The Fall of the Godmongers

Praise Jesus, it's the collapse of evangelical Christian rule in America. Rejoice!
You know who this article is talking about:

They're the ones who've made all the headlines and influenced all sorts of laws and national policy changes lo, this past half-decade concerning everything from stem cell research to gay marriage to evolution, sanitized school textbooks to failed abstinence programs to RU-486 restrictions to silly anti-science rhetoric, the ones who gasped in horror at a woman's bare nipple and made a disgusting mockery of Terri Schiavo and actually applauded when John Ashcroft spent $8,000 of taxpayer money to throw some heavy drapery over the shamefully exposed breasts of the bronze (female) Spirit of Justice statue in the Hall of Justice. And so on.

Oh, how I'm sure we all wish it were true. It would be a veritable nirvana of rational thought based upon facts and reason.

New Rules - Bill Maher

This week was good. Here's the transcript but checkout the video.

Maybe a president who didn't believe our soldiers were going to Heaven might be a little less willing to get them killed.

And while we're at it, here's last weeks:

He hits on a good point on how petty and parochial our causes have become.

Traffic - Dear Mr. Fantasy

Traffic - The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys

A little Traffic for your listening pleasure.

Health Care Hopes

...as long as you don't vote Republican:

“The Republican vision is for a world in which the sick and dying get to deduct some
of the cost of health insurance that they don’t have — and can’t get — on their taxes.”

Get back behind that line, Mr President

...and stop politicizing our military!

Keith Olbermann - Special Comment

GW: "Saddam killed the Mandelas"

I'm so embarrassed that he's our president -- again.

“The View” co-host doesn’t know if the world is round or flat

Wow; the dumbing down of America is in full swing. It's bad enough that people like this exist in the boondocks, but in the city? -- hosting a TV show?? We're doomed!

Another Health Insurance Lie

Insurers *have* denied more than the purported 3 percent of claims and health care *is* already being rationed.

Bring Back Evidence Based Government!

Bring back the OTA! For 12 years Congress has been engaging in "a stunning act of self-lobotomy" by operating without any non-partisan scientific advice. It's one thing to ignore the science but not to even ask to see the scientific evidence in the first place, that's criminal!

Write your congress-critter today.

The US isn't the only country putting superstition before reason

Apparently, the Indian government has withdrawn a controversial report submitted in court earlier this week which questioned the existence of the Hindu god Ram.

Why are humans so comfortable with denial? It undoubtedly served some evolutionary purpose reducing the Cro-Magnon stress of not understanding how the world works and still being able to get out of bed to hunt Brontosaurus burgers. You'd think that this would have diminished more by now so it was about as relevant as our vistigial tails. So what gives -- are we really this unevolved?

How badly are we being manipulated?

I think it's at an all-time high. Read this article and use the Comments section to tell me what you think.

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." -- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

Gen. Betrayus

This is a good one. I don't watch much hardball but Chris Matthews nails this one (feel free to ignore the blatant grandstanding by the senator). Apparently, thousands dead, including innocent civillians and children; a trillion dollars spent; world-wide loss of political goodwill; and terrorists lined up for decades to come and General Patreus doesn't know if this will make America any safer. Then what are we fighting for?

I do appreciate his honesty, however -- I see that the politicizing of his career hasn't completely wiped out the blunt truth demanded of a soldier. But what does he tell our current soldiers why they're out there putting their life on the line every day?

Repeat after me...

"The Bush administration’s sole strategic objective in continuing the war in Iraq is to avoid being blamed for losing it."

This is a sure thing -- if only one could bet money on it! Of course the war in Iraq is lost but even more certain is that while GW's brain may be so hard-wired by his faith to ignore the facts, his Republican advisors are not so simple-minded. They know that it's no longer about the war, it's about the blame.

Everything the White House does over the next sixteen months is not merely an attempt to pass the Iraq war onto Bush’s successor. The larger strategic objective is to make sure that when Bush’s successor inevitably withdraws the troops, the Republicans can then blame them for losing the war. Accordingly, for the next sixteen months, the Bush administration’s sole goal is to provide the appearance that progress is being made in Iraq.

As we have seen over the past two weeks, the facts on the ground in Iraq simply do not matter. Regardless of what actually happens in Iraq, right up until the moment Bush’s Democratic successor is sworn into office, the Republican talking point is one word: Progress! Then, the moment a Democrat is sworn into office, it will change like a light switch. In fact, they might not even wait for the inauguration. More likely, as soon as it becomes apparent that the Republicans are going to lose the White House, they will start blaming the insurgent attacks and low morale of the troops on the coming Democratic takeover, before they even take office.

Kathy Griffin Wins Emmy - Gets Censored

Kathy Griffin is both funny and smart. Her Emmy reception speech certainly was funny but I also hope it was well though out on her part as she now has to weather the storm of whining, politically correct wusses over her off-color comments. Maybe her career can only be improved by this kind of infamy.

From my perspective, the "suck it Jesus" comment was hilarious although I can see why some may not have a sense of humor on this topic. But that's okay; most people have some overly sensitive area where their sense of humor can't go -- I can't think of any personally, but I have an abnormally broad funny bone. That being said, she has every right to say it. Even if it were tremendously offensive (and it's not), her right to freedom of speech would come first.

Of course, the Catholic League has come out against it but wrongly calls it "hate speech." I'm sorry if you don't like it; but you can't label everything you don't like "hate speech" just as everyone you don't like isn't a "Nazi." Hypersensitive religious types need to realize that we don't all believe in Jesus (or Thor, Vishnu, thetans or fill-in-your-favorite-non-existent-deity). Atheists put up with this "thanking Jesus" nonsense at every sporting event and award show and don't make a big stink about how ridiculous it is. For example, have you noticed how the losers never blame Jesus?

It's time that religious folks got down off their high-horse (whatever that is) , recognized that they don't have the last word on the exact nature of the physical & supernatural realms and instead respected ALL theoretical perspectives -- maybe even a little more so the one based upon science (hint: it's the one we call "reality").

When did America become a nation of do-nothing complainers? Stop whining people and grow a backbone, would you please!?!

Honor Bound

The stupidity of sound bites drive me insane -- the war on terror, flip-flopper, fight-em over there... etc. As if you can make it true if you say it often enough. Makes you sick not only that they try but because it works (on some). Why don't we add other truisms like "step on a crack, break break your mother's back."

George Carlin had it right when he said that they dumb-down the language to manipulate people using soft words that completely hide the real meaning until there's no meaning left.

Here's some much-needed levity on the subject:

Bill Maher - New Rules

Finally, Real Time is back on HBO. The video is always better but here's the text as well. This is the last bit:

In the book, President Bush goes on and on about how his certainty about Iraq is not just for show; “Oh, I’m not pretendin’ to have my head up my ass. It’s really up there!” and the message you hear from Bush apologists these days is, “Oh, sure, short-term Bush may have fucked everything up, but he’s thinking long-term, 100 years into the future.”

Well, thank you, George W. Nostradamus. America’s first science fiction president. I’m sure when Americans are all flying around in jet packs and eating Soylent Green, they’ll be building statues in your honor. You know, it must feel good to be dead certain about everything. But it’s not a virtue. Especially when you’re ALWAYS WRONG!

Bertrand Russell said, “The trouble with the world is the Stupid are cocksure and the Intelligent full of doubt.” And then rewrote that quote 56 more times.

Doubt, for lack of a better word, is good. It suits human nature. Doubt is what makes you careful. Doubt is what makes you open to change. Doubt is why Eddie Murphy took a DNA test.

Morality in Primates

Interesting NYT article showing recent evidence supporting the long held belief that moral & ethical behaviors are not unique to humans.

“Morality is as firmly grounded in neurobiology as anything else we do or are,” Dr. de Waal wrote in his 1996 book “Good Natured.” Biologists ignored this possibility for many years, believing that because natural selection was cruel and pitiless it could only produce people with the same qualities. But this is a fallacy, in Dr. de Waal’s view. Natural selection favors organisms that survive and reproduce, by whatever means. And it has provided people, he writes in “Primates and Philosophers,” with “a compass for life’s choices that takes the interests of the entire community into account, which is the essence of human morality.”

Great review of God Is Not Great

Richard Dawkins has written an excellent review of God Is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens -- currently #2 on the best sellers list -- which mixes great quotes from the book with personal anecdotes and current events. I just finished this book and recommend it; it's an enlightening read.

There is a good chapter on religion as child abuse; another on religion as a health hazard, which doesn’t fail to mention those Roman Catholic priests, including at least two cardinals and an archbishop, who solemnly told their flocks, in African countries ravaged by AIDS, that condoms transmit the virus.

A related theme is plagiarism: “monotheistic religion is a plagiarism of a plagiarism of a hearsay, of an illusion, extending all the way back to a fabrication of a few nonevents”.

A pair of chapters explores “The Tawdriness of the Miraculous” and the widespread fallacy that we derive our morals from religious rules such as the Ten Commandments. As Hitchens witheringly puts it:

Does anybody seriously think that, before Moses delivered the tablet inscription “Thou shalt not kill”, his people had thought it a good idea to do so?

In speaking of his friend, Salman Rushdie:

One might have thought that such arrogant state-sponsored homicide . . . would have called forth a general condemnation. But such was not the case. In considered statements, the Vatican, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the chief sephardic rabbi of Israel all took a stand in sympathy with – the ayatollah. So did the cardinal archbishop of New York and other lesser religious figures. While they usually managed a few words in which to deplore the resort to violence, all these men stated that the main problem raised by the publication of The Satanic Verses was not murder by mercenaries but blasphemy.

As Hitchens would say, "religion poisons everything."

A Short Logic Quiz

You Are Incredibly Logical

Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?

The Danish Cartoon Dispute Continues

It's amazing to me that this is even possibly an issue in the 21st century; that people actually waste time arguing about it, let alone that it causes riots and death threats.

Certainly I can believe that the Iranians, Pakistani and Saudis are denouncing this and calling for a worldwide Muslim boycott of Danish & Norwgian products (but don't they have better things to do?). What I have a MUCH harder time believing is that the Vatican sided with the crazed Muslim rioters back in 2006 -- instead of siding with the notion of free expression about religion, or for that matter religious freedom.

"The freedom of thought and expression, confirmed in the Declaration of Human Rights, can not include the right to offend religious feelings of the faithful."

My only response to this nonsense is, WTF?!? Just when you think the Vatican might have an opinion that belongs in the same century you're in. So they believe that we are not free in though or expression if it might offend?????????? ANYTHING might offend! Nowdays, people go around looking to be offended. Hell, as I previously blogged, I'm offended by the stupidity of those who act like little children going around wasting our time and tearing down society looking for things that might offend them just so they can complain and get some attention. I wish they would grow up. I do NOT however, expect my being offended by their juvinile actions to form the basis of a legal restriction on their freedom of speech. In return however, they shouldn't expect to be free from criticism when the rest of us point out what annoying little piss-ants they are.

Bush admits that he's "'playing' at keeping our troups at war, indefinitely"

Olbermann nails this one showing that Bush has no intention of withdrawing troups -- ever. With the release of a new book, "Mr. Bush probably did not know that, with his own words, he had already proved that he had been lying, is lying and will be lying about Iraq."

How sad that we sit by and let this one man do so much harm misrepresenting all that America stands for! How much more will it take before people wake up and demand his impeachment?

Hitchens on Global Warming

While I've recently read some interesting things that suggest that our overly simplistic models for predicting global warming are insufficient to the task, I do like Christopher Hitchens' comment to the effect that "we can't take the chance that we are either not making it worse or unable to minimize it. We don't have another Earth upon which to run this experiment -- we have to live on this one and we only have one chance to get it right."

The Owners of the Country

...and education will never get any better. Why? Well watch why don't you?

Liars!

Thank goodness we now have videotape to show the truth -- so police can't cover-up a beating, like that of Rodney Smith and our politicians can't lie, prevaricate, twist, mendicate, backpedal, obfuscate and otherwise blow smoke trying to rewrite history.

In this case, the lying was premidated and pervasive costing billions of dollars and thousands of lives both American and Iraqi, civilians included -- and this cost will continue for the forseeable future. We can continue to argue whether whatever benefit there may be has been worth the cost. There is little argument however, that we were all lied to and now the liars are trying to rewrite history to cover their asses. Sorry, not this time. Roll the videotape!

Iraq misses 15 of 18 benchmarks!

I don't think anyone is surprised that they didn't make all of them but couldn't they have made most? half? some? ...but only 3? That's not even good enough to earn an F! Thank goodness they leaked the GAO report before the Bush administration has a chance to lie about it, er, I mean, interpret it for the American people -- 'cause you know we can't think for ourselves. George Orwell had it right; he was just off by 20 years.

Daniel Dennet on Mother Teresa

I get mail all the time from religious leaders who admit to me in private that they do not believe in God but think that the best way to continue their lives is to swallow hard and get on with their ministries, concentrating on bringing more good than evil into the lives of their parishioners and those for whom their churches provide care. I would never divulge their names without their consent, but I do wonder: How many millions of priests, pastors, rabbis, imams, nuns and monks around the world are living lives of similar duplicity? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the outing of Mother Teresa inspired a few thousand of them to come out of the closet and acknowledge their atheism! Then it might start being obvious not only that faith in God is not a requirement for morality, but that the loss of faith in God often goads people into living more strenuously helpful lives, as seems to be the case with Mother Teresa.

More evidence that man does not get his morals from religion, but the other way around.

It's Bush vs. the beauty pageant contest

Remember though, he's not 17, he's being giving clueless answers for years, and he's the president!
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/09/role_models.html

Thanks, Bill.

2006 Bill Maher on Larry Craig being gay

Rep. Barney Frank tells it like it is. And why is always REPUBLICANS or Fundamentalist religious kooks that are outed? Ignorance I can tolerate, but not incompentence and especially not hypocrisy.

Citizens Movements Take On Corporate Power

This is very important so I'm going to steal the entire introduction to a very good article:

Corporate power lies behind nearly every major problem we face-from stagnant wages and unaffordable health care to overconsumption and global warming. In some cases, it is the cause of the problem; in other cases, corporate power is a barrier to system-wide solutions. This dominance of corporate power is so pervasive, it has come to seem inevitable. We take it so much for granted, we fail to see it. Yet it is preventing solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time.

With global warming a massive threat to our planet and a majority of U.S. citizens wanting action, why is the U.S. government so slow to address it? In large part because corporations use lobbying and campaign finance to constrain meaningful headway.

Why are jobs moving overseas, depressing wages at home, and leaving growing numbers under- or unemployed? In large part because trade treaties drafted in corporate-dominated back rooms have changed the rules of the global economy, allowing globalization to massively accelerate on corporation-friendly terms, at the expense of workers, communities, and the environment.

Why are unions declining and benefits disappearing? In large part because corporate power vastly overshadows the power of labor and governments, and corporations play one region off against another, busting unions to hold down labor costs while boosting profits, fueling a massive run-up in the stock market.

Why were electricity, the savings and loan industry, and other critical industries deregulated, contributing to major debacles whose costs are borne by the public? In large part because free market theory, enabled by campaign contributions and lobbying, seduced elected officials into trusting the marketplace to regulate itself.

With all this happening, why do we not read more about the pervasiveness of corporate power?
In large part because even the “Fourth Estate,” our media establishment, is majority owned by a handful of mega-corporations.

Big corporations have become de facto governments, and the ethic that dominates corporations has come to dominate society. Maximizing profits, holding down wages, and externalizing costs onto the environment become the central dynamics for the entire economy and virtually the entire society.

What gets lost is the public good, the sense that life is about more than consumption, and the understanding that markets cannot manage all aspects of the social order.

What gets lost as well is the original purpose of corporations, which was to serve the public good.

American Common Values

I wish we had more leaders with the integrity and courage to speak out for what's right. If you get about a minute into this presentation he starts the section on Becoming What We Despise, which is the best part. He point out seven basic American Common Values and how George Bush has violate each one:

1. Rule of law
2. Protection of individual liberties
3. Balance of power
4. Honesty
5. Peace among nati0ns
6. Competence and diligence
7. Humane treatment

As was pointed out in an ealier post: the terrorists cannot take away our basic freedoms nor can they change our basic values as codified in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights -- only our government can! The ironic thing is that the President takes an oath (on his Bible, no less) to protect the Constitution -- that's his primary duty; and one that he has failed most miserably. You could even argue that he (and Cheney and Rove) have actively attacked the Constitution. For this they should all be removed from office, if not imprisoned. Maybe they should see how they like it at Gitmo. Poetic justice, one might say.

Of course, this video is "A Compelling Case for Impeachment: A Return to Moral Leadership, the Rule of Law, and Constitutional Government." If it's not clear to you that impeachment is justified, you should watch it now.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else.
-- Theodore Roosevelt