I Didn’t Expect the Bloody Spanish Inquisition…

but then again, maybe I should have:

The Rev. Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Modesto, CA, has said voting for Barack Obama amounts to a sin because Obama is pro-choice, and has advised his parishioners they need to confess such a sin to their priest or be in danger of losing their state of grace by receiving communion (which Catholics believe is the actual body and blood of Christ) “sacrilegiously.” In November, Roman Catholic bishops in the United States cautioned Obama against enacting an “evil law” that would deregulate the “abortion industry”, saying it would alienate millions of Americans and sow disunity, Agence France Presse reported.

Just one more in a litany of reasons I left the Catholic Church.

McCarthyism From the Left?

I was truly dismayed to see a website called ‘Anti-gay Blacklist’ spring up after the Prop 8 defeat in California.

Let me say from the outset that I support the right of gays and lesbians to marry. But come on, people. Condemning people who are merely expressing a point of view in such harsh terms? Putting a picture of a Holocaust commemoration plaque at the top of the page, implying a comparison to Nazis?

Where is the tolerance that gays demand from straights? Yes, I know about societal discrimination and persecution. But all this extremist stance does is give ammunition to the right, who then go on to say, “See? Didn’t we tell you?” If this situation was reversed and straights were urging the boycotting gay supporters, we’d be hearing screams from the left. What’s the difference between the two? I don’t see any.

Yes, gays do have the right to be angry. Yes, they do have the right to boycott Prop 8 supporters. But do they have the right to couch it in such extreme terms?

ID-ing the Body...

Well, the election is over the Republicans are still busy mopping up the blood, at least when they're not shaking fingers at each other, thankful the carnage wasn’t worse.

But they still have the same fundamental problem. Not, as is being written all over the place, that they lack identity. Republicans do have an identity. The problem is, their identity exists as the party of white folks. Yes, I've heard of Alan Keyes and Colin Powell. But they are hardly representative of African-Americans. Or Hispanics, Asians, or any other minority.

And the United States is changing—whites are rapidly becoming the minority. If the Republican Party wants to continue to appeal to that ‘market segment’, they're by all means free to do so. But it will put them in the minority for the next few decades.

PZ Myers Is An Arrogant Bigot

I guess it’s okay to desecrate things other religions hold as sacred. So if I smash a hole in the Wailing Wall, spit on a Koran, or throw dung on a Buddhist shrine, it’s okay?

In fact, it’s not. But this is what I increasingly see among those who hate and revile religion. I wonder if he’d put up any fuss if I burned an only photo of his beloved grandmother. Maybe I could trash a first edition of Shakespeare, or something else he values.

As a former Catholic, I don’t hold the church in very high regard. But neither will I mock those objects believers hold as sacred. I guess the most insulting thing is that he somehow considers himself superior to Catholics. How? Why? The arrogance here is appalling.

If atheists want respect for their lack of belief (which I feel is deserved), then perhaps they should start respecting the beliefs of others.

The End of an Era, AKA “The Same Ol’ Sh-t”

I keep hearing how the GOP is dead come the fall elections, how the party is tired, out of ideas, on the defensive, reeling from Bush imcompetencies and quagmires.

But what it really boils down to is this: the Republicans haven't done anything for common people, just like the Democrats hadn't done anything for the common people, and the common people are sick of it and going to kick them out.

So what we’ll likely have come January is a Democratic Congress and White House. I predict pretty much the same results as the Republican Congress and White House. There’s no real difference between the two parties. The only thing that changes is how much worse the little guy gets screwed with each year that passes.

When are we going to get fed up and form a serious third party in this country?

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a…Superdelegate?

My mind, having been numbed like everybody elses, is still trying to figure out how the heck the Democrats nominate a president, I’ve come to one conclusion. The Republicans (no matter how much you like/dislike them) trust you. The Democrats don’t.

Why else would they have this bizarre, Byzantine method? I doubt Einstein could’ve made relativity more complicated. I do know that the supers carry special weight, which I interpret as ‘well, let’s not trust those voting idiots too much.’ What other explanation could there be?

Poor, Pathetic Rush

Rush Limbaugh is fat and a drug addict. But I digress. He’s pissed, ostensibly at John McCain. But really it’s all you idiots out there who refuse to listen to him when he issues his commands from on high (pun intended) on who to support. Along with Laura Ingraham and a plethora of others.

It’s a funny election this year. Republican and Democratic alike leaders are clearly nervous; the voters aren't listening to them either. Maybe that’s because for two decades now, they’ve thrust so many losers at us in presidential campaigns. Bush, Clinton, Mondale, Dole, take your pick. Oh, some good men, to be sure, but not really too much meat on them bones.

But anyway, back to Mr. Limbaugh. The anger he feels is the first stage of grief. Why grief? Because nobody is paying enough attention to him these days. His precious conservative movement has splintered like a toothpick and he’s busy running around trying to find the pieces and glue them back together. A word of advice, Rush—that’s an effort in futility. Mainly because Reagan’s dead, and no matter how many times people try to resurrect him, he ain’t a’coming back. I half expect conservatives to invoke some voodoo spell in desperation to raise him from the grave. That wouldn’t work, by the way. There wasn’t much left upstairs when he died, poor soul.

Fact is John McCain’s the best the Republicans have this year. The fact that he’s willing to work with the Democrats (heresy to conservatives that Congress should actually compromise—what a DIRTY word) really sticks in conservatives’ craws. A bit of a history lesson, Mr. Limbaugh, Ms. Ingraham—that’s how democracy works. Nobody gets everything they want, and all—that’s all—need to compromise in order to get business done. Or the country gets locked up in ideological debates whilst Rome burns. Like what’s been happening in Congress for the last decade. With the way the voting’s been going this year, it seems voters are finally fed up with the nonsense of ideology, by both conservative and liberals, and want things actually done instead of merely talked about.

And so, my dear pundits, you have been rendered irrelevant. Sadly, you just haven't gotten it yet. And so I urge you, accept the inevitable. Embrace your irrelevancy. President Bush has.

368 Days Left...And Counting

It’s just about one year left for the depths of evil known as the Bush administration. 12:01 PM on January 20, 2009 can’t come fast enough for me and many others.

But I’m getting increasingly nervous with each day that passes. I am hearing the same rhetoric, almost word for word—replace ‘Iraq’ with ‘Iran’ in any of Bush and Cheney’s pre-war speeches and you'll see what I mean—that we heard before the Iraq invasion.

I’m hoping this is all bluster, that these war-mongers won’t start yet another one they can’t finish. But I worry…