As any successful dissembler knows, the only way to get away with telling a lie is to repeat it. By repeating it, by virtue of repetition, the lie becomes to the liar “the truth”. One cannot hope to fool a lie detector if what one is saying is a lie. The only possibility of appearing truthful is to BELIEVE with all your heart that your lie is the truth.

What’s all this about lying and the truth and believing your lie? Iraq, obviously. “Iraq has WMDs.” “Iraq is working with al Qaeda.” “Iraq will greet US troops as liberators.” “The Iraqi insurgency is in its final throes.” “There is no civil war in Iraq.” If any of these statements look familiar to you, it is because they are the lies of our times. These pieces of falsehood, misinformation, and outright untruths will be recorded in history for all future generations to see and judge. That so many of the individuals that tell these lies dismiss history as the ultimate arbitor of truth only goes to show what disregard they have for honesty and intergrity. Donald Rumsfeld must think that every future citizen of Earth will be as dumb as the average FOX News viewer when he talks about national security and America’s full military strength the way he does. Good luck with that, Donny.

What’s important in the endgame of playing out this lie is the characters. After all, it’s unseemly for a President to be constantly defending something he decided to do three years ago. When the President is required for other, newer lies, then you need to change the cast. Heck, why not, it’s worked for ER and Law & Order for decades now. So that is why, while his countrymen fight and die on a daily basis and he’s enjoying meals at the White House, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki stood before Congress today and told them that Iraq is the front line in the war on terror. Now, it says something about a country and its leader when the prime minister LEAVES HIS COUNTRY during a time of increasingly violent activity nationwide to go and beg for money from the country that invaded his land. What does it say, you might ask? I don’t know for certain, but the phrase “puppet regime” certainly comes to mind.

Americans have heard it all from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice. They’re so used to the lies that they barely listen to them anymore. That’s why it’s so important to have newer, fresher faces working to keep this lie alive. Because for all the wrongs in America, that’s the standard operatin procedure to remove the blaims from ourselves. Americans use cocaine? Columbia is the front line in the War on Drugs, because expecting people to follow the law here is just outrageous. Americans live in poverty? Free trade negotiations with South America and China are the front lines in the War on Poverty, because allowing American companies to skip paying American workers a decent wage by outsourcing all their work to Asia is the only way to make Americans less poor. (The trade-off is that poor Americans who can’t find work can’t afford to eat, so they starve to death, die, and *voila* less poor people, apparently.) And now Iraq is the front line in the War on Terror.

Just because someone says it doesn’t make it true.

ISRAEL!!!!!

It’s the name on the tip of everyone’s tongue, as it becomes the uncontrollable nation who’s lust for “security” ushers us into the third world war. In a stunning display of overcompensation, Israel has responded to the kidnapping of its soldiers with two lopsided revenge battleplans. The first is to continue to destroy the Palestinian infrastructure and thus deny a people of refugees any chance of a future. This is a cycle of behavior that has perpetuated itself for decades now. In response to a people that would stand up to the Jewish state and demand what is rightfully theirs, Israel says “Take that!” and simply blows up another school, or a manufacturing plant, or government offices. Advanced notice so as to allow for the evacuation of civilians is what passes for just and humane treatment by Israel. Never mind the fact that all citizens in the area are now left without a functioning school, or plant, or office. Now the same tactic will be applied in Lebanon for the same reasons, and an entire society will bear the brunt of Israel’s distemper.

As I check in at the Huffington Post, I see more and more castigation of my anti-war and anti-death stance, as it applies to Israel, being labeled outright anti-Semitism by one Alan Dershowitz. He makes his point in blogs like this one and this one, making it clear that to him, you’re either with Israel or against it. He even gets support in his hypocrisy from the United State’s UN Ambassador, John Bolton, who obviously thinks of Israelis as the new superior race. Wow, Alan, what a simple world you live in. How did you end up in such a stark realm of black and white? Because while Alan Dershowitz rants about policies like pre-emption and targeted killings being vital tools of democracy, Israel is continuing to exhibit some very un-democratic behavior. Imagine that, America’s Golden Child of the Middle East, the nation that is supposed to inspire the Arabs of the region to “embrace democracy”, well, it’s really not much better for freedom than Communist China. After all, by controlling what can and can’t be told, how exactly is Israel fostering the free and independent press that is the backbone of any free society or civilization?

I wish I wasn’t forced into a question of “Is Israel completely right or completely wrong?” by some of these pundits and opinionators. I absolutely respect a country’s right to safety for its citizens and peace of mind that an all-out assault by every power in the region isn’t going to occur at any minute. But those rights and securities come with the conditions that what you expect, you also exhibit, and what you put forth, returns upon you as well. So while Israel is bulldozing Palestinian houses, destroying offices and other facilities, and sending troops in to quell resistance, I can’t help but wonder how they can look at the international community with a straight face and say “We do this because we must, to protect ourselves.” My advice to Israel is that peace is best achieved through peace, not war. Perhaps if Israel sent construction workers and contractors into the Gaza Strip and West Bank instead of soldiers, tanks, and armed helicopters that shoot missiles at cars and houses with children in them, the response from the Palestinians might be a LOT different. In the meantime, until it stops showing signs of being like a kid who’s been bullied so much that he becomes a bully himself, I cannot and will not support Israel and it’s wars of vengeance. This is not a statement or post in favor of Hamas, or Hezbollah, or other Arab terror organizations instead of support for democracy. This is my post, about justice and accountability, and whether or not Israel is demonstrating enough of a commitment to true democracy and peaceful existence to warrant my support for it as a nation.

You’d think that the religion that had survived the Roman Empire, the Inquisition, and all the Crusades would have a little more backbone. But maybe it’s a denominational thing. The US Southern Baptist Convention is apparently working up an “exit strategy” to extract their children from the crippling influence of the American public education system. Normally, I would oppose any group withdrawing from the public arena based on opposing viewpoints, but in this case I can make a huge hypocritical exception. Christians, begone!

If you are so upset and frothing at the mouth at the very idea that people live in ways you don’t approve of and raise kids in those lifestyles and don’t adhere to your idiotic belief that a Guy In The Sky is watching you and testing you and waiting for your soul at the end of your life, I say you AND your spawn should feel free to separate yourselves from the American community as much as you want. I’m disappointedly reminded too often that there are a large number of Americans that believe (and I mean BELIEVE) what’s written in a 2,000+ year old book instead of scientifically proven studies and empirical data that disproves almost all of the content of that book with hard evidence and neutral logic.

There is no data to suggest that home-schooled children are worse off than those children in the public school system. In fact, studies show that home-schooled children are slightly better test-takers, have a stronger concept of self, and are just as likely to socialize with their peers in after-school settings. What bothers me is this Christian mindset of us-against-them. This is, to me, the major cause of much of the conflict in American society, as the Christian majority attempts to impose their faith and their values and their rules upon a culture that is supposed to be all-inclusive and religion-neutral. Atheists and Muslims and Jews and Hindus and Buddhists and Zoroastrians shouldn’t have to fight against their Christian neighbors for the rights enshrined in the Consitution that guarantee freedom.

If these Baptists want to remove their children from the pit of despair that is the public school system, I really have no problem with that. But it speaks of their larger failure to be a group of people that is willing to take part in the American experience, which is to know your neighbor who is different from you. And that’s not just supposed to be an American value, it is supposed to be a Christian value as well. I guess members of those other faiths will have to learn their Christianity from those Christians who aren’t afraid to send their kids to school with Jews and Muslims and even, God forbid, atheists.

Someone dropped the ball at the AP recently. And I mean REALLY dropped the ball. This venerable organization that I have, until now, respected very much has gone ahead and played spokesperson/cheerleader/sympathizer with the soldier funeral protesters who are constantly marring the burials of American GIs killed in action. While I’m focusing on this group as part of the unfortunately vocal and publicized true face of Christianity, don’t think that my disgust for this group and the AP for supporting them is unfounded. Here is a quote from Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of Fred Phelps, the founder of this “church”:
[quote]”We’ve got a job to do. Our job is to cause America to know her abomination. We’ve got to put the cup of the fury and wrath of God to the lips of this nation and make them drink it.”[/quote]
“The cup of the fury and wrath of God” Hilarity like that can’t just be made up on the spot. Someone worked on that gem for a good while before finding the comedic sweet spot. Because when I think of God, not only am I dumb enough to think that the all-powerful deity of legend actually spends time hating on individual humans for things like sex, I’m also gullible enough to believe that God is so lacking for a reliable spokesperson that he calls an ignorant redneck conservative pool of santorum like Fred Phelps to duty.

On the plus side, Congress hasn’t been totally inept like it has been on so many other important issues. Phelps and Friends will soon be running headlong into state and federal laws prohibiting his little parties. I’m just disappointed that it took so long, and that organizations like the AP decided that instead of reporting on the events that they would basically gift a hateful group like this with an “article” like they did.

That piece was written so strongly pro-Phelps that I can’t help but wonder if some editor wasn’t on vacation while a reporter took advantage and published a forbidden piece that otherwise would have been refused. That’s the only explanation I can think of for the Associate Press to be running that article. It’s so full of opinion and lacking anything that even looks like an opposing viewpoint. Hate like that deserves no platform like the one the AP generously donated to “the cause”. But who knows, maybe the reporter is a member of the church who can’t really make it to all the chanting and sign-waving in front of the memorials for fallen soldiers, so he decided that his mandatory donation could be encapsulated in this ass-kissing “expose” of Fred Phelps and his family/church/mobile-mental-hospital.

Maybe I am over-reacting, but if that piece outraged you like it did me, be sure to let the Associated Press know how you feel by writing a letter to the editor and expressing your thoughts.

CANCER IS BAD!!!!!!!!

For the purpose of objectivity, I am a cigarette smoker and I will one day probably have cancer, so my bias against cancer should be noted for the record. Do not let it be said that I have made, am making, or will make any ridiculous statements advocating more cancer. Cancer is a scourge on humanity and should be eliminated, no matter the cost. (Hopefully before my lungs burn out, obviously.) Remember, no matter the cost.

My bitter arch-nemesis Peter Sprigg (curse his name and lineage), vice president of policy at the Family Research Council, is not so enthusiastic about eradicating our tumorous enemy, Mr C. The people at Merck have developed a vaccine to prevent HPV, a leading factor in the onset of cervical cancer. Their only wish for it’s introduction to society (besides the billions in profits they’ll reap)? Mandatory vaccination for school admission. Is that really so bad?

The Family Research Council would have people believe that this vaccine will innoculate young people with the idea that being safe from one disease will make them more at risk for unprotected sex and all of the other many sexually transmitted diseases. Sheesh, IF ONLY getting women to take their clothes off were so easy. Hell, I’d open up a free clinic in my bedroom if I thought that would work! Maybe I am just on the fringe, as usual, thinking that better medicine AND accurate sexual education would help eliminate many of the things that Mr Sprigg frets over so much. Abstinence hasn’t moved or changed from the Number One Method Of Preventing Disease And Pregnancy, yet nevertheless, disease and pregnancy keep happening. This should tell us something about human behavior and judgmental nonsense from religious conservatives.

Is less unmarried sex still more desirable than less cancer? Less suffering? Less death? Are we still listening to a bunch of old men who have nothing better to do than sit around all day wailing, moaning, and gnashing their teeth at the though of teenage girls having sex with boys?

People who increasingly characterize the war on terror as a battle of religions are increasingly correct. While the US and the West may wish to tell their citizens that it is a battle of societies and civilizations, it’s really about which Big Guy in the Sky that each side chooses to worship. The real irony is that essentially, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all share the same God, just by different names. But how can you say that, Mr Kedder, without any proof?

Well, let’s review some of the basic facts. George Bush (intentionally or not, it happened) called the operations in Afghanistan a “crusade”. Crusade is a term for a religious war. The religious leaders who so adamantly support our wonderful GOP Congress with political speeches in tax-exempt churches waste no opportunity to call Muslims “devils”, “Satan worshippers” and just plain “evil”. Even the military has hopped on board, apparently letting Jerry Falwell name our maneuvers with such inspiring monikers like “Divine Strake.” Divine strake, eh? What’s so divine about it again? Is it the immediate destruction or the lingering radioactive destruction?

But this isn’t a one-sided war that Christians are picking. (They’re just jumping in with such glee that it [i]seems[/i] like this is what they’ve been praying for all along.) Muslims aren’t making this any easier either. Just ask the folks that want to bring back the Caliphate. Oh, and am I the only one who had chilling visions of beheading squads roaming out of the mosque/palace/seat of government to punish all the non-believers at the mention of the phrase “the Caliphate”? Because reading that, I’m not exactly inspires that this bastion of Islamic society would allow such things as freedom of religion, or speech, or dissent, or many of the other lovely, quaint things that we’ve gotten so used to in our Great Satan Society over here. I mean, I could be way off, but it sounds like this Caliphate movement stands for nothing less than the extermination of all non-Islamic relgions. And what’s scary is that they have tens of thousands of followers, apparently.

Let’s do ourselves a favor and remain firm in the separation of church and state in this country. To allow the Christian right fringe and the Israel lobby continue to direct our international policy will be to put us into battles and wars that will serve no purpose other than to try and prove who’s God has a bigger dick. (Psst. It’s Vishnu.) Americans may want to give Christian fanatics a pass because they’re white, and they’re fellow citizens, and they seem slightly less radical than their Muslim counterparts, but rest assured, both sides are fighting to control all of life and society for all peoples based on the religous codes of outdated books with questionable authorship. I choose to believe that a secular government, protecting the private religions of all of its citizens, can combat the forces of jihad better than any Christian theocracy. And since America never was, isn’t now, and never should be a Christian theocracy, let’s try and keep things that way.

There’s nothing political here in this post, just some good clean fun. Check out this site and be mesmerized for as long as you want by the wackiness of it all. After watching this for a while, all I could think of was how cool it would be to have my mind put in some android body with the ability to move and bend like the one in this program and actually be set loose in a freefall through these bubbles. Why does it look fun? Because it probably would be.

Imagine that, Pearl Jam lyrics that perfectly reflect the true spirit of the Bush Administration, and they don’t invoke sentiments or images of impeachment or censure or all the other traditional left-wing attacks.

I chose that title because it fits in with today’s big news. OK, so Scott McClellan is quitting as press secretary. WHOA. Slow down there, Georgie. Don’t make such momentous changes without considering the consequences. I mean, it’s not as if you can find someone who fits the mold of a bland, partisan mouthpiece so easy. Or is it? The only thing I could say about Tony Snow that contradicts my last question is that he is anything but bland. I’ve seen him on Bill Maher and found him to be well-spoken and articulate and intelligent, but let’s be honest, that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a FOX News propagandist who’s part of a concerted effort to deny reality and stifle dissent from people who, like him, are just concerned citizens. *Slaps forehead* What have I been thinking? He’d make a great Bush Administration press secretary! Pretty soon we’ll be hearing about the massive support for invading or nuking Iran and the grassroots movement that believes that Bush cares about our environment.

Another lesser-mentioned part of the story is the demotion of Karl Rove. Sure, millions of liberals and Democrats are no doubt punching walls or shredding little bits of paper at the absence of his resignation from the story. But for me, personally? Considering that he’s not an elected official and has had his manipulative hand in the cookie jar of policy making, I don’t mind seeing him removed. His name has been tied to the dirtiest, sleeziest, most amoral (amoral is “without morals”) tactics that I’ve ever seen in my time following politics. For whatever reason, he sees an entire section of the American population (liberals) as beneath notice and undeserving of representation in government. I may disagree with conservatives, but I’m not about to support a policy that disenfranchises them, marginalizes them, and basically gives them a giant middle finger (and saying “middle finger” is the nice way of putting it).

So here we see them putting the finishing touches to the gilding on the Titanic. A little scrub here and a polish there, and Oh sir, please don’t look at the hull, you might notice the gaping hole in it. What’s really changed, I have to ask. The Secretary of Defense is still a warmonger, out of touch with reality. The Attorney General is still a political hack determined to make torture part of our national culture. The Secretary of State is still a bully, pressuring countries who receive US aid and support to do what we want or lose their assistance from us. WHAT’S CHANGED?????

Nothing. Because Bush changed by not changing at all.

This one’s dedicated to the moderate Christians who actually practice the teachings of Jesus instead of just paying them lip service: Where are you? We’re waiting for you to take your faith back from the nutjobs.

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
– Stephen Roberts

What prompts such an obvious jab at the Christian faith today, you might ask? If I replied with just the two words “Tom DeLay”, it’s a safe bet that a lot of people that read this will immediately understand. “The Hammer” is in the news today for criticizing Supreme Court Justices that make public comments on conservative death threats against them as out of touch with America. Yes, that is our problem in a nutshell. Our impartial judiciary feels that it should not have to put up with menacing emails and obvious hazards to their safety and the well-being of their families, and these are the people that “don’t get it.” After all, this is a nation founded on Christian principles, so the rights of the Constitution that guarantee life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness only really apply to Christian Americans, right Tom?

Even though trends and polls show an increasingly conservative leaning to America’s political ideology these days, it still enrages me that this “moral majority” thinks that it is right to impose such a religious viewpoint on the country as a whole. This is STILL AMERICA. My atheist beliefs and his Muslim beliefs and her Buddhist beliefs and their Jewish beliefs are still entitled to freedom from overwhelming persecution from ANY majority that is in power in our government. For Christians, the overwhelmingly dominant demonination in our country today, to claim that they are being harassed by anyone is an affront to reason and reality. Instances in which the power of Christianity in government (state or federal) are limited or removed is nothing more than the minority fighting for its Constitutional rights under the law.

Tom DeLay is the one out of touch here, not Justices O’Connor or Ginsburg. What is sadly true is that he believes that it is right to enshrine bigotry, misogyny, and ignorance in our country’s founding charter. The GOP has lead efforts to fight civil rights for decades and is supported by the populations of states that are largely filled with racists or the descendants of racists who haven’t fallen far enough from the tree. The solid base of the Republican Party actively works against efforts to increase our wealth of knowledge and education learned through science and understanding, as opposed to policy dictated by a religious figure of questionable intelligence. Actions to curtail the rights of women, be they black, white, asian, or whatever, are mainly spearheaded by religiously conservative Republicans. And given that the struggle to maintain the rights that the GOP has worked so hard to eliminate has stretched on for so long is an obvious indicator that the majority of Americans do NOT subscribe to the vicious rabidness of fanatics like Tom DeLay.

That is why I continue to call on moderate Christians to retake their religions. There exist millions of Protestants, Catholics, Methodists, and Baptists (sorry if I left your sect out) who live day by day with their nieghbors of different origins and beliefs and don’t even feel the urge to call anyone a sinner. These are the true practitioners of the Christian faith. They exemplify charity and understanding and compassion in ways that the most visible Christians do not. Pat Robertson calls for assassinations. Jerry Falwell criticizes soldiers that have died for our country. The Reverends Graham (Billy and Franklin) have not one kind word to say about their Abrahamic brothers, the Muslims, equating the entire religion with evil and injustice. (The irony is that the imams across the oceans use these individuals to do the same, kind of like a self-perpetuating problem.) These are the people that you want to represent your faith to the world? These are the people that you follow? If that is the case, then you are all hopeless and deserve the eternity in Hell that your complacency will earn you. But if you are tired of the hate and bigotry that is spread about in Christ’s name, then WAKE UP already and take back your religion. Send money to churches that focus on good works and political causes. Is the life of a person already alive worth so much less than that of an embryo that you’d rather your contribution go towards buying picket signs instead of soup and blankets? Does it mean more to you to focus on preventing gays from marrying that you don’t want to direct any attention to the divorce rates among regular people and address the real ills that affect our families today?

Christians today have a choice. There is the path that Jesus walked, which is of love and brotherhood and compassion for all living peoples and creatures under God’s creation. This is demonstrated by showing real concern for others and not making the creation of a totalitarian government under some fanatic minister the goal of your life and your congregation. Then there is the path of pride and glory and greed personified by so many televangelists shown in the news today. These men who preach intolerance and support measures in government to remove rights from people that are different from them or worship a different supreme being or choose not to worship one at all. Suppressing anyone’s rights was not part of Jesus’ plan for the world. It should not become the foundation of the Christian faith in the 21st century. Stand up, real Christians, and be counted. Your voices, so currently silent in fear of some rebuking sermon, are the ones that matter and should be heard.

Quickly, what is the best way to ensure the survival of an uneducated population? Move it to Kansas! Not content with being the vanguard of the miseducation movement, the Sunflower State’s Board of Education has re-written rules governing sex education in the state to allow more parental control of student participation. Now, I am not against parental control in education. But I am against excessive control to the point that the religious beliefs of the parents conflict with important educational lessons like sex ed. Parents send their kids to school to get educated, to pursue studies of knowledge previously unknown to them and expand their minds to learn how to incorporate new facts into their lives. This isn’t something that should be limited in any way. If your religious beliefs conflict with what your child is learning, it should be your responsibility to use your time AT HOME to teach whatever you want your child to learn. Schools should be realms of uninhibited knowledge and discovery. If you don’t want your child to participate, take them out of school and begin a home education program. Social conservatives have no place in changing the way schools work to actively decrease the amount of available knowledge. It serves our children, society, and species very poorly to suppress knowledge for the sake of religious or “moral” control.