World News Korner

Courtesy of Mediaite:

This year’s War on Easter coverage on Fox News came to a head this morning when Fox & Friends contributor Ainsley Earnhardt pitted an atheist and a Christian against each other for a heated debate over the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s right to post “anti-Easter” signs alongside the giant cross and resurrected Jesus monuments in Chicago’s Daley Plaza. “Has Easter evolved into an occasion to demean religious beliefs and Christianity?” Earnhardt asked at the top of the segment.

And what are those “anti-Easter” images? Quotes from America’s Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, reading “In reason, we trust” and “Keep state and religion separate,” respectively.

You know I certainly don't want to disagree with a Fox News blonde bobblehead, but I do not understand how this is an attack on Easter.

It was in fact a response to this display at Chicago's Daley Plaza.

If one religious group feels that it is okay to place symbolic constructs that promote their religion in a public venue, then it is only fair to expect other religions to want to do the same. Or for non-deists to want to promote their message in a similar manner.

And in NO way can this be compared to the hateful images and remarks that are the hallmark of the Westboro church folk.

Though I am sure saying so plays right into the Fox viewers already existing prejudices.

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So today is the day that commemorates the day thousands of years ago when somebody stole a body and everybody blamed God.

Now on such an auspicious day you might expect me to piss all over the holiday and start reciting facts and figure to disprove the story, or compare it to other religious resurrections stories, but I'm not going to.

Actually I have always quite liked Easter.

I like dying eggs, I like organizing Easter egg hunts, and I like chocolate bunnies.

Much like Christmas, once you remove all of the religious parts it is a pretty nice little holiday. (And of course much like Christmas, the best parts were stolen from the pagans.)

When I was a boy we always spent Easter at my grandmother's and she always had a nice ham, and treats for the kids. Plus, as an added benefit, since it was Easter everybody tried not to yell at us too much.

And earlier that morning my mother would have hidden our baskets and left clues written as a poem on little pieces of paper to guide us to their locations. (We used to love that!)

It was always a nice day to spend with the family, and I have nothing but great memories.

Even if Mom DID feel the need to dress us up like this.

Still worth it, got candy.



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"Cures all forms of monotheism, and restores rational brain function." How wonderful would it be to own such a cure?

Actually to be honest I would not use this on anybody. That would be wrong.

Trust me, I'd want to, but ultimately it would go against my sense of morality and fair play.

However I have to wonder, if there were a potion which immediately transformed a skeptic into a Bible reading man of faith, with regular church attendance, would those on the other side demonstrate the same restraint?




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Picture taken yesterday morning in Denali.

Courtesy of the Fairbanks Newsminer:

Bears that wake up hungry after a long winter’s nap aren’t as big a problem in Fairbanks as they are in other bear-infested cities like Anchorage and Juneau but state wildlife officials say it’s still a good idea for Interior residents to do some spring cleaning around their homes to dissuade any ursine intruders.

“We haven’t had as many problems in Fairbanks as Anchorage,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game spokeswoman Cathie Harms said of Alaska’s largest city 360 miles to the south, where it’s not uncommon for bears to be shot each spring for getting into garbage, tearing down bird feeders or ravaging neighborhood chicken coops.

“With that many bears in urban areas and bird feeders being such an attractant it’s a pretty big deal,” she said.

The department issued a press release on Tuesday noting that Gov. Sean Parnell has declared April “Bear Awareness Month” and reminding Alaska residents to take down bird feeders, clean up garbage, and store pet and livestock foods indoors or in bear-resistant containers. The release “was written from an Anchorage perspective” but applies to the Fairbanks area, too, said Harms.

As a lifelong Alaskan living in Anchorage, I have a few hard and fast rules in the spring.

Guess who just woke up.

1) Get the lawn fertilized, and weed killer applied, as soon as the weather permits.

2) Get those tires pumped up and the bicycle tuned up as soon as the roads are dry.

3) Stay the hell out of the woods until late May or early June.

I love to go hiking, but I don't want to risk my life doing it.

There are a hell of a lot of bears around Anchorage, though people don't often know it, and we have quite a number of really vicious attacks quite close to my house.

I don't really worry about bears as a rule, but that is because I take precautions to minimize any potential surprises.

I hike in open areas, until about mid June or July.

I make a lot of noise and usually have a group of three or more.

And I am always vigilant. Always.

Some people up here think that if they carry a gun or bear repellant, they are safe from bear attack. But the hell they are.

There have been a number of deadly attacks where the victim fired off several shots and still got themselves ripped to shreds.

I don't carry anything, nor by the way do most Alaskans. At least not around Anchorage.

Personally I think that guns give people an inflated sense of confidence, and bear spray works if you can get a solid hit, but a charging bear moves at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. Good luck with aiming at a 900 lb mass of fur and claws bearing down on you at that speed while every instinct in your body is telling you to run.

I have been very lucky to only have a few bear encounters, and none of them were particularly frightening. And I fully intend to keep it that way.

It is great living in a place that is surrounded by nature, and where wildlife is close at hand. However that enjoyment is severely undermined after a violent reminder of just how tenuous our position on the food chain really is.

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As you can imagine this ad has inspired quite a lot of criticism:

"Beau McCoy hit a new low," Democratic executive director Dan Marvin said, demanding that the Omaha state senator take down his ad.

"No matter what party you belong to, the depiction of violence displayed in McCoy's ad is completely disrespectful to the office of the presidency and sends the wrong message to our children."

The new ad, in which McCoy expresses his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and particularly to its proposed expansion of Medicaid coverage in Nebraska, stirred some critical traffic on Twitter throughout the day.

Responding to Democratic objections, McCoy said Nebraskans are "tired of being pushed around by the Obama administration and the federal government."

"We as Nebraskans know a one-size-fits-all mandate like Obamacare is the wrong approach for our state, which is why I led the charge this legislative session to oppose Medicaid expansion in Nebraska," McCoy said in a written statement.

Well I guess when people in Nebraska are dying because there was no Medicaid expansion in their state they will know exactly who to blame.

Maybe one of their surviving family members would like the opportunity to backhand Mr. McCoy much like he did to that President Obama doll.

I know I certainly would.

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Courtesy of ABC 7 in Denver:

Christian radio broadcaster James Dobson has won a temporary injunction preventing the federal government from requiring his ministry to include the morning-after pill and other emergency contraception in its health insurance.

A federal judge in Denver issued the injunction.

Dobson sued in December, saying the Affordable Care Act mandate to provide the contraception violates the religious beliefs of his Colorado Springs-based ministry, called Family Talk.

Good news for employees of Dobson's Family Talk radio show with a uterus. You no longer have to struggle with that painful decision of what to do in the case of an unplanned pregnancy.

James Dobson has made that decision for you.

You have to keep it, and of course if you terminate it using your own money, then it is very likely, considering Dobson's draconian views on abortion, that you will lose not only a potential child, but also a very real job.

Isn't religion great?

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Cliven Buncy supporters take aim against BLM agents.

Courtesy of Reuters:

The weekend showdown marked the latest resurgence of violent, anti-government sentiments that have existed in rural America for centuries, said Catherine Stock, a history professor at Connecticut College who specializes in rural militias.

"The question is whether we're going to see sustained flame-up now. We could see more of that if they actually think that the federal government is going to stand down," she said.

"It's not the groups, it's not their concerns, it's not their anger, all of that is old, but the federal government backing down? I was like, wow! Seriously?"

Stock said the rise of right-wing media outlets and websites and the election of Republican politicians who have shifted the party further to the right have given a new legitimacy to groups that were once dismissed as being on the fringe.

At least half a dozen state legislators from Nevada, Washington, Utah and Arizona attended protest rallies in Bunkerville at the weekend.

Michele Fiore, a Republican Nevada assemblywoman from Las Vegas who said she joined the protesters daily after getting a torrent of supportive emails about Bundy from constituents, called the resistance "justified."

"This is historic," she said. "This is the first time we went arm to arm with the federal government."

What happened last weekend could very likely be a seminal event which determines how these sovereign citizen types deal with law enforcement moving forward.

There were reportedly over a thousand armed men willing to engage the BLM and Federal agents in a firefight, over unpaid taxes.

Many of these men had no military training, or if they did it was decades earlier in their lives.

They had no consistent chain of command, and no clear idea of what would determine the right time to fire their weapons.

That means that those agents were in an incredibly dangerous situation, where one trigger happy moron could fire the bullet that resulted in one of the largest massacres in American history.

And that is EXACTLY what the Right Wing is waiting, and hoping for. They want somebody to die at the hands of the federal government, regardless of who fired the first shot, so that they can make them a martyr and essentially move this country toward a civil war.

Never before have the indications been this clear that the conservatives in this country are so angry that they are losing power, and that America is moving toward a more liberal viewpoint, that they are willing to rip the country in half in a desperate attempt to stop the inevitable.

Think I'm exaggerating? I only wish that I were:

A Tea Party Facebook page called Overpasses for America, clinching just over 79,000 supporters, is calling for a “Shot Heard Around the United States” day on April 19th. The post, showing a picture of a large group of men firing rifles in the air simultaneously in front of a barn, calls on every gun owner to fire into the air at the same time:

“April 19th, 2014… 12 NOON Eastern Standard Time Every gun owner in the USA is asked to fire their weapon at the same time. Spread the word, share everywhere.”

April 19th is also the day, in 1775, when the start of the Revolutionary War began. This is the same page who posted a status calling for Harry Reid to be imprisoned for his “deal with Communist China that led to the stand off at Bundy Ranch.” The page, in the last few days, has been riddled with many pictures and articles detailing the fiasco at the Bundy Ranch, calling Bundy and his supporters ‘Patriots’ and seeking to end the ‘bogus lies’ about the stand-off.

Courtesy of Facebook

Mark my words, there will be a first shot fired into an actual person at some point in the near future.

And when that happens, the only question remaining is for how long after will the gunfire continue.

When people angrily ask me why I am so against American citizens having access to military style weapons, I often think that in due time they will become too shocked by the violence to ever ask me again.

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