Religion – Page 23 – Politics Plus

Open Thread–6/28/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:24 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jun 282014

Day 68. I’m writing for tomorrow and am feeling somewhat better, having eaten binding foods. But I’m still drained and thoroughly disappointed over missing the volunteer time with my guys. Happy first day od Ramadan to our Muslim friends.

0628Ramadan

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:47 (average 4:34). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker:

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) said today that he plans to sue President Obama for violating the United States Constitution with what Boehner called “his outrageous practice of accomplishing things.”

“The United States Constitution guarantees the American people that its government will be free from activity,” Boehner told reporters. “Again and again, President Obama has broken that sacred trust.”

Ripping the President for his “willful insistence on doing things,” Speaker Boehner said that his lawsuit was intended “to restore the inaction and inertia that have been the hallmarks of our democracy.”

The Speaker acknowledged that suing the President was an extreme measure, but added, “I take this step only after exhausting every other method to prevent him from getting anything done.”

LOL Andy!! I think that Agent Orange is just trying to find a time-wasting show-and-tell for his runaway Baggers that stops short of impeaching Obama, which Boehner knows would pull lazy lefty voters out of their lethargy. He doesn’t care how many taxpayer dollars it wastes.

From Daily Kos: I have often wondered where would be a good place for my young son to go one day to ride out catastrophic climate-changed earth. It is sounding more and more like there’s nowhere to go that is best suited to survive the coming catastrophe.

If climate change continues on its current trajectory, the report concluded, Midwesterners could see deadly heat-and-humidity pairings (which meteorologists call "wet-bulb temperature") two days every year by later this century.

"It will be functionally impossible to be outside, including for things like construction work and farming, as well as recreation," said climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University.

When the time comes, unless we can prevent it, we must remember to call those days Republican days.

From Media Matters: From the June 26 edition of Fox News’ Outnumbered:

Personally, I have never been a soccer fan, and given the abuses centered around the World Wup, I’m not inclined to become one. It would be different, if I had a personal history with the sport, but in my life, I have scored a total of one goal, and that was over fifty years ago. However, only the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, could find a way to use America’s success as a reason to trash Obama.

Cartoon:

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Open Thread – 6/26/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jun 262014

Day 66. I’m writing for tomorrow and waiting for Mary from Store to Door to arrive with my groceries. She has an excellent sense of humor, a giving heart, and a genuine dislike of TEAbuggery. The world needs more like her. Tomorrow is a prison volunteer day, a general meeting with around 100 of my guys. I shall return home late, having missed a sleep cycle, so I may have little or nothing for Friday and/or Saturday.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 6:53 (average 7:47). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: In a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry stressed the importance of forming a unity government in Iraq but refused to commit to a timetable for creating one in the United States.

The sensitive topic of a unity government for the United States came at the end of a thirty-minute meeting, during which Secretary Kerry lectured the Iraqi Prime Minister about the value of a government “where people of different parties put aside their differences, make meaningful compromises, and work together for the good of the nation.”

Taking this in, al-Maliki agreed that it was an excellent idea and politely asked Secretary Kerry if the United States had ever considered forming such a government.

According to observers, Kerry appeared to be caught off guard by this question and blurted out,”You first.”

Andy outdid himself this time.

From Raw Story: A Republican candidate seeking to represent Georgia’s 10th U.S. House district believes that the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty does not apply to followers of Islam.

“Although Islam has a religious component, it is much more than a simple religious ideology,” Rev. Jody Hice wrote in his 2012 book It’s Now Or Never, according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It is a complete geo-political structure and, as such, does not deserve First Amendment protection.”

The House candidate also believes the Muslim Brotherhood is secretly infiltrating the United States in a plot to impose Sharia law on the entire country, a conspiracy theory he shares with Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX).

Hice tied Mike Collins in the Georgia Republican primary in May, with each candidate getting about 34 percent of the vote. The winner of the July 22 runoff election will face Democrat Ken Dious in November.

The Constitution does guarantee an idiot's right to believe in Republican Supply-side pseud0-Christianity, but it expressly forbids such goose-stepping fools, like Hice, from using government to impose it on others, or prevent anyone else from exercising their own faith.

From Crooks and Liars: As Faux "news" was waiting for the election results in Mississippi to come in, Sean Hannity and his producers decided that there was no one more qualified to weigh in on the recent primary races and the future of the Republican party than the half-term Quitta' from Wasilla, or as Charlie Pierce calls her, Princess Dumbass of the Northwoods, Sarah Palin.

Of course the lesson Palin took from the Cantor loss, before hearing the results of the Cochran race, is the the Republicans aren't quite extreme enough, and they'd better start acting like "real" Republicans or she's going to threaten to leave the party.

Triple Barf Bag Alert!!: 5+ minutes of Bloody Bullseye Barbie!

If Drill Baby Dingbat and the InsaniTEA wing leave the Republican Party and form their own party, that would be wonderful for America, but I’m not betting on it.

Cartoon:

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And the Baggers are MA-A-A-A-A-AD!! Black Sheep

Open Thread–6/23/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:04 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Jun 232014

I’m writing for tomorrow and trying to finish early, so I can rest. I still have not recovered from laundry. Day 63.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:50 (average 5:23). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos:

America’s gun death rates — both nationwide and in the states — dwarf those of most other Western industrialized nations. The gun death rate in the United Kingdom in 2011 was 0.23 per 100,000 while in Australia it was 0.86 per 100,000.

States with the Five Highest Gun Death Rates

(Rank State Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate Per 100,000)

1 Louisiana 45.6 percent 18.91

2 Mississippi 54.3 percent 17.80

3 Alaska 60.6 percent 17.41

4 Wyoming 62.8 percent 16.92

5 Montana 61.4 percent 16.74

States with the Five Lowest Gun Death Rates

(Rank State Household Gun Ownership Gun Death Rate Per 100,000)

50 Rhode Island 13.3 percent 3.14

49 Hawaii 9.7 percent 3.56

48 Massachusetts 12.8 percent 3.84

47 New York 18.1 percent 5.11

46 New Jersey 11.3 percent 5.46

For a list of gun death rates in all 50 states, Visit Here.

Lower gun ownership translates to fewer gun deaths. Also note the Red/Blue divide.

From Think Progress: The founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition — whose annual conference has become a rite of passage for likely Republican presidential contenders — compared the conservative opposition to same-sex marriage to slavery on Friday. The comments were first reported by Yahoo News’ Chris Moody.

In a speech during a breakout session at the group’s “Road to Majority” conference in Washington, D.C., Ralph Reed explained that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott, which resolved that slaves were the property of their owners even if they traveled to free states, was instructive for advocates fighting against marriage equality. Following the ruling, Reed argued, many believed the cause of abolition was doomed, but the decision actually energized anti-slavery advocates and they eventually triumphed.

Isn’t it just like a Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian to cite the worst Supreme Court decision in history, prior to the crop of abominations from the Fascist Five Injustices of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD)?

From Huffington Post: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Saturday night accused President Barack Obama and other Democrats of waging wars against religious liberty and education and said that a rebellion is brewing in the U.S. with people ready for "a hostile takeover" of the nation’s capital.

Jindal spoke at the annual conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group led by longtime Christian activist Ralph Reed. Organizers said more than 1,000 evangelical leaders attended the three-day gathering. Republican officials across the political spectrum concede that evangelical voters continue to play a critical role in GOP politics.

"I can sense right now a rebellion brewing amongst these United States," Jindal said, "where people are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C., to preserve the American Dream for our children and grandchildren."

Many times I have put Republicans, who promote the hostile takeover of the US, on Parade for their criminal sedition. A common Republican complaint has been that these Republicans are isolated wing-nuts, not true representatives of the Republican Party. They have a point, this time. Jindal comes from the least insane fringe of the party.

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Hat-Tip to Carrie at Care2 for sending the picture I used to make this.

Open Thread–5/28/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:16 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

May 282014

I’m writing for tomorrow on a busy day. I prepared and gave my grocery order to Store to Door and spent several hours researching the WYSIWYG comment editor problem. Finding a fix for that is like finding liberal Republicans in office, Tomorrow is grocery delivery day. Day 37.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:16 (average 4:49). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Upworthy: As someone who is not American, I first heard about "purity balls" (eesh, that name) for the first time in 2014. It shocked me that fathers and daughters attend these dances to pledge her "purity" and virginity until she is married, giving her little choice or education on, you know, the importance of her own personal choices.

Then I saw this trailer for the documentary "Daddy I Do," which highlights the bigger issue: the serious lack of sexual education in America. Watch filmmaker Cassie Jaye explore the issue in the video below.

The video does an excellent job of exposing the devious way Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians are violating the establishment clause in the 1st Amendment and the way they seek to make women chattel: proferty first of the father and then of the husband.

From Daily Kos: NextGen Climate Action—the Super PAC founded by Tom Steyer, the former California hedge fund chief who seeks to counter the Koch brothers’ climate-change propaganda machine with money from his own fortune—produced this ad calling them out for a verbal duel.

LOL! Buk-buk-buk-buk-Koch-a-doodle-DO!!!

From Alternet: That Elliot Rodger, the now dead suspect in the UC Santa Barbara shootings, was deeply misogynistic has now been well reported. Less known is that the alleged mass murderer engaged in other kinds of hate-mongering, posting racist messages on PuaHate.com, the online forum primarily known for its fomenting of hatred for women.

According to Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch blog, Rodger ranted on the site against interracial dating, black, Asian and Indian men.

Six months before his deadly shooting spree, Rodger posted a message entitled: “Saw a black guy sitting with 4 white girls.” He proceeded to express his rage about the fact that white women would consort with men of color.

Click through for more GOP Hate. That explains his belief that violence in support of hate is justified. He listened to and followed the principles set forth by Republican politicians, pundits, and media.

Cartoon:

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Convert or Else!

Posted by TomCat at 12:19 am Politics, Religion

May 222014

The minions of Republican Supply-side Jesus (the exact opposite of the real Jesus) are hard at work trying to indoctrinate our military in Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity, and the Republican gospel of hate. Their problem is that coercive proselytizing the troops is illegal, so they are calling the enforcement of that law persecution.

Fox News pundit Todd Starnes made waves last year when he claimed that the Air Force was preparing to “court martial” Christians as part of an Obama administration “religious cleansing of the military.”

As it turned out, the policy on proselytizing that Starnes cited to make these claims [PDF] was crafted in 2008 – during the Bush administration – and in no way calls for the court martialing of Christians.

The regulations do stress that “leaders at all levels” should “avoid the actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion. Commanders or supervisors who engage in such behavior may cause members to doubt their impartiality and objectivity. The potential result is a degradation of the unit’s morale, good order, and discipline.”

But the facts didn’t stop Republicans politicians and conservative activists from using the Bush-era policy to attack President Obama and to push for looser restrictions on religious proselytizing in the military.

And now, the Religious Right’s campaign may be succeeding in pressuring the Air Force to water down the 2008 policy. McClatchy reports today that while Air Force officials maintain that the accusations of religious persecution in the military aren’t true, they are considering altering the rules on religious coercion in response to pressure from the Right… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>

Everything that the Republican Party does relates to one of two goals: redistributing wealth from the poor and middle classes to the 1%, and establishing a permanent Republican Regime, a totalitarian plutocracy in which elections exist for show only. I think this relates to the latter. Republicans have seen that totalitarian governments fall when troops refuse to kill their own nation’s citizens during demonstrations. That makes indoctrinating troops a Republican priority.

Open Thread–5/15/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:06 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

May 152014

I’m writing for tomorrow, waiting for a grocery delivery to arrive from Store to Door (highly recommended), and enjoying the breezes it takes to be a real cool cat. :-) Wooo Hooo! Day 24.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:47). To do it click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: What happens when eight million people sign up for private insurance under Obamacare and millions more get coverage under the law’s Medicaid expansion? This:

House Republicans have no scheduled votes or hearings on ObamaCare, signaling a shift in the party’s strategy as the White House rides a wave of good news on the law.

Not a single House committee has announced plans to attack the healthcare law in the coming weeks, and only one panel of jurisdiction commented to The Hill despite repeated inquiries.

GOP campaign committees also declined to say whether they will launch any new efforts on the law.

But according to Senate Republicans, the notion that Republicans are running from their attacks on Obamacare is a load of bunk:

“There is absolutely zero evidence that any Republican is talking about ObamaCare less,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Brook Hougesen in a statement.

Oh yeah? Well, then what do you call this?

0515benghaziobamacare

Whatever you call it, I call it Republicans using their BS in Bullshitology!

From Dallas Morning News: The Wendy Davis campaign is focusing on opponent Greg Abbott’s role as an overseer of the scandal-marred Texas cancer-research agency in a new, strongly worded line of attack. Millions of dollars earmarked for cancer research went to Abbott’s political donors.

Texas suffers from Republican Reich Rule. Wendy Davis for Governor!

From Think Progress: “[O]ur right to the free exercise of religion is co-equal to our right to life, [pseudo-Christian delinked]” according to the campaign website of Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who won his party’s nomination to the United States Senate on Tuesday. Nebraska is a solid red state that preferred Romney to Obama by a massive 21 point margin in 2012, so Sasse is now all but certain to succeed retiring Sen. Mike Johanns (R) this November. If he does, Sasse promises to promote an almost anarchistic vision of religious liberty as a member of the Senate. According to Sasse’s website, “[g]overnment cannot force citizens to violate their religious beliefs under any circumstances. [pseudo-Christian delinked]”

This Republican is claiming at any Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian has the right to break any law at any time. He is wrong. The right to freedom of exercise of Religion does NOT extend to the violation of the Constitutional rights of another. If obeying the law runs counter to his beliefs, and he disobeys, that is civil disobedience, a practice I have engaged in myself. However, part of civil disobedience is facing whatever legal consequences that arise from that act. This extremist is not only a wing-nut. He is also, in all probability, the next US Senator from Nebraska.

Cartoon:

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Open Thread–5/12/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:01 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

May 122014

I’m writing for tomorrow, and I’m rushing. Tomorrow is almost here. I have been busy with housework and could not sleep. Fortunately I did my research early this morning. Day 21.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:05 (average 4:18). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Daily Kos: The huge Kelvin wave that formed in the Pacific a while back, and may bring us a big El Nino, is now reaching the surface. It’s huge, and it’s one of the warmest ever recorded. Here’s the latest from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center

0512Wave

The vertical scale is the depth of this pool of water, while the horizontal scale is the longitudinal location of the pool. A back of the envelope calculation shows that the pool is roughly 5500 miles wide! It seems reasonable to assume that water this warm and this amount of it, is going to dump a lot of heat into the atmosphere, and the resulting weather may not be very pretty for some people.

This may well be the source of the unseasonably hot weather I’m getting this Spring. Such events used to be less common and less intense.

From NY Times: Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has had a tough month.

Two of his fellow commissioners this week said he should delay introducing a new set of net neutrality rules, which he had scheduled for May 15.

A group of 11 United States Senators told him Friday that rules allowing companies to pay an Internet service provider for express-lane access to consumers, as the rules are widely expected to do, would violate the principle of an open Internet.

And last week, a finger-wagging, tough-talking speech he gave to cable television executives received a lukewarm response and engendered questions about what some listeners perceived as a “father knows best” tone.

Mr. Wheeler has vowed to forge ahead.

Late Friday, the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation released a letter from Mr. Wheeler, in which he said that he would ask for public input on whether to classify broadband Internet service as a sort of public utility, a route that many consumer advocacy groups have pushed…

Could it be that Wheeler designed a plan in compliance with a Republican court order to allow a corporate "fast lane" with the intent of stimulating opposition to that plan to use as a rationale for reclassification under Title II? Consider that Wheeler has supported Net Neutrality in the past. When the new rules are released, we must respond forcefully and often.

From Alternet: Charles Krauthammer continues the assault on science, calling it superstition.

Hey, Fox News managed to find another crazy, irresponsible idiot disguised as a sentient being to debunk facts and science: good old Charles Krauthammer. He said on Tuesday that the belief in global climate change is mere “superstition” akin to the “rain dance of Native Americans.”

Why would he say such a thing? Such a provably wrong thing? We have no idea. It could be wishful thinking. Sure, we wish this whole climate change catastrophe would go away, and that we could wake up from it like a bad dream. We wish all these meanie scientists conducting real research based on actual facts would just stop discovering that the news is so very, very bad, and bullying us about it.

Krauthammer took his point a little farther, about science actually being superstition. Yah, and the other way around, too. Up is down Charles. Black is white. No is yes. “It’s always a result of what is ultimately what we’re talking about here, human sin with pollution of carbon. It’s the oldest superstition around. It was in the Old Testament, it’s in the rain dance of Native Americans — if you sin, the skies will not cooperate.”

Still more crazy talk from Chuckie Kraut:

“Ninety-nine percent of physicists were convinced that space and time are fixed, until Einstein working in a patent office wrote a paper in which he showed that they are not,” Krauthammer said. “I’m not impressed by numbers, I’m not impressed by consensus.”

What does impress you Charles? On second thought, maybe don’t answer that.

This is just one of eight most wacko Republicans in their War on Science from last week alone. Click through for the other seven. Note that Krauthammer was not satisfied just to attack science. To the delight of the Republican Reichsministry of propaganda, Faux Noise, he also included a racist attack against Native American spiritual tradition. In sharp contrast, authentic Christian respect others’ beliefs.

Cartoon:

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Open Thread–5/11/2014

Posted by TomCat at 12:19 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

May 112014

I’m writing for tomorrow. My Air conditioner arrived last night. I spent this morning cleaning and preparing the area where it will be installed, so I got a late start on research. They will install it on Monday or Tuesday, and that’s just in time, because Wednesday is forecast to be a another unseasonal scorcher. Day 20.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 2:39 (average 4:45). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From Right Wing Watch: Family Research Council President Tony Perkins implied today that Christians who support gay rights don’t have the same religious rights as conservative Christians because “true religious freedom” only applies to “orthodox religious viewpoints.”

Last month, a group of North Carolina ministers and same-sex couples, along with the United Church of Christ denomination, filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The clergy argue that because of a law that makes it a misdemeanor for a member of the clergy to perform a marriage ceremony without a state license, the same-sex marriage ban violates the religious rights of clergy who wish to perform such ceremonies.

When a caller on Monday’s edition of “Washington Watch” [pseudo-Christians delinked] asked Perkins about his views on the case, Perkins replied that the ministers don’t have the same religious rights as others because they aren’t real Christians and therefore aren’t protected by the “true religious freedoms” given to Christians. [emphasis added]

There you have it straight from the horse’s ass’s mouth. Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians hold that the freedom of religion guaranteed in the First Amendment is for them only.

From Daily Kos: Of course there was going to be opposition to creating the first national women’s history museum. Now close your eyes and ask yourself this question—who do you suppose had the dumbest opposition to such a thing?

"I rise today in opposition to this bill, because I believe ultimately this museum that will be built on the National Mall, on federal land, will enshrine the radical feminist movement that stands against the pro-life movement, the pro-family movement, and pro-traditional marriage movement," [Rep. Michele Bachmann] said on the House floor Wednesday ahead of a vote on the bill.

Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. That’s why we’re gonna miss Michele Bachmann when she’s gone.

When Batshit B is gone, we shall have lost a wondrous source of material for humor. But I can live with the loss. 😉

From The New Yorker: Millions of unemployed Americans who have fruitlessly been looking for work for months are determined that Congress get to the bottom of what happened in Benghazi, a new poll indicates.

According to the survey, job-seeking Americans hope that Congress will eventually do something about job creation, but they are adamant that it hold new hearings about Benghazi first.

By a wide majority, respondents to the poll “strongly agreed” with the statement “I would really like to find a job, but not if it in any way distracts Congress from my No. 1 concern: finding out what really happened in Benghazi.”

The problem here is that Republicans will think Andy is serious.

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