Showing posts with label the new mafia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the new mafia. Show all posts
20090727
20090716
Major Stephan Cook
These posts are going to be more and more frequently links to The Vigilante Mind, once I figure my way around Google Sites... I will still use I, Portlander for my personal opinions and rants about work, and shift all my political commentaries over to the new site. But in the meantime, I bring you this:
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/story/777472.html
Now, those of you who have followed this story know that Major Cook has since been fired from his government job and disgraced, and his case was exposed as opportunism, the lawsuit was frivolous, and his intent in suing was explicitly to force the President to 'prove' that he's an American citizen. So we'll ignore the issue that Major Cook wanted us to look at. Instead, what's this about a soldier committing war crimes if he serves under the orders of someone other than the President?
Have we already forgotten about Blackwater (since rebranded as Xe)? What about the soldiers from Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, et al. who have served in wars that their country was not a part of? Were they war criminals? I was in talks with the Navy a few years back—they wanted me to do some cartography in Iraq (I would have likely been based in Europe), presumably in an effort to find enemy camps. I would have been a plainclothes, as are the majority of people helping in the war. Plainclothes contractors aren't under the command of the President. Are they war criminals too?
The fact of the matter is that we have to stop taking people like this at face value. Major Cook was not a patriot fighting for what he believed in, nor did he honestly believe that anyone in the world was concerned with President Obama's authority to lead the army (though I do believe he is convinced that Obama is secretly not American, simply because that's what he's told to believe). Major Cook is a hack job who is in the camp of The Twenty-Six (tune into future podcasts to find out what that means)—people who don't care one way or another about our country, but are just having fun with their time in the spotlight. Major Cook isn't a patriot, nor is he a traitor—he's just an idiot.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/story/777472.html
Now, those of you who have followed this story know that Major Cook has since been fired from his government job and disgraced, and his case was exposed as opportunism, the lawsuit was frivolous, and his intent in suing was explicitly to force the President to 'prove' that he's an American citizen. So we'll ignore the issue that Major Cook wanted us to look at. Instead, what's this about a soldier committing war crimes if he serves under the orders of someone other than the President?
Have we already forgotten about Blackwater (since rebranded as Xe)? What about the soldiers from Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, et al. who have served in wars that their country was not a part of? Were they war criminals? I was in talks with the Navy a few years back—they wanted me to do some cartography in Iraq (I would have likely been based in Europe), presumably in an effort to find enemy camps. I would have been a plainclothes, as are the majority of people helping in the war. Plainclothes contractors aren't under the command of the President. Are they war criminals too?
The fact of the matter is that we have to stop taking people like this at face value. Major Cook was not a patriot fighting for what he believed in, nor did he honestly believe that anyone in the world was concerned with President Obama's authority to lead the army (though I do believe he is convinced that Obama is secretly not American, simply because that's what he's told to believe). Major Cook is a hack job who is in the camp of The Twenty-Six (tune into future podcasts to find out what that means)—people who don't care one way or another about our country, but are just having fun with their time in the spotlight. Major Cook isn't a patriot, nor is he a traitor—he's just an idiot.
20090625
Letting Cynthia Davis speak for herself
The initial criticism from liberal pundit Keith Olbermann was that State Representative Cynthia Davis wanted to pull funding from feeding impoverished children because those children could just get jobs at McDonalds, who feed their employees for free. The criticism was that it was a "let them eat cake" mentality: that the remark was staggeringly insensitive to the problems that impoverished families were up against.
Ms. Davis responded to the criticism as follows:
Ms. Davis responded to the criticism as follows:
We all agree on the importance of feeding children, but we differ on who should do this. I believe this duty belongs to the parents. Instead of respecting this time honored jurisdiction of the family, the summer feeding program treats families like they do not exist.
When government takes over a family function, like feeding children on a daily basis, we take a group of people who are capable and treat them like they are incapacitated. Some have a low view of parents, presuming most of them are inept and
proposing governmental intervention as the only solution.I believe most parents are good and want the blessing and privilege of feeding their children. When families are sharing a meal around the kitchen table, much more is happening. Mealtime is the primary time for shaping values and strengthening
bonds. All of this is missing or diluted when it happens outside the family. Look into your own heart and ask, “What made a difference in my life as a child?” Was it standing in a line for a cafeteria style meal at school or was it sitting around the kitchen table with others in your family?
Ms. Davis clarified what her solution would be to make sure that the parents could feed the children themselves:
Better education can change the plight of the poor. My sincere hope is that we can lift families out of poverty through compassionate interaction with those who can show them a better way. This is why I agreed to chair an interim committee to study poverty and why I volunteered to teach a cooking class for mothers utilizing the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program to help teach young mothers how to prepare nutritious meals.
That's the problem: impoverished mothers don't spend enough time in the kitchen.
Often I feel compelled to offer my opinion on these issues. Sometimes I don't have to.
20090622
Jesus and The Worthingtons
Tomorrow begins the trial of the Worthington Family, religious zealots who allowed their daughter to die instead of healing her through medicine. I actually side with the Worthingtons on the broadest scale—specifically, that a majority of the hyper-religious are actually just self-serving detriments to society who hide behind religion because of its impenetrable veil, that they are exactly the people who are called out in the first commandment specifying that man is not the word of God.
The Worthingtons, on the other hand, are true faithful, those who stand by their beliefs whether it befits or punishes them. The question at hand, then, is whether it is the role of law to protect people like them who are victimized by dogmatic brainwashing, and more importantly, if they have the right to allow their daughter (who may not have grown up to share their beliefs) to die. It's a really difficult question, because if their daughter did grow up to share their beliefs (never mind whether the beliefs are valid), upon knowing that human medicine saved her life when she was young, she would spend her entire life believing that she was irreperably damned to Hell for something that she had no control over when she was only a year old.
Another interesting question with this case is how it relates to the pro-life movement. Under the religious pretense, it can be argued that the Worthington's actions are consistent with the pro-life dogma: mankind is not to intervene in God's Work by killing an unborn child, so similarly they are not to intervene with a born child that God intends to kill. However, the pro-life movement is increasingly set in a political framework, where it more closely pertains to our lives, and they have gone against the political mindset around kin. The political logic for outlawing abortions is straightforward—parents should not be allowed to abort a fetus, as it is a living, breathing thing, and they are no longer in a position to make the decision of whether another living human is to live or die. It is then to be inferred that The Worthingtons should not have been allowed to make a life-or-death decision with their child; rather, it is our societal responsibility to preserve the life of those who are not yet able to preserve themselves, and anyone who gets in the way (including the parents) are committing negligent homicide.
But what I'm most interested in is the metaphysical aspect of this case. Jesus was known to cure the sick. As an agnostic, I am inclined to believe that Jesus was just a man with great PR skills, not an actual divine being. Many religious historians (particularly on the humanist side) are quick to point out that through modern living, we are capable of carrying out all of the miracles that Jesus was credited for. Jesus himself said that it wasn't he who was responsible for the miracles, it was God. "God," as in "that which we are not capable of understanding." Which in Jesus's time included antibiotics. An argument can be made (which I may make someday) that Jesus himself had an advanced knowledge of antibiotic medicine, which he used to cure the sick.
Chew on that, Followers of Christ.
20090610
Subprime TARP
Good news everyone, we're out of the economic crisis! Or so say the bankers, who have returned their TARP funds to the government after deciding they can't meet the terms of the loan. (Oh, so they do understand that sometimes people default on loans.)
Actually, they can meet the conditions of the loan, they just don’t want to. Specifically, the government is placing a cap on executive salaries for any banks who have accepted loans. Essentially, the government is saying that the executives themselves have to help pay back the loan, instead of just cutting the employees. So the banks said they’d rather just give the money back. All twelve were very proud of themselves and immediately released public statements, basically saying “good news everyone—we still can’t afford to help our customers, so we’re not going to be giving out any loans, but the government did let us give back the TARP money designed to enable us to help people so that we can continue to earn huge dividends!!!”
The reason why they’re so proud of this is because the shareholders are all going to get a bigger slice because of it, and they’re taking the slice right out of the actual business they’re supposed to provide. Like the skyscraper that Portland has invested billions into making (by Nordstroms), which has been suspended indefinitely because their bank has said that they won’t front the money, even though it’s guaranteed and has already been collected from people who have dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars on leases. Now the investors are trying to figure out what to do for all the businesses who paid six or seven figures for an office that they don’t have. It's like a season of LOST—just when you think that big business are the villains, you find out that they're right there with us as helpless victims of a far greater evil: the banks.
I hope the banks collapse. We’ll all be fucked in the short term, but it’s the only way we’ll ever move forward. Portland has room for a few more spangers, let the fat cats beg for change on the streets.
Actually, they can meet the conditions of the loan, they just don’t want to. Specifically, the government is placing a cap on executive salaries for any banks who have accepted loans. Essentially, the government is saying that the executives themselves have to help pay back the loan, instead of just cutting the employees. So the banks said they’d rather just give the money back. All twelve were very proud of themselves and immediately released public statements, basically saying “good news everyone—we still can’t afford to help our customers, so we’re not going to be giving out any loans, but the government did let us give back the TARP money designed to enable us to help people so that we can continue to earn huge dividends!!!”
The reason why they’re so proud of this is because the shareholders are all going to get a bigger slice because of it, and they’re taking the slice right out of the actual business they’re supposed to provide. Like the skyscraper that Portland has invested billions into making (by Nordstroms), which has been suspended indefinitely because their bank has said that they won’t front the money, even though it’s guaranteed and has already been collected from people who have dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars on leases. Now the investors are trying to figure out what to do for all the businesses who paid six or seven figures for an office that they don’t have. It's like a season of LOST—just when you think that big business are the villains, you find out that they're right there with us as helpless victims of a far greater evil: the banks.
I hope the banks collapse. We’ll all be fucked in the short term, but it’s the only way we’ll ever move forward. Portland has room for a few more spangers, let the fat cats beg for change on the streets.
20090514
As the GOP falls
Nearly every political scientist is insisting that the Republican Party is not in danger of collapsing, that both major parties have survived far worse than the GOP are now. Well, if they don't collapse, it won't be for lack of trying.
You may have heard that recently the Republican Party, after a failed effort to rebrand themselves, have decided to rebrand the Democrats instead. They have resolved and pledged to now refer to the Democratic Party as the “Democratic Socialist Party.”
The result? In a recent poll done by a conservative polling company owned by Rupert Murdoch, studies have found that only 53% of Americans consider capitalism to be superior to socialism, meaning that nearly half of Americans do not see anything wrong with socialism; in fact, 20% now consider socialism to be superior. In an effort to scare people away from the Dems, they have associated Democrats with pinkos… and because of peoples’ high opinions of Democrats, their response is now “well, maybe then being a pinko isn’t so bad.”
The only group that this did provoke outrage from, in fact, is the actual Democratic Socialist Party of America, who are outraged that the Republicans are applying the moniker to their sworn rivals, the Democrats. So the effect of this decision is that moderates now think more highly of left-wing radicals, and left-wing radicals now think even less of right-wing conservatives!!!
You may have heard that recently the Republican Party, after a failed effort to rebrand themselves, have decided to rebrand the Democrats instead. They have resolved and pledged to now refer to the Democratic Party as the “Democratic Socialist Party.”
The result? In a recent poll done by a conservative polling company owned by Rupert Murdoch, studies have found that only 53% of Americans consider capitalism to be superior to socialism, meaning that nearly half of Americans do not see anything wrong with socialism; in fact, 20% now consider socialism to be superior. In an effort to scare people away from the Dems, they have associated Democrats with pinkos… and because of peoples’ high opinions of Democrats, their response is now “well, maybe then being a pinko isn’t so bad.”
The only group that this did provoke outrage from, in fact, is the actual Democratic Socialist Party of America, who are outraged that the Republicans are applying the moniker to their sworn rivals, the Democrats. So the effect of this decision is that moderates now think more highly of left-wing radicals, and left-wing radicals now think even less of right-wing conservatives!!!
20090423
If you don't take your shorts off, we can't pull the stick our of your ass.
Another day in Tualatin, another God-crazy politician trying to impose his beliefs on his denizens. Stars Cabaret, a dingy strip club, is moving into Tualatin. In Lake-O, they tried to block a new strip club. They failed. In Twally, they tried to block Stars' liquor license. They failed. Now they're trying to add an amendment to the state constitution to block strip clubs. They will fail.
Let's start with step one. The role of government is to cover needs and services of the people. They also have policing responsibilities, to keep people safe. That's why there are liquor licenses— bars have to be accountable for their patrons, ensuring that people are cut off at a certain point, minors aren't given (too much) booze, and no drunken brawls break out. That has NOTHING to do with looking at naked people. Blocking their liquor license is a perversion of their responsibilities and an abuse of power. That is not why they are given licensing authority, and the effort is clearly for the sole purpose of dissuading people "different from them" from doing what they want to do. It is the exact same thing, and I will fight you to the death on this, as preventing Jews from moving into your city because you don't like accountants. It's presumptuous, it's bigoted, and it's flat out fucking prejudiced.
If I lost any of you on that comparison, let's come back for a second. I'm not saying that people who go to strip clubs do so for religious purposes (though some of them might). I'm saying that the only reason why someone would try to ban a strip club is because they have it in their fucked up little Christian heads that anyone who goes to nudey bars does so purely because they have an evil Satan voice in their heads telling them that women are to be used and subordinated, and that the patrons all fantasize about raping the girls as they dance. That is an absolute fucking insult, and borderline hate crime, against professional strippers. Just because you fucking churchies can't go five minutes talking to a little boy without ramming his dick in your mouth doesn't mean the rest of us have demons to expel.
People go to strip clubs purely for entertainment purposes. Believe it or not, it's not even sexual. Very few men (or women) get aroused when they go to a strip club. They just get tired of spending all day and night pretending that there's nothing to appreciate in the female form. It's one of the few things that crazy right-wing puritans and crazy left-wing liberals can agree on: people should be ashamed for having an interest in the female body. No, I don't want to get to know every girl that I want to see naked. Kind of like how I don't want my doctor to fix my car. They're two completely unrelated proficiencies.
So I get fucking tired of forcing my eyes up when a girl walks by. I get tired of people looking aghast at me when I check someone out and proclaim, "you're married!" Most of all, I get tired of dimwitted, bitchy women who spend 4 hours a day making themselves look good getting offended because I don't like their personalities any better now that they got a boob job. To have a place where you can walk in and look straight at a woman and think, "I want her to take her clothes off without me talking to her about her favorite movie," and lo and behold, off comes the top... well, I'd pay good money for that.
So would a lot of people. A lot of people who have no desire to associate with these women otherwise. I actually found out once in college that a stripper I'd seen a couple times went to school with me. She was actually incredibly nice, and I had some great conversations with her, but then I couldn't go to her strip club anymore because I'd feel guilty. It was too... intimate, once I knew her. So you see, I have no idea to get to know these women, let alone get intimate with them. The whole idea is that I can drop the 19th-century conventions that we're held to for one night and watch them do their thing. And you know what? The good ones enjoy it. They've worked hard on their bodies, and they get tired of having to hide them. They want to be able to just shove their implants in some guy's face and say "look at these, fucktard. You want them, don't you? You want these big titties? DON'T FUCKING TOUCH!" Then the guy thanks them and gives them a dollar.
Disgusted? Fucking deal with it.
These are people different from you. I don't fucking understand. People don't like fatty foods, so they want to close down McDonalds. People want to drive by themselves to work, so they want to shut down the bus. People like taking the bus, so they want to install toll bridges. How about we pretend that we're a country that allows you to do whatever the fuck you want to do. Hell, I remember there was a strip club in Idaho that was shut down because neighbors didn't "feel safe knowing it was there." Sharing a building with the strip club was a gun store and a head shop. What the fuck do you care what we do behind the big black door? Hell, even if you happened upon it by accident the bouncer wouldn't let you in.
Which brings me back to the politicians in Tualatin, who should all be fired. Here's the basic math: if your constituents really don't want a strip club nearby, they won't go to the strip club. They're really expensive anyway. If the strip club doesn't go out of business, it's because THE RESIDENTS OF TUALATIN WANT A FUCKING STRIP CLUB.
Don't worry, we deviants in Portland will not be making the drive down to the Twally to check out your nickel-and-dime pastie dancers. We've got clubs here that serve you a porterhouse while the stripper grinds the ketchup. We have peep shows where for five bucks you get to yell "stick your finger in it." We've got an old fuckhouse with heroine needles in the drywall that's being converted into a family restraunt, and—pay attention, now—part of their mission in remodeling is to retain the flavor of the original establishment. So no, you don't have to worry about a new strip club "attracting an undesirable element" into the city. All it will do is give the undesirable element something to do on Saturday night. And in exchange, they'll sleep in Sunday morning, instead of trying to pass legislation to shut down your church.
Let's start with step one. The role of government is to cover needs and services of the people. They also have policing responsibilities, to keep people safe. That's why there are liquor licenses— bars have to be accountable for their patrons, ensuring that people are cut off at a certain point, minors aren't given (too much) booze, and no drunken brawls break out. That has NOTHING to do with looking at naked people. Blocking their liquor license is a perversion of their responsibilities and an abuse of power. That is not why they are given licensing authority, and the effort is clearly for the sole purpose of dissuading people "different from them" from doing what they want to do. It is the exact same thing, and I will fight you to the death on this, as preventing Jews from moving into your city because you don't like accountants. It's presumptuous, it's bigoted, and it's flat out fucking prejudiced.
Sidenote: So prejudiced, in fact, that this is how they're trying to include it into the state constitution—where the Constitution states that "no law shall be passed restraining... free expression," they want to add onto the end of it (this is verbatim) "nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or prohibit a local government from imposing... restrictions on the operations of nude dancing businesses."
Let me reiterate: Where the Constitution specifically states that the government shall not impose their beliefs on the people they represent, the city of Tualitin wants to add "except for when the government wants to impose their beliefs on the people they represent." Fucking assholes.
If I lost any of you on that comparison, let's come back for a second. I'm not saying that people who go to strip clubs do so for religious purposes (though some of them might). I'm saying that the only reason why someone would try to ban a strip club is because they have it in their fucked up little Christian heads that anyone who goes to nudey bars does so purely because they have an evil Satan voice in their heads telling them that women are to be used and subordinated, and that the patrons all fantasize about raping the girls as they dance. That is an absolute fucking insult, and borderline hate crime, against professional strippers. Just because you fucking churchies can't go five minutes talking to a little boy without ramming his dick in your mouth doesn't mean the rest of us have demons to expel.
People go to strip clubs purely for entertainment purposes. Believe it or not, it's not even sexual. Very few men (or women) get aroused when they go to a strip club. They just get tired of spending all day and night pretending that there's nothing to appreciate in the female form. It's one of the few things that crazy right-wing puritans and crazy left-wing liberals can agree on: people should be ashamed for having an interest in the female body. No, I don't want to get to know every girl that I want to see naked. Kind of like how I don't want my doctor to fix my car. They're two completely unrelated proficiencies.
So I get fucking tired of forcing my eyes up when a girl walks by. I get tired of people looking aghast at me when I check someone out and proclaim, "you're married!" Most of all, I get tired of dimwitted, bitchy women who spend 4 hours a day making themselves look good getting offended because I don't like their personalities any better now that they got a boob job. To have a place where you can walk in and look straight at a woman and think, "I want her to take her clothes off without me talking to her about her favorite movie," and lo and behold, off comes the top... well, I'd pay good money for that.
So would a lot of people. A lot of people who have no desire to associate with these women otherwise. I actually found out once in college that a stripper I'd seen a couple times went to school with me. She was actually incredibly nice, and I had some great conversations with her, but then I couldn't go to her strip club anymore because I'd feel guilty. It was too... intimate, once I knew her. So you see, I have no idea to get to know these women, let alone get intimate with them. The whole idea is that I can drop the 19th-century conventions that we're held to for one night and watch them do their thing. And you know what? The good ones enjoy it. They've worked hard on their bodies, and they get tired of having to hide them. They want to be able to just shove their implants in some guy's face and say "look at these, fucktard. You want them, don't you? You want these big titties? DON'T FUCKING TOUCH!" Then the guy thanks them and gives them a dollar.
Disgusted? Fucking deal with it.
These are people different from you. I don't fucking understand. People don't like fatty foods, so they want to close down McDonalds. People want to drive by themselves to work, so they want to shut down the bus. People like taking the bus, so they want to install toll bridges. How about we pretend that we're a country that allows you to do whatever the fuck you want to do. Hell, I remember there was a strip club in Idaho that was shut down because neighbors didn't "feel safe knowing it was there." Sharing a building with the strip club was a gun store and a head shop. What the fuck do you care what we do behind the big black door? Hell, even if you happened upon it by accident the bouncer wouldn't let you in.
Which brings me back to the politicians in Tualatin, who should all be fired. Here's the basic math: if your constituents really don't want a strip club nearby, they won't go to the strip club. They're really expensive anyway. If the strip club doesn't go out of business, it's because THE RESIDENTS OF TUALATIN WANT A FUCKING STRIP CLUB.
Don't worry, we deviants in Portland will not be making the drive down to the Twally to check out your nickel-and-dime pastie dancers. We've got clubs here that serve you a porterhouse while the stripper grinds the ketchup. We have peep shows where for five bucks you get to yell "stick your finger in it." We've got an old fuckhouse with heroine needles in the drywall that's being converted into a family restraunt, and—pay attention, now—part of their mission in remodeling is to retain the flavor of the original establishment. So no, you don't have to worry about a new strip club "attracting an undesirable element" into the city. All it will do is give the undesirable element something to do on Saturday night. And in exchange, they'll sleep in Sunday morning, instead of trying to pass legislation to shut down your church.
20090416
Teabagging countdown
Still think news is boring? You don't watch cable:
Next starting at 1:30—
And, finally:
It is now that we can see the unforeseen consequences of Republicans not going to college. Otherwise, at least one of them would have known what "teabag" means.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Next starting at 1:30—
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
And, finally:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
It is now that we can see the unforeseen consequences of Republicans not going to college. Otherwise, at least one of them would have known what "teabag" means.
20090330
Fuck Catholics
Now in the news: backlash and protests, as Obama has agreed to speak at the mightiest of Catholic Institutions in America.
Thank God that Notre Dame has their storied football program, or they would be as much of a detriment to civilization as the rest of the Catholic system. Unfortunately, a couple of bible-thumping quarterbacks isn't enough if you still belong to the first anti-Christian sacreligious cult, the largest in the world, the one that didn't even wait for the Christian Church to establish before flat out discarding half the teachings that Jesus devoted (and sacrificed) his life to get out into the world.
Now the institution has invited the Baptist President of our country to speak at their commencement, as well as offer him an honorary J.D., and in exchange he will provide an intellectual debate over his controversial decision to allow federal funding for abortion and stem-cell research.
However, the student bodies of this alleged "house of higher learning" have come out strongly against education. Instead, they are pushing for the Catholic tradition set by the Apostle Luke and which reigned free in the 17th century, directly leading to the darkest time in our history and more deaths and suffering than Christianity as a whole has been able to prevent. That tradition is oppression of dissent and abolishment of thought. They have spoken, and spoken loudly, in their belief that anyone who doesn't blindly agree with their perscribed belief system, someone who considers matters of life, death, and soul to be a little complicated, even someone whose own belief system doesn't allow for the more rational position of pointing out that their own beliefs have long been disproved beyond any shadow of a doubt—someone who proposes even that minimal level of thought, as is dictated in Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity, and every other philosphical system that isn't Catholicism or Islam, should be considered, is to be banned from their institution, and should not be allowed to speak to them.
The only thing Catholics have ever gotten right is that they're not going to Hell. As the world progresses forward without them, as the percentage of people who prefer reason over mythology creeps toward the majority, as the history books start to shift Dogmatic Christianity into the same category as all the other ridiculous religions of primitive humans, this superminority of our kind continue to serve as the single greatest obstacle to the survival of humankind. There are more of us who consider the Catholic Church a tragedy of history than they realize. And as their leaders become more aware of that fact, they press harder to hide their denizens from the collective thought of the rest of us, and in time, they will become so separated from the voices of reason that they will break off and shrivel away as another failed experiment in the forward progress of our kind. Homo Erectus, Habilis, Neanderthals, Catholics. Yet another addition to the list of people we'll look back at and wonder how humans could ever believe something which falls apart before their very eyes.
Thank God that Notre Dame has their storied football program, or they would be as much of a detriment to civilization as the rest of the Catholic system. Unfortunately, a couple of bible-thumping quarterbacks isn't enough if you still belong to the first anti-Christian sacreligious cult, the largest in the world, the one that didn't even wait for the Christian Church to establish before flat out discarding half the teachings that Jesus devoted (and sacrificed) his life to get out into the world.
Now the institution has invited the Baptist President of our country to speak at their commencement, as well as offer him an honorary J.D., and in exchange he will provide an intellectual debate over his controversial decision to allow federal funding for abortion and stem-cell research.
However, the student bodies of this alleged "house of higher learning" have come out strongly against education. Instead, they are pushing for the Catholic tradition set by the Apostle Luke and which reigned free in the 17th century, directly leading to the darkest time in our history and more deaths and suffering than Christianity as a whole has been able to prevent. That tradition is oppression of dissent and abolishment of thought. They have spoken, and spoken loudly, in their belief that anyone who doesn't blindly agree with their perscribed belief system, someone who considers matters of life, death, and soul to be a little complicated, even someone whose own belief system doesn't allow for the more rational position of pointing out that their own beliefs have long been disproved beyond any shadow of a doubt—someone who proposes even that minimal level of thought, as is dictated in Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity, and every other philosphical system that isn't Catholicism or Islam, should be considered, is to be banned from their institution, and should not be allowed to speak to them.
The only thing Catholics have ever gotten right is that they're not going to Hell. As the world progresses forward without them, as the percentage of people who prefer reason over mythology creeps toward the majority, as the history books start to shift Dogmatic Christianity into the same category as all the other ridiculous religions of primitive humans, this superminority of our kind continue to serve as the single greatest obstacle to the survival of humankind. There are more of us who consider the Catholic Church a tragedy of history than they realize. And as their leaders become more aware of that fact, they press harder to hide their denizens from the collective thought of the rest of us, and in time, they will become so separated from the voices of reason that they will break off and shrivel away as another failed experiment in the forward progress of our kind. Homo Erectus, Habilis, Neanderthals, Catholics. Yet another addition to the list of people we'll look back at and wonder how humans could ever believe something which falls apart before their very eyes.
20090225
Let the 2012 campaign begin!
Please, please, please let Bobby Jindal be the next Republican Presidential candidate. He’s charismatic, well-spoken, popular, he’s obviously interested in the position, and he is mind-bogglingly out of touch with 80% of the American people in a way that makes perfect sense to the other 20 percent. I think he would seem like the perfect candidate to someone who doesn’t have a damn clue, and he wouldn’t make any effort to appeal to moderate voters like McCain did. It would be an idiotic, classless campaign that no conservative pundit could find any way to criticize, and after they find themselves unable to garner more than 26% of the votes, they’ll give up on our country and, hopefully, leave. Africa’s a big country—they can take up the time-honored tradition of parceling out a section of the Heart of Darkness and giving it to neocons, where they get slaughtered by genocidal heroin-addled warlords.Ahh, the idea alone puts a calm over me…
20090224
The Destructive Hypocrisy of the Democratic Party
The Republican Party continue to show that they are the heartless, insensitive organization that they have been for the last eight to twelve years, which is why the American people ousted them… let me tell you about the unique hypocracy of the Republican governors… Republicans’ ideas are pure tax cuts, the same tired idea that Americans rejected on November 4th, that didn’t work, that got us into this mess in the first place, that took us from a record surplus from the last Democratic administration into the deficit we’re in now… if you’re a Republican, you don’t understand that if you repeat history you’re doomed to get more of the same… but we want to work with the Repblicans; we’ve extended the hand of bipartisanship. —Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-FL
20090210
What the children can learn from A-Rod
You can commit any offense, no matter how heinous, so long as you aren't caught until four years after you did it. If you stopped doing it after it gave you the success you need, you can just say you were young and stupid, and you can reap all the benefits of your unethical actions without taking any of the responsibility.
Cheaters can win, so long as they wait until after the moral statute of limitations expires to "own up" to their actions.
Cheaters can win, so long as they wait until after the moral statute of limitations expires to "own up" to their actions.
20081029
20081028
Fox News Gives Me Hope
I know a lot of people are getting absolutely sick and tired of this election and all the ugliness, but I've seen the ugliness of this underbelly of America for years, and I find a lot of hope and inspiration in the fact that as it rears its ugly head, America is banding together to fight it. So I'm not passing these on as ugliness, but as optimism.
That said, Joe The Plumber was quoted today as saying that an Obama Presidency would mean the death of the State of Israel. The comment was explicitly defended by a McCain spokesman, stating that this showed the perception of the American people, proof positive that we can't trust Obama.
Fox News' anchorman is Shepard Smith, their top newscaster and an right-wing loyalist who has staunchly defended both McCain and Palin, and taken great effort to spin everything they say in their favor. I want to share with you a direct quote, on air, from Shepard Smith, at 12:50pm today:
"I just want to make this 100% perfectly clear: Barack Obama has said repeatedly, and demonstrated repeatedly, that Israel will always be a friend of the United States. No matter what happens, once he becomes President of the United States... the rest of it... some things... it just gets frightening sometimes."
At that point, he hung his head in remorse, and cut to commercial.
I see that as hope.
That said, Joe The Plumber was quoted today as saying that an Obama Presidency would mean the death of the State of Israel. The comment was explicitly defended by a McCain spokesman, stating that this showed the perception of the American people, proof positive that we can't trust Obama.
Fox News' anchorman is Shepard Smith, their top newscaster and an right-wing loyalist who has staunchly defended both McCain and Palin, and taken great effort to spin everything they say in their favor. I want to share with you a direct quote, on air, from Shepard Smith, at 12:50pm today:
"I just want to make this 100% perfectly clear: Barack Obama has said repeatedly, and demonstrated repeatedly, that Israel will always be a friend of the United States. No matter what happens, once he becomes President of the United States... the rest of it... some things... it just gets frightening sometimes."
At that point, he hung his head in remorse, and cut to commercial.
I see that as hope.
20081023
State of Modern Journalism
JOURNALIST: “How can Palin still be the champion of Joe Six-pack when she spent $150,000 on clothes in the last month so that she’d be pretty enough to be electable?
PALIN SPOKESMAN: “Oh, now that’s just taken out of context. See, after we’ve won the election, she’s going to give all those clothes away.”
JOURNALIST: “Oh! Well, that’s just charitable.”
Ed Murrow is rolling in his grave.
PALIN SPOKESMAN: “Oh, now that’s just taken out of context. See, after we’ve won the election, she’s going to give all those clothes away.”
JOURNALIST: “Oh! Well, that’s just charitable.”
Ed Murrow is rolling in his grave.
20081016
Now we know
Of all the goofy post-debate polls, there were two which I think were the most telling: 28 percent who thought that McCain won the debate, and 28 percent who said that Ayers mattered “a great deal” in their decision. I think it’s clearly obvious that the Ayers thing is absolutely ludicrous to anyone who has a thought in their head. The only people who would say it mattered to them would be obedient neocon loyalists. They would also be the only people to say that McCain made any sense at all in the debate last night (I’m really not sure what’s happened to him; he appears to have been brainwashed). He was an absolute buffoon who made no sense and was unable to respond to anything Obama said. He was very temperamental and outright rude, and in a roundabout way said he was proud of the people at his rally who were calling out to kill Obama. So we can now determine the exact percentage of people who are blindly following McCain to the ends of the Earth: 28%. Now the question is what exactly the other 14% who have said they’ll vote for him are thinking.
20081010
"Mafia" is just so... Italian
Besides which, they're virtually extinct in the U.S. (thanks in part to a Mr. Barack Obama). I believe there is a new syndicate being born. You can see the planted seeds in the crowds that amass for Sarah Palin's speeches. What originally seemed a dry, politically-motivated choice for veep may have given emergence to a new, all-American collective. All the elements are there. They do not consider themselves criminals– they see themselves as the last scion of their cause, the great hope to reveal a great new civilization which has peeked out its head in the last 20 years and now has the promise of being realized.
Time will tell (four weeks of time, specifically) whether this syndicate will come to form, but I believe that Obama's election could serve as the great catalyst to make them happen, and their coming out party will be January of 2009. Stay tuned...
Time will tell (four weeks of time, specifically) whether this syndicate will come to form, but I believe that Obama's election could serve as the great catalyst to make them happen, and their coming out party will be January of 2009. Stay tuned...
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