Pigs In Space, And The Rabbis Too
Whereas I try to treat all religions with equal contempt, I think this is a first for featuring the Jewish faith in these unhallowed pages.
Not by design that Judaism has previously slipped under the radar, unless of course I have subconsciously given them a free pass because I know I'm never going to get a Jew knocking at my door trying to sell me a Bible or their god.
That said, and perhaps after watching the forty second clip, you might agree with me that they are just as loopy and batshit crazy as all the rest of the nutters.
Flying rabbis fight swine fluA group of rabbis and Jewish mystics have taken to the skies over Israel, praying and blowing ceremonial horns in a plane to ward off swine flu.
About 50 religious leaders circled over the country on Monday, chanting prayers and blowing horns, called shofars.
The flight's aim was "to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it", Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri was quoted as saying in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
The flu is often called simply "H1N1" in Israel, as pigs are seen as unclean.
Eating pork is banned under Jewish dietary laws.
According to Israel's health ministry, there have been more than 2,000 cases of swine flu in the country, with five fatalities so far.
"We are certain that, thanks to the prayer, the danger is already behind us," added Mr Batzri was quoted as saying.
Television footage showed rabbis in black hats rocking backwards and forwards as they read prayers from Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism which counts the singer Madonna among its devotees.
The shofar is the horn of a ram, and is used to mark major religious occasions in Judaism. BBC
Respect People's Religious Beliefs. Why?
Not All Head banging Extremists Are Muslim Watch Headbanging Jewish Extremists In Action Against Little Girls
If a similar situation were to occur, and it were the Jerusalem school that was on fire, I could just see this lot as taking it as a sign from God, and who would know what the outcome might be.
I hate fucking religion, and all its repressed, sanctimonious, intolerant, motherfucking followers. A disgrace to rational thought and a disgrace to our species, the fucking lot of them.
Due to a re-tweet I have just had my twitter space invaded by one of their ilk, closet queen and suppressed raving fag, Tony Bennett, who seemingly couldn't wait to get the news out of a book about some gay man who died in 1996.
I've left him alone of late, well fuck him, he's back on my list of twats, and right at the top. Fucking cunt!
Anyway, back to the post. If you really want to see how batshit fucking insane orthodox Jews are, go to Pigs In Space, and The Rabbis Too and follow the video link.
You could not make it up. Not in a million years.
Respect people's religious beliefs? don't make me piss blood!! Fucking idiots!
Ultra-Orthodox Jews picket girls' schoolh/t RDF
10 October 2011
In a town on the outskirts of Jerusalem school runs have become the focal point for an ugly struggle over land and power.
Groups of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters have been picketing a new girls' school.
They say their religious sense of modesty is offended by the sight of the girls and their families passing their homes on their way to school, even though the families themselves are also from an orthodox community.
The BBC's Kevin Connolly reports from Beit Shemesh. watch
Dash Your Brains Out On a Rock or Watch The Third Eagle of The Apocalypse
This man is totally and unequivocally insane. What on earth is he jabbering on about?
Mitt Romney's Mormonism: Pastors Say Mormons Not Christians, But Defend His Right To Be Batshit Crazy
Not too much of a shocker is it? Not in a country where Catholics are barely Christian and Italians are barely white it's not.
''WE defend anybody's right to be batshit, because we're all fucking batshit.''
Mitt Romney's Mormonism: Pastors Say Mormons Not Christians, But Defend Candidate Against Attacks
by Jaweed Kaleem
The debate over whether a largely Protestant nation is uneasy with a potential Mormon president was reignited this week after back-to-back attacks on Republican front-runner Mitt Romney's Mormonism at the high-profile Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C.
After prominent Texas megachurch pastor Rev. Robert Jeffress told audiences on Friday that Mormonism is a "cult" (shurely some mishtake?) and conservative Christian activist Bryan Fischer took the stage the next day to echo similar views, a new survey released Saturday afternoon says that three out of four pastors agree, at the least, that Mormons are not Christians.
As part of a larger survey conducted by Nashville-based Lifeway Research a year ago, 1,000 pastors were polled from around the country who represented dozens of denominations. Results, originally scheduled to be released in the coming weeks, were put out early after reporters requested data because of attacks on Romney at the summit, said Ed Stetzer, president of the Southern Baptist-affiliated organization.
"The view that Mormons are not Christians is the widely and strongly held view among Protestant pastors. That does not mean they do not respect Mormons as persons, share their values on family and have much in common. Yet, they simply view Mormonism as a distinct religion outside of basic teachings of Christianity. Many of these pastors may know Mormons who consider themselves Christians, but Protestant pastors overwhelmingly do not consider them such," said Stetzer. "I know this is an unpleasant question to many, and one that some will use as a hammer on evangelicals."
Mormons differ from most Protestants in how they view the Trinity. They also have scripture in addition to the Bible, such as the Book of Mormon, and believe in prophets such as Joseph Smith, Jr., who founded the Latter Day Saint movement.
While the Lifeway survey indicates that a majority of pastors may not support the Mormon religion, surveys on whether Americans would support a Mormon candidate are more mixed. A Pew Research Center survey from the summer said that one in four voters would be less likely to vote for a Mormon candidate and found that 34 percent of white evangelical Protestants held this view. A Gallup poll released in June also found that almost 20 percent of Republicans and independents would not vote for a Mormon president, compared to 27 percent of Democrats who said the same.
After the weekend's controversial statements on Romney's religion, prominent pastors are also coming to his defense. On Saturday, Rev. Myke Crowder, senior pastor of the Christian Life Center in Layton, Utah, and spokesman for the National Clergy Council, released a statement condemning Jeffress, who is a Southern Baptist.
"As an evangelical, born-again, Bible-believing Christian, and a pastor with more than 25 years' experience living with and ministering among a majority Mormon population, I find the comments by Pastor Jeffress unhelpful, impolite and out of place," he said. "I've been around long enough to remember when independent Baptists wouldn't pray with Southern Baptists, when fundamentalists called Southern Baptists compromisers and liberals, when Southern Baptists wouldn't keep company with Pentecostals and when Pentecostals wouldn't keep company with Catholics. That wasn't helpful to anyone. Insulting Mitt Romney adds nothing to the conversation about who should be president. We're picking the country's chief executive, not its senior pastor." huffpo with links
Julian Assange: America The New Reich - Department of Justice The New Gestapo - Britains Awake!
You can read this story however you wish, the nuts and bolts of what came to pass, or as Amy Goodman intended, as an expose of what passes for justice in the Land of the Free.
A similar, if not worse fate, awaits Julian Assange should we in Britain, or those in Europe, cave in to the demands of the Great Satan. (Paul Craig Roberts) And Garry whatshisname for that matter?
The Great Satan, Iranian depiction. Which, however true, is a bit rich coming from that quarter.
Two Standards of Detention
By Amy Goodman
December 3, 2009
Scott Roeder, the anti-abortion zealot charged with killing Dr. George Tiller, has been busy. He called the Associated Press from the Sedgwick County Jail in Kansas, saying, “I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal.” Charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault, he is expected to be arraigned July 28. AP recently reported that Roeder has been proclaiming from his jail cell that the killing of abortion providers is justified. According to the report, the Rev. Donald Spitz of the Virginia-based Army of God sent Roeder seven pamphlets defending “defensive action,” or killing of abortion clinic workers.
Spitz’s militant Army of God Web site calls Roeder an “American hero,” proclaiming, “George Tiller would normally murder between 10 and 30 children … each day … when he was stopped by Scott Roeder.”
The site, with biblical quotes suggesting killing is justified, hosts writings by Paul Hill, who killed Dr. John Britton and his security escort in Pensacola, Fla., and by Eric Rudolph, who bombed a Birmingham, Ala., women’s health clinic, killing its part-time security guard.
On Spitz’s Web site, Rudolph continues to write about abortion: “I believe that deadly force is indeed justified in an attempt to stop it.”
Juxtapose Roeder’s advocacy from jail with the conditions of Fahad Hashmi.
Hashmi is a U.S. citizen who grew up in Queens, N.Y., and went to Brooklyn College. He went to graduate school in Britain and was arrested there in 2006 for allegedly allowing an acquaintance to stay with him for two weeks. That acquaintance, Junaid Babar, allegedly kept at Hashmi’s apartment a bag containing ponchos and socks, which Babar later delivered to an al-Qaida operative. Babar was arrested and agreed to cooperate with the authorities in exchange for leniency.
While the evidence against Hashmi is secret, it probably stems from the claims of the informant Babar.
Fahad Hashmi was extradited to New York, where he has been held in pretrial detention for more than two years. His brother Faisal described the conditions: “He is kept in solitary confinement for two straight years, 23- to 24-hours lockdown. … Within his own cell, he’s restricted in the movements he’s allowed to do. He’s not allowed to talk out loud within his own cell. … He is being videotaped and monitored at all times. He can be punished … denied family visits, if they say his certain movements are martial arts … that they deem as incorrect. He has Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) … against him.”
Hashmi cannot contact the media, and even his lawyers have to be extremely cautious when discussing his case, for fear of imprisonment themselves. His attorney Sean Maher told me: “This issue of the SAMs … of keeping people in solitary confinement when they’re presumed innocent, is before the European Court of Human Rights. They are deciding whether they will prevent any European country from extraditing anyone to the United States if there is a possibility that they will be placed under SAMs … because they see it as a violation … to hold someone in solitary confinement with sensory deprivation, months before trial.”
Similarly, animal rights and environmental activists, prosecuted as “eco-terrorists,” have been shipped to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ new “communication management units” (CMUs). Andrew Stepanian was recently released and described for me the CMU as “a prison within the actual prison. … The unit doesn’t have normal telephone communication to your family … normal visits are denied … you have to make an appointment to make one phone call a week, and that needs to be done with the oversight of … a live monitor.”
Stepanian observed that up to 70 percent of CMU prisoners are Muslim—hence CMU’s nickname, “Little Guantanamo.” As with Hashmi, it seems that the U.S. government seeks to strip terrorism suspects of legal due process and access to the media—whether in Guantanamo or in the secretive new CMUs. The American Civil Liberties Union is suing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Bureau of Prisons over the CMUs.
Nonviolent activists like Stepanian, and Muslims like Hashmi, secretly and dubiously charged, are held in draconian conditions, while Roeder trumpets from jail the extreme anti-abortion movement’s decades-long campaign of intimidation, vandalism, arson and murder.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 750 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times,” recently released in paperback. The Muslim Observer
h/t Maren
Mitt Romney's America: Even More of The Same
Mind you, that's this week. The cartoon says everything that needs saying, but that man wants to be President so bad it's worrying, he'd sell his Granny for a vote.
America's saviour, the man in the magic underpants.
Romney: century of American dominance ahead
By Steve Peoples and Bruce Smith
October 7, 2011
CHARLESTON, S.C.—Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday the next president would face complex foreign policy decisions but offered few details on his plan for one of the nation's most protracted international entanglements -- the decade-old Afghanistan war.
Delivering his first major foreign policy address on the 10th anniversary of the conflict, the former Massachusetts governor said little about what he would do specifically about Afghanistan, where nearly 100,000 American troops are stationed today.
"I will order a full review of our transition to the Afghan military to secure that nation's sovereignty from the tyranny of the Taliban," Romney said near the end of his remarks, listing the Afghan war among eight priorities for his first 100 days in office. "The force level necessary to secure our gains and complete our mission successfully is a decision I will make free from politics."
The comment drew applause from the cadets and supporters who gathered at The Citadel, South Carolina's military college. But Afghanistan was almost an afterthought in Romney's speech, in which he made the case for a stronger military that would allow the United States to lead the world and help deter further violence.
He mentioned the name of the country three times in a speech that exceeded 2,800 words.
When pressed for details on Afghanistan during a morning briefing, a Romney foreign policy adviser declined to outline a Romney plan for Afghanistan and noted that the governor recognizes the difficulty of what America faces there.
On other issues, Romney said he would boost the number of Navy ships and pour more money into defense, outlining proposals to strengthen the military while rejecting multilateral institutions like the United Nations when necessary.
He also condemned the isolationist policies supported by some tea party activists.
"This is America's moment. We should embrace the challenge, not shrink from it, not crawl into an isolationist shell, not wave the white flag of surrender, nor give in to those who assert America's moment has passed. That is utter nonsense," he added.
Romney's first foreign policy speech as a candidate amounted to a show of force of sorts as he tries to position himself as the clear GOP frontrunner in the White House race. Some Republicans remain reluctant to support him but Romney has resumed his place atop national polling following Texas Gov. Rick Perry's recent stumbles and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's decision not to run.
The sometimes hawkish policies Romney outlined Friday may draw criticism from the libertarian wing of his party but are designed to confront what may be the former businessman's most glaring weakness. While he served as a Mormon missionary in France more than four decades ago, he has only limited foreign policy experience. As he says in nearly every campaign stop, he has spent most of his life in the business world. Go to page two
A few from last time he ran. Things don't change much, apart from Mitt's position d'jour.
The American electorate.
Poll: Nearly half of Americans can’t name a single GOP presidential candidate more
Rough Justice Under Rick Perry ''Incendiary'' Documentary
Rough Justice Under Rick Perry
Two Austin filmmakers examine how the Texas governor and bad science abetted the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.
By Tim Murphy
When MSNBC's Brian Williams asked Rick Perry during a recent GOP debate if he ever worried that his state had executed an innocent man on Perry's watch, the three-term Texas governor didn't hesitate: "No sir, I've never struggled with that at all." Maybe he should have: As Steve Mims and Joe Bailey detail in their new documentary, Incendiary, the state's 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the murder of his two children was based in large part on arson science that had been thoroughly rejected by the scientific community—something that Perry had been informed of before the "ultimate justice" was served.
Inspired by David Grann's masterful 2009 New Yorker story about the case, the Austin filmmakers set out to chronicle the flawed forensics behind the execution. They soon found themselves in the middle of a pitched political battle involving Perry's apparent maneuvering to put a thumb on the scales with the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Mims and Bailey spoke recently with Mother Jones about the Willingham case, arson science, and how they navigated the politics of capital punishment.
Mother Jones: What about Grann's story, and the case specifically, made you think "we need to make a film"?
Joe Bailey: I was so fascinated that the law and science and political forces were all animated in a life-and-death story. We saw that as a rare thing, and we thought that a documentary format allowed us the opportunity to explore the case in our own way and illustrate these things that seemed really fascinating—properties of fire, the human dynamic, and the appeals and petitions for clemency. We didn't expect it to erupt into this sort of political theater that it became: Just when we started making our film is when the shakeup of the Texas Forensic Science Commission happened, and it became sort of a dynamic and hilarious—darkly hilarious—struggle to document.
MJ: The centerpiece of the film, the forensics expert who explains why it wasn't arson, is Gerald Hurst. More, including movie trailer and this interview with Rick Perry talking ''Science'' which has to be the biggest contradiction of terms in the whole wide world. More including a trailer from the documentary and this clip of Perry explaining his killing comfort zone.
America is being, blown away, washed away, and not least in Texas, burnt away. But the jury is still out on climate change science. Whatever you say Rick.
A few vids on tricky Ricky and climate change.
''I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data''
We are seeing weekly, almost daily, scientists coming forward and questioning the original idea that man made global warming is what is causing the climate to change''
''Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said, here is the fact; - Galileo got outvoted for a spell''
He doesn't help himself does he? Galileo got outvoted for a spell, yes you fucking moron. Rick Perry, a latter day Roman Inquisition, with all the brains of the first.
Isn't odd that nobody can seem to offer up ''all these scientists'' or in Ricky's case name one? He reminds me of another bunch of batshit crazies that are always quoting ''more and more scientists.'' I was about to (ok I will) link to the crazies of the of the Fred and Wilma, but I can go one better than that. At the bottom of the page there is a video of Arnold Mendez, who I have to tell you, though you might have trouble believing me, is a science instructor at Texas A&M. Funny that Texas should pop its head up again.
Give me that ol' time religion.
“A mind may be a terrible thing to waste, but if you waste 15 million of them, apparently you get Texas.” - Keith Olbermann.
Still with me? Now I wouldn't ask anybody to sit through two hours of Arnold Mendez's Noah’s Ark Seminar, but do try to watch a few minutes of this
Arnold Mendez has his own tag on this blog, lots of photo's if you can't bear the video. Here is a comment left by a poor soul that had the misfortune to have Mendez as an instructor.
Arnold Mendez is Beyond an Idiot he is dangerous. Let me tell you why. Arnold Mendez taught/teaches almost all the General Chemistry Laboratory Classes at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. On his own initiative, he added an indoctrination on why Radiological Carbon Dating is a farce. He required the students to go to HIS listed fraud sites and write a report (basically supporting his crap). I was forced to do this for a grade in his class along with almost 1,000 students in a single semester. When this situation was revealed to the University, they did absolutely nothing! Any reputable (REAL) University would have fired ANYONE who did this on the spot. I guess TAMUCC is just another Liberty University. DO NOT ATTEND this university if you want a ACTUAL Science Degree. I am still highly offended by this situation.
Pastor Faces Execution in Tehran for Apostasy
I think you really have to be an atheist to truly appreciate the futility of what this jesoid is prepared to die for.
But you don't have to be an atheist to appreciate what an evil bunch of backward fucktards the members of the Iranian regime really are. And people I suppose, I wasn't going to include them in this statement, but there will be more than enough, equally backward bunch of evil fucktards clamouring for him to be strung up.
Pastor Faces Execution in Tehran for Apostasy
By Martin Fletcher & Ruth Gledhill
29 September 2011
The Foreign Secretary and the Archbishop of Canterbury intervened last night to try to save a Christian pastor in Iran who has refused to renounce his faith to escape a death sentence.
An Iranian court gave Youcef Nadarkhani, 34, a third and final chance to avoid hanging, but he replied: “I am resolute in my faith and Christianity and have no wish to recant.”
The panel of five judges will decide within a week whether to confirm his execution for apostasy, Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, his lawyer, told The Times.
William Hague said he “deplored” Pastor Nadarkhani’s plight, and a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office diplomat telephoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires in London to protest.
“This demonstrates the Iranian regime’s continued unwillingness to abide by its constitutional and international obligations to respect religious freedom,” Mr Hague said. “I pay tribute to the courage shown by Pastor Nadarkhani, who has no case to answer, and call on the Iranian authorities to overturn his sentence.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, broke his silence to express “deep concern” at the sentence faced by Pastor Nadarkhani, and at the persecution of religious minorities in Iran generally.
Sources said that Christian clerics and advisers had been working hard behind the scenes to save the pastor’s life, but had sought to avoid “megaphone diplomacy” in case it did more harm than good.
The US Department of State has also condemned the Iranian judiciary for demanding that Pastor Nadarkhani renounce his faith or face execution.
“While Iran’s leaders hypocritically claim to promote tolerance, they continue to detain, imprison, harass and abuse those who simply wish to worship the faith of their choosing,” it said. more RDF
Here's another fine example of delusional, watch her performance and listen to what she has to say, starting 30s mark.
Constantly friendly, caring, loving and trustworthy. You couldn't make this stuff up if you lived to be as old as Noah. Was he eight, or nine hundred years old, I forget off hand?
If I remember rightly, somewhere in the archives, I have the quintessential cartoon for this occasion, let me go and have a root around.
Voila! here you go. Purrrfect.
America Is Moving Away From Religion: You Reckon?
Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
5 Signs That America Is Moving Away from Religion
If you look closely there are promising signs that American attitudes are changing in a way that may blunt the impact of religion on politics and culture.
By Tana Ganeva
September 28, 2011
In between bragging about the number of people they've killed and vilifying gay soldiers, the GOP presidential candidates have spent the primaries demonstrating how little they respect the separation of church and state. Michele Bachmann seems to think God is personally invested in her political career. Both she and Rick Perry have ties to Christian Dominionism, a theocratic philosophy that publicly calls for Christian takeover of America's political and civil institutions. (Even Ron Paul, glorified by civil libertarians for his only two good policy stances -- opposition to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and drug prohibition -- sputtered about churches when asked during a debate where he'd send a gravely ill man without health insurance.)
GOP pandering to the Religious Right is just one of those facts of American political life, like climate change denial and Creationism in schools, that leave secular Americans lamenting the decline of the country, and of reason and logic. Organized religion's grasp on the politics and culture of much of Europe has been waning for decades -- why can't we do that here?
But there are signs that American attitudes are changing in ways that may tame religion's power over political life in the future.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, founder of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, tells AlterNet that she thinks what happened in Europe is (slowly) happening here. While questioning religion remains controversial -- Gaylor says the group's work on church and state issues often elicits hate-mail strongly suggesting they move to, you know, Europe -- atheism, skepticism, and agnosticism are becoming more widely accepted.
"The statistics show there are more of us ... If you're in a room of people you can count on more to agree with non-belief or to be accepting of non-belief," says Gaylor.
Here are five trends that give hope one day religion will reside in the realm of personal choice and private worship, far away from politics -- something like what the Founders intended hundreds of years ago.
1. American religious belief is becoming more fractured
The intrusion of religion into places where it doesn't belong, like government or public education, naturally requires high levels of organization and control -- it's not something that just happens. So it's a good sign that even many Americans who maintain a personal religious faith are distancing themselves from heierarchical, top-down religion. Polls have repeatedly shown that even among the devout, emphatic proclamations of faith do not translate into actual churchgoing. In fact, church attendance rates hovered at around 40 percent until pollsters realized there's a major gap between what Americans tell them about their religious habits and their actual religious habits. Tom Flynn summarizes the over-inflation of US churchgoing and offers more accurate stats:
Americans may believe in a god who sees everything, but they lie about how often they go to church. Since 1939, the Gallup organization has reported that 40% of adults attend church weekly. (The most recent figure is 42%.) Gallup's figure has long attracted skepticism. Were it true, some 73 million people would throng the nation's houses of worship each week. Even the conservative Washington Times found that "hard to imagine." New research suggests that there may be only half to two-thirds that many people in the pews.
Americans are also actively shaping their religious beliefs to fit their own values. Profiled in USA Today, religion expert George Barna shares recent findings that show religion is becoming increasingly personal. Believers might drift from faith to faith until they find one that works for them, or cobble together a belief system drawn from many religious traditions. The US is becoming a place of "310 million people with 310 million religions" Barna is quoted as saying. Go to page two, or be like me, don't.
Bachmann: HPV Vaccine makes You Mentally Retarded - She Must Have Had An Armful Then
Bachmann: I'm Not Responsible For The Words Coming Out Of My Mouth
By Adam Serwer
Sep. 23, 2011
In a television interview after the GOP presidential debate on September 12, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who was attacking Texas Governor Rick Perry over his decision to mandate that adolescent girls receive a vaccine for HPV, made the shocking suggestion that the vaccine caused "mental retardation." This is what Bachmann said:"There's a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine.… She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. There are very dangerous consequences."
On Thursday night, Bachmann was asked directly about those remarks, which, as my colleague Tim Murphy reported, are not only completely false but could have serious health consequences by dissuading people from vaccinating their children. Asked about her validating paranoid junk science, Bachmann disavowed all responsibility, insisting that she was just the messenger.
Well, first I didn't make that claim nor did I make that statement. Immediately after the debate, a mother came up to me and she was visibly shaken and heart broken because of what her daughter had gone through. I so I only related what her story was.
Bachmann went on to explain a far more justifiable objection to Perry's decision, namely that the mandate was really about his desire to help a campaign contributor.
For what it's worth, Bachmann's excuse is also false. She said that there "are very dangerous consequences" that come from mandating the HPV vaccine, and in context, it's clear she's referring to the false assertion that the vaccine causes mental problems. She wasn't merely "relaying" false information, she was endorsing it. Instead of simply admitting that it was wrong to validate and amplify a conspiracy theory, Bachmann basically said she's not at all responsible for making sure anything that comes out of her mouth is actually true. This is a shockingly glib response for someone who wants to run the most powerful country in the world. Mother Jones
Update:
Pediatrician: "The Problem is People Like Michele Bachmann" More, including this MP3
''I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist'' Michele Bachmann
''I'm not against religion, I'm against maniacs'' Brian Cox
h/t Maren
GOP Presidential Race: Rain Man Loosing To Magic Underpants Man
Get yourself sat down, you ain't got a bleedin' snowball in hell's chance of winning the nomination. Not only are you another magic underpants man, you believe in climate change and evolution.
And that old son, if you didn't but know it, is the kiss of death to anybody's political aspirations in that emporium of ignorance, aka conservative America.
Gawdstruth, climate change and evolution, what a dreamer.
And it's not just meself that holds such opinions, here's another fellow that has a few words to say on the subject.
GOP Presidential Candidate Supports Evolution, Climate Change; Pisses Off His Party
Here is a recent tweet from Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, clearly a jab at Texas Governor and Jesus freak Rick Perry, who stepped into the ring on August 13th:
You: Wait. WTF? Rewind that shiz. Did you just say a Republican presidential candidate admits he believes in evolution and global warming? Aren't Republicans as a party...y'know, kind of antithetical to that sort of thing? Doesn't the GOP view science as a big liberal, atheist, bike-fascist conspiracy?
Me: Whoa, that's a lot of questions. Yeah, I did just say that. And yeah, many Republicans are no friends of these two repeatedly verified, never falsified scientific theories (not to be confused with untested scientific hypotheses). The story gets even weirder when you hear what Huntsman had to say on ABC's This Week about members of his own party:"The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party - the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012."
The world must be ending. I want to agree with a GOP presidential candidate. more
I can't give you the relative clip, because the two blokes that have been uploaded the clips, belong to the same school of miserated fuckdoggery, and have disabled the embedded.
I can't bring you that, but I can bring you some magic underpants.
Will Perry's Halting Debate Lead to a Faltering Campaign?
Saturday 24 September 2011
by: Steven Thomma,
Orlando, Fla. - Is Rick Perry about to lose his momentum toward the Republican presidential nomination?The Texas governor turned in a weak performance in a debate Thursday, raising questions about how ready he is for the rigors of a tough campaign and how much Republicans really know about the man.
At the same time, chief rival Mitt Romney scored with a sharp performance. And others shined in the eyes of Republican voters as well, including Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Combined, the results heading out of the debate in Orlando suggest a party far from ready to coalesce behind Perry.
"It was Mitt Romney's best performance so far and Rick Perry's worst performance so far," said Republican researcher Frank Luntz.
"Perry created some doubt about himself," said Susan MacManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida who attended the debate and a three-day gathering of more than 3,000 conservative activists.
"This is a world of people used to good speakers with clear views," she said. "They worry now about his ability to stand beside President Obama in a debate."
At the gathering of conservatives Friday in the same convention center as the debate, it was all but impossible to find anyone who thought Perry did well Thursday night. The criticisms included his style — uniformly described as halting and unsure — and the substance, particularly his defense of in-state college tuition breaks for children of illegal immigrants not available to citizens from other states.
"Perry looked uncomfortable. He got caught up on a couple of the questions. He was inconsistent," said Meg Shannon, a retired lawyer from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., who attended the debate.
"I was leaning toward Mitt, but I wanted to hear the candidates," she said. "Mitt did very well."
Harold Armstrong, a pastor from St. Cloud, Fla., who attended the debate and a Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, also came away unimpressed by Perry.
"I did not think Perry did well. He seemed a little tentative," Armstrong said.
He said that Romney "came across looking presidential" and that his own favorite, Newt Gingrich, scored by offering what he thought were the best answers. "He gives thoughtful replies, not canned responses," Armstrong said.
Jean Morris, a retired teacher from St. Cloud, walked away still leaning toward Perry. But she, too, acknowledged that he didn't do very well.
On the question of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, for example, she said he fumbled by failing to stress that it also requires those students promise to seek permanent resident status as a condition for the tuition break. "It disappointed me that he didn't mention that," she said.
Perry's performance underscored how fast he surged to the lead when he jumped into the race just six weeks ago, how untested he is, and how unscrutinized his record is beyond his boast of creating jobs.
Perry all but acknowledged his weakness as a debater during a speech Friday to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.
"As conservatives," he said, "we know that values and vision matter. It's not who's the slickest candidate or the smoothest debater that we need to elect."
Despite his 10 years as governor, Perry had only faced rivals in a debate four times before he starting running for president. He's now debated three times on that stage.
Some analysts said he tires, and finishes poorly.
"He had a so-so performance," Republican political strategist Karl Rove said Friday on Fox News Channel. "He started off strong ... but as one observer put it, at about minute 42 he begins to fade."
Perry's also facing tough scrutiny over the less advertised parts of his record, such as the support for in-state tuition and opposition to a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, both touchy subjects for conservatives.
William Gheen, president of the Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, a North Carolina group, said that 81 percent of Americans oppose in-state tuition breaks for the children of illegal immigrants. "Rick Perry is finished," he said.
From the podium Thursday, Perry brushed aside anyone who opposes the tuition breaks as heartless. That set up Santorum to score by noting that conservatives don't want to deny the students access to college, as Perry suggested, just the prudential tuition denied to citizens from other states.
"Perry made a fundamental mistake when he said you have no heart. That was the moment when Perry people said, 'We can't take this, it's too much,'" said Luntz, who conducted a focus group for Fox News of Florida Republicans watching the debate.
Another stumble came when Perry was asked why he hasn't produced a detailed plan to create jobs, as other candidates have done. He said only that he'll produce one later.
"They thought he was ill prepared," Luntz said. "They think at this point you should have a plan. He was caught flatfooted."
Ultimately, Perry still has enormous strengths in the still-developing campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination. He has a record of job growth in his home state to brag about. He has a generally conservative record. And he's got a warm style of campaigning one on one matched by charisma.
What he doesn't have, as this week showed, is an ability to face rivals and win in televised debates, one key element of the coming campaign for the nomination and then against Barack Obama.
"He has a presence," said Luntz. "They see it. They feel it. But he needs to acquire the ability to articulate to go along with that presence." Truthout
Death Penalty is Pro-Life: Baptist Albert Mohler Talks Utter Shite
President Of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Says Death Penalty Is About Affirming The Sanctity Of Life
By Zaid Jilani
Sep 23, 2011
This week marked the execution of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis, whose case was considered by many to be deeply flawed. Davis’ execution has served as a wake-up call to the inequities and dangers of capital punishment in the United States.Yet one influential religious leader appears to have been unphased by the global uproar over Davis’ death and critical examinations of the death penalty. Mohler argued in a Sept. 22 podcast that the death penalty is actually pro-life in a way, because it is intended to “affirm the value [and] sanctity of every single human life“:
A Southern Baptist seminary president says that according to the Bible, capital punishment is pro-life. “The death penalty is not about retribution,” Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in a podcast Sept. 22. “It is first of all about underlining the importance of every single human life.”
Mohler, who has a Ph.D. in theology, said in Genesis 9, where capital punishment is mandated for murder, “it is precisely because the taking of one human life by another means that the murderer has effectively, morally and theologically, forfeited his own right to live.” “The death penalty is intended to affirm the value [and] sanctity of every single human life, and thus by the extremity of the penalty to make that visible and apparent to all,” Mohler said.
Mohler is an influential figure in Baptist circles in the United State. As he notes on his website, he is president of the “flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world” and is a board member of the right-wing Focus on the Family. His position on the death penalty stands in stark contrast to that of many other Christian leaders. For example, the Catholic Church, which represents the largest Christian denomination in America, has been generally opposed to the practice since Pope John Paul II declared so in 1995. - Think Progress
Not Only is Rick Santorum a Homophobic Twat, He's One Very Sick Puppy Indeed
We have recently had a post Rick Santorum is a Twat, but this little.... I can't call it a gem, in fact I don't really know what to call it. But it comes in the second article after all the homophobia.
Forgive me do, I pray.
Santorum Says He "Didn't Hear" Audience Members Boo Gay Soldier, But Condemns Them; Perry and Romney Don't
It was one of the more jarring moments in Thursday night’s debate. Stephen Hill, a U.S. Army soldier serving in Iraq, asked whether he, as a gay American, would be able to continue serving if one of these Republican candidates won. Some in the audience booed, and Rick Santorum slammed the Obama administration for giving gay and lesbian troops “a special privilege,” which would end under a Santorum presidency.By Steve Benen | Sourced from Washington MonthlyThe former senator did not, however, have anything to say during the debate about the ugly audience reaction. Yesterday, in a Fox News interview, Santorum was willing to do the right thing.
“I condemn the people who booed that gay soldier. That soldier is serving our country. I thank him for his service to our country. I’m sure he’s doing an excellent job. I hope he’s safe and I hope he returns safely and does his mission well.
“I have to admit, I seriously did not hear those boos. Had I heard them, I certainly would have commented on them, but, as you know, when you’re in that sort of environment, you’re sort of focused on the question and formulating your answer. I just didn’t hear those couple of boos that were out there, but certainly had I, I would have said, ‘Don’t do that. This man is serving our country and we are to thank him for his service.’”
That’s a perfectly good answer. It may not be entirely truthful — other candidates said they heard the boos — and it doesn’t make up for Santorum’s awful substantive response to the question, but I’m glad he’s at least willing to condemn those booing a serviceman who’s putting his life on the line for the United States. It is, quite literally, the least he should do.
But what about the rest of the Republican field? Yesterday, Jon Huntsman and Gary Johnson, to their credit, also denounced those who booed Hill, albeit a day late. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, however, refused requests for comment.
I don’t expect much from guys like Romney and Perry, and neither are likely to ever get a Profile in Courage award nomination any time soon, but if leading presidential candidates aren’t willing to stand up for an Army soldier serving honorably in Iraq, who will they stand up for?
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What Rick Santorum Means by 'Keeping Sex to Yourself'You know what Rick Santorum said last night regarding the fate of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in a Santorum administration:
That policy would be reinstituted. And as far as people who are in -- in -- I would not throw them out, because that would be unfair to them because of the policy of this administration, but we would move forward in -- in conformity with what was happening in the past, which was, sex is not an issue. It is -- it should not be an issue. Leave it alone, keep it -- keep it to yourself, whether you're a heterosexual or a homosexual.
Atrios noted the hypocrisy. ("If only the big gay gayeee gayee gays would stop talking about all the hot sexy sexytime all the damn sexytime everything would be ok. Oh, and have you met my wife and 4 children?") But let me just remind you of how Rick Santorum and his wife keep this personal stuff to themselves:
Father First, Senator Second
In his Senate office, on a shelf next to an autographed baseball, Sen. Rick Santorum keeps a framed photo of his son Gabriel Michael, the fourth of his seven children. Named for two archangels, Gabriel Michael was born prematurely, at 20 weeks, on Oct. 11, 1996, and lived two hours outside the womb.
Upon their son's death, Rick and Karen Santorum opted not to bring his body to a funeral home. Instead, they bundled him in a blanket and drove him to Karen's parents' home in Pittsburgh. There, they spent several hours kissing and cuddling Gabriel with his three siblings, ages 6, 4 and 1 1/2. They took photos, sang lullabies in his ear and held a private Mass.
"That's my little guy," Santorum says, pointing to the photo of Gabriel, in which his tiny physique is framed by his father's hand. The senator often speaks of his late son in the present tense. It is a rare instance in which he talks softly.
He and Karen brought Gabriel's body home so their children could "absorb and understand that they had a brother," Santorum says. "We wanted them to see that he was real," not an abstraction, he says. Not a "fetus," either, as Rick and Karen were appalled to see him described -- "a 20-week-old fetus" -- on a hospital form. They changed the form to read "20-week-old baby."
Karen Santorum, a former nurse, wrote letters to her son during and after her pregnancy. She compiled them into a book, "Letters to Gabriel," a collection of prayers, Bible passages and a chronicle of the prenatal complications that led to Gabriel's premature delivery....
That was in The Washington Post in 2005. That's how Santorum keeps this sort of thing to himself -- by welcoming a Post reporter into his office and showing him a picture of the now-dead fetus he and his wife heterosexually created. And talking about the book his wife wrote on the same subject.
By Steve M. | Sourced from No More Mister Nice Blog
