Quick, give me my check book. I need to send the Obama campaign another donation. James Dobson is accusing Barack Obama of distorting the Bible and having a “fruitcake interpretation” of the constitution.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
I’ve seen a video clip from the speech that has Dobson all riled up. It was on a site asking if Obama was the Anti-Christ (do you believe these freaking morons?).
Dobson claims that Obama distorts the Bible by “wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus' teachings in the New Testament.”
In the clip that I saw Obama didn’t do any such thing. He used Hebrew Bible and New Testament references to make different points. The Hebrew Bible references were used to identify cultural laws and dietary directives that were not considered valid in modern society. He used Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount as an example of a goal difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.
He didn’t equate the two. He simply used multiple references for different reasons in the same speech. His point was that using the Bible as a blueprint for a modern society didn’t work. Clearly this speech was at a level of sophistication beyond James Dobson’s ability to comprehend.
Then again, in my opinion, Mary had a Little Lamb is beyond James Dobson’s ability to comprehend.
As far Obama’s “fruitcake interpretation” of the constitution, it’s based upon Barack saying that religious folks must frame social arguments based upon factors other than their religious terms because, in a multicultural society, any religiously based argument is IRRELEVENT!
Read the Constitution Jimmy. Regardless of what you would like it to say it establishes a secular government in a secular society. Your religion is NOT a viable argument outside of your religious circle. Feel free to oppose abortion because your religion teaches that it’s murder, but in the public forum the fact that your religion says so isn’t going to be enough to establish that it is murder. In other words, because the Bible says so, isn’t a valid argument. Or at least it’s not an argument that anyone other than your fundamentalist yahoos are going to pay attention to.
Your claim that "What he's trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe" is not even close to what he said. Work on understanding the English language Jimmy and try not to distort and lie so obviously that even your moron followers might notice.
Jimmy baby, the glory days are gone. The world has passed you by and your influence during the Bush dark ages is hopefully on the way to becoming a bad memory. Do us all a favor and go silently into the night, with emphesis on the word "silently."
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Good-bye George
George Carlin passed away over weekend leaving another empty chair among the people that influenced my worldview during my formative years. There aren’t all that many left now.
I first ran into George in the 1970’s when he was waxing eloquent about hypocrisy, the nonsense of religion and our ability to torture the English language. George will be forever etched in my memory saying the line “…screw you; I’m getting IN the plane!”
Good-bye George, I’ll miss you. Save a spot for me by the third fire pit on the left will you?
I first ran into George in the 1970’s when he was waxing eloquent about hypocrisy, the nonsense of religion and our ability to torture the English language. George will be forever etched in my memory saying the line “…screw you; I’m getting IN the plane!”
Good-bye George, I’ll miss you. Save a spot for me by the third fire pit on the left will you?
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Heaven Help me from the Ignorant
The latest claim making its way in various forms is that Barack Obama is not qualified to be President because he’s not a natural born citizen of the United States.
Claims range from the trailer park ignorance level statement to the effect that “…he weren’t born in the USA, he were born in Hawaii *scratches unwashed left armpit*” to the only slightly less ignorant form “…he weren’t born in the USA, he were born in Hawaii which weren’t a state yet *scratches behind unwashed right ear*” to an argument about the naturalization law in effect at the time of his birth which required his U.S citizen parent to have resided for at least 5 years in the U.S. after the age of 16. Meeting this requirement would be impossible because his mother, his only U.S. citizen parent since his father was a Kenyan national, was only 18 when Obama was born.
Aside from the fact that even if Barack Obama and his legion of educated advisors couldn’t figure this out, or hoped no one would notice, Hillary Clinton sure as hell would have brought it up, it’s all simply nonsense.
To the lowest breed that doesn’t know that Hawaii is part of the USA, here’s a news flash for you, it is. Even before it became a state it was a U.S. Territory so, according to the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, anyone born there even before statehood would be a naturalized U.S. citizen. Which is sort of irrelevant since Hawaii was already a state when Obama was born there. This also makes his mother’s residency a moot point. Anyone, regardless of the nationality of their parents, born in the United States or in a territory subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and this includes places today such as Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands (but interestingly enough not American Samoa), are natural born U.S. citizens, period, end of discussion.
The scary part is that we let morons that circulate stuff like this vote and reproduce.
Claims range from the trailer park ignorance level statement to the effect that “…he weren’t born in the USA, he were born in Hawaii *scratches unwashed left armpit*” to the only slightly less ignorant form “…he weren’t born in the USA, he were born in Hawaii which weren’t a state yet *scratches behind unwashed right ear*” to an argument about the naturalization law in effect at the time of his birth which required his U.S citizen parent to have resided for at least 5 years in the U.S. after the age of 16. Meeting this requirement would be impossible because his mother, his only U.S. citizen parent since his father was a Kenyan national, was only 18 when Obama was born.
Aside from the fact that even if Barack Obama and his legion of educated advisors couldn’t figure this out, or hoped no one would notice, Hillary Clinton sure as hell would have brought it up, it’s all simply nonsense.
To the lowest breed that doesn’t know that Hawaii is part of the USA, here’s a news flash for you, it is. Even before it became a state it was a U.S. Territory so, according to the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, anyone born there even before statehood would be a naturalized U.S. citizen. Which is sort of irrelevant since Hawaii was already a state when Obama was born there. This also makes his mother’s residency a moot point. Anyone, regardless of the nationality of their parents, born in the United States or in a territory subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and this includes places today such as Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands (but interestingly enough not American Samoa), are natural born U.S. citizens, period, end of discussion.
The scary part is that we let morons that circulate stuff like this vote and reproduce.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
I’ll Take One of These Thank You
The South Carolina assembly has passed a measure to issue what amounts to a Christian license plate.
The plate will feature a Christian Cross over a stained glass window and the words “I Believe.” Apparently the plate is patterned on a proposed Florida plate that the Florida legislators had the good sense NOT to approve.
Of course the freaking plate is unconstitutional especially since it will be a no cost option.
No one ever accused folks in South Carolina, the state with the highest violent crime rate in the country, of being overly bright but this strikes me as the height of stupidity. Ah well, time to start lobbying New Jersey for one of these.
It’s not really accurate though. Her Ladyship is an Atheist icon and I’m an Agnostic.
The plate will feature a Christian Cross over a stained glass window and the words “I Believe.” Apparently the plate is patterned on a proposed Florida plate that the Florida legislators had the good sense NOT to approve.
Of course the freaking plate is unconstitutional especially since it will be a no cost option.No one ever accused folks in South Carolina, the state with the highest violent crime rate in the country, of being overly bright but this strikes me as the height of stupidity. Ah well, time to start lobbying New Jersey for one of these.
It’s not really accurate though. Her Ladyship is an Atheist icon and I’m an Agnostic.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Let the Games Begin!
The arduous Democratic primary season is finally over and Barack Obama will be the standard bearer.
The Republicans don’t have a leg to stand on with any real issue so I expect to see a flood of pseudo issues making the rounds almost immediately. These will consist of positive issues for McCain and negative ones for Obama and all of them will either be untrue, irrelevant or inconsequential.
Most will simply shore up the support of those who are going to vote for McCain anyway but the Republicans always hope they can persuade a few voters whose primary characteristic is either ignorance, stupidity or both.
Already I’m seen quotes from Obama’s books taken out of context and used to argue that he’s everything from a Muslim Fundamentalist to a Black Radical. Ann Coulter, when referring to Obama, likes to use his middle name which is Hussein. She calls him B. Hussein Obama.
I also expect Michelle Obama to continue to be attacked. I’ve also seen quotes from her thesis taken out of context to make her appear like a black racist.
Then there is the ever popular Gay Marriage distraction. I’m certain this will be a big issue in California with the referendum to overturn the California Supreme Court’s ruling and I’m sure the Republicans will try to parlay it into an issue elsewhere.
Ask yourself this question? How would it hurt you if gay couples were allowed to marry? If the honest answer to this is it wouldn’t, then why should you care?
On the plus side I have already seen, and I’m sure I will continue to see, much ado about McCain’s war record and the fact that he has a son in Iraq.
As far as McCain’s war record is concerned, the man deserves all the praise and honor possible but, and here’s the big but, that was a conflict of the 1960’s and we need a man prepared for the conflicts of the 21st Century and I don’t believe McCain is that man.
As for his son serving in Iraq, again, the young man deserves all the praise and honor imaginable but it does not change the fact that this is an unnecessary war placing all the troops in Iraq, including McCain’s son, in harms way based upon a lie foisted upon the American people by the Bush Administration. Do we really want to elect a man committed to continuing the policies of that failed administration?
Please tell me that we’re not that dumb.
The Republicans don’t have a leg to stand on with any real issue so I expect to see a flood of pseudo issues making the rounds almost immediately. These will consist of positive issues for McCain and negative ones for Obama and all of them will either be untrue, irrelevant or inconsequential.
Most will simply shore up the support of those who are going to vote for McCain anyway but the Republicans always hope they can persuade a few voters whose primary characteristic is either ignorance, stupidity or both.
Already I’m seen quotes from Obama’s books taken out of context and used to argue that he’s everything from a Muslim Fundamentalist to a Black Radical. Ann Coulter, when referring to Obama, likes to use his middle name which is Hussein. She calls him B. Hussein Obama.
I also expect Michelle Obama to continue to be attacked. I’ve also seen quotes from her thesis taken out of context to make her appear like a black racist.
Then there is the ever popular Gay Marriage distraction. I’m certain this will be a big issue in California with the referendum to overturn the California Supreme Court’s ruling and I’m sure the Republicans will try to parlay it into an issue elsewhere.
Ask yourself this question? How would it hurt you if gay couples were allowed to marry? If the honest answer to this is it wouldn’t, then why should you care?
On the plus side I have already seen, and I’m sure I will continue to see, much ado about McCain’s war record and the fact that he has a son in Iraq.
As far as McCain’s war record is concerned, the man deserves all the praise and honor possible but, and here’s the big but, that was a conflict of the 1960’s and we need a man prepared for the conflicts of the 21st Century and I don’t believe McCain is that man.
As for his son serving in Iraq, again, the young man deserves all the praise and honor imaginable but it does not change the fact that this is an unnecessary war placing all the troops in Iraq, including McCain’s son, in harms way based upon a lie foisted upon the American people by the Bush Administration. Do we really want to elect a man committed to continuing the policies of that failed administration?
Please tell me that we’re not that dumb.
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