tolerance
mikethemadbiologist | October 23, 2007If memory serves me correctly, Senator Obama was counting on the 'youth' vote* as his secret weapon. That's fine, but then why on earth would Obama court virulent anti-gay bigots, especially when younger voters of all political affiliations are the most likely to be tolerant of gays? This certainly won't help him in the primaries. Unlike some political issues, gay bashing is easy to understand and remember. Is there something I'm missing, or is he just desperately trying to prove how piss poor a candidate he really is?
*I always thought eighteen meant adulthood. Presumably, we're not…
mikethemadbiologist | October 19, 2007Since I'm speaking at Harvard today*, I thought sharing this bit from Hanna Rosen's God's Harvard would be appropriate (and it's a fascinating read). The president of Patrick Henry College, whose mission is "to prepare Christian men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless biblical values and fidelity to the spirit of the American founding", accidentally divulged his strategy to get young earth creationism in the public schools (italics mine):
But there's one hitch with this model: Many evangelicals, especially the older generation, are not like Catholics or…
mikethemadbiologist | October 11, 2007We likes Ann Coulter!!!
Professional provocateur Ann Coulter in an interview on MSNBC advocated the conversion of the Jews (italics mine):
During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're…
mikethemadbiologist | September 30, 2007And some Republicans wonder why most Jews don't vote Republican. Well, conservative talk radio is one answer. Here's what conservative talk radio host Mike Rosen has to say:
Sure. [Caller], you have exceptions like Milton Friedman, for example, a brilliant free-market economist who was more libertarian than conservative and one of my all-time heroes. Milton Friedman certainly understood the big picture, but so many Jews who are regarded by people as instinctively good merchants are just that. They're merchants at the retail level and don't have, I don't think, a good grasp of the big…
mikethemadbiologist | September 25, 2007If "Gathering of Eagles" needs a new emblem, this one is currently available
At the recent anti-war protest in Washington D.C., a pro-war group known as "Gathering of Eagles" assaulted Carlos Arredondo, a father of a Marine killed in Iraq:
Carlos Arredondo, 47 year old father of two sons, arrived in the nation's capitol on Monday, 09/10/07 to share a memorial he has made to honor for his eldest son, Alex. Carlos has visited thirty of the United States with the traveling memorial to his son Alexander. Lcpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, USMC was killed on 08/25/04. He was 20 years and 20 days old.…
mikethemadbiologist | August 30, 2007Via LiveScience comes this interesting story about gay relationships during medieval times (italics mine):
Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says.
Historical evidence, including legal documents and gravesites, can be interpreted as supporting the prevalence of homosexual relationships hundreds of years ago, said Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.
If accurate, the results indicate socially sanctioned same-sex unions are nothing new, nor were they taboo in the past.
"Western family structures have been much…
mikethemadbiologist | August 29, 2007No, not Senator Craig's hypocrisy. The conservative commentariat's. Glenn Greenwald beats me to the punch (italics mine):
What accounts for this complete shift in right-wing commentary about the Craig story? How can it possibly be that Craig's bathroom adultery compels his resignation today, but -- weeks before the last election -- the same conduct was so irrelevant that the mere mention of it rendered Rogers the lowest "scumbag" in the nation? Other than the fact that the Craig report threatened GOP political interests in October but does not do so now, what conceivable difference exists…
mikethemadbiologist | June 9, 2007..."Fellow liberals, never forget that fifty years ago, this man would have been lynched. Progressives and liberals are the reason he isn't lynched today", the picture below is exactly what I was talking about:
(larger image here)
mikethemadbiologist | May 29, 2007No, that's not an inappropriate joke. The conservative Polish government is worried that the Teletubbies might turn Polish youth into TEH GAY:
Poland's conservative government took its drive to curb what it sees as homosexual propaganda to the small screen on Monday, taking aim at Tinky Winky and the other Teletubbies.
Ewa Sowinska, government-appointed children rights watchdog, told a local magazine published on Monday she was concerned the popular BBC children's show promoted homosexuality.
She said she would ask psychologists to advise if this was the case.
In comments reminiscent of…
mikethemadbiologist | May 18, 2007So Lou Dobbs has been making ludicrous statements about leprosy and illegal immigrants, claiming that 7,000 cases have happened in the last few years as a result of illegal immigration. The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote Dobbs a letter:
Actually, we have had 7,000 cases of leprosy--over a thirty year period. Leprosy is pretty easy to keep track of....
What a fucking moron.
mikethemadbiologist | May 16, 2007The 'godly' singing "The Old Rugged Cross." Or something
The last thing most people in the Coalition of the Sane want when they are being treated for a serious illness in the hospital to have the staff try to convert you to another religion. And when you force a sick patient to choose between following the dictates of his religion or not eating in an effort to convert him, that is not 'godly', that is inhumane. It's also par for the course for Christopathic Uruk-hai.
From the Des Moines Register (italics mine):
U.S. Navy veteran David Miller said that when he checked into the Veterans…
mikethemadbiologist | May 10, 2007Remember the old joke that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged? By way of Ed Brayton, I came across this post by Kent Hovind about his time in jail. Both the post and some of the responses are fascinating (in a 'car wreck' sort of way) because they illuminate the authoritarian mind so well. Hovind has reached an epiphany of sorts about the criminal justice system:
At lunch last week, one of the inmates said, "If I could, I would bomb the Christian Coalition. They are the reason we are here." I was shocked by his statement! I love the Christian Coalition, but I understand the…
mikethemadbiologist | February 25, 2007Here's an interesting little bit about intolerance by Karl Popper from The Open Society and Its Enemies: The Spell of Plato:
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep…