King George I President Bush will be giving his (hopefully last) SOTU address. His plan is to:
“… report that over the last seven years, we’ve made great progress on important issues at home and abroad. I will also report that we have unfinished business before us, and we must work together,”
I suppose if we count screwing over everyone except the top 1% of Americans as progress – the man deserves a gold star, doesn’t he?
Last November Senator Grassley of Iowa decided to investigate claims that several prosperity gospel ministers were abusing their tax exempt status by using the loot donations they get via their ministries to fund their near obscene lifestyles.
It’s been an uphill battle since with the targeted ministers suddenly pronouncing their support for separation of church(es) and state.
Today it just took a turn for the funny with Kenneth Copeland apparently declaring a holy war against Senator Grassley (via The Carpetbagger Report):
In a Jan. 22 closed-circuit broadcast of his 2008 Ministers’ Conference obtained by Roll Call, Copeland pledges a holy war against “Brother Grassley” and the Senate for attempting to get a look at the controversial ministry’s finances. Grassley wrote a Nov. 6 letter to Copeland and five other prominent ministers requesting a variety of financial information.
Copeland seems to have practically come unhinged during the video declaring that “It’s not yours, it’s Gods and you’re not going to get it” and going so far as to dare Grassley to come at him with a “death penalty” if he think it’s applicable.
Lesson we should take from this: Never get between a pastor and his bank account.
If you’ve been an atheist for longer than five minutes you’ve probably heard the one about the stereotypical self-destructive atheist who after years of being an all around jackass finds himself* in a situation that is life-threatening. Despite being a cold-hearted machine that runs on pure reason said atheist decides that Jesus really does love him and the two of them walk off into the sunset holding hands.
So it should really come as no surprise that the deputy director of the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy opposes the use of Narcan by non-medical personnel on the grounds that easy access to a life saving device will fail to scare the shit out of heroin addicts:
“Sometimes having an overdose, being in an emergency room, having that contact with a health care professional is enough to make a person snap into the reality of the situation and snap into having someone give them services,” Madras says.
This is faith at it’s finest, not bad science. In fact the science seems to say that such access is good. But, then that would defeat faith’s cousin – punishment. Socially condemned people need to be punished in some manner to get them to “snap” into compliance with the majority. So what if they end up dead as a result of the punishment? It’s a great deterrent to the others who are thinking about being non-compliant.
The problem with moderate Christians is that they are unwilling to bluntly state that the conservatives are wrong and will hem and haw to avoid bluntly stating that the Bible itself is wrong. If there’s one subject that they clearly show this tendency on, it is evolution.
A simple reading of the bible makes it quite obvious that it states Yaweh created the planet and everything that it is on it. It goes on to state that our species was created “as-is” and that we were given dominion over the earth:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26)
As the biblical authors were pretty obsessed with their lineage to such a degree that the bible contains insanely long lists of who “begat” who, one can conclude that all this took place approximately six thousand years ago.
Modern scientists, on the other hand, have generally concluded that the universe came into existence approximately 14 billion years ago and that our planet came into existence a mere 4 billion years ago with life making it’s first appearance somewhere around 1 billion years later.
Furthermore, our species did not appear until 200,000 years ago. We are not a distinct species, but a kind of ape. We are not a result of an alien “making” us nor did some ancestor suddenly spring to life when the same alien breathed upon dirt, we are a product of evolution as are the other species.
One does not have to be a genius to figure out that these two stories are not “complimentary”, but contradictory. The Bible states it went down in a very particular way and gives no evidence that it was not serious about it. In fact, the biblical creation story has been understood to be a factual account since it was written down approximately two thousand years ago.
It has never been understood to be a “timeless truth” and the majority of Americans thoroughly reject such claims with (as of 2006) 55% believing that Yaweh created our species “as-is“. Support for this “as-is” theory has actually increased in the last decade or so from roughly 40 to 45 percent of the population.
So not only are the moderates fudging about what the Bible actually states and what is actually believed by Christians, they are also apparently lying about what what they actually believe because if they did actually accept the conclusions of science and are the alleged majority they claim to be – the percentage of Americans who actually accepted the conclusions of modern science would be higher than it is.
This makes them a problem rather they like it or not for as long they continue to insist that Bible is “complimentary” to reality, the nutballs will continue believing that it is still acceptable to believe the Bible story is a factual account. They will continue to think that “creationism” or “intelligent design” should be taught in our public schools as “science” and more generations will grow up in an education system terrified of contradicting the now absurd and unfounded belief that a “magic man did it” .
The fact of the matter is that moderates have to give up their fairytale once and for all by admitting that the biblical creation story is merely an account that a certain group of humans once believed was a truthful account but is now contradicted by the findings of modern science. It’s the only way we’re going to get out of this mess we’re in here in America.
I found this “science project” over a Possum Momma’s place and thought it would be amusing to answer them.
Question: Do unchristians make less moral choices than Christians?
Hypothesis: The Bible is the perfect guide to life that shows us how to be moral people. Without believing in the Bible you can’t know God and he can’t guide you and give you rewards for being a good person. I think people who aren’t Christian will be less successful.
Experiment: I will interview thirty people and ask them if they are Christian. I will give them the same questions so I have a control sample. I think they are immoral if they score lower than 15.
Questions I will ask. There are 20 points available.
The questionnaire is rigged of course. There’s only three possible outcomes. You’re either a Christian and “moral”, a Christian and not “moral” or a “UnChrisitan” who is not “moral”.
The obesity crisis hounds have finally showed their hand via Megan McArdle who stated that the stimulus package should not include food stamps because:
The poor don’t need more food. Obesity is a problem for the poor in America; except for people who are too screwed up to get food stamps (because they don’t have an address), food insufficiency is not.
The average person on food stamp gets about $3 a day for food. One doesn’t have to be a genius to figure out that Ramen noodles (3 for $1 in my area) cost less than a bag of oranges ($4.79 IIRC).
If these nutballs weren’t nutballs they’d be bitching about that. They’d be writing about how it’s a crying shame that people are expected to survive on $3 dollars a day in “America of all places”. They’d be bitching about how the price of healthy food puts it well out of the reach of a lot of people, especially when there’s an economic downturn.
They’d be demanding that the poor be given enough money to buy decent food and that such foods were available in the areas they live in – not just the “good” side of town.
But no. If we’re going to give money to the poor, we should just give them cash because even if they spend it on drugs, it’s better than having them get all fat on us (Megan’s final reason the stimulus package shouldn’t include food stamp increases). Nice bit of classism, don’t you think?
There’s a new reality show in town and it’s goal is too mock the shit out of beauty contestants. When I first saw the promo I thought “well, that’s pretty nasty”. It now appears that the show mocks Miss America and is being run by the Miss America Organization in an attempt to “revamp” Miss America.
“I don’t think the past attempts were enough; they were little Band-Aids,” said Sam Haskell, Miss America Organization chairman. “In order for us to survive — and I want us flourish, not just survive — we need a younger generation to support it and find it entertaining.”
That means competing with reality television and, producers say, finding a Miss America who can go toe-to-toe with the Britneys and the Parises on the red carpet — though not at the night club.
“It’s someone who doesn’t go out and get drunk, but goes out and makes people laugh and has fun on the red carpet,” said Sarah Iven, editor in-chief of OK! Magazine and a pageant judge, describing her choice for the tiara. “Not a young woman stuck in an old woman’s suit.”
Producers also are taking a cue from the YouTube phenomenon that was Miss Teen USA South Carolina. Video of the geographically challenged beauty queen struggling to find her way out of an on-stage question rocketed around the Internet in August. Many, many were entertained — at her expense.
So, along with receiving makeover advice, the contestants in “Reality Check” were quizzed about history and science in a segment called “Are you smarter than a Miss USA Girl?” Those who weren’t were made to take a dive in a pool.
WTF? This is not “self” mockery. It’s a degrading piece of shit meant to humiliate women who spend years if not decades groveling before these bastards who got their start “judging” bikini contests on a fucking pier.
The truth is most women in the Miss America pageant are college graduates and they’re being judged by the standards of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? That’s just ridiculous.
So here’s to the eventual downfall of “Miss America” and the rest of the beauty contests.
One of the fascinating things about Ray Comfort and his sidekick Kirk Cameron is that you never quite know what’s going come out of their mouths next and it’s a complete mystery if it’ll even make sense to them. Most of what comes out of their mouth is so ridiculous I’m willing to bet that more than a few theists are embarrassed for them.
At times I’ve had to give him credit. Ray Comfort is pretty damned slick and knows just how to manipulate others. However, he’s finally slipped up and revealed in a recent post just how much of a bigot he actually is.
The post in question is aimed at atheists, but it’s about Muslims and it’s a nasty piece of passive aggressiveness. Claiming that “atheists evolved from Chickens”, Ray Comfort launches into an implicit attack on Muslims.
You wouldn’t dare, because you are chicken-livered. You know that they are not like Christians. Despite the “anonymity” of your little chicken coop, they would come after you to lop off your head. And when they find you, you would fall on your knees and be praying to God for help, quicker than I can move a fly swat . . . and I’m pretty quick. So, think about what you are doing, and think about how much you value your life. Then think about what we are telling you. Think.
What we wouldn’t “dare” do is call Islam a delusion, state that Allah doesn’t exist, use a lowercase ‘m’ when writing Mohammad and various other things some of us do towards Christians. Why? Because the Muslim – being a Muslim – we did that to would hunt us down and kill us.
This is exactly what white supremacists do.
They write things stating how anti-racists are too afraid to go after their alleged counterparts in the other races because anti-racists know that doing so will get them killed. The other races are vicious, hateful and dangerous whereas the white race is not. And that’s why anti-racists target white supremacists, because they know they (white people in general) are the personification of kindness.
Ray Comfort has a lot in common with those demented fuckwits and a comment by the “Pari Family“ on the same post proves it:
Ray said, “why you don’t have the courage to even whisper to Moslems what you keep shouting at Christians?”
They, the atheists of whom you speak, don’t have the courage because their father is the father of lies:
So says our LORD in the Gospel of John, chapter 8:
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on my own initiative, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me.”
Belligerent atheists have no reason to war against members of their own “family”, i.e. the followers of a false religion.
Ray, thanks for the thought-provoking posts.
The father of lies in Christian mythology is Satan – the unrecognized evil god. We atheists are his children and the Muslims are related to us – a part of our “family”. Since Christianity does not recognize any other supernatural beings besides their god Jesus and Satan the Muslims must also be the children of Satan.
Now where would someone feel comfortable posting that a billion or so individuals are the children of an evil god? On a site ran by someone who is a bigot and will think nothing of letting such a “truth” be posted.
