Religion – Page 21 – Politics Plus

Open Thread–9/19/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:00 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Sep 192014

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 151. I’ve only had a couple hours of sleep since yesterday morning. I just can’t get to sleep. I have no idea why. I have to be up early tomorrow for physical therapy, and that will wipe out my research time, so expect a Personal Update only on Saturday morning.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:07 (average 4:52). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Two days after voting against the Paycheck Fairness Act, a law that would help women to obtain equal pay, the four female Republicans in the United States Senate co-sponsored a bill that would slash their salaries to seventy-one per cent of what their male colleagues earn.

The senators—Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)—said that the best way to take a stand against big government’s intrusive attempts to mandate equal pay for women was to take a twenty-nine-per-cent pay cut themselves.

“The days of the federal government forcing us to earn as much as male senators are over,” Ayotte said. “We will not stop fighting until we make twenty-nine per cent less.”

Fischer said that after voting down paycheck equity for women across America, the female Republican senators realized that they themselves were “burdened by the tyranny of equal pay” in the U.S. Senate.

LOL Andy! Fat chance! With Republicans, deprivation is for the rest of us only, never for them!

From Daily Kos: Noxious fundamentalist gasbag Bryan Fischer has come up with a bizarre new definition of a ‘Christian’ nation: it’s one where you can buy bacon. According to Fischer:

Barf Bag Alert!

What an idiot! According to him, India is a Christian nation. Bacon is on the menu there, but it’s Hindu. Lets also not forget places where Buddhism is the dominant religion.

From NY Times: An unusual but overwhelming coalition in the House voted Wednesday to authorize the training and arming of Syrian rebels to confront the militant Islamic State, backing President Obama after he personally pleaded for support.

The 273-to-156 vote was over a narrow military measure with no money attached, but it took on outsize importance and was infused with drama, reflecting the tension and ambiguity of members wary of the ultimate path to which any war vote could lead.

There was rare unity between House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, who strongly backed the training legislation and sought to portray it as a modest measure. And the opposition included the equally unlikely pairings of antiwar Democrats and hawkish Republicans.

Of course most Republicans support a measure that uses taxpayer dollars to buy weapons from military contractors to arm the rebels. I see a problem, because there is no money attached. How much do you want to bet that Republican’s will want cuts in spending for poor and middle class necessities to balance the cost of funding it?

Cartoon:

0919Cartoon

Is ISIS Islamic?

Posted by TomCat at 12:07 am Politics, Religion

Sep 132014

I’ve been hearing a not if noise of late from America’s lunatic fringe, aka the Republican Party that we should be burning the Koran, forbidding the construction of mosques, expelling Muslims from the armed services, etc., because the conflict against ISIS is a conflict against Islam, So let us ask, “Is ISIS Islamic?” The following author says no.

Conservatives reacted harshly to President Obama’s claim on Wednesday night that the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) “is not Islamic,” accusing the commander-in-chief of naiveté and ignorance. “What kindergartner briefs the President on terrorism?” Ron Christie, a GOP strategist tweeted. “ISIS says it’s Islamic, lots of people say it’s Islamic, only the president won’t,” George Will told Fox News shortly after the speech.

But the full context of Obama’s remark points to an important distinction between Islam and the extremist ideology that’s sweeping parts of Iraq and Syria. “No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim,” Obama said. “ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.”

Indeed, even from the viewpoint of a casual observer, ISIS is an abomination to Islam. Explosions tend to capture the media’s attention more than peaceful coexistence, and a minuscule minority of extremist groups claiming to be Islamic have exploited this fact as a way to reinvent Islam as a “violent” religion. But just because you shout God’s name while committing murder doesn’t make your actions righteous. Islam, as millions of Muslims can attest, is a peaceful religion that calls on its followers to choose community over conflict, or, as it says in Surah al-Hujurat of the Qur’an (49:13): “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise [each other]).”

But ISIS clearly has little regard for this or other fundamental tenets of Islam… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

I fully agree. ISIS has nothing in common with authentic Islam. Their behavior is the opposite of Islam’s most basic tenants. If short, they are pseudo-Muslims. Then, to whom can we righty compare them?

Pseudo-Muslims are Dominionist. They believe that a theocracy should rule over the smallest details of people’s personal lives. In that way, they are just like Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians. Pseudo-Muslims have formed violent militias. In that way they are just like Republican Supply-side pseudo Christians. Note that the Bundy militia shares the above graphic with ISIS. It’s hard to tell them apart. Pseudo-Muslims execute people they consider unclean. In that way they are just like Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians, who have called for the death penalty for gays, and US Republican Senators and Congressmen actually helped Ugandan pseudo-Christians draft a law to execute gays. Thank God it failed!

A pattern is emerging here. Religion is not the problem. Authentic Muslims and authentic Christians get along just fine. The problems come, when extremists with a political agenda hijack a religion to impose authority over others, usually through violently enforced piety codes.

Be warned. There is one major difference between pseudo-Muslims and pseudo-Christians. The latter are here and have the support of the Republican Party.

Carbon Tax Makes Inroads

Posted by TomCat at 1:29 am Religion

Aug 302014

I have long supported the idea of a carbon tax because it is the most direct way for corporate polluters cover the cost they are now pushing onto taxpayers. In several nations, the carbon tax ix making inroads. Chile, for one, is making excellent progress since throwing off the murderous Pinochet dictatorship, established by Nixon, Kissinger, and the US Republican Party in 1971.

It’s a big year for fighting climate change in Chile. A carbon tax is set to go before its House of Representatives next week, as part of a larger tax reform package that includes measures intended to fight air pollution and climate change. Chile would become the first country in South America to institute a carbon tax, and the second in Latin America after Mexico, which imposed its carbon tax in January.

A carbon tax is what it sounds like. The government charges emitters of carbon pollution for every metric ton they release into the atmosphere. Carbon taxes are gaining popularity as a way to massively cut the amount of carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere, while creating jobs, raising incomes, and cutting deficits in countries where they’re implemented. British Columbia, Canada has had a carbon tax since 2008 and has seen success cutting energy use and carbon emissions, and giving revenue from the tax back to low-income families to offset higher energy prices.

Chile’s initial tax will be $5 per ton of CO2, and Mexico’s taxes fuels at different rates, averaging out to about $3.50 per ton. Those are both pretty low, but once a carbon tax is in place, it can be raised. British Columbia’s started at C$10 per ton in 2008, ramping up over the years to C$30 in 2012. A study in California found that even a $200-a-ton carbon price would actually help businesses and create jobs in the state, though it’s far higher than anything that has been tried yet.

There is currently no carbon tax in the United States, and any attempt to pass one would be extremely difficult, thanks in part to a pledge from the Koch-backed organization Americans For Prosperity that requires signers to “oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.” A third of the U.S. House of Representatives and a quarter of Senators have signed the pledge… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

In 2008, Obama supported a Carbon Tax, while both Clinton and the Republican Party supported Cap and Trade. In a misbegotten early attempt to foster bipartisanship, Obama switched to Cap and Trade, and the Republican Party disowned it immediately, calling it Cap and Tax and a Socialist, Kenyan conspiracy. Now Republicans just support polluters, because that what the Koch Brothers want. So we get to suck pollution, while Republican politicians suck … never mind.

Last Week’s Insane Republican Rants

Posted by TomCat at 12:43 am Politics, Religion

Aug 252014

Every week, Republicans join a competition to see who can say the most outlandish things, and in the process, every week they push the envelope on just how Insane InsaniTEA can become. I trust that you will believe it, when I tell you that last week was no exception.

…Fox host confuses ISIS with Islam—suggests solution is “bullet in the head.”

Among the distinctions Fox hosts are unable to make is the difference between violent, extremist Muslims and all other Muslims. They are all alike to the Islamophobe. It takes almost no provocation to draw out this confusion, and the beheading of journalist James Foley by the militant group ISIS easily did the trick. On Wednesday’s edition of “Outnumbered,” co-host Andrea Tantaros, a beacon of subtle thinking, really let her ignorance fly.

“If you study the history of Islam,” she said, as if she had actually studied the history of Islam, “our ship captains were getting murdered. The French had to tip us off. I mean these were the days of Thomas Jefferson. They’ve been doing the same thing. This isn’t a surprise. You can’t solve it with a dialogue. You can’t solve it with a summit. You solve it with a bullet to the head. It’s the only thing these people understand. And all we’ve heard from this President is a case to heap praise on this religion, as if to appease them.”

Apart from the rather dubious history, and the idea that going all the way back to Thomas Jefferson’s day gives you a complete picture of Islam, we couldn’t help notice the use of the lovely catchphrase “these people.” Always a tip off.

Right Andrea, this whole ISIS thing is nothing a little ethnic cleansing wouldn’t solve…

Inserted from <AlterNet>

I was able to find video. Barf Bag Alert!!

Now the conflict in which our ship captains were getting murdered in the days of Thomas Jefferson actually was resolved with a dialogue. The product of that dialogue was the Treaty of Tripoli. It was ratified unanimously by the founding fathers that comprised the Senate at that time, and it states that the US is not a Christian nation, and the US has no objections to Islam. This is the exact opposite of Tanteros’ Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian rant.

This was just one of five insane Republican rants from last week alone! Click through for the other four.

Obama Fights Back on Birth Control

Posted by TomCat at 12:34 am Politics, Religion

Aug 242014

I can’t honestly say that I’m happy with everything Barack Obama has done as President. I’m not angry, because both times that I voted for him, I knew I was voting for a centrist, even though I would rather have voted for a progressive, but I also knew that the only electable alternatives would have brought with them the end of representative government. Even though they hold only one branch of the federal government, they are still using every lie, trick and theft they can muster in attempts to insert themselves into every position of power and between every woman’s legs. At least with respect to the latter, he is fighting back.

For most of the last year, the Supreme Court has forced the Obama Administration into an elaborate dance, where the Court hands down orders casting doubt upon the administration’s efforts to ensure that all women have access to affordable birth control — while simultaneously implying that everything would be fine if the administration just designed their birth control policy a different way. Friday, the administration is expected to announce a new policy that appears designed to end this dance and force the justices to rule definitively [Faux Print delinked] on whether employers with religious objections to birth control effectively have the power to restrict their employees’ access to birth control coverage, no matter how the government structures its regulations.

Up until now, the administration’s rules treated non-profit and for-profit employers as separate entities. Religious non-profits who object to birth control could exempt themselves from the requirement to offer contraceptive care to their employees by filling out a specific form that informs the government of their objection, and sending a copy of the form to their insurance provider or administrator. In most cases, once the non-profit employer submitted this form, their insurer would then contract separately with their workers to ensure that those workers had contraceptive coverage. These non-profit rules spawned one round of litigation brought by religious non-profit organizations which claim that even being required to fill out a short form violates their religious liberty.

Meanwhile, for-profit employees were required to comply with their legal obligations to their employees. Prior to the Supreme Court’s June decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which significantly reworked the balance of power between employers and employees, the law was clear that for-profit businesses could not invoke their owners’ religious beliefs to exempt themselves from their legal obligations to their workers. “When followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice,” the Court held in its 1982 decision in United States v. Lee, “the limits they accept on their own conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are binding on others in that activity.” Hobby Lobby, of course, was the culmination of a second round of litigation brought by for-profit employers whose owners have religious objections to birth control. And it effectively eliminated the protections Lee extended to workers, at least with respect to federal law….

…In any event, however, the Obama Administration’s new rules will likely put an end to the Supreme Court’s ability to move the goalposts every time someone raises a new objection to the administration’s policy. The administration has now crafted its rules to comply almost to the letter with the requirements suggested by previous Supreme Court opinions. Now, the rest of the country will have to wait to find out whether Hobby Lobby actually permits this latest set of rules — or whether the language in that decision leading the Obama Administration in this direction will simply end with Lucy pulling away the football one more time…

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Click through for how the five Injustices SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD) have resorted to trickery to violate the Constitution while blaming their First Amendment violations on regulations. It is my hope that Roberts will flip in an attempt to preserve the legacy of the Court,not that Obama is denying him regulations as an excuse. Make sure to prevent any more Republican appointments to the court until children ask, “What’s a Republican?”, and nobody remembers.

Open Thread–8/22/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:03 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Aug 222014

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 123. My COPD is still severe. Tomorrow I have to be up early for my quarterly visit to my Podiatrist for minor surgery to cut the recurring growth from my foot. I will be gone the entire time I normally do research and writing, so I’ll be surprised if I have more than a Personal Update for Saturday, which is also a Holy Day in Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. My Broncos’ Meditation with the Oilers will not be televised here. Crying face

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:13 (average 6:24). To do it, l click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: t seems that some citizens of Ferguson want to increase the extremely low voter participation rate in Ferguson, and the Missouri GOP (or, at least the leadership) is not happy about that effort at all.

From The New Civil Rights Movement:

In an interview with Breitbart News, Missouri RNC executive director Matt Wills expressed outrage about the reports of voter registration booths popping up in Ferguson, Breitbart reports.

“If that’s not fanning the political flames, I don’t know what is,” Wills said, “I think it’s not only disgusting but completely inappropriate.”

Wills explained that the shooting death of Michael Brown was a tragedy for everyone.

“This is not just a tragedy for the African American community this is a tragedy for the Missouri community as well as the community of what we call America,” he said. “Injecting race into this conversation and into this tragedy, not only is not helpful, but it doesn’t help a continued conversation of justice and peace.”

RepubliSpeak Dictionary
Justice: Just us!
Peace: Dominion!

From YouTube: Unbelievably Ignorant & Flat-Out Stupid Moron in DC Rant About "Obamahitler" and Media
Uploaded on Sep 16, 2009

(By David Neiwert, http://crooksandliars.com ) A camera crew from Free Speech Radio showed up in D.C. on Saturday for the big GlennBeckFest. It was frightening and disturbing and even got ugly

Bagger Barf Bag Alert!!

Five years later, Republican hate marches on.

From Right Wing Watch: In response to a video released yesterday showing Islamist extremists killing and beheading American journalist James Foley, Bryan Fischer used his radio program today to renew his call to ban all Muslim immigration to America by likening the faith to the Ebola virus.

Pseudo-Christian Barf Bag Alert!!

If his rationale is correct, then no nation on earth should allow American Christians to visit to allay the possibility of admitting a Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian Ammosexual terrorists. Neither is in any way related to authentic Islam or Christianity. They are, however, closely related to each other.

Cartoon:

0822Cartoon

Open Thread–8/19/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:13 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Aug 192014

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 120. My COPD is still severe, and I have pain in my lower back. I’m hoping against hope that it isn’t another kidney stone. Just in case, I’m super-hydrating. (That worked)

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:01 (average 4:24). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Last week’s indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry has sparked widespread bipartisan support for the concept of sending politicians to prison for ninety-nine years.

While Americans are divided about the merits of the specific charges levelled against Perry, there is near-unanimous agreement that imprisoning politicians for ninety-nine years is an idea worth exploring further, a poll released on Monday indicates.

According to the poll, eighty-seven per cent of voters from both parties agreed that sending politicians to prison for such a lengthy period would “solve a lot of problems” and “make the country safer.”

LOL Andy. Welcome back! I frequently tell my guys in prison that they made a bad career choice, when the did not opt to be elected criminals, as opposed to convicted ones.

From Vox: Missouri Governor Jay Nixon on Monday ordered the state’s National Guard to Ferguson to help contain rising tensions and violence over the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown.

The announcement came after the St. Louis suburb endured another night of violence as several agitators, whom Brown’s family and other protest leaders condemned, engaged in shootings, hurled Molotov cocktails, and vandalized various businesses. Security officials reported at least three injuries, although none were police officers.

"These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory"

"Tonight, a day of hope, prayers, and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk," Nixon said in a statement. "These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory, and to the people of this community who yearn for justice to be served, and to feel safe in their own homes."

A lot of people don’t realize what’s really going on here. We are dealing with two distinct groups. First there are protestors. They are essentially peaceful, and we were moving rapidly toward a resolution, thanks to State Police Captain Ron Johnson, until they were enraged by incendiary statements from the Ferguson Police Chief and the St. Louis County DA, who sabotaged an improving situation. I think that was intentional, and intended to provoke violence to distract from the criminal behavior by police. The protestors are so angry that they refuse to disband. Second, there are the looters and anarchists. Virtually all of them are not local. They do not care about the issues the demonstrators care about. They are there to commit crimes. I only hope that the National Guard will respond to each group separately and appropriately. My own experience with the Guard in the 1960s has stained the streets of several Eastern and Midwest cities with my blood, as I demonstrated peacefully, so my hope is not high.

From Right Wing Watch: This, weekend Christian Post blogger Michael Bresciani pointed out [pseudo-Christian delinked] the real culprit for terrorist attacks: gay people.

Bresciani writes that LGBT “perversion” is bringing the world “in danger of judgment” and, in fact, “these judgments have already begun and terrorism is part of it.”

Bresciani adds that evolution and the separation of church and state, which he claims is the invention of Satan, are also responsible for inciting divine punishment.

Simply put, this Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian is claiming that God is punishing us all, because we don’t hate gay people, believe pseudo-science and allow the unconstitutional choice of Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity as the state religion.

Cartoon:

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Open Thread–8/17/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:25 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Aug 172014

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 118. The Fantasy Football draft made it a busy day. The TC Broncos are built around Manning, Ball and Welker, so I like the team I put together. However I’ve been running late ever since, and my COPD has been active today and prevented sleep.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:26 (average 4:40). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: James O. Pasco Jr., the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, didn’t much care for what President Obama had to say Thursday about racist police behavior in Ferguson, Missouri. Not that the president said it was racist. Here’s Mario Trujillo reporting:

"I would contend that discussing police tactics from Martha’s Vineyard is not helpful to ultimately calming the situation," director Jim Pasco said in an interview with The Hill.

"I think what he has to do as president and as a constitutional lawyer is remember that there is a process in the United States and the process is being followed, for good or for ill, by the police and by the county and by the city and by the prosecutors’ office," Pasco added. […]

"I’m not there, and neither is the president," Pasco said. "That is why we have due process in the United States. And this will all be sorted out over time. But right now, I haven’t seen anything from afar — and maybe the president has — that would lead me to believe the police are doing anything except to restore order."

What this Republican pig (individual description, not indicative of all police) fails to realize is that when the due process of which he speaks is subverted by those responsible for guaranteeing it, intervention is needed.

From Think Progress: At a political debate on Thursday night, a GOP candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives left the room laughing after he struggled to answer a question on his position on reproductive rights. Rep. Mike Coffman (R), who’s running for re-election in Colorado’s 6th congressional district, needed help from the crowd to remember what “birth control” is called.

I only hope that, for the sake of the gene pool, his wife either used birth control throughout their married life, or had her children by a brighter bulb.

From Right Wing Watch: David Brody has been teasing out clips of an interview he did this week with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his wife, Judy. At one point in the interview, she played into the Religious Right’s persecution narrative by claiming that Christians like herself are losing their freedom of religion.

Small Barf Bag Alert! A pocket or a shoe will do.

Her whining is a flat out lie. Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians hit opposition, when they attempt to impose their beliefs and/or piety codes on people who do not share them. I never face harassment for being a Christian, because I respect and honor others’ beliefs. Another problems with Republicans is that they disguise their political agenda as religion. I don’t remember Jesus ever suggesting that we take from the poor to give to the rich.

Cartoon:

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