News of the Political Wars

In the last two days some really interesting things have happened, any one of which could promote great change, but taken together are surely going to have an effect on the outcome of the elections in November. Here they are:

1. President Obama comes out for same sex marriage. This is a huge risk for him and is bound to outrage a bunch of people. Personally, I am glad he did, and will work to support him in this important battle.

2. The Republican Senate and a few Democrats blocked the student loan reduced interest program. The House passed a similar bill but is cutting 6 billion dollars, more or less, from women’s health initiatives to pay for it. The President said he would veto any bill that guts women’s health coverage. Good for him.

3 Richard Lugar, Republican moderate lost his bid for another term in the senate to a tea bagger. He was one of the few Republicans left who would actually work across the aisle to get consensus items passed. He would have been impossible for a Democrat to successfully challenge. The tea party guy will be a much better target for the Dems.

4. 18% of registered voters in North Carolina vote to ban same sex marriages with a constitutional amendment. Press calls it an “overwhelming vote”; I think 78 % of the state has just had something jammed down their throats. But, they are lazy bastards so they live with it.

Just keeping you all posted. And by the way, don’t you be a LANOVOC. What? What the hell is that? It stands for LAzy NOn VOting Citizen. I would simplify it by just calling them lazy bastards that have no right to complain or get any government benefit.

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Sooo Screwed

"Carolina passes the marriage amendment and Lugar loses. We are rotting from the inside out. And the world is laughing at us to boot. Who could blame them? The only country left that still debates climate change. The only country left that puts Genesis before evolution. The only first world country that executes its citizens by the hundreds. The only free world country where people die every day due to lack of access to health care. The only - - . Oh, what's the use."


I just posted this on Facebook. Makes me even sadder to reread it. The country and the world are on the edge of disaster and we still cannot seem to get past “God Said It, etc”. What a sad, sad way to go. When we should be leading the world out of the global problems, we lock the doors and pull the covers over our head. We fuss about what a marriage is and applaud fracking as the salvation of the energy industry. We are diverted from the real issues by corporate beings so powerful they can manipulate the very government that should protect us from them. We are Soooooo screwed.

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I Am Ashamed for America.

This one caught me by surprise. Link sent by a friend. Why not? Wow! Andre Rieu playing “My Way” as a tribute to Frank Sinatra at Radio City Music Hall. But that isn’t what really caught my attention, good as it was. No, in the middle of the video is footage of immigrants on ships at the turn of the century seeing N.Y. harbor and our beautiful and welcoming Miss Liberty. The faces on the immigrants were beyond joy. Many of them illegal by the way. Just bought a one way ticket and were welcomed to America. Some of them got a hard time, and some got rejected, but many, including my own grandparents, got through. And were made legal.

Where has our love of immigrants gone? Where has the pride we feel just because the poor and abused of other places want to come to OUR home gone? Where has our honor gone? Yes, we exploited many of them and for some it took 2 or 3 generations to work their way up the ladder of success. But they worked. They built our buildings, roads, tunnels. They planted and harvested our crops. The cleaned our toilets and made our beds. They cooked our food. They - - - - - - - Oh My God!! They must have been MEXICANS!!!. Quick!! Lock the door to America.

You get the point I hope. I am ashamed at the “chicken littleism” plaguing this country. I am embarrassed for our children and ancestors. And I am sick to tears at our gutless politicians who pander to the self-serving fear mongers.

And I fear for America.

 YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/embed/e-y581HdWfY?rel=0

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Not an Atheist, Just don't believe in God

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” — Gandhi

If someone tells you that they are a Theist, you don't think much about it. But if they say they are an Atheist, you may get nervous. So relax. I am not an Atheist but I definitely do not believe in any kind of god. As I understand religion, all of them, you have to take the “god" on faith. That is what belief is all about. NO EVIDENCE.
The Atheist's problem is the same: no evidence that there isn't one somewhere. So personally I think there isn't one.
I also think that there is much absence of any god actually giving a damn.
I was raised to be a Christian. Confirmed. Baptized. Even thought about becoming a priest! Then the science soaked in. Where is the evidence? I asked myself. Couldn't find any I answered. Why not I asked. Isn't any I answered.
So. I had to “come out" as an atheist. Not easy to a lapsed Catholic mother and a “pillar of the church" father. They  “clucked" and essentially told me that I would eventually come to my senses. I have, and there still is no evidence.
And even now when asked (this happens a lot in the South) I often answer: "I don't go to church. I'm not a Christian." Very few follow up.                                                                                    One of the perks of being a non-believer is no fear of eternal punishment and damnation from a loving god. I sleep at night. Another perk is no tithe to a sexist homophobic chauvinist bunch of old men ( yes, some young ones too).
And, I don't always have to find out WWJD before doing anything. I ask WWWD, then just DO it.
On balance I probably miss some social contact with nice people, and that can be sad. On the other hand, my friends are either secularists, athiests, or quietly solid believers who also believe that their religion is their business and mine (or lack thereof) is my business.

Image: http://www.mandm.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/created.jpg

Tiger Penis? Rhino Horn? Ground up Babies?

Yes, all three are available to Chinese people who want a little something “extra” in their diet. Some like the penises and horns are specifically for erection improvement, but one wonders why that is needed. More than 13 million babies are aborted in China per year just to satisfy the “One Child” policy but the west is told But Wait!! These babies don’t die in vain. We use them for medicinal purposes. For example, they dry some of them, grind into a coarse powder, fill capsules with the powder and sell them to people who have medical need for ground baby.

Talk about sick bastards. This really takes the cake.

I keep telling you I don’t make this stuff up, don’t I? And since the babies aren’t Christians, there is no evidence of God getting involved. Interesting huh?

News Article for strong stomachs: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140702/South-Korea-customs-officials-thousands-pills-filled-powdered-human-baby-flesh.html

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