“Pro-Life” Policies Are Killing Pregnant Women. “Republicans” Support The Same Policies and Therefore Support The Same Killings.

Here is yet another story of anti-abortion laws that are murdering pregnant women. (It has happened in Ireland, too, lest you think El Salvador is unique.)

This case is simple: woman becomes pregnant, finds out her baby will be born without most of its brain and will thus die soon after birth: also finds out that she will die if she carries that child to term; and is forced by the El Salvadoran Supreme Court to carry the child to term anyway. This “pro-life” law will kill the mother, and will also result in a dead baby. So no lives are being saved by the so-called “pro-life” laws: in fact, these laws will end up killing even more people.

The “Republican” party fully supports such laws, and wants America to have them too. This means that Repubs are OK with murdering pregnant women. Let’s say that again: Republicans support murdering pregnant women.

Oh, they’ll try to dodge this, of course, but if you support a policy that includes a consequence, then boyo, you support that consequence. If you support a policy that results in killing pregnant women, you support killing pregnant women. Period. Own it.

Anyone who votes for a Repub shows their own support for murdering pregnant women. Think about that when you next enter a voting booth. They hold these policies because they think you support them (said support being proven by your vote). If you withhold that vote, they’ll get the message and change the policy. If you give them that vote, they will keep the murderous policy in place. Your choice, to support or oppose the murder of pregnant women.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

75 % Atheist + 25 % Catholic = 100 % Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan is one of the most seriously deranged and dangerous individuals in contemporary government, and the very idea of his being one dressage accident away from the Presidency fills Mr. Blunt and Cranky with dread. Ryan’s personal ideology is hugely wacked-out, but hidden behind an earnest  exterior and Eddie Munster hairdo, so most Americans are not aware of just how great a threat he poses to us as citizens, and to the future of our nation as a whole.

“Conservative” Catholics (and like-minded Christians of other varieties) tend to cherry-pick biblical verses that align with their prejudices and make life easier for themselves: take one part Jesus, two parts Paul, add a dash of Leviticus, mix vigorously and voila! Custom-made theological comfort food.  That is, b y the way, a pretty fair representation of the formula used by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, Southern Baptists and others who oppose choice, and support the destruction of the safety net and the abolition  of the separation of Church and State. By trolling the Bible and selecting which bits and bobs suit their existing natures, they can come up with a way to call themselves Christians without having to work too hard at all that difficult loving, non-judging, forgiving stuff.

Paul Ryan adds a scary new dimension to this paradigm. To the selflessness of Jesus, and the sternness of Paul and the Old Testament, he adds the selfishness and Atheism of Ayn Rand. This allows him to think himself a Christian while allowing the poor to starve, women to be abused, minorities oppressed and so on. He can apply Atheistic Darwinian Ayn Rand thinking to anyone he doesn’t like or want to deal with, and the Christian bits to those that he does like. If you think about it, this is a very succinct and cogent analysis of Paul Ryan and his growing legion of adherents. It also explains how someone who claims to be a Catholic can take the seemingly heartless and anti-Christian (indeed, sometimes inhumane) positions that Ryan espouses.

Yes, we know, he claims to embrace Ayn Rand’s egocentric and socially Darwinian philosophy while rejecting her Atheism. Unfortunately, it is impossible to do this. Don’t believe it? Read her books. Then read the Gospels. They are fundamentally incompatible. What Ryan is doing is intellectually, morally, spiritually and constitutionally inconsistent, and the fact that he is able to think in such a manner indicates that he has some pretty serious mental competency issues.

The reason this is dangerous? Americans come with values and belief systems aplenty, but you would be hard-pressed to find, say, a Hasidic pagan. Or a Moslem running a pork barbecue. Such self-contradictory attitudes are clearly ridiculous, and would be laugh-lines in a comedy sketch at best; but never a seriously considered moral code.   Ryan’s contradiction goes beyond even those crazy examples: he simultaneously acts on a belief in God and the absence of God, and further seems quite comfortable with that. The man is a lunatic, plain and simple: too, Ryan intends to impose his insane “moral” views upon the rest of us, whether we like it or not.

Abortion? He picks Paul over Ayn. Feeding the poor? He picks Ayn over Jesus. The Constitutional guarantees of equality? Ayn over the Bible and the law of the land. And so on. Whatever is easier, more comfortable, or enhances his wealth or that of his family and friends, that is what he considers moral at any given time.

No one, be they Atheist or religious, can count on Paul Ryan. He will flip-flop and switch sides as it suits him and his paymasters. Whatever he wants to do at any moment, he can find a source within one of his contradictory value sources to justify his greedy, egotistical, self-centered mood du jour. Beyond one single constant (“What’s good for Paul is good for the nation”), he cannot be predicted, and thus he cannot be trusted.

An Atheistic Christian for President? If you are not scared s***less by that prospect, you are not paying attention.

Mr. B & C

Note to The American Family Association: STFU

As someone who was raised in a mainline Protestant family and church, Mr. Blunt and Cranky has to say that Tony Perkins and his posse have absolutely no  business claiming to represent  him, his family, his faith, or indeed American families as a whole. The American Family Association can (and should) re-name themselves something else, like:

• The Johnny-Come-Lately Denomination Association,
• The Latter-Day-Pharisees,or
• The Pompous, Rich, Hypocritical And Bigoted White Men’s Association

The AFA recently responded to the Aurora, CO killings  by blaming, well, pretty much everyone but themselves (and the killer himself, one must note): singling out other churches that are different from theirs for special abuse. In the case of the average schmoe, Mr.  B & C lets that sort of thing go. But not the professionals, who know better  due to their seminary education, but spew their self-righteous hatred anyway.

Short history lesson: when the R.C. Church got too corrupt and full of itself, some of its members asked for reform, and protested when they were kicked out of the church. That is where all Protestant churches came from. The early denominations (Presbyterians, Lutherans and such) got killed, tortured, robbed, and generally had a tough time surviving. But they persevered, and won for the denominations that arose later  the right to worship as they saw fit.

And what gratitude comes from these newer denominations? As when dealing with any spoiled children who have never known want or struggle, what the older churches get in return for their sacrifice is abuse from their offspring. Now, we are being blamed for the acts of a senseless loon with a pile of weaponry.

Memo: the person to blame is the killer. Not the ACLU, or Episcopalians, or gays, or any of the others the AFA routinely demonizes: no,  the killer should be blamed for this. And no one else.

Mr. B & C

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/afa-news-director-says-liberal-churches-media-share-responsibility-colorado-shooting

Religious Freedom For Your Church/Boss. Not For You.

Prologue: Not all churches are covered by this post – only the authoritarian ones. Not all businesses, either (this writer’s employer is blessedly rational on this topic, for instance), nor government entities.  So if your organization does not fit the bill, please refrain from getting your hackles up and screeching on the comments section. If it DOES; well then, you are either screwing others or being screwed by others, and so deserve whatever you read below. All clear now on respecting the sensible organizations? Yay.

As discussed previously, there is no government war on religion, regardless of the bushwah that has been dumped into the zeitgeist by the punditocracy and the advertisers they serve (faux “Wars” make for good ratings and that makes money).  Nor does the money that has been invested in creating this false notion make it any more true. A big, well-polished and expensively-promoted turd remains a turd.

Here’s the deal: After removing the money factor, the so-called “War On Religion” is nothing more or less than another tool to help institutions to take away freedom from individuals.  These institutions can be church, state, or businesses, but they all have the same goal of control. Anyone who has been thus affected by a large organization’s attempt to do such is likely nodding their head; anyone who hasn’t is likely scratching their head; and anyone who is trying to make this happen is likely having their head turn purple upon reading this thesis statement.

What allegedly caused the most recent blowup? A requirement that employers pay a few pennies for birth control for their employees who want and need such medical care. So, two things happened: first, there was money involved, and the churches didn’t want to pay it – times are tough and all that, ya know. Second, the more authoritarian churches saw a threat to their control over their flocks, and immediately fought back.

We can tell who is who by their reactions to the resolution of the money problem: most churches shrugged and moved on, problem solved. The Catholic Church, as well as some other authoritarian church, state and commercial groups continued to squawk.  This betrays an agenda that is far more of a threat to our nation than an argument over the price and availability of hormone tablets.

The agenda is to change who controls the lives of the American people:  from themselves to their institutions. Most Americans like to think we are in charge of our lives, but there are many institutions that don’t like that idea at all. Not that this is a new phenomenon: the Islamic Jihads raped, pillaged and murdered many infidels, as did the Crusaders in their time; the Inquisition did likewise to Jews and Protestants; so too did the Marxist/Leninist regimes of the last century.  “Kiss the cross or kiss the sword”, as one tyrant put it. Be controlled or be killed. That is how these types of slimeballs used to assume and maintain control.

In modern times, authoritarian regimes have gotten a bit smarter if no less venal – they would rather keep the sheep alive longer so as to fleece them more often, instead of killing them.  However, this only works for sheep, and not everyone in America aspires to that status.  If people think for themselves, institutions lose control: if people do what they are told, institutions gain control. Not hard to guess which scenario the control-freaks prefer, so they do their best to encourage sheeply behavior.

For sheer power over the behavior of humans, religion is one with few rivals (mind, it is not all bad – lots of good is done by those with a spiritual bent): it has proven itself a potent force in controlling the thoughts and actions of human beings for millennia.  In this case:  these churches are attempting to control health care decisions that previously belonged to individual American women (“this church does  not believe in birth control, therefore we  will make it difficult/impossible for you to get birth control”. “Oh, and to Hell with your charming little notions of individual religious freedom, by the way”).

Of course, these churches like to pretend they are “victims of Obama’s War on Religion”. Bull-F***ing-S***. Churches can do almost anything they want, as can their followers, and the more realistic among them know this full well: but playing this card helps them to gull the gullible and confound the sensible. Authoritarian churches pretend to be powerless while accreting power. It is a scummy, dishonest and revolting, but regrettably effective and time-honored tactic.

Never mind the Constitution, the laws, or even the words of their own Holy Books; these power-hungry churls are following the path of Paul by setting up their Church as a political and economic force that can dictate terms to civil authorities. Nothing new: it has been done in Constantinople, Rome, France, England, Iran and many other principalities. Now they want to do it to America. It is our responsibility as citizens to not be controlled by such authoritarians: if we roll over and take it like stupid little baa-ing sheep at shearing time, we deserve whatever screwing we get.

Mr. B & C

Tomorrow, the debut of a new feature – The Lying Sack of S*** of The Week

War on Religion? Bull****. (Continued)

There is a lot of hooting and hollering about a “war on religion” in the United States: evidently, our KenyanMuslimChristianSocialistAtheistSatanicCommunistFascistBlackWhiteMaoistGodonlyknowswhatelse butwewillcallhimthateventuallyjustyouwaitandsee Prexy has unleashed all of the demonic forces at his command to take away our freedoms, which he hates us for. At least, that’s what one hears from multiple “news” sources, and in speeches from our “representatives”.

Please, can we all just pay a brief visit to Planet Reality? A few facts to keep in mind:

Number A: The President has doodly-squat  in the way of power over religion. Congress has not much more, the Courts slightly more than Congress: simply put, the three branches of government have very little influence over things churchish. The IRS has more power to regulate religion (via application of tax breaks) than any other public entity, but it usually doesn’t exercise it.

Letter 2: Most Americans are religious, and we can pray, proselytize, tithe, and go to church unmolested: Christians, Moslems, Jews, Wiccans, Unitarians, Mormons, Buddhists, etc. Anybody here been prevented from doing so?

Thirdly: Churches get lots of slack cut for them, in terms of speech, taxes, special services provided by government, and so on. This blogger once saw a  Mike Huckabee political rally at a Babtist church: that sort of thing is forbidden under the tax code, but no one enforced that law, as is usually the case.

Religion permeates virtually every layer and aspect of American society, and anyone dumb enough to try to declare war on it would soon wish they were fighting something easier, like a platoon of rabid Hydras. Might be amusing to watch, but it hasn’t happened, isn’t happening, isn’t gonna happen, and it would fail if it were tried. Calm down.

Mr. B & C

Next Time: So, if there is no war on religion, what is all the fuss about?

War On Religion? Bull****.

In recent months, a long-standing and uncontroversial policy that was enforced by previous administrations without complaint suddenly became The Biggest Threat To Religious Freedom Ever Ever EVER, Such A Huge Huge HUGE Threat, Oh Yes It IS, Oh My Goodness Gracious:

A policy saying that people must be treated equally when it comes to their health insurance benefits.

Wow. Golly Gee Shucks. Jeepers. Yep, sounds pretty much like Satan’s frontal assault on all things churchy…right?

Of course not.  The Bushies enforced this policy for the better part of 8 years and none of these religious organizations raised an eyebrow. So, what changed? Only one teeny tiny little thing: Money.

A change in cost allocations associated with prescription birth control medications was proposed, and THAT is when the churches started screaming. Yes, only when it looked like it might hit the churches in their tender pocketbooks did it turn into a problem. Note this well – the coverage requirement itself was never an issue. Look back to beginning of the century, and you’ll find almost nothing about it in the news or from the pulpit.

Also please note that as soon as the Administration agreed to shift most of the cost responsibility away from the churches, most churches shut up about it. They got what they wanted.  This was never about religion. It was all about the cash.

Brings to mind a little story about a rabbi who caused a kerfuffle in a temple back in the day;  He read the riot act to the money changers who were working therein, after which He proceeded to boot them out of the temple.  Sounds to this writer like the money changers have moved back in – indeed, it sounds as if they are running the joint. 

But this time, the money changers have brought some really slick P.R. types with them, to help keep those pesky rabbis away.

Mr. B & C