No Countries No Religion

Quote Of Note - Marie Curie

2009-12-04T14:10:00.000-05:00

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. Marie Curie

I wish that the people who see Barack Obama as the big scary black socialist hitler felt this way. Even just a little bit.

What's The Deal With Texas?

2009-12-04T12:08:00.002-05:00

Ah, Texas. Where everything is big, except their sense of compassion and fairness.

From Texas executes man at centre of mental disability row by Chris McGreal:

Texas has executed a child killer at the centre of a bitter dispute over what defines legal mental impairment after several courts ruled that he could be put to death despite a low IQ.

Bobby Wayne Woods, 44, was killed by lethal injection for raping and murdering his girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter after the US supreme court denied a last minute appeal by lawyers who argued that the condemned man fell within a ruling by the same court in 2002 that the mentally impaired could not be sentenced to death.

After being told that the supreme court had refused to intervene, Woods' last words were: "Bye. I'm ready."

Tests on Woods in prison put his IQ as low as 68, below the widely accepted cut off for mental impairment of 70. However, in pursuing the death penalty, the state fell back on other tests conducted when he was a child that put his IQ as high as 86.

I’m sure that somewhere (probably in Texas) a certain ex-president is having a good laugh.

Gotcha Antics

2009-12-04T09:21:00.003-05:00

From The Stimulus and Jobs: Can the GOP Read? by David Corn:

Can we be adults here? There are no programs -- in or out of government -- that don't include some waste. In fact, all human endeavors contain inefficiencies and errors. If the stimulus package were 99 percent cost-effective, that would still leave nearly $8 billion in waste. Picking out a couple of questionable projects is gotcha antics, not serious political debate.

At this point, Republicans have nothing to fear but Republicans themselves. If unemployment stays at or near 10 percent for the coming year, the GOP might well be able to ride the ensuing anti-incumbent anger to victory in the 2010 congressional elections, perhaps even draw close to retaking the House. But the more they act like, well, jerks, the more they will undercut their own chances.

There is a system that is supposed to help the unemployed in times of need. It is a dirty word in the United States. The Republicans hate it, and a Democratic president helped destroy it. And of course it is supposed to be the most wasteful of all government programs. And on that basis alone it must be evil and destroyed according to the Republicans. Never mind that it could be helping some American citizens today. Both Democrats and Republicans.

From Welfare:

Welfare systems differ from country to country, but welfare is commonly provided to those who are unemployed, those with illness or disability, those of old age, those with dependent children and to veterans.

I don’t think that the welfare system that was in existence before Bill Clinton would have given very many benefits to Wall Street. I do think it would be providing some assistance to all the Main Streeters of America who could use a little help right now. Too bad it is no longer around when it is needed the most.

If you are thinking of voting Republican in the near future because of the unemployment situation, try to remember that they are the ones who pushed the hardest to take away your safety net.

Sometimes I think we are a nation of idiots, and that we deserve exactly what we get. Ironically, that sentence sounds like it could come from a Republican.

I'd Be Happier If He Wiped It Off

2009-12-03T11:30:00.002-05:00

From a Kyle Michel Sullivan comment at Hullabaloo:

People never learn. Bush fucked Afghanistan up but it'll be Obama's fault when we don't win it. Bush fucked the economy up, but it'll be Obama's fault if it doesn't turn around before 2010. Bush destroyed America's credibility around the world with his policies of kidnapping and torture, but it'll be Obama's fault for not throwing every member of Bush's vile cabinet into jail. Yet Obama's acting like we can still all just get along. Obama stepped into shit, but it IS his own damn fault he hasn't wiped it off his shoe. And once again, he's allowing the shit to stay right where it is by escalating the war in Afghanistan, and history be damned for daring to show no one can win in that part of the world. Period.

The Internets Today

2009-12-03T11:08:00.003-05:00

I’ve been reading some of what has been rattling around in the internets tubes out there today and that is the best way to describe it. Out there.

After reading this post by Jonathan Schwarz several times my reaction remains the same. Huh? I must be missing something.

There also seems to be a meme spreading out in tube land that the people who are critical of Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan are wrong to criticize Obama because:

Obama is simply keeping his campaign promise to escalate the war in Afghanistan, you stupid fucks!

Ignore history. The fact that the Soviets couldn’t win in Afghanistan is irrelevant, you stupid fucks!

Obama says we will send more troops now so that we can leave Afghanistan in 18 months, you stupid fucks!

And this stuff is from leftist leaning sites. Go figure.

Will Obama 1.0 Help Create Osama 2.0?

2009-12-03T09:44:00.001-05:00

From Tomasky, Moore, and Afghanistan by Lindsay Beyerstein:

…when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, a lot of people in the Muslim world saw it as struggle of Christendom vs. Islam. As a result, Afghanistan became a destination for would-be jihadists from all over the world. That's how Osama bin Laden got his start. If our goal is ultimately to marginalize Islamic extremists, we should be wary about escalating the kind of fight that galvanized them in the first place.

Why Does Everyone Seem To Ignore This?

2009-12-02T18:08:00.002-05:00

From WAR: It's Not the President's Decision by David Swanson:

The U.S. Constitution leaves the decision to wage war to Congress, and Congress can enforce its decision not to wage war by refusing to fund it. Blocking a funding bill for wars requires the House of Representatives alone, and both Democrats and Republicans in the House are rapidly joining us in saying No to war funding.

It's time to finally get serious, to lobby, to protest, to sit in, to nonviolently disrupt and resist in local district offices until enough Representatives commit to voting No on any bill to fund more war.

Public Opposes Wars, Will Our Representatives?

Arianna's Soft Porn

2009-12-02T15:57:00.001-05:00

Does the Huffington Post want to be taken seriously?

Again, I ask WTF?

Victoria's Secret? 20 Layers Of Butt Makeup

Joanna Krupa's Naked Crucifix PETA Ad Photo (NSFW Picture)

How low can they go? With each passing day the descent continues.

What Would Jesus Do To Celebrate His Birth?

2009-12-02T14:30:00.003-05:00

Would Jesus celebrate his birth with a display of hate and destruction? Would some of those who claim to follow his teachings celebrate his birth with a display of hate and destruction? Of course they would!

From Approaching Holidays Prompt Atheist Campaign by Ian Urbina:

An unusual holiday message began appearing this week in the nation’s capital on the sides of buses and trains.

“No god? ... No problem!” reads the advertisement featuring the smiling faces of people wearing Santa Claus hats. “Be good for goodness’ sake.”

Last year, a similar campaign by the association drew strong reactions.

The head of the Catholic League linked secular humanists to figures like Hitler and the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The publisher of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” complained about the signs. In Cincinnati, a billboard that said “Don’t believe in God? You’re Not Alone” had to be moved after the owner of the billboard property said he had received threats. In Moscow, Idaho, a sign that said “Good without God. Millions of humanists are” was vandalized twice in three weeks.

Obviously the First Amendment does not apply during Christmastime.

Over There

2009-12-02T14:08:00.004-05:00

From Here We Go Again by Robert Scheer:

It is already a 30-year war begun by one Democratic president, and thanks to the political opportunism of the current commander in chief the Afghanistan war is still without end or logical purpose. President Barack Obama’s own top national security adviser has stated that there are fewer than 100 al-Qaida members in Afghanistan and that they are not capable of launching attacks. What superheroes they must be, then, to require 100,000 U.S. troops to contain them.

“Over there, over there, send the word, send the word, over there,
 That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming, 
The drums rum-tum-ming everywhere 
So prepare, say a prayer, send the word, send the word to beware 
We'll be over, we're coming over,
And we won't come back 'til it's over Over There!” George M. Cohan

"We're fighting them there, so we don't have to fight them here.” George W. Bush

Should Obama change his name to George to fit in? Perhaps, King George the Second?

Isn’t there something incredibly immoral about fighting our battles on someone else’s turf? I simply raise the question. I’m not saying that I want the battle to be fought in the United States. I also am not saying that nothing should be done. I simply ask the question. By way of explanation, here is another question. Why should the lives of the civilians of Afghanistan count for less than the lives of the civilians of the United States?

Will it ever be over, over there?

On The Issue Of Hate And The Sky Daddy

2009-12-02T13:13:00.005-05:00

As an atheist I do not hate God. I cannot hate something that I do not believe in. Also, I do not hate believers. Even though I believe in their existence, I do not hate them. They sure do scare me sometimes, though. They also frustrate the hell out of me. Sometimes I even get a little angry with them. Jim Downey has helped me understand why I frequently feel this way.

I don’t hate the believers, yet it sure seems that many of them hate me. They also seem to fear me. That confuses me. After all, they have God on their side, and I don’t.

From So, do you "hate God"? by Jim Downey:

…the notion that atheists "hate God" has always struck me as being very insightful. No, no, not into our motivations or beliefs. Into the minds of the believers.

Because I don't give God much thought in my day to day existence. And I certainly don't spend any emotional energy on the Big Guy. Because, you know, I don't believe in Him. Or It. Or Them. In fact, the whole notion is about as silly as hating the Loch Ness Monster. It's just absurd.

Very interesting. Very insightful. Sometimes I think that I am slowly driving myself insane whenever I try to understand people who think and believe things (both political and religious) that are the exact opposite of what I believe. I find it very difficult to do, yet I continue to do it because I feel that I may learn something useful. I also feel that we need to agree on something/anything or we all shall perish into the abyss of total chaos. I wonder if those on the other side of the religious/political fence ever even try to understand the likes of me. It seems that I never have seen any signs of that happening. Even once.

Very often I am overwhelmed at the sheer verbosity of the religious when they try to use logic and evidence to prove the existence of God. They write and talk endlessly and never see that they have missed one little crucial point. You cannot make something out of nothing. Their logic and evidence are nonexistent. Everything that they offer as evidence and logic is actually make believe and pretend. And, as Jim Downey points out, they have some strange beliefs about atheists. They believe these things without evidence. This is why I believe that religion is very dangerous. If you can believe in the existence of God without any evidence, what is to stop you from believing in something else without evidence? (For example, that atheists hate God.) How many other things will you believe in before you truly jump into the deep end of lunacy? “Death panels” anyone?

How can one understand that which is impossible to understand? (I don’t mean God here, I mean the people that Jim Downey so aptly described.) How does one even begin to comprehend that another thinks that I can hate something that does not exist? It is mind boggling.

Thank you Mr. Downey for this little gem. And for Sky Daddy, as well.

A Perfect Summation Of The Republican Party

2009-12-01T16:28:00.001-05:00

"They're very confused. In fact the only thing they are clear about is that they are very angry and unhappy with everything."

The Good News And The Bad News

2009-12-01T10:47:00.002-05:00

The good news of the day:
"I have no aspirations for further office," Cheney said in an interview with Politico.

The bad news of the day:
Barack Obama seems to be morphing into Dick Cheney: Obama Sending 30,000 More Troops To Afghanistan.

The Huffington Inquirer

2009-11-30T17:32:00.001-05:00

How shitty can the Huffington Post become?

WTF???????????????????????

Cyber Theft

2009-11-30T14:30:00.004-05:00

Today is Cyber Monday. Just in case you didn’t already know. A rather apt name, don’t you think? (At least in the sense of fictional cyborgs, like the Borg of Star Trek fame.) Millions of American consumers robotically spending their money when they are supposed to be working. A day to forget about that which is ethical, because everyone else is. Wouldn’t want to miss out on that big sale over something as mundane as ethics, would you?

Isn’t all of this basically a form of theft? After all, if you are at work, are you supposed to be shopping and spending your money? I thought work was the place to earn your money. If you are not working, aren’t you stealing from those who employ you?

Yet, all of this seems to be sanctioned somehow. It’s as if one of the most religious nations on earth has decided it is OK to replace “Thou shalt not steal” with “God says it’s OK to steal on Cyber Monday.”

Since the religious are a majority in the United States, and the atheists are a minority, the behavior of many on Cyber Monday seems to disprove the religious claim of moral superiority. (You know, the argument that believing in God is the source of all morality, therefore atheists are incapable of being moral. What happens to that argument when the believers behave immorally?)

Forgive me Father for I have sinned. Now let’s get back to shopping!

Meet The New War President, Same As The Old War President?

2009-11-30T13:57:00.002-05:00

From An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore by Michael Moore:

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has.

Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God's sake, stop.

There is more here.

I used to think that Obama was intelligent and moral. Now I’m not so sure. How smart is it to turn the Left against you when the Right already hates your guts? And, how moral is it to become the new War President?

Let's Hunt Down And Kill Oxymoronicy

2009-11-30T13:08:00.005-05:00

It is hard for me to understand when there is great uproar and anger over proposed spending by our government (the health care debate), yet little uproar and anger over actual spending by our government. I realize that this is not entirely true, yet it sure seems to be. (Basically what I am trying to say is: Maybe giving a new idea a chance is a good thing. Maybe ideas that have been given a chance and don’t seem to work should be stopped. By the way, I am upset and angry that so much money went to Wall Street, just like the party people. However, I do think that the economy did, and perhaps still does, need some stimulus from the government. Only time will tell.) Do the partiers with tea get upset about the military budget? Do they get upset with actual military ‘death panels?’

The party people who seem drunk on something other than tea do not seem upset by the government's inability to be militarily intelligent. Are any of them upset by our inability to find Osama bin Laden? If so, why no parties about how pissed they are about it?

I propose two changes effective immediately. From this day forward the Central Intelligence Agency shall be called the Central Ignorance Agency, and the phrase military intelligence shall be replaced with the phrase military ignorance.

I also propose that the funding for these two groups be cut to something appropriate to the change in their names, and that the surplus be directed toward funding universal health care.

What is the harm in at least trying to fix our health care crisis? Is something/anything better than nothing? Or is nothing what we want?

What Kind Of Headline Is This?

2009-11-30T12:32:00.003-05:00

Workers plow road to Polanski's Swiss chalet

Shall we all inform the Associated Press of the times we shovel our driveways this winter? I look forward to seeing the headline Paul Thoreau shovels driveway to his modest house many times this winter.

Update:
The people who control these things must like to screw with me. Now the headline reads: Polanski stuck in jail; must pay full $4.5M. This is the second time this has happened to me.

Yet Again I Am Reminded Of Why I Am Glad That I Am Not Famous

2009-11-29T19:12:00.000-05:00

For 3rd time, Woods cancels meeting with police

Most Religious And And Least Prosperous

2009-11-29T18:42:00.002-05:00

Matthew and Mark were close. They just left out the part about the first being last at the same time.

From Who Needs God When We've Got Mammon? by David Villano:

In a paper posted recently on the online journal Evolutionary Psychology, independent researcher Gregory S. Paul reports a strong correlation within First World democracies between socioeconomic well-being and secularity. In short, prosperity is highest in societies where religion is practiced least.

Using existing data, Paul combined 25 indicators of societal and economic stability — things like crime, suicide, drug use, incarceration, unemployment, income, abortion and public corruption — to score each country using what he calls the "successful societies scale." He also scored countries on their degree of religiosity, as determined by such measures as church attendance, belief in a creator deity and acceptance of Bible literalism.

Comparing the two scores, he found, with little exception, that the least religious countries enjoyed the most prosperity. Of particular note, the U.S. holds the distinction of most religious and least prosperous among the 17 countries included in the study, ranking last in 14 of the 25 socioeconomic measures.

Finish The Job

2009-11-29T11:47:00.003-05:00

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

Surely Barack Obama is aware of what happened to the Soviet Union when they tried to ‘finish the job’ in Afghanistan.

From Obama May Add 30,000 Troops in Afghanistan by Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt:

President Obama said Tuesday that he was determined to “finish the job” in Afghanistan, and his aides signaled to allies that he would send as many as 25,000 to 30,000 additional American troops there even as they cautioned that the final number remained in flux.

These three comments speak for me and sum up my thoughts on this issue quite accurately:

From Baffled Observer:

"Finish the job"? What job is he talking about? The job of assuring economic ruin at home while developing an ever-increasing supply of terrorists abroad? The job of propping up one of the most corrupt regimes in the world? The job of appeasing the military-industrial complex, sponsoring and committing torture, and destroying our Bill of Rights? Or all of them?

From avrds:

Finish the job. I wonder what that means?

Bring both Afghanistan and the U.S. to its knees?

This is an occupation that neither country wants nor can afford and will probably prove to be the final blow to the U.S. empire.

Ironic indeed that President Obama will now be ultimately responsible for it, not the Bush-Cheney presidency.

When will this country ever learn?

From margaret:

Wonderful, just wonderful. So Obama has to prove he isn't an arugula eating sissy by out-Bushing Bush. The goof-ball doesn't understand that many, like me, voted for him, ‘specifically,’ because he promised to bring the troops home.

Why do I even bother to vote?

Real men end wars, they don’t prolong them.

Quote Of Note - Amanda Marcotte

2009-11-25T18:51:00.001-05:00

“The point is that religion puts a value on irrationality, which makes it the perfect tool for promoting irrational beliefs like misogyny. Other ideologies can be challenged with evidence and reason, but religion is allowed a pass by most people. And that’s why it’s especially dangerous.” Amanda Marcotte

When Things Go Wrong

2009-11-25T17:48:00.001-05:00

From Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan by Jeremy Scahill:

The use of private companies like Blackwater for sensitive operations such as drone strikes or other covert work undoubtedly comes with the benefit of plausible deniability that places an additional barrier in an already deeply flawed system of accountability. When things go wrong, it's the contractors' fault, not the government's. But the widespread use of contractors also raises serious legal questions, particularly when they are a part of lethal, covert actions. "We are using contractors for things that in the past might have been considered to be a violation of the Geneva Convention," said Lt. Col. Addicott, who now runs the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. "In my opinion, we have pressed the envelope to the breaking limit, and it's almost a fiction that these guys are not in offensive military operations." Addicott added, "If we were subjected to the International Criminal Court, some of these guys could easily be picked up, charged with war crimes and put on trial. That's one of the reasons we're not members of the International Criminal Court."

Coincidence?

2009-11-24T17:52:00.001-05:00

Sarah Palin For President in 2012

Will the World End in 2012?

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

More Republican Lies To Make Your Head Spin

2009-11-24T17:27:00.003-05:00

From SPIN METER: 'War and Peace' in 209 pages? by Calvin Woodward and Douglass K. Daniel:

Republicans are using everything short of forklifts to show Americans that Democratic health care legislation is an unwieldy mountain of paper. They pile it high on desks, hoist it on a shoulder trussed in sturdy rope and tell people it's longer than "War and Peace," which it isn't.

Although they complain they don't have time to read all of it, they found the time to tape it together, page by page, so they could roll it up the steps of the Capitol like super-sized toilet paper and show how very long it is.

Read the rest here.

I’ll bet that the Republicans have only read the War part of "War and Peace," if they’ve read any of it at all. And I think that maybe Barack Obama skipped most of the Peace part as well.