The Teabagger Screed

What do you say? This guy is out of his mind. I am not quite sure what he was talking about when it came to the Marine Corps and the VA. Speaking as a Marine Corps vet who receives VA benifits, I am here to tell you that a) there is nothing glorious is war or killing, and b) the VA is only the most socialist form of healthcare in the history.

But none the less, this is a pretty fair representation of the Tea Party.

Immigration Reform, or Poorly Veiled Racism?

Immigration reform is supposedly up for debate soon, and tomorrow there will be a rally in Charlotte as well as other cities (I'm thinking about going). On my facebook, there was a pretty benign status update that spawned a long discussion that I wanted to jump into, but one of the parties seemed semi-not-sane so I stayed out of it. The possibly-crazy person shared this link, which is the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform. At first it seems cool and all, with a quote by Lincoln and then a passage seeming to call on businesses, not immigrants, to be held accountable for employing illegal workers. But then it devolves into blaming immigrants for everything, and keeps quoting as "research" an organization that only took me two clicks to find out are bigots and racists.

Immigration does have a lot of complex issues, but how hard is it to understand this concept: Punish the employers, not the workers. Fine the shit out of them. It's the greedy asshole business owners who shit Americans out of their jobs when they know the person they are employing is not a citizen, because that person has to settle for less. Why would you blame the illegal worker? They're doing what they need to do, and they're not getting paid a fair wage for it. The anger needs to be directed straight at the top of the food chain, and the people who make the decisions and directly benefit from all this mess.

Downward-spiraling wages are a problem, one that's mostly caused when people who have no other choices are forced to accept less than what they deserve so they can support their families: illegal immigrants and ex-convicts, specifically. I've seen it myself---businesses exploit these people, and that in turn fucks you and me. But we're all being fucked, so don't blame the Mexican guy. Blame your boss. This is why we need reform, and not start rounding people up to kick out. For example, RIFA suggests letting non-citizens still work in the US but register and pay taxes.


Of course, considering that our ancestors, as immigrants, slaughtered the Native Americans, enslaved blacks and other minorites, and spent a good chunk of our history profiting from oppressing others, it's all sadly ironic.

Not Earthquakes, Suntans!

I wish Iran would make up their mind. First, they say that the problem is women who dress immodestly. Now, Police Chief Hossien Sajedinia is saying that the problem is women with... suntans!

I am not sure this guy actually lives in Iran. Does he not know that Persian women are brown? Obviously not. Check out this gem.

The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehavior by women, and men, who defy our Islamic values. In some areas of north Tehran we can see many suntanned women and young girls who look like walking mannequins. We are not going to tolerate this situation and will first warn those found in this manner and then arrest and imprison them.

Dude, you are going to arrest and imprison women for having a tan? Just admit it. The hot women are making you think "impure" thoughts, not that there is such a thing. So, instead of just dealing with the fact that we are human and are attracted to one another, your answer is to imprison women who are tanned?

I can tell you one thing from this guys statement: Islamic values are stupid.

The Answer? Deport Them. Deport Them All!

I am glad to see that cooler heads are prevailing in the debate over Arizona becoming the "Racist State, Land Of No Constitution". California Representative Duncan Hunter has come up with an idea that just might work. Not only should we be singling out brown people, regardless of their legal status, but we should also be deporting American citizens who were born in this country, but just happened to be born to illegal parents.

This guy is a ghoul. It will never cease to amaze me how these "teabaggers" or "patriots" or whatever they are calling themselves now can scream at the top of their lungs that they want to defend the constitution while simultaneously shitting on the constitution. The Fourth Amendment, which if I recall correctly, is part of the Constitution states the following:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

What is so hard to understand about that? Come on, you Constitutional purists! If you support the Arizona bill or people like Duncan Hunter, you will further expose yourselves as an ignorant group of yokals that only gives a shit about the second amendment, because it deals with guns and all.

How To Treat A Politician

Once again, the British have shown us how to talk to a politician. I haven't been following the BPM elections closely, but I did like this exchange between PM-hopeful Nick Clegg (who I tend to agree with on a lot of what I have read about). This is how you grill a politician, not this Micky Mouse crap we have going on in this country. Bravo, UK.

Tornado Destroys Town, People Praise God

OK. I am going to have to be the bad guy here. Let me start out my saying that this story is horrible. The fact that this town was devistated and that eleven lives were lost is something that I cannot fathom. That being said, I have a few problems with this.

First off, this guy survived "without a scratch". He was also under a communion table, which, if memory serves me correctly, are pretty heavy duty. The fact that this guy made it through without a scratch is hardly a miracle. There have been a lot of people who have made it through a tornado without a scratch.

Second, when this guy talks about "god wrapping his arms" around him, I want to scream. You would think that if god was truly real and benevolent he wouldn't have sent a tornado to level an entire town. What about the people that lost their homes, or their lives!? I guess the people that died didn't fear god enough.

Also, with this being a link to Fox News, check out the comments. They are truly ridiculous, also known as the Fox MO.

Noah's Ark Found! Now THAT Would Be A Miricale

A Disclaimer: I have linked to Fox News for the article for this post. They are awesome when it comes to credulous reporting.

They have done it! A group of "researchers" with, I shit you not, "Noah's Ark Ministries" claim to have found Noah's Ark. Guess where. Mount Ararat, of course! The same place that Noah's ark was found the last time. Of course, that wasn't the ark; it was a rock formation. They assure you, this time they are "not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it."

You may be asking yourself at this point what makes them so sure.

The group claims that carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old, meaning they date to around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Mt. Ararat has long been suspected as the final resting place of the craft by evangelicals and literalists hoping to validate biblical stories.

Ho hum. First thing is first: Who performed the carbon dating? Was it just one lab? What method did they use to date this material? The reason I ask these questions is because disingenuous creationists have a history of "carbon dating" material using the wrong method and then claiming all of history to be false. Now they are using carbon dating to confirm their findings. First, science is stupid. Now, we like science!

Next, I would like to know at what point great scientific and archeological findings are published via press conference. What about the scientific journals?

To recap, a group of "researchers" who obviously have something to lose in this whole debacle, went up on Mount Ararat, found Noah's ark, decided to forgo the scientific process, and just came out and said they are "99.9% sure" that it actually is Noah's Ark, all while not revealing anything about their method or any proof that there is actually a ship on the mountain.

Since we don't need scientific proof anymore, I am going to go ahead and say that the Noah's Ark Ministry is full of crap.

Boobquake!!!

Sorry I have been neglecting both of the people that read this blog, but it is finals week and I am trying to finish up an extremely long research paper.

In the mean time, enjoy this piece of work by Fox News about the Boobquake. Fox is at the point, at least in my mind, that even if they are just trying to make a joke, they are bad at it. Sometimes, I wish they would all go away.

Full Face Transplant

Last month, Spanish doctors conducted the first full face transplant on a man who accidentally shot himself; today they released a report that he is so far doing well. This is amazing; I have always been interested in reconstructive technology. A disfiguring accident is one of the most devastating things that can happen to a person. So often, it means that you have to exist outside of society----many disfigured people find it very hard to even get a job. When I see breakthroughs like this, it gives me hope that people who are suffering out there will get help.

Last year, Connie Culp received a half-face transplant. Her story is really amazing, and she looks phenomenal especially considering she was shot in the fucking face. Before her reconstruction, a little girl once told her she looked like a monster, and this poor woman pulled out her driver's license to show the little girl what she used to look like, instead of bursting into tears as I would have.

The first successful half-face transplant was French woman Isabelle Dinoire, a sad case wrought with controversy (how else could it be when your dogs ate half your face?) She is apparently doing well, and under care of a good doctor, which she will have to be for the rest of her life.

But things don't always go well. The immunosuppressant drugs that transplant patients have to take for the remainder of their lives cause some people to change their mind, with deadly consequences. A man who received a new hand even insisted that doctos remove it because it "felt like a dead man's hand."

Still, more people than not are satisfied with their surgeries. They do not restore them to their former selves, but they help give them back the one thing we take for granted as our most valuable possession: a face.

"Ihre Papiere, bitte!"

And they said we (progressives and liberals) were the bad guys. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has sign into law a bill that would require legal immigrants to carry their immigration papers with them at all times, under penalty of law.

Just when I think that the Republican Party has reached its lowest point, they do something like this. After all of the talk of progressives being communists or Nazi's or whatever they were calling us, they go an sign into law a bill that is exactly what the Nazi's did to Jews in the beginning of Hitler's reign. "Ihre Papiere, bitte!"

This is absolutely disgusting. There is no way to carry out this law that doesn't involve racial profiling.

[Gov Brewer] said that racial profiling would not be tolerated, adding, “We have to trust our law enforcement.”

Yeah, if there is one group of people I trust in this country, it is cops. The same group of people who routinely abuse their power are going to be given another "invaluable tool" to harass the public. Trust in law enforcement did the people in 1939's Germany a lot of good.

I am not saying this as hyperbole either. This is exactly the types of laws that were enacted to make sure that the Jews were kept in their place. The next law we should expect out of Arizona is for anyone who is brown to start wearing arm bands with an "M" on it, because you know all brown people are Mexicans anyway.

I wonder how long it will take before someone is either killed or severely injured as a result of this bill. How long will it take before their is a lawsuit against the state (which is in conflict with federal law)? How long until the people in Arizona revolt?

The icing on the cake is that this bill is also supported by John McCain. The person (I refuse to call him a man) that was supposed to be an advocate for immigrants, the person who was supposed to look out for a little guy, the person who wanted to be president. Thank you for your support. I have always wondered what someone looks like after they have shed all of their morals and principles. Thank you for the education.

Puerto Rico To Begin Unrivaled Birth Certificate Clusterfuck

According to an ABCnews report from Wednesday (or maybe the dude was high?), Puerto Rico has so many problems with fraud that effective July 1, every Puerto Rican citizen's birth certificate will become invalid. Then, 4 million residents----and 1.2 million Puerto Ricans living in the US----will have to apply for a new birth certificate. The article suggests that nearly 50% of US cases of passport fraud originate with Puerto Rican birth certificates.

I'm sure this will all go really well.

Congress Defends The National Day Of Prayer™

Congress has come out to *gasp* defend the National Day of Prayer™. What an unsurprising move from a group of people who have nothing better to do with their time than to support people talking to themselves. Says professional ninnyhammer Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA as if it would be anywhere else):

"What brings us together today is a misguided court decision which threatens the longstanding tradition of this country. I urge the Obama administration to appeal this decision and to dedicate the best and brightest minds of the Justice Department to this case."

I sure am glad they have solved all of the problems in this country. Now we can devote the "best and brightest minds of the Justice Department" to appealing a case of mass-schizophrenia. Prisoner Abuse: Solved. Mercenary Groups: Incarcerated. Militias: Disbanded. Corporate Fraud: Extinct. Setting aside one day a year for the president to call on the citizens of this country to act like buffoons: next on the docket.

Here is another gem from former (thank jebus) Rep. Tony Hall (D-OH):

"When we have a problem, we pass a bill. Imagine what it would happen in Washington if [we] prayed together. The American people want that."

I can imagine what would happen. NOTHING! Exactly what happens every time a group of people get together, close their eyes, and chant to invisible sky daddy. Like the old saying goes: nothing fails like prayer. Oh, sorry man, what the American people want is a government that doesn't waist time and money on stupid issues. That is, unless you are a teabagger.

Someone help me.

Nebraska Hearts Fetuses, Sucks Balls

So people in Nebraska are crazy and hate women, and have been passing all kinds of awful legislation restricting abortion. Feministing sums everything up; first up, LB 594 "..requires doctors to screen women for mental and physical problems that could pose as a "risk" after getting an abortion." Because women are morons, and can't be trusted to make their own decisions, and are obviously crazy for wanting an abortion in the first place. Amanda Marcott at RH Reality Check wrote a great piece explaining the misogynist mindset behind this weird bill.

Then, there's the new fetal pain debacle. This is really scary, because they're basically saying "fuck you" to Supreme Court precedent and trying to establish a new standard limiting factor on abortion, one that is completely unsupported by science. Ms. Marcott (this time at Slate) again explains in detail why this is such a problem.

I've gotten into heated arguments (at parties, yeah I'm that girl) about abortion rights being chipped away, and I'm always treated like a hyperventilating hussy making a big deal out of nothing. "Roe vs. Wade will never be overturned," I am assured time and time again. But when I see stories like this in the news, constantly, it gives me panic attacks. And it seems the anti-choicers just seem to keep coming, always have more money flowing in, always marching around with their giant fetus pictures. Ugh. I think I'm gonna go have some quiet time and think about my vagina and uterus and reassure myself that they do and will always belong to me. Good thing I don't live in Nebraska.

UPDATE! Oklahoma wanted to join Nebraska in its mind-numbingly stupid quest to control women's bodies. Monday, five bills were approved by the state senate that are basically designed to make getting an abortion a harder, annoying, convoluted process. Apparently, a woman in need of an abortion needs to be bullied into looking at ultrasound pictures of her fetus, you know, just cause. These kinds of overreaching laws are posited by people who say they care about women, but really they only care about restricting or flat out ending abortion, and doing everything they can to invade in the life of a woman that is seeking to undergo that very personal procedure.

Where Is The Non-violent Tea Party Again?

TPM did a story on a Tea Party in Greenville, SC in which Tom Tancredo said the following:

"If his wife says Kenya is his homeland, why don't we just send him back?"

OK Tom, as long as we can send you back to 1950's Mississippi while we are at it. Seriously, where did this guy come from? What a ghoul.

The best part, however, came when Pastor Stan Craig let everyone know that he

"was trained to defend the liberties of this nation." and "suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do."

That about sums up the "Christian Attitude". I sure am glad that the Tea Parties aren't inciting anyone to violence. We would be in real trouble if these guys were painting images of the country being taken over by a non-existent enemy. People might get scared, pick up there guns, and do something crazy.

Right?

Another Reason For Muslims To Rape And Kill Women

Have you wondered why there have been a lot of earthquakes lately? Iranian Cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi has. He thinks he has found the answer.

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes."

Oh, well that make sense... if you are a 7th century addle-pate following a idiotic religion.

This is (one of) the problem(s) with religion in general and Islam in specific. You take a group of sexually repressed men and let them control over a billion people. Add some homophobia and repressed homosexual tendencies and you get Islam!

This is going to be used as just another excuse to rape and murder women... anywhere. Women are already considered the cause of their rape and/or murder in this bearded dog of a religion. Just another reason to hate women I guess. Not only do they cause people to rape them by showing their wrists, but now they are causing earthquakes.


Fuck Islam.

Discriminate If You Like, It Let's Me Know Who The Bigots Are

The Supreme Court is going to be hearing a case this week, Christian Legal Society Chapter v. Martinez, that has some pretty hefty implications for college groups across the nation. The Christian Legal Society is arguing that the policy of non-discrimination when it comes to admitting groups on the University of California, Hastings College Of The Law campus is unconstitutional because it doesn't allow the groups to bar people from joining them based on religious or sexual orientation reasons.

Who would have thought that it would have been a Christian group that wanted to discriminate against gays and atheists? I mean, it isn't like religion has a long history of openness and acceptance. But I digress.

In this particular case, as much as it pains me to say, I have to agree with the Christian group. The implications of this case reach a little further, a lot further, than just not discriminating against someone who wants to join your club. For example, if there was an atheist group that was not allowed to discriminate against religious people, a christian group could effectively pile the group with Christians, take all of the officer positions, and shut the group down. Easy peasy.

The sticking point is going to be that a group that operates on the campus actually receives funding from the state university system.

Official recognition brings the right to use the Hastings name and logo, access to an e-mail address with a link to the law school's network, office space and meeting rooms, and small grants from student-activity fees and university funds.

That is where you have to draw the line, for religious, atheist, gay, or white-supremacists groups. You shouldn't stop anyone from forming a group. Ever. But, if the group is based on something that does not correlate to education at the school, then there should be no help at all from the university system. This is not to say that you couldn't have a "LGBT Rights" group on the campus of Hastings that received funding from the state. That is an issue that attracts straight people and the LGBT community alike. There could also be a "Religious Freedom" group that received benefits. However, when you have a specifically Christian or Muslim or Jewish or, yes, Atheist group, then there should be no funding from the state system.

Besides, having the Christian group take a stand like this is fantastic. I love it when I can easily pick out a group of bigoted idiots.

Recessional Confessional

So I found out Friday via a note left in the store after hours, that effective with the next paycheck, every employee's pay is being reduced by 15%. I know I should be grateful to have a job-----I am. And the job I have is not horribly demanding beyond dealing with incredibly stupid people day in and day out. But, let me divulge. For one, that takes me down to making a whopping 19k, what I made nearly 10 years ago, when I was first hired with zero experience. Ignore the fact that even making 15% more than that is laughable, but luckily I came from a poor family.

I work for a medium-size company that makes a luxury item: framed pictures. People come in the store with their artwork, I help them decide how they'd like to frame it, then I order materials from the warehouse and I build the product in the store. It's not rocket science, but it is a learned skill, one that requires math, attention to detail, and a limitless ability to tolerate idiocy.

I've wasted nearly 10 years of my life with this company, and from what I've seen the problem is that it is run by people who could not care less about the business or the quality of the product (beyond making sure people want to pay for it), they just want to make the most money with the least amount of effort possible. The few times that upper management is in the store and forced to work with a customer, it's usually a catastrophe. The same people who scold us on how to best eek every penny out of every person that walks through the door (not my philosophy; I give people what they want, not try to sell them what they don't need) turn into rude newbies who can't be bothered to take the time to do the order correctly. The priority is on using the cheapest products, and cheapest labor, and then taking the highest markup you can.

And the markup in the business is insane. The same day I found out about this pay cut, a man came in to place an order of acrylic on an oversize print. When I told him the price, he scoffed and informed me that he worked for a plastics company that makes acrylic, and it was only about 1/50 of the price I quoted him. I smiled and told him that was really good to know considering the hit my paycheck just took.

I know that a lot of people have lost their jobs, and I know that a lot of people have taken paycuts. And I feel for them; but you cut the pay of people making 6 figures or at least comfortably above 50, not flirting with the fucking poverty line. What they're paying us is low, for the industry and for others----there is not a single manager making more than 30k, and a lot of people are even below 20k. It sucks to work with a customer for more than an hour on an order that totals hundreds of dollars, fill in labor charges totalling $100 or more, knowing that for that hour you didn't even make $10. And a lot of people aren't even that lucky.

Oh, and did I mention that we don't get commission, or bonuses, and that even though my reviews have always been glowing, I haven't had a raise in 2 years? Our health benefits are so worthless that most people don't even use them, and the company's attitude towards cohesiveness can be summed up in the sentence In more than 20 years of business there has never been a company party (holiday or otherwise), period, ever.

I'm really grateful for the federal government checking up on businesses, because ours has been audited several times in the past ten years and each time, it was found out that they were fucking the employees. I was constantly bullied for years that managers who are salaried (even salaried at 23k) were expected to work overtime and not be paid (this is not true; you're only exempt from overtime pay when you make real money, no employees of this company come anywhere near it), I skirted that issue by refusing to work overtime. Years later, we were told that now we would get overtime, but it was actually half-time, so when you got to overtime hours, you would actually get paid half the amount you normally would. That totally makes sense, right? Would you believe it, next audit revealed they totally made that up, and had to start paying people real overtime, isn't that crazy! No one ever got any back pay, though.

But this is the kicker. Apparently, the company as a whole is doing very badly. I'm sure that's true; it's a luxury industry and the economy is way down and people have no jobs. But our store, on the other hand, has been doing just fine (I know, I've been there all these years). Sales are good; they're not cracktastically shooting skyward, but they've been positive and not negative. The staff of the store has consistently shrank, going from 3 full time and 2 part time people when I was hired 8 years ago to now just 2 full time and one part time person. More money, less people, somehow still equals less money?

So now all of us little people are getting our already little paychecks cut. Meanwhile, the bosses live in spectacular half-million dollar houses in the nicer gated areas of the city. One guy has been on vacation the last 3 weeks out of 5. I'm sure they're really taking one for the team, sacrificing a ton of their 6-figure paycheck to "keep the company afloat."

So this is why I have a problem with rich people, and the idea that capitalism fixes everything. I am a hard-working person that can't find a new job, and is being seriously taken advantage of by my current employer. I'm know, be grateful for my job: my job where I make less money than teen grads stocking food at grocery stores, yet I have a learned skill that took me years to perfect and people pay hundreds of dollars for. I am grateful---but I am also pissed. I firmly believe that employers are using the recession as an excuse to further fuck their employees as much as they can.

I am a valuable employee: a dependable woman with the capacity to swallow massive amounts of bullshit; plunk me down in a store and I will make money for you and keep problems to a minimum. I've never asked for much; I don't complain (till now I've kept my grievances off the web); my personal life is boring and drama-free; I am smart and have always been able to handle any wack-ass situation that has happened. I know that I deserve better pay. There is no one that can tell me that I don't. I do all the work, see all the money come in, and then get my tiny little pittance. I know what is going on.

I left the worst part for last: I had it really good here. I was one of the higher-paid managers. Most people in the company make less than me, meaning they're down in the teens now, and a lot of them have children. Just think about that for a second: funny, smart, good people, now trying to raise a family on 15k a year. Last night, we were watching TV and it was said that a family of four making 50k pay no income taxes. I don't know if this is true, but honestly it doesn't bother me----I know how hard it is to live with 2 people with less than 50k, so I can imagine how hard it is with kids. Give them the tax break. I feel most for those people who are now very close to the poverty line, if not below it. It was really sad to log onto my facebook and see all the other employees lamenting the pay cut----everyone's status update involved depressing things and alcohol.

So one employee whose store is being closed was told sorry, no more work for you-----but keep checking back, because we're sure people will quit when they see how much of a loss they're taking. Nice! Way to show concern.

Just so we're clear here, all the upper management/owners of the company have lavish houses that cost more than I'll make in a lifetime, cars that cost more than my house (literally), go to places I will probably never see, and have lots of little people working for peanuts to make all that possible. Oh, and by the way---the store I'm at has only 2 full time employees and one part time, and we all make less than 25k each; we bring in appx. $300,000 annually.

Screw The Moon, Let's Go To An Asteroid

Recently, President Obama has announced the cancellation of the Constellation Program at NASA. This program would have taken us back to the moon. However, the President has seen it fit to cancel the program. As for the moon, screw it.

Now, I understand that some believe that we should attempt a return to the surface of the Moon first, as previously planned. But I just have to say pretty bluntly here: We've been there before. Buzz has been there. There's a lot more of space to explore, and a lot more to learn when we do.

I have a problem with that. Just because we have been there already doesn't mean that we shouldn't go back. However, all in all, I agree with his sentiments and the mission that he has set NASA to perform.

One of the first things will be to land on an asteroid! How frakkin awesome is that! Landing on an asteroid would not only be sweet-ass-sweet, but it would also give us a great deal of data on asteroids, the formation of the solar system and possibly the universe, and will also teach us a lot about pushing an asteroid out of the way if one decided to aim for us, like Apophis.

Since I am more of a space fanboy than anything else, I must divert your attention to Dr. Phil Plait's blog on the new space program mission. I had the knee-jerk reaction of horror until i actually read what he was saying. He makes a good point for the new program and I must say, I agree with him.

Porn Is The Problem, Says Priest

Bishop Felipe Arizmendi, a well-known pedophile, er catholic 'authority', has come out, both barrels blazing, against... porn. According to the good bishop, the reason that priest are raping children is because

With so much invasion of eroticism, sometimes it's not easy to stay celibate or to respect children. If on television and on the Internet and in so many media outlets there is pornography, it is very difficult to stay pure and chaste. Obviously when there is generalised sexual freedom it's more likely there could be cases of paedophilia.

Obviously.

Wait, so these guys are raping children because of porn? Your excuse is porn. Wait, you have something else to say?

He said part of the blame for the current environment lies with sex education programs that gave "only genital information."

Oh OK. So it is porn and sex ed that is making priests rape children.

Let me tell you something, you child raping, incestuous bastard. The fact that your underlings can't keep their cocks out of children should be reason enough to lock the lot of you under a jail for all eternity. When you come out with stupid shit like this, it further marginalizes an already half-retarded religion that only morons would believe in in the first place. So please, continue with your excuses for not being able to keep your hands off of babies. I will enjoy watching your 'institution' crumble before my eyes.

/end ad hominem attack

A Secular Victory

The FFRF has won the case against the National Day of Prayer! In a 66-page decision, Judge Barbara Crabb said that the NDP did not conform the the separation of church and state. BRAVO!

However, the White House tweeted out that it still planned to go ahead with the NDP this year. I smells me some more lawsuit!

You Can Worship, But You Can't Have Water.

The depravity of religion manifests itself in many ways. As we have seen in this country, religious institutions are given preference over secular ones: Christian discrimination against other religions and atheists goes overlooked, religious groups are allowed to operate within the government (that is supposed to be secular); special tax statuses are given to the clergy, etc.

Not being content with dumping government money into our own religious institutions, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation has decided to dump tax payer’s money into restoring three mosques… in Tanzania. For what reason would we be restoring mosques in Zanzibar, you may ask? Well, the local people can’t afford to do it themselves. They are so poor that they have only been able to do small repairs to their buildings rather than fully overhauling them.

I am on board with anyone who wants to maintain culturally significant sites, religious or not. It broke my heart to see video of the Buddhas of Bamyan being destroyed by the Taliban. The thought of some right-wing hate group actually destroying the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is abhorrent. The cathedral of Notre Dame is arguably one of the most beautiful buildings of its time. However, I will tell you where my loves of these monuments ends: it ends when the choice is keeping these sites or giving fresh water to needy people.

“A U.S. official who visited Pemba to discuss plans for the project “heard many complaints about the hardships of life in these villages, including the problem of having no access to fresh water,” the proposal said. “But when asked which was a higher priority for the community — access to fresh water or restoration of their historic mosque — the village elders unanimously stated that restoring the mosques was more important.”

So these “elders” decided that they would rather have some ratty old building instead of giving fresh water to its people? That is something I cannot stomach. I would rather see every cultural site in the world destroyed a hundred times over than to know that the money that went to the upkeep of the sites could have fed and watered an entire population of poor people.

I wonder if human beings will ever leave its mentally challenged superstitions behind in order to actually take care of other human beings?

Change is coming

There are going to be some changes coming down the pike here at SAG. I am going to be moving everything over to a new server, changing the format, and hopefully posting more. I have set up a new way of getting my news, so it will be a little easier to compile information for my useless opinions.

-Word

Criminal, Apologist, Pope

The pope will be visiting the UK this September to beatify someone for doing something 160 years ago. Glad to see that they are on the ball. Anyway, he should watch out when he climbs off of some young child and out of the plane and steps on British soil, as he may be arrested.

From what can be gleaned from the story, Christopher Hitchins came up with the idea to have the pope arrested for crimes against humanity. Richard Dawkins loved the idea and was fully on board with it. The pope could be charged because the Vatican is not recognized as a sovereign state by the UN.

I don't think anything will come of this. I do love the idea of it. How awesome would it be to see the pope shackled, forced to walk in shame in front of an international court? I can only dream.

Arrest The Pope

I am going to do a quick post on this. More to come tomorrow.

Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens agree that maybe his royal rapiness, the pope, should be arrested when he visits the UK this September.

A Giant Thank You

Thank you, Hannah, for covering for me while I was gone. I appreciate everything that you do here at SAG (sounds like an unfortunate company) and look forward to hear more from you :)

Scott Brown Is An Opportunist

Could it be? Could this cock-model-turned-dick-head, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) really have just rode the wave of anger and fear to victory in Massachusetts? No, surely he is willing to give the Democrats a pair of Turkish goggles. That is, of course, unless he knew that even a conservative can't be conservative to survive in MA politics.

I am surprised that it took this long for him to drop the tea party like a bag of wet racists. I give Scott Brown an "L" for "Lewzer".

Huckabee: For a Straight Guy, He Sure Does Think About Gay Sex a LOT

Hey, gay people, bi people, anybody who's not straight, and family members and friends of all previously mentioned in this sentence, Mike Huckabee is a big fat douchebag who hates you, your family members and friends, and thinks being gay is similar to drug addiction.

This man is so abhorrent it's not even funny anymore. Clearly, he lives in a pretty awesome bubble, because the only way he is able to spew this hatred with a straight face is because he never comes into contact with anyone who threatens to fracture his carefully contructed worldview.

“You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal...That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want who use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them.”

The conservatives have to wake up on the issue of homosexuality, or they are doomed for a slow and painful death (not that I give a fuck). Repeat after me: It's ok to be queer. It's ok to buttfuck. Nearly every day my mind is blown at people who say things like, "I don't have anything against gays, and I don't want them to be discriminated against. But I do think gay sex is wrong."

What?! Two sane, consenting adults engaging in sexual activity can be a variety of things: gross, weird, beautiful, fun, sticky, furry, etc. But when it comes to the realm of sex, as long as everyone involved is of a sound, consenting, adult mind, concepts of right or wrong don't even apply.

So back to Queerbag McGee, who eventually will be busted in his very own gay scandal, I'm sure of it. He also made sure to mention that gays shouldn't adopt children, because they just want puppies, you know, the little gay ones with hairbows and tiny outfits. Give the gays some cute little puppies and then they'll stop whining about adoption rights! Duh

Huckabee also thinks repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell is just more of the super queer agenda to queer everybody up, dismissing gay soldiers by saying, "You don’t see foot soldiers out there demanding it." Oh really? It would be nice to see a big, gay response to that.

And in true Christian style, he manages to give us atheists a backhanded compliment. He actually (freely, without torture, one hopes) uttered: "I’d rather have an honest atheist (in office) than a dishonest religious person,” saying his real beef is with hypocritical religious politicians. He's annoyed by politicos who say they're religious, but then "...live as if they are atheists, as if they have no moral groundings at all." Haha! Stupid bad atheists! No moral groundings!

And that's where I really should be grateful for guys like Huckabee. At least he's a true Christian, standing up for what the Bible really says. He doesn't bother trying to spin his nasty message because he's fully convinced that god backs up the nasty. At least everything is out on the table with a dipshit like that.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/10/huckabee-gays-adopt/
Full interview here http://tcnjperspective.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/huckabee-rips-steele-romney-lgbt-activists-4/

Not Sure Why Anyone With a Brain/Conscience Would Still Be Catholic...

Last week, Catholic League president Bill Donahue went on CNN so he could do us all a favor and say this on live TV: that the pedophile priests involved in the ongoing scandal were gay because molesting children is "what gays do." http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0406/catholic-league-president-classifies-priests-raping-children-homosexuality/ Are you fucking kidding me? How is this argument still in the public sphere? Yeah, that makes total sense, gay dudes love men, so why wouldn't they love boys even more? That's how it works, right? Hey, straight guys, you love women, so doesn't it follow that you'd really like a little girl? Yeah, I thought so! Homophobes are always quick to blame gays for abuse; unfortunately when you consider the rate of abuse and violence against women and children, straight men are the most common culprits.

So yeah, it's probably just those damn gays sneaking around in priest's robes, that's all.

Or you could be a total moron (and ugly to boot!) like Ross Douthat and write worthless columns blaming abuse on the sexual revolution. http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/31/catholic-sex-abuse-scandal-blamed-on-hippies-and-gays/

Gee, how hard is it to come up with this summary: priests are trusted figures who are placed on a pedestal and given too much influence and power over young people, so sometimes bad priests take advantage of their position and harm children.

And for a bit of funny, Cardinal Angelo Sodano managed to simultaneously apologize for the Pope comparing the Church's molestation scandal to the fucking Holocaust because he is an evil Nazi asshole while blatantly dismissing the allegations as "petty gossip" (the exact words the Pope himself used to describe the situation days earlier). Yep, children being fucked physically and psychologically by grown men is just petty gossip. Hopefully it'll all blow over.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-7-2010/pope-opera

Saturday Mixed Bag

Hello heathens! Here's a few items to get you started on this beautiful weekend.

This is brilliant. Tea Party Jesus is a tumblr user who has taken quotes from various douchebag talking heads as well as regular nutjob teabaggers and put them into pictures so that Jesus is speaking them-----kinda puts all that self-satisfied handwringing into perspective. http://teapartyjesus.tumblr.com/

In other news, Fred Phelps is still a detestable assbag, and this week he and his church protested the funerals of the miners who died in West Virginia, because of course they were just big sinny queers and God smote them and such. http://gawker.com/5513598/westboro-baptist-church-says-god-was-punishing-killed-miners This is pretty low, but in my opinion not as low as protesting soldier's funerals, but still.

Also, this lady from National Review Online thinks we should yell at politicians in public, particularly on airplanes: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmYwOGZlNGU4YzVlMjE5NmJhMmFlNTY5MDhjZGZiNDg

Justice John Paul Stevens will retire soon. http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/justice-stevens-will-retire-this-summer.php?ref=fpb Obama better not fuck this up. Seriously. And what the fuck are conservatives still screaming about "activist judges" for? That's an empty term, a blatant disguise for "anyone who makes decisions we don't like." Anyway, don't fuck this up, man! SERIOUSLY.

And lastly, I'll leave you with this http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/a-republican-party-highlights-from-the-southern-republican-leadership-conference.php?ref=mp , TPM's coverage of the first few days of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Of course there is a combo of insanely funny (guy confusing "mediocre" with "meteoric" when describing Sarah Palin's rise to fame) to really sad (Palin blasting Obama for his supposedly non-existent nuclear strategy. Because we all know hers, right?). Enjoy!

Palin/Bachmann O-Twelve

Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have been touring the country, not sure why really, except to work up the frenzied base and see if they can get any more people killed. Their tour consists of appearing before screeching, rabid fans by day and cuddling up in penthouse suites by night to paint each other's toenails. Here's a rundown of the tour from a cuddly lesbian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2QZiTVsbkM Oh, and if you need to laugh for a while, and then cry, there's this: http://wonkette.com/tag/pt-scissor-me-timbers/ Oh, to be a fly on the wall, or the bumpit in Palin's hair!

And now, Ms. Palin, who is an expert in everything, is really pissed off at Obama's idea to, you know, try not to burn babies off the face of the earth with nuclear weapons. He is such a hippie sissy asshole. http://hotpoliticians.com/2010/04/08/palin-obama-nuke-strategy-is-like-kid-saying-%E2%80%98punch-me-in-the-face%E2%80%99/

This woman. I could go point by point with individual issues that are serious problems with Palin, but the common theme is that she is the modern symbol of anti-intellectualism. She represents fear and brazen rejection of education, and pride in fundamentalist dogma. I'm sure this is preaching to the choir here. But as much as I'd love to discount the woman and let her go back to populating the northern part of the country with little Truks and Lugz and Talladegas, there are too many people---people I know, in fact---who not only don't find her batshit crazy, they agree with her. They like her. Back when it was first announced that she would be McCain's running mate, I remember asking my mom (a Christian conservative) one day what she thought of Sarah Palin. She smiled at me and said, "I think she's gonna win it for the Republicans!" That kind of blatant disconnect with reality is prevalent around here.

Palin consistently trips up, says dumb things, and contradicts herself, yet when time after time it's pointed out, she spins it to her faithful as the media being unfairly fixated on her. And they buy it. I'm not sure whether the problem is more the Sarah Palins of the world, or the Sarah Palin admirers. And sometimes I wonder if she really is an evil genius---last week, when giving a response to the accusation that her supporters are becoming violent, she replied, "Anyone who uses threats of violence will be in my crosshairs." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/palin-warns-anyone-who-th_b_515764.html Seriously? (this coming shortly after a map on her facebook page marking Democrat senators with actual crosshair icons http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/palin-uses-crosshairs-to-identify-dems-who-voted-for-health-care-reform.php )

She also made the really awesome suggestion that Obama haters, when they see stupid commie douchebags driving around in their fuel-efficient cars with their Obama stickers, to go yell in their faces and start political arguments in the middle of traffic. What a real American! Sarah Palin loves to be divisive; when I watch video of her running through her zingers, you can see the glimmer in her eyes. She was a Mean Girl in school for sure, snarking on freshman thighs and delivering fatal one-liners in her now infamous nasal honk. She lives for getting in front of a crowd and really giving it to those gosh-darn liberals. I'd love to see her actually talking with people who don't support her---you know, fake America, gay people, poor people, anybody who's not white, anybody who's not a Republican, people who don't shoot things, etc. Now that would be good teevee.

I Knew This Was Coming...

The healthcare bill has passed. Teabaggers have screamed, spit has flown, tears have been shed, and although most of the bill's provisions won't go into effect until 2012, there have been some starts and stops already. Last week we learned that the insurance companies found a loophole allowing them not to insure children until the 2012 deadline. I've personally already spoken to people who have never bought insurance who are losing their shit over the mandate (which admittedly does sound scary when you only get your information about it from Fox News). The bill is not perfect, and there could be more problems. I hope it's a step in the right direction in overhauling our healthcare system, which is broken beyond belief.

When I say it's broken, I speak from experience, as someone who not only does not make a lot of money, but who has only had insurance---really, really shitty insurance---for the past few years. I won't go into a long breakdown of how my health has been negatively impacted by the insurance industry, but I am not the only one who believes the system to be in need of serious changes.

But this is the thing, and it may get me some flack. I don't care, I work in fucking retail, I hear that shit all day.

Thanks to Bush II, there have been a lot of wealthy businesses and people who have never paid their fair share of taxes. For those people, taxes will go up. I do not give a shit. Cry about it all you want. There are still others who have long enjoyed the privileges of the good life, Cadillac healthcare plans, great jobs at awesome companies who treat them well. That's all fine and good; there's nothing wrong with succeeding, or working for a company that is good to their employees (that's what we all want).

But if you lose some of your benefits, or suddenly become subject to cutbacks, remember that there are people who were much worse off who will now be able to go to the doctor. Real hardship is losing your job, losing your health coverage, or suffering a catastrophic illness. Having to pay more, or getting less shit for free than you used to, does not count as a real hardship. Yes, it sucks. But if you still have a roof over your head, food on the table, and a steady check in the mail, then that is actually pretty good these days. Also, I would wonder if your boss, or your boss's boss, had any of his benefits cut. Oh that's right, he's still in Acapulco.

It's not that I'm unsympathetic to people's hardships. It's just that here in America, there seems to be this tendency of people who have it really good to start bitching the second there's not a spoon in their mouth. Do you realize there are people who struggle, and often fail, to pay the power bill? Who literally have to scrape together change to buy their medication?

And for the record, my insurance has gotten shittier, my benefits lessened and my payments more. I fault the insurance companies, not the healthcare bill. They are the heartless money-grubbing assholes who fuck up everybody's healthcare, charging high premiums and then denying coverage. Hopefully Obama will not let them get away with more murder between now and 2012.

Lakeland, Florida City Council Meeting 'Hijacked' By Atheists

In what would be the first instance of atheists hijacking anything (it is usually the religious hijacking thinks like planes and trains), a city council meeting in Lakeland, Florida was brought to a halt after atheists 'hijacked' the meeting. That would be awesome if that is what happened.

What seems to have really happened is that the city council didn't like the fact that the Atheists of Florida were protesting the prayer before the city council meeting because it is unconstitutional. Then a member of the audience told (screamed at) the atheists that they had no right to speak. That is when the city council called the police.

Seriously people, stop doing unconstitutional shit during your meetings and this won't be a problem. The atheists were exercising their first amendment rights and were quieted when the council didn't like the results. Instead of allowing public discourse, the hick town council just shut the atheists down.

Discrimination: Absolutely.

Oopsie! Gov. McDonnell Forgets Slavery In 'Confederate History Month' Proclamation

Virginia Governor and noted white man Bob McDonnell (R-as if I needed to tell you) declared April as 'Confederate History Month' in Virginia. How awesome is that? We really should spend an entire month learning about the sacrifices of confederate soldiers during the Civil War. Maybe Mississippi could have a 'Klansman History Month' to recognize the sacrifices of the brave klansmen during the civil rights movement and integration. I could see this spreading to other countries. Germany could have a 'Nazi History Month' to recognize the sacrifices of Nazis during World War II; Uganda could have an 'Idi Amin Month'; Rwanda could have a 'Tutsi-Hutu Massacre Month'; the list goes on and on.

To a larger point, the good governor forgot to mention the institution of slavery during his declaration, you know, because it is easy to forget slavery when we are talking about the Civil War. This guy is such a joke. He came out a few days later and added another statement talking about how slavery was horrible and caused the civil war blah blah blah. If he was concerned about slavery, he would have included it in the first declaration. If he was really fucking concerned about slavery, he wouldn't have had a 'Confederate History Month'.

Just in case you forgot, these guys are pretty happy with the 'Confederate History Month'.

Collateral Murder

It speaks for itself.

The Child Raping Saga Continues

Yet another rapist has been identified in the catholic church. "Father" Joseph Pavanivel Jeyapaul is accused of taking a 16-year old girl into the rectory least he "kill her entire family" where he forced her to perform oral sex.

So this guy comes in and demands a blow job from a 16-year old girl under penalty of death. There is a serious problem when none of this is a surprise. However, this wasn't something that happened 30 years ago. This is from 2004. I want you to take a stab at what the Vatican did. They decided not to try the accused rapist even in their own shitty "court" of god.

Of course, according to the logic of Bill Donahue, this girl wasn't molested by a pedophile since she was post-pubescent at the time of the rape. So that should make it all better.

Soldiers of Christ™

I don't have much to say on these crazy bastards. A Christian Militia in Michigan , the Hutaree, was caught after planning to murder some police officers that would inspire people to start a war. Sounds a lot like the Turner Diaries (which I have read, the whole, mumbling, irritating book).

I don't think these guys needed religion to make them insane. I think they were already there. This is what you get, however, when you have a group of people who feel that they have been ordained by god to bring justice to the world. Then, you have a political party (The GOP) that stokes the fire under these groups to go out and do something to stop the progressives from ruining the country, taking away our guns, and forcing people to have gay sex and abortions.

Well, I am here to tell you, there almost certainly is no god. Never has been, never will be. I am also here to tell you that if you think the GOP or the Tea Party (GOP Toolbaggers) are here to look out for your interests, take a look at the Patriot Act. Then come tell me who is out to get you.

P.S. Where are all of those atheist or progressive militias?

Doctor Tells Obama Voters To Go Away

Right-wingers never cease to amaze me. A urologist in Florida has decided to turn any patients away if they voted for Obama. After all of the bitching about death panels, you have a doctor come out and refuse service to anyone who doesn't agree with his politics? This is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I wonder if there is a way to get this guys license revoked for unethical practices.

Afrikaner White Supremacist Leader Murdered

I can't stand white supremacists. There particular brand of racism is especially disgusting. That being said, I do not condone the murder of anyone. The best way to deal with these people is to marginalize them, not kill them. Eugene Terreblanche was found beating to death at his farm in South Africa. He was the leader of the AWB (Afrikaner Weestandsbeweging), a right-wing white supremacist party that argued for a white homeland in South Africa, when the Apartheid Government was being torn down. It doesn't seem that he was murdered for his views though. Reports say that he was murdered over a wage dispute with one of his farm hands.

While I will not shed a tear over his death, I will never support anyone who murders another person under any circumstances.

Making Beer

I love to make beer. I am currently making a Belgian Tripel Ale. This is what I need to be doing for a living instead of what I am doing now. It is almost therapeutic for me to go through the process of making beer. It smells wonderful while making and tastes great when you're done. Now you know what one of my favorite pass-times is.

This Easter, Religion Makes You F*&king Crazy!

All I have to say is people crucifying themselves in the name of religion. 'Nuff said.

This Easter, be happy if you are an atheist. If you are a believer, get out while your hands are missing holes in them.

Catholic Rapists are Persecuted Like Jews

In a disgusting yet unsurprising move, Rev Raniero Cantalamessa likened the current "persecution" of the Catholic Church to that of the persecution of the Jews. In a time when the Catholic Church is in the limelight for raping children, you would think that they wouldn't want to compare themselves to the Jews. However, the Catholic Church does know a little something about persecuting Jews.

I don't know what it is with these people. First, you have massive sex scandal after massive sex scandal. Then you have a pope who obviously doesn't give a shit about the ordeal, only worried about glossing over the problem and keeping it "in the church". Then you have ass-hats like Bill Donahue saying that it wasn't pedophilia because the children were post-pubescent, as if being 13 instead of being 12 makes you some kind of normal person. Now, the rapers are the victims and the rapees are the perpetrators.

It is simple: Catholic priest fucked children against their will, in the ass and in the mouth. It is gruesome and sickening, but it is the truth. However, I hope that the church continues to keep supporting Pope Palpatine. With every day that they play the victim, another person questions the validity of the church all together.