The truth is that for all their talk of purity, politicians like Palin, Angle, and Miller don't seem to be particularly concerned with matching their actual positions to the Constitution they profess to worship. For them, the sacred text serves a higher purpose—and in the end, that purpose isn't hard to pinpoint.
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Thank the scientists and the engineers and the rescue workers who actually saved you. Giving credit to an invisible sky wizard is an insult. "About 12 of the 33 miners freed after 69 days underground in northern Chile have returned to the mine to attend a ceremony celebrating their rescue. A service of thanksgiving was held at the mouth of the San Jose copper and gold mine where the miners were trapped. The miners were mobbed by reporters on their arrival at the camp, despite their complaints about media intrusion. Doctors say all the miners are in good health; only one remains in hospital. The service of thanksgiving was jointly led by an evangelical pastor and a Roman Catholic priest. Some of the rescuers who helped bring the miners to the surface, on Wednesday, were also attending."
Ratigan explains who the terrorists are and he is says more in 5 minutes than all the talking heads on cable TV have crapped out in the last 9 years. And he did it on Morning Joe:
The editor of the Alaska Dispatch website was arrested by U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller's private security guards Sunday as the editor attempted to interview Miller at the end of a public event in an Anchorage school.
Tony Hopfinger was handcuffed by the guards and detained in a hallway at Central Middle School until Anchorage police came and told the guards to release Hopfinger.
Hopfinger has not been charged but the owner of the Drop Zone, the private security firm that's been providing Miller's security, accused Hopfinger of trespassing at the public event, a town hall sponsored by the Miller campaign. The owner, William Fulton, also said Hopfinger assaulted a man by shoving him.
Curiously, Hopfinger was trying to ask Miller about allegations that he engaged in illegal activity while serving as a part-time town attorney in Fairbanks:
So Miller was allegedly was using other folks' computers, without their permission or knowledge, so he could pretend to be sending votes by someone else in the contest for Republican Party State Chair. He is alleged to have been stuffing the electronic ballot box, using Borough computers. Alaska's criminal laws have something to say about this.
It's okay, though, because Miller's father insists that his son's criminal activities took place on his lunch hour.
This is what happens when you let Neo-Nazis run for political office. And a prime example of how well they understand the Constitution.
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Maybe we need an assholes anonymous
God knows, the entire Tea Party would need to attend meetings:
Colorado Senate candidates Ken Buck (R) and incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet (D) met for a debate on Meet The Press this morning and sparred on the budget, the Tea Party and flip-flops. But the most controversial moment came when host David Gregory asked Buck if he believes that being gay is a choice. Buck responded that he thought it was a choice, but allowed that "birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism and some other things."
Buck got stuck on answering what his views on sexual orientation were based on. Naturally. He was unwilling to state on national television that his beliefs are based on nothing more than his disdain for homosexuals and what he undoubtedly believes is a perverse lifestyle. Another clear example of idiocy over science.
The American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and every leading scientific organization in the world which has studied this issue are wrong but James Dobson's Focus on the Family and Tony Perkins' Family Research Council are right.
How discouraging to think that in the year 2010 this "debate" is still going on. How do you fix stupid?
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63-year-old Robert Boardman was an experienced hiker and was on a Saturday walk with his wife and a friend, when a mountain goat approached. Boardman tried to scare the animal away and told his wife and friend to move along while he distracted it. He was gored in the thigh and later died of his wounds. A witness said people tried to get to Boardman, but the goat stuck around: "The rescue workers were trying to get in there, but the goat wouldn't leave. Eventually, they got a group of people together to scare him away, but he was still guarding the area an hour later."
The killer goat was well known around the park for being aggressive, and for years rangers had been hazing the animal with bean bags and encouraging people to throw rocks at him if he got too close, park spokesman Barb Maynes told the Peninsula Daily News. Rangers later found the goat and killed it. But maybe the park's policy of harassing the animal and encouraging visitors to hurl rocks at it for years wasn't such a great idea? A tranquilizer gun and an airlift to a more remote location may have worked.
Attorney General Eric Holder says that even if California voters legalize marijuana via Proposition 19, the federal government will continue to prosecute pot cases there.
Washington: Pastor Greg Scott Glover arrested for stealing oxycontin from the home of an elderly parishioner. She busted him with a hidden camera.
Ireland: Father Brendan Wrixon charged with sexual assault of a teenage boy.
Ontario: Reverend Paul Hartig charged with felony theft for stealing from his own church.
California: Pastor Dino Cardelli arrested for molesting a 13 year-old girl. Cardelli was already charged with molesting another child.
Ontario: Father William Marshall to be tried for molesting more than 15 boys. Marshall is 88.
Florida: Pastor Michael Campbell charged with molesting an underage girl in his church's hearse.
North Carolina: Pastor Robert Lee McQueen sentenced to 14 years in prison for dealing heroin.
Michigan: Pastor Stephen Sparks charged with embezzling over $1M from church and family members.
New Mexico: Pastor Matthew Nichols pleads guilty to distributing child porn. Nichols was his church's youth minister and was previously convicted of criminal solicitation of a minor.
Ontario: Father Dale Crampton commits suicide following $2M lawsuit by molestation victim. Crampton was convicted of molesting seven altar boys during the 1980s.
This Week's Winner
Indiana: Pastor Vaughn Reeves is on trial for orchestrating a multimillion dollar Ponzi scheme built around investments supposedly meant for church construction. Reeves and his three sons are accused of bilking more than 11,000 people by luring them into buying $120M worth of property bonds. Allegedly the four paid off early investors with the money of others while stealing millions for themselves to purchase mansions, luxury vehicles, and a plane. The pastor and his sons face over 40 felony counts of securities fraud.
The Tides Foundation is fighting back against Glenn Beck.
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Skippy's environmental news story Sunday: http://xnerg.blogspot.com/2010/10/environmental-news-story-sunday.html
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Making Voting As Hard as Possible (for some people)
Want a heads up on what's coming down the pike on the voter suppression front for November 2nd.
Our Ryan J. Reilly looks at the "voter integrity" seminars the Republican National Lawyers Association is holding around the country.
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In search of moral authority: religion vs science
Sam Harris' new book "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values" is on my reading list. Here is his take on why he believes science is better suited to deal with questions of morality than religion.
Religion fails because it separates questions of right and wrong and good and evil from the actual reality of human and animal suffering. The Catholic Church is more concerned about preventing contraception than preventing child rape; it's more concerned about preventing gay marriage than genocide. This is a real inversion of priorities that completely falsifies any discussion of morality in the church. The moment you've linked morality to the well-being of conscious creatures, you see that the practices of the church don't maximize human well-being. The church is as confused in talking about morality as it would be in the physics of the transubstantiation. They could use the word "physics" over and over again, the same way they use the words "morality" and "values," but no physicist would be obligated to take them seriously, and I'm arguing that no serious conversation about morality can include the priorities of the church.
Good luck selling that idea in a country where science is often frowned upon and where less than 40% of the population have a firm belief in as basic a scientific principle as evolution.
From the reviews:
Harris urges us to think about morality in terms of human and animal well-being, viewing the experiences of conscious creatures as peaks and valleys on a "moral landscape." Because there are definite facts to be known about where we fall on this landscape, Harris foresees a time when science will no longer limit itself to merely describing what people do in the name of "morality"; in principle, science should be able to tell us what we ought to do to live the best lives possible.
