WTF?! This is why I hate two party politics!

Philly Plumbers Upset by Waterless Urinals - Yahoo! News: "This city's hoped-for bragging rights as home of America's tallest environmentally friendly building could go down the toilet.

In a city where organized labor is a force to be reckoned with, the plumbers union has been raising a stink about a developer's plans to install 116 waterless, no-flush urinals in what will be Philadelphia's biggest skyscraper."

See, this is ridiculous. This is a perfect example of a totally self-interested group (which they have a right to be), forcing everyone to cater to their interests, when clearly the way that they want todo things is antiquated and wasteful. I really do often find myself on the side of unions, but this is really an example of why people hate them; you're asking the world to waste money and natural resources so that you can profit. It's basically like an oil company.

Fuck that. I sympathize that it would be nice to make money and that everyone and everything will stay the same for ever and ever, but progress is progress. As Lee Iococca said: lead, follow, or get out of the way.

I value the environment and the future of this planet more than I value a Plumbers' Union. Sorry if that makes me callous. I'm sure there's probably a detail here that's missing for me, but in the end it appears that the concern is about using more metal and using more water for the enrichment of plumbers. On the face of it, it sounds insanely wasteful and stupid.

Guess What? Prayer Doesn't Do Anything!

Study: Praying Won't Affect Heart Patients - Yahoo! News: "Does praying for a sick person's recovery do any good?

In the largest scientific test of its kind, heart surgery patients showed no benefit when strangers prayed for their recovery.

And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. Doctors could only guess why."

The sad thing is that this will be fought and denied by virtually everyone. I believe it was Nietszche who said, "one need not look further than the insane asylum to prove that faith in an idea means nothing."

Evangelicals Miss The Point

Evangelical teens rally in S.F.: "Luce didn't flinch in the face of the counterprotest. The author, host of the 'Acquire the Fire TV' cable television program and a President Bush appointee to a federal anti-drug-abuse commission, wants teens to find Bible-based solutions for the spread of sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, drug abuse and suicide."

Every Saturday, I invite the Jehovahs Witnesses into my house to chat. Every time they're shocked to find that I'm an athiest and actually have values. And every time we end up talking about how their system of beliefs requires SO much more than mine and delivers SO much less.

Mine delivers independence, happiness, a sense of purpose, meaning, satisfaction, and a connection to those around me.

Theirs delivers the same, but it also delivers fear of the wrath of God, the necessity to come up with explanations as to why bad things happen to good people, the denial of the world around them, the need to come up with even more round-about explanations for the world in order to continue to suspend their disbelief of what they actually see, and the daily incorporation of superstician into their lives.

The bible doesn't provide any solutions for the spread of disease, pregnancy, drug abuse, or suicide. People were FAR more religious even 50 years ago and their was as much or more disease, pregnancy, drug abuse, and suicide then than now. The religious thrive off of ignorance and disinformation.

Have you ever wondered why AlAno doesn't publish recividity rates or success rates for their program? It's because they're likely as good as having not gone at all. Do you want to know why religious organizations that believe in spiritual healing don't track their sucess rates? It's because they don't succeed.

The facts are on the side of science, again and again. Everyone dies. Disease is prevented by education. Sex is good for everyone. Pregnancy rates and abortion rates decline with good, well rounded secular educations (and not religious ones).

Religion, on the other hand, is perpetually wrong ABOUT EVERYTHING. I feel bad to say it, but everyone from the Pope to the Dahlai Llama is just wrong and has not a single leg to stand on that can support their beliefs. I don't hate them. I just think it's a waste of their time . . . especially because it requires such a high level of commitment from EVERYONE else to keep the illusion going.

Anyway, sorry to the religious for that. I don't mean to hurt your feelings. But, I feel like you're really hurting the prospects of America by spending so much time by trying to make everyone believe in ghosts, all powerful invisible men, and man with red skin, horns and a goatee. It's just stupid. Really.

Afghanistan has come a LONG way!

CNN.com - Bush pressures Afghanistan on jailed Christian - Mar 22, 2006: "'I think we can solve this problem by working closely with the government that we've got contacts with, and we'll deal with this issue diplomatically and remind people that there is something as universal as being able to choose religions.'

Wow, what an accomplishment.
Abdul Rahman, a 44-year-old father of two, was arrested after telling local police, whom he approached on an unrelated matter, that he had converted to Christianity. Reports say he was carrying a Bible at the time. (Watch how the convert explained his conversion -- 1:17)

The Afghan constitution, which is based on Sharia, or Islamic law, says that apostates can receive the death penalty."

How to spot a baby conservative! HA!

TheStar.com - How to spot a baby conservative: "The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity."

Certainly sounds right.

Boo-hoo! Baby Tired?

Senior White House Staff May Be Wearing Down: "Andrew H. Card Jr. wakes at 4:20 in the morning, shows up at the White House an hour or so later, convenes his senior staff at 7:30 and then proceeds to a blur of other meetings that do not let up until long after the sun sets. He gets home at 9 or 10 at night and sometimes fields phone calls until 11 p.m. Then he gets up and does it all over again.

Of all the reasons that President Bush is in trouble these days, not to be overlooked are inadequate REM cycles. Like chief of staff Card, many of the president's top aides have been by his side nonstop for more than five years, not including the first campaign, recount and transition. This is a White House, according to insiders, that is physically and emotionally exhausted, battered by scandal and drained by political setbacks."

Boo-hoo, you never heard clinton complain about sleeping. He was notorious for being a slave driver. Bush looses an hour of sleep and suddenly we're supposed to pity him? What about single mothers who work two fucking jobs for minimum wage? Suck it up. You volunteered for this job. And you cheat.

No Loyalty . . . Thank Goodness.

Bush's Approval Rating Falls to New Low - Yahoo! News: "More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush's performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.

Nearly four out of five Americans, including 70 percent of Republicans, believe civil war will break out in
Iraq — the bloody hot spot upon which Bush has staked his presidency. Nearly 70 percent of people say the U.S. is on the wrong track, a 6-point jump since February.

'I'm not happy with how things are going,' said Margaret Campanelli, a retiree in Norwich, Conn., who said she tends to vote Republican. 'I'm particularly not happy with Iraq, not happy with how things worked with Hurricane Katrina.'

Republican Party leaders said the survey explains why GOP lawmakers are rushing to distance themselves from Bush on a range of issues — port security, immigration, spending, warrantless eavesdropping and trade, for example."

Finally, the GOP wakes up and realizes that GWB is, in fact, the The Worst President Ever. Hopefully, they'll be kicked out at mid-terms anyway, but this is an encouraging trend.

With any luck, in a year we'll have a return to funding science (and trusting it too), loosening educational immigration, removing the religious right's ideological stranglehold over public policy, and a workable foreign policy that doesn't include torture, hypocrisy and lying as a centerpeice. Sound like a world you'd like to live in? It does to me.

Another Slickly Handled Situation for the GOP

CNN.com - UAE firm to transfer port operations to 'U.S. entity' - Mar 9, 2006:
"United Arab Emirates-owned DP World said Thursday it would transfer its operations of American ports to a 'U.S. entity' after congressional leaders reportedly told President Bush that the firm's takeover deal was essentially dead on Capitol Hill.

'Because of the strong relationship between the United Arab Emirates and the United States and to preserve that relationship ... DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations of P&O Operations North America to a United States entity,' Edward H. Bilkey, DP World's chief operating officer, said in a statement."

This is totally fucking ridiculous. The UAE is an ally. This is political grandstanding by both parties of the worst possible kind. All the UAE cares about is money. They have no interest in terrorism as a nation, nor, I would imagine, as a multinational company. The very idea that this sale was in question is preposterous. I mean, let's face it, if you really cared about port security to begin with, you wouldn't have sold off all of your ports. But if you're going to do it, why not actually sell it to the highest bidder?

I mean, if you really want to worry about something worthwhile, why not worry about the fact that China holds 50% of our debt? Or how about the fact that we're not doing shit about Global Warming because we're afraid it might hurt business in the short term? I got news for you, if you don't do something about it these things now, there won't even be much of a short term to speak of. New York, LA, and all your pretty little fucking doggies are going to be under 20 feet of water. How do you think that'll do for business?

[RANT]
UGH! I HATE the GOP. Why don't they think more than two feet in front of their lobbiests' noses? We're all going to be in the 7th level of hell if they don't start paying attention to reality and science. Neither JESUS, nor Allah, nor any other god can save you . . . only science can. The reality is that these are all ghost stories, k? Can we move on now and start paying attention to the reality that all Arabs aren't bad, God doesn't exist and therefore is on no ones "side," and that statistics actually do matter? PLEASE!!
[/RANT]

This is Why GWB and the Whole GOP Are Assholes

In Response, China Attacks U.S. Record on Rights - New York Times: "China criticized the human rights record of the United States on Thursday, arguing that racial discrimination remained pervasive and that the American military abused prisoners held at detention centers abroad.

In a sharply worded response to the annual State Department report on human rights conditions globally, which was released in Washington on Wednesday, China's cabinet said the American government should concentrate on improving its own rights record."

Because when you call into question your own human rights record, you can't very well go around telling people how it is that they ought to do things. This is what everyone said years ago, but of course, like everything, GWB has to figure it out the hard way -- by being read the riot act by China of all nations.

Jesus H. Christ, these motherfucking good/evil binary minded religious fucking zealots really need to be sent to another planet.

I Voted For It, Before I Voted Against It: GOP Style

AP Wire | 03/08/2006 | Santorum writes foreword for book on intelligent design: "In a column he wrote for the Delaware County Daily Times on Jan. 5, the senator wrote that teachers should be allowed to teach the controversy surrounding evolution, but that school boards should not mandate teaching intelligent design.

Evolution should be taught as 'the leading and dominant scientific theory explaining the origin of species, but also as a theory subject to significant limitations, failed predictions, and important criticisms,' Santorum wrote."

Again, it turns out the all politicians are full of shit. But espcially the religious ones . . . after all, this supersticious nonsense breeds flip-flopping.

Values?

Suit: W.Va. Police Chief Denied Gay Man CPR: "A small-town police chief was accused in a federal lawsuit Thursday of stopping a would-be rescuer from performing CPR on a gay heart attack victim because he assumed the ailing man had HIV and posed a health risk."

I can't say who this person stands for, but we've got to work on this as a nation. The fact that this is 20 years after the start of HIV/AIDs and there are police cheif's propagating myths about this is totally unacceptable. And if it's bigotry, this man should be fired. There's no place for inept leaders in our society. None whatsoever. They must be removed immediately.

Incompentence, Lies, and Videotape

Video Shows Bush Warned Before Katrina Hit - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON - On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's fateful landfall, President Bush was confident. His homeland security chief appeared relaxed. And warnings of the coming destruction — breached or overrun levees, deaths at the New Orleans Superdome and overwhelming needs for post-storm rescues — were delivered in dramatic terms to all involved. All of it was captured on videotape.

The Associated Press obtained the confidential government video and made it public Wednesday, offering Americans their own inside glimpse into the government's fateful final Katrina preparations after months of fingerpointing and political recriminations.

'My gut tells me ... this is a bad one and a big one,' then-federal disaster chief Michael Brown told the final government-wide briefing the day before Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.

The president didn't ask a single question during the briefing but assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: 'We are fully prepared.'"

I'll say it one more time: this administration, in sum, is completely incompetent and cannot do anything well but lie to the American people. That's what gets them elected, that's what helps them manage the media, but it's also what makes them clearly fail in Iraq, and our people all over the country.

Christian Hate

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > North County -- Mother swells with pride for Oscar-nominated child: "“Michelle doesn't represent the values of this institution. We would not approve of her movies and TV shows (including the teen drama “Dawson's Creek”). We'd not like to be tied to 'Brokeback Mountain.'

“I hope we offered her something in life. But she made the kinds of choices of which we wouldn't approve. 'Brokeback Mountain' basically promotes a lifestyle we don't promote. It's not the word of God.”"

YAWN! Christians can't deal with anything that doesn't fit into their little book. Of course, neither can Jews or Muslims. But, whatever. It's really pathetic their live and let die attitude. Oh well, who really cares? They'll die and go nowhere, just like everyone else before them.