And God said... No More Global Warming!

This is just fantastic.



Sorry for the layoff.   Work got in the way of bloggery fun times.

Excellent Sullivan Reader email...

A Sullivan reader emails...

Pascal notes, then asks:

When I consider the brief span of my life absorbed into the eternity which comes before and after--memoria hospitis unius diei praetereuntis--the small space I occupy and which I see swallowed up in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I know nothing and which know nothing of me, I take fright and am amazed to see myself here rather than there: there is no reason for me to be here rather than there, now rather than then. Who put me here? By whose command and act were this place and time allotted to me?

The answers that make sense to me now are: no one, and by no command. When I was young, I believed in God and I was terrified of death. When I was in my late teens, I realized: there is no God. It was a hot summer's night. I was laying in bed. And a deep sense of calm washed over me. There would be no me, and thus I need have no fear for that person who would not be. That freed my life from fear. I stopped asking 'who'--a human question if there ever was one. Pascal describes a feeling that I still feel. It's called the sublime. Existence is sublime. I am here in this time and place, and I have no fear.

Nail on the head, really.    Some people like to deal with the inevitability of death by believing (hoping?) that their loved ones are "happy somewhere, looking down on us."    Frankly the thought of that freaks me the hell out.  But if it helps you through your difficult times I take no issue. 

I do believe, however, that the finite nature of life and non-existence of death can breed a better moral society than one which should supposedly live in fear of an almighty judgment or an eternal life loaded with forgiveness.   For the judgment line, this would appear rather disingenuous; as if to say you only act just and morally because you're being watched.   Where's the integrity in that?    The forgiveness line opens the door for the lawless behavior of the Catholic hierarchy, who deem the sexual abuse and emotional handicapping of children as a "forgivable" offense.  

But if this is it?  A finite existence with no judgment or forgiveness to speak of?  One thinks that should gives us all the more reason to do what's right with the small space and time we've been afforded. 

I think I'm gonna be sick

It's been a glorious morning.   70 degrees and sunny.   It's Friday.  I'm looking forward to a cocktail - or four - tonight and a relaxing weekend with no major responsibilities, save for a bit of yard work and visiting the Moms in my life. 

Of course, Bill O'Reilly and Sarah Palin teamed up to ruin all of that for me.    I can't embed the video for some reason - I can only assume for the same reason that press and cameras aren't allowed at her speeches - so you'll have to watch it for yourself.   Just make sure you're not on a full stomach.  Spare yourself the cleanup. 

Seriously, is there anyone on the planet with less brains who is granted the kind of  massive audience of devoted and unquestioning mongoloids that this inbred fool is afforded?   Just look at her dumb face.  Look at it!   This idiot was one busted hip or blood clot to the brain  away from the oval office 18 months ago.   She honestly believes that the this is a "Christian Nation"  and that the founding fathers planned it to be this way.   And O'Reilly goes right along with her!   Why wasn't Hitchens on with these two to spare us from getting dumber just for watching?

This is not a Judeo-Christian nation.  This is a secular nation.   The Founding Fathers were mostly Deists, not Christians - which Bill mentions and Sarah nods in agreement to, curiously.   Deism meant they believed in a creator, but stood fast that said creator did not meddle in the affairs of man - and as such, did not meddle in a budding republic's government either.

The Pilgrims?  They were Christians.  But they were not the Founding Fathers.  They were brave puritans who set out in search of religious freedom, sure.  But the founders of America as we know it, they were not.

In God We Trust was adopted as our national motto during the 1950s.  And the unalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness were not granted to us by God but rather by a creator.   There is a difference there and, while subtle, it is completely lost on this shrew. 

She really needs to be stopped.  Every time she's allowed to invade our senses with her vulgar diatribe about religious values and rugged anti-elitism a puppy gets skinned.   That's scientific fact.  Stop killing puppies, people.

Update:  Got video embedded... after the jump.  

Drum Defends the New Atheists

Kevin Drum takes David B. Hart to task for his smear of New Atheists Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins.  

But no matter how beguiling those questions are, surely the metaphysical one always comes first. To say merely that Christianity is comforting or practical — assuming you believe that — is hardly enough. You need to show that it's true. And if you want to assert that something is true, the onus is on you to demonstrate it, not on the New Atheists to demonstrate conclusively that it isn't. After all, in the end the only difference between Hart and Dawkins is that Hart believes in 1% of the world's religions and Dawkins believes in 0% of them. It's Dawkins' job only to question that remaining 1%. It's Hart's job to answer him.

Hitchens on the Promise of Eternal Life

I can't get enough of this exchange from the Great God Debate between Christopher Hitchens and moderator Tom Ashbrook.   The conversation ducks in and out of how religion helps people  come to terms with our mortality, and Hitchens pounces:

Hitchens:  I think despair is quite a good starting point.  I think it's very good to know we're born into a losing struggle.  Everything is governed by entropy and decline and annihilation and disaster.  And because you are a mammalian primate you know you are.  And you know you're going to die and that there will be a lot of struggling along the way.  I don't want a world without anxiety and grief and pain and struggle.  I can't get it.   If it were offered to me, I'd spurn the gift.  I don't want what you want.  I don't want the feeling of eternal love and peace.  Love and peace are very overrated in my view. 

Tom: How is that not misanthropic of you?

Hitchens:  Misanthropic?  It doesn't mean I have to hate people.  It means I respect them enough not to offer them false consolation.  The realm of illusion will not help you to cure this conviction. 

This is precisely the reason most people who don't necessarily subscribe to the tenets of Christianity or Judaism remain ardently faithful.   And precisely why I do not.  No illusion for me, thank you.  I've come to grips with the fact that this is it and am quite content as a result.

The Great God Debate

On March 23rd I attended the Great God Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi David Wolpe at the Hancock Hall in Boston.   The tickets included a cocktail reception with the speakers after the event and my friend and I were lucky enough to sneak a photo op with the great Hitchens himself, Johnny Black under arm and all.

Anyway, the debate was being filmed and I've been waiting for a while now for the footage to show up on YouTube and now the wait is over.   Take 90 minutes or so of your precious day to give these guys a listen.   Quality stuff.  Q&A portion was top notch as well.   

Embedded vid for part 1 after the jump...

Good Christians?

 Sure they are.   And our courts, sadly, are helping them:

The father of a US Marine killed in Iraq in 2006 has been ordered to pay 16,000 dollars to [the Westboro Baptist Church] who organized an anti-gay protest during his son's funeral, an attorney has said.

Depending on your perspective, these asshats may be better than some calling the shots in the Catholic hierarchy right now. 

Nonetheless, my stomach does an extra-special turn whenever I read a story about their "Free Speech" protests at funerals of servicemen and women.  I get that it's all done for the shock factor and buzz generation, yet it's still sickening to me that the soldiers who's funerals they're using as a prop for their piddly cause died while protecting their right to such a protest.

I've got an idea, why not take some of the energy to Vatican City?  If these lunatics are so enraged about homosexuality, shouldn't they be all the more fired up over the Holy See and his army of pedophiles?

Getting warmer...

Via Slate: 

1.  Pope Implicated in Sex Abuse Scandal

The Catholic Church is in the middle of another sex abuse scandal, and this one keeps inching closer and closer to Pope Benedict XVI. As more lawsuits are filed, more documents that have been hidden from public view for years are making their way into the courts. It was revealed on Wednesday that when the pope was still known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he "failed to defrock an American priest who molested hundreds of deaf boys, despite receiving letters from a number of American bishops pleading with him to act on the matter," the Times reported. "Internal correspondence from bishops in Wisconsin directly to Cardinal Ratzinger, warning him and other top Vatican officials that failure to act could embarrass the church, have been unearthed as part of a lawsuit." The Rev. Lawrence Murphy worked at St. John's School for the Deaf in Wisconsin from 1950 to 1974, during which time he molested up to 200 boys. (A social worker who evaluated the priest many years later said the reverend admitted to the molestations and exhibited no remorse.) Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, now the Vatican's secretary of state, was Ratzinger's second-in-command in the mid-'90s when U.S. bishops wrote about the situation surrounding Murphy. Bertone told the bishops to begin a canonical trial that would result in Murphy's defrocking if he was found guilty, but Ratzinger called it off after receiving a letter directly from Murphy. " 'I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood,' Father Murphy wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger, according to the Times. "'I ask your kind assistance in this matter.'" Instead of disciplining Father Murphy, the church moved him from the region but allowed him to continue working in schools and a juvenile detention center. He died in 1998, still a priest.

Hitchens on the pedophile protecting pope

Hitch demands the Wall of Silence be torn down:

Almost every week, I go and debate with spokesmen of religious faith. Invariably and without exception, they inform me that without a belief in supernatural authority I would have no basis for my morality. Yet here is an ancient Christian church that deals in awful certainties when it comes to outright condemnation of sins like divorce, abortion, contraception, and homosexuality between consenting adults. For these offenses there is no forgiveness, and moral absolutism is invoked. Yet let the subject be the rape and torture of defenseless children, and at once every kind of wiggle room and excuse-making is invoked. What can one say of a church that finds so much latitude for a crime so ghastly that no morally normal person can even think of it without shuddering?

 And then onto the question of what to do with the man who's been harboring these criminals...

The supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church is now a prima facie suspect in a criminal enterprise of the most appalling sort—and in the attempt to obstruct justice that has been part and parcel of that enterprise. He is also the political head of a state—the Vatican—that has given asylum to wanted men like the disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston. What, then, is the position when the pope decides to travel—as, for example, he intends to do on a visit to Britain later this year? Does he have immunity? Does he claim it? Should he have it? These questions demand serious answers. Meanwhile, we should register the fact that the church can find ample room in its confessionals and its palaces for those who commit the most evil offense of all. Whether prosecuted or not, they stand condemned. But prosecution must follow, or else we admit that there are men and institutions that are above and beyond our laws.

Here we go again...

A Catholic School in Boulder, Colorado has denied re-admission of two children because their parents are a lesbian couple, triggering protests from families of other enrolled children and the GLBT community.   The Archdiocese callously defends the decision, citing unjust pressure on the staff to reconcile the couple's orientation with the teachings of the church.  A quick perusal of the local news comment boards shows a stark contrast of positions on the issue.  Some of which are nauseatingly bigoted and comically misinformed:

nativecolorado wrote:

9news: You should be ashamed for even giving this story the time of day...what a total farce! To make it the lead story the past day or so is a disgrace! Your bias is shameful!

This is America and the last time I checked a free country. Free to worship your religion...so a news flash to all of you intolerant and hate filled homosexual and liberal people: You preach tolerance yet are completely intolerant of those that follow the teaching of the Catholic Church!  Get a life!

That is what public schools are for...to indoctrinate children with your intolerance! The Catholic school has EVERY right to make this decision! Why do you think private and charter schools are so popular? It always amazes me how quick people are to attack the Catholic Church and spew hatred and lies about it.

.I'd like to see these people try this with a Muslim or Jewish organization…

I can assure you 9news would not have covered the story and would have been afraid to do so.

That there exist in this world people who believe it's the gays and liberals who are the ones being intolerant on this issue is almost mind-numbing.   But I digress.  

One has to wonder, first, why this couple would bother to send their kids to this school in the first place, knowing what we do about the church at large.  One argument made on this front says that if the church is allowed to enjoy tax exemptions from the city and state then they also need to stifle their own discriminatory practices that lie in contrast with the laws of said city and state.  I can agree with that, though I'd prefer that such exemptions were abolished completely, paving way for a true separation of church and state, but that's a separate issue. 

The bigger question is how many of the other kids enrolled at this school were born out of wedlock?  Have single parents who are living in sin?   Have divorced and remarried parents? We already know the school accepts children from different faiths.   These families would also be in defiance of the morally upstanding teachings of the Catholic Church, right?   

Says Archbishop Chaput: Nope:

It’s also true that some of our schools exist as a service outreach in largely non-Catholic communities.  Many of our schools also accept students of other faiths and no faith, and from single parent and divorced parent families.  These students are always welcome so long as their parents support the Catholic mission of the school and do not offer a serious counter-witness to that mission in their actions.

The hypocrisy is astounding.

Let he who is without... flipper?

A friend forwarded me this little gem (I swear I wouldn't be caught dead reading the douche rag that is HuffPo) about the American Family Association's spin of how SeaWorld should handle that murderous mammal, Tillikum:  Stoning.  Because scripture says so.  But of course!

Says the ancient civil code of Israel, "When an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner shall not be liable." (Exodus 21:28)

 And it gets even better.  Apparently, according to these ravenous loons, Tilly should be thrust against the wall alongside the training manager, Chuck Thompson, as well. 

But, the Scripture soberly warns, if one of your animals kills a second time because you didn't kill it after it claimed its first human victim, this time you die right along with your animal. To use the example from Exodus, if your ox kills a second time, "the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death." (Exodus 21:29)

Just so we're clear, Exodus is same book that Moses was set adrift in a raft like some message in a bottle...  supposedly waved his staff and did this... talked to a flaming bush and came down with these...   so I'm not sure how reliable a source it is to determine the sentence anyway. 

Seriously, are these people ever going to realize that it's not the friggin' 3rd century anymore?  And could a calculatedly innocuous name like American Family Association be any less genuine or more sinister?  Whale stoning aside, I'm sure you could guess where these people stand on things.  Sadly, it's not on the slippery edge of a SeaWorld holding tank.

Hitchens' Ten Commandments

No doubt a riff he has played during his many book tour stops and debates on religion, Christopher Hitchens expands a bit on his preferred re-write of the Ten Commandments in April's Vanity Fair.   

His wrap is terrific:

I am trying my best not to view things through a smug later prism. Only the Almighty can scan matters sub specie aeternitatis: from the viewpoint of eternity. One must also avoid cultural and historical relativism: there’s no point in retroactively ordering the Children of Israel to develop a germ theory of disease (so as to avoid mistaking plagues for divine punishments) or to understand astronomy (so as not to make foolish predictions and boasts based on the planets and stars). Still, if we think of the evils that afflict humanity today and that are man-made and not inflicted by nature, we would be morally numb if we did not feel strongly about genocide, slavery, rape, child abuse, sexual repression, white-collar crime, the wanton destruction of the natural world, and people who yak on cell phones in restaurants. (Also, people who commit simultaneous suicide and murder while screaming “God is great”: is that taking the Lord’s name in vain or is it not?)

It’s difficult to take oneself with sufficient seriousness to begin any sentence with the words “Thou shalt not.” But who cannot summon the confidence to say: Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or color. Do not ever use people as private property. Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations. Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child. Do not condemn people for their inborn nature—why would God create so many homosexuals only in order to torture and destroy them? Be aware that you too are an animal and dependent on the web of nature, and think and act accordingly. Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife. Turn off that fucking cell phone—you have no idea how unimportant your call is to us. Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions. Be willing to renounce any god or any religion if any holy commandments should contradict any of the above. In short: Do not swallow your moral code in tablet form.

Video of his explanation after the jump

Catholic Charities: Gays Ruin Benefits for Everyone

On February 1st, the Washington DC Catholic Charities moved to end their foster care programs in a retaliation against the city's new law allowing gay marriage.   Sullivan has commented on the issue at length, asking the question: will Catholic Charities cut benefits for any employees who have divorced and remarried under DC law?  Well, here's your answer, Andrew:

Catholic Charities President and CEO Edward Orzechowski sent a memo out to employees yesterday informing them that spouses’ who have already been enrolled in the health plan would continue to receive care under a grandfather clause, but that new employees or newly married employees would no longer be eligible to obtain coverage for their spouses through Catholic Charities.
The change goes into effect today. The District of Columbia will begin granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples beginning on March 4.

I don't think I'll ever understand how the church reconciles Jesus' teachings of goodwill towards your fellow man with their draconian stance on gay rights.  This latest move to is the political equivalent of the Diocese taking its ball and going home.  Just goes to show, when you think bar is set low, the Catholics somehow manage to go even lower. 

Christian Girls Love Anal

That's science.  Want proof?


wwtdd.com posted a story about George Clooney buying an island for his little tramp, and then accompanied that post with set of pics of said tramp.


Now there's no way you're gonna tell me this girl doesn't take it in the corn knot.  I love how it's always the girl in leather boots and see-through top with the fun jugs pouring out - or taking a chunky load to the chops, for that matter - who felt strongly enough about her religion to blaze the crucifix in front of it all.

Praise Jesus for that. 

Amen.

God's Will strikes again

via CBSNews:

Stephen Garcia, from all indications, didn't want to live without his ex-girlfriend, Katie Tagle, or share custody of their infant son, so in an apparent murder-suicide, the California father killed his child, then himself. Hours later he was still telling the world just how he felt, in a suicide note on Facebook, possibly posted by a friend.

Fantastic.   Hitchen's Test scores again.