longship
longship's Journal"God Bless You" all night long.
How many times do I have to hear that tonight?
I am tempted to respond, "Thank you, your Eminence."
Who the fuck do these idiots think they are that they would presume that god is on their side? This is yet another dog whistle to the Republican theocratic faction, which, by the way, is no small faction.
Fuck them!!! Religion belongs nowhere near politics, let alone government.
And Ralph "Jack Abramoff's pal" Reed is also going to speak.
Did anybody else notice that "god bless you" ends just about every speech?
OH-gov Kasich dispicible "black-eyed peas" remark.
Did I really hear what I think I heard?
Race baiting asshole! Where's his klan hood?
Fucking Kasich! Dog whistling to the KKK.
Why didn't he use watermelons?
What a horrible stereotype.
Have fun with DU ads!
I've noticed new display ads at the bottom of threads today. Many are good Dem-friendly, but some are not.
Rather than complain about them, may I suggest a little game.
When you post a response to a thread and there's an amusing ad, tag a comment on the end of your post.
My favorite is the Pick the Veep ad that depicts Alan West, Condi Rice, and Donald Trump. It's a bit histerical, as if West or Trump had any chance, or of Condi would accept.
I have also seen an ad for a religious fundie wanting to tell everybody about Jesus. Another promotes the Heritage Foundation.
I love the fact that these guys are giving money to DU. We ought to click through to all of them. I would if I weren't worried about viral infection.
Meh! I use Linux and iPhone. Not much worry there.
Have at it everybody.
Be safe Michiganders. Severe lightning storm
Here I sit in rural west central MI and I don't think I've experienced so much close cloud to ground lightning in my life. Some down pours, a touch of small hail, not much wind, but the lightning is incredible and persistent. Several instantaneous flash-booms, meaning they're within a mile.
I hope forest fire patrol is on this. We've not had much rain this summer and things are very dry here in the woods.
Radar shows a long band traveling W to E so we may all have a long night of thunder booms.
Be safe. Hope the power grid holds up.
PZ Myers gets it right: Genetically Modified Women
Genetically Modified Women, one of today's posts by biologist and outspoken atheist, PZ Myers, is a beautifully constructed Blog entry, with the perfect balance of PZ snark and science.Given PZ's recent support for Rebecca Watson's protest of the lack of policies at skeptical conferences to ensure the rights of woman attendees from gender bias and being hit on, I am not surprised by this.
Please click through and see how a snarky blogger can deconstruct any counter argument. Some things deserve only ridicule. This, PZ does with exquisite art. And, suitably, he brings the sharp eye of science to bear on the issue.
Here's a snark sample:
Beginning in about 1980, all female infants were selectively injected with a Communist mind control virus that turned them into soulless, freedom-hating machines who were good at gymnastics and engineering. When the time is ripe, their programming will be activated and they will rise up to overthrow Western running dog democracies.
The government has top secret labs where clone babies with enhanced genetically engineered intelligence are being raised. Only females are used in this project for technical cloning reasons. They’ve been swapping out normal babies in maternity wards and replacing them with these Humanity 2.0 versions for years.
Big Pharma has been testing brain-enhancing drugs by hiding them in birth control pills. The recent results are the consequence of clandestine human trials. Little known, related fact: they’re also doping Viagra with a stupidity drug.
As male, I may not be the best person to represent feminism. However, it is something I learned at my mother's knee. But this Myers post is one of the best I've seen in a while.
Thanks for paying attention to my first post in this forum. I may not be active here, but I thought this might be of interest here.
Limited Mitt options here: ABC? CBS? Or Watch a movie?
Scott Pelie?
Diane Sawyer?
Or Lisabeth Salander? 
Is there anything to see or hear from the Mittster?
Thanks.
An important lesson the world has apparently not yet learned
I recently purchased a copy of the 1974 production of the PBS series The Ascent of Man which is a very personal account of humankind's (not to use the 1970's sexist vernacular) cultural and intellectual advancement. It is one of the best series ever broadcast on PBS hosted by mathematician and humanist Jacob Bronowski. I watched this when it was first broadcast and had never forgotten it.
The eleventh episode covers quantum theory, but Bronowski delves much deeper. Since he speaks as much about culture as he does science, he ends the episode with, in my opinion, one if the best lessons on the confluence of science and philosophy, and is a lesson that this country seemingly, and sadly, has not learned.
I post the ending monologue here with no further comment other than that I think there are lessons we could all learn. Your opinions, of course, are welcome.
It's said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That's false -- tragically false!
Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance; it was done by dogma; it was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.
Science is a very human form of knowledge. We're always at the brink of the known. We always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgement in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know, although we are fallible.
In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell, I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.
I owe it as a scientist to my friend, Leo Szilard; I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died here, to stand here as a survivor and as a witness.
We have to cure ourselves of the itch of absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.
Jacob Bronowski, a mathematician, author, and humanist of some note.
I think that's it. We have to touch people.
Thank you, DU.
This is becoming a perfect storm V1.2
What a week! It is like a roller coaster ride.*V1.2- item 13 corrected re senate activity
Earlier this week, when ABC broadcast their exclusive, I posted that this may turn out to be like a Rope-A-Dope for President Obama. Look what has happened.
0. Friday, 4 May. The likely trigger event. Richard Grenell, foreign policy advisor to Mitt Romney resigns under blistering attacks by party-not-named Rmoney supporters for Grenell's gay lifestyle, as they often phrased it.
1. Sunday: Vice President Biden answers a question on MTP about gay marriage, affirming his support.
2. There are ripples in the press about this, some speculating whether this was a shift in policy by the Obama administration. But no hard news either way. Party not named goes ballistic. Republicans don't say much.
2.5. Monday: Secy of Education Arne Duncan supports Biden's position.
3. Tuesday: NC votes a state constitutional amendment basically outlawing any but heterosexual marriages, and simultaneously removing existing rights for other relationships.
4. Wednesday: President Obama comes out for equal marriage rights. It makes a huge splash.
5. Party not named doubles down. FOX calls it war on marriage. Mitt doubles down with party not named. Log Cabin Republicans double down.
6. Centrist Republicans and Shep Smith of FOX News back Obama position. Ornstein and Mann screed hits big. Danforth's also.
7. Thursday: WaPo publishes that Rmoney was an anti-gay high school bully, alleging that he assaulted a student because he was gay.
8. Rmoney equivocates. Says he can't remember the incident in spite of the fact that WaPo cites four witnesses, three on the record! Makes weak apology.
9. Party not named doubles down again, implying that Rmoney was right by cheering the bullying.
10. Rmoney exposed as having specifically opposing anti-bullying commission while he was governor of MA, a commission whose mandate was to specifically address gay bullying.
11. Log Cabin Republicans flip-flop and basically support the Obama position. FOX News flip-flops on war on marriage.
12. Major Jewish organizations make prominent announcements in support of Obama. This takes away the religious arguments of the party not named. Waiting for more of the same from others, like Episcopals, UCC, Methodists, UU, others?
13. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee announces the intention to bring the Employment Non Descrimination Act (ENDA) on June 12.
Majority Leader Reid intends to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Hoyer and Reed make statements in support of Obama position.
*Clarifications at responses #30, #41, thx Tx4obama
14. Pelosi supports Obama in the face of House Republicans and party not named attempting to strengthen DOMA, doubling down yet again.
And the hits are going to keep coming.
This is not going to go away. I think we will always remember this week. Cherish it. It could be very important.
Let's not waste it though. We can leverage this by all getting together and before the election and joining hands in DC and as people of reason and intelligence and of all faiths and no faith. We can show the Republicans and the party not named what politics are about. Even though we throw a lot of chairs at each other here at DU, we'll be together as one in DC.
I have no resources to make this happen. But many of you do. It would be an incredible thumbed nose to our ideologically pure opponents.
Thanks for your time.
Nota Bene: low bandwidth here. Please don't ding me for getting days wrong. This week's been fast moving. The take-away is the order of events and how fast the story is developing.
Thank you to everybody supporting this thread. I thought it might be useful in this hectic week. Substantive additions will be added to the chronology.
Love you all!
Gotta go for version numbers
No pity is correct, but not because of scrutiny
Article VI of the Constitution is explicit on this.
However, it was not the Democratic party that did this to the country. It was the Republicans who made religion an issue. That is why they continually portray Obama as a Moslem. Now, with Rmoney the all but assured Repub nominee, the roosters may have come home to roost.
The lesson here is simple. We Dems did not do this to them. It is of their own making. The evangelicals wanted to turn a political party into a church. So be it. Now they can live with what they did.
My hope is that get a very deserving drubbing in November.
Profile Information
Member since: Thu Aug 12, 2004, 03:43 PMNumber of posts: 40,416