Note:  The concept for this bit of satire materialized in my e-mailbox a few days ago.  I have failed to identify its creator.  I rewrote and significantly extended the original concept.  Douglas Palmer of Brooklyn, N.Y. suggested the  "birth disqualification" section.

In a bold move that could dramatically alter the playing field of the  2008 GOP presidential race, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee today named Jesus Christ as his vice presidential running mate and personal savior.

Kollwitz, The Propeller

Having shown over the last seven months, since taking control of the legislative branch that they are at least equal to the Republicans when it comes to avarice, the Democrats set out this past weekend to demonstrate that, when it comes to cowardice, to blatant, unmitigated, ass covering politics they are every bit a match for Republicans.

Who impeaches the Congress? What in our Constitution protects the citizens of this country from a completely rogue government? When all three branches have abrogated their constitutional obligations, who will stand up for, who will represent the people of the United States?

Where must we search, to whom do we go for protection from the power of the wealthy corporate classes who are stealing our wealth, our livelihoods, and our future, who are spitting on our laws and our history as they sacrifice our Children and Grandchildren on the profane altar of their greed, in their eternal wars for profit and power?

Where is the opposition? Where do we go for redress of grievances when every institution of government is in the hands of the enemies of the people?

Appearing at The Blogging Curmudgeon, My Left Wing, and the Independent Bloggers' Alliance.

"Sanvean (I Am Your Shadow)" -- Dead Can Dance

"If a woman's husband dies, let her lead a life of chastity, or else mount his pyre" -- Vishnu Smrti xxv.14

Last month, in the wake of the ghastly stoning death of D'ah Khalil Aswad, My Left Wing's Maryscott O'Connor wrote a passionate indictment of organized religion.

Sure, I hate all organized religions. But I especially loathe those religions that use special modes of dress and behaviour to segregate women from men; in itself, that shouldn't mean much, but invariably when women are especially set apart from men, it is generally with the understanding that it is because women are either inferior or dangerous or "unclean."

Witness the Hindu widows of India.

Jerry Falwell, self appointed mouthpiece of God. August 11, 1933 - May 15, 2007

Jerry Falwell, sadly, didn't live long enough to experience the Grand Opening on May 28 of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.

I'm sure that he would have jumped at the chance to view animatronic exhibits depicting humans and dinosaurs living together on the Earth and the planetarium, which presents to the astronomically curious Christian a selection of "creationist cosmologies" all unfolding within the approved Biblical time span of six thousand years.

A display at the Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio

Jerry probably studied this stuff when he went to school at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, but he would have relished the chance to witness the sharing of the true, biblically correct, "history" of the universe with a new generation of inquiring young minds.

Kathryn Joyce is working on a book about conservative Christian women's movements, to be published by Beacon Press.

Between 1985 and 1990, three books were published by small, independent Christian presses that would have come to have a profound impact on Christian Right thinking on family planning, feminism and birth control. Charles Provan's The Bible and Birth Control, Mary Pride's The Way Home: Away from Feminism and Back to Reality, and Rick and Jan Hess's A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ. Together, these three books laid a comprehensive framework for the pro-natalist, anti-birth control movement today known as Quiverfull, wherein believers eschew all forms of birth control, natural and hormonal, and argue that Christian families should leave the number of children they have entirely in the hands of God.

There is a new religion spreading throughout the
world

Yesterday morning in Nicaragua, at the urging of the Church, the State turned its back on women. The National Assembly voted 52-0 to remove the 130-year-old therapeutic abortion exception from the Penal Code - meaning that Nicaraguan women with life-threatening pregnancies now face a death sentence. That includes women with ectopic pregnancies. That includes pregnant women who develop or discover that they have cancer or sexually transmitted infections. That includes nine-year-old girls who have been raped. Not one single legislator stood up for these women's right to life.

A study from Oxford researchers was released this week that once again concluded that there is no data to support the claim from radical anti-choice activists that abortion (induced or spontaneous) causes breast cancer.

This research only further bolsters the arguments from the American Cancer Institute (a federally-funded branch of NIH), the Mayo Clinic, a US Congressional report and others that say there is conclusive evidence that there is no link between abortion and breast cancer.  But for some reason, the far-right Canadian website, LifeSite, was quick to write that this new research is flawed, and to reaffirm their claim that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer.  What on earth is going on here?  How can they keep making these claims?  Some people are inclined to think that it's just because they're so ideologically constrained that they can't see the science sitting right in front of them.  But if you read their article, you get an even more comical picture: they have absolutely no ability to logically evaluate the science, and (why is this typical of the far-right?) they will continue on message regardless of the research and regardless of how ridiculous they look.

It is the duty of all religions and beliefs and the duty of those who have no religion to respect this planet and cherish its gifts. It is a human duty.

Link

As someone who also believes in the words of Jesus Christ and a supreme being from whom all good flows, the well written article above illustrates perfectly what we as Christians should be doing to protect and preserve this planet, but it doesn't stop with just Christians. And that is what I was taught in my life as a child growing up in a church.

I grew up in a home where church was an integral part of our lives. Every Sunday from the time I was five years old I went to church with my parents who were also very involved in it. I went to Sunday School, was confirmed, served as an usher, a Church Council member (a post I was unanimously elected to five times,) and also sang in my church choir for 10 years as one of their lead soloists. I also started working when I was 15 as a teacher in the Community Summer Bible Study School where I taught 3-5 year olds, and did that for about three summers until I went to college.

The diary below was originally posted on my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal, on May 20th.

Progressives are struggling to synthesize a movement that can rise above identity politics and mobilize people under a unified theme. Robert W. Fuller, Ph.D. argues in his newly published book, All Rise (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.), that simple dignity is an elusive need that cuts across demographics of race, gender, age, and class. Fuller attributes this void to a culture of "rankism" which he defines as "abuses of power associated with rank." In his writings Fuller advocates for a grassroots effort to establish a "dignitarian society."

I gassed up this morning and it cost me over three bucks a gallon, on the way home I stopped at the store for a loaf of bread which cost me $1.39 for the same loaf of crappy white sandwich bread I paid $.99 for a month ago.

Today or yesterday is an anniversary of sorts, a day of commemoration, a day to reflect on what it is in man that dooms him to endless repetition of his mistakes.

Maybe it's just a day to spit on the sidewalk, hitch up your pants and say, "same shit, different day" and let man worry about himself.

Sixty nine years ago Hitler and Mussolini decided that propping up their soul mate Francisco Franco would offer them a great opportunity to test out all the new high tech military hardware they had amassed.

Want to know where to find the highest concentrations of Muslims in the United States?  How about counties that are (yowza) more than 50% Baptist?  The American Ethnic Geography course at Valparaiso university has the question covered.

Having come out of a background in geology, I'm always convinced that no question can be solved without looking at a map, and these maps are fascinating.

In honor of Charles Darwin's birthday on February 12th, I am posting a series of diaries on Darwin and his theory. My first entry in this miniseries covered the basics of Darwin's theory of evolution. In this essay, I wish to discuss some of the objections that have been made regarding his theory and show how more than 100 years of research have done nothing but bolster or minorly modify Darwin's theory.

In honor of Charles Darwin's birthday on Feb. 12th, I want to spend some time discussing just what is Darwin's theory of evolution and, in another article, addressing some of the criticisms of this theory.