Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Great Quotes on Religion

1. The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality. – George Bernard Shaw
2. Faith means not wanting to know what is true. – Friedrich Nietzsche
3. I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. – Frank Lloyd Wright
4. We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. – Gene Roddenberry
5. To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. - Isaac Asimov
6. A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. – Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
7. Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. – Seneca the Younger
8. Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. – Anonymous
9. Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on weekends. – Woody Allen
10. If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. – Isaac Asimov
11. Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination. – Edward Abbey
12. With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. – Steven Weinberg
13. I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence. – Doug McLeod
14. The world holds two classes of men – intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. – Abu’l‐Ala al Ma’arri
15. Since the Bible and the church are obviously mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust them to tell us where we are going? – Anonymous
16. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. – Susan B. Anthony
17. The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike. – Delos B. McKown
18. Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer. – Anonymous
19. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men. – Francis Bacon
20. The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. – Richard Dawkins
21. A God who kept tinkering with the universe was absurd; a God who interfered with human freedom and creativity was tyrant. If God is seen as a self in a world of his own, an ego that relates to a thought, a cause separate from its effect. he becomes a being, not Being itself. An omnipotent, all‐knowing tyrant is not so different from earthly dictators who make everything and everybody mere cogs in the machine which they controlled. An atheism that rejects such a God is amply justified. – Karen Armstrong
22. It is not as in the Bible, that God created man in his own image. But, on the contrary, man created God in his own image. – Ludwig Feuerbach
23. People ask me what I think about that woman priest thing. What, a woman priest? Women priests. Great, great. Now there’s priests of both sexes I don’t listen to. – Bill Hicks
24. All the biblical miracles will at last disappear with the progress of science. – Matthew Arnold
25. Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence. – Anonymous
26. Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one. – Richard Dawkins
27. What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof. – Christopher Hitchens
28. In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point. – Friedrich Nietzsche
29. It will yet be the proud boast of women that they never contributed a line to the Bible. – George W. Foote
30. On the first day, man created God. – Anonymous
31. I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. – Stephen Roberts
32. You do not need the Bible to justify love, but no better tool has been invented to justify hate. – Richard A. Weatherwax
33. What’s “God”? Well, you know, when you want something really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God’s the guy that ignores you. – Steve Buscemi (From the movie “The Island”)
34. As far as I can tell from studying the scriptures, all you do in heaven is pretty much just sit around all day and praise the Lord. I don’t know about you, but I think that after the first, oh, I don’t know, 50,000,000 years of that I’d start to get a little bored. – Rick Reynolds
35. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish. – Anonymous
36. Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color. – Don Hirschberg
37. God should be executed for crimes against humanity. – Bryan Emmanuel Gutierrez
38. To say that atheism requires faith is as dim-witted as saying that disbelief in pixies or leprechauns takes faith. Even if Einstein himself told me there was an elf on my shoulder, I would still ask for proof and I wouldn’t be wrong to ask. – Geoff Mather
39. I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. – Mark Twain
40. Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men. – Voltaire
41. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence. – Bertrand Russell
42. Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? – Epicurus
43. I’m a polyatheist – there are many gods I don’t believe in. – Dan Fouts
44. If it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever. – Woody Allen
45. A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it. – David Stevens
46. Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. – Robert A Heinlein
47. I refuse to prove that I exist,” says God, “for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing. – Douglas Adams
48. It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. – Mark Twain
49. He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave. – William Drummond
50. Remember, Jesus would rather constantly shame gays than let orphans have a family. – Steven Colbert
51. Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s? – Friedrich Nietzsche
52. Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. – Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney
53. Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea. – Anonymous
54. When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal and wholesome life. – Sigmund Freud
55. They felt that science would be corrosive to religious belief and they were worried about it. Damn it, I think they were right. It is corrosive to religious belief and it’s a good thing. – Steven Weinberg
56. Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains. – Robert G. Ingersoll
57. History teaches us that no other cause has brought more death than the word of god. – Giulian Buzila
58. Atheism is a non-prophet organization. – George Carlin
59. We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. – Richard Dawkins
60. A believer states everything must have a creator but fail to say how he was created. – Anonymous
61. “There are no atheists in foxholes” isn’t an argument against atheism, it’s an argument against foxholes. – James Morrow
62. People will then often say, ‘But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?’ This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.) – Douglas Adams
63. Properly read, the bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever conceived. – Isaac Asimov
64. If all the Christians who have called other Christians “not really a Christian” were to vanish, there’d be no Christians left. – Anonymous
65. An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. – John Buchan
66. Gods dont kill people. People with Gods kill people. – David Viaene
67. If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself. – Alexandre Dumas
68. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. – Sam Harris
69. I don’t believe in God because I don’t believe in Mother Goose – Clarence Darrow
70. No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism. – Annie Wood Besant
71. I refuse to believe in a god who is the primary cause of conflict in the world, preaches racism, sexism, homophobia, and ignorance, and then sends me to hell if I’m ‘bad’. – Mike Fuhrman
72. Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. – Frater Ravus
73. Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o, and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have. – Penn Jillette
74. Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power but absolute power is corrupt only in the hands of the absolutely faithful. – Anonymous
75. Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. – Chapman Cohen
76. The inspiration of the bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it. – Robert G. Ingersoll
77. When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion. – Robert Pirsig
78. I wonder who got the shit job of scouring the planet for the 15000 species of butterfly or the 8800 species of ant they eventually took on board Noah’s Ark. But at least we got that magical rainbow for all their trouble. – Azura Skye
79. I have no need for religion, I have a conscience. – Anonymous
80. Man has always required an explanation for all of those things in the world he did not understand. If an explanation was not available, he created one. – Jim Crawford
81. I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. – Richard Dawkins
82. What has been Christianity’s fruits? Superstition, Bigotry and Persecution. – James Madison
83. The characters and events depicted in the damn bible are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. – Penn and Teller
84. If god is the alpha and the omega. The begining and the end, knows what has passed and what is to come, like it states in the bible, why do people pray and think it will make any difference. – Mark Fairclough
85. The finality of death is the coldest truth one must face. Religion makes the perfect distraction. – Anonymous
86. Religion is the opiate of the masses. – Karl Marx
87. If God created the world, then who created god? and who created whoever created god? So somewhere along the line something had to just be there. So why can’t we just skip the idea of god and go straight to earth? – Ryan Hanson
88. If we expect God to subscribe to one religion at the exclusion of all the others, then we should expect damnation as a matter of chance. This should give Christians pause when expounding their religious beliefs, but it does not. – Sam Harris
89. Atheists will celebrate life, while you’re in church celebrating death. – Anonymous
90. Animals do not have gods, they are smarter than that. – Ronnie Snow
91. I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever. – Daniel Boorstin
92. I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God. So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake… Religion is all bunk. – Thomas Edison
93. Fundamentalism, of any type, due to its prerequisite lack of intelligent thought, could prove to be the worst weapon of mass destruction, of all. – David J. Constable
94. To really be free, You need to be free in the mind. – Alexander Loutsis
95. Most religions prophecy the end of the world and then consistently work together to ensure that these prophecies come true. – Anonymous
96. Jesus hardly made the greatest sacrifice. He knew he would be resurrected anyway. – Anonymous
97. Religion is like a virus that affects the behaviour of its host in such a way as to propagate itself further. – Jack Pritchard
98. Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing. – Anonymous
99. Today’s religion will be the future’s mythology. Both believed at one time by many; but proved wrong by the clever. – Steven Crocker
100. The Bible – A Fairytale book of rules brainwashing millions. Obliviously used to help create war, kill, hate, judge and discriminate. – Anonymous
101. Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? – Douglas Adams

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Follow the Money

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Beck - Not So Mellow Gold
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealth Care Crisis


As with all things, the paranoid fear mongers have a vested interest in the panic and fear they are selling. Why did Bush go to war with Iraq? Why did Paulson want to rush $700 billion with no strings attached to AIG and other companies in 2007? Follow the money. You are being lied to!

Friday, January 22, 2010

For the Corporation by the Corporation

From CNN:
Supreme Court eases restrictions on corporate campaign spending

So ya, the conservative Republicans on the Supreme Court has just ruled that it infringes on a corporations "1st amendment rights" to not allow them to directly contribute to political candidates.

Corporations are not people. They don't have the same rights as people nor can they be arrested, drafted into the military or serve jail time. Their rights are not guaranteed by the constitution because the constitution does not start off by saying "We the Corporation", it starts off saying, "We the People of the United States" and later goes on to say that We the People are getting these rights because we also have the responsibility to "provide the common defense" and "promote the general welfare" of the United States, something that would be in direct conflict to a profit motivated corporation, especially a corporation that has already outsourced American jobs. I mean war has been profitable to many corporations and those corporations have typically been the ones who funded the President who had made the decision to go to war so in reality not much is changing with this new Supreme Court decision but it will certainly make it a lot easier for them to directly influence politics. And now, they no longer even have to be industry specific; For example, Exxon is now free to run a prolife campaign ad endorsing a candidate...which will always be a Republican by the way.

To me (AKA not a constitutional lawyer) if corporations are represented by the constitution, aren't they then in contempt of the constitution if they aren't living up to the same obligations, such as providing for the common defense and common welfare of the United States, jury duty, etc., we the people are expected to provide? People have been sent to prison for not coming to the defense of the United States by burning their draft cards yet corporations don't have that worry. People have been sent to prison for tax evasion but no corporation ever has. If they don't have that worry, if a corporation can never be put in jail for committing a crime (and the commit many) then why do they get all the rights and privileges we the people, especially if we the people are the ones who also pay the majority of taxes? For instance, 50 years ago corporate taxes accounted for 1/3rd of all federal revenues whereas today, they only account for 1/8th of all federal revenues collected. A lot of major corporations today, such as GE, AT&T, Boeing, Eli Lilly, Merrill Lynch, etc., go years paying no federal taxes at all and in many cases even receive federal subsidies....They are on welfare!

Now that they are handing out our unalienable rights to corporations, should we also give them the right to vote, the right to run for office? Guarantee them against excessive bail or unusual punishment (oh right, they can't be arrested)? Actually, we are giving them something more powerful than the mere right to vote so they now (ok they always have) have more power than the people.

Look, any individual who works for a corporation has every right, as a person, to contribute to or endorse any candidate they may wish to endorse, I have no problem with that. If the CEO of Exxon wants to contribute to and openly endorse members of congress who favor of subsidizing the oil industry and wants to limit their liability in oil spills and wants to repeal environmental laws and go to war with nations who refuse to sell us their oil, then he has every right to do so. But, how much more dangerous is it and how much more personal would it be for a candidate actually be controlled by a single corporation or how much pressure would a candidate be under, not by his constituents or PAC's or industry lobbyists, but by one specific corporation to pass laws favorable or not to pass laws that are not favorable to a specific company? If you think Wall Street, big oil, insurance and drug companies run congress now...

By the way, who is keeping someone from giving another person money a restriction of free speech?? Doesn't free speech involve...I don't know, speech? Words?

The only good thing about this is that once Unions start running attack ads on Republicans, it is possible that the Republicans on the Supreme Court could be convinced to change their mind as we know this has nothing to do with law, right or wrong or free speech.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Game Change

Some very good insights into the real Sarah Palin and how she really doesn't know anything. Not only is she not qualified to be a commentator on Faux News, well, ok, maybe Faux News but certainly no real news network but the McCain camp found out she wasn't qualified to be Vice President which most certainly would make her unqualified to be President. Of course, if you watch these guys being interviewed by Sean Hannity on Faux, he never asks about this part of their book. No coincidence there.




And note that no other figure in the book "Game Change", is claiming that any of their accounts were false; only Sarah Palin, but reluctantly. When Bill O'Reilly asked if these guys were lying, she changed the subject before finally, reluctantly saying they were lying for the most part. And then after discussing the stories about Palin in the book, O'Reilly blows the story off by saying one of the authors was a liberal who worked for NY Magazine thus "proving" the story must be a lie because only liberals would lie. He also fails to mention that the other author of the book, Mark Halperin is a political analyst for Time Magazine and when appearing on Hugh Hewitt's conservative Christian radio talk show, Halperin claimed he agreed with everything Hugh was saying and on his blog constantly references Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Matt Drudge far more than he makes references to their liberal counterparts. In other words, there is no reason to assume that anything in this book is false.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Enough With the "If You Are Armed No One Will Attack You" Bullshit From the NRA Part Deux

From CNN:

Courthouse gunman lost Social Security case, official says


Yet again, a gunmen attacks a place that he knows for sure he will encounter armed security and it does not deter him. Yet again this shows that by arming yourself it doesn't mean that no one will attack you.

Funny that no one has called this one an act of terrorism based solely on the suspect's last name. If his name had been Emir, this would have gotten much more press and people would be talking about how Obama is weak and terrorism or how evil Muslims are or something like that. But when it's a good old fashioned American name it's just some crazy guy out for revenge as if Muslims aren't capable of the same type of actions.

Really, the whole Muslim thing isn't the point of this post and if these incidents of people shooting up military bases and courthouses where they know they will encounter armed resistance wouldn't keep happening, I wouldn't keep posting about it, but it does keep happening.

I am not here to talk about gun control nor am I here to talk about the 2nd Amendment; I personally own a gun. Why I keep bringing this up (aside from the fact that it keeps happening) is that I want to dispel the myth that more guns make us safer or that if you have a gun you are less likely to be killed by a gun (which is also a myth because you are more likely to be killed with a gun if you own one than someone who doesn't) and that almost 100% of the time when you see a place with more guns, you get more gun deaths (Perhaps only Switzerland is the anomaly yet they have some of the strictest gun control measures in the world and everyone who owns a gun is trained how to use it). I also want to point out that gun nuts and the NRA all said the school and college shootings happened and those places were specifically targeted because they are gun free zones. My contention is that these were merely places these people knew well, spent most of their time and experienced most of their pain so it was only natural for them to take out their frustrations on the people and places they thought brought them this pain. This shooting in Vegas, the one in Seattle where armed cops were targeted and the one at Ft. Hood were no different. Look at the green zone in Iraq, it's the most heavily armed area in Iraq yet it still gets attacked. Some people, especially crazy, mentally unstable people who have a suicide wish anyway, don't care if a place is armed or it isn't.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Oxy Contin

http://www.comcast.net/articles/entertainment/20091231/US.Limbaugh.Hospital/

Looks like someone's been hitting the narcotics again.

Notice this was filed under "entertainment", just as it was when Britney Spears shaved her head and flashed her junk.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen

Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen

Posted on Dec 22, 2009
By Yasha Levine

Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government “handout” as socialism. What her followers probably don’t know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That’s right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.

And she’s not the only one who has been padding her bank account with taxpayer money.

Bachmann, of Minnesota, has spent much of this year agitating against health care reform, whipping up the so-called tea-baggers with stories of death panels and rationed health care. She has called for a revolution against what she sees as Barack Obama’s attempted socialist takeover of America, saying presidential policy is “reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom.”

But data compiled from federal records by Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog that tracks the recipients of agricultural subsidies in the United States, shows that Bachmann has an inner Marxist that is perfectly at ease with profiting from taxpayer largesse. According to the organization’s records, Bachmann’s family farm received $251,973 in federal subsidies between 1995 and 2006. The farm had been managed by Bachmann’s recently deceased father-in-law and took in roughly $20,000 in 2006 and $28,000 in 2005, with the bulk of the subsidies going to dairy and corn. Both dairy and corn are heavily subsidized—or “socialized”—businesses in America (in 2005 alone, Washington spent $4.8 billion propping up corn prices) and are subject to strict government price controls. These subsidies are at the heart of America’s bizarre planned agricultural economy and as far away from Michele Bachmann’s free-market dream world as Cuba’s free medical system. If American farms such as hers were forced to compete in the global free market, they would collapse.

However, Bachmann doesn’t think other Americans should benefit from such protection and assistance. She voted against every foreclosure relief bill aimed at helping average homeowners (despite the fact that her district had the highest foreclosure rate in Minnesota), saying that bailing out homeowners would be “rewarding the irresponsible while punishing those who have been playing by the rules.” That’s right, the subsidy queen wants the rest of us to be responsible.

Bachmann’s financial disclosure forms indicate that her personal stake in the family farm is worth up to $250,000. They also show that she has been earning income from the farm business, and that the income grew in just a few years from $2,000 to as much as $50,000 for 2008. This has provided her with a second government-subsidized income to go with her job as a government-paid congresswoman who makes $174,000 per year (in addition to having top-notch government medical benefits). “If she has an interest in a farm getting federal subsidy payments, she is benefiting from them,” Sandra Schubert, director of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, told Gannett News Service in 2007, when the subsidies to Bachmann were first publicly disclosed.

But Bachmann isn’t the only welfare recipient on Capitol Hill. As it turns out, there is a filthy-rich class of absentee farmers—both in and out of Congress—who demand free-market rules by day and collect their government welfare checks in the mail at night, payments that subsidize businesses that otherwise would fail. Over the past couple of decades, welfare for the super-wealthy seems to be the only kind of welfare our society tolerates.

In the 11 years for which the Environmental Working Group has compiled data, the federal government paid out a total of $178 billion to American farmers. We’re not talking about the Jeds here. The bulk of subsidies go to the wealthy, not small farmers, as Ken Cook, the group’s president, explained to the Central Valley (Calif.) Business Times:

American taxpayers have been writing farm subsidy checks to wealthy absentee land owners, state prison systems, universities, public corporations, and very large, well-heeled farm business operations without the government so much as asking the beneficiaries if they need our money. ... Even if you live smack in the middle of a big city, type in a ZIP code and you’ll find farm subsidy recipients.

Chuck Grassley, the longtime Republican senator from Iowa who warns his constituents of Obama’s “trend toward socialism,” has seen his family collect $1 million in federal handouts over an 11-year period, with Grassley’s son receiving $699,248 and the senator himself pocketing $238,974. Even Grassley’s grandson is learning to ride through life on training wheels, snagging $5,964 in 2005 and $2,363 in 2006. In the Grassley family they learn early how to enjoy other people’s money.

Sen. Grassley railed against government intervention in the health care market, telling The Washington Times, “Whenever the government does more ... that’s a movement toward socialism.” As the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, he ought to know, especially because the government has done more for him and his kin than for Americans struggling with high medical bills and mortgages. Even the free-market think tank the Heritage Foundation criticized Grassley on his deep connections to farming interests and his stubborn lack of transparency.

Then there’s Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., whose family has been on the government take for at least the past 11 years, pocketing some $500,000. The senator recently held a “prayercast” with Michele Bachmann to beseech God to kill health care reform as soon as possible because it would bring an evil socialist spirit into America. Like Bachmann, Brownback has a fierce belief in God, the free market and a two-year limit on all welfare benefits—unless it’s welfare to rich Republicans who don’t need it.

This is the type of shit I have been talking about for years. When the world welfare is brought up you usually think of the fat black woman in the projects with too many kids she couldn't afford but in reality, it usually goes to rich white people.

Corn alone is subsidized to the tune of about 7 Billion dollars per year going to states such as Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, etc... Yes, mainly red states, mainly states that are more rural and more conservative; the very ones who can't stand other people getting something for nothing. Lets not forget that along with corn and dairy the tobacco industry as well as sugar, cotton and almost anything you can think of is subsidized by your tax dollars. Corn, sugar, tobacco???Do you see a problem with subsidizing the very things that are killing Americans and making us fat and unhealthy and raising health care costs?? Not to mention that almost all oil companies (who make billions in profits) and mining companies also receive federal subsidies and these subsidies are typically going to more rural and poorer states with smaller urban areas who generally receive more money back from the federal government than the taxes which are collected from them. This means that IL, CA, NY, MA, FL, NJ, CT, WA, OR, etc. all have to pay for the corn, tobacco, cotton, sugar, cows in places like KY, TN, SC, AR, UT, LA, MS, AL, OK, NE, etc.

Michele Bachmann is a Socialist!!!

Monday, November 30, 2009

Enough With the "If You Are Armed No One Will Attack You" Bullshit From the NRA

Seattle Area Shooting

A couple of weeks ago I pointed out the flaw in the logic gun nuts use to justify them carrying guns everywhere they go or that more guns make us safer by pointing out that a gunmen specifically targeted the Fort Hood military base. Yet again, a gunmen has specifically targeted a place that is known to be frequented by armed police officers and shot 4 armed police officers dead.

Can we finally put to rest the ridiculous notion that if you are carrying a gun, or if you own a gun, you are automatically safer because no one in their right mind would attack someone who is armed? First off, by owning a gun you are 3 times more likely to be killed by a gun. It's sort of like the gun toting soccer mom syndrome.

Again, I am not saying the 2nd Amendment should be repealed; I own a gun. But time and time again we see that the countries, cities, etc. that have the most guns, have the most gun deaths. And again, I am not talking about gun control, I am talking about the amount and availability of guns in general. More guns do not make you safer; owning a gun does not make you safe nor necessarily protect you from violence.

The silver lining is that it looks like
Maurice Clemmons is going to be Mike Huckabee's Willie Horton since Huckabee pardoned this guy as Governor of Arkansas.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

The Christian Side Hug



#106. The side hug.

Posted using ShareThis
"Yes, God wants us to be compassionate and kind and tender with each other. Not only that, but he wants us to love our enemies and serve our neighbors. As long as there is no body on body action. I’m talking of course about a “full frontal hug,” one of those sinful abominations where you just wrap your arms around a friend and embrace them. That’s why Christians the world over have pioneered the “side hug.” In the side hug there’s no risk of two crotches touching. Instead of face to face, you go side to side, putting your arm around the person and your hip against their’s. Still having a hard time mastering it? Pretend you’re taking a photo and you’re both looking at the camera together. The side hug, or A frame as it is also called, is safe for the whole family, friendly and above all holy. I don’t know the exact scripture reference but try the book of Psalms."


Wow, these poor kids are being brain washed in thinking that not only does being gay make the baby Jesus cry but that Jesus was also against hugging (but not dancing on stage like a whigger, hoochie whore). Look, if you get a boner from a hug, you do need to get laid, badly. Sorry, but things happen to the human body at certain ages for a reason. There is only so much denying it you can do. I'm not advocating 14 year olds having sex, I mean I think I waited until I was 16 but things happen at that age and that's just the way it is. So are you allowed to give your Mom full frontal hugs???Grandmas?? Or is it ok for immediate family?? I think we should all just live in bubbles...That way we will be sure not to offend Jesus.

Look, even if Jesus didn't want you to have sex before you were married then he shouldn't have intelligently designed you to be ready for and crave sex and be capable of making babies when you turned 15. Oh, wait, ya, when Jesus was around most people got married in their teens. Hmm, well that made waiting a little easier didn't it? Wow, what a difference context makes. Too bad other people can't apply context to what was written in the Bible.

Even though Sarah Palin can tell you that abstinence doesn't work, the good thing about this is that if these kids aren't having sex, then we can rest assured that they aren't reproducing. The problem is these idiots are the ones who vote...when they are old enough.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

True Dat



And of course these mental giants:

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

2012

Ok, so there is a new movie called 2012 demonstrating the consequences of the "predictions of the Maya" and there are plenty of people who think, because of the accuracy of their calendar, that this will be the end of the world or at least the start of the end of the world. First off, the Mayans didn't predict that this would be the end of the world. The Mayans merely stopped counting at the Winter solstice of 2012. Being that it was more than 500 years into the future, why bother with keeping up with any more than that...Pretty logical actually.

And lets just assume for a minute that they did predict the end of the world. Let's think on that for a minute...The Mayans could predict the end of the world...Does anyone see the irony in all this?? They couldn't even predict small pox, the Spaniards, gun powder, etc...And yet, there are people who think we can trust them with predictions regarding the end of the world??? At some point, you have to stop counting somewhere!! End of story. A society such as the Mayan would probably pick an event such as the solstice as a good stopping point. What's the significance of 2012??Who knows, maybe the calendar maker stopped when he saw the sails and crosses of a Spanish armada outside his window and thought that there were more pressing issues at hand so he just stopped counting...It could be as simple as that.

If you think there is something to 12/21/2012 then you were probably on of the idiots who unplugged your computer on 1/1/00.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Gunmen Only Target Gun Free Zones!

From CNN 11/5/09:

Officials: 11 killed, plus gunman, in Fort Hood shootings

Wait, how could this be? From Columbine, Virginia Tech and Salt Lake City all we hear from the gun nuts is how the only reason schools and malls are targeted is because they are gun free zones. They say that the only reason crazed fucking psychopaths who are going to kill themselves after the shooting anyway, target these places is because they "know" other people (their victims) won't be armed. The consensus from that side is that the more guns you have, the safer you will be. Any moron with a brain knows that isn't true because all you have to do is look at the gun fatality rates in all different countries around the world to see that the ones with the higher death rates are the ones with the most guns. Let's forget for a moment what kind of chaos a responding officer would stumble upon if every time there was a public shooting spree, 30 armed citizens all pulled out their guns looking for the guy with a gun. I know all of those things are far too practical for the over zealous gun nuts to think through but at least now we have an obvious example of how crazed gunmen don't just target gun free zones. In this instance, they targeted the largest U.S. military base in the world which is home to:Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command and the gunmen was able to kill at least 13 people before he was finally shot.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Public Option Passes

House Democrats unveil $894 billion health care bill

Wow, just when I thought Obama and the Democrats pussied out, the House passed health care reform with a public option. The bill will cost 894 Billion over the next 10 years or about 89 Billion per year which is about 32 Billion dollars less per year than we spend per year on the Iraq war. The good thing about this is that this money will go to help Americans....36 million uninsured Americans to be exact and make health care more affordable and will force insurance companies to play by the rules.

So if any fiscal conservatives want to bitch about throwing too much money away, Iraq is by far the biggest reasons the tax rates of the top 1% of the population will return to what they were in the 90s and still be about half of what they were during Reagan's first term.
Healthy Profits

Friday, September 25, 2009

Mike Sever (Kirk Cameron) Is a Douche




Now to address his points:

Yes, I am concerned about what is happening in this country. I am concerned that being stupid is now being called moral and that there are people who try to force their religion on people by passing out Bibles and sneaking into courthouse grounds at midnight to install a statue of the 10 Commandments.

Since when are kids not allowed to pray in public? I see football players do it all the time when they score touchdowns and I don't see them being hauled off in the Obama paddy wagon. Stop making shit up.

It's not like the 10 Commandments were at one time in every class room and the Atheists came in with their guns and bats to destroy them. This is a made up issue by the Christian right who are trying to force the 10 Commandments on to other people and install them in every public location possible and act as if it was their right. If it's ok to build a statue of the 10 Commandments on a courthouse lawn then it would be equally ok to install a statue of the 5 pillars of Islam right??

And no, creationism nor any other part of the Bible is taught in a public class room. It’s similar to how teachers and scientists don't show up to your church and teach biology, chemistry and math. That's the deal, you don't make any laws allowing them to teach the Bible in schools and we don't make any laws allowing us to teach evolution in your church. It’s a pretty fair deal if you ask me. That goes for praying too. We don't pass out school lunches in your church so don't pray in our schools. There are plenty of schools where prayers are allowed such as madrassas. If you want your kids to be praying and not learning in school, then send them to a madrassa. Jesus specifically says that prayer is a private matter (Matthew 6:5-8) and something that is to be done in a church or at your bedside, not at school.

And who the fuck are the Gideons? Oh right, they are the group that prohibits Catholics, Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, Orthodox Christians, Unitarians, Muslims, Jews and Mormons from joining their organization. And yes, it is unconstitutional for these people to go onto public ground and enter a public school class room and hand out a Protestant Bible because that would almost be like the government endorsing one religion over the other and that almost sounds like a violation of the separation of church and state.

Thanks for pointing out that you have to be smart and educated in order to teach Biology and Psychology at the top 50 Universities in the country. That is no coincidence. And how many of those top 50 Universities are located in the Bible belt? Also not a coincidence. Yes the more educated you become, the less likely you are to believe in fairy tales such as Santa Clause and the Holy Ghost and the Garden of Eden and a sexist, racist, sky god.

Ok, wait, who is being brainwashed? Who is not being exposed to other points of views?? I can assure you that with the Bush administration over the last few years, the Palin's of the world along with all the faith based, evangelical crusade to install the 10 commandments and the manger in every town hall, the normal people of this country hear plenty from the side of creationists. We have to suffer through your prayers before football games, have let you add "Under God" to our secular Pledge of Allegiance, let you add "In God We Trust" to our money and now even our license plates in some states. And if the parents want their kids to learn about God then they should take them to church, not send them to school. School is where you go to learn facts; church is where you go to learn mysticism. Do you also want us to replace Chemistry with Alchemy? Astronomy with Astrology?

So what was that about only God can show man how to do good and only God can teach man to love?? If that were the case then wouldn't our prisons be full of atheists? Wouldn't all the terrorists and abortion clinic bombers be atheists? Wouldn't the Bible belt have the least amount of crime, the least amount of domestic abuse, the least amount of teen pregnancies and the least amount of children born out of wedlock? In all those cases I think that you will find just the opposite. I think you are way past 3 strikes at this point so you should have already been called "out", but I will continue.

Speaking of sexism and racism, what book are you reading? The Jews are the chosen people?? Does that sound just a little racist to you? In the Bible the word "Goyim" AKA Gentile, translates into "Heathen" 143 times. How about Genesis 3:16: To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." Or Exodus 21:7: "If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do.

How's that for Sexism?

I can draw more correlations between Martin Luther and Hitler than Mike Sever can between Hitler and Darwin. Sure, Hitler applied a sort of social Darwinism to his reign in Germany but let's not forget that social Darwinism isn't Darwinism. Just as Wahhabism is a perverted form of Islam and the Westboro Baptist Church is a perverted form of Christianity or Jews for Jesus is a perverted form of Judaism. Darwin never taught that weaker or smaller or different races should be exploited by the ones in power. Unlike Martin Luther and Hitler, he was not a Jew hater. In fact, the book the Protestant reformationist wrote, On the Jews and Their Lies, had a much greater influence on Hitler and holocaust than Origin of Species. So, Mike, if you are going to blame any idealists for the holocaust then you had better start with your own Protestant forefather.

So you laughed at the idea that nothing created everything yet that's exactly the premise of the creation story in Genesis. How is one more ridiculous than the other except that scientists don't actually claim nothing created everything they can just trace the universe back to one single event but never go as far as to say that nothing created everything which is exactly what the Bible says. The Bible says that God was always there, which with your logic is impossible since you claim that scientists are wrong when they say that matter in the universe was just always there. Which is it? Can something come from nothing or not? If not, then your god either doesn't exist or was created by yet another god. With this argument you discredit your own beliefs.

And you said there were no transitional fossil records between species? Really? What about Tiktaalik,Panderichthys, Eryops, Elginerpeton,Thrinaxodon, Yanoconodon, Pedopenna, Archaeopteryx, Ambulocetus (the walking whale),not to mention Australopithecus, Homo habilis and Homo erectus. What I do know is that there is no fossil or archeological evidence of the Garden Of Eden, Adam and Eve (or even that the mitochondrial "adam" and "eve" lived at the same time) Noah's Ark, That several of every animal species in the world living in an Ark for almost a years time, The Ark of the Covenant, a Flood which covered the entire Earth, 7 headed dragons in the sea, Jericho being an inhabited city by the time the Israelites got there, Jonah living in a whale, Mary being a virgin, Jesus performing miracles, Jesus rising from the dead, Jesus being the son of God, God, etc. Yet, for some reason, the absence of evidence of these things aren't a problem for you, yet the absence of a complete evolutionary chronology of every species on Earth leaves doubt in your mind? WTF??

And let's not forget that Newton, Copernicus, Bacon, Kepler and Faraday were all dead by the time Origin of Species was written so how would they even have the option of shunning creationism before there was another explanation?

Oh, and the Alliance Defense Fund and Campus Crusade in Christ are the same people and are also the ones who think they can change a person's sexual orientation. And Answers in Genesis speaks for themselves because there are in fact no scientific questions answered in the book of Genesis. So...Consider the source is what I am trying to say.

As you can see, Mike Seever is still a douche bag and has no idea what he is talking about and probably a bit paranoid.