He-who-must-not-be-linked-to (unless you want to either kow-tow to his views or be accused of stalking) referenced this article about Galileo.

Of course, the "REAL" story is that the church loved Galileo and encouraged him and nurtured him, but he was such an ass that he gave them no choice but to persecute prosecute him after they tried; time-and-time again to avoid it.

The poor church just could not get a break from the relentless assault of Galileo's powerful ego, which obviously threatened to bring down the tottering, frail, underdog of the One True World Church (TM).

Besides, Galileo wasn't treated as badly as some of the other heretics brought before the Inquisition, and really, having to renounce the theory of Heliocentrism and live quietly in obscurity wasn't that terrible of a punishment for having an ego.  That proves the church was a bunch of good guys!

I mean, it's not like the church was supressing knowledge or anything, they were just telling him to say that what he believed to be true (and eventually turned out to be true) wasn't true and to stop talking about it.

I mean, the scientists act as though that is censorship.

What a bunch of babies.  Why are they still whining about it?  How come they won't just admit that the church is a benevolant institution that should once again be allowed to be the final arbiter of all knowledge?

Sheesh.

Now, if you want to see REAL censorship in action, go here and read about how the rules of science requiring that your results reflect/predict reality, and the system that diverts funding to those who produce accurate, peer-reviewed research is censoring those who don't believe Global Warming is happening.

Did you know that if your results don't line up with reality, you have to modify your approach until you get results that line up with reality?  God, those heavy-handed bastard scientists.

You know what I bet?  I bet those eleitist scientists think that if you do a math problem, and you get the wrong answer, that it must be because you did the problem wrong!  They'd probably tell you that math works, and the problem is you and your flawed approach!

Like Galileo, they probably think that you have to take a correct approach to get correct answers:

Philosophy is written in this grand book - the universe - which stands continuously open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth.
                                 

                                                                                              --Galileo Galilei

(Hat tip: He Who Must Not Be Named)

"Sciencism" - The radical, irrational and eleitist position that only things that follow scientific rules can be called science.

"Fundamentalist Sciencism" - The strident and voiciferace insistance that only things that follow scientific rules can be called science. 

There's a big credit company that sends me regular mailings trying to give me credit.

So many people I know have been screwed over by this company and it's slime-ball tactics that I get a little mad everytime I see their mailings (especially since I gave money to some of these people to get clear of them...only to have more bogus service charges piled on...and my money was just sucked into a void never to be seen again, and did no good for anyone)

So, to make myself feel better, I put a little note to the effect of:

Dear ___________

I just wanted to drop you a little note to let you know that I know a number of you customers, and I've observed how you treat them.

Until you change your business practices, I believe that I would rather jam white-hot pokers into my eye-balls than do business with you.

Just so you know.

Then I send it back to them in their business reply envelope.  Sometimes, I just send the envelope back empty, if I am pressed for time.

Petty? Usless?  A waste of time?  Sure...

But people do all sorts of petty, stupid unproductive things to waste their time.

Some people watch Sex in the City...I send back snarky notes in the business reply envelopes.  It takes less time, and it gets me outside to walk to the mailbox.

Remember how the Mayor of Birmingham (Larry Langford; D)was praying in sackcloth and ashes for God to reduce the crime rate of his fair city?

Well, it looks like Birmingham might soon be less one alleged criminal already...the Mayor of Birmingham! (don't forget, innocent until proven guilty)

(Hat tip and link:  Pharyngula)

Welcome to Sunday morning prostration.

(which, as Vala observed, is not nearly as much fun as it sounds)

Hallowed are the Ori!

Hallowed are the Ori!

Hallowed are the Ori (Bemidji is still an Ori strong-hold)

Hallowed are the Ori! (Jesus still hates taxes)

And speaking of the Ori...go take a look at this guy, and tell me he isn't one of their priors.  AllI can say is, we're in trouble when a man named Kahn allignes hiself with enemies of earth. 

Kah-h-h-hn!!!!!!  LOL

[Update:  I think Ben Stein is angling for a priorship]

(Hat tips:  Pharyngula and Denialism)

Those darned intellectual elite...

Alway putting down the plucky dissenters who challenge the academic "consensus":

"The so called 'intelligentsia' always looks down with a really limitless condescension on anyone who has not been dragged through the obligatory schools and had the necessary knowledge pumped into him. The question has never been: What are the man's abilities? but: What has he learned? To these 'educated' people the biggest empty-head, if he is wrapped in enough diplomas,is worth more than the brightest boy who happens to lack these costly envelopes.And so it was easy for me to imagine how this ' educated ' world would confront me, and in this I erred only in so far as even then I still regarded people as better than in cold reality they for the most part unfortunately are.  As they are, to be sure, the exceptions, as everywhere else, shine all themore brightly. Thereby, however, I learned always to distinguish between the eternal students and the men of real ability."

                                                                       --Adolph Hilter:  Mein Kampf (all quotes from Mein Kampf taken from this link)

"Not the smallest blame for the none too delectable religiousconditions must be borne by those who encumber the religious idea with toomany things of a purely earthly nature and thus often bring it into a totallyunnecessary conflict with so-called exact science. In this victory willalmost always fall to the latter, though perhaps after a hard struggle,and religion will suffer serious damage in the eyes of all those who areunable to raise themselves above a purely superficial knowledge."

                                                                     --Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf

And as for the materialists with the economic solutions based on facts and knowledge...don't even get him started!  That leads to atheism, and even Hitler knows that's not good!

"In proportion as economic life grew to be the dominant mistress of the state, money became the god whom all had to serve and to whom eachman had to bow down. More and more, the gods of heaven were put into the corner as obsolete and outmoded, and in their stead incense was burned tothe idol Mammon. A truly malignant degeneration set in; what made it most malignant was that it began at a time when the nation, in a presumably menacing and critical hour, needed the highest heroic attitude. Germany had to accustom herself to the idea that some day her attempt to secure her daily bread by means of 'peaceful economic labor' would have to be defended by the sword."

(also Adolph Hitler, also Mein Kampf)

And I'd love to hear a conservative debate Hitler on the traitorous nature of the liberal press in war-time:

"The so-called liberal press was actively engaged in digging the grave of the German people and the German Reich."

                                      (also Adolph Hitler, also mein Kampf)

I'm sure they would have a very nice counter-argument for how opposition to ill-concieved millitarism is a primary function of the press, a national duty, really to preserve a nation's honor and treasure.  THEY'D give old Hitler what-for!

But they'd probably agree with him about the horrors of "safe sex". (link about the inventor of the latex condom)

"Particularly with regard to syphilis, the attitude of the leadership of the nation and the state can only be designated as total capitulation.To fight it seriously, they would have had to take somewhat broader measures than was actually the case. The invention of a remedy of questionable characterand its commercial exploitation can no longer help much against this plague.Here again it was only the fight against causes that mattered and not the elimination of the symptoms. The cause lies, primarily, in our prostitution of love. Even if its result were not this frightful plague, it would nevertheless be profoundly injurious to man, since the moral devastations which accompany this degeneracy suffice to destroy a people slowly but surely. This Jewification of our spiritual life and mammonization of our mating instinct will sooner or later destroy our entire offspring, for the powerful children of a natural emotion will be replaced by the miserable creatures of financial expediency which is becoming more and more the basis and sole prerequisite of our marriages.Love finds its outlet elsewhere."

(Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf)

So, for those who don’t know about the “Expelled” movie, it’s a movie created by proponents of Intelligent Design intended to do two things.

1)      Promote the idea that God is a fuss-budget failed inventor who has to keep tweaking his creations to get them to work right rather than an all-powerful, all-knowing deity who should be able to get creation right the first time.

2)      Compare tweedy old mild-mannered research biologists to Hitler.

Oh yeah, and one more thing:

3)       Destroy materialist thought and put God back into the center of our social consciousness, and recreate the pre-Enlightenment mindset, where all intellectual effort was required to conform to the religious elite’s world-view.

Three, three things, that the movie “Expelled was intended to do…well, four…

4)      Give an artificial boost to the public persona of several academics who just didn’t have that much notoriety working within the confines of reality.

These four great goals brought forth the movie Expelled…actually, there was the noble goal of having Ben Stein appear in public wearing short-pants…

5)      Get Ben Stein in short pants…oh baby, nothing turns on an Intelligent Designer more than the aging, knobby knees of a Nixon sycophant while his Dulcet voice drones on and on, lifting your spirit heavenward on a cloud of nasal belly-aching about persecution.

Well, it seems that these five noble goals are being shredded, shredded, I say, by the other great materialist evil of our time:  lawyers.  Lawyers and intellectual property laws.

First, the materialists are upset just because we told them that we were interviewing them for one kind of movie concept, for one movie company and then took their interviews and put them in a completely different movie with a completely opposite concept, made by a different movie company.

That’s right! 

And now, these craven materialists are claiming that if you take somebody else’s idea, throw a bell or whistle on it, and then present it as your own…you are cheating!  Can you imagine?  I mean, according to their interpretation of the laws, if I took an iPod apart, built functionally exact but cosmetically different replicas of the workings, and then put it in a different case and called it something else…I’d be breaking the law! 

See, Expelled contains some animation that the Expelled producers made themselves.

It just happens to look almost-but-not-quite-exactly like an animation made by an academic group at a major ivy league university.  It’s purely an accident that the Expelled animation reproduces almost every significant feature of the materialist animation, including significant errors.

But don’t worry, the makers of Expelled are suing the people they copie…uh…independently post-replicated.  We’ll show those materialists a thing or two about reality!  They don’t think it can be bent to the power of human belief.  Boy, are they going to be sorry for their arrogance in persecuting us!  And they would have, too.

They would have persecuted us with a law suit, but luckily, we got to it first, in self-defense.  We’ll see if they back down, or if they are going to further their persecution of us by making us take them to court to defend ourselves against their court case, which we KNOW they would have done, because they are litigious, persecuting bastards.

But they won’t stop!

Now they are claiming that we should have paid money and received permission to use the “intellectual property” of professional musicians!   That’s just silly, besides, there’s no way Yoko Ono would give permission for her husband’s song to be used in a way that shows he is responsible for the crimes of Stalin.

 Disclaimer:  This post, like all of the others on this site, is an act of self-amusement by the author.  It is intended as entertaining parody of the issue, and the unfolding public drama, and is not intended to be seen as making specific charges against specific individuals or entities.

Women!  Take personal responsibility for your own safety.  I know it's tough, but you can do it by starting small.  All you have to do is make some small changes in your dating habits.  Lets start with the easy ones.

1)  Don't date men who describe themselves as "Christian Libertarians". (especially ones who look like they have had someone give their head a bikini wax)

2)  If you do date a self-described Christian Libertarian, and he buys you a diet Coke, assume it is laced with GHB, and don't drink it.  See, a "Christian Libertarian" will view knocking you out and having his way with you as the moral equivilant of stealing a purse you left lying around.  If you are going to date them, it's best to understand their culture and customs so you don't find yourself in situations like this.  See, "date rape" isn't like "Genuine rape".  It doesn't count.

3) Before you engage in innocent flirting, or put on that cute little outfit that shows off all the hard work you did in the gym for the last year, make sure that there will be no Christian Libertarians around where they can see you.  For that matter, consider moving to Berkley or someplace like that where it is toxic for Christian libertarians to live before you join a gym and commit to working out.

4)  Don't flirt with Christian Libertarians.  In their strange culture, flirting is agreeing to have sex...not a preliminary social ritual to gague a potential partner's interest, compatablility, or social acumen.  Also, changing your mind isn't allowed.

5)  Remember, if you put effort into looking good, a "Christian Libertarian" will view it as an invitation to rape you.  See, like the people on the street who overhear your conversation with a friend and interject themselves uninvited, a "Christian Libertarian" doesn't understand that even though you might be sending signals of sexual receptivness, you are not necessarily talking to THEM, and that you do not wave your right to say "no".

6) Actually, if you want to be safe from "Christian Libertarians", forget all of the above.  Just wear a Burqua.

7)  Oh wait, that won't help either.  Then they'll just shoot you.

8)  It doesn't matter what you do, the Christian Libertarians will get you.

9)  It'll be all your fault.

10) They don't need the government or any damn women telling them what to do.  They have all sorts of self-control.

(Hat Tip:  Denialism.com)

Those Gosh-darned pesky educated predictions backed up by research and facts.

How can Intelligent Design hope to compete?

Oh yeah.  They have Ben Stein.  Never mind.  His powers of snidely droning on and on about liberal fascism will prevail.  No one can withstand the power of his droll and slighly pouty drone.  The only people who listen to facts are effete snobs with alphabet soup after their names, and they will be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes.

I didn't buy these arguments when the Discovery Institute used them against Darwinism...

But you know, for some reason, when you use the same rhetorical tactics agaist Newtonism...it just unravels. 

But I DO think that it would have been better produced if they had gotten Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron to do it.

(Hat Tip:  Pharyngula)

When you're a State Representative, and you have to apologize for calling single moms "sluts" in public...you just might be a Republican.

LOL!  I like that he apologized publicly with this little number:

"The derogatory term I used was offensive and inappropriate, and I would like to apologize for using it," the Colorado Springs Republican said in a statement. "Because of my unfortunate choice of language, the message that I was trying to get across about personal responsibility and parental responsibility has been overshadowed.

"I certainly regret using the term I did," he said.

Of course, having spent about the last twenty-five years listening to politicians, and knowing the Republican philosophy as I do...

I can translate it into normal person language quite easily:

"I'm sorry I used words to accuratly represent what I really think.  It's unfortunate that I can no longer pawn off my hostility to harm-reduction efforts as frienliness toward "personal responsibility".  People will always be able to point to this quote and show that my real attitude is one of enjoying seeing women and their children suffer as retribution for their lack of submissivness to the patriarchy."

You know, it just seems like those Muslim fundies have it easier.  You don't see THEM having to bow and scrape and apologize...no, the WOMEN do all of that, when they appear in court.

Gee, it just sort of makes you long for the ideal, Republican America, doesn't it?  Where Abortion (and birth control as soon as they can swing it)is illegal, and all of the government aid is regulated by "Faith-based initiatives" that see things the way old Larry Liston does.  Then, he could call them sluts, and who would care?  Nobody, that's who.  Because if there was one thing Jesus would never have stood for...it was an unwed teenaged mother.

Can you believe that some teachers booed a pastor who came to speak at a school?

Poor Ken Hutcherson.

I can’t imagine why they would ever do such a thing to such a nice guy.

After all, he’s just a big bundle of cuddly.

And he has such nice friends, who are also just the sweetest guys.

I can’t believe that the teachers were so brutal, as to “boo” him.  Have they no humanity?  Don’t they know what “booing” can do to a man who is so sensitive and who just wants to be free to work for a world where Christians will be free to preach that it is God’s will for them to kill homosexuals?

I mean, to say “boo” to a guy like that.  It just goes to show what ANIMALS we are hiring to teach our children.  It’s just Christian persecution, plain and simple.

(Hat Tip: One News Now)

Thanks to Erudite Redneck, I don't have to pass on the delicious sugar rush that is Neil Simpson's blog.

Oh, sure, some people find it sacchrine...but not me.

Though Neil asked me to stop commenting on his blog, and though he complained repeatedly about me linking to him, I find that the fascinating blend of "Sound Doctrine" with it's more difficult and disturbing conclusions blunted by a convenient smattering of carefully selected "liberal theology" is also of interest to others! 

Let THEM creep Neil out!

Besides, it's much more fun when he is addressed by theists who disagree with him (and have a big bowl of alphabet soup after their names)

After all, candy is dandy, but soup is just more nourishing. 

Geekgoddess gets all whiney about poor injured people getting their money taken away by legal action by big corporations.

I also used to think like her, all commie pinko like that and stuff.

But I've recently had a conversion to free-market capitalism.

Just imagine the great heights that could be reached by our society if we made the dog-eat-dog world of business more prefectly dog-eat-doggier?

Just imagine how great our country would be if ANY paid service could not only charge you for the cost of operating their business, plus a modest profit, but then could ALSO charge you for anything that you got that was, in any way related to their service!

Like, just imagine what a great world we would live in if you rented a car, and they not only got to charge you for the rental of the car, but could also commondere your reimbursement from your employer or your business tax deductions?

Or, just imagine if you hired a cleaning service, and they cleaned your house, but if a friend happened to do a little cleaning for you in special preperation for a dinner party, they could charge you for the work your friend did!

It's genious!  And anyone who doesn't LOVE it is a commie atheist terrorist who hates our freedoms.

A pastor recently said that Planned Parenthood is the #1 killer of Black People in this country, and a worse enemy of Black People than the KKK...

Because we know that providing access to affordable birth control, low-cost pelvic exams, and other Family Planning services in an effort to ensure that "Every baby is a wanted baby, and every mother is a health mother" is soooo much worse than treating people like animals, hunting them with dogs, and hanging them to death from trees in an effort to keep an entire group in a servile social position through violence and terror. 

But that is not the only attempt to link PP with the KKK.  Go to this site and take a peak at a picture proporting to show Margaret Sanger about to address the KKK.  Never mind that this is supposedly in 1926...and the photo of Ms. Sanger appears to be much closer to her age at her death in 1966...and no matter WHAT you do...don't look at the black "matlines" around her feet...

Just trust the picture, OK?

Ah well, maybe they came up with some better Photoshop jobs at the 3rd annual Margaret Sanger at the KKK rally art contest.

But David Lane would laugh at that idea, if you just ask him (I hear he likes to get phone calls), birth control is a "zionist" plot to exterminate the WHITE race.

I'd give a hat tip and a link to where I found the first link, but Neil finds it "creepy" when I link to him, and I try not to do more harm to already fragile people.  Anyway, you probably already know how to get there.

And first prize in the "just not gettin' it" catagory goes to...

Michele "jerk for Jesus" Bachman

Who brags about how great Minnesota is because of all the people working long hours and multiple jobs.

Just keep doing what your doing Michele, and pretty soon, by your standards, America will be the greatest country in the world!

You still have a lot to do, though.  I know if you keep at it and don't give up, some day our seven-year-olds can acheive the dream or working 12 -hour shifts like their lucky Bangladeshi counterparts today!

(Hat Tip: Pharyngula)

So Huckabee wants to amend the Constitution to line up with Biblical priciples?

At least he's honest.

Sure he's the Republican front-runner and everything but I'm not worried...

...but mostly that's because I live a mere eight-our drive from the Canadian border.

Less if I don't like my car too much.

And I don't think I'll have to rush.  We can get everything packed up and have a leisurly drive into the neighboring country long before they run out of homosexuals and witches.

(Hat Tip: Pharyngula)

I can understand why a student might feel threatened when a fellow student angrely rips up a symbol of her belief system right in front of her.

Quote from the article:

Some Janesville parents said that they're concerned that in this incident, in which a student allegedly tore pages from a Bible, the balance between the two was tipped toward the First Amendment, WISC-TV reported.

As many Parker High School students get ready for Christmas break, junior Elle Jacobson is at home and will not be returning like her friends.

"I have never felt threatened like that in a classroom before," said Jacobson.

The 17-year-old is talking about an incident in her English class two weeks ago during a class presentation.

"This boy got up and his visual aid was a Bible and a book. And he got up and started his speech by saying 'Now, this piece of crap' and pointed to the Bible."

Jacobson said that she quickly felt threatened

"He took the Bible and he said, 'I'm going to do this because I can. I'm going to do something that your stupid, little minds aren't going to be able to comprehend and he took the Bible and started ripping out pages."

Does that mean that I think the student meant to threaten the other students?  I don't assume so.  As a matter of fact, I think there's a case to be made for temporary insanity.  The boy is a teenager going through an Ayn Rand phase.  Of course he's selfish, arrogant, self-centered and has a need to elevate himself and demean the others around him, and of course that need has a slightly destructive and sadistic edge to it.  Don't worry, they usually reach their peak with Atlas Shrugged, and fall off somewhere in the middle of The Fountainhead.  And even if they don't, they become too busy trolling websites in support of Ron Paul to be a real threat to anyone.

But in a culture where many Christians are constantly trained to expect that everyone hates them, that they are on the verge of terrible persecution, and are trained to expect hate and violence as the consequence of their beliefs...is it any wonder that the students felt threatened?

Even without that indoctrination and training, if you see a symbol of your identity attacked in front of you in this way, it is threatening.

People should probably try to avoid doing things that a reasonable person would find threatening.  Especially in school, where people should feel safe.

The father in this instance is outraged that the school is being careful of the boy's constitutional right to free speech, and feels that they are compromising his daughter's safety.  I wonder if he would feel the same way if someone got kicked out of school for wearing a tee-shirt with certain laws from Leviticus printed on them?

 And I even though I can understand how the girl might feel threatened by the boy's actions...what's with letting her stay home?  I don't see any reason to believe that she is actually in any real danger from a book-ripping Rand-head.

Seems to me that there's a fair amount of silliness on all sides of this issue.  If only they could talk about the issues, find some common ground, share a goal...

Now, let me see...who could bring these two camps together...Christians with a strong reverance for the Bible as a holy relic to be venerated above free speech...and impulsive drama-prone Ayn Rand fans with a crusader complex...

YES!  Ron Paul!  He is the answer!  He alone can heal this terrible rift.

(Hat Tip: Pharyngula)

I can't wait to hear how the apologists for the worship of the almighty dollar (The Church of Wall Mart) make this OK.

Seriously.  Stealing the compensation a woman got for having her brain ruined?  They can do that?

Note to self:  Don't sign any F#$%$^%$^ thing without having a lawyer look over it first, and also, just for good measure, have it doused in holy water, buried in consecrated ground under a full moon, left there for a month, and then have a voodoo priestess clear it of evil spirits.

(And yes, I know a laywer and a voodoo priestess.  Although for efficiency's sake, I think I should find a lawyer who IS a voodoo priestess.  Anyone know where I can find some decent holy water at a discount?)

Then, leave the contract lying somewhere uninhabited, take off, and nuke the site from orbit. (it's the only way to be sure).

[Update:  They couldn't just be happy with Dead Peasant Policies?  Evil I say.  Wall Mart is evil] 

Guess they didn't want to hand the election to Hillary wrapped up in a bow.

Sucks to be you.

Still, being a Republican fall-guy has it's upside.

Look at Ollie North.  Worked out OK for him.

Just hang in there one more year, and all that can be yours!

I was over at Uncommon Descent for a little light-headed reading.  I skimmed this silly little number.

It’s not really very interesting, except if you give it a Freudian deconstruction (it’s OK, I’m an English major.  I’m trained for this.  Don’t try it at home.)

Of special interest is this revealing little gem at the end:

“Of special interest would be the flagellar genes.”

Does the obsession with flagellum at the DI seem a tad…well…Augustinian?

I wonder if Dembski et. al. will ever discover tiny biological systems with analogous features to a hair shirt and salt chalice?

If so, it’s possible they’d never leave the prayer closet laboratory again.

I was just watching a History Channel special on China yesterday.  I had to laugh out loud when a Chinese Communist Party Official was shown talking about certain economic woes in his province.  He said:

"What we need is some sort of Social Security System".

I had to pause the DVR because I was laughing so hard.

See?  The conservatives are right!  Social Security IS communist! If it weren't Communist, the Communists wouldn't be thinking about maybe someday getting around to having it!

While I'm sympathetic to this guy's anti-war views...

And I'm all about putting anti-establishment bumper stickers on your car...

WHO THE HELL carries a digital audio recorder in a pistol case in their vehicle?  Why would you do that?

Not that there is anything WRONG with doing it...I just don't understand why you would.  It seems like it would just not work as well as, oh I don't know...a digital audio recorder case?

I realize that I'm just a dopy liberal who can't even understand something as simple as why you would want to gather together a large group of fundies to stage a revolt to turn South Carolina into a theocratic republic...

But it just seems odd to me.

But at least they're not alone.  Ron Paul understands them.  And is willing to take arrows for them.

Thank God for Ron Paul.

Thank God the poor misunderstood Americans who understand that we have to destroy America to save it have SOMEONE to go to bat for them.

Look, it’s not about your ethnicity.  It’s about fairness.  We just want to be fair.   If you come to the country legally, go through the proper channels, work hard, and do the right thing, we will welcome you.

Ha Ha…just kidding!

(Hat Tip: FrecklesCassie)

If you work hard and pay your taxes, and follow the laws and participate in the system, it will work for you.

Psych!

The system is set up to give everyone a fair shake, and make sure that everyone’s voice is heard...

...or the words that are ascribed to them by the government translator...whichever will lead to a conviction.

None of this has anything to do with the color of your skin.

Honestly.  It’s just the illegals who we want to give trouble to.

(Hat Tip: Alenaae)

 “I think the authorities and officials of the university should practice a little more listening to other points of view and listen to things they don’t like to hear.”

                   --crazy-ass theocrat from someone else's country.

Sorry, Ahmadinejad...so very sorry you didn't get the warm, polite reception that you felt you deserved.

It's true, you were an invited speaker, and it's true that the audience should give your thoughts and ideas all the credit they deserve.

Guess what?  They did.  booyah.

Thing is, we've go our own crazy-assed theocrats over here to deny the Holocaust for us, and re-write history and re-define "science" and pave over the homosexuals while simultaneously blaming them for everything that goes wrong...

...and we have to play nice while our politicians make kissy-face with them on the T.V. and act all polite and respectful and not gag openly.

So, why don't you go home and run your little country while we try to keep control of ours?

I guess STD's are on the rise in Minnesota.  Have been since 2003. and peaking this year (2007)

huh.

You'd think that with the institution of the extremely effective and very cost-saving required abstinance-only requirement that the state puts on funding for Sex Ed (and has since about oh, 2003) that rates would be plummeting as teens stop having sex in droves.

You'd think that just telling them to not have sex would make them stop.  After all, Condoms and such cause MORE STDs because they give a false sense of security. 

So, you would expect the STD rate to go down, not up, and you certainly wouldn't expect the rate to go up significantly more in the age group of the students who benefit from the improvement of moving to an abstinance-only sex-ed curriculum...

...God must be testing us for his own mysterious purposes, by giving virgins STDs.

Yeah.  That's it.

(If your kid has comprehensive sex ed in Minnesota, it is because your school district said "no" to the state funding, and funded the sex ed themselves.  Please write your school board, and say "thank you".)

More info:

http://www.siecus.org/policy/PUpdates/pdate0239.html

Neil at 4Simpsons.com asks an excellent question:

If they think we’re so “radical,” why don’t they just use their faux majority to elect legislators to legalize partial-birth abortion and such?  Then they wouldn’t need judges to ignore their duties and make up their own laws. 

Thanks Neil!

Ignoring for the moment the confusion between interpreting the laws in line with the spirit of the Constitution and “ignor[ing] their duties and make[ing] up their own laws”…

Well, the answer is to reflect the question back to you.  If the religious right really had a lock on the sentiments of mainstream America…why would we have quotes from the leaders of your beloved movement feeling the need to say things like this:

"It's like guerrilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night. You've got two choices: You can wear cammies and shimmy along on your belly, or you can put on a red coat and stand up for everyone to see. It comes down to whether you want to be the British army in the Revolutionary War or the Viet Cong. History tells us which tactic was more effective."--Ralph Reed Los Angeles Times, 3/22/92

Or these:

With the apathy that exists today, a small, well-organized minority can influence the selection of candidates to an astonishing degree.  –Pat Robertson in The Millenium

The apathy of other Americans can become a blessing and advantage to Christians who choose to get involved and fill the void of leadership. –America’s Providential History (A popular Christian homeschooling  textbook)

"We don't have to worry about convincing a majority of Americans to agree with us.  Most of them are staying home and watching Falcon Crest." ,"  --Guy Rodgers

As a tactic for a short-run defense of the independent Christian school movement, the appeal to religious liberty is legitimate. Everyone who is attempting to impose a world-and-life view on a majority (or on a ruling minority) always uses some version of the liberty doctrine to buy himself and his movement some time, some organizational freedom, and some power. . . . 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. --- Gary North

Combined with direct mailings and telephone whisper campaigns perfected by Richard Viguerie, for example, the combination of cultivating voter apathy and then using “churches”, direct mail and other “alternative media” to motivate “the troops” has been very successful.  So successful that Viguerie couldn’t help but crow about it in a book;
America’s Right Turn.  He calls direct mail, church voter guides, and other “alternative media” “secret weapons”.

This is probably why it is so important for them to constantly beat the drums of impending doom with regard to government.  The constant sense that nothing good can come of government, that government can’t do anything right, that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and only God can stop it, no effort of mere mortals can affect it.

How else do you account for the constant conservative serenade of how moral decline in our country has lead to the terrible crime and violence of our culture, despite the fact that violent crime has been on a decline since the early 1980’s and reached an all-time low in 2005?

There’s nothing you can do, the world is falling apart.  Come to Jesus, and for God’s sake make sure you have a conceal-and-carry permit.  The end is coming.  There’s nothing the government can do.  God and vigilante justice are the only answer.

(never mind that the greatest drop happened during the Clinton Presidency, a time when, presumably, American morals were most out of control, and continues through much of the Bush Presidency, when the “invading hordes of illegal immigrants” have supposedly been importing unprecedented social ills).

In 2005 the UN Development Program Report pegged the United States Literacy Rate at 99.9%

Which means that 99.9 out of every 100 Americans can read and understand the Townhall.com articles urging them to dismantle their “failing” school systems, rather than invest in fixing their few shortcomings.

 This is actually quite good when you add in the consideration that the skills required for “basic” literacy have continued to expand.  You need a progressively higher degree of literacy to be considered “basically” literate as time goes on.  For instance, my mother in-law gave her grammar-school readers to my children as a gift.