"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. "From ‘Girls Gone Wild’ to ‘Southern Decadence’, New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. May it never be the same," he continued.
These people are the lowest form of life on the planet. To blame victims for a catastrophe because you do not agree with their lifestyle is beyond contempt. If there is a God I hope he has a special place in Hell reserved for you.
I have to go shower now.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
The Police are Robbing Wal-Mart!
I just watched Countdown with Keith Olbermann and there is video of mass looting in some of the ravaged areas. In one of the local Wal-marts there are dozens of people loading up shopping carts with everything they can get their hands on. But in one of the most surreal things I have ever seen the reporter walks to the shoe aisle where he finds two female cops, COPS, filling a shopping cart with shoes. THEY WERE LOOTING TOO!
Why do people so quickly regress back to their baser instincts when faced with such a crisis? THEY WERE COPS!
Why do people so quickly regress back to their baser instincts when faced with such a crisis? THEY WERE COPS!
The men and women of the National Guard shouldn’t be killing in Iraq.
They should be helping in New Orleans and Biloxi.
Yeah I believe I wrote about this earlier. Nice to see there are others noticing the mis-management of our Armed Forces and Reserves.
Yeah I believe I wrote about this earlier. Nice to see there are others noticing the mis-management of our Armed Forces and Reserves.
Another black ey for Creationism. Chimp and Human DNA is 96% percent identical.
Now what possible purpose would God have to make chimpanzees so genetically similar to humans? Being omniscient didn't he forsee that this would make it harder for people to see themselves as unique? Or is this another of those so called "tests of faith" to see if we will ignore evidence and simply swallow the biblical accounts without any doubt?
Come on, how can anybody still doubt that Evolution offers our best hope of unraveling the mysteries of our origin and the origin of our planet? I find all of thsi exciting! We are slowly peeling back the layers and exposing the inner workings of our reality. Pretty damn cool!
Come on, how can anybody still doubt that Evolution offers our best hope of unraveling the mysteries of our origin and the origin of our planet? I find all of thsi exciting! We are slowly peeling back the layers and exposing the inner workings of our reality. Pretty damn cool!
I cannot watch him on television.
I tried. Something about his delivery made me upset. So I turned him off.I saw him again later in another speech and I sat down to listen.
"I'm confident that with time you'll get your life back in order, new communities will flourish, the great city of New Orleans will get back on its feet and America will be a stronger place for it," he said.
Does this make anybody feel better? It made me angry. I turned him off again.
I saw the videos of the devastation and of the people, wading through waist deep water, waving from rooftops, and looting stores. These people need help. They need order. Where is it?
I heard a rumor that Bush reached out to his father and Bill Clinton to reprise their role of "disaster fund raisers" like they did so successfully for the Tsunami relief fund. That actually made me feel better. Not so much because of the elder Bush, but because of Bill.
Bill Clinton makes me feel that help is on the way. He puts my mind at ease. This president has made too many mistakes. I find myself unconvinced that he can do much of anything. I am pretty sure I am not alone.
Bush finally tells the truth about Iraq war. It is about the oil!
''If Zarqawi and [Osama] bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. ''They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition."
When the oil theory was first put forth by some of my fellow bloggers I will admit that I found myself lacking enough cynicism to believe it. I humbly apologize for doubting those of my peers who saw this fiasco for what it was. It is a hostile corporate takeover. With the emphasis on HOSTILE!
So now while our fellow citizens are trying to stay alive in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, etc., we find ourselves dangerously short of the brave men and women that we rely on in times of desperation, the National Guard. Where are our rescuers? They are trying to stay alive themselves in a foreign land, embroiled in a war for oil! And this, while their families and communities await rescue from National Guard troops from as far away as New York.
If this president had an ounce of shame he would come to the podium with tear streaked eyes and beg America's forgiveness. Then he would send for those brave National Guard troops and get them home as soon as possible. Home where they are needed!
When the oil theory was first put forth by some of my fellow bloggers I will admit that I found myself lacking enough cynicism to believe it. I humbly apologize for doubting those of my peers who saw this fiasco for what it was. It is a hostile corporate takeover. With the emphasis on HOSTILE!
So now while our fellow citizens are trying to stay alive in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, etc., we find ourselves dangerously short of the brave men and women that we rely on in times of desperation, the National Guard. Where are our rescuers? They are trying to stay alive themselves in a foreign land, embroiled in a war for oil! And this, while their families and communities await rescue from National Guard troops from as far away as New York.
If this president had an ounce of shame he would come to the podium with tear streaked eyes and beg America's forgiveness. Then he would send for those brave National Guard troops and get them home as soon as possible. Home where they are needed!
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
English writer says that Americans can't run a fair Election.
This past week, a posse of internet screamers who clearly don't like the idea of an uppity Brit questioning the legitimacy of George W Bush's first election took it upon themselves to denounce me as a "conspiracy journalist", a "left-wing hack" and a bare-faced liar.
The occasion for their fury was a book I've written chronicling, and attempting to explain, the inability of the world's most powerful democracy to conduct fair and transparent elections by any recognisable international standard. It came as no surprise that some people would find the premise of the book troubling, even offensive. My conclusions are hardly tender towards voting machine manufacturers, local and state election officials, or indeed the entire two-party system that underpins US politics.
No shit! It does not take a Rocket Scientist to recognize that something stinks in our election system. With so many terrible things coming out of the Bush administration one cannot stop the anger from rising when they think about the 2000 election and the underhanded techniques the Republicans used to steal it.
It is, or should be, beyond dispute that the Florida election was fought dirtily and that there is at least a case to be made that the wrong man ended up in the Oval Office. Contrary to received wisdom, the problem was not ultimately with deficient voting machines or even the respective merits and demerits of the Republican and Democratic causes. What Florida suggested - and continues to suggest - is that the very foundation of the American democratic system is corrupted and rotten. And that's a reality many Americans may not yet be ready to confront.
Why do we not talk about this anymore? Are we afraid to be labeled "poor losers" or "conspiracy theorists"? You know I am less concerned with what the other side wants to label me then I am in making sure these things never happen again!
Why would the Republicans abandon the immoral and illegal methods that worked for them in the past two elections? There has never been one person prosecuted or any real negative ramifications for this despicable behavior. If the Democrats don't locate their nut sack and start demanding answers to the hard questions then they might as well just stop running for office in this country.
Corruption does not end until it is exposed to the light. I have my spotlight charged up, how about you?
The occasion for their fury was a book I've written chronicling, and attempting to explain, the inability of the world's most powerful democracy to conduct fair and transparent elections by any recognisable international standard. It came as no surprise that some people would find the premise of the book troubling, even offensive. My conclusions are hardly tender towards voting machine manufacturers, local and state election officials, or indeed the entire two-party system that underpins US politics.
No shit! It does not take a Rocket Scientist to recognize that something stinks in our election system. With so many terrible things coming out of the Bush administration one cannot stop the anger from rising when they think about the 2000 election and the underhanded techniques the Republicans used to steal it.
It is, or should be, beyond dispute that the Florida election was fought dirtily and that there is at least a case to be made that the wrong man ended up in the Oval Office. Contrary to received wisdom, the problem was not ultimately with deficient voting machines or even the respective merits and demerits of the Republican and Democratic causes. What Florida suggested - and continues to suggest - is that the very foundation of the American democratic system is corrupted and rotten. And that's a reality many Americans may not yet be ready to confront.
Why do we not talk about this anymore? Are we afraid to be labeled "poor losers" or "conspiracy theorists"? You know I am less concerned with what the other side wants to label me then I am in making sure these things never happen again!
Why would the Republicans abandon the immoral and illegal methods that worked for them in the past two elections? There has never been one person prosecuted or any real negative ramifications for this despicable behavior. If the Democrats don't locate their nut sack and start demanding answers to the hard questions then they might as well just stop running for office in this country.
Corruption does not end until it is exposed to the light. I have my spotlight charged up, how about you?
Democrats need to call for Iraq War withdrawal.
Democrats need to stop pusyfooting around. The majority of Americans now know that this war is illegal and that the justification for it was false. We need a strong leader to come forward and call the administration out on these issues. I know that the American people are receptive to this and Cindy Sheehan is demonstrating that everyday.
There are some political voices out there.
Not all Democrats are so clueless. In an opinion article on Wednesday in The Washington Post, former Sen. Gary Hart, D-Col., wrote that "history will deal with George W. Bush and the neoconservatives who misled a mighty nation into a flawed war that is draining the finest military in the world ... diverting Guard and reserve forces that should be on the front line of homeland defense, shredding international alliances that prevailed in two world wars and the Cold war ... and weakening America's national security."But he is also tough on his own party and asks: "What will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all this goes on?"
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis. is proposing a total pullout of American troops by Dec. 31, 2006. Why wait a year?
This is a pitiful start. Where are our Democratic leaders? Quit worrying about becoming the next president and focus instead on being today's leaders. We need you.
There are some political voices out there.
Not all Democrats are so clueless. In an opinion article on Wednesday in The Washington Post, former Sen. Gary Hart, D-Col., wrote that "history will deal with George W. Bush and the neoconservatives who misled a mighty nation into a flawed war that is draining the finest military in the world ... diverting Guard and reserve forces that should be on the front line of homeland defense, shredding international alliances that prevailed in two world wars and the Cold war ... and weakening America's national security."But he is also tough on his own party and asks: "What will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all this goes on?"
Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis. is proposing a total pullout of American troops by Dec. 31, 2006. Why wait a year?
This is a pitiful start. Where are our Democratic leaders? Quit worrying about becoming the next president and focus instead on being today's leaders. We need you.
Affluent War Supporters keep their own kids away from recruiters.
But it appears that the affluent are not encouraging their children and peers to join the war effort on the battlefield.
The writer of the Post-Gazette article, Jack Kelly, explored this question in his story that ran on Aug. 11. Kelly wrote of a Marine recruiter, Staff Sgt. Jason Rivera, who went to an affluent suburb outside of Pittsburgh to follow up with a young man who had expressed interest in enlisting. He pulled up to a house with American flags displayed in the yard. The mother came to the door in an American flag T-shirt and openly declared her support for the troops.
But she made it clear that her support only went so far.
"Military service isn't for our son," she told Rivera. "It isn't for our kind of people."
Which kind of people is it for? Which segment of our communities should be thrown into the Iraq meat grinder? Hispanics? Blacks? Poor southern whites? The uneducated?
I hate hypocrites!
The writer of the Post-Gazette article, Jack Kelly, explored this question in his story that ran on Aug. 11. Kelly wrote of a Marine recruiter, Staff Sgt. Jason Rivera, who went to an affluent suburb outside of Pittsburgh to follow up with a young man who had expressed interest in enlisting. He pulled up to a house with American flags displayed in the yard. The mother came to the door in an American flag T-shirt and openly declared her support for the troops.
But she made it clear that her support only went so far.
"Military service isn't for our son," she told Rivera. "It isn't for our kind of people."
Which kind of people is it for? Which segment of our communities should be thrown into the Iraq meat grinder? Hispanics? Blacks? Poor southern whites? The uneducated?
I hate hypocrites!
Katrina devastates the south.
I cannot stop watching. The devastation is almost too much to comprehend. I feel so bad for the people who are being left homeless and without food and power.
I will be scraping together some funds and sending them to relief agencies today. I have to do something.
I am so happy my daughter is here and not back in Georgia.
I will be scraping together some funds and sending them to relief agencies today. I have to do something.
I am so happy my daughter is here and not back in Georgia.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Oh now this hurts! There is an Anti-Liberal Comic Book aimed at young Conservatives.
Now in the interest of fairness I should let you know that I was a rabid Comic Book Collector during my teen years. I still enjoy going to see the various Comic Book inspired movies that are being made today. So in some ways this seems like a low blow.
Apparently this is in answer to Marvel Comics liberal bent. This is the same Marvel, then called Timely Comics, that wrote anti-Hitler and pro American comics even before the United States entered World War 2.
The funniest part is who they chose to be the heroes. G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, and Sean Hannity. Fucking Sean Hannity! What kind of lame ass superhero would Sean Hannity make? What would be his power? The ability to stick to republican talking points no matter what evidence to the contrary is presented on his show? I envision that he opens his mouth and barrels of bullshit flow out suffocating his nemesis. You know I will probably buy one just so I can have proof that the Right Wing has no shame.
If you want to see a sample go to this link. http://accstudios.com/
Apparently this is in answer to Marvel Comics liberal bent. This is the same Marvel, then called Timely Comics, that wrote anti-Hitler and pro American comics even before the United States entered World War 2.
The funniest part is who they chose to be the heroes. G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, and Sean Hannity. Fucking Sean Hannity! What kind of lame ass superhero would Sean Hannity make? What would be his power? The ability to stick to republican talking points no matter what evidence to the contrary is presented on his show? I envision that he opens his mouth and barrels of bullshit flow out suffocating his nemesis. You know I will probably buy one just so I can have proof that the Right Wing has no shame.
If you want to see a sample go to this link. http://accstudios.com/
Liberals are Moral, Conservatives are Materialistic. Well great, now I have to change the name of my Blog!
The unbridgeable divide between the left and rightÂ’s approach to Iraq and the WoT is, among other things, a disagreement over the value of moral and material strength, with the left placing a premium on the former and the right on the latter. The right (broadly speaking) canÂ’t fathom why the left is driven into fits of rage over every Abu Ghraib, every Gitmo, every secret rendition, every breach of civil liberties, every shifting rationale for war, every soldier and civilian killed in that war, every Bush platitude in support of it, every attempt to squelch dissent. They see the left's protestations as appeasement of a ruthless enemy. For the left (broadly speaking), AmericaÂ’s moral strength is of paramount importance; without it, all the brute force in the world wonÂ’t keep us safe, defeat our enemies, and preserve our role as the worldÂ’s moral leader.....
War hawks squeal about America-haters and traitors, heaping scorn on the so-called “blame America first" crowd, but they fail to comprehend that the left reserves the deepest disdain for those who squander our moral authority. The scars of a terrorist attack heal and we are sadder but stronger for having lived through it. When our moral leadership is compromised by people draped in the American flag, America is weakened. The loss of our moral compass leaves us rudderless, open to attacks on our character and our basic decency. And nothing makes our enemies prouder. They can't kill us all, but if they permanently stain our dignity, they've done irreparable harm to America.
Could this really be what our many differences boil down to? I am often flabbergasted by the things that the right says about the war, Iraq, Saddam, and a host of other things. There have been times when I questioned my own view thinking perhaps I missed something. But if this article is true then the chasmseparateserates me from the Right is too wide and too deep for there ever to be a compromise. Now my question is how do the majority of Americans feel about these subjects?
War hawks squeal about America-haters and traitors, heaping scorn on the so-called “blame America first" crowd, but they fail to comprehend that the left reserves the deepest disdain for those who squander our moral authority. The scars of a terrorist attack heal and we are sadder but stronger for having lived through it. When our moral leadership is compromised by people draped in the American flag, America is weakened. The loss of our moral compass leaves us rudderless, open to attacks on our character and our basic decency. And nothing makes our enemies prouder. They can't kill us all, but if they permanently stain our dignity, they've done irreparable harm to America.
Could this really be what our many differences boil down to? I am often flabbergasted by the things that the right says about the war, Iraq, Saddam, and a host of other things. There have been times when I questioned my own view thinking perhaps I missed something. But if this article is true then the chasmseparateserates me from the Right is too wide and too deep for there ever to be a compromise. Now my question is how do the majority of Americans feel about these subjects?
Pat Buchanan calls for Bush's Impeachment! Yeah I was confused too!
I don't really know what to say you are going to have to read it for yourself.
Dick and Jane learn Intelligent Design.
In the beginning, there was Intelligent Design. And Intelligent Design said, Let there be Dick. And there was Dick. And darkness was upon the face of Dick. So Intelligent Design said, "Let there be Jane." And Jane said, "Come, Dick, come! Let us be fruitful and multiply! Multiply, Dick, multiply!"
"Yes, Jane," said Dick. "But first, you must bring me a beer." And Intelligent Design said it was good.
My kids received, from their grandfather who is a minister, a similar book which was written for children and featured pictures of children riding dinosaurs and gave a simplistic rendition of the Creationist view that Dinosaurs were saved on Noah's Ark just like all of the other animals. Fortunately my kids were suspicious of this story and I don't believe ever took it seriously.
"Yes, Jane," said Dick. "But first, you must bring me a beer." And Intelligent Design said it was good.
My kids received, from their grandfather who is a minister, a similar book which was written for children and featured pictures of children riding dinosaurs and gave a simplistic rendition of the Creationist view that Dinosaurs were saved on Noah's Ark just like all of the other animals. Fortunately my kids were suspicious of this story and I don't believe ever took it seriously.
It looks like we are training the wrong Iraqi's
Rebels fight U.S. to Iraq standoff
Insurgents in Al- Anbar province, the center of guerrilla resistance in Iraq, have fought the U.S. military to a stalemate.
After repeated major combat offensives in Al-Fallujah and Ar-Ramadi, and after losing hundreds of soldiers and Marines in Al-Anbar during the past two years -- including 75 since June 1 -- many American officers and enlisted men assigned to Al-Anbar have stopped talking about winning a military victory in Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland.
It seems to me that "Murphy's law" reigns supreme in Iraq. We continue to underestimate the enemy and we shoot ourselves in the foot over and over again. This administration bears sole blame for this fiasco and they sure as hell better not try to blame the military, the media, or the Ameican people.
Insurgents in Al- Anbar province, the center of guerrilla resistance in Iraq, have fought the U.S. military to a stalemate.
After repeated major combat offensives in Al-Fallujah and Ar-Ramadi, and after losing hundreds of soldiers and Marines in Al-Anbar during the past two years -- including 75 since June 1 -- many American officers and enlisted men assigned to Al-Anbar have stopped talking about winning a military victory in Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland.
It seems to me that "Murphy's law" reigns supreme in Iraq. We continue to underestimate the enemy and we shoot ourselves in the foot over and over again. This administration bears sole blame for this fiasco and they sure as hell better not try to blame the military, the media, or the Ameican people.
Army Doc: "Bring us home!"
I don't rightly know what your US news is saying, but here are a few of my own observations... The US Army is putting forth its main effort to train Iraqi soldiers... It will realistically take years before their Army and police are sufficient to protect the people and resist internal corruption. The reports that the commands are making to the higher-ups are biased and sugar-coated. The corruption is underplayed and the achievements/milestones exaggerated. The results however, may convince Congress and that a successful pull-out is close.
At this point I'd appreciate [it]. I've done my part. I've personally come to the law-of-diminishing-returns. The remaining process will be slow and arduous. Increasing financial expenditures and man-hours are going to be needed to sustain any significant growth.
It's similar to building a house. From the initial ground-breaking to foundation and framing, things seem to go remarkably fast, giving the home owners an unrealistic sense of impending move-in. Then the minor details like outlets, appliances, trim work, and cabinetry begin and little progress is noted after long periods. The tenants-to-be get anxious. The same is taking place here. The American public will not be able to consciously measure our productivity even with the best of media reporting.
Besides, I think the military is the wrong force at this point. We deal effectively with the combat training, but this corruption is a new species. We need Americans more attune to the nuisances of internal governmental fraud...people more like our own lawmakers. Soldiers need to focus on combat, not mafia arbitration.
I witnessed a company commander a few months ago try to expose and bring to justice the perpetrators of an intricately weaved plot of electricity theft. The King-Pin of the scheme was none other than the chairman of the city council. That went over well...
If it moves shoot it. If it doesn't move, shoot it anyway, and leave the rest to the State Department. Bring us home.
Kind of a different opinion then the one that the Administration and the MSM keeps proffering isn't it? Gee I wonder who is lying?
At this point I'd appreciate [it]. I've done my part. I've personally come to the law-of-diminishing-returns. The remaining process will be slow and arduous. Increasing financial expenditures and man-hours are going to be needed to sustain any significant growth.
It's similar to building a house. From the initial ground-breaking to foundation and framing, things seem to go remarkably fast, giving the home owners an unrealistic sense of impending move-in. Then the minor details like outlets, appliances, trim work, and cabinetry begin and little progress is noted after long periods. The tenants-to-be get anxious. The same is taking place here. The American public will not be able to consciously measure our productivity even with the best of media reporting.
Besides, I think the military is the wrong force at this point. We deal effectively with the combat training, but this corruption is a new species. We need Americans more attune to the nuisances of internal governmental fraud...people more like our own lawmakers. Soldiers need to focus on combat, not mafia arbitration.
I witnessed a company commander a few months ago try to expose and bring to justice the perpetrators of an intricately weaved plot of electricity theft. The King-Pin of the scheme was none other than the chairman of the city council. That went over well...
If it moves shoot it. If it doesn't move, shoot it anyway, and leave the rest to the State Department. Bring us home.
Kind of a different opinion then the one that the Administration and the MSM keeps proffering isn't it? Gee I wonder who is lying?
Louisiana National Guard, stationed in Iraq, watch helplessly as Katrina destroys their homes!
Our arrogant King George leaves our nation unprotected as he sends our protectors to fight, and die, in an illegal war thousands of miles away.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Some Christians not content with having the President in their back pocket decide to create their own damn country.
"I want to migrate and claim the gold of the Lord," said the 38-year-old oil company executive from Pennsylvania. "I want to replicate the statutes and the mores and the scriptures that the God of the Old Testament espoused to the world."
DiMartino, who drove here recently to look for a new home, is a member of Christian Exodus, a movement of politically active believers who hope to establish a government based upon Christian principles.
Christian Exodus activists plan to take control of sheriff's offices, city councils and school boards.
Eventually, they say, they will control South Carolina. They will pass godly legislation, defying Supreme Court rulings on the separation of church and state."We're going to force a constitutional crisis," said Cory Burnell, 29, an investment advisor who founded the group in November 2003."
If necessary," he said, "we will secede from the union."
Sounds like a good deal to me. You go make your own little Jesusland and leave my country alone. We will continue to welcome all people regardless of their religious beliefs and make sure the government does not trample on anyboys civil rights.
We are not going to let you fruitcakes have any nuclear weapons either. Thats not safe in the hands of religious zealots.
DiMartino, who drove here recently to look for a new home, is a member of Christian Exodus, a movement of politically active believers who hope to establish a government based upon Christian principles.
Christian Exodus activists plan to take control of sheriff's offices, city councils and school boards.
Eventually, they say, they will control South Carolina. They will pass godly legislation, defying Supreme Court rulings on the separation of church and state."We're going to force a constitutional crisis," said Cory Burnell, 29, an investment advisor who founded the group in November 2003."
If necessary," he said, "we will secede from the union."
Sounds like a good deal to me. You go make your own little Jesusland and leave my country alone. We will continue to welcome all people regardless of their religious beliefs and make sure the government does not trample on anyboys civil rights.
We are not going to let you fruitcakes have any nuclear weapons either. Thats not safe in the hands of religious zealots.
Is Intelligent Design a legitimate scientific theory?
HELL NO! I doubt that anybody who visits this site regularly or semi-regularly would ever doubt my answer to the above query. Read below for the more scientific response.
Is "intelligent design" a legitimate school of scientific thought? Is there something to it, or have these people been taken in by one of the most ingenious hoaxes in the history of science? Wouldn't such a hoax be impossible? No. Here's how it has been done.
One of the arguments that I have heard numerous times is this. "Isn't the perfection of the world concrete evidence of a flawless design?" Well no. Plus the world and the creatures on it are far from "perfect".
Brilliant as the design of the eye is, it betrays its origin with a tell-tale flaw: the retina is inside out. The nerve fibers that carry the signals from the eye's rods and cones (which sense light and color) lie on top of them, and have to plunge through a large hole in the retina to get to the brain, creating the blind spot. No intelligent designer would put such a clumsy arrangement in a camcorder, and this is just one of hundreds of accidents frozen in evolutionary history that confirm the mindlessness of the historical process.
Is there any compelling evidence offered by proponents of Intelligent design?
Indeed, no intelligent design hypothesis has even been ventured as a rival explanation of any biological phenomenon. This might seem surprising to people who think that intelligent design competes directly with the hypothesis of non-intelligent design by natural selection. But saying, as intelligent design proponents do, "You haven't explained everything yet," is not a competing hypothesis. Evolutionary biology certainly hasn't explained everything that perplexes biologists. But intelligent design hasn't yet tried to explain anything.
To formulate a competing hypothesis, you have to get down in the trenches and offer details that have testable implications. So far, intelligent design proponents have conveniently sidestepped that requirement, claiming that they have no specifics in mind about who or what the intelligent designer might be.
Is "intelligent design" a legitimate school of scientific thought? Is there something to it, or have these people been taken in by one of the most ingenious hoaxes in the history of science? Wouldn't such a hoax be impossible? No. Here's how it has been done.
One of the arguments that I have heard numerous times is this. "Isn't the perfection of the world concrete evidence of a flawless design?" Well no. Plus the world and the creatures on it are far from "perfect".
Brilliant as the design of the eye is, it betrays its origin with a tell-tale flaw: the retina is inside out. The nerve fibers that carry the signals from the eye's rods and cones (which sense light and color) lie on top of them, and have to plunge through a large hole in the retina to get to the brain, creating the blind spot. No intelligent designer would put such a clumsy arrangement in a camcorder, and this is just one of hundreds of accidents frozen in evolutionary history that confirm the mindlessness of the historical process.
Is there any compelling evidence offered by proponents of Intelligent design?
Indeed, no intelligent design hypothesis has even been ventured as a rival explanation of any biological phenomenon. This might seem surprising to people who think that intelligent design competes directly with the hypothesis of non-intelligent design by natural selection. But saying, as intelligent design proponents do, "You haven't explained everything yet," is not a competing hypothesis. Evolutionary biology certainly hasn't explained everything that perplexes biologists. But intelligent design hasn't yet tried to explain anything.
To formulate a competing hypothesis, you have to get down in the trenches and offer details that have testable implications. So far, intelligent design proponents have conveniently sidestepped that requirement, claiming that they have no specifics in mind about who or what the intelligent designer might be.
Just in case you did not know he was crazy, Pat Robertson wrote a book to prove it!
It's time someone told you the truth. There is an Invisible Cord that can be traced from the European bankers who ordered the assassination of President Lincoln, to Karl Marx, to the British bankers who funded the Soviet KGB. They are members of the 'tightly knit cabal whose goal is nothing less than a new order for the human race under the domination of Lucifer'.
This, this is who the president looks to for advice? Clearly the inmates are firmly in charge of the mental ward.
He said: 'You're supposed to be nice to Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Methodists ... Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.'
Damn! That sneaky little devil is just everywhere!
You know that God talks to Pat Robertson all of the time. You know I have met a few other people who claim to talk to God as well. We simply adjusted their medication, and it stopped!
This, this is who the president looks to for advice? Clearly the inmates are firmly in charge of the mental ward.
He said: 'You're supposed to be nice to Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Methodists ... Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.'
Damn! That sneaky little devil is just everywhere!
You know that God talks to Pat Robertson all of the time. You know I have met a few other people who claim to talk to God as well. We simply adjusted their medication, and it stopped!
If you Support this War, then your Kids should go!
It is like the old proverb about the chicken, the pig, and your bacon and egg breakfast.
The chicken is involved in making your breakfast.
But the pig...the pig is committed to making your breakfast!
The chicken is involved in making your breakfast.
But the pig...the pig is committed to making your breakfast!
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Christian Schools sue University to gain admittance for their under educated students.
This...is....rediculous.
Under a policy implemented with little fanfare a year ago, UC admissions authorities have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution, the suit says.
Other courses rejected by UC officials include "Christianity's Influence in American History," "Christianity and Morality in American Literature" and "Special Providence: American Government."The 10-campus UC system requires applicants to complete a variety of courses, including science, mathematics, history, literature and the arts.
But in letters to Calvary Chapel, university officials said some of the school's Christian-oriented courses were too narrow to be acceptable.According to the lawsuit, UC's board of admissions also advised the school that it would not approve biology and science courses that relied primarily on textbooks published by Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books, two Christian publishers.
Instead, the board instructed the schools to "submit for UC approval a secular science curriculum with a text and course outline that addresses course content/knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community."
"It appears that the UC system is attempting to secularize Christian schools and prevent them from teaching from a world Christian view," said Patrick H. Tyler, a lawyer with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which is assisting the plaintiffs.
Okay now correct me if I am wrong but don't Universities have the right to require a certain educational base from incoming students? There are many Universities that favor students that have plenty of extra curricular activities, or favor those students that have taken a foreign language, or are good at certain sports, so why can they not require that their Freshmen have some basic science courses under their belt before being accepted?
If the little darlings want to continue learning fables instead of science let them go to Bob Jones University or Jerry Falwells crappy school.
Under a policy implemented with little fanfare a year ago, UC admissions authorities have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution, the suit says.
Other courses rejected by UC officials include "Christianity's Influence in American History," "Christianity and Morality in American Literature" and "Special Providence: American Government."The 10-campus UC system requires applicants to complete a variety of courses, including science, mathematics, history, literature and the arts.
But in letters to Calvary Chapel, university officials said some of the school's Christian-oriented courses were too narrow to be acceptable.According to the lawsuit, UC's board of admissions also advised the school that it would not approve biology and science courses that relied primarily on textbooks published by Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books, two Christian publishers.
Instead, the board instructed the schools to "submit for UC approval a secular science curriculum with a text and course outline that addresses course content/knowledge generally accepted in the scientific community."
"It appears that the UC system is attempting to secularize Christian schools and prevent them from teaching from a world Christian view," said Patrick H. Tyler, a lawyer with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which is assisting the plaintiffs.
Okay now correct me if I am wrong but don't Universities have the right to require a certain educational base from incoming students? There are many Universities that favor students that have plenty of extra curricular activities, or favor those students that have taken a foreign language, or are good at certain sports, so why can they not require that their Freshmen have some basic science courses under their belt before being accepted?
If the little darlings want to continue learning fables instead of science let them go to Bob Jones University or Jerry Falwells crappy school.
Creationists Claim Dinosaurs as their Own.
You know this just makes my head hurt.
"We're putting evolutionists on notice: We're taking the dinosaurs back," said Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, a Christian group building a $25-million creationist museum in Petersburg, Ky., that's already overrun with model sauropods and velociraptors.
Okay let's imagine that there were dinosaurs living when Adam and Eve were pissing God off. Don't you think something as terrifying and monstrous as the Dinosaurs would have huge sections of the Bible dedicated to them? I mean they are a little hard to ignore. And don't give me that bullshit about Dragons as representative of Dinosaurs either. There are only 14 references to Dragons in the bible and they do not have much in common with the Dinosaurs that science has discovered.
The nation's top paleontologists find the creation theory preposterous and say children are being misled by dinosaur exhibits that take the Jurassic out of "Jurassic Park."
"Dinosaurs lived in the Garden of Eden, and Noah's Ark? Give me a break," said Kevin Padian, curator at the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley and president of National Center for Science Education, an Oakland group that supports teaching evolution. "For them, 'The Flintstones' is a documentary."
"We're putting evolutionists on notice: We're taking the dinosaurs back," said Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, a Christian group building a $25-million creationist museum in Petersburg, Ky., that's already overrun with model sauropods and velociraptors.
Okay let's imagine that there were dinosaurs living when Adam and Eve were pissing God off. Don't you think something as terrifying and monstrous as the Dinosaurs would have huge sections of the Bible dedicated to them? I mean they are a little hard to ignore. And don't give me that bullshit about Dragons as representative of Dinosaurs either. There are only 14 references to Dragons in the bible and they do not have much in common with the Dinosaurs that science has discovered.
The nation's top paleontologists find the creation theory preposterous and say children are being misled by dinosaur exhibits that take the Jurassic out of "Jurassic Park."
"Dinosaurs lived in the Garden of Eden, and Noah's Ark? Give me a break," said Kevin Padian, curator at the University of California Museum of Paleontology in Berkeley and president of National Center for Science Education, an Oakland group that supports teaching evolution. "For them, 'The Flintstones' is a documentary."
John Bolton doing the fine job we all knew he would.
Methinks King George may want to occasionally listen to what comes out of those lips that are not firmly attached to his bike hardened ass. There is a reason that Congress did not want to let Bolton through. He is an idiot!
But it was revealed this week that Mr Bush's new ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, was seeking 750 changes to the 36-page draft plan to be presented to a special summit in New York on September 14 to 16. Mr Bolton's amendments, if successful, would leave the plan in tatters.
A source close to the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan said it was too early to declare the UN plan dead. "Bolton wants to knock down the plan and start from scratch," the source said. "He will find that his opinions are not shared by most of the rest of the world."
Arrogant prick! Jesus how in the world is this organization ever going to get their act together if you have this jackass pissing in the punchbowl all of the time?
This is not U.N. reform, this is obstructionism!
But it was revealed this week that Mr Bush's new ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, was seeking 750 changes to the 36-page draft plan to be presented to a special summit in New York on September 14 to 16. Mr Bolton's amendments, if successful, would leave the plan in tatters.
A source close to the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan said it was too early to declare the UN plan dead. "Bolton wants to knock down the plan and start from scratch," the source said. "He will find that his opinions are not shared by most of the rest of the world."
Arrogant prick! Jesus how in the world is this organization ever going to get their act together if you have this jackass pissing in the punchbowl all of the time?
This is not U.N. reform, this is obstructionism!
Maureen Dowd, "Bush has Jumped the Couch".
According to UrbanDictionary.com, "jump the couch" has now become slang for "a defining moment when you know someone has gone off the deep end. Inspired by Tom Cruise's recent behavior on 'Oprah.' Also see 'jump the shark.' "
This is so my new phrase now!
This is so my new phrase now!
Evolution and the Dumbing down of Darwin.
This author, Michael Winship, does an admirable josb of presenting the reasons that we find Darwinian theory under constant attack.
Evolution: we know. As reported in Monday's New York Times, "So much evidence has been provided by evolutionary studies that biologists are able to explain even the most complex natural phenomena and to fill in whatever blanks remain with solid theories.
"This is possible, in large part, because evolution leaves tracks like the offal remains of early animals or the chemical footprints in DNA that have been revealed by genetic research... Darwin's theory... has over the last century yielded so many solid findings that no mainstream biologist today doubts its basic tenets, though they may argue about particulars."
This is, obviously, one of the issues that hits me closest to home. There are people in my own family who do not understand why I am not open to allowing alternate theories to be taught in a science classroom. My response is "I am!" This always confuses them, until I add "But it must be a theory backed by evidence not by wishful thinking". Science is where you discover evidence and try to find out what it means. Intelligent Design/Creationsim is about not knowing the answer and then filling in the blank with faith. Evolution and ID are light years apart and should remain that way.
Evolution: we know. As reported in Monday's New York Times, "So much evidence has been provided by evolutionary studies that biologists are able to explain even the most complex natural phenomena and to fill in whatever blanks remain with solid theories.
"This is possible, in large part, because evolution leaves tracks like the offal remains of early animals or the chemical footprints in DNA that have been revealed by genetic research... Darwin's theory... has over the last century yielded so many solid findings that no mainstream biologist today doubts its basic tenets, though they may argue about particulars."
This is, obviously, one of the issues that hits me closest to home. There are people in my own family who do not understand why I am not open to allowing alternate theories to be taught in a science classroom. My response is "I am!" This always confuses them, until I add "But it must be a theory backed by evidence not by wishful thinking". Science is where you discover evidence and try to find out what it means. Intelligent Design/Creationsim is about not knowing the answer and then filling in the blank with faith. Evolution and ID are light years apart and should remain that way.
Nearly 1,000 released from Abu Ghraib.
WTF? Were they guilty? Then why are they out? Were they innocent? Then why did we jail and torture them? Are we idiots?
Okay here is a news flash for this administration. Regardless of how many of these prisoners were terrorists, or had ties to terrorism, you have released just under a thousand of the best recruits a terrorist organization could ever hope to find. These guys have got to be unbelievably motivated to provide some payback to our government.
I swear the next time I see some Republican apologist come on television and tell us we can not second guess our military leaders on the ground I am going to throw my coffee table right through the screen. Children could wage a amore effective war then these idiots. I swear that they are trying to fuck this whole thing up.
Okay here is a news flash for this administration. Regardless of how many of these prisoners were terrorists, or had ties to terrorism, you have released just under a thousand of the best recruits a terrorist organization could ever hope to find. These guys have got to be unbelievably motivated to provide some payback to our government.
I swear the next time I see some Republican apologist come on television and tell us we can not second guess our military leaders on the ground I am going to throw my coffee table right through the screen. Children could wage a amore effective war then these idiots. I swear that they are trying to fuck this whole thing up.
Cindy Sheehan and the Peaceful Occupation of Crawford.
I saw Cindy on with Bill Maher last night and she did a great job. She stayed on message and fielded Bill's questions like a pro. I could not help but feel that Cindy took a page out of the George Bush playbook by repeating the same message over and over. It would be funny if the method that he's used all this time to sell Americans his pack of lies was used to bring those same Americans the unvarnished truth. You go Cindy!
Friday, August 26, 2005
Homosexuals rejoice! Focus on the Family is working to ungay you!
At the Love Won Out conference, you'll hear from nationally known experts who have firsthand experience with the seldom-told side of the homosexual issue. YouÂ’ll learn how to minister to a loved one whoÂ’s dealing with homosexuality, respond to misinformation in our culture, defend biblical beliefs and prevent your child from embracing this destructive way of life.
What kind of "first hand knowledge" do these experts have? Could they be born again fags? And is the misinformation that they refer to, be the belief that homosexuals are contributing members of society and that they should not be defined by their sexuality? Is the focus of "Focus on the Family" the desire to force these confused individuals to repress their desires and fit into the uncomfortable mold that their parents and church members deem is acceptable?
I have met many well adjusted, and some not so well adjusted, gay people and I have to say that universally the biggest problem they face is feeling comfortable about their sexuality in front of family and friends. Once they jump that hurdle their lives are just as wonderful/miserable as any other human on the planet.
What kind of "first hand knowledge" do these experts have? Could they be born again fags? And is the misinformation that they refer to, be the belief that homosexuals are contributing members of society and that they should not be defined by their sexuality? Is the focus of "Focus on the Family" the desire to force these confused individuals to repress their desires and fit into the uncomfortable mold that their parents and church members deem is acceptable?
I have met many well adjusted, and some not so well adjusted, gay people and I have to say that universally the biggest problem they face is feeling comfortable about their sexuality in front of family and friends. Once they jump that hurdle their lives are just as wonderful/miserable as any other human on the planet.
For George Bush this person may be "scarier then Sheehan"!
With Cindy Sheehan gone home to take care of her stroke-stricken mom, President Bush can enjoy the last week of his Texas vacation free of the distraction of her encampment outside his ranch. But a grieving liberal mom whose son died in Iraq demanding an audience may not be Bush’s biggest problem.
His biggest problem may be my mom.
My mother is a lifelong Republican. She got it from her father, a yellow-dog Republican if ever there was one. As unofficial GOP godfather of Fillmore, Calif., he collected absentee ballots every election for his large family and marked them himself. No sense in taking chances that someone might vote for a Democrat.
So when my mother called me the other day and told me she was considering registering as a Democrat, I was, well, stunned. Somewhere in a cemetery plot near Fillmore a body is spinning.
Wow! Now what is making this life long Republican consider this drastic change?
Then she mentioned Cindy Sheehan.
This is what is known as a ground swell. It is not going to be redirected by some slimy smear tactics or by finding a sympathetic mother to hold up to ward off Cindy. This thing is going to grow and grow until it gets big enough to rampage over the Bush administration like Godzilla grinding Tokyo underneath his giant webbed feet.
His biggest problem may be my mom.
My mother is a lifelong Republican. She got it from her father, a yellow-dog Republican if ever there was one. As unofficial GOP godfather of Fillmore, Calif., he collected absentee ballots every election for his large family and marked them himself. No sense in taking chances that someone might vote for a Democrat.
So when my mother called me the other day and told me she was considering registering as a Democrat, I was, well, stunned. Somewhere in a cemetery plot near Fillmore a body is spinning.
Wow! Now what is making this life long Republican consider this drastic change?
Then she mentioned Cindy Sheehan.
This is what is known as a ground swell. It is not going to be redirected by some slimy smear tactics or by finding a sympathetic mother to hold up to ward off Cindy. This thing is going to grow and grow until it gets big enough to rampage over the Bush administration like Godzilla grinding Tokyo underneath his giant webbed feet.
Alabama man does nothing to put to rest the debate over Fundamentalists lacking intelligence.
Alex Cassity of Midway is a God-fearing man, so when he saw strange lights in the sky over his home Thursday his first thought was it was the second-coming.
Cassity’s second thought was that it might be a military test. “It was really something,” he said. “but my first thought was, the Lord’s coming,” he laughed.
Yeah I know. I am mean. But come on how could I not take a shot at this guy. These dumb asses are precisely why we have Bush as our president and we allowed ourselves to get involved in Iraq.
Cassity’s second thought was that it might be a military test. “It was really something,” he said. “but my first thought was, the Lord’s coming,” he laughed.
Yeah I know. I am mean. But come on how could I not take a shot at this guy. These dumb asses are precisely why we have Bush as our president and we allowed ourselves to get involved in Iraq.
We Brought Iraq the Freedom to Have a Civil War. Pats on the back all around.
When this thing blows it is going to blow big!
Military is Imbedding Recruiters into our Nations High Schools.
To make sure they are the first folks to contact students about their future plans, Army recruiters are ordered to approach tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders--repeatedly. Army officials spell out the rules of engagement: Recruiters are told to dig in deep at their assigned high schools, to offer their services as assistant football coaches--or basketball coaches or track coaches or wrestling coaches or baseball coaches (interestingly, not softball coaches or volleyball coaches)--to "offer to be a chaperon [sic] or escort for homecoming activities and coronations" (though not thespian ones), to "Deliver donuts and coffee for the faculty once a month," to participate visibly in Hispanic Heritage and Black History Month activities, to "get involved with local Boy Scout troops" (Girl Scouts aren't mentioned), to "offer to be a timekeeper at football games," to "serve as test proctors," to "eat lunch in the school cafeteria several times each month" and to "always remember secretary's week with a card or flowers." They should befriend student leaders and school staff: "Know your student influencers," they are told. "Identify these individuals and develop them as COIs" (centers of influence). After all, "some influential students such as the student president or the captain of the football team may not enlist; however, they can and will provide you with referrals who will enlist." Cast a wide net, recruiters are told. Go for the Jocks, but don't ignore the Brains. "Encourage college-capable individuals to defer their college until they have served in the Army."
To me this smacks of desperation! I am immensley troubled by this aggressive and subversive recruiting method! It seems to me that if you are finding it this hard to fill our military ranks it is because the military are being asked to do a job that most of the country does not agree with. I would feel comfortable predicting tht once we pull our troops out of Iraq that we will see the recruitment goals being met much more easily.
To me this smacks of desperation! I am immensley troubled by this aggressive and subversive recruiting method! It seems to me that if you are finding it this hard to fill our military ranks it is because the military are being asked to do a job that most of the country does not agree with. I would feel comfortable predicting tht once we pull our troops out of Iraq that we will see the recruitment goals being met much more easily.
Is George Bush losing his mind?
Buy beleaguered, overworked White House aides enough drinks and they tell a sordid tale of an administration under siege, beset by bitter staff infighting and led by a man whose mood swings suggest paranoia bordering on schizophrenia.
They describe a President whose public persona masks an angry, obscenity-spouting man who berates staff, unleashes tirades against those who disagree with him and ends meetings in the Oval Office with “get out of here!”
In fact, George W. Bush’s mood swings have become so drastic that White House emails often contain “weather reports” to warn of the President’s demeanor. “Calm seas” means Bush is calm while “tornado alert” is a warning that he is pissed at the world.
I have to tell you that I have always felt when I see Bush on television that he is barely containing his rage. During the debates with Kerry it seemed that there were small rodents running around under the skin on Bush's face. He had an ungodly number of tics! I have believed for a long time that this is a man who cannot stand to hear that he is wrong about anything! So the more evidence that is gathered that shows him for the clown that he is the less capable he will be at hiding his anger.
Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.
“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”
As a professional in the mental health field I can tell you that many people with rage issues or insecurities self-medicate using alcohol or illegal substances, like cocaine.
They describe a President whose public persona masks an angry, obscenity-spouting man who berates staff, unleashes tirades against those who disagree with him and ends meetings in the Oval Office with “get out of here!”
In fact, George W. Bush’s mood swings have become so drastic that White House emails often contain “weather reports” to warn of the President’s demeanor. “Calm seas” means Bush is calm while “tornado alert” is a warning that he is pissed at the world.
I have to tell you that I have always felt when I see Bush on television that he is barely containing his rage. During the debates with Kerry it seemed that there were small rodents running around under the skin on Bush's face. He had an ungodly number of tics! I have believed for a long time that this is a man who cannot stand to hear that he is wrong about anything! So the more evidence that is gathered that shows him for the clown that he is the less capable he will be at hiding his anger.
Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.
“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”
As a professional in the mental health field I can tell you that many people with rage issues or insecurities self-medicate using alcohol or illegal substances, like cocaine.
Cindy Sheehan takes on the "Freedom isn't Free" catchphrase.
Cindy is definitely growing into her role as the centerpiece of the anti-war movement. She is not at all timid about stating the facts as she sees them and to taking it to the Bush administration at every opportunity. She is doing an amazing job and I hope that she is able to help maintain this pressure until the Bushies are called to task.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
I knew it! Republicans Hate Science!
Sure, everybody called me paranoid. They said that I did not have both my oars in the water. That my elevator did not quite make it to the top. That I was a few bricks shy of a full load. Well HA! I was right. Check this out!
Mooney documents conservative attempts to discredit science by promoting intelligent design and removing evolution from the classroom, obfuscating the negative impacts of tobacco and global warming and promoting the specious ABC (abortion-breast cancer) link as just several of many attempts to play to two of their core audiences: the religious right and corporations.
But I think countries like South Korea enjoy the fact that they're now leading the world in stem cell research rather than us. That's one field where other nations have leapt into the void that we have left. This is going to be the century of dramatic advances in biology and biotechnology and we are undermining the central theories of biological understanding with misinformation.
Intelligent Design is a sort of fundamental assault on the nature of scientific inquiry itself. Intelligent Design isn't a scientific explanationdoesn'tdoesn't have any explanatory power. We can't tell how the alleged designer achieved any of these wonderful feats Intelligent Design is supposed to achieve and we can't even investigate it because the designer is acting through supernatural means. So it's essentially a philosophical idea that's being dressed up as science and that undermines the very nature of science.
The bastards! It seems so short sighted to damage American education even if in the short run it ensures that there are people dumb enough to keep voting for them. I mean what happens when there are no more architects, or doctors, or inventors? What kind of third world nation are they trying to create here? I pepushingly am pushng my childreverythingrn everythng they can before the republicans outlaw books.
Mooney documents conservative attempts to discredit science by promoting intelligent design and removing evolution from the classroom, obfuscating the negative impacts of tobacco and global warming and promoting the specious ABC (abortion-breast cancer) link as just several of many attempts to play to two of their core audiences: the religious right and corporations.
But I think countries like South Korea enjoy the fact that they're now leading the world in stem cell research rather than us. That's one field where other nations have leapt into the void that we have left. This is going to be the century of dramatic advances in biology and biotechnology and we are undermining the central theories of biological understanding with misinformation.
Intelligent Design is a sort of fundamental assault on the nature of scientific inquiry itself. Intelligent Design isn't a scientific explanationdoesn'tdoesn't have any explanatory power. We can't tell how the alleged designer achieved any of these wonderful feats Intelligent Design is supposed to achieve and we can't even investigate it because the designer is acting through supernatural means. So it's essentially a philosophical idea that's being dressed up as science and that undermines the very nature of science.
The bastards! It seems so short sighted to damage American education even if in the short run it ensures that there are people dumb enough to keep voting for them. I mean what happens when there are no more architects, or doctors, or inventors? What kind of third world nation are they trying to create here? I pepushingly am pushng my childreverythingrn everythng they can before the republicans outlaw books.
Why we must leave Iraq. An Intelligence expert provides the truth that the Bush Administration is hiding from you.
There is no effective national government in Iraq. The current group meeting inside the Green Zone to draft the constitution has no real clout. True power is held by tribal chieftains and religious leaders scattered around country. Those leaders are playing both sides of the fence—keeping a toe in the political negotiations in Baghdad while providing money and protection to insurgents.
Staying the course and enduring further casualties while the insurgency grows stronger is an insane policy. If we persist on that front we will end up strengthening the hand of Islamic extremists and their role within the Iraqi insurgency.
The Bushies keep beating that drum about how we can't just "cut and run" because that will mean abandoning our pledge to the Iraqi's and making all of our dead soldiers deaths have been in vain. It is a compelling argument that works on many Americans, especially those who have loved ones in harms way or who have lost loved ones in this war. But by buying into this argument we continue to allow ourselves to be manipulated by the administration and it keeps our soldiers dying in some illogical homage to the soldiers who preceded them.
Staying the course and enduring further casualties while the insurgency grows stronger is an insane policy. If we persist on that front we will end up strengthening the hand of Islamic extremists and their role within the Iraqi insurgency.
The Bushies keep beating that drum about how we can't just "cut and run" because that will mean abandoning our pledge to the Iraqi's and making all of our dead soldiers deaths have been in vain. It is a compelling argument that works on many Americans, especially those who have loved ones in harms way or who have lost loved ones in this war. But by buying into this argument we continue to allow ourselves to be manipulated by the administration and it keeps our soldiers dying in some illogical homage to the soldiers who preceded them.
Cindy returns to Camp Casey.
"This is where I belong, until Aug. 31, like I told the president," Sheehan said at the Waco airport before driving about 20 miles to the Crawford site.
Sheehan's protest in Crawford has encouraged anti-war activists to join her and prompted peace vigils nationwide. She also continues to draw harsh criticism.
Among those defending Sheehan are former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, who believes his wife's identity as an undercover CIA operative was leaked in retaliation for his criticism of the Bush administration in a 2002 New York Times op-ed piece.
"The Bush White House and its right-wing allies are responding to Cindy Sheehan and the military families' vigil in central Texas in the same way that they always respond to bad news - by unleashing personal attacks and smears against her," Wilson said in a statement released Wednesday.
It is pretty clear that this movement is much bigger then Cindy Sheehan. She will undoubtedly go down in history as being the one who ignited the fire, but the inferno that is coming is going to be fed by hundreds of families of the fallen. And these pro-war families are going to do nothing to slow down the protests. They lack the passion of Cindy and her followers.
Sheehan's protest in Crawford has encouraged anti-war activists to join her and prompted peace vigils nationwide. She also continues to draw harsh criticism.
Among those defending Sheehan are former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, who believes his wife's identity as an undercover CIA operative was leaked in retaliation for his criticism of the Bush administration in a 2002 New York Times op-ed piece.
"The Bush White House and its right-wing allies are responding to Cindy Sheehan and the military families' vigil in central Texas in the same way that they always respond to bad news - by unleashing personal attacks and smears against her," Wilson said in a statement released Wednesday.
It is pretty clear that this movement is much bigger then Cindy Sheehan. She will undoubtedly go down in history as being the one who ignited the fire, but the inferno that is coming is going to be fed by hundreds of families of the fallen. And these pro-war families are going to do nothing to slow down the protests. They lack the passion of Cindy and her followers.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Evolution befuddles people who have poor sense of time.
You know I have trouble with the concept of billions and billions of year as well. It just seems so.........long ago. I can't remember things that happened last week so things that happened in the millions or billions of years seem totally unreal to me. And that apparently is what keeps many people from accepting the facts behind Evolution.
The universe is perhaps 14 billion years old. Earth is some 4.5 billion years old. The oldest hominid fossils are between 6 million and 7 million years old. The oldest distinctly modern human fossils are about 160,000 years old.
Damn that is a hell of a long time ago! But just because I have trouble comprehending this vast amount of time does not mean that it is must not be true. What it means is that I am just too stupid to fully appreciate how infinitesimal my time on this planet is going to be. The science is the science and the truth is the truth and that is the end of the debate.
Evolution is a robust theory, in the scientific sense, that has been tested and confirmed again and again. Intelligent design is not a theory at all, as scientists understand the word, but a well-financed political and religious campaign to muddy science. Its basic proposition - the intervention of a designer, a k a God - cannot be tested. It has no evidence to offer, and its assumptions that humans were divinely created are the same as its conclusions. Its objections to evolution are based on syllogistic reasoning and a highly selective treatment of the physical evidence.
Accepting the fact of evolution does not necessarily mean discarding a personal faith in God. But accepting intelligent design means discarding science. Much has been made of a 2004 poll showing that some 45 percent of Americans believe that the Earth - and humans with it - was created as described in the book of Genesis, and within the past 10,000 years. This isn't a triumph of faith. It's a failure of education.
The purpose of the campaign for intelligent design is to deepen that failure. To present the arguments of intelligent design as part of a debate over evolution is nonsense. From the scientific perspective, there is no debate. But even the illusion of a debate is a sorry victory for antievolutionists, a public relations victory based, as so many have been in recent years, on ignorance and obfuscation.
I would never let my own pesonal fears or prejudices keep me from continuing to further my knowledge base. I believe, if I believe anything, that as human beings we have a responsibility to learn as much as we can and to try and solve as many mysteries as we are able in the short amount of time that we are allotted. If nothing else it keeps me from getting complacent and thinking that I have nothing important to learn. If I ever learn everything then that will be a damned shame.
The universe is perhaps 14 billion years old. Earth is some 4.5 billion years old. The oldest hominid fossils are between 6 million and 7 million years old. The oldest distinctly modern human fossils are about 160,000 years old.
Damn that is a hell of a long time ago! But just because I have trouble comprehending this vast amount of time does not mean that it is must not be true. What it means is that I am just too stupid to fully appreciate how infinitesimal my time on this planet is going to be. The science is the science and the truth is the truth and that is the end of the debate.
Evolution is a robust theory, in the scientific sense, that has been tested and confirmed again and again. Intelligent design is not a theory at all, as scientists understand the word, but a well-financed political and religious campaign to muddy science. Its basic proposition - the intervention of a designer, a k a God - cannot be tested. It has no evidence to offer, and its assumptions that humans were divinely created are the same as its conclusions. Its objections to evolution are based on syllogistic reasoning and a highly selective treatment of the physical evidence.
Accepting the fact of evolution does not necessarily mean discarding a personal faith in God. But accepting intelligent design means discarding science. Much has been made of a 2004 poll showing that some 45 percent of Americans believe that the Earth - and humans with it - was created as described in the book of Genesis, and within the past 10,000 years. This isn't a triumph of faith. It's a failure of education.
The purpose of the campaign for intelligent design is to deepen that failure. To present the arguments of intelligent design as part of a debate over evolution is nonsense. From the scientific perspective, there is no debate. But even the illusion of a debate is a sorry victory for antievolutionists, a public relations victory based, as so many have been in recent years, on ignorance and obfuscation.
I would never let my own pesonal fears or prejudices keep me from continuing to further my knowledge base. I believe, if I believe anything, that as human beings we have a responsibility to learn as much as we can and to try and solve as many mysteries as we are able in the short amount of time that we are allotted. If nothing else it keeps me from getting complacent and thinking that I have nothing important to learn. If I ever learn everything then that will be a damned shame.
Cindy Sheehan exposes "No Child Left Behind"!
Everything that this administration has done, including "No Child Left Behind", has been done to wage this war. When you watch this video it is chilling how heartless the machine is that feeds these young people into the the military. I support our troops but I do not support any trickery or lies being used to convince children to sacrifice their lives. They need to be told the truth and not just given X-Box games and free t-shirts!
Flying Spaghetti Monster gives Creationists a run for their money.
The debate over teaching evolution in Kansas public schools has caught the attention of a cross-country Internet community of satirists.
In the past few weeks, hundreds of followers of the supreme Flying Spaghetti Monster have swamped state education officials with urgent e-mails.
They argue that since the conservative majority of the State Board of Education has blessed classroom science standards at the behest of intelligent design supporters, which criticize evolution, they want the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster taught.
Now we are talking! Now this is mythology that I can get behind. To me a flying spaghetti monster makes so much more sense then the bearded man in the clouds. It kind of makes me wonder what other creation beliefs might be dredged up, or created, and thrown into the fray. This could be interesting.
In the past few weeks, hundreds of followers of the supreme Flying Spaghetti Monster have swamped state education officials with urgent e-mails.
They argue that since the conservative majority of the State Board of Education has blessed classroom science standards at the behest of intelligent design supporters, which criticize evolution, they want the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster taught.
Now we are talking! Now this is mythology that I can get behind. To me a flying spaghetti monster makes so much more sense then the bearded man in the clouds. It kind of makes me wonder what other creation beliefs might be dredged up, or created, and thrown into the fray. This could be interesting.
No proof found of Iran Weapons program. Invasion planned for spring.
Maybe this time we can just trust the evidence and not further destroy our credibility in the world by going off half-cocked and blowing the shit out of another innocent nation. What do you think? Maybe?
Of course John Bolton does not believe them at all!
John R. Bolton, now U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, served as the administration's point man on nuclear issues during President Bush's first term. He suggested during congressional testimony in June 2004 that the Iranians were lying about the contamination.
Thank goodness we have such a rational, clear thinking individual helping us with diplomacy in the U.N.. You know the only reason that Bush settled for Bolton is because he could not find a pitbull willing to wear a suit and tie!
Of course John Bolton does not believe them at all!
John R. Bolton, now U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, served as the administration's point man on nuclear issues during President Bush's first term. He suggested during congressional testimony in June 2004 that the Iranians were lying about the contamination.
Thank goodness we have such a rational, clear thinking individual helping us with diplomacy in the U.N.. You know the only reason that Bush settled for Bolton is because he could not find a pitbull willing to wear a suit and tie!
John McCain loses my vote!
You know even though I am a registered Democrat I am flexible enough to vote for a Republican if one arose who seemed like a real leader. There have been times in the past where I thought maybe John McCain was that potential candidate. Not anymore!
As the Gallup Poll noted, McCain has a generally consistent conservative voting record but forged a national reputation after a series of notable breaks with fellow Republicans.
On Tuesday, though, he sided with the president on two issues that have made headlines recently: teaching intelligent design in schools and Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who has come to personify the anti-war movement.
McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.
The theory of intelligent design says life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and that a higher power must have had a hand in guiding it.
At a breakfast meeting Tuesday with the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, McCain said Sheehan is probably being used by organizations opposed to the U.S. mission in Iraq. But, he added, she is "a symptom, not a cause" of growing public discontent with the war.
Shit! How many of these assholes are there? He supports teaching "Intelligent Design"? Does he also support waging war while cutting taxes? How much of the "Bush Virus" is he infected with? Does this mean that in order to run as a Republican candidate for president that you have to be identified as some anti-intellectual moron?
As the Gallup Poll noted, McCain has a generally consistent conservative voting record but forged a national reputation after a series of notable breaks with fellow Republicans.
On Tuesday, though, he sided with the president on two issues that have made headlines recently: teaching intelligent design in schools and Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who has come to personify the anti-war movement.
McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.
The theory of intelligent design says life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and that a higher power must have had a hand in guiding it.
At a breakfast meeting Tuesday with the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, McCain said Sheehan is probably being used by organizations opposed to the U.S. mission in Iraq. But, he added, she is "a symptom, not a cause" of growing public discontent with the war.
Shit! How many of these assholes are there? He supports teaching "Intelligent Design"? Does he also support waging war while cutting taxes? How much of the "Bush Virus" is he infected with? Does this mean that in order to run as a Republican candidate for president that you have to be identified as some anti-intellectual moron?
Vietnam and Iraq; What the one teaches about the other.
"You bet your goddamn dollar I'm bitter. It's people like us who give up our sons for the country," said a firefighter whose son was killed in action. "Let's face it: if you have a lot of money, or if you have the right connections, you don't end up on a firing line over there. I think we ought to win that war or pull out. What the hell else should we do -- sit and bleed ourselves to death, year after year?" His wife jumps in to add, "My husband and I can't help but thinking that our son gave his life for nothing, nothing at all."
These may sound like voices from the present, perhaps from grieving parents who have taken up Cindy Sheehan's vigil in Crawford, Texas as she visits her ailing mother. Actually though, they come from 1970, and their lost son died in Vietnam. In recent weeks, as American casualties in Iraq continued to mount and opposition from military families has grown, as Ohio families mourned their dead and the Cindy Sheehan story would not go away, I kept remembering the many people I had interviewed about a similar moment during the Vietnam War, a time in 1968 when millions of Americans who had trusted their government to tell the truth about a distant war and believed it was every citizen's absolute duty to "fight for your country," began to turn, like a giant aircraft carrier slowly arcing in another direction, began to doubt, question, and finally oppose their nation's policies.
In the words of the Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, "Let's do the time warp again"! Besides the climate and the way that the information is gathered there are fewer and fewer differences separating these two wars everyday.
In the face of rising opposition, Presidents Johnson and Nixon sought to rally -- in Nixon's famous phrase -- the "silent majority" in support of the war, not by explaining the need for ever more sacrifice, but by demonizing critics who, it was said, threatened to turn America into a "pitiful, helpless giant." Though the Nixon administration, unlike the present one, did not have its own media machine constantly available to attack its enemies, Nixon often sent out his Vice President, Spiro Agnew, as an attack dog to vilify student protestors ("effete corps of impudent snobs") and the media ("nattering nabobs of negativism").
The similarity in how these two administrations manipulate the media and public opinion is becoming eerie.
As in 1968, so in 2005, as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has pointed out, "The loudest of the hawks are the least likely to send their sons or daughters off" to war. George Bush continues to call the war a "noble cause" and "the central front in the Global War on Terrorism" even though 60% of Americans have come to believe that it has made them less safe. His five-week-long vacation is only the most obvious symbol of the obscene gulf in safety between the advocates of the war and its victims. That gulf is at the very heart of a growing disaffection in places like Ohio, where earlier this month 20 Marines from the same Reserve unit (3rd Battalion, 25th Marines) were killed in Iraq within 72 hours. That unit is headquartered in Brook Park, Ohio, a working-class suburb adjacent to Parma, and the losses included 14 men from Ohio, bringing the state's total fatalities to more than 90.
It is up to us to make this president hear our anger and the pain that these families are feeling, because right now he does not understand how his policies have damaged our country. He is an exceptionally slow learner and the only way that he will ever understand is to have our message screeamed at him over and over again.
Bring them home NOW!
Peace.
These may sound like voices from the present, perhaps from grieving parents who have taken up Cindy Sheehan's vigil in Crawford, Texas as she visits her ailing mother. Actually though, they come from 1970, and their lost son died in Vietnam. In recent weeks, as American casualties in Iraq continued to mount and opposition from military families has grown, as Ohio families mourned their dead and the Cindy Sheehan story would not go away, I kept remembering the many people I had interviewed about a similar moment during the Vietnam War, a time in 1968 when millions of Americans who had trusted their government to tell the truth about a distant war and believed it was every citizen's absolute duty to "fight for your country," began to turn, like a giant aircraft carrier slowly arcing in another direction, began to doubt, question, and finally oppose their nation's policies.
In the words of the Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, "Let's do the time warp again"! Besides the climate and the way that the information is gathered there are fewer and fewer differences separating these two wars everyday.
In the face of rising opposition, Presidents Johnson and Nixon sought to rally -- in Nixon's famous phrase -- the "silent majority" in support of the war, not by explaining the need for ever more sacrifice, but by demonizing critics who, it was said, threatened to turn America into a "pitiful, helpless giant." Though the Nixon administration, unlike the present one, did not have its own media machine constantly available to attack its enemies, Nixon often sent out his Vice President, Spiro Agnew, as an attack dog to vilify student protestors ("effete corps of impudent snobs") and the media ("nattering nabobs of negativism").
The similarity in how these two administrations manipulate the media and public opinion is becoming eerie.
As in 1968, so in 2005, as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert has pointed out, "The loudest of the hawks are the least likely to send their sons or daughters off" to war. George Bush continues to call the war a "noble cause" and "the central front in the Global War on Terrorism" even though 60% of Americans have come to believe that it has made them less safe. His five-week-long vacation is only the most obvious symbol of the obscene gulf in safety between the advocates of the war and its victims. That gulf is at the very heart of a growing disaffection in places like Ohio, where earlier this month 20 Marines from the same Reserve unit (3rd Battalion, 25th Marines) were killed in Iraq within 72 hours. That unit is headquartered in Brook Park, Ohio, a working-class suburb adjacent to Parma, and the losses included 14 men from Ohio, bringing the state's total fatalities to more than 90.
It is up to us to make this president hear our anger and the pain that these families are feeling, because right now he does not understand how his policies have damaged our country. He is an exceptionally slow learner and the only way that he will ever understand is to have our message screeamed at him over and over again.
Bring them home NOW!
Peace.
Maureen Dowd hunts the President down in Idaho!
It is still amazing to me how this jerk can commit thousands of lives to an unnecessary war yet he runs and hides at the thought of being confronted by a grieving mother. I am not sure Chickenhawk is a derisive enough term to describe this guy. Here, check out what Maureen says about his constant exercise regime.
I mean, I like to exercise, but W. Is psychopathic about it. He interviewed one potential Supreme Court nominee, Harvie Wilkinson III, by asking him how much he exercised. Last winter, Mr. Bush was obsessed with his love handles, telling people he was determined to get rid of seven pounds.
Shouldn't the president worry more about body armor than body fat?
It is just another example of this bastards ego centric lifestyle. He feels nothing for the lives that have been wasted in this conflict! Nothing!
I mean, I like to exercise, but W. Is psychopathic about it. He interviewed one potential Supreme Court nominee, Harvie Wilkinson III, by asking him how much he exercised. Last winter, Mr. Bush was obsessed with his love handles, telling people he was determined to get rid of seven pounds.
Shouldn't the president worry more about body armor than body fat?
It is just another example of this bastards ego centric lifestyle. He feels nothing for the lives that have been wasted in this conflict! Nothing!
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
George Bush calls me a Traitor!
Okay now this mama's boy has gone too far. How dare he call anybody a traitor after running from his duty during Vietnam. Unbelievable gall!
NEW YORK Meeting briefly with reporters Monday aboard Air Force One, Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman subbing for Scott McClellan, said that President Bush believes that those who want the U.S. to begin to change course in Iraq do not want America to win the overall "war on terror."
I have news for you ass-wipe! I do want to win against the terrorists! I am just smart enough to know that you will never do that by waging a war on innocent Iraqi's!
NEW YORK Meeting briefly with reporters Monday aboard Air Force One, Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman subbing for Scott McClellan, said that President Bush believes that those who want the U.S. to begin to change course in Iraq do not want America to win the overall "war on terror."
I have news for you ass-wipe! I do want to win against the terrorists! I am just smart enough to know that you will never do that by waging a war on innocent Iraqi's!
Breaking news for people who have been in a coma for five years: George Bush lies!
George Bush's harvard economics professor has this memory of our fearful leader.
He showed pathological lying habits and was in denial when challenged on his prejudices and biases. He would even deny saying something he just said 30 seconds ago. He was famous for that. . . .
Students who challenged and embarrassed Bush in class would then become the subject of a whispering campaign by him, Tsurumi said. “In class, he couldn’t challenge them. But after class, he sometimes came up to me in the hallway and started bad-mouthing those students who had challenged him. He would complain that someone was drinking too much. It was innuendo and lies. So that’s how I knew, behind his smile and his smirk, that he was a very insecure, cunning and vengeful guy.
Gee where was this guy two elections ago? It would not have made any difference, the Republicans were going to steal those elections regardless of what truths were known about this pretender. I hope like hell that we have learned our lesson and never let our country be hi-jacked again!
Now I am all pissed off again!
He showed pathological lying habits and was in denial when challenged on his prejudices and biases. He would even deny saying something he just said 30 seconds ago. He was famous for that. . . .
Students who challenged and embarrassed Bush in class would then become the subject of a whispering campaign by him, Tsurumi said. “In class, he couldn’t challenge them. But after class, he sometimes came up to me in the hallway and started bad-mouthing those students who had challenged him. He would complain that someone was drinking too much. It was innuendo and lies. So that’s how I knew, behind his smile and his smirk, that he was a very insecure, cunning and vengeful guy.
Gee where was this guy two elections ago? It would not have made any difference, the Republicans were going to steal those elections regardless of what truths were known about this pretender. I hope like hell that we have learned our lesson and never let our country be hi-jacked again!
Now I am all pissed off again!
How is that Intelligent Design research coming along?
This article in the New York Times is a pretty useful overview of the political and financial support behind the Discovery Institute, the main anti-evolution think tank. It describes how the Institute has spent $3.6 million dollars to support fellowships that include scientific research in areas such as "laboratory or field research in biology, paleontology or biophysics."
So the author does some reasearch and is able to identify two papers that have been published by the "scientists" involved with the institute. Two. They do have catchy titles though.
Simulating evolution by gene duplication of protein features that require multiple amino acid residues. Is one.
Do centrioles generate a polar ejection force? Is the other.
So the author compares this output with a random evolutionary scientist.
Here's one more way to put these results in perspective: compare the two papers I turned up to the work of a single evolutionary biologist. From the thousands I could choose from, I'll pick Douglas Emlen, a young biologist at the University of Montana. He studies horns on beetles as an example of how embryonic development changes during evolution . I visited his publication web site and counted the papers that dealt directly with evolution (leaving out the book chapters and the papers on straight physiology and such). The total so far comes to 23. Over ten times the output I found from the entire Discovery Institute staff.
Well gee, I wonder why Evolution has such a glorious reputation amongst the worlds scientists while Intelligent Design is treated with such derision? Color me puzzled.
So the author does some reasearch and is able to identify two papers that have been published by the "scientists" involved with the institute. Two. They do have catchy titles though.
Simulating evolution by gene duplication of protein features that require multiple amino acid residues. Is one.
Do centrioles generate a polar ejection force? Is the other.
So the author compares this output with a random evolutionary scientist.
Here's one more way to put these results in perspective: compare the two papers I turned up to the work of a single evolutionary biologist. From the thousands I could choose from, I'll pick Douglas Emlen, a young biologist at the University of Montana. He studies horns on beetles as an example of how embryonic development changes during evolution . I visited his publication web site and counted the papers that dealt directly with evolution (leaving out the book chapters and the papers on straight physiology and such). The total so far comes to 23. Over ten times the output I found from the entire Discovery Institute staff.
Well gee, I wonder why Evolution has such a glorious reputation amongst the worlds scientists while Intelligent Design is treated with such derision? Color me puzzled.
Pat Robertson puts out a hit on some dude in Venezuela.
We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's "The 700 Club."
"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."
You know while I applaud the good reverends desire to cut costs here, I have to imagine that advertising his intentions on the air is not the work of a man still in possession of all of his faculties. I mean do you think that Pat might be a little cuckoo?
Robertson has made controversial statements in the past. In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
Oh yeah! He is out of his ever loving mind!
"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."
You know while I applaud the good reverends desire to cut costs here, I have to imagine that advertising his intentions on the air is not the work of a man still in possession of all of his faculties. I mean do you think that Pat might be a little cuckoo?
Robertson has made controversial statements in the past. In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
Oh yeah! He is out of his ever loving mind!
Monday, August 22, 2005
"The God Who Wasn't There". Maybe he just stepped out for a moment.
In 'The God Who Wasn't There,' a former born-again Christian argues that Christ was a mythological figure.
Yeah? Is this news to somebody? Oh!
With his parents, the young Flemming attended a Methodist church. But, he said, his parents were concerned about violence in the Sylmar public schools and sent him to a nearby fundamentalist Christian school. There, he said, he believed his teachers when they said that God created the world in six days and other Bible-based lessons.But those beliefs crumbled when he went to UC Irvine and began studying philosophy and science.
Now see? This is why some Christians hate science! Science makes it almost impossible to believe in simple supernatural reasons for those complex scientific problems.
Yeah? Is this news to somebody? Oh!
With his parents, the young Flemming attended a Methodist church. But, he said, his parents were concerned about violence in the Sylmar public schools and sent him to a nearby fundamentalist Christian school. There, he said, he believed his teachers when they said that God created the world in six days and other Bible-based lessons.But those beliefs crumbled when he went to UC Irvine and began studying philosophy and science.
Now see? This is why some Christians hate science! Science makes it almost impossible to believe in simple supernatural reasons for those complex scientific problems.
Bush's Unintelligent Design Theory.
How does one explain all the misguided, unwise, sometimes outright boneheaded things the Bush administration has done since taking over nearly five years ago, and continues to do on a pretty much daily basis? How is it possible for a group of supposedly intelligent, experienced individuals to take this many wrong turns? Wouldn't you think that once in a while, even by accident, that George W. Bush and his advisers would make a decision that made sense?
That's where unintelligent design comes in.
Oooh oooh I like this part where he lists all of the stupid mistakes Bush has made.
I mean, making executive decisions randomly would still probably result in doing the right thing 50 per cent of the time. So how does one explain such consistent goofiness, like invading a nation based on evidence that the administration knew didn't exist in the first place?
Or exposing a CIA employee's identity just to settle some personal scores?
Ignoring international trade agreements you've signed on to?
Adopting a head-in-the-sand approach to the connection between human activity on the planet Earth and global warming?
Letting the boss be photographed on the ranch, golfing and cutting brush and chilling out and generally having a good ol' time while young Americans die overseas?
Not having the media savvy to have that same boss take a stroll down the driveway and chat with a woman whose son was one of those young Americans?
Doing an end run around the Senate to send a loose cannon to the U.N., while supposedly promoting democracy abroad?
Not firing a defence secretary who totally misjudged how many troops would be needed to secure Iraq?
Giving rich folks back home huge tax cuts while soldiers go without adequate body armour?
Looking upon scientific and medical innovations like they're some sort of voodoo and letting other nations take the lead in these areas for the first time?
That's where unintelligent design comes in.
Oooh oooh I like this part where he lists all of the stupid mistakes Bush has made.
I mean, making executive decisions randomly would still probably result in doing the right thing 50 per cent of the time. So how does one explain such consistent goofiness, like invading a nation based on evidence that the administration knew didn't exist in the first place?
Or exposing a CIA employee's identity just to settle some personal scores?
Ignoring international trade agreements you've signed on to?
Adopting a head-in-the-sand approach to the connection between human activity on the planet Earth and global warming?
Letting the boss be photographed on the ranch, golfing and cutting brush and chilling out and generally having a good ol' time while young Americans die overseas?
Not having the media savvy to have that same boss take a stroll down the driveway and chat with a woman whose son was one of those young Americans?
Doing an end run around the Senate to send a loose cannon to the U.N., while supposedly promoting democracy abroad?
Not firing a defence secretary who totally misjudged how many troops would be needed to secure Iraq?
Giving rich folks back home huge tax cuts while soldiers go without adequate body armour?
Looking upon scientific and medical innovations like they're some sort of voodoo and letting other nations take the lead in these areas for the first time?
Climate change fueled Human Evolution.
Okay look, if you are from Kansas just walk away. I mean it! Step away from the Blog!
It will just confuse you.
It will just confuse you.
Fight the war. Lose your son.
These people should be ashamed of themselves!
Army National Guard Spc. Joe McNeilly hasn't been the same since he returned from Iraq in March.
But it's not flashbacks to explosions and injured soldiers that haunt him most. It's that he lost shared custody of his 10-year-old son while he was serving his country.
"He would still have his son if he hadn't been deployed," said Maj. Dawn Dancer, public affairs officer for the Michigan National Guard.
Army National Guard Spc. Joe McNeilly hasn't been the same since he returned from Iraq in March.
But it's not flashbacks to explosions and injured soldiers that haunt him most. It's that he lost shared custody of his 10-year-old son while he was serving his country.
"He would still have his son if he hadn't been deployed," said Maj. Dawn Dancer, public affairs officer for the Michigan National Guard.
No Child Left Behind gets sued.
Only declaring war on Iraq will have more long term damage on our country then this unnecessary law. If you check this website you will see that Connecticut was ranked as the third smartest state in the nation. http://www.morganquinto.com/edrank03.htm
Now with that being true why would they be forced to adopt these arbitrary guidelines that take dollars away from existing successful programs and dump it in this bullshit program? They shouldn't!
If you remember this program was modeled after a similar one that Governor George inflicted upon Texas. Now if you visit that link up above you will notice that Texas is ranked 34 on the list of smartest states. That is 34 out of 50! How can the state that is listed 34 possibly have the right force their loser program on a state that is ranked 3?
Now with that being true why would they be forced to adopt these arbitrary guidelines that take dollars away from existing successful programs and dump it in this bullshit program? They shouldn't!
If you remember this program was modeled after a similar one that Governor George inflicted upon Texas. Now if you visit that link up above you will notice that Texas is ranked 34 on the list of smartest states. That is 34 out of 50! How can the state that is listed 34 possibly have the right force their loser program on a state that is ranked 3?
What's wrong with Evolution?
Nothing!
I hope I get a few people who come here accidentally hoping to have their anti-intellectual viewpoints supported. If you are one of these poor lost souls, please, stay and take a moment to educate yourselves. I mean you no harm.
I hope I get a few people who come here accidentally hoping to have their anti-intellectual viewpoints supported. If you are one of these poor lost souls, please, stay and take a moment to educate yourselves. I mean you no harm.
Joan Baez sings at Cindy Sheehan's anti-war camp.
Now we are talking! I have always said that what this anti-war protest needs is a couple of good protest singers! This is a very good sign.
"In the first march I went to (opposing Vietnam) there were 10 of us. This is huge," Baez told relatives of fallen U.S. soldiers Sunday as she prepared to perform a free evening concert in Bush's adopted hometown.
The concert was expected to draw more than 1,000 people to a 1-acre lot offered by a landowner who opposes the war. Not far away, protesters continued a camp-out started by grieving mother Cindy Sheehan.
"In the first march I went to (opposing Vietnam) there were 10 of us. This is huge," Baez told relatives of fallen U.S. soldiers Sunday as she prepared to perform a free evening concert in Bush's adopted hometown.
The concert was expected to draw more than 1,000 people to a 1-acre lot offered by a landowner who opposes the war. Not far away, protesters continued a camp-out started by grieving mother Cindy Sheehan.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
CNN is presenting "Dead Wrong: Inside an Intelligence Meltdown" right now! Are you watching?
CNN is not holding back here! I am watching this and finally they are following the timeline and pointing out the places where the intelligence was misrepresented to make the case for war! They are essentially proving the "Downing Street Memos" to be true. This is good stuff if you are not watching it you should be!
The "Cindy Sheehan Effect" is scaring the piss out of the Bush Administration!
The question of whether Bush was insensitive or out of touch, which had been a flash point in the campaign, was back, and commentators were once again talking about presidential naps. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) said on CNN the next day that it would be good to invite Sheehan in "just as a matter of courtesy and decency." Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said Friday on CNN that "the wise course of action, the compassionate course of action, the better course of action would have been to immediately invite her into the ranch."
In Australia, a headline taunted, "Awkward facts intruding on the Bush 'bubble.' " In India, a newspaper called Sheehan "the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement." On ABC's "Good Morning America," George Stephanopoulos said that "a lot of Republicans would say . . . That this is the president's Swift boat moment," a reference to Sen. John F. Kerry's tardiness in responding to attacks on his war record during last year's presidential campaign.
This lying administration denies that they are too concerned about Cindy, yet they yank George out of his rustic castle and send him on the road to cheerlead for the war. I anticipate about as much success with that as he had getting support for his Social Security program. Somebody find the fat lady and tell her to tune up her pipes cause this thing is just about over.
In Australia, a headline taunted, "Awkward facts intruding on the Bush 'bubble.' " In India, a newspaper called Sheehan "the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement." On ABC's "Good Morning America," George Stephanopoulos said that "a lot of Republicans would say . . . That this is the president's Swift boat moment," a reference to Sen. John F. Kerry's tardiness in responding to attacks on his war record during last year's presidential campaign.
This lying administration denies that they are too concerned about Cindy, yet they yank George out of his rustic castle and send him on the road to cheerlead for the war. I anticipate about as much success with that as he had getting support for his Social Security program. Somebody find the fat lady and tell her to tune up her pipes cause this thing is just about over.
It is still possible to learn real science in our local schools! Especially if one of it's walls contains real dinosaur footprints!
Damn! That God is a clever one. First he creates dinoaur fossils to test the faith of his followers and now he is putting footprints in those God-forsaken secular schools. Stay tuned and see what our practical joking creator has in store for us next!
The whackjobs come out for "Justice Sunday II" and spit venom on everything!
I once sat in the audience for a Jimmy Swaggert revival (Don't ask!). This was before his "fall from grace" and the place was packed. I will never forget seeing a young man sitting by himself, a full twenty minutes before the circus started, holding his bible up above his head, pulling at his shirt, and crying his eyes out! I have to imagine that this Justice Sunday thing is packed to the rafters with people just like that guy.
The event reached its climax when William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights stomped onstage determined to deliver the evening's most bombastic attack line. Donohue was going to tell the crowd exactly who their enemy was, in no uncertain terms. He was going to name names. And so, in booming basso profundo, Donohue denounced "the atheist, anti-Catholic bigot" Christopher Hitchens. His salvo was greeted with befuddled silence. If there were a name with which the country-music-capital crowd had less familiarity, Donohue couldn't conjure it.
Zell Miller followed Donohue at the microphone. The turncoat former Democratic governor of Georgia had been the keynote speaker at last year's Republican National Convention, where he shouted that Democrats wanted to arm the military with "spitballs." Now he engaged in what seemed like a game show whose point appeared to be to yell at the top of his lungs as many mixed metaphors in the shortest time possible. Liberalism, Miller said, had "kidnapped the baby Jesus's halo," "treat[ed] marriage like an outdated Hula-Hoop" and "hauled off" the Constitution "in a garbage truck."
The true underlying agenda of Justice Sunday II was undisguised in the rousing speech given by Bishop Harry Jackson. "We need to tell both parties, 'It's our way or the highway,'" Jackson told the cheering crowd. "You and I can bring the ruling reign of the cross to America."
I have to wonder, where are the normal Christians? You know the ones who fed me graham crackers in Sunday school. The ones who have rummage sales and bake offs? Why would such kind giving people let these nutjobs speak for them? Are there no moderate Christians left in the world?
The event reached its climax when William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights stomped onstage determined to deliver the evening's most bombastic attack line. Donohue was going to tell the crowd exactly who their enemy was, in no uncertain terms. He was going to name names. And so, in booming basso profundo, Donohue denounced "the atheist, anti-Catholic bigot" Christopher Hitchens. His salvo was greeted with befuddled silence. If there were a name with which the country-music-capital crowd had less familiarity, Donohue couldn't conjure it.
Zell Miller followed Donohue at the microphone. The turncoat former Democratic governor of Georgia had been the keynote speaker at last year's Republican National Convention, where he shouted that Democrats wanted to arm the military with "spitballs." Now he engaged in what seemed like a game show whose point appeared to be to yell at the top of his lungs as many mixed metaphors in the shortest time possible. Liberalism, Miller said, had "kidnapped the baby Jesus's halo," "treat[ed] marriage like an outdated Hula-Hoop" and "hauled off" the Constitution "in a garbage truck."
The true underlying agenda of Justice Sunday II was undisguised in the rousing speech given by Bishop Harry Jackson. "We need to tell both parties, 'It's our way or the highway,'" Jackson told the cheering crowd. "You and I can bring the ruling reign of the cross to America."
I have to wonder, where are the normal Christians? You know the ones who fed me graham crackers in Sunday school. The ones who have rummage sales and bake offs? Why would such kind giving people let these nutjobs speak for them? Are there no moderate Christians left in the world?
The real Creationist/Intelligent Design agenda.
There are some who will always believe that the fanciful makes more sense then the cold hard complicated facts of science. They prefer to believe in Astrology, Palm Reading, Phrenology, and Creationism rather then to pore over dusty volumes of Anthropology, Paleontology, Archeology, or Zoology. It just requires too much thinking. It is just easier to believe then to think. And that is what these guys are counting on.
When President Bush plunged into the debate over the teaching of evolution this month, saying, "both sides ought to be properly taught," he seemed to be reading from the playbook of the Discovery Institute, the conservative think tank here that is at the helm of this newly volatile frontier in the nation's culture wars.
After toiling in obscurity for nearly a decade, the institute's Center for Science and Culture has emerged in recent months as the ideological and strategic backbone behind the eruption of skirmishes over science in school districts and state capitals across the country. Pushing a "teach the controversy" approach to evolution, the institute has in many ways transformed the debate into an issue of academic freedom rather than a confrontation between biology and religion.
Together, they have mounted a politically savvy challenge to evolution as the bedrock of modern biology, propelling a fringe academic movement onto the front pages and putting Darwin's defenders firmly on the defensive.
So who are these guys? The answer should not be surprising. but it is.
The institute would not provide details about its backers "because they get harassed," Mr. Chapman said. But a review of tax documents on www.guidestar.org, a Web site that collects data on foundations, showed its grants and gifts jumped to $4.1 million in 2003 from $1.4 million in 1997, the most recent and oldest years available. The records show financial support from 22 foundations, at least two-thirds of them with explicitly religious missions.
There is the Henry P. and Susan C. Crowell Trust of Colorado Springs, whose Web site describes its mission as "the teaching and active extension of the doctrines of evangelical Christianity." There is also the AMDG Foundation in Virginia, run by Mark Ryland, a Microsoft executive turned Discovery vice president: the initials stand for Ad Majorem Dei Glorium, Latin for "To the greater glory of God," which Pope John Paul II etched in the corner of all his papers.
And the Stewardship Foundation, based in Tacoma, Wash., whose Web site says it was created "to contribute to the propagation of the Christian Gospel by evangelical and missionary work," gave the group more than $1 million between 1999 and 2003.
By far the biggest backers of the intelligent design efforts are the Ahmansons, who have provided 35 percent of the science center's $9.3 million since its inception and now underwrite a quarter of its $1.3 million annual operations. Mr. Ahmanson also sits on Discovery's board.
The Ahmansons' founding gift was joined by $450,000 from the MacLellan Foundation, based in Chattanooga, Tenn.
"We give for religious purposes," said Thomas H. McCallie III, its executive director. "This is not about science, and Darwin wasn't about science. Darwin was about a metaphysical view of the world."
Now right off the bat a so-called "scientific institute" that receives most of it monies from various religious organizations should make you stroke your chin and say "AH-ha!", but then the waters get muddy.
The institute also has support from secular groups like the Verizon Foundation and the Gates Foundation, which gave $1 million in 2000 and pledged $9.35 million over 10 years in 2003. Greg Shaw, a grant maker at the Gates Foundation, said the money was "exclusive to the Cascadia project" on regional transportation.
The Gates foundation? The "Bill" Gates foundation? What the hell!
Some of the donors have begun to question their support of this questionable science.
But the evolution controversy has cost it the support of the Bullitt Foundation, based here, which gave $10,000 in 2001 for transportation, as well as the John Templeton Foundation in Pennsylvania, whose Web site defines it as devoted to pursuing "new insights between theology and science."
Denis Hayes, director of the Bullitt Foundation, described Discovery in an e-mail message as "the institutional love child of Ayn Rand and Jerry Falwell," saying, "I can think of no circumstances in which the Bullitt Foundation would fund anything at Discovery today."
Charles L. Harper Jr., the senior vice president of the Templeton Foundation, said he had rejected the institute's entreaties since providing $75,000 in 1999 for a conference in which intelligent design proponents confronted critics. "They're political - that for us is problematic," Mr. Harper said. While Discovery has "always claimed to be focused on the science," he added, "what I see is much more focused on public policy, on public persuasion, on educational advocacy and so forth."
And what is their agenda?
"I believe that God created the universe," Dr. Gonzalez said.
But Philip Gold, a former fellow who left in 2002, said the institute had grown increasingly religious. "It evolved from a policy institute that had a religious focus to an organization whose primary mission is Christian conservatism," he said.
"Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions," the document says. Among its promises are seminars "to encourage and equip believers with new scientific evidence that support the faith, as well as to 'popularize' our ideas in the broader culture."
I am not a scientist. I do, however, love science and though no longer in school I follow recent scientific breakthroughs with great interest. What I do know is that scientists start with the evidence and follow where it leads them. They may have suppositions or early theories but these are temporary and easily cast away if the evidence does not support them.
The problem with Intelligent Design/Creationism is that it has the goal to prove that their belief about the world is correct. The money that they receive will dry up if they cannot continue to reinforce that belief. They must, therefore, cast aside or deny any evidence that calls into question their single minded goal. That is not science. That is a marketing campaign.
They have slick brochures, professionally designed websites, and carefully crafted language to put their targeted demographic at ease. Which is the parents of Elementary and High school students. And they are very effective.
But in their single minded desire to achieve this goal they are destroying the foundations of real science and that cost , my friends, is too high.
When President Bush plunged into the debate over the teaching of evolution this month, saying, "both sides ought to be properly taught," he seemed to be reading from the playbook of the Discovery Institute, the conservative think tank here that is at the helm of this newly volatile frontier in the nation's culture wars.
After toiling in obscurity for nearly a decade, the institute's Center for Science and Culture has emerged in recent months as the ideological and strategic backbone behind the eruption of skirmishes over science in school districts and state capitals across the country. Pushing a "teach the controversy" approach to evolution, the institute has in many ways transformed the debate into an issue of academic freedom rather than a confrontation between biology and religion.
Together, they have mounted a politically savvy challenge to evolution as the bedrock of modern biology, propelling a fringe academic movement onto the front pages and putting Darwin's defenders firmly on the defensive.
So who are these guys? The answer should not be surprising. but it is.
The institute would not provide details about its backers "because they get harassed," Mr. Chapman said. But a review of tax documents on www.guidestar.org, a Web site that collects data on foundations, showed its grants and gifts jumped to $4.1 million in 2003 from $1.4 million in 1997, the most recent and oldest years available. The records show financial support from 22 foundations, at least two-thirds of them with explicitly religious missions.
There is the Henry P. and Susan C. Crowell Trust of Colorado Springs, whose Web site describes its mission as "the teaching and active extension of the doctrines of evangelical Christianity." There is also the AMDG Foundation in Virginia, run by Mark Ryland, a Microsoft executive turned Discovery vice president: the initials stand for Ad Majorem Dei Glorium, Latin for "To the greater glory of God," which Pope John Paul II etched in the corner of all his papers.
And the Stewardship Foundation, based in Tacoma, Wash., whose Web site says it was created "to contribute to the propagation of the Christian Gospel by evangelical and missionary work," gave the group more than $1 million between 1999 and 2003.
By far the biggest backers of the intelligent design efforts are the Ahmansons, who have provided 35 percent of the science center's $9.3 million since its inception and now underwrite a quarter of its $1.3 million annual operations. Mr. Ahmanson also sits on Discovery's board.
The Ahmansons' founding gift was joined by $450,000 from the MacLellan Foundation, based in Chattanooga, Tenn.
"We give for religious purposes," said Thomas H. McCallie III, its executive director. "This is not about science, and Darwin wasn't about science. Darwin was about a metaphysical view of the world."
Now right off the bat a so-called "scientific institute" that receives most of it monies from various religious organizations should make you stroke your chin and say "AH-ha!", but then the waters get muddy.
The institute also has support from secular groups like the Verizon Foundation and the Gates Foundation, which gave $1 million in 2000 and pledged $9.35 million over 10 years in 2003. Greg Shaw, a grant maker at the Gates Foundation, said the money was "exclusive to the Cascadia project" on regional transportation.
The Gates foundation? The "Bill" Gates foundation? What the hell!
Some of the donors have begun to question their support of this questionable science.
But the evolution controversy has cost it the support of the Bullitt Foundation, based here, which gave $10,000 in 2001 for transportation, as well as the John Templeton Foundation in Pennsylvania, whose Web site defines it as devoted to pursuing "new insights between theology and science."
Denis Hayes, director of the Bullitt Foundation, described Discovery in an e-mail message as "the institutional love child of Ayn Rand and Jerry Falwell," saying, "I can think of no circumstances in which the Bullitt Foundation would fund anything at Discovery today."
Charles L. Harper Jr., the senior vice president of the Templeton Foundation, said he had rejected the institute's entreaties since providing $75,000 in 1999 for a conference in which intelligent design proponents confronted critics. "They're political - that for us is problematic," Mr. Harper said. While Discovery has "always claimed to be focused on the science," he added, "what I see is much more focused on public policy, on public persuasion, on educational advocacy and so forth."
And what is their agenda?
"I believe that God created the universe," Dr. Gonzalez said.
But Philip Gold, a former fellow who left in 2002, said the institute had grown increasingly religious. "It evolved from a policy institute that had a religious focus to an organization whose primary mission is Christian conservatism," he said.
"Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions," the document says. Among its promises are seminars "to encourage and equip believers with new scientific evidence that support the faith, as well as to 'popularize' our ideas in the broader culture."
I am not a scientist. I do, however, love science and though no longer in school I follow recent scientific breakthroughs with great interest. What I do know is that scientists start with the evidence and follow where it leads them. They may have suppositions or early theories but these are temporary and easily cast away if the evidence does not support them.
The problem with Intelligent Design/Creationism is that it has the goal to prove that their belief about the world is correct. The money that they receive will dry up if they cannot continue to reinforce that belief. They must, therefore, cast aside or deny any evidence that calls into question their single minded goal. That is not science. That is a marketing campaign.
They have slick brochures, professionally designed websites, and carefully crafted language to put their targeted demographic at ease. Which is the parents of Elementary and High school students. And they are very effective.
But in their single minded desire to achieve this goal they are destroying the foundations of real science and that cost , my friends, is too high.
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Mayor of Salt Lake City plans Anti-Bush protest. (That's right Salt Lake City!)
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called for "the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen" to protest President Bush's appearance Monday before a national veterans convention.
"This administration has been disastrous to the country," Anderson said Friday. "If people could organize and speak out in an effective manner from the reddest state in the country, that would garner a lot of attention." In an e-mail Wednesday to about 10 activist leaders, the maverick mayor of Utah's capital called for a diverse demonstration to greet Bush when he speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Salt Palace Convention Center. The mayor plans to join the protesters.
Wow! This is pretty impressive. I wondered when these red staters were going to start putting two and two together and realize that this administration is not doing them any favors either. Methinks the damn is getting ready to break. You Chickenhawks better run for cover, or you are going to be swept away.
"This administration has been disastrous to the country," Anderson said Friday. "If people could organize and speak out in an effective manner from the reddest state in the country, that would garner a lot of attention." In an e-mail Wednesday to about 10 activist leaders, the maverick mayor of Utah's capital called for a diverse demonstration to greet Bush when he speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Salt Palace Convention Center. The mayor plans to join the protesters.
Wow! This is pretty impressive. I wondered when these red staters were going to start putting two and two together and realize that this administration is not doing them any favors either. Methinks the damn is getting ready to break. You Chickenhawks better run for cover, or you are going to be swept away.
Army planning for four more years of bringing freedom to Iraq!
Man sometimes I just hate being right!
The Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq — well over 100,000 — for four more years, the Army's top general said Saturday.
Uh...excuse me...where are you going to get the soldiers? Don't you guys read the papers? There is no fucking way that America is going to let you stay in Iraq for four more years! No way! Besides you don't have enough troops! How will you solve that problem?
The Army has changed the way it arranges troop rotations.
Instead of sending a full complement of replacement forces each 12-month cycle, it is stretching out the rotation over two years.
Oh. So the plan is to just keep sending the same battle weary troops through an endless rotation through Iraq until what? Until you run out? Until they refuse to go back? Or until the 2008 election replaces these warmongers with somebody who will stop this senseless killing!
I am betting that we can stop this way before 2008.
The Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq — well over 100,000 — for four more years, the Army's top general said Saturday.
Uh...excuse me...where are you going to get the soldiers? Don't you guys read the papers? There is no fucking way that America is going to let you stay in Iraq for four more years! No way! Besides you don't have enough troops! How will you solve that problem?
The Army has changed the way it arranges troop rotations.
Instead of sending a full complement of replacement forces each 12-month cycle, it is stretching out the rotation over two years.
Oh. So the plan is to just keep sending the same battle weary troops through an endless rotation through Iraq until what? Until you run out? Until they refuse to go back? Or until the 2008 election replaces these warmongers with somebody who will stop this senseless killing!
I am betting that we can stop this way before 2008.
Bush to defend Iraq war. Nobody told him it was over.
Beware children the "weaver of lies" is coming! Coming to steal your brains!
Well let's take a listen maybe he has some new, as yet unheard, reasons for the sacrificing of our soldiers.
"They know that if we do not confront these evil men abroad, we will have to face them one day in our own cities and streets, and they know that the safety and security of every American is at stake in this war, and they know we will prevail."
WTF? This is all he has? This pile of smoldering bullshit? No way can he think tht we are dumb enough to buy into this any longer! Can he?
"Now we must finish the task that our troops have given their lives for and honor their sacrifice by completing their mission," he said. "We can be confident in the ultimate triumph of our cause, because we know that freedom is the future of every nation and that the side of freedom is the side of victory."
So we honor our dead soldiers by addding to their number? How does that work? How high must the death toll reach before he realizes that he is decimating his military for a lost cause?
This is the result of electing a man with tunnel vision. He does not have the ability to recognize nor admit a mistake. Maybe if he, or his family, suffered a loss because of this he would have some sense of understanding. But I am not at all sure.
Well let's take a listen maybe he has some new, as yet unheard, reasons for the sacrificing of our soldiers.
"They know that if we do not confront these evil men abroad, we will have to face them one day in our own cities and streets, and they know that the safety and security of every American is at stake in this war, and they know we will prevail."
WTF? This is all he has? This pile of smoldering bullshit? No way can he think tht we are dumb enough to buy into this any longer! Can he?
"Now we must finish the task that our troops have given their lives for and honor their sacrifice by completing their mission," he said. "We can be confident in the ultimate triumph of our cause, because we know that freedom is the future of every nation and that the side of freedom is the side of victory."
So we honor our dead soldiers by addding to their number? How does that work? How high must the death toll reach before he realizes that he is decimating his military for a lost cause?
This is the result of electing a man with tunnel vision. He does not have the ability to recognize nor admit a mistake. Maybe if he, or his family, suffered a loss because of this he would have some sense of understanding. But I am not at all sure.
Let's take a look at the peace the U.S. Military has brought to Iraq.
The Baghdad morgue is a fearful place of heat and stench and mourning, the cries of relatives echoing down the narrow, foetid laneway behind the pale-yellow brick medical centre where the authorities keep their computerized records. So many corpses are being brought to the mortuary that human remains are stacked on top of each other. Unidentified bodies must be buried within days for lack of space – but the municipality is so overwhelmed by the number of killings that it can no longer provide the vehicles and personnel to take the remains to cemeteries.
July was the bloodiest month in Baghdad’s modern history – in all, 1,100 bodies were brought to the city’s mortuary; executed for the most part, eviscerated, stabbed, bludgeoned, tortured to death. The figure is secret.
We are not supposed to know that the Iraqi capital’s death toll last month was only 700 short of the total American fatalities in Iraq since April of 2003. Of the dead, 963 were men – many with their hands bound, their eyes taped and bullets in their heads – and 137 women. The statistics are as shameful as they are horrifying. For these are the men and women we supposedly came to “liberate” – and about whose fate we do not care.
I keep hearing the Right bitching about how the "positive" stories from Iraq are being ignored. I am sure that there are successes that are happening that we do not hear about, but I am equally convinced that there is even more "negative" news that is being kept from us.
While Saddam’s regime visited death by official execution upon its opponents, the scale of anarchy now existing in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and other cities is unprecedented. “The July figures are the largest ever recorded in the history of the Baghdad Medical Institute,” a senior member of the management told The Independent.
It is clear that death squads are roaming the streets of a city which is supposed to be under the control of the US military and the American-supported, elected government of Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Never in recent history has such anarchy been let loose on the civilians of this city – yet the Western and Iraqi authorities show no interest in disclosing the details. The writing of the new constitution – or the failure to complete it – now occupies the time of Western diplomats and journalists. The dead, it seems, do not count.
As long as this is happening under our watch we will continue to be blamed for it. It is just like Colin Powell said "If you break it, you own it." Well we sure as hell broke it.
July was the bloodiest month in Baghdad’s modern history – in all, 1,100 bodies were brought to the city’s mortuary; executed for the most part, eviscerated, stabbed, bludgeoned, tortured to death. The figure is secret.
We are not supposed to know that the Iraqi capital’s death toll last month was only 700 short of the total American fatalities in Iraq since April of 2003. Of the dead, 963 were men – many with their hands bound, their eyes taped and bullets in their heads – and 137 women. The statistics are as shameful as they are horrifying. For these are the men and women we supposedly came to “liberate” – and about whose fate we do not care.
I keep hearing the Right bitching about how the "positive" stories from Iraq are being ignored. I am sure that there are successes that are happening that we do not hear about, but I am equally convinced that there is even more "negative" news that is being kept from us.
While Saddam’s regime visited death by official execution upon its opponents, the scale of anarchy now existing in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and other cities is unprecedented. “The July figures are the largest ever recorded in the history of the Baghdad Medical Institute,” a senior member of the management told The Independent.
It is clear that death squads are roaming the streets of a city which is supposed to be under the control of the US military and the American-supported, elected government of Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Never in recent history has such anarchy been let loose on the civilians of this city – yet the Western and Iraqi authorities show no interest in disclosing the details. The writing of the new constitution – or the failure to complete it – now occupies the time of Western diplomats and journalists. The dead, it seems, do not count.
As long as this is happening under our watch we will continue to be blamed for it. It is just like Colin Powell said "If you break it, you own it." Well we sure as hell broke it.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Senator Bill Frist embraces "Intelligent Design."
Damn! The magic kool-aid these Republicans are forced to drink must be unbelievably strong! It must make you brain synapses go into convulsions and neural pathways just completely shut down!
Bill Frist is a doctor! A doctor! he went to medical school cause he's a doctor! Did you know that Frist is a doctor? How is it possible to go through all of those years of learning and still be this completely unsophisticated? HE IS A FUCKING DOCTOR!
Bill Frist is a doctor! A doctor! he went to medical school cause he's a doctor! Did you know that Frist is a doctor? How is it possible to go through all of those years of learning and still be this completely unsophisticated? HE IS A FUCKING DOCTOR!
Let's check in and see what the actual morale is of the soldiers fighting in Iraq.
"One minute we're trying to catch a fly ball; the next minute, we're praying not to get blown into a million pieces," said Sergeant Harterson, 35, from Jacksonville, N.C., as Black Hawk medevac helicopters flew over Warhorse and Bradley fighting vehicles kicked up dust in the distance. "That's how messed up our life has been. But man, we still need sports, because we need to have that escape."
"The only reason we got this nasty job chasing roadside bombs is because we are expendable," said Staff Sgt. Jeff Rayner from Nashville. "They need bodies, and we provide them. We clear the roads, but we're still treated like dirt here."
"Hey, we might make their country a little better, but a lot of people are still in poverty, a lot still hate us and look at us like they want us dead," he said. "How's that for boosting your morale?"
Okay, now I am not a psychiatrist but I do work in the mental health profession and I just have to tell you these guys are in an extreme mental health crisis! As a lay person I would say that they have some PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), definitely some severe depression, and definitely a lot more that I am not qualified to guess at. There is a good possibility that thee guys are so highly strung that they are making some mistakes on a daily basis. Some of these mistakes are probably fatal for the innocent Iraqis.
It is time to face facts, the war is over! We made a mistake going in there and we are not going to make it all better by staying any longer!
"The only reason we got this nasty job chasing roadside bombs is because we are expendable," said Staff Sgt. Jeff Rayner from Nashville. "They need bodies, and we provide them. We clear the roads, but we're still treated like dirt here."
"Hey, we might make their country a little better, but a lot of people are still in poverty, a lot still hate us and look at us like they want us dead," he said. "How's that for boosting your morale?"
Okay, now I am not a psychiatrist but I do work in the mental health profession and I just have to tell you these guys are in an extreme mental health crisis! As a lay person I would say that they have some PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), definitely some severe depression, and definitely a lot more that I am not qualified to guess at. There is a good possibility that thee guys are so highly strung that they are making some mistakes on a daily basis. Some of these mistakes are probably fatal for the innocent Iraqis.
It is time to face facts, the war is over! We made a mistake going in there and we are not going to make it all better by staying any longer!
Cindy Sheehan creates patriots!
Being there has changed my perspective regarding veterans. I have always respected the men and women of our military. But I don't think I've been showing it like one should. They honor our country and we citizens by their great service and sacrifice. We should respect and honor them. They go into the military and train to protect our country and our freedoms and understand they may have to sacrifice their lives. They trust our government to be in the right and don't question it. We should do what we can to ensure they aren't misused, abused or cast aside by our own government. We can do this by paying attention to what the people we elect are doing in Washington D.C. and calling or writing them when we are happy with them and when we are not. It's time to get off the couch, take 10 minutes out of your lunch break, or whenever you can find a few minutes as this is important.
I will never miss another Veteran's Day parade. I will write members of Congress at the first sign they are thinking of closing VA hospitals or cutting veterans' benefits. I am ashamed that the folks on Capital Hill balked at passing a bill to cover the shortfall in the VA budget for health care until there was a bombing in London.
So much for the right wing contention that Cindy is putting our troops in danger or being unpatriotic. You know I remember during the Vitnam war hearing the suits telling the media how "those unwashed, communist, anti-war freaks were destroying this country." Well it turns out those "anti-war freaks" were right and so is Cindy Sheehan and the rest of the people who stand vigil in Crawford as she goes to care for her sick mother. History will recognize Cindy for opening the public's eyes to lies that this administratin has told and she will endure and survive any of their hate filled attacks.
I will never miss another Veteran's Day parade. I will write members of Congress at the first sign they are thinking of closing VA hospitals or cutting veterans' benefits. I am ashamed that the folks on Capital Hill balked at passing a bill to cover the shortfall in the VA budget for health care until there was a bombing in London.
So much for the right wing contention that Cindy is putting our troops in danger or being unpatriotic. You know I remember during the Vitnam war hearing the suits telling the media how "those unwashed, communist, anti-war freaks were destroying this country." Well it turns out those "anti-war freaks" were right and so is Cindy Sheehan and the rest of the people who stand vigil in Crawford as she goes to care for her sick mother. History will recognize Cindy for opening the public's eyes to lies that this administratin has told and she will endure and survive any of their hate filled attacks.
From the file of "Shit that still pisses me off!" How the Republicans stole both the 2000 and the 2004 elections.
If we had just had a more attentive media we would not be in this unnecessary war in Iraq, we wouldn't have this gigantic deficit hanging over our heads, and we would not have destroyed our relationships with the European and Asian countries. It just angers me so much sometimes.
Read this from Paul Krugmans editorial.
In his recent book "Steal This Vote" - a very judicious work, despite its title - Andrew Gumbel, a U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, provides the best overview I've seen of the 2000 Florida vote. And he documents the simple truth: "Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election."
Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida's ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore. This was true despite a host of efforts by state and local officials to suppress likely Gore votes, most notably Ms. Harris's "felon purge," which disenfranchised large numbers of valid voters.
But few Americans have heard these facts. Perhaps journalists have felt that it would be divisive to cast doubt on the Bush administration's legitimacy. If so, their tender concern for the nation's feelings has gone for naught: Cindy Sheehan's supporters are camped in Crawford, and America is more bitterly divided than ever.
Mad yet? Yeah me too!
Read this from Paul Krugmans editorial.
In his recent book "Steal This Vote" - a very judicious work, despite its title - Andrew Gumbel, a U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, provides the best overview I've seen of the 2000 Florida vote. And he documents the simple truth: "Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election."
Two different news media consortiums reviewed Florida's ballots; both found that a full manual recount would have given the election to Mr. Gore. This was true despite a host of efforts by state and local officials to suppress likely Gore votes, most notably Ms. Harris's "felon purge," which disenfranchised large numbers of valid voters.
But few Americans have heard these facts. Perhaps journalists have felt that it would be divisive to cast doubt on the Bush administration's legitimacy. If so, their tender concern for the nation's feelings has gone for naught: Cindy Sheehan's supporters are camped in Crawford, and America is more bitterly divided than ever.
Mad yet? Yeah me too!
The good news? I found God! The bad news? He is a scientist at Berkley!
They're called "synthetic biologists" and they boldly claim the ability to make never-before-seen living things, one genetic molecule at a time.
Okay I am usually a knee jerk supporter of scientists and scientific progress. However in this case I have a suggestion. Perhaps these fine men would like to have a night off to watch some movies. Here are some titles that I am pretty sure they have not seen.
1. The Island of Doctor Moreau
2. Jurassic Park
3. The Fly (Jeff Goldblum version)
4. Creator
5. Godsend
Okay now you guys watch these and then think about what you are messing with! Holy Genetic Tomfoolery Batman! This is completely uncharted territory. On the one hand this is absolutely fascinating and on the other it is a little overwhelming to think that some guys in lab coats can get toasted one night and then just make up any creature that their beer saturated noggins can imagine. Hell, what can go wrong here?
Okay I am usually a knee jerk supporter of scientists and scientific progress. However in this case I have a suggestion. Perhaps these fine men would like to have a night off to watch some movies. Here are some titles that I am pretty sure they have not seen.
1. The Island of Doctor Moreau
2. Jurassic Park
3. The Fly (Jeff Goldblum version)
4. Creator
5. Godsend
Okay now you guys watch these and then think about what you are messing with! Holy Genetic Tomfoolery Batman! This is completely uncharted territory. On the one hand this is absolutely fascinating and on the other it is a little overwhelming to think that some guys in lab coats can get toasted one night and then just make up any creature that their beer saturated noggins can imagine. Hell, what can go wrong here?
Hillary Clinton and John McCain land in my backyard.
Up here in Alaska, regardless of whether you are a Conservative or Liberal, the one thing that nobody disputes is that global warming is a fact. To those of us who have lived here for 30 or 40 years the evidence is undeniable. We have seen summers that are regularly in the high seventies and low eighties, ten years ago that was fucking unheard of.
By way of illustration let me tell you a story. When I was ten years old in,1970, my family drove out to Portage Glacier. Now Portage Glacier was a premiere tourist attraction because it was right off of the highway and easily accessible. The glacier was in a lake of the coldest water I had ever felt. It was this beautiful blue color and so close to where I was standing that I picked up a rock and threw it at the mound of ice striking it before my mother asked me to stop. I did not even have to wind my arm up to throw the rock at the glacier, it was that close.
Now as the years went by the Park Service constructed a cabin with a viewing deck and opened a restaurant a gift shop and other touristy things. Now I never went out to Portage glacier again until two years ago.
It's gone!
Well it is not completely gone, but now the only way that you can see it is to get on a ferry and travel up the icy lake, around the bend, and then there you can see what is left of it today. Okay the damn thing a over a million years old but in the last thirty years it has melted to half of the size that I saw as a ten year old boy. So do we have a global warming problem? No shit!
If you are at all curious here is a link to what it looks like today.
http://www.alaska.net/~design/scenes/portage/portage.html
By way of illustration let me tell you a story. When I was ten years old in,1970, my family drove out to Portage Glacier. Now Portage Glacier was a premiere tourist attraction because it was right off of the highway and easily accessible. The glacier was in a lake of the coldest water I had ever felt. It was this beautiful blue color and so close to where I was standing that I picked up a rock and threw it at the mound of ice striking it before my mother asked me to stop. I did not even have to wind my arm up to throw the rock at the glacier, it was that close.
Now as the years went by the Park Service constructed a cabin with a viewing deck and opened a restaurant a gift shop and other touristy things. Now I never went out to Portage glacier again until two years ago.
It's gone!
Well it is not completely gone, but now the only way that you can see it is to get on a ferry and travel up the icy lake, around the bend, and then there you can see what is left of it today. Okay the damn thing a over a million years old but in the last thirty years it has melted to half of the size that I saw as a ten year old boy. So do we have a global warming problem? No shit!
If you are at all curious here is a link to what it looks like today.
http://www.alaska.net/~design/scenes/portage/portage.html
Thursday, August 18, 2005
The Downing Street Memo's are backed up by American State Department documents!
It is time to get the Downing Street Memo's back on the front pages. These State Department documents show that the administration had every intention of ousting Saddam Hussein in October, 2001. It also shows that the state department was concerned about he lack of plans for post Saddam security in Iraq.
We had all of the information to either avoid this debacle or to at least have gone in knowing how to do it right. This is just more evidence that this administration is made up of "Keystone Kops" instead of long range thinkers and patriots. Once this is made public I do not see how anybody can continue to justify the decision to go to war.
We had all of the information to either avoid this debacle or to at least have gone in knowing how to do it right. This is just more evidence that this administration is made up of "Keystone Kops" instead of long range thinkers and patriots. Once this is made public I do not see how anybody can continue to justify the decision to go to war.
They gather in Crawford to ask "Why".
We've come to speak up for a man who is now forever silent. Sgt. Sherwood Baker was killed in Baghdad last year."
We are in Crawford, Texas. We are sunk down into the soil of our country, digging in for a few days near the president's ranch. Our friend Cindy Sheehan has been entrenched here for a week, demanding a meeting with the president.
We've come to speak up for a man who is now forever silent. Sgt. Sherwood Baker, our Sher, was a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard. He was killed in Baghdad last year. He was on duty for the Iraq Survey Group. He was looking for weapons of mass destruction.
How much longer can Bush hide from these people? I can feel their pain through my screen. Why can't he feel their pain when they are so close to him? Well, I believe that America is feeling their pain and that will be enough to make a difference. I hope.
We are in Crawford, Texas. We are sunk down into the soil of our country, digging in for a few days near the president's ranch. Our friend Cindy Sheehan has been entrenched here for a week, demanding a meeting with the president.
We've come to speak up for a man who is now forever silent. Sgt. Sherwood Baker, our Sher, was a member of the Pennsylvania National Guard. He was killed in Baghdad last year. He was on duty for the Iraq Survey Group. He was looking for weapons of mass destruction.
How much longer can Bush hide from these people? I can feel their pain through my screen. Why can't he feel their pain when they are so close to him? Well, I believe that America is feeling their pain and that will be enough to make a difference. I hope.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Is Cindy Sheehan an Army of One?
George Bush has met his match. He has twice vanquished Democratic opponents, brought down Saddam Hussein and is the straw that stirs the world's drink.
All that was before Cindy Sheehan showed up on his doorstep.
That is right Georgie, Cindy is here and despite all of the right wing muckraking she is not going anywhere.
Bush can't win against a grieving, articulate, angry mother who's willing to spend August in a roadside ditch publicizing her cause. Each new casualty in Iraq adds to her power and subtracts from his.
There is a chance that Sheehan is just the media flavor of the month. But I wouldn't bet on it. This feels like a turning point. It's happened before.
Abraham Lincoln, when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the anti-slavery tract "Uncle Tom's Cabin," said: "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"
Perhaps someday a President will greet Cindy Sheehan this way: "So you're the little woman who stopped the Iraq war."
"The little woman who stopped the Iraq war." Does that have best seller written all over it or what?
All that was before Cindy Sheehan showed up on his doorstep.
That is right Georgie, Cindy is here and despite all of the right wing muckraking she is not going anywhere.
Bush can't win against a grieving, articulate, angry mother who's willing to spend August in a roadside ditch publicizing her cause. Each new casualty in Iraq adds to her power and subtracts from his.
There is a chance that Sheehan is just the media flavor of the month. But I wouldn't bet on it. This feels like a turning point. It's happened before.
Abraham Lincoln, when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the anti-slavery tract "Uncle Tom's Cabin," said: "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"
Perhaps someday a President will greet Cindy Sheehan this way: "So you're the little woman who stopped the Iraq war."
"The little woman who stopped the Iraq war." Does that have best seller written all over it or what?
Right wing bloggers unleash the ugly on Cindy Sheehan!
Damn this stuff is indefensible! What an ugly group of humans!
“She needs to learn how to look more authentic when she starts ‘crying’ on cue for these photographs. At least use some eye drops to make it look like she's actually been crying.”
“I expect the men in the white jackets to haul Cindy looney Sheehan away any time now . Just to watch her for two minutes is unbelievable . I say pull the feeding tube now !!!”
“Cindy Sheehan is a traitor. That her son died in Iraq is irrelevant. IF this was 1943, she would have been detained long ago and no one would have heard from her again until after the war.”
Okay now that I have typed that I feel like taking a shower.
“She needs to learn how to look more authentic when she starts ‘crying’ on cue for these photographs. At least use some eye drops to make it look like she's actually been crying.”
“I expect the men in the white jackets to haul Cindy looney Sheehan away any time now . Just to watch her for two minutes is unbelievable . I say pull the feeding tube now !!!”
“Cindy Sheehan is a traitor. That her son died in Iraq is irrelevant. IF this was 1943, she would have been detained long ago and no one would have heard from her again until after the war.”
Okay now that I have typed that I feel like taking a shower.
Elizabeth Edwards writes in support of Cindy Sheehan
Casey Sheehan was born May 29, 1979, the first born child of Cindy and Pat Sheehan. It was a long labor. Fifty-one days after Casey was born, our first child, Wade was born, also after a long labor. They started school the same year, played the same games, watched the same television shows, loved the same country. On April 4, 1996, three weeks after going to Washington as a winner in a national contest about what America meant to him, Wade died in an automobile accident. On April 4, 2004, eight years later to the day, Casey, who loved his country enough to wear its uniform, died in Iraq. Cindy and Pat's hearts broke, as had ours.
We teach our children right from wrong. We teach them compassion and honor. We teach them the dignity of each life. And then, sometimes, the lessons we taught are turned on their heads. Cindy Sheehan is asking a very simple thing of her government, and she and her family, and most particularly Casey, have paid a very dear price for the right to ask this.
Cindy wants Casey's death to have meant as much as his life - lived fully - might have meant. I know this, as does every mother who has ever stood where we stand. And the President says he knows enough, doesn't need to hear from Casey's mother, doesn't need to assure her that Casey's is not one small death in a long and seemingly never-ending drip of deaths, that there is a plan here that will bring our sons and daughters home. He doesn't need to hear from her, he says. He claims he understands how some people feel about the deaths in Iraq.
The President is wrong.
Whether you agree or disagree with every part, or any part, of what Cindy wants to say, you know it is better that the President hear different opinions, particularly from those with such a deep and personal interest in the decisions of our government. Today, another voice would be helpful.
Cindy Sheehan can be that voice. She has earned the right to be that voice.
Please join me in supporting Cindy's right to be heard.
I grew up in a military family. My father and my grandfather were career Navy pilots. I saw what it meant to live a life every single day when the possibility of an honorable death is always there, at the dinner table, on the playground, at the base school. Will someone's father not come home tonight? And I didn't just feel the possibility, I saw the real thing, and, believe me, it stays with you, it changes you.
I also saw, then and more recently as I campaigned across this country and spent time with courageous military mothers and wives, how little attention is paid to the needs and the voices of military families. It has to change. The sacrifices that our military men and women make assure us that we have the strongest military in the world, but the sacrifices that their families make are too often ignored. The President's cavalier dismissal of Cindy Sheehan is emblematic of a greater problem. This is a mother who raised her son to love his country enough to serve. This is a mother who lived the impossible life of a mother of a soldier serving in Iraq, unable to sleep when he sleeps, unable to sleep when he is on duty, unable to watch the television, unable to stop watching the television.
And when the worst does happen, when the world comes crashing down and she puts the boy she bore, the boy she taught, the boy she loved in the ground, what does that government say to her? It says we'll do the talking; we don't need to hear from you. If we are decent and compassionate, if we know the lessons we taught our children, or if, selfishly, all we want is the long line of the brave to protect us in the future, we should listen to the mothers now.
Listen to Cindy.
Join me so Cindy knows we believe she has earned the right to be heard.
Elizabeth Edwards
We teach our children right from wrong. We teach them compassion and honor. We teach them the dignity of each life. And then, sometimes, the lessons we taught are turned on their heads. Cindy Sheehan is asking a very simple thing of her government, and she and her family, and most particularly Casey, have paid a very dear price for the right to ask this.
Cindy wants Casey's death to have meant as much as his life - lived fully - might have meant. I know this, as does every mother who has ever stood where we stand. And the President says he knows enough, doesn't need to hear from Casey's mother, doesn't need to assure her that Casey's is not one small death in a long and seemingly never-ending drip of deaths, that there is a plan here that will bring our sons and daughters home. He doesn't need to hear from her, he says. He claims he understands how some people feel about the deaths in Iraq.
The President is wrong.
Whether you agree or disagree with every part, or any part, of what Cindy wants to say, you know it is better that the President hear different opinions, particularly from those with such a deep and personal interest in the decisions of our government. Today, another voice would be helpful.
Cindy Sheehan can be that voice. She has earned the right to be that voice.
Please join me in supporting Cindy's right to be heard.
I grew up in a military family. My father and my grandfather were career Navy pilots. I saw what it meant to live a life every single day when the possibility of an honorable death is always there, at the dinner table, on the playground, at the base school. Will someone's father not come home tonight? And I didn't just feel the possibility, I saw the real thing, and, believe me, it stays with you, it changes you.
I also saw, then and more recently as I campaigned across this country and spent time with courageous military mothers and wives, how little attention is paid to the needs and the voices of military families. It has to change. The sacrifices that our military men and women make assure us that we have the strongest military in the world, but the sacrifices that their families make are too often ignored. The President's cavalier dismissal of Cindy Sheehan is emblematic of a greater problem. This is a mother who raised her son to love his country enough to serve. This is a mother who lived the impossible life of a mother of a soldier serving in Iraq, unable to sleep when he sleeps, unable to sleep when he is on duty, unable to watch the television, unable to stop watching the television.
And when the worst does happen, when the world comes crashing down and she puts the boy she bore, the boy she taught, the boy she loved in the ground, what does that government say to her? It says we'll do the talking; we don't need to hear from you. If we are decent and compassionate, if we know the lessons we taught our children, or if, selfishly, all we want is the long line of the brave to protect us in the future, we should listen to the mothers now.
Listen to Cindy.
Join me so Cindy knows we believe she has earned the right to be heard.
Elizabeth Edwards
Evangelical Scientists refute gravity with "Intelligent Falling" theory.
"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.
Okay this is actually from the "Onion" but it was so right on that I had to post it. C'mon if the Creationists are allowed to start defining science in their "special" way then this might very well be the result.
Okay this is actually from the "Onion" but it was so right on that I had to post it. C'mon if the Creationists are allowed to start defining science in their "special" way then this might very well be the result.
Cindy Sheehan is going to need more tents.
When the three Army officers finally tracked Michelle DeFord down at her Colton home last September, she didn't believe their story: "I kept thinking to myself, while the soldiers were talking to me, 'They're going to straighten this out, I know it's a mistake, David calls home every Monday.' "
This breaks my heart everytime I read it.
DeFord first met Sheehan in Florida last October when both worked on a get-out-the-vote campaign. Since Sheehan formed Gold Star Families for Peace, the two women have grown quite close, staying in each other's homes when DeFord travels to the Bay Area or Sheehan journeys to the Pacific Northwest.
"I have never met anyone so determined, so calm, so rational and so well-spoken under these circumstances," DeFord said.
Sheehan makes no bones about her anger that Bush describes the death of her son as "noble." Her determination to keep that outrage and her anguished opposition to the war in public view, even as the president enjoys mountain biking and fundraising on his five-week August recess, has been particularly cathartic to other parents who count their sons and daughters among the 1,850 Americans who have died in Iraq.
I think this may be the most powerful, and true, statement about the war that I have ever read.
"I guess our children went and were sacrificed for us to take a look at what we let happen. We let this war happen. If nothing else, this is a huge lesson. Watch who you vote for. Watch what they're telling you. Don't be so afraid."
This breaks my heart everytime I read it.
DeFord first met Sheehan in Florida last October when both worked on a get-out-the-vote campaign. Since Sheehan formed Gold Star Families for Peace, the two women have grown quite close, staying in each other's homes when DeFord travels to the Bay Area or Sheehan journeys to the Pacific Northwest.
"I have never met anyone so determined, so calm, so rational and so well-spoken under these circumstances," DeFord said.
Sheehan makes no bones about her anger that Bush describes the death of her son as "noble." Her determination to keep that outrage and her anguished opposition to the war in public view, even as the president enjoys mountain biking and fundraising on his five-week August recess, has been particularly cathartic to other parents who count their sons and daughters among the 1,850 Americans who have died in Iraq.
I think this may be the most powerful, and true, statement about the war that I have ever read.
"I guess our children went and were sacrificed for us to take a look at what we let happen. We let this war happen. If nothing else, this is a huge lesson. Watch who you vote for. Watch what they're telling you. Don't be so afraid."
Maureen Dowd knocks President Bush off of his bike.
As W.'s neighbors get in scraps with the antiwar forces coalescing around the ranch; as the Pentagon tries to rustle up updated armor for our soldiers, who are still sitting ducks in the third year of the war; as the Iraqi police we train keep getting blown up by terrorists, who come right back every time U.S. troops beat them up; as Shiites working on the Iraqi constitution conspire with Iran about turning Iraq into an Islamic state that represses women; and as Iraq hurtles toward a possible civil war, W. seems far more oblivious than his father was with his Persian Gulf crisis.
This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can't get out, or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make the old Afghanistan look like Cipriani's. Yet his war, which has not accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history of salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on Saturday.
The son wanted to go into Iraq to best his daddy in the history books, by finishing what Bush senior started. He swept aside the warnings of Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell and didn't bother to ask his father's advice. Now he is caught in the very trap his father said he feared: that America would get bogged down as "an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land," facing a possibly "barren" outcome.
I love Maureen Dowd! She is singularly skillful at getting beneath the spin and hitting the President in his goody bag. She has been unapologetically disdainful of this administration and still comes off looking like a refined, highly educated lady.
This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can't get out, or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make the old Afghanistan look like Cipriani's. Yet his war, which has not accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history of salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on Saturday.
The son wanted to go into Iraq to best his daddy in the history books, by finishing what Bush senior started. He swept aside the warnings of Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell and didn't bother to ask his father's advice. Now he is caught in the very trap his father said he feared: that America would get bogged down as "an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land," facing a possibly "barren" outcome.
I love Maureen Dowd! She is singularly skillful at getting beneath the spin and hitting the President in his goody bag. She has been unapologetically disdainful of this administration and still comes off looking like a refined, highly educated lady.
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