Suicide Pakistan Joke

So I heard a dumb joke the other day, and I chuckled, but then realized that it demonstrates a really huge problem in this country.

Here’s the joke:

I was feeling suicidal, so I called the Suicide Hotline, but they’d outsourced it to Pakistan, and they got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.

So, first I chuckled, but then I thought about how the average American would react to that and why. I think a lot of people here in the good old US of A believe that the “enemy” is Muslims. All of them. Islamofascists, so if you’re a Muslim, you’re a Fascist.

Brought to you by the Administration that “doesn’t do nuance”.

Do you think it’s possible that America is less safe because of the racist nature of the Right’s base and the blatant fear and hate mongering by the Administration?

If an occupying Iraqi soldier accidently killed your Mom, would anything about your view of Iraqis change? Can you imagine that maybe, somewhere deep inside, you’d wish revenge? Well, that there is the recipe for terrorists.

How did America fall for these boneheads?

Seriously questionable priorities

Now here’s a perfect example of “Global War On Terror” as a ridiculous political circus designed and executed with only one purpose- creating a climate of fear that keeps Republicans in power. Check this out.

We couldn’t take the route we wanted to over Hoover Dam on the way to a traditional Vegas Christmas, so we made a daytrip from the Strip. There’s a long snaking line of cars at the two security checkpoints, a 15 mph speed limit over the dam, and a ban on trucks, vans, trailers, trucks, RV’s and rental cars (how can they tell it’s a rental car?) The are building a massive highway bridge costing billions of dollars about a quarter mile from the dam.


Entering the visitor center, there are xray/metal detectors and warning signs stating, “No objects larger than this.” above a twelve by twelve inch square. All of this makes us think about what a delicate piece of infrastructure this dam must be, and how we all have to give up so much to defend OurWayOfLifeTM.

So we go on the tour and it’s really cool and massive and everything it should be, when I notice an earthquake detector/seismometer. I ask the guide about it and he says, “We believe the dam could survive a Category 9 earthquake. The canyon walls would mostly fall in, but Hoover Dam would still stand.”

I’m practically speechless. (Those who know me realize this is only a literary device.) “What the hell is all the security for?” I ask him. “Well, those jerks that fly airplanes into buildings are going for a big impact on people by targeting the dam.” (This from the man who earlier stated that if a fully loaded 747 flew into the dam it might or might not leave a mark.)

I said, “The Las Vegas Strip is 30 miles from here; no vehicle restrictions, no metal detectors. So a bomb here that “might leave a mark” is a bigger threat?” As I was wearing my “Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11” t-shirt, I guess we sort of agreed to disagree.

To further illustrate my point, a Richter Magnitude 9 earthquake is almost unimaginable. I can find no record of one in recorded history. Each point on the scale is 10 times the intensity of the lower number, so a 5 is 10 times a 4, or 100 times a 3. They don’t even define the intensity of a 9, but for an 8 (one tenth as powerful), “Almost all structures fall. Bridges wrecked. Very wide cracks in ground. Total destruction. Ground surface waves seen. Objects thrown into the air. All construction destroyed.”

If this was an actual security precaution, rather than political theater, don’t you think they could have found something more vulnerable to protect first?

Yes, Virginia, There is a War on Terror

(Republished without permission from HuffPo.)

Dear Editor,


I am 28 years old. Some of my friends say that the war on terror is a mistake, and furthermore "terror" is an abstract noun, it's not a country, and you can't wage war on an abstract noun. My friends, especially Peter Wilkins, say that there is no war on terror, it's just an excuse to manipulate and terrify the American public. I kind of agree with Peter, who's also very cute. My father though says I'm full of crap, and a slut, and have been misled by the liberal media as well as by my stupid friends. My father said I should write my question to this newspaper, and then accept the answer and shut up. So, Wall Street Journal, please tell me the truth, is there a war on terror?


Virginia O'Bannion.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except for what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, his intellect nothing as compared with the intelligence gathered by the government's warrantless wiretappings. Big Brother listening in? Perhaps. But big is good, and brother is good, so there is no problem. If we have nothing to hide, why do we want to hide it?



Yes, Virginia, there is a war on terror. It exists as certainly as Islamofascism and media bias and a turning away from the truth of Jesus Christ exist. It is an unhappy truth, but it must be faced, Virginia.

How dreary would be the world if there were no war on terror! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginia's or South Dakota's or no Texas's. There would be no childlike faith in the words of our leaders. There would be no war in Iraq, no threatening of Iran, no enhanced interrogation techniques, no foreign adventures or bravery or patriotism. The idealistic shock and awe by which America promises to impose democracy on the world would be no more.



Not believe in the war on terror! You might as well not believe in fairies. And what about Santa Claus? You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus.

So it is with the war on terror. It is hard to see, it is hard to pinpoint, but it is all around us at all times, hiding on planes and in toothpaste tubes, but your little friends say these dangers are not real. Your little friends really annoy me, they are little in spirit and mind and body. For the most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Depending on who you live next to, perhaps you have. Oh the times, oh the mores. We are going to hell in a hand basket, and it is foolish in all regards to be seated in a flammable basket while descending toward a furious pit of fire.


No war on terror! Thank God it lives and lives forever. It will truly go on forever, or at least until a few minutes before the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse come charging down Pennsylvania Avenue with Chuck Norris and Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham all seated like spectres on their steeds, preparing the way for Jesus Christ to descend from heaven minutes later and finally make clear who is right is this world and who most damnably is wrong, they're wrong, they're wrong.

Yes, Virginia, there is a war on terror. Now turn your back on your little, 'ittle friends, and tell them they are wrong. And tell your father he is right, and beg his forgiveness and wash his feet with your hair, which the women did in the gospels, so I don't mean anything odd by it. Thank you for writing, Virginia, and Merry Christmas and Happy War on Terror.

Infallible scripture, Part 3

Okay, a guy on the YouTube/Republican debate held up a Bible and asked, "Do you believe that every word in this book is true? Do you?" and the candidates fell all over themselves to try to say "Yes!" most convincingly. I was raised to believe that every "jot and tittle" of the Bible was the precise Word of God.

There are hundreds of examples, but let's try a simple one; can anybody square these verses?

Matthew 26:34 (King James Version)

34Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

Mark 14:30 (King James Version)

30And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.

Mark 14:66-72 (King James Version)

72And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

Granted the details are not that important unless you try to claim that EVERY WORD OF THIS BOOK IS 100% ABSOLUTELY TRUE.

It can't be. Anyone?

Reprint: The Infallible Bible

Here's a reprint, because my bro avoided the point of my last post. My point is that there is an absurdly selective obedience to most precepts and rules in the Old Testament, especially the Pentateuch. So here's the repost:


Long ago during my brief stint in a Christian school I learned about a concept called “theoneustos”, literally, “God breathed”. The idea was that God breathed through the writers of scripture, so we can know every word in infallible and true.

I have always had a hard time believing that a document in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church for a millennium wasn't doctored with. I wouldn’t trust them with an altar boy, never mind the written basis of a huge religious group.

Anyway, these believers, millions of them in the US today do some odd cherrypicking. To whit:

If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
Leviticus 20:10 we ignore, because we can’t go around killing people such as, oh, let’s say the leading Republican candidate?

You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground—those which I have set apart as unclean for you.
Leviticus 20:25 we ignore because it’s ceremonial law. Oh yeah? Who gets to pick?

Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
Leviticus 18:22 is the basis for the number one political concern of American (mostly Christian) Republicans. Not hunger, poverty, illness or any of the stuff their religion’s namesake actually said was important. What is the basis for the right’s obsession with sex anyway?

Great Depression II

I finally saw something in a letter to the editor that I’ve been looking for about 3 years. In a letter to the editor, a Phoenix woman wrote that she had lived through the last depression and that this was another one coming on. It’s odd that there are many people in important places who know perfectly well that we are like the coyote who’s run off the cliff, but hasn’t fallen down yet.

They’re all still pitching mid-caps and growth sector stocks, when they’re all moving to cash, diversifying info non-dollar currencies and getting ready for the financial Tsunami. I’m ready, but I really think most people have no clue what’s coming and are out there busily running up the Visa to buy cheap crap from China for all and any.

One bad thing about being retired is losing touch with the zeitgeist- are people talking about foreclosures at the water cooler? Are people still saying housing will go back up any day now?

As of yesterday, the major financial players and banks in the US had lost $40 billion dollars in the last quarter. And they definitely aren’t coming clean about all the crap they’re holding, not “marking to market” as the saying goes.

So how has America’s standing in the world changed under seven years of the Imperial Boy King W?

$9 TRILLION in debt, more than all 42 prior Presidents COMBINED! (That’s $27,000 for every MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN THE US!!! Whiskey, tango, foxtrot!?!?!?!?
Borrowing $2 billion a day from China, to continue tax cuts for the rich
Despised by people around the world
Civil liberties in tatters
Gang rape of the constitution by ideologues and fear mongers

Man, I can’t wait for a new Administration. Can you imagine what kind of hideous disassembly of a working government has been going on for 7 years? We need a Scouring of the Shire.

Back in the states and ready to rant

You know, I wasn’t just yelling into a closet when I asked for an explanation from any Christians on how to tell what parts of the Old Testament are ceremonial and therefore to be ignored, and which ones are eternal and important.

Seriously, there are parts of Leviticus that demand really outrageous death penalties for things people do all the time, and they are ignored, while the few references that can be construed as forbidding homosexuality are the basis of the modern church.

Are these stands defensible?

Can somebody help me with this?

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

Here's my excuse

The rants have been thinning out because we're in WAY too beautiful a place to be pissy. We'll be in Vegas next week, then Texas, both full of idiots, so the rants should resume on a more regular schedule..

I hope neither of my readers is harmed.

Morons on line, lies on tap

I have to share this comment, posted anonymously (how brave!) by some reactionary asswipe with an axe to grind and clue zero. Of some people, it's said they know nothing, this guy suspects nothing:


Actually, Tim McVey's brother in law was yosef padilla - a name which should sound familiar to you, since that family has long been known to be involved in terrorism. This wasn't a "christian white boy" acting - it was in fact muslims taking advantage of an ignorant christian white boy.



Okay, and Pat Robertson's father was Adolph Hitler, Hilliary Clinton killed Vince Foster and Fox News is fair and balanced.

Thoughts from Oklahoma City

We were in Oklahoma City a few weeks ago and I got to thinking.


They really did a beautiful job with this monument. It's visually stunning in a city that rarely rises much past bleak. Thoughtful and simple, it memorializes the victims with barely a mention of the zealot who caused those deaths. Something really striking occurred to me about Timothy McVeigh and April 19, 1995. I remember the time vividly as my company, UUNET Technologies, was to go public the next month, and I might end up with a dollar or two.

After the attack, there was much discussion about which particular Islamic group or what particular Muslim fanatics could have done this?

Oddly enough, it turned out that the terrorist was a white, Christian, conservative, native born, US Army veteran male. Here's where I thought it got interesting. On 9/11, 19 idiots (mostly from Saudi Arabia and none from Iraq, nor with any connection to Iraq) came here and killed 2974 people. That's a kill rate of almost 157 people per terrorist. McVeigh killed 168.

So we can conclude that the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil per capita was carried out by a native-born, white, conservative, Christian, combat-tested male US Army veteran. I'm obviously not saying there's something wrong with all native-born, white, conservative, Christian, combat-tested male US Army veterans. I'm just saying be careful about the idea that we can profile by type because obviously not all terrorists reflect the outlook of those in other ways similar to them.

Global War on Reason, er, Terror

So, I'm listening to “Talk of the Nation” (actually, kind of miraculous hundreds of miles south of the border) and this assclown, torture apologist is raging that the liberal media never reports on the thousands of terrorists they’ve rounded up and the plots they’ve prevented. His basic point is, “Either we torture, or thousands of Americans will die.”

Is anyone still buying this crap? I’d rather guarantee that thousands of Americans die every year in terror attacks than let this administration continue to gang rape the Constitution. What ever happened to, “Give me liberty or give me death”?

The only story about breaking up a terror operation I can remember is the one in Miami (I am a new junkie, so if it happened, I probably read about it). Remember this?

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Seven men concocted a plot to "kill all the devils we can," starting by blowing up Chicago's Sears Tower, according to charges in a federal indictment revealed Friday.


Turned out a bunch of lowlifes were bought cameras and rented cars by an FBI plant who gave them money and told them to take pictures. They did, and the photos are being used in their trial to prove they were Islamofascist terrorists. Except they were Catholics. And they smoked pot while discussing terror plots with the FBI plant who continued to give them money.

Give me $10,000 in cash and drop me in Liberty City, and I’ll come out 2 hours later with signed confessions to the killing of the last Czar, JFK and Jesus Christ.

I’m so freaking sick of the alleged war on terror. A ridiculous chance for a bunch of fat cats to get fatter.

And then I asked myself, how did I get here?

Paula asked about the whole top of the heap unreality thing that is my life, and I started to reply in a private email, but it turned into a rant, so here we go.

I was never particularly money-grubbing or a greed head. But I did study economics (philosophy with the balls to put a number on something) and minored in Yugoslav economics. I was pretty much a communist teen, so the Yugoslav model based on the 1948 Constitution was very attractive (stay with me).

Basically, the workers at factories could vote annually to keep or oust management. Also every three months they got a check for profit sharing. Here's an amusing unintended consequence- thousands of workers who had been showing up drunk and being complete slackers were beaten to death by their co-workers.

Except for the beatings, this to me seemed like the perfect fusion of social justice and economic efficiency, and as viewed from the late 70’s it seemed a likely outcome. I thought it might be interesting to try to put in place a fair, worker empowered workplace one day and stuck it on a mental bookshelf.

Flash forward a few years, and I’m having a blast working on a variety of stuff that was the early internet. We were all young and ernest and really loved the work, and we got to see people around us making fortunes at young ages, doing what they enjoyed, treating employees extremely well and making the world a better place.


I sort of gained expertise and employees and was able to but some of those worker empowerment things into practice and, lo and behold, it worked! I was running Sales and Support at a few small internet related companies in the late 80’s and early 90’s and using radical socialist models for compensation.

In the classic sales model, it’s all against all. I only win if others lose and my success depends on the failure of others. In addition, territories and quotas, the lifeblood of salespeople were usually capricious assigned, favorites rewarded, independence punished and generally really ugly workplaces. Think Glengarry Glen Ross. Lot’s of backstabbing and negative motivation to cooperate.

This may be too much inside baseball but it’s important. We divided up territories every 6 months or so, so that everybody got a historically equal territory. In addition EVERYONE got paid on EVERY sale. The individual sales rep got the most, and his team the next largest portion, but EVERYONE WANTED EVERY SALE. That means if the other guy’s phone rang and he was out, everyone dove for the phone. We quickly developed one of, no, the most cooperative workplaces I’ve ever had the pleasure to work in. There were a few other innovations, like doing almost everything over the phone, no suits, ideal hire 2 years out of college, ALL promotions from within, and just when we got the structure set up at the #3 Internet Service Provider in America, the internet exploded and we were in exactly the right place at the right time. Soon, we were global number one, and those other guys were out of business.



The normal sales model of guys in suits in cars or on airplanes couldn’t handle the volume and we did.

Over 100 of my employees became millionaires because of stock options we’d handed out, we had the largest proportion of female management of any telecom company in the world, the best maternity leave policy I’ve ever heard of, and the happiest most motivated work force I’d ever seen.

How do you top growing from million to billions in 3 years?

You don’t. You retire. And try to make the world a better place.

And that’s it.

The revolution will be on YouTube

US consumers (formerly citizens) have gotten very used to spending beyond their means. It's been encouraged from the highest levels of government, and become the conventional wisdom; buy a house you can't afford on a teaser rate. If the rate goes up, just refi! Want that 46" plasma TV? Finance it? Buy all the car you can afford and more! You deserve it!

As friends and relatives can relate, I've spent the last 3+ years telling people that stretching to buy real estate is probably a bad idea. (Somebody please back me up. You know who you are.)

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how the collapse of the credit bubble, real estate and the dollar will affect the social fabric of the US. The economic consequences are well covered here at iTulip, but it's a little technical for the layman.

How will we respond when over a million foreclosures occur next year? Two million voters directly affected. That makes, what, ten or twenty million close relatives to those foreclosed? What will the social outcome be? Political?

I got burned by the late 1980's real estate bubble in Massachusetts. It really rips your heart out and is completely degrading. We owed a few hundred thousand in credit card and other debt accrued trying to get my first software company off the ground..But then, when we went to the Judge about our Chapter 7 bankruptcy, he effectively said, "Your sins and debts are forgiven. Go forth and debt no more."

We left the Tip O'Neill federal building and Liz asked, "When do the men in hoods with sticks come to beat us?" And they didn't, because we had a thing called the "Second Chance Doctrine" that says every dog gets to bite once, and so we got a fresh start. Within 10 years, I had hired thousands of employees, started dozens of companies and created many, many millions of dollars of actual wealth for many people.

I'd say that was a great policy, that "Second Chance Doctrine".

Due to changes in the bankruptcy law a fear years back, a love note to the financial industry from Bush and the Republican Congress, the situation would be very different today.

Credit card debt is now NOT forgivable.
Car loans are now NOT forgivable.
Consumer debt is now NOT forgivable.

If I'd sought bankruptcy protection today, I would spend the next decade working it off.

NOT hiring thousands of people.
NOT starting dozens of companies.
NOT creating millions and millions of dollars of real wealth.

I think a lot of people like me, faced with turning into the Joads are going top be a force to be reckoned with. If I'd been saddled with decades of virtual debtors prison, I can tell you I sure would be radicalized. I'd spend every minute of spare time getting the word out that when the fatcats get too fat, they become food.

Historically, when too few have too much and too many have too little, you end up with situations like in Guatemala. But this time, we're not talking about peasants held down for centuries, we're talking homeless, garnished Americans who USED to drive new SUV's and USED to live in McMansions and USED to not have to think about which meal to eat out next.

I think they're going to be pissed. I think they're going to get violent. I think it's the best thing that could happen to the fat and happy citizenry of this spoiled rotten country and it's entitled, delusional wannabe imperial president.

I made the New York Times (again)

Last summer the extended Osborn clan's presence in the Round Hill, Maine Fourth of July Parade, a perennial and virulently lefty event,was duly noted in the Gray Lady, and Nat got named (I can't find the article to link.) This morning I posted Thomas Friedman's excellent NYT columns while failing to notice I was in the paper.

News whore? Moi? Guilty as charged. Did I mention I'm in Harper's next month?

As I tell my wife all too often,it's hard to remember, but I used to be important.

Thomas Friedman nailed it on Iran

There are two intelligence analyses that are relevant to the balance of power between the U.S. and Iran — one is the latest U.S. assessment of Iran, which certainly gave a much more complex view of what is happening there. The other is the Iranian National Intelligence Estimate of America, which — my guess — would read something like this:

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Thomas L. Friedman

To: President Ahmadinejad

From: The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence

Subject: America

As you’ll recall, in the wake of 9/11, we were extremely concerned that the U.S. would develop a covert program to end its addiction to oil, which would be the greatest threat to Iranian national security. In fact, after Bush’s 2006 State of the Union, in which he decried America’s oil addiction, we had “high confidence” that a comprehensive U.S. clean energy policy would emerge. We were wrong.

Our fears that the U.S. was engaged in a covert “Manhattan Project” to achieve energy independence have been “assuaged.” America’s Manhattan Project turns out to be largely confined to the production of corn ethanol in Iowa, which, our analysts have confirmed from cellphone intercepts between lobbyists and Congressmen, is nothing more than a multibillion-dollar payoff to big Iowa farmers and agro-businesses.

True, thanks to Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. Congress decided to increase the miles per gallon required of U.S. car fleets by the year 2020 — which took us by surprise — but we nevertheless “strongly believe” this will not lead to any definitive breaking of America’s oil addiction, since none of the leading presidential candidates has offered an energy policy that would include a tax on oil or carbon that could trigger a truly transformational shift in America away from fossil fuels.

Therefore, it is “very likely” that Iran’s current level of high oil revenues will last for decades and insulate our regime from any decisive pressures from abroad or from our own people.

We have to note that obtaining open-source intelligence in America has become more difficult, because traditional news shows have become more comedic and more comedic news shows more authoritative.

For instance, CNN’s nightly business report is hosted by a man named “Dobbs.” Real journalists come on his show and present transparently propagandistic stories about immigration and trade and then he fulminates about them, much the way our ayatollahs used to do about “Satanic Americans” on late-night Iranian TV. So viewers have no real idea what’s happening in the U.S. economy.

Meanwhile, at 11 p.m., something called “The Daily Show,” which appears on Comedy Central, has fake journalists presenting what turns out to be the real news.

Yes, our last I.N.I.E. in 1990 concluded that after the collapse of communism, America was on track to become the world’s sole superpower and most compelling role model for Muslim youth — including our own. We were wrong. We now have “high confidence” that America is on a path of self-destruction, for three reasons:

First, 9/11 has made America afraid and therefore stupid. The “war on terrorism” is now so deeply imbedded in America’s psyche that we think it is “highly likely” that America will continue to export more fear than hope and will continue to defend things like torture and Guantánamo Bay prison and to favor politicians like Mr. Giuliani, who alienates the rest of the world.

Second, at a time when America’s bridges, roads, airports and Internet bandwidth have fallen behind other industrial powers, including China, we believe that the U.S. opposition to higher taxes — and the fact that the primary campaigns have focused largely on gay marriage, flag-burning and whether the Christian Bible is the literal truth — means it is “highly unlikely” that America will arrest its decline.

Third, all the U.S. presidential candidates are distancing themselves from the core values that made America such a great power and so different from us — in particular America’s long commitment to free trade, open immigration and a reverence for scientific enquiry wherever it leads. Our intel analysts are baffled that the leading Democrat, Mrs. Clinton, no longer believes in globalization and the leading Republican, Mr. Huckabee, never believed in evolution.

U.S. politicians seem determined to appeal either to the most nativist extremes in their respective parties — or to tell voters that something Americans call “the tooth fairy” will make their energy, budget, educational and Social Security deficits painlessly disappear.

Therefore, we conclude with “high confidence” that there is little likelihood that post-9/11 America will, as they say, “get its groove back” anytime soon.

Who needs nukes when you have this kind of America?

God is Great. Long Live the Iranian Revolution.

(Posted without explicit permission from the New York Times.)

Hypocracy - The Drug Lobby Can't Contribute (Yet)

I've been thinking alot lately about the two ways laws are used. One, to make someone feel smug that they disapprove of a behavior while having no effect or contributing to the behavior. Two, laws to actually change the behavior.

I doubt there's a member of the religious right who would favor legalizing drugs. I'm talking marijuana, heroin, you name it. But the war on drugs has cost billions of dollars to taxpayers, supports FARC in Columbia, the Taliban in Afghanistan and MS-13 in LA, not to mention putting millions of non-violent people in prison at an expense of billions. In spite of this, I could parachute into any town in America with $100 cash and in an hour I could get pot, heroin, crack, whatever. THE DRUG LAWS DON'T WORK!

Why don't we legalize marijuana? "I don't want to send the message that it's okay to do!" No probelmo with cigarettes and booze? It's easier for a 14 year old to buy pot in America than booze, because the booze is regulated. The pot is assumed not to exist? How could it be here? It's not legal!

If we legalized, taxed and regulated drug use, EVERY CRIMINAL GANG IN AMERICA WOULD BE OUT OF BUSINESS OVERNIGHT!

But the proud little clean faced boys and girls who's grandparents got it made illegal in the first place, cuz them darkies like that devil weed, can't get past the idea that making it legal would make it available to Dick and Jane for the first time.

I finally get the Iran thing

Okay, I’ve spent weeks trying figure out why the Bush and the Dick are trying to convince us that Iran is the greatest threat to the US since premarital sex, and it all came to me in a moment of clarity.

Why, I wondered would Iran go to so much trouble to build nukes to use on Israel or the US (the administration’s stated fear) when the resulting counterblow, from either nation, would leave Tehran a molten lake of glass.

Then it occurs to me that Iran’s real mortal enemy for lo these many years has been Saddam’s Iraq. Saddam, of course, claimed to have or nearly have nuclear weapons. Rationally, the Iranians move to counter and start to develop a nucular arsenal. Then in 2003 the Cheneyistas roll thru Iraq and take out the big Saddam. About the same time, the Iranians decide to suspend their nucular weapons program as the boogey man was hiding in a spider hole in Tikrit.

Flash forward to this year and the admin is a fix. Anyone with an IQ over room temperature has to realize that our involvement in Iraq is a clusterf#%k. What to do and how to avoid the blame? It’s those darn pesky Iranians. They are helping the bad guys, developing nucular weapons, and hell (as I heard Glen Beck say), “We’re already at war with Iran!”

What are they waiting for? I’ll bet anything, there is a team of American agents near the Iranian border desperately looking for something they can showcase as an Iranian causing the death of an American GI. Holy crap, all hell will break loose!

In August 1939, a prisoner was taken from a German prison, dressed as a Polish soldier, and used to stage what would look like a Polish attack on German troops. Poland fell as a result. I believe the current administration is trying to use the same playbook.

Ouch.

Reality has a known Liberal bias

The Chucklehead-in-Chief managed to reach a new low this morning at a press conference. The newest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) shows conclusively that Iran ceased any development of nucular (sic) weapons years ago.

So what does Monkey Boy have to say to that?

Nothing changed. Iran is still a threat.

“I have said Iran is dangerous,” Bush said a day after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate, representing the consensus of all 16 American spy agencies, “and the N.I.E. doesn’t do anything to change my opinion about the danger Iran poses to the world — quite the contrary.”

What kind of moron calls proof positive that he is wrong "quite the contrary?"

Colbert put it so well at the White House press dinner a while back, "This is a man who will do on Wednesday what he planned on Monday, no matter what happens on Tuesday."

Such an important cause

My friend (I'm honored to call him that) Rick Prose is doing things in New Orleans we should all be trying like hell to be involved with. It's my honor to have had a small part in helping with lowernine.org, but making up for the administration's cynical, evil, racist and utterly abhorrent mistreatment of the citizens of the US who had the misfortune to be poor and black and live in New Orleans is one of the great crimes of the last decade.

Hey, George W. Bush and all of those around you! How the hell do you justify treating people like this and dare to call yourselves Christians?

Sub-prime collapse and US debt

Okay, so maybe I get to put my Economics degree to use here and run a little riff on the sub-prime mortgage fiasco and it’s doppelganger, the US debt fiasco. But I digress.

Okay, very often in Economics, as in sailing, it’s the terminology that can be the barricade to understanding. I’ll try to keep this simple.

The sub-prime debt problem is based, at least in great part, on the problem of responsibility for one’s actions. The current corrupt administration often uses phrases like this, but in practice hands out “Medals of Freedom” to some of the most unsuccessful, incompetent and and ineffective people to ever "serve" in government. (Heck of a job, Brownie!) All that "sub-prime" means, is that these weren't nade to the most credit worthy people in the world. That's it. In the 80's a lot of people thought Michael Milken was selling complete crap because of the label "Junk bonds". All it really meant was that there were a few not perfect, but not crap, issues with the companies involved.

What happened in sub-prime is that the mortgage brokers and banks selling loans generally sold them within a few days of making them. Get it? You, the loan offer gets paid your fee, usually one month's payment on the loan, and then the loan goes away. No risk. Big upside. I remember getting to college in 1977, and hearing a guy in the dorm reading from a student handbook, "Okay, so the police and campus security have to provide 24 hour written notice to enter our dorm rooms. Why shouldn't I IMMEDIATELY start dealing drugs?""

All upside, no risk.

Right, so the Right wing in the US has taken it as gospel that all taxes are bad, lowering them is good and raising them is bad. But they're getting around it by borrowing. The kind of chuckleheads who try to balance their budgets by putting it on credit cards and paying just the minimum are headed for a lot of pain.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.
Bush has borrowed more than all other Presidents combined.

Want to make sure you get my point.

Why is it so difficult for people to see this? ZERO pain for borrowing. HUGE political cost to pay for raising taxes. But George and Dick know that the bill comes due after their watch. They're leaving it to my younger readers, our children and grandchildren. And they're getting away with it.

A little math here- $9 trillion deficit
300 million Americans
That's $30,000 for every man, woman and child.
With 5% bonds, good for 20 years, that's $800 a month for a family of 4. Almost $10,000 a year. Median household income is around $48,000 a year. So 20 cents out of every dollar an average American earns will need to go to pay for George W. Bush's absurd policies, illegal war and absurd, ideological, corrupt and ineffective rule of 8 years. Then you start at zero to pay for everything else! Glad we haven't raised taxes? Just wait.

How. Stupid. Can. A. Nation's. Citizens. Be?

It's sure as hell enough to start thinking this whole democracy thing might not be up to it's billing.

From the Humble Farmer in Maine

Recently, the Humble Farmer, a 30 year veteran of Maine Public Radio was fired for making political commentary. I enjoyed and am posting one here and am assuming I have permission from the site.

How do you feel about war? I probably shouldn't take sides, being privileged as I am to sit --- with your permission --- behind this microphone, but I am going to come right out and admit that I don't care for war. No, it's not the war itself that bothers me. It's the needless killing and starvation and destruction and expense part of war that bothers me.

You might argue with me and say that war is the only way we can control the world's population. You might tell me that birth control is not a good thing but there is nothing wrong with millions of young men dying gloriously on the field of battle defending their country. You might tell me that we've got to have wars because if the population continues to increase at the present rate, in 500 years there won't be standing room on this planet. And I've got to admit that you've got me --- I can't say a word about that.

Let's admit it. You and I know that there are people who do like war. Many of them are the simple flag waving folks who will stand right up in public to show their support for a wimpy looking, weasely faced war monger from way down south who didn't even get most of the popular vote. There. I've said it and I'm glad. But this is public radio so you shouldn't be surprised to learn where I stand. And besides the support from flag wavers, you know that when there's a war every big company stands to make money. So you'll find the unions standing right beside management when you're talking big time war.

It's pretty hard to stop a war when the man --- who calls himself the leader --- wants a war. You'll notice that he starts out by sword rattling --- lets all the other world leaders know that he's got to make a move very soon to protect the safety and well-being of his people --- no matter how far away it is. And if he says the same thing over and over and over there will be a few people out there who say to themselves, "Baaaa. You know, I think he's right. There are some bad guys out there who are killing our people. We've got more planes and tanks and guns and technology than anyone else, so why should we have to put up with it. Our leader says we'll hit them so hard and so fast it will be over before they knew what hit them. And before we are done, we will have restored order and sucked all the natural resources out of an unstable region."

All this while, even though the war-mongering, rat faced wimp knows what he's going to do no matter what, he's making a big public show of talking with the top guys in Russia and France and England --- trying to either get their support or keep them off his back while he blows half the world to kingdom come.

Agh. I've said enough about him. Every time I see him blabbing on TV I wonder how anyone could possibly have been stupid enough to vote for such an idiot. I comfort myself by knowing that most of the people who went to the polls didn't.

I'll bet you don't know that wimpy little weasel face wrote a book in which he very clearly outlines his plans. And it might surprise you to hear me say that if you haven't read it, you should. Got your pencil? The name of it is Mein Kampf.

So that's the Humble Farmer. Who did you think he was talking about?

I really hate Karl Rove

Does anyone still believe anything that comes out of Rove’s mouth? His latest nonsense is this from the Washington Post:

"Rove said that the administration did not want lawmakers to vote on a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq that soon because it would "make things move too fast," before Bush could line up international allies, and politicize the issue ahead of midterm elections. But Democrats and some Republicans involved with the issue at the time said yesterday that Bush wanted a quick vote."

WHAT?!?!?!?!

It wasn’t bad planning by the administration, it was those darn pushy Democrats.

How dumb do they think we are? By any usual measure, this will be successful for the lobotomized 27% of the population that believes Rove has a point, that Nixon was framed and that Hilliary killed Vince Foster. I’ll sadly admit to having close family members in that camp. They’re actually very nice people who have been brainwashed into never seeing gray, when in fact there are very dark grays and very light grays, but damn little is black or white.

The only good news is that this is a break in the incessant drumbeat leading to an attack on Iran. I’ve already promised Liz if the US attacks Iran, we’re moving to Canuckistan and becoming Canuckistanis. Y’all can visit us in Nova Scotia in summer and Cuba in winter.

"Swear" words

Okay, I guess I can understand why “God damn it” would be a big no-no to our pals in the Religious Right TM, given the whole ten commandments thing, but why should they care about good old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon cussing?

(Honestly, if you’re offended by allegedly “foul” language, you might want to stop right here. On the other hand, you might gain a new outlook.)

Because of family connections and other accidents, there are a few devout Christian readers of this site, and for that I am grateful. The number of venues in which religious and not can meet and discuss is small and getting smaller. I can hurl invective with the best of them, but Lordy, it would be nice to have a dialogue.
I don’t want to drive anyone off, but this seems like a fitting topic for a rant.

The Onion once had a great article by a guy selling Bibles. “Why can’t I sell any of these fucking Bibles? These aren’t some cheap ass shitty Bibles. They’re fucking quality Bibles.”

The church definitely preaches that words like ”shit”, ”piss” or ”fuck” are somehow “bad”. On what scriptural basis? Why is feces not obscene, but shit is? You can say fornicate from the pulpit, but they’d throw you out for saying, “Fucking come to Jesus, y’all”.

Any theologians (or English majors for that matter) who can clarify this for me?

On the theme of tradition vs. scripture, I had to throw in the old joke:

Q. Why don’t Baptists make love standing up?
A. Someone might see them and think they were dancing.

And my brother Steve’s line of artificial swearing:
“Got dandruff! And some of it itches!”

Religion, bane of humanity and deity

Okay, earlier in this blog, a devout, educated, American Christian, Ben, defends the righteousness of sending a starved 5 month old child to eternal damnation because the child may have sinned.

I’m watching a mob of Sudanese on CNN marching to demand the execution of a teacher who “allowed” her 7 year old students to name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Last year, a huge brouhaha broke our in Kabul after an Afghani
converted to Christianity and was sentenced to death as a result.

My earlier post included the letter from the RV park host warning that “Muslim mosques are “Hate America Centers””.

I don’t remember the last time an agnostic killed an atheist over his or her religious views.

I can’t count the number of catholic/protestant/muslim/hindu/mormons killed because they weren’t catholic/protestant/muslim/hindu/mormons.

What the hell is wrong with you people?

Is it possible that God hates religion as much as I do? It’s really not hard to imagine. In fact, I take it as an article of faith.

Abortion- Jesus thought it was a great idea

Okay, the idiots in today’s right wing consider opposition to abortion to be the touchstone shibboleth of faith. The death of millions of innocent zygotes, whose lives they will defend, right up to the moment of birth and not one minute more is some kind of genocide. These same knuckleheads can’t find $100 a head to have at risk 5 year olds get a school lunch or tutoring, but God forbid that a cluster of 12 cells gets sucked into the Hoover and all hell breaks loose.

Jesus hung with ho’s and never said a thing about abortions. Think about it; unless these women only worked 3 days a month, they were practicing abortion, whether falling down stairs or using herbal potions. He never said a thing. What the hell is wrong with these idiots whose real motivation I believe is, “The little slut wouldn’t sleep with me. Screw her.” Or "I never got laid in high school, why should you?"

Oh the absurd suffering that's been laid (sic) on the world thru the sexual neurosis of the Religious Right and its' ancestors. A bunch of inhibited perverts, in my opinion. Latent child molesters and wanna be swingers with too much weird guilt to pull it off. Get over yourselves.

Justice and mercy anyone?

What’s the struggle?

Evangelicals, it seems to me, are always bitching about the corrupting influence of the culture, the oppression they face, the secular humanists running the world (huh?), the rampant sexual content (pardon me, but Jesus forbids consensual sex outside of wedlock between adults where? He hung out with prostitutes, you tight-assed Puritans!) and all manner of other distraction from their living a Godly life.

WHAT? If I actually believed that I’d get a billion years in heaven and all I had to do was survive my 70 plus years here on earth, it’d be a piece of cake. No sex, no drugs, no problem. It's like telling a kid you'll take him to Disneyland for a month if he stays quiet for 10 seconds. So why is it such a trial for Christians? Could it be doubt? What if this is the only chance I get at life and I make the wrong bet?

So Is God Evil or Weak?

There’s a religion out there that worships a god who allows 29,000 innocent children to die of starvation every day. The vast majority of them, these folks believe, go to burn and suffer in unimaginable pain for billions of years, and then billions more and billions more. Because of original sin. This is considered the actions of a merciful god. In fact, they like to say, “God is love.”

Sorry, but God sounds like a major league asshole to me.

Nobody has ever successfully explained to me whether God is weak, and can’t prevent evil, pain and suffering, simply because he’s not up to the task, or if he’s evil and wants us to suffer.

As for the “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, the game was rigged. Adam and Eve faced the choice of the skinny kid facing the schoolyard bully, ho asks, “If you don’t want me to hit you, say, “Hit me.”” For this, billions of humans are relegated to eternal suffering on an infinite scale.

Sorry, but I don’t get it. What is it, weak or evil or just a bully?

Are Christians evil?

So I was walking around the Tucson Barnes and Noble, trying to think what English language drivel I’d wish I had during a month in Mexico, and I saw the Harper’s cover story, “Are Christians evil?”

This I obviously had to have. The point of the article, which is actually a book review of David Lewis and Phillip Kitcher’s “Philosophers Without Gods” published in August, is interesting..

The premise is that because God insists that those who know nothing about him are sentenced to unimaginably long torture of unimaginable agony in unimaginable ways that God is intrinsically evil. Works for me.

The following idea is that if Christians approve of, and in fact worship this kind of behavior, then they are in fact evil. Where the hell is the love in sentencing African five month olds who die of starvation to billions of years of anal rape by barbed penised demons? It has always struck me as the plan of a less than loving deity.

Call me crazy.

If I were Eve, I’d pick an apple from a tree because it’s human to be hungry, and that’s all.

Lies, damned lies and statistics

Okay, a month ago one-third of Americans still believe Saddam Hussein had a personal role in the attacks o 9/11, and 40 percent believed he had some role. (This result certainly includes my parents and various other family members, who also believed That Governor Bill Clinton imported cocaine to Arkansas and that his wife killed Vince Foster. Also, Nixon was framed.)

How can you believe in democracy when these boneheads each get a vote? It drives me crazy that my vote is countered by a guy in an F-150 with Confederate Army battle flag decals on the bumper.

“Hey man, being White is my heritage.” Yeah, but being White doesn’t mean a damn thing except that you’re not Black. It’s not being English or Irish or Lithuanian. That’s not heritage, it’s just another ugly, ridiculous abuse of the ignorant by the right wing to get their votes. Those people are utterly contemptuous of those ignorant lowlifes, but they sure are useful stooges.

Safety, security and an atmosfear

Here’s a rant anyone who’s known me in the last decade will recognize; what’s up with all the gated communities? We are passing through some nice areas, and some not so nice, but there seems to be many more “gated communities” than when I was a kid. I’m not sure I remember ever seeing one until not too long ago.

People who move to an upscale, crime free area who immediately put industrial strength deadbolts on the door, and an alarm system in the house and teach their children of “stranger danger”.

As for me, I’d rather be robbed than live in fear. Fear is a full time corrosive thing, that can suck the mercy and humanity right out of you. Think of the drivel that idiots like Lou Dobbs and Tom Tacredo spew at their fans- “Fear Hispanics! Fear invasion.” The result of such vitriol is NOT mercy and not Christ-like and NOT, in my humble opinion, very American.

I don’t think I’ve been robbed in decades, though I never lock the house, routinely leave the keys in the car, and go to scary countries carrying lots of cash. What a waste it would have been to spend that time in fear.

Don’t be afraid. They use your fear.

Taxing the poor more and more

In this town of 35,000 residents (Casa Grande, Arizona) I counted 17 payday loan outlets and 13 real banks. Oh the unmitigated blessings of deregulation, another right wing fave. One of these parasites actually brags on their web site, “New customers pay 50% less, only $9.31 per $100.00!” Keep in mind this is a one or two week loan. Basically this is a hideous tax on people with little education and few resources. Screwing around with Excel, I come up with an annual rate of 7,000%. Nice.

Just another abuse of the poor by unbridled deregulation.

While I’m ranting, how hard would it be to add personal finance to high school curriculum? We are schooling a generation of financial idiots, unleashing them on a world with easy credit, credit cards practically forced on them and a great new bankruptcy bill that is tantamount to debtor’s prison.

How many times have I stood behind some moron taking out $20.00 from an ATM? There’s a $2.00 fee, so you’re basically taxing yourself an additional 10% in addition to any other taxes you’ve paid. Makes me want to grab them and give them a lecture on personal finance.

Sex and personal finance are two of the few things just about every one of us will have to deal with. Why don’t we teach about them?

What inflation?

Okay, here’s a short one, but it bugs me. I have a degree in Economics, and though I’m no expert, I have a lot of friends who are. A special nod to old friend Eric Janszen and his excellent, if intense, web site iTulip.

Here’s the thing- there is a big risk of inflation going through the roof for a variety of reasons. If you’re much under 50, you don’t remember inflation, but I do and it really, really sucks. Unemployment rises, all boats are falling in an ebb tide, and the price of everything gets insane. You’re not going to like it.

But. I believe it’s official White House policy because it’s the only way to shrink our MASSIVE debt (note- George W. Bush has borrowed more money than all previous Presidents COMBINED!)*

Anyway, here’s the rant part. When they report “core” inflation, which is what the current CPI (consumer price index) shows, they remove energy and food. Energy and food aren’t a core part of most people’s spending? When you include groceries, restaurants, gas, utilities and all the other things that constitute food and energy, how the heck is that NOT part of “core” inflation?

They are lying to us in so many ways.

This is my dream- let the South secede

I swear this is the best thing that could happen to America. With thanks to http://cronus.com/redstates/ for the material.


Dear Red States
We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the entire Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.
To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms. Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home.
With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.
By the way, we have all the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.
— Anonymous in California

School choice, the real story

This one really steams my shorts. The Right has been talking for years about “school choice” or vouchers to help them poor colored kids in the inner city. How can you Liberals leave these poor things in failing schools? Oh, the humanity!

Okay, when I was a kid, there were two kinds of public schools in the American South- White kid schools and Black kid schools. “Separate, but equal” was the absurd claim. Absurd as witnessed by the way the White schools got new textbooks and the Black kids got the old used ones from the White schools. There is enough evidence of the profound inequalities that I’ll leave it there.

So then along comes Brown v. Board of Education and everyone has to go to school together- red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight- and so obviously the White (Christian) parents had to pull their kids from the public schools full of them nasty heathen coloreds to send them to Liberty Baptist Academy (oddly all white).

Wink, wink. It’s fer them coloreds, right? Wink.

School vouchers and school choice is a cynical, racist ploy to the base of White (Christian, racist, but I repeat myself) voters.

Bush to Congress- "Don't tell generals what to do!"

Civilian control of the military is an important feature of this republic. Independent action by Generals or the Pentagon is the path to disaster, witness Pakistan. Why does the bonehead-in-chief think it’s wise and or prudent to hand over the strategy, goals or missions of the US armed forces there?

We have seen time and again truth to power speaking patriots get smeared and reviled by the administration. When they finally can find a willing dupe, they play it as, “All is well and always will be. Now shut up and support the troops.” I feel bad for Betraeus. Who had to get up there and twist the truth into a pretzel. He’s a motivated, driven guys. He wants to go places. He knows what they did to Shinseki. He’s spoken of running for President. For him, he has to make happy talk and try anything. If he turns around this disaster, he’s a shoe in for the White House. If he doesn’t, well, it was already broken when he got it. It's the way the hedge fund managers have to think. They get 20% of profits amd share none of the pain of losses. How would you invest under that scenario? Risky, risky, risky.

My nephew Nat tells me he’s teaching his high school students about the Constitution and balance of power between the branches of Government. Apparently very depressing when you see what a circus they’ve made of it.

I miss my country.

The surge is working (what were the original goals?)

Okay, I’m really freaking tired of the moving targets in all aspects of the “Global War on TerrorTM”. The latest is the “surge” (don’t call it escalation). They fired General Shinseki for saying Iraq required “several hundred thousand” troops; four years later, they add troops and surprise! Fatalities fall.

Except, it’s not sustainable. And, it forgets the original point. The point of the surge was to give breathing room to an embryonic government to get its act together and get past sectarian division. Hello? Hello? Is this thing on? Zero progress and an absurdly broken “government” that is completely irrelevant outside the Green Zone.

So the Right still gets to ask rhetorically, “Would you prefer that Saddam Hussein was still in power?” Hell yes! Like Tito in Yugoslavia, sometimes an iron fist is required to hold back nasty ethnic tendencies. Somebody should attack this thinking about now, and note that Prez MonkeyBoy wants to spread democracy, not strong man rule. Except he gives $10,000,000,000 to support strong man Pervez Musharraf. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.

Islamofascism Vs Neoconservativism

By any normal definition of fascism (a) creates dangerous enemies, (b) enables great corporate power, (c) promotes fierce nationalism, (d) suppresses differing views, (e) creates extraordinary police powers, (f) funds the extensive use of propaganda. Wait a minute. That's the Bush administration to a T.

What do we have:
Bush administration, yes on a, b, c, d, e, and f.

Your avg Islamic terrorist group, yes on a f, no on b, no on c, incapable of d, impossible to do e.

What the heck? All I can think is that it's part of trying to call Al Qaeda as big a threat as Hitler. In fighting Hitler, taxes were raised, gasoline was rationed, we created the greatest air, sea and and land based military the world had ever known. launched a Manhattan project, and we did it in less time than we've been in Iraq. A young George HW Bush lied about his age to get in the fight.

Today, tax increases are anathema (but not borrowing $2 Billion a day from China), gasoline is practically subsidized, the military has been ground down and the Bush twins haven't done so much as to send the troops cookies.

Exactly how stupid do they think we are? This is NOTHING like WWII.

Here's a really interesting take on the issue from an American Muslim's point of view.

Emergency funding?

The Senate was expected to start work on the 50 billion dollar emergency war funding bill by Friday, though the measure is considered dead on arrival due to ...

Which moron is it precisely in this administration that keeps needing to have "emergency" funding? Four and a half years in, it's still an emergency? Where's the adult supervision?

When your house catches fire, that's an emergency.

When you are in a head-on collision with a truck, that's an emergency.

When at this point in Iraq you mismanage such that you need another zillion, it shows a monstrous lack of competence at the highest levels.

Jesus was a Buddhist Jew, Paul founded Xianity

I stumbled upon this and had to post it. It's not that I agree, but it's an interesting bit of writing. The hillarious "Lamb", by Christopher Moore has Jesus doing similar travel.


Before I begin, I would like to make it clear that I believe Jesus existed, whether his name was really Jesus or not. I also hold a high reverence for his teachings, which I try to live by every day. I just don't believe in hell, heaven, killing, and damnation. I have no doubt that some readers will consider me a liar who thinks he knows everything, but that is simply an untrue judgment. There is a lot I don't know and I feel that the key to progress is in embracing that idea. It is the way of education and especially science, which I hold in high regard. Failure to realize our short-comings is failure to progress.

Because I have not studied Judaism, I cannot really say factually how the Jewish people see Jesus. However, it is my understanding that he is simply regarded as a teacher. I find it odd that Jesus was a Jew, which is not argued, yet alleged followers of Jesus denounce many Jewish beliefs and traditions and harbor a new set of beliefs, not taught by Jesus. The bible states that Jesus was like man in all ways except sin. What does this mean? It seems to say that Jesus was a man, in all ways with the exception of the fact that he lived by strict morals that were scarcely found in the religious practices of that time and place. I have heard about the parallels of his teachings and those of Buddhism. Were these coincidences or something else? It is undeniable that a good portion of Jesus' young adult life is unaccounted for pursuing his teachings of logical, undeniable morals. Where did he go? Where did these new insights come from? In 1887 a respected Russian journalist named Nicolas Notovich published a book called "The Unknown Life of Jesus." The book was, obviously, called blasphemy. Notovich claimed his book was a factual account of his trip to the Himalayas in northern India to an isolated Buddhist monastery. Notovich wrote about ancient Buddhist scrolls speaking of a scholar and prophet named Issa, a foreigner from a small, Mediterranean country who arrived as a teenage boy to study the teachings of the Buddha. He was there 500 years after the death of Buddha, which coincides with the time of the lost years of Jesus' life. In 1902, a Hindu priest came to the same monastery and translated those scrolls with the same conclusion. There are many reports of Jesus visiting other countries, going as far north as ancient England to meet the Druids. It seems likely to me that the success of christianity should be attributed to the fact that, for quite some time, Jesus traveled thousands of miles, preaching all the way. The bible even states that Jesus' great uncle traveled to England often as a merchant. Joseph of Arimathea was the uncle of Mary and a successful tin merchant, which tin was abundant in England and similar in value to present-day steel. It was quite likely that Jesus accompanied him at least once. Loyal great uncle, Joseph, carried on Jesus' teachings after the crucifixion.

Jesus was brilliant in the respect that instead of preaching to the leaders of countries who would have surely persecuted him (oh yeah, they did), he preached to the poor, telling them they will inherit the kingdom of heaven. In his later days, he claimed to be the son of god, which originally could have simply meant that he obeyed, honored, and taught what god would teach like a good son would do, but later was blatantly a claim to be of god's seed. I would attribute this to egotism because at this point, Jesus was considered a leader and a savior in the sense that Gandhi was savior to his people. I mean no disrespect, but let's be honest. If Jesus is capable of anger and hostility (his persecution of the merchants), then why not egotism and perhaps a deliberate lie, albeit for the greater good. In fact, the alleged lost books of the bible speak of how Jesus was even capable of murder. Keep in mind that I do not consider these ideas as facts, but there is just as much evidence, if not more in some cases, as the truth of the complete works of the bible.

The bible also states that Jesus followed the practices of Judaism in every regard. This means that Jesus was circumcised, which makes a man worthy of marriage, and also means that he took a wife, which is necessary in Judaism in order to be a rabbi (priest/teacher). It is obvious if you read the new testament that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, whom his disciples were jealous of and whom Jesus kissed all the time. There is also a story of a wedding in which it doesn't say specifically who was married, but Jesus and Mary were in charge of. Obviously, this was a method in catholicism to portray the purity of Jesus, but it would have been sacrilegious in those times. Also in catholicism, Mary is portrayed as pure, even though the bible states Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters (because of the use of the plural "sisters"). It was his brother, James, who also attempted to continue the ministries of Jesus.

Considering that Jesus was a devout Jew, why is it that his life spawned a new religion altogether? Do you really believe that this is was Jesus wanted? Why is it that most christians don't know that Paul, previously known as Saul, was Jesus' adversary. He only claimed an alliance with Jesus' teachings after Jesus was crucified. It was only then that he claimed to continue the teachings of Jesus, although he had radically different opinions on how to obtain the kingdom of heaven.

The Ethanol Scam

What a crock. When faced with a crisis involving the cost and availability of oil, the administration (oil industry guys, for sure) comes up with a plan to grow more corn to turn to ethanol instead of addressing demand side, and conserving. I think the American people are dying for a sacrifice they can make, and no one is willing to ask for it. The “Global War on Terror ™” can be fought with a Prius and a carpool.

So what are the unintended consequences of this great ethanol plan? We’re starving the already poor in Mexico (I’ll be there for a month or so starting this weekend.)

Next, the rainforest in Brazil is being burned at an increased rate to grow enough corn for the fuel.

It was encouraging crossing Oklahoma and northern Texas and seeing hundreds of HUGE wind turbines. But for the love of Pete, this isn’t going to work without addressing the demand side.

The infallible Bible

Long ago during my brief stint in a Christian school I learned about a concept called “theoneustos”, literally, “God breathed”. The idea was that God breathed through the writers of scripture, so we can know every word in infallible and true.

I have always had a hard time believing that a document in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church for a millennium wasn't doctored with. I wouldn’t trust them with an altar boy, never mind the written basis of a huge religious group.

Anyway, these believers, millions of them in the US today do some odd cherrypicking. To whit:

If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
Leviticus 20:10 we ignore, because we can’t go around killing people such as, oh, let’s say the leading Republican candidate?

You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground—those which I have set apart as unclean for you.
Leviticus 20:25 we ignore because it’s ceremonial law. Oh yeah? Who gets to pick?

Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
Leviticus 18:22 is the basis for the number one political concern of American (mostly Christian) Republicans. Not hunger, poverty, illness or any of the stuff their religion’s namesake actually said was important. What is the basis for the right’s obsession with sex anyway?