Religion – Page 28 – Politics Plus

Open Thread–9/13/2013

Posted by TomCat at 1:37 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Sep 132013

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 91, and this is tomorrow’s only article. The temperature at my desk will top 100° today, tomorrow and Saturday, so color me miserable. Tomorrow id Friday, the 13th, so although I am Caucasian, I will still be your honorary black cat.

FridayThe13th

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:09 (average 4:29). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From The New Yorker: Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) was harshly critical today of President Obama’s nationally televised address about Syria this week, telling CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “The President’s decision to think before attacking another country flies in the face of American foreign policy.”

“The United States of America has been involved in countless armed conflicts since this great nation was founded,” Mr. McCain said. “Many of those would never have happened if we’d stopped to think about them first. Sadly, the President seems not to have learned this lesson of history.”

Calling the President “an Ivy League law professor who never met a thought he didn’t like,” Mr. McCain said that he was urging Mr. Obama “to please take thinking off the table.”…

Andy’s satire has captured McConJob’s very soul!

From MSNBC: Rachel Maddow on complexity of Mideast problems.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As complex as the problems are, Republican solutions are simple. Whatever Obama is for, they are against it, even when they said they were for it yesterday. That is not governance. It is sabotage and sedition. Crowley made a lot of sense.

From Right Wing Watch: American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer yesterday tied together the closure of an Oregon bakery that refused to serve gay customers who were trying to find a wedding cake and the rapidly-collapsing story of an Air Force officer who insists he was punished by a superior over his views on gay marriage. Fischer said that the two accounts were proof of growing anti-Christian persecution in Obama’s America.

I can say for a fact that he’s lying about the bakery. The proprietors refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Political activists organized a boycott and reported them to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI). The Oregon Equality Act of 2007 guarantees that people can not be denied service at a public business, based on sexual orientation. (Oregon leads the way!) BOLI launched an investigation, and the bakery shut down voluntarily to avoid criminal charges. Their hateful discrimination was more important to them than their business. All they had to do is to obey the law, and the problem would have vaporized. Also, LGBT folk don’t shout “Homo Akbar”. That lie is a World Net Daily meme.

Cartoon:

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Contrary to Republican lies, Democrats did NOT invent the national debt.

Pseudo-Christian Blood Diamonds

Posted by TomCat at 1:29 am Politics, Religion

Sep 122013

During the civil war in Rwanda, millions of Americans, made contributions to aid refugees from that conflict. But most of the money that those caring people gave through one organization, Operation Blessing, ended up financing diamond mining instead. The profits were then hidden away offshore to evade the lawful taxes due. This was done by one of the most despicable Republicans alive.

A new documentary may be one of the highest-caliber shells fired across Pat Robertson’s bow in a long time. Back in 1994, Robertson’s humanitarian organization, Operation Blessing, claimed to have raised scads of money to help thousands of Rwandan refugees who fled across the border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But according to Mission Congo, slated to premiere tonight at the Toronto International Film Festival, much of that money actually went to fund a diamond mining operation run by Robertson.

Mission Congo, by David Turner and Lara Zizic, opens at the Toronto film festival on Friday. It describes how claims about the scale of aid to Rwandan refugees were among a number of exaggerated or false assertions about the activities of Operation Blessing which pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in donations, much of it through Robertson’s televangelism. They include characterising [sic] a failed large-scale farming project as a huge success, and claims about providing schools and other infrastructure.

But some of the most damaging criticism of Robertson comes from former aid workers at Operation Blessing, who describe how mercy flights to save refugees were diverted hundreds of miles from the crisis to deliver equipment to a diamond mining concession run by the televangelist.

Read more about the film at the festival Website. The allegations it makes would send a chill down the spine of any fair-minded viewer. Officials with Doctors Without Borders told the filmmakers that Operation Blessing was more or less nonexistent in one of the hardest-hit towns, Goma–only one tent and seven doctors. Then, several weeks later, even that minimal effort apparently stopped… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Daily Kos>

I urge you to click through and read the rest of this article to learn how most of the operation was just a front for Robertson’s diamond mining, how he ignored the plight of the refugees, how he cheated the millions who trusted him, and how he hid the money away. No authentic Christian would behave in this way, but then, Robertson has nothing to do with Christianity. He’s a Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian.

Open Thread–8/30/2013

Posted by TomCat at 12:47 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Aug 302013

I’m writing for tomorrow, day 77, before leaving to go to the doctor. Unless I get a highly unexpected second wind, this will be tomorrow’s only article. Tonight is the last of the pretend worship days in Church of the Ellipsoid Orb. Nevertheless I will be worshiping this evening, if I can stay awake for it. Real worship starts next Thursday evening.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:51 (average 4:54). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Religious Agony:

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Short Takes:

From NY Times: Unless a handful of wavering Democrats change their minds, the Republican-controlled Missouri legislature is expected to enact a statute next month nullifying all federal gun laws in the state and making it a crime for federal agents to enforce them here. A Missourian arrested under federal firearm statutes would even be able to sue the arresting officer.The law amounts to the most far-reaching states’ rights endeavor in the country, the far edge of a growing movement known as “nullification” in which a state defies federal power.

These damn fool Republicans refuse to admit that this issue was settled at Appomattox Courthouse.

From Right Wing Watch: The Christian Broadcasting Network has embarked on a total and frankly embarrassing cover-up of Pat Robertson’s statement yesterday that gay people in San Francisco try to cut people’s fingers with special rings in order to infect them with AIDS. After editing Robertson’s comments out of their online broadcast of the 700 Club and taking down their own YouTube video featuring the claims, CBN has now filed with a flimsy copyright complaint against Right Wing Watch’s copy of the video on YouTube, causing it to be temporarily removed.

That’s right, CBN is going out of its way to get rid of all evidence of comments made by CBN’s own founder, who even released a statement defending his assertions and insisted that he was once a target of a malicious gay AIDS ring plot. We have uploaded the video to Vimeo which you can watch here, unless CBN tries to take it down (UPDATE: Vimeo pulled the video, but you can now watch it on DailyMotion):

Update: Since I wrote this the damn hate monger has had it removed from Daily Motion. RWW moved it to Flickr. God only knows how long it will last.

This should rate another Republicans on Parade award for this hate monger, but it's too soon. This Republican can run, but he can’t hide. I wish I could see the expression on his face, when he hears the words, “I never knew you.”

From Crooks and Liars: This is your Moment of Clarity #257 [from Lee Camp]: This is the good news episode. In it I cover Mr. Rogers, rainbows, puppets, and people standing up against the pillaging of the world.

I like this guy! He hasn't uploaded Part 2 yet.

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How in hell did we ever replace him with TEAbugger Thomas?

Open Thread–8/25/2013

Posted by TomCat at 12:02 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Aug 252013

I’m writing for day 72, and I feel chilly! Love it! I also feel tied, because I slept the clock around yesterday. I got some news on the apartment. We’re not waiting for an approval of me. We’re waiting for for the last details to be ironed out, between the head honcho at the company that owns the building and the county, on an agreement covering all that company’s buildings. Part of the agreement is that units in certain buildings will be “fair market value”. The bureaucrat is back, but now the honcho is on vacation until mid September. ARGH! Tonight in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb, my broncos and the St. Lou9s Rams will portend to worship, so I’ll make a place for that in advance, like I do for the puzzles.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:21 (average 4:35). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Religious Ecstasy:

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Short Takes:

From Slate (Hat-Tip to Joanne Dixon at Care2): Can You Solve Slate’s Gerrymandering Jigsaw Puzzle?

This is sort of like Jig Zone, but this is REAL!

Here are my scores:

Michigan 2:06

North Carolina 2:09

Pennsylvania 3:56

Maryland 0:59

Ohio 2:10

If you can do it without freaking out (I couldn’t), you’ll probably beat me.

From NY Times: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who pleaded guilty to slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians inside their homes, will spend the rest of his life in prison, a military jury decided on Friday.

Murder 16, and you get life without parole. Murder hundreds of thousands, and you get a Presidential Library on the campus Texas A&M.

From MSNBC: The OTHER side of the late Rev. Billy Graham

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I have no desire do drag this man’s corpse through the ashes. I point out how he wanted to cut reporters’ throats in the name of Supply Side Jesus, simply to demonstrate that the hatred being taught within Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christianity is not the exception, and it never has been. It is the rule.

Cartoon:

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I’ll give you a great TomCat scan for $0.50!

Republicans on Parade–8/21/2013

Posted by TomCat at 12:51 am Politics, Religion

Aug 212013

RepublicansOnParade2

Here is the nineteenth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is infamous Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian, Pat Robertson, for accusing Obama of making a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Pat Robertson kicked off today’s edition of the 700 Club [pseudo-Christians delinked] by interviewing Christian Broadcasting Network contributor Raymond Ibrahim, who spent most of the time rehashing a claim he said he heard from the Egyptian press that “Obama is in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood.”…

…Robertson said that it’s “appalling” and “shocking to think Obama may have made a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Robertson, who has previously warned that Obama has a Muslim “inclination” and might be a “crypto-Muslim,” lamented that “we’ve got a president, you wonder about where he is coming from.” He also warned the Obama administration is trying to aid the Muslim Brotherhood’s drive “to establish an Islamic super-state.” [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>

I trust you need no convincing that Robertson is a Republican. Many highly partisan Republican incompetents, who who were political appointees under Texas Torquemada, burrowed-in. They were transferred to non-partisan permanent posts. Hundreds of these are Roberts’ Regents University graduates.

My favorite Robertson story is how he “prophesied” that a hurricane would hit Disney World to punish them for adopting a policy of non-discrimination against LGBT employees. The next hurricane that hit the US did considerable damage to Robertson’s Virginia Beach HQ instead. 🙂

Kill the Gays Activist to be Sued

Posted by TomCat at 2:11 am Politics, Religion

Aug 182013

Scott Lively, a Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian, has been one of the driving forces behind the Kill the Gays Bill in Uganda. Gay Ugandans just won the right to sue him in the US for that role. The government in Uganda, still trying to put it in place, is dominated by “The Family”, the same organization so popular with Republicans and very few DINOs, operators of the infamous C Street House.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Posner cleared the path on Wednesday for a groundbreaking lawsuit to proceed against Scott Lively. Lively, president of the virulently anti-gay Abiding Truth Ministries, is being sued by the LGBT rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMU) for his pivotal role in promoting the persecution of LGBT Ugandans.

SMU alleged in its complaint that Lively and his allies “devised and carried out a program of persecution” and “strategies to dehumanize, demonize, silence, and further criminalize” LGBT Ugandans. They are seeking damages, a finding that Lively violated international law and an injunction against future efforts to persecute their organization and community.

Lively is one of the most virulent anti-gay activists on the scene today. He authored the infamous revisionist history The Pink Swastika, which claims that homosexuality was at the root of the Nazi Party and Holocaust. He makes similar claims about the Rwandan genocide. Judge Posner described (pdf) these arguments as “bordering on ludicrous” in his Wednesday ruling…

Inserted from <SPLC>

Rachel Maddox was one of the first to cover the Kill the Gays bill three years ago.

Later shed tied in the connection with Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians in the US.

James Inhofe, and from what I understand, several other prominent Republicans, were present at the Ugandan Family Prayer Breakfast, when the Kill the Gays bill was planned there.

I fully support the suit by SMU and hope they can remove the Republican puppet-government from their nation. To see why I say this, look at the other seven times I have covered the story over the years: here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Open Thread–8/15/2013

Posted by TomCat at 1:07 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Aug 152013

Writing for tomorrow, day 62, it’s still cool, early in the day. Yesterday’s meeting with my guys in prison went great. In our CoDA group, we discussed boundaries, and the guys inspired me with the depth of their understanding of where they need to improve and with their progress in doing so. Critter sends greetings to Critter and promises to excel, lest he be buried in Critter Crap. The down side is that I’m beat, after missing sleep, pushing my endurance limits, and returning to a super-heated, closed-up apartment, so this is tomorrow’s only article.

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 4:35 (average 5:26). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes:

From MSNBC: FDR’s evolution of thinking on Keynesian economics,

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Keynesian economics is so outdated, that it has only one thing going for it. It works! That’s why today’s Republicans hate it so.

From Raw Story: Fox News host Mike Huckabee and Ted Nugent on Tuesday hatched a plan to take the conservative rocker’s “world’s greatest hunting dog” and “him loose on some Democrats” so they could get the “varmints” out of office.

Huckabee began his Tuesday interview with Nugent by asking about “Gonzo, the wonder Labrador Retriever.”

“Nobody hunts more than the Nugent family,” Nugent explained. “We literally hunt anywhere between 250 and 300 days a year. And you think Gonzo is good on ducks, you should see him on squirrels and doves and rabbits and woodcock and grouse. He really is a mystical, wonderful hunting dog.”

“Well, maybe we ought to turn him loose on some Democrats and see if he can hunt them too,” Huckabee suggested.

Now, where did Rev. Mike Huckabee, aka Upchuck Huck or Upchuckabee, get such a loving idea? From Republican Supply-side Jesus (the one they invented, not the real Jesus), of course.

From Robert Reich: 7 Lies

I think I’ve posted this before, but it Robert Reich didn’t think we need to be reminded how to debunk these Republican lies, he would not have reposted it on his site today. I agree.

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The commerce clause sure exists when they want to use it!

Open Thread–8/11/2013

Posted by TomCat at 12:56 am Open Thread, Personal, Politics, Religion

Aug 112013

As I write for tomorrow, day 58, it’s 82° at my desk. Instead of getting a thunderstorm, the sun just hit the breezeway, so my continued comfort depends on whether it stays out long enough to superheat the air trapped there. Yesterday a church group visited the building, including the Republican Mayor of a Portland suburb. He is a nice guy, and unlike most Republicans, he will listen. In discussing the applicability of the Old Testament to today. I think I frustrated him, as he told me it would be wrong for me to stone my noisy next door neighbor to death for mixing meat and dairy. He also said that, even if I move to his town, he will not allow me to own a Canadian, although the OT authorizes it. On the down side, I fell into the donut hole yesterday. Major ARGH!

Jig Zone Puzzle:

Today’s took me 3:57 (average 5:06). To do it, click here.

Short Takes:

From TPM: These days it seems no gaffe will stay hidden for long.

The recording of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) campaign manager that surfaced Thursday — you know, the “holding my nose” one — is just one among a collection of taped gaffes that have taken off in recent years.

From George Allen’s “macaca” incident to Mitt Romney’s infamous 47 percent comment, here’s a recap of some taped gaffes that the politicians themselves probably never thought would go public…

Click through for four wonderful videos of Republicans caught with a foot as deeply embedded in their mouths, as their heads are embedded up their asses.

From MSNBC: Move the Olympics to Vancouver!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Beam those Olympics elsewhere, Mr. Sulu! Everyone, please sign the petition, I did.

From Newstimes: The still-raw emotions created by the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and its aftermath, boiled over here Friday, as gun rights supporters poured into the local Starbucks, to the dismay of many.

The Church Hill Road store, normally open until 9:30 p.m. closed at 4:30 p.m. A sign posted on the front of the store said it did so "out of respect for Newtown and everything our community has been through.

For these hate-filled armed Republicans to pull an "open carry" event in Newtown demonstrates a total lack of respect for the suffering that town has undergone. Kudos to the local Starbucks there for kicking the bastards out!

Cartoon:

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Wow! Was putting them on camera a mistake or what. For a mind blowing experience, check out the 1924 election map.

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