In my spam-fighting efforts I accidentally deleted a couple legitimate comments. I apologize, and if yours was one that was deleted, know that we’re not in the habit of deleting your thoughts!

As any successful dissembler knows, the only way to get away with telling a lie is to repeat it. By repeating it, by virtue of repetition, the lie becomes to the liar “the truth”. One cannot hope to fool a lie detector if what one is saying is a lie. The only possibility of appearing truthful is to BELIEVE with all your heart that your lie is the truth.

What’s all this about lying and the truth and believing your lie? Iraq, obviously. “Iraq has WMDs.” “Iraq is working with al Qaeda.” “Iraq will greet US troops as liberators.” “The Iraqi insurgency is in its final throes.” “There is no civil war in Iraq.” If any of these statements look familiar to you, it is because they are the lies of our times. These pieces of falsehood, misinformation, and outright untruths will be recorded in history for all future generations to see and judge. That so many of the individuals that tell these lies dismiss history as the ultimate arbitor of truth only goes to show what disregard they have for honesty and intergrity. Donald Rumsfeld must think that every future citizen of Earth will be as dumb as the average FOX News viewer when he talks about national security and America’s full military strength the way he does. Good luck with that, Donny.

What’s important in the endgame of playing out this lie is the characters. After all, it’s unseemly for a President to be constantly defending something he decided to do three years ago. When the President is required for other, newer lies, then you need to change the cast. Heck, why not, it’s worked for ER and Law & Order for decades now. So that is why, while his countrymen fight and die on a daily basis and he’s enjoying meals at the White House, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki stood before Congress today and told them that Iraq is the front line in the war on terror. Now, it says something about a country and its leader when the prime minister LEAVES HIS COUNTRY during a time of increasingly violent activity nationwide to go and beg for money from the country that invaded his land. What does it say, you might ask? I don’t know for certain, but the phrase “puppet regime” certainly comes to mind.

Americans have heard it all from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice. They’re so used to the lies that they barely listen to them anymore. That’s why it’s so important to have newer, fresher faces working to keep this lie alive. Because for all the wrongs in America, that’s the standard operatin procedure to remove the blaims from ourselves. Americans use cocaine? Columbia is the front line in the War on Drugs, because expecting people to follow the law here is just outrageous. Americans live in poverty? Free trade negotiations with South America and China are the front lines in the War on Poverty, because allowing American companies to skip paying American workers a decent wage by outsourcing all their work to Asia is the only way to make Americans less poor. (The trade-off is that poor Americans who can’t find work can’t afford to eat, so they starve to death, die, and *voila* less poor people, apparently.) And now Iraq is the front line in the War on Terror.

Just because someone says it doesn’t make it true.

ISRAEL!!!!!

It’s the name on the tip of everyone’s tongue, as it becomes the uncontrollable nation who’s lust for “security” ushers us into the third world war. In a stunning display of overcompensation, Israel has responded to the kidnapping of its soldiers with two lopsided revenge battleplans. The first is to continue to destroy the Palestinian infrastructure and thus deny a people of refugees any chance of a future. This is a cycle of behavior that has perpetuated itself for decades now. In response to a people that would stand up to the Jewish state and demand what is rightfully theirs, Israel says “Take that!” and simply blows up another school, or a manufacturing plant, or government offices. Advanced notice so as to allow for the evacuation of civilians is what passes for just and humane treatment by Israel. Never mind the fact that all citizens in the area are now left without a functioning school, or plant, or office. Now the same tactic will be applied in Lebanon for the same reasons, and an entire society will bear the brunt of Israel’s distemper.

As I check in at the Huffington Post, I see more and more castigation of my anti-war and anti-death stance, as it applies to Israel, being labeled outright anti-Semitism by one Alan Dershowitz. He makes his point in blogs like this one and this one, making it clear that to him, you’re either with Israel or against it. He even gets support in his hypocrisy from the United State’s UN Ambassador, John Bolton, who obviously thinks of Israelis as the new superior race. Wow, Alan, what a simple world you live in. How did you end up in such a stark realm of black and white? Because while Alan Dershowitz rants about policies like pre-emption and targeted killings being vital tools of democracy, Israel is continuing to exhibit some very un-democratic behavior. Imagine that, America’s Golden Child of the Middle East, the nation that is supposed to inspire the Arabs of the region to “embrace democracy”, well, it’s really not much better for freedom than Communist China. After all, by controlling what can and can’t be told, how exactly is Israel fostering the free and independent press that is the backbone of any free society or civilization?

I wish I wasn’t forced into a question of “Is Israel completely right or completely wrong?” by some of these pundits and opinionators. I absolutely respect a country’s right to safety for its citizens and peace of mind that an all-out assault by every power in the region isn’t going to occur at any minute. But those rights and securities come with the conditions that what you expect, you also exhibit, and what you put forth, returns upon you as well. So while Israel is bulldozing Palestinian houses, destroying offices and other facilities, and sending troops in to quell resistance, I can’t help but wonder how they can look at the international community with a straight face and say “We do this because we must, to protect ourselves.” My advice to Israel is that peace is best achieved through peace, not war. Perhaps if Israel sent construction workers and contractors into the Gaza Strip and West Bank instead of soldiers, tanks, and armed helicopters that shoot missiles at cars and houses with children in them, the response from the Palestinians might be a LOT different. In the meantime, until it stops showing signs of being like a kid who’s been bullied so much that he becomes a bully himself, I cannot and will not support Israel and it’s wars of vengeance. This is not a statement or post in favor of Hamas, or Hezbollah, or other Arab terror organizations instead of support for democracy. This is my post, about justice and accountability, and whether or not Israel is demonstrating enough of a commitment to true democracy and peaceful existence to warrant my support for it as a nation.

You’d think that the religion that had survived the Roman Empire, the Inquisition, and all the Crusades would have a little more backbone. But maybe it’s a denominational thing. The US Southern Baptist Convention is apparently working up an “exit strategy” to extract their children from the crippling influence of the American public education system. Normally, I would oppose any group withdrawing from the public arena based on opposing viewpoints, but in this case I can make a huge hypocritical exception. Christians, begone!

If you are so upset and frothing at the mouth at the very idea that people live in ways you don’t approve of and raise kids in those lifestyles and don’t adhere to your idiotic belief that a Guy In The Sky is watching you and testing you and waiting for your soul at the end of your life, I say you AND your spawn should feel free to separate yourselves from the American community as much as you want. I’m disappointedly reminded too often that there are a large number of Americans that believe (and I mean BELIEVE) what’s written in a 2,000+ year old book instead of scientifically proven studies and empirical data that disproves almost all of the content of that book with hard evidence and neutral logic.

There is no data to suggest that home-schooled children are worse off than those children in the public school system. In fact, studies show that home-schooled children are slightly better test-takers, have a stronger concept of self, and are just as likely to socialize with their peers in after-school settings. What bothers me is this Christian mindset of us-against-them. This is, to me, the major cause of much of the conflict in American society, as the Christian majority attempts to impose their faith and their values and their rules upon a culture that is supposed to be all-inclusive and religion-neutral. Atheists and Muslims and Jews and Hindus and Buddhists and Zoroastrians shouldn’t have to fight against their Christian neighbors for the rights enshrined in the Consitution that guarantee freedom.

If these Baptists want to remove their children from the pit of despair that is the public school system, I really have no problem with that. But it speaks of their larger failure to be a group of people that is willing to take part in the American experience, which is to know your neighbor who is different from you. And that’s not just supposed to be an American value, it is supposed to be a Christian value as well. I guess members of those other faiths will have to learn their Christianity from those Christians who aren’t afraid to send their kids to school with Jews and Muslims and even, God forbid, atheists.

Someone dropped the ball at the AP recently. And I mean REALLY dropped the ball. This venerable organization that I have, until now, respected very much has gone ahead and played spokesperson/cheerleader/sympathizer with the soldier funeral protesters who are constantly marring the burials of American GIs killed in action. While I’m focusing on this group as part of the unfortunately vocal and publicized true face of Christianity, don’t think that my disgust for this group and the AP for supporting them is unfounded. Here is a quote from Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of Fred Phelps, the founder of this “church”:
[quote]”We’ve got a job to do. Our job is to cause America to know her abomination. We’ve got to put the cup of the fury and wrath of God to the lips of this nation and make them drink it.”[/quote]
“The cup of the fury and wrath of God” Hilarity like that can’t just be made up on the spot. Someone worked on that gem for a good while before finding the comedic sweet spot. Because when I think of God, not only am I dumb enough to think that the all-powerful deity of legend actually spends time hating on individual humans for things like sex, I’m also gullible enough to believe that God is so lacking for a reliable spokesperson that he calls an ignorant redneck conservative pool of santorum like Fred Phelps to duty.

On the plus side, Congress hasn’t been totally inept like it has been on so many other important issues. Phelps and Friends will soon be running headlong into state and federal laws prohibiting his little parties. I’m just disappointed that it took so long, and that organizations like the AP decided that instead of reporting on the events that they would basically gift a hateful group like this with an “article” like they did.

That piece was written so strongly pro-Phelps that I can’t help but wonder if some editor wasn’t on vacation while a reporter took advantage and published a forbidden piece that otherwise would have been refused. That’s the only explanation I can think of for the Associate Press to be running that article. It’s so full of opinion and lacking anything that even looks like an opposing viewpoint. Hate like that deserves no platform like the one the AP generously donated to “the cause”. But who knows, maybe the reporter is a member of the church who can’t really make it to all the chanting and sign-waving in front of the memorials for fallen soldiers, so he decided that his mandatory donation could be encapsulated in this ass-kissing “expose” of Fred Phelps and his family/church/mobile-mental-hospital.

Maybe I am over-reacting, but if that piece outraged you like it did me, be sure to let the Associated Press know how you feel by writing a letter to the editor and expressing your thoughts.

CANCER IS BAD!!!!!!!!

For the purpose of objectivity, I am a cigarette smoker and I will one day probably have cancer, so my bias against cancer should be noted for the record. Do not let it be said that I have made, am making, or will make any ridiculous statements advocating more cancer. Cancer is a scourge on humanity and should be eliminated, no matter the cost. (Hopefully before my lungs burn out, obviously.) Remember, no matter the cost.

My bitter arch-nemesis Peter Sprigg (curse his name and lineage), vice president of policy at the Family Research Council, is not so enthusiastic about eradicating our tumorous enemy, Mr C. The people at Merck have developed a vaccine to prevent HPV, a leading factor in the onset of cervical cancer. Their only wish for it’s introduction to society (besides the billions in profits they’ll reap)? Mandatory vaccination for school admission. Is that really so bad?

The Family Research Council would have people believe that this vaccine will innoculate young people with the idea that being safe from one disease will make them more at risk for unprotected sex and all of the other many sexually transmitted diseases. Sheesh, IF ONLY getting women to take their clothes off were so easy. Hell, I’d open up a free clinic in my bedroom if I thought that would work! Maybe I am just on the fringe, as usual, thinking that better medicine AND accurate sexual education would help eliminate many of the things that Mr Sprigg frets over so much. Abstinence hasn’t moved or changed from the Number One Method Of Preventing Disease And Pregnancy, yet nevertheless, disease and pregnancy keep happening. This should tell us something about human behavior and judgmental nonsense from religious conservatives.

Is less unmarried sex still more desirable than less cancer? Less suffering? Less death? Are we still listening to a bunch of old men who have nothing better to do than sit around all day wailing, moaning, and gnashing their teeth at the though of teenage girls having sex with boys?

Held up by work, I missed the first few minutes of Bush’s speech, but I heard enough.

This wasn’t discussed at all by anyone in the recent past, so I can’t say I’m disappointed, but it would’ve been nice to hear something about increasing the number of green cards offered annually. Let’s face it: we’re in desperate need of more engineers, scientists, and researchers. We’re losing ground in innovation, and I blame a large part of that on post-9/11 xenophobia. It’s so hard to get into the country, some of the world’s best students don’t bother to apply to study here anymore.

Worse, those students who do make it in are interrogated to make sure they have no intention of staying in the U.S. after their graduate studies are complete. Their acceptance at the best U.S. schools is a clear indication that they’re among the smartest people in the world. Why exactly are we encouraging them to leave? I’ve read a couple recommendations to automatically offer green cards to anyone who earns a Ph.D. in the U.S. Put me down as someone in full support of such an idea.

Actually, I don’t think I have much to write about what Bush actually did say tonight. I can’t complain too much about National Guard troops taking a non-law enforcement role on the border (keeping it non-militarized), aside from the unfairness of keeping these people constantly deployed. In fact, Bush’s tame approach to border control coupled with his plan to offer a path to citizenship will be a tough sell to the conservative House of Representatives. They’ll cry “amnesty” no matter how head-on Bush confronted that term tonight.

As a pro-immigration liberal, I have no problem with enforcing the country’s borders to keep out illegal immigrants. I do believe, however, that our economy and innovative leadership depends on finding the right immigrants to come over. Raise those immigration limits, Congress, and start taking notice of the importance of bringing over highly educated foreigners.

People who increasingly characterize the war on terror as a battle of religions are increasingly correct. While the US and the West may wish to tell their citizens that it is a battle of societies and civilizations, it’s really about which Big Guy in the Sky that each side chooses to worship. The real irony is that essentially, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all share the same God, just by different names. But how can you say that, Mr Kedder, without any proof?

Well, let’s review some of the basic facts. George Bush (intentionally or not, it happened) called the operations in Afghanistan a “crusade”. Crusade is a term for a religious war. The religious leaders who so adamantly support our wonderful GOP Congress with political speeches in tax-exempt churches waste no opportunity to call Muslims “devils”, “Satan worshippers” and just plain “evil”. Even the military has hopped on board, apparently letting Jerry Falwell name our maneuvers with such inspiring monikers like “Divine Strake.” Divine strake, eh? What’s so divine about it again? Is it the immediate destruction or the lingering radioactive destruction?

But this isn’t a one-sided war that Christians are picking. (They’re just jumping in with such glee that it [i]seems[/i] like this is what they’ve been praying for all along.) Muslims aren’t making this any easier either. Just ask the folks that want to bring back the Caliphate. Oh, and am I the only one who had chilling visions of beheading squads roaming out of the mosque/palace/seat of government to punish all the non-believers at the mention of the phrase “the Caliphate”? Because reading that, I’m not exactly inspires that this bastion of Islamic society would allow such things as freedom of religion, or speech, or dissent, or many of the other lovely, quaint things that we’ve gotten so used to in our Great Satan Society over here. I mean, I could be way off, but it sounds like this Caliphate movement stands for nothing less than the extermination of all non-Islamic relgions. And what’s scary is that they have tens of thousands of followers, apparently.

Let’s do ourselves a favor and remain firm in the separation of church and state in this country. To allow the Christian right fringe and the Israel lobby continue to direct our international policy will be to put us into battles and wars that will serve no purpose other than to try and prove who’s God has a bigger dick. (Psst. It’s Vishnu.) Americans may want to give Christian fanatics a pass because they’re white, and they’re fellow citizens, and they seem slightly less radical than their Muslim counterparts, but rest assured, both sides are fighting to control all of life and society for all peoples based on the religous codes of outdated books with questionable authorship. I choose to believe that a secular government, protecting the private religions of all of its citizens, can combat the forces of jihad better than any Christian theocracy. And since America never was, isn’t now, and never should be a Christian theocracy, let’s try and keep things that way.

I’m tired of Americans complaining about gasoline prices. You reap what you sow. Did you really believe that 5% of the world’s population could consume 25% of the world’s energy indefinitely? Did you believe that oil supplies were unlimited, or that no other countries in the world would begin to industrialize? Americans buy huge, gas-guzzling vehicles and use ridiculous amounts of plastic packaging. It was bound to catch up with us.

I’m no fan of the energy industry, but it’s time to stop blaming oil companies, or at the very least it’s time to stop putting 100% of the blame on them. If you want to talk about being ripped off, you should be more concerned with the 25% profit margins of the banking and pharmaceutical industries than the 10% margins the oil industry averages.

Moreover, it’s a supply and demand issue. If gasoline is outrageously priced, don’t buy it, or buy less of it. When study after study shows no appreciable decline in gasoline consumption even at these “high” price levels, how exactly do Americans expect prices to drop? I won’t dismiss the possibility of Enron-style market manipulation (great documentary), but right there’s so much scrutiny on that sector (you know things are crazy when Republicans are considering windfall profit taxes) that these companies would be insane to try anything that foolish.

Bottom line: reduce consumption. Employ some strategies to reduce fuel consumption in your current vehicle, and in the future make more intelligent decisions about fuel economy when purchasing a car. Little things like not slamming the accelerator when the light turns green, only to have to slam the brakes at the next light can help. Besides annoying people like me by tailgating more steady drivers, you’re wasting fuel.

I would love to see a Chinese-style consumption tax. It’s far too easy to overuse petroleum-derived products when you can buy a thousand plastic forks for under $20. Tax plastic utensils 100%. Tax SUVs 20%. I’ve been wanting gasoline to be taxed higher for a long time now, though that’d be politically impossible at this point.

The price of oil-derived goods will go up one way or another. By taxing the crap out of this stuff, we can reduce consumption, drive down demand, and lower the wholesale price. Better, I say, to have it go towards medical research or education than the coffers of oil companies.