The Enlightenment is over,and atheism has lost its moral cutting edge

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3933-1847654,00.html

This writer's essay is another illustration of the huge gulf between us and the British. It is way more than just the 3,000 miles across the Atlantic. I never knew atheism had a moral cutting edge to begin with.
Most of the SBC pastors rail against the immorality of atheists. Being a Christian in Britain does not mean the same thing it does here. Over there, they are a beleaguered minority. Over here they are running the government. And the Dark Age has already begun. I would submit it began when Reagan was elected.
I think there is a "God part of the brain" as one author on Art Bell described it once. This does not mean we will all believe that Jesus is Lord, but it does mean that the default position of the human brain and mind is that of a search for meaning and relevance and a "power greater than ourselves" as AA calls it.
Therefore, to be an atheist is to rebel against one's own nature, even if we cannot prove who, if anyone or thing, created us.
Seen in this perspective, one has to hand it to the atheists for their stubbornness and tenacity, what my next-door-neighbor trial lawyer called "stick-to-it-tiveness." I thought that of Madalyn Murray O'Hair. You had to admire her for her sheer dogged determination not to believe.
Pascal said everyone has a "God-shaped hole in his heart." But he was French, so who cares what he thinks?
The problem with this yearning for God is that Bush thinks God is telling him to bomb people. Anyone else would have been committed to an insane asylum or war crimes tribunal by now. The "God part" of Bush's brain (the actual one, not Rove) is apparently very, very violent.

World Markets on Brink of Total Collapse as Hedge Fund System ‘Broken’

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index845.htm

The Official Seal of the United States Republican Party

The Gospel of the Holy Twelveaka The Gospel of the Perfect Life

http://reluctant-messenger.com/essene/gospel_4.htm

Well, I am thawing out some hamburger meat even as I post this, so I am not yet perfect. I don't like cats, either, although I respect their right to life and have never tortured any of them.

"Love Child"

I just heard this song on the oldies station in Texarkana. One of the lyrics really hit me out of the blue as an anachronism. I have outlined it in bold.

This link will tell you why.

Pam Sawyer/R. Dean Taylor/Frank Wilson/Deke Richards)

Tenement slum

You think that I don't feel love
But what I feel for you is real love
In other's eyes I see reflected
A hurt, scorned, rejected

Love child, never meant to be
Love child, born in poverty
Love child, never meant to be
Love child, take a look at me

I started my life in an old, cold run down tenement slum
My father left, he never even married mom
I shared the guilt my mama knew
So afraid that others knew I had no name

This love we're contemplating
Is worth the pain of waiting
We'll only end up hating
The child we maybe creating

Love child, never meant to be
Love child, (scorned by) society
Love child, always second best
Love child, different from the rest

Mm, baby (hold on, hold on, just a little bit)
Mm, baby (hold on, hold on, just a little bit)
I started school, in a worn, torn, dress that somebody threw out
I knew the way it felt, to always live in doubt
To be without the simple things
So afraid my friends would see the guilt in me

Don't think that I don't need you
Don't think I don't wanna please you
No child of mine 'll be bearing
The name of shame I've been wearing

Love child, love child, never quite as good
Afraid, ashamed, misunderstood

But I'll always love you
I'll always love you
I'll always love you
I'll always love you
I'll always love you
I'll always love you

Today "father only marries mom" about half the time. Furthermore, it is often mom's idea not to marry the sperm donor slugs formerly known as fathers. And let's rename this song to reflect what modern-day reproduction is all about. This song with its updated lyrics should be called "Lust Child." And there is no more shame, "Lust Child," because we have abolished shame in this arena of life. We now reserve all the shame once devoted to single mothers to the homosexuals.

Promiscuous heterosexual lust is godly.

Bush acting like Stalin in 1953

http://www.arcticbeacon.citymaker.com/articles/article/1518131/36083.htm

Absolut Empty

Meet your new slavemaster

Against perjury before being for it

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/24/122929/29

Toles cartoon

Sick of marriage

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102300770_pf.html

Mission Improbable: Author challenges the official story of 9/11

http://www.vermontguardian.com/national/102005/911.shtml

Tom DeLay surrenders, is released

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou051020_ac_delaysurrender.11266179d.html">

The Most Important Criminal Case in American History

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/the-most-important-crimin_b_9183.html

The Very Bad Idea

PROPHET TALK: BUSH, SO CRISPY TOAST?

http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/134/2665/2005-10-20.asp?wid=134&nid=2665

This explains it pretty well. I still think the neocon Jews may have a final desperation trick up their sleeves, such as having Israel attack Iran before Fitz can take down the war criminals.

The Southern Baptist preachers have anointed themselves as neocon priests. The only reason so many of their congregants can't see it is because they are so dimwitted and apolitical. All they can do is stick magnets on their SUVs, while wondering why the Lord has hiked gas prices to such unreasonable levels and why the 'lib'rul media' continues to pick on the Second Son of God in the White House.

The World is Ending...Maybe Tomorrow!

http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/rants/world.htm>

The Little Black Book of Virtues

http://www.agenceglobal.com/article.asp?id=674

25 Questions About the Murder of New Orleans

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051017/davis

Garrison Keillor read this poem on his Writer's Almanac

"Of Presidents & Emperors" by David Ray from The Death of Sardanapalus and Other Poems of The Iraq Wars. © Howling Dog Press. Reprinted with permission.


Of Presidents & Emperors

Comparing our imperial leader today to Nero,
whose troops were also engaged in occupation
of Parthian lands along the Euphrates, with about
the same luck as today, we surely must temper
our judgments, forgive a few lies and lives lost,
give thanks that most of the deaths are uncounted,
and not ours. After all, our leader did not murder
his mother. He and she are on excellent terms.

Nero murdered his wife Octavia, also Poppaea,
his second, by kicking her while she was pregnant
with his child, guaranteed divinity. In Washington
you see no such abominations. The lies are genteel
and murder is at the far end of Pathfinders,
Tomahawks, gun ships and Patriot missiles.
Back home we can thank our stars that tribunes
and freed gladiators do not arrive bearing swords
and platters for heads. And because Congress
consists of the deferential they would never be at risk.
Our leader needs not assassinate sassy senators.

He would never set fire to Washington or build
an ostentatious mansion like Nero's over the ruins.
As a God-fearing Christian he would never thank
Jupiter for throwing javelins of fire at his enemies,
nor would he go on tour to read his poems or play
his harp in the provinces. Yet for his speeches
our President gets as much applause as Nero,
whose soldiers prodded those who nodded off.

In the Oval Office no visitor is obliged to fall upon
knees and weary the President's hand with kisses.
Yet the fear Tacitus expressed could be voiced today.
He worried that such "a monotony of disasters"
as those ordered by Nero might, if recited, disgust all
who heard them. He preferred not to sicken his readers
lest they be "fatigued of mind and paralyzed with grief."
In Rome thousands like us could only pray for relief.

Bush To Appoint Someone To Be In Charge Of Country

All God, all the time

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/10/17/all_god_all_the_time/

The Death of the Virtual Economy and the Middle Class

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Kelley1011.htm

America may be at peak of 'materialistic' cycle

http://www.inman.com/inmaninf/glvar/story.aspx?ID=48364

Ten Health Benefits of Coffee

http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/coffee_1.html

Take that, Mormons.

Poll: Americans want Bush impeached

http://www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=11992

It's too late, Americans. Shoulda thought about that a year ago. It was clear he lied even then.

Yard Sale Nation

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-10-14/cols_ventura.html

Study turns pot wisdom on its head

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051014.wxcanna1014/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/

Arkies with 16 children (more on the way, Lord willin')

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5059011

The man still looks young, but the childbearing is
beginning to take a toll on his poor wife.

This really makes good sense. Let's everybody see how
many kids we can have just as we find out the world is
running short of economically-viable energy resources
and at the same time China and India are coming online
in the global economy with another 3 billion energy
consumers.

Seen from this perspective, Mad Cheney's desire to
provoke all-out nuclear conflagration to cull the
"useless eaters" has a certain logic to it.

I think any positive media spin this two-baseball-team
family may be getting has a racist element to it. The
white race is subconsciously very concerned about
being overwhelmed by the browns, blacks and yellows
we've been lording it over through various
imperialistic gambits for thousands of years.

I just now counted and there are only 14 kids in that photo. Uh-oh. Should I call CPS?

God's Errand Boy

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=archivecategory&id=3&Itemid=103

From June 27, 2003, but it still fits. Last week the BBC first published, then retracted under pressure from the Black House, the same insinuations that Dubya is hearing voices which he believes to be God telling him whom to destroy next.

And this man is still in office. The pastor of the local Baptist Church still no doubt hangs on his every word and sends up prayers that The Lord Up There strengthen the pastor's Lord Bush down here. Let me put in a contrary word here. Maybe my prayer will cancel out the pastor's. It's worth a try. Have mercy upon those of us who realize this man is insane, Lord.

Our human, physical life is absurd and perhaps, as the existentialists say, ultimately meaningless, but it is still worth living. I continue to believe the power of love can overcome just about anything, but that doesn't mean billions of us aren't still going to die because of those who have usurped power in God's name.

Demanding Right to Torture

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-ivins1012.artoct12,0,5699594.story?coll=hc-headlines-oped

Conservative Crackup

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9674425/site/newsweek/?rf=nwnewsletter

'The translation of this is martial law in the United States'

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1012-29.htm

The Mirror

Ralph Nader, Al Gore, and George W. Bush go to a fitness spa for some fun.

After a stimulating, healthy lunch, all three decide to visit the men's room and they find a strange-looking gent sitting at the entrance who says:

"Welcome to the gentlemen's room. Be sure to check out our newest feature: a mirror, that, if you look into it and say something truthful, you will be rewarded with your wish. But, be warned, if you say something false, you will be sucked into the mirror to live in a void of nothingness for all eternity!"

The men quickly entered and upon finding the mirror, Ralph Nader steps
up and says, "I think I'm the most truthful of us three," and he suddenly finds the keys to a brand new Bentley in his hands.

Al Gore steps up and says, "I think I'm the most ambitious of us three," and in an instant, he was surrounded by a pile of money to fund his next Presidential Campaign.

Excited over the possibility of having a wish come true, George W. Bush looks into the mirror and says, "I think...", and is promptly sucked into the mirror.

Canada Warns That Tariffs on Lumber Could Imperil U.S. Access to Oil

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/international/americas/12canada.html

Canada has no military, though. Perhaps they can enlist the People's Liberation Army to guard the tar sands and bring with them several dozen tactical nuclear weapons.

"It's the social values, stupid!"What today's Republican believes

Interesting post I just saw on DU.

It is funny how some of the most intelligent people you know can be so, well, uninformed.

Today I was talking with a good friend of mine at work. We were discussing politics, and he said, "Do you know what the problem is with the Democrats?" I answered something to the effect that we had a problem with cohesion and that we needed to work more on our message. Plus the fact that we needed to fight back.

He said no. The problem is "social values." I said to please not mention abortion. He said he didn't mean that, because it was already "in the books." I tried to get him to specify, and I knew where he was going. Yep, you guessed it, gay marriage.

I mentioned that not all Democrats were for gay marriage, including our last presidential candidate. Besides, I said, it is really such a non-issue with all of the problems we face in this country.

He stated that "You know, over 50 percent of Americans are against it. And the perception is that the Democratic party supports it." He further stated that he votes first on social issues, and many more are like him. With that, I had to say something like, "John, you would vote social issues over your pocketbook. What if you had no job, and your kids were hungry" etc. etc. Which brought up, you guessed it, welfare!

John mentioned the so called debit cards that New Orleans residents were getting. He also mentioned the same old welfare urban legends. I asked him what about corporate welfare, and what he thought about the rich getting richer and the poor poorer. He said it was always that way. I said "Wrong, in the 90's we had a more equitable tax system. The rich were getting richer, but the poor and the middle class were moving up."

Then I asked him if the minimum wage was moral. Why do the Republicans always have to be against it? Surely, John said, in our community people will get jobs for more than 5.15. I said you're probably right, but even making 7 or 8 dollars an hour isn't going to get you much. And guess what that does? It puts more people on those so called welfare roles when they have to apply for food stamps and govt. housing.

We were wrapping up when I mentioned corporate welfare. Well, that's good, he said, because it brings in jobs. This was the guy who previously had told me that welfare and minimum wage were "socialistic" and yet he believes in nice tax breaks for the already well off sector of our nation. We were butting heads, but at least our conversation was amicable.

This is what I face everyday here in North Texas. I still believe the 39 % of Bush's support is right here in my community. The people here still vote on what they call "social values" even though foreclosures are up, good paying jobs are scarce, and gas prices are ridiculous. Even the war in Iraq doesn't seem to faze them; not too many of our young people in our community are having to serve because of economic hardships, etc.

So, do you want to be without a job and home, or vote to keep gays from getting married? Here, anyway, it looks like the latter.

Rural residents hit by Rita say they felt forgotten

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who wore a bulletproof vest under his dress shirt, attended meetings in Jasper, Newton, Deweyville and Buna today with plans to visit Orange, Vidor, Kountze and Woodville on Tuesday.
Brady spokeswoman Sarah Stephens said she couldn't offer specifics about the extra security, but said, "It's certainly not a fashion accessory and something we don't normally do when we're in the district."
As Brady stepped up to the church altar, four Texas Department of Public Safety troopers lined up in front of the lectern, separating the congressman and other federal officials from the rural residents who say their needs have been neglected.

This is the same Kevin Brady who was arrested in "Souse" Dakota Friday night. As a former drunk driver, my sympathies are with him. Once you start getting DUIs, you probably have a problem, though.

"My name is Kevin and I'm an ...."

George Bush, the Manchurian Candidate

http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Stories.aspx?George%20Bush,%20the%20Manchurian%20candidate&StoryID=8A81A035-49F5-4F4D-BA25-FDE93479EF28&SectionID=F200D393-0200-421B-894F-33C0717ACBD6

The Amazing Shrinking President

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1009-28.htm

Doonesbury

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2005/db051009.gif

George W. Bush falling

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm

The problem is he's going to take the entire country, if not the world, down with him.

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/The_14_characteristics_030303.htm

Yep. We're already there. How much worse can it get? My guess is A LOT WORSE.

Not too far from the truth

One day after nominating a non-judge, Harriet Miers, to the United States Supreme Court, President George W. Bush presented his nominee with a book entitled "Judging for Dummies" which he said would provide her with "a crash course in judging."

The book, which includes definitions of such basic judging terms as "docket" and "gavel," will be invaluable in preparing Ms. Miers to serve on the highest court in the land, the president said.

While nominating someone with no judging experience on her resume to the Supreme Court raised eyebrows in some legal circles, Mr. Bush told reporters that although Ms. Miller had no experience as a judge she had decades of experience as a crony.

"People make up half the stuff on their resumes anyway," Mr. Bush said. "Look at poor old Brownie," referring to former FEMA chief Michael D. Brown.

Saying that "experience is overrated," the President noted, "I never served in the military, and I've invaded two countries -- you learn by doing."

Mr. Bush expressed confidence that his nominee was a quick study, adding, "If you're looking for judging experience, I can think of no better on-the-job training than serving on the United States Supreme Court."

For her part, Ms. Miers said that she had begun reading "Judging for Dummies" and was already getting up to speed for her new job: "The 'v' in legal cases is short for 'versus.'"

Elsewhere, NBC announced today that it would begin broadcasting a new spin-off of its hit "Law and Order" series entitled "Law and Order: Special Tom DeLay Unit."

Get Your War On

http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/k.html

The President's pit bull

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-profile4oct04,0,4111962,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines


"She is one of those rare people who does not appear
to require sleep," Torgerson said.

Me: Everyone needs sleep. Sleep deprivation is very
unhealthy, leading to those huge bags under her eyes,
which cannot be altered by her Tammy Faye-like
application of makeup.

However, friends say the two (Harriet Miers and Nathan
Hecht) share a passion; they are both, for instance,
fierce advocates of "tort reform," the movement to
limit lawsuits and large liability judgments,
especially against corporations.

Me: We are coming to the end of the era of individual
rights. In the future, only corporations will have
rights. All humans shall be slaves to the global
corporate beast system. She and Roberts are two
corporate peas in a pod. Bush has revealed his true
allegiance. It is not to the Southern Baptist and
especially not the Methodist version of God. It is to
Mammon. Every action he has taken in office has been,
at its core, about empowering his "base" which he
described in a speech to his $100,000+ contributors as
"the haves and the have mores." Many a truth is spoken
in jest.

"Harriet wanted to run the Lottery Commission. Harriet
likes to run everything she gets near," Wood said.
"She is very driven. She may be wrong, but she is
never in doubt…. She is a control freak."

Me: She has a demon. And this also explains why she is
unmarried. What man who was not an absolute masochist
would want to be around a demonic control freak? Most
of the women at UT Law School had at least some of the
characteristics of Harriet Miers. Female lawyers
should, in general, be avoided at all cost. Maybe ALL
lawyers should be, for that matter. Please don't take
it personally, Judge. Big-city corporate lawyers are a
different breed of cat than country lawyers in East
Texas who will soon have no one left to sue once
Roberts and Miers "federalize" all tort law in total
contravention of traditional conservative doctrine.

These are interesting times. A Chinese curse reads as
follows: "May you live in interesting times."

The only question left is whether the disenfranchised
and close-to-bankrupt "peons" of America (a population
which will eventually encompass well over half, if
it's not there already) will go quietly into their
"good night" as corporate slaves and indentured
servants.

My prediction: as long as the cable/dish TV is
supplied to their humble abodes, their brain waves
will remain incapacitated and they will not be able to
rouse themselves from their stupor.

The 2005 energy crunch feels a lot like the 1970s

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20051003/ts_csm/a1975

Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, for example, responded with a raft of energy-saving measures, from 55-miles-per-hour speed limits to higher mileage standards for cars, as well as public education campaigns to reduce energy consumption via actions like home insulation and caulking. "Don't be fuelish," went a catchphrase from a 1975 public-service ad, which still pops up today.

I'm warning you people. Don't make me drive 55 out on the open road again. I don't drive very much, but I'm like Sammy Hagar here.

Harriet Who?

Actually, I have heard of her. Since I am a member of the State Bar of Texas, I recall when she was president back in 1992.

My take:

Miers, along with Roberts, will ensure that the rights of the international banks and global corporations are further enshrined as against those of the individual.

She is from a big Dallas law firm. Dallas is a city with no soul. It is nothing but glass and steel towers erected on a bleak prairie and dedicated to the worship of Mammon in spite of the presence of quite a few megachurches, mostly of the Southern Baptist variety or offshoots thereof.

There used to be a commercial for one of the major banks in Dallas (long-defunct Republic National Bank, which went under in the late 1980s and was absorbed into what is now Bank of America) narrated by the late Orson Welles:

"Dallas — a city with no limits ..." he began.

He closed with the summation, "Dallas is MONEY ... and Republic National Bank IS Dallas."

It was chilling. You could have played the soundtrack over the Zapruder film and it would have been even more powerful.

I suspect neither Miers nor Roberts will fail to disappoint the tens of millions of fundamentalist voters who think Bush "owes" them something. They are all about economics, as CNBC says. The social issues are not something they dwell on.

Once again, the mainly double-digit IQ "old-time religion" crowd will be in the position of Charlie Brown as Lucy yanks the football out from under him.

But they will never "get it" as their hireling pastors will be back on the reservation in 2008 fresh with a new set of promises from the GOP that the restoration of 1950s America is "just around the corner" if you'll just sock it in for their candidate "one more time."