Republican Stupidity of the Day

You would think that when a terrorist attempts to attack this country by trying to blow up a commercial airplane, our elected leaders could set aside partisan politics and work together for a few days and rally behind the President. That certainly is what happened during the Bush administration after 9/11, and as I remember it, after the failed shoe bomber attempt and any other incidents. It is what any decent, patriotic American would do. Certainly, if Democrats had started questioning President Bush's decisions immediately after a terrorist threat, Republicans would have accused them of betrayal and treason and supporting the enemy.

But, hypocrites that they are, they have no problem trying to make political gain out of a thwarted terrorist attempt by scurrilously attacking the Obama administration and the President himself. You would think that no one could stoop so low as to use a terrorist attack on Americans to further divide America and try to advance their political goals, but Republicans have no limits.

Representative Pete Hoekstra, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Tom Ridge, and the usual gang of idiot pundits have all joined in. It can hardly get any more despicable.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Tom Ridge says that the guy who tried to bring down a plane on Christmas Day should not be tried in a court of law. But when he was in charge of Homeland Security, they tried the "shoe bomber" in court in a nearly identical case. It's Republican hypocrisy at its best.

Here's the Talking Points Memo link.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

"Sen. DeMint is the author of the famous statement that this is going to be President Obama's 'Waterloo,' that this ought to be used to break the president," said Specter, referring to the political battle over health care. "So that before the ink was dry on the oath of office -- and I know this, because I was in the caucus -- the Republicans were already plotting ways to beat President Obama in 2012."

That statement is from Senator Arlen Specter, who switched parties during 2009 and so was in the conversation when Republicans were making their plans. So while they continue to lie about bipartisanship and pretend that Democrats are to blame for divisiveness between the parties, Republicans have planned all along to oppose any health care initiative for political purposes. Surprise, surprise.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Mary Matalin, Republican strategist, was on CNN with John King this morning. She managed to slip into the conversation the assertion that. just as Barack Obama had inherited a bad economy, George Bush had inherited a recession and the 9/11 attacks! This ludicrous lie was allowed to pass without any notice by John King. I was outraged enough to write a note to
TalkingPointsMemo.com, who did not (yet at least) comment on it. However, I was apparently not the only one who noticed, as ThinkProgess wrote about it.

Republican Stupidity of the Week

No reason why this can't become a regular feature. There are always so many possibilities.

On Monday, Sean Hannity of Fox "News" did a segment on the recent Tea Party rally in Washington on Capitol Hill, organized by right-wing extremist loon (I'm being generous) Michelle Bachmann. Hannity cheated on the coverage by splicing in video of a different rally, from September 12, which was much better attended, thereby deliberately misleading his audience into thinking that attendance was higher than it actually was.

The clever folks at The Daily Show noticed the shenanigans and skewered Fox, pointing out that the weather had changed in the middle of Hannity's segment, and several websites picked up on it.

Hannity then responded by apologizing during his show:

Although it pains me to say this, Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, he was right. Now on his program last night he mentioned that we had played some incorrect video on this program last week while talking about the Republican health care rally on Capitol Hill. He was correct. We screwed up. We aired some video of a rally in September, along with the video from the actual event. It was an inadvertent mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. So Mr. Stewart, you were right. We apologize. But by the way, I wanna thank you and all your writers for watching. [emphasis added]

Inadvertent mistake my ass. If the Republicans have taught us anything, it is this: Never tell the truth when a lie will serve better. Even when you are caught in a lie, just make up another one.

This Week's Republican Stupidity

So much Republican awfulness to choose from, as always, but this was really sad. Republicans used town hall tea partier tactics to interrupt Democrats while they were speaking about the health reform bill in the House of Representatives, while John Dingell, looking about 90 years old, tried to tell them that their behavior was childish. Just disgusting, and frankly frightening that our second-largest political party is resorting to goon tactics on a regular basis.

Every Republican but one voted against the bill, including my own Republican representative. Democrats did not even come close to voting in a single bloc, with 39 of them voting against, but Republicans stuck to the party line rather than represent their constituents or their country. Anyone who thinks these clowns are doing their best to govern is delusional. They vote as one because it gives them more power, and power for it's own sake is their only goal.

An Improved Model for Heaven

I have decided that the Christian model for salvation is fundamentally flawed, so I have reworked it. As the Christian model was presumably worked out by God and Jesus, I offer my suggestions to them, and I hope they will feel free to borrow from me as they see fit.

Arrogant of me to imply that perhaps I know better than God? Yes, but I suppose it's that same pride that makes me think that I can work out right and wrong using my own mind, without help from religion. I can live with that.

The Christian model, as it is commonly practiced and explained, is this: Each of us is a sinner. Anything short of perfection creates a wedge between you and God, and you can never achieve perfection. To overcome this gap, you must repent, atone for your sins, and try to do better. However, you should never be proud enough to believe that you will succeed.

Just to make it more difficult, Christians have original sin. You are born sinful. And in case you get past that, they created sins of the mind. You may do everything you can to act in an honorable manner, but you think sinful thoughts, and those too are sins. Of the seven deadly sins, at least three -- envy, lust, and pride -- are simply thoughts that no one can ever purge completely. In fact, humans probably could not function without these emotions, but never mind that right now.

One analogy I have heard is that God's relationship with us is similar to my relationship with my children. He loves us, but like a good parent, he tries to correct us when we go astray and to lead us in a better direction.

But the more I think about that, the more I think that my relationship with my boys is almost the opposite of this Christian model. Yes, I love them and try to help them improve their behavior. However, for me to reject them and no longer love them, their behavior would have to be really horrendous; they would have to grow up to be drug lords, axe murderers, or Nazis. Short of something like that, I will accept them and will always be there for them. On the continuum of human behavior, only the very worst choices can cause them to fall from grace.

In Christianity, on the same continuum of behavior, there is not one spot that is good enough for God. The very best possible life is not sufficient. Oh yes, God will still let you into Heaven, but you essentially have to make up the shortfall between your behavior and the unreachable standard of perfection by atoning, repenting, trying harder. This chance for redemption is freely given, but is it really free? You have to admit your errors, try to change, make up for your shortcomings. Nothing you can do will ever be enough to avoid this. You are always beholden to the church and to God/Jesus.

So people are less than perfect, every one of us, especially me. In Christianity, the glass is never quite full. But why look at it that way? Yes, we are all sinners, but aren't all people also good? Can't we focus on that?

So I suggest a better way. Everyone gets into Heaven unless they earn their way into Hell. Sort of like the justice system -- you are good until proven bad. If you live a really despicable life, fine, you go to Hell. The rest of us -- most of us -- go to Heaven. That's what I would do. Isn't that what anyone would do if they made the rules?

My plan has some obvious advantages. People of all religions, who presumably are doing the best they can to lead good lives, could get into Heaven. So could atheists. All children would get in automatically -- no more of the notion that we are all born inadequate. Also, you wouldn't have to do anything special to get in. Just lead a decent life. No apologies, no atonement unless you do something pretty bad. No need to believe.

I presume God has already read this before I typed it, or is reading it as I type, or will get around to it soon. And given how wise and all-knowing they say He is, I think He'll give it a fair reading and consider it, and He'll realize that this model is a clear improvement over the one I always hear about, and He'll want to implement the change right away. So with any luck, the rules are about to get a lot fairer.

The White House and Fox News

Fox News has finally been called out for what they are -- an opinion network masquerading as straight news. Even their alleged news segments are intended to influence viewers toward a conservative viewpoint.

Fox has always claimed to be a real news network, but they have never really made any attempt to act like one. Roger Ailes, Fox News president, is a Republican media consultant who worked for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush the elder. The station has consistently attacked Barack Obama and before him Bill Clinton, but they fawned over George W. Bush for eight years. For a real investigation of all the shenanigans these guys pull, I recommend the documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. There are also many other available sources. The evidence is overwhelming.

I only watch Fox News on rare occasions, just to see what they are up to. One of my favorite examples of their work happened during the primaries, while Hillary Clinton was campaigning in New Hampshire. The "news" anchor asked the reporter covering Clinton a question along the lines of: "Some people are saying that a Hillary Clinton presidency would be an embarrassment to the United States, and that's because of Bill Clinton. Are you hearing anything like that?" The reporter, to her credit, seemed surprised by the question, but the point is, that was not really a question. It was a suggestion planted in the minds of the Fox faithful, in the guise of a question, on a "regular news" segment, by a "news anchor." You don't have to watch very long to realize that something is wrong.

If you know me at all, you can guess that I think it's great that someone has finally told the truth about what Fox News represents. I find it funny, but also a little sad, that Fox News has chosen to respond by insisting that they really are a news network, not an opinion network. That Fox News is fair and balanced is one of the biggest lies ever lied, and everyone at Fox who is now defending the network is a big fat liar. They know. At least Rush Limbaugh has the courage to be honest about what he does for a living.

Thyroid Cancer, Diagnosis

I looked up "cancer survivor" on the Internet, and I like this definition: "Someone who has completed initial cancer management and has no apparent evidence of active disease." By that definition, I am not yet a cancer survivor, but I hope to be soon. For now, I am a cancer patient.


On July 29, I went to my doctor, Dr. Johnson, for a physical, because I wanted to go to Cub Scout camp with Jarrod, and they require a physical. I don't go regularly but had been maybe two years earlier. Everything was fine, but Dr. Johnson noticed a small lump on my thyroid. No big deal, most lumps are benign, but it could be cancer, so the next step is an ultrasound.

I went in for the ultrasound on August 10. Dr. Johnson had said that he would be on vacation until September 1, but whatever the result of the ultrasound, we could talk after that. At the ultrasound, the first sign that something was wrong was that the ultrasound tech spent 50 minutes and kept going up and down my neck over and over. The next sign was that she asked me to stay after the ultrasound so that she could check with the radiologist. Just routine I imagined, but then I waited 50 minutes before she came back out and said that they were trying to reach my doctor's office. Twenty minutes later, she came back and said that they had reached someone at my doctor's practice, and that I should see the doctor the next day. "Not the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow."

This was not supposed to happen. Whatever the result, I was going to wait three weeks to talk to Dr. Johnson. All the ultrasound tech would say was that there were "findings", but obviously what she had seen was not good. The next day I talked to a different doctor, Dr. Singh, and she explained that I had a really large mass in my neck, that there was bloodflow to it, that based on the ultrasound I should see an endocrinologist, and that the ultrasound pointed toward the possibility that I had cancer. She also explained that thyroid cancer can be cured and explained a bit about the treatment.

After I had rushed to the doctor following the ultrasound, I got an appointment to see the endocrinologist four weeks later, on September 9. During the next four weeks, my wife and I researched thyroid cancer on the Internet. It turns out that most thyroid cancers can be cured with a success rate over 90%; however, there is one rare kind, called anaplastic, that is almost incurable and will kill you in months. Once I read that, my only concern was that I might have anaplastic thyroid cancer. Finding out that I had another type of cancer would be a relief.

On September 9, I saw the endocrinologist. She took some samples from my neck using needles, a procedure called fine needle aspiration. It's sort of a biopsy, but they get very small samples.
She used four different needles to get samples from different places.

At the end of the appointment, she asked if I had any questions. I told her I knew there were different types of thyroid cancer and asked if there were any indications that mine might be the more dangerous kind. Then she listed about four reasons to be concerned that I might have anaplastic thyroid cancer, and she said the word "anaplastic" each time she gave me a reason. As in, "There is a lot of blood flow to this mass, and that indicates that it might be anaplastic." "It's a really large lump, so that tells us it might be anaplastic."

I was beside myself. Getting anaplastic thyroid cancer is literally a million-to-one shot, but I really did not want to be that one, and my odds kept getting worse.

The doctor called on Friday, September 11 with the results of the fine needle aspiration. I had cancer, but papillary cancer, the most common kind. I was in fact relieved, very relieved. I wonder how many people feel as good as I did when they learn they have cancer.

So now I was pretty sure what I had (the fine needle aspiration test is not considered to be definitive.) Next, the cure.

Living and Dying

I found out recently that I have thyroid cancer. It turns out that it's a type that can usually be cured relatively easily, but for awhile there was reason to believe that I might have a more dangerous kind. The more dangerous kind (called anaplastic) will kill you in a few months.

I have always felt that I want to keep on living, a long time if possible, but I have never before had to face such a strong possibility that I might not. The experience made it very clear to me that I most assuredly do not want to die anytime soon. I am not one of those people (if there are such people) who will look at my life and say that I have been lucky (although I have) and go peacefully.

This made me think about why this is so; what is it that makes me so unwilling to call it good and accept that the end is inevitable? OK, biology obviously. But beyond that, I have a sense of unfinished business, things I still want to do. When I thought about things I would leave behind, I realized which ones bothered me the most:

• I want to see my kids grow up. This is for their sake as well as mine; I can't help but feel they are better off with me around. For me, raising the boys is the biggest project of my life, and I want to see it through and see how it turns out.
• I don't want to leave my wife behind, again for her sake as well as mine. I suspect she would be fine in time, but meanwhile raising the kids alone would be tough.
• I want to experience retirement. Almost all of my adult life I have worked, taking a week or two of vacation every year. When I was younger, I took some trips to Europe that lasted longer, up to three months. I did that then because I felt that I might not get another chance for a long time. I was right; the last one was 27 years ago. Jackie and I have plans.

Beyond those big things, I realized more than ever that I like my life. I like video games, conversations with friends, eating, movies, the Mariners, books, music, the outdoors, hiking, weekends, vacations, long drives, new places, restaurants, solving puzzles, political websites, doing nothing, and spending time with my family. Life is fun, and I'm not ready to stop having fun yet.

Republicans Are Stupid, and Proud of It.

Barack Obama is going to talk to schools on Tuesday, encouraging kids to work hard and stay in school. There are two "schools" of thought about this address. On the one hand, most people think it's a good idea, no harm in it. On the other hand, you have the paranoid, delusional ignoramuses that make up the core of the Republican Party.

I don't know of any issue that more clearly demonstrates the differences we have in this country. There is only one side to this issue. People who object to the address have no case whatsoever, literally nothing to support any argument, and yet they persist, passionately.

A lot of people in this country really despise Barack Obama. I wonder why. He has been compared to Hitler and Stalin, been called a Communist, Fascist, and Nazi. So what has he done to deserve this hate? He campaigned on the themes of hope and change. He has tried to reach out to Republicans and take a centrist position. His major initiatives so far have been to try to save a failing economy and to try to improve the health care system. Rational people can disagree with his proposals, but can rational people hate someone for working on these problems? No, they can't. But irrational people can, and do.

I worry that we are truly becoming a red and blue nation, with the two sides unable to ever agree. As long as the red side continues to be divorced from reality, there is no hope that we can come together. Unfortunately, they are getting worse instead of better. Every week they seem to get a little crazier.

People are Stupid

A guy named Larry Winget just wrote a book called "People are Idiots and I Can Prove It." I don't think I can ever write a book now, because the best title has been taken.

When it comes to politics, I tend to believe that things will eventually go the way they should. For example, gay marriage is more and more a mainstream idea and is becoming legal in more states, despite the occasional setback, in California for example. But in the end, people will see the light, and good ideas will rise to the top, and the segregationists and gay-haters of the world will fade into the background.

The George W. Bush administation made me doubt this. I will always contend that anyone who voted for that fool in 2004 was either ignorant, evil, irrational, or some combination of the three. However, the 2008 election made me believe again. People can be fooled, but not forever. They were getting wiser.

The health care "debate" has made me doubt again. People stand up and shout to disrupt town halls, and I bet most of them have no idea what they are talking about. Who are these morons? People believe that Barack Obama was not born in the US, despite his birth certificate, and they believe that health care legislation contains "death panels" that are going to decide to withhold care from older and infirm Americans. Who are those morons? The same morons, or different ones?

The truth is that in a democracy, every idiot gets a vote, and there are too many idiots out there voting. Millions of people watch Fox News and listen to Rush Limbaugh and believe what they hear. Unfortunately, these knuckleheads control our destiny. The people who run Fox News understand that their viewership comes mainly from the 50% of the country with IQs under 100, and they are very adept at manipulating this pathetic group. We cannot count on our fellow citizens to make responsible decisions, and we all suffer as a result.

The Death of the Republican Party

I began speculating, around the aftermath of the 2004 elections, that we might see the end of the Republican Party in my lifetime. Since then, the idea has gained a bit more credibility as the Republicans lost power and popularity. I still think the party may very well be on the verge of becoming a third party and eventually getting squeezed out altogther.

What I saw at that time was that the Republican Party literally had nothing to offer anymore. Everything the Bush Administration was doing was based on lies, misinformation, secrecy, and anything they could do to hold onto power. When you pulled back the curtain, it was hard to see where they had any plan to lead the country; their whole effort was focused on fooling people and staying in office.

The Iraq War was based on falsehoods. The administration painted themselves as the victims of bad intelligence even though it was clear that they were the beneficiaries. They helped spread the lies by planting stories in the press and then the next day saying "Look, it's not me, it's the New York Times saying this!" Yes, they really did. They paid media personnel for positive coverage. They created their own media pieces and passed them off as news. They redefined the word "torture" and insisted on calling their massive illegal electronic eavesdropping program a "terrorist surveillance program." The Republican congress failed to investigate any type of wrongdoing, and George Bush accused those who wanted to know the truth of trying to rewrite history.

Even the budget was based on lie after lie. The cost of the war was not included. The tax cuts went only ten years in order to hide the real cost. The administration never took any responsibility for the deficits it created.

I think the victory over Al Gore may have gone to their heads. They were fortunate enough to win the 2000 election, in large part because they painted Gore as a serial exaggerator. It was a right-wing columnist who said Al Gore invented the Internet, not Gore, but the lie worked. It worked so well that they tried it again with John Kerry, in a political campaign that was the most un-American, unpatriotic thing I have ever seen. They questioned the medals of a heroic American soldier, a man who volunteered and risked his life for his country. It worked again, so they kept at it, but it also laid bare the fact that they had no principles whatsoever.

Today's Republicans are no better. Moderates and reasonable people have been pushed out of the party. What is left is people who are irrational, who are delusional enough to believe despite all evidence that Barack Obama was not born in the US, that health care reform means death panels, and that Democrats are Socialists, Communists, Nazis, or whatever.

The battle over health care reform shows what we can expect from the Republicans as they are currently constructed. The battle is about confronting their lies, not about policy or philosophy. Their reasons for opposing the bill are strictly about political gain rather than any attempt at good governance. Their tactics -- having their stupidest followers disrupt discussions and then claiming it is a popular uprising -- are pathetic and disgusting, and as always aimed at misinforming the public rather than informing.

There will always be a few people who will be fooled over and over again and will continue to follow the party, but in the end, if their politics are based on lies and nonsense, there won't be many. Right now the Republican Party is in a downward spiral, and I don't see how it can recover.

Is it too late to let the South secede?

According to a recent poll, 93% of Democrats believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States; however, only 42% of Republicans and 47% of all Southerners believe it, with 30% of Southerners unsure and 23% thinking he was not.

Now, is it really fair to conclude from this result that Democrats, in general, are more grounded in reality than Republicans, and that Southerners, taken as a whole, are a bunch of ignorant dumbasses?

Well, yes.

This issue is all too symbolic of the problems with the Republican Party over the last 5 to 10 years. They cannot be a credible national political party if their strategy is to promote a version of the facts that is different from reality. I think that strategy worked extremely well for them when they were promoting the Iraq war or questioning John Kerry's medals, but they keep trying to fool all the people all the time, and the pool of fools keeps shrinking.

Thanks to our southern states, the fools have not disappeared altogether. More and more, the South is becoming like the disreputable cousin to the rest of the country, the one we don't want to talk about and are embarrassed to have in the family.

Faith Part 2

We all have the ability to reason, to figure things out logically based on observation, logic, and tested assumptions. This is the ability that gets us through life, enables us to learn and be productive, to solve problems and understand ideas. It is what has brought us human advancements and civilization, all the technology we enjoy and need every day to carry on our lives. Our capaity to employ intelligent thought is what separates humans from other animals and has allowed us to be the dominant species on the planet.

Why toss this aside and replace it with faith -- "Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence" according to dictionary.com? Yet, when it comes to religious belief, that is exactly what most people do. For the most part, people do not believe in extraordinary claims without strong evidence, but in religious matters, they do, and they are proud of it. A quick review of available evidence will tell you that there are numerous religions in the world, and at most only one can be correct, so what are the chances it's yours?

If you think the evidence for Christianity is better than it is for other religions, consider this: Before Jesus was ever born (if he existed at all), there were other gods in other religions that had similar characteristics. Walked on water, raised people from the dead, were resurrected themselves, died on a cross, born of a virgin, were the son of god, fed the masses from a few loaves of bread, etc., etc. What an astounding, remarkable, unbelievable coincidence that people told those stories about other people for centuries, then they actually happened to Jesus! There is no way you can believe that without abandoning reason altogether and choosing to believe the opposite of what your mind tells you must be true.

Why do most people choose faith, why have most people chosen it throughout history? I think the reason is that faith equals hope. I hope I will never die; I hope that when something bad happens, there is a reason, and it will all work out in the end; I hope that my life has a purpose; I hope my loved ones who died are not really gone forever; I hope someone is listening when I pray. The truth of life is not very cheerful; religion offers a more optimistic possibility, and we hate to let go of that.

Religion definitely is more optimistic. As an atheist, I can offer you only this when you die: It's over, and you are gone. You will never see your children or your grandchildren get older. Your time has passed, you're dead and that's that. And, as a bonus, unless you are Abraham Lincoln or some other noteworthy person, after a century or less it is likely that no one will ever think about you again.

So faith equals hope, but it does not equal truth. The very concept of faith is one we have to reject; that we should simply choose to believe wildly unlikely stories, rather than use our superior mental abilities to a least question and test them, is unacceptable. Religion cannot offer proof and so says "Just trust me", and people do. We don't make other decisions on such unquestioning trust, only decisions about the nature of the universe, right and wrong, what to teach our children, how to behave toward each other. Only some of the biggest questions we will ever face.

Faith is the problem.

Fox "News"

If I had to point to one institution in the US that has caused our politics to degenerate into partisanship and irrational viewpoints, I would choose Fox News.



Prior to Fox News, all of the major news networks tried to report the news objectively, not providing their own political slant. Yes, conservatives like to jabber about a liberal press, but studies show that this is not true, and honest conservatives (an oxymoron?) have admitted sometimes that the whole "liberal press" canard is more of a strategy than an honest complaint. The truth is, major networks tried to remain even-handed.



Fox News changed all that. For the first time, a major network was devoted to pushing one point of view no matter what, and that point of view is an extreme conservative one. (If you do not believe this, see my previous post. You do not know what you are talking about.) Fox News and other conservative outlets, like Rush Limbaugh, create a forum where conservatives can listen only to their own kind and hear only one side of every story. This pretty much guarantees that, on any issue, there will be a large conservative contingent that believes their side of the story, no matter how ridiculous, because a large organization with plenty of resources and a big viewership will push that story while pretending that they are actually reporting news, giving it credence in the minds of the gullible.

This constant advocacy has allowed us as a nation to debate the most clear-cut issues, such as whether torture is OK if the US does it, or whether experience as a small-town mayor qualifies you for Vice-President. It has allowed a large group of people to lose touch with reality and adopt positions that simply don't make sense. These people are what is left of the Republican Party.

Faith, Part 1

I have a salt shaker downstairs, with a race of tiny people living inside. These tiny people cannot be detected by any scientific means, and they do not do anything that can be detected by any scientific observation or experiment.

However, they have the power to do amazing things. For example, they created the entire universe, and they created life, and they can give you eternal life, so that you never have to die. Sometimes they may even grant your wishes; or not -- you can never tell for sure. The thing is though, you have to believe in them. If you don't, they won't grant your wishes of course (since you won't ask them to), and although you will still live forever, you won't like it much, because you will be tortured for eternity. So it's really important that you believe.

My neighbor on one side is absolutely certain that I am completely wrong about this, and doesn't believe in the tiny people (too bad for her.) Instead, she thinks there are fairies in the teapot that do basically the same thing. My neighbor on the other side is quite sure that we are both wrong, but he believes there are leprechauns in the sugar bowl. Both of them are of course badly mistaken and will be tortured forever after they die.

Oh, and you don't really have to give 10% of your money to the tiny people, but if you don't, you are kind of stealing from them. And if you want evidence, I don't really have any -- nothing you would call evidence anyway. You just have to believe.

You do believe in them, don't you?

If you are religious, that's your story. And that's all you've got.

This is called faith.

Sarah Palin

First, good riddance.

Next, I am one of the people who believes that she resigned because something is about to come to light that would have made it difficult or impossible for her to continue as governor. If she had just decided to leave politics and get back to her family life, why not take the time to prepare a good statement and go out with some style? Instead, she assembled a press conference with limited notice and gave a rambling, strange statement that was obviously not well-rehearsed. It doesn't make sense. It also does not make sense, if you have political ambitions, to give up the very visible position you already have. I'm expecting more revelations.

She actually said that staying on in her job would be quitting, and that by quitting her job she was doing what winners do. I don't know what her real reason was for quitting, but it couldn't have been that.

For any future ambitions she may have, this killed them. I just cannot imagine anyone voting for her for anything, knowing that she may not choose to complete the job. Any speculation to the contrary, that this may be shrewd move of some sort, is nonsense. Her fans won't care, because they are divorced from reality, but she won't be able to build broader support.

John McCain picked this woman to be Vice-President of the United States. What a blunder.

A Few Words about Conservatives

I tend to use rather strong words in my descriptions of people who do not agree with my politics -- words like idiot, ignorant, evil. I have a reason for this.



For too long during the Bush administration, we failed to point things out for what they were. We tortured people and had a national debate, still ongoing, about whether it was OK. The administration lied to us before the Iraq War started, and we debated whether they did. President Bush wanted to call his illegal domestic spying program a terrorist surveillance program, and the press went along, etc.



We always hear that there are two sides to every story, but I do not believe there are two legitimate sides to every issue. I have never heard the argument in favor of the Holocaust, for example. Some people deny it happened, but arguing with a Holocaust denier would be frustrating. All they can do is say that they don't believe the overwhelming evidence. They are ignorant and have nothing to add to the conversation, so why talk to them at all?



A better analogy to current conservatives would be the issue of segregation in the South. A lot of people in this country, many of them intelligent and otherwise decent people, supported segregation. That does not mean that they had a legitimate point of view; in the end, to suggest that someone like Barack or Michelle Obama, Condoleezza Rice, or Colin Powell, should sit in the back of the bus and face discrimination in employment, housing, and education is just wrong. People who believed that were either ignorant, evil, or irrational, or some combination of the three.



So let's get a few things straight:

• Fox News is not unbiased. They are the only major "news" network whose reason for being is to support one political party. That's their job. If you don't realize this without my having to provide supporting evidence, you don't get it.


• Torture is a war crime, even if the United States does it. You cannot get around the crime by creating your own defintion of the word "torture."


• Bush and members of his administration decided first that they wanted to attack Iraq, then used intelligence to market a decision that was already made.


• Swift-boating John Kerry was un-American, unpatriotic, and disgusting.
• The Bush administration exposed a covert CIA agent for political purposes.


• Republicans are not fiscal conservatives. They had eight years in power, and they ran up big deficits and doubled the national debt, justifying their actions all the way. Their fiscal policy is complete and utter irresponsibility. That's what they did; that's who they are. To claim otherwise when they are finally booted out of power is ludicrous.
• Sarah Palin was not as qualified as Barack Obama to be President or Vice-President. Her time as a small-town mayor should count for approximately zero.
• The United States is not and was never meant to be a Christian country. And that's a really good thing.

We have debated all of these issues and more as a nation primarily because some people are paid to represent their parties, like Johnnie Cochran was paid to defend OJ Simpson, no matter what the facts may be. News outlets give these people airtime no matter how far they stretch the truth, no matter how ridiculous or strained their arguments.

I don't have to make the same allowances. I don't like arguing with Holocaust deniers. If you look at my list above and disagree with me, you do not know what you are talking about, and you have nothing to add to the conversation. Because reasonable people simply do not disagree on those things. So if you are one of those people who cannot be reasonable, I'm happy to point out your shortcomings in plain English.

A Few Words about George W. Bush

The little diatribe in my profile deserves some explanation.


I am not the type of person who routinely thinks that American presidents are evil. I was once a registered Republican, and I voted for both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton at least once. I may have disagreed with other presidents, but I would not have called them despicable. Only George W. Bush.


It is my contention that something fundamentally changed in America during the Bush administration. Up until that time, we had two major parties that could at least make an argument that they were trying to do what was best for the country, but between the years 2000 and 2008 the Republican Party became a party that no decent, rational, and informed person could support. I write this advisedly and will emphasize it again: not one decent, rational, informed American currently supports the Republican Party, any more than any such Amercan supports the KKK or the American Nazi Party. If you support the current form of the party, you are either ignorant, irrational, morally lacking, or some combination of the three.



That's a strong statement, and I will make the case over time. I will say for now that I would not stick my neck out that far if I were not certain that a mountain of evidence supports the conclusion.



For a start, let's look at a few accomplishments of the Bush administration:

• Lied about the reasons to go to war with Iraq, resulting in the deaths of more than 100,000 people and the maiming of many more.


• Condoned and conducted torture and created their own definition of the word "torture", which simply excluded the types of torture they wanted to perform. George Orwell would have been so proud.


• Deliberately misled the public into thinking that Iraq was responsible for 9/11.


• Exposed a covert CIA agent, then commuted the sentence of the man convicted of lying about it.


• Did precisely what the FISA law prohibits, spying on Americans without a warrant.


• Invented a new class of person, "enemy combatant", that it could then claim had no rights at all.


• Incarcerated people, some of them undoubtedly innocent or guilty of very little, for years without any legal recourse.


• Suspended habeas corpus.


• Used signing statements to indicate that the President did not intend to enforce laws as written.


• Used the Justice Department to try to consolidate Republican power.


• Attempted to limit the right to vote to keep Democrats off the voter rolls.


• Illegally hired government workers based on their political views.


• Claimed enormous unprecedented powers never imagined in the Constitution.
• Told staff not to honor subpoenas from Congress.
• Replaced scientific findings with religious views.
• Increased government secrecy and had a policy of stonewalling Freedom of Information Act requests.
• Leaked false information to the press and then cited the resulting stories to bolster their own lies.

And there was much more. I can never make that list without forgetting some important things. And the list is limited to matters that are blatantly dishonest, unconstitutional, illegal, and/or punishable as war crimes. There were other matters of policy and partisanship that were really disgusting as well, but let's be clear: This President, and his administration, did not respect or follow the laws of the United States or the Constitution. Not just once or twice, or in extreme circumstances, but repeatedly and routinely.

I will address right now one item I know some people will quarrel with -- the President and his minions did not lie about Iraq; they were misled by faulty intelligence. This is absolutely, unquestionably, wrong. Incorrect, not true. On, I believe, August 26, 2002, Vice President Cheney said in a speech that we knew that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and after that other members of the administration, including the President, began to repeat it. Any third grader will tell you, if you know something, it has to be true. It turns out there were no WMDs, so they could not have known. Other people who knew about the intelligence available said that Cheney clearly overstated the case. That's a lie, and a big one, a huge one, and an undeniable one. If you just read that, and you still don't think Bush and members of his administration lied about the war, you aren't thinking rationally.

More on Bush and Republicans to come, but I think the list above is enough to support my disdain for Bush and what is left of the Republican Party.

A Couple of News Items

From Politico:

June 16, 2009Categories: Fox News
Obama slams Fox News
CNBC's John Harwood sat down with Barack Obama today and POLITICO's Josh Gerstein gives us a preview:
Asked by CNBC’s John Harwood about perceptions Obama has gotten an easy ride from the press, the president called the charge “very hard for him to swallow,” but then acknowledged “generally positive” coverage. Also took yet another shot at Fox News.
“I’ve got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration…That’s a pretty big megaphone. You’d be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front,” Obama said.

I love this. Keep pounding that drum. Fox is not like real news stations. Keep pounding that into the people's brains.

From BBC News:

Scientology on trial in France

The woman at the centre of this case says she was approached by church members in Paris more than 10 years ago, and offered a free personality test. But, she says, she ended up spending 21,000 euros ($29,400, £18,400) on lessons, books and medicines she was told would cure her poor mental state.

I had forgotten about this, but years ago Scientologists asked me to take a personality test, so I did. Then they got upset, and very snippy, when I did not want to meet them somewhere and have my test evaluated.

Anyway, I have been in church when the pastor said that if you give God 10% of your money, he will return it many times. No doubt many people have given, and God has not given back. Legally, I wondered how they differentiate. The answer is here:

France regards Scientology as a sect, not a religion, and the organisation could be banned if it loses the case.

I'm not sure how France gets away with that -- seems a little dangerous to me. But Scientology is ludicrous, so I have no sympathy.

A Softening of the Last Post

The New Testament is not perfect, but it's a huge improvement over the viciousness of the Old Testament. It's really so different that it raises the question of how this could really be the same God.

My actual favorite part of the Bible is Ecclesiastes. Read the King James version; the language is terrific. "For every thing, there is a season..." comes from Ecclesiastes. One of my favorite parts is here, from Ecclesiastes 9:


9
¶ Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun.
10
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
11
¶ I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

As a devout atheist, I have reread Ecclesiastes several times. It just has some great passages in it.

My favorite part of the Bible

Deuteronomy 15:68. This is what the God of Judaism and Christianity will do to his chosen people if they displease him. From God, to Moses, to you. Diseases, rape, slavery, madness, poverty, cannibalism (your own children!), starvation, blindness, terror, and it will please Him to do all this. It just goes on and on, and it's sickening, or laughable. I laughed. If you pray to God, this is who you pray to.

15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. [a] 21 The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24 The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.
30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. 33 A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. 34 The sights you see will drive you mad. 35 The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
36 The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. 37 You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you.
38 You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. 41 You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. 42 Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.
43 The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. 47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. 51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. 52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you.
53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you. 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities.
58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God- 59 the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. 60 He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. 63 Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. 65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. 66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening, "If only it were morning!"-because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. 68 The LORD will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.