Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Peregrin Wood wrote about how the Southern Baptist Convention declared skepticism of a human role in global warming – even though the Southern Baptist Convention has no special scientific expertise with which to make an accurate decision in the matter.

The decisions of the Southern Baptist Convention are all based on faith – what the Baptists want to believe is true, rather than what what the facts suggest is true.

So, it really shouldn’t be surprising that the Southern Baptists decided to hush up an investigation into allegations that the number of Southern Baptists has been purposefully overblown. The Southern Baptist Convention decided not to examine the complaints that church leaders have been exaggerating the number of people in their churches in order to gain power for themselves.

That’s the fingerprint of faith: If leaders say something is true, then it’s true. If there are more people attending a church than anyone at the church ever sees, well then, the good reverend must be hiding them behind the curtains, right?

7/5/07 UPDATE: The Jordan Times and BBC News both report Alan Johnston was released yesterday.

Johnston is fortunate indeed to work for a high-profile organization like the BBC that can organize a worldwide moment of silence or an online petition. How many other reporters have been killed or disappeared without so much publicity?

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There is no justice without truth, and there is no truth without a free press. More than 100,000 people have signed on online petition to free BBC reporter Alan Johnston who was kidnapped in Gaza three months ago.

If you would like to sign the petition for Johnston’s release, here is a link to the BBC online petition.

You can also put a button on your own blog.

You know what pisses me off about liberals? The fuckers just don’t know how to be civil. I don’t know how many goddamned times I’ve had to listen to stupid liberals whining and complaining about how President Bush has taken away their freedoms – as if they ever really used them in the first place, the liars. What’s the use of giving a liberal freedom of speech, however, if they’re going to waste it with speech that is blatantly disrespectful of the opinions of others?

Do those liberals really think that anyone’s listening? If they won’t be polite, they’ll never be recognized by the people that matter. Don’t expect them to refine their graces any time soon, though, the morons.

The lieberals are at it again, trying to distract from our nation’s most important Holy Days by naming new “holidays” (NOTE the changed spelling!) all over the place. The latest is World Day Against Child Labor, which happened earlier this week. First of all, it’s a WORLD holiday, not a national one, which is completely in sync with plans for One World Government of Gog and Magog. Second, it’s completely unsupportive of responsible parental choices. I had to set the table and darn the socks and sort the laundry when I was a child. What’s wrong with that? Are we treating out kids like some kind of veal, with muscles too tender for good old fashioned work? What’s wrong with asking your son to take out the trash he makes? For goodness sake! This secular liberal push for “holidays” promoting irresponsibility and laxity amongst our children — I’m sure while still giving them an allowance! — is taking us very close to the edge of tolerability.

I have just learned from one of my church friends that the liberal insurgents in our congregation are trying to get our pastor to lead us in activities related to Torture Awareness Month. “June is Torture Awareness Month!” they say. Not in my America, sister! In my America, we celebrate Flag Day and the Fourth of July, thank you very much!

It explains a lot about these liberals that they’ll try to spend all of June just being aware of torture. Think about that for a minute, will you? All these liberals are trying to think about torture all month long. It’s enough to send anyone into a state of profound moral depravity!

I, for one, think that it’s moral important for America to be humble. Yes, America may be torturing evildoers in secret prisons, but there’s a reason that those prisons are kept secret. Our government is trying to demonstrate humble leadership.

Sure, we’re torturing, but we don’t have to brag about it, do we? This torture awareness movement seems just too prideful, if you ask me.

The TV show The Sopranos is over, and media critics are having a festival of whining about how cheated they are out of a meaningful ending to the series.

I don’t get it. How could there be a meaningful ending to a TV series that had no meaning in the first place?

I can understand if you watched The Sopranos for one season, if you had nothing better to do, but after that first season, what was the point?

Ooh, the main character was a mobster… like in hundreds of other TV shows and movies. Ooh, he does bad things… like thousands of other TV and movie characters.

Okay, the mobster saw a therapist. That had enough interest to carry a single one-hour show – kind of like Analyze This, but without the jokes.

What was left after that? Mob goons battling for control of turf. Miscellaneous, not very remarkable personal issues.

I saw a few of the shows, sure – enough to see that there wasn’t really that much there. The only people who would keep on watching The Sopranos after the first season are the kind of people who get addicted to television, and are just desperate for something to watch because they don’t have anything to do.

The Sopranos is over. Yawn. Turn off the televison now, okay?

Seen on TruthOut: an article on John Edwards’s antipoverty stance.  Summary: Edwards has chosen to make poverty his main issue, even though it may not be a winning issue, because he cares about it.  It’s not just a puff piece, either; it points out the things Edwards has done that make him look less sincere (he worked for a hedge fund from 2004 to 2006; he has a 28,000-square-foot home), compares him to people who want to do even more, and explains why his plans may not make much difference.

Forget the talk about the tenth Illinois casino. Proposed legislation now before the Illinois house would triple Illinois gambling, including the creation of a downtown Chicago casino.

While casinos can be very profitable, they are harmful to economic development. Restaurants are the hardest hit when a new casino opens, although expenditures in other sectors decrease also. Casinos can make more than half of their income from non-gaming revenues, including hotel and restaurant facilities on the premises. According to a study by E L Grinols and J D Omorov reported in the Spring 1996 Illinois Business Review:

Restaurants in many states, including Illinois, have reported that their revenues dropped as much as 50 percent in response to the opening of a nearby casino, and many restaurants have closed.

The social costs from gambling to the surrounding community can also be high. Costs associated with bankruptcy, debt, criminal justice costs, and other consequences of gambling problems can cost the community somewhere between four to eleven times the amount of tax revenue they bring in, depending on which study you look at.  Gambling impoverishes whole communities.

And once a gambling enterprise is let into the state, it doesn’t go away. Although the racing business ceased being profitable long ago, the taxpayers of Illinois are still subsidizing that industry to keep it from going out of business.

Gambling is not good for business and it’s not good for Illinois.

The bill is being discussed in the Illinois house this week. This is the time to contact your representative. You can find the contact information for your Illinois state representative here. If you don’t know your district you can find it here.

Thousands of people protested against the visit of George W. Bush in the streets of Rome yesterday, expressing widespread opposition to Bush’s foreign policy among citizens of Italy.

Some protesters lit smoke bombs and threw bottles. Police tried to control the protesters by firing tear gas at them.

“Bush Out!” the protesters in Rome demanded, expressing opposition to the continued American military occupation of Iraq. Bush responded by asking whether Italians had thought enough about national independence for Kosovo.

In touch with the pulse of the planet as usual, that Mr. Bush.

On the other hand, it’s a pity that a few protesters ruined the event for the rest. The Guardian is even reporting that one or two protesters broke flower pots.

What were they thinking? Damn flower pot! I’ll teach you to support the ocupation of Iraq!

Ever heard of the Yowie? People looking to gain tourism dollars for Batesman Bay are hoping you will soon.

They’re saying that the photograph you see here shows the Yowie, a wild Australian ape-man cryptid. The Yowie is supposed to be the Australian equivalent of Bigfoot or the Yeti.

They say that this photograph of the Yowie is real evidence of its existence.

If you believe that, then let me give you some more information: In the photograph you see below of Barack Obama, you can see the Loch Ness monster in the background.

Don’t see it? You’re just not looking hard enough.