Scientists 0 Religion 0

2011-09-17T22:21:00.002-05:00

Neither scientists nor televangelists predicted the earthquakes in Italy a few years ago, but the scientists urged everyone to go back to bed and remain calm. And so...

Scientists in the dock over L'Aquila earthquake

By Susan Watts
BBC Newsnight Science editor

Next week six scientists and an official go on trial in Italy for manslaughter over the earthquake in L'Aquila that killed 309 people two years ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9593123.stm

Have You Forgotten?

2011-09-10T22:14:00.004-05:00

I heard the Darryl Worley fight song, "Have You Forgotten" while scanning radio stations this afternoon. I had forgotten this song, which came out in 2003 shortly after the US and the Coalition of the Willing had invaded Iraq. It's powerful in a jingoistic way, but it immediately caused a knee jerk reaction when I heard it once again after 7 or 8 years. It begins:

I hear people sayin'. We Don't need this war.

I say there's some things worth fightin' for.

What about our freedom, and this piece of ground?

We didn't get to keep 'em by backin' down.

They say we don't realize the mess we're gettin' in

Before you start preachin' let me ask you this my friend.

Have you forgotten, how it felt that day?

To see your homeland under fire

And her people blown away

Have you forgotten, when those towers fell

We had neighbors still inside goin through a livin hell

And you say we shouldn't worry bout Bin Laden

Have you forgotten?

I remember how a national tragedy was turned into an excuse to conduct Operation Iraqi Liberation. I remember how Iraq became the most dangerous place on Earth due to the Bush administration's arrogance and incompetence. Soon tens of thousands would be dead, millions made homeless due to bombs, ethnic cleansing and civil war. I remember the missing WMDs, the missing millions of dollars, the lies and corruption, the propaganda about Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch, and how we were continually turning the corner in Iraq.

And I remember who it was that said we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden:

"And, again, I don’t know where he is. I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him."- George W. Bush. March 13 2002

August 21, 2006:

Q What did Iraq have to do with that?

PRESIDENT BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?

Q The attack on the World Trade Center.

THE PRESIDENT: Nothing!! ... Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq.

And now a Message from Jehovah...

2011-08-29T20:46:00.002-05:00

Are the disasters of the last year a message from God?

Oil rig explosions, forest fires, tornadoes, tsunamis, nuclear plants leaking radiation, hurricanes, earthquakes... With all the destruction and environmental damage, maybe the message is to increase stimulis spending on public works projects and to fund green technologies.

Richie Rich-the Richest Kid in the World

2011-08-21T16:25:00.000-05:00

Hearing Voices

2011-08-19T21:42:00.004-05:00

Penn Jillette says "God no!" to religion on NPR. He begins by challenging religious people with the question "If God told you to kill your child, would you do it? If your answer is no, you are an atheist."

I doubt that most people of faith or otherwise, hearing a voice in their head telling them to kill any child, would assume that God is directing them. Of course, people are conditioned to kill in response to an authority less than an all powerful supreme being. An execution order from a Texas judge may be sufficient, or an order from the head of a gang in other situations.

I thought of all the fathers who, like Abraham and Isaac, grappled with the reality of their son possibly being sent to slaughter at the direction of a higher authority during the draft for the undeclared war in Viet Nam. I thought of the jingoistic "Chicken Hawks" who evaded the draft in the 60s and 70s, but years later encouraged young people to go off and fight in Iraq to rid Sadaam Hussein of his WMDs and in Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden.

Finally, I wondered if the U.S. government drafts my son a few years from now to fight in Absurdistan, will I potentially sacrifice him or encourage him to move to Canada or Europe?

Marshall Efron's Illustrated, Simplified and Painless Sunday School

2011-08-18T19:05:00.001-05:00

I'll beat the love of god into you...

2011-08-18T10:08:00.002-05:00

Cowboys and Englishmen

2011-08-17T00:21:00.004-05:00

A transplanted Texan in England wondered why the police aren't using guns to stop the UK riots:

...As everyone in the newsroom debated the use of force – whether to use rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons, Tasers, even bean-bag guns – I wondered why they were wasting their breath.

“If your cops had guns, day number 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this, it would NOT have happened!” I said at a recent meeting.

Texas has around 25 million people. There were over 1,300 murders committed in the state in 2009.

England has around 52 million people. There were over 650 murders committed in the country in 2009. Maybe if guns were more prevalent in England, the UK could one day be as safe as Texas.

Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry thinks using predator drones on the Mexican border is a good idea.

It was an Outer Limits Episode...

2011-08-16T00:08:00.002-05:00

Who can be bothered to read these things...

2011-08-13T09:01:00.009-05:00

Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US was the President's daily brief prepared by the CIA and given to U.S. President George W. Bush on August 6, 2001.

Hot Air

2011-08-02T01:40:00.002-05:00

Headline #1:

New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism

By James Taylor | Forbes – Wed, Jul 27, 2011
Headline #2 from New Scientist:

Antarctica rising as ice caps melt

31 July 2011
Magazine issue 2823.

As usual, you can find articles supporting either position on global warming almost every week. So what is the story behind this latest debunking of the socialist global warming hoax? Here's the abstract from the article the libertarian blogger says refutes the global warming alarmists:

Abstract: The sensitivity of the climate system to an imposed radiative imbalance remains

the largest source of uncertainty in projections of future anthropogenic climate change.

Here we present further evidence that this uncertainty from an observational perspective is

largely due to the masking of the radiative feedback signal by internal radiative forcing,

probably due to natural cloud variations. That these internal radiative forcings exist and

likely corrupt feedback diagnosis is demonstrated with lag regression analysis of satellite

and coupled climate model data, interpreted with a simple forcing-feedback model. While

the satellite-based metrics for the period 2000–2010 depart substantially in the direction of

lower climate sensitivity from those similarly computed from coupled climate models, we

find that, with traditional methods, it is not possible to accurately quantify this discrepancy

in terms of the feedbacks which determine climate sensitivity. It is concluded that

atmospheric feedback diagnosis of the climate system remains an unsolved problem, due

primarily to the inability to distinguish between radiative forcing and radiative feedback in

satellite radiative budget observations.

A Majority, But Not Fillibuster Proof

2011-08-01T03:36:00.003-05:00

Only 52% of Americans Approve of God's Job Performance

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/07/only-half-americans-approve-gods-job-performance/40268/

Messin' with Texas

2011-07-27T14:53:00.003-05:00

From a story in the Texas Observer:
On September 28, 2009, at 1:40 p.m., God’s messengers visited Rick Perry...A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government.

The Norway Tragedy

2011-07-25T09:24:00.004-05:00

What happened in Norway and who is to blame?

Glenn Beck: multiculturalism is to blame

American Thinker: I remain skeptical about Brevik, just as I remain skeptical of the narrative that Timothy McVeigh was a "right wing Christian" terrorist.

Atlas Shrugs: While the leftist and Islamic supremacist ghouls rush to portray Norway mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik as a Christian and even as an anti-jihadist, the unanswered questions multiply.

Laura Ingraham on Fox: "..two deadly terror attacks in Norway, in what appears to be the work, once again, of Muslim extremists."

FREEDOM FRIDAY WITH CARL GALLUPS: Shooter was an Evolutionist/Pagan:

The shooter was a fanatic. Fanatics can be atheists, Catholics, Protestants, Sunnis, Shiites, communists, capitalists, anarchists, or fascists. Trying to blame a particular philosophy for someone's crimes is absurd, unless people cynically elevate their opinions to divine revelations or fanatically demonize their ideological or religious opponents into something less than human.

Summer Liberal Reading List

2011-07-24T02:23:00.021-05:00

1. Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand

I heard they're making this novel into a movie. I hope they keep in the good parts. I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing, but it was easy to find the best bits in the library copy I looked at because certain pages showed more wear and tear than others. Here's one well written passage:

He jerked her closer, to stifle the sight of his own shudder. His hands were going through the automatic motions of intimacy – and she complied, but in a manner that made him feel as if the beats of her arteries under his touch were snickering giggles.

2. Sisters by Lynne Cheney

A rough and tumble western novel about two womyn dealing with patriarchy, feminism, rape and the world capitalist system peppered with sizzling hot scenes:

Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. We shall find ourselves a secluded bower where they dare not venture. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl. . . .

...The young woman was heavily powdered, but quite attractive, a curvesome creature, rounded at bosom and cheek. When she smiled, even her teeth seemed puffed and rounded, like tiny ivory pillows.

Lynne Cheney is the proud parent of a lesbian daughter and married to some guy she playfully refers to as "Dick." She's written another steamy potboiler called The Body Politic.

3. Those Who Tresspass by Bill O'Reilly

O'Reilly is a double threat! Not only is he an author, but he also hosted Entertainment Tonight before getting a talk show on some basic cable network.

O'reilly's novel concern a broadcast journalist sytematically murdering members of the lamestream media.

Since he is an accomplished on air personality, the audio book is obviously the preferred format.

Excerpts can be heard here:

Those Who Trespass,

4. Getting it Right by William F. Buckley

Buckley had the politics of a right wing swine, but he was cool. Here's a moving scene:

But this time she led him upstairs to a room he had never laid eyes on, a bedroom with a king-size bed and not less than six oil pictures of Ayn on the walls, one of them showing her bare-breasted, the Ayn of twenty years ago. The shades had been drawn and Nathaniel could savor the scent. Today her lover was being welcomed with synesthetical concerns for all the senses, only the music missing. But as he lay and later groaned with writhing and release, he brought the full force of his mind to transmuted, volutptuarian elation in this physical union with the very woman who had created John Galt and Dagny Taggart and Henry Rearden, and had touched down her scepter on him, Nathaniel, igniting his mind, and his own scepter, which paid, now, devoted service.

5. The Apprentice by Scooter Libby

A thriller by Dick Cheney's chief of staff with references to beastiality, pedophilia and rape.

At age ten the madam put the child in a cage with a bear trained to couple with young girls so the girls would be frigid and not fall in love with their patrons. They fed her through the bars and aroused the bear with a stick when it seemed to lose interest. Groups of men paid to watch.

6. The Starr Report

Read the sordid story of President Clinton pleasuring himself in a sink in his bathroom, taking calls from members of Congress while receiving oral sex and other shameful acts in glorious detail.

FOX's Liberal Bias

2011-07-19T02:46:00.004-05:00

From the Huffington Post on NewsCorps' political giving:

Donations reported Friday for calendar year 2011 went primarily to Democrats.

More Fair and Balanced News

2011-07-18T02:55:00.004-05:00

Michelle Obama eats the equivalent of a live raccoon, only on FOX!

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Exceptional Arrogance

2011-07-09T10:05:00.006-05:00

Promoting his new beverage in Joplin, Missouri, on Independence Day, Rush Limbaugh remarked:

This country has produced opportunity and prosperity unlike the world has ever seen before. . . . The history of the world is oppression, tyranny, dungeons – not here. We are an exception to the way human beings have always lived on this planet. This is a nation blessed by God.

What bothers me about Limbaugh's "Exceptionalism" is that it goes beyond patriotism and into the realm of mindless nationalism and superstition. Patriotism is valuing what is good and best about your country, not ignoring or denying that it has acted unjustly or promoted inequality. Limbaugh points out that this country has produced "opportunity and prosperity" but we are currently suffering through a crisis that originated on Wall Street, and may see another shock wave if the Tea Party Politicians continue playing Kamikaze with the debt.

There's also a cruelty to such exceptionalism. The people in Joplin are the best of America, while the victims in New Orleans who don't resemble Limbaugh and most of his listeners are portrayed as "whining" or worse by Limbaugh and his fans on his show and website.

Limbaugh also mocked the Japanese refugees following this year's quake and tsunami. Why? The Japanese are guilty of recycling and creating the Prius:Such callousness and disregard for the suffering of people who don't fit the stereotype of a full-blooded American blessed by God is simply ugly and a betrayal of the values of what we are supposed to be celebrating.

"Get Off My Antidisestablishmentarianism"

2011-07-09T09:54:00.002-05:00

I'm not a fan of most rap and hip hop, preferring "All You Need Is Love" to "Gangsta's Paradise"

Gangsta Rap in particular seems like it could be an insidious invention of the Klu Klux Klan, designed to promote young black men engaging in self destructive behavior and reinforce internalized racism and sexism. Still, the soundtrack of choice for some of the most destructive and murderous campaigns in history has been European Fine Art Music.

Roots of Breakdance (Run DMC - It's Like That) - Click here for the most popular videos

I Have A Scheme

2011-07-05T08:31:00.000-05:00

Back when we had our TV upstairs and could actually receive a broadcast signal, my kids saw ads for My Gold Envelope and some sort of device to flatten one's abs. The ads were shown between cartoons and made a big impression on my offspring. For the next few days they reminded me that I could burn off my belly fat, and that simply filling an envelope with my wife's and Oma's gold jewelry would provide the necessary funds to take them to Chuck E. Cheese's and Gamestop. My kids were disappointed to find out that I had no gold, except for the magic ring on my finger that makes me Mommy's property.

So why doesn't the US start unloading some of its gold? Internet conspiracy theories aside, gold stacked up at Fort Knox isn't doing any good. I say unload the stuff, and if the price of gold falls significantly, buy some of it back.

Independence From The Past Day

2011-07-04T09:37:00.003-05:00

I've only been able to celebrate Independence Day a few times in the States since 1998. Usually I'm enjoying friendly German hospitality at a Schutzenfest, a popular celebration that combines shooting, drinking, Catholicism, patriotism, marching bands and Senior Prom. The one thing that makes me a little uncomfortable are the salutes to fallen German heroes from the World Wars.

It reminds me of the dilemma faced by President Reagan years ago when he visited a German cemetary:

These [SS troops] were the villains, as we know, that conducted the persecutions and all. But there are 2,000 graves there, and most of those, the average age is about 18. I think that there's nothing wrong with visiting that cemetery where those young men are victims of Nazism also, even though they were fighting in the German uniform, drafted into service to carry out the hateful wishes of the Nazis. They were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.

-Ronald Reagan

Sluts: A Study In Youtube Contrasts

2011-06-08T09:58:00.000-05:00

Fascism

2011-06-08T09:39:00.008-05:00

Back in 2009, Laura Ingraham revised a well known poem about the holocaust:

"First they came for the ~~communists~~ RICH and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the ~~trade unionists~~, PROPERTY OWNERS and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the ~~Jews~~ RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS, and I did not speak out—because I was not a jew;
Then they came for me (AND DENIED ME MY MEDICAL CARE)—and there was no one left to speak out for me."

The fascists of the 20th Century hated communism, unions, homosexuals, and members of other races and religions. Does such hate-filled exclusiveness sound familiar in today's political environment?

Tortured Logic

2011-05-05T12:48:00.000-05:00

In an odd twist, Donald Rumsfeld also contradicts Pete King: http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/DonaldRumsfeld-gitmo-waterboarding-osamabinladen/2011/05/02/id/394820

While some conservatives are complaining that we don't vigorously interrogate suspected terrorists anymore, it was the Bush administration that eventually stopped such practices as threatening to sexually assault a prisoner with a broomstick, have female soldiers pose with naked prisoners in stress positions, and sleep deprivation. Both candidates McCain and Obama acknowledged that brutal interrogations were a betrayal of the Constitution, could provide false information, and a threat to our own soldiers' security. During his imprisonment in Viet Nam, John McCain was tortured and signed an anti-American confession. McCain agreed to admitting lies under torture because that is what his captors wanted, and they eventually got it.

It's the same story in our President's town of Chicago. Judge Milton Shadur of the U.S. District Court (N.D. Ill.) found that:

“It is now common knowledge that in the early to mid-1980s Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and many officers working under him in the physical abuse and torture of prisoners to extract confessions.” U.S. ex rel. Maxwell v. Gilmore 37 F. Supp.2d 1078 (N.D. Ill. 1999)

More about torture in Chicago can be found here: http://humanrights.uchicago.edu/chicagotorture/timeline.shtml

A Trip Down Memory Lane

2011-05-02T06:57:00.000-05:00

What Would Jesus Take?

2011-04-27T10:36:00.003-05:00

Lawrence O'Donnell on the Profit Limbaugh's theology:

A Belated Happy Earth Day

2011-04-24T15:54:00.000-05:00

In the midst of uncertainty, opinions on the human prospect have tended to fall loosely into two schools. The first, exemptionalism, holds that since humankind is transcendent in intelligence and spirit, so must our species have been released from the iron laws of ecology that bind all other species. No matter how serious the problem, civilized human beings, by ingenuity, force of will and - who knows — divine dispensation, will find a solution.

Population growth? Good for the economy, claim some of the exemptionalists, and in any case a basic human right, so let it run. Land shortages? Try fusion energy to power the desalting of sea water, then reclaim the world's deserts. (The process might be assisted by towing icebergs to coastal pipelines.) Species going extinct? Not to worry. That is nature's way.
—Edward O. Wilson, "A suicidal impulse," The Toronto Star, June 13, 1993

The War on Easter

2011-04-24T12:35:00.000-05:00

Baskets packed with artificial grass, dyed eggs, jelly beans and foil wrapped chocolate rabbits. Peter Cottontail hopping along the bunny trail. Big screen adventures of the Easter Bunny joining a rock band. It's yet another year where we forget the TRUE meaning of the season: to celebrate the time of seeding with the great fertility goddess Ostara.

Ooops

2011-04-22T08:29:00.000-05:00

Gun Belonging to Pastor Terry Jones Goes Off Outside FOX 2 Studios

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

2011-04-21T23:00:00.002-05:00

Conservative Quiz

2011-04-13T10:26:00.003-05:00

If you agree with the following 10 statements, I'd say y0u are a 100% American-style Christian Conservative...

A little over 10,000 years ago, God-who is a male and looks like a human-created the universe and life on Earth during six busy days.

The first woman was made from the rib of the first man in the Garden of Eden on the first Saturday (or maybe Friday).

It is God's will that women be subservient to men.

God is broken up into three persons, one being the father of the second, who was born to a virgin just over 2000 years ago, and the third being a Holy Ghost.

Anyone who has not accepted "Jesus Christ as their personal savior" will burn in Hellfire for all eternity.

Sex between unmarried adults is sinful, but sex between adults of the same sex is an abomination.

The moment human sperm and egg meet, they form a microscopic human being with an immortal soul that is already damned to Hell because of original sin.

Any religion other than ultra-orthodox Christianity (and possibly Judaism) is really a form of devil worship.

Faith healers can cure disease if the afflicted person's belief in God is strong enough.

America is a Christian nation that has turned its back on God by allowing evil or misguided liberals to destroy our nation's morality through sex education, social welfare programs for the lazy, ending organized school prayer, legalizing abortion, and promotion of the homosexual agenda.

The Joy of Text

2011-04-11T17:25:00.007-05:00

Newspeak isa lang n Jorge Orwellz novl 1984 delibr8ly promoD by st8. Newspeak based on en bt hs a gr8ly simplifyd vocab n gramA. Diz suits d regime of d Repoconz, who aim 2 mke Ny altrntve thinking a
"thoughtcrime"

Kiss your Left Behind Goodbye

2011-04-09T09:00:00.003-05:00

Worried that you will be raptured and your unsaved friends and relatives will be lost when left behind? Then check out:

http://www.youvebeenleftbehind.com/

Programmed and run "by Christians, for Christians," they have

set up a system to send documents by the email, to the addresses you provide, 6 days after the "Rapture" of the Church. This occurs when 3 of our 5 team members scattered around the U.S fail to log in over a 3 day period. Another 3 days are given to fail safe any false triggering of the system.

Of course the team running this website will be elsewhere when the messages are sent, but I wonder if they have someone who is a secular humanist or Jewish or Islamic to check that the chaos of the Rapture doesn't result in a power loss to their state of the art computer system.

Exorcism, satanism and the Internet

2011-04-03T21:36:00.002-05:00

From the Telegraph...

Surge in Satanism sparks rise in demand for exorcists, says Catholic Church

A surge in Satanism fuelled by the internet has led to a sharp rise in the demand for exorcists, the Roman Catholic Church has warned.

Poor Rich Boys

2011-04-01T23:54:00.007-05:00

CEO pay soars while workers' pay stalls

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2011-03-31-ceo-pay-2010.htm

REPRESENTATIVE SEAN DUFFY COMPLAINS ABOUT HIS $170,000 CONGRESSIONAL SALARY: “I STRUGGLE”

Four More Years

2011-04-01T17:47:00.007-05:00

The Republicans actually have a funny Youtube video. Often conservative humor falls flat when it mocks liberal ideals of helping the poor or disadvantaged, but this one goes after the gap between his campaign rhetoric and reality. It also features Our President riding a flying unicorn leaving a rainbow jetstream.

President Obama has certainly brought die hard liberals and conservatives together in expressing anger and outrage over his actions (or inactions).

Imagine if there were a modern Oracle of Delphi that presidential candidates channeled on inauguration day:

President Reagan: I will cut taxes for the rich in half, raise taxes on everyone else, preside over the dismantling of American manufacturing, offer to cut the nuclear arsenal in half and share Star Wars Technology with the Russians, and negotiate the sale of arms to Iran.

President Bush: Read my lips: new taxes.

President Clinton: I will give up on making health care affordable, behave like a moderate Republican, allow myself to be seduced both by an intern my daughter's age and transnational corporate interests.

President George W. Bush: I will preside over the worst terrorist attack on our shores, invade Afghanistan, use faulty intelligence to invade Iraq, preside over the biggest economic disaster since the great depression, and bail out banks with hundreds of miillions of dollars.

President Obama: I will lower taxes even further than my predeccessor, continue his policies towards the Miltary Industrial Entertainment Complex with the same chairmen at Defense and the Fed.

Obama Vs. Dubya Vs. Libya

2011-03-27T22:54:00.004-05:00

How do we judge our leaders? Usually with a large degree of bias and hypocrisy. I'll admit that I'm less angry with President Obama and this third war than I am about President Bush and his first two. Both Bush and Obama have cut taxes, bailed out the banks and Wall Street, and overseen undeclared wars in the Middle East, but we're willing to assume our guy acted in good faith, while the other guy did not.

Since we're now even deeper into tragic-comedy, it seems appropriate that the best coverage of recent events comes from The Daily Show:

The Daily Show - America at Not-War
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

You don't have to be crazy to work here, but...

2011-03-19T20:41:00.003-05:00

It's odd how some fans of libertarianism and individual liberty believe that corporations should have the same rights as a person, but not be obligated to pay taxes on their profits or be subject to the same standards as an individual. If trans-national corporations were people, they'd all be locked away or awaiting trial.

Check out :

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201103/why-corporations-are-psychotic

Islamophobia

2011-03-09T21:43:00.006-06:00

Who would you rather have as a neighbor:

The Bakers, a white dysfunctional Christian family struggling with unemployment, addiction, violence and abuse, or...

The Bakrs, a functional black Islamic family that is fortunate enough to be free of many of the issues facing the Bakers?

I'd prefer the family that doesn't have members going in and out of prison and is less likely to smash their car into mine or even one of my children.

The same goes for my choice of president. I'd rather have a candidate who happens to be agnostic, a fundamentalist Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, or a Mormon as long as she possesses good judgment and will serve the common good. Maybe it's time to see who has hijacked the party of Lincoln and turned it into the grotesque and cynical caricature of itself. Then maybe we should check on whatever happened to the Democrats' spine.

Politics just got more interesting...

2011-03-09T21:07:00.006-06:00

The Wall Street Journal's article on the Wisconsin bill to restrict union bargaining noted:

the National Republican Trust, a political-action committee, has created a one-minute ad that will begin airing across Wisconsin Thursday, said Scott Wheeler, executive director of the organization. The spot shows union protesters gathered in Madison, the capital, as a narrator says: "Our economy is suffering. Most of us are doing with less, and some are doing without. So why are government employees' unions demanding more?"Mr. Wheeler said the trust had bought 180 spots and that the ad would run on both network television and cable.

The last paragraph of the article mentions that the unions AREN'T asking for more:

Mr. Walker's budget bill seeks to address a projected $3.6 billion shortfall by asking public employees to pick up more than $300 million in their pension and health-care costs. The unions have agreed to the cuts but have refused to accept restrictions on their ability to bargain collectively. That sticking point has kept 14 Democrat senators from returning to Madison.

There's no doubt that a recall election is a sure thing now. I'd love to see Walker impeached. Of course, Wisconsin's Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch isn't any better. She ended up apologising last year for her remarks that Wisconsin can't “just be handing out money to anyone. This is a slippery slope. In addition to that, at what point are we going to OK marrying inanimate objects? Can I marry this table, or this, you know, clock? Can we marry dogs? This is ridiculous.”

Our first Islamic President?

2011-03-07T11:27:00.006-06:00

With the new Congressional Witch Hunt scheduled to start soon, I thought it fitting to honor President Bush's tolerance towards Judaism and Christianity's sister religion.

We can also expect more political fireworks than usual this Fourth of July:

One Million Muslims.org is the organizer and presenter of the upcoming One Million Muslim March. The planned event is not to be an actual march, but rather a gathering of Muslims from across the US, at the Anacostia Park in Washington DC, July 4, 2011. The One Million Muslim March will be a gathering of Muslims from across sectarian, ideological, racial, ethnic,language and all other barriers. We will come together to re-establish the feelings of brother and sisterhood among Muslim Americans, and to begin the difficult process of post 9/11 healing.

http://onemillionmuslims.info/Home_Page.html

ObamaRomneyCare

2011-03-06T12:12:00.005-06:00

From the Huffington Post:

"Obamacare is bad law, bad policy, and it is bad for America's families," Romney declared. "And that's the reason why President Obama will be a one-term president."

..."One thing I would never do is to usurp the constitutional power of states with a one-size-fits-all federal takeover," Romney said, again earning applause. "The federal government isn't the answer for running health care any more than it's the answer for running Amtrak or the post office."(sic)

...Obama praised the efforts in Massachusetts during a meeting with governors at the White House, saying: "I agree with Mitt Romney, who recently said he's proud of what he accomplished on health care by giving states the power to determine their own health care solutions. He's right."

Apparently shredding the Constitution and creating Death Panels to kill Sarah Palin's baby and Rep. Charles Grassley's grandmother are best left up to governors and the individual states.

Irony Anyone?

2011-02-27T21:16:00.003-06:00

What kind of an America-hating unhinged leftist would say such a thing:

In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/world/26gates.html?_r=1

Public vs. Private Service

2011-02-27T10:55:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I transported meine Frau and kinder to the post office to renew our kids' passports. We waited a few minutes, then were told the person who did passports wasn't there. The office manager called and referred us to another branch. Ten minutes later we were waiting in line, then were told that the passport camera was broken. We were referred to a nearby CVS store. We arrived at the CVS store and were told the person who does the passports wasn't there. We were referred to another store, but instead drove to a nearby Walgreens. The Walgreens photo rep managed to take the photos of my restless children, but one of the photo computers was down and the other was being monoploized by a high maintenance customer who was not about to finish any time soon. It was suggested that I come back in an hour to pick up the prints.

After another trip to Walgreens, then to a public swimming pool to pick up the kids, we were back at the post office, which doesn't make copies of IDs, so it was off to a line at the currency exchange then back to the post office. The applications were submitted four hours after we first left the house. I think the total cost was around $400. The government got to keep most of the money- but in terms of service, there wasn't much difference between public and private employees or my experiences in either setting.

PC gonna get your Mamma

2011-02-26T21:35:00.011-06:00

I recently heard a respected old school journalist claim that "political correctness" has caused "a tremendous loss of life." Unfortunately he didn't have time to elaborate.

Political correctness means different things to different people. To me, PC is about trying to avoid perpetuating racism and sexism through they way we portray other people. It's about respect and even politeness. I found it funny back in the eighties when politically priviledged people would complain about feeling threatened by PC. No longer could they complain in public about lazy black people living it up on welfare, or women being too emotional to hold important jobs (other than working with kids or assisting males). Maybe they'd suffer the indignity of being told to say "disabled" instead of "crippled" or use gender neutral terms like firefighter or chairperson. Oh how we ~~poor white~~ disadvantaged caucasian Americans have had to suffer under such totalitarian tyranny.

When the left complains about racism and sexism, the anti-PC forces cry censorship. The right does the same thing with "unAmerican" speech. Just ask the Dixie Chicks or Bill Maher. Certain conservatives have even tried to use political correctness to their advantage, such as Glenn Beck portraying President Obama as a racist or dirty trickster/blogger Andrew Breitbart's selective editing of a video that made it appear as if an employee of the US Agriculture Dept. had discriminated against a white farmer.

The latest outrageous anti-PC move can be found at:

http://www.chasingevil.org/2011/02/tennessee-bill-would-jail-practicing.html

I'm Sick and Tired of Those Overpaid Teachers

2011-02-22T12:19:00.008-06:00

I'm sick and tired of those overpaid teacher. I saw on the internet that their making $100,000 and more. We should only pay them what their really worth-maybe minimum wage. Let's see, my last minimum wage job was $5.25, so X 8 hours that would be uh....where's my calculator? Wait a minute! They don't work 8 hours a day. I would get to school at 9:00 and leave at 3:15, so that's uh...9+3 is 12 hours, no wait. Take away 3 from 12 to get 9 hours + 15 minutes. OK. So if they work 9 hours and 15 minutes minus 45 minutes for lunch that's uh...8:30 hours, X $5.25 is um...I'll round up to 10 hours and times $5.25/hr. Let's see, that's $525 a day. Now I round that down to $500 a day. Of coarse they should only get paid that for the 180 days they work, not the other 250 days of the year they spend on vacations, holidays and weekends. There's 52 weeks in a year, so they work 26 weeks. Two weeks has 10 days, so I times $500 by 10 for $5000 every two weeks, and every month has for weeks, so that's 2 $5000s dollars a month or $10,000 a month. Half a year is 6 months so that $10,000 X 6 = $60,000 a year for a teacher. See, I didn't need that calculator after all!
Well, enough of this. Time to see if my kids have finished there homeschool workbook page.

BIG Prophets

2011-02-22T09:19:00.005-06:00

Nassim Taleb told CNBC Friday:

"The problem I have is that Republicans love big business and Democrats love big government, and I hate both big business and big government."

Taleb was one of the few people who criticized the finance industry and warned about the financial crisis of 2007–2010.

Other successful prognisticators were Robert Shiller and Peter Schiff. You'd think that since both of these economists predicted the financial crisis, we should follow their advice on fixing the economy. Unfortunately, Shiller advocates Keynsian solutions while Schiff prescribes a libertarian/Austrian approach.

It strikes me that faith in an invisible hand of the marketplace is just as idealistic as faith in the balance of power between government regulation and industry. Talk to any devout capitalist or devout socialist and you'll find yourself talking to an idealist. Reality is a lot more complex and messy. Big government and big business depend on each other and are even interchangeable at the top. In other words, I think we're still in big trouble.

Free Lunch

2011-02-21T21:30:00.004-06:00

I was trying to find information on the federal budget and national debt recently and came across www.federalbudget.com. It didn't have the information I was looking for, but it did have a section about corporate welfare. I clicked on the link and found that rather than revealing examples of government bestowing special treatment on favored corporations, it was simply an argument for giving corporations a free ride, claiming:

Corporations don't pay taxes. When you buy stuff, you pay their taxes for them.

- This is known as embedded taxes, and it does NOT show on your cash register ticket.
- This form of taxation hits low income folks the hardest because it's a higher percentage of their income.

Now I've been a little uneasy about oil prices going up again. Maybe if Big Oil didn't have to pay all those taxes, gas would be cheaper. Unfortunately, corporations like Exxon get tax refunds from the United States, and pay the lion's share of their taxes to places like Nigeria, Abu Dhabi or the Cayman Islands. Most corporations have figured out ways to avoid paying US taxes, as reported in the New York Times:

Study Tallies Corporations Not Paying Income Tax

By LYNNLEY BROWNING

Published: August 12, 2008

Two out of every three United States corporations paid no federal income taxes from 1998 through 2005, according to a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

No Unions Left Behind

2011-02-18T21:33:00.005-06:00

If we want better schools, we need to create better communities by reducing poverty and violence, and having employment opportunities for students after they graduate. Two articles debunking the myth of non-unionized, messianic Super Teachers swooping in to save education can be found here and here.

WORST CASE OF POLITICAL MUD SLINGING EVER.

2011-02-16T17:26:00.008-06:00

http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/

McDonald's Finds Abduction to be in Poor Taste!

2011-02-12T20:14:00.006-06:00

The Food Liberation Army executed Ronald McDonald last night by guillotine.

I heard a FLA member being interviewed on the socialist NPR news this weekend. The interview can be found here.

What I found funny was that he admitted to eating at McDonald's several times a month and feeling guilty about it. I have the same feeling when I eat at the Wendy's 3 blocks from my house or buy groceries at Walmart. To be liberal is to always feel a little guilt and hypocritical.

Air Farce

2011-02-10T21:06:00.004-06:00

Good news for family members of those in the US Air Force. A week ago lawyers for the Air Force Materiel Command said: "If a family member of an air force employee accesses WikiLeaks on a home computer, the family member may be subject to prosecution for espionage."

Now the Air Force is backtracking on their warning.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/08/us-air-force-wikileaks-families-banned-classified-material

Star Spattered Performances

2011-02-09T09:51:00.004-06:00

Last Sunday, Christina Aguilera joined a long line of vocalists who flubbed the Star Spangled Banner, such as Willie Nelson, who struggled with it at the 1980 Democratic Convention, Rosanne Barr, who intentionally mangled it, and Michael Bolton, who took the precaution of writing the lyrics on his hand. To really get a feel of how agonizing the National Anthem can be, check out Time magazine's top ten worst performances here.

Here's one performance that didn't make the top ten:

I've always thought of our National Anthem as a choral piece not suited for solos-especially warbling pop inspired ballads present on the Top Ten list. The melody sprawls over an octave and a half, while the 19th Century English lyrics are confusing to a typical American. There are 3 overlooked additional verses that include lines like:

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Egoists and rugged individualists may want to add trills and stylistic wails to their solo performances, but the National Anthem is best suited to being a communal effort. Like dealing with difficult times, fellow singers can support each other with the difficult to reach highs and lows and cover the gaps in each other's individual range and memory.

My all time favorite rendition is from Disability Awareness Day at Fenway Park. You'll hear the crowd come in to assist the singer in a truly democratic effort.

Pyramid Scheme

2011-02-08T13:37:00.013-06:00

Does anyone really understand what's going on in the Middle East? Liberals are hoping for People Power Revolutions like in the Phillipines or in the Soviet Bloc. Some conservatives see it differently...

John Bolton: US should bomb Iranian camps

John Bolton, America’s ex-ambassador to the United Nations, has called for US air strikes on Iranian camps where insurgents are trained for war in Iraq.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1931520/John-Bolton-US-should-bomb-Iranian-camps.html

One common thread in conservative responses is annoyance or outrage at President Obama.

For example, Michael Savage contends We are listening to the biggest mistake in US diplomatic history. This fool. This pinheaded fool running this country either doesn't know his history or is on the side of radical Islam. There's no two ways about it.

Sarah Palin was interviewed on CBN and criticized President Obama:

This is that 3 a.m. White House phone call and it seems for many of us trying to get that information from our leader in the White House, it seems that that call went right to the answering machine. And nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know, who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak...

Governor Palin then went on to say:

We know that, now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for, so we know who it is that America will stand with. And we do not have all that information yet.

http://blogs.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2011/02/05/exclusive-sarah-palin-interview-with-the-brody-file.aspx

So what does America stand for? The rhetoric of some Tea Party members more accurately describes the government of Egypt than the US, but many freedom loving conservatives and pragmatic democrats seem fine with dictatorships as long as they are "pro-American." Ron Paul is an exception:

It reminds me of what happened in Iran when we ousted one leader, Mosaddegh, in 1953 and then it took a good many years before the Islamic revolution occurred in 1979, but we lost out on that. And there’s an ongoing rebellion in Egypt right now, and nobody knows exactly who’s on whose side. It has been rumored that we may well be orchestrating the revolt and the disturbance. But I know one thing, our officials are working very diligently to be on the side of the winner. So regardless, they may have their support in both camps, both from those who are complaining about the government, as well as continuing to prop up their puppet, Mubarak. http://www.ronpaul.com/2011-01-31/ron-paul-on-egypt-u-s-meddling-leads-to-unintended-consequences/
My favorite headline comes from the right wing American Spectator:
Obama's Too Conservative Re: Egypt By John R. Guardiano

Nobody Say "Amen!"

2011-02-03T22:08:00.005-06:00

“We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough to make us love one another.”

-Jonathon Swift

Sometime Competency is more important than ideology

2011-01-30T16:22:00.009-06:00

President Buchanan or President Perot might have promoted policies that protected American industry and manufacturing.

President Gore might have kept the top tax rate at 39%, appointed liberal justices, read the August 6 2001 President's Daily Briefing Memo, avoided war in Iraq and Afghanistan, or paid attention to the Hurricane Katrina Aug. 28, 2005 Video Conference.

President Paul might have avoided giving Wall Street and Big Banks exactly what they wanted with no obligations.

We'll never know.

Patriotism

2011-01-28T16:54:00.005-06:00

While I was trolling a few right wing blogs, I noticed that most of the bloggers referred to themselves as "patriots." I think of the quote about patriotism being the last refuge of the scoundrel in some of these cases. Who was the patriot in Afghanistan in 1980-the soldier from a superpower fighting to keep the Afghan government in power, or the Islamic "freedom fighter" using terrorist tactics to repel the foreign infidels? Who are the patriots in Afghanistan now?

Good News for Outer Space

2011-01-24T14:35:00.017-06:00

On the planet Selsisogt, the prophet Plogvt of the thick slime clan received divine revelations from the archangel Ysplfsk. Plogvt admonished the dominant slug species for their lack of charity towards their fellow mollusc races. After several generations, Plogvtianity had become accepted all over Selsisogt. Since all the mollusks of Selsisogt were hermaphrodites, laid eggs and could change sexual roles, there were no moral imperatives about adultery or honoring parents. The orbit of Selsisogt was considerably different than Earth's, so there was no special day belonging to the Lord. There were no commandments regarding false worship or taking the Lord's name in vain, since there were no other teachings or religious beliefs on Selsisogt. The sentient slugs of Selsisogt were simply commanded to not steal, lie, murder, or eat their neighbors. There were also some laws regarding mucous and the consumption of certain kinds of fungus, but they aren't comprehensible by humans. Missionaries from the Intergalactic Church of Christ contacted the Thick Slime Clan through holographic telepathy. The Church Council reviewed the chief tenants of Plogvtianity and were uncertain as to whether Plogvt had been a true prophet, or was a follower of Satan and presenting false teaching. The Intergalactic Church of Christ maintained that the only way to God was through Jesus Christ, and there was no record of anyone resembling Jesus or Mary in the holiest of archives on Selsisogt.

On the planet F'r'z, the dominant marine mammals sing songs of praise to the First Swimmer. They are peaceful creatures with no rivals or predators. They are long lived and reproduce seldomly. They live by the motto Do justice, love mercy, glide humbly with the Great Swimmer Beyond the Sky, but have no other religious doctrine. They marine mammals have no crime to speak of, and are widely considered to be the friendliest species in the known universe. The Church Council ruled that since man was made in God's image, it was obvious that "the Great Swimmer" was primitive nonsense. The swimmers of F'r'z would burn in Hell.

The Intergalactic Church of Christ had now reviewed over a dozen such rellgions belonging to all manner of creatures. It was tragic, but no other planet had sentient beings who knew Jesus. Perhaps it was the grand design for Christians to spread the message of Jesus throughout the universe, just as it had done to the primitive peoples on Earth.

We're number 9

2011-01-23T21:58:00.004-06:00

http://www.heritage.org/index/

Hong Kong , the special administrative region of communist China, is number one according to the Heritage Foundation's 2011 Index of Economic Freedom. The United States came in 9th, behind Canada and Denmark, countries with socialistic health care and fascistic regulation of firearms.

Countdown comes to an End

2011-01-22T20:53:00.004-06:00

How many other talking/shouting heads would dare to read literature regularly on their news programs? Good night and good luck.

Original Intent

2011-01-19T21:32:00.017-06:00

The Constitution was originally biased towards older, wealthy white male land owners.It seems a few conservatives yearn for the good old days before women's sufferage and child labor laws.

Federal judge diagnoses Obama healthcare law as unconstitutional in part
December 14, 2010

Justice Scalia: Constitution does not protect women against discrimination

By Emi Kolawole

ThinkProgress reports that Senator Mike Lee claims that federal child labor laws are

unconstitutional

Mike Lee Suggests FEMA, Federal Poverty And Food Safety Programs Are All Unconstitutional

One constitutional issue I've enjoyed arguing with a conservative friend is the interpretation of the second amendment. The activist Supreme Court delighted my friend and many other NRA members with its overturning previous decisons and making gun ownership unconnected to service in a militia a few years ago. Still my friend and I each read the same sentence:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed

and we each have a different interpretation of what the sentence should mean. I place more emphasis on the first half, and he sees the second half as being more important. If one believes the original intent of the founding fathers is the deciding factor, there is still room for both interpretations. If one strictly construes what our 18th Century forefathers meant, consider the following quote from the

Militia Act of 1792

Second Congress, Session I. Chapter XXVIII

Passed May 2, 1792,

http://www.constitution.org/mil/mil_act_1792.htm

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as is herein after excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia...That every citizen, so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein, to contain not less than twenty four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball...

There's nothing about various kinds of armor piercing bullets or assault rifles. Just white males, muskets and compulsory service in a well regulated militia.

Those Depraved UnAmerican Liberal Socialists Threatening Civilization are Paranoid!

2011-01-17T22:01:00.007-06:00

How could liberals believe that hate rhetoric could have anything to do with violence? Maybe because they pay attention to the news.

Intelligence Report, Fall 2008, Issue Number: 131

Militia Arrests Derail Murder Schemes
Domestic Terrorism
COPS SAY CHURCH SHOOTING SUSPECT 'HATED' GAYS, LIBERALS
Monday, July 28, 2008
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,392081,00.html#ixzz1BM994Eao
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For an exhaustive list check out the Southern Poverty Law Center's Terror From the Right

2011-01-17T17:25:00.007-06:00

The Great yet humble State of Arkansas wished all of her citizens a very happy Dr. Martin Luther King/General Robert E. Lee Day today on her Facebook page. The comments that followed stretched the entire political spectrum. Some argue that the Confederate cause was just and had nothing to do with slavery, others are offended by the pairing of a fallen civil rights leader and a Confederate general. It's obvious that the battle to spin history has never ended, even 150 years after the "War of Northern Aggression." You can find a day by day history of the war here.

I was never especially interested in the Civil War in my social studies classes in the seventies. I remember during one class discussion being surprised when one of my classmates complained about "white niggers" and the teacher said nothing. In another class, I remember one of my favorite instructors guiding the class through a textbook, pointing at a bucolic illustration of the Antebellum South, saying "the slaves didn't have it that bad. Look at that character on the wagon!" Another favorite teacher remarked that the Indians were a defeated people and that he had no time for liberal hand-wringing over their near genocide.

The tradition of minimizing the history of non-white males lives on in Tennessee, where the local tea parties held a news conference urging state legislators to educate students about "the truth about America.” The "truth" apparently is highlighting the experiences of white males and ignoring the more negative experiences of everyone else. Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another."

The group demands that no "portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”

In other words, historical events that do not match the right wing spin of the tea party should not be taught or appear in textbooks, even if they "actually occurred."

The full article can be found here.

The Political Environment

2011-01-17T17:00:00.009-06:00

The following map shows how John Sidney McCain III swept the 2008 election by territory. Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. carried the areas in blue.

Source: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/

In this cold weather, I think of how our friends in Wisconsin are better prepared for a lengthy power outage or crisis. They have a wood burning stove, oil lamps, and lots of stored food and supplies. They hunt, grow their own food and receive extra fish or deer from their neighbors regularly-they just have to butcher the meat.

Our friends were back to nature progressives in the nineties, but by the time of our last visit in 2008, I noticed a few changes. The husband had been completely immersed in gun culture. They were not and are still not racists, but have grown used to the all white community where they live and a little de-sensitized to the less than charitable remarks made by some members in their rural community. We've invited our friends to visit us in Chicago, but they would prefer not to. The husband now especially regards big cities with distaste.

Urban living doesn't allow for as much independence or self-reliance as in the country. You get used to hearing several languages at the store or interacting with people from different cultures at the local school. You rely on a "nanny state" to keep the electricity going and keep the streets clear. Guns in the hands of people out in the street are a cause for concern, not sport. Rather than dealing with people whose families have been in the same area for generations, city dwellers move from place to place and often have never spoken more than a few sentences to the dozens of people on their block. In some areas, kids aren't sent outside to play and the houses have bars on the windows. Is it any wonder that red and blue areas have different priorities and prefer different political rhetoric?

Hatebook

2011-01-15T17:57:00.019-06:00

Rush Limbaugh and numerous conservative blogs have expressed righteous indignation over a mean-spirited Facebook page:

I hate it when I wake up and Sarah Palin is still alive which has over 2,000 fans. Reactions included:

Libs Flock to Facebook Page Calling for Death of Sarah Palin

"Absolutely disgusting!"

This is one scary group on Facebook!

And there is more. Just search "hate Palin" on Facebook and you'll see well over a dozen hateful pages. Of course, the left is not alone in posting insensitive garbage on Facebook.

Search "hate Obama" and you'll find twice as many pages dedicated to hating on the President, including one with over 800,000 members.

The Political Tragedy of the Tragedy

2011-01-10T09:22:00.012-06:00

Glenn Reynolds expresses his outrage over the Arizona shootings in the Wall Street Journal today:

I understand the desperation that Democrats must feel after taking a historic beating in the midterm elections and seeing the popularity of ObamaCare plummet while voters flee the party in droves. But those who purport to care about the health of our political community demonstrate precious little actual concernfor America's political well-being when they seize on any pretext, however flimsy, to call their political opponents accomplices to murder.

In other words, the far right is trying a jiu jitsu move to take their opponents' movement and use it against them.

The focus of the story on far right blogs now is not on the the actual shooting, it's that that the left is supposedly trying to use this tragedy as an excuse to take away our guns and freedom of speech. It is "The Progressive Climate of Hate" that has ruined political discourse they contend, and it was a crazy leftist who committed the murders. Michelle Malkin writes about the "Tuscon massacre ghouls who are now trying to criminalize conservativism." While her writing is as looney as always, Malkin does score a hit on her blog by reproducing numerous images from the left that are just as mean-spirited and violent as those on the right we liberals are complaining about.

So what will be the result of this tragedy? This quote from last year should be the final word:

I think it’s important for all leaders, not just leaders of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party … community leaders, figures in our community to say, ‘Look, we can’t stand for this.’ I mean, this is a situation where people really need to realize that the rhetoric, and firing people up, and even things … For example, we’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list, but the thing is, the way she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district. And when people do that, they’ve gotta realize there’s consequences to that action.

In the years that some of my colleagues have served, twenty, thirty years, they’ve never seen it like this. We have to work out our problems by negotiating, working together, hopefully Democrats and Republicans.

–Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, March 25, 2010.

Fighting for Liberty

2011-01-09T15:16:00.004-06:00

While the Tea Party spouts rhetoric of starting a revolt to take their country back from the country's first black president, January 8 marked the 200th anniversary of the largest slave rebellion in the US. You can read about it here. It was bloody business. The slaves used hoes, knives, and axes. When the rebellion failed, the survivors were tortured, executed and had their heads displayed on pikes.

American Royalty

2011-01-08T17:49:00.005-06:00

I watched seven kids play Rapunzel today. The girls assigned a third grade boy the role of prince. "But I'm not a prince!" he protested. "I'm only a rich Republican...who wears jeans."

Mind the Gaffe

2011-01-07T09:27:00.012-06:00

Even before he was elected, Michelle Malkin called candidate Obama "a walking talking gaffe machine." The president's detractors have also maintained that he can't speak in public without a teleprompter. There's even a blog devoted to supposed gaffes:

http://obamasgaffes.blogspot.com/

The most recent attack on President Obama's alleged frequent tendency to committ gaffes comes from historian Victor Davis Hanson, who wrote:

There is little presidential stature left. When Barack Obama addresses the Sen. minority leader as “Mike” McConnell or claims the US motto is e pluribus unum rather than “In God We Trust,” this is by now a non-news story — not after “57 states” or “corpse-men” or Austrian-speaking Austrians. Proclaiming that at some point individuals have made enough money raises no eyebrows either — not after “spread the wealth,” “redistributive change,” and claiming that the purpose of capital gains tax hikes was not to increase federal revenue but to ensure “fairness.”

Hanson believes Obama's gaffes and positions have created the "caricature" of a presidency. Perhaps Professor Hanson is experiencing memory loss. Both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush had their struggles putting a coherent sentence together. And then there was President Reagan. Can you imagine the Right's reaction if President Obama were to fall asleep while meeting one on one with the Pope? Or if his administration secretly sold arms to Iran?

It's obvious that we forgive the misstatements of people we like and ridicule the same sort of gaffes by those we dislike. To pretend otherwise is sheer partisanship, and any historian should know better.

Where to start cutting

2011-01-02T20:18:00.013-06:00

Balancing the budget and cutting spending are the goals of the new Tea Party inspired Republican party.

If the Republicans are serious about cutting the budget, they should start by ending the tragedies playing out in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last summer marked $1 trillion dollars flushed away in Iraq-not counting the hundreds of billions spent on the pentagon budget.

In Afghanistan, like Iraq, billions of dollars cannot be accounted for. Nor can the human costs. This year saw headlines like:

WikiLeaks cables on Afghanistan show monumental corruption
Iran Is Said to Give Top Karzai Aide Cash by the Bagful
The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond

Obligated Over $17.7 Billion to About 7,000 Contractors and Other Entities for Afghanistan Reconstruction During Fiscal Years 2007 - 2009”

Iraq war winds down, but costs soar
New Fraud Cases Point to Lapses in Iraq Projects

US embassy cables: Money smuggling out of Afghanistan

U.S. Has Been In Afghanistan As Long As Soviet Russia

2011-01-01T13:01:00.000-06:00

...there's also no voice for the mass of Christians out there who actually treat Christianity like a spiritual journey rather than " I just got born again! Now I have super powers. I'm right all the time!" There's nothing scarier.

-Patton Oswalt

The People's Nativity

2010-12-28T21:49:00.001-06:00

2010-Another year of National Doublethink

2010-12-27T13:08:00.005-06:00

For the past two years, Tea Partiers have wanted their country and freedoms back. Who is it that took over their country and what freedoms have been lost? Is it freedom of religion and the freedom to prevent Islamic centers from being built? The freedom to only have a "full blooded" American as president? The freedom to protest higher taxes when they haven't actually risen?

Appropriately, Dick Armey, the Tea Party mover and shaker, Washington outsider and former House Majority leader from 1995-2002 has won the National Council of English Teachers' Doublespeak award for his leadership of FreedomWorks. In grand Doublespeak style, Armey objected to wellness programs and anti-smoking efforts in the "socialistic" health care bill, stating

"―If there are no smokers, how are we going to pay for health reform? But then again, if we can pay farmers for not growing tobacco, perhaps we can tax nonsmokers for however much they're not smoking."

An even bigger winner this year was Sarah Palin:

Alternate Scenario Future History

2010-11-01T08:59:00.014-05:00

Scenario #1

The 2010 midterm election marked the beginning of the New American Renaissance. After just two years of devastating socialism and fascism, voters were desperate for real change and finally ready to embrace free market principles and end big government oppression. The brilliant Senator Christine O'Donnell and savvy Sharron Angle led the way in the legislative ambush of the Democrat senators, while Representative Michelle Bachmann used her charisma and command of the issues to utterly vanquish the remaining Democrat members in the House. The Constitution was restored and the Obama administration was left reeling from the scores of corruption hearings that had decimated his cabinet.

All this was but a prelude to the 2012 election. The conventional wisdom was that "President" Obama would not seek re-election, but in truth, no other Democrat was willing to run, so George Soros and other elites threatened and cajoled the hapless Kenyan to run once more. Meanwhile Governor Sarah Palin's flawlessly logical and magnificently delivered debate performances in the early primaries led the way for her winning the Republican nomination in early February. Her selection of Alan Keyes as her running mate only increased the media frenzy surrounding her by the fall. The clinically depressed incumbent chief executive, once known for his fiery socialist rhetoric, refused to accept any debate format, relying on internet inneundo and dirty tricks to try and gain four more years of corruption and erosion of freedom. Americans had grown immune to such cynical attacks and lies, so it was no suprise when November ushered in aRepublican landslide of epic proportions. The very day after the elections, now known as "Mama Grizzly Bull" Wednesday, saw a euphoric stock market go wild, accomplishing more in one day than the Kenyan Usurper's nearly 4 years in office could achieve. To the suprise of all, the Palin transition was a peaceful one. Soon she and Congress slashed the Federal Budget and ended invasive government regulation of business. Privte enterprise took over the functions of the now defunct incmpetent big government bureaucracy, ushering in an era of peace, prosperity and strength.

Obama retired to his homeland of Kenya, where he became an Islamic cleric, defeated and addicted to anti-depressants.

Scenario #2

After taking back the House and splitting the Senate, Republicans accomplished very little and wasted valuable time in partisan bickering and inaction. Disiilusioned Tea Partiers gravitated towards the Libertarian party after their candidates proved to be susceptible to the lure of Washington power and privelege, allowing President Obama to narrowly win a second term in 2012.

Mid Term Crisis

2010-10-02T08:05:00.004-05:00

Suppose John McCain had won two years ago. Would the economy be any different?

Most Teabaggers believe Obama has raised taxes (I wish he had)but in reality income taxes decreased by up to $400 a year for individuals and $800 for married couples.

King of the Teabaggers

2010-08-28T00:08:00.014-05:00

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. opposed American militarism and called the U.S. "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." He was a Democratic Socialist who supported quotas and reparations in pursuit of social and economic justice. He was a major figure in the Civil Rights movement, which was opposed by conservatives like Jerry Falwell, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley. Yet if you read the Conservapedia's entry on King, you'll get the impression that Dr. King was a staunch Religious Right Republican.

Now, on the 47th anniversary of Dr. King's Fox personalities Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are going to "reclaim" the civil rights movement for their loyal Fox following, which has an average age of 65 and less than 2% African American viewership. Maybe next year they can stage a "War is Peace" rally at the Viet Nam Veteran's Memorial.

Bible Verse Qu'ran Verses

2010-07-26T10:37:00.011-05:00

OOPS! I've gotten my Qu'ran and Torah/Bible verses all mixed up. Can you sort out the inspirational divinely inspired words from the primitive tribal nonsense?

"[T]hey deny the truth when it is declared to them: but they shall learn the consequences of their scorn" (6:5)

"The people of Samaria must bear the consequences of their guilt because they rebelled against their God. They will be killed by an invading army, their little ones dashed to death against the ground, their pregnant women ripped open by swords." (Hosea 13:16)

"Believers, do not make friends with any but your own people. They will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is evident from what they utter with their mouths, but greater is the hatred which their breasts conceal" (3:118)

If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. (1 Corinthians 11:6)

"[T]hose that disbelieve and deny Our revelations shall become the inmates of Hell" (5:86)
Blessed is the man who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks

(Psalm 137:9)

"God forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for God loveth those who are just." (Glorious Quran 60:8)

"Judge not, lest ye be judged." (Matthew 7: 1)

The R Word

2010-07-19T18:06:00.006-05:00

Is the Tea Party a racist organization? I say no, just a little unhinged.

A few years ago I received a T shirt as Saturnalia gift. The shirt declared George W. Bush was a fascist and showed him with a scribbled in Chaplin moustauche. I never wore the thing, since I don't believe Bush was as bad as Hitler, just the worst president in my lifetime. Comparing Obama to Hitler is just ignorant, not racist.

I remember all that was said about John Kerry when he ran for president. Kerry, who was wounded three times and carried a fellow soldier to safety in Viet Nam, was branded a coward, traitor, baby killer, and other epithets all during the campaign. The swift boating of John Kerry serves as a baseline for how far Obama's critics can go without being racist.

Does the Tea Party have racist supporters? Absolutely-but so does the Democratic Party or almost any other political party with a majority of white folks. The Tea Party is just better suited to racist beliefs about big government favoring black and brown people over "full blooded Americans," but that doesn't mean a majority of people frightened by massive deficits, bank bail outs, taxation and government influence are being racist.

At least no female priests will ever molest an alter boy

2010-07-16T14:50:00.005-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/europe/16vatican.html?_r=1&src=me

From today's NY Times:

Vatican Revises Abuse Process, but Causes Stir

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican issued revisions to its internal laws on Thursday making it easier to discipline sex-abuser priests, but caused confusion by also stating that ordaining women as priests was as grave an offense as pedophilia...

2010-07-16T06:42:00.004-05:00

A UFO was sighted over a Chinese airport, shutting down air traffic. Even the aliens have started outsourcing to Asia.

Make up your mind! Is he a communist, a Muslim, or the antichrist?

2010-07-12T10:24:00.003-05:00

This rumour among conspiracy theorists has has been floating around for almost 2 years...

The First Time I Heard Of Barack
By Tom Fife

...One evening, during a trip early in 1992, the American half of our venture were invited to V. & T.’s Moscow flat as we were about to return to the States.

“What if I told you that you will have a black president very soon and he will be a Communist?”

The out-of-the-blue remark was met by our stares. She continued, “Well, you will; and he will be a Communist.”

...This is not some idle talk. He is already born and he is educated and being groomed to be president right now. You will be impressed to know that he has gone to the best schools of Presidents. He is what you call “Ivy League”. You don’t believe me, but he is real and I even know his name. His name is Barack. His mother is white and American and his father is black from Africa. That’s right, a chocolate baby! And he’s going to be your President.”

... It’s all been thought out. His father is not an American black so he won’t have that social slave stigma. He is intelligent and he is half white and has been raised from the cradle to be an atheist and a Communist. He’s gone to the finest schools. He is being guided every step of the way and he will be irresistible to America.”

She rattled off a complete litany. He was from Hawaii. He went to school in California. He lived in Chicago. He was soon to be elected to the legislature. “Have no doubt: he is one of us, a Soviet.”

First Church of Jesus Christ, Comedian

2010-07-11T07:49:00.006-05:00

Another quote from ¡SATIRISTAS! reminded me that the idea that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven is pretty funny. Here's Roseanne Barr on the Son of Man:

...I'm totally into Jesus. I love the whole myth of it. It really is the greatest story ever told. I think we're wired to believe something; some story, myth, whatever.

And that's what being a stand-up comic is to me: a whole mission from God...Jesus would be a stand-up comic today, for sure. He probably wouldn't go to comedy clubs, because he wouldn't be around filth and sin, but he'd probably do it in a park under a tree, for free. He might be homeless too.

And I say he's a girl this time.