Anybody for RotoRootering a Few Butts?

Tags

Bill O'Reilly, budget, debt ceiling, economy, fundamentalists, gay rights, GOP, idiotic laws, marriage equality, Oslo, religion, Reproductive Rights, state legislatures, teanutz, wingnuts, Women's issues

Bill O’Reilly, Fox Noise mouth, may be one of the more rational (at least he wants to be) voices at the propaganda machine, but heck that isn’t really saying anything much. He’s a mush head of the first order.

His “opines” are so often nothing but third-rank right-wing babble, and recently he took to sucking his toes once again.

If you hadn’t heard, the Institute of Medicine recently recommended that contraception should be available to women without co-pay requirements. If one is serious about cutting abortions, one would think that making sure that pregnancy avoidance would have top priority.

Not so to Billo. He theorized thusly:

 “Many women who get pregnant are blasted out of their minds when they have sex. They’re not going to use birth control anyway.”

Yes, women are just drunken sluts who get taken advantage of by sex hunting men. I suspect he didn’t think that through to the last part very well. Or as Keith Obermann suggested, maybe Billo was talking about his own relationships.

It’s what I like about Fox. They offend everyone, always. And make that a good hard steel bristle brush, thanks!

♦

Rushy Limpbaugh says the August 2 date on the debt ceiling was picked because it needed to be before the start of Ramadan. Louis Gohmert said it was picked because it was the day before the President’s birthday and he wanted it done to raise campaign funds. Steve King says there is no crisis because the President can order anything paid whenever he wants to. Michele said it all gave her a migraine.

If aliens ever landed and met these four empty vessels, they would mark this planet down as having: most intelligent life? whales. Make that an extra LONG steel bristle brush will ya? And with 4 ends? I wanna give it to them all at once.

♦

What I was hoping President Obama would say in his press conference yesterday:

“It seems that Speaker Boehner is not in control of his caucus. I ask them to send me Grover Norquist. Apparently he is in charge and I need to negotiate directly with him.”

Alas the President is too civil for that.

♦

Best line I’ve seen so far:

 “House Speaker John Boehner took his balls and went back to the House, presumably to give them back to Eric Cantor.” (Mustang Bobby at The Reaction )

♦

John Bolton, we have been lead to understand was “sure” that what happened in Oslo was an Al Qaeda operation. Course it wasn’t, since Bolton is an idiot. It was a homegrown terrorist, and self-identified “Christian conservative.” And so when somebody tells your that it is horrible to accuse fundamentalists of being dangerous. . . And would you dip that roto-rooter brush in hot sauce first?

♦

Meanwhile, folks on the extreme social right-wing are sure that this marriage equality in New York is one more step to the debauchery of Old Rome. This fine piece comes from “the sky is always falling” National Review. You’d think they would be embarrassed to print such sludge.

Just a few points:

• Brian S. Brown: Go look up the definition of racism. And when you are done, go talk to the small businesses that cater to weddings. They are ecstatic. And don’t get me started about divorce lawyers.
• William C. Duncan: Two points. It’s been pretty much debunked that marriage is for the purpose of procreation. As to “slippery slope” oh please can’t you be more creative?
• Chuck Donovan: What? I derive some comfort about ancestors? Are you nuts? Read what you wrote. I bet you can’t explain that drivel.
• Matthew J. Franck: No court mandated marriage equality, no legislative mandated equality. Oh yeah, we usually submit EVERY decision to a referendum. How long have you been in this country bucko?

Well there is a good deal more, but you get the drift. Make sure the roto rooters are all of the same-sex for this band of merry bigots.

♦

It is quite clear to me now that humans are a resilient species. How so? Why it progresses, fitfully I admit, even when only about 10% of its total numbers are certifiably sane. I bet no other species can claim that.You disagree? Well read AlterNet’s list of  “The 10 Craziest State Legislatures in America.”

Read it? Now tell me I’m wrong.

We now need so many roto-rooters that I can justifiably call myself a “job creator.” Lower my taxes you dolt!

 

 

 

Who’s Your SuperBowl Champs?

Tags

astronomy, Bill O'Reilly, Billy Kristol, cosmology, Egypt, Extreme right-wing, Glenn Beck, GOP, Green Bay Packers, Media, Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin, Superbowl, universe

Doin’ the happy dance, oh yeah, oh yeah.

Who’s your daddy?

Who’s goin’ to Disney World?

Who’s got a peaceful house? ME!

Who’s unfortunately watching a replay of the whole dang game at 10:00 a.m.? ME!

If ya didn’t know, there is an NFL channel. No sane person would know that, only insane ones. Insane—–>Contrarian.

***

Speaking about insanity, the political world seems just chock full of wackadoodles. And a surprise or two along the way.

Sarah “now channeling Reagan” Palin decided to open her big mouth and spew more idiotic rhetoric. She finally gave her “analysis” of the situation in Egypt. Which means, that she read a headline in the WSJ, her ADD preventing her from actually reading an article.

In any event, she orders the President to come clean on what he “knows about who the next president of Egypt will be.” Where she comes by this notion, is anybody’s guess. Probably in a dream that has been interpreted for her by Beck.

She also sternly warns that we “should not stand” for a government run by the Muslim Brotherhood. This from the same hairbrain whose every third sentence is about protecting and regaining our freedoms and liberties.

I guess Sarah doesn’t see that any other people on the planet have the right to their freedoms and liberties to determine their own form of government and those who will lead them.

While it may not be in our best interest to have Egypt run by the MB’s, it is not our call to make. If, in fact we actually believe in democracy.

In a shocking editorial, Billy Kristol, in the Weekly Standard, lambasted Glenn Beck and by implication (although his story appeared before Ms. Palin’s bullcrap) Sarah’s belligerent woofings.

Kristol had this to say about Beck’s crazy conspiracy theories regarding the Radical Left/Radical Islam joining hands to destroy the world:

[H]ysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society.

[. . .]

Nor is it a sign of health when other American conservatives are so fearful of a popular awakening that they side with the dictator against the democrats.

I fairly reel with surprise in having to say, “spot on!”

***

Outside The Beltway has a full transcript of her remarks and as Doug Mataconis points out, you can’t make sense of it. It’s the typical “word salad” that just seems to go on and on and never make any point, other than somehow she suspicions that Obama isn’t doing it right. She throws in plenty of her clichés here and there, and just runs in a stream of unconsciousness.

***

One has to laugh as Ms. Sarah. She likens herself to Ronnie Reagan. She claims they both refused to “sit down and shut up,” and both her and he were maligned and vilified by the media. Yeah, really. But one has to wonder at the near deification of Reagan by the uber Right. It seems they can find no one else in the Retootlican pantheon, at least in the recent past to hold up for idol worship. 

But the reality is that Reagan did many of the things that Obama is now doing. The extremists on the Right are prevented from seeing this because the red haze of hatred is so thick.  Politicususa strips away some of the mask. So I say, if Sarah wants to compare herself to Reagan, then by all means do, and after reading the post by Rmuse it will establish that this woman shouldn’t be elected dog catcher.

***

I don’t know if you heard about Billo the Clown’s silliness that God is proven because the “tides go in, the tides go out, never a miss communication.” When e-mails poured in explaining gravitational pull from the moon, Billo replied that they were “pinheads” and then went on to ask, “the moon, how did it get there? huh? how did it get there? tell me.” And then he went on to ask, “why do we have one? Why doesn’t Mars?”

Of course O’Reilly is dead wrong again. The moon came from a planetoid that hit the earth billions of years ago, broke up, and then gathered in part from the refuse, held in orbit by that darn gravity again. And Mars has two moons last time I checked.  I guess I’m a pinhead.

No matter, the NYTimes has a nice editorial on how many new planets have been located by the Kepler satellite. If projected across the heavens, Kepler should find upwards of 400,000 planets. This is good news for astronomers and those (exobiologists) who specialize in “life on other planets.” The more there are, the more chance that some support life.

Don’t  bother to tell Billo, it would only make his tiny brain explode.

***

Well, that seems enough for today.

What’s on the stove: Stir-fry, egg rolls.

 

Related Articles

• Kristol calls out Beck over ‘hysteria’ (washingtonmonthly.com)
• A Lack Of Confidence (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)

All Snugged UP

Tags

Al-Jazeera, Bill O'Reilly, demographics, Egypt, El Baradei, Fox News, Glenn Beck, Health care, Israel, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Muslim Brotherhood, Newt Gingrich, Palestine

Okay, it wasn’t actually THAT bad. To be honest, we don’t really know how much snow we got. All the places where we measure were clean of snow. It blew THAT hard. There are places where there are a couple of inches, and then drifts that are two feet high. I’m guessing we got about 4-5 inches.

Still, we are most assuredly snowed in. Which is okay sort of. I mean we got food, and wood. We don’t have any special treats for Superbowl Sunday.

I can’t go shopping til whenever, because when we get out we have to get a new alternator first. And there is plenty of snow in the forecast, though amounts are still up in the air–“up in the air”– get it? And after about four days in the twenties, it’s going back to single digits and subzero at night.

February can go suck an egg.

***

I don’t like much I’m reading in the news so far. Just a few snippets minus the links. Rand Paul is trying to suck money from his supporters with a baseless fear about the US signing a treaty that will strip all private gun ownership. This with the UN. It’s all nonsense as even the NRA admits, yet Paul will scare a lot of folks into sending him money.  What a jerk.

A woman tried to mail a puppy in a two-day priority mail box. Puppy discovered and saved. Woman crazy and should be locked up.

Anderson Cooper assaulted in Cairo as pro-Mubarak forces are sent out to engage violently with the anti-government forces. Meanwhile of course the wackos continue to claim that the “pro-al Qaeda Muslim Brotherhood” has as its first priority to attack Israel.

Within hours of the faked up anti-planned parenthood video, websites and marches are set up and ready to go. Does anyone smell a rat here? All the usual right-wing groups are signed up.

I’m not sure I want to read any more news.

***

Steven Benen does a good analysis of Glenn Beck’s latest insanity. Turkey, a republic since 1928, is in fact a dictatorship according to Beckian land. He posits that China will take New Zealand and all kinds of other squirrelly nonsense. Beck has lost some 1/3 of his followers and seems desperate. Thus the claims get even more insane. Read the analysis and link to the embedded video to see the wacko in action. Followers are being told to “store up food.” Oh and PS: read the comments which are hilarious: “It’s like taking Jack Benny seriously as Hamlet.” Too funny.

***

El Baradei, thought by many to be a likely head of an interim government in Egypt, is well thought of by most of the moderates and liberals. Of course that means he is an enemy of the far right. Both Gingrich (who cares), and John McCain (who cares even less) have warned on Fox Crap that El Baradei is a secret radical and an enemy of the US. What a crock. El Baradei, you will remember, raised the ire of the neo-cons back in the day when he told the truth about Iraq and made their “dangerous” Iraq proofs all the harder.

***
It seems the media is more fun than ever these days. Billo the Clown, touter of “fair and balanced” made it quite clear, that when one “knows” fair and balanced, one knows “not fair and balanced.” And Al-Jazeera is not fair and balanced, and if Alan Colmes suggests they are, well Billo just screams him down. I think that Billo just felt a jab of guilt, don’t you?

***

Reagan’s Solicitor General, and now Harvard professor, Charles Fried says that the new Health Care Law is surely constitutional. This pissed off Orin Hatch to no end, but I’m guessing Fried is a bit more knowledgeable than Hatch. A video of his testimony at Truthout.

***

The call it “Fox Geezer syndrome” and more and more people are complaining about it. It seems that our elderly, left with nothing to do, are turning to Fox and Beck and well, becoming conspiracy fanatics. When they kids call or visit, they are met with endless diatribes about Obama, and the left, to the point that such conversations must be avoided. Funny, but sad it in a way too, because many reporting this are conservatives themselves, and find their parents descent into Fox madness quite disconcerting.

Also, Beck’s numbers have fallen by 1.5 million, and Fox’s median age is, get this: 65! Retirees with nothing to do, sit and watch this crap show all day and night and are the elderly zombie generation. Unreal isn’t it?

***

But another reason why fundamentalist beliefs and rational politics don’t mix. Mikey Huckabee is against the Palestinians having a homeland of their own. Forget of course that it was their homeland long before “God gave it to Israel.” No, Huck believes in the biblical history that suggests that Israel gets all of the promised land. It begs the question that if Huck runs for president, he’s gonna have to explain if he is a biblical apocalyptic believer. If so, I’m thinking he has disqualified himself from the job. Scary crap.

Related Articles

• On One Side the Right, on the Other Conservatives: (brothersjuddblog.com)
• Beck: Most Journalists “Just Punch The Clock” And Are “So Dead Inside” (mediaite.com)
• The Right’s Egypt Freakout (thedailybeast.com)

I Don’t Hafta, But I Am

Tags

American Foreign policy, Bill O'Reilly, birthers, Congress, filibuster, Jon Stewart, Nazism, teabaggers

You know, there is no good way to denote whistling is there on paper? As to the actual thing, I can do it a bit, but did you know that if you can’t sing in tune, you can’t whistle in tune either? That just seems wrong.

Don’t know why I thought of that.

I wrote a piece over at Walking in the Shadows, so I’m not feeling extra wordy over here. That means I’ll write less than 1000 w o r d s here. Are you happy about that?

Yesterday, I mentioned that Jon Stewart had skewered Foxless Noise about Megan Kelly’s claim that they didn’t use the Nazi thing to denigrate people. He did that by simply using clips from their own shows–Beck, O’Reilly, and whoa, even Megan herself was present to two such over-the-top rhetoric.

Billo got all hot and bothered, and went about the nonsense of “justifying” his Nazi reference regards Huff Po. So Jon was forced to explain to BilboBuggins that that wasn’t the point. Explaining was not a defense to “we never do that!” And just to make it even clearer, Stewart threw in two more instances wherein the Bloviator had used Nazi references to put down people.

Billy, you can’t compete against the master. Stop trying! (Go the The Daily Show to see the video of last nights show!)

***

Speaking of which, I continue to wonder. When Foxy and all the other air-headed right-wing wonkos lie, where do they think that print and video goes? Do they really think it’s out of sight, out of existence? The fact that their ignoramus  listeners wouldn’t bother to check is one thing, but surely they should realize that the smarty left will look up the archives. Archives–add that word in your dictionary Foxy Morons.

***

Instead of fixing the problem, the Senate decided it was easier to be dysfunctional. No changes in the filibuster rules. I don’t get these fools. But then again, maybe I do: they are fools.

***

I guess it goes without saying that American foreign policy ain’t quite right, when you feel restricted from supporting democratic uprisings because it interferes with our “security” interests. Why is America so often supporting dictators in the name of security? Experts claim the US cannot afford to be on the wrong side again, supporting a repressive regime.

***

Don’t know about you, but I loves me some birthers. I mean, I wish they would have a convention, because it would be grand to go and view 13 crazy people in one room. Imagine the costuming? Imagine the signs? Imagine the scary makeup?

The Blaze, that scion of rag “reporting” has a piece on the subject, and Hawaii’s innovative way to garner a few bucks from the tried and true loonies who pester then   for copies of the President’s birth certificate.

The Blaze specializes in non-stories, (three paragraphs and 4 pictures) designed to catch the attention of the rabble on the extreme right, so they can rant about how their lives are being ruined by whatever annoys their beer-swilled minds. The comments of course are the point.

BMartin1776 had this to say:

 I hope at least half the states pass that eligibility law for 2012 b/c Barry Dunham, Soetoro, Obama or whatever his name is will be screwed.

Taguoshi added:

B.O. is going to be remembered as the bowing President without a birth certificate, Now, isn’t that just so special?

Peaceuntoyou suggests it all started with a plan from his “radical mom”:

what criminals. You know wish I could rember (sic)  it all. But I truely  (sic)remember there was something in the news years ago about his radical mom and how she said He was going to be the president of the United States. She was really mad I remember. Have to try to do old research unless someone remembers to.

SMYFP thinks its odd the paper boy doesn’t come forward:

It is convenient that no more than a handful of people have come forward remembering “good ole barry” Everybody else in america that was born a citizen here in 1961 will have literally hundreds of people that can remember their life. How is it that no one knew him before? Coincidence? enquiring minds want to know!

And this last from Greensicko who is very sure:

For 100 bucks you will find out Obama is not the first black president, he (sic) listed as WHITE.

There you have it from the ideologically and intellectually deformed.

The Country is safe when we know where they are.

Let’s hear it for Friday!

Related Articles

• Selective Editing? Bill O’Reilly ‘Corrects’ Jon Stewart Over Criticism Of Nazi Rhetoric (mediaite.com)

Easier Said Than Done

Tags

Bill O'Reilly, Extreme right-wing, Fox News, GOP, Obama, Politics, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Tucson shooting

By all accounts, the President hit one out of the ball park. I certainly thought so.  It was eloquent, touching, inspiring, uplifting. It was pure Obama. Even the Right had to admit that he had struck the right note.

Flipping over to Fox, you got plenty of “good jobs” from the panel, albeit with the Foxonian twist: The President had taken their advice, stayed away from finger-pointing and had subtly told the Left to quiet down. Actually of course, he gingerly suggested that both sides temper their remarks.

“If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost,” he said. “Let’s make sure it’s not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness that drifts away with the next news cycle.”

This is of course lost on the Right who find themselves incapable of ever admitting that they are anything but perfectly right. In fact, this propensity is what made Palin’s remarks what one expects of her ilk, and by definition, not Presidential.

I think the President is most right of course, and many on the Left, and a very few on the Right (those who stand for principle in the face of the Tea Party onslaught), have been saying so and begging for some civility for some time.

Why isn’t it happening? Why can we not get beyond this name-calling?

It may come as no surprise that I see the problem as largely on the Right. And the problem is simply because the Right, as I have said, NEVER ever admits they have overstepped. Ever. Sarah and all her kind are always the victims of intentional smears, they are never wrong.

Many on the Left have said that Palin was not personally responsible for the events in Tucson, either directly or ever indirectly by herself. We have said that she participated in the creation of a culture of vitriol that encourages people to act out their angers and their fears. Both of these, anger and fear are the emotion of choice of Palin, Bachmann, King, Cantor, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and Fox in general.

I read a few days ago of a journalist from another country who had the temerity to criticize Bill O’Reilly some years ago. He was astounded, that within twenty-four hours, his education, his employment, and his ethnicity and motives were called into question by Fox. His e-mail was flooded with hate mail. At no time, he said, did O’Reilly or Fox address the fundamental criticisms he leveled.

All these extremists deal in ad hominem attack. They never respond in substance. If they did, then we could dialog.

This is what frustrates reasonable voices on the Left. If Palin, had simply acknowledged that indeed she has in the past used imagery and words that could be misconstrued and for that she was sorry, many who oppose her would have listened and approved. But she cannot do that, for the internalization of criticism is too deep, she takes it too personally. She can’t let it go. She knows of only one way and that is retaliation.

She tells herself, apparently, that no matter how reasonable she might be, the criticism would continue. That is probably true to a degree. The Left has its haters too, and nothing Palin could say or do would be good enough. But that is not true of the mainstream progressive and independent.

While patient education might change the above, the other element in why the Extremist Right cannot change their tenor, is more insidious. It’s not can’t but won’t. And they won’t because it continues to help them achieve their goals. Winning big in the 2010 mid-term elections is proof to them that hate and fear work.

I read something like this yesterday:

You can fool a few of the people all of the time, and this is Fox’s targeted audience.

The truth is, this is actually true. Fox panders to an audience that has been warned off the MSM, and all pundits and politicos that are not following the Fox agenda. It’s audience therefore never becomes informed that so much of what Fox runs is provably wrong. They don’t see the clips of their talking heads saying opposite things from days and weeks and months earlier. They are safely closeted from MSNBC, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, as well as PBS and a plethora of middle-to-light Left commentary and journalism.

Therefore, the Fox lie works. This of course is not lost on the Extremists in the GOP. They too have learned from Fox that lying works to their base. They have come to depend on a largely uneducated, largely ignorant electorate who reads and watches only what they have given them permission to. Members of the Tea Party and GOP Extremists in general have learned the value of repeating the mantra of the day. What is the mantra for Health Care repeal?—JOB KILLING. The phrase is used by EVERYONE on the Right. No matter that it isn’t true, no matter that the CBO has projected that repeal would add billions to the deficit. They simply reply that that is an “opinion.” Is it called the Health Care Act? No it’s called Obamacare, by EVERYONE on the Right.

So in the end, I find it hard to see how the President’s call for civility can be accomplished. When Rush Limbaugh pounds the table and announces that the Democratic Party is “all for the Tucson killer” and Tom Pawlenty barely suggests that Palin’s crosshairs might be “not what he would do” before having to walk it back in the face of condemnation by Fox, then how can we take them seriously? When they are unwilling to admit any culpability in our climate of hate, it is hard to see how we talk with quiet respect to one another. When they are unwilling to condemn the hate mongers among them, how can we honor each other’s real beliefs?

If you know a way, by all means suggest it. I’m stymied.

Related Articles

• O’Reilly’s Fiery Talking Points Memo Fearlessly Slams Krugman, MSNBC (mediaite.com)
• Fox talkers demand Sheriff Dupnik produce evidence. Since when has evidence ever mattered to Fox talkers? (crooksandliars.com)
• The bottom line in America is you are free to hate (cbc.ca)

Held Hostage By the NFL

Tags

agnosticism, Bill O'Reilly, Christians, Contitution, faith, farm workers, gravity, Health care, Humor, immigrants, John Boehner, Latinos, Literature, Mark Twain, Muslims, NFL, physics, Politics, religious doubt, Sports, Steve King, teabaggers, terrorism

Shhh. Be very quiet. This is a house of where now we whisper. “It’s the Playoffs!” Shhhh. Turn around three times, and blink twice. Rub the rabbit’s foot and wiggle your toes. Avoid the black cat.

Negativity be banned. The Packers are poised. They are coming to a TV near you soon. They will prevail. They will overcome.

Okay. Get my drift. My house is in a tizzy all because a bunch of overpaid prima donnas are about to take to the fields of America and cheat, beat each other to a win, all entitling them to advance to the next round.

Everything under heaven and on earth stopped this morning as the Contrarian frantically searched the TV guide looking for THE teams’ game day and time. “I can’t find the early game!” he moaned, nearly swooning with fear.

“Try the Internet,” I mumbled, making the bed.

“Oh God, that will take forever!” he intoned.

“Try NFL Playoffs,” I suggested helpfully.

“I know what to put in!” he huffed.

Ten minutes later, he was pouting, “It’s taking so long!”

“Welcome to my world,” I chuckled.

Suffice it to say that the early game was the late game, and the late game was an even later game, and I get to watch football tonight and then, joy of all joys, do it all over again tomorrow. Whew. I’m sharpening my knitting needles for all the fun!

Now I admit, I can watch football with the best of them, but gee wiz, this is a bit obsessive dontcha think?

Oh, and if there is any question in your mind, the Packers are gonna win the whole thing. You can bet on that literally. Now personally, I have my reservations, but God, I sure ain’t gonna utter them around this house. I’m lucky I got the old goat   Contrarian to go out and bring in some wood to keep my tootsies warm today!

***

Bringing another voice to the Huckleberry Finn controversy, I give you one Roger Ebert. His take is I think worth your while. The more I read of Mr. Ebert, the more I respect this man.

***

Political Irony has your late night political humor here.

***

Don’t know if you heard or not, but Steve King (R-IA) put foot in mouth again. Chastising a Democrat on the floor of the House, for criticizing Speaker Boehner, King regaled that Boehner was full of mendacity, not knowing what the word meant. Boehner indeed is a liar when he claims that the Affordable Heath Care Act is a job killer and costs too much.

Actually it’s working pretty darn good. And that is according to no less than Forbes Magazine. There has been a major uptick in small business buying health insurance for their employees, many for the first time ever, made affordable by the tax credits within the Act.

No doubt Boehner will call that an “opinion” just as he did the CBO estimates that repeal of the act would cause deficits in the area of 230 billion within ten years.

***

Since it doesn’t fuel the narrative offered by Faux News and the GOP, you might have missed this story. Egypt, rift with Al Qaeda like attacks on Coptic Christians, and not confident that their government could protect the latter, saw fit to unite to protect Christians worshiping on Christmas. Yes,  that’s right, Muslims  protecting Christians.

It is essential that we report, and spread the word, that Americans who have an agenda that includes vilifying Muslims must be met with facts. Muslims are not to be another “excuse” to blame some “other” for our own failings.

***

I’ve tried in the past to interact with atheists, but the NeoAtheists are a different breed, younger, and arrogant, and unwilling to discuss issues on any other plane but from a fundamentalist outlook. I know not where to find agnostics, who by their very nature aren’t usually of such a serious bent as to blog on their questions.

James McGrath, does an admirable job of addressing such concerns, with lots of links to atheists, believers and those in-between. I found the discussion heartening and informative.

***

Border Explorer has a very important post on migrant workers in this country. It’s a must read. We owe a great debt to our Latino brothers and sisters for all the work they do. Please read.

***

Inexplicably, Billo the Clown (Bill O’Reilly) seems to believe that the fact that the sun rises and sets and that the tides go in and out, is evidence that God exists. Inexplicable because although I believe that O’Reilly is a horses butt and rather uniformed by choice, I didn’t think he was flat-out stupid. Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have had occasion to query how Billo seems to not understand the concept of GRAVITY?  I mean junior high kids could explain that one to Billo. (H/T to James McGrath.

***

We mentioned the other day that the GOPers in reading the Constitution in the opening session of the House, omitted the 3/5ths clause, because it had been “amended” out. In reality it doesn’t fit with their narrative that the Founding Fathers were perfect and only instituted a limited government. Forgetting of course that the Articles of Confederation were a “limited federal government” and scrapped as unworkable. Of course the 3/5ths clause suggested that our FF were flawed humans as we all are. An excellent article to that effect is by Paul Harvey, teacher of history at University of Colorado. (H/T to James McGrath)

***

What’s on the stove: hotdogs, hash browns and coleslaw.

I’m Off To See the Wizard, Blasphemous Woman!

Tags

bible, Bill O'Reilly, environmentalism, flu shots, global warming, God, Michelle Bachmann, swine flu

If you had seen me this morning, you might have questioned my, shall we say, collection of marbles? My brains in other words. My capacity to logically move from place A to B without swerving off to F. Got that?

I’ve been assaulted this week with certain adjectival and nounish bullets that would put a less well put together psyche down. Not to worry, I have a strong constitution (no not the “we the people” stuff), and an army of disparate fellow travelers who encourage me, and reassure me regularly. I am not crazy, and I’ve said that before. It’s time you took that as a given.

I must say, it does dawn on me often, that I should question my own sanity. Others certainly do. I mean I don’t ask for much, just a reasonable logical explanation of things. This I often do not get, and thus the worry that all is not so well upstairs in the attic of my flashing neurons.

Reading the following, I seriously questioned once again whether I was legally able to fulfill the duties of citizen of planet Earth. It seems that one Billy O’Reilly, Foxy blatherer extraordinaire, suggests that Ms. Bachmann’s detractors are just jealous of her good looks. Yes indeed, Billy Bob Boob, that’s the reason all right. We are jealous cuz she is lovely to be behold. Now that takes care of the lesbians, what about the rest of us straight women? Huh?

Sorry Uncle Bill, but I still find her intellectually bankrupt and morally absurd, or intellectually absurd and morally bankrupt.

Which brings up the whole ugly issue of intelligence. I was recently, or my brains were, compared to a piss-ant. Imagine that? It was also suggested that it was a modern marvel that I could walk and breathe at the same time. This from the paternalistic/defender husband of a woman who told me that I hated Jesus since I couldn’t believe in her wacko notions of creationism.

 I can of course consider the source, and move from this personal assault on intelligence, noting that for some uneducated persons, “common sense” is vastly more important and doesn’t require any actual work. It comes naturally, like the wisdom just there for the asking from God.  No matter that just perhaps, God might have thought books could be a way to acquire wisdom. No we shouldn’t go there. One remembers the man who drowned, waving off all boats because he trusted that “God would save him.”

Some months ago, I started a forum thread about the environment. The environmental catastrophe we are flirting with is something like evolutionary theory, so well known worldwide as to not really be in question any more. Even the Bushites, playing it down of course, grudgingly admitted that it appeared true.

Anyway, my question was, if you claimed there was no environmental climate change, did you base this on scripture or something else. To a person, all claimed that their doubts stemmed from a general conservatism which somehow translates into suspicions about science and scientists in general. Why they don’t have the same suspicions about oil companies and other polluters is not known. In no case did anyone claim there was a spiritual reason.

But now we have one. I have recently seen a FaceBook entry which cited the bible, specifically Genesis for the proposition that we need do nothing regarding the environment. The verses are Gen. 8:22.

As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.”

From this we are to deduce (if we so self-interpret) that the earth will remain until such time as God in his good pleasure decides otherwise. Well, I think that’s a pretty big stretch, and even if so, it makes no claims as to the condition the earth will be in “as long as the earth endures.” Frankly, I find it as meaningless as the claims by some Catholics that “go forth and multiply and be fruitful” is God’s direction against contraception. But no matter.

It’s pretty flimsy evidence upon which to bargain the life of one’s children and their children and theirs on. At least as I see it.

 

Speaking of which, I saw another set of links to UTube, you know that academic land of excellence, wherein parents were warned not to let their kids get flu shots this year. Given that people are DYING from swine flu, and that the target groups are the very young (who can’t decide for themselves) and pregnant women, who can, I’d say it’s pretty irresponsible to invite people to make up their minds based on UTube.

Particularly so, when the link has to do with mercury being in some flu shots. Actually the truth of the matter is that some shots are stabilized with thimerosal. I know about this since I am allergic to it. This is easily solved by asking for the vaccine without the preservative. Simple. It is not wrong to raise some concern, but surely the way to do that is to direct people to their physicians? rather than UTube?

But then again, some folks have no sense of “sourcing.”  Bad sources make for much laughter. But in the hands of the wrong trusting people, they can lead to tragedy. Beware giving advice when you have zero in the credential field.

So it just goes to show you, that if you are crazy enough, you ensure that I am sure that I am not. I don’t need no stinkin’ shrink for that!

Just sayin’.