God has no birth certificate

The final argument for atheists - God has no birth certificate

The Latin root for Birth Certificate - Certificati De Caucasian

The Trumpster, The Donald

Donald Trump proves it
Any idiot can make money

Ayn Rand and the Republicans

And now the extreme right idolizes Ayn Rand?
Well yes she did support laissez-faire capitalism.
And she did support ethical egotism - do what is right for you. The mantra of the Republican wealthy elite.
And her philosophical construct - Objectivism - did create a heavy atmosphere of intellectual repressiveness.
But my goodness - she was staunchly pro-choice.
She was an avowed atheist.
And whereas she strongly disapproved of welfare - she gladly accepted Medicare in her fight against lung cancer. 
My guess is that the extreme right have not made it all the way through her books, do not know much about the author, and really have only a superficial understanding of her philosophy.
They just love her libertarian bent and the selfishness and greed they think it justifies.

Ticky Tacky

The 'Cause' Man

Rantings of an immature narcissist
Grandiose delusions of literary fame
Drama unbecoming a grown man

Our global humanity is insane in its cruelty, and dehumanizing societal 'norms'.
Millions of children starve, despite we having the means to feed them.
Millions die violent deaths, despite we having the means to stop it.
Millions suffer, while denied even hope, in a world of incredible wealth.
So much of all human suffering - unnecessary.
The world used to be big enough to ignore that - a successful strategy to conserve energy and mental health.
Gone.
If our collective humanity is not cause enough for you to act then simply realize how small and interdependent the world has become - everything that happens globally happens to you. 
Our destructive capacity expands exponentially along with technological growth, while our individual world spheres remain oh so close to our noses.
This is unsustainable.
As never before, the future of each of us depends on the good of all, worldwide.
We change or we perish.

There's a good reason to write.

"It'll Never Work" Eeyore The Gloomy Donkey

There is no justice - shouldn't stop us from promoting it.
Our individual voices - nothing. Shouldn’t stop us from speaking out.
There will never be a perfect world - shouldn't stop us from making the effort.
Practiced indifference, smug self assurance that we can do nothing and shouldn't bother?
That to bother is overly dramatic and immature?
Might as well just lie down and die.

Women in Combat - Careful For What You Wish

I listened to a well meaning group of women debate on OPB the other day,
'Should Women in the Military be Allowed in Combat?'
The arguments pro and con were very rationale, well thought out, intelligent, civilized.
But since when is combat rationale, civilized, intelligent?
If it were me Id take any excuse I could to avoid the murder, mayhem, and insanity of modern combat.
Combat, war, is insane. To be avoided at all costs. A last, last resort. Or so it should be.
But we haven't really needed last resorts - haven't needed to give up our humanity and fight in a war in a desperate effort to protect ourselves since WWII. Every 'war'  since then not even declared.
We send people into combat these days not to protect as a last resort, but instead as part of stunted, unimaginative, geopolitical strategy. It's no longer the last resort. To paraphrase a quote by Andrew J. Bacevich,  'We have a very large military hammer and world politics is more and more our nail'.
As Einstein has said, "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war". And as he said further, "To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder."
For the men put into this position by the call of modern manipulative governments - the price to pay can be devastating. At least in WWII they understood there was little other choice.
My advice to women. Leave this particular 'equal rights' issue alone.
Instead, push for advancement of women into the geopolitical policy making process and hope that you can do better.

Republicans are in contempt of America

Representative Paul D. Ryan's fiscal blueprint, backed so eagerly by the republican leadership, is a disgrace. “The spending spree is over,” Mr. Ryan said. “We cannot keep spending money we don’t have.”

What utter hypocrisy.

Mr. Ryan supported waging two wars without paying for them under Bush.

Mr. Ryan voted for the incredibly expensive Medicare part D legislation – written by the insurance and pharmaceutical companies - without identifying a way to pay for it.

Mr. Ryan supported the systematic deregulation of the housing industry, Wall Street and banking during the Bush years that in great part caused this recession.

Mr. Ryan has repeatedly voted for tax breaks for the ultra rich begun under Bush.

These are the things that caused, caused, the multi-trillion dollar deficit that exists today, as well as greatly contributing to the worst recession the world has seen since the 1930’s. And Mr. Ryan's solution? He wants all of these things to continue while suggesting we pay for them by massively depriving the poor, middle class and elderly essential social support.
Mr. Ryan’s plan is stunning in its greed and in its contempt for the middle class, poor and elderly – and for America.

Putting Warnings Where It Matters

Published: Sunday, April 17, 2011, 8:00 PM

By Letters to the editor OregonLive.com
The sign at the door of the wine and coffee shop said "No minors allowed beyond this point." What do people imagine will happen if children watch an adult enjoy a nice glass of wine? Aren't they already doing that at home? It's a silly cultural remnant based on distant echoes of our puritanical beginnings.

The sign would serve much greater purpose if it were placed just outside a fast-food restaurant. A lifetime of bad eating habits, morbid obesity, ill-health -- all leading to a needless premature death -- begin with the 3-year-old's first trip to get "happy" with a meal. Now there's something worth warning us about.

Balancing the Budget? - Not So Hard

Close the corporate tax loop holes. Many major corporations in this country pay NO tax.
Cut total defense spending equal to its waste, greed, and fraud - say 25%.
Stop giving government subsidies to big oil.
Change Medicare part D to allow competitive bidding for pharmaceuticals across international borders.
Stop spending money on Dick Cheney's health.
Now enjoy your surplus.

Icing On The Cake

As it turns out the near miss federal shutdown came down to issues surrounding Planned Parenthood. And in the end, all the fuss, all the arguing and threats resulted in $38billion in cuts. 38 billion out of a 1,300 billion deficit projected for this year alone - 3% of what needs fixing.

This while the trillion dollars a year total defense budget, at the insistence of the republicans, is left untouched. This while big oil, despite billions in profits every year,  is to continue, at the insistence of the republicans, to receive 300 billion dollars a year in government subsidies.

We could have kept all the social programs that were cut, avoided the arguments and threats, and still reduced federal spending nearly 10 times more than we did by simply stopping the big oil free money handout. And let’s not forget the decision to continue the Bush tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, made at the insistence of the republicans, just a few months ago.

This is not about fiscal responsibility. That is a lie. This is about undoing the new deal – and not for ideological reasons alone. What they want is more and more for the wealthy - on the backs of the poor and middle class. If they get to control women's bodies in the process - icing on the cake.

It's a Crazy, Whacky, World

Gulf spill company hands out safety bonuses 
Transocean Ltd., the owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded off the Gulf of Mexico last year, has given its top executives bonuses for achieving the "best year in safety performance in our company's history'', despite the blast that killed 11 people and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the ocean.
03 Apr 2011

Gulf Coast fighting for recompense Residents and fishermen outraged as BP's compensation fund administrator denies 'loss of income' claims. 21 Jan 2011 Gulf spill sickness wrecking lives Nearly a year after the oil disaster began, Gulf Coast residents are sick, and dying from BP's toxic chemicals. 09 Mar 2011  Post-BP illnesses plague Gulf Coast US Gulf residents attribute ongoing sicknesses to BP's oil disaster and use of toxic dispersants. 16 Nov 2010  BP blamed for toxification Fishermen, cleanup workers and Gulf residents believe they are being sickened by toxic chemicals from the BP spill. 09 Nov 2010 Obama declares US Gulf coast safe President holidays in Florida town affected by oil spill after leak finally "capped". 15 Aug 2010 Fukushima: A 'nuclear sacrifice zone' Some experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster could become worse than Chernobyl. 08 Apr 2011Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), the company that operates the plant, said on April 5 that radioactive iodine-131 readings taken from seawater near the water intake of the No. 2 reactor reached 7.5 million times the legal limit. The sample that yielded this reading was taken just before Tepco began releasing more than 11,000 tonnes of radioactive water into the sea. The radioactive water discharged into the Pacific has prompted experts to sound the alarm, as cesium, which has a much longer half-life than iodine, is expected to concentrate in the upper food chain. There are 36 identical plants  in the US. Japan quake causes fresh radioactive spill    Thursday's 7.1-magnitude aftershock resulted in water flowing from containers onto the floor in all three reactor buildings at the Onagawa plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Friday.

Close Guantanamo Bay

Published: Tuesday, April 05, 2011, 8:05 PM

By Letters to the editor OregonLive.com Guantanamo Bay detention center was created to skirt domestic and international law in order to detain civilians without the bother of due process, or even basic human rights. It is a cowardly approach that demeans our country in its cruelty and superficial legal maneuvering.

Along the way it has ensnared, isolated, tortured and ruined the lives of innocents and the lives of their families - by the dozens. Collateral damage in a time of war? - except we haven't bothered even to declare war.

Due process is designed to protect innocents and to ensure dignity and humaneness in the pursuit of justice. Guantanamo Bay does none of these things. What does that say about us as a country, as a people?

The internment of US citizens with Japanese descent during WWII was a sad, shameful time in our history. It lasted four years. The imprisonment of human beings in Guantanamo Bay without trial or resolution has now gone on for eight.

Humanitarianism, As It Suits Us

Published: Saturday, April 09, 2011, 10:58 AM

By Guest Columnist The Oregonian
By Charlie Phillips 

President Barack Obama has given a rousing speech justifying, yet again, American military intervention in the internal affairs of another sovereign nation. He justified his actions by stating that his motive was humanitarian. I have no doubt he believes that. But, historically, virtually every military action has been justified in those terms -- even the worst. Japanese troops brutalizing China in World War II believed they were there to create an "earthly paradise" and to protect the suffering population. And that's just one example.

 
Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi waves to supporters as he arrives to speak in Tripoli, Libya, Wednesday, March 2, 2011.

Noam Chomsky has proposed a test of legitimacy when leaders make such claims. To paraphrase: When citing noble intent as justification for their aggressions, does a call for humanitarian intervention and responsibility to protect extend to defending the victims of their own crimes or those of their allies? If no, all bets are off.

Did Obama, for example, call for a no-fly zone during the incredibly brutal and indiscriminate U.S.-backed Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006? No. In fact Obama holds up as a trophy his support while in Congress of this atrocity. Has he called for intervention in the violent suppression of dissent by the dictatorships in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain?  How about Darfur, North Korea, China? No, no, no.

And lest we swell too much with patriotic pride at what a great benevolent protector of innocents we as Americans are, let us never forget how we sat idly by and watched 800,000 murdered in Rwanda while we and the rest of the world did nothing.

Had Obama at least mentioned oil, his case for intervening in Libya would have taken on greater meaning and honesty. Libya is rich in oil, and specialists believe there may be a lot more where that came from in untapped resources. The truth is the U.S. and United Kingdom have given support to Libya's cruel dictator, right up until just the last couple of months -- despite his atrocities -- for access to that oil.

But the problem with Moammar Gadhafi, and the reason the U.S. and Europe want him out now, is that he is no longer reliable. We want a more obedient leader. Saving the lives of innocent civilians along the way to getting that more reliable client is icing on the cake and something we may take pride in. It is also a powerful point of rationalization -- something Obama uses to help him sleep at night, no doubt. But have no doubt, if it weren't for Libya's riches and strategic importance, the U.S. government would be willing to watch yet another genocide, another Lebanon, another Rwanda.

We cannot justify military aggression with arguments of humanitarianism and the need to protect only when it suits our greater needs and purposes. Obama and the U.S. have failed the Chomsky test, miserably so. We are involved in the internal affairs of three countries now, using war and destruction as our means. All three are in fact unjustified. It has to stop. 

This Party Isnt For You

The reason I think blue collar republicans support the elitist policies of the republican leadership - money for the wealthy, less government oversight, stick it to the masses - is that they believe they are just one lottery ticket, one invention, one lucky happenstance from becoming part of the elite themselves and they don't want to ruin the party before they get there.
To hell with their neighbors, co-workers, and their kids teachers who are being harmed by these policies - the losers.
The key to turning this around is to successfully vilify the elite who are doing this to the middle class.
Convince these Bobby-Bobs that these guys are stacking the deck against them and their kids.
No way they're getting into the party.
Do that and you can turn this around, focus spending on where it is needed, pull a few teeth from the military industrial corporate monster.
Don't do that and forget it.
You will never get this government to spend money on the middle class and poor = on America.