Krugman: Congratulations America, You’ve Been Scammed.
So you go out for dinner with a wealthy acquaintance. “I’ll take care of everything,” he says, and orders you a hamburger. Then he orders himself an expensive steak and […]
Gullibility
Imagine for a moment being so gullible that you could actually believe the following things: That Trump is a Christian in any meaningful sense at all, or cares even the […]
FEMA: “Not our job to deliver water and food” to Puerto Ricans. Think I am making this up? Wrong!
The game plan in Puerto Rico is clear. The sons of bitches are going to grind those poor bastards into dust, trigger a mass exodus of those who can afford […]
EPA completes purge of scientists from its scientific advisory board
Pruitt’s actions completely wipes out the existing Board of Scientific Counselors. It means the whole board can now be reappointed, filled with industry lobbyists and science deniers, and the EPA can then […]
Trumpcare Has Lowered Health Insurance Costs Already!!
All I can say to this is Oh My god!!! If this is the level of intelligence of the voters there is no hope for this country. a woman in […]
To the RNC and all those who call themselves Republicans
(Originally posted August 26, 2016) Genesis 4:9. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” (1 Thessalonians […]
Pastor cautions Christian women about those Trump-loving Men of the Christian Right—and he NAILS it
The most vigorous defense of ”Trump’s degradation of women is coming from those who most loudly claim they represent god and identify themselves as spiritual leaders.” “They don’t speak for me. […]
Despite the polls, I am still uneasy about this election
Despite what the latest polls say, will we as Americans elect our first (in the words of Democratic Primary presidential candidate Martin O’Malley) fascist president? The polls say no—but I am still uneasy. […]
Ted Cruz (and most Republican politicians) are hypocrites.
The proof? Just listen to what they say; look at the laws they are passing. To deny any individual basic human rights based on your individual beliefs is outrageous, unethical, and […]
Some of my favorite quotes
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Letter from Texas
By Jim Schutze http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/letter-from-texas-listen-america-trump-is-just-embarrassing-cruz-is-scary-8095715“… you don’t live in Texas, so you haven’t had a lot of opportunity to hear Cruz’s father speak or pay close attention to his behavior. Please. […]
Understanding God
Thanks to the internet we were able to watch Erev Yom Kippur at New Yorks’ Central Synagogue.The sermon by Rabbi Angela W. Buchdahl is the best I’ve every heard on […]
Right and Wrong
What is right? What is wrong? It is a societal problem because individuals in a society will see things differently. If there existed a universally shared bases for distinguishing between the two, there would be no problem but there doesn’t
The “Special Snowflake”
It’s the religious far-right’s “special snowflake” syndrome: conservative Christians thinking that because they believe God sanctions their particular brand of bigotry, they’re special snowflakes who shouldn’t be restrained by human decency, much less the pesky laws that the rest of us are obliged to follow. If you hate hard enough, the rules don’t apply to you because you are a special snowflake, who really, really believes in what you’re doing.
Effort To Defund Family Planning Clinics Backfires
Thibodeau told ThinkProgress that, since Tipping’s and Savage’s blog posts were published, the organization has received a lot of positive notes from religious people expressing their support for the work of Maine Family Planning. “Thank you for the work you do and please pay no attention to the ‘Maine Christian Civic League.’ They know very little about God,” one message read.
“The sentiment that people aren’t interested in anti-women rhetoric and discrimination in the name of religion — that definitely came across here,” Thibodeau said.
You Cannot Be A Republican And A Christian
Republicans used to be moderate, business-minded civic boosters and unapologetic patriots who were the linchpins and bulwarks of small towns across the Midwest, the enthusiastic backers of projects for the civic good, usually in partnership with the town liberals (the librarian, the bar owner, a lawyer or two, the Methodist minister, the banker’s wife). These Republicans were uniters and diehard optimists and persons of compassionate conscience, inveterate doers of good deeds.Even today, there are probably some Republicans who still fit that description.
Great Quotes
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” John Steinbeck
Minimum Wage
Business is about making a profit. To be successful, i.e. to make a profit, a business must receive more for the product or service provided than it cost to produce it. That cost includes every expense that must be incurred to produce the product or service. If the price doesn’t cover the cost AND provide a sufficient excess, the business will die.
Glenn Beck’s Suggestion.
July 11 2014
Some selected extracts I made from comments on:
“Glenn Beck suggests immigrants are humans, right wingers lose their minds” at DailyKos.com
(Glenn Beck Pledges to Help Illegal Immigrant Children at Border; They Are Here ‘Through No Fault of Their Own
Following selected from comments at “Glenn Beck suggests immigrants are humans, right wingers lose their minds” at DailyKos.com
“Patriotism is the FIRST refuge of the scoundrel.
There is a very sad tendency for some folks to lightly skim that part of the Bible that says repeatedly to be kind to foreigners.
HOBBY LOBBY
“In the Hobby Lobby cases, five male Justices of the Supreme Court, who are all members of the Catholic faith and who each were appointed by a President who hailed from the Republican party, decided that a huge corporation, with thousands of employees and gargantuan revenues, was a ‘person’ entitled to assert a religious objection to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate because that corporation was ‘closely held’ by family members.
Another Example of Religious Hypocrisy
From the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/pastor-suit-against-oklahoma-license-plate-ok_n_3455129.html) ‘Rain God’ Oklahoma License Plate: Pastor Keith Cressman Lawsuit Approved By 10th Circuit Court Of Appeals.
I wonder if this pastor would support a similar law suit over the act of the McCarthy era Congress law that inserted “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance or the printing of “In God we trust” on all our money?
Unbelievable:
Just saw a news report that North Dakota has passed a law that proclaims that life begins at conception. They’re wrong. Eggs are already alive. Sperm are already alive. Everyone agrees that life “began” long ago (whether you believe in evolution or not.) It’s never ended. What they are trying to say is that a new human being comes into existence at conception. I guess they will be issuing “Conception Certificates” instead of “Birth Certificates” now. So all conceptions will have to be reported to the state and recorded.
Why Bother?
What we need now is a ban on the sale and possession of weapons that are only good for mass murder. You don’t need a 50 caliber machine gun or a rifle that can fire 100 bullets a minute to hunt ducks or deer. If you do, you should give up hunting.
Jefferson on Religion
Jefferson had no use for religious leaders and many times in his letters made it clear religion should be a private affair and and be kept out of politics and that the only way to know a person’s true religious beliefs was by how they lived, not by what they said.
“… the priests indeed have heretofore thought proper to ascribe to me religious, or rather anti-religious sentiments, of their own fabric, but such as soothed their resentments against … religious freedom. They wished him to be thought atheist, deist, or devil, who could advocate freedom from their religious dictations.
History of the Pledge of Allegiance.
History of the Pledge of Allegiance.
1892
"I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."
1892 to 1923
"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."
1923 to 1924
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially: the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion
It is not simply failing to practice those virtues that one preaches, it is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie.
“The only vice which cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy.
Texas Fires: More Vengeance?
Michele Bachmann seems to be missing a great opportunity in her battle for the Republican Presidential nomination. If she can call the earth quake and hurricane Irene God’s vengeance for us electing Obama President she should be calling the Texas fires God’s vengeance for electing Rick Perry Governor.
God’s Vengeance
I was wondering how long it would take for some religious fanatic to say it. “I don’t know how much God has to do…. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?'” I thought it would be some Islamic fundamentalist saying it was God’s punishment for us killing Bin Laden. It wasn’t it was a fundamentalist of another persuasion …
More on Seperation of Church and State
My father, a fundamentalist Baptist Minister, opposed, (no he was actually angered), by public events that included pray. He based his opinion of such acts on the verses which you can check out here: http://bible.cc/matthew/6-5.htm and here http://bible.cc/matthew/6-6.htm and here http://bible.cc/mark/12-17.htm and here http://bible.cc/john/9-31.htm. He agreed with Billy Graham that what these verses made abundantly clear was that ” Sin erects a barrier between us and God.
Fundamentalism
Christian Fundamentalism
This is a condensed summary of what Fundamentalist Christians believe.
There is only one God.
God is a Spirit. (That is he has no physical or material existence. [Unless he chooses to have one like when he “… became flesh and dwelt among us.”])
God is omniscient (all knowing [although he sometimes asks questions like “…
Mythic Past
I have had Thomas L. Thompson’s Mythic Past Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel on my book shelf for years and finally got around to reading it a few months ago. Dr. Thompson rejects the generally accepted idea that the Israelites arrived in Biblical Israel as invaders of an already existing civilization, conquered and replaced it. (A stand that caused him much opposition in his field and was detrimental to his career.) Thompson basically asserts a gradual evolution of already existing cultural elements.
GOD
Suppose you wanted to have a conversation about God with someone. If there is to be any communication you’ll have to both mean the same thing by the words you use. The most important word in such a conversation will be God, and at least some minimal assumptions of what God is have to be made to have the conversation.
TRUST ME!
George W. Bush: “…our intelligence activities strictly target al Qaeda and their known affiliates.” TRUST ME!George W. Bush: ”…the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval.” TRUST ME!George W. Bush: “…the privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities.” TRUST ME!George W. Bush: “…We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.” TRUST ME! George W.