My web hosting service contract is expiring soon. I've decided not to renew it and let this blog go dark.
It isn't because I think all our problems have been solved now that Barack Obama is president. On the contrary, our problems get more severe every day as the fallout from eight years of corrupt, cronyist, incompetent and mouth-foamingly insane misrule by the criminal, treasonous rethug junta comes home to roost. And the rethugs who created the current financial meltdown are determined to prolong and exacerbate it for petty partisan reasons. (And one of the few sane politicians in Arizona, Janet Napolitano, has gone to Washington.) The next few years are going to be very rough indeed.
The reason I'm quitting blogging is that firstly I never have time any more, and secondly, I feel like I just keep repeating myself and have nothing new to say. If you're a regular reader you've probably noticed that this blog gets updated less and less frequently.
I've had fun with this blog over the last few years, met some interesting people, learned a lot about web development, and benefited from having a place to vent at the insanity of America's lost decade. But all good things come to an end. I just hope I've managed to entertain you along the way.
So long, folks, it's been real.
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Author Archive for No More Mr. Nice Guy!
Jim Downey has a discussion going about the death penalty. His father was murdered, which he freely admits biases his viewpoint. Various commenters put forward different points of view.
The paradox of the death penalty, it seems to me, is that some people may indeed be so evil that they have forfeited the right to live, but who has the right to kill them? As I see it, the argument against the death penalty is not what it does to the person being executed, but what it does to society. Aren't we merely being hypocritical when we make a statement about the sanctity of human life by killing someone? Aren't we making ourselves more coarse and brutal by sanctioning violence?
Call me naive, but I think government should be an embodiment of what's best and highest in the society that gives rise to it. It should constantly be on guard against acting out of revenge, or bigotry or ignorance. It should set an example of justice and humanity - it should be better than the sum of its parts.
Make no mistake, the government does play a huge role in leading by example and setting the tone of society in general. Look at how the pants-creaming eagerness of the Cheney regime to embrace torture has filtered down to every police department in the country. Police now routinely and casually use tasers on anyone they take a dislike to or feel like having some fun with. They've had it drummed into them over the last eight years that everyone they meet in their routine day-to-day activities is a potential terrorist, which in their minds justifies the use of extreme measures at the slightest excuse.
What does the death penalty accomplish anyway? Who does it bring back to life? Does it deter anyone from killing? Even if it did, we probably lose more people to wrongful convictions leading to innocent people being executed.
Let's face it, the death penalty has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with revenge. The increasingly common practice of making executions quasi-public so that the victims' families can have a front row seat (one recalls Thomas Aquinas blissfully blathering in Summa Theologica that "the pleasures of heaven shall be augmented by a most perfect view of the tortures of the damned"), and allowing them to make nakedly emotional appeals for the defendant to be put to death, is often dressed up with pretty words like "closure". Hey, if you want closure, see a psychiatrist, don't kill someone. Admit it, it's all about vengeance and an eye for an eye.
Once again, let me state that the death penalty is wrong even if the defendant is guilty beyond all possible doubt and thoroughly deserves to die. It's wrong because of what we do to ourselves in the process.
(Comment on this post)
The paradox of the death penalty, it seems to me, is that some people may indeed be so evil that they have forfeited the right to live, but who has the right to kill them? As I see it, the argument against the death penalty is not what it does to the person being executed, but what it does to society. Aren't we merely being hypocritical when we make a statement about the sanctity of human life by killing someone? Aren't we making ourselves more coarse and brutal by sanctioning violence?
Call me naive, but I think government should be an embodiment of what's best and highest in the society that gives rise to it. It should constantly be on guard against acting out of revenge, or bigotry or ignorance. It should set an example of justice and humanity - it should be better than the sum of its parts.
Make no mistake, the government does play a huge role in leading by example and setting the tone of society in general. Look at how the pants-creaming eagerness of the Cheney regime to embrace torture has filtered down to every police department in the country. Police now routinely and casually use tasers on anyone they take a dislike to or feel like having some fun with. They've had it drummed into them over the last eight years that everyone they meet in their routine day-to-day activities is a potential terrorist, which in their minds justifies the use of extreme measures at the slightest excuse.
What does the death penalty accomplish anyway? Who does it bring back to life? Does it deter anyone from killing? Even if it did, we probably lose more people to wrongful convictions leading to innocent people being executed.
Let's face it, the death penalty has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with revenge. The increasingly common practice of making executions quasi-public so that the victims' families can have a front row seat (one recalls Thomas Aquinas blissfully blathering in Summa Theologica that "the pleasures of heaven shall be augmented by a most perfect view of the tortures of the damned"), and allowing them to make nakedly emotional appeals for the defendant to be put to death, is often dressed up with pretty words like "closure". Hey, if you want closure, see a psychiatrist, don't kill someone. Admit it, it's all about vengeance and an eye for an eye.
Once again, let me state that the death penalty is wrong even if the defendant is guilty beyond all possible doubt and thoroughly deserves to die. It's wrong because of what we do to ourselves in the process.
(Comment on this post)
Okay, let me tell you how I spent New Year's Eve. As you may know, I am working temporarily in Pasadena, paying a small fortune to rent a studio apartment the size of a broom closet, and spending every waking minute in the lab at work. Not an ideal situation, but in the Bush Depression, you have to do whatever it takes to survive.
I couldn't go home for Thanksgiving, and barely had time to take a break at Christmas, so when I heard that I could take a few days off for New Year's Day, I lost no time jumping in the car and pointing it towards Phoenix. The trouble was, I'd had a flat tire during the week and the tire shop was screwing around. Although it was a brand new tire that I'd bought from them just a few weeks previously, they said it would have to be thrown away and replaced. And of course they wouldn't honor the warranty and replace the tire without charge - they mumbled something about a "road hazard." Then they told me they would have to special-order the tire, even though it was a perfectly ordinary standard tire. That was on Friday, and by Wednesday the tire still hadn't come in, and when I called the shop, no-one knew anything. So I said to hell with it, and set out for Phoenix with the spare tire, which was one of those piddly little doughnut tires, on the car.
Somewhere in Arizona, twenty miles from nowhere, the inevitable happened - I got another flat. I called the auto club, and after dealing with a rather dense customer service rep, to whom I had to explain patiently three times that I was not in Colorado, while a constant stream of eighteen-wheelers hurtled past at 85 MPH inches away from me, I finally got a tow truck to come and tow me to the nearest settlement - a wide spot in the road named Quartzsite.
Then I called my wife to see if she could come and pick me up. Bad news - her daughter had gone to a party and left her to babysit. She'd also left her car in the driveway, blocking my wife's car, but she'd taken the key. And to top that, she'd left her cellphone in the car so there was no way to reach her.
I had visions of having to spend the night by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and perhaps even spending the entire weekend in East Jesus, Arizona, waiting for the tire shop where the car had been dropped off to reopen. (Although the shop had a sign saying "Open 24-7", there were no signs of life.) Fortunately, my wife was eventually able to extricate her car, and sometime well after midnight she arrived in Quartzsite.
At this stage we were both collapsing with exhaustion so there was no question of driving back to Phoenix. Unfortunately there was no room at the inn in Quartzsite, apart from a Super 8 where they couldn't check us in because their computer was down. We drove almost as far as Blythe, California, before finding a motel and checking in at some ungodly hour in the morning.
After a sleepless night, we drove back to the tire shop and still found it closed. There was nothing to do but leave a note on the dashboard of my car and hide the key in the ashtray, and head back to Phoenix.
The next day, Friday, I called the tire shop several times but there was no answer. Then at last the phone was picked up but all I heard was some coughing and wheezing. After a few minutes of shouting "Hello?" with no result, I hung up and called the other number I had for the shop, and got a busy signal. The phone was off the hook and nobody at the shop new it! I would have to drive back again just to speak to them!
To cut a long story short, we drove back to Quartzsite and the world's most uncontactable "24-7" shop, got the flat fixed (the tire had to be replaced, but the charge was reasonable), picked the car up and returned to Phoenix on Friday afternoon, about two days after I left Pasadena. Let me tell you, after two minutes in Quartzsite you've seen everything there is to see in it, and I never want to go near the godforsaken place again.
My wife told me at some point over the weekend that according to something she read in the newspaper, how you spend the first day of the year determines how the rest of the year will go. Aaaargh! Nooooooo!
The only good thing about 2009 that I can say so far is that we will finally see the back of George Bush Junior and his cabal of corrupt criminal traitors. Unfortunately it look increasingly unlikely that they will be held accountable for their many war crimes. I just wish they could be rounded up and shipped off to a remote, undisclosed location where they can't hurt anyone else ever again. And I happen to know just the place...
(Comment on this post)
I couldn't go home for Thanksgiving, and barely had time to take a break at Christmas, so when I heard that I could take a few days off for New Year's Day, I lost no time jumping in the car and pointing it towards Phoenix. The trouble was, I'd had a flat tire during the week and the tire shop was screwing around. Although it was a brand new tire that I'd bought from them just a few weeks previously, they said it would have to be thrown away and replaced. And of course they wouldn't honor the warranty and replace the tire without charge - they mumbled something about a "road hazard." Then they told me they would have to special-order the tire, even though it was a perfectly ordinary standard tire. That was on Friday, and by Wednesday the tire still hadn't come in, and when I called the shop, no-one knew anything. So I said to hell with it, and set out for Phoenix with the spare tire, which was one of those piddly little doughnut tires, on the car.
Somewhere in Arizona, twenty miles from nowhere, the inevitable happened - I got another flat. I called the auto club, and after dealing with a rather dense customer service rep, to whom I had to explain patiently three times that I was not in Colorado, while a constant stream of eighteen-wheelers hurtled past at 85 MPH inches away from me, I finally got a tow truck to come and tow me to the nearest settlement - a wide spot in the road named Quartzsite.
Then I called my wife to see if she could come and pick me up. Bad news - her daughter had gone to a party and left her to babysit. She'd also left her car in the driveway, blocking my wife's car, but she'd taken the key. And to top that, she'd left her cellphone in the car so there was no way to reach her.
I had visions of having to spend the night by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and perhaps even spending the entire weekend in East Jesus, Arizona, waiting for the tire shop where the car had been dropped off to reopen. (Although the shop had a sign saying "Open 24-7", there were no signs of life.) Fortunately, my wife was eventually able to extricate her car, and sometime well after midnight she arrived in Quartzsite.
At this stage we were both collapsing with exhaustion so there was no question of driving back to Phoenix. Unfortunately there was no room at the inn in Quartzsite, apart from a Super 8 where they couldn't check us in because their computer was down. We drove almost as far as Blythe, California, before finding a motel and checking in at some ungodly hour in the morning.
After a sleepless night, we drove back to the tire shop and still found it closed. There was nothing to do but leave a note on the dashboard of my car and hide the key in the ashtray, and head back to Phoenix.
The next day, Friday, I called the tire shop several times but there was no answer. Then at last the phone was picked up but all I heard was some coughing and wheezing. After a few minutes of shouting "Hello?" with no result, I hung up and called the other number I had for the shop, and got a busy signal. The phone was off the hook and nobody at the shop new it! I would have to drive back again just to speak to them!
To cut a long story short, we drove back to Quartzsite and the world's most uncontactable "24-7" shop, got the flat fixed (the tire had to be replaced, but the charge was reasonable), picked the car up and returned to Phoenix on Friday afternoon, about two days after I left Pasadena. Let me tell you, after two minutes in Quartzsite you've seen everything there is to see in it, and I never want to go near the godforsaken place again.
My wife told me at some point over the weekend that according to something she read in the newspaper, how you spend the first day of the year determines how the rest of the year will go. Aaaargh! Nooooooo!
The only good thing about 2009 that I can say so far is that we will finally see the back of George Bush Junior and his cabal of corrupt criminal traitors. Unfortunately it look increasingly unlikely that they will be held accountable for their many war crimes. I just wish they could be rounded up and shipped off to a remote, undisclosed location where they can't hurt anyone else ever again. And I happen to know just the place...
(Comment on this post)
With mere days to go (thank Jaysus, it's nearly over) and Obama pulling ahead in the polls by double digits, the wheels are coming off the Hate Talk Express. Already, the post mortems are being conducted and the finger pointing has begun, with the McCain and Palin entourages each blaming the other for losing the election in a landslide. Schadenfreude is such fun!
John McCain (or more likely, Karl Rove) made a desperate and reckless gamble in picking the Ice Queen of Wasilla as his running mate. A vapid, vacuous but vicious attack Barbie, Palin shored up McCain's support among the racist right but was a huge net negative once the novelty factor wore off and people saw that she had no ideas of her own, no substance, no experience, and no talent except memorizing other people's talking points and spewing them out on cue regardless of context. That, and living high on the hog at the expense of both taxpayers and the RNC. No wonder even the Anchorage newspaper is endorsing Barack Obama.
Of course it's dangerous to celebrate prematurely. There is nothing so sleazy, vile and despicable that the 'thugs can't pull it off in the next few days. And they have already illegally tried to disenfranchise over 200,000 voters, mostly African-American, in Ohio alone. This is why they keep banging on over the non-issue of ACORN - they want to throw out the votes of anyone who was registered by any progressive or ethnic minority-oriented organization. And of course they still control the voting machines in key states.
That's why, as I've said all along, it's not enough for Obama to win. We have to overcome systematic disenfranchisement and voter suppression by the rethugs. We have to overcome the black box voting machines. We have to overcome election-rigging, racism, corruption and criminality by the extreme right on a nationwide scale. We need a landslide!
In a rational country, considering that the rethug party caters exclusively to the interests of the wealthiest 1%, the polls should be 99 to 1 for Obama. But while we won't get that kind of result, it can be a landslide if we work hard enough. We must fight like hell and not take a single vote for granted.
Victory is in sight! Keep up the good fight!
(Comment on this post)
John McCain (or more likely, Karl Rove) made a desperate and reckless gamble in picking the Ice Queen of Wasilla as his running mate. A vapid, vacuous but vicious attack Barbie, Palin shored up McCain's support among the racist right but was a huge net negative once the novelty factor wore off and people saw that she had no ideas of her own, no substance, no experience, and no talent except memorizing other people's talking points and spewing them out on cue regardless of context. That, and living high on the hog at the expense of both taxpayers and the RNC. No wonder even the Anchorage newspaper is endorsing Barack Obama.
Of course it's dangerous to celebrate prematurely. There is nothing so sleazy, vile and despicable that the 'thugs can't pull it off in the next few days. And they have already illegally tried to disenfranchise over 200,000 voters, mostly African-American, in Ohio alone. This is why they keep banging on over the non-issue of ACORN - they want to throw out the votes of anyone who was registered by any progressive or ethnic minority-oriented organization. And of course they still control the voting machines in key states.
That's why, as I've said all along, it's not enough for Obama to win. We have to overcome systematic disenfranchisement and voter suppression by the rethugs. We have to overcome the black box voting machines. We have to overcome election-rigging, racism, corruption and criminality by the extreme right on a nationwide scale. We need a landslide!
In a rational country, considering that the rethug party caters exclusively to the interests of the wealthiest 1%, the polls should be 99 to 1 for Obama. But while we won't get that kind of result, it can be a landslide if we work hard enough. We must fight like hell and not take a single vote for granted.
Victory is in sight! Keep up the good fight!
(Comment on this post)
Predictably, the Arizona Repulsive has endorsed the "hometown boy" (i.e. the carpetbagger with no real connection to the state and nothing but contempt for its "little people.") Here's my letter to the editor in response, which I guarantee will not be printed, so I will reproduce it here, with links added. I could have gone on a lot longer about their dishonest fearmongering and ignorant tossing around of the word "socialism", but I was limited to 200 words - not that they will print it of course, so it's a moot point. Anyway, here goes:
Your endorsement of John McCain for president, while 100% predictable, is disappointing.
I'm disappointed that you didn't take him to task for waging the most dishonest, divisive and despicable election campaign in modern US history, after promising to run a campaign of honor and dignity which focused on real issues.
I'm even more disappointed that you chose to stoke the fires of right-wing resentment against lower-income "lucky duckies" by repeating the lie that 44% of workers pay zero taxes. The Wall Street Journal, the source of this figure, stated that 44% of workers "owe" no taxes on April 15, meaning that all of their tax liability is withheld from their paychecks.
As you know very well, Barack Obama will not impose socialism - he will simply return the tax system to something like that which prevailed under the Clinton administration, when the US last enjoyed stability and prosperity. The Bush administration has sharply skewed the tax code to benefit the ultra-rich, who pay tax at much lower rates than workers. Many large corporations pay no tax at all and are showered with billions in subsidies!
Your hysteria over "wild leftists" Pelosi and Reid does not deserve a response.
(Comment on this post)
Your endorsement of John McCain for president, while 100% predictable, is disappointing.
I'm disappointed that you didn't take him to task for waging the most dishonest, divisive and despicable election campaign in modern US history, after promising to run a campaign of honor and dignity which focused on real issues.
I'm even more disappointed that you chose to stoke the fires of right-wing resentment against lower-income "lucky duckies" by repeating the lie that 44% of workers pay zero taxes. The Wall Street Journal, the source of this figure, stated that 44% of workers "owe" no taxes on April 15, meaning that all of their tax liability is withheld from their paychecks.
As you know very well, Barack Obama will not impose socialism - he will simply return the tax system to something like that which prevailed under the Clinton administration, when the US last enjoyed stability and prosperity. The Bush administration has sharply skewed the tax code to benefit the ultra-rich, who pay tax at much lower rates than workers. Many large corporations pay no tax at all and are showered with billions in subsidies!
Your hysteria over "wild leftists" Pelosi and Reid does not deserve a response.
(Comment on this post)
That was my initial reaction to Biden saying the if Obama is elected, there will inevitably be a crisis in the first few months of his administration.
On the other hand, the McCain campaign is unwise to seize on Biden's recent gaffe, as it only casts a harsh light on the astonishing weakness of their own ticket. An elderly man in poor health with serious anger control problems, and a vicious but vapid attack Barbie waiting in the wings to replace him... are either of them the kind of person we want in the Oval Office when the inevitable crisis comes?
As always, the rethugs are obsessed with winning at all costs, and give no thought to actually governing. Government is the enemy, they chant in unison, the source of all evil, the beast that must be drowned in the bathtub. So put us in charge and we'll prove how bad government sucks! And enrich ourselves and our cronies at the same time. The incredibly corrupt Ted Stevens, Palin's mentor, being a good example. And Palin continues to out-Cheney Dick Cheney, with her arrogance, corruption, secrecy and vindictiveness, before she's even anywhere near the White House. (Memo to McCain: don't go moose hunting with Palin!)
How can anyone fail to see that a McCain administration, or worse still a Palin administration, would not only be a perpetuation of the last eight years of nightmare, but George Bush Junior on steroids? Not just more or the same, but worse of the same?
We don't need hostile foreign leaders creating crises for us - we already have the mess from Junior's incredible incompetence to clean up, and other crises such as global warming and oil depletion loom larger every day. The very last thing we need is an administration that rules by fabricating emergencies instead of dealing with them. The world can't afford McCain or Palin as president!
(Comment on this post)
On the other hand, the McCain campaign is unwise to seize on Biden's recent gaffe, as it only casts a harsh light on the astonishing weakness of their own ticket. An elderly man in poor health with serious anger control problems, and a vicious but vapid attack Barbie waiting in the wings to replace him... are either of them the kind of person we want in the Oval Office when the inevitable crisis comes?
As always, the rethugs are obsessed with winning at all costs, and give no thought to actually governing. Government is the enemy, they chant in unison, the source of all evil, the beast that must be drowned in the bathtub. So put us in charge and we'll prove how bad government sucks! And enrich ourselves and our cronies at the same time. The incredibly corrupt Ted Stevens, Palin's mentor, being a good example. And Palin continues to out-Cheney Dick Cheney, with her arrogance, corruption, secrecy and vindictiveness, before she's even anywhere near the White House. (Memo to McCain: don't go moose hunting with Palin!)
How can anyone fail to see that a McCain administration, or worse still a Palin administration, would not only be a perpetuation of the last eight years of nightmare, but George Bush Junior on steroids? Not just more or the same, but worse of the same?
We don't need hostile foreign leaders creating crises for us - we already have the mess from Junior's incredible incompetence to clean up, and other crises such as global warming and oil depletion loom larger every day. The very last thing we need is an administration that rules by fabricating emergencies instead of dealing with them. The world can't afford McCain or Palin as president!
(Comment on this post)
I got tagged by Division by Zer0. Sigh... some people have no consideration for overworked geeks who have no time to blog!
Anyway, the theme is "the day I became an atheist." I will take the first two questions together:
Can You Remember The Day That You Officially Became An Atheist? Do you remember the day you officially became an agnostic?
Looking back, I can't pinpoint any particular day or incident that tipped the scales for me. It was a long drawn-out process lasting several years, and I think I was an atheist for quite a while before I could actually admit it to myself let alone anyone else.
To give you some background, I grew up in a very pious Irish Catholic family. From my earliest years, my mother had her heart set on my becoming a priest because it was a tradition in her family that the oldest son became a priest. I guess it's a relic of sacrificing the firstborn to Baal or something. Anyway, my mother was always pressuring me to think about the priesthood, long before I had any idea what it was all about. (See my earlier post, Life after God, which also answers the question, How about the last time you spoke or prayed to God with actual thought that someone was listening?)
Did anger towards God or religion help cause you to be an atheist or agnostic?
Nope. Perhaps in reaction to the pressure described above, I started questioning my religious upbringing at an early age, seeing the absurdity of a lot of the bible stories and dogma, and noticing the hypocrisy of the priests and bishops who preached sacrifice and abstemiousness while living high on the hog. By my late teens I no longer considered myself a Catholic, but I felt I had to be "something" so I looked into other religions but soon found that those I looked at were just as full of it as Catholicism.
Here is a good one: Were you agnostic towards ghosts, even after you became an atheist?
I went through a brief phase of having a fuzzy dualistic worldview in which some kind of spirit realm might make disembodied spirits and life after death possible. But then I started reading skeptical literature and found that there is no evidence to support anything other than a naturalistic viewpoint, and that all so-called manifestations of the supernatural can by explained by ignorance, self-delusion and wishful thinking. Furthermore, I became exposed to humanist philosophy and saw that the proper goal of mankind should be to work for justice and a better life in this world, and that giving up the hope of an afterlife is a necessary part of becoming a mature person.
Do you want to be wrong?
I'm sure there are many things I'm wrong about, like any other fallible human. But although my personal philosophy continues to evolve, I just don't see myself reverting to theism ever again. To me, atheism is not a destination but a starting point, a clearing away of ignorance and superstition so that you can build a worldview on a rational basis. Where you go from there is up to you - there are as many kinds of atheism as there are atheists.
As for me, I try to be a spiritual person in my own way, and I don't see atheism and spirituality as incompatible. Spirituality (as I define it) is simply about asking the questions that may never be answered, while religion is about imposing the answers that may never be questioned. I read several years ago - I wish I remembered the source - a quote from a Muslim mystic who said that you have to demolish every temple, tear down every minaret, and move beyond Islam (or whichever religious tradition you came from) to atheism - and only then are you ready to move on beyond both religion and atheism to true spirituality.
I'm now going to tag the following bloggers: Hope they will take up the challenge, because I'm always fascinated by other people's deconversion stories. Have fun!
(Comment on this post)
Anyway, the theme is "the day I became an atheist." I will take the first two questions together:
Can You Remember The Day That You Officially Became An Atheist? Do you remember the day you officially became an agnostic?
Looking back, I can't pinpoint any particular day or incident that tipped the scales for me. It was a long drawn-out process lasting several years, and I think I was an atheist for quite a while before I could actually admit it to myself let alone anyone else.
To give you some background, I grew up in a very pious Irish Catholic family. From my earliest years, my mother had her heart set on my becoming a priest because it was a tradition in her family that the oldest son became a priest. I guess it's a relic of sacrificing the firstborn to Baal or something. Anyway, my mother was always pressuring me to think about the priesthood, long before I had any idea what it was all about. (See my earlier post, Life after God, which also answers the question, How about the last time you spoke or prayed to God with actual thought that someone was listening?)
Did anger towards God or religion help cause you to be an atheist or agnostic?
Nope. Perhaps in reaction to the pressure described above, I started questioning my religious upbringing at an early age, seeing the absurdity of a lot of the bible stories and dogma, and noticing the hypocrisy of the priests and bishops who preached sacrifice and abstemiousness while living high on the hog. By my late teens I no longer considered myself a Catholic, but I felt I had to be "something" so I looked into other religions but soon found that those I looked at were just as full of it as Catholicism.
Here is a good one: Were you agnostic towards ghosts, even after you became an atheist?
I went through a brief phase of having a fuzzy dualistic worldview in which some kind of spirit realm might make disembodied spirits and life after death possible. But then I started reading skeptical literature and found that there is no evidence to support anything other than a naturalistic viewpoint, and that all so-called manifestations of the supernatural can by explained by ignorance, self-delusion and wishful thinking. Furthermore, I became exposed to humanist philosophy and saw that the proper goal of mankind should be to work for justice and a better life in this world, and that giving up the hope of an afterlife is a necessary part of becoming a mature person.
Do you want to be wrong?
I'm sure there are many things I'm wrong about, like any other fallible human. But although my personal philosophy continues to evolve, I just don't see myself reverting to theism ever again. To me, atheism is not a destination but a starting point, a clearing away of ignorance and superstition so that you can build a worldview on a rational basis. Where you go from there is up to you - there are as many kinds of atheism as there are atheists.
As for me, I try to be a spiritual person in my own way, and I don't see atheism and spirituality as incompatible. Spirituality (as I define it) is simply about asking the questions that may never be answered, while religion is about imposing the answers that may never be questioned. I read several years ago - I wish I remembered the source - a quote from a Muslim mystic who said that you have to demolish every temple, tear down every minaret, and move beyond Islam (or whichever religious tradition you came from) to atheism - and only then are you ready to move on beyond both religion and atheism to true spirituality.
I'm now going to tag the following bloggers: Hope they will take up the challenge, because I'm always fascinated by other people's deconversion stories. Have fun!
(Comment on this post)
It's kind of weird to move from a very conservative city like Phoenix to a much more liberal one like Pasadena, where it's just taken for granted that you are an Obama supporter, and people who have McCainite acquaintances whisper about them in hushed tones with rueful head shakes.
Anyway, I missed yet another debate due to my crazy work schedule but I am growing increasingly optimistic about Barack Obama's prospects. After eight years of the Junior Junta's incredible corruption, incompetence and arrogance, of which every sane person is thoroughly sick, the type of red-meat Swift-Boat campaign that McCain is waging just doesn't cut it any more. People don't care about someone who was a radical forty years ago, when Obama was eight years old. They care about the next six months. Will they have a job? Will they have a roof over their heads? McCain doesn't get it. Mr. Eight Houses is too out of touch, too angry and resentful over non-issues, to connect with the majority of voters.
Of course the rethugs can still steal this election, and they will if it is at all close. If it's within ten points, they will Diebold it and the "liberal" media will duly report on McCain's amazing comeback. We need a landslide! We need the margin of victory to be so wide, a McCain "victory" just won't pass the laugh test.
I'm concerned about some Obama supporters becoming complacent. We need to fight harder than ever, and not take a single vote for granted. And of course once Obama is inaugurated, the real hard work begins - cleaning up the Augean stables of the Junior regime's infinite incompetence!
The winning post is in sight - don't let up! Onward to victory next month!
(Comment on this post)
Anyway, I missed yet another debate due to my crazy work schedule but I am growing increasingly optimistic about Barack Obama's prospects. After eight years of the Junior Junta's incredible corruption, incompetence and arrogance, of which every sane person is thoroughly sick, the type of red-meat Swift-Boat campaign that McCain is waging just doesn't cut it any more. People don't care about someone who was a radical forty years ago, when Obama was eight years old. They care about the next six months. Will they have a job? Will they have a roof over their heads? McCain doesn't get it. Mr. Eight Houses is too out of touch, too angry and resentful over non-issues, to connect with the majority of voters.
Of course the rethugs can still steal this election, and they will if it is at all close. If it's within ten points, they will Diebold it and the "liberal" media will duly report on McCain's amazing comeback. We need a landslide! We need the margin of victory to be so wide, a McCain "victory" just won't pass the laugh test.
I'm concerned about some Obama supporters becoming complacent. We need to fight harder than ever, and not take a single vote for granted. And of course once Obama is inaugurated, the real hard work begins - cleaning up the Augean stables of the Junior regime's infinite incompetence!
The winning post is in sight - don't let up! Onward to victory next month!
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Have you heard of Kemper Marley? You would have, if the US corporatist media was anything but a cheap whore and cheerleader for the rethug extreme right. But search The Googles on the Inner Tubes and you will come up with a very interesting story involving John McCain's ties to organized crime in Arizona.
For many years, Marley was the number one organized crime godfather in Arizona. Virtually every leading politician, DA, sheriff and police chief was on his payroll. The only minor threat to his untrammelled power was an investigative reporter named Don Bolles. In 1976 Marley had Bolles killed with a car bomb in Downtown Phoenix in broad daylight. He openly boasted to his associates of his role in ordering the hit, but was never indicted, thanks not only to having most of the prosecutors in his pocket, but also to his personal attorney - William Rehnquist! (Marley also was linked to Charles Keating of the Keating Five scandal, which McCain was in up to his eyeballs.)
The murder of Bolles led to the instigation of the Arizona Project, with his colleagues from all over the US converging on Phoenix and exposing the festering web of corruption to the long overdue light of day. The only major newspaper not involved was Bolles' own employer, the Arizona Republic, then owned by Dan Quayle's family and undoubtedly in bed with the Marley crime empire.
Kemper Marley got his start bootlegging during the Prohibition era, and became very wealthy. In 1955 he gave the Arizona Budweiser distributorship to his close friend James Hensley, who himself was a convicted felon. Hensley became immensely rich and was able to bequeath over $100 million to his daughter, Cindy. Yes, that Cindy - John McCain's second wife.
As you can see, Kemper Marley was an extremely nasty individual who makes William Ayers look like a boy scout - even if there was any real connection between Ayers and Obama, which there isn't.
The bottom line is that people who live in eight houses shouldn't throw stones. Go forth and tell everyone you know about John McCain's links to organized crime! If he won't stop lying about Barack Obama, we'll have to start telling the truth about him!
(Comment on this post)
For many years, Marley was the number one organized crime godfather in Arizona. Virtually every leading politician, DA, sheriff and police chief was on his payroll. The only minor threat to his untrammelled power was an investigative reporter named Don Bolles. In 1976 Marley had Bolles killed with a car bomb in Downtown Phoenix in broad daylight. He openly boasted to his associates of his role in ordering the hit, but was never indicted, thanks not only to having most of the prosecutors in his pocket, but also to his personal attorney - William Rehnquist! (Marley also was linked to Charles Keating of the Keating Five scandal, which McCain was in up to his eyeballs.)
The murder of Bolles led to the instigation of the Arizona Project, with his colleagues from all over the US converging on Phoenix and exposing the festering web of corruption to the long overdue light of day. The only major newspaper not involved was Bolles' own employer, the Arizona Republic, then owned by Dan Quayle's family and undoubtedly in bed with the Marley crime empire.
Kemper Marley got his start bootlegging during the Prohibition era, and became very wealthy. In 1955 he gave the Arizona Budweiser distributorship to his close friend James Hensley, who himself was a convicted felon. Hensley became immensely rich and was able to bequeath over $100 million to his daughter, Cindy. Yes, that Cindy - John McCain's second wife.
As you can see, Kemper Marley was an extremely nasty individual who makes William Ayers look like a boy scout - even if there was any real connection between Ayers and Obama, which there isn't.
The bottom line is that people who live in eight houses shouldn't throw stones. Go forth and tell everyone you know about John McCain's links to organized crime! If he won't stop lying about Barack Obama, we'll have to start telling the truth about him!
(Comment on this post)
Sorry for being AWOL the last couple of weeks. No, I didn't get stuck in another Los Angeles traffic jam and starve to death, but I've been busy at work and without internet access in my very limited spare time. However, I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a laptop - it currently runs the execrable Windows Vista, a thousand plagues be upon it, but it's getting Linuxed the first chance I get - and I will try to post a few words whenever I can get in range of a wireless hotspot.
Anyway, I missed the last Obama-McCain debate and only saw the last few minutes of Biden-Palin. But my overwhelming impression is that the rethugs are melting down before our very eyes, and it's not a pretty sight. Every time Palin opens her mouth, she confirms that she is nothing but a talking doll with no thoughts or ideas of her own. During her debate with Joe Biden, it could not have been more obvious that she was reading from a set of talking points written for her by someone else. She just cycled through half a dozen or so pre-recorded messages - McCain is a maverick, I have executive experience, I'm ready to lead the Free World, blah blah blah - regardless of the question. Pull the string and you hear then next message in the sequence, with Palin showing no more understanding of the question or the answer than a talking Barbie would.
Palin is exactly what she calls herself - an attack pit bull with lipstick, nothing more. No real experience, no ideas, no policies, no substance, no ability to work with anyone who isn't on the extreme right, and no business being in the same time zone as the White House.
Anyone remember, many months ago when John McCain was kicking off his presidential bid, how he promised to run a campaign of honor and integrity, and focus on the issues? Now he's "proud" to be running the sleaziest and most dishonest and divisive campaign ever, making even the Swift-Boat campaign of 2004 look like a campfire rendition of Kumbaya. What a lying, hypocritical asshole.
And it's not just McCain and Palin - the entire lunatic extreme right is going apeshit at the prospect of losing this election. Of course, even when it had a monopoly on political, judicial and media power, the extreme right has always played on the inverted snobbery of Idiot America and its resentment against anyone who is halfway intelligent or educated. But the current extreme levels of mouth-foaming rage can only be explained as stemming from a deep, visceral fear. They've screwed the pooch six ways to Sunday, they have no-one to blame except themselves, so their infinite reality-avoidance superpowers kick in and convert their latent self-loathing into berserk rage against their hated non-extremist fellow Americans.
Picking Palin as McCain's running mate was a huge and desperate gamble in the first place. For a while it looked like it might actually work, against all reason. But as the novelty factor wore off and people saw what a lightweight but thoroughly nasty piece of work Palin is, the backlash set in and McCain's poll figures plummeted. So now he's going for broke, working up his base to unprecedented levels of frenzy and hatred against his Senate colleagues. It might have worked four years ago, but somehow I am optimistic that it will backfire badly this time round. Ordinary people are sick of rethug corruption and incompetence, and of politicians who can only perpetuate the failed and disastrous policies of the past.
Rant on, McCain. I'll see your William Ayers and raise you a Kemper Marley! Rage, rage against the dying of the right!
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Anyway, I missed the last Obama-McCain debate and only saw the last few minutes of Biden-Palin. But my overwhelming impression is that the rethugs are melting down before our very eyes, and it's not a pretty sight. Every time Palin opens her mouth, she confirms that she is nothing but a talking doll with no thoughts or ideas of her own. During her debate with Joe Biden, it could not have been more obvious that she was reading from a set of talking points written for her by someone else. She just cycled through half a dozen or so pre-recorded messages - McCain is a maverick, I have executive experience, I'm ready to lead the Free World, blah blah blah - regardless of the question. Pull the string and you hear then next message in the sequence, with Palin showing no more understanding of the question or the answer than a talking Barbie would.
Palin is exactly what she calls herself - an attack pit bull with lipstick, nothing more. No real experience, no ideas, no policies, no substance, no ability to work with anyone who isn't on the extreme right, and no business being in the same time zone as the White House.
Anyone remember, many months ago when John McCain was kicking off his presidential bid, how he promised to run a campaign of honor and integrity, and focus on the issues? Now he's "proud" to be running the sleaziest and most dishonest and divisive campaign ever, making even the Swift-Boat campaign of 2004 look like a campfire rendition of Kumbaya. What a lying, hypocritical asshole.
And it's not just McCain and Palin - the entire lunatic extreme right is going apeshit at the prospect of losing this election. Of course, even when it had a monopoly on political, judicial and media power, the extreme right has always played on the inverted snobbery of Idiot America and its resentment against anyone who is halfway intelligent or educated. But the current extreme levels of mouth-foaming rage can only be explained as stemming from a deep, visceral fear. They've screwed the pooch six ways to Sunday, they have no-one to blame except themselves, so their infinite reality-avoidance superpowers kick in and convert their latent self-loathing into berserk rage against their hated non-extremist fellow Americans.
Picking Palin as McCain's running mate was a huge and desperate gamble in the first place. For a while it looked like it might actually work, against all reason. But as the novelty factor wore off and people saw what a lightweight but thoroughly nasty piece of work Palin is, the backlash set in and McCain's poll figures plummeted. So now he's going for broke, working up his base to unprecedented levels of frenzy and hatred against his Senate colleagues. It might have worked four years ago, but somehow I am optimistic that it will backfire badly this time round. Ordinary people are sick of rethug corruption and incompetence, and of politicians who can only perpetuate the failed and disastrous policies of the past.
Rant on, McCain. I'll see your William Ayers and raise you a Kemper Marley! Rage, rage against the dying of the right!
(Comment on this post)
With today's column, E.J. Montini officially surrenders his status as one of the few voices of sanity in that talentless stable of tenth-rate partisan hacks fondly known as the Arizona Repulsive.
Montini writes:
If Montini knew how to use "the Google", it would have taken him less than ten seconds to discover that the Alliance Defense Fund is an extreme-right dominionist group associated with just about all the leading figures of the fundamentalist right, and has been at the forefront of bashing gays and riling up the useful idiots against the nonexistent "War on Christmas" (TM, Faux News). Somehow I don't think too many of its affiliated preachers will be touting Obama today, though of course that's beside the point. The principle is clear: put up (tax payments) or shut up!
Montini looks favorably on the argument that requiring churches to keep out of partisan politics if they want to keep their tax-exempt status is an attack on free speech: "I can't imagine how a pastor could adhere to biblical theology and endorse any political candidate, but they should be allowed to try without fear of losing their tax-exempt status." (Emphasis in original.) I guess Montini is less familiar with another part of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
I can't see why Montini doesn't understand that freedom from tax is not a basic right but a huge special privilege given to religious bodies. Nothing in the Constitution requires it (let alone the many other breaks and exemptions churches routinely get from zoning laws, business licencing requirements, etc. etc.), and it would be perfectly legitimate to tax the churches as long as they are treated equally. But when the churches are freed of the tax burden, everyone else has to take up the slack. Congress may not be establishing a particular religion, but it is supporting religion in general with my tax dollars. This is unacceptable, and doubly so when the churches turn around and violate the minimal and reasonable conditions on this unique privilege granted to them.
The religious-industrial complex is the most profitable one in the US today. Think of the millions of poor saps tithing hard-earned money that they can ill afford to part with, and instead of getting even a word of thanks, they are continually exhorted to tithe harder and even double-tithe. Where does the money go? For gaudy megachurches, lavish mansions, executive jets and other toys for the super-rich religious-right leaders. Read the recent book Falwell Inc. for an example of how these holy-roller parasites live high on the hog by selling snake oil. And they don't pay a penny of tax on this money! But even that isn't enough for them, they want totally untrammelled power and a free rein for their partisan politicking! They want to take from Caesar instead of rendering unto him, and they want to pick their own Caesar in the first place! What jaw-dropping arrogance and hubris.
Montini says: "The restrictions are a farce. Not only because they fly in the face of the Constitution, but also because they don't work." By the same "logic", we shouldn't try to enforce laws against murder because there will always be murders. It's pretty clear who exactly is "flying in the face of the Constitution."
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Montini writes:
Would Jesus Christ sport a "Yes We Can" Obama '08 button on his tunic? Or would the Prince of Peace prefer a "Country First" McCain T-shirt?Oh, that's cute. "Christian lawyer" is an oxymoron because everyone knows that lawyers are scumbags while Christians are the very definition of goodness and morality. Gag me...
Your pastor might tell you at church today, shortly before he lets you know which political candidates deserve your vote.
Then, if their prayers are answered, the right politicians will be elected and the reverends will get busted by federal agents.
Today, more than 30 ministers from across the country plan to purposefully violate federal law by endorsing political candidates during their church sermons.
But under a federal law that has existed for more than 50 years, religious organizations cannot engage in political speech while they also accept deductible contributions. If they do, they risk losing their tax-exempt status.
Today's protest is being organized by the Scottsdale-based Alliance Defense Fund, an advocacy group made up of Christian lawyers. (Which sounds like an oxymoron on the scale of "business ethics," "airline food" and "adult male.")
If Montini knew how to use "the Google", it would have taken him less than ten seconds to discover that the Alliance Defense Fund is an extreme-right dominionist group associated with just about all the leading figures of the fundamentalist right, and has been at the forefront of bashing gays and riling up the useful idiots against the nonexistent "War on Christmas" (TM, Faux News). Somehow I don't think too many of its affiliated preachers will be touting Obama today, though of course that's beside the point. The principle is clear: put up (tax payments) or shut up!
Montini looks favorably on the argument that requiring churches to keep out of partisan politics if they want to keep their tax-exempt status is an attack on free speech: "I can't imagine how a pastor could adhere to biblical theology and endorse any political candidate, but they should be allowed to try without fear of losing their tax-exempt status." (Emphasis in original.) I guess Montini is less familiar with another part of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
I can't see why Montini doesn't understand that freedom from tax is not a basic right but a huge special privilege given to religious bodies. Nothing in the Constitution requires it (let alone the many other breaks and exemptions churches routinely get from zoning laws, business licencing requirements, etc. etc.), and it would be perfectly legitimate to tax the churches as long as they are treated equally. But when the churches are freed of the tax burden, everyone else has to take up the slack. Congress may not be establishing a particular religion, but it is supporting religion in general with my tax dollars. This is unacceptable, and doubly so when the churches turn around and violate the minimal and reasonable conditions on this unique privilege granted to them.
The religious-industrial complex is the most profitable one in the US today. Think of the millions of poor saps tithing hard-earned money that they can ill afford to part with, and instead of getting even a word of thanks, they are continually exhorted to tithe harder and even double-tithe. Where does the money go? For gaudy megachurches, lavish mansions, executive jets and other toys for the super-rich religious-right leaders. Read the recent book Falwell Inc. for an example of how these holy-roller parasites live high on the hog by selling snake oil. And they don't pay a penny of tax on this money! But even that isn't enough for them, they want totally untrammelled power and a free rein for their partisan politicking! They want to take from Caesar instead of rendering unto him, and they want to pick their own Caesar in the first place! What jaw-dropping arrogance and hubris.
Montini says: "The restrictions are a farce. Not only because they fly in the face of the Constitution, but also because they don't work." By the same "logic", we shouldn't try to enforce laws against murder because there will always be murders. It's pretty clear who exactly is "flying in the face of the Constitution."
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Parents are abandoning teenagers at Nebraska hospitals, in a case of a well intentioned law inspiring unintended results.[Link]
Over the last two weeks, moms or dads have dropped off seven teens at hospitals in the Cornhusker state, indicating they didn't want to care for them any more.
"They were tired of their parenting role," according to Todd Landry of Nebraska's Department of Human and Human Services, quoted in USA Today.
Under a newly implemented law, Nebraska is the only state in the nation to allow parents to leave children of any age at hospitals and request they be taken care of, USA Today notes. So-called "safe haven laws" in other states were designed to protect babies and infants from parental abandonment.
The most eye-popping case in Nebraska occurred Wednesday, when a 34-year-old father deposited nine children ages 1 to 17 at Creighton University Medical Center -- and then walked away.
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I haven't had much time to follow the news last week, let alone blog about it. But I did manage to listen to most of the first McCain-Obama debate on my car radio while stuck in a typically horrendous Los Angeles traffic jam. My snap judgment: it was a tie, and therefore Obama won.
What I mean by that is, foreign policy is supposed to be McCain's strong suit and an area where Obama is appallingly weak, naive and inexperienced. Well, McCain did better than I expected, but Obama more than held his own against him. Of course I may have missed some visual clues. I remember hearing that people who listened to the famous Nixon-Kennedy debate on the radio thought that Nixon was the clear winner, but television viewers who saw Nixon sweating and squirming had a very different impression. (Update: It looks like there was indeed a lot of visual subtext that did not work in McCain's favor.)
It certainly seemed to me that McCain sounded like Abe Simpson, his weak, wavering voice suffering from the comparison with Obama's confident tone. And after the hundredth time hearing McCain say "Senator Obama doesn't understand this, Senator Obama doesn't understand that," I wanted to reach through the radio and throttle the condescending old bastard.
Mind you, there were some occasions when Obama should have hit back harder. For example when McCain called him naive for saying that both sides were at fault in the recent Russia-Georgia conflict. Well, both sides were at fault! In particular, Georgia initiated the violence by bombarding the city of Tskhinvali, something you will never learn from the right-wing corporatist media. Nor will you learn that McCain's top foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, is an agent of the Georgian government and has made almost a million dollars lobbying for them - which turned out to be an excellent investment when they got back a billion dollars from the US taxpayer. The public deserves to know how much McCain's view of the situation has been colored by his advisor's glaring conflict of interest.
Anyway, if you think of the current financial holocaust as a test of the presidential candidates, it's clear that Obama passed with flying colors while McCain flunked abysmally. Obama has been looking presidential, keeping himself informed, talking to all the main players, and calmly but firmly emphasizing the need for principles and accountability in dealing with the crisis.
What has McCain been doing? Running around with his hair on fire, jumping randomly from one stance to its opposite (days after everyone else has reacted), throwing hissy fits and making a lot of noise to grab attention but contributing nothing of substance, foolishly snubbing the media, and pulling desperate gimmicks that were of a kind with his choice (if it really was his, and not Karl Rove's) of Sarah Palin as his running mate. His announcement that he would suspend his campaign and duck out of the first debate was widely seen as fear of facing Obama and an inability to multi-task, rather than the grand statesmanlike gesture he intended it to be. In all, McCain's hysterical and incoherent response to the financial meltdown was a serious blunder which must leave great doubts about his ability to handle similar challenges as president.
Anyway, Obama won the first debate by default, and I confidently predict that the Biden-Palin debate next week will be a train wreck for the rethugs. That woman is so out of her depth, and so blissfully unaware of it, there is no way anyone with the IQ of a sea cucumber would wish her to be in the same time zone as the White House.
After that, it's on to the debates about the economy and domestic policy, and Mr. Keating Five, I've Lost Count Of How Many Houses I Own will have his ass handed to him. Of course, John Kerry wiped the floor with George Bush Junior in the 2004 debates, but the race was still close enough to allow the rethugs to Diebold it and steal a second term for Junior. But it's becoming clearer every day to everyone except the head-up-the-ass true believers that McCain-Palin would be a ghastly choice during the current clusterf*ck of multiple simultaneous crises - crises that were created by the Junior administration's corruption and incompetence, and would only be perpetuated and worsened by McCain.
Knowing the Democratic party's infinite genius for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I get extremely worried and frustrated when I hear people blithely saying that it's going to be a landslide for Obama. Instead of sitting on their asses, they should be out pounding the streets, working night and day, and fighting like hell to make it a landslide. Because anything less, and the 'thugs will steal yet another election! But the good news is that it can be a landslide if we fight hard enough. We can win and we must win!
See you next weekend!
(Comment on this post)
What I mean by that is, foreign policy is supposed to be McCain's strong suit and an area where Obama is appallingly weak, naive and inexperienced. Well, McCain did better than I expected, but Obama more than held his own against him. Of course I may have missed some visual clues. I remember hearing that people who listened to the famous Nixon-Kennedy debate on the radio thought that Nixon was the clear winner, but television viewers who saw Nixon sweating and squirming had a very different impression. (Update: It looks like there was indeed a lot of visual subtext that did not work in McCain's favor.)
It certainly seemed to me that McCain sounded like Abe Simpson, his weak, wavering voice suffering from the comparison with Obama's confident tone. And after the hundredth time hearing McCain say "Senator Obama doesn't understand this, Senator Obama doesn't understand that," I wanted to reach through the radio and throttle the condescending old bastard.
Mind you, there were some occasions when Obama should have hit back harder. For example when McCain called him naive for saying that both sides were at fault in the recent Russia-Georgia conflict. Well, both sides were at fault! In particular, Georgia initiated the violence by bombarding the city of Tskhinvali, something you will never learn from the right-wing corporatist media. Nor will you learn that McCain's top foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, is an agent of the Georgian government and has made almost a million dollars lobbying for them - which turned out to be an excellent investment when they got back a billion dollars from the US taxpayer. The public deserves to know how much McCain's view of the situation has been colored by his advisor's glaring conflict of interest.
Anyway, if you think of the current financial holocaust as a test of the presidential candidates, it's clear that Obama passed with flying colors while McCain flunked abysmally. Obama has been looking presidential, keeping himself informed, talking to all the main players, and calmly but firmly emphasizing the need for principles and accountability in dealing with the crisis.
What has McCain been doing? Running around with his hair on fire, jumping randomly from one stance to its opposite (days after everyone else has reacted), throwing hissy fits and making a lot of noise to grab attention but contributing nothing of substance, foolishly snubbing the media, and pulling desperate gimmicks that were of a kind with his choice (if it really was his, and not Karl Rove's) of Sarah Palin as his running mate. His announcement that he would suspend his campaign and duck out of the first debate was widely seen as fear of facing Obama and an inability to multi-task, rather than the grand statesmanlike gesture he intended it to be. In all, McCain's hysterical and incoherent response to the financial meltdown was a serious blunder which must leave great doubts about his ability to handle similar challenges as president.
Anyway, Obama won the first debate by default, and I confidently predict that the Biden-Palin debate next week will be a train wreck for the rethugs. That woman is so out of her depth, and so blissfully unaware of it, there is no way anyone with the IQ of a sea cucumber would wish her to be in the same time zone as the White House.
After that, it's on to the debates about the economy and domestic policy, and Mr. Keating Five, I've Lost Count Of How Many Houses I Own will have his ass handed to him. Of course, John Kerry wiped the floor with George Bush Junior in the 2004 debates, but the race was still close enough to allow the rethugs to Diebold it and steal a second term for Junior. But it's becoming clearer every day to everyone except the head-up-the-ass true believers that McCain-Palin would be a ghastly choice during the current clusterf*ck of multiple simultaneous crises - crises that were created by the Junior administration's corruption and incompetence, and would only be perpetuated and worsened by McCain.
Knowing the Democratic party's infinite genius for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I get extremely worried and frustrated when I hear people blithely saying that it's going to be a landslide for Obama. Instead of sitting on their asses, they should be out pounding the streets, working night and day, and fighting like hell to make it a landslide. Because anything less, and the 'thugs will steal yet another election! But the good news is that it can be a landslide if we fight hard enough. We can win and we must win!
See you next weekend!
(Comment on this post)
George Will writes:
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The "poetry of the possible" is that things are organized without an organizer. [...] The spontaneous emergence of social cooperation - the emergence of a system vastly more complex, responsive and efficient than any government could organize - is not universally acknowledged or appreciated.Am I the only one who finds it weird that conservatives always accept this argument in economics, but never in biology? If life requires an "intelligent designer" for explanation, why not markets?
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The other day I saw a dilapidated car with a bumper sticker that said, "My kid is fighting in Iraq so that your kid can party in college." That's the trouble with conservatism - it's all about bumper sticker soundbites that are simple and memorable, but mindless and ignorant. How do you counter this sort of thing?
First of all I would say to the driver, thanks to your child for his or her service. But if he or she wasn't fighting in Iraq, then nobody would be able to party in college - how does that work, exactly? The terrorists would follow us home and grab all the good college places because they're smarter and better educated than us?
Secondly, I would ask: why is your child in Iraq anyway? Why is he or she bogged down in a quagmire war that we never had to fight in the first place, a war against a country that posed no threat to us, a war based on lies and greed? Because people like you keep voting Republican, that's why. You keep on supporting corporate and religious-right greed-heads and warmongers who use your child as cannon fodder instead of working to improve his or her economic prospects. If you supported a party that worked for everyone's benefit instead of catering exclusively to the wealthiest 1%, maybe your child would be the one in college!
Of course, even if I could say anything to the driver, it's unlikely it would have an effect. Clearly, that bumper sticker is an expression of resentment against "elitists", i.e. anyone smart enough to be able to get into college, which is a pretty low bar considering how many basket weaving institutes there are.
The Republicans are masters of the cruel and cynical game they play: ripping off working people, so their children have no prospects for college or private sector employment and must sign up for the military; sending those kids off to die in a meat-grinder war for the greater glory of Halliburton's bottom line, while cutting their parents' health care and foreclosing on their houses; and then getting the same people riled up with inchoate fury and hatred against the only party that contains anyone who is working for more social justice and fairness.
Barack Obama was right; people cling to guns and religion because they are bitter. They have every right to be better, considering how much the rethugs have screwed them over. How can we get them to focus their bitterness on the right target, and kick the corrupt criminal plutocrats out of power? If only there was a simple answer that fit on a bumper sticker...
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First of all I would say to the driver, thanks to your child for his or her service. But if he or she wasn't fighting in Iraq, then nobody would be able to party in college - how does that work, exactly? The terrorists would follow us home and grab all the good college places because they're smarter and better educated than us?
Secondly, I would ask: why is your child in Iraq anyway? Why is he or she bogged down in a quagmire war that we never had to fight in the first place, a war against a country that posed no threat to us, a war based on lies and greed? Because people like you keep voting Republican, that's why. You keep on supporting corporate and religious-right greed-heads and warmongers who use your child as cannon fodder instead of working to improve his or her economic prospects. If you supported a party that worked for everyone's benefit instead of catering exclusively to the wealthiest 1%, maybe your child would be the one in college!
Of course, even if I could say anything to the driver, it's unlikely it would have an effect. Clearly, that bumper sticker is an expression of resentment against "elitists", i.e. anyone smart enough to be able to get into college, which is a pretty low bar considering how many basket weaving institutes there are.
The Republicans are masters of the cruel and cynical game they play: ripping off working people, so their children have no prospects for college or private sector employment and must sign up for the military; sending those kids off to die in a meat-grinder war for the greater glory of Halliburton's bottom line, while cutting their parents' health care and foreclosing on their houses; and then getting the same people riled up with inchoate fury and hatred against the only party that contains anyone who is working for more social justice and fairness.
Barack Obama was right; people cling to guns and religion because they are bitter. They have every right to be better, considering how much the rethugs have screwed them over. How can we get them to focus their bitterness on the right target, and kick the corrupt criminal plutocrats out of power? If only there was a simple answer that fit on a bumper sticker...
(Comment on this post)
Sorry for the disappearing act over the last few days. My life is going to be in upheaval from now until the end of the year and I won't have time to blog very much. However, with the economy in free-fall and my life savings vanishing down the toilet, I have to get my two cents' worth in while I still have that much money.
I had a good laugh the other day when I saw a headline that said Sarah Quaylin was going to give a speech about the economic crisis. So now the Queen of Pork and Mayor of B.F. Alaska is an economics expert? I know how to stick on a band aid. Can I get a job as a brain surgeon?
It should hardly have to be said (at least in the reality-based community) that John McCain has no credibility when he talks about reforming Wall Street. First of all, he's been in Washington for 26 years and he can't even come up with his own slogan (and has to steal his opponent's mantra of change), let alone deliver any change? How pathetic! Secondly and more importantly, McCain's campaign is stuffed to the gills with lobbyists with glaring conflicts of interest - including Phil Gramm, arguably the single individual most responsible for the current meltdown.
In the wake of the 1929 Crash, the federal government passed the Glass-Steagall Act, regulating banks and requiring more prudent investments. The banking industry long chafed at the (reasonable and proper) constraints imposed by this legislation, and in 1999, then-Senator Gramm succeeded in eviscerating the Act, replacing it with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and opening the floodgates of deregulation and "anything goes." The direct result is today's debacle. Gramm, who calls the US a nation of whiners and declares that the current recession is not real but mental, is almost certain to become the Treasury Secretary if McCain wins in November.
A McCain administration promises more mindless deregulation, more bailouts of corporate cronies, more hardship and suffering for working people. George Bush Junior's failed, disastrous policies will not only be perpetuated but put on steroids. McCain is not merely more of the same, he's worse of the same.
(Comment on this post)
I had a good laugh the other day when I saw a headline that said Sarah Quaylin was going to give a speech about the economic crisis. So now the Queen of Pork and Mayor of B.F. Alaska is an economics expert? I know how to stick on a band aid. Can I get a job as a brain surgeon?
It should hardly have to be said (at least in the reality-based community) that John McCain has no credibility when he talks about reforming Wall Street. First of all, he's been in Washington for 26 years and he can't even come up with his own slogan (and has to steal his opponent's mantra of change), let alone deliver any change? How pathetic! Secondly and more importantly, McCain's campaign is stuffed to the gills with lobbyists with glaring conflicts of interest - including Phil Gramm, arguably the single individual most responsible for the current meltdown.
In the wake of the 1929 Crash, the federal government passed the Glass-Steagall Act, regulating banks and requiring more prudent investments. The banking industry long chafed at the (reasonable and proper) constraints imposed by this legislation, and in 1999, then-Senator Gramm succeeded in eviscerating the Act, replacing it with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and opening the floodgates of deregulation and "anything goes." The direct result is today's debacle. Gramm, who calls the US a nation of whiners and declares that the current recession is not real but mental, is almost certain to become the Treasury Secretary if McCain wins in November.
A McCain administration promises more mindless deregulation, more bailouts of corporate cronies, more hardship and suffering for working people. George Bush Junior's failed, disastrous policies will not only be perpetuated but put on steroids. McCain is not merely more of the same, he's worse of the same.
(Comment on this post)
Back in the distant past, when the current presidential campaign season had just started, John McCain promised to run a campaign of honor and dignity. How's that working out? In a nutshell, McCain is running the most vile, despicable, sleazy and dishonest campaign ever - and that's saying something.
It's bad enough that he and Sarah Quaylin continually lie about the Bridge to Nowhere. It's even worse that when McCain is called out by Barack Obama for selling a perpetuation of George Bush Junior's failed and disastrous policies as "change", he cravenly hides behind Quaylin's skirt and falsely accuses Obama of calling the Queen of Pork a pig. But most disgusting of all is his vile and loathsome attempt to portray Barack Obama as a pedophile.
John McCain is not a man of honor or integrity. He is a liar and a coward, and this filthy smear is way beyond unacceptable. I'm astonished that Obama isn't furiously denouncing the ad and demanding that McCain retract it and issue an abject apology. At present, there isn't even any mention of the ad on Obama's Fight the Smears website.
Obama should have learned from John Kerry's failure to respond to the Swift Boat attacks. Many people are always eager to believe the most outrageous sexual innuendos about a black man, and this ad will keep gaining traction unless it is nipped in the bud right now.
This is Barack Obama's Dukakis moment. If he doesn't respond with the appropriate level of outrage and anger, he will look like Michael Dukakis dispassionately discussing the hypothetical rape and murder of his wife. I know Obama doesn't want to look like an angry black man, but there are times when you need to show anger, otherwise you will rightly be perceived as weak.
It's time for Obama to follow the advice of the old saying: "If you won't stop lying about me, I'll have to start telling the truth about you." And there is plenty of dirt to dish about McCain and Quaylin without resorting to falsehoods. Their extreme positions against women's rights, for one thing.
If the Dems had any backbone, they would be saturating the airwaves with the rape kit story. It's the perfect symbol of how extremist and out of touch the rethugs are, and how contemptuous they are towards ordinary people. They care more about rapists (like statutory rapist Levi Johnson) than they do about rape victims! (And of course McCain, that marvelous ape, thinks rape is a joke.)
It's up to us to spread the meme and catapult the truth. Sarah Quaylin thinks your daughter should have to pay $500 for being raped! Go forth and spread the word!
(Comment on this post)
It's bad enough that he and Sarah Quaylin continually lie about the Bridge to Nowhere. It's even worse that when McCain is called out by Barack Obama for selling a perpetuation of George Bush Junior's failed and disastrous policies as "change", he cravenly hides behind Quaylin's skirt and falsely accuses Obama of calling the Queen of Pork a pig. But most disgusting of all is his vile and loathsome attempt to portray Barack Obama as a pedophile.
John McCain is not a man of honor or integrity. He is a liar and a coward, and this filthy smear is way beyond unacceptable. I'm astonished that Obama isn't furiously denouncing the ad and demanding that McCain retract it and issue an abject apology. At present, there isn't even any mention of the ad on Obama's Fight the Smears website.
Obama should have learned from John Kerry's failure to respond to the Swift Boat attacks. Many people are always eager to believe the most outrageous sexual innuendos about a black man, and this ad will keep gaining traction unless it is nipped in the bud right now.
This is Barack Obama's Dukakis moment. If he doesn't respond with the appropriate level of outrage and anger, he will look like Michael Dukakis dispassionately discussing the hypothetical rape and murder of his wife. I know Obama doesn't want to look like an angry black man, but there are times when you need to show anger, otherwise you will rightly be perceived as weak.
It's time for Obama to follow the advice of the old saying: "If you won't stop lying about me, I'll have to start telling the truth about you." And there is plenty of dirt to dish about McCain and Quaylin without resorting to falsehoods. Their extreme positions against women's rights, for one thing.
Here's a good place to start: When she was mayor of Wasilla, Palin charged sexual assault victims or their insurance companies for ordering rape kits. Apparently she and her government didn't want to put a "burden" on the taxpayer. [...]That, plus Quaylin's record (startlingly long, for such a brief political career) of corruption, cronyism, nepotism, and generally being the tinpot dictator of Bumfuck, Alaska, who tolerated no free speech and regarded the post as her personal fiefdom, to say nothing of McCain's long history of corporate cronyism going all the way back to the Keating 5 scandal... the rethugs hand us so much ammunition, it would be criminally negligent not to use some of it. (There isn't enough airtime to reference more than a tiny fraction of it.)
Imagine a young girl who's been raped and not only has to come forward and deal with the complicated and often humiliating process of a rape allegation, but who has to pay a couple hundred dollars for proof of her attack, or ask her parents about their insurance plan?
If the Dems had any backbone, they would be saturating the airwaves with the rape kit story. It's the perfect symbol of how extremist and out of touch the rethugs are, and how contemptuous they are towards ordinary people. They care more about rapists (like statutory rapist Levi Johnson) than they do about rape victims! (And of course McCain, that marvelous ape, thinks rape is a joke.)
It's up to us to spread the meme and catapult the truth. Sarah Quaylin thinks your daughter should have to pay $500 for being raped! Go forth and spread the word!
(Comment on this post)
I thought the networks were devoting significantly more airtime to the Republican than the Democratic convention, and spending far more time having their pundits talk over speakers from the latter party than the former. I was right.
And yet the myth of the "liberal media" will not die.
(Comment on this post)
And yet the myth of the "liberal media" will not die.
(Comment on this post)
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