Tag: fair and balanced

Turn the other cheek.
Love your neighbor as thyself.
Forgive seven times seventy times.
And stay home on election day if that fucking Mormon gets the VP slot.

That’s American Christian values.

(I know, this isn’t all Christians or maybe even most. But it’s 64 million of ’em, and that’s enough.)

The night before presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) left for Afghanistan, Iraq and Western Europe for a tour of US bases overseas, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a cable to US missions forbidding them from holding events for presidential candidates or arrange meetings for them.

Rice issued no such cable prior to foreign excursions by presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). 

(original article here)

It’s not a joke.

See, there’s this invalid argument technique called “the slippery slope.” You’ve heard of “give ’em an inch and they’ll take a mile?” That’s the slippery slope. It’s a bad way to make an argument. Most of the time.

Not this time…
The New York Times reports that the Bush Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is drafting a rule that would place new restrictions on domestic family planning programs. While current law allows health care providers and professionals to refuse to provide abortions based on their religious beliefs, this provision would threaten the funding of organizations and health facilities if they do not hire people who would refuse to provide birth control and defines abortion so broadly that it would include many types of birth control, including oral contraception.

Yeah. It’s not a joke. For years, pro-choice advocates have been saying “give ’em an inch, they’ll take a mile.” This administration has redefined words to avoid admitting they’ve comitted crimes against this country’s people, against it’s ideas, against humanity.

And now this. And it’s not a joke.

I can’t believe this is still around, but I keep hearing the “homosexuality is against nature” argument. You know what I mean.

Well, here’s an article (from Scientific American) demonstrating that bisexual behavior not only occurs in nature, but it is actually an evolutionary survival trait. (That means species who have bisexual tendencies tend to survive more often than those who don’t.)

Now, if you like, you can continue to make the “sin argument” or the “it makes me sick” argument or even the “God hates fags” argument.* Go ahead and do that. (I can take those to the back of the woodshed, too.) But please, stop saying that homosexual sex doesn’t occur in nature. You just demonstrate a willing ignorance of facts.

(Not truth, but facts. If you want truth, the Philosophy department is right down the hall.)

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* Funny thing. If bisexuality is a survival trait, you could almost argue that God favors bisexual species over non-bisexual species. With that evidence in play, how do we justify the homophobic passages of the Bible? Almost as if someone other than God wrote it. Hm…

(Among other reasons) I’m not voting for John McCain because his wife looks fucking scary.

(101 other reasons I’m not voting for John McCain.)

PS: The Obama List is coming. Why the fuck did he have to try to win the Christian Right? Didn’t he know they’d never vote for him no matter what he offered?

The infamous (brilliant/hillarious/sardonic bastard that I love) Christopher Hitchens writes about this “questioning technique.” You can see the results below. Read the story. Chilling. And fucking frustrating that Bush tries to deny that this practice is anything but torture.

 

WASHINGTON — Ivy Leaguers and other top law students were rejected for plum Justice Department jobs two years ago because of their liberal leanings or objections to Bush administration politics, a government report concluded Tuesday.

In one case, a Harvard Law student was passed over after criticizing the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. In another, a Georgetown University student who had previously worked for a Democratic senator and congressman didn’t make the cut.

Even senior Justice Department officials flinched at what appeared to be hiring decisions based _ improperly and illegally _ on politics, according to the internal report.

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I can hear the response now: “Clinton did the same thing!”

Ok. And I bet all those Republicans (who are now defending the Bush Administration) were bitching up a storm when he did it, too.

I cannot believe these people consider “He started it!” as a valid argument.

But, okay. Let’s do that. Let’s give the old Washington cliche a spin: “Everyone is doing it.”

Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.

Well, here’s the deal. First, it’s illegal. That is, against the law.

You know what else is against the law?

How about drunk driving?
How about copyright violation?
How about racial discrimination?
How about sexual discrimination?
How about theft?
How about murder?
How about rape?

You know how many women are raped in this country every day?
Everyone is doing it.

You know how many children are sexually abused in this country every day?
Everyone is doing it.

You know how many senior citizens are robbed of their savings every day?
Everyone is doing it.

Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.
Everyone is doing it.

Just keep saying that to yourself. Over and over and over again.
Maybe, someday, you’ll honestly believe it.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement’s biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a “fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution.

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Aren’t we fortunate that God provided a clear, concise and perfect document to let us know exactly what his message is? You know, a message that nobody could distort or misinterpret? Because everyone has freewill, they can either accept or reject God’s perfect word, no matter how perfect it is, right? And it’s absolutely impossible to get it wrong. I mean, it’s not like we have any different versions of the Bible: there’s only one version. The version God gave us; the version that could never be mistranslated, right?

Right?

Ah, what a kind and generous God He is that He would give us such a thing. After all, if He gave us a Bible that could be mistranslated or misinterpreted, there could be hundreds of different translations and interpretations… and only an evil, malicious, conniving God would do that. After all, such a thing–an imperfect Bible–could cause confusion, hatred, and even (gulp!) violence among God’s followers.

And because He’s a kind, generous and understanding God, He would never do that, right?

Right?

 

* UN body says only religious scholars should be allowed to discuss
matters of faith

GENEVA: Muslim countries have won a battle to prevent Islam from being criticised during debates by the UN Human Rights Council. Religions deserve special protection because any debate about faith is bound to be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense”, council President Doru-Romulus Costea said Wednesday.

Scholars: Only religious scholars should be allowed to discuss matters of faith, he told journalists in Geneva.
 
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Most folks I know are crying foul about this. Me? I think it’s great.

UN: Mr. Ambassador, why does your country mutilate the genetalia of its children and brutually murder its women?

Ambassador: This is a religious issue and we shall not make a comment on it.

UN: Very well, if you have no reply for why you are comitting these human rights violations, I hereby vote to have you removed from the United Nations.

Ambassador: No! This is religious discrimination.

UN: I’m sorry, Ambassador, but we are not allowed to discuss your religion here in the UN. All in favor?