I Hope You're Happy

Here’s what I hate about religious proscriptions

So Muslims have a proscription against alcohol. I can understand this, but I’m pretty sure this is to keep a pure spirit. Mormons have a similar thing with alcohol and caffeine. Now some Muslim health care workers are refusing alcohol and sanitizer because of their beliefs. Never mind that it’s a completely different type of alcohol and a different application. The problem is mostly in the minds of the followers who can’t interpret (think) for themselves, because even their leaders said it is permissible for medical purposes.

Current home sales report a veritable rorshach test of political opinion

Most of the time, you’ll want to compare this year to last to see growth. This offers the most specific reflection of annual cycles, but in a recovery, it’s all about day to day, week to week and month to month growth. Baby steps if you will. If you’re an American, 11% up over the previous month is generally good news.If you’re a Republican looking for ammo to use against the president, the 21% down over last year is proof we’re all going to hell and we need to give rich people tax breaks.

How the trade in human kidneys works

First you go to jersey, then you find a Rabbi….

Senator Sessions the racist won’t approve Sonia Sotomayor the Latina racist

She’s too “librul”.

Alaska, your long public embarrassment is over

Sarah Palin blames everyone but herself in her own failure.

The End tmes have got to be here

Ann “C-word” Coulter says the birth certificate debate needs to end, Obama is a citizen.

And speaking of end times, why not visit The End of the World Times.com?

I see….He’s the Republican Black Sheep, but he certainly fits in….

Michael Steele talking about “suspicious” “people” “taking names and pictures” at a pro life rally. Maybe they were reporters, and he just isn’t used to seeing them. Really, the paranoia in this clip is fit for Ann Coulter’s audience. Clip is from Hannity.

Tex. Governor wants to secede, because we all know how well that turned out before.

Here’s the press conference. As a matter of fact, we might be better off…….

Iowa Senator Threatened over Gay Marriage decision

Just because he’s openly gay. And, because, you know allowing gays to marry is going to lead us all into violent chaotic upheaval, kind of like guys how randomly threaten lawmakers with death because of….hey wait a minute….

If the Republicans go this way, I won’t have any problem with it.

This is a brilliant move, exclude everybody even more, make the party stronger and it’ll be even stronger, perhaps in its purity, or its pure race……

Here’s a good quote: “It’s time to stand up, speak out, and confuse the Miss McCains of the world with the facts.”

Of course, most of the article is about opinions. It’s amazing how this writer doesn’t understand the discrimination the Republicans dish out, or that SHE HERSELF is.

In a parallel but unrelated story

Former McCain campaign architect says Republicans should embrace their gayness, or at least drop the gay marriage issue from their platform.

The Pig Book is out

Let’s see who is the worst offenders with earmarks. Hmmm…..Alaska led the nation on a per capita basis, Republican Sen. Thad Cochran from Mississippi was highest. To be fair, the next three or four are Democrats, but there you go.

In fiscal year 2009, Congress stuffed 10,160 projects into the 12 appropriations bills worth $19.6 billion. The amount marks a 14 percent increase over 2008.

Overall, that’s not a lot of money, but the increase in a time of calls for restraint from both sides is pretty insulting.

The most untrustworthy politicians list

Palin and Pelosi are at the top. I couldn’t agree more about both of them. Now that Blago’s tower has been toppled, I’m just waiting for these two.

Limbaugh Jumps on Bush for killing hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I’m sorry, I read that wrong. He criticized Obama for killing the three Islamic pirates that kidnapped the ship captain and held him hostage on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Silly me.

Obama isn’t taking our guns. So it was the Republicans that lied.

Gee, I don’t get snookered often, but gosh golly gee whizbang.

I love high end home audio folks….they’ll buy into anything

If you buy these you should be mocked without mercy.

Republicans almost unanimously vote against the largest tax cut in history

Funny how that works out. So much for standing up to principles.

And now they’re nationalizing banks

Lindsey Graham talks about the impending nationalization of the banking system.

An oral history of the Bush Administration

This is pretty fascinating. An insider look at everything that went on.

Obama is fearmongering….yeah….sure…..

The pot calls the kettle black

Alexandra Pelosi’s experiences documenting the McCain campaign

Yes, she’s the daughter of THAT Pelosi, but she did an honest documentary that you can see soon.

Check out this spin:

Republicans who voted against the stimulus bill are taking credit for points in it.

Bush no longer protecting Rove

So much for Loyalty

Eight people arrested…..

For smoking a little weed with Michael Phelps. No one arrested yet for 8 deaths and 575 illnesses due to tainted peanuts that had been knowingly sent out since 2007.

This is just way too cool…

5 soldiers who made Rambo look like pussies.

The C-Word is now defending white supremacists

The throw-away article of the day. Ann Coulter is a racist. Who woulda thunk? Here she is defending the Council of Conservative Citizens.

Religion was very interesting in this election cycle, and it gets more interesting every campaign year. Obama had Reverend Wright, McCain had ultra-conservatives that were intolerant bastards. Mitt Romney had the unquantifiable Mormon thing. All of this was an issue because their religion wasn’t acceptable to a voter demographic. The candidate wasn’t one of “them”, whoever the “them” happened to be. And don’t even try to get into politics if you’re an atheist. You obviously have no morals. So here’s my topic, and it is an open debate. Is religion becoming such a polarizing force that it is now a liability? Would it be better to not disclose your beliefs and let voters decide based on track record alone whether you uphold their principles?

Let’s look at some basic points of history. Religion has always been important to the American voter. No way around that. In the past, we were also much more conservative than we are now. And yet, the religious backgrounds of our previous presidents have been varied within the Christian spectrum. I think Jefferson was atheist or agnostic, but that was also back in a period of high public acceptance of atheism. The anti-atheist movement hadn’t kicked in yet, though there were certainly similarly conservative forces at work. The smear campaigns were also much more bitter, directed at the morals of a candidate. But at the same time, having a Christian affiliation essentially qualified a person for being, well, Christian. There were some reservations between the sects, but at the national level, some brand of Chrsitianity was good enough for most people.

Now things are different. Christians are divided on what the right brand of Christianity is, and the most vocal at the moment, the conservative sects, are very intolerant of any interpretation of the divine that isn’t their own.

So here’s the question: how much is faith now dividing voters, and how much is it now a liability to a candidate?

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The fairness doctrine is on the minds of Democrats in Washington, and it is time to give my fair and objective criticism of the idea. In a nutshell, the fairness doctrine is a law that says that media outlets must cover several opinions of an issue in more or less equal amounts of airtime, column inches, or foul-mouthed bitching sessions. That’s basically it. There is a similar idea called the equal time rule, which says that radio stations must provide equal time to a candidate that may want it, but this isn’t quite the same thing. The Fairness Doctrine centers around issues rather than candidates or political parties. There are exceptions for news and documentaries, but it is a widely held principle of responsible journalism that the coverage from a particular outlet, but not necessarily reporter, should mostly balance out in the long run.

This law went away in 1987 due to a Supreme Court decision that Congress had not mandated it, and therefore the FCC need not enforce it. It is worth pointing out that while it was challenged in the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds, they specifically never ruled it limited or challenged free speech. They warned that they would side against it if it was found to limit free speech, but nobody ever proved that it did.

Since then, news has undergone significant change. There are more talking heads and fewer investigative journalists. Newspapers are struggling to make money while Fox News is a giant conservative brainwashing tool, but without the color enhancers of similar detergents. I think the statistic is that there are ten times the number of conservative talk show hosts as there are Liberal. As I look through the political blogs at some of the blog sites I use to advertise this fine program and blog, I have a hard time finding a liberal blog that is useful, while conservative blogs are dime a dozen, and the spelling and grammar on them are about as good as the average high school dropout. Turns out conservatives are just bigger loudmouths than the other side of the spectrum, and therefore cause far more global warming just due to the emissions of hot air.

What changed? I’ll start by saying a name, Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch decided that news was business, and with his purchase of Fox News, he set out to make money. He admits it up front, he isn’t a reporter, he is a businessman. His business model mentioned nothing about honest reporting of the news, but everything about developing a monopoly on a point of view and marketing it to the point of saturation. This means there is no fair and balanced about it. The model that says money corrupts the impartiality of news is proven in Fox News. Continue reading