A number of churches have asked for and received a small exemption in the Affordable Care Act that would prevent them from having to "pay for" health insurance that included coverage for contraception, citing a religious problem with "providing" such coverage. The exemption will essentially create a small side insurance plan, that will cover contraception, anyway, and relieve such churches from feeling as if they're doing something that goes against their dogma.
Forget the act that these churches are employers in this situation, and they aren't actually paying for anything; it's part of the employee's compensation package. It's still another case of religion pushing its way into the political arena and using political power to get its way. If the people who are actually buying these insurance policies think contraception is wrong, they have the option of not using that service; it shouldn't be up to an employer to tell them what they can and cannot use, based on that employer's personal religious beliefs. If I work for a Jehovah's Witness, does he get to nix blood transfusions? In other words, how far do we go with this?
First, they complained about the StopRush movement, which seeks to inform advertisers as to what their advertising money is actually going to when it supported the Rush Limbaugh Daily Crap-athon. There’s never been an overt attempt to get Limbaugh off the air; all anyone seeks to do is to allow advertisers and their customers to have all information necessary to make an informed choice.
That’s not a free speech issue. To claim that Rush Limbaugh has the right to free speech is accurate. He does have the right to say what he wants on his radio program. If anyone were actually trying to take that away, I would be first in line to defend him. But his right to free speech does not entitle him or anyone connected to him to make money, and there is especially no right to make money from those who object to the content of his free speech.
A couple of friends of mine recently watched one of the most asinine "documentaries" ever filmed; Ben Stein's "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed." The film lamely attempts to make a case that Intelligent Design (ID) should be considered alongside other sciences in schools, primarily because the field of scientific research seems to be controlled by "elite" (his word, not mine) groups of scientists. Essentially, because scientists are "elitists," goes the argument, they should be forced to accept the concept of Intelligent Design as just another scientific theory.
First of all, I want you to imagine if scientists made the opposite argument. Imagine that scientists called priests, nuns and preachers "elitists" and demanded that they be forced to teach evolution alongside creationism in a religion class. Can you imagine religionists sitting still for that? People like Ben Stein would be hopping mad, and rightfully so. Religion and science are two different disciplines, and should be treated as such.
A while back, I met with an old friend from high school; someone I hadn't seen in at least 30 years. It was mostly fun, until we were about 45 minutes into our lunch.
We were at a local pizza joint, enjoying the best cheese steaks on the East Coast, when a couple of women walked in, holding hands. While they stood in line, one woman must have said something funny, because the other one giggled, leaned over and kissed the funny one squarely on the mouth. It wasn't a tongue kiss, or a long, slow romantic kiss, or any sort of "inappropriate" public display of affection, but the kiss revealed their level of intimacy just the same.
My old friend saw the kiss and immediately said, "Oh, my God!" with shock and surprise, and when he saw that they were holding hands and had no intention of letting go, he apparently felt the need to add, "that's disgusting." As I hadn't seen him in many years, and figured I probably wouldn't see him again anytime soon, I bit my tongue, until he decided to add to the commentary by saying, "But at least it's not two guys! That would be REALLY disgusting!"
(You might want to read this whole thing, because there's a great video at the end...)
If you haven’t heard, a so-called Christian “Reverend” named Terry Jones plans to hold a Koran burning this coming Saturday in Gainesville, Florida, to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 of our fellow Americans.
Right wingers are either silent or, in a few cases, actually praising this disgusting display, and a number are defending this action as an example of his right to “free expression.”
Also, over the last several weeks, right wingers all over the country have been tied up in knots over the prospect that someone may build an Islamic Cultural Center on a lot not too far from the spot where the World Trade Center once stood. They have characterized such a building as a “slap in the face” and blamed the ENTIRE RELIGION for the actions of the people who hijacked those planes, knocked down those buildings and killed all of those people.
I have a few questions for those on the far right;
Does the United States believe in freedom of religion, or doesn’t it?
If you've never heard of Stephen Baldwin, you're in good company. He's one of the lesser Baldwins, whose star rose primarily because Alec and Billy have talent, and he shares their name and looks like them, to a degree. Stephen has been able to ride their talent to a far more significant measure of fame than he deserved.
Then, he became a born-again Christian.
Now, he's bankrupt.
Coincidence?
Well, Stephen would like you to think so. According to Stephen Baldwin, his career took a nosedive because he came out as a Christian. Apparently, coming out as either Christian or gay has negative consequences, regardless of how many Christians and gays there are in Hollywood.
Do
you know why so many right wing leaders like to show outrage at the stupidest
things? It’s because they know they’ll get the masses inflamed enough to send
them a bunch of money. That's all. It's all about the money. Does anyone believe Sarah Palin was actually
offended when David Letterman made fun of her weeks ago? Did she really think
Letterman was talking about her younger daughter?
Of
course she didn’t. But the fact of the
matter is, the Republican “base” is made up of the stupidest, most gullible morons
in the country, and they can always be counted upon tocough up a few dollars to support anything that
fires them up. Forget jobs and fixing the economy; it's sex and "dirty" body parts that make for the best money trail.
It
is this knowledge that keeps the Right Wing Fart Machine greased and running. While the Republican “base” has a lot of phony
passion and fake moral outrage, they have absolutely no sense of humor. And I mean none, folks. Have you ever noticed
what the right wing laughs at? Everything they find “humorous” involved cruelty
and/or death. They just absolutely love death. And they never actually laugh in
a way that demonstrates joy, like the rest of us; every right wing laugh is far
more sardonic than anything.
(The original deconstruction of the right wing lies about the health care system is still here. You just have to click on the link at the top right... or you canclick here... )
I received
this in my e-mail Sunday (of all days). I'm having problems with formatting, so I apologize in advance. Not only is it sacrilegious on some
level, and should be seen as an affront to any actual Christian who claims a
belief in the words of Jesus Christ, but it also shows once again the lack of
an irony gene on the part of the right wing.
Seriously,
how can you call yourself “The Pray in Jesus’ Name Project,” and then tell out
right lies and swear to God on them? Think I’m exaggerating? Check out the signature
at the end. And then be sure to read about the guy who signs this crap "in Jesus' name."
Oh, and by
the way, look at what they include at the end of this thing. Faithful readers
of this blog will recognize it right away.
Do you realize what geniuses the Founding Fathers were?
They knew enough to put "God" in the Constitution at the very beginning of this republic, and told the government to keep its hands off. How prophetic were they? It’s as if they knew a bonehead like George W. Bush would come along and muck things up in the name of God. You know; someone dumb as a post, and completely unprepared for responsibility, but who would gleefully use the name of God just to shut off debate, and do whatever the hell he wanted. Because we all know, when someone brings up God in an argument, you can’t counter them, regardless, because they’re entitled to their beliefs, right? I mean, who’s to say God didn’t come to the Chimp in a vision and tell him to bomb the living hell out of 25 million people, destroy their country, and make neighboring country Iran far more powerful?
Of course, there is that possibility. Perhaps God sent us Dubya as a sort of negative reinforcement, to remind us how sacred the separation of church and state actually is. Maybe God sent us a disastrous president, in order to demonstrate that He has no intention of telling us how to run our country. We do seem to have forgotten the whole church-state separation thing lately. The Constitution and the New Testament both demand it, but Americans, who are supposedly 84% Christian, and 100% American, seem to choose to ignore both.
Okay, we know she
doesn't know anything about the Constitution, becauseshe demonstrated repeatedly during the
campaign that she had no idea what a vice president does.But isn't it time we started enforcing the
separation of church and state that is contained repeatedly in the
Constitution?
This is from a
Monday interview of Caribou Barbie (Sarah Palin, of course) on Fox News:
Faith
is a very big part of my life. And putting my life in my creator's hands - this
is what I always do. I'm like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me
somewhere, this is what I always pray, I'm like, don't let me miss the open
door. Show me where the open door is. Even if it's cracked up a little bit,
maybe I'll plow right on through that and maybe prematurely plow through it,
but don't let me miss an open door. And if there is an open door in (20)12 or
four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my
family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I'll plow
through that door.
Let me start off by
saying, I don't really care about anyone's personal religious beliefs,
especially those of politicians. I don't have a problem if they pray silently
before every Cabinet meeting, or they ask God for guidance on an issue that
vexes them.
I just want them to
keep it to themselves.It's none of my business, no matter what they do for a living.
Religion and faith are very personal activities. Even when you go to church, it's still a personal
activity; you just happen to be sharing with like-minded people who are in
that church of their own free will. That has nothing in common with running the government. No matter how much they pretend it is, this country is not a church, and the president is not my pastor.
It's
personal, and you have to understand that most people don't believe the same
way you do when it comes to God. I know; for the last 40 years, the neocons
have been trying to lump all "Christians" into one group, and tell
you you're in "the majority," but the fact of the matter is, there
are hundreds of Christian sects, and every one of them believes something
different about God and Jesus Christ. For example, you Catholics and Mormons
out there; did you know that quite a few of the other Christian sects refer to
you as "cultists"? And you evangelicals and fundamentalists; were you
aware that most other Christians think you're loons?
There will be no
rapture anytime soon, and if the world ends, it will be because humans
destroyed it, not God. We're not even close to the end times, so you can all relax and enjoy life like the rest of us.
And I know that, because I received the information from Jesus himself. He really did, I swear. Let me tell you what happened.
It was a short time
ago. I was sitting on the couch early Saturday morning, eating my Frosted
Mini-Wheats and watching baseball playoff highlights (how about those Rockies,
eh?), when there was a knock at my door. I peeked out of my front window to
see a short black man with a small paunch, a smart-looking Afro, and a short-cropped salt-ad-pepper beard. Even if he hadn't been habitually
scratching his palms, I'd have recognized that face anywhere.
I swung open the door
and greeted my old friend. "Jesus Christ! It's been a long time! How the hell have you
been?"
"I'm doing
well," Jesus Christ replied warmly. "Can I come in? I have something I need to
talk to you about."
"Of course, old
friend," I said, as I waved him inside, and to a seat on my couch.
"Want something to eat? Coffee?"
"No, thank
you," He said. "I could use some water, though. I'm fasting for
Ramadan."
"Um, sure,"
I said, and I went to the kitchen and ran a huge glass of water. I handed it to
him, and he drank it as if he hadn't had anything to drink in some time.
"Thank you, my
friend," Jesus responded. "Now, there's something I need to tell you;
a message that you must send to everyone you can possibly touch. It's very
important."
"Well, I don't
know how many people I can reach," I told him. "I'm just one blogger
out of a billion."
"Well, I don't
expect everyone to get it," Jesus snapped. "In fact, a lot of people
will be very mad at you for even passing along this message."
"Okay, so what's
the message?" I asked.
"I want you to
tell every so-called evangelical asshole
you know or can reach, that the end times are not near, at least not in Earth
years, and that every single time they try to create one, they make asses of themselves."
Jesus reached into the
bag he was carrying and pulled out a homemade DVD. On the DVD, he had written
with a Sharpie, "Why Jesus Freaks are Going to Hell." He held it up
and asked me if he could play it.
"Well, of course
you can," I said. "Want me to put it in for you?"
"Well, of course
not!" Jesus snapped. "I made the damn thing myself on my laptop, so I'm pretty sure I can
use a DVD player."
He put the DVD in and
played the following:
After the video, Jesus
wept.
He only wept for about a minute, however, and once he'd recovered, he was pissed.
"Can you believe that so-called 'Christians' like this idiot actually think they're closer to getting to heaven by propagating and selling this bullshit?" Jesus shouted. "These assholes have to get the message that God doesn't work that way; he's not going to save idiots like this fat, bloated, rich moron, and kill everyone else. I said 'Blessed are the meek' a long time ago for a reason! And if God was going to end the world, he sure as shit isn't going to do it on cue from those idiots! These people are actually agitating wars all over the world, because they're trying to set up Armageddon! They always refer to Islamic fundamentalists as evil, but why is it more evil for them to commit violent acts because they claim God told them to, than so-called Christians starting a war based on hearsay about what God or I said?"
"I'm just curious," I said. "Why are you coming to me to send out this message? Why didn't you go straight to some of their leaders?"
Jesus laughed out loud at that. "You know the answer to that! Most of them live in gated communities that would never allow someone of my, um, complexion, to set foot inside without an engraved invitation. And when I have tried to visit some of the ones who live in regular neighborhoods, some called the cops on me, and one of them sic'd his specially trained dog on me. I still have a scar on my ass from that one. Before I came here, I went to see a couple of these guys; one of them threatened to shoot me if I didn't get off his porch. And get this; out of the corner of my eye, I saw that guy had one of those pictures of me as a white guy from Sweden or some shit, with the long straight hair and beard. Do these people have a clue where I even came from? Do they think I just dropped out of the sky after being shot from Scandinavia or some shit? Oh, and the other one -- the one who had his security guards escort me to the county line -- that guy had a plastic idol of me and my mother on the dashboards of both of his SUVs."
"Why don't you just tell them who you are?" I asked.
"I do that!" Jesus shouted. "What, do you think I'm stupid? I tell them who I am, and they think I'm just some nut case. They don't listen to anything I have to say, because they don't believe I am who I say I am. That's why I'm here talking to you today. I want you to tell everyone that the world will not end anytime soon, unless someone besides God ends it. All of these assholes who are telling everyone that I'm about to come again and that the world is just about to end are spouting fairy tales. I even said when I was here before that the end would be totally unexpected, and that no one would ever know before it happened. Why don't they ever listen to what I said, instead of listening to all of these morons who read a lot more into Revelations than should be read. God will decide if and when he will end the world, and He's not even close to ready yet. So I want you to write something and post it on your blog and everywhere you can, especially places where Jesus freaks hang out, and let them know all of this, and if they don't quit bullshitting normal people, they'll have a lot more to fear from God than anyone else, because nothing pisses Him off more than false prophets and charlatans."
"Okay, Jesus," I said. "I promise, I'll write something."
"And make sure the jackass in that video gets it, too," Jesus pleaded. "That guy and the one who keeps claiming that God's giving him weather forecasts are going to get a big surprise when they finally meet their doom."
"Well, I'll make sure they see whatever I write up."
After another glass of water, Jesus hugged me, shook my hand, and walked to the bus stop. He had a stop to make at a local homeless shelter. It's funny, but they always recognize Him.
And I am keeping my promise. I always do what Jesus tells me.
Yes, the following is an absurd example, but this type of thing is why we should keep church and state absolutely separate.
This is extreme, but how is it different in principle from making everyone say "under God" in the pledge of allegiance, or by doing what the fundies want to do, and return forced organized prayer to public school, thus indoctrinating non-Christian kids into a faith their parents may not approve of?
In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.
And Bush has populated his Administration with incompetents, who just happen to believe the same things he does. How is that better?
I don't want a president forcing his religious dogma on the rest of us, and the religious folks wouldn't appreciate it if Hillary Clinton chose the president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
We should get back to the way the Constitution mandated things, in which "a religious test" was prohibited. Otherwise, we will end up like China; it's just a matter of time...
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