Monday, March 26, 2007
Grace and beauty
It's amazing how an exhibition of grace and beauty can change your entire outlook. And sometimes it comes in the most unusual places... (speakers not required but strongly recommended)
Sunday, March 25, 2007
A little history of Islam from Scott Ritter... we are so in over our heads
My brother, the most voracious of readers, sent this along to me. I was embarassed, as I was unable to even begin to answer the questions posed by Ritter. But I always appreciate a good history lesson - thanks, Bro!
Things have reached such a state of affairs...
Bill Moyers spoke on February 7, 2007 at Occidental College in Los Angeles about "A Time for Anger, a Call to Action". One of the most eloquent and persuasive of our time hits another one out of the park.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
More on torturer from one of our practioners
Tony Lagouranis thought he was getting a good deal for learning Arabic... little did he know where he would end up and what he ended up in the middle of.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
What is a war crime?
More from the Smirking Chimp on Sy Hersh's recent article and the question of war crime charges against the Bush Cabal...
Stupid Fuck...
Matthew Hubbard got me started this morning. I've been spoiling for a hissy-fit against the Christian right and he took all my frustration and weaved a nice rage-on. Extra points for working in "stupid fuck", my personal favorite description of Virgil Goode (R. Va).
I was watching TDS last night and they did a piece on a dispute in Katy, Texas, and I found this piece on MSNBC... to which I respond, "stupid fuck"
America? A Christian Nation?
By Matthew Hubbard
Created Mar 1 2007 - 7:47am
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
Sir John Harrington 1561-1612
We are told this is a Christian nation. All our founders were Christian, crowing conservatives proclaim, ignoring sectarian differences. Polls show the vast majority of Americans self-identify as Christians, conveniently ignoring different sects and varying levels of commitment.
Let me concede both points; the founders were Christians and so are most of our citizens today.
So riddle me this. If we are so predominantly Christian, why are we so bad at it?
Religious conservatives love to tell us that our values are Judeo-Christian values, that these values are never-changing and they are derived from God’s will for his people. They say this because they expect us to be what most of their followers are.
Rock. Fucking. Stupid.
In the United States, a religious scholar is someone who can name six actors from “The Ten Commandments”. Actually knowing the text of the Bible or the history of the Church is knowledge as rare as steak tartare.
Let’s start with an easy one, shall we? What’s the most important Christian holy day?
If you live in the U.S., the answer is obviously Christmas. If you are a Christian, the answer is obviously Easter.
If you are a Christian, there is no War on Christmas, because there is no “Christmas Season” before December 25. The weeks before Christmas are called Advent. The Christmas Season, such as it is, are the days from Christmas until Epiphany.
What they call "The Christmas Season", the period that now starts at about Halloween and runs non-stop through New Year's, is actually the Money Making Season.
In any nation in Godless Europe, workers get a week off for Easter. In the U.S., once you get out of school, you are lucky to get off Good Friday.
After lunch.
Okay, Americans are a little confused about the relative importance of the two main holidays. That doesn’t make them bad Christians, does it?
If we apply the standards of Christianity in this country a mere 100 years ago, our modern sins are much greater than this. Number Four of the Ten Commandments tells us to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Back then, this meant studying God’s word, not taking it easy and entertaining ourselves. Most cities in the country banned Sunday baseball, when baseball was the true national pastime. Now, the biggest sport is pro football, and about 90% of pro football games are played on Sundays; more than that, other popular sports make Sunday the most important day in their week as well. Golf tournaments have their final rounds on Sunday. NASCAR, beloved sport of the Bible Belt, has many Sunday races, including their most important race, the Daytona 500.
Who stands in the pulpit or on TV and rails against this defiling of the 4th of God’s laws?
Damned few. And there’s a reason.
They are too busy defiling the 1st of God’s Laws.
Commandment #1, the first thing on the mind of The Big Kahuna when he read Moses the riot act, is this: Thou Shalt Have No Gods Before Me.
And here is the great sin of our so-called Christian nation.
The God of America is Mammon. Every battle between Christ and cash for one hundred years or more has been decided in favor of cash, usually in a rout.
Why is Christmas more important than Easter?
There's money to be made. What sells at Easter? Peeps, baby ducks and nice dresses? Honey cured ham and dye for colored eggs? Please! It pales in comparison to the money to be made around Christmas.
Why not a week off for Easter, to commemorate the greatest miracle in history?
There’s money to be made. Get back to work, you lazy fuck.
Why not keep the Sabbath holy?
What are you, fucking stupid? Drink a beer and eat some nachos, the Colts are going to be on at 1:00.
Why won’t our priests come to the aid of the faithful?
They gave up like pussies, and the Lords of Mammon took pity on them. The Lords showed unto the defeated how to partake of the fat money cake; hell, that‘s how many of them were defeated in the first place. Treason prospered, so none dare call it treason.
Even if they admit what a fucking mess exists, most conservative Christians will say it’s secular liberalism that caused this terrible state.
Did any of them EVER read Ayn Rand?
No more committed anti-Christian lived in the 20th Century than Ayn Rand, and none had her success. She said it loud and clear. “I prefer the dollar sign to the sign of the cross.” She built a cult of information around her, her books sold well and still sell today, and people in her inner circle rose to the highest heights of un-elected power in this country.
No, not George W. Bush. Alan Greenspan.
Before he was an ugly old gnome that the markets treated like the Pope of Money, he was an ugly young gnome in Ayn Rand's twisted entourage of sycophants.
Still think it’s a Christian Nation? Think again.
Our let me use the Latin word for “think again”. Repent.
I was watching TDS last night and they did a piece on a dispute in Katy, Texas, and I found this piece on MSNBC... to which I respond, "stupid fuck"
America? A Christian Nation?
By Matthew Hubbard
Created Mar 1 2007 - 7:47am
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
Sir John Harrington 1561-1612
We are told this is a Christian nation. All our founders were Christian, crowing conservatives proclaim, ignoring sectarian differences. Polls show the vast majority of Americans self-identify as Christians, conveniently ignoring different sects and varying levels of commitment.
Let me concede both points; the founders were Christians and so are most of our citizens today.
So riddle me this. If we are so predominantly Christian, why are we so bad at it?
Religious conservatives love to tell us that our values are Judeo-Christian values, that these values are never-changing and they are derived from God’s will for his people. They say this because they expect us to be what most of their followers are.
Rock. Fucking. Stupid.
In the United States, a religious scholar is someone who can name six actors from “The Ten Commandments”. Actually knowing the text of the Bible or the history of the Church is knowledge as rare as steak tartare.
Let’s start with an easy one, shall we? What’s the most important Christian holy day?
If you live in the U.S., the answer is obviously Christmas. If you are a Christian, the answer is obviously Easter.
If you are a Christian, there is no War on Christmas, because there is no “Christmas Season” before December 25. The weeks before Christmas are called Advent. The Christmas Season, such as it is, are the days from Christmas until Epiphany.
What they call "The Christmas Season", the period that now starts at about Halloween and runs non-stop through New Year's, is actually the Money Making Season.
In any nation in Godless Europe, workers get a week off for Easter. In the U.S., once you get out of school, you are lucky to get off Good Friday.
After lunch.
Okay, Americans are a little confused about the relative importance of the two main holidays. That doesn’t make them bad Christians, does it?
If we apply the standards of Christianity in this country a mere 100 years ago, our modern sins are much greater than this. Number Four of the Ten Commandments tells us to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Back then, this meant studying God’s word, not taking it easy and entertaining ourselves. Most cities in the country banned Sunday baseball, when baseball was the true national pastime. Now, the biggest sport is pro football, and about 90% of pro football games are played on Sundays; more than that, other popular sports make Sunday the most important day in their week as well. Golf tournaments have their final rounds on Sunday. NASCAR, beloved sport of the Bible Belt, has many Sunday races, including their most important race, the Daytona 500.
Who stands in the pulpit or on TV and rails against this defiling of the 4th of God’s laws?
Damned few. And there’s a reason.
They are too busy defiling the 1st of God’s Laws.
Commandment #1, the first thing on the mind of The Big Kahuna when he read Moses the riot act, is this: Thou Shalt Have No Gods Before Me.
And here is the great sin of our so-called Christian nation.
The God of America is Mammon. Every battle between Christ and cash for one hundred years or more has been decided in favor of cash, usually in a rout.
Why is Christmas more important than Easter?
There's money to be made. What sells at Easter? Peeps, baby ducks and nice dresses? Honey cured ham and dye for colored eggs? Please! It pales in comparison to the money to be made around Christmas.
Why not a week off for Easter, to commemorate the greatest miracle in history?
There’s money to be made. Get back to work, you lazy fuck.
Why not keep the Sabbath holy?
What are you, fucking stupid? Drink a beer and eat some nachos, the Colts are going to be on at 1:00.
Why won’t our priests come to the aid of the faithful?
They gave up like pussies, and the Lords of Mammon took pity on them. The Lords showed unto the defeated how to partake of the fat money cake; hell, that‘s how many of them were defeated in the first place. Treason prospered, so none dare call it treason.
Even if they admit what a fucking mess exists, most conservative Christians will say it’s secular liberalism that caused this terrible state.
Did any of them EVER read Ayn Rand?
No more committed anti-Christian lived in the 20th Century than Ayn Rand, and none had her success. She said it loud and clear. “I prefer the dollar sign to the sign of the cross.” She built a cult of information around her, her books sold well and still sell today, and people in her inner circle rose to the highest heights of un-elected power in this country.
No, not George W. Bush. Alan Greenspan.
Before he was an ugly old gnome that the markets treated like the Pope of Money, he was an ugly young gnome in Ayn Rand's twisted entourage of sycophants.
Still think it’s a Christian Nation? Think again.
Our let me use the Latin word for “think again”. Repent.
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