All religion is politics

Understand that I make a fundamental, line in the sand distinction between faith and religion. "Faith," which is personal, and I usually admire it when it does not trample either reason or reasonability.

Sigh. And then there is religion, wherein discourse inevitably boils down to "My god's dick can beat up your god's dick so neenerneenerneener." (The fact that folks are quite often arguing over the same god makes it just that much more puerile.)

Two cases in point:

1.) Arkansas barring unmarried couples from adopting children...even when they're their own friggin' relatives, and

2.) Israel, period, and most recently this.

When is making other people suffer for your dogma a testament to "faith"? Faith, last I checked, was about keeping one's convictions in the face of opposition. Not forcing the world to conform to your notions to, ultimately, eliminate the need for faith.

True, the God of the Old Testament doesn't have Problem One with killing children by the truckload to spite their parents/tribes. But we're not child-minded superstitious Bronze Age goat herders, are we? Thus we have every d--ned right expect better of these so-called leaders and the voters who enable them. When religion informs politics to the point of reductio ad absurdam, where innocents (particularly children) suffer, that's not faith. It's politics.

It's time for the so-called "values voters" to stop pretending that the blood is not on their hands. Or that it can be washed away by whatever they've deluded themselves into thinking were their pure intentions.

How much evidence is enough, Part II

The fact that the hothouse wankers on the right incite their posse to keep blaming the equal lending opportunity laws for the finance meltdown should have them up on charges of treason. There are people in Gitmo who are less of a threat to America. When selling more books or keeping your ratings gets in the way of fixing the problem, you have forfeited your right to free speech. Honestly, Streicher was hung for less vitriol than some of these beady-eyed cheeseburger-snorting gits have spewed.

The premeditated thievery of The Suits who pumped air into an obvious bubble is the cause of the meltdown. Homebuyers with shaky credit most emphatically did not spray Lysol on their loans before bundling them as "secure" investments. Homebuyers with still worse credit absolutely did not force anyone to cook the books and lie all the way up the so-called accountability chain. This was a culture of greed, pure and simple. I mean, come on, already: This is a industry that's thumbed its nose at that meddling government for years--one whose stooges trumpted the virtues of "self-correcting" capitalism. Does anyone with two brain cells to rub together honestly believe that any suit anywhere gave a flying @#$% at a rolling doughnut whether someone was being discriminated against?

So, for the dittoheads and willing bitches of the hot-air vents on AM and Faux News: Saying Yes, WaMu Built an Empire on Shaky Loans. Oh, and while you're at it: Bite the ankles of those who shoved their way above you on mobility ladder rather than kicking the heads of those climbing behind you. For a freakin' change, already. Guess who actually deserves it?

But I suppose that I might be deluding myself there, expecting mere fact to tempt anyone from the fun of playground bullying--which is what this is. Mom said that some people never grow up, and she's becoming more correct the longer I live and see things like bailout bonuses, Vice Presidents sneering "So?"s, and knowing that these criminals will not gasp their last in prison. Pathetically, it's much easier to turn your dissatisfaction at your own lot on those less powerful than even you than it is to risk something by holding the real perpertrators to account. Especially when they're obviously sociopaths. Just like the hate-peddlers who single out the powerless.

How much evidence is enough?

The usual sensational headline from Yahoo! News: "Many teens don't keep virginity pledges". In other news, night is dark, water is wet, and human stupidity still defies all measurement.

But, here's the most telling part:

Teens who take virginity pledges are just as likely to have sex as teens who don't make such promises -- and they're less likely to practice safe sex to prevent disease or pregnancy, a new study finds.

At the bottom, this isn't about raging adolescent hormones. Nor is it a question about "self control" or any degree of "morality." Not in the least. The problem here is magical thinking, which is why all the wholesale repression of information that goes on in the name of "education" will ultimately cause more misery than (gasp!) actually treating sex as a subject for mature, rational, scientifically- and statistically-informed discussion.

Bottom line: Pledges of this kind are a cop-out, most especially for the parents who don't want the responsibility of raising sexually healthy young adults. Then too, they put another layer of immaturity between the teen and her/his responsibility to her/himself and her/his partner. And that, peeps, is most emphatically NOT the point of growing up. Apart from the human and social impacts of too-early parenthood, what particularly pisses me off about this magical thinking is that it's promulgated by the self-same tribe that continually bangs on about accountability and personal responsibility.

Gaaagh. The older I become, the less desire I have to replace the irony and hypocrisy meters blown out by the last decade or so...

Merry Mayhem!

This won't come as a shock to anyone who knows me, but I mostly loathe Christmas. Or, more aptly, I loathe the hyper-politicized, spiritually bankrupt consumerist orgy that eats its way further backwards in the calendar every friggin' year. (Silver lining: I actually look forward to New Years' now, a holiday that I found pointless as a kid.)

That being said, here's one of the handful of indulgences I do look forward to this time of year: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/snowglobe Keep your eye on the snowman--that's all I'm sayin'.

The other stuff:

1.) The Ref
2.) John Denver and the Muppets
3.) Elf Bowling v.1
4.) George C. Scott as Ebeneezer Scrooge

A grateful shout-out to Les Jenkins at Stupid Evil Bastard for finding that needle in the internet's haystack--"the Google" and I came up skunked the other day when we went trolling for it.

A farewell (sort of) and thanks

One of the regular stops on my morning news-cruise is the blog "Managing Globalization," which is mostly the handiwork of Daniel Altman. Yesterday was its last day, as Mr. Altman will focus on other ventures, including another book, which I very much hope will hit the shelves no later than 2010.

In a world where economics is much less science than religion--with nearly as many schisms, jihads, and Kool-Aid-swilling cultishness than the real thing--Dr. Altman's clear-eyed, evenhanded approach combined with his humane outlook elevate him to statesman status in my opinion.

So I didn't want to let the week run out without a hat-tip and a thanks for his insights. I will be looking forward to Dr. Altman's future work, and wish him all success in those ventures.

Revolution behind schedule?

It's about friggin' time... "Chicago workers sit-in becomes rallying point"

I don't care if the Soviets and Chinese and various Third World thugocracies gave Marxism a bad name. Labor is NOT a commodity, and employees ARE stakeholders, d--it. Far more so than overpaid gits pushing imaginary money back and forth between spreadsheet columns at an investment banking firm. Or the significantly more overpaid gits who set up the giant Monopoly game.

So viva la revolución. Granted, the firing squad's gonna run short of bullets eventually, but it'll at least thin the ranks of the cheeseburger-binging b@$+@rds--I'm looking at you, Mr. "Contract with America"--who put us in this mess. It certainly won't do much tangible short-term good, but if a few pike-mounted heads convince today's business/finance majors to go into useful occupations, I think the world will be a better place for it.

Stupid Friday humor

From from The Onion archives to you: Zombie Nutritionist Recommends All-Brain Diet. Better stale than compost: Bon appetit, mes amis.

Guerilla capitalism

So if the Orwellian "conscience clause" almost certain to be enacted by our Baptist Taliban is disproportionally detrimental to women, shouldn't I be getting a discount on my next medical bill? After all, if I'm getting WalMart service, I shouldn't have to pay Tiffany's prices.

Crikey. At this rate, will anyone be surprised if Bush and Cheney set fire to the White House on their way out?

New lunchbox hero?

The web comic "Do You Work Here?" laces my Mondays and Thursdays with a lovely note of cynicism, and today there was a bonus: A link to this comic, in the wake of Friday's WalMart trampling death. (Disclaimer: I did do some shopping Friday, but it was purely a grocery run. Mama may have raised a fool, but not that kind of fool...)

Uh-oh

Malware specifically targeted at U.S. Military computers, reported by the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cyberattack28-2008nov28,0,6441140.story

[snark] Yep, let's keep off-shoring those "knowledge worker" jobs to the lowest bidder. I, for one, can soooo not wait for the spectacle of a U.S. soldier waiting (on hold) for a Filipino call center worker to read the troubleshooting scripts for Indian software on Chinese hardware while the red buttons flash and the blue screens stare back. [/snark]