Now that we’ve committed our troops to war, we ought to recognize the immense psychological burden many of them bear.

This seems far too sane to be the summary of Kathleen Parker. This is a trap right? “The immense psychological burden many of them bear… in BEING HATED BY THE LIBERAL AMERICA-HATING SWINE!”

Right?

Noted Roman philosopher Michelangelo Medvedius, circa 330 AD:

In the bitter debate about teaching our children about the origins of life on earth, religious activists make no attempt to block the teaching of Darwinism or random natural selection, but it’s pro-evolution fanatics who fanatically resist any messages or questions that even hint at Intelligent Design.

Oh whoops, that’s just Michael Medved, conservative Townhall hack, 2006. These research papers are driving me crazy.

Wow, Malkin’s all over Murtha’s ass for getting caught on tape NOT taking a bribe. Next on her plate – a scathing critique of Nancy Pelosi for not getting caught sexually harrassing congressional pages and a withering rebuke of Howard Dean for not preaching against homosexuality while tweaking on meth with a gay prostitute’s cock in his mouth.

In the bitter debate about teaching our children about the origins of life on earth, religious activists make no attempt to block the teaching of Darwinism or random natural selection, but it’s pro-evolution fanatics who fanatically resist any messages or questions that even hint at Intelligent Design.

Oh, I get it! This is like one of those line drawings in Highlights magazine, where you have to find the squirrels and baseball bats hidden in the trees. OK, let’s see if I found all of them:

1. There is no bitter debate about whether science should be taught, other than in a few weird school districts and the occasional wayward state (looking at you, Kansas).
2. They’re not “our” children, Michael. If I thought I shared kids with you, I’d retroactively sterilize myself.
3. To the extent that there bitter debate on this stuff, the vitriol indeed comes from the religious rightsters, who do indeed attempt to block the teaching of . . . um . . . science.
4. There’s no such thing as a pro-evolution fanatic.
5. But if there were, could we really blame them for “fanatically” doing whatever they do? I mean, they’re fanatics. Sheesh.
6. Scientists (aka “pro-evolution fanatics”) do tend to resist things like “messages,” that’s true.
7. But as for the questions? Even those raised by the IDers? Scientists love ’em. Little thing called scientific inquiry.

Circled all of ’em! What do I win?

Oh christ, I didn’t catch the Blankley piece at first. He’s really comparing the GOP defeat to the German defeat in WWII! Without a trace of irony! Good lord, but they just let anybody write an op-ed these days, don’t they?

I share Patkin’s skepticism. But then, I’m laboring under the immense psychological burden of knowing that a vicious twit like Kathleen Parker has a writing career.

Seriously, did she actually say something human?

Heavens! didn’t mean to shout.

I’m voting for Blankley. As I noted at my place, I’m thrilled to see a conservative help legitimize the comparison of the Republicans to the Nazis. Thanks, Tony!

Off topic, but time for me to be juvenile and brag about pissing off ricky moran again. This time he responded with the caps lock on and in italics.
Ricky and I are in love.
Deeply, madly.

Memo to myself:

Do the dumb things I’ve gotta do. Touch the puppet head.

Thanks for handling that one, Mortician. I mean, you’d have to be a raging fanatic to insist that we teach actual SCIENCE in science class, right? And when your scientific inquiry into a natural phenomena yields the hypothesis “God did it – Let’s go get some lunch”, you have not done a damn thing to solve the mysteries of the universe….

mikey

The rampant bolding was well and truly my bad. I hate breaking the intertubes, but in my defense let me just say that I’m pretty sure the fanatical pro-evolution fanatics fanatically made me all fanatical.

Unnecessary update: Ricky banned my ip.
Ricky for pope.

Hehehe.

Why do so many people have problems with teaching evolution in schools? Can we make some sort of deal if they want equal time to teach in science class, we get equal time to teach in church?

they do it because science and facts and inconveniences of that nature make them question the beliefs they hold so dear. They think if they close their eyes real tight the truth will all go away. But this doesn’t work, so they try to get other people to agree with them, in order to reinforce their beliefs. Look, the sky is green, and since Bob and Bill and Joe all agree it’s green, it is green. Therefore, you blue sky believers are all heretics.

This is the simple truth of all evangelism. The thought process goes, “Look, I am telling myself to believe something which is patently ridiculous. The cognitive dissonance in my head is deafening. But if I can make someone else believe it, and maybe get some more someone elses to go along, then it’ll be easier to believe. If i have to get them to believe at the point of a sword, so be it. Just as long as my brain can stand to stay in my skull.” Who says insanity isn’t catching?

“Reverse Racism” makes me want to beat someone to death syntax.

Ricky took his ball and went home, eh D. Brad?

This time he responded with the caps lock on and in italics.

He also mentioned something called “the left wing Snarling, Spitting, Smear Factory”

Where is this place? How do I get in touch with them? I have something on backorder, and I want to find out where it is.

I’m sorry, Diff Brad, I was enjoying your courtship of Ricky. He’s just playin’ hard to get. Either that or he can’t play in the big leagues.

Which is more likely?

As them thar conservatives like to say, ifn’ you cain’t hunt with the big dawgs, stay on the porch!

Apparently you struck a nerve with the brain size challenge.

Hey, mikey & Candy. True story:

Recently a student decided I needed to assign him a different novel to read because the book the class was reading challenged his belief system. Rather than simply telling him to take a hike, I engaged in a conversation (school is school, church is church, literature is literature, metaphors aren’t literal, knowledge is good) prior to telling him no dice. He persisted, we talked some more (faith is strengthened by challenge, dissent is good, academic freedom agrees with religious freedom) and again I told him no dice. He decided I was violating his first amendment rights, I patiently explained, “Sadly, no!” and he lodged a formal complaint which was taken seriously (my primary beef with the whole PC movement — every asshole’s opinion is treated with respect) before the boss-people also told him no dice.

The sad part: this kid is smart on many levels, and prior to his freakout about reading a book (a Pulitzer winner by a Nobel-winning author) I had no idea he was nuts. He dropped my class. I assume he’ll enjoy another several decades of ignorance and fear.

Unnecessary update: Ricky banned my ip.

Ah yes, the marketplace of ideas.

Michelle Malkin: Ethical lapses by Democrats are so much more … apparent.

Time to take her home – her dizzy head is conscience-laden.

And, because I love you all, here’s the song. (Stone Temple Pilots) Right-click to save, if you’re so inclined.

Now he’s banned the proxy i used. He really doesn’t understand this is only egging me on, does he?
I’ll give him the rest of the night off, but he can’t really think there’s only two ips i can use to bug him, does he?
That place sounds like a roving drag club, so look in soho or the meatpacking district, would be my best guess.

I’m suprised he lost that one, SM, as the first amendment clearly reads:
Congress, also private educational institutions and people we don’t like, shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, …

Hehehe. I love people who try to argue their point using the Constitution when it clearly has no application. It makes me giggle.

Oh, and Candy, I’m hoping the nerve I struck was with the “where’s your career?” line. That he didn’t respond to it at all gives me hope.

That’s truly sad, Mort. I feel terribly sorry for people who limit themselves in this way. I realize I’m very lucky to have been raised by secular people who encouraged free thinking. My mom even endured my teenage foray into Catholicism as a way of uniting with my Irish heritage. She always told me that when I was old enough to make up my mind, I should attend churches and synagogues and whatever else I fancied, and decide for myself.

The upshot was that I found many church experiences quite enjoyable. I loved old Father Hart, my priest, a good man who really wanted nothing of life but good whiskey and a chance to fish as often as possible. I embraced Wicca for a while and still find it the most sensible religion of all. However, as Anne Sexton said, “need is not quite belief”. I just can’t believe any of it, although I have the utmost respect for people like Father Andrew Greeley and all the many leftist priests and nuns who’ve sacrificed their lives in places like El Salvador.

I think that quite often loyalty to one’s parents and the beliefs they’ve imparted is as much or more the culprit than loyalty to the beliefs themselves. Kids like your student feel that they are turning on the parents and denying all they were taught.

We read the Book of Job in my high school honors English class. We read it as literature, and were given the opportunity to opt out. It was very interesting. I believe one kid did opt out, because he believed the Bible wasn’t meant to be read in this way. Probably my strongest objection to religion is the way critical thinking is discouraged.

Wait a minute.
This guy is 52?
Holy shit.
I was assuming less than half that.

Oh, Ripley, I love STP! I had Art School Girlfriend stuck in my head all day today. I need to dig out some CDs.

Smiling Mortician,

You didn’t really need to confess, dear. I think we all knew where it started.

As for blaming…since Gavin, himself, claims puzzlement over the lack of a preview button I think it’s all Seb’s doing. Teh crafty Euro-Canadians!

OT, but it’s been on my mind, speaking of Canadians…I would like to think the results of the election brought Mal de Mer some peace. It’s doubtful, but it has certainly been quiet from that direction.

Candy — yeah, I had the clear sense this student copped his I’m-being-oppressed meme after going home to talk with the ‘rents and perhaps church people.

Book of Job is a great read, especially the Stephen Mitchell translation, which captures the beauty of the verse. I can understand, but not agree with, high schools allowing kids to opt out of readings — after all, they’re minors and their parents call the shots. Yet another reason I’d never teach K-12.

I, however, teach at a college, and I just can’t find it in me to sympathize much with someone who made the conscious choice to pursue higher education at a public, non-religious institution collapsing into the vapors because a text in a lit class doesn’t propagate purely Christian dogma (not that he’d know whether it does or not because he didn’t read the book)

And that’s my favorite thing about fundamentalist religion: it attacks what it willfully refuses to understand because the mere act of attempting to understand it is somehow impious.

Oh, and thanks, Miss Emily — yes, it’s all Seb’s fault! Seb and the pro-evolution fanatics!

All the trolls have been pretty silent since the election, Gary’s brief spate of enraged posting notwithstanding. If that was really Gary. I have some doubts. If it was really Gary, he sounded like a man on the edge. I hope his absence means that he got himself some help.

Ah, jeez, lookit the time. I have to get up at five AM for my day in Corporationland. Sux to be me.

Pro-evolution Fanatics would be a good name for a band. Well,maybe just Evolution Fanatics…

Oh, yes, Mort, I couldn’t agree more. On the college level you are there to get serious about education. If a student can’t take it, there’s always a private religious college out there where the walls in their heads will never be breached.

I think that the reason we were offered the choice to opt out of the Book of Job was due to concerns about separation of church and state. They used to care about that in 1978. The teacher was excellent, and i still fondly remember that class. We read “East of Eden” in her class. She was willing to push the envelope a bit. Would that there were more like her.

And I wish I could go back to college and take your class. it sounds like a good one. 🙂

All the trolls have been pretty silent since the election,…

True, true… and as lip service to excessive sentimentality, I do miss my little Garlito.

“Hehehe” seems like the troll equivalent of keeping one’s foot in the door. Especially when all you have to offer otherwise is…tattling.

Um, are better trolls too much to hope for?

http://www.trollrental.com is apparently free. There’s gold in them thar hills! We could be the next best thing since youtube, or at least since pets.com.

Oh, diff brad, I’m so sorry. It seemed such a promising romance, too. But I do think the age difference might be too much to overcome. I mean, I’m sure he does care, but he’s being noble and trying to ban you because he just knows that It Can Never Be. Or else he’s just the idiot I’ve always assumed him to be.

And no, I doubt that he does realize an ip ban cannot stop you from expressing your devotion. In my experience, the tubes are quite mysterious to your average wingnut. And the Moran is well below average. I am still constantly astonished that he manages to power up his computer successfully, much less blog.

Perhaps he has a secretary. I knew a guy once whose secretary had to turn on his computer for him, and she only allowed him certain programs to use, as she was afraid he might harm himself or others if allowed free access to the company network. In other aspects, he was a very good boss, but she never allowed him on the internet unsupervised. She was very fond of him, and the IT people said they’d murder him if he didn’t stop messing up the network.

I think of the Moran as someone like that. Only not so amiable. His secretary probably thinks he’s a jerk, just like everyone else does.

I have every record the Snarling, Spitting, Smear Factory ever put out.

#

Off topic, but time for me to be juvenile and brag about pissing off ricky moran again. This time he responded with the caps lock on and in italics.
Ricky and I are in love.
Deeply, madly.

I just went by and pointed out to him that “anthrax” has an “h” in it, which he might want to fix while he’s screaming at us about how smart he is.

But antrax is the best single the left wing Snarling, Spitting, Smear Factory ever put out, TRex.
Don’t YOU feel silly.

“left wing Snarling, Spitting, Smear Factory”?
Did someone call?

Oh, and this is a pretty good example of what a load of stinking horseshit it is when someone plays the “Sure, right wing nutjob sites are bad, but there are leftwing nutjob sites, too, so it’s all the same” card.

Do my eyes deceive me, or do I see a John Boehner column in there this week? Am I thinking perhaps of an alternate universe, or is this person not an elected member of Congress?

There most certainly are websites out there that push a far left agenda. But the next time someone tries that equivalence nonsense with you, point this out to them, and then ask them when is the last time you saw Ted Kennedy advising the comrades over at People’s Weekly World?

and maybe someday I’ll learn how to type.

Oh, and Mort….if you keep that kind of stuff up, you’re going to end up on a list made by David Horowitz, you know.

I see that Boehner is spurting forth again.

Of course I am a pro-evolution fanatic — I think it would be a total drag to be a single-celled organism.

Shorter Terence Jeffrey: While his persona is fascist enough to appeal to authoritarian voters, Rudy Giuliani’s views on social issues are not.

Bingo.

Shorter Bruce Bartlett: Perhaps Republicans might have won if conservative media and blogs had faced the reality suggested by polls, instead of just singing “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow.�

Not an entirely unreasonable observation.

Shorter Paul Weyrich: Presidential campaigns start way too early these days.

I actually agree with this, and it’s an observation by Paul Weyrich. Was there a horrible train derailment somewhere, spilling thousands of gallons of Kool-Aid over the landscape? Because even in the absence of Jacob Sullum, there are a few not-totally-insane summaries on that list. Somebody break more gay Muslim abortionists from south of the border out of cold storage, stat!

News just came in that Milton Friedman’s dead.

How symbolic.

News just came in that Milton Friedman’s dead.

And he made it all the way to 94 without relying on any health advances that were funded out of the public purse. My hat is off to him.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/11/16/right-winger-promotes-murder/
Atlas Juggs makes C&L. Not the first time we’ve seen the right endorse and/or call for murder and executions.

creationism should be taught in school. In social science class.

Creationism is taught in school — in literature, philosophy & mythology classes.

Has anyone here mentioned this? My internet has been down:

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/11/prominent-right-wing-bolton-blogger.html

Pam Atlas, spawn of Little Green Footballs, personal blogger to Bush nominee/U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, hard-core Lieberman supporter, and general good friend to the right-wing blogosphere, yesterday called for the State Department to be bombed and for American diplomats to be murdered (emphasis in original):

Perhaps Hamas will blow up State. Someone has to. First, kill all the diplomats (before they get us killed.)

Well lookie here. Only 36 goddam years too late, look who flew (in) a US military aircraft to Hanoi. Lookit who’s in vietnam decades after the last american serviceman bled in the red dust. My fuckin hero.

Mr Bush, you are the worst kind of coward. You are a sick, mendacious, sadistic coward, one who hides his cowardice behind a swagger and a lust for other people’s pain. If you knew how sickened I am by your arrival in vietnam a lifetime too late, you would hide your face in shame, never to appear in public again. And know this, you feckless thug: They are laughing at you. Yeah, they drove the Americans out of their country, but the vietnamese I’ve spoken to don’t disrespect those of us who fought. But they’re laughing at you, Mr. Cowboy, because you didn’t have the guts to face them. They fought for what they believed in, while you, child of wealth and privilege, couldn’t be bothered. While the world is disgusted by your behavior and your very demeaner, the Vietnamese, proud people who have sacrificed so much for THEIR nation, are laughing at you, and in a very real sense pitying you. I, sir, do not share their charity…

mikey

What you said, mikey. And for what it’s worth, feckless thug is the perfect descriptor — right up there with Westley calling Humperdinck a miserable vomitous mass. IIRC, Martin Sheen calls god a feckless thug in one of the better West Wing episodes. It was a good line then, but it fits GWB today even better: yes, he’s a thug, but only a feckless one. Plus, the sound of it is pure poetry.

Question: Does Bush know that’s what he is? I mean, does he have any sense at all of what an utter disaster he’s made of the presidency, this country, and much of the world? Does he know and not care, or does he truly not get it? Or is there a possibility that he does know and actually suffers some shame? Some evidence of the latter would go a long way toward restoring humanity in the world. I know, I know — I’m dreaming again.

Or is there a possibility that he does know and actually suffers some shame?

Sociopaths do not feel shame. Ever.

Sociopaths do not feel shame. Ever.

They also seem make up a vastly disproportionate part of the world’s cohort of politicians, lawyers, salesmen, intelligence agents and business executives …

I embraced Wicca for a while and still find it the most sensible religion of all.

I woulkd like Wiica a lot more if it had any real relation to the old worship – which it sadly DOES NOT EVEN COME CLOSE TO BEING.

Incest mother….

Mother son incest. Mother daughter incest. Mom incest. Sister incest. Family incest free inces. Free incest picture. Incest stories. Incest comics….