Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Hilarious, isn't it? But ignorance isn't a disqualification to their faith-based supporters. Intelligence, education, knowledge - those are suspect.
Furthermore, they think that anyone can work in government, because government - their own government - is worthless. The Republican Party pushes that idea (and then demonstrates it when they get in power).
If they needed medical care, would they go to an amateur? If they needed legal help, would they go to an amateur? Heck, if they needed a plumber or an electrician - and they were paying for it - they wouldn't want an amateur. (They might do it themselves, or with friends, to save money, but they'd want to hire professionals.)
But they want amateurs in government - running our government, not just in low-level positions. And this degree of ignorance just demonstrates their amateur standing, I guess. (Of course, Sarah Palin was a governor - for one-half of one term - so she shouldn't be this ignorant.)
This was put together by the White House. Nice, huh? And they barely even mentioned the part about the Iraq War 'paying for itself.'
Maybe that was some other faith-based war-monger in the Bush Administration? But they didn't mention torturing prisoners of war either, and Dick Cheney was definitely involved with that.
After a 16-year-old Fayetteville girl made a sexually explicit nude photo of herself for her boyfriend last fall, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office concluded that she committed two felony sex crimes against herself and arrested her in February.
The girl was listed on a warrant as both the adult perpetrator and the minor victim of two counts of sexual exploitation of minor - second-degree exploitation for making her photo and third-degree exploitation for having her photo in her possession.
A conviction could have put the girl in prison and would have required her to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
Get that? She's being considered a child victim, but simultaneously an adult criminal, for the same incident: taking a picture of herself.
As the 16-year-old 'adult,' she's considered a sex offender for taking a picture of herself, for taking advantage of herself, as a crime against herself as a 16-year-old child. Crazy, isn't it? Even in the South, how could they be this insane?
Her boyfriend, who was also 16 at the time, also faces charges, "possible prison time and the requirement to register as a sex offender if convicted." For having the picture in his possession that she sent him!
You want to know what's even weirder? The age of consent is 16 in North Carolina - and younger than that for teens who are less than four years apart in age - so it would be perfectly legal if they were having sex.
But this young woman can't even take a picture of herself without being considered a sex offender! She's considered a child when it comes to sex and an adult when it comes to criminal activity, even when that 'criminal activity' is just taking a picture of herself!
Also, keep in mind that, according to the Sheriff, these pictures weren't being shown to anyone else. This was entirely a private matter between two sixteen-year-olds.
Jebus! And I thought the Janet Jackson nip slip incident had been hysterically blown out of proportion. That's nothing compared to this. America, huh?
Hilarious, isn't it? You know this woman was always a Christian. Raised Christian from infancy in an overwhelmingly Christian society, she would have identified as a Christian at any time in her life.
But her adultery and multiple marriages are OK, because she's decided she wasn't a 'real' Christian back then - not by her current standards, at least. Heh, heh. Yeah, right.
Besides, you can bet that she never once denied a marriage license to a couple because they'd been divorced (like her), even though that's just as much against the Bible as gay marriage. Why not, if this is actually about her religious beliefs? (Well, admittedly, her religious beliefs are only whatever she wants them to be. That's why she's faith-based.)
Still, she undoubtedly swore an oath to uphold the Constitution when she took office. If she's no longer willing to do that, she doesn't have to work as the County Clerk. No one is forcing her to keep her job, and there's nothing in the Bible about working for the county.
Obviously, she's willing to cause problems for other people, but she doesn't want to lose her paycheck, which would cause problems for herself.
Jebus, what next! Republicans don't even live in the real world, but just in some crazy fantasy world in their own head.
How can a democracy survive with citizens like this? And with their attacks on science, on education, on journalism, they're determined to make everyone else as ignorant and as fantasy-based as they are.
Reality doesn't matter to them. And yet these are the people electing our school boards, our representatives in Congress, and - if worse comes to worst - the President of the United States, the most powerful nation on Earth.
I know. This has had tons of media attention already. But do you know how seldom it is that I can post a feel-good video?
The Republican campaign for president, not to mention the continuing insanity in Congress, is making me ashamed to be an American. This makes me proud (even though I had nothing at all to do with it).
There are a lot more good people in America - and around the world - than there are crazies. It's just that the crazies usually get all of the attention.
A Boston man allegedly told police that he beat and urinated on a homeless man early Wednesday because the man was Hispanic, citing real estate mogul Donald Trump's comments on undocumented immigrants as justification for the attack.
In response, the Republican presidential candidate said that "it would be a shame" if his anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric inspired the beating. He immediately pivoted from the mild condemnation to praising his "passionate" supporters' commitment to restoring America to greatness. ...
"I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate," he continued, as quoted by the Herald. "They love this country. They want this country to be great again. But they are very passionate. I will say that.”
Sick stuff, isn't it? Republican politicians incite this kind of violence - or worse - and then wash their hands of any responsibility.
Most Republicans won't do this kind of thing, not even most Trump supporters. But their rhetoric inevitably pushes a certain percentage of people - people they've deliberately made angry - into violence.
Republican politicians have found that pushing fear and anger works great, politically. Fox 'News' makes a ton of money from it, too. But is this really the kind of country we want?
In 2013, conservative reality TV star Josh Duggar—of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting fame—was named the executive director of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group in D.C. which seeks “to champion marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society.” During that time, he also maintained a paid account on Ashley Madison, a web site created for the express purpose of cheating on your spouse.
In May 2015, Duggar was forced to resign afterIn Touch Weekly reported that he had molested five young girls (four of whom were his own sisters) beginning in 2002. When the accusations became public, the family went into crisis mode, insisting that Josh had reformed and that the media covering the claims was intent on “exploiting women.”
Since then, Duggar has admitted to cheating on his wife. So much for reforming, huh? But will it even matter? Look at Sen. David Vitter, another right-wing Christian 'family values' promoter caught patronizing prostitutes. He didn't even lose his Senate seat, and he's currently leading in the race for Louisiana governor, still pushing God-based family values (i.e. one man and as many concubines as he wants, apparently).
None of this will matter to the faith-based, though. That's because reality doesn't mean anything to them. They believe what they want to believe, and that's that. It won't affect the power of the Family Research Council, either, or of the Republican politicians who genuflect to them.
I'm sure glad we've got Republican men addressing the problem of sexual harassment, aren't you?
The Missouri legislature would like to continue its internship program despite the program being marred by the recent sexual harassment of interns.
The idea the lawmakers have come up with? Imposing a dress code for the interns to "help everyone keep their focus on legislative matters."
Missouri state Rep. Kevin Engler (R) sent a memo to his colleagues Monday night with suggestions, including minimum number of credit hours for participation and mandatory sexual harassment training for both interns and lawmakers, according to the Kansas City Star on Tuesday.
The move came after two legislators, including former Missouri House Speaker John Diehl (R), resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment of interns.
State Rep. Bill Kidd (R) responded to Engler with a suggestion of his own: "Intern dress code," he wrote, according to the newspaper.
Rep. Nick King (R) agreed, the newspaper reported. ...
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said establishing an intern dress code would put responsibility for the harassment on the interns when it should be on the harasser.
In letters to the Missouri lawmakers, McCaskill (who once worked as an intern at the state legislature) wrote that the proposed solution "bitterly disappointed" her.
I refuse to stand by idly while any suggestion is made that victims of sexual harassment in the Missouri State Legislature is the responsibility of anyone other than the legislators themselves. It is the responsibility of you and your colleagues to uphold the law, protect the young people working in our state’s capital, and confront and change a culture that excuses sexual violence. This problem has nothing to do with how interns are dressed.
You see? If you women didn't look so hot, we men wouldn't harass you. Well, not as much, at least. Clearly, it's all your fault. LOL
OK, I already posted the debate highlights (here), but this covers some important points the other video didn't.
I must say, I didn't realize these guys could make this much sense - not much sense, admittedly, but more than I've ever heard from them before. Don't you agree?
A man who was part of an armed "patriot" group guarding a gun store in Oktaha, Oklahoma that recently declared itself "Muslim free" accidentally shot himself at the store on Tuesday, according to local reports.
The unidentified man was part of a self-described "patriot" group guarding the Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gear store. ...
The gun fell out of the holster and discharged, with a bullet hitting the man in the wrist, Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson said, according to KOTV and the Tulsa World newspaper. The man was expected to survive.
"I saw several of those gentlemen out there yesterday," Pearson told muskogeenow.com. "The way they were holding their weapons, with the fingers on the triggers, you can tell a couple of these gentlemen have no idea about weapons safety. It's like the Clampetts have come to town."
A "Muslim-free" gun shop in Florida made headlines this week after George Zimmerman, the man who shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, said he would raffle off a painting of the Confederate flag to fundraise for the shop.
I hope you laughed at the last video I posted, because this one will make your blood boil. Well, the first half of it will. The second half is funny enough, itself.
I'm a skeptic. I think it makes sense to have reasons for what I believe, so I apportion my belief to the evidence. You're welcome to disagree. Please, tell me I'm wrong. I probably don't agree with anyone about everything. Why should disagreement be a problem? Check the Pages section below for series posts and links to book reviews and game posts, as well as contact info. Unfortunately, I rarely blog at all, anymore. So don't expect new posts. - Bill
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. - Robert Wilensky
It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong - Richard Feynman
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. - President Barack Obama
The formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat. - Shekhar Gupta
We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs. - Carl Sagan
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. - Sam Harris
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. - Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553
Democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can't take root. - Thomas L. Friedman
We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. ... Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. - President Thomas Jefferson
To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle. - Molly Ivins
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
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