Quick Hitts

This is another installment in our continuing series of  Things Atheists Didn’t Do.

A pedophile priest, not an atheist, claimed he was only giving his victim anatomy lessons.

Muslims in Pakistan stoned a Christian man to death.  His crime?   Drinking tea at a roadside stall that was designated for Muslims only.

When a Christian church that tortured a gay teen via an exorcism to rid him of his faggy demon was criticized for their stupidity, Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission slammed the critics, accusing them of intolerance.

An Oregon couple let their 15 month child die of pneumonia, refusing medical treatment and praying for her instead. If her parents had been atheists she would be alive right now.

An orthodox Jewish couple are suing their neighbors, claiming that an automatic hall light, which is triggered by people entering the hall, imprisons them in their apartment. This, they claim, prevents them from leaving on the Sabbath. If they were atheists instead of idiots they could leave whenever they want.

Eight people drowned a 22-year-old mother of two trying to lift a curse from her. She would have been much better off with atheist friends.

An Islamic woman starved one of her children to death, after torturing her, because she thought she was possessed.  Her other five children were seriously malnourished.  Too bad her mother wasn’t an atheist.

Fr. Alphonse de Valk has declared that Atheism is a threat to civilization. If he were an atheist he’d be smarter than that. Not to be outdone, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor has declared that atheists are not fully human.

Opening a dialog between religions may not be a good idea.  Ernest McCullough, a Christian, got into an argument about religion with a Muslim, who ended the debate by shooting him in the leg.

In Maryland, a woman starved her son to death because he wouldn’t say Amen. She’s expecting him to be resurrected.  That hasn’t happened so far. Yet another child who would have been much better off with atheist parents.

In India, at least 50 people went blind staring into the sun looking for an image of the Virgin Mary. Atheists are never blinded by the light.

When a woman with an atheist boyfriend asked Pat Robertson for advice about finding a middle ground with him, Pat told her to break up with him because he’s “serving the devil.”

In India a “Hindu Taliban” is attacking women for drinking in bars and dressing inappropriately, including those wearing bathing suits at the beach and t-shirts with pictures of their deities on them.  There are no reports of atheists beating up women over religion.

In Afghanistan, a Mullah who spoke out against suicide attacks was murdered by other members of his religion of peace.

In Russia, two Jehovah’s Witnesses went on a murder spree killing 13 people to rid the world of sin. (They should have just become vampires.)

In India, two seven-year-old girls were married to frogs to prevent the disease outbreaks in the village. Atheists don’t advocate girl-frog marriage.

A pretty sixteen-year-old girl was stabbed to death by her Muslim brother for listening to rock and roll and wearing makup.   He stabbed her 26 times.  He was preserving the family’s honor.

The protests in Iran have been going on for a week a half.  They are not a flash in the pan, and despite being murdered and beaten the Iranian people are still protesting and refusing to accept the results of the faked election.

And what’s Obama’s reaction?  Half-hearted platitudes about freedom and people choosing their own destiny.  I just watched his press conference and when he was directly asked about supporting them he talked about the international community and standards of behavior and blah blah blah.

The last president who actually spoke out against tyranny was Ronald Reagan.  He will be remembered as the man who demanded “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!”  When the wall came down during the first Bush presidency, instead of cheers and congratulations the White House response was essentially “Meh.”

When this first started Obama’s reluctance to speak in favor of the protesters was understandable.  He didn’t know if this was going to last, he wanted to keep his options open with President Imanutjob  and he was afraid that offering support of any kind would be used by Iran’s leaders to argue that the US was behind the protests.  But the protests have been going on long enough without our support that no one will believe we have anything to do with it.  It’s time for Obama to grow a pair.

He needs to announce, loudly and clearly, that we support the protester’s demands for a fair election.  He should tell the world, “The United States will only deal with the fairly elected officials of Iran.  We will not engage with, nor will we recognize, the current administration, as it is quite clear they do not represent the Iranian people, who have a right to a fair election.  We will not have any dealings with Iran, diplomatically or otherwise, until they get one.  “  This would offer a great deal of hope and inspiration to the Iranians who are dying in the streets.

That sounds a little clumsy, but I’m sure his writers can do much better.  They need to come up with a line as memorable as “Mr. Gorbachev,Tear Down This Wall.”  The first line that comes to my mind is “Mr. Ahmadinejad,  go fuck yourself,” which is one of the many reasons I’m not a presidential speech writer.

My kids got me this for Father’s day.

The mug is emblazoned with the compete Bill of Rights, but when you fill it with hot coffee the parts negated by the Patriot Act fade out. There isn’t much left.

It’s not entirely realistic, because after it cools the missing rights come back, which will probably never happen in our lifetime. (To my knowledge L.M. Obama hasn’t even mentioned repealing the act.) But it’s a fun reminder for anyone who is still under the illusion we live in a free country.

The FDA wants to classify Cheerios as a drug.  Really.

Cheerios claims they reduce cholesterol by 4%, and therefore help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.  This led the FDA to send them a letter that said, “Based on claims made on your product’s label we have determined (Cheerios) is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation and treatment of disease.”

It’s likely General Mills will just remove the claims.  If they don’t you may need a prescription to buy your next box.

Kessler

We haven’t seen this kind of nonsense since the nasty nerd David Kessler headed the FDA.  His rampages included confiscating 24,000 cartons of orange juice because they were made from concentrate but said “fresh” on the label.  I suspect that when David was a child a grocer’s kid beat him up and took his lunch money.

This move is championed by The Center for Science in the Public Interest, an uber-nanny group whose goals are to generate junk science and push for laws that will force everyone to eat what CSPI says is best for them.  They’re bitching about the study used to generate the Cheerios claim, which is more than a little ironic considering their shoddy studies are nearly as valid as creationist’s textbooks.   If the FDA wants to do something useful they should slap the CSPI with a heavy fine for using the word “science” in their name.

Don’t you feel safer knowing that the FDA is attacking General Mills for such modest claims?  It’s it great to know Big Brother wants to control everything in our lives, right down to the level of  breakfast cereal?

I prefer to be called Dave, not David.  The first time someone calls me David I correct them with one word: “Dave.”  If they persist, it’s not a big deal.

Her Royal Highness Elizabeth Becton, the office manager for Rep. Jim McDermot, has a different approach.  She gets snotty, pissy, bitchy, and just when you’d think she’d be running out of steam, conspiratorial.

It started when another assistant requested a meeting with her congress weasel, using her full name.  In a followup e-mail the assistant opened with the highly inflammatory and horribly insulting salutation “Hi Liz,”

This led to a nineteen e-mail-long hissy fit from Ms. Becton (Ms? Mizzz? Miz, as in Les Miz?) who wouldn’t stop whining about it despite a half dozen apologies from the assistant.  Becton accused the writer of name calling, then demanded to know the identity of the evil villain who put her up to it.

This is your tax dollars at work, folks.

Do a few other nicknames for her, perhaps not quite a friendly as “Liz,” spring to mind?

Update:  Surprisingly, Liz didn’t take the publicizing of her tirade very well.  She’s sent out a mass e-mail to all schedulers, announcing she’s going to find and punish the evil criminal who did the dastardly deed:

If I ever find out who you are, I will gladly advertise that it was you who forwarded the emails to the low-rent wonkette site. I will further inform the Speaker’s Office, Standards on Official Conduct, and all the other appropriate offices of what you did. And if you got paid for it, my lowly, putrid, little wonkette reader, you have committed a crime and you will be punished for it when you are found. I have contacted Telecom and I have informed them of what has happened and since it’s a quiet day, they are checking all the forwarded emails from this list serve.
Read the whole thing here.

Once again I’ve been accused of not having an open mind.  Once again it was in a forum where I was pointing out that Alternative Medicine is not only a waste of time and money, but can be deadly.  The response was typical – I know better than you because it worked for me, doctors and drug companies want to keep you sick, and the ultimate and inevitable zinger – I have a closed mind.  Horrors!

She was right, but I didn’t consider it an insult.  I don’t have an open mind.  If someone makes a claim I expect them to prove it, and if they can’t, I’m not going to give it any credence.  Someone can make all the claims they want about magic water (holy or homeopathic), magic foot rubs, magic needle stabs or magic medicines, just don’t expect me to believe it without at least a couple of double blind studies that proves it’s effective.

Of course this only applies to things that can be proven.  I can’t prove that Andy Warhol was brilliant and Jackson Pollock’s childish scribbles are crap; I just think it’s obvious.  I can’t prove that Blade Runner was the best movie ever made, but I’m pretty sure it is.  Yet, if someone disagrees I’m not going to get upset or accuse them of having a closed mind.  Not just because it’s unprovable opinion, nor because it’s trivial, but also because I don’t consider it an insult, but rather, a compliment.

In my experience most people who brag about having an open mind allow everyone to pour crap into it.  I’d rather work on the opposite – having a mind like a steel trap.

While right-leaning opinions have always been available, the mass media has been predominately lefty for the past half century.  People on the right think it’s more lefty than it is, but that’s understandable – where you stand on the political wheel determines your perception of the other sides’ position.

But the ever efficient marketplace changed all that, and moved to fill the near vacuum of conservative viewpoints in the media.  It started when Reagan removed the fairness doctrine from talk radio.  The right moved in and took it over.  This incensed the left, who, for a long time, have pushed to reinstate the doctrine to silence the other side.  Much to their dismay L.M. Obama declared he has no intention of bringing it back.

Then came Fox news, which proceeded to suck away a huge percentage of the news watching public, people who were delighted that someone was finally catering to their political POV.

There’s a lot to dislike about Fox, of course, but not as much as the left would have you believe.   In my experience most of the lefties who continually bitch about it have never really watched it.  The rest of them watch it with the sole goal of discrediting it.  Which is fine, it beats working for a living, but you don’t see them focusing that kind of attention on the lefty media outlets, who are just as dishonest, biased, and hypocritical.  Of course, that would be a full time job.

The latest round of whining is just pathetic.  Any thinking person, even those who are “pro-life,” agrees that the murder of Dr. Tiller was evil.  Yet the left is now declaring that the right wing media, all of it, is indirectly (or even directly) responsible.  The dumbest diatribe I’ve seen so far (and the competition for that title is huge) comes from Paul Krugman’s latest column in the New York Times.

Using the Chomsky method of strongly implying things without actually saying them, he first acquits Bill O’Reily of being guilty of directly inciting murder, then blames the right wing media for the recent violent actions by right wing extremists.

He says: “And at this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream conservatism and the black-helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually erased.”

Let’s count the plethora of violent incidents that proves this point, shall we?

One: Someone murders an abortion doctor.

Two: A crazy old fart goes nuts in a holocaust museum.

Three:  There is no three.  Or four or five or six.  Hardly a plethora, is it?

Note the weasel words: “seems to have been virtually erased.”  Old Noam must be so proud.

But this paragraph really points out his extreme dishonesty:

“Glenn Beck. Here we have a network where, like it or not, millions of Americans get their news — and it gives daily airtime to a commentator who, among other things, warned viewers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency might be building concentration camps as part of the Obama administration’s “totalitarian” agenda (although he eventually conceded that nothing of the kind was happening).”

Glen Beck reported the rumor, sparked by a viral video, specifically saying it was a rumor and that he’d look into it.  He didn’t just “eventually concede;” his reporters did a rather through report about the video making the claim. They tracked down the real buildings in the video, visited them, and proved it was bogus.  They thoroughly debunked the claim. That’s just a bit more extensive than “eventually conceding.”

He continues: “The R.N.C. says that “the Democratic Party is dedicated to restructuring American society along socialist ideals.”

We are now major stockholders in GM and most major banks.  Banks who want to pay back TARP money are being told they can’t.  How dare the RNC get it right?  (Technically, they’re off a bit.  Government ownership on this level isn’t socialist, it’s communist.  You might think Krugman, having won a Nobel prize for economics, would know the difference.  You would be wrong.  What does that tell us about the validity of the Nobel prize?)

The lefty mass media is getting increasingly pissed at any media that leans to the right, and is using these incidents to lump all conservatives – the slightly conservative, the moderately conservative, and the very conservative – in with the tin-foil-hat wing-nut crowd.  We can expect more and more of this desperation as they continue to lose their influence and market share.

But we should be delighted that Krugman and his ilk are going off like this.  While it will induce bobble headed nodding among some lefties, those with functioning brain cells may finally begin to see their spokesweasels are every bit as clueless and dishonest as many commentators on the right – maybe even more so.