Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Life is too short for bad beef jerky. I’m looking for some good beef jerky. I mean real good. I keep looking for it, and it tastes ok, but on the approach to the mouth it smells real bad. Help me out.

“We have become a nation ruled by fear.” says Mike Gravel.

As i see it, being ruled by fear is a pervasive trait in many American voters (not only with ‘conservatives’ or people claiming to be ‘in the middle’). So let us isolate this issue for a moment. Suppose many (if not most) people base there vote on the consolation-factor: Which candidate is best in addressing America’s fears?

I deliberately choose addressing, not solving, maybe ‘playing to’ is more apt (please ignore my lack of English subtlety) The Shrub (R.I.P. Molly Ivins) was good in it. Who’s the next best thing?

Picture of a great ‘consolator- in-chief’ and tell us which present presidential contenders pops to your mind, regardless of whether you would vote for them.

Videos of American soldiers taunting Iraqi children are flowing like a river. It started, I remember, with video of American soldiers in a vehicle making fun of an Iraqi child, teasing the child with a bottle of water as the child ran after them, desperate.

The latest is a video in which children gather around an American soldier who encourages them to say that they fuck donkeys. Of course, the children don’t understand what the soldier is saying, but they go along with the game. Given this kind of garbage, maybe the new Army slogan ought to be: A public relations disaster of one.

If the soldier had just engaged in this kind of sexually slanted mockery of Iraqi children on his own, it would not amount to more than a personal failure - just another crude American teenager making a dumb joke on the level of Beavis and Butthead. But no, the soldier had to capture his joke on video, and then had to post it on the Internet so that the whole world can see it.

Now, people all around the world can see this aspect of what the American military is doing in Iraq: Involving Iraqi children in sexual slurs. After the sexually-charged torture in Abu Ghraib, this kind of stuff gains a new meaning. Why would anyone think that American soldiers are going to help make Iraq a safer place after seeing this video?

I wouldn’t want this soldier and his buddies and their guns around my children. Would you?

This video makes all the abstract talk about staying the course and surges and victory in Iraq much more concrete. For me, it boils down to this basic concept: We cannot make Iraq into a stable, secure, pro-American democracy by using large numbers of angry, sexually frustrated teenagers with guns as our diplomatic corps.

You can argue that soldiers shouldn’t be required to be ambassadors, but as this video shows, they are ambassadors in fact, regardless of what we want.

THE “AIDS VIRUS” WAS MADE IN USA, AS A POPULATION DETERRANT. IT WAS FIRST USED BY THE GOVERNMENT IN
1978 IN SAN FRANCISCO, BUT I MET A LADY WHOM SAID SHE “PIGGEY-BACKED” THE “AIDS VIRUS” WITH THE “HEPITTIS B” IN 1972, IN SAN FRANCISCO’S “GAY” RALLY”. THE SAME WAS DONE IN NEW YORK, ALSO. OUR SHADOW GOVERNMENT HAD THE “BLACK AFRACIANS”, “INNOCULATED WITH “AIDS” BY THE USA-MEDICAL CORP”(AN “ILLUMINATI” THING).
WHEN HILLARY CLINTON GETS ELECTED,EVEN THOUGH SHE IS A “FLAMING LESBIAN” , SHE WILL HAVE ALL THE “GAYS AND LESBIANS” “LABELED” AS “TERRIORIST”, PUT IN “FEMA” CAMPS, AND “DISPOSED” OF, EVEN AS HITLER DID UNTO THE JEWS. HILLARY WILL ALSO, NITIATE THE “666-CHIP” INTO ALL AMERICANS “RIGHT HAND”. OUR COUNTRY WILL THEN BE A “FACIST STATE”, WHERE ONLY “THE RICH WHITE ELITE” WILL OWN ANYTHING! PART OF THE DEAL WITH THE “666-CHIP” WILL BE A CONTRACT, FOR TO DENY “JESUS CHRIST”, OR STARVE TO DEATH. IN MAY OF 2008 THE “NATIONAL “I.D.” CARD” WILL BE ISSIUED WITH OUR “PERSONALIZED DATA” -CHIP”, INCLUDING OUR “DNA”, BANKING INFORMATON, “DRIVER’S LICENSE”, CRIMINAL HISTORY, MEDICAL INFORMATION, ETC. IT’S THE “PRE-CURSOR “TO THE “666-CHIP”. I WANT BE TAKING EITHER, FOR I WILL BE USING MY “ANGEL-GIFT” FOR TO PREVENT IT. IF YOUR OUT THEIR “IN OUR USA HOMELAND” WANT THE “ANGEL-GIFTS”, FOR TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY, SEE MY WEBSITE, ANGELGILS-INSTANT-HEALINGS.COM, AND LEARN THE PROCESS OF OBTAINING WHICH GIFTS YOU WANT. 1. BE “HEALED” AND “FORGIVEN”, 2. LEARN HOW “TO HEAL OTHERS”, EVEN AS BY “REMOTE”, 3. LEARN HOWTO VIEW THE PAST, PRESENT AND “PROJECTED FUTURE” AND 4.
‘CHANGE SOME THINGS”, “IN ADVANCE”, BEFORE THEIR ACTUAL OCCURANCES, 5. EVEN OF THE PROTECTION AS FROM THE “NATIONAL I.D CARD/CHIP” AND THE “666-CHIP”.
MY ADVICE FOR THE “GAYS”/”LESBIANS” IS TO KEEP A “LOW PROFILE”. STOP TRYING TO “GET MARRIED” AND GET ALL “THE FINANCIAL PERKS”, THAT THE “STRAIGHTS” HAVE, AS YOU’RE ONLY “CALLING ADVERSE ATTENTION TO YOURSELF”. “BIG SISTER WILL KNOW WHERE TO FIND YOU AND CRAM YOU AND YOUR COMPANION INTO YOUR LAST HOME, A NOT SO FRIENDLY “FEMA-CAMP”. PLEASE PRAY ABOUT THESE THINGS, FOR TO KNOW THE TRUTH FOR YOUR SELVES, OK? THANKS PAL. FOR THOSE WHO NEED HELP WITH A PRAYER FORMAT, I’LL SUGGEST ONE THAT HAS WORKED FOR ME, FOR OVER 40 YEARS. SEE:
“OUR HEAVENLY FATHER” WE THANK THEE FOR THESE MANY BLESSINGS, AND NAME THEM……, WE ASK THEE
FOR THE FOLLOWING BLESSINGS, AND NAME THEM…..
WE SAY THESE THINGS, IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.
AMEN. ANGELGIL OUT.

Satisfaction is mine.

Searching for images of Australian flags, of all things, I discovered that there was a web site at the domain name SmashLeftWingScum.com - entitled Smash Left Wing Scum, of course. These people were going take left wingers like me and smash us, huh? Well, I just had to take a peek.

What a delight! It turns out that SmashLeftWingScum.com has gotten smashed. There is no more Smash Left Wing Scum web site any more. It’s creators have abandoned the effort. Maybe they went out and got smashed instead. Maybe they discovered that left wingers like me don’t smash as easily as they had hoped.

In the place of the old SmashLeftWingScum.com web site, there is a generic spaceholder site slapped together by GoDaddy.com. Look what the first link is: It’s to Barack Obama’s campaign web site.

Oh, the beautiful consequences of lazy right wing activism!

A few days ago, trying to explain how Unity08 could have a big, expensive poll conducted even though such an expenditure was never reported to the IRS, Unity08’s Chief Operating Officer Anya T. Harris told Irregular Times that the poll was paid for by some of Unity08’s “grassroots advocacy partners”.

Oh, really? Who exactly are these grassroots advocacy partners? Anya T. Harris didn’t say. Why wouldn’t she name them?

Furthermore, why won’t Unity08 tell anyone who these mysterious organizations it has partnered with are? Not a single place on its web site does Unity08 tell its members about these grassroots advocacy partners, or even about any advocacy partners.

The mention by Anya T. Harris of these grassroots advocacy partners a few days ago here on Irregular Times is the first mention of them on the record anywhere.

Why didn’t Unity08 tell its members that Unity08 is working with these organizations?

Also, just what kind of grassroots organization can afford to pay for an expensive national poll? Are these organizations really grassroots, or is that just what Anya T. Harris is saying.

For all we know, the grassroots advocacy partners of Unity08 might be extremist right wing groups like Focus on the Family, or corporate advocacy group like the American Enterprise Institute.

Unity08 member says he wants politicians to “be a role model, not a puppet for big Business and special Interest Groups”. Yet, here Unity08 is, working hand in glove with unnamed special interest groups. That’s what a grassroots advocacy partner really is, after all.

Name names, Unity08. Who paid for that survey? Which organizations is Unity08 working with as grassroots advocacy partners?

Man, this Sam Adams quote is just awesome:

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

Arizona Senator John McCain has started to fall behind in the race for the Republican nomination for President in 2008, and so he has begun a desperate campaign to remake himself as the most rabid right wing radical in the race. Over the weekend, Senator McCain declared that he does not just oppose Roe v. Wade in theory, but actively wants to work to see the Supreme Court decision overturned, and would work to do so as President.

McCain said: “I do not support Roe vs. Wade. It should be overturned.”

What’s next? John McCain already supports George W. Bush’s insane vision of an escalation of the Iraq War. So, in order to appear really, really pro-war, will McCain next declare that he supports pulling out of Iraq, and then invading all over again, to start the war out nice and fresh?

John McCain has gone off the deep end.

I have had it with you people. You think you are so clever. But now I have your number. The self-important losers at Irregular Times who have been heaping criticism on Unity08 are PARTISAN dividers! Read their words:

“I am a Democrat”
I am a Democrat because the Democratic Party does the best job representing my values at the local, state and national level.”

Well, I am a Unity08 supporter because I believe in moving beyond rancor, beyond pointless disagreement, beyond stage-show politics to real solutions for real people by real people who care about people. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Who is paying you to do this? The Democrats, the Republicans, or both?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17218342/ At Mologne House, a struggle to recover. War survivors wrestle with military bureaucracy, personal demons

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17160574/ Forced to battle the system at Walter Reed

For those of you that read these stories and think, damn republicans, I want you to stop and think for a minute….for this to have gotten this bad, this system was falling in disrepair long before this. It does not excuse the fact, just like our own health care system and education system, we the American people allowed our government to do this to our veterans, our sick, and our children. The last of the patriots, that last of the free thinkers was WWII when according to one author (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16906168/) 10% of the population served in the armed forces. But these people also fought for their rights, stood up for themselves and took it upon themselves to keep our government honest.

Now, according to this author, you’d have to knock on 200 doors before you’d find a family affected by the Iraq War. 200 doors….that is 1/2 of 1% of our nations population. The same probably goes for health care and education. If it doesn’t effect me, it doesn’t matter - our congress and senate and president and all his council are those people. They are one of those 199 doors.

Please call your congress person and tell them you do not want Vietnam revisited……fund our VA’s, fix the system, digitize our soldiers records, take responsibility for the people you broke.    

Senate Armed Forces Committee http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/committees.tt?commid=sarme
House Armed Forces Committee http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/committees.tt?commid=hsecu

Thank you

Military Spouse
2nd Deployment Eminent

You Hypocrites! I gave you a week to confess. You did not. Not only are you all registered Democrats. I have the proof. But also you are cutting down people who really care about this country. Just read what these people have to say. “Unity08 is a group of citizens deeply concerned that the wheels have come off our political system, that the American Dream is slipping away, and that time is short to get things back on track. We are of all ages, backgrounds, colors and beliefs and from both parties.”

“Unity08 believes that neither of today’s major parties reflects the aspirations, fears or will of the majority of Americans. Both have polarized and alienated the people. Both are unduly influenced by single-issue groups. Both are excessively dominated by money.”

“For most of the 20th Century, the contest for the U.S. presidency was waged over those “in the middle.” Recent Presidential elections, however, have not been focused on the middle but on the turnout of each party’s special interest groups – with each party’s “base” representing barely ten percent of the American people.

We believe that, while the leaders of both major parties are well intentioned people, they are trapped in a flawed system – and that the two major parties are today simply neither relevant to the issues and challenges of the 21st Century nor effective in addressing them.

As a result, most Americans have not been enthusiastic about the choices for President in recent elections, the key issues they ran on, or the manner in which the campaigns were conducted.

Therefore Unity08 will act to assure that an alternative ticket is presented to the American voters in 2008.”

What problem do you sickos have with these laudable goals? It has become crystal clear that the leaders at Unity08 have done more and care more about this country than you sorry, twisted wrecks of souls will ever manage.

Everybody’s heard the story by now: Filmmaker James Cameron has produced a documentary, The Lost Tomb of Christ, that claims that the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdelene have been found in the same family crypt in Jerusalem.

You’ve also probably read some of the reaction from Christians. In local newspapers around the world, this reaction is usually given by priests, pastors, reverends and the like. They’re called up by reporters, and asked to give their opinions about the idea that the bones of Jesus might have been found.

Almost every single one of these clergy rejects the idea right away. In fact, they don’t just reject the claim that James Cameron has documented the finding of the bones of Jesus. They absolutely reject the possibility that such a thing ever could happen.

For example, in a South African newspaper, Anglican bishop Rubin Phillip is quoted as saying,

“In terms of scripture Jesus ascended from this world. It was not only a spiritual ascension and resurrection, but a physical one, so there can’t be any remains of Christ. The person making these claims sounds like a fraudster looking for publicity. I don’t think any Christian would take these claims seriously because it goes against biblical teaching.”

Pay attention to the argument being made by this bishop. He isn’t saying that James Cameron sounds like a fraudster because the argument James Cameron makes in his film, or the fact that he uses to make that argument, are faulty. Bishop Phillip is saying that James Cameron sounds like a fraudster because his film fails to agree with what the Bible says is true. In this view, any idea that does not fit with biblical teaching is regarded automatically as a fraud - even before the facts of the case are considered.

A quote in the same article by another Anglican priest, Chris Townsend, illustrates the broader problem revealed by the reaction to The Lost Tomb of Christ. Townsend says, “It will be very difficult to verify if the bones are indeed those of Jesus… We should be more concerned with living the good news, not worry about bones.”

On the one hand, Townsend declares that there must be a high threshold of proof that the found bones are those of Jesus. On the other hand, Townsend requires a very low threshold of proof for the “good news” that Jesus was was the divine son of the creator of the Universe, and never died but instead was put on a cosmic train up into the sky, where, in spite of the low levels of oxygen and complete lack of food (not to mention toilet facilities), Jesus is now still living, almost two thousand years later.

Townsend wants us all to “not worry about bones”, but concentrate on following his religion’s beliefs about reality. That ought to sound familiar. Creationists have been saying the same about biological evolution for generations. The arguments that are used to prematurely reject James Cameron’s claims are the very same faith-based evasions of reality that have been used to reject Darwin’s theory on the origin of species through natural selection. Forget the facts about what the old bones say, we’re told. We’re asked only to look at what the Bible says is true, and never mind about the ways that external reality fails to match that truth.

For myself, I’m quite skeptical of the claim that the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdelene have been found and identified to within a reasonable doubt. Biblical archaeology has a rotten reputation of fraud in such matters. A few years back, a funeral vessel was found that was claimed to have the name of James, the brother of Jesus, written on it. It turns out that the inscription was fake.

However, skepticism is not the same thing as automatic rejection. It’s doubt. I doubt the claims made by James Cameron’s documentary, but I haven’t seen the film yet myself, and so I recognize that I really don’t have enough information yet to say for sure that they are unlikely to be true. In fact, my skepticism encourages me to see the film for myself. For a skeptic, doubt is a precursor to true consideration.

What bothers me is not the fact so many Christians are rejecting the reality of the bones. Rather, I am disturbed by the way that they’re making this rejection instantly, before they have had the chance to seriously consider the facts, or even watch the documentary.

These Christians, who are willing to dismiss evidence without even looking at it, don’t worship Jesus. They don’t even know Jesus. They worship a book. Their religion ought to be called Biblism, not Christianity.

This is not just a semantic distinction. There’s a big difference between religious people who try to follow the teachings of Jesus as written about in the Bible, and religious people who try to follow the Bible.

Biblism is not just the consequence of failure to think clearly. It is a threat to free society. The Bible worshippers are so fixated on their idol of a book that they cannot imagine it being untrue in any way. They don’t keep this certainty to themselves, but try to force it on others. They work to impose their book on everyone else.

Using the Bible as justification, they try to control what we can see on television, how our children are taught in school, who we marry and how we divorce, when we have children and when we go to war. Bible worship has practical consequences for us all, whether or not we are Biblists ourselves.

People ought to have the right to believe such strange ideas as those of the Biblists. However, we ought to skeptical of the claims Bible worshippers make, lest we become subject to them.