Societal Overhaul

“Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change,
into something rich and strange,
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.”

Shakespeare ~ The Tempest

If it hasn’t become clear to most of you by now, it should have. We are in the middle of a blatant attempt by certain political elements  to completely and utterly overhaul society as it has existed for at least the last 100 years, if not longer. I call these elements by what they call themselves – Republicans. A little history is in order.

Tea Party Thinking

Since I began this blog back in 2007, not a month has gone by where I have not written at least one post. So, this being January 31st, and having not written anything this month, I decided I’m not going to purposely ruin that record. It’s a meaningless record, but if it spurs me to write something, then so be it. I’ll write something.

Voter IDs: Another Republican Scam

By now most people are aware of the various laws passed by, almost exclusively, Republican controlled state legislatures that ostensibly are supposed to prevent voter fraud at the polls (33 states so far. 180 restrictive voting bills have been introduced in 41 states just since the beginning of 2011.)  They attempt to accomplish this by requiring photo IDs that are mandated to be produced before someone votes.  On its face, it seems logically innocuous. We all have photo IDs (driver’s licenses, etc) that show who we are, don’t we?  What’s the big deal? We need to produce an ID when we cash a check, or obtain credit, or get on an airplane, the argument goes, so why not when we show up to vote? Besides there are all those unscrupulous people out there committing voter fraud, impersonating someone else in order to vote more than once, right?

Well…no.

Notice Anything Missing?

This is BCP (Before Christian Polarization).

H/T Brian Fields

Book Review: It’s Even Worse Than It Looks

I wrote a quick review of this book and posted it on my Goodreads account. I’ve expanded it a bit for this post:

++++++++++++

It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the Politics of Extremism by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars (4.5, actually, but the Goodreads rating system only works with whole numbers)

… It’s nice to find a well researched and articulate book that gives voice to the confusion and bewilderment I have experienced watching political discourse and activity over the past couple of years in this country, especially since Obama was elected. I have had so many WTF moments, incredulous that what was happening in the regular course of government was actually happening. The faux debt crisis, for me, was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the one where I seriously thought Republicans were committing treason. Their actions and positions last summer were so obviously motivated by party-wide self advancement, rather than the good of the country they were elected and paid to serve, that I felt they should have been taken out back and summarily shot.

Poster Of The Week

More Blatant Hypocrisy From the Right

Now, don’t respond to this by pointing out leftist hypocrisy. I know that a little human hypocrisy is inevitable. I’m even sure that you could run through 480 or so posts I have here on my blog, and find some minor instance where I exhibit hypocritical tendencies (though I feel confident there is nothing major).

A Response

I wrote a response to this comment on my last post, but it got so long, I thought it would make better sense to make a separate post out of it.  SG suggested I read the comments on this post at Pharyngula, so I did.

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A Broad Spectrum Of Disbelief

Here’s something that’s been bugging me, so allow me a little rant.

It seems like every time an atheist makes a comment about some aspect of religion that bugs them, they are quite forcefully and specifically told to shut up. Religion is not a topic one is supposed to discuss in polite company (along with politics and sex, and we know how often that rule is broken). Atheists are made to feel like every time they criticize theism, they are stepping over some boundary of propriety. Due to my upbringing, I often find myself gauging the sensibilities of my listener to see if I might offend them, but I notice that never does a Christian (I don’t have much contacts with Hindus, Muslims and members of other religions) stop and think before they “thank god” or “god bless me” or otherwise inject their religious beliefs into a conversation.

That Clinches It For Me

There is far too much discussion about religion in this election. I don’t care who has the better theology, whether one is a better Christian than another, what god says about gays, vaginas or the price of oil for that matter. I don’t care what every two-bit preacher with a mail-order degree thinks. I don’t care what Obama’s pastor said once or twice in the 20 years he attended service in his church (that issue is old news and I don’t want to hear it re-hashed by Santorum).