The Times is reporting actual rational behavior from a school board.  After so many boards across the country had abandoned science for superstition by allowing creationism to be taught, a Maine school will now give students access to birth control.  Hopefully they’ll serve that up with a heaping serving of sex ed.

This guy is worried that creepy European ideas about human rights will take away your right to be an idiot.  What, you don’t believe me?

So, back in June, the Council of Europe proposed a declaration that:

authorities in member States to promote scientific knowledge and the teaching of evolution and to oppose firmly any attempts at teaching creationism as a scientific discipline.

Note the wording “as a scientific discipline“.   It doesn’t say that you can’t talk about it, that you can’t go to church.  It acknowledges that creationism is religion, not science, and should be treated as such.

Well, our Baptist buddy in Florida thinks this is just another sign of the evil secularist conspiracy.   He also knows nothing about biology.

That last sentence is truly amazing. Evolution is simply based upon “facts,” they claim—a claim that would make most evolutionary scientists blush. 

Um, I’m not blushing.  Fortunately, he doesn’t go on to explain himself.The Council’s conclusion begins thusly:  “the denial of evolution is particularly harmful to children’s education.”

Seems obvious to, well, every legitimate scientist in the world.  Baptist Boy’s reaction?

This resolution is so extreme that, at first glance, it appears to be a farce or parody. Sadly, it is not. This is no joke. This is the shape of a secularized future.

If this is the “shape of a secularized future”, count me in.  Have fun at the Rapture, Buddy.

There is a vast, powerful movement sweeping the world. It is a movement driven by a burning faith, a desire to conquer, dominate, and destroy that which is different. This movement promises to take us back to the Dark Ages…a Taliban that wishes to subjugate women, eliminate minorities, and bring American to its knees.

I am writing, of course, about the scourge of Christian fundamentalism. This ain’t your momma’s church. These “Dominionists” want you to come to Jesus…whether you want to or not.

Coming soon to a school board near you.

The Right has been so busy decrying the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore that they’ve barely had time to cruise the men’s room.  Toe tapping has given way to hand-wringing. …

The complete bankruptcy of the right on environmental issues isn’t just smoggy…it’s bloody.  We are caught up in (currently) unwinnable struggles around the world due in large part to our dependence on fossil fuels.   Why else suck up to the Saudis?  Are they a nation of democrats?  Hey, were did those 9/11 pilots come from anyway?  Where’s bin Laden from?

That isn’t to say the Saudis are responsible for all our problems.  It’s not their fault that they are a corrupt, repressive monarchy sitting on a shit-load of Texas tea.  We made them.

Where is the political will in this country to make us energy-independent, to reduce our carbon footprint?  It is, as usual, in the hands of folks like W and Cheney, both with strong ties to the fossil fuel industry.

Of course, it’s not just a Republican thing.  Democrats from coal states have lobbied for the elusive “clean coal” technology.  Dems from the fly-over states (hey, wait, I’m in one of those) have lobbied for ethanol subsidies, which may or may not actually help our energy independence.

Have some gonads, people.  Tell your reps to start dealing with the environment and energy independence.  If you haven’t heard, there’s an election coming up.  Pester them.

There has been much in the news about the Armenian genocide, mostly because Congress wants to pass a bill acknowledging and describing the historical events.  This has put the Bush administration in a bit of a pickle…

For some reason that seems unfathomable, the Turkish government is touchy about the word “genocide” when applied to the actions of the empire they inherited.  Now, maybe it’s pride, maybe it’s money, maybe it’s  the Kurds, but the bottom line is they are one of our few real allies in the region.   If we accuse their ancestors of genocide, they will stop helping us in our little war in Iraq.
As we know, Bush screwed up the war in Iraq so badly, that the consequences are going to resonate throughout our foreign policy for decades.  This is one such instance.  Now, I certainly won’t put it past the Democrats to be pushing this  bill in order to make Georgie feel a little…uncomfortable.  But that’s really not the point.

When your foreign policy is poorly thought out that you can’t even talk about genocide, whether it is in Turkey, Darfur, or Congo, then you’ve made a real mess of things.

America is supposed to be able to be the moral compass for the world.  Thanks for fucking that up, George.  I miss being one of the “good guys”.

Sure, she’s just another talking head looking for attention. What she does or does not believe doesn’t really matter. But when you have access to the national airwaves, what you say matters very much.

What angers and frightens me is her influence on the discussion. This young fool calls himself a “soldier of truth”. As is true of so many fundamentalists, he can’t even imagine being wrong (except for some reason he feels a need to censor comments that he doesn’t agree with). Remember what a soldier’s job is? Too kill the enemy. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Just to catch you up, Ann repeated the old anti-semitic rants on how Christians are just Jews who got it right, meaning Jews are wrong, and it is just doing them a favor to point it out and try to “perfect” them.

I’m trying really, really hard not to succumb to Godwin’s Law here…

Enough of Ann, and on to her minions (not minyans)…

Young Braden is so deluded by his “truth” that he doesn’t realize that threatening someones identity threatens their very existence, and is an example of hate rather than love. Jews don’t want to be “perfected”–they want to be left alone to live their lives.

To repeat the canard that he is criticizing the religion rather than the “nationality” (hate the sin not the sinner?) is one of the oldest excuses of anti-semites.

If I informed him that his world-view, and his very identity as a person was wrong, and that he needed to listen to me to become “perfected” , he would be skeptical.

If you are Jewish and here that message, you feel threatened, and with good reason.

Yes, Braden, sometimes it is “anti-semitic to tell people what you believe if you are a Christian” because the belief itself is anti-semitic.

Look deep inside yourself…what I see is an embryonic hate-monger with potential for reform.

Remember, religion is like masturbation…best practiced in private.

Want to be in the same club as Pat Buchanan, Lou Dobbs, and the Klan? No problem. Just campaign in your community for laws against your neighbors.

So what’s the problem with immigrants, legal or otherwise? You’ve heard all the arguments…our borders are open, any terrorist can walk across (like all the Saudi’s crossing at Nogales to go to flight school?), immigrants are taking away all the jobs Americans are clamoring for. The list goes on.

Americans have been welcoming immigrants with one arm, and shooing them away with the other since the 18th century. We get a little confused on the topic–and we should.

There are many issues surrounding immigration that need to be addressed rationally. Drivers licenses, school, health care–these are all important.

But cutting people off, turning them into internal fugitives…that’s just un-American.

But it sells. And it gets votes. It is the same kind of faux-populism that bigots have always fallen back on when they have nothing real to offer. They should be ashamed.

But of course, they have no shame.

The Family Action Organization scares me…they should scare you, too, and give you yet another reason to get off you ass and get to work…

Their latest rant is impressive as a hymn to ignorance, but not so much as a well-reasoned philosophical statement. They argue (as apologists often do) that atheism is irrational, and religion is the most natural, rational think since breathing.

They start off with an attack on Richard Dawkins…gee, how original…fundies don’t like atheists.

According to their twisted world-view, faith, an inherently irrational belief in something that cannot be proved, should be the default state for you mind.

They ask, “Is faith, in particular, Christianity, irrational?”

It’s a stupid question. Faith, by definition, is irrational, and Christian faith is no more or less irrational than faith in goblins.

That isn’t to say faith is bad…it is only as good or bad as the acts it’s adherents produce.

Let’s go a little deeper:

Thus, what makes a faith “rational” is whether it can be proven empirically.Dawkins and Krauss do not offer any arguments to justify their assumptions. They do not tell us why materialism is true: Instead, they ask you to take its truth as a given—in other words, on faith.

OK, so Dawkins et al. want you to reject faith in favor for rational, empirical materialism. Please help me here…how is denial of faith in favor of empiricism an act of faith itself?

Speaking of faith, what Dawkins means by the word faith is, to put it politely, idiosyncratic. His technique, on display in the Scientific American piece, is to find the most extreme, fringe Christian positions and ascribe them to all Christians. He then cites these beliefs as proof that all Christian faith is irrational.

What does it matter whether he “…find[s] the most extreme, fringe Christian positions…”? As stated above, once you rely on faith, no position is any more or less fringe or irrational. Resurrection and transubstantiation are equally goofy. As, for that matter is Wicca, Mormonism, or any other faith.

Hey, I’m just reporting the bad news: Faith is irrational. Deal with it. Enjoy your faith, find comfort from it, but remember; at its core it is irrational, so don’t try to thrust it into someone else. That usually leads to really bad stuff.

Post Script:

Speaking of fucktards…

I’m not going to bring her into the discussion, but the idiots who defend her? You brainwashed twit!

Let’s make one more thing clear: Ann Coulter was not talking about race, she was talking about religion. Jewish nationality had absolutely nothing to do with this discussion. It was all about Christianity versus Judaism.

Do you know NOTHING? Do you not realize that Jews have every right to view this as an existential threat? Most Jews don’t distinguish between “nationality” and “religion”, and through history, most of the world hasn’t made that distinction either.

You know what, asshole? Your worse than Coulter. You try to make it sound nice and pretty. Some day–hopefully–you will feel ashamed.

But of course, you have no shame.

So, we are living in the era of the Bush II Doctrine. What is the Bush II Doctrine? It is the doctrine of ignorance, of willful head-in-the-sand’ism, of wishful thinking, of faith over thought…

So what happened to Compassionate Conservatism? It retired down to Texas. It went the way of all smoke and mirror stunts, disappearing as soon as its deception succeeded.

So, what price ignorance?

You say Sunii, I say Shiaa–they’re both not Christians, so what’s the difference?

Abstinence–fun and moral! Just not effective.

Faith-based initiatives! An overwhelming success! Depending on what the meaning of “success” is.

All policies based on faith rather than knowledge. All a disaster.

Get out and do your homework. Find a candidate you like who doesn’t use ignorance as a starting point. Write/email your representatives.

Get to work!

1. It’s not polite to do either one in public.
2. Both involve unusual vocalizations and outbursts
3. Both are guilty pleasures
4. The government should have nothing to do with either one. A Masturbation Establishment Clause?
5. You probably shouldn’t ask someone to join you unless you know them really, really well.

Feel free to add your own reasons. If I offended you, you are probably reading the wrong blog. Feel free to leave hostile comments about it, but no “save the sinner” crap.