Nanovirus

This blog is now closed

2010-05-25T17:51:00.002-04:00

I have moved on to other projects. I hope that what I have written here has entertained and challenged you. Peace!

What to say to the next fundie that accosts you

2009-02-19T10:17:00.003-05:00

What to say to the next fundie that accosts you:

Bush's final approval rating: 22 percent

2009-01-17T14:06:00.003-05:00

President Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent:

Seventy-three percent say they disapprove of the way Mr. Bush has handled his job as president over the last eight years.

Mr. Bush's final approval rating is the lowest final rating for an outgoing president since Gallup began asking about presidential approval more than 70 years ago.

The rating is far below the final ratings of recent two-term presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who both ended their terms with a 68 percent approval rating, according to CBS News polling.

Recent one term presidents also had higher ratings than Mr. Bush. His father George H.W. Bush had an end-of-term rating of 54 percent, while Jimmy Carter's rating was 44 percent.

Harry Truman had previously had the lowest end-of-term approval at 32 percent, as measured by Gallup.

Views of Mr. Bush's popularity are highly partisan. Only 6 percent of Democrats approve of the job he has done as president, while 57 percent of Republicans approve. Eighteen percent of independents approve.

Interestingly, Mr. Bush also has the distinction of having the highest approval rating for a president, as well as the lowest.

In November 2008, just before the presidential election, only 20 percent approved of the job he was doing as president - the lowest of any president since Gallup began asking the question in 1938.

Cheney's approval rating is even lower: 13 percent.

Farewell, you disastrous unamerican fuckup.

Merry Mithras!

2008-12-24T12:12:00.002-05:00

Don't forget to head down to your local arms dealer and take advantage of today's holiday two-for-one special on holy hand grenades for the ongoing War On Christmas!

Enjoy the festivities! Remember, Mithras is the reason for the season!

Mithraism, one of the major religions of the Roman Empire, the cult of Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light and wisdom.... It was a rival to Christianity in the Roman world.

Mithraism was similar to Christianity in many respects, for example, in the ideals of humility and brotherly love, baptism, the rite of communion, the use of holy water, the adoration of the shepherds at Mithra's birth, the adoption of Sundays and of December 25 (Mithra's birthday) as holy days, and the belief in the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, and the resurrection. Mithraism differed from Christianity in the exclusion of women from its ceremonies and in its willingness to compromise with polytheism. The similarities, however, made possible the easy conversion of its followers to Christian doctrine.

Peace.

Fundies lose in the marketplace

2008-11-18T16:45:00.002-05:00

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of bigots:

Because of a weak economy and cash-strapped donors, Focus on the Family said it is eliminating 202 jobs, the deepest cuts in the 32-year history of the Colorado Springs-based Christian nonprofit. The ministry laid off 149 workers, and cut another 53 vacant positions.

The best part? It is probably going to get even worse

8 years of Republican misrule comes to an end...

2008-11-05T11:24:00.002-05:00

...and there was much rejoicing...

I am considering winding down this blog. Just considering. I suspect I will have far less fodder under an Obama administration.

Al Qaeda supporters endorse McCain

2008-10-22T21:45:00.003-04:00

Terror group hopes McCain continues 'failing march' of Bush:

A Web site linked to international terror group al Qaeda has endorsed John McCain's presidential bid, believing the Republican candidate will keep US troops engaged in costly, intractable wars abroad and continue the policies of President Bush, according to news reports.

Al Qaeda also is cheering the ongoing financial crisis in the US, according to the messages taken from a password-protected site linked to the group, according to the Washington Post.
"Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election," said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the "failing march of his predecessor," President Bush.

The Web commentary was one of several posted by Taliban or al-Qaeda-allied groups in recent days that trumpeted the global financial crisis and predicted further decline for the United States and other Western powers. In language that was by turns mocking and ominous, the newest posting credited al-Qaeda with having lured Washington into a trap that had "exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy." It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world.

"It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda," said the posting, attributed to Muhammad Haafid, a longtime contributor to the password-protected site. "Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America."
The Associated Press has more. "This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier," the message said. "Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush."

SITE Intelligence Group, based in Bethesda, Md., monitors the Web site and translated the message. McCain's campaign responded to the calls during a conference call Wednesday. According to several reports [1][2], the McCain campaign didn't engage the possible reasoning behind al Qaeda's near endorsement; instead, McCain advisers rehashed old quotes from other US enemies that were vaguely supportive of Obama. Spencer Ackerman notes,
What was absent from the call, oddly enough, was any discussion about why Al Qaeda might want McCain to win. And there the case is simple enough. Al Qaeda prefers an indefinite U.S. occupation of Iraq and a bellicose U.S. all across the Muslim world to radicalize Muslims to its terrorist cause and drain the U.S. of its financial wealth — what Osama bin Laden calls his “bleed to bankruptcy” strategy. Hence, the reason why, as the CIA eventually concluded, Bin Laden tried to help George W. Bush’s reelection in 2004 by releasing a late-October tape. McCain pledges basic continuity with Bush on the Iraq war. As Scheunemann put it, “John McCain will spend what it takes to win.”
The messages could be seen as undercutting past Republican attempts to paint Democrats as the preferred party of "the terrorists."

In 2004, former Rep. Dennis Hastert, who was then Speaker of the House, predicted a pre-election terror attack from al Qaeda in an attempt to shift votes to John Kerry.

Osama bin Laden released a videotaped message before the 2004 election, but he's been silent so far this year.

The online posting says an attack would drive voters to McCain because the GOP candidate would promise to seek revenge and ramp up the global war on terror. Indeed, it seems al Qaeda couldn't be happier at its prospects after eight years of President Bush's foreign policy.

Earlier this spring, Jerome Corsi, who's gained prominence lately for his anti-Obama writings, reported on another al Qaeda-linked group that was backing McCain.

Whatever the case, it seems the latest message represents something of a consensus among Islamic extremists, an intelligence analyst told the Post.

"The idea in the jihadist forums is that McCain would be a faithful 'son of Bush' -- someone they see as a jingoist and a war hawk," Adam Raisman, a senior analyst for the Site Intelligence Group, said. "They think that, to succeed in a war of attrition, they need a leader in Washington like McCain."

If you recall, in March 2004 Al Qaeda endorsed Bush.

Steal Back Your Vote

2008-10-22T17:13:00.001-04:00

These 7 steps come from the website: Steal Back Your Vote. You can watch it too...

STEP 1: DON'T DON'T DON'T mail in your ballot!! Absentee ballots are often not counted for the weakest of reasons. Furthermore, there are new rules in many states that you must photocopy your ID and send it with the ballot. However, they often don't even tell you that. So HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of absentee votes will not be counted for this reason.

STEP 2: VOTE EARLY ...VERY EARLY! Many states are already allowing you to vote. Do it NOW. That way if you're not listed on the voter roles, you have plenty of time to get your complaint heard.

STEP 3: REGISTER AND THEN REGISTER AND THEN REGISTER! There is a TON of purging of voter rolls going on. It's not enough to think you're registered. Double check twelve times. You can check online at www.votersunite.org/info/RegInfo.asp . Once you're done with that, go register. ...Then go register.

STEP 4: DO NOT FILL OUT A PROVISIONAL BALLOT if your vote is challenged!! In 2004 the Republicans challenged a ridiculous number of voters. The voters were then told by a sweet little lady at a table that their "provisional ballot" would be counted, BUT IT WON'T. Don't listen to the little old lady!! DEMAND that poll judges make the judgement ON THE SPOT. Demand a call to the supervisor of elections. If you have to, go home and come back with a better form of ID.

If you need help, call ELECTION PROTECTION at 1-866-OUR-VOTE . And help those around you when you're at the polling place. Look for people having trouble. Call the number for them. Tell them not to fill out a provisional ballot!

STEP 5:STEP AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER! Walk out your front door and get active!! Volunteer to help with the campaign. Or ignore the campaign and do something on your own. It's as simple as printing out these ELECTION PROTECTION steps and leaving them at people's doors. Hell, you could hand then out outside the polling places. Don't sit still or this election WILL be stolen. And go to a swing state if at all possible.

STEP 6: FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS VOTE WITHOUT FRIENDS! Don't go to vote alone. Bring friends!! Lots of them or only one of them. Make it a date. Arrange to have lunch with everyone after you vote. Whatever it takes. And have your election protection phone number WITH YOU (1-866-OUR-VOTE).

STEP 7: IT AIN'T OVER 'TILL IT'S OVER! If the election is indeed stolen, don't throw in the towel! The day after is CRUCIAL! Three words need to be chanted over and over again: COUNT EVERY VOTE. For example, in 2000 Al Gore lost because of a Supreme Court decision that was 5-4 against him. Imagine if he had won that court decision. But if half of America had not chanted COUNT EVERY VOTE after election day, we would never have gotten to the Supreme Court. Half of America could've thrown in the towel on election night, but thanks to people in the streets, it was fought to the end.

Scientists Discover Fish in Act of Evolution

2008-10-08T09:14:00.002-04:00

In what could be a first in the world, a fish species known as cichlids has been observed by scientists in the act of splitting into two distinct species in Lake Victoria:

This may be remarkable because what is causing them to diverge are adaptations to their vision as animals and plants try to cope with increased pollution and the effects of climate change. The change is also happening without geographical isolation, which was thought to be a precursor for evolution....

In a report published in the journal Nature, researchers from Tokyo’s Institute of Technology and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology have observed the cichlid evolve into a new species better adapted in sighting its prey and predator.... The study says the eye adaptations have also affected mating patterns.

An alternative explanation, of course, is that Jesus is causing the fish to divide as a test of our faith ;)

Bush job approval plummeting

2008-10-07T16:04:00.005-04:00

Bush Job Approval at 25%, his lowest yet:

President Bush's job approval rating is at 25% in the latest Oct. 3-5 Gallup Poll, the lowest of the Bush administration, and only three percentage points above the lowest presidential approval rating in Gallup Poll history....

Bush's previous low point was 27%, measured about a week ago. The 25% approval rating is one point higher than Richard Nixon's lowest job approval rating of 24% measured in the summer of 1974, and it is just three points higher than Harry Truman's all-time Gallup low job approval rating of 22% measured in 1952. No other presidents have had job approval ratings of 27% or lower in Gallup Poll history.

This must be the 25% of the American population that is retarded.

Religion kills teen

2008-10-05T15:38:00.002-04:00

This is why religion is dangerous:

The parents of an Oregon City teenager who died during attempts to heal him with prayer have pleaded not guilty to charges of criminally negligent homicide.

A grand jury indictment accuses 50-year-old Jeffrey Dean and 46-year-old Marci Rae Beagley of failing to provide adequate medical care, in violation of their duties as parents.

They made no statement in court Friday and were released on bond.

The Beagleys belong to the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City. It favors spiritual healing and prayer over medical treatment.

Their 16-year-old son, Neil, died in June from complications of a urinary-tract blockage that triggered heart failure. Doctors said a simple procedure could have saved his life.

Happy "Use Telepathy to Communicate with the Invisible Sky Daddy" Day

2008-05-01T06:00:00.006-04:00

Today, May 1st, is the National Day Of Prayer, a day designated by the United States Congress as a day when all Americans regardless of faith are asked to come together and pray in their own way. "Regardless of faith" here means "in keeping with the Judeo-Christian tradition," for if you volunteer to help out with events in your area, you're only welcome if you sign the following: A volunteer must be an evangelical Christian who has a personal relationship with Christ. I acknowledge that I am working for the Lord Jesus Christ and the furthering of His Work on earth and agree to perform my work with the highest standard of Christian faith.

In other words, you are not welcome if you are a Jew, Muslim, Catholic, Mormon, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Pagan or Wiccan.

You know what these groups should do? Donate blood. Seriously.

A few years ago the National Day of Reason was founded to counter this nonsense. It purposefully falls on the same date as the National Day of Prayer. The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason - a concept all Americans can support - and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship.

Please join we nontheistic Americans (including freethinkers, humanists, atheists, agnostics, and deists), along with many traditionally religious allies who view such government-sanctioned sectarianism as unduly exclusionary, in giving blood today.

T-Rex DNA shows bird lineage

2008-04-26T09:43:00.003-04:00

It turns out that T-Rex was just a big chicken. Of course, Jesus probably planted that DNA evidence to test the faith of nonbelievers.

Even gawd hates xtian rock

2008-04-26T09:39:00.002-04:00

It's true. I hope the victims quickly heal from their injuries and see the light of rationality.

Study: Bush officials lied 935 times

2008-01-23T10:26:00.000-05:00

A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations finds that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

My initial reaction to reading the study: "Only 935?" Snarky, yes, but honestly it was my first thought.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both. Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

What would MLK say if he were a nonbeliever?

2008-01-21T12:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I reread the text of Martin Luther King, Jr's Letter from a Birmingham Jail and realized that it has application toward today's public debates over religion. My edits are [like this]:

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the [religious] moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the [Atheist's] great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the [Christian fundamentalist] or the [Islamic fanatic], but the [religious] moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of [writing and suing for enforcement of your rights]"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the [nonbeliever] to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the [religious] moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the [religious] moderate would understand that the present tension [between believers and nonbelievers] is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the [nonbeliever] passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent [writing and free speech] are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

Richard Dawkins has made the case that religious moderates make the world safe for fundamentalists, by promoting faith as a virtue and by enforcing an overly pious respect for religion.

If you doubt the comparison, consider that:

Where once blacks were prohibited from holding public office, atheists still are.
Where once blacks were considered second class citizens, atheists still are.
Where employment discrimination against blacks once was the norm, it is still common to discriminate against nonbelievers.
Hate crimes are committed against nonbelivers, not just against ethnic minorities.

Happy Religious Freedom Day

2008-01-16T12:46:00.000-05:00

Happy Religious Freedom Day

Sensitive Guantánamo Bay manual leaked

2007-11-14T08:54:00.000-05:00

Wired reports:

A never-before-seen military manual detailing the day-to-day operations of the U.S. military's Guantánamo Bay detention facility has been leaked to the web, affording a rare inside glimpse into the institution where the United States has imprisoned hundreds of suspected terrorists since 2002....

"What strikes me is the level of detail for handling all kind of situations, from admission to barbers and burials," says Jamil Dakwar, advocacy director of the ACLU's Human Rights program. Dakwar was in Guantánamo last week for a military-commission hearing....

Dakwar sees hints of Abu Ghraib in a section instructing guards to use dogs to intimidate prisoners. He also raises concerns over a section on the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, which indicates that some prisoners were hidden from Red Cross representatives.

This manual directly confirms charges made more than three years ago by the Red Cross.

Wear a Guy Fawkes mask on Election Day

2007-11-05T21:32:00.000-05:00

Good evening, America. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine: the security, the familiar, the tranquility, repetition. I enjoy them as much as anyone. But in the spirit of mourning over the death of Habeas Corpus, I thought we could mark this occasion by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.

And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance, crusades and torture. And where once you had the freedom to object, think, and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Tonight I seek to end that silence to remind this country of what it has forgotten: that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.

So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow this election day to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to vote beside me wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, and together we shall give them an Election Day next November that shall never, ever be forgot.

[This is a repost from last year, but still a good idea.]

Logical path from religious beliefs to evil deeds

2007-10-04T08:28:00.000-04:00

Richard Dawkins has a short, lucid piece in Newsweek on the link between religion and evil:

It is easy for religious faith, even if it is irrational in itself, to lead a sane and decent person, by rational, logical steps, to do terrible things. There is a logical path from religious faith to evil deeds. There is no logical path from atheism to evil deeds. Of course, many evil deeds are done by individuals who happen to be atheists. But it can never be rational to say that, because of my nonbelief in religion, it would be good to be cruel, to murder, to oppress women, or to perpetrate... evils

The new Bush stamp

2007-09-28T11:57:00.000-04:00

The United States Postal Service created a 43-cent first-class stamp with a picture of President Bush. The stamp was not sticking to envelopes, which enraged the President, who demanded a full investigation.

After a month of testing, a special presidential commission presented the following findings:

1) The stamp is in perfect order.
2) There is nothing wrong with the adhesive.
3) People are spitting on the wrong side.

[Thanks, Dad!]

Scientists induce out-of-body sensation

2007-08-23T15:46:00.000-04:00

Science deals the supernatural yet another body blow:

Using virtual reality goggles, a camera and a stick, scientists have induced out-of-body experiences — the sensation of drifting outside of one’s own body....

The research reveals that "the sense of having a body, of being in a bodily self," is actually constructed from multiple sensory streams....

The research provides a physical explanation for phenomena usually ascribed to other-worldly influences.... After severe and sudden injuries, people often report the sensation of floating over their body, looking down, hearing what is said, and then, just as suddenly, find themselves back inside their body.

The new research is a first step in figuring out exactly how the brain creates this sensation, he said.

Out-of-Body experiences are sometimes called "lucid dreaming," and there appears to be a whole cottage industry of gullible people out there (just Google "Out-of-Body"...) willing to buy into it. I am not convinced that they are the ones who read scientific journals though....

Welcome Atheist Blogroll

2007-08-13T09:57:00.001-04:00

I have added a new feature to the sidebar: the Atheist Blogroll.

There are a lot more sites on this topic than I imagined, and I won't have time to check them all out. So please leave me a comment if you find any gems.

My liberal identity

2007-08-12T17:27:00.000-04:00

My Liberal Identity:

You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.

Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com

Why does faith deserve respect?

2007-08-09T14:41:00.000-04:00

This is awesome on so many levels:

"What if you're wrong?"

2007-07-09T14:54:00.000-04:00

A question I often hear from xtian fundies is "What if you're wrong?"

What this question means, of course, is "What if you are wrong about your disbelief in my gawd."

The appropriate response, I believe, is "What if you're wrong about Zeus?":

A man... remains hospitalized Monday after he was struck down by a bolt of lightning which flew from clear blue sky on Sunday. He was selling religious materials when he was hit....

"He's unconscious, he's in a coma," said Francisco Perez, leader of the Puerto Rico-based group. "It's difficult what happened, you know, but what can we do? Things happen in life, but we still believe in God."

I wonder if these fundies have lightening rods on their church buildings. If they do, isn't that professing lack of faith that their gawd can protect them? Isn't it a tacit acknowledgment that Zeus exists? :)

Christian Exodus move postponed

2007-07-06T16:40:00.000-04:00

The AP is reporting that the co-founder of a movement to get conservative Christians to move to South Carolina so they can take over the government through the ballot box has delayed his own move to the state.

Christian Exodus co-founder Cory Burnell planned to relocate from California to Anderson County sometime this week. But he said the publicity surrounding the move caused his would-be employer to take away its offer. He wouldn't name the company.

Christian Exodus plans to move families into Anderson County to influence local elections, then spread throughout South Carolina.

New poll says impeach Cheney

2007-07-06T16:36:00.000-04:00

American Research Group, in a poll of 1,100 respondents taken from July 3-5, found that 54% of Americans favored impeachment. Only 17% of Republicans in the poll favored the impeachment of Cheney, while 76% of Democrats supported the move in the House of Representatives. However, of independents polled, a slight majority of 51%, also supported impeaching the Vice President.

Brain imaging studies reveal biological basis for human cooperation

2007-07-06T11:59:00.000-04:00

Morality evolved. Suck it, creationists:

Functional MRI scans have revealed a "biologically embedded" basis for altruistic behavior, with several characteristic regions of the brain being activated when players of a game called "Prisoner's Dilemma" decide to trust each other and cooperate, rather than betray each other for immediate gain, say researchers from Emory University. They report on their study in the July 18 issue of the journal Neuron, published by Cell Press....

"Our study shows, for the first time, that social cooperation is intrinsically rewarding to the human brain, even in the face of pressures to the contrary, " said Gregory S. Berns, M.D., Ph.D., co-investigator and associate professor of psychiatry in the Emory University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and member of the CBN. "It suggests that the altruistic drive to cooperate is biologically embedded-- either genetically programmed or acquired through socialization during childhood and adolescence."

That is, not from the bible.

"Reciprocal altruism activates a reward circuit, and this activation may often be sufficiently reinforcing to override subsequent temptations to accept but not reciprocate altruism. This may be what motivates us to persist with cooperative social interactions and reap the benefits of sustained mutual cooperation," said Dr. Rilling.

Masturblogging

2007-07-01T12:10:00.000-04:00

It bothers me when bloggers write about their blogs, rather than other things. You will never see it done here, except once per year on the blogiversary. This post is for my records, not for you, dear reader. So move along, nothing to see here....

July 1, 2006 to June 30 2007

Total visits: 22,508
Total page views: 31,080

You still here? I asked you to move along.

Well, since you stuck around, I will say thanks for reading and commenting on Nanovirus during the past twelve months. It has been a needed outlet for me personally. I hope it has challenged and entertained you.

And now, back to our regular programming.

'Religion of Peace' targets gays in Iraq

2007-04-18T17:41:00.000-04:00

Supernaturalism in any form is unhealthy:

"In the past three months, more than 30 gays have been executed in Baghdad. The bodies have been found tortured, mutilated - sometimes with signs of rape," said Mustafa Salim, spokesman for the Rainbow for Life Organisation (RLO), a Baghdad-based gay rights NGO.

"Notes were found near some of the bodies with messages saying that this is going to be the fate for any Muslim who denies the Islamic religion," Salim added.

Why we are losing

2007-03-30T15:50:00.000-04:00

This is as good an explanation as any...

Score one for the vegetarians

2007-03-30T09:53:00.000-04:00

You know all that crap that the meat industry feeds you about how their product is safe? Yes, it is a bunch of BS:

For three decades, U.S. inspectors visited 250 meat processing plants as rarely as once every two weeks despite federal law requiring daily inspection, Agriculture Department officials admitted to lawmakers on Thursday.

"All I can say is, it's been going on for a long time," said Undersecretary Richard Raymond to the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture. "It's going to stop now."

You mean, like now?

He told reporters afterward that daily inspections would commence "soon, damn soon."

So how soon is now?

Father kills family for being too "western"

2007-02-26T13:51:00.000-05:00

From the intersection of "Religion is good for humanity" Street and Anti-Woman Boulevard:

A father killed his wife and four daughters in their sleep because he could not bear them adopting a more westernised lifestyle, an inquest heard yesterday.

Mohammed Riaz, 49, found it abhorrent that his eldest daughter wanted to be a fashion designer, and that she and her sisters were likely to reject the Muslim tradition of arranged marriages.

Now I wonder how long it will be until somebody posts about how this guy doesn't really represent religion. Or that christianity is somehow different....

A new warning

2007-02-19T11:24:00.000-05:00

Can you tell what this means? Hopefully the meaning is clear. I won't give it away for the confused so read about it here for more information.

By the way, sorry for the dearth of posts. I am alive, just extremely busy. This blog has not been abandoned....

Bush wages continuing war on science

2006-12-14T14:35:00.000-05:00

Some 10,000 US researchers have signed a statement protesting about political interference in the scientific process.

The statement, which includes the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy.

Campaigners say that in recent years the White House has been able to censor the work of agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration because a Republican congress has been loath to stand up for scientific integrity.

"It's very difficult to make good public policy without good science, and it's even harder to make good public policy with bad science," said Dr Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security.

"In the last several years, we've seen an increase in both the misuse of science and I would say an increase of bad science in a number of very important issues; for example, in global climate change, international peace and security, and water resources."

The statement comes one day after it was reported that the Bush administration is clamping down on scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey in an effort to control research that might go against official policy:

New rules require screening of all facts and interpretations by agency scientists who study everything from caribou mating to global warming. The rules apply to all scientific papers and other public documents, even minor reports or prepared talks....

If you are not already familiar with Chris Mooney's outstanding blog on the topic, go check it out.

North Pole will be ice free by 2040

2006-12-12T12:37:00.000-05:00

I guess this means in a few decades when I retire I can take a cruise to the North Pole:

Ice is melting so fast in the Arctic that the North Pole will be in the open sea in 30 years, according to a team of leading climatologists.

Ships will be able to sail over the top of the world and tourists will be able visit what was, until climate change, one of planet’s most inaccessible landscapes.

Researchers assessing the impact of carbon emissions on the world’s climate have calculated that late summer in the Arctic will be ice-free by 2040 or earlier - well within a lifetime....

Their finding may, however, already be out of date and something of an over-optimistic forecast, said Professor Chris Rapley, head of the British Antarctic Survey.

He said a recent study by the Global Carbon Project suggests emissions are rising more than twice as fast as in 2000 which is likely to speed up ice-loss even further.

"The study findings may be an under estimate of when the Arctic summer ice might be all gone," he said. "It could well be their assumptions are more optimistic than they might be."

Study detects recent instance of human evolution

2006-12-11T18:45:00.000-05:00

A surprisingly recent instance of human evolution has been detected among the peoples of East Africa:

It is the ability to digest milk in adulthood, conferred by genetic changes that occurred as recently as 3,000 years ago, a team of geneticists has found.

The finding is a striking example of a cultural practice — the raising of dairy cattle — feeding back into the human genome. It also seems to be one of the first instances of convergent human evolution to be documented at the genetic level. Convergent evolution refers to two or more populations acquiring the same trait independently.

Throughout most of human history, the ability to digest lactose, the principal sugar of milk, has been switched off after weaning because there is no further need for the lactase enzyme that breaks the sugar apart. But when cattle were first domesticated 9,000 years ago and people later started to consume their milk as well as their meat, natural selection would have favored anyone with a mutation that kept the lactase gene switched on.

Such a mutation is known to have arisen among an early cattle-raising people, the Funnel Beaker culture, which flourished some 5,000 to 6,000 years ago in north-central Europe. People with a persistently active lactase gene have no problem digesting milk and are said to be lactose tolerant....

Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, an archaeologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the new findings were "very exciting" because they "showed the speed with which a genetic mutation can be favored under conditions of strong natural selection, demonstrating the possible rate of evolutionary change in humans."

Shhh! Don't tell the intelligent design creationists. It might fry their brains.

White House declares war on christmas – again!

2006-12-08T15:44:00.000-05:00

The Bushes have heaped scorn on Christmas for two years running now:

The White House 2006 holiday card is just out – and it does not once mention the word "Christmas."

The front of the card contains a watercolor drawing of the White House festooned with a Christmas tree, wreaths and lights (no creche!) covered by snow. Inside the greeting reads, "May the light of the season shine bright in your heart now and in the new year."...

What do the Bushes have against Christmas? Why are they afraid to use the word? More importantly, where is the outrage from Falwell, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, Bill O’Reilly and the entire Fox News Channel and the whole crew at the Alliance Defense Fund?

Man kicked out of Mosque for criticizing al Qaeda

2006-12-08T10:23:00.000-05:00

The "religion of peace" kicks this guy out of their Mosque in Oklahoma for writing an op-ed piece criticizing al Qaeda and terrorism.

I can't wait until all religion goes the way of the dinosaurs.

Military Commissions Act under bipartisan assault

2006-12-07T09:05:00.000-05:00

This is good news for American democracy:

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee signaled this week that he'll join prominent Democrats in seeking to restore legal rights to hundreds of suspected terrorists confined at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere.

While the measure to restore the right of habeas corpus has almost no chance of passing before Congress adjourns later this week, the message is clear: When Democrats take over in early January, the issue could resurface.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006, which Bush signed into law in October, prevents detainees who aren't U.S. citizens from challenging their detentions in civilian courts. But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who voted for the legislation despite his opposition to stripping such rights from detainees, on Tuesday reintroduced legislation to restore those rights. A similar measure sponsored by Specter failed by three votes in October.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Specter said he was reintroducing the issue to prevent federal courts from striking down the legislation, which some of the detainees' attorneys have challenged....

Scientist fights fundies effort to hide pre-human fossils

2006-12-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

Scientist Fights Church Effort to Hide Museum's Pre-Human Fossils:

Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya's national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans' early ancestors.

Leakey called the churches' plans "the most outrageous comments I have ever heard."

He told The Daily Telegraph (London): "The National Museums of Kenya should be extremely strong in presenting a very forceful case for the evolutionary theory of the origins of mankind. The collection it holds is one of Kenya's very few global claims to fame and it must be forthright in defending its right to be at the forefront of this branch of science." Leakey was for years director of the museum and of Kenya's entire museum system.

Today's quote: Kauffman

2006-11-20T12:15:00.000-05:00

"Is it more astonishing that a God created all that exists in six days, or that the natural processes of the creative universe have yielded galaxies, chemistry, life, agency, meaning, value, consciousness, culture without a Creator. In my mind and heart, the overwhelming answer is that the truth as best we know it, that all arose with no Creator agent, all on its wondrous own, is so awesome and stunning that it is God enough for me and I hope much of humankind."

~ Stuart A. Kauffman, "Reinventing The Sacred," Edge 11.13.06

My five point agenda for the democratic congress

2006-11-09T16:25:00.000-05:00

1. Fight like hell to repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and restore Habeas Corpus protections to the US Constitution.

2. Work with NATO to establish an orderly timetable for withdrawl from Vietraq.

3. Repeal the PATRIOT Act. 'Nuf said.

4. Prosecute Diebold now and repair the voting in this country while you have a chance.

5. Work with the Democratic Governors -- now a majority -- to redraw congressional districts to solidify Democratic majorities, as Tom Delay did in Texas.

Hasta macaca, baby!

2006-11-09T15:46:00.000-05:00

The US Congress is back in the hands of the good guys!

Sen. George Allen on Thursday conceded the Virginia race to Democrat Jim Webb, declining to push for a recount in a tight Senate race that was the last to be decided.

"I respect their decision," Allen said of Virginia voters during a speech to supporters. "I called to congratulate Jim Webb and his team."

In a rout once considered almost inconceivable, Democrats won control of the Senate and thus both Houses of Congress after 12 years of near-domination by the Republican Party....

And the horse they rode in on

2006-11-08T09:48:00.000-05:00

Via Capitol Hill Blue

American voters sent President George W. Bush and his gang of thugs called the Republican Party a strong message Tuesday.

It wasn't subtle, it wasn't polite and it wasn't subject to interpretation.

It said: Go to hell. Go directly to hell. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Democrats needed a net gain of 15 seats to regain control of the House of Representatives. The final count is still uncertain, but the Dems picked up at least 33 seats - more than double what they needed and that gives incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi the votes she needs to give Dubya and his goons the bung-holing they so richly deserve.

Granted, the Senate is in play but Democrats hold on to slim leads in both Virginia and Montana and wins there give them control of that chamber as well, leaving Bush and the boys wondering if anyone got the number of that truck that mowed them down.

Bush and the Republicans deserved to get run down. They stepped willingly out in front of that onrushing semi called voter anger over the botched war in Iraq and the cesspool of corruption that ruled their party.

Reports of rampant voter fraud and intimidation pouring in

2006-11-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

Via POAC:

New Hampshire: GOP breaks law to trick voters into thinking robocalls come from Dems.

Tenn: African Americans are getting phone calls telling them if they voted for Harold Ford Jr. in the August primary, they don't need to vote for him again now.

Election Fraud Suspected In Utah. Four Times The Population Registered To Vote.

Virginians getting false phone calls telling them they can't vote or that their voting place has changed or that they'll be arrested if they show up to vote tomorrow. With audio.

Jim Webb files DOJ complaint against GOP in VA. Claims organized GOP effort to suppress Democratic vote, including calls to citizens claiming they will be arrested if they vote.

San Diego County Registrar Assigns High School Students as Touchscreen Inspectors! Sends Thousands of Hackable Diebold Machines Home with the Students on 'Sleepovers' for Weeks on End!

Florida Candidate Finds Unattended Voting Machines in Pinnelas County.

Indiana: Canidate for Marion County prosecutor may have broken the law with his robocalls.

MD: Steele (R) supporters print flyer to make it look like their candidate is a Democrat.

Fraudulent electioneering calls hit Washington State.

Electronic voting machine problems frazzled voters and election workers in dozens of precincts as the polls opened Tuesday, delaying voters in Indiana and Ohio and leaving some in Florida with little choice but turn to paper ballots instead.

NRCC targetting 20 candidates with illegal phonecalls by FCC standards (TPM Muckracker with FEC listings).

See Dick Shred

2006-10-31T14:12:00.000-05:00

Preparing for the Democratic takeover, Mr. Vice President?

See Dick Shred. Shred Dick, shred!

Your fundie neighbor planning a brainwashing assault on your children tonight

2006-10-31T10:25:00.000-05:00

Check out the latest fundie bullshit regarding Halloween:

Bruce Watters used to simply hand out candy on Halloween, just like his neighbors in St. Petersburg, Fla., until he decided the holiday's ghoulishness really didn't jibe with his Christian beliefs.

But rather than skip the neighborhood ritual, he's put a Christian stamp on it. For the third year in a row, kids will leave his porch with a piece of candy, plus a religious tract - a concise, colorful handout telling how to attain salvation through Jesus Christ.

It is your solemn humanistic duty, Dear Reader, to TP the house of anyone abusing your children like this. Alternatively, print some copies of the Humanist Manifesto and hand them back to your fundie neighbors!

Republicans now preaching abstinence FOR ADULTS

2006-10-31T10:05:00.000-05:00

The federal government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore:

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

The government says the change is a clarification. But critics say it's a clear signal of a more directed policy targeting the sexual behavior of adults.

"They've stepped over the line of common sense," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that supports sex education. "To be preaching abstinence when 90% of people are having sex is in essence to lose touch with reality. It's an ideological campaign. It has nothing to do with public health."

Abstinence education programs, which have focused on preteens and teens, teach that abstaining from sex is the only effective or acceptable method to prevent pregnancy or disease. They give no instruction on birth control or safe sex.

Governments say they follow U.S. on jail treatment

2006-10-26T09:01:00.000-04:00

From the Department of I Told You So, which is on That Didn't Take Long Street:

Some countries try to refute criticism over their treatment of prisoners by saying they are only following the U.S. example on handling terror suspects, a U.N. human rights expert said on Monday.

Manfred Nowak, the U.N. investigator on torture, told a news conference that "all too frequently" governments respond to criticism about their jails by saying they handled detainees the same way the United States did.

"The United States has been the pioneer of human rights and is a country that has a high reputation in the world," Nowak said. "Today, other governments are kind of saying, 'But why are you criticizing us, we are not doing something different than what the United States is doing.'"

He said nations like Jordan tell him, "We are collaborating with the United States so it can't be wrong if it is also done by the United States."

Nowak, along with other U.N. human rights officials, has criticized U.S. policies against terror suspects, including secret jails, harsh treatment and the lack of due process. He turned down a visit to Guantanamo Bay because he could not interview detainees and prison officials in private.

He has argued that if there is evidence against detainees, after years in jail, it should be presented to the usually "efficient" and fair civilian courts rather than military tribunals.

Aren't you proud to be a shining beacon to the rest of the world?

Why there almost certainly is no god

2006-10-24T10:54:00.000-04:00

Richard Dawkins explains why there almost certainly is no god:

Either Jesus had a father or he didn't. The question is a scientific one, and scientific evidence, if any were available, would be used to settle it. The same is true of any miracle - and the deliberate and intentional creation of the universe would have to have been the mother and father of all miracles. Either it happened or it didn't. It is a fact, one way or the other, and in our state of uncertainty we can put a probability on it - an estimate that may change as more information comes in. Humanity's best estimate of the probability of divine creation dropped steeply in 1859 when The Origin of Species was published, and it has declined steadily during the subsequent decades, as evolution consolidated itself from plausible theory in the nineteenth century to established fact today.

The Chamberlain tactic of snuggling up to 'sensible' religion, in order to present a united front against ('intelligent design') creationists, is fine if your central concern is the battle for evolution. That is a valid central concern, and I salute those who press it, such as Eugenie Scott in Evolution versus Creationism. But if you are concerned with the stupendous scientific question of whether the universe was created by a supernatural intelligence or not, the lines are drawn completely differently. On this larger issue, fundamentalists are united with 'moderate' religion on one side, and I find myself on the other.

Great stuff. Check it out.

Google giving to GOP

2006-10-23T11:11:00.000-04:00

So much for Google's motto of "Do no evil". Time to switch to the Ask.com web search engine.

More trust Dems on terror, values

2006-10-10T13:02:00.000-04:00

Great news:

For the first time since 2001, the NEWSWEEK poll shows that more Americans trust the Democrats than the GOP on moral values and the war on terror. Fully 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress next month, including 10 percent of Republicans, compared to just 35 percent who want the GOP to retain power....

Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has fallen to a new all-time low for the Newsweek poll: 33 percent, down from an already anemic 36 percent in August. Only 25 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, while 67 percent say they are not.

German kidnapped by CIA testifies on torture

2006-10-10T12:57:00.000-04:00

Man tells Spanish court of torture, secret flight to jail in Afghanistan:

A German citizen testified Monday in a Spanish court that he was kidnapped and tortured by U.S. intelligence agents in 2003, then flown by the CIA to Afghanistan where he was imprisoned and abused for five months....

Al-Masri, a former car salesman and a father of five, said he was abducted on Dec. 31, 2003, at the Serbia-Macedonia border while on vacation. He said he was taken to a hotel in the Macedonian capital of Skopje where he was imprisoned and tortured for 23 days before being flown to Kabul, Afghanistan.... He said he was released in Albania in May 2004 after the CIA discovered they had the wrong person.

Yet another BushCo f-up on security

2006-10-09T09:05:00.000-04:00

Clinton success, Bush failure again:

North Korea's probable test of a nuclear weapon on Monday has triggered the second nuclear crisis in 13 years on the Korean peninsula.

In 1993, North Korea announced it would pull out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, leaving it free to divert nuclear material from its energy reactors to make a nuclear weapon and setting off a round of crisis diplomacy led by the Clinton administration. The result was the so-called agreed framework, which - in return for supplies of fuel oil to North Korea - froze most aspects of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme for the rest of the decade.

The agreed framework was in effect consigned to history when the Bush administration came to power in 2001. The new administration argued that although the road to a plutonium-based nuclear bomb had been frozen, the North Koreans were cheating by attempting to develop a uranium-based bomb that was not explicitly addressed by the agreement.

That five years later, North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon will be widely interpreted as a sign of the failure of the tougher approach favoured by the Bush team.

How low can the republicans go?

2006-10-07T13:08:00.000-04:00

How low can the republicans go? Quite fucking low:

Eleven House Republicans on Thursday told Democratic leaders they want them to appear before the House Ethics Committee to answer questions about what they may have known -- and failed to disclose -- about former Rep. Mark Foley's communications with congressional pages.

That's right. The fucking fascists are investigating leading democrats over a republican scandal. Unconscionable, but not surprising.

Feel free to caption that photo ;)

The Enabling Act of 2006

2006-10-03T15:06:00.000-04:00

We are so fucked:

[M]ake no mistake: Just as the 1933 Enabling Act created the context for dictatorship, so does this one. The German legislature told the executive that it had the power to make law and ignore the constitution. If Congress passes this bill, the American legislature will second the motion.

It is just one bill, you may object; it only applies to terrorists, you may say; we are not Nazi Germany, you may insist. And yet. The forthcoming FISA bill extends Enabling Act thinking to additional unreviewable executive powers. The slippery slope has been well-oiled. The Niemöller poem stands waiting.

It is probably unrealistic to expect bright lines to be obvious at the moment they are crossed. But they don’t get much brighter than this: Congressional leaders have agreed to suspend habeus corpus, grant the President of the United States the power to torture, and allow the executive branch to operate beyond judicial review.

ATTENTION US MILITARY PERSONNEL

2006-10-03T12:48:00.000-04:00

Via MakingLight:

ATTENTION US MILITARY PERSONNEL

You are not required to obey an unlawful order.

You are required to disobey an unlawful order.

You swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

The Constitution states (Article VI):

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Here is article 3, the common article, to the Geneva Conventions, a duly ratified treaty made under the authority of the United States:

Article 3

In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:

1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

2. The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

An impartial humanitarian body, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, may offer its services to the Parties to the conflict.

The Parties to the conflict should further endeavour to bring into force, by means of special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of the present Convention.

The application of the preceding provisions shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict.

Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is straightforward and clear. Under Article VI of the Constitution, it forms part of the supreme law of the land.

You personally will be held responsible for all of your actions, in all countries, at all times and places, for the rest of your life. “I was only following orders” is not a defense.

What all this is leading to:

If you are ordered to violate Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, it is your duty to disobey that order. No “clarification,” whether passed by Congress or signed by the president, relieves you of that duty.

If you are ordered to violate Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, this is what to do:

1. Request that your superior put the order in writing.

2. If your superior puts the order in writing, inform your superior that you intend to disobey that order.

3. Request trial by courtmartial.

You will almost certainly face disciplinary action, harassment of various kinds, loss of pay, loss of liberty, discomfort and indignity. America relies on you and your courage to face those challenges.

We, the people, need you to support and defend the Constitution. I am certain that your honor and patriotism are equal to the task.

How torture works

2006-10-02T17:21:00.000-04:00

Warning: this is very disturbing.

Help enforce WalMart's obscenity policy!

2006-10-02T09:51:00.000-04:00

There's a teriffic online petition asking WalMart to stop selling the Bible based on the companies own policies of not selling indecent material.

Not only is it amusing, it's well written and accurate. Go read it and sign it!

Why the hell is this election "competitive?"

2006-10-02T09:15:00.000-04:00

Raindogzilla at God is for Suckers sums up exactly what I am feeling:

I blame religion, the lack of intellectual curiousity that allows people to swallow the bilge that emanates from the likes of Dobson, Robertson, Ted Haggard, Ron Luce, and Becky Fischer, that lets thirty-five, or so, percent of Americans take the divinity of George W. Bush’s presidency seriously- or, at least, support him like they do. I blame so-called “Christians” that can reconcile corruption, incompetence, hatred, bigotry, intolerance, and even torture with their supposed Prince of Peace.... Oh, and next time you see a car with that insipid “W” sticker, rear-end the sons of bitches.

Wear a Guy Fawkes mask on election day

2006-09-30T00:06:00.000-04:00

Good evening, America. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine: the security, the familiar, the tranquility, repetition. I enjoy them as much as anyone. But in the spirit of mourning over the death of Habeas Corpus, I thought we could mark this occasion by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.

And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance, crusades and torture. And where once you had the freedom to object, think, and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Tonight I seek to end that silence to remind this country of what it has forgotten: that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.

So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow this election day to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to vote beside me wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, and together we shall give them a seventh of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

[If you don't understand this, go rent V for Vendetta.]

An Alternate 9/11 History

2006-09-18T11:02:00.000-04:00

We could be living in a different world. Jonathan Alter writes:

Five years after 9/11, the world is surprisingly peaceful. President Bush's pragmatic and bipartisan leadership has kept the United States not just strong but unexpectedly popular across the globe. The president himself is poised to enjoy big GOP wins in the midterm elections, a validation of his subtle understanding of the challenges facing the country. A new survey of historians puts him in the first tier of American presidents.

As Bush warned, catching terrorists wasn't easy, but he kept at it....

Advice for Atheism curriculum?

2006-09-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I volunteered to lead a class of seventh-grade students in a discussion of atheism/rationalism. These are some bright minds who all belong to the local Unitarian church. As part of their religious education studies, the students learn about different religious traditions, including taking "field trips" to other religious services.

Since I have not done this before I would appreciate suggestions on what topics to include and how to best cover the topic.

War-torn Middle East seeks solace in religion

2006-08-24T10:50:00.000-04:00

Funny stuff from The Onion:

Arabs and Israelis alike are embracing their faith as a way to make sense of the violence from which there seems to be no escape....

"It's always frightening to be reminded of your own mortality, as we all were this past Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday," Hezbollah commander Mahdi al-Zaidi said. "But rather than react irrationally, I looked deep within my faith, consulted the Quran, and by the mercy of Allah, I gained the resolve to oversee a massive airstrike against the enemy."

Today's quote: Letterman

2006-08-18T10:53:00.000-04:00

"According to reports, Fidel Castro is alert and being briefed. And I'm thinking, why didn't we get a president like that?"

~ David Letterman

Court strikes down warrantless wiretaps

2006-08-17T13:38:00.000-04:00

A US district court today ruled that the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretap program is unconstitutional:

In an injunction ordered an immediate halt to the program, US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor tore into warrantless surveillance, which she found "violates the Separation of Powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III."

The government is also, under the ruling, barred from monitoring Internet communication without warrants.

I bet this goes to the Supremes where Bush's buddies can kill it.

Christers 'addicted to pornography'

2006-08-14T15:49:00.000-04:00

Perhaps this explains why the fundies are obsessed with regulating the sex lives of others. A poll conducted by what bills itself as "the world's most visited Christian website" indicates a surprising number of Christians are addicted to pornography:

"The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography," said Clay Jones, founder and President of Second Glance Ministries.

Now in fairness, the poll used a self-selected sample, and is therefore not a scientific study. But since we all know how fundies hate science anyway, we'll let it slide :)

ATTENTION: THE LAWS OF PHYSICS HAVE CHANGED

2006-08-14T11:52:00.000-04:00

According to the Transport Security Agency, the laws of physics have changed since last Thursday, rendering lipstick safely non-explosive again. Whew.

Under the new rules, travelers can take up to four ounces of non-prescription medicine, glucose gel for diabetics, solid lipstick and baby food, the agency said.

Of course, a clever terrorist can still ship a crate full of explosives in the cargo hold beneath me because the Republican-controlled Congress won't pass the Safe Skies Cargo Inspection Act.

(Hat tip to Boing Boing)

Put Ann Coulter in a burka

2006-08-11T12:30:00.000-04:00

Majority of republican doctors want stem cell research

2006-07-21T11:18:00.000-04:00

A poll shows that physicians who identify as Republicans support using embryonic stem cells for research

A national survey of 737 physicians was completed by HCD Research and Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. The poll's findings showed that while Republican physicians see promise in adult stem cell research, they also favor use of stem cells from embryos.

The poll found that 74% of physicians identifying as Republicans support embryonic stem cell research....

Khmer Rouge leader dies before trial

2006-07-21T11:14:00.000-04:00

He's probably hanging out with Ken Lay on some tropical island:

Ta Mok, the 82-year-old former Khmer Rouge commander whose actions earned him the nickname "The Butcher," has died at a military hospital in the Cambodian capital.

Ta Mok, who died Friday, was being treated for high blood pressure, tuberculosis, and respiratory complications, his lawyer, Benson Samay, said.

Earlier this month, officials were sworn in for a long-awaited trial of those blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people under the Khmer Rouge from 1975-79. Ta Mok could have provided key testimony against other defendants.

How many christians does it take to change a lightbulb?

2006-07-21T09:57:00.000-04:00

Harmless humor, which didn't make me laugh until I read the Unitarian answer, which is dead on funny.

1st Half of 2006 is warmest on record

2006-07-15T01:38:00.000-04:00

The Earth, the Earth, the Earth is on fire:

The first half of the year was the warmest on record for the United States.

The government reported Friday that the average temperature for the 48 contiguous United States from January through June was 51.8 degrees Fahrenheit, or 3.4 degrees above average for the 20th century.

That made it the warmest such period since recordkeeping began in 1895

We don't need no water let the mofo burn....

Bush robbing you blind

2006-07-11T14:21:00.000-04:00

Bush wants kudos for yet another massive budget deficit.

Today, the Office of Management Budget projected a $296 billion federal deficit for fiscal year 2006. Bush held a press conference arguing that this is a vindication of his economic policies.

Actually, it would be the fourth largest deficit of all time. Here's the top five:
2004 (George W. Bush) $413 billion
2003 (George W. Bush) $378 billion
2005 (George W. Bush) $318 billion
2006 (George W. Bush) $296 billion (projected)
1992 (George H. W. Bush) $290 billion
When President Bush came into office, he inherited a surplus of $284 Billion. At that time, the Bush administration predicted a $516 billion surplus for 2006.

Remember when Republicans thought deficits were evil?

Bush support falling among total morons

2006-07-11T08:49:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON, DC - President Bush appears to be losing support among a key group of voters who had hitherto stood firmly with the president even as his poll numbers among other groups fell dramatically.

A new Gallup poll shows that, for the first time, Bush's approval rating has fallen below 50% among total fucking morons, and now stands at 44%. This represents a dramatic drop compared to a poll taken just last December, when 62% of total fucking morons expressed support for the president and his policies.

The current poll, conducted by phone with 1,409 total fucking morons between May 4 and May 8, reveals that only 44% of those polled believe the president is doing a good job, while 27% believe he is doing a poor job and 29% don't understand the question.

The December poll, conducted by phone with 1,530 total fucking morons, showed 62% approved of the president, 7% disapproved and 31% didn't understand the question.

Faltering approval ratings for the president among a group once thought to be a reliable source of loyal support gives Republicans one more reason to be nervous about the upcoming mid-term elections. "If we can't depend on the support of total fucking morons," says Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), "then we've got a big problem. They're a key factor in our electoral strategy, and an important part of today's Republican coalition."

"We've taken the total fucking moron vote for granted," says Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), "and now we're paying for it. We've let the Democrats control the debate lately, and they've dragged discourse back into the realm of complex, nuanced issues. So your average total fucking moron turns on his TV and sees his Republican Congressman arguing about Constitutional law or the complexities of state formation in the Middle East, and he tunes out. He wants to hear comforting, pandering, flattering bromides and he doesn't want to hear a logical argument more complex than what you'd find on a bumper sticker."

For Feeney, the poll is a dire warning that Republicans can ignore only at their peril. "This should send a signal that we have to regain control of the debate if we want the support of our key constituencies in the coming election and beyond. We need to bring public discourse back into the realm of stupidity and vacuity. We should be talking about homosexual illegal immigrants burning flags. We should be talking about the power of pride. We should be talking about freedom fries. These are the issues that resonate with total fucking morons."

But some total fucking morons say it's too late. Bill Snarpel of Enid, Oklahoma is a total fucking moron who voted for Bush in both 2000 and 2004. But he says he won't be voting for Bush in 2008. "I don't like it that he was going to sell our ports to the Arabs. If the Arabs own the ports then that means they'll let all the Arabs in and then we'll all be riding camels and wearing towels on our heads. I don't want my children singing the Star Spangled Banner in Muslim."

Total fucking moron Kurt Meyer of Turlock, California also says his once solid support for Bush has collapsed. "He invaded Iraq and all those soldiers died, and for what? We destroyed all their WMDs, but now their new president is making fun of us and saying he's going to build nuclear bombs and that we can't stop him. Well, nuclear bombs are even worse than WMDs, so what did we accomplish?"

Laura McDonald, a total fucking moron from Chandler, Arizona, says she is disappointed that the president hasn't been a more forceful advocate of Christian values. "This country was founded on Christian values," she says, "but you'd never know it looking around and seeing all the Mexicans running around. I thought Bush was going to bring Jesus back into the government. Instead, Christians are being persecuted worse than ever before in history, because all these Mexicans come here and tell Christians that we have to respect their religious beliefs. So now it's illegal for children to pray in school. Soon it will be illegal for them to speak English."

Not all total fucking morons have turned their backs on the president. Jeb Larkin of Topeka, Kansas says he still fully supports Bush. "He is doing a great job. He is a great president. He is a great decider. I have a puppy. His tail sticks straight up and you can see his butthole."

And not all Republican lawmakers are concerned about the poll. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), for one, does not find it a cause for anxiety. While he agrees that his party should not take total fucking morons for granted, they "really don't have anywhere else to go. They're never going to be able to understand someone like Al Gore or John Kerry or anybody intelligent and articulate who wants to talk about substantive issues. Just try having a conversation with one of them about global warming. They'll say, 'Oh, but Rush says volcanoes consume more ozone than humans do.' I mean, they're morons! Total fucking morons!"

"They've got nowhere else to go," Alexander reaffirms with a smile, "and they always vote."

Asshole

2006-07-10T14:21:00.000-04:00

Go to Google Search type in the word asshole and click "I'm Feeling Lucky."

The Road to Serfdom in cartoons

2006-07-10T14:11:00.000-04:00

Check out this cartoon set explaining Friedrich August von Hayek's seminal work, The Road to Serfdom.

Any resemblance to current events is purely coincidental, right? [Tip-o-the-hat to Alina Stefanescu]

How Kissinger lost Vietnam

2006-07-10T13:53:00.000-04:00

The next person who claims those danged libruls lost the Vietnam War gets smacked upside the head.

Betting on Dick

2006-07-06T10:05:00.000-04:00

Kiplinger Magazine ran an article based on Cheney's financial disclosure statement and, sure enough, found out that the VP is lying to the American people for the umpteenth time. Deficits do matter and Cheney has invested his money accordingly....

Cheney has invested heavily in "a fund that specializes in short-term municipal bonds, a tax-exempt money market fund and an inflation protected securities fund. The first two hold up if interest rates rise with inflation. The third is protected against inflation.".. [And] has dumped another (estimated) $10 to $25 million in a European bond fund which tells us that he is counting on a steadily weakening dollar. So, while working class Americans are loosing [sic] ground to inflation and rising energy costs, Darth Cheney will be enhancing his wealth in 'Old Europe'....

This should put to rest once and for all the foolish notion that the "Bush Economic Plan" is anything more than a scam aimed at looting the public till.

NSA spying has nothing to do with terrorism

2006-07-01T15:38:00.000-04:00

Before the PATRIOT Act and before 9/11, Bush authorized domestic wiretapping:

The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.

The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation's largest telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages.

"The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11," plaintiff's lawyer Carl Mayer said in a telephone interview. "This undermines that assertion."

Masturblogging

2006-07-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Total visits: 43,531
Total page views: 59,295

John Kerry, late by two years

2006-06-12T22:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks a bunch, asshole. You are two years too late.

The official god FAQ

2006-06-12T14:17:00.000-04:00

The Official God FAQ. Someone went to a lot of trouble to include everything you need to know about the big sky daddy! So check it out.

god is a DJ

2006-06-12T11:17:00.001-04:00

Check out this compelling 8:11 short film. If there is a god, he certainly does work in mysterious ways.

Today's quote: Sagan

2006-06-12T11:15:00.000-04:00

"The values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. Science and democracy began - in their civilized incarnations - in the same time and place, Greece in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.... Science thrives on, indeed requires, the free exchange of ideas; its values are antithetical to secrecy. Science holds to no special vantage points or privileged positions. Both science and democracy encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate. Both demand adequate reason, coherent argument, rigorous standards of evidence and honesty."

~ Carl Sagan

Bush favored war over public safety

2006-06-12T10:43:00.000-04:00

Bush won't let anything stand in the way of eternal war, not even killing terrorist leaders:

NBC News has learned that long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger....

"People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president’s policy of preemption against terrorists," according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey....

Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

Christians vs. Lions

2006-06-05T11:05:00.000-04:00

File this under Fundies are dumbasses:

KIEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

'The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions,' the official said.

'A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery.'

The incident, Sunday evening when the zoo was packed with visitors, was the first of its kind at the attraction. Lions and tigers are kept in an 'animal island' protected by thick concrete blocks.

Today's quote: Jefferson

2006-05-12T07:54:00.000-04:00

"We might as well require a man to wear the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain forever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

~ Thomas Jefferson

29

2006-05-12T07:49:00.001-04:00

Bush Dips Into the 20s:

President Bush’s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January. Approval ratings for Congress overall also sank, and now stand at 18%.

Roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults say "things in the country are going in the right direction," while 69% say "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track." This has been the trend since January, when 33% said the nation was heading in the right direction. Iraq remains a key concern for the general public, as 28% of Americans said they consider Iraq to be one of the top two most important issues the government should address, up from 23% in April. The immigration debate also prompted 16% of Americans to consider it a top issue, down from 19% last month, but still sharply higher from 4% in March.

The Harris poll comes two days after a downbeat assessement of Bush in a New York Times/CBS News poll. The Times, in analyzing the results, said "Americans have a bleaker view of the country’s direction than at any time in more than two decades."

Try FluZero, the natural way to prevent flu!

31

2006-05-08T14:34:00.000-04:00

Bush approval rating hits new low:

President Bush's approval rating has slumped to 31% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the lowest of his presidency and a warning sign for Republicans in the November elections....

Bush's fall is being fueled by erosion among support from conservatives and Republicans. In the poll, 52% of conservatives and 68% of Republicans approved of the job he is doing. Both are record lows among those groups.

Moderates gave him an approval rating of 28%, liberals of 7%.

"You hear people say he has a hard core that will never desert him, and that has been the case for most of the administration," says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin who studies presidential approval ratings. "But for the last few months, we started to see that hard core seriously erode in support."

"Religion of Peace" executes gay child

2006-05-05T13:55:00.000-04:00

Iraqi police executed a 14 year old boy in the al-Dura district of Baghdad in early April, it has been reported. Fuck fundies of all stripes.

National Day of Reason

2006-05-04T15:39:00.000-04:00

Happy National Day of Reason.

32

2006-04-25T09:28:00.000-04:00

Plummeting:

According to CNN news, out of 1,012 adult Americans only 32 percent approve of Bush's performance, 60 percent said they disapprove and 8 percent said they do not know.

According to the report, It was one of four conducted within the past 10 days that have yielded similar results: a Pew Center poll carried out April 7-16 gave Bush a 35 percent approval rating; a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll carried out last Tuesday and Wednesday gave him a 33 percent approval rating; and an American Research Group poll carried out Tuesday through Friday gave him a 34 percent approval rating.

Just how low is 32%? Bush has majority support in just four states. Check out this map.

Today's quote: Maher

2006-04-23T22:24:00.000-04:00

"...You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. On your watch we've lost almost all of our allies, the budget surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the city of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. Yes, God does speak to you. And he's saying: "Take a hint."

~ Bill Maher - September 9, 2005

Today's quote: Ehrenreich

2006-04-20T20:54:00.000-04:00

"No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots."

~ Barbara Ehrenreich

33

2006-04-20T20:48:00.000-04:00

The liberal Fox "News" reports that The Chimperor's approval rating has fallen to a record low:

President Bush’s approval hits a record low of 33 percent this week, clearly damaged by sinking support among Republicans.... Approval among Republicans is below 70 percent for the first time of Bush’s presidency. Two-thirds (66 percent) approve of Bush’s job performance today, down almost 20 percentage points from this time last year when 84 percent of Republicans approved. Among Democrats, 11 percent approve....

The theocon legacy

2006-04-20T09:03:00.000-04:00

What is the legacy of George W. Bush and friends? Let's make a list! I will start with

1. Endless war
2. pedophelia
3. racism
4. The intrusion of big government into the lives of private citizens

Add to the list in the comments section! Don't forget, big brother is watching this blog, and now he is watching YOU, too.

35

2006-04-19T13:03:00.000-04:00

Going... going...

President Bush's job-approval rating slipped for the third consecutive month and remains near the lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll.

Thirty-five percent of 1,008 U.S. adults surveyed in the telephone poll think Mr. Bush is doing an "excellent or pretty good" job as president, down from 36% in March and significantly lower than 43% in January. This compares with 63% of Americans who said Mr. Bush is doing an "only fair or poor" job, down from 64% in March.