Take The Bush Destruction Quiz: Think You Know How Much Damage Was Done? Guess Again!

322	151	1.9	206	275
-18	75	17	-35	29
916	567	250	20	778
-8.4	4	2.2	47.5	5

Presidential Message, New Year's Day:

As my time in office comes to a close, I thank the American people for trusting me with the honor of serving our great country. It has been a tremendous privilege, and together we have accomplished a great deal.

Laying the blame on George W. Bush is almost too easy these days. Even his "Legacy Campaign" isn't getting the coverage it wants because Barack Obama's team is already making CHANGE before he's even sworn in! So, just how much has the country gained/lost/changed in 2008 - and up to 2008? See if you can match the numbers above with the statements below (answers at the bottom and...No peeking (like some Presidents we know)

1. Number of days during his presidency that Bush spent on vacation:_____
2. Number Of U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq during 2008____.
3. Number Of U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan in 2008 ____
4. Number Of Uninsured Americans (in millions):______
5. Change In Housing Prices (in percentage points):______ .
6. Number Of Jobs Lost in 2008 (in millions):_____
7. Change In Health Insurance Premiums (in percentage points):_____
8. Change In Number Of Delinquent Mortgages (in percentage points):_____
9. Number Of Banks Federal Government Now Owns Stock In: _____
10. Change In Dow Jones Industrial Average (in percentage points):_____
11. George Bush Bush Approval Rating in 2008 (in percentage points):_____
12. Cost of the Iraq War through 2008 (in billions - of course): _____
13. Approximate cost of the privately funded George W. Bush Presidential Library (in millions):_____
14. Change In Use Of Food Stamps (in percentage points):_____
15. Percentage of President Bush’s total vetoes that blocked expansion of children’s health insurance:_____
16. Number of points the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped on September 29, 2008: _____
17. Overall change in stock market wealth between Oct. 2007 and Oct. 2008 (in trillions): _____
18. Estimated home equity lost by American families with the bursting of the housing bubble (in trillions):_____
19. Number of home foreclosure filings in the first three quarters of 2008 (in millions): _____

What Would Jesus Do? Pray To Himself?

He'd Certainly Pray BY Himself!

Rick Warren is now again in a conundrum - created by his own self. He'll be damned if he does it, or damned if he doesn't: say the name of Jesus Christ. I just LOVE these kind of quandaries presented to hypocritical "men of God." Of course, being a hypocrite, he won't feel a thing either way. He'll perform the invocation in a smug, satisfied sort of way, kind of self-righteous, but not nearly as much as a Franklin Graham or a James Dobson.

"Prayers are not to be sermons, speeches, ion statements nor political posturing. They are humble, personal appeals to God," Warren wrote. His spokesman would not elaborate.

If Warren truly believes what Jesus preached about prayer (to go to a dark spot in your house and talk to God alone), why doesn't he just use that as an excuse not to deliver the invocation? Why should there be, in fact, an invocation at all? Probably because the inauguration is, like everything else the country adores, is high entertainment. The solemnity, the reverence, the sheer awesomeness of the installation of the powerful, the wonderful, the wise President of the United States of America is purely entertainment. Ask yourself this: what is the difference between a U.S. presidential inauguration and a coronation? Look at the two, pare them down to basics: not much difference.

Evangelicals generally expect their clergymen to use Jesus' name whenever and wherever they lead prayer. Many conservative Christians say cultural sensitivity goes way too far if it requires religious leaders to hide their beliefs.

"If Rick Warren does not pray in Jesus' name, some folks are going to be very disappointed," Caldwell said in a recent phone interview. "Since he's evangelical, his own tribe, if you will, will have some angst if he does not do that."

To have angst over ritual is rather insipid, isn't it? Ritual is man-made, regardless of all the particulars of the Bible, the Qur'an and Confucian texts. Ritual is for the entertainment of man because God couldn't care less about the way a ritual is carried out. Honoring God with ritual - any ritual - is the only thing that matters. Whether you handle snakes or fart and put a lampshade on your head is of no consequence. If the intent is to honor God, then the ritual is good.

Just a thought.

The Virginity Pledge Springs A Leak

A study just published by PEDIATRICS puts the screw to virginity pledges and abstinence only programs. The article, BTW, is titled aptly: Patient Teenagers?

Confirming what many have been saying for years, a new survey finds that teenagers who pledge to forgo sexual activity until marriage were just as likely to engage in premarital sex as those who do not. Adolescents who take the pledge are also less likely than their peers to use birth control or condoms when they do have sex, according to the survey results. The study was published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The US government spends more than $200 million annually on abstinence-promotion programs, including virginity pledges.

Remember what happened to the Volstead Act? It proved that when people really really want something, not even an Act of Congress will stand in their way of getting it. And "getting it" is just what every teenager in the world dreams about.

Any color, any gender, any time. Just the thought of being a virgin for any length of time is enough to annihilate puberty. A virginity pledge might as well be: "I pledge not to breath until I find the one person insane enough not to breath as well and until we can both breath with the Blessings of God."

Virginity pledges don't work. Abstinence only education doesn't work. Voids don't work. Pimples rule. The Bush administration has always spent money on things that don't work: Bush racked up the most vacation time of any President in history including vacations during disasters.

Ten Most Stupid People of 2008

I can't help it. Of the ten most stupid people in 2008, five are "men of God" and one is a woman who wants to BE God! It's a no-brainer that they were all Republicans, ah, sorry, I mean "Conservatives". Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly were disqualified because they are PAID to be stupid. They are PROFESSIONAL idiots.

#10 Michelle Bachmann

For her mix-up of Jesus Christ with Nancy Pelosi:

[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that.

# 9 John McCain
Simply for not knowing who Sarah Palin was.

# 8 John Hagee
From one of his stupid books:

Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews.

#7 Pat Robertson
That's not God talking to Robertson. It's senility.

# 6 Rod Parsley
For using fatal military terms in his sermons without a license.

#5 Dick Cheney:
(From Think Progress):

When told that two-thirds of Americans disapproved of the Iraq war, Cheney responded “so?,” adding that he didn’t care what the American people thought.

This statement isn't just snide arrogance, it's very, very stupid: the "Will of the People" doesn't stop after elections. It goes on and it evolves after finding out facts about the performance of the administration they voted into office. Iraq, Abu Ghraib and Katrina proved that people didn't like what they were seeing, but according to Cheney, "who cares? They're stuck with us! Fuck 'em!"

#4. Mike Huckabee
When it came to comments on gay marriage and gay rights, Huckabee scored the most laughter on sound tracks across the country. What do you expect from a guy who, 10 years after research defined HIV transmission, still thought you could get AIDS from a toilet seat?

#3 Sarah Palin
Appearing on Saturday Night Live! does not necessarily mean that you are a good sport about political satire. It merely means you are not able to quell the furor evoked by hilarious take-offs of a TV show easily understood by people with half a brain. Making yourself look ridiculous after others have made you look ridiculous is not necessarily the best political strategy.

#2. Rick Warren
First he hates gays, then he loves them. The backpedaling this "man of God" has performed is astounding, given that he's a Southern Baptist who thinks he can get more people to convert to Christianity by wearing Hawaiian shirts. And building skateboard parks. His "many gay friends" have yet to come forward to say they invited him to dinner just to hear him insult them with verses from the Bible.

#1 George W. B**h

On the bailout plan for the U.S. economy:

If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down!

Enough said.

Top Ten Religious Stories of 2008: How Many of These Guys CRAVED Publicity?

We'll be posting TOP 10 Lists Until January 1st.

WARNING: They will not be reverent. (Did you expect otherwise?)

O.K., The Top 10 Religion Stories of 2008 as selected by 100 religion journalists:

1. Barack Obama's minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Why Wright should be singled out for this dubious honor demonstrates that you can hold all sorts of wild beliefs in this country, just don't say "God Damn America." Pastor John Hagee got an honorable mention as the minister who called Roman Catholicism "The Great Whore." And Rod Parsley also got a nod for using military language and saying the U.S. was created to destroy Islam.

2. The outreach of Democrats to the Christian Right. Dems targeted most of the churches...ah...except...the Snake Handlers of West Virginia.






3. Sarah Palin didn't handle any snakes, but she brought out the venom of born-again trailer people at her rallies.






4. California Supreme Court declares gay marriage legal. Then the Christofascists of the entire country united (for the first time ever) to amend the California Constitution, proving that nothing unites people like a common hatred.






5. Pope Benedict XVI's appearance in the U.S. He danced around the country in his red shoes and told everyone how he loved the U.S. - and its money. He also met with people sexually abused by Catholic Priests. It didn't make them any happier when he said "Hey, wadaya want? Celibacy can cause some really kinky sex. I know!"


6. U.S. conservatives alienated from the Episcopal Church said they will ask Anglican Communion leaders for permission to create the Anglican Church in North America. With their numbers declining, they thought it might be cool to be labled: Anglican Straight.


7. Religious zealotry posed as the cause of the 3-day rioting in Mumbai resulting in the deaths of 200 people. Some people aren't up on turban etiquette.











8. China suppresses Tibetan Buddhists seeking independence just before the Beijing Olympic Games. Some Buddhists still got their licks in - especially when Richard Gere gave his leading lady a full kiss and Hindu clerics heart attacks.




9. A battered economy forces many faith-based initiatives to be cut back. They're going back to their mainstay: bake sales.















10. Sunnis and Shiites continue to fight each other, sometimes targeting Christians during the melee. They both have longer and more vivid memories of the Crusades.

The REAL Miracle of Christmas

O.K., I'm going to bore everyone and ruminate for a while. I can do that. It's MY blog, after all!

Christmas Day is supposed to be a special time for people to reach out to family, friends...and, well... everyone. Right now is where I'm supposed to say that it isn't for all the material things, the presents, the tree, the mistletoe, blah, blah, blah. But I'm going to go a step further: it's not for the Babe in the Manger either.

WHAT?!!!
("Gasp! He must be a friggin' atheist")

No, Christmas is not for the Son of God.

It's for survival.

Survival of the fittest? No, even Darwin would say "definitely not." No, just...survival.

That's it.

Now I'm not going to throw in a remark about living in the nuclear age, or even "saving the planet" (although both would be appropriate). No, the real miracle of Christmas is that it is one day among three hundred and sixty-five which tells us how to survive in the only way possible: by reaching out in compassion to help our fellow human beings ... survive.

I guess you could also say that it's a miracle we have one day with such frequency, given the state of open hostility we have for each other. It's the one day we have to let down our guard of self-preservation and try to reach out to a hand that needs us.

Now here's the part where I'm supposed to go all KUM-BI-YAH on you, but I won't. The way we've been acting, we don't deserve that one special day out of the year. Christmas Day literally forces some people to be nice to each other. It has to pummel them with the shock and awe of miracles just to make us help others ... survive.

It's sad that there must to be one day out of the year that tells us, like a mother to her children, "play nice."

So perhaps the real miracle of Christmas is that we have Christmas at all.

We must learn from it.

Else we will not survive.

Just a thought.

Someone PLEASE Give These People A History Lesson!

You certainly Won't Get It From Family Research Council!

Literalists. Inerrantists. Fundamentalists. NONE of them take the Bible seriously.

And by "seriously" I mean serious enough to study it in the world of real history, to study it in context, to compare all translations and be able to answer the most glaring contradictions. But they won't. Never have and never will. Because to them, all of that is quite unnecessary. They want the lowest common denominator, the least amount of work, the words that come closest to their own opinions and attitudes.

They really are a lazy bunch of people. Spiritually lazy, anyway. Looking at the Bible from EVERY angle leads to questions and questions lead to more questions. It's almost never ending! Easier to have it spoon-fed to them.

Family Research Council's Tony Perkins proselytizes by using scripture without any historical or scholarly references.

Check this out:

Rome needed increased revenues, and Caesar knew how to get it. He first ordered that a census be conducted. He wanted a head count in order to apportion the amounts of money each provincial governor-like Cyrenius, governor of Syria-would be required to raise.

Then...

All this ordering and obeying, this saluting and receiving of salutes, this "hail caesaring" was necessary to bring millions of people together in their ancestral villages. And so Joseph, who was of the House and Lineage of David, also complied with Caesar's decree.

...Thus were Joseph and Mary brought into Bethlehem.

Read the whole conceptual mess here. The Census of Quirinius, as it was called, has been debated (and in some cases, debunked):

"The only enrollment arranged by Quirinius took place in 6 C.E., ten years after Herod the Great died. This census, made to gather taxes from Roman citizens, caused revolt in Judea but did not involve the population of Galilee, where Joseph and Mary lived..." (Ken Davis, Don't Know Much About The Bible, 1998)

In one day, people will bow down to images made of marble, plaster, concrete, plastic or inflatable poly-styrene depicting a baby in a tiny hay feeder and surrounded by his adoring (literally) mother, father, three men with crowns on their heads holding various gilt boxes, shepherds, sheep, an occasional donkey or cow, and an angel spreading a banner above the scene. This scene's authenticity is never questioned by the people who are bowing their heads.

It's a pastiche of "Christ's Mass" cobbled from two Gospels (not all four), but try telling that to the bow-headed people. It's Tony Perkins' duty to keep these people in check, so he gives out simple, but erroneous information with a backdrop of some historical artifacts. He also counts on people not reading the Bible or certainly not questioning it enough. One inkling of doubt will lead to another and another and another, ad infinitum. And with doubt, Perkins and his ilk lose power. Scholarship is their enemy.

One wonders if the Tony Perkinses, James Dobsons, Rick Warrens and Pat Robertsons have plans to lock up all the actual Biblical scholars, historians, archeologists and anthropologists. Is there a "reality" version of the Bible? If there is, I'm sure its well hidden.

Just a thought.