The Planet - September 22, 2013

POLITICS

Keeping the insanity "real," the House GOP decided that the honorary position of "science laureate" was just too damn useful for them to support. The initiative was stopped. An unpaid position that's only purpose is to promote science across the country is just way to damn subversive for these cave dwelling tea party members of the house. Their thought is that science is political, which of course it is not; scientists would say the same things no matter who is in charge. An anonymous high ranking house member stated, "fear and ignorance, it's what we're all about." Not really, but someone might as well; the truth is evident.

In Kansas, Governor Brownback had promised on the campaign trail that he would reduce poverty. Besides the amusement that one might get from any conservative saying he cares about the plight of American workers, it was an out and out lie. The state hit a new high in child impoverishment in 2011. Policies that were instituted by the crazy man has had their desired effect, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

For better, or worse, atheists are sticking their noses into politics. A political action committee has been created that will spend its money on either atheists, or at a minimum, those candidates who will support the separation of church and state. 

House republicans voted to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program. Only conservatives can hate fellow Americans so openly without retaliation. Republicans think that an average of $138 dollars a month is way to generous to feed the starving. For these bastards and their caviar covered filets, shit on the shingle is way too good for the poor.

FOX helped out by passing around videos on "The Great Food Stamp Binge." Fraud and waste has been proven to be less than 1 percent of the program, but the fiends from FOX perverted that data.

This is where one would normally see a horrible image of a starving child, but apparently no child is starving in the U.S. First I tried searching for "starving children" images on google. I didn't want to put up another photo of an African child starving; we've all seen them. I wanted starving white children. The only ones found are black and white photos from the early 1900s, or maybe even earlier, or old eastern European images. Then I tried American starving children, still very few photos of white children, and again when there were, they were old black and white photos. Then I tried U.S. starving children, same basic results.

Apparently, every white child in this country is fat, dumb and happy. Congratulations America.

EDUCATION

Our friends in North Carolina, those tea party statesmen that have done all they can to restrict voting rights, mandate arms carrying in playgrounds, and all other whacky dumb fuck shit, has decided to ban a literary classic from school libraries. "Invisible Man," a Ralph Ellison classic that won the National Book Award in 1953 about social conditions surrounding blacks, no longer has any "literary value" according to old white conservatives in the State. We'll see about this.

A library aide was fired in upstate New York for having a library reading competition. One child kept winning, because you know, some of us like to read. The Director of the library, who apparently was fired as well, started the controversy because the young one winning the contest every year was involved in "no-good-dirty-rotten-book-stealer." Apparently this dimwit thought the winner should be chosen at random, because you know, that encourages reading.

GUNS

They finally fired that police chief who liked to make videos of himself shooting weapons while talking about "fucking libtards" and anyone else he's hating at the moment. Just think, that guy probably has a legal permit to carry firearms, and he hates everyone who disagrees with his moronic viewpoints. Jump him if you see him and kick his ass before he starts shooting is all I can say. Self-defense for real.

FOX reflects on the real problem of gun violence. Increased institutionalization. They must never listen to the real news.

In my lovely state of Michigan, ten minutes from my home, 2 men got into a crazy road rage battle while driving. They were both legally carrying weapons. They pulled into a car wash parking lot, got out of their cars, and started firing those weapons. Both are dead. That's what everyone is missing when it comes to the gun control battle, normally sane people can get pissed. It used to be you would take a swing at someone, now it's the O.K. Coral in every little town in the country. Rage is never in the equation when discussing the legality of carrying instruments that serve one purpose only, killing.

Guns are not for defense, running and ducking for cover is defense. Again, guns are made for one purpose only, death.

HATE

A very small town in disrepair attracts white supremacists. Leith, North Dakota has been falling apart for years; what better haven for a bunch of knuckle-dragging neanderthals to inhabit. This is America, where we allow freedom of hate. The townspeople aren't that happy about the prospect of a takeover, especially, as you can imagine, there one and only minority citizen. Only 24 people live in the town, I think they're in for a battle.

Then there's the idiocy that follows all things non-white. Our new Miss America had the audacity to be born of Indian descent. Oh no you don't. This is one of the best Bill Maher monologues I've seen, he hits the nail on the head when it comes to American's new pastime, hate. Read it or watch it.

ATHEISM

We all need a chuckle now and then, thanks Snoopy.

AMERICAN ANGST

Polls have been bewildering lately, showing one candidate up, then down, then up again in a whirlwind of data. The polls I found most upsetting were the ones showing that women are splitting their vote over the candidates for president.

A reminder is called for.

Republican Representative Paul Broun Jr. of Georgia introduced H.R. 212 in January 2011 called The Sanctity of Human Life Act; "To provide that human life shall be deemed to begin with fertilization."

Republican Representative Ron Paul of Texas introduced H.R. 1096 in March 2011 called the Sanctity of Life Act 2011; "To provide that human life shall be deemed to exist from conception, and for other purposes."

Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi introduced S. 91 in January 2011 called the Life at Conception Act; "A bill to implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and unborn human person."

Republican Representative Duncan Hunter of California introduced H.R. 374 in January 2011 also called the Life at Conception Act; "To implement equal protection under the 14th article of amendment to the Constitution for the right to life of each born and preborn human person."

Republican Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska introduced S. 314 in February 2011 called the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2011; "A bill to ensure that women seeking an abortion are fully informed regarding the pain experienced by their unborn child."

Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah introduced S. 2103 in February 2012 called the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act; "A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to protect pain-capable unborn children in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes."

Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio introduced H.R. 3805 in January 2012 called the Ultrasound Informed Consent Act; "To ensure that women seeking an abortion receive an ultrasound and the opportunity to review the ultrasound before giving informed consent to receive an abortion."

Republican Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota introduced H.R. 3130 in October 2011 called the Heartbeat Informed Consent Act; "To ensure that women seeking an abortion receive an ultrasound and an opportunity to review the ultrasound before giving informed consent to receive an abortion."

Republican Representative Jeff Duncan of South Carolina introduced H.R. 3802 in January 2012 called the National Pro-Life Waiting Period Act of 2012; "To require an abortion provider, before performing an abortion, to wait for a period of at least 24 hours."

Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana introduced S. 3290 in June 2012 called the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA) of 2012; "A bill to prohibit discrimination against the unborn on the basis of sex or gender, and for other purposes."

Republican Representative Bill Huizenga of Michigan introduced H.R. 5646 in May 2012 called the Homeland Security Respect for Life Act; "To prohibit funds appropriated for the Department of Homeland Security from being used to pay for an abortion, and for other purposes."

Republican Representative Randy Neugebauer of Texas introduced H.R. 6173 in July 2012 called the Pro-Life Act; "To amend the General Education Provisions Act to prohibit Federal education funding for elementary schools and secondary schools that provide on-campus access to abortion providers."

Republican Representative Christopher Smith of New Jersey introduced H.R. 3 in January 2011 called the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act; "To prohibit taxpayer funded abortions and to provide for conscience protections, and for other purposes."

Apparently fifty percent of women in the country our good with this.

In Arkansas, a gentleman running for the state Representative job thinks children should be put to death for misbehaving. Charlie Fuqua quote:

"The maintenance of civil order in society rests on the foundation of family discipline. Therefore, a child who disrespects his parents must be permanently removed from society in a way that gives an example to all other children of the importance of respect for parents. The death penalty for rebellious children is not something to be taken lightly. The guidelines for administering the death penalty to rebellious children are given in Deut 21:18-21."

"This passage does not give parents blanket authority to kill their children. They must follow the proper procedure in order to have the death penalty executed against their children. I cannot think of one instance in the Scripture where parents had their child put to death. Why is this so? Other than the love Christ has for us, there is no greater love then [sic] that of a parent for their child … Even though this procedure would rarely be used, if it were the law of land, it would give parents authority. Children would know that their parents had authority and it would be a tremendous incentive for children to give proper respect to their parents."

He also thinks liberals and muslims are teaming up because both hate christianity.

GOD'S GREATEST

Reverend Stoney Shaw weighs in on legitimate rape Akin:

"Some of my family was -- my children: Dad, you're not going to support him, are you? Everybody is turning against him. I said, well, there was another guy that everybody turned against, Jesus Christ. But he prevailed."

Akin and Jesus, apparently both incredibly lame.

Terry Jones, the pastor known for his desire to burn as many Korans as it will take to inflame muslims around the world was barred from entering Canada. Though Jones' allies are crying freedom of speech, we all know the real reason. Canada wants nothing to do with his hate speech. Canada is not the only country that wants nothing to do with the hate monger, Germany and the United Kingdom want nothing to do with the gentleman as well. Free speech is something we should protect in this country, but we cannot impose are view on other countries, just as they cannot stop our expressions here.

I'm all for free speech, I'll be in Florida in a couple of months, anyone want to join me in a little bible burning in the pastor's backyard?

As those who have been watching are aware, "religious freedom" is a buzzword being thrown around by those who wish to impose their beliefs on the rest of us. The Affordable Care Act is being attacked by those who think their beliefs are being challenged by the state. So far these attacks have come mostly from the Catholic hierarchy, but now it appears that private enterprise is using the same tactics. O'Brien Industrial Holdings out of Missouri is suing the Feds for the same reason, religious freedom. Even though a private company, and that employees pay for their health insurance, the company doesn't want their female employees to have access to paid birth control. 

National Organization for Marriage religious liaison William Owen's recently stated that not only is Obama not a christian, but the entire democratic party is a demonic entity. I like, keep up the crazy and atheism will be the default status of the country.

Free speech under attack by the usual culprits. In Britain thousands of muslims are protesting Google for allowing The Innocents of Muslims to remain on youtube. They would like to see protests against Google across the world and the organizer actually believes that "this insult to mohammed will not be allowed." Anyone want to volunteer to give him the bad news?

I think the perceived insults should not only remain, but that all religions should be taken to task for the incredulous and harmful claims they make.

EDUCATION ENEMIES

Normally I would point out where religion is trying to insert its ideology into the American secular public school system, but that seems to be minor this week when considering the horror that is the taliban.

Last Tuesday a Pakistani young lady, Malala Yousefzai, was shot while on a school bus that should have taken her home. Malala has been an outspoken advocate of education for girls and was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize last year.

The taliban decided her work was obscene.

Malala was shot once in the head and once in the body, and is now in Britain for rehabilitation and surgery.

The taliban has been, and still is, a repressive regime when the subject centers on women and education. Arguments are made by muslims that islam promotes education for all as a duty and that the taliban lack of concern for women is not an islamic value.

The usual debate between progressive and conservative theists seems to be the same around the world. 

In 2009 Mala started writing a blog about life under the taliban regime, interesting reading that describes a world that is unfathomable by western standards. I'm surprised that fundamentalists have not been driven from civilization wherever they make home, including the U.S.

Religion is the enemy of education in every country, city and town that this planet nurtures.

AMERICAN ANGST

This was the week of the first presidential debate. Though disappointing to many, I thought everything went as planned. Michel started a discussion here for those who want to discuss the apparent missteps of the president.

I myself thought it was perfect. When you set the bar that low you can only go up. When you pretend to be a horrible debater, then come back in round two on fire, you will surprise and grab America's attention. If this wasn't a planned drama I'd be surprised; Obama is now the underdog in the debates and Americans love underdogs.

While we wait to see if there's anything to my reasoning, at least we can have some real fun watching Congressman Ryan and Vic-President Biden duke it out, that one will be great fun. Are you ready to rumble? If so, Thursday should quench that thirst.

Congressman Paul Broun, a republican out of Georgia, got up on the wrong side of the bed and decided that all science is "lies straight from the pit of hell." Evolution, Embryology and the Big Bang, all the devil's doing. Normally I'd see the big "R" on his lapel and not expect anything real spouting out of his blowhole, but this gentleman deserves special attention; he is a high ranking member of the House Science Committee.

Someone slap me and wake me from the nightmare.

For every setback, someone takes a step forward. The Tea Party's "True The Vote" organization is being criminally investigated because of their activities. Senator Barbara Boxer, a democrat out of California, started the ball rolling with a letter to True The Vote and the Justice Department.

Senator Boxer wrote, "At some point, an effort to challenge voter registrations by the thousands without any legitimate basis may be evidence of illegal voter suppression."

It is about time someone started looking closely at the conservative move to purge voters. Representative Elijah E. Cummings, a democrat out of Maryland and on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has picked up the ball and is running with it.

This is more troublesome than all the anti-voting legislation being passed in conservative led states. Those laws have been either struck down, or put on hold until after the election. True The Vote is different. This organization is mobilizing a national network of volunteers to go to the actual polls and challenge and intimidate voters on election day. 

I hope anyone seeing any criminal activity like this when they go to vote will stand up to the criminals. You know they will only go after those they think they can intimidate. The voter fraud initiative has been a disease from the beginning, hopefully it will finally end with some of these fine citizen criminals being locked up for a good long time.

Unemployment dropped to 7.8% giving the Obama administration a nice boost after the not so good debate. Psychopath and ex-GE CEO Jack Welch goes into emergency denial mode about the good news for the country, which is always bad news these days to conservatives. He tweets, "Unbelievable job numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers." The usual conservative mantra, if we don't like it it can't be true. Like science, conservatives are unable to grasp anything that might damage their disgusting world view.

Even worse for conservatives is that the federal deficit dropped 200 billion dollars. The deficit is now 1.1 trillion, which is the lowest since 2008 when the financial crisis started that brought about the great recession. A conservative nightmare that makes life oh so sweet for the the reality crowd.

GOD'S GREATEST

At the end of September, Pat Robertson spoke at the Americans for Jesus 2012 rally. The old crazy guy happily looked out at a crowd of 8,000 to 10,000 - I'm sure Pat thought there were millions there; it's a miracle! - and said "I don't care what the ACLU says or any athiest says, this nation belongs to Jesus." There there Pat, it will be okay. The two day event was organized by the group One Nation under God. They are the bumbling numb minds that in the 1980's were credited with helping to start the religious right movement in this country. Happily the statistics show in the past that they used to get crowds of a half million; apparently Jesus is losing his appeal. 

Pastor John Hagee is back to being somewhat more unbalanced than he normally is. It was this gentleman that stated the Nazis were sent from god to hunt the jews. His newest endeavor is Global Evangelism Television; an internet business where all things idiotic are featured. He recently set out an email to all christians and people of faith - maybe Chick-fil-A bosses as well - that centers on the impending destruction of America if Obama wins. Be more afraid than usual people. 

Delirious quotes from the fine pastor:

“First, I want to express my profound appreciation to President Barak Obama for doing what all of the Republican candidates have not been able to do for months: he unified the Bible-believing church in America in one week over the issue of abortion.

“When the president ordered the Catholic Church to provide contraceptives to prevent the birth of new life, he hit a nerve in the heart of every true Catholic and evangelical."

“Being a politician, he will attempt to compromise his position until after the election and then release the full power of government to force the church to obey the state. Think about this! If he made this bold statement before the election, consider how brutal he will be if he is re-elected!"

“I have said it before and I will say it again: the election on Nov. 6, 2012 for the office of president is the day of decision for America. Four more years of Obama will bring absolute socialism to America. Our children and grandchildren will never know the greatness of America that we have experienced."

“This must not happen! … I am asking the Christians of America to join us in 40 days of prayer for this presidential election. These 40 days of prayer will begin on Sept. 28, 2012. You can do it individually or in groups, but prayer is the most powerful force God has given us to bring our nation back to righteousness. I'll be saying more about this as the year progresses, but mark it on your calendar and start telling your family, friends, and church members now about the 40 days of prayer.”

Tickles me thinking about all the faithful wasting their time, and our oxygen, yammering to the invisible. At least it may keep them out of trouble.

The FBI has been taken over by gays. Another gentleman with a lack of critical thinking skills, Brian Camenker, is promoting the thought that gays are now in charge of not only the FBI, but the CIA as well. These well dressed enforcers of law are using their new found power to crack down on pro-family groups and citizens; if only. Read the whole article if you need laugh, this gentleman is very frightened. He runs a group out of Massachusetts called MassResistance, I wouldn't recommend going to the site, it is horrible.

The Army has launched an investigation into mandatory prayer. Apparently at Fort Sam Houston, a Suicide Prevention Awareness, Education and Training program was highjacked and turned into a revival. This important training was being held at other military bases around the country, but only this one decided to make it a religious event. Someone didn't realize that having a mandatory spiritual fitness and candlelight prayer is an assault on the separation of church and state.

Great news for those waiting for the return of Jesus. Christian television networks have setup camp in Jerusalem to broadcast live the return of Jesus. Continuing the longest running scam in history, Daystar TV and Trinity Broadcast Network have set up camera and studios overlooking Mount Olive where the messiahs return will supposedly take place. 

Filming the final battleground seems to be a bit odd, who will be left to watch it? Never mind that, it is still a great excuse to run christian programming 24 hours a day in the hope that the Jewish people can be converted to christianity.

EDUCATION ENEMIES

I'm becoming interested in a program called "Every Student, Every School." Apparently since adults get in trouble if they bring religion into public schools, there is now a program that teaches students how to evangelize on campus; let the brainwashing begin. 

The program is for junior high and high school students. If you go to their site, it teaches how to evangelize on public property. Corporations, and individuals, can "sponsor" a school, though who they may be is not disclosed. I looked up my local public high school, and yes, there are two corporations sponsoring the program. 

How insidious is this? If there's one thing you can always count on from the religious is they're constant sneakiness; especially evangelicals, who will do anything to promote the nonsense that keeps them financed.

FOOD FIGHT

In a discussion with a young liberal atheist, he was of the opinion that there are more conservative atheists than one, meaning me, might think. He knows several and insists that the liberal atheists that dominate the secular networking sites are an anomaly, that the conservatives are not represented because they do not reveal their atheism.

I thought the idea was not the brightest one I'd heard of lately, but after a little more thought, perhaps he could be right.

It doesn't seem to fit, since the faces of conservatism are usually more Gung ho than those tree hugging liberals are.  Could it be that liberals are more exuberant about atheism than their polar opposites? If you're conservative, perhaps you don't want the rest of the republican base to know that you don't believe in god, that if that was revealed you would not be accepted by your peers. 

What fun this would be if true, secular conservatives hiding while secular liberals get to control the conversation. Conservatives allowing the progressive community to be the face of reality, while they hide amongst the god followers. 

I really don't think there's as many as the young guy I was talking to thinks, but there is a slight joy in the thought that for once conservatives must hide their true thoughts. Besides too soon gone Hitchens, the only other prominent conservative atheists I can think of off immediately would be Penn Teller and - sorry to put in the same sentence - S.E. Cupp.

I didn't have a good argument I could use to rebuke his stance. Though wandering around the atheist networks for a few years, and finding a lone conservative here or there, it always seemed that liberals were the vast majority. A conservative could not really rally around the right these days, they may hang out with Randian economists but where else would they be accepted. 

Are there conservative atheists who think that a marriage is between one man and one woman? Are there conservative atheists who are pro-choice. And if I keep asking basic questions about their views and they answer in a manner that is compatible with liberal ideals, are they really a conservative?

Enjoy your week people.