Ancient values, modern mismatch.

Today, I want to talk about values.  Values and social practices in modern economic times.

Like it or not, we live in a modern, 21st century America.  Technology has changed the way people live, mostly for the better, although one does see some downsides regarding pollution, chemicals in our food, etc.  But largely, we can do more work faster and that gives us a huge amount of free leisure time that past generations never enjoyed - unless one was one of the elite classes with armies of servants to do the scut work.  (We won't touch on the current armies of lower classes that still do the scut work, that's another post, or a series of them, completely.)

In the last half century, the economic realities of America have changed.  The rich have gotten much richer, the middle class has lost ground and the poor have just gotten poorer.  The main upshot of that for my purposes today is that most of America needs both partners of a married couple to go out into the working world and bring in a paycheck in order to pay the bills and maintain a family's economic position in society.  In the poorer classes, that often means two or three jobs for each partner!

As a result of the change in marriage laws, allowing divorce and separation, not to mention marriages broken apart by the death of the main traditional breadwinner due to auto accidents and war, heart attack and cancer, there are more women who are now the main breadwinners of their families.  A recent Pew Research Center analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau has shown that as many as 40% of American families have women as the main breadwinner, an increase from 11% in 1960.

These “breadwinner moms” are made up of two very different groups: 5.1 million (37%) are married mothers who have a higher income than their husbands, and 8.6 million (63%) are single mothers. 

The income gap between the two groups is quite large. The median total family income of married mothers who earn more than their husbands was nearly $80,000 in 2011, well above the national median of $57,100 for all families with children, and nearly four times the $23,000 median for families led by a single mother.

Obviously, the trend towards women having a firmly established position in the workforce has allowed a lot of women to make good careers for themselves, bettering their families' place in a higher economic stratum, while making it easier for single women to even keep their families heads above the economic surface.

Quite a change from past generations when women could only hold certain poorly paid jobs when the tragedy of their husbands' death struck, putting their surviving children into dire economic straits, often driving them into poverty and ruin.

Apparently, though, some people still yearn for the "good ole' days", when women had to beg on the streets or take in washing and clothes mending to make ends even come close.

Bryan Fisher noted on his radio show yesterday that the 40% figure is a violation of god's will and how he "set things up" in the "beginning".

“That’s the way God set it up, that’s the way he designed it,” he continued. “Husbands are to use their stamina and their strength and their brainpower — not that they’re smarter than women, I’m not saying that — but God has given them a brain and the purpose for using their mental ability is to provide for their families.”

Women, on the other hand, were designed to focus on “making a home for her children and for her husband.”

Fisher also warned that men’s self-esteem was dependent upon their success as breadwiners. A wife that earned more money than her husband was a recipe for marital turmoil, he warned.

Strength?  Stamina?  What planet does Fisher live on?  Tons of American jobs are sedentary, allowing even the disabled to work just as well as the physically healthy can, making it perfectly simple for women to work alongside men - even allowing them work BETTER than men, thus the numbers of women who make more than hubby.

As a matter of fact, many women have much more stamina than men - I damn sure don't see myself as putting up with the physical strain and pain of childbirth for more than ten minutes!  My dear wife did it three times, almost all of them lasting over 24 hours.  Each time, she was back at work within three working days!  No, thank you.  As far as I am concerned, women are just as capable of working at a vast majority of jobs in this country as men are - and in most jobs, they do it every doggone day.

Besides being insulting to the hardworking women of the human race, his remarks are simply ignorant and stupid sounding, betraying the outdated, patriarchal source of his "wisdom".

As for those poor men whose wives make more then they do, give me a break!  I would be delighted to have my wife make more than I do, because I am so damn good at spending it!  Threatened?  Not in the least.  Any man who feels threatened by a wife making more money has worse problems than money on his mind, and seriously needs counseling.

As noted in the beginning, this is the 21st century.  Society is quite different from the late bronze age, early iron age beginnings of the biblical stories that make up the old testament.  Technology has changed society so dramatically that it is hard to understate the ways in which people's lives have changed - for the better for the most part.

Bryan Fisher needs to get his head out of that yellowed, ancient cobwebby book he holds so highly and look around.  He might be surprised by what he sees!

An Ethical Conundrum

I have always prided myself on being an ethical person.  I do try.  I have no doubt that I often fail, at times, unknown to myself even.

But, I do try.  I constantly ask myself of something I am about to do is right, if it has the capacity to hurt someone or if it will, on balance, be beneficial.

But sometimes, there comes something that defeats my ability to decide.

In recent months, I have seen, over and over, christian luminaries, preachers, clerics, priests and Cardinals, say and urge things that I feel are not only wrong, but actively damaging to people, society, and humanity in general.

There was the time Pat Robertson told women that they should ignore their husbands' philandering and just respond by making a happier better home.

There was the post today about a young woman who was locked into an examining room with her Optometrist and his two techs and forced to pray to Jesus.

A new children’s book by author Amber Dee Parker and illustrator Hannah Sequra takes gay bashing to a whole new level by adding a warm fuzzy feeling to teaching very young children to hate homosexuals and their families.

Then there's this:

Families who attend Faith Tabernacle Congregation in North Philadelphia and First Century Gospel Church in Juniata Park have lost more than two dozen children to illness since 1971, according to non-profit Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, Inc. (CHILD, Inc.). Both churches believe in the power of prayer over modern medicine.

I would also put this photo into evidence:

I agree with the caption, by the way.

All of these examples show how people from large organizations to your everyday businessman feel it is their duty to force their illogical, unevidenced and oftentimes outright false beliefs on the rest of us, disguised as some form of truth.

On one hand, there is no doubt that all of these examples show people exercising their constitutional rights in talking about their religion.  I am a FIRM support of the First Amendment, and I cannot be clear enough on this point.

ALL Americans have the right to speak their minds on what they believe regarding religion.  Absolutely, positively, correct!

However, there is a point often claimed by the right wing that is somewhat applicable here:

The Constitution is NOT a suicide pact.

You may believe to the depths of your heart and with all your strength that what you say is right.  But if what you believe is wrong, and is able to be proven to be harmful (like the idiots who believe in the power of prayer over modern medicine), then why do we allow these very harmful and hurtful things to be taught and practiced?

It is a well known constitutional exception (SCOTUS ruled on this) that religious practices which violate the law (as it applies to everybody, not just religions - like the laws against murder) do not enjoy Constitutional protections like the First Amendment.  For instance you cannot practice a religion which either advocates or practices human sacrifice, because human sacrifice requires the unlawful killing of a human being.

Are there Christian beliefs and practices which would fall under this exception?  Can we prevent christian clerics from preaching hatred towards others, particularly when it is able to be proven to cause harmful activities such as violence towards members of the hated group?

Clearly, we can pass laws which require parents to take their children to doctors even when it violates their religious beliefs, based on society's obligation to preserve and protect both the public's and children's' health.

Why can't we stop these morons from preaching such harmful, false and misleading drivel?

Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

I don't remember who that quote is attributed to (I could look it up - this IS the Internet - but it doesn't really matter - if the shoe fits...)

I am referring to Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who made a statement today likening Obama's statement on Gitmo and drones as a victory for Al Qaeda (as if they are still active enough for it to matter):

The President’s speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory. Rather than continuing successful counterterrorism activities, we are changing course with no clear operational benefit. We knew five years ago that closing Guantanamo was a bad idea and would not work. Yet, today’s speech sends the message to Guantanamo detainees that if they harass the dedicated military personnel there enough, we will give in and send them home, even to Yemen. With the recidivism rate now at 28% and the increased threat from al Qaeda and its affiliates, including in Yemen, GITMO must stay open for business.

 This is a deliberate ignorance of the primary value Gitmo has to muslim terrorists all over the world (not just AQ), which is as a recruitment vehicle.

This is bad.  Not because we are moving towards closing Gitmo, but because it has remained in operation for so long!

There are two reasons:

First, it is just plain wrong.  Gitmo was opened in the first place on the premise that the Constitution applies only within the Continental United States - that the Government can violate that document the Republicans supposedly hold sacred with impunity IF it does so either outside the borders or against a foreign national.  There are no such limitations on the Constitution's safeguards.

The Constitution is a document which outlines the powers allowed the government, and those powers are not allowed to expand beyond those safeguards if it is acting overseas.  They remain the basic law governing how the government may act - ANYWHERE, and in regards to ANYONE.  It does not say, "King's X, only within US borders and this is only protection for citizens".  Its language is generic in regards to whom those protections apply, and are absolute as to wherever the government may be acting.

These are foundational principles we have based our government on - that it may NOT hold people without trial indefinitely.  Even international law limits such imprisonment.  Violation of those principles not only lowers our actions to the level of our enemies', but gives them the perfect excuse to charge us - with good reason - with that violation.  It places us in the very awkward position of being blazing hypocrites!

Second, because it has placed the government in a position where it may be difficult to successfully prosecute those prisoners because of the illegal manner in which they were imprisoned and interrogated, forever tainting the evidence - "poisoned fruit" in legal parlance.

This does NOT represent "successful counterterrorism activities", it represents a very egregious violation of the law - probably several, including international law, I would imagine.

To top it off, many of those men are now known to have been completely innocent of any crimes against the United States when they were detained and transferred to Gitmo.  Something like half, if not more, in fact.

The Senator ignores that his government has illegally held dozens, if not over a hundred perfectly innocent men in indefinite detention, still without charges and without a firm release date or trial date FOR YEARS!!

What part of violating their human rights does this Senator not understand?  How does this man not understand that this places us firmly into the same camp along side such human rights violating luminaries as the USSR, China, North Korea and yes, (Godwin alert) Nazi Germany.  Oh, there may be a matter of a difference in scale, but the principle has been trampled and ignored as completely and as blatantly as if there were no difference at all.

Hence the usage of Gitmo as a tremendously valuable recruitment tool for terrorists the world over, not just AQ.

President Obama promised in his first election campaign to close Gitmo.

It is beyond time to make good that promise.

When will the tipping point arrive?

In every kind of situation where people have a choice between two or more socially visible things, whether they are movies, celebrities, ideas, political parties or even religion, sooner or later in the marketplace of the public mind, there comes a tipping point.  Whatever it is that has struggled to gain acceptance, will reach a place in the public mind where its rivals lose enough steam that people begin to see it as a viable alternative to the other thing that is losing popularity.  Then people who would never have given that new thing a thought suddenly see it not as new and fresh, but as something to have, something popular that can easily replace that old loser.

Now, I don't want to get ahead of myself, and I am not suggesting that we've gotten to that place yet.  But look at some recent stories that may just make you take some second looks.

First, look at the article about the Mexican Archbishop who claimed that abortion is worse than child rape.  May 8th, I posted it on my Facebook page.

Next, note that Minnesota was the thirteenth State to approve marriage equality.  Thirteen, most of them just in the last year, I think.

Or the Christian singer who hired a killer to dispose of his wife.

The increased attention the Religious Right has begun to pay to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), and the lies and the hysteria accompanying those stories, because of its success in recent months in stymying their attempts to continue dominating the US Military, illegally proselytizing American soldiers and forcing their religious ceremonies onto unwilling soldiers, many of whom are christian themselves.

Or the high school principle in Louisville, Ky who is encouraging his teachers to teach - illegally - creationism and christianity to students in their classrooms.

How about Pat Robertson telling his listeners to forgive their cheating hubbies because, well, they're men and that's just what men do?

Or perhaps the increasingly beleaguered state of the right wing pertaining to background checks - even in so called red states?

Look at the way the Republican Party has maintained their grandstanding by voting 37 times to overturn the Affordable Care Act - without a prayer of it passing the Senate or being signed by the President.

I might also point out the female candidate for office down south who claimed to be endorsed by Jesus - and lost by a significant margin!

The nullification movement - states who pass laws attempting to nullify various Federal laws they disagree with - or laws that directly allow things like teaching creationism when SCOTUS has made rulings against them.

There is a common thread passing through all of these things.  It is a thread of desperation, illuminated by the increasingly obvious lack of enthusiasm for religion, particularly the evangelical version of christianity within the US population, especially the under 30 crowd.  Republicans are popularly portrayed by liberals on Facebook as pretty stupid, and a lot of state and local politicians try hard to make it look like they follow that mold, but really, they aren't.  They are as capable of reading the statistical tea leaves as the democrats and know full well that f they do not gain power NOW, while they still have an outsized political influence, in a few years, it will be far too late.

Hence the desperation to incite their real base to get involved, get mad and go to the polls.  Hence their attempts in various swing states to hinder the ability of minorities to go to the polls and vote.  They know that if they can pass many laws that put their program of right wing insanity in place now, they can successfully fight its repeal for years before the democrats can overturn it and return sanity to this country.  They know that they can sabotage the educational system and provide for future conservatives by preventing as many people as possible from getting a real education, so they can be successfully wooed by the religious right as future voters.

But more and more, Americans are rebelling against this insanity.  More and more, the media is letting these stories about the right wing insanity gain traction.  And the more insane they get, the more Americans are likely to notice.

It's time for the general public to let our politicians know how they feel.  It is time to stand up and be counted in opposing the insanity.  Call, write or email your Congresscritter!  Let them know it is time to show the insane ones to the door and to introduce sanity, credibility and integrity back into government.

Let them know - NOW!

More Harm from Religion - Patriarchy, Rape Culture and Sexual Slavery.

Well, today I saw a post on Facebook that chilled me to the bone.

Apparently, the cops found a letter that the kidnapper (slaver?) in Cleveland wrote some years ago in a suicidal funk.  Somebody tweeted some excerpts of it, but the one that gave me goosebumps was where he said something to the affect of, "I don't know why I pursued a third, I already had two in my possession..."

Listen to the relevant part again:  "I already had two in my possession."

Emphasis mine.

Bad enough that he had to kidnap three girls to hold as sex slaves, but this one phrase exposes the whole reason why he thought he could.  They were merely "things" he could own.  Forget his admission that he was raped and molested at home as a child.  That doesn't begin to explain sexual slavery.

They weren't people, but objects.  Things.  Somehow, he had the idea in his head that women were not people at all, but own-able objects.  Where does that come from?  What could possibly give this man the idea that these three girls, total strangers off the streets, minors all, were things he could own?

and seest among the captives a woman of goodly form, and thou hast a desire unto her, and wouldest take her to thee to wife;
then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thy house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month; and after that thou mayest go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

Deuteronomy 21, 11-13.

This is among the worst, but all three Judaic religions put women into a second class, below men.  They cannot own property, they ARE property.  They traditionally had no rights to decide who to marry.  They could not have jobs.  (although the latter could be relaxed for widows.)

Churches were admonished to not allow women to teach men, could not speak in church and are also directed to obey their husbands, who as Christ is the head of the church, are also the head of the household.

All of this is taught in all three religions, and in both Judaism and Islam it is worse.  Women are often separated from men and in Islam, cannot inherit as much and their testimony in court is worth half that of a man.  In both they are considered unclean during their periods, and men must undergo strict rituals if they become "contaminated" by them during that time.

Today, we have taken those scriptural admonitions and have added to them in ways that make our culture one which glorifies rape, prevents women from often even reporting it, and in some States, the rapist can even claim parental rights!

Add to this the current Republican "War on Women", where they are attempting to take the clock back to before the 20th century and deny women not only contraceptive rights, but basic health care as well, and it is no wonder men like Castro can think its ok to kidnap three young women and hold them as sex slaves.

Just as we thought that it was safe for women to start thinking about the more advanced ideals of equal pay for equal work, we find that even their basic rights to decent health care is at risk.

This is unconscionable.  This is horrible, worse than mere discrimination, it is the institutionalized objectification and enslavement of half of the human race!

Until we stop the harm that religions do to our human social structures, these crimes will not go away.  We will never end the degradation and the humiliation of women all over the globe as long as religions exist which present them as objects and things without rights or any form of personhood.

Patriarchy is not a social custom.  It is not a cultural phenomenon.  It is directly taught by religions as dogma and as theology.  Religion teaches us that women are less than men and thus less than human.

Yes, your religion does that.  Yours.  Stop cherry picking and go read Deuteronomy, it will open your eyes and shake your world.

Let this be a tipping point - Please?

The news this week that three young women had been held basically as sex slaves for over a decade in Cleveland this week burst on the national scene like a water balloon.  As if a cold eruption of icy water, it shocked the nation's attention while the very colorful character of the next door neighbor turned hero told his chilling story.  The entire nation was happy for the three and their families as they begin a long and torturous journey for them all in coming to terms with this very devastating epic of horror, sex, and violence.

Right in the middle of the tale, and a particularly nasty part of it, we find that a nationally known psychic, Sylvia Browne, had told the mother of Amanda Berry on "The Montel Williams Show" that her daughter was dead.  Barely a year after her daughter's disappearance, too.  One year later, Louwanna Miller was dead of a broken heart - literally.

As one might imagine, the psychic has said nothing - no apology, no sorrowful admission of failure, nothing.  The entire country seems to be outraged - and for good reason.  Psychics have existed for centuries, and probably longer than that, doing what they do best - take the money of the gullible and the credulous for what is essentially made up pablum.

I mean, come on, people, Google says there are about 1,890,000 results (0.54 seconds) for the search "how to be a psychic medium".  Notice it took less than a second to return that number, too!

This is called supernaturalism.  The supernatural is basically defined as anything our 5 senses cannot detect, and the last two hundred years of frantic attempts by the scientifically challenged to find something - anything - that can be even vaguely construed as scientific evidence for the existence of things in that "realm" have turned up nothing but junk science.

It took even less time to find about 593,000 results (0.38 seconds) for the search "how to expose a psychic medium".

It is fake, folks.  There is nothing to it, so called psychics are criminal confidence "persons", to be gender neutral.  They gain your confidence, take your money and then feed you like a mushroom, in the dark so you can't see the shit they're feeding you!

This so called psychic has denied a young woman her mother at a time in her life when she needs one the  most.  She denied that mother the hope that her daughter might one day be found alive - which she was.

Can this please be a tipping point?  When American begins to end this stupid love affair we seem to have with supernatural bullshit?  Is it possible that this event where the utter bankruptcy of the psychic industry is revealed for what it is can begin to lead us back into a better frame of mind where we can see bullshit for what it is?

I'd like to think so, but the election of that politician who-shall-not-be-named to the Congress on Tuesday in spite of his lies, embezzlement of State funds for personal travel and how he has treated his wife doesn't exactly give me the warm fuzzies, folks.

We CAN do better.

I love Republicans - they provide so much amusement.

Yet, somehow, I wish I were a comedian.  Republicans do provide so much fodder for us bloggers, but damn, the amount of ripe, juicy material just sitting there, waiting for some comedian to take it up and use it is simply astonishing.

Take these two items for instance, that Rachael Maddow has on her blog:

'That's absurd beyond the word absurd'

Perhaps the most controversial of the gun-related items, HB 1076 would ban state agencies from enforcing any new federal gun laws, including background checks. The bill passed the Republican-led House on a largely party line vote Monday, but legal experts say the attempt to "nullify" possible future federal laws likely wouldn't pass the scrutiny of the U.S. Supreme Court.

and:

When Reagan worship goes awry

President Reagan would insist that all illegal immigrants return to their native countries and get in line to be legally admitted into the country if faced with the issue today, according to Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.).
"President Reagan would insist that those who are here illegally must repent and atone for their illegal conduct by returning to their country of origin and getting in line with everyone else," Brooks said on the House floor.

Let's back up and look at the historical record. In 1986, then-President Reagan signed a bipartisan immigration reform package that extended amnesty to any immigrant who entered the country illegally before 1982. This was, of course, before Republicans were told to perceive "amnesty" as the moral equivalent of a crime against humanity.
And by all accounts, Reagan supported the policy and its goals. 

Reagan "knew that it was not right for people to be abused," [former Wyoming Sen. Alan K. Simpson] says. "Anybody who's here illegally is going to be abused in some way, either financially [or] physically. They have no rights."
Peter Robinson, a former Reagan speechwriter, agrees. "It was in Ronald Reagan's bones -- it was part of his understanding of America -- that the country was fundamentally open to those who wanted to join us here."
Reagan said as much himself in a televised debate with Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale in 1984. "I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally," he said. 

Now, I see three possible reasons for this idiocy.

First, they are stupid.  Tempting, I know.

Second, they are purely politically grandstanding on the theory that their constituents are stupid.  Also tempting!

Third, they think we all are.

I think the last one is really the case.  In my experience, people who want to run roughshod over others are of the opinion that they are right, everybody else is wrong, and furthermore, they'll get away with it because everybody else is too stupid to notice. Or, in this case, god is going to somehow wave a magic wand and make them win.

I can hear Bob Hope now, he would have loved this, it has so much potential.  And when I think of what George Carlin would have done with this material, I could almost laugh and cry even without hearing it.

It's a shame neither man is with us to put these morons to shame.

More Pictures! Spring is here...

No time to type today, so as a consolation prize, here are some spring pictures!

Time to talk about goals.

Labels.

There was a movement a few years ago to denigrate the use of labels to describe people, because folks tended (and still do) to just put a label on someone and leave it at that. Single labels are just wrong, because every human is a varied and complex being. All of us have the ability to change our demeanor and our behavior, depending on where we are and what we are responding to.

Take me. (Please!)

I'm a dad, a husband, a blogger, an IT tech, an IT supervisor, a neighbor, a friend, an atheist, a male, an American, a Nissan Altima owner, a Mac user, and I could go on and on. Each of these things describes a different aspect of who I am and what I do with my life.

Right now, the label that counts is New Atheist. Also blogger!

As one of those, I have a number of goals.

I want to educate people so they know and understand atheists better.
I want to help other atheists in their search for what that is supposed to mean.
I want to be part of the atheist movement that will enlarge the political influence of that demographic.
I want to encourage other atheists to "come out" so our families and friends, coworkers and neighbors can get to know us as atheists so the stigma of that label is erased.
I want to erase the influence of religion in human affairs.
I want to encourage better moral choices by others based on human well being instead of Bronze Age values from a religious book.

Big goals. Obviously, I can't do these things myself, and many of them probably won't be completed in my lifetime, even were I a younger man. But I can be open and verbal and as literarily verbose and prolific as possible in spreading the word and encouraging others to work towards these goals.

This blog is to help others see the world from an atheistic viewpoint. I want you to see things from an atheistic colored pair of glasses. I want to help you remove the religious blinders so you can see just how wonderful this world can be and how the restrictions of religious dogma limits your life choices.

A large part of my atheist "ministry", if I may hijack that word, is to open people's eyes to the very real harm that religion can and does do every day around the world. Especially in our back yard. I want to examine the way that religious values tilt and distort reality and human relations so that our actions are not only harmful to others, but to ourselves, even as we think we are saving up points to get into heaven.

I want to open people's eyes to the way that religion contributes to violence, especially nation to nation violence, which contributes so much to the lowering of the standards of living of the entire human race.

In short, I want, in some small way, to make a difference.

The best way I have is through three kinds of activities.

First, through this blog and on Facebook. I've tied the two together, so that this blog is shared there, and the page is named the same as this blog. So, I can educate people through the written word, on one of the most powerful mediums ever invented by the hand of man, the Internet.

Second, by simple human interactions. I am largely out as an atheist. In some venues, like at work, I don't advertise it, but I don't hide it if it comes up in conversation. Family and friends know. By simple example and living my life as best I can, I "witness", to hijack another Christian term, so that others can see just how an atheist can be just like the regular Joe that I am.

Third, by being active in my area in humanist and atheist groups. I host a meetup discussion group every first Friday at my home, and have for over three years. We meet and discuss current events, view videos and other literature relevant to the interests of the group. This enables more people to be able to meet in an atmosphere of like minded and opinioned people where they don't have to watch their words to avoid offending the wrong people.

All of us can do at least the second two. Not everybody is good at writing. Not everybody is good at public speaking or has a large enough space to allow meetings. We all, however, can show the world that atheists are just like regular folks, and aren't the monstrous baby-eaters the religious fanatics would have them think.

So, lets get out there, show the world who we are, and emulate the gay movement, so we can gain the influence to shut the religious right down and reduce their political influence to what their numbers really deserve.

We are the New Atheists! We should be and can be more militant in our approach to our opponents, and make no mistake, the ultra religious ARE our opponents, if not out and out enemies.

So lets act like it.

Sorry about the slow!

I know I've been a bit tardy with the posts and I am sorry.  Various things have taken my attention lately, including the death of an online friend, the aftermath of which has been...interesting... in that old Chinese curse kind of way.

So, I will try to pick up the pace by tomorrow, so be sure that I am quite flattered that some of you keep coming back to look for new stuff.

Picture of kittens!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a rant.

There's been a lot going on recently, and I've not been able to pay as much attention to this page as I'd like.  My apologies to my regular crowd!

First, the weather is moving towards spring - finally - and there's some stuff that just has to happen in the yard in spring.  Longer days, more daylight, less time on the machine the Cyberwife calls my mistress.   Sigh.

Second, two of the cyberdaughters are pregnant, one with her sixth and the other (the oldest) with TWINS!  This'll make nine grandkids by December.  (My family breeds like rabbits - just let us put down roots, and we'll literally own the whole town in a generation, either outright or just by marrying into it!)

Next, one of my old friends on Facebook, Linda G., is dying of cancer.  Lung, liver and pancreatic.  She is not expected to last very long and has been moved to hospice.  Needless to say, her family is devastated, and the folks on FB who all belong to the group she started are all still pretty much in shock.

I got to meet Linda last year when I drove down to Florida to see Cyberdaughter the Youngest as I passed through Brunswick, Georgia, where Linda and a lot of the FB folks live.  It was a rare opportunity to do a face to face with an Internet friend, and it was good to meet her and share a dining experience, however briefly.

I finally have to face the fact that I am now old enough to begin to experience the death of people I know personally.  That is an idea I will need to adjust to.  It is a new one, and I am not certain how well I will be able to handle it.  Stay tuned on that one.

Last, I am working on a book.  Science-fantasy, and I will not (at this time) reveal the plot.  When I am comfy with it, I will perhaps release the prologue to see how it goes over.  So that will take up more time too.

************

Now, I promised you a rant, and I will not disappoint!  It will be a bit nuanced, though, because it impacts upon a couple of subjects I've touched on before.

First, Rachael Maddow had a very good segment the other day about how the right wing press - the mainstream bunch - has finally gone off on how Islam is totally at fault for the Boston bombing and how it is truly our enemy and how we should now go to war against the whole religion.

I have avoided, except in the most egregious cases, covering the right wing crazy stuff, because it has become so damn normal. Every time I turn around, some right wing nutbag politician has gone off the deep end and said something so totally stupid, if this were forty years ago, they'd have locked him behind a padded door.  But it isn't, it is now, and it is so damn normal, it is almost expected.

But this goes beyond crazy.

Islam is followed, nominally, by something over two billion people.  Now, one can argue as to the sincerity of many of them, given the totalitarian nature of a religion that kills people who say they don't believe the bullshit any longer, but there is no doubt that it certainly controls that many.  Meaning that it can command the public loyalty of those billions and can call upon many of them as combat soldiers if needed.  I truly question the wisdom of going to war with a religion that can command such numbers when our single country comprises less than 400 million.  True, we may have the biggest and most advanced military in the world, but as a past military man (I cannot remember the name of) once said, "Quantity has a quality all it's own!"

A population of two billion can command a lot more combat soldiers than we can.  A lot more.

Besides, the idea that every muslim bears responsibility for the crimes of a small fanatical minority is problematic.

I know that I have expounded on the theory that moderate or even liberal christians (and muslims), by continuing to believe in the sacredness of their holy scriptures, bear some responsibility for the fanaticism of the fundamentalists.  There is some measure of truth to that.  By cherry picking the holy books and ignoring the bad parts, you do allow the bad guys to cherry pick their own verses to provide religious cover for their criminal behavior.  Picking the bad ones you have ignored, thus creating a version of your religion that is probably diametrically opposed to what you, as a liberal, believe.

Funny how the same book can support two completely opposed religious ideals, huh?

On the basis of argument in the public sphere, I can argue this quite sincerely, yet believe at the same time that to blame the liberal or even the moderates to the point of war is nonsensical.

There is a definite difference between arguing theology and dropping bombs.  Public debate and argument is something that can persuade people to one's point of view - and a lot of people are moving away from religion, and not just in the US.  There is a growing number of very courageous people, both men and women in the muslim world, who are beginning to take a stand.

Islam is a bit younger than christianity, by about six hundred years.  Funny how that coincides with the period of time after its creation when christianity began its internal struggle we now call The Enlightenment - that period when people began to see through the sciences and a growing sophisticated society that the old simple values of their religion just didn't work any longer.

Islam is now in the midst of their own struggle with the principles of Enlightenment.  Our news media don't cover it much for some stupid reason, but there ARE muslims out there of a moderate or even liberal persuasion who are vehemently opposed to the fundamentalism of the fanatics and argue strenuously against their actions, condemning them at every turn.  There ARE muslims in this country who are committed to the  American ideals of freedom, justice and the separation of church and state, and are willing to serve in our military to fight and die for those ideals.

The willingness of the right wing media to ignore these people and paint them with a broad fanatical brush is stupid, ignorant and ultimately self defeating.

There are plenty of reasons why I fight religious ideas.  The existence of fanatic fundamentalists willing to kill innocent people (even of their own faith) is one of the best reasons I can think of.  But the Islamic faith isn't the only one that breeds these nuts, Christianity has its share, the Jewish faith does and so do the supposedly peaceful Hindu.

The crimes of a few are NOT reason to declare war on over two billion people in dozens of countries.

We do NOT have the resources to win, folks. Think about that, if for no other reason.

More Religious Harm - Jewish style.

In my continuing series of articles on the harm religion does, the latest is a bit dated, since I've been busy playing Daddy Day Care this week and didn't have a chance to blog much.

It seems that in the State of Israel, where the Jewish Orthodox hold a desperate and tenacious hold on an outsized amount of political influence, the government has arrested and then released 5 women for the dastardly offense of praying at the wrong place.

To be sure, there is an effort at coming to a compromise over the situation, but in a country whose religion, as practiced by an influential few, is about as misogynistic as it comes, a compromise is hard to come by.

This time, the actual "harm" isn't specifically to these women, as they were released without charge.  This time.  The harm is to the peace and order in a society which chooses to worship in a religion which makes women second class citizens, not only restricting them from major religious activities, but supposedly espousing the virtually complete separation of the sexes.

Aren't women's lives hard enough without putting artificial obstacles in their paths as well?

More Harm by Religion, but a bit outdated...

The New Atheist movement has been in the forefront of touting the Harm Done by Religion, and I've been riding that wave where I could find examples, in between my other posts.   As a movement, it isn't very old, as political movements go even in this country.

So, I figured as soon as I found this example of the Harm Religion Does, I'd better get it out there, so people could see just how pervasive and endemic in our society it really is! I mean, these guys should have been stopped, but I fear we're a bit late...

The reasons behind these bog body killings remains uncertain but Ned Kelly of the National Museum of Ireland has suggested a very interesting theory (see Archaeology, No. 63, Vol 3, May/June 2010) . He believes that “these men were failed kings or failed candidates for kingship who were killed and placed in bogs that formed important tribal boundaries. Both Clonycavan and Old Croghan men’s nipples were pinched and cut. “Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland,” says Kelly. “Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship.” The bodies served as offerings to the goddess of the land to whom the king was wed in his inauguration ceremony. According to Kelly, both men’s multiple injuries may reflect the belief that the goddess was not only one of the land and fertility, but also of sovereignty, war, and death. “By using a range of methods to kill the victim, the ancient Irish sacrificed to the goddess in all her forms,”.

Oh, didn't I say?  This example is over two thousand years old... isn't it about time the human race grew up and stopped this nonsense?  I know, I know, religion these days doesn't do human sacrifice - we make our victims live out the pain and suffering long term, instead of killing them and putting them out of their misery.  We are much more sophisticated just how we go about it these days.

In a way, that's even worse.

The world is full of sick people.

In part, yes, I am talking about the terrorists who bombed the Boston Marathon today.  This is a terrible crime that will go down in the annals of American history as one of those things we all remember where we were when we heard about it.

Two dead and around a hundred injured, from spotty reports so far.  Other reports about supposed suspects, disarmed unexploded bombs, whether there was another bomb at the Kennedy Library or if it was just a fire - first reports of these things are always wrong and often exaggerated.

However it turns out it is a terrible thing, but whatever the outcome, this kind of thing brings out the additional sickos, and this time the Westboro Baptist Church has decided to join the bandwagon.

Only someone with a religious perspective can be so mentally twisted as to decide to take something like this, totally unrelated to their main goals, and mangle it so badly to make it fit.

Sick bastards, all of them.  You can include in that number any of the players in this drama you want to.

Just when you think you've seen the worst...

I learned something the other day.  I'm sure you've seen the posts on FB and clucked disgustedly over it.

But, did you really think about it?  I mean, really, really think about it?

I did.  I'm talking about the man behind the Ron Paul homeschooling curriculum, Gary North.

The basics are bad enough, with a man like Ron Paul lending his name to a man with fundamentalist creds and allowing him to write something Paul will most likely never read - but will undoubtedly get well paid for!

But to see the movement that North is responsible for is ... well ... scary isn't a strong enough word.  I've written about the Dominionists before - a group who wants to bring theocracy to America, whether we want it or not.  Yes, they ARE scary, and you can read about them and their attempts to mold our Armed Forces into an Army of God by using the label "Dominionism" to sort my posts about that group.

But these guys are worse, if that is even possible.  The movement is called Reconstructionism, and it is to Dominionism what a tactical nuke is to a 500 lb high explosive bomb.  North wants to bring biblical laws not just to America, but to the entire world.  And not just the "nice" stuff theocrats want today in fundamentalism, but the whole ball of wax - stoning for adultery, slavery, sex slavery, stoning for kids who disrespect their parents, death to girls who have sex before marriage - everything the Old Testament calls for.

Listen to Walter Olsen:

Those who would face execution include not only gays but a very long list of others: blasphemers, heretics, apostate Christians, people who cursed or struck their parents, females guilty of “unchastity before marriage,” “incorrigible” juvenile delinquents, adulterers, and (probably) telephone psychics. And that’s to say nothing of murderers and those guilty of raping married women or “betrothed virgins.” Adulterers, among others, might meet their doom by being publicly stoned…

Notice that bit about the rapists of married women or betrothed virgins.  Gals who belong to a man.  Remember, the bible allows the rapist of an unmarried women to marry her - or rather it is termed a punishment for him, since he is not allowed to divorce her.  No mention, of course of the punishment to her of being forced to live with her rapist for the rest of her life...

But now, the kid gloves are off.   North admits fully that to him, religious freedom is merely the means to an end:

Everyone talks about religious liberty, but no one believes it. So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.

The story is at the Skeptical Libertarian Blog, and is entitled, "Gary North: The ‘Libertarian’ Taliban Who’s Writing Ron Paul’s Curriculum".

I urge you to go read it, I just can't go on with this, it is just too horribly wrong.

Internet Hoax

Well, it looked good:  Joel Osteen Renounces Christianity!  Resigns from Megachurch!

But, like a host of other headlines, it was a hoax.  An elaborate one; the creator not only created a fake Joel Osteen Ministries site, but several fake news sites to push the hoax!

Facebook, of course, picked this up and ran with it.

Look, I am the first guy to ever be glad that someone dumps the kool-aid and gets reality into their brain, especially if that person is someone important to the other side.

But there are limits to both believability and to what is the right way to do things, and to make a leader of a large number of people the target of a hoax is not only flat out wrong, but counter to what those of us who are humanists should believe in.  This hurts people, both the man as the target and the people he leads.  It also hurts the image those of us who are atheists would like the world to see of us.  This kind of childish prank hurts our cause and does not advance it one bit.

We should be better than that.  I want all of you to understand that I categorically denounce these kinds of pranks and do not support this hurtful activity.  Really, it wasn't even very funny.

Guest Post - "Passing Through Gethsemane"

Hi, folks!  The Cybernetic Atheist here!  I have a special treat for you, a Guest Post from the youngest CyberDaughter!  It is a long post, so I split it into two pages - enjoy it and please, read to the end!

Passing Through Gethsemane

Greetings and salutations, everyone! I am Cyberdaughter and I will be providing your entertainment for the evening. This is a pretty long story but I assure you it’s worth it to read until the end – I hope to make you laugh or, failing that, I hope to make you feel much better about your own day. Before I begin, a little bit about myself:

My gracious host, The Cybernetic Atheist, is my dear father. (Hi, pops!)

We get along swimmingly, for which I am grateful considering that we are very similar and this means I think I’m a pretty cool dude. We are fun, hilarious, corny, and love to both cook and eat food. We’re also incredibly talented, good looking, charming, rich…okay, okay, stop laughing, it’s close enough to the truth! Right…?

Hush.

I live in sunny Florida and poke fun at my parents all winter long; in return they both poke fun at me all summer long. I live in a nice little one bedroom apartment in a quiet part of town with my two cats, Merlin and Lucy, both under a year old. Merlin is laid back, super cool, listens to me (I hesitate to use the phrase ‘well trained’ without knocking on wood), and loves to sleep on my head like a furry little football helmet. He’s also known as “Merle”, “Adolf Kitler”, and “Merlin Monroe” due to his ridiculous beauty mark. Lucy is three months younger, craves attention like sustenance, doesn’t listen to a word I say (ever), and is also known as “Tiny”, “Little”, and “Princess”. Both cats are very social and neither of them has ever lifted a tooth or claw in anger.

I’m pretty proud of my little furry friends. As I told my oldest sister: what separates me from the crazy cat ladies of the world is that they brag about their cats, but they’re nothing special. I brag about my cats because they’re clearly cooler than everyone else’s. Also, I’m not quite old enough to be a crazy cat lady yet.

But enough about my cats. I work in customer service and I’m fortunate enough to work from home most of the time, which saves me more money on food than it does on gas. I’m a redhead, which I’m exceptionally proud of. I’m sure this is a surprise to you. Contrary to stereotype, however, I may just have the world’s longest fuse. I am a well of patience and understanding. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but I’m pretty calm and laid back most of the time. When my fuse runs out, however, that is a different story.

Few people have ever seen it, and most run when they realize I’m not laughing anymore. They are smart, and they are alive.

I’m also an avid reader. I will read anything I can get my hands on, and I blame my eventual financial ruin on my parents for teaching me how to read. Thanks a lot, guys.

I enjoy writing on occasion, so when I told my dad this story he choked back his uncontrollable laughter and asked me to type it up for him so that I could guest-blog. I like to think I’m an exceptional storyteller, but I’m not sure how well this translates in to text – I use a lot of sound effects and grand gestures which don’t type up well. Maybe next time I’ll volunteer to record a video? Who knows, I could be a YouTube star one day! (Hah.)

I ask that, in light of this, you use your imagination to visualize my stunning self contorting my body in various ways while shouting and mimicking cats to illustrate precisely what is occurring at each moment in the story. I’m quite dramatic, so don’t hold back.

So! To set the scene for you, I will tell you that my apartment is nice and clean. I spent Sunday doing my big cleaning of the week, plus a little extra since I have company coming this weekend. Everything was spotless, I hadn’t used the kitchen yet, and the laundry was freshly washed. All of it! Incredible! These are rare, treasured days. I normally keep my place looking nice, but this was truly exceptional.

--TRIGGER-WARNING: Read at your own risk. Stop now if you are easily disturbed by bodily functions or have a weak constitution. Surprisingly, despite this warning, this is a work-safe story.--

Monday was a bad day for me.

This is rare – I don’t normally have bad days. Well, everyone has bad days some time, but normally my cynical and self-deprecating sense of humor helps me overcome them (or at least grin knowingly and then go grab a glass of wine…good enough). Monday left me shaken, though. I was dealing with a woman at work (we’ll call her Dana) that seemed to deliberately outmaneuver my every attempt at organization and civility, and I was done. That night I relaxed, watched a little B5, and tried to hit the reset button.

On Tuesday morning when I woke up I was understandably wary – Monday had pulled a fast one on me and I was hesitant to see what this new day would bring. I begged the universe: please, please! Nothing could be worse than that! The universe looked back at me, thumbed its nose, and sang “nah-nee nah-nee boooo boooooooo!” like some little kindergarten brat, and Tuesday was born.

I spent the entire afternoon dealing with Dana again. She’s a classic case of avoidance – my supervisor would call her and leave a message; she would email me a response. I would call her and leave a message; she would email my supervisor a response. Nothing of substance, mind you. She would pick over the carrion of our messages and regurgitate a response that cobbled together only the most convenient of the facts mixed with some sort of bizarre internal fantasy that she must be running in her head 24/7. The last email that she responded with sent me over the edge. That was it – she got under my skin. My blood boiled, red fuzz crowded out the edges of my vision, my mouth hung open as I tried to formulate some sort of response to her insanity.

So I stepped away. After some deep breathing (read: cigarettes, lots of them) I came back to the computer, sat down, and began typing. I constructed this email in Notepad because I knew that if I accidentally sent her this message I would likely be in line at the soup kitchen by next week. It was a carefully crafted masterpiece that explained in no uncertain terms that what she wanted was impossible, it was her own damned fault, and she would have to take what we would give her.

Except, you know, more diplomatic. I do work in customer service, after all.

I then sent this note to my trusty coworker and asked him, “Hey S, does this make me sound like a bitch?” to which he tactfully replied, “well, we should probably fix this sentence…and this one…let’s re-word this, too…”

He’s a great coworker.

I then sent the now acceptable email to our salesman to review, assuring him that I wasn’t going to ruin his commission with a few choice words. He approved, so I went ahead and sent her the message.

Not expecting a response for several hours, I settled in to wait. I kept an eye on our inbox and let the steam slowly escape from my ears, praying for patience, praying that she wouldn’t respond until tomorrow. Eventually I calmed down. Not all the way down, exactly, but I backed away from the edge of murder and in to the slightly quieter territory of imagining her slow death. By 5:00pm I was able to think about other things for short periods of time, even if it was mostly about the glass of wine (or four) that I would be having the moment the clock struck six. The seconds dragged by as I kept an eye out for anything that might come through, but things stayed quiet.

5:40pm

I smell poop.

Now this isn’t entirely unusual. All cat owners know that when a cat uses the litter box there is a brief wave of horrifying odor before the magical cat-crystals cover it up somehow. I ignored it.

5:42pm

I still smell poop.

If anything the smell may have actually gotten a little bit stronger. Now we’re moving in to the realm of the unusual. I sit for a moment, torn, before finally deciding that I should probably find out where the poop smell is coming from. Maybe someone forgot to cover? I swing my chair around and get up, take one single step, and…

Squish.

I have stepped in the poop.

I have a moment in which my entire soul cries out to the universe: “WHHHHHYYYYYYYY?????!!!!!!! WHY TODAYYYYY??!!” and then I quiet myself. It’s not dignified. I heave a huge sigh and grab some tissues, clean the poop off my foot, and hobble to the trash can. Did I mention that I’m not wearing any shoes? That’s right. Nice, warm, squishy poop oozing between my big toe and my second toe, laughing at me through my nicely painted red toenails. It’s a desecration. I then hobble over to the sink, prop up my foot, and wash it.

One freshly geranium-scented foot later I decide that I should clean up the poop. Immediately. I glance at the computer – no emails. I go grab a paper towel (or seventeen) from the kitchen and head back to pick up the poop, stopping to stand over the spot, when a sinking feeling starts in my chest.

Something is wrong.

There is no poop.

Where is the poop? I had only stepped in one small, discreet turd nugget. Where is the rest? No cat poops just one little nugget and then walks away! Right…?

I must find the rest of the poop.

So now I’m on a poop expedition. An exploratory mission that encompasses the entire house, but each room passes in disappointment. No poop in the bedroom. No poop in the bathroom. I head back and check the bed – I’ve heard stories – but there is no poop. Nothing in the entry way and nothing in the living room. No poop in the dining room and the kitchen is as clean as a whistle.

More puzzlingly, there is no poop in the litter box.

So where’s the poop?

I work my way around again, slowly, checking under furniture and behind shelves and in my shoes.

No poop.

Then the sinking feeling begins again. There is only one other place that the poop could be. The thought is horrifying but some instinct inside of me takes over and gets down to business. Must be the mother instinct. I play back the video in my head of stepping in the poop and realize that the closest cat to me when it occurred was Lucy (she is, after all, a medium hair). She is now standing, curious, about three feet from me in the living room. The cats have been following me the entire time, as they are wont to do.

“Hey Lucy, come here sweetie.”

She bolts.

This, too, is very unusual. Lucy is a born and bred attention whore and would do anything, possibly including murder, to get a neck scratch. That sinking feeling has turned in to a small lead weight in my stomach. Fortunately I’ve done at least one thing right in my life and my cats love and trust me implicitly, so it only takes a few moments to coax her out from under the coffee table and in to my arms. I soothe her and reassure her that she’s done nothing wrong, giving her the scratch she so clearly wants. I then slide my left hand under her front legs and hold her up, using my right hand to lift her tail.

Sweet love of god. That is the smell I have been searching for.

The poop is stuck to Lucy’s butt.

Despite the discomfort this is going to cause both of us I am feeling a little bit relieved now because I have solved the poop mystery. I carry her over to the sink to grab a paper towel and get this whole undignified act over with, but this is where the real trouble starts. First of all, I realize I’m going to have to let go of her tail in order to get a paper towel. I was really hoping that I would grow a third hand some time between the living room and the kitchen, but no such luck – her tail will probably get poop on it. Then I realize I’m going to have to set her down for a moment because she is starting to squirm with discomfort, but there are dishes in the sink. I compromise and set her back paws on the edge of the counter as I move the dishes to the other half of the sink with my right hand, then carefully set her back paws in to the sink. There is no way in hell I’m going to get poop on my counters.

This is about the time that Lucy realizes that we are at THE SINK. This is where WATER comes from.

I’m bleeding.

Wishing once again for a third hand, I desperately try to soothe her (“I’m not going to give you a bath honey; I’m just trying to get the poop off! Stop struggling!”) as I clumsily grab a paper towel. After a few attempts which result only in tiny pieces of paper towel, I manage to grab four. Now is not the time to worry about waste, though – I have poop to clean! I finally scruff the squirming mass of black fur in front of me and take a deep (shallow, really, it smells vile) breath before I dive in to the work. Her tail is battling me just as much as her paws are and I’m trying my best to maneuver around it, but I’m not very good at this.

I smear the poop.

What was once a nice, tiny, easy-to-remove nugget is now firmly embedded in 800 cubic meters of the softest, most absorbent cotton batting you can imagine – Lucy’s butt. If you were watching me at this moment you would note the panicked look in my eye, the defeat written on the four new wrinkles I just formed, and the sudden slump of resignation in my shoulders.

I’m going to have to give Lucy a bath.

“I’m sorry honey, I know I promised, but you squirmed and mama’s not so good at poop-cleaning, apparently.” I turned on the water in the sink to bring it up to a decent kitty temperature.

I’m bleeding again.

At this point she has clearly sensed my inevitable betrayal and starts mewing piteously. There is no one in all of the world she trusts like her mama, and her mama is committing the worst crime against cats humanly possible. Her life is over and she is crying out her misery to the world. I should mention that Merlin has been following this entire saga with quite a bit of interest and takes this opportunity to start screaming at me in protest. I am clearly killing his sister slowly and viciously and I must be stopped at all costs. The chorus is deafening.

Lucy: “MEEEeeeeewwwwww….MMMMEeeeeewwwwww….!”

Merlin: “MOOOOOOW! MOOOOOOOW! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!”

Lucy’s tiny little mew is heartbreaking, but Merlin’s angry yell is almost as bad – I just went from his favorite person in the world to Benedict Arnold, the worst turncoat this apartment has ever seen.

I have betrayed them both and I am ashamed.

Despite all of this, I know that I must get the rest of the poop off as best I can with the paper towel. This is not easy as Lucy is now struggling as if her life depended on it. In her opinion it does so I can’t really blame her all that much even though I probably have a few new scars already. Eventually I manage to grab a hold of the poop and as I begin to pull it out I realize what the problem was the whole time.

It’s not one poop.

It’s three.

Connected by a string.

A shudder runs through my body as I realize that I am literally pulling poop out of her butt, not just off of it. To think that earlier we all thought we were suffering an indignity – we had no idea!

I pull a fantastic gymnastics maneuver (read: probably looked like a mime with epilepsy) and throw the poop away while keeping the cat’s writhing body in the sink and avoiding the screaming banshee at my feet. There is a sense of relief as I realize that we’re done with poop now, all I have to do is clean the cat and we’re good to go. They’ll probably hate me for a while, but I have some delicious canned treats for emergencies like this. I’ll buy my cats’ love back, I’m not ashamed.

The water is finally at a reasonable temperature, so I stick Lucy’s backside under the flow. Her flailing reaches a peak but I have her in a ninja grip now so I’m able to keep her from severing my arteries. By ninja grip what I really mean is that I’m scruffing her and apologizing like I killed her mother as my face narrowly avoids her razor-sharp claws. I feel horrible. The chorus intensifies.

Lucy: “MEEEeeeeewwwwww….MMMMEeeeeewwwwww….!” There’s a distinct waver to it this time.

Merlin: “MOOOOOOW! MOOOOOOOW! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!” Somehow he has managed to make this meow sound nasal, like he’s from New Jersey or Boston. I’m too disturbed to laugh.

Now that Lucy is wet, I grab my dish soap (thankfully just swapped out for something all-natural and probably really safe for cats. I hope) and pour a generous amount on to her hindquarters. I take another deep (shallow) breath and resign myself to the fact that this is gross but necessary, and then I dive right in.

As I swirl my hand in large circles around the poor cat’s butt, I suddenly realize that I did NOT get all of the poop with the paper towel. I am now creating large, bubbly whorls of what I can only call poopsoap.

You thought the election brought out the crazy? You ain't seen nuthin' yet!

Here I thought things were getting quiet, with not a lot to talk about.

Then I got this email from Barry Lynn, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State talking about a new bill being introduced by the North Carolina Legislature.

North Carolina’s House Joint Resolution 494 asserts that “each state is sovereign and may independently determine how the state may make laws respecting an establishment of religion.” It declares that “the North Carolina General Assembly does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.”

 Now I'll be the first to admit that I Am Not A Lawyer (IANAL), and a Constitutional Scholar I am not, either.  But I did take a Constitutional law course in college as part of my degree in Public Administration (yes, you can get a degree in that) and unless I am getting senile, I distinctly remember that the 14th Amendment specifically applies the protections of due process of law to the States as well as the Federal Government.  Given that Article VI specifically denotes the US Constitution as the supreme law of the land that supersedes the State constitutions, these nut bags don't have a leg to stand on.

This is, quite frankly, pre-Civil War nonsense.  Over a half million Americans died to prove their theories on States Rights wrong in that war, and I am of the opinion that to continue in this vein should be considered seditious.

The United States of America is ONE country.  We are past the times when people identify with one State, then as an American.  Millions of Americans were born in one State and now live in another, many having moved to and from multiple States in their lives.

State governments are subservient to the Federal government, period, end of story.  The idea of a uniting overarching Federal government was to solve the problems that were found to exist in a weak non-federal system where States Rights were paramount.  InterState Commerce of all types and kinds, and in fact that much hated term (by Republicans) "The General Welfare" are all Federal responsibilities, as are the resolution of interState conflicts and disagreements.  (By the Supreme Court, which these idiots say they are not subject to.)

All of this nonsense isn't just crazy stuff.  It is, in fact, trying to lay the groundwork for the Dominionist Movement, using a popular Southern meme - States Rights - to suck in the uneducated right wing nut bags in the South to back their cause, not realizing the disastrous consequences of overturning the Constitution.

Too bad the Democrats don't have the cojones to do anything about it.

Harm religion causes - does this count?

I know a lot of Westerners don't pay a lot of attention to the Eastern world, after all, they aren't white, are they?  But this is a story which should be seen around the world, especially here, where religious fervor can reach a fevered pitch sometimes.

In India, recently, a family of eight gathered together and performed a religious ritual.  Not unusual, not so far.

But this ritual had been repeated some 5100 times in the last five years, in an attempt to draw the presence of the god Shiva.  Not a ghost, not an image, but the real, physical god, and this ritual involved offerings of blood.  Real, human blood.  Drawn by syringe, fortunately, not sacrifice (hmm, maybe that's why it didn't work?) but still, one cannot fault the faith, here.

This time, the father had gathered the family, convinced that his constant rituals over the last five years would finally cause his god to appear before his family in person, to prove his faith and power, I'd suppose.  The problem is, it still didn't work.  No god.  Not even a wavering image, much less the real physical Shiva.

So, Pop went into the other room, brought out some candy, stuffed some unidentifiable substance into that candy, and fed it to his family.  In minutes, all but three of them were dead, including at least two children.

No, he didn't murder them out of some spite, they all apparently knew it was going to happen.  The whole thing was videotaped.  They all spoke and gladly spoke of meeting again in heaven, where two of them were to be united in marriage there.

Imagine!  Marriage in heaven, in front of your god!  What a wonderful attraction!

I think most of us would agree, this was a terrible tragedy.  So does the Times of India.  Probably so do most of the population of that country.  But some don't, some see these people as true believers, and maybe even envy them their good fortune.

Which is kinda the point.  99.99999999999% of the human race agree that this kind of faith is misplaced, tragic and simply wrong.  And also, most of us have different faith backgrounds, different beliefs and different ideas about how these this might work.

Kind of like Pascal's wager, isn't it?  Just writ large, taking into account ALL of the different religious versions out there, and that wager rapidly gets out of hand and looks like a poor bet.

THIS is why religion is dangerous.  It leads people to do what almost all of us would agree is something stupid.  Something hurtful, something tragic.  Yes, most people don't do this.

But the ONLY reason why these people do is because of religion.  There is no other reason, and there certainly are not any secular reasons why this would make sense.  Just because there are few actual numbers of people who go this far does not give the religious doctrines that cause it to happen a pass. If people today truly gave a damn and cared, they would, alter their religious doctrines and scriptures to prevent this from happening.

But nobody ever does, and that is why those of us on the outside blame the religion.

I wish the fight over equal rights would just go away!

"Go away", as in "become so normal and unremarkable that nobody ever thinks of it as an issue."

Sorry about that headline, but, you know, headlines should grab your attention.  If you are still with me, hey, it did!  Hang around, I've got something to say.

There are a lot of other things I wish would go away as a national issue, just like that.

Women's rights.
Abortion.
Racism, in the form of Immigration
the Debt.
The Deficit.

If you look at all of those issues, they have a couple of things in common.  First, they are all right wing issues.  Not hard, was it?  Second, they are all what we call "dog whistles".  Issues that, when called up, tend to excite the base and get them to the polls.

Third, they provide a distraction, moving the political conversation into paths of conversation with no solution, so those conversations can continue to hog headlines ad nauseum for one primary purpose:

Distract the voters from recognizing the fact that the Republican Party has no solution to the real problems this country faces - a high unemployment rate, rich right wing billionaires who want to buy the political process, and a political agenda by the religious right to bring religion to the fore in control of our lives, using the political process itself to emasculate that process.

Oh, and also the fact that the last item is a secondary goal of the Republican party, not a primary one.  Witness the fact that since a number of Republicans have come out in favor of marriage equality, the religious right has begun threatening to take their marbles and leave the Republicans to form their own third party.  A move that would cut the Republicans off at the knees by taking half their base along with it, guaranteeing Democratic wins for at least the remainder of this decade if not resulting in the destruction of the Republican Party as a viable national party.

Oh, as for you Democrats out there, you can stop chortling.

The recent re-election of President Obama and the right wing meltdown has hidden the very real issues that he will inevitably face if his problems with the Republicans ever get pushed to the back burner.  Issues that, if they don't, will devolve onto his successor, should he/she be a Democrat.

Things like the drone war.  Guantanamo and human rights violations under both Republican and Democratic Administrations.  Warrantless wiretapping.  The Patriot Act.

All these things started out as Republican initiatives, and in spite of fervent hopes by many Democrats, have continued under the Obama Administration as if they were his own idea.  The ONLY Republican initiative ended by President Obama was the torture thing.  Yeah, kudos to him, but he's still got people we tortured under lock and key in Cuba without trial as if the US government is not governed by the US Constitution on foreign soil.

I've got news for you.  It still is.  There are no indications that the Founders intended for that document's guiding principles of organization and delegated powers to end at the water's edge!  It also didn't specify that the protection of rights was limited to only American citizens, either.  Not to mention the International Agreements and Conventions we are probably violating every day we continue to hold those men.  It bothered me when Bush did it, and it bothers me worse now.

I won't pretend that these issues are simple.  They are not.  Obviously, the Guantanamo thing is complicated by the fact that if we do release some of those guys, they will go right back to plotting against us.  Yep, and the way we treated them did nothing to win their forbearance, either.  Had we refrained from torture and relied on standard, traditional methods of evidence gathering, we could have tried these guys long ago and disposed of the cases normally.

But we didn't.  We used torture to gather information, and even if none of the info we got that way is any good, it still taints the stuff we did get to prove our case, even if it was gathered normally.  In other words, if we try them in Federal Court, the courts will release these guys so fast, they'll break the sound barrier.

I do think that once we get some real progressives on the SCOTUS, those other things will collapse like a house of cards, and when they do, the Democrats had better have their ducks in order.

You do hear about this stuff.  The memes do pop up every once on a while on Facebook, and articles do get written about them.  They are just overshadowed by the Republican dog whistles.

The Democrats had better get some ear plugs and stop listening to those dog whistles and start dealing with the real issues we face, or eventually, they will catch up with them, and the voters will not be kind.