The 12 Best Reasons Why The U.S. Is Not Now, And Never Should Be, A Christian Nation

Addicting Info via The Christian Left.

9) “What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people… A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not.” –James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785 
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10) “During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.” –James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance

Enslaves and makes ignorant. That oughta be enough reasons right there.

"One man and one woman ..."

Not so much:

Pic stolen from Kenneth Quinnell.

Saturday Emmylou Blogging

Nice slide show of the main reason the motorcycle was invented. You don't have to feed them when you're not using them, but you still have to clean the barn floor. :-)

Ballad of a Runaway Horse performed by EmmyLou Harris

Thanks to utuber423.

"Did FLOTUS Kill Breitbart?"

Note to Michelle: I'm down wid it if ya did! Work on Limbaugh next...

More at oldfartrants.

Da Braddah or the Sociopathic Entitled Prick?

From the LATimes with accompanying article.



El Rude-o weighs in:

As with many things about Mitt Romney, it's hardly a surprise to learn that he was one of those pampered nancy boys who, because he wouldn't drink or ball like crazy because he'd get raped by the ghost of Brigham Young or however the fuck they threaten Mormon kids, took out his young adult hormonal rage on others around him through "pranks." So he treated a nearly blind teacher like the man was Mr. Magoo, tricking him into walking into a door for the giggling approval of the other prep school bitch boys. Romney was a joker, don't you know?

Sure, sure, there's shit that Romney did that can be chalked up to stupid teenager behavior. But at least two of the acts detailed by the Post would be considered felonies. There's the hair-cutting incident, where scared, closeted, hippie-haired John Lauber, "his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help" as he was tackled and held down by a group of classmates, while "Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors." Romney can't even claim he was drunk or on drugs. He just did it.

Then follows a newspaper photo of Willard The Rat from back in the day with a verrry ironic and cautionary caption and this observation:

Yes, that is exactly what it looks like. And that's the look a bell tower sniper gives just before opening fire on the school below. Let's not allow America to be that school.

We're trying desperately to get over the last sociopathic entitled prick we had for Preznit. He goddam near wrecked the joint. Willard would finish the job.

No choice. None at all.

10 Reasons To Ban Gay Marriage:

Stolen from my brother John's FB page.

"Our bodies are ballots and every step's a vote!"

This is a band out of Portland fronted by Utah Phillips' son Brendan. I heard this tune today on KVMR.

For any young'uns that might blunder onto this page, "fast rattler" is depression-era slang for a freight train. Woody Guthrie used the term in "Hard Travelin' ".

As Utah said, "A long memory is the most radical idea in America".

Enjoy.

"Take It To The Streets" by Fast Rattler

Thanks to bmediacollective.

Shopping Day

See yas later. I'll leave ya with this:

Thanks to YubaNet.

"Must Read" of the Day

William Rivers Pitt

You want to know the really funny joke?

OK, here it is: Once upon a time, there was a center-right political party that felt like it was losing its way after a guy named Clinton won the White House twenty years ago. So what they did was spend millions and millions of dollars in a radio, television and direct mail campaign aimed at convincing the same Americans who were suffering from their bad ideas that poor people, minorities, women and Democrats were the breathing essence of evil...
...

But all of a sudden - and here's the funny part - the horse got out of the barn and went pounding across the countryside, absolutely beyond control. Twenty years of peddling hate and fear metastasized into a 'Tea Party' base whose real muscle came from championing hate and fear...and the smart boys who started the whole thing two decades ago were left in front of an open barn door wondering how things got so bad so fast.

Suddenly, the worst elements of their dark creation - Christian dominionism, anti-gay zealotry, anti-woman Biblical dudgeon, unabashed racism, cocked-rifle xenophobia, and an all-out assault on even the most meager concepts of government - went from being the crap they'd once ignored as bad noise from their "useful idiots," to being the hood ornament on the careening juggernaut of a party they no longer had control of.

The rest, as they say, is history:

If your upbringing or pastor or background or whatever leads you to hate total strangers because of who they love, where they live, what they look like, how they worship or if they worship, if you have devoted yourself to an 'Us' or 'Them' mentality and refuse to abandon such poison, if you have no ears to hear, but instead choose to pursue a course of vitriol and division, here is a truth: we will break you across our knee like so much kindling (my em and halle-fuckin'-lujah!). We are large, we contain multitudes, and yours is a course of dissolution and despair.

Cast aside your furious obedience. Freedom begins with a "No."

People like that are scared to death of freedom. George Hanson was and is right:

"This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it." He observes that Americans talk a lot about the value of freedom, but are actually afraid of anyone who truly exhibits it.

Especially if they're brown or black or gay or female or intelligent.

Headline of the Day

Richard Mourdock: ‘Bipartisanship Ought To Consist Of Democrats Coming To The Republican Point Of View’

Fat fuckin' chance, Sparky.

Pleasant surprise ...

It was a pleasant surprise yesterday afternoon to see President Obama do the right thing [video link], especially at such a politically dangerous time. Good on him and god bless Joe Biden.

The only drawback is that we'll have to hear the GOP Faux Outage Machine at full volume from here until November. Barry went out and got this one and it's red meat for the Christofascists. Buy earplugs.

And, heh ...

Pic stolen from Lamebook.

Backwards to the Future!

Borowitz via Seniors For A Democratic Society

North Carolina Weighs Ban on Electricity, Soap

Cal Pinckton, a leading proponent of Amendment One who has helped craft the new law, says the principles behind it are simple: “If the Bible doesn’t mention something, it’s against the law, and the Bible makes no mention of either soap or electricity.”

He adds that North Carolina will “still have plenty of stuff that the Bible does mention, like boils and locusts.”
...

But Mr. Pinckton is careful to emphasize that under the proposed law, there would be certain situations in which the use of electricity would be permitted: “You could still use electricity for things that are explicitly mandated by the Bible, like transvaginal ultrasounds.”

Why doesn't this surprise me?

2012 Veepstakes

Will Durst in fine form.

Since Gov. Romney has sewn up the nomination tighter than one of Chris Christie's old suits, the only remaining Republican election drama is which name the Bairn of Bain Capital intends to place on the bottom of his bumper sticker. Yes, friends, it's once again time to play that quadrennial game sensation sweeping the nation: Let's Guess Mitt's Vice Presidential Pick!
...

Texas Congressman Dr. Ron Paul: 1,000 to 1. Less chance than a snail hauling a piano has of qualifying for the 100-meter dash at the London Summer Olympics.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry: 10,000 to1. Same thing, only the snail is dead.
...

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman:: 200 to 1. Two Mormons? That's a Broadway musical, not a presidential ticket.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley: 80 to 1. Hybrid of Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal with associative perks and potholes.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum: 10 to 1. Good Christian mudder. Especially helpful should Mitt need Old Testament righteousness to counter squishy-conservative charges.

You get the idea. More.

Facts are an inconvenient irrelevance

Humor Gazette

Headline of the Day

Awkward! Republicans Who Opposed Auto Bailout Stumped By Romney Claiming Credit For It

Aren'tcha glad he's yours, Repugs? Bwa-fuckin'-ha-ha-ha-ha!

An interview with Paul Krugman

Ezra Klein at Wonkblog

Speaking of Keynes, are you surprised that Europe ended up so far on the other side of, so to speak, the Keynes curve?

No. I know the Germans. They’ve never believed in any of this. They’re at a point that doesn’t exist in our spectrum. Here, people are either pro-Keynesian economics and pro-strong welfare state or they don’t believe in Keynesian economics and they believe in social darwinism. The German thing is rigorous, you-must-balance-your-budget and a belief in a strong welfare state. And they’ve always been that way. Famously, there was a conference where the late-Rudi Dorbusch came down with someone from the Bundesbank for breakfast and said, “and stable prices to you, sir!”

Let’s step back for a moment. What do you think we should be worrying about in 10 years?

I really think 10 years from now the signs that we’re on a runaway climate change will start to become a lot more obvious. It won’t be big rises in temperature yet, but will be enough to make people look around and say, oh my God. But by then, it will be very hard to bring it under control.
...

I’m a technological optimist in that I think if we had appropriate pricing, we’d find it remarkably easy. The cost of getting out of rising emissions would be much lower than legend has it. But I’m not politically optimistic that we’ll do that.

There ya go. It's all about the politics which is all about the money. The goose that lays the golden eggs does not want change, only money and power.

Michele Bachmann claims Swiss citizenship

Sounds like a natural fit - she's had a brain like Swiss cheese for years.

Politico

Rep. Michele Bachmann is now officially a Swiss miss.
Bachmann (R-Minn.) recently became a citizen of Switzerland, making her eligible to run for office in the tiny European nation, according to a Swiss TV report Tuesday.

This may be an outgrowth of the Bachmann's favorite bedroom game, "Heidi meets Attila". The question, of course, is who wears which costume?

Note to Switzerland: You're welcome to her. Best of luck.

How to end it once and for all

If it's Wednesday, It must be Morford on the vicissitudes of life and making changes.

As we say in the deeper yoga practice: it's all fun and games until someone loses an ego.

"Some people die at 25 but aren't buried until 75," sighed Ben Franklin, after a few glasses of laudanum and after inventing something like 4,000 life-changing devices and institutions by the time he was like, nine. So he gets to say that sort of thing.

Thus spake, similarly, Gandhi, and Buddha, and Lao Tzu, and Jesus and essentially all wise teachers and gurus planetwide who see the human species as simply a giant gaggle of lost children in desperate need of a divine slap across the ass of their karma so as to wake the hell up, right now, before it's too late.
...

It is ritual. The marker. The sign of movement. You get baptized. You get the bat mitzvah. You perform the hardcore tribal thing with the face paint and the fire and the lions. You drop the hallucinogens and wander for 30 days in the jungle, communing with the specters of the gods. Hey, whatever works.

Works for me! Where do I sign up?

I'm surprised ...

They didn't ban mixed race marriages while they were at it.

Marriage between a man and a woman will now be the only legally recognized domestic union in North Carolina after voters Tuesday overwhelmingly passed Amendment One, a change to the state’s constitution that could take effect as early as next week. North Carolina now becomes the 30th state to adopt a same-sex marriage ban.

...

Assholes.

Quote of the Day

Fez:

...

So Obama is arrogant to claim ANY credit in the killing of Bin Laden, but Mitt Romney gets to claim credit for saving America's Auto Industry?

...

It's called "chutzpah".

Another Popcorn Moment

Raw Story

Rep. Allen West, a tea party Republican from Florida, on Monday compared the draw down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to the appeasement of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, according to Right Wing Watch.
...

“I look at what happened between President Obama and President Karzai as a 1930s, Chamberlain, Hitler moment,” West told radio host Frank Gaffney. “There is not going to be peace in our time.”

One neocon asshole to another.

Note to Willard: Make cashiered army officer and so-far-right-he's-coming-back-around-on-the-left nutjob West your running mate for Veep. You're not going to win anyway and you can put one over on Grampa Walnuts - this guy makes Moosebreath look almost sane. Since all the other Repug whackjobs - except Paul, who sticks around like psoriasis - have mercifully succumbed, you have to entertain us all by yourself.

In related news:

U.S. Obesity Rate May Hit 42% by 2050

Heh. Pass the popcorn! Extra butter, please!

Miners

Here's one for Fixer. He's probably seen it, but I saw it for the first time yesterday evening.

Thanks to Newcastle.

Good questions ...

Addicting Info has 10 questions to ask a conservative. Betcha you won't get a straight answer.

...

Both the 10 Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins have no mention of being gay or having abortions. Greed, though, seems to be a biggie. Why do conservatives seem to get that backwards?

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Why should people who inherit their money not pay taxes and people who earn their money be taxed at the highest rate?

...

More deck ...

Just put up a progress report on the deck project for the friends and relatives.

Headline of the Day

MRI study hopes to unlock what dogs are thinking

Interesting, but be careful what you wish for...

Actually, if they can train dogs to hold still for the MRI, maybe with considerably more effort they can train Repugs to do it so we can figure out what they're thinking. Probably not much different - if you can't eat it or fuck it, piss on it.

Difference being we like dogs and they have socially redeeming qualities.

Learning That Works

Very good article in Time by Joe Klein on vocational education in High School.

I spent the better part of forty years plying a trade that I learned at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College aka "The College Of Motersickle Knowledge". I am a huge booster of vocational education.

The article described things I knew and things I didn't. Worth a read.

Vocational education used to be where you sent the dumb kids or the supposed misfits who weren't suited for classroom learning. [...]

C'est moi...

Unfortunately, the education establishment's response to the voc-ed problem only made things worse. Over time, it morphed into the theology that every child should go to college (a four-year liberal-arts college at that) and therefore every child should be required to pursue a college-prep course in high school. The results have been awful. High school dropout rates continue to be a national embarrassment. And most high school graduates are not prepared for the world of work. The unemployment rate for recent high school graduates who are not in school is a stratospheric 33%. The results for even those who go on to higher education are brutal: four-year colleges graduate only about 40% of the students who start them, and two-year community colleges graduate less than that, about 23%. "College for everyone has become a matter of political correctness," says Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University. "But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than a quarter of new job openings will require a bachelor of arts degree. We're not training our students for the jobs that actually exist." Meanwhile, the U.S. has begun to run out of welders, glaziers and auto mechanics--the people who actually keep the place running.

The average of students at LATTC when I went there was about 26. The students were at the age when they realized it was gonna be a dead-end world for them if they didn't learn how to do something. It was their way up and out and they took it damned seriously.

Getting kids involved in real vo-tech, as opposed to busy-work for the dumb and delinquent like turning chair legs or fixing clunkers, while they're still in High School is a damn fine idea.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

OBAMA HAILS “NEW KIND OF RELATIONSHIP” WITH KABUL
Direct deposit replaces bags of cash.

SEC: Stock-Picking Robot a Fraud
Scheme convinced many investors to move their funds from dart-throwing chimp.

Younger Workers Being Pushed into Low Wage Service Jobs
Serving burgers to older workers pushed into retirement.

NCAA May Delay Changes to Academic Requirements
Especially one requiring defensive linebackers to pass reading test.

U.S. Teen Tobacco Use Plummets
Only wealthiest 1% of teenagers can afford cigarettes.

"I'm a stripper, not a prostitute!"

Not that I have a problem with either, but I think I posted about this woman the first time she got busted:

An East Rockaway woman ran a prostitution business out of a hot dog vending truck she often parked on Sunrise Highway in Baldwin, Nassau police said Friday.

...

And, of course, the New York Post had their own take on it.

...

A Long Island hooker sold more than just sausage at her roadside hot-dog truck — using the truck to peddle her own flesh even though she’d been busted on the same rap eight years ago, cops said yesterday.

...

Sound familiar?

Are you a fascist? Many people are fascists and they don’t even realize it. And sometimes, they know it all too well, but hide and deny it. Most of the time though, it’s obvious who the fascists are. For instance, you might be a fascist if…

Do you recognize these traits in the members of a certain political party? I do.

Then and Now ...

I have no idea where I stole this from last week. If it's yours, let me know and I'll give ya credit.

It writes itself ...

Do you think he trusted Snowflake Snooki?

Former Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Sunday advised presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney to selected a running mate that “he knows he could trust.”

“The absolute most important aspect is if something happened to [Romney], would that person be well qualified to take that place?” McCain told ABC’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “I happen to believe that was the primary factor on my decision in 2008. I know it will be Mitt’s. I’m very happy to say we’ve got a very deep bench.”

...

Time to get Grandpa Walnuts back to the home ...