As Seen On The Bathroom Wall

An article came out recently in my local paper regarding FotF (Focus on the Famnily) donating $20k to help prevent civil unions from being passed in Hawai'i. Now, while this isn't surprising to me, especially considering the source, what is surprising is the fact that FotF is worried about civil unions in Hawai'i - a state they are not based in.

Equal marriages/civil unions/gay marriages; whatever you want to call them, the Federal government has deemed it the individual state's responsibility to dictate whether or not it should be legal. Several states have legalized it, most recently Iowa, and the trend will continue because, contrary to the accusations thrown out by those opposed to same-sex unions, it does not destroy the entity or the validity of one's marriage anymore than the divorce of two heterosexuals does.

I have been married for ten years. The idea of one of my gay friends getting married doesn't threaten my marriage in any way. If it does anything, it strengthens it. My marriage isn't so weak and fragile that it can be destroyed by something as trivial as someone else getting married.

However, all of that aside, the most interesting and intriguing bit of information regarding all of this is the fact that FotF is based in Colorado, which has the twelfth highest divorce rate in the nation. The highest was Nevada - which is understandable considering how many people get married in that state - but following it was a slew of southern states (almost all of them), and then Colorado. It's well noted that the majority of southern states consider themselves to be God fearing, Christian based. Why, then, do they have such high divorce rates?

And, more importantly, why is it that Colorado isn't spending that $20k on helping to improve marriage (regardless of orientation) in THEIR state when they so obviously need it? Even more interesting, the first state to allow homosexual marriage, Massachusetts, has the LOWEST divorce rate in the nation.

$20k could have paid for a week's worth of food for 1000 families, provided clothing and shelter for hundreds - you know, what Jesus advocated.

Instead, FotF spent $20k on trying to influence laws of man (tsk tsk tsk) in a state that has a lower divorce rate than their own just so more people cannot get married.

Losing. You're doing it right.

I'm quite annoyed by the scripture used in the latter part of this interview with which the Pastor quotes that in Isaiah 3:22, the bible says that God is our Judge, God is our Lawgiver, and God is our King.

Okay, first of all, PASTOR, Isaiah 3:22 talks about removing from women their fancy garb and adornments as a means of punishing them for flaunting their wealth and sexuality amongst the poor and downtrodden whom have remained faithful. So, before you start throwing scripture in my face, at least make it RIGHT.

Second, how can ANYONE expect to believe you'd know what a muslim is when you can't even quote the book you would demand everyone be faithful to correctly?

Third, if Obama WERE Muslim, so what? Does it really matter when the past 8 years under a CHRISTIAN president have seen far worse times than we've had in the past 50?

Fourth, don't ignore the plain truths before you regarding our constitution and the words by which the forefathers of this nation bore so that we'd be able to demand equality with regards to our practicing of faith of OUR choosing, and not anyone else.

Fifth, you claim that Obama isn't a Christian because he says that there might be more than one path to God. In my first point, I made clear that your statement was incorrect. However, had you been correct, you're still insinuating that the President of this country would be King, which one, goes against the whole idea of Democracy, which our forefathers were fighting against in the first place, two, violates that pesky little commandment about thou shalt have no other Gods. What is a King but a man-god on a throne? You would have us label the President as King, and worship him? Hardly.

Lastly, you have not proven that Obama is a Muslim. His name isn't Muslim, the people that raised him aren't Muslim, and the way he lives his life definitely isn't Muslim, in ANY sense, so please... tell me how is Barack Hussein Obama a Muslim in anything other than your own imagination?

Lord, save me from your followers.

When Atheists Attack

A noted provocateur rips Sarah Palin—and defends elitism.
Sam Harris
NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Sep 29, 2008

Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved by Sarah Palin's performance at the Republican convention. Given her audience and the needs of the moment, I believe Governor Palin's speech was the most effective political communication I have ever witnessed. Here, finally, was a performer who—being maternal, wounded, righteous and sexy—could stride past the frontal cortex of every American and plant a three-inch heel directly on that limbic circuit that ceaselessly intones "God and country." If anyone could make Christian theocracy smell like apple pie, Sarah Palin could.

Then came Palin's first television interview with Charles Gibson. I was relieved to discover, as many were, that Palin's luster can be much diminished by the absence of a teleprompter. Still, the problem she poses to our political process is now much bigger than she is. Her fans seem inclined to forgive her any indiscretion short of cannibalism. However badly she may stumble during the remaining weeks of this campaign, her supporters will focus their outrage upon the journalist who caused her to break stride, upon the camera operator who happened to capture her fall, upon the television network that broadcast the good lady's misfortune—and, above all, upon the "liberal elites" with their highfalutin assumption that, in the 21st century, only a reasonably well-educated person should be given command of our nuclear arsenal.

The point to be lamented is not that Sarah Palin comes from outside Washington, or that she has glimpsed so little of the earth's surface (she didn't have a passport until last year), or that she's never met a foreign head of state. The point is that she comes to us, seeking the second most important job in the world, without any intellectual training relevant to the challenges and responsibilities that await her. There is nothing to suggest that she even sees a role for careful analysis or a deep understanding of world events when it comes to deciding the fate of a nation. In her interview with Gibson, Palin managed to turn a joke about seeing Russia from her window into a straight-faced claim that Alaska's geographical proximity to Russia gave her some essential foreign-policy experience. Palin may be a perfectly wonderful person, a loving mother and a great American success story—but she is a beauty queen/sports reporter who stumbled into small-town politics, and who is now on the verge of stumbling into, or upon, world history.

The problem, as far as our political process is concerned, is that half the electorate revels in Palin's lack of intellectual qualifications. When it comes to politics, there is a mad love of mediocrity in this country. "They think they're better than you!" is the refrain that (highly competent and cynical) Republican strategists have set loose among the crowd, and the crowd has grown drunk on it once again. "Sarah Palin is an ordinary person!" Yes, all too ordinary.

We have all now witnessed apparently sentient human beings, once provoked by a reporter's microphone, saying things like, "I'm voting for Sarah because she's a mom. She knows what it's like to be a mom." Such sentiments suggest an uncanny (and, one fears, especially American) detachment from the real problems of today. The next administration must immediately confront issues like nuclear proliferation, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (and covert wars elsewhere), global climate change, a convulsing economy, Russian belligerence, the rise of China, emerging epidemics, Islamism on a hundred fronts, a defunct United Nations, the deterioration of American schools, failures of energy, infrastructure and Internet security … the list is long, and Sarah Palin does not seem competent even to rank these items in order of importance, much less address any one of them.

Palin's most conspicuous gaffe in her interview with Gibson has been widely discussed. The truth is, I didn't much care that she did not know the meaning of the phrase "Bush doctrine." And I am quite sure that her supporters didn't care, either. Most people view such an ambush as a journalistic gimmick. What I do care about are all the other things Palin is guaranteed not to know—or will be glossing only under the frenzied tutelage of John McCain's advisers. What doesn't she know about financial markets, Islam, the history of the Middle East, the cold war, modern weapons systems, medical research, environmental science or emerging technology? Her relative ignorance is guaranteed on these fronts and most others, not because she was put on the spot, or got nervous, or just happened to miss the newspaper on any given morning. Sarah Palin's ignorance is guaranteed because of how she has spent the past 44 years on earth.

I care even more about the many things Palin thinks she knows but doesn't: like her conviction that the Biblical God consciously directs world events. Needless to say, she shares this belief with mil-lions of Americans—but we shouldn't be eager to give these people our nuclear codes, either. There is no question that if President McCain chokes on a spare rib and Palin becomes the first woman president, she and her supporters will believe that God, in all his majesty and wisdom, has brought it to pass. Why would God give Sarah Palin a job she isn't ready for? He wouldn't. Everything happens for a reason. Palin seems perfectly willing to stake the welfare of our country—even the welfare of our species—as collateral in her own personal journey of faith. Of course, McCain has made the same unconscionable wager on his personal journey to the White House.

In speaking before her church about her son going to war in Iraq, Palin urged the congregation to pray "that our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God; that's what we have to make sure we are praying for, that there is a plan, and that plan is God's plan." When asked about these remarks in her interview with Gibson, Palin successfully dodged the issue of her religious beliefs by claiming that she had been merely echoing the words of Abraham Lincoln. The New York Times later dubbed her response "absurd." It was worse than absurd; it was a lie calculated to conceal the true character of her religious infatuations. Every detail that has emerged about Palin's life in Alaska suggests that she is as devout and literal-minded in her Christian dogmatism as any man or woman in the land. Given her long affiliation with the Assemblies of God church, Palin very likely believes that Biblical prophecy is an infallible guide to future events and that we are living in the "end times." Which is to say she very likely thinks that human history will soon unravel in a foreordained cataclysm of war and bad weather. Undoubtedly Palin believes that this will be a good thing—as all true Christians will be lifted bodily into the sky to make merry with Jesus, while all nonbelievers, Jews, Methodists and other rabble will be punished for eternity in a lake of fire. Like many Pentecostals, Palin may even imagine that she and her fellow parishioners enjoy the power of prophecy themselves. Otherwise, what could she have meant when declaring to her congregation that "God's going to tell you what is going on, and what is going to go on, and you guys are going to have that within you"?

You can learn something about a person by the company she keeps. In the churches where Palin has worshiped for decades, parishioners enjoy "baptism in the Holy Spirit," "miraculous healings" and "the gift of tongues." Invariably, they offer astonishingly irrational accounts of this behavior and of its significance for the entire cosmos. Palin's spiritual colleagues describe themselves as part of "the final generation," engaged in "spiritual warfare" to purge the earth of "demonic strongholds." Palin has spent her entire adult life immersed in this apocalyptic hysteria. Ask yourself: Is it a good idea to place the most powerful military on earth at her disposal? Do we actually want our leaders thinking about the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy when it comes time to say to the Iranians, or to the North Koreans, or to the Pakistanis, or to the Russians or to the Chinese: "All options remain on the table"?

It is easy to see what many people, women especially, admire about Sarah Palin. Here is a mother of five who can see the bright side of having a child with Down syndrome and still find the time and energy to govern the state of Alaska. But we cannot ignore the fact that Palin's impressive family further testifies to her dogmatic religious beliefs. Many writers have noted the many shades of conservative hypocrisy on view here: when Jamie Lynn Spears gets pregnant, it is considered a symptom of liberal decadence and the breakdown of family values; in the case of one of Palin's daughters, however, teen pregnancy gets reinterpreted as a sign of immaculate, small-town fecundity. And just imagine if, instead of the Palins, the Obama family had a pregnant, underage daughter on display at their convention, flanked by her black boyfriend who "intends" to marry her. Who among conservatives would have resisted the temptation to speak of "the dysfunction in the black community"?

Teen pregnancy is a misfortune, plain and simple. At best, it represents bad luck (both for the mother and for the child); at worst, as in the Palins' case, it is a symptom of religious dogmatism. Governor Palin opposes sex education in schools on religious grounds. She has also fought vigorously for a "parental consent law" in the state of Alaska, seeking full parental dominion over the reproductive decisions of minors. We know, therefore, that Palin believes that she should be the one to decide whether her daughter carries her baby to term. Based on her stated position, we know that she would deny her daughter an abortion even if she had been raped. One can be forgiven for doubting whether Bristol Palin had all the advantages of 21st-century family planning—or, indeed, of the 21st century.

We have endured eight years of an administration that seemed touched by religious ideology. Bush's claim to Bob Woodward that he consulted a "higher Father" before going to war in Iraq got many of us sitting upright, before our attention wandered again to less ethereal signs of his incompetence. For all my concern about Bush's religious beliefs, and about his merely average grasp of terrestrial reality, I have never once thought that he was an over-the-brink, Rapture-ready extremist. Palin seems as though she might be the real McCoy. With the McCain team leading her around like a pet pony between now and Election Day, she can be expected to conceal her religious extremism until it is too late to do anything about it. Her supporters know that while she cannot afford to "talk the talk" between now and Nov. 4, if elected, she can be trusted to "walk the walk" until the Day of Judgment.

What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. Watching her deny to Gibson that she had ever harbored the slightest doubt about her readiness to take command of the world's only superpower, one got the feeling that Palin would gladly assume any responsibility on earth:

"Governor Palin, are you ready at this moment to perform surgery on this child's brain?"

"Of course, Charlie. I have several boys of my own, and I'm an avid hunter."

"But governor, this is neurosurgery, and you have no training as a surgeon of any kind."

"That's just the point, Charlie. The American people want change in how we make medical decisions in this country. And when faced with a challenge, you cannot blink."

The prospects of a Palin administration are far more frightening, in fact, than those of a Palin Institute for Pediatric Neurosurgery. Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earth—in fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated.

I believe that with the nomination of Sarah Palin for the vice presidency, the silliness of our politics has finally put our nation at risk. The world is growing more complex—and dangerous—with each passing hour, and our position within it growing more precarious. Should she become president, Palin seems capable of enacting policies so detached from the common interests of humanity, and from empirical reality, as to unite the entire world against us. When asked why she is qualified to shoulder more responsibility than any person has held in human history, Palin cites her refusal to hesitate. "You can't blink," she told Gibson repeatedly, as though this were a primordial truth of wise governance. Let us hope that a President Palin would blink, again and again, while more thoughtful people decide the fate of civilization.

Harris is a founder of The Reason Project and author of The New York Times best sellers “The End of Faith” and “Letter to a Christian Nation.” His Web site is samharris.org.

URL: http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080

I'm not an atheist, although sometimes I wish I were, because it would mean that I'd not have to be associated with those like Palin when it comes to my belief in Jesus Christ. In all fairness though, I think that Palin worships at the Church of Jesus Palin of Latter Day Sarahs. And call that blasphemous if you wish. I really don't care. I'm more worried about this biblethumper trying to dictate what I can and cannot do with my body and my faith because of what she personally believes.

Let's hear it for Jordan Sparks, American Idol winner and proud purity ring wearing virgin. She enters singing contests because she couldn't get a singing contract any legitimate way, and she professes and demonstrates her purity by calling those who don't wear the rings "sluts".

How Christ-like of you, Jordan. How loving, charitable, and kindhearted of you. I'm sure Jesus would be proud of you calling just about every single female you'll EVER meet in your entire life a "slut". It's not like it's wrong to be a judgmental, bigoted, arrogant, ignorant, and self-righteous "Christian", right?

So what exactly did Miss Sparks say?

I just have one thing to say about promise rings. It’s not bad to wear a promise ring. Because not everybody – guy or girl – wants to be a slut.

Now, I never wanted to be a slut. It pissed off many a suitor who wanted to get into my pants, let me tell you, but there are some things that I didn't feel I needed to be sharing with someone I didn't think I'd be with for the rest of my life. That philosophy is shared by millions of women, men, boys, and girls in this country, and is nothing new. However, not wearing a purity ring means equating you to wanting to be a slut is absolutely one of the biggest pieces of sanctimonious garbage I have ever heard. I could chalk this up to her youth, but quite frankly, it's pretty damn difficult to remain so naive in today's age of information and technology. Just ask Bristol Palin.

I cannot say that I've only been with one person in my life, but I can say that for the past 12 years, I have, and that surpasses some of the marriages that some of the holier than thou critics who would praise Miss Sparks for her comments have had. I won't assume that Miss Sparks isn't a virgin. It's easy to be one at that age. However, I will not be surprised if in a year or two, she finds herself still wearing said purity ring, while thinking of impure incidents she had with a paramour or two recently. We've all heard this song and dance before from one celebrity or another, and they've all traveled down the less than stellar chastity road, pulling their foot out of their throats along the way.

So, from all the "sluts" to you, Miss Sparks, here's a little bit of advice. Be pure, be proud, but don't be an ass. You didn't offend me, but I'm fairly certain that there are millions of people out there who have had far more virtuous lifestyles than you who refuse to wear such an obnoxious and prideful piece of jewelry that were, more so out of your lack of Christ-like behavior, all while professing to be just that. It's hypocritical, it's ridiculous, it's just plain ignorant.

I didn't do them last week, epic fail this Friday, so Sunday it is.

• WTF is up with half-vegetarian chocolate cake? A family friend's birthday was thrown today, and in the grand ol' fashion of "I don't want to grow up", we had the cake first. Well...I did, anyway. I had to cook dinner, so couldn't exactly stay and eat. Anyway, the cake looked incredible. Chocolate. Ooey, gooey chocolate. It tasted fabulous...except for the frosting. Vegan frosting. The cake itself had eggs in it. I can tell. I've had a lot of vegan/vegetarian foods, and there's something about the texture of a cake made with genuine eggs that you simply cannot duplicate. So, my question is, WTF would you use VEGAN frosting on a cake with eggs?
• WTF is the deal with celebrities whose IQs go down as their bank accounts go up? Puff/P/Piffle Diddy/Daddy/Dumbass went on some LSD bender and took a video camera with him as he discussed Sarah Palin. Instead of something rational, coherent, or hey...FUNNY, he chose instead to wonder if Alaska even has black people. Take a cue from Kanye West, P Something: If you're going to say something on camera about a politician, make sure the entire country is watching, and the camera is S-T-E-A-D-Y. That way, when the people are screaming at the television screen, it's NOT because they just threw up on it thanks to motion sickness.
• WTF is wrong with being a non-denominational Christian? Why is it that you're not "Christian" if you don't belong to a specific church? Jesus didn't preach in Church. He wasn't a Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, Mormon, etc... So why is it that when someone asks you "oh, what church to you go to", and you say "I don't", they look at you as though you have Jesus' ass tattooed on your eyeball? The last time I checked, the bible never stated that he will only listen to you from the hours of 8 and 12 on Sundays, and only in the vicinity of buildings that contain crosses and bear the words "Holy, Saint, and Christ" on them. WWJD if he came down and everyone was telling him he was a Lutheran?
• WTF was up with the MTV awards basically licking the asscrack of Britney Spears tonight? She won HOW MANY awards? For what? Who buys her shit anymore? Unless her CDs start coming out with coupons for free Fraps and Cheetos, plus discount weave services, I don't understand the interest. The woman might be doing better thanks to her father finally stepping in and doing what dads are supposed to do, but no matter how sane she is, she sucks as a singer, she can't write for shit, and her music has always appealed to those whose IQs scraped their knuckles on the floor of epic fail.