A Picture is worth a thousand words

No comment necessary

A Silver Lining Moment

Out of the incident which demonstrates that Richard Land has no business leading anyone when it comes to ethics and morality, I at least learned a new word, contumelious. And to show you that I know how to use it in a sentence: Richard Land is one of the most contumelious people I know.

According to thefreedictionary.com
CONTUMELIOUS - arrogantly insolent, disrespectful - exhibiting lack of respect; rude and discourteous.

I think that "arrogantly insolent" part is particularly applicable.

I am grateful to Jeffrey Weiss of the Dallas Morning News Religion Blog for this expansion of my vocabulary.

Oklahoma has done it again

Oklahoma seems to have an inordinate ability to elect the most inappropriate people to public office. The latest example is Sally Kern, Republican from OKC. I don't know which is worse, Sally Kern's homophobia or her ignorance. Her homophobia is self-evident and her ignorance was certainly made evident by her recent comments. If you have any doubts about her ignorance there are numerous sites which document it. This is one of the better ones, Exploring Our Matrix.

Her ignorance is definitely the bigger problem, because her homophobia is just one facet of her ignorance. One of the more disturbing elements in this incident is that she is the chair of the Social Services Committee of the OK House of Representatives. Is it any wonder this state is in such a mess, when the good people of Oklahoma keep sending people like Sally Kern to the legislature.

SBC=GOP As If There Was Really Any Doubt

It has been obvious for some time now that the southern baptist convention (sbc) has sold-out to the conservation/reactionary wing of the republican party. This was never more apparent than yesterday (March 3, 2008) when I received the following erlc (ethics & religious liberty commission) action alert.

America's National Security At Risk

Dear Friends:
Americans are less safe today from terrorists than two weeks ago.

On Feb. 16, a critical law authorizing our intelligence community to monitor foreign terrorists’ communications expired.

That’s why the modernized Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA—which amends the 1978 law—is urgently needed. Since the horrific 9/11 attacks, many telecommunications companies have helped keep us safe from another attack on U.S. soil by cooperating with our intelligence agencies to intercept phone conversations of foreign terrorists placed into our country.

Now, without an amended FISA, our intelligence agencies are hamstrung from intercepting foreign communications unless they have a warrant, and phone carriers lack retroactive immunity from lawsuits leveled against them at the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars for admirably protecting you and me. Meanwhile, our national security is continually placed at greater risk as our foreign enemies can easily pass information into our country without us knowing it.

Liberals in Congress appear more interested in empowering the lawyers to sue the telecommunications companies than they are in providing for the security of United States citizens.

The Senate passed an update to FISA last month with strong bipartisan support, 68-29. But the House leadership has failed to give it a vote, despite its broad support in the House.

If this is a concern to you, please tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to schedule a vote on the Senate-passed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and urge your representative to support the bill.

You can call them by dialing the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121. Or click here to e-mail them a suggested letter or one entirely your own.

Thank you for your doing your part to help keep America safe from those who wish us harm.

In His Service,

Dr. Richard Land
President
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
Southern Baptist Convention

One of our privileges at the ERLC is to help you take a stand for Biblical values in your community, in the marketplace of ideas, and in the public policy arena. This Action Alert is one tool we use to keep you informed and call you to action on the important issues of the day.

Many people in both political parties will have different opinions about this action. What troubles me, is just what "biblical value" is Richard Land taking a stand for her. He obviously thinks doing his part to "keep America safe" is somehow connected with being "in his service." I think this ought to trouble anyone who gives any part of their offering to the cooperative program of the SBC. It is a very clear case of using funds given for relgious purposes to further a specific political cause. Since I quit giving any of my offerings to the SBC a couple of years ago, that is not my problem. But it ought to be a big problem for any of you who still think giving to the SBC is somehow helping to spread the kingdom of god. Some of you need to start holding Richard Land's feet to the fire on this.

Can You Spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E ?

The shrub's latest attempt to show that he actually knows something about foreign policy reveals once again the fantasyland he has been living in for seven years. Barack Obama has promised to actually sit down and talk to leaders of countries that the shrub has done nothing but threaten or ignore. What a concept, diplomacy by talking instead of shouting or shooting. But the shrub responded, "It will send the wrong message. ... It will give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity." He obviously doesn't realize that nothing suppresses human rights and human dignity like an ill-conceived, ill-planned, ill-managed and probably ill-egal war. It makes you wonder what kind of insulation his handlers keep him wrapped up in.

Who Does She Think She's Kidding

The headline reads "Clinton attacks Obama ahead of debate. " A couple of paragraphs into the story she brings out the same old line, "Who is best prepared to be commander in chief on day one?" I know she's losing and desparate, but I really don't understand what possible reason she has for thinking that she is any better prepared to be commander-in-chief than Barack Obama is, or that the American people would have more confidence in her to handle a military crisis than they would in him. Somehow, I don't see being a senator from New York as preparing one to be C-i-C. Although, I must acknowledge that I have been to NYC enough to know that it can sometimes be mistaken for a war zone. And as far as spending eight years in the Whitehouse, Bill's record as CIC is second only to his "indescretions" as being among the worst things about his presidency.

Besides that she's playing right into John McCain's hand, because he is the only one in the race that can legitimately claim to be "prepared." Fortunately, the framers of the constitution did see military prowess as a necessity for being president. In spite of the unanimous election of George Washington as the first president, only three of the next ten had any military experience and one of them died a month after he took ofice. Looking at the history of how the presidents have used the CIC position, there is no direct correlation between effectiveness in office and military experience. Although there have been a number of presidents who used their military experience to help get them elected.

If Hilary really expects to make a comeback in this race, she had better find a different message. It seems pretty obvious to me that as soon as democrats and independents began to have confidence that Barack Obama was electable, her fate was sealed. We thank her for keeping the repubs on the ropes for so long, but now is the time for both candidates to heat up the attack on McCain and let the nominations chips fall as they may.

IMPEACH BUSH NOW! Why? 935 Reasons

President Bush . . . and officials in his administration made 935
false statements on Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks,
according to a new study.

See the article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22794451/from/ET/

See my post

Bush has Lied, is Lying, and Will Continue to Lie as long as people continue to listen

How many ways are there to say "I told you so?"

Avoid the rush, IMPEACH BUSH NOW!

Hasta La Vista, Baby Jesus

This parody actually presents the arguments about Jesus message on violence better than most debates about the subject. And as an added benefit, it's really pretty funny too.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PFrufPxjwX0

Think about it

We DO NOT Torture

If you accepted the "big lie" technique that allowed George Bush to get us into a war in Iraq, this one should be no problem for you. It's obvious that he really thinks that if he just keeps saying, somebody will believe. The sad thing is that he is right. And the worst offenders are those who should be working the hardest at defending the rights of the the poor, the sick, and the prisoners, so-called Bible-believing Christians. I do not understand how people who claim the Bible as their "only" guide for faith and practice, can so totally ignore what it actually says. They work their tight little (or not so little) fannies off to make sure that everyone has a chance to be born, but don't give a damn about what happens to them after that.

--Let's be sure that we don't use a little piece of embryonic tissue that will never be born, to help relieve the suffering of someone who is already born.

--Let's fight as hard as we can to make sure no child of moderately well-off parents gets government paid health care. Forget about the millions of poor children who will suffer because of it.

--Let's support that godly man, George W. Bush no matter how many times he lies and how many people he gets killed because somehow he fits into our poor, befuddled idea of what a Christian is supposed to be.

--Let's fight with all our might to stop campaign finance reform so that we can be sure that no one restricts our right to say what ever we chose in Jesus name.

--Let's kill a commie for Christ (oops, reached a little too far back for that one)