World News Korner

Courtesy of CBS Los Angeles:

A man was missing Monday after he and two others were swept out to sea during a baptism ceremony near Santa Barbara.

The pastor of a Santa Maria church was baptizing a man his 20s when the accident happened Sunday morning near the shore of the Guadalupe Dunes Preserve.

Two people managed to swim to safety, but a 43-year-old man, identified by his cousin as Benito Flores, was swept to sea by a two large waves.

I'm no theologian so could somebody tell me if this means he wasn't good enough to be accepted into the kingdom of God, or that God couldn't wait to meet him?

I once knew a minister who lost his keys in the surf, but not one who lost an entire person.

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This comes from a Daily Kos post about Ray Comfort. Or as we refer to him here on IM the Banana Man.

This is how Comfort responded to a question posed to one of his followers about Atheists.


For an atheist, a starving child is no big deal, because it's just evolution's “survival of the fittest” in action.

I have never met and Atheist who thinks like this. However when we do provide help it is in the form of actual money and food, and not Bibles and attempts to "save their soul."


Starvation, poverty, disease and death are evidences that the Bible is right when it says that we live in a fallen creation.

There has NEVER been a time in human history when all of those things have not been part of our existence on this planet.

We are the guilty party, and yet sinful atheists (in the ultimate gesture of a delusion of grandeur) stand in moral judgment over Almighty God—when they have no real basis for any morality.


There are plenty of very ethical and moral Atheists. And I would argue that our morality is superior because it is based on a real desire to do the right thing and to help others, and not based on a fear of eternal damnation or the reward of eternal life. Using the system of reward and punishment is a method used to train dogs to stay off the furniture, not how to instill a sense of morality in human beings.


The Bible says we are to love our neighbor (others) as much as we love ourselves. Instead of doing that, most secular governments spend billions of dollars each year creating weapons to kill people.

The country that spends the largest sum of money on weapons of war is America, a country that Fundamentalists claim is a Christian nation. And when our many wars are waged, among the first to sign up are Jesus worshiping Christians.

A plane hits severe turbulence. Flight attendants quickly take to their seats before getting food to the hungry passengers at the back of the plane. The atheist is like a man who sees those hungry people, makes an insane leap of logic, and says, “Those people are hungry. Therefore no one made this plane.” Atheism believes that nothing created everything. It is a quiet form of intellectual insanity.

I don't even have an answer for this last one. That is literally too stupid to deserve a response.

It never fails to amaze me how little these people understand non-deists.

In their minds morality comes from God or it does not exist at all. Therefore they see everything in black and white, where they see themselves as good and everybody else as consorting with the Devil.

There is simply no reasoning with a mindset like that. And sadly Ray Comfort is not alone when it comes to those delusions.

Fortunately for all of us they are being chased further into the shadows by the shining brilliance of the new enlightenment.

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Lyrics courtesy of Americans Against the Tea Party:

Lyrics: I’ve got 2 grandmas — whom I lovingly idolize
How will Obama decide which one to euthanize?
That’s not a thing — we wont be putting grandma down
We’re proud to say we haven’t killed one grandma since we’ve been around!

Can I bring my gun in the hospital — in case something goes down?
No, sir, you can’t — but then how the hell am I supposed to stand my ground?!
My hero Freddie never enrolled, and he turned out fine!
Yeah maybe up until somewhere around 1989

Healthcare!
There’s so many opinions
Healthcare!
They’re usually wrong
That’s why we’re here to answer all your questions
In the form of a song

Be-Cos your BMI’s 60, your artery tears
Your leg is restless and your asthma flares
And Obama’s the only one who cares!

If I’m not pregnant, do I still have to get an abortion?
Whoever told you that, is guilty of distortion
I think my 6 year old’s too young for birth control
Ma’am, no one wants that, now please why wont you just enroll?

They’ll put a barcode in our arm said a Congressman on tv
Will that set off the metal detector at airport security?
No, bar codes aren’t involved — whoever said that’s full of shit
And frankly, I’m concerned by how ok you seem to be with it.

Healthcare!
There’s so many opinions
Healthcare!
They’re usually wrong
That’s why we’re here, to answer all your questions
In the form of a song

Be-Cos your BMI’s 60, your artery tears
Your leg is restless and your asthma flares
And Obama’s the only one who cares!

I prefer the Affordable Care Act or the “ACA”
Ma’am that’s Obamacare — no it’s not — fine, ok!
I plan on getting shot — a lot — promise
I wont die? That’s not a promise I can make – and may I ask, why?

So will Obama be my personal physician?
I’m sure he’d love to, but he’s not qualified for that position
Will he at least wash his hands before performing surgery?
Obama’s not your doctor…I mean, are you not hearing me?

Healthcare!
There’s so many opinions
Healthcare!
They’re usually wrong
That’s why we’re here to answer all your questions
In the form of a song

Be-Cos your BMI’s 60, your artery tears
Your leg is restless and your asthma flares
And Obama’s the only one who cares!
Obama cares, Obama cares get it? Obama cares!

Written by: Bob Ferrera and Taylor Ferrera

Very good, informative, AND kind of catchy.

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Admit it, if THIS were the basis for our morality, the world would be much better place.

A much better place.

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Courtesy of the Sportsman Channel's Facebook page:

Naughty or nice, just make sure you watch. That’s our advice.

Amazing America with Sarah Palin premieres April 3rd at 8 PM E/P.

You know not to nitpick, but wouldn't it be more impressive if the living embodiment of "whup-ass" drove her own dog sled?

Same damn thing as always, she talks tough but when you get down too it, she needs to have everything challenging done for her.

Load my gun Daddy, send me the questions before the interview Fox, write my Facebook page for me RAM, run my city while I pretend to be mayor John Cramer, research and write my books for me Nancy French, etc., etc., etc..

And the same is true this time as Palin has not just one co-host, but two.




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Courtesy of the Daily Kos:

Despite the catastrophic launch of the Healthcare.gov web site last fall, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is on pace to hit and surpass the CBO's most recent forecast of 6 million private insurance subscribers by the March 31 enrollment deadline. All told, at least 13 million people will obtain insurance coverage as a result of Obamacare, including 3 million young adults under age 26 added to their parents' (a majority of them Republican) policies. As with President Bush's Medicare Part prescription drug plan 8 years ago, ACA approval is climbing. The markets, too, have spoken, with stock prices for major insurers surging as their CEOs signal their pleasure with the total number and age mix of their new customers.

But given the unprecedented four-year Republican war to smother it in its cradle, Obamacare's recovery is all the more remarkable. A seemingly unending torrent of court challenges by state Republicans and right-wing front groups has held up ACA implementation in many states. (If they succeed in Halbig v. Sebelius, they will effectively undo the Affordable Care Act in 34 states altogether.) A misinformation campaign about make-believe deficits, mythical "death panels," a pretend "government takeover of health care" and a supposedly simultaneous insurance industry "death spiral" and "bailout" left Americans—especially the uninsured—fearful, confused and shockingly ill-informed.

Yet as damaging as that uncertainty and chaos has been, the Republican Party's scorched-earth opposition to Obamacare is producing something far worse: a body count. That's not hyperbole, but a grim reality. Due to what might be the greatest act of political spite in modern American history, Republicans will needlessly leave millions of people uninsured, many hospitals on the edge of financial ruin and thousands of Americans dead, mostly in the states the GOP itself controls.

So do I owe Sarah Palin an apology now?

Or is this not quite what she meant?

Here is more from the Health Affairs blog:

Nationwide, 47,950,687 people were uninsured in 2012; the number of uninsured is expected to decrease by about 16 million after implementation of the ACA, leaving 32,202,633 uninsured. Nearly 8 million of these remaining uninsured would have gotten coverage had their state opted in. States opting in to Medicaid expansion will experience a decrease of 48.9 percent in their uninsured population versus an 18.1 percent decrease in opt-out states.

We estimate the number of deaths attributable to the lack of Medicaid expansion in opt-out states at between 7,115 and 17,104. Medicaid expansion in opt-out states would have resulted in 712,037 fewer persons screening positive for depression and 240,700 fewer individuals suffering catastrophic medical expenditures. Medicaid expansion in these states would have resulted in 422,553 more diabetics receiving medication for their illness, 195,492 more mammograms among women age 50-64 years and 443,677 more pap smears among women age 21-64. Expansion would have resulted in an additional 658,888 women in need of mammograms gaining insurance, as well as 3.1 million women who should receive regular pap smears.

So yes Sarah Palin, there ARE death panels, and they are overseen by Republican pieces of shit who put politics before the needs of the people whom they were elected to serve.

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Tim Curry from the movie "Legend."

Courtesy of Raw Story:

The makers of a Biblical role-playing game that follows the life of Abraham are blaming their lack of success and inability to fund the project on the influence of Satan.

Speaking with Polygon, Richard Gaeta, co-founder of Phoenix Interactive explained the company’s problems starting cropping up right after the launch of their Kickstarter campaign for Bible Chronicles: The Call of Abraham.

“I believe that, 100 percent,” Gaeta said.

“It’s very tangible,” explained business partner Martin Bertram. “From projects falling through and people that were lined up to help us make this a success falling through. Lots of factors raining down on us like fire and brimstone.”

Phoenix Interactive’s Kickstarter failed to reach its $100,000 target, only managing to raise $19,000.

Executives with troubled video game company see forces other than the marketplace at play.

"If Satan is rallying some of his resources to forestall, delay, or kill this project, I think, this must be a perceived threat to his kingdom,” said Ken Frech, a religious mentor on the project. “I fully would expect something like this to have spiritual warfare. Look at the gospel accounts of demons and so forth. That’s reality. Many Americans don’t believe it anymore. That doesn’t change reality.”

In the action-RPG game Bible Chronicles: The Call of Abraham, gamers are an attendant in Abraham’s party, witnessing Biblical events, while playing an active role fetching, fighting and seeking.

The developers point out that game will not be a glossy retelling of the Biblical story, but will follow a strict literal Biblical line.

You know I don't game all that often anymore, but I do pay attention to up and coming content just to see if anything catches my eye.

What I have noticed is that tons of game ideas never make it past the initial planning stages, and simply die on the vine due to lack of interest.

There are many reasons for this, bad marketing, bad development, bad idea, but I have NEVER heard one of these developers blame the Devil.

It must be nice to never have to take responsibilities for your failures, and instead have some imaginary boogeyman to blame them on.

I'm going to try that the next time I forget where I parked my car.

"No I'm NOT senile, I know exactly where I parked the car, but clearly Satan moved it."

Oh yeah, that should make me seem perfectly rational.

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