Headlines - Wednesday September 29

PZ Meyers: Want to know about religion? Go to your local atheist, not your priest

Lately, a certain faction within CFI (not the whole organization — I know several staff who disagree) has taken it upon itself to slam the Gnu Atheists as a gang of crude louts who know nothing about religion — they've criticized Richard Dawkins, and I've heard that both Jerry Coyne and I were named in a recent talk as bad for the movement. Both Coyne and Benson have already taken John Shook to task for his poor HuffPo article, which begins:

Atheists are getting a reputation for being a bunch of know-nothings. They know nothing of God, and not much more about religion, and they seem proud of their ignorance.

This reputation is a little unfair, yet when they profess how they can't comprehend God, atheists really mean it.

It's almost as if a god has decided to smite those who sneer at the ignorance of the unbelievers, though. In an awesomely well-timed survey from Pew, Americans were queried about their knowledge of religion, and these results are being reported all over the place: the group that knows the most about religion are the atheists/agnostics. This is no surprise — we've been aware of this for many years, and one of the things we've routinely experienced is the fact that in arguments, we almost always know more about our opponent's religion than he or she does. Would you believe about half of Catholics are surprised to learn that transubstantiation is one of the tenets of their faith?

Dave Silverman has a good explanation.

That finding might surprise some, but not Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, an advocacy group for nonbelievers that was founded by Madalyn Murray O'Hair.

"I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than religious people," Mr. Silverman said. "Atheism is an effect of that knowledge, not a lack of knowledge. I gave a Bible to my daughter. That's how you make atheists."

In your face, John Shook. Take that, faitheists of the CFI. 

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Obama: Democratic voter apathy 'inexcusable'

So it's OUR fault that you refused to come to work?

 

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Election shocker: Christine O'Donnell didn't go to Oxford

 

If those previous Christine O'Donnell revelations didn't lock up these midterms for the Democratic Party, surely this will: Her LinkedIn profile is incorrect! She didn't go to the University of Oxford, even though she said she did! Hooray, all is saved! Democrats will have a full 80 seats in the next Senate! Ignorance is out, smart people are here! No ridiculous ideologues will ever step foot in Congress again! And there will be a reverent ferocity of masturbation from Senate office to Senate office, from House seat to House seat, from on top of Robert Byrd's coffin to inside Ted Kennedy's coffin, and all across this great land. Finally, we can take solace in knowing Christine O'Donnell will not be elected.

O'Donnell's LinkedIn bio page lists "University of Oxford" as one of the schools she attended, claiming she studied "Post Modernism in the New Millennium." But it turns out that was just a course conducted by an institution known as the Phoenix Institute, which merely rented space at Oxford.

How did she get the time and money to fuck off to England and take this stupid class? Who knows?!

These things just happen in our new, POST MODERN millennium. And so third-party candidate "A Feeling of Angst" will defeat Harry Reid and Sharron Angle in Nevada, but that won't stop Democrats from taking back Congress from whom it was already taken. [Plum Line]

P.S. If she hates elitism so bad, why did she lie about going to Oxford?

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"I have never been in a tanning bed or used a tanning product."
    --  John Boehner, liar and whore,    Link


  

 

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Does the Bible tell us to get into everyone else's business?

And why do child-blowing priests hate gays?

 

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Monkey's Reaction to the News That She Might

Someday Evolve into Christine O'Donnell

 

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Bigoted Indianapolis bakery won't make rainbow cupcakes, citing 'values'

 

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Segway owner Jimi Heselden, 62, died yesterday when he rode his Segway off a cliff and into a river at his West Yorkshire estate. He often used a Segway to explore the grounds of his estate.

 

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Good As You directs us to the below video in which Protestant and evangelical pastors in Minnesota hold a press conference to announce that they are totally down with the Catholic Church's recently-launched anti-gay campaign in which bigoted DVDs were mailed to every Catholic in the state.

 

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The Human Rights Campaign and the Courage Campaign today launched NOM Exposed, a site devoted to unmasking the players, major backers, and strategies of the National Organization for Marriage. Via press release:

As the National Organization for Marriage, or NOM, embarks on a fall election campaign to defeat candidates who support full marriage equality, the Human Rights Campaign, in collaboration with the Courage Campaign, unveiled "NOM Exposed," a live, interactive website which reveals NOM's deep anti-gay affiliations, its long connections to the Mormon and Catholic churches and its quest to keep voters in the dark about its financing.

At the same time, HRC announced the formation of the NOM Project to follow the ongoing political work and propaganda of NOM as it attempts to influence elections and legislative campaigns across the country. The project will be led by Kevin Nix, a longtime LGBT advocate and political and media consultant. A former communications director at both Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and the Family Equality Council, Nix also worked at Media Matters in the 2004 presidential cycle.

"NOM and its leaders project a message of tolerance yet NOM Exposed shows that behind the well-trained talking points is an anti-gay animus and moneyed connections that it is loath to reveal," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "This website is not static. Working with the Courage Campaign, we will be watching the campaign trail and documenting NOM's political buys and bedfellows. We will connect the dots for voters."

NOM Exposed is one of the most extensive takedowns of the enemies of the LGBT movement that I've seen on the web yet, and I've only just begun to dig in. Take note of the site's "Rogue's Gallery" and start from there. This is fantastic.

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Socialist Sharron Angle ....

Sucking from the government teat:

Angle's campaign acknowledged to Nevada journalist Jon Ralston Monday that both the candidate and her husband receive health care from the federal government. Spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said in a statement: "Mr. Ted Angle receives his pension through the (federal) Civil Service Retirement System. While it is not supplemented by the federal government, current civil servants pay into the program to pay the schedule of those already retired – much like how the Social Security Program works today. Mr. Angle does not qualify – nor does he receive Social Security benefits. His health insurance plan (the Federal Employee Health Program), which also covers Sharron, is a continuation of what he was receiving while he worked for the federal government."

Sharron and Mr. Angle get to have government-run healthcare, but no one else is allowed. You know, because government-run healthcare is socialism. Except when Sharron Angle partakes.

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Barack to Base:  "Kiss My Democratic Party Ass!"

Base to Barack:  "Hope You Enjoy Tea and Crackers,
President Carebear!"

 

 

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Sullivan reports:

The Saxby Chambliss staffer who wrote those words on a popular gay blog has still not been been identified or disciplined, according to a spokesperson from his Georgia office.

And he (or she) won't be. Once again, gay-bashing is good politics for Chambliss.

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It's always good to see someone in Washington who shows more interest in regular voters rather than the deepest pockets. We sure could use people in Congress like Franken. StarTribune

 

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Record gap between the rich and poor.

 

 

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It could not possibly be more obvious that Beck doesn't just want bloodshed...he wants a body count. He is ramping up the rhetoric against the obscure Tides Foundation, today announcing that he was "coming for" the organization "on the battleground of ideas."  Bob is right. he's gone full eliminationist and wants his followers to start eliminating people like us.

 

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American People Profoundly Religious, Yet
Profoundly Ignorant  About  Religion

 

 

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Jurassic Pork: Ronald Reagan is Dead... and We Don't Feel Too Good, Ourselves

 

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"Outsourcing American jobs"-- that's a good thing according to every senator from the party of the Confederacy, including the usual collection of DINOs, Tester, Bauchus, Nelson, Warner and good old Traitor Joe Lieberman.

 

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I have missed out on the bump and grind that America's Favorite Abstinence Educator and Unwed Teenage Mother, Bristol Palin does every week to sell cornflakes and whatnot for her corporate sponsor. That said, we have important news from the ever vigilant Patriots who do watch Dancing with the Stars:

 

Video here.

It seems that when Mooselini made her appearance on Jitterbugger Today, she was pretty solidly boo'ed by the crowd. Later, her flacks and spinners said that the booing was for Jennifer Grey's score (which seems odd, because I'm told she won the Lambada-for-God Dance-A-Thong, so why were they booing). Anyway, Mooselini does her usual word salad thing and cannot say that she's rooting for her own spawn. And as always, she brought along her own Liz Cheney in training, Pipette, to be her human shield.

Pipette is the one to watch out for – she's going to be the one to follow in her mother's Naughty Monkeys, or to snap and wipe out a row of onlookers, Todd-like.

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George Washington and scary eyeliner Jesus want you to save the country.

According to Wonkette operative "Stan J.," this horrifying billboard is gracing the skies of Spokane, Washington. There are just so many catchphrases here! Of course the best and most important one is "Constitution means freedom," a definition from a sign creator who obviously does not own a dictionary. But why are these seemingly unrelated things arranged in such a way? IT'S A SECRET MESSAGE, one that can be decoded by those weird Hebrew rainbow bracelets from a couple weeks back.

Remember this image?

See, there is supposed to be a sign in the clouds, and here it is. And by rainbow, they mean George Washington's gay face. Why else would that scary goth Jesus be there taunting us with his wispy Shakespeare facial hair? He is letting us know that he is right next to the rainbow.

THIS IS A SIGN THAT GOD WANTS US TO ELECT ZOMBIE PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON TO A THIRD TERM IN OFFICE. As all Teabaggers know, that guy was really good at paying down trillions of dollars of accumulated national debt during a recession. Give the country back to the founders and their Teabag friends! Or else!

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Jim DeMint E-mails Senate Staffs To Let Them Know He Runs Country Now

 

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CNN shocker: girl vanishes 9 years before being born

Have you seen the New CNN? It's probably way better than the old CNN, especially if this "CNN Justice" headline is any indication. Why did the Time Demons do something to a child, in America? [CNN]

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The teabaggers don't even know what they stand for but apparently, the GOOPERS "pledge" isn't isn't it:

"It's a mealy-mouthed sop to the tea party movement that is rife with platitudes and little on substance," e-mailed Andrew Ian Dodge, the Maine state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots national coalition of local groups. "I have yet to see one person who is wholly impressed with it."

Judson Phillips, founder of the tea party Nation online social network, called it "a nice PR piece, but I don't think it is even showing up on our radar." Most tea partiers, he said, "are skeptical."

It seems that the Teagaggers whole function is to throw a cage-rattling, feces-throwing fit -- and be agenda-less. I suspect their chief complaint about the GOP Plague for America was because it was written down, and reading just isn't the teabaggers forte.

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Frightwing calls to reinstate the electric chair in 3, 2, ... "Some executions in the US are being delayed because of a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, one of the drugs used in lethal injections. Several of the 35 states that use lethal injections are now hunting for fresh sources of the drug, which is used to render people unconscious. The sole US manufacturer of the drug says new batches of sodium thiopental will not be ready before early 2011. Meanwhile, nine states have planned 17 executions before the end of January."

 

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Matt Taibbi: Tea & Crackers