According To Pew

“Too Much” Religious Talk by Politicians

I won't go along with the part about "most people think churches should stay out of politics altogether", but I do think we've been flirting with disaster by allowing religious leaders to enact certain of their beliefs into law.

The US was founded by people who generally indicated they held religious beliefs that ran from Full-On Ayatollah to 'meh', and a lot of them mentioned God in public and in private - usually, I think, more as a rhetorical device than anything else, but maybe that's just me.  Here's my deal though: the US was founded by guys who believed in a variety of tenets from the Judeo-Christian smorgasbord, so it's almost a flat-out lie to say "this is a Christian Nation".  Can we knock that shit off now please?

The Real Mitt Romney

The Romneybot

Rachel gets a little preachy and I can do without that, but she's ridiculously diligent and astute about politics and the shit candidates have to pull (or get stuck thinking they have to pull), so she rarely gets this het up.

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I just wanted to get this into the blog so I could find it later.  This is a good breakdown of the kind of stoopid shit our candidates put themselves thru to get elected.  Also a pretty good commentary on how too many of us end up seeming to demand these guys lie to us.

Goldwater's GOP

Barry Goldwater pretty much screwed the pooch in 1964 with the whole "extremism in the defense of liberty" thing, but he became a hero for me again over time because he allowed his thinking to evolve, while staying true to the core principles of American Democracy.

On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.

I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C" and "D." Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?

And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."

--and--

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.

Everything Comes From Somewhere Else

The first 40 seconds of this clip will forever be in my mind whenever I ponder how a leech like Rush Limbaugh came to be.



Is it really that much of stretch to think this is where he got the idea?

The Snatchel Project

From a spectacularly inspiring website:

Dear Men in Congress: If we knit you a uterus, will you stay out of ours?

(hat tip = Balloon Juice)

Virginia Report Card

From State Integrity via the comments at WaPo

A Thought

Young looks forward
faces its future
cuz there's not much in the past
that matters right now
and everything important's out ahead

Old looks backward
it sees a past filled
with the greatness of its youth
and turns its back
on a future with little left to offer

The Romneybot

"I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that's the America millions of Americans believe in. That's the America I love." --Mitt Romney, 2012

It's a little scary, but I think that quote is exactly who Romney is.  He'd been told that his audience responds favorably whenever they hear words like "believe" and "America", so he spins up a clever-sounding bit of pure sophistry ("I believe in make-believe because I have some very expensive polling data that tells me you idiots believe in that crap, so that's what you're gonna hear me say over and over")  But by the time anybody translates it to a human-usable format, the adoring crowd that he pays to follow him around cheering and applauding has rushed past anybody who feels the need to stop and wonder if anything he says actually means anything.

What We Do To People

Putting a couple of stories together.

George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in Florida murders (IMO) a black teenager and claims self defense.
SSgt Robert Bales murders 16 Afghanis in Panjwai and claims PTSD.

I hope there's no problem generating sympathy and an aching in our hearts for the dead - and for their families, but I get the feeling that we spend way too much time and energy either condemning or excusing guys like Bales and Zimmerman rather than spending any real time or doing any real analysis on how those guys arrived at the decisions that made such a fucking mess of so many lives.

Can't we just stop for a minute and ask what we're doing to people?

Today's Internet Lore

A pretty fair PhotoShop depiction, and an interesting perspective on the status of our political dialog.

Today I posted an image called "Fox News killed my mother." Because it did. It was the most widely circulated image I've ever posted. But, after about an hour I could no longer read any of the comments. Still can't. And some of you have messaged me to say you can't see it. So here it is again. This time, my explanation will be in the first comment instead of here. Basically my mother fell and refused to go to the doctor because she was afraid that "Obamacare" would get information about her and use it in their "death panels." Since then several of you shared identical experiences. This is how their fear mongering is killing our nation, one person at a time, one lie at a time.

(via Democratic Underground)

I have no way of confirming this so my own Confirmation Bias may be in effect, but this is  how this shit can play out over time.  People start to believe whatever you tell them if you tell them often enough.

Spendthrift Obama

Can't we just put the crap away now?  From The Atlantic:

The graph tells a simple story that I've recounted before. For all the talk you hear about Obama's historic spree, government spending actually hasn't increased so dramatically under this president. The stimulus was big, but it's over. It's been replaced by, if not austerity (which has struck our states and cities) then a hard correction to the center.

But no, we prob'ly can't put it away at all.  Digging into the comments on Thompson's post shows an awful lot of people just totally unwilling to accept anything but their own version of the story.  And that's where we are now.  We've arrived at a place where people of great power have convinced way too many of us that Perception Is Reality.  If they're pushing an agenda that isn't supported by honest research and real-world data, then they just go shopping - somebody out there is willing to reach whatever foregone conclusion they have in mind.  You can see it in practically any business almost every day - the boss decides to take the company in a certain direction, and the good folks in Marketing (the smart ones anyway) will come up with "customer survey info" that confirms everything he wants to do.  Facts are now fungible.

And we are so fucked.

Melissa Harris-Perry

Some of the best TV on TV.  It's like being in Civics class again - which was an extraordinarily great thing as far I'm concerned.

This segment was a bit of departure, but still educational for me.

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Doonesbury Sunday(s)

Last time - I promise.  I have to get away from Doonesbury for pretty long periods because it's usually just too depressing, but it's good to check in once in a while.

Doonesbury Saturday