If Only

Judge to Rule on Merit of Christ Case - Yahoo! News: "An Italian judge heard arguments Friday on whether a small-town parish priest should stand trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed."

My friend and I were talking about how it'd be nice to go outside churches and protest them the way that they protest outside of abortion clinics, planned parenthood, and force their inane and silly views into schools, government, and everything else.

But then I realized what makes me so different from them: I don't need them to believe in what I believe in order to feel okay about myself. I have no real need to evangelize my beliefs (in that way, anyway): perhaps only in a knee jerk reaction to people who can't shut the fuck up about imaginary worlds, people, and other nonsense.

Anyway, it'd be great in the land of catholics if the courts decide, as hopefully all thinking people eventually will, that much of religion is nonsense (except for some of the basic moral lessons . . . some of them).

Comment on RepVet's Blog

Republican Vet

Because it will likely be deleted or edited (and I spent a lot of time on it), I post it here in its entirety. This is in reference to the post titled "Bin Laden in Baghdad":

Bin Laden would likely not have done any business with Iraq because it was a purely secular country in the middle of the Islamic holy land. He even went so far as to declare a Jihad against Iraq in 1990 when they invaded Kuwait.

Moreover, at that time, the US was supporting Bin Laden too: support given via the Pakistani ISI because of his war against the Soviet Union (that jihadi group was better known as the mujahideen). This is in keeping with the absurd US foriegn policy of "my enemy's enemy is my friend." This policy clearly exacerbated an already full grown problem of extremist Islam . . . even though it suited our shared anti-communist agenda (shared with the mujahideen which happened to include Bin Laden).

Also, the motives of an ex-Iraqi general seem transparent: how better to curry favor with the current administration than to tell them exactly what they've been dying to hear someone say? Good for him, he saw Bin Laden in Iraq in 1984: Donald Rumsfeld was there all throughout the early eighties when we were selling them chemical weapons and other arms for their war against Iran.

As for getting rid of "weapons of mass destruction" before the way, please explain to me what the purpose of having "weapons of mass destruction" if you have no intention of using them against your enemy? Is it just to collect them so that your country can be in violation of UN security council resolutions? So that it can be invaded by the US and summarily destroyed?

I'm sorry, but this article proves nothing other than that geo-politics is a dirty business where lying, cheating, and stealing is the way of the walk.

Sound Familiar? Expect This in NOLA Too.

Iraq Rebuilding Badly Hobbled, U.S. Report Finds - New York Times: "The first official history of the $25 billion American reconstruction effort in Iraq depicts a program hobbled from the outset by gross understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting, secrecy and constantly increasing security costs, according to a preliminary draft."

'Nuff Said

Triumph of the Redistributionist Left | csmonitor.com: "During the first five years of President Bush's presidency, nondefense discretionary spending (i.e., spending decided on an annual basis) rose 27.9 percent, far more than the 1.9 percent growth during President Clinton's first five years, according to the libertarian Reason Foundation. And according to Citizens Against Government Waste, the number of congressional 'pork barrel' projects under Republican leadership during fiscal 2005 was 13,997, more than 10 times that of 1994."

No More Free Lunches For Fat Cats

Democrats Claim a Better Idea on Controlling Lobbying - New York Times: "Some lawmakers said they thought Congress was overreacting to the lobbying scandal with an excess of new rules and requirements.

'Now we're going to say you can't have a meal for more than 20 bucks,' said Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi. 'Where are you going, to McDonald's?'"

Maybe it's about time for our senators and representatives to live within their means, instead of by the means of someone else? The representatives of the people ought to live by the 'plebian' standards they so clearly abhor. I eat lunch for less then three dollars a day (unless I get two orders of street meat). These government Fat Cats need to return to reality and start living like the people that they're supposed to be representing.

They've been living off of our dime (and off of many lobbyiest's dimes) for far too long -- it will be amazing to see the loyalties shift when coorporations cease to own congress and white house . . . hopefully the loyalty will shift back to the people.

Letting the Wolf Guard the Sheep

Republicans Propose Restrictions On Lobbying: "'Many trips are truly educational, and I believe a complete ban on all private travel would be an overreaction that doesn't get to the root of the problem,' said Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), one of three candidates vying to succeed Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) as House majority leader."

What's really left me gobsmacked is that they're still unable to understand how absolutely sickening it is to an average American that our senators should be travelling around to the finest resorts and taking the most wonderful vacations under the guise of research because some fucking lobbyist has the loot to give. The appearance of corruption is almost as bad as corruption. The very tolerance and defence of this behavior should be a very good indication of the need to curb it.



What's so completely sickening to me is that this has been going on for so long -- we, the people, give our government the right to do what they do. Not lobbyists with money. It's us. It's our land. It's our country. Not theirs. This coorporate money in politics must stop. I don't care if it was ruled that coorporations are legally people -- that was a terrible decision that we now can see the repercussions of. And it's time to end it, starting with coorporate money and lobbying saturating congress.

What's the Point?

Well, I mean, I haven't actually lost heart or anything, but I'm kind of tired of this fucking crusade. It's so completely obvious to me (and to everyone else, apparently), that the Republican leadership is comically corrupt -- not to mention fundamentally flawed as an ideology. It really does just go to show that both parties are really corrupt, but that republicans are perfectly happy to destroy America for a couple of bucks and some golf vacations.