If It Quacks Like an IDiot
Donkey sex. Oh, boy, donkey sex.
Ahem, the above is brought on by my mindless obedience to the overlords at Pharyngula. The goal being to link the creationist propaganda film, Expelled to the site that details the extent of its fuck-whittery.
Scientific American also does a good takedown of Expelled, including Six Things in Expelled That Ben Stein Doesn’t Want You to Know.”
Fifteen Answers to Creationist Nonsense is a good place to start if you are one of the misguided souls in the “Why can’t they teach the controversy?” camp.*
Time to feed my three products of selective (and not-so selective, in Gheri’s case) breeding.
Cheers,
P.K.
*Personally, I think people in that camp should be taken out back and beaten with a dead cat, but that was my attempt at civility. Feeble, though it was, I think the effort did me permanent damage.
Hey? What’s That Smell?
South Dakota’s favourite band of anti-choicers are showing their Communist stripes. They’ve managed (not that getting the Ill-informed to agree to The Stupid is difficult) to acquire 500,000 signatures for a totalitarian bill that essentially would reduce pregnant women to wards of the state. And ban most forms of birth control. Details of this latest bit of Pea-nuttiest, from the “what about the bay-bees” crowd here.
What is especially delightful about that blog posting is the astute comparison to Communism. Innit funny how Conservatives love to bray about the evils of the Gov’ment and how freedom is all about keeping the Gov’ment out of the business of…business and private citizens? That is unless, you are a woman, or unless the Gov’ment is protecting you from terrorists. At which point it’s perfectly acceptable to butt into the business of private citizens.
But enact a law that protects the environment (and by default private citizens, cuz clean air and water is nice), oh, boy, and let the bleating begin. Out comes the anecdotal story of cousin Bob, who was prevented from putting a pool in his backyard because some stupid law declared his yard a wetland. “The gov’ment,” whines Bubba, “is keeping private citizens from doing whatever they want on their own land.”
Alternately, there’s my favorite for Stupid. The high gas prices are the fault of the environmentalists who oppose destroying some of our last pristine wild lands in Alaska. (This despite the fact that studies have shown there really isn’t enough oil up there to provide more than a few years of fuel for Security Mom’s SUV. And all oil is a finite resource, so the intelligent approach would be to move to renewable fuel sources. But who needs logic when your are a conservative?)
If you really wanna have some fun with a anti-choicer, ask one this question:
“So, if abortion is murder, then how much time should a women who’s had an abortion serve?”
“Uh. What?”
“Murder should mean jail time, right? How much?”
The question will yield one of two responses, prevarication–”Uh, what, huh?”– or some kind of time frame–”Five years.”
The second answer, usually rare, at least displays a refreshing consistency (not to mention the obvious ass-hole-ness.) If you think abortion is murder, then women who have abortions should go to jail. Que no?
As for the rest, who hem and haw–”I, er, I mean, it’s the doctors who should go to jail. Don’t punish the women, I mean,…uh.”–you’re buying into the usual sexist notion that the little womin is too simple-minded to make important decisions about her body. She must be protected.
And protected is a pretty word for control. I am protective of my little dog Gheri. Which means, I control where she goes, what she eats, etc. Gheri, being a dog, and not vested with any unalienable rights, nor much concern for said rights, goes along rather cheerfully with the business.
Women, being human beings and fully vested with personhood (the latter not a characteristic of fetuses), aren’t cute little dogs who should live their lives in sheltered, cosseted care. Pregnancy doesn’t divest a woman of her rights, or demote her to “pet” status.
Keep in mind that this kind of totalitarian thinking has implications for pregnant women who want to be pregnant. How is giving the state authority over your pregnancy and the medical choices you make to keep yourself and your baby healthy, ever a good idea?
If all pregnant women are wards of the state, then does that mean they get prenatal care from the state, gratis? Heh. One can imagine the furor that would erupt from most conservatives when told their tax dollars would cover prenatal care for all pregnant women, regardless of income status. Most gnash their teeth now, at the thought of “all those welfare types” who get coverage under Medicade and similar programs.
“Grrr. All those slutty, poor women, fucking and having babies on my dime. Why there aughta be a law…”
Hmmm. What kind of law, Bubba? One that forces some pregnant women (low income) to have abortions? Or maybe forced sterilization for anyone deemed (by the state) unsuitable to breed? Sniff, sniff. What’s that smell?
Ah, I love the smell of Communism in the morning.
I’m the Big, Bad, Wolf
Apparently, I couldn’t be scarier if I grew a set of horns and a tail. At least according to one shrill, Illinois politician.
Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) interrupted atheist activist Rob Sherman during his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield and told him, “What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!
“This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God,” Davis said. “Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.”
Ah, the power I would have over this nutjob! Just my mere, godless presence, would send her into shrieking fits. I imagine the presence of my immediate family–husband, mother, mother-in-law–would make her god-fearing heart explode. (Father-in-law and sister-in-law are probably also godless; I just haven’t hear either admit it.)
Isn’t it interesting how easily frightened Christians are of, well, frankly, everything? We all know that teh Gay and abortion give ‘em the vapors, so their atheist phobia is no big surprise. You’d think having the Big Imaginary Daddy in the Sky on their side, and the comfort that the rest of us will someday be roasting in hell, would be enough to allay their fears.
Which calls to might an article in the Albuquerque Journal local Right Wing Rag. (I’d include a link, but the editors of that bird cage liner think their content is too important to make available free.) Front page, with enormous photos, was an article about Calvary Chapel’s (warehouse church) latest campaign to get butts in the pews. Essentially, the theme was “Be Afraid.” Besides pushing the usual predictable memes–gays, terrorists, and Internet porn will eat your chiiildren!–the campaign featured posters showing families in gas masks, and other no doubt, fascist-inspired, imagery. The pastor behind the campaign noted that “It’s okay to be afraid, if something is worth being afraid about.”
To which the pastor at the church where I work, took umbrage. In a polite, but mildly snarky letter to the editor, he noted that, “No, it isn’t okay to be afraid.” In fact, he explained, the Bible is filled with admonitions against fear. His point was that essentially (He put it more elegantly, but after all, I don’t actually believe in the fairy tale) “No Fear” is kind of the point of the Bible and Jesus. It’s about hope and all that fuzzy-wuzzy God stuff.
Doing a cursory Google for the topic easily yields a couple of No Fear kind of scriptures:
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear … “
1 John 4:18
So what exactly do these fearful Christians use their Bible for?
Doorstops? A place to press dried flowers?
Bwah. Who’s afraid of the big bad atheist?
McShit Flinging Monkey
I’m beat. But I felt like flogging the “Only an idiot would vote for John McCain” meme today. From Moveon.org:
10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don’t):
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.”
3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
4. McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”
5. The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.
6. He’s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations.
7. Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”
8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley, believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the Antichrist” and a “false cult.”
10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.
Like the people he represents, McCain is ignorant about basic facts in Iraq.
Ish. Anyone who has to rely on Lieberman as their in-person fact checker, should not be president. Can you imagine the fuss the press would have made if this had been Obama making this kind of “gaffe?”
I may actually watch a debate between Obama and McCain. Just to see McCain meltdown when Obama verbally flattens him. McCain, as noted in Item 7 above, has a nasty temper.
Where “Cindy,” is his wife. He called his wife a cunt.
If any man, especially one that supposedly loved me, talked to me like that, and he learn the meaning of a long day. After I fed him his balls.
Tah-dah! There he is. The Republican candidate for president.
