I seldom have any desire to let someone else's article speak for me but today am making an exception. A fine Connecticut male known as BustingWingNuts posted this as a comment to the LL Cool J, Palin, Faux Flap. He says it about as well as it can be said. Note that he invites you copy and paste this wherever you see the teabaggers pushing their agendas.

Teabaggers are a misinformed, right-wing corporate media consumer who often fails to understand that BOTH major parties represent a corrupt plutocracy that steals from the middle class by taxing labor and profiting from corporate tax subsidies.

A teabagger also often fails to acknowledge that George W. Bush and his neo-conservative minions perpetrated one of the boldest and most egregious executive power grabs in the history of the United States. Furthermore, teabaggers mistakenly continue to blame a newly elected President Obama for all that ails the United States of America, based on a grossly flawed perception of reality (including latent racial prejudice) and despite the fact the U.S. economy collapsed on the previous administration's watch.

Teabaggers are also known to base their misguided, right-wing-media-inspired beliefs about President Obama on stupid conspiracy theories about totalitarian takeovers, FEMA camps, etc., despite the fact these very same theories have been circulating around on the Internet for years, and were originally ascribed to neo-conservative cabalists at a time when Barack Obama had not even entered national politics. Teabaggers also are known to be particularly paranoid, xenophobic and intolerant, especially with regard to immigrants and anyone who isn't white.

Additionally, teabaggers generally echo stupid myths about entitlement spending (it actually only accounts for about 1% of federal budget spending), have no idea that most poor people in America are not lazy, actually do work and don't want to be on welfare, and have no idea what socialism actually means or that socialist reform in this country is actually what allowed a middle class to flourish and ultimately make the U.S. one of the most prosperous nations in human history.

Furthermore, teabaggers incorrectly equate socialism with Stalinism, think a system that rewards greed (capitalism) is the divine preference (despite Gospel evidence to the contrary), and are shameless champions of a misguided belief in American exceptionalism. Teabaggers also fail to recognize the inherently unpatriotic nature of their failed every-man-for-himself ideology that ultimately vilifies anyone who supports public policy aimed at reaching out to fellow Americans in need. They celebrate an exploitative corporatocracy (holy creator of jobs, blah blah blah) while denigrating the little guy for being "weak."

Interestingly, teabaggers uphold an immoral, morbidly obese, twice divorced, draft-dodging, college dropout and known drug addict as their de facto leader, and are even known to advocate burning books. Of course, teabaggers fail to recognize the blatant hypocrisy within the GOP and tend to oversimplify all political debate and social issues, much like their pseudo-intellectual, fat-ass leader.

Finally, incredibly, teabaggers fail to recognize the hysterical double entendre associated with their proudly adopted teabag moniker.

Every village has its idiots, of course, but it's sad when citizens of any nation allow themselves to be whipped into a frenzy en masse by a state-run propaganda machine masquerading as a legitimate, fair, balanced and independent news organization. Teabaggers are right to believe the future of the U.S.A. is in jeopardy, but sadly they have not yet correctly identified the real enemy. Perhaps when teabaggers finally grow up and mature into thinking adults, they will see the right-leaning power establishment for the oppressive and cunning beast that it is.

Teabagger: We don't care that George Bush tripled the deficit and lied us into a war. The new administration only cut taxes for 90% of the population... fascists. Let's go throw some Lipton tea bags into a fountain!

Please copy and paste this wherever you see the teabaggers pushing their agendas.

Disgusted not strong enough

I have never before been ashamed of living a good part of my life in Norman, Oklahoma. Sadly, that day is gone forever. Twice in the last few weeks, the administrators of Norman Public Schools have caved in and kow-towed to the worst kind of reactionary parents.

First-

They deprived many of the students from experiencing being addressed directly by the President of United States. We have a very vocal, reactionary, minority of the American people who respect no one but themselves. They have no respect for the country. They have no respect for the Constitution. They have no respect for their community. They have no respect for their neighbors. They have no respect for their own children. While ill- and under-informed parents certainly have the right to deprive their own children of a marvelous educational opportunity, they have no right to intimidate others into spreading their ignorance across an entire school system. Thankfully, I know a few teachers who recognized the educational opportunity they were being given and took full advantage of it. For those who didn't, I'm sorry your students are going to be less well educated than those in other classrooms.

Following is the text of the district's policy regarding the President's Address.

INFORMATION REGARDING PRESIDENT OBAMA’S

ADDRESS TO STUDENTS

SCHEDULED FOR 11:00 AM (CST), TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8

The President of the United States will deliver a national address directly to

students on September 8 at 11:00 AM (CST). According to information provided

on the U.S. Department of Education’s home page at www.ED.gov, the President

will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take

responsibility for their learning.

The school district will not re-organize the school day or interrupt scheduled

instructional time to participate in this event as a district-wide initiative. Teachers

may choose to watch the address with their students on a classroom by

classroom basis where they determine it to be instructionally appropriate.

In keeping with current practice, parents who do not wish their child to view the

President’s address may contact the school’s principal in writing asking that their

child be excused from the activity and the request will be honored.

Shame on you, Norman Public Schools.

Now, even worse. Book banning is alive and well in Norman, Oklahoma. I never thought I would see the day when one reactionary parent and a misguided superintendent would again deprive Norman students of a remarkable educational experience. I encourage you to go to the district website and search on Ellen Hopkins. You'll find teachers who want students to know they have read her books, you will find her listed among the very best authors for children, and you will find a middle school calendar that lists an Ellen Hopkins visit with a question mark. However, there is no longer a need for the question mark. Now, Superintendent Joseph Siano has decided not to let Ellen come and speak to the students at Whittier Middle School. For the full story of how this deplorable situation came to be, see Ellen's blog, Manifesto!!!!

You want to see other links related to this story-just google Ellen Hopkins Norman. I wonder how they feel about this at the Ellen Hopkins Elementary School in Moorhead, MN? I hope you are proud, Joseph Siano, you just gave our wonderful city a big, black eye.

We Should All Be Disgusted

Thanks to internetshame.com for demonstrating that Jimmy Carter was right. Many right-wing extremist are absolutely racist no matter how much they whine.

I AM DISGUSTED

Usually I am in favor of dialogue to resolve differences, but to all those people out there whining because the President of the United States wants to tell their school children to work hard and stay in school, get over it. Presidents have been talking to school children for as long as I can remember, which is a long time. My very first memory was of President Eisenhower when I was in the third grade.

Just a few examples:

Ronald Reagan took questions from high school students at the White House in 1986, and the question-and-answer session was broadcast nationally. Reagan urged the students to stay in school and say no to drugs, but he also discussed overtly political matters, such as national defense funding, nuclear disarmament and -- in suprising policy detail -- taxes.

President George H.W. Bush gave an address to schools nationwide in 1991, from a junior high school in Washington, D.C. News reports from the time said the White House hoped that the address would be shown at schools nationwide, and Bush began his remarks by saying he was talking to "millions" of students "in classrooms all across the country."

And in the interest of fairness, I will not use the most famous of the George W. Bush pictures, but he made many school visits to gain support for his, in my opinion very ill-conceived, no-child-left-behind programs.


I am especially disgusted with those people who claim to be upholders of the constitution and then violate the constitution by not recognizing that Barack Hussein Obama is the constitutionally elected President of the United States. In other words, no matter how much you dislike and or disagree with him and his policies, HE IS YOUR PRESIDENT. So stop whining and talk with your children about the significance of what he has to say and how all of us need to be working together to get the country through these troubled times. We have too many real problems to waste time on trivial issues like this.

Bozo Redux

Bozo does it again.

"I don't have to read it, or know what's in it. I'm going to oppose it anyways."

It's Time to Bring Bozo Home

Way back in 2008 many of us thought this camparison with Senator Jesse Helms was an insult to Bozo the Clown.  So the rest of this article is done with apologies to Bozo.  Back then, we could rest comfortably in the thought that the good people of North Carolina had to claim the Clown of the Senate. 

But now we Okies have our own Bozo. 

Color us proud.

Anyone who knows the history of Jim Inhofe knows he  was a joke as a state legislature and then the voters of Oklahoma thought they would share their joke with the rest of the country and send him to Washington.  For his first few years in Happy Valley he lived up to his own low standards and had one of the worst attendance records in the senate.  But then, obviously way over his head and not too good at treading water,  he discovered that one way to get attention was to make ridiculous statements.  So now whenever the press needs a ridiculous statement to lighten up their retelling of all the things going wrong around us, they know they can always count on the good senator for Oklahoma to provide some comic relief.  Unfortunately, a small, and hopefully shrinking, minority of citizens take what he says seriously.  So the joke has gone on long enough.  It's time for Bozo to go home and leave the governing of the country to those who have a clue.

I found this comment from Eagle4 with a Tulsa Word story about Inhofe's latest idiocy-

Inhofe remains one of the most uneducated, Redneck bumpkins on this flat planet! His stupidity makes him the poster child for Planned Parenthood! Just when you think you're totally flabbergasted by what he's said, he opens his mouth again and takes you to a whole new level!

The Incipient Racism of Southern Baptists

Richard Land needs to be very careful. The incipient racism that flows so easily just beneath the surface of many southern baptists tries to rear its ugly head in his recent statement concerning the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.  See Justice Sotomayor?—More for some, less for others?

He begins with a statement questioning the President's statement about most middle-class Americans not feeling particularly privileged.  Yet it does not take very much listening to black Americans living in the Bible-Belt or Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans living many places in this country to realize that racial discrimination is alive and well. And any time or place there is this kind of discrimination, more often than not, it is white middle-class Americans who benefit from it.

Next he parrots one of the major talking point of the right wing media about the president's pre-selection statements about wanting a judge with empathy and assumes quite erroneously that a judge cannot be both empathetic and impartial. Just for the record, a definition of empathy-the capability to share your feelings and understand another's emotion and feelings. It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes," or in some way experience what the other person is feeling.  I can state from personal experience that you are much more likely to get justice from a judge who has some understanding of where you are coming from than one who doesn't have a clue about what goes on in your neighborhood.

Next he talks about the Ricci case as if she is solely responsible for it. When in fact, she was one of a three judge panel which unanimously upheld the decision of the district court and in the majority of a 7-6 decision that the case did not merit further review at the circuit court level. He also does not mention that the plaintiffs in the case were not all white, but white and Hispanic. If she is guilty of letting her "race" influence her decision, why did should rule against the Hispanics in this case. Maybe one should look at the Cabranes dissent as the one that was racially motivated.

And finally he continues to parrot the right wing talking points by taking her comments about "a wise Latina woman" totally out of the context. In fact he violates one of the clearest standards of interpretation by stringing quotes together to make his point. I have always given him credit for his bible study skills but wonder if maybe he also treats the biblical text so unfairly. For a brief discussion of what she meant in her 2001 speech, see Charles Savage's NY Times column, A Judge’s View of Judging Is on the Record.

I am not suggesting that Richard Land's objection to her nomination is racially motivated.  It is obvious that his objection comes from being in bed far too long with the radical right wing of the republican party. But the arguments he uses are certainly tainted by the underlying racism of the southern baptist convention. It began as a racist organization and, in spite of its proclamations to the contrary, continues to demonstrate that racism in the way it and some of its members relate to American society.

Far from being solid analysis as one reader commented, this is a hatchet job on an extremely well qualified judge.

Which Part of "NO LAW" Does He Not Understand?

Georgia does it again!

It never ceases to amaze me that people are smart enough to get elected to congress but not smart enough to read and interpret things like the Bill of Rights.  The First Amendment clearly states 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion . . .

And just for those who have to be hit over the head with it. Here it is set in stone-

But over and over both nationally and locally well-meaning government officials keep ignoring what it says.  The newest attempt is from Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a medical doctor and member of Prince Avenue Baptist Church in Athens, Ga.  (Why do these kinds of things come so often from Georgia and Alabama?)  As if to justify what he clearly knows to be "bs" the good doctor said in an interview with the Washington Post, "This doesn't have anything to do with Christianity . . ."  Just how stupid does he think the American people are?

If you are now feeling superior to the buffoons in Georgia who keep electing people like this here are the bill's co-sponsors:

Rep Gingrey, Phil -GA

Rep Westmoreland, Lynn A. -GA

Rep Carter, John R. -TX

Rep Gohmert, Louie -TX

Rep Marchant, Kenny -TX

Rep Forbes, J. Randy -VA

Rep Goodlatte, Bob -VA

Rep Akin, W. Todd- MO

 Rep Bachmann, Michele -MN

Rep Franks, Trent -AZ

Rep Jordan, Jim -OH

 Rep Lamborn, Doug -CO

Rep McCotter, Thaddeus G. -MI

 Rep Pence, Mike -IN

 Rep Wamp, Zach -TN

That's three from Georgia, three from Texas, and two from Virginia.  Just so you can be well-informed, Rep. Westmoreland is the same one that made of fool of himself on the Colber(t) Repor(t) when, after sponsoring a bill to post the ten commandments in public buildings, could only name three of them and got one of them wrong. No matter how you grade it, 2 out of 10 is failing.

To read more on this story go to:

'Year of the Bible' resolution roils Congress

or

Lawmaker wants to make 2010 'Year of the Bible'

The Totaled Woman Is Alive and Well at SWBTS

The latest edition of the Latest News from Southwestern is just full of fun(dy) stuff.  It may take me awhile to comment on all of it, so check back for updates.

First, an update on the happy homemaker program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. My first post on this subject came back in 2007 when the program was announced.

http://sepherim.blogspot.com/2007/08/two-pictures-are-worth.html

Now the seminary is proudly showcasing the new home on seminary hill for the happy homemaker home.  You can see the proud parents in the press release,
 "Southwestern Seminary dedicates Horner Homemaking House"

Acccording to the press release, the building, named the Sarah Horner Homemaking House, will serve as an educational building but will look more like a house than a classroom, complete with kitchen and textile lab, as well as a large library, full of resources for classroom lectures. Upstairs, two rooms will house students in the homemaking concentration and another room will be available for guest housing.

Next, just in case you are wondering if they do still allow women to teach about children's ministry at Fort Fundamentalist, "Trustees elected Karen Kennemur as assistant professor of children’s ministry in the School of Educational Ministries."  I do wonder how they justify having a wife and mother of three children work outside the home like this.  What kind of example is that setting for all of the future happy homemakers?

A Sad Day in Louisville

No, inspite of what some of you think, I'm not referring to the upstart team that beat the Sooner women in the tournament.  Today I'm addressing a subject which may or may not (depending on your theological perspective) have more lasting significance. 

 I have many friends who attended the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who were proud of the quality of theological education that they received. But now like those of us who attended the institution farther West, have good reason to take their diplomas down from the wall, or as one friend told me, turn it around so no one can see where it came from.  Just read down through the "changes" that have taken place since the conservative insurgency in a recent article from the Associated Baptist Press,  "Mohler presidency marked by change."

Some highlights (or lowlights):

·         Caused the exodus of about 60 percent of the seminary's faculty, who left either by force or voluntarily.
·         Closed the School of Church Music and Worship
·         Fired Diana Garland as dean of the Carver School of Social Work and abolished the Carver School of Social Work.
·         Redirected its Christian counseling department, moving away from the model of "pastoral care."

 

You might also want to look at "Jesus couldn’t teach church social work at Southern Seminary."

This article comes from the Texas Baptists Committed. (I always thought that name was an ill-informed choice and yet somehow strangely applicable.) Since I have saved most of my rapier like wit for the swbts, I feel it only fair to give Mohler Mayhem equal time.