World News Korner

Courtesy of Raw Story:

On Sunday, a pastor in Phoenix, Arizona implored his female congregants not to say “amen” in church.

Pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church garnered national attention in 2009 when he told his followers that he prays for the death of President Barack Obama every night. After being contacted by the Secret Service, he insisted that he “didn’t say he wanted his parishioners to attack the president, he did say the country would benefit from Mr. Obama dying.”

Pastor Anderson first attempted to justify the silencing of women by quoting 1 Timothy 2:11, “[l]et the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”

He then asked the congregation to flip to 1 Corinthians 14, which says “[l]et your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, as it is commanded to be under obedience as also sayeth the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is shameful for women to speak in the church.”

“Now obviously,” he continued, “before the service begins, there’s chatting and talking going on, that’s perfectly legitimate. When we all sing praises to God, of course the ladies should also lift up their voices.”

“But when it’s learning time,” Pastor Anderson said, hammering his lecturn, “it’s silence time.”

“So what it’s saying is that they,” the women, “are to learn in silence.” He then quoted 1 Corinthians 14 again, saying that “when the learning is going on, they are not permitted to speak. When the preaching of God’s word is taking place — and first of all, it’s not for a woman to be doing the preaching, and second of all, it’s not for women to be speaking.”

This guy might be the only one stupid enough to say this out loud, but you KNOW that a number of these fundamentalist assholes agree with him 100%.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating, that I will NEVER understand why so many women participate in a religion that was essentially established to oppress them and to keep them making babies, raising children, and doing housework.

Little doubt that this is the same mindset behind those much reviled purity balls.

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Just paid the Obamacare penalty for not 'getting covered'... I'M CALLING IT A LIBERTY TAX!
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) March 21, 2014

Courtesy of Yahoo News:

Conservative Internet pioneer Matt Drudge has built his career on scooping up salacious gossip and breaking news stories.

But Drudge himself has become the focus of attention after announcing he paid a federal tax penalty after refusing to sign up for the Affordable Care Act.

On Friday, Drudge posted a message on Twitter to his 250,000 plus followers.

However, several left-leaning publications jumped on the claim, accusing Drudge of lying (or being misinformed) and arguing that the penalty is not in fact due until 2015.

The White House directly responded to Drudge’s claim on Twitter, with Director of Progressive Media and Online Response Jesse Lee writing:

Flat lie, no fee for previous year. Scary how much influence he once had. RT @DRUDGE: Just paid Obamacare penalty for not 'getting covered'
— Jesse Lee (@jesseclee44) March 21, 2014

Was Drudge lying or misinformed? Or is he being unfairly criticized?

Conservative outlets including Breitbart and the Washington Times jumped to his defense, echoing a later claim from Drudge himself that he was actually paying a small business or self-employed tax as part of his quarterly 2014 estimated tax payments.

The H&R Block Tax Institute told The Wire that Drudge is likely overpaying his tax debt now and that the overpayment will be deducted once the health insurance penalty is assessed early next year. However, H&R Block also said there is no formal payment calculation yet in place by the IRS for the Individual Shared Responsibility Provision. What’s more, when individuals make estimated tax payments, they cannot specify which government program their payments are going to, i.e. building roads, fighting wars or health care. So if H&R Block is right, Drudge’s claim is probably not exactly true. At best, he’s overpaying his taxes and assuming that extra money will go to his eventual penalty for not getting health insurance.

It's sort of convoluted but essentially Drudge is anticipating that he will have to pay the penalty for not having purchased health insurance as part of his estimated 2014, but there is no actual penalty that has been calculated as of yet.

So essentially Drudge is lying.

Of course the scent of lies drifting in the air attract the Right Wing blowhards like flies to a pile of shit.

So Limbaugh weighed in first, closely followed by desperate for attention Sarah Palin, who wrote this on Facebook:

From one Dittohead to all you others, aren't you thankful Rush defends truth, and as importantly, he defends those speaking truth! Rush is consistently loyal to the cause of justice, walking the walk as he does here in defense of Drudge calling out Obamascare. It's not commonplace that someone as high profile as is humanly possible takes valuable time to defend others. Very admirable. Very. Let me know what you think!

"Someone as high profile as is humanly possible?"

Okay that made me throw up in my mouth a little.

And by the way, how is having a radio show that is mostly listened to by rabid right wingers and comedians looking for material, add up to high profile?

High profile would be like Jennifer Lawrence right now, or Jimmy Fallon now that he took over the Tonight Show, or, dare I say it, the President of the United States.

Now THAT is as high profile as is humanly possible.

Let's face it the conservatives are so freaked out about being called out on their lies so consistently by others that they are impulsively circling the wagons whether there is anything defensible in the comments made by their colleague or not.

Palin is probably hoping that if she provides a little cover for Drudge and Limbaugh that they will do the same for her the next time SHE says something ignorant or untrue. Which will likely happen the very next time she opens her mouth.

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Courtesy of the National Journal:

American Crossroads is bringing on former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to aid an Alaskan Senate candidate who has recently come under fire from Democrats.

Rice appears in a new 30-second TV ad from the Karl Rove-founded super PAC praising Republican Dan Sullivan for his work in the Bush administration, and defends him from attacks on his Alaskan residency from a group supporting Democratic Sen. Mark Begich. "Remember that serving our country required some time in our capital," Rice says in the Crossroads spot, which has $170,000 behind it, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The move comes a week after Put Alaska First PAC, the pro-Begich super PAC, launched a TV ad noting that Sullivan purchased a nonresidential fishing license in 2009. The group also aired an ad in February highlighting that the Republican primary front-runner benefited from a Maryland tax credit while voting in Alaska, and that he was born and raised in Ohio. While serving in the White House from 2002-04 and the State Department from 2006-09, Sullivan lived in Bethesda, Md., but still owned a home in Anchorage.

You know while Alaska is a red state, I don't think that reminding voters that Sullivan once worked for one of the worst President's in American history is going to garner him anymore support.

And if the question is concerning this carpetbagger status then having an out of stater speak on his behalf does him virtually no good.

I actually find it interesting that Sullivan is already having this much trouble. After all his only real competition for the nomination is Joe Miller who is essentially a laughing stock up here, and Mead Treadwell who as Alaska's Lt. Governor has so little charisma that he is actually overshadowed by a Governor whose nickname is Captain Zero.

(H/T to the Daily Kos.)

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

Creationist Ray Comfort complained that Neil deGrasse Tyson had misrepresented the Bible.

The astrophysicist and host of Fox’s “Cosmos” said recently that using the Bible as a scientific source was problematic, because no one had ever scientifically proven a theory based on scripture.

Comfort said last week on his online “Comfort Zone” program that Tyson wasn’t qualified to make that determination because he’s not a theologian.

“You know, the word ‘science,’ it’s kind of a magical word,” Comfort said. “‘I believe in science.’ It just means knowledge, that’s all it means. There’s different areas of science, different areas of knowledge. When you say the Bible is not a science book, you’re saying it’s not a knowledge book? It tells us how God created the Earth!”

Knowledge, of course, is not quite all that defines science, which is characterized by systematic methods of observation in pursuit of new understanding.

But Comfort insisted the Bible was a science book because it described the origins of the universe.

“It gives us the basis for all creation, and it passes the scientific method,” he said. “It’s observable – Genesis – and testable. Evolution is not. You can’t observe something 60 million years old, but you can observe what Genesis says.”

So to be clear, this idiot is saying that Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, cannot judge the scientific merit of the Bible because he is not a theologian, that science itself is a "magical" word, and that the Bible does indeed describe the origins of the universe.

Here let us examine this incredibly detailed description of the beginning of our universe, as explained in the Bible, shall we?

From the book of Genesis:

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

Wow, that really does describe exactly how the universe came to be, how it functions, what it is made up of, it's dimensions, it's age, and everything right? Um, not exactly.

So according to this there was an earth BEFORE there was the light of the sun? But are we not trapped in the orbit of the sun?

And the sky is made up of water? Water?

What about the stars?

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

So the stars are trapped in the "vault of the sky," which is made up of water, and are there simply to "mark sacred times?"

And the moon is a "lesser light to govern the night," and NOT simply a satellite trapped in earth's orbit which reflects the light of the sun back to earth?

Really?

But what about dark matter, gravity, super novas, black holes, the Big Bang?

The Bible addresses none of that. In fact, and I hate to be a skeptic here, it is as if the people who wrote the Bible only had a fundamental, and perhaps illogical, understanding of the world around them.

Do you know what might help to clear up any questions that might remain, AFTER reading the Bible?

Science.

In fact it does not appear that there are really any actual factual explanations about the world, its people, and the universe in which we live, that cannot be answered WITHOUT the Bible.

I'm just saying.

And I would assume that as science moves forward and continues to answer heretofore unanswerable questions, the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran, will be looked to less and less for answers that can now be factually explained, with evidence provided to back them up.

And that's really the problem that Ray Comfort has with this Cosmos program isn't it?

He knows in his dark little heart that the more people turn to education and science to find answers, the faster charlatans like himself, and Ken Ham, Kent Hovind, and William Lane Craig will be out of a job.

P.S. For those who may wonder why I call Comfort the "Banana Man" take a moment to learn why NOBODY should take this guy seriously about anything.

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Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue moron's Facebook page:

Honest Souls in Media? Prove It. Ask Away.

Here’s a great article that pins these yahoo reporters to the mat. It could be considered funny, if it weren't so tragic, watching these crackerjack "journalists" still squirm around with their herd mentality to avoid the obvious. Their credibility is long gone. And they waste your time, America.

As the article's author asks, is there an honest soul among them? Here's a taste:

"Can any of you news hounds explain how what happened in Watergate was worse than anything this president has done? Work with me, Media Stars…it’s a serious question. Nixon had an enemies list. Obama publicly declared his desire to punish enemies and reward friends. Nixon went after whistleblowers like Ellsworth. Obama has prosecuted more administration personnel and journalists for divulging his secrets than any president in history. Nixon tried to get the IRS to hound his enemies. Obama successfully invited the IRS to persecute his. (No, he didn't. That contention has been disproved to the satisfaction of everybody who is NOT a Right Wing conspiracy theorist.) Nixon covered up the political break-in of a hotel office. Obama covered up the facts of the slaughter of an ambassador and three other Americans to protect his campaign. (Also not even close to accurate.) What did Nixon do that Obama didn’t do better and worse?" (Not even close!)

The article hits just a tip of the iceberg. If you've had enough, tap out. Take control and change the channel. (To what? Somebody's new streaming video app perhaps? Nice try lady.)


- Sarah Palin

Palin then links up to the Right Wing rag Townhall.com, an online magazine that regularly attacks Democrats and liberals while claiming that everything the President does wrong is being covered up by the mainstream media.

Of course Palin likes this article because it contains this nugget:

Will you all apologize to Sarah Palin for y’all mocking her when she suggested Obama’s weakness might encourage Putin to invade Ukraine? Ya, know, since she was so right and you all were embarrassingly wrong?

You know the deal, mention Palin in a positive light and she will gladly pimp your article.

You know as a liberal I certainly have some criticisms of how President Obama has dealt with the issue of drones, domestic spying, and certain progressive policies.

However on his very worst day, President Obama is still head and shoulders above a man who was forced to leave office in disgrace, and almost single-handedly undermined the office of the President for decades to come.

I understand how desperate the Republicans are to replace Nixon with a new worst President ever, but by no measure does President Obama fit the criteria.

In fact that is a very good chance that history will view him as one of the very best.

So put that in your crack pipe and smoke it Sarah Palin.

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Courtesy of Happy Nice Time People:

Hillary, Bill, and Chelsea were all onstage in Tempe, Arizona, for a panel session at a Clinton Global Initiative University event; how Kimmel got picked is anybody’s guess. A student asked Hillary, “Ms. Clinton, if you don’t represent women in politics in America as future president, then who will?” (Standing ovation, because these people were not in town for the Gingrich Moon Initiative.) And then Kimmel started with the nudging, and it was kind of awful and beautiful all at once.

I also don't know how Kimmel got the job. (If you are going to choose one of the late night Jimmy's I would always suggest Fallon over Kimmel.) However he did manage to force an almost answer out of Hillary, and that is no mean feat.

The woman is almost as slick as her famous husband in avoiding answering uncomfortable questions, but EVERYTHING in her body language, and that of her family indicated to me that she is absolutely running.

Here is the now famous selfie that the group took after the panel session.

Yep, that is going to be framed on a White House wall at some point.

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Courtesy of Politico:

Taxpayers in 14 states will bankroll nearly $1 billion this year in tuition for private schools, including hundreds of religious schools that teach Earth is less than 10,000 years old, Adam and Eve strolled the garden with dinosaurs, and much of modern biology, geology and cosmology is a web of lies.

Now a major push to expand these voucher programs is under way from Alaska to New York, a development that seems certain to sharply increase the investment.

Public debate about science education tends to center on bills like one in Missouri, which would allow public school parents to pull their kids from science class whenever the topic of evolution comes up. But the more striking shift in public policy has flown largely under the radar, as a well-funded political campaign has pushed to open the spigot for tax dollars to flow to private schools. Among them are Bible-based schools that train students to reject and rebut the cornerstones of modern science.

Decades of litigation have established that public schools cannot teach creationism or intelligent design. But private schools receiving public subsidies can — and do. A POLITICO review of hundreds of pages of course outlines, textbooks and school websites found that many of these faith-based schools go beyond teaching the biblical story of the six days of creation as literal fact. Their course materials nurture disdain of the secular world, distrust of momentous discoveries and hostility toward mainstream scientists. They often distort basic facts about the scientific method — teaching, for instance, that theories such as evolution are by definition highly speculative because they haven’t been elevated to the status of “scientific law.”

And this approach isn’t confined to high school biology class; it is typically threaded through all grades and all subjects.

One set of books popular in Christian schools calls evolution “a wicked and vain philosophy.” Another derides “modern math theorists” who fail to view mathematics as absolute laws ordained by God. The publisher notes that its textbooks shun “modern” breakthroughs — even those, like set theory, developed back in the 19th century. Math teachers often set aside time each week — even in geometry and algebra — to explore numbers in the Bible. Students learn vocabulary with sentences like, “Many scientists today are Creationists.”

That last sentence sent a chill up my spine at the same time that it made my hands clench in anger.

THIS is the kind of garbage that is spoon fed to impressionable children in some of these schools.

Yesterday my mother came by to visit and the topic turned to the rash of religiously themed movies coming out this year.

My mom thought that was a weird coincidence, but I told her it is no coincidence and that it is part of an overall master plan that was first put into place during the 80's with the Moral Majority, and which has only expanded today, for Christians to slowly take over the 7 mountains of influence that they believe will allow them to once again regain control of the country.

One of those mountains, of course, is education. And with the school voucher system it allows the fundamentalists to sabotage the public school system, while providing religious based education, which relies on faith, rather than a secular education, which relies on critical and rational thinking.

We have to recognize that we are in a war for the future of this country, and sadly the progressive side of the battle lines are woefully unprepared for what is to come.

And please if you think I am putting forth some sort of conspiracy theory, then research for yourself. Because believe me, I only wish it was a conspiracy theory.

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