I don’t have time tonight to write much about this, but you can read it for yourselves, here at Buzzflash.com

Kudos to Rachel Maddow for latching on to the captivating and chilling story about not just the lascivious and potentially illegal activities of some of the “C Street” Family, but — more importantly — focusing on their belief that they are chosen by God to lead and infiltrate our governnment.

And she hasn’t stopped pursuing this startling story, defying the normal news cycle of a nano-second of coverage unless it’s Michael Jackson’s death or a blonde white girl disappearing in Aruba.

What gets lost in the disgusting details of Ensign’s adulterous affair, Mark Sanford’s (an associate member of the Family) lust for an Argentine, and former Congressman Chip Pickering’s adulterous bonking on-site at the C Street “Christian fellowship house” is something that Maddow has repeatedly come back to: these men don’t believe they are responsible to moral or governmental laws. If they deviate from the “righteous path,” God is only testing their strength, because they are the ones divinely chosen to lead — and it is weakness to succumb to remorse about one’s “misbehavior.” That is why Mark Sanford said he won’t resign and compared himself to King David, who slept adulterously with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed.

Jeff Sharlet, of “The Family:The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” writes:

Family leaders consider their political network to be Christ’s avant garde, an elite that transcends not just conventional morality but also earthly laws regulating lobbying. In the Family’s early days, they debated registering as “a lobby for God’s Kingdom.” Instead, founder Abraham Vereide decided that the group could be more effective by working personally with politicians. “The more invisible you can make your organization,” Vereide’s successor, current leader Doug Coe preaches, “the more influence you can have.” That’s true — which is why we have laws requiring lobbyists to identify themselves as such.

But David Coe, Doug Coe’s son and heir apparent, calls himself simply a friend to men such as John Ensign, whom he guided through the coverup of his affair. I met the younger Coe when I lived for several weeks as a member of the Family. He’s a surprising source of counsel, spiritual or otherwise. Attempting to explain what it means to be chosen for leadership like King David was — or Mark Sanford, according to his own estimate — he asked a young man who’d put himself, body and soul, under the Family’s authority, “Let’s say I hear you raped three little girls. What would I think of you?” The man guessed that Coe would probably think that he was a monster. “No,” answered Coe, “I wouldn’t.” Why? Because, as a member of the Family, he’s among what Family leaders refer to as the “new chosen.” If you’re chosen, the normal rules don’t apply.

I have not heard much about this Christian dominionist organization in the Washington D.C. area until now. These monsters are a very serious threat to our Democracy. Vjack at Atheist Revolution posted some information about the Family that he found at Religion Dispatches:

* The Family is the oldest conservative Christian organization in Washington D.C.

* The Family runs (but does not own) the notorious “C Street House” as a church to provide assorted politicians with inexpensive living space, Christian bible study, and “spiritual counseling.”

* “C Street House” is owned by an organization, Youth With a Mission D.C., headed by Loren Cunningham, a man with a vision for worldwide Christian dominion. Cunningham links to Campus Crusade for Christ and Christian Embassy, a D.C.-based ministry that tries to convert Pentagon officials.

* The Family is responsible for the annual National Prayer Breakfasts and runs assorted prayer groups in which both Republican and Democratic members of Congress participate.

* According to Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (added to my to-read list), the Family is “committed to a political theology that views democracy as a form of secular humanism, to which they’re deeply opposed.”

I thought this was something that is extremely important to bring to everyone’s immediate attention.

Slainte, Sean…

Thinking of you…

You are missed…

I wonder how this would fly in this country? This would be a great counter-offer to those who want religion taught in public schools. We could say ok, offer your religion classes, but there must also be an option of secular ethics classes. I bet the fundies would whine their heads off about it.

BARVIKHA, Russia – Russia’s president has announced a pilot project in which schoolchildren will have to take classes in religion or secular ethics.

Tuesday’s proposal is part of a Kremlin effort to teach young Russians morals in the wake of a turbulent period of uncertainty following the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union.

President Dmitry Medvedev said preteen students at about 12,000 schools nationwide would take the classes. They will be offered the choice of studying the dominant Russian Orthodox religion, Islam, Buddhism or Judaism; or an overview covering various faiths; or secular ethics.

The offer of a choice appeared aimed to ease concerns that Russian Orthodoxy will be forced on schoolchildren as the church gains influence and tightens ties with the state.

It’s no secret that I’m a capitalist, despite accusations of Neo-Marxism, and all that crap: I’ve talked to real communists before in China, and they tend to agree that a meritocracy needs to be in place, otherwise an even sharing of the wealth would result in an uneven distribution, as some people work harder than others. Or, to quote myself:

“Communism would be a great idea, if people knew how to share.”

I’ve heard a great many folks (some of them are atheists) who despise and carry on about ‘socialized medicine’. The nutshell version is that they don’t want to pay extra out of their wallet to benefit some lazy asshole who can’t pay their bills.

There’s just so much that’s wrong with that on so many levels, I have a hard time choosing where to start ranting and raving exactly.

First, some operational definitions prior to sallying forth:

Socialism refers to any one of various theories of economic organization advocating public or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equal opportunities/means for all individuals with a more egalitarian method of compensation. Modern socialism originated in the late 18th-century intellectual and working class political movement that criticized the effects of industrialization and private ownership on society. Karl Marx posited that socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution and become the transitional stage from capitalism to communism.

Of course, idiots like Rush Bimbo are foursquare against it, and the term ‘socialist’ has replaced ‘liberal’ in the latest polarization (non) issues. Because of course, socialized medicine isn’t quite the boogeyman the ReichWingNuts claim that it is:

Socialized medicine is a term used primarily in the United States to refer to certain kinds of publicly-funded health care. The term is used most frequently, and often pejoratively, in the U.S. political debate concerning health care.

Jonathan Oberlander, a professor of health policy at the University of North Carolina, maintains that the term does not mean anything at all. Exact definitions vary, but the term can refer to any system of medical care that is publicly financed, government administered, or both.

The original meaning was confined to systems in which the government operates health care facilities and employs health care professionals.This narrower usage would apply to the British National Health Service hospital trusts and health systems that operate in other countries as diverse as Finland, Spain, Israel, and Cuba. The United States’ Veterans Health Administration, and the medical departments of the US Army, Navy, and Air Force would also fall under this narrow definition. When used in this way, the narrow definition permits a clear distinction from single payer health insurance systems, in which the government finances health care but is not involved in care delivery.

More recently, a few have used the term more broadly to any publicly funded system. Canada’s Medicare system, most of the UK’s NHS general practitioner and dental services, which are all systems where health care is delivered by private business with partial or total government funding, fit this broader definition, as do the health care systems of most of Western Europe. In the United States, Medicare, Medicaid, and the US military’s TRICARE fall under this definition.

Most industrialized countries, and many developing countries, operate some form of publicly-funded health care with universal coverage as the goal. According to the Institute of Medicine and others, the United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care.

The term is often used in the U.S to create an understanding that the health care system would be run by the government, thereby associating it with socialism, which has negative connotations in American political culture. As such its usage is controversial.

Tom Tomorrow’s comic actually provides a succinct view of the Right Wingers’ weirdo viewpoints.

Of course, we all use some form of socialism in our daily lives. Everyone has the right to walk down a sidewalk – because all of our taxes paid for it, no? We certainly don’t eject homeless people from the sidewalk (unless of course, they’re breaking some kind of law/social contract) – and the chances are good that the hypothetical homeless is likely not paying taxes. And – wait a minute, is that a library card in your wallet? So my taxes are paying for your ability to borrow a free book, as well as mine?

And who are the lackwits who oppose and/or opposed it?

When the term "socialized medicine" first appeared in the United States in the early 1900s, it bore no negative connotations. Otto P. Geier, chairman of the Preventive Medicine Section of the American Medical Association (AMA), was quoted in The New York Times in 1917, praising socialized medicine as a way to "discover disease in its incipiency," help end "venereal diseases, alcoholism, tuberculosis," and "make a fundamental contribution to social welfare." However, by the 1930s, the term socialized medicine was routinely used negatively by conservative opponents of publicly-funded health care. Universal health care and national health insurance were first proposed by U.S President Theodore Roosevelt. President Franklin D. Roosevelt later championed it, as did Harry S. Truman as part of his Fair Deal and many others.

However, at around this time it was ardently opposed by the AMA which distributed posters to doctors with slogans such as "Socialized medicine … will undermine the democratic form of government." Ronald Reagan once recorded a disc exhorting its audience to abhor the "dangers" which socialized medicine could bring. Other pressure groups began to extend the definition from state managed health care to any form of state finance in health care. In more recent times the term came up again in 2008 U.S presidential election by the Republicans and in particular in a July 2007 campaign speech, when Rudy Giuliani made a direct connection between socialized medicine and socialism. Giuliani claimed that he had a better chance of surviving prostate cancer in the U.S than he would have had in England. The tactic backfired as according to cancer experts cited in fact check articles by the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s FactCheck.org, the St. Petersburg Times and its PolitiFact.com, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times and others criticized Giuliani’s use of statistics as "false" and very "misleading" for drawing conclusions that were complete "nonsense".

Health care professionals have tended to avoid the term because of its pejorative nature, but if they do use it they do not include publicly funded private medical schemes such as Medicaid. Opponents of state involvement in health care tend to use the looser definition.

The term is widely used by the American media and pressure groups. Some have even stretched use of the term to cover any regulation of health care, whether publicly financed or not.The term is often used to criticize publicly provided health care outside the US, but rarely to describe similar health care programs in the US, such as the Veterans Administration clinics and hospitals, military health care nor the single payer programs such as Medicaid and Medicare. The term is almost always used to evoke negative sentiment toward health care reform that would involve increasing government involvement in the U.S health care system.

Medical staff, academics and most professionals in the field and international bodies such as the WHO tend to avoid use of the term. Outside the US, the terms most commonly used are universal health care or public health care.^{[citation needed]} According to health economist Uwe Reinhardt, "strictly speaking, the term ’socialized medicine’ should be reserved for health systems in which the government operates the production of health care and provides its financing".Still others say the term has no meaning at all.

I for one would be happy to pay more taxes for this. Because while the thought of the government bureaucracy and the red tape resultant is daunting, the fact of the matter is, people’s lives are dramatically affected by medical costs. It is true that we have the best and most exhaustive medical care, those costs can prove to be ruinous if a citizen is horribly hurt, or becomes terribly ill.

On a personal note, I find it ridiculous that proper medical treatment should be based on pay scale: it is a travesty to those of us who care about our fellow man (or woman); it is a horrendous mindset to say that certain specific rights should be based on the pocket book; and it is indicative of a deep disconnect that people afflicted with poverty should watch their children die, while the rich need not worry about such things.

Because whether we call it ‘socialized medicine’ or ‘universal healthcare’, a nation is only as strong as its healthiest members. And trust me, brothers and sisters, a weak body assails the brain, weakening that in return, and those that survive the trial may not prove hail of heart or of mind. Small wonder the poor run to religion: the doors of education are closed, and likewise the doors of proper health maintenance.

Till the next post then.

Say “hello” to Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!

If you live in Warren, Michigan, and have lost your job (an all-too-common plight in a rust-belt state), help is available.   Just drop by the lobby of City Hall. They have allowed a loving, xian church to erect a kiosk that will pray with/for you to get through these troubled times.

Repeat after me: aaaargh!  Not to worry, atheists have objected and are trying to get their own kiosk. Pray for them, please.

Meet Gaia.

There is another, fourth voice in the debate over cap-and-trade, one ringing out from shadows rarely approached by the media. In these shadows dwell scientists who believe the time has passed for any sort of legislation at all, no matter how radical. The best known of these frightening climate gnomes is the legendary British scientist James Lovelock, father of Gaia Theory and inventor of the instrument allowing for the atmospheric measurements of CFC’s. In recent years, Lovelock has emerged as the world’s leading climate pessimist, raining scorn on the new fashionable environmentalism and arguing that the time is nigh to accept that a massive culling of the human race is around the corner.

Repeat after me: oops…

Perhaps Gaia had something to do with the 10 Commandments of the Anti-Christ: Mysterious “Guidestones” Madden Conspiracy Theorists and Christian Fundamentalists.  I’ll translate for you (in English, one of four languages on display):

Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with Nature *** Guide reproduction wisely, improving fitness and diversity *** Unite humanity with a living new language *** Rule passion, faith, tradition and all things with tempered reason *** Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts *** Let all nations rule internally, resolving external disputes in a world court *** Avoid petty laws and useless officials *** Balance personal rights with social duties *** Prize truth, beauty, love — seeking harmony with the infinite *** Be not a cancer on the earth. Leave room for Nature. Leave room for Nature

Repeat after me: huh?

FoxNuisance continue to hire good-looking idiots. Case in point: Brian Kilmeade, who believes Americans are marrying members of other apecies and ethnicities.

Repeat after me: *retching noise*

It’s 2009 but Santeria is still practiced — in New Jersey!  Girl Hurt in Animal Sacrifice in Paterson.

Repeat after me:  *crickets*

When a devout Protestant takes communion, people watch carefully to see if said Protestant actually swallows the “body of christ”!  Especially if you are the PM of Canada…

Repeat after me:  meh

The US is not the only country that has problems with lendors.  In Latvia, I can get a ton of money and never pay it back.  Can you guess how?

Repeat after me:  Bring it on!

Then there are US financial services that give you heavenly rates.  But watch out for some financial advisors…

Repeat after me:  Hahahaha…

Childhood diseases are especially traumatic.  Particularly if they are very, vear rare.  In Los Angeles, a six-year-old named Jani has schizophrenia, a genius-level IQ and dozens of mind-generated cat fiends for friends.  Her parents have resorted to renting two apartments and alternating care days — to protect Jani’s toddler brother from Jani.  The only other option is warehousing her in an institution.  You’ll look at your own child and wish this family all the best that medicine can offer.

The atheist/doG connection?  My fear that, having published this in the Los Angeles Times, exorcists will descend like locusts on desperate parents.  (Don’t let Governor Piyush “Bobby” Jindal hear about this — he has “experience”.)

There is nothing we can say…

And finally, I’ll share a secret with you:  I love a capella choirs!  If you do, too, watch this YouTube.  Turn the volume up and close your eyes (you can peek whenever you like but the experience begs for you to be surprised).  Who knew Slovenians liked our music?

Good news, the Christian mythology book is not allowed to be distributed in Missouri public schools.

School-Sponsored Evangelism Is Wrong, Says AU’s Lynn

“Parents, not school officials, should make decisions about their children’s religious upbringing,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “School officials are wrong to allow evangelism by outside groups.

“As a Christian minister, I don’t have a problem with the Bible,” Lynn continued. “But I do have a big problem with government officials who try to impose religion on school children. They have no right to do that.”

I, as an atheist do have a problem with the Bible. It’s X-rated for one thing and other material with the same content would be prohibited from public schools because of similar and even milder content.

The battle over religious advocacy in the Annapolis, Mo., school district has been long-running. Parents brought a lawsuit in February 2006 challenging a school-approved Bible giveaway by the Gideons International, an evangelical Christian group. The conflict has continued since then, with school officials repeatedly trying different tactics to maintain the Bible distribution.

Said Americans United Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan, “This battle has gone on far too long. It is past time for school officials in this district to obey the clear commands of the First Amendment. They must respect the rights of parents and the constitutional separation of church and state.”

The appellate panel’s decision in Roark v. South Iron R-1 School District leaves in place a permanent injunction barring school officials from “allowing distribution of Bibles to elementary school children on school property at any time during the school day.”

Good.

Some of you may remember televangelist Tony Alamo. He was responsible for some extremely intense anti-Catholic, anti-Pope hate mail that was circulating in the 1980’s (probably accompanied by some request for donations of some sort.)

Snippet from Wiki:

Alamo’s followers sometimes distribute tracts of his writings publicly. The tracts predict impending doom and Armageddon and invite the reader to accept Jesus as his or her savior while condemning Catholicism, the Pope and the American government as a Satanic conspiracy behind events such as 9/11, the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the John F. Kennedy assassination. Tracts currently being distributed include a picture of Alamo circa 1986. In a tract distributed shortly before the siege of the Branch Davidian establishment in Waco, Texas, Alamo protested the media’s use of the word “compound” to describe the campus of his seminary and the word “cult” to describe his ministry.

Recently, as reported in the news, Alamo is being accused of taking underage girls across state lines for sex. Investigators say that one of the girls was only 9 years-old.

Ark. evangelist’s accusers expected in court

Here is a message from the Tony Alamo Ministries cult website boo-hooing that Alamo is being persecuted:

Pastor Alamo has been criticizing the government for forty-five years with the truth and they’ve been slinging false accusations for forty-five years. You have to decide who you’re going to believe–this government which has already been proven to be socialistic and communistic, or Pastor Alamo who is teaching you the truth. Either you believe Pastor Alamo or the homosexual Pope.

Ironic that Alamo is accusing the Pope of being homosexual when Alamo himself is being investigated for polygamy, child abuse, child pornography, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and is formally charged with taking children across state lines to have sex with them after his alleged victims came forward to testify against him.

Alamo’s attorneys state “the girls traveled across the country to further his ministry’s outreach.”

Alamo’s sheeple write:

The judges, the backsliders, prosecuting attorneys, and government agencies are all in a conspiracy to destroy Pastor Alamo, but God is on the throne and He will destroy.

H/T once again to ChuckA

Thanks to our friend ChuckA for bringing this to our attention.

Chuck writes:

Yet another reason pointing up WHY, in particular, the insanity of Islam is so ULTRA dangerous to the world! The totally brainwashed boneheads just don’t get. And the media spends all of its time on the totally hyped attention given to things like the death of Michael Jackson; whilst millions of people die, daily, often from religious related insanity (Iraq bombings?)…with almost no notice whatsoever. Even the so-called “Liberal” Iranian demonstrators don’t get it,,,with their “God is Great” shouts…that until they totally leave and discard the Islamic bullshit, and pull the Ayatollah fucktards off their privileged pedestals, nothin’s gonna change in that forlorn part of the World.

Muslim Women, Vitamin D and Osteomalacia

Here is part of what the article says:

In her classic work Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit (140), Davis also states:

“Sir Robert McCarrison, the great English physician, wrote of osteomalacia in India among the Mohammedan women observing the custom of purdah. These women veil their faces at adolescence and rarely go outside their homes.”

In this same regard, in Deficient Sunlight in the Aetiology of Osteomalacia in Muslim Women, Dr. OP Kapoor states:

“…in most of the Sunni Muslim women (who form majority of the Muslims), in spite of high intake of calcium, osteomalacia is often seen. There are two reasons for this:

“1. Use of burkha which prevents sunlight reaching the skin.

“2. Living indoors – most of the Muslim women specially those staying in the Muslim localities, do not move out of the house and thus are not exposed to the sun and often develop osteomalacia.” [my emphasis]

As we now know, vitamin D is necessary for a variety of other metabolic processes in a healthy individual. Moreover, sunlight has other positive effects besides vitamin-D production. For one, it is necessary for the production of the hormone melatonin through the eyes. Thus, Muslim women who wear the full burkha* are deprived of this health-bestowing chemical as well, which is necessary for proper sleep and, consequently, mental health. Also, merely taking vitamin D or melatonin supplements would not make up for other potential health benefits associated with adequate exposure to sunlight, and supplements are not the best choice for optimal health in any event.

In addition to developing bone and other problems from a lack of vitamin D and melatonin, covered women are deprived of fresh air on their skin, which is the body’s largest organ. Hence, the skin is not given the opportunity to breathe adequately. Furthermore, the color of choice in covering up women because of “religious” purposes is often black and sometimes blue, undoubtedly creating much sweltering and heat stroke in the very hot regions in which this clothing is traditionally worn.

While the emotional, mental and spiritual problems with forcing a woman to veil herself may be increasingly clear, the grossly under-explored factor in the burkha/niqab debate is the toll on women’s physical health. The bottom line is that veiling women and depriving them of life-giving sunlight and air represents physical torture – especially in heat-absorbing dark colors – on a mass scale. How many women are suffering horrendous health problems, exacerbated by being forced to give birth repeatedly, because of this oppressive custom? In the veiling of women, then, we are looking at a serious and appalling health crisis affecting millions worldwide.

Read the full story at Acharya S’s blog HERE.