The Ultimate Zen Experience

A Total lack of self awareness. It must be such a serene and peaceful experience.

“The Raytown farmer who posted a sign on a semi-truck trailer accusing Democrats of being the “Party of Parasites” received more than $1 million in federal crop subsidies since 1995.”

A pure capitalistic system would not, of course, have any welfare programs, either for businesses, like farmers, or for individuals, like the un-employment insurance and social welfare programs that makes Republicans see red.

“Crop subsidies are different, he said. “

Ah, special pleading, the last resort of a scoundrel. Take a million, then bitch when someone else gets a dollar. He must have balls the size of bowling balls.

It may be fashionable to bitch about wall street bail outs, but farmers that take millions in hand outs from the government when their business doesn’t go as planned should probably shut up. They’re a business, right? Same as any other. Sink or swim, right?.

A true republican would just sell the farm, to Con-Agra to pay your mortgage before they ever took a big government handout.

There is also a huge subsidy going on right now, benefiting members of the clergy,

“The Freedom From Religion Found­­ation, along with 21 of its California members, has filed a nationally significant federal lawsuit in Sacramento to challenge tax benefits for “ministers of the gospel,” commonly known as “the parsonage exemption.”

Are Republicans, then, supporters of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s case?

The parsonage exemption became an issue a few years ago when Rick Warren tried to claim $80,000 a year as “housing allowance”. Aw, the simple life of a minister.

Religious schools will even make their faculty lay ministers so they can cheat on their taxes, as well.

According to professor Erwin Chemerinsky on last weekend’s FFRF podcast, erasing this handout can bring in another $500,000,000 a year to the government’s income, all without raising taxes! Can’t think of any reason that a true fiscal conservative would oppose it. It sounds like Good News to me.

Have the Courage of Your Convictions, Texas

The Texas GOP has unleashed their new platform on the world. As Politicalcorrection.org puts it:

“The Texas Republican Party’s new 25-page platform is chock-full of absurd policy prescriptions, many of which are based on the most absurd of conspiracy theories. “

In addition to banning oral sex (yes, they actually want to make it illegal, as in you can be arrested for it), the Texas GOP is wants to keep the darn Supreme Court from making those darn decisions:

“Further, we urge Congress to withhold Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, religious freedom, and the Bill of Rights.”

So, the US passes the Bill of Rights to, you know, insure the rights of their citizens. But the Texas GOP wants to be left up to their own devices in enforcing them, mostly, as defined by the narrow constraints of their local superstitions; such as with abortion (their belief on the development of a fetus is not based on any scientific research, but rather on Jeremiah 1:5, a bronze age preacher that believed Israel was “cursed” by god for “allowing” people to choose their own religion), the sexual practices of their citizens (essentially, non reproductive sex acts would be sinful, therefor illegal, usually based on Genesis 1:22-“Be fruitful, and multiply”), and marriage rights of those born homosexual (based on the harsh and primitive prohibition in Leviticus 18:22). Of course, this tendency to believe that an all powerful magical being not only could but did decide to teach morality to all the citizens of the world by dictating a garbled incoherent book to one culture on the planet is coupled together with a Stalin-esque desire for totalitarian control over the people of the state. After all, no good Texan can follow their religion without making others involuntarily follow that religion as well.

Day of Reason 2010

Join us for the Day of Reason at the MN State Capitol tomorrow (5/6/10) in the Rotunda over the lunch hour.

But, you say “Hey, we’ve won the case against the National Day of Prayer. We don’t need no Day of Reason”. Oh, but we do. The injunction against the Day of Prayer will not go into effect until the case has been appealed, and when it is it can only be only beneficial to our cause if we had a strong showing at the Day of Reason.

Plus, there may be a higher than average number of superstitionists showing up on the Capitol grounds since, apparently, their god will disappear if not publically prayed to by federal decree.

One other truly beneficial way to prove a point about the Day of Prayer, if anyone is willing to take it up, would be to get every Muslim, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Shinto, witch doctor, fire walker, snake handler you know and get them to show up on the lawn to perform their version of prayer right next to the Protestants that claim the day is for anybody. I’ll be willing to bet that they change their mind real fast.

“Day of Prayer” Violates Church/State Separation

Who would have thought that a federal government declaring a “Day of Prayer” would violate a clause stating that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. You learn something new everyday.

U.S. District Court Judge Barbara B. Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin today ruled that the federal statute designating a yearly National Day of Prayer (36 U.S.C. § 119) violates the separation of church and state enshrined in the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

This is, of course, some real ‘good news’ for freethinkers and those that just don’t like their government getting mixed in with their religion. Prayer has no secular purpose whatsoever, so any government endorsement of it is most definitely an endorsement of religion.

This case was brought to court by the Freedom From Religion Foundation so, if you’re not already a member, consider giving them some support. They do good work.

And Now, a Couple of Jackasses

Jack Ass #1:

Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn said Monday he is gay, ending days of speculation that began after his arrest last week for investigation of driving under the influence.

Ashburn, who consistently voted against gay rights measures during his 14 years in the state Legislature, came out in an interview with KERN radio in Bakersfield, the area he represents.

Well, now that he’s out of the closet, will he man up and do what’s right? Nope:

“I felt my duty – and I still feel this way – is to represent my constituents, not my own point of view, not my own internal conflict,” he told Barks.

Of course, being gay wasn’t his internal conflict. Being raised in a bigoted home was his internal conflict. And apparently, he plans to continue down that path.

__

Jack ass # 2:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — who has gone to great lengths to hype the supposed dangers of a big government takeover of American health care — admitted over the weekend that she used to get her treatment in Canada’s single-payer system.

“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”

Yeah, real cute. She probably winked when she said it, too.

Next, in the Republican Party, George H W Bush will come out as an atheist, and Dick  Cheney will prove himself to be an excellent shot.

Tea Baggers: Cultic Anxiety

Tea Baggers: They may not be merely the worthless conspiracy minded fools that they are billed as. They may, in fact, teach us a few things about human nature.  I know they’ve helped me to understand how displaced anxiety can lead to crude and primitive behavior by people no matter how civilized the country they live in happens to be.

In the 19th century, German philosopher Max Müller theorized that religious concepts may arise as a derivative of language itself: essentially terminology can take concepts and personify them; these concepts then develop into myth and legend.

Can anyone keep track of the misunderstood terminology in this video?

There is some particularly interesting anxiety caused by confusion over the word “czar”. Yes, the presidential advisory position. The ‘czar’ centered fun begins at 6:24. At 8:20, a lady is informed that the first presidential adviser given the title “czar” was given during the administration of Republican President Ronald Reagen. She, at that point, deserts the Republican party. No kidding, that’s all it took. No arguments, no logic, no research. Just a word.

She treats the word like magic and is willing to drop support of her life long political party over its use rather than taking 1 minute to look up the definition. Now, that’s commitment to superstition for you.

Of course, there may be some other reason for their anxiety.

Look Out, Gay Marriage Could Lead to Anal Sex

New Hampshire State Representative Nancy Elliott (R) is against gay marriage because … she thinks anal sex is icky! Yes, that’s right, she’s willing to deny civil rights to other human beings because of what her sexual preferences are.

Well, at least she’s honest and we finally get to hear that the entire marriage dispute is based on little kid arguments (sex is icky, you have cooties, ewwww). The outrageously ludicrous arguments that allowing homosexual couples to marry could “ruin marriage” or  that it somehow discriminates against the Christian religion were pretty weak it is pretty obvious that they were merely covers for people that were afraid to sound like outright bigots.  Luckily, Rep Elliott knows no fear.

Abstinence Only Tries For Second Base

Abstinence Only sex ed classes tried for home and struck out when it was discovered that
students who took the classes had higher than average rate of teen pregnancies and STDs.

But, now they’re trying for second. But, notice anything funny in this WP news story?

Only about a third of sixth- and seventh-graders who completed an abstinence-focused program started having sex within the next two years, researchers found. Nearly half of the students who attended other classes, including ones that combined information about abstinence and contraception, became sexually active.

The findings are the first clear evidence that an abstinence program could work.

That’s right, the debate was against “Abstinence Only” sex ed, not “Abstinence-Focused” Sex Ed, like this piece is about. The “abstinence-focused” program is the comprehensive class the “Abstinence Only” people were so up in arms about before they found out all their daughters had the clap.

“Several critics of an abstinence-only approach said that the curriculum tested did not represent most abstinence programs. It did not take a moralistic tone, as many abstinence programs do. Most notably, the sessions encouraged children to delay sex until they are ready, not necessarily until married; did not portray sex outside marriage as never appropriate; and did not disparage condoms. “

Why the change. Well, like most conservatives, it’s because they can’t get money anymore. Not unless they can prove their results.

“The Obama administration eliminated more than $170 million in annual federal funding targeted at abstinence programs after a series of reports concluded that the approach was ineffective. Instead, the White House is launching a $114 million pregnancy prevention initiative that will fund only programs that have been shown scientifically to work”

Damn, they want results! What do we do, what do we do? I know, we’ll change all of our criteria, we won’t mention any of the crap we were so gung ho about before, we will talk about all the shit we refused to mention before, we’ll only point to one study and, presto, our program works! Can we have money now?

Gimme somma dat!

Protect Christmas Bill?

A new bill to protect the traditions of Christmas has been introduced by Representative Henry Brown ( R-SC) into the US Congress on 12.8.09

H.Res.951 – Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected for use by those who celebrate Christmas.

Protect Christmas? Mmmm, yes, I see. The world has suddenly been transformed into a Rankin and Bass claymation holiday special. The evil Heat Miser will soon come into town to melt all the holiday snow …. oops, I mean Christmas snow.

I get a feeling this bill could easily be crossing more than a few church/state separation lines.

Text of Bill

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected for use by those who celebrate Christmas.

Whereas Christmas is a national holiday celebrated on December 25; and

Whereas the Framers intended that the First Amendment of the Constitution, in prohibiting the establishment of religion, would not prohibit any mention of religion or reference to God in civic dialog: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives–

(1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas;

(2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and

(3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions by those who celebrate Christmas.

Definitely an odd bill written by some one with a pretty tenuous grasp of the first amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

Meaning, taking a neutral stance. Pretty simple, neither helping nor hindering. This bill would be helping and would thereby not be neutral.

Not to mention, most of the atrocious offenses against Christmas, at least the ones that I’ve seen causing boycotts by religious groups, are just businesses that decide to express inclusive messages during the holidays. Not really a lot a government bill can do about that without micro-managing private industry.

Silly, silly stuff.

The Global Warming Hoax Emails

And now, a lesson on quote mining and McExperts “interpreting” data.

Or: Why Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Alex Jones are fucking idiots that don’t even have the ability to read emails written in English.

Be forewarned, you’ll have to watch a 10 minute video and the only yelling or crying is done by the aforementioned idiots (hmmm, if scientific papers were read by someone either yelling or crying would conservatives start paying attention?).