The bullshit briggade

The Garbage Christians Say...

Pastor Becky Fischer is a Pentecostal children's pastor best known for her role in the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp. Fischer is a third-generation Pentecostal on her father's side and a fourth-generation Pentecostal on her mother's side. - Wikipedia 

   "It's no wonder, with that kind of intense training and discipling, that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I wanna see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I wanna see them as radically laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places, you know, because we have... excuse me, but we have the truth!"

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Victoria's Secret

The crotchless panties must have been on sale.

   

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The shallow end

These secession petitions popping up on the We The People, whitehouse.gov site are an interesting phenomena. Currently there are 68 petitions with every state represented… some more than once. In fact there are 41 petitions from 25 red states and 36 from 26 blue states.

Democrat leaning California, Illinois, New Mexico and New York have two each while Ohio and Virginia three. Republican Alaska, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Utah each have two while Georgia and Missouri have raised three.

States with highest participation are North Dakota with 1.59%, Wyoming with 1.46%, and Montana at 1.27%... all red states. States with the fewest signatures as a percentage of population are Republican leaning Missouri at 0.023 and North Carolina at 0.020, with always blue California making a significantly inconsequential showing at 0.002%.

With over 110 thousand signatures, Texas surpasses all other states by a factor of three and is actually the most popular petition on the White House site. Funny thing is that two Texas cities have raise petitions to secede from Texas yet remain part of the U.S.A. One of these cities, Austin, raised more than double the signatures by population than Texas raised as a state.

Lots of questions as to the validity of these petitions. How many duplicate signatures? How many spoof signatures from people thinking the idea is ludicrous? How many signed by folks not from that particular state and how many of them voted on multiple petitions?

To my mind all of this is hate-centered garbage and the sarcastic response to perceived stupidity. It should feel right at home alongside the 9/11 truthers, chem-trail conspiracy theorists and homeopothists.

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Full text, exactly as written

Dear Rep. Bachman, Rep. Franks, Rep. Gohmert, Rep. Rooney and Rep. Westmoreland:

The 42 undersigned religious, secular, interfaith, advocacy, legal and community organizations are united by our work to protect religious freedom for all. As such, we write to raise our voices in protest of your recent letters regarding prominent American Muslim individuals and organizations. These letters question the loyalty of faithful Americans based on nothing more than their religious affiliations and what is at best tenuous evidence of their associations. As such, your actions have serious implications for religious freedom and the health of our democracy.

In your open letters to the inspectors general of the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Defense, and Justice, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, you call for an investigation into individuals and organizations that you claim may have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The basis for these claims comes primarily from reports by the Center for Security Policy, known for its consistently anti-Muslim agenda.

Those you accuse—including Ms. Huma Abedin and leaders of the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and Muslim Advocates—have long-standing histories of positive and committed work to strengthen the United States of America. Furthermore, we take offense to the implications of your actions for the American Muslim community as a whole, as you give momentum to "guilt by association" accusations and betray our foundational religious freedoms.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) spoke well of the vision of America jeopardized by your approach when he said: "When anyone, not least a member of Congress, launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation, and we all grow poorer because of it." More recently, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) provided a much-needed reminder about what religious freedom means in the United States: "…the First Amendment prohibits the government from making a distinction between what is a 'good religion' and what is a 'bad religion.'"

Far from supporting the safety of our country, these accusations distract us from examining legitimate threats using proven, evidence-based security strategies. Moreover, we know all too well the danger of casting suspicion on loyal and innocent Americans simply because they hold particular beliefs. We will not stand idly by and allow our country to revive federal investigations into innocent individuals based on their religious adherence. We will continue to speak out in support of people of all faiths and no faith, and the religious freedom of all Americans to practice—or choose not to practice—a religion without fear of criticism or suspicion.

Sincerely,

African American Ministers in Action
American Atheists
American Baptist Churches USA
American Civil Liberties Union
American Humanist Association
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Atheist Alliance of America
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
Camp Quest
Catholics for Choice
Center for Inquiry
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada
Counselors Helping (South) Asians/Indians, Inc. (CHAI)
DignityUSA
Disciples Justice Action Network
Equal Partners in Faith
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations
Faith in Public Life
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Hindu American Foundation
Interfaith Alliance
Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers
NAACP
National Council of Jewish Women
New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good
People for the American Way
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office Of Public Witness
Rabbis for Human Rights-North America
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Secular Coalition for America
Secular Student Alliance
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF)
Society for Humanistic Judaism
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
United Church of Christ
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER)--

Dumb and Dumber?

Zero Tolerance (ZT) policies almost always lead to some disaster or another. Experience should have demonstrated that by now, but some school districts are slow learners. Nobody loves a ZT policy with the exception of some apparently clueless school administrators.

Nobody loves a lawsuit happy lawyer either, and when said lawyer mounts a high horse in defense of his cheating son, there will probably be no winners. The old Curmudgeon spins a fine analysis of this sordid tale of incompetence, ignorance and ineptitude. It should come as no surprise that this story originates from The Golden State.

“No one wins here. The school looks bad for developing a frankly rather dumb, inflexible, and apparently poorly written policy; the district has to divert funds from its educational programs to defend a lawsuit against the likes of Berghouse, who appears to be everything that is worst about lawyers and parents rolled into one smug little package. The boy is punished not merely by having such a pain in the ass for a father, but may, because of the publicity this case generates (I’m happy to help, by the way), actually be more likely to be turned down by his chosen university.

More importantly, however, the entire American education system suffers, as schools across the country increasingly take note of the perils of enforcing standards—whether they be for scholarship, integrity, whatever. And that portends a bleaker future for all of us.”

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More evidence...

...that cops are no more trustworthy with weapons than your average person, and far less so in many instances.

Students hospitalized after pepper spray incident at a Pine Bluff junior high school

The shame is that it's taking tasers, pepper spray and the Internet to finally demonstrate this.

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VIA

Girl Scouts couldn't ask for better advertising

If you read it on the internet it's gotta be true... right?

“My family and I took a view and we’re sticking by it,” Morris said Tuesday, adding that his daughters were joining an alternative group for young girls run by conservative Christians. “My girls are no longer Girl Scouts. They’re now going to join American Heritage Girls.”

Morris’ comments were the butt of jokes inside the House on Tuesday, with Bosma spending much of the day handing out Thin Mints to lawmakers. He joked that Morris’ comments led him to buy hundreds of cases of the famous Girl Scout cookies.

Morris has ushered his spawn off to an indoctrination camp more suitable to his whacko politics. This exemplifies what the religious, "Conservative" shift in America has allowed to rise to the top. Like my daddy used to say about Republican politics... "It's like the old cesspool out there. The biggest chunks rise to the top."

Thank you, Tea Party. Nothing else needs be said.

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Yep, we're full of it

Read the wingnut rags or watch FOX news today and we'll find that we've been wrong all along. All this global warming stuff is just bunk. Alas! What fools we've been!

2010 may have been the hottest year this planet has experienced since such records have been kept, but then in 2011 we cooled down! 2011 was only the ninth warmest year in history. That is all the proof they needed to take us down a notch. We've been trusting all those thousands of greedy scientists when if we had just listened to Limbaugh, Beck and O'Reilly we wouldn't have had to worry our pretty little heads.

Oh, wait! The temperature spread between 2010 and 2011 is 0.22 degrees, meaning that nine out of the ten warmest years in history (all of which have occurred since 2000) are within two tenths of a percent of each other.

Still, last year was cooler so FOX, some of the other Murdochians and their buddies must be right.

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Idiot lawmakers and the idiot voters who vote for them

They deserve each other...

You can't make this crap up.

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Bomb-sniffing dogs' Houston deaths spark lawsuit

In addition to the lawsuit, this was a violation of multiple laws. Those responsible should be tried, and if convicted perhaps imprisoned in a regrigerated truck.

Canines were on their way to help troops in Afghanistan

Disgusting.

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A break is what we need

I'm on Casey Anthony overdose.

Why is it that every damn time CNN, FOX, HLN or any of the faux news organizations gets a feather up their butt about some heinous crime or another, we the people are suddenly force fed more speculation than a reasonable person could possibly swallow... and every hour of every newscast is suddenly required to regurgitate that which Nancy Grace has already screeched out on the hour, every hour of the past untold number of weeks?

No wonder the soap operas went away. The daily news gives us all the semi-factual pablum and imaginary drama that we could possibly stomach.

As EBM observed, Nancy Grace's head must have exploded once it was reported that the jury had found Anthony not guilty. Now we find that it wasn't just the fireworks and our dear Nancy we heard blowing up on July 4th. It seems there is an internet petition circulating promoting a new federal law that would effectively make it illegal for a parent not to report the death of a child within 24-hours.

The American people simply don't have enough to do.

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Everyboy has to hate somebody sometime...

Minnesota's teabaggin' Torgerson is back... this time running as a Republican... but still speading the same hate and discontent.

Torgerson says Rep. Ellison doesn’t see the U.S. Constitution as ‘supreme’

Incumbent Democrat Keith Ellison is one of two Muslims in the U.S. House. Torgerson accuses Ellison of being a “radical Islamist” who “fails to oppose banning Islamic Sharia law in the United States.” Responding to the hate mongering, Ellison eloquently responds:

I took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion for all Americans. Religious acceptance is a deeply rooted American value, and regardless of political persuasion, it’s a value we must protect.

It’s too bad that someone can obtain so much attention based on their intolerant rhetoric, especially when unemployment is above 9 percent. On the other hand, the nation will be able to see how extreme the rhetoric has become. I call on all Americans to reject religious intolerance and embrace our constitution which upholds the promise of liberty and justice for all people.

Justice for all people is a concept not understood by that element of society who spend so much time being afraid... and hating because of it.

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Absurdism illustrated

This story is splashed around the sphere, but for those who may visit this blog and not the others I felt it important enough to repeat.

Sully had a post yesterday with an embedded video depicting the vicious two on one assault and robbery of an openly gay man by a pair of homophobes. The video is of a news report and includes security camera footage of the beating.

That tattooed fellow right there at the end is a real piece of work… testimony to what the breeding of hatred with stupidity and hypocrisy can produce. Take a closer look...

The tat reads, “[Thou] shall not lie with a male as one does with a woman. It is an abomination. Leviticus 18:22.” Listening to the man make a selective reading of the Bible to justify brutal, criminal assault, and then proudly displaying his inked bicep can only be described as comical. This is especially true when considering what is written in the very next chapter of the same book:

"Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:28"

Hemant says it best…

"Ah, suddenly it all becomes clear to me! He’s not an ignorant man clumsily using the Bible to support his prejudices! It’s a brilliant meta-joke, using delightful self-reference and blinding irony. Perhaps he’s gay himself and is using the tattoos to make a sharp-witted statement about the true meaning of morality, tolerance, and religion.

… judging by his TV interview, he hides his intellect well.

On a more serious note, I can’t think of a better way to illustrate the inconsistency involved when people cherry-pick passages of scripture.”

On a positive note the assailants were apprehended and will likely be plying their antisocial homophobia in a whole new arena in the very near future.

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What it takes to get elected in Texas...

...is for your name listed on the "R"ight side of the ballot. Whether or not you have any sense apparently makes no real difference.



In fairness, this kooky lady comes from the same city that elected "D" Sheila Jackson Lee.

UPDATE:
I've had it pointed out to me that Rep. Debbie Riddle is merely parroting what she heard from our beloved Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).



In other words, Louie is continuing his long-standing practice of keeping bigots fed with fear. Apparently there are enough of the fearful in his East Texas district to keep him in office.

Shame. I keep hoping that one of these days we can sit down and have an honest conversation with folks, but I guess honesty doesn't get one reelected.

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Stupidity on the left, stupidity on the right

The world of politics is infested with clowns and idiots - always has been and likely always will be. EBM has a few choice words for morons, be they red or blue.

From the left...

"The Second Amendment is the only one in the Bill of Right that a lot of liberals not only will not defend, but run away from. Dedication to liberties and civil rights seems to have its limits."

And for the right...

"However, the morons on the Right are far, far more dangerous to this country."

She has both nailed.
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Moscow museum curators face prison

This is another case of WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

The display was titled “Forbidden Art,” and because of it two prominent Moscow art curators who put on the show are now facing the prosecution on charges of inciting religious hatred. In a case reeking with Soviet-era cultural censorship, Yury Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev, after a 14-month trial, are now facing prison.

Artists and civil rights activists have appealed to the Kremlin to put a stop to the prosecution, but the prosecutors refuse to back down and have demanded the three-year prison sentence when the judge makes her ruling on Monday.

So just what is it that leaves the Russian Orthodox Church and certain elements of the Russian government with wadded panties? An exhibit of paintings deemed uncomplimentary to Christianity, one depicting Jesus as Mickey Mouse and another as Lenin.

The 2007 exhibit was part of an effort to fight censorship of the arts at the Andre Sakharov Foundation Museum, a human rights center named for the dissident physicist who languished for years in Soviet prisons.

The church took offense, charges were filed, but even Russia's culture minister, who says the two men did nothing breaking the law against inciting religious hatred, has been unable to stem the tide.

A previous exhibit called "Caution: Religion!" raised so much furor that it caused curator Anna Alchuk to flee, moving to Berlin. Her body was found floating in the Spree River in 2008. The death was ruled a suicide. The Forbidden Art exhibit was closed a few days after it opened when a group of altar boys vandalized several of the displayed works.

Just as in Christian and/or Islamic societies everywhere, religious extremists are calling the shots and the Russian government is kowtowing. Do you remember the death threats and assassination attempts against Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who drew and published a caricature of Mohammed?  Do you remember how Christians around the world, and especially FAUX News here in the USA, reacted to the Muslims behavior?

Do you want to bet we don’t hear anything from those folks over this case?

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Persian Pat

First there was Arizona pastor Steven L. Anderson promoting hatred and advocating violence against President Obama.

In January, following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, I penned a piece about Pat Robertson’s idiotic assertion that god was punishing the Haitians for a century-old pact with the devil.

Then when Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha died, California religionista Wiley Drake took credit, saying that he had prayed for Murtha's death, and that god had answered those prayers.

Now in his Friday morning prayers, senior Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi blamed all of the recent Earth shaking on Muslim sluts.

Who would have ever thought that sex fuels earthquakes?

Religionistic loons being what they are, we all knew that it was only a matter of time before some pompous pinhead stepped up to the plate to assign all of this seismic activity to the vengeance of god... this loon did, and by god, this gives me an idea.

Iran is positioned in one of the more seismically activity regions on the planet, we seem to be entering a period of increasing activity, so they are expecting more of the same.

It therefore follows that if loose women cause quakes, even I should be able to get a date in Tehran. As soon as the dust settles I think I’ll book a flight…

Oh wait! Nordic chicks are hot. I wonder what precipitated the Icelandic volcanic event!

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Secede!

The Tea Party folks really lathered up last spring when Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry threatened secession. The clamor on the right has been deafening since. Just yesterday a commenter on one of the right wing blogs stated that he was just waiting for Texas to secede so he could move here to get away from “creeping socialism,” and “high taxes.”

Sorry folks, but you’re nothing less than delusional. While the rest of the country would actually benefit from such an improbable action, Texas and Texans would suffer.

Rick Perry brags that Texas is the best state to move to because it is the best state for business. His recent mud-slinging advertisements attacking his Republican primary challenger, Texas senior Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, make the claim that Texas has the best housing market and the lowest jobless rates in the country.

That makes the state sound like a pretty good place to live, but are things really so bountiful in Texas that secession would create an island of prosperity, with low taxes and high living standards for all? On the surface, when viewed from afar, Texas looks like a good deal for secessionists. Once no longer obligated to the Union for all that income tax, and no longer encumbered by all those federal mandates, Texas would be a real haven for all the small government, low tax folks.


Let look at a few facts

In overall tax burden, Texas does fare pretty well. All taxes combined and averaged across the 50 states, Texas comes out in 7th place as one of the lowest taxed states. Wyoming is number one, with California, New York and New Jersey weighing heavily on the other end of the scale. Texas has no personal income tax, and corporate/business taxes are in the low range in 6th place, but sales and personal property taxes are much higher, ranking 30th and 29th respectively. This means businesses and the wealthy pay low taxes, but Average Joe doesn’t make out so well.

At 23rd out of 50, Texas is about in the middle when it comes to in-state college tuition rates. When comparing the average cost of attending a state university, once all the ancillary fees are added, Texas doesn’t stack up so well. Combined costs make attending a Texas college more expensive than most other states. Students alleviate much of that additional fee burden, as well as tuition and housing costs, with one of the several grant-funded federal aid programs. Oh, wait a minute. It Texas were to secede those federal grants would no longer be available, would they?

Texas currently receives $1,417 in federal monies per K-12 public school student, which of course we would lose after secession. Our public school teacher salaries rank kind of low, at 34th in the nation. Several education jobs in the state exist only because they are 100% funded by federal grants. Texas has one of the highest dropout rates, and education rankings are near the bottom, where Texas has held 48th place overall for the past several years.

Texas health insurance rates are among the highest in the nation, and the effects are easy to measure. According to 2006-07 census data, at 24.8 percent, Texas leads the nation with the highest per capita uninsured rate. That rate is up from the 23.0 percent rate from the 2004-05 census, and as insurance rates go up, so will the ranks of the uninsured. Only California has more uninsured children; in number only – not percentage. Texas has a high and growing senior population too, increasing at a rate second only to Florida. Upon secession, all of these folks would lose Medicare and federal Medicaid funding, further adding to the ranks of the uninsured.

Texas roads are in pretty good condition; at least when compared to most other states, but the State road maintenance fund is currently estimated to be some $2 billion underfunded. The Legislature approved $3.5 billion in new construction and $2.3 billion in maintenance in the 2008-09 budget. $3.9 billion of that was to come from State funding, with the remainder paid for by $3.3 billion in federal reimbursements. Unfortunately, State revenues haven’t matched expectations, causing TxDOT to cancel or delay new construction and cut back on repairs. Federal stimulus funds are now being used to resurrect some of those projects.

So one must ask if Texas is really that secessionist wet dream Rick Perry tries to sell. If Texas is in such great shape as to be ready to secede, form the new Tea Party nation, and give up on the Federal perks, I’d like someone to explain how exactly it will all be paid for.

If the reason they want to come here is the low taxes, good living standards and better than average economy, please explain exactly where the money will come from to maintain even the paltry level of state services now provided … without increasing taxes.

I have no idea how we’ll do it as an independent nation when we cannot seem to do it now, even with the large amounts of federal funds flowing into the state. If Texas secedes, lots of things will change, and one thing is probably certain. Rick Perry will have to move out of his $10,000 a month rental mansion.

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One reason they want our guns

One of the major reasons there is such a large element of folks wishing to disarm the rest of us is the behavior of some of us.

We read or hear stories of some criminal miscreant committing some violence or another with a firearm, and always there is the hue and cry for gun control. I have little difficulty defending the right of the people to keep and bear arms in such cases, as the acts were that of a criminal… not a legitimate, law abiding gun owner. There are criminals and there are crazy people, neither of whom should be allowed access to deadly weapons. Guns in our hands are one way of protection from these bad guys.

But unfortunately there are overtly law abiding folks who go about life in an upstanding fashion for many years, all the while owning and carrying firearms in an overtly legitimate manner, then one day they make an error in judgment that is difficult to justify. It is far more difficult to defend my 2A rights in those cases.

Take for instance the case a couple years back where a fine, upstanding small businessman in Florida took it upon himself to defend a neighbor’s cattle from marauding wolves.

The only problem is that they weren’t wolves. They were pet huskies escaped from the yard of another neighbor, and all the while the shooter was doing such a bad job of trying to kill the "wolves", the dog’s owner was right there trying to stop him; shouting… begging… pleading for the shooter to stop. But he kept shooting, and all the while failing to follow even basic gun safety rules.

All of this was caught on video by one of the estimated 60 witnesses, a tourist from Ireland. In the video you can here her saying, “That’s the problem with America; guns.”

Without much information, and with the shooter claiming justification, it was initially easy for me to excuse the situation and assume the shooter was doing what so many farmers and ranchers have had to do so many times in the past.

Protecting livestock from loose dogs has become a real problem as city dwellers frequently dump unwanted pets in the countryside, perhaps thinking the kindly country folk will adopt them. Unfortunately that seldom happens. We already have our own dogs and don’t need these strays. So the strays frequently pack up and attack the livestock, which is the livelihood of some farm or ranch family. The result has been a pretty automatic response of shooting any stray unfortunate enough to wander onto the farm.

It wasn’t that way in the Florida incident. The shooter did not own either the property or the cattle, and had no relationship with the owner of the calves in the video. Neither did the calves represent the livelihood of the owner. They were on a hobby farm, kept for the purpose of protecting an agricultural tax exemption. The shooter was acting of his on accord and without invitation. He trespassed onto the property to shoot the “wolves” for a reason only he might be able to explain.

Still, when confronted, he claimed he was doing a good deed. He wasn’t initially charged with anything because he claimed the dogs tried to attack him.

A game changer

Once the video hit You Tube the story went viral and the anti-gun crowd went crazy. A Google search finds scores of blogs ranting about the incident, most by anti-gunners and/or animal rights bloggers.

Some blogs are for-profit operations, but many are like mine; a hobby blog. We hobby bloggers aren’t trying to make money; we just use the venue as a means of expression. So I found it rather unsettling when I learned that the shooter had filed a lawsuit against a hobby blogger for that blogger’s admittedly anti-gun, anti-redneck (or hillbilly, as it is called in the blog title) ravings. Although I might agree that he was over the top with his criticism, suing a hobby blogger is a mistake of monumental proportions.

The fellow who shot the dogs was wrong in the actions of that day, and he is damn sure wrong for suing anyone expressing an opinion of those actions. The guy is an asshat on many levels, but with this desperately misguided suit, he is doing all manner of further stupidity that serves only to cement his asshat status in perpetuity.

He will lose the suit, and in all likelihood will lose when he gets sued for filing it in the first place. In the mean time he has placed a heavier burden on honest gun owners everywhere.

To quote that famous philosopher, Bugs Bunny, “What a maroon…”

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Only a matter of time

Just this morning, in a conversation with a friend, I mused something to the effect of... "Wonder what the Haitians did that Pat Robertson will assign to God's wrath..."

It didn't take long before I had an answer.

Pat Robertson on Haiti Disaster
by burghnews

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