My Head Swims With New Factoids

Tags

atheists, evolution, gay rights, GOP, Mitt Romney, reality TV, science, Women's issues

I learned that the “new atheists” are largely just religious fundamentalists with a different “religion”–the idolatry of mankind.

I learned that they have no interest in joining forces with believers for the purpose of ensuring that our schools teach science in science and not religious doctrines of creationism and intelligent design.

For they have a second goal–eradicating ALL religion. And so any believer is condemned at the start as an idiot. People like Robert Wright who advocate a more nuanced argument, are deemed dishonest.

I learned that it is as worthless to try to have a rational discussion with them as it is with a fundamentalist in religion.

I think I learned this once before, but hope springs eternal that the blind will see as it were.

¶

I learned from Ellen DeGeneres that there is a new reality show that I’ve been missing–a family of shall we say, rather “countrified” who happened to be sitting over a natural gas pocket or something. Anyway, they are now billionaires and have a reality show. Ellen was showing a clip from when the daughter and dad got “teeth”. Anybody have the name? Doomsday preppers are beginning my attention as it’s the same old same old every week mostly.

¶

I learned that Republican men continue to “not get” women. Willard refers all “lady issues” to the Missus, who promises to show us his junk to prove he’s not stiff–is that a Mormon thing?, while Rinsed Penis (Rience Priebus) says we are like caterpillars.

I learned that golf men in Georgia like their women to serve drinks in the bar, and don’t think they look particularly good in green–jackets that is. It’s understandable of course when you think about it. How else to pee off to the side in the middle of the course when there might be a woman about.

¶

I learned that sexual orientation is a lot more complicated than I thought.

I wonder what “other” would be?

Let me see.

“Straight woman, but married, and old enough to be less interested in sex than I used to be, but not a dried up prune quite yet, except when I’ve seen a Johnny Depp movie and feel a bit more randy than usual”, but almost never aroused by Victoria Secrets ads, unless you can jealousy arousal.”

And that is not a representation of me, just so you know. The reference to Mr. Depp is purely so that I get more hits on this post.

(h/t to Joe.My.God)

¶

I learned that Willard is a bold liar. He now accuses the President of “having spent too much time at Harvard” and thus being out of touch with America. Except that Willard spent one more year there than did the President, and they’ve given him something like $32,000 in campaign donations so far.

Yesterday Willard told some potential voters in PA that “Obama said that we live in an unlimited land of plenty and we can spend whatever we want.” What the President actually said is “IF we lived in an unlimited land of plenty we could spend whatever we want. But that is not the reality. We don’t and therefore. . . .” 

For a man who is by all claims a very religious one, who supports his church with large amounts of cash, and who have served for OVER A DECADE as a pastor, the lack of morality this man expresses is breathtaking.

¶

I learned that a journey of a thousand miles does indeed begin with a single step. When we first determined to move to New Mexico, the task ahead seemed almost too huge to accomplish. For months I felt stuck between home plate and first. But bit by bit, and step by step, I’m nearly third and can see home plate at last.

¶

I learned that some of my blogging friends are standards by which I can judge my own sanity. Read that however you wish. Always running in that race are Jimmy from OKJimm’s Eggroll Emporium and Hansi’s Hallucinations. Hey Hansi, I liked the tumor one today!

¶

I learned that while Republican led legislatures throughout the country are assaulting women in various ways as part of “getting our freedoms” back, Connecticut is poised to abolish the death penalty. Some of our legislators appear to have brains inside those big things on their shoulders.

¶

Just in case you were at all confused:

Back to Disgusting Politics

Tags

atheists, fundamentalism, Gadsden Flag, Humor, liberalism, Michele Bachmann, Ricky Perry, social security, teabaggers

Ya see, it’s fairly insidious. You start out quite innocently going to read one blog, and they turn ya on to another. So you think, okay, one more in the old reader won’t hurt.

So then you go to capture a picture and in the background of the picture you see the website it came from, and you think, “hey that looks interesting, and so you go and take a look and then say, “okay, I guess I can add another.

That’s how you end up with 259 damn blogs in your reader folks. Remember that, and beware!

Figured I’d give you the full size of this gem since the fine print is funny too.

Anyway, I was over at “we are respectable negroes” and that led to this site called Random Walks, and he, (being John) had a well done piece on the TeaNutz® and the use of the Gadsden Flag. And while you are at it, stop by 3CHICSPOLITICO and see if you like the offerings there.

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Most of you know that I have little truck with the New Atheism. I rather like the old frankly. There is an amazingly good article in the Guardian about the subject and why the New Atheist is pretty much just as fundamentally literalistic as the fundamentalist Christian. Here’s a nice quote that might whet you appetite:

This from a former but still believing parish priest:

 “It is impossible to be a serious Christian and believe in heaven and hell.” When I, who as raised in a strongly and conventionally religious home, expressed surprise and suggested that once one stops believing in heaven one might as well stop believing in God, he said, more vehemently: “It’s exactly the opposite: not believing in heaven and hell is a prerequisite for serious Christian belief.”

As James Woods points out, the New Atheists have no argument to make against this group of Christians. Nor with other mainstream Buddhists, Hindus or Muslims either.

♦

Meanwhile, back at the Casbah, Michele “Who’s your crazy now?” Bachmann is all up in arms. Isn’t it perfectly clear that GOD has spoken in the guise of earthquake and hurricane? I mean isn’t this down right obvious? And Michele of course has his ear, and purports to speak for his Supreme Being.

You see, GOD Almighty wishes to be heard, and he wishes politicians, and most particularly one Barrack Hussein Obama would listen to the PEOPLE. So she says.

Except, that the INSANE minority that Michele wishes to represent, ain’t exactly the definition of “the people” as we see it. The people would seem to suggest some sort of BARE FREAKIN’ MAJORITY doncha think there doll?

Anyways, I got not nearly the satirical game as Juanita Jean’s take on the Bachmann thing, so go read her biting commentary.

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Me is much likin’ the great double down of Ricky “aw shucks” Perry. He’s gonna drive that Ponzi scheme Social Security argument right into the La Brea Tar Pits. I’d love to be around in a few million when they dig up his bones and put him on display in the Natural History Museum as a “TeaNutz® relic” known only to a very few political scientists who like really really obscure subject matter.

SmartyPants says it all with this great cartoon:

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And then SmartyPants led me here to this which I must say, says it all too.

That which I cannot study empirically I do not understand.  If there is nothing for me to have observed and I have either not sought or not been persuaded with evidence, then my answer is I do not know.

My peace is not in knowing; it is in wanting to know.  And my bliss is not in knowing; it is in trying to know.

This makes me a liberal.  Evidence is not something I fight against, and answers are not something I require.

That which one cannot study empirically the conservative claims to understand anyway.  Even when there is nothing to observe and the conservative has neither sought nor been presented with evidence, the conservative’s answer is I know.

The conservative finds peace only in knowing the answers to questions that she has not even asked.  And once she knows, she will not be persuaded by evidence; hers is to defend her truth, not to find nature’s.

And this of course means that Beeryblog must also go into my reader.

♦

And humorously speaking, if they weren’t so darn sick in the head, here is what the Blaze nincompoops which you to know today:

The Blaze’s Jonathon Seidel, a pretence of a journalist, wants you to know that Bernice King, daughter of MLK just might be a racist, or perhaps she just made an honest mistake. More fun to think the former though rich Jonathon? The Blaze racists don’t know the definition of racism of course.

And Jon stumps for the nearly forgotten Glenny *I’m gettiin’ out of my straight-jacket soon” Beck, and urges you to watch his “rousing human rights speech” at some church in Texas.

Meanwhile, a “possible” and “maybe illegal” uncle of President Obama’s “might” have been arrested in Massachusetts last week for DUI.

Have a good one!

Related articles

• Atheists, Muslims More Popular Than Tea Party (Also, Tea Party’s Just a New Name for Racist Christian Right) (alternet.org)

Everything I Say is a Lie. . . .I’m lying

Tags

atheists, civil rights, creationism, Darwinism, David Barton, Dawkins, evolution, MLK, Obama, renewed Darwinism, Rick Perry, rightwing nuttery, teabaggers

Note that the cartoon pictured at left carries the “Answers in Genesis” website. I believe that these are the same people who bring you the “Creation Museum” in Kentucky and are building the Noah’s Ark as their next “reality” project.

I am generally not a big fan of atheists, at least the mocking types. It’s all well and good to conclude that there is no proof of God and that you are content to let it be, living your life by perfectly good standards of conduct, without resort to any religious faith. I tend to be in agreement with atheists who take on the fundamentalists, because they don’t represent any kind of believing that I can understand nor accept and their actions are damaging for the most part.

I do tend to get rather pissy with atheists who lump all believers, of ANY faith into the same basket and make fun of them, such as referring to their belief in “faeries” and boogie men. It tends to belie your own faith in your own beliefs of “there is no God” when you are so insecure as that.

So, I’m not, generally speaking, a great fan of Richard Dawkins, though I certainly have no quarrel with his evolutionary statements. I find them compelling and utterly credible, as the entire field of evolution seem to be to me. But recently, Dawkins had some words for our new pal Ricky Perry and the field of GOPers who adhere to the “safe” haven of “it’s ONLY a theory.” (By the war, Al Gore points out in An Inconvenient Truth, that “it’s only a theory” is the intentional plan of attack of those who wish to confuse any issue, be it global warming or evolution.)

My thanks to Joe.My.God for the quote:

There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today’s Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous ‘GOP’ nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered ‘grand’) is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.” – Famed atheist Richard Dawkins, responding to Rick Perry’s denouncement of evolution.

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Speaking of evolution, there is a rather fascinating book published in 2010 about what the author calls RD or “renewed Darwinism“. Paul Lawrence area of expertise is in business, and he was near retirement from the Harvard Business School when he became dissatisfied with the “agency model” of business leadership, finding that it seemed to relate only to making stockholders happy. He began to investigate other fields and found in Darwin his answer.

Lawrence posits that man is evolutionarily driven to four things: acquisition, bonding, defense, and comprehension. We are, he suggests, constantly engaged in the activity of balancing these four things. He claims that things appear out of whack now because a “few bad apples with an outsized drive to acquire and no moral conscience” have prevailed, because they have no apparent need to bond.

So far, studies looking at Lawrence’s model of leadership tend to confirm it. Those companies who exhibit a healthy balance of all four things, tend to show good results, those that don’t, don’t.

♦

I must say I’m good. I read this headline in my reader: “Perry retreat co-host MLK deserved no credit on civil rights.” Well, I knew it could be none other than our ubiquitous TeaNutz® faux historian David Barton. Yes, Perry continues to double down in his unity with all things wingnut crazy, alienating all non-Christians and not a few Christians, and now African-Americans.

It seems that Barton is of the belief, that while MLK is a deserves a “place” in history, “Only majorities can expand political rights in America’s constitutional society.” Barton is almost too stupid to attack. I mean, dude, seriously, your “analysis” is childish.

Barton and others have done their level best to rewrite history books for Texas schools, seeking to minimize such folks as Thurgood Marshall and César Chávez. This all in an attempt to glorify white Christians, to the exclusion of all others in the history of the US.

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Ya know, Jebby Bush warned ’em when he was last interviewed on Faux Noise. He said, it’s fine to criticize the President’s policies, but hey, lay off challenging his motives. But of course, no, that would not be cool would it? The National Review, long since sunk in a cesspool of what else? poo, has decided that the President’s VACATION READING FARE is not appropriate! Angry Black Lady Chronicles has the story (Not sure if they got it from Think Progress?) 

 

Related articles

• It’s a Theory That’s Out There (sydiot.com)
• The strength of Dawkins, and the murk of accommodationism (scienceblogs.com)
• Attention Governor Perry: Evolution is a fact (chasdarwin.wordpress.com)

Dear, Johnny Depp Awaits You in the Bedroom

Tags

atheists, environment, fundamentalism, George W. Bush, going green, Johnny Depp, life in the meadow, Michel Foucault, Politics, Presidents, writing

A statement like that can cause a woman my age to go into immediate cardiac arrest. I gasped, turned to my beloved Contrarian with all the love I could muster in my eyes, and gushed, “Darling, this is the Best late Christmas present ever!”

I tripped across  one dog and stepped on at least one cat tail as I launched myself across the room, eyes shining brightly at the bedroom door.

I burst in, my eyes like eagles, searching the environs. “Come out, come out, where ever you are, ” I teased.

“What are you talking about?” the Contrarian grunted. “I taped David Letterman. Depp is a guest. Since Stewart’ still off on vacation, I thought we could watch it for our bedtime fare.”

Welcome to my life. My fantasy universe collapsed before my tear-laden eyes, and I mumbled, “well of course, I was just making a joke.” I pushed my tired feet under the covers, pulled the blankets up tight against my chin, and closed my eyes, to let the fantasy play out for a few more seconds.

Sigh.

***

What’s in a name? No, I’m not getting all Shakespearean on ya. Are you named after someone? Cappy over at Writer’s Block is, and she tells you all about it. Also her penchant for naming as yet unborn children.

I do that for pets. I name them in advance. My next two dogs will be Frieda and Diego. After the Mexican painters. I saw the movie. What a love affair. Passionate people hurt each other, but their love is dramatic.  I like to name in love affairs. Or something else. We have Kate and Spencer (Hepburn and Tracy) and Calvin and Hobbes (okay that isn’t a love affair, except sorta it is). Our cats. They don’t exactly act like their counterparts. That is the downside.

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This next one requires some real thought. First impressions may be wrong. Does the computer enhance, or make for better writing than the old-fashioned ink and quill? pencil? ink pen? typewriter? The eraser was vilified as making for sloppy writing, easy to “correct.” How about white-out? Trickier question than you might have thought. American Scientist has a titillating review on the subject. The book in question is called: A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers and the Digital Revolution.

It sounds like a quirky but quite interesting little book.

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If Murr Brewster hasn’t come across your radar yet, you may want to take a look at her blog. She has a slice of environmental reporting to do today, done in her rather inimitable style. How do you fare in the “go green” revolution? Like Murr, up and down, depends.

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What frustrates me with “some” atheists is that their arguments are based on fundamentalist interpretations of the bible, which we (most of us) agree are utterly wrong. Yet these atheists seem either unwilling or unable to see that there is a better/clearer/more intellectually sound way of reading scripture.

Tim Bulkeley writes a great little piece over at The Bible and Interpretation that lays the plague of the neo-Atheists at the feet of the fundamentally unbiblical fundamentalist. I agree. See if you do. Thanks for the H/T from James McGrath at Exploring our Matrix.

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My thought is that Dubya might not want to take his book tour to London. Not after the scathing and terribly accurate review Eliot Weinberger gives it. An excerpt will suffice to whet your whistle:

In the late 1960s, George Bush Jr was at Yale, branding the asses of pledges to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity with a hot coathanger. Michel Foucault was at the Societé française de philosophie, considering the question, ‘What is an author?’ The two, needless to say, never met.

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We’re having fried chicken, mashed taters and gravy and peas. I like peas. I even like the ones in cans. Like when I was a kid. They are like two different vegetables. Peas from the freezer and peas from the can. It’s one of those foods I need to revisit now and again, like that bright orange french dressing by Wishbone. Nostalgia they call it.

I’m a good wife. I cook up good grub. Even if Johnny Depp wasn’t in my bedroom.

Patting Myself on the Back

Tags

atheists, Barack Obama, Fox News Channel, Franklin Graham, fundamentalists, Muslims, nature, paleontology, Politics, racism, Republican, science

The truth is, I believe in dressing well, even for a day at the computer. As you can see, even a hat is de rigueur in my world.

I went on yesterday about veiled conspiracies to subvert the economic recovery by corporations (banks and otherwise), giving up short-term gains to insure a Republican victory this November. I think I’m mostly right.

Veiled or unveiled, I suspect they don’t much care at this point. Fox certainly doesn’t after it’s gift of a cool mill to the GOP. They don’t bother any more with even a pretence at “fair and balanced.”

Why? Oh quite simple really.  They know that their simple-minded audience can’t add two and two and come up remotely close to a correct answer. They can and do lie at will. The right doesn’t listen to the left, preferring to roll in the swill of their moral rightness on everything. Their base doesn’t care one whit that they are playing politics, in fact they agree with it. Just as they agreed with Fox’s promotion of all things tea partyish.

Why I disagree with parts of the next article, especially as to who is owed all the blame, I think there is something to be said for RCP’s article The Lost Promise of Barack Obama. Democrats bear a good deal of blame for their own downfall, which seems more and more likely this November.

 Nobody can get a snark on better than our friends at Urantia Sojourn. This one particularly struck me as both cogent and well researched. The branding of all non-whites as “other” is reaching epidemic proportions in America. Will we stop it before it is too late?

It seems to me that part of being responsible as a human beings is to be willing to criticize yourself, as American, Democrat, religious believer, etc. Being an apologist is simply dangerous, and once discovered takes all the power from your voice. The must read of today is this one: [note that this link is weird–the text is half way down, it looks like a Pakistan military site, but the full text is in a comment–3quarksdaily had no better linkage]

Harvard University offers an award known as the Robert F. Kennedy Public Service award. It’s first Muslim recipient and only second South Asia one, went to Mir Ibrahim Rahman. His remarks are food for deep thought for all of us in the US. They were made at Harvard Commencement. As I said, the text is embedded in a comment I believe, but still it is worth the effort to get to it.

Goodness knows I’ve had my problems with atheists. The NEW ones at least. I find them about as irrational and pompous as fundamentalists. More and more I keep finding that many equate, and frankly always have, the rabid atheist with the fundamentalist. Both talk of certainty about things that are anything but certain.

A great post by Reza Aslan at the Washington Post lays this out extraordinarily well. Much thanks to Mystical Seeker at Find and Ye Shall Seek. Much whine from the atheists in the comments.

The profession of butcher is older than we thought! At least 800,000 years to be exact. Ha! And to think that butcher shops are going out of style and have been for decades now. You would think that they would be revered places, beginnings of our illustrious history as tool makers and users. Read it all at Butchering Dinner 3.4 Million Years Ago.

And then there are times when it’s very embarrassing to be a Christian–when you have to be in the same religion as Franklin Graham. This Muslim hater is beyond the pale. Even his father had enough sense to at least apologize when caught being anti-Semitic. The son now drivels on about how Obama came from “Muslim seed” and “says he has accepted Jesus Christ”.  What a piece of work.

Amy Sullivan has a most interesting take on why polls claim that 1/4 of Americans “think” Obama is a Muslim. Worth your time to read this one.

Meanwhile, James Taranto, writing for the Wall Street Journal (Murdock’s baby remember) writes a convoluted piece that suggests that liberals do these polls all for the purpose of calling the right names for their beliefs, and in the process fail to do it, but make themselves look mean and small for calling out the right wing nuts. Understand that? Neither did I. If you got to comments you will find that ALL believe Obama is a Muslim there. Too funny.

And that’s a wrap.

Mewling at the Northern Lights

Tags

astronomy, atheists, blogging, fundamentalism, Ground Zero, infinity, Muslims, northern lights, Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, sun, teaparty, wacko rightwing

Howdy!

Hopin’ the day so far is finding you alive, and relatively content. It’s a rainin’ here. No news in that. Not a lot, but with the humidity being 100% making it feel AWFUL, I decided to not try the food gathering trip today.

Alert: HOUSEKEEPING: WordPress, ever trying to upgrade for its users, has added a new “like” button at the end of each post. It will add your gravatar (unique or generic) as well. The point being, I would ask you to use it if you in fact like the post. As they point out, hitting that button can suffice for a comment you don’t have time to make or otherwise are disinclined to do, and allows me to get a better idea of what post topics are most enjoyable for you. After all, I do want you to come here and enjoy yourself, so understanding your likes helps in doing that. Please NOTE: the button only appears on the comment page, so click “add comment” then hit the button between the end of post and the comment box. I wish it were on the main post, but alas it is not.

Enuf said.

You may have heard that the sun has recently gotten riled up about something. Probably something Mercury said–that little planet is hot as hell and always whispering into the sun’s ear. In any case, sol got a bitch on and sent out a nice big cosmic flare which will be entering earth’s upper atmosphere.

The key word is atmosphere. Without it, the sun’s pissiness would fry us. As it is, it provides a delightful free show for those in northern climes. It’s hard to see the northern sky here, what with the danged trees. One has to look nearly straight up to see the sky, but, I’ll take a look as best I can and see if anything can be seen tonight.

I came across a really good post on the teaparty movement. As usual, the right wingheads are trying to make much ado about nothing over the journo-list. One on that list gives some background to the general “the sky is falling” tactics of the teabagger promoters. Be very sure that this is no “grassroots” movement, but one highly orchestrated by the corporate and political world in order to get the masses of dupes to do their bidding. Yesterday we posted a link to a review of the 60’s leftist movement and how it was wrecked by the Right. This is the same Right, as Lindsay points out.

Lindsay also has a good post on the proposed Islamic center in the vicinity of Ground Zero. I am in complete agreement. I am simply appalled at the rhetoric being unleashed. The hatred is open and ugly. First of all, plenty of Muslims died in 911. Second, the vast majority of Muslims hold no truck with fundamentalist Islam. Third the anti-Muslim talk dribbling from the mouths of fundamentalist Christianity is diametrically in opposition to their constant chant of “freedom of religion.” Do these intellectually challenged bigots EVER see the parallel between themselves and the  ffundamentalist jihadists they so fervently hate? FUNDAMENTALISM IS FUNDAMENTALISM!

Also see Moe at Whatever Works, for more links and comments on this sick affair.

Slate has a delicious article on atheism. Mostly I loved it because it agreed with my position, (which was not original with me I can assure you) that fundamentalists and atheists have so much more in common than they think. Atheists, are just as guilty of asserting as true what they in fact can only speculate about. To the point: Atheists assert that all that is not understandable yet will be some day, because they think it will be. No proof my dear skeptics. The article suggests that a defensible position can only be agnosticism of which I would heartily agree. Read and see what you believe. In the end, believers and unbelievers alike merely CHOOSE to believe one or the other.

The New Republic has a review of a new book that investigates the search for mathematical infinity. Sounds like it might be a most  spell-binding book to take a look at. Full of the history of the chase. A case of when mysticism triumphs over science.

Sharron (that woman is more of an idiot than Sarah) Angle has well, gone and done it again. Said something so STUPID that you half way want to believe that a talking dog has been discovered. I mean a human said this! And her lap dog Foxy Propaganda which was the supposed point of her chat, actually showed the clip, proving that for all their protestations, they basically are doing as she asked.

What? She told journo-not Carl Cameron, that she “needed the press to be her friend.” Cameron kinda laughs, all the while no doubt thinking, “damn girl, don’t give us away.” Here I quote her verbatim:

. . .we wanted [journalists] to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported. And when I get on a show and I say send me money to SharronAngle.com, so that your listeners will know that if they want to support me they need to go to SharronAngle.com.”

The gist is that Sharron wants the media to be glorified stenos for her “message” which is more or less send money to me. Of course Fox, dunderheads and willing stooges, did just that, airing the clip. Other outlets showed a string of similar “interviews” with friendlies wherein Ms. Sharron re-entreated again and again to “send me $25 to SharronAngle.com.” Too funny. This woman is  a joke.

No doubt you have heard of the Sarah (that woman is an idiot) Palin’s Grizzly Mamas video. Progagandee at Urantia Sojourn has a nice take on it and a very good link to Adrianna Huffington’s post on the same subject. Well worth the read.

Until we meet again!

Breathe IN and Smile

Tags

atheists, Charles Grassley, denialism, elections, Elena Kagan, fundamentalism, gay rights, GOP, Mark Souter, Newt Gingrich, Rand Paul, SCOTUS

Truthfully, I feel a weight has been lifted. I, a few days ago, mentioned that I was done with arguing with fundies and atheists, finding it utterly unproductive, since both operated from some psychological need, on the closed mind theory. No controversial idea shall pass here!

And, as part of that commitment to sanity, I’ve rather ruthlessly deleted most all blogs of folks that adhere to such strangling ideology. A couple, I have hesitated, since they tend toward actual intellectual curiosity and I’m holding them a bit.

One, I thought might be worthwhile was a blog called SharperIron, mistaken by me with SharpIron, a very legitimate mainstream religious blog. Anyway, SharperIron was engaged in a multi-part series I wasn’t particularly interested in, and so, I was awaiting what might come next.

The next was a post about a tea party partisan, and I read it, and then thought to comment on a point or two. Going to the comments, I found I have to sign up–annoying but acceptable, so I clicked to do so, and then. . . well what a surprise. I was required to sign some oath that I believed in the utter inerrancy of the Word along with other such bull crap, and well, I deleted that blog rather soon after.

Just goes to show ya, I guess, just how closed a mind can be. No comments are allowed that don’t agree with the blog owner in principle at least. Some kinda dialog there!

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I read a delicious post on denialism yesterday, and you can read it at NewScientist.  The upshot was that it’s pretty much impossible to get them to listen. It’s all very psychological and such, which they don’t of course perceive in the first place. It gets all conspiratorial and then of course the leeches who pray on folks like this, fill them with all kinds of pseudo-science swill and we are then off to the races.  The best advice is to calmly make your case with truth and verifiable facts and don’t get personally involved in a debate.

A few great poster on FB especially have kept me adding one great blog after another to my reader, which has made it unmanageable in terms of size.  Which has led to a major clearing out it, discarding blogs I never read. I took the total down below 200 again, and that is somewhat manageable at least. Hopefully I can bring you the best in reliable links.

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The elections yesterday were interesting and frankly, I think the Dems are in pretty good shape. The Murtha seat was the critical won, and the Dem won handily there, which was somewhat of a surprise to the GOP I think. The Kentucky election, well, it seems the Teabaggers took that one, but Mr. Paul seems rather intent on destroying himself before November.

Guess our own Senator Grassley doesn’t quite get the message yet. He says voters are unhappy with their politicians, but not him of course. He claims his mail is generally not critical of what he has been saying and doing. Guess he doesn’t read mine.

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I’m surely not the only one who is highly pissed at the right wing attack on Elena Kagan for speculating on her sexual orientation. It has zero to do with anything, although they try to couch it in such. Don’t we have a right to know how her sexuality might impact her opinion on Don’t ask, don’t tell they whine? NO. No more than it would have been right to  burrow into the Negroness of Clarance Thomas, since he might have to look at affirmative action cases. It’s just an attempt to raise some public outcry from the homophobic right wing bigot machine, disguised as necessary inquiry. Shaddup already and crawl back under the rock please. Btw, Elizabeth Keaton has a great post on this today at her blog, Telling Secrets.

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Don’t know about you guys, but spring is in full swing, and we are busy planting everything not nailed down. Dogs and cats stay outta the way! We have nearly all the garden in, and I’m working on flowers. I bought 2 flats of assorted lovelies today and will plant Saturday. Getting a touch of rain tonight possibly and cool tomorrow, and then up into the 80’s! Hurrah!

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And the hypocritical ass award for the week goes to that great purveyor of abstinence only and anti AIDS info, homophobe,  and all around creationist nut: Indiana ReThug Rep. Mark Souter! (Drum roll, trumpets and all around clapping!). Doin’ the nasty with an aide, not his wifey. When will these self-styled “soooo goodly paragons of virtue” learn to shut the phuck up! And they wonder why the atheists have such a field day against ’em.

And speaking of which, Newt, the thrice married, twice divorced, I just discovered religion can be my ally in being important, Gingrich, has been vilified by those that usually like him. Seems his new book which just excoriates the Obama administration as a “secular socialist machine” heading straight for Nazi Germany, has enraged even the right.

And the oil slick still threatens to destroy the Gulf Coast and much of the marine life in the ocean. McCain continues to backtrack and support more and more repressive racist behavior in AZ. AZ keeps doing what its doin, which is hating everything not white. The sun keeps shining and the stars keep converting hydrogen to helium at fantastical rates. I’ll be back with more tomorrow, mostly likely. Meanwhile, listen to the birds and plant some radishes.