Those Patriotic Ribbons

Are you tired of seeing those Yellow and Flag decorated ribbons stuck to the back of patriotic cars? Well, now there's an alternative here.

I especially like one that says, "One Nation Under Ribbons" and another that says, "I Support More Troops Than You".

They also allow you to design your own ribbon.

Proud to be uh-'Murican

From Newsmax:

The Army reservist who tipped off investigators to abuse of Iraqi prisoners by his fellow soldiers is in protective military custody because of death threats, family members said Tuesday.

From Dada:

I just want to share how sick it makes me to be among those who fuckin' pride themselves as being Americans. It's difficult to imagine the kind of people who would want to kill a soldier because he revealed the attrocities we are capable (and should be ashamed) of.

We should be thanking and honoring Spc. Joseph M. Darby for his courage to come forward. Instead he and his wife are in hiding. Darby's own mother doesn't even know where they are.

As Howard Zinn said of our over-flowing prisons: Many of those incarcerated are there from minor non-violent offenses. While murderers, torturers, and butchers in D.C. walk around free.

Amen, brother Dada!

Computer Security Warning

If you use Google for searches, be cautious typing Google's URL. CNet warns that there's a trap if you mistype:

Security researchers have discovered an attack aimed at would-be visitors to Google.com, one that attempts to download malicious programs onto the computers of people who simply mistype the search giant's Web address.

According to security specialist F-Secure, unsuspecting Web surfers may be bombarded with various types of Trojan horse threats, spyware and backdoors when they go to "Googkle.com." The scheme is meant to take advantage of sloppy or hurried typists, given that on most keyboards the letter "k" key sits next to the "l" needed to type "Google."

A safer way to use Google is to download their toolbar and conduct your searches from your browser.

It's Time to Switch to Firefox

Micrsoft Internet Explorer can be subject to attacks. A safer browser is Firefox which you can download for free here. A toolbar to search Google is available for both browsers.

Americablog reports that Ralph Reed is on Microsoft's payroll so if you're concerned about the influence of Religious Right wingnuttery, this is a good time to register your protest by downloading and using Mozilla's Firefox instead of Microsoft's IE. Your browsing experience will be safer, as well.

The man dubbed "The Right Hand of God" has fingerprints all over Microsoft. Still.

Ralph Reed is more than a Friend of Bill -- he is a paid GOP consultant, getting $20,000 a month from Microsoft to help shape the software behemoth's image in the global marketplace.

Judging from Reed's past -- he was the former head of the evangelical Christian Coalition -- that means serving up vitriolic viewpoints about gays and lesbians.

Judging from Microsoft's actions -- the company just yanked its support of a legislative bill in Olympia to protect gays -- the Reed brand of insight is shining through.

We're told that Catholic popes are infallible and, as yet, we don't know at what point they becomes infallible (we discussed this earlier) so if the new pope can't make an error, we assume that the cardinals who choose him are also infallible and so how do they explain the inexplicable?

Attaturk found the following:

In a speech delivered in Parma, Italy, March 15, 1990, even Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger endorsed the opinion of philosopher P. Feyerabend against Galileo. Ratzinger stated:

“At the time of Galileo the Church remained much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself. The process against Galileo was reasonable and just”.

Although I'm confident that the majority of readers know about Galileo, here's a tip for the wingnuts who stop by. Galileo's scientific observations [reality-based discoveries] conflicted with the beliefs [faith-based views] of the church. He was tried in 1633 by the Inquisition and was sentenced to house arrest. This is what happens when you mix church and state and it demonstrates the importance of our independent judiciary (the one the Repugs are trying to intimidate and replace).

Oh, and by the way, in 1992 the then pope concluded that the church had wronged Galileo after all. Does this mean that one of the popes made an error? How can the pope of 1633 be correct if he was overruled by the pope of 1992. I believe I detect a chink in the armor of infallibility.

Just like the Bible, the church is full of contradictions. It's like when someone lies so often they can't keep track of the stories they told and they end up contradicting themselves.

Fun with Chemistry

A modern periodic table has been produced by the reDiscovery Institute with variations for Cobb County, Georgia and Kansas. The table for Cobb County is a pdf file and it took a while to load with my DSL connection, so be patient. The wait is worthwhile.

You might also want to read about the controversy regarding the periodic table. Just as evolution is being challenged by proponents of intelligent design, Chemical Periodicity is under fire:

Chemical Design, a new theory that holds that an unspecified superior intellect is the only reasonable mechanism to account for the complexity of chemistry, is increasingly appearing in science forums and journals as an alternative to Chemical Periodicity.

Be sure to click on the Take Action link where you can easily contact members of the media.

The Laughter of Animals

While Wisconsin hunters are eager to start shooting domestic kitties, researchers are discovering that humans aren't the only animals who laugh. A new study found that rats, chimps, and dogs all have ways of "laughing" while having a good time. Although cats weren't mentioned in this study, I can testify that kitties also laugh. In fact, our Moralee audibly snorts when we play with her. Our other cats just exhale a little louder, although it's possible their "laughter" is outside our range of hearing.

Chimps and dogs pant in specific ways when they play, while rats make a chirping sound when they are tickled. That chirping is the same sound they make before having sex, suggesting it's connected to their brains' pleasure centers. These types of brain circuits also become activated in the brains of laughing humans. These new findings challenge the theory that only humans experience laughter and joy, and could help scientists understand the evolution of human emotion. "Neural circuits for laughter exist in very ancient regions of the brain," researcher Jack Panksepp says, "and ancestral forms of play and laughter existed eons before we humans came along."

Click here and scroll down to see a picture of Moralee sleeping with her paw over her eyes.

FDA Protects Drug Company Profits

The FDA approved two drugs for eczema and have now issued a warning that those drugs can cause cancer and they've refused to approve a simple, safe, inexpensive treatment for eczema that is widely used in Germany:

Dr. Oscar E. Beck, M.D., Ph.D. developed eczema at about 6 months of age. While working on his second doctorate in medical biochemistry in Germany he worked with Dr. Wurzburger to purify a vitamin D3, exposing it to ultraviolet light (all vitamin D has to be activated by sunlight and transformed in our bodies before absorption). They also checked its toxicity, which was very low. Dr. Beck began using this form of vitamin D in November of 1974 and his eczema subsided with a dosage of only 100 IUs daily. He concludes that eczema patients do not have a T-cell problem but they have a UV light (enzyme converting) problem, probably genetic. Unfortunately for us the US FDA has refused to approve this preparation for the US market although this solution has helped German children become eczema-free. Dr. Beck stated, "I am now retired but still abhor the way American medicine is manipulated by the FDA and powerful pharmaceutical firms."

This is a fine example capitalism run-amuk and it's not just the Repugs who have sold their souls to drug companies either. This is a bipartisan problem.

Closing Our Borders

Schwarzenegger wants to close California's borders to keep out immigrants. I say it's too late, he already got in.

Click here and scroll down to see a sexy photo of California's Goobernator in his Speedo.

We Answer Our Mail

We started a new ad today on Bartcop's web site and then received the following email:

Is it really necessary for you to mock all Christians?

Well, now that you mention it, yes it is necessary. If we don't do it, who will?

While I have some pretty strong criticism of the Religious Right - after all, I'm a long-time reader of Bartcop - your willful mixing up of Christians and the Right only serves to polarize folks that don't need to be at odds with one another. It's no more accurate to claim that all Christians are Republicans, as it is to say that all Republicans are Pro-Life.Your conclusion that only the "Religious Right" uses the IXOYE emblem is false.

We're surprised to discover that we're powerful enough to polarize folks. Even Catholic priests have purchased Darwin fish from us so we can only conclude that some religious people have a sense of humor (but not all, as you've pointed out). Hey, some of our best friends are... oh never mind.

It's a symbol of unity for all brands of Christians.

If you want to share a symbol with the Religious Right, you're welcome to do that. We're providing an alternative for the reality based community.

Those of us that are troubled by evolution, and those of us that don't care about it (like me).

Troubled by evolution? Like being unable to evolve?

The Religious Right is not the only political affiliation of Christians.

Yep, some of our customers are progressive Christians. You can easily recognize them - they're the ones with the sense of humor.

By repeating the lie of the Right (those that want to mislead the world into believing their position is God's position), not only are you doing a disservice to the truth, you are misleading some impressionable people into believing that either a. I'm a Christian, so I have to be a Republican, or b. I'm a liberal, so I can't be a Christian. That's not very helpful.

You've got to be kidding! You think we're misleading impressionable people? That's the role of the churches. If we've ever been guilty of repeating "the lie of the Right" it was only while we were mocking them.

Do you know where the symbol came from? During the early church when Christians were being executed and thrown into the Gladiator games against the lions, Christians tried to keep their faith private to avoid execution. In order to identify other Christians, they would make the marks of the fish. One person would mark half of the fish with a 1/4 circle, and if the other person saw the mark and knew what it was, they'd draw the other half.

Then when the church was established that same symbol was still affiliated with folks who launched the Crusades and tortured and killed nonbelievers. Is that the symbol you're still defending?

So all these folks mocking the Fish, are making a mockery of the persecution of people of faith long before there ever was a battle between the Right and Left. If it's not alright for Rush and Savage to mock Rosa Parks and MLK, why should it be okay to mock people that died for what they believed in 1500 years ago?

Hey! We're not mocking people of 1500 years ago. Pay attention here. We're REALITY BASED, we're living in the present. We're mocking present-day wingnuts but if you want to honor people of the past, how about the innocent Muslims who died in the Crusades or "witches" who were horribly tortured and burned to death in public.

I'm smart enough to understand that there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that you're going to cease your moneymaking business, but I thought you might at least take a moment to acknowledge that not all Christians are Righty's.

Yeah, we'll continue raking in our minuscule living by mocking creationists and other faith-based and fear-based true-believers. Oh, and by the way, we don't believe in hell so you can go Cheney yourself.

Nobody Expects the German Inquisition

Nutjobs rejoice! Rome has a new pope, the Grand Inquisitor Ratzinger.

In 1981, Ratzinger was named Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the organization which until 1965 had been called the Holy Office of the Inquisition, making him Grand Inquisitor.

Remember the Inquisition when those zany Catholic zealots used torture and murder to acquire the property of dissenters? They employed the use of thumbscrews and the rack against women (witches), Jews, Muslims and others who failed to recognize the "One True Church." They didn't just kill people, they also tortured and killed kitties (the preferred animal companion of witches and other non-Catholics), rats infected with the plaque proliferated and many more Europeans died.

The office of Inquisition was never eliminated, they just changed it's name.

The Inquisition was set up in the City of Rome by the cruel Pope Paul IV when he was still Cardinal Carafa, because he was peeved at the success of the Spanish Inquisition. He realised it was time to give some teeth to the Italian tribunal. He persuaded his predecessor, Paul III, to institute the Roman Inquisition with the papal bull of 1542 Licet ab init.

The tribunal constituted by that bull was the Sacra Congregation Romanae et Universalis Inquisitionis seu Sancti Officii – the Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition or Holy Office. Later, as pope, he oversaw it with a rod of iron.

In 1965, amidst the liberal atmosphere of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI changed its name again, to Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei or Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – a title better suited to an enlightened age. Meanwhile he jettisoned only such powers as the times made it impossible to retain. So readers might be tempted to think that although the building still stands, its activities must have changed. Surely Rome cannot get away with that kind of thing these days?

My Notes to the Vatican & MSNBC

I tuned in to MSNBC this morning just in time to watch Chris Jansing waiting for smoke signals from the Cardinals in the Vatican. (Note to Cardinals - we have telephones now.)

Anyhow, Jansing was so a-tingle while waiting for the smoke signals that she blurted out that her heart was pounding in anticipation. (Note to Jansing - you need to get out more.)

Rob adds:

I suppose, if the smoke is green, it means one of the cardinals had an extraordinarily spicy meat-a-ball for lunch!

Rude Pundit on St. Frist

"...Bill Frist is itching, praying his own private prayers that Wisconsin would pass its cat-hunting bill. His fingers twitch in memory of his own hunts in the back alleys of Cambridge, his visits to the animal shelters, all to 'hone his surgical skills,' all that sweet cat slicing, all those beautiful kitty screams that made him the man he is today."

More from The Rude Pundit here

Saint Bill Frist: Slayer of Kitty Cats

As his first official proclamation as Pope, George W. Bush conferred Sainthood on Senator Bill Frist, killer of defenseless kitty cats (the anti-Saint Francis). Because I can't post the graphic here, please visit my mirror blog for it.

Thanks to Attaturk at Rising Hegemon who found these Culture of Life playing cards.

George W. Bush Elected Pope - Catholic Cardinals Stunned!

Reported by Willie E. Davis

The almost 120 Cardinals from around the world that gathered to choose a successor in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel were stunned and expressed amazement. Cardinal Mohoney the Vatican spokesperson had this to say, "We in the conclave are all shocked. We cast our vote's using these new electronic voting machines. The results overwhelmingly favored George W. Bush over all the Catholic candidates. The last Pope, John Paul, was a superb linguist, fluently speaking 11 languages, this one can't speak fluently in one language. We just don't know what to say."

The White House has announced that Dick Cheney will assume command as President of the world tomorrow morning, when "W' travels to Rome to begin his duties as Pope.

George W. Bush had this to say moments ago as he spoke from the Rose Garden:

"I am honored to be the spiritual lighthouse, and the first War Pope. I promise Evangelical Catho-licks and Prostates alike that I will be embodied in salvation and fair in the performance of my duties. I am a Unitifier, not a Divide-a-cater. I am obliged to try to save as many lost souls as I can, at least the Devout Wealthy Elite Souls, as it is well known that Heaven is a very select place, indeed, it is more exclusive than even the best of country clubs. It is a members only Heaven. I may have to put a fence around it.

I will preform miracles in a fair and balanced manner. Just as God use to wipe out entire races of people without warning, burning whole towns of perverts, killing off an entire nations, and drowning everybody without a ticket to board Noah's Ark, I shall deliver the world from Evil Empires as I unleash the Apocalypse Wrath of Revelations. I will ensure the Rapture and the Reunion with our beloved deceased family members and with our departed purebred pets. I will not allow those awful Liberal Sissy Homosapiens to marry each other and I will put an end to the Clergy marrying Choirboys.

I will lead the Crusades against all them towel-headed heathens demon-possessed voodoo-hoodoo barbarians who's Pseudo-religions that don't except Christ as the Light of Democracy, and who worship fake, made-up gods. They shall suffer my Godly Conservative Wrath and I will Destroy them with my Cherubic Armies of Angels and they shall burn for eternity in Hell, because Me and God don't take no prisoners!

Remember, it is written in the Gospel of Luke, or.... maybe it's Larry, uh, 12, uh, 5 or something, that Jesus told us we are to live our lives in FEAR of God and the Terrorists, for God and the Terrorists have the power not only to kill us, but to torture us forever in Hell.

And to you Non Believers and Democrats, I say, I can't wait to see you burn in Hell, I mean it.....I can't wait!!!"

A Catholic Leader's Sexual Fantasy

Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, enraged conservative Catholics by going drinking and dancing dressed as a nun and the pope on the Jewish holiday of Purim.

William Donohue of the Catholic League told E!Online, "She needs to be beaten with a ruler by a real-life nun and he needs to be paddled on his behind by a real-life priest."

Ha! Now Catholics are openly embracing their inner homosexuality in an S&M kind of way.

"We're quite disappointed," Donahue said, after learning that she'd returned to the fold, so to speak. "We Catholics thought we had finally gotten rid of the witch when she discovered kabbala. In the event she discovers the Wiccan religion, the Catholic League would be happy to donate a proper [witch] costume to her.

"And we would be ever so happy to send her husband a broom complete with instructions for what to with it."

Ah, those conservative Catholics seem to be experts on the attire of today's stylish witch, but don't you think they should first work on getting their popes, cardinals et. al out of those silly costumes and into something with style, or at least come up to the 19th century.

Flames a Flying

Someone who has a wingnut blog posted a link to our web site and a heated discussion ensued between thinkers and belivers. Beware there be homophobes slinging hate like hash.

Papal Bull

The process of choosing a new pope will soon begin and it brings some questions to mind about the infallibility of this man.

infallible: Incapable of erring

So when they pick the next one, at what exact moment does he become infallible? And what was the final mistake he made? Is he given a period of grace during which he can continue to err, or does he instantly become infallible?

Does a cloak of infallibility descend over him when he's chosen or was he always infallible and just waiting to be picked? If the latter is true, how many infallible men exist in the world at this moment? Are they secret super heroes? Is this where comic book heroes come from? Was Superman an undiscovered pope?

If there's only one cardinal who is already infallible and the others are tasked to ferret him out? What are the odds they'll make a mistake unless they too are infallible?

Indeed, infallibility also belongs to the body of bishops as a whole, when, in doctrinal unity with the pope, they solemnly teach a doctrine as true.

Okay, so the cardinals and bishops are also infallible as long as they agree with the pope. Do they lose their infalliblity when, like now, there is no pope?

The cloak of infallibility seems to be growing so I consulted Dada and he offered the following:

Could it be? There's a whole world of perfect Cardinals out there? That's the implication, right? If the Pope is infallible, and doesn't just become infallible at the moment of election to that supreme office, then all cardinals are infallible. They'd have to be to be considered for Popehood as you suggested. But if that's so, doesn't that imply there must be a whole string of bishops-to-be-cardinals-someday who are also infallible. OMG! Ergo, ipso, op. cit., that might imply all priests are infallible? QED! (Just ask those molested choir boys.) Oh, I'd better stop here, because the can of worms you opened has all kinds of implications. (And what of those priests who aren't pedophiles; who prefer grown men? What goes on behind closed doors, lights-out-time, in the parish?) This only exacerbates the question of fallibility when addressing morality issues, doesn't it?

And then this ignores, of course, the trepidations of the priesthood towards woman and the power wielded thru her vagina but denied her by men whose first act was to surf that sweet channel and then, through their church, condemn all women to the role of "whore" or sub-servant in the promotion of god's will for man while on this Earthly plain. But, whew, sorry, I digress. Forgive.

We Get Fan Mail

We received the following email message today:

I am truly sorry for Nona & Rob for their sick twisted view on life. And for bashing of people who believe in our Lord Jesus. Is your life so sad and without true meaning that they must bash others? AND, make a minuscule living from it with selling hatred items ? What happened to them in their childhood? Possibly they were not loved by anyone including their parents.

Nona responds: As a child I was forced to attend a fundie church but the brainwashing didn't work out. I got away.

A Truly Great Man

The SCLM was so busy obsessing over the Pope, they completely ignored the birthday celebration of Cesar Chavez. Jerry Brown, former governor of California:

Cesar Chavez ended his life as he began it, close to those who toil with their hands. In a mechanical age full of plastic and loneliness, he stood against the crowd: unbossed, undoctored and unbought. He kept the faith to the end. We won't find another like him. I will miss him.

I'm beginning to think that the MSM is like a person with obessive compulsive disorder. They need to bring some balance back into our lives.

Contradictions

I made the mistake of tuning in CNN or MSNBC today for a moment and I heard a woman say of the pope, "He was like a God in a human body and he was also like an ordinary man."

I think this statement sums up the schizophrenic nature of religious fanaticism (fantasy).

The Bestest Pope Ever!

It's remarkable I think that since the two days before the Pope died, there has been no other news worth reporting on CNN, MSNBC and Faux Snooze. It's like the world stopped and since there's nothing else to talk about, I too must say something about the pope. According to everyone on the above mentioned snooze programs, he was the bestest pope ever and he rode around it the bestest pope mobile ever. Not to pile on, but here are some of his accomplishments that I noticed (and I'm not a pope watcher).

He's the bestest pope ever because he freed women from the dominance of men by allowing them to become priests / priestesses, he punished pedophile priests and protected their victims, he abolished poverty in third-world countries by allowing his followers to use birth control and limit the sizes of their families.

Oh wait a minute - I was dreaming.

Here's some reality-based commentary by lightiris on DailyKOS.

Sr. Jeannette Normandin was a prison chaplain in a Massachusetts women's prison for years and dedicated her life to working in the community helping needy women make something of their lives. She also worked extensively with the AIDS community in trying to alleviate suffering through real works based on real solutions. She touched the lives of many. Jeannette Normandin made the mistake, one day, however, of sprinkling water during a baptism and was summarily fired--as well as evicted from the home she shared with members of her order.

Okay, she broke the rules, so she had to be punished, just like all those priests who molested children, right?

Recall what was going on at the time in Massachusetts in 2000. As a routine matter, child-molesting priests were sent to expensive spas for "treatment," were provided apartments and salaries when they were determined to be unfit for parish duty, and were shielded from authorities at all costs. Indeed, hush money was offered to families to keep the sexual abuse quiet. And one 70-year-old nun, with an extraordinary lifetime of service, is evicted from her home and fired from her job for participating in a baptism. Her story was reported far and wide in these parts as illustration of the rampant hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.

Bernard Cardinal Law, under whose administration the molestation and rape of hundreds of Massachusetts children went virtually unchecked, is now leading a life of comfort and authority right in the Vatican. His bio on the Vatican's website doesn't mention his immoral, unethical, and in the minds of some, criminal behavior. It doesn't mention that under his watch the lives of hundreds of children and their families were destroyed, their futures irrevocably harmed. He is a holy man.

Well, but at least he is honored for helping the poor, right?

Vatican policies endanger the lives of women and children in developing nations all over the world. Extraordinary political pressure, religious coercion, and the calculated dissemination of factually inaccurate information are used to consistently deny women and children responsible health care and policy. Understand that no other organization with as many resources and as many spheres of influence is as obstructionist in matters of family planning as the Catholic Church. So I say this without any reservation: any organization, its leaders included, that would actively lobby to deprive third-world women of contraceptives and family planning choices should be roundly condemned by all people of conscience. I abhor the efforts of the Catholic Church to derail birth control initiatives in third-world nations as well as their intense lobbying efforts to derail and suppress United Nations funding for family planning programs. Such policies result in untold suffering, disability, and death to innocents who have no voice, no agency, and no recourse. Such policies, in my view, epitomize evil and under no circumstances should they be accepted or tolerated simply because they exist under the imprimatur of a particular religious faith.

The resources of the Catholic Church would be better spent in helping women gain some control over their reproduction than in foisting their obviously injurious policies on vulnerable women and children. There is absolutely nothing Christian or Christ-like in the organized subjugation of women.

... the hypocrisy is stunning. Those who call themselves "religious moderates" turn their backs on the suffering of the world's poor women and children every time the Catholic Church is praised, every time they tolerate Pope John Paul II being held up as a Holy Man, every time they are respectful of the pomp and ceremony [read: atrocious squandering of money...] to prop up an organization that actively seeks to retain a human hierarchy in which women are second class and are to have no real control over their reproductive future.

There is nothing moderate about respecting a religious faith whose precepts and practices hurt others. That so-called tolerance, I would argue, while well-intentioned, is little more than indifference bordering on cowardice. And those who object to the Catholic Church's policies must object to the individual in charge of shaping and managing those policies--and that means holding the Pope--every Pope--accountable. I daresay so many of these very same people who are mourning the loss of a "great man," who preach religious tolerance as some sort behavioral acme, are screaming for the heads of Rumsfeld and Bush when it comes to the evils committed under the banner of U.S. governmental policy. But where is the moral outrage here? Oh, yeah. I forgot. He's a holy man. We must respect the world's faiths and religions. Such a romantic concept.

Athena had her own diary, too:

Prepare for days on end of men in dresses wailing about the loss of a great man who "everyone" agrees was something special. And prepare for slavish sermoning on the part of the SCLM who appeared to be afraid to raise the pedophile scandals despite endless hours of banalities.

And we know that all the little women of the Vatican are running around cleaning up since all of the church "fathers" are coming to town.

I am in mourning - for the loss of a female-centered spirituality that once existed and is now considered subversive. And for the loss of so much female vitality in the service of the "great men of God."

Meanwhile Booman's Tribune is working toward gender parity on the front page. It's a woman-friendly place where I've been hanging out a lot these days. You might enjoy checking it out.