Congress Reminds Us Christmas Is A Christian Holiday

Just in case we were too busy buying our children poisonous toys from China and forgot, Christmas is in fact a Christian holiday, says Congress.

So now back to your shopping with all you holy rollers.

The True Meaning Of Christmas

It's only commercialized when you buy crap that doesn't shove Christianity down your throat.

The Religious Litmus Test

It's sad that in this country we need to have a religious litmus test for a Presidential candidate, at least in the Republican Party.

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign should be judged on his ideas, his stances on policies and his record as Governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007, not on whether or not he worships at a temple or a church. Today's speech by Mitt Romney, where he almost seemed desperate, is a sad event in our history.

I found this part of Romney's speech especially titilating;

Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin. As governor, I tried to do the right as best I knew it, serving the law and answering to the Constitution. I did not confuse the particular teachings of my church with the obligations of the office and of the Constitution - and of course, I would not do so as president. I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law.

See Mitt blew it there in my opinion. He's right to respond to the fears of the Christian fundamentalists that his religion would have some say in his presidency. The problem is, the reason these nuts are so worried are because they want THEIR religion to control the decisions of the next President. These zealots see their religion, their Bible, their version of the story, as the rightful ruling doctrine of the United States, and Mitt Romney cannot be President because he does not belong to that doctrine, he belongs to another doctrine. It's a scary thought, that our country is really like that, but it's even scarier that I'm defending Mitt Romney.

I sort of want him to win the nomination now, just to spite the fundamentalists.

God Is Not On The Ballot

I'm tired of watching politicians on both sides of the political aisle pander to churches to get elected. I'm tired of hearing candidates talk about their relationship with God, like it's the end all be all for a politician today.

Senator Obama belongs to the political party that defends (or is supposed to anyway) the separation of church and state Thomas Jefferson, our first Democratic President, so greatly promoted. Democrats and Libertarians have been vilified for too long recently, being called Godless and wicked because they refuse to give in to Christian fundamentalists who wish to turn the United States, the very nation that championed the secular state, into the Jesus-obsessing equivalent of the Middle East.

We live in a secular country with a secular government. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the fact that I feel we must defend our country from Christian fundamentalists who want to use the Bible to further their hatred, ignorance and bigotry, Christian fundamentalists who want to use the pulpit to gain power. Our politicians shouldn't have to have to go to churches and hold "faith rallies" to get people to vote for them. I'm tired of hearing people attack those on the left for "outlawing God." These people are enemies of the America laid out by our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and even George Washington, who all spoke of Separation of Church and State. In 1797, the Senate unanimously approved and President John Adams supported, the Treaty of Tripoli that ended the Barbary Wars. Article 11 of the treaty reads;

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

Whether or not the Treaty of Tripoli had any major means, there is no doubt that the Government of the United States supported the fact that the United States was not a Christian nation.

Thomas Jefferson, a founding father whom the Christian fundamentalists argue wanted a Christian nation, vehemently defended the Separation of Church and State;

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State."

The religiosity of a candidate should not be an issue. Religion has no place in politics. Even Jesus said so when he uttered the words; "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

Call me a Jesus-hating, Godless, wicked far left wing radical. I don't care. I'm proud of being on the far-left on this issue. If supporting a secular government makes me a radical, then I'm a radical. I know I'm not going to change many minds here. I know all those Christian fundamentalists who continued to try and make this country the United States of Jesus. I'm not an atheist, I'm not out to make everyone else an atheist. I'm not seeking to close churches and ban Christmas or Easter. I'm a spiritual person and I'm OK with my relationship with God. I don't want my religion mixed with and corrupted by politics. I like it just the way it is, thank you.

No wonder we're such big fans of Saudi Arabia. We're like one constitutional amendment away from being their Christian twin.

A Victory For Their Side

Muslim extremists scare me

Born-again Christians scare me

What petrifies me?

Muslim extremists turned born-again Christians

A Word Without Definition

I got a lot of criticism for arguing that the six people who planned to massacre soldiers at Fort Dix weren't terrorists, but just simple enemies of America.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Nightline last year;

"Somebody who is fighting against Israeli soldiers is an enemy and we will fight back, but I believe that this is not under the definition of terrorism, if the target is a soldier."

I would have to agree with her. The six men who set out to massacre soldiers at Fort Dix were enemies of America, but they were not terrorists. Terrorists are enemies who target the defenseless to create a sense of fear and terror. Terrorists target places that are easy to attack; commercial buildings, mass transportation, etc. Their targets are what people need to live their everyday lives and their goal is to scare us into changing our everyday lives.

Fort Dix is a military installation. When a person or group feels they must declare war on America, their targets should be soldiers, not private citizens. They will be labeled enemies and we will fight back, but military installations are the "legitimate" targets. American soldiers are trained, equipped, and well aware their job is to to defend themselves and their country and then fight enemies, while the civilian population is, for the most part, not trained and prepared to fight back immediately, nor should necessarily have to. It is appropriate, I think, to ask this simple question; If these six men weren't Islamic fundamentalists, if they were white supremacists, neo-Nazis, or just mentally-ill individuals with guns, would they still be terrorists? We cannot use the term "terrorist" so loosely and we need to put forth a more specific definition as to what it is.

While most of us will agree flying planes or driving bomb-filled cars into privately own civilian buildings is terrorism, as it is meant to terrorize people from going to work as they normally would, the definition of what is a terrorist does seem to expand depending on where you are. In Alabama, for example, the state's Department of Homeland Security recently listed gay rights organizations and anti-war groups as possible breeding grounds for terrorists. As far as I know, no gay rights or anti-war organization has sought to slaughter and incite fear in the minds of every American. No gay rights or anti-war groups have blown themselves up on buses or planted bombs on subways, but Alabama, until just recently, saw them as potential hotbeds of terrorism. I have, however, heard of ANTI-gay, PRO-life terrorism; Eric Rudolph, for example, who bombed an Alabama abortion clinic in 1998 and a lesbian nightclub in Atlanta in 1997.

Without a specific definition of what legally explains what terrorism is and who can be a terrorist, we're fighting a war based on each and every American's interpretation of the word and everyone's specific idea as to what is "terrorizing" to them. To some, I have no doubt pro-choice, pro-gay rights, anti-war groups are potential breeding grounds for what they would consider "terrorists," even if they never threaten to build a bomb. The same holds true for some who think the same way toward pro-life, anti-gay, socially conservative and nationalist groups. Some may consider Eric Rudolph a terrorist and I'm sure there are some who do not, even though they think the For Dix Six are terrorists.

You cannot fight a war against something that everyone interprets the meaning of differently. Perhaps if we wish to fight a "war on terrorism," we must come together and figure out what "terrorism" actually is.

Proirity Presidents

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Arkansas) headed to Florida to remind voters what the real priorities in America should be...

Finding a way out of Iraq? Nope.
Rebuilding our alliances around the world? Nah
Effectively fighting terrorism? NOT
Putting together an energy policy the weens us off oil and onto cheaper, more environmentally friendly forms of energy? Yeah sure
Education? Poverty? Restoring the middle class? Not in our lifetime.

Nope, what's really important is banning gay marriage (and for that matter all gay rights,) banning abortion and turning America into a Christian Theocracy.

Yep, who needs allies, cheaper cleaner energy, or a middle class anyway, so long as we don't have gays or unwed mothers, and everyone's going to church, we're fine.

This is my beef with the GOP.

Dobson: I'll Never Vote for Giuliani

We agree, but for different reasons.

Focus on the Family's James Dobson writes;

"Is Rudy Giuliani presidential timber? I think not. Can we really trust a chief executive who waffles and feigns support for policies that run contrary to his alleged beliefs? Of greater concern is how he would function in office. Will we learn after it is too late just what the former mayor really thinks? What we know about him already is troubling enough."

It's amazing how the Republicans can eat their own. I just hope the Democrats don't do the same.

Still if the social conservative Christian fascist wing of the GOP stays home next November, the Democrats are sure to win.

But don't tell them that.

Turkey: A Model For the Muslim World

This morning I awoke to hear of hundreds of thousands of people marching in the streets of Istanbul, but instead of them being Islamic fundamentalists trying to get support from Turkish secular Muslims to began a cultural war against the west, they were marching demanding their government remains secular. They were marching to demand their government remain Western. They were marching to defend nearly a century of Turkish values.

I have always heard, especially since 9/11, that the entire Muslim world was full of Islamic extremists, who hate democracy and hate America. When people say that to me, I remind them of Turkey.

Turkey is almost unanimously Muslim. It was once heart of the greatest Islamic empire known to man; the Ottoman Empire. Yet, it has become more culturally linked with it's neighbors to the west, rather than to the east. Turkey is what I think we all hoped and still hope Iraq would turn into one day.

Turkish secularism dates back 86 years to the 1921 constitution drafting the ideas of Turkey's first modern president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Unlike the empire the came before it, the new Turkey would not be a Caliphate with laws based on Sharia. It would instead reform into a secular state that practices Laïcité, a French word that stems from secularism in France after the French Revolution. Turkey would not allow any influence of Islam (or any other religion for that matter) in it's government. Even more amazingly, Muslims are prohibited from wearing traditional Islamic dress in schools, universities and government buildings, which is slightly more radical that here in the United States and way more radical that would be tolerated in it's near neighbors like Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Turkey is proof that even it's not the religion, rather the power it's given, that causes extremism. I have always said; give Christians the power Muslims are given in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia and we would look just as bad.

I had feared that since 9/11 and the Iraq debacle, the West and the Muslim world would become more polarized. Turkey sits at a crossroads, literally, as it is one of the few, if not the only, Islamic Western Country. Today's protests in Istanbul are proof that Turkey is no where near making a sharp turn toward Islamic fundamentalism, will remain the major Islamic western nation, and will serve as a model for the Muslim world to show they can be both modern and Islamic at the same time.

Bravery And Courage Doesn't Make It OK To Insult Either

Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich may be a brave and courageous man, deeply patriotic and a good soldiers, but he should be charged with conduct unbecoming of an officer and discharged for saying this to a mother of a fallen solider;

Lt. Col Kauzlarich told Mary Tillman that she "would never be satisfied because you're not a Christian." and "It must be hard to accept your son is worm dirt."

Kauzlarich said something similar to ESPN has summer to which Mary Tillman responded this;

“Well, this guy makes disparaging remarks about the fact that we’re not Christians, and the reason that we can’t put Pat to rest is because we’re not Christians… Oh, it has nothing to do with the fact that this whole thing is shady. But it is because we are not Christians… Pat may not have been what you call a Christian. He was about the best person I ever knew. I mean, he was just a good guy. He didn’t lie. He was very honest. He was very generous. He was very humble. I mean, he had an ego, but it was a healthy ego. It is like, everything those [people] are, he wasn’t.”

We are a secular nation. We do not mandate you to NOT be religious, we mandate you to respect those of us who aren't. Pat Tillman was not a pious Christian, at least not like those Christofascists on the right, but he went to war and fought for his country...HIS COUNTRY, NOT GOD! He deserves respect. This is blatently disrespectful to him and his family and should NOT be condoned.

This man is an example of what's wrong with not only America, but with Christianity and I want no part of a religion, or a country, where this is ok.

This Is Sick

You want to know why I have such disdain for Christian fundamentalists, or as I call them, theocratic fascists...this is why;

Shirley Phelps-Roper, said the Virginia Tech teachers and students who
died on Monday brought their fate upon themselves by not being true Christians.
“The evidence is they were not Christian. God does not do that to his servants,”
Phelps-Roper said. “You don’t need to look any further for evidence those people
are in hell.”

It's bad enough they do this to our brave soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for this country, but these victims are innocent. They're just college students, one of whom was a VERY RELIGIOUS person might I add. How dare you say these people aren't true Christians, you psychotic bitch, how offensive. Some of them weren't even Christians. A JEWISH professor SAVED LIVES.

You make me ashamed of being a Christian. I hope you all rot. If your God is the one true God, then I want no part of it.