Life in the bubble; OR: Would the modern GOP appall George Washington?

This is some pretty backwards, delusional stuff.  (William should love it.) Though I still do fully encourage everyone to read it in full:

The Modern GOP Would Appall George Washington

In case the author's comment I quoted gets buried, here it is in full. (Bold = parts read aloud.)

I have no problem with "the possible." What I have a problem with is the "refuse to try" or worse still, the "working for the enemy." 

The modern GOP isn't interested in compromise; they are interested only in surrender. Like a battered woman, they foolishly think if they cry "Don't hurt me" enough, liberals will be nice to them. What complete idiots. And that's just the ones who aren't enemies in the camp--liberals who wear an "R" to get elected, then betray the documented values of the Republican Party (if people really liked RINOs, RINOs wouldn't pretend to be conservatives, lying about their positions and their records). 

Compromise? Heck, that would be a big improvement over the "Surrender Caucus" that is running things right now. And surrendering to the evil of the Left is just evil itself. 

~Bob Ellis

And, for reference, from his BIO:

Bob Ellis has been the owner of conservative media company Dakota Voice, LLC since 2005. He is a 10-year veteran of the United States Air Force, a political commentator for the past decade, and has been involved in numerous election and public policy campaigns for 20 years, including a founding Tea Party leader and organizer starting in 2009. He lives in Rapid City, South Dakota with his wife and two children.

Oh, and apologies: Obviously I was referring to the Heritage Foundation, not the Heritage Institute. Despite what William will tell you, I'm not perfect and I DO sometimes make mistakes. But fuck it: You know who I was talking about, so I'm not re-recording it! ;)

Song Dedications (Political)

The following song is dedicated to either George Zimmerman or the family of Trayvon Martin, whichever makes more sense to you. (And to the one commenter who I already know is going to tell me that it doesn't make sense either way... Hell with you, you don't get a vote.)




"Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace, and criticize all fears... Take the rag away from your face, for now ain't the time for your fears."

That was 1964, BTW. Shame how relevant it is half a century later. If there is any justice in the world, I will not one day be re-posting this, with the caption clanged to the final chorus.

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The following is dedicated to Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Paul Ryan - particularly the last two verses, to the last two Republicans respectively:




My hero: Harry Chapin, 1975.  Apologies for the poor quality of the audio, but this is a hard one to find.  This and She Is Always Seventeen were an additional tracks on the Live Album that were only on the 8-Track and Vinyl and were never released on the CD of that Album, or any other that I am aware of.

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Here's Seventeen:
(Admittedly it's a bit funky, but it's still damned GOOD.)




This might resonate more with my... *a-hem* older readers, so I guess this one's for them. (I have no memory even of the events that didn't happen before I was born, so... yeah.)

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Finally... One more from Harry...  This is called The Shortest Story.  And though Harry meant it to be about WOLRD hunger, I'm dedicating this to Stuart Varney of Fox "News", who recently asked of the Food Stamps program: "Can we afford this? We've got a trillion dollar deficit every year as far as the eye can see. But we want to reach out and give people food." 

No, Stuart, fuck 'em: Let 'em starve, I guess. Even as hunger and poverty levels are elevated and continue to rise in this country - my country - this guy is more concerned about the deficit, and maintaining unsustainable tax breaks for the wealthy than helping poor people.  But then that's always been the Rigth Wing trope, hasn't it? If you can't profit from a problem, just deny it exsists. Sad that it's no different from the kind of denial, ingoranc eand apathy that Harry fought against for most of his career, when he's been dead since 1981!



BTW... Putting aside any feelings you may have about our domestic issues of hunger and poverty, if you don't find this song and video heart-wrenching, then you simply aren't human.

Music Page

I've added a page to collect some of the songs I've highlighted over the past couple of that I really like and that I feel are of great social importance and carry an important message.  The tab is at the top- right, check it out, let me know what you think!

Bob Carroll is a great guy!

First of all, for those of you who don't know, Professor Carroll is the author of The Skeptic's Dictionary.  And The Skeptics Dictionary is my bible.  Which is why, he got the Babe Ruth Gold Star in my Hall of Fame.  Between Skeptic.com and MMFA, one can find  enought information to account for about 90% of my political ideology and life's philosphy.  So there was no question that those two would be the first two inductees.  When I read the Skepdic's Dictionary, I am filled with a life-affirming experience that most people only get from religion.  In it's pages I have found vindication and validation of every belief that I've ever held.

So... yeah, I'm a bit of a "fanboy."  I have no problem admitting that.

But what I found to be even more striking was just how cool and approachable and accessible the man himself is.  I've emailed him several time now, and he has been gracious enough to either reply back, or post my comments on his blog.  And other than the folks at Newshounds, and ClassicLiberal (who was already a redulat poster here) he is so far the only other inductee in my Hall of Fame to do so.

He recently penned an absolutle scathing criticism of the kind of "journalism" praciced by Andrew Breitbart and Fox News, using the recent case of Shirley Sherrod as an example.  It's solid, and I encourage everyone to read it.  (Well, I encourage everyone to read every single page on the site, top to bottom, cover to cover, but read that ONE if nothing else!)  Related to this article, as entried on The Backfire Effect and Motivated Reasoning.  These entires are far more neutral from a political perspective, but I think that both are useful when it comes to deconstructing how the Conservative Media operates and how the modern Conservatives THINK.  (And Liberals do it to, so be sure to keep these principles in mind when you are defending a liberal point!)

In the "well done" letter that I sent him regarding the Brietbart piece, I let him know obut my own "four levels of conservative reasoning" post.  He replied back that he loved it, and suggested a fifth level:

Level 5 (Ronald Reagan, G. W. Bush, Ann Coulter):
Person A lies, makes stuff, tells stories that are allegedly composites from "real" people or taken right out movies.

Person B exposes the lies, cites the movies, and exposes the fictional nature of the stories.

Person A replies by saying "See, you just proved my point."

Now... I actually wasn't writing him about the Brietbart piece originally.  I just had to 'high-five' on that because I thought it was incredibly well-done.  What I originally was writing him about was the fact that a few nights back, my wife and I were talking about autsim, and the preponderacne of unscientific (Gluten-Caesin free diets, homeopathy, cranial-sacral massage) and sometimes dangerous (cheataltion, not-vaccinating) ideas purporting to cure or prevent it (which we talk about a lot, as it seems like we're the only parents of autistics that we know who insist that something be scientifically vetted before exposing our children to it!) when she mentions "Oh and did you hear that the dubunked the 'Mozart effect'?"  And YES, I had, because I had read about it on Skepdic.com!  Which inspired the following cartoon, which Professor Carroll decided not to run, citing fear of legal acation on the part of Pixar.

Loved the cartoon...wish I could post it, but Pixar would probably sue me

But I'll post it anyway becuase... shit, if Pixar notices what I'M doing, then I guess that means I've hit the big time. LOL.  So screw 'em.  Alex Ross hasn't asked me to take the Kindom Come banner down yet, so I don't think I'll be getting a call from John Lasseter anytime soon...

(click to enlarge)

AND IT DOES!!!

BTW... If you don't remember, in the movie The Incredibles, Kari the babysitter brought Mozart to play while he sleeps...(and so on.)

There is another reason that I'm posting this now.  I promised Steeve (twice now) that I'm going to re-visit some of the comments he'd made in some past Religion/Atheism posts.  And I'd like the topic to stick to the fairly narrow points being discussed.  And as I anticiapte some questions inevitably arising about the nature and logic (or illogic, from some people's POV) of atheism.  Well, rather than re-create what has already been done better than I could hope to, I will refer any questions of this nature to Atheism section of Skepdic. (And) (And)  IMHO, Professor Carrol does a fantastic job laying out the case for Religious Skepicism, in that post and in many others, and in dealing with the varous misunderstandings that people have who try to "disprove" it, or claim that it's "just like religion."  And not only does he answer the questios solidly, but the path from organized religion to disorganized realion to atheism/agosticism that he describes going through in his life is close enough to my own journey, that the arguments ends up ~99% the same and for all intents and purposes what he has written on the topic is entirely adequate for describing my own positions and beliefs. (Or lack there of.)  So in the interests of staying on topic, and avoiding a lot of duplicate typing, I will let what he has written speak for my own position and beliefs as well.

And hopefully this is enough links and refernces for Okiepoli, even if they are all to basically one source! LOL

The Right are a bunch of phonies, and Rush Limbaugh is beyond redemption.

First off, I just want to repeat here a comment I left on Media Matters earlier today:

Limbaugh is now beyond all redemption in my book. He's called for a memorial for Koresh and he's rationalized, even sympathized with McVeigh. He's now apologizing for psychoaths and terrorists and traitors. These men are not Patriorts and niether is he. If you cannot unequivocably condemn either Koresh or McVeigh, then clearly NOTHING will qualify as "too far" or "too extreme" in your warped view. The man is traitorous, sociopathic scum.

Now, that may sound strange coming on the heals of three posts about censorship, but don't get me wrong.  I wouldn't, for a minute, think of having the Government pull him from the air, or punish him in any way that wouldn't pass full Constitutional muster.  But I can't for the life of me figure out why people continue to listen to this scumbag.  Are there really THAT MANY people who sympathize THAT MUCH with Koresh and McVeigh?

In the words of Gorobei Katayama, "Are you kidding me?"

Now... Aside from Limbaugh it's been just over a year since the Right Wing completely lost their fucking minds.  And as much as I'd love to elaborate on that, I just don't think I could come close to doing as good a job as one of my favorite bloggers, philosophers and authors, Professor Bob Carroll.

Please check that out.  All I can do for this beautiful piece of work is to pay it the highest compliment I can and say "I wish I'd written it!"

Bob Marshall - Have you heard this guy?

I wasn't planning on postign twice today, but I had to deal with THIS.

Apparenlty Bob Mashall (-R, what else?), a Virginia State legislator from Manassass, thinks that disabled children are God's punnishment for abortions.  His exact words:

"The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.  In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There's a special punishment Christians would suggest."

I see.
 
So, putting aside that my wife, who happens to be the only woman I've been with in my entire life, has never had an abortion, your explanation for my two autistic sons is... arbortion.
 
God is punnishing me.  What a laugh.  Considering the love I have for them, I'd say that your God would have to do a lot better than that if he's trying to drive the point home.  (But go figure... What do expect from a diety who's spoken almost exclusively through madmen over the centuries?)  What's more, if your God in fact did intend to punnish me by putting this incredible burden on my children then I say that your God is not a just God.  And your God is, in fact, beneath me.
 
Finially, it occures to me that our elected officials sevre us.  They are elected to represent us.  If I lived in Virginia, apparently this pious fraud feels that my family, and my children are not part of his constituency.  You know... makred and curesed by God and all.
 
Senator?
 
FUCK YOU.
 
Take you Old Testament, magical-thinking, superstitious, medieval nonsense and SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS.
 
No God that exsists in the minds of people today (since that's pretty much the only place God exsists anyway) exacts his vengence upon the mother and father by giving them handicapped children.  I thought the last bastion of that kind of cruel, insulting nonsense was currently breathing it's last gasp in fucking INDIA.  Maybe that kind of thinking is acceptable on a remote pacific island, as yet undiscovered by man, or deep in the Amazon amoungst illiterate tribesmen, but this is the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and the year is 2010.
 
And you, sir, are not fit to serve, in any capacity, in the governing of any part of this great nation.
 
I would hope your next child or grandchild gets cancer, but alas I am a far more just MAN that your GOD is, apparenlty.  As for you?  There is no penalty is too great, no misfortune too severe that may befall you that would earn you my sympathy.  My children are not a curse. And I will never forgive you for calling them such.

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Here's an online petition calling for his resignation.  I've signed it, and I encourage everyone to.