I Regret a Lot, But Not the Sex

safe sex, candies, abstinence,

I have regrets. You can't get to age 5 without regrets. You know what I don't regret? Being powerful, active and involved in my own sexuality and sex life.

I didn't "give away" my virginity, I enjoyed the first time I had sex. Sure, it was akward and painful at first, and exciting and fun. I've said no to a few people in my time, and I've never "given in" to anyone's demands to have sex, either. I've never had sex in order to be loved or keep a man. I have had sex because I wanted to. I've had sex with a man I had no intentions of ever seeing again. I've used condoms and been tested for AIDS*.

My point is that it's my body, my life and my choice. Every choice I've made, I made, and I've owned it. I've owned the good and the bad, and let me tell you, if you want to be satisfied with yourself as a person, if you want to like yourself, owning your decisions is crucial. If you want to stop being the victim of your own life, you have to make our own damn choices.

So it really pisses me off to see girls exposed to this kind of crap from the candie's foundation.

Facts:

91: The percentage of teens who think it's important to get a strong message that they should wait to have sex.

76: The percentage of teens who wish the media showed the consequences of sex more.

75: The percentage of teens who don't thinks it's embarrassing to admit to being a virgin.

60: The percentage of teens who wish they'd waited longer to have sex.

First of all, I can't figure out where these "facts" come from. Have these teens never seen the Lifetime Channel? How about Bristol Palin? Who doesn't know the consequences of . . . oh, right, people who haven't had sex ed. Okay, then, what does candies have for teens to help them be strong, independent owners of their own existence?

A tank top with a slogan across the breasts, involving the word "sexy" in bright pink. That sound? That's my forehead repeatedly slamming into my desk.

Here's the advice I give all the girls in my family. If you're not sure you should be having sex, you shouldn't be. And that applies equally the first and the millionth time you have sex. If you're too embarrassed to buy condoms, you're not ready to have sex. If you can't deal with the possible consequences of sex, i.e., an unplanned pregnancy or an abortion, you're not ready to have sex, and that applies to 16 year olds and 40 year olds alike.

It's your body, own it.

*Actually, having had a blood transfusion prior to 1979, I've had lots of AIDS tests. Like 15 of them. Oh, and at least that many Hep C tests.

God's Chosen

Even as a child, I couldn't figure out the whole "God's chosen people" thing. According to the Bible, God made everyone. Whether you read the Bible literally and believe that we are all descended from Adam and Eve, or you read it allegorically, you still have to believe that God made humanity. All of humanity.

So why choose one specific group to be his favorite? Why order his favorites to slaughter and enslave the rest of the people he created?

Why is god so hateful?

It's a Scary Place Inside Your Head

terrorism, bigotry, racism, fear,

[disturbing images below the fold]

I have a devised a test so you can tell if you're a wingnut or sane.

Two women wearing headscarves walk into a McDonalds. Do you (a) not even notice them as you has cheeseburger, or do you (b) watch their every move because they might be ISLAMoFACIsTERRORISTS and ISLAMoFACIsTERRORISTS are known for blowing up McDonalds franchises in the greater Pittsburgh area?

Wednesday night, we all went over to our local McDonald's for some food. I didn't have the gumption to really cook anything of substance, and state law requires us to feed the kids. It doesn't say WHAT we have to feed them (yet) but only that they have full bellies.

Sitting there eating, I happened to notice a couple of families who must have been traveling in the dining room. The women were wearing hijabs (the muslim headscarf), and my radar kicked on. I sat through the rest of my meal not paying attention to my family, but watching their moves.

What a scary place inside your head is, bngfan. Really, it's tragic. Racist and rude and tragic. Are you filled with this kind of terror every time you see brown skinned people, or just when you see brown skinned people in scarves?

I would like to point out two things. If you truly feel that this level of terror was appropriate to the situation, then the terrorists really have won. Their goal is, after all, to instill terror, and they seem to have succeeded admirably with you.

Secondly, has it occurred to you at all that those families could well regard us white Americans with the same terror? 'Twasn't the brown skinned desert folk who did this:

or this:

or this:

Those were, by the way, the least disturbing images of our violence that I could find. Yeah, we're so much better.

My Head Went "Boink"

Oh, hell yeah

If I have learned anything in 34 years on the planet, it's that when people speak, they often say more about themselves than about whatever the subject of their speech is.

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, in discussing gays in the military, proved my point in a way that is delicious.

Unless, of course, you are gifted with a disinterest in sex, period.

"Gifted"? What an . . . interesting choice of words, Mr. Perkins.

See, most of us consider our sex drives to be enjoyable. Occasionally annoying, sometimes inconvenient, but enjoyable. I mean, I don't know if it's the whole "women hit their peak around 36" thing or what, but lately I find myself wildly attracted to everyone from Naveen Andrews to the Living, Breathing Anthromorphization of Our Most Base Militaristic Drives, and inside my head has been quite a fun place.

No, I don't know what's wrong with me.

Of course, if I were finding myself attracted to women, and found homosexuality something to be ashamed of, I might also consider asexuality to be a gift. Just sayin'.


h/t to [redacted]

Tebow Can STFU

abortion, religion, tim tebow, football,

I love it when right wing idealogues tell me what I think. The fact that I am never, ever thinking that makes it all the more fun.

The last few days, I've seen more than 5 people tell me that I want Tim Tebow dead. The logic is that Tim's mother, suffering from dysentery, was told to abort him and refused. The fact that I support her right to have a decision to make in that situation supposedly means that I want Tim dead.

I don't want Tim Tebow dead. I want him to shut the fuck up. About everything. When I watch football (and I love football), I want to hear about passes, completions, interceptions and touchdowns. I don't want to hear about your religion, your mother or your opinion on abortion.

Unfortunately, with Tim Tebow involved, I can't stop hearing about his religion, his mother and his opinion on abortion. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about Tim's opinion on abortion. He is welcome to never have an abortion, ever, but he can keep his opinion out of my uterus.

That is all.

Not Making Things Better

mackey, whole, foods, discrimination, health care,
Okay, it's well established I'm not a fan of Bob Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods.

His latest idea to "fix" health care (from AmericaBlog) is spectacular:

Keep in mind that the guy who runs Whole Foods is a right-wing Republican nutjob. His latest brilliant idea is to give employees greater in-store discounts if they have lower blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and don't smoke. The idea is interesting, but also a bit unnerving. I have low blood pressure (good low blood pressure), but it's not because of anything I've ever done. It simply is. I've also been relatively skinny most of my life, again simply because I am. Why should I get more employee benefits for things I had zero control over? And an even bigger question, what does the Americans with Disabilities Act have to say about employers who decrease employee benefits based on their physical maladies (high blood pressure and high cholesterol)?

This is insane. I have no control over having porphyria. None. It's a genetic quirk, nothing more. So, because my blood pressure randomly skews from dangerously low to ER-doc-says-holy-shit! high, I will get a lower in store discount. I have done nothing to maintain my low weight (BMI) and low cholesterol. In fact, considering the crap that I tend to eat, I should have high both.

Things like blood pressure, BMI and cholesterol are far less controllable than you might think. My mother has had high cholesterol forever, and has been eating an extremely low fat diet forever. Her body pumps out way too much cholesterol. She can't control it. One of the lawyers here at work has a fantastic BMI, and dangerously high cholesterol. He eats right, exercises daily, and has had several stents put in. Another lawyer has a terrible BMI and fantastic cholesterol and blood pressure. He drinks scotch, smokes cigars, eats fatty foods, and according to his doctor, has the vascular system of a man half his age.

I think Bob Mackey should just go for it. I mean, high blood pressure and obesity are more common in African Americans, so let's give them a lower discount than whites. Latinos are more subject to diabetes, so they'll get a lower discount, too. Women are the only ones who get ovarian and cervical cancer, so they should get a lower discount as well.

I mean, if you're going to be discriminatory, own it. Go all the fucking way.

I Think I'm Sad Now

poor, poverty, entitlements, welfare, food stamps,

I learned something yesterday. If you want some anonymous trolls to come by and shit all over your comments section, suggest systemic governmental help for the poor. Because nothing sets off a wingnut like the knowledge that poor children are eating on his dime.

I can post endlessly about the nonexistence of god and the lie that is religion and nobody bats an eyelash. Racism? Boooooring. Sexism? Who cares? Governmental help for poor children? HOW DARE YoU STEeL MAI MOnEEZ, YOU sELF RigTEOUs LIBERAl BITCH!!!!!1!!eleventy!!!! NAZIS WERE SOCIALISTS AND I WORK AT SOUP KITCHENS* AND IT'S MINE, MIIIIIIIIINE!!!ONE!!!!

Okay, shouty trolls, I know I should not speak directly to you unless I am wearing a garland of garlic and have doused myself in pinot grigio first, but seriously, you don't see anything wrong with the fact that you're this upset about your money being used to feed poor children? You never get done foaming at the mouth about baby feeding facists, accidentally catch a glimpse of your reflection in the TV and think, "Wow, where are my priorities? I'm totally okay with funding wars on brown people, but I'm this angry about poor children eating more or less nutritious meals paid for with a very small portion of my taxes**?"

Really? I mean, do you get equally foamy about the lips when you're driving down the streets and realize that you are driving on roads paid for with your taxes, and maybe you don't want to maintain those roads? Maybe you like offroading to work, and fuck those of us who don't. Do you risk seizures when you use your cell phone and realize that the FCC regulates the airwaves so that you aren't calling your wife on the same frequency the firefighters down the street are trying to use? Do you have heart attacks from sheer rage when you eat meat and don't succumb to e coli or salmonella because of USDA regulation?

Yeah, probably not.

So why does the thought of a poor child with a full belly make you so very, very angry?

Just askin'.

*I am officially invoking pics or it didn't happen.

**Entitlements, all of them, are about 2% of the federal budget. To put that in perspective, military spending is, according to the government, 20% of the budget.

Welcome, Rechelle

Rechelle, at My Sister's Farmhouse, is a former fundamentalist, homeschooling Christian who has become an atheist, and is being very open about it. Her Parable of the Hole in the Curtain, (I'll include a bit below the fold) about losing her faith, is just amazing. It is amazingly well written, amazingly honest, and an amazingly clear description of what it is to realize that you just don't believe anymore.

Rechelle is no longer accepting comments or emails due to the hate mail her honesty has earned her, but I would like her to know that we know where you're coming from. We support you in your journey, and more than anything else, we appreciate your honesty. Every atheist that stands up to be counted, even if only on the internet, is a step forward for all atheists. We are people, too. Our experiences are valid, our beliefs (or lack thereof) are valid, and we are not going away.

Thank you, Rechelle, and welcome to Hell's Blogroll. (And feel free to come on over and bust out with a well placed "shit".)

Excerpt from the Parable of the Hole in the Curtain:

The holes in the curtain appeared whenever the woman read the bible. Whenever she read about god asking someone to kill their child to prove their faith. Whenever she read about god condoning slavery or misogyny or the murder of women (and not men) for having sex before marriage or for being a homosexual or for working on the sabbath or for disobeying your parents or for having sex with an animal (the animal has to be murdered too of course). She tried to ignore these old laws that were written by the same god who is also Jesus and instead focus on the new laws. Because those old laws were clearly written by an insane person and not an eternal god of love and mercy who longs for a relationship with human beings. The new laws were a little better, but they still condoned slavery and misogyny and quite often they didn’t make any sense either.

So she tried to focus her belief on miracles. She tried to believe that god impregnated a thirteen year old virgin with his god seed and grew a mini-god inside of the virgin. She tried to believe that this same mini-god seed son had been crucified, died and then was RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD because this is how god shows his love for us. He kills people. Innocent people. A lot! She tried to believe that even though the bible tells the incredible story of Jesus and all the miracles that surround his life and especially his resurrection FROM THE DEAD this amazing event did not make one single Roman history book. Which is kind of like the U.S. landing on the moon and not being mentioned in the history books in Canada.

The woman began avoiding that room with the window altogether. She didn’t want to watch the shredding curtain fall apart. She stayed in other rooms. Dark rooms. She threw herself into working for her church. She became an elder. She taught Sunday school. She served on committees and directed choirs and organized plays for her church.

But it was impossible. There was a room in her house with a light filled window. And a curtain that was full of holes. She couldn’t forget it was there.

Yeah, I Got Dreams, Too

poor, mlk, poverty, food stamps, hunger,
Last night, I read South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer's feelings about poor people and was confused.

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better,” Bauer said. [...]

I wasn't confused about what Mr. Bauer was saying, I have read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich* after all, but I was confused about why he thought it might be a good idea to say that in public. I mean, he said, in public, that feeding the hungry is bad. He implied that the solution to poverty is to kill the poor. Who hears that and is not appalled?

Well, thanks to google reader, now I know. I Have a Dream** by blackandgoldfan.

I have a dream that one day all citizens will earn the fruits of this great nation. With freedom comes great responsibility to respect one's uniqueness in this world. There are those in this society who feel entitled to the prosperity of another, and, as free human beings, we must not stand for the theft by government to give to the idle and irresponsible. The slaves of the system have defined "entitlement" for far too long. Liberty dies a slow death under these circumstances.

It's more subtle than Mr. Bauer's stray animal speech, but it's the same ideology. . . . those in this society who feel entitled to the prosperity of another doesn't refer to the military-industrial complex or politicians who receive, on my dime, a level of health care I'll never see. No, those are poor people. Those are children who receive free lunches at school (and don't eat much on weekends). Those are adults who work for minimum wage, which just doesn't cover food and shelter. Those are the disabled who must rely on government programs for health care, food and shelter. Those are leeches on the body politic, rats breeding out of control. Those are vermin who should be exterminated.

Just so we can be clear on the vermin people like bngfan and Bauer are perfectly okay with, in fiscal year 2002, the US spent $18.2 billion dollars in food stamp benefits. The US spent $10 billion a month on the war in Iraq. A month. That means that we were spending as much in 2 months on a war that had no reasonable basis as we were on feeding people for an entire year. That's okay. Feeding the hungry is not.

Just for the record, I don't feel entitled to anyone's prosperity. If you have money, good for you. If you have a nice house and a nice car and take nice vacations every year, good for you. However, I don't think your vacations are more important than starving children.




*I am not Godwining my own post. That is almost word for word Nazi rhetoric concerning Jews and other "undesirables".

**White people editing Martin Luther King, Jr.'s seminal speech to make points exactly opposite what Dr. King was fighting for make me very angry.

Somebody's in Trouble!

Lots of somebodys, in fact.

Matthew 6:5-7

5And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

That's it. I don't think any Christian has read the Bible in its entirety.

The Most Disturbing Defense of the Bible I Have Ever Seen

rape, bible, god, fail
Apparently, I've been Poed. Honestly, you can't fake fundamentalism to a degree that makes it obvious you are faking it. No matter how crazy your parody, somebody actually thinks it's the word of god.

Ray Comfort defended the God ordered murders and genocides of the Bible as merely being history. Normally, I would find that disturbing, but commentor Y=X beat that by a mile.

[Trigger Warning: Rape]

I just know some atheist is going to mention

Deuteronomy 22:28-29

If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

Allow me to answer this in advance. When a virgin is raped she is no longer pure and thus her chances for marriage are greatly diminished. God provides for the woman who has become impure due to rape. Since no else will want to marry her, God commands that her attacker marry her and pay her family a tidy sum. The man who rapes a virgin has clearly shown an interest in the woman and so forcing him to marry her doesn't cause him too much distress on him and lessens the chance the marriage will be a really bad existence for the woman.

Making the attacker pay her family a tidy sum helps the family out and in this way the girl helps her family out. So, instead of the woman being considered defiled and an outcast the family can embrace her. She gets a husband and the family gets money.

God setup rules to help even the lowly out. God has a plan for each of us and we just need to seek Him to find out what His plan is.

O_o

That's so . . . is there a word for that? I'm the Queen of Obscene, and I don't know the word for that.

First of all, the impurity angle alone proves to me that either god is a complete asshole, or god didn't write this rule. I can't help it if someone rapes me. No one can help being raped. That's why we call it rape. I can be a good little girl and protect my hymen for all I'm worth, and I'm still at the mercy of anyone who can overpower a 100 lb woman, i.e., almost anyone. (Being a woman, I worry about these things.)

So, god in his infinite mercy and compassion, doesn't simply tell the Israelites "Hey, rape victims are not impure. Treat them with compassion and care." He could have done that, but he doesn't.

Secondly, The man who rapes a virgin has clearly shown an interest in the woman displays such a fundamental misunderstanding of rape that I am amazed. Rape has nothing to do with sex. Rape has nothing to do with desire, lust or anything other than power, rage and control. The man who rapes a woman is showing an interest in humiliating and exercising power over that woman. God's answer to that is to hand that woman over to the man, as property no less? That's the best answer god has? "Here, you've proven that you want to abuse this woman as much as you can, here she is, yours to abuse until she dies!" That's . . . wow.

God has a plan for each of us and we just need to seek Him to find out what His plan is. Apparently, his plan is for me, a woman, to be treated as property. Apparently, his plan is to reward rapists with unlimited access to and power over their victims. That's god's compassion, his love, his plan.

I hope Y=X brings this up to every potential convert he meets. It's certainly good press for the atheists.

Heroes Make Me Happy, Vol. II

Iqbal al Assad makes me happy:

Lebanese teenager Iqbal al Assad is, at 16, poised to become the youngest Arab doctor, after she was accepted to study at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.

“It is extremely impressive to have her in class, a student so young and at the same time so mature and capable in handling a very challenging curriculum,” said Prof Marco Ameduri, a Weill Cornell physics professor who taught Iqbal in two premed courses in 2008.

Commenting on her success, al-Assad said "“I’m an example: I’m a woman, but still I made it. If you have the motivation and you have the abilities, no one’s going to stop you, whether you’re a woman or a man.”

Random Monday

1. Climate Change: It's 60 degrees outside (15C). I live in Pennsylvania, and it's January. That's about 30 degrees higher than it should be. (Highest normal temperature in PA for January: 32F/0C.) And just so everyone will get sick, the high for tomorrow is indeed 32.

2. The Weather (Wo)Man: In the Northeastern United States, winter is cold and snowy. It regularly gets well below freezing, and it regularly snows. If you so much as mention a snowfall of less than 6" (15.24cm), you will be forever known as that nervous person who is afraid of snow. So why does every single weather(wo)man treat 1/2" of snow as the first stage of the apocalypse?

3. Extreme Makeover Home Edition. My MIL loves this show. If you've never seen it, a bunch of terminally cheerful people replace a falling down home for free. I think it's exploitive of the poor/suffering, and a wonderful example of drive by charity (Here's a bunch of stuff- your life is all fixed now!). At this point, however, I am wondering when we will see the apex of pathetisad.

You see, the first season of the show, they picked poor families whose homes were falling down around them. Apparently, however, simply being so poor that you can't maintain your home, so that it becomes actively dangerous, just isn't enough. You need to deserve all this charity, so the recipients became increasingly pathetisad as seasons went by. Nowadays, you not only have to have an unbelievably sad present, you also need a pathetisad past and you have to give outrageously to charity- generally in terms of time, because none of these people have money.

So far, I've seen family with child dying of cancer who started a charity for other children with cancer. (The family got a nice house, the child died.) I've also seen Native American family living in a trailer without electricity with a wheelchair using family member. Last night, the featured family member was a Jamaican woman who, as a child, walked 8 miles to school and 8 miles back barefoot.

Then, for some reason, I had to listen to Ashanti blabbering on about how fixing this woman's house, and doing cosmetic work to other houses in the neighborhood, would teach the entire world to sing. Or something.

I figure we'll hit the apex of pathetisad sometime late this season, and then hopefully they'll end the show on a high note. Or, low note. It's a little hard to say.

4. Mass Effect 2: I actually don't need to say anything.



The music, btw, is Heart of Courage by Two Steps From Hell. It owns me.

An Affront to Democracy

fail, democracy, free speech, same sex, marriage, gay, traditional, mccain,

Good Sense Politics is deeply concerned about the state of democracy. Yes, democracy itself. Apparently, if Cindy McCain supports same sex marriage, democracy just disappears. Possibly leaving a hole in the very fabric of space time itself, though (s)he didn't specify.

Cindy and Meghan McCain have been published in ads supporting the overthrow of California's democratically approved proposition 8. Not only is this an affront on traditional marriage, but on the very foundations of democracy and free speech.

Apparently, rich people supporting same sex marriage will . . . um, yeah, I dunno. I mean, if challenging established laws is an affront to democracy, well, then . . . it's not actually democracy. That's how democracy works. The people have the right to change existing laws. That is, in fact, the very basis of democracy.

As for free speech, I'm not sure how the McCains' use of their right to free speech is an affront to free speech. I keep rereading the First Amendment, and there's nothing in there about it being limited to speech that agrees with anyone in particular. So, fail and fail.

Does anyone get the impression that most of the people bleating about protecting democracy and free speech don't actually like democracy and free speech?

Why Would They Die for a Lie?

cult, christianity, death, proof, stupid, apologetics, witness, evangelism,

One of the most annoying arguments for Christianity is Why would Jesus' apostles have died for a lie? In other words, Christianity must be true because people have died for it.

First of all, I haven't seen any credible historical proof that the people named as apostles in the Bible actually existed, or wrote anything they are said to have written, when it was claimed to be written. We don't have any original writings and every bit of evidence I have seen tends to be self referential or lacking in backup documentation. For example, I can prove that George Washington existed because we have his original writings as well as the original writings of literally dozens of people who knew him. They all agree on the basic facts of George's existence. We can't say the same for Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. (Never mind why the other apostles' writings didn't make it into official canon.)

What we are left with, in this argument, is whether or not people are willing to die for lies. Yes, they are. This has been proven countless times. Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, the Solar Temple are all proof of this fact. So, if you are making the argument that "People have died for it, it must be true", you need to go find yourself some cyanide Koolaid and a comet, or risk eternal suffering.

If Aid Works, Why Are There Still Poor People?

poor, stupid, asshat, goldberg

I saw this article by Jonah Goldberg on Sadly, No! a day or two ago, but I couldn't really deal with it until now.

It made me that mad.

I'm not entirely certain why, but a large portion of our society seems to regard being poor as the easiest of all possible options. We need to stop giving poor people stuff like food stamps and housing assistance, because then they just stay poor. We're encouraging poverty by allowing people to live at subsistence levels instead of starving or freezing to death.

Apparently, these people have never been that poor, because if they had been, they would know that being poor is exhausting. No one in their right mind would choose* being poor over being notpoor.

You know what I think the best part of being wealthy would be? (Keep in mind, I consider making 50k a year to be well off.) When bills come in, you just pay them. "Oh, look, the electric bill is $85. I'll just pay that . . . there we go, let's watch Lost."

If you're poor, the electric bill requires a great deal more thought. In fact, I should get a PhD in Theoretical Mathematics for the thought I put into bill paying. What must be considered when paying bills if one is poor:

1. Each company's tolerance for late/nonpayment. The phone company will shut off service after five days of lateness, the water company is significantly more lenient.

2. When is the bill actually due and when do I get paid? If you're poor, you don't pay bills when you get them, you pay bills on a carefully planned schedule that involves paydays, due dates and leniency.

3. Who charges the most for late payments? Some companies don't charge anything, some companies will really spank you. It's wise not to mess with the latter.

4. What else do I need to pay for when? Medication refill coming up? That could push paying the electric bill back a week. If the car breaks down, nobody's getting paid.

I have to keep track of every penny I make, every penny I owe and try to plan for everything that might come up, every minute of every day. I can't imagine the delicious freedom of simply paying bills.

Then there's the grocery store. I have $x to buy groceries with each week. That's it. If I miscalculate and don't get enough food to last the week, I don't eat until I get paid again. I can't just run out and get food because I happen to need food. That must be nice, but I don't know how that feels.

It must also be nice, ultimate nirvana nice, to look at your shoes, your suit, your coat and say, "Hmmm. This is old/stained/ripped, I should get a new one. I'll do that tomorrow." I also don't know what that feels like.

Keep in mind, I'm American poor. I'm not Haitian poor. I'm "It's so cold in here I wish I could turn the heat up above 63" poor, not "Wow, it sucks to watch my children starve to death" poor. Nobody chooses that. Trust me.

*Yes, there are people who are poor and who make bad choices. This is not the same as deliberately choosing to be poor.

I Know You're Trying to be Nice . . .

I know this guy online (possible band name alert) who is disabled. He was in a car accident years ago and after much physical therapy he is able to walk, climb stairs, etc. He does not do any of these activities easily, or quickly, but he does them.

Three times this week people have, without permission or even warning, grabbed him while he was climbing stairs in order to "help" him. Each time, when he loudly informed them that it was not acceptable to touch him and that he didn't need their help, they became offended and offered "I was just trying to help . . ." as an excuse. As if he were the rude one*.

I wouldn't think it would be necessary to say this, but touching people without their permission is assault and battery. It's a freakin' crime, people. I'm sorry some of us aren't fast enough or graceful enough for you, but that's your fucking problem, not ours. I'm sorry I'm ruining your day with my slow climb up the stairs, but just wait, okay?

Honestly.

*I know, the disabled are expected to be unfailingly, unflappably pleasant at all times. I'm sorry, but Forrest Gump is not a documentary. Possibly the worst movie I've ever seen, but not a documentary.

And lo, Jesus gave unto them an AK-47 . . .

The Light of the World . . . will be seen through a hole in your head.

The US Military is providing to its troops guns inscribed with bible verses. Just the fact that there are soldiers, US soldiers, wandering around with guns inscribed with bible verses is disturbing, however what's truly weird is the verse shown on the rifle above: John 8:12.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life

This is the end of the incident in which Jesus saves an adulterous woman from being stoned to death under the law.

I can't decide if this is some sort of high irony, or just the stupidest thing I've ever seen. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone . . . and shoot that motherfucker between the eyes!"

Real Life Achievements

Oh, Reverend King, You Had No Idea

Rev. King, we needed you more than we knew, and we need you still

Martin Luther King, Jr. said

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

I can only imagine what he would have thought of today's America, but it makes me weep for us all.

Challenging God

Oh noez- an actual building resembles an artist's rendering of something that never existed- it must be Saytan!
god, yhwh, bible, genesis, babel, tree, christianity

There are two instances in the Bible in which man challenges Yhwh. I'm not surprised at the concept of man challenging god because human history is filled with stories of people fighting against impossible odds, and the odds don't get more impossible than going up against omnipotence. What does surprise me is that in both of these stories it is implied that had Yhwh not taken decisive action against man, man could have won.

The first takes place in the Garden of Eden. Yhwh, for no explained reason, puts two very dangerous trees right in the middle, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge and Yhwh freaks out. He says outright that if Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life as well, they would be as "us", as gods, in other words*.

The second instance of man challenging Yhwh occurs when man builds the Tower of Babel. Yhwh has this to say about it:

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

Now that is an impossibly strange thing for an omnipotent being to say. There is "nothing" we humans couldn't do if only we all spoke the same language? That's . . . odd. The only thing holding us back from being a threat to the creator of well, everything, is a lack of a common language? Just how omnipotent is this Yhwh fellow, anyway?



*This isn't in every translation of the Book of Genesis. It is in the one I have at home, which is a Tanakh printed in 1905 by the Rabbinical Council of New York, translated into English for "the new modern Jew who knows only the language of his adopted country and not the language of his ancestors." I'll trust that the Rabbinical Council would know the proper translation of their most important text.

Aesop Rock

I'm obsessed.

Clippy Gets a New Job

I'm Guessing You Don't Work for the CIA

not nearly this glamorous

Is it a full moon? I ask because apparently every person calling the law firm I work for has completely lost their mind.





If you have no clear idea who you are calling for or why you are calling, please hang up and call back when you do, because I don't know.





You do not work for the CIA. If you are unwilling to tell me who is calling, I will be equally unwilling to tell my boss that you are on the phone.





I am not your wife, mother or childhood best friend. This explains why I don't recognize your voice. Stop being offended about it.





I do not have your number memorized and I can tell you right now that my boss doesn't either. Give me your phone number or don't expect a call back.





I have neither the desire nor the time to listen to your life's story. I'm sure it's all very interesting, but I have a brief to type and 3 other calls to take, and all I'm going to write down is your name and your phone number, so let's just leave it at that.





I can give my boss your message, but I can't make him respond to it. I'm sorry if that makes you angry, but please stop taking it out on me.





I am so glad it is Friday.

108 Sins

Why am I not currently being hugged by a sloth?

That's right, kids, the Bible lists 108 types of sins!





Along with the ever popular murder, adultery and witchcraft, the following are apparently also sinful:





Anxiety (Phil. 4:6; 2 Kings 6:15) And now millions of fundies are anxious about their anxiety, further compounding their sin.





Carelessness (Exod. 4:24-26) Dropped a plate? Knocked over a lamp? You're going to hell!





Compromise (Judg. 2:2; 1 Kings 22:1-4) Well, that explains everything.





Delaying (Acts 24:24-25) Delaying what? Now I'm imagining standing at the pearly gates and having Peter tell me that due to that time I pushed back dinner an hour in 1998, I'm going to burn for all eternity.





Doubt (Matt. 14:31; 1 Tim. 2:8) said every cult leader, ever.





Dullness of hearing (Heb. 5:11-14; of seeing, 2 Pet. 1:9) I do love a little ablism.





Living in the flesh (Gal. 3:3) Where else would I live? Because given the chronic pain, I'd love to know.





Murmuring (Exod. 14:10-12; 16:7; 17:2-3) IT'S GOING TO BE A VERY LOUD WORLD IF THIS GETS OUT.

Partiality (James 1:2-4) Now that doesn't make any sense. Aren't they opposing marriage for everyone?

Unbelief (Matt. 13:58; Heb. 4:6, 11) Ah, fuck it. I'm already living in the flesh and anxious about it. I may as well not believe.

Willful ignorance (2 Pet. 3:5)
Wisdom rejecting (Prov. 1:20-29) Bad news for the Creationist/ID crowd.

Got a problem? Christianity has the solution- and we guarantee you have a problem!

For Thee, but Not For Me?

persecution, christianity, beetlebabee, atheism, atheist, olive jones
I've been ignoring my favorite blogot*, and I feel bad about that. So today, I give you a dissection of People of Faith Under Persecution by the Beetle Blogger.

According to Beetle, poor Olive Jones, an inhome teacher for disabled students, offered to pray- once!- for a 14-year-old girl with cancer and the girl's evil, secular parents had her fired.

Of course, the parents tell a slightly different story, which Beetle didn't bother to include in her post.

Paddy and Stephanie Lynch, whose daughter is seriously ill with leukaemia, said Olive Jones' constant 'preaching' left their child deeply distressed.

. . .

Mrs Lynch, 43, who quit her job with the Higher Education Funding Council in April to care full-time for her daughter, said: 'Mrs Jones was employed to teach maths but used every opportunity to discuss religion, despite the fact I made it clear we were a non-religious family and didn't want to talk about these issues in this way.

'On one occasion she asked my daughter to pray with her, my daughter was distressed by this behaviour.

'On another, after the death of my daughter's close friend, Miss Jones told my 14-year-old daughter that when young people die they go to heaven. These conversations upset my daughter deeply**.'

Well, this sounds a little more reasonable, doesn't it? Ms. Jones was told, repeatedly, to stop discussing religion during what should have been math sessions, Ms. Jones chose to ignore these requests, so the parents requested that Ms. Jones not be given access to their daughter any more.

What I find especially enlightening about Beetle's report on this incident is how often she has blogged about parental sovereignty- the right of parents to raise their children as they see fit. Beetle does not want her children exposed to things like sex education or neutral portrayals of homosexuals, and argues vociferously that it is her right as a parent to control what her children are exposed to.

So why is it not the Lynch's right to decide whether or not their daughter is exposed to religion? Beetle gets to raise her children to hate Teh Ghey and love Joseph Smith, but I do not have the right to decide how to raise my children? Parental sovereignty for thee, but not for me?

Let's also imagine if Beetle would defend the teacher if the situation were reversed and the teacher repeatedly told a minor child, over the parents' objections, that there is no god, no heaven and no hell and that when we die we go nowhere at all. I rather think Beetle would have no interest in defending Ms. Jones under those circumstances.

Thank you for attending today's lesson in monumental hypocrisy.




*blog + bigot = blogot. h/t to [redacted] for coming up with that one.

**My guess would be that (a) a 14-year-old undergoing grueling chemotherapy for leukemia probably doesn't want to discuss death, and (b) fundys are well known for telling people that their dead loved ones who did not accept Jesus are roasting in hell. the fact that saying such a thing to a 14-year-old undergoing grueling chemotherapy for leukemia is unbelievably cruel doesn't matter much when you're peddling fear.

Deal With the Devil

I looked at pictures of the aftermath of the quake in Haiti and cried. Pat Robertson had a slightly different reaction.

PAT ROBERTSON: And, you know, Kristi, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, "We will serve you if you will get us free from the French." True story. And so, the devil said, "OK, it's a deal."And they kicked the French out.

You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other. Desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It's cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti; on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, et cetera. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have and we need to pray for them a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I'm optimistic something good may come. But right now, we're helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable.

KRISTI WATTS (co-host): Absolutely, Pat.

If there is a hell, I know whom I'll be seeing there.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

James H at the Opinionated Catholic is concerned about the dark side of rights. You see, he fears that if gay marriage becomes legal, then people opposed to homosexuality and gay rights will suddenly be unable to find jobs, find housing, adopt children or keep their own, and will generally be marginalized.

In other words, he is afraid of being treated exactly the same way gays are currently being treated in this country. Apparently, gays being marginalized is the correct order of things, homophobes being marginalized is Teh Rong.

You know what, James? I'm over here just crying for you Argentina.

Thoughts I Have Never Had- Labia Edition

(h/t to the blag hag.)

You know what I've never thought, not even once in my life? I wish my labia were pinker. I have never, ever thought that.

Apparently someone has, because there is a product you can buy called My New Button to make your labia one of 4 delightful shades of pink. (It also works on nipples and penises. No, I have no fucking idea.)

These are the testimonials concerning this product:

After having my children I noticed things didn’t look quite the same down there esp. the color! No one told me that could happen. I am pretty young and was shocked when I found out from my doctor that this is a typical thing that can happen. I am so happy to have this product. It works great, and it is easy to use. It makes me feel better about myself. Thank you!
-Jennifer W. 34 years old

Seriously, Jennifer? You were surprised that shoving 8 lbs through your vagina might change the way it looks? Uh-huh.

Finally! I have been living with the embarrassment of color loss for years now. As an older- single (divorced) woman I feel a little more confident with the lights on!
-Linda M. 61 years old

"Living with the embarrassment"? Who is seeing your vagina, Linda? Your doctor, who's seen everything and the man lucky enough to have sex with you, who probably doesn't know a damn thing about labial color loss. Even if he does, his only thought upon seeing anyone's vagina should be "yay!"

I just don't buy that these testimonials are real. I think (just stick with me here) that somebody's trying to create a problem so they can sell me a solution. Honestly, after reading about this stuff, I went into the bathroom at work just so I could see what color my labia are. Then I called Teh Hubby, and after he got done sputtering "WHA?!", he demanded a link, which led to a 5 minute conversation of the name. I mean "button"? Wouldn't that be my clitoris? Technically, I guess that could refer to my G-spot, but you can't really see that . . . I dunno.

Anyway, I refuse to entertain the notion that my genitals are the incorrect color. Ever.

The Question of Sin

My life's goal is to grab a sloth and run around with it.

I have to thank chris geiser. This simple post of his crystallized for me exactly how self contradictory and bizarre evangelical theology is on the subject of sin and salvation.

Abortion, euthanasia, murder, hatred, grudges, and calling someone a fool is just as bad as murder in God's eyes according to Matthew 5:21-22. How can a murderer enter heaven? Seriously? Why would God let a murderer into heaven? Once a person is labeled a murderer, they are always a murderer. Time does not forgive sins. Murder committed fifty years ago is still remembered by the Lord.

God is keeping tabs on evil deeds. God is also not bribed by evil men. Whoever is reading this and hates the Lord, look at your sins. God hates sin. Sin is breaking the Ten Commandments. God sends sinners to hell for their evil deeds. However, the Lord is also rich in mercy and has given mortal men a second chance at eternal life. John 3:16.

Why exactly would god be keeping a list and checking it twice? All that is required to get into heaven is belief. Nothing else. Once saved, always saved: believe in god, believe jesus died for your sins, sincerely and absolutely, for one second in your whole life and off to heaven you go. Live a life of goodness and sacrifice for your fellow man and burn for all eternity if you don't believe.

Jesus said to give all to the poor and you give nothing? Not a problem, you believe. Jesus said to love your neighbor and you spew hatred in his (gay/atheist/muslim) direction every day? Not a problem, you believe. Jesus said to be meek, to pray in private and you pray on the White House lawn for a Senator to die? No problem, you believe.

Sin is irrelevent. Sincerity is sovereign.

Willing Suspension of Math

christianity, science, god, stupid,

I'd love for xkcd to do a comic on the email forwarded to [redacted], because if I can see the obvious math/physics problems involved, I'm sure xkcd reading this would have hilarious results.

Three Bullets

There once was a man who lived in Nantucket . . . had nothing for his family to eat. apparently, he couldn't get food stamps. or he doesn't live in the US? or pretty much anywhere in Europe? He had an old rifle and three bullets.. So, he decided that he would go out hunting and kill some wild game for dinner.. obviously not living in Europe or an urban center, then. As he went down the road, he saw a rabbit. He shot at the rabbit and missed it. hitting a rabbit with a rifle is not that easy. rabbits are fast.

The rabbit ran away. Then he saw a squirrel and fired a shot at the squirrel and missed it. he attempted to shoot a squirrel with a rifle in order to provide dinner? in case you don't live in the US, a squirrel is about half the size of a housecat. you can certainly eat squirrel (squirrel stew is usually the punchline of a joke about inbred poor people or the homeless), but there's not much meat on any one squirrel.

The squirrel disappeared into a hole in a cottonwood tree.. ah, the West.

As he went further, he saw a large wild 'Tom' (male) turkey in the tree, but he had only one bullet remaining. according to hunters i know (turkey hunting is popular in NEPA), wild turkeys are harder to kill than you might think. domesticated turkeys, on the other hand, are sometimes born so stupid they can't figure out how to eat.

A voice spoke to him and said, 'Pray first, aim high and stay focused. [missing quote] However, at the same time, he saw a deer which was a better kill. He brought the gun down and aimed at the deer. But, then he saw a rattlesnake between his legs about to bite him, so he naturally brought the gun down further to shoot the rattlesnake. Still, the voice said again to him, 'I said 'Pray, Aim high and Stay focused.'

So, the man decided to listen to God's voice.

if you decide to obey the random voices in your head while there is a rattlesnake within striking distance of your genitals, you deserve whatever you get.

He prayed, then aimed the gun high up in the tree and shot the wild turkey. The bullet bounced off the turkey and killed the deer. The handle fell off the gun and hit the snake in the head and killed it. And, when the gun had gone off, it knocked him into a pond. When he stood up to look around, he had fish in all his pockets, a dead deer and a turkey to eat for his family.

so, the bullet bounced off the turkey, instantly killing the turkey, ricocheted with sufficient force to kill a deer (a fairly large creature), and the force of the gun going off was enough to knock him backwards. apparently, in this universe, pi is 6, the square root of -1 is 53, turkeys are made of rubber and bullets go 10 billion miles per hour. oh, and fish, rather than dashing off in terror at a man suddenly landing in their midst, instead swim into his pockets for comfort.

The snake (Satan) was dead simply because the man listened to God.

There's no fucking explanation for the dead snake? i'm currently playing a video game in which I am War, the first Horseman of the Apocalypse. I've been squishing zombies, ripping the wings off angels, oh, and I have a vertical jump of about 26 feet and hang time like you wouldn't believe, and that makes more sense than this email.

Moral of the story: math has no meaning! there are no reliable physical laws! we should all cling to the earth for we might float away at any moment!

Pray first before you do anything dear lord, before i pee, i would like your blessing, aim and shoot high in your goals, and stay focused on God. Never let others discourage you concerning your past. where did that come from? The past is exactly that, 'the past.' it is what it is. trees are trees, squirrels are squirrels and the past has HAS PASSED! Live every day one day at a time is there some sort of other option? and remember that only God knows our future and that he will not put you through any more than you can bare. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! i was about to get angry, but i guess i can "bare" it!

Do not look to man for your blessings, but look to the doors that only He has prepared in advance for you in your favor. i don't even know what that means.

Wait, be still and patient: keep God first and everything else will follow. Pass this on in order that someone else might be blessed. because god only answers prayers if you send chain emails to the demanded number of persons.

FROM ONE FRIEND TO ANOTHER Don't worry about tomorrow, God is already there!!! ending with predestination? that's a whole 'nother can of worms!

I Swear I'll Do It.

Heroes Make Me Happy

Wynona Ward makes me happy. The founder of Have Justice Will Travel, this former truck driver and victim of abuse herself has devoted herself to helping victims of domestic abuse, often the poorest of the poor, escape abuse and start their lives anew. In fact, in the last 11 years, Have Justice Will Travel has helped 10,000 people.

Too often, all we hear about are the terrorists, murderers and rapists that make the world a bad place. It's nice to celebrate someone making the world a better place.

Fat Pride

So, none of you have any seen me, so you are unaware of my size, and anyone who has seen me would find it a little odd for me to be shouting about Fat Pride. It's not just that I watched my mother struggle with her weight my entire life, something I found confusing and upsetting as a child, btw. One of my earliest memories is of my mother bemoaning her weight, denigrating her own body. And there I was, looking at the goddess of my world, the bringer of hugs and comfort, the source of all good things . . . sorry, I'm crying. That's how deeply it affected me, and probably how deeply it affects every little girl. "It" being our culture of thin, our culture of fat shaming, our culture of self hatred.

This is why we need Fat Pride. I know, I know, we're all going to be HUGE and DIE OF HEART ATTACKS if we stop fat shaming people into apologizing for every ounce over emaciated they happen to be. Because skinny people never get sick. Not ever. And we never die of heart attacks. Nope.

Anyway, my mother lost her weight. And those warm, soft hugs are all bony now. And her heart isn't in any better shape than it was 30 years ago. And maybe we should just learn to be a little nicer to the pudgey among us. And ourselves while we're at it. (and maybe i should stop starting sentences with "and.")

Winning Isn't Everything

poverty, wingnut, winning

I never really thought about it before, but historian must be a job with an unusually high risk of headsplosion. I mean, if I'm picking up on the obvious disregard and ignorance most Americans* have for history, I can only imagine how historians feel.

Dr. Tony Beam, of the Christian Post, whose doctorate is clearly not in history, offers us this terrible amusing example:

Do you remember the saying, “When the going gets tough the tough get going?” Or, how about, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” I think this one is my favorite, “Risk more than other think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible.”

These are all fairly famous quotes on desire and determination to win. The spirit of America is the spirit of winning. Maybe Patton said it best to his troops in the movie that bears his name. “Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all the time. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.”

First of all, I'm fairly certain General Patton was not primarily an actor. He may, in fact, have been a general. As for actor Patton's little speech, I can only say, ahem, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and coming soon to a theatre near you, Afghanistan.

In American society, the cherished American value of winning has been under attack for years. People on the left think winning is somehow unfair. When you win that means someone else is going to lose. Committed leftists want to transform the world into a place where everyone wins and no one ever loses. They would change “When the going gets tough the tough get going” into “When the going gets tough the tough take a break.” They would transform “winning isn’t everything…it’s the only thing” into “winning isn’t anything…It’s a bad thing.”

"Winning" is not a value, cherished or otherwise. Frankly, the fact that winning might be seen as a value explains quite a bit about how the right regards and treats the poor, who are quite obviously losing. See, the poor aren't unfortunates we should help, they're failures who don't uphold our cherished value of winning. We shouldn't help them, we should spit on them. And then go buy another Mercedes.

Wow. That actually does explain everything.

*I say Americans only because I have no idea how knowledgable or aware of history average people in other countries are, having never lived in another country.

Lying Again - UPDATE

ray comfort, living waters, ambassadors academy
I swear the Bible has something to say about lying, but maybe I'm wrong, because Ray Comfort is lying again.

During the summer months, we have monthly training for people from around the world in something called the "Ambassador’s Academy." If you love the Lord and care about the lost (the unsaved), you may like to attend one of these. If you don’t love the Lord, get right with God, and then come to an Academy--we would love to meet you. It really is life-changing.

Note: Before you (atheists) accuse us of making money from these, please realize that we lose $300 for every person who attends. So why do we do it? We care about where you will spend eternity. No other reason.

If you've never heard the expression before, a "loss leader" is something a store sells for less than they paid for it in order to get you into the store, presuming that you will spend money on other items at the store, and they'll end up ahead. Stores do this because it works. They take a loss on one item because they gain on others.

The Ambassador's Academy is Ray's loss leader. How do I know this? Because he's not running in the red. From the Raytractors:

For 2006 Living Waters Publications sold 4.5 million dollars worth of merchandise that only cost the organization 1.9 million (a 137% markup). Living waters also took in $736,472 in donations. This gave the org a net revenue of 3.3 million to be added to the 1.4 million it had in the bank at the beginning of the year.

The expenditures for 2006 list fund raising receiving 1.2%, program services receiving 24.5%, and managerial and general receiving 74.1% of the 3 million spent. IMHO, if you are running a nonprofit and only 24% of your expenditures are going to the programs and services the org was created to address, and 74% are going to Managerial and General expenses, you're doin' it wrong.

. . .

Ray's compensation from living waters has increased as the org's monies have increased. In 2004, when the org had only $300 on the books, Ray took no money. This inclines me to believe that Ray also has other methods of income that are not affiliated with Living Waters. Book sales and speaking engagements perhaps? Can't say for sure, but I can speculate.In 2005, when LW took in 2.4 million, Ray's compensation jumped up to $50,000.

In 2006 Ray was compensated with $119,784.

. . .

Ray's DomicileRay lives in Bellflower, CA, a suburb of LA. By visiting LA's county assessor website I found out that Ray's house has been valued at a quarter of a million dollars. Additionally, I visited the LA Times real estate section and looked at some of the going rates for houses in his neighborhood. Even if he doesn't own the best house in town, he certainly lives in a nice neighborhood.

Yeah, Ray, it's all for the souls.

That is the from the Living Waters' 2007 tax return. As you can clearly see, Ray made $120,000 in 2007, amost 6 times what I make.

It's So Hard for a White Man to Get Ahead

health care, racism, obama, bigotry, poverty,

George Picard (-25,000,000 points for making me associate you with Sir Patrick Stewart) at American Thinker wrote a much needed article about how hard it is for the white man to get ahead in this new America, with its racist President.

The administration and Congress have passed policies clearly based on favoritism. They have further appointed, approved, and empowered key officials who have displayed a strong desire to benefit African-Americans over the interests of all Americans.

He never really addresses why Obama might do this, other than the implication that Obama is BLACK, so he hates whitey. You know, like his mother. And the grandparents who raised him. Also.

There are two ways this agenda has been promoted: steps that have a disparate impact in favor of African-Americans, and those that are designed to specifically favor African-Americans (disparate treatment).

Disparate impacts are outcomes that benefit African-Americans because they are compose a higher proportion of a particular group. These include:

efforts to gut the workfare requirement that was the signature achievement of Bill Clinton in the area of welfare reform;

giving a blank check to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Authority to expand home "ownership" among lower-income people and income redistribution on a massive scale (via tax hikes and stimulus bills -- and by the way, stimulus views vary by race, with African-Americans far more in favor of it than whites, Hispanics, or Native Americans); and
health care "reform" (including expanding the ranks of those who qualify for Medicaid) despite all the polls showing that most Americans are happy with their own medical care and do not want the intrusion of government, the massive deficits, and the tax increases that will come with such "reform."

Because African-Americans make up a high proportion of the disadvantaged, they will disproportionally benefit. This is an agenda at work.

Don't believe me? Listen to Barack Obama when he spoke to a friendly crowd of minority journalists in 2008 about why he favored universal care:

If we have a program, for example, of universal health care, that will disproportionately affect people of color, because they're disproportionately uninsured.

That sound you hear? That's me, beating my head against my desk. According to Mr. Picard, it is racism to help the poor, because such a high percentage of the poor are minorities.

I don't even know what to say about that. Helping people get health care is racist, because the people without health care are overwhelmingly minorities? Whom else should we help? The people that don't need it? That doesn't even make sense.

Oh, For Quantum Field's Sake

christian, christianity, stier, evangelism,
Greg Stier, who needs to step back from the gel for a moment, has a few predictions for us. They are ridiculous.

3. Evangelism will become a hate crime in America.

Maybe evangelism will be considered a misdemeanor as opposed to a felony, but I’m convinced that sharing one’s faith, with the intention to convert that person to Christianity, will be outlawed in the good ole’ US of A. The First Amendment will be “contextualized” for a postmodern culture by postmodern judges and, as a result, any speech or actions that seem intolerant will be considered intolerable.

. . .

The same brand of treasonous blasphemy that got Christians killed thousands of years ago will get Christians arrested in America over the next ten years. Hate speech will be the law that triggers the trials. As Alan Sears, President of the Alliance Defense Fund, once told me, “The persectution of the 21st Century will be prosecution.”

First of all, speech is not a crime in the US. You are more than welcome to stand on a street corner and shout your hatreds to the world. This is not going to change and certainly not in the next ten years. Secondly, Christianity, like all religions, has been protected by hate crimes legislation for 30 years.

Thirdly, "postmodern judges"? What does that even mean? Bush appointed 200* Federal Judges during his terms, and they are the most conservative judges in recent history. Those judges are still serving today. They seem somewhat unlikely to rule Christianity "intolerable".

A milder form of this persecution is happening right now in secular universities and Hollywood studios. How many evangelical freshmen in philosophy classes across America have been taunted by bowtie wearing, atheistic professors? Too many to count! How many unflattering caricatures of evangelizing Christians been painted in movies and television shows? Too many to count! And when the ideals of the secular university and Hollywood studios trickle down to the working class, a legal predisposition against evangelism (aka “proselytizing”) will be the result.

Yes, taunting, bowtie wearing, atheistic philosophy professors. They're everywhere! I resent the implication that atheists are poorly dressed, and where did he get this from, a Chick Tract? As for caricatures working their way to the working class, 75% of this country identifies as Christian. Also, does he think the "working class" just started watching TV and movies?

This next is so strange, I'm not sure what to say about it.

I love my job now but I think I’ll love my job even more over the next one hundred and twenty months. As the President of Dare 2 Share Ministries, an organization that mobilizes teenagers for peer-to-peer evangelism, I may get to, not only train teenagers to please God by sharing their faith, but to promote something illegal at the same time! When teens begin to realize that they could get thrown in jail for sharing their faith it could lead to an unstoppable movement of relational, relentless and rebellious evangelists who sweep the nation with acts of love and the message of Christ!

Maybe I’ll get to start a prison ministry as a result…from the inside.

I think someone's got a weird fetish for prison. I also think someone shouldn't be allowed within 20 feet of any teenagers if the greatest thing he can think of is encouraging them to commit crimes. Oooh, I know! Let's outlaw math and then they'll all be doing calculus in secret!



*I could be wrong. That's the number that I found with a google search, so feel free to correct me.

They Will Die

Gays in Uganda will die, and Scott Lively will be responsible.




The last time I saw rhetoric like that, it was being translated from the German.

(h/t to Box Turtle Bulletin)