What have liberals done for America?

Over the past few years a number of these have gone around. I know Shakespeare's Sister has done one, and I think someone connected to the Group News Blog has as well. But I like Guerrila Dove's for being simple and direct:

What have liberals done for America? Here are some items to ponder:

- Lead America out of the great depression

- Lead America and the world to victory in WWII

- Stood firm against communism in Berlin, Korea, Cuba and Vietnam

- Spoke out against racism and fought for the right of ALL Americans to vote

- Landed a man on the moon

- Negotiated peace between Israel and its former enemies Egypt and Jordan

- Gave America social security and Medicare to ensure that ALL Americans would have the right to retire without fear of living in abject poverty

- Elected presidents have balanced their budgets or at the very least reduced the deficits of their Republican predecessors

- Led the United States into becoming the most powerful political, economic and military power in human history

Or perhaps this list from the Umatilla County Democrats

1919—Women’s Suffrage Ratified [Wilson]

1920—Annette Adams, First Woman Appointed To An Administration Position
[Wilson]

1933—Federal Deposit Insurance [FDR]

1935—W.P.A. [FDR-put people to work during the depression]

1935—Social Security Act [FDR]

1938—Fair Labor Standards Act [FDR]

1944—G.I. Bill Of Rights [FDR]

1947—Military Desegregated [Truman]

1947—Marshall Plan [Truman-Rebuilt Europe after WW II]

1961—Peace Corps [John F. Kennedy]

1964—Civil Rights Act [Johnson]

1964—Medicare And Medicaid [Johnson]

1964—Fed Dept Of Housing And Urban Development [Johnson]

1965—Head Start Created [Johnson]

1968—Occupation Safety Act [Johnson]

1987—Clean Water Act [Dem Congress override of Reagan veto]

1990—Americans With Disabilities Act [Democratic Congress]

1993—Family Leave Act [Clinton]

1993—AmeriCorps [Clinton]

1996-- Largest expansion of college opportunity since the GI Bill [Clinton]

1997-- Converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the
largest surplus [Clinton]

1999-- Longest economic expansion in American history & Lowest
unemployment in 30 years [Clinton]

He then issued a challenge for anyone to come up with a list of 10 things the conservatives have done for the US. Here's a list from Broad Sunlit Uplands:

• Raised taxes on wages and lowered taxes on unearned income

• Three Quarters of federal debt accumulated by three Conservative Presidents

• Massive devaluation of the dollar by the logical outcome of their belief in invisible hands and cronyism

• Massive and expensive expansion of the military to fight nonexistent threat; one at the expense of social goods like infrastructure maintenance and care for the least among us.

• A distribution of wealth approaching Latin American levels.

• Largest number of homeless and unemployed ever.

• The judicial murder of people later found innocent.

• Imprisonment of almost 2 percent of the national population including those who committed no crime against property or persons.

• Wrecking in turn each industry that they have deregulated. Banks, Airlines, Energy and other deregulated sectors fail then require regulation.

• Wars for irrational beliefs that are against the national interest.

• Self-destructive and irrational fear, hate and ignorance.

To which I will add

- Were in charge during three of the greatest financial crises of the 20th century: The Great Depression (Herbert Hoover), the S&L crises (Ronald Regan) and the Great Recession (George W. Bush)

- Deny citizens their rights based on their sexuality

- Sanctioned the use of torture by the United States

- Took us off the gold standard and put us on the petrodollar (Nixon), thereby tying the value of our currency to foreign oil

- Had lots and lots and LOTS of sex scandals (source)

- Looked the other way while their Saudi friends trafficked in child sex slaves (George W. Bush) (source)

- And, oh yea, not only created Timothy McVey, but were in charge of our national security on 9/11

Now, which party has proven better for this country?

Have a good 4th

Blogging like it's 2008

Once again Barbara Curtis has to go political.

The price they paid.

Now, I'm not disagreeing with the idea that the 4th should be about more than just BBQ and fireworks. But she really ought to find a better source than oxy freak Rush Limbaugh. Much of that essay simply isn't true.

Snopes - The price they paid.

Granted she'll just tell you that Snopes is run or paid for by the Communists/Socialists/Fascists/ACORN/Obama Campaign, so you can't believe them.

Uh-huh

Near as I can tell over-taxation means actually paying your fair share, control means having to obey the law, and tyranny is when you lose and election.

Now, I'm going to go help out at the VA clinic, where a bunch of us horrid liberal progressive types are trying to make life better for a bunch of veterans who lost their homes thanks to the Bush/Republican era economic policies, who can't get the help they need from the VA thanks to the Republican tax cuts, and who were injured in Bush's war of aggression against Iraq. And then I'm going to go watch the fireworks.

What are you going to do today?

Sometimes the headline says it all

(Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

Archbishop of Westminster attacks atheism but says nothing on child abuse

On corrupt Christianity

I made these comments, both in comments here and on another blog. I wanted them here as well.

Some negative examples of Christianity..

The Patriocentrics and the idea that women should not be educated or vote. (Links here and herehere)
and

Ted Haggard and his condemnation of “sodomy”, before being discovered with a male prostitute.

Pat Robinson and Jerry Falwell blaming 9/11 on, well, everyone. (link here) and saying that God allowed that to happen.

Pope Benedict II, and the case of the girl in Brazil (link here) when the Vatican excommunicated every adult involved except the rapist.

Also Pope Benedict II claiming that condom use will make the AIDS problem in Africa worse, not better, thereby undermining efforts to help fight the disease. (link here)

Fred Phelps and the Westborogh Baptist Church, picketing at soldiers funerals, claiming that God was killing them for our supposed sins.

Was it the Pearls or the Ezzos who came up with the idea of using pluming line to beat your children in order to train them? Most consider that child abuse.

The sheer number of priests and ministers who have been able to get away with sexual abuse over the years because “a man of God would never do anything like that”. (See links here and here and here

Commercials like this

Deeply dumb jokes like this

The Southern Baptist Convention deciding not to create a database of clergy convicted of molesting minors. They claim it's against their principal of autonomy, which is of course Biblically based. (link here)

The results of Ireland's Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. According to The Irish Times.

"The sheer scale and longevity of the torment inflected on defenseless children – over 800 known abusers in over 200 institutions during a period of 35 years – should alone make it clear that it was not accidental or opportunistic but systematic. Abuse was not a failure of the system. It was the system".

When I see the sheer amount of corruption and evil perpetrated by Christianity, I have to think the entire system is corrupt. From readying and studying the bible and bible history, I have found that the system is corrupt as written.

I take issue with the idea of being forgiven for the wrong you do with no need for retribution on your part for those wrongs. A system like that can only encourage wrongdoing, not only do you not have to incur punishment, but if you ask for forgiveness you are automatically forgiven and rewarded. You may say that Christ knows your heart, but based on the behavior of his followers, he obviously doesn't know or care enough to change those hearts.

The only conclusion I can settle with is that the whole thing is a myth.

When you look at the history, there is no proof of Christ. The Gospels were written decades after he supposedly lived. The decision of what made up the bible was made by committee centuries after that. It makes far more sense to me, and fits the behavior of Christians through the ages, that the whole thing was set up to justify a power structure and allow for corrupt behavior.

Playing for change

Amazing videos. PlayingforChange.com Thanks to K for turning me on to them

On Evangelicals and torture

photo © Adrian van Leen for openphoto.net CC:PublicDomain


From CNN.com:

Survey: Support for terror suspect torture differs among the faithful

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

------

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.

I think this goes back to my theory that "being saved" subconsciously translates into "I can do anything I want, no repercussions.". After all, you're already forgiven of all your sins. Whereas groups who have to "earn" their salvation by actually following the Bible (instead of just reading it over and over again), doing the dreaded "good works", and treating others as they would be treated are less likely to torture. The least likely are those who don't believe in an afterlife, so they have to make this life count.

Problem is, the people who pay for this one are not the believers. It's our men and women in uniform. See, when we don't follow the Geneva convention when we capture the enemy, why should the enemy follow it when they capture our people? Matthew 7:12 actually does directly apply here:

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

Funny how the Atheists get this more than the Evangelicals do.

Heartfelt sorrow

This may only matter to the knitters, but Kay over at Mason-Dixon Knitting lost her husband over the week-end. Sincerest condolences to her and her family.

On the financial crisis

Please note: The next video in line is the first that addresses the Obama administration. The previous four videos address the actions of the Bush administration.

The Divine Meeting

What does an athiest homekeeper do on Easter Sunday?

Well, for one thing, she calls it "Easter", knowing full well that the term is a riff off Ostara, the pagan celebration of harvest fertility. She's not going to be calling it Resurrection Sunday, because she's not buying it.

She goes through her usual Sunday routine. Many of the first morning details are too personal, but eventually the floor is swept, the breakfast dishes are washed, and the pets are tended to. If she had children eggs would be hidden before they got moving, odds are by her husband, before he went to work at dawn.

She bids a Happy Easter to all her friends on the web, and updates her blog.

About 2 o'clock she'll put out the decorations. Earlier than that and you're tempting fate and the cats far too much. Around about 3 she'll put the ham in, wash the potatoes for boiling, and cut up the salad. Around 4:30 her Mother will come over, bearing rolls and asparagus and artichoke dip. They will sit down with tea and call all the assorted other relatives, who are all Catholic, and bid them all a Happy Easter. When her husband gets home at 6:30 dinner will be waiting.

Best odds has her Mother going home before 8, when she will settle with her husband and her knitting.

Now, why, you may ask, is an atheist doing anything special on this particular day?

Because...she wants to.

Simple as that.

Happy Easter everyone.