Nigerian Churches Hunt Children Accused of Being "Witches"

So here is the danger of exporting a biblical literalism version of Christianity. In Nigeria, hundreds of children are being branded as "witches" and being put to death in the name of Christianity. Sounds like a bad movie plot but it’s real.

In areas of Nigeria as well as other parts of the developing world, "Christian" churches are offering exorcisms and "deliverances" from witchcraft for money. Never underestimate the ingenuity of people to make a buck on other people’s beliefs! The sad part is this time it’s leading to murder.

You will perhaps remember that it is some of the Nigerian bishops in the Episcopal church that are screaming the loudest about ordaining gay priests. It seems to me that in that country fundamentalism, the brand of Christianity that was brought by missionaries years ago has finally reaped its reward. It saddens me that any church dedicated to the "Prince of Peace" could sanction this kind of brutality.

Bush Vetos SCHIP - Merry F#@king Christmas Kids!

Just in time for Christmas the Grinch, AKA President Bush, vetoed the SCHIP bill today taking affordable health care away from millions of poor children. That’s the Christian spirit Mr. Bush!

This marks the second time Bush has vetoed the SCHIP legislation. Call the White House and let the president know how you feel about it. 202 456-1414

Ike Turner Dead At 76

Sometimes abusive, sometimes crazy but always soulful, Ike Turner passed away today at age 76. Turner who was once married to Tina Turner is credited by many rock historians with making the first rock 'n' roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951. In 1959 he met and married Anna Mae Bullock, who he reimaged as Tina Turner. Together through their rocky marriage they produced some of R&B’s most memorable hits including “Proud Mary”.

Tina divorced her abusive husband and went on to continued fame as one of rocks superstars. Ike faded from the spotlight but his contribution to Rock will last for a long time. He is immortalized in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Take a final bow, Ike.

Rep. King And The Tired War On Christmas Fiasco

Well it’s that time of year again.. Shopping, parties, holiday hustle and bustle and of course, “the War on Christmas”. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has taken this opportunity to use the Christmas season for his own political gain. In the holiday spirit he has introduced a bogus resolution to recognizing the “importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.”

In an interview on (where else) Fox News the Representative stated, “ I recognized that we’re a Christian nation founded on Christian principles, and we’re coming up to Christmastime. … It’s time we stood up and said so, and said to the rest of America, Be who you are and be confident. And let’s worship Christ and let’s celebrate Christmas for the right reasons.

I find it amazing anyone can get as far as the House of Representatives without knowing or at least having a passing acquaintance with the Constitution. America is not a Christian nation, and never has been. Nobody is waging a war on Christmas, in fact the only problem I see is that Christmas has become a secular holiday with almost no mention of Jesus at all.

Rep. King. Stop posturing with a cross in one hand and the bible in the other, you are a civic official. If you want to be a preacher, there are numerous theological schools who would love having you as a student.

Bush White House Under Court Order Not To Destroy Tapes - Destroyed Them Anyway!

The last time I remember the CIA being in so much hot water was back during the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Seems Congress has woken from its long sleep and realized that the foxes are in charge of the hen house. Here is the real kicker, the Bush administration was under a court order not to destroy any evidence of detainee torture and abuse months before the CIA took it upon themselves to destroy the tapes!

The out for the CIA may lie in their secret network of overseas prison that they denied having for so long. The technicality may be that the judge’s order pertained to Guantanamo Bay and may not be relevant to "secret locations" elsewhere. Either way, this whole thing smacks of the kind of stuff you expect to find in an old James Bond flick. The only difference is that there the people with the secret prisons and torture were the "Evil Empire" of the Soviet Union. Sad that we have managed to drop so far in our tactics that we look more like the old Russia than the new one!

Colorado Gunman Was Home-Schooled Fundamentalist

The latest in the Colorado tragedy is that the gunman, Matthew Murray was actually a home-schooled fundamentalist, or at least he was raised that way. Apparently Murray once attended the Youth With A mission training center but was thrown out. Since that time he was sending the school hate mail recently.

The really sad thing is a rant he wrote on a web site for people who have left fundamentalist sects. Murray is reported to have written, "You Christians brought this on yourselves'' and ``All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you ... as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world.''

Now I am going to go out on a limb here, but what the heck. When you are raised with a simplistic and "bible literalism" theology, you tend to see everything as either good or evil. Fundamentalist theology rarely accounts for shades of gray, and unfortunately that is what the real world is made of. In the end, when your understanding of spiritual and moral matters has not progressed beyond the "Golden Book of Bible Stories" you are headed for a crisis of faith. Seems to me that is what Mr. Murray had, and having no tools to deal with it, he resorted to the "smite or flight" mentality that these kinds of belief systems create.

What happened is tragic, and perhaps there would be no way to stop this kind of senseless killing, but I have to wonder if instilling the kinds of black and white values in our kids really helps ferment these actions. After all, if you believe that there is only good or evil in the world, then it is very easy to decide your course of action. Destroy evil? And then what to do with the evil that is created by that destruction?

I personally agree with Albert Einstein who wrote that the concept of good and evil is a mistake. Much like in physics there is no such thing as "cold", merely the absence of heat. There is no such thing as "evil", merely the absence of "good" or as I prefer the absence of God. What a better world it would be if we all tried to encourage this view. It would certainly be better to try to bring good to those situations that lacked it than to compound the problem by destroying or killing and decreasing the overall good of the world.

"If Dick Cheney Didn’t Have Government Care, He’d Probably Be Dead Now" - New Ad Campaign!

Do you have a health problem? If you are like me and millions of other Americans, you can’t get individual health insurance unless you work for a big company with a group policy. Even then it might be prohibitively expensive. Not so for our government folks like Dick Cheney. They enjoy great health care with no expenses. How come single payer health care works for them, but they always vote against it? Well, that is the question being asked by an ad in several Iowa newspapers today.

The California Nurses Association and the Nurses Organizing Committee are sponsoring full page ads that explain how wonderful government health care can be. They use Dick Cheney as an example. If Cheney had no insurance he would undoubtedly be dead today. Instead he gets the best treatment at no expense to him. The group is urging Congress and voters to pressure Congress for a Medicare package for all Americans. Bravo nurses!

Christian Youth Group Puts Teens In Diapers - Kinky!

You just gotta love the folks at the Mt. Lebanon Young Life club, a nondenominational Christian youth group. These nice folks figured out a great ice-breaker for the teenage charges. Several boys were taken to a restroom and told to undress. There they were dressed in adult diapers, bibs and bonnets. The 14 year old boys were brought back in the room and told to sit in girls laps where they were fed baby food and bottles full of soda. The one who finished their "feeding" first won!

Now that’s my kind of Christian youth activity! With any luck it will set these kids on a nice lifelong path toward a really interesting fetish. Personally I think they should have waited until the boys and girls were over 18, but I guess the Mt. Lebanon Young Life club likes to start them early.

Several parents got upset by the whole matter and called police. What party poopers! Seriously, what the heck were these people thinking. Diapering horny teenagers and sitting them in girls laps? Come on people, I’m kinky, but at least I have the good judgement to know that hormone laden teens are all wrong for this kind of stuff.

Colorado Shootings, Some Thoughts

The recent shootings in Colorado should give us all pause. The police have not released the name of the shooter, but I suspect whoever he was the sad truth is that he figured the answers to his questions could be found at the end of the barrel of a gun. What is it that causes people to think this way? I would put my money on a society that looks for vengeance rather than reconciliation.

There was a joke when I was growing up, "Don’t get mad, get even!" Unfortunately that has become a way of life in America and I fear it will be the kind of attitude that will eventually undermine civility all together. The gunman took the lives of numerous people and I suspect he saw that as some kind of solution. Instead it is just another part of the problem.

Huckabee Advocated AIDS Quarantine

It seems Mike Huckabee has some views that are a bit more radical than he lets on. Take his stance on AIDS back in 1992. Then candidate Huckabee advocated isolating AIDS patients. In response to a question about how to handle the crisis he replied, "If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague.".

Ah, yes. Leper colonies for the new century! Now Mike poses as the enlightened conservative, but underneath he is still the Baptist Minister who even in 1992 failed to educate himself on the nations most pressing health crisis.

(Thanks for the tip, Joshe)

John Lennon - 27 Years Ago Today.

"Give peace a chance." That was the message from John Lennon who was tragically gunned down 27 years ago today. His body of work, both with the Beatles and as a solo artist was amazing and every time I hear one of his songs I remember the funny, outrageous and talented musician he was.

Strange how I found myself many years later eating lunch with his son, Julian at the Studios at Las Colinas in Dallas. My office used to be on the studio lot and Julian and his band were rehearsing there. I was walking to the commissary one afternoon and a spunky kid on a skateboard passed by. Julian was headed there, too. I had no idea who he was until the waiter called him Mr. Lennon. Imagine that.

Today, I find myself remembering one of my favorite Lennon songs, Imagine, and I know we all need to hear it again. Thanks John, for everything.

Democrats Wake Up And Demand Investigation Of CIA Torture Tape Destruction

Needless to say, Democratic members of Congress want answers on why video tapes of "enhanced interrogation" techniques (that means TORTURE to us common folks) were destroyed by the CIA. Senator Dick Durbin called on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to find out if the CIA violated any laws in destroying the tapes. Other Democrats in the Senate are equally outraged, as they should be.

Meanwhile in Happy Land, press secretary Dana Perino said the she did not know whether Bush knew of the tapes and their destruction or not. According to the Washington Post -

Perino refused to say whether the destruction could have been an obstruction of justice or a threat to cases against terrorism suspects. If the attorney general decides to investigate, "of course the White House would support that," she said.

Why do I suspect that support would be about as robust as the support the White House gave during the Vallerie Plame investigation?

UPDATE: Interesting information from the National Review of all places. Columnist David Frum finds info in Gerald Posner's book on 9/11 that might suggest another reason the tapes were destroyed. They may have pointed a finger at Saudi Arabia, since during interrogation, Zubaydah revealed his connections with a Saudi prince. Not a conspiracy theorist myself, but this one sounds really plausible.

Officials Being Targeted By Anti-Gay Hate Groups

Just when you thought the only really crazy and dangerous homophobes were from Lativia, here comes this news. According to a story on Pam’s House Blend, neo-nazis are targeting openly gay officials. Web sites that cater to these bigots have been posting lists of "List of Open and Unapologetic Faggot Politicians". Worse still the sites are suggesting taking "direct action". "Direct Action" is a thinly veiled name for harassment or worse.

These groups are apparently trying to target openly gay city councilman Mark Kleinschmidt from Chapel Hill, NC and have commented on his blog with openly threatening notes. Signing their names as "Adolf Hitler" and "JewstoryMike" the comments come from members of these hate groups. Thanks for brining this to light Councilman Kleinschmidt!

Personally, this stuff scares me. I know that the current government in Washington will do nothnig to stop these kinds of threats. The dirty secret of the Bush administration is that they are supported by these kinds of hate mongers in their "base". About as base as you can get, too!

DOJ Memos Reveal Bush Making Up Laws Regardless Of Constitution

Want proof of a Bush dictatorship? Here ya go!

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, spent hours poring over secret opinions issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) — and he took notes.
Here are a few of the highlights from Thinkprogress.org.

1. An executive order cannot limit a President. There is no constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of a previous executive order. Rather than violate an executive order, the President has instead modified or waived it.

2. The President, exercising his constitutional authority under Article II, can determine whether an action is a lawful exercise of the President’s authority under Article II.

3. The Department of Justice is bound by the President’s legal determinations.

The above are just examples of the way Bush is making up his own rules without regard for the Constitution. Senator Whitehouse is a lawyer, a former U.S. Attorney, a former legal counsel to Rhode Island’s Governor, and a former State Attorney General, so he can recognize when something is legal or not and he was outraged. He made an impassioned speech on the floor of the Senate today. Watch it here.

UPDATE: Here is the text of Senator Whitehouse's speech. Read it, it's very important and then call your Congressperson right now!

Bush Approval Drops Among Military Families

President Bush’s approval rating among Military families has started to slide big time. This is somewhat of an anomaly since military families are usually the most supportive group during wartime. About 6 out of 10 families disapprove of the way Bush is handling the war.

The poll was conducted by the LA Times. More info here.

Remembering Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941

It was 66 years ago when the US fleet was devastated by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. That event woke a sleeping public to the reality of war that was already raging in Europe and the Far East. Today a few survivors of that attack will honor their fallen comrades in ceremonies and services around the country.

I visited the monument that stands over the watery grave of the battleship Arizona when I was in Hawaii many years ago. It is a sobering sight, the sunken grave of hundreds of service men and women still leaks oil forming a perennial slick on the water above. What I found strange there was in the souvenir shop. They had color booklets of the memorial with archive pictures of the attack. The first one I picked up seemed somewhat strange, and once I looked beyond the compelling photo on the cover, I found I was holding a Japanese translation of the visitor guide. The USS Arizona is a popular attraction for Japanese tourists. They visit the memorial with the same respect and somber mood as that of US tourists. For Japan, Pearl Harbor marked the beginning of a tragic period in their history, just as it was in ours.

Though we dictated the terms of the surrender, both sides in that conflict endured grievous losses and untold pain. WWII was a tragedy for the whole world not just the losing or winning side. Today, Japan is one of our staunchest allies, just as is Germany. I can only hope that someday we have the same relationship with our neighbors in the Middle East. After all, we share the same planet together, and it gets smaller every day.

Hate Crimes Legislation Including Gays & Lesbians Falls By The Wayside

Welcome to the side of the road! If you are a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender American, Congress has just thrown you under the bus. The hate crimes bill which was attached to a military spending bill by Senator Edward Kennedy, failed to garner enough support to pass the House. Though many Democrats were for the bill and even some Republican moderates (if such an animal truly exists) supported the bill, many were worried that voting for it inside a spending bill for the War effort would make them look too hawkish. And so GLBT people once again take a back seat in Congress.

Senate backers of the bill expressed their disappointment at the reluctance in the House but in the end they could do nothing about it. The sad truth is it was the last chance this year to get any meaningful legislation passed to protect GLBT people from hate crimes. Once again GLBT people are second class citizens and once again Congress has shown it has no backbone when it comes to gay issues.

The answer? Elect even more liberal representatives to the House to offset the alleged "moderates" who vote like conservatives. The alternative, moving to Canada, just doesn’t sit well with me, yet.

CIA Destroys Video Evidence of Torture

The lack of accountability in the Bush administration really seems to grow greater every day. On the latest news that the CIA destroyed videotapes of its, "harsh interrogation" techniques used on two Al Qaeda operatives because the tapes, "could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy."

Hell yes it could expose it to legal jeopardy, especially since they were using illegal techniques, otherwise why destroy the tapes. This is beginning to remind me of the films the Nazi’s made documenting their war crimes, never figuring they would ever be called to task for them.

Time for a reckoning for the CIA and the Bush administration. When will impeachment be "back on the table"?

California E-Voting Machines Easy to Hack!

For those still following the E-Voting mess, a group in California managed to crack open Diebold, Sequoia and ES&S voting machines using common office supplies and easily available code cracking technologies. The Red Team researchers proved that electronic voting as it stands now is unreliable and easily tampered with. No surprise there.

Read more about it on ars tehnica.

Pharmaceuticals Made in China May Mean Trouble for U.S.

Here’s a cheery holiday note! Seems since so many people have been worried about tainted Chinese goods, they’ve done a little research. A story in the Kansas City Star notes that ingredients in many drugs come from China. With the cheaply manufactured ingredients China has cornered the market on key parts of drugs like cipro and doxycycline both used in the fight against Anthrax and other potential bio-weapons.

More alarming is the fact that Chinese companies produce almost one third of over-the-counter drugs like acetaminophen sold in the US. With the kind of quality control found in Chinese toys, and the non-existent regulation for their safety, should we be worried about their drugs? I do.

Now the most interesting thing to me is this. Our government or at least the Bush government has long claimed that we cannot import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada because of the possibility of poor quality or dangerous drugs entering the country. That argument was specious as best and now just sounds silly when major drug companies herein the US are making drugs with dirt cheap Chinese ingredients. Remember all that lack of quality control on their toys? Why should Chinese drug companies be any different. Time for country of origin labeling on every product sold in the US. If you can’t tell where it was made, don’t buy it!

Alarmist? Consider this quote from the story:

The Chinese and Indian companies are all but exempt from oversight by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“Only 13 inspections were conducted in China in 2007,” Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, said at a hearing Nov. 1. “At this rate, it would take the FDA 55 years just to clear this backlog.”